Introduction: The expected values of hematologic and serum biochemical parameters in domestic animal species can be affected by breed, age, environment, and nutrition. Established breed-specific reference intervals (RI) are an important tool for monitoring the health of sheep. There is a lack of published data on biochemical RI for Sngsari sheep. Thus, the aims of this study were to establish RI for select of serum biochemical parameters for Sangsari sheep by Reference Value Advisor (RVA) method and provide information on the studied parameters for both sex of this breed in order to form a basis for clinical interpretation. Materials and Methods: Sixty healthy Sangsari sheep including 26 ewes and 34 rams (2– 4 years old) were chosen from the breeding station of Sangsari sheep among 150 sheep in Damghan, Semnan, Iran. The type of feeding, all the animals had free access to water and to good-quality alfalfa hay (90. 0 % DM, 15. 8 CP % DM, 50. 4NDF%DM, 31. 6ADF%DM, 5. 8 lignin% DM, and 2. 2 EE % DM). Concentrate (23 % oats, 36 % corn, 38 % barley, and 3%mineral and vitamin supplements) was provided once daily (200 g per animal per day). In the sampling day, breeder signed a subscription form and completed a primary questionnaire consisting of specific questions about past and current health status, sexual status, medications used, and familial and reproductive medical history. Complete physical examinations were performed by the same experienced veterinarian on each sheep. In order to reduce stress, blood samples were taken in the station with minimal changes in the usual schedule of the sheep. Blood samples (taken from the jugular vein) were collected in simple tubes in order to separate the serum (centrifuged at 3000 rpm for 10 min) for biochemical analysis. Samples transported at +4 ° C to the laboratory department of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Semnan, Iran. Biochemical parameters were measured by a autoanalyzer. These parameters included alkaline phosphatase (ALP), gamma glutamyletransferase (GGT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), blood urea nitrogen (BUN), total protein (TP) and albumin (Alb). For statistical analysis, data were analyzed by Reference Value Advisor and outliers were deleted if detected according to Tukey or Dixon. RIs, according to sample size, were determined using a robust method and following Box-Cox transformation of data. The data were normally distributed, and differences between sexes in biochemical parameters were analyzed using independent sample T test. A value of P<0. 05 was considered as significant. Results and Discussion: The RI of biochemical parameters obtained from adult healthy Sangsari sheep includes the following: ALP 49. 24-564. 84 u/l; GGT 24. 14-62. 23 u/l; AST 10. 86-338. 40 u/l; BUN 6. 91-26. 43 mg/dl; TP 5. 19-13. 95 gr/dl and Alb 0. 92-3. 63 gr/dl. Established RI of biochemical parameters for ewes and rams, respectively including: ALP 29. 98-702. 89 u/l; GGT 22. 41-54. 49 u/l; AST 1. 36-279. 89 u/l; BUN 5. 9526. 86 mg/dl; TP 5. 75-12. 83 gr/dl; Alb 0. 84-2. 77 gr/dl and ALP 106. 08-568. 55 u/l; GGT 20. 80-58. 30 u/l; AST 360. 12 u/l; BUN 8. 15-26. 04 mg/dl; TP 4. 66-15. 59 g/dl and Alb 0. 74-3. 77 g/dl. Interpretation of the biochemical results in different breeds of sheep, with regard to RI for each parameter, in conjunction with history, clinical findings and other paraclinical tests helps the clinician to reach a definitive diagnosis. A unique feature of Sangsari sheep is that they are highly adaptable with desert and mountain ranges with high tolerance of drought conditions. This breed is also relatively small size and light weight, and most studies have focused on genetic characteristics associated with this trait. In view of the characteristics mentioned above and considering the lack of reference range for biochemical parameters, it is necessary to determine reference intervals in Sangsari sheep. In order to establish a comprehensive reference interval in Sangsari sheep, a select biochemical parameters were evaluated in the present study. Almost most of the established RI for biochemical parameters in this study differed from previously published RI, so that the lower and upper limits of RI of theses parameters (with the exception of BUN) were lower and higher than the values previously reported. Differences between obtained RI for the Sangsari sheep and previously reported RI for other breeds may be attributed to variations in hormonal influences, hydration status, dietary differences, or adaptations to a desert environment, age, breed, season of study and analytic method. Conclusion: The obtained data provided reference interval for biochemical parameters in Sangsari sheep for the first time. Present study demonstrates significant differences in most of the biochemical parameters. Reference intervals determined in this study provide a baseline for interpreting biochemical results in Sangsari sheep, and contribute to optimization of the management of this species.

