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There are many factors affecting economic growth. Based on the literature, the effects of these factors such as higher education are mainly examined using endogenous economic growth theories. Various theoretical models are used to estimate the relation among variables affecting economic growth. This paper investigates the effects of higher education human capital on the economic growth in Iran using the endogenous growth models. The specified model includes human capital, physical investment and foreign debt which are identified as the main determinants of economic growth in Iran. Two dummy variables are included in the model in order to represent the effects of Islamic revolution and imposed war. The Johnson five steps approach is employed to estimate the empirical model. The results confirm that higher education human capital has a relatively large and statistically significant effect on the economic growth in Iran. It is found that the growth elasticity of higher education human capital is larger than the growth impact of physical capital investment. So, in order to obtain a high rate of economic growth in the country, investment in higher education human capital must be increased. Moreover, based on the findings, it is recommended that the investment should be made using domestic saving instead of financing abroad.

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Economic liberalization policy has been among the major concern of the governments during the last few decades. However, its impact on economic growth is still a controversial issue. The aim of this paper is to examine the impact of trade liberalization and financial development on economic growth in Iran using annual observations over the period 1973-2007. The current study would use ARDL technique to estimate the empirical model. The findings of this paper indicate that there is a long run positive and significant relationship between trade liberalization and financial development and economic growth in Iran over the period of the study. The error correction coefficient is around 0.32 showing that the adjustment towards the long run equilibrium takes place within almost three years. The Granger causality test indicates that causality runs from trade liberalization and financial development to GDP.

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According to the neoclassical approach, input prices as a measure of resources scarcity induce firms to cost-minimizing and efficient allocation of recourses. But when the prices are distorted, the effective competitive inputs are used inefficiently and have resulted in under- or over-utilization of production factors relative to their endowments or allocative inefficiency. In this paper, the shadow cost approach and system of equations are used to estimate allocative inefficiency using the Iran's manufacturing data over the period 1976-2006. The results show that there is strong allocative inefficiency and increasing cost of production of firms in Iran's Manufacturing Sector.

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Abstract Gotvand rock fill dam is being constrcted on Karun river located in Khoozestan province south of Iran. The dam is foung on Aghagari formation which is consisted of mudstone and sandstone layers. These layers are intermittent of weak to medium strength with uniaxial compressive strength 15 and 25 MPa respectibely. Some regional factors as continuous unloading caused by river flood washed off and horizontal tectonic loading have created a local anticline in the foundation of dam. According to previous analyses, results have shown that this folding will continue over the time. In this research effect of the dam weight on time d- dependant deformation of the dam foundation has been studied. Ration of horizontal to vertical stresses (K) was estimated to be 0.4 to 0.7 by in-situ tests, so dam site numerical models were executed (numerical analysis wity the FLAC3D code) with K equal to 0.4,0.55 and 0.7. First, the models were executed statically. Maximun settlement of foundation due to the dam weight was estimated a bout 37cm. Ihen for time dependent analysis, the behavior of rocks is assumed to obeay Maxwell creep viscousplastic rheological model and the models were executed for 100 years equal to the dam life time. The results of numerical analysis show that upward deformations of the foundation with K=0.55 and 0.7 is continuously, even in the central region of dam where the dam weight is maximum. But in the model with K=0.4, in the first 60 years after the construction, creep deformation are downward and after this time, directions of deformation were changed to upward.

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International trade expansion and export development have been the center of attention by the economists, policy makers and the cornerstone of planning in many countries of the world. Agricultural and industrial sectors are the crucial economic sectors in every country that have a parity role in preparing food for people and industrial inputs. This article using vector error correction models considers the simultaneous effect of economic policies on agricultural and industrial exports during the years 1971 to 2005. After testing the stationery, Johansen test was used for long run estimation. Results have shown that monetary policy has positive and significant effect on industrial and agricultural exports in short run, while interest rate and government expenditures have significant inverse and direct effect on industrial and agricultural exports respectively, and exchange rate policy has the same effect on industrial and agricultural export in long-run. Finally, the strength of each variable was investigated on export. It is recommended that increasing non oil export, the real value of interest rate is determined and by rising volume of money and then investing it and improving commodity supply, inflation will decrease and therefore non oil export will increase.

