Effect of light and music on growth performance and survival rate of goldfish (Carassius auratus)

Environmental enrichment is one of the methods for improving fish growth performance. In the present trial, the effects of both light color and music on growth performance and survival of goldfish (Carassius auratus) (initial mean weight: 4.15±0.08 g) were investigated for 2 months. Two light color treatments (red light and white light) and three music treatments (M0: without music, M30: 30 minutes music and M60: 60 minutes music) were considered. At the end of the rearing stage, growth performance including weight gain (WG), specific growth rate (SGR), daily growth rate (DGR) and food conversion rate (FCR) and also survival rate (SR) were surveyed. Results indicated that the effect of music and interaction effect of light by music were not significant (P>0.05) on growth performance parameters, whereas light significantly (P0.05). Using music in the rearing environment had no positive or negative effect on goldfish growth, revealing that goldfish can distinguish music from other environmental stressful sounds

Negative performance of root extract of Onosma dichroanthum Boiss. on the burn wound healing in an animal model

Background: Onosma dichroanthum Boiss. belongs to the Boraginaceae family which locally known as" Hava Chobeh", and it is considered as one of the most important Mountainous medicinal plants in North of Iran, Its red roots have been used by the rural healers as either singular or combination with other plants as antiseptic and anti-inflammatory to treat the burns and wound healing. Methods and Findings: In this study, the acetonic extract of plant root was used for the evaluation of its healing efficiency on burn wound model in rat. Burn induced in Wistar rats, and subsequently they were divided into five groups were treated as follow: Group-I ointment containing of extract 2%, Group-II, traditional ointment containing of goat lipid and root extract, Groups-III ointment alone, Group-IV (positive control) the standard drug (silver sulphadiazine) and Group-V (negative control) untreated rats. The assessment the burn area healing was carried out within 14 days. Our results showed that the treated group in I and II, the intensity of wound increased up to the day 8, even the wound diameter much more expanded than negative control group (group V). The best result was demonstrated by Silver sulphadiazine treated group (group IV). Conclusion: This study shows that Onosma dichroanthum Boiss. root did not have any effect on healing of burn wounds in an animal model. Further studies are requiring for assessment of this plant in combination with other plants on burn wound healing. © Under License of Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License

Detection of hepatitis B virus covalently closed circular DNA in the plasma of Iranian HBeAg-negative patients with chronic hepatitis B

Background: Covalently closed circular DNA (cccDNA) of hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a marker of HBV replication in the liver of patients infected with HBV. Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the association between the presence of cccDNA in the plasma samples of Iranian treatment-naive patients with chronic hepatitis B infection and HBV viral load and HBsAg levels. Patients and Methods: From April 2012 to May 2015, 106 treatment-naive patients with chronic hepatitis B infection were enrolled in this cross-sectional study. The HBsAg titer was measured by the Roche HBsAg II assay on the Cobas e411 system, and HBV DNA quantitation was performed using the COBAS TaqMan 48 kit. Real-time polymerase chain reaction was performed for the detection of HBV cccDNA. Results: The mean (SD) age of the patients was 41.1 ± 12.4 years (range, 20 - 62 years). From a total of 106 study participants, 67 (63.2) were males. The HBV cccDNA was detected in plasma specimens in 19 (17.9) out of the total 106 patients, and a significant relationship was found between the presence of cccDNA in plasma sample of males (23.9) and females (7.7) (P = 0.039). Also, a significant correlation was found between the presence of cccDNA in plasma sample of the patients and HBV viral load level (P < 0.0001) and HBsAg titer (P = 0.0043). Conclusions: This study showed that cccDNA can be detected in the plasma specimen of 17.9 of Iranian treatment-naive patients with chronic hepatitis B infection. Therefore, designing prospective studies focusing on the detection of cccDNA in these patients would provide more information. © 2015, Kowsar Corp

