Biotechnology: Two Decades of Experimentation with Genetically Modified Foods

Background and Objective: Over the recent years, genetically modified food in varieties of corn, soybeans, canola and cotton have been introduced to the global market. This study reviews the health and nutritional value of genetically modified foods in the past two decades.Results and Conclusions: Contrary to the present biotechnological claims, transgenic products did not prove to be so flawless, and actually failed to maintain social satisfaction. Genetically modified foods could not gain an increase in the yield potential. Planting natural products and genetically modified products in parallel lines will absolutely result in genetic infection from the side of genetically modified foods. One of the major anxieties of the anti- genetically modified foods activism is the claim that genetically modified crops would alter the consumable parts of the plant quality and safety. Genetically modified foods have shown to have inadequate efficiency and potential adverse effects in both fields of health and biodiversity. This review has presented studies of genetically modified foods performances in the past two decades, and concludes that the wide application and the over generalization of genetically modified foods are not fundamentally recommended.Conflict of interest: Authors declare that there is no conflict of interest

Evaluation of Microbiological Water Quality and Coastal Waters Quality Index of Persian Gulf in Bandar Abbas Coastal City, Iran

The goals of this study were to assess the microbiological quality and coastal water quality index (CWQI) in the Persian Gulf alongshore of Bandar Abbas city. Water samples were collected from five different coastal sites in spring and summer seasons. To assess the microbiological quality: Total Coliforms, Fecal Coliforms, Fecal Streptococci and Clostridium perfringens were measured. Also, eight physicochemical parameters (DO, BOD, TSS, Turbidity, Temperature, pH, Nitrate, Phosphate) were examined for calculating the CWQI. The mean for microbiological indicators was respectively, 3667, 1055, 50, 211 MPN/100ml. for physicochemical parameters, the average of water temperature was 32 °C, electrical conductivity was 57mmho/cm, the turbidity was 70.7 NTU, pH 8.1, and also the average concentration of phosphate, nitrate, nitrite, and ammonium was 180, 18.2, 4.9, 12.16μmol/L, and the mean of concentration BOD, COD and DO were 4.89, 11 and 6.8mg/L, respectively. In addition, the water quality index for all months and at selected stations was 65. The results showed that in the most samples the levels of microbiological indicators were exceeded the national standard and guideline values. Also, the computed CWQI showed that quality of water was weak. All the extracted results are closely related to the inlets connected to the sea. These inlets except the Ghadir station will affect the rest of the stations. In general, in low tide, the Bactria index was more than high tide

Reactive oligomer to improve the impact characteristics of structural composites used in civil and medical applications

Composite materials are increasingly utilized in many civil engineering and medical applications such as conveying tubes and pipelines, making artificial human parts, dental applications, reinforcing structures, etc. The glass reinforced composite is one of the most common composite that is used for its good mechanical properties and also its rationally low price. Polymeric resins such as epoxy are used as the constitutive material in producing glass reinforced composites. In this research paper we improve the impact resistance of the glass-reinforced composite using Hycar reactive oligomer. Mechanical impact strength tests have been conducted using a notched sample. The obtained test results show that the impact resistance of Hycar modified glass-reinforced composite is enhanced by addition of the Hycar to the glass reinforced composite. Moreover the glass transition temperature (T g) of the samples has been measured experimentally using a differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) instrument. The results of measuring T g however shows that these g improvements in impact resistance of the composite material are accompanied with a slight reduction in the glass transition temperature of the modified composite samples. Moreover the damaged surfaces of fractured samples were investigated using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) techniques. © IDOSI Publications, 2012

Mechanical characteristics of tire/clay modified epoxy used in fabrication of medical prostheses and artificial human parts

