PROCJENA HRAPAVOSTI POVRŠINE PRIRODNIH STIJENSKIH PUKOTINA TEMELJENA NA TEHNICI NENADZIRANOG PREPOZNAVANJA UZORAKA POMOĆU 2D PROFILA

The stability of a jointed rock mass is generally controlled by its shear strength that significantly depends on surface roughness. So far, different methods have been presented for determining surface roughness using 2D profiles. In this study, a new method based on the unsupervised pattern recognition technique using a combination of statistical, geostatistical, directional, and spectral methods for the quantification of the surface roughness will be proposed. To reach this goal, more than 10,000 profiles gathered from 92 surfaces of natural rock joints were scanned. The samples were collected from limestone cores of the Lar Dam located in the Mazandaran Province, Iran. After introducing a new spectral index, determined from the fast Fourier transform for measuring the unevenness of rough profiles, statistical, geostatistical, directional, and spectral features revealing waviness and unevenness of the 2D profiles were extracted, and a representative vector and profile for each surface were introduced through the weighted mean and median of the profile features. Principal component analysis (PCA) was utilized for finding the direction of the maximum variance of information. Then, clustering of the 92 samples was performed via K-means, and the silhouette measure was used in order to find the optimal number of clusters resulted in the creation of 13 clusters. To verify the procedure, a sample was selected in each cluster, and direct shear tests were performed on the samples. Comparing the experiments and the clustering results shows they are in good agreement. Thus, the method is an efficient tool for the quantitative recognition of surface roughness considering the waviness and unevenness of a surface.Stabilnost raspucane stijenske mase općenito se kontrolira posmičnom čvrstoćom koja značajno ovisi o hrapavosti površine. Do sada su prikazane različite metode za određivanje hrapavosti površine pomoću 2D profila. U ovom radu predlaže se nova metoda koja se temelji na tehnici nenadziranog prepoznavanja uzoraka kombinacijom statističkih, geostatističkih, usmjerenih i spektralnih metoda za kvantifikaciju hrapavosti površine. Kako bi se postigao taj cilj, skenirano je više od 10.000 profila prikupljenih s 92 površine prirodnih stijenskih pukotina. Uzorci su prikupljeni iz vapnenačkih jezgri brane Lar koja se nalazi u pokrajini Mazandaran u Iranu. Nakon uvođenja novog spektralnog indeksa, određenog Fourierovom transformacijom za mjerenje neravnina hrapavih profila, izvučene su statističke, geostatističke, usmjerene i spektralne značajke koje opisuju valovitost i neravnine 2D profila, a reprezentativni vektor i profil za svaku površinu uvedeni su kroz ponderiranu aritmetičku sredinu i medijan značajki profila. Analiza glavnih komponenti (PCA) korištena je za pronalaženje smjera najvećeg odstupanja informacija. Zatim je grupiranje 92 uzorka provedeno putem metode K-sredina, a mjera siluete korištena je kako bi se pronašao optimalan broj grupa, a to je rezultiralo stvaranjem 13 grupa. Za provjeru postupka odabran je uzorak u svakoj grupi, a na tim uzorcima provedena su ispitivanja izravnog smicanja. Usporedba rezultata ispitivanja i grupiranja pokazala je dobro slaganje, stoga je ova metoda učinkovit alat za kvantitativno utvrđivanje hrapavosti s obzirom na valovitost i neravnine površine

Quality gap of family health care services in Kashan health centers: an Iranian viewpoint

Patients' viewpoints are commonly used to assess quality of care in diverse healthcare organizations. This permits managerial decisions to be made based on knowledge rather than conjecture. The purpose of the current study is to investigate quality gap of family health care through measuring differences between clients' perceptions and expectations at Kashan city health centers in Iran.Methodology: A cross-sectional design was applied in 2013. The study sample was composed of 384 women clients of family health services randomly selected from Kashan city health centers. The SERVQUAL questionnaire was used for data collection. Service quality gap was measured by computing the difference between the rating respondents assign to expectations and perceptions statements. For pair wise comparison of the expectations and perceptions the Wilcoxon Signed Rank test was used. Internal consistency of the scale was confirmed with Cronbach's Alpha coefficients (.81 for expectations and .84 for perceptions).Findings: In all dimensions of the services a significant (P<0.001) negative quality gap was observed. The maximum quality gap was in the tangibility (-0.60±0.37) and the minimum one was in the responsiveness (-0.41±0.31) dimension. The findings of the research demonstrated that there was negative gap between clients' expectations and perceptions in all dimensions of the services. Thus, family health care managers should apply improvements in all five dimensions of the services

Intracellular ROS Protection Efficiency and Free Radical-Scavenging Activity of Curcumin

Curcumin has many pharmaceutical applications, many of which arise from its potent antioxidant properties. The present research examined the antioxidant activities of curcumin in polar solvents by a comparative study using ESR, reduction of ferric iron in aqueous medium and intracellular ROS/toxicity assays. ESR data indicated that the steric hindrance among adjacent big size groups within a galvinoxyl molecule limited the curcumin to scavenge galvinoxyl radicals effectively, while curcumin showed a powerful capacity for scavenging intracellular smaller oxidative molecules such as H2O2, HO•, ROO•. Cell viability and ROS assays demonstrated that curcumin was able to penetrate into the polar medium inside the cells and to protect them against the highly toxic and lethal effects of cumene hydroperoxide. Curcumin also showed good electron-transfer capability, with greater activity than trolox in aqueous solution. Curcumin can readily transfer electron or easily donate H-atom from two phenolic sites to scavenge free radicals. The excellent electron transfer capability of curcumin is because of its unique structure and different functional groups, including a β-diketone and several π electrons that have the capacity to conjugate between two phenyl rings. Therfore, since curcumin is inherently a lipophilic compound, because of its superb intracellular ROS scavenging activity, it can be used as an effective antioxidant for ROS protection within the polar cytoplasm

