Sharif Digital Repository

The treatment facility of Albourz Industrial City was established in 1999 at the southeast of Albourz Mountain with an area of 200,000 square meters. Currently, 40,000 cubic meters of industrial wastes are treated daily utilizing biological method of activated sludge up to the second phase without chlorination in this treatment facility. Then, the discharged wastes are directed toward the lower agricultural lands. The environmental status of the region was investigated by testing the impact of wastewater and agricultural products in four tries. In two tries, the levels of COD and BOD were higher than the environmental standards, but there was no trace of heavy metal contamination in any of... 

The development of inexpensive, equipment-free, portable, and user/environmentally-friendly analytical devices that can be efficiently utilized for on-site detection of PA is still a great challenge. To address these unmet demands, we have developed a smartphone-based disposable sensing bioplatform through immobilization of chlorophyll in a cotton thread for fluorescent monitoring of picric acid (PA). The fluorescence quenching of chlorophyll upon increasing the PA concentration based on the inner filter effect was considered as the sensing strategy in the developed sensor. The fabricated thread-based microfluidic sensing bioplatform was further coupled with a compact, low cost, portable,... 

Non-targeted persistent immune activation or suppression by different drug delivery platforms can cause adverse and chronic physiological effects including cancer and arthritis. Therefore, non-toxic materials that do not trigger an immunogenic response during delivery are crucial for safe and effective in vivo treatment. Hydrogels are excellent candidates that can be engineered to control immune responses by modulating biomolecule release/adsorption, improving regeneration of lymphoid tissues, and enhancing function during antigen presentation. This review discusses the aspects of hydrogel-based systems used as drug delivery platforms for various diseases. A detailed investigation on... 

A tri-layered nanofibrous hydrogel thin film with temperature sensitivity is introduced as a new controlled drug release system to treat breast cancer. A simultaneous heat generation with the tunable release of dual drugs is observed in response to visible light radiation. A tri-layered nanofibrous sheet was fabricated through sequential electrospinning the blends of Au@Chit@DOX-loaded poly(N-isopropylacrylamide-co-N-methylol acrylamide) (poly (NIPAAm-co-NMA)) and Curcumin-loaded poly (vinyl alcohol) (Cu-loaded PVA), where the Cu-loaded PVA nanofibers (NFs) are sandwiched between two layers of Au@Chit@DOX-loaded poly (NIPAAm-co-NMA) NFs. After thermal crosslinking of the tri-layered... 

Introduction: Diabetic neuropathy is a common complication of diabetes mellitus. It is associated with nerve damage due to oxidative stress and high levels of pro-inflammatory mediators. In the present study, we examined the anti-nociceptive effects of Fullerene nanoparticle, as a potent anti-oxidant, during diabetic neuropathy. Methods: Diabetes mellitus induced through injection of streptozotocin (STZ) (40 mg/kg). Four groups were used in the study as follows: the control, control+fullerene, diabetes, and diabetes +fullerene groups. All four groups received sesame oil. Treatment rats received fullerene C60 (1mg/kg/day) for 9 weeks by intra-gastric gavage. Then, cold allodynia, histology,... 

Snakebite envenoming is an important cause of preventable death. The World Health Organization (WHO) set a goal to halve snakebite mortality by 2030. We used verbal autopsy and vital registration data to model the proportion of venomous animal deaths due to snakes by location, age, year, and sex, and applied these proportions to venomous animal contact mortality estimates from the Global Burden of Disease 2019 study. In 2019, 63,400 people (95% uncertainty interval 38,900–78,600) died globally from snakebites, which was equal to an age-standardized mortality rate (ASMR) of 0.8 deaths (0.5–1.0) per 100,000 and represents a 36% (2–49) decrease in ASMR since 1990. India had the greatest number... 

