Association of the single nucleotide polymorphism C1858T of the PTPN22 gene with unexplained recurrent pregnancy loss: A case-control study

Background: Lymphoid-tyrosine-phosphatase which is encoded by the protein tyrosine phosphatase non-receptor 22 (PTPN22) gene plays a pivotal role in the regulation of immune responses by dephosphorylating several signaling intermediates of immune cells. Objective: Since a balanced immune response has been shown to be important during pregnancy, the purpose of this research was to compare the frequency of the PTPN22 C1858T polymorphism in women with unexplained recurrent pregnancy loss (URPL) vs. in a control group for the first time. Materials and Methods: Genomic DNA from 200 individuals with URPL and 200 individuals without URPL (the control group) at the infertility center in Yazd, Iran was isolated using the salting-out method. The PTPN22 C1858T polymorphism of the two groups was analyzed using polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism. Genotype frequencies in the women with URPL and the fertile control group were compared using the Chi-square test. Results: There were significant differences in the frequency of the PTPN22 1858T polymorphism in the URPL individuals vs. the healthy controls, i.e. 32.0% and 21.5%, respectively (p = 0.01). Conclusion: Our findings suggest that the PTPN22 1858T polymorphism could play a role in recurrent pregnancy loss. Therefore, genotyping of the mentioned polymorphism can help clinicians to predict the probable risk of URPL. Key words: Recurrent pregnancy loss, PTPN22 protein, Single nucleotide polymorphism

Frequency of the rs 14035 polymorphism of RAN gen in recurrent pregnancy loss: A case-control study

Background: Genetic factors could account for recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL). The RAN gene is a member of the ”large RAS family” and a small GTPase that is essential for the translocation of Ribonucleic acid (RNA) and proteins through the nuclear pore. Mutation in the RAN constitutive gene could stop DNA synthesis and alter the expression of genes in the uterus, likely playing a role in recurrent miscarriage. Objective: The aim was to investigate the frequency of RAN (rs 14035) polymorphism in women with RPL compared with women without abortion history. Materials and Methods: In this case-control study, 100 women with at least two consecutive miscarriages before the 20th wk of gestation and having spouses with karyotype and normal sperm parameters as the case group and 100 women with no history of abortion and having at least one successful pregnancy and normal delivery as the control group. The groups were age matched (20-40 yr). The rs 14035 polymorphism of RAN gene was investigated by Polymerase Chain Reaction- Restriction Fragment Length poly morphism technique and the frequency of which was compared between the two groups. Results: The frequency of TT, TC, and CC genotypes of RAN gene polymorphism in the case group were 9%, 40%, and 51%, respectively, and in the control group were 11%, 38%, and 51%, respectively. There was no significant difference in the genotypes between two groups (p = 0.882). Conclusion: According to our results, it seems that RAN polymorphism (rs 14035) is not associated with the risk of RPL in this study population. Key words: RAN gene, Repeated abortion, Polymorphism, PCR-RFLP

Energy Consumption and Modeling of output energy with Multilayer Feed-Forward Neural Network for Corn Silage in Iran

In this study, various Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) were developed to estimate the output energy for corn silage production in Esfahan province, Iran. For this purpose, the data on 65 corn silage production farms in the Esfahan province, were collected and analyzed. The results indicated that total energy input for corn silage production was about 83126 MJ ha–1; machinery (with 38.8 %) and chemical fertilizer (with 24.5 %) were amongst the highest energy inputs for corn silage production. The developed ANN was a multilayer perceptron (MLP) with eight neurons in the input layer (human power, machinery, diesel fuel, chemical fertilizer, water for irrigation, seed, farm manure and pesticides ), one, two, three, four and five hidden layer(s) of various numbers of neurons and one neuron (output energy) in the output layer. The results of ANNs analyze showed that the (8-5-5-1)-MLP, namely, a network having five neurons in the first and second hidden layer was the best-suited model estimating the corn silage output energy. For this topology, MAB, MAE, RMSE and R2 were 0.109, 0.001, 0.0464 and 98%, respectively. The sensitivity analysis of input parameters on output showed that diesel fuel and seeds had the highest and lowest sensitivity on output energy with 0.0984 and 0.0386, respectively. The ANN approach appears to be a suitable method for modeling output energy, fuel consumption, CO2 emission, yield, and energy consumption based on social and technical parameters. This method would open new doors to advances in agriculture and modeling

Energy inputs – yield relationship and sensitivity analysis for tomato greenhouse production in Iran

This paper studies the energy balance between the input and the output energies per unit area for greenhouse tomato production.  For this purpose, the data on 30 tomato production greenhouses in Isfahan province, Iran were collected and analyzed.  The results indicated that a total specific input energy of 116,768.4 MJ ha-1 was consumed for tomato production.  Diesel fuel (with 40%) and chemical fertilizers and manure (with 30%) were amongst the highest input energies for tomato production.  The energy productivity was estimated to be 1.16 kg MJ-1.  The ratio of output energy to input energy was approximately 0.92. 19% and 81% of total energy input was in renewable and non-renewable forms, respectively.  The regression results revealed that the contribution of input energies on crop yield for human power, machinery, pesticides and electricity inputs was significant.  The human power energy had the highest impact (1.45) among the other inputs in greenhouse tomato production.  The marginal physical productivity of diesel fuel, seed and total chemical fertilizer with manure was negative.  It can be because of applying the inputs more than required or improperly applying.  The highest shares of expenses were found to be 34% and 21% for human power and total diesel fuel and machinery, respectively.  Cost analysis revealed that total cost of production for 1 ha greenhouse tomato production was around US$34939.  Accordingly, the benefit-cost ratio was estimated as 2.74.  Results of greenhouse gas emission indicated that tomato production is mostly depended on diesel fuel sources.  Diesel fuel had the highest share (2,719.98 kg CO2eq.ha-1) followed by electricity (729.6 kg CO2eq.ha-1) and nitrogen fertilizer (409.5 kg CO2eq.ha-1).   Keywords: tomato, greenhouse, energy productivity, economic analysis, Cobb-Douglas functio

