Production of Culex pipiens (Dip.: Culicidae) adults infected by Strelkovimermis spiculatus (Nematoda: Mermithidae) in autodissemination control strategy

Biological Control of mosquito vectors with insect parasitic nematodes is of importance in Integrated Mosquito Management (IMM) due to its benign nature. The mosquito parasitic mermithid Strelkovimermis spiculatus normally parasitizes larval stages of Culex pipiens and rarely do adults of Culex get infected by this nematode in wild. This infrequent phenomenon is assumed as the way of nematode dispersal. We hypothized that infected mosquito adults can be obtained through laboratory manipulations. Parasite: host ratio and host stage were two main parameters to consider. To determine the optimal larval instar and parasite:host ratio, late third, early fourth, late fourth instar larvae and 5:1, 10:1, 20:1, 40:1 ratios were compared and the percentage of infected adult mosquitoes obtained recorded. Average nematode emergence time was measured to to estimate the proper release time of the mosquitoes in larval habitats. The sex ratio, number and length of postparasites emerged from adults were also calculated and compared in quality control process. Only late fourth instars infected adult host at 5:1 with a maximum proportion of infected adults of 17.39%. The ratio of 10:1 was chosen as standard infection ratio (P=0.87). The average duration between infection and nematode emergence was 7.37±0.51 (days). The proportion of females to total emerged nematodes from adults was 0.4:1 which is an acceptable ratio for nematodes’ colonization in water bodies. There was no statistical difference between the length of nematodes emerged from mosquito adults and larvae (P=0.14). Infecting late fourth instars individually at 10:1 infection ratio in an aliquot of nematode suspension and release of infected males seven days post-infection is a feasible strategy for application of this nematode in wild

Activation of Bacillus thuringiensis Cry1I to a 50 kDa stable core impairs its full toxicity to Ostrinia nubilalis

Bacillus thuringiensis Cry1I insecticidal proteins are structurally similar to other three-domain Cry proteins, although their size, activity spectrum, and expression at the stationary phase are unique among other members of the Cry1 family. The mode of action of Cry1 proteins is not completely understood but the existence of an activation step prior to specific binding is widely accepted. In this study, we attempted to characterize and determine the importance of the activation process in the mode of action of Cry1I, as Cry1Ia protoxin or its partially processed form showed significantly higher toxicity to Ostrinia nubilalis than the fully processed protein either activated with trypsin or with O. nubilalis midgut juice. Oligomerization studies showed that Cry1Ia protoxin, in solution, formed dimers spontaneously, and the incubation of Cry1Ia protoxin with O. nubilalis brush border membrane vesicles (BBMV) promoted the formation of dimers of the partially processed form. While no oligomerization of fully activated proteins after incubation with BBMV was detected. The results of the in vitro competition assays showed that both the Cry1Ia protoxin and the approx. 50 kDa activated proteins bind specifically to the O. nubilalis BBMV and compete for the same binding sites. Accordingly, the in vivo binding competition assays show a decrease in toxicity following the addition of an excess of 50 kDa activated protein. Consequently, as full activation of Cry1I protein diminishes its toxicity against lepidopterans, preventing or decelerating proteolysis might increase the efficacy of this protein in Bt-based products

A correlation between the gas and liquid permeabilities of beech wood heat-treated in hot water and steam mediums

Heat-treatment, a major method of wood modification for improving dimensional stability and natural durability, has been studied considerably in the scientific literature. This study will focus on the effect of heat-treatment on permeability, an important physical property of wood by subjecting beech samples to two different mediums of hot water and steam, as well as in two buffered hot water of pH 7 and 8. Hydrothermal treatment caused gas permeability to decrease to its lowest value among the treatments (91.6% decrease comparing the control treatment). Hydrothermal treatment in buffered hot water of pH 8 made the lowest impact on gas permeability (12.3% decrease). The decrease in gas permeability was due to settlement of extractives on vessel perforation plates. Gas permeability showed a highly significant correlation with the amount of swelling in radial direction. Low correlation was found between liquid permeability with water absorption and the amount of swelling. Gas permeability is considered a suitable criterion for predicting the amount of swelling in beech wood

Effect of biological phosphate and chemical phosphorus fertilizer on quantity and quality of black cumin (Nigella sativa L.)

