سحر بهرامی

In many languages, compounding as a word-formation process is more productive than the other processes. According to this fact, compounding has a special role in the morphology of languages and this process has been concentrated by grammarians and linguists. Compound words of a language can be classified in various ways. In one of these classification methods, compounds are divided into two major categories: exocentric compounds and endocentric compounds. This research is an attempt to explore the N-P-N tripartite exocentric compounds of Persian within the framework of Construction Morphology. The research examines the systematic semantic relations, the possible schema of the N-P-N construction, its subschemas, and the hierarchical structure of this construction in the lexicon of Persian speakers. The data under the study have been collected from the reference book “Farhang-e Farsi-ye Āmiyāne” (Persian Slang Dictionary) written by Abolhasan Najafi which totally includes 88 tripartite compounds. The approach of this research is construction-based and tries to examine the metaphorical and semantic content of the above-mentioned compounds and to justify their word-formation pattern of them based on the concept of “construction” and “constructional schemas”. The method of this research is descriptive-analytical and the result of the research demonstrates that all the compounds that are examined in this research can be encoded by 10 semantic relations: property, person property, time, location, state, thing, condition/situation, person, action and repetition of time. Each of these semantic relations and their differences has been represented as a schema which is a pairing of form and meaning.  The results also evinced that there is a direct relation between the semantic transparency of a construction and its frequency and productivity in Persian, there are 70 N-be-N compounds in the corpus which is considerably more than other types of compounds. Therefore, it is concluded that the frequency of the N-P-N compounds is rooted in their semantic transparency.

Developmental dyslexia is a Neuro-developmental disorder characterized by reading and phonological awareness problems. Considering the relationship between working memory and reading skills and other high-level cognitive skills, the purpose of the present study was to investigate the effectiveness of working memory training, on the improvement of reading skills in children with dyslexia.

In this study, 30 children aged 7-9 years old with dyslexia in the second and third grade of elementary school were selected and randomly assigned to an experimental and a control group, (n=15; 7 girls and 8 boys in each group). To evaluate the cognitive and language skills of the participants, the Intelligence test (WISC-4), Sina software digits span and Corsi blocks tests, phonological awareness test, and the reading and dyslexia test (NOMA) were used. Working memory enhancement sessions (10 sessions) were held using the Sina working memory training software and pen-paper tasks (working memory span tasks) for the experimental group.

The findings of this research showed a significant difference between experimental and control groups in the mean scores of digits span and Corsi blocks at post-test (P<0.05). Also, the increase in the mean scores of the phonological awareness test and non-word reading test after the intervention showed that there was a significant difference between the two groups (P<0.001).

The results indicated after working memory training the ability to store verbal and visual-spatial information in working memory increased, and through the near transfer of the effects of training, it increased phonological awareness and improved the reading ability in children with dyslexia.

Recently, the production of fermented products has received significant attention due to health benefits. Doineh is a cereal- dairy based fermented product that is often traditionally prepared in the western regions of Iran. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of adding 8% turnip, 8% pumpkin as a nutritious supplement and different amounts of bakery yeast 0, 0.5 and 1% to achieve an optimal formulation with a good texture and low microbial flora during 9 days fermentation. The results showed that the treatments of turnip, pumpkin and bakery yeast improved the texture and reduced microbial flora of doineh. The viscosity of doineh samples containing bakery yeast increased and in contrast, the growth of pathogenic bacteria and pH significantly (p<0.05) decreased compared to the control. While, water and oil adsorption showed no significant difference ( p<0.05) in the samples. Based on the results, formulations containing 1% bakery yeast and 8% Turnip are suggested because of better texture and better control of microbial spoilage.

The consumption of local and traditional dairy products have increased in recent years and some local cheeses as functional foods with desirable organoleptic attributes have positive effects on human health. However, there is concern that consumption of these products may increase the risk of exposure to food born bacteria such as Enterobacteriaceae family, Staphylococcus aureus, and Listeria monocytogenes. The microbiome of fermented products such as cheese is one of the most powerful and important parameters in flavor development and ripening. Furthermore, cheese flavor formation as a dynamic biochemical process is related to environmental conditions including milk source, ripening time, and temperature of storage. These parameters affect the microbial community structures and metabolic pathways.

In this study, a local cheese made from cow milk was prepared based on a local recipe. The traditional cheese was manufactured using mesophilic starter culture. The cheese was ripened at 10°C for 3 months. The samples were collected from the surface of the cheese. The serial dilution was performed until 10-10 dilution in sterile ringer. For isolation and phenotypic identification of lactic acid bacteria, a 100 µl of diluted sample was cultured on MRS agar and M17 agar, followed by incubation at 37°C for 48 h under anaerobic conditions with Gas-Pak A. After purification of colonies, the Gram-positive and catalase-negative isolates were phenotypically identified at genus level using physiological tests including capacity of gas production, growth at different pHs (9.6 and 4.4), salt tolerance (%6.5 and 18%), and different growth temperatures (10°C and 45°C). DNA extraction was performed with DNeasy®Blood & Tissue Kit. The microbial population of the cheese and its functional potential for ripening were investigated by whole-metagenome sequencing. The prepared library using Nextera™ DNA approach was sequenced by using the Illumina HiSeq® 2000, 2×100 bp paired- end reads. The metagenomics data of cheese microbiome were analyzed for taxonomic profiling and functional potential by De Novo Assemble Metagenome and Bin Pangenomes. The metabolic pathways were extracted from the KEGGdatabase.

