The effect of Satureja khuzestanica on triglyceride, glucose, creatinine and alkaline phosphatase activity in rat

زمینه و هدف: مرزه یا ساتوریا خوزستانیکا (Satureja khuzestanica) از گیاهان بومی ایران می باشد که به طور گسترده ای در نواحی جنوبی کشور به ویژه استان لرستان وجود دارد و در طب سنتی دارای مصارف پزشکی، از جمله فعالیت ضد درد و عفونت می باشد. در مطالعات قبلی مشاهده گردید که این گیاه باعث کاهش معنی دار وزن در موشهای مورد آزمایش شده است. بر همین اساس بر آن شدیم اثرات دم کرده و اسانس روغنی این گیاه را روی وزن بدن، دریافت غذا و فاکتورهای لیپیدی، قندی، پروتئینی، الکترولیت ها و آنزیم های کبدی در رت بررسی کنیم. روش بررسی: این مطالعه تجربی است که در سال 1382 در مرکز تحقیقات گیاهان دارویی دانشگاه علوم پزشکی لرستان انجام شد. دم کرده گیاه مزبور به مقادیر 75، 150 و 250 میلی گرم بر کیلوگرم از راه خوراکی به مدت سه هفته به ترتیب برای حیوانات در سه گروه تجویز شد و در گروه چهارم، اسانس روغنی گیاه در آب خوراکی به میزانppm 1000 حل و تجویز گردید. در عین حال برای گروه کنترل هیچگونه گیاهی تجویز نشد. وزن حیوانات و میزان دریافت آب و غذای آنها بصورت روزانه ثبت گردید و در پایان 3 هفته فاکتورهای خونی و آنزیم های کبدی در سرم این حیوانات اندازه گیری شد. داده ها با آزمون ANOVA یکطرفه و بدنبال آن آزمون Tukey با یکدیگر مقایسه گردید و در بعضی گروهها که توزیع داده ها نرمال نبود از آزمون من ویتنی استفاده شد. یافته ها: میزان تری گلیسرید سرمی در گروه اسانس روغنی )92/3±15/43 میلی گرم بر دسی لیتر) نسبت به گروه کنترل (03/8±99/89 میلی گرم بر دسی لیتر) تفاوت معنی دار داشت (001/0

Full replacement of fishmeal by poultry by-product meal in rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss (Walbaum, 1972) diet

Along the plant ingredients, rendered animal protein sources such as blood meal, meat and bone meal and poultry by-product meal have potential to be replaced by fishmeal in rainbow trout feed. Therefore, the main objective of the present study is to determine the effect of full replacement of fishmeal by poultry by-products meal (PBM) on fish performance, nutrient digestibility and also liver characteristics in rainbow trout. Four experimental diets were formulated to contain graded levels of PBM at 0 (control diet), 33 (PBM33), 66 (PBM66) or 100% (PBM100), respectively. The four treatments were randomly assigned to each of 12 tanks, having three replicates for each treatment. Rainbow trout juveniles with an average initial weight of 50±0.42g were reared for two months. The fish gained lower weight and specific growth rate at PBM 66% and 100%. FCR was recorded larger for rainbow trout feeding on PBM 66% and 100% in comparison to PBM 33% and control diets (p<0.05). The whole exchange of fishmeal by PBM (PBM100%) reduced dry matter, fat and protein digestibility (p<0.05). An increase in PBM content of diet also resulted in larger fat content of the fish liver (p<0.05). Body fat content reduced and moisture content increased by increasing PBM level (p<0.05). In conclusion, PBM can be included in rainbow trout feed as an alternative for fishmeal up to 33%. A larger fat content of liver at PBM 100% may indicate a negative impact of PBM on rainbow trout health at full replacement level

Exploring the Barriers of Home Care Services in Iran: A Qualitative Study

With increasing chronic diseases, the use of home care is rising in the world. Home care in Iran has many challenges and to improve that, we should identify the challenges and barriers of home care. The aim of this study was to identify and explore the barriers of home care in Iran. This is a qualitative study with content analysis approach that was conducted in Iran in 2015. Fourteen key informants comprising health policymakers, faculty members, nurses, and physicians as well as patients and families engaged in home care purposefully participated in this study. Data was obtained using face-to-face semistructured interviews. A focus group discussion was also used to complete the findings. Graneheim and Lundman's approach was used for analysis of data and Lincoln and Guba's criteria were used to confirm the trustworthiness of study's findings. The data were divided into three main categories and eight subcategories. Main categories included treatment-based approach in the healthcare system, cultural dimensions, and the lack of adequate infrastructure. A position for home care in the healthcare system, considering cultural dimensions in Iranian society and providing an appropriate infrastructure, can be beneficial to improve the situation of home care services in Iran. © 2016 Heshmatolah Heydari et al

