p. moradi

The increase in the world’s population induces new challenges including environmental pollution and sufficient food supply for human. The use of sustainable agricultural solutions can reduce environmental degradation and restore natural ecosystems by overcoming these problems. Soilless cultivation systems have become very popular as one of the sustainable agricultural tools in the cultivation of high-use agricultural products. This research was conducted as a mixed analysis of variance in places based on a completely randomized design with three replications. The aim of this study was to compare the yield and yield components and the nutrients contents of the commonly used accessions of basil (green and purple) grown in ten growth media (perlite, cocopeat, sand, pumice in pure form and also in combination with each other with a volume ratio of 50:50) under aquaponic and hydroponic systems. The findings of showed that the studied basil accessions had greater growth in the aquaponic system than in the hydroponic system. In fact, the optimal harmony between the components of the aquaponic system, i.e. carp, bacteria and basil, led to sufficient and effective nutrition of plants and increased growth. Besides, vegetative traits, yield components and minerals of basil had the highest values ​​in the perlite + cocopeat growth medium, while the lowest growth was observed in the sand and pumice growth media. Therefore, the aquaponic system, with the selection of appropriate cultivation substrates, has high performance for basil and can be used as alternative soil cultivation system, especially in regions with water scarcity and arid lands.

The aquaponic cultivation system, which is a combination of aquaculture and hydroponic systems, is among the novel cultivation systems. In an aquaponics system, it is possible to simultaneously produce aquatic animals and vegetables. One of the most important components of each soil-free system is the selection of a suitable substrate. This substrate makes water and nutrients available for the root system and also contributes to the proper establishment of the plant. It must also be non-toxic and should not impair plant growth. Another point to consider in the selection of the substrate is its cost and availability, as the transport process will increase the costs of initial establishments in such systems. Amon vegetables, basil is a special crop with a short growing season and high economic value, which is also highly suitable for an aquaponic system. The present study was carried out with the aim of comparing some morphological and physiological traits of 'purple' and 'green' basil cultivars in different substrates in the aquaponics system.

 The present study was conducted as a factorial based on a completely randomized design with three replicates in a research greenhouse located in Zanjan city. The experimental treatments included 10 substrates (cocopeat, perlite, sand, pumice, cocopeat + perlite (50:50), cocopeat + pumice (50:50), cocopeat + sand (50:50), pumice + sand (50:50), pumice + perlite (50:50) and sand + perlite (50:50)) and two basil cultivars ('green' and pueple). The aquaponic system in this study comprised of a 300 L fish tank containing 100 common carps. The fish were nurtured twice a day with powdered fish feed containing protein, carbohydrates, lipids, vitamins, etc. The water in the fish tank was filtered and fish wastes were removed in a filtration tank before entering the aquaponics medium to be used by the plant root system. Chemical properties of the fish water including pH, and nitrite (NO2), nitrate (NO3), and ammonium (NH4) concentrations were controlled using diagnostic kits on a weekly basis. At the flowering stage, various traits including plant height, dry and fresh weights of roots and shoots, number of nods, number of leaves, and leaf area were measured to investigate the growth of basil plants. Also, physio-phytochemical traits including the contents of chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, total chlorophyll, carotenoid and anthocyanin were measured. Analysis of variance of the data was carried out using the SAS software. Also, the least significant difference method (LSD) was used for the comparison of means.

