The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of using portulaca oleracea as a source of plant antioxidants for feeding fattening male lambs, on carcass traits, meat quality, and oxidative stability. Twenty-one male lambs with an average weight of 24±1.5 kg and 150±15 days old were fed with one of the experimental rations included a diet without portulaca oleracea as control, a diet containing 7.5%, and a diet containing 15% portulaca oleracea, for 84 days. The muscle (Longissimus dorsi) samplewas used to determine pH, chemical composition, colorimetric properties, and oxidative stability of meat. Meat lipid oxidation was determined after 1, 7, and 30 days of refrigerated storage using thiobarbituric acid (TBARS). The use of portulaca oleracea in diets improved meat color characteristics such as L, chroma, and Hue. The highest ash concentration and the lowest meat moisture were observed in the treatment of 15% portulaca oleracea (P<0.05). Meat pH was the lowest in the first hour after slaughter but did not differ at 24 h. Compared to the control, in both treatment groups feeding the lambs with portulaca significantly reduced the concentration of Malondialdehyde in the meat of the lambs and increased the meat oxidative stability (P<0.05). The results of this experiment showed that feeding portulaca oleracea by improving properties such as color and increasing the meat oxidative stability improves meat quality, which may have lead to an increase in its nutritional value in terms of human health.

To investigate the effect of vermicompost, N fertilizer and their integration on growth, biological and essential yields oil and its components in two populations (Varamin and Isfahan), an experiment was conducted in a randomized complete block design with three replications in the field of Isfahan Medicinal Plants Research Center in 2016. Fertilizer treatments including 100% urea, vermicompost 33.3 and urea 66.6%, vermicompost 66.6 and urea 33.3%, 100% vermicompost and control treatment (without fertilizer) as the first factor and Varamin and Isfahan populations as the second factor were selected. The results showed that the interaction effects of nitrogen fertilizer and populations on all studied traits were significant. In both populations, nitrogen fertilizer improved height, biological and essential oil yields, content of essential oil compounds (d-Carvone and its yield, α-phellandrene and linalool; except p-Cymene and Limonene in Isfahan population). Since in medicinal plants, the quantity (biological yield) and quality (essential oil and d-Carvone; the most important ingredient and the highest amount of essential oil in this experiment), 66.6% vermicompost + 33.3% urea in Varamin population, was the best treatment in the experiment. In addition an in the direction of human health and sustainable agriculture, it is possible to reduce 33% of chemical fertilizers application and pollution; however, in terms of other essential oil contents (α-phellandrene, Linalool and p-Cymene), 100% vermicompost fertilizer treatment was superior in Isfahan population.

In order to investigate the possibility of quinoa producing in Garmsar, Iran, a factorial experiment conducted in randomized complete block design with three replications in 2018-2019 growing season at Garmsar Agricultural Research Station. The factors were planting date at three levels (March 6th, April 1st and April 6th) and the three genotypes of quinoa (Q26, Q29 and Titicaca). Results showed that the effect of planting date was significant for all studied traits except the harvest index. Also, all studied traits were significantly DIFFERENT in all genotypes. Titicaca planted on March 6th had the highest yield (2276 kg.ha-1).The grain yield and yield components decreased with the delaying the planting date. Compared to early plantings, Latest date, April 6th, led to reduction of all traits, especially grain yield (about 50%). The results of simple phenotypic correlation between the studied traits showed that grain yield per hectare had the highest correlation with plant yield (0.877) and then with leaf area index (0.832), panicle weight (0.815) and number of branches per plant (0.745) that was significant at the 1% probability level.

Ants are a major part of the ecosystem as they assist in the decomposition process and improve soil quality. In this study the species richness and biodiversity of these arthropods was assessed in the habitats with varying degrees of human impact in Shiraz, Fars Province, southern Iran. To this end, six habitats including three city parks with the least amount of human destruction (Be’sat, Janat, Babakoohi), two habitats with high amount of manipulation in order to agriculture and urbanization (a field and a destroyed garden) and a natural park without any human manipulation as control, were chosen and sampled bimonthly during 2015 and 2106. A total of 6270 ant workers belonging to 30 species, 12 genera, and three subfamilies were recorded. The most abundant subfamily was Formicinae (16 species) followed by Myrmicinae (12 species), and Dolichoderinae (two species). The biodiversity indices showed a greater diversity in both natural park and urban landscape: Be’sat and Janat parks, with the lowest amount of human effects, respectively as well as Babakoohi and the lowest in the field and destroyed garden. Although a significant difference was observed with the habitats (F= 4.255, P=0.004) and the months (F= 4.327, P=0.002) of sampling, there was not a significant difference between Babakoohi, natural park, Janat and Be’sat parks (P>0.05) nor between field and destroyed garden (P>0.05).

