Role of the BANYULS(BAN) Gene from Arabidopsis Thaliana in Transgenic Alfalfa Expression of Anthocyanins and Proanthocyanidins

Condensed tannins (CTs) are flavonoid oligomers, many of which have beneficial effects on animal (bloat safe) and human health. The BAN gene encodes anthocyanidin reductase (ANR), an enzyme proposed to convert anthocyanidins to their corresponding 2,3-cis-flavan-3-ols (Xie et al., 2003). Ectopic expression of BAN in Alfalfa transgenic foliage results in accumulation of CTs. Thus, it has been assumed that the BAN gene also acts in starter units for the condensation of tannins in Alfalfa

Investigating the challenges of biodiversity management of Sefidkuh Khoramabad protected area by using the Delphi method

The main source of economic and agricultural development of all countries is natural resources. The dependency of local communities on natural resources and protected areas, and the excessive exploitation of forests and pastures and wildlife, has led to the destruction and degradation of biodiversity. The basis of managing protected areas in Iran is based on protection, research, training and entertaining, but in reality, protection is only limited to one fifth of these areas, which are safe. There is no management on the surrounding lands (the danger of islandization). Therefore, the purpose of this study is to identify and investigate the challenges of biodiversity management of Sefidkuh Khoramabad Protected Area by using Delphi method. This is a descriptive-analytic study. Thus, after identifying the available biodiversity and field visits and identifying the threats in the region, questionnaires were designed by experts regarding the Likert scale and were given to experts and specialists.The questions were answered by the experts and were analyzed by SPSS Software, the answers were prioritized by regression and descriptive analysis of existing threats and explained its relationship with four research variables (academic degree, familiarity with the region, job and employee of the organization). Then, this priority was organized as a questionnaire, and was given to the expert for final approval and identification of the main threats. Finally, some suggestions and recommendations are given.Keywords: Biodiversity, Challenges, Protected Areas, Sefidkouh, Prioritizatio

Investigating the effects of heavy metals in the waste leachate on the groundwater quality near the landfill (case study: Landfill of Saravan, Rasht)

The main and fundamental scientific reason of scientific community attention to the issue of leachate pollution and its treatment is the possible danger of contamination of water, soil and to some extent air. The reason is that the leachate of landfill in fact is acomplex waste withhigh pollution. Today, in our country, especially in northern areas due to high groundwater levels, the problem of waste disposal and the effects of their leachate entering alluvial groundwater and aquifer contamination downstream based on hydrodynamic thickness in the movement of water is highly regarded andentering a considerable amount of pollution (nitrates, heavy metals, etc.) to underground water sources used for drinking and agriculture, in the long term become a social problem. Saravan landfill is located on 15 km road Rasht of to Tehran is like a black spot in the in the green Hyrcanian forest and receives more than 500 tons of waste daily from provinces cities,particularly Rasht which with no environmental assessment for selected waste disposal, waste disposal is inadequate in Saravan and because of evaporation, fermentation and decomposition of the waste and leachate percolation into the soil and water resources it is associated with high pollution and unleashed leachate river in the heart of nature and based on the ranking of Index criteria it is unacceptable. In this study, sampling was conducted in 2 upstream wells, 3 downstream wells of Saravan landfill then the samples were analyzed by atomic absorption.  The results indicate the presence of heavy metals (chromium - lead – zinc -iron - manganese) in water of downstream wells of the landfill compared to upstream wells and the control wells or in other words, it was significantly more than the control and upstream wells and the average concentrations of Pb, Cr, MN, Fe higher than drinking water standards and the mean concentration of MN and Cr in the research water wells was more than standard water for irrigation and agricultural. It shows the leachate percolation into soil and ground water that has been polluted the nearby water of the landfill.Keywords: Groundwater, Landfill, Leachate, Heavy Metals, Sarava

Development of constitutive model for precast prestressed concrete segmental columns

The interest of using precast segmental columns in construction of concrete bridges has significantly increased in recent years. One research area of concrete bridges is the application of Precast Prestressed Concrete Segmental (PPCS) Column in any structural analysis software or FE program code. Modeling a PPCS column, which consists of various materials with interaction between them, is complicated and time-consuming. This research attempts to formulate the stiffness matrix of PPCS columns in order to form the constitutive model in linear form to evaluate the response of the columns. A two-dimensional finite element model is presented in the finite element package ANSYS. Parametric studies are conducted by finite element models to verify the constitutive models for the PPCS column with a different number of concrete segments. Comparison between the constitutive model and the FE program results indicates that the constitutive model is accurate enough to predict the deformation of the PPCS columns

Laboratory Evaluation of Five Chitin Synthesis Inhibitors Against the Colorado Potato Beetle, Leptinotarsa decemlineata

Results of laboratory experiments are reported that tested the effects of five chitin synthesis inhibitors, diflubenzuron, cyromazine, lufenuron, hexaflumuron and triflumuron. on second instars of the Colorado potato beetle, Leptinotarsa decemlineata (Say) (Coleoptera: Crysomelidae), originally collected from potato fields of Bostanabaad, a town 66 km southeast of Tabriz, Iran. In bioassays, the larvae were fed potato leaves dipped in aqueous solutions containing chitin synthesis inhibitors. The mortalities and abnormalities of the treated larvae were recorded 72 hours after treatments. LC50 values were 58.6, 69.6, 27.3, 0.79 and 81.4 mg ai/ L for diflubenzuron, cyromazine, lufenuron, hexaflumuron and triflumuron, respectively. Compared with phosalone, which is one of the common insecticides used for controlling this pest in Iran, lufenuron and hexaflumuron seem to be much more potent, and if they perform equally well in the field, they would be suitable candidates to be considered as reduced risk insecticides in management programs for L. decemlineata due to much wider margin of safety for mammals and considerably fewer undesirable environmental side effects

