Although tourist cards and cultural routes have been interesting innovations when they were launched on the international tourism market, they are rarely implemented in emerging tourism destinations, especially in an integrated manner. This paper presents the results of a quantitative research among tourists visiting an emerging destination, aiming to pre-test tourists’ interest in city cards and cultural routes. Using univariate, bivariate and multivariate methods this study provides useful information to the Destination Management Organization concerning: tourists’ interest to purchase a city card, preferred validity period, distribution channels, as well as their interest in cultural routes.

Ethylene response factor (ERF) is ubiquitous in plant kingdom and plays a crucial role in a wide range of stress responses in plant. ERF proteins interact with the GCC-box cis-elements or DRE/CRT in the promoters of target genes and then initiate a transcriptional cascade leading to activation of downstream ethylene responses and enhancing plant stress tolerance. In this research, we cloned ERF1 gene from potato and obtained the transgenic potato plants with overexpression of ERF1 gene. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) analysis indicated that the ERF1gene expressed in roots, stems and leaves of the transgenic plants, and especially higher expression in leaves. The proline content was higher 2.8 times and the malonaldedyde (MDA) content decreased 50.8% in ERF1-overexpressed potato plants than the wild type control plants under drought stress condition. The results of qRT-PCR analysis showed that overexpression of ERF1gene can activate expression of the stress-responsive genes pyrroline-5-carboxylate synthetase (P5CS) and calcium-dependent protoin kinases (CDPK), ABA biosynthesis key enzyme genes zeaxanthin epoxidase (ZEP) and short-chain dehydrogenase/reductase (SDR), and the disease-responsive gene PR2 to enhance tolerance to drought stress in the transgenic potato.

In this paper an algorithm to calculate the square matrix determinant is presented, its implementation in ANSI C and the analysis of the computational complexity. The designed algorithm is recursive, so the function that describes the behavior of the algorithm is a non-homogeneous recurrent equation which is transformed to an equivalent non-recurrent equation in order to perform the computational complexity analysis.

The minimum vertex coloring problem in graph theory is an Np-hard optimization problem. In this problem, we have to assign a color to each vertex so that no two adjacent vertices have the same color. There are some approximation solutions to solve the minimum vertex coloring problem and some of them are based on reinforcement learning methods. In this paper, we propose a new learning automata based iterative algorithm in order to approximate a near optimal solution for the vertex coloring problem. To show the performance of the proposed algorithm, we compare it with several existing vertex coloring algorithms in terms of number of iterations and colors required for coloring the graphs. The obtained results show the superiority of our proposed algorithm over the others.

Evaluation of the relationship between the philosophical mindset of managers and their managerial components in secondary schools of the BOJNURD city in year 2012-2013, was the main aim of this paper. This study given to the nature of relevant subject and purposes of this study is descriptive - correlation. Statistical Population is all managers of secondary schools of the BOJNURD city, all Statistical Population were used in collecting information (n = 70). Data collection tool was two questionnaires included a questionnaire with 60 questions about the philosophical mindset which has examined comprehensiveness, depth and flexibility and other questionnaire was SOCIOMETRIC questionnaire which Managers tasks in five categories of planning, organizing, coordinating, evaluating and staff morale was measured, this questionnaire was developed as a teacher questionnaire. Questionnaire based on CRONBACH\'S alpha was approved. The results show that there is a significant relationship between the philosophical mind Directors of managers with their performance in return for their management tasks. Also, between gender of managers and their education was not observed a significant difference.

The pedagogical quality employed in any course of programme is one of the critical factors considered while discussing the review of education in any country. Moreover, Ministry of Higher Education outlined the objectives of entrepreneurship education in Malaysia. Despite the plausibility of these objectives, it obvious entrepreneurship education has not fully addressed the problems which militate against the attainment of the set objectives. One of such enigmas is excessive emphasis on the educational theories to the detriment of investigative pedagogy. This paper, therefore, presents some philosophical merits of investigative pedagogy and makes a plea for its use in entrepreneurship education. It also provides a model and submits a possible future research.

