Antileishmanial Activity of Niosomal Combination Forms of Tioxolone along with Benzoxonium Chloride against Leishmania tropica

Maryam Hakimi Parizi,Saeedeh Farajzadeh,Iraj Sharifi,Abbas Pardakhty,Mohammad Hossein Daie Parizi,Hamid Sharifi,Ehsan Salarkia,Saeid Hassanzadeh 대한기생충학ㆍ열대의학회 2019 The Korean Journal of Parasitology Vol.57 No.4

In this study, we carried out extensive in vitro studies on various concentrations of tioxolone along with ben- zoxonium chloride and their niosomal forms against Leishmania tropica. Niosomes were prepared by the hydration meth- od and were evaluated for morphology, size, release study, and encapsulation efficiency. This study measured leishmani- cidal activity against promastigote and amastigote, apoptosis and gene expression levels of free solution and niosomal- encapsulated tioxolone along with benzoxonium chloride. Span/Tween 60 niosome had good physical stability and high encapsulation efficiency (more than 97%). The release profile of the entrapped compound showed that a gradual release rate. The combination of niosomal forms on promastigote and amastigote were more effective than glucantime. Also, the niosomal form of this compound was significantly less toxic than glucantime (P ≤ 0.05). The flowcytometric analysis on niosomal form of drugs showed that higher number of early apoptotic event as the principal mode of action (89.13% in 200 μg/mL). Also, the niosomal compound increased the expression level of IL-12 and metacaspase genes and de- creased the expression level of the IL-10 gene, which further confirming the immunomodulatory role as the mechanism of action. We observed the synergistic effects of these 2 drugs that induced the apoptotic pathways and also up regulation of an immunomodulatory role against as the main mode of action. Also, niosomal form of this combination was safe and demonstrated strong anti-leishmaniasis effects highlights further therapeutic approaches against anthroponotic cutane- ous leishmaniasis in future planning.

On the Applicability of Random Testing for Aspect-Oriented Programs

Reza Meimandi Parizi,Abdul Azim Abdul Ghani,Rusli Abdullah,Rodziah Atan 보안공학연구지원센터 2009 International Journal of Software Engineering and Vol.3 No.4

Random Testing(RT) and its derivatives such as Adaptive Random Testing (ART ) are active and important research topics in software testing, which have also a niche in practical settings due to the merits they offers, e.g. fault-detection capacities at low cost, ease of implementation, reliability estimation, facility for automation and so forth. Inspired by these advantages, we elieve the idea behind random testing can be worthwhile and attractive for testing aspectoriented programs since current research on testing of AOP, especially automated has not been adequately performed and is still in infancy. In this paper, we propose a preliminary approach to automated random testing of aspect-oriented programs, which are becoming an important part of software engineering theory and practice. This paper also includes a survey of applicable testing techniques and discussion of established testing methods in both area of Aspect-Oriented Programming (AOP) and Random Testing (RT).

Evaluation of tomato cultivars to Helicoverpa armigera using two-sex life table parameters in laboratory

Sedighe Safuraie-Parizi,Yaghoub Fathipour,Ali Asghar Talebi 한국응용곤충학회 2014 Journal of Asia-Pacific Entomology Vol.17 No.4

Helicoverpa armigera (Hübner) is one of the most important pests of a wide range of agricultural crops worldwide. Resistance of 10 tomato cultivars (‘Primoearly,’ ‘Riogrand,’ ‘CaljN3,’ ‘Kingstone,’ ‘Earlyurbana,’ ‘Petomech,’‘EarlyurbanaY,’ ‘Mobil,’ ‘Imprial’ and ‘Petoearly’) to H. armigera was evaluated under laboratory conditions at25 ± 1 °C, 60 ± 5% RH and a photoperiod of 16:8 (L:D) hours using age-stage, two-sex life table parameters. The larval period ranged from 19.96 on ‘Riogrand’ to 24.58 days on ‘Imprial.’ The insects reared on ‘Imprial’had the longest total preoviposition period (44.80 days) and those reared on ‘Riogrand’ had the shortest one(35.44 days). The longest adult longevity for female and male was observed on ‘EarlyurbanaY’ (14.40 days)and ‘Kingstone’ (15.00 days), respectively. Using age-stage, two-sex life table, the value of the net reproductiverate (R0) varied from7.8 on ‘Imprial’ to 186.9 offspring per individual on ‘Petomech.’ The lowest value of the intrinsicrate of increase (r) and finite rate of increase (λ)was on ‘Imprial’ (0.0410 and 1.0423 day−1, respectively)and the highest was on ‘Petomech’ (0.1274 and 1.1359 day−1, respectively). The mean generation time (T) ondifferent cultivars varied from 39.9 to 48.2 days. The results revealed that ‘Petomech’ was the most susceptible(suitable) and ‘Imprial’ was the most resistant (unsuitable) cultivar to this pest among the tomato cultivarstested.

