Search

There are several reports about the effect of gravity removal on some characteristics of microorganisms due to possible change in surface layer thickness and adherence properties. In this study, bioremoval efficiency of Lactobacillus acidophilus ATCC 4356 from water under simulated microgravity conditions was investigated. Furthermore, pretreatment effects (untreated, NaOH, and heat pretreated) of L. acidophilus ATCC 4356 on heavy metal removal was evaluated on microgravity, as our previous research showed impact of pretreatment on adherence properties of probiotics to environmental metals. The results showed that ability of L. acidophilus for arsenic adsorption enhanced following heat-pretreatment in simulated and normal gravity. Moreover, in both conditions of simulated microgravity and normal gravity NaOH-treated L. acidophilus increased the removal of cadmium and lead. In none of the conditions, pretreatment of lactobacillus affects mercury removal. Evaluation of stability of binding of L. acidophilus-heavy metal was investigated to check irreversibility of complex formation between microorganisms and metals in simulated gastrointestinal conditions. Data showed release of heavy metals from complex in normal gravity. Obtained results of this research show the favorable potential of simulated microgravity condition to increase bioremoval capacity of L. acidophilus for heavy metals.

Sourdough can improve bakery products’ shelf life, sensory properties, and nutrient composition. To ensure high-quality sourdough, the fermentation has to be monitored. The characteristic process variables for sourdough fermentation are pH and the degree of acidity measured as total titratable acidity (TTA). The time- and cost-intensive offline measurement of process variables can be improved by utilizing online gas measurements in prediction models. Therefore, a gas sensor array (GSA) system was used to monitor the fermentation process of sourdough online by correlation of exhaust gas data with offline measurement values of the process variables. Three methods were tested to utilize the extracted features from GSA to create the models. The most robust prediction models were achieved using a PCA (Principal Component Analysis) on all features and combined two fermentations. The calibrations with the extracted features had a percentage root mean square error (RMSE) from 1.4% to 12% for the pH and from 2.7% to 9.3% for the TTA. The coefficient of determination (R2) for these calibrations was 0.94 to 0.998 for the pH and 0.947 to 0.994 for the TTA. The obtained results indicate that the online measurement of exhaust gas from sourdough fermentations with gas sensor arrays can be a cheap and efficient application to predict pH and TTA.

Probiotic bacteria play a critical and functional role in clinical and nutritional applications. In the present study, the ability of various probiotics and their metabolites in the prevention and treatment of different diseases, infections and disorders was reviewed. The issues that were noticed are included: Fibrocystic, diabetes, acne, colon cancer, cardiovascular, urinary tract infections, atopic eczema syndrome, food allergies and obesity. Enhancement in using drug treatment has led to the appearance of drug-resistance concern, thus probiotics can be a suitable choice. This review focuses on the effect of probiotic bacteria and their metabolites on immune-boosting, prevention and treatment of these diseases. For this purpose, after a short glance at each disease, infection and disorder, the mechanism of probiotic action and recent studies about that disease are reviewed. It could be recommended that probiotics consumption, perhaps from birth to all stages of life, would be effective in the life-long, development of health effects and disease treatments.

Background and purpose: The popularity of fermented beverages is increasing due to the preservation of food value and health characteristics of the product during fermentation. Kombucha is a probiotic and beneficial fermented beverage obtained from the social coexistence of bacteria and osmophilic yeasts in a sweetened black tea environment with sucrose. Sucrose is hydrolyzed to glucose and fructose by the invertase enzyme produced by the yeasts in the Kombucha consortium, and fructose is converted to ethanol and carbon dioxide by the yeasts. Despite the excellent health benefits of this drink, it can sometimes be controversial due to the increase in ethanol levels and the issue of halal quality. Results: The final concentration of ethanol alcohol in kombucha varies depending on parameters such as the species of microorganisms present in the solution, temperature, fermentation time and the initial sugar consumption. Using measurements such as controlling the amount of consumed sucrose, regular aeration during the fermentation process, using green and black tea as a substrate, using certain species of microorganisms to reduce the amount of ethanol produced, reducing the pH of the solution during the process and using Alternative sources of sucrose with lower sweetness such as honey and berry juice, can reduce the amount of ethanol produced in kombucha by 0.5%. Conclusion: Kombucha with an alcohol content of less than 3% is considered a non-alcoholic beverage. Using simple and practical solutions, the amount of ethanol produced in the Kombucha solution can be significantly reduced and the miraculous properties of this drink can be benefited.

