mahdĪ jalālĪ

 Occupational exposure to electromagnetic fields has attracted attention due to potential health effects. This cross-sectional study investigates the impact of static magnetic fields (SMFs) exposure on the sleep quality of workers in a combined cycle power plant.

 A total of 185 workers participated in this study. Magnetic flux density was measured using the calibrated HI-3550 magnetic field personal monitor. The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index Questionnaire was employed to assess the sleep quality. Data analysis was conducted using the SPSS version 19 software, employing ANOVA, logistic regression, and Chi-square statistical tests.

 The participants had an average age of 42.16 ± 5.03 years and an average work experience of 15.29 ± 3.38 years. The average magnetic flux density of the SMF, measured at 22.65 ± 2.23 m. The average sleep quality score was 7.25 out of 21. Among the workers, 46.48% reported poor sleep quality, while 53.52% reported good sleep quality. In addition, workers exposed to higher magnetic field levels were more likely to have poor sleep quality compared to those with lower exposure (P < 0.05). The analysis of various factors affecting sleep quality indicated significant associations with marital status, age, and exposure to magnetic fields. Results show with the increase of each unit of age, the chance of having bad sleep quality increased by 0.32 units (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.11–0.56). Furthermore, with the increase of each unit of magnetic field exposure, the chance of having bad sleep quality increased by 0.16 units (95% CI: 0.09–0.34).

 The findings suggest that even exposure to magnetic fields below the permissible limits may contribute to poor sleep quality. As magnetic field exposure increases, the likelihood of experiencing poor sleep quality also rises.

Fenugreek with the scientific name (Trigonella foenum-graceum) is a hidden plant, and the fenugreek seed, which is the most important medicinal part of this plant, contains flavonoids, sesqui-terpenes, sterols, and mucilage fibers. In the present study, the aqueous-alcoholic extract of fenugreek seeds at four levels (zero, 0.2, 0.4 and 0.6%) on some physicochemical characteristics (pH, acidity, hydration and viscosity), the amount of phenolic compounds, The antioxidant activity and sensory properties (taste, texture, color and overall acceptance) of the enriched stirred yogurt were evaluated during 14 days of storage. The results of data analysis showed that the sample containing 0.6 percent has the lowest and highest pH and acidity indicators, respectively. Also, by increasing the storage time up to 14 days and decreasing the pH, the amount of water content of all the samples increased significantly (P<0.05). The results showed that with a significant decrease in the content of phenolic compounds during the storage period, adding fenugreek seed extract to the amount of 0.6% in a period of 1 and especially 7 days increased the antioxidant activity and then, up to the storage time of 14 days, the antioxidant activity was low in some samples and with a very slight change in some samples (P<0.05). Also, the highest and lowest values of viscosity were 3500 centipoise (the control sample on the first day) and 703 centipoise (the sample containing 0.6% on the fourteenth day) (P<0.05). Finally, by examining the results of sensory properties, the sample containing fenugreek seed extract was able to get an acceptable score from the sensory evaluators compared to the control sample. Among the types of enriched and control yogurt formulations, the sample containing 0.6% extract had the highest degree of desirability in terms of sensory properties when stored for 1 day.

City bus drivers are exposed to various harmful factors such as noise and vibration, which may cause adverse health effects. This study was conducted with the aim of investigating the impact of exposure to noise, vibration, and ergonomic factors on the quality of sleep and the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) among city bus drivers in Neyshabur, Iran.

Sixty-two city bus drivers from Neyshabur, Iran, participated in this study. Their level of exposure to noise was measured according to the ISO 5128:1980 standard, and the level of exposure to vibration was measured according to the ISO 2631 standard. Sleep quality (SQual) was evaluated with the Pittsburgh SQual Index, and the prevalence of MSDs was surveyed with the Nordic questionnaire. Data were analyzed with R version 4.3.2.