The application of quantum dots (QDs) for detecting and treating various types of coronaviruses is very promising, as their low toxicity and high surface performance make them superior among other nanomaterials; in conjugation with fluorescent probes they are promising semiconductor nanomaterials for the detection of various cellular processes and viral infections. In view of the successful results for inhibiting SARS-CoV-2, functional QDs could serve eminent role in the growth of safe nanotherapy for the cure of viral infections in the near future; their large surface areas help bind numerous molecules post-synthetically. Functionalized QDs with high functionality, targeted selectivity,... 

Mobile phones are known as the most widely used electronic instruments, and an enormous number of discarded mobile phones are generated. The present work used a pure culture of Penicillium simplicissimum in a bubble column bioreactor to extract Cu and Ni from mobile phone printed circuit boards (MPPCBs) waste. Molasses was used as an efficient carbon source to enhance bioleaching efficiency and increase the cost benefits. The adaptation phase was done at Erlenmeyer flasks to reach 40 g/L of MPPCBs powder. The most significant parameters, including the mass of MPPCBs powder, aeration, molasses concentration, and their interaction, were optimized in order to leach the maximum possible Cu and... 

The goal of this study is to investigate the effects of tendon and cannulated drill bit diameter on the strength of the bone and site hold tendon inside (BASHTI) fixation technique for an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction. Bovine digital tendons and Sawbones blocks were used to mimic the ACL reconstruction. Mechanical strength of the specimens was measured using a cyclic loading continued by a single cycle pullout load until failure to simulate the real postsurgical loading conditions. Finally, failure modes of specimens and ultimate failure load were recorded. The maximum possible tendon surface strain (i.e., tendon compression [TC]) for tendon diameters of 6, 7, 8, and 9 mm... 

Breast cancer is the most common invasive cancer in women and the second leading cause of cancer death in women after lung cancer. The purpose of this study is a targeted delivery toward in vitro (on MCF7 and 4T1 breast cancer cell lines) through niosomes-based nanocarriers. To this end, different bioactive molecules, including hyaluronic acid (HA), folic acid (FA), and polyethylene glycol (PEG), were used and compared for surface modification of niosomes to enhance endocytosis. FA-functionalized niosomes (Nio/5-FU/FA) were able to increase cell cytotoxicity and reduce cell migration and invasion compared to PEG-functionalized niosomes (Nio/5-FU/PEG), and HA-functionalized niosomes... 

Neural synchronization has been engaged in several brain mechanisms. Previous studies have shown that the interaction between the time of spiking activity and phase of local field potentials (LFPs) plays a key role in many cognitive functions. However, the potential role of this spike–LFP phase coupling (SPC) in neural coding is not fully understood. Here, we sought to investigate the role of this SPC for encoding the sensory properties of visual stimuli. To this end, we measured SPC strength in the preferred and anti-preferred motion directions of stimulus presented inside the receptive field of middle temporal (MT) neurons. We found a selective response in terms of SPC strength for... 

Chinese hamster ovary cells are the main cellular factories for production of a wide range of recombinant proteins in biopharmaceutical industry. Recombinant human Interferon beta-1a (rh-IFN β-1a), as a cytokine is broadly used to treat multiple sclerosis. In this work, the cell line producing rh-IFN β-1a was studied to improve cell density along with the specific expression. For this reason different cell culture experiments were done using different commercial serum-free media to find the appropriate media providing higher cell density. It was shown DMEMF12, DMEM:ProCHO5, and CHO-S-SFM II led to higher cell density and shorter doubling time. Next, using these media, fed-batch, and... 

