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 Fresh fish is a highly perishable food item and spoils easily. In this research, after investigating the antioxidant properties of the Eryngium Campestre extract (Ece), its effect along with the sodium alginate coating was evaluated on the shelf-life of rainbow trout under refrigerated conditions (4°C) for 12 days. To assess the antioxidant properties of the extract, tests such as DPPH, total phenolics, reducing power, and ABTS were performed. Subsequently, samples treated with an Ece containing alginate coating applied via spray method were analyzed for chemical parameters (TBA, TVN, and pH) , microbiological parameters (total psychrotrophic and mesophilic bacteria), and sensory evaluations at four day intervals up to the 12 day. The results indicated that Ece possessed significant antioxidant properties. Furthermore, treatments that included the extract combined with the sodium alginate  coating significantly reduced pH, TVN, and TBA levels compared to the control sample (p<0.05). Microbial tests indicated that all treated samples inhibited bacterial growth when compared to the control sample, with a reduction of approximately 3 log CFU/g compared to the control group. In the sensory evaluation, treatments containing Ece and sodium alginate  yielded more favorable results than those of the control group. According to the obtained results coating the samples with sodium alginate  and Ece improved the microbial, chemical, and sensory properties and shelf life of rainbow trout in refrigerator conditions by about four days.
 

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Comparative mythology partly is a one of the modern courses, which have been used broadly from the second mid-nineteenth century. On the one hand, the relation of this approach has become firm in the comparative literature, and fixed in the mythical critic, on the other. Though at first, the necessity recognition of world's nations myths was introduced widely and comparatively by the European’s and broad researches were done by them, especially in the field of European nations (Rome and Greek's) myths, but the extent of this approach in the Islamic nation's myths did not progress, except of some small and separated surveys on myth motives. In 2000 AD, Hossein Mojib Al-Mesri, by understanding this poverty research, in “Comparative research in Arab, Iran and Turk's myths”, took the first step in comparison of Iranian, Arabic and Turkish's myths. It is wonderful that, even after a decade, researches did not refer to this. Mojib Al-Mesri, in this comparative research, has studied every Iranian, Arabic and Turkish's myths in three separate parts. However, this book does not operate according to the twentieth century mythical critic approach, but in Iran's myths study, it exhibits modern conclusions and achievements in comparative mythology and in this way, compares unfamiliar Arabic and Turkish's myths with similar Iranian samples that have not been studied in any research so far. This paper has tried firstly to clarify the myth relation and functioning of mythology in comparative literature and  then  introduce  Hossein Mojib Al-Mesri's achievements. Then in a more limited scope, it reviews his theories that he received from Iran's myths. In the end, it shows the existing common points between Persian myths with Arabic and Turkish samples in two sections of religious and historical myths. The purpose of this essay is revealing the potential capabilities of Islamic nations' myths. It also recommend the necessary changes, which must occur in one-sided and unilateral views of Iranian or Non Iranian mythologists.

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Background: Infections caused by Pseudomonas aeruginosa or Acinetobacter baumannii are of greatest concern for hospitalized patients, particularly those in intensive care units (ICUs). The aims of this study were to investigate the prevalence of integrons and biofilm formation among P. aeruginosa and A. baumannii isolates collected from ICU and non-ICU inpatients.
Materials and Methods: A total of 90 P. aeruginosa and 90 A. baumannii isolates were recovered from patients admitted into diverse units of Shahid Mohammadi hospital in Bandar Abbas from January to December 2014. Bacterial identification was carried out by phenotypic methods and PCR. Antibiotic susceptibility was measured by disk diffusion assay. The presence of Class 1, 2, and 3 integrons were evaluated by multiplex-PCR. Biofilm quantification was done by microtiter method.
Results: The highest number of isolates (48%) were recovered from ICU patients. 81% of P. aeruginosa isolateswere sensitive to piperacillin/tazobactam and ticarcillin, while 60% were resistant to third generation of cephalosporins. In case of A. baumannii, all the isolates were sensitive to colistin, but 98% were resistant to other antibiotics (p≤0.05). Susceptibility to ceftazidime, ticarcillin, imipenem, and piperacillin/tazobactam were higher among isolates obtained from non-ICU patients. Class 1 integron was detected in 13.3% of the P. aeruginosa and 40% of the A. baumannii isolates, while Class 2 integron was harbored by 7 and 6.6% of the isolates, respectively. Furthermore, 23% of the A. baumannii and 12% of the P. aeruginosa isolates showed strong biofilm activity.
Conclusion: Class 1 integron-positive isolates were resistant to three classes of antibiotics and predominantly observed in specimens collected from ICU patients showing strong biofilm.

