فهرست مطالب z. amiri

The digital divide, like other social divides, forms a kind of social inequality. This form of social divide is the gap in access to digital tools and digital skills. Inequalities in access to digital tools and knowledge and skills can increase social and educational inequalities by transferring students from school to the labor market, and also affect the rate of migration from rural to urban areas. As schools resume education and restrictions are lifted, understanding how developing digital skills during the Covid-19 pandemic may exacerbate social and educational inequalities for some students is becoming more important. Because students in the same classrooms may have different learning. In fact, the extent to which citizens benefit from digital and media tools determines their position and place in the society and the spatial structure of the village and city. Therefore, the main goal of this research was to investigate the digital divide of virtual education of students in Alborz province during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The current research was practical in terms of purpose and descriptive-analytical research in terms of the nature and method and was a documentary-field study in terms of data collection. The statistical population of the present study included the students of the central part of Karaj city in 1400, a questionnaire was used to collect the necessary information, the required data was obtained by completing 196 questionnaires and using the stratified sampling method. In the current study, the digital divide was measured with four levels of physical access, skill access, how to use computers and the Internet, and the level of motivational access. Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Shapiro-Wilk tests were used to check the normality of data distribution, and non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney tests were used to check the mean comparisons. The studied sample included government schools, private schools, gifted students' schools and board of trustees.

The results showed that there was a significant difference among students in terms of access to virtual learning opportunities during the covid-19 pandemic. Rural students compared to urban students had a higher gap in all four levels of physical access, skill, usage and motivation. Also, according to the findings, there was a significant statistical relationship between the geography of the place of residence and the challenges of online learning in the four levels of access mentioned. It was also observed that students who study in government schools have a significantly higher digital divide than the students who study in other schools. The results showed that the level of parents' education has a statistically significant effect on the digital gap of students, and female students have a smaller digital divide compared to male students. 

According to the results of this study, it is suggested that the current and future political efforts should be made with the aim of supporting rural students with disadvantaged social and economic backgrounds so that they not only physically access the Internet and other digital tools, but also acquire the necessary skills to learn and use the Internet. These solutions can be a tool to reduce social inequalities in education in different geographical areas. The digital divide can weaken the social wealth and even erode it. If it is not resolved or at least not reduced, it may have harmful economic, cultural, social and political effects for the rural society. Therefore, it is suggested that by developing the infrastructure and increasing the level of digital literacy of students, the ground will be prepared for the reduction of digital divide. Also, it is necessary to make political efforts with the priority of supporting rural students with disadvantaged social and economic backgrounds to be a tool to reduce the digital divide.

Content-based image retrieval is one of the interesting subjects in image processing and machine vision. In image retrieval systems, the query image is compared with images in the database to retrieve images containing similar content. Image comparison is done using features extracted from the query and database images. In this paper, the features are extracted based on the human visual system. Since the human visual system considers the texture and the edge orientation in images for comparison, the colour difference histogram associated with the image’s texture and edge orientation is extracted as a feature. In this paper, the features are selected using the Shannon entropy criterion. The proposed method is tested using the Corel-5K and Corel-10K databases. The precision and recall criteria were used to evaluate the proposed system. The experimental results show the ability of the proposed system for more accurate retrieval rather than recently content-based image retrieval systems.

Radiation therapy before mastectomy increases the severity of stress and cortisol hormone. Because of the preference of patients and physicians for nonpharmacologic stress management methods, we conducted the present study with the aim of evaluating the effect of ear acupressure on anxiety and cortisol hormone levels in women receiving premastectomy radiotherapy.

This randomized clinical trial was carried out on 66 patients (based on sample size formula) at Imam Reza Hospital in Tabriz during the years 2018-19. The intervention group was given acupressure, twice a day (8 minutes on each ear), for three days before surgery. Serum cortisol level and latent and manifest anxiety (the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory) were measured before and after the intervention. Data were analyzed using SPSS 20 software. A P value less than 0.05 were considered significant.

