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Biomarker plays an important role in early disease diagnosis including cancer. The World Health Organization defines a biomarker as any structure or process in the body that is measurable and affects the prognosis or outcome of the disease. Today, biomarkers can be identified using bioinformatics tools. The detection of biomarkers in the field of bioinformatics is considered more as a problem of feature selection. Many feature selection algorithms have been used for biomarker discovery however these algorithms do not have enough accuracy or have computational complexity. For this reason, the researchers discard the high accuracy algorithms because they are time consuming. We redesigned an efficient algorithm based on parallel algorithms. We used the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) including breast cancer patients. The proposed algorithm has the same accuracy and increases the speed of algorithm.

Color blindness has important effects on people’s daily activities, since most activities require a discernment between colors. It is very important for engineers and designers to understand how colorblind people perceive colors. Therefore, many methods have been proposed to simulate color perception of people affected by Dichromacy and anomalous Trichromacy. However, the simulation results rarely have been evaluated with the reports of concerned individuals. In first study, we tried to simulate the color perception of people with different types (red and green) and different degrees of color blindness. Different degrees of red-green deficiency is simulated on the 24-plates brand of the Ishihara color vision test kit. Then simulated plates were tested on people with normal color vision. The results show that the simulation performance is better in the case of high degrees of red-green deficiency. There is also a clear difference between the assessment of female and male volunteers. In another study, the perception of the color of people with blue-yellow blindness is also considered. The proposed blue-yellow blind simulation is compared with the result of another research project. The results show that the color perception of individuals with different degrees of blue-yellow blindness can be reconstructed with a reasonable accuracy.

A smart contract is a digital protocol (software code) that enables automated monitoring and executing contract’s provisions without the need for intermediaries. Blockchain technology allows implementing smart contracts through a distributed ledger, but has no reliable way of enforcing legal rules. For example, in networks such as Bitcoin, it is possible to engage in illegal activities such as money laundering and dealing in weapons. In addition, it is impossible to enforce and audit legal costs such as taxes and duties. This research has devised a plan that allows official institutions to enforce the rules and audits efficiently during automatic execution process of smart contracts. This article discusses five important challenges in applying legal rules to Blockchain: the accreditation to the contracting parties’ and the goods’ nature, collecting legal costs, enforcing territorial laws and auditing. We present “Hyper Smart Contract”, a method for regulating Blockchain-based smart contracts and assess the limitations of the current generation of smart contracts on Ethereum to ensure a proper implementation of this plan. The performance of proposed method evaluated on a motivation application.

In case there is a communication contrary to the system security policies, a covert channel has been created. The attacker can easily disclosure information from the victim’s system with just one public access permission. Covert timing channels, unlike covert storage channels, do not have memory storage and they draw less attention. Different methods have been proposed for their identification, which generally benefit from the shape of traffic and the channel’s regularity. The application nature of HTTP protocol allows the creation of a covert timing channel based on different features of this protocol (or different levels) that has not been addressed in previous researches. This research tries to study the effect of using different features (or levels) of HTTP protocol on identifying the covert channel. The amount of channel’s entropy could be manipulated by changing the channel’s level or adding intentional noise on the channel to protect from the analyzer’s detection. The difference in the placement of the covert channel and the detector causes the amount of channel entropy to be far from the detection threshold. Therefore, we concluded that the analyzer must investigate traffic at all possible levels. Adding noise on the covert channel decrease its capacity, but as entropy increases, it would be harder to detect it.

The application nature of HTTP protocol allows the creation of a covert timing channel based on different features of this protocol (or different levels) that has not been addressed in previous research. In this article, the entropy-based detection method was designed and implemented. The attacker can adjust the amount of channel entropy by controlling measures such as changing the channel’s level or creating noise on the channel to protect from the analyzer’s detection. As a result, the entropy threshold is not always constant for detection. By comparing the entropy from different levels of the channel and the analyzer, we concluded that the analyzer must investigate traffic at all possible levels. We also illustrated that by making noise on a covert channel, its capacity would decrease, but as entropy increases, it would be harder to detect it.

