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Abstract

Research Subject: Sulfide removal from sour water is essential, before reuse or release of sour water into the environment. Regarding the high costs of traditional methods, biological removal can be used as a reliable alternative.
Research Approach: Biological sulfide removal from sour water was investigated in a batch reactor using Thiobacillus sp. as a dominant species of a mixed culture. A conceptual model was developed to describe the process of H₂S removal from sour water in the batch reactor. The model considers H₂S and O₂ transfer between liquid and gas phases, biological oxidation of H₂S to sulfate and elemental sulfur, and chemical oxidation of H₂S to thiosulfate in the liquid phase. The governing equations were derived using the principles of mass conservation and biochemical reactions. Several batch runs were performed to obtain experimental data on the variation of sulfide, sulfate, thiosulfate, and oxygen concentrations in the system as a function of time, and an algorithm was devised to use the method of Particle Swarm Optimization together with the numerical solution of the model equations to estimate biokinetic parameters. Additional batch runs under different conditions were performed to verify the accuracy of the model. These results indicated reasonable accuracy of the model to predict the performance of a batch reactor for the removal of H₂S from sour water. The novelty of this model is considering different pathways for sulfide oxidation which includes product selectivity.
Main Results: The maxim specific oxygen uptake rate (SOUR=OUR/X) is one of the most important parameters in the evaluation of the biological activity of the microorganisms. The calculated value for this parameter was almost constant (16 mg DO g^-1 VSS min^-1) during all sulfide oxidation tests indicating that the maximum specific oxidation capacity of the biomass is independent of substrate and biomass concentration. Results exhibited bacteria prefer to partially oxidized sulfide to elemental sulfur, however this preference is a function of dissolved oxygen and substrate availability.

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Research subject: Prediction of the wellbore temperature during the downhole operations and its effects on the stress condition of the tubulars is one of the important factors in design of the completion, production and stimulation operations in oil and gas wells. Temperature changes during the life of the well can change the stress condition of the pipes inside the well, such as the tubing and the casing, and cause problems such as wellhead displacement or buckling of the tubulars, which is dangerous in both terms of safety of the well and personnel and it can also be economically inefficient.
Research approach: In this study, various operations during the life of a well such as running the completion string, production start-up, the well shut in, acid injection and other common operations in oil wells were simulated in a practical order. Temperature changes during these operations and their effect on the stress condition of the wellbore casing and tubing were investigated.
Main results: The results showed that long-term production of the well causes the most temperature changes in the well. This increase in the temperature reached a maximum value at a depth of 430 ft, which is the mud line depth.  Further, because the pipe is fixed, it buckles and creates torque at deeper well depths. The results also showed that the time required for the temperature to be completely stable is about a few months, and this should be taken into account in the tubing pressure test analysis.

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Traumatic Brian Injury (TBI) is one of the types of the acquired brain injury. Individuals with (TBI) are often impaired in social communication skills. Impairment in paralinguistic behaviors is one of the manifestations of failure in the social communication which adversely impacts on relationship among persons with TBI to others. Regarding the importance of paralinguistic behaviors and lack of the research in this regard in Iranian patients with TBI, the aim of this cross-sectional research was to compare these behaviors in spontaneous interaction with 4 men adults with severe TBI and 4 healthy adult men. The research questions were: How are the patients and healthy groups᾽ performances in total of paralinguistic behaviors? How are the patients and healthy groups᾽ performances in each of paralinguistic behaviors; that is, intelligibility, pitch, prosody, vocal intense, and speech fluency? The research hypotheses were: There is a significant difference between two groups in total of paralinguistic behaviors. There is a significant difference between two groups in intelligibility, pitch, prosody, vocal intense, and speech fluency. The TBI patients and healthy groups were matched on age and education years. Data analysis using non-parametric Mann-Whitney U test indicated that there was a significant difference between the patient and healthy groups in total of the paralinguistic behaviors regardless of the type of behavior (p < 0.05). Considering each of paralinguistic behaviors, there was a significant difference between two groups in voice intensity, pitch, and prosody (p < 0.05), and there was not a significant difference between two groups on intelligibility and speech fluency (p > 0.05). However, in these two paralinguistic behaviors, mean scores' patients was lower than mean scores᾽ healthy individuals. The overall conclusion was that paralinguistic behaviors were impaired in individuals with severe TBI. Therefore, it is necessary to be noticed to paralinguistic aspect of communication in TBI people alongside the other behavioral, emotional, and linguistic aspects. Accordingly, it should be pathologized these behaviors in them and then, be rehabilitated.

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One of the major macroeconomic objectives of the governments is to control the inflation rate. High inflation and its associate destructive impacts on public welfare are concerned by social and economic policymakers. Consequently, they aim to control the inflation rate. Inflation within health sector is attributed to various factors including aging population, insurance problems such as imperfect coverage and maladministration, lower productivity of production factors mainly medical staff and equipments, technological variation in delivering medical services, population growth and the lack of symmetric information among the suppliers and the demanders of health services. The findings of this study show that the resulting inflation rate for health sector is relatively higher than the overall CPI inflation in Iran. To achieve a better understanding of inflation process in the Iranian health sector, in addition to the above factors, other issues should be considered. They include the effects of technological development, the existence of a verity of formal and informal fees in private sector, the role of non governmental Organizations (NGO) in setting medical and paramedical fees.

