---

Understanding the impact of masonry infill walls on the behavior of moment frames is of paramount importance in the field of structural engineering. A thorough investigation is essential to gain insights into the complex interplay between various parameters and their effects on the flexural frames surrounding masonry infills. Unfortunately, the current state of knowledge is hindered by the absence of comprehensive exploration, partly attributed to constraints in existing numerical models and the prohibitively high costs associated with experimental studies. There is an urgent need to delineate the influence of diverse parameters on the dynamic interaction between frames and masonry infill walls. This understanding is critical for optimizing the accuracy of structural and component designs, ultimately leading to a reduction in project costs and an enhancement of resident safety. Although numerical models have been employed in the past, these models have limitations, and experimental studies, on the other hand, are costly, creating a need for a fast, accurate, and comprehensive method to evaluate masonry infill walls under in-plane loading. To address these limitations, there is a pressing demand for a swift, precise, and comprehensive evaluation method specifically tailored to assess the performance of masonry infill walls under in-plane loading conditions. Such a method would not only overcome the drawbacks of existing numerical models but also provide a cost-effective alternative to traditional experimental studies, allowing for a more expansive exploration of the multifaceted interactions between moment frames and masonry infills. The development of such a methodology holds the key to advancing our understanding of structural dynamics and ensuring the resilience and safety of built environments. The current research aims to develop a model that explores the nonlinear behavior of masonry infill walls and their interaction with the surrounding frame. The proposed model utilizes truss elements and material homogenization, allowing for modeling and analysis in commercially available software. The idea of this method is to simplify the typically 2D problem of masonry infilled frames under in-plane loading and reducing the infill and the surrounding frame to assemblages of braces and axial members, which is called piers, both exhibiting a mono-dimensional non-linear behavior with softening. Despite its simplicity and minimal input requirements, this method delivers comprehensive results on the structure's state in the nonlinear stage, including load-displacement curves and failure mechanisms. The method's ability to determine responses of masonry infill walls with ease and high accuracy is an innovative aspect of this research. Moreover, the proposed method can be readily implemented in widely used commercial software, displaying remarkable robustness in handling non-linear behavior and demonstrating swift convergence, even when significant global softening occurs. In the proposed method, the masonry infill is modeled as a regular set of vertical and inclined bracing members. Vertical members are referred to as "piers" and inclined members are known as "braces". The outcomes of this research have the potential to enhance the engineering community's understanding of masonry infill walls and their interaction with structural frames, shedding light on influencing factors. Furthermore, these results may contribute to the future development of regulations and standards for masonry structures, offering improved insights into the behavior of masonry intermediate frames.
 

---

Purpose: The antigen binding fragments of camelids heavy chain antibodies are comprised in one single domain (VHH). The crystal structure of an isolated VHH indicated that it is a problate particle of 2.5 nm in diameter and ∼ 4 nm high, and has been referred to as a nanobody. The very close similarity of these molecules to human VHs illustrates the potential application of these novel products as an immunodiagnostic immunotherapeutic reagent. One of the key components in production, characterization and application of nanobodies in detection is the anti-nanobodiy HRP conjugate. Materials and Methods: Here, we report high expression and purification of some nanobodies against tumor markers. The nanobodies genes were sub-cloned into a pSJF9 vector to over-express the protein coupled with fusion tags in E. coli TG1. The expressed nanobodies were purified by immobilized metal affinity chromatography (IMAC). Described here is the preparation, purification and characterization of anti-nanobody antibody HRP conjugate for use in the various nanobody detection systems. Results: Analysis by SDS-PAGE and Western blotting demonstrated the integrity of the purified nanobodies. Because of application of several biochemical modifications, the produced anti-nanobodies HRP conjugate have efficient sensitivity and specificity. Conclusion: By setting the temperature, time and inducer reagent the nanobodies were produced in optimum yield. We concluded that the HRP conjugated anti-nanobody can detect nanobodies in various detection procedures with great sensitivity and accuracy.

---

 

---

Study of factors affecting farmers' participation in watershed development is crucial for planners to ensure that projects fit local beliefs, values, and conditions. A cross sectional survey was conducted to identify factors influencing farmers’ participation in watershed development projects in the Khorasan region of Iran. A two-stage random sampling technique was employed to select a representative sample. A total of 139 farmers (76 participants, vs. 63 non-participants) from 65 project villages were selected and interviewed with the aid of a pre-tested interview schedule containing open-ended as well as closed questions. The discriminant analysis indicated that such variables as legal title to dry lands, hectares and value of dry lands, age, technical knowledge, level of education, visiting of the model farmers, and the horizon of watershed planning, could correctly classify about 80 percent of watershed farmers as participant vs. non-participants. For better understanding of these determinants, a multiple regression analysis was also carried out which indicated that "technical knowledge" and "hectares as well as value of dry land" were the key determinants of farmers' participation in watershed development projects.

