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The present study aimed to investigate bis(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) inhibition in the flocculent and granular sludge sequencing batch reactors (GSBRs) used for the treatment of landfill leachate. Three columns of laboratory-scale sequencing batch reactors were utilized to evaluate the inhibition of the suspended flocs and aerobic granular sludge. The inhibitory concentrations of DEHP were detected as the purpose of the specific oxygen uptake rate, soluble chemical oxygen demand (SCOD), and DEHP removal function. In addition, glucose was used as the main biogenic substrate to dilute landfill leachate at 20% ratios. The GSBRs reveald a high performance in the SCOD and DEHP removal at the concentrations of up to 200 µg/L though the process ceased at 200 and 400 µg of DEHP/L in the suspended flocs sequencing batch reactors (FSBRs). At different dosing concentrations of DEHP in the reactor, short and suitable time led to the gradual accumulation of inhibitory compounds. At the inhibitory concentrations, only limited degradation of DEHP occurred. Although the assimilatory removal of DEHP was low at the normal efficiency of the FSBR, it reached significant values in the GSBRs.

Nosocomial infections are important causes of morbidity and mortality. There are inconsistent results among the antimicrobial resistance patterns of nosocomial infections. This study aimed to investigate the antimicrobial resistance patterns of bacteria isolated from the bloodstream and wound nosocomial infections among the inpatients in Hamadan, 2019–2020. In this study, the concurrent surveillance for nosocomial bloodstream and wound infections at three hospitals over 2 years detected and identified the nosocomial pathogens; then, they were surveyed antibiotic resistance. For this reason, we used API and disk diffusion methods. 2583 patients were enrolled in which 311 positive blood samples, 148 wound samples were isolated. In wound infections, the highest resistance rate of isolated bacteria to a wide range from the antibiotics was related to A. baumannii, P. aeruginosa,and E. coli,respectively. In blood infections, the highest resistance rate of isolated bacteria was related to A. baumannii, S. saprophyticus,and P. aeruginosa, respectively. These data could be helpful for the clinicians to decide better about target empirical therapy for the hospital-acquired cases of bacteremia and wound infections; however, it was concerned the isolates should properly monitor for a choice of antibiotics to be used as prophylaxis, and empiric treatment.

Background: There is limited evidence regarding the evaluation of the association between the triglyceride glucose (TyG) index, an indicator of insulin resistance, and the incident risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Therefore, we aimed to examine the relationship between the TyG index and CVD incidence in a cohort of Iranian adults. Methods: This study was performed in the framework of the Isfahan Cohort Study (ICS). The study population included 5,432 individuals aged ≥ 35 years. CVD events, including acute myocardial infarction (MI), stroke, and unstable angina (UA), were diagnosed by physicians. The TyG index was calculated as Ln [fasting triglycerides (mg/dL) × fasting plasma glucose (mg/dL)/2]. The relationship between the TyG index and CVD events was investigated using Cox regression models. Receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve analysis was used to determine the best cut-off for the TyG index for predicting CVD outcomes. Results: During a median follow-up period of 11.2 years, a total number of 819 CVD, 164 MI, 172 stroke, and 384 UA were recorded. Following adjustment for multiple confounders, elevated TyG levels were associated with a higher risk of CVD (HR = 1.48; 95% CI 1.22–1.79; p< 0.001), MI (HR = 2.24; 95% CI 1.42–3.52; p< 0.001), stroke (HR = 1.45; 95% CI 0.96–2.19; p= 0.042), but not UA (HR = 1.28; 95% CI 0.96–1.69). The optimal TyG index cut-off was 8.91 for predicting CVD (sensitivity 58%; specificity 58%), 9.04 for predicting MI (sensitivity 57%; specificity 65%), 8.92 for predicting stroke (sensitivity 57%; specificity 57%), and 8.98 for predicting UA (sensitivity 53%; specificity 61%). Conclusion: We found a robust, direct association between the TyG index and the incidence of CVD events. This emphasizes the significance of observing the TyG index as an indicator of the occurrence of CVD events.

