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Distinguishing between awake and anesthetized states is one of the important problems in surgery. Vital signals contain valuable information that can be used in prediction of different levels of anesthesia. Some monitors based on electroencephalogram (EEG) such as the Bispectral (BIS) index have been proposed in recent years. This study proposes a new method for characterizing between awake and anesthetized states. We validated our method by obtaining data from 25 patients during the cardiac surgery that requires cardiopulmonary bypass. At first, some linear and non-linear features are extracted from EEG signals. Then a method called "LLE"(Locally Linear Embedding) is used to map high-dimensional features in a three-dimensional output space. Finally, low dimensional data are used as an input to a quadratic discriminant analyzer (QDA). The experimental results indicate that an overall accuracy of 88.4 % can be obtained using this method for classifying the EEG signal into conscious and unconscious states for all patients. Considering the reliability of this method, we can develop a new EEG monitoring system that could assist the anesthesiologists to estimate the depth of anesthesia accurately.

A series of new 2-(phenyl)-1,3- and 2-(phenyl)-1,3,3-tetramethylguanidines ( a-k ) were synthesized by reaction of different substituted aniline and urea derivatives in the presence of phosphorus oxychloride. The yields of products following extraction from toluene without further purification were of the order of 50-70%. We have found that adjusting of the pH at 8-9 in the work up process increases the yield of products. IR, 1 HNMR, and also mass spectrscopies were used for identification of these compounds.

Depth of anesthesia estimation with the Electroencephalogram (EEG) is a main current challenge in anesthesia studies. This paper proposes an original method founded on combination of permutation entropy and frequency measure to calculate an index, called Brain function index (BFI), to quantify depth of anesthesia. As EEG derived features characterize different aspects of EEG signal, it would be logical to utilize multiple features to evaluate the effect of anesthetic. Such a method implemented in the Saadat brain function assessment module (Saadat Co., Tehran, Iran). The BFI and commercial RE index as employed in the Datex-Ohmeda monitor are applied to EEG signals gathered from 18 patients during sevoflurane anesthesia. The results show that both BFI and RE indices track the changes in EEG especially at deep anesthesia state. However, the BFI index makes better response about the point of loss of consciousness and it can be derived with significantly less computational complexity. Taking into account the high accuracy of this method, an innovative EEG processing device may be extended to help the anesthetists to estimate the depth of anesthesia precisely.

The aim of this study is to evaluate the efficiency of a new automatic image processing technique, based on nonlinear dimensionality reduction (NLDR) to separate a cardiac cycle and also detect end-diastole (ED) (cardiac cycle start) and end-systole (ES) frames on an echocardiography system without using ECG. Isometric feature mapping (Isomap) and locally linear embeddings (LLE) are the most popular NLDR algorithms. First, Isomap algorithm is applied on recorded echocardiography images. By this approach, the nonlinear embedded information in sequential images is represented in a two-dimensional manifold and each image is characterized by a symbol on the constructed manifold. Cyclicity analysis of the resultant manifold, which is derived from the cyclic nature of the heart motion, is used to perform cardiac cycle length estimation. Then, LLE algorithm is applied on extracted left ventricle (LV) echocardiography images of one cardiac cycle. Finally, the relationship between consecutive symbols of the resultant manifold by the LLE algorithm, which is based on LV volume changes, is used to estimate ED (cycle start) and ES frames. The proposed algorithms are quantitatively compared to those obtained by a highly experienced echocardiographer from ECG as a reference in 20 healthy volunteers and 12 subjects with pathology. Mean difference in cardiac cycle length, ED, and ES frame estimation between our method and ECG detection by the experienced echocardiographer is approximately 7, 17, and 17 ms (0.4, 1, and 1 frame), respectively. The proposed image-based method, based on NLDR, can be used as a useful tool for estimation of cardiac cycle length, ED and ES frames in echocardiography systems, with good agreement to ECG assessment by an experienced echocardiographer in routine clinical evaluation.

