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The aim of this paper is to investigate the influence of social factors on generalized social confidence among Urmia residents. The population of this study included all members of families who lived in city of Urmia in Iran and, at the time of investigation, were more than 18 years old. Among this population a sample of 300 people were selected and were asked to complete a questionnaire constructed for this investigation. Using Pearson correlation and multiple regression analysis, the results indicate that the independent variables of articulated interactions, expansion of relations, social obligations, and social acceptance influence the dependent variable of generalized confidence. It has been concluded that, the theory of social confidence that considers human being as both rational and emotional and investigates social confidence on this suggestion has been experimentally supported. Finally, it is of our findings that level of generalized social confidence among Urmia residents was shown to be low.

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This paper examines the correlation among different aspects of speech and thought representation with a focus on free indirect discourse. The paper first examines Genette’s views regarding speech and thought representation and then focuses on the analysis of various types of speech and thought ranging from the most mimetic to the most autodiegetic. I will then focus on the free indirect discourse and try to shed light on it by resorting to the theories of Bally, Toolan and Machill. Our analysis demonstrates the fact that the linguistic features of FID can represent the thoughts and ideas of characters and narrators of story in a special way while they also bring about a kind of discourse replete with irony and ambiguity.

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Abstract

Research Subject: Sulfide removal from sour water is essential, before reuse or release of sour water into the environment. Regarding the high costs of traditional methods, biological removal can be used as a reliable alternative.
Research Approach: Biological sulfide removal from sour water was investigated in a batch reactor using Thiobacillus sp. as a dominant species of a mixed culture. A conceptual model was developed to describe the process of H₂S removal from sour water in the batch reactor. The model considers H₂S and O₂ transfer between liquid and gas phases, biological oxidation of H₂S to sulfate and elemental sulfur, and chemical oxidation of H₂S to thiosulfate in the liquid phase. The governing equations were derived using the principles of mass conservation and biochemical reactions. Several batch runs were performed to obtain experimental data on the variation of sulfide, sulfate, thiosulfate, and oxygen concentrations in the system as a function of time, and an algorithm was devised to use the method of Particle Swarm Optimization together with the numerical solution of the model equations to estimate biokinetic parameters. Additional batch runs under different conditions were performed to verify the accuracy of the model. These results indicated reasonable accuracy of the model to predict the performance of a batch reactor for the removal of H₂S from sour water. The novelty of this model is considering different pathways for sulfide oxidation which includes product selectivity.
Main Results: The maxim specific oxygen uptake rate (SOUR=OUR/X) is one of the most important parameters in the evaluation of the biological activity of the microorganisms. The calculated value for this parameter was almost constant (16 mg DO g^-1 VSS min^-1) during all sulfide oxidation tests indicating that the maximum specific oxidation capacity of the biomass is independent of substrate and biomass concentration. Results exhibited bacteria prefer to partially oxidized sulfide to elemental sulfur, however this preference is a function of dissolved oxygen and substrate availability.

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Background: Recently, the use of probiotics in preventing and treating the immune system diseases through changes in blood factors has attracted the attention of researchers. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of Lactobacillus plantarum and Bifidobacterium B94 on changes of blood factors, influencing the autoimmune system diseases.
Materials and Methods: The rats used in this study were divided into four groups (n=10 each), including control (saline), damage with Ethidium bromide (EB), L. plantarum and Bifidobacterium B94 treatment groups. In damage and treatment groups, a single dose of 3μL EB was directly injected into hippocampus of rats for inducing demyelization. Also, in control group, the same amount of saline was used. Then 2×10⁸ probiotic bacteria were administered by gavage for 28 days. Then serum calcium and cholesterol levels were measured. Data were analyzed by one-way ANOVA and Tukey post-hoc tests (p≤ .05).
Results: The results showed that level of blood serum calcium increased insignificantly in the L. plantarum and Bifidobacterium B94 treatment groups compared to control group.  Also, the level of blood serum cholesterol decreased insignificantly in both treatment groups compared to control group.
Conclusion: Probiotics are used for preventing and treating some of the common autoimmune diseases such as MS. Previous studies showed that probiotics affects some of the blood parameters such as calcium and cholesterol while decrease or increase in these parameters is effective in the improvement of MS.  Although no significant finding has been obtained in some of these studies, they have almost confirmed the recommendation of probiotic consumption.

