Detection of Acinetobacter baumannii by PCR-ELISA method

زمینه و هدف: اسینتوباکتر بومانی عامل عفونت های دستگاه تنفسی، دستگاه ادراری، خون و زخم ها به خصوص در بخش مراقبت های ویژه می باشد و توانایی کسب مقاومت دارا می باشد. به منظور تشخیص به موقع و پیگیری فرایند درمان این عفونت ها، لازم است که تکنیک ها به طور مستمر اصلاح شوند. با توجه به اینکه تاکنون مطالعه ای در زمینه شناسایی و جداسازی این باکتری در نمونه های بالینی در ایران با روش PCR-ELISA انجام نشده است، این مطالعه با هدف جداسازی اسینتوباکتر بومانی با روش PCR-ELISA انجام شده است. روش بررسی: در این تحقیق روش PCR-ELISA با استفاده از آغازگرهای اختصاصی و پروب بر روی سویه استاندارد مورد بررسی قرار گرفت. بعد از تکثیر و نشاندار کردن توالی ژن gltA، محصول نشاندار در کف میکرو پلیت کوت گردید و با استفاده از آنتی بادی ضد دیگوکسی ژنین کانژوگه با پراکسیداز شناسایی شد. یافته ها: بررسی توالی bp722 از بخش حفظ شده ژن gltA اسینتوباکتر بائومانی و نتایج حاصل از مطالعه بر روی این باکتری با استفاده از روش PCR-ELISA و به کارگیری آغازگرها و پروب نشان داد که این روش علاوه بر دقت و حساسیت، برای تشخیص سریع باکتری مناسب است. نتیجه گیری: نتایج حاصل، حاکی از حساسیت بیشتر و سرعت بالای روش PCR-ELISA در مقایسه با PCR معمولی است. این تکنیک همچنین علاوه بر سهولت بررسی تعداد بیشتر نمونه، از خطر کمتری نسبت به روش PCR معمولی برخوردار است

Heavy metal concentrations in the selected tissues of the Persian sturgeon, Acipenser persicus, from the southern coast of the Caspian Sea

Bioaccumulation of heavy metals including Cd, Pb, Cu and Zn in muscle, gill, liver, kidney and stomach in Acipenser persicus was studied. Fish were collected from the ‘Iranian fishery zone 1’ located between Astara and Kiyahshahr. Samples (n=25) were collected from five stations in the study area during the autumn catch season in 2001. Samples were analyzed by wet digestion with hydrogen peroxide and nitric acid. Analyses were testified using spike method. A sample of bovine liver (CRM 185R) was tested to ascertain reliability of analyses. Digested samples were analyzed using Flame Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer. The bioaccumulation pattern for Zn in different tissues studied was stomach>liver> kidney> gills>muscle tissue. The mean concentration of Zn in the stomach was 136.6±10.70μg g-1 dry weight. Cu with the maximum concentration of 39.71±8.85μg g-1 dry weight in liver showed a bioaccumulation pattern of liver>kidney>stomach>gills>muscle tissue. The bioaccumulation pattern for Pb was determined as gills>liver> kidney>stomach>muscle tissue. Maximum mean concentrations of Pb 6.87±2.25μg g-1 dry weight belonged to gills. Bioaccumulation pattern for Cd in the different organs studied in A. persicus was kidney>liver>gills>stomach> muscle tissue. Maximum mean concentration of 5.1±0.97μg g-1 dry weight belonged to kidneys and the minimum mean concentration of 0.05±0.007μg g-1 dry weight belonged to muscle tissue. Concentration of the metals in the muscles samples were below the most guidelines for human consumption. Concentrations for heavy metals were lower than the guidelines in some organs and were higher than that in the other organs studied. The observed concentrations do not pose health problems as these organs are not used for human consumption

A Taxonomical Note on Genus Alopecurus (Poaceae) in Iran

Abstract The identification and determination of Iranian Alopecurus specimens is doubtful; therefore, it is necessary to study the genus in Iran. Up to now, 12 species and 3 subspecies have been reported in previous studies in Iran. In this research, A. aequalis, A. arundinaceus, A. aucheri, A. mucronatus, A. myosuroides and A. textilis together with four subspecies are confirmed. Also, the presence of A. apiatus, A. dasyanthus, A. himalaicus, A. pratensis, A. seravshanicus and A. vaginatus was not confirmed in Iran. A. laguroides, distributed in Turkey and the Caucasus region, is reported for the first time from Iran on the basis of two samples collected from Sabalan Mountain. Also, A. arundinaceus subsp. armenus and A. myosuroides subsp. tonsus are as new reports for flora of Iran. In addition, morphological description, geographical distribution in the world and Iran, a key for Iranian species as well taxonomical discussion on reported species from Iran are also presented

