Journal of Sciences, Islamic Republic of Iran
Volume:34 Issue: 4, Autumn 2023

In the realm of cancer research, novel approaches complementing conventional treatments are gaining prominence to improve patient outcomes. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), and bacteria, as emerging strategies, hold promise for cancer therapy. Recent studies suggested that the administration of peptides and bacteria may eliminate colorectal cancer (CRC) cells by triggering apoptosis, and autophagy processes, underscoring the potential of these compounds in CRC treatment. Using the human CRC cell line HT-29, we evaluated the combined effects of D-peptide B and Bifidobacterium bifidum lysate on the expression of the microtubule associated protein 1 light chain 3 alpha (MAP1LC3A), referred to as LC3A hereafter, and caspase 3 (CASP3) genes. D-peptide B and B. bifidum lysate were applied to control human embryonic kidney epithelial cell line HEK293 and HT-29 at their respective half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) values. We performed total RNA extraction, complementary DNA (cDNA) synthesis, and reverse transcription quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) with gel electrophoresis to examine changes in the gene expression. Tukey's test and GraphPad Prism One-Way ANOVA were used for the statistical study. The combined treatment of D-peptide B and B. bifidum lysate with HT-29 cells resulted in a considerable decrease in the vitality of cancer cells. Furthermore, when HT-29 cells were compared to control cells, the expression of LC3A and CASP3 genes increased. The results point to the possibility of combining D-peptide B with B. bifidum lysate as a supplementary therapy for CRC. Furthermore, these findings may help improve our knowledge of the molecular processes driving apoptosis and autophagy, as well as their potential therapeutic implications in CRC.

The study area is near Goloumak village, 30 km south of Kerman. These rock units consist of acidic rhyolite and dacite, as well as intermediate andesite, basalt, and trachy-andesite. Mafic igneous rocks are alkaline, and intermediate rocks are calc-alkaline to transition range. Volcanic rocks exhibit depletion in Ba, Ti, Nb, and Ta, as well as enrichment in K, Rb, and Th. Basaltic rocks were formed by partial melting of the mantle, based on 87Sr/86Sr and 144Nd/143Nd isotopic ratios. Samples show relative enrichment of 87Sr/86Sr in the mantle array on the Sr-Nd isotope correlation diagram. Mafic rocks are affected by subduction of lithospheric slab or mantle crust metasomatism, as per the comparison of studied samples in the 143Nd/144Nd isotope correlation diagram versus 87Sr/86Sr. Based on Sr-Nd geochronological data, the rocks were formed at 12.5 ±2.0 Ma, corresponding to the Miocene for the basaltic rocks. All samples are in a continental arc margin and post-collision volcanic arc. The magma source is from low to intermediate partial melting of the mantle, as indicated by the LREE/HREE ratio of the mafic and intermediate rocks. LREE enrichment is due to low partial melting of mantle source and magma contamination by crust materials. Basalts show a low melting degree of the mantle for magma formation. Depletion of these rocks of HREE in the source shows garnet in genesis. La and Sm abundance in the studied composition is similar to magma derived from the enriched mantle, comprising about 1-5% of lherzolitic garnet.

Ignoring measurement errors in generalized linear mixed models (GLMMs) as well as other regression models will inevitably lead to significant biases, deviations, and incorrect inferences in the estimation of the parameters. In the presence of measurement error, numerous approaches have been proposed to rectify this issue. Furthermore, the application of the frequentist approach of GLMMs is intricate due to the emergence of an intractable numerical integration process. In this study, the complete likelihood inference of a multinomial logit random effects model with covariate measurement error in conjunction with replicate measures is suggested via the multivariate Gauss-Hermite quadrature approximation. To achieve this objective, the likelihood function will be evaluated and approximated for two distinct scenarios; the proposed method which incorporates the classical additive structural measurement error model for the error-prone covariate and the naive method. We will describe and compare different upshots of parameter estimation in these two different situations. The results of performing the proposed method, assessed through simulation, show that the proposed method performs well when correcting for measurement error in terms of bias, empirical standard error, root of mean squared error and coverage ratio. The application of the proposed method is further highlighted with real-world data based on a multilevel study concerning the prevalence of contraceptive methods used by women in Bangladesh.

Kernel estimation of the cumulative distribution function (CDF), when the support of the data is bounded, suffers from bias at the boundaries. To solve this problem, we introduce a new estimator for the CDF with support (0,1) based on the beta kernel function. By studying the asymptotic properties of the proposed estimator, we show that it is consistent and free from boundary bias. We conducted an extensive simulation to illustrate the performance of the proposed estimator. The results demonstrate the superiority of the proposed estimator over other commonly used estimators. As an application, we use the estimated CDF for nonparametric simulation. Using a numerical study, we show that the performance of the kernel probability density function (PDF) estimation in which a large sample simulated from the estimated CDF is employed can be noticeably improved. We also use the proposed estimator to estimate the CDF of the household health cost in Iran in 2019.

In this paper, a test particle model is developed to study the electron acceleration in a magnetized plasma-filled waveguide by a twisted electromagnetic wave with variable amplitude and phase along the longitudinal position. With appropriately assigned initial values, the electron total energy gain is obtained using numerical analysis without calculating the dispersion relation. Numerical results show that as long as the twisted electromagnetic waves significantly affect the electron acceleration, during the passage of an electron through the waveguide, one may employ an optimum value of the external magnetic field to obtain the maximum energy gain.

The quantum Hamitonian of a nonlinear mesoscopic LC-circuit include a nonlinear inductor and a linear capacitor with charge discreetness is introduced. An analytical function for quantum persistent current due to  the magnetic flux of such nonlinear electrical circuit is obtained by Adomian Decomposition Method (ADM). The nonlinear quantum ring is introduced and the quantum persistent current and the eigenvalues energy are found analytically. It is shown by numerical solution that the persistent current and eigenvalues energy are periodic functions of the magnetic flux with the fundamental parameter ( ),  which is a pure quantum characteristic.  In this paper, we proved for the first time that in a mesoscopic nonlinear quantum ring, similar a linear quantum ring, there is a quantized and periodic persistent current in terms of magnetic flux, which will attract attention in experience and technology.