Isolation, Characterization and Antibiotic Resistance of Shiga Toxin-Producing Escherichia coli in Hamburger and Evolution of Virulence Genes stx1, stx2, eaeA and hly by Multiplex PCR

Background & Objectives: Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) O157:H7 have emerged as pathogens that can cause food-borne infections and severe and potentially fatal illnesses in humans. E.coli O157:H7 colonizes the digestive tract of cattle and is transmitted to humans by food and water. The objectives of this study were to characterize the prevalence of E.coli O157:H7 isolates in hamburger in Shiraz and to test their antimicrobial sensitivity. Material & Methods: In this research, 428 samples of hamburger were collected from 7 main factories of meat products and enriched in TSB with novobiocin medium at 37ºC. Fermentation of sorbitol and lactose and activities of β- glucuronidase of separated bacteria were examined by using the SMAC and VRBA media and CHROMagar medium. Then isolation of E.coli O157:H7 was confirmed with the use of specific antisera; and with the multiplex PCR method, the presence of E.coli O157:H7 virulence genes – including stx1, stx2, eaeA, and hly – was analyzed. Finally, antibiotic resistance strains were tested with disk diffusion methods. Results: Out of all the examined samples, 264 (61.68%) sorbitol-negative bacteria were separated in the CT-SMAC medium. After evaluation with specific antisera, the rate of the recognition of E.coli O157:H7 was 5 (1.17%). The stx1 and eaeA genes were diagnosed in 2 (0.47%) cases of these samples. All the isolated bacteria were resistant to penicillin, clindamycin, and erythromycin antibiotics.Conclusion: The presence of STEC in animal products suggests that they may be a potential hazard for human health. A regular monitoring of STEC O157, mainly in hamburger, should be performed to prevent a possible consumer health threat

Evaluation of the Relationship between Social Desirability and Minor Psychiatric Disorders among Nurses in Southern Iran: A Robust Regression Approach

Abstract Background: Social desirability may affect different aspects of people’s quality of life. One of the impressive dimensions of quality of life is mental health. The prevalence of Minor Psychiatric Disorders (MPD) among health care workers is higher than other health workers. This article aims at evaluating the relationship between social desirability and MPD among nurses in southern Iran. Method: A cross-sectional study was carried out on 765 nurses who had been employed in hospitals in the southern provinces of Iran. The 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) and Marlowe- Crowne Social Desirability Scale (MC-SDS) were used for evaluating the MPD and social desirability in nurses, respectively. The Robust Regression was used to determine any quantified relationship between social desirability and the level of MPD with adjusted age, gender, work experience, marital status, and level of education. Result: The mean scores of GHQ-12 and MC-SDS were 13.02±5.64 (out of 36) and 20.17±4.76 (out of 33), respectively. The result of Robust Regression indicated that gender and social desirability were statistically significant in affecting MPD. Conclusion: The prevalence of MPD in female nurses was higher than males. Nurses with higher social desirability scores had the tendency to report lower levels of MPD

The Effect of Small Sample Size on Measurement Equivalence of Psychometric Questionnaires in MIMIC Model: A Simulation Study

Evaluating measurement equivalence (also known as differential item functioning (DIF)) is an important part of the process of validating psychometric questionnaires. This study aimed at evaluating the multiple indicators multiple causes (MIMIC) model for DIF detection when latent construct distribution is nonnormal and the focal group sample size is small. In this simulation-based study, Type I error rates and power of MIMIC model for detecting uniform-DIF were investigated under different combinations of reference to focal group sample size ratio, magnitude of the uniform-DIF effect, scale length, the number of response categories, and latent trait distribution. Moderate and high skewness in the latent trait distribution led to a decrease of 0.33% and 0.47% power of MIMIC model for detecting uniform-DIF, respectively. The findings indicated that, by increasing the scale length, the number of response categories and magnitude DIF improved the power of MIMIC model, by 3.47%, 4.83%, and 20.35%, respectively; it also decreased Type I error of MIMIC approach by 2.81%, 5.66%, and 0.04%, respectively. This study revealed that power of MIMIC model was at an acceptable level when latent trait distributions were skewed. However, empirical Type I error rate was slightly greater than nominal significance level. Consequently, the MIMIC was recommended for detection of uniform-DIF when latent construct distribution is nonnormal and the focal group sample size is small

Isolation and Identification of Carcinogen Acenaphthene-Degrading Endemic Bacteria from Crude Oil Contaminated Soils around Abadan Refinery

