The growth, survival rate and reproductive characteristics of Artemia urmiana fed by Dunaliella tertiolecta, Tetraselmis suecica, Nannochloropsis oculata, Chaetoceros sp., Chlorella sp. and Spirolina sp. as feeding microalgae

This study was performed to compare the efficiency of six microalgae namely Dunaliella tertiolecta, Tetraselmis suecica, Nannochloropsis oculata, Chaetoceros sp., Chlorella sp. and Spirolina sp. on the growth, survival rate and reproduction efficacy in Artemia urmiana in laboratory conditions. Artemia cysts were harvested from Urmia Lake and hatched according to the standard method. Live microalgae were cultured using the f/2 culture medium. Artemia survival was determined in treatments on days 8, 11, 14, 17 and 20. A highly significant difference (p<0.01) were found among three microalgae in terms of length growth, survival rates and reproduction characteristics in A. urmiana. In spite of higher length growth of A.urmiana fed on N. oculata than A. urmiana fed by T. suecica but survival and reproduction in the latter was better than the first treatment. In general, D. tertiolecta was more efficient than other microalgae examined in the present study on A. urmiana concerning not only to growth and survival but also to reproduction mode. So, it is preferred to feed A. urmiana

Catalytic decomposition of 2-chlorophenol using an ultrasonic-assisted Fe3O4-TiO2@MWCNT system: Influence factors, pathway and mechanism study.

As a reusable sonocatalyst, magnetically separable Fe3O4-TiO2@MWCNT (FMT) was synthesized by an ultrasound-assisted wet impregnation method and was evaluated in the removal of 2-chlorophenol (2CP). Physical and chemical properties of the catalyst composite materials were investigated by all catalysts were systematically characterized using Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS), Energy Dispersive X-ray Analysis (EDX), Dynamic light scattering (DLS), and N2-physisorption. The efficiency and kinetics of 2CP removal by FMT-assisted sonocatalysis (FMT-US) was systematically investigated under various operational parameters i.e. pH, FMT and 2CP concentration, temperature and ultrasonic power. The results indicated that 0.4gL-1 FMT dosage, pH 5, temperature of 35°C as well as 50 w ultrasound power are the most favorable conditions for the degradation of the 2CP. Furthermore, both of the superoxide and hydroxyl radicals were produced in the reaction, however, superoxide radicals were assumed to be the dominating reactive species for the 2CP degradation, according to the scavenging tests and electron paramagnetic resonance tests. Moreover, the FMT catalyst exhibited a high reusability and stability in the US/FMT system during the five repetitive experiments. The intermediate products were identified by GC-MS, thereby a possible degradation pathway is proposed. The chemical oxygen demand (COD) and corresponding total organic carbon (TOC) removal efficiencies were 64.9% and 56.7%, respectively. Finally, toxicity tests showed that the toxicity of the solution increased during the first 5min and then decreased significantly with the progress of the oxidation. The mechanisms of ultrasound irritation enhanced FMT activation were also proposed. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

Conjunctivitis: A Systematic Review

Conjunctivitis is a commonly encountered condition in ophthalmology clinics throughout the world. In the management of suspected cases of conjunctivitis, alarming signs for more serious intraocular conditions, such as severe pain, decreased vision, and painful pupillary reaction, must be considered. Additionally, a thorough medical and ophthalmic history should be obtained and a thorough physical examination should be done in patients with atypical findings and chronic course. Concurrent physical exam findings with relevant history may reveal the presence of a systemic condition with involvement of the conjunctiva. Viral conjunctivitis remains to be the most common overall cause of conjunctivitis. Bacterial conjunctivitis is encountered less frequently and it is the second most common cause of infectious conjunctivitis. Allergic conjunctivitis is encountered in nearly half of the population and the findings include itching, mucoid discharge, chemosis, and eyelid edema. Long-term usage of eye drops with preservatives in a patient with conjunctival irritation and discharge points to the toxic conjunctivitis as the underlying etiology. Effective management of conjunctivitis includes timely diagnosis, appropriate differentiation of the various etiologies, and appropriate treatment

Multi-walled carbon nanotubes modified with iron oxide and silver nanoparticles (MWCNT-Fe<inf>3</inf>O<inf>4</inf>/Ag) as a novel adsorbent for determining PAEs in carbonated soft drinks using magnetic SPE-GC/MS method

