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Persistent activism has mostly been discussed in the context of Western socio-political and religious movements, where it is attributed to organizational and inter-personal networks and the development of identities and solidarities. Studies of persistent environmental activism are rare in countries that lack durable mobilizing structures. This study explores, for the first time, persistent anti-littering activism in an infrequently studied social and political setting, Iran. This allows us to assess the applicability of social movement findings from western cases to a non-western context. Drawing on in-depth interviews with eighteen persistent Iranian anti-littering activists we find that cosmopolitanism, which de-naturalizes pollution and littering, is a key motivating factor. Persistent anti-littering activism involves overcoming the difficulties of participation by finding pleasures in generating, together, a pragmatic identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to surface-functionalize PEGylated liposomal doxorubicin (PLD) using anti-p32 CGKRK peptide to evaluate its anti-angiogenic and anti-tumour activities. CGKRK was conjugated to DSPE-mPEG2000-maleimide and post-inserted into PLD at 25, 50, 100, 200 and 400 peptides per each liposome and characterised for their size, zeta potential, drug loading, release properties; and cell binding, cell uptake and cytotoxicity on three C26, 4T1 and human umbilical vein endothelial cell (HUVEC) cell lines. The in vitro results indicated the better efficiency of the PLD-100 (PLD with 100 CGKRK) formulation on 4T1 and HUVEC cell lines. The results of anti-tube formation and spheroid assay indicated the efficiencies of the PLD-100 formulation compared with Caelyx®in vitro. The in vivo studies indicated the higher tumour accumulation of PLD-100 formulation in comparison with Caelyx® which also implied the higher survival rates in mice treated with PLD-100 formulation. Histological evaluations demonstrated that PLD-100 had no side-effects on major organs. In conclusion, the results of this study indicated that PLD-CGKRK- could efficiently target endothelial and tumour parenchymal cells which enhance the therapeutic efficacy of PLD and merits further investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a method is implemented to a one-dimensional inverse problem with a parabolic differential equation of fractional order in which the fractional derivative is in the Caputo sense. The considered inverse problem involves a time-dependent source control parameter p (t). In order to numerically solve the problem, first, the main problem is converted to a homogeneous problem by Lagrange interpolation. Consequently, a new problem is derived by a practical technique that verifies all the conditions of the main problem. Finally, a system of nonlinear algebraic equations is solved by Newton's method to obtain the unknown coefficients. It is notable that all the needed computations are done in MATHEMATICA T M . In this work, operational matrices of Bernoulli polynomials are stated and applied to approximate functions. Illustrative examples are included to prove the efficiency and applicability of the proposed methods. In the numerical tests, a low amount of polynomials is needed to acquire a precise estimate solution. For demonstrating the low running time of this method, CPU time for all examples is exhibited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vitamin C, as an antioxidant additive in pharmaceutical and food products, is susceptible to environmental conditions, and new design strategies are needed to enhance its stability. The aim of this study is to prepare vitamin C proliposome using film deposition on the carrier by applying different factors, and optimise the characteristics of the obtained powder using the design expert® software. The optimised formulation demonstrated acceptable flowability with 20% vitamin C loading. This formulation released about 90% vitamin C within 2 h and showed higher (1.7-fold) in-vitro antioxidant activity. Ex-vivo antioxidant activity was 1.9 and 1.6 times higher in brain and liver cells, respectively. A 27% reduction in malondialdehyde (MDA) level of liver cell was obtained comparing free vitamin C. Therefore, this study results suggest that the vitamin C-encapsulated proliposome powder might be an appropriate carrier for oral drug delivery of vitamin C with better antioxidant efficacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper the problem of statistical hypothesis testing under weighted sampling is considered for obtaining the most powerful test. Some simulated powers of tests, using the Monte Carlo method, are performed. Using a convenient sample of the specialist physicians of Social Security Organization of Ahvaz in Iran, two weighted samplings versus random sampling are tested. Among the three mentioned sampling, the size-biased sampling order 0.2 is more appropriate for the mechanism of data collection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, a simple and efficient method of ligandless-ultrasound-assisted emulsification microextraction (LL-USAEME) followed by inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) has been developed for simultaneous extraction, preconcentration and determination of manganese, cadmium, cobalt and nickel in water samples. In the proposed approach, tetrachloroethylene was selected as extraction solvent. The effect of important experimental factors such as volume of extraction solvent, pH, sonication time, salt concentration, and temperature was investigated by using a fractional factorial design (25−1) to identify important factors and their interactions. In the next step, a Box-Behnken design (BBD) was applied for optimisation of significant factors. The obtained optimal conditions were: 30 µL for extraction solvent, 12 for pH, 5 min for sonication time, and 5% w/v for salt concentration. The limits of detections (LODs) for Cd(II), Co(II), Mn(II) and Ni(II) were 0.20, 0.13, 0.21 and 0.28 µg L−1, respectively. Relative standard deviations (RSD, C = 200.0 µg L−1,n = 9) were between 3.4–7.5% and the calibration graphs were linear in the range of 0.25 to 1000.0 µg L−1for Mn, 0.5–1000.0 µg L−1for Co and Ni and 1.0–250.0 µg L−1for Cd. The determination coefficients (R2) of the calibration curves for the analytes were in the range of 0.993 to 0.999. The proposed method was validated by using two certified reference materials, and also the method was applied successfully for the determination of heavy metals in different real water samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThe aim of this study was to examine psychological responses, fear of negative evaluation, and mood-related alexithymia in individuals in addiction recovery who have succeeded versus those who have not. This study employed a causal-comparative design. The research focused on all individuals who sought treatment for addiction at clinics within a specific district in Zahedan city, Iran. Out of the group, 100 individuals were chosen (50 who successfully stopped their addiction and 50 who were unsuccessful in their attempts to quit) through convenience sampling. Data were gathered using the depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS-21), Lori’s fear of negative evaluation scale, and Toronto’s mood–emotional alexithymia scale. Data were examined through both descriptive statistics and multivariate analysis of variance. Based on the results, successful and unsuccessful individuals in addiction recovery showed varying levels of depression, stress, fear of negative evaluation, and having no fear of negative evaluation (p < .01). In simpler terms, unsuccessful individuals in addiction recovery scored higher in depression, stress, fear of negative evaluation, inability feeling emotions, inability to express feelings compared to successful individuals. But successful individuals in addiction recovery obtained higher mean scores than unsuccessful individuals in addiction recovery on having no fear of negative evaluation. According to the findings psychological reactions, fear of negative evaluation and mood–emotional alexithymia play a significant role in addiction treatment and can be helpful in addiction recovery in unsuccessful people in addiction recovery. It is feasible to enhance the effectiveness of addiction recovery by implementing interventions that target the reduction of depression, stress, fear of negative evaluation, and alexithymia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]