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Background: Gel polymers are considered as new dosimeters for determining radiotherapy dose distribution in three dimensions. Objective: The ability of a new formulation of MAGIC-f polymer gel was assessed by experimental measurement and Monte Carlo (MC) method for studying the effect of gold nanoparticles (GNPs) in prostate dose distributions under the internal Ir-192 and external 18MV radiotherapy practices. Method: A Plexiglas phantom was made representing human pelvis. The GNP shaving 15 nm in diameter and 0.1 mM concentration were synthesized using chemical reduction method. Then, a new formulation of MAGIC-f gel was synthesized. The fabricated gel was poured in the tubes located at the prostate (with and without the GNPs) and bladder locations of the phantom. The phantom was irradiated to an Ir-192 source and 18 MV beam of a Varian linac separately based on common radiotherapy procedures used for prostate cancer. After 24 hours, the irradiated gels were read using a Siemens 1.5 Tesla MRI scanner. The absolute doses at the reference points and isodose curves resulted from the experimental measurement of the gels and MC simulations following the internal and external radiotherapy practices were compared. Results: The mean absorbed doses measured with the gel in the presence of the GNPs in prostate were 15% and 8 % higher than the corresponding values without the GNPs under the internal and external radiation therapies, respectively. MC simulations also indicated a dose increase of 14 % and 7 % due to presence of the GNPs, for the same experimental internal and external radiotherapy practices, respectively. Conclusion: There was a good agreement between the dose enhancement factors (DEFs) estimated with MC simulations and experiment gel measurements due to the GNPs. The results indicated that the polymer gel dosimetry method as developed and used in this study, can be recommended as a reliable method for investigating the DEF of GNPs in internal and external radiotherapy practices.

Background and Objective: Impacted molars teeth, especially third molar, are important in most branches of medical sciences. The angular position of molar teeth is in side effects and therapeutic regiment. This study was conducted to determine the angle of the impacted mandibular third molars. Materials and Methods: This descriptive study was carried out on 429 patients (269 men and 160 women) selected for surgery on impacted mandibular third molar in the oral and maxillofacial surgery clinic in Gorgan, Iran during 2010-11. Pre-operative diagnosis was done by physical examination and OPG radiography. Demographic characterstics including age, gender, ethnicity, impaction angle were recorded for each subject. Data were analyzed using SPSS-16, independent t-test and chi-square test. Results: Totally, 480 impacted third molars were studied. Mean age of patients was 26.06±6.21 years. Impaction of the third molar was more prevalent among men (62.7%) than women (38.30%). Impacted mandibular third molar of 189 people (44.1%) were in left side in 200 people (46.6%) were in right side and in 40 people (9.3%) were bilateral. According to impaction angle, mesioangular (41.7%) and distoangular (3.5%) types had the highest and the lowest frequency, respectively. In bilateral cases, the mesioangular-mesioangular type (48.8%) was the most prevalent. The mesioangular type was the most prevalent in all ethnic groups. The most prevalent angular position of the impacted third molar was the mesioangular type in both sexes. Conclusion: This study showed that the most prevalent angular position of impacted mandibular third molar is the mesioangular type.

Background: Today, a CT scan examination play an important role in disease diagnosis and thus allocates a significant dose of medical X-ray examinations. One of the important principles in the use of ionizing radiations is to observe radiation protection principles. Evaluating patient's absorbed dose and implementing the strategies for reducing dose are prior in safety issues. To achieve this purpose, sufficient studies should be performed in this regard. Therefore, patient's absorbed dose and the factors affecting have been studied in this research. This study aims to present and develop an acceptable level of absorbed dose in CT scan examinations.Methods: Diagnostic reference dose level in the adult age group (older than 15 years) has been studied in eleven CT scan centers in Tehran. For this purpose, CT scan examinations prevalent in above-mentioned centers were chosen and Weighted Computed Tomography dose index (CTDIw) and dose length product (DLP) parameters were studied. Standard phantoms with 16 and 32 diameters of Polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) origin have been used in the centers for CT scan calibration process. CTDIw third quartile has been considered as the diagnostic reference dose level (DRL).Results: Rate of diagnostic reference dose in the adult age group (older than 15 years) for the head, sinus, lungs, abdomen and pelvis are 50.87, 38.27, 8.05 and 9.11 mg, respectively. Dose measurements made in this survey have been used to set up local DRLs and can be used as a template for national DRLs.Conclusion: Value of diagnostic reference dose for the head examinations is more than the other parts and diagnostic reference dose in Tehran city in the Adult age group and the protocols compared is less than national reference dose.

