To investigate the response of corn to combined application of chemical fertilizers with rhizobacteria plant growth promoting, an experiment was conducted in 2017 at Research farm of Agricultural and Natural Resources Campus of Tehran University, Karaj, Iran, in a randomized complete block design with four replications. Four nutritional treatments including T1 (Control treatment without applying fertilizer), T2 (Just PGPRs), T3 (Use chemical fertilizers based on soil test) and T4 (T3 + PGPRs) were considered. According to the results, the highest total dry weight (3.9 kg/m2), crop growth rate (79.8 g.m-2.day-1), net assimilation rate (15.3 g.m-2.day-1) and grain yield (18.2 ton.ha-1) were observed in T4 treatment and T2 treatment produced the highest  leaf area index (5.3), leaf area duration (205.2) and specific leaf weight (78.5 g.m-2) . Also, the lowest value of all traits was observed in in T1 (control) treatment. The results showed that the presence of rhizobacteria plant growth promotioninduction in the corn nutrition program increased the growth and growth indices of the plant. Combined application of chemical fertilizers with rhizobacteria plant growth promoting resulted in the highest growth and final grain yield of corn.

Because of similarity of plasma membrane changes induced by capacitation and cryopreservation, the parameters describing sperm response to capacitating conditions can be used for evaluating cryopreservation response in many animal systems. In dog sperm, the response of the total sperm population to ionophore treatment has been shown to be an indication of the freezability of semen samples. Another sperm Functional characteristic decisive for cryopreservability is cell volume regulation, resulted from developing essential osmotic gradients across the plasma membrane during the freeze-thaw cycles. In the present study, cryopreservation-induced changes in the membrane Functional integrity were examined by monitoring the osmotically induced response of cell volume and the response to an ionophore in live cell populations. Cell volume measurements were performed on Percoll-washed suspensions of freshly diluted and frozen-thawed dog spermatozoa. The proportion of live acrosome-reacted cells was evaluated by flow cytometry after incubation under capacitating conditions in the presence of the calcium ionophore A23187. During freezing-thawing, significant membrane changes occurred relating to the disturbance of volume control ability and the loss of a proportion of live acrosome-reacted cells (p<0.05). There were significant differences between individuals with respect to the degree of Functional and structural membrane changes after thawing. Significant correlations were found between acrosomal integrity and Functional membrane integrity. When assessed in freshly diluted semen, these parameters correlated with those of frozen-thawed semen samples, pointing to the similarities between mechanisms of cryopreservation-related changes and those mechanisms that mediate changes in membrane permeabilities and in cell volume regulation. The detection of changes in the sperm plasma membrane by monitoring the sperm cell volume represents a simple, rapid, and sensitive method to estimate sperm quality after the cryopreservation procedure. The individual variability in response to osmotic stress or to calcium ionophore treatment appears to reflect the subtle differences in the sperm membrane Functionality which are crucial for the prediction of cryopreservability.

Functional response is one of the standard criterions to detect the efficiency of a predator as a biocontrol agent. Classic Functional response experiments include two fundamental assumptions: 1) the prey is evenly distributed in space; 2) predation rate is often time-limited. In this article, the limiting factor of Nesidiocoris tenuis (Hem.: Miridae) was investigated on tomato leafminer eggs. Multi-patch Functional response experiments were carried out using first and fifth instar nymphs and females of the predator. Two set of prey densities exposed to the predator included the upper density or the total number of prey available in all patches equated satiation level. Experiments were conducted by three available times; 1, 2 and 3h for fifth instar nymphs and females, and 1, 1. 5 and 2h for the first instar nymphs. The results showed that the predator is limited by volume of its gut rather than by time. The Functional response of all stages was from type II. The values of Th and a' were estimated as 4. 033 min and 0. 0385 min-1 for first instar nymph, 3. 517 min and 0. 0305 min-1 for fifth instar nymph and 2. 512 min and 0. 0278 min-1 for female. According to this study, N. tenuis could be considered as an efficient biocontrol agent of tomato leafminer.

