h. dehghani

The occurrence of settlement induced by tunneling operations in urban environments is an inevitable phenomenon. The risk of damage to nearby infrastructures and surface structures can be greatly reduced by predicting and controlling this event. This paper uses multiple linear regression (MLR) model and random forest (RF) algorithm to predict the maximum surface settlement (Smax) due to shallow tunnel excavation. Nine input parameters, including the distance of the tunnel center from the ground surface (H), height of the underground water level above the tunnel (W.T), tunnel diameter (D), elastic modulus of soil (E), undrained shear strength of soil (Cu), earth pressure coefficient (K0), unit weight of soil (γ), gap parameter (g), and stability number (N) were selected from 24 data sets related to 14 tunneling projects. The MLR and RF techniques were then implemented for predicting Smax. Three performance indicators of coefficient of determination (R2), root mean square error (RMSE), and mean absolute error (MAE) were employed for the training and test phases to evaluate the efficiency of the suggested models. The coefficient of determination values for MLR and RF for training data were 0.814 and 0.957, respectively, while for test data were 0.793 and 0.96, indicating that the RF approach is more efficient than MLR. Moreover, the findings reveal that the RF algorithm exhibits lower RMSE and MAE values in both the training and testing phases compared to the MLR method. This suggests that the RF algorithm exhibits reduced error and higher reliability and accuracy when compared to the MLR model. Also, the performance study demonstrates that among the input parameters, the gap parameter (g) and the undrained shear strength of soil (Cu) have the greatest and least influence on Smax, respectively.

This paper presents a new method to investigate the effects of demand response programs on the life expectancy of distribution transformers. The proposed method has been applied on a realistic distribution network, and the results are evaluated under various models of the demand response program and different levels of tariffs. According to the results, distribution transformers’ life extension under various scenarios of applying demand response programs, in spite of differences among them, brings a great economic benefit. The results show a significant life extension in the interval of about 9 to 33 years. Also, this life extension brings a considerable benefit between 624.91$ to 821.669$, per year. However, the amount of obtained benefit considerably depends on the model of the demand response program and the level of tariffs. Besides, an economic analysis from both utility’s and customer’s perspectives is carried out in order to determine the optimal demand response model. To do this, an economic index is presented, and the best solution is determined by an Analytical Hierarchy Process so that it can satisfy both utilities and customers. As revealed by the results, the total annual benefits of the utility and customers are increased by 762.64$ and 73.85$.

This paper attempted to estimate the amount of flyrock in the Angoran mine in Zanjan province, Iran using the gene expression programming (GEP) predictive technique. The input data, including flyrock, mean depth of the hole, powder factor, stemming, explosive weight, number of holes, and booster were collected from the mine. Then, using GEP, a series of intelligent equations were proposed to predict flyrock distance. The best GEP equation was selected based on some well-established statistical indices in the next stage. The coefficient of determination for training and testing datasets of the GEP equation were 0.890 and 0.798, respectively. The model obtained from the GEP method was then optimized using teaching– learning-based optimization algorithm (TLBO). Based on the results, the correlation coefficient of training and testing data increased to 91% and 89%, which increased the accuracy of the Equation. This new intelligent equation could forecast flyrock resulting from mine blasting with a high level of accuracy. The capabilities of this intelligent technique could be further extended to the other blasting environmental issues.

In this research work, a comprehensive study is conducted to predict flyrock as a typical and undesirable phenomenon occurring during the blasting operation in open-pit mining. Despite the availability of several empirical methods for predicting the flyrock distance, the complexity of flyrock analysis has resulted in the low performance of these models. Therefore, the statistical and robust artificial intelligence techniques are applied for flyrock prediction in the Sungun copper mine in Iran. For this purpose, the linear multivariate regression (LMR), imperialist competitive algorithm (ICA), adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS), and artificial neural network (ANN) methods are applied to predict flyrock with effective parameters including the blasthole diameter, stemming, burden, powder factor, and maximum charge per delay. According to the attained results, the ANN model with the structure of 5-8-1, Levenberg-Marquardt as the learning algorithm, and log-sigmoid (logsig) as the transfer functions are selected as the optimal network with the RMSE and R2 values of 5.04 m and 95.6% to predict flyrock, respectively. Also it can be concluded that the ICA technique has a relatively high capability in predicting flyrock, with the LMR and ANFIS models placed in the next. Finally, the sensitivity analysis reveal that the powder factor and blasthole diameters have the most importance on the flyrock distance in the present work.