Position tracking of a user or an object has caught many researchers and entrepreneurs’ attention. It has a significant market opportunity as well as applications in daily life such as Earth sciences, intelligent transportation systems, machine control, mapping, surveying, surveillance, tracking, and vehicle testing. The accuracy of different positioning methods depends upon the accuracy of underlying technology and environmental conditions. In this paper, a hybrid adaptive method is developed to enhance the accuracy of positioning. Based on the accuracy and the environments, a coefficient (weight) vector is assigned to the coordinates obtained from INS, GPS, Cellular Network, and Wi-Fi methods. Subsequently, the weighted average method is used to integrate the coordinates to compute the location. The proposed method is tested in an experimental study with different distance settings. The accuracy and robustness of suggested method are validated with GPS and INS hybrids.

In the present study numerical simulation of flow boiling process has been conducted for evaluation of critical heat flux conditions under the effect of different parameters (mass flux, heat flux, channel length and surface roughness). Comparison between the results of the present study and previous researches were done. The comparison shows a good agreement between the present study and previous researches. The three different turbulence models (k-epsilon, k-omega and Reynolds Stress) are considered for simulation of boiling heat transfer and CHF phenomenon. The highest accuracy of simulation is obtained by k-epsilon model. The results express that the wall temperature value of tube with adiabatic and heated boundary conditions for first and second half of the tube is lower than the wall temperature when the fluid flows only in the heated wall section. Reduction of velocity value also leads to reduction of maximum wall temperature value and CHF value. Decreasing Roughness value as an effective parameter leads to an increase in wall temperature. Maximum value of the wall temperature, after CHF point, also increases with increase in heat flux value. CHF depends on the surface roughness and rises with increasing roughness value.

Background: Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) is a polymeric resin of polyester group used in the manufacture of beverage bottles. Migration of PET ingredients such as acetaldehyde to the content of bottles has adverse effects on consumers’ health. The purpose of the present study is to measure acetaldehyde in bottles of water. Methods: A total of 36 bottles of water stored in PET from 12 commercial brands (6 brands from each mineral and drinking water) were collected from retail stage in Isfahan, Iran. Measurement of acetaldehyde was performed using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The results were compared with the limit defined in standard of European Community in SPSS software using t-test. Findings: Acetaldehyde was found in 26 samples with the frequency of 72%. The average of this compound was 22.18 ± 6.79 and 6.36 ± 4.53 parts per billion (ppb) in mineral and drinking water, respectively. Acetaldehyde observed more in mineral water compared to drinking water samples. The amount of acetaldehyde was less than the limit defined in standard of European Community in all samples. Conclusion: According to the comparison of the measured values for acetaldehyde in mineral and drinking water in the present study with standard limit of European Community, it is recommended to perform the studies for risk assessment of different compounds migrated from bottles to their content and their effects on health.

The numerical simulation of subcooled flow boiling of R-113 working fluid has been done for two different nanofluids (R-113/Al2O3, R-113/TiO2) under different volume concentrations (0.5%, 1%, and 3%). The numerical results were compared with experimental results obtained by previous researchers, and the comparison shows that the numerical results are in good accordance. Nucleation site density, bubble departure frequency, and bubble departure diameter, which are three key parameters, are investigated in this study. The results express that these three parameters have the highest variation at low Reynolds numbers. The influence of different nanoparticles concentrations on the variation of the heat transfer coefficient is studied. The results indicate there is an insignificant difference between the effect of 1% and 3% concentrations on the heat transfer coefficient that means an increase of nanoparticles more than 1% concentration cannot improve heat transfer. The effect of different non-drag forces such as lubrication force, turbulent dispersion force, and lift force is also studied. Two correlations are proposed for predicting the convective heat transfer coefficient.

In this article, a novel tray humidifier column for humidification dehumidification desalination was proposed. The performance of the humidifier column has been investigated with experimental and computational fluid dynamics simulations. The hydrodynamics and heat transfer characteristics of this tray humidifier has been studied. A stainless steel sieve tray with a rectangular cross section with a dimension of 20 × 50 cm was used in the experimental study. In computational fluid dynamics modeling, a transient three-dimensional model has been developed based on the volume of fluid framework by using standard k-epsilon model. The effect of air and seawater flow rate and inlet seawater temperature on the exit air temperature has been investigated. The results show that the humidifier effectiveness of the tray humidifier column varies between 0.67 and 0.87 depending on operating conditions. Then, tray column can be used in humidification dehumidification desalination systems with advantages such as compact equipment, low-pressure drop, and handling solids or other sources of fouling.

