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The genus Euxoa Hübner, [1821] is regarded as the most highly evolved among the genera of the subfamily Noctuinae and contains by far the largest number of species of the subfamily in Europe and in the Palaearctic region. Fifty-four species of this genus has been already reported from Iran. In this paper a list of 17 already recorded species and subspecies of Euxoa from the north-east of Iran is given and discussed. Furthermore, E. acuminifera (Eversmann, 1854) is newly reported for the fauna of Iran. Figures of its adult male and female and their genitalia are provided together with bionomics and distribution of the species.

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Rural economy is considered as an economic foundation due to providing food security and essential goods for a country. Therefore, any threat to this type of economy can have many negative consequences on other dimensions of economy. The spread of the Corona Virus has had various effects on the world economy, especially on the rural economy. This research tries to study and analyze the economic effects of the Corona Virus outbreak on the village of Upper Eshkevar. The present research is applied in terms of its goal and is descriptive-analytic in terms of method. The nature of data is quantitative and qualitative and the method of data collection is based on library and field findings. Data analysis is based on future study techniques including interaction analysis. The research findings show that, four main factors including unsustainable employment, unsustainable income, increasing rural poverty and decreasing in investment are in association with COVID-19 effects. Based on t-test and Pearson, it can be said that the economic effects of Corona Virus have averaged 4.44, which shows a significant difference (p> 0.05). It can be said that Corona Virus has had significant effects on the economy of Eshkor Alia village.

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The present study seeks to answer the following question: 'why Turkey and Iran have been failed to use the critical junctures of recent decades as a starting point for national development and shaping regional development?' To answer the research question, new institutionalism was used as a theoretical approach to understand regional development. Acemoglu and Robinson's theory of Critical Junctures was also used to explain the reasons for the failure or success of countries in achieving development. In terms of research method, the present study is a case-oriented historical comparative study. The unit of analysis of this research is the country and global, international, regional and national events and conditions are selected and analyzed in relation to it. According to the study, Iran and Turkey have experienced two critical junctures since the 1990s, one as a result of internal processes and national elections and the other as a transnational event such as the military occupation of Iraq or the Arab Spring. It seems that Iran and Turkey have chosen the path of national development in the first critical juncture, but in the second critical juncture, both countries have entered into internal and regional tensions and conflicts and the process of national development have been encountered with several obstacles. In addition, the two countries have not been able to move institutionally and sustainably toward economic convergence over the past two decades. This inability has prevented the emergence of a developed region in the Middle East. The Middle East identity -based conflicts, exacerbated by foreign interventions and confrontational politics, have shifted the region's environment to militarization and security, making the space conducive to economic growth and prosperity leaving the region in poor economic growth and prosperity.

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The antibacterial and antioxidant activities of methanol and acetone extracts of three marine algae, including Hypnea hamulosa, Gracilaria corticata and Enteromorpha intestinalis wereinvestigated.Antioxidant activities were determined by means of total antioxidant capacity, total phenolic compounds, DPPH radical scavenging activity and ferric reducing antioxidant power. Antibacterial activity was determined using a paper disc diffusion method against pathogenic bacteria, including Listeria monocytogenes, Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis. Acetone extract of E. intestinalis showed the highest antioxidant activity and contained the highest phenolic compounds. The highest percentage of DPPH radical scavenging activity was observed in the methanol extract of H. hamulosa (p<0.05). The highest ferric reducing antioxidant power was observed in the methanol extract of Glacilaria (p<0.05). The strongest inhibition (p<0.05) against L. monocytogenes was shown by the methanol extract of E. intestinalis and the highest inhibition against B. subtilis and E. coli was observed in the acetone extract (p<0.05). In conclusion, E. intestinalis extracts showed favorable antioxidant and antibacterial activity suggesting its application in food and pharmacological industries.