Benthic Macroinvertebrates along the Haraz Downstream in Southern Caspian Sea Basin: In Gradient of the Physicochemical Parameters

The Haraz River is one of the most important rivers in the Caspian Sea basin. In order to investigate changes in the taxa abundance composition and feeding groups of the benthic macroinvertebrates, twelve-time sampling was carried out at nine stations along three different sites: (1) before, (2) into, and (3) after Amol City. Results showed impacts of anthropogenic activities caused by the urbanization and development on the occurrence of benthic macroinvertebrates taxa. Families, Hydropsychidae and Heptageniidae at site 1 and Tipulidae at sites 2 and 3, were significantly dominant. The feeding groups of gathering collectors and predators increased from site 1 to site 3, while the filtering collectors and scrapers decreased. Consequently, our data supported the use of the bioindicator concept for Haraz River. Some sensitive (Hydropsychidae, Heptageniidae, Baetidae, and Leuctridae) and tolerant families (Tipulidae and Naididae/Tubificidae) are introduced as potential bioindicators of clean and disturbed river’s area, respectively

Application of nonparametric method to improve energy productivity and CO2 emission for barley production in Iran

The nonparametric method of data envelopment analysis (DEA) was used to investigate the energy efficiency and CO2 emission of barley farm in Hamedan province of Iran.  The method was used based on eight energy inputs including human labor, machinery, diesel fuel, fertilizers, farmyard manure, biocide, electricity and seed energy and single output of barley yield and technical, pure technical, scale and cross efficiencies were calculated using CCR and BCC models.  The results showed that the average values of technical, pure technical and scale efficiency scores of farmers were 0.788, 0.941 and 0.833, respectively.  Also, energy saving target ratio for barley production was calculated as 11.45%, indicating that by following the recommendations of this study, about 2,865 MJ ha–1 of total input energy could be saved with the same constant level of barley yield.  Moreover the contribution of chemical fertilizer input from total saving energy was 34.88% which was the highest share followed by diesel fuel (25.88%) and electricity (20.89%) energy inputs.  On one hand, optimization of energy use improved the energy use efficiency, energy productivity and net energy by 12.94%, 15.55% and 6.16%, respectively.  On the other hand, total greenhouse gases (GHG) emission was 885.56 kg CO2eq ha–1, which indicated that, the total CO2 emissions can be reduced by 11.06%.    Keywords: data envelopment analysis, energy saving, barley, chemical fertilizer

Association of M55L and Q192R polymorphisms of paraoxonase 1 gene (PON1) with recurrent pregnancy loss risk: A case–control study

Background: Recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL) refers to the incidence of two or more abortions before the first half of pregnancy. Oxidative stress has been hypothesized to play a central role in RPL. Objective: To investigate the relationship between Q192R and L55M polymorphisms of PON1 as antioxidant enzyme and the risk of RPL. Materials and Methods: In this case–control study, 110 women with RPL (case) and 110 healthy fertile women (control) referred to the Research and Clinical Center for Infertility, Shiraz, Iran were enrolled. Genomic DNA was extracted from the peripheral blood in all participants. Polymorphisms were genotyped by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism method. Results: Statistical analysis of Q192R polymorphism showed a significant difference for the RR genotype between the case and control group (OR = 11, CI = 1.39–86.87, p = 0.005) but none for the QR and QQ genotypes. No significant association was observed between the R and Q allelic frequency in the RPL participants compared to the control group (p = 0.53). Also, statistical analysis of the L55M polymorphism for MM genotype in the case group compared with the control group showed a significant difference (OR = 3.59, CI = 0.97–13.30, p = 0.042), but none for the LM and LL genotypes. Conclusion: The findings showed a significant correlation between the Q192R polymorphisms and the L55M PON1 enzyme and RPL in this study population. Key words: Pregnancy, Abortion, PON1, Polymorphism, Recurrent pregnancy loss

Effect of hand and foot surface stroke massage on anxiety and vital signs in patients with acute coronary syndrome: A randomized clinical trial

Background and objectives: Anxiety affects various body systems, which leads to an increase in respiratory rate, heart rate, blood pressure, and myocardial oxygen demand. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of hand and foot surface stroke massage on the level of anxiety and vital signs in patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS). Materials and methods: The single-blind clinical trial was performed on 70 patients with ACS. The patients were randomly assigned to the case and control groups. Anxiety levels were controlled 30 min before and 15 min after the intervention. The vital signs were checked in the two groups before, immediately after, 60 min, and 90 min after the intervention. The data were analyzed using SPSS software, descriptive statistics (mean ± standard deviation), independent t-test, paired t-test, and chi-square test. Results: No significant difference was observed in the patients' levels of anxiety, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, respiratory rate, and pulse rate before the intervention. However, after the intervention, the mean changes in the levels of anxiety, blood pressure, heart rate, and respiratory rate were significant. Conclusion: Hand and foot massage can be a useful nursing intervention in attenuating anxiety levels and improving the vital signs in patients. © 201