Assessment of cadmium and lead in the water and trout fish (Salmo trutta) of Zayandehroud River, a case study of Zarinshahr rice farms, Isfahan

This study aimed to investigate the concentrations of two heavy metals, lead and cadmium, in the water of Zayandehroud River which is surrounded by Zarinshahr rice farms. Water was sampled from a depth of 30 cm during June, July and August 2015, i.e. during the process of planting, growing and after harvesting, in three stations. Water was collected from three points; 20m before the farms, beside the farms and 100m after the farms. Three water samples and one trout fish (Salmo trutta) sample were collected each month and the concentrations of lead and cadmium were measured in the kidney, liver and gills of trout fish. The results showed that the amounts of lead and cadmium in the water were less and more than standard levels for these metals, respectively. The average concentrations of cadmium in the water were 15.81, 11.25, 8.92 μg/L during June, July and August, respectively. It is evident that the amount of cadmium in water was significantly higher in June during the planting phase and use of fertilizers and pesticides was more than the other months (p≤0.01). There was a correlation in cadmium and lead concentrations between water and fish organs (kidney, liver and gill)

Allelic polymorphism of 'Makoei' sheep myostatin gene identified by polymerase chain reaction and single strand conformation polymorphism

Myostatin, a transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-) super family member, has been well documented as a negative regulator of muscle growth and development. Myostatin with 376 amino acids is synthesized as a precursor protein. In this study, polymorphism of myostatin gene in Iranian 'Makoei' sheep breeds was investigated by polymerase chain reaction and single strand conformation polymorphism technique (PCR–SSCP). Genomic DNA was isolated from the blood of 92 sheep. A 417 bp myostatin intron 1 segment was amplified by standard PCR, using the locus specific primers. Four different SSCP patterns, representing four different genotypes, were identified. The frequencies of the observed genotypes were , 0.293, 0.130, and 0.163 for AD, AC, AE, and BC, respectively. Allele frequencies were 0.4185, 0.0815, 0.2283, 0.2065 and 0.0652 for A, B, C, D and E. Observed heterozygosity (Hobs) value was 0.7192. The chi-square test showed significant (P<0.05) deviation from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium for this locus in studied population.Key words: Myostatin gene, polymerase chain reaction (PCR), single strand conformation polymorphism technique (SSCP), Ovis aries

Supervised wavelet method to predict patient survival from gene expression data.

In microarray studies, the number of samples is relatively small compared to the number of genes per sample. An important aspect of microarray studies is the prediction of patient survival based on their gene expression profile. This naturally calls for the use of a dimension reduction procedure together with the survival prediction model. In this study, a new method based on combining wavelet approximation coefficients and Cox regression was presented. The proposed method was compared with supervised principal component and supervised partial least squares methods. The different fitted Cox models based on supervised wavelet approximation coefficients, the top number of supervised principal components, and partial least squares components were applied to the data. The results showed that the prediction performance of the Cox model based on supervised wavelet feature extraction was superior to the supervised principal components and partial least squares components. The results suggested the possibility of developing new tools based on wavelets for the dimensionally reduction of microarray data sets in the context of survival analysis

Effect of gait retraining on balance, activities of daily living, quality of life and depression in stroke patients

Objectives: Stroke is one of the most common neurological diseases and it is the main cause of physical and mental disability and staying in house. Gait difficulties have high incidence in patients with stroke. So the aim of this study was to investigate the effect of gait retraining on balance, activities of daily living, quality of life and depression in stroke patients Methods: This study was a clinical trial without control group. Sampling was performed by convenience sampling method and 18 patients participated. After recording demographic data, Berg Balance Scale, Barthel Index, SF36 questionnaire and Beck Depression Inventory-II used in pre-test and post-test to assess balance, activities of daily living, quality of life and depression, respectively. Data were analyzed using Pearson correlation coefficient and paired T-test. Results: The results showed statistically significant correlation in pre-test and difference between mean score of the all instruments before and after the intervention. Discussion: According to high prevalence of gait difficulties in stroke patients, it seems interventions in this area were necessary. Statistical results showed that the gait retraining intervention may have a positive effect on improving balance, activities of daily living, quality of life and depression of these patients. According to lack of information in this area, further research is needed

Investigating the Relationship between the Structure of Educational Program and Research Outputs in Top Iranian and international Architectural Schools

Academic educational programs such as architectural programs are all influenced by the quality of education and Premier academic staff. They also consist of theoretical, practical and experimental units. One of the criteria for evaluating such international educational programs is the rate of their research outputs in an international ranking called QS. The lack of knowledge about the relationship between the structure of educational programs and the rate of their research outputs in an international scale causes the inconsistency between educational programs and research outputs. This matter consequently leads to a lower international ranking of universities. Thus, the current article aimed at addressing this issue for the first time. To collect data, the thirteen and three top international and Iranian architectural faculties with higher impact factors in the global rankings were selected. Then, the meaningful relationship between the research outputs and their educational systems upstream and downstream levels, including the relationship between the quality of education, educational programs, faculty members and allotted hours to theoretical, practical and experimental units and the research outputs were investigated. The results revealed that there is no relationship between having top academic staff and allotted hours to theoretical, practical and experimental units and the research outputs in all top international faculties. In addition, the results showed that there is no relationship between the hours allotted to research units and the research outputs of top three Iranian architectural faculties

Nutritional value of freshwater mesozooplankton assemblages from Hanna Dam Lake, Iran, during a one-year study

