Background and Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate and comapre the kinematics variables of the MAEi-Geri technique in two groups of top-expert and practiced karatekas.Materials and Methods: The subjects included 9 top expert karatekas (members of the Iranian national team) and 7 practiced karatekas (with at least 6 years’ experience but not members of the national team). The measurement was conducted using stereo-videography by which the 3-D coordinates of the reflective markers attached to the anatomical landmarks were traced during motion. The statistical analysis was performed using independent sample T-test for comparison of the groups means and pair sample t-test for inter group comparison.Results: Results indicated well observation of some details of the motion pattern by top-expert group, including maintaining the height and angulation of the trunk before and during kick, a three phased plantar flexion of the ankle joint, and maintaining the orientation of the shank before kick, which were neglected by the practiced group. Also, comparison of the cofficients of variation of the kinematical variables within the two groups revealed that the motion (including the trunk’s vertical movement and rotation, and the ankle, knee and hip joints angular variation) has been conducted with a higher degree of similarity within the top-expert group; this was mostly significant for the knee joint motions.Conclusion: The results of this investigation highlight the importance and effectiveness of the motion analysis methods in studying the detailed performance differences between the expert and non-expert karatekas, which might remain undetected under direct observation.

Introduction: Doubts about the safety and health hazard concerned with the use of synthetic antioxidants have led to a growing demand for the application of natural antioxidants.Materials and Methods: In this study the antioxidant activities of water and alcoholic extracts of shahmirzadi variety of green husk of walnut based on reducing power, total antioxidant activity and DPPH scavenging activity were evaluated. The effects of extracts on inhibition of oxidation chain reactions of soyabean oil was examined by measuring peroxide and thiobarbitoric acid values as means to evaluate the antioxidant activities. Phenolic compounds were extracted with methanol (80%), ethanol (50%) and water and the total phenolic content was measured by Folin-Ciocalteu method.Results: The results showed that the highest total phenolic compounds were present in the methanolic extract using microwave. The results also indicated that the extracts were able to retard the oxidation and the antioxidant activity was concentration dependent and the sample with the concentration of 1000ppm extract inhibited the oxidation of soyabean oil.Conclusion: Walnut husk might be regarded as a potential source of natural antioxidants but further investigation might be recommended for its possible application in food and related industries.

Microwave-Assisted Extraction (MAE) is a type of low-temperature thermal desorption process that its numerous advantages have caused a wide spread use of it. Microwave heating is a potentially attractive technique as it provides volumetric heating process to improve heating efficiencies as compared with conventional techniques. The ability to rapidly heat the sample solvent mixture is inherent to MAE and the main advantage of this technique. Presently MAE has been shown to be one of the best technologies for removing environmental pollutants specially PAHs, phenols and PCBs from soils and sediments. Five different mixtures and types of aggregation (Sand, Top soil, Kaolinite) besides three concentrations of crude oil as a contaminant (1000, 5000 and 10000 mg/L) were considered. The results indicated that regardless of aggregation, the presence of humus component in soil reduces the efficiency. Minimum and maximum efficiencies were for sandy soil (containing organic components) and kaolinite (without any organic content), respectively. According to the results of this research when some amount of humus and organic materials are available in the matrix, it causes the extraction efficiency to perform as a function of just humus materials but not aggregation. Increasing the concentration of crude oil reduced the efficiency with a sharp steep for higher concentration (5000-10000 mg/L) and less steeper for lower concentration (1000-5000 mg/L). The concentration of the contaminant, works just as an independent function with extraction time and aggregation factors. The extraction period of 10 min. can be suggested as an optimum extraction time in FMAE for PAHs contaminated soils.

Extraction methods are very important processes for separation of bioactive compounds of medicinal plants before analyses. Phenolic and flavonoid compounds include a broad variety of structures and functionalities that are required for the production of foods and food additives and there are different methods for the their extraction. In this study, total phenolic and flavonoid contents of leaf extracts from three varieties of Labisia pumila Benth (variety alata, pumila, and lanceolata) were investigated by microwave assisted extraction (MAE) and reflux extraction methods. Furthermore, DPPH radical-scavenging and ferric-reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) assays were applied to test the antioxidant activities. Results revealed that total phenolic (3. 14, 3. 03, 2. 94 mg GAE g-1 DW) and flavonoid contents (2. 08, 2. 1, 1. 85 mg Rutin g-1 DW) in the leaf extracts of Labisia pumila varieties alata, pumila, and lanceolata by MAE method were significantly higher than reflux extraction method, which was possibly responsible for the higher antioxidant activities in all three varieties of L. pumila Benth. These findings further illustrate that MAE has a bright prospect for extracting active ingredients from plant materials.

This study aimed to evaluate the temporal change and accuracy of interpolation techniques used for spatial zonation of two groundwater quantity parameters including water table and depth to water table over 11 years. The study was conducted based on the data collected from piezometric wells of Sari-Neka Plain in Mazandaran Province, Iran. The investigated methods included a set of geostatistical approaches involving simple Kriging, ordinary Kriging, Radial Basis Function (RBF), and a deterministic interpolation method called Inverse Distance Weighting (IDW) with powers of 1 and 5. Subsequent to quality control and data normalization, the most appropriate variogram was chosen based on low RSS and high r2 while the most suitable interpolation technique was determined regarding the cross validation, Mean Absolute Error (MAE), and Mean Bias Error (MBE). The results demonstrated that Simple Kriging was the most suitable method for zoning the depth to groundwater over the years 2001, 2006, and 2012. Meanwhile, the most suitable methods for zoning the water table included IDW with a power of 1for the year 2001, RBF for the year 2006, and IDW with a power of 5 for the year 2012. The important finding was that the interpolation methods showed a lower error for estimating water table than estimating depth to groundwater. This study also revealed a drop in water table in the study area over the 11 years’ period. Meanwhile, new water table classes have been added and extended between the years 2006 and 2012 that had not existed five years earlier. The highest water table losses were observed in three points at 13m depth to water table in the middle and northern parts of the study area.

The aim of the present investigation was to determine the effect of two karate techniques on the reduction in stereotypic behaviours in three 5-year-old boys with autistic disorders. The study included three boys with autistic disorders. A single subject method with A-B-A design was used. Participants of the present study were required to exercise two karate techniques (Zuki and MAE-Geri) for 12 weeks. Changes in the severity of stereotypic behaviours were assessed by Gilliam Autism Rating Scale (second edition) during intervention process and during one month after intervention with one-week intervals. Results showed that with respect to descriptive statistics and visual analytics, the karate techniques had an effect on all three participants (PND=100% for first and third participants, PND=50% for the second participant) and this reduction was maintained one month after the end of the intervention. The findings of the present study indicated that teaching karate techniques to autistic children dramatically decreased their stereotypic behaviours.