In this paper, the effect of corrosion on the ultimate strength of fixed offshore jacket structures, which are among the most widely used structures in both oil and gas and renewable energy industries, is investigated. The effects of corrosion over different periods of time have been considered as a uniform reduction in the thickness of the members and other types of corrosion and their effects have not been considered in this study. The fixed offshore jacket structure considered in this study belongs to one of the gas platforms in phase 19 of South Pars gas field, which has a lifespan of 25 years. The ultimate strength of the structure is obtained by pushover analysis and it is expressed using the reserve strength ratio. For this purpose, the structure has been modeled and analyzed in SACS software, which is one of the most widely used finite element softwares in this field. According to the results of this study, if the assumptions made about corrosion occur, the ultimate strength of the structure after it reaches its lifespan will be reduced by approximately 20%, such that the value of the reserve strength ratio of the structure is 1.7 when no corrosion is applied, but it reduces to 1.3 considering the amount of corrosion applied after the design life of the structure (i.e., 25 years). This downward trend is mainly to be continued over the following years.

Conventional cancer therapies, including surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy, are not tumor site-specific and have cytotoxic and harmful side effects for normal cells. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), due to their tumor-tropism migration property, are a promising alternative to deliver and produce antitumor agents. However, MSCs are difficult-to-transfect cells, and introducing the exogenous therapeutic gene into MSCs is challenging yet needs improvement. Transfection using chemical reagents, including Lipofectamine, is more convenient and less cytotoxic compared with different methods of introducing exogenous DNA into MSCs. Nonetheless, the major limitation of Lipofectamine is low transfection efficiency in MSCs. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to evaluate and suggest the optimum quantities of lipoplex components to enhance the transfection efficiency of human adipose tissue-derived MSCs (hASCs). Finding the best transgene expression time point and the optimum concentration of G-418 for antibiotic-based selection was another goal of this study. hASCs were transfected in a series of experiments with altering the quantities of Lipofectamine LTX® (Lip-LTX), the related “PLUS” reagent, and a plasmid DNA (pDNA) expressing the enhanced green fluorescent protein (eGFP). After transfection, the percentage of eGFP-expressing cells was evaluated using fluorescence microscopy and ImageJ software in 12-hour intervals for 48 hours. Also, the viability of hASCs exposed to different concentrations of G-418 was measured using an MTT assay. The results demonstrated that a combination of 2 µL Lip-LTX, 0.75 µL of its “PLUS” reagent, and 0.75 g pDNA (6484 bp) improve the transfection efficiency of hASCs (23.75%), and the best period for evaluation of fluorescence for these cells is 12 to 24h post-transfection. Also, the optimum concentration of G-418 for antibiotic-based selection of hASCs was 0.25mg/mL. In conclusion, this study indicates that the setting up of optimized quantities of lipoplex components and the golden time of evaluation for transgene expression could increase the possibility of transgene expression in hASCs before beginning research and clinical application. Also, the definition of optimal dose of selection antibiotic for purification of transfected hASCs seems to be necessary for maximum transgene expression effects in the cell population.

The production cycle in open-pit mines includes the drilling, blasting, loading, and haulage. Since loading and haulage account for a large part of the mining costs, it is very important to optimize the transport fleet from the economic viewpoint. Simulation is one of the most widely used methods in the field of fleet design. However, it is unable to propose an optimized scenario for which the appropriate metaheuristic method should be employed. This paper considers the Sungun copper mine as the case study, and attempts to find the most feasible transportation arrangement. In the first step, in this work, we compare the flexible dispatching with the fixed allocation methods using the Arena software. Accordingly, the use of flexible dispatching reveals the increase in the production rate (20%) and productivity (25%), and the decrease (20%) in the idle time. The firefly metaheuristic algorithm used in the second step shows that the combined scenario of the 35-ton and 100-ton trucks is the most suitable option in terms of productivity and cost. In another attempt, comparing different heterogeneous truck fleets, we have found that the scenarios 35-100 and 35-60-100-144 increase the production rate by 39% and 49%, respectively. Also, in both scenarios, the production cost decreases by 11% and 21%, respectively.

