Search results for: Amr Mansour Mohsen

Authors: Mahmoud S Gewaily, Atif Hasan, Mohamed Kassab, Ali A. Mansour

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The current study was carried out on the nose of seventeenth healthy adult camels. Specimens were collected from slaughter houses then fixed, dissected and photographed. For ultra structural studies, fresh samples were fixed in different fixatives and prepared for examination by light, scanning and electron microscopes. Grossly, nose of the camel had narrow nostrils, slit like in outline. In the nasal cavity, the nasal vestibule was narrow and has scanty dorsal and lateral cartilaginous support. The Nasal conchae (dorsal, middle and ventral) enclosed the dorsal, middle conchal sinuses and no ventral conchal sinus; instead there was recess and bull a. The ethmoidal conchae (8 in number) were noticeably fewer than in the other domestic animals like ox and horse. The olfactory mucosa was restricted to a small area covering the caudal parts of the ethmoidal conchae. The lining epithelium of the nasal cavity changes gradually from stratified squamous epithelium in the nasal vestibule to pseudo stratified columnar ciliated in the respiratory region and finally, olfactory epithelium covering the caudal parts of the ethmoidal conchae. In the dromedary camel, a special feature was the presence of dense and relatively long hair covering the nostrils and the rostral part of the nasal vestibule. In conclusion, the anatomical features of the nose of the dromedary camel, especially in its rostral parts enable this animal to breathe properly in the sandy dry weather.

Keywords: camel nose, anatomy, dromedary camel, nasal vestibule

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Authors: Vahid Mazloum, Mansour Sahebozamani, Amirhossein Barati, Nouzar Nakhaee, Pouya Rabiei

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Non-specific chronic low back pain (NSCLBP) is a common condition with no exact diagnosis and mechanism for its occurrence. Recently, different therapeutic exercises have taken into account to manage NSCLBP. So, the aim of this study has mainly been placed on comparing the effects of Pilates and Mackenzie exercises on quality of life (QOL) lumbar spine position sense (LSPS) in patients with NSCLBP. In this randomized clinical trial, 47 patients with NSCLBP were voluntarily divided into three groups of Pilates (n=16) (with mean age 37.1 ± 9.5 years, height 168.9 ± 7.4 cm, body mass 76.1 ± 5.9 k), McKenzie (n=15) (with mean age 42.7 ± 8.1 years, height 165.7 ± 6.8, body mass 74.1 ± 4.8 kg) and control (n=16) (with mean age 39.3 ± 9.8 years, height 168.1 ± 8.1 cm, body mass 74.2 ± 5.8 kg). Primary outcome included QOL and secondary was LSPS. Both variables were assessed by the WHOQOL-BREF questionnaires and electrogoniameter, respectively. The measurements were performed at baseline, following a 6-week intervention, and after a 4-week follow-up. The ANCOVA test at P < 0.05 was administrated to analyze the collected data using SPSS software. There was a statistically significant difference between experimental groups and the control group to improve QOL. But, no difference was seen regarding the effects of two exercises on LSPS (p < 0.05). Both Pilates and Mackenzie exercises demonstrated improvement in QOL after 6-week intervention and a 4-week follow-up while none of them considerably affected LSPS. Further studies are required to establish a supporting evidence for the effectiveness of two exercises on NSCLBP.

Keywords: pilates, Mackenzie, preconception, low back pain, physical health

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Authors: Mohsen Azarmjoo, Yasaman Azarmjoo, Zahra Alikhani Koopaei

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This article introduces devices that can transfer sunlight to buildings that do not have access to direct sunlight during the day. The transmission and reflection of sunlight are done through the movement of movable mirrors. The focus of this article is on two models of sun tracker systems designed and built by the Macad team. In fact, this article will reveal the distinction between the two Macad devices and the previously built competitor device. What distinguishes the devices built by the Macad team from the competitor's device is the different mode of operation and the difference in the location of the sensors. Given that the devices have the same results, the Macad team has tried to reduce the defects of the competitor's device as much as possible. The special feature of the second type of device built by the Macad team has enabled buildings with different construction positions to use sun tracking systems. This article will also discuss diagrams of the path of sunlight transmission and more details of the device. It is worth mentioning that fixed mirrors are also placed next to the main devices. So that the light shining on the first device is reflected to these mirrors, this light is guided within the light receiver space and is transferred to the different parts around by steel sheets built in the light receiver space, and finally, these spaces benefit from sunlight.

Keywords: design, construction, mechatronic device, sun tracker system, sun tracker, sunlight

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Authors: Hamidreza Jahani, Zahra Salehzadeh, Ehsan Amini, Mohsen Tohidifar

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Calvarial Hyperostosis Syndrome (CHS) is a benign bone disease of the skull. It is a non-neoplastic and proliferative bone disease, and the main feature of the disease is progressive and asymmetrical bone involvement. CHS is mostly reported in young male and female bullmastiff dogs and less frequently in other breeds. The etiology of CHS is unknown. This is the first case report of CHS in Iran. A 3-month-old male Persian Mastiff was presented with chief complaints of multiple episodes of seizure, pacing, bizarre behavior, delayed growth, head pressing, and difficulty in opening the mouth. Central blindness and open fontanelles were observed in clinical examination. No abnormality was found in the complete blood count and routine blood biochemical tests. CT scan findings include cortical thickening of frontal and parietal bones and enlargement of the left retropharyngeal lymph node. For treatment, oral clindamycin for two weeks, prednisolone and phenobarbital for one month, respectively, were administrated, and the case showed improvement after a week and recovered after one month.

