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Showing 17 results for Riaz


Volume 7, Issue 1 (3-2021)
Abstract

The Oriental Asian species, Saltella setigera (Diptera: Sepsidae), that previously recorded based on a single male specimen from Shakargarh, Punjab province of Pakistan, is revised. During our recent collection from the Northern parts of Pakistan, both male and female specimens have been collected from Islamabad Capital Territory and Azad Kashmir, shows the wide distribution of this rarely known species and may expect to identify from other areas adjoining to these collection sites in future. The distributional notes, key characters, re-description, and detail photographs of both sexes are provided.

Volume 9, Issue 3 (Summer 2018)
Abstract

Aims: Today, the ability to produce hydrolases enzyme that are active in high salt concentrations is considered a new approach to the use of halophilic bacteria in biotechnology. The aim of this study was the screening and isolation of extracellular lipase producing halophilic bacteria Marinobacter sp. S-14 isolated from Badab-e Surt Hypersaline spring.
Materials and Methods: In this experimental study, 42 pure bacterial colonies were isolated from different samples of water, soil, sediment, and sludge from a hypersaline spring with a screening technique on the specific culture medium of halophilic bacteria. The isolate S-14, which showed the highest lipase activity, was selected for the identification by biochemical methods and 16S rRNA gene analysis. In order to optimize the growth conditions of the isolate, considering the maximum time of bacterial growth (72 hours), temperature, salt concentration, pH, carbohydrate, and amino acid intake were examined. The results were edited by Chromas pro 2.1.1 software, and compared with EzTaxon database. Strains that were more similar to the isolate were identified. Sequence analysis of 16S rRNA were performed by BioEdit 7.1.9, Clustal-2X 2.1, and MEGA 6, and the phylogenetic tree was drawn by the neighbor joining algorithm.
Findings: The isolate S-14 had 99% similarity to Marinobacter flavimaris and Marinobacter adhaerens. The isolate had optimum growth in 5% NaCl concentration, 35°C, and 7.0 acidity.
Conclusion: The isolate S-14 can be an appropriate candidate to produce extracellular lipase enzyme and can utilize Fructose and Phenylalanine as a sole source of carbon and energy.