The average ± standard deviation (SD) exposure to noise was 83.25 ± 4.12 dB, and the average ± SD exposure to vibration was 0.14 ± 0.04 m/s2. The SQual of 46.77% of drivers was bad, and 69.35% of drivers suffered from MSDs in at least one of their body parts. The results of this study showed as drivers’ age increased, the chance of having good SQual decreased (odds ratio [OR]: 0.9, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.81–0.99). Sleep disorders were more common among drivers whose buses had spring seats (OR =3.17, 95% CI: 1.07–9.40).

Almost half of the drivers had unfavorable SQual and suffered from MSDs. The type and quality of the seats, the age of the bus driver, and the bus type were among the most important factors affecting the quality of sleep and the presence of MSDs

 The recent rise of the Internet of Things (IoT) has led to increasing attacks in IoT. Manufacturers of IoT devices are interested in reducing costs by ignoring security regulations that cause widespread damage and impede the growth of the IoT. The proliferation of IoT-based attacks will continue as long as IoT manufacturers incorporate accountability and security mechanisms into their devices. The proliferation of IoT-based attacks will continue as long as IoT manufacturers incorporate accountability and security mechanisms into their devices. Until then, the Internet of Things has the potential to become an environment for future cyber-attacks, which will pose great challenges.

 In this research, the solutions for establishing security in the Internet of Things have been investigated and have provided a solution based on the combination of support vector machine and K-means algorithm. First, preprocessing is applied to the data set and the data that has no effect on the result are deleted. Then, the support vector machine algorithm is applied to the data set and the intrusion or non-intrusion status is determined. This proposed method achieves better results by applying k-means to the data set, and the combination of support vector machine algorithms and k-means improves the accuracy of the proposed method.

 The results showed that the proposed method is more efficient than previous methods. this study sought to improve the security challenge in wireless sensor networks. The proposed method of this research is to use a combination of support vector machine and chi-mean, which showed very good performance compared to previous methods. According to the studies and the proposed method, it can be found that the best method in detecting and detecting intrusion is the use of K-Means algorithm, which can be achieved with 98.35% accuracy using the support vector machine method and K-Means algorithm.

 The most important criterion for determining the performance of an algorithm is the Accuracy criterion. This criterion calculates the total accuracy of a category. This criterion indicates what percentage of the total data set is properly categorized. This criterion is the evaluation based on the accuracy and the accuracy of the proposed method is better than the previously presented methods.

Industrial relations and labor conflicts are essential phenomena of community administration in the contemporary era, to which the authorities and officials of every society's affair should pay deep attention. Since labor is one of the most important actors in the industrial sector of the economy, paying attention to their relationships with other industrial actors can play a significant role in understanding macro changes in society. Considering that during the period of Reza Shah, the industrial relations system was gradually being formed, this research tried to reduce the existing research deficiencies by identifying the factors affecting labor conflicts in this period and helping the researchers and policymakers in this field. The method used in this research is a historical study. The work process was such that among the 120 specified sources, 27 first-hand scientific sources with detailed documentation were selected. Finally, according to the theoretical foundations of the research, an effort is made to provide a model for this course. This research uses the library method to collect information and data. The findings of the research indicated that during this period, the number of industrial workers is gradually increasing, the wages of labor are low, labor do not have a good welfare state, and labor unions and labor movements are severely suppressed. The research showed that normative, relational, symbolic, and distributional disorders have affected industrial relations in this period. Despite reaching collective agreements, most conflict resolution processes have failed.

Metalworking fluids (MWFs) are complex compounds of oils and chemical additives widely used to cool and lubricate metal machining operations. When sprayed, MWF produces concentrations up to twice the allowable level of US ambient air pollution standards. The study was designed to assess possible relationships between occupational exposure to MWFs and the risk of bladder cancer. Literature entered the study was published from February 2000 to 2021 and provides information on exposure to metalworking fluids and the risk of bladder cancer. We searched PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Sciences from 2000 to 2021. The following subject and keywords were used in the search: “bladder cancer” and “metalworking fluids”. Out of 8 studies, 4 were case-control and 4 were cohort and all of them had high NOS scores. The strong exposure-response relationship between bladder cancer and metalworking fluids reinforces the evidence for MWFs as a bladder carcinogen. The literature review in this study also shows that smoking can increase the risk of bladder cancer due to exposure to metalworking fluids.

