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This article reports a study into 60 research articles (RAs) authored by Iranian medical researchers and published in high-quality international English journals. It investigated how academic professionals in medical sciences implement peer convenience editing (CE) to improve articles and make them suitable for publication. The research identified nine editing interventions that were categorized as micro- or macro-editing strategies. The findings indicated that the most frequently used strategies are micro-strategies of substitution, addition, and mechanical alteration. The study also found that the abstract received the majority of editorial changes (mostly micro), followed by the introduction and then the discussion sections. The findings may help authors and institutions identify which sections and which types of editorial interventions are most likely to be required to ensure that RAs are optimized for publishing in international journals.

Metadiscourse markers (MDMs) are lexical resources that writers employ to organize their discourse and state their stance towards the content or the reader. This study investigated the frequency with which interactive and interactional MDMs were employed in biological research articles (RAs). It also explored the possible relationship between the frequency of these markers and Impact Factor (IF) of journals as an index of quality. Moreover, it aimed at finding out the difference(s) between two groups of authors (Iranian and American) in their use of these markers. Forty biological RAs published in years 2008-2011 written by Iranian non-native authors and published in four ISI journals with different IFs and 40 articles with the same characteristics published by American native authors were selected and examined for the use of the markers. The results showed that there was a strong positive correlation between the frequency of MDMs and IF of the journals. Regarding the frequency of MDMs, it was observed that Iranian authors employed interactive and interactional markers slightly more than their American counterparts. These results may provisionally confirm the considerable role of MDMs in enhancing the coherence and organization of articles for possible publication in high-impact journals. © 2016 by The International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 44(4):349-360, 2016.

An N-butylamine functionalized graphene oxide nanolayer was synthesized and characterized by ultraviolet (UV)–visible spectrometry, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. Detection of iron(III) based on photoluminescence spectroscopy was investigated. The N-butylamine functionalized graphene oxide was shown to specifically interact with iron (III), compared with other cationic trace elements including potassium (I), sodium (I), calcium (II), chromium (III), zinc (II), cobalt (II), copper (II), magnesium (II), manganese (II), and molybdenum (VI). The quenching effect of iron (III) on the luminescence emission of N-butylamine functionalized graphene oxide layer was used to detect iron (III). The limit of detection (2.8 × 10−6 M) and limit of quantitation (2.9 × 10−5 M) were obtained under optimal conditions. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Surface functionalization of magnetic nanoparticles is an elegant way to bridge the gap between heterogeneous and homogeneous catalysis. We have conveniently loaded sulfonic acid groups on amino-functionalized Fe3O4 nanoparticles affording sulfamic acid-functionalized magnetic Fe3O4 nanoparticles (MNPs/DAG-SO3H) as an active and stable magnetically separable acidic nanocatalyst, which was characterized using X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopies, scanning and transmission electron microscopies, vibrating sample magnetometry and elemental analysis. The catalytic activity of MNPs/DAG-SO3H was probed through one-pot synthesis of N-substituted pyrroles from γ-diketones and primary amines in aqueous phase at room temperature. The heterogeneous catalyst could be recovered easily by applying an external magnet device and reused many times without significant loss of its catalytic activity. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.