Introduction: Alzheimer's disease (AD), a prevalent cause of dementia, is characterized by amyloid plaques and tau tangles. It requires early diagnosis through the use of blood markers. This study examined changes in gene expression in blood and brain samples from patients with AD as potential diagnostic biomarkers. Methods: The study utilized gene expression data from publicly available studies, including GSE4757, GSE5281, GSE28146, GSE48350, and GSE63060, to investigate expression changes in AD. Data integration and differential expression analysis were performed, and pathways related to candidate genes were identified using the Enrichr and BioPlents databases. Blood samples from 50 AD and controls were collected, followed by RNA extraction, cDNA synthesis, and qRT-PCR analysis using specific NFAT5 and ATP6V1E1 gene primers. Results: We found 394 genes with increased expression and 759 with decreased expression in brain tissue. Upregulated genes were linked to TGF-B, BDNF, apoptosis, Hippo, P53, and IL-2 and IL-4 pathways. In contrast, downregulated genes were associated with pathways related to oxidative phosphorylation, PGC1-A, GABA, Alzheimer's, and calcium. Blood expression data showed 1147 probes with increased expression and 1413 with significant decreases. We found 31 genes that were upregulated and 87 genes that were downregulated, consistent across both blood and brain samples. Among the overlapping genes, RT-qPCR results indicated that the expression levels of NFAT5 and ATP6V1E1 may have diagnostic potential in the blood samples of Alzheimer's patients. Conclusion: The study identified changes in gene expression related to Alzheimer's in blood and brain samples. These changes affect pathways such as IL-2 and oxidative phosphorylation. Both in silico and ex vivo results revealed that the expression levels of NFAT5 and ATP6V1E1 in blood samples can serve as potential diagnostic biomarkers for Alzheimer's patients.
JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF CONSERVATION (19455224)(1)pp. 77-98
In this study, a method has been defined for modelling the risk of natural factors that can impact cultural heritage sites and monuments in the city of Qom, located in the central plateau region of Iran. Modelling focussed on several potentially destructive environmental factors, including floods (by mapping rivers and waterway networks using hydrological analysis), earthquakes (by using existing fault maps), humidity (evaluated using tasseled cap wetness data) and urban heat island effects (by using urban thermal field variance indices). These indicators were weighted using Buckley's Fuzzy Analysis Hierarchy Process (BFAHP). Finally, the parameters are combined with a gamma coefficient of 0.95. The results showed that 60% of the city's museums and 46.77% of the city's historical places are vulnerable to impact. This article details the methodology and methods used to rank the city's zones regarding the risk to its cultural heritage and for the planning of new buildings, including museums.
This study analyzes Tracy K. Smith's poetry through the lens of ecological materialism and Stacy Alaimo's concept of transcorporeality, which emphasizes the fluidity and vitality of bodies and their interconnectedness. Tracing the evolution of Smith's ethicopolitical concerns, I explore the elemental and transcorporeal forces in her work that create a poetics of fluidity. Additionally, I argue that Smith's poetic trajectory marks a significant shift away from humanist frameworks, advancing toward a politically charged conception of Black marginality. By examining Smith's poem Watershed in relation to Muriel Rukeyser's The Book of the Dead, this study investigates the development of a posthuman lyric in Smith's later work, viewed through the lens of hazardous transcorporeality.
Despite recent strides in the exploration of gardens within formal, functional, and symbolic dimensions, the link between gardens and warfare remains an overlooked facet in the realm of garden and landscape history. The present study aims to illuminate the role that gardens assumed during times of conflict. Drawing from primary historical accounts, this research delves into the gardens of both the Byzantine and Eastern Islamic realms through a military lens, conceiving gardens as encampments, battlefields, providers of sustenance, sources of war materiel, and means of defending cities. The findings of this study reveal that both Byzantine and Islamic gardens undertook multifaceted military functions by serving as strategic positioning grounds for the armed forces and meeting their edible needs, particularly during sieges. However, it appears that gardens in Greater Iran and Transoxiana were much more profoundly connected to wars.
This umbrella review aims to evaluate systematic/meta-analysis studies containing clinical evidence on tooth grafts as bone substitutes in the oral and maxillofacial regions. Using language restrictions and Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, an electronic database search of PubMed, MEDLINE, Embase, Cochrane library, and Google Scholar was conducted, featuring published studies up until August 2022. All systematic/meta-analysis review articles relating to tooth graft materials were matched against the inclusion criteria. Two qualified researchers independently assessed the studies' inclusion or exclusion criteria and risk of bias, and a third investigator assisted in resolving ambiguities. A total of 81 systematic/meta-analysis studies, comprising 21 animal-controlled trials, 23 randomized controlled human trials, 23 prospective studies, and 14 retrospective studies, were selected for this study. A small risk of bias was observed in systematic studies/meta-analyses. In addition, the clinical evidence from the analysis of these studies revealed a low incidence of side effects. According to the current review, two systematic reviews indicated that autogenous bone grafting of prepared teeth might be as effective as other bone grafting materials. Four studies also mentioned autologous grafts as potential alternatives to autologous grafts, autogenous demineralized dentin (ADDM), engineered grafts, root blocks, and dental matrix. On the other hand, three systematic studies stated that more long-term research is needed to confirm their findings. Finally, given the importance of standardization and homogeneity of studies for clinical cases, it is advised to be used cautiously due to the risks of transplant rejection.
2023 IEEE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ROBOTICS AND AUTOMATION (ICRA 2023) (10504729)pp. 12624-12630
With the increasing demand for new healthcare solutions and technologies, such as those resulting from the COVID-19 crisis, and the growing elderly population, exoskeletons for teleoperation are a promising solution for many future medical applications. In this context, we propose two forcesensitive upper-limb exoskeletons for teleoperation, that are characterized by: i) torque-controlled robotic actuators, ii) rigid-body model compensations, and iii) a lightweight design achieved through the use of Bowden cable transmissions and remotely placed actuators. Specifically, we present a semi-active upper-limb exoskeleton for which we demonstrate humandevice interaction control and bilateral teleoperation with forcefeedback, evaluated via simulation, in the lab and over the Internet. We also introduce a design for a future fully-active upper-limb exoskeleton with two contact force/torque sensors, for a dual-arm device, which features a novel 3-degrees-offreedom exoskeleton shoulder design and a contact wrench mitigation controller, as demonstrated through simulation. With this work, we propose the essential technical steps towards a novel teleoperation system for elderly care.
As robots become more and more intelligent, the complexity of the algorithms behind them is increasing. Since these algorithms require high computation power from the onboard robot controller, the weight of the robot and energy consumption increases. A promising solution to tackle this issue is to relocate the expensive computation to the cloud. In this pioneering work, the possibility of relocating a state-of-the-art nonlinear control is investigated. To this end, the Unified Force-Impedance Controller (UFIC) is relocated to a remote location and high frequency feedback loop is established by including the remote controller in the loop. Passivity analysis is used to ensure the stability of the whole system, comprising the robot in interaction with the environment, the communication channel, as well as the remote controller. The instability associated with the communication channel is resolved by Time Domain Passivity Approach (TDPA). The performance of the proposed framework is experimentally evaluated on a robot arm in interaction with the environment. The results illustrate the stability of the system to a time-varying delay of up to 50 +/- 10ms.
Objectives: Childhood maltreatment has a negative impact on a sense of parenting competition. However, its underlying mechanisms are still unknown. The present research aimed to investigate the roles of parental reflective functioning and social support as mediating factors in the rela-tionship between childhood maltreatment and negative feeling of parenting competence. Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out on 489 parents of children aged 5 to 13 between October 23 and December 12, 2021, in Shiraz, Iran. Participants completed the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ), Parenting Sense of Competence Scale (PSOC), Perceived Social Support Scale (PSSS), and Parental Reflective Functioning Questionnaire (PRFQ). Structural equation modeling (SEM) was applied using AMOS 22 to test our conceptual model. Results: The results of structural equation modeling indicated that childhood maltreatment had a negative direct effect on the sense of parenting competence. Furthermore, childhood maltreat-ment had a negative indirect effect on the sense of parenting competence through both parental reflective functioning and perceived social support.Conclusions: The findings suggested that increased exposure to childhood maltreatment may have decreased parental competence. However, the important role of parental reflective functioning and perceived social support in the relationship between childhood maltreatment and parenting competence should not be ignored. These results can have some implications for counselors working with parents with childhood trauma experiences.
For an effective reservoir operation during drought, the variations of both water supply and water demand which depend on hydrological and meteorological conditions need to be dealt with. This paper aimed to consider these variations in the Aharchay basin (Iran) by coupling a hedging rule (HR)-based reservoir operation model (HRROM) with a climate-based irrigation scheduling model (CBISM) at the farm level. Through the HRROM, optimal long-term decisions for Sattarkhan reservoir were made by considering the probable streamflow scenarios in the system. Given the variable agricultural demands (VAD) in the CBISM, the irrigation water was optimally allocated to the crops using several evapotranspiration (ET) scenarios. The CBISM employs three sub-models including linear programming (LP), nonlinear programming (NLP), and particle swarm optimization (PSO) to maximize the total income of the Aharchay agricultural network as a function of the climate factors and the supplied water. To this end, the daily weather and discharge data from 1990 to 2015 were used in this study. The standardized precipitation-evapotranspiration index (SPEI) and the streamflow drought index (SDI) were used to detect the meteorological and hydrological droughts, respectively. The SPEI was calculated based on the high-resolution-gridded datasets of the Climatic Research Unit (CRU). The findings demonstrated that the HRROM-CBISM generally managed to increase the time-based (alpha(t)) and volume-based (alpha(v)) reliability indices by 20% and 44%, respectively, compared with the conventional standard operation policy (SOP). For more investigations, the three major droughts of 2000-2002, 2004-2006, and 2008-2014 were separately analyzed. The average values of alpha(t), alpha(v), and vulnerability (V) for SOP were 0.33, 0.51, and 0.48, respectively. With the HRROM-CBISM, these values were about 0.5, 0.55, and 0.45, respectively. Among these indices, alpha(t) had the highest variations, while alpha(v) had the lowest variations in both the SOP and HRROM-CBISM approaches. The average water shortage for the mentioned droughts was significantly decreased from 89 (SOP) to 75 MCM (HRROM-CBISM).
In this study, we investigate the enhancement of exchange bias in core/shell/shell structures by synthesizing single inverted core/shell (Co-oxide/Co) and core/shell/shell (Co-oxide/Co/Co-oxide) nanostructures through a two-step reduction and oxidation method. We evaluate the magnetic properties of the structures and study the effect of shell thickness on the exchange bias by synthesizing various shell thicknesses of Co-oxide/Co/Co-oxide nanostructures. The extra exchange coupling formed at the shell-shell interface in the core/shell/shell structure leads to a remarkable increase in the coercivity and the strength of the exchange bias by three and four orders, respectively. The strongest exchange bias is achieved for the sample comprising the thinnest outer Co-oxide shell. Despite the general declining trend of the exchange bias with Co-oxide shell thickness, we also observe a nonmonotonic behavior in which the exchange bias oscillates slightly as the shell thickness increases. This phenomenon is ascribed to the dependence of the antiferromagnetic outer shell thickness variation at the expense of the simultaneous opposite variation in the ferromagnetic inner shell.
Identifying the inertial parameters of real robotic manipulators is a fundamental step towards realistic modeling and better controller performances, which is crucial for safe human-robot interaction. Our work introduces a novel framework for identifying a generalized set of base inertial parameters of a serial link manipulator. This framework is designed to be adaptable to accommodate any new mounting configuration of the robot. Our theoretical analysis highlights the influence of the robot's mounting configuration on the emergence of new parameters that cannot be identified through the conventional vertical base-axis mounting approach studied previously. To validate our proposed framework, we carried out two main experiments: the first involved simulation to establish the feasibility of our concept, and in the second, our framework was employed on a Franka Emika Robot in a real-world scenario to demonstrate and validate our approach. Our simulation results confirmed the feasibility of our proposed framework, while our real-world experiment successfully identified the generalized base inertial parameter set and validated its applicability to a new robot mounting configuration.
The effects of austenitizing and tempering temperatures on the mechanical properties and fracture surface characteristics of AISI 4340 steel were investigated. The microstructure was also examined by scanning and transmission electron microscopy. The results indicated that with increasing the austenitizing temperature from 850 degrees C to 1200 degrees C, the yield strength, ultimate tensile strength, and impact energy were decreased by 23%, 24%, and 35%, respectively. Moreover, the increase of tempering temperature from 200 to 350 degrees C decreased these mechanical properties by 15%, 7.5%, and 35%, respectively. The optimal combination of strength and ductility was obtained at austenitizing temperature of 900 degrees C and tempering temperature of 200 degrees C. The variation of total elongation and strength-elongation balance with the austenitizing and tempering temperatures were similar to that of the average dimple area. Likewise, the variation of the yeild strength with the tempering temperatures was similar to that of the average dimple area and opposite to that of the dimple area density.
2023 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON REHABILITATION ROBOTICS, ICORR (19457898)
Hybrid exoskeleton, comprising an exoskeleton interfaced with functional electrical stimulation (FES) technique, is conceptualized to complement the weakness of each other in automated neuro-rehabilitation of sensory-motor deficits. The externally actuating exoskeleton cannot directly influence neurophysiology of the patients, while FES is difficult to use in functional or goal-oriented tasks. The latter challenge is largely inherited from the fact that the dynamics of the muscular response to FES is complex, and it is highly user- and state-dependent. Due to the retardation of the muscular contraction response to the FES profile, furthermore, a commonly used model-free control scheme, such as PID control, suffers performance. The challenge in FES control is exacerbated especially in the presence of the actuation redundancy between the volitional activity of the user, powered exoskeleton, and FES-induced muscle contractions. This study therefore presents trajectory tracking performance of the hybrid exoskeleton in a novel model-based hybrid exoskeleton scheme which entices user-specific FES model-predictive control.
IRANIAN JOURNAL OF NURSING AND MIDWIFERY RESEARCH (17359066)(3)pp. 273-279
Background: Infants undergo extremely painful procedures in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), which if left uncontrolled may cause complications. Therefore, this study was conducted to investigate gentle touch effect on cardiorespiratory indices and pain behaviors related to venipuncture and blood sampling in preterm infants. Materials and Methods: A quasi-experimental study was undertaken in gentle touch and control groups in three stages. The population included premature infants in NICU of Al-Zahra Hospital, Isfahan, Iran. Using convenience sampling, 52 infants were randomly selected and assigned to two groups (n = 26). Gentle touch technique and measurement of cardiorespiratory indices were performed 5 minutes before, during, and 5 minutes after procedure, and routine care was provided for control group. Neonatal pain and cardiorespiratory indices were assessed using the Neonatal Infant Pain Scale (NIPS) and an intensive care monitor. Data was analyzed using repeated measures ANOVA, independent t-test, and Chi-square test in SPSS software. Results: The independent t-test revealed a significant difference between mean pain score of the infants in two groups during the procedures (t(50) = -3.32, p = 0.002), but no significant different was between groups before and after the procedure (p > 0.05). However, the cardiorespiratory indices were not significantly different before, during, and after the procedure (p > 0.05). Conclusions: The results suggest that gentle touch reduced the infants' pain during venipuncture and blood sampling. Thus, it is recommended this method be applied to mitigate pain in premature infants.
ANNALS OF MEDICINE AND SURGERY (20490801)(6)pp. 2683-2688
The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of adolescent-oriented mindfulness training on academic burnout and social anxiety symptoms in students. The current study was a semi-experimental type with a pretest-posttest design with a control group with the measurement at baseline after the intervention and a 3-month follow-up. The statistical population included all high school students with symptoms of social anxiety who were studying in Tehran in the academic year 2022. Among the students, 100 students were selected as a sample by purpose-based sampling and randomly assigned to two experimental and control groups (50 people). The tools of this research were a researcher-made demographic questionnaire, social anxiety questionnaire, academic burnout questionnaire, and adolescent-oriented mindfulness protocol. Data analysis was performed using analysis of variance with repeated measures. The results showed that adolescent-oriented mindfulness training had a significant effect on reducing academic burnout and social anxiety symptoms of students (P<0.001). Based on the findings of the research, it can be said that adolescent-oriented mindfulness training is effective in reducing academic burnout and social anxiety symptoms of students.
