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    Carboxymethyl cellulose is the most abundant carbohydrate biopolymer that has excellent film-forming properties. But its main problem is its poor resistance to water vapour transport. In this study the effect of glycerol as plasticiser and oleic acid as an edible hydrophobic agent were investigated. Results showed that by increasing of oleic acid up to a certain content, moisture uptake decreased significantly (about 53/5%). By Increasing the concentration of glycerol significantly increased moisture uptake (about 64%). Studying of mechanical properties, showed that both glycerol and oleic acid have plasticizing effect on the films but glycerol showed more effective role on decreasing tensile strength and increasing flexibility then oleic acid. Both glycerol and oleic acid are able to decrease glass transition temperature of films. But the effect of the glycerol on the thermal properties of films was higher than oleic acid. 

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  Khorasan Razavi Province with 6.83 % Iran milk production is an important area of animal husbandry. In this study, the relationship between milk composition and total bulk milk somatic cell counts was investigated. 123 samples of bulk tank milk were randomly selected from 41 dairy farmers in the Province of Khorasan Razavi (Iran) during April–March 2006, every month. A total of 1476 samples were analyzed. Samples were analyzed for acidity, fat, protein content  and somatic cell counts. The results showed that the season of raw milk production did not have significant effect on the acidity. Fat concentration increased gradually from spring to winter and there were significant difference between spring and other seasons (P<0.05). Higher levels of the protein content were observed in samples collected during the autumn and winter seasons. The highest total bulk milk somatic cell counts were in July. Total bulk milk somatic cell counts had significant impact on acidity, fat and protein content. Moreover, the level of acidity and fat in milk decreased with increasing SCC (P<0.01, P<0.05 respectively). A significant (P<0.001) positive relationship was observed between total bulk milk somatic cell and protein content in milk. Also, positive correlation (R² = 0.91) were established between direct microscopic cell count and Somatos instrument.

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  Starch is the most abundant carbohydrate biopolymer that has excellent film-forming properties. But poor resistance to water vapour transport and poor mechanical properties are of its main problems. In this study a series of corn starch films with varying concentrations (0–20 %W/W) of citric acid and carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) were prepared by casting method at 60˚C. The effects of citric acid on water vapor permeability (WVP), moisture absorption, solubility and mechanical properties were investigated. The WVP decreased from 4.63 to  2.61×10^-7 g/m.h.Pa as the citric acid percentage increased from 0 to 10%W/W. When the citric acid content of the films reached to 20%W/W, WVP increased about 15%. Moisture absorption and mechanical properties exhibited similar trends. In the presence of 10% citric acid, the introduction of CMC improved the moisture resistance of the composites. Using of 20%W/W CMC in the formulation increased ultimate tensile strength (UTS) by more than 59% compared to neat starch film. However, by increasing of the CMC concentration, the strain to break (SB) did not reduce significantly. 

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Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic myelin destructive disease which affects central nerves system. CD4+ T cells are a group of adaptive immune system cells that have Pivotal role in immune response against the foreign agents. Th17 (T helper 17) cells are one of the subsets of CD4+ T cells which increased in multiple sclerosis patients. MicroRNAs are single stranded non-coding RNAs that regulate protein expression by targeting their mRNA. The aim of this work was to determine miRNAs which probably have effect on theTh17 differentiation pathway by means of bioinformatics methods to suppress this pathway and decrease MS symptoms. by using miRWalk and miRTarBase databases, the probable and validated interactions between some miRNAs and Th17 differentiation pathway proteins were investigated .Disregulated expression of this miRNAs clinically have been shown previously in MS patients. Results showed that miR-9 probably could induce Th17 differentiation from naïve T cells by suppressing negative regulator of Th17 differentiation pathway. In contrast, miR-17and miR-106a/b probably could inhibit Th17 differentiation pathway by suppressing positive regulator of this pathway. Thus, this miRNAs can be considered as potential therapeutic targets for suppression or symptom reduction and also diagnostic markers in MS patients.

