COVID-19 crisis: a time for practical assessment of hygienic principles observance

Simultaneously with COVID-19 pandemic, numerous protocols have been developed to prevent the infection. COVID-19 can be more fatal in the bone marrow transplant ward because patients admitted to these wards have a weakened immune system. Assessment of the protocol specified for this wards and practical evaluation of the hygienic principles observance by the medical staff during COVID-19 pandemic can be a step towards saving the lives of the patients. Coinciding with COVID-19 pandemic, 40 patients underwent bone marrow transplantation at Imam Reza Hospital of Kermanshah, Iran from February 2020 to June 2022. A follow-up program was performed to evaluate the possibility of COVID-19 transmission and the rate of hygiene practice by medical staff. The principles of hygienic protocols were scored as a questionnaire in which the observance/non-observance method were applied. Real time-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) based on three genes of the virus was used to diagnose the COVID-19 patients. The results of RT-PCR tests were negative in all patients who were hospitalised during the study. The rate of observance of the hygienic principles by the staff in the studied ward was 100%.The obtained result in the present study was a reflection of the step-by-step implementation of the hygienic protocol specified for bone marrow transplantation ward by the staff. The protocol specified for the bone marrow transplantation ward was highly overlapped with COVID-19 general hygienic guidelines

Evaluation of heavy metals concentration in strawberry (Case study: Agricultural lands of Sanandaj)

Contaminants are damaging factors of the ecosystems. Amongst, heavy metals are due to their toxicity, persistence and bio-accumulation are of great concern even in low concentrations. Kurdistan province with an annual production of 30,000 tons of strawberry produces 88 percent of the strawberry in Iran. In this study, 25 samples were obtained randomly from soil (depth of 0-30 cm), leaf and strawberry crop of all five existing farms located on the road of Sanandaj to Kamyaran. The samples were transported to laboratory and acid digestion was performed on the samples. Afterwards, the quantity of cadmium, arsenic, lead, zinc and copper were measured using atomic emission device. The results revealed that metal concentrations of cadmium, zinc and copper (0.01, 6.03, 13.67 mg/kg, respectively) were lower than the standards of FAO/WHO. Meanwhile the concentrations of heavy metals of arsenic and lead (36.88, 3.57 mg/kg, respectively) were higher than the defined standards (with 95% confidence level). It seems that the overuse of chemical fertilizers and pesticides is the main cause of heavy metal contaminations in the strawberry farms

Evaluation of heavy metal concentration in compost, soil cover and button mushroom in Kurdistan greenhouses

Heavy metal pollution is among the major problems of environmental and food safety concerns. This study investigated the concentration of heavy metals i. e., arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb), zinc (Zn) and copper (Cu) in mushroom crops produced in Kurdistan greenhouses. For this purpose, compost, mushroom crop and soil of four greenhouses with five repetitions for each sample were obtained. A total number of 60 sample was analyzed. The samples were digested using acid digestion method and the concentrations of the metals were determined by atomic emission technique. According to the results, average as concentrations in mushroom was estimated at 89.742 mg/kg, Cd 0.32 mg/kg, Cu 48.868 mg/kg, Pb 3.152 mg/kg and Zn 24.072 mg/kg. The findings showed that the mean concentrations of As, Pb and Cu in all mushroom samples were higher than WHO standards (0.5, 2 and 40 mg/kg for As, Cu and Pb, respectively). However, the concentrations of Zn and Cd in the mushroom samples were in the acceptable limit. Data showed that except for As, the concentrations of all elements in soil and compost samples were lower than the EPA standard. It was concluded that excessive application of chemical fertilizers had resulted in the increasing of heavy metal concentrations in the soil, compost and mushroom crops produced in Kurdistan greenhouses

The Effect of Oil Pollution on LathyrusSativus and Lens Culinaris with Potential of Phytoremediation

Oil pollution is a worldwide threat to the environment. The remediation of oil contaminated soils, sediments and water is a major challenge for environment. Phytoremediation is an emerging green technology that uses plants to remediate soil, sediment, surface water, and groundwater in environment which contaminated with toxic metal, organics, and radionuclide. In this study, some species of Fabaceae family were chosen and planted in different concentrations of oil pollution in soil, to identify the tolerant species. It was done in period of 40 days in Completely Randomized Design (CRD). The results showed the highest level of light crude contamination, which the plant is able to grow,is 8% with 3.3 cm for lathyrussativus species and 6% with 7cm for Lens culinaris. So among the studied species Lathyrussativus and Lens culinaris were tolerant species that could grow in high concentrations of oil pollution. These species can be suggested to phytoremediation of oil-polluted soils

Fabricating modified carbon sesame straw for adsorption of acetaminophen and ibuprofen from aqueous media: isotherm and kinetic models

