ansari

With an increase in the global pollution, there is requirement for an alternative to the fossil fuels. Non-edible vegetable oils are highly promising for producing liquid fuels like diesel. Jatropha is a potential feedstock for biodiesel, currently utilized in India and many parts of the world. The optimization of reaction conditions such as temperature, time, catalyst and molar ratio for biodiesel production is important in reactor design. However, oils have characteristics reaction properties for optimum yield. Therefore, there is the need to identify such parameters in Jatropha oil ethyl esters production. Preparation of biodiesel from Jatropha oil ethyl esters using conventional homogeneous process. Optimization of Jatropha ethyl esters using Response surface methodology is done and data so obtained are fed to the design experiment software for analysis. The Jatropha ethyl esters yield was 92.62%. Maximum production of Jatropha oil ethyl ester was achieved with the process parameters viz molar ratio 8.5, reaction time 89.67min, reaction temperature 70.1°C and catalyst.0.62wt%.

Bacterial canker caused by Clavibacter michiganensis subsp. michiganensis is an economically important disease of tomato. In this study after isolation and characterization of the pathogen, effects of tomato pre-treatment with DL-β-aminobutyric acid (BABA) on bacterial canker was investigated under laboratory conditions. BABA is known as a powerful chemical resistance inducer in plants against diverse pathogens. In this study, tomato plants were treated with a 0.2 mM concentration of BABA and distilled water served as control. The plants were subsequently challenged with a 1×108 CFU ml−1 bacterial suspension. The results of experiments in different time intervals showed that BABA pre-treatment resulted in a significant reduction of bacterial population and symptoms severity of inoculated plants as compared to their controls. Furthermore, late appearance of disease symptoms indicated longer incubation periods for BABA treated plants. Also, a significant increase was observed in the expression of PR1 and catalase genes in treated plants. Based on our results and regarding the lack of proper management options against the disease, application of BABA as an environmentally safe agent is recommended as a valuable contribution to disease management.

The present study was carried out to identify and analyze the social factors affecting school phobia in children in three domains of personal characteristics, parental expectations for children's educational attainment, and human and physical factors related to schools. The research method was survey and the statistical population of the study was comprised of 545 parents of Tehrani elementary school students in grades one to three. The instrument included a questionnaire with Cronbach's alpha of 0.85 which showed the internal consistency of the measure. Based on the results, three factors, i.e., parental expectations for children's educational attainment, school personnel’s perception of students, and children’s experience of school environment are among the important factors associated with school phobia. More specifically, 20.2% of variance in school phobia variable is explained by the aforementioned factors. The most significant factors contributing to school phobia are parental expectations for children's educational attainment (18%), school personnel’s perception of students (1.3%), and children’s experience of school environment (0.9%), respectively.

In this research, the behaviour of a single droplet of the dielectric field under the effect of the applied external uniform magnetic field has been investigated. Previously, it was thought that no force is applied to the dielectric fluids when exposed to the uniform magnetic field. A stagnant droplet in a quiescent fluid column was considered in order to determination of the net effect of the applied uniform magnetic field. Considering that the droplet behaviour has been investigated in the horizontal plane, the net effect of the gravity on the droplet and the surrounding fluid is also zero. Therefore, any change in the condition of the considered droplet will be due to the effect of the applied magnetic field. Numerical analysis has been used to perform this research. The governing equations of the problem are the continuity, momentum, level set equations for interface simulation, re-initialization and re-construction equations of the level set equations to control the mass dissipation of this method. The governing equations have been discretized and solved by developing code in the Fortran programming environment. The behaviour of the considered droplet in various regimes has been investigated under the different magnitudes of the applied magnetic field. The results of the research in various cases show that stagnant droplet deforms under the effect of the applied magnetic field and starts to vibrate which also induces the motion in the surrounding quiescent fluid.