Comparison of three different therapies for cutaneous leishmaniasis and identification of the etiologic isolates in Isfahan, Iran

Background: In Iran, zoonotic and anthroponotic cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) are caused by Leishmania major and L. tropica respectively. Despite extensive studies, no effective therapies have ever been reported for CL. The main objective of this research was to determine and compare the three different protocols for treatment of CL patients referring to Skin Diseases and Leishmaniasis Research Center (SDLRC), affiliated to Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran from September 2017 to October 2018. Methods: In a randomized controlled parallel groups clinical trial, 150 selected CL patients who met our inclusion criteria were randomly assigned to one of the three therapy groups: A, intra-lesional glucantime plus 50 trichloroacetic acid (TCA), B, intra-lesional glucantime and C, systemic glucantime. All patients in the three groups received the complete course of treatment and were followed for 6 months. To identify the etiologic agents, smears from their lesions were prepared and PCR-RFLP was used after parasite culture. Also, clinical characteristics, history of previous involvement, endemic emigration and demographic data were collected. Results: The results showed that the mean value of healing period was 53.12 ± 25.88 (median: 45, IQR: Q1 = 30-Q3 = 77) days in group A, 57.22 ± 44.02 (median: 42.5, IQR: Q1 = 30-Q3 = 60) days in group B, and 73.56 ± 41.08 (median: 71, IQR: Q1 = 45-Q3 = 90) days in group C; the observed differences were statistically significant (P = 0.024). There was a significant difference between group A and group C (P = 0.049), and between group B and group C (P = 0.047) in terms of mean healing period. Finally, complete recovery rates of 80, 62 and 42 were shown in the three medicinal groups of A, B and C, respectively (P = 0.022). Conclusion: In this study, the average duration of lesion healing among the three groups was the shortest in patients with IL glucantime plus 50 TCA treatment regimen. Also, the use of 50 TCA in patients suffering from CL was associated with a significant improvement in the depth of scars, the time and the percentage of recovery, and the low cost of this agent in the treatment of CL. © 2020 Academy of Medical Sciences of I.R. Iran. All rights reserved

Female Dental Student’s Perception of Their Dental Aesthetics and Desired Dental Treatment

Objectives: This study aims to assess the self-perception of female dental students of their dental aesthetics regarding their satisfaction, its effect on their quality of life and felt need for treatment. Materials and Method: This is a descriptive study for 1st, 2nd and 3rd year dental students (n=110) in the College of Dentistry at Princess Nourah University (PNU). The survey was distributed via link "Google form". A 20 item questionnaire was prepared and tested before on seven students for clarity. Questions were regarding how students feel about their dental aesthetics and what they desire for treatment. Whether they felt their teeth affected their attractiveness, confidence and quality of life. Data was entered in SPSS for statistical analysis. Results: With a response rate of 94.5% majority (89.4%) of students felt their teeth affected the attractiveness of their faces. Almost one third (30.8%) have tried to hide their smile. Around half (51%) were not satisfied with their tooth colour. Almost two thirds of students (61.5%) felt their quality of life is affected by the appearance of their teeth. ‘Tooth whitening’ was selected by almost two thirds of students (64.4%) followed by almost half (46.2%) the students wanting ‘orthodontic treatment’. Conclusion: Dental aesthetics is rated highly among female dental students.The majority of the students felt that their teeth affected the attractiveness of their face and influenced their quality of life. Students desired teeth whiteneing followed by orthodontic treatment as their perceived need for aesthetic dental treatments

Force of light on a two-level atom near an ultrathin optical fiber

We study the force of light on a two-level atom near an ultrathin optical fiber using the mode function method and the Green tensor technique. We show that the total force consists of the driving-field force, the spontaneous-emission recoil force, and the fiber-induced van der Waals potential force. Due to the existence of a nonzero axial component of the field in a guided mode, the Rabi frequency and, hence, the magnitude of the force of the guided driving field may depend on the propagation direction. When the atomic dipole rotates in the meridional plane, the spontaneous-emission recoil force may arise as a result of the asymmetric spontaneous emission with respect to opposite propagation directions. The van der Waals potential for the atom in the ground state is off-resonant and opposite to the off-resonant part of the van der Waals potential for the atom in the excited state. Unlike the potential for the ground state, the potential for the excited state may oscillate depending on the distance from the atom to the fiber surface

Integrating a suicide prevention program into the primary health care network: A field trial study in Iran

Objective. To describe and evaluate the feasibility of integrating a suicide prevention program with Primary Health Care services and evaluate if such system can improve screening and identification of depressive disorder, reduce number of suicide attempters, and lower rate of suicide completion. Methodology. This was a quasi-experimental trial in which one community was exposed to the intervention versus the control community with no such exposure. The study sites were two counties in Western Iran. The intervention protocol called for primary care and suicide prevention collaboration at different levels of care. The outcome variables were the number of suicides committed, the number of documented suicide attempts, and the number of identified depressed cases. Results. We identified a higher prevalence of depressive disorders in the intervention site versus the control site (� 2 = 14.8, P < 0.001). We also found a reduction in the rate of suicide completion in the intervention region compared to the control, but a higher prevalence of suicide attempts in both the intervention and the control sites. Conclusion. Integrating a suicide prevention program with the Primary Health Care network enhanced depression and suicide surveillance capacity and subsequently reduced the number of suicides, especially in rural areas. © 2015 Seyed Kazem Malakouti et al