Purpose: To assess the efficacy of interferon-beta1b (INF-beta1b) in combination with favipiravir in early treatment of patients with COVD-19 pneumonia. Methods: This prospective non-controlled study was performed on admitted patients with moderate to severe COVID-19 disease to Amir-Alam hospital. The diagnosis of COVID-19 pneumonia was based on positive RT-PCR test from nasopharyngeal samples and typical spiral chest CT scan findings. At the time of this study, there was the shortage of efficient anti-COVID drugs especially “Remdesivir” due to sanction of Iran. All the patients received subcutaneous IFN-beta1b plus favipiravir. The patients with severe infection received intravenous dexamethasone. Those who underwent invasive or noninvasive mechanical ventilation, at the admission onset, were excluded from the study. Results: One hundred and eighty-two patients with moderate to severe COVID-19 pneumonia were included in this study. Among182 patients, 90 cases had moderate and 92 had severe pneumonia. Twenty-one cases with severe pneumonia and 14 cases with moderate pneumonia were transferred to ICU to receive invasive or non-invasive mechanical ventilation. The mean duration of hospital ward admission and ICU stay was 10.69±7.54 and 5.45±2.72 days, respectively. One hundred and seventy-four patients (80.7 %) recovered completely and discharged without need to ICU admission. The response rate was the same in patients with moderate and severe pneumonia. Nine cases (4.9 %) were passed away. Diabetic patients had higher mortality rates. Conclusion: This study showed the efficacy of IFN-beta1b plus favipiravir in early treatment of patients with moderate to severe COVID-19 pneumonia who did not need to mechanical ventilation.

Background: Rice is the most important agricultural crop and the main food in Gilan and Mazandaran Provinces in northern Iran where organophosphorus pesticides, especially diazinon, are used. The excessive use of this insecticide in the paddy fields of Rasht County is a serious threat to people’s health.Methods: In this study, 30 rice samples were collected from five zones in the paddy fields of Rasht in summer. The samples were analyzed when rice is sold to assess the health risk caused by diazinon residues in rice. Following the digestion process, the samples were injected into a High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) instrument. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and one-sample t-test were respectively used for analyzing data and the Health Risk Index (HRI) for assessing the risk of rice consumption. Results: According to the results, the mean residual diazinon concentration in the rice crops of the five studied zones at the time of consumption (three months after harvest) was 0.4±0.43 mg/kg-1. This was higher than the Iranian standard for permissible diazinon concentration in rice. The results of the health risk assessment for rice consumption indicated an HRI value of 0.13 for rice consumption, which did not constitute a serious risk for people who consume rice regularly. Conclusion: Although the results of this study showed that there are no potential health risks for consumers, with increasing the use of chemical pesticides for crops, to achieve food safety, regular monitoring of pesticide residues in crops is recommended.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate and compare the effects of group-to-whole student-led oral discussion and small-group collaborative drafting as pre-writing tasks on Iranian intermediate English as a foreign language (EFL) learners' writing performance. Additionally, the difference between the writing components was examined. Design/methodology/approach: To achieve these objectives, a group of 120 intermediate EFL learners participated in a pretest-posttest study in which they were randomly assigned into two experimental groups and one control group. The students in all three groups were tasked with writing a textbook evaluation report for the pretest and posttest. The pre-writing process in the first experimental group consisted of a group-to-whole student-led oral discussion, while the second experimental group engaged in small-group collaborative drafting. Findings: The results indicate that both pre-tasks were effective in improving the participants' writing skill, while collaborative drafting was even more efficient. Furthermore, it was observed that more writing components improved through collaborative drafting. It is concluded, therefore, that the social atmosphere created through oral discussion and the scaffolding resulting from collaborative drafting can help in writing improvement. Research limitations/implications: The findings herein can have implications for first language (L1) composition instruction and second language (L2) writing teaching and, thus, underscoring the utility of the social constructivist approach to writing instruction. Originality/value: As there has been no study conducted to explore the effects of group-to-whole student-led oral discussion on EFL learners' writing skill and to compare its impacts to those of small-group collaborative drafting, the results of this study fill this gap in the literature.

