morteza barani

Individualism is considered as one of the main social and cultural issues in Iran which should be analyzed accurately. As Iranian university students are the main bulk of young highly educated people, they can be considered the best group to be analyzed on the consequences of modernism in Iran. Therefore, the present paper by applying a Quantitive research method, through standard questionnaire analyzed Individualism among university students in University of Kashan and Medical University of Kashan. Cultural and social capital, reference group, traditionalism, religious tendencies, social relations, egotism and media are the independent variables of the present paper which are discussed by Durkheim, Bourdieu, Lerner, Coleman and other social scientists. The questionnaire was given to 320 students of both universities, and the results were collected and analyzed by SPSS software. The findings show egotism, religious tendencies, social relations and social cooperation had direct influence while social trust, traditionalism had indirect influence on Individualism.

Pneumonia is one of the most common hospital-acquired infections, where 86% is associated with mechanical ventilation, known as ventilator- associated pneumonia (VAP). Oropharyngeal decontamination reduces the incidence of VAP by medicinal agents. The aim of the present study was to determine the effect of oropharyngeal decontamination using topical antibiotics on oropharyngeal and tracheal colonization of trauma patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU). The present double-blind clinical trial was performed on trauma patients, who underwent endotracheal intubation during the first 24 hours, at the ICU of Khatam-al-Anbia Hospital, Zahedan, during years 2017 to 2018. The sample size was 100 individuals, who were selected using the convenience sampling method and randomly assigned to intervention and control groups. The study began with the start of intubation and lasted for five days. When oral and tracheal culture samples were sent to the laboratory during the first 24 hours after endotracheal intubation, the pre-mixed solution of nystatin, polymyxin B, and neomycin was rubbed to the mouth, lips, gingiva, and cheeks of the intervention group, using syringes and gloves, four times a day. The tracheal and oral secretions were cultured in the intervention and control groups at the beginning and the end of the study. Data analysis was carried out using the SPSS version 21 software. Independent t test and paired t test were used to compare the quantitative variables, and qualitative variables were compared using the chi-square test and Fisher's exact test. The significance level was considered at 0.05. When the final drop-out occurred, out of 44 remaining patients in the intervention group, the number of negative oral cultures increased from 31 cases (70.5%) in the pretest to 39 (88.6%) in the posttest. A total of 25 negative oral cultures were recorded in the control group in both the pretest and posttest stages. Also, the number of negative tracheal cultures in the intervention group increased from 38 cases (86.4%), in the first turn, to 44 (100%) cases in the second turn; while in the control group, the number of negative tracheal cultures was recorded as 39 (88.6%) in the first turn and increased to 40 cases (100%) in the second turn. Clinically, reduced colonization rate of invasive bacteria, as the main result of the present study, indicates a decrease in the incidence of inappropriate alterations in oral microbial flora that can subsequently be effective in reducing the incidence of diseases, such as pneumonia.

Leachate, including various pollutants such as heavy metals, is generated during collection, trasportation and disposal of solid waste as well as composting process. Lack of control, disregarding the leachate treatment and heavy metals removal cause environmental pollution. This study was aimed to investigate the efficiency of heavy metals removal from Isfahan composting leachate, using the following coagulants ferric chloride, poly ferric sulfate and poly aluminium chloride. In this experimental study, leachate samples were collected from the Isfahan composting leachate´s collection ponds. At first, leachate characteristics including TSS, BOD, COD and pH as well as the following heavy metals: Cd, Cr, Zn, Cu and Ni were measured according to the standard methods. Jar-test experiments were carried out to examine the effects of changing coagulant's dosage (0.5, 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5 and 3 g/L) and pH values (4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11 and 12) on the removal of heavy metals. As a result, the effective dosage, optimum pH and the most convenient coagulant were identified. Investigating the average concentration of mentioned heavy metals, Zn had the highest concentration in leachate (6.2 mg/L) followed by Ni, Cu, Cr and Cd with the concentrations of 2.15, 0.62, 0.48 and 0.21 mg/L, respectively. The optimum pH for precipitation of the metals using poly aluminium chloride, Ferric chloride and poly ferric sulfate was 7, 10 and 11, respectively. Optimum concentration of the three mentioned coagulants was 1.5, 1.5 and 2 g/L, respectively. Poly ferric sulfate with 70% to 87% of heavy metals and 50% of COD removal has the highest efficiency, followed by poly aluminium chloride with 65% to 85% and Ferric chloride with 75% to 80% of heavy metals removal. Among the three mentioned coagulants, poly ferric sulfate is the most effective followed by poly aluminium chloride and ferric chloride, respectively. Since poly ferric sulfate and poly aluminium chloride are more expensive compared to other coagulants, economic estimations need to be done according to their efficiency to choose the best coagulant.

Biosurfactants have the ability to form heavy metal complexes and clean up heavy metal contaminated soils. In this work, a biosurfactant producing bacterium (Bacillus spp.) isolated from compost and Pseudomonas aeuroginosa ATCC3027 were cultured in whey in order to produce biosurfactant. Compost samples were leached by supernatant of mentioned strains. Total amount of Pb, Ni, Cr, Cd, Zn, Cu and Mn in samples were measured before and after treatment was measured. It was revealed that supernatant of P. aeuroginosa ATCC 3027 removed 52, 49, 60, 33, 25, 32 and 22% of Pb, Ni, Cr, Cd, Zn, Cu and Mn respectively. Heavy metal removal by supernatant of strain B was 45, 39, 42, 33, 40, 41 and 29% for above mentioned metals; respectively. These results indicate the potential of the biosurfactants as leaching agents for heavy metal removal from compost.

Untreated leachate is being discharged into the environment in many countries worldwide. Leachate treatment methods have not been unified so far due to the variable composition of leachate. Moreover، the lack of appropriate treatment and disposal of leachate causes environmental pollution. This study aimed to compare removal efficiency of chemical oxygen demand (COD) and total suspended solids (TSS) of leachate of the Isfahan compost plant using ferrous sulfate، ferric chloride and poly ferric sulfate، and identify the most convenient coagulant and co-coagulant.

This experimental study was conducted to investigate the COD and TSS removal from leachate of the Isfahan compost plant using different coagulants and co-coagulants. Different concentrations and pH levels for each of the coagulants were tested and the most convenient coagulant was identified. This experiment was conducted using the Jar test method. TSS and COD levels were measured by standard methods of B-5210 and D-2540 respectively.

According to the results، pH level of 10، ferrous sulfate with the dose of 2 g/L and 2. 5 g/L resulted in maximum removal efficiency of 43% for COD and 38% for TSS. In pH = 10، ferric chloride with dose of 1. 5 g/L and 2 g/L resulted in maximum removal efficiency of 31% for COD and 47% for TSS respectively. In pH = 11، poly ferric sulfate with the dose of 2 g/L and 2. 5 g/L resulted in maximum removal efficiency of 49% for COD and 51% for TSS respectively. The most convenient co-coagulant for ferric chloride and poly ferric sulfate was SNF-AN913 that resulted in 41% and 58% COD removal، respectively. Concerning ferrous sulfate، the preastol co-coagulant with 51% COD removal had the highest removal efficiency.

The best coagulant for COD and TSS removal was poly ferric sulfate which contributed to better results with an alkaline pH. According to obtained data flocculation and coagulation can be used as convenient، inexpensive pretreatment methods to treat leachate of the Isfahan compost plant، and process the leachate for a better and more convenient treatment using other methods.