The use of information technology in the field of foreign language teaching as an auxiliary tool is very important. In a foreign language classroom, place is just an abstract concept; where the language is separated from the community, culture and places in which it is used. Augmented reality is a technology in which virtual components are simultaneously combined with the real environment. Our aim in this study is to investigate the effects of location-based augmented reality in teaching Persian as a foreign language. In this study, after consulting with professors in the field of Persian language teaching and reviewing similar researches, we came to the conclusion that nothing has been done to teach Persian language using augmented reality. Therefore, a Persian game based on augmented reality was designed and implemented and then evaluated. For evaluation, two methods have been used; the user and the heuristic evaluation. Experts in the field of Persian language teaching, human-computer interaction and a number of language learners participated in the evaluation. Their feedback shows that the use of augmented reality increases satisfaction, enthusiasm and interaction with the environment and people, and also makes the process of learning and memorizing concepts more efficient.

This study was designed to find an analytical formula for predicting the ultimate shear strength of a novel kind of complex steel-concrete shear walls known as double steel plate complex shear wall (DSCSW). The performance of these compound walls is now under research and no adequate design provisions are available. Three types of analytical formulae consisting of full shear yield, local and global shear elastic buckling were proposed and their precisions were investigated. To this end, a comprehensive 3D nonlinear finite element (FE) parametric analysis was performed. To carry out such parametric study, 120 FE models of DSCSWs were simulated and analyzed using ABAQUS package. All models were constructed according to an FE model of a test sample of DSCSW which had been constructed and tested in 2013 by Rafiei. The validity of that FE model was verified by comparing the simulation results with the experimental results. The variables considered in the parametric study were the profiled steel plate thickness, the compressive strength of infill concrete, the yield strength of the profiled steel plate and finally the number of the intermediate fasteners. At the end of this study, it was revealed that the full shear yield formula can provide a good estimation of the shear capacity of this type of shear walls when at least one row of the intermediate fasteners in the mid-height of the wall used for connecting the steel plates to the concrete panel.

In this study, it was attempted to investigate the efficiency of a new type of composite shear walls named as Double Skin profiled Composite Shear walls (DSCSWs) in practice. To this end, 2...

In health informatics, the need for a consistent and integrated view of distributed and heterogeneous information sources is inevitable. Healthcare, medical education and research could benefit of integrating medical information of patients or about a disease, a treatment or side effects of a drug. This article proposes a flexible incremental update method for the materialized part of the integration system. It permits us to manage the integration system according to the characteristics of the data sources, which can be changed. We present a hybrid data integration approach.In this approach the materialized part of the system in mediator is the object indexation structure based on an instance classification of the sources objects which correspond to the global schema. The object identifier of each object in the indexation structure is materialized together with the attributes which are needed for the incremental updating of this indexation (classifying attributes).

Introduction: Root treatment will not be successful, without a proper root canal irrigation with less disadvantages and antibacterial effect. The aim of this study was to compare antimicrobial effect of cedar extract and 2.5%NaOCl on E. faecalis. Materials & Methods: In disk diffusion test, a standard suspension of E. faecalis (ATCC 29212) was cultured on plate and different concentrations (0.05, 0.15, 0.25, 0.35, 0.45 g/ml) of methanolic or hydro-alcoholic extracts, 2.5% NaOCl and physiologic serum (as negative control) were infused on paper disks. The inhibition zone measured after 48 h. In microdilution test, serial dilution of methanolic and hydro-alcoholic extracts, 2.5% NaOCl and physiologic serum in 1:2 proportion was performed in Brain Heart Infusion (BHI) culture medium. Then, standard suspension of E. faecalis was added to each well of micro plate. Data were analyzed using ANOVA. Results: Hydro-alcoholic and methanolic extracts had antibacterial effect on E. faecalis. Inhibition zone of 2.5% NaOCl was significantly higher than that of other extracts (p

Todays analyzing web weaknesses and vulnerabilities in order to find security attacks has become more urgent. In case there is a communication contrary to the system security policies, a covert channel has been created. The attacker can easily disclosure information from the victim’s system with just one public access permission. Covert timing channels, unlike covert storage channels, do not have memory storage and they draw less attention. Different methods have been proposed for their identification, which generally benefit from the shape of traffic and the channel’s regularity. In this article, an entropy-based detection method is designed and implemented. The attacker can adjust the amount of channel entropy by controlling measures such as changing the channel’s level or creating noise on the channel to protect from the analyst’s detection. As a result, the entropy threshold is not always constant for detection. By comparing the entropy from different levels of the channel and the analyst, we conclude that the analyst must investigate traffic at all possible levels.