Abstract Real‐time information about the concentrations of substrates and biomass is the key to accurate monitoring and control of bioprocess. However, on‐line measurement of these variables is a challenging task and new measurement systems are still required. An alternative are software sensors, which can be used for state and parameter estimation in bioprocesses. The software sensors predict the state of the process by using mathematical models as well as data from measured variables. The Kalman filter is a type of such sensors. In this paper, we have used the Unscented Kalman Filter (UKF) which is a nonlinear extension of the Kalman filter for on‐line estimation of biomass, glucose and ethanol concentration as well as for estimating the growth rate parameters in S. cerevisiae batch cultivation, based on infrequent ethanol measurements. The UKF algorithm was validated on three different cultivations with variability of the substrate concentrations and the estimated values were compared to the off‐line values. The results obtained showed that the UKF algorithm provides satisfactory results with respect to estimation of concentrations of substrates and biomass as well as the growth rate parameters during the batch cultivation.

Having an insight into graphene and graphene derivatives such as graphene oxide, reduced graphene oxide and graphene quantum dots is necessary since it can help scientists to detect possible properties and features that could be useful when using these carbon materials in preparation of a nanocomposites. In recent years, graphene and its derivatives have attracted a lot of attention and been extensively applied in biosensors due to fascinating properties, such as large surface area, optical and magnetic properties, and high elasticity for the detection of microorganisms as they can be modified with some other materials such as macromolecules, oxide metals and metals to improve the electrochemical behaviour of the biosensor. In this review paper, biosensor design strategies based on graphene and its derivatives (graphene-based nanocomposites in biosensors) are described. Then their application for the detection of microorganisms including prions, viroids, viral and bacterial cells as well as fungi, protozoa, microbial toxins and even microbial sources of antibiotics is reviewed.

Background: Accidents are one of the most important health-threatening factors among different age groups in the society, especially in older people. Due to the growth of older people population and increasing their participation in social activities, studying the trends of accidents in older people can be useful in identifying research priorities and specific interventions. Methods: This research with a cross-sectional descriptive approach has been done on 27332 injured elderly who referred to hospitals of Isfahan Province, Iran, between 2012 and 2015. Data were retrieved from elderly accidents registration software, then were analyzed in SPSS software using descriptive statistics. Findings: Most and least accidents in men and women have been occurred, respectively, in the age group of 60 to 64 years and 85 years and older. 65.34% of the accidents have been happened among elderly men and 34.65% in elderly women. Totally, streets and alleys (39.62%) and sports and recreation centers (0.48%) were the most and least scenes of the accidents. The highest and the lowest rates of the accidents occurrence (27.39% and 23.58%) have been reported in 2013 and 2014, respectively. Moreover, the top cause of accidents in women (29.87%) and in men (25.82%) was crash and the least cause in both genders (0.01%) was drowning. Conclusion: Older people need special attention in accidents due to their physical conditions, comorbidities, and exacerbation of complications. Regarding the growing trend of population aging, it is recommended to provide dedicated services and notification to prevent accidents incidence in the elderly.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce some new classes of rings and modules that are closely related to the classes of almost Dedekind domains and almost Dedekind modules. We introduce the concepts of $\phi$-almost Dedekind rings and $\Phi$-almost Dedekind modules and study some properties of this classes. In this paper we get some equivalent conditions for $\phi$-almost Dedekind rings and $\Phi$-almost Dedekind modules and obtain the relationship between $\phi$-almost Dedekind rings and $\Phi$-almost Dedekind modules.

The biosorption of heavy metals by microorganisms has attracted the interest of food researchers as the last approach to reduce the risk of their absorption in the human body. But the stability of yeast-metal complexes under simulated gastrointestinal conditions has not been investigated. In this study stability of complex as well as isotherm and kinetic models of biosorption have been studied. Also, the impact of some pretreatment on yeast biosorption was studied to check the possible impact of different environmental conditions in food processing. Data showed a risk of heavy metal release in simulated gastrointestinal conditions. The best biosorption of metals from aqueous solutions by Saccharomyces (S.) cerevisiae may be achieved after NaOH pretreatment for Mercury (Hg) 92.7%. While biosorption of Lead (Pb) 37.48%, Arsenic (As) 19.44%, and Cadmium (Cd) 39.9% by untreated yeast were better. In gastrointestinal conditions, Hg and Cd-yeast complexes were more stable and biosorption of Cd and Pb increased. Bonds of As and Hg-yeast complexes in digestion conditions were reversible. The metals biosorption by untreated yeast followed the pseudo-second-order kinetic and the Langmuir isotherm model for Hg, Pb, and Cd and Freundlich for As. Results showed that biosorption of heavy metals by S. cerevisiae, although may decrease metal bioavailability in fermented foods, the complex is not enough stable in gastrointestinal conditions.