Monitoring depth of anesthesia (DOA) via vital signs is a major ongoing challenge for anesthetists. A number of electroencephalogram (EEG)-based monitors such as the Bispectral (BIS) index have been proposed. However, anesthesia is related to central and autonomic nervous system functions whereas the EEG signal originates only from the central nervous system. This paper proposes an automated DOA detection system which consists of three steps. Initially, we introduce multiscale modified permutation entropy index which is robust in the characterization of the burst suppression pattern and combine multiscale information. This index quantifies the amount of complexity in EEG data and is computationally efficient, conceptually simple and artifact resistant. Then, autonomic nervous system activity is quantified with heart rate and mean arterial pressure which are easily acquired using routine monitoring machine. Finally, the extracted features are used as input to a linear discriminate analyzer (LDA). The method is validated with data obtained from 25 patients during the cardiac surgery requiring cardiopulmonary bypass. The experimental results indicate that an overall accuracy of 89.4 % can be obtained using combination of EEG measure and hemodynamic variables, together with LDA to classify the vital sign into awake, light, surgical and deep anesthetised states. The results demonstrate that the proposed method can estimate DOA more effectively than the commercial BIS index with a stronger artifact-resistance.

The synthesis of 3,6-bis(triphenylphosphonium)cyclohexene peroxodisulfate and its application for the selective oxidation of benzylic alcohols is reported.

Beat detection algorithms have many clinical applications including pulse oximetry, cardiac arrhythmia detection, and cardiac output monitoring. Most of these algorithms have been developed by medical device companies and are proprietary. Thus, researchers who wish to investigate pulse contour analysis must rely on manual annotations or develop their own algorithms. Our algorithm involves three stages: filtering of the acquired signal, preliminary peak-to-peak interval detection and RP calculation, analysis of the original signal by means of producing two moving averages.

Visual information from lip shapes and movement help to improve the accuracy of a speech recognition system. This paper describes a novel approach for visual speech recognition that includes two stages: feature extraction from sequence of lip images and classifying them. This algorithm describes a region-based lip contour extraction algorithm based on deformable model for feature extraction. The algorithm employs a stochastic cost function to partition a color lip image into lip and non-lip regions such that the joint probability of the two regions is maximized. Given a discrete probability map generated by spatial fuzzy clustering, we show how the optimization of the cost function can be done in the continuous setting. The region-based approach makes the algorithm more tolerant to noise and artifacts in the image. The extracted parameters representing the lip shape are modeled as continuous probability distributions and Hidden Markov Models model their temporal dependencies. The system achieved an accuracy of 92% for a speaker independent recognition task of the six digits using lip shape information only.

Monitoring depth of anesthesia using the Electroencephalogram (EEG) is a major ongoing challenge in anesthesia research. This paper offers a real-time method based on combination of permutation entropy and burst suppression pattern ratio to calculate an index, called Brain function index (BFI), to quantify the effect of anesthetic drug on brain activity quickly and accurately. Such a method implemented in the Saadat brain function assessment module (Saadat Co., Tehran, Iran). The BFI and commercial Bispectral index (BIS) are applied to EEG signals collected from 25 patients during general surgery. The results show that both BFI and BIS track the gross changes in EEG especially at high doses of anesthetics. However, the BFI index has significant advantages as; it has an open source algorithm and doesn't involve a complex mixture of three unrelated sub-indices; it is less sensitive to the noise embedded in the EEG signal and it considerably reduces computational complexity.

Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) is the standard clinical modality for high resolution, three dimensional imaging of the multi-layered anatomy of the retina. This paper describes an image processing pipeline we developed for automated segmentation of the retinal strata within OCT image data-sets. The pipeline consists of three independent postprocessing modules that involve combinations of noise reduction i.e. 2D log-Gabor filtering, edge detection and interpolation. Our automated method was validated against manual measurements from three anonymized clinical OCT datasets. We found that our approach was able to accurately segment the layers of the retinal ultrastructure with mean differences of 1μm compared to manual measurements. Overall, we have developed a sophisticated automated application for segmenting the highly-structured retinal anatomy. Ultimately, this tool will be used to create detailed computer meshes of the retinal ultrastructure for our future modeling.