One of the interesting problems in Bioinformatics is finding transcription start site in a gene. In fact, finding this site which separate promoter region from coding sequence, actually will end to promoter prediction. This leads to activate or inactivate some parts of gene which plays an important role after being translated to protein sequence. While traditional methods are reliable ways for promoter prediction, because of the large number of sequences and too much of information, it is not possible to study these sequences by those methods. Although some of these sequences have been already recognized and their information has been stored in big databases like NCBI, there are some sequences which their promoter regions have not been identified yet. This research aimed to design a parallel algorithm for one of the known promoter prediction algorithms, Ohler. We attempt to reduce the response time of Ohler algorithm, consequently increases the number of test samples, and improves the accuracy of the algorithm. The experimental results show that we have succeeded to achieve our purpose.

In recent years, the use of touchscreen mobile devices in a variety of places and contexts has been raised. Specific interaction context induced impairment and disabilities that can limit the usage of these devices. For instance, the use of a mobile device while walking in sunlight limits the visual attention and results in performance reduction. In this paper, we present a study that investigates distinctions between the made gestures by individuals in two different situations: while walking in sunlight glare and sitting at a table without visibility impairment. The results show that (1) the individuals tend to draw larger and broader gestures in situational impairment, (2) the variation in the time and speed depended on the user familiarity with the gestures, and (3) there wasn't great different behavior in how to apply strokes.

Background: Apical transportation (AT) of the root canal moves the physiologic canal terminus to a new location on the external root surface and results in the accumulation of debris and residual microorganisms due to inadequate cleaning and shaping of the canal end. This study aimed to assess the prevalence of AT following canal preparation with Mtwo and Reciproc R25 using cone-beam computed tomographic (CBCT). Materials and Methods: In this in vitro study, 40 mesiobuccal root canals of the maxillary molars with 19–22 mm length and (>40°) taper were prepared in two groups using Mtwo and Reciproc R25 rotary systems along with irrigation with 2.5% NaOCl. CBCT scans were obtained of the canals before and after preparation under similar conditions, and the values were measured using the device software. The amount of AT was measured according to Gambill et al. Data were analyzed using SPSS 17 and Chi-square and t-tests. P < 0.05 was considered significant. Results: Both systems caused some degrees of AT. No significant difference was found between the two systems in terms of the amount and direction of AT (P > 0.05); overall, the frequency of AT toward the mesial wall was greater than that toward the distal direction. However, this difference was not statistically significant. Conclusion: The mean amount of AT and the ability to keep the instruments in severely curved canals were not significantly different in canals prepared by Mtwo and Reciproc rotary systems. Thus, these systems can be used in the clinical setting with the lowest risk of AT.

This paper offers an approach that could be useful for diverse types of layout problems or even area allocation problems. By this approach there is no need to large number of discrete variables and only by few continues variables large-scale layout problems could be solved in polynomial time. This is resulted from dividing area into discrete and continuous dimensions. Also defining decision variables as starting and finishing point of departments in area makes it possible to model layout problem so. This paper also provides new technique that models basic constraints of layout problems.

Objective: To evaluated the differential effects of ethanol extraction of Citrullus colocynthis (C. colocynthis) on the blood glucose concentration and pathology of pancreas, liver, lungs, kidney and gastrointestinal tract in the alloxan induced diabetes in rats. Methods: Diabetes mellitus was induced in 20 adult female Albino rats, using intraperitoneal injection of 120 mg/kg alloxan. The diabetic rats were randomly assigned into two equal groups. The first group was treated with the extract of C. colocynthis seed (300 mg/kg) and the rats of the second group, as an untreated diabetic group, received ordinary diet. Ten non diabetic rats remained as a normal control group. Results: The results of this study indicate that C. colocynthis was able to reduce blood glucose significantly compared with the control diabetic group (P

