Abstract: This study examined the toxicological effects and
safety of polypeptide k isolated from the seeds of Momordica
charantia in laboratory rats. 30 male Sprague Dawley rats (12 weeks
old, bodyweight 180-200 g) were randomly divided into 3 groups
(1000 mg/kg, 500 mg and 0 mg/kg). Rats were acclimatized to
laboratory conditions for 7 days and at day 8 rats were dosed orally
with polypeptide k (in 2% DMSO/normal saline) and the controls
received the dosed vehicle only. Rats were then observed for 72
hours before sacrificed. Rats were anaesthetized by pentobarbital
(50 mg/kg ip) and 2-3.0 mL of blood was taken by cardiac puncture
and rats were scarified by anaesthetic overdose. Immediately, organs
(heart, lungs, liver, kidneys) were weigh and taken for histology.
Organ sections were then evaluated by a histopathologist. Serum
samples were assayed for liver functions (ALT and γ-GT) and kidney
functions (BUN and creatinine). All rats showed normal behavior
after the dosing and no statistical changes were observed in all blood
parameters and organ weight. Histological examinations revealed
normal organ structures. In conclusion, dosing of rats up to 1000
mg/kg did not have any effects on the rat behavior, liver or kidney
functions nor histology of the selected organs.
Abstract: In accordance with environmental impacts contended in Kyoto Protocol, the study aims to explore the different administrative and non-administrative measurements that industrial countries, such as America, German, Japan, Korea, Holland and British take to face with the increasing Global Warming phenomena. By large, these measurements consist of versatile dimensions, including of education and advocating, economical instruments, research developments and instances, restricted instruments, voluntary contacts, exchangeable permit for carbon-release and public investments. The results of discussion for the study are as follows: both economical impacts as well as reformations for nations that are affected via Kyoto Protocol, and human testifying for variables of global surroundings in the age of Kyoto Protocol.
Abstract: Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) based transform coding is very popular in image, video and speech compression due to its good energy compaction and decorrelating properties. However, at low bit rates, the reconstructed images generally suffer from visually annoying blocking artifacts as a result of coarse quantization. Lapped transform was proposed as an alternative to the DCT with reduced blocking artifacts and increased coding gain. Lapped transforms are popular for their good performance, robustness against oversmoothing and availability of fast implementation algorithms. However, there is no proper study reported in the literature regarding the statistical distributions of block Lapped Orthogonal Transform (LOT) and Lapped Biorthogonal Transform (LBT) coefficients. This study performs two goodness-of-fit tests, the Kolmogorov-Smirnov (KS) test and the 2- test, to determine the distribution that best fits the LOT and LBT coefficients. The experimental results show that the distribution of a majority of the significant AC coefficients can be modeled by the Generalized Gaussian distribution. The knowledge of the statistical distribution of transform coefficients greatly helps in the design of optimal quantizers that may lead to minimum distortion and hence achieve optimal coding efficiency.
Abstract: Anxiety is a common disorder that attacks many people in society and often accompanied by physiological sensations such as tachycardia, chest pain, shortness of breath, insensitivity and etc. The purpose of this study is to characterize the putative anxiolytic-like effects of DEV (dichloromethane extracts of valerian) using the elevated plus maze (EPM) in rats. DEV was dissolved in DMSO and orally administered at different doses to adult male wistar rats, 0.5, 1.5 and 3 hours before behavioral evaluation in an EPM respectively. Control rats were treated with an equal volume of DMSO. Single treatment of DEV (at 0.1,0.2. 0.3, and 0.4 g/kg) significantly increased time-spent and arm entries into open arms of EPM versus control groups (p
Abstract: Phytophthora cinnamomi (P. c) is a plant pathogenic
oomycete that is capable of damaging plants in commercial production
systems and natural ecosystems worldwide. The most common
methods for the detection and diagnosis of P. c infection are
expensive, elaborate and time consuming. This study was carried out
to examine whether species specific and life cycle specific volatile
organic compounds (VOCs) can be absorbed by solid-phase
microextraction fibers and detected by gas chromatography that are
produced by P. c and another oomycete Pythium dissotocum. A
headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) together with gas
chromatography (GC) method was developed and optimized for the
identification of the VOCs released by P. c. The optimized parameters
included type of fiber, exposure time, desorption temperature and
desorption time. Optimization was achieved with the analytes of P.