Today, the interface between the brain and the computer can be designed using intelligent tools. This two-way communication that is named the Brain-computer interface can make new changes in the world of science. Today, with the development of smartphones, the use of applications and social networks has formed an important part of people's communication. Therefore, the tools must be designed in such a way as to cover the needs of all members of society. For example, for improving the quality of living of aged people, they need to use these facilities with other people. So designing intelligence tools should be such that they can be implemented with the mental decision of people. Also as aging has some effects on activities of daily routines or the human body and their brains, it's important to settle the difficulties in communicating, walking, drive safely, the lifestyle of people, and their health. In this research, the challenging discussion of the effect of a brain-computer interface technology on aged people's life system is discussed and the role of the user interface is examined. Also, deep learning is one of the most important algorithms to make the patterns of subjects. Robots to feed elderly people, intelligent wheelchairs that are controlled by mental decisions, applications to make decisions and help to memorizing information for elderly people with Alzheimer, cameras to synthesize eye movements for aged people with vision disorder people, devices that help to make decisions for elderly people who have had a stroke and getting communication disorders, are high-tech devices that help to people who are suffering from cognition errors or physical disability. The BCI applications which are based on deep learning algorithms can monitor brain activity. They have programmed signals that can make better decisions in different situations and can help to decrease the decision timing and improve the level of confidence and create a balance between different levels of people in society. Creating a balance between people improves the level of quality in every society and helps to increase the healthy life in society. In this chapter, we explore the relationship between the BCI applications which are based on deep learning algorithms and their applications for elderly people.
Evaluation of methylation status of genes in sperm samples has been suggested for diagnosis of male infertility as well as prognosis of assisted reproductive technologies (ART) outcomes. In this study, we compared the methylation pattern of the GATA3 gene in infertile and fertile men as well as in infertile men with positive and negative ART outcome based on clinical pregnancy. Ejaculates were obtained from 42 infertile men with a negative ART outcome (group 1), 30 infertile men with a positive ART outcome (group 2), and 21 fertile men (control). Then, samples were subjected to genomic DNA isolation and subsequent TUNEL assay and methylation-specific PCR. The number of infertile men with at least one methylated allele of GATA3 was significantly higher compared to the control group (p = 0.022). Also, the number of patients with at least one methylated allele was significantly higher in group 1 compared to group 2 (p = 0.013). Moreover, the TUNEL assay revealed that the amount of sperm DNA fragmentation is higher in group 1 compared to group 2 (p = 0.008). The findings of our study demonstrated that the degree of GATA3 methylation can potentially differentiate between infertile and fertile men and more importantly can potentially predict the outcome of ART.
Background and objectivesThe purpose of this study was to investigate the psychological symptoms and behavioral problems of children with mothers working as medical staff in the crisis of Covid-19 disease in Hamadan. MethodsThis descriptive causal-comparative study was conducted on all mothers with children aged 6 to 12 years in Hamadan from September 2 to November 29, 2020. In this study, eligible individuals were selected using random sampling and were assigned to two groups of mothers working as the medical staff and the control group. The research instruments included the Child Behavior Checklist (Achenbach) and the Child Symptom Inventory-4 (CSI-4). ResultsThe results showed that the mean scores of psychological and behavioral symptoms of children in terms of group membership (group of mothers working in the medical staff and control group) had a significant difference. There was a significant difference between the mean scores of depression and aggression in children of the staff group and the control group meaning that for depression and aggression scores of children of the staff group are higher than children of the control group (p < 0.05). There was no significant difference between the mean anxiety scores and there was almost a significant difference between the attention scores of the staff group and the control group (p < 0.05). ConclusionChildren whose mothers worked as medical staff during Covid-19 show more depression, attention, and aggression problems than children whose mothers do not work as medical staff.
Ontology enhances semantic interoperability through integrating health data from heterogeneous sources and sharing information in a meaningful way. In the field of smart health services, semantic interoperability means the exchange and interpretation of data without ambiguity and uncertainty. However, existing classical ontologies are not able to represent vague and uncertain knowledge, especially in contexts of mental health disorders which are associated with varying degrees of uncertainty and inaccuracy of diagnosis, and in this case, the treatment is a complex and common mental process necessitating to share information accurately and unambiguously. Type-2 fuzzy set theory can offer a fruitful solution in order to control uncertainty or express ambiguous concepts in a dynamic and complex environment such as healthcare systems. Herein, a semantic framework for healthcare, and also monitoring mental health disorders using type-2 fuzzy set theory based on the Internet of Thing (IoT) is suggested, in which all depression-related concepts are semantically annotated to share detailed information with the treatment staff. This framework not only paved the way to increasing the accuracy of medical diagnosis and decision-making but also provides the possibility of inference and semantic reasoning using the languages of SPARQL query and DL query.
FACTA UNIVERSITATIS-SERIES MATHEMATICS AND INFORMATICS (03529665)(5)pp. 905-917
The strong access structure obtained from graph G is Gamma(G) if G = (V, E) is a connected graph. A visual cryptography scheme (VCS) is a specific technique for encoding a secret image that typically changes any pixel in the image to m subpixels for a group of active participants. Within each VCS, only qualified sets can retrieve the secret picture by stacking their preferred shares. The pixel expansion value is traditionally called m, and the minimum pixel expansion value of a VCS for Gamma(G) is referred to as m*(G). The principal aim of this paper is to identify all connected graphs G with m*(G) = 4 and omega(G) = 6, which realistically is the clique number of graph G.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE XXXIX, AI 2022 (29459133)pp. 37-50
Popular social networks such as Twitter have been proposed as a data source for public health monitoring because they have the potential to show infection disease surveillance like Influenza-Like Illnesses (ILI). However, shortness, data sparsity, informality, incorrect sentence structure, and the humorous are some challenges for tweet analysis and classification. In order to overcome these challenges and implement an accurate flu surveillance system, we propose a hybrid 1d-CNN-BiLSTM framework for semantic enrichment and tweet classification. Different embedding algorithms are compared for producing semantic representations of tweets to assist unrelated tweet filtering in the classification stage. We find that fine-tuning pre-trained Word2Vec enhances the model capability for representing the meaning of flu-related tweets than other embedding models. Our approach has been evaluated on a flu tweet dataset and compared with several baselines for tweet processing and classification. Experimental results show that: (1) the proposed hybrid deep neural networks can improve tweet classification due to considering their semantic information;(2) the proposed flu surveillance system achieves a state-of-the-art correlation coefficient with ILI rate published by CDC (https://www.cdc.gov/).
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF APPLIED CERAMIC TECHNOLOGY (1546542X)(6)pp. 2064-2074
In this research, Ag-Al2O3 nanostructures have been prepared via combustion synthesis and ammonium acetate and urea have been applied as fuels. The prepared Ag-Al2O3 nanostructures were characterized by DTA, XRD, SEM, TEM, and BET spectroscopy. The effect of different ratios of silver to alumina and fuel percentage on morphology and particle size of prepared products were investigated. The results showed that using ammonium acetate fuel led to the production of Ag-gamma-Al2O3 nanocompounds, while using urea produced Ag-alpha-Al2O3. Also, the photocatalytic activity of Ag-Al2O3 nanostructures for Congo red degradation was evaluated by UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy. The photocatalytic activity of Ag-Al2O3 was examined under UV-Vis irradiation and showed significant photocatalytic efficiency.
BACKGROUND: There is growing acknowledgment that medical education can be a stressful experience for students and may have a devastating effect on their psychological well-being. The present article, therefore, aimed at investigating students' academic resilience as a mediating variable in self-efficacy-test anxiety relation. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this cross-sectional correlational study, a convenience sample of 243 medical students was selected and participated, three prevalidated questionnaires were applied, that is, general self-efficacy questionnaire, academic resilience questionnaire, and test anxiety questionnaire. To analyze the data, Pearson's correlation coefficient as well as structural equation modeling (SEM) were used. RESULTS: According to Pearson's coefficients, self-efficacy was found to be positively correlated with academic resilience (r = 0.437, P <= 0.01) and negatively with test anxiety (r = -0.475, P <= 0.01). SEM results also indicated that self-efficacy positively impacts on academic resilience (beta = 0.43, P < 0.001) and negatively on test anxiety (beta = -0.37, P < 0.001). In addition, results demonstrated the mediating role of academic resilience in self-efficacy-test anxiety relationship (beta = -0.108, P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: This study showed that academic resilience could play a mediating role in students' self-efficacy-test anxiety relationship.
In Macbeth (ca. 1606), William Shakespeare returns all the way back to his metaphysics which he had demonstrated magnificently in A Midsummer Night's Dream (ca. 1595) and Hamlet (ca. 1600). These works represent Shakespeare's dramaturgical treatment of Being, substance, essence, etc. One of the chief elements of these plays is supernaturality, or nothingness (non-being) in a sense interrupting Being and human activities. These elements are presented in Julius Caesar (1599) as well, a history play which has commonalities with Macbeth. Yet few of his tragedies offer a world so dipped in horror and darkness as Macbeth. Ethics might thus be a far-fetched component among these grisly sensations and in the bloody atmosphere of this tragedy, but with the help of Emmanuel Levinas (1906-1995), traces of ethical exigency can be discerned. Approaching Macbeth through Levinas's philosophy, we attempt to study some ways in which ethics can be addressed and studied in this dark world. We will discuss Macbeth's struggles with time (mostly his future) and the Other as metaphors of alterity intruding into and interrupting his totalizing conatus.
Physical Chemistry Research (23225521)(4)pp. 719-735
Precursor spectroelectrochemical behavior of guanine is investigated based on UV-Vis absorption and fluorescence, and IR and Raman spectra of guanine and its radical cation in the presence of a model electrode, computed using (TD)M06/6-31++G** method. Effects of electrode potential (V-E degrees), molecule-electrode distance (d) and molecular orientations (theta) on this behavior are investigated. Results indicate that application of electric potential causes changes in the molecular structure and distribution of charge and spin densities, which consequently changes the electronic and vibrational characteristics of the system. Also, perturbation due to the applied electric potential, changes both the intensities and frequencies of the vibrational bands of the studied species. The absorption wavelength, and the peak intensity and width of the electronic spectra of guanine and its radical cation also show sensitivity to the applied electrode potential. Presence of solvent both as electrostatic medium and as explicit solvent (molecules) have significant effects on the spectroelectrochemical properties of guanine, and change the chemical activity of guanine radical cation formed by the electrode reaction. Furthermore, population and orbital analyses show that for all orientations, application of the electric potential by the electrode increases contribution of the intermolecular (guanine -> water) charge density displacement to the UV-Vis transitions.
TRANSFUSION CLINIQUE ET BIOLOGIQUE (12467820)(3)pp. 172-178
Objectives. - The use of leukoreduction filters has been highly increased in Iranian Blood Transfusion Centers within the last decade to provide sufficient leukoreduced blood products from healthy repeated donors for alloimmunized or sensitive recipients. Leucoflex LCR5, the dominant brand which procured by the Iranian Blood Transfusion Organization, is the most updated generation of the filters used around the world. Material and methods. - In this study, we recovered trapped leukocytes from these filters using different buffer solutions and optimized elution method. The count of recovered cells assessed by cell counter, and cell viability was detected using trypan blue staining. The percent of leukocyte subpopulations was evaluated using a panel of monoclonal antibodies and flow cytometric analysis. Results. - It illustrated that a buffer solution consistent with PBS in pH 7.2 containing 2 mM EDTA and 4% (w/w) Dextran 40 was the best buffer for LCR5 filter backflushing. The white cell counted as 4.56 x 10(8) Granulocytes, 3.34 x 10(8) Lymphocytes, and 0.64 x 10(8) Monocytes according to analysis with auto hemo-analysis and flow cytometric methods. Conclusion. - The study guides and assists blood management systems in arranging a national blood profile database for future cell therapy strategies. Also, the recovered cells could be of significance in stem cellresearch, cellular interaction studies as well as novel molecular developments in drug discovery. (C) 2020 Societe francaise de transfusion sanguine (SFTS). Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.
JOURNAL OF HEALTH AND SAFETY AT WORK (2251807X)(2)pp. 19-23
Introduction: Patients' safety culture indicates the extent to which the staffs prioritize the safety of patients. In medical centers, it is very important to pay attention to the patients' safety. Hence, the patients' safety culture should be examined and improved. One of the factors which lead to the improved patients' safety culture is structural empowerment. Structural empowerment refers to adjusting workplace structures by managers and facilitating the staffs' access to organizational facilities. In other words, structural empowerment refers to the staffs' access to four environmental factors (i.e., opportunity, information, support, and resources) in the organization. The objective of the present study was to investigate the relationship between the dimensions of structural empowerment and patients' safety culture. Material and method: The current study was descriptive-correlational research method, and the population included all staffs (i.e., 275 individuals) in the nursing department of a public hospital in Ahvaz. The research sample included 221 staffs who were selected through stratified random sampling. The data were collected through standardized tools, including Effective Working Conditions (the second version), and Patients' Safety Culture in Hospitals questionnaires. The reliability of the questionnaires was examined through Cronbach's alpha. Pearson correlation coefficient, multiple regression analysis (simultaneous method) and one-way analysis of variance were used to analyze the data through SPSS software, version 16. Results: The dimensions of opportunity, support and resources have a positive and significant relationship with the patients' safety culture. However, the information dimension is not significantly related to the patients' safety culture. The results of multiple regression analysis showed that the dimensions of structural empowerment predict 59% of the variance of the patients' safety culture, and from among all dimensions of structural empowerment, opportunity and information in the model do not have a significant effect on the patients' safety culture. In addition, support and resources are the most important predictors of the criterion variables. The results of one-way analysis of variance showed that the score of safety culture among the midwives has the highest value, and the lowest value is attributed to the sitters. In other words, midwives pay more attention to the safety of patients and patients' safety culture. Conclusion: Structural empowerment is one of the factors affecting patients' safety culture which increases patients' safety. Focusing on structural empowerment improves patients' safety culture because when the staffs are structurally empowered, their accuracy and performance would improve, and they would provide more safe services to the patients. Therefore, hospital managers are advised to pay attention to the issue of structural empowerment in order to strengthen the patients' safety culture, and to provide the necessary training and equipment to improve the structural empowerment of their staffs, especially nurses.
To many scholars, textbooks are considered as one of the most crucial factors in EFL settings and play a vital role in language learning classes in all educational contexts. The attempt of this study is to analyze Inside Reading textbook series in terms of layout and coherence. Twenty male and female EFL teachers who had been teaching these series were selected to be interviewed about their ideas on these textbooks. The results showed that 5 out of the total 16 reading texts were in the area of students' interest since the topics were concerned with culture, society, tradition, and history. Three of the texts were reported not to be of interest to students from their instructors' attitudes due to the fact that they were both about unfamiliar topics that students did not have any content information about and were not related to the students' cultural, social or historical background. Almost all mentioned reading texts were perceived very intriguing and considered apt for students' level of comprehension and vice versa. Of all the visual aids used some considered to be highly purposeful; however, two of them, among all, as stated by teachers, were not useful. The style of written format as well as the font size of the reading texts were seen particularly suitable for learners too..
Background: Recognizing the factors related to psychological disorders such as depression, stress, anxiety, and other related problems in a mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI) can be helpful in designing more effective treatment protocols. This study aimed at examining the effect of some prevalent psychological issues on predicting the quality of life of the MTBI patients. Methods: In this descriptive correlational study, 322 MTBI patients (mean age, 38.8 +/- 10.8 years) who had admitted to the emergency and neurosurgery departments of Kashan Shahid Beheshti Hospital during April-July 2017 were selected using the convenient sampling method. Data were collected using the quality of life (WHOQOL-BREF) questionnaire (as a dependent variable), mental fatigue questionnaire, and depression, anxiety and stress scale (DASS-21). Finally, the data were analyzed in SPSS-23 by multiple regression analysis. Results: The results of the study showed that the regression model was significant (P < 0.001), in which 43% of total changes in the quality of life in MTBI patients were predicted by mental fatigue, depression, stress, anxiety, and gender. Conclusion: The findings of this study show that there is a negative relationship between psychological factors and quality of life among the MBTI patients. Thus, it is suggested to design more specific psychological-based rehabilitation programs with regard to gender differences to improve the quality of life among these patients after discharging from the hospital.