There was no significant difference in latent anxiety, manifest anxiety, or cortisol levels between the groups at baseline. Ear acupressure caused a significant decrease in latent anxiety (from 43.22 ± 6.41 to 33.09 ± 4.91), explicit anxiety (from 49.50 ± 5.52 to 32.18 ± 5.01), and plasma cortisol levels (from 156.15 ± 18.95 to 115.59 ± 17.80) (P < 0.005), while no significant changes were observed in the control group (P > 0.05).

Ear acupressure can reduce anxiety and stress (cortisol) levels in breast cancer patients undergoing radiotherapy before mastectomy.

Published data on 4-week-long administration of extra thyroxine (T4</sub>) in broiler breeder hens to alleviate the cold-induced ascites in their offspring suggested that long-term maternal hyperthyroidism would affect the gastrointestinal tract morphology. Broiler breeder hens (n=70) were reared in individual cages and allotted to control and hyperthyroid groups (five replicates of seven hens each). Thyroxine, dissolved in water, was orally administered to the hyperthyroid group (0.3 mg T4</sub>/bird/day) for 100 days and the control group received an equal volume of drinking water. At the end of the experiment (64 week of age), two birds per replicate (20 hens in total) were selected for histological evaluation of the gastrointestinal tract. Thyroxine treatment resulted in an increase in plasma concentration of T4</sub>; however, triiodothyronine (T3</sub>) level was not affected. The results of this study showed that long-term administration of T4</sub> had no adverse effects on the gastrointestinal morphology in broiler breeder hens; therefore, long-term maternal T4</sub> administration may be recommended as a treatment to reduce the ascites incidence in the progeny. However, further studies are needed to confirm this recommendation as a preventative treatment in reducing the ascites incidence.

The maintenance of postural control is a key component in dynamic physical activity, especially during muscle fatigue and against external forces. Despite many studies in this field, there is no consensus regarding the effects of plantar flexor muscles fatigue on postural control during different postural tasks. To evaluate the effects of plantar flexor muscles fatigue on postural control during quiet stance and external perturbation in healthy subjects. Twenty four healthy individuals (20-35 years) participated this interventional study. The foot center of pressure data was measured using a single force platform, and then the postural control parameters, including the center of pressure displacement and velocity in the anterior-posterior and medial-lateral direction and also path length calculated under two conditions; quiet and perturbed stance, before and after plantar flexor muscles fatigue. The statistical analysis demonstrated that mean displacement and velocity of the center of pressure in the anterior-posterior direction and also path length increased after the fatigue protocol in the perturbed condition. However, fatigue had no significant effects on postural control parameters in the quiet standing condition. These results indicated that the effects of muscle fatigue on postural control depend on the difficulty of the task and the relevance of proprioceptive information. The postural control system appears to use distinct control strategies in different situations such as quiet and perturbed stance conditions, and these strategies may be differentially altered by fatigue. In conclusion, due to the potential risk of loss of balance, it is important to take the role of plantar flexor muscle fatigue into account during more difficult postural tasks.

The aim of the present study was to determine seasonal variations in semen characteristics, testicular size, and plasma testosterone concentration in Iranian Khalkhali goats. An artificial vagina was used to collect semen from 10 bucks (2–4 years of age), from November 2013 to October 2014. Testicular circumference was higher (P<0.05) from September to October. Ejaculate volume, sperm concentration, and percentage of normal sperm were higher (P<0.05) during September and October and lower during December and January (P<0.05). Plasma testosterone concentration was higher during October (P<0.05) than other months. Testicular circumference was positively correlated with serum testosterone concentration, percentage of live and normal sperm and semen volume. The lowest level of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) in the seminal fluid (1.92 U per mL) was recorded during early October (autumn) and the highest level in early spring (2.80 U per mL). The lowest levels of K+ and Na+ in the seminal fluid were recorded in spring (59 and 72.3 mg per dL, respectively). The correlation coefficients of live and normal sperm percentage and sperm motility with seminal fluid K+ level (r = 0.60 and 0.46, respectively) and Na+ level (r = 0.48 and 0.35, respectively) were positive, and with LDH (r = -0.50 and -0.42, respectively) were negative (P<0.01). Despite monthly variations, semen quality was within the range regarded as satisfactory for normal fertility; however, the highest quality semen was collected during September and October.

