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Background: Miscarriage is one of the most common pregnancy complications for which various causes have been defined, such as genetic factors, infectious, metabolic, endocrine systemmal function and immune system undesired responses. The early development of embryo occurs in oviduct and uterine tube from which some factors such as growth factors, glyco-proteins and factors those stimulate development of embryo are secreted. The ETF3 embryotrophic factor which is a complex of C3 complements and its derivatives i.e., iC3b, enhances the development of trophectodermas a consequence of which expression of relevant genes are affected embryo. There are various response elements in C3 gene promoter region such as, estrogen response regions (ERE). Steroids such as estrogen and progesterone are secreted in early steps of embryonic period along with C3 secretion and cause increase in C3 expression through interaction with regulatory elements in promoter region of this gene. In this study the polymorphism in ERE regions of C3 gene promoter was investigated in women suffering from recurrent miscarriage. Materials and methods: In this study, assuming that polymorphism in ERE regions is correlated with recurrent miscarriage during early months of pregnancy, 40 blood samples were collected from female patients admitted to an Infertility Clinic, Isfahan, Iran. DNA was extracted, amplification of regions harboring ERE with a pair of specific primer was done using Polymerase Chain Reaction-Single Strand Chain Polymorphism (PCR-SSCP) for studying possible polymorphisms in this region. Results and conclusion: The results indicated a specific symptomless infertility among the women, however there was no correlation between the ERE polymorphism and symptoms in control and cases.

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Background: Aspergillosis is an opportunistic infection caused by Aspergillus spp in immunocompromised patients. The role of HSP90 in Aspergillus drug resistance is still unknown. The aim of this study was to evaluate the correlation between the presence of HSP90 gene and polyene resistance in Aspergillus spp using PCR.
Materials and Methods: In this study, 32 Aspergillus strains were used, which were isolated from patients susceptible to aspergillosis through Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) and identified by conventional methods. The isolates were cultured on Sabouraud dextrose agar (SDA). Susceptibility testing against amphotericin B was conducted according CLSI standards (M38-A). Also, the presence of HSP90 gene was evaluated using PCR.
Results: Of 32 Aspergillus strains used in this study, 16 (50%) isolates were identified as A. Flavus, 12 (37.5%) isolates as A. fumigatus, and 4 (12.5%) isolates as A. terreus. Among these species, 19 (59.37%) isolates were sensitive to amphotericin B whereas 13 (40.62%) were resistant. Moreover, there was a significant difference  between the presence of HSP90 gene and resistance to amphotericin B in Aspergillus species.

Conclusions: The presence of HSP90 gene provides evidence that shows this gene may play important role in resistance to amphotericin B in Aspergillus isolates. Although numerous regulatory genes are involved in resistance mechanisms, they remaines to be more clarified

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Backgrounds: Uropathogenic Escherichia coli is one of the most important etiological agents of UTI. The aim of this study was to investigate the antibacterial effects of zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnONPs) on aminoglycoside-resistant E. coli isolates from patients with UTI.
Materials & Methods: After identifying E. coli strains in 100 out of 250 urine samples, antibiotic susceptibility was evaluated against six antibiotic classes (with emphasis on aminoglycosides) by disk diffusion method according to CLSI-2020 guidelines. The presence of aac (6')-Ie-aph (2'') gene in isolates was investigated by PCR. Antibacterial properties and minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of zinc oxide nanoparticles were evaluated by agar well diffusion and broth microdilution assays, respectively.
Findings: Among 100 E. coli isolates, the highest and lowest antibiotic resistance rates were observed against tetracycline (70%) and ofloxacin (10%), respectively. Of 30 gentamicin-resistant E. coli isolates, 17 (56.5%) isolates harbored the aac (6')-Ie-aph (2'') gene. In agar well diffusion assay, 22 (74%) gentamicin-resistant isolates were eliminated by zinc oxide nanoparticles at a concentration of 150 mg/L, while ZnONPs at 300 mg/L could eliminate all gentamicin-resistant isolates. Furthermore, ZnONPs could inhibit all bacteria at a concentration of 200 μg/mL (MIC₉₀ ≥ 100).
Conclusion: Spread of the aac(6')-Ie-aph(2'') gene could increase gentamicin resistance among E. coli strains causing UTI. Given the favorable antibacterial effects of zinc oxide nanoparticles in vitro, the clinical application of these nanoparticles in the treatment of UTIs caused by multidrug-resistant E. coli could be investigated in future studies.
 