Identification and assessment of left ventricular (LV) global and regional wall motion (RWM) abnormalities are essential for clinical evaluation of various cardiovascular diseases. Currently, this evaluation is performed visually which is highly dependent on the training and experience of echocardiographers and thus is prone to considerable interobserver and intraobserver variability. This paper presents a new automatic method, based on nonlinear dimensionality reduction (NLDR) for global wall motion evaluation and also detection and classification of RWM abnormalities of LV wall in a three-point scale as follows: (1) normokinesia, (2) hypokinesia, and (3) akinesia.Isometric feature mapping (Isomap) is one of the most popular NLDR algorithms. In this paper, a modified version of Isomap algorithm, where image to image distance metric is computed using nonrigid registration, is applied on two-dimensional (2D) echocardiography images of one cycle of heart. By this approach, nonlinear information in these images is embedded in a 2D manifold and each image is characterized by a point on the constructed manifold. This new representation visualizes the relationship between these images based on LV volume changes. Then, a new global and regional quantitative index from the resultant manifold is proposed for global wall motion estimation and also classification of RWM of LV wall in a three-point scale. Obtained results by our method are quantitatively evaluated to those obtained visually by two experienced echocardiographers as the reference (gold standard) on 10 healthy volunteers and 14 patients.Linear regression analysis between the proposed global quantitative index and the global wall motion score index and also with LV ejection fraction obtained by reference experienced echocardiographers resulted in the correlation coefficients of 0.85 and 0.90, respectively. Comparison between the proposed automatic RWM scoring and the reference visual scoring resulted in an absolute agreement of 82% and a relative agreement of 97%.The proposed diagnostic method can be used as a useful tool as well as a reference visual assessment by experienced echocardiographers for global wall motion estimation and also classification of RWM abnormalities of LV wall in a three-point scale in clinical evaluations.

In this paper, a Polymer Electrolyte Membrane (PEM) fuel cell power system including burner, steam reformer, heat exchanger, and water heater has been considered. A PEM fuel cell system is designed to meet the electrical, domestic hot water, heating, and cooling loads of a residential building located in Tehran. Operating conditions of the system with consideration of the electricity cost has been studied. The cost includes social cost of the environmental pollutants (e.g. CO2, CO and NO). The results show that the maximum energy needs of the building can be met by 12 fuel cell stacks with nominal capacity of 8.5 kW. Annual average electricity cost of thissystem is equal to 0.39 US$/kWh and entropy generation of this system through a year is equal to 1004.54 GJ/K1. It is also concluded that increase in ambient temperature from 1 °C to 40 °C increases the entropy generation by 5.73%, carbon monoxide by 14.56%, and nitrogen monoxide by 8.9%, but decreases carbon dioxide by 0.47%.

Monitoring the effect of anesthetic drugs on the neural system is a major ongoing challenge for anesthetists. During the past few years, several electroencephalogram (EEG)-based methods such as the response entropy (RE) as implemented in the Datex-Ohmeda M-Entropy Module have been proposed. In this paper, sample entropy is used to quantify the predictability of EEG series, which could provide an index to show the effect of sevoflurane anesthesia. The dose-response relation of sample entropy is compared with that of RE.EEG data from 21 subjects is collected during the induction of general anesthesia with sevoflurane. The sample entropy is applied to the EEG recording. Pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic modeling and prediction probability statistic are used to evaluate the efficiency of sample entropy in comparison with RE.Both methods track the gross changes in EEG, especially the occurrence of burst-suppression pattern at high doses of anesthetics. However, our method produces faster reaction to transients in EEG during the induction of anesthesia as indicated from the pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic modeled parameters and analysis around the point of loss of consciousness. Also, sample entropy correlated more closely with effect-site sevoflurane concentration than the RE. In addition, our proposed method exhibits greater resistance to noise in the EEG signals.The results demonstrate that sample entropy can estimate the sevoflurane drug effect on the EEG more effectively than the commercial RE index with a stronger noise resistance.

Echocardiographic images have considerable noises (Especially speckle noise) because of their inherent nature and do not have desirable quality which makes difficult to analyze them. Therefore, it is essential to run pre-processing to reduce noises before their interpretation and analysis. In this paper, we have used Contourlet method to reduce the noise of echocardiographic images. In order to evaluate and compare the proposed method with some common de noising methods, three different criteria (mean square error (MSE), peak signal-to-noise ratio and signal to mean square error) are used. The results showed that the proposed method is much better than the other methods. Moreover, according to expert echo cardiologist opinion, we have achieved maximum resolution other common de noising methods.

Medical applications of ultrasound imaging have expanded enormously over the last two decades. De-noising is challenging issues for better medical interpretation and diagnosis on high volume of data sets in echocardiography. In this paper, manifold learning algorithm is applied on 2-D echocardiography images to discover the relationship between the frames of consecutive cycles of the heart motion. By this approach, each image is depicted by a point on reconstructed two-dimensional manifold by Isomap algorithm and similar points related to similar images according to the property of periodic heartbeat cycle stand together. Noise reduction is achieved by averaging similar images on reconstructed manifold. By comparing the proposed method with some common methods and according to qualitative expert's opinions, the proposed method has maximum noise reduction, minimum blurring and better contrast among the similar methods.