According to the results, the greatest plant height (60.57 cm), shoot fresh weight (90.57 g), root fresh weight (22.33 g), and leaf number (133.99) belonged to purple basil and the lowest value for these traits were observed in green basil cultivar. The results of the mean comparison for the morphological traits indicate the superiority of perlite + cocopeat compared with the other substrates. Basil plants cultivated in sand substrate exhibited the lowest values for growth traits compared to other treatments. Analysis of the interaction effect between substrate and cultivar revealed that the highest number of nodes (10.5), dry weight of shoots (25.17 g), dry weight of roots (4.67 g), and leaf area (17.13 cm2) were observed in the perlite + cocopeat substrate with purple basil. Conversely, the lowest values for these traits (5.23, 12.93 g, 1.46 g, and 11.03 cm2, respectively) were recorded in the silt substrate with the green basil cultivar. The results related to physio-phytochemical traits showed that the highest content of chlorophyll a (1.57 mg g -1 FW) and total chlorophyll (2.1 mg g -1 FW) were observed in the perlite + cocopeat substrate and green basil. Also, anthocyanin content was the highest (0.17 mg g -1 FW) when the purple cultivar was grown in the perlite + c cocopeat substrate. The lowest content of chlorophyll a and total chlorophyll were recorded in the sand substrate and purple cultivar with 0.96 and 1.17 mg g -1 FW, respectively. Also, the lowest content of anthocyanin was related to the green basil cultivar with 0.058 mg g -1 FW.

Overall, the 'purple' cultivar of basil was superior to the 'green' cultivar regarding most traits in the aquaponic system. Also, substrates containing perlite and cocopeat led to better results compared with the other substrates, whereas the basil plants grown in sand and pumice had lower growth, relatively.

Considering the need for excessive consumption of hydrocarbon resources and gas fuel supply in the cold seasons of the year, it has been suggested to use the drained oil and gas reservoirs and underground water aquifers to be used as natural gas storage reservoirs. Among the influential factors in natural gas storage are the reactions between fluid-fluid and fluid-rock, which is the most important of these wettability factors. Knowing these factors in the gas storage process will lead to better control and storage of natural gases in geological structures. Underground water aquifers are one of the structures with favorable conditions for natural gas storage which by wettability alteration to gas wetness in these, can be increased the natural gas storage capacity. For this purpose, this study has investigated the laboratory works done on the distribution and behavior of fluid in the samples of carbonate and sandstone in order to wettability alteration to gas wetness for the purposes of underground gas storage.

Multi-label classification aims at assigning more than one label to each instance. Many real-world multi-label classification tasks are high dimensional, leading to reduced performance of traditional classifiers. Feature selection is a common approach to tackle this issue by choosing prominent features. Multi-label feature selection is an NP-hard approach, and so far, some swarm intelligence-based strategies and have been proposed to find a near optimal solution within a reasonable time. In this paper, a hybrid intelligence algorithm based on the binary algorithm of particle swarm optimization and a novel local search strategy has been proposed to select a set of prominent features. To this aim, features are divided into two categories based on the extension rate and the relationship between the output and the local search strategy to increase the convergence speed. The first group features have more similarity to class and less similarity to other features, and the second is redundant and less relevant features. Accordingly, a local operator is added to the particle swarm optimization algorithm to reduce redundant features and keep relevant ones among each solution. The aim of this operator leads to enhance the convergence speed of the proposed algorithm compared to other algorithms presented in this field. Evaluation of the proposed solution and the proposed statistical test shows that the proposed approach improves different classification criteria of multi-label classification and outperforms other methods in most cases. Also in cases where achieving higher accuracy is more important than time, it is more appropriate to use this method.

In this research work, Intra-species karyotypic diversity for 17 populations of Silybum marianum from different geographical regions of Iran along with one population from Hungary were investigated. To prepare the appropriate chromosomal specimen, one and a half centimeters of root tip were isolated, after using fixation of pre-treatment, the picture were taken from the karyotypes which prepared and the chromosome base number of all of them was  x = 17, therefore the number of chromosomes obtained 2n = 34. In terms of karyotypic symmetry indices DRL, S%, TF%, A1 and A2, there were significant differences between ecotypes at probability level of 1%, which indicates that there were genetic diversity between the studied ecotypes. Regarding these results, the Ramhormoz ecotype and then the Shushtar ecotype were considered as the most asymmetric and most advanced ecotypes and the ecotype of Najaf-Abad and ecotype of Karaj-2 were considered as the most symmetrical and incomplete ecotypes. Based on the cluster analysis, the karyotypic characters of the populations were divided into three groups. The greatest difference was observed between the two Ramhormoz and Najafabad ecotypes. To determine the contribution of each karyotypic trait in the creation of diversity among ecotypes, factor analysis was carried out and the first, second and third factors accounted for more than 87% of the variation among the populations. The results of karyotypic analysis showed that there is a high karyotypic variation among Silybum marianum ecotypes in Iran, so that they can be used in breeding programs and widening genetic diversity in gene pools.

