Effect of four powdered spices as repellents against adults of Rhyzopertha dominica (F.), Sitophilus granarius (L.) and Tribolium castaneum (Herbst) in laboratory conditions

Studies were conducted to test the repellency of four powdered spices, black pepper (Piper nigrum.), chili pepper (Capsicum annuum), cinnamon (Cinnamomum aromaticum) and turmeric (Curcuma longa), against three stored-product insects, the lesser grain borer, Rhyzopertha dominica, the granary weevil, Sitophilus granarius and the red flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum. The cup bioassay technique was used, to determine the response of insects to potential repellents by measuring their movement from treated grain. The device is made of galvanized screening with 2 mm perforations shaped into a cylinder of 6 cm diameter and 15 cm high, with a mesh bottom, and is placed in the centre portion of plastic container of 15 cm diameter and 15 cm high. The powdered spices were poured into 200 g of wheat mass by a long-stemmed funnel at concentrations of 0, 0.25, 0.75, 1.5 and 2.5% on (w/w) basis. Twenty adults of three species are released into the centre of the grain mass in the container through a long-stemmed funnel. The experiments were conducted at room conditions. The number of trapped insects was determined at 3 different intervals after the introduction of the insects. Results showed that all tested plant powders had repellent activity against the three stored-product insects. Adults of S. granarius repelled faster, followed by T. castaneum and R. dominica. At the highest concentrations and intervals, wheat grains treated with cinnamon powder were the most repellent to adults of S. granarius (up to 92.5% after 1 h), followed by chili pepper treatment for T. castaneum (up to 72.5% after 6 h) and black pepper treatment for R. dominica(up to 58.75% after 24 h).Keywords: Repellency, Spices, Rhyzopertha dominica, Sitophilus granarius, Tribolium castaneu

First report of Quaternary mammals from the Qalehjough area, Lut Desert, Eastern Iran

Taxonomic study of Quaternary mammal remains from the Qalehjough fossil site, eastern Iran, has resulted in the identification of two mammal orders, Artiodactyla and Perissodactyla, with four families and six taxa. Of particular note was the recovery of Stephanorhinus and a caballoid horse. These remains have provided the first opportunity to examine Late Quaternary faunal assemblages in the northern parts of the Lut Desert, eastern Iran. The Qalehjough faunal assemblage documents some zoogeographic characteristics of the eastern Iranian Plateau, and suggests that palaeoenvironments in this part of Iran during the Pleistocene were more humid and wooded than today. The disappearance of rhinoceroses and caballoid horses from this region is most likely a result of climate change and concomitant habitat loss

Parametric and semi parametric survival analysis of patients with lung cancer

Introduction: The lung cancer is the third cause of death and also one of the five common cancers in Iran. In this study, the efficiency of semi-parametric Cox models and Weibull parametric models in order to evaluate the effective factors of survival time of patients with lung cancer were investigated. Materials and Methods: This study was a prospective-cohort study in which the total number of 228 patients with lung cancer followed up from 1991-2007 and necessary information such as age at the time of diagnosis, gender, place of residence, education, residence status smoking, family history of cancer, province were collected from Babol cancer registry center. Then, these added to cox and weibull models as demographic factors. Akaike information criterion (AIC) was used to compare the efficiency of competing models. Results: In this study, 75 of cases were men and only 8 of patients survived until the end of the study. The 1, 3, and 5- year survival rates were 13, 8 and 8 respectively. Among the factors studied in the weibull model, the effect of smoking on survival time was significant (p0.05). However, AIC suggested higher efficiency for parametric Weibull model. Conclusion: In spite of the importance of the cox model is as a more common method by researchers, this study showed that the weibull model is more efficient in survival data analysis. According to the results of this study smoking prevention is necessary to increase the longevity of patients with lung cancer. © 2017, Semnan University of Medical Sciences. All rights reserved