From fabrication to function: Mechanical insights into GelMA microneedle arrays

Gelatin methacryloyl (GelMA) has emerged as a highly suitable material for microneedle (MN) fabrication, offering exceptional biocompatibility and cost-effectiveness. Despite significant advances introduced by GelMA hydrogels, research on GelMA MNs dates back to 2019, yet no review has specifically focused on the manufacturing techniques and mechanical properties of GelMA MNs. For the first time, this review aims to examine the manufacturing methods and mechanical characteristics of GelMA microneedles across various medical applications. Additionally, it discusses different approaches to mechanical characterization and identifies gaps in current manufacturing technologies. The review also explores the potential implications of GelMA MNs in drug delivery and disease diagnosis. Finally, additive manufacturing and hybrid methods, identified as the most promising techniques for future large-scale production, are proposed for further optimization

Late Little Ice Age palaeoenvironmental records from the Anzali and Amirkola Lagoons (south Caspian Sea): Vegetation and sea level changes

This is a postprint version of the article. The official published article can be found from the link below - Copyright @ 2011 Elsevier Ltd.Two internationally important Ramsar lagoons on the south coast of the Caspian Sea (CS) have been studied by palynology on short sediment cores for palaeoenvironmental and palaeoclimatic investigations. The sites lie within a small area of very high precipitation in a region that is otherwise dry. Vegetation surveys and geomorphological investigations have been used to provide a background to a multidisciplinary interpretation of the two sequences covering the last four centuries. In the small lagoon of Amirkola, the dense alder forested wetland has been briefly disturbed by fire, followed by the expansion of rice paddies from AD1720 to 1800. On the contrary, the terrestrial vegetation reflecting the diversity of the Hyrcanian vegetation around the lagoon of Anzali remained fairly complacent over time. The dinocyst and non-pollen palynomorph assemblages, revealing changes that have occurred in water salinity and water levels, indicate a high stand during the late Little Ice Age (LIA), from AD < 1620 to 1800–1830. In Amirkola, the lagoon spit remained intact over time, whereas in Anzali it broke into barrier islands during the late LIA, which merged into a spit during the subsequent sea level drop. A high population density and infrastructure prevented renewed breaking up of the spit when sea level reached its maximum (AD1995). Similar to other sites in the region around the southern CS, these two lagoonal investigations indicate that the LIA had a higher sea level as a result of more rainfall in the drainage basin of the CS.The coring and the sedimentological analyses were funded by the Iranian National Institute for Oceanography in the framework of a research project entitled “Investigation of the Holocene sediment along the Iranian coast of Caspian Sea: central Guilan”. The radiocarbon date of core HCGL02 was funded by V. Andrieu (Europôle Méditerranéen de l'Arbois, France) and that of core HCGA04 by Brunel University

Assessing heavy metal content of muscle tissue and caviar of Acipenser persicus and Acipenser stellatus in southern Caspian Sea

WE sampled 139 specimen of Acipenser persicus and 103 Acipenser stellatus over the years 19984999 in five fishing zones of the southern Caspian Sea for heavy metal contamination assessment. Flame Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometery was used to determine contamination of the specimens with Zn, Cu, Cd, and Pb and cold vapor method for Hg. The mean age for A. persicus and A. stellatus was 17.6±2.6 years and 11.9±1.8 years, respectively. The mean concentrations of heavy metals assessed for dry weight of the muscle tissues and caviar in A. persicus were 26.9 and 65.9 µg/g for Zn, 1.8 and 4.2 µg/g for Cu, 0.61 and 0.111 µg/g for Pb and 0.61 and 0.005 µg/g for Cd. The wet weight concentration of Hg in the muscle tissue and caviar of the fish were 0.06 and 0.007 µg/g respectively. For A. stellatus we determined the mean concentration of heavy metals in dry weight of the muscle tissue and caviar to be 27.4 and 57.8 µg/g for Zn, 1.64 and 4.85 µg/g for Cu, 0.481 and 0.112 µg/g for Pb and 0.59 and 0.005 µg/g for Cd while the wet weight concentration of Hg were 0.05 and 0.008 µg/g. By international standards, the contamination of the muscle tissue and caviar samples with the heavy metals in the two sturgeon species are well below maximum allowable for human consumption

