Quantitative determination of aflatoxin by high performance liquid chromatography in wheat silos in Golestan province, north of Iran

Background: Aflatoxins are the most common mycotoxins that contaminate crops. They are produced by fungi such as Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus. Wheat (Tricitumaestivum) is one of the most important staple foods used in Iran, and the environmental conditions in the north of Iran are favorable to fungal growth. This study was designed in order to determine the aflatoxin concentration in wheat samples from silos in Golestan Province north of Iran. Methods: Samples were collected from three silos of Golestan province. First, aflatoxins were isolated using immu-noaffinity chromatography. Then the aflatoxin concentrations were determined by High performance liquid chroma-tography (HPLC) method and fluorescence detector. Results: Ten out of 34 samples (29.4 of samples) were contaminated by aflatoxins.No concentration was found above permitted aflatoxin levels in Iran (15 ng/g). In one sample (2.9), aflatoxin B1 was seen over the permissible limits in Iran. The highest level found in samples for total aflatoxin, aflatoxin B1, aflatoxin B2, aflatoxin G1 and aflatox-in G2 were 7.08 ng/g, 6.91 ng/g, 0.29 ng/g, 1.37 ng/g and 0.23 ng/g, respectively. No correlation was found between humidity levels in wheat samples contained aflatoxin and wheat samples without aflatoxin. Conclusion: Despite the total aflatoxins determined in samples were below the permissible limits in Iran, the 29 aflatoxin contamination rate can negatively affect health factors and it should not be neglected. So, it is predictable that if the storage duration of samples increases, the aflatoxin contamination levels will increase. © 2015, Iranian Journal of Public Health. All rights reserved

Implementing Time-of-Use Demand Response Program in microgrid considering energy storage unit participation and different capacities of installed wind power

Penetration of wind units in Microgrid (MG) imposes remarkable challenges on MG operation. Demand Response Programs (DRPs) and Energy Storage Units are used by MG operators to address these challenges. This paper analyzes the effect of running the Time-of-Use Demand Response Program (TOU-DRP) on an isolated MG by considering different capacities of installed wind power with/without energy storage unit. The energy storage unit is deployed to cover the stochastic nature of wind generation unit. TOU-DRP is modeled based on price elasticity and customer benefit function in an isolated MG. Different levels of customers’ participation in TOU-DRP has also been studied and its effects on operation cost, unserved energy, and wind power spillage are investigated comprehensively. To verify the proposed model’s efficiency, the study is implemented on an 11-bus MG over a 24-h period for twelve detailed case studies. The case study results confirmed the effectiveness of the proposed model in running DRP and providing MG operator a general overview for optimal operation

Isolation of keratinophilic fungi and aerobic actinomycetes from park soils in Gorgan, North of Iran

Background: Keratinophilic fungi are a group of fungi that colonize in various keratinous substrates and degrade them to the components with low molecular weight. This study was conducted to determine the prevalence of keratinophilic fungi and aerobic Actinomycetes in soil of city parks in Gorgan. Objectives: In this study, we surveyed the city park soils of Gorgan (a northern province of Iran) to determine the identities and diversity of soil aerobic Actinomycetes, keratinophilic and non-keratinophilic fungi. Materials and Methods: A total of 244 soil samples were collected from 22 diferent parks of Gorgan, North of Iran. The samples were collected from the superfcial layer with depth not exceeding than 0-10 cm in sterile polyethylene bags. We used hair bait technique for isolation keratinophilic fungi. The colonies identifed by macroscopic and microscopic characterization after slide culturing. Actinomycetes were isolated by antibiotic dilution methods and detected by using physiological tests such as Lysozyme, Casein, Xanthine, Hypoxanthine, Gelatin, Urea Broth, and modifed acid-fast stain. Results: Totally, 75 isolates of aerobic Actinomycetes were detected that Actinomadura madurae and Nocardia asteroides were the most prevalent strains, with 14.66 and 28% prevalence respectively. Microsporum gypseum was more frequent than other keratinophilic fungi (22.96%) and Aspergillus spp. was the most species of saprophyte fungi (15.92%). Conclusions: This study showed that the collected soil from studied areas was rich of keratinophilic fungi and Actinomycetes, therefore hygiene protocol should be taken to prevent the spread of pathogenic and saprophytes fungi in the environment of susceptible person. © 2013, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences

Prevalence and new histopathological aspects of Haemoproteus spp. in pigeons from Iran

ΔΕΝ ΔΙΑΤΙΘΕΤΑΙ ΠΕΡΙΛΗΨΗHaemoproteus spp. is pathogenic protozoan that effecting blood circulatory system of birds. The present study was undertaken to evaluate the presence of Haemoproteus spp. in pigeons from Iran and associatedhistopathological changes. A total of 108 blood samples were taken from pigeons to investigate Haemoproteus spp. presence by blood smear and semi-nested PCR targeting the cytochrome b gene methods. Also, to evaluate histopathological changes 12 infected pigeons to Haemoproteus were sacrificed and studied. 34.2% of pigeons infected with Haemoproteus showed macro and microgametocytes in their erythrocytes while based on the molecular method 63.8% were infected. Focal lymphocytic aggregates, pigmentation and cell swelling were the main histopathological lesions in infected livers. Multifocal non- suppurative interstitial nephritis, pigmentation and splenic lymphoid hyperplasia were also seen in the infected pigeons. Mild lymphocytic myocarditis in the heart of one pigeon was the other finding. No histopathological changes were seen in brain, intestine, and pancreas. Schizonts with variable shapes and sizes were detected in infected livers, lungs, kidneys, and spleens but megaloschizonts were not found. This study also reports the molecular prevalence of Haemoproteus spp. in Ira

