Background and Objectives: Brucellae are gram-negative intracellular pathogens which cause zoonotic disease in humans. Clinical manifestations of brucellosis in human are variable and often are non-specific, and the diagnosis requires fast and accurate confirmation. Since the use of serum instead of whole-blood samples offers several advantages for nucleic acid amplification methods, in this study we developed an improved PCR assay for the rapid and specific laboratory diagnosis of human brucellosis directly from serum specimens.Material and Methods: DNA was extracted from 100 µL of serum from 30 patients with acute serologic brucellosis. The PCR reaction was carried out with Specific primers. Second PCR reaction for reamplification of the first reaction products was designed.Results: a 223 bp conserved region on the sequence encoding the 31-KDa immunogenic outer membrane protein which is specific to the genus Brucella (BCSP31) and present in all its biovars was amplified in all serum samples.Conclusion: For confirmation and efficient amplification of the specific target, reamplification of the first PCR products had a sharper banding patterns with high sensitivity and specificity that might be considered as a new useful method for diagnosis of human brucellosis in serum specimens.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: In infertility without suffering tubal factor, IUI is the choice therapeutic method. Some studies recommended DOUBLE IUI for every cycle. Since DOUBLE IUI needs more laboratory materials and more expenses, so in this study it was tried to evaluate pregnancy rate in infertile couples after single and DOUBLE IUI.METHODS: This clinical trial study was performed on infertile couples referred to Fatemeh Alzahra or Babol Clinic hospital for IUI cycles. Patients divided into two groups. In the first group, 36 hours after HCG injection, IUI was done as a single protocol and in the other group; IUI was done 24 & 72 hours after HCG injection as DOUBLE protocol. Then data were analyzed by fishers exact test.FINDINGS: Two hundred and fifteen women participated in our study and their mean age was 26.02±5.5 and the mean (±SD) duration of infertility was 3.73 (±2.75) years. In the first group, pregnancy rate was 16.9% and in second group it was 19.6% without any significant difference between two groups. Also, there was no significant difference between groups in pregnancy rate with different etiology of infertility.CONCLUSION: Some studies recommended that DOUBLE IUI is more successful than single IUI But present findings suggest that there is no difference in pregnancy rate between single IUI and DOUBLE IUI.

Background and Aims: Lasers with different characteristics have been used to stimulate orthodontic tooth movement. Considering the contradictory findings in this regard, this study was designed to assess the effect of low LEVEL laser therapy (LLLT) on the rate of orthodontic tooth movement.Materials and Methods: In this randomized clinical trial study, 12 patients (4 boys and 8 girls; average age: 16.9±3.4) with extracted upper first premolars and required canine retraction into extraction site were included. While in both sides canines were retracted by NiTi coil spring, one side was exposed to GaAlAs laser (890 nm). LLLT was done (on the buccal and palatal mucosa by slow movement of probe) at the beginning of the first month. Impression and cast fabrication performed at the beginning of retraction, one and two months later. The amount of retraction on the cast was measured with the aid of a reference plaque fabricated on the rogae using a digital caliper. Data were analyzed using paired sample T-test and one-sample Kolmogorov-Simirnov test.Results: There was no significant difference in the amounts of canine movement between laser exposed and control sides (P>0.05).Conclusion: The energy dose of laser used in this study (72 J per each tooth) was not appropriate for increasing dental movement.

In order to properly understand the subsurface structures, the issue of inversion of geophysical data has received much attention from researchers. Since accurate reconstruction of the shape and boundaries of the mass using gravimetric data is very important in some issues, it is important to use an effective and efficient method that has a high ability to draw and reconstruct the boundaries of a mass. In recent years, the LEVEL set method introduced by Asher and Stein has been widely used to solve this problem. From the expansion of the LEVEL set function in some bases of the problem, the effective number of parameters is greatly reduced and an optimization problem is created which its behavior is better than the least squares problem. As a result, the LEVEL set parameterization method will be presented for the reconstruction of inversion models. A common advantage of the parametric LEVEL set method is the careful examination of the boundary for optimum sensitivities, which significantly reduces the dimensional problem, and many of the difficulties of traditional LEVEL set methods, such as regularization, reconstruction, and basis function. LEVEL set parameterization is performed by radial basis functions (RBF),which causes an optimal problem with an average number of parameters and high flexibility,and the computational and optimization process for Newton's method is more accurate and smooth. The model is described by the zero contour of a LEVEL-set function, which in turn is represented by a relatively small number of radial basis functions. This formulation includes some additional parameters such as the width of the radial basis functions and the smoothness of the Heaviside function. The latter is of particular importance as it controls the sensitivity to changes in the model. In this algorithm adaptively chooses the required smoothness parameter and tests the method on a suite of idealized Earth models. In this evolutionary approach, the reduction gradient method usually requires many iterations for convergence, and the functions are weakened for low-sensitivity problems. Although the use of Quasi-Newton methods to improve the LEVEL set function increases the degree of convergence, they are computationally challenging, and for large problems and relatively finer grids, a system of equations must be solved in each iteration. Moreover, based on the fact that the number of underlying parameters in a parametric approach is usually much less than the number of pixels resulting from the discretization of the LEVEL set function, we make a use of a Newton-type method to solve the underlying optimization problem. In this research, the algorithm is used to investigate its strengths and weaknesses for applying geophysical gravity data, coding and programming, and it is tested using several two-dimensional synthetic models. Finally, the method is tested on gravity data from the Mobrun ore body, north east of Noranda, Quebec, Canada. The results of this study show that the application of the optimization algorithm of the LEVEL set function will lead to a relatively more accurate and realistic detection of mass boundaries. It shows that the tested mass has spread from a depth of 10 meters to a depth of 160 meters.

