• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2008.05a
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• pp.1438-1441
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• 2008

Throughout the history, the people of Iran have battled the dryness by innovations to preserve every drop of water that lands from the rare clouds, or from a stream flowing out of distant springs. Water is precious and held with highest respect, whether stored for drinking at an Ab-Anbar, or for washing and farming at the Houz in the middle of their oasis homes and orchards, or sourced at a Qanat spring or Jooy under ground. How it is that drinking water as cold as a mountain fall is found in desert of Iran? Ab-Anbar is an ancient means of water preservation and cooling through anunderground building structure. These underground structures have been present in Khorasan and other desert provinces of Iran as public or private water storage facilities, widely used before the installation of public plumbing systems in the late 1950s. Although many of these structures are still functional, most have been protected by government for restoration or viewing by the public as historical heritage. Khorasan natural dry climate and the massive surrounding deserts have been a breeding ground for many designs of Ab-Anbars. Today the existing number of such facilities stands in the province of Khorasan. Usually these structures were built in populated areas, also there are some forms of such structures on old trade routes and roadways leading to and from populated towns. This paper considers the history of Ab-Anbars in Khorasan as well as other relevant aspects such as types, components, construction methods and materials, filling and withdrawal systems.

• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.15-25
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• 2016

Objective: In the present study, we aimed to evaluate the effects of high doses of dexamethasone (DEX) in early pregnancy on pregnancy outcomes. Methods: Pregnant BALB/c mice were treated with high-dose DEX in the experimental group or saline in the control group on gestational days (GDs) 0.5 to 4.5. Pregnant mice were sacrificed on GDs 7.5, 13.5, or 18.5 and their peripheral blood, placentas, fetuses, and uterine tissue were collected. Decidual and placenta cell supernatants were examined to evaluate the effect of DEX on the proliferation of mononuclear cells, the quantity of uterine macrophages and uterine natural killer (uNK) cells, and levels of progesterone and $17{\beta}-estradiol$, as determined by an 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazole-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide assay, immunohistochemistry, and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, respectively. We also were measured fetal and placental growth parameters on GD 18.5. Results: We found that high doses of DEX were associated with an increased abortion rate, enhancement of the immunosuppressive effect of the decidua, alterations in placental growth parameters, decreased progesterone and $17{\beta}-estradiol$ levels, and a reduced frequency of macrophages and uNK cells. Conclusion: Our data suggest that the high-dose administration of DEX during early pregnancy negatively affected pregnancy outcomes.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.133-134
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• 2019

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.353-355
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• 2022

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2005.09a
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• pp.730-730
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• 2005

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.54 no.1
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• pp.15-20
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• 2016

Toxoplasmosis is an important zoonotic disease that can cause abortion in humans and animals. The aim of this study was isolation and subsequent genotyping of Toxoplasma gondii isolates in ovine aborted fetuses. During 2012-2013, 39 ovine aborted fetuses were collected from sheep flocks in Khorasan Razavi Province, Iran. The brain samples were screened for detection of the parasite DNA by nested PCR. The positive brain samples were bioassayed in Webster Swiss mice. The serum samples of mice were examined for T. gondii antibodies by IFAT at 6 weeks post inoculation, and T. gondii cysts were searched in brain tissue samples of seropositive mice. The positive samples were genotyped by using a PCR-RLFP method. Subsequently, GRA6 sequences of isolates were analyzed using a phylogenetic method. The results revealed that T. gondii DNA was detected in 54% (20/37, 95% CI 38.4-69.0%) brain samples of ovine aborted fetuses. In bioassay of mice, only 2 samples were virulent and the mice were killed at 30 days post inoculation, while the others were non-virulent to mice. The size of cysts ranged $7-22{\mu}m$. Complete genotyping data for GRA6 locus were observed in 5 of the 20 samples. PCR-RLFP results and phylogenetic analysis revealed that all of the isolated samples were closely related to type I. For the first time, we could genotype and report T. gondii isolates from ovine aborted fetuses in Khorasan Razavi Province, Iran. The results indicate that the T. gondii isolates are genetically related to type I, although most of them were non-virulent for mice.