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Recent studies demonstrate that aluminide coatings are beneficial to wear and erosion resistance and also that oxygen-active elements such as yttrium can remarkably improve this resistance. In this research, the micro-hardness of the aluminide coatings with and without yttrium on 1045 steel was investigated using a micro-mechanical probe. Wear of the samples was measured using a pin-on-disk tribometer. The erosion loss of specimens against soft and hard wheat was also evaluated using a slurry erosion test machine. The data was analyzed statistically using a 3-factor completely randomized design to study the effect of wheat varieties (soft and hard wheat), moisture content at three levels (10±0.5, 15±1.5, and 20±2 % (wet basis)), and rotary velocity of the slurry erosion machine at three levels (200, 400, and 600 rpm) on erosion resistance. The results showed that the aluminide coatings improved the wear and erosion resistance of substrate steel 1045; yt-trium markedly improved the hardness of the aluminide coating and its wear and erosion resistance. The erosion loss of materials was significantly (p<0.01) influenced by the type of wheat, moisture content and rotary velocity. Both aluminide coatings showed higher wear and erosion resistance than 1045 steel substrate.

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In this paper, stabilization conditions and controller design for a class of nonlinear systems are proposed. The proposed method is based on the nonlinear feedback, quadratic Lyapunov function and heuristic slack matrices definition. These slack matrices in null products are derived using the properties of the system dynamics. Based on the Lyapunov stability theorem and Sum of Squares (SOS) decomposition techniques, the conditions are derived in terms of SOS. This approach has two main advantages. First, using the polynomial model, the proposed method uses the polynomial state space matrices in the model description. Therefore, it does not need any existing modeling methods such as the Takagi Sugeno (T-S) fuzzy model which can be a source of conservativeness in the control design conditions, because the membership function information cannot be used completely in the derivation of the controller design conditions. Second, using slack matrices, one can find the matrices that leads to applicable controller design which this means it provides extra degrees of freedom. To show the effectiveness of the proposed method, a PMSM is considered in the numerical simulation.

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To increase agricultural crops’ quality and to minimize losses in the final product and used energy during the drying process, major drying system parameters should be continuously controlled. Precise control of such parameters is attained by using automatic control systems. To optimize the overall dryer efficiency in a forced convective solar dryer, a controller was designed, constructed and evaluated. The dryer fan speed was chosen to be the controlled variable. Based upon the mathematical relations and a monitoring of the air inlet temperature to the collector, the air outlet temperature from the collector and the air outlet temperature from the drying chamber, the dryer efficiency was determined. Using the dryer control program the current and the optimized dryer efficiencies were calculated, compared and the fan speed changed accordingly to maintain the optimized efficiency. Experiments were carried out in three replications (in three days) with the results showing that the system was capable of controlling the fan speed to obtain the optimum efficiency. The dryer equipped with the designed control system worked with its highest efficiency throughout the day. Statistical analysis showed that the control system highly improved the dryer efficiency throughout its operation at a 1% probability level.

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  Rheological study of date syrup, date concentrate and date liquid sugar can improve their industrial applications specially for sugar (sucrose) substitution. In this research the rheological behavor of date syrup, date concentrate, date liquid sugar and sucrose solutions was investigated using a Brookfield Viscometer at 50, 55, 60 and 65 °Brix, 25 °C and shear rate of 80-480 s^-1 .The variables were product type and concentration. Moreover, for textural evaluation a texture analyser was used to examine date syrup, date concentrate and date liquid sugar at 50, 60 and 70 °Brix. The results showed that the Power law model was suitable to the rheological behavior of all samples and all concentrations. In date syrup by increasing concentration from 50 to 65 °Brix, consistency coefficient (K) increased, flow behavior index (n) decreased and the sample became more shear thinning. However, all other samples were Newtonian. Therefore a similar flow type behavior for these three samples is expected in food processings. Among all tested concentrations, the date syrup sample with a Brix of 65 had the highest consistency coefficients.  This indcates using date syroup in food formulations, usage level of hydrocolloids can be reduced. These findings were confirmed by texture data.