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The hymenopteran family Platygastridae is a large group of parasitic wasps. A survey was carried out on the subfamily Sceliotrachelinae (Hym.: Platygastridae) in East Azerbaijan and Fars provinces of Iran. The genus Fidobia Ashmead and three species, Allotropa conventus Maneval, Fidiobia hofferi Kozlov and Isolia mongolica (Kozlov) are newly recorded from Iran. Illustrations of the morphological characteristics and their geographical distribution are presented.

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In the present work, survival of two most important commercial strains of probiotic bacteria, i.e.,  Lactobacillus acidophilus (La5) and Bifidobacterium lactis (Bb12), during production and cold storage of Iranian Doogh, containing Ziziphora extract was studied. The bacteria inoculated into three types of Doohg, a plain sample as the control one, and two samples containing 1% and 2% Ziziphora extract. Survival of probiotic bacteria, pH, acidity and organoleptic characteristics of bio- Doogh were examined during a nine-week cold storage time (4°C). Our results revealed that the population of viable B. lactis reduced by 2.5 log cfu/ml, while L. acidophilus count reduced to zero after eight weeks at 4°C. The pH and acidity of bio-Doogh were not changed significantly (p>0.05) during cold storage period. Also, the organoleptic characteristics of the studied samples changed significantly (p<0.05). Bio-Doogh with Ziziphora extract had higher flavor scores than bio-Doogh without Ziziphora extract.    

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Whiteflies are becoming a very serious menace and have shown resistance to many synthetic insecticides since early 1980s. The greenhouse white fly, Trialeurodes vaporariorum (Westwood) is one of the most significant pests in many horticultural and greenhouse crops worldwide. Currently, it is controlled by chemical pesticides. In current study, the best conditions for chemical control of T. vaporariorum on gerbera applying Confidor^®, Palizin^® and Proteus^® were investigated. The experiment was performed in a commercial greenhouse in Pakdasht, Tehran. The same size and not yet flowering gerbera plants in pots were selected for further analysis. Before the experiment, the numbers of nymph and adults were counted in order to evaluate application effect on their population. Each pot was covered by insect-proof net, separately. Selected factors included: the pesticide in three levels, pesticide dose in three levels (0.5, 1 and 1.5 ml/l), application time in three levels (at 8, 12 and 16 O’clock) and replications in a month in three levels (2, 4 and 6 times). The experiment was conducted on the basis of Response Surface Method with central composite design to optimize the chemical control condition. Data were analyzed using Design Expert 10 software. The mortality percentage model for adults was predicted. Based on the predicted model, the optimum conditions for controlling greenhouse whitefly in gerbera commercial greenhouses were obtained. Optimal conditions with the less replications, which was two, were predicted with the dose of 0.5 to 0.7 ml/l up to the time at 10 or dose of 1.5 ml/l at the time 16 using Proteus^®.

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, The right of suspension entitles a contracting party to suspend the performance according to rules of law, contractual terms or as a result of force majeure. The same right may also be established as withholding the performance, according to the provisions of civil law in connection with contract of sale or other exchange contracts, until such time as the other party shows willingness to perform. Both rights are based on reciprocity of the contractual obligations and interconnection of the reciprocal obligations. The right of suspension of the performance has been recognized under the provision of the standard general conditions of contracting, as well as under some of Iranian multinational contracts. The suspension as a result of force majeure although is not expressly been envisaged under Iranian law of contracts, it is recognized by necessary implication of contract law rules. The right of withholding which is recognized under Iranian civil and commercial laws is mainly related to contracts with single performance, while the right of suspension is recognized in contracts that need to be performed during a gradual process. At the same time the legal standing of suspension was not clearly discussed under Islamic law literature but it had certainly been contemplated by Islamic law jurists in relevant situations. On the contrary the right of withholding has been expressly discussed. There are similarities between suspension provisions under FIDIC and the general contracting form. However, the differences are regarding the fact that under general conditions of contracting the right of suspension is mainly a unilateral right while under FIDIC form of the terms and conditions of exercising the right, Its duration, extension and damages arising out of suspension are contractually provided for. Consequently except for the difference in terms of contracts with one time performance or gradual performance, the legal nature of withholding and suspension is the same and one may apply the reasons and legal basis of withholding to suspension, admitting the fact that suspension is an independent legal concept.