The first step for automatic calculation of the ejection fraction, stroke volume and some other features related to heart motion abnormalities in echocardiographic images is automatic detection of the end-systole and end-diastole frames. In this paper, modified Isomap algorithm is applied on two dimensional (2-D) echocardiographic images to reveal the relationship between the frames of one cycle of heart motion. By this approach, the image sequences are represented in a 2-D manifold and each image is characterized by a point on reconstructed manifold. By considering the fact that end-diastolic and the end-systolic frames have the highest volume difference and consequently highest image difference comparing to the other two frames, the maximum distance between the two points in manifold is used to find these frames. The results obtained with our method were validated to those obtained with the reference experienced echo-cardiologist on six healthy volunteers and depicted the usefulness of presented method.

In this paper a polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cell power system including burner, steam reformer, heat exchanger and water heater has been considered to meet the electrical, heating, cooling and domestic hot water loads of residential building which in Tehran. The system uses natural gas as fuel and works in CHP mode. Design and operating conditions of a PEM fuel cell system is considered in this study. The energy requirements of residential building and the number of fuel cell stacks to meet them have been estimated. The method involved exergy analysis and entropy generation thorough the months of the year. Results show that all the energy needs of the building can be met with 12 fuel cell stacks at a nominal capacity of 8.5 kW. Exergy analysis of the CHP system shows that the increase in the ambient air temperature from 1oC to 40oC, will have an increase of entropy generation by 5.73%.Maximum entropy generates for 15 hour in 15th of June and 15th of July is estimated to amount at 12624 (kW/K). Entropy generation of this system through a year is estimated to amount to 1004.54 GJ/k.year., {"references":["M.A. Rosen, N.M. Lee, and I. Dincer, \"Efficiency analysis of a\ncogeneration and district energy system\", Applied Thermal\nEngineering, vol. 25, pp. 147-159, 2005.","J.L. Silveira, A.C.S. Walter, C.A. Luengo, \"A case study of compact\ncogeneration using various fuels\", Fuel, vol. 76, pp. 447-451, 1997.","M.A. Ehyaei, M.N. Bahadori, \"Selection of micro turbines to meet\nelectrical and thermal energy needs of residential buildings in Iran\",\nEnergy & Buildings, vol. 39, pp. 1227-1234, 2006.","M.A. Ehyaei, A. Mozafari, \"Energy, economic and environmental (3E)\nanalysis of a micro gas turbine employed for on-site combined heat and\npower production\", Energy and Buildings, vol.42, pp. 259-264, 2010.","M.H. Saidi, M.A. Ehyaei, A. Abbasi, \"Optimization of a combined heat\nand power PEFC by exergy analysis\", Journal of Power Sources, vol.\n143, pp. 179-184, 2005.","M.H. Saidi, M.A. Ehyaei, A. Abbasi, \"Exergetic optimization of a PEM\nfuel cell for domestic hot water heater\", ASME journal of fuel cell\ntechnology 2, pp. 284-289, 2005.","C.J. Renedo, A. Ortiz, M. Monana, D. Silio, S. Perez, \"Study of\ndifferent cogeneration alternatives for Spanish hospital center\", Energy\nand Buildings, vol. 38, pp. 484-490, 2006.","K.H. Khan, M.G. Rasul, M.M.K. Khan \"Energy conservation in\nbuildings: cogeneration and cogeneration coupled with thermal energy\nstorage\", Applied Energy, vol. 7, pp. 15-34, 2004.","M. Dentice, D. Accadia, M. Sasso, \"Micro-combined heat and power in\nresidential and light commericial applications\" Applied Thermal\nEngineering, vol. 23, pp. 1247-1259, 2003.\n[10] J.L. Miguez, S. Murillo, J. Porteiro J, \"Feasibility of a new domestic\nCHP tri generation with heat pump: I. Design development\", Applied\nThermal Engineering, vol. 24, pp. 1409-1419, 2004.\n[11] J.L. Miguez, S. Murillo, J. Porteiro J, \"Feasibility of a new domestic\nCHP tri generation with heat pump: II. Availability analysis\", Applied\nThermal Engineering, vol.24, pp. 1421-1429, 2004.\n[12] G. Gigliucci , L. Petruzzi , E. Cerelli, \"Demonstration of a residential\nCHP system based on PEM fuel cells\", Journal of Power Sources, vol.\n131, pp. 62-68, 2004.\n[13] X.Q. Kong, R.Z. Wang, X.H. Huang, \"Energy efficiency and economic\nfeasibility of CCHP driven by sterling engine\", Energy Conversion and\nManagement, vol.45, pp. 1433-1442, 2004.\n[14] K.M. Maribu, R. Firestone , C. Marnay, A.S. Siddiqui, \"Distributed\nenergy resources market diffusion model\", Energy Policy, vol. 35, pp.\n4471-4484, 2007.\n[15] G.G. Maidment, R.M. Tozer, \"Combined cooling heat and power in\nsupermarkets\", Applied Thermal Engineering, vol. 22, pp. 653-665,\n2002.\n[16] D. Ziher, A. Poredos, \"Economics of a three-generation system in a\nhospital\", Applied Thermal Engineering, vol. 26, pp. 680-687, 2006.\n[17] E. Cardona, P.Sannino, A.Piacentino, F.Cardona, \"Energy saving in\nairports by three-generation. Part II: Short and long term planning for\nthe Malpensa 2000 CHCP plant\", Applied Thermal Engineering, vol.\n26, pp. 1437-1447, 2006.\n[18] A. Bejan, Advanced Engineering Thermodynamics. New York: John\nWiley & Sons, 1988.\n[19] A. Mozafari, and A. Ahmadi and M.A. Ehyaei, \"Optimization of micro\ngas turbine by exergy, economic and environmental (3E) analysis\", IJ\nExergy, vol. 7, pp. 1-19, 2010."]}