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This study aimed to isolate the thermophilic bacteria producing exoglucanase from hot springs of Dehloran, in Ilam province, in South-West of Iran. After sampling, bacterial enrichment was performed in a medium containing rice barn or CMC (carboxymethyl cellulose). Identifying bacteria was performed based on characteristics such as universal 16SrRNA gene sequencing using PCR. The isolates indicated the most similarity to species Pseudoxanthomonas mexicana، Chelatococcus daeguensis,Promicromonospora sp., Isoptericola variabilis sp. in the GenBank. The selected strain was identified and named as Isoptericola variabilis sp. IDAH9. The strain showed 1 U/ml exoglucanas activity. In order to optimization of enzyme production, the effects of carbon, nitrogen, Tween-80, and sucrose were evaluated. The results showed that the most exoglucanas activity are obtained at concentrations of 0.2% sucrose, 0.6% Tween 80 and 12 g/l of bran and carboxymethyl cellulose carbon sources and 5.6 g/l of ammonium sulfate. The residual enzyme activity was retained 64% of activity after 24 hour incubation at 50 °C. Therefore, Isoptericola variabilis sp. IDAH9 can be a suitable option for production thermostable exoglucanase from low price carbon sources..

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Backgrounds: Streptomyces is an aerobic filamentous Gram-positive bacterium frequently found in various environments worldwide. Cellulases are a group of glycosyl hydrolase enzymes that are frequently produced by bacteria. Thus, the aim of this study was to detect cellulase-encoding gene (celA) in soil-living Streptomyces strains and evaluate its cloning in Escherichia coli Origami strain.
Materials & Methods: Soil samples were collected from a depth of 5-10 cm in Tehran, Iran. After identification of Streptomyces isolates by morphological and biochemical tests, genomic DNA was extracted. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test was employed to identify Streptomyces strains harboring the cellulase gene. The celA gene was positively transmitted to the host bacterium E. coli via a vector and cloned through the TA technique. Real-time PCR was used to measure the overexpression of this gene. ClustalX and Mega5 software were used to draw the phylogenetic tree.
Findings: Out of 12 Streptomyces isolates, 25% were found to carry the celA gene. After cloning the celA gene, the cloned strains were chosen by colony selection (blue/white). The real-time PCR test showed the expression of the celA gene in the transformed strains. Phylogenetic analysis results using the neighbor-joining assay showed that Streptomyces spp. with 81% bootstrap were located in the same clade, indicating their close relatedness.
Conclusion: Soil is one of the high-potential sources of the production of secondary metabolites, which could be used as a valuable source of various biological products such as cellulase.

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Mastitis deteriorates the quality of raw milk and higher proteolytic activity in mastitic milk has been reported. There are no published studies on the effects of health status of the animal on the casein micelle microstructure, therefore the specific objective of this study was to determine the effects of somatic cell count (SCC) on the dimension and microstructure of casein micelles in raw milk. Raw milk samples were collected from the individual quarter of the dairy cattle in three different levels of SCCs (i.e., low: SCC<200,000, medium: 200,000<SCC<800,000 and high: SCC >800,000 cells/ml) and prepared for study by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). The results suggested that the size of casein micelle changes in mastitic milk, and there were significant differences in casein micelle microstructure between high and low SCC milk samples. The mean diameter of micelles in medium and high SCC specimen decreases dramatically and SEM micrographs revealed that aggregation of casein micelles increases considerably in raw milk samples, especially in high SCC milk, except for that of low SCC. Increase the activity of proteolytic enzymes such as plasmin and lysosomal enzymes (Elastase, Cathepsin B, D and G, etc) was realized as the main reason of hydrolyzing casein in milk, especially in milk with high SCC, which can be the cause of changes in size and tendency to aggregation of casein micelles in mastitic milk. In addition, decreased milk synthesis ability and reduced steric and electrostatic repulsion among casein micelles might be other causes for this phenomenon.  

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  Sugar-beet pulp, one of the byproducts of sugar industries, contains several important components such as pectin, cellulose and hemicellulose. In this study, firstly cellulose was extracted from sugar-beet pulp. The extracted cellulose was then converted to carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) by an etherification process preformed at 70 ^oC. Degree of substitution, purity and moisture content of the CMC were, 0.52, 53% and 7%, respectively. The properties of the produced CMC was compared with other thickeners (i e. commercial CMC (Merck), tragacanth gum and a formulated commercial gum (available in the market). All four hydrocolloids were used in the formulation of tomato ketchup at 1% level. The chemical composition, rheological properties, syneresis and sensory evaluation tests were performed. There was no significant difference between the samples in terms of chemical composition. The viscosity of the ketchup samples with beet pulp CMC was much greater than the control without gum, but lower than the samples containing other gums. A slight syneresis was also seen in the samples with beet pulp CMC after one month of storage. Sensory scores of the samples with beet pulp CMC was greater than other samples. Overall, in despite of low purity and DS of the produced CMC, beet pulp CMC has a good potential to be used in food products as a thickener.