Keywords: calvarial hyperostosis, Persian Mastiff, frontal bone, seizure

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Authors: Parisa Mansour

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Cystic fibrosis (CF) is one of the most common autosomal recessive diseases among whites. It mostly affects the lungs, causing infections and inflammation that account for 90% of deaths in CF patients. Because of this high variability in clinical presentation and organ involvement, investigating treatment responses and evaluating lung changes over time is critical to preventing CF progression. High-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) greatly facilitates the assessment of lung disease progression in CF patients. Recently, artificial intelligence was used to analyze chest CT scans of CF patients. In this paper, we propose a convolutional neural network (CNN) approach to classify CF lung patterns in HRCT images. The proposed network consists of two convolutional layers with 3 × 3 kernels and maximally connected in each layer, followed by two dense layers with 1024 and 10 neurons, respectively. The softmax layer prepares a predicted output probability distribution between classes. This layer has three exits corresponding to the categories of normal (healthy), bronchitis and inflammation. To train and evaluate the network, we constructed a patch-based dataset extracted from more than 1100 lung HRCT slices obtained from 45 CF patients. Comparative evaluation showed the effectiveness of the proposed CNN compared to its close peers. Classification accuracy, average sensitivity and specificity of 93.64%, 93.47% and 96.61% were achieved, indicating the potential of CNNs in analyzing lung CF patterns and monitoring lung health. In addition, the visual features extracted by our proposed method can be useful for automatic measurement and finally evaluation of the severity of CF patterns in lung HRCT images.

Keywords: HRCT, CF, cystic fibrosis, chest CT, artificial intelligence

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Authors: Atitallah Sofien, Bouyahia Olfa, Mohsen S., Boussetta Khadija, Khemiri Monia, Fitouri Zohra, Boukthir Samir

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Introduction: Megaloblastic anemia (MA) is rare in children. The diversity of its etiologies can lead to misdiagnosis and may, therefore, delay the treatment. The aim of this study was to describe the epidemiological and etiological characteristics of children followed for MA at the Tunis children's hospital. Methodology: This is a retrospective study over a period of 25 years of all cases of MA in children in the Children's Hospital of Tunis. The diagnosis of MA was confirmed by myelogram in all patients. Results: We collected 29 observations, with an incidence of 1.2 cases/year and a sex ratio of 1. Sixty percent of the children were aged between 3 months and 2 years. The consultation time was between 15 and 30 days in a third of the patients. The clinical examination showed hypotrophy in 13% of cases, hepatosplenomegaly in 6% of cases, neurological or neurosensory damage in 23% of cases, and cardiac damage in 10% of children. MA was associated with thrombocytopenia in 65% of cases and leukoneutropenia in 24% of cases. One in 5 children had pancytopenia. The etiologies were mainly thiamine deficiency, Immerslund disease (20%), nutritional deficiency (13%), and Biermer anemia (13%). One of the patients presented an MA revealing visceral leishmaniasis. The outcome under vitamin B12, the dose of which was adapted to each etiology, was favorable for all patients. Conclusion: MA is rare in children with multiple etiologies that are mainly dominated by hereditary conditions and nutritional deficiencies, mainly in vitamin B12. The association with visceral leishmaniasis seems to be a particularity in our country not reported in the literature.

Keywords: megaloblastic anemia, children, vitamin B12, anemia

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Authors: Abdalla Mansour, Dan Brown, Adel Helmy, Rikin Trivedi, Mathew Guilfoyle

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Introduction: Diagnosing delayed cerebral ischaemia (DCI) following aneurysmal subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH) can be challenging, particularly in poor-grade patients. Objectives: This study sought to assess the value of routine CTP in identifying (or excluding) DCI and in guiding management. Methods: Eight-year retrospective neuroimaging study at a large UK neurosurgical centre. Subjects included a random sample of adult patients with confirmed aneurysmal SAH that had a CTP scan during their inpatient stay, over a 8-year period (May 2014 - May 2022). Data collected through electronic patient record and PACS. Variables included age, WFNS scale, aneurysm site, treatment, the timing of CTP, radiologist report, and DCI management. Results: Over eight years, 916 patients were treated for aneurysmal SAH; this study focused on 466 patients that were randomly selected. Of this sample, 181 (38.84%) had one or more CTP scans following brain aneurysm treatment (Total 318). The first CTP scan in each patient was performed at 1-20 days following ictus (median 4 days). There was radiological evidence of DCI in 83, and no reversible ischaemia was found in 80. Findings were equivocal in the remaining 18. Of the 103 patients treated with clipping, 49 had DCI radiological evidence, in comparison to 31 of 69 patients treated with endovascular embolization. The remaining 9 patients are either unsecured aneurysms or non-aneurysmal SAH. Of the patients with radiological evidence of DCI, 65 had a treatment change following the CTP directed at improving cerebral perfusion. In contrast, treatment was not changed for (61) patients without radiological evidence of DCI. Conclusion: CTP is a useful adjunct to clinical assessment in the diagnosis of DCI and is helpful in identifying patients that may benefit from intensive therapy and those in whom it is unlikely to be effective.