Mapping 123 million neonatal, infant and child deaths between 2000 and 2017

Since 2000, many countries have achieved considerable success in improving child survival, but localized progress remains unclear. To inform efforts towards United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 3.2—to end preventable child deaths by 2030—we need consistently estimated data at the subnational level regarding child mortality rates and trends. Here we quantified, for the period 2000–2017, the subnational variation in mortality rates and number of deaths of neonates, infants and children under 5 years of age within 99 low- and middle-income countries using a geostatistical survival model. We estimated that 32% of children under 5 in these countries lived in districts that had attained rates of 25 or fewer child deaths per 1,000 live births by 2017, and that 58% of child deaths between 2000 and 2017 in these countries could have been averted in the absence of geographical inequality. This study enables the identification of high-mortality clusters, patterns of progress and geographical inequalities to inform appropriate investments and implementations that will help to improve the health of all populations

Global, regional, and national comparative risk assessment of 84 behavioural, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risks or clusters of risks for 195 countries and territories, 1990–2017 : a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017

Background: The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2017 comparative risk assessment (CRA) is a comprehensive approach to risk factor quantification that offers a useful tool for synthesising evidence on risks and risk outcome associations. With each annual GBD study, we update the GBD CRA to incorporate improved methods, new risks and risk outcome pairs, and new data on risk exposure levels and risk outcome associations. Methods: We used the CRA framework developed for previous iterations of GBD to estimate levels and trends in exposure, attributable deaths, and attributable disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs), by age group, sex, year, and location for 84 behavioural, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risks or groups of risks from 1990 to 2017. This study included 476 risk outcome pairs that met the GBD study criteria for convincing or probable evidence of causation. We extracted relative risk and exposure estimates from 46 749 randomised controlled trials, cohort studies, household surveys, census data, satellite data, and other sources. We used statistical models to pool data, adjust for bias, and incorporate covariates. Using the counterfactual scenario of theoretical minimum risk exposure level (TMREL), we estimated the portion of deaths and DALYs that could be attributed to a given risk. We explored the relationship between development and risk exposure by modelling the relationship between the Socio-demographic Index (SDI) and risk-weighted exposure prevalence and estimated expected levels of exposure and risk-attributable burden by SDI. Finally, we explored temporal changes in risk-attributable DALYs by decomposing those changes into six main component drivers of change as follows: (1) population growth; (2) changes in population age structures; (3) changes in exposure to environmental and occupational risks; (4) changes in exposure to behavioural risks; (5) changes in exposure to metabolic risks; and (6) changes due to all other factors, approximated as the risk-deleted death and DALY rates, where the risk-deleted rate is the rate that would be observed had we reduced the exposure levels to the TMREL for all risk factors included in GBD 2017. Findings: In 2017,34.1 million (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 33.3-35.0) deaths and 121 billion (144-1.28) DALYs were attributable to GBD risk factors. Globally, 61.0% (59.6-62.4) of deaths and 48.3% (46.3-50.2) of DALYs were attributed to the GBD 2017 risk factors. When ranked by risk-attributable DALYs, high systolic blood pressure (SBP) was the leading risk factor, accounting for 10.4 million (9.39-11.5) deaths and 218 million (198-237) DALYs, followed by smoking (7.10 million [6.83-7.37] deaths and 182 million [173-193] DALYs), high fasting plasma glucose (6.53 million [5.23-8.23] deaths and 171 million [144-201] DALYs), high body-mass index (BMI; 4.72 million [2.99-6.70] deaths and 148 million [98.6-202] DALYs), and short gestation for birthweight (1.43 million [1.36-1.51] deaths and 139 million [131-147] DALYs). In total, risk-attributable DALYs declined by 4.9% (3.3-6.5) between 2007 and 2017. In the absence of demographic changes (ie, population growth and ageing), changes in risk exposure and risk-deleted DALYs would have led to a 23.5% decline in DALYs during that period. Conversely, in the absence of changes in risk exposure and risk-deleted DALYs, demographic changes would have led to an 18.6% increase in DALYs during that period. The ratios of observed risk exposure levels to exposure levels expected based on SDI (O/E ratios) increased globally for unsafe drinking water and household air pollution between 1990 and 2017. This result suggests that development is occurring more rapidly than are changes in the underlying risk structure in a population. Conversely, nearly universal declines in O/E ratios for smoking and alcohol use indicate that, for a given SDI, exposure to these risks is declining. In 2017, the leading Level 4 risk factor for age-standardised DALY rates was high SBP in four super-regions: central Europe, eastern Europe, and central Asia; north Africa and Middle East; south Asia; and southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania. The leading risk factor in the high-income super-region was smoking, in Latin America and Caribbean was high BMI, and in sub-Saharan Africa was unsafe sex. O/E ratios for unsafe sex in sub-Saharan Africa were notably high, and those for alcohol use in north Africa and the Middle East were notably low. Interpretation: By quantifying levels and trends in exposures to risk factors and the resulting disease burden, this assessment offers insight into where past policy and programme efforts might have been successful and highlights current priorities for public health action. Decreases in behavioural, environmental, and occupational risks have largely offset the effects of population growth and ageing, in relation to trends in absolute burden. Conversely, the combination of increasing metabolic risks and population ageing will probably continue to drive the increasing trends in non-communicable diseases at the global level, which presents both a public health challenge and opportunity. We see considerable spatiotemporal heterogeneity in levels of risk exposure and risk-attributable burden. Although levels of development underlie some of this heterogeneity, O/E ratios show risks for which countries are overperforming or underperforming relative to their level of development. As such, these ratios provide a benchmarking tool to help to focus local decision making. Our findings reinforce the importance of both risk exposure monitoring and epidemiological research to assess causal connections between risks and health outcomes, and they highlight the usefulness of the GBD study in synthesising data to draw comprehensive and robust conclusions that help to inform good policy and strategic health planning

