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Image schemas are macrocognitive patterns and structures that form the basis of our linguistic, mental and perceptual processes; and their function is based on the metaphorical-analogous relationship between visual experiences and frequent and everyday abstract concepts. In proverbs, like pictorial schemas, the use of metaphor-simile to convey a familiar mental concept between the speaker and the listener based on people's lived experiences is evident. Evans and Green have researched about image schemas and separated them into 8 types. One of these is the image schema of power. Since the precision in the structure of visual schemas can reveal the mental and cognitive structure of the users of a language, in the present research, the visual schema of power in Birjand's proverbs has been investigated in a descriptive-analytical way. Based on the results, out of the total of 1291 proverbs of Birjand, in 314 of them there are 7 types of visual schema of power; Most of them are of the type of blockage, enablement and counter force, which is proportional to the nature of the power schema; and found that between the frequency of the origin and destination areas of these schemas and cultural-environmental factors, and tools in removing obstacles, the importance of food and economic affairs to maintain survival, lack of plant diversity, desert and semi-desert climate of Birjand region has had a significant impact on the formation and continuation of proverbs with the schema of power, which emphasize the target areas of human relations, ethics and economy.

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CO2 biosequestration by using algae is one of the promising and environmentally friend methods. The present study aimed at investigating the ability of Spirulina platensis in terms of growth and carbon dioxide fixation under different salinity levels and also variety of CO2 concentration. To this purpose, analysis of growth parameters including biomass productivity, specific growth rate and carbon fixation rate during the 8-day periods by maintaining the same conditions, under 3 salinity levels (3, 1500 and 34000 µs/cm) and four CO2 concentration (0.03%, 2%, 5% and 10%) were performed. this test have been performed in flat plate reactors by using pure stock of Spirulina platensis culturing in Zarrouk's medium . in all cultures, microalgae showed the highest specific growth rate during the first four days, as 0.35, 0.23, 0.24 and 0.24 d-1 in natural water, respectively. The highest carbon fixation rate and biomass production of Spirulina platensis were related to natural water (the city of birjand) under 10% CO2 concentration( 0.49 and 0.98 gL-1 d-1) that is followd by pure water of 0.45, 0.09 gL-1 d-1 and artificial sea water of 0.42 and 0.84 gL-1 d-1 respectively.the growth rate was lower in artificial sea water because of high salinity.

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Groundwater is of important drinking water resources. The quality of those water resources which are not affected by human activities, is characterized by local geological conditions. The present research was conducted in order to investigate the quality of water resources located in the south of Birjand plain, South Khorasan Province, using mass balance techniques. This research dealt with the quality assessment and the distribution pattern of physico-chemical parameters (anions and cations, pH, EC, TSS, TDS, and TH) in the groundwater resources in the region resulting in indentifying the contamination resources. Also, the origins of anions and cations in the groundwater resources as well as their connection with the geological characteristics of the region were evaluated by employing the mass balance techniques. The water sampling was performed systematically based on the distribution wells over the plain, with regard to the distances, and perpendicular to the topographical lines from the heights toward the lower plains down to the main river, 3 kilometers apart across the plain. In average, one third of whole wells in the study area were selected for sampling. The samples were taken during the end of dry season (October 2010) from 27 wells, 2 Qanats, and 1 spring. The cations (Na +, Ca+2, Mg+2, and K+), anions (HCO- 3 , SO 4 2-     , CO 3 2-     , and Cl-), TSS, TDS, pH, and the total hardness of the water samples were measured in the Water, Soil, and Plant   Laboratory, Kavosh Ab Shargh Khorasan Jonobi Engineering Services Co.   To assess the quality of the water resources in the region, in this research the physicchemical   properties of water samples were compared with ISIRI 1053 to identify the contaminated wells. The hardness of the samples was measured and the water resources types were identified using Piper Diagram. Also, through calculating the correlation factors and mass balance, hydrogeochemistry of water resources and probable origin of cations and anions were assessed. The results showed that 50%, 30%, and 10% of the groundwater resources are contaminated with magnesium, sodium, and chloride respectively. The petrological studies verified the presence of ophiolite sequence. A set of ultramafic rocks and basic magma (spilites) with wide developments in southern heights of Birjand plain which had the most effects on the water quality of the region. The water resources contaminations in the region may be due to the presence of listonites from the alteration of ultramafic rocks existed in highlands, upstream of the groundwater resources. 96% of groundwater resources are classified as very hard water. The types of groundwater vary from carbonated calcic in highlands to chloride sodic in downstream and east of the region due to high solubility of Na + and Cl- existing in the soil. %36.6 of water resources were chloric-sodic and the rest were classified as chloric-magnesic, bicarbonatesodic, and bicarbonate-magnesic. The correlation analysis of the parameters indicated that sodium has a very high correlation with chloride, potassium, and sulfate. The positive correlation of Mg 2+ with Ca2+ (+0.614) is an indication of the same origin for both ions. Also, EC with TH (+0.710) and Ca 2+ (+0.710) and TH with TSS (+0.641) show positive correlation. In general, these positive correlations indicate the common geogenic origin of cations and anions in water resources of the region. WATEVAL software was employed for calculating the mass balance using the concentration of anions and cations to find the effective parameters and origin of ions in the water resources. These calculations verify and emphasize on the influence of geological conditions of the region on hydrogeochemical properties of water resources of the plain. Mass balance analysis denotes that the origin of sodium and potassium could be the ion exchange process originated from weathering of mafic rocks (spilites) while the calcium may be released due to weathering of plagioclases of sub-volcanic mass, ferromagnesian minerals, carbonated listonite, and dissolution of limestone in the region.  