ABSTRACTObjectives:The aim of this study was to evaluate temporal trends of salt intake with stroke incidence, stroke subtypes, and blood pressure in an adult population.Methods:Data were extracted from Isfahan Salt Study. The stroke incidence rate, average salt intake, systolic and diastolic blood pressure in adults, aged over 18 years were considered from 2000 to 2014. The Average Annual Percent Changes (AAPC), parallelism, and the coincidence of trends were estimated, using a permutation test.Results:The trend of salt intake was increased from 2010 to 2014 (AAPC = +1.59, P-value = 0.004). The trend of the stroke incidence rate was nonlinear with two change points in 2003 and 2009. The overall stroke incidence rate increased by 6.65% per year (95% CI: 1.66, 11.8, P-value = 0.015). The temporal trend changes of stroke incidence rate were steeper in patients who aged 40–45 and over 50 years (+6 to +11.5%) than in patients who aged 19–40 and 45–50 (range: −3.3% to 0). The parallelism hypothesis of longitudinal changes between salt intake and ischemic stroke was accepted in patients, aged <50 years (P-value = 0.871).Conclusions:The average salt intake and its cone-shaped variance over 15 years of the study, indicated that salt intake reduction programs and policies were effective to stop associating intake increase until 2007, however, associated intake was increased since that time, which necessitates performing preventive programs. More importantly, the trend of salt intake and ischemic stroke was similar in patients who aged <50 years, regardless of considering their blood pressure.

The biological treatment of landfill leachate due to high concentration of Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), ammonia, and other toxic compounds is so difficult. One of the leachate treatment technology is the sludge biogranulation, that containing the two aerobic and anaerobic process. The aim of this study was conducted for determining the main factors affecting aerobic granule sludge formation in leachate treatment. In this study, all related papers in international databases were evaluated including Google Scholar, Science Direct, and PubMed, Also Open Access Journal Directory from 1990 until 2020 were investigated. The keywords used included Aerobic Granule Sludge (AGS), leachate treatment, Wastewater treatment, Granular Sequential Batch Reactors (GSBR), Formation Extracellular polymeric substance (EPS). Overall, 2,658 articles were retrieved of which 71 were selected after revising the titles and abstracts. Aerobic granulation has been only lately studied and a limited number of studies have been devoted to identification aspects of the process such as the organic source, and other factor affecting on formation granules. Some factors as shear stress, settling time, and the effluent discharge site have direct effect on the efficiency of aerobic granules reactor and other factors such as divalent metal ions, dissolved oxygen concentration, the ratio of height to diameter of the reactor, temperature affecting on the granulation process. If suitable conditions provide, the aerobic granule sludge process can be useful for leachate treatment.

ObjectivesHeart failure (HF) has a high rate of hospitalisation and mortality. We examined its risk factors, survival rate and the predictors.MethodsIn this prospective cohort study, demographic, clinical and treatment data of 1223 patients hospitalised with HF were extracted from the Persian Registry Of cardio Vascular diseasE (PROVE)/HF registry. Survival rate and HR and their association with other variables were assessed.Results835 (68.3%) were censored, while 388 (31.7%) patients were deceased. Mean age and frequency of hypotension during hospitalisation, tachycardia, pulmonary hypertension and anaemia, hyponatremia, heart valve disease and renal disease of the deceased patients was significantly higher than censored patients (15.2vs6.1%, 51.1vs40.1%, 24.4vs16.7%, 39.0vs31.8%, respectively, p<0.05). ACE inhibitor (ACEI)/angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) (89.8%vs82.1%, respectively) and beta blocker (BB) (81.1%vs75.5%, respectively) were higher in follow–up in the censored group (p<0.001 and 0.02, respectively). Crude Cox regression analysis identified age, tachycardia, hypotension, anaemia, pulmonary hypertension and heart valve disease as predictors of mortality (HR >1) and using ACEI/ARB and BB as predictors of life (HR <1, p<0.05). After adjustment, all variables lost their significance, except BB (HR 0.63, p=0.03) and tachycardia (HR 1.74, p=0.01) and New York Heart Association (NYHA) class IV (HR 1.90, p=0.04) became significant predictors.ConclusionsWe found a high mortality rate (31.7%). As NYHA class IV and tachycardia were significant predictors of mortality after adjustment, an effective measure can be treatment of underlying diseases, which deteriorate patients’ conditions. Monitoring of medications for at–risk group, especially BB that predicts life, is important.