BACKGROUND: The Internet of Things is a revolution in health care both in the field of patient treatment and health information management. This technology can improve the status of patients, providing them with healthcare, collecting, sharing, storing and analyzing their medical information. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: Since the use of the IOT will create a wonderful future in the field of electronic health and the telecommunications industry, hospitals, health centers and policymakers in the health sector in the country should not neglect to get advantage of this technology. Therefore, this study aims to collect the necessary indicators for entering this technology and also measuring its preparation to use it. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is a practical research and in terms of information gathering, a descriptive survey type that describes and evaluates the preparation of IOT technology implementation in hospitals affiliated to Isfahan University of Medical Sciences. In order to measure the preparation for implementation of such technology in the treatment centers, a model based on the opinion of the experts in this area should be designed. According to which the model of this assessment in 5 different sections in the treatment centers that require this technology are also significant and Effective changes will be reviewed to assess their preparation. RESULT: According to the standard coefficients obtained as a result of reviewing the opinions of the experts in this field, the most effective factor is training of specialist staff in the university and the least effective factor is purchasing technical knowledge from universities and affiliated centers. CONCLUSION: The results show that current hospitals are not prepared to move to this area and the universities should be able to enter the field quickly.
Current Nutrition And Food Science (15734013)(5)pp. 632-637
It is an assumption that different kinds of nutrition, diet, and functional foods might have different positive or negative effects on multiple sclerosis (MS), a neuroinflammatory disease of the central nervous system (CNS). This brief paper involved a study on various kinds of nutrition including salt, fat, dairy, fruit, and vegetables. At the end of this study, appropriate diets were evaluated for MS patients. Based on previous studies both on animal models and on MS patients, excessive dietary salt intake and animal fat had worsening effects on MS patients but fruit and vegetable intake helped the remission of MS and decreased the risk of developing it. There were, of course, conflicting results in different studies over the role of some nutrition in MS and future studies on larger numbers of cases were required to collect reliable results. As a result, at the end of this study and based on literature, it is suggested that a diet should be programmed by nutritionists containing fewer salt, fat, and dairy intake and more fruits and vegetables for MS patients in order to better management of the disease.
ADVANCED FUZZY LOGIC APPROACHES IN ENGINEERING SCIENCE (23288205)pp. 362-377
Reliability is one of the important aspects in product quality that shows efficiency or operation of the product, failure rate, and confidence. When the efficiency of the product is reduced below a desired level, the product is said to have failure. In real world, data collection or access of detailed features of the system is often difficult because of incomplete or unavailable information and probabilistic approach to the conventional reliability analysis. Therefore, to solve this problem, fuzzy set theory is used to evaluate system reliability. This research studies the literature on the reliability of fuzzy systems. Several studies have shown that fuzzy logic method can be more appropriate in comparison with classical methods and mathematical modeling.
One of the most common diseases in the world is diabetes for which no certain cure has been found yet; the only promising way for these patients to survive is to take care. Fasting blood sugar (FBS) is one of the most important indicators of diabetes. But its test is not feasible for the public and requires preparations before implementation. In this study, the prediction of fasting blood sugar (FBS) is considered as a strategy for predicting diabetes for the first time. This study presents a model for prediction of FBS from other factors in blood test of the people. The proposed model, best feature is selected using sine-cosine optimization algorithm; in the second phase, uses neural network (NN) for prediction. In fact, the idea behind this study is to improve sine-cosine algorithm in selecting the features of dataset derived from diabetic patients of Isfahan city which has not been conducted so far. The prediction results of three different neural networks (with training and supervision, without supervision and semi-supervision) showed that multilayer perceptron NN managed to predict FBS with error less than 0.0017.
The present study documents detailed mineral chemistry perspective of Nain ophiolite melange (NOM) of Central Iran with an aim of deciphering the mineral systematics and understanding geothermobarometric equilibration. The NOM covers similar to 600 km(2) and is located at the northwest margin of Central Iranian Microcontinental block. NOM is represented by a sheared, tectonized and serpentinized peridotite intruded by coarse-grained pegmatitic gabbroic dykes, layered gabbro, sheeted dolerite dykes (with typical rodingite alteration) and pillow basalts. Plagioclase in pillow basalt is albitic and indicates its spilitic affinity, while pyroxene is typically quad pyroxene (augite to diopside). Amphiboles belong to calcic group and range from actinolite to magnesio hornblende. Ilmenite is the characteristic opaque phase. Clinopyroxene thermometry records a temperature span of 1100-1300 degrees C, while amphibole thermometry records 979-1145 degrees C. Two-feldspar thermometry also records a similar thermometric range. Amphibole barometry shows higher pressure of equilibration for mantle pegmatite in general and a very low equilibration pressure for sheeted dyke. Pyroxene compositions typically indicate a calc-alkaline basaltic (orogenic) parentage. NOM signifies lherzolite ophiolite type in a chromite-free environment and it is analogous to an idealized ophiolite succession, but has been emplaced in the form of discrete tectonic melange.
JOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN NURSING (17449871)(7)pp. 500-512
Background As nursing is recognised as one of the most stressful occupations in healthcare organisations, nurses are vulnerable to adjustment challenges. Aims The authors examine the association between optimism, distress tolerance and social adjustment through the mediating role of resilience and the moderating role of gender among Iranian nurses. Methods The sample consisted of 183 nurses working in six private hospitals in Iran. The authors employed structural equation modelling to test a moderation-mediation model of social adjustment. Results Findings reveal that: (a) resilience partially mediates the association between distress tolerance and social adjustment and the link between optimism and social adjustment - nurses with high levels of optimism and distress tolerance are significantly more likely to report greater resilience and subsequently report higher social adjustment; and (b) gender plays a moderating role in the model - women reported higher levels of optimism and lower levels of both resilience and distress tolerance than men. However, men reported higher levels of both distress tolerance and resilience as well as better social adjustment in comparison to female nurses. Conclusions The promotion of resilience may contribute to increased social adjustment, optimism and distress tolerance at work.
Today, spatial analysis is one of the important issues of urban planners and practices. The spatial equilibrium in the public services of city reflects a well-organized and desirable urban structure that has expanded the city's public services and utilities appropriately for the residents of the city. The city of Nowsud, one of the border towns of Iran with a population of about 1800 people and according to its sensitive regional situation, needs attention to the urban structure and the provision of public needs so that citizens will be satisfied with them and will require people to stay more in the city. The purpose of this paper is to examine how the level and per capita of the city's public services are distributed and supplied. Educational spaces, green spaces, cultural space, etc. are important elements in the formation of urban neighborhoods and its bone structure. The research method is development method in terms of purpose and is descriptive and analectic in terms of the value and in order to measure the spatial distribution of applications. Williamson coefficients and Shannon entropy models as well as GIS ARC software were used to provide more detailed maps and analyzes. The results of the research show that the city of Nowsud is composed of two old and new main neighborhoods in its spatial structure. The population of the old neighborhood is about one-third of the city's population, with a very high population density than the average of the city. But it should be noted that the placement of most public utilities and services in the new neighborhood is new so that so that the new neighborhood which is in the southern of the city, faces a surplus in per capita and the old neighborhood (the northern part of the city) faces with a huge shortage in per capita. Also, many land uses are not properly located due to their functional radius, which indicates the unfair spatial distribution of land uses as well as the inefficient spatial organization of this city, that finally, some suggestions have been presented to address it.
In this research, the capability of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is evaluated by applying support vector machine (SVM) model to separate polyvinyl chloride (PVC) from other polymers in the recycling process. In our experiment; just single-shot spectrum for each sample was recorded to reach fast LIBS-based technique in a real situation in the recycling factory. Plasma emission of five kinds of waste polymers, including polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polystyrene (PS), polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), and polyvinyl chloride (PVC), was recorded in the air atmosphere. Relative intensities of C-2/C and N/C were selected as input variables for SVM, and then, Radial Basis and Polynomial kernel function and linear function were applied in SVM to classify recorded data related to different kinds of polymers. With polynomial kernel function of degree 2, polymers were separated correctly with an accuracy of 90.5 %. The results of this research demonstrated that the coupling of LIBS with the non-linear SVM method has great potential to be used for on-line, fast, and accurate classification of polymer samples in the recycling process.
UKRAINIAN JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY (25202138)(1)pp. 41-50
Water is the important limitations of management in Zayanderood basin. Adoption and implementation of basin water management bill as provincial in the parliament in 2006. Zayanderood basin management became a dual management and increased the environmental degradation for agricultural production in the west of the basin. The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of the non-expert decision of managers on the environment and water in the west of the Zayanderud basin. So, land cover changes were investigated using Landsat images in the basin from 1993 to 2015. Then, the cost of the destruction of rangeland was estimated in this area for agricultural development. In this study, some of the indicators for measuring the economic values of ecosystems have improved compared to previous studies. Results showed that the change cover land is increasing quickly, while water scarcity of Zayanderood basin has remained in critical condition. Also, an economic value of at least US$1179.77 per hectare was delivered to people in 2015 by the rangeland and the cost of destruction rangelands was $10,247.3 per hectare over the last decade. The total cost of the destruction of rangelands was calculated around US$21,341,342.5 from 2008 to 2015 in this area. The result showed the impact of natural resource services destruction on person's welfare. So, proposed to the decision makers to consider the economic value of rangeland for assessment of agricultural development projects, because the projects with high social costs is not adopted in this area.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY & DEVELOPMENT (09729984)(2)pp. 105-114
Water scarcity and destruction of natural resources are two most important environmental challenges in Zayanderood basin and proper use of water is important in the management of the basin. The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of the non-expert decision of managers on the environment and water in the Zayanderud basin. So, land cover changes were investigated using Landsat images in the basin from 2008 to 2015. Then, the cost of the destruction of rangeland for agricultural development was estimated using some of the indicators of measuring the economic values of ecosystems. Results showed that the change cover land is increasing quickly in some parts of the basin, while water scarcity of Zayanderood basin has remained in critical condition. Also, an economic value of at least US$1455.49per hectare was delivered to people in 2015 by the rangeland and the cost of destruction rangelands was USS10559.6per hectare over the last decade. Considering the impact of natural resource services destruction on person's welfare, proposed to the decision makers to determine the high social value of rangeland for assessment of agricultural development projects.
The purpose of this study according to the importance of life skills in solving interpersonal problems and improving mental health of high school students, was to investigate the effect of life skills training on increasing self-esteem, increasing self-esteem and reducing aggression among high school male students. This researchwas conducted with the quasi-experimental methods and with pre-test design -Post-test by a control group. The statistical population of the study is male high school students in Fereydan city who are in the academic year 1995-94. Sampling in this research was downedby using non-random (available) method. And subjects were divided into two experimental and control groups (each group was 30). In this research, bass and perry aggression questionnaire, Cooper Smith Self-Esteem Questionnaire and Gambler and Richie assertion questionnaire were used. Data were analyzed using SPSS software using multivariate analysis of covariance. The results of the analysis showed that there is a significant difference between the two experimental and control groups in terms of increasing self-esteem, increasing the level of assertiveness and decreasing aggression (P < 0.05). The findings of this study show the effect of life skills training on increasing self-esteem, increasing assertiveness and reducing aggression.
Let R be the finite chain ring R = F-pm [u]/< u(4)>, where p is a prime and m is a positive integer. In this work, we give a complete classification of (1 + alpha u(2))-constacyclic codes of length p(k) over R, where alpha is a nonzero element of F-pm. We also completely determine self-dual such codes and enumerate them. Finally we discuss on Gray-maps on R which preserve self-duality, and also discuss on the images of self-dual constacyclic codes under these Gray maps. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
International environmental law is a set of rules and regulations of international law governing the relations between followers and actors of international law including governmental and non-governmental laws in order to protect environment as well as it is an emerging field whose turning point was Stockholm Conference in 1972. Since then, this field has undergone many changes and lawyers have divided the path evolution into three stages: the 1972 conference, the 1992 Rio Conference and the Rio + 20 Conference; these developments are mainly focused on issues such as development of preventive measures, extend the guarantees of governments' environmental commitments, adjust governments will and curtail national sovereignty principle. However, the process has faced obstacles and limitations such as lack of financial resources, environmental issues and national preferences and governance. Strong and efficient international institutions should be established that have necessary competence and ability in advancing environmental objectives in order to accelerate this process.
AD ALTA-JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH (18047890)(1)pp. 54-57
According to the Quran, there are two kinds of differences between people, which form the criminal and deviant behaviors. One difference is pre-religious or in other words, differences in material and worldly affairs, and one difference is post-religious in which individuals and communities commit a crime and violence against each other with religious incentives and claims. Each of these two types of differences and, consequently, each of these two types of deviant behaviors need the response and prevention of their own. According to the Quran, to deal with differences, wars and conflicts, the spread of monotheism in the community is needed. Monotheism solution to resolve the first type challenges is, the legal system based on religion and no other way can replace it. In fact, all the ways gone from human, have so far been inconclusive. Monotheistic method, contrary to the law, and foster a moral spirit, is a way that its result is permanent and guaranteed, and never allows the abuse and rape to humans. However, the second difference, which caused by jealousy and rebellion, in fact, is a form of mental illness, which the above ways cannot cure the first type deviation, and it is as a cancerous tumor, which must be physically eliminated in order to prevent contagion to other people.
The refuge and its rights are considered as one of the controversial categories and issues of the human rights. In this regard, the Geneva International Convention and the attached protocol can be referred as the most important international document and the most important and valuable measurement criterion related to the refugees. In this research, the rules of Iran and Australia under the Geneva Convention and the attached protocol are compared, that the Iran and Australia's government have joined it. It seems that considering the accession of both Iran and Australia countries to the Geneva Convention, the domestic rules of these countries are perfectly conformed to this international document. Also, it seems that considering the reports of the Australia human rights commission and other defenders' authorities of human rights, the approval of the Australia new rule about prohibition of the arrival of the refugees who arrived by boat illegally on seashore of this country and transferring them to other countries, is contrary to the principle of not returning , that has been mentioned in the related documents.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF COMPUTER SCIENCE AND NETWORK SECURITY (17387906)(7)pp. 301-305
Monitoring vital body sign is very important in medical science and is one of the basic requirements in this branch of science. This has been done manually in the past. With technology improvement in monitoring systems, automated system is used without human intervention. In these systems, sensors connect to patient's body and received data through sensors would be transmitted through wires connected to the central data system for displaying in its monitor. In this paper, we introduce implementing a media access protocol namely PO-MAC. In this protocol collected data through sensors would be transmitted to data center node (data center service node). For proposed implemented protocol evaluation obtained power transmission values, power consumption and delay rate is compared with 2 well known protocols in this area (scope).
2017 IEEE INTERNATIONAL GEOSCIENCE AND REMOTE SENSING SYMPOSIUM (IGARSS) (21536996)pp. 3743-3746
Accelerated loss of ice from Greenland and Antarctica has been observed in recent decades. Ice thickness is a key factor in making predictions about the future of massive ice reservoirs and can be estimated by calculating the exact location of the ice surface and bottom in radar imagery. Identifying the locations of ice boundaries is typically performed manually which is a very time consuming procedure. Here we propose a novel approach which automatically detects the complex topology of ice surface and bottom boundaries based on charged particle concept. Here we first applied anisotropic diffusion to remove the noise and enhance the image. At the second step, we detected the contours in the image based on Coulomb's electrostatic law and the assumption that each pixel is an electrically charged particle. The final ice surface and bottom are detected based on the projection profile of the contours. The results are evaluated on a large dataset of airborne radar imagery collected during IceBridge mission over Antarctica and show promising results with respect to hand-labeled ground truth.
ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY & APPLIED SCIENCE RESEARCH (22414487)(4)pp. 1870-1873
One of the newest and most well-known train patterns for evaluating the effectiveness of in-service staffs training is Kircpatrick model. In this paper, the effectiveness of staff training courses of Refah-bank is evaluated. A questionnaire consisted of five components which include: reaction, learning, of behavior, the results and the innovation in role of confounding factors is handed out. The survey results show that three factors (reactions, behavior and innovation) have a significant effect on the teachings effectiveness according to Kircpatrick model. And that two factors (learning and results of the courses) have not a significant effect.
TURKISH ONLINE JOURNAL OF DESIGN ART AND COMMUNICATION (21465193)pp. 232-239
The purpose of this research is comparative consideration of literacy situation among Iranian fourth-grade students with selected countries and suggestion of proper curriculum. To this end, from region countries, the countries that are participated in PIRLS study and their information is accessible selected for consideration and comparison. Also, for the section of proper curriculum suggestion, 12 clear-sighted persons were interviewed. The interviews performed by half structured approach and their content validity confirmed by experts and analyzed by categorization approach. The results show that the skill of literacy of Iranian fourth-grade students has acceptable advancement in comparison with most of selected countries that this advancement was more among the years of 2006-2011. Also, according to results, suggested curriculum puts its purpose on comprehension and high level cognitive processes for improving reading skill and uses various and rich contents with educational approaches and active and compound evaluation.