This study was conducted during summer and winter of 2018- 2019 in the agricultural research field of Shahid Chamran University. Experimental design was split- plot based on RCBD with three replications. The main plot was the type of agricultural system in three LEVELs including conventional (Conv), organic (Org) and sustainable (Sust) (integrated between Conv and Org) and sup- plot was the type of pre- cultivated crop in sequence with wheat including cultivation of mung bean (M- W), corn (C- W), sesame (S- W) and fallow (F- W). Yield quantity (yield and its component) and quality (grain protein), an estimate of photosynthesis matter transfer index of wheat and soil organic carbon (SOC) after one DOUBLE-cropping were measured. The result showed that the highest (545.04 g/m2) and the lowest (409.28 g/m2) seed yields were obtained in Conv and Org respectively. In contract, with the changing type of system from Conv to Org, grain protein was increased significantly (from 8.3 to 9.6 %). In addition, the highest (535.47 g/m2) yield of wheat was obtained from M- W DOUBLE cropping. On the other hands the highest remobilization and current photosynthesis matter were obtained in the organic agricultural system with M- W and conventional with M- W DOUBLE cropping. The situation of SOC showed that the highest (33.18 mg/g) SOC was obtained in the organic agricultural system with C- W DOUBLE cropping. The reason for improving SOC in the organic and sustainable agricultural system was application of organic matter (compost and vermicompost) and crop residue management. Totally, from the crop ecology point of view, sustainable agricultural method with a sequence of M- W was the most desirable system.

Background and Aims: Lasers with different characteristics have been used to stimulate orthodontic tooth movements and to inhibit the pain during tooth movements. Considering the contradictory finding in this respect, the effect of low LEVEL laser therapy (LLLT) was evaluated on the pain during orthodontic tooth movement.Materials and Methods: In this randomized clinical trial study, 12 patients were included with extracted upper first premolars and required canine retraction into extraction site. While in both sides canines were retracted by Niti coil spring, one side was exposed to GaAlAs laser (890 nm). LLLT was done on the buccal and palatal mucosa by slow movement of probe. The patients were asked about their pain on both sides 2 days after beginning of retraction. Pain measurement was evaluated with VAS.Results: Pain perception in LLLT side was significantly decreased (P=0.007).Conclusion: Based on the results, single irradiation of GaAlAs laser (12 J energy per tooth) can decrease pain perception.

This study intends to present a biomechanical model of the lumbar spine applying the finite element method in order to evaluate the behavior of the spine with disc degeneration. The high rates of patients suffering from this phenomenon encouraged us to study the effects of disc degeneration on spinal response. In the proposed method, the entire lumbar spine, including the vertebrae L1 to S1, were simulated. Degeneration of the disc was also modeled in three different ways, decreasing disc height, changing the mechanical properties of the nucleus, and changing the properties of ligaments and collagen fibers. This degeneration was considered simultaneously for both L4-5 and L5-S1 discs, which is referred to as DOUBLE-LEVEL degeneration in this study. After modeling and applying synthetic loading (bending moments with a follower load), the analysis was performed via ABAQUS software. The results, including intradiscal pressures and the intervertebral rotation, were also compared with experimental data for further verification. The findings of this study illustrate that DOUBLE-LEVEL disc degeneration reduces intradiscal pressures in L4-5 and L5-S1 discs. However, the intradiscal pressure of a degenerated disc does not change the intradiscal pressure of other adjacent discs. Moreover, in extension and axial rotation loading, increasing disc degeneration would lead to an increase in intervertebral motion.