For engineering systems, uncertainties and time delays are two important issues that must be considered in control design. Uncertainties are often encountered in various dynamical systems due to modeling errors, measurement noises, linearization and approximations. Time delays have always been among the most difficult problems encountered in process control. In practical applications of feedback control, time delay arises frequently and can severely degrade closed-loop system performance and in some cases, drives the system to instability. Therefore, stability analysis and controller synthesis for uncertain nonlinear time-delay systems are important both in theory and in practice and many analytical techniques have been developed using delay-dependent Lyapunov function. In the past decade the magnetic and levitation (maglev) transportation system as a new system with high functionality has been the focus of numerous studies. However, maglev transportation systems are highly nonlinear and thus designing controller for those are challenging. The main topic of this paper is to design an adaptive robust controller for maglev transportation systems with time-delay, parametric uncertainties and external disturbances. In this paper, an adaptive robust control (ARC) is designed for this purpose. It should be noted that the adaptive gain is derived from Lyapunov–Krasovskii synthesis method, therefore asymptotic stability is guaranteed.

Citrullus colocynthis seeds are traditionally used as antidiabetic medication in Mediterranean countries. An experiment was designed to evaluate the comparative effects of oral administration of C. colocynthis and insulin injection on the serum biochemical parameters of diabetic dogs. Twelve apparently healthy mixed breed dogs were selected and randomly allocated into three groups, two diabetic groups and one control group (n = 4). Diabetes was induced with alloxan tetrahydrate. One diabetic group and the control group were treated with a dose of 100 mg/kg/day of C. colocynthis. Three days after confirmation of diabetes mellitus, the dogs were orally administered C. colocynthis capsules twice daily for 8 days. The other diabetic group was injected with a combination of neutral protamine Hagedorn (NPH) [insulin isophane (NPH)–Human-Exir] and regular crystalline insulin [insulin (regular)–Human-Exir] (70% NPH and 30% regular) twice daily for 8 days. Blood samples were collected from the cephalic vein at three time points: immediately before alloxan injection, 3 days after diabetic induction, and 12 h after the last treatment. Serum concentrations of glucose, insulin, triglyceride, cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein, low-density lipoprotein, blood urea nitrogen, creatinine, alkaline phosphatase, alanine aminotransferase, and aspartic aminotransferase were measured. Results showed that the serum concentrations of glucose in insulin-injected dogs were not significantly different with those of the C. colocynthis-administered diabetic dogs. The serum concentrations of all measured parameters showed no significant change 8 days after the administration of C. colocynthis in the control group, whereas oral administration (capsule) of C. colocynthis at a dose of 100 mg/kg/day caused severe and mild diarrhoea in the control and C. colocynthis-treated diabetic groups, respectively. The present study indicated a significant antihyperglycaemic effect of C. colocynthis fruit and supports its traditional usage in the treatment of diabetes mellitus.

RPC-based grid infrastructures emphasize on the composition of services on a large number of computing resources. The key issue to reach high performance is to enable exploitation of parallelism on services invocations and communications. Moreover, this process should be transparent to reuse legacy codes. In this paper we present HOMA, an IDL compiler and a run-time support for automatic detection of the parallelism of invocations and their data dependencies on a set of CORBA objects. On homogeneous architecture, HOMA is accompanied by a predictable cost model. In the case of an application with a small critical path, among p processors the speed up of HOMA versus CORBA is asymptotically O(p). The illustrations on a case study in computational chemistry validate our cost model.

Introduction: Fearless removal of tooth structure during canal preparation and shaping has negative effects on the prognosis of treatment. On the other hand, sufficient pre-enlargement facilitates exact measurement of the apical size. The present in vitro study aimed to compare the efficacy of Gates-Glidden drills, K3, ProTaper, FlexMaster and RaCe instruments in dentin removal during coronal flaring using cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT). Methods and Materials: A total of 40 mandibular molars were selected and the coronal areas of their mesiobuccal and mesiolingual root canals were randomly prepared with either mentioned instruments. Pre- and post-instrumentation CBCT images were taken and the thickness of canal walls was measured in 1.5- and 3-mm distances from the furcation area. Data were analyzed using the one-way ANOVA. Tukey’s post hoc tests were used for two-by-two comparisons. Results: At 1.5-mm distance, there was no significant difference between different instruments. However, at 3-mm distances, Gates-Glidden drills removed significantly more dentin compared to FlexMaster files (mean=0.18 mm) (P

