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Vibro-acoustic techniques have been developed with the aim of determining the location of buried pipes. However, the characteristics of the recorded conical wave radiation from the pipe wall to the surface, at very low frequencies, have not been investigated in depth.

This study was conducted to determine whether two estrus phases (proestrus and diestrus) in female rats may influence the metabolic response to a high-fat diet and/or stress, focusing on pancreatic insulin secretion and content. Animals were divided into high-fat and normal diet groups, then each group was subdivided into stress and non-stress groups, and finally, each one of these was divided into proestrus and diestrus subgroups. At the end of high-fat diet treatment, foot-shock stress was applied to the animals. Then, blood samples were taken to measure plasma factors. Finally, the pancreas was removed for determination of glucose transporter 2 (GLUT2) protein levels and assessment of insulin content and secretion of the isolated islets. In the normal and high-fat diet groups, stress increased plasma corticosterone concentration in both phases. In both study phases, high-fat diet consumption decreased estradiol and increased leptin plasma levels. In the high-fat diet group in response to high glucose concentration, a reduction in insulin secretion was observed in the proestrus phase compared with the same phase in the normal diet group in the presence and absence of stress. Also, high-fat diet decreased the insulin content of islets in the proestrus phase compared with the normal diet. High-fat diet and/or stress caused a reduction in islet GLUT2 protein levels in both phases. In conclusion, it seems possible that high-fat diet alone or combined with foot-shock, predispose female rats to impaired insulin secretion, at least in part, by interfering with estradiol levels in the proestrus phase and decreasing pancreatic GLUT2 protein levels.

The influence of tortuosity and fluid volume fractions on trickle-flow bed performance was analyzed. Hydrodynamics of the gas-liquid downward flow through trickle beds, filled with industrial trilobe catalysts, were investigated experimentally and numerically. The pressure drop and liquid holdup were measured at different gas and liquid velocities and in two different loading methods, namely, sock and dense catalyst loading. The effect of sharp corners on hydrodynamic parameters was considered in a bed with rectangular cross section. The reactor was simulated, considering a three-phase model, appropriate porosity function, and interfacial forces based on the Eulerian-Eulerian approach. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation results for pressure drop and liquid holdup agreed well with experimental data. Finally, the velocity distribution in two types of loading and the effect of bed geometry in CFD results demonstrated that pressure drop and liquid holdup were reduced compared to a cylindrical one due to high voidage at sharp corners.

The nonlinear free vibration of nanobeams with considering surface effects (surface elasticity, tension and density) is studied using Euler–Bernoulli beam theory including the von karman geometric nonlinearity. The component of plane stress, σ zz , is assumed to vary linearly through the beam thickness and satisfy the balance conditions between nanobeam bulk and its surfaces. Accordingly, surface density is introduced into the governing equation of the nonlinear free vibration of nanobeams. It is seen that the effect of surface density is independent of amplitude ratio. In addition, it is observed that in lower modes, surface density has insignificant effects on the variation of the natural frequency versus mode number, whereas this is not the case in higher modes where the surface density causes the normalized natural frequencies of the nanobeams to increase drastically. Moreover, it is shown that the effect of the surface density on the variation of the natural frequency of the nanobeam versus the thickness ratio decreases consistently with the increase of the mode number.

Background and Aim: Identifying criteria of expert teacher and efforts to strengthen and use them in teaching by teachers will enhance the learning process. In this way, one of the important methods is taking the views of students. This study was conducted to determine the characteristics of an expert teacher for effective teaching from the viewpoints of allied medical students at Tehran University of Medical Science. Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 200 BSc of allied medical students at were included employing simple random sampling method. Data collection was done employing a self administrated questionnaire. Validity and reliability of questionnaire was calculated. Data analysis was carried out by t-test and SPSS software. Results: Some criterias like dominance in the scientific subjects (86.8%), power of expression and transmission the training materials (86.2%), respect for students(85.6%), good mood(85%) and work with ethic and sense of responsibility (84.4%) are important criteria for expert teacher. Furthermore, no significant relationship was found between gender and field of study and the above-mentioned four domains (p> 0/05). Conclusion: Teaching ability was the most important factor for teaching process from he view of the students which could be paid attecntion in teachers' assessment program.

