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This paper is the second part of a two-part survey series on large-scale global optimization. The first part covered two major algorithmic approaches to large-scale optimization, namely decomposition methods and hybridization methods such as memetic algorithms and local search. In this part we focus on sampling and variation operators, approximation and surrogate modeling, initialization methods, and parallelization. We also cover a range of problem areas in relation to large-scale global optimization, such as multi-objective optimization, constraint handling, overlapping components, the component imbalance issue, and benchmarks, and applications. The paper also includes a discussion on pitfalls and challenges of current research and identifies several potential areas of future research.

Purpose This paper aims to study the impact of liquidity risk and transaction costs on stock pricing in Iran, a closed market operating under a financial embargo and compare the results with those of an important neighboring market, namely, Turkey. Design/methodology/approach This study follows Liu et al. (2016) and incorporates liquidity risk and transaction costs into the traditional consumption-based asset-pricing model (CCAPM) from 2009 to 2017. Effective transaction costs are estimated a la Hasbrouck (2009) and liquidity risk according to eight different criteria. Findings According to the results, both liquidity risk and transaction costs are higher in Iran, possibly due to the financial embargo. Thus, relative to Turkey, this paper should expect a higher increase in the CCAPM pricing performance in Iran when accounting for these two variables. The results are in line with this expectation and indicate that adjusting the CCAPM significantly increases its pricing performance in both countries, but relatively more in Iran. Originality/value This study compares liquidity risk and transaction costs in an economy under the extreme case of a financial embargo to an open yet in other important aspects similar economy from the same region.

Research publication has increasingly turned into academics’ top priority around the world. Since researchers’ professional survival/growth in the current competitive academic atmosphere hinges upo...

Aim: Knee osteoarthritis is a common disabling disorder, with no curative treatment. This study aims to assess autologous conditioned serum effectiveness in its treatment. Materials & methods: Following a systematic search (2000–2020) on major databases and screening and filtering processes, eight articles were included in the final analyses. The pooled effect of visual analog scale (VAS) and the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities (WOMAC) variables was evaluated before and after the intervention. Results: The combined standardized mean difference for the global WOMAC score was -2.44 and the combined weighted mean difference was -22.92. The combined standardized mean difference for the VAS score was -3.77 and the combined weighted mean difference was -32.37 (p, Lay abstract Knee osteoarthritis is a common and disabling disease with various therapeutic options; regenerative treatment among them is a large group of autologous blood products with different contents of growth signaling or anti-inflammatory components. Autologous conditioned serum (ACS) is one of the recently introduced choices gaining attention. The studies on ACS reported mostly promising but mixed results, this study aimed to pool the available data on the subject to obtain a conclusion on the effectiveness of ACS in knee osteoarthritis, and it resulted in the favor of this method, in reducing pain and improving function.

BackgroundLegg-Calvé-Perthes disease (LCPD) is a common public health problem that usually occurs between the ages of 4 and 8 years, but it can occur between the ages of 2 and 15 years. This condition occurs due to the interruption of blood supply to the femoral head. Up to now, different surgical and nonsurgical treatments, including femoral varus osteotomy, innominate osteotomy, pelvic osteotomies, triple osteotomy, Chiari osteotomy, and shelf acetabuloplasty, have been suggested for noncontainable LCPD hips.ObjectiveThe aim of this comprehensive review was to investigate the various surgical techniques used for LCPD.MethodsAn advanced electronic search of the English-language literature was performed from October 8 to 14, 2020. The electronic databases PubMed, MEDLINE, Web of Science, Embase, Ovid, and Google scholar were searched using appropriate search terms. A manual search of references also was performed. After retrieving the studies, duplicates were removed, and the remining studies were screened based on the title, abstract, and full text. The quality of the selected articles was assessed, and the required data were extracted from eligible articles.ResultsA total of 22 studies were included in the review. Based on the results of the reviewed studies, there are three main factors that influence the treatment outcomes in patients with Perthes disease. These factors are onset age, femoral head involvement severity, and treatment method. The disease has a poor prognosis in children over 8 years old, but this group of patients can also benefit from advanced surgical methods. In patients aged less than 6 years, the disease has a generally good prognosis, but in those aged between 6 and 8 years, its prognosis is variable. Thus, the need for surgical intervention requires close observation of signs. Once any head signs are observed, dynamic arthrography is beneficial before choosing the treatment approach.ConclusionsThis review provides clinicians with a brief guideline for the treatment of patients with LCPD.