Available techniques in handover management in cellular communication networks can’t keep unnecessary events and delay decision at a low level state. The main purpose of this paper is to provide the intelligence method which is able to minimize the number of unnecessary events and allowing the necessary requests to occur and so improves the overall network performance. In order to achieve such a goal, in the proposed method, we have used the geographical knowledge from building maps with spectral clustering in the area covered by femtocell. Therefore, we require to develop the spectral clustering based on geographical information. The experimental results on real dataset and performed simulations indicate that the superiority of the proposed method in allocating the user to appropriate cell and acceptable ability to manage the handover in heterogeneous layer of femtocell-macrocell.

Having human intelligence is essential to connecting appropriately between university staff and exchanging knowledge and experiences. Intelligent social media will empower employees to better understand customer relationships and service. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of social intelligence on knowledge sharing. The research is applied in terms of purpose and descriptive-correlational in nature. The research population of the staff of the Central Directorate of the University of Isfahan was 220 in 1395. According to the Cochran formula, the sample size is 132. Social intelligence questionnaire (Naser Esfahani, 2014) and Knowledge sharing questionnaire Allameh et al. (2015) were used to collect data. Validity of the questionnaire was verified by some of the validators. To determine the reliability of the Cronbach's alpha coefficient questionnaire, the qualitative alpha coefficient for the social intelligence questionnaire was 0.841 and for knowledge sharing questionnaire it was equal to 0.778. Kolmogorov-Smirnov was used to check the normality of the data. The results showed that the data were normal. To test the research hypotheses, Structural Equation Modeling was performed with AMOS software. The results of the research hypothesis test showed that social intelligence and its three dimensions (social information, social and social awareness processing) have a significant effect on knowledge sharing.

Cylindrical weir is one of the most common structures for measuring flow rate in open channels. Cylindrical weir is one type of broad-crested weirs that has extensive application due to its stable flow pattern and ease of passing suspended solids. Therefore, in this article, flow over a 7.5 cm diameter cylindrical weir in the rectangular channel was simulated using k-ε turbulence model in three-dimensional flow3D model. Validation was performed with experimental results. The obtained root mean square error of comparison between numerical discharge coefficient and physical values was 0.3427, which represents a good agreement of hydraulic characteristics obtained from numerical and physical models. It was also observed that discharge coefficient value of cylindrical weir was greater than 1.0. Dimensionless ratio of hydraulic head to crest radius was an effective parameter on discharge coefficient, such that its 100% increase enhances discharge coefficient more than 100%. In the numerical model of cylindrical weir, such parameters as velocity, pressure, flow depth and kinetic energy and turbulence were analyzed and compared in some sections of the channel with respect to the weir. Results showed that depth and pressure in the upstream have larger amounts than in the downstream. But, results of velocity were opposite the pressure and hydraulic head. Finally, a relationship was provided for determination of kinetic energy of the flow over the cylindrical weir.

Labyrinth weir is one of the nonlinear hydraulic structures that its geometrical shape increases the discharge coefficient of flow over the weir. In this study, a labyrinth weir, located in a 14.6 m long channel, was simulated and verified using an experimental model with 6 different discharges (15

This study was carried out to measure the prececal protein and ether extract digestibility of shrimp and fish meal using the regression approach. A total of 280 Cobb 500 day-old broilers (mixed sexes) were randomly allotted to 7 treatment groups (4 replicates of 10 broilers each) in a completely randomized design. Feed intake was higher in the birds that received protease-supplemented shrimp meal and fish meal compared to the 4% raw shrimp meal and basal diets (P