Genetic variation study on the grey mullet (Mugilcephalus) stocks from Mediterranean Sea, the Pacific Ocean and Oman Sea

Two of the three objectives of project was carried out success that one of them is following: The genetic diversity of Liza salien(Risso,1810) in the south part of Caspian sea using the Mitochondrial DNA sequencing (mtDNA) was carried out as first objective of project that based on the mitochondrial DNA sequencing (mtDNA) of 16S rRNA was used in order to clarify genetic structure and genetic diversity of lizasaliens in three western (Anzali), middle (sari), and eastern (Gomishan lagoon) of south part of Caspian sea. As a result we obtained 552base pairs of 16SrRNA sequence. A total of 6 different haplotypes and 29 variable sites were identified .The average nucleotide diversity(π) and haplotype diversity(h) in samples of all regions were 0.29 , and 0.004 respectively. The results obtained from genetic distance showed low rate in that of 3 regions. Estimates of gene flow indicated there is no reproductive isolation between three regions and also there was not significant genetic differentiation between differentregions (p>0.05). the findings from the present study suggest that there is equal population of Liza saliens in the studied regions: Genetic differences and phylogenic relationships among six Mugilidae species (Mugilcephalus, M. capito, Liza subviridis, L. saliens, L. aurata, Valamugilbuchanani) were determined using PCR-sequencing as second objective of project. M. cephalus, L. subviridis and V. buchanani from the Persian Gulf and Oman Sea, and L. aurata and L. saliens from the Caspian Sea were collected. Samples of an imported, Egyptian species M. capito (this species was mixed with the main imported species as M. cephalusfingerling) were obtained from the Gomishan Research Center in Gorgan. Total DNA from the samples were extracted according to phenol-chloroform method Mithochondrial DNA ,16s RNA was amplified using thermo cyclermachine with universal primers and thensequenced by sending to Takapoozist Company and thereafter to France. Analysis of the sequences showed great differences between Mugil species and the other studied species. The phylogenetic tree obtained through Neighbor-Joining method revealed that L. saliensand L. aurata were in the same branch while L. subviridis was in a separate branch. In contrast, Maximum Parsimony tree located L. subviridis and L. aurata in a single branch and assigned L. saliens to a distinct branch. This result brings in the question of monophyletic origin of the genus Liza.Also