Effects of ecological factors on the antioxidant potential and total phenol content of Scrophularia striata Boiss

Scrophularia striata, commonly known as figwort, is one of the most important medicinal plants that mainly grows in cold regions of the Zagros Mountains (West of Iran). Although the chemical composition of this plant species has not yet been explored, people living in Ilam province (W Iran) have used it for many years to treat different illnesses. The present study aims to analyze the effect of some ecological factors on the antioxidant potential and the amount of phenol present in this plant species, using a random factorial design with two factors (elevation and region) and three replicates. The fruits of the plant were gathered from three different elevations. They were collected from three regions of the Ilam province (Badreh, Dareshahr, and Dehloran) in June 2016, when the fruits appear. Moreover, to analyze different soil chemical and physical features, soil samples were gathered from a depth of 0.5 m under the shrubs. The antioxidant action of the methanol extract from the plant samples and the total amount of phenol compounds were measured using 2,2-Diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and the Folin-Ciocalteu method, respectively. The results showed that the effects of site and elevation, and the interaction between these factors, on the antioxidant potential and total phenol amount were significant with a probability of error of 1%. The maximum extract efficiency (19.37 ± 3.07%), antioxidant potential (126.5656 ± 0.96 µg/mL), and total amount of phenol (55.7689 ± 3.17 µg/mL) were obtained from Dareshahr at an elevation of 600 m above mean sea level. The minimum amount of total phenol (24.6544 ± 3.21 µg/ml) was recorded at the lowest elevation of Badreh, at which phosphorus, potassium, organic carbon, organic material, nitrogen, acidity, lime, and silt were present at the lowest amount. However, the antioxidant activity and total amount of phenol had a strong direct correlation in the two districts of Dareshahr and Badreh, but were reversely and strongly correlated in Dehloran. Therefore, it can be stated that Scrophularia striata has the potential for antioxidant activity, however, the complexity of the effect of ecological factors on one hand, and the emergence of different chemical processes in the plant under such effects on the other hand, has led to the synthesis of different compounds with antioxidant potential in the plant in different regions

Scatter-search with support vector machine for prediction of relative solvent accessibility

Proteins have vital roles in the living cells. The protein function is almost completely dependent on protein structure. The prediction of relative solvent accessibility gives helpful information for the prediction of tertiary structure of a protein. In recent years several relative solvent accessibility (RSA) prediction methods including those that generate real values and those that predict discrete states have been developed. The proposed method consists of two main steps: the first one, provided subset selection of quantitative features based on selected qualitative features and the second, dedicated to train a model with selected quantitative features for RSA prediction. The results show that the proposed method has an improvement in average prediction accuracy and training time. The proposed method can dig out all the valuable knowledge about which physicochemical features of amino acids are deemed more important in prediction of RSA without human supervision, which is of great importance for biologists and their future researches

Barriers to kidney transplants in Indonesia : a literature review

Background: People living with chronic kidney disease will require renal dialysis or a kidney transplant to maintain life. Although Indonesia has a developing healthcare industry, Indonesia\u27s kidney transplant rates are lower than comparable nations.Purpose: To explore the healthcare literature to identify barriers to kidney transplants in particular in relation to Indonesia.Methods: Healthcare databases were searched (CINAHL, Medline, EBSCOhostEJS, Blackwell Synergy, Web of Science, PubMed, Google Scholar and Proquest 5000) using the search terms: transplant, kidney disease, renal, dialysis, haemodialysis, Indonesia and nursing. The search was limited to English and Indonesian language data sources from 1997 to 2007. Reference lists of salient academic articles were hand searched.Results: The results of our search identified six articles that met our criteria. Costs are the major barrier to kidney transplant in Indonesia, followed by cultural beliefs, perception of the law, lack of information and lack of infrastructure. In addition, kidney disease prevention strategies are required.Conclusions: There are many complex socio-economic, geographical, legal, cultural and religious factors that contribute to low kidney transplant rates in Indonesia. Although an increase in transplantation rates will require strategies from various agencies, healthcare professionals, including nurses, can play a role in overcoming some barriers. Community education programmes, improving their own education levels and by increasing empowerment in nursing we may contribute to improved kidney transplant rates in Indonesia.<br /

Water stress and soil compaction impacts on clover growth and nutrient concentration

Soil compaction and insufficient water supply generally decrease crop performance. The effects of varying compaction and water availability levels on the growth of Berseem or Egyptian clover (Trifolium alexandrimum L.), water use efficiency and nutrient concentration were investigated under greenhouse conditions. Treatments consisted of three soil compaction levels (bulk density of 1.2, 1.4 and 1.6 Mg m-3), and four water availability treatments (40%, 60%, 80% and 100% of soil field capacity) in a factorial combination. Soil compaction had a significant effect on water use efficiency with the highest (0.32 g l-1) at bulk density of 1.4 Mg m-3 and the lowest at the other bulk densities. Soil compaction had no significant effects on leaf area, shoot, root and total dry masses. Water stress resulted in lower leaf area (from 231 to 153 mm2 pot-1), and the stem lengths were 7.6 cm and 4.3 cm for 80% and 60% of field capacity, respectively. Likewise, the highest (0.47 g pot-1) and lowest (0.33 g pot-1) total dry masses were observed at 80% and 60% field capacities. Water use efficiencies were 0.32 and 0.20 g l-1 for 100% and 60% field capacities, respectively. The accumulation of N, P and K per unit length of roots increased with soil compaction. As the water supply increased, the root and shoot dry weight and water use efficiency increased. Treatment of 100% field capacity resulted in the highest accumulation of N, P and K. Results indicated that the treatment of 80% field capacity and bulk density of 1.4 Mg m-3 provided the best conditions for clover performance, among the applied treatments. This study suggests that sufficient water supply can moderate the adverse effects of soil compaction on clover performance

