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There are several approaches for increasing the competitive power of an organization. However, in some cases, some of the approaches are contradictory. Improving efficiency and productivity is one of the best approaches to solve these conflicts. In this research, we have measured the efficiency of five active iron mines during 2008 - 2011, using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method and the efficient and inefficient units were determined. Due to the limited number of studied mines compared with the total amount of inputs and outputs, the discrimination could happen. Thus, we have used Anderson-Peterson (AP) approaches as a complementary method for DEA classic models, in order to determine productive units' final ranking. Based on the results obtained, Mishduvan mine has the highest rank and the highest amount of efficiency during 2009 - 2011.

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TheChah Nimeh reservoirs of Sistan is as one of the main water sources of Zabol City used for drinking, agriculture, industry and livestock purposes. This study aimed to determine the contribution of the natural and concentration factors of heavy metals such as Cd, Pb and Cu in sediment of Chah Nimeh of Sistan. The concentrations of heavy metals in surface sediments were studied in six stations during 2013. To determine the concentration of the heavy metals atomic absorption spectrometer (Contr AA 700) was used. Sequential extraction analysis  was applied based on the share of natural and concentration factor sources of heavy metals. Sequential extraction analysis showed that a considerable part of the Pb (63.67%), Cd (55.17%) and Cu (57.17%) were from natural sources. The highest concentrations of Cd and Pb were 0.81 and 5.57 mg kg^-1, respectively, obtained in station one and the maximum Cu concentration was observed in station five (37.8 mg kg^-1), while the lowest concentration of Cd, Pb and Cu were 0.34, 3.95 and 31.4 mg kg^-1, respectively.

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The geometric distribution of states duration is one of the main performance limiting assumptions of hidden Markov modeling of speech signals. Stochastic segment models, generally, and segmental HMM, specifically, overcome this deficiency partly at the cost of more complexity in both training and recognition phases. In this paper, a new duration modeling approach is presented. The main idea of the model is to consider the effect of adjacent segments on the probability density function estimation and evaluation of each acoustic segment. This idea not only makes the model robust against segmentation errors, but also it models gradual change from one segment to the next one with a minimum set of parameters. The proposed idea is analytically formulated and tested on a TIMIT based context independent phoneme classification system. During the test procedure, the phoneme classification of different phoneme classes was performed by applying various proposed recognition algorithms. The system was optimized and the results have been compared with a continuous density hidden Markov model (CDHMM) with similar computational complexity. The results show slight improvement in phoneme recognition rate in comparison with standard continuous density hidden Markov model. This indicates improved compatibility of the proposed model with the speech nature.

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ultra Rational, logical and mystical nature of gnostic facts and meanings from one side and limitation of language function area from other side, caused poets and mystics to use deviated language and expression. Simile which is one of the most important and  frequent  of semantic deviation in mystical poems, has been used  by  mystics  for  creating  poetic images and  expressing their own  thoughts. In this study authors criticized and discussed the deviated similes   in Ibn Alfarez and molavi’s   complete works with analytical method. This study shows that frequent use of compact similes is more than spread similes in their poems (both poets), because this method results in length in mental challenge and hesitation.  Sometime the relation between the simile parties in their poems is so far that   deviation observed more. They caused   meaning to be understood later by using so many similes. Through this, they make   their   words prominent   and leads to more literary pleasure of readers. although Ibn Alfarez purpose was to explain exalted concepts and holy command for reader’s mind, and was interested in application of perceptible simile to rational simile, but Molavi uses rational simile more than Ibn Alfarez. Perceptible to perceptible simile are very frequent In Molavi’s poems because of his mystical   and spiritual taste. Also frequency of spread similes in his poems is more than Ibn Alfarez.  

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In a voice conversion system speech signal of A speaker (i.e. source speaker) is modified so that it sounds as if it had been pronounced by B speaker (i.e. target speaker). This process, sometimes, is called speaker conversion (changing speaker identity). Achieved signal from speaker conversion system is desired to have high quality and very natural. To satisfy this, three major methods are proposed as follows: VQ_based, LMR_based and GMM_based voice conversion methods. DTW is the most popular way to warp corresponded words in two sentences. In this paper, DTW is used to design corresponding transfer function. To decrease the distance between two speakers, DTW warps the couple phonemes of two speakers, instead of two words or couple sentences while a linear temporal transform which depends on phonemes is used for error decreasing. By using other appropriate corrections that are used in learning and designing of the linear transforms, a high quality voice conversion system is achieved.