In recent decades, land use changes have been one of the most important environmental issues worldwide. This study was carried out to investigate and analyse land use changes in dust sources of south and south-east Ahwaz and surrounding lands using remote sensing technique. Firstly, based on the standard precipitation index (SPI), the years 1986, 2002 and 2016 were selected as years with near normal situation. In the next step, land use maps of the study area were extracted using a Landsat satellite images and supervised classification methods. MNDWI index was used to increase the accuracy of image classification. In order to evaluate the efficiency of each method, the overall accuracy and kappa coefficient were used. Finally, to investigate land use change a post-classification comparison method was employed. According to research findings, in the first period (1986-2002), the area of vegetation, wet land with vegetation and water bodies have increased by 419%, 219% and 40.7%, respectively, in contrast, the area of barren and poor range has reduced by 36.6%. One of the major causes of these changes is human factors such as population growth and climate variables such as proper amounts of precipitation. In the second period (2002-2016), the area of wet land with vegetation, water bodies and vegetation has been decreased by 94%, 49.3% and 46.7%, respectively; in contrast, barren and poor range land has been increased by 45.4%. Recent droughts increase the temperature and incorrect and non-principled management of water resources has been effective in reducing green cover and water bodies and increasing in bare land. The results show that, during the three decades, built-up land has been increased by 157%, while River bed has decreased by 28.8%. These results indicate a total degradation in the region due to climate change and human activities.

 Two-dimensional materials such as transition metal dichalcogenides TMDCs with direct band gaps have opened a new horizon for application in photonics and optoelectronic elements. Of various TMDCs, the WSe2 monolayer is chosen to study its absorption in the presence of the gold as a plasmonic layer and SiO2 as the spacer layer with alternative layer’s positions. Optical properties of these structures are calculated based on the transfer matrix method, TMM, in the visible wavelength region. We found that the presence of the spacer layer between the WSe2 and gold layer enhances the absorption significantly. In an optimal design and in the wavelength of 324 nm, while thickness of the spacer layer is 38 nm, the absorption is reached to 97. Our findings can be applied for designing any desirable optical absorbers for high performance photovoltaic devices.

The main purpose of the paper is to extend some results of the coupled fixed point theorems, based on some previous works [15, 16], by using C-class functions. First part of the paper is related to some fixed point theorems, the second part presents the uniqueness and existence for the solution of the coupled fixed point problem and in the third part we discuss data dependence, well-posedness, Ulam-Hyers stability and limit shadowing property of the coupled fixed point set.

Baby corn is a premature ear of maize that is harvested as dehusked vegetable corn at 2-3 days after silking before fertilization. No enough attention has been paid to this kind of maize in the literature. In order to investigate the effect of planting density and pattern on yield and some qualitative and morphological traits in baby corn hybrid KSC403su a field experiment was conducted at College of Agriculture, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran in 2014. The treatments were plant density at four levels: 100, 125, 150 and 175 thousands plant ha-1 and three planting patterns: one, two and three rows which arranged in factorial based on a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications. The results showed that yield, solar radiation, total soluble solid (TTS) and a majority of morphological traits of baby corn were significantly affected by the treatments and their interactions. With increasing of the number of rows and plant density, leaf area and  plant height were increased, while the number of tillers per plant, number of ears per plant, husked and dehusked ear yield, husked and dehusked ear weight and ear diameter were decreased. The highest husked and dehusked ear yield were obtained in 150 thousands plant ha-1 and single row planting pattern with average of 1834 and 9128 Kg ha-1, respectively. In general, one row planting pattern at 150 thousands plant ha-1 were considered as the most suitable treatments and could be suggested for achieving acceptable yield and appropriate quality.

