Common walnut (Juglans regia L.) has a long cultivation history, given its highly valuable wood and rich nutritious nuts. The Iranian Plateau has been considered as one of the last glaciation refugia and a centre of origin and domestication for the common walnut. However, a prerequisite to conserve or utilize the genetic resources of J. regia in the plateau is a comprehensive evaluation of the genetic diversity that is conspicuously lacking. In this regard, we used 31 polymorphic simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers to delineate the genetic variation and population stru

Invasomes are newly developed types of nanovesicles. A vesicular drug delivery system is considered one of the approaches for transdermal delivery to enhance permeation and improve drug bioavailability. Ondansetron is a serotonin receptor antagonist used for treating vomiting associated with different clinical cases. The study aimed to prepare invasomal dispersions for improving permeation of ondansetron across the skin with a controlled release pattern. Twenty-seven formulas of ondansetron-loaded invasomes were prepared by a modified mechanical dispersion method. These formulas were optimized by studying the effect of variables on entrapment efficiency. Vesicle size, polydispersity, zeta potential, in-vitro release and ex-vivo perm

Currently, there is an intensive development of bipedal walking robots. The most known solutions are based on the use of the principles of human gait created in nature during evolution. Modernbipedal robots are also based on the locomotion manners of birds. This review presents the current state of the art of bipedal walking robots based on natural bipedal movements (human and bird) as well as on innovative synthetic solutions. Firstly, an overview of the scientific analysis of human gait is provided as a basis for the design of bipedal robots. The full human gait cycle that consists of two main phases is analysed and the attention is paid to the problem of balance and stability, especially in the single support phase when the biped

Off-nucleus isotropic magnetic shielding (σiso(r)) and multi-points nucleus independent chemical shift (NICS(0-2 Å)) index were utilized to find the impacts of the isomerization of gas-phase furfuraldehyde (FD) on bonding and aromaticity of FD. Multidimensional (1D to 3D) grids of ghost atoms (bqs) were used as local magnetic probes to evaluate σiso(r) through gauge-including atomic orbitals (GIAO) at density functional theory (DFT) and B3LYP functional/6-311+G(d,p) basis set level of theory. 1D σiso(r) responses along each bond of FD were examined. Also, a σiso(r) 2D-scan was performed to obtain σiso(r) behavior at vertical heights of 0–1 Å above the FD plane in its cis, transition state (TS) and trans forms. New techniques fo

Nanofluid treatment of oil reservoirs is being developed to enhance oil recovery and increase residual trapping capacities of CO2 at the reservoir scale. Recent studies have demonstrated good potential for silica nanoparticles for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) at ambient conditions. Nanofluid composition and exposure time have shown significant effects on the efficiency of EOR. However, there is a serious lack of information regarding the influence of temperature on nanofluid performance; thus the effects of temperature, exposure time and particle size on wettability alteration of oil-wet calcite surface were comprehensively investigated; moreover, the stability of the nanofluids was examined. We found that nanofluid treatment is more efficie