Aim: This is a study into efficacy of training in change of life style for improvement of general health and marital satisfaction of maladjusted couples.Method: This is a quasi-experiment in pretest and posttest design, in which 36 couples (72 people) were randomized from the clients of counselling centers of Tehran the West during 1391. They were 25 to 35 years old and after purposive sampling were divided into two groups of sample and control. Questionnaires of Marital Satisfaction by Enrich and General Health were employed to gather the information. Next, sample population underwent 6 group sessions plus 3 private sessions of training in change of life style. Results: Analysis of covariance was also used to review the data. According to the comparison between pretest and posttest results of two groups, it came to light that intervention for change of life style had significant effects on general health and marital satisfaction of the couples involved in marital distress.Discussion and Conclusion: The findings indicated that intervention for change of life style could significantly improve general health and physical performance of maladjusted couples. This therapeutic approach positively influenced marital satisfaction, financial management and sexual relationship of the partners and helped them deal with common problems.

This paper presents the determinant description through the all the minors, because the mathematical description traditionally used in different applications differ with respect to the result obtained. It could be observed as inner summations instead o simple summations viewed in traditional description with its minors in the same dimension. Instead of it, the generalization allows applied the result into computer in direct form developing the internal minors into the sum operator. In explicit sense, the mathematical description of determinant is easy applied in direct form building the minors for all operations required into cofactors permitting cover the inverse matrix necessity condition.

In the environmental radioactivity laboratory, the nuclear waste contains a small amounts of the contaminated samples of a wide variety of characteristics are routinely analyzed by high gamma-ray efficiency detectors. A new numerical algorithm method (NAM) is developed in the present work, as an approximate analytical procedure for determining the efficiency of HPGe detectors, this algorithm uses low radioactive mixed-radionuclide gamma-ray cylindrical sources, placed parallel or perpendicular with respect to the detector symmetry axis. In addition, the self-attenuation factor and the coincidence summing effect are estimated by using the linear attenuation factor of the assayed source material and the geometrical configuration of the assay set-up at low source-detector distance. The discrepancies between the measured and the calculated efficiencies were less than 5% when the detectors are positioned close to the items being measured.

This paper presents diagonalization deconvolution filter estimation for a black-box model with a linear dynamics response and time-invariant evolutions. Instead of using the pseudo-inverse in deconvolution separation, a matrix blocks form was proposed applying the inverse scheme. This description allows a lower computational complexity than the pseudo-inverse requires, selecting the eigenvalues and eigenvectors conforming the adjoining region near the inverse. The organization of this paper considers: a) matrix diagonalization, b) deconvolution filter with diagonalization, c) functional error and its trace simulation, d) the computational complexity, e) simulation and f) annexes.

The work describes an intelligent use of the supply chain configuration, having a dynamical structure that automatically actualizes the chain stages considering different service levels to the customer, each level will be selected automatically in accordance with its actual request. In computational sense, the model proposed works as intelligent processes selector,\nwhere the dynamical changes are developed in accordance to the configuration required based on the minimum cost. The basic decisions set are defined into a knowledge base\nusing decision rules as inferences, transforming these into actions over the elements required into the process supply. The intelligent computational system adjusts automatically all structure changes based on a specific configuration, described previously\ninto the knowledge base, adding intelligence, dynamism and robustness into the business process. Therefore, the learning model applied to business strategies as supply chain configuration system, provides a multiple option decision that considers different service levels offered. The operational model stages are described illustratively using the Matlab software.

The assessment of an engineering program consists of several components, each of which requires a number of judgments mainly based on imprecise and vague data. These impression and vagueness arise from direct and indirect human interpretations, evaluation and assessment. Assessment is one of the most important and difficult task in the learning and teaching processes. This study presents a new algorithmic approach for assessing the learning quality using program outcomes. Actual student outcomes were used to assess the engineering program outcomes and evaluate the student learning level by a mixed integer programming approach. It uses fuzzy set principles to represent the subjective concepts and Bloom’s taxonomy for assessment of learning levels. \nThe proposed model incorporates the course learning outcomes (CLOs) and program outcomes for assessment and allows the educators, families and educational institutions to have a better understanding on the learning performance criteria. It also aims at encouraging students to participate in the learning process and eventually provides a fair environment for assessment.

