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Fish fauna at three stations along the Gamasiab River, Kermanshah Province, were investigated for 9 months. Samples were caught using electroshocker and cast net of 1.5 cm mesh size and had their 20 morphometric and 10 meristic characteristics recorded. Twenty three species and subspecies in 14 genera and 5 families were identified, including: minnows (Cyprinidae), sisorid catfishes (Sisoridae), bagrid catfishes (Bagridae), river loaches (Balitoridae) and spiny eels (Mastacembelidae). The highest number of species (18, 78.3%) and genera (10, 71.4%) belonged to Cyprinidae, while 2 species (8.7%) in 1 genus (7.1%) belonged to Balitoridae; the other three families each contained 1 genus and 1 species (4.3%). The lowest species diversity (9 species) was observed in upstream station while the highest diversity (16 species) was in downstream station. Among the identified fish, only Pseudorasbora parva was recognized as exotic and the others were native.

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In the new era of strategic interactions between China and Africa, China’s influence on the continent has expanded dramatically. Through economic and operational proposals, China has facilitated trade and development opportunities for African countries. However, these strategic relations have also faced challenges and criticisms, with concerns about creating an unbalanced relationship between the two sides. The central question of this study is: is China's policy in Africa primarily aimed at increasing its own power, or at promoting development across the continent? The proposed hypothesis is that, although China’s significant investments in economic, construction, and infrastructure sectors mainly aim to expand its influence and strengthen its power, these efforts have also contributed to the improvement of development processes and economic growth in some African countries. This research examines the trajectory of China–Africa relations using a qualitative, analytical-descriptive approach grounded in neorealist theory. The findings indicate that China’s investments, while serving to bolster its political and economic influence as part of its broader strategic aims, have also resulted in tangible benefits such as enhanced infrastructure, economic growth, and job creation in select African nations. Nevertheless, these collaborations are accompanied by challenges, including concerns about fiscal dependence, rising debt levels, and long-term developmental instability.
 

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Aquaculture production is often accompanied by some stressors which undesirable effects on growth and physiological function. Music is one of the cases that could eliminate or reduce the effects of stressors. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of Iranian traditional music on growth, reproduction and behaviour of zebra cichlid (Pseudotropheus zebra). Fish with an average weight 5.5  0.18 g were put under both music and silence treatment with the number of 2 fish/aquarium with 3 replicates for 4 weeks. Fish under music treatment were put twice a day and every 30 minutes under the Iranian traditional music. At the end of this period, suitable conditions for fish were created to spawning. The results showed no significant differences in growth parameters, but 50 percent of fish during the 2-week were spawned in music treatment. However, only 16.6 percent of fish under silent treatment were spawned. Of eggs and spawn time, significant differences were observed between two groups. When is music being played, the fish were found mainly along approach the speakers, while the distribution of fish treated silence was uniform. The results of present study showed that use of music can affect physiological function of fish, which have more tranquility and less stress on fish.

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 Length-weight relationship, age range and fecundity of 40 specimens of the Russian sturgeon, Acipenser gueldenstaedtii, collected from two fishing stations in the southeastern Caspian Sea, were determined. Average length (TL) and weight were 129.5 cm and 12.7 kg for males and 145.8 cm and 22.15 kg for females, respectively. Absolute fecundity was 184000 in average and condition factor calculated 0/58 and 0/7 for male and females, respectively. Average age for males and females was 12.7 and 14.6 years, respectively. All these factors were lower than previous records from the Volga river estuary. Length-weight relationships results demonstrated isometric growth pattern with average slope of 2.978 and 2.822 for males and females respectively. These values were not statistically different between sexes (p> 0.05), but using this relationships for each sex separately will be useful for more reliable results especially in broodstock studies.

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Length-weight relationships and fecundity of 93 individual female Acipenser persicus broodstocks were investigated. The specimens were caught during 2001-2005 from Golestan, Mazandaran and Guilan provinces along the southern coast of the Caspian Sea. Total length and weight of each fish was measured to the nearest 1cm and 100 g, respectively. Age determination was carried out by using transects of the first ray of pectoral fin. The absolute fecundity was assessed by egg count per weight unit of all eggs existed in the body. The specimens were from 13 to 20 years old, of which the 16 years old had the highest proportion with 23.7%. Range of total length and weight were 132.5 to 211 cm and 14 to 42 kg, respectively. Mean absolute fecundity was estimated 267810 ± 92570. Total length, weight and absolute fecundity of fish increased with age in all cases, showed a significant positive correlation (p <0.01). The slope of the length-weight relationship (b) was equal to 2.745 and isometric growth pattern was determined in this species.

