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Bacterial cellulose (BC) is a biopolymer has found extensive applications across different fields due to its nanostructure and biomaterial performance. This study focused on optimizing yield of BC produced by Komagataeibacter xylinus CH1, isolated from kombucha SCOBY. The study aimed to use Nabat industry waste (NIW) as a cost-effective alternative carbon source for submerged fermentation. To optimize the fermentation criteria, the central composite design was used with the inoculation amount (1.5–4.5 % VV−1), NIW (0–1%), and fermentation time (3–7 days) as independent variables. The impressive results indicated the yield was enhanced up to 45.543 gL-1 at 3.013 % VV−1 of inoculation, 0.516 % NIW, and 7 days of stirred fermentation. SEM, XRD, FTIR, and TGA were applied to evaluate the characteristics of freeze-dried BC, such as the three-dimensional, porous structure, crystalline peaks, amorphous haloes, and thermal stability. The physicochemical properties of BC including high moisture content (93.022 ± 0.472 %), water absorption rate (569.473 ± 3.739 %), water-holding capacity (1333.016 ± 3.680 %), porosity (166.247 ± 2.055 %), and low water activity (0.296 ± 0.030 %) were achieved. Rheological properties of BC suspensions showed that G′ dominated over G″, with tan δ values lower than 1. These characteristics indicate NIW and stirred fermentation conditions are a promising method for producing BC in high yield.

Abstract Background The ability to attribute mental states to others is called theory of mind (ToM) and is a substantial component of social cognition. This ability is abnormally developed in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Several studies over the past decade have identified the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) and its variants as promising components for explaining the molecular mechanisms underlying Theory of Mind (ToM). The main aim of this study is to examine the association between rs2268498 and rs53576, two functional single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), and verbal and non-verbal ToM in children and adolescents with ASD and a group of typically developing youth. Methods The study involved 44 children and adolescents with high-functioning ASD aged 8 to 18 years old and 44 TD individuals who were matched on age and sex. In all participants, blood samples were collected and rs2268498 and rs53576 were genotyped. Happe’s Strange Stories test and the moving shapes paradigm were used to measure verbal and non-verbal ToM in all participants. Results The results of permutation tests and logistic regression suggested that in TD group, rs2268498 AA carriers showed significant higher scores in variables representing verbal ToM (ToM stories and appropriateness score) whereas, in ASD group, rs53576 AA carriers exhibited significant better performance in parameters related to non-verbal ToM (ToM general rule and intentionality score). The results of hierarchical clustering in both groups support the findings by distinguishing between language-related and language-independent aspects of ToM. Conclusions In the present study, we examined the association between rs2268498 and rs53576 and social functioning in individuals with ASD and TD group. We found preliminary evidence that rs2268498 and rs53576 are associated with ToM related abilities in healthy individuals as well as in autistic individuals. Accordingly, rs2268498 and rs53576 may play an important role in predicting ToM capabilities. It will be necessary to conduct further research to address the association of genetic variants with a deficit in ToM in individuals with ASD.

Nowadays if essential oils can remain stable in food processing conditions, they can be used as an alternative to synthetic preservatives in food products. In this research, in addition to investigating the compounds of Zataria multiflora and cinnamon essential oils by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, the antimicrobial properties of two essential oils before and after heat treatment (200 °C; 10 min) against Bacillus subtilis and Aspergillus niger were evaluated. Based on the obtained results, the thermal process did not significantly affect the main compounds of the essential oils. Cinnamaldehyde and eugenol were the main constituents of cinnamon essential oil, while phenolic compounds (thymol and carvacrol) made up 61.5% of Z. multiflora essential oil. The minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of Z. multiflora and cinnamon essential oils against Aspergillus niger were 250 and 4000 µL/mL, respectively, while the minimum fungicidal concentrations (MFCs) were 250 and 16,000 µL/mL, respectively. Against Bucillus subtilis, the MIC and minimum bactericidal concentrations (MBC) values were 7.8 and 15.6 µL/mL for Z. multiflora, and 16,000 and 32,000 µL/mL for cinnamon, respectively. The inhibition zones of heated Z. multiflora and cinnamon essential oils were 20.5 and 16.05 mm against A. niger and 29.00 and 17.00 mm against B. subtilis, respectively. In general, the results demonstrated that the thermal process did not significantly affect the antimicrobial activity of the essential oils, meaning that they are suitable for use as antimicrobial agents in products that undergo thermal processing.