The automatic detection of end-diastole and end-systole frames of echocardiography images is the first step for calculation of the ejection fraction, stroke volume and some other features related to heart motion abnormalities. In this paper, the manifold learning algorithm is applied on 2D echocardiography images to find out the relationship between the frames of one cycle of heart motion. By this approach the nonlinear embedded information in sequential images is represented in a two-dimensional manifold by the LLE algorithm and each image is depicted by a point on reconstructed manifold. There are three dense regions on the manifold which correspond to the three phases of cardiac cycle ('isovolumetric contraction', 'isovolumetric relaxation', 'reduced filling'), wherein there is no prominent change in ventricular volume. By the fact that the end-systolic and end-diastolic frames are in isovolumic phases of the cardiac cycle, the dense regions can be used to find these frames. By calculating the distance between consecutive points in the manifold, the isovolumic frames are mapped on the three minimums of the distance diagrams which were used to select the corresponding images. The minimum correlation between these images leads to detection of end-systole and end-diastole frames. The results on six healthy volunteers have been validated by an experienced echo cardiologist and depict the usefulness of the presented method.

The synthesis of 3,6-bis(triphenylphosphonium)cyclohexene peroxodisulfate and its application for the selective oxidation of benzylic alcohols is reported.

Vitiligo is characterized by a patchy loss of inherited skin color affecting approximately 0.5% of individuals of all races. Despite the absence of the protecting pigment and the overwhelming evidence for hydrogen peroxide (H(2)O(2))-induced oxidative stress in the entire epidermis of these patients, there is neither increased photodamage/skin aging nor a higher incidence for sun-induced nonmelanoma skin cancer. Here we demonstrate for the first time increased DNA damage via 8-oxoguanine in the skin and plasma in association with epidermal up-regulated phosphorylated/acetylated p53 and high levels of the p53 antagonist p76(MDM2). Short-patch base-excision repair via hOgg1, APE1, and polymerasebeta DNA repair is up-regulated. Overexpression of Bcl-2 and low caspase 3 and cytochrome c levels argue against increased apoptosis in this disease. Moreover, we show the presence of high epidermal peroxynitrite (ONOO(-)) levels via nitrotyrosine together with high nitrated p53 levels. We demonstrate by EMSA that nitration of p53 by ONOO(-) (300 x 10(-6) M) abrogates DNA binding, while H(2)O(2)-oxidized p53 (10(-3) M) enhances DNA binding capacity and prevents ONOO(-)-induced abrogation of DNA binding. Taken together, we add a novel reactive oxygen species to the list of oxidative stress inducers in vitiligo. Moreover, we propose up-regulated wild-type p53 together with p76(MDM2) as major players in the control of DNA damage/repair and prevention of photodamage and nonmelanoma skin cancer in vitiligo.

