Effect of Lactobacillus plantarum and Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus on growth performance, gut microbial flora and digestive enzymes activities in Tor grypus (Karaman, 1971)

In this study, two main probiotics (Lactobacillus plantarum and Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus) were isolated from the intestine of Tor grypus and their effects on growth performance, gut microbial flora and digestive enzymes activities (i.e., α-amylase, lipase, trypsin, chymotrypsin, and alkaline phosphatase) of Tor grypus (Karaman, 1971) were determined. Juveniles of T. grypus (n=480, weighing 45±10 g) were randomly divided into 4 equal groups (with 3 replications) and fed on diets containing 5×10^7 cfu g^-1 of L. plantarum (G1), L. bulgaricus (G2), L. casei (G3) and a control diet (without probiotic) for 60 continuous days. Results showed that probiotic supplementations had generally significant effects on growth performance (p<0.05). The G2 group had the best effect on specific growth rate (SGR) and feed utilization efficiency in T. grypus. The digestive enzyme activities, on day 30 after feeding, significantly increased in G1 when compared with those in the control group (p<0.05). Significant changes in bacterial intestinal flora were observed in all probiotic groups compared with the control (p<0.05). Our results indicated that supplementation of isolated bacteria from the intestine of T. grypus (i.e., G2) can efficiently improve growth performance, intestinal microbiota and some digestive enzyme activities in juvenile T. grypus. Therefore, it can be isolated and used as a growth enhancer just like the commercial probiotics

Investigation of the Impacts of Social Capital on Organizational Entrepreneurship in Tehran Municipality

Entrepreneurship is the symbol of endeavor and success in business, and entrepreneurs play a crucial role in economic and social development of communities. Since Organizational Entrepreneurship (OE) contribute to earning stable finance required for administration of urban affairs, it is very important in the case of municipalities. For this reason, this study aims to investigate the role of social capital (SC) in the development of entrepreneurship in Tehran municipality. Research method was descriptive and non-experimental, and required data were collected through 204 questionnaires distributed among managers and experts of the organization. Stratified sampling was used, in which 37 managers and 167 experts participated. Number of male participants was 147, and number of female participants was 57. The mean age of participants was 41 years, and its standard deviation was 0.765. In order to test the research hypothesis, structural equation modeling (SEM) was used. The results of the study showed that social capital and its three dimensions (Cognitive, Relational and Structural dimensions) had positive significant effect on organizational entrepreneurship

Antiviral activity of Holothuria sp. a sea cucumber against herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1)

BACKGROUND: Finding the new bioactive compounds with antiviral activity from the natural resources are in interest of many drug discovery scientists. Sea cucumber is among the marine organisms a traditional food item in Asia with different applications in traditional medicine. METHODS: In current study, a cold water extract of the Holothuria sp, one type Persian Gulf’s sea cucumber was evaluated for its antiviral effects against KOS strain of Herpes Simplex Virus tyoe 1 (HSV-1) in cell culture. The half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) values were calculated for anti-adsorption activity and intracellular antiviral activity of the crude extract separately. RESULTS: The extract exhibited antiviral activity not only against the virus adsorption to the cells, but also on virus intracellular replication.The CC50 for sea cucumber extract was 32.57 mg/ml. The IC50 values for the inhibition of the virus adsorption to the cells and virus intracellular replication were 120.2 and 189.9 μg/ml respectively. Selectivity index (SI) value for anti-adsorption activity was 189 while that value for the extract’s intracellular antiviral activity was 172. CONCLUSIONS: The results showed that Holothuria sp, water extract has remarkable antiviral effect against HSV-1 in cell culture and it is crucial to investigate the mechanism(s) of action of extract. Moreover, identification of the effective compound(s) within the extract would be necessary for future studies towards developing the new natural antiviral agent against HSV-1

A novel method for RNA extraction from FFPE samples reveals significant differences in biomarker expression between orthotopic and subcutaneous pancreatic cancer patient-derived xenografts.