Due to shortage of rainfall in Iran, the owners of Industries and businesses that their field of work are related to water are use ground water resources to compensate this shortage. This matter in Iranian plains like Kabudarahang plain, which is located in the Hamedan, Iran province led to drawdown of water levels in the aquifers and irreparable consequences has been followed. In this study, at first in ARC GIS maximum depth of bed was appointed. Then draw down of groundwater levels of Kaboudarahang were modeled and analyzed using MODFLOW hydraulic model at GMS software in the period of 2002 to 2011. Also hydraulic conductivity coefficients and specific yield coefficient were calibrated and verified. The results of statistical indices show that the model simulates the fluctuations of groundwater levels with an acceptable level of accuracy in Kabudrahang. The study followed by doing sensitivity analysis for surface feeding and specific yield parameters that calculated results shown specific yield is more effective. Then the drawdown of ground water levels in wells is predicted up to 2022 that estimated largest drawdown was about 5 meters.

Chicken seminal plasma contains a high content of sex steroids including progesterone ( 4). According to a published study, in vitro supplementation of P4 to the semen resulted in de-creased fertility in the White Leghorn chicken; however, it is not known if increased P4 production in vivo is associated with decreased sperm fertility. Therefore, the aim of the present experiment was to study the effect of P4 injection on semen characteristics and fertility in broiler breeder chickens. Eighteen roosters and 55 laying hens of the Cobb 500 strain at 47 weeks of age were used in this experiment. Initially, semen was collected twice a week for 3 weeks and semen characteristics in-cluding the semen volume, sperm concentration, sperm motility, percentages of live and abnormal sperm, and sperm membrane integrity (using the hypo-osmotic swelling test; HOST) were deter mined. Then semen from each rooster inseminated to 3 hens and we evaluated sperm penetration, egg fertility and fertility duration. Subsequently, the roosters were injected with P4 (150 mg of the long-acting medroxy- progesteroneacetate) in the pectoral muscle and the above-mentioned meas-urements repeated. Progesterone injection decreased the sperm motility by 10%, membrane func-tionality (integrity) by 40%, egg fertility rate by 24% and number of days to first non-fertile egg by 3 days. However, sperm penetration of the perivitelline membrane increased about 60% (P

Adaptation of the pharyngeal airway space does occur after different surgical strategies of class III patients including mandibular setback, maxillary advancement and bimaxillary surgery. The aim of this study is to conduct a detailed cephalometric evaluation of the alterations taking place in the morphology of the pharyngeal airway space after treatment of class III skeletal deformity via different surgical procedures (i.e.­­ mandibular setback, maxillary advancement, bimaxillary surgery) in both males and females. This study is a before-after cross sectional retrospective research. One hundred and twenty consecutive patients who were diagnosed as having skeletal class III deformity. All patients included in this study were adults who had completed their growth and had cephalograms within a month prior to operation (T1) and 1 month to 9 months post-surgery (T2) taken in the natural head position. Patients were divided according to the type of surgery undertaken in three groups: group 1 (bimaxillary), group 2 (mandibular setback) and group 3 (maxillary advancement) surgeries. Posterior airway size was evaluated at both T1 and T2 in each group. The results were compared by paired t and one-way ANOVA tests. Airway size decreased significantly in group 1 and 2 (p<0.05) but increased in group 3(p<0.05). Airway dimension and morphology as well as head and neck posture changed significantly in different surgical treatments of class III deformity,

This study was performed aimed at evaluating the effect of substitution of calcium hydroxidehydrolyzed feather with soybean meal (SBM) in ruminant diet using the in vitro gas production technique. Treatment 1 (control) consisted of 70% concentrate + 30% alfalfa hay. In treatment 2, untreated (raw) feather was substituted with SBM. In treatments 3, 4, and 5, feather hydrolysate obtained following hydrolysis with calcium hydroxide in a reactor at 1400 rpm and 100ºC for 100, 200, or 300 min was replaced with SBM. By increasing the reaction time from 100 to 300 min, the feather solubility increased from 50.8 to 90.7%. Diets containing solubilized feather had greater in vitro digestibility (72.9, 79.0 and 69.3%) compared to the diet containing untreated feather (59.2%), but the increase was not directly correlated with pretreatment duration. No significant difference was recorded in ruminal NH3-N between control treatment (7.82 mg/100 mL) and the treatment containing feather pretreated for 200 min (7.64 mg/100 mL), but significant differences were found between untreated feather (4.17 mg/100 mL) and the control treatment. Microbiological evaluation of the pretreated feather samples showed that hydrolysis conditions were effective in controlling microbial contamination. The results showed that feather pretreated for 200 min could be a promising alternative for replacing a portion of proteins in the ruminant diet; however, the actual value of the hydrolyzed feather for ruminants must be determined in in vivo studies.