Present study explores the effect of Hall current, non-linear radiation, irregular heat source/sink on magnetohydrodynamic flow of Casson nanofluid past a nonlinear stretching sheet. Viscous and Joule dissipation are incorporated in the energy equation. An accurate numerical solution of highly nonlinear partial differential equations, describing the flow, heat and mass transfer, by a new Spectral Paired Quasi-linearization method is obtained and effect of various physical parameters such as hall current parameter, radiation parameter, Eckert number, Prandtl number, Lewis number, thermophoresis parameter and Brownian motion parameter on the thermal, hydro-magnetic and concentration boundary layers are observed. The analysis shows that variation of different thermo-magnetic parameter induces substantial impression on the behaviour of temperature and nanoparticle distribution. Thermal boundary layer is greatly affected by conduction radiation parameter.

Birds are considered as a reservoir for pathogenic and non-pathogenic fungi. Pigeon droppings have the potential for spreading these fungi to the environment. Cryptococcus species are important fungi associated with pigeon droppings. In this regard, there are many types of yeast associated with guano that is important for human and animal health.

The main objective of this study is the identification of non-Cryptococcus yeasts isolated from pigeon dropping in Shiraz, Southern Iran.

A total of 100 unknown yeasts, which were previously screened and identified as non-Cryptococcus from pigeon guano through the conventional methods, were used in this study. Identification of the isolates was performed based on conventional methods and DNA sequence analysis of internal transcribed spacer (ITS) rDNA gene region. The sequence results were deposited in NCBI database using the Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST).

A total of 16 species belonging to 7 genera were identified as Candida spp. 51% (8 species), Rhodotorula sp. 24%, Trichosporon spp. 21% (3 species), Rhodosporidium 2%, Saccharomyces 1%, Rhizoctonia 1%, and Meyerozyma 1%. The predominant isolates were Rhodotorula rubra (24%), Candida famata (20%), and Trichosporon asahii (13%). The other species were Rhodosporidium kratochvilovae 2 (2%), Saccharomyces cerevisiae 1 (1%), Rhizoctonia solani 1 (1%), and Meyerozyma caribbica 1 (1%).

Pigeon excreta examined in this study were associated with several kinds of opportunistic yeasts which could cause diseases in prone human and animals.

Haftad-Gholleh Area has recently encountered many changes. In this study, by using landsat images of the years 1996 and 2016, landuse maps were classified into four classes including: agriculture, rangeland, residential areas, and rocks. Land Change Modeler (LCM) and Habitat and Biodiversity Modeler (HBM) modules in the Idrisi GIS software were used to analyze the land use changes and habitat evaluation for the prediction of  the land uses status in 2016, based on the Artificial Neural Network (ANN), Markov Chain analysis and logistic regression. The results showed that most of the changes in the landscape of the region between 1996 and 2016 were related, respectively, to attrition, aggregation and creation indicators; between the years 2016 to 2041, they can be related, respectively, to the creation and dissection indicators. The habitat evaluation showed that 4.5% of the habitat was decreased in 2016, as compared to 1996. With the continuation of this trend, 6.5% of the habitat will fall in 2041, as compared to 2016. Receiver Operating Characteridtic (ROC) of the model also specified that the desirability model validity was equal to 0.9558, showing the excellent performance of logistic regression method. In general, this can be an important principle approach preventing from changes in the habitat of wild sheep to other land uses.

Using Near-infrared spectroscopy methods to create the physical and chemical properties estimation model of material has been developed and considered by the food industries in recent years. The present study was conducted to investigate the statistical effects of various pre-processing techniques such as Moving Average (MA), Multiplicative Scatter Correction(MSC), Savitzky-Golay(SG), Standard Normal Variate(SNV), First and Second derivative on the Near-Infrared spectral data of the sugar syrups on sucrose concentration estimation model.  The results showed that the SNV and the Second derivative techniques could have an effective improvement in the estimation model.