Keywords: SAH, vasospasm, aneurysm, delayed cerebral ischemia

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Authors: Ashraf M. S. Soliman, Mohsen Elhasadi

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The present study was undertaken to evaluate the impact of ambient particles emitted from an industrial complex located at El-Fatyah on growth, phytomass partitioning and accumulation, pigment content and nutrient uptake of two economically important crop species; barley (Hordeum vulgare L.Family: Poaceae) and broad bean (Vicia faba L. Family: Fabaceae) growing in the region. It was obvious from the present investigation that chlorophyll and carotenoid content showed significant responses to the industrial dust. Generally, the total pigment content of the two investigated crops in the two locations continually increased till the plant age reached 70 days after sowing then begins to decrease till the end of the growing season..The total uptake of N, P and K in the two studied species decreased in response to industrial dust in the study area compared to control location. In conclusion, barley and broad bean are very sensitive to air pollutants, and may consider as bioindicators for atmospheric pollution. Pollutants caused damage of their leaves, impair plant growth, hindered nutrient uptake and consequently limit primary productivity.

Keywords: Effect of Industrial Complex on barley and broad bean

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Authors: Sasan Ghafaribijar, Javad Hakimi, Mohsen Arvin, Peyman Tahernezhad

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The Lar Igneous Suite (LIS), east of Iran, is part of post collisional alkaline magmatism related to Late Cretaceous- mid Eocene Sistan suture zone. The suite consists of a wide variety of igneous rocks, from volcanic to intrusive and hypabissal rocks such as tuffs, trachyte, monzonite, syenites and lamprophyres. Syenitic rocks which mainly occur in a giant ring dike and stocks, are shoshonitic to potassic-ultrapotassic (K₂O/Na₂O > 2 wt.%; MgO > 3 wt.%; K₂O > 3 wt.%) in composition and are also associated with Cu-Mo mineralization. In this study, chemical composition of biotites within the Lar syenites (LS) is determined by electron microprobe analysis. The results show that LS biotites are Ti-Mg-biotites (phlogopite) which contain relatively high Ti and Mg, and low Fe concentrations. The Mg/(Fe²⁺+ Mg) ratio in these biotites range between 0.56 and 0.73 that represent their transitionally chemical evolution. TiO₂ content in these biotites is high and in the range of 3.0-5.4 wt.%. These chemical characteristics indicate that the LS biotites are primary and have been crystallized directly from magma. The investigations also demonstrate that the LS biotites have crystallized from a magma of orogenic nature. Temperature and pressure are the most significant factors controlling Mg and Ti content in the LS biotites, respectively. The results show that the LS biotites crystallized at temperatures (T) between 800 to 842 °C and pressures (P) between 0.99 to 1.44 kbar. These conditions are indicative of a crystallization depth of 3.26-4.74 km.

Keywords: sistan suture zone, Lar Igneous Suite, zahedan, syenite, biotite

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Authors: Mohammad Kargar Shouraki, Naji Yazdi, Mohsen Emami

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The environmental and social challenges have caused the organizations to put further attention and emphasis on sustainable growth and developing strategies for sustainability. Since human is both the target of development and the agent of development at the same time, one of the most important factors in the development of the sustainability strategy in organizations is the human factor. In addition, organizations have been facing the new challenge of digital transformation which impacts the human factor, meanwhile, undeniably, the human factor contributes to such transformation. Therefore, organizations are facing the challenge of digital human resource management (HRM). Thus, the present study aims to investigate how an HRM model should be so that it not only can help the consideration and of the business sustainability requirements but also can make the highest and the most appropriate positive, not destructive, utilization of the digital transformations. Furthermore, the success of the HRM regarding the two sustainability and digital transformation challenges requires dynamic human competencies, which are addressed as digital/sustainable human dynamic capabilities in this paper. The present study is conducted using a hybrid methodology consisting of the qualitative methods of meta-synthesis and content analysis and the quantitative method of interpretive-structural model (ISM). Finally, a rotatory model, including 3 approaches, 3 perspectives, and 9 dimensions, is presented.

Keywords: sustainable human resource management, digital human resource management, digital/sustainable human dynamic capabilities, talent management

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Authors: Amir Hossein Allahdadi

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The mystical and intuitive look of Islamic artists inspired by the Koranic and mystical principles and also based on the geometry and mathematics has left unique works whose range extends across the borders of Islam. The relationship between Islamic art and music in the traditional art is of one of the concepts that can be traced back to the other arts by detection of its components. One of the links is the art of painting whose subtleties that can be applicable to both architecture and music. So, architecture and music links can be traced in other arts with a traditional foundation in order to evaluate the equivalents of traditional arts. What is the relationship between physical space of architecture and nonphysical space of music? What is musical architecture? What is the music that tends to architecture? These questions are very small samples of the questions that arise in this category, and these questions and concerns remain as long as the music is played and the architecture is made. Efforts have been made in this area, references compiled and plans drawn. As an example, we can refer to views of ‘Mansour Falamaki’ in the book of architecture and music, as well as the book transition from mud to heart by ‘Hesamodin Seraj’. The method is such that a certain melody is given to an architect and it is tried to design a specified architecture using a certain theme. This study is not to follow the architecture of a particular type of music and the formation of a volume based on a sound. In this opportunity, it is tried to briefly review the relationship between music and architecture in the Iranian original and traditional arts, using the basic definitions of arts. The musician plays, the architect designs, the actor forms his desired space and painter displays his multi-dimensional world in the form of two-dimensions. The expression language is different, but all of them can be gathered in a form, a form which has no clear boundaries. In fact, in any original art, the artist applies his art as a tool to express his insights which are nothing but achieving the world beyond this place and time.

