Search

This cross-sectional study was conducted to determine and compare the concentrations of heavy metals (Zn, Pb, Cd, and Hg) in carp-farming water and muscle of various carp species including common carp (Cyprinus carpio), bighead carp (Hypophthalmichthys nobilis), silver carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix), and grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella) collected from three major warm-water fish farms in Mazandaran Province (Iran) during March 2018 to March 2019. In addition, bioaccumulation of heavy metals (BCFs) and carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic risk assessments of consumers exposed to heavy metals through fish consumption were estimated. The water concentration of all metals in this study was lower than permissible limits. The concentration of Zn in the water (10.21-17.11 μg L

This paper presents a new technique for analyzing a non-uniform transmission line (NUTL). This method expands the differential equations of voltage and current as the slope functions. Then, differential equations are solved using the explicit Runge–Kutta technique with the fourth-order method with four stages. It is shown that the proposed method can be used not only for analyzing the NUTL but also for analyzing the no-uniform waveguides (NUWG). Additionally, it is shown that the sensitivity of the proposed method concerning the discretization error is suitable. Several theoretical and practical NUTLs and NUWG are investigated to verify the proposed method’s accuracy and advantages. The performance of the proposed method is compared with those obtained by the other popular techniques, such as uniform cascaded sections (UCS).

Natural killer cells (NKC) and Sorafenib (Sor) are two important agents for the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Over the past decade, the interaction of Sor and NKC against HCC has been widely challenging. This study aimed to assess the efficacy of NKCSor for the treatment of HCC in vivo.Subcutaneous xenograft models of HCC were established in nude mice. For safety assessment of treatment, the kidney and liver functions were analyzed. Paraffin embedded tumor sections were histopathologically studied and immunohistochemistry (IHC) tests were done to evaluate the angiogenesis (CD34) and proliferation (Ki67) indexes. The terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL) assay was performed to identify the tumor cells undergoing apoptosis. The serum levels of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and interferon-γ (IFN-γ) were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and expression levels of major inflammatory cytokines and cytoplasmic granules in xenograft HCC were quantified using real-time PCR.NKCSor significantly inhibited necrosis and apoptosis in tumor cells and increased angiogenesis and proliferation of HCC compared to the monotherapy of NKC or Sor alone. The serum levels of TNF-α, IFN-γ as well as the expression levels of TNF-α, IFN-γ, interleukins (ILs)-1, 6, 10, granzyme-B and perforin in the xenograft HCC tissues of the treated mice with NKCSor were significantly lower than those of treated with NKC or Sor alone.Therapy with the specific dosage of NKCSor could not inhibit the HCC xenograft growth rate through a synergistic effect in a mouse model of HCC.

An endophytic bacterial strain, isolated from Fragaria × ananassa roots, and its antifungal activity against Colletotrichum nymphaeae were investigated under in vitro, in vivo, and greenhouse experiments. Bacterial isolate was identified as Bacillus atrophaeus strain DM6120 using phenotypic, biochemical, and molecular phylogenetic analysis of the 16S rDNA gene sequences. Bacterial strain DM6120 suppressed mycelial growth of C. nymphaeae (54.92%) using dual-culture method. The non-volatile compounds produced by DM6120 inhibited mycelial growth and conidial germination of C. nymphaeae by 74.12% and 80.80%, respectively. However, inhibition percentage of mycelial growth of the pathogen by volatile compounds of the strain DM6120 was lower (11.9%) than that for the two dual culture and non-volatile compound tests. The strain DM6120 produced protease, chitinase, pectinase, siderophore, IAA, gibberellin, and fixed nitrogen. The living cells of the strain DM6120 decreased anthracnose disease at post-harvest on fruit by 71.42%. Furthermore, disease severity of strawberry anthracnose was suppressed using soil drenching and foliar spray application methods 60 days after inoculation by 94.44% and 88.88%, respectively. PCR amplification confirmed the presence of iturin and surfactin genes in strain DM6120. The bioactive fractions produced by strain DM6120 were analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Six compounds from n-butanol extract and seven compounds from methanol extract were identified. 1,1-dibutoxyacetone (58.789%) and diethylene glycol, o,o-di(pivaloyl)- (29.922%) from n-butanol extract and acetic acid (39.923%) and 2-furanmethanol (30.305%) from methanol extract were determined as the main bioactive compounds produced by bacterial strain DM6120.

Employing the "resilience" term to groundwater is a formidable challenge. The situation is even more intricate for the karst aquifers which may act as surface water with low resilience, alluvial groundwater with high resilience, and a combination of both. The objective of this study is to assess the groundwater resilience and hydrogeophysical characteristics of Asmari and Ilam-Sarvak formations at Susan karst, south-west Iran. Hence, 260 vertical electrical soundings (VESs) were carried out with the Schlumberger array. The VES curves were interpreted, scored, and interpolated to produce a groundwater potential map. Moreover, a geographic information system (GIS)-based approach was employed, including six layers, i.e. distance to springs, elevation difference from springs, slope, lithology, fracture density, and fracture length density. The GIS criterial maps were generated, reclassified, weighted, and overlaid, such that a supplementary groundwater potential map was produced. The electrical resistivity values and degrees of smoothness of the VES curves depicted considerable groundwater potential for the Asmari formation. However, the groundwater potential of the Ilam-Sarvak formation may be attributed to the superficial fractured zones. On the other hand, the geospatial technology which is based on the surface indices represented enormous groundwater potential for both formations, especially for the Ilam-Sarvak formation. Finally, regarding the groundwater resilience, various hydrological characteristics occur for two karst formations in a small-scale region. The Ilam-Sarvak formation primarily behaves like the surface water with low resilience (conduit flow, low storage), and the Asmari formation portrays the features of the alluvial aquifers with high resilience (diffuse flow, large storage).

