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Regarding environmental importance and the lack of analytical methods for environmental policies, in this paper, shadow price for NOx and SOx emissions has been estimated for the Iranian electric industry. Input distance function is used for estimating shadow prices. The estimated shadow prices have revealed that the cost of Iranian electric industry for reducing one KG of NOx and Sox is 14991 and 17687 Rials, respectively. Estimated shadow prices in this study are greater than the amount offered by EPO (Environment Protection Organization) and World Bank. So it is recommended that any fine should be taken according to the emission shadow price.

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Production of drought tolerant crop is an important strategy for avoiding water scarce crisis. Improvement of the root structure leading to the higher yield and seed quality. In this study, three genes affecting root structure, drought tolerance and phosphorous absorbance are used in producing hybrid constructs used for the rice transformation. Three genes: a serine/threonine protein kinase (PSTOL1), a gene from the cytokinin oxidase/dehydrogenase family (OsCKX4) and a transcription factor induced under stress from the NAM-ATAF-CUC family (OsNAC5) isolated from the rice wild cultivars are cloned under  separate regulatory elements in the T-DNA region of the Agrobacterium binary vector. OsNAC5 gene was cloned under RCc3 root specific promoter and PSTOL1 gene under ubiquitin promoter. Also, OsCKX4 gene was cloned once under ubiquitin promoter and once under RCc3 promoter. Two hybrid multi-gene constructs named pUhrN5CkPstol and pUhrCkPstol harboring multiple genes are synthetized and used for the gene transformation into the Hashemi cultivar. Gene transfer was done to callus obtained from mature rice seeds. Transgenic plants were confirmed using PCR analysis. From the number of 107 regenerated plants in which the presence of transgenes was proved, 14 transgenic events were finally obtained. Root structure of the T0 plants showed drastic phenotypic difference in comparison to the non-transgenic ones. By now, one transgenic event harboring CKX4 and PSTOL1 is confirmed to have a homozygous line in T2 generation. It is hoped that genetic engineering of rice for enhanced root structure lead to drought tolerance, reduce water consumption and improve yield under stress conditions.
 

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Nowadays, cold atmospheric pressure plasmas are used as an efficient method in food industries. The advantage of plasma method compared to other method are high productivity, cost-effectiveness and reduction of harmful chemical pollutants. In this study, cold atmospheric
pressure dielectric barrier discharge plasma in surface and volumetric treatment mode was produced, and its effect on the physical and chemical properties of saffron was investigated. For this purpose, after the production and characterization of plasma structures including electrode structure, electrical properties and optical emission spectroscopy, the influence of these structures on the physical and chemical properties of saffron was investigated. At first, the effect of surface and volumetric plasma treatment on degradation of Escherichia coli bacteria was investigated. The results showed that surface dielectric barrier discharge plasma treatment with high treatment time has a great effect on inactivation of Escherichia coli. Then, the effect of surface and volume treatments on the main properties of saffron including crocin, picrocrocin and safranal were investigated. The results showed that surface and volumetric plasma treatment increase the main properties of saffron,surprisingly.  Finally, the effect of surface and volumetric plasma treatments on increasing harmful substance in saffron including nitrate and ammonium was investigated. The results showed that volumetric treatment of plasma due to direct processing increase the harmful substances in saffron, including nitrate and ammonium. According to the results of this research, it can be concluded that the dielectric barrier discharge in surface treatment mode has advantages against volumetric treatment. The latter suffers from harmful by-products. In this regard, the surface treatment of saffron is  preferable to volumetric