This study presents a four-element compact Multi-Input Multi-Output antenna with enhanced isolation for applications with three bands. The four-port antenna elements have hook-shape multiband monopole elements with 50 ⦠microstrip feed lines and are placed such that they are perpendicular to one another to enhance the act of the MIMO system. Simulation and measurement consequences demonstrate that the antenna operates at a consistent gain and radiation patterns at the major frequency bands of 2.11-2.47 GHz, 3.14-3.54 GHz, and 5.15-5.85 GHz with S11<-10 dB. To verify the claimed MIMO antenna performance, data in the format of radiation patterns, peak gain (4.9,5.2,5.8 dB), diversity gain (DG) (9.95,9.92,9.92 dB), envelope correlation coefficient (ECC) (0.005,0.003,0.002), TRAC, channel capacity and MEG ratio are retrieved. These specifications of the suggested antenna make it a suitable candidate for WiMAX, Bluetooth, and WLAN uses. Additionally, the suggested antenna outperformed current work by providing a superior balance of size, bandwidth, and several performance characteristics.

Effect of osmosis dehydration, ultrasonic and edible coating as the pretreatment before drying has been studied in order to improve the flavor of the product, reduce thermal damages, decrease interstitial water and ease of transferring mass. The response surface method was used to optimize the drying conditions of Pommelo slices by osmosis-hot air. The concentration of edible coating (0-2% w/v) and the time of applying ultrasound (0-30 min) and the concentration of sucrose (40-80% w/w) were evaluated as independent variables on the amount of moisture content, absorption of solids, weight loss and productivity coefficient of Pommelo slices as dependent variables. All process variables were linearly significant for all responses (P<0.01). The comparison of the optimization results of coated and uncoated Pommelo osmotic dehydration showed that at the optimal point, the maximum amount of carboxymethyl cellulose coating and the osmotic dehydration time and the concentration of the osmotic solution in the coated sample were calculated as 2%, 21.86 minutes and 57.75%, respectively. The highest values of water reduction, weight loss and efficiency coefficient were 0.09172 (g/100g of solid matter), 0.091% and 19.478 respectively in the coated sample, and the highest absorption of solids with a value of 0.0089 (g/100g of solids) was reported in the uncoated sample. The results showed that the use of coating reduces the absorption of solid.

In this article, a novel geometry for the multiple input multiple output (MIMO) array slot antenna with directive radiation patterns for WLAN (IEEE 802.11ac) & ITU applications is proposed. By using a two sub-element topology, a combined novel element is obtained. The proposed MIMO array slot antenna illustrates beneficences in terms of small size with physical dimensions of 8.5λh×8.5λh and relatively high front-to-back ratio without using reflectors and directors with approximately 20dB F/B. Therefore, a compact MIMO antenna array with high isolation among those the combined elements are obtained. The practicality of the proposed MIMO is validated by Simulated and measured results.

Hospitals, as one of most important subsectors in human societies, are responsible for providing safe and effective medical services to clients. But sometimes these hospitals are the source of injury and death in patients by creating medical errors. In this systematic review study, the application of human factor analysis and classification system (HFACS) method in the classification of medical errors was investigated. Major electronic databases including Scopus, Web of Science, and MEDLINE were searched. All studies that investigated the application of HFACS method for coding, causation, and classification of medical errors and adverse events conducted from 2001 until February 2021 were included. A total of 108 articles were found. Due to duplication, 18 studies were removed from the review list. After reading the titles and abstracts, 50 of these publications were excluded because they had objectives different from this review. The remaining 40 publications were retrieved for further assessment. Of these, 28 publications were excluded because it did not meet the inclusion criteria. Finally, 12 articles remained for the final systematic review. We found that in 65% of the selected studies, preconditions for unsafe acts have been the major causal level of medical errors and adverse events. In the majority of the studies, communication and coordination, adverse mental states, physical environment, crew resource management, and technological environment have also been recognized as the most important causal categories in this study. As a result, to prevent medical errors and adverse events, the main focus should be on controlling the preconditions for unsafe acts including personnel factors, operator conditions, and environmental factors.