Epoxy is used in many dental and medical applications such as manufacturing prostheses. This polymer is not toxic and is a good candidate for easily forming of artificial hand, leg, etc. In recent years, the recycled waste tire has been concerned as inexpensive modifier for improving the toughness characteristics of many thermoset resins such as epoxy. Herein, the influence of addition of nanoclay on mechanical characteristics of waste tire-modified epoxy was investigated. Mechanical properties i.e. compressive and flexural characteristics, fracture toughness and impact strength of the samples were investigated. The fracture surfaces of the specimens were examined using scanning electron microscope (SEM). Moreover the glass transition temperature (Tg) of the samples were measured. Results reveal that nanoclay can improve the mechanical characteristics of waste tire-modified epoxies. © IDOSI Publications, 2012

Comparison between the performance of four metaheuristic algorithms in training a multilayer perceptron machine for gold grade estimation

Reserve evaluation is a very difficult and complex process. The most important and yet most challenging part of this process is grade estimation. Its difficulty derived from challenges in obtaining required data from the deposit by drilling boreholes, which is a very time consuming and costly act itself. Classic methods which are used to model the deposit are based on some preliminary assumptions about reserve continuity and grade spatial distribution which are not true about all kind of reserves. In this paper, a multilayer perceptron (MLP) artificial neural network (ANN) is applied to solve the problem of ore grade estimation of highly sparse data from zarshouran gold deposit in Iran. The network is trained using four metaheuristic algorithms in separate stages for each algorithm. These algorithms are artificial bee colony (ABC), genetic algorithm (GA), imperialist competitive algorithm (ICA) and particle swarm optimization (PSO). The accuracy of predictions obtained from each algorithm in each stage of experiments were compared with real gold grade values. We used unskillful value to check the accuracy and stability of each network. Results showed that the network trained with ABC algorithm outperforms other networks that trained with other algorithms in all stages having least unskillful value of 13.91 for validation data. Therefore, it can be more suitable for solving the problem of predicting ore grade values using highly sparse data

The immediate effect of a balance wobble board protocol on knee and ankle joint position sense in female soccer players

Background: Lower limb injuries are widely recognized as the most prevalent injuries among female soccer players. Joint position sense plays a vital role in muscle reflexes, joint stability dynamics, and movement planning for neuromuscular control. Decreased accuracy in joint position sense can be considered an internal injury risk factor. Objective: The current study aims to investigate the immediate effect of a short-term balance protocol with a wobble board on knee and ankle joint position sense. Methods: Forty female participants were recruited and then randomly allocated into two groups: balance training (BTR; n = 20, age 23.50 ± 1.50 years) and control (CON; n = 20, age 23.10 ± 1.77 years). Knee and ankle joint reconstruction errors were measured using a gyroscope at 60° of knee flexion and 30° of ankle plantarflexion. Following this, the BTR group participated in a short-term balance protocol (one session). Immediately following training and then one hour later, the reconstruction error was measured in both groups. Results: A mixed-repeated measures analysis of variance demonstrated that for the BTR group, the absolute angular error (AAE) before and after intervention decreased by 2.14° and 2.95° in the knee (p = .001) and ankle (p = .001) joints, respectively. In addition, an hour after intervention, the AAE remained below the initial value in the two joints (p = .001). Specifically, in the CON group, the AAE in the knee joint did not show a significant decrease, and similarly, no significant change was observed in the AAE in the ankle joint, and also an hour after the intervention. Conclusions: A wobble board training session may stimulate the sensory receptors of the knee and ankle joints of female amateur soccer players and increased joint position sense accuracy and is present one hour post intervention

Communal coping and its association with marital relations and psychological outcomes among healthcare professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic

Background: Communal coping is a type of interdependency in which couples dealing with a health threat share assessment of a threat and respond together to the stress. The present study investigated communal coping in the COVID-19 pandemic and its association with psychological and relational outcomes among healthcare professionals. Methods: In the present cross-sectional survey study, 242 healthcare professionals from hospitals and health centers were recruited via convenience sampling between August and October 2020. Communal coping with working conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic, dyadic adjustment, psychological distress, and fear of COVID-19 along with demographic and professional characteristics were assessed via an online survey. Results: Multivariable linear regression showed that dyadic adjustment (b = 0.73), psychological distress (b = 0.16), fear of COVID-19 (b = 0.11), and support gap (b