In this paper, the effect of PDC cutter angle on the failure mechanism of rock like materials was investigated using experimental test and numerical simulation. For this purpose, three PDC cutter with different angle were built, i.e. 0°, 30° and 60°. Nine gypsum sample with dimension of 14cm*11cm*5cm were prepared. The ratio of gypsum to water was equal to 2. For each PDC angle, three similar gypsum blocks were tested. The blocks were situated above the PDC cutters and these assemblies were fixed in Uniaxial test machine. The loading rate was 0.05 mm/min. concurrent with experimental test, numerical simulation was performed using particle flow code in two dimension. Firstly calibration of PFC was done using experimental results. Secondly, numerical model with dimension of 14cm*11cm was prepared. Then, five PDC cutter angles were built, i.e. 0°, 15°, 30°, 45° and 60°. These cutters were situated at lower part of the model and move in positive side of y direction by rate of 0.01 mm/min. the results show that failure patterns were affected by PDC angle. Also maximum failure load was controlled by failure pattern. The maximum failure load was decreased by increasing the PDC cutter angle. The maximum failure load was related to angle of 0. The minimum failure load was related to angle of 60. The experimental results were similar to numerical simulations out puts.

Selecting an appropriate flooring system is essential for structures. Flooring system design has traditionally focused on weight loss and minimizing costs. However, in recent years, the focus of this sector has changed to include improving the environmental performance of building materials and construction systems. This paper illustrates a knowledge-based expert system as a tool to assess of flooring systems such as block joisted (BJ), steel-concrete composite (SCC), composite steel deck (CSD) and concrete slab (CS) based on sustainability criteria that are further divided into twenty sub-criteria. Analytical hierarchy process (AHP) is utilized as a multi-criteria decision making technique that helps to compute weights and rankings of sustainability criteria. For this purpose, some questionnaires completed by construction industry experts in order to compare criterions and sub-criteria in addition to assessment of optimized flooring systems. Then, results of the questionnaires are ranked by AHP and the most significant alternative is selected. The AHP results indicate that CSD system 47.9%, CS; 29.8%, SCC; 12.7% and BJ system 9.6% are the most and the least efficient systems, respectively.

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) is one of the important horticultural crop species world-wide. Identifying superior genotypes with a high yield and acceptable fruit quality can pave the way for breeding programs. In order to identify the best tomato cultivars for some of fruit quality and yield related traits, a 3-replicate experiment with 20 commercial tomato hybrids in randomized complete block design was conducted in research field of Tarbiat Modares University in Tehran, in 2017. The examined traits included number of days to flowering, number of days to first fruit-set, plant height, number of primary branches, number of primary clusters, number of fruits per plant, fruit yield per plant, leaf chlorophyll index, fruit juice acidity, fruit electrical conductivity, water salinity, total dissolved solids, percentage of brix and fruit lycopene content. Hybrids were compared by two methods of the heatmap clustering and the analytical hierarchy process as a multivariate indicator. Among the 14 tested traits, four traits including number of days to flowering, leaf chlorophyll index, water salinity, and total dissolved solids, indicated low heritability and genotypic/phenotypic correlation with fruit yield and hence were denied for multivariate analysis. Hybrids Hypeel 108 and Queenty were superior to the other hybrids in fruit lycopene content and fruit yield, respectively, and both hybrids had an acceptable fruit juice acidity for processing in the food industry. Hybrids Queenty, Adora, Berlina, and Hypeel 108 indicated the highest AHP values and the highest genetic distances. Thus, they were found to be the most suitable genotypes for cultivating in areas with similar climatic conditions and formation of next breeding generation. These hybrids were superior to other hybrids, not only in fruit yield but also in a great majority of the traits.

