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Creative tourism is a new concept in the tourism industry that is seen as a more sustainable form of tourism because it uses renewable sources of creative energy. The development of Creative tourism depends on various factors that need to be systematically addressed. This highlights the importance of future research and development to explore the potential of creative tourism in tourism development. A study was conducted to determine the key drivers that are effective in the development of creative tourism in Borujerd County. The study used the foresight method, Delphi technique, and Micmac software to gather insights from 35 managers and experts in the tourism industry. The results indicated that 10 out of the 33 factors affecting the development of creative tourism in Borujerd County were the most significant. These key drivers included increasing the transportation infrastructure, marketing and supporting investors, improving language skills and communication, enhancing the knowledge of tourism employees, promoting ethnic and cultural diversity, including participation of natives and vulnerable groups, supporting rituals and traditions, maintaining social security and ethics, and creating job opportunities in the tourism sector. Overall, the study suggests that addressing these key drivers can help foster the development of creative tourism in Borujerd County and contribute to a more sustainable form of tourism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study was carried out in order to determine the cost and benefit of investment, cost price, margin safety ratio, gross margin, benefit-cost ratio, and economic value of the wheat seed losses in processing lines of domestic systems of Ar-Mashin, Arvin-Sanat, Ramsanat Bhareh, and Azaran Boojar lines, located in Fars, Khorasan Razavi, Khouzestan and Golestan provinces, respectively in 2018. In this case, profitability analysis and engineering economic indicators were considered to achieve the research objectives. According to results, the average cost price of wheat seed (per kg) in target processing lines and provinces was estimated to be 19633.9 Iranian Rials, which was lower than selling price in most of the provinces. Average gross margins for processing lines in Jovein Cultivation and Industry, Fars Thousand Khoosheh Talayehdaran, Amiran Zagros Taha, Army Sample, Sabz Dasht Sorkheh, and Razmandegan Companies in target provinces were positive and was 11.2 billion Iranian Rials, but, this gross margins in Marvdasht Rural Cooperative Company, Rural Cooperative Company of Gonbad, and Zarrin Daneh Benvar Company in Khouzestan were negative. Average benefit-cost ratio in domestic processing lines was 1.05 during the analysis period. Also, average useful waste separated from the seed processing line was 20.2%, and the value of lost seeds was 958.6 million Iranian Rials. Therefore, it is recommended that profitable companies continue their activities by increasing the amount of purchased inbound seeds to minimize losses and receive positive economic benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The separation of saffron stigma from fresh flowers is the most important and the most difficult step of saffron harvesting. The separation of saffron stigma is done by hand which is time-consuming and costly. The saffron flowers will decay if separating of saffron stigma is not done quickly. Drying is one method of keeping saffron flowers. The dried saffron flowers have the higher shelf life, and deadline of stigma separating is extended. The main object of this study was to determine the best saffron flower drying method. Therefore, the effect of variables including drying temperature in three levels (40°C, 50°C and 60°C), air velocity in two levels (0.5 and 1 m/s) and three levels of flowers (buds, semi opened and fully opened) were investigated on the amount of crocin (stigma color), saffronal (fragrance) and picrocrocin (bitter taste). The results showed that the amount of crocin decreased and the amount of saffronal increased with increasing of drying temperature. The best conditions for flowers drying were obtained at 50°C drying temperature and 0.5 m/s air velocity. The dried saffron flower buds had the higher amount of saffronal than dried flowers of semi opened and fully opened. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The threshing section on combine harvester or thresher machine affects grain and stalk separation performance. The present study is conducted with view to optimize important operational and crop parameters influencing the threshing of sorghum. In this research, the effects of cylinder speed with four levels (13, 17, 21 and 25 m s-1), concave clearance (5, 10 and 15 mm) and feed rate (420, 500 and 590 kg h-1) were investigated on un-separated seed percentage, damaged seed percentage and germination. Result of ANOVA showed that cylinder speed had a significant effect on unseparated seed percentage and damaged seed percentage (P<0.01). Concave clearance created a significant effect on damaged seed percentage. Though the feed rate did not have significant effect on all adjectives, the unseparated seed percentage increased with increasing of feed rate. The thresher efficiency and damaged seed increased with increase of cylinder speed. The increase of Concave clearance from 5 to 10 mm caused that unseparated seed weight percentage increased from 0.69% to 0.78%, and damaged seed rate decreased from 13.01% to 11.01%. Generally, the best performance for sorghum threshing was given at the 21 m s-1 cylinder speed, 10 mm Concave clearance and 590 kg h-1 feed rate [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pyrazolopyridines are common scaffolds in various bioactive compounds, which have several therapeutic effects and unique pharmacological properties. In this study, we fabricated a novel environmentally friendly silica-based nanocomposite as a multifunctional catalytic system for the synthesis of pyrazolopyridine derivatives. This novel heterogeneous nanocomposite named Alg@SBA-15/Fe 3 O 4 (Alg stands for alginic acid), was prepared in several steps. In this regard, SBA-15 was synthesized by the hydrothermal method. Next, it was magnetized by Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticles via an in situ co-precipitation process. Then, SBA-15/Fe 3 O 4 particles were functionalized with 3-minopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES). Afterward, Alg@SBA-15/Fe 3 O 4 was obtained by a nucleophilic substitution reaction between SBA-15/Fe 3 O 4 -NH 2 and an as-synthesized methyl-esterified alginic. Different analyses such as Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR), energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy, field-emission scanning-electron microscopy (FESEM), vibrating-sample magnetometer (VSM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and BET (Brunauer-Emmett-Teller) have been used to confirm the structure of the fabricated catalyst. The magnetic properties of the Alg@SBA-15/Fe 3 O 4 catalytic system imparted by Fe 3 O 4 MNPs enable it to be conveniently isolated from the reaction mixture by using an external magnet. According to the obtained results, the prepared nanocatalyst has high thermal stability and it lost approximately 26% of its weight up to 800 °C. Interestingly, a small amount of prepared nanocatalyst (0.02 g) has shown excellent catalytic performance in the synthesis of pyrazolopyridine derivatives (90-97%) in a short reaction time (20-30 min) at room temperature which can be attributed to its porous structure and large surface area, and the presence of many acidic and basic functional groups. In general, it can be argued that the Alg@SBA-15/Fe 3 O 4 nanocomposite deserves more attention due to its non-toxicity, ease of preparation, good recyclability, and its high catalytic efficiency., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest., (This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry.)