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  Department of Food Science and Technology, School of Agriculture, Shiraz University, Shiraz, I. R. Iran      In order to produce high quality pasta, semolina; the durum wheat flour, is generally used. However, semolina is not available for every pasta factories in Iran. Hence, many of these factories use bread wheat flour (farina) to produce pasta. Consequently, the pasta may be of low quality and not suitable for export. The objectives of this study is to improve the quality of dough and the resultant spaghetti produced from farina using 0.5% (w/w, flour basis) hydroxypropyl cellulose (HPC). After preparation of dough with moisture content of 31.5%, the rheological properties of the dough were tested using Brabender Farinograph. The results showed that addition of HPC increased the dough development and stability times. The results of creep test (using Texture Analyser) revealed that addition of HPC increased the elasticity of the dough while its viscosity decreased. The results of cooking tests in distilled and salted water (2% w/w) showed that the HPC sample had longer optimum cooking time. Moreover, the HPC sample had higher water absorption and lower cooking loss than the control. Addition of HPC could improve the texture of the cooked spaghetti. Addition of salt to the cooking water increased both water absorption and cooking loss of the samples.

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It is shown in [1] that the optimal downlink radio resource allocation for non-realtime traffic in cellular CDMA/TDMA networks can be mapped to a Multi-dimensional Multiple-choice Knapsack Problem (MMKP) which is NP-hard. In this correspondence we propose a heuristic algorithm with polynomial time complexity for this problem. Numerical results indicate significant computational performance improvement in comparison to existing heuristic algorithms for MMKP.

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Purpose: Evaluation of humoral and cellular immune responses of naturally infected dogs against type I (rCPB) (Recombinant cycsteine proteinase B), and II (rCPA) (Recombinant cycsteine proteinase A) recombinant cysteine proteinases and C-terminal extension (CTE) of Leishmania infantum (L. infantum). Materials and Methods: In this study, fourteen infected dogs (7 with symptoms, 7 asymptomatics) from an endemic area and three uninfected dogs from a nonendemic region were selected and their humoral and cellular responses against type I and II recombinant cysteine proteinases, C-terminal extension (CTE) and F/T of Leishmania infantum were evaluated using the ELISA and lymphocyte proliferation assay, respectively. The level of specific IgG isotypes (IgG1 and IgG2) and lymphocyte proliferative response against rCPA, rCPB, CTE and Freezed/Thawed lysate (F/T) of L. infantum were examined. Results and Discussion: The results showed that in both of the symptomatic and asymptomatic dogs there is a high lymphoproliferative response to F/T antigens and moderate responses were observed when rCPs (Recombinant cycsteine proteinase) (rCPA and rCPB) and CTE were used. The level of antibody (total IgG, IgG1 and IgG2) recognition toward rCPA was low in the both groups of the dogs. In contrast, the CTE stimulates similarly as the CPB both of the humoral and cellular responses of all the infected animals and the level of total IgG and IgG2 isotypes against these antigens compared to the IgG1 was higher in the asymptomatic dogs. Since, the CTE is the terminal fragment of the CPB, it seems that the immunogenicity of the CPB is dependent on the CTE. Conclusion: The results of our investigation indicates that the CPB and CTE stimulate both humoral and cellular immune responses of L. infantum infected dogs, wherase the CPA is a weaker immunogen.

