Hemophilus influenza type b (Hib) infection has a high morbidity and mortality rate especially in children less than 5 years of age. The incidence of Hib disease in Iran is not known and Hib vaccine is not included in the National Immunization Program. The aim of the present study was to investigate the level of antibody to Hib of children five years or younger living in Jahrom, Iran. Three hundred eighty six children 5 years or younger were selected by random sampling method. A blood samples were taken from those children. Anti-Hib IgG antibody (anti-PRP) level was determined in the serum by using anti-Hemophilus influenza IgG EIA kit (IBL, Germany). An anti-PRP antibody levels of 0.15 microg mL(-1) and over were accepted as the natural immunity. The mean concentration of Hib antibody was 0.94 +/- 0.480 microg mL(-1). Natural immunity was determined in three hundred and twenty six (84.5%) of the children. The proportion of natural immunity was increased from 64.9% among children = 12 month old to 95.2% in children aged 49-60 month (p < 0.001). The exposure rate of children with Hib was higher than expected, even in children who were just a few months old. Present data revealed need to be introducing Hib conjugate vaccine in the National Immunization Programs.

Antibiotics are drugs used for treatment of infections caused by bacteria. Misuse and overuse of these drugs have contributed to phenomena known as antibiotic resistance. In this research, the antimicrobial resistance of the Shigella has been determined. This descriptive research analyzed registered laboratory data of patients referred to Fatemeh Zahra Hospital of the Bushehr, Iran. Shigella was isolated from their cultured sample from the year 2002-2008. In this study, the total of 121 registered Shigella collected from 2002-2008 were analyzed. There were 62 cases of S. sonnei, 46 cases of S. flexneri, eight cases of S. boydii and five cases of S. dysenteriae among them. Furthermore, two cases of Shigella sonnei were collected from the blood and the rest from the watery stools of the infected patients. The following is the resistance pattern of these organisms; to ciprofloxacin, 4.25%; ceftizoxime, 8.62%; nalidixic acid, 12.12%; co-trimoxazole, 86.13% and to tetracycline, 93.02%. Results ofantibiogram showed that highest rate of drug resistance belongs to tetracycline and co-trimoxazole and the lowest belongs to ciprofloxacin and ceftizoxime. One of the important issue for clinicians, now a day is drug resistance of microorganisms. This phenomenon is increasing due to some factors such as improper use of antibiotics and irrational prescribing. These factors lead to development of new drug resistant species.

The crude ethanolic extracts of Clerodendrum indicum Linn. leaves were investigated for possible antinociceptive activity using acetic acid induced writhing model in mice. Phytochemical analysis was also carried out according to the standard procedures to identify the presence of different phytoconstituents in the ethanolic extract of the plant leaves. The study results showed 38.91 and 55.24% inhibition of writhings in the tested mice when ethanolic extract of Clerodendrum indicum Linn. leaves at doses of 250 and 500 mg kg(-1) body weight was given intraperitoneally, respectively. The study results were also compared with antinociceptive activity of the standard drug, Diclofenac sodium (68.37% inhibition) used at 25 mg kg(-1) body weight. At the above doses, the crude ethanolic extract of the plant showed significant antinociceptive activity in dose dependent fashion in acetic acid-induced writhing model in mice. The inhibition of writhings was calculated in respective to control group and it was found that p-values (<0.0001) obtained in all cases were extremely statistically significant. However, the phytochemical analysis showed the presence of alkaloid, steroid, saponin, tannin, reducing sugar and gum. The results suggest that crude ethanolic extracts of Clerodendrum indicum leaves possess significant antinociceptive properties justifying its folkloric use as analgesics and further research is necessary to isolate the principle phytochemical constituent(s) responsible for this activity.