The β-Glucans are exceptionally important polysaccharide compounds in the cell wall of a higher plants, fungi and bacteria. Due to having functional types of bioactive β-glucans, fungi are one of the foremost important sources of β-glucans. In the present study, Pleurotus ostreatus was considered as a source of β-glucan production, which can also evaluate the effect of the stirring method during mass production. Also the effect of the types of 4 carbon sources namely; xylose, glucose, maltose and lactose (at 3 levels) and 4 different sources of nitrogen including; Malt extract, yeast extract, peptone and rice bran extract (at 1 level) were investigated. The efficiency of the process was calculated by measuring the amount of produced dry mycelium per unit volume. According to the results continuous stirring at a speed of 220 rpm per minute increased the mycelium production and the highest amounts of produced biomass were obtained in the presence of maltose as a carbon source and malt extract and rice bran extract as nitrogen sources. β-glucan extraction was also evaluated by acid and acid-alkaline methods extracted by acid-alkali method showed a statistically significant difference of about 94% compared to β-glucan extraction by acid method (P

Abstract Background and purpose Psychiatric disorders such as anxiety, depression, and traumatic stress are not rare during infectious outbreaks, as the COVID-19 pandemic has posed a great concern to the general population. In this study, we aimed to investigate whether experiencing psychiatric symptoms during COVID-19 is the result of the burden of carrying an illness or the COVID-19 itself. Method Two hundred ten subjects and three different groups of participants (COVID-19 patients, university staff, and orthopedic patients) were recruited. They answered a demographic questionnaire, Yale-Brown Obsessive–Compulsive Scale (YBOCS) test for OCD symptoms, Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R) for perceived trauma, Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) for anxiety, and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) for depression assessments using phone or face-to-face interviews. Result At least one OCD symptom was observed in 85.7% of the subjects. However, there was no significant difference between the 3 groups (p = 0.2194). Perceived trauma was significantly higher among COVID-19 patients followed by university staff and orthopedic patients (23.73, 16.21, 11.51 mean IES-R scores respectively, p = 8.449e−14). COVID-19 patients also showed higher anxiety (mean BAI score: 17.00) than the university staff and orthopedic patients’ group (9.22 and 5.56 respectively) (p = 6.175e−08). BDI score did not show much variation for depression, the mean score was 9.66, 9.49, and 6.7 for the COVID-19 patients, university staff, and orthopedic patients respectively, (p = 0.2735). Conclusion Perceived trauma and anxiety symptoms are significantly higher in COVID-19 patients and the symptoms of OCD and depression do not differ between COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 people, so the necessity of screening and following treatment of patients with COVID-19 should be kept in mind. Trial registration IR.IUMS.FMD.REC.1399.761.

Abstract Background The Clock Drawing Test (CDT) is used as a quick-to-conduct test for the diagnosis of dementia and a screening tool for cognitive impairments in neurological disorders. However, the association between the pattern of CDT impairments and the location of brain lesions has been controversial. We examined whether there is an association between the CDT scores and the location of brain lesions using the two available scoring systems. Method One hundred five patients with brain lesions identified by CT scanning were recruited for this study. The Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) battery including the CDT were administered to all partcipants. To score the CDT, we used a qualitative scoring system devised by Rouleau et al. (1992). For the quantitative scoring system, we adapted the algorithm method used by Mendes-Santos et al. (2015) based on an earlier study by Sunderland et al. (1989). For analyses, a machine learning algorithm was used. Results Remarkably, 30% of the patients were not detected by the CDT. Quantitative and qualitative errors were categorized into different clusters. The classification algorithm did not differentiate the patients with traumatic brain injury ‘TBI’ from non-TBI, or the laterality of the lesion. In addition, the classification accuracy for identifying patients with specific lobe lesions was low, except for the parietal lobe with an accuracy of 63%. Conclusion The CDT is not an accurate tool for detecting focal brain lesions. While the CDT still is beneficial for use with patients suspected of having a neurodegenerative disorder, it should be cautiously used with patients with focal neurological disorders.