Semi-analytical solution for buckling of SMA thin plates with linearly distributed loads

Fatemeh Salemizadeh Parizi,Meisam Mohammadi 국제구조공학회 2019 Structural Engineering and Mechanics, An Int'l Jou Vol.70 No.6

Buckling analysis of shape memory alloy (SMA) rectangular plates subjected to uniform and linearly distributed inplane loads is the main objective in the present paper. Brinson's model is developed to express the constitutive characteristics of SMA plate. Using the classical plate theory and variational approach, stability equations are derived. In addition to external inplane mechanical loads, the plate is subjected to the pre-stresses caused by the recovery stresses that are generated during martensitic phase transformation. Ritz method is used for solving the governing stability equations. Finally, the effects of conditions on the edges, thickness, aspect ratio, temperature and pre-strains on the critical buckling loads of SMA plate are investigated in details.

Dietary Patterns in Relation to Prostate Cancer in Iranian Men: A Case-Control Study

Askari, Faezeh,Parizi, Mehdi Kardoust,Jessri, Mahsa,Rashidkhani, Bahram Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2014 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.15 No.5

Background: Prostate cancer is the most frequently occurring cancer among males in economically developed countries. Among the several risk factors that have been suggested, only age, ethnicity, diabetes, and family history of prostate cancer are well-established and primary prevention of this disease is limited. Prior studies had shown that dietary intake could be modified to reduce cancer risk. We conducted a hospital-based, casecontrol study to examine the association between dietary patterns and prostate cancer risk in Iran. Materials and Methods: A total of fifty patients with prostate cancer and a hundred controls underwent face-to-face interviews. Factor analysis was used to determine the dietary patterns. Multivariate logistic regression was used to estimate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Results: We defined two major dietary patterns in this population: 'western diet'(high in sweets and desserts, organ meat, snacks, tea and coffee, French fries, salt, carbonated drinks, red or processed meat) and 'healthy diet' (high in legumes, fish, dairy products, fruits and fruit juice, vegetables, boiled potatoes, whole cereal and egg). Both Healthy and western pattern scores were divided into two categories (based on medians). Higher scores on Healthy pattern was marginally significantly related to decreased risk of prostate cancer (above median vs below median, OR =0.4, 95%CI=0.2-1.0). An increased risk of prostate cancer was observed with the higher scores on the Western pattern (above median vs below median, OR=4.0, 95%CI=1.5-11.0). Conclusions: The results of this study suggested that diet might be associated with prostate cancer among Iranian males.

Fruit and Vegetable Intake in Relation to Prostate Cancer in Iranian Men: A Case-Control Study

Askari, Faezeh,Parizi, Mehdi Kardoust,Jessri, Mahsa,Rashidkhani, Bahram Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2014 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.15 No.13

Background: Findings of epidemiologic studies on the relationship between fruit and vegetable consumption and prostate cancer (PCa) risk have been inconclusive. We therefore examined the association between intake of fruits and vegetables and PCa risk in Iran. Materials and Methods: In this hospital based, case-control study, a total of 50 patients with PCa and 100 controls underwent face-to-face interviews. Regression analysis was used to examine the relation between fruit and vegetable intake and PCa risk. Results: A protective independent effect was observed for the highest tertile of total fruit and vegetable (OR: 0.33, CI: 0.04-0.30, p value<0.001), total fruit (OR: 0.30, CI: 0.06-0.4, p value=0.03) and total vegetable (OR: 0.31, CI: 0.02-0.21, p value<0.001) consumption. Within the group of fruits, a significant inverse association was observed for apple and pomegranate (p trends were 0.01 and 0.016, respectively). In the vegetable group, a significant inverse association was observed for tomatoes (p trend<0.001) and cabbage (p trend=0.021). Conclusions: The results of the present study suggested that fruits and vegetable intake might be negatively associated with PCa risk.

In Search of Engineered Prokaryotic Chlorophyllases: A Bioinformatics Approach

Ebrahim Sharafi,Jamshid Farmani,Ali Pakdin Parizi,Ali Dehestani 한국생물공학회 2018 Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering Vol.23 No.5

Chlorophyllase (Chlase) is considered as the first and most important enzyme in chlorophyll degradation pathway. Although there is abundant information regarding plant Chlases and their biological functions, comparatively little is known about their prokaryotic counterparts. In the present study, we employed several bioinformatics tools to assess the phylogenetic relationships in bacterial and cyanobacterial Chlases as well as predicting their molecular and physicochemical properties. The phylogenetic tree analysis classified the bacterial and cyanobacterial chlorophyllases into three distinct clades. All bacterial and cyanobacterial chlorophyllases possessed at least one alpha/ beta hydrolase family domain (pfam12695). Cyanobacterial chlorophyllases pI analysis indicated that they generally have acidic pH, while the pI of bacterial chlorophyllases ranged from acidic (4.58) to highly basic (10.78). Cyanobacterial chlorophyllases generally contained 1 disulfide bond, while bacterial chlorophyllases averagely contained 3 disulfide bonds. Interestingly, while cyanobacterial chlorophyllases contained one or two N-glycosylation sites, bacterial chlorophyllases contained higher numbers of N-glycosylation sites (6 and 7). The findings of the present study would be useful in paving the road for sophisticated engineering of prokaryotic chlorophyllases for biotechnological applications. It was also exhibited that catalytic triad (serine, glutamate or aspartate and histidine) is a critical factor for chlorophyllase activity.