As acetaminophen (ACT) and ibuprofen (IBP) have serious environmental impacts, despite their widespread use in many countries, the present research examined the effectiveness of activated carbon made from straw and sesame stubble in removing ACT and IBP from water. To that end, the as-synthesized adsorbent was functionalized using zinc chloride. The maximum adsorption capacities were found to be 51.7 mg g(-1) for ACT and 63.7 mg g(-1) for IBP. The adsorption kinetics and isotherm results showed that the pseudo-second-order (PSO) kinetics and Langmuir isotherm fit the data obtained from this study better than the other experimental models do. Also, the adsorption reached equilibrium within 120 min, and the optimal adsorbent dose and temperature were obtained as 1.0 mg and 25 degrees C, respectively. The mechanisms involved in the adsorption process would include acid-base, hydrogen bonding, electrostatic forces, and pi-pi interaction. Reusability studies revealed that the adsorbent still preserved about 89 and 82 of the adsorption performance for ACT and IBP, respectively, after seven repeated adsorption cycles. As the findings indicated, CSS/Zn could be accepted as a hopeful adsorbent to be used in pharmaceutical treatment

A comparative study of Vanadium and Nickel levels in muscles of male and female Indian white prawn (Fenneropenaeusindicus) in market Shiraz in 2011

This study was conducted to determine the concentration of Vanadium (V) and Nickel (Ni) in the edible muscle tissues in male and female Fenneropenaeusindicus. For determination of the concentration of heavy metals in muscle tissues of edible Indian prawn in Shiraz city in autumn of 2011, 120 samples have been obtained randomly from Shiraz retail. Preparation and analysis of samples were performed by standard method using Atomic Absorption (Varian V10-ES) and then the concentrations of the heavy metals were compared with the recommended international standard. In this study the mean concentration of V in muscle of male and female were estimated at 1.06 ± 0.64 and 0.76 ± 0.54  mgKg-1, respectively. However, the concentration of Ni in muscle of male and female was determined as 8.1 ± 1.173 and 9.1 ± 0.79 mgKg-1, respectively. The analysis of the data showed that the concentration of Ni in the muscle of male and female samples had significant difference (

Survey the Effect of Oil Pollution on Morphological Characteristics in Faba Vulgaris and Vicia Ervilia

Pollution results when a change in the environment harmfully affects the quality of human life including effect on animals, microorganisms and plants. Among the broad range of organic pollutants contaminating soil-water environment, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are of great environment concern. Oil contaminated soil will affect germination, plant height, leaf area and biomass production. The aim of this research was to elucidate effects of oil pollution on morphological characteristics in Fabaceae family. For this purpose species of Faba vulgaris and Vicia ervilia were planted in different concentrations of oil in soil. For morphological studies, studied species were removed from polluted and non polluted soils separately and some morphological characters were studied in these species, then these characters were compared in plants, collected from polluted and non polluted soil. Finally, the level of significance of these differences was elucidated by using of SPSS. Obtained results showed that oil pollution can cause some abnormalities in structure of vegetative parts in plants grown on polluted soils. Decreasing of plant length and stem diameter and changing the leaf shape was among the most important effects of oil on morphological characteristics in Faba vulgaris and Vicia ervilia

A Toxoplasma MORN1 null mutant undergoes repeated divisions but is defective in basal assembly, apicoplast division and cytokinesis.

The membrane occupation and recognition nexus protein 1 (MORN1) is highly conserved among apicomplexan parasites and is associated with several structures that have a role in cell division. Here we dissected the role of MORN1 using the relatively simple budding process of Toxoplasma gondii as a model. Ablation of MORN1 in a conditional null mutant resulted in pronounced defects suggesting a central role for MORN1 in apicoplast segregation and in daughter cell budding. Lack of MORN1 resulted in double-headed parasites. These Janus-headed parasites form two complete apical complexes but fail to assemble a basal complex. Moreover, these parasites were capable of undergoing several more budding rounds resulting in the formation of up to 16-headed parasites conjoined at the basal end. Despite this segregation defect, the mother's cytoskeleton was completely disassembled in every budding round. Overall this argues that successful completion of the budding is not required for cell cycle progression. None of the known basal complex components, including a set of recently identified inner membrane complex (IMC) proteins, localized correctly in these multi-headed parasites. These data suggest that MORN1 is essential for assembly of the basal complex, and that lack of the basal complex abolishes the contractile capacity assigned to the basal complex late in daughter formation. Consistent with this hypothesis we observe that MORN1 mutants fail to efficiently constrict and divide the apicoplast. We used the null background provided by the mutant to dissect the function of subdomains of the MORN1 protein. This demonstrated that deletion of a single MORN domain already prevented the function of MORN1 whereas a critical role for the short linker between MORN domains 6 and 7 was identified. In conclusion, MORN1 is required for basal complex assembly and loss of MORN1 results in defects in apicoplast division and daughter segregation