Parametric and semi parametric survival analysis of patients with lung cancer

Introduction: The lung cancer is the third cause of death and also one of the five common cancers in Iran. In this study, the efficiency of semi-parametric Cox models and Weibull parametric models in order to evaluate the effective factors of survival time of patients with lung cancer were investigated. Materials and Methods: This study was a prospective-cohort study in which the total number of 228 patients with lung cancer followed up from 1991-2007 and necessary information such as age at the time of diagnosis, gender, place of residence, education, residence status smoking, family history of cancer, province were collected from Babol cancer registry center. Then, these added to cox and weibull models as demographic factors. Akaike information criterion (AIC) was used to compare the efficiency of competing models. Results: In this study, 75 of cases were men and only 8 of patients survived until the end of the study. The 1, 3, and 5- year survival rates were 13, 8 and 8 respectively. Among the factors studied in the weibull model, the effect of smoking on survival time was significant (p0.05). However, AIC suggested higher efficiency for parametric Weibull model. Conclusion: In spite of the importance of the cox model is as a more common method by researchers, this study showed that the weibull model is more efficient in survival data analysis. According to the results of this study smoking prevention is necessary to increase the longevity of patients with lung cancer. © 2017, Semnan University of Medical Sciences. All rights reserved

Validity and Reliability of the Persian Version of the Food Thought Suppression Inventory for Obese University Students

Objectives: To determine the validity and reliability of the Persian version of the Food Thought Suppression Inventory (FTSI) in overweight university students in Iran. Methods: A sample of 233 overweight students were recruited from five universities in Tehran. Participants were asked to complete the Persian versions of FTSI, Binge Eating Scale, Thought Control Questionnaire, Rumination Response Scale, and Dutch Eating Behaviour Questionnaire. Sociodemographic characteristics of participants were also collected. Results: Validity of the Persian version of the FTSI was verified by the fitting indices of the proposed single-factor model of the main makers (Χ2= 112.75, df = 90, p = 0.052, Χ2/df = 1.25, goodness-of-fit index = 0.93, comparative fit index = 0.96, non-normed fitness index = 0.96, root mean score of error approximation = 0.032, and standardised root mean residual = 0.052). Internal consistency of the instrument was high, with a Cronbach's alpha of 0.88. Conclusion: The Persian version of the FTSI is a valid and reliable tool for screening patients in obesity clinics and for evaluating treatment outcomes. © 2020 Hong Kong Academy of Medicine Press. All rights reserved

Enhanced Self Assembled Monolayer Surface Coverage by ALD NiO in p i n Perovskite Solar Cells

Metal halide perovskites have attracted tremendous attention due to their excellent electronic properties. Recent advancements in device performance and stability of perovskite solar cells PSCs have been achieved with the application of self assembled monolayers SAMs , serving as stand alone hole transport layers in the p i n architecture. Specifically, phosphonic acid SAMs, directly functionalizing indium tin oxide ITO , are presently adopted for highly efficient devices. Despite their successes, so far, little is known about the surface coverage of SAMs on ITO used in PSCs application, which can affect the device performance, as non covered areas can result in shunting or low open circuit voltage. In this study, we investigate the surface coverage of SAMs on ITO and observe that the SAM of MeO 2PACz [2 3,6 dimethoxy 9H carbazol 9 yl ethyl]phosphonic acid inhomogeneously covers the ITO substrate. Instead, when adopting an intermediate layer of NiO between ITO and the SAM, the homogeneity, and hence the surface coverage of the SAM, improve. In this work, NiO is processed by plasma assisted atomic layer deposition ALD with Ni MeCp 2 as the precursor and O2 plasma as the co reactant. Specifically, the presence of ALD NiO leads to a homogeneous distribution of SAM molecules on the metal oxide area, accompanied by a high shunt resistance in the devices with respect to those with SAM directly processed on ITO. At the same time, the SAM is key to the improvement of the open circuit voltage of NiO MeO 2PACz devices compared to those with NiO alone. Thus, the combination of NiO and SAM results in a narrower distribution of device performance reaching a more than 20 efficient champion device. The enhancement of SAM coverage in the presence of NiO is corroborated by several characterization techniques including advanced imaging by transmission electron microscopy TEM , elemental composition quantification by Rutherford backscattering spectrometry RBS , and conductive atomic force microscopy c AFM mapping. We believe this finding will further promote the usage of phosphonic acid based SAM molecules in perovskite P

Interpretable machine learning models for classifying low back pain status using functional physiological variables.

