abstract the contact between major settlements in the central plateau of iran, especially in desert areas, was not possible without having a secure communication system. in this regard, designing communication networks through constructing secure roads with halfway caravansarais in desert areas, usually without secure underground and surface water supply, needed special insights and provisions....

Th is article examines the history of the veil and its changing social meanings in Iran. Embedded in the meaning of the veil is the erotic meaning of female hair. Th e symbiotic relations of the “cover” (the veil) and the “covered” (female hair) are central to this history. Iranian political regimes have assigned to the veil meanings corresponding to their own ideologies. Th rough imposed unvei...

The Tibetan Plateau is the highest and largest plateau in the world, generated by the collision of India and Eurasia. Details of this continent-continent collision and the uplift mechanism of the plateau are still hotly debated. In this study, I collected a large amount of seismic waveform data recorded by more than 300 stations in Tibet and its northern neighbor Tien Shan. I processed the data...

Precipitation variation on the Loess Plateau (LP) of China is not only important for rain-fed agriculture in this environmentally sensitive region, but also critical for the water and life securities over the whole Yellow River basin. Here we reconstruct high resolution precipitation variation on the western LP during the past 370 years by using two replicated, annually-laminated stalagmites. S...

Cucurbit yellow stunting disorder virus (CYSDV) is a destructive virus of cucurbits in Iran. During 2008-2012 growing seasons a total of 366 cucurbit samples including melon, cucumber, snakemelon and squash with typical symptoms of CYSDV infection were collected from ten Provinces in Iran. They were screened by ELISA and the infectivity of ELISA-positive samples was confirmed by RT-PCR. The res...

Purpose To analyze the age dependence of the longitudinal modulus of the crystalline lens in vivo using Brillouin scattering data in healthy subjects. Methods Brillouin scans were performed along the crystalline lens in 56 eyes from 30 healthy subjects aged from 19 to 63 years. Longitudinal elastic modulus was acquired along the sagittal axis of the lens with a transverse and axial resolution...

Yak domestication represents an important episode in the early human occupation of the high-altitude Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP). The precise timing of domestication is debated and little is known about the underlying genetic changes that occurred during the process. Here we investigate genome variation of wild and domestic yaks. We detect signals of selection in 209 genes of domestic yaks, sev...