Obesity subjects individuals into metabolic and endocrine disorders. Thus obesity may increase the risk of vitamin D deficiency. This text aims at studying the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency and secondary hyperparathyroidism in obese children. In a non-randomized case control study on 52 obese children (body mass index (BMI) >95th percentile) aged 4 to 16 years undertaken at the outpatient endocrine clinic of the Children Hospital at Tabriz University between 2009-2011. This study was conducted to compare the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency and secondary hyperparathyroidism in obese children compared with 57 non obese (BMI < 85th percentile). 109 children including 52 (50.5%) boys and 57 (49.5%) girls were studied. Most of case (76.9%) and control (42.1%) groups suffered from degrees of vitamin D deficiency. There was meaningful statistical difference between two groups considering to vitamin D deficiency and parathyroid hormone (p = 0.001). A negative relations was found between iPTH and vit D level (p < 0.001, r = -0.2), BMI and 25-OH vit D (p < 0.001, r = -0.2). A positive relation was observed between parathyroid hormone and BMI (p = 0.009, r = 0.1). Obese children are at high risk at vitamin D deficiency and secondary hyperparathyroidism. BMI appears to be an important risk factor for vitamin D deficiency.

Recently more focus has been put to the development of innovative drug-delivery systems that includes polymer nanoparticles, emulsions and liposomes and solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNs). The SLNs have been proposed to be an alternative colloidal drug delivery system. The aim of this study was preparation and characterization of solid lipid nanoparticle (SLN) using varieties of emulsifier for encapsulation of the drug with poor water solubility. In these study four types of solid lipid nanoparticles were prepared based on different compositions of palm oil (S154) and lecithin (Lipoid 100) using the high pressure homogenization method. The SLN formulation had the following (palm oil+lecithin) compositions: SLN-01 (90 + 10%, respectively), SLN-02 (80 + 20%, respectively), SLN-03 (70 + 30%, respectively) and SLN-04 (60 + 40%, respectively). The SLNs were characterized and the optimum stability factors for one year storage determined. The parameters used to characterize the SLNs were particle size and polydispersity index (particle sizer), zeta potential (zetasizer), crystallinity (differential scanning calorimetry and wide angle X-ray diffraction), ultrastructure (transmission electron microscopy). Varying the palm oil and lecithin compositions resulted in SLNs of variable sizes and zeta potentials. The particle sizes of SLN-01, SLN-02, SLN-03 and SLN-04 were 298.40 +/- 11.80, 255.40 +/- 3.20, 145.00 +/- 3.39 and 273.00 +/- 86.50 nm, respectively, while the zeta potentials were -19.44 +/- 60.00, -19.50 +/- 1.80, -17.83 +/- 10.00 and -13.33 +/- 2.30 mV, respectively. Thermoanalysis and X-ray diffraction analysis showed that the SLNs had lower crystallinity than bulk lipid. The SLNs were generally round and uniform in shape under transmission electron microscopy. The SLN dimensional data suggested they had high quality physicochemical characteristics, which are conducive for the loading of poor water solubility drugs.

The effect of plant growth-promoting Rhizobacteria (PGPR) and exogenous application of compatible solutes on seed germination and root concentrations of sodium and potassium of two wheat varieties (Triticum durum L.) were evaluated under saline stress. In this experiment, Azotobacter vinelandii strain DSM85, glycine betaine and proline were used. Inoculated seeds for each variety were placed on Whatman paper in 9 cm Petri dishes containing 15 mL of distilled water or NaCl solutions at various concentrations (control, 100, 200, 300 mM) supplemented with or without glycine betaine (GB) or proline at 5 mM. The results indicated that addition of proline (5 mM) stimulated the production of indol acetic acid and the growth of A. vinelandii at 200 and 300 mM NaCl, respectively. The germination rate index and the germination final percentage decreased significantly (p < 0.05) with increasing salinity level. The germination was significantly diminished at 300 mM with significant variation among varieties and Waha variety had higher germination percentage than Bousselam variety. Inoculation of seeds by A. vinelandii and exogenous application of proline had significantly positive effect on the germination at this concentration of NaCl. The rate of accumulation of Na+ in roots was important at 100 mM and increased at 200 mM. The concentration of K+ decreased when salinity increased. The effect of inoculation or inoculation with proline decreased the accumulation of Na' and reduced the loss of K+ under salt stress. From the present study we can conclude that the use of A. vinelandii strain DSM85 and external application of low concentrations of proline on seeds might be considered as a strategy for the protection of plants under saline stress.

