In order to investigate the effect of inorganic selenium replacement with organic selenium from Spirulina algae on PERFORMANCE and breast meat quality of broilers, a total of 160 one-day-old chicks were used in a completely randomized design with four treatments, eight replicates and five birds per each replicate. The sources of selenium used included sodium selenite and organic selenium from Spirulina algae which were replaced at two LEVELs of 50 and 100 percent. The organic selenium was produced by the culture of Spirulina algae and its enrichment with selenium. The selenium content of different treatments was measured by ICP-Mass method. In this experiment, the feed intake and body weight gain parameters were measured weekly and feed conversion ratio was calculated. At 42 day of age, one bird was slaughtered from each replicate and the weight of carcass ready to cook was measured. The breast meat was sampled for measurement of pH and selenium storage. The results showed that it was not observed any significant difference in PERFORMANCE traits and ready to cook carcass percentage among different treatments. There was no significant difference in breast muscle pH at 0 and 24 hours after slaughtering. The amount of selenium deposited in breast muscle of birds fed organic selenium had significant increase when compared with other treatments (P<0.05). Generally, the results of this study showed that 100% replacement of sodium selenite with organic selenium from Spirulina algae led to increase in breast muscle selenium deposition without reduction in bird PERFORMANCE.

The Purpose of this research was to determine Sources of Sport CONFIDENCE Predictable on Female Gymnasts PERFORMANCE LEVEL. Statistical population involved participants in artistic gymnastic during student's sport olympiad that were in elementary (n=44), secondary (n=39) and High school (n=30). Because of limitation of total participants, the statistical sample was the same statistical population. The data collected with source of sport CONFIDENCE questionnaire and refrees judgment on gymnasts PERFORMANCE LEVEL. The reliability coefficients of this questionnaire was r=0.91 in all of school LEVELs that based on cronbach's alpha. Research method was functional and descriptive correlation. Research data analyzed multiple step by step regressions. Source of situational favourableness predicted significant in all of school LEVELs, but social support predicted in elementary school and physical self presentation and coache's leadership predicted in elementary school. Generally, these research results supported the conceptualization model of sport CONFIDENCE by Vealey and et al (1998).

In this study, chemical compositions of black seed meals samples were determined. 18 male weaning Zandi lambs with an average body weight of 23.5 ±1.5 kg were used in a completely randomized design in three groups of six in individual pens. Experimental treatments were: 1) control (basal diet with 12% soybean meal and without black seed meal), 2) diet containing 6% soybean meal and 9% black seed meal and 3) diet containing 18% black seed meal and without soybean meal. The concentration of dry matter, crude protein, crude fat, NDF, ADF, ADIN, and crude ash of black seed meal samples were 97.53±0.58, 31.26±0.99, 15.16 ± 0.61, 25.95 ± 1.34, 14.2±0.80, 0.69±0.04 and 5.07 ± 0.24, respectively. Replacement of soybean meal with black seed meal in the diet of experimental lambs had no effect on final body weight, daily weight gain, feed conversion ratio, dry matter intake, dressing percentage, tail and total body fat deposition. Albumin and total protein were higher for lambs fed by diet containing 18 % black seed meal compared to other treatments (P <0.05). However, the concentration of blood triglyceride, cholesterol and urea nitrogen were not differed between experimental groups. The digestibility of dry matter, organic matter, crude fat and protein were not affect by feeding of experimental diets. It seems that black seed meal can be used in the diet of fattening lambs up to 18% without adverse effect on PERFORMANCE and nutrients digestibility of growing lambs.

This study was performed to evaluate the effect of adding a mixture of peppermint, thyme and rosemary essential oils (EOs) in a ratio of (3:1:2), respectively, to the diet, on growth PERFORMANCE, rumen and blood parameters of fattening lambs. Twenty-one Mehraban lambs with an average weight of 29.80 kg were randomly allocated to one of three diets: 1) control, 2) base diet+1.25ml of EOs and 3) base diet+2.5ml of EOs. Daily weight gain was greater in the groups receiving the EOs than in the control, although this increase was mainly due to the interactions of treatment over time. Feed consumption and feed conversion ratio compared to the control did not altered. The total concentrations of VFAs and acetate in the groups receiving EOs decreased (P<0.05), while the concentration of propionate increased (P<0.05) at the LEVEL of 2.5ml of EOs and isovalerate increased (P<0.05) in both LEVELs of EOs compared to the control. Total population of protozoa, rumen pH and ammonia nitrogen concentration were not affected by treatments. Glucose concentration increased at high LEVEL of EOs (P<0.05). Concentrations of urea, cholesterol, triglycerides, creatinine, total protein and albumin did not altered. The number of red blood cells, hemoglobin, hematocrit, number and percentage of white cells including lymphocytes and eosinophils were not affected by treatments but the percentage of monocytes decreased (P<0.05) at low LEVEL of the EOs. The results of this experiment showed that the addition of mixture of EOs to the diet did not have a significant effect on PERFORMANCE parameters and immune system of lambs, although it reduced the total concentration of VFA and acetate and increased the concentration of propionate.