Volume 10, Issue 45 (August and September 2022)
Abstract

Research background:
So far, no research has been done about the krait totem in Baloch folklore and literature. Some of the studies that are slightly related to the present research are:
1. Totemic reading of the animal motifs of the Halil River Jiroft civilization (3rd millennium BC) by Sehatmanesh (2018): In this article, the author examines the animal motifs discovered in Halilrud based on totemism and concludes that about 47% of the discovered motifs are related to animals. This article indicates the importance and sanctity of animals in this area of civilization.
2. Metamorphosis of blood into a snake in Garshaaspnaameh byEmami et al. (2013): In this article, the authors investigate the mystery of finding a snake from blood. One of the findings of this article is emphasizing the connection between snake and blood.
3. A new species of cobra and its registration in Iran by Abtin et al. (2016): This article identifies and examines a new species of a black snake that lives in Baluchistan. This research is based on environmental sciences and biology, and it is related to the present research only because of the investigation and stabilization of the krait in Balochistan.
Research purposes, questions, and assumptions
In this research, we examined how the krait became a totem and its continuation over many centuries. We wanted to know how krait is presented as a totem and what its connection is with the structures of Baloch consciousness. The continuity of a totem until now is another important psychological issue. The answer to why this continuity is based on Freudian-Lacanian psychoanalysis will provide a more accurate understanding of Balochi popular culture and literature.
In the present study, after explaining and describing the krait totem in Balochi popular culture and literature, using the theoretical approaches of Freud and Lacan in the field of psychoanalysis, with a descriptive-analytical method and based on the author's field research in Balochistan, we examined the emergence, continuity, and function of this totem in Balochi popular culture and literature. The most important research questions are:
1. What is the position of the Bungarus totem in Balochi popular culture and literature?
2. What are the psychoanalytic principles of the formation and continuation of the Bungarus totem in Baloch culture?
Main discussion
Baloch is one of the ancient tribes that has still preserved many of its very old customs and traditions. There are still signs of belief in some animal and plant totems among the Baloch. One of the most significant and enduring Baloch totems is a type of cobra known as the "krait" (seyahmaar) in Baluchistan. This type of snake, whose scientific name is Bungarus, lives in most areas of Balochistan. Baluchistan black snake with the scientific name B. persicus is registered globally.
     The snake has been very important in the field of ancient Baluch civilizations, like in other regions of Iran. This importance can be seen in the ancient artifacts extracted from the living areas of the Baloch people. Bompur, Jiroft, Shahdad, Yahya, Mehregareh, and Shahresukhte are the most significant ancient sites where Baloch people live. Other material productions of the cultures such as Yahya, Shahdad, Jiroft, Bompur, and Shahresukhte are noticeable (Moradi, 2014, p. 132). According to the belief of the believers in this totem, finding killers of their kind and biting and killing them is one of the special abilities of this snake.
     The krait in Balochistan is more than any other symbol associated with the phallus. As in the popular culture and literature of most nations of the world, "snake has been considered as a symbol of annoyance, masculinity, depression, revenge, misogyny, messaging, sloth, cunning, intellect, power, death, generation, renewal, temptation, intelligence, etc." (Yahaghi, 2012, p. 737).
Conclusion
The krait is one of the most dangerous and deadly snakes in the Balochistan region. This snake has had a significant presence in Balochi popular culture and literature due to its connection with issues related to life and death, and the functions and symbols related to it. Due to its association with the phallus, reproduction, and gestation, the krait has become one of the most important Baloch totems in the field of symbolism. Based on the psychoanalytic theories of Freud and Lacan, the krait totem is, above all, a symbol of the phallus and fertility and gestation, and it is an ancient sign of the problem of monogamy, reproduction, and the awareness of the father's role in it. This totem is the crystallization of fear and hope, desire and avoidance.
References
Moradi, H. (2014). The origin of the snake motif in the cultural materials of the third millennium BC in southeastern Iran; a sign of connection with Eilam and Mesopotamia. Archaeological Studies, 7(2), 131-148.
Yaahaghi, M. J. (2011). Culture of myths and stories in Persian literature. Contemporary Culture.
 

 

Volume 11, Issue 2 (9-2021)
Abstract

In recent years, the term "customer relationship management" has attracted much attention in the field of marketing and commerce. This study aimed to an analysis of the effect of customer relationship management dimensions on its success in service organizations with a meta-analysis approach. For this purpose, from 62 studies (from 2014 to 2018), 18 methodological and research objectives were accepted and meta-analysis was carried out on them. The research tool was a meta-analytic checklist. The findings showed that the propagation bias in the analyzed analysis is intangible. Also, the size of the impact of customer relationship management dimensions on the success of customer relationship management in service organizations was found to be 0.59 (Sig: 0/001). Accordingly, customer orientation (with an influence size of 0.601) and customer satisfaction (with a dependence size of 0.65) had the greatest impact on customer relationship management. The effect size according to Cohen's table is too high. We conclude that businesses are based on customer orientation and customer satisfaction so that the development and provision of services without considering this principle is not only difficult but impossible. Therefore, service organizations should focus all their activities and capabilities on customer satisfaction, because customers are the only source of return on investment. However, competitive markets today require all organizations to be customer-oriented.

Volume 11, Issue 4 (12-2022)
Abstract

In this study, the effects of powder and leaf extract of Moringa oleifera on hemolymph factors of Litopenaeus vannamei in response to salinity stress were evaluated. After 8 weeks of feeding with powder (25, 50 and 100g / kg) and extract (0.25, 0.5 and 0.1 g/kg) leaves of Moringa and control treatment without Moringa, all treatments were exposed to short-term salinity stress (5 and 55 ppt). There was a statistically significant difference in total and differential count of homocytes in different dietary treatments in all three normal conditions and under salinity stress of 5 and 55 pp (p<0.05). Under normal conditions and high salinity, shrimps fed with Moringa leaf extract showed higher number of homocytes than other treatments. In stress-free conditions, the number of semi-granular cells in powder and extract treatments was higher than the control group. At 5 ppt, Moringa powder treatments had higher semi-granular and at 55 ppt salinity, the leaf powder group (100 g/kg) and the leaf extract (0.25 g/kg) showed the highest values, respectively. Overall, the results of this study showed the positive effects of using Moringa leaf powder and extract on innate immune system function and exposure to salinity stress in shrimp
 