---

The Nowadays the use of modified compartmental model in order to estimate the transmission of tracer to the cells or cancerous tissues is focused extensively. The modified compartmental model includes two compartments, one to predict the mass transfer from vessels and a compartment to describe metabolism occurring inside the tissue. In the modified compartmental model, the kinetic rate constants can be obtained by estimating the parameters between the compartments. The accurate calculation (estimation) of rate factors over the region under study has an important role in coinciding the time activity curve obtained by compartmental modeling and the curve resulted from experimental data which is the main tool to distinguish the cancerous and normal tissues. Today most of doctors us the standard uptake value to study the amount of tracer uptake in cancer suspicious regions in order to have a more accurate recognition of cancerous and normal tissues. In this paper the Patlak graphical analysis method and standard uptake value (SUV) method are used to predict the tracer uptake into the tissue. A comparison between the uptake parameter resulted from the two mentioned methods with the uptake parameter obtained by modified compartmental model in a rat shows the accuracy of the Patlak method in distinguishing the cancerous tissues from the normal ones.

---

Dynamic stal behavour of a NACA0012 airfoil undergoing pitching motion has been studied by a numerical approach. The turbulence intensity, oscillation frequency and amplitude and the Reynolds number were found to be the major contributors in dynamic stall. The flowfield structure and the associated vortices for this airfoil as well as the impact of the oscillation frequency on aerodynamic efficiency were also studied. The simulations were two dimensinal and the k-ω SST turbulence model were utilized for the present analysis. The results show that increasing the oscillation frequency and amplitude and the turbulence intensity, postpones the dynamic stall to higher angles of attack. Furthermore, as increasing the Reynolds number, both the lift coefficient and the width of the associated hysteresis loop decrease. The airfoil aerodynamic efficiency variation with oscillation frequncy has been shown to have a maximum point for all angles of attack considered. The flowfield structure revealed that the main cause of the dynamic stall is a series of low pressure vortices formed at the leading edge which shed into downstream and separate from the surface. A secondary vortex will then appear and increases the lift coefficient dramatically. The present simulation results are in a good agreement whith those found in the literature.

---

Objective: Generation 5 poly (amidoamine) dendrimers are promising multipotent gene delivery vectors that provide favorable DNA condensation properties; however, their high toxicity limits their applications. Toxicity of PAMAM dendrimers depends on their type, generation and applied dosage in a way that lower generations (lower than G5 dendrimers) and anionic dendrimers have lower toxicity than higher generations and cationic dendrimers. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of PEGylation on toxicity of G5 PAMAM dendrimers. Methods: In this study, to improve their characteristics as gene delivery carriers, G5 PAMAM dendrimers were conjugated to polyethylene glycol molecules (PEG, molecular weight 3500) at three different molar ratios of 10, 20 and 30. Also the number of conjugated PEG chains was quantified using TNBSA and Ellman assays. The effect of different degrees of PEGylation on cytotoxicity and transfection efficiency of modified PAMAM dendrimers toward BT-474 and MCF-10A cell lines were assessed. Results: Compared to unconjugated, PEG conjugated PAMAM dendrimers had lower in vitro cytotoxicity, particularly at higher PEG to PAMAM molar ratios. Among all prepared PEG-PAMAM dendrimers, G5 PAMAM dendrimers that conjugated to PEG at a molar ratio of 10/1 had the highest in vitro transfection rate in both cell lines. Conclusion: Our results showed that these PEG-conjugated PAMAM dendrimers possess a great potential for in vitro gene delivery.