Background and objectives: Understanding the Functional response of a predator to its prey and its parameters including attack rate and handling time, are one of the basic methods in applied biological control for evaluation of the efficiency of a predator. Nephus arcuatus is one of the most important biological control agents of Nipaecoccus viridis. Material and Methods: In this study, a laboratory study has been conducted to evaluate the stage-specific Functional response of larval stages and adult females and males of N. arcuatus to varying densities of N. viridis 2nd instar nymph. Experimental conditions were based on optimal temperature for N. arcuatus activities, 30± 1º C, 65± 5% RH, and 14L: 10D photoperiod. Results and Discussion: The shape of Functional response curve and the Functional response parameters were determined respectively by logistic regression and nonlinear least square regression. The 1st instar, 2nd instar larvae, adult males as well as adult females exhibited a type II Functional response. Attack rate (a) and handling time (Th) were estimated to be 0. 1139 h-1 and 11. 4117 h for the 1st instar, 0. 3237 h-1 and 4. 7013 h for 2nd instar larvae, 0. 2233h-1 and 1. 4711 h for adult males, and 0. 2836h-1 and 1. 0198 h for adult females, respectively. In contrast, the 3rd instar and 4th instar larvae of N. arcuatus exhibited a type III Functional response. Constant b and handling time were estimated to be 0. 0195 and 1. 7396 h for the 3rd instar, and 0. 00774 and 0. 4912 h for 4th instar larvae, respectively. Our results indicated that estimated attack rates did not change significantly between different stages of N. arcuatus with similar Functional response curve. In contrast, the handling times of N. arcuatus to its prey increased as the larval age of this predator increased, also females had longer handling time than adult males. Based on the maximum predation rate (T/Th), the 4th instar larva was the most voracious stage (48. 56 prey/d) followed by the adult female (23. 53 pey/d) and male (16. 32 egg/d) N. arcuatus. These findings suggest that the voracity of all stages of N. arcuatus toward N. viridis hold good promises for a use of especially simultaneously 4th instar larvae, and adult males and females of N. arcuatus in a biological control program against N. viridis in orchards and on ornamental plants.

The Functional response of the egg parasitoid, Trissolcus vassilievi (Nees) (Hym., Scelionidae), on eggs of the sunn pest, Eurygaster integriceps Put. (Hem., Scutelleridae) was investigated at six constant temperatures (12, 15, 20, 25, 28 and 32  C) for 8 hours. Using logistic regression, a type III Functional response was determined for T. vassilievi at the two temperatures 15 and 32  C. Any Functional response was not detected at other temperatures. The Hassells’ type III model was used for estimating searching efficiency (a) and handling time (Th). At 32  C the highest attack rate and the lowest handling time was recorded 0. 2029 per hour and 0. 1856 hour, respectively. Results show that the parasitoid can be used in the pest management programs at low and high temperatures.

Background: Iran is one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world. Hospital readiness is important for providing services to patients in times of crisis and can be considered an important indicator in crisis management. Objectives: The present study was conducted to determine the Functional preparedness of selected military hospitals in response to tragedy and disasters. Methods: This cross-sectional-analytical study was conducted in two AJA-military hospitals in Tehran in 2020. A random sampling method was used to select hospitals. A checklist of Functional preparedness of hospitals in response to disasters was used to collect data. Data were analyzed and coded with SPSS software. Results: According to the results, the mean and standard deviation of the Functional preparedness score for hospitals A and B were 86. 17± 4. 24 and 81. 76± 10. 52, respectively, and the total average score was 83. 97± 8. 21, which indicated good conditions. The results of the independent t-test showed that there was no significant difference in the preparedness between the two studied hospitals (p=0. 124). In hospital A, Recovery after Disaster, Increase capacity and Continuation of vital services and in hospital B, Support and Procurement Management, Continuation of vital services and Human resources areas had the lowest level of readiness. Conclusion: According to the results, the studied hospitals were weak in Functional preparedness, and hence should be repaired and improved in this field.

In order to determine the effect of the type of host species on searching efficiency, handling time and Functional response of Trichogramma embryophagum, it was reared on Ephestia kuehniella and Sitotroga cerealella eggs for 15 generations. Different levels of hosts egg densities as: 2,4, 6, 8, 14, 20, 30,40 and 50 were used. Each density was placed in a test tube (l6×100mm) and then exposed to a 24 h mated female. The experiments were carried out at 25±1°C, 50 ±5%RH and 16:8 (L:D) photoperiod. In both experiments Functional response was a type III and Holling disc equation was used to estimate the parameters. Searching efficiency, handling time and estimated maximum percent of parasitism for parasitoids reared on S. cerealella were 0.13, 1.64 and 75.73, and for those reared on E. kuehniella were 0.11, 1.65and 68.78, respectively. There was no significant difference between estimated parameters in both experiments. The results revealed that the type of laboratory host has no important effect on Functional response of T. embryophagum.    

Objective: CREB1 is an important downstream protein for many signaling pathways. By designing efficient siRNAs against CREB1, it may be possible to assess the role of molecules involved in signaling pathways in different cell types. In this research the efficiency of CREB1 knockdown by two different siRNAs in K562 cells has been studied. Materials and Methods: siRNAs have been designed according to the criteria suggested by Reynolds et al. K562 cells were transfected by siRNA using Lipofectamine 2000. The efficiency of CREB knockdown has been assessed by quantitative relative Real-time PCR. Results: Our results have shown that only one of the siRNAs has a high level of inhibitory effect on CREB1 gene expression. The expression of CREB1 by this siRNA was knocked-down by 87% in K562 cells. Conclusion: In this research, although two siRNAs were designed according to the Reynolds et al. criteria, only one showed an inhibitory effect. Reasons other than the aforementioned criteria may be involved in effectiveness of siRNAs.