Background: All types of enteral feeding (EF) formulations, whether blenderized tube feeding (BTF) at hospital kitchen, or commercial enteral feeding (CEF), contains nutrients. The nature of these foods (in terms of pH, nutrient contents, water activity, etc.) is so that if they become contaminated, would immediately grow pathogens inside and put the patient at the risk of infection. This systematic review aimed to investigate the microbial safety of BTF and CEF used in hospitals. Methods: Literature search was conducted in four English databases, including Scopus, PubMed, Science Direct, and Google Scholar, using multiple keywords, such as enteral nutrition, blenderized formulas, home enteral nutrition, enteral formula, EF, blenderized enteral formula, blended feeds, blenderized home-made food, CEF, microbial contamination, and bacterial contamination. Finally, 16 eligible studies were selected for the systematic review. Results: Out of 132 retrieved articles, 16 were selected and reviewed CEF was mostly exposed to contamination with total coliforms, Staphylococcus aureus, mesophilic bacteria, and Escherichia coli. In addition, contamination with gram-negative bacteria, Bacillus cereus, mold, and yeast was detected. Most BTF contamination was caused by total coliforms, mesophilic bacteria, Listeria spp., B. cereus, mold, and yeast. Conclusion: Due to the nonconformity of hygienic guidelines, the microbial safety of EF solutions in hospitals and homes are relatively low, which may lead to foodborne diseases. Therefore, a hazard analysis and critical control point (HACCP) system is essential in every hospital kitchen.

Background and Objective: Iranian drinking yogurt (Doogh) is one of the traditional beverages commercially produced and widely consumed. Mostly the spoilage of dairy products including Doogh is caused by a wide diversity of yeasts. In the present study, the swollen packages of pasteurized Doogh were investigated for yeast diversity and also the effect of predominant yeast on the proteins and peptides profiling of Doogh. Material and Methods: The swollen packages of pasteurized Doogh were collected from a local dairy plant for one year. Isolation and identification were done using morphological, biochemical and molecular techniques. Afterward, the protein and peptide profiles of inoculated Doogh sample with high proteolytic activity yeast in comparison with Control sample were evaluated by SDS-PAGE and consequently MALDI-TOF-MS techniques. Results and Conclusion: In total, 13 isolates belong to two genuse namely; Kluyveromyces and Candida were identified. According to 18S rRNA gene sequencing, the 8 isolates were identified as Kluyveromyces marxianus; 4 isolates matched with Kluyveromyces lactis, and 1 isolate was identified as Candida kefyr. Also, o-phthaldialdehyde test (OPA) showed that K. marxianus contain the highest proteolytic activity compare to other tested species. The results showed that the K. marxianus enzyme conducted protein profiles to β-lactoglubolin and α-lactalbumin isoforms and several peptides with molecular weight less than 10 KDa.

Introduction: During early adolescence, peer influences play a crucial role in shaping learning and decision preferences. When teens observe what their peers are doing, they can learn and change their behavior, especially when they are taking risks. Our study incorporated an economical behavioral task and computational modeling framework to examine whether and how early male adolescents’ risk attitudes change when they see information about their peers’ choices. Methods: We recruited 38 middle school male students aged 12-15 years. The experiment consisted of three sessions: The first and third sessions were designed to evaluate the risk attitude of the participants. In the second session, participants were asked to guess the choices made by their peers, and then, the computer gave them feedback on the correctness of their predictions. Each participant was randomly assigned to risk-taking or risk-averse peers. Results: Our results revealed that teenagers who predicted risk-averse peers exhibited significant declines in their risk attitudes during the last session. On the other hand, participants with risk-seeking peers exhibited a significantly higher level of risk attitudes after predicting their peers. The data showed that these peer-biased changes in risk attitudes are proportional to the gap between teens and their peers’ risk perspectives. Results showed that their perspectives aligned closer after receiving the information, and approximately a third of the gap was eliminated. Conclusion: Here, by combining choice data and computational modeling, we demonstrate that risky behavior is contagious among male adolescents. According to our data, peer-biased risk contagion, a socially motivated and deliberate process, is associated with social distance in teens. There's no causal directionality here, but we could speculate that peer influence goes hand-in-hand with social integration as an adaptive process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Monascus purpureus can produce a wide range of natural pigments so attract the attention of food producers as substitute of synthetic colors. Monascus pigments usually accompanied with citrinin contamination which limits their wide application in foods. The usage of Saccharomyces cerevisiae is known as a useful biological way for citrinin elimination. In this study, the effect of Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells in twomodes of treatment (heat treatment at 121 °C and acid treatment in 2M HCL) and live at three different concentrations (103, 104, 105 CFU/mL) were investigated on the amount of citrinin and yellow, orange and red pigments produced by Monascus purpureus. The results showed that live yeast cell and yeast cells treated by heat and acid significantly decreased the citrinin in culture, so that citrinin content decreased from 4.43 mg/L in control sample to 0.9, 0.10 and 0.07 mg/L (at 105 CFU/mL yeast suspension) respectively. The maximum amount of yellow, orange and red extracellular and intracellular measured pigments belong to the samples with live yeast, while the amount of this pigments in the samples containing yeast treated with heat and acid reduced respectively. Among the treatments, the use of live yeast at concentration of 104 CFU/mL per milliliter provided the best conditions to achieve the desired goal.

