Exceeded losses of nonstructural components from structural ones in most demolished buildings in previous earthquakes and its limitation on functionality of critical facilities and building serviceability after earthquakes should be got the point of view for accounting loss of building as a merit for building performance. This paper attempts to demonstrate the significant role of distribution p...

Objective: Mastitis is the most important and costly health disorder in dairy farms around the world. The aim of this study is to estimate the economic impact of mastitis in dairy herds in Tehran province. Design: Data triangulation. Methods: Data of this study were gathered using a questioner which was collected by 135 farmers in Tehran province together with 25 faculty members and DVSc grad...

A central principle of life-history theory is that parents trade investment in reproduction against that in body maintenance. One physiological cost thought to be important as a modulator of such trade-off is oxidative stress. Experimental support for this hypothesis has, however, proved to be contradictory. In this study, we manipulated the nestling rearing effort of captive canaries (Serinus ...

The western flower thrips Frankliniella occidentalis (Pergande) (Thysanoptera: Thripidae) is a cosmopolitan, polyphagous insect pest that causes bronzing to fruit of strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa). The main aim of this study was to test whether mass trapping could reduce damage and to predict whether this approach would be economically viable. In semi-protected strawberry crops, mass trapping...

Many notable pollution problems occur in industries where production is carried out under vertical coordination arrangements that are characterized by conditions of double moral hazard. In contrast to situations characterized by full informatio n, we show that standard prescriptions of environmental economics do not apply. Imposing a Pigouvian tax equal to the marginal cost of pollution does no...

Agricultural producers face many risks in their economic activity due to weather conditions, plant or animal diseases, price volatility, policy changes and so on. One of the management tools to deal with some of these risks is the crop insurance system. In Catalonia (North-East of Spain) farmers’ participation in crop insurance for vegetables is low. Only 5 percent of the vegetables area is ins...

A dual structural fused system consists of replaceable ductile elements (fuses) that sustain major seismic damage and leave the primary structure (PS) virtually undamaged. The seismic performance of a fused structural system is determined by the combined behavior of the individual PS and fuse components. In order to design a feasible and economic structural fuse concept, we need a procedure to ...

The assessment of seismic performance of existing structures is becoming an important problem in earthquake engineering. Some important ructures are considerably old and, therefore, their strengths and ductilities are less than strength and ductility demands because of changes in codes and design methodologies. Such structures must be strengthened to resist future earthquakes. First, a structur...

Green infrastructure approaches have attracted increased attention from local governments as a way to lower flood risk and provide an array of other environmental services. The peer-reviewed literature, however, offers few estimates of the economic impacts of such approaches at the watershed scale. We estimate the avoided flood damages and the costs of preventing development of floodplain parce...

Zebrafish are an excellent model for Duchenne muscular dystrophy. In particular, zebrafish provide a system for rapid, easy, and low-cost screening of small molecules that can ameliorate muscle damage in dystrophic larvae. Here we identify an optimal anti-sense morpholino cocktail that robustly knocks down zebrafish Dystrophin (dmd-MO). We use two approaches, muscle birefringence and muscle act...