Introduction: Bacteria associated with dental caries have a high ability to produce organic acids from dietary carbohydrates during growth and metabolism under acidic conditions. In contrast, many symbiotic bacteria produce ammonia through the arginine deiminase (ADS) system, which modulates the pH of the oral cavity. l-Arginine metabolism by ADS is a significant inhibitor in the progression of tooth decay. This study aimed to investigate the effect of l-arginine on growth, biofilm formation, and antibiotic susceptibility in Streptococcus mutans. Methods: In this study, the effect of l-arginine in different concentrations on the growth rate, antibiotic susceptibility, and inhibition of biofilm formation in S. mutanswas investigated. Results: The bacterial exponential growth rate was enhanced by 100 μM l-arginine (P> 0.05). The growth inhibition zone diameter of CAZ, CTR, AMP, and AMC-Clav antibiotics was reduced after 24 h of exposure in the presence of various concentrations of l-arginine specifically at 100 μM. l-Arginine also enhanced biofilm development at 5 and 10 μM concentrations, but reduced it at 50 and 100 μM concentrations. Conclusion: According to the results of the present study, optimization of l-arginine concentration and its use as an adjunctive therapy or in combination with mouthwash or varnish is recommended to prevent oral caries.

Dynamical instabilities in protoneutron stars may produce gravitational waves whose observation could shed light on the physics of core-collapse supemovae. When bom with sufficient differential rotation, these stars are susceptible to a shear instability (the "low-T|W| instability"), but such rotation can also amplify magnetic fields to strengths where they have a considerable impact on the dynamics of the stellar matter. Using a new magnetohydrodynamics module for the Spectral Einstein Code, we have simulated a differentially-rotating neutron star in full 3D to study the effects of magnetic fields on this instability. Though strong toroidal fields were predicted to suppress the low-77|W| instability, we find that they do so only in a small range of field strengths. Below 4 x 1013 G, poloidal seed fields do not wind up fast enough to have an effect before the instability saturates, while above 5 x 1014 G, magnetic instabilities can actually amplify a global quadrupole mode (this threshold may be even lower in reality, as small-scale magnetic instabilities remain difficult to resolve numerically). Thus, the prospects for observing gravitational waves from such systems are not in fact diminished over most of the magnetic parameter space. Additionally, we report that the detailed development of the low-7/|W| instability, including its growth rate, depends strongly on the particular numerical methods used. The high-order methods we employ suggest that growth might be considerably slower than found in some previous simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Objective: To identify dietary patterns of a representative sample of Iranian adults using factor analysis.Methods: This study was conducted in 2000–2001 as the baseline survey of Isfahan Healthy Heart Program (IHHP). We studied 12,514 participants aged ≥19 years who were randomly selected in three counties of Central Iran. A validated 48-item food frequency questionnaire was completed and factor analysis was used to identify dietary patterns. Results: Four major dietary patterns were identified, namely “Western”, “animal fat”, “traditional” and “Mediterranean”. In both men and women, we found a significant positive relationship between age and Mediterranean diet, and a negative relationship between age and the other three dietary patterns (P < 0.001). The Western and traditional dietary patterns showed a significant negative relationship with education in both genders (P < 0.01). The Western dietary pattern correlated positively with being single, widowed, or a divorced man (P < 0.001). Conclusions: We identified four major dietary patterns. As dietary pattern analysis is useful to identify dietary behaviors in relation to health risks, the results can be practical.

Black hole-torus systems from compact binary mergers are possible engines for gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). During the early evolution of the postmerger remnant, the state of the torus is determined by a combination of neutrino cooling and magnetically driven heating processes, so realistic models must include both effects. In this paper, we study the postmerger evolution of a magnetized black hole-neutron star binary system using the Spectral Einstein Code (SpEC) from an initial postmerger state provided by previous numerical relativity simulations. We use a finite-temperature nuclear equation of state and incorporate neutrino effects in a leakage approximation. To achieve the needed accuracy, we introduce improvements to SpEC's implementation of general-relativistic magnetohydrodynamics (MHD), including the use of cubed-sphere multipatch grids and an improved method for dealing with supersonic accretion flows where primitive variable recovery is difficult. We find that a seed magnetic field triggers a sustained source of heating, but its thermal effects are largely cancelled by the accretion and spreading of the torus from MHD-related angular momentum transport. The neutrino luminosity peaks at the start of the simulation, and then drops significantly over the first 20 ms but in roughly the same way for magnetized and nonmagnetized disks. The heating rate and disk's luminosity decrease much more slowly thereafter. These features of the evolution are insensitive to grid structure and resolution, formulation of the MHD equations, and seed field strength, although turbulent effects are not fully converged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]