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Aims: Drug abuse among college students continues as a major public-health concern. Theory-driven research is necessary to address and find causes. The current research investigates the utility of Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) in designing and implementing a drug abuse educational prevention program among medical college students. Methods: This quasi-experimental study was conducted among 120 college students in two groups: experimental and control, who were randomly enrolled at the baseline survey. We used a questionnaire, which included three sections of background data (11 questions), knowledge about the side effects of drug abuse questionnaire (16 questions), and TPB-based questionnaire (20 questions). Educational planning was based on active learning with using group discussion, printed leaflet, and audio-visual CD. The participants were followed up after 2-month intervention. Data were analyzed by the SPSS software version 16 using appropriate statistical tests such as stepwise multiple logistic regressions and t-test. Findings: Almost 6.7% of the participants had a history of drug abuse. The three predictors of 1) attitude, 2) subjective norms, and 3) perceived behavioral control accounted for 48 % of the variation in the outcome measure of the intention to drug abuse. There was a significant improvement in average response for knowledge about the side effects of drug abuse and TPB variables among the students who were under intervention (P < 0.05). Conclusions: Designing intervention to reduce positive attitude and subjective norms toward drug abuse among college students could be useful to substance abuse prevention.

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Abstract. Phycocyanine (PC) belongs to a group of protein receptor proteins called phycobiliprotein. All of the phycobiliprotein are multi-chain proteins made up of apoproteins. Which are covalently attached to the phyclobilins. This experimental study was carried out on strain of native Anabaena doliolum,  Isolated from soils and waters of south Iran were Masjed Soleyman area. The cyanobacteria were grown and stored in BG11 medium. Then, the amount of phycocyanin produced under different light treatment and the amount of phycocyanin extracted using different ratios of multi-buffer and at two different temperatures were evaluated. The results of this study showed that the highest growth rate is when the sample is exposed to green light for three to five days. The best amount of extraction for distilled water and at a refrigerator temperature (0^◦C) with a ratio of 3:1 biomass/solvent is equal to 0.03 ± 15 µg/ml. Also, at the environment temperature, phosphate buffer is a more suitable solvent for extracting phycocyanine at a ratio of one to two with a value of 0.05 ± 8 µg/ml. In general, it can be said that the growth rate, pigment production and optimum extraction conditions for each species are quite different, and the optimal extraction of phycocyanin  in a species is also dependent on various factors such as time, temperature, solvent and the ratio of biomass to solvent.
 

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Objective: Evaluating the effects of p-benzoquinone and hydroquinone on the RUNX2 expression and osteoblastic differentiation of human marrow derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). Materials and Methods: Bone marrow MSCs obtained by cultivating marrow mononuclear cells, were exposed to 10μM of either p-benzoquinone or hydroquinone. Following chemical treatment, RUNX2 gene expression was assessed by Real-time RT PCR 1, 6, 24 and 48 hours later and osteogenic differentiation was analyzed using alizarin red and alkaline phosphatase staining methods on days 7 and 14 after ostegenic induction. Results: RUNX2 expression was significantly elevated (up to approximately 8 times) due to chemical exposure but the applied chemicals exert no considerable effect on MSCs osteogenic differentiation. Conclusion: According to the literature, despite the necessity of RUNX2 overexpression on the induction of osteogenic differentiation, but it is not sufficient for osteogenesis to occure so increase in RUNX2 expression observed in our study is not the indicator of the induced osteogenic differentiation. Instead, this elevated expression could be the sign of increased activity of the canonical Wnt signaling pathway thereby its involvement in the development of AML due to exposure to benzene and its metabolites. Moreover, this augmented expression of RUNX2 in MSCs can indicate the RUNX2 overexpression in myeloid progenitors as an expected similar effect of exposure to benzene and its metabolites to contribute in myeloid malignancies developed due to benzene exposure.

