Physical and mechanical properties of Oak (Quercus Persica) fruits

This research was conducted over one Iranian variety of Oak (Quercus Persica) with 70 observations. Physical and mechanical properties of oak are necessary for equipment used in activities such as transportation, storage, grading, packing etc. Properties which were measured include fruit dimensions, mass, volume, projected area, fruit density, geometric mean diameter, sphericity and surface area. Bulk density, porosity and also packing coefficient were measured. Experiments were carried out at Results showed that average mass and volume were 12.95 g and 10.27 mL, respectively. Dimensions increased from 41.85 to 61.09 mm in length, 14.45 to 25.02 mm in width and 14.42 to 24.38 mm in thickness. The mean projected area perpendicular to length, width and thickness obtained 433.91, 1085.48 and 1115.46 mm2, respectively. The geometric mean diameter and surface area were calculated as 27.638 mm and 2423.82 mm2, respectively, while sphericity was measured 51.78%. Elasticity modulus (E), maximum force which fruit can support (Fmax) and work which performed to this force have been determined

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

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

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

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

An overview of hepatitis B virus surface antigen secretion inhibitors

Current anti-hepatitis B virus (HBV) regimen do not meet ideal result due to emerging resistance strains, cytotoxicity, and unfavorable adverse effects. In chronic HBV infection, high rates of sub-viral particles (SVPs) bearing HBV surface antigen (HBsAg) is a major obstacle regarding to raise effective immune responses and subsequently virus clearance. Development of potent HBsAg secretion inhibitors would provide a better insight into HBV immunopathogenesis and therapy. Investigating new non-toxic HBsAg secretion inhibitors targeting either viral or cellular factors could restore the immune response to remove virally infected hepatocytes after inhibiting SVPs. In this study, we overview several classes of HBV inhibitors with focus on their limitations and advantages over anti-HBsAg secretion potential. © 2018 Mohebbi, Lorestani, Tahamtan, Kargar and Tabarraei

Viruses and long non-coding RNAs: implicating an evolutionary conserved region

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are a class of cellular transcripts, which are involved in various biological processes. There is conflicting data regarding to the origin of these non-coding molecules and lncRNAs are thought to be the origin of viral genome. Here we sought to find the homology between human lncRNAs and viruses. For this purpose, the lncRNAdb database was searched for human lncRNAs. The lncRNAs’ sequences were aligned with virus taxa using NCBI’s BLAST tool. The phylogenic study was performed with maximum-likelihood based algorithm. The database contains 152 human lncRNAs. As a result, 63 (41.44) of the lncRNAs have homologies with viruses. Of which, 50 (79.36) have homology with Stealth virus. Other viruses with homology to lncRNAs were nuclear integrating DNA/RNA viruses. Moreover, 35 of 64 (23.03) of cancer-associated lncRNAs have sequence homology with the same viruses. In phylogenetic analyses, lncRNAs with no homology to viruses were found to be the ancestor of those with homology to viruses and cancer-irrelevant lncRNAs were found to be the ancestor of cancer-related transcripts. In conclusion, lncRNAs could be the origin of nuclear integrating viruses and the nuclear integrating viruses may evolved from the non-coding regions. The results imply the role of lncRNAs with homology to viruses in human cancers. © 2018, Indian Virological Society

Advanced sequence optimization for the high efficient yield of human group A rotavirus VP6 recombinant protein in Escherichia coli and its use as immunogen

Rotavirus is the important etiological agents of infectious diarrhea among children under 5 years old. Rotaviruses are divided into 10 serogroups (A�J) and each group is based on genetic properties of major structural protein VP6. We designed a novel VP6 sequence optimization to increase the expression level of this protein. Numerous factors such as codon adaptation index, codon pair bias, and guanine-cytosine content were adapted based on Escherichia coli codon usage. In addition, the ribosome binding site (RBS) of pET-15b was redesigned by the RBS calculator and the secondary structure of VP6 messenger RNA was optimized in the whole length of the coding sequence. Various factors including isopropyl beta-d-thiogalactoside (IPTG) concentration, temperature, and induction time were analyzed for the optimization of the best expression in E. coli by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and western blotting. The recombinant VP6 (rVP6) protein was purified by the Ni-sepharose and then the hyperimmune sera were generated against rVP6 in rabbits. Among three different temperatures, IPTG concentrations, and postinductions, the level of rVP6 was higher at 37°C, 1 mM of IPTG, and 8 h, respectively. Also, the high expression level of rVP6 was obtained in the insoluble aggregate form (43.8 g/L). After purification, the yield of rVP6 was 10.83 g/L. The rVP6 specific antiserum was confirmed by both immunofluorescent and western blotting. The versatile sequence optimization was the reason to produce a high level of rVP6 compared to other reports and can potentially apply to produce cheaper commercial kits to diagnose serological tests and new rotavirus vaccines. © 2020 Wiley Periodicals LL