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The effect of two salinity concentrations (35 and 40 ‰) on the daily feeding and burrowing activities of the sea cucumber, Holothuria parva was investigated, using the nutritional parameters (intestinal  indices, organic materials, and the absorption efficiency). Although no significant difference between the initial and final sections of the intestinal gut of sea cucumbers in two saline conditions was found, the maximum level of intestinal indices, organic material and absorption efficiency was associated with the 40‰ salinity. The survey results displayed that sea cucumber had better feeding activity in 40‰ than 35‰ salinity.  

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Aim: This study aimed to evaluate the impact of self-care consultation on the nutrition and physical activity of women who are planning for pregnancy in Karaj, 2016.
Methods: In the present study, 40 women who were planning for pregnancy constituted the research sample who were selected by convenience sampling. Data collection tools included demographic questionnaire and self-care check list based on “CDC preconception health indicators, 2009”. Consultation was done based on 5A (asses, advise, agree, assist and follow-up) model. Self-care score scope was measured before, one month and three months after consulting in the area of nutrition and physical activity (with 19 questions). This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Alborz University of Medical Sciences. Also a clinical trial registry (IRCT2016042827557N2) was performed. Sampling was performed from April to December 2016. One and three months after counselling sessions, the follow-up was done. SPSS v22 and Friedman and Wilcoxon tests were used to analyze the data at the significance level of 0.05
Findings: The results showed that the self-care level of women planning for pregnancy in the area of nutrition has changed significantly one month (p=0/001) and three months (p=0/0001) after consultation. Also their physical activity increased significantly one month (p=0/001) and three months (p=0/0001) months after consultation.
Conclusion: Counselling based on self-care plays an important role in improving the nutrition and physical activity of women planning for pregnancy. Based on individual capabilities, focusing on self-care can promote their performance in the area of nutrition and physical activity before pregnancy.

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Growth, sex ratio and age of 188 specimens of Tench, Tinca tinca, from Anzali wetland were recorded during Nov. 2013 to June 2014. The age range of fish was 0⁺ to 6⁺ years. Male to female sex ratio was 1:1.7 that differed significantly (P<0.05). Maximum total length (TL) and weight (W) was 40.7 cm and 1000g, respectively. The b value of the length-weight relationship was 2.70 that showed negative allometric growth (p<0.05). The growth performance index (ϕ) was calculated as 2.61. The estimated von Bertalanffy growth parameters were (L_∞= 47.48 cm, k= 0.18 yr^- and t₀= -1.07 yr). T_maxwas calculated 16.41 years. Also infinity weight (W_∞) was estimated as 1261.43 g. The present investigation provides basic information about population structure of Tench (T. tinca) in Anzali wetland.

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Enzymes of marine organisms are ideal candidates for biomonitoring of pollution in marine environments. For the widespread use of enzymes in industrial processes, carried out under certain physico-chemical conditions, their stability must be improved. In this study, for the first time, chitosan nanoparticles were used as matrices for augmenting the stability of Penaeus vannamei (Whiteleg shrimp)-derived purified proteases against metallic ions. For the electrostatic binding of the enzyme to the chitosan nanoparticles, the protein solution at a concentration of 7mg/ml was added to the nanoparticles, and incubated for 4 hours at 10°C. After 3 times rinsing with phosphate buffer of pH=7.5, the nano-enzyme was dissolved in 1ml phosphate buffer, and used for further studies. The results of this study showed that Fe²⁺ and Mn²⁺ significantly increased the enzyme activity, whereas a strong inhibitory effect was observed in the presence of Cd²⁺, Hg²⁺, Co²⁺, Ni²⁺, Cu²⁺ and Zn²⁺, and a weak inhibitory effect in the presence of Na⁺ and K⁺. The immobilized enzyme exhibited greater resistance to metal ions than its free counterpart. The free enzyme was susceptible to the presence of metal ions, and with the increment of their concentrations, enzyme activity declines. From this nexus, it could be inferred that the high stability of immobilized enzyme is due to the presence of chitosan nanoparticles. Stability retention of the immobilized enzyme at high concentrations of metal ions indicates the efficacy and utility of the immobilization method in industrial enzyme technology.