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Calpastatin (CAST) is a specific inhibiter of calpains, playing a role in meat tenderization and myogenesis. In the present study, the polymorphism of the CAST gene of Makoei sheep was investigated by polymerase chain reaction and single strand conformation polymorphism technique (PCR–SSCP). Genomic DNA was extracted from whole blood samples collected from 100 sheep. A 622 bp CAST exon 1 segment was amplified by standard PCR, using the locus specific primers. PCR products were subjected to a non-denaturing gel electrophoresis. Four SSCP patterns, representing four different genotypes, were identified. The frequencies of the observed genotypes were 0.31, 0.04, 0.63 and 0.02 for AA, BB AB and AC, respectively. Allele frequencies were 0.6313, 0.3586 and 0.01 for A, B and C, respectively. The Observed heterozygosity (Hobs) value for CAST gene was 0.4728. The chi-square test showed significant (P< 0.01) deviation from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium for this locus in Makoei sheep population.

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This paper studies the consensus problem of nonlinear leader-following multi-agent systems (MAS). To do this, the error dynamics between the leader agent and follower ones are described via a Takagi-Sugeno (TS) fuzzy model. If the obtained TS fuzzy model is stable, then all of the nonlinear agents reach consensus. The consensus problem is investigated based on the parameterized or fuzzy Lyapunov function combined with a technique of introducing slack matrices. The slack matrices cause to decouple the Lyapunov matrices from systems ones and therefore, sufficient consensus conditions are obtained in terms of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). The proposed slack matrices add an extra degree-of-freedom to the LMI conditions and also decrease the conservativeness of the LMI-based conditions. Finally, in order to illustrate the effectiveness and merits of the proposed method, a numerical example for the consensus problem of nonlinear leader-follower MAS with thirteen followers is solved.

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In this study, it has been tried to provide a new model for the structure of a backbone arm, to repel the shortcoming in the generation and transmission of the motion for the continuum robots. Backbone arms such as natural structures include continuum backbones with superior properties such as the ability to adapt to the environment. The actuation power is distributed over the robot’s length and makes the shape continuously deformable. In this paper, it has been suggested to add a linkage between the backbones and the branched tendons for power transfer between the drive and backbones. The ratio of the drive torque to backbone torque is introduced as the transfer ratio. The new design is capable to create a variety of transfer ration during a cycle of motion. The state space equations are extracted by Lagrange equations. Dealing the interference of bone-bone and bone-links as geometric constraints are applied to the design and it determines the allowable range of the continuum robot's geometric parameters. This design is examined with planar simulations. To show the effectiveness of the proposed design, several simulation results are illustrated. Optimum geometrical parameters for the constant torque ratio are calculated.In contrast to previous cases with the widely used; the goal is achieved with this novel backbone continuum robot.

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One of the most frequently encountered cases of rapid varied flow is the hydraulic jump. Stilling basins are used to dissipate the excess kinetic energy of flow to ensure the safety of overflow spillway, chutes, sluices, pipe outlets etc. in this study the topic of block in stilling basins is investigation in a general approach and it’s effect on energy dissipation and downstream scouring are analyzed. In the present research, the energy dissipation and scouring phenomenon were studied in different hydraulic and geometric conditions. Moreover, the present paper was focused on the effect of presence of blocks as an effective parameter on energy dissipation on stilling basin performance. To analyze and assessment of formed hydraulic jump in the stilling basins, the experimental data of many recent researches were achieved and compared. It was concluded that presence of blocks has significant effect on energy dissipation from 1% to 34%. It is also shown that with increasing the Fr Number, the secondary depth increases and the using a rough bed causes reducing the secondary depth between 18% to 37% in comparison with smooth one. Moreover, installing a rough bed also reduced the length of hydraulic jump between 27% to 67%. Using block in the stilling basins, reduces the scouring depth from USBR standard recommendation. Finally, it was concluded that using blocks increased the efficiency of the stilling basin performance.

