Extremal Tri-Cyclic Graphs with respect to the First and Second Zagreb Indices

In this paper, the first and second maximum values of the first and second Zagreb indices of $n-$vertex tri-cyclic graphs are obtained

Economic Growth and Internet Usage Impact on Publication Productivity among ASEAN’s and World’s Best Universities

Measuring the number of papers which are published each year, publication productivity is the factor which shows the reputation of universities and countries. However, the effect of growing economy and using internet on the publication productivity in Asian countries has not been discovered yet. The present research is going to figure out the publication productivity among the elite universities in Asian countries and also ten top universities around the world in the last twenty years (from 1993 to 2012). Furthermore, the current research is aimed to study the relationship among publication, gross domestic product (GDP) and internet usage. It is worth to mention that the publication of the top Ten Malaysian Universities was regarded for the similar period of time. To get the exact numbers of documents like papers, conference articles, review papers and letters which are published by the universities in the last twenty years, the writer of the same paper used the Science Direct database. Moreover, the data for GDP and the number of internet usage was collected through the World Bank database (World Data Bank).To compare all kinds of publications,one-way ANOVA was used and to investigate the impact of economic growth and internet usage on publication productivity, multiple regression analysis was applied.The results showed that the rate of publication growth was 1.9, 20.9, and 65.5 in top universities in the world, ASEAN countries and Malaysia, respectively.The results also showed that there was a positive and significant correlation between GDP and the number of internet users with the number of publications in ASEAN and Malaysian universities. Internet usage had much more influence in comparison with the GDP in predicting the number of publications among these groups except for top ten Malaysian universities from 2003 to 2012. In summary, publication trends in top ten Malaysian and ASEAN universities are promising. However, policy makers and science managers should spend much more percentage of their GDP on Internet facilities and research studies that their outputs lead to more rapid economic growth and internet usage

Inhibitory effects of β-cyclodextrin and trehalose on nanofibril and AGE formation during glycation of human serum albumin

The effects of β-cyclodextrin (β-CyD) and trehalose on glycation of human serum albumin (HSA) were studied. These additives reduced AGEs and nanofibril formation of HSA under in vitro glycation conditions and improved its helical structure. These were accomplished through direct interactions of them with HSA and alterations in solute-protein interactions

Effect of Caffeic Acid and Low-Power Laser Light Co-Exposure on Viability of Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Background: The resistance of Pseudomonas aeruginosa to antibiotics is a big problem, especially in burns and wound infections. Laser irradiation affects microorganisms by denaturing their proteins, which involves changes in the chemical or physical properties of the protein. Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of caffeic acid and low-power laser light co-exposure on Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolated from burn wounds. Materials and Methods: Ten bacterial samples were collected from patients with burn wound infections at Shahid Motahhari medical center of Tehran. The He-Ne laser was used in this study with output power of 2 mW. Results: The data significantly indicated that both the caffeic acid and laser treatment alone reduced the number of colony-forming units compared to control cultures. Co-exposure of bacterial suspensions to caffeic acid and laser at three time points showed the following number of colony-forming units 240.23 ± 60.15, 148.13 ± 52.66 and 84.57 ± 35, respectively. The best concentrations of caffeic acid to achieve countable colonies were 1.5 and 1.75 mM. At the concentration of 1.5 mM of caffeic acid, the number of colonies significantly reduced to 280.78 ± 59 (P = 0.008) while at 1.75 mM the number of colonies reduced to 234.07 ± 72.28 (P = 0.0001). Conclusions: Caffeic acid treatment reduced bacterial growth and resulted in a decreased number of colony formation. The simultaneous effect of caffeic acid and laser at three time courses showed a synergic effect in reducing colony formation compared to the control and caffeic acid, and laser alone

The Effect of International Sanctions on the Size of the Middle Class in Iran

This study examines the impact of international economic sanctions, imposed on Iran due to its nuclear program, on the development of the middle class. Specifically, it investigates how the middle class in Iran would have developed in the absence of these sanctions post-2012. To address this question, we employ a synthetic control model to create a counterfactual scenario for Iran, using a weighted average of other comparable countries that mirror pre-sanction Iran, but did not experience significant international sanctions. By comparing the middle-class size of this counterfactual Iran with the actual Iran that faced major economic sanctions, our results indicate that the annual middle-class size would have been approximately 11 percentage points larger, on average, without the post-2012 sanctions. Our findings are robust across various tests, including placebo tests and synthetic difference-in-difference analyses. The latter analysis shows that the estimated average effect of sanctions on the middle-class size of Iran from 2012 to 2019 is highly statistically significant. Finally, we provide evidence on the relevance of real GDP per capita and merchandise imports as key selected channels through which sanctions negatively affect the size of the middle class