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Pertussis toxin (PT), the main virulence factor of Bordetella pertussis is a protein-based AB5-type exotoxin. Methods of pertussis toxin purification are not available exactly because of economic considerations by vaccine companies. The aim of this study was to setup and modify an in-house method for the PT purification based on affinity chromatography to develop acellular pertussis vaccine in future. B. pertussis and CHO cells were provided from Razi Institute (Karaj, Iran). The bacteria were grown in a 300L fermenter (44 h, 35o c, in B2 medium). The fermentation broth was clarified and concentrated by 0.45 µm membrane filter and 10 KDa molecular weight cut-off membrane respectively. Isolation of pertussis toxin was performed based on affinity chromatography by Fetuin Sepharose column. Immune dot blot test showed significant amounts of pertussis toxin qualitatively. The clustering of CHO- cells mono-layer were observed after first hour of applying the purified pertussis toxin and stopped after the twelfth hour. The average amount of extracted PT was 2.53 IU/ml± 0.43. Among the production procedure of whole cell pertussis vaccine, culture broth is discarded, whereas, results showed it was a suitable source for extraction of pertussis toxin. Finally examine other strains and bacterial culture methods to obtain desired pertussis toxin are recommended.

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Backgrounds: It is evident that the success of common cancer treatments is reduced due to limited drug access to tumor tissue, the drug toxicity intolerance in healthy cells, as well as the exposure of the immune system to the drug. Cancer stem cells are also a small population of tumor cells, which have different potentials for regeneration, proliferation, and differentiation and serve as a carcinogenic driving force. They are believed to play a key role in the onset, progression, drug resistance, recurrence of cancer, or metastasis. Although mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) have a slight ability to migrate toward the tumor, they could be considered as a cellular carrier for tumor targeting due to lack of recognition by the host immune system. Stem cells with their own ligands could effectively target cancer cells. One of the CD markers that exist on the surface of stem cells is CD44v6, which is considered as a homing receptor. Given that the expression level of stem cell markers is reduced during consecutive cultures in vitro environment; therefore, in the present study, stem cells were engineered using CD44 lentiviral vectors to more effectively improve the implantation and targeting of the colon cancer cell model.
Materials & Methods: In this study, the structure of the CD44 gene was designed in lentiviral vectors and transfected to the HEK293T cell line along with auxiliary plasmids PSPAX2 and PMDG2. The growth medium of virus-containing cells was collected at optimized intervals, and transduction into mice mesenchymal stem cells, injection into mice, and homing processes were traced.
Findings: Successful production of lentiviral vectors and proper expression of the corresponding factor after transduction were effective in improving the MSC homing in cancer cell.
Findings: According to these findings, it could be suggested that high expression of CD44v6 factor could be effective in improving the implantation process in cancer cells and targeting treatment.
 

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In this study the cellulytic activity of different species of Iranian Trichoderma isolates including Trichoderma harzianum (NAS-H101), T. aureoviride (NAS-AV106), T. pleuroticola (NAS-P109), T. longibrachiatum (NAS-L110), T. ghanens (NAS-K108), T. virens (NAS- Vi114), T. atroviride (NAS-A113) and T. atroviride (NAS-A112) was studied. The extracellular protein concentration of these isolates was determined by the dye binding method of Bradford. The molecular weight of cellulase enzymes was studied using SDS-PAGE. The lowest extracellular protein production was observed in NAS-K108. The highest Endo and Exo-glucanase activity were observed in NAS-L110 and NAS-A113, respectively. The SDS-PAGE profiles had several enzyme bands such as cellobiohydrolases, endoglucanases and β-glucosidases. The NAS-K108and NAS-P109 had both enzyme bands of CBH I and CBH II, but other isolates had only a sharp enzyme band correlated to CBH I or CBH II. The highest synergy was observed in FPase of NAS-A112, that contained a large amount of Cel 6A (CBH II) and a minor amount of Cel 7B (EG I). The results indicated that NAS-A113 overproduces cellulases, ß-glycosidase, and the extracellular enzymes, which suggest that this species might be utilized as a biological agent and or a source of enzymes for cellulose degradation in colloidal cellulose.
 