Keywords: architecture, music, geometric proportions, mathematical proportions

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Authors: Mohsen Rezaei Aghdam

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Recombinant DNA technology has meaningfully augmented the conventional crop improvement and has a great possibility to contribution plant breeders to encounter the augmented food request foretold for the 21st century. Predictable changes in weather and its erraticism, chiefly extreme fevers and vicissitudes in rainfall are expected to brand crop upgrading even more vital for food manufacture. Tissue attitude has been downtrodden to create genetic erraticism from which harvest plants can be better, to improve the state of health of the recognized physical and to upsurge the number of wanted germplasms obtainable to the plant breeder. This appraisal delivers an impression of the chances obtainable by the integration of vegetable biotechnology into plant development efforts and increases some of the social subjects that need to be considered in their application. Public-private companies offer chances to catalyze new approaches and investment while accelerating integrated research and development and commercial supply chain-based solutions. Novel varieties derivative by encouraged mutatgenesis are used commonly: rice in Thailand. These paper combinations obtainable data about the influence of change breeding-derived crop changes around the world, traveler magnetism the possibility of mutation upbringing as a flexible and feasible approach appropriate to any crop if that suitable objectives and selection approaches are used.

Keywords: crop, improve, genetic, agricultural

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Authors: Mohsen Farahat, Tsuyoshi Hirajima

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Surface characteristics of Bacillus megaterium strain were investigated; zeta potential, FTIR and contact angle were measured. Surface energy components including Lifshitz-van der Waals, Hamaker constant, and acid/base components (Lewis acid/Lewis base) were calculated from the contact angle data. The results showed that the microbial cells were negatively charged over all pH regions with high values at alkaline region. A hydrophilic nature for the strain was confirmed by contact angle and free energy of adhesion between microbial cells. Adsorption affinity of the strain toward dolomite was studied at different pH values. The results showed that the cells had a high affinity to dolomite at acid pH comparing to neutral and alkaline pH. Extended DLVO theory was applied to calculate interaction energy between B. megaterium cells and dolomite particles. The adsorption results were in agreement with the results of Extended DLVO approach. Surface changes occurred on dolomite surface after the bio-treatment were monitored; contact angle decreased from 69° to 38° and the mineral’s floatability decreased from 95% to 25% after the treatment.

Keywords: Bacillus megaterium, surface modification, flotation, dolomite, adhesion energy

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Authors: Mohammed Mohsen Ahmed Al Azab

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Co-education at universities is one of the options that may have an economic as well as social benefit, as it may have a positive impact on improving relationships between students and increasing competitiveness among them, which may have positive effects on educational achievement and alleviate some social problems such as divorce. There is, to the best knowledge of the researcher, no studies tested the subject matter of the current study in Saudi society. The Saudi society is undergoing radical changes at all levels. The current study aims to identify the attitudes of university students toward co-education, the differences between male and female students from various specialties in their attitudes towards co-education, and the relationship of this to the educational level of the parent (educated-uneducated) using the descriptive, comparative, correlational approach. The study sample (n = 200) was chosen randomly among male and female students at King Saud University. The researcher prepared and used an attitude scale. Results showed positive attitudes towards co-education among university students (mean = 3.7, Std. = 0.45). It was also shown that there are significant differences between students’ attitudes towards co-education that can be attributed to their field of study, with students in scientific majors scoring higher than humanities counterparts. Findings also show differences between students’ attitudes towards co-education that can be attributed to the educational level of the parent, where the attitudes of those whose parents received some education were more positive. The results did not indicate any differences between students’ attitudes towards co-education that can be attributed to their gender.

Keywords: attitude, co-education, university students, level of parental education

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Authors: Vajhollah Ghorbanizadeh, Seyed Mohsen Asadi, Mirali Seyednaghavi, Davoud Hoseynpour

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In the current era, all organizations need knowledge to be able to manage the diverse human resources. Creative, dynamic and knowledge-based Human resources are important competitive advantage and the scarcest resource in today's knowledge-based economy. In addition managers with skills of knowledge management must be aware of human resource management science. It is now generally accepted that successful implementation of knowledge management requires dynamic interaction between knowledge management and human resource management. This is emphasized at systematic approach to knowledge management as well. However human resource management can be complementary of knowledge management because human resources management with the aim of empowering human resources as the key resource organizations in the 21st century, the use of other resources, creating and growing and developing today. Thus, knowledge is the major capital of every organization which is introduced through the process of knowledge management. In this context, knowledge management is systematic approach to create, receive, organize, access, and use of knowledge and learning in the organization. This article aims to define and explain the concepts of knowledge management and human resource management and the importance of these processes and concepts. Literature related to knowledge management and human resource management as well as related topics were studied, then to design, illustrate and provide a theoretical model to explain the factors affecting the relationship between knowledge management and human resource management and knowledge management system approach, for schematic design and are drawn.

Keywords: systemic approach, human resources, knowledge, human resources management, knowledge management

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Authors: Fateme Afkhami, Mohsen Ehsanpour, Majid Afkhami, Maryam Ehsanpour

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Normal reference ranges of biochemical parameters are considered important for assessing and monitoring the health status of sea turtles. For this means, serum biochemistry determinations were analyzed in normal adult nesting and foraging hawksbill turtles (Eretmochelys imbricata). Blood samples were collected in March–April during nesting season and December-November in the foraging season. Plasma biochemistry values, except for creatinine and lipase were significant between the two periods. FBS, cholesterol, triglycerides, ALP (alkaline phosphatase), AST (aspartate aminotransferase), bilirubin, total protein, LDH (lactate dehydrogenase), CK (creatine kinase) and amylase were significantly higher in nesting season than foraging season (P<0.05). On the other hand urea, ALT (alanine aminotransferase) and albumin in the nesting season were significantly lower than foraging season (P<0.05). It was concluded that the nesting E. imbricata showed significant variation in their biochemical profile due to reproductive output. This study has produced working reference intervals useful for hawksbill turtles for future conservation and rehabilitation projects in the Persian Gulf and may be of assistance in similar programs worldwide.