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Background: Aspergillosis is an opportunistic infection caused by Aspergillus spp in immunocompromised patients. The role of HSP90 in Aspergillus drug resistance is still unknown. The aim of this study was to evaluate the correlation between the presence of HSP90 gene and polyene resistance in Aspergillus spp using PCR.
Materials and Methods: In this study, 32 Aspergillus strains were used, which were isolated from patients susceptible to aspergillosis through Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) and identified by conventional methods. The isolates were cultured on Sabouraud dextrose agar (SDA). Susceptibility testing against amphotericin B was conducted according CLSI standards (M38-A). Also, the presence of HSP90 gene was evaluated using PCR.
Results: Of 32 Aspergillus strains used in this study, 16 (50%) isolates were identified as A. Flavus, 12 (37.5%) isolates as A. fumigatus, and 4 (12.5%) isolates as A. terreus. Among these species, 19 (59.37%) isolates were sensitive to amphotericin B whereas 13 (40.62%) were resistant. Moreover, there was a significant difference  between the presence of HSP90 gene and resistance to amphotericin B in Aspergillus species.

Conclusions: The presence of HSP90 gene provides evidence that shows this gene may play important role in resistance to amphotericin B in Aspergillus isolates. Although numerous regulatory genes are involved in resistance mechanisms, they remaines to be more clarified

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Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici (Fol) is the causal agent of vascular wilt in tomato, an important plant disease in Iran. Four monogenic resistance genes in tomato are used for identification of races of Fol and their corresponding avirulence genes Avr1, Avr2 and Avr3 were identified in pathogen one of which, Avr2, is f.sp. specific. Hence they can serve as reliable markers for racial identity and f.sp discrimination. These markers have been used for strains from other countries except Iran. Furthermore, a point mutation in Avr3 can lead to enhanced virulence of Fol on a susceptible tomato cultivar. To identify forma specialis and racial identity, Avr genes were studied in a collection of Iranian strains. Results revealed that PCR assay is very efficient in distinguishing between non-pathogenic and low virulence strains and in the vast majority of strains, avirulence genotype was consistent with Fol race1. Furthermore, to determine whether allelic variation of Avr3 could separate strains of different degrees of virulence, Avr3 wassequenced in Fol strains with high and low virulence. The resultsrevealed that allelicvariation of Avr3 was not correlated with degree of virulence in Iranian strains.
 

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Two cuckoo wasp species (Hymenoptera: Chrysididae), Trichrysis lacerta (Semenov, 1954) from the subfamily Chrysidinae, and Cleptes striatipleuris Rosa, Forshage, Paukkunen & Soon, 2015 from the subfamily Cleptinae, are newly documented for the Iranian fauna. The specimens were collected using Malaise traps in the Fars Province, south of Iran during 2015-2016. Notes about taxonomy, relevant references as well as geographical distribution of both species are given. The total number of Iranian Trichrysis and Cleptes currently increased to four and three species, respectively.

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This paper provides new information on the distribution of 32 species of Ichneumonidae (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonoidea) in Iran. Two genera i.e. Isadelphus Forster, 1869 and Linycus Cameron, 1903 as well as 13 species i.e. Casinaria mesozosta (Gravenhorst, 1829), Cymodusa antennator Holmgren, 1860, Gambrus tricolor (Gravenhorst, 1829), Ichneumon inops Holmgren, 1880, Idiolispa grossa (Gravenhorst, 1829), Isadelphus gallicola (Bridgman, 1880), Linycus exhortator (Fabricius, 1787), Lissonota buccator (Thunberg, 1822), L. carbonaria Holmgren, 1860, L. coracina (Gmelin, 1790), L. folii Thomson, 1877, L. saturator (Thunberg, 1822), Theroscopus esenbackii (Gravenhorst, 1829) are newly added to the Iranian wasp fauna.

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Temperature is the main environmental factor affecting the development of fish eggs. In this study, the effect of incubation temperature on fertilization rate, hatching rate and growth in goldfish (Carassius auratus) was investigated. Egg and sperm production were obtained by ovaprim injection and artificial propagation. Eggs were incubated at four temperatures (21, 24, 27 and 30 °C) with 3 replicates for each treatment and cultured for 40 days at the same temperature. The larvae were grown in the same aquarium that had been hatched under the same temperature condition for 40 days. The results showed that there was no significant difference in fertilization rate of incubated eggs at different temperatures, but the highest (97%) and lowest (94%) fertilization rates were observed at 24 °C and 21 °C, respectively. The maximum incubation time was recorded at 21 °C and the minimum time required at 30 °C (P < 0.05). The highest percentage of hatching (74.4%) was observed at 24 °C and it decreased with increasing water temperature (P < 0.05). Although, the temperature of 30 °C showed the highest value of length, weight and specific growth rate of larvae in comparison to other temperature treatments, but the highest anomalies (13%) were observed in this treatment, too. The best temperature of incubation and growth of larvae is 24°C and 27°C for goldfish, respectively.

