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Lavender leaves, widely used as flavors for foods and beverages, are a rich source of phenol components and antioxidant. Drying method is of vital importance for keeping these compounds. In this study, lavender leaves were dried by means of Atmospheric Freeze (AF), Multi-Stage Semi-Industrial Continuous (MSSIC), and Near Infrared-Vacuum (NIR-Vacuum) dryers and optimized by Response Surface Methodology (RSM) for the highest drying rate, total phenol content, antioxidant capacity, and the lowest color indicators change. Lavender leaves were also dried under natural conditions as the traditional method. Multi-stage drying caused tempering phenomenon and, consequently, drying rate increased obviously. Near infrared-vacuum dryer had suitable performance on keeping the active ingredients of lavender leaves. Optimum point to dry lavender leaves in atmospheric freeze dryer was found to be -5℃. The optimum temperature points in the multi-stage semi-industrial continuous dryer were achieved to be 60, 40, and 60℃ for the first, second, and third stages, respectively. The optimum point in near infrared-vacuum dryer was 60℃ and 20 kPa for air temperature and pressure, respectively. Based on the results, among several drying methods, near infrared-vacuum dryer was the more suitable for drying lavender leaves.
 

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The present study aimed to develop orange pomace tablets as an additive with nutritional value. Orange pomace powder was converted into tablets by the drying method under the effect of compression force, diameter die, and relaxation force changes. Some of the physicochemical properties (e.g., density, penetration resistance, tensile strength, stability in water, total phenol content, antioxidant capacity, and ascorbic acid) were investigated. The tableting process was optimized by central composite design. The Kawakita and Lüdde model with R²= 0.995 was used to describe the compressibility behavior of orange pomace powder. The effect of diameter die on the minimum tension of deformation changes was insignificant. The results proved that the changes in the value of the active ingredients were insignificant when the orange was dried, ground to powder, and converted to a tablet. Also, the effect of diameter dies changes on all of the responses was significant at 0.01, while the effect of compression force was insignificant just for penetration resistance. Effect of the relaxation force on the mechanical properties was significant (at level of 0.5 for penetration resistance and 0.01 for tensile strength), and on the density and stability in water was insignificant. Finally, the optimum point for tableting from orange pomace was suggested at the compression force of 8.6 kN, diameter die of 10 mm, and relaxation force of 1.14 kN for 1.13×10^-3 g mm^-3 of density, 111 N of penetration resistance, 52.4 MPa of tensile strength, and 51 g.s dl^-1 of stability in water.

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Teachers evaluation as one of the essential educational needs has an important role in improving educational quality and developing smart schools. The lack of implementation of a systematic and scientific evaluation system not only will discourage committed teachers, but also will have consequences such as reduced commitment and leave the organizational work. Therefore, the present study attempts to present a fuzzy inference system (FIS) model to evaluate the performance of teachers working in smart schools of Yazd province. In this regard, after reviewing the literature and identifying the factors affecting performance evaluation in two sections of computer literacy and classroom performance, the fuzzy Delphi technique was used to get experts agreement (20 experts) on the model’s final criteria. The ambiguity and complexity of performance appraisal criteria, especially qualitative criteria, as well as the use of verbal variables for extracting expert opinions, led to the use of fuzzy inference system for analyzing model components. In the case of the under study schools, the output of the system indicates that the status of smart school teachers in the basic courses and content production criteria is at intermediate level, in the Internet and educational supplementary software is at a relatively high level, and in the educational content development and electronic evaluation is at a low level. Based on these findings, teachers performance in smart schools was evaluated as medium level. Finally, some suggestions were proposed to improve the current status of smart schools.