Keywords: plasma biochemistry, nesting, foraging, hawksbill turtles, Persian Gulf

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Authors: Dina F. Mansour, Dalia O. Saleh, Rasha E. Mostafa

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Cyclophosphamide (CP), the most commonly used chemotherapeutic agent, was reported to cause many side effects including urotoxicity, cardiotoxicity, gonadotoxicity, and hepatotoxicity; this limits its clinical practice. In the present study, the protective effect of genistein (GEN), the major phytoestrogen in soy products that possesses various pharmacological activities, has been investigated against CP-induced acute liver damage in rats. Forty adult Sprague-Dawley rats were allocated into five groups. The first group received the vehicles and act as normal control. In the other groups, rats were injected with a single dose of CP (200 mg/kg, i.p). The last three groups were pretreated with subcutaneous GEN at doses of 0.5, 1 and 2 mg/kg/day, respectively, for 15 consecutive days prior CP injection. Forty-eight hours following CP injection, rats of all groups were investigated for the serum levels of alanine transaminase and aspartate transaminase, as well as the liver contents of reduced glutathione, malondialdehyde, nitrite, interleukin-1β, and myeloperoxidase. Histopathological examination of liver tissues was also conducted. CP resulted in acute liver damage in rats as evidenced by alteration of liver function biomarkers, oxidative stress, and inflammatory markers; that was confirmed by the histopathological outcomes. Pretreatment of rats with GEN significantly protected against CP-induced deterioration of liver function and showed marked anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory properties that were demonstrated by the biochemical and histopathological findings. In conclusion, the present findings demonstrated the protective effects of GEN against CP-induced liver damage and suggested role of its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities.

Keywords: cyclophosphamide, genistein, inflammation, interleukin-1β, liver, myeloperoxidase, oxidative stress

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Authors: Hossein Alimohammadi, Mohsen Amirmojahedi, Mehrdad Rowhani

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Soil properties are used by geotechnical engineers to evaluate and analyze site conditions for designing purposes. Although basic soil classification tests are easy to perform and provide useful information to determine the properties of soils, it may take time to get the result and add some costs to the projects. Standard Penetration Test (SPT) provides an opportunity to evaluate soil parameters without performing laboratory tests. In addition to its simplicity and cheapness, the results become available immediately. This research provides a guideline on the application of the SPT test method, reliability of adapting the SPT test results in evaluating soil physical and mechanical properties such as Atterberg limits, shear strength, and compressive strength compressibility parameters. A total of 70 boreholes were investigated in this study by taking soil samples between depths of 1.2 to 15.25 meters. The project site was located in Morrow County, Ohio. A regression-based formula was proposed based on Tobit regression with a stepwise variable selection analysis conducted between SPT and other typical soil properties obtained from soil tests. The results of the research illustrated that the shear strength and physical properties of the soil affect the SPT number. The proposed correlation can help engineers to use SPT test results in their design with higher accuracy.

Keywords: standard penetration test, soil properties, soil classification, regression method

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Authors: Mohsen Abotalebi Esfahani, Amin Rahimi

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Maintenance and management of route and roads infrastructure is one of the most important and the most fundamental principles of the countries. Several methods have been under investigation as preventive proceedings for the maintenance of asphalt pavements for many years. Using a mixture of salt, sand and gravel is the most common method of deicing, which could have numerous harmful consequences. Icy or snow-covered road is one of the major reasons of accidents in rainy seasons, which causes substantial damages such as loss of time and energy, environmental pollution, destruction of buildings, traffic congestion and rising possibility of accidents. Regarding this, every year the government incurred enormous costs to secure traverses. In this study, asphalt pavements have been cured, in terms of compressive strength, tensile strength and resilient modulus of asphalt samples, under the influence of Magnesium Chloride, Calcium Chloride, Sodium Chloride, Urea and pure water; and showed that de-icing with the calcium chloride solution and urea have the minimum negative effect and de-icing with pure water has most negative effect on laboratory specimens. Hence some simple techniques and new equipment and less use of sand and salt, can reduce significantly the risks and harmful effects of excessive use of salt, sand and gravel and at the same time use the safer roads.