Epilepsy is a disorder of the central nervous system characterized by the loss of consciousness and convulsions. If some early warning signal of an upcoming seizure (diagnosis of preictal period) could be detected, proper treatment could be applied to the patient to help prevent the seizure. In this articles, Detrended Fluctuation Analysis (DFA) has been introduced and used to extract the DFA feature from EEG signal. DFA is a scaling analysis method that provides a simple quantitative parameter to represent the correlation properties of a signal, we come to 100% separation of Normal, Preictal, and Ictal states of the brain.

Cholesterol is important for membrane stability and is the key substrate for the synthesis of steroid hormones and vitamin D. Furthermore, it is a major component of the lipid barrier in the stratum corneum of the human epidermis. Considering that steroid hormone synthesis is taking place in epidermal melanocytes, we tested whether downstream oestrogen receptor/cAMP signalling via MITF/tyrosine hydroxylase/tyrosinase/pigmentation could be possibly modulated by cholesterol. For this purpose, we utilized human primary melanocyte cell cultures and human melanoma cells with different pigmentation capacity applying immunofluorescence, RT-PCR, Western blotting and determination of melanin content. Our in situ and in vitro results demonstrated that melanocytes can synthesize cholesterol via HMG-CoA reductase and transport cholesterol via LDL/Apo-B100/LDLR. Moreover, we show that cholesterol increases melanogenesis in these cells and in human melanoma cells of intermediate pigmentation (FM55) in a time- and dose-dependent manner. Cellular cholesterol levels in melanoma cells with different pigmentation patterns, epidermal melanocytes and keratinocytes do not differ except in the amelanotic (FM3) melanoma cell line. This result is in agreement with decreasing cholesterol content versus increasing pigmentation in melanosomes. Cholesterol induces cAMP in a biphasic manner i.e. after 30 min and later after 6 and 24 h, meanwhile protein expression of oestrogen receptor beta, CREB, MITF, tyrosine hydroxylase and tyrosinase is induced after 72 h. Taken together, we show that human epidermal melanocytes have the capacity of cholesterol signalling via LDL/Apo-B100/LDL receptor and that cholesterol under in vitro conditions increases melanogenesis.

Xanthine dehydrogenase/xanthine oxidase (XDH/XO) catalyses the hydroxylation of hypoxanthine to xanthine and finally to uric acid in purine degradation. These reactions generate H(2)O(2) yielding allantoin from uric acid when reactive oxygen species accumulates. The presence of XO in the human epidermis has not been shown so far. As patients with vitiligo accumulate H(2)O(2) up to mm levels in their epidermis, it was tempting to examine whether this enzyme and consequently allantoin contribute to the oxidative stress theory in this disease. To address this question, reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, immunoreactivity, western blot, enzyme kinetics, computer modelling and high performance liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry analysis were carried out. Our results identified the presence of XDH/XO in epidermal keratinocytes and melanocytes. The enzyme is regulated by H(2)O(2) in a concentration-dependent manner, where concentrations of 10(-6 )m upregulates the activity. Moreover, we demonstrate the presence of epidermal allantoin in acute vitiligo, while this metabolite is absent in healthy controls. H(2)O(2)-mediated oxidation of Trp and Met in XO yields only subtle alterations in the enzyme active site, which is in agreement with the enzyme kinetics in the presence of 10(-3 )m H(2)O(2). Systemic XO activities are not affected. Taken together, our results provide evidence that epidermal XO contributes to H(2)O(2)-mediated oxidative stress in vitiligo via H(2)O(2)-production and allantoin formation in the epidermal compartment.

Characterizing the brain activity during anesthesia is considered a major challenge for researchers. The concentration-relevant effect of the sevoflurane is evaluated on EEG signals collected from 19 patients during a proscribed induction and recovery setup. Recurrence Quantification Analysis based on order patterns is employed to provide an index named order laminarity (OLAM) to evaluate changes in the neuronal system. This index computes the activity of a part of brain without considering the number or dynamical nature of the individual sources and signifies segments staying in the same phase space region for a short time. Pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic modeling and statistical features are used to assess the effectiveness of the OLAM index compared with response entropy index as implemented in the commercial Datex-Ohmeda Module. Both methods track the overall changes in EEG. However, the OLAM can be proficiently computed and is artifact resistant (standard deviation of 0.016 for OLAM relative to 0.02 for response entropy index). This measure as a neurophysiologic correlation of general anesthesia also reacts quicker to alternations in EEG signals during induction and correlates more powerfully with drug concentration (The prediction probability of 0.89 for OLAM is proportionate to 0.83 for response entropy). This examination exemplifies a crucial translational phase from the neuroscience of consciousness to more intricate monitoring of anesthetic effects in patients.