Abstract:The objectives of the present study are to determine the most important factors affecting industrial wood material production yield in natural oriental beech forests in Turkey using a multifaceted approach and to help entrepreneurs consider these factors to develop more sensitive and realistic production plans. In Günye Forest Management in Bart?n province of the West Black Sea Region of Turkey, 41 production units were chosen as the study area. The 1277 ha study area was included in the 2007 and 2010 production management plan. The general state of the stand, natural stand structure, and production methods and tools are the factors thought most strongly affect industrial wood material production yield; 26 variables representing these factors were evaluated in the study. Through multidimensional statistical analyses, including main components, factor and regression analysis, we found that the most important factors affecting production yield were fertility, aspect of land, skidding method, stand structure, skidding distance, growing stock, transportation and harmful abiotic factors. Production units were divided into three groups based on yield rates and the 26 variables, using discriminate analysis. From the results of the study, a sample model can be developed to help forest managers predict and plan annual industrial wood production more sensitively and realistically.

An accurate state estimation is crucial for maintaining system security, reliability and quality of a power system network. The accuracy of state estimation depends on the location of measurement devices. Considering the importance of measurement location, this paper presents an optimization method that identifies the optimal additional location to enhance the accuracy of state estimation. A novel approach of discrete Evolutionary Programming (EP) is proposed to solve the meter placement problem. The proposed method of discrete EP is applicable to solve the problem involving integers as control variables. Test result of IEEE 30 bus system indicates that the optimization method of discrete EP is superior to the heuristic method in terms of higher accuracy and larger networks.

Background: Recent studies on mammals have shown that the ovarian follicles might have a different origin. Stem cells of ovarian surface epithelium have the potential to differentiate into oocytes and granulosa cells. \nObjective: The present study was designed to study the capability of human ovarian surface epithelial stem cells to differentiate into follicles.\nMaterials and Methods: OSE cells were obtained from10 women. Stem cells of OSE were separated and cultured for 21 days. Morphology and morphometeryof cultured cells were studied at 1-, 5-, 9-, 15- and 21th day of culture. Furthermore, on day 21, GDF9 and BMP15 (mRNA) expressions were evaluated for screening of developmental stage of cultured OSE cells.\nResults: The results showed that the OSE stem cells were able to differentiate into oocyte-like cells and follicular-like structures after the 5th day of culture, although it was not observed in all the samples. On the final day (21th day), the cultured cells showed morphological characteristics similar to oocytes and granulosa cells. In addition, GDF9 and BMP15 genes were expressed in primary follicles. The number and surface area of proliferated cells increased in following days but the number of stem cells decreased.\nConclusion: OSE stem cells are bipotentand can differentiate into oocyte-like and granulosa-like cells. GDF9 and BMP15 are necessary for developing of primary follicles into secondary follicles. The hypothesis that OSE could supply necessary follicles in reproductive periods could be considered again.

Under-Voltage Load Shedding (UVLS) scheme is an important technique to maintain the voltage stability of power system. UVLS has been applied for transmission system in order to avoid the system blackouts. However, with the increasing number of Distributed Generation (DG) such as Photovoltaic (PV), the application of UVLS becomes important for islanded distribution systems. In this regards, a new UVLS scheme based on voltage stability index has been proposed in this paper. The voltage stability index is used as an indicator of the sequence of load to be shed. Based on the stability index, the loads that have the highest tendency of voltage collapse shall be the first load to be shed. The proposed scheme is tested on a practical distribution network energized by grid, a mini hydro generator and a PV solar system. The test results on various scenarios proven that the proposed method able to restore system stability.