Background: Intraoral radiographies are the most frequent X-ray examinations in humans. According to International Commission on Radiation Protection (ICRP) recommendations, the selection of a diagnostic reference level (DRL) should be specific to a country or region. Critica l organs such as thyroid gland are exposed to X-rays in intraoral radiography and these exposures should be kept as low as reasonably achievable. To assist the development of DRLs for intraoral radiography, a National Radiation Protection Department-sponsored pilot study was carried out. Materials and Methods: Thermoluminescent dosimetry (TLD) is widely acknowledged to be the recommended method for measuring entrance surface doses (ESD). In this study, ESD was measured using LiF thermoluminescent dosimeters (TLD-100) on the skin (either mandibular or maxillary arcs) of 40 patients. Three TLD chips were placed on the skin of each patient. The doses were averaged for each radiography and mean ESD of all patients calculated. Results: The mean ± SD entrance surface dose at the center of the beam on the patients skin in intraoral radiography was 1.173 ± 0.606 mGy (ranged from 0.01 to 0.40 mGy). The mean ESD for male and female patients were 1.380 ± 0.823, and 1.004 ± 0.258 respectively. No statistically significant difference was found between these means. Despite its necessity, in national level, there is no published data on the diagnostic reference levels for intraoral radiography. However, the results obtained in this study are lower than those reported by investigators in other countries. Conclusion: In IR Iran, due to lack of large scale studies, no diagnostic reference levels have been set for X-ray diagnostic procedures. Due to lack of national diagnostic reference levels, it is not possible to clarify whether in intraoral radiographies any dose reduction techniques are needed. We intend to perform similar nationwide studies to set the diagnostic reference level for intraoral radiography

Background & Objective: In addition to pyramidal neurons and interneurons, the hippocampus contains Astrocytes that play important roles in regulating ion flux currents, energy production, neurotransmitter release and memory. Learning needs some instrument for information storage and information maintenances mechanisms resemble to memory. The aim of this study was determination of spatial memory effect on the number of astrocytes in rat’s hippocampus.Materials & Methods: In this experimental study, with usage of Morris Water Maze and Reference memory technique, we used 10 male albino wistar rats. 5 rats were in control group and 5 rats in Reference memory group. After histological preparation, the slides were stained with PTAH staining for showing the Astrocytes. Results: The findings of this study showed significant difference in astrocytes number in CA1, CA2 and CA3 area of hippocampus between control and reference memory group. The mean and SD of astrocytes in CA1, CA2 and CA3 of reference memory group were 118.57±25.29, 58.91±23.59 and 116.6±31.14, that they are more than control group with 49±17.29 in CA1, 48.8±25.21 in CA2 and 41.95±11.22 in CA3. Conclusion: We concluded that the number of astrocytes increased due to spatial learning (e.g. reference memory method).

Background and Aims: When composite resin polymerizes, shrinkage stresses tend to produce gaps at the tooth/ restoration interfaces. Surface sealants may reduce or avoid problems related to the marginal interface. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of two different surface sealants (Fortify and Optiguard) on the microleakage of class V resin composite restorations.Materials and Methods: Twenty three sound noncarious molars were collected. Totally, 45 Class V cavities with the occlusal margins in enamel and cervical margins in cementum were prepared in both buccal and lingual surfaces. The specimens were randomly assigned in three groups (15 cavities in each group) and then restored with a resin composite. After the finishing and polishing procedures, the restorations in each group were covered with a specific surface sealant, except for the control samples, which were not sealed. After placing restorations, the specimens were thermocycled and then immersed in a 50% silver nitrate solution (tracer agent) for four hours, sectioned longitudinally and analyzed for leakage using a stereomicroscope in a blind manner. The marginal microleakage was evaluated at the occlusal and cervical interfaces and compared among the three groups using the Kruskall-Wallis and the Mann-Whitney U tests.Results: Microleakage was found in all groups at both occlusal and cervical margins. Significantly greater leakage was observed at the cervical margins compared to the enamel margins of the material groups (P=0.005).There was no statistically significant difference among the groups at occlusal margins (P=0.66). In the cervical region, Fortify showed improved results and statistically presented the lowest degree of microleakage (P=0.003).Conclusion: The used sealant materials presented different rates of effectiveness and Fortify decreased marginal microleakage significantly.