Background: Broad spectrums of pharmacological properties, including antimicrobial activity have been attributed to Zataria multiflora Boiss (Laminaceae). The in vivo efficacy and safety of Z. multiflora essential oil (ZM-EO) were evaluated against acute toxoplasmosis caused by Toxoplasma gondii (Sarcocystidae) in mice. Methods: Z. multiflora (aerial parts) was obtained from the rural districts of Kerman city (Kerman Province) Southwestern Iran, in May of 2016. Male NMRI mice were orally treated with normal saline (control group) and ZM-EO at the doses of 0.2 and 0.4 mL/kg once a day for 14 d (8 mice in each group). On the 15th day, the mice were infected with 104 tachyzoites of T. gondii RH strain by intraperitoneal route. The mortality rate and parasite load were determined in the infected mice. Additionally, 24 mice were applied to examine the sub-acute toxicity of ZM-EO at the above doses after treatment during 14 d. Results: GC/MS analysis displayed that the key constituents were thymol (45.4%), carvacrol (23%) and p-cymene (10.6%), respectively. Overall, 100% mortality was observed on the 8th and 9th days in treated mice with the concentrations of 0.2 and 0.4 mL/kg, respectively. The mean number of tachyzoites in the mice treated with 0.2 and 0.4 mL/kg of ZM-EO were 189×104 and 76×104 cell/mL, respectively, meaningfully (P

Coal is the most abundant fossil fuel in the world and its combustion accompanies with the emission of SOX, which is responsible for serious environmental problems. To reduce the emission of SOX is essential for clean fuel. In the present study, indigenous microorganisms acclimatized from fat coal itself and exotic microorganisms from sewage sludge were used for coal biodesulfurization. X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), and Raman spectral analysis were used to investigate the structural change of fat coal during the bioleaching. Results showed that kaolinite and quartz were the main minerals, and pyrite was the main inorganic sulfide in fat coal. After 36-day biodesulfurization, the total sulfur in fat coal decreased from 5.07% to 2.77% and 2.75%, and the pyritic removal was 77.68% and 87.88% with indigenous and exotic microorganisms, respectively. The exotic microorganisms were more effective to oxidize the pyrite than the indigenous microorganisms. But both microorganisms did not interact with the organic sulfur, which existed as C S bond in fat coal. FT-IR analyses showed the damage of kaolinite structure, indicating potential microbial effect on kaolinite, which has not been reported before. Raman spectral analysis was for the first time used to investigate the changes of coal macromolecular structure during the bioleaching. FT-IR and Raman spectra confirmed the changes of aromatic C H, O H bonds, which led to the increase of carbon crystallinity index.

Introduction: The correct alignment of femoral components is necessary to achieve a successful total knee arthroplasty (TKA) and preventing complications such as pain, stiffness, loosening, instability; which itself, depends on making perfect cuts. The posterior distal femoral cut, is one of the most important factors. Yet, the best method of its measurement is controversial.Methods: In this study, 20 cadavers of femoral bones were used; on which, the distal femoral rotation (DFR) was measured manually by 8 orthopedic surgeons and also was calculated on the basis of the trans-epicondylar axis (TEA) by 2 orthopedic surgeons and 2 radiologists on CT scan image. Accuracy and reliability were assessed in both groups, and the risk of severe malrotation was determined according to an outlier defined as 3 and 5 degrees.Results: The mean DFR measured manually, was 1.8±2.1º and the one attained by CT scan images was reported 3.3±1.1º, projecting a remarkable difference between two groups. The Kappa reliability index was calculated about 0.81 in CT scan results and 0.64 in the other group. (k>0.7 was considered as valuable). With an outlier defined as 3º, from the normal distal femoral rotation based on posterior condylar axis (PCA), 3º external rotation; 12% of data were outlying in the manually of measured data, and there was no outlier data were reported in the other group. (With a statistically significant difference between two groups)Conclusion: According to the unreliability and noticeable risk of error in measuring DFR manually based on TEA, this study suggests using CT scan in the patient’s pre-op assessment to obtain the most accurate data.