Feature selection is the process of selecting a subset of features among the set of primary features, so that, by removing the redundant and irrelevant features, the accuracy of the classification increases. Because of the low computational complexity, scalability in term of data dimensions and independence of any classifier, filter selection methods are very important. But one of the weaknesses of these methods is the lack of information about the interaction and communication between the features which leads to select redundant and irrelevant features. Selection of redundant and irrelevant features is due to the inappropriate selection of an objective function which estimates the significance and redundancy of the features. In this paper, a nonlinear filter feature selection method, based on conditional mutual information and Pareto set is presented and to prove the efficiency of it a series of experiments are performed on twelve widely used datasets. According to the results, the proposed method is more accurate than a number of recently feature selection methods.

Digitoxin is a glycoside isolated from leaves of various species of Digitalis genus that are commonly called foxgloves. Digitoxin is used for chronic cardiac insufficiency, tachyarrhythmia form of atrial fibrillation, paroxysmal ciliary arrhythmia, and paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia. 1-Deoxy-d-Xylulose 5-phosphate Reductoisomerase (DXR) is an important rate-limiting enzyme in 2-C-Methyl-d-Erythritol 4-Phosphate (MEP) pathway, and expression level of DXR plays a critical role in control of plant isoprenoid biosynthesis pathway. The effects of different elicitors including putrescine, spermine, and spermidine at concentrations of 50 and 100 mg L-1 and also Methyl Jasmonate (MJ) at 50, 100, and 200 μM concentrations were explored on transcript levels of DXR gene in cell suspension culture of foxglove (Digitalis purpurea). DXR transcription levels were assessed by the semi-quantitative RT-PCR. Results showed that elicitors had significant effects on the expression level of DXR and contents of cardenolide and digitoxin. The highest digitoxin (61.3 μg g-1 DW) and cardenolide (1.48% mg-1 DW) content was observed in 100 mg L-1 spermidine treatment. In all treatments, the expression of DXR gene was increased compared with the control sample. The highest transcription levels of DXR gene was observed in 50 μM MJ and 100 mg L-1 putrescine elicitors, which was nine folds higher than the control condition, and the lowest levels were observed for putrescine treatments at concentrations of 50 and 100 mg L-1, respectively.

Increasing the fiber content (despite the therapeutic effects and functionalproperties) in food can compensate for fiber deficiency in the diet. However excessiveconsumption can have adverse effects on the product's acceptability.

The effect of potato fiber to replace with bread flour at threedifferent concentrations (10, 20 and 30%) were investigated in preparing the sponge cake andcompared to the control sample. The chemical, physical and sensory characteristics of thesamples were enaluatrd on the first day of the preparation and the best formula was selected.The prepared samples were kept in the storage at room tempreture and moisture content,physical and sensory properties were mesured every ten days interval. The results andstatistical analysis of the cake were evaluated using SPSS software and mean values werecompared with the Duncan test at 95% probability level.

The resultes indicated that an increase in fiber resulted in significant increases inash, crude fiber, dietary fiber, cavity density, moisture content and darkness of the crust andcrumb in the cake. The hardness of the cake increased significantly while the cohesivenesssignificantly decreased (P <0.05). The cakes containing up to 10% added fiber had acceptablesensory properties and did not have significant differences with the control sample (P >0.05).

The sample containing 10% potato fiber was the most accepted among thepanelist. According to the results of other tests, the addition of fiber up to 10% was acceptableand did not show significant differences with the control sample (P >0.05).