Keywords: maintenance, sodium chloride, icyroad, calcium chloride

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Authors: Osama H. Elsayed, Mohsen M. S. Asker, Mahmoud A. Swelim, Ibrahim H. Abbas, Aziza I. Attwa, Mohamed E. El Awady

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Hydroxy marilone C is a bioactive metabolite was produced from the culture broth of Streptomyces badius isolated from Egyptian soil. hydroxy marilone C was purified and fractionated by silica gel column with a gradient mobile phase dicloromethane (DCM) : Methanol then Sephadex LH-20 column using methanol as a mobile phase. It was subjected to many instruments as Infrared (IR), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), Mass spectroscopy (MS) and UV spectroscopy to the elucidation of its structure. It was evaluated for antioxidant, cytotoxicity against human alveolar basal epithelial cell line (A-549) and human breast adenocarcinoma cell line (MCF-7) and antiviral activities; showed that the maximum antioxidant activity was 78.8 % at 3000 µg/ml after 90 min. and the IC50 value against DPPH radical found about 1500 µg/ml after 60 min. By Using MTT assay the effect of the pure compound on the proliferation of A-549 cells and MCF-7 cells were 443 µg/ml and 147.9 µg/ml, respectively. While for detection of antiviral activity using Madin-Darby canine kidney (MDCK) cells the maximum cytotoxicity was at 27.9% and IC50 was 128.1µg/ml. The maximum concentration required for protecting 50% of the virus-infected cells against H1N1 viral cytopathogenicity (EC50) was 33.25% for 80 µg/ml. This results indicated that the hydroxy marilone C has a potential antitumor and antiviral activities.

Keywords: hydroxy marilone C, production, bioactive compound, Streptomyces badius

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Authors: A. Moawad, K. C. Yao, A. Mansour, R. Gautier

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The detecting of an occupied frequency band is a major issue in cognitive radio systems. The detection process becomes difficult if the signal occupying the band of interest has faded amplitude due to multipath effects. These effects make it hard for an occupying user to be detected. This work mitigates the missed-detection problem in the context of cognitive radio in frequency-selective fading channel by proposing blind channel estimation method that is based on scattering transform. By initially applying conventional energy detection, the missed-detection probability is evaluated, and if it is greater than or equal to 50%, channel estimation is applied on the received signal followed by channel equalization to reduce the channel effects. In the proposed channel estimator, we modify the Morlet wavelet by using its first derivative for better frequency resolution. A mathematical description of the modified function and its frequency resolution is formulated in this work. The improved frequency resolution is required to follow the spectral variation of the channel. The channel estimation error is evaluated in the mean-square sense for different channel settings, and energy detection is applied to the equalized received signal. The simulation results show improvement in reducing the missed-detection probability as compared to the detection based on principal component analysis. This improvement is achieved at the expense of increased estimator complexity, which depends on the number of wavelet filters as related to the channel taps. Also, the detection performance shows an improvement in detection probability for low signal-to-noise scenarios over principal component analysis- based energy detection.

Keywords: channel estimation, cognitive radio, scattering transform, spectrum sensing

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Authors: Alireza Jafarzadeh, Samad Mosaferi, Mansour Khakpour

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Mastitis is an inflammation of the parenchyma of mammary gland regardless of the causes. Mastitis is characterized by a range of physical and chemical changes in the glandular tissue. The most important change in milk includes discoloration, the presence of clots and large number of leucocytes. There is swelling, heat, pain and edema in mammary gland in many clinical cases. Positive coagulase S. aureus is a major pathogen of the bovine mammary gland and a common cause of contagious mastitis in cattle. The aim of this study was to evaluate the outbreaks of Staphylococcus aureus mastitis. This study is conducted in ten dairy herds about one thousand cows. After doing CMT and identifying infected cows, the milk samples obtained from infected teats and transported to microbiological laboratories. After microbial culture of milk samples and isolating S. aureus, antimicrobial, sensitivity test was performed with disk diffusion method by ciprofloxacin, co-amoxiclav, erythromycin, penicillin, oxytetracyclin, sulfonamides, lincomycin and cefquinome. The study defined that the outbreak of subclinical positive coagulase Staphylococcus mastitis in dairy herd was 13.11% (5.6% S. aureus and 7.51% S. intermedicus). The antimicrobial sensitivity test shown that 87.23% of Staphylococcus aureus isolated from bovine mastitis in dairy herd was susceptible to ciprofloxacin, 93.9% to cefquinome, 4.67% to co-amoxiclav, 12.16% to erythromycin 86.11% to sulfonamides (co-trimoxazole), 3.35% lincomycin, 12.7% to oxytetracyclin and 5.98% to penicillin. Results of present defined that ciprofloxacin has a great effect on Staphylococcus aureus isolated from subclinical bovine mastitis dairy herd. It seems that cefquinome sulfonamides has a great effect on isolated Staphylococcus aureus in vivo.

Keywords: ciprofloxacin, mastitis, Staphylococcus aureus, dairy herd

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Authors: Naser Shagerdi Esmaeli, Mohsen Hamidpour, Parisa Hasankhani Tehrani

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Background: The TP53 mutation is frequently detected in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients with complex karyotype (CK), but the stability of this mutation during the clinical course remains unclear. Material and Methods: In this study, TP53 mutations were identified in 7% of 500 patients with de novo AML and 58.8% of patients with CK in Tabriz, Iran. TP53 mutations were closely associated with older age, lower white blood cell (WBC) and platelet counts, FAB M6 subtype, unfavorable-risk cytogenetics, and CK, but negatively associated with NPM1 mutation, FLT3/ITD and DNMT3A mutation. Result: Multivariate analysis demonstrated that TP53 mutation was an independent poor prognostic factor for overall survival and disease-free survival among the total cohort and the subgroup of patients with CK. A scoring system incorporating TP53 mutation and nine other prognostic factors, including age, WBC counts, cytogenetics, and gene mutations, into survival analysis proved to be very useful to stratify AML patients. Sequential study of 420 samples showed that TP53 mutations were stable during AML evolution, whereas the mutation was acquired only in 1 of the 126 TP53 wild-type patients when therapy-related AML originated from different clone emerged. Conclusion: In conclusion, TP53 mutations are associated with distinct clinic-biological features and poor prognosis in de novo AML patients and are rather stable during disease progression.