Magnetic nanofiber cellulose (NFC) was selected as a biopolymer surface for the reaction with ferric metformin and a novel nanocatalyst was prepared. This green heterogeneous organometallic catalyst was analyzed by physiochemical techniques. The new metformin drug complex supported on magnetic NFC was used as a powerful and efficient catalyst for the synthesis of functionalized 4H-pyrans derivatives. The antimicrobial activity of the products showed excellent activity against all the bacterial and fungal strains (especially compounds 7q and 6r). © 2022 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC  

One of the most arduous challenges in tissue engineering is neovascularization, without which there is a lack of nutrients delivered to a target tissue. Angiogenesis should be completed at an optimal density and within an appropriate period of time to prevent cell necrosis. Failure to meet this challenge brings about poor functionality for the tissue in comparison with the native tissue, extensively reducing cell viability. Prior studies devoted to angiogenesis have provided researchers with some biomaterial scaffolds and cell choices for angiogenesis. For example, while most current angiogenesis approaches require a variety of stimulatory factors ranging from biomechanical to biomolecular... 

In current study, a meta-analysis approach was used to identify and evaluate the impact of various factors on the performance of integrated systems of anaerobic digestion with microbial electrolysis cell. In this study, related articles on the topic were systematically identified and collected according to the considered criteria, and the effect size that refers to the value of the difference between variables mean (total chemical oxygen demand (TCOD) removal rate and CH4 yield) was estimated. According to the meta-analysis, fed-batch operation mode, the range of 20< temperature ≤30 °C, metal cathodes, the range of 500< anode surface area ≤5000 cm2, HRT (hydraulic retention time) >20 days,... 

The gut-brain axis is believed to constitute a bidirectional communication mechanism that affects both mental and digestive processes. Recently, the role of the gut microbiota in cognitive performance has been the focus of much research. In this paper, we discuss the effects of gut microbiota and nutrition on spatial memory and learning. Studies have shown the influence of diet on cognitive capabilities such as spatial learning and memory. It has been reported that a high-fat diet can alter gut microbiota which subsequently leads to changes in spatial learning and memory. Some microorganisms in the gut that can significantly affect spatial learning and memory are Akkermansia muciniphila,... 

In this study, optimized preparation, quality control, cell assessments and biostribution of 188Re-HYNIC-PSMA in normal rats and tumor bearing mice are studied. Optimized conditions for radiolabeling were evaluated and radiochemical purity (> 99%) was investigated using ITLC and HPLC methods. 188Re-HYNIC-PSMA was stable both in PBS (4 °C) and in human serum (37 °C) even after 48 h. The results showed the complex was cleared from the blood very fast via urinary track. This new radiolabeled compound has a high potential to be considered as an agent for the treatment of patients with PSMA expressing tumors however more biological studies are still needed. © 2022, Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest,... 

Simultaneous recording of activity across brain regions can contain additional information compared to regional recordings done in isolation. In particular, multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA) across voxels has been interpreted as evidence for distributed coding of cognitive or sensorimotor processes beyond what can be gleaned from a collection of univariate effects (UVE) using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Here, we argue that regardless of patterns revealed, conventional MVPA is merely a decoding tool with increased sensitivity arising from considering a large number of ‘weak classifiers’ (i.e., single voxels) in higher dimensions. We propose instead that ‘real’ multivoxel... 

Although medical advancements have successfully helped a lot of couples with their infertility by assisted reproductive technologies (ART), sperm selection, a crucial stage in ART, has remained challenging. Therefore, we aimed to investigate novel sperm separation methods, specifically microfluidic systems, as they do sperm selection based on sperm and/or the female reproductive tract (FRT) features without inflicting any damage to the selected sperm during the process. In this review, after an exhaustive studying of FRT features, which can implement by microfluidics devices, the focus was centered on sperm selection and investigation devices. During this study, we tried not to only point to... 

Microfluidics is a promising approach for the facile and large-scale fabrication of monodispersed droplets for various applications in biomedicine. This technology has demonstrated great potential to address the limitations of regenerative medicine. Microfluidics provides safe, accurate, reliable, and cost-effective methods for encapsulating different stem cells, gametes, biomaterials, biomolecules, reagents, genes, and nanoparticles inside picoliter-sized droplets or droplet-derived microgels for different applications. Moreover, microenvironments made using such droplets can mimic niches of stem cells for cell therapy purposes, simulate native extracellular matrix (ECM) for tissue...