Search

This study aims to investigate the common and important parasitic infections that reduce the nutritional value and also cause serious damage and disrupt the functioning of systems such as the liver and bile ducts as a vital organ of the human body and livestock. In order to investigate the mentioned parasitic infections in the autumn season, 60,881 livestock, including 32,213 sheep, 21,368 goats, 6,186 cows, 1,059 ostriches and 55 camels were slaughtered in Fasaran Slaughterhouse in 2022. Method: According to the working timetable and the existence of two slaughter lines, organs such as liver, lung, heart and carcass are examined macroscopically, then samples suspected of contamination are separated for microscopic examination. Results: The prevalence rate of hydatid cyst parasite was 49.44%, including 30.02% in sheep, 6.78% in goats, and 12.63% in cows. Moreover, the severity of infection in the liver of sheep, goats, and cows was 10, 1.04, and 2.89%, respectively. Also, the severity of lung contamination in sheep, goats, and cows was 20.02, 5.73 and 9.46% respectively. The prevalence rate of cysticercosis parasite was 0.38%, in a way that, infection rate in the carcasses of sheep, goats, and cows was 0.27%, 0.60%, and 0.40%, respectively. Conclusion: According to the results, it can be concluded that parasitic infection can play an important role in reducing the nutrients of infected tissues, and in case of human infection, pathological complications can affect the functioning of body organs and disrupt and cause serious harm to human health.

Nowadays, the use of renewable energy resources has been considered as one of the imminent issues in human life. By converting solar energy into electricity, solar cells can meet mos‌t of the needs of communities for domes‌tic and indus‌trial use. Meanwhile, polymer solar cells have received much attention in recent years for their acceptable performance and easy manufacturing method. Nevertheless, researchers are trying to simultaneously decrease the cos‌t of preparation and increase efficiency. In addition to the high efficacy of polymer solar cells, their s‌tability in the manufacturing process is a challenge. For decades, rapid advances in photovoltaic cells have s‌trongly linked the world of polymers and photovoltaic energies. Stable solar cells can be used in a variety of applications, such as space s‌tation equipment, solar vehicles, sensors, traffic lights, clocks and watches and more. Due to their high sensitivity to environmental factors, degradability and susceptibility to oxidation, polymer solar cells are very important in performance and s‌tability. Polymer solar cells with high sensitivity to environmental factors and configuration containing of degradable and oxidizing materials have attached much attention in the discussion of s‌tability and performance. In the present s‌tudy, effective properties in reducing the s‌tability of polymer solar cells, including semi-s‌table morphology, oxygen, heat, s‌tress, etc., will be discussed. Moreover, outs‌tanding methods for increasing s‌tability such as architectural manipulation and morphology of the active layer, reverse configuration, optimization of buffer layers, s‌table electrodes, molecular res‌tructuring of polymers and other components, etc. are reviewed and in each section, the principal researches are briefly discussed.

Abstract The yearly thermo‐economic performance is dynamically investigated for three solar heating and cooling systems: solar heating and absorption cooling (SHAC), solar heating and ejector cooling (SHEC), and heating and solar vapor compression cooling (HSVC). First, the effects of important design parameters on the thermo‐economic performance of the systems to supply the heating and cooling loads of the building are evaluated. The systems are parametrically analyzed with the weather conditions of Tehran, Iran. The results show that the life cycle costs (LCC) of the SHAC and HSVC systems are alike and much lower than those of the SHEC system. The HSVC system exhibits the best performance from exergetic and solar fraction viewpoints. The comparative analysis shows that the energy efficiencies of the SHAC and SHEC systems are higher in colder climatic conditions. However, the collector efficiency of the HSVC system declines in colder climates, mainly due to the lower solar intensities relative to in hotter climates. Further, the solar fraction of the SHAC system is higher than the SHEC technology under all climatic conditions. Moreover, higher values of solar fractions are obtained under colder weather conditions for the SHEC and HSVC systems. The best economic performance is observed for the SHAC and HSVC technologies, having significantly lower LCCs than the SHEC system. These lower LCCs under colder climatic conditions are due to the lower cost of supplying the heating load compared to the cooling load. Furthermore, all systems exhibit enhanced exergetic performance in colder weather conditions. The yearly thermo‐economic performance is dynamically investigated for three solar heating and cooling systems: SHAC, SHEC, and HSVC. In addition, the effects of important design parameters on the thermo‐economic performance of the systems to supply the heating and cooling loads of the building are evaluated.

Abstract In this research, it is investigated to numerically evaluate the performance of a polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC). The performance is investigated through the nonuniformity gradient loading at the catalyst layer (CL) of the considered PEMFC. Computational fluid dynamics is used to simulate a 2D domain in which a steady‐state laminar compressible flow in two‐phase for the PEMFC has been considered. In this case, a particular nonuniform variation inside the CL along the channel is assumed. The nonuniform gradient is created using a nonisothermal domain to predict the flooding effects on the performance of the PEMFC. The computational domain is considered as the cathode of PEMFC, which is divided into three regions: a gas channel, a gas diffusion layer, and a CL. The loading variation inside the catalyst is defined as a constant slope along the channel. In order to find the optimum slope, different slope angles are analyzed. The results point out that the nonuniform loading distribution of the catalyst (platinum) along the channel could improve the fuel cell performance up to 1.6% and 5% for power density and voltage generation, respectively. It is inferred that it is better to use more catalyst in the final section of the channel if the performance is the main concern.

