---

The optimal implementation of Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) in Iranian EFL higher education faces some challenges despite its incremental growth. It is, therefore, necessary to investigate the current challenges affecting university professors' and students' adoption of CALL in Iranian EFL contexts. For this purpose, data were collected through semi-structured interviews with three purposeful sampling groups of participants, both before and after the temporary shutdown of the educational sector due to COVID-19 spread. Therefore, 33 interviewees—university EFL professors, students, and Information Technology Support Engineers (IT-SE)— took part in an interview which took approximately 90 minutes for each, conducted in person or over WhatsApp and Skype platforms. All the interviews were audio recorded and transcribed for thematic analysis by the first researcher and an assistant researcher. The obtained results highlighted nine major categories of themes that indicated the obstacles and challenges of optimal CALL implementation. These challenges are related to 1) technological dimension, 2) teacher dimension 3) student dimension, 4) software and hardware dimension, 5) sanctions and filtering dimension, 6) curriculum dimension, 7) the nature of e-learning dimension, 8) socioeconomic and cultural dimension, and 9) university administrators' dimension.  It was the sanctions and filtering dimension, the nature of e-learning dimension, and the socioeconomic dimension that were exclusive to this study. Each of these major themes includes a set of minor themes. The results can contribute to educational planners, curriculum and material developers, and teachers to develop education programs for optimal CALL implementation in Iranian EFL higher education by removing the challenges.
 

---

In this study, Virtual Reality (VR) was employed in an English course intended to promote oral presentation skills in Iranian academia, and the possible impact of the course on learners’ self-efficacy regarding presenting, Foreign Language Anxiety (FLA), and speaking skills was investigated. Eight participants attended a 6-session course, and practiced academic oral presentation in a virtually simulated environment. Prior to the course, semi-structured interviews were administered; in addition, participants’ weekly reflection notes and self-assessments were gathered throughout the course. Moreover, post-course semi-structured interviews and written follow-up interviews were conducted afterward. The findings revealed that the learners reported higher levels of self-efficacy regarding presenting after the course, due to a perceived improvement in their presenting style, as well as their presentation content and slides. Additionally, the course had contributed to lowering the learners’ FLA due to presence in the Immersive Learning Environment (ILE), ample practice opportunities, and collaborative avatar interactions. Moreover, the learners mentioned that the course had helped them to improve their speaking skills due to academic vocabulary expansion, pronunciation enhancement, fluency upgrade, and grammatical adjustment. The findings can provide insights for language educators with regard to the use of virtual reality for simultaneously fostering language and academic skills, as well as facilitating internationalization in higher education.

---

Clinical application of embryonic stem (ES) cells faces difficulties regarding tissue rejection as well as ethical limitations. One solution for these issues is to reprogram somatic cells by the injection of their nucleus into an enucleated oocyte or zygote. However, technical complications and ethical considerations have impeded the therapeutic implications of this technology. An approach which is most recently developed is in vitro induction of reprogramming in adult cells. This was first achieved by using four transcription factors, including Oct4, Sox2, c-Myc and Klf4. Subsequently, many ongoing efforts were performed for enhancing this method, also for making it compatible with clinical applications. However, there is still a long road ahead. In this paper we review strategies to reprogram somatic cells to embryonic state and discuss about the recent strategy and the relevant developments.

---

Individual characteristics and differences, namely strategy-use behavior have been gaining much attention among researchers due to influences that they may have on test takers’ performance on reading tests. From a language testing perspective, however, further experimental studies are needed in this regard. This study investigated the relationship between test-takers’ strategy-use behavior and their reading test performance. Five hundred and twenty Iranian English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners (both male and female) participated in this study. They were assigned to high- and the low-reading ability groups based on their scores on a teacher-made reading comprehension test. They were also required to sit for a teacher-made TOEFL-based reading comprehension test and answer the adapted version of Phakiti’s (2008) Cognitive and Metacognitive Strategy Questionnaire with 30 items immediately after the test. The reliability of both instruments was approved through Cronbach alpha and the validity was assured through content and construct evidences of validity. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) on the questionnaire indicated that three factors were identified as cognitive (comprehension, retrieval, memory) and three as metacognitive strategies (planning, monitoring, evaluation) for both ability groups. Moreover, Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analysis showed that metacognitive strategies had a regulating function on cognitive strategies in both groups. Furthermore, the results showed that in the high ability group Comprehension (COM) and Memory (MEM) strategies and in the low-ability group, Retrieval (RET) strategies were the best predictors of reading test performance. Finally, some implications and suggestions for further research are presented.
 