Salinity stress is a brutal environmental stress which decreases the yield production of plants. Questions rise on which of the ionic stress or lack of water has deleterious effects on plants forage dry yield. Also, questions remain on whether the K+ reduction or Na+ accumulation is more important in forage dry yield reduction under salinity stress. The present experiment was conducted to answer the above questions in four alfalfa ecotypes. To do so, 6-7 weeks seedlings were irrigated with high salty water (EC=20dS m-1) and RWC, MSI, height, forage dry yield, Na+ and K+ were measured 1, 3, 6, 10, and 16 days after the salt shock. The results showed that one day after irrigation with saline water, all measured traits changed adversely. Salinity stress by decreasing K+ and increasing Na+ content reduced the growth of alfalfa plants. RWC reduction was less than K+ reduction or Na+ accumulation, so ionic stress had more deleterious effects on forage dry yield of alfalfa plants. Root cells had a higher content of K+ and Na+ ions compared with leaves, hence, they had a major defensive role against salinity stress. The K+/Na+ ratio reduction in saline condition was the main element for decreasing plant forage dry yield. The application of high salty water for irrigation of alfalfa plants is possible if there is a good subsoil drainage system to remove the leached saline water regularly from the soil. It is also suggested that foliar application of potassium may be ameliorate harmful effects of salinity stress in plant growth.

Non-pathogenic Pseudomonadsare the main biocontrol agents that are used in plant disease management. In this study, effects of four strains of Pseudomonas fluorescens (Pf1, Pf2, Pf3, Pf4), and P. putida (P13) were studied for their ability to elicit induced systemic resistance against diseases caused by Botrytis cinerea and Alternaria alternata on tomato (Super Majar and Queen cvs) and Arabidopsis. The ability of biocontrol agents to colonize roots of tomato cultivars and Arabidopsis and induce resistance was shown to be highest for P13, and Pf3 strains and P13, and Pf3 were able to reduce the average lesion diameter of diseased leaves to 30% and 25%, compared to that of control, respectively. The ability of biocontrol agents for direct control the pathogens was also evaluated. The results revealed that P. putida (P13) was the best biocontrol agent as measured by the reduction in disease severity. P13 reduced the average lesion diameter of diseased tomato leaves by about 45%. Finally, Pf3 and P13 were identified as more powerful strains. Moreover, these strains could induce some level of resistance against various pathogens and they had the ability to enhance plant growth.

Cu-Mo porphyry deposit of Aliabad Damak is located at 35 km southwest of Taft in Yazd province, Iran. A detailed exploration of this deposit has been carried out. The indications of mineralization on the surface can be seen as veins and contaminations of Malachite - Azurite with some Pyrite and Chalcopyrite, and rarely Chalcocite and Covellite. The mineralization took place as stockwork texture and scattered distribution. The hydrothermal solutions due to Aliabad's semi-deep intrusive body, in addition to copper mineralization, have caused severe alteration of granite and Cretaceous sedimentary-volcanic units. While the phyllic alteration has the largest extent, outcrop of potassic alteration has not been seen in the study area yet. Argillic and propylitic alteration zones are also seen in and around the phyllic alteration. According to the drilling wells in the area, potassic and propylitic alterations can be observed inside and around the phyllic alteration in depths. Magnetic and IP/RS (with rectangular and pole-dipole array) surveys have been performed in the studied area. In this research, we tried to adapt the different alteration zones with geophysical anomalies. In studied area phyllic alteration zones have weak magnetic anomaly, propylitic alteration zones are associated with mild magnetic anomaly and argillic zones have not any sign of magnetic anomaly. Relation between different alterations and chargeability and resistivity anomalies was investigated in this study. Phyllic alteration zones show low resistivity and high chargeability, potassic alteration show high resistivity and low chargeability and propylitic alteration zones represent moderate resistivity and chargeability.