Volume 15, Issue 3 (6-2024)
Abstract

Magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) have emerged as contrast agents in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) due to their high porosity and adjustable structure, serving as drug carriers and new contrast agents in biomedicine. Designing efficient nanoplatforms that leverage the combined properties of both MNPs and MOFs is of great importance.
In this study, we introduce a simple in-situ synthesis method for a mesopore core-shell nanocomposite structure of MOF@Cu-ferrite. Initially, Cu-ferrite nanoparticles were synthesized using a hydrothermal method. Subsequently, the addition of fumaric acid to the Cu-ferrite nanoparticles activated the F0 component, inducing MOF nucleation. As a result, the Cu-ferrite core was gradually covered with a crystalline MOF shell, forming the MOF@Cu-ferrite structure. The MOF@Cu-ferrite nanocomposite is characterized by high porosity, numerous accessible surface functional sites, good crystalline stability, low toxicity of copper, excellent water dispersion, high magnetic properties, and cost-effectiveness. This study investigates the effect of the MOF@Cu-ferrite nanocomposite on the MRI signal intensity. T2-weighted images were obtained using MRI scanner at various iron concentrations of the magnetic nanocomposite, showing a significant change in signal intensity with increasing iron concentration. The transverse relaxivity rate (r2) for different iron concentrations was found to be 504.7 mM-1s-1. The results showed that Cu-ferrite magnetic nanoparticles coated with MOF have significant potential as negative contrast agents in MRI, reducing T2 relaxation time and improve contrast intensity in MR images.


Volume 16, Issue 10 (1-2017)
Abstract

The main task in finite volume methods (FVM) is to estimate proper values on the cell faces based on the calculated values on the nodes or cell centers. In this way, upwinding schemes are the most successful schemes for estimation of values on the control volume faces. These schemes have been developed in FVM for various techniques with proper accuracy on different kinds of structured and unstructured grids. In this research, the physical influence scheme (PIS) is developed to the cell-centered FVM in an implicit coupled solver and the results are compared with other two main branches of upwinding methods: exponential differencing scheme (EDS) and skew upwind differencing scheme (SUDS). Accuracy of these schemes is evaluated in lid-driven cavity flow at Re = 400-10000 and backward-facing step flow at Re = 800. Simulations show considerable difference between the of results EDS scheme with benchmarks, especially for lid-driven cavity flow at high Reynolds numbers which occurs due to false diffusion. Comparing SUDS and PIS schemes shows relatively close results in backward-facing step flow and different results in lid-driven cavity flow. The poor results of SUDS in cavity flow can be related to its non-pressure sensitivity between cell face and upwind points which is critical for such vortex dominant flows. Instead, the PIS scheme by applying a momentum equation between the cell face and upwind points, is able to capture flow vortices properly and matching well with benchmarks.

Volume 17, Issue 3 (10-2014)
Abstract

Objective: Since the identification of the two highly penetrant dominantly inherited genes, BRCA1/2, in the 1990s, a number of other genes have been identified which account for approximately 25% of the genetic basis for hereditary breast cancer. At least 75% are unidentified. The goal of this study is to investigate the presence or absence of a recessive pattern of inheritance in this heterogeneous disease whose possibility has been previously discussed by researchers. Methods: In this study we used exome sequencing as the most recent approach for identification of the genetic basis of any disease. The results of exome sequencing were confirmed by Sanger sequencing. Results: Although we did not find any homozygous mutation in this family, however a heterozygous 4bp deletion that led to a frame shift mutation was identified in exon 11 of the BRCA2 gene. Also identified was a heterozygous single nucleotide polymorphism in exon 9 of the STK11 gene. Conclusion:  The rs80359352 variation identified in this family is one of the frequent pathogenic mutations in the BRCA2 gene that has been reported in the BIC database. This variation has been previously observed in other ethnic populations such as Caucasians, Hispanics and the Chinese. In this study, for the first time, we report this mutation in Iranian population and its segregation in hereditary breast cancer.