Introduction: In the universities and academic institutes, most of the research activities are performed in departments and research centers, which are evaluated by measurement of indices such as number of academics and students, number of publications and patents, citation analysis, journals in which their reports have been published, the amount of grants etc. Methods: Academic department is considered as the evaluation unit of researcher’s activities. Two important parameters of departments’ “research focus” and number of academics who are active in the “field of focus” have not been considered in any evaluation systems yet. Results: In this article, two new indices entitled “subject h-index” (hs-index) and “researcher for subject h-index” (hrs-index) are proposed for measurement of these parameters. Conclusion: Both of suggested indices make the assessing and monitoring of research focus and active scientists feasible.

"nWe report a case of human urogenital myiasis in an 86-year-old rural man with a penil ulcer and numerous alive and motile larvae from urethra and glans penis. Entomological studies on adult flies showed the larvae were Lucilia sericata and Wohlfahrtia magnifica. The clinical presentation and treatment strategies are discussed.

Geography be one way the creation of 21st century skills, where geography can help students develop global awareness and allows them to be creative and innovative. Seeing these benefits, presumably prospective teachers can master the material and learning geography in order to guide students toward global awareness. This case study was carried out to the students of primary school teacher candidates with questionnaires and interview techniques. The results showed that the students' perspective on the material of geography is a branch of social science that studies the environment and its relationship with humans. While the student perspective on learning geography is the interaction between students and teachers in order to understand the material geography.

Based on radial functionally graded biomaterials and inspired by the geometry of a real aorta blood vessel, a new model was proposed to fabricate the artificial blood vessels. A finite element analyzer is employed to reach the optimal and proper material properties while earlier, it was validated by two famous theories, i.e., the first shear deformation and the plane elasticity. First, the geometry of a real ascending aorta part was simulated and then solved under the axially varying blood pressure and other real and actual conditions. Since the construction of artificial blood vessels just similar to the natural one is impossible, it was tried to find the best substitutes for other materials. Due to the significant properties of functionally graded biomaterials in the reduction in sudden changes of stress and deformation, these types of materials were selected and studied. Two types of conventional single-sided and an efficient double-sided radial functionally graded vessel were proposed and simulated. The elastic behaviors of proposed vessels were obtained and compared to ones previously attained from the real vessel. The results show that all the desired behaviors cannot be achieved by using a conventional single-sided radial FG vessel. Instead and as a conjecture, a smart double-sided radial FG biomaterial is suggested. Fortunately, the proposed material can meet all the desired goals and satisfy all of the indices simultaneously.

Resource Constraint Project Scheduling Problem (RCPSP) is one of the most important problems in project scheduling and operation research and has attracted an ever growing attention. In the real world, most of the strategic goals of organizations are reached with different programs which are consisting a set of interrelated projects. Regarding to what has been said, in this paper, a model for programs scheduling with considering the constraint of resources is provided. In this model, two objective functions including Net Present Value (NPV) and quality of the program have been considered. The purpose of this model is to maximize net present value of program's benefits and minimize the time and cost non-conformities which are related to activities' quality deficiencies. Finally a numerical example has been provided and solved by GAMS 23.5 version in order to show how the proposed mathematical model is working.

An experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of different levels of biotin on productive performance of Holstein dairy cow. In this experiment a change-over design with twelve multiparous cows, three rations and three periods was employed. Ingredients of the basal diet were alfalfa hay (24%) corn silage (16%) and concentrate (60%) on dry matter basis. The experimental diets 1 to 3 contained 0, 10 and 20 mg of biotin per day, respectively. The rations were fed to cows as Total Mixed Rations (TMR), but biotin was top-dressed on the a.m. allotment of ration. The cows were individually ad libitum and milked three times per day. Daily milk yielded was recorded and samples of the milk were taken once per week for determination of milk composition. Blood were taken in end of each period. Dry Matter Intake (DMI) and milk yield of cows were not affected by biotin. Also milk compositions were not affected by biotin. The average of Fat Corrected Milk (FCM) yield for 4% fat for rations contain 0, 10 and 20 mg day(-1) biotin, respectively 25.45, 26.2 and 25.9 kg day(-1) were calculated. Blood concentration of were unaffected by different levels of biotin. The differences between averages of the milk cows were not significant.

