Identifying appropriate information and communication technology (ICT) in improving marketing of agricultural products in Garmsar City, Iran

One of the most important factors for agricultural development is marketing of agricultural products. Information, as the most important facilitator and main core of the marketing system, has an effective role in increasing the marketing system efficiency. Today, farmers need access to updated and exact information in order to improve the quality and quantity of the agricultural products marketing. Information and communication technology (ICT), by accelerating the information delivery, have a key role in agricultural products marketing. This study, for this reason, is aimed to identify ICT capabilities in marketing the agricultural products of Garmsar city. This is an applied study and the research methodology is correlation. The main research tool was questionnaire and dependent variable was the agricultural products marketing. The statistical population of the study was 109 agricultural experts and extension agent working in agricultural service centers. After data collection and extraction, statistical analysis was done through SPSS Version 16 Descriptive results show that the situation of agricultural products marketing is fairly desirable. ICT also have a moderate role in the improvement of agricultural products marketing. Regression analysis results indicate that computer, electronic journals, website and mobile determined about 14% variance of agricultural products marketing.Key words: Information and communication technology (ICT), ICT tools, agricultural products marketing

Erratum: Thermodynamics of solid and liquid EAM metals: A variational study [J. Chem. Phys. 94, 5090 (1991)]

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/70785/2/JCPSA6-95-8-6197-1.pd

Annihilation of singlet fermionic dark matter into two photons via pseudo-scalar mediator

We consider the indirect detection of dark matter within an extension of the standard model (SM) including a singlet fermion as cold dark matter (CDM) and a singlet pseudo-scalar as a mediator between dark matter and the SM particles. The annihilation cross section of the CDM into two monochromatic photons is calculated and compared with the latest H.E.S.S. data. Although for dark matter masses below 1 TeV the predicted observable cross sections are far from the sensitivity of the recent gamma-ray experiments, it can be comparable to the strongest H.E.S.S. upper bounds for some models with more massive CDM.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures, typo is fixed, references update

Essential fish habitats (EFH) of small pelagic fishes in the north of the Persian Gulf and Oman Sea, Iran

Small pelagic fishes particularly anchovy (Encrasicholina punctifer) and sardine (Sardinella sindensis) have an important role to support the Iranian fisheries and are distributed along the coastal waters of the Persian Gulf and Oman Sea. Using a logbook on small pelagic fisheries, a GIS-based environmental modeling approach was applied to investigate the presence and abundance of anchovy and sardine in relation to environmental variables. Redundancy analysis (RDA) was applied to provide a preliminary view of the relationships between fish presence/absence and environmental variables. Generalized Additive Models (GAMs) indicated the presence/absence of fish was related to distance from the nearest coast, depth, sea surface Chlorophyll-a, and SST. Results of the EFH showed that sardine is concentrated in specific areas of more favorable conditions, such as north of the Persian Gulf and all areas of the northwest of the Oman Sea. However, EFH of anchovy showed a more widespread distribution, occupying most of the north-west of the Oman Sea coastal waters, south of Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormoz as well as the Parsian district in the north of the Persian Gulf. In this study, it seems that the anchovy showed the probability of presence in the areas with more distance from the coastal waters. However, the EFH probability presences of sardine were predicted for near coastal water and obviously, shallower waters. Due to the development of small pelagic fisheries, it is highly recommended to investigate anchovy and sardine fishing possibility in areas with high EFH prediction probability

Detection and distribution of virulence genes in Aeromonas hydrophila isolates causing infection in cultured carps

