Evaluating the Effects of Fertilizers on Bioavailable Metallic Pollution of soils, Case study of Sistan farms,

ABSTRACT: Present study determines not only the total amounts of metals (Cr, Cu and Pb) in superficial agricultural soil of Sistan area in Eastern Iran, but also the chemical partitioning of these elements in seven statistically selected cases. The analysis was run for local soil, soil treated by non-contaminated organic, compost and chemical fertilizers as well as soil treated by metal-contaminated fertilizers. The sampling campaign was done in Zabol University research farm in 2009. The grab samples were taken from seven different cases, the chemical partitioning analysis was performed and metallic concentrations were detected using FAAS. It may be concluded that the bioaccessibility of metals Cu and Cr would be increased in case of imposed contamination where the soil is treated with all three kinds of fertilizers. Although a relatively similar distribution pattern is seen between anthropogenic and geopogenic portions of bulk concentration in all three kinds of fertilizers, chemical fertilizer seems to manifest a more risky condition. According to the results achieved by cluster analysis, a close correlation exists between Cu and Cr behavior which may be attributed to the geological texture of the study area. In accordance with the results gained by partitioning analysis, I POLL index values also show contaminated chemical fertilizer as the most risky case for all three metals in comparison with others

Repurposing anthelmintic agents to eradicate resistant leukemia

Despite rapid progress in genomic profiling in acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), identification of actionable targets and prediction of response to drugs remains challenging. To identify specific vulnerabilities in ALL, we performed a drug screen using primary human ALL samples cultured in a model of the bone marrow microenvironment combined with high content image analysis. Among the 2487 FDA-approved compounds tested, anthelmintic agents of the class of macrocyclic lactones exhibited potent anti-leukemia activity, similar to the already known anti-leukemia agents currently used in induction chemotherapy. Ex vivo validation in 55 primary ALL samples of both precursor B cell and T-ALL including refractory relapse cases confirmed strong anti-leukemia activity with IC50 values in the low micromolar range. Anthelmintic agents increased intracellular chloride levels in primary leukemia cells, inducing mitochondrial outer membrane depolarization and cell death. Supporting the notion that simultaneously targeting cell death machineries at different angles may enhance the cell death response, combination of anthelmintic agents with the BCL-2 antagonist navitoclax or with the chemotherapeutic agent dexamethasone showed synergistic activity in primary ALL. These data reveal anti-leukemia activity of anthelmintic agents and support exploiting drug repurposing strategies to identify so far unrecognized anti-cancer agents with potential to eradicate even refractory leukemia

Evaluating the Reduction of Hazardous Waste Contact in Tabriz Petrochemical Complex, Focusing on Personal Protective Equipment Method

Tabriz petrochemical complex is located in northwest of Iran and west of Tabriz oil refinery and mostly produces raw plastics. In this study the implementation of Reduction of Hazardous waste Contact in this Complex with special emphasis on Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is discussed. Accordingly different hazards threatening personnel, indoor and outdoor environment were determined. In order to identify hazardous waste generated in different parts of the complex, national, European, environmental protection agency (EPA) and Basel convention standards were taken in to consideration. Considering general frame of risk classified pyramid containing engineering controls, administrative controls and personal protective equipment (PPE),a couple of practical recommendations has been suggested to promote the security level. Personal protective equipment, suggested in this study are all manifested according to the Iranian Petroleum Standard (IPS). Despite perfect implementation of PPE method, it is recommended that incident insurance be taken in to consideration as the last mitigation effort

Rural Solid Waste Management

The province of Bushehr is located in southern area of Iran and north of Persian Gulf. Solid waste management in Bushehr s villages was the aim of this research. For the sake of this study, 21 villages scattered all over the province were selected. Field studies showed that about 646 grams of residential solid waste per capita is generated in selected villages every day. There are 322 shops in chosen villages and total amount of commercial waste is about 3565 kilograms per day. The average amount of medical waste is about 7.8 kilograms per hygienic unit. Waste Composition in selected villages is: putrescible materials: 42.49%, construction and demolition: 11.7%, paper and cardboard: 8.77%, plastics: 8.24%, wood: 6.90%, metal: 6.08%, glass: 5.89%, rubber and leather: 5.1% and textile: 4.83%. According to this study, the main obstacle to recycling program is the unbiased collection of waste in rural area. It is recommended that for the first five year program, source separation includes degradable matter and dry wastes (paper, plastics and metals). Source separation of other components such as wood, rubber, glass and textile can be carried out in the second five year program. From the economical point of view, incineration with energy recovery can not be a good alternative for rural waste disposal in Bushehr province. Due to the low volume of degradable matter, land availabilitywith low cost and easy accesstolabor force in rural areas, low costtechnology composting is recommended. The quantity of waste generated in each village is not sufficient to be managed separately, thus a regional solid waste management must be defined to include adjacent villages