This work presents a quantitative predicting likely acid mine drainage (AMD) generation process throughout tailing particles resulting from the Sarcheshmeh copper mine in the south of Iran. Indeed, four predictive relationships for the remaining pyrite fraction, remaining chalcopyrite fraction, sulfate concentration, and pH have been suggested by applying the gene expression programming (GEP) algorithms. For this, after gathering an appropriate database, some of the most significant parameters such as the tailing particle depths, initial remaining pyrite and chalcopyrite fractions, and concentrations of bicarbonate, nitrite, nitrate, and chloride are considered as the input data. Then 30% of the data is chosen as the training data randomly, while the validation data is included in 70% of the dataset. Subsequently, the relationships are proposed using GEP. The high values of correlation coefficients (0.92, 0.91, 0.86, and 0.89) as well as the low values of RMS errors (0.140, 0.014, 150.301, and 0.543) for the remaining pyrite fraction, remaining chalcopyrite fraction, sulfate concentration, and pH prove that these relationships can be successfully validated. The results obtained also reveal that GEP can be applied as a new-fangled method in order to predict the AMD generation process.

In each project, there is always a possibility of occurrence of hazards and risks. Accidents cause many damages such as financial and psychological problems, that may have a negative effect on the workers life. To prevent or reduce the occurrence of incidents, it is necessary to identify and manage the relevant affecting factors. Blasting is one of the events that has frequently led to accidents. In this paper, 13 factors affecting the occurrence of blasting related accidents in the mining and construction projects, have been selected according to the opinion of experts and ranked to identify the most important one. For this purpose, Monte Carlo simulation method and analytical hierarchy process method were implemented. The factors were ranked based on the opinion of 15 experts in this field. Finally, based on the obtained results, inappropriate blasting time, unprofessional personnel were selected as the most important factors. Also, blasting pattern specifications, type of explosive and rock mass characteristics have the least effect in this regard. Validity of the paper outcomes was checked with comparing the real recorded events.

Potato is a plant of the family (Solanaceae) and due to its vitamins, minerals, energy and high fiber, it is one of the most important agricultural products. Raw potato starch is indigestive, so thermal processing is necessary to increase its digestibility. Due to the increased unwillingness of consumers to use preservatives in food composition, demand for dried potatoes with improved qualitative characteristics has increased. One of the most important operations in food production is drying which reduces the amount of moisture in the food matrix and inhibits microbial and enzymatic activity. So far different methods have been used for drying. One of the most commonly used methods is hot air drying, which has problems and disadvantages, such as high energy consumption and long drying time. Therefore, to reduce the disadvantages of hot air drying, complementary processes such as microwave or infrared drying are used. Microwave drying makes dry products have a good quality in terms of porosity, water reabsorption capacity and shrinkage. Drying with infrared has advantages such as high drying speed, ease of operation, strong sterilization ability and high-quality dried products. Today, combination methods such as Hot air- Microwave and Hot air- Infrared methods are commonly used for drying of food materials. In the Hot air- Microwave method, the volumetric heat generated by the microwave transfers moisture to the surface of the product, and then the moisture is expelled from the surface by the flow of hot air. Also, in the Hot air- Infrared method, when the product is exposed to infrared, this action increases the molecular vibration in the layers of the inner surfaces and leads to an increase in the speed of moisture movement from inside the product to its surface. Finally, water vapor is formed on the surface of the material, which can be easily removed by convection air flow. The use of hybrid methods greatly improves product quality and greatly reduces energy consumption as well as drying time. The purpose of this research was investigation the effect of different drying methods on the quality characteristics of dried potatoes.

