Molecular characterization of the surface glycoprotein genes of highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza viruses detected in Iran in 2011     

Ebrahim Kord  Amir Kaffashi  Hadi Ghadakchi  Fatemeh Eshratabadi  Zakaria Bameri  Abdelhamed Shoushtari 《Tropical animal health and production》2014,46(3):549-554

Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 virus is causing the death of a large number of wild birds and poultry. HPAI H5N1 was reported in the north of Iran in 2011. In this study, two A/Chicken/Iran/271/2011 and A/Duck/Iran/178/2011 viruses were genetically characterized by sequence analysis of Hemagglutinin (HA) and Neuraminidase (NA) genes. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that these viruses were different from previous Iranian isolates (Clade 2.2) and belonged to the subclade 2.3.2.1. The results showed that the detected viruses are almost identical to each other and closely related to HPAI H5N1 strains isolated in Mongolia in 2010. Based on the amino acid sequence analysis, these viruses at their HA cleavage sites contained the multibasic amino acid motif PQRERRRK-R/GLF lacking a lysine residue compared with the previous reports of the same motif. There is also a 20-amino acid deletion (resides 49–69) in the NA stalk similar to other viruses isolated after 2000. It seems that introduction of HPAI H5N1 to Iran might have happened by wild birds from Mongolian origin virus.  相似文献   

Seroprevalence and Rate of Infection of Equine Influenza Virus (H3N8 and H7N7) and Equine Herpesvirus (1 and 4) in the Horse Population in Israel     

Karin Aharonson-Raz  Irit Davidson  Yael Porat  Amira Altory  Eyal Klement  Amir Steinman 《Journal of Equine Veterinary Science》2014

Equine influenza and equine rhinopneumonitis are among the Office International des Epizooties or the World Organisation for Animal Health notifiable, contagious respiratory diseases. Although vaccination of horses in Israel against equine influenza virus (EIV) and against equine herpesvirus (EHV) is routinely performed, information regarding the occurrence and the epidemiology of the diseases is lacking. We hereby attempt to determine seroprevalence and rate of infection for EHV-1 and 4 and for EIV in horses distributed throughout Israel and describe demographic and environmental risk factors associated with seroprevalence. Despite the fact that last reported isolation of EIV in Israel occurred in 2007, we found a 26.4% (29/110) (95% confidence interval [CI]: 18.18–34.62) seroprevalence for H3N8, a 16.4% (18/110) (95% CI: 9.49–23.31) for H7N7, and a 6.4% (7/110) (95% CI: 1.83–10.97) rate of seroconversion for H3N8, suggesting current and active circulation of EIV in horses in Israel. Age, housing management type, and type of farm activity were significantly associated with seroprevalence, with activities allowing exposure to new horses positively associated with seroprevalence to EIV and an only pasture housing management negatively associated with seroprevalence. No association was detected between other demographic variables (gender, breed, and color) and environmental factors (climatic regions). Seroprevalence to EHV-1 and 4 were very low (<1%) and very high (>99%), respectively, raising questions regarding the appropriate vaccination guidelines. Our findings of the occurrence of EIV in horses in Israel imply an underdiagnosis of this virus in this country and warrant further investigation as to the strains that circulate in this region and their accordance with the current vaccine strains.  相似文献   

Modeling of maximum dry density and optimum moisture content of stabilized soil using artificial neural networks     

Amir Hossein Alavi  Amir Hossein Gandomi  Ali Mollahassani  Ali Akbar Heshmati  Azadeh Rashed 《植物养料与土壤学杂志》2010,173(3):368-379

This study considers the use of artificial neural networks (ANNs) to predict the maximum dry density (MDD) and optimum moisture content (OMC) of soil‐stabilizer mix. Multilayer perceptron (MLP), one of the most widely used ANN architectures in the literature, is utilized to construct comprehensive and accurate models relating the MDD and OMC of stabilized soil to the properties of natural soil such as particle‐size distribution, plasticity, linear shrinkage, and the type and quantity of stabilizing additives. Five ANN models are constructed using different combinations of the input parameters. Two separate sets of ANN prediction models, one for MDD and the other for OMC, and also a combined ANN model for multiple outputs are developed using the potentially influential input parameters. Relative‐importance values of various inputs of the models are calculated to determine the significance of each of the predictor variables to MDD and OMC. Inferring the most relevant input parameters based on Garson's algorithm, modified ANN models are separately developed for MDD and OMC. The modified ANN models are utilized to introduce explicit formulations of MDD and OMC. A parametric study is also conducted to evaluate the sensitivity of MDD and OMC due to the variation of the most influencing input parameters. A comprehensive set of data including a wide range of soil types obtained from the previously published stabilization test results is used for training and testing the prediction models. The performance of ANN‐based models is subsequently analyzed and compared in detail. The results demonstrate that the accuracy of the proposed models is satisfactory as compared to the experimental results.  相似文献   

