Sharif Digital Repository

Aims Previous reports on the possible effects of Extremely Low Frequency Magnetic Fields (ELF MF) on mood have been paradoxical in different settings while no study has yet been conducted on animal behavior. In addition, it was shown that ELF MF exposure makes an increase in brain nitric oxide level. Therefore, in the current study, we aimed to assess the possible effect(s) of ELF MF exposure on mice Forced Swimming Test (FST) and evaluate the probable role of the increased level of nitric oxide in the observed behavior. Main methods Male adult mice NMRI were recruited to investigate the short term and long term ELF MF exposure (0.5 mT and 50 Hz, single 2 h and 2 weeks 2 h a day). Locomotor... 

Electrospinning of biopolymers has gained significant interest for the fabrication of fibrous mats for potential applications in tissue engineering, particularly for wound dressing and skin regeneration. In this study, for the first time, we report successful electrospinning of chitosan-based biopolymers containing bacterial cellulous (33 wt %) and medical grade nanodiamonds (MND) (3 nm; up to 3 wt %). Morphological studies by scanning electron microscopy showed that long and uniform fibers with controllable diameters from 80 to 170 nm were prepared. Introducing diamond nanoparticles facilitated the electrospinning process with a decrease in the size of fibers. Fourier transform infrared... 

In this paper, a micromechanical model for connective soft tissues based on the available histological evidences is developed. The proposed model constituents i.e. collagen fibers and ground matrix are considered as hyperelastic materials. The matrix material is assumed to be isotropic Neo-Hookean while the collagen fibers are considered to be transversely isotropic hyperelastic. In order to take into account the effects of tissue structure in lower scales on the macroscopic behavior of tissue, a strain energy density function (SEDF) is developed for collagen fibers based on tissue hierarchical structure. Macroscopic response and properties of tissue are obtained using the numerical... 

Fuzzy C-means clustering (FCM) is proposed as a promising method for the clustering of chromatographic fingerprints of complex samples, such as essential oils. As an example, secondary metabolites of 14 citrus leaves samples are extracted and analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The obtained chromatographic fingerprints are divided to desired number of chromatographic regions. Owing to the fact that chromatographic problems, such as elution time shift and peak overlap can significantly affect the clustering results, therefore, each chromatographic region is analyzed using multivariate curve resolution-alternating least squares (MCR-ALS) to address these problems. Then,... 

Tissue transglutaminase (TG2) is a unique multifunctional enzyme. The enzyme possesses enzymatic activities such as transamidation/crosslinking and non-enzymatic functions such as cell migration and signal transduction. TG2 has been shown to be involved in molecular mechanisms of cancers and several neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease. The present study aimed at cloning and expression of full length human TG2 in Bac-to-Bac baculovirus expression system and evaluation of its activity. Methods: pFastBac HTA donor vector containing coding sequence of human TG2 was constructed. The construct was transformed to DH10Bac for generating recombinant bacmid. The verified bacmid was... 

In this paper, a nonlinear adaptive control method is presented for the treatment of the Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) infection. Nonlinear dynamics of the HBV, modeling uncertainties and three state variables (the numbers of uninfected and infected cells and free viruses) are taken into account. The proposed control law is designed for the antiviral drug input such that the number of free viruses and consequently the number of infected cells decrease to the desired values. An adaptation law is also presented to overcome modeling uncertainties by updating estimations of the system parameters during the treatment period. The stability of the process and convergence to desired state values are... 

The most important issue during synthesis of nanoparticles (NPs) is to avoid particle agglomeration and adhesion. There have been several attempts to use special substances such as organic surfactants, polymers and stable ligands for this purpose. In this study, silver NPs were synthesised with and without gelatin macromolecules, as a green natural biopolymer, which resulted in NPs with varying shapes and sizes. The effect of morphological characteristics on the antibacterial and antifungal properties of the synthesised NPs were studied, by comparing Gram-negative (Escherichia coli) versus Gram-positive (Staphylococcus aureus) bacteria as well as fungi (Candida albicans) by calculation of... 

Aim: Hepatitis E is a form of acute viral hepatitis, which is caused by hepatitis E virus (HEV). The study objective was to evaluate the prevalence of HEV to provide an overall relative frequency in Iran. Methods: In this study, databases such as PubMed and Scopus were searched using the following keywords according to MeSH, "Hepatitis E virus", "Epidemiology", "Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)" and "Iran". Then studies which had reported prevalence of HEV were selected. Results: We selected 36 researches out of 9246 for our study. From all the samples, the pooled estimated prevalence of HEV positive was 9.7%. It should be noted that HEV infection's relative frequency varied from... 

Changing the wettability of reservoir rock towards strongly water-wet state is effective way to enhance oil recovery from fractured carbonate reservoirs which are typically oil-wet. Regarding this fact, the injection of surfactant and the bacterial solution as EOR agents is proposed in the current work as a potential method to alter the wettability of rock surface reservoir. Nevertheless, there is a definite lack of experimental data regarding this method and the synergistic effect of both chemical and bacterial solutions on this process. In this study, the sole and combined effects of the bacterial solution using an Enterobacter cloacae strain as a biosurfactant-producer are compared with... 

Petroleum products which are used in a wide variety of industries as energy sources and raw materials have become a major concern in pollution of terrestrial and marine environments. The purpose of this study was to assess the potential of indigenous microbial isolates for degradation of diesel fuel. Two most proficient bacterial strains among five isolated strains from polluted soil of an industrial refinery were studied. The isolates then were identified as Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Bacillus subtilis using biochemical tests and 16S rRNA gene sequence analyses. P. aeruginosa showed higher biodegradation efficiency than B. subtilis in shaking flask containing diesel-contaminated water. P.... 

Human parvovirus B19 (B19) is a small, non-enveloped virus and belongs to Parvoviridae family. B19 persists in many tissues such as thyroid tissue and even thyroid cancer. The main aim of this study was to determine the presence of B19, its association with increased inflammation in thyroid tissue, and thus its possible role in thyroid cancer progression. Studies have shown that virus replication in non-permissive tissue leads to overexpression of non-structural protein and results in upregulation of proinflammatory cytokines such as interleukin 6 and tumor necrosis factor alpha. A total of 36 paraffin-embedded thyroid specimens and serum were collected from patients and 12 samples were used... 

Background: The aim of this study was to investigate the neurotoxic effects of Fe3O4 magnetic- CurNPs on isolated schizophrenia mitochondria of rats as an in vivo model. Methods: We designed CMN loaded superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) (Fe3O4 magnetic- CurNPs) to achieve an enhanced therapeutic effect. The physicochemical properties of Fe3O4 magnetic- CurNPs were characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), and dynamic laser light scattering (DLS) and zeta potential. Further, to prove Fe3O4 magnetic- CurNPs results in superior therapeutic effects, and also, the mitochondrial membrane potential collapse, mitochondrial complex II activity, reactive oxygen species generation,... 

Since physiological and pathological processes occur at nano-environments, nanotechnology has considered as an efficient tool for designing of next generation specific biomolecules with enhanced pharmacodynamic and pharmacodynamic properties. In the current investigation, by control of the size and hydrodynamic volume at the nanoscale, for the first time, physicochemical and pharmacokinetic properties of an anti-VEGFA nanobody was remarkably improved by attachment of a Proline-Alanine-Serine (PAS) rich sequence. The results elucidated unexpected impressive effects of PAS sequence on physicochemical properties especially on size, hydrodynamics radius, and even solubility of nanobody. CD...