Study of shrimp stock was carried out from January 2003 to March 2004 in two sampling areas of Khouzestan coastal waters. In this period, eight cruises in Life- Buseif (western coastal area) and six cruises in Bahrekan (eastern coastal area) were carried using shrimp trawl net. In Life- Buseif fishing area, the CPUE of total shrimp was the highest (19.18 kg/ h) in November 2002. This parameter estimated 9.42 kg/ h for M.affinis in March. In this area, the highest biomass of total shrimps was in November 2002 (410.1 t). This value was 204.2 t for M. affinis in same month. Maximum mean length of males and females of M.affinis were observed in December (12.4 & 11.4 cm respectively). Maximum and minimum sex ratio (f: m) of this species was 1.4: 1 in August and 0.89: 1 in December 2002. Relative frequency of shrimp in total catch was observed in December (23%) in Life- Buseif. This parameter was 6.24% in January in Bahrekan area. In Bahrekan fishing area, total shrimp CPUE was highest (3.7 kg/ h) in January, and max. CPUE for M. af inis was 3.2 kg/h in same month. Maximum biomass of total shrimp and M. affinis were 72.9 t and 62.9 t in January. Maximum length of male and female of M.affinis were 13.3 and 11.1 cm (in May and March respectively). Maximum and minimum sex ratio (f: m) of M. af inis was 2.9: 1 in May and 0.8: 1 in February. According to the results of this study, shrimp catch season was opened in Life- Buseif from 6 th Nov until 5th Dec 2003. Winter shrimp catch season has been closed in Bahrekan since 2001. Iranian Fisheries Science Research Institute Published

Study of M. affinis was carried out from June 2001 to December 2002 in two sampling areas of Khouzestan coastal waters. In this period, 18 cruises in Life- Buseif (western coastal area) and 13 cruises in Bahrekan (eastern coastal area) were came by using shrimp trawl net. In Life- Buseif fishing area, the CPUE of total shrimp was the highest (27.8 kg/ h) in September 2001. This parameter estimated 17.4 kg/ h for M.affinis in March. In this area, the highest biomass of total shrimps was In April 2002 (533.3 t). This value was 380.7! for M. Affinis on March. Maximum mean length of males and females of M.affinis were observed m January (13.4 & 11.5 cm respectively). Maximum and minimum sex ratio (f: m) of this species was 2.25: I July and 0.86: I in October 2002. Relative frequency of shrimp in total catch was observed m March (52.5%) in Life- Buseif. This parameter was 27.3% in February in Bahrekan area. In Bahrekan fishing area, total shrimp CPUE was highest (7.5 kg/ h) in March, and max. CPUE for M. affinis was 6.9 kgffl in same month. Maxmum biomass of total shrimp and M. affinis were 1800.4 t and t in March Maximum length of male and female of M.qffinis were 124 and 11.3 cm in March Maximum and minimum sex ratio (f: m) of M. affinis was 3.51 in May and 09: 1 in January, March and August 2002 respectively. According to the results of this study, shrimp catch season was opened in Life- Buseif from 3rd Nov until 29th Dec 2001 and from 6th Nov until 15th Dec 2002 winter shrimp catch season has been closed in Bahrekan since 2001. Iranian Fisheries Science Research Institute Published

Catch/effort statistics of Khouzestan Province collected from Shilat Statistical System in 1379 have been analyzed. Trends in Khouzestan fisheries from 1372 until 1379 have been also investigated, Length frequency samples collected by catch observers in two main landing centers have also been analyzed. For this purpose, some of the most important commercial fish species were selected for length measurements, the highest no.. of fishing units were operating in Abadan area. Total no. of fishing uints in Khouzestan Province have been increased about 9.3% comparing to the previous year. Total NO. of fishing days were about 174486 days, from which 532% was excreted by speed boats and 46.8% by Lenj. Total landed catch was estimated to be about 24061895 kg which was 0.2% less than the previous year. The highest landed catches belonged to Mid, Otolithes ruber and Tenualosa ilisha respectively, estimated biologic parameters fir the selected species show that in most of the cases their exploitation levels are too high. Iranian Fisheries Science Research Institute Published