Taking the Xichang area of China as an example, this study investigated factors affecting the geochemical characteristics of Se element by analyzing and comparing the environmental geochemical characteristics and temporal and spatial changes of Se in different rock formations, soil types, parent material layers, and soil layers. Analytical and statistical tests revealed that the content of Se in the soil of the study area ranged from 0.01 to 0.57 mg·kg-1, with an average value of 0.12 mg·kg-1, corresponding to a relatively low content. The orders of Se content in different materials are as follows: soil layer > soil parent material layer > rock layer in terms of the profile; Triassic continental clastic > Neogene-Quaternary continental clastic > Mesozoic intermediate-acid > Proterozoic intermediate-acid > Jurassic-Cretaceous continental clastic > Permian basic-ultrabasic = Sinian marine carbonate = Proterozoic volcanic clastic in terms of rock formations (parent rocks); and brown soil > yellow brown soil > dark brown soil > black felt soil > red soil > purple soil. The spatial distribution of Se exhibits distinct zoning and a good spatial coupling relationship with geological formations, rivers, topography, and geomorphology. The selenium content is mainly controlled by geological factors such as parent rock and parent material under different geological tectonic units, followed by clay minerals, organic matter such as Corg, S, N and element adsorption and fixation.

This study evaluated the phytochemical profile including the total phenolic (TPC), flavonoid content (TFC) and the antioxidant activity of heat refluxed Rosmarinus officinalis ethanolic extract (RE). The bioactive compounds were identified using liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-MS/MS) analysis. Ultrasonicated RE (U-RE) were loaded on chitosan nanoparticles (ChNs) at pH 3 (ChNs3) and pH 5 (ChNs5) and fully characterized. In vitro cytotoxicity test was performed using MTT assay against chicken primary intestinal epithelial cells (IECs) for 72 h. Results revealed that the extraction yield ranged from 14:17% with a TPC and TFC of 75.31±4.31µg gallic acid equivalents per milligram dry weight (GAE/mg dry weight) and 22.45±2.87µg quercetin equivalents per milligram dry weight (QE/mg dry weight), respectively. The antioxidant activity of RE was about 588.18± 22.03μM trolox equivalents per milligram dry weight (TE/mg dry weight) and IC50 =29.52± 5.208µg/ml, while using FRAP; the activity was 575.6296±35.374μMTE/mg dry weight. The IC50 value of RE (29.52 ± 5.208 µg/ml) was less than that of trolox (24.073±0.105 μM). LC-ESI-MS/MS analysis showed that 18 phenolics and 20 flavonoids were identified in RE. Also, the synthesized NPs were positively charged with size less than 200 nm. Decrease in U-RE-ChNs positivity charge caused size increase than 200 nm. U-RE-ChNs can be stored in normal saline at 4°C for 1 month. The U-RE release kinetics from ChNs3 and 5 showed the fastest rate in pH 8 after 6 h. U-RE-ChNs were non-toxic on IECs as the cell viability reached 93.8±3.15 % at pH 5.
In conclusion, this study indicated that U-RE is rich in antioxidant phenolic and flavonoid content that could be loaded on ChNs to provide a favorable environment for viability of chicken primary IECs.

This paper presents the synthesis of metal-containing carbon amorphous composite (a-C:Me) films deposited by the thermionic vacuum arc(TVA) method, using two electron beams emitted by externally heated cathodes; applying high voltages (1-5kV) between cathodes and the two anodes (C and Me:Sn,Al,Cu), two bright plasma were ignited in C and Me atoms. The chemical composition, morphology, microstructure and crystallographic properties of the films were investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), low-angle X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS).

It is believed that the level of poverty is significantly determined by macroeconomics variables such as inflation, government expenditure and unemployment rate. In this paper attempt has been made to investigate how macroeconomics variables affect the level of poverty in Iranian society. Our findings indicate that economic growth has significant effects on poverty in Iran. In addition, there is a negative relation between poverty and growth, namely increasing the growth rate leads to poverty reduction. The results of this study have also shown that unemployment and inflation have positive effects on poverty, while social security expenditure relating to government expenditure has no meaningful effects on poverty. In this study bootstrap technique is used to check the validity of the results.

This paper reports on a study conducted in the North West province, South Africa to map small scale irrigation farms using GIS technology. Farming in the region is challenged by arid conditions characterized by very limited water resource due to high evaporation and erratic rainfall. However, cultivation of crops requires large amount of irrigation water to ensure high yield. Information on the irrigation type, access to water, GPS coordinate, type of vegetables grown (carrots, spinach, beetroot etc), number of farmers (beneficiaries), total annual production, and distance to market were mapped to evaluate the potential transferable risks and the importance of maintaining proximity between farmers and consumers of the fresh produce. It was found that distances between farms and markets ranged from 60 km to 265 km where most of the farms are not located on or very close to main roads. Most significant was that the farms are a preferred cash crop, which can lift poor farmers out of poverty

The thesis provides an overview of articles by Russian and foreign authors on the foreign language impact on the individual. It is expected to perform an empirical study, the results of which can be used by teachers of educational institutions of various levels.

There is an integral link between theory and measurement suggesting that validation of measures should be the first stage of theory testing. The aim of the present study was to validate the factorial validity of needs and expectations features as determinants of low-income residents’ housing satisfaction in South Africa. Data were collected by a face-to-face administered questionnaire survey conducted among 751 low-income housing
residents’ in three metropolitan and one district municipality in the Gauteng Province of South Africa. Data gathered via the questionnaire survey were analyzed using structural equation modelling (SEM) which was used to assess the factor structure of the
constructs. SEM analysis revealed that the internal consistency coefficients were over 0.70 criterions for acceptability and the constructs show a good mode fit to the sample data. The Z-statistics analysis revealed that the construct (needs and expectations) have
direct influence in determining low-income residents’ satisfaction with their houses. The result advocates a practical consideration of the construct and its respective indicator variables in future development of low-income housing in South Africa.

The present research aims to study the relation of social capital with job satisfaction and commitment between three Tehran\'s regional education administration employees. As for sampling 206 employees were selected using stratified sampling method. The research instruments were the three questionnaires whose reliability were tested and approved using Cronbach\'s alpha Coefficient. The results of Pearson Correlation stepwise regression indicated that there is a positive and significant relation between social capital and its three dimensions i.e. structural, relational and cognitive with job satisfaction. Moreover, the results showed that there is significant positive and correlation between social capital and its cognitive, structural and relational dimension with organizational commitment. The results indicate that the strongest relationship exists between total organizational social capital and job satisfaction. Results showed that organizations could generate higher levels of job satisfaction and commitment if their members are able to generate acceptable levels of trust, relationships, commitment or communication, that is, social capital.

Internet is playing a vital role in our life and the number of visited Websites and visitors to those Websites are increasing exponentially. Since, most of the academic institutes are providing Internet facility for students and faculty members in their campus and majority of students are visiting different categories of Websites daily. Therefore understanding the effects of different categories of Websites on their academic and non-academic activities is one of the prominent research areas nowadays.

This paper attempts to explore the Internet behavioural patterns of students from gender and cultural groups and mining those behaviours’ relationships with users’ academic performance, curricular and co-curricular activities. Modelling these behaviours may be helpful for different stockholders in formulating academic policies and guidelines. For this purpose we developed a Web based educational data mining tool named as EDMiner (Educational Data Miner). This tool provides functionalities to understand usage patterns with respect to the category of visited Websites, and various usage statistics.