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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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Aims: Sargassum bovianum, Polycladia myrica, and Gracilariopsis persica can be used in aquatic diets due to their significant biomass and mass production capacity for artificial rearing. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of marine macroalgae on growth performance and immune response in rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) fingerlings.
Materials & Methods: The present experimental study was carried out on 210 rainbow trout fingerlings, which were randomly selected and cultured in Aquatic Laboratory, Faculty of Marine Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Noor, in 2016. These fingerlings were placed in 7 experimental treatments, including a diet without marine macroalgae (control) and by replacing different marine macroalgae powder levels of 5% and 10% with wheat flour. Lindo 5.3 software was used to analyze food items and SPSS 20 software was used to analyze the data.
Findings: The lowest weight gain, the lowest growth factor, the lowest protein efficiency ratio, and the highest feed conversion ratio were in the treatment containing 10% Sargassum bovianum powder and it had a significant difference with other treatments. Condition factor (CF) was at the highest level in control treatment and no significant difference was observed between treatments. There was no significant difference in survival of different treatments. The highest level of serum lysozyme was in the treatment containing 5% Gracilariopsis persica powder and the highest serum hemolytic complement activity was in the treatment containing 5% Sargassum bovianum.
Conclusion: Gracilariopsis persica, Sargassum bovianum, and Polycladia myrica have no effect on the improvement of growth performance in rainbow trout fingerlings, Gracilariopsis persica and Sargassum bovianum have an impact on their immune response.

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Pelopidas thrax (Hübner) (Lep.: Hesperiidae) is a widespread species in southwest Iran. We aimed to use geometric morphometric techniques to investigate the sexual dimorphism and allometric effects associated with the wings of P. thrax. Fore- and hind wings of 40 and 39 individuals, respectively, of each sex which were collected from Ahvaz city were digitized and analyzed.  Sexual dimorphism was observed in size and shape of fore- and hind wings of P. thrax and was graphically illustrated. Multivariate statistics confirmed significant differences in shape of fore- and hind wing between sexes. Centroid size of both wings showed greater values in females than males and visualized by boxplots. Various multivariate regressions of shape coordinates on centroid size were significant and visualized by the thin plate splines. Allometry explained shape variance in each case between 0.8% to 19.6%. The analysis demonstrated different allometric patterns for sexes in both fore- and hind wings. Significant shape differences between wings of males and females were still remained after removing allometric effects. The variation that is not related to size could be attributed to specific behaviors such as flight speed and performance in each sex. However, specific experiments are needed to confirm the association of the wing shape variation expressed in this study with the flight traits.

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Land use/cover change map production is one of the basic needs for environmental monitoring and management. Since the change maps are usually used in planning and decision-making, certainty and reliability of these maps can be very important in many applications. Unfortunately in many studies only probability values as obtained from MLC approach have been used for uncertainty estimation. Here a new approach has been developed which is based on the probability information as well as spatial parameters including distance, neighborhood, extent and the type of change. In this study, two Landsat TM images of Isfahan urban area provided in 1990 and 1998 have been co-registered using first order polynomial and nearest neighbor resampling approach. The registered images have been then classified to ten different land use/land cover classes using Maximum Likelihood Classification algorithm. Probabilistic measures generated by the MLC have been used for modeling uncertainty. Using different spatial analysis functions for modeling the change of agricultural areas to residential areas, the relevant spatial parameters have been extracted. Based on logistic regression approach, probabilistic parameters and spatial parameters have been integrated to generate a layer, which shows uncertainty of change of agricultural areas to residential areas. The Relative Operating Characteristics (ROC) index has been used for validation of the model and it has been estimated to be 0.9944, which is an indicative of very good model fitting. As a final conclusion, development of this model is suggested for quantitative evaluation of uncertainty in change detection.

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Detection of land use/cover changes in many different studies is one of the basic needs for environmental monitoring and management. Conversion of agricultural lands is one of the main issues related to urban planning. In this study an attempt has been made to study land use/cover changes through image processing techniques. Two landsat TM images of Isfahan area provided in 1990 and 1998 were atmospherically rectified and registered on each other. Images were then classified to ten different land use/cover classes using Bayesian classification algorithm. Training sites were generated using fuzzy logic approach. A post classification comparison approach was then used to create a change map. The results show a dramatic change on agricultural lands in this area during this period.

