Investigating Ethical Fashion Consumerism Practices: Multi-theory Approach

This study was conducted to obtain an in-depth understanding regarding the motivations and adoption of ethical fashion consumerism by taste leaders, specifically green celebrities. A total 20 interviews of movie stars, bloggers, and musicians published between 2014 and 2016 in a sustainable fashion magazine were analyzed. Three different theories were employed to interpret three different stages involved into ethical consumerism process. Social Cognitive theory explain the learning stage, Theory of Planned Behavior explain the intention/motivation stage and Social Practice Theory described the implementation stage of ethical fashion consumerism process

Is Campylobacter fetus subspecies venerealis infection a cause of reproductive failure in dairy cows in Iran?

Summary Bovine genital campylobacteriosis is one of the most economically important diseases of dairy cattle resulting in lowered fertility, embryo mortality and abortion, repeated returns to service, reduced pregnancy rates and extended calving intervals. While the occurrence of repeat breeding syndrome and abortions are reported from many Iranian dairy cattle farms, little information is available regarding the presence of bovine genital campylobacteriosis in Iran. The present report describes detection of Campylobacter fetus subsp. venerealis infection in two out of eight repeat breeder Holstein Friesian cows (Bos Taurus) using a PCR method in a herd with a history of subfertility in Mashhad, in the northeast of Iran

Physiological responses and phytoremediation ability of Eastern Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) for crude oil contaminated soil

One of the most important anthropogenic pollution types in countries with oil production is soil and water contamination by petroleum. Phytoremediation is an emerging green technology for cleaning up polluted soil. A greenhouse experiment was conducted to study the effect of oil-contaminated soil on Echinacea purpurea with four concentrations of crude oil - contaminated soil: control = 0, 0.5% = 5000, 1% = 10000, and 2% = 20000 mg kg-1. Morphological and physiological traits were evaluated after 90 days. Gas chromatography determined the removal rate percentage of total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPHs) in the soil. The results show that this plant has potential for removing TPHs, up to 45.5% at 1% crude oil contamination, while the removal rate by natural attenuation is only 32%. Data from morphological and flowering indices including shoot and root fresh weights, shoot and root dry weights, flower stem length, flower longevity, flower anthocyanin, and visual stress symptoms show significant differences within treatments. Based on the results, E. purpurea can tolerate crude oil concentrations in soil equal to or greater than 5000 and 10000 mg kg-1 (0.5% and 1% w/w). However, flowering was not observed at treatments of 1% and 2% crude oil contamination. As crude oil concentration increased, physiological parameters such as total chlorophyll, protein, and antioxidant capacity significantly decreased, while other parameters including leaf anthocyanin, electrolyte leakage, malondialdehyde, proline, and total carbohydrate all increased. Overall, E. purpurea is a widely - spread species that can be effectively used for phytoremediation of ≤10000 mg kg1 crude oil contaminated soil

Safety and discontinuation rate of dimethyl fumarate (Zadiva®) in patients with multiple sclerosis: an observational retrospective study

BACKGROUND: This study evaluates the real-world safety and discontinuation rate of Zadiva® (generic product of dimethyl fumarate (DMF)) in Iranian patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS), supplementing existing clinical evidence from randomized controlled trials. METHODS: This retrospective observational study evaluated the real-world safety and discontinuation rate of DMF in RRMS patients from Amir A'lam referral hospital's neurology clinic. Data on safety, discontinuation rate, and clinical disease activity were collected retrospectively. The study aimed to assess the discontinuation rate, safety, and reasons for discontinuation, as well as the number of patients experiencing a relapse, MRI activity, and EDSS scores. RESULTS: In total, 142 RRMS patients receiving DMF were included in the study, with 15 discontinuing treatment due to adverse events, lack of efficacy, or pregnancy. Notably, a significant reduction in relapse rates was observed, with 90.8% of patients remaining relapse-free throughout the study period. After 1 year of treatment with Zadiva®, only 17.6% of patients experienced MRI activity, whereas the EDSS score remained stable. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides important real-world data on the safety and tolerability of Zadiva® in RRMS patients. The results indicate that Zadiva® is generally well tolerated and safe, with a low discontinuation rate due to adverse events or lack of efficacy. These findings suggest that Zadiva® is an effective and safe treatment option for RRMS patients in real-world practice

Adhesion and proliferation of living cell on surface functionalized with glycine nanostructures

This research presents the application of glycine amino acid for establishing firm cell-substrate interaction instead of expensive adhesion proteins, peptides and peptide derivatives. The glycine amino acid is chemically functionalized on the coverslip to achieve self-assembled nanostructure. Glycine self-assembly on NaCl treated coverslips is initiated with SiONa+:COO− linkage while their nanostructure is achieved with formation of glycine chain through NH3+:COO− covalent linkage between the adjacent molecules. The functionalization steps are confirmed by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) investigation. The atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) investigations reveal that glycine growth initiates at 4 Hours (H) post-treatment while maximum growth appears after 8H-10H. Both the vertical and horizontal growth of nanostructures show dependence on functionalization periods. Various levels of glycine functionalized surface show different levels of baby hamster kidney (BHK-21) cell adhesion and proliferation efficiency with maximum performance for 10H functionalized surface. The adhesion and proliferation performance of 10H glycine functionalized surface shows negligible difference when compared with glycine-aspartic acid (RGD) functionalized surface. Finally, growth curves obtained from both glycine and RGD functionalized surface reveal exponential growth phage up to 48H followed by stationary phage between 48H and 72H while death of many cells appears from 72H to 96H. Thus, this research concluded that glycine functionalized surface is equally effective for cell adhesion and proliferation