Volume 18, Issue 120 (February 2021)
Abstract

Vitamin B3 (Nicotinamide) is involved in many vital reactions in the human body as the precursor of NAD and NADP. NAM deficiency can lead to pellagra thus foods are fortified with this vitamin. On the other hand, high intakes of NAM can cause some symptoms.  Hence, a cheap, rapid, selective and sensitive determination of NAM concentration in foods is crucial. The present study propose a NAM analysis method for beef and wheat flour by employing a molecularly imprinted polymer based solid phase extraction clean-up coupled with HPLC-UV. Precipitating polymerization technique for fabrication of NAM molecularly imprinted microspheres was utilized. The effects of polymer ingredients including functional monomer, cross-linker monomers, template and solvent were investigated on binding characteristics.The binding behaviour of the polymer well modeled through Freundlich equation and the polymer showed high selectivity of NAM over nicotinic acid (NA). In a kinetic study, 79% of NAM binding and 96.5% of NAM release occurred immediately. The NAM imprinted microspheres were packed into SPE for NAM extraction, food samples injected and the output analysed with HPLC-UV. Good linearity was obtained for solid phase extraction of NAM in the range 148–5000 μg L-1 (R2 = 0.999) and high extraction recoveries of 77–102% and 81–87% were obtained for NAM in beef and wheat flour samples, respectively. The limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ) for nicotinamide  were 44 μg L-1 and 148 μg L-1, respectively. The overall inter-day and intra-day relative standard deviations of  2.13% to 5.31% for wheat flour (n=4), and 1.89% to 5.22% for beef samples were obtained, demonstrating good precision of the proposed method in its application for real sample analysis.

Volume 19, Issue 130 (December 2022)
Abstract

There is a growing demand to produce high quality-meat analog based on plant-based protein.. producing meat analog which is rich in tenderness and juiciness is one of the recent challenges in this field. In this survey, flaxseed protein concentrate was used at levels (0, 1, 2, 4, and 5%) as a novel ingredient to develop plant-based meat during the high moisture extrusion in combination with pea protein isolate and the physicochemical properties, The functional, textural, and sensory characteristic of the produced meat analogs were investigated. The results showed that the addition of flaxseed protein concentrate had a significant effect on the amount of protein, carbohydrate, fat, and pH in the samples (p˂0.05) and improved the functional properties such as increasing cooking yield(%) and reducing expressible moisture(%). textural parameters and brightness and redness parameters of the sample were significantly reduced by the addition of flaxseed protein concentrate (0.05). The use of flaxseed protein concentrate significantly increased (p˂0.05).the taste and overall acceptance of the control sample(T1) respectively from 3 and 3, 4 to 4.8 and 4.6 in T5 sample.
 

Volume 25, Issue 2 (Spring 2022)
Abstract

More than 30% of adults suffer from sleep deprivation (SD). SD has adverse effects on cognitive functions such as attention. In psychology, attention is defined as the concentration of awareness on some events to exclude other stimuli. It has a very important role in regulating the human behavior. Although several studies have investigated the alteration in activity of different attention supporting brain regions following SD, however, these effects are not still fully addressed. Considering the significance of attention in learning and directing the human behavior and regarding the high prevalence of SD, here we review the consequences of acute SD on activity and connectivity of different regions involved in the attention processing by focusing on neuroimaging studies.