Industries such as aerospace, automotive, oil and gas utilize various chemical, thermal, and mechanical techniques to improve the surface properties of engineering components. Deposition of metallic or nonmetallic materials on the surface of engineering components using different thermal spraying techniques is a common method to improve the mechanical properties of the surface of the components working at severe conditions. Thermal spraying techniques are capable of deposition of a coating layer with high corrosion, wear, erosion, and high temperature resistance. This technology can also be used for surface repair and treatment. Zirconia (ZrO2) based coatings are excellent candidates to serve at high temperature due to their tribological and insulation properties, and also high stiffness. ZrO2-based coatings are usually used in aircraft and gas-turbine engines as thermal barrier coatings. However, the relatively low wear and erosion resistance of Zirconia-based coatings limits their application. Among all coating materials, Tungsten Carbide (WC) based materials are commonly used to improve wear and corrosion resistance of the surface. It is speculated that combination of ZrO2 and WC follows by generating a coating with desirable thermal and mechanical properties, particularly at high temperature conditions. In the presented work, an innovative thermally sprayed coating material was proposed by depositing mixture of ZrO2-Y2O3 and WC-Ni (YPSZ/WC-Ni) powders on a low carbon steel substrate using Atmospheric Plasma Spraying (APS). As thermomechanical properties of coatings are under the influence of the microstructural features such as porosity, micro cracks, voids, and possible oxides, in this study microstructure and phase consistency of the resultant coating was briefly evaluated. To this end, Optical Microscopy, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDX) were used. The results indicated that deposited coating was well-bonded to the substrate with minimum observed separation line. Porosity amount of APS deposited YPSZ/WC-Ni measured by image analysis of the cross-sectional area Moreover, mechanical properties including hardness and elastic modulus of the coating were evaluated. Since thermally sprayed coatings exhibit anisotropic behavior, the Knoop hardness in the longitudinal and transverse directions were analyzed in this study. Elastic modulus of the coating was also evaluated, based on the measurement of elastic recovery of Knoop indentation in both directions using Marshal analytical model. Wear resistance of the coating was also investigated by pin-on-disk method, at room temperature. The friction coefficient of the consecutive coating was calculated and had a value lower than that of reported for APS deposited YPSZ.Copyright © 2015 by ASME

Tungsten carbide coatings are often applied to improve surface properties such as wear, high temperature degradation, and corrosion resistance. Zirconia coatings have also been used extensively in various industries due to their excellent tribological and insulation properties combined with high stiffness. It is speculated that adding zirconia to tungsten carbide may result in a coating with combination of excellent thermal and mechanical properties of constituents. In the current study, a powder mixture of 50 wt. % WC-Ni and 50 wt. % ZrO2-Y2O3 deposited on a low carbon steel substrate using atmospheric plasma spray technique. The microstructural evolution of deposited sample was investigated. Splat boundaries, micro cracks, pore morphology conversion, and grain growth mechanism were elucidated comprehensively. Results indicated a good adhesion between two different major components. No porosity formed due to mismatch between zirconia and tungsten carbide. This study pays special attention to the dependency of the microstructural characteristics to the phase distribution within the coating.