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The objective of this paper is to investigate the validity of Wagner’s law and the Keynesian view with regards to the relationship between the non-oil gross domestic product and the public sector size for the Iranian economy during the period of 1967-2007. Time series analysis techniques have been used which include unit root tests, cointegration tests and Hsiao causality test. The findings indicate that Wagner’s Law is confirmed in both the short-run and the long-run; whereas the Keynesian view is approved only in the short-run for Iran.

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     This article examines the poverty rates for urban and rural areas of Kermanshah and the entire country using a Linear Expenditure System (LES) and Iterative Seemingly Unrelated Regression (ISUR) method during 1995-2007. Results indicate that poverty in rural and urban areas over the years in this province has an upturn trend. The findings also suggest that in rural and urban areas of Kermanshah, the group "foods" have biggest share of the poverty line. In rural areas of the country group "foods" have also the biggest share of the poverty line, but the largest share in country's urban areas belongs to group of "Housing and fuel". About elasticity the results show that in both urban and rural areas the group "other" and "appliances and furniture" are luxury.

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In spite of a lot of studies in field of housing, housing supply has been less addressed. One of main reasons is complexity of housing supply field. In this study we use Capozza and Helsley urban growth model which assume housing supply as a function of variations in both housing price and construction expenses. The model is estimated with General Method of Moments (GMM) using seasonal data of Iran for 1996:2-2008:1. Results show that effect of housing price variations on housing supply is positive, however the effect of building material expenses and construction opportunity cost (stock exchange index) are both negative on it, but coefficient of stock exchange index is statistically insignificant. In addition, housing price variations and building material expenses with two period lags are effective on housing supply which indicate role of expectations. Also results show that variations in the other markets such as building materials market play important role in housing supply. It is proposed that because of high sensitivity in increasing of housing price, policies of housing supply to be followed by this market.

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Due to the rapid modernization process, we can see the inefficiency and obsolescence of urban textures in Isfahan alike the most Iran’s cities. Hence, renovation development of old textures should be one of the main goals in modernization of Isfahan. Analyzing the widespread dimensions of housing and identifying the ranking ways of different attributes of residential units by consumers is the most important step for being successful in housing projects. Since housing attributes are the non-marketed goods, we need to use non-market evaluation method to evaluate them.  In this paper Choice Experiment Method (CEM) has been used to evaluate and determine the consumer willingness to pay for various housing attributes. For this purpose, one of the old textures of Isfahan was selected and a sample of households living in that area was randomly drawn with 120 observations. Data was collected using choice experiment questionnaires and analyzed using STATA and EXCEL softwares. The results show that choice of residential unit is a function of 7 attributes including land area, quality and type of materials used in residential units, neighborhood security, access to major city centers, exemption from charge payments for construction, the amount of loan paid for construction and price of residential unit. Based on the results, the most effective variable is the land area; and residents have a high willingness to pay for this attribute rather than the other attributes.

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Objectives: Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), a vast class of recently discovered non-coding genes in the human genome, have been implicated in the regulation of several biological processes, including the maintenance of stem cell pluripotency and neurogenesis. New evidences have emerged that some long IncRNAs act as enhancers for their neighboring genes. Oct4, also known as POU5F1 and Oct3/4, functions as a master regulator in maintaining the properties of pluripotency and self-renewal of embryonic stem (ES) cells and embryonal carcinoma (EC) cells. Oct-4 expression must be tightly regulated; too much or too little expression can lead to cell differentiation. Methods: PSORS1C3, an IncRNA, is located upstream of the Oct4 gene. This IncRNA could potentially impact the level of Oct4 expression. Here, we have investigated potential expression of PSORS1C3 on 23 different human pluripotent and cancer cell lines by means of RT-PCR. Results: Our results revealed a noticeable expression of PSORS1C3 both in a well-known pluripotent cell line (NTera2/NT2) and five different cancer cell lines (AGS, 5637, Ht-29, HepG2 and PC3). Conclusion: We detected the expression of PSORS1C3 for the first time in both cancer cell lines and stem cells.

