Effects of Different Processing Methods on Phytochemical Compounds and Antioxidant Activity of Spirulina platensis

Background and objective: A Spirulina platensis is one of the major sources of functional food ingredients with nutraceutical properties. It is a very perishable and should be processed immediately after harvesting. Therefore, the main purpose of the present study was investigation the effect of different processing condition on the most important qualitative features of Spirulina platensis.Material and methods: Fresh Spirulina platensis was processed (shade, sun, oven, microwave, vacuum oven, freeze and spray-drying and freezing with and without blanching) and changes in its qualitative characteristics (minerals and fatty acids composition, total phenolic compounds and antioxidant activity) of samples were analyzed.Results and conclusion: Processing conditions significantly (p≤0.05) affected the qualitative properties of the sample. The vacuum-oven dried sample had the highest level of total phenolic compounds and antioxidant activity because of the lower possibility of oxygen dependent degradation and enzymatic browning reactions. The mineral was not significantly different (p>0.05) in dried samples, while Na, K, Mg, Mn, Ca and P content of the frozen samples were reduced significantly. Various unsaturated essential fatty acids like α-linolenic acid, γ-linolenic acid, arachidonic acid, eicosapentaenoic acid, and docosahexaenoic acid were detected in Spirulina. In this regards, spray and freeze-drying were the best processing methods in protecting UFA, and vacuum oven-drying was preferred in protecting total phenolic compounds and antioxidant activity of the Spirulina platensis.Conflict of interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest

Antioxidant activity, total phenolic and flavonoid content, and antibacterial effects of Stachys lavandulifolia Vahl. Flowering shoots gathered from Isfahan

Plants are a rich source of phenolic compounds and one of the most important nature-based antioxidants. The compounds derived from plant-based extracts are an important pharmaceutical resource. This study was conducted to investigate the antioxidant activity and total phenolic and flavonoid content, and to investigate the antibacterial effects of Stachys lavandulifolia flowering shoots extract. In this study, S. lavandulifolia was gathered from Isfahan and extracted by maceration using ethanol 70%. Total phenol content was measured by Folin-Ciocalcteu reagent and gallic acid standard, and antioxidant activity was investigated by DPPH with reference to butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT). Antibacterial effects were investigated by Broth Microdilution and minimum inhibitory concentration and minimum bactericidal concentration were determined.The effects of different concentrations of S. lavandulifolia were investigated on Staphylococcus aureus and Enterococcus faecalis by disk diffusion with reference to vancomycin and nitrofurantoin. The findings demonstrated that the inhibition of DPPH free radicals was greater by hydroalcoholic S. aureus extract than BHT, and therefore the IC50 of this extract was lower than BHT. Total phenolic content was obtained 18.61 (mg gallic acid) and the flavonol and flavonoid content was obtained 2.42 and 8.93 mg/g, respectively. In this study, investigating the effects of different concentrations of hydroalcoholic S. lavandulifolia extract on pathogenic bacteria by disk diffusion and Broth Microdilution demonstrated that this extract exerted great inhibitory effects on both bacteria. S. aureus was more susceptible to S. lavandulifolia extract than E. faecalis

Known pathophysiological mechanisms in the incidence of varicoceles

زمینه و هدف: واریکوسل به اتساع و پیچش غیر طبیعی وریدهای اسپرماتیک در بیضه اطلاق می شود و از جمله شایع ترین علت قابل درمان در مردان نابارور می باشد. در افراد مبتلا به واریکوسل عملکرد بیضه به طور پیشرونده آسیب می بیند، اما مکانیسم های دقیق درگیر در شروع و توسعه اختلال در بیضه این افراد، کاملاً شناخته شده نیستند، لذا هدف این مطالعه مروری آن است که مکانیسم های پاتو فیزیولوژی شناخته شده در بروز واریکوسل مورد بررسی قرار گیرد. روش بررسی: مقالات جستجو شده در پایگاه های اطلاعاتی مختلف مانند Science Direct، PubMed و Scopus و پایگاه های مرتبط با مقالات ISI در بین سال های 2015-1983 بررسی شد. یافته ها: واریکوسل در اغلب موارد با اسپرماتوژنز غیر طبیعی، افزایش دمای بیضه و استرس اکسیداتیو ارتباط دارد. این شرایط باعث کاهش کیفیت مایع منی و باروری می گردد. نتیجه گیری: عمل جراحی واریکوسلکتومی میکروسرجیکال به دلیل ایجاد عوارض کم تر و همچنین میزان عود کم تر نسبت به سایر روش ها، رویکرد پیشنهادی اغلب ارولوژیست ها است

Predicting the price of second-hand vehicles using data mining techniques

The electronic commerce, known as “E-commerce”, has been boosted rapidly in recent years, and makes it possible to record all information such as price, location, customer’s review, search history, discount options, competitor’s price, and so on. Accessing to such rich source of data, companies can analyze their users’ behavior to improve the customer satisfaction as well as the revenue. This study aims to estimate the price of used light vehicles in a commercial website, Divar, which is a popular website in Iran for trading second-handed goods. At first, highlighted features were extracted from the description column using the three methods of Bag of Words (BOW), Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA), and Hierarchical Dirichlet Process (HDP). Second, a multiple linear regression model was fit to predict the product price based on its attributes and the highlighted features. The accuracy index of Actuals-Predictions Correlation, the min-max index, and MAPE methods were used to validate the proposed methods. Results showed that the BOW model is the best model with an Adjusted R-square of 0.7841