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Supply Chain Management (SCM) is an integrated process of decision making from supplying raw materials to consume final product by final customers. Selecting of most appropriate suppliers is one of the most important decision making problems affected by different qualitative and quantitative parameters. As supply chain gets more complex, uncertainty and risk level in the supply chain would increase. Hence supply chain risk management, especially supplier risks, has become a major issue in the organizations. In this study at first by identifying suppler risks in the steel industries using blast furnace, a hierarchical classification of risks (38 risk events in 3 levels) was developed. At the second step, by considering risk events set, a group of nine evaluation criteria was proposed. Afterward for more accurate assessment of each supplier risks, a composite risk index is proposed based on the evaluation criteria and their importance weights. Finally, by employing the ELECTRE III, the priority of suppliers (mines) of Esfahan Steel Company was evaluated and the most appropriate one was determined. Based on obtained results, Jalal-Abad and Shargh-Iran iron ore complexes can be considered as suppliers having lowest and highest risk levels, respectively.

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Aims: Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) has infected more than million hundreds of people worldwide. Hence, a high rate of morbidity and mortality caused by liver-related diseases is due to HBV infection. However, a strong and effective treatment should be based on an accurate and correct diagnostic method. Hence, the present research provided a multidimensional study comparing and analyzing patients’ molecular and serological tests results.
Materials & Methods: In this research, the HBV DNA molecular tests results were studied by examining patients’ gender, age, and HBsAg strip results.
Findings: Among the female patients (29 persons) studied in this research, 55.1% were positive for HBV DNA and HBsAg strip tests, and 17.3% were negative for both tests. Also, among the male patients  (44 persons), 65.9% were positive, and 6.8% were negative for both tests.
Conclusion: The present study results shed light on the correlation between the HBV DNA and HBsAg tests. Also, the significance of HBV DNA tests was highlighted for particular diagnostic purposes and for the differentiation and interpretation of the pathophysiological conditions of patients with hepatitis B.

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Language as a fact and social behavior is always invariant with social, cultural and traditional values. Vocabulary has an ideological identity card, and by digging the archeology of the vocabulary one can achieve inequality in the position and social roles of men and women, because they create, promote And reinforcing sexual ideologies through the same language and through discourse. In this research, the author of this study, with the approach of the sociology of language and with the descriptive-analytical method, wants to specify the cultural and social position of contemporary Arab and Pars women, based on the poems of Kuwaiti poet Sa'ad al-Sabah and Iranian poet Simin Behbahani. Achievement of the research shows that in choosing linguistic structures and patterns, Suad Al-Sabah and Simin Behbahani's follow specific linguistic patterns of their gender. Because women have been deprived of access to power in the community and have been deprived of their proper social base; their frequency of using emphasizing sentences in their poems is highlighted, so that their speeches may be considered. Using speaker's pronoun, those two poets aim to disturb the balance of power and prove the presence of women more actively in the cultural and social areas. These two contemporary Persian and Arab poets, with the help of mental metaphors, and metaphorical schemas, bring forth or create certain meanings. Suad Al-Sabah has cited Cygnus as a metaphor from a contemporary Arab woman to say that the contemporary woman has lost her freedom and her country has become a prison for her. Simin Behbahani's using the metamorphic "Gypsy" for contemporary Iranian woman, expresses hatred of allegiance, weakness, oppression, homage and submission, and demands human rights, liberty, pure and mutual love.

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Availability is an important characteristics of the repairable machines system performance and improvement of production planning and loading operation is an important part of the mine production cycle. In this paper an approach to calculate availability of open pit mine loading system based on Markov chain theory has proposed. Markov method is based on different modes of the system and the transition from a state to another. Therefor data analysis and failure and repair rate determination are significant. To illustrate the application of model, the Mishdowan iron mine data was used. Calculation of failure and repair rate indexes and availability of loading system has been determined using Markov chain model. Related statistical tests was used detecting the failure and repair behavior of system for higher degree of accuracy. Based on the results obtained, failure and repair rate for Newholland hydraulic excavator are 0.019 and 0.064 and for Komatsu hydraulic excavator are 0.017 and 0.047, respectively. Additionally, availability of hydraulic excavators of mine loading system is evaluated to be 93.3 percent.