Over the past two decades, there has been surge of interest in research on teacher cognition in L2 education. Although a variety of issues concerning teacher cognition have been investigated, this line of inquiry has not addressed the question of how L2 teachers' cognitive development can be supported. To address this gap, the present study aims to investigate how novice L2 teachers' pedagogical knowledge base might grow as a result of expert mentoring initiatives. To this end, four novice and four experienced teachers participated in the study. The four novice teachers received a mentoring program consisting of Video-Recorded Performance Analysis, Expert-Teacher Observation and Critical Friendship initiatives offered by the experienced teachers. Sample classroom performances of novice teachers before and after the mentoring program were video-recorded; the teachers were then interviewed regarding the thought units underlying their instructional moves using stimulated recall technique. Audio-recorded recollections of their performances were then transcribed and the underlying thought units were identified and categorized. Comparisons of the pedagogical thought units underlying their performance before and after the mentoring program revealed significant differences in both the total frequency with which they produced/expressed pedagogical thought units and the relative dominance of pedagogical thought categories.

The knowledge base informing reading instruction/research in Applied Linguistics comes mainly from single-text reading research. To begin to develop a knowledge base informing research into and instruction of multiple-documents literacy, as the immediate current need of L2 students in academic contexts, this study was conducted. The study aimed to explore the contributions of language proficiency and prior knowledge to comprehension across multiple-texts and single-text modes of reading. To this end, a structural model was developed that subsumed hypothesized links between language proficiency, prior knowledge, single-text and multiple-texts reading comprehension. Data were collected from 207 Iranian undergraduate students studying midwifery and paramedical emergencies who took measures of language proficiency, single-text comprehension, multiple-texts comprehension, and a prior knowledge measure. The data were analyzed through structural equation modelling (SEM). The findings revealed that language proficiency and prior knowledge contribute to multiple-texts comprehension both directly and indirectly via impacting single-text comprehension. Moreover, the contributions of these two variables were found to vary across single-text and multiple-texts modes of reading. Implications for theoretical modelling and instruction of reading are presented.

Indigenous microorganisms were used to remove inorganic sulfur from high sulfur fat coal, and effect of L-cysteine on coal surface and biodesulfurization was investigated. It was found that L-cysteine addition enhanced coal biodesulfurization, and the optimal L-cysteine dosage was 1.6 g/L. With the optimal L-cysteine dosage, the Sulfobacillus were the dominant pyrite-oxidizing bacteria. After biodesulfurization for 30 days, the inorganic sulfur in coal decreased from 3.038% to 0.437%. L-cysteine was adsorbed on the coal surface through amino, carboxyl and sulfhydryl groups, and cysteine-Fe complex was formed by the interaction between interfacial –SH group of L-cysteine and pyrite, which was beneficial to sulfur transfer. Meanwhile, L-cysteine addition improved the adsorption of microorganisms on coal surface though reducing the Zeta potential of coal particle. The structural change of coal during the biodesulfurization showed that the pyrite was solubilized by Sulfobacillus to realize the removal of inorganic sulfur from coal, and L-cysteine addition inhibited the jarosite formation through improvement of pyrite bio-oxidation and corresponding pH decrease, which avoided the dissolved sulfur returning back to coal again. Moreover, the coal biodesulfurization with L-cysteine addition also presented obvious environmental benefit.

