In this paper, we evaluate quality of several similarity indices for assignment of new releve to vegetation units, using geometric and non-geometric based evaluators. For this purpose, Buxus hyrcana dataset (437 releves) that belong to Mazandaran and Golestan provinces in Hyrcanian forests was used. 11 vegetation units as a primary groups produced by combination results of TWINSPAN, Modified TWINSPAN and cluster analysis. All of 437 releve were re-assigned to 11 primary groups by six similarity indices indices that consider Phi fidelity index. With the exception of Calinski and Uniqueness evaluators, classification resulting from TPFI similarity index had the highest values of evaluators. Results of PCA analysis showed that ISA evaluator as a non-geometric evaluator with two geometric evaluators consist of PBC and PARTANA are the most important evaluators. Totally, the results of this study revealed that among six similarity indices, TPFI to be an effective one for assignment of new releve to vegetation units.

Genetic characterization and classification of germplasm yield important information that are quite helpful for crop breeding as well as conservation of genetic resources. The genetic relationship between the accessions and varieties of chickpea was assessed using 21 ISSR primers. Out of 361 bands, 257 showed polymorphism. Nnumber of polymorphic bands ranged from 6 to 22 per primer and the most informative loci was UBC864. Polymorphic information content (PIC value) ranged from 0.15 to 0.60 and marker index (MI) ranged from 6.43 to 60.31 per primer. A maximum genetic similarity value of 0.97 was observed between accessions 93 and 94 and a minimum similarity value of 0.54 was observed between accessions 10 and 66. Clustering analysis using UPGMA algorithm based on Jacquard's similarity coefficient, classified the chickpea accessions and cultivars into 15 major groups and the subgroups were strongly supported by high bootstrap value. Our results proved that ISSR markers to be as a reliable marker system with regards to detection of a high level of polymorphism and it can be used to guide future breeding studies and management of chickpea germplasm.

Plant cover may be the most important factor in conserving the soil from water and wind erosion. Wise management of plant cover needs accurate and sufficient information from vegetation and soil seed bank capacity. Evaluation of changes in vegetation and soil seed bank after a restoration operation can show the role of land management. The relation between these two indicates the necessity of study the areas after restoration operation. To determine the species richness and similarity of plants and soil seed bank, sampling was done in ungrazed 18 year old Atriplex cultivated area and natural exclosure non-cultivated area. In the fall of 2010 randomized-systematic sampling of seed bank was conducted along four 200 m transects in each region. Five one-square-meter plots with 50 meter intervals along each transect (total of 20 plots in each region) were deployed. Soil samples from the depth of 0-5 and 5-10 cm were collected using auger and transferred to the greenhouse for planting in the proper beds. Plant cover was also estimated and recorded in the fall and spring of 2011 in each plot. Sorenson’s quantitative index was used to measure the similarity between soil seed bank and vegetation cover in each plot. To compare the characteristics of soil seed bank, containing seed bank similarity to vegetation, seed bank richness, palatability classes and life forms, between two regions, unpaired t-test, and between two depths of each region paired t-test were applied. One-way ANOVA and Duncan's test were used separately to compare the palatability classes and life forms in each region. The results showed that, similarity of plant cover and soil seed bank, also soil seed bank richness in the depths of 0-5 and 5-10 cm had significant difference between planted and non-planted areas. The results also showed that similarity of soil seed bank and plant cover in the planted area is 60% for the first depth and 24% for the second depth. It’s 84% in the first and 40% in the second depth of non-planted area. All palatability classes showed significant difference between two regions. All kinds of life forms except Hemicryptophytes had significant difference between two areas.

Avian infectious bronchitis virus, has become one of the most problematic causes of economic losses in poultry farms. To effectively control the virus, monitoring and surveillance of circulating strains of virus in poultry farms is unavoidable.Internal organ samples of broilers with clinical signs of infectious bronchitis and two samples of the commonly used vaccine strains (4/91 and H120) in Iranian poultry flocks were used in amplification of a 1.8 kbp fragment including nucleocapsid (N) gene and 3′ untranslated region (UTR) using reverse transcription and polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) method. The amplified fragments were digested using restriction endonuclease enzyme, AluI. Then sequence similarity of the field isolate (Ma1/16 ) with previous isolates and reference strains of IBV was investigated. Also, phylogenetic relationship of Ma1/16 with other regions viruses were determined based on the sequence of two 600 bp partial sequences of N gene using Mega7 software.Seven strains of IBV were classified in two groups based on restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) patterns of the N-3´UTR fragment; all of five field isolates and vaccine strain 4/91 were clustered together. Ma1/16 had the most similarity with two other Iranian IBV isolates, Ur1/09 and MNS-7861-1 (91.7 % and 90 %, respectively) based on the 600 N sequence of 5´ end of the isolate. Nucleotide sequence of the 600 N of 3´ end of the amplified fragment in Ma1/16 isolate had the most similarity to the BJ strain (86.4%). Nucleocapsid gene could be an appropriate candidate in vaccine design strategies to IBV effective control. In addition, monitoring of circulating strains of IBV based on N-3´UTR could be a helpful method in successfully controlling of IB disease in Iran.