Onset of immunity with Mycoplasma synoviae: comparison of the live attenuated vaccine MS-H (Vaxsafe MS) with its wild-type parent strain (86079/7NS)     

Jones JF  Whithear KG  Scott PC  Noormohammadi AH 《Avian diseases》2006,50(1):82-87

The onset of protective immunity with MS-H was determined through experimental challenge and compared with the parent strain 86079/7NS. MS-H vaccinates and 86079/7NS inoculates were challenged at 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 wk after vaccination, then examined 2 wk after challenge for signs of respiratory disease. Serologic results indicated that 100% of MS-H vaccinates had antibodies to MS by 3 wk after vaccination and 100% of 86079/7NS inoculates were positive by 2 wk after inoculation. From 3 wk after vaccination, MS-H vaccinates had a significantly lower incidence of air sac lesions and, from 4 wk after vaccination, a significantly lower air sac lesion severity. In 86079/7NS-inoculated birds, a significantly lower incidence of air sac lesions was observed from 1 wk after inoculation, and air sac lesion severity was significantly lower than the unvaccinated controls at 3 wk after inoculation. It would appear that, under the conditions of this experiment, protective immunity elicited by MS-H appeared at 4 wk after vaccination, slightly later than the appearance of serum antibody. Although the MS-H vaccine was slower to establish protective immunity than 86079/7NS, there was no significant difference between the two strains by 4 wk after vaccination or inoculation.  相似文献   

Incidence of Fusarium verticillioides and levels of fumonisins in corn from main production areas in Iran     

Ghiasian SA  Maghsood AH  Yazdanpanah H  Shephard GS  Van Der Westhuizen L  Vismer HF  Rheeder JP  Marasas WF 《Journal of agricultural and food chemistry》2006,54(16):6118-6122

A total of 52 corn samples collected in 2000 from four main corn production provinces of Iran (Fars, Kermanshah, Khuzestan, and Mazandaran) were analyzed for contamination with Fusarium verticillioides and fumonisins (FB(1), FB(2), FB(3), and 3-epi-FB(3)). The mean incidence of F. verticillioides (percent of kernels infected) for these four areas was 26.7, 21.4, 24.9, and 59.0%, respectively. The incidence in Mazandaran was significantly (p < 0.05) above that of the other areas. All samples from Mazandaran were contaminated with fumonisins with a mean level of total fumonisins of 10674 microg/kg. In contrast, the incidence of fumonisin contamination above 10 microg/kg was 53 (8/15), 42 (5/12), and 57% (8/14) in the samples from Fars, Kermanshah, and Khuzestan, respectively, and the corresponding mean total fumonisin levels were 215, 71, and 174 microg/kg, respectively. No statistical differences (p > 0.05) were observed in the fumonisin levels of the corn samples from these three provinces, which were significantly (p < 0.05) lower than the fumonisin contamination in samples from Mazandaran.  相似文献   

Establishing an efficient in vitro propagation system for sweet cherry rootstocks Gisela 12 and Maxma 14 and assessment of genetic homogeneity by ISSR markers     

Jafarlou  Ali Mehrban  Pirivatlo  Saeed Piri  Salehi  Behrouz  Mogbli  Amir Hoshang Hoseynzadeh 《Journal of Crop Science and Biotechnology》2021,24(4):449-460

Journal of Crop Science and Biotechnology - This survey is aimed at the assessment of the possible effect of different plant growth regulators (PGRs) on the micropropagation of commercial sweet...  相似文献   

Baseline susceptibility of a wild strain of Phlebotomus papatasi (Diptera: Psychodidae) to DDT and pyrethroids in an endemic focus of zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis in Iran     

Saeidi Z  Vatandoost H  Akhavan AA  Yaghoobi-Ershadi MR  Rassi Y  Sheikh Z  Arandian MH  Jafari R  Sanei Dehkordi AR 《Pest management science》2012,68(5):669-675