Cyber Kill Chain-Based Taxonomy of Advanced Persistent Threat Actors: Analogy of Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures

Bahrami, Pooneh Nikkhah,Dehghantanha, Ali,Dargahi, Tooska,Parizi, Reza M.,Choo, Kim-Kwang Raymond,Javadi, Hamid H.S. Korea Information Processing Society 2019 Journal of information processing systems Vol.15 No.4

The need for cyber resilience is increasingly important in our technology-dependent society where computing devices and data have been, and will continue to be, the target of cyber-attackers, particularly advanced persistent threat (APT) and nation-state/sponsored actors. APT and nation-state/sponsored actors tend to be more sophisticated, having access to significantly more resources and time to facilitate their attacks, which in most cases are not financially driven (unlike typical cyber-criminals). For example, such threat actors often utilize a broad range of attack vectors, cyber and/or physical, and constantly evolve their attack tactics. Thus, having up-to-date and detailed information of APT's tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) facilitates the design of effective defense strategies as the focus of this paper. Specifically, we posit the importance of taxonomies in categorizing cyber-attacks. Note, however, that existing information about APT attack campaigns is fragmented across practitioner, government (including intelligence/classified), and academic publications, and existing taxonomies generally have a narrow scope (e.g., to a limited number of APT campaigns). Therefore, in this paper, we leverage the Cyber Kill Chain (CKC) model to "decompose" any complex attack and identify the relevant characteristics of such attacks. We then comprehensively analyze more than 40 APT campaigns disclosed before 2018 to build our taxonomy. Such taxonomy can facilitate incident response and cyber threat hunting by aiding in understanding of the potential attacks to organizations as well as which attacks may surface. In addition, the taxonomy can allow national security and intelligence agencies and businesses to share their analysis of ongoing, sensitive APT campaigns without the need to disclose detailed information about the campaigns. It can also notify future security policies and mitigation strategy formulation.

Convective heat transfer of nanofluid flow through conduits with different cross-sectional shapes

Mohammad Reza Salimpour,Amir Dehshiri-Parizi 대한기계학회 2015 JOURNAL OF MECHANICAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY Vol.29 No.2

This study investigates the laminar forced convective heat transfer of TiO2/water nanofluids through conduits with different cross sections,experimentally. The effects of different parameters, such as cross-sectional shape, Reynolds number, and concentration of nanoparticles,on the enhanced heat transfer are examined by designing and assembling an experimental apparatus. Results show that adding asmall amount of nanoparticles to the base fluid improves heat transfer behavior in conduits. A conduit with a circular cross section performsbetter than conduits with square and triangular cross sections. However, conduits with square and triangular cross sections exhibitmore relative enhancements than a conduit with a circular cross section.

Cyber Kill Chain-Based Taxonomy of Advanced Persistent Threat Actors: Analogy of Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures

Pooneh Nikkhah Bahrami,Ali Dehghantanha,Tooska Dargahi,Reza M. Parizi,Kim-Kwang Raymond Choo,Hamid H. S. Javadi 한국정보처리학회 2019 Journal of information processing systems Vol.15 No.4

The need for cyber resilience is increasingly important in our technology-dependent society where computingdevices and data have been, and will continue to be, the target of cyber-attackers, particularly advancedpersistent threat (APT) and nation-state/sponsored actors. APT and nation-state/sponsored actors tend to bemore sophisticated, having access to significantly more resources and time to facilitate their attacks, which inmost cases are not financially driven (unlike typical cyber-criminals). For example, such threat actors oftenutilize a broad range of attack vectors, cyber and/or physical, and constantly evolve their attack tactics. Thus,having up-to-date and detailed information of APT’s tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) facilitates thedesign of effective defense strategies as the focus of this paper. Specifically, we posit the importance oftaxonomies in categorizing cyber-attacks. Note, however, that existing information about APT attackcampaigns is fragmented across practitioner, government (including intelligence/classified), and academicpublications, and existing taxonomies generally have a narrow scope (e.g., to a limited number of APTcampaigns). Therefore, in this paper, we leverage the Cyber Kill Chain (CKC) model to “decompose” anycomplex attack and identify the relevant characteristics of such attacks. We then comprehensively analyze morethan 40 APT campaigns disclosed before 2018 to build our taxonomy. Such taxonomy can facilitate incidentresponse and cyber threat hunting by aiding in understanding of the potential attacks to organizations as wellas which attacks may surface. In addition, the taxonomy can allow national security and intelligence agenciesand businesses to share their analysis of ongoing, sensitive APT campaigns without the need to disclose detailedinformation about the campaigns. It can also notify future security policies and mitigation strategy formulation.