Ahmad Ahmadi

Influence of humic acid and salicylic acid on yield, fruit quality, and leaf mineral elements of strawberry (Fragaria × Ananassa duch.) cv. Camarosa

ABSTRACT A greenhouse experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of foliarly-applied Humic Acid (HA) and Salicylic Acid (SA) on strawberry (Fragaria × Ananassa cv. Camarosa). On average, HA applications, regardless of concentration, increased overall yield, Soluble Solids Concentrations (SSC), Titratable Acidity (TA), vitamin C, red tone (a*), leaf potassium (K), phosphorus (P), calcium (Ca) and magnesium (Mg) while had no effect on pH and fruit luminosity (L*). In contrast, fruit from the untreated control tended to have higher Total Antioxidant Capacity (TAC) and SSC: TA ratio than HA-treated plants. Application of SA significantly increased yield, vitamin C, SSC, SSC: TA ratio, TAC, a*, leaf P and Ca while had no effect on TA, fruit size, L* and pH. In general, application of either HA at 25 mg L1 or SA at 2 mM resulted in better strawberry performance than did other rates of these compounds.

RANDOMIZED TRIAL OF PSYCHOLOGICAL INTERVENTIONS TO PREVENTING POSTPARTUM DEPRESSION AMONG IRANIAN FIRST-TIME MOTHERS

Background: The current study was conducted to examine the effect of cognitive behavior therapy on the reduction postpartum mood disorder and increasing the self-esteem of at-risk Iranian mothers. Methods: In this quasi-experimental study, 135 at-risk mothers were selected from the population by means of cluster sampling and randomly assigned into one of two groups: Intervention (n = 64), or control (n = 71). The control group received usual medical care, and the intervention group received an eight sessions’ cognitive behavior program during pregnancy. Assessments were administered at two time points (pretest at the beginning of the third trimester and posttest at 2 weeks postpartum). Beck anxiety, beck depression, Edinburgh postpartum depression, (PPD) Coopersmith self-esteem, and religious attitude questionnaire were used to collect data. Results: The mean age of participants was 25.8 ± 3.7 years. One-third of them had either bachelor or higher degrees in education (33%). About two-third of participants were unemployment with similar distribution in both the groups (intervention = 80%, control = 83%). The majority (70%) of the participants had cesarean section deliveries. There were no statistically significant differences respects to sociodemographic characteristics between the control and intervention groups (P > 0.05). The multivariate analysis of covariance results showed that the average scores of PPD were reduced significantly in the intervention group (P < 0.001). Also while the mean score of anxiety in the intervention group decreased from 23.31 (standard error [SE] =12.11) to 16.64 (SE = 8.33) and self-esteem increased from 29.09 (SE = 3.51) to 31.81 (SE = 2.76), no change was statistically significant in comparison to the control group. Conclusions: According to the findings of the present study, cognitive behavior intervention is effective in reducing PPD in at-risk mothers.