Modeling the Impact of Citizens' Social Responsibility on Sustainable Development Based on the Modifying Role of the COVID-19 Pandemic

In light of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, there is a strong correlation between citizens' social responsibility (SR) and sustainable development (SD). Accordingly, the present study aimed to model the impact of citizens' SR on SD concerning the modifying role of the COVID-19 pandemic. To this end, the data were collected from two target groups, namely, elites (viz. experts and professionals) (n=15) and the citizens of Tehran, Iran (n=384), through a questionnaire. The research model was also designed based on expert opinions, using the Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS), type-II fuzzy logic, and ELECTRE III, and then modified. The given model was subsequently examined by the partial least squares regression (PLS regression). Results showed that if citizens' SR is elevated by about one-unit, social justice, sustainable economy, and stable environment would be augmented by 0.693, 0.735, and 0.583 units, respectively. SD would also grow by 0.485, 0.948, and 0.743 units if social justice, sustainable economy, and sustainable environment increased by one unit. Consequently, the results of the present study confirm the mechanism of the impact of citizens' SR on SD

Prevalence of Nocturnal Enuresis in School-age Children in Rafsanjan

Introduction: Nocturnal enuresis is an important developmental problem for school age children and it can cause emotional and social problems for children and their families. This study was aimed to determine the prevalence of enuresis in school children aged 6-8 years in Rafsanjan, Iran, during 2014.Material and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 1080 school children aged 6-8 were selected using a random cluster sampling method. Questionnaires were distributed among the children to be answered by their parents.Results: The overall prevalence of nocturnal enuresis was10.6% (CI 95%: 8.76 – 12.44); 91.3 % of them had primary and 8.7% had secondary nocturnal enuresis. Prevalence in girls and boys were 8.44% and 12.3% respectively. Factors such as parental education, family income, and age were significantly associated with nocturnal enuresis.Conclusions: The results showed that the prevalence of nocturnal enuresis in our study is average. Since a minority of families seek medical advice and treatment for their children, family education and awareness is essential in this regard.Keywords: Nocturnal enuresis, Child, Prevalence, School

C-Terminal Domain Deletion Enhances the Protective Activity of cpa/cpb Loaded Solid Lipid Nanoparticles against Leishmania major in BALB/c Mice

Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is the most common form of leishmaniasis with an annual incidence of approximately 2 million cases and is endemic in 88 countries, including Iran. CL's continued spread, along with rather ineffectual treatments and drug-resistant variants emergence has increased the need for advanced preventive strategies. We studied Type II cysteine proteinase (CPA) and Type I (CPB) with its C-terminal extension (CTE) as cocktail DNA vaccine against murine and canine leishmaniasis. However, adjuvants' success in enhancing immune responses to selected antigens led us to refocus our vaccine development programs. Herein, we discuss cationic solid lipid nanoparticles' (cSLN) ability to improve vaccine-induced protective efficacy against CL and subsequent lesion size and parasite load reduction in BALB/c mice. For this work, we evaluated five different conventional as well as novel parasite detection techniques, i.e., footpad imaging, footpad flowcytometry and lymph node flowcytometry for disease progression assessments. Vaccination with cSLN-cpa/cpb-CTE formulation showed highest parasite inhibition at 3-month post vaccination. Immunized mice showed reduced IL-5 level and significant IFN-ã increase, compared to control groups. We think our study represents a potential future and a major step forward in vaccine development against leishmaniasis

Rice Waste and Tillage Management in Guilan Rice Paddy Fields: An Essential Approach to Sustainable Agricultural Management

One of the major contributors to air pollution, soil environmental degradations and health risks in paddy fields is the production of high volumes of rice growing activities’ wastes. Poorly managed rice husk and straw (such as burning) can be problematic since they threaten rice -based cropping system and farmers’ economy. One promising approach to decrease their negative effects is to use alternative managerial practices to guaranty both food security and sustainable agriculture and to address waste management issues. Currently, the burning rice wastes burning and off season’s tillage are two hot topics that is of interest to numerous agricultural researchers. The main purpose of this study was to explore the effects of rice residues burning on a number of crucial paddy soil chemical and physical characters, rice yield and yield component, rice pests, diseases, and common weeds populations. The current one -year field experiment was carried out in five factors factorial arrangement in a randomized complete block design with three replications. The treatments were tillage methods at three levels (non-plowing, autumn plowing, and winter plowing), and crop residues’ management at two levels (residues burning and residues conservation). The chemical (Total N, Zn content and OC %) and physical (infiltration rate) properties of paddy soil were significantly affected by residual management (p <0.05), except bulk density. The initial soil organic carbon percentage (2.18%) and consequently initial infiltration rate (2.04) increased at the conservative management of the residues in combination with plowing by around 0.51 percent, 2.69 and 2.81, respectively. Furthermore, the 1000 grains weight and filled grains weight were increased by abovementioned treatments by around 8 and 9percent, respectively. The rate of emergence of rice stem borer was negatively affected by winter and autumn plowing more than 4 times, with non- significant difference between winter and autumn plowing. The applied treatments had not any significant effect on studied rice weed populations, except weed 1 that tillage management caused a decrease about 2 times in its population. The applied treatments (alone and/or in combination) not only can certainly contribute to the reduction of rice weed, pest and disease populations but also strongly recommend to improve some important soil physical and chemical properties

Designed Amino Acid Feed in Improvement of Production and Quality Targets of a Therapeutic Monoclonal Antibody

<div><p>Cell culture feeds optimization is a critical step in process development of pharmaceutical recombinant protein production. Amino acids are the basic supplements of mammalian cell culture feeds with known effect on their growth promotion and productivity. In this study, we reported the implementation of the Plackett-Burman (PB) multifactorial design to screen the effects of amino acids on the growth promotion and productivity of a Chinese hamster ovary DG-44 (CHO-DG44) cell line producing bevacizumab. After this screening, the amino acid combinations were optimized by the response surface methodology (RSM) to determine the most effective concentration in feeds. Through this strategy, the final monoclonal antibody (mAb) titre was enhanced by 70%, compared to the control group. For this particular cell line, aspartic acid, glutamic acid, arginine and glycine had the highest positive effects on the final mAb titre. Simultaneously, the impact of the designed amino acid feed on some critical quality attributes of bevacizumab was examined in the group with highest productivity. The product was analysed for N-glycan profiles, charge variant distribution, and low molecular weight forms. The results showed that the target product quality has been improved using this feeding strategy. It was shown how this strategy could significantly diminish the time and number of experiments in identifying the most effective amino acids and related concentrations in target product enhancement. This model could be successfully applied to other components of culture media and feeds.</p></div

ANOVA results for Plackett-Burman analysis for the IVCC response.

<p>ANOVA results for Plackett-Burman analysis for the IVCC response.</p

Charge heterogeneity profiling of bevacizumab in control and designed amino acid feed groups.

<p>Charge heterogeneity profiling of bevacizumab in control and designed amino acid feed groups.</p

Box-Bencken design matrix, the low level used in the design (–1) was the same as the higher level used in the Plackett-Burman design.

<p>The middle and high levels (0 and +1) were respectively 25% and 50% higher than the low levels.</p

ANOVA results for Plackett-Burman analysis for the final mAb titre response

<p>ANOVA results for Plackett-Burman analysis for the final mAb titre response</p