To study the effect of salinity stress on some physiological traits in wheat cultivars (Triticum aestivum L.), a factorial experiment based on randomized complete block design with three replicates was performed at 2017 in the research greenhouse of Agronomy Department, University of Tehran. Salinity treatments at two levels; control (1.2 dS/m) and sodium chloride treatment (16 dS/m) and seven wheat cultivars, Rowshan, Inia-66, Mahdavi, Khazar-1, Karaj-2, Ghods and Shole were the experimental treatments. According to the results, relative water content, yield and its components and potassium/sodium ratio decreased in all genotypes while Na+ content and remobilization of carbohydrates were increased. Salt resistant varieties, Roshan and Inia-66, had the highest level of relative water content, remobilization of soluble carbohydrates and number of grains per spike. In addition, Roshan cultivar showed the highest potassium concentration and K+/Na+ in the shoots, while Ghods and Sholeh as sensitive cultivars had the highest sodium concentration in the shoots. Findings showed that the ability of a cultivar to remobilize soluble carbohydrates is one of the traits that determine salt stress tolerance, hence, this trait is suitable for evaluating salt tolerance of wheat cultivars in the future investigations.

In order to predict the behavior of soil-related phenomena, it is necessary to have knowledge about unsaturated flow and using models that provide optimal estimates of the retention curve and hydraulic conductivity of soils. Despite the widespread use of the classic van Genuchten-Mualem model (VGM), this model usually performs poorly in predicting hydraulic conductivity and modification of some of its parameters seems necessary. In this research, 283 soils from DIFFERENT textures of the UNSODA bank were selected and divided into two sections of calibration and validation and their soil parameters were exported and categorized. Then, by defining the modified unsaturated hydraulic conductivity (Ksc) instead of the saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ks) and determining the limits for l and n parameters, the hydraulic conductivity-moisture function of VGM were solved using 24600 pairs of points li and nj for each soil of the three main soil texture CLASSES. In the following, the optimal l value (l̂) of each texture class was selected based on the minimum value of the hydraulic conductivity estimation error using the root mean square error (RMSE) index and the n values that had created the minimum errors, were selected as the optimal pore size distribution coefficients of the hydraulic conductivity-moisture function (n̂opt). In order to create pedotransfer functions for estimating n̂opt, we ran stepwise regression in MATLAB software considering the condition of statistical significance (P-value=0.05) for independent variables and functions for each soil texture class. After creating pedotransfer functions, the results of the proposed method of this research (MVGM) were compared with the VGM results using RMSE and Nash-Sutcliffe (NSE) indices. The results showed that in both sections of creation and validation functions, the MVGM performed better in estimating hydraulic conductivity and had a higher efficiency index in all textural CLASSES of soil.

To evaluate the effects of DIFFERENT treatments on seed dormancy breaking of Notobasis, two separate experiments were conducted at Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources University of Khuzestan, in 2017 with three replications. The first experiment included nine physical, mechanical and chemical treatments (control, surface scarification, intense scarification, one and two weeks of chilling at 4°C, soaking into hot water for two hours without scarification , soaking in 25°C distilled water for two hours with scarification  and acid treatment for six and 12 minutes) based on completely randomized designs (CRD). The Second experiment was hormone priming arranged as a factorial experiment based on completely randomized design with gibberellin concentrations (0, 200, 400, 600, 800 and 1000 ppm) and priming duration (12 and 24 hour) as the treatments. The highest seed germination (40%) obtained from 12 minutes of acid treatment. Results showed that seed germination reached to 100% after priming seeds with GA3 concentrations for 12 hours. However, increase the priming durations to 24 hours, significantly declined seed germination to 47% in 200 and 400 ppm of GA3 concentrations. The Increase of GA3 concentrations in 12 hours led to a linear reduction of T50 from 31 hours in 200 ppm to 19 hours in 1000 ppm). In 24 hours of priming treatment, T50 followed a Gaussian function and the highest T50 (92 hours) was obtained from 600 ppm. It is recommended to immerse the seeds for 12 minutes in sulfuric acid and prime with 400 ppm GA3 acid for 12 hours to break dormancy and increase the vigor index.