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The complex behavior of the aquifer system is studied by solving a set of governing equations using either analytical or numerical methods. Numerical techniques like finite difference method (FDM) is being used to solve differential equation in some simple cases. Recently Meshless methods are developed in engineering fields. They are used for solving differential equations in both simple and complex cases. As this methods needs no meshing or re-meshing on the domain the shortages of meshing disappeared. Less studies already performed in groundwater flow modeling with meshless method. In this study Meshless local Petrov-Galerkin with moving least squares approximation function and spline weight function is used to model groundwater flow in Birjand unconfined aquifer in steady condition. The computed surface of groundwater with meshless local Petrov-Galerkin method is compared with the results observation. The results are found satisfactory. The relative mean error and root mean square error of computed groundwater surface from Meshless Local Petrov-Galerkin are 0.0002 and 0.483 respectively.

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Climate change is one of the biggest challenges in the present century. Natural forces resulting from climate change, such as droughts, storms, heavy floods, temperature rise, untimely chill, rise in sea levels, increasing plant pests and diseases, and deforestation, have caused irreparable damages to earth. Drought is a slow but growing and complicated phenomenon caused by shortage of rain and rise in temperature. Unlike other natural phenomena, it is difficult to anticipate its beginning, duration and end. South Khorasan Province has been experiencing drought since 1998. The present study aims initially to analyze the meteorological data in order to determine the time and length of drought, identify places with high risk of drought according to Standard Precipitation Index (SPI), rating percentage index and decile indices and statistical features of monthly precipitation of synoptic weather stations in South Khorasan and Birjand from 1989 to 2016, and then tries to analyze the reasons and socio-economic and bioenvironmental  consequences of drought in order to propose plausible solutions. The findings show that the most severe period of drought was from 1999 to 2001. Moreover, this province had the highest amount of precipitation from 1990 to 1991 and since 1998 the precipitation has been near normal or drought in this province. Among the cities of this province, Qaen, Khusf, Boshrooyeh, Tabas and Ferdows have suffered the most severe droughts, respectively.
 

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South Khorasan is a less developed region in Iran and due to long distance to the center of the country and being located at the endpoint of energy transmission networks, energy transfer to this province is unstable and expensive. Hence, South Khorasan is a suitable region for the deployment of renewable energy (RE) technologies. Solar energy has a higher priority among other RE-based resources in this province because of the climatic and geographical conditions of this region. In this research, the optimal sites for PV power plants in Birjand County are determined. First, the set of factors and criteria influencing the site selection of PV power plants was defined. Having prepared and processed spatial data and maps, unsuitable areas were eliminated using Boolean logic model. Remaining areas were rated based on technical, socio-economic, and environmental criteria by means of different fuzzy membership functions. Then, these rated areas were mapped. To identify the optimal sites for the on-grid installations of PVs, fuzzified maps were overlaid by fuzzy gamma operator. Finally, the pixels of the final map were classified into five groups based on their fuzzy values. The results show that 0.5 percent of Birjand County areas are optimal for the establishment of PV power plants.