The effect of swimming training and detraining on interleukin-17 and interleukin-18 of rats

Background and aims: Interleukin-17 (IL-17) and interleukin-18 (IL-18) are proinflammatory cytokines. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of swimming trainings and detraining on IL-17 and IL-18 of rats. Methods: 60 rats were selected and divided to 5 groups of 12 rats: 8 weeks swimming training, 10 weeks swimming training, 8 weeks control, 10 weeks control and 2 weeks detraining following 8 weeks swimming training. Swimming trainings were included 8 and 10 weeks, 5 sessions per week and 60 minutes per session. For statistical analysis of data used Kolmogorov Simonov, one way ANOVA and Tukey post hoc tests (P≤0.05). Results: 8 (P=0.56) and 10 (P=0.51) weeks swimming training have no significant effect on IL-17 of rats, 8 weeks swimming training has no significant effect on IL-18 of rats (P=0.72). Nevertheless 10 weeks swimming training had significant effect on reduction IL-18 of rats (P=0.005) and 2 weeks detraining following 8 weeks swimming training has significant effect on increase IL-17 (P=0.01) and IL-18 (P=0.001) of rats. Conclusion: Regarding to 10 weeks swimming training reduces and 2 weeks detraining following 8 weeks swimming training increases proinflammatory cytokines, it is concluded training program should not be discontinued to prevent the reveal of inflammation

THE SUBLETHAL EFFECTS OF FIVE COMMERCIAL INSECTICIDES ON THE AMYLOLYTIC AND PROTEOLYTIC ACTIVITY OF THE BIOCONTROL AGENT, HABROBRACON HEBETOR SAY (HYMENOPTERA: BRACONIDAE)

Habrobracon hebetor Say is an important biological control agent that has a wide range of lepidopteran hosts, especially from the Noctuidae and Pyralidae families. Nutrition is a very important element in the efficiency of natural enemies in integrated pest management (IPM). In the presented research, the sublethal effects of five selected chemical and botanical insecticides, fenvalerate, propargite, buprofezin, dayabon and palizin, on the activity of amylase and protease enzymes in the midgut of this important ectoparasitoid wasp were studied under laboratory conditions. Changes in the activity of enzymes were investigated by LC30 treatment of the female wasps, which were 0.14, 7.01, 3.04, 9.58 and   2.53 mg a.i./mL, respectively. The obtained results showed that this parasitoid wasp has a long midgut in its digestive tract. Also, there were significant differences among the enzymatic treatments (F5,12 =14.695 and 99.278) except protein concentration (F5,12 = 0.670). Regarding the amylase enzyme, the highest and lowest activities were obtained in the control and fenvalerate treatment (0.0435±0.0023 mU/mg vs. 0.0277±0.0010 mU/mg). In addition, the highest proteolytic activity was observed in the control (4.9817±0.0268 U/mg) and the lowest in the propargite treatment (3.2231±0.0917 U/mg). By closely investigating the results, dayabon and palizin showed the lowest negative effects on the enzymes and could be applied together with this parasitoid wasp in IPM designs

The Angiogenic Paracrine Potential of Mesenchymal Stem Cells

Tissue engineering and regenerative medicine are branches of biomedical sciences that facilitate the use of cells and biocompatible scaffolds in favor of tissue restoration. In this regard, restoration and maintenance of angiogenesis and blood supplementation could be an effective strategy for injured tissue removal, accelerating healing rate, and successful transplantation of cells and scaffolds into target sites. It has been elucidated that mesenchymal stem cells have the potency to promote angiogenesis via paracrine activity and trans-differentiation into the endothelial lineage. In this chapter, we highlighted the paracrine property of mesenchymal stem cells to modulate angiogenesis in the target tissues

Insecticidal activity of isolated essential oils from three medicinal plants on the biological control agent, Habrobracon hebetor Say - Hymenoptera : Braconidae

The effects of Allium sativum L. (Alliaceae), Piper nigrum L. (Piperaceae) and Glycyrrhiza glabra L. (Fabaceae) essential oils were investigated on the biological control agent, Habrobracon hebetor Say. The female wasps of H. hebetor were treated by LC30 concentrations of the tested essential oils for 24 h and their demography was investigated. Results indicated that the adult longevity, survival, fecundity, fertility, hatch rate, offspring sex ratio and the other demographic parameters negatively were affected by these essential oils. At the same time, our findings indicated that G. glabra essential oil has the less severe effect on H. hebetor. Accordingly, G. glabra essential oil seems to be a compatible botanical compound with H. hebetor for applying in integrated pest management programs

