Seroprevalence of toxocariasis in children aged 1-9 years in western Islamic Republic of Iran, 2003

We determined the seroprevalence of Toxocara canis infection in 544 children under 10 years randomly selected from urban and rural areas of Hamadan, An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was used for detection of antibodies to T. canis excretion - secretion antigens. Using a questionnaire, epidemiological factors associated with infection were examined, including age, sex, residence. Antibodies to T. canis were detected in 29 children (5.3%) and 19 children (3.5%) were categorized as borderline positive; thus together this gave a prevalence of toxocariasis of 8.8%. No significant differences were found in terms of sex, age and residence

Antioxidant and antihemolytic activities of methanol extract of Hyssopus angustifolius

This study was designed to evaluate antioxidant and antihemolytic activities of Hyssopus angustifolius flower, stem and leaf methanol extracts by employing various in vitro assays. The leaf extract showed the best activity in DPPH (63.2 ± 2.3 μg mL-1) and H2O2  (55.6 ± 2.6 μg mL-1) models compared to the other extracts. However, flower extract exhibited the highest Fe2+ chelating activity (131.4 ± 4.4 μg mL-1). The extracts exhibited good antioxidant activity in linoleic acid peroxidation and reducing power assays, but were not comparable to vitamin C. The stem (23.58 ± 0.7 μg mL-1) and leaf (26.21 ± 1 μg mL-1) extracts showed highest level of antihemolytic activity than the flower extract

Effect of replacement of Caspian Sea gammarus meal by partial kilka fish meal on growth performance, feed conversion ratio and survival of juveniles of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss)

The effects of using different of gammarus meal levels (0, 5, 10 and 20%) instead of kilk fish meal as a protein source on growth performance, feed conversion ratio and survival of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) fingerlings were studied over 8 weeks. Rainbow trout fingerlings (mean body weight 5.48 ± 0.32g) were reared in a completely randomized design with three replications in the same conditions. Based on the results, no significant difference was observed in the final length and weight and specific growth rate among treatments. Increase of gammarus meal in diet led to increase of feed conversion ratio and decrease of survival, but the difference was not significant among treatments. Commercial analysis showed that the cost price of feed increased with increase of gammarus meal in diet, significantly. Thus, results of our study showed that adding up to 10% of gammarus meal instead of kilka fish meal in rainbow trout fingerlings diet is suitable, considering gammarus abundance in the shores of south Caspian Sea and lack of significance in difference on growth, feed conversion ratio and survival

Remyelination of the corpus callosum by olfactory ensheathing cell in an experimental model of multiple sclerosis

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) causes loss of the myelin sheath, which leads to loss of neurons. Regeneration of myelin sheath stimulates axon regeneration and neurons� survival. In this study, olfactory ensheathing cell (OEC) transplantation is investigated to restore myelin sheath in an experimental model of MS in male mice.OECs were isolated from the olfactory mucosa of seven-day-old infant rats and cultured. Then, cells were evaluated and approved by flow cytometry by p75 and GFAP markers. A total of 32 mice (C57BL /6) were studied in four groups; 1) without any treatment (control), 2) Sham (receiving PBS), 3) MS model and 4) MS and OEC transplantation. MS was induced by adding Cuprizon in the diet of animals for six weeks. After the expiration of 20 days, histologic analysis was performed with approval of the presence of cells in the graft area and the removal of myelin and myelin regeneration with two types of luxal fast blue (LFB) staining and immunohistochemistry. The purity of the cells ensheathing the olfactory was 90. There was a significant difference in Myelin percentage of PBS and OEC recipient groups (P�0.05). MBP and PLP of the myelin sheath in the group receiving OECs were more than MS group.According to the findings, in MS model MBP and PLP of the myelin sheath is reduced. In the group receiving OECs, it was returned to a normal level significantly compared to the sham group received only PBS significant differences were observed. The OECs transplantation can improve myelin restoration. © 2015 Tehran University of Medical Sciences. All rights reserved

Mesenchymal stem cell-derived exosomes: A promising therapeutic ace card to address autoimmune diseases

With the development of novel treatments for autoimmune disorders, it has become a popular research focus which mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have the capacity to counteract with autoimmune diseases progression. One of the underlying mechanisms behind their activities is the release of extracellular vesicles especially exosomes. MSC-derived exosomes are hypoimmunogenic nanocarriers which contain numerous immunoregulatory factors and similar to other exosomes, are able to pass through boundaries like the blood-brain barrier (BBB). Accumulating evidence provided by animal studies has demonstrated that MSC-derived exosomes, as a novel therapy, can re-induce self-tolerance, without subsequent complications reported for other treatments. Therefore, therapeutic applications of MSC-derived exosomes are contributing to core advances in the field of autoimmune diseases. Here, we briefly describe the biological characteristics of MSC-derived exosomes and review the experimentally verified outcomes for autoimmune disease therapy purposes. © 2020 by the Korean Society for Stem Cell Research