Potatoes (Variety Agria) were purchased from a local market for this research. The potatoes were cut after washing and peeling in the form of square cubes in the sizes of 1.2×1/2×1/2 cm. Prior to the blanching process, in order to prevent moisture reduction and color change, sliced samples were kept in a lid plate. For the next stage, samples were blanched in a water bath with a temperature control sensor. A 500-ml beaker containing water was placed in the water bath. Once it reached 100 °C, the samples were placed inside the beaker and were blanched for 5 min. Finally, the residual water on the samples was moistened using a tissue and the weight was re-measured. Finally, potato cubes were dried in different methods (Hot air 45 °C with air speed of 1 m/s, Microwave 540 W, Infrared 600 W, Hot air 45 °C- Microwave 540 W, Hot air 45 °C- Infrared 600 W and Hot air 45 °C- Microwave 540 W- Infrared 600 W). Qualitative properties of samples, such as moisture content, effective moisture diffusivity coefficient, water reabsorption, shrinkage, color, and energy consumption were evaluated in this study. In this research, statistical analysis of the experiment data was performed as a factorial design based on a completely randomized design with IBM SPSS Statistics 22 software and the evaluation of the optimum method was done using Design Expert 10 software.

In all methods, moisture ratio constantly reduced. In case of effective moisture diffusivity coefficient, the lowest amount was observed in the hot air method. Since there is a direct correlation between the effective moisture diffusivity coefficient and temperature, and on the other hand, the energy of hot air is lower than irradiation, therefore, effective moisture diffusivity coefficient in this method is lower than other methods. In case of water reabsorption when using microwaves, a significant increase in the rate and amount of this parameter occurs. When hot air, infrared and combinations of these two were used for drying, although rate of shrinkage was low, it was observed that final shrinkage reached the highest value. In these methods, the amount of color change (ΔE) started from zero (control sample) and over time, its amount also increased. The best possible conditions were when the amount of color changes was very low and also the values of (L) and (b) were high and the rate of (a) was low. The smallest amount of color variation was observed in hot air, infrared and hot air-infrared methods. Because in these methods, the process temperature was low compared to the methods used microwave energy, so the intensity of the Millard reaction is also lower, and the color of samples that were dried with these methods, were far better in quality. In terms of energy consumption, the highest amount was related to the methods used hot air. In the methods that used microwave energy for drying, the drying rate and the Effective moisture diffusivity coefficient increased and the process time decreased.When microwave was used for drying, the highest rate of water reabsorption was achieved.The highest amount of shrinkage was observed when the 600 W infrared method was used for drying.

In optimum mode, the best conditions were when the amount of shrinkage, color variations, energy consumption and (a) index were low and the rate of water reabsorption, and the indicators (L) and (b) were high. After optimization (based on the optimal qualitative characteristics,) it was determined that the optimum method between different drying methods was the combination of hot air 45 °C-infrared 600 W.

The main concern in composting plant is leachate generation that is known to be highly polluted wastewater. Migrations of untreated leachates are potential sources of hazardous contaminants in soil, groundwater and surface water. This study was aimed to investigate the heavy metals removal efficiency from Isfahan composting leachate using the following coagulantsferrous sulfate, ferric chloride, poly ferric sulfate, alum and poly aluminum chloride. This is an experimental study. Leachate samples were collected from the Isfahan composting leachate´s collection ponds. At first, leachate characteristics including COD, BOD, TSS and pH as well as the following heavy metals Zn,Cu,Ni, Cr, Cd were measured according to the standard methods. Jar-test experiments were carried out to examine the effects of changing coagulant's dosage (0.5, 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5 and 3 g/l) and pH values (4-12) on heavy metal removal. As a result, the effective dosage, optimum pH and the most convenient coagulant were identified. investigating the average of mentioned heavy metal's concentration, Zn had the highest concentration in leachate (6.2mg/l). The optimum pH for precipitation of the metals using alum, polyaluminiumchloride, ferricchloride, ferrous sulfate and poly ferric sulfate was 6.5,7,10,10 and 11 respectively. Optimum concentration of the mentioned coagulants was obtained 2, 1.5, 1.5, 2 and 2g/l respectively. Poly ferric sulfate with70% to 87% of heavy metals removal and 50% of COD removal had the highest efficiency. Poly aluminiumchloride with 65% to 85%, Ferric chloride with 75% to 80%, ferrous sulfate with70% to 80% and finally alum with 70% to75% were the following priorities at heavy metals removal.Discussion & Poly ferric sulfate is the most effective coagulant to remove heavy metals from the leachate and comparing the results with the Iranian guidelinefor effluent discharge shows that the concentration of heavy metals in leachate did not exceed the maximum allowed values.