800x600 Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE AR-SA MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";} "nBackground: With respect to the importance of hepatitis B vaccination of high-risk groups such as prisoners, this study was performed to assess the comparability of a short-course double-dose vaccination schedule with the standard 3-dose schedule. "n"nMethods : Within a randomized clinical trial, a short-course vaccination (at months 0 and 1) with 20 microgram (double-dose) doses of the vaccine was compared to the standard method of hepatitis B vaccination (at months 0, 1 and 6, with 10-microgram doses) in 100 prisoners in Zahedan city in Iran in 2009. We made sure the sera from all the individuals were negative for markers of previous hepatitis B infection. Subsequently serum from all the participants was tested for anti-HBs antibody 1, 2 and 7 months after the first dose of vaccination."n"nResults : Seroconversion rates (HBsAb>10 mIU/ml) 1, 2 and 7 months after the first dose of vaccination were similar in the routine (11%, 79% and 94%, respectively) relative to the double-dose group (26%, 95% and 93 %, respectively). The mean values of anti-HBs antibody titers were similar in the 1st and 2nd months for the two groups but it was significantly higher (P=0.002) in the routine dose (514 mIU/ml) versus the double-dose group (130 mIU/mL), in the 7th month. "n"nConclusion: Demonstrating comparable results with the standard 3-dose schedule, it seems that short-term double-dose vaccination for hepatitis B is a safe and acceptable method for use in high-risk groups such as prisoners.

Background&Objective: In recent century, progress of technology and hygiene has caused improvement of human life. But factors such as car accidents and braws cause body damages. Due to absence of about the prevalence of jaw and face fractures proper pattern and related damages in Golestan province, this study was done to determine the pattern of jaw and face fracturs in 5th Azar hospital in Gorgan – Iran (2003-04). Materials&Methods: In a 3-years prospective study (2003-04), 221 patients in referral hospital in Golestan province were evaluated and data about demography, etiology, related damages and therapeutic procedures inserted in informational forms and extracted data was analysed by SPSS 11.5 software. Results: In this study 84.1% and 15.9% of patients were male and frmale, respectively and most of them were 21 to 30 years old. The most common causes of fractures of jaw and face in these patients consist of driving accident (72.8%), falling down (15.4%) and major trauma (11.8%). In accidents, motor accidents were the commonest cause (60.9%). Mandible bone was the commonest site of fracture (77.8%) and trauma to the skull and nervous tissues was the most common accompaniment damage. Open reduction was the main therapy in these patients. Death was not seen in this study at all. Conclusion: This study showed that driving accidents, specially motor accidents are the most common causes of fractures of jaw and face. Therefore , emphasis on observation of driving regulations and use of life belt and helmet is very important.