Keywords: acute myloblastic leukemia, TP53, FLT3/ITD, Iran

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Authors: Naser Shagerdi Esmaeli, Mohsen Hamidpour

Abstract:

Purposes: The activation of coagulation in patients with cancer contributes significantly to morbidity and mortality rates and may play a fundamental role in the host response to growing tumor’s. Patients with cancer are clearly at high risk for the development of venous thromboembolism (VTE), particularly during chemotherapy and surgery. This situation is aggravated by the use of venous access catheters and possibly growth factors. Methods: Data derived from large, randomized, controlled trials have been used to determine the true incidence of this complication of cancer and its treatment. The incidence based on the analyses of these randomized controlled trials varies from 1% for limited stage patients with breast cancer treated with tamoxifen to 60% for patients with any type of cancer who are subjected to orthopedic surgery and do not receive prophylactic therapy. Results: In view of the morbidity and mortality attributable to VTE in cancer, widespread utilization of prophylactic anticoagulation therapy, which has proven safe and effective in a variety of situations, should be considered. While migratory thrombophlebitis is a clear indicator of an underlying neoplasm, the risk of cancer in patients with the more typical form of VTE has been the subject of intense debate over recent years. Conclusion: Some investigators have suggested that the relative risk of being diagnosed with occult cancer within six months of an episode of VTE (particularly recurrent VTE) could be up to 10-fold. However, the cost-effectiveness of aggressive screening for cancer in patients with VTE has not yet been defined adequately.

Keywords: venous thromboembolism, malignancy, cancer, tumor, heparin

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Authors: Abdmohammad Mousavi, Mohsen Shams, Mehdi Akbartabar Toori, Ali Mousavizadeh, Mohammad Ali Morowatisharifabad

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The effectiveness of Transtheoretical Model (TTM) on nutritional behavior change and lose weight has been subject to questions by some studies. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of nutritional behavior change and lose weight interventions based on TTM in obese and overweight women. This experimental study that was a 8 months trial nutritional behavior change and weight loss program based on TTM with two conditions and pre–post intervention measurements weight mean. 299 obese and overweight 20-44 years old women were selected from two health centers include training (142) and control (157) groups in Yasuj, a city in south west of Iran. Data were analyzed using paired T-test and One–Way ANOVA tests. In baseline, adherence with nutritional healthy behavior in training group(9.4%) compare with control(38.8%) were different significantly(p=.003), weight mean of training(Mean=78.02 kg, SD=11.67) compared with control group(Mean=77.23 kg, SD=10.25) were not (P=.66). In post test, adherence with nutritional healthy behavior in training group(70.1%) compare with control (37.4%) were different significantly (p=.000), weight mean of training (Mean=74.65 kg, SD=10.93, p=.000) compare with pre test were different significantly and control (Mean=77.43 kg, SD=10.43, p=.411) were not. The training group has lost 3.37 kg weight, whereas the control group has increased .2 kg weight. These results supported the applicability of the TTM for women weight lose intervention.

Keywords: nutritional behavior, Transtheoretical Model, weight lose, women

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Authors: Mahdi Fakheri, Mohammad Mohsen Mahdizadeh Naeini

Abstract:

This paper addresses an understudied aspect of U.S. foreign aids between the years 2000 and 2020. Despite a growing body of literature on the impacts of U.S. aids, the question about how the United States uses its foreign aids to change developing countries has remained unanswered. As foreign aid is a tool of the United States' foreign policy, answering this very question can reveal the future that the U.S. prefers for developing countries and that secures its national interest. This paper will explore USAID's official dataset, which includes the data of foreign aids to the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia from 2000 to 2020. Through an empirical analysis, this paper argues that the focus of U.S. foreign aid is evenly divided between institutional and non-institutional (i.e., slight enhancement of status quo) changes. The former is induced by training and education, funding the initiatives and projects, making capacity and increasing the efficiency of human, operational, and management sectors, and enhancing the living condition of the people. Moreover, it will be demonstrated that the political, military, cultural, economic, and judicial are some of the institutions that the U.S. has planned to change in the aforementioned period and regions.

Keywords: USAID, foreign aid, development, developing countries, Middle East, Africa, Southeast Asia, Latin America

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Authors: Ziba Khalili, Mohsen Sheikholeslami, Ladan Momayez

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Combining the photovoltaic/thermal (PVT) systems with a thermoelectric (TE) module can raise energy yields since the TE module boosts the system's energy conversion efficiency. In the current study, a PVT system integrated with a TE module was designed and simulated in ANSYS Fluent 19.2. A copper heat transfer tube (HTT) was employed for cooling the photovoltaic (PV) cells. Four different shapes of HTT cross-section, i.e., circular, square, elliptical, and triangular, with equal cross-section areas were investigated. Also, the influence of Cu-Al2O3/water hybrid nanofluid (0.024% volume concentration), fluid inlet velocity (uᵢ ), and amount of solar radiation (G), on the PV temperature (Tₚᵥ) and system performance were investigated. The ambient temperature (Tₐ), wind speed (u𝓌), and fluid inlet temperature (Tᵢ), were considered to be 25°C, 1 m/s, and 27°C, respectively. According to the obtained data, the triangular case had the greatest impact on reducing the compared to other cases. In the triangular case, examination of the effect of hybrid nanofluid showed that the use of hybrid nanofluid at 800 W/m2 led to a reduction of the TPV by 0.6% compared to water, at 0.19 m/s. Moreover, the thermal efficiency ( ) and the overall electrical efficiency (nₜ) of the system improved by 0.93% and 0.22%, respectively, at 0.19 m/s. In a triangular case where G and were 800 W/m2 and 19 m/s, respectively, the highest amount of, thermal power (Eₜ), and, were obtained as 72.76%, 130.84 W and 12.03%, respectively.