Effects of RF/MW Exposure from Mobile-phone Base-Stations on the Growth of Green Mint Plant using Chl a Fluorescence Emission

We report on the effects of RF/MW on plants.Green Mint plant exposed to different levels ofradiation (from 0.5 to 10.5 μW/cm2) for thispurpose. A USB2000 spectrophotometer wasused to record fluorescence signals from intactleaves.Spectroscopic data (P.I.R and A.R)together with vegetative data (leafdimensions and weight), revealed stressingeffects on plant due to RF/MW in all groupsexcept the control which was free of exposure

Trends and clinico-epidemiological features of human rabies cases in Bangladesh 2006–2018

Vaccinating dogs against rabies is an effective means of reducing human rabies. We subjected 1327 clinically diagnosed human rabies death and mass dog vaccination (MDV) data during 2006–2018 to quantify the impacts of MDV on human rabies incidence in Bangladesh and a subset of rabies death data (422) for clinico-epidemiological analysis. A positive and increasing trend of MDV (p = 0.01 and tau = 0.71) and a negative and declining trend (p < 0.001 and tau = −0.88) of human rabies cases (Correlation coefficient: −0.82) have been observed. Among 422 deaths, the majority (78%) of the victims sought treatment from traditional healers, and 12% received post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP). The mean incubation period of rabies in cases with exposure sites on the head & neck (35 days) was shorter than the upper limb (mean = 64 days, p = 0.02) and lower limb (mean = 89 days, p < 0.01). MDV has been found to be effective for reducing human rabies cases in Bangladesh. Creating awareness among the animal bite victims to stop reliance on traditional healers rather seeking PEP, addressing the role of traditional healers through awareness education programme with respect to the treatment of dog bites, ensuring availability of PEP, and continuing to scale up MDV may help to prevent human rabies deaths

Tin Oxide Nanorod Array-Based Electrochemical Hydrogen Peroxide Biosensor

SnO2 nanorod array grown directly on alloy substrate has been employed as the working electrode of H2O2 biosensor. Single-crystalline SnO2 nanorods provide not only low isoelectric point and enough void spaces for facile horseradish peroxidase (HRP) immobilization but also numerous conductive channels for electron transport to and from current collector; thus, leading to direct electrochemistry of HRP. The nanorod array-based biosensor demonstrates high H2O2 sensing performance in terms of excellent sensitivity (379 μA mM−1 cm−2), low detection limit (0.2 μM) and high selectivity with the apparent Michaelis–Menten constant estimated to be as small as 33.9 μM. Our work further demonstrates the advantages of ordered array architecture in electrochemical device application and sheds light on the construction of other high-performance enzymatic biosensors

Analysis of Intracellular State Based on Controlled 3D Nanostructures Mediated Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering

Near-infrared surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) is a powerful technique for analyzing the chemical composition within a single living cell at unprecedented resolution. However, current SERS methods employing uncontrollable colloidal metal particles or non-uniformly distributed metal particles on a substrate as SERS-active sites show relatively low reliability and reproducibility. Here, we report a highly-ordered SERS-active surface that is provided by a gold nano-dots array based on thermal evaporation of gold onto an ITO surface through a nanoporous alumina mask. This new combined technique showed a broader distribution of hot spots and a higher signal-to-noise ratio than current SERS techniques due to the highly reproducible and uniform geometrical structures over a large area. This SERS-active surface was applied as cell culture system to study living cells in situ within their culture environment without any external preparation processes. We applied this newly developed method to cell-based research to differentiate cell lines, cells at different cell cycle stages, and live/dead cells. The enhanced Raman signals achieved from each cell, which represent the changes in biochemical compositions, enabled differentiation of each state and the conditions of the cells. This SERS technique employing a tightly controlled nanostructure array can potentially be applied to single cell analysis, early cancer diagnosis and cell physiology research

Epidemiology and genotypes of group A rotaviruses in cattle and goats of Bangladesh, 2009-2010

Group A rotavirus (RVA) is recognized as a major cause of severe gastroenteritis in newborn calves and goat kids. We estimated the proportion of ruminants infected with rotavirus and identified the circulating genotypes in cattle and goats in Bangladesh. Between May 2009 and August 2010, fecal samples were collected from 520 cattle and goats presenting with diarrhea at three government veterinary hospitals in three districts of Bangladesh. All samples were screened for RVA RNA using real-time, one-step, reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Of the 520 animals tested, 11.7% (61) were positive for RVA RNA, with 6.2% (15/241) and 16.5% (46/279) positivity in cattle and goats, respectively. RVA positive samples were further characterized by nucleotide sequence analysis of two structural protein gene fragments, VP7 (G genotype), and VP4 (P genotype). Among 17 successfully sequenced strains, G8 (17.9%) was the most prevalent G-genotype followed by G10 (8%) and G6 (1.6%). P[1] (11.3%) was the most frequently detected P-genotype followed by P[11] (3.2%) and P[15] (1.6%). The most common VP7/VP4 combinations for cattle were G10P[11], G10P[15], and G6P[11], and for goat, G8P[1], and G10P[1]. Phylogenetic analysis of the RVA strains showed clustering with bovine and caprine strains from neighboring India. The study adds to our understanding of the genetic diversity of bovine and caprine rotavirus strains in Bangladesh. Our findings highlight the importance of rotavirus surveillance in cattle and goat populations, which may serve as a potential source for genetic reassortment and zoonotic transmission