Chamomile is one of the most important medicinal plants in the world trade with many applications in pharmaceutical, cosmetic and sanitary industrials. In order to evaluate the genetic diversity of 26 landraces, collected from different regions of Iran, based on morphological and phenological characters, the experiment were conducted in augmented design with 6 controls and 3 replications. Results showed that characters of the economical yield, harvest index, fresh weight of 50 flowers and dry weight of 50 flowers had maximum phenotypic variation coefficients, respectively. The phenological traits had the lowest of variation coefficients. The genetic masses based on cluster analysis, were settled in five groups with different agronomic traits. Results also indicated that the masses intra groups were different and the genetic diversity was not according to the geographical diversity. Analysis variance analysis for groups of cluster analysis showed that the differences among different groups for all of traits are significant. Factor analysis with principle component method using 14 characters three correlated factors were recognized justifying 82.37% of the total variation. The first, second and third were related to flowers yield, phenological traits and biological yield, respectively. According to the results, in order to increase the yield of dry flowers per plant, the traits such as economic yield, dry weight of 50 flowers, fresh weight of 50 flowers, harvest index and number of flowers per plant should be used as selection criteria.

Evidence-based nursing is the process in which the nurse can use the available research evidences، his/her clinical skills and patient preferences for appropriate clinical decision making. This study aimed to identify the knowledge، attitude and practice of intensive care nurses on evidence-based nursing in the teaching hospitals of Yazd University of Medical Sciences Hospitals.

In this descriptive study، with census sampling، all of the 120 nurses working in ICU and CCU departments were selected. Tool used to evaluate the knowledge، attitude and practice of nurses was a standard questionnaire which was translated to Farsi. Collected data were analyzed using the statistical software SPSS 18، T-Test، correlation coefficient، ANOVA and frequency distributions.

The mean knowledge score was 22. 35 ± 4. 31 out of 38، the mean of attitude score was 23. 88 ± 1. 86 out of 29 and the mean of practice score was 28. 56 ± 3. 59 out of 37. The results about the knowledge، attitude and practice of nurses on evidence-based nursing indicated that the mean knowledge score had a significant relationship with gender (p=0. 001)، age (p=0. 009) and work experience (p=0. 004). The mean attitude score had a significant relationship with age (p=0. 001). The mean of practice score had a significant relationship with gender (p=0. 001)، age (p=0. 006) and with work experience (p=0. 004). Also، there was a significant relationship betwean the mean of knowledge score and mean practice scores (p=0. 001). Findings of this study showed that nurses have a positive attitude toward evidence-based nursing but most of them had moderate and low levels of knowledge and performance about it.

Based on the results of this study، the need to educate nurses about evidence-based practice in the form of practical and workshop training، provideing facilities for evidence based nursing، nurses'' participation in clinical research and establishing a view point of supporting research-based care seems necessary.

Arterial hypoxemia is one of the main pulmonary complications after coronary artery bypass graft surgery. Therefore, several proceedings have been recommended to reduce the complications, and to improve arterial hypoxemia as well as arterial blood gas parameters such as incentive spirometry. This study intended to investigate the effect of incentive spirometry on patients´ oxygenation.

In this randomized clinical trial, a sample size of 70 patients undergoing coronary artery bypass graft was chosen. Incentive spirometry was applied in the experimental group, whereas no special intervention was taken in the control group. Arterial blood gas samples were measured in three stages: Preoperation, the first and second day after surgery. The collected data were analyzed by SPSS software version 16 using descriptive and inferential statistics.

In terms of gender, 70% were males and 30% were females whose mean age was 61±9.7. Moreover, the duration of mechanical ventilation was 6.4±1.67. The study results indicated that no significant difference was observed between experimental and control groups in terms of parameters of arterial blood gases in preoperation, first and second postoperative days (P> 0.05).

