Evaluation of salt tolerance in almond [Prunus dulcis (L.) Batsch] rootstocks

In this study, four interspecific Prunus rootstocks (‘HS314’, ‘HS312’, ‘HS302’ and ‘GF677’) and the Iranian almond cultivar ‘Sahand’ were subjected to four different salinity levels (1.5, 3, 6 and 9 dSm-1) to determine the effects of salt level on growth parameters and chemical compositions. The results obtained indicate that increased salinity level had significant negative effects on leaf chlorophyll content, leaf area, dry and fresh weight of root and shoot. In addition, increasing the salinity level in general caused an increase in leaf proline concentration; however, the different genotypes were significantly different in response to the salinity level. According to these findings, proline content increase in ‘Sahand’ cultivar was lower than those of the other studied genotypes were. The majority of the plant's responses to the high salinity levels (6 and 9 dSm-1) were significant with no deleterious effects observed on plant growth triggered by lower salt concentrations of 1.5 and 3 dSm-1. A significant decrease in total chlorophyll and chlorophyll b content was also found at the high salinity levels but no significant change in chlorophyll a was evident. The potassium (K+), magnesium (Mg2+), calcium (Ca2+), sodium (Na+) and chloride (Cl-) ion concentrations of the leaves and roots were significantly different among the studied genotypes due to their exposure to different salinity levels. The concentration of Mg2+, Cl- and Na+ as well as the Na+/K+ ratio in the leaves of all the genotypes were increased by the salinity stress, whereas it had no significant effect on the Ca2+ and K+ concentrations as well as the Na+/Ca2+ ratio. The result obtained in this study suggest that ‘HS314’ and ‘GF677’ interspecific hybrids may represent novel sources of salinity tolerance.Keywords: Breeding, interspecific hybridization, proline, salinit

Development of a new algorithm for segmentation of flotation froth images

It is well known that froth visual features reflect the operating conditions of the flotation process, so that being able to accurately obtain the froth properties is the most significant criteria to optimize and control this process. Froth segmentation is a useful procedure that can determine the bubble size distribution. Several algorithms have been proposed in this field, but marker-based watershed transform shows the best performance. In spite of this fact, the algorithm suffers from oversegmentation in cases when the flotation froth includes large bubbles along with small ones. In the paper, the marker-based watershed method is modified to prevent oversegmentation of large bubbles. The developed algorithm is validated using some froth images captured at different operating conditions, so the results indicate that the method can segment the mixture of big and small bubbles effectively

Improved Gravitational Search Algorithm (GSA) Using Fuzzy Logic

Researchers tendency to use different collective intelligence as the search methods to optimize complex engineering problems has increased because of the high performance of this algorithms. Gravitational search algorithm (GSA) is among these algorithms. This algorithm is inspired by Newton's laws of physics and gravitational attraction. Random masses are agents who have searched for the space. This paper presents a new Fuzzy Population GSA model called FPGSA. The proposed method is a combination of parametric fuzzy controller and gravitational search algorithm. The space being searched using this combined reasonable and accurate method. In the collective intelligence algorithms, population size influences the final answer so that for a large population, a better response is obtained but the algorithm execution time is longer. To overcome this problem, a new parameter called the dispersion coefficient is added to the algorithm. Implementation results show that by controlling this factor, system performance can be improved

Albuminuria and its correlates in an Iranian type 2 diabetic population

Abstract Objective To study the prevalence and correlates of increased urinary albumin excretion (UAE) in an Iranian type 2 diabetic population. Methods Over a one year period since October 2002, 400 consecutive type 2 diabetic patients referred to an outpatient diabetes clinic, were enrolled in a cross sectional study. Subjects had no history of renal impairment or overt proteinuria. Data concerning demographic characteristics and cardiovascular risk factors were recorded and height, weight and blood pressure were measured. Glucose, cholesterol, HDL-C, LDL-C, triglyceride, apoprotein B, lipoprotein a, creatinine, and HbA1c were measured in fasting blood samples. Overnight twelve-hour UAE were assessed by immunoturbidometry method. Regression analyses were employed to determine the correlates of UAE. Results Out of 400 patients, 156 (40%) subjects had increased UAE (UAE ≥ 30 mg/24 hour). The UAE was higher in males compared to females (145.5 vs. 72.1 mg/day; p Conclusion In this study, increased UAE was considerably frequent among type 2 diabetic patients without any significant history of renal dysfunction. Albuminuria was found to be associated with dyslipidemia (low HDL-C), long duration of diabetes, and uncontrolled glycemia revealed by higher HbA1c.</p