Fine-grained vehicle type recognition using on-road cameras is among interesting topics in machine vision. It has several challenges like inter-class similarity, different viewing angles, and different lighting and weather conditions. This paper presents a novel approach for vehicle classification based on a novel augmentation method and deep learning. In the proposed smart augmentation, the vehicle images of each class are registered on the reference vehicles of all other classes and then added to the training set of that class. In this way, we will have a lot of new images which are very similar to both reference and target classes. This helps the CNN model to handle inter-class similarities very well. In the test phase, the input image is registered on every reference image in parallel and applied to the model. Finally, the winner is determined by summing up the provided scores of all models. The targeted data augmentation along with the proposed classification strategy has high recognition power and is capable of providing high accuracy using small CNNs or any other classification method without the need for large datasets. The proposed method achieved a recognition rate of 99.8% with only 150K parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Constructing dual‐ion energy storage devices using anion‐intercalation graphite cathodes offers the unique opportunity to simultaneously achieve high energy density and output power density. However, a critical challenge remains in the lack of proper anodes that match with graphite cathodes, particularly in sustainable electrolyte systems using abundant potassium. Here, a surface grafting approach utilizing multifunctional azobenzene sulfonic acid is reported, which transforms V2C MXene into a high‐kinetics K+‐intercalation anode (denoted ASA‐V2C) for dual‐ion energy storage devices. Importantly, the grafted azobenzene sulfonic acid offers extra K+‐storage centers and fast K+‐hopping sites, while concurrently acting as a buffer between V2C layers to mitigate the structural distortion during K+ intercalation/de‐intercalation. These functionalities enable the V2C electrode with significantly enhanced specific capacity (173.9 mAh g−1 vs 121.5 mAh g−1 at 0.05 A g−1), rate capability (43.1% vs 12.0% at 20 A g−1), and cycling stability (80.3% vs 45.2% after 900 cycles at 0.05 A g−1). When coupled with an anion‐intercalation graphite cathode, the ASA‐V2C anode demonstrates its potential in a dual‐ion energy storage device. Notably, the device depicts a maximum energy density of 175 Wh kg−1 and a supercapacitor‐comparable power density of 6.5 kW kg−1, outperforming recently reported Li+‐, Na+‐, and K+‐based dual‐ion devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The basic strategy to mitigate water crisis is to save agricultural water consumption by increasing productivity, which will result in more income for farmers and sustainable production. Due to the economic importance of barley production in the country, it is necessary to study the volume of irrigation water and water productivity to produce this strategic product. Based on extensive field research on irrigation water management and application of different irrigation methods in barley farms, the innovations of this research were: a) measuring water consumed and determining water use efficiency in barley production, b) the up-to-date of the measurements and research findings, c) findings applicability for application in agricultural planning at the national and regional levels, d) the ability to development the findings in barley farms at the national level to improve water use efficiency. The hypotheses of this research are: a) barley irrigation water is various in different regions, b) water applied in barley farms is more than the required one, c) the water use efficiency of barley is different in the main production areas, and d) The applied water of barley is not the same in different irrigation methods. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to determine the water consumed and water use efficiency in barley production; to measure the water applied to barley farms in the main production areas; to compare the water measured in the production areas with the net irrigation requirement; and finally to determine water use efficiency of the barley in the main production areas in the Iran. Materials and Methods For this purpose, the volume of irrigation water and barley yield in 296 selected farms in 12 provinces (about 75% of the area under cultivation and production of barley in Iran) including Khuzestan, East Azerbaijan, Ardabil, North Khorasan, Fars, Khorasan Razavi, Tehran, Semnan, Markazi, Isfahan, Hamedan and Qazvin were measured directly. Farms in the mentioned provinces were selected to cover various factors such as irrigation method, level of ownership, proper distribution and quality of irrigation water. By carefully monitoring the irrigation program of selected farms during the growing season, the amount of irrigation water for barley during one year was measured. At the end of the season and after determining the average yield of barley during the 2020-2021 year, the values of irrigation water productivity and total water productivity (irrigation+effective rainfall) were determined in selected barley farms in each region. The volume of water supplied was compared with the gross irrigation requirements estimated by the Penman-Monteith method using meteorological data from the last ten years, and compared with the values of the National Water Document. Analysis of variance was used to investigate the possible differences in yield, irrigation water and water productivity in barley production. Results and Discussion To assess the reliability of statistical analysis, we evaluated the sufficiency of the number of measurements needed for both the quantity of irrigation water and the ley yield on the farms. Subsequently, we computed statistical indices, such as the mean and standard deviation. The results showed that the number of measurements of irrigation water and barley yield was to be 296 and 283, respectively, which was more than the number of measurements required for irrigation water (41 dataset) and yield (50 dataset). Therefore, the sufficiency of the data for the statistical analysis was reliable. The results showed that the difference in yield, volume of irrigation water and water productivity indices were significant in the mentioned provinces. The volume of barley irrigation water in the studied areas varied from 1900 to 9300 cubic meters per hectare and its average weight was 4875 cubic meters per hectare. The average barley yield in selected farms varied from 1630 to 7050 kg ha-1 and the average was 3985 kg ha-1. Irrigation water productivity in selected provinces ranged from 0.22 to 1.53 and its weight average was 0.90 kg m-3. Average gross irrigation water requirement in the study areas by the Penman-Monteith method using meteorological data of the last ten years and the national water document were 4710 and 4950 cubic meters per hectare, respectively. Irrigation efficiency of barley fields in the country is estimated at 6265% without deficit irrigation. Conclusion In order to reduce water consumption and improve water productivity, it is suggested to manage water delivery to farms during the season and deliver water rights to them according to crops water requirements. To reduce water losses and enhance productivity in the barley farms, it is suggested the application of modern irrigation systems according to the farms conditions with the suitable operation; and modification and improvement of surface and traditional irrigation methods. Note that, water is only one of several necessary and effective inputs in the optimal and economic production of barley. On the other hand, attention should be paid to the optimal application of other inputs including: seeds, fertilizers, equipment and tools etc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the major issues related to traffic monitoring systems is analysis of the behavior of vehicles and identification of their characteristics. In this paper, an automated algorithm is proposed for calibration of road cameras. This calibration is used to estimate the speed and dimensions of passing vehicles. By using this method, a motion plane is obtained in the initial frames according to the direction of moving vehicles. After modeling the background, removing shadows, and identifying the exact boundaries of passing vehicles, a number of common vehicles are recognized through the bag of words method. Given the actual metric dimensions of these vehicles and the equivalent dimensions on the motion plane, the metric coefficients are calculated and the calibration process is completed. Each passing vehicle is projected on the motion plane, and speed and dimensions are calculated by tracking it along the road. To test the accuracy of the proposed method, a ground-truth video dataset is constructed by simultaneously capturing road vehicles using RGB and speed cameras. Furthermore, to identify common vehicles, a dataset of vehicle images is collected. The proposed method is evaluated based on our dataset and the mean error of 1.15 km/h is achieved. Accordingly, it outperforms previous methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]