Utilizing incentive spirometry did not have any effects on improving oxygenation in patients in the first and second days after surgery, compared with routine hospital treatment.

Nowadays Heparin is used in hemodialysis set for anticoagulation by different methods. Each of these methods will increase the rate of mortality by clot formation. This clinical trial study intended to investigate the effect of three heparinization methods of hemodialysis set on coagulation condition and dialysis efficacy.

Twenty five hemodialysis patients with bp normal PTT were selected randomly and underwent three methods of anticoagulation. In the first method after priming by 5000u heparin، 200cc normal saline was infused into hemodialysis set two times. In the second method، 2000u bolus and 1000u/hr were injected at the beginning of the fourth hour. In the third method، 2500u bolus and two hours later 2500u were injected. Clot formation was evaluated at the end of the hemodialysis session visually and the efficacy of dialysis and PTT were calculated by URR،KT/V formula. The study data were analyzed via SPSS using Wilcoxon tests.

The results revealed that clot formation in the first method was significantly higher than the second and third methods (p-value=0) and in the third method، it was also more than the second method (p-value=0). Moreover، the standard PTT in the first method was more than the second method (p-value=0). Dialysis efficacy in the second method was higher than the first method (p-value=0. 002).

The probability of clot formation in the second method of heparinization is less than the other methods. Dialysis efficacy in this method is also higher than the other methods. Thus، the second method is recommended.

Organizational commitment subject has been attracted the attention of many researchers in recent years. In health care organizations, increasing of commitment and responsibility in human resources is very important, because customers of health organizations are human resources of other organizations. The present study was done to determine the effect of instruction of reducing work hours on organizational commitment of intensive care nurses.

In this semi experimental study, all nurses working in intensive care units were samples. Data collection was done by Allen and Meyer`s organizational commitment questionnaires before the implementation of instruction of reducing work hours and six month after it. Data was analyzed by statistical SPSS 16 software in significance level of P<0.05.

65 intensive care nurses participated in the study. The majority of nurses were female (92.3%) and married (70.8%). The mean age of samples in this study was 32.8±7.5 years and mean work history of them was 8.3±7.4 years. The mean total score of organizational commitment before the intervention was 95.2±20.9 and after it was 113.5±16.6 and the changes in the mean total score of organizational commitment and its dimensions before and after the intervention showed a statistically significant difference through increment (P<0.0001).

Results of present study showed increment of organizational commitment level by significant difference in organizational commitment score and its dimensions after the implementation of intervention. Considering the critical shortage of nurses in 57 countries and importance of retention of nurses especially in intensive units, nurse managers can achieve this by providing the satisfaction of the income and benefits and good working conditions and supporting and encouraging employees by increasing job satisfaction and organizational commitment and its dimensions.

In order to evaluate terminal drought tolerance in different Canola cultivars based on drought tolerance indices, an experiment was conducted based on randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications at experimental field of Seed and Plant Improvement Institute (SPII), Karaj in 2008-09. Results using stress tolerance index (STI), geometric mean productivity (GMP) and mean productivity (MP) indices revealed Zarfam, Talaye and GKH305, were as cultivars with highest yield in both optimum irrigation and terminal drought conditions. High and positive correlation between STI, GMP and MP indices with yield in optimum and drought conditions indicated that they were as the best indices for introduction and characterization of drought tolerant canola cultivars. Biplot graph showed that MP, GMP and STI indices had high correlation coefficient with each other, and tolerant genotypes were located near tolerance indices. Also results of three dimensional scatter plot indicated that cultivars Zarfam, GKH 305 and Tassilo were recognized as tolerant genotypes to drought stress, and cultivars ES Astrid, GK Helena, Modena and Okapi were identified as sensitive genotypes.