---

The major objective of seedless grape breeding program is production of grapes with high quality. Breeding of seedless grapes is difficult because the embryos are aborted after fertilization. Embryo rescue technique is utilized to obtain plants from crosses between seedless cultivars. In the present study, the effect of paternal genotypes and different IAA concentrations in presence of BA applications were investigated on embryo rescue in Askari cultivar in randomized complete block design with three replications. Sprays with BA were performed two times at 18 E-L and 27 E-L stages. Hybrid embryos were produced from the cross between Askari cultivar as a female parent and Ruby Seedless, Bidane Sefid, and Bidane Ghermez as male parents. Forty days after pollination (at 29 E-L stage), ovules were cultured on NN medium with three different concentrations of IAA (1, 1.75, 3 mg L^-1). The results showed that male genotypes and different concentrations of IAA on the media had a significant effect on embryo germination. BA treatment did not affect the embryo germination solely. But, the effect of BA and different concentrations of IAA was significant on embryo germination. The best concentration of IAA with BA treatment was 1 mg L^-1 and without BA was 3 mg L^-1. The highest embryo germination rate was observed in 'Askari×Ruby Seedless' cross that was pretreated with BA and cultured on medium with 1 mg L^-1 IAA concentration.

---

Heavy metals are elements that exhibit metallic properties such as ductility, malleability, conductivity, cation stability, and ligand specificity. They are characterized by relatively high density and high relative atomic weight with an atomic number greater than 20. Clay and other soils may become contaminated by the accumulation of heavy metals and metalloids through emissions from the rapidly expanding industrial areas, mine tailings, disposal of high metal wastes, leaded gasoline and paints, land application of fertilizers, animal manures, sewage sludge, pesticides, wastewater irrigation, coal combustion residues, spillage of petrochemicals, and atmospheric deposition. Heavy metal contaminants in addition to geotechnical problems creation and change in the soil strength parameters especially in clay soils, can cause environmental and human health risks due to penetrate through the groundwater. Most commonly heavy metal found at contaminated sites are lead (Pb), chromium (Cr), arsenic (As), zinc (Zn), cadmium (Cd), copper (Cu), mercury (Hg), and nickel (Ni). Also, freezing and thawing cycles have a significant effects on the behavior of stabilized clay soils specially on the heavy metal contaminated clay soils stabilized by cement od other additives. So, by population increasing, advancement of technology and consequently increase in heavy metals emissions, as well as being a quarter of the earth surface in the cold regions and the necessity of building design and construction on these soils, it seems necessary to study the impact of the freezing and thawing cycles on the stabilized clay soils. Different additives such as cement, lime, gypsum, fly ash and other additives were used for stabilization and solidification of heavy metal and oily contaminated soils, the cement is more practical among the stabilizer additives, because of its compatibility with pollutants and high efficiency, low cost and easy access. In this research used cement for stabilization of the lead heavy metal contaminated soil exposed to freezing and thawing cycles. According to the importance of the soil settlement in the clay soils, one dimensional consolidation test was conducted on the experimental samples. Also, due to extensive use of bentonite clay soil in contaminated sites, bentonite clay sample was used for experimental studies. The results of this research indicate that in most cases the critical cycle is a cycle 7. Also, The soil strength parameters such as over-consolidation stress increased about 2 to 8 times in different conditions by cement stabilization. Also, stabilization of heavy metal contaminated by cement clay soils that exposed to freezing and thawing cycles reduce the Cc and Cs coefficients of bentonite clay samples about 50 to 80 percent depending on number of freezing and thawing cycles and heavy metal concentration in bentonite clay sample and also causing preconsolidation in soft clay soils or normally consolidated soils throug the pozzolanic reactions of soil and cement at a low time. Furthermore, the optimum content of cement in contaminated and uncontaminated samples in different freezing and thawing cycles is variable, but in most cases is about 5% to 10% depending on number of freezing and thawing cycles and heavy metal concentration in bentonite clay sample. In continence, stabilization efficacy and the formation of hydrated compounds of cement and clay soil was investigated by using pH chemical test.

