A declustered earthquake catalog for the Iranian Plateau

A unified catalog of earthquakes in Iran and adjacent regions (the area bounded in 22º-42ºN and 42º-66ºE) covering the period of 4th century B.C. through 2012 with Mw≥4 is provided. The catalog includes all events for which magnitude have been determined by international agencies and most reliable individual sources. Since the recurrence time of maximum credible earthquake cannot be directly estimated from the mb, empirical formulae are established to convert mb to Ms, mb to Mw and Ms to Mw for each major seismotectonic province separately. The unified catalog is declustered using conjugated distance-time windows. In order to estimate completeness thresholds, magnitude-time (M-T) diagram and Stepp’s method are applied on the declustered catalog for each seismotectonic province. The magnitude of completeness (Mc) decreases with development of local and regional seismic stations. The results of present study are particularly important in seismic hazard analysis in Iran

Meta-analysis of studies in information seeking behavior of students and faculty members in ISC and Proquest databases

Objective: A review of studies in the information seeking behavior of students and faculty members in ISC and Proquest databases through meta-analysis study. Methodology: This paper was meta-analyzed by the method introduced by Cooper (1994). To collect data, first all studies on information seeking behavior in Iran and the world up to 1399 in two scientific databases ISC and ProQuest were searched Findings: In the studies carried out in this field (which included in the meta-analysis), a total of 16 variables and factors affecting information seeking behavior were identified in subgroups of students and faculty members. The overall results of the meta-analysis showed that the effect size or the coefficient of influence of the components and factors affecting the information seeking behavior is 0.593, which is rated as high according to Cohen's interpretive system. In addition, the extent of the effect of variables and factors affecting information seeking behavior is different in term of the two variables of sample group (students, faculty members, medical staff and citizens) and the field of study (internal and external research), and both variables are moderating variables affecting information-seeking behavior. Conclusion: The information seeking behavior of individuals is influenced by factors, and the 16 factors identified in this study considerably affect how individuals seek information. Furthermore, in addition to the independent factors and variables of the variable, information seeking behavior is different depending on different groups of society and their local context and language

Genetically modified Pichia pastoris, a powerful resistant factory for gold and palladium bioleaching and nanostructure heavy metal biosynthesis

A metal-resistant engineered Pichia pastoris was developed here to fulfil the metal bioleaching in aqueous conditions. Parent and recombinant yeasts were grown in YPD medium containing different concentrations of ion metals. XRD, electron microscopy and particle size analyser were used for the characterisation and the nanoparticle analyses. The nanoparticle production kinetics were studied by ICP-OES. The cytotoxicity of nanoparticles was assayed against human cell lines. Media colours changed to a range from purplish-brown to grey during early fermentation stages. The maximum biosorption capacities were recorded 81.23 and 493.35 mg/g for gold and palladium in batch conditions, respectively. Various physical investigations proved monodispersed spherical nanoparticles around 100 nm in size. Pure palladium nanoparticles and PdCl2 represented the least cytotoxic potency towards T47D and EPG85.257 cells. The results demonstrated that the genetically modified yeast is a cost-effective, high-throughput, robust, and facile system for metal biosorption. KEYWORDS: Biosorption; bioleaching; gold; palladium nanoparticle; recombinant Pichia pastori

Data in support of comparative physiology and proteomic analysis of two wheat genotypes contrasting in drought tolerance

AbstractHere, we present the data from a comparative physiology and proteomics approach used to analyze the response of two wheat genotypes (SERI M 82 (SE) and SW89.5193/kAu2 (SW)) with contrasting responses to drought stress. Proteomic analysis resulted in identification of 49 unique proteins with significant change in abundance (2-fold) under water shortage in roots and leaves. Gene ontology analysis of drought-responsive proteins (DRPs) suggested an induction of proteins related to cell wall biogenesis, ATP synthesis, photosynthesis, and carbohydrate/energy metabolism in leaves under stress condition. A large fraction of root proteins were identified to be involved in defense and oxidative stress response. In addition, a significant change was detected in proteins related to protein synthesis, ATP synthesis, and germin-like proteins in response to drought stress. A detailed analysis of this data may be obtained from Ref. [1]

Does Bromelain-Cisplatin Combination Afford In-Vitro Synergistic Anticancer Effects on Human Prostatic Carcinoma Cell Line, PC3?