This study dealt with identification and investigation of the members of Zoantharia order in tidal zones of Hengam Islands in winter 2009. To fulfill this study, five transects in five stations, Arabha, Khenezi, Abas, Ghil, and Eskele around the island were considered. Sampling was done in the beginning of ebb. Each transect investigated by netted quadrate 1×1m and squares 10×10 cm completely. Samples were identified according to valid references and numbers of colonies of above said stations were compared. According to the findings, 4 species of 2 families of Zoantharia order were identified in tidal zone. From percentage of species frequencies and covering point of view, results of ANOVA of stations showed significant differences .

Germplasm collection is the base of plant breeding. Iran is one of the most important centers of genetic diversity due to different climates and the old civilization.In this study we decided to collect melon accessions. The north and center of Iran were selected for this purpose. Fifteen qualitative and six quantitative traits were measured on thirty eight accessions. The cluster analysis by the use of UPGMA method and Jaccard coefficient helped separate the horticultural groups of Cucumis melo L. (Cantaloupensis, Inodorus, Flexousous, Reticulatus). The relationship between 30 of these accessions was assessed using 10 RAPD primers. The polymorphism was determined to be19%. The cluster analysis could not separate the horticultural groups of Cucumis melo L., showing that these groups are closely related. However, VB84 primer separated the tow Snakemelon.

To facilitate the interpretation of data from a genotype by environment experiment (GE), a cluster method is proposed to group genotypics according to their response to the environments especially when the GE interaction is large. The interaction structure of two-way classification data often can be identified if the data stratified into homogeneous subsets. In this paper four GE interaction cluster methods are proposed for this purpose. The stability of the 10 maize hybrids including 9 hybrids that were the best hybrids in yield trials and KSC 301 (check hybrid) were evaluated for 2 years in 4 locations of Iran. The randomized complete block design with 4 replications was conducted for each environment with different layouts. Simple analysis of variance revealed significant genetic differences between hybrids for grain yield. The results of combined analysis of variance indicated that genotype × year, genotype × location, and genotype × year × location interaction effects were significant (P < 0.01). Results also showed that models 1 and 3 and models 2 and 4 had the same responses. Hybrids 8 (K1263/1 × KE8212/12) with high yield stability in both models 1 and 3 were in one group and other hybrids were in another group. In models 2 and 4 results led to 3 groups: Group1 included hybrids 3, 7 and 9 that were very stable and had high yield group 2 included hybrid 1 alone that had medium stability and yield and group 3 included other hybrids that had low stability and yield.

In Order to evaluated resistance to yellow rust in some doubled haploid lines and their parents in the spring hexaploid wheat, fourty doubled haploid lines together with their parents (Ghods, 9106 and 6605), and two cultivars Bolani (Susceptible check) and Triticum spelta var. album (Resistant check) in a randomized block design with three replications were tested in the greenhouse conditions in seedling stage to four races 134E134A+ , 38E2A- , 7E18A- and 230E62A+ of yellow rust. Resistance components measured were latent period (L. P.) and infection type (I. T.). The results showed that, some doubled haploid lines were resistant to the races of yellow rust, e.g. line (GH 91) DH3 was resistant (I. T. = 2) to race 134E134A+ , in spite of the susceptibility of both parents.

To determine yield stability and to evaluate genotype interaction with environment interaction, 18 genotype of barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) and a control group were evaluated in a randomized complete block design with 4 replications in 3 successive years (1997-2000) at 10 research stations. Simple and combined analysis of variance revealed significant genetic differences between yield genotypes for grain yield. The results of combined analysis of variance indicated that genotypic and genotype were significant through interaction with environment. Therefore, different stability parameters including, environmental variance (S2i), environmental coefficient of variation (C.Vi), mean of variance of interaction (θi), interaction variance (θi), equivalence ( W2i), stability variance (σ2i), linear regression coefficient (bi, βi), mean of squares of deviation from regression (S2 di) and years within location MS for a genotype, averaging over all locations (MSy/l) were determined. Based on all the stability parameters, genotype 18 was known as the most stable one and genotypes 17 and 11 ranked lower. Genotype 5 with the highest yield was known to be the most adaptable one at fertile environments and is recommended for these locations. In addition, genotype 9 with good yield and low yield variance (1.58) and regression coefficient of less than 1 is suggested for unfertile locations.