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Background:  Pseudomonas aeruginosa is one of the main causes of nosocomial infections with a mortality rate up to 40-50%. Resistance to antibiotics is a global challenge in the treatment of infections caused by this bacterium.  The Class A beta-lactamases genes, including bla_SHV, bla_PER, bla_VEB, are the most common causes of resistance in this microorganism. This study was conducted to determine antibiotic resistance pattern and the presence of bla_per, bla_veb, bla_shv and bla_oxa-10 genes in clinical isolates of P. aeruginosa isolated from patients in a hospital in Bandar Abbas.
Materials and Methods:  This cross-sectional study was conducted on 72 P. aeruginosa clinical isolates. Antibiotic susceptibility testing was performed by disk diffusion method according to the clinical Laboratory Standard Institute. MIC (Minimum inhibitory concentration) of ceftazidime was performed by E-Test. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was performed to identify bla_shv, bla_veb-1, bla_oxa-10, and bla_per-1 genes.
Results:  Most of the isolates were detected from intensive care unit and urine samples. The highest resistance rate which was observed to sulfamethoxazole and ceftazidime, were 68 (94.44%) and 44 (61.11%), respectively.  27.8% of these isolates were multidrug resistance. Among 44 ceftazidime resistance isolates, 15 isolates (34%) showed MIC ≥32 µg.ml in the E- test. The prevalence rates of genes were 4.16, 12.5, 8.33, and 1.38% for bla_Oxa-10, bla_Shv, bla_Veb-1, and bla_Per-1 genes, respectively.
Conclusion:  The ceftazidime resistance rate and the prevalence rate of resistance genes in the present study were lower than other Iranian studies.  However, isolation of these genes is alarming that excessive use of antibiotics can lead to over expression of resistance genes and bacterial efflux pumps and the emergence of MDR phenotypes.

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Forensic phonetics is a subfield of forensic linguistics in which acoustic information and phonetic features of phones are investigated for completing the forensic cases where one of the existing evidences is related to the guilty. One of the most important tasks of a forensic phonetician is forensic speaker recognition. For doing this, the phonetician is asked to estimate the degree of similarity between the given records of the guilty’s and the suspect’s speech, and determine whether these two sound evidences match to each other or not. The objective of this study, which was conducted on the sound data from 10 Persian native speakers of both sexes, was to investigate the possibility of using Logarithmic spectrographs of vowels as a key for forensic speaker recognition tasks. The results showed that using these logarithmic spectrographs may be a useful means with perfect reliability in the tasks related to forensic speaker recognition.  

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Among the works that we know as folk literature, proverbs are one of the best areas of research on the ideas of native speakers of a language. In fact, these works are parts of the literature of every country that people consider them as the best way to express their common ideas and use them as the expressive language of their psychological states. Thus, contrastive analysis of English and Persian proverbs, focusing on the subject of women, and based on Proverbs and Mottos (Amsalo Hekam) and Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs, would represent the mindset of English and Persian native speakers, especially where the thoughts of Alfred Adler and Eric Berne are the basis. Contamination in the psychology of Berne and Fundamental Error in the psychology of Adler would prepare a background for the present study. Detailed statistical examination of the proverbs based on the mentioned thoughts, would pave the way for finding the status of woman in the proverbs of two languages. Contrastive analysis of the mentioned sources shows that the percentage of Contamination and Fundamental Error is high among the proverbs which were related to women in both languages. But, the frequency of normal proverbs in Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs, is 14.035% more than Proverbs and Mottos (Amsalo Hekam).

