The use of copper (Cu) and silver (Ag) nanoparticles in coatings can eliminate surface microbial contamination. This study compared antibacterial activity of Cu- (Cu/CNTs) and Ag-coated carbon nanotubes (Ag/CNTs) synthesized by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. Initially, the PECVD technique was applied to deposit the CNTs on high-resistivity silicon wafers previously decorated by nickel catalyst using an Electron Beam Gun. Then, the nanotubes were coated by Cu and Ag thin films in a vacuum evaporator using the Direct Current (DC) Magnetron Sputtering method. Finally, the antibacterial effects were determined by Standard Plate Count (SPC, with film thicknesses of 0, 10, 30 and 60 nm) and Disk Diffusion Test (based on zone of inhibition (ZOI) with nanoparticle concentrations of 5, 10 and 15 µg/mL). According to the SPC findings, the highest antibacterial activity of Cu/CNTs was found for the film thickness of 60 nm against E. coli (66%), and the lowest activity was related to the film thickness of 19 nm against S. aureus (28.8%). The antibacterial activity of Ag/CNTs was about 70% against E. coli with the highest thickness and about 34.12% against S. aureus. The lowest ZOI was measured for the bare CNTs at a concentration of 5 µg/mL (12 mm), and the highest ZOI was related to Ag/CNTs with a concentration of 15 µg/mL against S. aureus (18 mm). To conclude, the carbon nanotube composites coated with copper or silver nanoparticles can be used to control bacterial growth in aqueous solutions.

Identifying the contribution of different land uses plays a crucial role in preventing erosion and prioritizing land management activities. This research aimed to assess the impacts of various land use scenarios on mitigating soil erosion in the North West Urmia region of Iran. In addition to the current scenario, 12 land use management scenarios were identified based on the observed trend in changes in land use patterns throughout the study area utilizing GIS. The RUSLE was used, and the necessary input parameters of the RUSLE model, were prepared. The erosion mapping has been done using overlaying the input layers. The baseline scenario (current condition) resulted in an erosion amount of 17.22 (t/ha/yr). Introducing soil conservation techniques in dry farming on steep terrain, as depicted in scenario 6 (conservation and restoration of plowed rangelands), resulted in a reduction of the erosion rate from 17.22 to 9.75 (t/ha/yr). On the other hand, scenario 20, characterized by severe rangeland degradation and overgrazing, exhibited the highest estimated erosion rate at 30.42 (t/ha/yr). In contrast, the most substantial erosion reduction of 43.37% was evident in scenario 6 (conservation and restoration of plowed rangelands). It was observed that the P-factor (support practice factor) had a more pronounced impact than the C-factor (crop/vegetation and management factor) in mitigating erosion. These findings suggest the potential for utilizing a scenario-based framework to evaluate the impact of management scenarios on erosion and prioritize soil and water management measures and strategies.

Novel technologies and subsequent pollutions are serious threats to the environment and public health. The environmental pollutions, especially air pollution, are currently leading environmental concerns in developing countries, including Iran. In the present study, the air quality and meteorological data were employed to achieve potent models based on an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) for the prediction of air pollution in Tehran, Iran. The developed models manage to predict daily concentrations of various air pollutants such as O3, PM10, NO2, CO, and PM2.5. The required data were collected daily through the Air Quality Organization from all air quality stations of Tehran within a four-year period (from 2012 to 2015). Training the models was on the basis of Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP) with the Back Propagation (BP) algorithm using MATLAB program. The results indicated appropriate agreement between the observed and predicted concentrations, as the values of the coefficient of multiple determinations (R2) for all models were more than 0.83. In conclusion, the studied meteorological parameters are effective on all pollutants concentrations.

Water security problems are becoming more and more challenging in Iran for several reasons such as population growth, urbanization, land-use change, unsustainable water use and climate change. All the mentioned reasons result in an increase in the human exploitation of water resources and consequently increasing anthropogenic impacts on rivers, flood plains, and fresh groundwater. Therefore, assessment of the human pressures on rivers is particularly important to find areas where water resources are threatened and subjected to rapidly increasing anthropogenic effects. By this integrated approach, a successful Integrated Water Resources Management will be achieved to guide policy makers for best protection, restoration and management. In this regard, Southern Caspian Sea Basin Rivers (including Kura-South Caspian and Caspian Highland ecoregions) were studied in terms of human pressure types. Human pressures were analyzed at different spatial scales, and finally seven main pressure types (i.e. Land use, Hydrology, Morphology, Connectivity, Water quality, Biology) were defined in which the abundance and distributions of each pressure type was different. According to this study, most areas were impacted by land use pressure type followed by water quality. Moreover, most areas were threatened by multiple pressures.

Silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) are potentially toxicant substances whose widespread use has raised considerations regarding environmental risks caused by the discharge of those nanoparticles (NPs) into aquatic ecosystems. The aim of this study was to analyze the impact of Ag-NPs on the hematologic parameters Rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss juvenile. Hematological toxicities of Ag-NPs to rainbow trout juveniles were assessed in four treatment groups: Control (without Ag-NPs), 0.1gr/L Ag-NPs solution (T1), 0.25gr/l Ag-NPs (T2) and 0.5gr/l Ag-NPs (T3). Blood samples were collected from fish after 5 and 10 days of exposure. Analysis of blood parameters in the 5th and 10th days of the experiment showed that the values white blood cells (WBCs) were higher in all treatments than those in the control group (p < /p>

Ecological and phytocenological assessments of 3 populations of Thymus caucasicus L. species were carried out in Ardabil. Classification of Th.caucasicus phytocenose on ecological groups were developed for the first time. In the result, the associations and their floristic composition and ecology were identified. Age, efficiency, aging indexes were appointed during cenological assessments of the Th.caucasicus formations. 3 natural cenopopulation of Th.caucasicus species were assessed, cenological situation studied in the territory, in 2013-2015 years and it was found that the 1st and 3rd populations were transition, 2nd was mature in 2013, in 2014, 1st was young, 2 nd and 3rd were mature, 1st and 2nd were young in 3rd was mature in 2015. Analysis of the parameters of population illustrated that restoration is higher in 1st and 2nd cenopopulation in 2015 rather than in 2013 - 2014.degradation of pasture to be casued that thymus population distrbution were significance decreased in the ardabil proviense.

When the source of irrigation water is wastewater, then there are concerns about the pollution of crop products, the contact of farm workers with pathogens and environmental tensions on the farm''s surface. The purpose of this applied research was to investigate the quality of the wastewater of the combined cycle plant of Montazer Ghaem for re-using in agriculture. In this study, the characteristics of inlet wastewater and outlet effluent from the urban wastewater treatment plant of Montazer Ghaem were investigated based on the statistics of the period of operation and sampling. During the study, the effects of the medium âterm usage on the physical and chemical properties of the soil and several plants affected by this water were studied. For this purpose,three samples from the inlet wastewater and three samples of outlet effluents of the treatment plants were provided and 11 sewage quality parameters were tested. Also, three soil samples were prepared from 0 to 30 cm depths from adjacent lands under irrigation with wastewater and a control sample and their physical and chemical properties were determined. Analysis of the changes in the physicochemical parameters showed that, except for the pH which was approximately constant, all parameters including EC, TDS, COD, BOD, turbidity, fat, oil, heavy metals (Fe, Ni, Cr, Cd, Cu, V) in the inlet wastewater were decreased after refining and leaving the treatment plant. However, some of the parameters were higher than standard levels which indicate the improper performance of the refineries in the removal of physico-chemical contaminants

The aim of this study is to evaluate the impact of environmental education on environmental change, environmental behavior of school students and elementary schools. The study conducted in Tehran. It is a cross-sectional study and to achieve the aim of the study a questionnaire consisting of 15 questions printed out. This is based on knowledge, attitudes and environmental behavior of students available to the study and presented to two groups of students; ordinary and green schools (8 schools) which constitute about 100 students from each schools. After checking the students' responses, the results of the analysis, were analyzed using SPSS software with the help of comparison test to two independent groups (T) and test comparing several independent groups (F) examined the research .The result revealed that between the two groups of green school students and ordinary ones, there are no significant difference (P> .05). This means that environmental education on behavior modified schools had little impact.

The noise pollution produced by various aircraft systems, including hydraulic, pneumatic, electrical systems and auxiliary aircraft equipment inside the aircraft hangars, generally cause hearing impairment and mental disorder of shift and office personnel. Identifying hangar noise pollutants can lead to find solutions and methods to deal with the contaminants in the aviation industry. In the first phase of the research, the sound study in each specified region of the hangar, the required measurements and frequency analysis are done to determine the type of sound control appropriate for the hangar. Measurements in this study were conducted in accordance with standards, and the results of the measurements and equilibrium calculations after recording were compared with the permissible exposure limits in accordance with the Occupational Exposure Limit values. The results show that the highest sound pressure level corresponds to sheet metal activities (128 dBC) and thereafter respectively, pneumatic systems (112 dBC), hydraulic pumps (104 dBC) and electrical systems (86 dBA), and found that noise pollution of the hangar during the specified time for shift and office personnel is higher than the permissible limits, and this exposure is harmful to the physical and mental health of the staff. In the second phase of the research, by the results of statistical analysis of the questionnaires, there was a significant relationship between the result of estimating noise intensity and the extent of its annoyance by shift and office personnel, which most people in the hangar believe that this level of noise pollution is very annoying.

As the world entered the industrial era, the nature of environmental threats and dangers posed by technology also have gone through fundamental changes. One of these environmental pollutants is the propagation of waves with different wavelengths in the environment. In this study, we aimed to investigate the effect of 2.45 GHz microwaves on blood biomarkers of mice. In this study, 80 immature male BALB/c mice were used. According to the inclusion criteria, 72 mice were included in the study. Mice were divided into two groups (control group=24 mice, exposed group=48 mice). Exposed groups were divided into two subgroups of 24 (groups A and B). Subgroup A was exposed to a simple modem without antenna and subgroup B was exposed to a modem with two antennas. In the first phase of the study, mice were exposed daily for 60 minutes for 90 days and in the second phase for 8 hours daily for 90 days. Blood samples were taken on days 90 and 180. Data analysis was done by SPSS software version 25 (P value<0.05). This study shows that blood cells are affected by long-term exposure to Wi-Fi waves by decrease in number and volume. Furthermore, no significant difference was observed between the blood parameters of the two groups exposed to different modems which vary in the number of antennas. The results showed that the highest effect of Wi-Fi waves was on the following blood factors, respectively PLT, RBC, HCT, HGB, and WBC.