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Targets:The objective of this study was to control the reproductive cycle and increasing the efficiency of the production of pikeperch (Sander lucioperca) through determining the effects of different photoperiods on reproductive performance and egg and larval quality.
Methods: Pikeperch broodstock with mean weights 1367 ± 55.3 g were exposed to three different photoperiods with light intensity 630 lux including constant light (24L), constant darkness (24D), and 12 h of light, 12 h of darkness (12L:12D) with three replicates for 40 days.
Results: The results showed that the pikeperch reproductive performance was affected by photoperiod. Broodstock under 24L spawned earlier than those of the other photoperiods. The highest spawning were observed in the morning in 24L (66.7 ± 3.5%) and the lowest spawning belonged to the 24D and 12L:12D that never spawned at night. Although fertilization rate and number of eggs per gram  did not show any significant difference in various photoperiods, the timing of spawning and the egg quality exhibited remarkable difference.
Conclusion: The results of this study pointed out to effective application of photoperiod on changing the spawning time, reproductive and induction of out-of-season spawning of pikeperch broodstock. Additionally, these results unequivocally prove that the reproductive performance of pikeperch can be considerably improved and stimulated by an effective photoperiod.

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Achieving a high and sustainable economic growth has always been the main target of economic plans in different countries. Proving a positive relationship between financial development and economic growth by many studies has convinced the researchers to study the effective factors on the growth and development of financial markets. Inflation is one of the main factors that have a great impact on the countries’ financial development. So, the focus in the studies has mainly been on explaining the form of relationship between inflation and financial development. In this paper, the relationship between inflation and financial market development in Iran during 1978 to 2007 for the money market and during the summer of 1999 to spring of 2008 for the capital market has been reviewed. Econometric model of this research has been specified according to Boyd, Levine and Smith model (2001). Firstly, a simple linear model is used for controlling other economic factors that may be correlated with financial market performance. Then, a threshold regression is handled for explaining the nonlinear relationship between inflation and financial market development. In this model, different thresholds that limit inflation are considered. Conditional least squares method (CLS), is applied for estimating the model. The threshold limit for inflation has been determined based on the minimum error sum of squared criterion. The results of the estimated model indicate that a negative relationship between inflation and financial development indexes of money market. This positive relationship also exists between inflation and stock market development indexes. In the same way, the output of the estimated models has shown that in the some domain of inflation, the negative relationship between inflation and financial development indexes of money market is not significant.  In addition, the results of the estimated models revealed that there is no a threshold limit for the impact of inflation on the stock market.  

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The objective of this study was to evaluate the performance of nutritional programming on growth and hematological indices of sterlet sturgeon (Acipenser ruthenus) during the larval stage by partial replacement of fish meal (FM) with soybean meal (S). Sterlet sturgeon with initial mean weight of 0.32 ± 0.01 g were randomly distributed into twelve circular concrete tanks (260 fish per each tank) and fed four experimental diets with substitution levels of 0 (control/FM), 15% (S15), 30% (S30) and 45% (S45) of fish meal with soybean meal during three phases in three replicates. In phase 1 (programming), fish were fed four different diets for 28 days. All the groups were then fed with FM during phases 2 (intermediate) and S45 at phase 3 (challenge) for 28 days. At the end of each phase, growth indices were measured. Hematological indices including red blood cell, hemoglobin, hematocrit, mean corpuscular volume, mean corpuscular hemoglobin and mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration were assessed at the end of the challenge phase. The growth performance was not significantly different in either phases 1 or 2 (P > 0.05); however, final weight, weight gain, specific growth rate, and average daily growth were significantly higher in S45 than FM during phase 3 (P < 0.05). Moreover, no significant difference was indicated among the groups in hematological indices (P > 0.05). According to the obtained results, early nutritional programming could effectively enhance the adaptation of sterlet sturgeon to plant-based protein later in life.
 

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The present study aimed to investigate the effects of injecting different hormonal agents on sex steroids levels and biochemical parameters of the blood plasma in females Caspian roach (Rutilus caspicus). In order to perform the experiment, groups of five fish were injected intraperitoneally as follows: 1) two injections of Ovaprim (Ova), 2) two injections of Ovopel (Ovo), 3) a priming dose of Ovopel with a resolving dose of Ovaprim (Comb1), 4) a priming dose of Ovaprim with a resolving dose of Ovopel (Comb2), and 5) sterile 0.9% saline. According to the observations, the highest concentrations of progesterone and estradiol were measured in control group and concentrations of these hormones sharply declined after spawning in the experimental treatments (P < 0.05). Moreover, the lowest testosterone concentration was observed in the control group and after spawning, its concentration showed a significant increase in hormone-induced treatments (P < 0.05). The highest plasma glucose concentration was obtained in the control group, and the lowest concentration was observed in the Comb1 treatment (P < 0.05). No significant difference was observed between experimental treatments in the concentration of plasma biochemical parameters (P > 0.05). Overall, the present study showed that hormonal agents can significantly affect the levels of sex steroids in the blood plasma of Caspian roach breeders. These results showed the need to consider the proper induction strategies and welfare conditions of Caspian roach breeders in captivity.
 