This article reviews some of the smart antennas used in Eyewear, which can receive frequencies of 700-960 MHz and 2.7-1.7 GHz, as well as Wi-Fi 5G (5.18-5.85 GHz) and Wi-Fi 6e (5.925 -7.125 GHz) to be used in wireless Eyewear glasses. Since the antennas of Eyewear devices that work in 4G, 5G cellular communication standard and Wi-Fi 6 internal wireless communication is a new category, first a general study for antenna bandwidth in different locations is done. Given that, these antennas are designed as mutual elements (coupled) and are mostly placed on FR4 or polycarbonate substrate. Then the MIMO antennas used in these glasses are investigated and gain, efficiency and SAR studies are performed along with different modes. In order to obtain a good adaptation to the use cases, the human head is always considered in the simulations. After that, antenna designs with suitable dielectric cover and frame are suggested.

The purpose of this investigation was to evaluate the impact of educational intervention on operating room personnel’s knowledge of fire factors and lowering the level of fire risk in some selected hospitals in Isfahan city.

This interventional study was conducted on 113 operating room personnel of Isfahan hospitals in Iran. A standard questionnaire (with 28 questions) was employed to assess the level of knowledge of the operating room personnel about the sources of combustion and ways to prevent it. The fire risk assessment method for engineering was employed to assess the fire risk of hospitals, and the risk level was calculated for the building and its contents (R), personnel (R1), and activity risk (R2). SPSS version 24 was used to analyze the data.

Forty‑eight participants (36.1%) were men, and 85 participants (63.9%) were women. The findings demonstrated that the mean (standard deviation) score of personnel’s fire safety knowledge was statistically enhanced before and after the educational intervention (10.62 [3.20] and 15.40 [2.66], respectively (P < 00.01). The findings of the fire risk assessment demonstrated that the risk of personnel has the maximum risk score, which is higher than one in all instances. Following personnel risk, the building and its contents risk had the maximum overall risk score. Following the educational intervention, the findings of the fire risk assessment demonstrated that the overall risk of the building and its contents, the overall risk of personnel, and the overall risk of the activity all reduced from 0.588–0.423, 4.174–3.408, to 0.543–0.498, respectively.

Proper implementation of educational programs can reduce fire risk while also enhancing personnel knowledge and improving operating room safety. Accordingly, hospitals should incorporate the implementation of educational programs into their routine activities.

In this research, the variables of oat flour (5, 10 and 15%) and date liquid sugar from Kaluteh dates (10, 20 and 30%) were used instead of wheat flour and sugar respectively to reduce energy intake. Cookie properties including technological indicators, crust color components and sensory characteristics were investigated. The linear effect of oat flour significantly affected moisture and porosity (p<0.0001), while the quadratic effect of date liquid sugar only affected specific volume (p<0.05). The interaction effect showed moisture and texture first increased then decreased with higher levels of both variables, while specific volume and porosity showed the opposite trend. The linear effect of oat flour decreased L* and increased a* and b* color components, while the quadratic effect of date liquid sugar increased a* and b*. The interaction effect significantly increased taste and overall acceptance in sensory evaluation. The optimal formulations were determined as 7.29% oat flour and 28.710% date liquid sugar.

In recent years, image annotation is one of the active research topics. In this article, a semi-supervised cooperative clustering technique is proposed for image annotation. Clustering methods are very popular because they do not require annotations. In order to achieve the highest efficiency, the clustering results of six systems with different color space and similarity criteria are cooperatively combined with the majority vote. When the number of votes for an image is low, relevant feedback is used to annotate it. One of the most important parts of the image retrieval system and clustering algorithm is determining the appropriate similarity criteria between images. Nowadays, the linear similarity criterion is mostly used to determine the similarity between images, but the nonlinear models can have much better performance due to their proximity to the human vision system, for this purpose, the KMRBF nonlinear similarity criterion is used to simulate vision. Humans and improvement of recovery results are suggested. Experiments on the Corel image database and satellite images show that the proposed method has good performance. According to the results obtained in the satellite image database, the YIQ color space has a higher accuracy (82.5%). Also, the three color spaces CIELab, HSV and YIQ have higher efficiency, because in these color spaces, luminance is separated from chrominance and these color spaces are closer to the human vision system.

