The role of commitment to supervisor on organizational justice and citizenship among Iranian employees

The current study examined the relationship between commitment to supervisor, organizational justice, and organizational citizenship behavior among Iranian employees working at private and public companies. 160 employees from various organizations across industries were used to test the hypotheses in this study. Participants completed three questionnaires related to the variables in this study. Results were in congruity with the findings of the previous research, that organizational justice was positively correlated with both commitment to supervisor and organizational citizenship behavior. The results of the current study have important implications for organizations in that the impact of the relationship formed between a supervisor/manager and their employees can have far reaching implications for overall organizational functioning and ultimately organizational profitability

The role of commitment to supervisor on organizational justice and citizenship among Iranian employees

The current study examined the relationship between commitment to supervisor, organizational justice, and organizational citizenship behavior among Iranian employees working at private and public companies. 160 employees from various organizations across industries were used to test the hypotheses in this study. Participants completed three questionnaires related to the variables in this study. Results were in congruity with the findings of the previous research, that organizational justice was positively correlated with both commitment to supervisor and organizational citizenship behavior. The results of the current study have important implications for organizations in that the impact of the relationship formed between a supervisor/manager and their employees can have far reaching implications for overall organizational functioning and ultimately organizational profitability

Critical point approaches to second-order differential systems generated by impulses

Using variational methods and critical point theory, we establish multiplicity results of solutions for second-order differential systems generated by impulses. Indeed, employing two sorts of three critical points theorems, we establish the multiplicity results for weak solutions of the problem and verify that these solutions are generated by impulses.Publisher's Versio

Computational Studies of the Energetics and Dynamics of Protein-Protein Binding

Protein-protein binding is crucial to various processes in living organisms including signal transduction and cell regulation and also plays a central role in various diseases. Therefore, detailed understanding of protein binding is of great importance and is an active area of research in many fields including chemistry, molecular biology and biophysics. In this dissertation, a series of five computational studies were completed to provide molecular details of the energetics and dynamics of model protein-protein complexes. The first three studies focus on the role of solvent in protein-protein binding. The presence of solvent is very important to the formation of protein-protein complexes through both favorable and unfavorable contributions. For example, the extent to which that salt bridges contribute to the binding stability is predominantly determined by their desolvation penalties, which is difficult to examine experimentally but has been previously studied using implicit solvent models. Here, extensive implicit and explicit solvent simulations were carried out to directly compare the two solvent models in estimating the desolvation penalties of salt bridges upon protein binding. In addition, the effects of high temperature and salt concentration on the desolvation penalties were also explored. In the fourth study, molecular simulations were employed to model rearrangements of an intermolecular beta sheet in a protein-peptide complex, providing insight into how nature might correct for mistakes in binding orientation for protein-protein interactions involving the formation of beta sheets. The rearrangement mechanism includes a hydrophobic residue of the peptide anchoring itself to a transient hydrophobic pocket on the protein and helping the peptide to “crawl” back to its native state. Finally, in the fifth study, the relative stabilities of the dimeric and newly discovered trimeric states for a model coiled-coil protein, the GCN4 leucine zipper were compared in isolation. Parallel tempering molecular dynamic simulations in implicit solvent, performed on the microsecond timescale, revealed that while the dimer fold is more stable at room temperature, both oligomers have similar stabilities at temperatures well below the melting temperatures and therefore the same sequence can populate both folds depending on the environment

COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE LEVEL OF ANXIETY, DEPRESSION AND QUALITY OF LIFE IN PATIENTS WITH AND WITHOUT HYPERTENSION IN AMIRALMOMENIN ALI HOSPITAL IN ZABOL

Hypertension is one of the major issues of public health in the today world that is one of the main risk factors of cardiovascular diseases. Current study was conducted aiming at comparative investigation of level of depression, anxiety, and quality of life in patients with hypertension and healthy individuals. In a case-control study, 60 patients with hypertension were randomly selected based on inclusion and exclusion criteria, and they were compared with 60 of their first-degree relatives without hypertension in terms of depression symptoms. Research data were collected using demographic questionnaire, Beck depression inventory, Beck anxiety inventory, and WHO quality of life survey, and they were analyzed using descriptive statistical methods in SPSS 16 software. Independent t test was also used. Depression and anxiety symptoms are more in patients with hypertension compared to those without hypertension, and quality of life in patients with hypertension is lower than the other group. Results of this study showed high prevalence of anxiety and depression and low quality of life in patients with hypertension. Keywords: Depression, anxiety, hypertension, quality of lif