The present study was performed to compare the soluble, whole and excretory/secretary antigens of Toxoplasma gondii (RH strain) in diagnosis of toxoplasmosis by ELISA method. Tachyzoites of T. gondii, RH strain were injected in intra-peritoneal cavity of BALB/c mice, after 4 days tachyzoites were harvested by peritoneal washing of the mice. For soluble antigen, exudates were centrifuged and sediment sonicated and then centrifuged at 4 °C, 1 h, supernatant collected and density of protein determined by Bradford method. For whole antigen after collecting, washing and centrifuging of peritoneal fluid the tachyzoites sediment was counted. In excretory/secretary antigen 1.5 × 108 tachyzoites were transferred in 1 ml tube of saline and incubated under mild agitation and after centrifuging, supernatant was collected and protein density determined by Bradford method. 176 human serum samples were evaluated for T. gondii IgG antibody with prepared antigens, and finally serum samples were evaluated by commercial ELISA kit (Trinity, USA) which was considered as gold standard method. In this study sensitivity and specificity of prepared antigens compared with commercial kit in ELISA method. Sensitivity and specificity of soluble antigen was 91.4 and 74.5 %, in whole antigen these parameters were 77.1 and 77.3 % and in excretory/secretary antigen were 28.5 and 74.5 % respectively. Soluble antigen had high levels of sensitivity and specificity in ELISA method and the results were rather resemble to commercial kit (Trinity, USA).

Ferula gummosa Boiss. has medicinal applications in treating a wide range of diseases including cancer. The objective of this study was to evaluate the antiproliferative activities of the seed and gum extracts of F. gummosa as well as to study the effect of the potent extract on the induction of apoptosis and cell cycle arrest. Our results demonstrated that the ethanolic extract had the lowest IC50 value at 72 h (0.001 ± 1.2 mg/mL) in BHY cells. Moreover, flowcytometry and annexin-V analysis revealed that the ethanolic extract induced apoptosis and cell-cycle arrest in BHY cells at G1/S phase. In addition, colorimetric methods exhibited the highest amount of total phenolics and flavonoids in the aqueous and gum extracts (0.12 ± 0.037, 0.01 ± 2.51 mg/g of dry powder). Generally, the results obtained indicate that F. gummosa ethanol extract may contain effective compounds which can be used as a chemotherapeutic agent.

Experimental data on the hemodynamics of dental pulp at different stages of caries treatment are given. Observations of speckle patterns in backscattered laser light are used as a measurement method to qualitatively characterize changes in blood flow rate through the dental pulp. The measurements were made by the author-designed experimental setup. Theoretical estimations showed that stationary reflected light from an in vivo tooth contains a negligibly small information body on changes in the pulpal blood flow due to the shadowing of the pulp by optically thick enamel and dentin. Therefore, the temporal variations in the speckle patterns are the only possible way that can provide monitoring of blood conditions in the pulp by using backscattered light. Various statistical characteristics of the random reflected light fields are studied as indicators of blood flow rate changes. There were selected five statistical parameters of backscattered speckle images that give self-consistent data on these changes. The parameters include four combinations of integrals of the Fourier transforms of the observed temporal variations as well as the speckle image contrast. The selected parameters are shown to qualitatively agree with general considerations on the effects of reduced or increased blood flow rates on the selected integral quantities.

The results of a computational study on the effect of the body on biomechanical responses of a helmeted human head under various blast load orientations are presented in this work. The focus of the work is to study the effects of the human head model boundary conditions on mechanical responses of the head such as variations of intracranial pressure (ICP). In this work, finite element models of the helmet, padding system, and head components are used for a dynamic nonlinear analysis. Appropriate contacts and conditions are applied between different components of the head, pads and helmet. Blast is modeled in a free space. Two different blast wave orientations with respect to head position are set, so that, blast waves tackle the front and back of the head. Standard trinitrotoluene is selected as the high explosive (HE) material. The standoff distance in all cases is one meter from the explosion site and the mass of HE is 200 grams. To study the effect of the body, three different boundary conditions are considered; the head-neck model is free; the base of the neck is completely fixed; and the head-neck model is attached to the body. Comparing the results shows that the level of ICP and shear stress on the brain are similar during the first five milliseconds after the head is hit by the blast waves. It explains the fact that the rest of the body does not have any contribution to the response of the head during the first 5 milliseconds. However, the conclusion is just reasonable for the presented blast situations and different blast wave incidents as well as more directions must be considered.Copyright © 2013 by ASME