The fruits of Pistacia atlantica (subsp. mutica) have been used traditionally for the treatment of peptic ulcer, as a mouth freshener and have recently been introduced as a source of antioxidant vegetable oils. The aim of this study was to investigate the antioxidant activity of the gel forms, from P. atlantica (subsp. mutica) oil extraction on enzymatic antioxidants in experimental wound created in rat. A square-shaped skin defect (2×2 cm) was created aseptically by surgical excision at the first thoracic vertebrae. Then animals were randomly allocated in four groups (I, untreated controls; II, topically treated base gel; III, topically treated 5% gel; IV, topically treated 10% gel). Blood sampling was accomplished at 3, 7, 10, 14 and 21 days post-injury. Samples were collected for measuring antioxidant enzymes activities (superoxide dismutase, catalase and glutathione peroxidase activity in red cells) and lipid peroxidation (plasma malondialdehyde). The data analysis generally evidenced that the activities of the main antioxidant enzymes began to decrease significantly at 7 days after the wound was created in control and base gel groups. This remarkable decline became more evident in the period between 10 to 21 days post injury but increased progressively in P. atlantica (subsp. mutica) treatment groups, especially in gel 10% treatment group during wound healing. The results of this study suggest that excision of the wound leads to oxidative stress and topical administration of P. atlantica (subsp. mutica) gels causes remarkable changes in antioxidant parameter during wound closure (especially gel 10%) via pro-oxidative, and antioxidant activity can improve oxidative stress.

Background: Postendodontic pain (PEP) has always been a major problem for patients and dentists and NSAIDs are being used to relieve PEP and it is supposed that some benzodiazepines may potentiate facilitate the analgesic effects of the NSAIDs. This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of alprazolam on the analgesic effect of ibuprofen in PEP treatment. Methods: This randomized double-blind clinical trial was conducted on 45 patients aged 20-45 years who were subjected of root canal treatment. A written informed consent was obtained from each patient. The subjects were randomly divided into three groups; placebo, ibuprofen (400 mg) and alprazolam (0.5) mg + ibuprofen (400 mg). The intensity of pain was recorded using visual analog scale (VAS) at 4, 6, 12, 24, 48 and 72 hours after drug administration. Results: Of the participants, twenty six (57.8%) were males and 19 patients (42.2%) were females. Four hours after starting treatment, the VAS scores in the placebo and ibuprofen -treated groups were significantly higher than ibuprofen and alprazolam+ibuprofen groups (4.93±1.16, 3.67±1.88 and 2.67±1.11, respectively, p

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a growing health concern worldwide. Use of plants for treatment of DM is widely practiced in the Middle East. Garlic (Allium sativum L.) and Capparis spinosa are traditionally used as antidiabetic medications. The present study evaluated the differential effects of ethanol extraction of these plants on the blood glucose concentration and the pathology of pancreatic β-cell mass, liver, lungs, kidneys and GI tract in diabetic rats. DM was induced in 30 out of 40 adult female Albino rats, using intraperitoneal injection of 120 mg/kg BW alloxan. The diabetic rats were assigned into three groups, two of which were treated with extract of garlic and C. spinosa fruits (300 mg/kg) for 12 days and the rats of the third group, as the untreated group received ordinary diet. Ten non diabetic rats remained as the normal control group. Administration of these extracts tended to decrease the blood glucose concentration, while the blood glucose of the untreated rats remained significantly high. The garlic extract was found to be more effective than C. spinosa extract. Histopathologically, tissue sections of the pancreas in the treated rats did not show a significant difference with the untreated diabetic rats. The liver of the treated diabetic rats with garlic extract revealed slight improvement in the hepatic tissue compared to those of the untreated diabetic rats. This study indicated a significant anti-hyperglycemic effect of garlic and C. spinosa fruit and supported its traditional usage in treatment of diabetes mellitus. Key words: Diabetes mellitus, garlic, capparis spinosa, histopatological changes, pancreatic islets.