In this experiment, the effect of garlic (GP) and tomato (TP) powders on PERFORMANCE, blood parameters, sex differentiation and hatchability of Ross-308 broiler breeders were examined and compared with In-Ovo injection of garlic or tomato hydroalcoholic extracts. In first experiment, 375 hens and 25 roosters (47 wk.) were randomly allocated to 5 treatments and 5 replicates, for 4 weeks. Treatments included: 1) basal diet (control), 2 and 3) basal diet+ 2 and 4 percent of GP, and 4 and 5) basal diet + 2 and 4 percent of TP, respectively. In second experiment, 200 hens and 20 roosters were randomly allocated to 2 treatments including 1) basal diet and 2) basal diet + 4% of TP (selected treatment of the Exp. 1) in 5 replications from 52-56 wk. During incubation period, experimental treatments included: 1) control group, 2) eggs from hens fed 4% TP, 3) In-Ovo injection of physiological serum and 4 and 5) In-Ovo injection of 0.1 and 0.3 ml of garlic and tomato hydroalcoholic extracts. The results of first experiment, adding garlic and tomato powders was not significant on egg qualitative traits and blood parameters (P>0.05). All In-Ovo injection treatments increased fertility percentage (P<0.05). The second experiment results showed that treatments had no significant effect on the percent of males and females (P>0.05). In general, addition of 4 percent tomato powder to broiler breeders in comparison to In-Ovo injection of hydroalcoholic extracts of garlic and tomato, did not increase male 1-d-old chicks’ percentage of hatched chicks.

In this paper, the effect of soil-structure interaction is investigated on the drift demand and probabilistic seismic CONFIDENCE LEVEL of geometric vertically irregular steel buildings. A series of vertically irregular steel buildings (known as setback buildings) with different setback ratios were designed based on the regulations in the current edition of Iranian seismic design code (Standard 2800). Foundation design of the structures was accomplished with the assumption of sandy soil with shear wave velocity of 200m/s under the footings. The three dimensional model of nonlinear soil-structure system was built in Open System for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (OpenSees). Concentrated plastic hinges at the end of frame elements were used to model the nonlinear behavior of these elements. Soil-foundation system of the structures was modeled with the Beam on Nonlinear Winkler Foundation (BNWF) approach. In this approach, a series of nonlinear springs are used to model the soil behavior under the dynamic excitation. Simplicity and efficiency of this modeling approach make it popular in soil structure interaction problems. The seismic analysis of the structures was performed under the simultaneous action of orthogonal components of real ground motions. Twenty earthquake records were used for this porpose. The selection of earthquake ground motions was accomplished based on appropriate specifications of earthquake components like magnitude, shear wave velocity, the distance from faults, and etc. Incremental dynamic analysis (IDA) was accomplished to estimate the structural PERFORMANCE of the regular and vertically irregular setback buildings from the linear phase of behavior to the nonlinear phase and up to the global instability of the structures. Based on the results, the median IDA curve was evaluated. This curve was used to estimate the structural PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVES. Four common PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVES namely Immediate Occupancy (IO), Life Safety (LS), Collapse prevention (CP) and Global Instability (GI) were specified on the median IDA curve of each structure. Following the PERFORMANCE-based earthquake engineering framework, the CONFIDENCE LEVEL of meeting a specific PERFORMANCE LEVEL was evaluated at each limit state. Based on the results, curves were generated to specify the CONFIDENCE LEVEL of meeting a specific PERFORMANCE LEVEL for the range of earthquake intensities and corresponding maximum inter story drift ratio. The PERFORMANCE based CONFIDENCE LEVEL of flexible base setback buildings was compared to that of the fixed base structures at five seismic hazard LEVELs. The selected hazard LEVELs have the return periods from 25 to 4975 years. It is observed that all the fixed and flexible base buildings have the ability to continue their immediate occupancy with the CONFIDENCE LEVEL of 100% under the earthquakes with low to medium hazard LEVELs (i.e. with the return period of 43 years). However, as the LEVEL of seismic hazard increases the difference between the CONFIDENCE LEVEL of flexible base structure and the fixed base ones increases. Depend on the position and ratio of the setback, 40 to 60% reduction is observed in the PERFORMANCE based CONFIDENCE LEVEL of flexible base structures. Meanwhile, soil-structure interaction increases the maximum drift demand in structures. Based on the given results, it is observed that up to 35% increase of maximum drift happens in structures with flexible foundation.