Published data on the effects of essential oils (EO) on in vivo nutrient digestibility in sheep are contradictory. In 2 experiments, the effect of thymol and carvacrol on nutrient digestibility was studied in sheep fed with high (70%) or low (52%) concentrate diets, using incomplete Latin Square designs. The essential oils were mixed with the concentrate portion of the diet at the rate of 0.0, 0.3, or 0.6 g per kg dry matter (DM) diet. Supplementation of thymol had no significant effect on digestibility of dry matter (DM), organic matter (OM), crude protein (CP) and acid detergent fiber (ADF). The main effect of thymol on neutral detergent fiber (NDF) and ether extract (EE) digestibility and on nitrogen balance (NB) was significant (P<0.05), but within each level of dietary concentrate no significant differences were observed for these measurements. Overall, ruminal ammonia concentration was higher (P<0.05) in both HCD and LCD lambs receiving 0.3 mg thymol per kg diet. Supplementation of carvacrol had no significant effect on nutrient digestibility. The main effect of carvacrol on ruminal ammonia levels and NB was significant, but within each level of dietary concentrate no significant differences were observed in ammonia levels and NB. Inclusion of 0.3 g/kg diet DM of carvacrol or thyme was more effective than 0.6 g/kg diet DM in terms of NB but neither dose affected nutrient digestibility. Future research should determine the long-term effects of essential oils on digestibility and performance in sheep, before recommendation can be made for their use under practical husbandry conditions.

Pioglitazone belongs to the thiazolidinedione (TZD) class of antidiabetic agents، with proven efficacy in increasing insulin sensitivity and in the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus in humans. Pioglitazone has been proposed as a potential feed additive to reduce insulin resistance and consequently some of the metabolic disorders in transition cows. This study was aimed at determining the pharmacokinetic parameters of pioglitazone following oral administration (PO) or intravenous (IV) injection. Six lactating Holstein cows were randomly assigned into two groups (n=3 cows per group) in a crossover design، and administered with pioglitazone (8 mg/kg BW) either per-oral (PO) or intravenously (IV)، with an 8-day washout period. Blood samples were collected from the jugular vein before and up to 48 h after pioglitazone administration. Plasma pioglitazone concentration was determined by HPLC. The data were analyzed using a non-compartmental model for PO route، and a two-compartmental model for the IV route. The bioavailability of PO-administered pioglitazone was 58% and the highest plasma concentration (Cmax)، the time (tmax) at which the drug reached Cmax، half-life (t1/2)، absorption rate constant (kab) and elimination rate constant (kel) were 11. 57±1. 44 μg/mL، 5. 67±0. 07 h، 7. 10±0. 32 h، 0. 28±0. 09 h-1 and 0. 10±0. 013 h-1، respectively. Elimination half-life (t1/2β)، volume distribution (Vss) and elimination rate constant (kel) after IV injection were 5. 10±0. 62 h، 0. 12±0. 01 L/kg and 0. 47±0. 06 h-1، respectively. Because of the relatively high bioavailability and half-life، pioglitazone may be useful for oral administration as an insulin-sensitizing agent in dairy cows.