Recommender systems has shown as effective tools that are proposed for helping users to select their interested items. Collaborative filtering is a well-known and frequently used recommender system applied successfully in many e-commerce websites. However, these systems have poor performance while facing cold-start users (items). To address such issues, in this paper, a social regularization method is proposed which combines the social network information of users in a nonnegative matrix factorization framework. The proposed method integrates multiple information sources such as user-item ratings and trust statements to reduce the cold-start and data sparsity issues. Moreover, the alternating direction method is used to improve the convergence speed and reduce the computational cost. We use two well-known datasets to show that the proposed method performs much better, especially for cold start users, than state-of-the-art recommendation methods for recommendation in social networks.

Biological stresses such as drought affect the production of secondary metabolites, especially plant sterols (phytosterols). Among the phytoestrols found in pumpkin seeds, betasitosterol is one of the most important components which also have many medicinal properties. In this study, the effect of five levels of drought stress on seed oil production and its phytosterols was studied in three genotypes and Styriaca variety of pumpkin (Cucurbita pepo L.). Analysis of phytosterols using GC/MS showed that increasing drought stress had a negative effect on oil production from pumpkin ripe seeds, but oil phytosterols, especially betasitosterol, increased and this increase was higher in Styriaca than other genotypes. To confirm these results, the seeds were harvested 15-30 days after flowering and the expression of SQS, PP2A, SMT2, ERG26 and Cycloartenol synthase genes involved in the phytosterol biosynthesis pathway was investigated. The results indicated that, among the different levels of drought stress and genes studied, highest expression level was observed at the rainfed level and at that time, betasitosterol and stigmasterol pathway had the main activity in steroid biosynthesis pathway in pumpkin.

The present study aimed to identify strategies for the application of pro-environmental technologies for greenhouse vegetable production in Tehran Province, Iran. It is an applied research type whose main instrument is a questionnaire. The population of the study consisted of 109 experts in Tehran Province, of which 86 experts were selected by stratified random sampling method (based on Krejcie and Morgan’s table). The questionnaire was revised with the help of the experts who had significant experience in crop protection to ensure the validity of the instrument. A pilot study was conducted on 22 experts in Alborz Province to determine the reliability of the questionnaire. Cronbach’s Alpha scores were acceptable for different sections of the questionnaire (0.71-0.82), so, the instrument was reliable. The research methodology is descriptive, and the SWOT analysis was used. First, the internal environment was analyzed to prepare a list of strengths and weaknesses in applying pro-environmental technologies, and then, a list of opportunities and threats were identified by analyzing the external environment. Some derived strategies include the development of appropriate mechanisms to control the sale and use of pesticides by removing barriers to registration, mass production, storage, handling, transport and consumption of biological agents, and reinforcement of the knowledge of greenhouse owners regarding biological control.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the composition of fatty acid and qualitative characteristics of virgin olive oils produced in different provinces of Iran including Gilan, Golestan, Zanjan, Qazvin, Qom and Fars. Acidity, peroxide, extinction coefficient differences (∆k), fatty acid compositions were measured. The results showed that acidity, peroxide and extinction coefficient differences of most samples, except for the Fars and Golestan (F, Go3), and levels of fatty acids of all oils, except for miristic acid of Qom and Zanjan (Qo, Z2), were in accordance with the national and International standard of Olive Oil. The highest monounsaturated fatty acids, MUFAs (72.12-76.21%) were traced in samples from Zanjan, Golestan and Qazvin provinces which showed the lowest saturated fatty acids, SFAs (16.99-17.99%), poly unsaturated fatty acids, PUFAs (6.49-10.42%) and Cox indices (1.49-1.84%). Based on results obtained, the sample of olive oil of Golestan, Zanjan, and Qazvin (Go1, Qa1 and Z1) were in the highest quality categories and of Fars (F) was in the lowest quality categories with different indices from other samples. Since various parameters affect on the quantity and quality of olive oil and, beside that, the low quality samples can also be found in those provinces where high quality of olive oile are produced, the fatty acids profile alone could not be consider as sole factor to geographically classify the quality of olive oil, but it can be used as one of the important iindicators in quality classification of olive oil