Reduction of fossil fuel consumption and utilization of renewable energy resources in order to achieve several objectives in relation to the environment, preservation of fossil fuel resources and optimal exploitation of existing energy sources constitute pivotal programs of governments and organizations in all of the developed and most of the developing countries. In this article, energy flow in a local energy grid including the production, producers and consumers of energy is modeled as a mathematical programming pattern to minimize costs and maximize users' satisfaction and with respect to the network limitations for a mathematical programming pattern for modeling. Finally, the optimization model is implemented for the energy grid of a chemical production factory. The results indicate that using this model for the studied factory reduces the level of energy costs by 10 percent.
Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of rebound therapy practical program on explosive power of bottom extremity in hearing-impaired students. Methods: 32 hearing-impaired female students voluntarily participated in this study and they were randomly divided into two experimental and control groups. Explosive power of bottom extremityin pretest and post-test was measured using Sargent Jump Test. Experimental group performed rebound practical program for 8 weeks and 3 sessions per week for 30 to 45 minutes. SPSS version 18 software was used for statistical analysis. Results: The mean and standard deviation of age (16.22 +/- 1.641year), weight (52.88 +/- 10.070 Kg) and height (158.09 +/- 7.239cm) of subjects were measured. The mean of Sargent jump test record in pre-test were 2517.28 and 3474.65 in the two groups and these values got to 2167.8 and 2910.08 in post-test. The findings suggested positive effect of rebound therapy practical program on explosive power of bottom organ (p= 0.839) in the hearing-impaired students. Conclusion: According to the obtained results, rebound therapy practical program is effective in rehabilitation of hearing-impaired students and this method can be used in physical rehabilitation in hearing-impaired children and teenagers.
Bulletin Of The Iranian Mathematical Society (1017060X)(6)pp. 2027-2050
In this work, we study direct limits of finite dimensional basic classical simple Lie superalgebras and obtain the conjugacy classes of Cartan subalgebras under the group of automorphisms.
In this paper we provide sufficient condition for existence of a unique Hilbert valued (H-valued) periodically correlated solution to the first order autoregressive model X-n = rho X-n(n-1) + Z(n), for n is an element of Z, and formulate the existing solution and its autocovariance operator. Also we specially investigate equivalent condition for the coordinate process < X-n, v >, for arbitrary element v in H, to satisfy in some autoregressive model. Finally, we extend our result to the autoregressive process with finite order.
JOURNAL OF POLITICS AND LAW (19139047)(1)pp. 71-83
Punishing the criminals is one of the criminal justice mechanisms to compensation and reparation for victims and society. In this regards some of the punishments are determined by criminal justice systems in every society. Imprisonment is one of these penalties which specified in this regard and through this punishment the convicted persons are detained in prison. However, the guilty is sentenced to prison and restriction of his or her liberties, but she or he has fundamental rights and freedoms that must be protected even if in prison and has the right to how to be punished. All of these rights and freedoms are protected by the rule of law. This issue means that how to be punished is restricted under the definite principles which have to be exercised when the retribution and punishment is ongoing. This matter of criminal law and criminal justice is considered as right on how to be punished. The area of this right and authority of prison's heads and its personnel is determined by law. In order to do that and protection of prisoner's human rights and regulating manner with them and also for prison management, the rule of law provided a set of guidelines. According to these guidelines prison is managed in the legal framework as well as in this context the prisoner's rights are protected effectively. These guidelines are provided in some of international legal instruments. This article investigates these guidelines and in respect of their human rights aspects which related to the environmental, educational, management, health care, personnel and humanistic dimensions of imprisonment these guidelines and instructions are studied and analyzed.
The rule of law is one of the very polemical and controversial concepts in the field of public law and political thoughts. This concept has been acclaimed in both international and domestic level and can be observed in the practice of the United Nations and many of states practically. In the light of the principle of the rule of law at the meantime ruling by law can be strengthened and also security and peace, development, democracy and human rights can be protected and promoted. The rule of law and human rights as two concepts with mutually interacting to each other has noteworthy great importance. An independent and impartial judiciary such as linkage has an important role in strengthening both of them. Human rights, separation of powers and judicial independence are regarded as some basis of the rule of law and as well as its consequence. Thus, in this regard rule of law has p very guidelines and indicators which some of them related to the judicial systems of states. In the light of exercise of these guidelines human rights are better protected and promoted. These instructions and guidelines generally are provided in international and regional human rights instruments to enforce in every sector of the state and especially for judges and judicial power to protection and promotion of human rights. This article investigates the relationship between rule of law and judicial system to introduce some measures and indicators of the rule of law to enforce them in the judiciary for better protection and promotion of human rights.
1ST INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON APPLIED ECONOMICS AND BUSINESS (22125671)pp. 189-200
Consumers' brand preferences and loyalty is what has obsessed minds of consumer behavior analysts for many years. There are, definitely, many factors influencing this process but undoubtedly, culture is the most effective factor on a consumer's behavior which is presented in the values and norms a society emphasizes. Culture affects consumer's buying behavior due to its emergence in the values they focus. Since values are long lasting, efforts to change them are useless. So, marketers almost always try to swim along the waves of culture rather than against them. Every culture consists of a series of values which are transferred to its members. One of the most common views in brand preferences studies is the self-congruity theory, according to which a consumer's behavior is to a great extent defined by comparing one's self image with the brand personality of a product. This theory plays an important role in marketing as it is mentioned that consumers are mainly influenced by their self-image, especially when making fashion buying decisions. This paper focuses on how much brand preferences are identified by cultural values of consumers and to what extent each construct of values can explain brand preferences in Iranian context. Brand preference in this research is measured using a brand personality scale. Values are also measured using list of values (LOV). Hence, a sample of 313 consumers of Adidas, Nike and Holiday sports clothes was selected in Tehran. Structural equation modeling technique and one-way ANOVA were utilized for data analysis. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.
The development of eco-friendly and efficient processes via one-pot multicomponent synthesis is a very attractive topic. In this work, the Erlenmeyer-Plochl azlactone synthesis was carried out through unique, safe, fast and practical conditions without any catalyst, applying a simple microreactor and gave the corresponding products exclusively. A continuous, first microflow synthesis of N-benzoylglycine carbamide derivatives as AT-130 analogues catalyzed by NafionH@SPIONs was also established successfully.
Two species of spatangoid echinoid belonging to Heteraster ORBIGNY, 1853, are described from Lower Cretaceous deposits (Gadvan and Dariyan formations) at the Kuh-e Gadvan and Banesh sections situated in Zagros Mountains, south of Iran. Heteraster couloni (AGASSIZ, 1839) is confirmed in the Barremian and Heteraster delgadoi (LORIOL, 1884) in the late Aptian-Albian of Iran. The occurrences of Heteraster and other spatangoid echinoids in Iran show a clear distinction between assemblages from the southern and northern margins of the Tethys during the Early Cretaceous.
SALMAND-IRANIAN JOURNAL OF AGEING (1735806X)(2)pp. 322-329
Objectives Postural control is the act of maintaining and restoring a better state of balance and proper biomechanics structure in limbs and different parts of the body. Such proper structure exists in two forms namely static and dynamic. Fatigue is one of the factors that affect the postural control and body stability. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of hip abductor muscle fatigue on the static and dynamic balance in elderly women. Methods & Materials The participants of this study included 25 elderly and healthy women without any disability (60.24 +/- 8.5 years old, weight: 60.58 +/- 9.54 kg, height: 153.42 +/- 7.65cm). In the first session, the participants underwent static and dynamic balance tests in the normal condition (without fatigue). In the second session, at first, they participated in the hip abductor muscle fatigue protocol followed by static and dynamic balance tests. In addition, t-test was used to compare the results before and after the fatigue. Results The results indicated that the hip abductor muscle fatigue protocol led to a significant reduction in test scores of balance tests, which included static and dynamic balance. Also, a significant difference was observed between static and dynamic balance before and after fatigue. Overall, the measure of the effect of fatigue protocol was notable in both the tests (P<0.05). Conclusion Reduction in the scores of static and dynamic balance tests showed that the hip abductor muscle fatigue caused an increase in the amount of damage and length of disability in elderly women.
Parliament is the basic pillar of a democratic society and as the most important legislative body in the country; it is considered the heart of democracy. Today, democracy will appear in the form of parliamentary and representation. The Iranian parliament, with 290 representatives, in terms of structure, has a unicameral system, but its legislative power is not simple. As a result, the legislature also enjoys wide powers and can withstand the abuse of executive power. The present study aims to investigate the nature and the structure and functions of the legislature in Iran. It should be noted that the method of data collection is observed and the nature of the study is descriptive.
JOURNAL OF FUNDAMENTAL AND APPLIED SCIENCES (11129867)pp. 90-104
The advancement in protein expression systems causes yield of each peptide intracellular at least as host. The yield proteins should be purified eventually to provide use possibility or study on them. Therefore rapid and thereby economical purification of an active biological recombinant protein from other cell contents is considered as one of greatest challenges in Biotechnology field. Purification of target protein or enzyme can be facilitated through the integration of genetic sequences with an affinity tag. In this case the tag to the target protein and the protein are expressed as a single unit and the protein can be isolated through one of purification methods by tag from other cellular contents. The affinity tags are commonly used in research laboratories because they can be used to purify wide range of high Purification. One of the important limits of affinity tags is unintended effect of tag on the natural function of the protein, its physicochemical properties and also the next applications. So separating tag after the purification process of target protein is essential. While the process is done through specific endopeptidase, the incoming cost prevents the technique of large-scale application. In addition, applied peptidase should be separated From protein within isolation process which the same matter increases labor costs further and prevents application of these tags in industrial scale. Therefore proper replacement is emphasized for enzymatic removal of purification tags.
Faith had a special place in the thought of Augustine, so that it should be considered essential as a starting point in the process of human purification. In this opinion, our knowledge to the seen and believable affairs would be the thoughts and faith respectively. This approch stated about the role of faith in the understanding that revelation invites us to believe and we cannot understand as long as we don't believe. The Greek ideas have been used during Fathers period and its subject matter emphasized that there is a great and infinite God. The concept of God in Greek philosophy was close to the God of the Bible in some ways. Justin martyr confirmed that the Christian faith is the only valid and useful philosophy. More righteous God should be inclusive to the extent of justice's concept. God worship must be a responsibility not just for the chosen nation, but other people also worship him. Augustine and holy texts considered attributes to God such as infinite, substantive, creative, love, goodness, justice, almighty, creator, eternal and penetrating. Augustine knew the God's righteousness attribute eternal and said about God that he is an eternal and immutable truth that is present in our minds and he agreed the formal theory of three hypostases (God, Christ or the Logos and the Holy Spirit). He was one of the greatest Christian theorist of the Trinity; the only real God has been formed from three persons under the names of Father, Son and the Holy Spirit in his view. The most important attribute of God is unity. The doctrine of grace is as the basic Christian concepts. Paul knew the grace implies on the act of mercy of God and also a major factor for salvation. Augustine knew the first humanity's sin great and unjust somehow our minds are unable to understand the damages caused by it. No one are known to be exempted of this just and true punishment unless, free mercy and grace of God release him. Religious reformation motion also questioned the authoritarianism in religious life and its emphasis on the personal aspect of faith that played a role in the transition from the medieval world to the modern era. The impact of Christian classical teachings and the ideas of Augustine was undeniable on the development of Christian theology.
Categories And General Algebraic Structures With Applications (23455853)(1)pp. 153-162
Locally extended affine Lie algebras were introduced by Morita and Yoshii as a natural generalization of extended affine Lie algebras. After that, various generalizations of these Lie algebras have been investigated by others. It is known that a locally extended affine Lie algebra can be recovered from its centerless core, i.e., the ideal generated by weight vectors corresponding to nonisotropic roots modulo its centre. In this paper, in order to realize locally extended affine Lie algebras of type A(1), using the notion of Tits-Kantor-Koecher construction, we construct some Lie algebras which are isomorphic to the centerless cores of these algebras.
A theoretical study is carried out on the effect of non-dipole interactions on the electron spin dynamics in the asymmetric diatomic HeH2+ in its first excited state in intense linearly polarized laser fields. The Foldy-Wouthuysen transformation is used to solve the Dirac equation numerically without BOA. Effects of the phase of the laser pulse and alignment of the molecule on the relativistic characteristics, such as the pure spin and the pure spin-orbit current densities, spin-orbit force and spin torque, are investigated. The results of this study demonstrate that population oscillates between the two spin states during the course of interaction and its configuration depends on the molecular axis orientation and initial phase of the laser pulse. Also, a small polarization takes place in the spin states, even in the absence of the spin-orbit coupling. Furthermore, spin and spin-orbit current densities are phase-dependent and affected differently by the phase of the laser pulse.
Osteoarthritis is considered as the most common joint disease of humans and one of the most common causes of chronic disability among elderly people in the developed countries. The main objective of the present research was to determine the impact of 8 weeks of the combined exercises on the balance and the amount of pain of patients with knee osteoarthritis. 15 patients with knee arthritis were selected purposefully and in form of convenience and they participated in this research. The patients implemented the Training Protocol of walking in water and land and the knee locking and the front thigh exercises for 8 weeks. Dynamic balance (Y test) and pain (McGill questionnaire) of patients with knee arthritis were measured and evaluated before and after eight weeks of combined exercises. The data were analyzed by use of the t-dependent (P<0.05). In the dynamic balance of patients with knee arthritis, there was significant difference regarding the anterior side between before-exercises (39.9 7.2) and after-exercises (50.7 6.8), regarding the internal posterior side between before-exercises (28.8 9.2) and after-exercises (38.0 8.7), regarding the external posterior direction between before-exercises (37.5 7.2) and after-exercises (44.4 7.4). (P<0.05). Regarding sense perception of pain by patients, there was significant difference between before-exercises (2.2 0.6) and after-exercises (1.8 0.5), regarding the emotional perception of pain by patients between before-exercises (1.5 0.3) and after-exercises (1.2 0.3) and on perceiving variety of pain by patients between before-(2.1 0.8) and after-practices (1.8 0.7) (P<0.05). From the findings of the present research we can conclude that the hydrotherapy exercises combined with exercises on land can cause to improve the dynamic balance and the pain of patients with knee arthritis; therefore we can recommend it as a modality for these patients.
For several decades, the Rohingya ethnic minority, in Myanmar's Rakhine state is exposed to the systematic violence by the state and governmental agents. The intensity of this violence was emerged in June 2012 and attract the international community attention towards of the Myanmar's country. The theory of responsibility to protect, is the primary responsibility to protect of the people against the four major crimes, including genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing which are in charge of the each country state. At the same time, in the absence of willing or clear ability of the mentioned government, the international community has a responsibility to act under the Charter of the United Nations and in accordance with the charter provisions to prevent or stop of the mentioned crimes. According to the necessary urgent support from the Rohingya, in this study, in addition to explain the concept of theory of responsibility to protect, the possibility of international crimes against of them is examined and whereas with regard to this question whether in the Myanmar Rohingya situation, there is the invoke condition in terms of the theory of responsibility to protect or not, indeed, whether the international community can invoke to protect them with regard to this theory or not, will be answered.
JOURNAL OF RADIATION RESEARCH AND APPLIED SCIENCES (16878507)(3)pp. 354-361
The ocean heat exchange process is a key mechanism in climate variations over a broad time - scale. In this study, the long-term mean surface heat fluxes over the Persian Gulf have been estimated by the empirical relations using data derived from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The basin-averaged annual mean values of heat transfer due to solar radiation, sensible heat flux, long-wave radiation flux and latent fluxes are about 219, -14, -75 and -136, respectively. Therefore, the long - term annual mean net heat flux is about -6 W m(-2) (negative sign means upward heat flux) and shows a very good agreement with the direct measured advective value through the Hormuz Strait. The spatial distribution of the surface heat fluxes, which has not been investigated before, show relatively large spatial variation in latent heat flux. The annual mean net heat flux spatial distribution varies from about -30 to 10 W m(-2), with greatest heat loss in southeastern and northwestern regions of the Gulf. In mid - winter (January), the northern region along the Iranian coast loses heat (about 20-80 W m(-2)) but southern and northwestern shallow regions gain heat (about 15 W m(-2)) from the atmosphere. In mid-summer (July) the spatial variation in net heat flux is weak and is positive at most all over the Gulf. Copyright (C) 2015, The Egyptian Society of Radiation Sciences and Applications. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V.