In this study, SRAP molecular maker approach was performed to investigate genetic diversity in the Salvia genus. A total of 205 DNA bands were produced from PCR amplification of 11 Salvia species and populations using 25 selective primer combinations, of which 204 polymorphic genetic loci accounted. The total number of amplified fragments ranged from 3 to 15. The genetic similarities of 11 collections were estimated from 0.0968 to 0.6949. According to the SRAP marker analysis, S.verticillata2 and S.nemorosa2 had the lowest similarityand the species of S.verticillata2 and S.verticillata3 had the highest similarity. Unweighted pair-group method with arithmetic averages clustering algorithm categorized Salvia species into six major groups. In general, SRAP markers were able to detect high polymorphism among Salvia genotypes. Hence, the technique is regarded as a reliable tool for differentiation of Salvia at inter and intra-species level.

One of the sciences in order to increase the efficiency of intelligent systems to be used in the visual sense, is Machine vision science. The first step in many applications in machine vision is image segmentation. Image segmentation, refers to the grouping of pixels in an image So that these pixels, the same qualities have with each other And the pixels adjacent parts, have different characteristics. The most important feature used in image segmentation, colors and features. In monochrome images, the gray level is considered as properties But color images, different color spaces used as a color feature. In this study, the color and texture features for image segmentation is considered. Clustering-based methods of are used in image segmentation methods and Gaussian function is similar measure in clustering images. Spectral clustering requires has high computational cost. To save time and accelerate the segmentation of images Using clustering with Super pixels will achieve optimal results And to achieve reliable results approximate and fuzzy algorithm is used. The proposed algorithm is applied on several standard image And the evaluation criteria,Evaluated and evaluated by the indicators are evaluated and compared. The results of the experiments were compared to other fragmentation methods, suggesting a 3.4% superiority in the segmentation accuracy of the proposed algorithm, and all the evaluation indicators of the study have increased to a satisfactory level.

One hundres five accessions of Kabuli type chickpea received from National Plant Gene Bank of Iran, Karaj, with five check cultivars (Arman, Jam, Hashem, Bivanij and ILC- 482) were grown on the basis of augment design during 2006 and 2007 in research field of College of Agriculture, Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran. Based on ANOVA, coefficient of variations for chickpea seed yield, number of primary branches and harvest index were 22.89, 22.2 and 19.49, respectively. Correlation analysis indicated positive and significant correlation between seed yield with harvest index and canopy width. Factor analysis identified six factors, accounting 75.82 % of total variations. In RAPD analysis with 26 random primers, 564 bands were amplified that 321 of them were polymorph. N number of polymorphic bands ranged from 15 to 28 per primer and t he most informative loci was D12. Polymorphic information content (PIC value) ranged from 0.09 to 0.66 and marker index (MI) ranged from 5.26 to 41.27 per primer. A maximum genetic similarity value of 0.97 was observed between accessions No. 85 and 86 and a minimum similarity value of 0.68 between accession No. 20 and ILC-482. Clustering analysis classified the chickpea accessions and cultivars in to 10 major groups and the number of the subgroups were strongly supported by high bootstrap value. The results showed that RAPD molecular marker can reveal relatively acceptable polymorphism and genetic variation detected in this study can be useful for enhancing the genetic base of breeding programs.

In this study 17 ISSR molecular markers were employed to investigate the genetic diversity among 25 female pistachio genotypes. The markers produced 148 bands in total, of which 123 (83%) was polymorphic and the average of polymorphism for each primer was 7.23 band per primer. Cluster analyses of genotypes were estimated based on Jaccard's similarity algorithm and UPGMA clustering method and placed the genotypes in seven groups. The results obtained by similarity matrix revealed the highest similarity between cultivars "Khanjari Damghan" and "Fandoghi 48" (63%) and the lowest similarity between cultivars "Ebrahimi" and "Shasti" (2%) which is due to high amount of polymorphism among the genotypes. This experiment shows that ISSR markers are reliable for assessment of pistachio female genotypes and genetic diversity study. Moreover, these markers can be used to provide molecular genetics identity for Iranian pistachio populations.