Quenching effect of some heavy metal ions on the fast peroxyoxalate-chemiluminescence of 1-(dansylamidopropyl)-1-aza-4,7,10-trithiacyclododecane as a novel fluorophore

The fast chemiluminescence (CL) arising from the reaction of bis(2,4,6-trichlorophenyl)oxalate (TCPO) with hydrogen peroxide in the presence of 1-(dansylamidopropyl)-1-aza-4,7,10-trithiacyclododecane (L) as a novel fluorophore, and imidazole as catalyst, has been studied in ethyl acetate solution. The relationships between the chemiluminescence intensity and concentrations of TCPO, imidazole, hydrogen peroxide and L are reported. In the presence of imidazole as catalyst, the entire CL signal was completed in less than 3 s. The quenching effect of Cu2+, Pb2+, Cd2+, Hg2+ and Ag+ ions on the chemiluminescent systemwas investigated, the resulting Stern–Volmer plotswere obtained and the KQ valueswere calculated. Itwas found that the quenching effect of metal ions on the chemiluminescence of L decreases in the order Cu2+ >Pb2+ >Cd2+ >Hg2+ >Ag+

Reliability of Longus Colli and Capitis Muscles Cross Sectional Area Measurement During Cranio Cervical Flexion Test Using Ultrasonography

Objective Neck muscles provide more than 80% of the mechanical stability of the cervical spine. Deep neck flexor muscles including Longus Colli (LC) and longus capitis (LCA) play an important role in maintaining the cervical spine stability. Patients with chronic neck pain suffer from weakness and atrophy of neck flexor muscles. Ultrasonography measurement of muscle dimensions provides the ability to objectively assess muscle atrophy or hypertrophy. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the reliability of measurement of the cross-sectional area of LC and LCA muscles in five stages of craniocervical flexion (CCF) test utilizing ultrasonography. Methods & Materials A total of 10 individuals including 5 patients suffering from chronic nonspecific neck pain and 5 healthy controls voluntarily participated in this study. The cross-sectional areas of LC and LCA muscles were measured at the level of thyroid cartilage during five stages while the subjects performed CCF test using a real-time ultrasound device. Two images were taken on the same day with an hour interval to assess the within-day reliability, and another image taken a week later to determine between-day reliability. SPSS was used to analyze data. Results The ICC for within-day and between-day reliability in healthy individuals and patients were 0.91, 0.88 and 0.90, 0.86, respectively. The average standard error of measurement with the minimum of 0.03 and the maximum of 0.05 was obtained. Conclusion Ultrasonography is a reliable method to measure the cross-sectional area of LC and LCA muscles both in healthy individuals and patients with chronic neck pain during five stages of the CCF test

The fast peroxyoxalate-chemiluminescence of 3-1-aza-4,10-dithia-7-oxacyclododecane as a novel fluorophore

Due to their multiple selectivities, high sensitivity, and instrumental simplicity peroxyoxalate chemiluminescence (PO-CL) reactions have been used as powerful detection systems in several separation techniques. However many of the PO-CL reactions have slow kinetics and impose extra flow elements in separation systems to obtain acceptable band resolution, overcome the peak broadening and observe the reaction in a reasonable time window at maximum emission intensity. Therefore slow chemiluminescence reactions cannot be used in constructing miniaturized separation systems. To achieve the fast and intense PO-CL reactions (suitable for miniaturized separation systems) careful selection of the fluorophore molecule and the reaction conditions is of great importance. In this work, the time-dependent light emission of the fast chemiluminescence (CL) arising from the reaction of bis(2,4,6-trichlorophenyl)oxalate (TCPO) with H2O2 in the presence of 3-1-aza-4,10-dithia-7-oxacyclododecane (L) as a novel fluorophore, and imidazole as catalyst, has been studied in ethyl acetate solution. To find the best time-intensity emission curves the concentration of TCPO, imidazole, hydrogen peroxide and L were optimized. The maximum CL intensity and minimum reaction time were obtained at the concentration of 0.2 M H2O2, 2.0 x 10(-3) M TCPO, 1.0 x 10(-3) M fluorophore and 5.0 x 10(-3) imidazole. Under the optimum experimental condition, the entire CL reaction is completed in less than 3 s

Synthesis of Layered Double Hydroxides Containing a Biodegradable Amino Acid Derivative and Their Application for Effective Removal of Cyanide from Industrial Wastes

In this work, we report ultrasonic-assisted synthesis of layered double hydroxides (LDHs) containing biodegradable amino acid derivative, <i>N,N</i>′-(pyromellitoyl)-bis-l-isoleucine diacid, and their application for removal of cyanide ions from industrial wastes. The structure of the modified Mg–Al LDHs was studied using transmission electron microscopy (TEM), field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), FT-IR spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction (XRD) techniques. The ability of the prepared LDHs for adsorption of cyanide ions from aqueous solutions was examined, and the effects of the different parameters were investigated. It was found that, under optimum conditions, the proposed LDHs adsorbent can remove 98.7% of cyanide content of the aqueous solution in less than 35 min. Compared to the recently reported methods for removal of cyanide; the proposed method has several advantages. First, the adsorbent particles (LDHs) are synthesized via an environmentally acceptable route; because water is used as solvent under ultrasonic irradiation. Second, cyanide ions are exchanged with biodegradable anions, thus the proposed method does not produce toxic waste. Third, the prepared adsorbent has high adsorption capacity and the fast adsorption kinetics, thus it can be used for lowering the concentration of cyanide in the wastes to below regulatory limits in practically acceptable times