Nowadays, the fundamental role of having a purpose for life in physical and mental health has been confirmed. According to victor frankl, presence of a purpose in life gives life a meaning and increases resilience against pains and traumas. The importance of the purpose in life construct reveals the need for a reliable and valid tool to measure it. Crumbaugh and Maholick's purpose in life questionnaire is the first and one of the most applied tools for the assessment of life's purposefulness. The aim of this research is to determine the factor structure of purpose in life questionnaire. The questionnaire was administered on 206 students who were selected through random stratified sampling at Ferdowsi University of Mashhad. Exploratory factor analysis showed that there are two factors "comprehension" and "purpose" and this finding were confirmed by confirmatory factor analysis. Altogether results of this research showed factor validity of the purpose in life questionnaire with a two factor pattern

In the developed world of post-Westphalia era whatever we pass from the past to present we notice the regular reduction of the power of government in favour of non-governmental actors. The Middle East also as one of the regions of the world has such characteristic. In other words the process of formation of government in the Middle East and the emergence of several elements along with the government shows that the power of the government is reducing in favour of nongovernmental actors. This subject is being studied by making use of three traditions of English school (international system, international community and the world community) and comparing that with structure of the government in the Middle East and the move from international system towards world community. The present article shows that the structure of the government in the Middle East consists of elements which fall within three said traditions category. While we witness the increasing power of the governments and very little interaction of them with each other (international system) there are common intergovernmental institutions (international community) simultaneously supra-national movements of relatively popular nature like Pan-Arabism and Pan-Islamism show themselves (world community). Nevertheless, the process of move is in a direction which one can notice the regular transition from international system towards existing world community in developed world (West) and similar transition is happening in the Middle East. In fact that is seen in recent developments of the Middle East and North Africa although the tradition of international system in the Middle East is more powerful as compared to other two traditions (international community and world community). Therefore the main purpose of the present article is showing the trend of the move of the structure of the government in the Middle East from the tradition of international system toward international community and world community. Alongside this transition the quality of the interaction is also of great importance in forming the structure of government in the Middle East.

This study investigated the status of Iranian NGOs in the political-administrative and sociocultural context of Iran, using the grounded theory methodology. The data analysis in this method involves extracting categories from the data and then identifying the relationship between the categories. The data derived from semi-structured interviews indicated that the Iranian NGOs’ status is intertwined with the government’s policies. In this respect, the relationship structure between these two sectors is mapped at the macro level in a seesaw model, which revealed an asymmetrically balanced relationship. That is, while the relationship is in a critical and unfair situation (asymmetrical), the government is alive and holds power (balanced). However, the research findings demonstrated that all elements of society are capable of changing this critical situation and the unfair order of the country. Discovering the relationship structure between NGOs and government in a different context like Iran can open new horizons for policymakers and researchers around the world.

Communities in which religion plays a pivotal role, the relationship between the government and religion scholars affect politics deeply. During the Samanid government, religion scholars had a special status in the political structure as well as in the society. Their presence could be seen not only in religious positions, but also in state and political positions. Governmental policy of the Samanid rulers needed to use the religion scholars in political affairs. This paper studies the interaction between religion scholars and Samanid rulers, their devotion to establish a durable relationship, and the results taken from political positions of the religion scholars. As is known by the paper, religion scholars have had an effective role in Samanids. power, consolidation, and also in their decline.

Najm-al-din Arefi is a mystic who does not seem to have much to do with politics. His interest, however, in man, his fate, happiness, and damnation, which are linked to the way a country is governed, has compelled him to discuss politics. In this article, we will see that based on his mystical and religious views, he insists on the existential necessity of government, and also views government and religion as the two sides of a coin. He considers shariah as the source of the norms by which governments and governors can be evaluated. In Mersad-al-Ebad, he claims that the different parts of a government, like body parts, should be in full collaboration with each other and with the system as a whole. A government is like a pyramid with the king at its top and the ministers and officers in the middle. The people, as the majority and as the poorest class, are at the bottom. This model has been taken from his own society where the monarch rules as the absolute power and his officers gain power by means of bribery and subservience. He, as is always the case, does not express the reality.Instead, he writes about “what should be”. Reading this, the reader deconstructs the text and finds out what the text implies. His contemporary government is a corrupt regime in which a limited minority gathers unlimited wealth and oppresses the vast majority.