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Loading and hauling represent an important part of open pit mines production cycle and account for a considerable share of the total operating cost. The decision making during mine planning requires suitable and quick cost models. This paper intends to develop a model for estimating the capital and operating cost of major loading and haulage equipment used in the open pit mining, applying single (SRA) and multiple regression analysis (MRA). The MRA is based on Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The equipment include classical loading vehicles including hydraulic and cable shovels, wheel loader and backhoe along with rigid rear dump truck. Cost functions are classified on the basis of cost types; i.e. capital and operating costs. Furthermore, a set of functions is presented for operation cost items. Explanatory variable in SRA is bucket capacity of loading and hauling while explanatory variables in MRA include bucket capacity, power and certain specific parameters (including dump height, digging depth and boom length) depending on the proposed equipment. The performance of each multivariate cost function has been measured through the Mean Absolute Error Rate, whose maximum was found to be 17%.

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Aims: Fear of falling in the elderly is a significant health problem. This study was aimed to compare the two CBT and Tai Chi exercise methods to reduce the fear of falling among retirees.
Materials & Methods: This randomized clinical trial study was conducted from December 2018 to October 2019 on elderly retirees who were referred to the Retirees Association at Kerman University of Medical Sciences in Kerman, Iran. A number of 120 elderly people were randomly assigned to Tai Chi, CBT, and control groups (40 retirees/group). The intervention in CBT groups consisted of 16 sessions of 60 to 70 minutes for eight weeks and in Tai Chi groups consisted of 16 sessions of 45 to 60 minutes for eight weeks. The participants in the control group received training on the problems of old age. The self-report scale assessed fear of falling before, one, and two months after the intervention. Data were analyzed by SPSS software version 18 using ANOVA and Chi-square tests.
Findings: Before and in the first month after intervention, there was no significant difference between the three groups regarding the total score of fear of falling and its components (p<0.05). In the second month, the total score of fear of falling in the Tai Chi group was 8.95±1.63, the CBT group was 8.6±1.63, and the control group was 7.63±1.36, and there was no significant difference (p=0.147). Also, the most significant difference in the total fear of falling score was between the Tai Chi and the control groups.
Conclusion: Tai Chi and CBT interventions are effective in the fear of falling in the elderly.
 

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Aims: Research shows that students are one of the groups at risk of Internet addiction, and it seems necessary to control their psychological and social well-being affected by Internet addiction. The expansion of various job, educational, and communication dimensions of the Internet makes clear the necessity of using this tool in different groups, especially students; therefore, this study was conducted to determine the effectiveness of an educational intervention based on social cognitive theory on reducing Internet addiction in medical students of Bandar Abbas.
Materials & Methods: This semi-experimental intervention study was conducted on 201 students of Banda Abbas University of Medical Sciences in 2020. Initially, students answered a researcher-made social cognitive theory (SCT) questionnaire and Young's Internet Addiction Inventory (IAT). Then, they were placed in two intervention and control groups with the same distribution. The intervention group received educational content for six weeks to reduce Internet addiction. Two months later, two groups completed the questionnaires again, and the data were analyzed with SPSS 16 software with covariance analysis and logistic regression.
Findings: Statistically significant differences were observed between the two groups in knowledge (F=7.138; p=0.008), outcome expectation (F=7.881; p=0.006), outcome expectancies (F=8.697; p=0.004), self-efficacy to overcome obstacles (F=6.294; p=0.013), self-regulation (F=5.680; p=0.018) and emotional adjustment (F=8.664; p=0.004).
Conclusion: Educational intervention based on the social cognitive theory affects knowledge, outcome expectations, outcome expectancies, self-efficacy to overcome impediments, self-control, and emotional coping of Internet addiction.

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Aims: Since important organs of brain-dead patients can be transplanted to patients in need, this study aimed to determine the effect of educational intervention based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB) on the youth of Ivan to receive an organ donation card.
Materials & Methods: This randomized clinical trial was performed on 80 people (40 people in each of the intervention and control groups). Samples were selected by two-stage random cluster sampling. A researcher-made questionnaire was used for data collection and data were analyzed by SPSS version 26 at a significance level of 0.05.
Findings: The mean age in the intervention and control groups was respectively 24.90±2.56 and 24.03±2.55 years. In both groups, 50% of the people were women. There was no significant difference between the two groups in terms of education level. The mean scores of the structures of the planned behavior theory (attitude, mental norm, perceived behavioral control, and behavioral intention) before the educational intervention in the intervention and control groups were not significantly different. After the educational intervention, the mean score of the structures of the planned behavior theory, including attitude (47.02±2.18 vs. 38.05±6.28), mental norm (17.47±2.03 vs. 13.42±2.38), perceived behavioral control (19.20±1.45 vs. 15.17±3.78), and behavioral intention (9.62±0.74 vs. 6.97±2.05) increased significantly in the intervention group (p<0.001) but in the control group, none of the structures had a significant improvement (p>0.05).
Conclusion: Training based on the theory of planned behavior led to a significant increase in its structures to receive an organ donation card in young people.
 