The present experiment aimed at increasing orange peel and sugar beet pulp protein content through solid-state fermentation by Trichoderma reesei and Trichoderma viride. In vitro digestibility and changes in the chemical composition of the fermented products were determined after seven days of fungal cultivation using gas production tests. The cultivation of T. reesei and T. viride on orange peels decreased neutral detergent soluble content (P<0. 01) and increased cellulose، hemicellulose and lignin contents (P<0. 01). Changes in fiber fractions were found to be more pronounced with T. viride. The cultivation of T. reesei and T. viride on sugar beet pulp increased neutral detergent soluble content (P<0. 01) and decreased cellulose and hemicellulose contents (P<0. 01). These changes were more pronounced with T. reesei. The cultivation of T. reesei or T. viride on orange peels or sugar beet pulp increased crude protein content (P<0. 01) compared with the unfermented materials; however، the increase was more pronounced for orange peels fermented with T. viride when corrected for weight loss (P<0. 05). After 24 and 48 h of incubation، significant decreases in cumulative gas production (P<0. 01) were observed in fermented sugar beet pulp and orange peels compared with the unfermented materials. Fungal treatment of orange peels and sugar beet pulp reduced the digestibility of in vitro organic matter، metabolizable energy and average fermentation and gas production rates (P<0. 01). The data showed that seven days of solid-state fermentation of orange peels and sugar beet pulp by T. reesei or T. viride can increase their crude protein content.

The aim of this study was to determine the effect of marker density, level of heritability, number of QTLs, and size of training set on the genomic accuracy over three generations. Thereby, a trait was simulated with heritability of 0.10, 0.25 or 0.40. For each animal, a genome with 20 chromosomes, 1 Morgan each, was simulated. Different marker densities (2000, 4000 and 6000 markers) and 400 and 600 randomly distributed QTLs were simulated. Marker density, size of training set, and heritability level significantly affected the genomic accuracy (P

The objective of this study was to determine nutritive value of water extracted pomegranate peel with or without polyethylene glycol on in vitro gas production kinetic and ruminal parameters such as ammonia production, VFA and protozoa population. Water extraction of secondary metabolites decreased the total phenols (P<0.01), total tannins (P<0.01), free gallic acids (P<0.01) and galotannin (P<0.01). Addition of polyethylene glycol to non-extracted pomegranate-peel increased in vitro gas production at 24 h of incubation (P=0.01), in vitro organic matter degradability (P=0.047), metabolizable energy (P=0.018), truly degraded substrate (P=0.006) and asymptotic gas production (P=0.02), but microbial protein production, partitioning factor and gas yield were not affected. Extracting increased partitioning factor at 24 h of incubation. Adding polyethylene glycol to non-extracted pomegranate-peel increased total VFA (P<0.01) and acetate (P= 0.01) concentrations. N-NH3 production was increased with addition polyethylene glycol in non-extracted and extracted pomegranate peel (P<0.01). Inclusion of polyethylene glycol and using extracting increased population of total protozoa (P= 0.01) and subfamily of Entodiniinae (P<0.01), but adding polyethylene glycol increased subfamily of Diplodiniinae (P= 0.05). In conclusion, polyethylene glycol improved nutritive value of pomegranate-peel and extracting had negative effect on nutritive value of pomegranate-peel, but extracting has negative effect on nutritive value. However, suggests that in vivo studies for effect this by-product on the efficiency of protein and energy in ruminant.

The effect feeding olive-pulp silage (OPS) for 120 days on several blood attributes was studied using 16 rams allotted to two diets consisting of 70% corn silage or 70% OPS. Olive-pulp silage feeding resulted in lower serum total protein, alanine aminotransferase, calcium and phosphorus levels and higher glucose concentration compared to the corn silage diet. Body weight and other blood attributes were not affected by OPS feeding. Feeding a diet containing 70% OPS at the maintenance level had no apparent detrimental effect in mature rams.

Sixteen rams (mean age: 13 mo; mean live weight: 40.0 ± 2.4 kg) were randomly allotted to four dietary treatments in a completely randomized design (4 rams per treatment). Diets (dry matter basis) contained 65% concentrate and 35% alfalfa hay (control diet, T1), 35% wheat straw (T2), 35% barley straw (T3) or 35% maize straw (T4). Total-tract apparent digestibility for dry matter, organic matter, neutral detergent fiber (ADF), acid detergent fiber (ADF), and crude fat was not affected by the diet (P > 0.05). Among straws, maize straw had the highest crude protein digestibility of 63%, compared with wheat straw (48%) and barley straw (54%). Greater nitrogen balance was recorded for diets containing alfalfa hay and maize straw. Gas production volume after 72 h incubation, was higher in the diet containing alfalfa hay or maize straw compared to that containing barley or wheat straw. Ruminal fluid pH and NH3-N were not affected by straw type. In conclusion, the diet containing maize straw was superior to diets containing either wheat or barley straw in terms of crude protein digestibility, nitrogen balance, and in vitro ruminal fermentation parameters. This associative effect of fiber type in high-concentrate diets could be important in practical sheep feeding, as it may affect the animal performance.