This paper aims to examine three types of conceptual metaphors in Surah Yūsuf based on the cognitive linguistics approach and by using a descriptive-analytical method. So, first, the conceptual metaphor and its varieties are introduced and explained. Then, in three forms of structural, orientational, and ontological metaphors, the existing concepts in Surah Yusuf are analyzed. According to the results, in Surah Yūsuf, the concepts of life, time, and knowing have been conceptualized in the structures of travel and business, place and moving object, and seeing (structural metaphors) respectively. Also, the concepts of power, supremacy, virtue, and spiritual rank are portrayed according to the mentioned theory. Moreover, regarding the ontological metaphors, the concepts of covenant, deception, truth, the smell of Joseph, and misleading have gained physical features and were embodied in the shape of objects for the listener. Similarly, some concepts, including soul, hurt and troubles, divine aid, suffering, and doomsday have been conceptualized based on the characteristics of creatures to be more comprehensible for the listeners.

In this paper, for the classification of images, the observed cooperative classification method is proposed with the aim of reducing the semantic vacuum. Because most classification methods are sensitive to cluster centers at initialization, the algorithm converges optimally locally if the quantification is not done correctly. It is also very difficult to combine the results of the classification due to the fact that the labels of the work centers are not clear. Supervised semi-classification is used to solve these problems. To achieve the highest performance, the system classification results are combined with different color space and similarity criteria with multiple features as a semi-supervised cooperative. When the number of features is effective, the relevant feedback is used for its semi-regulatory classification. One of the most important parts of an image retrieval system and a classification algorithm is to determine the appropriate similarity between images. In this study, two methods of classification of cases have been used, which include k-NN and PNN classification, which according to the results in all proposed methods, a better response from k-NN classification than PNN has been observed. The proposed algorithm is very suitable for classifying large image databases due to the reduction of time complexity. Also, in image retrieval in different color spaces and using different similarity criteria, different classifications are obtained. Better results can be achieved if the classification results are combined.

Functional foods are those foods that have a beneficial effect beyond one of the usual nutritional effects on one or more functional systems of the body and improve health and reduce disease. In recent years, rising medical costs have forced people to find cheaper and more effective ways to stay healthy. Therefore, the tendency towards functional foods has increased. In addition, the increase in the number of older people, as well as the increase in scientific evidence regarding the health effects of functional foods, are among the factors that play an important role in the high sales of these foods. Milk and dairy products are an important part of functional foods, and to prove it, it is enough to mention that people are already familiar with these products and believe that dairy products are healthy and natural. In recent years, with increasing awareness of the benefits of consuming functional compounds and the desire of producers and consumers for natural products, much research has been done in the field of finding sources rich in natural functional compounds. Many of the antioxidant and antimicrobial properties of plant extracts are due to the presence of substances such as phenol and flavonoids and similar compounds. Of all the dairy products, yogurt is the best known and most popular. Also, among fermented products, due to the desired flavor, texture and consistency, it is possible to mix it with other nutrients easily.

Celiac patients require a non-gluten-free diet. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the characteristics properties of bread made from two types of simple corn flour and pre-gelatinized corn flour with microwave. For this purpose, a completely randomized design was used (P <0.05). Investigation of changes in the properties of simple and pregelatinized flour using a scanning electron microscope showed that the corn flour structure was coherent, while the structure of pre-gelatinized corn flour granules was degraded due to the microwave thermal process and was more structural expansion and swollen. Based on the results, it was determined that the pre-gelatinized corn flour sample had the highest porosity (16.5%) and the minimal texture firmness at the time of 2 (9.7 Newton) and 72 hours (17.2 Newton) after baking. Also, the use of pre-gelatinized corn flour increased the colorful component of L* , while no significant change was observed in the on two colorful components a* and b* . Finally, by examining the results of the sensory test, a sample containing pre-gelatinized corn flour was able to obtain more points from sensory evaluators by compared with of simple corn flour.