A anticomplement protein atrase B was seperated and purified from the venom ( Naja atra ) by column chromatography. In our pre-study，inhibitory effects and mechanism of cobra venom anticomplement protein atrase B on platelet aggregation were studied by collagen, ADP, PAF, AA, ristocetin and thrombin induced. However, inhibitory effects of the anticomplement protein atrase B on platelet aggregation induced by activated complement were still few clearly presented.\nAim: To investigate the inhibitory effects and mechanism of anticomplement protein atrase B on platelet aggregation induced by activated complemnet.\nMaterials and methods: Atrase B was seperated and purified from the venom of Naja atra by sequential column chromatography (SP-Sephadex-C-25, HiTrap Heparin HP, HiTrap Q HP and HiTrap SP HP). Platelet aggregation was induced by employing cobra venom factor (CVF) to activate complements. ①Different concentrations atrase B mixed with human serum were incubated at 37℃ for different time (5, 10, 30, 60 min), then added into pre-incubation gel-filtrated platelets (GFP) and CVF to induce platelet aggregation; ②Different concentrations atrase B mixed with GFP were incubated at 37℃ for different time (5, 10, 30, 60 min), then added human serum and CVF; The maximum platelet aggregation rate of ① and ② were determined by platelet aggregation analyzer (time: 5min). atrase B（0.38, 0.75, 1.5 and 3.0 mg•ml-1）with human serum, pre-incubation gel-filtrated platelets (GFP) and Fura2/AM were incubated at 37℃ for 30 minutes in water bath by CVF to induce platelet aggregation were incubated for different time (5, 10, 30, 60 min), the expression levels of Ca2+ in platelet membrane was detected by the flow cytometry. \nResults: Atrase B can effectively inhibit activation and aggregation of platelet induced by activated complement. And the expression levels of Ca2+ in platelet membrane were decreased significantly. These effects were obvious in a time-dose dependent manner.\nConclusions: Taken together, these findings suggest Cobra venom anticomplement protein atrase B has significant inhibitory effects of platelet activation and aggregation by complement activation induced, which may be due to decrease the expression levels of Ca2+ in platelet membrane.

An important aspect of economic development in any country is the development of capital market. In any industry, managers are looking for identifying paradigm firms by which they can remove their deficiencies and move toward their efficiency, growth and excellence. Investors in capital market are identifying the best options for decision making and investment. In present paper, we try to provide a model on determining high performers by using FAHP – TOPSIS techniques. To this end, financial ratios in two selected industries are computed between 2007 and 2012. According to our analysis, Maron, Persian Gulf and Khark Petrochemical companies and Puyesh Components and Iran Automobile Components companies acquired the top performance in petrochemical and automobile industries respectively.

Purkinje system, one of the most important components of the ventricular conduction system, provides a significant insight into understanding the mechanisms of cardiac pathophysiologies. Construction of anatomical detail Purkinje fiber network, however, is a very challenging task. In this paper, we present a method for constructing the 3D purkinje system in the left ventricle by the locally linear embedding algorithm and the fast marching method. Motivated by the fact that the purkinje system is generally on the endocardial surface of the ventricle, we have collected a set of images on 2D fractal structure of canine left ventricle, then extract the 2D location information of the anatomical detail purkinje system, and then map the 2D information to 3D space with the 3D canine left ventricular model. In contrast to most construction models, the result shows that our construction is more effective and close to the real purkinje system.

In this study, a mathematical model was developed for multiple-effect evaporators. These evaporators have cocurrent, countercurrent, and parallel flow operation options. Each operation was investigated with and without preheaters. The effect of preheating on the evaporation process was investigated with respect to steam consumption efficiency. A sugar factory’s data was used with the applied models as a case study. The results obtained for preheated and non-preheated situations were compared. The best operation for economic steam consumption was found to be countercurrent operation with preheating, while the worst case was parallel flow operation without preheating. The steam savings obtained by preheating of unconcentrated solution for cocurrent, countercurrent, and parallel flow operation cases were 7,343.86 kg/h, 2767.06 kg/h, and 1,143.58 kg/h, respectively

Lymphangiomyomatosis (LAM) is a rare disease of unknown etiology that primarily affects premenopausal women. It is predominantly a lung disorder and characterized by proliferation of atypical smooth muscle cells, causing obstruction of small airways. However, cases that affect extrapulmonary sites, such as the mediastinum or retroperitoneum, have also been reported. Here, we report a case of extrapulmonary LAM located in the liver and presenting as a localized mass. Abdominal computed tomography revealed a low-attenuation liver mass in a 26-year-old woman. The diagnosis of LAM was pathologically confirmed by surgery. This patient had atypical extrapulmonary LAM with typical pathological manifestations.