KIT is a growth factor receptor, important for normal germ cell migration and development. The malfunction of KIT gene results in constitutive activation of the tyrosine kinase activity of c-KIT which is believed to be the major oncogenic event in stomach, small intestine mastocytosis, acute leukemias, melanomas and colon tumors. The genetics of these diseases could be better understood by knowing the functional relevance of their SNP variation. In this study, a computational analysis to detect the most deleterious nonsynonymous SNPs of KIT gene was performed and investigated its binding affinity to native and predicted mutant protein structure (D816V) with sunitinib and HDAC (Trichostatin A and Panobinostat) inhibitors was investigated. Out of 1,288 SNPs retrieved from dbSNP database against KIT gene, 11 non-synonymous SNPs were detected to be damaging and deleterious by SIFT, PolyPhen and I-Mutant2.0 servers. Further, we modeled the mutant protein based on the deleterious nsSNP (rs121913507) and showed that the mutation from Aspartic acid to Valine at 816 position exhibit greatest impact on stability. The RMSD values of mutant and native structures are found to be 0.40 and 1.9 A, respectively. Furthermore, the binding affinity of sunitinib and HDAC inhibitors were compared with native and mutant protein. In this regard, it was found that trichostatin A has a high binding efficacy towards the mutant protein with a binding energy of -35.274 kcal mol(-1), as compared to the native structure which has a binding energy of -25.996 kcal mol(-1). Also, the FastSNP tool suggested that 3 SNPs found to affect protein splicing site and splicing regulation. From present results, it was clear that the non-synonymous SNP rs121913507 (D816V) could be the most deleterious SNP for KIT gene and HDAC inhibitors can serve as a best drug for the mutant protein.

Termites are the major decomposers in tropical region but yet their occurrences in oil palm plantation especially in peat soil are generally treated as pest. Study of termite species in peat land was conducted in selected oil palm plantations in North Sarawak with 5-7 years old palms and South Sarawak with 13-15 years old palms with two sites in each area. Results of quadrate (25 x 25 x 30 cm) sampling showed termite was significantly higher in relative density with increasing depth of soil (0-10 = 21.23, 10-20 = 42.52 and 20-30 cm = 81.12%) which could be advantaged from being predated by ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) which were higher in density from soil surface to 10 cm soil depth with relative density of 31.84%. Modified transect sampling (50x6 m) had successfully sampled 18 species of termites from 2 families (Rhinotermitidae and Termitidae), 5 subfamilies (Rhinotermitinae, Coptotermitinae, Termitinae, Macrotermitinae and Nasutitermitinae) and 11 genera (Coptotermes, Schedorhinotermes, Termes, Macrotermes, Nasutitermes, Globitermes, Amitermes, Parrhinotermes, Pericapritermes, Havilanditermes and Prohamitermes). Both plantation sites have termite dominantly feeding on rotten wood as a result of abundant dead woods. However, Coptotermes curvignathus Holmgren was identified to feed on the living tissues of oil palm causing damage or death of the tree. Study showed higher encounter of soil-feeding termite in longer established plantation. It indicates the gradually shifting of soil condition towards a stabilized environment which favors the successful settlement of soil feeder termite species. Termite control should be more targets specific to avoid harming beneficial termites.

An eight years male child with his family ate fresh mushroom at lunch time from back garden at their home in a village in the North of Jordan. By the evening approximately six hours later all started feeling nausea, abdominal cramps and vomiting they rushed to nearest primary health care center. After getting general medical medication they were transfer to a referral hospital at city of Irbid. The boy got deteriorated with diarrhea in addition to the previous gastrointestinal complains and died on third day. The message from this case is to ascertain in the public opinion that unknown type of mushroom even eaten previously could be poisonous and fetal.