ramin hosseinzadeh

The decline observed in Zagros forest is one of the main disturbances that may have caused changes in the structure and composition of forest ecosystems over recent years. This study aims to investigate the effects of the decline on structural characteristics of Amygdalus lycioides Spachs as one of the most important species of Zagros. For this purpose, Gaykan, Dadabad and Rimaleh in Lorestan province were selected. In each region, 5 one-hectare plots were set up and the coordinates of all trees were recorded, then structural characteristics such as diameter at breast height, tree height, canopy height, and canopy diameter were measured. The decline percent of trees was also estimated. To study stand structure some indexes including uniform angle index, Mean directional, differentiation index, Mingling index, were used. Based on the results the highest and lowest decline percentage of Amygdalus lycioides were observed in Gaykan and Dadabad regions respectively. The results showed a random positioning for the trees in the studied types before the decline, while after the decline spatial distribution of trees tends toward a cluster pattern, Rimaleh forest has relatively moderate mixing and Amygdalus lycioides being dominant than their neighbors before and after the decline. In general, decline negatively impacts the structural characteristics of Amygdalus lycioides stands, leading to reduced structural complexity. If escalating factors are managed; such findings can be used as a prerequisite for better ecosystem management and conservation activities.

Competition between trees is a key factor affecting the development, structure, and dynamics of forests. Therefore, many ecologists have sought to quantify competition and related factors in the forest. The forests of Lorestan province with area 1,112,475 ha are part of the important ecosystems of the Middle Zagros, the main type of which is the Iranian oak. One of the important wood species of these forests is Hawthorn, which is often present as an accompanying species and in some areas as a pure forest. This research was conducted with the aim of comparing the crown competition and the spatial distribution pattern of Hawthorn in two forest type formation and companion species.

In this study, two forest habitats Khoshkeroud (with a dominant type of hawthorn) and Perk (with a dominant type of oak) were studied in Khorramabad. After the Search in the forest and determining the areas where the density of Hawthorn species existed and the necessary conditions for calculating crown competition, areas with an area of about 45 ha were determined. In each of these forests with a relatively uniform distribution, the number of 45 Hawthorn stems that had crown overlap with at least one neighbor were identified as central trees. To identify competing trees, the crown overlap method was used, and to quantify the level of competition, the ratio of the crown size of the central tree to the neighbors was used, and to calculate the spatial patterns, the uniform angle index was used. Then information including the distance and azimuth of the neighbors, the height of the central trees, and the size of the diameters of the crowns of the reference trees and competitors were measured. Due to the non-normal distribution of the data based on the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, the non-parametric Mann-Whitney test was used to compare the means.

Due to the different conditions of the two habitats of Khoshkeroud and Perk, there is an obvious difference in the types and diversity of species in these habitats. In addition, the average distance to effective neighbors in the competition shows a big difference, if other characteristics do not have a big difference. The number of influential neighbors in the BDC index for the Khoshkeroud habitat reaches four neighbors, while in the Perk habitat; there are at most three neighbors with overlapping crowns for the central trees. Meanwhile, more than 80% of the neighbors in the Perk habitat are species other than Hawthorn, while in the Khoshkeroud habitat, other species have allocated a small percentage. In addition to the different admixture, the results of the uniform angle index also indicate the different spatial distribution pattern of Hawthorn species in the two investigated habitats. Despite the difference in admixture and spatial distribution, there is no significant difference between the results of the competition index on the reference trees.

Considering that the Hawthorn genus has been suggested for afforestation of degraded areas in Zagros due to its features such as edible fruit and its ability to be used as a precursor and nurse species, the results of this research can be useful in the field of afforestation and forest cultivation.