In this paper, a biomechanical study of a human head model exposed to blast shock waves followed by a blunt impact with the surface of the enclosing walls of a confined space is carried out. Under blast, the head may experience primary blast injury (PBI) due to exposure to the shockwaves and tertiary blast injury (TeBI) due to a possible blunt impact. We examine the brain response data in a deformable finite element head model in terms of the inflicted stress/pressure, velocity, and acceleration on the brain for several blast scenarios with different intensities. The data will be compared for open space and confined spaces. Following the initial impact of the shock front in the confined space, one can see the fluctuations in biomechanical data due to wave reflections. Although the severity of the PBI and TeBI is dependent on the situation, for the cases studied here, PBI is considerably more pronounced than TeBI in confined spaces.

We applied the four dimensional Langevin dynamical model to investigate the average spin of fission fragments. Elongation, neck thickness, asymmetry parameter, and the orientation degree of freedom (K coordinate) are the four dimensions of the dynamical model. We assume that the collective modes depend on the emission angle of the fragments, then different parameters related to the average spin of fission fragments are calculated dynamically. The angle dependence of average spin of fission fragments is investigated by calculating the spin at angles 90° and 165°. Also, the obtained results based on the transition state model at scission point are presented. One can obtain better agreement between the results of the dynamical model and experimental data in comparison with the results of the transition state model.

Modeling and optimization of welding processes is one of the important topics for welding researches. In such research, it is necessary to measure the weld bead geometry. Nowadays, machine vision has a widespread use in measurement applications. In order to use machine vision in weld bead geometry measurement, it is necessary to acquire the desired images of cross section of welded plates with desirable separation of weld and base metal regions. This separation is performed by suitable solution to etch cross section of welded plates. In this paper, it has been tried to determine suitable solution to etch cross section of welded plates (made from API X56 steel) for obtaining the best revelation of weld metal regions. This solution can be utilized to obtain desired image of welded plate's cross section for machine vision measurement of weld bead geometry.

In this paper, a computational modeling for biomechanical analysis of primary blast injuries is presented. The responses of the brain in terms of mechanical parameters under different blast spaces including open, semi-confined, and confined environments are studied. In the study, the effect of direct and indirect blast waves from the neighboring walls in the confined environments will be taken into consideration. A 50th percentile finite element head model is exposed to blast waves of different intensities. In the open space, the head experiences a sudden intracranial pressure (ICP) change, which vanishes in a matter of a few milliseconds. The situation is similar in semi-confined space, but in the confined space, the reflections from the walls will create a number of subsequent peaks in ICP with a longer duration. The analysis procedure is based on a simultaneous interaction simulation of the deformable head and its components with the blast wave propagations. It is concluded that compared with the open and semi-confined space settings, the walls in the confined space scenario enhance the risk of primary blast injuries considerably because of indirect blast waves transferring a larger amount of damaging energy to the head.

Background: The aim of this study was identification of the epidemiology of Prototheca zopfii species from the milk samples of dairy cattle in Isfahan, central Iran. Methods: Milk samples were obtained from 230 dairy cattle, 130 with and 100 without mastitis, in Isfahan. The samples were cultured in Prototheca Isolation Medium (PIM) and Sabouraud’s dextrose agar. All P. zopfii isolates were identified by morphological and biochemical methods. Then, as a confirmatory test they were examined by genotype-specific PCR. Results: Four P. zopfii strains (3.07%) were isolated from the 130 samples of dairy cattle with clinical mastitis and there was no isolation from totally 100 samples of healthy bovines without mastitis. Specific PCR product (about 946 bp) was detected in four isolates. Conclusion: It seems that P. zopfii genotype II plays a key role in affecting bovine mastitis that confirmed other previous studies. Our study was the first, which identified the Prototheca species by traditional and molecular methods in Iran and Middle East as well.