Background and Objective: PAHs are non-polar organic compounds consisting of two or more fused benzene multi-rings. Among these compounds, acenaphthene is a multi-ring hydrocarbon that occurs abundantly in nature. Use of microorganisms to clean the contaminations of soil can be cheap and effective. The most important acenaphthene-degrading bacteria are pseudomonas, micrococcus, and Bacillus. The goal of this study was to isolate and identify the bacteria which degrade acenaphthene in soils around Abadan Refinery and to investigate the relation between the levels of environmental pollution with acenaphthene. Materials and Methods: Soil samples were collected from three areas around Abadan Refinery. The number of the bacteria was counted on the nutrient agar culture with and without acenaphthene. Isolation of the bacteria was done by culturing the samples on acenaphthene broth with a mineral-salt medium, and on an acenaphthene agar medium. Then, the bacteria were identified via biochemical diagnostic tests. Results: The logarithm average of the bacteria was 4.786 ± 0.073 at a medium with acenaphthene, which was 6.671 ± 0.073 less than that of the control medium. The maximum number of degrading bacteria was 7.089 ± 0.089 at Station C, and the minimum number of the degrading bacteria was 4.485 ± 0.089 at Station B. In this study, Bacillus sp, Micrococcus Luteus, Corynebacterium sp, Staphylococcus epidermidis, and Pseudomonas sp bacteria were isolated and identified in terms of frequency, respectively. Conclusion: The results of this study showed that the soil around Abadan Refinery contained a great number of acenaphthene degrading bacteria, especially Bacillus and Micrococcus

Socio-ecological factors of girl child marriage: a meta-synthesis of qualitative research

Abstract Background Child marriage of girls is one example of human rights violations, and is increasingly recognized as a key obstacle to global public health. Given the importance of a comprehensive understanding of the motivations for child marriage, this study aimed to identify socio-ecological factors contributing to gills child marriage. Methods A comprehensive search was conducted of all English-language studies measuring causes of child marriage between 2000 and October 2022 in the Web of Science, PubMed, Scopus, PsycInfo, ProQuest, Poplin and Google Scholar databases. Girl child marriage is defined as a marriage under the age of 18. In this study, the CASP evaluation checklist was used to collect data. Two independent reviewers reviewed all articles. Results A total of 34 eligible qualitative articles were included. The most salient causes of child marriage among girls include low skills and knowledge, internal and external beliefs and motivations, and physical advantages at the individual level. Family characteristics and structure contribute to child marriage at the interpersonal level, while environmental and economic factors play a role at the community level. Social factors and cultural norms, as well as the shortcomings and weaknesses of legislation, are also contributing factors at the society level. Conclusion The results showed that cultural beliefs supporting gender inequality and economic status were the most important causes of child marriage. These results can help policymakers and decision-makers implement strategies to reduce gender inequality to prevent child marriage

CAM visual stimulation with conventional method of occlusion treatment in amblyopia: a randomized clinical trial

Background: The application of CAM visual stimulation returns to the date of more than fifty years ago. However, the reports of previous studies in this field vary from no effect to significant effects of this method in amblyopia treatment. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of CAM visual stimulation along with conventional occlusion therapy in anisometropic amblyopic children. Methods: Forty amblyopic children aged 4 to 6 years old with no previous treatment were enrolled in this randomized clinical trial study. The subjects were randomly as-signed in two different groups. The group 1 included conventional occlusion therapy and group 2 includes occlusion therapy with complementary CAM visual stimulation. In terms of visual acuity and stereopsis improvement and reduction of amblyopia sever-ity, two groups were compared using the repeated measure ANOVA and LSD Post Hoc tests. Results: In group 1 including conventional occlusion therapy, visual acuity improved from 0.444±0.077 logMAR to 0.138±0.023 logMAR, i.e., improvement of 0.306 log-MAR (P< 0.001) whereas in group 2 including complementary CAM usage, visual acu-ity improved from 0.398±0.075 logMAR to 0.047±0.022 logMAR, i.e., improvement of 0.351 logMAR (P< 0.001). Regarding Stereopsis, the improvements were 157 (from 258±34 to 101±13 seconds of arc, P< 0.001) and 171 (from 237±33 to 66±12 seconds of arc, P< 0.001) for groups 1 and 2 respectively. All subjects of group 2 gained the normal vision at the end of the treatment period, whereas only 47% of subjects of group 1 could achieve this level of vision in that time. Improvement of visual acuity in group 2 was significantly better than group 1 (P< 0.05). Conclusion: Using of CAM visual stimulation along with conventional occlusion will further improve visual acuity and stereopsis in amblyopic children. These findings recommended the CAM visual stimulation as an accompanying and complementary method in amblyopia treatment

