Basic psychological needs and psychological well-being: the mediating role of Instagram addiction

Instagram is a popular social network platform that brings benefits to many. However, for a small minority, problematic use may be an issue of concern (i.e., Instagram addiction). This addiction appears to originate from various contexts and can also have psychosocial consequences. The present study investigated the basic psychological needs and psychological well-being and the mediating role of Instagram addiction. The sample comprised 660 participants who completed a number of psychometric scales including the: Instagram Addiction Scale (15 questions), Basic Psychological Needs Scale (21 questions), and Psychological Well-being Scale (18 questions). The results confirmed the fit of the model, and showed the direct adverse and significant effects of basic psychological needs on Instagram addiction, Instagram addiction on psychological well-being, and the positive and significant direct impact of basic needs on psychological well-being. There were also significant indirect effects of basic needs (autonomy, competence, and relatedness) in well-being via Instagram addiction. The failure to satisfy basic psychological needs appears to play an important role in the addictive use of Instagram, leading to a decrease in psychological well-being

A survey on the effect of Cochlodinium.sp bloom on shrimp culture complexes and hatcheries activities in Bushehr Province

The aims of this project was to inform and aware about the red tide condition before entering the algal bloomer in water resources to the hatcheries and farmed shrimp complexes in Bushehr province coastal. Field investigation and sampling have been carried out in the southern of the input water channels of Mond, Delvar and Helleh farmed shrimp complexes, which are located along the coastal of Bushehr Province, from April to December 2011 .The physic-chemical parameters such as pH, salinity and water temperature and also meteorological conditions were measured and recorded on the field. The water sampling has been lunched for determination of nutrients and chlorophyll - a, phyto- and zoo- planktons. No Cochlodinium.sp outbreaks have been detected in the studied area, during the study. The only bloom which reported by a fisherman, was outbreak in offshore of Bushehr province in Khoure Khan on 13th September 2011. The sample which transferred to the Iranian National Shrimp Research Institute was included Alexandrium.sp and its density was 2 million cells per liter. The identified phytoplanktons were belonged to three order of Bacillariophyceae (52.6%) with average density of 10778 cells per liter, Dinophyceae (37.7%) with density of 7731 cells per liter and Cyanophyceae (9.7%) with density of 1980 cells. 12 genera belonged to Dinophyceae , 25 genera of Bacillariophyceae and two genera of Cyanophyceae were observed during the study. The highest density of phytoplankton was recorded in Helleh station by 18374 cells per liter. The maximum density of phytoplankton was at Delvar station by 141120 cells per liter in December. The highest density of the phytoplanktons was belonged to Dinophyceae by 126000 by cells per liter of which the Alexandrium.sp had the density of 124500 cells per liter in August 2011. From the Dinophyceae the Alexandrium.sp with mean density of 20345 cells per liter, Ornithocercus 920 cells and Prorocentrum.sp 820 cells were the predominant species. The identified Zooplankton in were belonged to 8 branches and 19 groups. The highest density of zooplankton was recorded in Helleh station by 1194 no. per liter. Nauplii were the dominant zooplankton groups with an average density of 136.4 no. per liter, Tintinnids 98.7, Cyclopoida 60.8, Calanoida 35.7 and Harpacticoids 14.5 no. per liter . The average of water and air temperature was recorded 29.4 °C and 28.3 °C, respectively. Average of salinity was 41.2 and pH was 8.46. The average of depth in all stations was 5.7 m. The mean concentrations of silicate, nitrate, nitrite, ammonia and total phosphate were 1.99, 0.03, 0.009, 0.14 0.15 ppm, respectively and the average of chlorophyll - a was 0.94 mg.m-3

Non Mycobacterial Virulence Genes in the Genome of the Emerging Pathogen Mycobacterium abscessus

Mycobacterium abscessus is an emerging rapidly growing mycobacterium (RGM) causing a pseudotuberculous lung disease to which patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) are particularly susceptible. We report here its complete genome sequence. The genome of M. abscessus (CIP 104536T) consists of a 5,067,172-bp circular chromosome including 4920 predicted coding sequences (CDS), an 81-kb full-length prophage and 5 IS elements, and a 23-kb mercury resistance plasmid almost identical to pMM23 from Mycobacterium marinum. The chromosome encodes many virulence proteins and virulence protein families absent or present in only small numbers in the model RGM species Mycobacterium smegmatis. Many of these proteins are encoded by genes belonging to a “mycobacterial” gene pool (e.g. PE and PPE proteins, MCE and YrbE proteins, lipoprotein LpqH precursors). However, many others (e.g. phospholipase C, MgtC, MsrA, ABC Fe(3+) transporter) appear to have been horizontally acquired from distantly related environmental bacteria with a high G+C content, mostly actinobacteria (e.g. Rhodococcus sp., Streptomyces sp.) and pseudomonads. We also identified several metabolic regions acquired from actinobacteria and pseudomonads (relating to phenazine biosynthesis, homogentisate catabolism, phenylacetic acid degradation, DNA degradation) not present in the M. smegmatis genome. Many of the “non mycobacterial” factors detected in M. abscessus are also present in two of the pathogens most frequently isolated from CF patients, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Burkholderia cepacia. This study elucidates the genetic basis of the unique pathogenicity of M. abscessus among RGM, and raises the question of similar mechanisms of pathogenicity shared by unrelated organisms in CF patients

PHYTOPROT: a database of clusters of plant proteins

All the protein sequences from plants (including Arabidopsis thaliana) available from SwissProt/TrEMBL have been the subject of an all-by-all systematic comparison and grouped into clusters of related proteins. Within each cluster, the sequences have been submitted to pyramidal classification; in the case where two or several subfamilies have been grouped together, the pyramidal tree helps in finding which sequences make the links between subfamilies. In addition, the ‘domains’ that are common to two or more sequences within a cluster were determined and displayed à la ProDom. The resulting graphical representations proved to be quite efficient in pinpointing those protein sequences suffering from a probable error in the annotation of their genes. The clusters can be searched through various criteria and their pyramidal classifications and their domain representations can be displayed by querying http://genoplante-info.infobiogen.fr/phytoprot. The user can also launch a BLAST search of a query sequence against all the clusters

Quantitative Methods, Applications, and Trends in Asian Tourism Research

This chapter states the purpose and goals of the entire book covering the status and future directions of quantitative tourism research in Asia. As an introductory part, this chapter describes the scope of the book and provides a brief explanation and summary of chapters. As such, this chapter highlights the research paradigm, philosophy and design, and other quantitative-specific dimensions before intruding on each chapter. The chapters of the book are divided into 3 main parts including understanding tourism industry in Asia (Part I), the current status of quantitative techniques (Part II), and future directions for Asian tourism researches (Part III). In fact, the introduction chapter implicitly discusses how tourism context might be different from the other settings and argues that the creation of knowledge even in quantitative data analysis to some extent is context dependent. Therefore, this chapter discusses an overview of data analysis strategies that is often overlooked by researchers