The synthesis of compounds with an excellent adsorption capability plays an essential role to remove contaminants such as phthalic acid esters (PAEs) with potential carcinogenic characteristics from different food products. In this context, for the first time, a novel adsorbent (MWCNT-Fe3O4/Ag) was synthesized by using iron (magnetic agent), and silver (catalytic and surface enhancer agent) to further approach in a magnetic SPE-GC/MS method for determining of PAEs in carbonated soft drink samples. The limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ) values of MSPE-GC/MS were determined in six PAEs as a range of 10.8–22.5 and 36–75 ng/L, respectively. Also, the calibration curves of PAEs were linear (R2 = 0.9981–0.9995) over the concentration level of 10.000 ng/L and the recoveries of the six PAEs were ranging from 96.60% to 109.22% with the RSDs less than 8%. Moreover, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX), X-ray diffraction (XRD), vibrating sample magnetometry (VSM) and transmission electron microscopy analyses (TEM) were utilized to characterize the produced MWCNT-Fe3O4/Ag. Based on the findings, the surface of MWCNT is relatively uniform, which became coarser after loading with Fe3O4/Ag particles. Also, EDX spectrum showed the carbon (C), iron (Fe), oxygen (O), Ag and copper (Cu) are the main components of synthesized MWCNTs-Fe3O4/Ag. The successful adhesion of Fe3O4/Ag on the texture of MWCNTs using a co-precipitation method was confirmed by XRD and FT-IR assays. Additionally, excellent crystallinity and clear lattice nanocrystals fringes of prepared MWCNT-Fe3O4/Ag was demonstrated by TEM analysis. Based on the obtained VSM images, the prepared sorbent (MWCNT-Fe3O4/Ag) has the good magnetic performance for magnetic separation and extraction processes. It was concluded that the synthesized MWCNT-Fe3O4/Ag could be used as an efficient adsorbent for determining contaminants such as PAEs in different beverage samples. © 201

Comparative Analysis of the Frequency and Distribution of Stem and Progenitor Cells in the Adult Mouse Brain

cells (NSCs) and progenitor cells, but it cannot discriminate between these two populations. Given two assays have purported to overcome this shortfall, we performed a comparative analysis of the distribution and frequency of NSCs and progenitor cells detected in 400 m coronal segments along the ventricular neuraxis of the adult mouse brain using the neurosphere assay, the neural colony forming cell assay (N-CFCA), and label-retaining cell (LRC) approach. We observed a large variation in the number of progenitor/stem cells detected in serial sections along the neuraxis, with the number of neurosphereforming cells detected in individual 400 m sections varying from a minimum of eight to a maximum of 891 depending upon the rostral-caudal coordinate assayed. Moreover, the greatest variability occurred in the rostral portion of the lateral ventricles, thereby explaining the large variation in neurosphere frequency previously reported. Whereas the overall number of neurospheres (3730 276) or colonies (4275 124) we detected along the neuraxis did not differ significantly, LRC numbers were significantly reduced (1186 188, 7 month chase) in comparison to both total colonies and neurospheres. Moreover, approximately two orders of magnitude fewer NSC-derived colonies (50 10) were detected using the N-CFCA as compared to LRCs. Given only 5% of the LRCs are cycling (BrdU/Ki-67) or competent to divide (BrdU/Mcm-2), and proliferate upon transfer to culture, it is unclear whether this technique selectively detects endogenous NSCs. Overall, caution should be taken with the interpretation and employment of all these techniques

A Survey of Air-to-Ground Propagation Channel Modeling for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

In recent years, there has been a dramatic increase in the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), particularly for small UAVs, due to their affordable prices, ease of availability, and ease of operability. Existing and future applications of UAVs include remote surveillance and monitoring, relief operations, package delivery, and communication backhaul infrastructure. Additionally, UAVs are envisioned as an important component of 5G wireless technology and beyond. The unique application scenarios for UAVs necessitate accurate air-to-ground (AG) propagation channel models for designing and evaluating UAV communication links for control/non-payload as well as payload data transmissions. These AG propagation models have not been investigated in detail when compared to terrestrial propagation models. In this paper, a comprehensive survey is provided on available AG channel measurement campaigns, large and small scale fading channel models, their limitations, and future research directions for UAV communication scenarios

