---

The common pistachio psylla Agonoscena pistaciae is a key pest of pistachio in Iran. A study was conducted to determine the spatial distribution ofpsyllanymphs and eggs in a 10 ha pistachio orchard in the Rafsanjan region, southeast of Iran. Three rows, each containing 33 trees (totally 99 trees), were randomly selected in the orchard based on a stratified sampling scheme. In each of the selected trees, three positions in the crown (top, middle and bottom) were considered. One leaf from each position as sampling unit (totally 297 samples) was clipped and number of nymphs and eggs were counted. Ordinary kriged maps were achieved for nymphs and eggs of the three positions using a variogram function. Results indicated the highest and lowest density of the nymphs occurred on the top and bottom positions of the crown, respectively. Eggs of the common pistachio psylla were laid mostly on the bottom of the pistachio crown.

---

---

Pistachio psylla, Agonoscena pistaciae Burkhardt & Lauterer (Hem.: Psyllidae) is one of the most important pests of pistachio orchards in Iran. The application of chemical pesticides early in the growing season until harvest has affected farmers’ and consumers’ health. In this research, the efficacy of arugula Eruca sativa cold press seed oil, methanolic spinach Spinacia oleracea seed extract, and dayabon® (SL 10%) was studied against nymphs and adults of pistachio psylla in a laboratory at 26 ± 2 °C, 65 ± 5% RH, and photoperiod of 16: 8 (L: D) h. LC₅₀ values of nanoemulsion formulation (NEF) of spinach seed extract and its nonformulated extract on the early nymphal stage were 468 and 4381 mg/l, respectively. In contrast, the LC₅₀ value of arugula seed oil and dayabon was 2281 and 4380 mg/l, respectively. NEF of spinach seed extract (LC₅₀ = 124 mg/l) was significantly more toxic than other compounds against the 5^th nymphal stage. There was no significant difference in nonformulated spinach seed extract (LC₅₀ = 3946 mg/l), arugula seed oil (LC₅₀ = 3189 mg/l) and dayabon (LC₅₀ = 3930 mg/l) against 5^th instars. The efficiency of dayabon and arugula seed oil and a chemical pesticide fenitrothion was studied in the field located in Dehmolla County, Shahrood, Iran. Sampling was carried out before and after treatment. There were no significant differences between days after treatments. It means that the botanicals were effective until 21 days after treatment. Findings indicated that botanical pesticides used in this study could be effective against pistachio psylla.

---

In general, energy prices, such as those of crude oil, are affected by deterministic events such as seasonal changes as well as non-deterministic events such as geopolitical events. It is the non-deterministic events which cause the prices to vary randomly and makes price prediction a difficult task. One could argue that these random changes act like noise which effects the deterministic variations in prices. In this paper, we employ the wavelet transform as a tool for smoothing and minimizing the noise presented in crude oil prices, and then investigate the effect of wavelet smoothing on oil price forecasting while using the GMDH neural network as the forecasting model. Furthermore, the Generalized Auto-Regressive Conditional Hetroscedasticity model is used for capturing time varying variance of crude oil price. In order to evaluate the proposed hybrid model, we employ crude oil spot price of New York and Los Angles markets. Results reveal that the prediction performance improves by more than 40% when the effect of noise is minimized and variance is captured by Auto-Regressive Conditional Hetroscedasticity model.

---

According to the preamble of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (which entered into force on February 1, 1998) minority rights are an integral part of fundamental human rights. universal level that taken on great importance in addressing the challenges of minority protection in evolving and increasingly diverse societies. So, this survey has an analytical approach to the protection of minorities within the Council of Europe and for this, especially, focuses on the Framework Convention: namely its content, its rights-holders, and also- the most important point of view- the problems, challenges and tasks that this legally instrument faces with it in practice. One must take into account that the Framework Convention has passed 13 years of its born and the authors aim to analyze its achievements and in the same time, its challenges as well. Thus, we reiterate once more that our method is analytic to examine the topic.

---

The common pistachio psylla, Agonoscena pistaciae Burckhardt and Lauterer (Hem: Aphalaridae) is one of the main and most destructive pests of pistachio orchards in Iran. Chemical control is a widely applied method to manage this pest problem. The intensive use of insecticides has led to the development of resistant populations of the common pistachio psylla. In this research, the activities of detoxifying enzymes (general esterase, glutathione S-transferase and cytochrome P₄₅₀) were assessed against two populations of the common pistachio psylla, and the coccinellid predator, Oenopia conglobata L. (Col: Coccinellidae) in Kerman Province, under treatment of three rational insecticides, namely, acetamiprid, spirotetramat, and hexaflumuron in four concentrations (control, LC₂₅, LC₅₀ and LC₇₅). The results indicated that the activities of detoxifying enzymes were higher in the resistant population of psylla compared to the susceptible one. Esterase was the predominant detoxifying enzyme in the pest and its predator. Based on the results, the activity of detoxifying enzymes were higher at the higher concentrations of the pesticides. Esterase activity was greater in the psyllid populations than the coccinellid predator; which may indicate a higher sensitivity of the lady beetle to insecticides than its prey.