Objective The goal of this study was to compare the effect of 8 weeks aerobic exercise with resistance training on Brain-derived neurotrophic factor level of old men. Methods & Materials In this semi-experimental study, a total of 30 elderly men were selected from worldly-wise club of Broujen City, Iran and randomly divided into 3 groups of aerobic training, resistance training, and control (each 10 people). All participants filled the health questionnaire and testimonial. Then, the balance tests and fasting blood was taken. The aerobic and resistance training group trained for 8 weeks, 3 sessions per week, 1 to 15 hours in each session. The aerobic training was with 40% to 70% of maximum heart rate and the resistance training was with 45% to 65% of one RM. During of this time, the control group did no training. After 8 weeks, the balance test was administered and blood samples were taken. Results Findings were analyzed with test variance analyzing at 0.05. The results showed there was a significant difference between aerobic and resistance training regarding brain-derived neurotrophic factor level (P<0.05). Also, comparison of the 2 kinds of training did not show significant difference in static and dynamic balance (P>0.05). Conclusions The results show that both aerobic exercise and resistance increase serum brain-derived neurotrophic factor levels.
The purpose of current research is to assess the influential factors on WOM in the context of Airlines and to explore the factors that are likely to enhance the chances that receivers of WOM might be influenced by such information. The statistical population was passengers who have used Iran Airline Company's services during January and February 2013. Using a pilot study of 50 samples, 296 passengers were selected with convenience-sampling method. A self-administrated questionnaire were employed to collect data. To analyze data, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), Pearson correlation and structural equation modeling (SEM) were used. Findings show that satisfaction, loyalty, perceived value, service quality, and trust have a significant impact on WOM. Further, WOM has influenced subjective norms, attitude towards company, and referral intention. Additionally, attitude towards company had a significant impact on referral intention. However, there was not found significant relationship between subjective norms and referral intention. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
The investigated section cropping out in Kuh-e-Banesh, Zagros basin (southern Iran) is represented by limestone, Cherty beds and marl levels bearing abundant Planktonic foraminifers, radiolarian microfaunas, and ammonite imprints. For the first time, well to moderately preserved forms of Planktonic foraminifera have been extracted from black shale and marls levels. Extracted biota was studied with regard to relationship with abundances of radiolarian and total organic carbon. Rock Eval analysis shows high total organic carbon content within Daryian Formation (lower part). The presence of high abundances of planktonic foraminifers and radiolarian associated with high total organic carbon content in the lower part of the Dariyan Formation suggest a high productivity event, eutrophication, and warming phenomena of the ocean during early Cretaceous. Biostratigraphical ranges of planktonic foraminifera in the studied section indicate Early Aptian to early Late Aptian age. It is, therefore, implicated that the oceanic anoxic event 1a (OAE 1a) interval be regarded as equivalent levels in Tethys domains. The black shale of oceanic anoxic event is characterized by the widespread existence of regionally organic-rich beds in the Tethys basins. Micro-paleontological and geochemical results provide new insights into the paleogeography of the Tethys realm and better correlation with well-studied worldwide successions.
AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF BOTANY (00671924)(1-2)pp. 31-38
Serpentine-endemic plants need to grow in substrates with low calcium (Ca). To test this hypothesis, we compared some of the survival-related physiological responses to different concentrations of Ca in Alyssum inflatum (serpentine endemic) and A. lanceolatum (non-serpentine plant). Accordingly, we grew the plants by using solution culture, and the death of root cells was estimated by using Evan's blue staining. The electrolyte and protein leakage from roots and NADH oxidation activity in the leaked contents were measured as indices of cell death. The results showed that despite the higher growth of shoots in serpentine plants, the high concentration of Ca caused less root growth. Meanwhile, we observed root-cell death, whole-plant death, more electrolyte and protein leakage from roots and a greater NADH oxidation activity in Ca-treated serpentine plants. In non-serpentine plants, both root and shoot showed more growth, whereas no evidence of cell death in the roots was observed. On the basis of the responses to different concentrations of Ca, we introduce the serpentine plant A. inflatum as a stenocalcic that has to live in substrates with a narrow range of Ca concentrations so that it could prevent lethal Ca toxicity. The results demonstrated the reason behind the uneven distribution of the plant on serpentine patches in its habitat.
Background: Studies show that lack of exercise and physical activity during childhood and teenage years is directly related to different diseases in adulthood. Objectives: The main purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of an eight-week aerobic exercise on the quality of life as well as physiological indicators of cardiovascular endurance of inactive high school male students in Kashan. Materials and Methods: The study was a field trial using pretest and post-test. Three hundred high school male students in Kashan, Iran, were recruited and interviewed by the researchers, using a questionnaire. Of the inactive ones, 30 who reached the highest criteria standards, were selected as samples and randomly divided to two equal groups. The maximum consumed oxygen (VO2max) and resting heart rate were measured by Quinn aerobic test, and the quality of life was measured by the World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL-26-Breef) questionnaire. The exercise program included an eight-week aerobic exercise, three times per week, with 60%-75% of the maximum heart beat. During the exercise, the subjects had no other sport activity. To check the normal distribution of the data, Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was used. To evaluate the pretest and post-test results, paired t-test was used and for comparing the groups, independent t-test was applied. All the analyses were performed by SPSS software version 16. Results: The mean ages of intervention and control groups were 17.46 +/- 1.30 and 17.53 +/- 1.18, respectively. The mean weight of the intervention group was 56.73 +/- 9.91 kg and its mean body mass index (BMI) was 19.88 +/- 3.42. In the control group, the mean weigh and BMI were 60.06 +/- 11.96 kg and 20.79 +/- 3.51, respectively. The quality of life and its components improved significantly in the intervention group (physical (P = 0.0001), mental (P = 0.0001), social (P = 0.0001), and environmental (P = 0.0001) aspects). VO2max (P = 0.001) and the resting heart beat (P = 0.0001) significantly improved in the intervention group. No significant difference was observed in the control group (P >= 0.05). Conclusions: Aerobic exercise program improved the quality of life as well as the physiological indicators. Physical activities can be used as both appropriate model and nonpharmaceutical approach to prevent and cure some diseases.
The purpose of current study is to investigate the effect of social media on customers' attitude towards brand and purchase intention. Population was customers of Iran Khodro Company in the area of Tehran. Using a self-administrated questionnaire, 210 respondents were asked to answer the survey employing convenience-sampling method. The results of structural equation modelling indicated that traditional advertising and social media have significant impact on brand attitude. However, the effect of traditional advertising was less than social media. Further, brand attitude has a significant impact on purchase intention. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd.
Responding to compliments is intellectually demanding on the part of the receiver since a balance should be made in order for not rejecting the addressor's compliment and not praising one's self. In this study an attempt has been made to shed light on compliment responses produced by Iranian EFL speakers as well as by the native speakers of American English in oral communicative contexts through naturalistic role-play tasks and retrospective interviews. The results revealed that the L2 participants differed from native speakers in different aspects. In addition to the shortage of cultural background, the lack of knowledge on linguistic forms could be regarded as the factors impacting the way the participants responded to compliments. (C) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
TRANSACTIONS ON COMBINATORICS (22518657)(2)pp. 17-20
Let n be any positive integer, the friendship graph F, consists of n edge -disjoint triangles that all of them meeting in one vertex. A graph G is called cospectral with a graph H if their adjacency matrices have the same eigenvalues. Recently in http://arxiv.org/pdf/1310.6529v1.pdf it is proved that if G is any graph cospectral with F, (n not equal 16), then G similar or equal to F-n. Here we give a proof of a special case of the latter: Any connected graph cospectral with F, is isomorphic to F-n. Our proof is independent of ones given in http://arxiv.org/pdf/1310.6529v1.pdf and the proofs are based on our recent results given in [Trans. Comb., 2 no. 4 (2013) 37-52.] using an upper bound for the largest eigenvalue of a connected graph given in [J. Combinatorial Theory Ser. B 81 (2001) 177-183.].
APPLIED COMPUTATIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND SOFT COMPUTING (16879724)
The traveling salesman problem (TSP) is one of the most famous problems. Many applications and programming tools have been developed to handle TSP. However, it seems to be essential to provide easy programming tools according to state-of-the-art algorithms. Therefore, we have collected and programmed new easy tools by the three object-oriented languages. In this paper, we present ADT (abstract data type) of developed tools at first; then we analyze their performance by experiments. We also design a hybrid genetic algorithm (HGA) by developed tools. Experimental results show that the proposed HGA is comparable with the recent state-of-the-art applications.
JOURNAL OF TEACHING ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC AND ACADEMIC PURPOSES (23349182)(2)pp. 245-252
It seems axiomatic that EFL learners at schools or universities have major challenges to overcome. Over the years, there has been a specific focus on the teaching of students the academic literacy skills which they would need in their higher education. Though the rush of these studies surrounding the literacy skills have been very helpful to teachers, few have looked beyond the reading and writing skills to the issues of concern to academic speaking and listening skills and their possible difficulties for students and teachers. In addition, there has been few if any research to look at both ESP and general English (GE) language teacher's thoughts about the speaking difficulties and course requirements. In the present study, there was also an attempt to compare the difficulty perceptions of teachers and learners with regard to the speaking skill in the classroom. The study also aimed at providing suggestions for equipping learners to better cope with the communication problems. Differences between ESP and GE teacher's perceptions of speaking difficulties and those between teachers and learners were investigated using independent samples T-test. Differences were found only between the teachers and learners' perceptions; there were no differences between ESP and GE teachers' positions regarding the speaking skill. Pedagogical implications of the study are further discussed.
2014 19TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON DIGITAL SIGNAL PROCESSING (DSP) (15461874)pp. 383-388
Hand pointing detection has multiple applications in many fields such as virtual reality and control devices in smart homes. In this paper, we proposed a novel approach to detect pointing vector in 2D space of a room. After background subtraction, face and forehead is detected. In the second step, forehead skin H-S plane histograms in HSV space is calculated. By using these histogram templates of user's skin, and back projection method, skin areas are detected. The contours of hand are extracted using Freeman chain code algorithm. Next step is finding fingertips. Points in hand contour which are candidates for the fingertip can be found in convex defects of convex hull and contour. We introduced a novel method for finding the fingertip based on the special points on the contour and their relationships. Our approach detects hand-pointing vectors in live video from a common webcam with 94% TP and 85% TN.
Trace elements play a significant role in biological processes. The aim of this study was to evaluate the trace elements of interest in kidney disease in commonly consumed greenhouse vegetables in Isfahan, Iran. Six kinds of greenhouse vegetables namely; Raphanus sativus (Radish), Cucumis sativus (Cucamber), Solanum lycopersicum (Tomato), green Capsicum annuum (Green bell pepper), yellow Capsicum annuum (Yellow bell pepper) and red Capsicum annuum (Red bell pepper) were collected from Isfahan greenhouses, between December 2012 to March 2013. The vegetables were analyzed in order to determine the concentrations of trace elements and trace minerals using instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA). The results of INAA showed that, the concentrations of Fe (Iron), Mn (Manganese) and Zn (Zinc) were varied from <10-50.0 mgkg(-1), 6.8-15.0 mgkg(-1) and 10.0-23.0 mgkg(-1), respectively. The elemental concentration of Fe, Mn and Zn in all of the samples were less than the defined tolerable Upper Intake Level (UIL). The results of this study revealed that, considering the measured trace elements and mineral content levels, Isfahan greenhouse vegetables do not impose any serious health harmful effects for individuals in the studied area due to their meal consumptions.
International Journal Of Engineering (10252495)(6)pp. 577-585
Adders and multipliers are two main parts of arithmetic units of computer hardware and play important role in reversible computations. This paper introduces a novel reversible 4x4 multiplier circuit that is based on an advanced Partial Product Generation Circuits (PPGC) with Peres gates only without duplicating gates. Again, an optimized Peres full adder reversible gate is used in Reversible Parallel Adder (RPA) part with accompaniment with the carry save adder technique. Comparison of the proposed design with previous ones shows that the proposed reversible multiplier improves the quantum parameters. The proposed design shows lower quantum cost and depth with the help of a novel design in PPGC. The circuit cost of the proposed design is a little higher than the best compared design, but the proposed design shows the lowest total cost which is defined as sum of quantum cost and circuit cost. Moreover, the number of gates, garbage input and output has no change regarding to the best compared design. The proposed multiplier can be generalized as an nxn bit multiplication.
ZEITSCHRIFT FUR NATURFORSCHUNG SECTION B-A JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL SCIENCES (09320776)(7)pp. 811-817
Photocatalytic ring opening of alpha-epoxyketones by 2,3-dichloro-5,6-dicyano-1,4-benzoquinone (DDQ) in acetone resulted in the diastereoselective formation of 1,3-dioxolanes through C-alpha-O bond cleavage. The facility of the ring opening is influenced by the nature and the location of the additional substituent on the alpha-epoxyketones.
This study was designed to reveal university students' motivations for sport. A sample of 934 students (male: 47.4%; female: 52.6%) with different educational levels and fields of study were involved in our research. A revised and developed scale was employed for measuring the students' motivation. Inferential and descriptive statistics were used to describe the differences in students' motivations for sport. The results indicated that having fun and experiencing joy, maintaining physical and mental health, and having a fit body were rated most frequently as the students' motivations for sport; whereas spending leisure time, being with friends, and participating in competitions were found as the lowest motivational dimensions. Furthermore, various motivational differences could be observed between students regarding their gender, age, educational level, and field of study. In conclusion, it is suggested that preparing special plans based on the students' different motivations and on their special needs for sport could improve their participation rate in sporting activities.
This paper is concerned with the optimal placement of protection devices in a microgrid using particle swarm optimization algorithm. One of the main advantages of Distributed Generation (DG) scheme and microgrids in modern distribution systems is the reduction of number of outages and the associated damages caused by them. This task is accomplished by supplying a feeder from multiple sources. In order to prevent generator instability in DGs connected to utility, it is necessary to improve the protective schemes of traditional distribution systems and also to use proper relaying and setting for DGs. All of the downstream overcurrent (OC) relays of each DG are coordinated together and also should be coordinated with OC relay that is installed on the Point of Common Coupling (PCC) which is set at Critical Clearing Time (CCT) as a definite time, to have a desirable performance on each outage. In this paper, by the use of graph theory, various branches of a feeder are identified and the constraints for using particle swarm optimization algorithm to optimize the location of protective equipment are derived. In the proposed algorithm, the location, type and direction of relays are optimized simultaneously.
We study total acyclicity for complexes of projective and injective representations of quivers. A classification is given for such complexes in terms of associated vertex-complexes. When the base ring or the quiver is nice enough, this classification is used to prove the existence of Gorenstein projective precovers in the category of representations of quivers. Furthermore, we exploit this local description to obtain some criteria for the category of representations of a quiver to be Gorenstein or virtually Gorenstein. If is an artin algebra it is proved that, for an arbitrary quiver ?, the representation category Rep(?, ) is virtually Gorenstein whenever is virtually Gorenstein. A description of Gorenstein projective and Gorenstein injective representations of quivers over general rings is also provided.
The emergence of a genuine civil society with its democratic elements is of significant importance in furthering women's rights. This article explores the interrelation between democratization and the women's movement in Iran. In view of the fact that the pursuance of women's rights itself is part of the process of democratization, it is demonstrated that the fulfillment of women's rights cannot be postponed until the emergence of an ideal society, that is, an open society. This article also examines how the women's press, in the absence of a proper political party system, has become a key space wherein the debates about women's issues have been articulated.
This study is focused on the biostratigraphy, sedimentary environments, facies distribution, and sequence stratigraphy of the Coniacian-Santonian sediments of Tange-Bulfaris section. Five assemblage zones have been recognized by distribution of the foraminifera in the study area. Assemblage zone 1(Chara Ostracods zone) is Coniacian in age and occurs in the lower part of the succession. Assemblage zone 2 (Valvulammina - Dicyclina zone) and Assemblage zone 3 (Rotalia cf. skourensis- Algae zone) are Coniacian - Santonian in age. Dicarinella concavata interval zone suggests a Coniacian to earliest Santonian age. Dicarinella asymetrica total range zone is Santonian in age. These sediments are subdivided into eight microfacies types belonging to various sedimentary environments, ranging from continental lacustrine to very shallow and relatively deep-water (hemipelagic to pelagic) marine environments. The observed facies patterns indicate a carbonate open shelf depositional environment. The inner shelf facies is characterized by wackestone-packstone, dominated by various taxa including miliolids, Rotalia, bryozoa, mollusca, ostracods and green algae. The middle shelf is represented by wackestone- packstone with a diverse assemblage of echinoid, corallinacean and bryozoans. Basinwards is dominated by argillaceous packstone characterized by planktonic foraminifera. Based on field observations, microfacies analysis and sequence stratigraphic concept, one-third-order sequence in the study section was identified. Shallow brackish to fresh-water ponds or lakes (MF 1) were deposited during short periods of very low sea level. The establishment of an open shelf carbonate platform took place during the transgressive system tract. MF (2,3,4,5,6,7) are deposited during the transgressive system tract. Appearance of deeper fauna and glauconite are interpreted as a maximum flooding surface (MF. 8).