Sustainable management and fundamental planning of forest resources require efficient and high-quality information about the current and future states of forests. Investigating the current and future states of forest stands, describing the structure of the forest stand, and the response of the stand to tending operations are among the capabilities of statistical distributions in forest management. Frequency distribution modeling is the distribution of people in a population in different classes. Since natural phenomena include continuous and discrete types, their distribution will also be different and diverse. The use of statistical distributions in the forest has a long history, and some researchers have considered its history as long as two centuries. Zagros forests, as one of the most important vegetation areas of Iran, have a special importance from the socioeconomic and ecological points of view. The dominant species of these forests is the Iranian oak (Quercus brantii Lindl). According to geographical and environmental conditions, this species has various habitats in the vegetation zone of the middle Zagros. It is expected that this species has different probability distribution functions in different habitats. Therefore, the probability distribution functions of the characteristic height in habitats with different vegetative structures of Iranian oak in the forests of Khorramabad city were investigated in this research to select the best models in different habitats. This study also seeks to provide useful information on the authority of forest managers and planners to preserve and improve these valuable forests.

To carry out this research, two areas with different structures, including coppice with standard (Sefidkoh area) and standard with coppice (Qala-Gol area) were determined in the forests of Khorram Abad city through numerous excursions in the forest. A forest stand with an area of approximately 3 ha was selected in each of these areas. This forest stand was chosen in such a way to represent the forests of the region. The subsoil was semi-deep and north direction in the Qala-Gol forest stand at an altitude of 1850 m above sea level and with an average slope of 20%. In the SefidKoh forest stand, the subsoil was semi-deep and located in the north direction at an altitude of 1900 m from sea level with an average slope of 30%. In each of these two selected forest stands, the height of all Iranian oak trees, with a height of > 1.5 m, was counted 100%. In total, the heights of 458 and 348 Iranian oak trees were measured in the two SefidKoh and Qala-Gol regions, respectively. A TruPulse 360 laser device was used to measure the height of trees. To investigate the distribution of height classes, the most widely used continuous probability distribution models in biological research were used due to the continuousness of the height variable, including two-parameter Weibull, two-parameter gamma, normal, log-normal, beta, and Johnson. The goodness of fit of the data was also examined using the Anderson-Darling test, which has a higher power than other tests. Easy Fit 5.6 software was used to analyze all data and draw graphs.

The statistical errors were 4.45% and 2.82% in the Sefidkoh and Qala-Gol regions, respectively. The average height of trees was 6.76 m in the Sefidkoh region (between 1.8 and 18 m) compared to that of 7.54 m (between 1.53 and 14.04 m) measured in the Qala-Gol area. The values of skewness and Kurtosis were positive in the two forest areas, with higher values in the Sefidkouh region than in the Qala-Gol area, indicating the concentration of data in lower-height classes in the Sefidkouh region. The results of Anderson-Darling's goodness of fit test in the Sefidkoh area (coppice with standard) showed that the most suitable probability distribution functions (with a 5% error level) for modeling the distribution of trees in height classes were Johnson sb and beta, respectively. In the Qala-Gol region (standard with coppice), the most appropriate distribution functions were identified as beta and normal, respectively.

  The results of this research show that the forest has an uneven-aged structure in the areas where the oak forest has a coppice with standard form, according to the form of distribution (decreasing distribution). In contrast, the forest has moved toward a single-stemmed and even-aged forest in areas where the forest form is standard with coppice. This is mainly caused by the destruction through grazing, the cutting of branches for livestock and fuel consumption, and the indiscriminate use of byproducts that have occurred in this region. In the Sefidkoh region, the effects of destruction and less human intervention were observed at the regional level in field observations. According to the shape of the distributions obtained in the two sites, the vegetative forms of the trees affected the distribution functions of their heights, which can provide useful information for managers, planners, and researchers to maintain and control these valuable forests.

Interleukin-8 (IL-8) is a member of the pro-inflammatory chemokine family that has been reported to be overexpressed in various human tumors. This chemokine contributes to cancer cell survival, proliferation, metastasis, and angiogenesis. The purpose of this study was to examine the expression level and clinicopathological significance of IL-8 in colorectal cancer (CRC) tissues compared with adjacent normal colorectal tissues in the Iranian population.

The population of the study consisted of 45 pathologically confirmed patients with CRC, including CRC and adjacent control tissues. The expression levels of the IL-8 gene were evaluated by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR). The correlation between the expression levels and the clinicopathological features was determined.