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Bridge failures are fortunately rare, but every year a number of bridge collapse that has occurred somewhere in the world. In many cases these collapses could have been avoided by an adequate bridge management regime that included good inspection, assessment and maintenance procedures. One specific type of failure that from time to time causes sudden catastrophic collapse of bridges is the undermining of foundations due to bed scour. Bed scour is the transport of bed material by the flow of water and is present to some degree where the river bed is formed of granular material. Scour increases as flow rates increase and therefore the actual collapse of structures due to scour often occurs during periods of extreme flow due to flooding. Of course, this is exactly the time that direct observation of the foundations of a structure is not possible and therefore a collapse may be put down to an ‘act of God’. A good inspection regime that includes bed measurement and engineering analysis can find indications of developing scour before the situation becomes critical. If this is followed up with well-designed remedial works, undermining of the structure, even in extreme conditions, may be prevented. The formation of scour holes around bridge piers or abutment is one of the main causes of bridge foundation collapse. Local scour at bridge piers and abutment may be defined as a local lowering of the bed elevation. This lowering is mainly caused by the horseshoe vortex combined with the downflow in front of the pier and abutment, the vortex shedding at the back of the pier, abutment and the flow contraction. Bridge failure due to the effects of local scour associated with the structure of the local flow field around piers and abutment involves a considerable interest in scour prediction and scour protection measures. Two basic procedures may reduce the scour depth. The first consists in enhancing the ability of the bed material to withstand erosion. This is generally done by placing an armoring device on the bed, such as riprap. The riprap provides a physical obstacle that resists the erosive power of the flow. The second procedure consists in reducing the downflow in front of the pier and the horseshoe vortex scouring the bed material. The local scour around bridge pier and abutment in recent years has been widely studied by different authors. They proposed different methods to control the scouring depth. The most dominant concern about bridges stability is the occurrence of local scour around foundations. The local scour around bridge piers and abutments has been widely studied by different authors in recent years. They proposed different methods to control the scour depth. In order to reduce scouring around bridge piers and abutments one of the methods is the soil compaction. Compaction rise the relative density and soil resistance which mitigates scour and produce a time delay in scour hole development process. This paper focuses on the effect of clay content percentage and compaction ratio on scour reduction around bridge piers. Hence, 5%, 10%, and 15% clay was added to soil and then compacted. According to the experimental results, when 15% clay was added to non-cohesive sediment materials in saturated bed conditions with a relative density of 70%, the scour process was completely controlled after 24 hours around the bridge pier.

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Sand and gravel are essential materials for developing purposes in infrastructures and many various purposes. Iran, is a developing country and numerous infrastructure projects all around the country are under construction. This issue, demonstrates the growing demand for sand and gravel harvesting. Irregular and non-technical harvesting of sand and gravel from rivers, plays an important role in unwanted morphological and environmental side-effects. Physical modeling and numerical simulation are two main techniques to investigate this phenomenon. Considering the high cost of constructing physical models, application of numerical tools for simulation of hydrodynamics and sedimentation has made a significant help for understanding the related phenomenon including the effects of sand and gravel removal in different rivers. In this study, the accuracy of the MIKE21 as a two-dimensional numerical tool, in simulation of sand harvesting hole displacement was investigated by comparison with laboratory data. For this purpose, nine experiments with different dimensions of excavation holes were designed in a 10 m long and 0.7 m wide laboratory flume with uniform sand bed materials. (D₅₀=0.71mm). Two types of triangular and trapezoidal excavation holes were tested. Four important point plus depth and area of the excavated hole were considered as base points of comparison between simulated and experimental results. The flow depth was constant during all experiments (12 cm) and clear water condition was considered (v/vc=0.95). Acceptable agreement between numerical and experimental results was observed. However, the accuracy of the model was more in larger holes whereas the maximum error in predicting the migrated hole geometry in trapezoidal holes was about a half of triangular ones. After verifying the numerical model in laboratory, a specific reach in Helleh river was considered as a case study. Initially one-dimensional model of the river was simulated with HEC-RAS. 25 years return period flow hydrograph was introduced as the upstream boundary condition. Normal flow depth at Helleh Lagoon and time series of the water surface elevation changes of the Persian Gulf were introduced as two downstream boundary conditions. The boundary conditions of the selected reach for   two-dimensional modeling were extracted from one-dimensional simulation. After setting up the two-dimensional model, the effect of sand and gravel mining on a bridge in the reach was investigated in two different scenarios. The distance of the sand mining hole to the bridge was selected as 1000 m and 100 m respectively in two scenarios. It should be noted the simulation was conducted only for a 25 years return period within 16 days. More severe floods can leave more significant effects on the river and in-line structures. The results indicated that for a flood event with a return period of 25 years which was considered for simulation, sand and gravel mining had changed the hydraulic parameters and bed profile significantly, so that the flow depth at the vicinity of the excavation hole was raised up to 77% in second scenario. The flow velocity was reduced up to 75% in the first scenario and the bed profile was decreased up to 1.27m at the foundation of the bridge in the second scenario. Initial signs of river meandering were emerged in the second scenario where the flow was deviated to the mining hole.
 

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Women's Islamic covering is one of the most debated topics surrounding the issue of women in Islam towards which different discourses have taken a variety of positions. This paper will examine two distinct views of Qasim Amin (1863-1908), a male Egyptian scholar who is traditionally is known as the first Muslim feminist in Arab world, and Ayatullah Mortaza Mutahhari (1903-1980), an Iranian religious scholar who his works on women related issues are still, after a few decades, among the main sources in the study of women in Islam. This paper through analyzing the contents followed by a comparative analysis of the views of these two figures of the Islamic world reveals that recognition of Islamic covering as ''a right'' (haq) and “an obligation” (taklif) for Muslim women is an element that is absent in Amin's discussion of Muslim women's covering while it is a turning point in Mutahhri's discussion of the Islamic modest dress. This differentiation which is rooted in fundamentally different approaches of Mutahhari and Amin towards the concept of hijab has resulted in several disparities in their gender views. A major disparity is reflected in Mutahhari and Amin’s views on veiling and women’s social presence; the former considers veiling as the key to women’s dynamic, legitimate and constructive social activity while the latter judges it as the main obstacle in women’s activity in society.