c+V8A and V8A alone. To perform the HS-SPME, six types of fiber
were assayed and compared: 7μm Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS),
100μm Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), 50/30μm
Divinylbenzene/CarboxenTM/Polydimethylsiloxane
DVB/CAR/PDMS), 65μm Polydimethylsiloxane/Divinylbenzene
(PDMS/DVB), 85μm Polyacrylate (PA) fibre and 85μm CarboxenTM/
Polydimethylsiloxane (Carboxen™/PDMS). In a comparison of the
efficacy of the fibers, the bipolar fiber DVB/CAR/PDMS had a higher
extraction efficiency than the other fibers. An exposure time of 16h
with DVB/CAR/PDMS fiber in the sample headspace was enough to
reach the maximum extraction efficiency. A desorption time of 3min
in the GC injector with the desorption temperature of 250°C was
enough for the fiber to desorb the compounds of interest. The chromatograms and morphology study confirmed that the VOCs from
P. c+V8A had distinct differences from V8A alone, as did different
life cycle stages of P. c and different taxa such as Pythium dissotocum.
The study proved that P. c has species and life cycle specific VOCs,
which in turn demonstrated the feasibility of this method as means of
Abstract: Knowledge and these notions have become more and
more important and we speak about a knowledge based society
today. A lot of small and big companies have reacted upon these new
challenges. But there is a deep abyss about knowledge conception
and practice between the professional researchers and company - life.
The question of this research was: How can small and mediumsized
companies be equal to the demands of new economy?
Questionnaires were used in this research and a special segment of
the native knowledge based on economy was focused on.
Researchers would have liked to know what the sources of success
are and how they can be in connection with questions of knowledge
acquisition, knowledge transfer, knowledge utilization in small and
medium-sized companies. These companies know that they have to
change their behaviour and thinking, but they are not on the suitable
level that they can compete with bigger or multinational companies.
Abstract: The effect of plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria
(PGPR) on seed germination, seedling growth and yield of field
grown maize were evaluated in three experiments. In these
experiments six bacterial strains include P.putida strain R-168,
P.fluorescens strain R-93, P.fluorescens DSM 50090, P.putida
DSM291, A.lipoferum DSM 1691, A.brasilense DSM 1690 were
used. Results of first study showed seed Inoculation significantly
enhanced seed germination and seedling vigour of maize. In second
experiment, leaf and shoot dry weight and also leaf surface area
significantly were increased by bacterial inoculation in both sterile
and non-sterile soil. The results showed that inoculation with
bacterial treatments had a more stimulating effect on growth and
development of plants in nonsterile than sterile soil. In the third
experiment, Inoculation of maize seeds with all bacterial strains
significantly increased plant height, 100 seed weight, number of seed
per ear and leaf area .The results also showed significant increase in
ear and shoot dry weight of maize.
Abstract: This study was conducted using the data collected at the mouth of Jen-Gen River to investigate and analyze chromium (Cr) contained in the sediments, and to evaluate the accumulation of Cr and the degree of its potential risk. The results show that samples collected at all monitoring stations near the mouth of Jen-Gen River contain 92–567 mg/kg of Cr with average of 366±166 mg/kg. The spatial distribution of Cr reveals that the Cr concentration is relatively high in the river mouth region, and gradually diminishes toward the harbor region. This indicates that upstream industrial and municipal wastewater discharges along the river bank are major sources of pollution. The accumulation factor and potential ecological risk index indicate that the sedimentation at Jen-Gen River mouth has the most serious degree of Cr accumulation and the highest ecological potential risk.
Abstract: TTV is an unenveloped circular single-stranded DNA
virus with a diameter of 30-32 nm that first was described in 1997 in
Japan. TTV was detected in various populations without proven
pathology, including blood donors and in patients with chronic HBV
and HCV hepatitis. The aim of this study was to determine the
prevalence of TTV DNA in Iranian patients with chronic hepatitis B
and C. Viral TTV-DNA was studied in 442 samples (202 with HBV,
138 with HCV and 102 controls) collected from west south of Iran.