IL-8 gene expression was overexpressed in CRC samples compared with controls (fold change=5.5; P= 0.02). The area under the ROC curve for IL-8 indicates the potential of IL-8 as the diagnostic marker in CRC (P=0.012).

IL-8, which is up-regulated in CRC tissues, can be used to distinguish inflammation-induced CRC from control samples. The significantly up-regulated level of IL-8 needs future investigation for consideration as a biomarker to evaluate the prognosis of CRC.

Psychological conditions aggravate during outbreaks. Here, we have discussed the existing COVID‑19 depression, anxiety, and stress and the resulting stigma and its different aspects in Iranian health care workers and their 1st‑degree relatives.

In this cross‑sectional study, information of our study groups (237 participants including health care workers and their nuclear family members) was collected via two online stigma and depression, anxiety, and stress scale (DASS) questionnaires.

The DASS questionnaire’s mean depression, anxiety, and stress scores were 13.59 ± 5.76, 11.07 ± 4.38, and 15.05 ± 5.86, respectively, in our study population. Marriage status was effective on depression and stress scores. Married participants were having less depression (P = 0.008) but more stressful (P = 0.029) than single ones. Education was found to be effective on anxiety and stress scores. Those with an associate, master, Ph.D., and higher college degrees were significantly less anxious and stressed than those with a diploma or bachelor’s degrees (P = 0.032 and 0.016, respectively, for anxiety and stress). Participants with a history of psychiatric conditions showed significantly higher depression, anxiety, and stress rates than those without a past psychiatric condition (P = 0.001). Healthcare workers and their nuclear family members suffer from severe stigma (mean stigma scores were 33.57 and 33.17, respectively).

Healthcare workers and their nuclear family members in Iran suffer from severe COVID‑19 related stigma. We also showed that depression, anxiety, and stress are common among Iranian Healthcare workers and their nuclear family members during this pandemic. This study showed that people with preexisting psychiatric conditions need extra mental care during the pandemic.

In order to investigate the structural characteristics (mingling, spatial distribution pattern and dominance) and competition (DBH and Height) of beech, hornbeam and Oak species in different stratums of forest, 10 plots with areas of 1 hectare were collected randomly, in the protected regions of Asalem forests. In each plot some information such as azimuth and distance of the trees relative to the source, diameter at breast height and maximum height of trees were measured. Then, the dominant heights of the stands were identified and classified into three stratums: upper, middle and lower. According to the results, beech showed little Mingling in all stands, while the results related to Oak revealed high Mingling and hornbeam had more Mingling than the average amount of Mingling, that the highest value was observed in the upper stratum. Regarding the spatial distribution pattern, the mean of all three species indicated a little clustered distribution patterns, but beech and hornbeam tend to showed a regular distribution pattern in the upper stratum. Also, from the lower stratum to the upper stratum, the dominance increased and the competition decreased. The results of Oak showed the highest dominance and the lowest competition compare to the other species. By describing the results in different stratums, more information about characteristics and structural changes of species were reached. Therefore, it is important to pay attention to these features in management planning and implementation activities such as forest utilization and silviculture so that the intervention is designed to minimize changes in forest structure

Corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an emerging outbreak which has involved almost all of the countries of the world now. While the main symptoms of the disease are known to be respiratory symptoms like coughing and shortness of breath, extrapulmonary symptoms have also been reported in many cases of COVID-19. Gastrointestinal (GI) manifestations including diarrhea, nausea and vomiting, abdominal pain and liver injury are amongst the most common extrapulmonary symptoms in COVID-19 patients.

We used Scopus, PubMed, and Google scholar databases for this review. The last search was run on November 21, 2020

Liver injury is mostly accompanied by an elevation in AST and ALT levels and a slight increase in serum billirubin levels that is observed in approximately 14.8-53.1% of COVID-19 patients.1-29% of COVID-19 patients present nausea and vomiting and 2 to 10% develop diarrhea. Abdominal pain is seen in about 2.2-6% of COVID-19 patients and most frequently seen in severely ill patients.