In this study, potassium-doped zinc oxide nanoparticles (K-doped ZnO NPs) were green-synthesized using pine pollen extracts based on bioethics principles. The synthesized NPs were analyzed using X-ray diffraction (XRD), inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray analysis (EDXA), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The cytotoxicity of these nanoparticles (NPs) on normal macrophage cells and cancer cell lines was evaluated. In the same concentrations of K-doped ZnO and pure ZnO NPs, K-doped ZnO NPs demonstrated higher toxicity. The results confirmed that the doped potassium could increase cytotoxicity. The IC50 of K-doped ZnO NPs, pure ZnO NPs, and the examined control drug were 497 ± 15, 769 ± 12, and 606 ± 19 µg/mL, respectively. Considering the obtained IC50 of K-doped ZnO NPs, they were more toxic to the cancer cell lines and had less cytotoxicity on normal macrophage cells.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the dynamic effect of Sudan Low on the precipitation in Iran. In this study, the up level data (i.e., data from 600, 700, and 1000 hPa levels) were taken from NCEP/NCAR and ECMWF websites in a 32-year period (from 1999 to 2020). In order to investigate dynamic and thermodynamic characteristics of Sudan Low, the data of geopotential height (Hgt), sea level pressure (SLP), omega, and wind flow (UWnd, VWnd), mean daily precipitation and temperature, and monthly northward surface stream were exploited at the fore mentioned levels. The findings showed that the potential of air and moisture passage of Sudan Low over Iran in 1999, 2006, and 2011 had the most progression compared to the normal condition, and this progression reached to 42° northern latitude. In other finding, it was observed that the northward surface stream during December, January, and February in the 32-year period caused the most appropriate precipitation in Iran, and the Arabian Sea along with the Bab-el-Mandeb was the generator of this situation. Along with the above finding, it was found that jet stream creates atmospheric rivers that originate in Africa and is reinforced by Sudan Low, transferring moisture to the upper atmosphere levels of Iran. Between the positive and negative omega contours of about 600 hPa, high precipitation for Iran was caused. Finally, the overall results indicated that in order to complete the investigation of Sudan Low effects on Iran’s precipitation, the atmospheric river of 26 March 2019 was observed. The result showed that the amount of precipitation originating from this atmospheric river which is reinforced by the Arabian Sea and Mediterranean Sea had a broad impact on Iran’s precipitation.

Mercury thrown even at a low concentrations in water resources causes a severe threat to ecosystem hence the presented work describes a low cost and environmentally friendly clean up platform for decontamination of water in terms of mercury ions. For this purpose MgFe2O4 – Gum Arabic composite was prepared with a simple ultrasound assisted precipitation route and further modified with L-cysteine as a thiol resource to improve its adsorption characteristic. The structure of biosorbent was characterized with XRD, FESEM, VSM, EDX, and BET techniques. Effective parameters on mercury adsorption were optimized with response surface methodology (RSM) using Box-Behnken design (BBD). Maximum removal efficiency was obtained at pH of 5, contact time of 15 min and adsorbent dosage of 19 mg by magnetic GA. After thiol functionalization optimum variables changed to pH of 2, time of 15 min and dosage of 5 mg. Isotherm study indicated that mercury biosorption onto the magnetic Gum Arabic and thiol immobilized sorbent followed Langmuir and Freundlich model with adsorption capacity of 96 and 250 mg g-1, respectively. Results for kinetic study revealed that mercury adsorption followed pseudo – second order model. To study the ability of biosorbent as a reusable compound a mixture of HCl (0.5 mol L-1) and thiourea (2%) was employed to release the adsorbed ions from the sorbent surface moreover, it showed 90% removal efficiency after three cycles of sorption and desorption which confirmed the presented composite is a reusable biosorbent.

Recently, frame multipliers, pair frames, and controlled frames have been investigated to improve the numerical efficiency of iterative algorithms for inverting the frame operator and other applications of frames. In this paper, the concept of biframe is introduced for a Hilbert space. A biframe is a pair of sequences in a Hilbert space that applies to an inequality similar to a frame inequality. Also, it can be regarded as a generalization of controlled frames and a special kind of pair frames. The basic properties of biframes are investigated based on the biframe operator. Then, biframes are classified based on the type of their constituent sequences. In particular, biframes for which one of the constituent sequences is an orthonormal basis $\{e_{k}\}_{k=1}^{\infty}$ { e k } k = 1 ∞ are studied. Then, a new class of Riesz bases denoted by $[\{e_{k}\}]$ [ { e k } ] is introduced and is called b-Riesz bases. An interesting result is also proved, showing that the set of all b-Riesz bases is a proper subset of the set of all Riesz bases. More precisely, b-Riesz bases induce an equivalence relation on $[\{e_{k}\}]$ [ { e k } ] .