This study was designed to appraise the effect of licorice herbal supplement on the immune status of rainbow trout fingerlings. Accordingly, five diets were formulated with different levels of licorice extract (LE) including 0 (control), 0.5 g kg−1 (LE0.5), 1 g kg−1 (LE1), 2 g kg−1 (LE2), and 3 g kg−1 (LE3). The fingerlings (10.0 ± 0.1 g initial mean weight) received the diets in triplicates (30 fish in each replicate) for 56 days. The results showed that the white blood cells and their differential number (lymphocytes and monocytes) were remarkably increased by LE2 supplementation (P < 0.05). The oral administration of LE2 significantly increased the levels of serum immunoglobulin (Ig), lysozyme activity, and complement components (C3 and C4) compared with others. Meanwhile, the serum bactericidal activity against Yersinia ruckeri in LE2 and LE3 treatments was significantly higher than others except for LE1 (P < 0.05). In addition, serum alternative complement activity significantly improved in all treated groups except LE0.5 compared with the control group (P < 0.05). In terms of skin mucosal immunity, the fish fed with LE2 and LE3 diets exhibited notably higher lysozyme activity, alkaline phosphatase activity, and Ig value than other groups (P < 0.05). The highest skin mucus bactericidal activity against Y. ruckeri was obtained in LE2 treatment (P < 0.05). In addition, dietary LE2 significantly increased the relative expression of immune-associated genes including tumor necrosis factor-α, interleukin-1β, interleukin-8, and IgM and the former treatments showed higher values than the control group. The cumulative mortality of fish against Y. ruckeri infection was notably reduced from 53.6% in the control group to 29.0% in LE3 treatment. Overall, the dietary administration of LE at 2 g kg−1 had the best effects on immunocompetence in rainbow trout.

This study investigates the mechanical properties and microstructural characteristics of explosion-welded Al/Cu two-layer strips during the ECAR process using finite element simulations and experiments. Furthermore, the explosion-welded Al/Cu two-layer strip was examined with various configurations to determine the effects of die angle and friction coefficient on the distributions of effective strain and stress. In addition, the experimental and computational approaches were utilized to explore the ECAR process in two routes, RA and RC, for three directions. Finite element simulations were run and validated using experimental data. The findings show that the ECAR method is effective to enhance the mechanical characteristics of the strips. Moreover, the obtained results represent that the ECAR process reduced the size of the grains. Furthermore, it was shown that by increasing the number of routes in the ECAR process, the stress values were increased. However, the ductility of the two-layer strip was decreased. According to the current study, the route and the number of routes used in the ECAR process have a considerable effect on the strength of the two-layer strip.

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Abstract. The presence of snow cover has significant impacts on the both global and regional climate and water balance on earth. The accurate estimation of snow cover area can be used for forecasting runoff due to snow melt and output of hydroelectric power. With development of remote sensing techniques at different scopes in earth science, enormous algorithms for retrieval hydrometeor parameters have been developed. Some of these algorithms are used to provide snow cover map such as NLR with AVHRR/MODIS sensor for Norway, Finnish with AVHRR sensor for Finland and NASA with MODIS sensor for global maps. Monitoring snow cover at different parts of spectral electromagnetic is detectable (visible, near and thermal infrared, passive and active microwave). Recently, specific capabilities of active microwave remote sensing such as snow extent map, snow depth, snow water equivalent (SWE), snow state (wet/dry) and discrimination between rain and snow region were given a strong impetus for using this technology in snow monitoring, hydrology, climatology, avalanche research and etc. This paper evaluates the potentials and feasibility of polarimetric ground microwave measurements of snow in active remote sensing field. We will consider the behavior co- and cross-polarized backscattering coefficients of snowpack response with polarimetric scatterometer in Ku and L band at the different incident angles. Then we will show how to retrieve snow cover depth, snow permittivity and density parameters at the local scale with ground-based SAR (GB-SAR). Finally, for the sake of remarkable significant the transition region between rain and snow; the variables role of horizontal reflectivity (ZHH) and differential reflectivity (ZDR) in delineation boundary between snow and rain and some others important variables at polarimetric weather radar are presented.

In this paper, fabrication and characterization of bare and doped CdS nanoparticles as well as investigating the luminescence properties of these particles as an important II-VI semiconductor are presented. A novel Thermochemical method was used for synthesis of these quantum dots. Thiols were used as the capping agent to prevent further growth during fabrication process. The application of TGA as a capping agent instead of TG was studied as a novel idea in this paper and was used practically in the synthesis of semiconductor nanoparticles. Using this process resulted in particles with sizes between 3 -7 nm. Several samples were synthesized and characterized under various Mn ions doping ratio from 1:10 to 1:180, different temperatures from 40˚C to 96˚C and different pH values from 6 to 10. Synthesis of CdS nanoparticles with high Mn ions concentration resulted in luminescence decrement, while luminescence of nanoparticles was increased by decreasing Mn/Cd doping ratio until Mn:Cd = 1:180. The best fabrication temperature was obtained at 96˚C and the highest luminescence was observed at the pH value of 9. A theoretical explanation for the behavior of fabricated high luminescent quantum dots is presented based on the principles of quantum mechanics. Among semiconductor nano-materials, CdS nanoparticles have attracted considerable attention due to their unique properties, which do not present in their bulk materials [2]. These unique properties introduce them as the important and useful materials for various applications such as solar cells, photodetectors, light-emitting diodes, photoelectrolysis and biological labels [3] [4] [5] [6].Nanoparticles have been grown in a variety of ways, namely precipitation in the solid phase [7] [8], using porous materials as templates [9], growth in nano-sized micelles and precipitation in the liquid phase [10] [11].