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in recent years, interest in use of plant sources due to function of Phytochemicals and antioxidant compound in maintenance of human health is increased, phenolic and flavonoid compounds are one of important compounds of plants that have antioxidant effects. Aim of the present study is to examine and comparison of phenolic and flavonoid compounds and antioxidant capacity of different organs of saffron, that every year a huge amount of them are wested during the processing of stigma. In this study, different parts of saffron were extracted by methanol (80%), then the amount of total phenol and flavonoid compounds was assayed by means of Folin-Ciocalteu and and Aluminium choloride methods respectively. The antioxidant activity was measured by DPPH free radical reduction. According to the results of this study, The highest content of total phenolic(6.43 mg GAE g-1 DW) and flavonoid (1.33 mg RU g-1 DW) was observed in stigma compared to other organs. The result of DPPH test also showed higher antioxidant capacity of stigma in comparison to other organs. Comparison of phenolic compounds in various organs showed that the content of these compounds and antioxidant activity could be different related to type of organs. Also, the higher antioxidant capacity in stigma and tepal compared to leaf and corm could be as a result of more phenolic compounds in these organs.

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Backgrounds: In recent years, Enterococcus species have emerged as a leading cause of nosocomial infections worldwide. The aim of this study was to determine the virulence biomarkers and antibiotic resistance profiles of Enterococcus spp. collected from a main tertiary teaching hospital in Bandar Abbas, Iran.
Materials & Methods: A total of 71 Enterococcus were isolated from clinical specimens of patients in different wards of a hospital. Enterococcus spp. were verified by detecting ddl gene using PCR-based method. Virulence-encoding genes including gelE and cylA were detected using PCR. Antibiotic resistance was assessed using the disk diffusion assay, and vancomycin resistance was identified using the E-test method.
Findings: Among Enterococcus isolates, 50 and 21 isolates were identified as E. faecalis and E. faecium, respectively. Most of the Enterococcus species were isolated from urine, followed by wound samples. The most prevalent virulence genes among E. faecalis isolates were cylA (60%) and gelE (30%); also, 19 and 14% of E. faecium isolates were positive for cylA and gelE genes, respectively. Many isolates of E. faecalis (84%) and E. faecium (76%) were resistant to one or more antibiotics and showed high resistance to gentamicin and ciprofloxacin.
Conclusion: This study revealed a high prevalence of ciprofloxacin and gentamicin resistance and a high frequency of virulence genes among E. faecalis isolates. Due to the high prevalence of MDR Enterococcus strains, control measures are necessary to prevent the emergence and transmission of these strains in different hospital wards.
 

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Backgrounds: This study aimed to assess the molecular characteristics of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) strains isolated from community-acquired (CA) and hospital-acquired (HA) infections in Bandar Abbas, southern Iran.
Materials & Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted on 110 S. aureus strains isolated from 59 outpatients and 51 inpatients during 2018-2019. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was performed using disc diffusion method. Epsilometer test was used to measure vancomycin minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC). Cefoxitin disc (30 μg) was used to screen MRSA isolates. The presence of mecA gene was examined by PCR method.  Staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec (SCCmec) types were detected in S. aureus isolates using multiplex-PCR. Chi-square and Fisher's exact tests were used to analyze the results.
Findings: Out of 110 isolates, 45 (40.9%) isolates carried the mecA gene: 20 (39.2%) isolates from inpatients and 25 (42.4%) isolates from outpatients. MRSA isolates showed the highest resistance to azithromycin (69.8%), tetracycline (60.4%), and clindamycin (32.1%), respectively. Vancomycin MIC against MRSA isolates ranged from 0.75 to 5 μg/mL. SCCmec type I, III, IV, and V were detected in 20 (44.4%), three (6.7%), 16 (35.5%), and six (13.3%) isolates, respectively.
Conclusion: The predominant SCCmec types were type I and type IV, which were detected in CA- and HA-MRSA isolates, respectively. No significant difference in the presence of SCCmec type III and antibiotic resistance was found between CA- and HA-MRSA isolates, indicating the possibility of cross-infection between these isolates. Developing appropriate treatment protocols to prevent the spread of MRSA infections in the community is currently an urgent need.
 