To investigate the effects of fertilizer regimes on quantitative and qualitative traits of Dracocephalum kotschyi Boiss, a field experiment at three replications with the Split Plate arrangement in a completely randomized block design was conducted in the Research Field of Tarbiat Modares University during the 2017-18 growing season.Water deficit stress (irrigation after discharging 20 (optimal irrigation), 40 (mild water deficit stress), 60 (moderate water deficit stress) and 80% (severe water deficit stress) of water used (available water)) in the main plot and fertilizer regime (urea, nitroxin, vermicompost, azocompost and no fertilizer) in the subplot were studied. The results showed that the highest leaf fresh weight (1797 kg ha-1) and total biomass (2957 kg ha-1) were obtained by application of urea in mild water deficit stress condition and the highest dry matter digestibility percentage was observed in azocompost treatment in moderate water deficit stress condition (57.8%). The highest crude protein was produced in severe water deficit stress condition (19.72%) and moderate water deficit stress (18.4%), respectively.. The highest percentage of water soluble carbohydrate and neutral detergent fiber were obtained from no fertilizer in moderate water deficit stress (22.06%) and application of urea in severe water deficit stress conditions, respectively. Mild water deficit stress application to produce high biomass is recommended for Dracocephalum kotschyi Boiss. According to the results, application of urea in mild water deficit stress was selected as the best treatment to produce forage 32% more than control.

Since the evaluation of the diversity indicators in consumption of medicinal species by the beneficiary’s households and its driving factors is of utmost importance in marketing, multi-purpose planning of rangelands and sustainable development, a questionary-based study was carried out to determine the diversity indices of medicinal species consumption in settled nomadic communities living under DIFFERENT management and livelihood situations in the rangelands of Dyvaroeieh in Bardsir township, Kerman province, Iran. To this end, the medicinal species consumed by each household (as a study unit) in addition to the diversity indicators of consumption (i.e., dominance coefficient and Shannon-Weiner index) were evaluated under two management sites comprising Rangeland Management Plan (RMP) (i.e.,Dvyaroeieh 1) and the nearest adjacent rangeland without RMP (i.e., Dyvaroeieh 2, as control treatment ) and three livelihood levels (i.e., very poor (<50 million Rials monthly income), poor (50-100 million Rials monthly income) and moderate (100-150 million Rials monthly income)) under factorial test in SPSS software environment. The study's results revealed that both of management and livelihood factors can be applied by manager to increase diversity indices in medicinal plants consumed by beneficiaries. More specifically, management through RMP was more powerful and effective tool in this way. Therefore, it could conceivably be argued that RMP can be considered as a driving factor in increasing the diversity of medicinal plant consumption and also be a suitable platform to meet the needs and demands of rangelands’ beneficiaries in this field.

Brick is the most widely used construction material. Demolition of buildings and production of construction waste, including clay brick, are dramatically increasing in an alarming rate. The production of traditional bricks such as clay bricks has hazardous impacts on the environment, such as pollution and extensive use of natural resources. This study addressed the application of the geo-polymerization process as an environmental and sustainable method to produce new bricks from clay brick waste and DIFFERENT types of fillers. Accordingly, the powder and grains of clay brick waste, dune sand, washed sand, industrial sodium hydroxide, and water glass were utilized to prepare cubic and brick-shaped geopolymer samples with DIFFERENT mix designs and then cured at 70 °C. The samples' compressive strength, water absorption and SEM analysis were examined. According to the results, the highest compressive strength for cubic mortar samples was obtained in the case without filler; for these samples, with mass ratios of water glass to sodium hydroxide solution equal to 1 and 2, compressive strength was 18.45 and 22.15 MPa, respectively. In the brick samples, the highest compressive strength was obtained in the 28-day and 8 M geopolymer samples, which was equal to 25.38 MPa. On the other hand, the geopolymer samples made by sand filler had higher compressive strength and lower water absorption in comparison to other samples. Therefore, sustainable production of geopolymer bricks from clay brick waste and inexpensive materials as the filler can be a step toward mitigating the environmental impact of construction and demolition waste.