In order to study the effects of logging on plant species diversity, two compartments of logged and unlogged of beech forests in the Shafaroud region in western Guilan were selected. Inventory procedure was systematic- random method. Sampling plot area was 5050m to survey woody species and for herbaceous species, 88m nested plot sampling was obtained. Regeneration (seedlings) was studied at 1010m subplots. Data analysis was carried out by Shannon – Wiener and Pielou’s evenness indices and Jaccard’s similarity index. Results showed that species richness for trees, shrub and herbaceous were obtained 7, 8 and 28 in the logged forest, whereas they were 6, 4 and 18 in the unlogged forest, respectively. The diversity value in the unlogged forest was found higher than in logged forest in tree layer, while in the seedling, small sapling, large sapling, shrub and herbaceous layers were higher in the logged than unlogged forest. In addition, the evenness values in all vegetation layers were found higher in the logged than unlogged forest. Jaccard’s similarity index for tree, shrub and herbaceous layers were 62.50, 50.00 and 60.71 percent in the studied forests, respectively.

Diversity reflects the complexity of a system and can maintain its sustainability. Higherdiversity, results in higher inherent complexity of agro-ecosystems and strengthen their processes. It is necessary to realize the spatial distribution and temporal properties of the biodiversity components in agro-ecosystems, for the conservation and optimal utilization. Since weeds as a complementary component of agro-ecosystems and are inseparable, so the study of species, their functional and structural diversity of them can play an important role in weed management and balance in ecological systems. This study was performed to determine the effects of different management systems on structural, and functional diversity of paddy weeds in Mazandaran province. Three rice fields, ranged from 0.3 to 0.5 ha, were chosen for each management system. Samples were collected from three fields running under each selected management system (organic and conventional). Data (number of weed species and their density) were randomly gathered from 9 quadrates (1m×1m) per each field in four stages (tillering, stem elongation, grain filling and after harvest). The diversity, evenness, frequency and similarity indices for weeds were determined at genera and species level. Data analysis carried out through T-test and grouping performed via cluster analysis as hierarchy. All monitored weeds can be classified into four plant family including cereals (Poaceae), sedges (Cyperaceae), plantain (Plantaginaceae) and chicory (Asteraceae).Under conventional systems the values of weed diversity indices were higher during tillering and stem elongation compared with organic ones, and were lower during grain filling and after harvest stages. However indices of weed evenness showed contrary tendency. Both Sympson and Shanon-Wiener diversity indices, consist of two clusters in 76% similarity. Evenness indices of Kamargo and Smith-Wilson included two clusters in 83% and 82%, respectively. Range of similarity index was between 1.89% and 83.96%. Weed grouping based on relative frequency during the sampling stages showed two clusters in 78% and four clusters in 85% similarity. Clustering weeds centered on relative frequency during sampling stages, according to the family, showed different results. It might be the reason that the relative abundance of weeds, sedge family (79%) were in two clusters. However, sampling stages grouping based on weed density, induced two clusters in 39% similarity. Both conventional and organic systems, are included 10 species of 8 genera of four families. The 75 percent of families based on the vegetative form were monocots and 25% of them were dicots, so monocots had more diversity. Perhaps the presence of Alismaplantagoin the conventional system could be as a unique species and its absence in the organic system, attributable to duck existence in it. Based on life-cycle, 6 species were annual and 4 were perennial. While, according to the photosynthetic pathway, 50 percent species were C3 and others had C4 pathway. Based on the characteristics of the interference, 4 species were noxious and 6 species were non-noxious. Poaceae were the most diversity of weeds in monocotyledon and C4 pathway (three species). Two species of noxious weeds and herbicide resistant belong to Poaceae too. The Cyperaceae consist of two species from four perennial ones. The weeds of Poaceae and Cyperaceae families include 70% of total weed. Generally, weeds in ecosystems usually change thehabitat conditions or impact on the resources availability for other species. Due to repeated or severe disturbances, agro-ecosystems are limited to the early stages of succession. Thus, the widespread destruction of agro-ecosystems during consecutive years, by changing the succession, weed population dynamics was affected as well. It should be noted that the differences of weed distribution in the various stages of the sampling in both conventional and organic systems, can be related to dissimilarities in management practices. The presence of various species of grass and sedge family in paddies, could be related to the ecological niche differentiation, because of ecological divergence amongst the different photosynthetic pathways (such as C. rotundus, C4 and C. difformis, C3) or the variance between water requirements (such as Echinochloa crus-galli in wet conditions and flooding and Digittaria spp. in dry conditions). Sound management in these conditions can the switch a threat into an opportunity, so that with regard to interaction among weeds and other communities such as insects, in rice agro-ecosystems, the emerging phenomena at this level would be beneficial. It seems, realizing species, structural and functional diversity of weeds in rice agro-ecosystems, can be result in better management of farm production with the aim of provide ideal use of resources.