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Granted that senses and emotions are key components in facilitating the process of language learning and teaching, it is essential for different models of instruction to take language learners’ emotions into account. It is in fact believed that emotions could be generated from the involvement of senses. A pertinent concept which juxtaposes senses and their resultant emotions is emotioncy. The concept of emotioncy (emotion+), pioneered by Pishghadam, Tabatabaeyan, and Navari (2013), is based on the psychological findings of the Developmental Individual-Differences Relationship-based (DIR) model, suggesting that sensory emotions are the cornerstones of evolution and learning. Following the assumptions of this model, when a language learner has never heard of a concept/item, s/he has no emotions for it (Null emotioncy). When s/he hears about the concept/item, the degree of emotioncy for that word increases to the auditory level, and if s/he sees or touches that item, the emotioncy may surpasses the auditory level to the Visual and Kinesthetic levels, respectively. Direct involvement with the concept/item engenders Inner emotioncy which can be maximized by doing research (Arch emotioncy).  At this stage, an accurate understanding of the subject will be formed which may lead to profound learning. Drawing upon the emotioncy model, in this study, the researchers made an attempt to teach a number of Persian language issues and, thereafter investigate the effect of this model on the emotions of the Persian language learners and their learning outcomes. To do so, 60 non-Iranian female students with the same Persian level (7^th grade) from 16 different countries (including India, Pakistan, Malaysia, Turkey, Egypt, Madagascar, Burundi, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Libya, Tajikistan, Lebanon, Iraq, Guinea-Bissau, Syria, and Indonesia) who were studying at Al-Mostafa International University were categorized into 4 groups of 15 and participated in classes for a period of 6 weeks. Different concepts were taught during each session according to each level of emotioncy. At the end of each session, the learners’ emotions were evaluated via the academic emotions questionnaire Pekrun, 2002) and emotioncy scale (Pishghadam, 2015). The results related to the auditory session revealed that the learners did not show very positive emotions for the relevant subject. Yet, their emotions improved in the Visual session. The change in the emotions of the learners from negative to positive was also evident in the kinesthetic session. At this stage, learners were more actively involved with the subject and gave convincing reasons for their emotional experiences. In the fifth session (Inner), having brought the necessary and relevant instruments to the class, the instructor asked the learners to simulate the instructed subject. In the final session (Arch), the learners were asked to explore the resources available (cyberspace, library, etc.) about the topics taught during the fifth session. Overall, the results indicated significant differences in the emotions of non-Iranian female students, concluding that by involving senses in the process of teaching, the learners’ emotioncy level increases and positive emotions are thus produced. As a result, there was a positive correlation between emotioncy-based instruction and the amount of positive emotions on the part of non-Iranian Persian language learners. Taken together, the emotioncy model seems to help enhance the positive emotions of Persian language learners, providing a more successful learning environment for them.
 

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Due to the poor development of the domestic financial markets in Iran, a lack of efficient tax system and some restrictions on foreign borrowing in recent decades, the government budget deficit was mainly financed through borrowing from either the central bank or through the selling of the oil revenue dollars to the central bank, both of which led to increased monetary base. It caused to increase the rate of inflation as well. While printing money creates revenue through seigniorage for the government, it decreases the purchasing power of the money and people prefer to hold less cash money because of the inflationary effects of monetization of budget deficit and finally it will reduce the seigniorage revenue of the government. The aim of this article is to analysis seigniorage revenue in Iran using money demand function approach. The Johansen-Juselius Cointegration technique is used to estimate the empirical model using annual data over the period 1961-2007. The results of estimates show that semi elasticity of inflation rate is negative of 5/59 and the elasticity of GDP per capita is positive of 2/36 in long run. After first oil boom, seigniorage-maximizing rate of inflation, except during the period of war, is lower than the actual rate of inflation. According to the result, the economy is generally on the wrong side of the Laffer curve. The result does not depend on whether the expectations of agents form adaptively or rationally.

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A model capable of predicting the minimum content of Aflatoxin M1 (AFM1) in Iranian while brine cheese has been developed using a chemometric approach to determine the optimum processing conditions. Renneting temperature, cut size, stirring time, press time, curd size and saturated brine pH were all regarded as process variables. Three-dimensional response surface and contour plots were drawn. The minimum content of AFM1 (116.9 ng kg -1 dry matter) was predicted when the processing variables were: Ren-neting temperature= 40°C, Cut size= 0.5 cm, Stirring time= 10 minutes, Press time= 20 minutes, Curd size= 64 cm3, Saturated brine pH= 4.6. These values predicted for opti-mum process conditions were in good agreement with experimental data.