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The construction of molecular maps and identification of genomic regions controlling quantitative traits have great significance for plant breeders. In this study, a genetic analysis of quantitative trait loci (QTLs) affecting the heading date of rice was performed using an F2 population of a cross between two Iranian landrace cultivars, Domsephid and Gerdeh, comprising 192 plants. An approximately normal distribution was observed for the heading date in the F2 population. A genetic linkage map with 88 informative microsa-tellite markers (SSR) was constructed, which covered 1367.9 cM of the rice genome with an average distance of 18 cM between markers. Single marker analysis (SMA) and inter-val mapping (IM) procedures were used to detect the QTLs controlling heading date and QTLs identified were further confirmed using composite interval mapping (CIM). Six significant QTLs (LOD≥3.0) were identified for the heading date, of which three major QTLs mapped on chromosomes 6 (hd6), 7 (hd7) and 8 (hd8) had particularly high LOD scores and explained 23.5%, 19.8% and 20.5% of the total phenotypic variance, respec-tively. Three other minor QTLs detected for the heading date, located on chromosomes 1 (hd1), 3 (hd3) and 11 (hd11), accounted for 6.6%, 11.7% and 6.6% of the phenotypic variation, respectively. The additive effect of a single QTL ranged from 1.67 to 3.91 days. In the QTL hd6, alleles from Domsephid were responsible for reducing the heading date, while in the other five QTLs, alleles from Gerdeh caused a decrease in the heading date. The QTLs hd1, hd3 and hd8 showed over dominance effects for increasing the heading date, whereas the other three QTLs had partial to incomplete dominance effects for in-creasing (hd7 and hd11) and reducing (hd6) the heading date.

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During samplings were performed during 2019 in Birjand area located in South Khorasan province, three species are identified from families Entomobryidae and Bourletiellidae. Drepanura tuxeni Nosek, 1964, Drepanosira gisini Nosek, 1964 and Cassagnaudiella c.f. gamae (Bretfeld, 1994) are newly reported for the Iranian fauna of Collembola. The material examined, brief description and some illustration were given. Cassagnaudiella c.f. gamae represents the second species record of the family Bourletiellidae from Iran.

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Aims: The global spread of coronavirus disease in 2019 necessitated some modifications in infection control measures in dental practice. This study aimed to assess the changes in general dentists’ approach towards infection control measures in dental practice in Rasht city, Iran, during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Instrument & Methods: This study was conducted on 250 general dentists in Rasht city. The approach of general dentists towards infection control measures was evaluated using a researcher-designed questionnaire with four domains of patient screening, adherence of office staff to preventive measures, patient admission measures, and use of infection control equipment. All statistical analyses were carried out using SPSS 24, an independent t-test, and ANOVA.
Findings: The results showed that 46.4% of dentists had a good approach towards infection control measures in dental practice. Of the four domains, dental clinicians acquired the maximum score in adherence of office staff to preventive measures (2.46±0.69) and the minimum score in patient admission measures (1.47±0.96). The acquired score was 2.33±1 in the use of infection control equipment and 2.1±0.89 in patient screening. parameters revealed no significant correlation with age, gender, work experience, or some working days per week (p>0.35).
Conclusion: The results showed a maximum change in dental clinicians’ approach toward the use of personal protective equipment, efficient infection control equipment, and office disinfection. The minimum change was noted in patient screening and admission. With an increase in the national rate of vaccination against COVID-19, the vaccination card or QR code is expected to be required as a prerequisite for patient admission, which would improve the patient admission domain.

 

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Aims: The present study aimed to determine the oral health-related quality of life in the retired elderly population.
Material & Methods: A descriptive-analytical cross-sectional study was conducted on 196 elderly members of retirement centers using convenient sampling in Rasht city, Iran. Data collection included oral examinations and structured interviews. The geriatric oral health assessment index was used to measure oral health-related quality of life. Moreover, information on sociodemographic characteristics, use of dental services, and subjective health measures were collected. The independent t-test and ANOVA were used for statistical analysis in SPSS 21.
Findings: The mean GOHAI score was 47.5±6.3 (range 26-59). The mean psychosocial domain score was significantly lower than others (p<0.001). Participants with complete dentures and those with more than 20 teeth showed the highest, and those with partial dentures had the lowest quality of life. Xerostomia was the most prevalent oral condition (29.1%).
Conclusion: The findings indicated the retired elderly who were members of the retirement center had a moderate level of oral health-related quality of life. The obtained data on oral health-related quality of life in the elderly can help the decision-makers plan oral health programs for the elderly.