Food and water contaminations with heavy metals have been increasing due to the environmental pollution. Decontamination of mercury as one of the most toxic heavy metals seems necessary. The aim of this study is to use L. acidophilus ATCC 4356 to reduce the mercury amount in milk. All possible process variables (including contact time, bacterial count, mercury concentration, temperature, contact time and shaking rate) were screening by Plackett Burman design for determination of main effects. Then main effects (contact time, as well as Hg and biomass concentration) were studied in 5 levels with response surface methodology to reach maximal bioremoval efficiency. The highest decontamination efficiency (72%) was achieved in the presence of 80 μg/L of initial Hg concentration, 1 × 1012 CFU of L. acidophilus ATCC 4356 in the 4th day. Finally, the capacity of this bacterium for Mercury bioremoval was determined at different Hg initial concentrations by using the isotherm models of Langmuir and Freundlich. The results showed the higher correlation coefficient in Langmuir model so, Mercury absorptions obey Langmuir isotherm model. This study indicated that in the case of milk contamination to Hg, as reported in some countries, one of the solutions for metal decontamination could be the bioremoval by lactobacillus as natural valuable biosorbents as an environmental friendly technology.

Abstract Aims Type 2 diabetes is a major global health concern, and its prevalence is rapidly increasing throughout the world. The present study was conducted to explore the experiences of patients and healthcare providers to identify the social barriers to patients' adherence to their recommended diet and thus help the design of future interventions. Design This study was conducted as a qualitative study with content analysis approach. Methods The present qualitative study was conducted from November 2016–July 2017. Data were collected through 38 unstructured in‐depth interviews with 33 T2D patients and their treatment supervisors and field notes. The interview transcripts were coded using the MAXQDA 10 software. To extract categories and themes, the thematic analysis approach was used. We followed the COREQ Checklist to ensure rigour in our study. Results The analysis of the study revealed the emergence of five categories of perceived barriers including social priorities and rivalries, family's food habits, poor social support, social impasses and dominant food patterns.

Water quality is presented by its physicochemical and biological specification. The aim of this study was to analyze the physicochemical characteristic of waters (river, drinking, hybrid and pure water) including total hardness, magnesium, nitrite and ammonia (mg/L) which were determined based on the standard protocols of the EPA (2010) using photometer, Palintest, 8000. Furthermore, dissolved oxygen (mg/L), temperature (ºC) and pH were determined by oxygen meter, calorimeter and pH meter, respectively, with 3 repeats and in the limnology laboratory of Birjand University. In river water, the concentration of nitrogen is higher compared to other water sources due to the physicochemical reactions (especially due to the disposal of ammonia into water). For the hybrid water, consisting of drinking water plus pure water, the chlorine concentration (0.4 mg/L) was greater than the average (0.15 mg/L). The total hardness of the same (125 mg/L) was however lower than the average (185 mg/L). Finally, it is recommended that biological indicators such as the presence of rotifers, tubular cross-sectional fish, and salmon (which normally live in clean water) be used to assess the qualitative characteristics of the water. This is due to the fact that there are normally more living creatures in waters which can hold salts.