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Despite the critical relationships among pragmatic action, context, and linguistic vs. non-linguistic resources for producing various adjacency pairs in foreign or second language (L2) exchanges, their interplay has not been adequately investigated. Therefore, the present study examined these relations in the production of request-refusal adjacency pairs. The needed data were collected from 108 upper-intermediate to advanced EFL learners. Three hundred conversations were audio-recorded from learners’ role-plays that involved making request-refusal adjacency pairs. MAXQDA software was used for data transcription, codification, and analysis. Data analysis revealed that request-refusal adjacency pairs were co-constructed in discursive contexts through multiple turns using both linguistic and nonlinguistic turn construction units (TCUs). Learners significantly used more linguistic rather than nonlinguistic TCUs and more sentential and clausal TCUs than phrasal and lexical TCUs. Moreover, the use of pauses and continuers was significantly more than laughter, facial expression, and body language. These findings have some pedagogical implications for teachers to raise learners’ awareness of context, action, and linguistic and nonlinguistic TCUs in the production of speech act adjacency pairs.

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In any education context, teachers are mainly responsible for enacting the core values of classroom justice and equality. To address this notion, this qualitative study went through the exploration of the perceptions that Iranian EFL teachers had of classroom justice and its main dimensions. To this end, 31 EFL teachers, chosen through purposive sampling, filled out an open-ended questionnaire, and a sub-group of them participated in a semi-structured interview. The major findings, resulting from the content and thematic analyses of the data done both manually and through the MAXQDA software (Version 2020), revealed that first, all the participants, except one, regarded classroom justice as a crucial element of their instructional practice; second, interactional, procedural, and distributive dimensions of justice were reflected in the definitions that the teachers provided for classroom justice; and third, in line with the theoretical and empirical underpinnings of the study, the teachers conceptualized the classroom justice dimensions through their unique principles in relation to the various domains of classroom learning, teaching, assessment, and interactions. A pedagogical implication based on the findings is that by becoming aware of how they perceive justice in their instructional practice, teachers may take the initial strides toward enhancing their just treatment of students, and consequently, increase their professional effectiveness.

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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.
 

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Formative assessment has an important role in controlling the quality of teachers’ methodology in multicultural classes. Although many research studies have been conducted in the domain of formative assessment and the strategies used by English teachers, there is a dearth of research on teachers involved in Persian language instruction to non-Persian speakers. The present study aimed to recognize the most fruitful and invaluable formative assessment strategies used in the multicultural context of teaching Persian language classes and examine the relationship between the value and uses of formative assessment strategies and the teaching level of Persian language teachers. To this end, three Persian language teachers of the basic, intermediate, and advanced levels in the Persian language teaching center of Allameh Tabataba’i University were asked to answer the formative assessment strategies questionnaire (Jett, 2009). To gain more reliable results, other data collection methods based on class observation checklist (Jett, 2009; Stevens, 2012) and semi-structured interviews were used. To analyze the quantitative data, Pearson correlation (using SPSS version 25) was run. Descriptive statitics and content analysis were also applied for analyzing the interview data. Based on the results, self and peer assessment were found the mostly used strategy. The most invaluable strategy was also reported to be both self and peer assessment and involving language learners in their own learning. Although according to course observations the teachers’ practices were variant, there was a significant correlation between the teaching level and degree of use and value of formative assessment strategies. The findings of this study have implications for Persian language teachers and teacher educators in that they can raise their knowledge and awareness of classroom-based assessment through the use of effective formative assessment strategies in multicultural classes.
 
