Investigations on Possible Roles of C-Terminal Propeptide of a Ca-Independent a-Amylase from Bacillus

( Salimi,Ali ),( Fatemeh Yousefi ),( Marzieh Ghollasi ),( Sara Daneshjou ),( Hesam Tavoli ),( Sirous Ghobadi ),( Khosro Khajch ) 한국미생물 · 생명공학회 2012 Journal of microbiology and biotechnology Vol.22 No.8

Previously, an extracellular a-amylase (BKA) had been purified from the culture of Bacillus sp. KR8104. Subsequently, the crystal structure of the active enzyme revealed a 422 amino acids polypeptide. In this study, the bka was cloned into E. coli, which encoded a polypeptide of 659 amino acids including two additional fragments: one 44 residues N-terminal fragment and another 193 residues C-terminal fragment. In order to investigate the role of the C-terminal fragment, two constructs with and without this region [BKAΔ(N44) and BKAΔ(N44C193)] were designed and expressed in E. coli BL21. The optimum pH, thermal stability, and the end-products of starch hydrolysis were found to be similar in both constructs. The Km and Vmax values for BKAΔ (N44) were lower than BKAΔ (N44C193), using either starch or ethylidene-blocked 4-nitrophenylmaltoheptaoside as a substrate.

Reactive blending of polylactic acid/polyethylene glycol toward biodegradable film

Ali Salimi,Shervin Ahmadi,Mona Faramarzi,Jalal Faghihi 한국고분자학회 2023 Macromolecular Research Vol.31 No.9

Polyethylene glycol (PEG) was first modified with bis(trimethoxysilylpropyl) amine as an effective coupling agent. Different compositions of PEG and polylactic acid (PLA) were then prepared through melt blending. The silane modification of PEG was confirmed by infrared spectroscopy. The SEM micrographs of different PEG/PLA compositions showed rather homogenous single phase morphology in the compositions with silane-modified PEG. The efficacy of silane-modified PEG maybe due to interfacial compatibilization of PLA and the silane-modified PEG. According to TGA and DSC thermograms, the PEG loading into PLA resulted in somewhat higher thermal stability and increase in the degree of crystallinity of up to 52%. The dynamic mechanical thermal analysis showed lower glass transition temperatures and higher toughness for all the silane-modified PEG/PLA compositions than that of the neat PLA. The biodegradation behavior of silane-modified PEG/PLA compositions increased linearly as evidenced by material weight loss either in water absorption or fungi associated destruction tests.

Sequence-based 5-mers highly correlated to epigenetic modifications in genes interactions

Dariush Salimi,Ali Moeini,Ali Masoudi‑Nejad 한국유전학회 2018 Genes & Genomics Vol.40 No.12

One of the main concerns in biology is extracting sophisticated features from DNA sequence for gene interaction determination, receiving a great deal of researchers’ attention. The epigenetic modifications along with their patterns have been intensely recognized as dominant features affecting on gene expression. However, studying sequenced-based features highly correlated to this key element has remained limited. The main objective in this research was to propose a new feature highly correlated to epigenetic modifications capable of classification of genes. In this paper, classification of 34 genes in PPAR signaling pathway associated with muscle fat tissue in human was performed. Using different statistical outlier detection methods, we proposed that 5-mers highly correlated to epigenetic modifications can correctly categorize the genes involved in the same biological pathway or process. Thirty-four genes in PPAR signaling pathway were classified via applying a proposed feature, 5-mers strongly associated to 17 different epigenetic modifications. For this, diverse statistical outlier detection methods were applied to specify the group of thoroughly correlated genes. The results indicated that these 5-mers can appropriately identify correlated genes. In addition, our results corresponded to GeneMania interaction information, leading to support the suggested method. The appealing findings imply that not only epigenetic modifications but also their highly correlated 5-mers can be applied for reconstructing gene regulatory networks as supplementary data as well as other applications like physical interaction, genes prioritization, indicating some sort of data fusion in this analysis.