Cyanobacterial community patterns as water quality bioindicators

The main goal of this study was to examine the use of cyanobacteria for evaluating the quality of running water. Accordingly epilithic cyanobacterial communities were collected in Dez River and Ojeyreb drain in south of Iran. Samples were collected in two seasons: autumn and spring. Effective physical and chemical factors on the structure of cyanobacterial communities and the dispersion of the species in relation with them were determined using PCA and CCA analyses. The Shannon-Wiener biodiversity index was used to define the species diversity. The concentration of nitrate as main nutrient had significant increase in Drain stations. A decline in species richness was observed associated with these increases in nutrient load in both seasons in different cyanobacterial community structure. The results indicated that order Oscillatoriales had higher proportion of cyanobacteria species at Drain. The species Oscillatoria chlorina, Chroococcus minor, Phormidium tenue and Lyngbya kuetzingii S had the most positive correlation with nutrient factor. Species Lyngbya infixa and Lyngbya mesotrichia had the most negative correlation with nitrate. Our results confirm the using of cyanobacteria species as indicators for monitoring eutrophication in rivers and define them as water eutrophication bioindicators

The effect of plant growth regulators on optimization of tissue culture system in Malaysian upland rice

Mature seeds of four upland rice cultivars namely Kusan, Lamsan, Selasi and Siam were assessed for callus induction and plant regeneration on different concentrations and combinations of plant growth regulators, incorporated into MS (Murashige and Skoog) basal medium. Callus induction frequency was significantly different among the cultivars, as well as among the 2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) levels tested. All tested cultivars exhibited highest callus frequency at 2 mgl-1 2,4-D. The incorporation of -naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA) and kinetin (Kin) in the callus induction medium supplemented with 2 mgl-1 2,4-D did not significantly improve the callus induction frequency. After two subcultures, at 24 days interval, the best response to callus induction was from cultivar Selasi, while callus browning became prominent in cultivars Kusan and Siam. Embryogenic callus placed on different regeneration media exhibited the highest regeneration frequency on medium containing 0.5 mgl-1 NAA + 2.0 mgl-1 Kin + 2.0 mgl-1 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP). The maximum regeneration frequency was achieved in cultivar Selasi followed by Lamsan while Siam and Kusan exhibited poor regeneration response. Among the four upland rice cultivars evaluated, Selasi and Lamsan are two promising cultivars in terms of callus induction frequency and morphology, and regeneration ability of the embryogenic callus

On Optimal Multi-user Beam Alignment in Millimeter Wave Wireless Systems

Directional transmission patterns (a.k.a. narrow beams) are the key to wireless communications in millimeter wave (mmWave) frequency bands which suffer from high path loss and severe shadowing. In addition, the propagation channel in mmWave frequencies incorporates only a few number of spatial clusters requiring a procedure to align the corresponding narrow beams with the angle of departure (AoD) of the channel clusters. The objective of this procedure, called beam alignment (BA) is to increase the beamforming gain for subsequent data communication. Several prior studies consider optimizing BA procedure to achieve various objectives such as reducing the BA overhead, increasing throughput, and reducing power consumption. While these studies mostly provide optimized BA schemes for scenarios with a single active user, there are often multiple active users in practical networks. Consequently, it is more efficient in terms of BA overhead and delay to design multi-user BA schemes which can perform beam management for multiple users collectively. This paper considers a class of multi-user BA schemes where the base station performs a one shot scan of the angular domain to simultaneously localize multiple users. The objective is to minimize the average of expected width of remaining uncertainty regions (UR) on the AoDs after receiving users' feedbacks. Fundamental bounds on the optimal performance are analyzed using information theoretic tools. Furthermore, a beam design optimization problem is formulated and a practical BA scheme, which provides significant gains compared to the beam sweeping used in 5G standard is proposed