This study describes an efficient antimicrobial drug delivery system composed of iron oxide magnetic nanoparticles (Fe 3 O 4 NPs) coated by an MOF-199 network. Then, the prepared vancomycin (VAN)-loaded carrier was fully packed in a lattice of beta-cyclodextrin (BCD). For cell adhesion, beta-cyclodextrin has been functionalized with guanidine (Gn) groups within in situ synthetic processes. Afterward, drug loading efficiency and the release patterns were investigated through precise analytical methods. Confocal microscopy has shown that the prepared cargo (formulated as [VAN@Fe 3 O 4 /MOF-199]BCD-Gn) could be attached to the Staphylococcus aureus ( S. aureus ) and Escherichia coli ( E. coli ) bacterial cells in a higher rate than the individual VAN. The presented system considerably increased the antibacterial effects of the VAN with a lower dosage of drug. The cellular experiments such as the zone of inhibition and optical density (OD 600 ) have confirmed the enhanced antibacterial effect of the designed cargo. In addition, the MIC/MBC (minimum inhibitory and bactericidal concentrations) values have been estimated for the prepared cargo compared to the individual VAN, revealing high antimicrobial potency of the VAN@Fe 3 O 4 /MOF-199]BCD-Gn cargo.

In the field of targeted drug delivery, the effects of size and morphology of drug nanocarriers are of great importance and need to be discussed in depth. To be concise, among all the various shapes of nanocarriers, rods and tubes with a narrow cross-section are the most preferred shapes for the penetration of a cell membrane. In this regard, several studies have focused on methods to produce nanorods and nanotubes with controlled optimized size and aspect ratio (AR). Additionally, a non-spherical orientation could affect the cellular uptake process while a tangent angle of less than 45° is better at penetrating the membrane, and Ω = 90° is beneficial. Moreover, these nanocarriers show different behaviors when confronting diverse cells whose fields should be investigated in future studies. In this survey, a comprehensive classification based on carrier shape is first submitted. Then, the most commonly used methods for control over the size and shape of the carriers are reviewed. Finally, influential factors on the cellular uptake and internalization processes and related analytical methods for evaluating this process are discussed., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest., (This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry.)