Background: Bromclain enhances anticancer impacts to chemotherapeutic agents. The question as to whether bromelain does promote in-vitro cytotoxic and proapoptotic effects of cisplatin on human prostatic carcinoma PC3 cell line was investigated. Materials and Methods: PC3 (human prostatic carcinoma) cells were treated either single or in combination with bromelain and/or cisplatin. MTT, clonogenic assay, flow cytometry and real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction were used to investigate cell viability, colony formation, proapoptotic potential and p53 gene expression, respectively. Results: Cisplatin (IC10) combined with bromelain (IC40) significantly affected PC3 cell viability, inhibited colony formation, as well increased p5.3 proapoptotic gene expression compared to cisplatin single treatment. Nevertheless, bromelain-cisplatin chemoherbal combination did not display any additive proapoptotic effect compared to single treatments. Conclusion: Bromelain-cisplatin chemoherbal combination demonstrated synergistic in-vitro anticancer effect on human prostatic carcinoma cell line, PC3, that drastically reduced required cisplatin dose. Keywords:PC3 Cells; Bromelain; Cisplatin; Synergistic Effect; Clonogenic Cell Assay; p53 Gen

In Silico Analysis of Six Known Leishmania major Antigens and In Vitro Evaluation of Specific Epitopes Eliciting HLA-A2 Restricted CD8 T Cell Response

Leishmaniasis is currently a serious health as well as economic problem in underdeveloped and developing countries in Africa, Asia, the Near and Middle East, Central and South America and the Mediterranean region. Cutaneous leishmaniasis is highly endemic in Iran, remarkably in Isfahan, Fars, Khorasan, Khozestan and Kerman provinces. Since effective prevention is not available and current curative therapy is expensive, often poorly tolerated and not always effective, alternative therapies including vaccination against leishmaniasis are of priority to overcome the problem. Although Th1 dominant response is so far considered as a pre-requisite for the immune system to overcome the infection, CD8+ T cell response could also be considered as a potent arm of immune system fighting against intracellular Leishmania. Polytope vaccine strategy may open up a new way in vaccine design against leishmaniasis, since they act as a potent tool to stimulate multi-CD8 T cell responses. Clearly there is a substantial need to evaluate the promising epitopes from different proteins of Leishmania parasite species. Some new immunoinformatic tools are now available to speed up this process, and we have shown here that in silico prediction can effectively evaluate HLA class I-restricted epitopes out of Leishmania proteins

ارزیابی ریسک نسبی اثرات تحریکی در تراشکاران مواجهه یافته با میست مایعات فلزکاری منتخب از شهر تهران

Background and Objectives: Occupational exposure to metalworking fluid mist causes respiratory irritation. This study aimed to assess the relative risk of irritating effects in occupational exposure to metalworking fluids of lathe process. Materials and Methods: Sixty-five subjects exposed to oil mist as exposed group and 65 administrative staff of the same industry as control group were selected. Health and Safety Executive/Health and Safety Laboratory (HSE/HSL) questionnaire was used for irritating effects. The US National Institutes of Health and Safety (NIOSH) method 5026 was used to monitoring respiratory exposure to oil mist. We also calculated the relative risk of irritating symptoms using MedCalc software. The study was approved by the ethics committee and conducted with the consent of participants. Results: The mean time-weighted exposure to mineral oil mist in lathe workers was 7.10±3.49 mg/m3. The amount of throat irritation in machinists was significantly higher than the control group (p-value = 0.044).The relative risk of irritating effects in the eyes, nose, mouth and throat in machinists is slightly higher than control subjects (p-value = 0.05). Conclusion: In this study, the occupational exposure in 67% of lathe workers is higher than recommended exposure limit in Iran. Subjects by oil mists exposure represented a risk of irritating effects in the respiratory tract, especially the throat. For this reason, continuous assessment and control of exposure is are needed to reduce the risk of chronic diseases.زمینه و اهداف: مواجهه شغلی با میست مایعات فلزکاری باعث بروز اثرات تحریکی در مجاری تنفسی می‌گردد. هدف مطالعه حاضر ارزیابی ریسک نسبی اثرات تحریکی در مواجهه شغلی با میست مایعات فلزکاری در تراشکاری است. مواد و روش­ها: در این مطالعه 65 نفر از تراشکاران مواجهه یافته با میست روغن به‌عنوان گروه مواجهه و 65 نفر از کادر اداری همان صنعت به‌عنوان گروه کنترل انتخاب گردیدند. جهت بررسی اثرات تحریکی میست روغن از پرسشنامه آژانس ایمني، بهداشت و محیط‌زیست/آزمایشگاه ایمني و بهداشت HSE/HSL و جهت پایش میزان مواجهه تنفسی با میست روغن از روش 5026 انستیتو ملی ایمنی و بهداشت آمریکا (NIOSH) استفاده شد. میزان ریسک نسبی علائم تحریکی نیز با استفاده از نرم­افزار MedCalc محاسبه شد. مطالعه حاضر دارای تاییدیه کمیته اخلاق بوده و با کسب رضایت از شرکت­کنندگان انجام‌شده است. یافته­ ها: میانگین مواجهه وزنی-زمانی با میست روغن معدنی در کارگران تراشکاری 49/3 ± 10/7 میلی‌گرم در مترمکعب ارزیابی شد. تحریک حلق در ماشینکاران به‌طور معناداری بالاتر از گروه شاهد است (044/0 p-value=). ریسک نسبی عوارض تحریک در چشم، بینی، دهان و حلق در ماشینکاران اندکی بالاتر از افراد گروه شاهد محاسبه شد (05/0 p-value=). نتیجه‌گیری: در این مطالعه مواجهه شغلی در 67٪ از کارگران تراشکاری بالاتر از حد توصیه‌شده در ایران است. ریسک اثرات تحریکی در مجاری تنفسی به‌ویژه حلق در ماشینکاران دارای مواجهه با میست مایعات فلزکاری نسبت به گروه کنترل بالاتر است. به همین دلیل ضرورت ارزیابی و کنترل مداوم مواجهه در جهت کاهش ریسک و پیشگیری از بروز بیماری‌های مزمن مدنظر قرار دارد