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ABSTRACT The effective rainfall amounts (ER) as a part of the irrigation requirement were estimated for the premature and serotinous varieties of rice in the Mazandaran Plain , using different methods. Finally the “Dependable Rain” method were selected for the estimation.Comparison of the maps, reveals that the ER amounts are more in the western part of the plain than the eastern part ; Consequently , the net irrigation requirement is low in the western part. Because knowing the minimum and maximum values of the ER with specific confidence, helps the planners in different decisions, the ER amounts were estimated at 90 , 95 and 99 percent confidence intervals. The related maps show that the confidence for ER amounts is low for both premature and serotinous varieties in the eastern part; Meanwhile the ER amounts are almost 50 milimeters more for serotinous variety than premature variety at different confidence intervals in the whole region. Also, The maps of return periods, show that the ER amounts are higher in the western and central parts than the eastern part and that the accessibility of ER, varies from lower than 80 to more than 420 milimeters in the growing season in terms of various return periods and different parts of the region.

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This study investigates effects of managers' overconfidence on quality of auditing and audit fees for companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange. To estimate model and test research hypotheses, 128 companies were selected as a sample from 1389 to 1396. After conducting descriptive statistics’ tests, stationary, correlation, F-Lemmer and Hausman tests were performed to determine the type of estimation model. Finally, the panel data method with fixed effects was determined for regression analysis. Results indicate that there is a positive effects for the managers’ overconfidence on the quality of auditing and audit fees, as well as positive effects of audit quality on the cost of auditing.

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Research on the influence of affective factors in language learning has grown in recent years largely due to the recognition of the role they play in second language (L2) acquisition (Henter, 2014). This study investigates two affective factors, confidence and anxiety, and how they impact young Finnish adults when using English in different formal and informal communicative situations. A multiple case study design is employed to gather different experiences and perceptions of young Finns’ willingness to use English in different situational contexts. To explore confidence and anxiety in specific speaking scenarios, the study used photo-elicitation interviews, in which a set of photographs was used as a stimulus with regular interview questions (Harper, 2002).  Findings show that young Finnish adults attribute the lack of authentic oral communication in their comprehensive English education as being partially responsible for their apprehension in speaking English, and that fear of judgment, particularly in more formal scenarios, often induces a sense of anxiety. Confidence in using English was sensed through the perception that their English was equal to or better than those around them and was also ameliorated by the familiarity and casualness of the situation. The photo-elicitation method proved fruitful for evoking more detailed and personal experiences and helped participants visualize the scenarios, providing more lucid and candid responses. The study affirms a need for more research on Finnish adults’ affective factors in their use of English and advocates for the wider application of photo-elicitation in Applied Linguistics research.

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The principle of good faith is one of the most recognized principles of law of contract within the international law. Therefore, the principle of good faith has strongly influenced the national laws as well. Nowadays, good faith as a legal term covers two meanings, which are independent from each other. The first meaning is, the “mistaken imagination” (or the “honesty of purpose”). It is the subjective perspective or imagination of a person about the appearance of something. It applies on legal questions related to property, marriage and securities. Secondly, the principle of good faith has the meaning of fidelity. For example, Art. 1134 Clause 3 of the French Civil Code stipulates the performance of contracts by applying the principle of good faith.

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Second language (L2) education researchers have recently been concerned about students' willingness to communicate (WTC) since communication competence is considered an ultimate goal of L2 education. This study examines Vietnamese teachers' perceptions of L2 WTC and their strategies to encourage students to communicate inside the classroom. Data were collected from interviews with 30 Vietnamese EFL university teachers. Results showed that all the teachers believed students' L2 WTC inside the classroom influenced the development of second language acquisition (SLA) and perceived their role in encouraging WTC. Also, the teachers revealed that they used a wide range of strategies to encourage students to communicate. The findings suggest that L2 teachers use a wide range of strategies to promote students’ WTC inside the classroom. It might be necessary for Vietnamese EFL teachers to update strategies to encourage WTC inside the classroom.
 