In this study, a new heterogeneous magnetic catalytic system based on selenium-functionalized iron oxide nanoparticles is presented and suggested for facilitating amide/peptide bonds formation. The prepared nanocatalyst, entitled as "Fe 3 O 4 /SiO 2 -DSBA" (DSBA stands for 2,2'-diselanediylbis benzamide), has been precisely characterized for identifying its physicochemical properties. As the most brilliant point, the catalytic performance of the designed system can be mentioned, where only a small amount of Fe 3 O 4 /SiO 2 -DSBA (0.25 mol%) has resulted in 89% reaction yield, under a mild condition. Also, given high importance of green chemistry, convenient catalyst particles separation from the reaction medium through its paramagnetic property (ca. 30 emu·g -1 ) should be noticed. This particular property provided a substantial opportunity to recover the catalyst particles and successfully reuse them for at least three successive times. Moreover, due to showing other excellences, such as economic benefits and nontoxicity, the presented catalytic system is recommended to be scaled up and exploited in the industrial applications., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Nanobioconjugates are nanoscale drug delivery vehicles that have been conjugated to or decorated with biologically active targeting ligands. These targeting ligands can be antibodies, peptides, aptamers, or small molecules such as vitamins or hormones. Most research studies in this field have been devoted to targeting cancer. Moreover, the nanostructures can be designed with an additional level of targeting by being designed to be stimulus-responsive or "smart" by a judicious choice of materials to be incorporated into the hybrid nanostructures. This stimulus could be an acidic pH, raised temperature, enzyme, ultrasound, redox potential, an externally applied magnetic field, or laser irradiation. In this case, the smart capability can increase the accumulation at the tumor site or the on-demand drug release, while the ligand ensures selective binding to the tumor cells. The present review highlights some interesting studies classified according to the nanostructure material. These materials include natural substances (polysaccharides), multi-walled carbon nanotubes (and halloysite nanotubes), metal-organic frameworks and covalent-organic frameworks, metal nanoparticles (gold and silver), and polymeric micelles., Competing Interests: The author MRH declares the following potential conflicts of interest: Scientific Advisory Boards: Transdermal Cap Inc, Cleveland, OH; BeWell Global Inc, Wan Chai, Hong Kong; Hologenix Inc. Santa Monica, CA; LumiThera Inc, Poulsbo, WA; Vielight, Toronto, Canada; Bright Photomedicine, Sao Paulo, Brazil; Quantum Dynamics LLC, Cambridge, MA; Global Photon Inc, Bee Cave, TX; Medical Coherence, Boston MA; NeuroThera, Newark DE; JOOVV Inc, Minneapolis-St. Paul MN; AIRx Medical, Pleasanton CA; FIR Industries, Inc. Ramsey, NJ; UVLRx Therapeutics, Oldsmar, FL; Ultralux UV Inc, Lansing MI; Illumiheal & Petthera, Shoreline, WA; MB Lasertherapy, Houston, TX; ARRC LED, San Clemente, CA; Varuna Biomedical Corp. Incline Village, NV; Niraxx Light Therapeutics, Inc, Boston, MA. Consulting; Lexington Int, Boca Raton, FL; USHIO Corp, Japan; Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany; Philips Electronics Nederland B.V. Eindhoven, Netherlands; Johnson & Johnson Inc, Philadelphia, PA; SanofiAventis Deutschland GmbH, Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Stockholdings: Global Photon Inc, Bee Cave, TX; Mitonix, Newark, DE., (© 2022 The Author(s).)

In this study, a heterogeneous nanocatalyst is presented that is capable to efficiently catalyze the synthetic reactions of amide bond formation between the amino acids. This nanocatalyst which is named Fe 3 O 4 @SiO 2 /TABHA (TABHA stands for thio-aza-bicyclo-hepten amine), was composed of several layers that increased the surface area to be functionalized with 2-aminothiazole rings via Diels-Alder approach. Firstly, various analytic methods such as Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) and energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopic methods, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), electron microscopy (EM), and UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV-DRS) have been used to characterize the desired structure of the Fe 3 O 4 @SiO 2 /TABHA catalyst. Afterward, the application of the presented catalytic system has been studied in the peptide bond formation reactions. Due to the existence of a magnetic core in the structure of the nanocatalyst, the nanoparticles (NPs) could be easily separated from the reaction medium by an external magnet. This special feature has been corroborated by the obtained results from vibrating-sample magnetometer (VSM) analysis that showed 24 emu g -1 magnetic saturation for the catalytic system. Amazingly, a small amount of Fe 3 O 4 @SiO 2 /TABHA particles (0.2 g) has resulted in ca. 90% efficiency in catalyzing the peptide bond formation at ambient temperature, over 4 h. Also, this nanocatalyst has demonstrated an acceptable recycling ability, where ca. 76% catalytic performance has been observed after four recycles. Due to high convenience in the preparation, application, and recyclization processes, and also because of lower cost than the traditional coupling reagents (like TBTU), the presented catalytic system is recommended for the industrial utilization., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Herein, a novel designed heterogeneous catalytic system constructed of volcanic pumice magnetic particles (VPMPs), cellulose (CLS) as a natural polymeric matrix, and copper nanoparticles (Cu NPs) is presented. Also, to enhance the inherent magnetic property of VPMP, iron oxide (Fe 3 O 4 ) nanoparticles have been prepared and incorporated in the structure via an in situ process. As its first and foremost excellent property, the designed composite is in great accordance with green chemistry principles because it contains natural ingredients. Another brilliant point in the architecture of the designed composite is the noticeable porosity of VPMP as the core of the composite structure (surface area: 84.473 m 2 g -1 ). This great porosity leads to the use of a small amount (0.05 g) of the particles for catalytic purposes. However, the main characterization methods, such as Fourier-transform infrared and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, and electron microscopy, revealed that the spherical metallic particles (Fe and Cu oxides) were successfully distributed onto the surface of the VPMP and CLS matrices. Further, vibrating-sample magnetometer analysis confirmed the enhancement of the magnetic property (1.5 emu g -1 ) of the composite through the addition of Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticles. Further, the prepared (Fe 3 O 4 @VPMP/CLS-Cu) nanocomposite has been applied to facilitate the reduction reaction of hazardous nitrobenzene derivatives (NBDs) to their aniline analogs, with 98% conversion efficiency in eight minutes under mild conditions. Moreover, the good reusability of the catalytic system has been verified after recycling it ten times without any significant decrease in the performance., Competing Interests: The authors listed in this article have no conflict of interests., (This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry.)