The success of a weed’s biological pathway is dependent on several factors including the mechanism(s) of dispersal, longevity of seeds in the soil seed bank, adaptation to varying environmental conditions and, competitive and reproductive abilities. In Near East barley, some races can be identified as wild but in other races wild and weed forms are confounded. Wild barley has wider distribution than the wild wheat and is spread over a wide area in the East Mediterranean basin and West Asiatic countries. In the Fertile Crescent countries, Hordeum spontaneum occupies a whole array of secondary man-made habitats. Invasive weeds possess a variety of characteristics that enable them to disperse rapidly into new areas. A variety of both aboveground and belowground plant traits can be used for identifying invasive species. Wild barley has some considerable traits including high genetic variation, high allelopathic potential, high relative growth rate, root characteristics, high competitive abilities and, became an invasive species in many habitats of Iran. Further studies are essential to evaluate the other mechanism(s) of invasiveness of wild barley in alien environment. Key words: Wild barley, Hordeum spontaneum, habitat, distribution, invasive weed.

Introduction: This study aimed to evaluate and compare the apical sealing ability of different irrigation regimens (NaOCl, CHX, NS, and MTAD) . Methods: Seventy intact extracted single-rooted human teeth were selected. The roots were resected at 3 mm short of the apical foramen after access preparation. The canals were prepared with profile. This rotary file moved forward into the apical foramen so that the D16 section of the file passed the foramen of the resected part of the root. The teeth were randomly divided into 4 study groups. After placing them in humid sponge, the canals were irrigated with study irrigators for 5 minutes. The canals were dried and 5mm MTA was placed into the apex. After 24 hours, the teeth were placed indian ink solution. The teeth were cleaned and the microleakage was tested using stereomicroscope. Results: The results showed no significant difference between the group of 2% Chlorhexidine and the other groups. 0.5% Naocl group showed significantly less leakage than MTAD and normal saline groups. Conclusions: The results of this study suggested that 0.5% NaOCl provided the best final irrigation before the apical placement of MTA.

Background: Amitriptyline is one of the most common tricyclic antidepressants, which binds to pain sensory nerve fibers close to the sodium channel; hence, it could interact to some degree with receptors of local anesthetics. This study was designed to assess the additional analgesic effects of 2% Amitriptyline local gel administration in irreversible pulpitis pain of the molars. Materials and Methods: This study was a randomized, double-blind clinical trial that was performed on 56 consented adult patients who did not receive enough analgesia after a lidocaine nerve block for their tooth pulpitis pain. Patients were treated with 0.2 ml of either 2% amitriptyline or placebo, which was directly injected into their mandibular molar pulp chamber after they had received two routine lidocaine injections. Patients were asked to score their pain as a mark on a 10-cm Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) at different timepoints: 0 (just before gel administration), 1, 3, 5, 7, and 9 minutes after the treatments. Results: There was a 92.5% decrease in VAS scores of patients 9 minutes after amitriptyline administration compared to Time 0, while in the placebo group this difference was only 13.5%. Further, in the amitriptyline group, the VAS score at all timepoints was statistically different from Time 0 ( P < 0.01). The overall pain reduction and its trend was significantly higher in the amitriptyline group compared with the placebo group ( P < 0.001). Conclusion: Inter-pulp space administration of amitriptyline 2% gel for completing analgesia in irreversible pulpitis pain could be effective and useful as a conjunctive therapy to injections of local anesthetics.

Introduction: The objective of this study was to determine whether preoperative low-dose ketamine reduces postoperative pain and analgesic consumption in children undergoing urological surgery. Methods: 60 children scheduled for urological surgery were included in this prospective study. Anesthesia was performed with fentanyl and Isoflurane.30 patients additionally received an intravenous bolus of ketamine (0.3 mg/kg) 3 min before anesthesia induction (Ketamine Group). Another 30 patients received a bolus infusion of saline (Control group). After transfer to the PACU, pain intensity was evaluated using a numeric rating scale (NRS). First patient analgesia request, cumulative analgesic consumption and pain intensities within the first 48h were recorded and compared. Results: Analgesic consumption was significantly different during the first 20 h (Control: 1.2 mg/kg), Ketamine:0.56 mg/kg). Differences were found in pain intensity during the first 26 hours postoperative hour (Control: 4.0, Ketamine: 2.5, P < 0.05) and in the time to first analgesic request (Control: 37, 28–46 min, Ketamine: 126, 78–141 min; P < 0.05). DISCUSSION: : preoperative low-dose ketamine reduces pain intensity and analgesic consumption during the first 20h after surgery.