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In this paper, the stability problem of nonlinear first order hyperbolic partial differential equations (PDE) systems is investigated. Based on Lyapunov stability theorem, the sufficient conditions to guarantee the stability of Takagi-Sugeno (TS) fuzzy hyperbolic PDE model are achieved in terms of spatially varying linear matrix inequalities (SVLMI). To investigate the exponentially stabilization of nonlinear first order hyperbolic PDE systems, a fuzzy Lyapunov function is considered. Then, some new space varying slack matrices are introduced to conduct the stability analysis. The proposed stability conditions are more relaxed than the newly published one. Furthermore, the problem of applying some constraints on control input is studied through this paper. Hence, the performance of the controller is improved in the proposed approach. Finally, in order to evaluate the validity of the proposed approach, a practical application of nonisothermal plug flow reactor (PFR) is considered.  

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The main objective of utilizing nozzles is to convert the chemical energy to kinetic energy producing thrust. Wide variety of parameters make significant impact on nozzle performance; one of which produces significant effect is back pressure or ambient pressure. Basically, a nozzle designed for a specific back pressure does not work properly when the engine is ascending. Consequently, designing of nozzles needs knowledge of full effect of back pressure on engine performance. In this study, numerical simulation of three solid propellant nozzles have been conducted in several flight conditions. In other words, simulations have done in some ambient pressures which represents specific flight altitudes. Numerical modeling has been conducted aiding commercial code FLUENT. k-ϵ RNG turbulence model has been used for calculating turbulence interactions with the flow. Mass flow rate, chemical species, and chamber temperature have been used as the inlet boundary conditions based on engine specifications. Numerical results show a reasonable accuracy in comparison with experimental measurements. Estimating nozzle thrust level as a function of altitude increment is the primary goal of this study. Furthermore, with the aid of this relation and a MATLAB code for computing average specific impulse, optimum expansion ratio can be achieved based on a specified mission.

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Derivation of temperature distribution, at the different sections of nose, to select the material, component, and sensitive system installation at inside of it, implicates to specifying the induced aeroheating to the nose surface. This parameter with surface temperature and recess due to surface ablation must be corrected at next time steps of flight trajectory. The different methods, to estimate or calculation of aeroheating, were created whereas the most accurate method for this purpose is numerical solution of fully navier stocks, chemical dissociation and ionization of air, mass conservation of species, turbulence modeling, combustion modeling due to surface ablation, nose heat transfer equations with time marching finite volume algorithms simultaneously. Utilizing these solvers for flight trajectory is snail, and it’s required the high computational memory. Therefore, the finite difference method is used, and the governing equations are translated to curvature coordinate by mapping terms. By using this translation, to solve the governing equations, the space marching solvers can be used. Therefore, in this research, the more accurate estimation of temperature distribution for 3-D nose of supersonic and hypersonic vehicles was presented by using the numerical space marching solvers such as viscous shock layers and viscous boundary layer methods. Therefore, the comprehensive code was created to this purpose. The results of this code were validated by using the temperature telemetry results of flight tests. The relative error of the results was less than 10 percent.

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Folic acid is one of the essential vitamins that deficiency of it causes congenital malformations in pregnant, especially neural tube disorders. Since the human body cannot synthesize this vitamin, enrichment process on bread that is known as one of the most widely consumed foods in the diet of our people, can be on an effective step for eliminating defects caused by vitamin’s deficiency in people. Considering the health effects of wheat bran and and the presence of folic acid in it, in this study attempts to fortify flour (with 7% wheat bran) by 100% RDI folic acid and then measuring the stability of folic acid in bread making process by HPLC method and microbiological assay. The results indicated that the microbiological assay showed higher amount than the high performance liquid chromatography method because of the ability to measure the natural folate in the samples. Also, during the bread making process, the folic acid and folate content increased during the fermentation process and then decreased by the thermal baking process. The remaining amount of folic acid and folate in the final bread showed the relatively high resistance of this vitamin in the process of Barbariʼs bread, and thus the ability of the bread fortification process to provide folic acid requirements in adults.