BACKGROUND: Phelebotumus papatsi is considered to be the main vector of zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis as well as sand fly fever in Iran. There are several measures for vector control, with emphasis on insecticides. The objective of this study was to determine the baseline susceptibility of this vector to the commonly used insecticides in an endemic focus of the disease in central Iran. P. papatasi collected from the field were used for susceptibility status. Its baseline susceptibility to DDT and pyrethroids was assessed on about 6866 specimens collected from Badrood rural district, Esfahan Province, Iran, during the summer of 2010. The LT₅₀ and LT₉₀ values were measured according to the World Health Organisation (WHO) test using probit analysis and regression lines. RESULTS: Results of tests against female P. papatasi revealed LT₅₀ values to DDT 4%, permethrin 0.75%, deltamethrin 0.1%, cyfluthrin 0.15% and lambdacyhalothrin 0.05% of 1104.97, 182.35, 26.79, 15.42 and 1.48 s respectively. The figures for male P. papatasi were 973.51, 59.5, 4.4, 2.65 and 1.5. CONCLUSION: The results of this study provide a guideline for implementation of different vector control measures. Furthermore, guidelines are needed for monitoring and evaluation of insecticide susceptibility tests against sand flies. Copyright © 2012 Society of Chemical Industry  相似文献   

Unconventional sequence of fractional quantum Hall states in suspended graphene     

BE Feldman  B Krauss  JH Smet  A Yacoby 《Science (New York, N.Y.)》2012,337(6099):1196-1199

Graphene provides a rich platform to study many-body effects, owing to its massless chiral charge carriers and the fourfold degeneracy arising from their spin and valley degrees of freedom. We use a scanning single-electron transistor to measure the local electronic compressibility of suspended graphene, and we observed an unusual pattern of incompressible fractional quantum Hall states that follows the standard composite fermion sequence between filling factors ν = 0 and 1 but involves only even-numerator fractions between ν = 1 and 2. We further investigated this surprising hierarchy by extracting the corresponding energy gaps as a function of the magnetic field. The sequence and relative strengths of the fractional quantum Hall states provide insight into the interplay between electronic correlations and the inherent symmetries of graphene.  相似文献   

A universal method to produce low-work function electrodes for organic electronics     

Zhou Y  Fuentes-Hernandez C  Shim J  Meyer J  Giordano AJ  Li H  Winget P  Papadopoulos T  Cheun H  Kim J  Fenoll M  Dindar A  Haske W  Najafabadi E  Khan TM  Sojoudi H  Barlow S  Graham S  Brédas JL  Marder SR  Kahn A  Kippelen B 《Science (New York, N.Y.)》2012,336(6079):327-332

Organic and printed electronics technologies require conductors with a work function that is sufficiently low to facilitate the transport of electrons in and out of various optoelectronic devices. We show that surface modifiers based on polymers containing simple aliphatic amine groups substantially reduce the work function of conductors including metals, transparent conductive metal oxides, conducting polymers, and graphene. The reduction arises from physisorption of the neutral polymer, which turns the modified conductors into efficient electron-selective electrodes in organic optoelectronic devices. These polymer surface modifiers are processed in air from solution, providing an appealing alternative to chemically reactive low-work function metals. Their use can pave the way to simplified manufacturing of low-cost and large-area organic electronic technologies.  相似文献   

Generation means analysis of <Emphasis Type="Italic">wheat streak mosaic</Emphasis> virus resistance in winter wheat     

Frederick?Hakizimana  Amir M.H.?IbrahimEmail author  Marie A.C.?Langham  Jackie C.?Rudd  Scott D.?Haley 《Euphytica》2004,139(2):133-139

Wheat streak mosaic virus (WSMV; Family: potyviridae; Genus: Tritimovirus) is a major threat to winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L. em. Thell) production worldwide, yet little is known about the genetic control of resistance. Our objective was to determine the mode of inheritance and type of gene action of WSMV resistance in two winter wheat crosses involving a resistant line, OK65C93-8, and two susceptible cultivars, Tandem and Vista. For each cross, parents, F₁, F₂, and backcross plants were inoculated and evaluated for WSMV resistance in two replicated greenhouse experiments. Generation means analysis indicated that additive, dominance, and epistatic effects were all involved in the inheritance of WSMV resistance. Broad-sense heritability estimates for visual symptom rating and ELISA values were high for both crosses (0.84–0.91). Narrow-sense heritability estimates were low in the Tandem/OK65C93-8 cross (0.43–0.45) and moderate in the Vista/OK65C93-8 cross (0.71–0.74). Due to the presence of greater non-additive gene effects combined with low narrow-sense heritability in the Tandem/OK65C93-8 cross, selecting for WSMV resistance in this cross would be complex if using conventional methods. On the other hand, the significant contribution of additive gene effects combined with moderate narrow-sense heritability in the Vista/OK65C93-8 cross suggested that it could be exploited to select for WSMV resistance. Progress from selection for WSMV resistance in early generations of winter wheat may vary among populations as indicated in this study. Therefore, evaluating genetic control of parental combinations may be warranted prior to selecting for WSMV resistance from this source.  相似文献