In this research, determining the optimal conditions for extraction of Salvia leriifolia leaf by traditional solvent extraction method (with different solvent ratio of water/ethanol 50:50, 60:40 and 70:30 at temperatures of 70, 80 and 90 ºC and time duration of 30, 75 and 120 min) in order to investigate the antimicrobial activity of the extract, using response surface method was carried out. The analysis of variances showed that the effect of all three independent variables on the dependent variables (the diameter of the inhibition zone of Staphylococcus aureus, Listeria monocytogenes, Escherichia coli, Salmonella enteritidis, Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Aspergillus niger) was significant (p < /em>

Introduction: Due to development of dairy industries, consumption of Doogh in Iran as a functional fermented beverage is increasing. On the other hand in case of using the preservatives to reduce the microbial contamination in Doogh may rising the risk of chronic diseases during long time. In this study, the protective effect of natamycin as preservative on microbial population in Iranian Doogh at different storing temperatures extensively investigated. Methods: Microbial analyses included total count of microorganisms, population of fungi (mold and yeast), coliforms, Escherichia coli, coagulase positive staphylococci, and lactic acid bacteria on Doogh samples were extensively evaluated. Results: Microbial population in Doogh samples stored at 4 °C in both treatments )with and without natamycin( was less when compare to samples stored at 25 °C and 35 °C during the shelf life period. At 25 °C, natamycin was able to significantly (P Conclusion: According to the findings, it can be concluded that paying attention to the microbial quality of raw milk, heat treatment and cooling system during transportation, environmental hygienic conditions, as well as the storage condition of the final product at refrigerated temperatures by food retailers and consumers can effectively reduce the microbial population of Doogh and preventing the spoilage.

Fuzzy evidence theory, or fuzzy Dempster-Shafer Theory captures all three types of uncertainty, i.e. fuzziness, non-specificity, and conflict, which are usually contained in a piece of information within one framework. Therefore, it is known as one of the most promising approaches for practical applications. Quantifying the difference between two fuzzy bodies of evidence becomes important when this framework is used in applications. This work is motivated by the fact that while dissimilarity measures have been surveyed in the fields of evidence theory and fuzzy set theory, no comprehensive survey is yet available for fuzzy evidence theory. We proposed a modification to a set of the most discriminative dissimilarity measures (smDDM)-as the minimum set of dissimilarity with the maximal power of discrimination in evidence theory- to handle all types of uncertainty in fuzzy evidence theory. The generalized smDDM (FsmDDM) together with the one previously introduced as fuzzy measures make up a set of measures that is comprehensive enough to collectively address all aspects of information conveyed by the fuzzy bodies of evidence. Experimental results are presented to validate the method and to show the efficiency of the proposed method.

In this study the ability of Saccharomyces cerevisiae PTCC 5052 to adsorption of aflatoxin M1 was assessed. In order to improve operational efficiency, Alumina ceramic was analyzed as a potential support for immobilization of yeast cells. In immobilization process, results indicated that the binding abilities of AFM1 by live cells of Saccharomyces cerevisiae were higher than non-live immobilized cells on alumina ceramic within 48 hours (P1 solution (0.2 ppb) was passed through a ceramic substrate containing immobilized saccharomyces cerevisiae (both of live and non-live immobilized cells) in 5, 10 and 20 minutes. The results showed that the residual aflatoxin M1 in the solution after 20 minutes of circulation was minimal and the highest percentage of AFM1 reduction was 75. Alumina beads containing live immobilized yeast cells compared non- live yeasts, significantly reduced aflatoxin M1. The results of this study showed that the alumina ceramic can be used as a suitable bed for immobilization of saccharomyces cerevisiae to remove aflatoxin M1.