Volume 25, Issue 3 (Summer 2022)
Abstract

Introduction: Having a good quality sleep is essential for college students to support their academic success, physical health, mental well-being, and overall productivity. In this study, we evaluated the sleep quality among graduate students studying medical physiology at Tarbiat Modares University.
Materials and Methods: 46 students including 11 master's and 31 doctoral students, and also 4 postdoctoral researchers participated in this study. Sleep quality was evaluated using the Pittsburgh sleep quality questionnaire.
Results: The overall sleep quality score of participants was 6.8±0.49, indicating that the students faced poor sleep quality. Sleep disturbance was significantly higher in female than male students (p<0.05). Moreover, students with higher age, married or engaged in carrying out the practical experiments related to their thesis had a lower score (p<0.05) (i.e. better performance) in the daily functioning component compared to other students.
Conclusion: This study showed that medical physiology students have poor sleep quality. This undesirable sleep quality can impair the students learning and research skills. It is recommended that appropriate plans be made and necessary training be provided to students to improve their sleep quality.

Volume 25, Issue 6 (11-2023)
Abstract

Participatory Irrigation Management (PIM) has emerged as a significant intervention in which farmers are given more control over irrigation management. The primary goal of this study was to identify the factors that influence farmers' participation in PIM activities and compare the economic viability of participation levels. A multi-stage random sampling technique was used to collect the data from 240 farmers of Nasrana and Maduana distributaries located at the tail end of the Lower Chenab Canal (LCC) west circle in district Faisalabad, Punjab, Pakistan, using a structured questionnaire. The factors influencing farmers' participation in PIM activities were identified using an ordered Probit Regression model. The findings revealed that education level (β= 0.12; P=0.00), village leadership (β= 0.97; P= 0.00), and being a beneficiary of a water user association (β=1.20; P= 0.00) all had a significant positive influence on farmers' participation in PIM activities. On the other hand, family size (β= -0.05 P= 0.04), land ownership (β= -0.44; P= 0.05), and off-farm income (β= -0.52; P= 0.01) were found to have a significant negative impact on farmers' participation. Farmers with a high level of participation had higher farm technical efficiency and crop productivity. For these reasons, farming communities must be encouraged to participate in PIM activities in order to achieve a sustainable irrigation system.

Volume 27, Issue 2 (Spring 2024)
Abstract

While the exact functions of sleep are not completely understood, it is a crucial part of daily life and comprises series of events that follows a consistent nightly cycle, enabling the human body to function at its best. More than 30% of adults suffer from sleep deprivation (SD). SD can lead to negative effects on cognitive performance including learning and memories. Here we review the consequences of acute SD on hippocampus- dependent memories, and activity and connectivity of different brain regions involved in the memory processing by focusing on neuroimaging studies.

 

Volume 27, Issue 3 (Summer 2024)
Abstract

Introduction: Poor sleep quality can lead to negative effects on cognitive performance. However, the association between sleep quality and person's ability to inhibit a habitual response has not been investigated yet. In this study, the relationship between sleep quality and cognitive function with subjects’ performance in numerical Stroop test (NST) was investigated.
Methods: 21 male and female volunteers underwent NST. Sleep quality and cognitive function were evaluated using Pittsburgh sleep quality and cognitive disabilities index questionnaires, respectively. Finally, the correlation between sleep quality and cognitive disability indices with NST parameters was measured.
 Results: Unfavorable sleep quality and cognitive disability were significantly correlated with decreased the reaction time of subjects in NST. In addition, a significant correlation was observed between lower sleep quality and cognitive disability.
Conclusion: It is concluded that poor sleep quality reduces the ability to inhibit a habitual response. In addition, poor sleep quality increases individuals' impulsive decisions. Furthermore, cognitive performance is negatively influenced by poor sleep quality.


Volume 28, Issue 1 (Winter 2025)
Abstract

While the precise functions of sleep are not fully understood, it is an important part of daily life and involves a series of events that follow a consistent night-time cycle and enable the human body to function at its best. More than 30% of adults suffer from sleep deprivation (SD). SD can lead to negative effects on cognitive function, including reward and emotional processing. Here, we review the consequences of acute SD on reward network and emotional processing, and the activity and connectivity of different brain regions involved in reward network and emotional processing, with a focus on neuroimaging studies.

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