Porous graphene/poly(vinylidene fluoride) nanofibers for pressure sensing

Piezoelectric polymers have emerged as promising materials for application in pressure sensing devices in particular for wearable applications, where inorganic piezoelectric materials can face limitations due to their brittleness. One of the bottlenecks for the adaptation of piezoelectric polymers is their relatively weak piezoelectric voltage coefficient. Hence there have been numerous efforts to improve the performance of the comprising devices by making composites of poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF), or through making porous PVDF films, or by nanostructuring. Here, we demonstrate the fabrication of porous nanofibers with graphene/PVDF composites and investigate the suitability of the fiber for motion sensing. The nanofibers are fabricated by electrospinning from the solution phase. Guided by an experimentally validated phase diagram for PVDF/solvent/non-solvent ternary system, porous graphene/PVDF nanofibers with different porosities and pore morphologies have been produced through solidifying the fibers in the binodal or spinodal regions of the phase diagram. It is found that only by solidifying the composite fibers in the spinodal region, graphene loading of 0.1 wt% promotes the formation of the electroactive phase substantially, and the resulting fibers exhibit enhanced piezoelectric output. It is further shown that the comprising sensors are biocompatible and show high sensitivity to body motion.</p

Evaluation of Staggered Osteotomy in Surgical Treatment of Trigonocephaly

Introduction: undiagnosed metopic synostosis (Trigonocephaly) have many complications for infants such as Brain damage and cognitive &amp; behavioral disorders, they also result in poor aesthetic features. There are many surgical techniques for this malformation which have their advantages and disadvantages; but with this new method (staggered osteotomy) we can solve some of these problems and minimize damages.Materials and Methods:  In this study, 20 infants with metopic synostosis underwent surgery in Mofid Children Hospital, Tehran.  The minimum age of our patients was 4 months and the maximum was 9 months with an average of 6.72 months. Their diagnosis was confirmed with clinical symptoms &amp; signs also with CTscan and paraclinical findings. Age and weight before and after surgery and anthropometric indices including: biparietal width and frontal width were recorded and reported.Results: We found significant differences in anthropometric indices before &amp; after surgery such as lowering of biparietal width after surgery and elevation of frontoparital index after surgery. Since in this procedure, we don’t separate the frontal bone segments and it keeps its frame, less plaques and screws are needed which will decrease the costs of surgery and the surgical time is much less than other techniques. Last but not the least, the satisfactions of parents were high and there was no need for secondary surgery.Conclusion:Based on all the perfect results we got , it is safe to say that staggered osteotomy as a surgical method for correction of trigonocephaly is useful and we can use it as a new method in correction of  metopic synostosis

Process Monitoring of Moisture Content and Mass Transfer Rate in a Fluidised Bed with a Low Cost Inline MEMS NIR Sensor

Purpose The current trend for continuous drug product manufacturing requires new, affordable process analytical techniques (PAT) to ensure control of processing. This work evaluates whether property models based on spectral data from recent Fabry–Pérot Interferometer based NIR sensors can generate a high-resolution moisture signal suitable for process control. Methods Spectral data and offline moisture content were recorded for 14 fluid bed dryer batches of pharmaceutical granules. A PLS moisture model was constructed resulting in a high resolution moisture signal, used to demonstrate (i) endpoint determination and (ii) evaluation of mass transfer performance. Results The sensors appear robust with respect to vibration and ambient temperature changes, and the accuracy of water content predictions (±13 % ) is similar to those reported for high specification NIR sensors. Fusion of temperature and moisture content signal allowed monitoring of water transport rates in the fluidised bed and highlighted the importance water transport within the solid phase at low moisture levels. The NIR data was also successfully used with PCA-based MSPC models for endpoint detection. Conclusions The spectral quality of the small form factor NIR sensor and its robustness is clearly sufficient for the construction and application of PLS models as well as PCA-based MSPC moisture models. The resulting high resolution moisture content signal was successfully used for endpoint detection and monitoring the mass transfer rate

A Review of Manufacturing Process of Polyethylene Pipe and Connectors for Applying in High-Pressure Natural Gas Pipelines

In this article various pipes used for transporting of gas are introduced and pros and cons of each one are elucidated. The pipes are categorized in three different subgroups including metallic, polymeric and metallic-wire reinforced polymeric pipes. Metallic-wire reinforced polymeric pipes are nominated as the best option for usage in high pressure pipelines transporting natural gas. As a result, some information about major manufacturers of this kind of polymeric pipes, raw material, production process and metallic-wire orientation are presented. Finally, from economical point of view, some calculations are done to estimate required amount of polymer and metallic-wire to manufacture such pipes. It is also possible to compare their manufacturing cost with usual metallic and polymeric pipes