We study the set of all determinants of adjacency matrices of graphs with a given number of vertices. Using Brendan McKay's data base of small graphs, determinants of graphs with at most 9 vertices are computed so that the number of non-isomorphic graphs with given vertices whose determinants are all equal to a number is exhibited in a table. Using an idea of M. Newman, it is proved that if G is a graph with n vertices, m edges and {d(1,...,)d(n))} is the set of vertex degrees of G, then gcd(2m, d(2)) divides the determinant of the adjacency matrix of G, where d = gcd(d(1,...,)d(n)). Possible determinants of adjacency matrices of graphs with exactly two cycles are obtained.
AFRICAN JOURNAL OF MICROBIOLOGY RESEARCH (19960808)(9)pp. 2230-2232
In Iran, limited information exists on the epidemiology of hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotypes in different districts of the country. In Charmahal-O-Bakhtiari Province, there was no datum on the mentioned issue. In this study, serum samples were collected from 80 clinical patients (suspected to have HCV infection between 2009 and 2010) and tested in a laboratory in Hajar Hospital of Shahre-Kord, Charmahal-O-Bakhtiari Province, Iran; they were analyzed for HCV ribonucleic acid (RNA). The most frequently found genotype was genotype 3a, present in 11 to 17 (64.7%) patients, followed by genotype 1a. In conclusion, the most frequent HCV genotype in Shahre-Kord was 3a, which was different from that of Iran's general population, an indication that the epidemiology of HCV infection in the region is drug abuse predominated. More studies are needed to confirm this conclusion.
This study aims to compare American and Persian complaint realizations. Fifty five Persian university students complaint utterances were collected via a Discourse Completion Test (DCT) containing eight scenarios and were later coded in terms of seven major categories: opting out, no explicit reproach, indirect complaint, indirect accusation, direct complaint, request for repair and threat. Participants were also interviewed after answering to DCT about their strategy use. General findings showed that Persian complaint realizations are significantly different from those of Americans. Also, findings indicated that Americans used more indirect complaint (IC) and request for repair (RR) but Persians preferred more direct complaint (DC) and indirect accusation (IA) strategies under identical circumstances. The qualitative findings reassured the quantitative results indicating that the speech act of complaint was realized differently through following different sociocultural norms.
Glutathione transferases are multifunctional proteins involved in several diverse intracellular events such as primary and secondary metabolisms, signaling and stress metabolism. These enzymes have been subdivided into eight classes in plants. The Phi class, being plant specific, is the most represented. In the present study, based on the sequences available at GenBank, different primers were designed for amplifying the Phi class of glutathione transferase gene in the genome and transcriptome of Iranian barley, Karoun cultivar. After extraction of DNA and total RNA, Phi class was amplified and sequenced. Bioinformatics analysis predicted that the deduced protein sequence has two beta-sheets, eight alpha-helices and some intermediate loops in its secondary structure. Consequently, the sequences were submitted to NCBI GenBank with GS262333 and GW342614 accession numbers. Phylogenic relationships of the sequences were compared with existing sequences in GenBank.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PHARMACEUTICAL SCIENCES AND RESEARCH (09758232)(2)pp. 424-427
Phytochemical investigations of tuber extracts and evaluation of the hydro-distilled essential oil, obtained from Cyperus rotundus L. (Cyperaceae Family) growing wild in Isfahan Province (Iran) were studied. Phytochemical surveys revealed the presence of flavonoids, tannins, alkaloids and essential oils. Chemical composition of dried tubers essential oil was also analyzed by GC/MS. Sixty natural compounds consisting 95.8% of the total components were identified from the essential oil obtained with a yield of 0.2% (w/w). Sesquiterpene compounds have been found to occur in largest amount in the oil. Among the oil constituents, cyperene (16.9%), caryophyllene oxide (8.9%), alpha-longipinane (8.4%) and beta-selinene (6.6%) were the major components.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS (1923869X)(5)pp. 142-153
Following Nation' (2009) proposal of 40-50 empty spaces as an optimum length of a cloze test, this study examined whether this length would work according to proficiency level. Three cloze tests, adjusted for each proficiency level, were developed by the researcher for the use at beginning, intermediate and advanced levels. The cloze tests measured participants' reading comprehension and included 40, 45 and 50 empty spaces for the beginning, intermediate and advanced levels respectively. Problematic items of each cloze test were identified over several pilot studies. Then they were administered to three groups of L1 Persian EFL learners at the beginning (56), intermediate (43), and advanced (41) levels. Results of the study suggest that an optimum length of a cloze test could vary according to the proficiency level. While the test could be long (including 50 empty spaces) and reliable at the advanced level, a shorter length of the test including 20-25 empty spaces could be more reliable at the beginning and intermediate levels.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ELECTROCHEMISTRY (20903529)
Application of mixed ruthenium oxide hexacyanoferrate/ ruthenium hexacyanoferrate glassy carbon electrode for electrochemical determination of dopamine (DA) is described for the first time. The overlapped voltammetric oxidation potentials of ascorbic acid (AA) and DA are separated and shifted to more facile direction, + 170 and + 320mV versus Ag/AgCl, respectively. Voltammetric response of the electrode toward theDA showed a dynamic calibration curve with two linear parts, from 0.50 to 10.00 mu Mand 25.00 to 550.00 mu M DA, and a detection limit of 0.195 mu M. The sensitivity (0.2917 mu A/mu M) and detection limit (0.195 x 10(-7) mu MDA) of this electrode are 21 times higher and 11.5 times lower than those found in our previous paper. The sensor response of 9.95 mu MDA was not affected by 5.0mM of glucose, 4.5mM of fructose, 0.58mM of sucrose, 0.28mM of cystine, 0.25mM of ascorbic acid, 79.60 mu Mof cysteine, and 49.70 mu Mof uric acid and urea. The fabricated sensor was successfully tested for determination of DA in injection medicine and human blood plasma samples.
IRANIAN JOURNAL OF CHEMISTRY & CHEMICAL ENGINEERING-INTERNATIONAL ENGLISH EDITION (10219986)(2)pp. 23-31
A new category of hybrid organic-inorganic zirconium phosphonate, Zr[(O3PCH2)(2)NC6H4CO2H]center dot 2H(2)O was synthesized and the applicability of the prepared sorbent as an ion-exchanger for removal of Ni2+, Cu2+ and Zn2+ from aqueous solutions was evaluated. The characterization of the synthesis product was done using TG-DTG, SEM, XRD, FT-IR techniques. Study of the sorption isotherms and its kinetic parameters was performed by atomic absorption spectroscopy and potentiometric techniques respectively. The adsorbent showed very high sorption rate and good adsorption capacity. Based on the high sorption rates, a typical ion exchange chromatography separation was performed using a column packed with the synthesized ion-exchanger and the results are discussed.
2ND WORLD CONFERENCE ON PSYCHOLOGY, COUNSELLING AND GUIDANCE-2011 (18770428)
Music has been successful as a therapeutic intervention for persons with mental and physical disabilities. Motor and mental coordination can be improved through many musical experiences. A systematic process of music The purpose of this research was to evaluate the effects of musical activities on developing the sensory-motor functions of multiple handicapping. Two female multiple handicapped that suffered from severe mental retardation (IQ, 30), and severe sensory-motor function were selected randomly from Fatemeh-Al-Zahra centre in Yazd city of Iran. 3 pieces of classic music were used. Ten 1hour music therapy sessions were conducted with them during a 4week period. Nurses completed the pre-post Sensory Motor Questionnaire. The results emphasized the effect of music therapy on sensory motor reactions.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS (00189464)(4)pp. 1116-1122
The aim of this work is to present an accurate analytical model of a double-sided air-core linear permanent-magnet motor with segmented permanent-magnet poles. The thrust average as well as thrust ripple is precisely predicted by proposed model. Back-electromotive force and flux density distribution of the motor are also determined by this method. The finite-element method is then chosen to verify the modeling results. Finally, pole dimensions are optimized using the proposed model and the genetic algorithm, where thrust mean and thrust ripple are considered as the optimization aims. This model provides the analytical framework for design optimization of double-sided air-core permanent-magnet linear synchronous motors with segmented poles regarding more motor parameters and objectives.
Turkish Journal Of Earth Sciences (13000985)(6)pp. 703-719
The uppermost Cretaceous Tarbur Formation of the Zagros region (SW Iran) is mainly siliciclastic in composition, though it also incorporates some carbonate units including several rudist lithosomes. Two sections through this formation, in the Semirom and Gerdbisheh areas, have been chosen for study of the lithosomes and their rudist fauna. These lithosomes vary in faunal content, geometry and internal organization (density and diversity). Preliminary investigation of the specimens collected from the studied sections reveals a diverse rudist fauna. Eleven genera and 23 species have been determined, belonging to the rudist families Hippuritidae, Radiolitidae and Dictyoptychidae. These rudist assemblages indicate a Maastrichtian age for the Tarbur Formation in these areas. With regard to their growth geometries, most of the specimens are of elevator rudist morphotype, forming many different associations (e. g., bouquets and clusters). Comparison between the present rudist fauna, particularly taxa considered endemic to this part of the Mediterranean province, with the Late Cretaceous fauna recorded from other parts of the Zagros, Turkey and South of the Persian Gulf (Oman and UAE) show similarities that confirm the faunal connection between them.
SOUTHEAST ASIAN BULLETIN OF MATHEMATICS (01292021)(2)pp. 207-208
In this short note, we prove that an element a of an infinite group is central if and only if aX boolean AND Xa not equal (empty set) for all infinite subsets X.
In Gram negative bacteria, fluoroquinolone resistance is acquired by target mutations in topoisomerase genes or by reducing the permeation of drugs due to the increase in expression of endogenous multidrug efflux pumps that expel structurally unrelated antimicrobial agents. An ongoing challenge is searching for new inhibitory substances in order to block efflux pumps and restore the antibiotic drugs susceptibility. In this research, we sought to investigate the interplay between ciprofloxacin and an efflux pump inhibitor (EPI), phenyl alanine arginyl beta-naphtylamide (PA beta N), to determine the prevalence of efflux pump overexpression in clinical isolates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Ciprofloxacin was tested at different concentrations (256-0.25 A mu g/ml) with a fixed concentration of PA beta N (50 A mu g/ml). The isolates susceptibility profiles were analyzed by disc diffusion and agar dilution methods using 10 antibiotic discs and 4 powders. It was found that in the presence of PA beta N, resistance to ciprofloxacin was inhibited obviously and MIC values were decreased. The comparison between subgroups of P. aeruginosa isolates with different resistance profiles indicates that efflux pump overexpression (EPO) is present in 35% of ciprofloxacin resistant isolates with no cross resistance and in variable frequencies among isolates showing cross resistance to other tested antibiotics: gentamicin (31%), ceftazidime (29%), and imipenem (18%). Altogether, these results imply that PA beta N maybe effective to restore the fluoroquinolone drugs susceptibility in clinical treatment procedures. Results also show that increased use of a fluoroquinolone drug such as ciprofloxacin can affect the susceptibility of P. aeruginosa to other different antipseudomonal agents.
The aim of this study was to analyze the incidence and patterns of handball injuries during Asian men's championship 2008. Data were collected by injury report form that complete by researcher and video analysis. A total of 69 injuries were reported from the 26 matches, which is equivalent to an incidence of 195 injuries per 1000 match hours or 2.65 injuries per match. Back players (300.4 injuries per 1000 match hours) significantly more injured than other players (chi(2)=14.828; p=.002). Most of the injuries occurred in lower extremity (46%) than other body parts (chi(2)=17.319; p=.001). most injuries occurred in the last 10 minutes of the second half (33%) (chi(2)=22.391; p<.001). Also most injury occurred in second half (74%) than first half (26%). The majority of injuries were caused by contact with another player, only 18.8% were non-contact injuries. 68% of the contact injuries were caused by direct contact and 32% by non-direct contact, the differences were significant (chi(2)=6.333; p=.012). This study shows factors such as time elapse of the game and player position can be affected player injuries and these factors should be considered by medical staff and coaches for design prophylactics programs.
JOURNAL OF THE SERBIAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY (03525139)(7)pp. 833-843
A local clay, bentonite (N-Ben), was modified by the biologically-based ligand, cysteine (Cys), through a simple sorption technique. The modified sorbent (Cys-Ben) demonstrated affinity for soft and moderately soft heavy metal ions (HMI), such as Cd(II) and Pb(II), probably as a result of the soft basic character of the thiol ligand side chains. The resulting modified system was effective for metal binding with capacities of 0.503 and 0.525 mmol g(-1), for Pb(II) and Cd(II), respectively. Comparative batch experiments were performed for removing lead and cadmium from aqueous solutions. The sorption parameters were derived from a Langmuir fit to the sorption isotherms of the studied ions. The study showed that the sorption capacity of Cys-Ben was higher than that of N-Ben for these ions. The effect of pH was examined over the range 2.0-6.0. The sorption capacities of Cys-Ben showed that this modified clay is a good sorbent for the examined heavy metal ions.
The study looked at the effects of correction of learners' errors on learning of grammatical features. In particular, the manner of correction (explicit vs. implicit correction) was investigated. The study also focussed on the effectiveness of explicit and implicit correction of developmental early vs. developmental late features. Fifty-six intermediate level Iranian learners of English were asked to read and retell a written text during an interview. The participants were corrected on their grammatical errors implicitly (using recasts) or explicitly during or following the interview. Based on the corrected errors made by learners, individualised tests were constructed and administered. The scores the learners received on these tests were statistically analysed. Results revealed higher scores for explicitly corrected learners than implicitly corrected ones. The findings lend support to the argument concerning the role of metalinguistic awareness in language learning. Further analysis of the scores showed that developmental early features are learned better with explicit correction and developmental late features with implicit correction. I (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
INDIAN JOURNAL OF PURE & APPLIED MATHEMATICS (00195588)(1)pp. 87-97
Many of interesting results on a locally compact group G heavily depend on. the fact that epsilon(x).vertical bar m vertical bar = vertical bar epsilon(x).m vertical bar for every x is an element of G and m is an element of C-b(G)*. In the present paper, by introducing the two notions of left cancellative and left shiftable hypergroups and investigating their properties, we have been able (among other results) to prove that if K is a locally compact hypergroup for which x * y is a finite set for every x, y is an element of K, then epsilon(x).vertical bar m vertical bar = vertical bar epsilon(x).m vertical bar for every x is an element of K and m is an element of C-b(K)* if and only if K is a group.
IRANIAN JOURNAL OF CANCER PREVENTION (20082398)(4)pp. 141-147
Objective: In this study, we evaluated PTEN mutations in Cowden Disease and Juvenile Polyposis syndrome. PTEN mutations were detected, cancer and other phenotypes associated with each of these mutations were characterized and loss of wild type PTEN allele in the associated tumors was demonstrated. Methods: Out of g patients included in this study, A had Juvenile polyposis and had Cowden syndrome. PTEN gene was evaluated by means of polymerase chain reaction, single strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP), neteroduplex mobility assay (I-IMA) and direct DNA sequencing. Results: According to the results of this research, nucleotide substitutions in PTEN gene were found in)' Z Nil of patients. The samples were found to be heterozygote for the c.r)T>G and c.rmG >A mutations. One novel mutation c.r)T>G in Iranian patients with Cowden syndrome was found in this study. Conclusions: The study of these rare patients could provide insight into PTEN driven tumorgenesis.
CANADIAN JOURNAL OF CHEMISTRY (00084042)(3)pp. 264-269
An efficient and green procedure for the synthesis of 2,4,5-trisubstituted imidazoles with various aldehydes using a catalytic amount of 1-methylimidazolium hydrogenesulfate as an active and low cost Bronsted acidic room temperature ionic liquid has been developed. The ionic liquid was easily separated from the reaction mixture and was recycled five times without any loss in activity.