Fault identification and investigating their evolution is of special importance in the exploration and development of hydrocarbon resources. Success in exploration and development of hydrocarbon fields, need to recognition of petroleum systems and in this regard one of the most important topics is identifying faults and their extension condition as a main fluid migration path, specially in deeper zones. Faults and fractures have crucial role in making high permeable and porous segments and cut reservoir and cap rock in the fluid migration path. In addition, for maximizing the production of hydrocarbon from reservoirs and also for reducing the risk of drilling, it is necessary to gain information about geometry and nature of faults of reservoirs. In this paper, the purpose is investigating the performance of combination of neural networks and Fault Likelihood auto-tracking algorithm for identification and interpretation of faults in seismic data. At first using the Dip-steering feature of software, the early filter for accurate identification of dip of structures in the data, have been designed and applied. Then with designing and applying the appropriate filters, the seismic data have been improved. After that proper seismic attributes for fault identification have been calculated from seismic data. With picking fault and non-fault points from data, a supervised neural network using the selected attributes was formed and after training the network, the appropriate output achieved. Then the output of neural network has been used as a input for Thinned Fault Likelihood auto-tracking algorithm. The output of this part contains a volume of tracked faults. Finally using sub-tools of TFL and optimal setting of parameters, 3D fault planes has been interpreted and extracted.

This paper explores the mechanical properties and fracture analysis of C2N-h2D single-layer sheets using classical molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Simulations are carried out based on the Tersoff potential energy function within Nose-Hoover thermostat algorithm at the constant room temperature in a canonical ensemble. The influences of boron (B) doping on the mechanical properties, i.e. Young’s and bulk moduli and ultimate strength and strain of C2N-h2D single-layer sheets are studied and the effects of size and doping percentage on the aforementioned properties are explored. The results demonstrate lower strength and stiffness of C2N-h2D single-layer sheets compared to graphene. It is also demonstrated that unlike the strength of C2N-h2D single-layer sheet, the stiffness of C2N-h2D single-layer sheet is larger than that of silicene nanosheet. In addition, it is observed that doping of B atoms on C2N-h2D single-layer sheets intensely reduces the mechanical properties, whereas this reduction increases by rising the percentage of B-doping. Furthermore, the fracture process of C2N-h2D and B-doped C2N-h2D single-layer sheets is illustrated.

As one of the most important productive inputs, workforce plays a significant role in the economy of any country. This factor has a dual role in economic planning so that on the one hand, it acts as a development agent, and serves as a development goal on the other hand. At present, one of the main issues of Iran's economy is unemployment and it consequences. Among the policies that seem to be effective are government support policies. Therefore, this research investigated the effect of producer and consumer support policies on agricultural employment in the period of 1981-2012 using Vector Error Correction Model (VECM). The results indicated that consumer and producer support policies in agricultural sector had a positive and significant effect on the employment of the agricultural sector in the country (Iran). Also, the results show that inflation and capital to cultivated area ratio during the studied period had a negative effect on employment in agriculture sector. These results disapprove the Phillips curve in Iran's agricultural sector and confirm the substitution relationship between capital and workforce in this sector. The coefficient of ECM model, which indicates the modulation rate of the short-term dynamic pattern toward long-term equilibrium, is equal to -0.149 indicating that 15% of the imbalance error will be eliminated in each period.

Based on reflective approach in sociology of art, which presents the influence of art from environmental conditions and their reflections, we can use Persian paintings as an important reference to recognize Iranian performative spaces, because these paintings illustrate Iranian literature raised from culture. However, Iranian painters selected their subject with special thoughts and careful insight. Furthermore, there are few references and resources about the subjects and points in these paintings, maybe because of historical condition of Iran. In the other words, Iranian artists have been learnt in hard situations to conceal the meaning of their artwork using symbols and codes. Performance is one of the Iranian arts that have been limited at various times. Despite, literature and culture of Iran is full of dramatic moments. Anecdotes such as “Siavash passing on fire”, “Shirin and Farhad romance” and “the seven beauties (Haft Pykar)” are full of dramatic features and they are the most important subjects in paintings. The Iranian cultural landscape is rich in pondering places and communal spaces for different ceremonies and rituals. But in the documents there are less evidences about essence and state of performance spaces. While in many paintings, images of real locations of Iranian cultural landscapes which a theatrical event is taking place, have been depicted. Therefore, features of Iranian theater spaces could be recognize from these paintings. In this paper, the state of “cultural landscape” is used instead of architecture, urban or landscape. Because, cultural landscape represents a long and intimate relationship between man and nature; as well as it expresses the mentality and culture of the communities in built environments at the context of nature. Various characters related to the taste, smell, touch, motion, visual and hearing are cultural aspects. Performance as one of the cultural aspects is highly dependent on time and place so, it can be one of the function of the built environment or inversely be affected from environment. Selected painting in this study, have two points: first, their subjects are in agreement with drama and second, the painted places points to the real places that the performative occurrences have been played there. The main questions are: what place has been chosen for an occurrence in a performance, what have been the characteristics of performative space in this place, and how was the relationship between the audiences and actors? Our results in this study show that performative occurrences are one of cultural aspect of Iranian literature and society. As a consequence, the Iranian nature or city landscapes, as receptacles for life, provide bases for performative occurrences. These multifunctional and centripetal places have hierarchy space, perceptional boundary and different layers of view and perspective. Moreover, natural or artificial elements have been used for walls and stages, as well as, the light and accessories are in agreement with spatial and temporal conditions. Therefore, we aimed to study some aspects of Iranian performative space using methods such as historical research, content analysis and hermeneutics to investigate performative places and spaces in selective Persian paintings.