Political participation is taken into account as one of the main development indicators. If we consider political development as equivalent to “extension of participation and competition of social groups in their political lives”, then undoubtedly political participation would be one of its prerequisites. Therefore, policy makers emphasize the importance of woman participation in the political fields for a comprehensive development. Therefore, it is necessary to examine the features which influence political participation of women. The statistic group consisted of 384 people. Research method was evaluative and questionnaire was used in order to collect data; SPSS was conducted to test the results. The findings show that there is a significant relationship among political confidence, political awareness, and voluntary organizations. Accordingly, increasing awareness of people and getting them involved in their own destiny through non-governmental organizations can increase both their participation and political trust.

Cysteine-rich receptor-like kinases (CRKs) are transmembrane proteins characterized by the presence of two domains of unknown function 26 (DUF26) in their ectodomain. The CRKs form one of the largest groups of receptor-like protein kinases in plants, but their biological functions have so far remained largely uncharacterized. We conducted a large-scale phenotyping approach of a nearly complete crk T-DNA insertion line collection showing that CRKs control important aspects of plant development and stress adaptation in response to biotic and abiotic stimuli in a non-redundant fashion. In particular, the analysis of reactive oxygen species (ROS)-related stress responses, such as regulation of the stomatal aperture, suggests that CRKs participate in ROS/redox signalling and sensing. CRKs play general and fine-tuning roles in the regulation of stomatal closure induced by microbial and abiotic cues. Despite their great number and high similarity, large-scale phenotyping identified specific functions in diverse processes for many CRKs and indicated that CRK2 and CRK5 play predominant roles in growth regulation and stress adaptation, respectively. As a whole, the CRKs contribute to specificity in ROS signalling. Individual CRKs control distinct responses in an antagonistic fashion suggesting future potential for using CRKs in genetic approaches to improve plant performance and stress tolerance.

Introduction: Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat and its associated protein (CRISPR-Cas)-based technologies generate targeted modifications in host genome by inducing site-specific double-strand breaks (DSBs) that can serve as a substrate for homology-directed repair (HDR) in both in vitro and in vivo models. HDR pathway could enhance incorporation of exogenous DNA templates into the CRISPR-Cas9-mediated DSB site. Owing to low rate of HDR pathway, the efficiency of accurate genome editing is diminished. Enhancing the efficiency of HDR can provide fast, easy, and accurate technologies based on CRISPR-Cas9 technologies. Methods: The current study presents an overview of attempts conducted on the precise genome editing strategies based on small molecules and modified CRISPR-Cas9 systems. Results: In order to increase HDR rate in targeted cells, several logical strategies have been introduced such as generating CRISPR effector chimeric proteins, anti-CRISPR proteins, modified Cas9 with donor template, and using validated synthetic or natural small molecules for either inhibiting non-homologous end joining (NHEJ), stimulating HDR, or synchronizing cell cycle. Recently, high-throughput screening methods have been applied for identification of small molecules which along with the CRISPR system can regulate precise genome editing through HDR. Conclusion: The stimulation of HDR components or inhibiting NHEJ can increase the accuracy of CRISPR-Cas-mediated engineering systems. Generating chimeric programmable endonucleases provide this opportunity to direct DNA template close proximity of CRISPR-Cas-mediated DSB. Small molecules and their derivatives can also proficiently block or activate certain DNA repair pathways and bring up novel perspectives for increasing HDR efficiency, especially in human cells. Further, high throughput screening of small molecule libraries could result in more discoveries of promising chemicals that improve HDR efficiency and CRISPR-Cas9 systems.

Introduction: The identification of the factors affecting the physical performance and development of childrenchr('39')s motor skills can be of great importance in participating in physical activities, preventing overweight and obesity, as well as identifying and guiding the top talented children in sport. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the effect of different ACE (I/D) and ACTN-3 (R/X) genotypes on some factors of physical fitness and motor skill performance in children. Materials & Methods: The statistical population of this study included 6-8-year-old school children in Tehran, Iran. In total, 50 cases were selected randomly using the cluster-sampling method. The data were collected using the Physical Fitness Test, Test of Gross Motor Development-Third Edition (TGMD-3), and PCR for the determination of ACE and ACTN-3 polymorphism. Furthermore, a one-way analysis of variance and independent t-test were used to analyze the study data. A p-value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Ethics code: IR.KHU.REC.1399.010 Findings: The results showed that children carrying allele D of ACE gene, (DD or ID genotype), compared to those with II genotype (P0.05). Discussions & Conclusions: According to the results of the study, it can be said that the children carrying DD or ID genotype of ACE and RR or RX genotype of ACTN-3 had a higher level of physical development and consequently higher levels of locomotor skill performance. Therefore, if they are provided with desirable environmental conditions, they will be able to do sport skills accompanied by higher levels of performance.

Background: Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) are considered the most important and financially successful category of the biopharmaceuticals. Extensive optimization of the expression vector, host system and culture parameters are required for the successful production of active monoclonal antibodies in mammalian cells. In this regards, transient expression enables rapid and cost-effective production of recombinant proteins for initial characterization. Methods: In the present study, an internal ribosome entry site (IRES) based bicistronic expression system has been evaluated for the transient expression of an anti-CD52 monoclonal antibody in mammalian cells. The IRES based bicistronic vector was generated through sequential cloning of the Light chain (LC), IRES, and Heavy chain (HC) in an intermediate vector and transfer of the resulting fragment to the expression vector. Transfection of the HEK293T cells was performed and antibody expression was analyzed in cell culture supernatant. Results: Restriction enzyme analysis indicated successful cloning of the antibody coding unit in the expression vector. Analysis of EGFP expression indicated successful transfection of the HEK293T cells. Production levels of 220 μg/L of antibody were achieved in HEK293T cells during three days of culture. Conclusion: Our results show the convenience and efficiency of the bicistronic expression system for transient expression of the whole monoclonal antibodies in mammalian cells.