JOURNAL OF THE IRANIAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY (1735207X)(2)pp. 221-228
Electrochemical characterization and application of nickel ruthenium dioxide (Ni-RuO2) as a pH sensor for the determination of petroleum oil acid number is described. The sensor consists of RuCl3 thermally decomposed onto the upper side of a polycrystalline nickel electrode at 400 degrees C in an open furnace. The advantages of the sensor are: (i) easy preparation, (ii) fast response in a large pH range, (iii) high physical and chemical stability, and (iv) excellent reproducibility as determined by the reproducible linear variation of charge transfer resistance (Rt) as a function of overpotential (ij) obtained by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), and the Nernstian slope of the electrode potential in a wide range of pH (1.5-12.5) obtained by potentiometric measurements. The potentiometric selectivity coefficients of the sensor toward some anions and cations were evaluated in aqueous solution. The characterized Ni-RuO2 pH sensor was successfully tested for the determination of petroleum oil acid number.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE INSTITUTION OF CIVIL ENGINEERS-WATER MANAGEMENT (17417589)(2)pp. 73-82
The ability to forecast the burst behaviour of pipes in water distribution systems is a fundamental requirement of proactive planning for investment, replacement and rehabilitation strategies. Burst behaviour is, however, a complex function of many uncertain contributing factors. Attempts to develop accurate predictive models have been limited by: data quality and quantity; the lack of associations between individual events and pipes; and the statistical techniques available and applied. Predictive expressions for annual burst rate in cast-iron and asbestos cement pipes are derived for two sample data sets from the UK. The available data were interrogated to make rigorous associations between individual events and pipes and filtered for missing, default and erroneous data. Using statistical analysis, the theory of generalised linear models, it was then possible to derive predictive expressions for burst probabilities. The resulting expressions show strong associations between annual burst rate, diameter and length and a complex association with age. Analysis was also undertaken to investigate associations with available soil data; a relative lack of consistent dependence of burst rate on these data is demonstrated.
A novel solvatochromic1-(4-dimethylaminophenyt)-2-(5H-phenanthridine-6-ylidene)-ethanone (6-KMPT) dye was synthesized and characterized by means of NMR, IR, mass spectroscopies. Also, it was studied using UV-vis and fluorescence spectroscopic methods in a broad range of solvents. UV-vis results showed that increasing 6-KMPT concentration dose not cause molecular aggregation in chloroform. Varying the temperature in the range from 25 to 55 degrees C dose not have a significant effect on the characteristics bands of the molecule. However, in the presence of surfactant SDS the UV-vis spectrum undergoes drastic alteration. This phenomenon is related to the removal of hydrogen atom from nitrogen atom of phenanthridine moiety. Fluorescence spectroscopic results showed that 6-KMPT has an appreciable fluorescence quantum yield. The effect of excitation wavelength, concentration of 6-KMPT, concentration of oxygen and surfactants (SDS, C(16)TAB, CPC, Brij-35) were studied. Further results showed that the fluorescent behavior of 6-KMPT can be attributed to planarity induced by intramolecular hydrogen bonding which can in turn be destroyed by anionic surfactant SDS. Results showed that oxygen and SDS can be operate as fluorescence quencher compounds for 6-KMPT and Stern-Volmer plot showed a straight line. Fluorescence polarization and anisotropy of 6-KMPT in chloroform strongly depend on concentration. The 6-KMPT exhibits solvent-induced spectral band shifts. By using Lippert equation, the change of dipole moment of 6-KMPT molecule upon excitation was estimated as 6.39 D. Furthermore, absorption, fluorescence emission, Stokes shift values and fluorescence quantum yield (OF) of 6-KMPT in different solvents of polarity were determined. Maximum OF value of 0.372 for 6-KMPT molecule was found in ethanol solvent with a Stokes shift of 2446.8 cm(-1). The results of DFT calculations showed that tautomer 2c (enol) energetically is more stable than tautomer 2b (keto) in gas phase whereas it was vice versa in CHCI3. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
This study investigated the cellular and subcellular compartmentation of Ni in the Eurasian serpentine species Alyssum murale, Alyssum bracteatum and Cleome heratensis and a non-serpentine population of A. murale (as a control) grown in hydroponic culture. Plant growth responses and Ni uptake clearly revealed the higher Ni tolerance of serpentine plants than the non-serpentine plants. Serpentine A. murale and A. bracteatum grew better at elevated (0.01 mM) Ni in the nutrient solution, supporting the view that the Ni hyperaccumulators have a higher requirement for Ni than normal plants. Low shoot Ni content of C. heratensis in response to the high Ni treatments indicated that this species employs an avoidance strategy for Ni tolerance. Energy-dispersive X-ray microanalysis showed that Ni was highly concentrated in the cell walls and cell lumen, most likely the vacuoles, of leaf epidermis of A. murale and A. bracteatum rather than in the mesophyll cells. EDX spectra from leaves of the non-serpentine A. murale suggested that Ni accumulated in both epidermal and mesophyll cells but not in the epidermal cell walls. Growth reduction and Ni toxicity in plants of the non-serpentine A. murale could be due to accumulation of Ni in the lumen of leaf mesophyll cells. Our data suggest that cellular and subcellular compartmentation are both possible mechanisms for Ni tolerance employed by the serpentine A. murale and A. bracteatum.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON APPLIED SUPERCONDUCTIVITY (10518223)(3)pp. 1913-1917
We will present and examine an alternative approach to describe the behavior of superconducting transmission lines, and possibly weak link Josephson junction using the magnetic vector potential (A). While the utilization of magnetic vector potential is known in this field since the inception, a device level formulation based on A has not been fully investigated. We will show that for device level formulation, the magnetic vector potential is a mathematically simpler quantity to deal with than the combination of magnetic flux density (B) and electric field intensity (E) and still contains all the electromagnetic information of the junction under construction. In addition, other benefits of this formalism arise when dealing with Lagrangian and Hamiltonian mechanics. In this paper, we present a detailed description of how A can be determined for an infinite weak link Josephson junction with planar geometry. Utilizing the magnetic vector potential formulation, both electric and magnetic fields are calculated, and we show that we obtain the same dispersion relation as other approaches have previously demonstrated. We then discuss the advantages of this formalism. In addition, as an application of the present approach, we solve the Josephson junction's nonstationary equation numerically to get a realization of the actual coupling that occurs across the junction.
Journal Of Research In Health Sciences (22287795)(1)pp. 14-17
Background: Heavy metals and PAHs in flue gas have received considerable attention in recent years due to their mutagenic or carcinogenic properties. PAHs are products of incomplete combustion of carbonaceous compounds at high temperatures. Heavy metals are released into the ambient air from the same sources as those earlier mentioned for PAHs. The present study was carried out to investigate the influence of the quantity of heavy metals on PAHs formation in ambient air. Methods: In this study, air particulates were collected on glass fiber filters using a high-volume air sampler. Each filter was exactly cut into equal pieces. One piece was digested with HNO3 as well as H2O2 and used for determination of heavy metals. Another piece was extracted using Soxhlet method. The latter was used for the determination of PAHs. The concentrations of heavy metals (Cr, Cd, Cu, Pb, and Zn) were measured using Perkin-Elmer atomic absorption spectrometer. The concentration of PAHs was measured by a PU4400 gas chromatograph equipped with FID detector. The concentrations of PAHs and heavy metals were determined in different seasons. Results: The results showed that the concentration of PAHs was minimum in the weekend and holidays, but maximum in winter. The relationship between ambient air concentrations of PAHs and heavy metals was investigated and an excellent agreement was found. The general trend of variations in concentration of heavy metals were found very similar to PAHs, therefore it could be concluded that the source of pollution was the same for both of pollutants. Conclusion: The general trend of variations in concentration of heavy metals was found very similar to PAHs, therefore it could be concluded that the source of pollution was the same for both of pollutants.
IRANIAN JOURNAL OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY TRANSACTION A-SCIENCE (10286276)(A1)pp. 189-193
Experiments were set up to estimate the effectiveness of clinoptilolite for the removal of arsenate from aqueous solutions. The removal of arsenate by the exchanged forms was analyzed in the light of the Langmuir model of adsorption. A kinetic study of adsorption was carried out at different intervals of time, and the K-ad values were calculated by using Lagergren's equation. Adsorption of arsenate proceeds through the formation of arsenate precipitates.
Unmodified zeolite surfaces show no affinity for anions, due to the fact that zeolites are negatively charged. Thus, adsorption of anions by zeolites has not been given much attention. In this work, after modification of clinoptilolite by different cations, the mineral was found to adsorb a considerable amount of the divalent anion chromate. Chromate adsorption was proportional to the K-sp of the chromate precipitate and the amount of the exchangeable cation. The amount of chromate adsorbed was maximized when the Pb-exchanged form was used. Chromate desorption in deionized water indicated that between 2.50% and 18.60% of the adsorbed chromate was released depending upon the exchangeable cation. Some of the exchanged forms are candidate materials for adsorption and immobilization of chromate. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
4,4'-Oxydiphthalic anhydride (1) was reacted with L-isoleucine (2) in acetic acid and the resulting imide-acid (3) was obtained in high yield. The diacid chloride 4 was obtained from diacid derivative (3) by reaction with excess thionyl chloride. The polycondensation reaction of diacid chloride 4 with several aromatic diamines such as 4,4'-sulphonyldianiline (5a), 4,4'-diaminodiphenyl methane (5b), 4,4'-diaminodiphenylether (5c), p-phenylenediamine (5d), m-phenylenediamine (5e), and 4,4'-diaminobiphenyl (5f) was accomplished by two conventional methods: low temperature solution polycondensation and short period reflux conditions. In order to evaluate conventional solution polycondensation reaction methods with microwave-assisted polycondensation, the reactions were also carried out under microwave conditions in the presence of small amount of o-cresol that acts as a primary microwave absorber. The reaction mixture was irradiated for 6 min with 100% of radiation power. A series of new optically active poly(amide-imide)s (PAIs) with inherent viscosity ranging from 0.22-0.44 dL/g has been prepared with high yield. All of the above polymers were fully characterized by FTIR, elemental analyses and specific rotation techniques.
The acrylate-silicone emulsions were prepared by emulsion copolymerization of m ethyl methacrylate (MMA), butylacrylate (BA), methacrylic acid (MAA) with vinyl triethoxysilane (VTES), and auxiliary agents at 85 degrees C in the presence of potassium persulphate (KPS) as initiator. Alkylphenol ethersulphate and Arkupal N-300 were used as anionic and non-ionic emulsifiers, respectively. The resulting copolymers were characterized by using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Thermal properties of the copolymers were studied by using thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The morphology of copolymers was also investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and then the effects of temperature, agitation speed, initiator and VTES concentrations on polymerization rate are discussed. The obtained polymers had high solid content (43%) and were used in the emulsion paints as a binder. The experimental results show that these polymers supply very useful properties such as excellent storage stability, UV light stability, washing and abrasion resistance with good brushing in the above mentioned paints. The calculations of monomer conversion versus time histories and monomer conversion to polymer indicate that by increasing the VTES concentration, the polymerization rate and the number of polymer particles decrease, respectively.
IRANIAN JOURNAL OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY (03601307)(A1)pp. 127-135
This study concerns the taxonomic status of Hordeum marinum sensu lato in Iran. Its geographical distribution in Iran has been reported. Based on the morphological study, the taxon contains two subspecies: marinum and gussoneanum (Parl.) Thell. in Iran. Morphological descriptions along with a key separating the two subspecies are provided. Furthermore, morphological variations of the subspecies of Hordeum marium Hudson in various habitats have been studied. In order to facilitate identifications, three photographs and drawings illustrating the herbarium specimens have been provided.
Gamma rays associated with the decay of states in Ag-102 nucleus have been identified, sixty-four of them for the first time following the reaction Cr-50 (Fe-56, 3pn) Ag-102 at a mean energy of 195 MeV. Identification was made using an array of nine, escape-suppressed Ge detectors coupled to a Daresbury Recoil Separator. Excited states in Ag-102 were identified using recoil-gamma and gamma-gamma. coincidences. From the intensity balance and the coincidence data, a new set of levels was identified which may be interpreted as the reminiscent of three quasiparticle bands in neighboring odd-mass nuclei and similar to a four quasi-particle band observed in Ag-106.
Ultrafine MnFe2O4 powders have been synthesized via the displacement reaction 2FeCl(3)+4MnO --> MnFe2O4 + 3 MnCl2 activated by high-energy ball milling. Single-phase MnFe2O4 powders having crystallite sizes ranging between 9.5 and 40 nm have been obtained after removing the by-product (MnCl2) and unreacted (FeCl3 and MnO) phases from the as-milled or annealed powders by washing and magnetic separation. Magnetic measurements show that the spontaneous magnetization decreases with crystallite size; that the coercivity increases with decreasing temperature; and that below about 50 K the temperature dependence of coercivity becomes very strong, and the hysteresis loop becomes asymmetric with the remanent magnetization and the coercivity both enhanced in the upper branch when the sample is cooled in the maximum field. These observations are discussed in terms of a model in which it is assumed that each crystallite consists of a ferrimagnetic core surrounded by a spin-glass shell and the spins in the core and shell an exchange coupled.
There is a growing acceptance that general purpose parallel computing requires the use of a scalable shared memory environment. The Cray T3D, IBM SP2 and Intel Paragon message passing machines support a scalable interconnect for up to 100's or 1000's of processors, with linear increases in bisection bandwidth as the number of processors grow. Supporting a shared address space on these machines results in a two-level memory hierarchy, in which data are either local or shared across the machine. The next few years will see a trend towards cache coherent multiprocessors, using the techniques employed by machines such as the KSR (cach-only memory) and the DASH (distributed directories). This will simplify the programming model by processoring a single level memory hierarchy. This paper describes a highly scalable caching technique, which is targeted at a weakly coherent form of shared memory, supported by the WPRAM computational model. (A processor wishing to read newly written shared data must explicitly synchronize in some way with the writer of that data). The example provides supports coherency for barrier synchronisation operation, but can be extended to other forms. A case study using the simplex method for linear programming is given. Results are based on a simulation of a scalable distributed memory machine.
INDIAN JOURNAL OF CHEMISTRY SECTION B-ORGANIC CHEMISTRY INCLUDING MEDICINAL CHEMISTRY (03764699)(3)pp. 239-242
1-Benzyl-1-azonia-4-azabicyclo[2.2.2]octane tetrahydroborate (BAAOTB) 1 generated as white solid from commercially available DABCO and sodium borohydride is found to be a selective and versatile reducing agent. The reagent in t-butanol is very useful for reduction of imines, enamines, oximes, reductive amination of aldehydes and ketones and reductive methylation of amines.
CANADIAN MATHEMATICAL BULLETIN-BULLETIN CANADIEN DE MATHEMATIQUES (00084395)(1)pp. 65-70
In this paper we prove the following: 1. Let m greater than or equal to 2, n greater than or equal to 1 be integers and let G be a group such that (XY)(n) = (YX)(n) for all subsets X, Y of size m in G. Then a) G is abelian or a BFC-group of finite exponent bounded by a function of m and n. b) If m greater than or equal to n then G is abelian or \G\ is bounded by a function of m and n. 2. The only non-abelian group G such that (XY)(2) = (YX)(2) for all subsets X, Y of size 2 in G is the quaternion group of order 8. 3. Let m, n be positive integers and G a group such that [GRAPHICS] for all subsets X(i) of size m in C. Then G is n-permutable or \G\ is bounded by a function of m and n.
Background. Pyogenic granuloma is a common benign skin tumor. The multiple disseminated form of the disease is relatively rare. Methods. We examined three patients who developed giant pyogenic granuloma after burns from boiling milk. The patients were a 1.5-year-old boy, a 5-year-old girl, and a 35-year-old woman, All three patients had second-degree burns over their face and trunk. Results. In these patients, pyogenic granuloma had developed over the previously burned areas 2-3 weeks after exposure. The general condition of the patients remained good and all lesions involuted spontaneously. In a B-month follow-up period no relapse of the lesions was seen. Conclusions. The cause for development of multiple giant pyogenic granulomas after burns from milk remains unknown, but milk proteins or other components of milk, microorganisms, or the burn itself may be causative factors.
Scopolamine and atropine contents in the whole plant of Datura metel L. increased gradually with the progress of developmental growth, and were most pronounced when the plant was at the end of its reproductive stage. The highest percentage of scopolamine accumulation in the root was after 16 weeks. The root was the organ which often accumulated higher amounts of atropine, The aerial parts, if compared with the root of the plant, usually accumulated relatively higher amounts of scopolamine and relatively lower amounts of atropine.