Diarrhea, nausea, and vomiting and liver injury are the most common GI symptoms in COVID-19 patients while abdominal pain is not pretty common. There are no medications of proven efficacy to treat COVID-19 or its GI manifestations so far.

Despite the high costs of infertility treatment and the lack of access to advanced treatment for many couples, the role of infertility in the occurrence of psychological and social problems can also be mentioned. Considering the possible effects of vitamin D on the characteristics of sperm, a purposeful relationship between these two categories can be of great help to the community health system. The aim of this study was to evaluate the level of vitamin D in patients with spermogram disorder and compare it with the control group.

This descriptive-analytical study was performed on 114 patients were divided into two groups of 57 controls and infertile in the age range of 20 to 59 years and the infertile group were men with fertility disorders.The control group included fertile men with at least one child under the age of 5. Spermograms and levels of vitamin-D and hormonal factors such as LH and FSH, testosterone in both control and infertile groups were evaluated and comparisons were made between the two groups.

Sperm count parameters and sperm motility and sperm shape Vitamin D were a significant difference between the two groups (P <0.001). It was also found that vitamin D had a significant and direct correlation with testosterone in the patient group (P = 0.001).

These results suggest the possible relationship between vitamin D and sperm quality in men. Therefore, treatment of vitamin D deficiency in men can be a solution to reduce infertility disorder in men.

Nowaday, forest structure issue is one of the main ecological debates in forest science. Determination of forest structure characteristics is essential for investigating stands changing process, silviculture interventions and revival operations planning. In order to investigate the structure of Ghale-Gol forests in Khorramabad, a set of indices such as Clark and Evans and uniform angle indices, mingling, domination and differentiation were used based on the nearest neighbors. In so doing, 80 circular sample sizes with 12 (acer) areas were collected in the field using a random sampling pattern and these plots were analyzed by Crancod (Ver.1.4) software. Based on the results, the average of Clark and Evans and uniform angle indices were calculated 0.936 and 0.449, respectively. These results showed that the samples have a random distribution with the tendency to be uniform. Also, the result obtained from the average of mingling index was 0.181 that indicated low species mixture. In an investigation on the diversity of tree dimensions, the average of domination and differentiation indices of the crown area were 0.449 and 0.519, respectively. This in turn shows that neighboring trees had a clear difference with each other in terms of the crown area. As the results showed, in the Zagros forests which often consist of wide and pure oak stands, using small sample size reduced time and cost of field survey, recordation of the sample size position, trees and shrubs accurately.  Surveying and monitoring different forest features are more probably suitable for quantification of forests structure.

Introdution: 

Some health instructions and proceedings were widely broadcasted and advised by scientific centers and social media concerning COVID-19 prevention, in the early days of the epidemic. Almost all of them had been sourced from narrative statements or non-evidence based sciences.  Herein, we intended to deeply investigate the usefulness and efficiency of such recommendation on COVID-19 prevention.

Ninety-seven RT-PCR confirmed positive COVID-19 as case, 103 suffering from other diseases as control group were enrolled. To collect the data, an expert validated questionnaire encompassed demographic information, past medical history and pre-infection preventive proceedings (consumption of vitamin  D3, C, and Zinc supplement, wearing face masks and gloves, hand washing, keeping at least 1.5 meters distance with other people, and staying at home) was used. The data between two groups were analyzed using SPSS software version 16.

No significant difference was obtained in Zinc consumption between case and control groups (14 (14.4%) vs 16 (15.5%), OR=0.88, CI= 0.66-1.31). Interestingly, D3 and C vitamins consumption were significantly higher in patients suffering from COVID-19 compared to non-COVID-19 patients, [(60 (61.9%) vs 47 (45.6%), OR=1.28, CI=1.12-1.48) for vitamin D3 and (54 (52.4%) vs 47 (48.4%), OR=1.15, CI=1.01=1.31)]. Hand and face hygiene was significantly more observed in non-COVID-19 patients group (77 (79.3%) vs 96 (93.2%), OR=0.82, CI=0.71-0.93). Home quarantine and keeping social distance were also significantly higher in non-COVID-19 patients group.

General protective proceedings have significant protective roles against COVID-19.