Abstract Nigella sativa is an annual flowering plant, native to Iran and other parts of southwest Asia, belonging to the buttercup family (Ranunculaceae). Its grain has several important health-related properties such as antiparasitic, anti-virus, anti-bacterial, increased milk production, carminative, and anti-diabetic. To determine effects of fertilizer treatments on this plant, this experiment was conducted in randomized complete block design in three replications with six treatments. Fertilizer treatments included biological phosphate (Pseudomonas putida) at two levels inoculated and non-inoculated and chemical phosphorus (P2O5) at three levels (Zero, 40 and 80 kg.ha -1 ). The application of fertilizers showed a significant effect (p<0.01) on biological yield, grain yield, harvest index (HI) and essential oil yield. There were no observed significant differences (p<0.01) on the essential oil percentage between chemical fertilizer and biological phosphate. Thus, it can be concluded that there is no preventative for biological fertilizer to produce a good yield of biological product for human health

The predictive model for COVID‑19 pandemic plastic pollution by using deep learning method

Pandemic plastics (e.g., masks, gloves, aprons, and sanitizer bottles) are global consequences of COVID-19 pandemic-infected waste, which has increased significantly throughout the world. These hazardous wastes play an important role in environmental pollution and indirectly spread COVID-19. Predicting the environmental impacts of these wastes can be used to provide situational management, conduct control procedures, and reduce the COVID-19 effects. In this regard, the presented study attempted to provide a deep learning-based predictive model for forecasting the expansion of the pandemic plastic in the megacities of Iran. As a methodology, a database was gathered from February 27, 2020, to October 10, 2021, for COVID-19 spread and personal protective equipment usage in this period. The dataset was trained and validated using training (80%) and testing (20%) datasets by a deep neural network (DNN) procedure to forecast pandemic plastic pollution. Performance of the DNN-based model is controlled by the confusion matrix, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, and justified by the k-nearest neighbours, decision tree, random forests, support vector machines, Gaussian naïve Bayes, logistic regression, and multilayer perceptron methods. According to the comparative modelling results, the DNN-based model was found to predict more accurately than other methods and have a significant predominance over others with a lower errors rate (MSE = 0.024, RMSE = 0.027, MAPE = 0.025). The ROC curve analysis results (overall accuracy) indicate the DNN model (AUC = 0.929) had the highest score among others

PARS risk charts: A 10-year study of risk assessment for cardiovascular diseases in Eastern Mediterranean Region

This study was designed to develop a risk assessment chart for the clinical management and prevention of the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in Iranian population, which is vital for developing national prevention programs. The Isfahan Cohort Study (ICS) is a popu- lation-based prospective study of 6504 Iranian adults 35 years old, followed-up for ten years, from 2001 to 2010. Behavioral and cardiometabolic risk factors were examined every five years, while biennial follow-ups for the occurrence of the events was performed by phone calls or by verbal autopsy. Among these participants, 5432 (2784 women, 51.3%) were CVD free at baseline examination and had at least one follow-up. Cox proportional hazard regression was used to predict the risk of ischemic CVD events, including sudden cardiac death due to unstable angina, myocardial infarction, and stroke. The model fit statis- tics such as area under the receiver-operating characteristic (AUROC), calibration chi- square and the overall bias were used to assess the model performance. We also tested the Framingham model for comparison. Seven hundred and five CVD events occurred during 49452.8 person-years of follow-up. The event probabilities were calculated and presented color-coded on each gender-specific PARS chart. The AUROC and Harrell’s C indices were 0.74 (95% CI, 0.72–0.76) and 0.73, respectively. In the calibration, the Nam-D’Ago stino ¿ 2 was 10.82 (p = 0.29). The overall bias of the proposed model was 95.60%. PARS model was also internally validated using cross-validation. The Android app and the Web-based risk assessment tool were also developed as to have an impact on public health. In compari- son, the refitted and recalibrated Framingham models, estimated the CVD incidence with the overall bias of 149.60% and 128.23% for men, and 222.70% and 176.07% for women, respectively. In conclusion, the PARS risk assessment chart is a simple, accurate, and well- calibrated tool for predicting a 10-year risk of CVD occurrence in Iranian population and can be used in an attempt to develop national guidelines for the CVD management .Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

"Effect of Aerobic Exercise Training on Pulmonary Function and Tolerance of Activity in Asthmatic Patients "