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Adding steel fibers to reinforced concrete improves the active mechanisms on crack surface including tension and shear transfer mechanisms. In Steel Fiber Reinforced Concrete (SFRC), tensile stresses are developed in fibers and deformed reinforcing bars just after crack initiation. With this beneficial effect, concrete tensile strength is improved and crack spacing decreases. In this research, SFRC member behavior is analytically investigated under pure tension and in order to verify the model, the results are compared with some recent experimental results. From the viewpoint of constitutive modeling of RC elements, there are two main approaches, discrete crack and continuum level models. The major disadvantage that adheres to discrete crack models is the fact that these models focus on the local crack behavior and seek to detect the crack paths which of course requires a high computational cost. By contrast, continuum level models taking advantage of the spatially averaged models between two primary transverse cracks. In a process of developing average constitutive models, it is important to model local mechanisms, these mechanisms in a reinforced concrete domain are related to initiation and propagation of cracks.
In this article, the tension stiffening model is developed considering all effective local stress transfer mechanisms including tension behavior of deformed bar, fibers pullout, tension softening of plain concrete and bond slip-stress between the reinforcing bar and concrete matrix. Straight and end hooked fibers have different mechanisms during pullout such as debonding, friction and mechanical anchorage of end hooked fibers. To predict the fiber tensile behaviors, it is necessary to define fiber stress transfer mechanism on the crack surface. The most important parameters that affect fibers behavior are material, size and geometry, distribution and orientation of fibers. The model used in this research considers a uniform random distribution for fiber’s geometrical location and inclination angle. In this model, the slip occurred in the fiber is considered in both sides of fiber embedded in concrete. The bond slip- stress behavior of straight fiber is defined as linear before the bond stress reaches to the bond strength then the bond stress is considered constant until complete pullout. In end hooked fibers, in addition to debonding and friction, end mechanical anchorage of the fiber has also an important effect on the bearing capacity. In fact, in the process of fiber pullout, hooked part of fiber most have plastic deformation.To simulate it, a parabolic model is used. In order to solve the algorithm, an iterative analysis method is applied to calculate tension stress-elongation of specimen. To increase the accuracy of the model, the local yielding of reinforcing bars and matrix damage at the crack surface are also numerically simulated. Model verification is carried out by comparing computational predictions with available experimental results. The results show good agreement with test results. The proposed model is also shown to be useful in considering the effect of various percentage of fibers on average stress strain behavior of deformed bar, total load elongation of specimen, crack spacing and concrete tension stiffening. By increasing fiber percentage, crack spacing will decrease so the average stress strain behavior of deformed rebar become more likely to bare bar.

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Thin-walled structures are widely used in different engineering applications. Bridge and building plate girders, box columns and girders, frame bracing systems, liquid and gas containment structures, shelters, offshore structures, ship structures, slabs, hot-rolled W-shape steel profiles, steel plate shear wall systems and many other naval and aeronautical structures are examples of engineering elements that according to their applications use plate of various thicknesses. The knowledge of the actual behavior of plates in such structures can be, of course, helpful in understanding the overall behavior of the structures. In general, plates in thin-walled structures may be under various types of loading, such as shear loading. Material yielding and geometrical buckling of plates are two independent phenomena which may well interact with each other in shear panels. Depending on the material properties, slenderness and aspect ratios, and boundary conditions of perfectly flat plates, yielding may occur before, after or at the same time as buckling. Buckling in slender plates is a local and sudden phenomenon followed by large out-of-plane displacements and loss of stiffness. Slender plates are capable of carrying considerable post-buckling additional loads due to stresses in the inclined tension fields. On the other hand, a plate with low slenderness ratio yields before buckles and thus, no post-buckling capacity is expected. In between, in plates with moderate slenderness ratios, material yielding and geometrical nonlinearity happen almost at the same time. In the present paper, the behavior characteristics of shear panels with simple or clamed boundary conditions and three different materials (carbon steel, stainless steel and aluminum) are studied for various plate slenderness ratios, using finite element method. Results of nonlinear static analyses of different shear panels show that slender plates, depending on the slenderness ratio, carry a relatively small shear load in the elastic stage until the occurrence of shear buckling, but their additional capacity in the post-buckling stage prior to yielding are significantly large. They reach their ultimate shear capacity slightly after yielding. That is, their post-yield capacity is not significant. Note that the ultimate shear strength of slender plates is considerably lower than their nominal shear yield strength. In plates with intermediate slenderness ratios, material yielding and buckling occur concurrently. They carry a relatively large shear load in the elastic stage before yielding/buckling. They have also some post-buckling/post-yield reserves before failure. The ultimate shear strength of moderate plates is somewhat lower than their nominal shear yield strength. In stocky plates, yielding precedes buckling. The shear capacity in the elastic stage before yielding is thus significant. The plates have some post-yield capacity and the ultimate load is coincident with the occurrence of plastic buckling (if happens). The ultimate shear strength of stocky plates is almost equal to their nominal shear yield strength. Moreover, results of quasi-static cyclic analyses of different shear panels show that the energy absorption capability, as expected, is very sensitive to the slenderness ratio of panels and with the decrease of the slenderness ratio (increase of thickness), the absorbed energy by the panels is substantially increased. For a specific slenderness ratio, steel shear panels exhibit higher energy absorption than panels with aluminum materials (although aluminum material has higher yield strength than that of carbon steel and stainless steel materials, here). This, of course, highlights the important role of the modulus of elasticity in the energy dissipation capability of shear panels. However, the material yield strength and panel boundary conditions do not seem to have important role in the amount of energy dissipated by the panels, compared to the material modulus of elasticity.

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One of the interpretive approaches in image studies is iconology, which describes the meaning and explanation of works. In religious arts such as in Christianity, there are many symbols and signs which refer to beliefs and traditions. One of the most important beliefs of Christianity is the incarnation of God. The purpose of this study is to study the semantics of a selected painting by Giotto, an Italian painter. In order to understand the symbolic concepts related to incarnation, the question arises as how the iconological method seeks out the signs of embodiment in a Giotto painting, and what are the effects of the artist's knowledge on painting. The method applies in the course of this research is analytical-historical, with the desired approach being iconology. Library and visual sources have taken into account in the accomplishment of this paper. In the end, it is suggested that the iconology method, while studying the face, deals with visual communication and why the work is formed based on the symbols of incarnation. Finally, for the first time in the history of art, despite the dominance of religion, Giotto used painting as an independent art based on facts and expressed incarnation with realistic concepts.