In financial markets, transparency of financial information is one of the most effective variables of investment strategies. Information asymmetry can seriously affect firm performance on the stock exchange and firms with a poor informational environment can lose the interest of investors. Reducing information asymmetry can have an important effect on firm performance on the stock exchange. Firms may lack a clear informational environment in the market because of the emerging conditions governing the Tehran Stock Exchange . Because larger and more active firms on the Tehran Stock Exchange provide more information, measuring the informational environment of these firms provides an overview of information asymmetry. The present study calculated the information asymmetry in these firms using the PIN and FE indices. The inconsistent results provided by these indices prompted the authors to offer a new index that is a composite of the PIN and FE that can better explain information asymmetry in developing market such as Asian stock markets . The results show that the new composite index, by using the mechanisms of the PIN and FE indices, provides a better outcome. The new composite index shows that the Tosee Melli Inv (TMEL1), Mobarakeh Steel (FOLD1), Iran Mobil Tele (HMRZ1), Saipa (SIPA1) and I.N.C. Ind. (MSMI1) firms have a better informational environment on the Tehran Stock Exchange.

Background: Preterm labor is a common complication of pregnancy which has become a main health concern around the world due to its negative consequences. Objective: To investigate the efficacy of progesterone therapy in the prevention of preterm labor in women with single risk factor. Search strategy: A PubMed, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, ClinicalTrials.gov, Science Direct, Scopus, OVID, EMBASE, SID, Magiran and Google Scholar search (date last searched April 2016) without any time, language and location restriction was done. Inclusion criteria: All randomized clinical trials of singleton pregnancies with single risk factor (prior preterm labor without short cervical length or short cervical length without prior preterm labor) which were randomized to progesterone and control groups were included in our meta-analysis. Primary outcome: Our primary outcome was gestational age at delivery. Results: 13 studies (1259 subjects and 2653 control women) were included in the meta-analysis. Using random effect model showed that mean gestational age at delivery of progesterone group is 0.74 (0.41-1.06) month longer than that of control group with CI=95% which is significant statically. Conclusions: Progesterone therapy is an effective intervention for the prevention of preterm labor in women with single risk factor.

Rapid development of livestock industry produces large amount of livestock manure rich in nutrients, organic matters, antibiotics, and heavy metals, thus imposes great harms to human and environment, if the manure is not suitably treated. Biological removal and recovery of nutrients from manure as agriculture fertilizer is attractive due to low cost and simple operation. This review offers an overview of recent development in biological nutrient removal and recovery from livestock manure. Livestock manure is divided into solid manure and liquid manure. Composting and anaerobic digestion of solid manure are fully discussed and important parameters are investigated. Then various processes of nutrient removal and recovery from liquid manure are summarized. Brief economic sustainability and eco-environmental effects are carried out. Finally, current challenges and future prospects in this field are analyzed.

Background: CD138/Syndecan-1 (Sdc-1) is expressed on the tumor and stromal cells of invasive bladder carcinoma. CD138/Sdc-1 shedding from the cell surface is associated with the invasive phenotype in lung and breast cancers. Patients and Methods: Soluble CD138/Sdc-1 was measured in the sera of 86 bladder cancer patients and 57 healthy individuals by a commercial ELISA assay. Results: Soluble Sdc-1 was increased in the sera of patients with bladder cancer (138.42 ± 81.85 vs. 86.48 ± 82.58 ng/ml, p = 0.0003). Patients aged over 70 years had higher levels of CD138/Sdc-1 in their sera (159.7 ± 15.77 vs. 124.5 ± 9.99 ng/ml, p = 0.025), and soluble Sdc-1 levels were higher in the sera of patients with moderately differentiated tumors compared to poorly differentiated ones (170.47 ± 85.06 vs. 101.79 ± 68.24 ng/ml, p = 0.01). The soluble Sdc-1 level was higher in muscle-invasive (154.45 ± 83.60 vs. 89.9 ± 55.02 ng/ml) but not lymphatic-invasive (106.25 ± 52.10 vs. 123.43 ± 63.76 ng/ml) tumors (p = 0.027 and 0.45, respectively). A non-significant trend of soluble Sdc-1 increase in the sera of male patients compared to female patients was observed (145.38 ± 85.47 vs. 110.20 ± 59.04 ng/ml, p = 0.054). Conclusion: The elevated levels of soluble CD138/Sdc-1 in older bladder cancer patients and those with muscular invasion sheds some light on the mechanisms of the disease invasion.