1. Introduction
One of the essential features of any educational system is assessment to investigate needs, determine goals and strategies and measure performances (Sadler, 1998). Usually, teachers use two kinds of assessment to measure class activities for learning: Formative assessment and summative assessment. Summative assessment, which lays a seal of approval on learning and usually takes place at the end of an educational program, compares the amount of knowledge or skills of students with specific standards and criteria (States et al., 2018). Formative assessment, however, has attracted attention of many educational researchers over recent years. Black and Wiliam (1998) provides a clear-cut definition on formative assessment as “all those activities undertaken by teachers-and by their students in assessing themselves- that provide information to be used as feedback, to modify teaching and learning activities. Such assessment becomes formative assessment when the evidence is actually used to adapt the teaching to meet student needs” (p. 140).
     William and Thompson (2008) offered a conceptual framework based on the definition, provided by Black and Williams (1998, p. 8), which presented five fundamental strategies for formative assessment. The framework introduces an instructor to have the role of designing and establishing an effective environment for learning and the language learners in such environment are responsible for their and their peers’ learning. Nowadays, due to extensive physical and virtual exchanges and internationalization of education, especially in the field of language teaching, classrooms are held in multicultural contexts, deserving special strategies for formative assessment. Regarding expansion of Persian language teaching and growth in number of those learning Persian language all over the world, teachers in the centers to teach Persian language to speakers of other languages, experience multicultural contexts thanks to presence of language learners, who represent different nationalities and cultures in a single classroom. Therefore, regarding importance of using formative assessment strategies in the classes for teaching Persian language to speakers of other languages, that are multi-cultural in nature, and also regarding considerable gap in the literature, the writers of this research, relying on the conceptual framework William and Thompson (2008) regarding formative assessment strategies, tried to address three questions as follows:
     1. Which formative assessment strategy is the most usable in the multicultural classrooms from the viewpoint of the teachers of Persian language in three elementary, intermediate and advanced levels?
2. Which formative assessment strategy is the most valuable in the multicultural classes from the viewpoint of the teachers of Persian language in three elementary, intermediate and advanced levels?
 3. To what extent is there any relationship between the use and value of the formative assessment strategies and the educational level of the teachers?  

2. Literature Review
There has been many research on the use and value of the formative assessment strategies, applied by teachers of English language and of schools and other educational centers; however, there has been handful of such research on teachers of Persian language to speakers of other languages, who are present in class and represent different cultures. Yadegarzadeh (2005) in a study focused on the extent of teachers’ awareness of the strategies of formative assessment and the degree of their application in classroom. Estaji and Fasihi (2016) in research investigated the relationship between the use of formative assessment strategies and self-efficacy of the male and female teachers in the English language teaching centers in Tehran and also the effect of their gender and experience. Jett’s (2009) two-phase research concerned the perception of the elementary school teachers in a region in Louisville (in the state of Kentucky) on the most valuable and usable strategies of formative assessment. Setevens’ (2012) research aimed to investigate perception of teachers on cultural responsiveness, formative assessment and the inquiry-based teaching of math and science for American native students in a school in Montana state. To study the perceptions of teachers on formative assessment, Hue and Kennedy (2015) dealt with the perception and view of the native teachers of Hong Kong on formative assessment. In a study, conducted in the Philippines recently, Cagasan et al. (2020) tried to offer a framework to investigate the pattern of teachers’ formative assessment function in class, using the class observation instrument.

3. Methodology
To conduct this research, three teachers of the Centre for Teaching Persian to Speakers of Other Languages of Allameh Tabataba’i University, participated in this study teaching in three elementary, intermediate and advanced levels. Two of the teachers were female and one male, who were introduced by the Education Department Director, with respect to their educational level and the multi-cultural context of the classroom. The two elementary and intermediate teachers were female, while the advanced level teacher was male. All the three teachers were young (aged 26 on average) and were novice regarding their background of teaching Persian to speakers of other languages. However, all the three teachers enjoyed enough knowledge and skill to teach in the specified levels. Three sources were used to collect data for this study: The Questionnaire of Use and Value of Formative Assessment Strategies of Jett (2009) (for the quantitative part); interview with instructors (for the qualitative part) and class observations by using the checklist of Stevens (2012) and checklist of Jett (2009) (for the qualitative part). The SPSS software version 25 was used for analysis of the quantitative data and for Pearson correlation test, while descriptive indexes and content analysis were used for investigation of the interview data.