Providing a well-considered analytical framework involves the inclusion of multiple variables while preserving simplicity and internal consistency. In the present article, the main question is how can we analyze the diversity of variables involved in Qajar's foreign relations while preserving simplicity and internal consistency? The findings of the paper show that "dispersion of social power resources" can be the basis for analyzing Qajar's foreign relations; in other words, dispersion of power resources at the community level, leads to appearance of the frustrated state structure, and Qajar's foreign relations are result of both of these. Therefore, the analysis of Qajar's foreign relations will involve three united phases. First, what is the principle governing the relations between social forces and government? Second, the study of the state structure and the presentation of the analytical model of Qajar foreign relations, which is the result of state / society relations. Third, in discussing the history of foreign relations, it is tried to expose the presented model to the historical test by referring to the events, events and documents of Qajar foreign relations history.

Collection of institutional inefficiencies and inconveniences are an obstacle to local governments in Iran, one of which is the ruling rentier structure of the country. This paper seeks to demonstrate that the construction of a rentier system in non-developed or developing countries dependent on oil revenues is continually modifying itself. It is crucial to realize the influence of history, beliefs and ideologies created over time on this matter. Consequently, even in the face of the decline in oil revenues and the movement towards the creation of democratic institutions and the significant presence of people at the polls, it can be observed that these institutions become a tool in which expand rentier structure. To understand this, new institutionalism literature is to be used......