---

Plant essential oils can prevent the growth of bacteria and increase the shelf life of food products such as seafood and fish. In this study, the effect of zizphora and tarragon essential oils at concentrations of 500, 1000, and 2000 mg/L on microbial quality and shelf life of rainbow trout fillets stored at 4 ºC was investigated. The results showed that the essential oils of ziziphora and tarragon were effective in reducing the production of volatile nitrogen bases and the greatest effect was related to ziziphora essential oil with a concentration of 2000 mg/L. It was also observed that the use of ziziphora and tarragon essential oils reduced the total viable counts, psychrotrophic bacteria, coliforms, and Escherichia coli bacteria compared to the control sample, which confirms their antimicrobial properties. It was concluded that ziziphora essential oil with a concentration of 2000 mg/L was more effective than tarragon essential oil in controlling the microbial load and delaying the spoilage of rainbow trout fillet at refrigerator temperature.

---

The cement-based stabilization/solidification (S/S) method is widely used in modifying soils polluted by heavy metals (HMs), although it may face technical, economic, and environmental limitations. Therefore, the present work was designed to investigate the effectiveness of a type of geopolymer based on the steel slag (SGP) and its combination with microparticles of zeolite (SGPZ), compared to cement (as a traditional additive), in enhancing the stability of S/S products. In so doing, different percentages (0 to 250 mg/g-soil) of SGP, SGPZ, and sole cement were separately added to the S/S samples containing different concentrations of lead (including 5000, 10000, 20000 and 40000 mg/kg-soil). After adequate curing (up to 28 days), a set of macro and micro scale experiments were performed to assess the long-term performance of the amended soil samples using a laboratory accelerated aging procedure that simulated 25, 50, 75 and 100 years of exposure to the acid rain and wet and dry (W-D) cycles in the field. It was found that, while low amounts of cement (PC) would greatly reduce the initial bioavailability of pollution in the pore fluid of soil, increasing the contact time of the PC-treated specimens upon harsh conditions, especially in the presence of high level of Pb, would dramatically diminish the efficiency of the precipitation mechanism as well as the degree of encapsulation process which play a significant role in increasing the ability of S/S sample to release the toxic ions stabilized/solidified previously. At simulated 100 years, the toxicity characteristic leaching procedure leached Pb from the PC-treated sample with 250 mg/g-soil binder would exceed the permitted threshold of pollution leaching (≥ 5 mg/L) by 508%, indicating that meeting the S/S regulation limits requires a large consumption of cement. The study showed that, unlike treatment conditions with the same level of PC, the use of novel cement-free S/S binders (especially SGPZ) would significantly limit the negative influences of the environmental changes on HM remobilization risks. In addition, the mechanical characteristics of those series of samples were sometimes up to 1.4 times higher than that of the soil modified with cement alone. Based on the X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns and scanning electron microscope (SEM) images, this enhancement can be mainly due to i) reduction in the adverse HM-binder interactions, ii) intensification in the level of hydration reactions, iii) formation of secondary complex hydrated phases (e.g., Hydrotalcite: Mg₆Al₂CO₃(OH)₁₆.4H₂O), and iv) creation of a three-dimensional network of solidification in the system containing geopolymer, wrapping the matrix of S/S products against the structure disintegration upon contact to the aggressive environments. Therefore, under the destroying impacts of acid attack and W-D scenario, adding 25% SGPZ composite could pass the S/S regulation limits. In general, based on the obtained results, the use of geopolymer (especially containing zeolite) is suggested as an effective and environmentally friendly alternative for sustainable soil improvement, even with the high contents of HM ions. Following the USEPA and UKAE standards to achieve the safe S/S performance, the optimal dosage of GP binder was determined to be approximately 6 mg/g-soil per 1 g/kg of lead in the sample.