In order to identify the plant-parasitic nematodes associated with medicinal plants in Boyer-Ahmad region, Iran, 84 soil and root samples were collected during 2015-2016. The nematodes were extracted from soil samples, according to the sieving-centrifugal flotation method, and then fixed and transferred to glycerin according to the modified De Grisse’s method. Identification of the nematodes insides the roots was also done with the Hooper’s staining technique. After microscopic observations of the permanent slides, the necessary measurements were made. Finally, the extracted nematodes were identified at species level using available diagnostic keys. In this study, 28 species belong to 14 genera were identified as follow:Amplimerlinius globigerus, Aphelenchoides cyrtus, A. haguei, A. varicaudatus, Helicotylenchus digitiformis, H. digonicus, H. exallus, H. pseudorobustus, H. varicaudatus, H. vulgaris, Longidorus africanus, Meloidogyne hapla, M. javanica, Merlinius brevidens, Mesocriconema antipolitanum, M. lobellum, Nagelus obscurus, Pratylenchoides ritteri, Pratylenchus cruciferus, P. curvicauda, P. delattrei, P. neglectus, P. sefaensis, P. sudanensis, P. thornei, Rotylenchus cypriensis, Scutylenchus rugosus, Xiphinema pachtaicum, Zygotylenchus guevarai.
Mesocriconema lobellum and Pratylenchus sudanensis were recovered from the rhizosphere of marsh-mallow and horehound plants, respectively and are reported for the first time from Iran here.

In this paper, a theoretical model is proposed for Leidenfrost droplet evaporation by solving the mass, momentum, and energy conservation equations. This model involves a set of four equations, of which the values of vapor layer thickness, evaporation rate on the lower surface of the drop, the volume of evaporating droplet, and temperature distribution in vapor layer are obtained. This set of equation is solved with Fortran code by the predictor-corrector method. The main unknown value in these equations is the vapor layer thickness, which is predicted in every step of simulation and corrected by the balance of forces that act on the drop. In this study, the upper surface of the drop, where contacts with air and the lower surface of droplet, where contacts with the vapor layer are predicted with high accuracy by solving the Young- Laplace equation. The vapor layer thickness obtained from the proposed model is compared with experimental data and encouraging agreement is observed.