4. Results
This research was conducted to investigate the use and value of the formative assessment strategies, that are applied by teachers of the Persian language to speakers of other languages in three elementary, intermediate, and advanced levels in the multi-cultural contexts. Three sources were used to collect data for this study: Questionnaire, interview, and class observations. Research findings showed that the three instructors of the elementary, intermediate, and advanced levels believed that the self/peer assessment strategy was the most prevalent and the most valuable strategy, that is used for formative assessment in multicultural contexts. Analysis of the data also confirmed the correlation between the use and value of the strategy of setting work of language learners as a model (for other peers), offering feedback, and the self/peer assessment. Furthermore, the results of this study showed a significant correlation between the educational levels of the instructors and the use and value of the formative assessment strategies, and the use and value of the formative assessment strategies grow alongside promotion in the educational level. Content analysis of the interview data showed that in the instructors’ point of view, the self/peer assessment, contribution of the language learners into their own learning, and presentation of feedback were hierarchically the most effective class strategies. Based on the class observation checklist data (1), the highest degree of support was provided to the elementary level and the least one to the advanced level. In terms of enforcement of the formative assessment strategies in the multi-cultural classes and with respect to the checklist, feedback reserved the highest number of frequencies, while the specification of the learning goals gained the least frequency in the list. Results of this research also showed that the instructors were aware of the use and value of the formative assessment strategies, but they were not fully in agreement on operationalizing the strategy. However, their ability to create and establish a supportive and fair environment, which is requisite for such assessments, should not be underestimated.

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Grape trunk diseases are critical problems for grapes from the time of planting to the harvest stage. Grapes are susceptible to 29 fungal diseases due to their perennial woody trunk, so identifying and managing them is crucial. Among the methods of controlling these diseases, feeding with mineral fertilizers to reduce leaf symptoms resulting from the toxic secretions of fungi living in the woody part of the tree is of great importance. To manage these diseases, a mixture of fertilizers including calcium chloride CaCl₂, 466 g, magnesium nitrate Mg(NO₃)₂, 403 g, seaweed extract (75 ml) and sterile distilled water 466 ml per liter of foliar spraying on the selected treatments in Sohrabi’s garden were used once every 20 days. Guaiacol peroxidase, catalase and leaf area index were measured in Sohrabi’s garden during 2017 and 2018 and were compared with the control. In the treatments sprayed with the fertilizers, the average amount of guaiacol peroxidase enzyme was 12.72 µl compared to the control (10.6 µl) and the average amount of catalase enzyme was 83.68 µl compared to the control (31.85 µl). The average size of the leaf area in the foliar treatments in Sohrabi’s garden was 11564 mm², compared to the control that was 4959 mm². The severity of the disease in the sprayed treatments (19.95 %) was lower than the control (56.6 %). These results are due to the increase in the leaf surface, which increases the amount of photosynthesis, and the increase in guaiacol peroxidase and catalase, which reduce the oxidative stress resulting from fungal secretions, which resulted in decreasing symptoms in foliar treatments.

 

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The self-monitoring technique, using the learners’ annotations and teacher’s response as its base, proved to be one of the beneficial alternatives for the traditional teacher feedback. Although some studies have been done on the effects of self-monitoring technique, more studies are still required to place this tactic at the forefront of educational practices. This study examined Iranian EFL learners’ annotations in terms of their form and content. To this end, after homogenizing the participants, 30 university students were selected and received essay writing instruction employing the self-monitoring technique for eight sessions. The learners’ annotations were gathered and classified in terms of their content and form based on the frameworks established by Sarabia, Nicolás, and Larioss (2012) and Storch and Tapper (1996) respectively. The research results, as for the content of the annotations, evinced that the largest number of annotations fell into the categories of lexis and syntax, and to a lesser extent the discourse organization. Regarding the form of the annotations, most of the learners’ annotations fell into the category of “a demand for the correction of an L2 form”. The results of the chi-square test also showed that the difference in the content and use of language forms of annotations used by students was significant. Hence, the use of self-monitoring technique in writing courses brings a wealth of information regarding the writing content and problematic areas for both the teacher and learners as they can have discussions over the written text, making the process of writing more interactive.

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a compact size and lightweight planar ultra-wideband (UWB) antenna with an omnidirectional radiation pattern and a stable gain in the frequency range 3.1-10.6 GHz is proposed and investigated. The antenna consists of an elliptical shaped slot which is fed by a 50-Ω microstrip line that is beveled and has fork-shaped is designed. Attaching two inverted U-shape strips at the upper part of the slot, two additional bands are realized covering GPS, upper part of GSM (1770–1840 MHz), and Bluetooth (2385–2490 MHz) bands. The calculated return loss, omni-directional radiation pattern, and peak gain are in good agreement with the measurement results. The antenna can provide high-performance wireless communications over different frequency bands. This structure has a compact size (27×24 mm²), is lightweight, and can be easily fabricated.    According, the proposed antenna is expected and normal to be a good candidate in various applications in portable and lightweight communication system.