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Background: The escalating prevalence of multidrug-resistant (MDR) commensal intestinal bacteria characterized by extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL) production is an alarming global health threat. Drug users have been introduced as a major source of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, possibly due to drug abuse. The present study aimed to investigate the potential factors related to fecal carriage of MDR ESBL-producing intestinal Escherichia coli (E. coli) in drug users in the southwest of Iran.
Materials & Methods: In this cross-sectional study, stool samples of 109 drug users were collected and cultured. After the biochemical confirmation of E. coli isolates, the antimicrobial resistance pattern and ESBL production of the isolates were determined. Then logistic regression analysis was conducted to determine possible factors related to fecal carriage of MDR ESBL-producing intestinal E. coli.
Findings: Logistic regression analysis indicated that increasing age and duration of addiction were associated with increased risk of MDR ESBL-producing E. coli carriage in the intestinal flora of drug users (p< .05). Moreover, oral drug use compared to the smoking method led to a higher carriage rate of MDR ESBL-producing E. coli in the intestinal flora of drug users (p< .05). Also, self-employed drug users compared to those with fixed public occupation showed higher rates of MDR ESBL-producing E. coli carriage in their intestinal flora (p< .05).
Conclusion: Age, duration of addiction, method of drug use, and occupation were significantly associated with MDR ESBL-producing E. coli colonization.

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Aims: Determining the effective factors in the use of e-learning among students can be useful in providing appropriate and practical solutions to increase the use of e-learning. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the factors related to the behavior of using e-learning among medical university students using the technology acceptance model (TAM) as a conceptual framework.
Instrument & Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted among 425 students of Hamadan University of Medical Sciences who were selected by stratified random sampling. The data collection tools included a questionnaire, including demographic data and TAM constructs. The data were analyzed in SPSS 23 software using one-way analysis of variance, independent t-test, Pearson correlation coefficient, and linear regression analysis.
Findings: The age range of participants was between 18 and 54 years with an average age of 24.2±3.96 years. The history of participating in e-learning classes was significantly related to all the constructs of the TAM (p<0.05). Also, undergraduate and graduate students had a significantly more positive attitude, higher perceived usefulness, and more usage intention and behavior concerning e-learning than professional doctorate students (p<0.05). Attitude (β=0.394), perceived usefulness (β=0.313), and external variables (β=0.196) were respectively the strongest predictors of intention to use e-learning (p<0.05). The intention of e-learning usage directly and significantly predicted the behavior of using it (β=0.483, p<0.05).
Conclusion: The TAM constructs predict the behavior of using e-learning among students.

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Aims: This study assessed the knowledge, attitude, and practice of general dentists in Rasht City, Iran, regarding oral cancer.
Materials & Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 129 randomly selected general dentists practicing in Rasht City, Iran in 2022. A researcher-designed questionnaire with four sections of demographics, knowledge (nine questions), attitude (seven questions), and practice (eight questions) was used for data collection after confirming its validity and reliability. Data were analyzed by the Chi-square test, Fisher’s exact test, and Pearson’s correlation coefficient (alpha=0.05).
Findings: The mean knowledge score of the participants was 5.39±1.96 (out of nine). Most subjects (48.1%) had a moderate knowledge level. Knowledge level had a significant inverse correlation with age, time passed since graduation, and the attending university. The mean attitude score of the participants was 26.4±2.72 (out of 35) and most of them (65.9%) had a positive attitude in this regard. Attitude had no significant correlation with any sociodemographic variable. The mean practice score of the participants was 18.18±2.53 (out of 24), and the majority of them (63.6%) had a moderate practice regarding oral cancer. The practice had a significant correlation only with participation in continuing education courses (p<0.05). Practice and knowledge, and also attitude and knowledge had a significant positive correlation with each other. 
Conclusions: The knowledge and practice of the majority of general dentists in Rasht were moderate regarding oral cancer, which is alarming and calls for improvement in the quality of instruction and continuing education courses.