The development of insecticide resistance in the German cockroach, Blattella germanica (L.) is a serious problem in controlling this medically important household pest. The insecticide resistance status in three hospital-collected strains of the German cockroach using four commonly used insecticides from different classes (permethrin, cypermethrin, bendiocarb and chlorpyrifos) was detected by topical bioassay method and preliminary information on possible involvement of monooxygenases in permethrin resistant strains employing synergist piperonyl butoxide (PBO) was obtained. For each insecticide, four to six concentrations resulting in0% and100% mortality were used. Three to six replicates of 10 cockroaches per concentration were conducted. For synergism studies, 100 μg PBO per gram body weight of cockroach as the maximum sublethal dose was administered to the first abdominal segment 1 h before insecticide treatment. The differences between LD50 (μg/g) values were considered statistically significant only when the 95% confidence intervals did not overlap. The resistance ratio and synergism ratio were calculated for each insecticide. All three hospital-collected strains of the German cockroach showed different levels of resistance to permethrin and cypermethrin based on resistance ratios compared with SUS strain. Permethrin and cypermethrin resistance ratios ranged from 11.61 to 17.64 and 11.45 to 26.45 at LD50 levels, respectively. Low to moderate levels of bendiocarb resistance and low level of chlorpyrifos resistance were also observed in the hospital-collected strains under study. The synergist piperonyl butoxide (PBO) significantly enhanced the toxicity of permethrin to all strains with different degrees of synergist ratio, 2.45-, 1.87-, 2.51- and 2.38-fold, suggesting monooxygenase involvement in permethrin resistance.

The identification of filaggrin mutations has contributed towards our understanding of hereditary factors associated with epidermal dysfunction observed in individuals with atopic eczema (AE). However, factors that predispose to acquired filaggrin modulation are not well understood. Interleukin (IL)-22 is upregulated in lesional AE tissue, but its effects on filaggrin expression and genes associated with epidermal function have not yet been comprehensively addressed.To investigate the effects of IL-22 on expression of filaggrin and genes encoding proteins relevant to epidermal function.Microarray analysis was performed on IL-22-stimulated HaCaT keratinocytes. Filaggrin protein level was assessed by an intracellular enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and Western blot in HaCaT cells and the findings were validated in primary keratinocytes.Exposure to IL-22 cytokine resulted in a downregulation of profilaggrin mRNA expression in HaCaT keratinocytes. The expression of genes involved in enzymatic processing of profilaggrin as well as the generation of natural moisturizing factor was also altered. Furthermore, there was an upregulation of many transcripts encoding proteins of the S100 family. Profilaggrin/filaggrin downregulation was detected by intracellular ELISA and Western blot in HaCaT cells. The relevance to the primary setting was confirmed in primary keratinocytes by Western blot.IL-22 downregulates profilaggrin/filaggrin expression in keratinocytes at both mRNA and protein levels and affects genes relevant to epidermal function. This novel pathway may have relevance to the pathogenesis and treatment of atopic and other skin disease.

"nWe report a case of human nasal myiasis caused by flower fly larva in a 14-year-old rural girl in Central Province of Iran. Entomological studies on larva showed the larva as Eristalis tenax which is a rarely cause of nasal myiasis. This is the first reported case of E. tenax larva causing human nasal myiasis in Iran.

In third generation mobile communication standards (UMTS, cdma2000 and Japanese W-CDMA) different kinds of encoding are specified for different types of services and channels-convolutional, turbo, Reed-Solomon and CRC. Decoding may use any suitable algorithm, with prime candidates being versions of the Viterbi algorithm (with soft or hard output), and the maximum a posteriori probability algorithm, with its derivatives log-MAP and max-log-MAP. It would be advantageous to be able to select the optimum algorithm in any circumstance. The paper examines the reconfiguration between SOVA and log-MAP decoding algorithms. The performance of log-MAP is higher than SOVA, but with more complexity and delay. The two algorithms are analysed into component operations and blocks and the common parts are identified.