Nutritional value of freshwater mesozooplankton, fatty acid (FA) and amino acid (AA) compositions were determined in the middle of each season for a one-year period from May 2009 to February 2010 in Hanna Dam Lake, Isfahan, Iran. FA and AA composition significantly (P<0.05) varied in relation to the seasonal changes of water quality, phytoplankton and zooplankton community. The content of saturated fatty acids (SAFA), mono unsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) ranged from 22.4-29.0%, 30.9-40.4%, 11.8-20.9% of dry weight (DW), respectively. The major SAFA were 16:0 (13.7-17.0 % DW) and 18:0 (4.9-7.0 % DW), whereas contents of MUFA were mainly 18:1n-9 (13.8-16.2 % DW), 16:1n-7 (6.9-13.6% DW), and 18:1n-7 (5.7-10.6% DW). The major PUFA were 18:2n-6 (2.6-11.7 % DW), 18:3n-3 (2.4-3.1% DW), 20:5n-3 (3.9-4.8% DW), 22:6n-3 (0.73-0.99% DW), and 20:4n-6 (0.56-0.73% DW). As for the ratios of n-3:n-6, the values were 0.70:1, 2.54:1, 2.10:1, and 1.73:1 in spring, summer, autumn and winter respectively. The mean essential amino acid (EAA) and non-essential amino acid (NEAA) were 28.7 and 71.3 %; 31.0 and 69.0 %; 31.63 and 68.4 %; 34.5 and 67.0 % of total amino acid in spring, summer, autumn and winter, respectively. The amount of tyrosin, isolucine, lucine, arginine, cysteine, aspartic acid, glycine and proline were higher in mesozooplankton population at summer and autumn compared to winter and spring

Gut contents study of white leg (Litopenaeus vannamei) shrimp during a culture period from earthen ponds in Delvar of Bushehr

In this research, gut contents of white leg shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei were investigated for 113 days culture period at earthen ponds in Delvar of Bushehr, by sampling every 15 days. Results showed that artificial food had highest weight percentage in gut contents (foregut, midgut, and hindgut) following in order by detritus, zooplankton, phytoplankton, and macrobenthic. In the beginning of culture period, macro-bentic were observed in larval gut contents while other food items were throughout culture period. The maximum occurrence of detritus in gut contents was at 26 and 40 days-old larvae while highest phytoplankton was obtained at 86-days-old larvae in end of culture period. The zooplankton had approximately similar amounts throughout culture period in different parts of gut, while macro-benthic only observed at 26-old-days larvae with maximum amount at foregut and midgut. The mean highest gut fullness attained at foregut (0.95 %) and lowest at hindgut (0.20 %). The dominant color of gut content was green-brown in all parts of gut that could be due to consumption of natural pond products. This study illustrated that most consumed food items in L. vannamei was prepared by natural pond foods. In addition, detritus and plankton have most important in L. vannamei during culture period

Cross-species meta-analysis of transcriptomic data in combination with supervised machine learning models identifies the common gene signature of lactation process

Lactation, a physiologically complex process, takes place in mammary gland after parturition. The expression profile of the effective genes in lactation has not comprehensively been elucidated. Herein, meta-analysis, using publicly available microarray data, was conducted identify the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between pre- and post-peak milk production. Three microarray datasets of Rat, Bos Taurus, and Tammar wallaby were used. Samples related to pre-peak (n = 85) and post-peak (n = 24) milk production were selected. Meta-analysis revealed 31 DEGs across the studied species. Interestingly, 10 genes, including MRPS18B, SF1, UQCRC1, NUCB1, RNF126, ADSL, TNNC1, FIS1, HES5 and THTPA, were not detected in original studies that highlights meta-analysis power in biosignature discovery. Common target and regulator analysis highlighted the high connectivity of CTNNB1, CDD4 and LPL as gene network hubs. As data originally came from three different species, to check the effects of heterogeneous data sources on DEGs, 10 attribute weighting (machine learning) algorithms were applied. Attribute weighting results showed that the type of organism had no or little effect on the selected gene list. Systems biology analysis suggested that these DEGs affect the milk production by improving the immune system performance and mammary cell growth. This is the first study employing both meta-analysis and machine learning approaches for comparative analysis of gene expression pattern of mammary glands in two important time points of lactation process. The finding may pave the way to use of publically available to elucidate the underlying molecular mechanisms of physiologically complex traits such as lactation in mammals.Mohammad Farhadian, Seyed A. Rafat, Karim Hasanpur, Mansour Ebrahimi and Esmaeil Ebrahimi

A Comparative Study of Environmental Education Goals and its Related Activities in Iran and Selected Countries in order to suggest activities to for Iran

In this paper the attention has been paid to goals of the environmental education and related activities in Sweden, Australia, Canada, Turkey and Iran through a comparative and analytical method .In this regard, in addition to review documents of Iran and selected countries in the field of environmental education, interviews done with 12 experts in Tehran and Isfahan. To select these experts chain sampling method was used and the interviews with environmental experts executed until data saturation. In aim section, the prevailing view in all countries is sustainable development. In goals section, there was similarities in the development of knowledge, skills and positive attitude to nature. In part of activities related to environmental education, there is a significant gap between selected countries with Iran. On the other hand, it can be stated that this gap has been caused by a Gap between the intended purpose of the program and its implementation in Iran. At the end, localized actions have been proposed regarding the objectives of environmental education