Vocal functions from acoustical measures are used in the assessments of voice disorders and monitoring the subject’s improvement over the voice therapy. There are many treatments in the existing system, for the problem of voice disorders. They are conducted by speech and language pathologists by giving fluency in speech practice in general. In this paper, an hybrid approach is proposed to analyze, classify the pathological speech and to identify the acute spots in pathological speech signal. These acute spots are the spots where the speech disorder occurs. The speech training for that specific portion of speech in particular can be given for the enhancing the pathological speeches. Features are extracted first using Mel Frequency Cepstrum Coefficients (MFCC) and dimensionality reduction of features extracted is done using Principal Component Analysis (PCA). By applying statistical method to the features extracted, classification performance is proved that overall, 91.60 % of the words were classified correctly based on their clarity of words. The features were trained using Artificial Neural Network (ANN) and Support Vector Machines (SVM) for classification separately and compared. The abnormal words’ Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) is made use of the Fuzzy Inference system (FIS) and Genetic Algorithm (GA) separately for blemishing the acute spot in which the aberration is occurred in the word and their performance are compared. The performance between ANN and SVM are compared and found that 90% accuracy is got by SVM.The performance of GA and FIS is compared and found that FIS is better than GA. Therefore the Hybrid approach with the combination of SVM and FIS was found better of around 98% accuracy.

The present study was to establish a hypothesis of stroke originally cause by Liver dysfunction. Stroke in China surpassed myocardial infarction and cancer, and has become the leading cause of death. In the past 20 years although invested a huge sum of money, stroke incidence does not fall to rise instead. The reason might be the source of the stroke is unclear. According to the known causes of stroke, the core pathological changes of atherosclerosis: the abnormal blood lipids, bilirubin abnormality which caused by liver dysfunction. Therefore, we proposed that stroke may caused by the liver dysfunction which lost normal metabolism of lipids and bilirubin. The new strategy of stroke management should be the source control, and this hypothesis may have certain theoretical value and potential prospective clinical improvement.

Background and Aims: Hyperglycemia increases the surgical morbidity and mortality. This study was aimed to compare the outcome of patients undergoing open cardiac surgery by glucose control in two ways: modified tight versus conventional method.\nMaterial and methods: This open-labeled, randomized control trial was conducted on 75 diabetic patients, aged 18-70 years with ASA II- III undergoing open heart surgery from Shahid Faghihi Hospital, Shiraz, Iran. Patients were divided into modified tight control (Blood Sugar maintained between 100-120 mg/dl) and conventional method (Blood Sugar ≤200mg/dl). Mortality, sternal wound infection, duration of mechanical ventilation, cardiac arrhythmia, cerebrovascular attack and acute renal failure are considered as primary outcomes and length of ICU staying has been determined as secondary outcomes. Complications after 30 days of surgery were recorded. We used student’s t test, chi-square and repeated measurement tests.\nResults: Although the trend of change in blood glucose during surgery and in ICU was not significantly different between groups, blood sugar measurement showed a significant difference at the different times (P<0.001). In terms of primary postoperative outcomes the two groups were not significantly different while hypokalemia was the most prominent side effect in the 34 patients of modified tight control group compared with eight patients in the conventional group (P<0.001). After one month, sternal wound infection was one patient in treatment group versus seven case in control group (P<0.05) which was statistically significant. \nConclusion: Using a modified tight control of blood glucose level to a level that is close to normal values during cardiac surgery may reduce episodes of hypoglycemia and hyperglycemic complications.

This article used the mathematical software Maple for the auxiliary tool to study two types of definite integrals. The infinite series forms of these definite integrals can be obtained by using Parseval’s theorem. In addition, we provided two examples to do calculation practically. The research methods adopted in this study involved finding solutions through manual calculations and verifying these solutions using Maple.

Voices from patients with voice disordered tend to be less periodic and contain larger perturbations. These perturbations are distributed randomly in the voice sample; therefore, the selection of a particular segment for analysis is extremely important. This study examines the potential of using a moving window to identify areas of minimum perturbation. The method allows for a standard method to select samples and may extend perturbation analysis to more disordered voices. A moving window 0.5 seconds in length was shifted through the sample by moving forward at 25 millisecond increments. Prior to analysis, voices were typed according to the guidelines proposed by Titze in 1995. Additionally, a category of type 4 voices which were considered primarily stochastic was added. Significant differences in the perturbation measures of the voice types were preserved after moving window segment selection. The moving window method allows the objective identification of low perturbation areas in type 1, 2 and some type 3 signals. It allows perturbation analysis to be extended to these more disordered samples. The moving window method may improve the reliability of perturbation analysis particularly for disordered voices.