Sequence specificity despite intrinsic disorder: How a disease-associated Val/Met polymorphism rearranges tertiary interactions in a long disordered protein

The role of electrostatic interactions and mutations that change charge states in intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) is well-established, but many disease-associated mutations in IDPs are charge-neutral. The Val66Met single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in precursor brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is one of the earliest SNPs to be associated with neuropsychiatric disorders, and the underlying molecular mechanism is unknown. Here we report on over 250 μs of fully-atomistic, explicit solvent, temperature replica-exchange molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of the 91 residue BDNF prodomain, for both the V66 and M66 sequence. The simulations were able to correctly reproduce the location of both local and non-local secondary structure changes due to the Val66Met mutation, when compared with NMR spectroscopy. We find that the change in local structure is mediated via entropic and sequence specific effects. We developed a hierarchical sequence-based framework for analysis and conceptualization, which first identifies blobs of 4-15 residues representing local globular regions or linkers. We use this framework within a novel test for enrichment of higher-order (tertiary) structure in disordered proteins; the size and shape of each blob is extracted from MD simulation of the real protein (RP), and used to parameterize a self-avoiding heterogenous polymer (SAHP). The SAHP version of the BDNF prodomain suggested a protein segmented into three regions, with a central long, highly disordered polyampholyte linker separating two globular regions. This effective segmentation was also observed in full simulations of the RP, but the Val66Met substitution significantly increased interactions across the linker, as well as the number of participating residues. The Val66Met substitution replaces β-bridging between V66 and V94 (on either side of the linker) with specific side-chain interactions between M66 and M95. The protein backbone in the vicinity of M95 is then free to form β-bridges with residues 31-41 near the N-terminus, which condenses the protein. A significant role for Met/Met interactions is consistent with previously-observed non-local effects of the Val66Met SNP, as well as established interactions between the Met66 sequence and a Met-rich receptor that initiates neuronal growth cone retraction

In vitro study of concentration-effect and time-course pattern of white alum on Escherichia coli O157:H7 growth

Background: Nowadays, the demand for antibacterial fabrics has increased. White alum is used for oral aphthous ulcers treatment in traditional medicine of Sistan city, Sistan and Baluchistan Province, Iran, and also as a flocculent for water purification. This study is aimed to evaluate the effect of concentration and time on antibacterial activity of white alum on Escherichia coli O157:H7.Materials and Methods: 0.25, 0.5, 1 and 2% concentrations of white alum were added to 108 CFU of Escherichia coli O157:H7. Optical Density was recorded for 4 hours. Data obtained were analyzed using Repeated Measure and Oneway ANOVA by SPSS.Results: Results revealed the effectiveness of white alum in the growth of the tested bacterium. The white alum was found to be potent against Escherichia coli O157:H7 at a concentration above 1% (p<0.05). Also, its effect is dose and time dependent, as well as other disinfectants.Conclusion: A wide variety of natural products has been under scrutiny for their clinical potential, both in terms of prevention and treatment. Strong antibacterial activity of white alum compared with control was shown against tested bacterium. In conclusion, white alum can be used as an inhibitor of bacterial growth, especially for Escherichia coli O157:H7.Keywords: Antibacterial activity; Escherichia coli O157:H7; Sistan; Steoptria Alon aloman alen; White alu

Solution of a practical Vehicle Routing Problem for monitoring Water Distribution Networks

In this work, we introduce a generalisation of the Vehicle Routing Problem for a specific application in the monitoring of a Water Distribution Network (WDN). In this problem, multiple technicians must visit a sequence of nodes in the WDN and perform a series of tests to check the quality of water. Some special nodes (i.e., wells) require technicians to first collect a key from a key centre. The key must then be returned to the same key centre after the test has been performed, thus introducing precedence constraints and multiple visits in the routes. To solve the problem, a Mixed Integer Linear Programming model and an Iterated Local Search have been implemented. The efficiency of the proposed methods is demonstrated by means of extensive computational tests on randomly created and real-world instances