Dust storms often occur in arid and semiarid regions of the world and carry a huge quantity of materials; hence, they are recognized as one of the most important environmental issues on regional and international scales. This study aimed to evaluate the heavy metal content of dust-fall particles in the cities of Sanandaj, Khorramabad and Andimeshk in western Iran. Sampling the dust-fall particles was conducted every 10 days from 20 June 2012 over one year simultaneously in these three stations using the Deposit Gauge Method and the concentration of metals was measured using Flame Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy for Fe and Mn and Furnace Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy for Zn, Cu, As, Ag, Pb, Cd, Cr, Ni. Pollution levels for the heavy metals were then evaluated using the Geo-Accumulation Index (Igeo) and Index Enrichment Factor (EF). The results obtained for the Igeo index and EF index demonstrated that levels of Ag and Cu pollution among the dust-fall particles from the three stations were higher than for other heavy metals, while concentrations of other heavy metals were not evaluated as contaminant. Although the mean of dust-fall particles on area unit in Sanandaj station was less than Khorramabad and Andimeshk, heavy metal concentrations among the sampled dust-fall particles was relatively higher. The highest amount of dust falling on a unit area was obtained from Andimesh station, more than at the Khorramabad station and, lastly, the Sanandaj station. Moreover, the maximum and minimum levels of dust-fall descending on the three stations were obtained in May and January respectively.

The principal aim of present study was the application of the Artificial Neural Network (ANN) system to the determination of the optimal powder factors, based on a series of observations and numerical experiments. The input parameters were 12 geological conditions. The data for the NN application in this study were collected in the spillway tunnel of Kosar Dam, which located in West south of Iran. An optimum NN model was determined by training and testing models with the collected data. It was shown that the NN model could predict the powder factor depending upon the selected input parameters. In addition, the strength of the relationship between the powder factor and the 14 input parameters was evaluated by three different sensitivity analysis methods, i.e. the analysis of relative strength effect, the cosine amplitude method and the fractional factorial design. From these analyses, not only the dominant factors among the input parameters, but also their interactions could be determined.

Nowadays, the fundamental role of having a purpose for life in physical and mental health has been confirmed. According to victor frankl, presence of a purpose in life gives life a meaning and increases resilience against pains and traumas. The importance of the purpose in life construct reveals the need for a reliable and valid tool to measure it. Crumbaugh and Maholick's purpose in life questionnaire is the first and one of the most applied tools for the assessment of life's purposefulness. The aim of this research is to determine the factor structure of purpose in life questionnaire. The questionnaire was administered on 206 students who were selected through random stratified sampling at Ferdowsi University of Mashhad. Exploratory factor analysis showed that there are two factors "comprehension" and "purpose" and this finding were confirmed by confirmatory factor analysis. Altogether results of this research showed factor validity of the purpose in life questionnaire with a two factor pattern

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.

Introduction: Nutritional requirements of fungi are essential for their successful growth in laboratories. Some fungi feed on the compounds present in the insects' bodies. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of insects' body powder (IBP) as a supplement for the fungi growth in culture media. Methods: We used 10 mg of IBP, obtained from Anopheles superpictus and Culex theileri mosquitoes, as the optimum amount for the enrichment of Sabouraud Dextrose Agar medium containing chloramphenicol (SC). The growth rate of 27 species belonging to saprophytes and yeasts on this medium was compared with the control SC medium containing no IBP. Results: From a total of 27 species of saprophytic and yeast fungi, 23 showed a positive response to the addition of IBP in the culture media, and there was a significant difference between the growth rate in the culture media containing IBP and the controls (P<0.001). The fungi Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus fumigatus, Trichoderma spp., Chrysosporium spp., Mucor spp., Syncephalastrum spp., Scopulariopsis spp., Rhizopus spp., and Stachybotrys spp. showed the highest positive response to the addition of IBP as a supplement (P<0.001). Conclusion: IBP can be used as a supplement in fungal medium cultures for enhancing fungi growth to isolate the pathogenic fungi more rapidly. The use of IBP would be economical in the industry for making culture media. Also, it would be possible to use the fungi tested in the current study for biological control of insects' populations serving as vectors of in infectious diseases.

Background: Hyperlipidemia and hypertension are the most important causes of ischemic heart disease. There is evidence that flaxseed powder can improve lipid profile and blood pressure. In this study, we want to investigate the effects of flaxseed powder consumption on patients with hyperlipidemia and hypertension. Methods: This randomized double‑ blind placebo‑ controlled clinical trial was performed on 80 hyperlipidemic and hypertensive patients (men and women between 20 and 60 years old). In this study, participants were recruited from Imam Khomeini hospital clinics of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences in 2017 randomly allocated to flaxseed powder group and placebo group. The intervention group received 36 g of flaxseed sachet (n = 40), and control group received 12 g placebo sachet (n = 40) for 8 weeks. Serum lipid profiles, blood pressure, fasting blood sugar, and anthropometric indices were measured. Data were analyzed by using SPSS. Results: We found significant reduction (P < 0. 001) in anthropometric indices (waist circumference and waist‑ to‑ hip ratio) and lipid profiles (triglycerides [P = 0. 015], total cholesterol [P = 0. 018], and low‑ density lipoprotein [P < 0. 001]) within flaxseed group in comparison with placebo group. Conclusions: Based on beneficial effects of flaxseed on cardiovascular risk factors, it seems that flaxseed consumption can be considered as a useful therapeutic approach for reducing lipid profile and anthropometric indices.

Prediction of powder factor is a major activity while preparing drilling and blasting operation, as the total production cost depends on it. It is a major input parameter in blast design as it influences the efficiency of subsequent operations in mining. Generally, effective parameters that influence powder factor can be divided into three namely, rock mass, geometric and explosive parameters. In this study, the rock mass properties and geometric parameters were studied based on the ratio of the mass of explosive and blast design. The main objective of this study is the application of a rock engineering system (RES) to calculate the powder factor index (Pfi) based on predominant rock mass properties and geometric parameters. This approach was applied to a database of twenty-four blast sites comprising of rock mass rating, blastability index, porosity, specific gravity, uniaxial compressive strength, burden, the ratio of spacing to burden, ratio of drilled-hole depth to burden, drilled-hole diameter, and ratio of the burden to drilled-hole diameter. The relationship between these parameters and how each of them influences the powder factor was studied and used to predict the powder factor index. The result shows that rock mass rating, blastability index, porosity, specific gravity, uniaxial compressive strength, and drilled-hole diameter affect powder factor. It also shows that Pfi is a robust technique for generating an improved line of fit and predicting more dependable and accurate valuation of powder factor with the coefficient of determination (R2) of 0. 86, and root means square error (RMSE) of 0. 023 when compared with the traditional multivariable regression method.