Genetic and non-genetic correlations of the average somatic cell score (SCS) at different stages of lactation (100، 150، 200، 305 and 365 days in milk) with lactation performance were estimated based on the first lactation records of Iranian Holstein calving during 2000 to 2009. (Co) variance components were estimated using derivative-free REML based on multiple traits animal models. The estimated genetic correlations between average of first 100 days in milk SCS (SCS100) and milk100، fat100، mil 305، fat305 and protein305 were 0. 14، 0. 19، 0. 11، 0. 15 and 0. 17، respectively. The corresponding environmental correlations were -0. 13، -0. 03، -0. 18، -0. 10 and -0. 13، respectively. The estimated genetic correlations of the average SCS during the first 150 days in milk (SCS150) with milk100، fat100، milk305، fat305 and protein305 were 0. 14، 0. 19، 0. 11، 0. 15 and 0. 17، respectively. The corresponding environmental correlations were -0. 13، -0. 03، -0. 18، -0. 10 and -0. 13، respectively. The estimated genetic correlations of the average SCS during 305 days in milk with milk، fat and protein yield، and fat and protein percentages were 0. 12، 0. 11، 0. 18، -0. 05 and -0. 08، respectively. The estimated genetic correlation between SCS100 or SCS150 with average SCS over longer stages of lactations (SCS305 and SCS365) was 0. 99 ± 0. 01. These results indicate that recording SCS data over shorter period of lactation is an alternative approach to reduce the costs of SCS data collection and therefore to expand the SCS recording in the country by increasing both the number of herds and cows involved.

The FecB, a mutation in the bone morphogenetic protein receptor IB (BMPR-IB) gene, which increases the fecundity of Booroola Merino sheep, and FecGH, a mutation in the Growth and Differentiation Factor 9 (GDF9), which affects the fecundity of Cambridge and Belclare sheep in a dose sensitive manner, were analyzed as candidate genes associated with the prolificacy in Rayini goats. These polymorphisms were analyzed by PCR-RFLP method in 110 individuals randomly selected out from a flock of Rayini goats with a mean litter size of 1.29. These mutations were not detected in this flock. All individuals were wild type homozygous for FecBandFecGH. These results suggested that fecundity of this breed is not linked to the same loci in BMPR-IB or GDF9 as in some sheep breeds, and other polymorphism(s) may be involved in Rayini goat prolificacy. Therefore, searching for other polymorphisms in these genes or any polymorphisms in known fecundity genes is suggested to develop marker assistance selection techniques and to study the genetic mechanism of prolificacy in goat.

Investigation of factors affecting urban traveling is one of interested topics in urban transport research field. It is estimated that educational trips are around 30-40 percent of urban trips which are mostly dependent on parent's decision and behavior. A large body of research can be found exploring the impacts of urban form features such as density, land use and street network on student's travel. In this research, data on student's travel were collected throughout four residential neighbourhoods of Mashhad metropolitan area using a household questionnaire distributed randomly (n=328). These neighbourhoods were selected based on their physical and socioeconomical characteristics. The data then were analyzed using statistical tests such as bi-variate correlation test, cross-tabulation and logit regression model as well as GIS. The results confirm that the significancy of differences exist among students living in different neighbourhoods. Household income and student's age were showed to be the most influential factors in choosing the mode of travel. Having a parking space available at home place was also an important factor for modal split, while it was mainly dependent on household economic status and the quality of residence. Therefore, it can be claimed that household income is the most important factor to choose a mode for educational trips regardless of residence location.