Since, most of the organizations present their services electronically, the number of functionally-equivalent web services is increasing as well as the number of users that employ those web services. Consequently, plenty of information is generated by the users and the web services that lead to the users be in trouble in finding their appropriate web services. Therefore, it is required to provide a recommendation method for predicting the quality of web services (QoS) and recommending web services. Most of the existing collaborative filtering approaches don’t operate efficiently in recommending web services due to ignoring some effective factors such as dependency among users/web services, the popularity of users/web services, and the location of web services/users. In this paper, a web service recommendation method called Popular-Dependent Collaborative Filtering (PDCF) is proposed. The proposed method handles QoS differences experienced by the users as well as the dependency among users on a specific web service using the user/web service dependency factor. Additionally, the user/web service popularity factor is considered in the PDCF that significantly enhances its effectiveness. We also proposed a location-aware method called LPDCF which considers the location of web services into the recommendation process of the PDCF. A set of experiments is conducted to evaluate the performance of the PDCF and investigating the impression of the matrix factorization model on the efficiency of the PDCF with two real-world datasets. The results indicate that the PDCF outperforms other competing methods in most cases.

In most of the developing countries, legume plants are the main supply of protein. Since some of these crops are adapted with dry land farming, but their yield potential is almost low. To access high yielding lines in northwest provinces of Iran, an experiment was conducted with 36 chickpea lines in 2003-2004 cropping season in 6 × 6 squared lattice in Zanjan, West Azerbaijan (W.A) and Kurdistan provinces. During the experiment, traits such as days of flowering, days of maturity, plant height, 100 seed weight and yield were recorded. After separate analysis of variance, significant differences were found in the yield of studied lines. For Zanjan line no. 26, for W.A. line no.32 and for Kurdestan line no.30 were selected. For location results, experimental data were analyzed through combined analysis of variance with SAS 8. Significant differences were found among genotypes and genotype × location. The mean data over 3 locations was calculated and in addition to simple correlation, these coefficients were partitioned to direct and indirect effects. PCA analysis extracted two components which totally explained 77.23 percent of observed variations. According to this, among the traits, days of flowering and days of maturity had the largest direct effects on yield. Then with cluster analysis, studied lines were classified into 3 groups. Cluster 1 members had the most genetic distance with cluster 3, therefore considering the purpose, selection of lines from these clusters as parents for hybridization, complementary traits of parents and their maximum variations can be used in breeding programs.

Background and

Neonatal conjunctivitis which mostly occurs after birth, has a high prevalence rate according to the world statistics (0.4-18.9%). But its statistical value in our country is not known. Standard prevention methods are costly and not accessible. This disease can lead to corneal ulceration, blindness and infection. Ïn this study, Povidone Ïodine 2.5% was used for treatment of conjunctivitis regardless of its ethiology to determine, whether this drug which effectiveness and safety has already been proved in previous studies, could prevent or reduce neonatal conjunctivitis or notω

1130 neonates born in nursury of Razi hospital in Ghaemshahr were studied during 1997-98. The study was double blind in which Betadine drops 2.5% was used in one eye of the neonate immediately after birth and the other eye of the same neonate was treated as control. Then during two visits in two consecutive weeks, the positiveness of conjunctivitis was noted by visiting preformer.

The preventive effect of the drug was desirable during the first week of treatment because the eye which was not received the drug developed conjunctivitis 1037 times more than the eye which received the drug. But during the second week the difference was not significant in two eyes. Ôther important findings include, higher conjunctivitis rate in neonates born by normal delivery as compare to cesarean section (P<0.001). Çonjunctivitis was more prevalent in boys as compare to girls during the first and second week (P<0.001). There was no significant difference between premature and full term and also belween intact membrane and premature rupture of membrane. Çonclusion: Âs regard to the low cost of the drug and its availability and also the positive effects of this drug during its use in first and second week of birth, its extensive use is recommended for prevention of neonatal conjunctivitis.