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This experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of barley green fodder produced by hydroponics system on the performance of feedlot calves. In a completely block randomized experiment, 24 cross bred (Holstein×Local) male calves were assigned randomly to one of the two treatments (diets) that were either control (grain barley) or hydroponic barley green fodder (BGF) that was included to provide 22.8 percent of the total diet on dry matter basis. Seed grade barley was grown in a hydroponics chamber system where the growth period was adjusted for 6 days. Body weigh gain was not significantly different between the treatments, but the animals that had received the control diet had higher (P< 0.05) dry matter intake than those fed BGF diet. There was a tendency (P= 0.199) toward differences in feed efficiency due to dietary treatments. From economical point of view, feed cost increased up to 24 percent when the calves were offered BGF, because of the costly production of hydroponics green forage. Although the mass production of fresh fodder was about 4.5 times per kg of barley grain, this was due to water absorption during germination and growth period. Nevertheless, the dry matter obtained was less than the initial barley grain and further dry matter losses were found in the green fodder. These findings suggest that green fodder had no advantage over barley grain in feedlot calves, while it increased the cost of feed.

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Asphalt cracking is one of the major distress and deterioration modes of pavements of roads especially in the cold regions. Different types of cracks such as top-down, reflecting and alligator cracks are usually observed in the asphalt pavements. These cracks may be initiated due to improper construction and implementation of paving process, daily or seasonal cyclic thermal loads and mechanical traffic loading induced by moving vehicles. Consequently, the investigation of crack growth behavior in the asphalt overlays is an important issue for design, construction and maintenance of roads and highways. Due to the applied thermal and mechanical stresses, the cracks initiated in the asphalt layers may often experience different deformations including mode I(tensile or opening), mode II (shear or sliding) and any combinations of opening-shearing deformations (i.e. mixed mode I/II). Fracture toughness is a key fundamental parameter for investigating the crack growth behavior of cracked bodies. From the other hand, since asphalt mixtures are composite materials composed of aggregate, binder and air void, their fracture behavior might be affected by the asphalt characteristics specifications. Hence in this research the influences of asphalt characteristic specifications (including the type and size of aggregates, bitumen type, air void content and the mixture composition) is investigated experimentally on the mixed mode fracture toughness of different asphalt mixtures. For conducting the fracture toughness experiments, semi circular bend (SCB) specimens containing a vertical edge crack and subjected to asymmetric three-point bend loading was used. In order to study the influence of mixture characteristic specifications on the value of fracture toughness, two aggregate types (i.e. limestone and siliceous), two aggregate sizes (with nominal maximum aggregate sizes 19 mm and 4.75 mm), two binders (60/70 and 85/100) and two air void percentages (i.e. 4% and 6%) were considered for manufacturing asphalt mixtures. The SCB specimens were then tested under two different loading mode mixities (i.e. Me = 0.8 (mixed mode condition with dominantly tensile deformation) and Me = 0.38 (mixed mode condition with dominantly shear deformation) at -15oC. The load-displacement curves for the whole samples were linear which revealed the linear and elastic behavior of asphalt mixtures at the tested low temperature. Thus, the corresponding values of fracture toughness (KI, KII and Keff) were determined using the obtained fracture loads and the available formula. The experimental result showed that the mixed mode cracking resistance of asphalt mixtures is significantly affected by their properties. Analysis of results indicated that the specimens containing 4% air void (i.e. with the more compacted mixtures) show greater resistant against cracking than the asphalt specimens containing 6% air void. Meanwhile by increasing the maximum aggregate size the fracture toughness is also increased. Mixtures made of limestone aggregates and softer binders had more fracture toughness. Analysis of results also showed that when the contribution of mode II deformation is increased, the influence of air void and aggregate size on the fracture toughness of tested asphalt mixtures becomes negligible.