مقدمه: پرگابالين، به عنوان يك داروی كمكي در صرع پارشيال، فيبروميالژي، دردهاي نوروپاتيك و اختلال اضطراب عمومي كاربرد دارد. اين مطالعه، با هدف تعيين اثرات پرگابالين بر روي حافظه‌ی Rat با استفاده از روش Object Recognition Task (ORT) طراحي شد. روش‌ها: اين مطالعه، يك مطالعه‌ی حيواني تجربي است. Ratهای نر نژاد Wistar در 4 گروه 7تایی تقسیم شدند و به مدت 28 روز 10، 30 و یا 100 میلی‌گرم/کیلوگرم پرگابالین و یا همان حجم نرمال‌سالین به آن‌ها تزریق شد. سپس، حیوانات برای ارزیابی حافظه‌ی فضایی در عرصه‌ی ORT و طی دو دوره‌ی 3 دقیقه‌ای با فاصله‌ی 1 ساعت در مواجهه با اشیای مشابه و یا متفاوت قرار گرفتند. شاخص‌های Discrimination (2d)، Recognition (R) و فرکانس لمس شیء جدید (f)، در دوره‌ی دوم مواجهه با اشیا (2T)، با هم مقایسه شدند. 050/0 > P به عنوان معیار معنی‌دار بودن اختلاف در نظر گرفته شد. یافته‌ها: تجویز دزهای 10، 30 و 100 میلی‌گرم/کیلوگرم به مدت 28 روز، به طور قابل توجهی شاخص 2d (به ترتیب 050/0 > P، 010/0 > P و 001/0 > P)، R (به ترتیب 010/0 > P، 001/0 > P و 001/0 > P) و فرکانس اکتشاف (به ترتیب 050/0 < P، 050/0 > P و 001/0 > P) را در دوره‌ی 2T نسبت به گروه شاهد کاهش داد. 100 میلی‌گرم/کیلوگرم پرگابالین باعث کاهش بیشتری در عوامل بالا نسبت به 10 میلی‌گرم/کیلوگرم دارو شد (به ترتیب 050/0 > P، 001/0 > P و 050/0 > P). نتیجه‌گیری: يافته‌هاي اين تحقيق نشان مي‌دهد تجويز طولاني مدت دزهای مختلف پرگابالين، حافظه‌ی شناختی Rat را در تشخيص شيء جديد مختل مي‌كند. این کاهش حافظه، از الگوی وابسته به دز پیروی می‌کند.

Background: Schools of health sciences play an important role in public health by training the workforce and the development of scientific work. However, several factors can threaten the position and status of these centers and disrupt their interactions with executive-industrial environments. Since no comprehensive study has been conducted on the barriers facing the schools of health sciences, this study is conducted with the objective to identify the concerns of the schools of health sciences for interaction with executive-industrial environments. Methods: In this study, the conversation flow of 20 specialists and heads of the schools of health sciences of Iranian type 1 universities was filmed at Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran in summer 2018; the conversations were handwritten and then typed word for word; they were then analyzed by content analysis method. Findings: As a result of data analysis, the related factors were classified into two main categories: 1) challenges and needs of interaction with health deputies, 2) challenges and needs of interaction with industry, which the latter itself included four categories. Conclusion: For the first time, the present study achieved some important results on the categorization of a set of challenges and needs related to the interactions with the health deputy office, as well as the interactions with the office of industrial relationships as the barriers to the operations of the universities and the operational environments. Therefore, the above results can be used as a guideline for designing comprehensive programs to remove barriers to communication and interaction at the schools of health sciences with their offices of health deputy and industrial relationships.

Background and Aim: Acute pancreatitis is an inflammatory pancreatic disease that is associated with low or no fibrosis of the pancreas. Standard non-surgical treatment in all patients involves correcting water and electrolyte disorders, pain relief and avoiding pancreatic secretion. Given that pancreatitis is an inflammatory process, and NSAIDs have been shown to modulate inflammatory processes and even prevent pancreatitis in those who received ERCP, as well as complete studies on this issue, we concluded that In this study, we evaluated the effect of diclofenac on the treatment of acute biliary pancreatitis. Materials and Methods: This study was performed on 79 patients with acute biliary pancreatitis. The two groups received the standard treatment of acute pancreatitis and the intervention group received 100 mg diclofenac suppository and the control group received placebo suppository excessive to the standard treatment. This double-blind study was conducted to investigate the effect of diclofenac suppository on the treatment of acute pancreatitis. Results: The results showed that there was no significant difference between sexes and age (p>0.05). Also, there were no significant differences between the two groups in terms of mortality, cholangitis, organ failure, bactericidal necrotizing pancreatitis, cholangitis, intrathecal or extracellular pancreatic insufficiency, necrotizing surgery, length of stay in the hospital and hospitalization in the care unit there were no special cases (P> 0.05). Conclusion: Diclofenac suppositories have not had a positive effect on the treatment of acute biliary pancreatitis.