Aeromonas hydrophila is a bacterium associated with many diseases and disorders such as fin rot, skin ulcers and lethal hemorrhagic septicemia in fish. It bears several virulence factors including type III secretion system (T3SS), aerolysin, cytolytic enterotoxin and enzymes (e.g., hemolysins, lipase) that seem to play an important role in its pathogenesis. Detection of virulence markers by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a key procedure in defining the pathogenic ability of pathogenic bacteria and preparing a vaccine for its treatment. In this sense, this study was aimed to determine the frequency of virulence genes in isolates obtained from infected cultured carps in Khuzestan province. Out of 200 moribund carps with septicemic symptoms, 125 isolates were belonged to the motile aeromonads and 59 isolates were identified as A. hydrophila by biochemical methods. Finally, using PCR analysis, 31 isolates were identified as A. hydrophila. Five virulence genes were detected in these isolates including hemolysin, aerolysin, cytolytic enterotoxin and T3SS (aopB and ascV) by specific primers. Results showed that 23 (74.19%), 18 (58.06%), 16 (51.61%), 13 (41.63%) and 10 (32.25%) isolates possessed cytolytic enterotoxin, hemolysin, aerolysin, and T3SS genes, respectively. The results of the present study showed that among 31 isolates, only five isolates had all of dominant virulence genes. Thirteen other isolates had genotypes including hlyA+, aerA+, and act+. The remaining isolates had at least one virulence gene. This study showed that determination of the virulence genes by PCR can be a reliable method to identify a potential pathogenic Aeromonad strain

Constraints on Crustal Structure in the Eastern and eastern Southern Alps

In the course of this study, an extensive seismological dataset from both the temporary SWATH-D network (Heit et al., 2021) and selected stations of the AlpArray Seismic Network (Hetényi et al., 2018) was analyzed. The primary aim of this endeavor was to gain comprehensive insights into the crustal structure of the southern and eastern Alps. The small inter-station spacing (average of ∼15 km within the SWATH-D network) allowed for depicting crustal structure at unprecedented resolution across a key part of the Alps. The methodological approach employed in this study entailed a sequential series of analyses to unveil the underlying features. The preliminary step encompassed the determination of the arrival times of both P and S seismic waves. Subsequently, a Markov chain Monte Carlo inversion technique was deployed to simultaneously calculate robust hypocenters, a 1-D velocity model, and station corrections (Jozi Najafabadi et al., 2021). This data was then utilized for calculation of 3-D VP and VP/VS models (Jozi Najafabadi et al., 2022). In addition, the path-averaged attenuation values were obtained by a spectral inversion of the waveform data of selected earthquakes. The attenuation structure (1/QP model) is then calculated using damped least square inversion of the path-averaged attenuation values (Jozi Najafabadi et al., 2023). These analyses resulted in a multidimensional depiction of the subsurface. The derived models for QP, VP and VP/VS indicate subsurface anomalies that can be attributed to rock’s physical parameters, presence of fluids within rocks and their motion in pores and fractures, temperature, and partial melting. The findings reflect head-on convergence of the Adriatic indenter (the part of the Adriatic Plate that has modified the Alpine orogenic edifice) with the Alpine orogenic crust. Furthermore, a highly heterogeneous crustal structure within the study area was unveiled. The velocity model illuminated decoupling of the lower crust from both its mantle substratum and upper crust. The Moho, taken to be the iso-velocity contour of Vp = 7.25 km/s, provided insights into the southward subduction of the European lithosphere, a phenomenon previously investigated in the Eastern and eastern Southern Alps (e.g., Kummerow et al., 2004 and Diehl et al., 2009). The most pronounced high-attenuation (low QP) anomaly is found to be closely correlated with the high density of faults and fractures in the Friuli-Venetian region, as well as the presence of fluid-filled sediments within the Venetian-Friuli Basin. Furthermore, the northwestern edge of the Dolomites Sub-Indenter (NWDI) corresponds to a low attenuation (high QP) anomaly which is interpreted as a reflection of the NWDI's stronger rocks compared to the surrounding areas

Dynamic of a non homogeneously coarse grained system

To study materials phenomena simultaneously at various length scales, descriptions in which matter can be coarse grained to arbitrary levels, are necessary. Attempts to do this in the static regime (i.e. zero temperature) have already been developed. In this letter, we present an approach that leads to a dynamics for such coarse-grained models. This allows us to obtain temperature-dependent and transport properties. Renormalization group theory is used to create new local potentials model between nodes, within the approximation of local thermodynamical equilibrium. Assuming that these potentials give an averaged description of node dynamics, we calculate thermal and mechanical properties. If this method can be sufficiently generalized it may form the basis of a Molecular Dynamics method with time and spatial coarse-graining.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Influence of anisotropic vibrational motion on diffraction from grain boundaries

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/28740/1/0000568.pd