ABSTRACTDuring the last century, ports of Persian Gulf become the most important storage, refining and transportation of crude oil, oil derivation, petrochemical products and also, business activities. Nowadays, due to functional diversity between ports, the impact of port activities on the development of urban spaces will be different, and this issue leads to structural differences of port cities. The purpose of this research is to identify the key variables affecting the relations and spatial structure of port-city in Dubai as the most thriving and successful port-city in the Persian Gulf. This research is based on deductive reasoning and carried out by analysis of cross effects with secondary data (results of other prominent articles) and also primary data (questionnaire). sampling method is based on purposive sampling and Micmac software was used to analyze the data. Output of Micmac software shows the position of the instability of the system. Therefore, the position of each variables in the conceptual model can be categorized to driver, linkage, dependent, and autonomous factors. The research findings indicate 4 variables (like as “income, cost and investmnets in port-city”) can be introduced as a driver factor, 5 variables (like as “advanced multimodal transportation in the port”) can be introduced as a linkage factor, 6 variables (like as “quality of living environment and desirable city”) can be introduced as a dependent factor, 3 variables (like as “environmental protection and sustainable development of the city-port”) can be introduced as an autonomous factor. The rapid development of Dubai can be explained by the purposeful distribution of revenues from trade and tourismExtended AbstractIntroductionDuring the last century, ports of Persian Gulf become the most important storage, refining and transportation of crude oil, oil derivation, petrochemical products and also, business activities. The global increase in oil demand since the 1950s led to the creation of discovery of new oil wells and large industrial areas. With the construction of new oil or gas facilities in the port areas, increasing oil revenues contributed to the countries of the Persian Gulf region and form a new geographical relationship between ports and coastal cities which had an impact on the spatial structure and relation of them. Nowadays, due to functional diversity between ports, the impact of port activities on the development of urban spaces will be different, and this issue leads to structural differences of port cities. In the 1950s, Containerization (container loading technology) was based in some of the world's ports and created a huge transformation in the shipping industry, which had a significant impact on the development of ports. Although the ports of the Persian Gulf have made a significant contribution to the economic growth and physical development of other ports in the world, but few researches have been done on the variables and factors affecting the development of the spatial structure of the important ports of the Persian Gulf. This region, due to its unique geographical location, has always been considered as a most important corridor in the field of economic and transportation throughout history. Some of the most important energy and commercial ports in this region are: Dubai, Manama, Kuwait, Dammam, Doha, Bushehr, Bandar-Abbas and Assaluyeh. In this regard, the purpose of this research is to identify the key variables affecting the relations and spatial structure of port-city in Dubai as the most thriving and successful port-city in the Persian Gulf. MethodologyThis research is based on deductive reasoning and carried out by analysis of cross effects with secondary data (results of other prominent articles) and also primary data (questionnaire). The method used in this research is quantitative and the sampling method is based on purposive sampling. the variables affecting the spatial structure of port-city relations were identified in the form of a review of 31 prominent articles. 25 experts (who had comprehensive knowledge and information about the development process of the city-port of Dubai) participated to determine the effectiveness or influence of variables. Finally, the output of data analysis was done by the Micmac software. Results and discussionOutput of Micmac software shows the position of the variables in the diagram that it indicates their status in the system and their role in the dynamics and changes of the system. The method of distribution and dispersion of the variables in the spatial structure of port-city relations indicates the instability of the system. Therefore, based on the output of the system, the position of each variables in the conceptual model can be identified in five categories (driver, linkage, dependent, autonomous and regulatory variables). According to the results, some variables such as “the changes in the strategic positions” and “geopolitics of port-city”, “the modification of the management method” and “regional planning of the ports”, “the promotion of local governance in the relations between port-city” and “the way of national and international management of ports have been introduced as driver variables. On the other hand, five variables consist of “advanced multimodal transportation in the port” and “income, cost and investment in the port-city”, “the contrast and physical integration of the port - city space”, “the development of various industrial and production activities in the ports and their local hinterland” and “their qualities Financial and commercial policies of ports” have been introduced as linkage variables. Findings of research also shows that some variables consist of “quality of living environment and desirable city”, “quantity and quality of transit corridors (rail, road and air) to hinterland”, “construction and launching the new port (sea port or dry port)”, “terminal facilities and infrastructure and warehousing”, “conflict or convergence between the city and the port” and “increase in population growth rate and migration to the port - city” categorized as dependent variables. Three variables including “cultural and historical background of ports”, “use of cheaper energy, Less-polluted, clean and renewable energies in the city-port” and “environmental protection and sustainable development of the city-port” categorized as autonomous variables. Finally, a variable with the title of “improvement in management and information technology and development in loading, unloading and storage of commodities” have been introduced as regulatory variables. The findings of this research have a remarkable similarity with other researches carried out in the field of city-port relation and clearly emphasize the direct impact of the "investment in port-city" in the development of them. For example, Grossmann (2008) emphasized that city-port of Hamburg has become one of the largest ports in Northern Europe during the last few decades due to huge domestic and foreign investment. ConclusionThis research carried out in order to introduce and explain the key variables affecting the development of the spatial structure of the port-city of Dubai. On this basis, 21 variables have been extracted by systematic reviews of prominent articles. In the following, 25 experts were selected with the purposive sampling method. Among the 21 variables extracted, 4 variables (like as “geopolitics of port-city”) introduced as a driver factor, 5 variables (like as “advanced multimodal transportation in the port”) introduced as a linkage factor, 6 variables (like as “quality of living environment and desirable city”) introduced as a dependent factor, 3 variables (like as “environmental protection and sustainable development of the city-port”) introduced as an autonomous factor. The rapid development of Dubai can be explained by the purposeful distribution of revenues from trade and tourism. A part of these revenues has been directed towards investment in important transportation infrastructures such as airports and ports of this city. These strategies have a wide impact on improving the economic growth of the city and the development of the port in order to adapt with the global trade and advanced technologies. FundingThere is no funding support. Authors’ ContributionAuthors contributed equally to the conceptualization and writing of the article. All of the authors approved the content of the manuscript and agreed on all aspects of the work declaration of competing interest none. Conflict of InterestAuthors declared no conflict of interest. Acknowledgments We are grateful to all the scientific consultants of this paper.