Analysis of Helichrysum oligocephalum DC. essential oil

Background and objectives: Helichrysum oligocephalum DC. (Compositae)  is an endemic plant in Iran that has been recommended by Iranian traditional and folk medicine practitioners for gastrointestinal complaints. The plant is rich in essential oil and in the present investigation, the volatile composition of the species has been determined. Methods: The light yellow essential oil from the aerial parts of the plant was prepared according to the method which was recommended in British Pharmacopoeia by using hydrodistillation. The chemical composition of the oil was investigated by gas chromatography mass spectroscopy (GC/MS). Results: Thirty-seven compounds were identified; among them β-caryophyllene, α-humulene and epimanoyl oxide were dominant. Sesquiterpenoids were the most dominant compounds in the essential oil while monoterpenoides, fatty acids and diterpenoides were found to be less. These outcomes are a little bit different from what has been reported before. Conclusion: The differences between the results of the present study with previous works could be due to the diversity of variety, polymorphism, stage of plant growth and environmental factors

Vb-ea-5: A lytic bacteriophage against multi-drug-resistant enterobacter aerogenes

Background and Objectives: Multi-drug-resistant Enterobacter aerogenes is associated with various infectious diseases that cannot be easily treated by antibiotics. However, bacteriophages have potential therapeutic applications in the control of multi-drug-resistant bacteria. In this study, we aimed to isolate and characterize of a lytic bacteriophage that can lyse specif-ically the multi-drug-resistant (MDR) E. aerogenes. Materials and Methods: Lytic bacteriophage was isolated from Qaem hospital wastewater and characterized morpholog-ically and genetically. Next-generation sequencing was used to complete genome analysis of the isolated bacteriophage. Results: Based on the transmission electron microscopy feature, the isolated bacteriophage (vB-Ea-5) belongs to the family Myoviridae. vB-Ea-5 had a latent period of 25 minutes, a burst size of 13 PFU/ml, and a burst time of 40 min. Genome sequencing revealed that vB-Ea-5 has a 135324 bp genome with 41.41 GC content. The vB-Ea-5 genome codes 212 ORFs 90 of which were categorized into several functional classes such as DNA replication and modification, transcriptional regu-lation, packaging, structural proteins, and a host lysis protein (Holin). No antibiotic resistance and toxin genes were detected in the genome. SDS-PAGE of vB-Ea-5 proteins exhibited three major and four minor bands with a molecular weight ranging from 18 to 50 kD. Conclusion: Our study suggests vB-Ea-5 as a potential candidate for phage therapy against MDR E. aerogenes infections. t © 2021 The Authors. Published by Tehran University of Medical Sciences

Isolation of Lytic Bacteriophages against MDR-Klebsiella pneumoniae and MDR-Enterobacter aerogenes from Sewage Samples: A Potential Tool for Medical Purposes

Background and Aim: This study aimed to isolate phages able to lyse some strains of multiple drug-resistant (MDR)-Klebsiella pneumoniae (named vBKp1 and vBKp2) and Enterobacter aerogenes (named vBEa1) from swage. Materials and Methods: Different K. pneumoniae and E. aerogenes strains were isolated from clinical specimens during January-September 2018 in three hospitals of Amol, Mazandaran, Iran. Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion method was used to determine the resistance profiles of these isolates using different antibiotics. The MDR strains were selected for investigating the effect of isolated phages from wastewater and hospital sewage. The presence of phage was confirmed by plaque formation. The isolated bacteriophages were enriched, concentrated, and stained. Afterwards, a transmitting electron microscope (TEM) was applied to observe the morphology of the bacteriophages. Phage identification tests, including host range and one-step growth, were performed. Results: The TEM analysis revealed that three phages had an icosahedral capsid and long contractile tail being classified as a member of the Myoviridae family. Phages were able to lyse 14 (56) of the 25 MDR isolated bacterial strains. The one-step growth curve showed large bursts and short latent times. Conclusion: The formation of clear plaques demonstrates the high lyse power of phages. Therefore, they have good potential for further analysis for clinical use as a therapeutic agent in the future. © 2021, This is an original open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-noncommercial 4.0 International License which permits copy and redistribution of the material just in noncommercial usages with proper citation

Antibacterial and antioxidant activities of root extract of Onosma dichroanthum Boiss. in north of Iran