• Advances in Energy Research
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.147-177
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• 2017

This study aims to evaluate and prioritize ten different sites in Iran's Khorasan provinces for the construction of wind farm. After studying the geography of the sites, nine criteria; including wind power, topography, wind direction, population, distance from power grid, level of air pollution, land cost per square meter, rate of natural disasters, and distance from road network-are selected for the analysis. Prioritization is performed using data envelopment analysis (DEA). The developed DEA model is validated through value engineering based on the results of brainstorming sessions. The results show that the order of priority of ten assessed candidate sites for installing wind turbines is Khaf, Afriz, Ghadamgah, Fadashk, Sarakhs, Bojnoord, Nehbandan, Esfarayen, Davarzan, and Roudab. Additionally, the outcomes extracted from the value engineering method identify the city of Khaf as the best candidate site. Six different wind turbines (7.5 to 5,000 kW) are considered in this location to generate electricity. Regarding an approach to produce and store hydrogen from wind farm installed in the location, the AREVA M5000 wind turbine can produce approximately $337ton-H_2$ over a year. It is an enormous amount that can be used in transportation and other industries.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.16
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• pp.6987-6990
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• 2015

Background: Oral cancer is one of the most prevalent cancers and one of the top ten causes of death in the whole world. Most oral cancers are diagnosed at late stages. Since dentists play a critical role in early detection of oral cancer, they should be knowledgeable and skillful in oral cancer diagnosis. The aim of this study was to survey dentist knowledge about oral cancer in Southern Khorasan Province. Materials and Methods: This descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted with dentists who participated in an in-service educational program at the Faculty of Dentistry of Birjand University of Medical Sciences in spring 2014. A questionnaire including demographic information with 11 questions regarding oral cancer was prepared. The participants were required to be complete the questionnaires within a specific time span. The data were analyzed using SPSS 15 software by t-test and one-way ANOVA at 0.05 confidence level. Results: A total of 73 dentists out of 80 answered the questionnaires - 36 (49.3%) were females and 37 (50.7%) were males. Total mean score of knowledge was $7.91{\pm}1$ of 11. Mean scores of knowledge of male and female participants were $7.70{\pm}1.83$ and $8.13{\pm}1.94$ respectively. Mean knowledge score of general dentists was $7.41{\pm}1.79$ and of dental specialists was $9.44{\pm}1.0$ In spite of higher knowledge score of women compared to men and general dentists compared to dental specialists, these differences were not statistically significant (p=0.09). Tukey testing showed a significant difference between groups with 1-4 years of experience (8.74) and over twenty years of experience (6.50) ( p=0.001). Conclusions: Considering the good knowledge level of young dentists and the specialists and the importance of early diagnosis of oral cancer, it seems necessary to pay more attention to academic education for dentistry students, as well as holding retraining courses for experienced dentists, so that their knowledge not be reduced over time.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2005.09a
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• pp.65-65
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• 2005

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.1557-1561
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• 2014

Background: Breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in women and estimating its relative risks and trends of incidence at the area-level is helpful for health policy makers. However, traditional methods of estimation which do not take spatial heterogeneity into account suffer from drawbacks and their results may be misleading, as the estimated maps of incidence vary dramatically in neighboring areas. Spatial methods have been proposed to overcome drawbacks of traditional methods by including spatial sources of variation in the model to produce smoother maps. Materials and Methods: In this study we analyzed the breast cancer data in Iran during 2004-2008. We used a method proposed to cover spatial and temporal effects simultaneously and their interactions to study trends of breast cancer incidence in Iran. Results: The results agree with previous studies but provide new information about two main issues regarding the trend of breast cancer in provinces of Iran. First, this model discovered provinces with high relative risks of breast cancer during the 5 years of the study. Second, new information was provided with respect to overall trend trends o. East-Azerbaijan, Golestan, North-Khorasan, and Khorasan-Razavi had the highest increases in rates of breast cancer incidence whilst Tehran, Isfahan, and Yazd had the highest incidence rates during 2004-2008. Conclusions: Using spatial methods can provide more accurate and detailed information about the incidence or prevalence of a disease. These models can specify provinces with different health priorities in terms of needs for therapy and drugs or demands for efficient education, screening, and preventive policy into action.