Detecting and Processing Anomalies in a Factory of the Future

Production systems are changing in many aspects on the way to a Factory of the Future, including the level of automation and communication between components. Besides all benefits, this evolution raises the amount, effect and type of anomalies and unforeseen behavior to a new level of complexity. Thus, new detection and mitigation concepts are required. Based on a use-case dealing with a distributed transportation system for production environments, this paper describes the different sources of possible anomalies with the same effect, anomaly detection methods and related mitigation techniques. Depending on the identified anomaly, the FoF should react accordingly, such as fleet or AGV reconfiguration, strong authentication and access control or a deletion of adversarial noises. In this paper, different types of mitigation actions are described that support the fleet in overcoming the effect of the anomaly or preventing them in the future. A concept to select the most appreciate mitigation method is presented, where the detection of the correct source of the anomaly is key. This paper shows how various techniques can work together to gain a holistic view on anomalies in the Factory of the Future for selecting the most appropriate mitigation technique

Global, regional, and national cancer incidence, mortality, years of life lost, years lived with disability, and disability-Adjusted life-years for 29 cancer groups, 1990 to 2017 : A systematic analysis for the global burden of disease study

Importance: Cancer and other noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) are now widely recognized as a threat to global development. The latest United Nations high-level meeting on NCDs reaffirmed this observation and also highlighted the slow progress in meeting the 2011 Political Declaration on the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases and the third Sustainable Development Goal. Lack of situational analyses, priority setting, and budgeting have been identified as major obstacles in achieving these goals. All of these have in common that they require information on the local cancer epidemiology. The Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study is uniquely poised to provide these crucial data. Objective: To describe cancer burden for 29 cancer groups in 195 countries from 1990 through 2017 to provide data needed for cancer control planning. Evidence Review: We used the GBD study estimation methods to describe cancer incidence, mortality, years lived with disability, years of life lost, and disability-Adjusted life-years (DALYs). Results are presented at the national level as well as by Socio-demographic Index (SDI), a composite indicator of income, educational attainment, and total fertility rate. We also analyzed the influence of the epidemiological vs the demographic transition on cancer incidence. Findings: In 2017, there were 24.5 million incident cancer cases worldwide (16.8 million without nonmelanoma skin cancer [NMSC]) and 9.6 million cancer deaths. The majority of cancer DALYs came from years of life lost (97%), and only 3% came from years lived with disability. The odds of developing cancer were the lowest in the low SDI quintile (1 in 7) and the highest in the high SDI quintile (1 in 2) for both sexes. In 2017, the most common incident cancers in men were NMSC (4.3 million incident cases); tracheal, bronchus, and lung (TBL) cancer (1.5 million incident cases); and prostate cancer (1.3 million incident cases). The most common causes of cancer deaths and DALYs for men were TBL cancer (1.3 million deaths and 28.4 million DALYs), liver cancer (572000 deaths and 15.2 million DALYs), and stomach cancer (542000 deaths and 12.2 million DALYs). For women in 2017, the most common incident cancers were NMSC (3.3 million incident cases), breast cancer (1.9 million incident cases), and colorectal cancer (819000 incident cases). The leading causes of cancer deaths and DALYs for women were breast cancer (601000 deaths and 17.4 million DALYs), TBL cancer (596000 deaths and 12.6 million DALYs), and colorectal cancer (414000 deaths and 8.3 million DALYs). Conclusions and Relevance: The national epidemiological profiles of cancer burden in the GBD study show large heterogeneities, which are a reflection of different exposures to risk factors, economic settings, lifestyles, and access to care and screening. The GBD study can be used by policy makers and other stakeholders to develop and improve national and local cancer control in order to achieve the global targets and improve equity in cancer care. © 2019 American Medical Association. All rights reserved.Peer reviewe