Water exploitation of Karoon River for fish culturing through monitoring and simulation systems

Heavy metal pollution dispersion simulation in rivers and predicting spatial and temporal variations of pollutants can be used to determine the precise place and to schedule water withdrawal time for drinking, agriculture, aquaculture and ecosystem studies. To study the movement of heavy metal pollution through Karoon flow model, MIKE 11 was employed for simulation of the flow model of Karoon River as well as heavy metal moving. The model was run for lead along the 214 km of Karoon River from Ahwaz to Darkhvein. The input data used for this model were river morphology parameters, statistical data of water flow and water contamination. The output of the model conformed to real data collected from different locations along the River. It was concluded that Karoon River water exploitation for fish culturing (e.g., salmon culture) should be at least 40 km far from Ahwaz (close to Bayoz City) from July to December and 20 km for the rest of the year

Generation and detection of large and robust entanglement between two different mechanical resonators in cavity optomechanics

We investigate a general scheme for generating, either dynamically or in the steady state, continuous variable entanglement between two mechanical resonators with different frequencies. We employ an optomechanical system in which a single optical cavity mode driven by a suitably chosen two-tone field is coupled to the two resonators. Significantly large mechanical entanglement can be achieved, which is extremely robust with respect to temperature.Comment: To appear in New J. Phys. Small extensions in response to the points raised by the referee and Refs adde

Mucocutaneous manifestations and nail changes in patients with end-stage renal disease on hemodialysis.

Mucocutaneous manifestations are common among patients on hemodialysis (HD). This study was undertaken to determine the prevalence of mucocutaneous manifestations in patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) who are on HD. In this cross-sectional, descriptive and analytic study conducted in 2009, 100 patients on HD at the Five Azar Hospital in Gorgan city were randomly selected. All the patients underwent detailed examination by a dermatologist to look for lesions in the skin, hair, nail and mucous membranes; if felt necessary, biopsy was obtained from the lesions. The findings were statistically analyzed using SPSS-13 software. For evaluation of normality of distribution, Kolmogorov-Smirnov was used, for quantitative variables Mann-Whitney and T-test (abnormal distribution) were used and for qualitative variables, Chi-2 and Fisher were used. In this study, P-value less than 0.05 was considered significant. Fifty-one males and 49 females were enrolled. The mean age was 49 ± 12 years. Diabetes was the most common cause of ESRD. In 95% of the patients, at least one mucocutaneous manifestation was present. Xerosis (78.3%) was the most common lesion, followed by pruritus (39.1%), lentigo (34.8%), skin discoloration (32.6%), leukonychia (32%) and thinning of the nail bed (24%). Xerosis, scaling, lentigo, folliculitis, idiopathic guttate hypopigmentation, leukonychia and half and half nail were associated with age. A significant relationship was seen between duration on dialysis and skin discoloration and leukonychia. Clubbing had a significant association with calcium-phosphorus product (Ca � P). There was a significant association between serum ferritin level and pruritus and tinea versicolor lesions. Our study shows that mucocutaneous manifestations are common among patients with ESRD. Identification of these manifestations and their association with causative factors are useful for preventing the lesions

Study on nanoparticles of Aloe vera extract on growth performance, survival rate and body composition in Siberian sturgeon (Acipenser baerii)

The application of nanotechnology in drug delivery and a variety of supplements is very impressive. In this regard, the use of this knowledge can be effective in the performance of medicinal plants in aquaculture. In the present study Aloe vera was extracted and its nanoparticles were produced. Three levels of Aloe vera nanoparticles in Siberian sturgeon (Acipenser baerii) were evaluated for the effects on growth performance, survival rate and body composition. A total of 360 Siberian sturgeon (A. baerii) with an average of 10.95 ± 0.04 (g) randomly divided into four treatment groups with three replicates each. The treatment groups were fed with diets that included 0% (control), 0.5, 1 and 1.5% of Aloe vera nanoparticles for 60 days. Weight gain, initial body weight, condition factor, feed conversion ratio, specific growth rate, protein efficiency ratio, survival rate, and body composition (protein, lipid, carbohydrate, ash and moisture) were measured and compared among the fish in the different groups. The results showed that growth indices of fish fed the Aloe vera nanoparticles were higher than the control diet, so that the difference between the control group and 1% Aloe vera nanoparticles was more than that in other treatments. In each of the body composition parameters, no significant differences were observed among the treatments and control groups (p>0.05). Considering that there are no significant differences in results between 1% and 1.5% Aloe vera nanoparticles, the results showed that adding 1% Aloe vera nanoparticles to the fish diet improves the growth factors of Siberian sturgeon