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The purpose of this study was to compare various direct techniques of measuring attitudes toward risk. The Equally Likely Certainty Equivalent with a Purely Hypothetical Risky prospect (ELCE-PH), The Equally Likely Certainty Equivalent with a Hypothetical but Realistic Risky prospect (ELCE-R) and Probability of Winning Demanded (PWD) models were used to elicit the risk attitude of a sample of farmers. These methods were then compared and evaluated. The criteria employed were (1) sample respondent capability in answering questions, (2) means and corresponding risk attitudes classification and (3) distribution of risk attitudes. According to the first criterion, the results showed PWD technique is the best one. While there are no differences among the three direct techniques on the basis of the second criterion. Also, the findings indicate that respondent education and age, family education, level of hypothetical income and a greater explanation by other people during interview have an influence on respondent capability in answering questions. These characteristics should therefore be considered when choosing the appropriate technique.

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The most commonly used utility functional forms are reviewed and their properties compared. Then, using data collected from West Azarbaijan province, utility functions are estimated and absolute risk aversion coefficients measured. Exponential and expopower utility functions classified all farmers as risk averse, but quadratic and cubic utility functions classified 75% and 65% of farmers as risk-averse, respectively. Findings in this study indicated that alternative utility functions may classify farmers’ risk attitudes in different ways.

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Many environmental and physiological factors affect plant temperature. The objective of this study was to use thermal imagery to investigate robust features for early diagnosis of Botrytis cinerea infection in cut rose flowers under the postharvest application of Methyl Jasmonate (MeJA). Three cases treated with different concentrations of MeJA (0.1, 0.2, and 0.3 µl.l⁻¹), a control (0 µl.l⁻¹ MeJA) and an ethanol-treated case (20 µl.l⁻¹ ethanol) were considered as five treatments in this study. Infrared images of MeJA-treated and non-treated flowers were captured during five consecutive days. Eight days after inoculation, disease severity in all concentrations of MeJA was significantly lower than that of control and ethanol treatments. Maximum temperature difference (MTD) index and median temperature could be used to diagnose the existence and growth of fungal pathogen, at least a day before any significant visual symptoms appear. To identify some robust features for classifying the infected and non-infected flowers, analysis of temperature frequency distribution was implemented. Laplace and normal distributions were considered as the best fitted probability distributions based on the shape of thermal histograms. Parameters of normal and Laplace probability density functions were estimated and the most effective attributes were selected. A radial-basis-function neural network with 60 neurons in the hidden layer was designed to classify and distinguish the infected flowers from the healthy ones. Results showed that the network can classify the infected and non-infected flowers with a 96.4% correct estimation rate.

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The first and second policy of the Policies of Resistance Economy point to the special importance of the performance of knowledge-based companies as a basis for utilizing the capacity of human capital and entrepreneurship development in the country.The purpose of this research was to investigate the effect of internal marketing on the performance of knowledge-based companies located in Hamadan Science and Technology Park with the role of market orientation. The research was an applied and a field research. The statistical population consisted of all knowledge-based company's employees located in Hamadan Science and Technology Park. The sample size was 195 people. The research variables were measured using a standard questionnaire. The results of structural equation analysis with PLS software showed that internal marketing directly influenced firm performance by 14%, internal marketing by 81% influenced market orientation and market orientation influenced firm performance by 71%. In general, it can be concluded that internal marketing has a 57% indirect effect on firm performance with a mediating role of market orientation. Therefore, corporate executives should be aware that improving the performance of companies depends on attention to the employees and the company's customers by improving internal marketing and market orientation. The contribution of the present research confirms the importance of linking human resource management, as internal marketing, with external marketing, as focusing on market orientation, in the success of knowledge-based companies.

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The statistical data of Tehran Province shows that the ratios of output and employment of service sector to total provincial output and employment are 57 and 63 percent in 2001, respectively. The aim of this article is to quantitatively explain the structure of service –based economy of province, using Input-Output Model and intersectional linkages by Eigen Vector method. So, the main question in this research is that can the usage of Eigen vector method rather than traditional methods like Chenery-Watanabe and Rasmussen methods evaluate more precisely the importance of provincial economic sectors on the basis of intermediate viability in the production process?     For this purpose, first the Input-Output Table of “Tehran Province” for 2001 was estimated by AFLQ method, and then the importance of provincial economic sectors was measured in terms of forward and backward linkages by Chenery-Watanabe, Rasmussen and Eigen vector methods.     The results show that Eigen Vector Method can explain the importance of economic sectors of province on the basis of intermediate viability in the production process, in such a way that four key sectors are of dominant shares in industrial activities which their average share of demand out of total output is 45.5 percent, but ratios for 71 economic and service sectors are 76 percent and 84 percent, respectively. In general, results show that the nature of service sector in Tehran province is different from the services in modern economies. The main reason is that the service sector in Tehran is the consuming rather than producing sector.

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There have been few studies working on effects of financial repression policies on Iran’s economic growth. Considering the huge share of agricultural sector, we have been trying to fill this gap by the help of time series data from 1962 to 2007 on agricultural GDP, unproductive government expenditure, human capital, industrial price index, political instability, and financial repression measures. Results show that controlling the bank reserve requirement ratio as a proxy for financial repression has negative effect on economic growth of agricultural sector. This indicates that reducing controls on this parameter will help government to achieve higher rate of growth.

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Celiac disease is the most common disease caused by gluten consumption. Gluten protein, is the most important compound in creating tissue and contains components of the formulation of baking products. This protein causes allergies in people with celiac disease, and the only way to treat the disease is to eat a gluten-free diet for a lifetime.Therefore, the use of appropriate alternatives to gluten in the preparation of this category of products is essential. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the effect of rice bran protein concentrate in the amount of  0.75. , 1.5, 2.25, 3 % as a gluten substitute for sponge cake. Based on the results, it was found that the viscosity of the product dough has increased compared to the control sample and the addition of rice bran protein has a significant effect on the density of sponge cake dough. Also, increasing the protein concentrate in mentioned amounts caused a significant increase in the moisture and specific volume of the cake. The results of tissue stiffness analysis of the samples showed that there is a significant difference compared to the control sample. According to the results, the highest score was given to the sample containing 2.25 rice bran protein and the selected treatment was T3 treatment.