Onosma dichroanthum Boiss. (Boraginaceae) is locally known as "Hava Chobeh" in north of Iran, which has been used by the rural people as anti-inflammation and antiseptic to treat skin burns and wound healing. In this context, the antimicrobial potential of acetone, chloroform, methanol, ethanol and n-hexane-dichloromethane extracts from root plant against Gram positive and negative bacteria were studied by "agar dilution" and "well diffusion" methods, and the antioxidant properties were obtained by various methods including reducing power (RP), total antioxidant capacity (TAC) and 2,2-Diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging activity. Results showed that Gram positive bacteria were more sensitive than Gram negative bacteria, especially to acetone extract in the well diffusion method. Bacillus cereus with minimum inhibitory concentration (0.078 mg/ml) was the most sensitive bacterium but no significant difference has been seen in antibacterial activity of various solvents. The antioxidant activity with IC50 was measured by TAC and RP methods 1 and 0.72 mg/ml respectively. Therefore, reducing power assay had more antioxidant activity than TAC method. IC50 in DPPH method was 4.08 mg dry weight. These results indicated that the use of O. dichroanthum root can be a confirmation for using this plant in traditional medicine, as antiseptic and antioxidant effect

A Comprehensive collapse fragility assessment of moment resisting steel frames considering various sources of uncertainties

Abstract Different sources of uncertainties contribute to the collapse and safety assessment of structures. In this paper, impact of construction quality (CQ) is considered in developing analytical collapse fragility curves for moment resisting steel frames. Furthermore, the interaction of this source of uncertainty with epistemic uncertainty inherent in modeling parameters, due to lack of knowledge and inaccuracy of predictor equations, is investigated. Beam strength (BS), column strength (CS), beam ductility (BD) and column ductility (CD) meta-variables are defined as modeling parameters which are being suffered by informal uncertainty. Quadratic equations for the mean and the standard deviation of collapse fragility curves are derived by utilizing response surfaces, which are interpolated to analytically-derived values considering realizations for modeling variables and for various levels of construction quality. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, interaction of modeling and CQ uncertainty in analytical collapse fragility curve hasnot been considered in previous investigations. A fuzzy rule-based method is applied to employ the effects of uncertainty due to CQ. Using Monte Carlo simulation for the modeling variables and the construction quality index, and subsequently computing response surface coefficients via a fuzzy inference system, and finally deriving collapse fragility curve parameters through response surfaces, result in collapse fragility curves of structures. In developing these curves, different sources of uncertainties are involved, ranging from lexical to informal and stochastic types. It is concluded that neglecting the effects of these sources leads to the underestimation of collapse fragility probability. This shows the importance of considering modeling and construction quality uncertainty effects on collapse fragility curves. It is shown that for a sample moment resisting steel frame collapse probability is increased 53% and 60% for 10% and 2% probability of exceedance in 50 years seismic hazard levels, respectively, while interaction of CQ and modeling uncertainties are considered in comparison with neglecting them. Otherwise, if only modeling uncertainty is involved, this increment is evaluated at 42% and 16%, respectively for the aforementioned probabilities of exceedance. Keywords: Collapse fragility curves, uncertainty sources, Fuzzy inference system, moment resisting steel structures, incremental dynamic analysis, Response Surface MethodThe accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author

Interleukin-12 as a genetic adjuvant enhances hepatitis C virus NS3 DNA vaccine immunogenicity

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) chronic infection is a worldwide health problem, and numerous efforts have been invested to develop novel vaccines. An efficient vaccine requires broad immune response induction against viral proteins. To achieve this goal, we constructed a DNA vaccine expressing nonstructural 3 (NS3) gene (pcDNA3.1-HCV-NS3) and assessed the immune response in C57BL/6 mice. In this study, the NS3 gene was amplified with a nested-reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) method using sera of HCV-infected patients with genotype 1a. The resulting NS3 gene was subcloned into a pcDNA3.1 eukaryotic expression vector, and gene expression was detected by western blot. The resultant DNA vaccine was co-administered with interleukin-12 (IL-12) as an adjuvant to female C57BL/6 mice. After the final immunizations, lymphocyte proliferation, cytotoxicity, and cytokine levels were assessed to measure immune responses. Our data suggest that co-administration of HCV NS3 DNA vaccine with IL-12 induces production of significant levels of both IL-4 and interferon (IFN)-γ (p<0.05). Cytotoxicity and lymphocyte proliferation responses of vaccinated mice were significantly increased compared to control (p<0.05). Collectively, our results demonstrated that co-administration of HCV NS3 and IL-12 displayed strong immunogenicity in a murine model. © 2013 Wuhan Institute of Virology, CAS and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg