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Currently, different strategies, including the application of bio-fertilizers, are used to ameliorate the adverse effects posed by salinity stress as the major global problem in plants. Fish waste is suggested as a novel bio-fertilizer to mitigate the effects of biotic and abiotic stresses. In this investigation, an experiment was conducted to investigate the effects by applying different concentrations (0, 5, 10, and 15% (v/v)) of fish waste bio-fertilizer on stevia plants grown under salt stress conditions (0, 20, 40, and 60 mM of NaCl). Results showed that salinity negatively affected growth parameters, the photosynthetic pigments, the relative water content, and the chlorophyll fluorescence parameters while increased the activity of antioxidant enzymes, total phenol, hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), malondialdehyde (MDA), proline, and total carbohydrates compared with control samples. On the other hand, the application of fish waste bio-fertilizer mitigated the effects of salinity stress by enhancing growth and mitigating stress-relative markers, especially at the highest salinity level (60 mM). Overall, fish waste bio-fertilizer could be considered a sustainable, innovative approach for the alleviation of salinity stress effects in plants and, in addition, fish waste bio-fertilizer did not cause more salinity issues, at least with the applied doses and experiment time, which is an imperative aspect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Various methods are used to treat patients with coronavirus, including drug therapy and alternative and non-invasive therapies Research has been done on the effects of body position on cardiac function in patients with COVID-19 diagnosis. Methods: This study was performed on patients admitted with COVID-19 diagnosis. Patients with inclusion criteria were selected based on purpose and entered into the study. They were divided into three groups: Group A patients were placed in a semi-sitting position, group B patients were placed in a tripod position, and group C patients were placed in a prone position. After being placed in the relevant positions at 15 and 60 minutes were measured in terms of heart rate and blood pressure at the mentioned times in the relevant checklist. Results: The results showed that there was no statistically significant difference in heart rate between the three groups before the intervention (P>0.05). In other words, changes in heart rate over time between the three groups (in several measurements) were statistically significant (P<0.05). Regarding Systolic Blood Pressure (SBP) and Diastolic Blood pressure patterns, the results showed that the three position groups was not statistically different before and 15 and 60 minutes after the intervention (P>0.05). Conclusion: According to the results, it can be concluded that placing the patient in all three positions of the tripod, prone and semi-sitting can be effective in improving the patient's heart rate pattern and lead to improving the patient's clinical condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drought stress negatively influences the production and productivity of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) as one of the world's three important cereal crops. This field experiment was conducted to evaluate the morphological, yield and physiological characters of 15 modern and elite experimental wheat genotypes under irrigation and drought stress (no irrigation from pollination until the end of the growing season) during the 2016–2017 and 2017–2018 growing seasons. The results showed that the grain yield, 1000-grain weight, harvest index as morphological traits and relative water content (RWC), total chlorophyll, electrolyte leakage, proline as physiological traits were influenced by drought stress. The grain yield of all genotypes was reduced due to the reduction of grain number per spike or 1000-grain weight in response to drought stress. The wheat genotypes showed significant differences with regards to relative water content, photosynthetic pigments, proline and electrolyte leakage under both conditions. In all genotypes, RWC and photosynthetic pigments were decreased; however, proline and electrolyte leakage were increased under drought stress. The correlation analysis revealed a positive and significant correlation between grain yield with biomass, No. grain per spike, No. spike per plant, 1000-grain weight, and main stem length. In drought stressed genotypes grain yield was significantly associated with RWC and negatively correlated with electrolyte leakage and proline content. Tolerant genotypes were selected according to results of drought tolerance indices. According to obtained data URBWYT4 with high mean productivity (MP), geometric mean productivity (GMP), stress tolerance index (STI) and harmonic mean (HARM) but relatively low stress tolerance (TOL) and stress susceptibility index (SSI) performed well in both conditions. This conclusion was supported by the results from morphological, yield and physiological traits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers the fault estimation problem in a data‐driven ℋ∞$$ {\mathscr{H}}_{\infty } $$ setup for a class of nonlinear systems called Hammerstein‐Wiener. The fault estimation problem is converted to a finite‐horizon minimax H∞$$ {H}_{\infty } $$ optimization problem. To estimate faults, a