Molecular investigation of methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus isolates from blood: USA600 emerges as the major type

Introduction: The widespread emergence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus is turning into a real worry in public health. The goals of the present study were to identify resistance and virulence encoding genes and molecular characteristics of methicillin-resistant S. aureus bloodstream isolates. Methodology: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 84 S. aureus bloodstream isolates during a 10-month period. To evaluate antibiotic susceptibility of the isolates, we used Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion method. In addition, the prevalence of antimicrobial resistance and toxins genes was assessed using polymerase chain reaction. Isolates were typed according to polymorphisms seven housekeeping genes by MLST. Results: All the isolates were resistant to methicillin. The most prevalent resistance gene was mecA gene (100) followed by tetM (57.1), aac (6�)-Ie/aph (2�) (53.6), ant (4�)-Ia (46.4), ermA (45.2), msrA (35.7), msrB (33.3), aph (3�)-IIIa (33.3), ermB (31), ermC (16.7), and mupA (14.3) genes. The presence of toxin encoding genes tst, pvl, eta, and etb were detected in 25, 14.3, 3.6 and 3.6, respectively. The isolates were classified into five different sequence types: ST45 (29.8), ST239 (27.4), ST858 (21.4), ST22 (17.8), and ST59 (3.6). All the high-level mupirocin-resistant (HLMUPR) strains belonged to ST239, while the low-level mupirocin resistant (LLMUPR) strains belonged to ST22 (13) and ST239 (6). Conclusions: To the best of our knowledge, the present study is the first report of ST59 in MRSA bloodstream isolates in Iran. Our data demonstrated the need for thorough epidemiological monitoring to detect emergence and dissemination of MDR-MRSA types in our hospitals. © 2018 Goudarzi et al

Enhanced dissociation of charge-transfer states in narrow band gap polymer:fullerene solar cells processed with 1,8-octanedithiol

The improved photovoltaic performance of narrow band gap polymer:fullerene solar cells processed from solutions containing small amounts of 1,8-octanedithiol is analyzed by modeling of the experimental photocurrent. In contrast to devices that are spin coated from pristine chlorobenzene, these cells do not produce a recombination-limited photocurrent. Modeling of the experimental data reveals that a sixfold reduction in the decay rate of photogenerated bound electron–hole pairs can account for the marked increase in short-circuit current density and fill factor. At short-circuit conditions, the dissociation probability of bound pairs is found to increase from 48% to 70%.

Molecular investigation of methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus isolates from blood: USA600 emerges as the major type

Introduction: The widespread emergence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus is turning into a real worry in public health. The goals of the present study were to identify resistance and virulence encoding genes and molecular characteristics of methicillin-resistant S. aureus bloodstream isolates. Methodology: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 84 S. aureus bloodstream isolates during a 10-month period. To evaluate antibiotic susceptibility of the isolates, we used Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion method. In addition, the prevalence of antimicrobial resistance and toxins genes was assessed using polymerase chain reaction. Isolates were typed according to polymorphisms seven housekeeping genes by MLST. Results: All the isolates were resistant to methicillin. The most prevalent resistance gene was mecA gene (100) followed by tetM (57.1), aac (6�)-Ie/aph (2�) (53.6), ant (4�)-Ia (46.4), ermA (45.2), msrA (35.7), msrB (33.3), aph (3�)-IIIa (33.3), ermB (31), ermC (16.7), and mupA (14.3) genes. The presence of toxin encoding genes tst, pvl, eta, and etb were detected in 25, 14.3, 3.6 and 3.6, respectively. The isolates were classified into five different sequence types: ST45 (29.8), ST239 (27.4), ST858 (21.4), ST22 (17.8), and ST59 (3.6). All the high-level mupirocin-resistant (HLMUPR) strains belonged to ST239, while the low-level mupirocin resistant (LLMUPR) strains belonged to ST22 (13) and ST239 (6). Conclusions: To the best of our knowledge, the present study is the first report of ST59 in MRSA bloodstream isolates in Iran. Our data demonstrated the need for thorough epidemiological monitoring to detect emergence and dissemination of MDR-MRSA types in our hospitals. © 2018 Goudarzi et al

Generating GHZ state in 2m-qubit spin network

We consider a pure 2m-qubit initial state to evolve under a particular quantum me- chanical spin Hamiltonian, which can be written in terms of the adjacency matrix of the Johnson network J(2m;m). Then, by using some techniques such as spectral dis- tribution and stratification associated with the graphs, employed in [1, 2], a maximally entangled GHZ state is generated between the antipodes of the network. In fact, an explicit formula is given for the suitable coupling strengths of the hamiltonian, so that a maximally entangled state can be generated between antipodes of the network. By using some known multipartite entanglement measures, the amount of the entanglement of the final evolved state is calculated, and finally two examples of four qubit and six qubit states are considered in details.Comment: 22 page