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Formation of nanocomposites in biopolymer coats can provide a new opportunity not only to improve the properties but also to reduce the price of these products. Also, nanocomposites, increase the efficiency of natural antibacterial materials. In order to investigate the antioxidant and antimicrobial effects of lemon grass extract and the amount of nanoclay on the efficacy of alginate-nanoclay composite coating of chicken fillet refrigerated storage, an experiment was performed in a completely randomized design with 6 treatments including alginate (2%) – nanoclay (1.5 and 3%) nanocomposite coating, without and with levels of 1.5 and 3% alcoholic extract of lemon grass and 3 replicates each treatment during 9 days. Results showed that contribution of nanoclay in the structure of nanocomposite coating was affected on its performance. Enrichment of alginate-nanoclay nanocomposite coating with lemon grass extract, added to its efficiency. Applying 3% of lemon grass extract in nanocomposite coatings, especially when using 3% nanoclay, significantly (p<0.05) reduced the number of psychrophilic bacteria, tiobarbitoric acid index, free fatty acids and total volatile nitrogen compounds and increased chicken fillets water holding capacity during refrigerated storage. The contribution of nanoclay in without extract nanocomposite coating, did not significantly affect the number of psychrophilic bacteria at the end of the storage period. In general, the efficacy of alginate-nanoclay nanocomposite coating in increasing the shelf life of chicken fillets in refrigerated conditions depends on the appropriate contribution of nanoclay and enrichment with the appropriate concentration of lemon grass extract.

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The date fruit is of high nutritional value and its chemical composition is unique in providing energy, minerals, and vitamins for human. Date syrup, date concentrate and liquid date sugar are among semi-finished liquid products produced from low quality dates at industrial scale. In this research, some physicochemical properties of date syrup, concentrate, and liquid sugar in comparison with sucrose solutions were studied and the possibility of replacing sucrose with date liquid products was investigated. The results showed that the main chemical component of all three date products was simple sugars of fructose and glucose. Ash and protein contents of date liquid sugar were much lower than date syrup. pH values of date liquid products were also significantly different. Concentration of total phenolic and flavonoid compounds in date syrup was much greater than date liquid sugar. Overall, processing of date syrup to date liquid sugar reduced its nutritional quality while improving technological properties. It can be concluded that in choosing date liquid products as raw materials in food formulation, for the products that brown color of date liquid products does not affect the appearance of the final products, usage of date syrup or date concentrate is proposed. However, in other foods where brownish color of date syrup or date concentrate deteriorates sensory attributes of the final products, date liquid sugar is suggested. Date liquid products are also good candidates for high sugar products with sugar crystallization problem.

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Co-encapsulation of Lactobacillus acidophilus and Tuna oil rich in omega-3 fatty acids using Soy protein isolate (SPI) and Arabic gum (GA) as wall materials was studied through the complex coacervation method. The microcapsules were dried separately by freeze and spray drying. The optimal conditions for the coacervation between soybean protein isolate and gum Arabic as functions of pH, SPI/GA ratio and total concentration of biopolymers were investigated using zeta potential, turbidity, and coacervation yield assays. The highest coacervate yield was achieved in the total concentration of biopolymers 2% (w/v), SPI/GA ratio 60:40 and pH=4, and the highest coacervation yield was 79.22±1.75%. Lactobacillus acidophilus (La-5) viability was significantly (p˂0.05) higher in freeze-dried microcapsules in comparison with spray-dried microcapsules. Omega-3 fatty oil improved significantly (p˂0.05) the viability of probiotic bacteria during 60 days storage in ambient temperature and gastrointestinal conditions. The size of L. acidophilius containing microcapsules and co-microcapsules (SPI-P-O-GA) were 1.19±0.19 and 4.42±0.14 µm, respectively.