Electrospun nanofibers for efficient adsorption of heavy metals from water and wastewater

Heavy metals (HMs) are persistent and toxic environmental pollutants that pose critical risks toward human health and environmental safety. Their efficient elimination from water and wastewater is essential to protect public health, ensure environmental safety, and enhance sustainability. In the recent decade, nanomaterials have been developed extensively for rapid and effective removal of HMs from water and wastewater and to address the certain economical and operational challenges associated with conventional treatment practices, including chemical precipitation, ion exchange, adsorption, and membrane separation. However, the complicated and expensive manufacturing process of nanoparticles and nanotubes, their reduced adsorption capacity due to the aggregation, and challenging recovery from aqueous solutions limited their widespread applications for HM removal practices. Thus, the nanofibers have emerged as promising adsorbents due to their flexible and facile production process, large surface area, and simple recovery. A growing number of chemical modification methods have been devised to promote the nanofibers\u27 adsorption capacity and stability within the aqueous systems. This paper briefly discusses the challenges regarding the effective and economical application of conventional treatment practices for HM removal. It also identifies the practical challenges for widespread applications of nanomaterials such as nanoparticles and nanotubes as HMs adsorbents. This paper focuses on nanofibers as promising HMs adsorbents and reviews the most recent advances in terms of chemical grafting of nanofibers, using the polymers blend, and producing the composite nanofibers to create highly effective and stable HMs adsorbent materials. Furthermore, the parameters that influence the HM removal by electrospun nanofibers and the reusability of adsorbent nanofibers were discussed. Future research needs to address the gap between laboratory investigations and commercial applications of adsorbent nanofibers for water and wastewater treatment practices are also presented

Identifying the Content Production Risk Components in Digital Libraries: A Qualitative Study

Risk management is a preventive activity that identifies project risks and technical and non-technical problems for key managers and stakeholders by identifying project risks. The introduction of new digital forms of information not only has created rich and extraordinary opportunities for libraries to expand community access to information and create a positive relationship between libraries and users but poses some degree of risk. The present study employs a qualitative research approach with The Fuzzy Delphi Method (FDM). For data collection, a researcher-made questionnaire was used to identify the risks of content production in digital libraries. The FDM was employed for complete analysis using 20 IT experts on a 5-point Likert scale. The study identified 61 sub-components under nine main content production risk components: human, environmental, infrastructure, conservation and maintenance, technical, copyright, integration, evaluations of resource content, and information security risks. The present study addresses the content production risk components so that authorities can assist in planning and decision-making to prevent and resolve content production issues in digital libraries. https://dorl.net/dor/20.1001.1.20088302.2022.20.1.4.

Comparison of three primer pairs included: novel primers IS711, universal primers B4 - B5 and 16SrRNA in the diagnosis of human brucellosis in suspected patients in Iran

The genus Brucella is a worldwide distributed intracellular bacteria, which infects animals and human. Currently, this zoonosis has been diagnosed by microbiological and serological laboratory tests. Different PCR protocols with various primer pairs and different target genes have been published for the detection of Brucella, but only a few of these primers have been used in human samples. This study aimed to evaluate and compare the sensitivity and specificity of three primer pairs in the PCR technique, each of which separately amplifies three different regions in the Brucella genome, to determine which are more comfortable for the detecting of Brucella DNA in human clinical samples. 49 clinical serum samples were isolated from suspected patients in different cities in Iran from October 2017 to July 2018. The suspected patients with brucellosis-compatible symptoms were checked. These primers amplified 3 distinctive fragments in BCSP 31 gene (B4/B5), Designed IS711 primers, and a sequence of 16SrRNA of Brucella melitensis. The results showed that the B4/B5 primer pair had the highest sensitivity and specificity for the detection of both positive and negative samples (100%). The designed IS711 primer pair detected 94% of samples, whereas the 16SrRNA primer pair was the least sensitivity, being able to detect only 30.64% of samples. The specificity of 3 techniques was 100%. The B4/B5 primers were able to detect the smallest number of bacteria 0.05 CFU/reaction whereas IS711 was able to detect 2 CFU/reaction and 16SrRNA was able to detect 2×105 CFU/reaction. &nbsp

Effect of Spirulina and Brown Algae and Lead Levels on some Morphophysiological Characteristics of Ornamental Cabbage