The Effect of Microwave Ovens Radiation Leakage on Testis Tissue and Sex Hormones in Immature Mice

Background & Objective: The vast use of microwave ovens in today's modern life and possible exposure of users to radiation exited from the oven lead us to investigate the effect of this radiation on sex hormones. In the present study, the effect of microwave ovens radiation leakage on concentration of LH, FSH and testosterone hormones has been investigated. Materials & Methods: Thirteen immature two weeks- old male mice which weighing about 10 grams were used in this experimental study. Animals were randomly divided into 3 groups. Each group contained 10 mice. Experimental group 1 and 2 were exposed to microwave oven 30 and 90 minutes daily for 30 days, respectively. The control group received no radiation. Animals were anaesthetized and serum samples were stored. The concentration of testosterone, FSH and LH hormones were measured by RAI method. Results: The serum testosterone levels showed significant decrease in experimental group 2. But levels of LH and FSH indicate no significant different in experimental group 1 and 2 when compared to control group. Conclusion: Our results suggest that radiation leakage of microwave ovens might causes dysfunction in the levels of testosterone hormone secretion

Additional file 1 of Socio-ecological factors of girl child marriage: a meta-synthesis of qualitative research

Additional file 1: Table S1. Enhancing transparency in reporting the synthesis of qualitative research: the ENTREQ statement. Table S2. Inclusion and exclusion criteria. Table S3. CASP critical appraisal checklist for analytical qualitative studies. Table S4. CASP critical appraisal checklist for analytical qualitative studies

Effect of Olanzapine on Pituitary –Gonad Axis and Spermatogenesis in Adult Male Rats

Bakground & Objective: Since Olanzapine is used in the treatment of psychosis and schizophrenia, the aim of this investigation was to assess the effect of Olanzapine on the pituitary –gonad axis and spermatogenesis in adult male rats.   Materials & Methods: In the present research, 50 male Wistar rats were divided into 5 groups of 10, including control, sham, and experimental groups I, II, and III, which orally received 5, 10, and 20 mg/kg Olanzapine solution for 28 days, respectively. Twenty-four hours after the last treatment, all the rats were weighed and anesthetized. Blood samples were obtained from the heart and were centrifuged; the sera were thereafter evaluated for concentrations of LH, FSH, testosterone, and prolactin via the RIA method.   Results: The results show that there was a significant increase in the body weight of the group receiving 20 mg/kg Olanzapine solution. In addition, the results of hormone assay demonstrated that the serum concentrations of LH and FSH were comparable between the experimental groups, while there was a significant increase in prolactin and significant decrease in testosterone in the group receiving 20 mg/kg Olanzapine solution.   Conclusion: The changes observed in the subjects were due to the presence of compounds in the Olanzapine solution, especially Benzodiazepine, which affected the body weight and serum concentration of prolactin and testosterone in the groups receiving 20 mg/kg Olanzapine solution

Chemical control of weeds in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) in Iran

Experiments were conducted in 2006-2007 at six research stations of the Iranian Plant Protection Research Institute to study the efficacy of different herbicides to control weeds in wheat. Treatments included mesosulfuron-methyl plus iodosulfuron-methyl-sodium plus mefenpyr-diethyl (WG) at 45 + 45 + 135 g. a.i./ha, respectively, sulfosulfuron at 21, 31.5, 42 and 51 g. a.i./ha, chlorsulfuron at 15 g. a.i./ha, bromoxynil plus MCPA at 600 g. a.i./ha with clodinafop propargyl at 64 g. a.i./ha, sulfosulfuron plus metsulfuron-methyl at 36 g. a.i./ha, mesosulfuron-methyl plus iodosulfuron-methyl-sodium plus mefenpyr-diethyl (OD) at 15 + 3 + 45 g. a.i./ha, respectively, and a full season weed-free control. Herbicides were applied at wheat tillering. Results showed that sulfosulfuron plus metsulfuron-methyl, and bromoxynil plus MCPA with clodinafop propargyl resulted in satisfactory weed control and wheat grain yield at most locations. Weed control efficacy of both formulations of mesosulfuron-methyl plus iodosulfuron-methyl-sodium was variable across locations. Efficacy of the OD formulation appears to depend upon location, so that application of this herbicide at Shiraz and Gorgan resulted in better weed control compared to use of the WG. Satisfactory performance of the OD formulation at Gorgan and Shiraz could be attributed in part to the even pattern of rainfall distribution during the growing season and wheat cultivar used, respectively. With respect to grain yield, however, the OD formulation was better than WG formulation at most of the locations