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Backgrounds: A short sequence of viral protein or peptide, can be used as a potential vaccine for the treatment of that virus. Considering all variants of concern (VOC), vaccine design with peptide for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS CoV2) is a challenging job for scientists.
Materials & Methods: In this current study, an epitope containing peptide vaccine for nonstructural protein 4 (nsp 4) of SARS CoV2 coronavirus has been predicted. With the help of a modified method for both B and T call epitope prediction, verified by molecular docking studies, linear B cell and T cell epitopes for nsp4 protein, are predicted here. Predicted epitopes are analyzed further with population coverage calculation and epitope conservancy analysis.
Findings: A short peptide sequence   ⁷⁴QRGGSYTNDKA⁸⁴  has been selected as B cell epitope considering the scores for surface accessibility, hydrophilicity, beta turn prediction for each amino acid residues.
Similarly, the peptide sequences ³⁵⁹ FLAHIQWMV³⁶⁷ and   ³⁵⁹ FLAHIQWVMFTPLV³⁷³ are predicted as T cell epitopes for MHC-I and MHC-II molecules. These two potential epitopes can interest with HLA-A*02:01 and HLA-DRB*01:01, MHC allelic proteins respectively with lowest IC₅₀ values.
Furthermore, no amino acid mutations are observed in GISAD Global initiate on sharing all influenza data) database for alpha, beta, gamma and delta variance of concerns (VOC). Among seven amino acid point mutation of nsp 4 protein in Omicron variant, none of them is present in the peptide sequences of predicted epitope-based vaccines.
Conclusion: The short peptide sequences can be predicted as vaccines to prevent coronavirus infections for all variants of concerns.
 

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In comparison with traditional extraction methods, aqueous enzymatic extraction of oil from oilseeds is a recent clean technology. This paper reports work performed at laboratory scale to extract soybean oil by aqueous enzymatic extraction method. In the present work the influence of enzymes concentration, extraction time, dilution ratio, particle size and 3 interactions in the final yield are evaluated and process parameters have been optimized by Taguchi method.16 extraction experiments carried out, statistical analysis showed that particle size was the most significant variable in oil extraction. Themaximal oil extraction yield was 61.42%.

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  In this study, antimicrobial effects of the carboxymethyl celloluse (CMC) based-edible films containing 1-4% potassium sorbate (as a antimicrobial agent), were tested against Aspergillus flavus (PTCC 5004), Aspergillus parasiticus (PTCC 5286) and Aspergillus parasiticus (PTCC 5018) by using agar diffusion assay. The films containing 1 and 2 % potassium sorbate showed the inhibitory zone against first and second molds however, they were not effective against Aspergillus parasiticus (PTCC 5018) at these levels of antimicrobial compound. Maximum inhibition zone was observed in 3 and 4% potassium sorbate for all molds. Fresh pistachios were purchased from local market and immersed in aqueous filmogenic solutions of CMC with different concentrations of sorbate (0.25, 0.5 and 1%). In uncoated pistachios, molds counting, showed 2.02×10⁶ CFUg^-1 while in the coated samples there was no growth of any molds.

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Regarding necessity of performance evaluation an business excellence achievement, this paper is trying to present a business excellence model (BEM) through the combination of two qualitative and quantitative approach to evaluation which are the models taken from total quality management (TQM) and data envelopment analysis (DEA). The model discussed covers all the advantages of the two models and reduces the defficiencies as mach as possible. By reviewing BEMs, in this research, the appropriate crieria for performance evaluation and business excellence are identified and also applied in DEA, which by using tangible inputs and outputs evaluate the organzations.

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Current investigations indicate different in vitro infection patterns for Oka and Dumas strains. Infection of cells in culture with Dumas strain produces lower number of infectious particles while the Oka strain is highly infectious in vitro. It is postulated that weak expression of the replication genes in Dumas strain may be the reason for the attenuated phenotype. The objective of this study was to analyze the sequences of the promoter region in two of the VZV replication genes, 16 and 52 by studying the level of expression of a reporter gene. For this purpose, primers were designed from VZV published sequences to amplify the promoter regions of both genes using Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) technique. The amplicons were cloned in a lacZ reporter vector. Cotransfaction of 52-Oka reporter plasmid with virus major trans-activator (IE62) in Huh7 cells showed that the presence of 52-Oka promoter was up regulated by the IE 62 trans-activator in a dose dependent manner resulting in ß-gal levels approximately 4-fold higher than those observed with 52-Dumas promoter and 10-fold higher than basal levels. In addition cotransfection of 16-Oka reporter plasmid did not show any significant change in activity in comparison with 16-Domus-reporter plasmid. Sequence determination of the promoter region in gene 52 indicated differences in 3 nucleotides in Dumas strain compared to Oka strain while no change was observed in the promoter sequences of gene 16 of the two strains. It is hence postulated a relationship between mutations in the Dumas promoter of replication genes, and the lower infectivity of the Dumas strain.