Prevalence of metabolic syndrome in baluch women in Chabahar

Epidemiological studies have shown the importance of the metabolic syndrome. With estimation of the metabolic syndrome, it may predict cardiovascular disease, sudden death and the presence of some other cardiovascular risk factors. The aim of this study was to assess the metabolic syndrome among Baluch women. Our study consisted of 120 Baluch women. Baseline data of Baluch women, prevalence of metabolic syndrome and its components and distribution of body mass index were determined. The mean Body Mass Index (BMI), waist circumference, systolic blood pressure, triglyceride, High Density Lipoprotein-Cholesterol (HDL-Chol.) and fasting blood glucose levels were significantly higher in the subjects with metabolic syndrome. The prevalence of HDL-cholesterol, high triglyceride, high fasting glucose levels, high waist circumference and high blood pressure were shown to be 33.3, 20.8, 12.5, 11.8 and 2.5, respectively. HDL-cholesterol (33.3) and high triglyceride levels (20.8) were the most frequent characteristics of metabolic components. The prevalence of subject with normal weight, overweight and obese BMIs were 77.5, 15 and 7.5, respectively. About 9.17, 4.17 and 4.17 of Baluch women had three, four and five criteria of metabolic syndrome components, respectively. This study reveals that there is a significant difference in the metabolic syndrome components in patients with and without metabolic syndrome. The prevalence of HDL-cholesterol and high triglyceride in Baluch women was highest. Definition of metabolic syndrome may help physicians to estimate, decrease and prevent coronary heart disease and cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in subjects with metabolic syndrome. © 2015 Asian Network for Scientific Information

Enhanced Andreev reflection in gapped graphene

We theoretically demonstrate unusual features of superconducting proximity effect in gapped graphene which presents a pseudospin symmetry-broken ferromagnet with a net pseudomagnetization. We find that the presence of a band gap makes the Andreev conductance of graphene superconductor/pseudoferromagnet (S/PF) junction to behave similar to that of a graphene ferromagnet-superconductor junction. The energy gap $\Delta_N$ enhance the pseudospin inverted Andreev conductance of S/PF junction to reach a limiting maximum value for $\Delta_N\gg \mu$, which depending on the bias voltage can be larger than the value for the corresponding junction with no energy gap. We further demonstrate a damped-oscillatory behavior for the local density of states of the PF region of S/PF junction and a long-range crossed Andreev reflection process in PF/S/PF structure with antiparallel alignment of pseudomagnetizations of PFs, which confirm that, in this respect, the gapped normal graphene behaves like a ferromagnetic graphene.Comment: 7.2 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Dynamics of Impurity and Valence Bands in GaMnAs within the Dynamical Mean Field Approximation

We calculate the density-of-states and the spectral function of GaMnAs within the dynamical mean-field approximation. Our model includes the competing effects of the strong spin-orbit coupling on the J=3/2 GaAs hole bands and the exchange interaction between the magnetic ions and the itinerant holes. We study the quasi-particle and impurity bands in the paramagnetic and ferromagnetic phases for different values of impurity-hole coupling at the Mn doping of x=0.05. By analyzing the anisotropic angular distribution of the impurity band carriers at T=0, we conclude that the carrier polarization is optimal when the carriers move along the direction parallel to the average magnetization.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure

Purification and partial characterization of serum immunoglobulin from Persian sturgeon (Acipenser persicus)

In this study, immunoglobulins from serum of Persian sturgeon (Acipenser persicus) were purified and partially characterized. Immunoglobulins were purified from the pooled sera by a combination of salt precipitation, Ion-exchange chromatography and gel filtration methods. DEAE sepharosefast flow and sepharose CL-6B columns were used for Ion exchange-chromatography, and gel filtration, respectively. The purity, molecular weight and molecular distribution of the immunoglobulin preparations was determined by gel electrophoresis (SDS-P AGE) in reducing and non-reducing situations. In gel filtrated immunoglobulins two distinct peaks, high molecular weight (HMW Ig) and low molecular weight (LMW Ig) were obtained. Both HMW Ig and LMW Ig had identical heavy and light chains of 72-75 KDa and 27-29 KDa, respectively, in reducing SDS-P AGE. HMW Ig contained a group of bands, including two major bands in non-reducing SDS-PAGE, In contrast LMW Ig contain more than half of the total immunoglobulin, was 190 KDa. In ion exchange chromatography, immunoglobulins were eluted in three peaks. The first was exclusively monomer and others were mixture of monomer and polymers. This is the first report on persian sturgeon immunoglobulins. Results of this investigation showed that persian sturgeon immunoglobulins was not homogenous in respect of molecular distribution, PI and the type of light chain. The presence of more than one genes for light and\or heavy chains or post transcriptional and\or post modifications may be responsible for these variations