ارزیابی ویژگیهاي روانسنجی مقیاس افسردگی مرگ در زنان مبتلا به سرطان پستان

مقدمه و اهداف: ارزیابی دقیق افسردگی مرگ بیماران، مستلزم ابزاري اختصاصی و متناسب با فرهنگ هر جامعه است. این مطالعه با هدف ارزیابی ویژگیهاي روانسنجی مقیاس افسردگی مرگ در زنان مبتلا به سرطان پستان انجام شد. روش کار: در این مطالعه روششناختی، 246 نفر از بیماران مبتلا به سرطان پستان مراجعه کننده به بیمارستان ولایت شهر قزوین، مقیاس 17 گویهاي افسردگی مرگ تمپلر را تکمیل کردند. ویژگیهاي روانسنجی این مقیاس با روش تحلیل عاملی اکتشافی و تأییدي مورد ارزیابی قرار گرفت. همچنین پایایی با استفاده از ضریب آلفاي کرونباخ، امگا و پایایی مرکب بررسی شد. یافتهها: تحلیل عاملی اکتشافی نشان داد که 6 گویه در نسخه فارسی بار عاملی لازم را کسب نکردند و حذف شدند. یازده گویه 66 درصد از واریانس این مفهوم را تبیین میکرد. در تحلیل عامل تأییدي، 11 گویه داراي شاخصهاي / باقیمانده بهصورت تکعاملی 91 (χ2 = 97.664, p < .001, χ2/df = 2.504, GFI = .932, CFI = .972, IFI = .973, TLI = برازش مناسبی بودند 0/ 0 و ضریب پایایی مرکب 96 / 0، ضریب امگاي 95 / 961 . ضریب آلفاي کرونباخ 95 , SRMR = .030, and RMSEA = .079) نشان دهنده پایایی قابل قبول نسخه 11 گویهاي بود. نتیجهگیري: نتایج این مطالعه نشان داد مقیاس افسردگی مرگ با 11 گویه از روایی و پایایی مناسبی در بین مبتلایان به سرطان پستان ایرانی برخوردار بود. با توجه به پارامترهاي مناسب روانسنجی، این ابزار میتواند در مطالعههاي بعدي بهمنظور ارزیابی افسردگی مرگ بهکار گرفته شود

Financial threat, hardship and distress predict depression, anxiety and stress among the unemployed youths: a Bangladeshi multi-cities study

Introduction: Unemployment has a contributory role in the development of mental health problems and in Bangladesh there is increasing unemployment, particularly among youth. Consequently, the present study investigated depression, anxiety, and stress among recent graduates in a multi-city study across the country. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 988 Bangladeshi graduate jobseekers in six major cities of the country between August to November 2019. The measures included socio-demographics and life-style factors, study and job-related information, Economic Hardship Questionnaire, Financial Threat Scale, Financial Well-Being Scale, and Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-21. Results: Depression, anxiety and stress rates among the present sample were 81.1% (n=801), 61.5% (n=608) and 64.8% (n=640) respectively. Factors related to gender, age, socio-economic conditions, educational background, lack of extra-curricular activities, and high screen activity were significant risk factors of depression, anxiety, and stress. Structural equation modeling indicated that (while controlling for age, daily time spent on sleep study, and social media use), financial threat was moderately positively related to depression, anxiety, and stress. Financial hardship was weakly positively associated with depression, anxiety, and stress, whereas financial wellbeing was weakly negatively associated with depression, anxiety, and stress. Limitations: Due to the nature of the present study (i.e., cross-sectional study) and sampling method (i.e., convenience sampling), determining causality between the variables is not possible. Conclusions: The present results emphasized the important detrimental role of financial troubles on young people's mental health by showing that financial problems among unemployed youth predict elevated psychiatric distress in both men and women