Background: Finding the best location for the airport reduces the negative effects of construction and its activity on the environment. This study aimed to evaluate the establishment of the airports (Mehrabad and Imam Khomeini airports) in Tehran province through integration of multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) methods and noise pollution modeling software. Methods: The criteria for zoning the airports were determined using Delphi method, and then, were weighed using analytic network process (ANP). One of the criteria was noise pollution. The computer aided noise abatement (CadnaA) software was used to map the noise level at the airports. The geographic information system (GIS) software and weighted overlay method were used to zone Tehran province for construction of the airports. The percentage of voice annoyance was defined according to the questionnaire provided by the International Commission on the Biological Effects of Noise (ICBEN). Results: Prioritization between the selected criteria using ANP and TOPSIS showed that the most important criteria are the land use (0.069) and the distance from the city (0.0598), respectively. The highest percentage of highly annoyed (%HA) persons was reported at both airports at Lden levels above 70 dB. Conclusion: According to the results of this study, the location of Mehrabad and Imam Khomeini airports is considered 60% and 18% inappropriate, respectively. The results introduce a set of criteria that determines compatibility rate of different activities around the airports based on the noise levels. Finally, it is recommended to study the correlation between aircraft noise pollution indicators in other airports of Iran and design a local model for the whole country.

Introduction: Considering the increasing interest of investors, shareholders and general stakeholders in recognizing the dimensions of corporate social responsibility of companies, it is important to disclose the social responsibility of the company and to this end, recognizing the existing situation is essential. This matter is not possible without possessing the valid and reliable tools. Method: This research is applied in terms of purpose and regarding data collection method, it is a field research. The statistical society for this study consists of university professors in the fields of accounting and financial management, and also, experts in finance, accounting and capital markets. In this study, after examining the texts and extracting different aspects of social responsibility disclosure, indicators of these aspects were examined in 3 stages using the Delphi method. Results: The results show that out of the 85 indexes of the initial questionnaire, 39 were excluded and a checklist of 45 reliable and valid indicators was created. In the experts’ point of view regarding the importance of the disclosure of aspects, services and products were the most and social responsibility was the least important. Conclusion: Considering the importance of corporate social responsibility, using a valid and reliable criterion in evaluating the level of corporate social responsibility increases the quality of stockholder decision-making. Therefore, benefiting from experts’ view in formulating a proper tool for evaluating the level of social responsibility can improve the level of social responsibility and it assessment.

Recently, many economic studies of poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) PHB production on an industrial scale, and the impact of replacing petrochemical polymers by PHB were carried out, clearly indicating that the most crucial factors to reduce the cost of producing biopolymers are allotted to the application of microbial production strains capable of high productivity in inexpensive carbon sources, high cell density cultivation methods, cheap yet effective methods for the extraction of PHB and other polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs), and gene transfer from bacteria to plants. We present current strategies to reduce the production price of biological PHA. Because an important part of the PHA production cost is related to the cost of carbon source, the article focuses on the use of natural gas as an inexpensive and readily available C1-carbon source. Since the first and foremost point in PHA production is biomass growth, we discuss different types of bioreactors to be potentially used for efficient biomass production from natural gas, which facilitates the subsequent selection of the ideal bioreactor for PHA production from this substrate. Nowadays, process simulation software can be used as a powerful tool for analysis, optimization, design, and scale up of bioprocesses. Controlling the process design by in silico simulations instead of performing an excessive number of lab-scale experiments to optimize various factors to save in time, material and equipment. Simulation of PHA production processes to find the optimal conditions can play a decisive role in increasing the production efficiency. Computational fluid dynamics and mathematical modeling helps us to achieve a better understanding of the role of different nutrients, flow parameters of gaseous substrates, efficient feeding strategies, etc. This finding leads to higher productivity by prediction of parameters e.g. nutrient supply and biomass concentration time profile and their respective yields.