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Besides beautiful description of affective emotions and love, Vis and Rāmin love story by Fakhruddin As'ad Gurgani includes religious beliefs of pre and post Islamic era. Through the challenge of ardent love of two main protagonists of the story, we encounter some crucial points on importance and necessity of oath and abstinence from its denial. This issue led the writer to analyze this theory of ancient Iran and even the main pillar of Islamic judgments (the oath of the parties and witnesses that their speeches were correct), besides how and why it was used in this poem as a fundamental element, as well as the importance of paying attention and engagement to it. Probably, the key element in the genesis of this love story is the oath of Shahru , the mother of Vis vis –à-vis Monikan priest

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Concrete buttress dams are constructed in large numbers at medium sites in many countries such as Iran because of their considerable technical and economical benefits in previous century. This type of dams is exposed to damages due to earthquakes as other structures. Some buttress dams such as Sefidroud dam in Iran, Hsinfengkiang dam in China and Honenike dam in Japan have undergone some damages due to recent earthquakes. After these incidents, some investigations have been carried out. However, these investigations have just mentioned the manner of incidents and the resulting damages. Therefore, the seismic behavior and sensitivity recognition of these dams with respect to different factors have been ignored; however the study of behavior and seismic sensitivity of this type of dams is important. In this paper, the tallest monolith of the Sefidroud concrete buttress dam is analyzed using a 3D model with massless foundation to study the seismic behavior and sensitivity of this type of dam. The interaction of the dam with the reservoir, the reservoir bottom absorption and upstream radiation of hydrodynamic waves are considered, but the cross-canyon component of earthquake is neglected. The applied accelerograms to the system are scaled according to the Sefidroud dam site DBE response spectrum. To determine the initial conditions before occurring earthquake, a series of detailed static analyses are done under the effect of dam body weight, hydrostatic pressure, uplift pressure and ambient temperature. Seismic loading due to longitudinal and vertical components of earthquake is applied and the nonlinear behavior of dam under various factors such as different seismic loading scenarios and different properties of dam body and also foundation materials is investigated. The results of analyses show that the dam body downstream kink, heel, toe and buttress web are sensitive and vulnerable zones. The results also demonstrate that the compressive stresses in the dam body are usually much less than the compressive strength of concrete. Therefore, the possibility of compressive failure is almost zero. But the conditions of tensile and shear stresses are different and large stresses may occur at the mentioned zones and considerable tensile and shear damages to the dam body are possible. According to the results of analyses, it is apparent that when the ratio of dam body modulus to that of the foundation (called softness modulus) is small, i.e. when the foundation modulus is high and near to that of dam body, the construction of concrete buttress dams at highly seismic zones may cause local failure and unfavorable situations for the tensile stresses at the kink, the heel and the toe of the dam body. Therefore, adaptation of this dam type in such sites should be carefully studied and in these circumstances, the modulus of the concrete of dam body should be kept more than usual practice. Furthermore, the shear damage at the dam-foundation contact surface is highly dependent to the applied earthquake type, but increasing the softness modulus could reduce this type of damage. The compressive strength of concrete has no effect on the shear damage at the dam-foundation contact surface.

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Aim: Follistatin-like protein 1 (FSTL1) is a secreted glycoprotein that plays an important role in regulating cell survival, proliferation, differentiation, migration, inflammation, and modulating the immune system. The FK domain in FSTL1 has 10 conserved cysteine residues that form 5 disulfide bonds. Despite extensive studies on the function of FSTL1, limited structural information is available about this biologically important molecule.
Materials and Methods:Using the SWISS-MODEL server and using the crystal structure of the FK domain of the mouse FSTL1 protein with the code (PDB: 6jzw) as a template, structural models of the FK domain of the human FSTL1 protein were prepared. In the next step, the resulting structures were checked using Swiss-PDB Viewer 4.10, Chimera 1.12 software, Ramachandaran diagram and PDBSUM server, in terms of the distance between two cysteine residues, the modeling error range, and the formation of disulfide bonds. Molecular dynamics simulations were performed using the AMBER software package with the ff14SB force field.
Results: The results showed that the FK domain without disulfide bond has root mean square deviations (RMSD) and root mean square fluctuations (RMSF), higher than the native FK domain. In addition, the radius of gyration in domain without disulfide bonds is significantly lower than that of native FK domain. The results show that the disulfide bonds of the FK domain play a role in the stability of the structural folding of the FK domain and the removal of these bonds increases the structural flexibility of this domain.
 

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Forasmuch as, transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) are robust nanomaterials to sustain large strains without fracture, their application in new pliable electronic nanodevices is so appealing. Of these nanomaterials is tungsten disulfide which has specific electrical, optical and sensor properties; and due to possessing a non-planar structure, shows interesting responses under different plane strains. This investigation explores the mechanical properties of a monolayer tungsten disulfide (WS2) such as Young's modulus, bulk modulus, shear modulus and Poisson's ratio by applying the density functional theory (DFT) calculations based on the generalized gradient approximation (GGA). The results demonstrate that elastic properties of WS2 are less than those of graphene and its analogous inorganic hexagonal boron-nitride (h-BN) nanosheets. Unlikely, Poisson's ratio is calculated higher than that of graphene and h-BN nanosheets. It is observed that, due to the special structure of WS2, the thickness of nanosheet (distance between S-S atoms), bond length of W-S and the angle S-W-S change under different kinds of strains. Also, in the case of biaxial strain, the amount of variations in bond length, thickness and bending angle is higher than that in the cases of uniaxial and shear strain.