Introdaction  Heavy metals are one of the most important environmental contaminants, particularly in soil and water sources. Mining and metal mining activities are major factors in soil contamination and generally surface soil around mines contain high amounts of these metals. Lead (Pb) is one of the heavy metals and important pollutant in arid ecosystem. The use of plants to remove contaminated soil or phytoremediation is an economical method. Today, due to increasing the pollution of soil sources and resultant problems, identification of the resistant plant species against soil pollution is essential. Using lead-contaminated soils requires their decontamination and improvement. There are different methods to remove these pollutions, one of them is the use of phytoremediation to remove pollutants from water and soil or to reduce them. Among the plants that as an ornamental plant can have a covering role in the green space and also perform the work of phytoremediation is the ornamental cabbage plants (Brassica oleracea L.). In this regard, this study was conducted with the aim of investigating the effect of lead heavy metals and the use of brown algae (Polycladia indica) and spirulina (Arthrospira platensis) as biofertilizers on ornamental cabbage plants in the direction of plant treatment. In addition, due to the presence of polysaccharide compounds such as carrageenan and alginate in the cell wall, algae (seaweeds) have a higher ability to absorb many heavy metals. Materials and Methods  The experiment was conducted as factorial based on a completely randomized design in 2020 at the research greenhouse of Zanjan University. The studied factors including lead from lead nitrate source Pb(No3)2 with three concentrations (0, 25 and 50 mg/kg) were applied to the potting soil in four replications in two stages with an interval of two weeks. The second factor was included no algae, brown algae (Polycladia indica) and spirulina (Arthrospira platensis), which occurred in four replications. The measured traits included morphological traits: number of leaves, leaf surface index. Wet and dry root weight, and physiological traits included total chlorophyll content, total leaf antioxidant, peroxidase enzyme, glycine betaine, malondialdehyde, and leaf lead and phosphorus content. Data analysis was performed using SAS software and means were compared by LSD method. Results  The results of the variance analysis showed that different levels of lead and the application of algae had a significant effect on the number of leaves per plant, leaf area index, weight, and drying of roots, total chlorophyll, and antioxidants. Moreover, the interaction effect was significant for leaf area, root fresh and dry weight, antioxidants, and leaf lead content. The simple effect of lead at p≤0.01 significantly affected glycine betaine, malondialdehyde, and leaf phosphorus. When comparing the average mutual effects of lead and algae application, it was found that the treatment with no use of lead and spirulina algae resulted in the highest weight and dry weight of the root, with an average of 11.19 and 3.625 grams, respectively. Additionally, despite the decrease in dry weight of the root due to increased lead concentration, using algae, especially for ornamental cabbage (Brassica oleracea L.), increased the dry weight of the root. The presence of natural plant hormones, organic substances, carbohydrates, fiber and amino acids in algae accelerates rooting, reduces stress caused by heavy metals and absorbs more water due to the presence of o developed root system. Also according to the results of comparing the amount of leaf lead with increasing lead, algae as an auxiliary factor can reduce the amount of uptake in the plant. Leaf phosphorus was also significant due to the simple effect of lead and algae. The highest amount of phosphorus with an average of 0.56% was observed in spirulina and the lowest with 0.48% was observed in control. Conclusion  In general, due to the toxicity of lead metal even in low concentrations, sufficient attention should be paid to the sources of this pollutant entering the environment. In this study, the effective parameters on the uptake of heavy metal lead from the soil by spirulina and brown algae were investigated. The findings of this study indicate that the ornamental cabbage plant is capable of sustaining its growth in the presence of lead and has a high resistance to this heavy metal while simultaneously absorbing it from the soil. Furthermore, the addition of algae as an auxiliary factor can improve the growth of ornamental cabbage under adverse conditions. Therefore, it is recommended that this plant be further examined for its potential to absorb other heavy metals

Activation of apoptosis and G0/G1 cell cycle arrest along with inhibition of melanogenesis by humic acid and fulvic acid: BAX/BCL-2 and Tyr genes expression and evaluation of nanomechanical properties in A375 human melanoma cell line