Keywords: electrical performance, photovoltaic/thermal, thermoelectric, hybrid nanofluid, thermal efficiency

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Authors: Rehab F. Abdel-Rahman, Sally A. El Awdan, Rehab R. Hegazy, Dina F. Mansour, Hanan A. Ogaly, Marwan Abdelbaset

Abstract:

Disorders of the cerebral circulation are the leading cause of numerous neurological and psychiatric illnesses. The transient middle cerebral artery occlusion model (MCAO) is considered to be a reliable and reproducible rodent model of cerebral ischemia. The purpose of the current study was to examine the neuroprotective effects of Crocus sativus (saffron) in a rat model of left middle cerebral artery MCAO. Male Wistar rats were anesthetized and subjected to 1 h of MCAO followed by 48 h reperfusion or sham surgery. One group of the ischemia operated animals was kept as left brain ischemia/reperfusion (I/R). Another 2 operated groups received saffron extract (100 or 200 mg/kg, i.p) four times (60 min before the surgery, during the surgery, and on days 1 and 2 after the occlusion). During the experiment, behavioral tests were performed. After 72 h the animals were euthanized and their left brain hemispheres were used in the biochemical, histopathological, and immunohistochemical studies. Saffron administration revealed an improvement in I/R-induced alteration of locomotor balance and coordination ability of rats. Moreover, saffron decreased the brain content of malondialdehyde, nitric oxide, brain natriuretic peptide and vascular endothelial growth factor with significant increase of reduced glutathione. Immunohistochemical evaluation of caspase-3 and Bax protein expression revealed reduction in I/R-enhanced apoptosis in saffron treated rats. In conclusion, saffron treatment decreases ischemic brain injury in association with inhibition of apoptotic and oxidative cell death in a dose dependent manner.

Keywords: caspase-3, cerebral ischemia, Crocus sativus, rats, vascular endothelial growth factor

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Authors: O. I. H. Dimitry, N. A. Mansour, A. L. G. Saad

Abstract:

Natural sodium montmorillonite (NaMMT), Cloisite Na⁺ and two organophilic montmorillonites (OMMTs), Cloisites 20A and 15A were used. Polycaprolactone (PCL)/MMT composites containing 1, 3, 5, and 10 wt% of Cloisite Na⁺ and PCL/OMMT nanocomposites containing 5 and 10 wt% of Cloisites 20A and 15A were prepared via solution intercalation technique to study the influence of organic modifier loading on particle dispersion of PCL/ NaMMT composites. Thermal stabilities of the obtained composites were characterized by thermal analysis using the thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA) which showed that in the presence of nitrogen flow the incorporation of 5 and 10 wt% of filler brings some decrease in PCL thermal stability in the sequence: Cloisite Na+>Cloisite 15A > Cloisite 20A, while in the presence of air flow these fillers scarcely influenced the thermoxidative stability of PCL by slightly accelerating the process. The interaction between PCL and silicate layers was studied by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy which confirmed moderate interactions between nanometric silicate layers and PCL segments. The electrical conductivity (σ) which describes the ionic mobility of the systems was studied as a function of temperature and showed that σ of PCL was enhanced on increasing the modifier loading at filler content of 5 wt%, especially at higher temperatures in the sequence: Cloisite Na⁺<Cloisite 20A<Cloisite 15A, and was then decreased to some extent with a further increase to 10 wt%. The activation energy E_σ obtained from the dependency of σ on temperature using Arrhenius equation was found to be lowest for the nanocomposite containing 5 wt% of Cloisite 15A. The dispersed behavior of clay in PCL matrix was evaluated by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analyses which revealed partial intercalated structures in PCL/NaMMT composites and semi-intercalated/semi-exfoliated structures in PCL/OMMT nanocomposites containing 5 wt% of Cloisite 20A or Cloisite 15A.

Keywords: electrical conductivity, montmorillonite, nanocomposite, organoclay, polycaprolactone

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Authors: Mohsen Torabi, Nader Karimi, Kaili Zhang

Abstract:

This work aims to provide a comprehensive study on the heat transfer and entropy generation rates of a horizontal channel partially filled with a porous medium which experiences internal heat generation or consumption due to exothermic or endothermic chemical reaction. The focus has been given to the local thermal non-equilibrium (LTNE) model. The LTNE approach helps us to deliver more accurate data regarding temperature distribution within the system and accordingly to provide more accurate Nusselt number and entropy generation rates. Darcy-Brinkman model is used for the momentum equations, and constant heat flux is assumed for boundary conditions for both upper and lower surfaces. Analytical solutions have been provided for both velocity and temperature fields. By incorporating the investigated velocity and temperature formulas into the provided fundamental equations for the entropy generation, both local and total entropy generation rates are plotted for a number of cases. Bifurcation phenomena regarding temperature distribution and interface heat flux ratio are observed. It has been found that the exothermicity or endothermicity characteristic of the channel does have a considerable impact on the temperature fields and entropy generation rates.

Keywords: entropy generation, exothermicity or endothermicity, forced convection, local thermal non-equilibrium, analytical modelling

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