Attenuation of serum laminin concentrations upon treatment of chronic hepatitis

Objectives: The aim of this work was to determine the serum laminin level cutoff point for predicting liver fibrosis highlighting its diagnostic value and determining the effect of treatment on serum laminin concentrations. Methods: Serum laminin concentrations in chronic hepatitis patients (n=62) and controls (n=20) were compared by ELISA and stages of fibrosis were assessed according to the modified Knodell score system. Results: Mean serum laminin concentration in patients (91.9 ± 20.9 ng/ml) was greater than controls (46.2 ± 10.2 ng/ml; p <0.001). Serum concentrations of laminin in all stages of hepatic fibrosis were significantly higher than those of healthy controls (p <0.05). A cutoff point of 52ng laminin/ml of serum was obtained for the discrimination of various stages of liver fibrosis showing a good sensitivity (96.8%) and specificity (80%). After 6 months of treatment, a gradual decrease in serum laminin concentrations were observed, however the level was still higher than that of the healthy group (p<0.05). Conclusions: Our findings suggest that the serum laminin concentration is a useful noninvasive marker of liver fibrosis and shows a strong positive correlation with different stages of the disease

Introducing a simple and economical method to purify Giardia lamblia cysts

Direct microscopic examination of stool to diagnosis giardiasis (wet mount) has low diagnostic value, but immunologic methods (like IFA and especially ELISA) that are based on the determination of parasite antigens in fecal samples (antigen detection) have relatively high sensitivity and specialty. To prepare anti-Giardia lamblia antibodies needed to design diagnostic kits as well as parasite culture and other molecular studies, we require purification of the parasite cysts. In this study, we designed a rapid, simple and inexpensive method to purify parasite cysts from fecal samples of the patients suffering from giardiasis. Initially, fecal samples that the presence of G. lamblia in them was affirmed by direct microscopic observation of cysts were subjected to various purification methods like one- and twophase sucrose gradient isolation, percoll-sucrose gradient isolation, and a modified two-phase method run by 0.85 and 1.5 M sucrose. The first procedure contained some contents of bacteria and small particles of feces. In the second and third procedure, bacteria were almost removed and the cysts were intact but the suspension contained some extras and cellulose particles. The recovery rate for modified two-phase method was 1.5 × 104 cysts for each two grams of fecal sample. In this study, by using and comparing with the results of some other studies, we introduce and run a modified method that in fact is a mélange of them with some changes. So this method could be recommended as a fast, advantageous and simple method in purification of G. lamblia cysts.Key words: Giardia lamblia, cyst, purification

Evaluation of crown gall resistance in Vitis vinifera and hybrids of Vitis spp.

Relative levels of crown gall susceptibility were determined in 17 genotypes of Vitis spp. by inoculating a diverse set of Agrobacterium vitis strains, measuring gall size and weight, and percentage of inoculated sites with galls. Hybrids of Vitis vinifera cv. Jighjigha x Vitis riparia “Gloire” (NAZ4) and V.vinifera cv. Alibaba x 110 R (NAZ5) were the most resistant genotypes but not completely immune. No genotype of V. vinifera was immune to crown gall. The interactions among strain and genotype were significant. V. vinifera cv. White Bidaneh was especially sensitive to the limited host range strain AG57. Weight and size of galls that were induced by 4 strains of Agrobacterium vitis were not significantly different for all genotypes of Vitis spp. But susceptibility of the genotypes to individual strains of A. vitis were significantly different