---

Soft story in the ground floor is established due to the open space for establishing shops, parking lots or even schools. The 2008 regulation suffices to only define the soft story. That is, when the lateral rigidity of each story is less than 70% of the lateral rigidity of the higher story or is less than 80% of the average lateral rigidity of the three stories above them, this story is called the soft story. The previous earthquakes such as those of Chichi in 1921, Koobeh in 1995, Bam in 2003 and Keshmir in 2005 had destructive effects on structures with soft stories and even caused them to collapse. Through conducting further studies on the destructive effects of the earthquakes near to and far from the fault on the regular and irregular structures, conducting precise analyses such as the IDA increasing dynamic analysis, and drawing fragility curves obtained from the statistical relationships, we can study the performance of the structures with soft stories which are of great significance such as schools, etc. so that we can better know the performance of these kinds of structures under the earthquakes near to and far from a fault to be able to strengthen these structures to be less vulnerable against the future earthquakes. In This paper aims to study the effect of near and far fault earthquakes on two series of nine-story steel bending frames, one with 3.2 meters and another with disordered in ground story with the height of 4.5 and 5.5 meters constituting soft story. The IDA increasing dynamic analysis is utilized for the estimation of the different performance level of buildings. It means that the structural models are modeled under one or more earthquake records with different intensities and one or several reply curve (s) is (are) produced due to the quake’s severity level. The severity of the records applied on the structure, which is increased during the analyses, and the analyses’ output, which is the structure’s reply, are presented by IM and DM parameters, respectively. The IDA curves are in fact the outline of the relationship between the structure’s reply (DM) and the severity change (IM) of the records. The selected parameters for IM and DM should well indicate the impact of the earthquake and the behavior of the structure. In this paper the parameter of IM corresponding to the maximum of inter-story drift and the parameter of DM corresponding to the spectral acceleration of the first mode (T1, 5%) Sa were considered. In addition, the collapse-preventing performance level of CP was analyzed. The results obtained from the fragility curves in the mode of CP indicate that with the height increase of soft story and consequently becoming softer, the collapse possibility of 10% of structure was greater in near fault records than the far fault ones. Also, the destruction probability of 10% of the regular and irregular structures under the records near to the fault is almost the same, whereas the destruction probability of the regular structure under the records far from the fault is averagely 15.35% more than other structures under the records near to and far from the fault, which indicates that the regular structure under the records far from the fault is more subject to destruction. Also through increasing the height of the soft story from 4.5 m to 5.5 m, the destruction probability of 10% under the records far from the fault compared to the regular structure, underwent a more reduction.

---

Sustainable development has become a major concern for policy makers and planners in the world today. Sustainable development is composed of three main aspects: environmental, economical and social. transportation has significant economical, social and environmental impacts, and is an important factor in sustainability. urban transportation system is a complex system with multiple variables and nonlinear feedback loops. Transportation can not be rated as an independent criteria.This article aims to present a dynamic model for urban transportation system concerning sustainable urban transportation in a way that by using this model the complicated and dynamic nature of urban transportation system will be understood and the impact of policies will be analyzed. So the best has been done in the article using systems dynamic approach, a completed and integrated Model for Tehran transportation system be introduced considering sustainable urban transportation system concept and the system dynamic conduct be analyzed. In continue some policies have been introduced by model simulating in order to increase urban transportation system utility and urban traffic parameters improvement. This model has been analyzed in vensim software using the data from Tehran. Results show that compound performance of presented policies has a great impact on urban transportation systems and Tehran traffic parameters improvement.

---

The purpose of this study was to explain the current water governance at Gawshan Watershed Basin in Kermanshah Province and then provide an alternative conceptual framework for good governance of water resources at the basin scale. Participants were selected purposefully among the representatives of rival groups. Participatory workshop technique was used to collect data with the aid of interviews and focus group discussions. Analysis of the interviews led to classification of the challenges of water governance into several categories. These include the lack of participation, fairness, accountability, responsiveness, legitimacy, transparency and consensus-oriented processes. Then, water governance solutions were extracted based on the consensus among the participants. These include farmers’ contribution to decision- making processes regarding agricultural water consumption, empowering the local people to negotiate and manage conflicts, establishing a participatory mechanism to manage water conflict, holding training courses and workshops for staff to get acquainted with the principles of good governance, creating transparent and accessible information system by agricultural water section, and holding education-extension courses to increase information and awareness of the stakeholders in line with responsibility. Finally, a framework for good governance of water resources in the watershed basin was drawn up after linking the concepts.
 

---

Personal data, as one of the key concepts in the field of personal data protection legislation, is defined in the General Data Protection Regulation as any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person. Identifying a person directly or indirectly may be through data content or the purpose of data processing or the effect of data processing on the person. In EU law, to determine whether a natural person can be identified through data processing, all means that are reasonably likely to be used by the controller or processor must be taken into account, and to ensure whether there is a reasonable possibility to determine whether a natural person is present or not, all objective factors must be considered, such as the cost and time required for identification and the technology available at the time of processing. Based on the criterion of identifiability, data that may potentially lead to the identification of a person in the future is also covered by the law; such a standard can create the necessary dynamics in the laws. Iran's legislator has differentiated in the protection of private and non-private data and has limited compliance with processing rules to the first category, but the approach of the draft data protection bill has similarities with European Union and has provided broader protection, however, it needs to be amended by adding the criterion of identification to the legal definition, as well as the protection of the data of the deceased.