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The present study aimed to identify the selection signature associated with temperature adaptation in Iranian sheep breeds raised in cold and hot environments. The Illumina HD ovine SNP600K BeadChip genomic arrays were utilized to analyze 114 animals from eight Iranian sheep breeds, namely Ghezel, Afshari, Shall, Sanjabi, Lori-Bakhtiari, Karakul, Kermani, and Balochi. All animals were classified into two groups: cold-weather breeds and hot-weather breeds, based on the environments to which they are adapted and the regions where they have been raised for many years. The unbiased FST (Theta) and hapFLK tests were used to identify the selection signatures. The results revealed five genomic regions on chromosomes 2, 10, 11, 13, and 14 using the FST test, and three genomic regions on chromosomes 10, 14, and 15 using the hapFLK test to be under selection in cold and hot groups. Further exploration of these genomic regions revealed that most of these regions overlapped with genes previously identified to affect cold and heat stress, nervous system function, cell division and gene expression, skin growth and development, embryo and skeletal development, adaptation to hypoxia conditions, and the immune system. These regions overlapped with QTLs that had previously been identified as being associated with various important economic traits, such as body weight, skin color, and horn characteristics. The gene ontology and gene network analyses revealed significant pathways and networks that distinguished Iranian cold and hot climates sheep breeds from each other. We identified positively selected genomic regions in Iranian sheep associated with pathways related to cell division, biological processes, cellular responses to calcium ions, metal ions and inorganic substances. This study represents the initial effort to identify selective sweeps linked to temperature adaptation in Iranian indigenous sheep breeds. It may provide valuable insights into the genomic regions involved in climate adaptation in sheep. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Aim: Noise pollution is one of the urban problems that can affect the exposed individuals’ cognitive function. This study set to investigate the impact of traffic noise on drivers’ cognitive variables including perceptual capacity, speed of perception, and divided attention concerning the role of individual orientation and neuroticism. Methods: This study recruited 35 male student participants. The Eysenck personality questionnaire was used to evaluate the participants’ personalities (neuroticism and extroversion). Participants were then exposed to traffic noise, and the Adaptive Tachistoscopic Traffic Perception Test (ATTPT) was performed to assess their capacity and speed of perception. The Peripheral Perception Test (PPT) was also conducted to evaluate the divided attention using the Vienna test system software. Results: Introverted and stable individuals had better performance in perceptual capacity and speed of perception tasks after exposure to traffic noise. However, these effects were not observed in extrovert and unstable individuals. This study also showed no significant alterations in variables in extroverted (introverted/extroverted) subjects with neuroticism (unstable/stable) concerning divided attention tasks after traffic noise exposure. Conclusion: This study showed that divided attention in extrovert individuals with neuroticism was not influenced by traffic noise exposure. But perceptual capacity and perception speed was influenced by traffic noise in introverts and unstable subjects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reaction between 4-hydroxy-6-methyl-2H-pyran-2-one and aroyl chlorides with potassium selenocyanate in the presence of catalytic amounts of N-methylimidazole under solvent-free conditions provided a simple and efficient one-pot route for the synthesis of 2-aryl-7-methyl-4-selenoxo-4H-pyrano[3,4-e][1,3]oxazin-5-one. The reaction is characterized by mild conditions, short reaction time easy work-up, high yields of biological active products, and does not involve any hazardous solvent and tolerance to various functional groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background Assessment of Health Related Quality of Life (HRQL) has become increasingly important and various direct and indirect methods and instruments have been devised to measure it. In direct methods such as Visual Analog Scale (VAS) and Standard Gamble (SG), respondent both assesses and values health states therefore the final score reflects patient's preferences. In indirect methods such as multi-attribute health status classification systems, the patient provides the assessment of a health state and then a multi-attribute utility function is used for evaluation of the health state. Because these functions have been estimated using valuations of general population, the final score reflects community's preferences. The objective of this study is to assess the agreement between community preferences derived from the Health Utilities Index Mark 2 (HUI2) and Mark 3 (HUI3) systems, and patient preferences. Methods Visual analog scale (VAS) and HUI scores were obtained from a sample of 320 rheumatoid arthritis patients. VAS scores were adjusted for end-aversion bias and transformed to standard gamble (SG) utility scores using 8 different power conversion formulas reported in other studies. Individual level agreement between SG utilities and HUI2 and HUI3 utilities was assessed using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). Group level agreement was assessed by comparing group means using the paired t-test. Results After examining all 8 different SG estimates, the ICC (95% confidence interval) between SG and HUI2 utilities ranged from 0.45 (0.36 to 0.54) to 0.55 (0.47 to 0.62). The ICC between SG and HUI3 utilities ranged from 0.45 (0.35 to 0.53) to 0.57 (0.49 to 0.64). The mean differences between SG and HUI2 utilities ranged from 0.10 (0.08 to 0.12) to 0.22 (0.20 to 0.24). The mean differences between SG and HUI3 utilities ranged from 0.18 (0.16 to 0.2) to 0.28 (0.26 to 0.3). Conclusion At the individual level, patient and community preferences show moderate to strong agreement, but at the group level they have clinically important and statistically significant differences. Using different sources of preference might alter clinical and policy decisions that are based on methods that incorporate HRQL assessment. VAS-derived utility scores are not good substitutes for HUI scores.