With the undeniable growth of the Internet—the most advanced form of hypermedia technology—the study of factors affecting its acceptance as a source for students' academic learning is attracting increasing attention. While there is some evidence that learners' personal epistemology may be linked to their performance within hypermedia technological environments, this link has not been well examined empirically, particularly in EFL/ESL contexts. Therefore, the present study aims to explore the link between EFL learners' Internet-specific personal epistemology and their grammar achievement in a hypermedia context. The study participants were 24 EFL students who were assigned to one of two groups, i.e., naive and sophisticated Internet-specific epistemology, based on their performance on the Internet-Specific Epistemological Questionnaire (ISEQ). The two groups were homogenous in language proficiency. Both groups received online grammar instruction for 20 sessions and were then tested on the materials taught. They were again given the ISEQ after instruction. The results demonstrated significant differences between the two groups in grammar achievement as well as significant differences between the findings reported here and those of studies on personal epistemology in non-technological environments. The results, however, showed no significant improvement in the participants' Internet-specific epistemology as a function of experience with hypermedia learning.

Article history: Received January 14, 2014 Accepted 10 June 2014 Available online June 16 2014 Flight interruption is one of the most important issues in today’s airline industry. Every year, most airlines spend significant amount of money to compensate flight delays. Therefore, it is important to detect important factors influencing on flight delays. This paper presents an empirical investigation to determine important factors on this issue. The study also asks some decision makers to make pairwise comparison and ranks various factors using the art of analytical hierarchy process. The study determines that technical defects and delayed entry were among the most important factors to blame for flight delays. In addition, announcing the postponement, replacement aircraft and path replacement are among the most important decisions facing managers in the aviation industry during the disruption of the flight. © 2014 Growing Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Software architecture is an undeniable role in the software life cycle. Some criteria should be noted at the time of analysis and evaluation of software architecture including quality characteristics, risks and non-risks, architectural decisions or tactics. Software architecture evaluation involves evaluating different options for architectural decisions, and combining them in order to achieve the desired quality characteristics. Most of the architectural techniques such as scenario-based architectural analysis is based on compromise to analyze how architectural decisions and their possible combinations to achieve the quality characteristics is based on the stages and sequence of steps performed only on the inputs and outputs. In this paper, a new method for supporting the software architecture evaluation is proposed. In this method we clarify the circumstance of the analysis steps during the evaluation which depends on the experiences and knowledge. In addition, reusing and sharing of architectural knowledge is enforced and therefore two types of anthologies have been offered that the attribute-based architectural styles have significant roles in construction of them. Finally, to show the effectiveness of the proposed method in different conditions, two sample surveys have been considered and analyzed. The simulation results on prototype data show the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Cooperative Co-evolutionary (CC) techniques have demonstrated the promising performance in dealing with large-scale optimization problems. However, in many applications, their performance may drop due to the presence of imbalanced contributions to the objective function value from different subsets of decision variables. To remedy this drawback, Contribution-Based Cooperative Co-evolutionary (CBCC) algorithms have been proposed. They have presented significant improvements over traditional CC techniques when the decomposition is accurate and the imbalance level is very high. However, in real-world scenarios, we might not have the knowledge about the ideal decomposition and actual imbalance level of a problem to be solved. Therefore, this study aims at analysing the performance of existing CBCC techniques in more realistic settings, i.e., when the decomposition error is unavoidable and the imbalance level is low or moderate. Our in-depth analysis reveals that even in these situations, CBCC algorithms are superior alternatives to traditional CC techniques. We also observe that the variations of CBCC techniques may lead to the significantly different performance. Thus, we recommend practitioners to carefully choose a competent variant of CBCC which best suits their particular applications.