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In this paper, the effect of soil-structure interaction is investigated on the maximum drift demand and probabilistic seismic confidence level of geometric vertically irregular steel buildings. A series of vertically irregular steel building with different setback ratios were designed based on the regulations in the earliest version of Iranian seismic design code. Foundation design of the structures was accomplished with the assumption of sandy soil with shear wave velocity of 200m/s under the strip footings. Three dimensional model of nonlinear soil-structure system was built in OpenSees. Concentrated plastic hinges were used at the end of frame members to model the nonlinear behavior of these elements. Soil-foundation system of the structures was modeled with Beam on Nonlinear Winkler Foundation (BNWF) approach. In this method, a series of nonlinear springs are used to model the soil behavior under the dynamic excitation. The seismic analysis of the structures was performed under the simultaneous action of orthogonal components of real ground motions. An ensemble of twenty ground motions that have a reasonable response spectrum matching with the design spectrum was chosen for the time history analysis. Incremental dynamic analysis (IDA) was accomplished to estimate the structural performance of the regular and vertically irregular setback buildings from the earlier linear behavior to the nonlinear phase and up to the global instability of the structures. Based on the results, the median IDA curve of fixed and flexible base buildings was evaluated. Four common performance objectives namely Immediate Occupancy (IO), Life Safety (LS), Collapse prevention (CP) and Global Instability (GI) were specified on the median IDA curve of each fixed and flexible base structure. Following the performance-based earthquake engineering framework, the confidence level of meeting a specific performance level was evaluated at each limit state. Based on the given results, curves were generated to specify the confidence level of meeting a specific performance level for a range of earthquake intensities and corresponding maximum inter story drift ratio. The performance based confidence level of flexible base setback buildings was compared to that of the fixed base structures at five seismic hazard levels. The seismic hazard of earthquakes was chosen to cover a wide range of return period from 25 years to 4975 years. It is observed that all the fixed and flexible base buildings have the ability to continue their immediate occupancy with the confidence level of 100% under the excitation of earthquakes with low to medium hazard levels (i.e. with the return period of 25 to 43 years that know as the service level). However, as the level of seismic hazard increases the difference between the confidence level of flexible base structure and the fixed base ones increases. Depend on the position and ratio of the setback, 40 to 60% of reduction is observed in the performance based confidence level of flexible base structures. Meanwhile, demand evaluation of structures at each hazard level shows that soil-structure interaction increases the maximum drift demand in structures. Based on the given results, it is observed that up to 35% increase of maximum drift happens in vertically irregular structures with flexible foundation.

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The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors affecting the fermentation process in the production of bacteriosin by two commercial probiotic bacteria in dairy factories effluents as a culture medium. Therefore, the effect of independent variables, including incubation temperature (30, 34 and 38 °C), initial pH (5, 6 and 7), duration of incubation (12, 30 and 48 hours), yeast extract concentration (0, 2 and 4 %), probiotic bacterial species (L. acidophilus LA5 and B. animalis subsp. lactis BB12) and culture medium (cheese whey and milk permeate) was studied using a completely randomized design with two-level factorial arrangement. The results showed that the temperature and time of incubation as well as the culture medium had a significant effect on bacteriosin production (p<0.05). Also, temperature, yeast extract concentration, culture medium type and culture of bacteria had a significant effect on biomass (p<0.05). Initial pH and culture medium had a significant effect on total protein content (p<0.05). Based on the results of incubation temperature, duration of incubation, yeast extract concentration, type of culture medium and type of probiotic bacteria had a significant effect on the titratable acidity (p<0.05). The levels of bacteriosin activity, biomass, total protein, and titratable acidity were in the range of 1000 to 5000 AU/mL, 0.80 to 8.67 g/L, 107.75 to 351.92 mg/L and 0.25 to 1.41 g/L, respectively. In general, the results showed that cheese whey and L. acidophilus LA5 is the suitable culture medium and bacterium for producing bacteriosin, respectively.