PURPOSE:To evaluate the predictive performance of statistical models which distinguishes different low back pain (LBP) sub-types and healthy controls, using as input predictors the time-varying signals of electromyographic and kinematic variables, collected during low-load lifting. METHODS:Motion capture with electromyography (EMG) assessment was performed on 49 participants [healthy control (con) = 16, remission LBP (rmLBP) = 16, current LBP (LBP) = 17], whilst performing a low-load lifting task, to extract a total of 40 predictors (kinematic and electromyographic variables). Three statistical models were developed using functional data boosting (FDboost), for binary classification of LBP statuses (model 1: con vs. LBP; model 2: con vs. rmLBP; model 3: rmLBP vs. LBP). After removing collinear predictors (i.e. a correlation of > 0.7 with other predictors) and inclusion of the covariate sex, 31 predictors were included for fitting model 1, 31 predictors for model 2, and 32 predictors for model 3. RESULTS:Seven EMG predictors were selected in model 1 (area under the receiver operator curve [AUC] of 90.4%), nine predictors in model 2 (AUC of 91.2%), and seven predictors in model 3 (AUC of 96.7%). The most influential predictor was the biceps femoris muscle (peak [Formula: see text]  = 0.047) in model 1, the deltoid muscle (peak [Formula: see text] =  0.052) in model 2, and the iliocostalis muscle (peak [Formula: see text] =  0.16) in model 3. CONCLUSION:The ability to transform time-varying physiological differences into clinical differences could be used in future prospective prognostic research to identify the dominant movement impairments that drive the increased risk. These slides can be retrieved under Electronic Supplementary Material

IL28B, HLA-C, and KIR Variants Additively Predict Response to Therapy in Chronic Hepatitis C Virus Infection in a European Cohort: A Cross-Sectional Study

Vijayaprakash Suppiah and colleagues show that genotyping hepatitis C patients for the IL28B, HLA-C, and KIR genes improves the ability to predict whether or not patients will respond to antiviral treatment

An open-access database and analysis tool for perovskite solar cells based on the FAIR data principles

Large datasets are now ubiquitous as technology enables higher-throughput experiments, but rarely can a research field truly benefit from the research data generated due to inconsistent formatting, undocumented storage or improper dissemination. Here we extract all the meaningful device data from peer-reviewed papers on metal-halide perovskite solar cells published so far and make them available in a database. We collect data from over 42,400 photovoltaic devices with up to 100 parameters per device. We then develop open-source and accessible procedures to analyse the data, providing examples of insights that can be gleaned from the analysis of a large dataset. The database, graphics and analysis tools are made available to the community and will continue to evolve as an open-source initiative. This approach of extensively capturing the progress of an entire field, including sorting, interactive exploration and graphical representation of the data, will be applicable to many fields in materials science, engineering and biosciences

T cell cytolytic capacity is independent of initial stimulation strength.

How cells respond to myriad stimuli with finite signaling machinery is central to immunology. In naive T cells, the inherent effect of ligand strength on activation pathways and endpoints has remained controversial, confounded by environmental fluctuations and intercellular variability within populations. Here we studied how ligand potency affected the activation of CD8+ T cells in vitro, through the use of genome-wide RNA, multi-dimensional protein and functional measurements in single cells. Our data revealed that strong ligands drove more efficient and uniform activation than did weak ligands, but all activated cells were fully cytolytic. Notably, activation followed the same transcriptional pathways regardless of ligand potency. Thus, stimulation strength did not intrinsically dictate the T cell-activation route or phenotype; instead, it controlled how rapidly and simultaneously the cells initiated activation, allowing limited machinery to elicit wide-ranging responses