Stress is a kind of physical or psychological exhaustion caused by actual or superficial problems. When pressures in working environment build up, a considerable impact on body and mind can be developed. This condition may lead the worker in to a harmful accident and bring about a dangerous situation. In many countries forestry is one of the toughest and most difficult types of occupation. Working in forest is intensive and involves a high degree of risk. Operating chainsaw and skidder are known as two most stressful occupations in forest. In order to study effect of occupational stress on mental health of forest workers, a research was conducted on the workers of two companies Mazandaran Wood and Paper Manufactory and Nekachoob Wood Technology using GHQ-28 questionnaire (General Health Questionnaire). Furthermore, in order to investigate and compare forest workers under impact with greater details, control group was also considered. Kroskal-Wallis test showed that there was a significant difference between target and contro groups in terms of mental health at 99 percent statistical levels. Working conditions and occupational stress had negative impact on mental health of both chainsaw and skidder operators so seriously that they showed symptoms like anxiety, nervousness, lack of sleep, etc.

11052 Background: TAC confers a significant disease free and overall survival benefits vs. FAC for patients with node positive breast cancer and prophylactic use of G-CSF is a reasonable supportive therapy to minimize myelosuppresive complications of this regimen. DD scheduling has shown improved clinical outcomes in breast cancer therapy. This study is trying to compare toxicities and tolerability of DD TAC with G-CSF support with TAC every 3 wks supported with G-CSF. Methods: Thirty seven patients were enrolled during the period 1/04 to 1/06. Cohort A (N=25) received six cycles of TAC (75/50/500 mg/m2 every 3 wks) plus GCSF started on day 5 and Cohort B (N=12) received six cycles of TAC (75/50/500 mg/m2 every 2 wks) plus GCSF started on day 2. All patients had normal cardiac, renal and liver function. Toxicities were evaluated by clinical assessment, CBC and liver function tests. Results: The incidence of febrile neutropenia was 15.8% and 16.7% in cohort A and B respectively (RR =1.06, 95% CI = 0.20–5.42). Grade III/IV anemia was detected in 5.3% of cohort A patients and 8.0 % of cohort B patients (RR=1.58, 95% CI=0.10–22.99). Ten percent of cohort A patients developed stomatitis grade III/IV while none of cohort B patients had this toxicity (RR=1.06, 95% CI = 0.94–1.17). Hospitalization due to chemotherapy complications (mainly neutropenia) in cohort A and B were 5.3% and 8.3% (RR =1.58, 95%CI = 0.10–22.99). Conclusions: DD two weekly TCA was reported to be feasible in patients with stage II - III breast cancer (Margolis et al. JCO, 2005). This study shows that DD TCA plus G-CSF has comparable toxicity profile with standard TCA regimen with shorter treatment period.

Adrenergic agonists produced a characteristic and definite decrease in the amplitude of spontaneous contractions and tone of the isolated rabbit jejunum. Effect of phenylephrine was abolished either by phenoxybenzamine or phentolamine. Relaxation induced by epinephrine and by norepinephrine was inhibited after combined treatment with phentolamine and propranolol. Phentolamine alone diminished the response to epinephrine and to norepinephrine, but the diminution for epinephrine was greater, indicating that epinephrine has a greater affinity for alpha- than for beta-receptors in the rabbit jejunum. Stimulation of the beta-receptors by isoproterenol was inhibited by propranolol, oxprenolol, sotalol and pindolol, but the block was incomplete. The activity of these four beta-blockers in preventing the inhibitory response to isoproterenol was as follows: inidolol greater than or equal to oxprenolol greater than propranolol greater than sotalol. This demonstrates the fact that not all beta-adrenergic blocking agents possess an identical pharmacologic spectrum of activity. Also it can be suggested that the beta-receptors of jejunum differ in specificity from those of other organs.

1. Perphenazine, promethazine and levomepromazine induced sedation in young pullets following intramuscular injections. 2. The best results were obtained with perphenazine at a dose rate of 1-5 mg/kg.