In this paper, the seismic PERFORMANCE of vertically irregular steel buildings is evaluated. A ten-story steel building with special moment resisting frames is considered as the superstructure. The sufficiency of structural elements was evaluated by the earlier Iranian Seismic Codes. The three-dimensional finite element model of soil with nonlinear material behavior was attended below the superstructure to incorporate the foundation flexibility effects into the analytical models. The irregularities of mass, stiffness, strength, and concurrently stiffness and strength were assigned to different stories. Irregularity position was limited to the 1st, the 5th, and through the bottom half floors (stories 1 to 5). Through a series of nonlinear incremental dynamic analyses, the flexible-base structural PERFORMANCE LEVELs were evaluated in the framework of probabilistic PERFORMANCE-based earthquake engineering. The CONFIDENCE LEVEL curves of both regular and irregular structures were developed at two PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVES: collapse prevention and global instability.It is observed that the mentioned non-geometrical irregularities reduce the CONFIDENCE LEVELs of irregular structure as the intensity of the ground motion and related displacement demands increase. In comparison to the regular structure, depending on the position of irregular stories through the structure height, the seismic intensity and corresponding demands to a specific CONFIDENCE LEVEL, change. As the structures pass through the collapse prevention PERFORMANCE LEVEL 40% to 60% variation is observed in the seismic capacity of no uniform distribution of strength along the structure height. Meanwhile, mass irregularity of the bottom floor has low variations in both demands and seismic intensity compared to the regular model. Generally, at rigorous nonlinear phase of structural behavior, the irregularity effects are highlighted. Among all the irregular structures, an appropriate CONFIDENCE LEVEL of strength irregularity models is obtained at low seismic intensities. The displacement demands are also decreased so that in comparison to the regular structure, 85% differences are observed.

The study objective was to evaluate the effects of reducing dietary starch content in fresh cow diets while maintaining NDF LEVELs by substituting barley grain (BG), corn silage (CS), or both with beet pulp (BP) on DMI, lactation PERFORMANCE, serum mineral and metabolites concentrations, liver enzymes and liver functionality index (LFI), serum insulin and revised quantitative insulin sensitivity check index (RQUICKI). Thirty-six multiparous cows were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 experimental diets from calving to 21 days in lactation. Experimental diets were a high-starch diet with ground BG (CO; 24.9% starch; 0% BP) and 3 low-starch diets where BP substituted for either BG (BB; 19.6% starch; 7% BP), CS (BC; 20.6% starch; 12% BP) or CS and BG (BCB; 20.3% starch; 12% BP). Relative to CO cows (16.50 kg/d), DMI was greater for BC (17.70 kg/d) and BCB (17.50 kg/d) cows, but it was lesser in BB (15.60 kg/d) cows. Similar to DMI results, milk yields tended to be greater for BC (37.89 kg/d) and BCB cows (37.81 kg/d) compared to CO cows (35.41 kg/d), but BB cows (33.05 kg/d) tended to produce less milk than CO cows. Relative to CO, cows fed BB had lower serum glucose concentrations, whereas cows fed BC and BCB had higher serum glucose. Serum insulin concentrations were lower for BB cows than for other exprimental groups. Relative to CO, serum NEFA and BHB concentrations were lower for BC and BCB, but was similar between BB and CO. The RQUICKI was lower for CO, BC cows than BB cows, and cows in BCB tended to have less RQUICKI compared to BB during postpartum. The concentrations of gamma glutamyl transferase were lower in BC and BCB cows relative to CO and BB cows. The cows fed CO and BB had higher serum bilirubin relative to cows fed BC and BCB diets. Although, LFI for CO cows was similar to cows on BB, BC and BCB, BC cows had higher LFI than BB cows and tended to have greater LFI than CO cows. Overall, reducing dietary starch by replacing CS (BC) or a mix of CS and BG (BCB) with BP positively affected DMI and milk yield and indicated improved energy metabolism and liver function during the first 21 d of lactation compared to when BP was fed instead of BG to reduce starch (BB).