Objective(s): Humic acid (HA) and Fulvic acid (FA) are major members of humic substances, which are extracted from organic sources including soil and peat. The pro-apoptotic and anti-melanogenic effects of HA and FA at the cellular and molecular levels in the A375 human melanoma cell line were examined in this study. Materials and Methods: The cytotoxicity effect of HA and FA were evaluated by cell viability assay. Apoptosis and cell cycle were investigated by flow cytometry. Real-time PCR was carried out to measure the expression of BAX, BCL-2, and Tyr genes. Moreover, the changes in nanomechanical properties were determined through atomic force microscopy (AFM). Results: It was found that HA and FA decrease cell viability with an IC50 value of 50 µg/ml (dosedependent) for 14 hr, arrested cells in the G0/G1 phase, and increased the sub-G1 phase (induce apoptosis). Based on the AFM analysis, Young’s modulus and adhesion force values were increased, also ultrastructural characteristics of cells were changed. Results of Real-time PCR revealed that HA and FA lead to a decrease in the expressions of BCL-2 and Tyr genes, and increase the BAX gene expression. Conclusion: These results exhibited that HA and FA possess pro-apoptotic effects through increasing the BAX/ BCL-2 expression in A375 cells. These molecular reports were confirmed by cellular nanomechanical assessments using AFM and flow cytometry. In addition, HA and FA inhibited melanogenesis by decreasing the expression of the Tyr gene. It is worthwhile to

The effects of synbiotic supplementation on serum inflammatory markers and edema volume in breast cancer survivors with lymphedema

Breast cancer-related lymphedema (BCRL) is one of the most common complications of breast cancer treatments, which may be exacerbated by obesity. Dysbiosis may negatively impact the management of obesity and lymphedema by increasing inflammation. The objective of this study was to assess the effects of supplementation with synbiotics on inflammatory markers, serum leptin concentration and edema volume in overweight and obese BCRL women following a low-calorie diet (LCD). In a randomized double-blind controlled clinical trial, 88 breast cancer survivors with lymphedema were supplemented once a day for 10 weeks with either a synbiotic or a placebo capsule. Both groups were under a low-calorie diet (LCD). At the end of the study, synbiotic supplementation resulted in a significant reduction in leptin (P=0.003) and TNF-α (P=0.039) between the study groups. Besides, edema volume was significantly reduced within the synbiotic group after the intervention. We did not observe any significant effects of the synbiotic supplementation in hs-CRP, and IL-1β between the study groups (P=0.550, P=0.118 respectively). Conclusively, synbiotic supplementation along with an LCD program in breast cancer survivors with lymphedema had beneficial effects on the concentration of serum inflammatory markers and edema volume

Novel Pentablock Copolymers as Thermosensitive Self-Assembling Micelles for Ocular Drug Delivery

Many studies have focused on how drugs are formulated in the sol state at room temperature leading to the formation of in situ gel at eye temperature to provide a controlled drug release. Stimuli-responsive block copolymer hydrogels possess several advantages including uncomplicated drug formulation and ease of application, no organic solvent, protective environment for drugs, site-specificity, prolonged and localized drug delivery, lower systemic toxicity, and capability to deliver both hydrophobic and hydrophilic drugs. Self-assembling block copolymers (such as diblock, triblock, and pentablock copolymers) with large solubility variation between hydrophilic and hydrophobic segments are capable of making temperature-dependent micellar assembles, and with further increase in the temperature, of jellifying due to micellar aggregation. In general, molecular weight, hydrophobicity, and block arrangement have a significant effect on polymer crystallinity, micelle size, and in vitro drug release profile. The limitations of creature triblock copolymers as initial burst release can be largely avoided using micelles made of pentablock copolymers. Moreover, formulations based on pentablock copolymers can sustain drug release for a longer time. The present study aims to provide a concise overview of the initial and recent progresses in the design of hydrogel-based ocular drug delivery systems

Effects of Alginate Coating Containing Zataria multiflora Essential Oil in the Form of an Emulsion Gel and Nano-emulsion on the Chemical Quality and Sensory Properties of Rainbow Trout Fillet