Next-generation sequencing (NGS) can identify and validate new biomarkers of cancer onset, progression and therapy resistance. Substantial archives of formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) cancer samples from patients represent a rich resource for linking molecular signatures to clinical data. However, performing NGS on FFPE samples is limited by poor RNA purification methods. To address this hurdle, we developed an improved methodology for extracting high-quality RNA from FFPE samples. By briefly integrating a newly-designed micro-homogenizing (mH) tool with commercially available FFPE RNA extraction protocols, RNA recovery is increased by approximately 3-fold while maintaining standard A260/A280 ratios and RNA quality index (RQI) values. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the mH-purified FFPE RNAs are longer and of higher integrity. Previous studies have suggested that pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) gene expression signatures vary significantly under in vitro versus in vivo and in vivo subcutaneous versus orthotopic conditions. By using our improved mH-based method, we were able to preserve established expression patterns of KRas-dependency genes within these three unique microenvironments. Finally, expression analysis of novel biomarkers in KRas mutant PDAC samples revealed that PEAK1 decreases and MST1R increases by over 100-fold in orthotopic versus subcutaneous microenvironments. Interestingly, however, only PEAK1 levels remain elevated in orthotopically grown KRas wild-type PDAC cells. These results demonstrate the critical nature of the orthotopic tumor microenvironment when evaluating the clinical relevance of new biomarkers in cells or patient-derived samples. Furthermore, this new mH-based FFPE RNA extraction method has the potential to enhance and expand future FFPE-RNA-NGS cancer biomarker studies

esys-Escript User’s Guide: Solving Partial Differential Equations with Escript and Finley Release - 3.4 (r4488)

esys.escript is a python-based environment for implementing mathematical models, in particular those based on coupled, non-linear, time-dependent partial differential equations. It consists of five major components • esys.escript core library • finite element solver esys.finley (which uses fast vendor-supplied solvers or our paso linear solver library) • the meshing interface esys.pycad • a model library. • an inversion library. The current version supports parallelization through both MPI for distributed memory and OpenMP for distributed shared memory. In this release there are a number of small changes which are not backwards compatible. Please see Appendix B to see if your scripts will be affected. If you use this software in your research, then we would appreciate (but do not require) a citation. Some relevant references can be found in Appendix D. For Python3 support, see Appendix E

esys-Escript User’s Guide: Solving Partial Differential Equations with Escript and Finley Release - 3.4.2 (r4925)

esys.escript is a python-based environment for implementing mathematical models, in particular those based on coupled, non-linear, time-dependent partial differential equations. It consists of five major components • esys.escript core library • finite element solver esys.finley (which uses fast vendor-supplied solvers or our paso linear solver library) • the meshing interface esys.pycad • a model library. • an inversion library. The current version supports parallelization through both MPI for distributed memory and OpenMP for shared memory. In this release there are a number of small changes which are not backwards compatible. Please see Appendix B to see if your scripts will be affected. If you use this software in your research, then we would appreciate (but do not require) a citation. Some relevant references can be found in Appendix D. For Python 3 support, see Appendix E

esys-Escript User’s Guide: Solving Partial Differential Equations with Escript and Finley Release - 4.0 (r5402)

esys.escript is a python-based environment for implementing mathematical models, in particular those based on coupled, non-linear, time-dependent partial differential equations. It consists of five major components: • esys.escript core library • finite element solvers esys.finley, esys.dudley, esys.ripley, and esys.speckley (which use fast vendor-supplied solvers or the included PASO linear solver library) • the meshing interface esys.pycad • a model library • an inversion module. All esys.escript modules should work under both python 2 and python 3, see Appendix E. The current version supports parallelization through MPI for distributed memory, OpenMP for shared memory on CPUs, as well as CUDA for some GPU-based solvers. This release comes with some significant changes and new features. Please see Appendix B for a detailed list. If you use this software in your research, then we would appreciate (but do not require) a citation. Some relevant references can be found in Appendix D

Fem and analytical modeling of the incipient chip formation for the generation of micro-features

This paper explores the modeling of incipient cutting by Abaqus, LS-Dyna, and Ansys Finite Element Methods (FEMs), by comparing also experimentally the results on different material classes, including common aluminum and steel alloys and an acetal polymer. The target application is the sustainable manufacturing of gecko adhesives by micromachining a durable mold for injection molding. The challenges posed by the mold shape include undercuts and sharp tips, which can be machined by a special diamond blade, which enters the material, forms a chip, and exits. An analytical model to predict the shape of the incipient chip and of the formed grove as a function of the material properties and of the cutting parameters is provided. The main scientific merit of the current work is to approach theoretically, numerically, and experimentally the very early phase of the cutting tool penetration for new sustainable machining and micro-machining processes