The effect of castration on the levels of brain monoamines and their metabolites has been investigated in rats which became or did not become muricidal following long-term isolation. Fourteen brain areas were explored: olfactory bulbs (OB), olfactory tubercles (OT), septum (Se), striatum (Sr), amygdala (A), thalamus (Th), hypothalamus (Hy), hippocampus (Hi), superior colliculus (SC), inferior colliculus (IC), raphe (Ra), pons-medulla (PM), frontal cortex (FC), temporal cortex (TC) and parietal cortex (PC). Except in the raphe of non muricidal rats and in the striatum of muricidal animals, all other areas examined demonstrate some changes of monoamines neurotransmitter or their metabolites after castration. The strongest changes, always increases, were found in the thalamus. In several brain areas, the changes occurring after castration, differ quantitatively and qualitatively in muricidal and non-muricidal rats.
Gamma rays from the reaction Si-28(Ni-58, 3p)83Y at a beam energy of 195 MeV were recorded in recoil-gamma- and gamma-gamma-coincidence mode with the POLYTESSA array and the Daresbury recoil mass separator. The known rotational bands were extended up to probable spins 49/2+ and 45/2-; many new interconnecting dipole transitions and an additional cascade were established. The bands are interpreted in terms of the cranked shell model; they exhibit two band crossings each, associated with g9/2 neutron and proton alignment. In the negative-parity yrast bands a strong signature inversion with DELTA-e' = -100 keV and a crossing pattern alternating in the favoured and unfavoured band develop. Hartree-Fock-Bogolyubov cranking calculations with a Woods-Saxon single-particle potential have been performed to illustrate the various shape changes and explain this signature inversion.
Taking advantage of five mouse genomic or cDNA probes [KE5(probe 14), KE4(probe 11), KE3 (probe 7), KE2(probe 5), and SET] mapped on the H-2K region in mouse, we have identified and localized homologues of these five genes in the human major histocompatibility complex region (HKE5, HKE4, HKE3, HKE2, and HSET, respectively). Cosmid cloning and pulsed field gel electrophoresis analyses indicated that a human homologous gene, HKE5, is located 10 kilobases (kb) centromeric of the alpha-2(XI) collagen (COL11A2) gene followed by HKE4. HKE3, closely linked to HKE2, is located 170 kb centromeric of HKE4. Furthermore, HSET is located 50 kb centromeric of HKE2. This gene organization outside the DP subregion is completely identical to that of the mouse H-2K region centromeric of I-Pb 3, a mouse homologue of the DPB gene, except the lack of genes corresponding to the H-2K and -K2 genes in human.
The first set of experiments identified sodium chloride (NaCl) tolerance of 92 accessions of Rhizobium meliloti L. from various rhizobia collections and arid and saline areas of the Intermountain West. Accessions were incubated in salinized (0, 176, 352, 528, 616, 704 or 792 mM) yeast extract mannitol (YEM) medium. Growth was measured by turbidity at 420 nm after 3 d in culture. Rhizobial strains were classified by their growth response at an optical density (OD) of 704 mM; Groups One and Two did not exceed 0.10 and 0.33, respectively. Forty three different rhizobial strains were identified as salt-sensitive and 49 as salt-tolerant at 704 mM NaCl. None grew in a saline solution of 792 mM NaCl. The second set of experiments investigated the drought tolerance of R. meliloti accessions that exhibited differential salt tolerance. Fifteen salt-sensitive and 15 salt-tolerant strains of R. meliloti from the first experiment were exposed to simulated drought stress by adding polyethylene glycol 6,000 (PEG-6,000) to the YEM medium at concentrations of 0, -0.4, -0.8 or -1.0 MPa. Rhizobium strains were incubated for 10 days at 25-degrees-C and growth turbidity was measured at 420 nm. Growth turbidity of the 30 accessions ranged from 100% at -0.4 MPa to 0% at -1.0 MPa. With one exception, strains that were more drought-tolerant (at -1.0 MPa) were also more salt-tolerant (616 mM). However, some of the more salt-tolerant strains at 616 mM were not the more drought-tolerant stains at -1.0 MPa. These salt- and drought-tolerant Rhizobium accessions are excellent models to study the mechanism(s) of such resistance, and to elucidate the role of genetics of NaCl and drought tolerance.
During studies on bulking of activated sludge some new sulphur micro-organisms, which were able to grow aerobically and anaerobically on reduced sulphur compounds, were isolated on thiosulphate agar. These were capable of autotrophic and heterotrophic growth on a wide range of substrates. In view of their ability to oxidize reduced sulphur compounds, and because one of them was an oxidase- and catalase-positive, Gram-negative, motile coccus (0.36-0.48 .mu.m) it was named Thiosphaera persica. The second one was an oxidase- and catalase-positive, Gram-negative, motile rod (1.32-1.80 .mu.m) and was named Thiobacillus persica. The third one was oxidase-negative, catalase-positive, motile, Gram-negative and polymorphic and was named Sulphobacter polymorpha.
A previously unrecorded disease of potatoes in wet-central Iran, characterized by severe stunting, chlorosis, apical necrosis, and wilting, was found to be due to infection by a mechanically transmissible tuber-borne plant rhabdovirus. The virus had bullet-shaped particles measuring 76 .times. 190 nm in leaf-dip preparations and was biologically and serologically similar to previously described isolates of eggplant mottled dwarf virus (EMDV). This is the first report of natural occurrence of EMDV in potato.
JOURNAL OF APPLIED BACTERIOLOGY (00218847)(1)pp. 99-108
Several Gram-positive iron bacteria were isolated from bulking sludge. They were filamentous and had false branching. They had sheaths with iron deposits and formed spores on modified sucrose yeast extract agar. They did not grow on influsion agar for longer than 1 month but could withstand 80.degree.C for 1 h on the same medium. Adding them to sewage before aeration increased the biochemical oxygen demand of wastes water and caused poor settling properties of activated sludges. They were the predominant filamentous micro-organisms in bulking activated sludges. At present, these strains cannot be assigned to recognized taxa of Bacillus spp. or sheathed iron bacteria.
The metabolic changes following thoracic surgery in three groups of patients (esophageal cancer, lung cancer, and hiatus hernia) have been studied. Before operation patients with esophageal cancer, but not those with lung cancer, had significantly lower plasma total protein and albumin than patients with hiatus hernia. After surgery plasma albumin and total protein fell in both esophageal cancer and hiatus hernia patients, a development attributed to poor nutrition and restricted calorie diet in these two groups of patients respectively. With the exception of alanine and arginine in lung cancer patients, and free tryptophan in lung and esophageal cancer patients, the preoperative concentrations of all plasma amino acids were similar in both groups of cancer patients and in those with hiatus hernia. After operation the concentrations of glutamine, total tryptophan, alanine, glycine, and arginine fell sharply, whereas those of phenylalanine, lysine, valine, and leucine were slightly or not at all affected by surgery. The immediate postoperative fall of plasma free amino acids is through to be due to the increased rate of gluconeogenesis. The rise of free fraction of plasma tryptophan after surgery is related to the raised level of plasma free fatty acids and increased secretions of catecholamines, which is believed to follow surgery.
A simple and accurate assay for the determination of griseofulvin and its metabolites in biological fluids using high-performance liquid chromatography is described. Using a reversed phase column and a mobile phase solvent of 45% acetonitrile in 0.1 M acetic acid, baseline separation of griseofulvin and several analogs was obtained. The described method allows one to quantitatively determine griseofulvin, 6-demethylgriseofulvin and griseofulvic acid, a newly identified metabolite in man, in urine and plasma samples. Treatment of plasma samples prior to the analysis is simply made by deproteinizing the samples with an equal volume of acetonitrile. For urine samples, the procedure involves diethyl ether extraction with subsequent evaporation to dryness and reconstitution with the mobile phase solvent.
The effect of temperature on the number of days to heading was evaluated in 5 vernalized winter and 5 spring commonly grown wheat (T. aestivum L. em Thell.) cultivars under an increasing daylength. Controlled environment chambers were set at 15.5.degree. C (day) and 7.2.degree. C (night), and 21.0.degree. C (day) and 12.7.degree. C (night). Temperatures, cultivars and the temperature .times. cultivar interaction were all highly significant for both days and degree-hours to heading. Winter and spring cultivars had approximately the same range in values. All cultivars headed more rapidly at the higher temperatures. Within each growth habit, the cultivars maintained the same approximate ranking at both temperatures, but varied in their interaction with temperature. More degree-hours were used by all cultivars at the warmer temperature, indicating that only part of the increased temperature was translated into accelerated heading. Each cultivar has a specific set of phenological control mechanisms which can affect the interaction with environment in final yield expression.
JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL SCIENCE (00218596)(JUN)pp. 709-714
A laboratory study was made on miscible displacement of reactive solutes during leaching a highly saline-sodic soil rich in soluble Na2CO3 with solutions of calcium chloride. The effect of varying flow velocities, initial soil moisture content and concentration of Ca in the leaching water on the extent of carbonate precipitation and replacement of Na by Ca from the exchange positions was studied in soil columns. Precipitation of soluble carbonates in the soil increased with increasing flow velocity, initial soil moisture content and concentration of Ca in the leaching solution. The Ca exchange capacity of the soil was reduced significantly and nearly proportionally with decrease in the degree of water saturation as a consequence of decreased water application rate and initial soil moisture content. A simple model to describe Ca-Na exchange under unsaturated flow conditions in saline-sodic soils under consideration is proposed. Possible implications of the results in actual field situations is discussed.
The reaction of 1,3-diphenylisobenzofuran (DPBF) solubilized in aqueous solutions of sodium dodecyl sulfate [SDS] with singlet molecular oxygen (1.DELTA.g) generated either continuously or by laser flash photolysis was studied as a function of oxygen concentration. The rate constant for reaction of 1.DELTA.g with micellar DPBF is 1.1 .times. 109 M-1 s-1. The lifetimes for 1.DELTA.g O in D2O and H2O are 42 .+-. 5 and 3 .+-. 1 .mu.s, respectively. The partition coefficient for molecular O2 between the external aqueous phase and SDS micelles is measured to be 2.8 .+-. 0.1. At low O2 concentrations the transfer rate of 1.DELTA.g O from the aqueous phase to the micelle is diffusional in nature with a rate constant of 1.0 .times. 108 s-1, with a corresponding out migration rate constant of 3.7 .times. 107 s-1. At high concentrations of dissolved O2, the rate of transfer for 1.DELTA.g across the water-micelle interface increases owing to a ground-state O2-mediated collisional electronic energy transfer process. The rate constants for this energy-transfer proces are 9 .times. 10-9 M-1 s-1 for the inward process and 3 .times. 109 M-1 s-1 for the outward process.
TOXICOLOGY AND APPLIED PHARMACOLOGY (0041008X)(1)pp. 126-130
The effects of acute and subacute trivalent arsenic (As) administration on blood glucose levels, glucose tolerance and mitochondrial respiration were studied in male rats injected with sodium arsenite at 0, 5, or 10 mg/kg body wt and killed after 1.5 or 3 h or 7 days. Hyperglycemia and glucose intolerance were observed in rats which received single acute doses of As. Hyperglycemia, but not glucose intolerance, was abolished, in As-treated adrenalectomized animals. No measurable changes in hepatic mitochondrial respiratory function were noted in animals killed at 1.5 or 3 h following As administration. Animals injected with 10 mg As/kg for 7 days showed hyperglycemia and marked glucose intolerance at 24 h after the last injection. Mild depression of pyruvate/malate mediated state 3 mitochondrial respiration and decreased respiratory control ratios were observed for hepatic mitochondria isolated from arsenite injected rats in comparison with controls at this time point. Arsenical disturbance of in vivo carbohydrate metabolism is evidently a complex phenomenon which involves a number of organ systems and their functional interrelationships.
CANADIAN JOURNAL OF PHARMACEUTICAL SCIENCES (00084190)(1)pp. 14-16
The compound 2-(4''-hydroxybenzeneazo) benzoic acid is a spectrophotometric probe which shows spectral absorption changes on binding to protein. The absorbance differences measured upon the addition of this probe to a solution of human serum albumin alone and human serum albumin in the presence of selected penicillins were used as an indirect method to determine the binding of these drugs to human serum albumin under the conditions described. Based on the displacement results, it was concluded that penicillins bind to human serum albumin by electrostatic force and through their side-chain and that increased hydrophobicity of the side-chain reinforces the binding.
All shipments of Iranian pistachio nuts to the USA must be inspected for aflatoxin contamination [by Aspergillus flavus] and at irregular intervals some of them are rejected. The only point-of-origin climatic factors correlated with rejections were rainfall and number of calm days per month during Aug.-Nov., the period of ripening and harvesting. [Other factors considered were relative humidity and temperature].
The polarographic method is used for the identification and determination of Dacarbazine (1) [an antineoplastic drug]. The results indicate that 1 can be identified and determined as the pure compound or as a constituent of galenic preparations at concentrations between 10-3 and 10-5 mol/l. The N = N-group, which is reduced by the addition of 4 electrons and 4 protons, is polarographically active.
Pistachio nut samples taken during various stages of development from orchards in Iran, showed that contamination with fungi occurred mainly during the later stages of nut development. Members of the genera Aspergillus and Penicillium occurred most frequently. Of the asperigilli, the species A. niger, A. flavus and A. fischeri var. spinosus occurred most frequently, followed by A. terreus, A. tamarii and A. nidulans. A total of 22 isolates, comprising 13 species, were tested for toxicity to ducklings. Isolates of known toxic fungi included A. flavus, A. niger, A. parasiticus, A. ochraceus, A. versicolor, A. nidulans and A. terreus. The toxicity of A. fischeri var. spinosus is reported. Chemical analysis showed that all isolates of A. flavus and A. parasiticus produced aflatoxin B1, the isolates of A. versicolor and A. nidulans produced sterigmatocystin while the toxic isolate of A. ochraceus did not produce ochratoxins.
Out of a total of 947 patients during 2 yr, all those with AMI [acute myocardial infarction] and ventricular fibrillation (VF) or ventricular tachycardia (VT) were selected. The QT interval could be measured in 15 patients with VF and 12 with VT before the event. The QT interval was also measured in 2 control groups; 1 consisted of 27 consecutively admitted patients with AMI without ventricular arrhythmias (VA), the other of 27 non-AMI patients. Most patients in the group with VA showed pathologically prolonged QT intervals and there were statistically significant differences between this group and the control groups regarding corrected mean QT intervals. If these findings are confirmed, QT measurements might be of value in the prediction of malignant VA in AMI.
The stabilizing effect of natural and synthetic hydrocolloids on china clay suspensions can be demonstrated by measurement of the settling rate of the solid phase, the final settled volume, the filtration rate of the supernatant through the bed and the turbidity of the supernatant liquid. As the experiments take some time, the use of a centrifuge is a useful device, but should a calculation of the floc size be required then the centrifugal force would be required. A method of estimating the envelope of liquid surrounding each solid particle is outlined. The thickness of this envelope is greater than that due solely to adsorption and probably owes its origin to a network of the solid surface but extending for these distances into the liquid phase. This view is consistent with the variation of all the parameters observed as the concentration of the hydrocolloid is increased.
TROPICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL MEDICINE (00413232)(4)pp. 393-398
Evaluation of the immediate intradermal (ID) test showed a direct relationship between N concentration and sensitivity. Antigens of low N-concentration were less reactive but more specific. Intradermal antigens prepared from Echinococcus multilocularis can be used in Isfahan, Iran, for the diagnosis of E. granulosus in man. The ID delayed reaction was observed in a few patients who had positive immediate skin tests. Because of its high sensitivity, the indirect hemagglutination (IHA) test was preferred for serological diagnosis of echinococcosis. The IHA test appears to offer good sensitivity and the ID, with an antigen of low N concentration, good specificity.
To provide evidence for the immune nature of the albumin agglutination phenomenon or caprylate dependent albumin agglutinins (CDAA), rabbits were injected with native serum that was incubated in a solution of sodium caprylate. Two of 3 rabbits responded with the production of CDAA, which in vitro behaved identical to human antisera. Human cells were agglutinated only when caprylate stabilized albumin was added to the red blood cell/serum mixture or when caprylate free albumin plus sodium caprylate were used. The CDAA failed to agglutinate rabbit cells, although human adult and cord cells were agglutinated. CDAA probably represent an immune response to native albumin that was altered by caprylate.
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF TROPICAL MEDICINE AND HYGIENE (00029637)(4)pp. 660-661
Patients (51) with surgically proven hydatid disease in Iran were examined with the intradermal (ID) (Casoni) and latex-agglutination (LA) tests. Before surgery, results of the former test were 80.4% positive and of the latter were 82.3%. For 105 persons diagnosed free of hydatid cysts by surgical, clinical and serological observations, 6.7% were positive with the ID test and 4.8% with the LA test. The close agreement between results obtained with LA and ID tests in this selected group of patients suggests that the LA test merits further evaluation as a diagnostic tool.
