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Rapid climate change and global warming are leading to more droughts worldwide, posing a serious threat to sustainable agricultural production. This study aimed to evaluate two types of zinc (Zn) fertilization effects at various concentrations on growth and oil quality of canola under different irrigation regimes. Experiment was conducted in a split-split plot arrangement as a complete block design with four replications. The treatments consisted of drought stress with three levels (control, irrigation stop at flowering or mid-season (MDS), and irrigation stop at pod filling or late-season (LDS)) as main factor, two types of Zn fertilization (Zn sulfate and Zn nanochelate) as the first sub-factor, and Zn concentration with three levels (0, 3, and 5 ppt) as the second sub-factor over 2018 and 2019. Results revealed that although most traits were not affected by the year, drought significantly reduced yield attributes, oleic acid, and linoleic acid. In addition, the decreasing trend of leaf area index (LAI), total dry matter (TDM), crop growth rate (CGR), and relative growth rate (RGR) was more pronounced under MDS. The detrimental effects of irrigation stop at both phases on the investigated attributes were mitigated by Zn fertilization. Additionally, under stress, Zn-nanochelate outperformed Zn-sulfate, especially at higher concentrations (5 ppt). Overall, it can be concluded that foliar spraying of canola plants with Zn nanochelate under drought stress at a concentration of 5 ppt can be a beneficial strategy to counteract the detrimental impacts of drought, particularly during the most vulnerable growth phase of the crop.

A single-server queuing system is considered where service consumes one unit of inventory which is maintained by two suppliers with different price and replenishment lead times. During inventory stockout, new customers refuse to enter the system (lost sales) but the existing ones remain in queue until inventory becomes available again (backlogged demand). We analytically derive the joint distribution of queue length and on-hand inventory in steady state and determine supplier-specific ordering policies that maximise the average system profit. A special case of the system with multiple servers is addressed. A numerical study reveals dynamics of the optimal ordering policy with respect to price and replenishment lead-times. [Received: 15 April 2018; Revised: 21 November 2018; Accepted: 18 December 2018]

Background: In spite of increasing number of chemotherapeutic drugs, achieving chemotherapy drug with minimal side effects in cancer treatment is still a major challenge. Chemotherapy has an important role in the treatment of non- Hodgkin's lymphoma cancer. Chlorambucil (CBL) is a lipophilic DNA alkylating drug having been administrated in many cancers like leukemia but its use has been limited because of chemical instability, low permeability of the cells and high toxicity. Objective: The main aim of this study is improving in vitro anticancer activity of CBL through conjugating CBL with Poly (DL-lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA). The characterization of physiochemical structure of PLGA-CBL conjugation was determined by different techniques such as dynamic light scattering (DLS), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Atomic force microscopy (AFM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and HNMR Spectrometry. Moreover, therapeutic effect of new PLGA-CBL conjugated was evaluated, after which, the cell viability was determined by MTT assay and the numbers of apoptotic/necrotic cells were calculated by flowcytometry using Annexin V/PIkit on a non- Hodgkin's lymphoma cell line. Results and Conclusion: The results of in vitro cytotoxicity showed significantly greater conjugated PLGA-CBL on the non-Hodgkin's lymphoma compared to CBL alone