All extracted serum DNA was amplified by TTV ORF1 gene specific
primers using the semi nested PCR technique. TTV DNA was
detected in the serum of 8.9% and 10.8% patients with chronic
hepatitis B and C, respectively. Prevalence of TTV-DNA in the serum
of 102 controls was 2.9%. Results showed significant relation of TTV
with HBV and HCV in patients by using T test examination (P
Abstract: Fruit drying is a well known process mostly used for
preservation of fruits. Osmotic dehydration of apricot slices were
carried out in three different salt-sucrose concentrations and four
different temperatures. Also three different weight ratios of solution
to sample were conducted to one set of experiments. The dehydration
curves were constructed using Peleg-s model. Increasing the solution
volume increased the mass transfer rate and hence the solid gain
increased rapidly. Increasing the volume of osmotic media caused an
increase in overall mass transfer but a 'solution to sample' ratio of 5:1
gave the best product quality. The best temperature and concentration
that had a high water loss to solid gain ratio and an acceptable taste
were 40°C and 5%, respectively.
Abstract: Literature review revealed the importance of the
adoption of marketing Relationship for loyalty and retaining
profitable customer (Customer Relationship Management). LPQ
satisfaction will reinforce the loyalty and customer brand
attachment. Customer will communicate the operator to others. The
focus of this study is to examine the relationship between the
LPPQ and the WOM recommendations through: customer
satisfaction, loyalty and attachment. The results show that LPQ
affect positively the satisfaction, negatively the loyalty. LPQ has an
indirectly effect on WOM recommendations but through the
satisfaction and attachment. The mediating effect of satisfaction in
the relationship between LPQ and Loyalty is rejected. This finding
can be explained by the nature of mobile sector in Tunisia.
Abstract: In this paper, a novel multipurpose audio watermarking
algorithm is proposed based on Vector Quantization (VQ) in Discrete
Cosine Transform (DCT) domain using the codeword labeling and
index-bit constrained method. By using this algorithm, it can fulfill the
requirements of both the copyright protection and content integrity
authentication at the same time for the multimedia artworks. The
robust watermark is embedded in the middle frequency coefficients of
the DCT transform during the labeled codeword vector quantization
procedure. The fragile watermark is embedded into the indices of the
high frequency coefficients of the DCT transform by using the
constrained index vector quantization method for the purpose of
integrity authentication of the original audio signals. Both the robust
and the fragile watermarks can be extracted without the original audio
signals, and the simulation results show that our algorithm is effective
with regard to the transparency, robustness and the authentication
requirements
Abstract: In the framework of the image compression by
Wavelet Transforms, we propose a perceptual method by
incorporating Human Visual System (HVS) characteristics in the
quantization stage. Indeed, human eyes haven-t an equal sensitivity
across the frequency bandwidth. Therefore, the clarity of the
reconstructed images can be improved by weighting the quantization
according to the Contrast Sensitivity Function (CSF). The visual
artifact at low bit rate is minimized. To evaluate our method, we use
the Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR) and a new evaluating criteria
witch takes into account visual criteria. The experimental results
illustrate that our technique shows improvement on image quality at
the same compression ratio.
Abstract: Method of multiple scales is used in the paper in order
to derive an amplitude evolution equation for the most unstable mode
from two-dimensional shallow water equations under the rigid-lid
assumption. It is assumed that shallow mixing layer is slightly curved
in the longitudinal direction and contains small particles. Dynamic
interaction between carrier fluid and particles is neglected. It is
shown that the evolution equation is the complex Ginzburg-Landau
equation. Explicit formulas for the computation of the coefficients of
the equation are obtained.
Abstract: The Merrifield-Simmons index of a graph G is defined as the total number of its independent sets. A (n, n + 2)-graph is a connected simple graph with n vertices and n + 2 edges. In this paper we characterize the (n, n+2)-graph with the largest Merrifield- Simmons index. We show that its Merrifield-Simmons index i.e. the upper bound of the Merrifield-Simmons index of the (n, n+2)-graphs is 9 × 2n-5 +1 for n ≥ 5.