subspace predictor is utilized to predict the output sequence. Our proposed method is robust against ℒ2$$ {\mathcal{L}}_2 $$ disturbances. The proposed method is briefly expressed as an algorithm that can be implemented by MATLAB software. The suggested algorithm is applied to a numerical MIMO example to verify its validity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The epidemiology of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection in Ilam city, Western Iran, is not well understood. We conducted the current research to determine the seroprevalence of H. pylori infection in this city. A total of 1102 individuals (661 females and 441 males) older than12 years old were enrolled in the study. The bacterium was detected by the H. pylori stool antigen (HpSA) test. The rate of H. pylori positivity in the sample population was 54.4% (n=600). No statistically significant association was found between gender and the prevalence of H. pylori (P value = 0.21). The highest H. pylori prevalence was observed in the summer (17.6%, n= 194); however, no statistically significant relationship was detected between seasonal changes and the incidence of H. pylori infection (P value= 0.30). According to our results, it seems that the prevalence of H. pylori infection is high, especially in summer, in the population of Ilam city. This may become a major health concern in the area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a Gram-negative bacterium that considered as important opportunistic human pathogen. One of the mechanisms that help bacteria to tolerate survival in adverse conditions and resistance to antibiotics is biofilm formation through quorum sensing (QS) signals and toxin-antitoxin (TA) systems. QS and TA are two systems that have important roles in biofilm formation. QS is a global regulatory mechanism that enable bacteria to communicate with each other by production of auto inducers (AI) molecules in population. Because of importance biofilm formation in P. aeruginosa infections, here, we studied frequency of QS and TA genes among clinical isolates of P. aeruginosa with ability of biofilm formation. Materials and Methods: One hundred and forty clinical isolates of P. aeruginosa were collected from Tehran and Ilam hospitals. The isolates were identiied by biochemical tests. Biofilm formation was evaluated by microplate method. After DNA extraction by boiling method, the frequency of QS genes (lasIR, rhllR), and TA genes (mazEF, relBE, hipBA, ccdAB and mqsR) were analyzed by PCR. Results: Our results showed that maximum resistance is related to aztreonam (72.85%) antibiotic. Most of isolates were able to produce biofilm (87.15%) and the majority of them formed strong biofilm (56.42%). PCR results showed that frequency of mazEF, relBE, hipBA, ccdAB, mqsR, lasIR and rhlIR genes were 85.71, 100, 1.42, 100, 57.14, 93.57 and 83.57 percent, respectively. Conclusion: Clinical isolates of P. aeruginosa had high ability to form biofilm, and QS and TA system genes among these isolates were very high (except hipBA genes). There are significant correlation between biofilm for mation and present of QS and TA system genes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The essential oil of the aerial parts of Teucrium scordium L. (Lamiaceae), one endemic species growing in Iran was analyzed via GC and GC/MS. Forty components representing about 94.6% of the oil were identified. Pulegone (39.1%) and b-caryophyllene (20.1%) were the main constituents. Additionally, other major compounds were b-farnesene (5.7%), menthofuran (4.2%), 1,8 cineole ( 4.1%) and a-humulene (3.1%). In this oil, the main classes of compounds were found to be oxygenated monoterpenes (54.5%) followed by hydrocarbon sesquiterpenes (28.9%). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: The ability of bacteria to produce biofilm and adhesion makes them more resistant to antibiotics. The current study aims to evaluate the biofilm formation by Staphylococcus aureus and to determine the prevalence of adhesion genes, also their correlation with drug resistance., Materials and Methods: A total of 96 MRSA were collected from hospitals of Iran's western provinces during 2012 to 2013. The presence of ica A, B, C, D, clfA, cna, fnbA, mecA genes were determined by PCR technique. Biofilm formation was studied by microtiter plate assay, the clonal relations of the strains were examined by SCCmec and Spa typing., Results: The results demonstrated that 96 % of isolates were biofilm producers. The distributions of biofilm formation between isolates were 4.2%, 54.2%, 35.4% as high, moderate and weak, respectivelly. The highest biofilm production was observed from blood culture isolates. All virulent genes icaA,B, C, D, clfA, cna, fnbA were observed in moderate and weak biofilm formation isolates. Among high biofilm formation isolates, icaB and cna genes were not seen. Statistical analysis showed that there was a significant correlation between ica , fnbA and the biofilm production, but there was not a significant correlation between the type of samples and drug resistance, spa type and SCCmec type with biofilm production ( P >0.05). Frequency of All virulent genes in type III SCCmec was higher than other types., Conclusion: The majority of MRSA isolates were biofilm producers and blood isolates ranked as the great biofilm producer. In these isolates ica D and fnbA genes are correlated with biofilm production.