Fish is often more perishable than most other foodstuffs. Microbial progression, enzymatic activity, and non-enzymatic oxidation of fats reduce the quality of fish and its products. The present study aimed to evaluate the effects of the nano-gel emulsion and emulsion gel of an alginate coating containing Zataria multiflora essential oil (ZMEO) on the chemical and sensorial quality of rainbow trout fillet (Oncorhynchus mykiss) during 16 days of refrigerated storage (4±1°C). The fish fillets were treated with alginate coating, alginate emulsion with different ZMEO concentrations (E0.25%, E0.5%, and E1%), and nano-emulsion with different ZMEO concentrations (N0.25%, N0.5%, and N1%). Afterwards, the fillets were analyzed for chemical changes (pH, TVB-N, TBARS, PV, FFA, and fatty acid profile) and sensory properties (color, texture, flavor, odor, and overall acceptability) on days zero, four, eight, 12, and 16. Data analysis was performed in SPSS version 21 using ANOVA, Bonferroni post-hoc test, and Dunnett T3 test to assess significant differences at P<0.05. The results of chemical analysis showed an increasing trend (pH, TVB-N, TBARS, PV, FFAs, MUFAs, and SFAs) during the storage period (day 16) although the rate was slower in the nano-emulsion treatments. Furthermore, the sensory properties of the samples decreased during the storage period, while using ZMEO in the alginate coating (especially in the nano-emulsion form) showed better results compared to the control. According to the results, the alginate coating containing ZMEO (especially in the nano-emulsion form) could preserve the chemical and sensorial quality of the fresh trout fillets for four days

Molecular Characterization of Echinococcus granulosus Sensu Lato from Livestock in North Khorasan Province, Iran

Background: Echinococcus granulosus is one the most important zoonotic disease which is endemic in worldwide. Molecular method has allowed discrimination of different genotypes (G1-G10), providing new approach in development of prevention and control program of hydatid cyst. This study was conducted to identify the genotypes of E. granulosus from domestic animals in nine districts of North Khorasan Province using the mitochondrial cox1 gene sequence. Methods: Overall, 122 hydatid cyst were collected during 2016-2017 from sheep (n=43) and cattle (n=79). DNA was extracted from protoscoleces and germinal layers and amplified by PCR. Phylogenetic analysis was also performed by analyzing the complete nucleotide sequences of mitochondrial cytochrome C oxidase subunit 1 (cox1) of E. granulosus genotypes from various locations. Results: Sequencing of the amplified products revealed the presence of G1 as dominant genotype, G3 and Echinococcus canadenesis in one isolate each. Altogether, 9 haplotypes were detected based on cox1 gene. Haplotype 3 was the common variant that found in 58 including 42 cattle and 16 sheep. Conclusion: This study provided knowledge on the identity of E. granulosus cysts collected from sheep and cattle in North Khorasan Province. Furthermore, these results showed the potentials of sheep as a main source of infection to humans, contributing the transmission and maintain of hydatid cyst in this region

Antibiotic Resistance Profle in Relation to Phylogenetic Background in Escherichia coli Isolated From Fecal Samples of Healthy Ostrich

Background: E. coli is regarded as a reservoir for antibiotic resistance in foods of animal origin. E. coli can be categories into four main phylogenetic groups (A, B1, B2 and D). The commensal E. coli strains mostly are assigned to the phylo-groups A and B1. Objectives: The purposes of this study were to determine the phylogenetic group/subgroups and antibiotic resistance patterns of ostrich E. coli isolates in Iran. Materials and Methods: A total of 126 E. coli isolates were obtained from cloacae swabs of the healthy ostrich in Kerman, Iran. The E. coli isolates were confrmed using biochemical API 20E identifcation system. The confrmed isolates were studied to determine phylogenetic background by PCR. The isolates were tested for antibiotic resistance against 12 different antibiotic disk by disk diffusion method. Results: Phylotyping of E. coli isolates indicated that 74 isolates belonged to A, 27 isolates to B1, 7 isolates to B2, and 18 isolates to D groups. Also the isolates fell into six phylogenetic subgroups, including 34 isolates in A0, 40 isolates in A1, one isolate in B22, 6 isolates in B23, 11 isolates in D 1 and 7 isolates in subgroup D2. In the examined E. coli isolates, the maximum rate of resistance was against tetracycline, and the minimum rate of resistance was against amoxicillin. Twenty three antibiotic resistance patterns were detected among the isolates. The cefoxitin and tetracycline resistance pattern was the most prevalent in the isolates that belonged to phylo-group A. Conclusions: In conclusion, the result of the present study revealed a low frequency of antibiotic resistance in ostrich E. coli isolates. The antibiotic resistance patterns were in relation to A and D phylogenetic groups. Further studies are needed to better understand the distribution of phylogenetic groups in poultry isolates