Background Combination therapy plays an important role in the management of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Objectives The aim of this experiment was to study the influence of garlic combined with ezetimibe on lipid profile as well as intestinal Niemann-Pick C1-like 1 (NPC1L1) expression in normal and hypercholesterolemic mice. Materials and Methods A total of 40 mice were randomly divided into five groups: Group 1: hypercholesterolemic group (received 2% w/w cholesterol + 0.5% w/w cholic acid in their diet), Group 2: garlic group (hypercholesterolemic diet + 4% w/w garlic extract), Group 3: ezetimibe group (hypercholesterolemic diet + 0.005% w/w ezetimibe), Group 4: combination group (hypercholesterolemic diet + 0.005% w/w ezetimibe + 4% w/w garlic) and Group 5: control (chow only). Results Serum low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C) and total cholesterol (TC) levels were significantly decreased in ezetimibe, garlic (both P < 0.05), and combination groups (P < 0.001). Also, triglycerides and very low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (VLDL-C) were significantly lower in garlic and combination groups (P < 0.05). Liver enzymes, alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST), were also significantly decreased in garlic, ezetimibe (both P < 0.05) and combination groups (P < 0.001) in comparison with hypercholesterolemic animals. Analysis of semi quantitative RT-PCR results showed that the levels of NPC1L1 was also significantly less (P < 0.01) in the garlic, ezetimibe, and combination groups (P < 0.001) compared with the controls. Based on the results, the combination of garlic and ezetimibe can lower serum lipids and liver enzymes more effectively in hypercholesterolemic mice. Conclusions This experiment revealed that a possible mechanism for the beneficial effects of garlic and ezetimibe combination in lowering plasma LDL-C and TC is inhibition of intestinal cholesterol absorption. More research might be necessary to determine the efficacy and the exact mechanism of this co-administration.

In this paper, we investigate the performance of introducing competition in cooperative coevolutionary algorithms to solve large-scale fully-separable continuous optimization problems. It may seem that solving large-scale fully-separable functions is trivial by means of problem decomposition. In principle, due to lack of variable interaction in fully-separable problems, any decomposition is viable. However, the decomposition strategy has shown to have a significant impact on the performance of cooperative coevolution on such functions. Finding an optimal decomposition strategy for solving fully-separable functions is laborious and requires extensive empirical studies. In this paper, we use a competitive two-island cooperative coevolution in which two decomposition strategies compete and collaborate to solve a fully-separable problem. Each problem decomposition has features that may be beneficial at different stages of optimization. Therefore, competition and collaboration of such decomposition strategies may eliminate the need for finding an optimal decomposition. The experimental results in this paper suggest that competition and collaboration of suboptimal decomposition strategies of a fully-separable problem can generate better solutions than the standard cooperative coevolution with standalone decomposition strategies. We also show that a decomposition strategy that implements competition against itself can also improve the overall optimization performance.

Opposition-based learning (OBL) and cooperative co-evolution (CC) have demonstrated promising performance when dealing with large-scale global optimization (LSGO) problems. In this work, we propose a novel framework for hybridizing these two techniques, and investigate the performance of simple implementations of this new framework using the most recent LSGO benchmarking test suite. The obtained results verify the effectiveness of our proposed OBL-CC framework. Moreover, some advanced statistical analyses reveal that the proposed hybridization significantly outperforms its component methods in terms of the quality of finally obtained solutions.

The Mobile Ad-hoc Network is a collection of self-configuring mobile node without any infrastructure. It is a multi-hop process because of the limited transmission range of energy constrained mobile nodes and thus each device in network topology acts as a router. Routing protocols are necessary to find paths to reach other node. MANET (Mobile Ad-hoc Network) is a self organizing and self configuring network without the need of any centralized base station. In MANETs, the nodes are mobile and battery operated. As the nodes have limited battery resources and multi-hop routes are used over a changing network environment due to node mobility, it requires energy efficient routing protocols to limit the power consumption, prolong the battery life and to improve the robustness of the system. The widely-used protocol in Mobile Ad hoc Network (MANET) achieves a dynamic, self- organizing and on- demand multi-hop routing by means of the AODV routing protocol. This paper evaluates the performance of various ad-hoc routing protocols such as, D S D V, AODV, DSR, T O R A and AOMDV in terms of energy efficiency and it also proposes a new routing algorithm that modifies AOMDV and it provides better performance compared to all the above protocols. Simulation is done using NS-2 Simulator.