Today, the consumption of frozen fruits and vegetables has been increasing due to the ability of these products to persuade the consumers to maintain nutritional value, time-saving and other practical reasons. The aim of this study was to investigate some physicochemical properties of two groups of corn kernels, single and attached to the cob, after heat processing and storage at -18 ° C. In this study, sweet corn in two forms of single kernels and corns on the cob were cooked for 4, 8 and 12 minutes and stored for 10 weeks at -18 ° C. The
effects of heat treatment on the drip loss, color changes, total phenolic content, antioxidant activity, peroxidase activity, hardness and microstructure were investigated every two weeks. The amount of drip loss increased significantly (p<0.05) during freezing, and therefore the hardness decreased, in which the corns on the cob were more effective in maintaining their water structure as compared to the single kernels. The peroxidase activity, total phenolic content and antioxidant activity were significantly (p<0.05) decreased with heating process. The reversibility of peroxidase activity was observed during the freezing storage. In terms of the radical scavenging capacity, there was no significant difference between single corns and the ones on the cob. The amount of phenolic compounds increased until the fourth week and then decreased significantly (p<0.05) during storage at -18 °C. Moreover, the corns on the cob also showed more color changes than the single ones. Heat Treatment has significant effect on some physicochemical properties of corn during storage at -18 ° C

Atherosclerosis is a multifactorial disorder, which affects the arterial wall. It has been reported that, hypothyroidism and thyroid hormone deficiency are related to cardiovascular disorders. Also, endothelial dysfunction plays an essential role in the development of atherosclerosis. We aimed to evaluate the effects of thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) on pro-inflammatory tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-6 (IL-6), angiogenic vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and leukocyte adhesion, intercellular adhesion molecule 1 (ICAM-1) and E-selectin in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs). In this study, HUVEC cells were treated with 1 and 2 µM of TSH in different treatment times. The gene and protein expression of ICAM-1, VEGF, and E-selectin were performed by real-time polymerase chain reaction and western blotting, respectively. Likewise, TNF-α and IL-6 protein levels were determined by the ELISA method. VEGF, ICAM-1, and E-selectin as endothelial dysfunction markers and also, TNF-α and IL-6 as pro-inflammatory cytokines were detectable in HUVEC. Besides, the results of this study revealed that TSH treatment down-regulates TNF-α and IL-6. Evaluating the gene and protein expression data revealed the upregulation of ICAM-1, E-selectin, and VEGF in TSH treated cases in different periods of exposure. Considering the multiple actions of TSH, it could be concluded that TSH plays a controversial role in atherogenesis by anti-inflammatory effects and on the other side, angiogenesis and leukocyte adhesion induction which is related to vascular cell proliferation.

Semi-solid materials undergo strain localization and shear band formation as a result of granular nature of semi-solid deformation. In the present study, to analyze the shear localization, a unified viscoplastic constitutive model was developed for the homogeneous flow. Then, a linearized analysis of the stability performed by examining the necessary condition for the perturbation growth. For this purpose, a shear layer model was considered to analyze the perturbation growth and subsequent instability. The perturbation analysis revealed that the failure mode in semi-solid materials is diffused with long wave length regime, rather than to be localized and exhibiting short wave length regime. Moreover, decreasing the solid skeleton has a retarding effect on the perturbation growth and localization at low and modest strain rates. The performed analysis showed that the localization analysis results in a new interpretation for the micro-mechanisms of the semi-solid deformation. The constitutive model was fairly well correlated with the experimental results.

There is some controversy over the efficacy of statins for the prevention of contrastinduced nephropathy (CIN). There have also been reports on varying efficacies of different statins. Hence, in this study the efficacy of atorvastatin and rosuvastatin for the prevention of CIN was assessed. This single-blind randomized clinical trial was performed on 495 random patients with myocardial infarction with ST-segment elevation undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in a training referral hospital in 2015. Patients were randomly assigned to receive either atorvastatin 80 mg at admission and daily or rosuvastatin 40 mg at admission and daily. CIN was defined based on serum creatinine elevation after 48 hours from the PCI. The incidence of CIN was observed in 63 patients (21.4%) After 48 hours from primary PCI. Of those, 17% (n = 50) were grade 1 CIN, while 4.4% (n = 13) were grade 2 CIN. There was no significant difference between rosuvastatin group compared with atorvastatin group, regarding the CIN grading (P = 0.14). Our results indicate that atorvastatin and rosuvastatin have similar efficacy for the prevention of CIN.