A number of 52 Arabian ewes with 2-5 years old were randomly divided to three groups: 1) insertion of CIDR for 6 days (n=18), 2) insertion of MAP SPONGE for 6 days (n=15) and 3) control group without treatment (n=19). In hormonal treatment groups, 600 IU eCG was injected intra muscularly at the time of withdrawal of the above devices. Then, one fertile and health Arabian ram introduced to each five ewes in order to standing heat detection and mating. Estrous response rate, estrous onset time, repeat breeding, fertility, lambing rate, gestation length, litter size, lamb weight and blood serum progesterone values in experimental treatments were studied. Estrous response in CIDR and SPONGE groups were significantly higher than the control group (P<0.05). Estrous response was not differ between hormonal treatments (P>0.05). There were not significant differences for mean time of estrous onset after withdrawal of progesterone devices, repeat breeding rate, fertility rate, lambing rate, pregnancy duration, litter size, lamb weight and blood serum progesterone concentrations at before and 3 days after insertion of these hormonal devices as well as 50 days after mating between short term CIDR and SPONGE treatments (P>0.05). One day after removing the CIDR and SPONGE devices, blood serum progesterone level in CIDR treatment was significantly higher than that in SPONGE group (P<0.05). The highest estrus responses in short term CIDR and SPONGE treatments were observed in 36-48 and 48-60 hours after removal of these devices, respectively.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the reproductive efficiency of short and long term treatment with progestagens in addition to pregnant mare serum gonadotropin (PMSG) in Arabian ewes during the non-breeding season. A total of 56 ewes were divided into three groups: in group I vaginal SPONGEs (60 mg medroxy progesterone acetate; MAP) were applied and removed after 6 days; in group II, vaginal MAP SPONGEs were removed 14 days following insertion while group III served as control group. The first two groups were intramuscularly injected with of 600 IU PMSG, following SPONGE removal. Parameters such as estrus response rate, duration of estrus, pregnancy rate and fecundity were evaluated. There were no significant differences in estrus response rate and fecundity rate between groups I and II (P>0.05). However, differences were significant when these two treatment groups were coMAPred with control group. In group I, duration of estrus was significantly higher than group II (P<0.05). In addition, pregnancy rate in group I was significantly higher than group II (P<0.05). It was concluded that short-term SPONGE treatment (6 days) had better performance when coMAPred with long-term SPONGE treatment (14 days) in Arabian ewes.

This experiment was conducted to determine the reproductive performance of Arabian ewes treated with short and long-term progesterone devices in addition to low doses of equine chorionic gonadotropin (eCG) during the anoestrus season. A total of 36 ewes were divided into three groups: in group I vaginal SPONGEs (60 mg medroxy progesterone acetate; (MAP)) were applied and removed after 6 days; in group II, vaginal MAP SPONGEs were removed 12 days following insertion, while group III served as control group. The first two groups were intramuscularly injected with of 300 IU eCG, following SPONGE removal. Parameters such as oestrus response rate, time to onset of oestrus, duration of oestrus, pregnancy, lambing and fecundity rates were evaluated. Blood samples were collected one day before SPONGE insertion and two days after SPONGE insertion and on day of oestrus. There were significant differences between the group I and II with control group regarding the plasma estradiol and progesterone levels. There were no significant differences in oestrus response, time to onset of oestrus, pregnancy, lambing and fecundity rates between groups I and II (P>0.05). However, differences were significant when these two treatment groups were compared with the control group. In group I, duration of oestrus was significantly higher than group II (P<0.05). In addition, other factors in group I was numerically greater than group II (P>0.05). It was concluded that short-term SPONGE treatment (6 days) had better performance when compared with the long-term SPONGE treatment (12 days) in Arabian ewes.

Today snow and avalanche studies have progressed dramatically throughout the world, and countries are experiencing avalanche phenomena have established advanced research and development centers in this regard. For many years, they have used their research and results. In Iran, despite the presence of snow in some parts of the country, no official observing centers have made in the country. One of the important issues in the avalanche studies are: the avalanche risk MAP that identifies avalanches in snowy and mountainous regions, but this MAP is very different from the avalanche risk MAP. Many domestic researchers find the two MAPs mistakenly the same. In this research, we have tried to determine the difference between avalanche hazard MAP and avalanche risk MAP.

Introduction: Wound debridement is necessary before skin grafting or wound closure. Inappropriate wound bed preparation will led to graft rejection and sometimes catastrophic results, especially in large wounds, . Usage of popular debridement and excision devices such as dermatomes has some difficulties and disadvantages. In this study we will introduce metallic scrub SPONGE as a safe and effective debridement device. Methods: The surgeon usually uses a sterile metallic scrub SPONGE over the wound with transverse or rotational repeated movement. Wound preparing with metallic SPONGE should be stopped when pinpoint bleeding occurs. We used sterile metallic SPONGE for more than 2500 burn patients. Results: The results are excellent for deep second degree burn (and deeper burns at least 5-10 days after burn when some eschar loosening occurs). Work with scrub SPONGE was effective, fast and safe. Discussion: Metallic scrub SPONGE is a useful device for wound preparation due to its some special characteristics. Debridement of the burn wound with metallic SPONGE can preserve the spontaneous epithelialization potential of skin in second degree burns and reduce additional injury to the viable tissue that is inevitable by surgical debridement. Cost effectiveness, easy accessibility, safety, softness, inertness and some others are among the other advantages of metallic SPONGE usage for wound preparation. Conclusion: Due to metallic SPONGE’ s simplicity and capability to remove necrotic loose tissues and easy accessibility everywhere and minimal adverse effects, it is a good first line tool for wound preparation and debridement.

Okara is by-product of soy milk and tofu production with exclusive nutritional value and functional properties that is not sufficiently applied in food industry. The purpose of present study was optimization of SPONGE cake formulation with okara (0-66% of wheat flour) and kiwi (0-25% of wheat flour) as an enzymatic improver with response surface methodology. Rregarding to the most important qualitative parameters of SPONGE cake such as moisture, density, porosity, color and textural profile, the best quantities of okara and kiwi in formulation were considered %29.7 and %12.45 respectively. According to the results, retrogradiation progress in optimized sample with okara and kiwi is significantly lower than control and cohesiveness of texture in 14 days shelf life is maintained. While in control sample, cohesiveness is reduced significantly in storage time. Furthermore, the springiness of its texture shows significant increase in storage time. Therefore, the use of optimal amounts of okara and also kiwiin in SPONGE cake formulations in addition of improving nutritional value, have considerable impact on reducing rate of retrogradiation process of products.

A down-flow hanging SPONGE (DHS) reactor has been developed for sewage treatment, mainly in developing countries. This novel reactor employs polyurethane SPONGE material as a support medium, which promises a proliferation of a large amount of biomass, offering excellent pollutant removal capability. Three types of SPONGE medium were evaluated with respect to water distribution and oxygen mass transfer. Water was supplied to the device, which consisted of 40 pieces of SPONGE media connected in series, and a tracer experiment was carried out. The ratios of actual hydraulic retention time (HRT) to theoretical HRT were in the range of 25-67% depending on the type of support medium. By supplying deoxygenated water from the top of the device, the overall volumetric oxygen transfer coefficient, KLa, was evaluated. Despite the non-aerated conditions, theKLa values of the support media were very high, in the range of 0.56-4.88 (1/min), surpassing those of other mechanically aerated processes. Furthermore, it was found that the suspended solids (SS) concentration in the influent played a role in increasing the actual HRT/theoretical HRT ratio, suggesting that managing the influent SS concentration is prerequisite for preventing clogging problems in the DHS.