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Aims: One of the effective factors in preventing the complications of diabetes is stress management. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of an intervention based on Lazarus’ Transactional Model on the level of stress in patients with type 2 diabetes.
Materials & Methods: This quasi-experimental study was conducted among 80 patients with type 2 diabetes. Stress levels, coping methods, and hemoglobin A1C were evaluated before the intervention and three months afterward. In the intervention group, five training sessions were held based on the strategies outlined in the model. The data were analyzed using analysis of variance, Pearson’s correlation coefficient, and analysis of covariance.
Findings: The perceived stress score in the intervention group decreased after the intervention. The results of the Pearson correlation test indicated a negative and significant relationship between the stress score and confrontive and optimistic coping strategies. Additionally, there was a positive and significant relationship between the stress score and methods of emotional adaptation and fatalism (p<0.001). Analysis of covariance revealed that, after adjusting for group effects, the intervention had a significant impact on the use of adaptive methods and stress levels (p<0.001).
Conclusion: Training and interventions aimed at utilizing coping approaches based on Lazarus’ Transactional Model of stress and adaptation is effective in controlling and reducing stress in patients with type 2 diabetes.

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Phytic acid is an anti-nutritional compound found in bran and whole wheat flour. In order to reduce the amount of dough medium, single and co- culture of two strains of Lactobacillus plantarum and Lactobacillus acidophilus with 4 sourdough formulations (Formula 1 containing S. cerevisiae yeast, Formula 2 containing L. acidophilus + S. cerevisiae, Formula 3 containing L. plantarum + S. cerevisiae and Formula 4 containing L. plantarum + L. acidophilus + S. cerevisiae) were used and fermentation was performed at 27, 32 and 37 ° C at 8, 16 and 24 h. The amount of phytase, phytic acid and minerals (calcium and zinc) were measured at different temperatures and time intervals. First order model reaction was used to investigate the degradation of acid phytic and the increase of calcium and zinc at different temperatures. The data were in good agreement with this model. Moreover, the corresponding activation energies were calculated. The results showed that co- culture of L. plantarum + L. acidophilus + S. cerevisiae represented the highest content of phytase 163 U/mL and the highest calcium 27.4 mg/100g and zinc 1.69 mg/100g (at 37 °C). Although the highest efficiency of phytase production was observed in the first 8 hours of fermentation, however an increasing trend was observed in the content of zinc and calcium up to 24 hours of fermentation. The trend of phytase production was observed as follows: L. plantarum + L. acidophilus + S. cerevisiae> L. plantarum + S. cerevisiae> L. acidophilus + S. cerevisiae> S. cerevisiae. Moreover, the lowest content of phytic acid was observed after 24 hours of fermentation at 37 °C in sourdough of L. plantarum + L. acidophilus + S. cerevisiae and its amount reduced from 563.8 ± 20.5 mg/100 g in wholemeal flour to 43.8-110.3 mg/100 g. 

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Because food contamination with mycotoxins is a serious problem, in this study, the ability of aflatoxin B1 to bind to the Saccharomyces cerevisiae cell wall was investigated to reduce Sangak bread dough toxicity. For this purpose, aflatoxin B1 at a concentration of 10 μg/kg inoculated to the dough containing 0.27 g of viable saccharomyces cerevisiae, acid treated saccharomyces cerevisiae, and ultrasonicated saccharomyces cerevisiae. Toxin adsorption kinetics were investigated at 24, 28 and 32 °C and 8, 16 and 24 h incubation. The trend for toxin adsorption was as follows: ultrasonicated yeast ˃ acidic yeast ˃ viable yeast. With increasing the incubation temperature and time, toxin adsorption increased in acid treated and ultrasonicated Saccharomyces cerevisiae, while active yeast samples showed the highest toxin removal at 28 °C. The results showed that the adsorption kinetics by active yeast and acid treated yeast could be explained by means of pseudo first order model, while for the ultrasonicated yeast, the data are more consistent with the pseudo second order model. Also, both surface adsorption and intra-particle diffusion contributed to the adsorption rate steps. Therefore, live or non-living yeast cells are suitable biological agents for aflatoxin removal in a contaminated culture medium, however, ultrasonic treatment is more effective.