This paper describes the neural net as identification process, considering an adaptive structure that adjusts the\nparameters in dynamically with a proportional condition.\nBecause the neural nets have problems in their applications in the cases for example: when the weight parameters are adjusted dynamically to a specific climate change with stochastic conditions that have to adjust theirs in accordance with a reference signal. The answer signal and the identification error are described by their distribution functions using fuzzy rules as stochastic actions, building the membership set with mobile\ninference limits, adapting the neural net weight processes in accordance with the knowledge base. This identification process is based on: The black-box scheme, where the internal weights\nare unknown; and the adaptive criterion, adjusting the internal\nweights dynamically using fuzzy rules considering their stochastic properties bounded each of them with a transition\nfunction without losing the stability of the process. The operation of the filter is presented using the Matlab software to simulate and describe its behavior illustratively.

A total of 102 isolates were isolated from nine waste water samples were collected from different contaminated sites at Sohag governorate.-Egypt. Isolates were screened for cadmium tolerance and the most tolerant two isolates were identified as Bacillus cereus DAA54 and Pseudomonas aeruginosa DAA86.MICs were 200 and 250 for B. cereus DAA54 and P. aeruginosa DAA86, respectively. Decrease in growth of both isolates (measured in terms of optical density) was observed upon increasing Cd2+ concentration at any given time interval compared controls. protein profiles detected loss in addition to induction of low molecular weight proteins (96, 89, 63, 44 and 11) KDa as responding to cadmium shock. The optimum conditions for biosorption of cadmium were investigated by using living and lyophilized biomass of both isolates. The optimum pH values for biosorption rate of cadmium were 7.0 and 6.0 for B. cereus DAA54 and P. aeruginosa DAA86. The experimental adsorption data fitted Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models. The maximum biosorption capacity (q max) values of cadmium by the living and lyophilized biomass of B. cereus DAA54 reached 200 and 212.77 mgg-1, respectively, and reached 133.3 and 136.99 mgg-1, respectively, for living and lyophilized biomass of P. aeruginosa DAA86. The biosorptive mechanism was confirmed by IR analysis. The high Cd2+ tolerance and biosorption capacity of Bacillus cereus DAA54 and Pseudomonas aeruginosa DAA86 make them candidate organisms for Cd2+ bioremoval from aqueous solutions.

This study evaluates efficiency of spur dikes based on two obtainable river morphological characteristics - distance/length (D/L) ratio and distance/height (D/H) ratio of the spur dike. Particle Size Distribution Curve and Soil Classification System of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) were applied to analyze carrying capacity of soil at the bottom of spur dikes. A case study of LinYuan embankment of Kaoping River in Southern Taiwan is presented. Beginning year 2010 to 2012, after Typhoon Morakot, 29 spur dikes were constructed between mile markers No.3+600 and No.8+600 along the LinYuan embankment. The main flow within this river was on the right bank and exposed to spur dikes, hence, damaging the foundation brush. Results from soil classification demonstrated that the soil was mainly slit soil, and the general AASHTO subgrade rating was fair to poor. These fair to poor rating suggest that particular attention must be paid to prevent damage of the spur dikes. Design distance between spur dikes was 200 m and the design length of each spur dike was 55 m; the D/L ratio was 3.64 times the D/L ratio of 2.0 that was set in the design specifications. Based on the findings in this study, the distance between spur dikes is recommended to be less than 100 m and the length less than 45 m to prevent scouring.

The generalized traveling salesman problem (GTSP) deals with finding the minimum-cost tour in clustered set of cities. In this problem, the traveler is interested in finding the best path that passes through all clusters. As this problem is NP-hard, implementing a Metahuristic algorithm is inevitable. The performance of these algorithms can be intensively promoted by other heuristic algorithms. In this study, a search method has been developed that improves the quality of solutions and competition time considerably in comparison with Genetic Algorithm. In the proposed algorithm, the genetic algorithms with the nearest neighbor search (NNS) have been combined. In order to encode the solutions, bipartite chromosome has been developed. According to the experimental results on a set of 41 standard test problems with symmetric distances, the proposed algorithm was able to find the best solutions in most cases with the least computational time. The proposed algorithm is highly competitive with the published algorithms until now in both solution quality and running time.