The words "yaʿūs" and "qanūṭ" are among the words that are used simultaneously in a verse and are considered synonymous by most translators. The word "yaʿūs" has been derived from "ays" that means to exist and find, and its connection with despair in a negative direction and in opposition to its root is that the despairing person thinks that what is desirable does not exist and cannot be found. The word "qanūṭ" from "qanṭ" basically means to cut, and in the Qurchr('39')an it means despair, appearance of despair in the face, sorrow and prohibition. In the 49th of Fuṣṣilat it means to prevent, and the reason lies in what said by the earlier lexicographers, as well as their being connected by the conjunctive "و". On this basis, the meaning of the verse is that man does not get tired of praying for good, and if evil befalls him, he becomes disappointed and, thereof, he stops praying. Among translators, Dehlavi and Behboodi have provided relatively good translations. They considered qanūṭ to mean the cessation of greed. It seems that such translations as "He is disappointed, He is very disappointed, and…" fail to turn the word of God; Because God has brought two news in the word and the translator must convey the two to the audience.

CATSPER 1 (Cation Channel Sperm Associated 1) and CATSPER2 channels have an important role in sperm motility. In this study, the effects of hyperthyroidism on Catsper1 and 2 genes of seminiferous tubules in mice testes were investigated.

The present study was conducted to investigate the effect of hyperthyroidism on the expression of CATSPER1 and CATSPER2 genes in the seminiferous tubules of mice.

This study was conducted on 20 BALB/C male mice divided into two groups - experimental and control. The experimental group was administered with 500 mg/l levothyroxine (L-thyroxine) liquid solution for two months for inducing hyperthyroidism, which was confirmed by radioimmunoassay. On the other hand, the control group was kept in animal houses under a normal condition. The implementation of real-time polymerase chain reaction and immunohistochemical studies was accomplished after the removal of the testes of the mice under anesthesia induced by chloroform.

Results showed that there was no significant difference in CATSPER1 (p = 0.45) and CATSPER2 (p = 0.34) gene expression between groups. At the same time, the color intensity showed no significant enhancement in the hyperthyroidism group (CATSPER1 p = 0.17 and CATSPER2 p = 0.22) as compared to the control group.

Considering the key role of CATSPER in the molecular structure of the sperm, our findings showed that the hyperactivity of the thyroid gland has no significant effects on the function of these components. Therefore, it might be concluded that hyperthyroidism has no considerable effects on the seminiferous tubules.

Musculoskeletal discomfort is one of the most important causes of occupational disabilities in many work communities which cause high costs for the economies of countries. Studies signifies the importance of implementation of programs to control these discomforts. In this regard, the ranking of occupational and work-related diseases provided by the World Health Organization (WHO) has shown that musculoskeletal disorders had second place after work-related respiratory diseases in 2013. Agricultural workers are at high risk of musculoskeletal disorders due to the nature of their intense physical activities and high level of manual labor. Indeed, farmers experience a variety of physical pressures due to repetitive lifting and carrying heavy loads, working with inappropriate tools, working in undesirable conditions with awkward postures (bended and/or deviated trunk, abducted arms, working at height higher than shoulders, etc). They usually work with vibrating tools and are exposed with other hazards such as falling or slipping. Many observational ergonomic assessment tools are designed for evaluating the postural risk of different job tasks. Some examples include the Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA), Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA), Quick Exposure Checklist (QEC), and so on. Agriculture is an occupation that depends highly on working methods and equipments. As a result, workers can adopt different postures as a function of their tasks and situations. It is assumed that their working postures would be more or less different from industrial workers. The majority of previous researchers applied typical existed methods to evaluate farmer’s working postures, since there was no specialized evaluation method. This lack of a proper agricultural evaluation method has recently been resolved by Kong et al. (2015), who introduced a methodology entitled “Agricultural Whole-Body Assessment” (AWBA) for this purpose. This approach covers a wide variety of body postures which are especially existed in agricultural tasks. Agricultural workers and their ergonomic conditions are rarely investigated in Iran. To our knowledge, no study has yet paid attention to the working posture of Iranian agricultures using AWBA. Considering the high number of workers in this section, and the lack of required information in order to decide appropriate interventions, the present study is conducted to assess the prevalence of musculoskeletal discomfort and the evaluation of working postures among fruit picker in Iran. 