A Product-oriented Approach to Units of Translation in Iranian English-Persian Literary Translations

Esmaeel Ali Salimi,Zohreh Shahrestani 세종대학교 언어연구소 2009 Journal of Universal Language Vol.10 No.2

The notion of ‘unit of translation’ as a challenging issue in Descriptive Translation Studies (DTS) is addressed. Considering this notion from a product-oriented point of view as “the TT unit that can be mapped onto a ST unit” (Baker 2001: 286), the main concern here is to investigate a hierarchy of units of translation (UTs) proposed by Newmark (1991: 66-68) including word, phrase, clause, sentence, and paragraph in the literary translations. At the preliminary stage, two questions were raised to detect the most frequent UT adopted by the professional literary translators, and to explore the relationship between the UTs and the free-literal dichotomy in terms of the occurrence of unit/rank shifts. To this end, a corpus of three famous English novels (originally written in English by the renowned authors) and two best-selling translations of each (done by professional translators) were chosen to be analyzed. Through a contrastive analysis, two hundred and ten coupled pairs of ST-TT segments were extracted from the first ten pages of each novel and its two translations based on establishing relations of equivalence between the ST-TT segments and adopting sentence as the major unit of analysis. The UTs adopted in the STTT segments were then identified. The obtained results of the UT categories demonstrated that the most frequent UT adopted by the professional literary translators was sentence. The unit-shifts applied in the UTs were also signified. The statistical calculation of frequency of unit-shifts in each translator's UTs proved that the more frequent is the occurrence of unit-shifts in the UTs of the translator, the more deviated is his translation from the formal correspondence, the more different the size of his UTs is, and finally the freer his translation will be.

Social determinants of adherence to COVID-19 preventive guidelines: a comprehensive review

Zahra Jorjoran Shushtari,Yahya Salimi,Sina Ahmadi,Nader Rajabi-Gilan,Marzieh Shirazikhah,Akbar Biglarian,Ali Almasi,Mohammad Ali Mohammadi Gharehghani 질병관리본부 2021 Osong Public Health and Research Persptectives Vol.12 No.6

Adherence to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) preventive guidelines (ACPG) is an important strategy to control the COVID-19 pandemic effectively. The present study aimed to identify and summarize the social determinants of ACPG among the general population. A comprehensive review was performed from December 2019 to February 2021 through searching electronic databases. Two independent reviewers assessed and selected relevant studies. Next, the characteristics and main findings of the included studies were summarized. Finally, the World Health Organization’s conceptual framework of social determinants of health was used to synthesize the identified social determinants of ACPG. Forty-one of 453 retrieved articles met the inclusion criteria. The study results showed different patterns of ACPG among various communities. Furthermore, 84 social determinants were identified and categorized into structural and intermediary determinants. ACPG is a set of complex behaviors associated with different individual sociodemographic and behavioral characteristics; living and working conditions; COVID-19 knowledge, attitudes, and risk perceptions; exposure to sources and information level; leisure activities; social support; trust; social norms; psychosocial well-being; socio-economic position; and the socio-economic and political context. Interventions to promote ACPG among the general population should consider the identified social determinants of ACPG.

CO2/N2 Separation Using Polyvinyl Chloride Iso-Phthalic Acid/ Aluminium Nitrate Nanocomposite Membrane

Ehsan Kianfar,Mahmoud Salimi,Farshid Kianfar,Mehran Kianfar,Seyyed Ali Hasan Razavikia 한국고분자학회 2019 Macromolecular Research Vol.27 No.1

In this paper, composite membranes based on polyvinyl chloride (PVC) has been prepared and then filled with 0.125-0.250 wt% of iso-phthalic acid/aluminium nitrate nanoparticles. All of the polymeric and nanocomposite membranes were fabricated by solution casting using tetrahydrofuran (THF) solvent. The performance of the prepared membranes was studied for CO2/N2 at the feed pressure of 2.5, 3, and 3.5 bar at 35 °C. Results showed that in most cases, increasing the percentage of PVC increased the permeability of CO2/N2. Also, with the addition of iso-phthalic acid/aluminium nitrate nanoparticles in the membrane, gas permeability in all cases increased. The highest gas pair selectivity for CO2/N2 could be obtained from PVC (30wt%) loaded with 0.250wt% of iso-phthalic acid/aluminium nitrate nanoparticles. For characterization of samples, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and atomic force microscopy (AFM) were used. These results also suggest that PVC membranes with the higher loading percentage of nanoparticles are good candidates for the CO2/N2 separation, offering better selectivity for CO2/ N2 in the range of 63.78 to 230.42, depending on the loading percentage.

