Pesticide Consumption in Greenhouses; a Case Study of Kashan Region

Aims: In regard to increasing greenhouse area in Iran followed by increased use of pesticides and contaminated crops, this study aimed to determine the frequency and types of consumed pesticides in Kashan region, Iran, greenhouses. Instrument & Methods: In this descriptive study in 2011-2012, samples was entered by census method. At the first step, a list of greenhouses was obtained from agricultural organization, 39 active greenhouses were detected, thereafter the questionnaires have been completed in detail by direct interview; obtained data were analyzed in SPSS 23 by descriptive statistics. Findings: 87.1 of greenhouses used chemical methods for controlling pest and diseases of products and 43.5 used non-chemical methods. The most frequent used chemical pesticides were Deltamethrin (37.9) and Permethrin (28.3) as pyrethroid insecticides, Diazinon (23.1) as an organophosphate insecticide and Carbendazim (23.2) as a fungicides. Conclusion: 87.1 of the greenhouses’ owners of Kashan region, Iran, use chemical pesticide for pest control

Patterns of HIV Risks and Related Factors among People Who Inject Drugs in Kermanshah, Iran: A Latent Class Analysis

© 2017 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. The objective of this study was to explore patterns of drug use and sexual risk behaviors among people who inject drugs (PWID) in Iran. We surveyed 500 PWID in Kermanshah concerning demographic characteristics, sexual risk behaviors, and drug-related risk behaviors in the month prior to study. We used latent class analysis (LCA) to establish a baseline model of risk pro�les and to identify the optimal number of latent classes, and we used ordinal regression to identify factors associated with class membership. Three classes of multiple HIV risk were identified. The probability of membership in the high-risk class was 0.33, compared to 0.26 and 0.40 for the low- and moderate-risk classes, respectively. Compared to members in the lowest-risk class (reference group), the highest-risk class members had higher odds of being homeless (OR = 4.5, CI: 1.44–8.22; p = 0.001) in the past 12 months. Members of the high-risk class had lower odds of regularly visiting a needle and syringe exchange program as compared to the lowest-risk class members (AOR = 0.42, CI: 0.2–0.81; p = 0.01). Findings show the sexual and drug-related HIV risk clusters among PWID in Iran, and emphasize the importance of developing targeted prevention and harm reduction programs for all domains of risk behaviors, both sexual and drug use related

Pesticide Consumption in Greenhouses; a Case Study of Kashan Region

Abstract Aims: In regard to increasing greenhouse area in Iran followed by increased use of pesticides and contaminated crops, this study aimed to determine the frequency and types of consumed pesticides in Kashan region, Iran, greenhouses. Instrument & Methods: In this descriptive study in 2011-2012, samples was entered by census method. At the first step, a list of greenhouses was obtained from agricultural organization, 39 active greenhouses were detected, thereafter the questionnaires have been completed in detail by direct interview; obtained data were analyzed in SPSS 23 by descriptive statistics. Findings: 87.1% of greenhouses used chemical methods for controlling pest and diseases of products and 43.5% used non-chemical methods. The most frequent used chemical pesticides were Deltamethrin (37.9%) and Permethrin (28.3%) as pyrethroid insecticides, Diazinon (23.1%) as an organophosphate insecticide and Carbendazim (23.2%) as a fungicides. Conclusion: 87.1% of the greenhouses’ owners of Kashan region, Iran, use chemical pesticide for pest control

Excited-State Relaxation of Ruthenium Polypyridyl Compounds Relevant to Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Remarkably little is known about metal-to-ligand charge transfer (MLCT) excited-state relaxation pathways for the ruthenium polypyridyl compounds commonly utilized in dye-sensitized solar cells. Herein, we report variable-temperature photoluminescence studies of compounds of the general type cis-Ru(LL)(2)(X)(2), where LL is a bipyridyl ligand and X is CN- or NCS-, and contrast them with the well-known Ru(bpy)(3)(2+) and Os(bpy)(3)(2+), where bpy is 2,2'-bipyridine, to identify relaxation pathways. In fluid acetonitrile and propylene carbonate solutions, excited-state relaxation was found to obey a first-order kinetic model. An Arrhenius analysis revealed internal conversion to two different states, assigned to an upper MLCT excited state and a ligand field excited state. Relaxation through the upper MLCT excited state typically displayed pre-exponential factors of 10(7)-10(8) s(-1) with activation energies of 400-900 cm(-1), while relaxation rates through ligand field states occurred with 10(14)-10(15) s(-1) and activation energies of 4000-5000 cm(-1). Nonradiative decay through LF states was sensitive to the ligand identity, but in a manner that was not fully consistent with the spectrochemical series. Excited-state relaxation of cis-Ru(dcbH(2))(2)(NCS)(2), where dcbH2 is 4,4'-(CO2H)(2)-2,2'-bipyridine, sometimes termed N3, anchored to mesoporous TiO2 or ZrO2 thin films immersed in CH3CN occurred through the upper MLCT excited state with activational parameters in surprisingly good agreement with those abstracted from data measured in fluid solution. An important finding from these studies is that the population of dissociative ligand field excited states is unlikely to lead to unwanted photochemistry of dye-sensitized solar cells based on cis-Ru(LL)(2)(NCS)(2)-type compounds at room temperature