Introduction: The application of biosorbents like bacteria, yeast, and algae is a biotechnological method for eliminating heavy metals from the environment. These microorganisms can also be used for the decontamination of heavy metal in food and water. Methods: In this study, we investigated the Cadmium (Cd) biosorption in milk by using Saccharomyces cerevisiae. For this purpose, Cd and S. cerevisiae were added to milk, and the bioremoval process was monitored for four days. We evaluated six variables, including exposure time, temperature, S. cerevisiae concentration, viability yeasts, shaking rate, and initial Cd concentration in the bioremoval process. Results: The analysis of ANOVA showed that among the above six variables, S. cerevisiae concentration, initial Cd concentration, and exposure time were statistically significantly associated with Cd removal (P values ≤0.05). The highest biosorption (70%) was observed after 4 days with 30×108 CFU S. cerevisiae in milk containing 80 μg/L of Cd. Conclusion: Our findings provided further evidence for S. cerevisiae as a powerful biosorbent for Cd removal from milk and a potentially safe and green tool for providing safe and healthy food supply.

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need and benefits for all communities to be permitted timely access to on-demand screening for infectious respiratory diseases. This can be achieved with simplified testing approaches and affordable access to core resources. While RT-qPCR-based tests remain the gold standard for SARS-CoV-2 detection due to their high sensitivity, implementation of testing requires high upfront costs to obtain the necessary instrumentation. This is particularly restrictive in low-resource settings. The Ubiquitome Liberty16 system was developed as an inexpensive, portable, battery-operated single-channel RT-qPCR device with an associated iPhone app to simplify assay set-up and data reporting. When coupled with the SalivaDirect protocol for testing saliva samples for SARS-CoV-2, the Liberty16 device yielded a limit of detection (LOD) of 12 SARS-CoV-2 RNA copies/µL, comparable to the upper end of the LOD range for the standard SalivaDirect protocol when performed on larger RT-qPCR instruments. While further optimization may deliver even greater sensitivity and assay speed, findings from this study indicate that small portable devices such as the Liberty16 can deliver reliable results and provide the opportunity to further increase access to gold standard SARS-CoV-2 testing.

Aim: Among environmental pollutants, there is a great concern about organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) due to their environmental persistence, accumulation in the food chain, detection in breast milk, and their ability to accumulate in adipose tissues. Due to the toxicity of OCPs and its relationship with human health, this study aimed to investigate the effects of dieldrin pesticides on morphological changes in the HeLa cell line. Materials and Methods: Standard concentrations of dieldrin (0.1-20 ppm) were prepared and cells were cultured in 1640 Roswell Park Memorial Institute (RPMI) medium containing 10% bovine serum albumin and Pen-Strep antibiotic. Subsequently, the morphological effects of dieldrin on HeLa cells in a cell culture medium were investigated. Results: Morphological and cytopathic changes were not observed in HeLa cells treated with concentrations of 0.1, 0.5, and 1 ppm of dieldrin. However, significant changes including cell rounding and cytopathic effects were observed in the cells treated with 5 ppm of dieldrin. Moreover, at concentrations of 15 and 20 ppm of dieldrin, the cells were completely destroyed and could not be examined. Conclusion: The effects of dieldrin on HeLa cell morphology were observed in the form of cell rounding and cytopathic effects. These morphological changes suggest that dieldrin may induce the process of apoptosis in cells. According to the results, the identification of different factors that aggravate the cytotoxic effects of this pesticide needs further research.

Background: Toxocariasis is an acute or chronic disease caused by parasites of the Ascaridae family, especially Toxocara of dogs and cats. Eggs are excreted out by feces of these animals on soil. Infective eggs develop on soil which can be infective to human. In this study, infection rate of Toxocara spp. in dogs and cats of urban and rural areas of Isfahan province of Iran has been investigated. Materials and Methods: Three hundred and seventy-five stray dog feces and 230 stray cat feces were collected from the public environment (slaughterhouses, parks, children's playgrounds, student dormitories, university environment, streets and squares) in Isfahan province of Iran. At first, dogs' and cats' feces were examined for the presence of Toxocara spp. eggs using formalin ether method. In the second stage, by using molecular methods, Toxocara eggs spp. (Toxocara canis or Toxocara cati) were identified. Results: From 375 dog fecal samples, 39 (10.40%) and from 230 cat fecal samples, 38 (16.52%) were positive for presence of the Toxocara eggs. Conclusion: Dogs and cats in Isfahan province of Iran were infected with Toxocara parasite. These infections can be potential risk for human toxocariasis.