EFL Teachers’ Organizational Identity in Online Communities: The Case of Iran

Zahra Banitalebi,Esmaeel Ali Salimi 아시아테플 2023 The Journal of Asia TEFL Vol.20 No.1

Participation in different communities of practice forms and changes individuals’ identities. Teachers’ membership in language organizations is an example of such communities. Organizational identity (OI) affects how teachers act and position themselves in particular contexts. In the wake of emergency remote teaching, virtual environments have redefined the relationship between teachers and organizations. Although teacher identity construction has recently attracted a growing interest, studying teachers’ OI has remained underexplored. In response to this paucity of research, the present study investigated how online teaching affects teachers’ OI and what antecedents and consequences can explain their OI. This study adopted a qualitative design in which 14 teachers with high and low OIs were selected based on their answers to an OI questionnaire. Then, interviews were used and further analyzed qualitatively to examine the teachers’ OI. The findings revealed that while OI appeared to have a paramount role in teachers’ performances and emotions, transition to online environments negatively affected the teachers’ OI. Several factors, instructional, institutional, and personal, served as the antecedents and barriers of OI. We offer several implications for teacher educators, administrators, and policymakers to cope with the challenges of virtual environments and facilitate the speed of transition to online teaching.

The role of risk perception, risk communication, and demographic factors in COVID-19 preventive behaviors: an online survey in Iran

Mansour Rezaei,Nader Rajabi Gilan,Ali Almasi,Mehdi Khezeli,Fatemeh Jamshidi Nazar,Zahra Jorjoran Shushtari,Yahya Salimi,Farid Najafi,Neda Sarabi,Shahram Saeidi,Saeid Saeidi 질병관리본부 2022 Osong Public Health and Research Persptectives Vol.13 No.4

Objectives: This study investigated preventive behaviors toward coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and related factors in a Kurdish Iranian sample.Methods: This online survey was conducted among the population aged 18 and above in Kermanshah Province, in western Iran, in April 2020. Samples were invited and recruited through social media. Data were collected using a questionnaire consisting of 4 sections (questions on demographic variables, risk perception, risk communication, and COVID-19 preventive behaviors) and analyzed using Stata ver. 8.Results: The Pearson correlation test showed that risk communication was significantly correlated with COVID-19 preventive behaviors (r=0.320, p<0.01). In the final model, where the explanatory power increased with the entry of the risk communication variable, the variables explained a total of 14% of variance in COVID-19 preventive behaviors. Sex (β=−0.482), risk perception (β=0.047), and risk communication (β=0.662) were significant determinants.Conclusion: Risk communication and risk perception related to COVID-19, as well as being a woman, were determinants of COVID-19 preventive behaviors.

Adjusting for reverse causation to estimate the effect of obesity on mortality after incident heart failure in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study

Maryam Shakiba,Hamid Soori,Mohammad Ali Mansournia,Seyed Saeed Hashemi Nazari,Yahya Salimi 한국역학회 2016 Epidemiology and Health Vol.38 No.-

OBJECTIVES: The lower mortality rate of obese patients with heart failure (HF) has been partly attributed to reverse causation bias due to weight loss caused by disease. Using data about weight both before and after HF, this study aimed to adjust for reverse causation and examine the association of obesity both before and after HF with mortality. METHODS: Using the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study, 308 patients with data available from before and after the incidence of HF were included. Pre-morbid and post-morbid obesity were defined based on body mass index measurements at least three months before and after incident HF. The associations of pre-morbid and post-morbid obesity and weight change with survival after HF were evaluated using a Cox proportional hazard model. RESULTS: Pre-morbid obesity was associated with higher mortality (hazard ratio [HR], 1.61; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.04 to 2.49) but post-morbid obesity was associated with increased survival (HR, 0.57; 95% CI, 0.37 to 0.88). Adjusting for weight change due to disease as a confounder of the obesity-mortality relationship resulted in the absence of any significant associations between post-morbid obesity and mortality. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrated that controlling for reverse causality by adjusting for the confounder of weight change may remove or reverse the protective effect of obesity on mortality among patients with incident HF.