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Background and Objectives: Periodontal diseases are resulted from gum infections and dental plaques, which are mainly caused by the bacterial agents. Since dental monitoring includes important prognostic roles, the aim of this study was to detect the most common periodontal pathogenic bacteria in children. Materials and Methods: A total of 200 clinical samples were collected from dental plaques and gingival grooves. Target-specific primers were designed for hbpA in Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans, fimA in Porphyromonas gingivalis and 16S rRNA in Prevotella intermedia, Tannerella forsythia and Treponema denticola. Then, a multiplex polymerase chain reaction method was optimized for the highlighted bacterial agents. Results: In general, the highest and the lowest bacterial prevalence rates belonged to Tannerella forsythia (88%) and Porphyromonas gingivalis (13%), respectively. Furthermore, prevalence rates of Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans, Prevotella intermedia and Treponema denticola were 25, 21 and 45% in samples, respectively. Conclusion: There were significant associations between dental/oral health and microbial community. Metabolism of the oral bacteria, including biofilm formation, can affect gums and develop dental plaques and hence dental caries, especially in children. Early diagnosis of dental caries in children via rapid, accurate molecular methods can increase the diagnostic capacity in clinical cases and therefore prevent periodontal infections in adulthood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policymaking is a process in which governments turn their political vision into plans and actions to create desired changes. According to the principle 13 of the general policies of the system regarding increasing the share of renewable energies in the direction of public interests and in the service of public security, accelerating the expansion of renewable energies should be prioritized in government decision-making. The aim of this research is to provide a model for the development of renewable energy development policy based on the general policies of the system in the energy sector. In this qualitative research, semi-structured and in-depth interviews were conducted with fourteen professors and experts of the renewable energy industry in the country, and the data was collected and analyzed using thematic analysis and then confirmed using the interpretive structural modeling method. Themes extracted from theme analysis, including upstream laws and requirements, environmental requirements, international sanctions, economics of investment projects and international laws and requirements, processes including management and integrated planning, energy security, culture building, technology development and results including export development and economic development were identified. It was also found that the highest frequency was related to the variable of laws and upstream requirements, which shows the importance of paying attention to this variable in policy formulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Finding the appropriate fertilizer level and the best transplanting dates of yarrow as one of the most important medicinal plants can help farmers achieve better cultivation results. Therefore, this study aimed to determine yarrow optimal transplanting dates and animal manure level and to investigate the effect of these two factors on yield and seed yield components. A split plate experiment was carried out based on a randomized complete block design in three replications during 2021-2022. The experimental treatments consisted of animal manure fertilizer as the main factor (0, 10, 20, 30 ton ha-1) and transplanting dates (April 4, April 24, May 14) as the sub-factor. The studied traits included essential oil content, yield, and seed yield components. The results showed that the application of animal manure has a positive effect on the numbers of inflorescences (0.77 m-2), florets (216.3 m-2), flowering stems (6.3 m-2), seeds per inflorescence (78840 m-2), and thousand seed weight (3.6 g). April 4 was the best transplanting date in terms of the evaluated traits. The highest essential oil yield (2.2 g m-2) was observed for 30 ton ha-1 animal manure treatment on April 4. In general, based on the results of this study, applying 30 ton ha-1 of animal manure and choosing April 4 as the transplanting date can promote essential oil content, yield, and seed yield components. Therefore, it is possible to consider the use of animal manure as an organic fertilizer to improve the yield of medicinal plants, including yarrow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydrogen is widely considered a promising energy carrier capable of mitigating human environmental impact. Nevertheless, safety aspects represent one of the major bottlenecks for the widespread utilization of hydrogen technologies. Industrial equipment operating in hydrogen environments is prone to hydrogen-induced damages, which may manifest through a reduction of mechanical properties, fracture toughness, and fatigue performance. They may cause component failures at stress levels significantly below the design level, therefore determining loss of containment. The occurrence of hydrogen embrittlement (HE) relies on the synergy of several factors, such as hydrogen concentration, operating conditions, level of internal and applied stress, microstructure and chemical composition of the material. However, the interlinked dependence of these factors makes a direct and clear evaluation challenging, subsequently creating serious difficulties in planning inspection and maintenance activities. In this study, a comprehensive review of the experimental data of tensile tests carried out in hydrogen was performed and analyzed through an advanced machine learning approach. This study can provide critical insights into the susceptibility to hydrogen embrittlement for several materials operating under different environmental conditions. In particular, the Embrittlement Index was estimated and used as determining parameter to predict the likelihood of component failures. The model demonstrated accurate and reliable predicting capabilities. The outcome of this study can increase the understanding of hydrogen-induced material damages and facilitate decision-making processes in planning the inspection and maintenance of hydrogen technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cytochrome b (Cytb, EC 1.10. 2.2) is the only cytochrome coded by mitochondrial DNA and involved in electron transport in the mitochondrial respiratory chain. In this study, characterization of cytb protein was identified on fifty-four insect protein sequences, from different orders. According to the conserved motifs obtained with MEME and MAST tools, eight motifs were common to all insects. The structural and functional analyses of 16 selected insects from different orders were performed with ProtParam, Compute PI, SOPMA, SignalP 4.1, TMHMM 2.0, ProtScale and ProDom tools in the ExPASy database and DNASTAR 12.1 software. The tertiary structure ofDrosophila melanogasteras a sample of insects was predicted by the Phyre2 and TM-score servers and their similarities were verified by SuperPose servers. The tertiary structures were predicted using the ‘d1ppjc2’ model (PDB accession code: 1ppj C). A phylogenetic tree was constructed with MEGA 6.06 software using the neighbour-joining method. According to the results, there is a high identity of cytb in different insects so that they should be derived from a common ancestor. In protein–protein interaction analysis with STRING 10.0, twenty-three enriched pathways of KEGG were identified inD. melanogasterand other species. The obtained data provided a background for bioinformatic studies of the function and evolution of other insects and organisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]