Influence of colloidal Au on the growth of ZnO nanostructures

Vapor-liquid-solid processes allow growing high-quality nanowires from a catalyst. An alternative to the conventional use of catalyst thin films, colloidal nanoparticles offer advantages not only in terms of cost, but also in terms of controlling the location, size, density, and morphology of the grown nanowires. In this work, we report on the influence of different parameters of a colloidal Au nanoparticle suspension on the catalyst-assisted growth of ZnO nanostructures by a vapor-transport method. Modifying colloid parameters such as solvent and concentration, and growth parameters such as temperature, pressure, and Ar gas flow, ZnO nanowires, nanosheets, nanotubes and branched-nanowires can be grown over silica on silicon and alumina substrates. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy reveals the high-crystal quality of the ZnO nanostructures obtained. The photoluminescence results show a predominant emission in the ultraviolet range corresponding to the exciton peak, and a very broad emission band in the visible range related to different defect recombination processes. The growth parameters and mechanisms that control the shape of the ZnO nanostructures are here analyzed and discussed. The ZnO-branched nanowires were grown spontaneously through catalyst migration. Furthermore, the substrate is shown to play a significant role in determining the diameters of the ZnO nanowires by affecting the surface mobility of the metal nanoparticles

The survey on aquaculture capacity of Ghar-Khatlo dam reservoir in Zanjan province

Qhar-khetlu dam reservoir is in the central part of Ijrud city of Zanjan province with a reservoir volume of 500000 and a water volume of 900000 cubic meters, covering an area of 6 hectares and containing 3500 hectares of the watershed in order to control seasonal floods, drinking water in the village, strengthening the aquifers of the area and As a water supply in the dry seasons, 120 hectares of agricultural land was planted for irrigation.Study of this water source with the aim of measuring biological and non-biological factors, determination of aquaculture production and Fish release capacity and fishing capacity for optimal use of fishery management in Zanjan province was done in 2006.The results of hydrochemical analysis of the water of Qharkhetlu dam reservoir showed that the minimum and maximum temperature of water ranged from 4.5 to 26 ° C, the pH of the water was 4.7 to 8.8, the dissolved oxygen was 7.7 to 12.2 mg, the total water hardness fluctuation was 154 194 mg/L and electrical conductivity of 272 to 390 micrometers per square centimeter, the water transparency was 25 to 380 centimeters.In this study, six phytoplankton classes with 31 genera and 3 classes of zooplankton with 14 genera were obtained. The abundance of phytoplanktons was counted from 150,000 to 206,000 per liter, and the average chlorophyll a, 1.10 micrograms, was estimated. The frequency of zooplanktons were 32 to 132 per liter, as well as the mean of 544 per square meter of macrobenthos.By comparing of the physical, chemical and biological factors and also the results of previous studies of this water source, the conditions for the introduction of warm water and cold water fishes including silver carp, big head carp, rainbow trout out and native fishes including species of Barbus and Capoeta genera are suitable. Estimation of Qhar-khetlu dam reservoir production is 80 kg/ha and its production capacity is 484 kg per year

Original article title: "Comparison of therapeutic efficacy of topical corticosteroid and oral zinc sulfate-topical corticosteroid combination in the treatment of vitiligo patients: a clinical trial"

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Vitiligo is the most prevalent pigmentary disorder which occurs worldwide, with an incidence rate between 0.1-4 percent. It is anticipated that the discovery of biological pathways of vitiligo pathogenesis will provide novel therapeutic and prophylactic targets for future approaches to the treatment and prevention of vitiligo. The purposes of this study were evaluating the efficacy of supplemental zinc on the treatment of vitiligo.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This randomized clinical trial was conducted for a period of one year. Thirty five patients among 86 participants were eligible to entrance to the study. The patients in two equal randomized groups took topical corticosteroid and combination of oral zinc sulfate-topical corticosteroid.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The mean of responses in the corticosteroid group and the zinc sulfate-corticosteroid combination group were 21.43% and 24.7%, respectively.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Although, the response to corticosteroid plus zinc sulfate was more than corticosteroid, there was no statistically significant difference between them. It appeared that more robust long-term randomized controlled trials on more patients, maybe with higher doses of zinc sulfate, are needed to fully establish the efficacy of oral zinc in management of vitiligo.</p> <p>Trial Registration</p> <p>chiCTRTRC10000930</p

Study of Golabar dam reservoir in Zanjan province (Zanjan Province)