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The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of steam treatment on nutritive value of date (Phoenix dactylifera) leaves. Date leaves were chopped and mixed with water or sulfuric acid solution to contain 50% moisture with or without 1% sulfuric acid. Steam treatment of the date leaves was carried out using three levels of steam pressure (14, 17 and 20 bar), three reaction times (120, 180, and 240 seconds) and two levels of acid (0 and 1 percent). The treated samples were analyzed for chemical composition including: cell wall components, ash, total extractable phenolics, water soluble sugars, and reducing sugars. Dry matter loss (DML), enzymic hydrolysis, and in vitro gas production of the samples were also measured. Results showed that steam treatment significantly affected (P< 0.05) cell wall components. An increasing trend was observed in DML by increasing harshness of treatment conditions. The lowest DML (12.7 g kg^-1) was observed in the auto-hydrolyzed (steam treatment without addition of exogenous acid) sample treated at 14 bar pressure and 120 seconds reaction time and the highest DML (78.8 g kg^-1) was observed in the acid-hydrolyzed (addition of 10 g kg^-1acid prior to treatment) samples treated at 20 bar pressure and 180 and 240 seconds reaction times. Steam treatment significantly (P< 0.05) decreased neutral detergent fiber (NDF) content but increased acid detergent lignin (ADL). Maximum changes in hemicellulose and water soluble sugars were observed in acid-hydrolyzed samples, in which hemicellulose decreased from 264.6 g kg^-1 in control to 72.2 g kg^-1 in the sample treated at 20 bar and 240 seconds and water soluble sugars increased from 14.0 g kg^-1 in the control to 101.8 g kg^-1 in the sample treated at 17 bar and 240 seconds. Enzymic hydrolysis of date leaves was improved after steam treatment and higher improvement was observed in acid-hydrolyzed samples. Gas production was significantly increased (P< 0.05) in all incubation times after steam treatment. The maximum increase in metabolizable energy (ME) estimated by gas production was from acid-hydrolyzed sample treated at 20 bar and 240 seconds. In auto-hydrolyzed samples, the biggest increase in ME was observed in the sample treated at 20 bar and 180 seconds. The results suggest that steam treatment could be used for upgrading the nutritive value of date leaves in the regions where date is grown and animals are encountered with severe feed shortage.

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In this experiment, sixteen Turkmen horses with average weights of 430±46 kg and age 7±3 years were used. Four feeding frequencies of 2, 4, 6, and 8 meals per day were used for a period of 28 days. Data were statistically analyzed based on a completely randomized design, and the results showed that increased feeding frequency led to more stable serum glucose levels throughout the day and an increase in the digestibility of nutrients (P< 0.05). However, ether extract digestibility was not influenced by feeding frequency. Means of chewing and swallowing (per kg DM) of alfalfa were not influenced by feeding frequency. Also, the chewing and swallowing rates of concentrate for the treatment of 2 meals per day increased (P< 0.05). By increasing the feeding frequency, alfalfa intake decreased, but duration of forage intake increased in the treatment of 8 meals per day (P< 0.05). In contrast, by increasing the feeding frequency, concentrate intake was increased, but duration of concentrate intake was decreased in the treatment of 8 meals per day (P< 0.05). In conclusion, feeding 2 times per day more often resulted in lower digestibility of different nutrients and less steady-state level of serum glucose than other feeding frequencies.

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The aim of this work was to optimize the spray drying conditions for the production of ice cream mix powder. A lab-scale spray dryer was employed for the spray drying process, the mix of salep and k-carrageenan was used as stabilizer and black mulberry juice added to ice creams as a natural flavor. Response Surface Methodology (RSM) was performed to examine the influence of inlet air temperature (120, 140, and 160°C), feed flow rate (5, 10, and 15%) and black mulberry concentration (15, 30, and 45%) on drying yield and total anthocyanin content of powders, overrun and melting rate of ice creams prepared from the reconstituted powders. Scanning electron microscope was used for monitoring the structure of the powders. The following optimum process conditions were determined: inlet air temperature of 138 °C, feed flow rate of 8% and juice concentration of 35%. These parameters led to the process yield, total anthocyanin content, overrun and melting rate of 76.14%, 54.11 mg L^-1, 74.50%, and 1.52 g min^-1, respectively.

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In this study, the effect of ozone treatment on the microbial population, color of the flour samples and the rheological properties of the dough (Farinograph, Extensograph and Alveograph) were evaluated in different rates of extraction (72, 83 and 90%). the flour samples were treated with ozone gas using a machine at a pressure of 1.5 bar with air capacity of 350 lit/min and a flour capacity of 2000 kg/h. The results indicated that the thermophilic and mesophilic bacteria and total mold count in ozone treated samples decreased compared to the control. The use of ozone as an oxidizing agent increased the water absorption, dough development time, the P (Dough resistance) and L (dough extensibility) parameters. The results of the color test also showed an increase in L* as lightness of ozone treated flour samples.

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Certainly ISIS in Syria carried out terrorist operations that can be classified at the same time as war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. But the problem here is whether the actions of ISIS can be, as a failed insurgent group, attributed to the Syrian government. The study showed that the criminal and non-governmental acts of ISIS are not attributed to the Syrian government, and thus Damascus is not internationally responsible for them. Exceptionally, however, if the Syrian government fails or falls short in suppressing and prosecuting ISIS or granting amnesty to its members, their behavior can be attributed to the Syrian government and, the economic, administrative, and judicial violations that ISIS carried out on the lands under its control in Syria can be attributed to the Syrian government if the conditions of Article 9 of the draft articles on international responsibility are met. The basic issue is that, given the overthrow of the so-called ISIS rule and the non-existence of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, who is the authority that would be responsible for the acts contrary to international law committed by that self-appointed government during its span? Therefore, the issue at hand is the international responsibility of the ISIS government, which no longer exists, but the criminal responsibility of ISIS members is another category and is not the subject of this research. While many papers have been written on criminal liability, but the issue of international responsibility due to the illegal actions of ISIS has not received special attention.