Effect of Liquid Organic Fertilizers and Soil Moisture Status on Some Biological and Physical Properties of Soil

This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of liquid organic fertilizers (LOFs) and soil moisture status on some biological and physical properties of postharvest soil of maize cultivation. For this purpose, a factorial greenhouse experiment was performed based on the completely randomized design with three replications. Treatments consisted of five levels of LOFs (control, vermicompost tea, vermiwash, plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria [PGPR] enriched vermicompost tea and PGPR enriched vermiwash) and three levels of soil moisture status (field capacity [FC], 0.8 FC and 0.6 FC). The results showed LOFs caused an increase of soil biological properties (soil microbial respiration, soil microbial biomass, dehydrogenase activity and the number of aerobic heterotrophic bacteria) and the improvement of soil physical condition. LOFs increased aggregate stability, hydrophobicity and total porosity, while decreased bulk density and soil penetration resistance. Increasing water stress levels reduced soil biological activity and made soil physical properties more unfavorable. In general, LOFs improved soil conditions by enhancing soil physical and biological properties and decreased the negative effects of water stress. In addition, results showed that LOFs enriched with PGPR could be more effective than non-enriched ones

Učinak kratkotrajne primjene hormona rasta i treninga snage na histopatološke promjene tkiva štitnjače i mutaciju gena BRAF (T1799A) u smeđeg štakora (Rattus norvegicus)

High levels of growth hormone accelerate mitosis rate but decrease the apoptosis process in its target organs. These events might cause the initiation of different cancer types. Thus, the main aims of this study were assessing the effects of short term growth hormone administration and resistance training on the histopathology and detection of the BRAF-V600E mutation in the thyroid tissue of male Rattus norvegicus brown rats. Thirty-two rats were randomly divided into four groups. After 8 weeks of the experiment (i.m), thyroid tissue and blood samples of saline (CS), resistance training+saline (RS), growth hormone (2 mg/kg) (GI) and resistance training+growth hormone (2 mg/kg) (RG) were taken to evaluate histopathology, the BRAF T1799A mutation of thyroid tissue, and circulating levels of IGF-1 and IGFBP-3. The protocol of training consisted of rats climbing a ladder while carrying weights (3 sets/5 reps). Microscopic evaluation of thyroid tissue did not show any histopathological changes, and there were no mutations in the studied region of the BRAF sequence. Serum IGF-1 concentration was significantly lower in the RS group than in other groups (P<0.05). However, serum IGFBP-3 concentration did not change significantly in the RS group. Moreover, serum IGF-1 and IGFBP-3 concentrations were significantly higher in the GI and RG groups than in the others (P<0.05). In conclusion, the decrement of serum IGF-1 concentration and IGF-1/IGFBP-3 ratio after resistance training might decrease the risk of cancer. Furthermore, short term growth hormone administration, with and without resistance training, might increase the risk of cancer through the high levels of serum IGF-1 concentration and IGF-1/ IGFBP-3 ratio in male rats.Visoke razine hormona rasta povećavaju brzinu mitoze, ali smanjuju proces apoptoze u ciljnim organima, što može uzrokovati nastanak različitih tipova raka. Stoga je glavni cilj ovoga istraživanja bio utvrditi učinak kratkotrajne primjene hormona rasta i treninga snage na histopatološke promjene tkiva štitnjače i nalaz mutacije gena BRAF-V600E u mužjaka smeđeg štakora Rattus norvegicus. Ukupno 32 štakora nasumično su podijeljena u četiri skupine koje su ovisno o primjenjenom tretmanu označene kao CS (fiziološka otopina), RS (trening snage + fiziološka otopina), GI (hormone rasta, 2 mg/kg) i RG (trening snage+hormone rasta, 2 mg/kg). Nakon osam tjedana pokusa (i.m.) uzeti su uzorci tkiva štitnjače i uzorci krvi kako bi se procijenila histopatološka svojstva, mutacija BRAF T1799A tkiva štitnjače te razine cirkulacijskog IGF-1 i IGFBP-3. Trening se sastojao od toga da se štakori penju ljestvama noseći težinu (3 seta vježbi, 5 ponavljanja). Mikroskopska procjena tkiva štitnjače nije pokazala histopatološke promjene i nije bilo mutacija u promatranoj regiji sekvencija gena BRAF. Koncentracija serumskog IGF-1 bila je znakovito manja u skupini RS nego u ostalim skupinama (P < 0,05), no u toj skupini nije bilo znakovite promjene u koncentraciji serumskog IGFBP-3. Štoviše, koncentracije serumskog IGF-1 i IGFBP-3 bile su znakovito veće u skupinama GI i RG nego u ostalim skupinama (P < 0,05). Stoga smo zaključili da bi smanjenje koncentracije serumskog IGF-1 i IGF-1/IGFBP-3 nakon treninga snage moglo smanjiti rizik od raka. Osim toga kratkotrajna primjena hormona rasta, s treningom snage kao i bez njega, mogla bi povećati rizik od raka povećavajući koncentracije serumskog IGF-1 i IGF-1/IGFBP-3 u mužjaka štakora