Association of Emotional Intelligence and Professional Socialization in Operating Room Students

Background & Aims: Socialization is a constant process throughout human life. The enhancers of socialization must be identified in order to promote this process. The present study aimed to investigate the correlation between the emotional intelligence and professional socialization of the operating room students at Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Iran. Materials & Methods: This cross-sectional, correlational study was conducted on 93 operating room students at Isfahan University of Medical Sciences after determining the sample size. Data were collected using a demographic questionnaire, Shirring and Siberia self-report questionnaire of emotional intelligence, and professional socialization questionnaire by Toit. Data analysis was performed in SPSS version 16 using descriptive and inferential statistics. Results: The results of Pearson’s correlation-coefficient indicated direct correlations between the professional socialization of students and the total score of emotional intelligence (P=0.04), social component (P<0.001), empathy (P=0.04), and self-awareness (P=0.045). However, no significant associations were observed between emotional intelligence and the other components (P>0.05). Conclusion: According to the results, it seems that the professional socialization of operating room students is remarkably influenced by emotional intelligence and the level of learning in the academic environment. Given the importance of intelligence and socialization in the clinical environment and comprehensive patient care, clinical students must be adequately trained on emotional intelligence skills

The SwissLipids knowledgebase for lipid biology.

MOTIVATION: Lipids are a large and diverse group of biological molecules with roles in membrane formation, energy storage and signaling. Cellular lipidomes may contain tens of thousands of structures, a staggering degree of complexity whose significance is not yet fully understood. High-throughput mass spectrometry-based platforms provide a means to study this complexity, but the interpretation of lipidomic data and its integration with prior knowledge of lipid biology suffers from a lack of appropriate tools to manage the data and extract knowledge from it. RESULTS: To facilitate the description and exploration of lipidomic data and its integration with prior biological knowledge, we have developed a knowledge resource for lipids and their biology-SwissLipids. SwissLipids provides curated knowledge of lipid structures and metabolism which is used to generate an in silico library of feasible lipid structures. These are arranged in a hierarchical classification that links mass spectrometry analytical outputs to all possible lipid structures, metabolic reactions and enzymes. SwissLipids provides a reference namespace for lipidomic data publication, data exploration and hypothesis generation. The current version of SwissLipids includes over 244 000 known and theoretically possible lipid structures, over 800 proteins, and curated links to published knowledge from over 620 peer-reviewed publications. We are continually updating the SwissLipids hierarchy with new lipid categories and new expert curated knowledge. AVAILABILITY: SwissLipids is freely available at http://www.swisslipids.org/. CONTACT: [email protected] SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online

Updates in Rhea-a manually curated resource of biochemical reactions.

Rhea (http://www.ebi.ac.uk/rhea) is a comprehensive and non-redundant resource of expert-curated biochemical reactions described using species from the ChEBI (Chemical Entities of Biological Interest) ontology of small molecules. Rhea has been designed for the functional annotation of enzymes and the description of genome-scale metabolic networks, providing stoichiometrically balanced enzyme-catalyzed reactions (covering the IUBMB Enzyme Nomenclature list and additional reactions), transport reactions and spontaneously occurring reactions. Rhea reactions are extensively curated with links to source literature and are mapped to other publicly available enzyme and pathway databases such as Reactome, BioCyc, KEGG and UniPathway, through manual curation and computational methods. Here we describe developments in Rhea since our last report in the 2012 database issue of Nucleic Acids Research. These include significant growth in the number of Rhea reactions and the inclusion of reactions involving complex macromolecules such as proteins, nucleic acids and other polymers that lie outside the scope of ChEBI. Together these developments will significantly increase the utility of Rhea as a tool for the description, analysis and reconciliation of genome-scale metabolic models

Constraints on the χ_(c1) versus χ_(c2) polarizations in proton-proton collisions at √s = 8 TeV

The polarizations of promptly produced χ_(c1) and χ_(c2) mesons are studied using data collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC, in proton-proton collisions at √s=8  TeV. The χ_c states are reconstructed via their radiative decays χ_c → J/ψγ, with the photons being measured through conversions to e⁺e⁻, which allows the two states to be well resolved. The polarizations are measured in the helicity frame, through the analysis of the χ_(c2) to χ_(c1) yield ratio as a function of the polar or azimuthal angle of the positive muon emitted in the J/ψ → μ⁺μ⁻ decay, in three bins of J/ψ transverse momentum. While no differences are seen between the two states in terms of azimuthal decay angle distributions, they are observed to have significantly different polar anisotropies. The measurement favors a scenario where at least one of the two states is strongly polarized along the helicity quantization axis, in agreement with nonrelativistic quantum chromodynamics predictions. This is the first measurement of significantly polarized quarkonia produced at high transverse momentum