Investigation of Iron and Manganese Removal from Water Sources by Tea Leaves and Rice Straw

High levels of iron and manganese in drinking water cause sediment, turbidity, bad taste and color. As there is a wide area of rice and tea under cultivation in Guilan province with an inevitable production of waste from them, it is possible to use it for removal of undesirable elements. The present study was discontinuously performed on a laboratory scale. The impact of important factors such as pH, contact time, initial concentration, adsorbent dosage and temperature were investigated. Also, using group method of data handling, the adsorption process of the batch method was modeled. The results showed that the highest iron adsorption capacity (in terms of mg/g) for tea leaves and rice straw were 19.44 and 19.99, respectively. Considering manganese, it was 19.86 for tea leaves and 19.49 for rice straw. The best conditions for removing iron and manganese from aqueous solution are at neutral pH, contact time 40-50 minutes, absorbent dose 0.05 g and temperature 25-35 °C for tea leaves and rice straw. Overall, the GMDH model performs better in predicting the final concentrations of iron and manganese in water sources. In general, it can be concluded that rice straw and tea leaves can be used as inexpensive and environmentally friendly natural absorbers in the removal of iron and manganese from water sources

The effects of natural nano-sized clinoptilolite and Nigella sativa supplementation on serum bone markers in diabetic rats

Introduction: Many studies confirm that diabetes mellitus is associated with higher risks of bone fracture. The beneficial effects of Nigella sativa (NS) and clinoptilolite in preventing/reducing some diabetes-related disorders have been shown. This study was conducted to examine the effects of separate and concurrent supplementation of natural nano-sized clinoptilolite (NCLN) and NS on serum bone markers in rats with type 2 diabetes. Methods: A total of 42 (case=36 and control=6) adult male Wistar rats were divided into 2 groups: diabetic and non-diabetic. An oral glucose tolerance test and a homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) test were conducted to confirm diabetes. Then, the diabetic group was divided into 4 subgroups: [1] control (n=9), [2] NS 1%/food (n=9), [3] NCLN 2%/food (n=9), [4] NS 1%/food + NCLN 2%/food (n=9). After 7 weeks, serum levels of bone markers were determined using ELISA kits. Results: Analysis showed that serum levels of alkaline phosphatase (ALP) in the NCLN group (1318.6 ± 217.5 U/L) was significantly (P<0.05) higher than other intervented groups. On the other hand, serum levels of calcium in NCLN+NS group (10.8 ± 2.6 mg/dL) were higher (P=0.027) compared to all other study groups. However, rats in the NS group had higher (535.8 ± 49.3 pg/mL) PTH (P<0.0001) compared to other supplementation groups. There were no significant differences in vitamin D and osteoprotegerin. Conclusion: The results of the current study suggest that bone mineralization may be affected by concurrent use of NS and NCLN through influencing calcium circulation. Moreover, dietary NS administration is strongly related to an augmented level of PTH

Causes and Results of Eye Removal Surgery in Yazd, Iran

Introduction: Removing eyes has different indications. We surveyed the causes and results of eye removal surgery in Yazd, Iran. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the profile of 102 patients who had underwent eye removal surgery for any reason in the Shahid Sadoughi hospital during the last 10 years. The demographic characteristics, causes of enucleation, the interval between an accident and an eye surgery, and postoperative complications were analyzed. Results:  In 102 patients (males, 68.6% and females, 31.4%) most cases were laborers (21.6%).The two most common causes of eye enucleation were  trauma (60.9%) and painful blind eye (15.7%). Trauma was the most frequent cause in the age group of  ≤20 years old (78.9%) (P-value< 0.001). In 30.4% of the cases, our management was Sympathetic ophthalmia prevention. Conclusion: The first cause of eye removal surgery in our study was trauma, especially in the young men. To reduce the rate of this surgery, protective proceeding, early diagnosis, and treatment of many diseases will be useful

Prevalence of Gastrointestinal Symptoms among Individuals with and without Diabetes: A Cross-Sectional Study from the PERSIAN Guilan Cohort Study

Objective: Gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms are the most common complaint among individuals with diabetes. This study investigated the prevalence of upper, lower, and general GI symptoms in individuals with and without diabetes among the Prospective Epidemiological Research Studies in Iran (PERSIAN) Guilan Cohort study (PGCS) population. Materials and methods: This cross-sectional study of PGCS was conducted on 2669 participants, 1364 with diabetes and 1305 without diabetes. The first part of the questionnaire collected demographical and clinical data, and the second part collected GI symptoms. A 4-point Likert Scale was used for each question. Data were analyzed using SPSS software version 16, and the significance level was considered &lt; 0.05. Results: The mean age of the participants was 52.24 ± 8.75 years, and 55.5% were female. Patients with diabetes have an increased incidence of upper GI symptoms (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 1.19, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.00–1.42, p = 0.045) compared to individuals without diabetes. The most common upper GI symptom in patients with diabetes compared to those without diabetes was eructation (18.6% vs. 14.9%, p = 0.009). Conclusions: The prevalence of GI symptoms was high in patients both with and without diabetes, and the chance of developing GI upper symptoms was higher in patients with diabetes