A total of 135 fruit picker working in Damavand apple gardens voluntarily participated in this study. The study was approved by the ethics committee of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences and the written consent form was signed by each participant before starting. The inclusion and exclusion criteria for the study were having at least one year of working experience in the fruit picking job, and lack of any specific work-related musculoskeletal disorders. Also, individuals who experienced acute musculoskeletal injuries due to non-occupational reasons during the study, and those who declined to continue their participation for any reason were excluded from the study. In this study, only fruit pickers who picked fruit from short trees without needing to ladder were entered. A researcher-made questionnaire was used to identify the demographic and occupational characteristics of the employees. Accordingly, factors including age, sex, height, weight, and work experience were collected. The prevalence of musculoskeletal discomfort was recorded by a body map questionnaire during the study period. The body map questionnaire attempts to identify body regions involved with musculoskeletal disorders. The body map questionnaire classifies whole human body into nine anatomical areas. Workers were asked to mark each area in which they feel discomfort. AWBA was used to evaluate working postures and to determine the ergonomic risk level. This tool provides the risk levels for the upper (AULA) and the lower (ALLA) limbs, taking into account the different postures of the body during the work as well as the working duration in each posture. Finally, using a 4x4 matrix, the overall risk level of the whole body is determined. The final risk levels can range from 1 (low) to 4 (extremely high).  Data was analyzed with SPSS software version 16, using t-test and Mann-Whitney test. 

The prevalence of musculoskeletal discomfort among the studied fruit pickers was 31.9%, 22.2%, 20.7% and 14.8% in lower back, knees, legs/foots and shoulders respectively. In total, 88 out of 135 workers (65.2%) experienced musculoskeletal discomfort in at least one region of ​​the body while 47 workers (34.8%) reported no discomfort. The age of participants ranged from 12 to 73 years (mean = 35.9 ± 15.7). The history of work ranged from 2 to 50 years with an average of 12.8 ± 11.4. Individual characteristics including age, height, weight, work experience and body mass index were not related with the presence of musculoskeletal discomfort among studied workers (P >0.05). According to the results obtained from the Agricultural Whole-Body Assessment method, the risk score of three was calculated for the upper limbs (AULA), lower limbs (ALLA) as well as whole body (AWBA); indicating high risk of musculoskeletal disorders in fruit pickers due to their excessive exposure to physical ergonomics hazards. 

Fruit pickers are at high risk of musculoskeletal disorders. Awkward working postures in manual fruit harvesting may be considered as the main cause for the incidence of MSDs in this working group. Although the lower limbs (foot, legs, knees) of fruit pickers seem more painful than other body parts, it is important to consider their whole body (including lower and upper limbs) in the case of designing any ergonomic improvements, since both lower and upper limbs are at high risk of MSDs in traditional apple harvesting. Therefore, appropriate yet prompt ergonomic interventions should be implemented. In this regard, moving to the mechanized agriculture seems to have the highest priority among all possible interventions. However, until it could be realized, other ergonomic improvements should be adopted. These include all changes resulting in reducing repetitive movements, modifying working postures (i.e. avoiding excessive bending, twisting, deviating, abducting arms, working over the shoulder height, reaching beyond the natural working zone envelope, etc), decreasing prolonged standing, and reducing exposure to the biomechanical risk factors such as force and prolonged working hours. It is also recommended to improve the traditional methods of fruit handling and carrying by designing ergonomic baskets dedicated for this purpose.

The aim of this study was to determine the protective role of ascorbic acid on apoptosis and proliferation of spermatogonia and primary spermatocyte cells after malathion administration as an organophosphate pesticide in rat testis.

Thirty male Wistar rats were randomly divided into five groups of 6 rats each, including control (no intervention), sham (normal saline 0.09%), malathion (50 mg/kg), malathion plus ascorbic acid (50 mg/kg and 200 mg/kg, respectively), and ascorbic acid (200 mg/kg) groups. Malathion and ascorbic acid were administrated via intraperitoneal injection once per day and seven times per week. After 6 weeks, animals were sacrificed, and testis tissue was used for evaluation of apoptosis and proliferation of germinal epithelium cells using the TUNEL and PCNA staining techniques.

The results of TUNEL staining showed that the numbers of apoptotic cells in spermatogonia and primary spermatocyte cells were significantly increased in the malathion 50 mg/kg group vs control group (P<0.001). Co-administration of malathion 50 mg/kg and ascorbic acid 200 mg/kg significantly decreased the apoptotic cells in both cell types in comparison with malathion 50 mg/kg group (P<0.001). The results of PCNA staining revealed that the proliferation of these cells was significantly decreased in malathion 50 mg/kg group vs control group (P<0.001), and malathion 50 mg/kg plus ascorbic acid 200 mg/kg administration increased the proliferation of cells compared with malathion 50 mg/kg group (P<0.001).

The results provide evidence that ascorbic acid showed preventive effects on malathion-induced toxicity in male rat testis.

Hyperthyroidism is one of the disorders of the thyroid gland, an organ that controls the cellular and molecular behaviors of the seminiferous tubule basement membrane (BM), and ultimately, influences its evolutionary process. We aimed to investigate the effects of hyperthyroidism on immunohistochemical characteristics and gene expression levels of collagen IV and laminin-α5 in seminiferous tubules BM of Balb/C mice.

Twenty male Balb/C mice were divided into experimental and control groups. The experimental group received 500 mg/l of levothyroxine (L-thyroxine) diluted in drinking water for two months to inducing hyperthyroidism, which was confirmed by radioimmunoassay. At the end of the study, the mice were sacrificed, and their testes were extracted for immunohistochemistry and real-time polymerase chain reaction assays.

Although a weak reaction was observed in the experimental specimens, no significant enhancement was noted in color intensity of type IV collagen in the seminiferous tubules BM of the experimental group as compared to the control group (P>0.05). Collagen IV gene expression results in the experimental group were not significantly different from the controls (P>0.05). Thus, there was a significant increase in laminin α5 gene expression compared to the control group (P=0.016).

Considering the key role of collagen IV and laminin-α5 in the seminiferous tubule BM in the testes, the results of this study indicated that hyperthyroidism has important effects on both structures and functions of these two components.

In the Holy Quran, the verse 22 of the chapter Muddathir, there is found the two synonyms-like words of "abasa" and "basara". The terminologists and commentators have stated the meanings of these two words, three meanings for the former and eleven for the latter, the fact which shows their divergences. In this article, in order to clarify the meaning of these words, while referring to the lexical sources and obtaining the correct meanings of the words, the commentators' views regarding the verse are discussed. The findings of the study indicate that the most appropriate interpretation in this context for the former is to frown and for the latter is to pause and stand while thinking. The view given here, in addition to its being in agreement with context and views of some terminologists and commentators, may be taken as an argument against their being taken as synonymous.

A broadband circularly polarized MIMO antenna array with a 2×4 feed network was proposed for C-band application. Different unique techniques were utilized in the proposed array to enhance the antenna characteristics, such as gain, 3dB Axial Ratio Bandwidth (ARBW), impedance tuning, and ruinous mutual coupling effects. For a better improvement of circular polarization features, a 2*4 MIMO Sequentially Rotated (MIMO-SR) feed network was used to achieve broader 3dB ARBW. Besides, the MIMO feature of the feed network could control the left- and right-handed CP, respectively. Moreover, electromagnetic band-gap structure was applied to enhance the overall performance of antenna array. Ultimately, specific forms of slot and slit structures were applied onto the top layer of MIMO feed network that provided a high isolation between the radiating elements and array network. The extracted measured results illustrated an impedance bandwidth of 4.6-7.3 GHz at port 1 and 4.25-7.2 GHz at port 2 for VWSR