The results of phenotypic identification showed that most of the lactic acid bacteria strains belonged to Streptococcus, Lactococcus, and Lactobacillus. Also, the results of metagenomics analysis showed that there were various genera including Streptococcus, Lactococcus, Lactobacillus, Acinetobacter, Enterococcus, Glutamicibacter, and Weissella in cheese. Streptococcus thermophilus, Lactococcus lactis, and Lactobacillus helveticus were identified as dominant species. Pathogenic bacteria such as Enterobacter, Listeria, and Staphylococcuswere also slightly found and therefore there is nearly no concern for consumers and human health. The microbiome of this cheese showed the metabolic potential for the biosynthesis of a wide range of  aroma compounds and associated with flavor development that related with the metabolism and biosynthesis of methane, branched chain amino acids (isoleucine, valine, and leucine), aromatic amino acids (tyrosine, tryptophan, and phenylalanine), other amino acids (beta-alanine, L-lysine), fatty acids (arachidonate, palmitate, stearate), and monosaccharides. The enzymes related to biosynthesis and metabolism of amino acids were found during ripening of this cheese. These enzymes included 4-hydroxy-tetrahydrodipicolinate reductase, 2-isopropylmalate synthase, 3-dehydroquinate dehydratase, 3-hydroxyisobutyryl-CoA hydrolase, 5-carboxymethyl-2-hydroxymuconate delta-isomerase, and 3-hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydrogenase. Based on the results of KAAS (KEGG Automatic Annotation Server), proteins involved in metabolic pathways of microbial community on the surface of the traditional cheese included Cytochrome P450 Photosynthesis Proteins, Peptidases & Inhibitors, Glycosyltransferases, Lipopolysaccharide Biosynthesis Proteins, Peptidoglycan Biosynthesis and Degradation Proteins, Lipid Biosynthesis Proteins, Protein Kinases, Polyketide Biosynthesis Proteins Prenyltransferases, Protein Phosphatases & Associated Proteins, and Amino Acid Related Enzymes. The cheese under our study as a functional food showed health benefits for consumers due to the presence of probiotic bacteria and genes encoded for biosynthesis of valuable compounds including antibiotics, drugs, and antioxidants.

Conceptual blending is one of the semantic approaches that concentrates on appearance and explanation of emergent concept or structure. Four mental spaces (at least two input spaces, a generic space and a blending space) have been proposed in this theory and to represent the emergent concepts or structures, we need to explain the relations between these spaces, inner-space and outer-space mapping, selective projection, composition, completion and elaboration. Conceptual metaphor and mental spaces are the inspiring theories for conceptual blending theories. Then, how to understand and infer the blending process to conclude in emergent structure and also theoretical needs to conceptual blending, based on its background, are the motives for the present study. To accomplish this, adequacy of conceptual blending in representing concepts that is activated while conceptualizing is reevaluated through some examples from Persian data (linguistic or even non-linguistic). The examples are taken from a variety of sources namely television advertisements, everyday expressions people use in their interactions, corpus data (Dadegan) and so on to explain the theory as well as possible. These data were analyzed based on four types of conceptual blending networks including simplex network, mirror network, single-scope network and double-scope network. For what is new in this research, we can say that not so many studies have been done in Persian using this theory and so rarely they have analyzed the data by illustrating them through the networks. As a matter of fact, if some studies have been taken place, they usually just sufficed to explain them. In addition, the outcome of the research on Persian provides the Persian data to be used in natural language processing specially in semantic scope. The results evince that using dynamic conceptualization in mental spaces, rejecting one-way and single mapping, applying selective projections, no being necessary to exist a counterpart for every element in mental spaces and not considering mental functions separate are all features that strengthen the adequacy of explanations of conceptual blending.

This paper deals with the sincerity of Persian language Ta’arofs across genders. The sincerity is evaluated by means of cultural schemas. Data that is gathered from different conversational contexts and Iranian films is analyzed by conversation analysis method. Using emic approach, the researchers identify fifteen underlying cultural schemas for Persian Ta’arofs and represent a model. To fulfill this aim, the Ta’arofs with similar illocutionary forces are identified and classified as cultural micro-schemas. Each class is given a title and the first encoding is done. To make sure about the validity of the classifications two inter-raters are employed. Then the concepts which are considered as the basis for these micro-schemas in Iranian culture are identified and labeled as macro-schemas. The Ta’arofs are evaluated in questionnaires in terms of sincerity they are associated with across genders. Ta’arofs and their contexts are presented in the questionnaire and the subjects are asked to evaluate the sincerity of Ta’arofs. Ta’arofs are chosen from both genders’ conversations equivalently and distributed in the questionnaire with different cultural schemas. The evaluation of data demonstrates that despite the common belief that men’s Ta’arofs are more sincere than women’s, there wasn’t any significant difference between their degrees of sincerity. Moreover, considering that the most and the least sincere Ta’arofs belong to women, we can say that the range of sincerity of Ta’arofs is wider in women than in men. The underlying micro-schemas of the most sincere Ta’arofs in women and men are respectively sympathy (Hamdeli) and compliment (Tahsin); and, the underlying micro-schemas of the least sincere Ta’arofs are respectively hospitality (Mehmannavazi) and Shekastehnafsi in women and men. Although the underlying micro-schemas of the most (in) sincere Ta’arofs are different in the two genders and reflect social and psychological differences between them, the underlying macro-schemas obey the notion of distributive cognition.