Rapid and efficient ultrasonic assisted adsorption of diethyl phthalate onto FeIIFe2 IIIO4@GO: ANN-GA and RSM-DF modeling, isotherm, kinetic and mechanism study

Herein, an ultrasonic assisted dispersive magnetic solid-phase adsorption method along with a high-performance liquid chromatography system for the diethyl phthalate (DEP) removal was developed. In this regard, magnetic iron oxide/graphene oxide (MGO) nanocomposites were prepared by a simple and effective chemical co-precipitation method, followed by nucleation and growth of nanoparticles. The structure and morphology of MGO was identified by Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy X-ray diffraction (XRD), Vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and N2 adsorption-desorption techniques. The interactive and main effect of parameters such as pH, adsorbent dosage, sonication time and concentration of DEP involved in the adsorption process were set within the ranges 3.0�11.0, 0.10�0.50 g L�1, 1�5 min, 5�10 mg/L, respectively. Root means square error (RMSE), mean absolute error (MAE), absolute average deviation (AAD), and coefficient of determination (R2) was employed to examine the applicability of the response surface methodology (RSM) and artificial neural network (ANN) models for the description of experimental data. Compared to RSM, the ANN showed a more accurate performance for modeling the process of DEP adsorption. Using genetic algorithm-ANN, optimum conditions were set to 5.38, 334.7 mg/L, 3.723 min and 4.21 mg/L for pH, adsorbent dose, sonication time and concentration of DEP, respectively. Under the optimized conditions, the maximum adsorption capacity and adsorption factors were 116.933 mg/g and 100, respectively, while the relative standard deviations (RSDs) was &lt;1.6 (N = 5). The isotherm models display that the Langmuir has the best fit with the equilibrium data, and adsorption kinetics followed the pseudo-second-order model. The thermodynamic results confirmed that the sorption was endothermic and occurred spontaneously. The results exhibited that MGO has excellent potential as an adsorbent for the removal of phthalates from the contaminated water. © 2019 Elsevier B.V

Traumatic Endothelial Corneal Rings

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Geometric Characterization of Rat Urinary Bladder Wall During Ex-Vivo Filling Using Micro-Computed Tomography (Micro-CT)

This study employs micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) to unravel the geometrical intricacies of the rat urinary bladder wall during various states of ex-vivo filling, contrasting markedly with the commonly held idealizations of uniform bladder geometry. Through precise 3D reconstructions at resolutions between 10-20 micrometers, the research meticulously documents the bladder's morphological transformations across different filling pressures. The findings illuminate substantial deviations from the theoretical model of a uniformly thick, spherical bladder, particularly underlined by variations in wall thickness and bladder volume during the transition from voided to filled states. These results are pivotal for refining mechanical models of bladder function, which have traditionally oversimplified the complex geometrical and biomechanical behavior of the bladder. Moreover, this study underscores the potential of micro-CT in providing a deeper understanding of bladder mechanics, essential for advancing therapeutic strategies for conditions like bladder outlet obstruction (BOO), thereby enhancing both surgical and pharmacological treatment paradigms

Performance, kinetic, and biodegradation pathway evaluation of anaerobic fixed film fixed bed reactor in removing phthalic acid esters from wastewater

Emerging and hazardous environmental pollutants like phthalic acid esters (PAEs) are one of the recent concerns worldwide. PAEs are considered to have diverse endocrine disrupting effects on human health. Industrial wastewater has been reported as an important environment with high concentrations of PAEs. In the present study, four short-chain PAEs including diallyl phthalate (DAP), diethyl phthalate (DEP), dimethyl phthalate (DMP), and phthalic acid (PA) were selected as a substrate for anaerobic fixed film fixed bed reactor (AnFFFBR). The process performances of AnFFFBR, and also its kinetic behavior, were evaluated to find the best eco-friendly phthalate from the biodegradability point of view. According to the results and kinetic coefficients, removing and mineralizing of DMP occurred at a higher rate than other phthalates. In optimum conditions 92.5, 84.41, and 80.39% of DMP, COD, and TOC were removed. DAP was found as the most bio-refractory phthalate. The second-order (Grau) model was selected as the best model for describing phthalates removal