The limnological study of the Golabar dam showed that in the Glabar dam inspite of bing its early establishment due to high nutrient and organic matter is located in eutrophic stage. the pH as well as bicarbonate levels shows that buffering capacity of the lake is high and the value of inorganic and organic matter measured are not considered as limiting factor for warme and cold water aquaculture. In the plankton survey 44 species of phytoplankton and 25 species of zooplankton were identified. Cyclotella , Nitzschia, Synedra and Trachelomona from phytoplankton and Polyarthera , Keratella , Filinia , Pompholyx from zooplankton were the dominant spicies.the Bacillariophyta from phytoplankton with 76.5 percent and Rotatoria zooplankton to with 76.2 percent considered the highest abundant . The average frequency of phytoplankton and zooplankton were 5*106 and 723 individual per litter. The Shironomide and Tobificide were the only two bentic group were identified in reservoir wehre their mean frequced were 293.75 and 224.30 respectively. The average biomass of bentic organism were 1.44±0.97 gr/m2.In the survey 12 species of fishes were identified. The potential natural production have been estimated to be 2.8 to 15.5 kg for bentivorous fish and varied from 53 to 175 kg /hec for plankton consumer fishes .The low temperature in several months as well as ice covered of the lake surface in particular in the months of duty and Bahman are the limiting factor of either warm or cold water fish production

Assessment of Tree and Multiple Linear Regressions in Estimation of Cation Exchange Capacity

Introduction: Estimation of cation exchange capacity (CEC) with reliable soil properties can save time and cost. Pedotransfer function (PTF) is a common method in estimating certain soil properties (e.g. CEC) that has been wieldy used for many years. One of the common techniques that have been used to develop PTFs is multiple linear regressions. In this method, all easily obtained soil properties are linearly related to certain soil properties. In addition to multiple linear regressions method, more complex techniques such as artificial neural networks and regression tree have been used to develop PTFs. The regression tree method is a well-known method for analyzing the environmental science which determines optimal separation point of independent variables.The purposes of this study were to evaluate and compare tree and multiple linear regressions in estimating cation exchange capacity with reliable soil properties. Materials and Methods: For this work, 106 soil samples of Unsaturated Soil hydraulic database (UNSODA), which contain a wide range of soil texture classes, were used. The examples were divided into 2 sets including 81 and 25 soil samples for developing and validating multiple linear regression and tree regression, respectively. For estimating CEC with tree and multiple regressions, soil texture properties, organic matter, pH and bulk density were used. To develop multiple linear regressions and create the tree structure, at first, correlation between cation exchange capacity with other soil properties were evaluated; then, soil properties that had significant correlation were chosen to introduce software. As well, the suggested linear function and tree structure were compared with 2 famous pedotranser functions including Bell and Van-kolen and Breeuwsma et al., which have been used for estimating CEC.For investigating the performance of multiple linear regression and tree regression to estimate CEC 1:1 lines, determination coefficient (R2), mean error (ME), root mean square error) RMSE), and geometric mean error (GMER) were used. Statistica 8.0 software that was developed by ESRI was used to develop multiple linear regressions and generate tree structure. Results and Discussion: The results showed for developing multiple linear regression model to estimate CEC among all inputs parameters (sand, silt, clay, organic matter, pH and bulk density) only just two parameters including organic (with r=0.70) and clay percentage (with r=0.59) had a significant coefficient, so organic and clay percentage appeared, and suggested multiple linear regression models based on this two parameters, with coefficient of 3.183 and 0.274, respectively, were developed. Also, only organic matter and clay percentage from inputs parameter in tree were shown. In tree structure most nods were divided into 2 Childs nods based on organic matter and only in the left side of tree structure in the second level clay percentage was appeared. Regression tree in two data sets (validation and development) based on R2, RMSE, ME and GMER had a high quality for CEC estimation than regression methods. Proposed linear regression model had high performance than Bell and Van-kolen and Breeuwsma et al. to estimate CEC. Conclusions: The main aim of this study was to investigate the efficiency of multiple linear regression model and regression tree to predict cation exchange capacity (CEC) based on relationships between CEC and easily measurable soil properties. For this work, 106 soil samples of UNSODA data set were used. Results showed that just clay percentage and organic matter that had higher correlation with CEC appeared in suggested linear regression and tree structure. Based on 1:1 lines, R2 ,RMSE, ME and GMER, tree regression model had higher performance than all linear regression models (suggested function , Bell and Van-kolen and Breeuwsma et. al.) to estimate cation exchange capacity. As well, suggested function had more efficiency than Bell and Van-kolen and Breeuwsma to predict CEC

GIS-Based assessment of groundwater quality for drinking purpose in northern part of Fars province, Marvdasht

With increasing population and freshwater shortages worldwide, it is necessary to protect vital groundwater resources using innovative methods. The main objective of this study is to use a GIS-based approach with the Groundwater Quality Index (GWQI) to analyze groundwater quality in Marvdasht located in the semi-arid region of Iran. For this purpose, we used groundwater quality data that were collected in a five-year period (2010–2015). The most influential water quality parameters were determined by performing map removal sensitivity analysis. Mean maps of the groundwater parameters showed that total dissolved solid (TDS), electrical conductivity (EC) and total hardness (TH) were the most important parameters that exceed the maximum permissible limits for drinking water. The groundwater quality of the study area is generally desirable for drinking (GWQI = 71). The GWQI map indicated that groundwater was higher quality in northern regions of the study area. The GWQI also revealed that only 2% of the study area (11 km2) was below the low quality class. According to map removal sensitivity analysis, Mg2+, TH and Na+ were identified as the most sensitive water quality parameters. Therefore, these parameters need to be monitored regularly and with increased precision