The aim of the present study was to examine the effects of a course of aerobic exercise on pulmonary function and tolerance of activity in asthmatic patients. Among the asthmatic patients, 36 patients (M= 16, F= 20) were chosen after clinical examinations, pulmonary function test, skin prick test (SPT) for aeroallergen and a six minute walk test (6MWT) on their own free will. A patient was said to have Exercise Induced Asthma (EIA) when he/she fulfilled the following criteria; (1) FEV1 < 80%, (2) 12% increase or more in FEV1 or PEF after short-acting ß2 agonist prescription and (3) 15% decrease in FEV1 or PEF after 6MWT with 70% or 80% of maximum heart rate. The patients were randomly put into two groups of case (M=8, F=10, Mean age=27) and control (M=8, F=10, Mean age=29). Case group participated in eight-week aerobic exercise plan, while control group had no plan of exercise. Pulmonary function tests were done before and after the course of exercise. There were significant changes in FEV1, FVC, PEF, FEF25-75%, MVV, RF and 6MWT between asthmatic patients of the two groups (P≤0.05), but FEV1/FVC showed no significant change. Mean of changes in FEV1, FVC, PEF, FEF25-75%, MVV, RF and 6MWT were –25.56, -17.19, 32.09, -27.93, -22.18, 5.63 and –307.5 in case group respectively while they were 6.2, 4.67, 1.96, 6.65, 15.56,-2.87 and 18.78 in the control group. This study shows that aerobic exercises in asthmatic patients lead to an improvement in pulmonary functions. Aerobic exercise rehabilitation can be a complement to medical treatment of asthma

How accessibility influences citation counts: The case of citations to the full text articles available from ResearchGate

It is generally believed that the number of citations to an article can positively be correlated to its free online availability. In the present study, we investigated the possible impact of academic social networks on the number of citations. We chose the social web service “ResearchGate” as a case. This website acts both as a social network to connect researchers, and at the same time, as an open access repository to publish post-print version of the accepted manuscripts and final versions of open access articles. We collected the data of 1823 articles published by the authors from four different universities. By analyzing these data, we showed that although different levels of full text availability are observed for the four universities, there is always a significant positive correlation between full text availability and the citation count. Moreover, we showed that both post-print version and publisher’s version (i.e., final published version) of the archived manuscripts receive more citations than non-OA articles, and the difference in the citation counts of post-print manuscripts and publisher’s version articles is nonsignificant

A genetic variant in the cytochrome P450 family 2 subfamily R member 1 determines response to vitamin D supplementation

Background Globally, about 1 billion people have inadequate levels of serum vitamin D and it is prevalent in all ethnicities and age groups. Few foods naturally contain sufficient vitamin D; therefore, most people get their requirements through supplementation. Hence vitamin D status is affected by genetic and environmental determinants including season of measurement, diet habitual, health status, body mass index and concurrent medication. Further studies are necessary to understand how genetic variation influences vitamin D metabolism. We aimed to explore the association between a potential vitamin D-related polymorphism (the rs10766197 polymorphism in the CYP2R1 gene) with the response to supplementation of vitamin D in 253 healthy Iranian girls. Material and method A total of 253 healthy subjects received 50,000 IU of vitamin D3 weekly for 9 weeks. Serum 25(OH)D concentrations and metabolic profiles were measured at baseline and after 9 weeks of supplementation. The genotypes of the CYP2R1 variant (rs10766197) were identified using TaqMan genotyping assays. Results Serum 25(OH)D during the supplementation, increased in all individuals. Subjects with a AA major genotype at this locus had higher vitamin D concentrations after intervention (Changes (%) 448.4% ± 425% in AA vs 382.7% ± 301% in GG). This genetic variant modulated the response to supplementation (p < 0.001 and p-value SNP = 0.05). Regression analysis showed that the probability of affecting serum 25(OH)D, in individuals who had homozygous major allele GG was two-fold higher than carriers of the uncommon allele A (OR = 2.1 (1–4.2); p = 0.03). Interestingly, the Hs-CRP was reduced in AA carries while was elevated in individuals with GG and AG genotypes, after high-dose vitamin D supplementation. Conclusion Changes in serum vitamin D and metabolic profile following high dose supplementation with vitamin D were associated with CYP2R1 polymorphism. Although carriers of the common G allele showed a greater response in the serum vitamin D