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In the present work, creep buckling of linear viscoelastic plate was studied. Pseudo-transient or Dynamic Relaxation method with finite element discritization was used for solving the nonlinear governing equations of the plate. The displacements were based on first order shear deformation theory. Von Karman assumptions were considered for strains, including initial imperfection of the plate. Central deflections of the rectangular PMMA plate as well as end-shortenings were obtained during the loading of the plates with simply supported and clamped edges. The results compared well with commercial finite element code ANSYS.

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In this paper, with the aim of providing a new test pattern for empirical prediction of FLD of 304 stainless steel tube, firstly numerical investigation of hydro-bulging process with various load paths and die geometries has been performed on strain path and plastic instability. Study on geometry of dies has been performed by varying die corner radius (R) and bulging length (W). Here, effect of axial feeding on strain ratio (β) has been studied. In this condition, by increasing of W, strain ratio (β) tends to value of zero that this situation is independent to boundary condition. By increasing of die corner (R) in free loading condition, reduction of β occurs and the strain path approaches to plane strain state; while in loading with axial feeding condition, increasing of R has neglect able effect on strain path and ratio. In loading with axial feeding condition, increase in axial feeding strain ratio (β) is reduced drastically. From the simulated tests, number of 10 tests with distributed loading path on strain diagram was selected for empirical study. Meshed tubes are loaded controllably until tearing and the FLCs have been drawn using strains which were obtained near tearing locations.

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Objective: Inflammation and proinflammatory cytokines play an important role in the initiation and maintenance of central neuropathic pain. There are several reports that cytokine production is increased at the lesion site following spinal injury. A few studies have investigated the supraspinal levels of these cytokines. This study intended to determine TNF-α and IL-6 release in the ventroposterolateral nucleus of the thalamus in spinal cord injury-related neuropathic pain in rats. Methods: Male Sprague-Dawley rats that weighed 200-230 g were used. Following administration of anesthesia, spinothalamic tract injury was performed by a laminectomy at the T9-T10 level in male rats. Mechanical allodynia and motor performance were evaluated at 3, 7, 14, 21 and 28 days after spinal injury by Von Frey filament and the open field test, respectively, in the sham and lesion groups. Concentrations of TNF-α and IL-6 in the VPL microdialysate were detected by ELISA in both spinal cord injured and sham groups during four weeks after surgery. Results: Mechanical pain threshold reduced in both hind paws following lateral spinothalamic tract injury. Paw withdrawal threshold in the Spinothalamic tract-injured group was significantly (P<0.05) lower than in sham group at day 14 post-surgery. Motor performance did not show any significant change after surgery. In the microdialysate, TNF-α reduced significantly (P<0.05) at days 3 and 7 post-injury compared to the sham group which returned to a level close to the pre-surgery level. VPL concentration of IL-6 increased significantly (P<0.05) at day 21 post-injury compared to the sham group. Conclusion: Lesions in spinal pathways that contain afferent pain fibers appear to change the supraspinal levels of inflammatory mediators, including VPL, concentrations of TNF-α and IL-6 which are consistent with spinal injury related pain behavior. Cytokine production results in hyperexcitability of the thalamocortical neurons, a decrease in pain threshold, and persistent neuropathic pain after spinal injury.

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Topology optimization of structure seeks to achieve the best material distribution in the Pre-determined design domain. In this paper, the effect of design parameters contains length scale parameter and evolutionary volume ratio in improved bi-directional evolutionary structural optimization method with soft kill approach is discussed. The main aim of this method is searching for the stiffest structure with a given volume of material using finite element method. At each iteration of finite element analysis, sensitivity number is calculated for each individual element in design domain and then converted to the nodal sensitivity number. With Filter Scheme and using length scale, an improved sensitivity numbers is defined. This number is used as a criterion for rating each element in design domain and determining the addition and elimination (remove) of elements. To increase the convergence of the optimization process, the accuracy of the new elemental sensitivity numbers is improved by considering the sensitivity history. This method is convergent and mesh-independent and there are no checkerboard pattern and local solutions in optimal topologies. Using three design samples, a cantilever and classical beam and Michell type structure, affecting factors will be discussed on the final design of the structure. Change of length scale parameter makes various schemes in final structures in which with increasing this parameter, more iteration is needed for convergent solution. Reducing evolutionary volume ratio forms different and even asymmetric topologies. Better final topologies are obtained with higher evolutionary volume ratios.