Estimating reference evapotranspiration (ET0) is a fundamental requirement of agricultural water management. However, the lack of necessary meteorological data makes it difficult to estimate ET0 using the FAO-Penman-Monteith equation wider areas. Therefore, this research examines the estimation of daily reference evapotranspiration using MODIS Land Surface Temperature (LST) from satellite imagery in two climates of Tabriz and Rasht. ET0 has been estimated using two random forests (RF) and random forests optimized with genetic (GA-RF) algorithms. The parameters used in both stations include the combination of daily land surface temperature (LSTday), nightly land surface temperature (LSTnight) and average land surface temperature at night, and day (LSTmean). The obtained results indicated that LSTmean has an excellent ability to estimate ET0 in both stations. In Tabriz station with a semi-arid climate, GA-RF-7 model with RMSE=0.516 and in Rasht station with a very humid climate, the GA-RF-5 model with RMSE=0.868, have the best performance among the studied models. Moreover, the evaluations revealed that the temperature of the earth's surface at night is as important as the temperature of the earth's surface during the day, and by combining these two parameters, satisfactory results may be obtained.

Complexity of evaporation process from a water body such as a lake or reservoir and lack of reliable and available data has led to limited developments in this field compared to research on other hydrological components especially where management of these water systems does not rely on more accurate spatial and temporal data. However the operation of reservoirs, development of a new storage, and water accounting strategies require more accurate evaporation estimates especially for drinking water supply in arid area. In this research a new method was developed for evaporation estimation presenting a different solution to the energy balance equation. The proposed approach, called reference and water surface energy balance (RWEB), carried out by defining the reference surface and simultaneously solution to the energy balance equation for both water and reference surfaces. The temperature and net radiation data were used in the proposed method. According to the input data, the RWEB method has the ability for remote sensing application and accordingly the remote sensing algorithm of RWEB was also developed. The method was applied to Doosti Dam Reservoir resulted in the distributed evaporation parameters and estimations.

Being familiar with the modes of motion and coordinate changes of the Earth surface points as a function of time is very important and essential in different types of geodetic applications. The puepose of this research is the time-dependent modeling of displacement and coordinate changes of the Earth’s crust surface points due to the plate tectonic motions and earthquakes in the region of Iranian plateau. The provided model could be used to predict the coordinate changes of surface crust points or to predict the geodetic observations (distance and angle) from one arbitrary epoch to another. This model receives the coordinates in various ITRFs or WGS84 reference frames and after the computations are made, the results could be provided in any reference frame.The Bursa-Wolf seven-parameter conformal model was used to transform three dimensional Cartesian co-ordinates between WGS84 and ITRF2000. In the absence of a crustal motion, the equations for transforming positional coordinates from one ITRF to another are rather familiar to the surveying community, i.e. it is a seven-parameter transformation. In the presence of a crustal motion, the transformation equations can be generalized to allow one frame to move relative to the other. Thus, each of the seven defining parameters becomes a function of time. Therefore, in modeling, fourteen transformation parameters were used for ITRF2000 reference frame transformation to the previous and later reference frames.Okada (1985) analytical model was used to model sudden coseismic and interseismic motions due to earthquakes. In previous works (Pearson, 2010 and Meade, 2005) the block model was used for secular and interseismic deformation modeling, but in this research, we used Okada (1985) analytical modeling for this purpose since (1) Modeling the present-day velocity field determined with GPS networks incorporates geological constraints on the geometry of the main structures and on the long-term deformations; (2) Regions between the major faults are not rigid and so the modeling allows for internal deformations. Finally, we have a tectonic model for Arabia-Eurasia oblique collision zone in Iran that is more realistic than the rigid block model. This model shows that about 30% of GPS velocity field components are produced by faults inside Iran, 60% by Arabian plate and 10% by Anatolian plate.Continuous use of GPS data and local network observations is recommended to get a more precise model for secular and interseimic motions. Also using more precise geometric faulting parameters due to earthquakes obtained by inverse problem solution based on GPS or InSAR observations is recommended to get more precise outputs. Postseimic motions were not modeled in this research since this effect is a function of time and its amplitude is just considerable for large earthquakes, beside that the amount of this effect is reduced with time. Anyway, the postseismic deformation modeling due to intense earthquakes with a large focal depth using Wang (2006) model is recommended. In this research, just the effects of secular, interseismic and coseismic motions were included in the model. To complete the model, it is recommended to consider the effects of the crustal motions associated with land subsidence, volcanic activity, postglacial rebound etc.