Abstract: This main purpose of the study reported here was to
investigate the extent to which the form of school
governance (particularly decision-making) had an impact upon the
effectiveness of the school with reference to parental involvement,
planning and budgeting, professional development of teachers,
school facilities and resources, and student outcomes. Particular
attention was given to decision-making within the governance
arrangements. The study was based on four case studies of high
schools in New South Wales, Australia including one government
school, one independent Christian community school, one
independent Catholic school, and one Catholic systemic school.
The focus of the research was principals, teachers, parents, and
students of four schools with varying governance structures. To
gain a greater insight into the issues, the researchers collected
information by questionnaire, semi-structured interview, and
review of school key documents. This study found that it was not
so much structure but the centrality of the school Principal and the
way that the Principal perceived his/her roles in relation to others
that impacted most on school governance.
Abstract: The aim of this paper is to confirm the effect of key
design parameters, the punch radius and punch angle, on rupture of the
expansion tube using a finite element analysis with a ductile damage
model. The results of the finite element analysis indicated that the
expansion ratio of the tube was mainly affected by the radius of the
punch. However, the rupture was more affected by the punch angle
than the radius of the punch. The existence of a specific punch angle,
at which rupture did not occur, even if the radius of the punch was
increased, was found.
Abstract: In our modern society electricity is vital to our health,
safety, comfort and well-being. While our daily use of electricity is
often taken for granted, public concern has arisen about potential
adverse health effects from electric and magnetic – electromagnetic –
fields (EMFs) produced by our use of electricity.
This paper aims to compare between the measured magnetic field
values and the simulated models for the indoor medium to low
voltage (MV/LV) distribution substations.
To calculate the magnetic flux density in the substations,
interactive software SUBCALC is used which is based on closed
form solution of the Biot-Savart law with 3D conductor model.
The comparison between the measured values and the simulated
models was acceptable. However there were some discrepancies, as
expected, may be due to the current variation during measurements.
Abstract: Protein-protein interactions (PPI) play a crucial role in many biological processes such as cell signalling, transcription, translation, replication, signal transduction, and drug targeting, etc. Structural information about protein-protein interaction is essential for understanding the molecular mechanisms of these processes. Structures of protein-protein complexes are still difficult to obtain by biophysical methods such as NMR and X-ray crystallography, and therefore protein-protein docking computation is considered an important approach for understanding protein-protein interactions. However, reliable prediction of the protein-protein complexes is still under way. In the past decades, several grid-based docking algorithms based on the Katchalski-Katzir scoring scheme were developed, e.g., FTDock, ZDOCK, HADDOCK, RosettaDock, HEX, etc. However, the success rate of protein-protein docking prediction is still far from ideal. In this work, we first propose a more practical measure for evaluating the success of protein-protein docking predictions,the rate of first success (RFS), which is similar to the concept of mean first passage time (MFPT). Accordingly, we have assessed the ZDOCK bound and unbound benchmarks 2.0 and 3.0. We also createda new benchmark set for protein-protein docking predictions, in which the complexes have experimentally determined binding affinity data. We performed free energy calculation based on the solution of non-linear Poisson-Boltzmann equation (nlPBE) to improve the binding mode prediction. We used the well-studied thebarnase-barstarsystem to validate the parameters for free energy calculations. Besides,thenlPBE-based free energy calculations were conducted for the badly predicted cases by ZDOCK and ZRANK. We found that direct molecular mechanics energetics cannot be used to discriminate the native binding pose from the decoys.Our results indicate that nlPBE-based calculations appeared to be one of the promising approaches for improving the success rate of binding pose predictions.
Abstract: In contrast to existing methods which do not take into account multiconnectivity in a broad sense of this term, we develop mathematical models and highly effective combination (BIEM and FDM) numerical methods of calculation of stationary and quasistationary temperature field of a profile part of a blade with convective cooling (from the point of view of realization on PC). The theoretical substantiation of these methods is proved by appropriate theorems. For it, converging quadrature processes have been developed and the estimations of errors in the terms of A.Ziqmound continuity modules have been received. For visualization of profiles are used: the method of the least squares with automatic conjecture, device spline, smooth replenishment and neural nets. Boundary conditions of heat exchange are determined from the solution of the corresponding integral equations and empirical relationships. The reliability of designed methods is proved by calculation and experimental investigations heat and hydraulic characteristics of the gas turbine first stage nozzle blade.