Evaluation and Ranking of Citrus Gardens’ Risks Using TOPSIS Method (Case Study: East of Mazandaran Province)

Citrus production has a great importance and position in Iran. The growth and sustainability of the agriculture sector is impossible without appropriate and effective risk identification and management. In this study, the main risks of citrus gardens were identified based on the Delphi method through questionnaires completed by 16 experts. Then, using the TOPSIS technique, the risks involved in the horticultural industry of Mazandaran Province were prioritized during 2010- 2016 and the most important risk of Mazandaran gardens was selected based on the Shannon unweighted entropy matrix. The results showed that the most important horticultural risks were related to the risks of pests and diseases, price, damage, and production, respectively. In addition, the lowest risks were related to technical, labor and credit risks, respectively. Therefore, the results indicated the significant influence of the risks of pests and diseases, price and loss in horticulture. Among the risks of pests and diseases, mealy bugs, red mites and aphids with 76, 73 and 70 percent, respectively, were of the highest risk and risks arising from financing, purchasing the product and the damage caused by drip irrigation and emitters were of the lowest risk. The risk exposure represented that risk management should be considered in these fields. In this regard, it is essential to make major reforms in risk management areas involved in orchards. Thus, the planners and policymakers must consider this issue

Increased Levels of IL-10, IL-12, and IFN-gamma in Patients with Visceral Leishmaniasis

Visceral leishmaniasis remains a serious public health problem in developing countries. Cytokines have a crucial role in the pathogenesis of this disease. We evaluated plasma levels of IL-10, IL-12 and IFN-gamma in 32 patients with active visceral lieshmaniasis, in 29 siblings of the patients and in 23 normal individuals in an endemic area to look for correlations between the clinical outcome of infection and the plasma cytokine levels. An analysis was made with a skin test and a quantitative sandwich enzyme immunoassay. Data were analyzed with the Mann Whitney test and the Kruskal Wallis test. The cytokine levels were significantly higher in the patients than in the control groups. We concluded that normalization of the plasma level of IFN-gamma can serve as a reliable parameter for considering the patient as cured

Increased levels of IL-10, IL-12, and IFN-in patients with visceral leishmaniasis

Visceral leishmaniasis remains a serious public health problem in developing countries. Cytokines have a crucial role in the pathogenesis of this disease. We evaluated plasma levels of IL-10, IL-12 and IFN-γ in 32 patients with active visceral lieshmaniasis, in 29 siblings of the patients and in 23 normal individuals in an endemic area to look for correlations between the clinical outcome of infection and the plasma cytokine levels. An analysis was made with a skin test and a quantitative sandwich enzyme immunoassay. Data were analyzed with the Mann Whitney test and the Kruskal Wallis test. The cytokine levels were significantly higher in the patients than in the control groups. We concluded that normalization of the plasma level of IFN-γ can serve as a reliable parameter for considering the patient as cured

Evaluation and Ranking of Citrus Gardens’ Risks Using TOPSIS Method (Case Study: East of Mazandaran Province)

Citrus production has a great importance and position in Iran. The growth and sustainability of the agriculture sector is impossible without appropriate and effective risk identification and management. In this study, the main risks of citrus gardens were identified based on the Delphi method through questionnaires completed by 16 experts. Then, using the TOPSIS technique, the risks involved in the horticultural industry of Mazandaran Province were prioritized during 2010- 2016 and the most important risk of Mazandaran gardens was selected based on the Shannon unweighted entropy matrix. The results showed that the most important horticultural risks were related to the risks of pests and diseases, price, damage, and production, respectively. In addition, the lowest risks were related to technical, labor and credit risks, respectively. Therefore, the results indicated the significant influence of the risks of pests and diseases, price and loss in horticulture. Among the risks of pests and diseases, mealy bugs, red mites and aphids with 76, 73 and 70 percent, respectively, were of the highest risk and risks arising from financing, purchasing the product and the damage caused by drip irrigation and emitters were of the lowest risk. The risk exposure represented that risk management should be considered in these fields. In this regard, it is essential to make major reforms in risk management areas involved in orchards. Thus, the planners and policymakers must consider this issue

Determining the Surfactant Consistent with Concrete in order to Achieve the Maximum Possible Dispersion of Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes in Keeping the Plain Concrete Properties

A new surfactant combination compatible with concrete formulation is proposed to avoid unwanted air bubbles created during mixing process in the absence of a defoamer and to achieve the uniform and the maximum possible dispersion of multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) in water and subsequently in concrete. To achieve this goal, three steps have been defined: (1) concrete was made with different types and amount of surfactants containing a constant amount of MWCNTs (0.05 wt%) and the air bubbles were eliminated with a proper defoamer. (2) Finding a compatible surfactant with concrete compositions and eliminating unwanted air bubbles in the absence of a common defoamer are of fundamental importance to significantly increase concrete mechanical properties. In this step, the results showed that the polycarboxylate superplasticizer (SP-C) (as a compatible surfactant) dispersed MWCNTs worse than SDS/DTAB but unwanted air bubbles were removed, so the defoamer can be omitted in the mixing process. (3) To solve the problem, a new compatible surfactant composition was developed and different ratios of surfactants were tested and evaluated by means of performance criteria mentioned above. The results showed that the new surfactant composition (SDS and SP-C) can disperse MWCNTs around 24% more efficiently than the other surfactant compositions

<b>Thermodynamic study of charge-transfer complex of iodine with HT18C6 in chloroform solution</b>

A spectrophotometric study concerning the interaction between HT18C6 as n-donor and I₂ as &sigma;-acceptor has been performed in chloroform solution at different temperatures. The results are indicative of the formation 1:1 complex through equilibrium reaction. The stability constant of the complex at 7, 13, 19 and 25 ^oC is obtained by the computer-fitting of absorbance-mole ratio data in MATLAB software. The ΔH^o and ΔS^o values are obtained by the Vant Hoff method. The obtained data show that the complex is enthalpy stabilized and entropy destabilized. The entropy destabilitization is attributed to the decrease of the entropy of the free donor upon complexation. Comparison of the data from this work with those of previous works done on 18C6-I₂ and HA18C6-I₂ is indicative of different stability, stoichiometry and products. The possible reasons for such differences are discussed