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Objective: Crocin, an important saffron ingredient, showed anticancer activity in a variety of cancer types, particularly breast cancer. However, little information is available on the mechanism of its action. Previous studies indicate apoptosis induction by crocin in some cancer cells. This study aims to investigate the effect of crocin on the MDA-MB-468 breast cancer cell line in order to investigate its effect on caspase 9 (Cas9) and cleaved-Cas9, expression and splicing of XBP1, and accumulation of LC3-II.
Methods: We used the MTT assay to investigate the cytotoxic effect of crocin on MDA-MB-468 breast cancer cells. Next, Cas9 and cleaved-Cas9 levels were evaluated by Western blot analysis. Splicing of XBP1 mRNA and expression of the spliced protein (XBP1s) was investigated by RT-PCR and Western blot, respectively. The accumulation of LC3-II was also evaluated by Western blot. The obtained results were analyzed and reported by Image J software.
Results: The results showed a time and dose-dependent cytotoxic effect of crocin in MDA-MB-468 cells. The expression of Cas9 and its cleavage, therefore, the ratio of cleaved-Cas9/Cas9 significantly increased. Crocin treatment led to a noticeable increase in splicing of XBP1 mRNA, expression of XBP1s, accumulation of LC3-II, and increased the LC3-II/LC3-I ratio in these cells.
Conclusion: The data have shown induction of apoptosis in these breast cancer cell lines after crocin treatment. Because of the observed changes in UPR markers and autophagy, it seems that these pathways are possibly involved in this process and in intracellular regulations.

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The main objective of this paper is to evaluate the effect of R&D on profitability of high -tech industries with new evidence from the Iranian industries carrying four- digit codes. The Structure- Conduct- Performance (SCP) paradigm, which is relatively well known in industrial economics and in organization management, provides the theoretical construct that guides our empirical model formulation and execution.  The data is compiled from observations made at the plant level covering all industrial plants employing ten or more persons and carrying four- digit codes within the time span of 1994-2007. The model used essentially consists of a simultaneous equation system framework grounded into a panel data approach and estimated by Two-Stage Least Squares (2SLS). Our findings indicate a positive and significant effect of R&D expenditures, measured in intensive form, on profitability of high-tech industries as evidenced by the Iranian case. Our more notable finding is the positive effect of lagged profits on R&D expenditure intensity, revealing a likely mutually enforcing relationship between profitability and R&D intensity in high tech industries

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Field bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis L.) is one of the worst weeds in Turkey as well as worldwide. Climate change, with increasing temperature and concentrations of greenhouse gases and unpredictable extreme weather events, has been among the foremost problems of the world. The effect of climate change on crop husbandry and weeds is to be investigated. The effect of rising temperature and CO₂ on different populations of C. arvensis was studied under greenhouse conditions in the Malatya Province of Turkey, in 2019. For this study, the weed seeds were collected from 14 provinces throughout Turkey during 2018. Two temperature regimes (day/night 26/16°C and 29/19°C) and two CO₂ levels (400±50 and 800±50 ppm) were used. Plant aboveground length, root length, and dry weights of root, aboveground parts, and total plant were not affected by temperature, CO₂, and seed source. However, seed source affected root length differently depending on temperature and root length, and root dry weight as affected by CO₂ level. In addition, seed source and temperature showed significant effect on measured parameters, while no significant effect was determined for CO₂.