Introduction: There are evidences that oxidative stress play an important role in male infertility. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of BSO-induced oxidative stress on ultrastructure of testis and sperm fertility in mice. Methods: In this study 30 adult male and 10 adult female mice are used. Male mice were divided into3 groups. In control group, mice did not receive any chemical. In experimental group, mice received 2mmol/kg BSO, 35 days, IP injection. In sham group, mice received solvent of BSO (0.9% saline). After BSO treatment, mice in 3 groups were sacrificed. Their testes were dissected, fixed in 2% glutaraldehyde, post fixed in 2% osmium tetroxide. Finally, embedded in pure resin, prepared for ultrastructural study. For determination GSH, GPX, SOD, CAT, MDA and testosterone level, blood was obtained from heart. Female mice were superovulated and killed 24 hours later. Oocytes were collected and inseminated with sperms for assessing fertilization rate. Data were analyzed by ANOVA and post hoc tests. Results: Determination of oxidative markers showed that the concentration of Catalase, GPX, MDA, SOD,GSH in experimental group, in comparison to other groups is reduced, while MDA level increased (p<0.001). Also serum testosterone level was decreased. Transmission electron microscopy was revealed in experimental group, in comparison to control group, cellular organels were decreased. Furthermore, detachment of basementmembrane from cytoplasmic membrane and a large number of vacuolar spaces in experimental was observed. Finally we found, BSO- administration caused a decrease in sperm fertilization capability. Conclusions: It is concluded that exposure to oxidative stress induced by buthionine sulfoximine (BSO) could affect ultrastructure of testis and sperm fertility.

The main goals of this paper are presented by the authors so as to create a clear image of forms of global urbanization. It aims the major coordinates of its regional evolutions, the differences and characteristics of urban forms. Also, a detailated analysis regarding the most populous metropolitan areas and the most important megalopolises on Earth is made, managing to play the defining features of each.

Given the shortages of available water, specially for agricultural purposes, wastewater reuse prevents contamination of water as well as partially solving the current water shortage problems.This study aimed to determine the quality of wastewater effluent from the wastewater treatment plants (WTP) at Kashan University of Medical Sciences using the relationship between Total Suspended Solids )TSS( with Total Coliform )TC(, and Fecal Coliform )FC) for agricultural use.All samples were taken from thesanitary WTP effluent at Kashan University of Medical Sciences. Standardmethode were used for physiochemical and biological analysis of TSS,TC and FC.Results indicated that the value of R2 between TSS–FC and TSS–TC, regressions were; 0.78 and 0.79, respectively also, P-value was found less than 0.001 for the regressions in both cases.Therefore values of TC and FC could be estimated based on TSS parameter.Based on the results of present study a significant correlation between TSS, TC and FC parameters was observed in WTP effluent.

The research project was designed to study the levels of oxidative stress and antioxidants status in β-thalassemia patients with transfusional iron overload and chelation therapy as a central pathological process under indigenous conditions. 100 β-thalassemic patients were included in the research project. Serum levels of oxidative stress parameters (total oxidant status and malondialdehyde) and antioxidant parameters (total antioxidant status, vitamin E, C and β-carotene) were studied. These findings were compared with 100 healthy controls of age below15 years. Blank blood specimen was collected from both healthy and thalassemic patients. Total oxidant status, malondialdehyde and total antioxidant status was determined with the help of spectrophotometer while vitamin E, C and β-carotene was determined with the help of HPLC and software LC Solutions. A significant increase in the levels of malondialdehyde (p<0.000) and total oxidant status (p<0.001) was observed. A significant decrease in the levels of total antioxidant status (p< 0.001), vitamin E (p<0.000), C (p<0.000) and β-carotene (p<0.000) was recorded. This suggests that oxidative stress mechanism play an important role in pathogenesis of β-thalassemia. The combination of effective iron-chelator with antioxidant can be very helpful in the regulating the antioxidant status of patients with β-thalassemia and related complications in β-thalassemia still need further study.