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Rural handwoven carpet weavers, particularly in the context of handmade silk carpet production, grapple with significant challenges concerning recognizing all stakeholders and establishing timely connections. These challenges have a substantial impact on the adoption of innovation in carpet production and the overall enhancement of productivity. This research was conducted to scrutinize the communication network of carpet weavers within the Knowledge and Innovation System (KIS) of handmade silk carpet production in rural areas. Data were gathered through interviews with 270 rural households in Zanjan province, specifically in the Tarom, Khodabandeh, and Zanjan counties, utilizing a structured questionnaire. Social Network Analysis (SNA) in UCINET was employed to examine the interactions among these actors, and graphical representations were created using Net Draw. The results revealed that the network's density varied across different levels, showing weakness in some cases, moderate strength in others, and strong connections in select instances. The connections of carpet weaving families with other actors within the KIS were predominantly localized. Among these families, those utilizing the home-based wage production method exhibited the most extensive interactions. The individuals designated as "FMs" (likely referring to family members) and "WNVKRs" (possibly local experts) demonstrated the highest degree of connection and influence within the network of weavers' interactions
 

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We present the results of a survey on the sawfly fauna of Anguran Protected Area, Dandi, Mahneshan County, Zanjan Province, Iran. Surveys in 2018 with nets recorded 4 sawfly species in three genera: Macrophya diversipes (Schrank, 1782); Macrophya nr. ribis (Schrank, 1781); Tenthredo cinctipleuris (Enslin, 1910) and Dolerus murcius Konow, 1895. The last mentioned species is a new record for the Iranian fauna.

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Isabgol (Plantago ovata Forsk), is an annual herb cultivated as a medicinal plant in recent decades. Its seed contains mucilage, fatty oil, large quantities of albuminous matter, a pharmacologically inactive glucoside, namely Aucubin (C13 H19 O8 H2O), and a plantiose sugar. Medicinal plants are rich in secondary metabolites: their biosynthesis is controlled genetically and is affected strongly by environmental factors. In the present work, the influence of sowing dates (20th April, 5th and 20th May) and nitrogen-fertilizer levels (0, 50, 100 and 150 kg ha-1) was examined on the growth, seed yield and seed swelling factor (content of mucilages) of isabgol. The statistical design was a split-plot arrangement of a randomized complete block design with three replicates: the sowing dates and nitrogen fertilizer were considered as the main and sub-main plots, respectively. The plot experiment was installed in the experimental station of Zanjan region located in the northwest of Iran, under silty-clay soil conditions. According to the resulting data, the best time for sowing isabgol in such a region was 5th May and the suitable amount of nitrogen fertilizer was 100 kg ha-1. To discover any relationship, all measured independent variables were muliple regressed on the dependent variable (seed yield) followed by stepwise regression analysis. This verified that the seed yield among other independent characteristics tested appeared to show a significant positive effect on the seed swelling.

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In order to evaluate a few effective factors on traditional breads wastage in Zanjan, 30 bakeries of this town were randomly selected. With direct referring to bakeries and filling out the related forms, and evaluation the quality of used flour samples, it turned out that although 56.67 percent of bakers in this town, had over 20 year experience, almost none of them, had any scientific information on bread-making that has important factor in reducing bread wastage. About the important factors in bread-making, the results showed that almost all of the bakers, use of sourdough included with bakery yeast for fermentation but, only about 10 percent of the bakeries, considered the proper fermentation time. The results of bread-baking revealed that about 57 percent of the bread baking machine had over the age of 15 years, this suggests that the machines are overused and they needs to be replaced. Overall, the amount of waste traditional breads of Zanjan, is calculated about 25.79 percent, which is remarkable, and much of it is includes Lavash bread (17.27 percent). Protein quantity and quality results of tested flour samples showed that the flour used in bakeries of Zanjan contain low level of protein (9.5 In order to evaluate a few effective factors on traditional breads wastage in Zanjan, 30 bakeries of this town were randomly selected. With direct referring to bakeries and filling out the related forms, and evaluation the quality of used flour samples, it turned out that although 56.67 percent of bakers in this town, had over 20 year experience, almost none of them, had any scientific information on bread-making that has important factor in reducing bread wastage. About the important factors in bread-making, the results showed that almost all of the bakers, use of sourdough included with bakery yeast for fermentation but, only about 10 percent of the bakeries, considered the proper fermentation time. The results of bread-baking revealed that about 57 percent of the bread baking machine had over the age of 15 years, this suggests that the machines are overused and they needs to be replaced. Overall, the amount of waste traditional breads of Zanjan, is calculated about 25.79 percent, which is remarkable, and much of it is includes Lavash bread (17.27 percent). Protein quantity and quality results of tested flour samples showed that the flour used in bakeries of Zanjan contain low level of protein (9.5 percent), and Zeleny and farynograph tests also indicates low protein quality of these samples.

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This study analyzes wind energy potentials of Zanjan province which located in northwest of Iran. Renewable energy plans are not fully environmentally safe and different renewable energy plans have different environmental impacts. Therefore, site selection is an important issue in the wind turbine installation and therefore, selecting an appropriate wind turbine site requires consideration of multiple alternative solution and evaluation criteria because of the system complexities.  In this paper, using AHP and fuzzy TOPSIS techniques in conjunction with GIS, wind turbine potentials of the study area are evaluated. Criteria weights are obtained from pairwise comparison of identified criteria and after fuzzification of both criteria weights and criteria map layers using triangular fuzzy numbers, fuzzy TOPSIS technique is utilized to integrate and rank more suitable alternatives for the wind turbine installation. The results shows the ability of multi-criteria methods to evaluate suitable sites in geographic areas on one side and good potentials sites of Zanjan province to establish new energy plans on the other.

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Salt-man No.4 is the 4^th natural mummy discovered in the archeological excavation in Chehr-Abad salt mine located in the western Iranian city of Zanjan in 2005. The mummy was a complete body, fully clothed and with leather boots, a silver earring and a few gadgets such as a metallic knife, ceramic pots and an oil lamp. Radiocarbon dating revealed that the mummy dates back to Achaemenid era 330-550 B.C. Total coverage and clothing as well as anatomy of the mummy including its forearm, delicate fingers and lack of beard and mustache raised some questions about its gender. In the light of the physical status of the mummy at its burial time, the other question was the cause of its death. It was necessary to get information about physical conditions and the severity of the damage incurred to the mummy in order to take conservation and preservation measures. X-Ray radiography and CT scan revealed the gender of the mummy as being a 15 to 16-year-old boy who had died as a result of crushing caused by the collapse of heavy stones at the mine that buried him underneath. The sudden death was caused by multiple bone fractures (trauma) and heart compression and rupture as a result of crushing falling stones.

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