Background: Sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSNHL) is a common otologic disease characterized by a loss of hearing greater than 30 dB in three consecutive frequen­cies which occurs in less than 72 hours. Objective: To investigate the role of neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) on sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSNHL). Search strategy: A PubMed, Science Direct, Scopus, OVID, EMBASE and Google Scholar search (date last searched April 2016) without any time, language and location restriction was done. Inclusion criteria: All case-control studies, which have been investigated the relationship of NLR and PLR with the occurrence of SSNHL were included in our meta-analysis. Results: A total of 5 case-control studies were included in the study. All 5 studies have been reported NLR of patients and control groups (611 patients and 804 controls). Our analysis showed that the mean NLR of patients is 1.12 (0.82-1.43) unit higher than that of controls with 95% CI which is statistically significant. Also, 3 studies have been reported PLR of patients and control groups (512 patients and 705 controls). Our analysis showed that the mean PLR of patients is 0.57 (0.08-1.05) unit higher than that of controls with 95% CI which is statistically significant too. Conclusions: This meta-analysis confirmed the relationship of NLR and PLR with SSNHL. Therefore, these parameters can be considered as new markers in diagnosis of SSNHL.

Standard Cooperative Co-evolution uses a round-robin method to select subcomponents to undergo optimization. In a non-separable (epistatic) optimization problem, dividing the computational budget equally between all of the subcomponents is not necessarily the best strategy. When dealing with non-separable problems, there is usually an imbalance between the contribution of various subcomponents to the global fitness of the individuals. Using a round-robin fashion treats all of the subcomponents equally and wastes the computational budget. In this paper, we propose a Contribution Based Cooperative Co-evolution (CBCC) that selects the subcomponents based on their contributions to the global fitness. This alleviates the imbalance issue and allows the computational resources to be used more efficiently. Experiments on several benchmark functions with the "imbalance issue" show that this new scheme is promising, especially when it is combined with a grouping algorithm that captures interacting variables in common subcomponents.

Problem statement: Crop models are used as tools for enhancing agricultural research through the identification of gaps in knowledge as well as by providing support for decision making in agricultural planning. Approach: In order to evaluation of CERES-Wheat model on five cultivars of winter wheat under Karaj weather condition in Full Irrigation (FI) and Terminal Irrigation at Flowering (TIF) an experiment conducted in form of split plot in based on randomize complete block design with four replicate in research field Islamic Azad university of Karaj branch in 2009. Results: Two irrigation levels located in main plot and cultivars as sub plot. In this study simulation of some traits such Grain Yield (GY), Leaf Dry Weight (LDW), Plant Height (PH), Biomass (B), Leaf Number per plant (LN) and Leaf Area Index (LAI) evaluated by use of CERES-Wheat model. According to simulation results, model was successful in simulation of traits whole under two irrigation treatments. Rate of R2 was low in regression curve of measured versus simulated for traits of LAI and LDW. Model simulated GY with high vigor for both irrigation conditions. Conclusion/Recommendations: Variation dimension of R2 in FI and SI obtained 80.89-80.91 and 80.88-81.01, respectively. The variation dimension of Wilmot coefficient (d) FI and TIF is 0.73-0.75 and 0.61-0.72, respectively. Simulation precise in TIF is lower than FI. We can after evaluation and calibration model by means of experimental replication and reduce of Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) as a result used for research objective management programming in Karaj zones. We proposed for increasing predicting precise by model must be determinate genetic coefficient correctly and soil data and weather data supplied in experimental filed.