Determination of Poultry Manure and Plant Residues Effects on Zn Bioavailable Fraction in Contaminated Soil via DGT Technique.

A greenhouse experiment aimed to assess the effects of poultry manure, sorghum, and clover residues (0 and 15 g kg-1) on the zinc (Zn) bioavailable fraction in contaminated calcareous soil using two chemical assays, including diffusion gradient in thin-films (DGT) and diethylene triamine pentaacetic acid-triethanolamine (DTPA-TEA), and a bioassay with corn (Zea mase L.). The results showed that poultry manure, clover, and sorghum residues application increased dissolved organic carbon (DOC) by 53.6 and 36.1, and 9.2%, respectively, and decreased soil pH by 0.42, 0.26, and 0.06 units, respectively compared to unamended soil. These changes resulted in increases of Zn effective concentration (CE) and DTPA-Zn, and plant Zn concentration as observed by the increase in exchangeable form of Zn. In the sorghum residues-amended soils, CE-Zn decreased by 29.5% compared to other treatments. The best correlations between corn metal concentrations and soil metal bioavailability were obtained for CE-Zn using the DGT technique, which also provided the best Zn bioavailability estimate. It is concluded that sorghum residues could be used to reduce the phytotoxicity risk of Zn in calcareous contaminated soil, and the DTPA method is the less robust indicator of Zn bioavailability than the DGT technique.

Epidemiological Profile of Meningitis following Pentavalent Vaccination in Iran: Impact of Vaccine Introduction.

Ensuring the effectiveness of the Haemophilus influenza type b (DTwP-Hib-HepB) vaccine in reducing meningitis is an essential approach in evaluating the effectiveness of the vaccine. The study aimed to address the epidemiology of meningitis following pentavalent vaccination in Iran. Data on meningitis patients from 21st March 2011 to 21st July 2018 were extracted from the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System. This information was divided into two equal periods before the pentavalent vaccine introduction (21st March 2011 to 17th November 2014) and after the introduction (18th November 2014 to 21st July 2018). The number of patients in the study period was 53,174 cases. More than 55% of patients were under 5 years old. Males (63.34%) were more than females (36.06%). The death rate was reduced to 2.1%; also, the proportion of confirmed cases caused by H. influenzae type b was 6.7% before the pentavalent vaccine introduction. The corresponding value following vaccine introduction equals to 3.6%. The proportion of children under five has decreased from 4.4% to 1.9%. This value indicates a 46.2% decrease in the meningitis of all ages and a 57% decrease in children under five dues to H. influenzae vaccination. The results of the study indicate the effectiveness of the vaccine due to changes in meningitis caused by H. influenzae type b after vaccination compared with no vaccination. Therefore, it is advisable to continue the full immunization coverage with the pentavalent vaccine.

The Epidemiology of Aggression and Associated Factors among Iranian Adult Population: A National Survey.

BACKGROUND: This survey was conducted to determine the level of aggression among the Iranian adult population and underlying predisposing factors. STUDY DESIGN: A cross-sectional study. METHODS: This cross-sectional study included 10,957 participants, involving 23 out of the 31 provinces of Iran in 2019. The outcome of interest was aggression, evaluated by the Buss & Perry aggression questionnaire. The association between aggression and 34 demographic, behavioral, social, and cultural characteristics was assessed using simple and multiple linear regression. RESULTS: The overall mean (SD) score of aggression was 77.10 (22.53). Based on the severity of aggression, the participants were categorized into four groups as follows: 2,464 (23.1%) nonaggressive, 4,692 (43.9%) mild, 3,071 (28.8%) moderate, and 454 (4.2%) severe aggressive. Aggression was more likely to occur in people with the following characteristics: younger ages, having several siblings, lower ranks of birth, having an intimate friend of the opposite sex, having an aggressive father/mother, history of parental divorce, interest in watching action/porn movies, listening to music, history of escape from home/school, using neuropsychiatric drugs, using illicit drugs, history of suicidal thoughts/attempt, and family conflict and hostility. Aggression was less likely to occur with the following characteristics: reading, regular physical exercise, the ability to control anger, regular prayer, adherence to avoid lying, respect to other people's rights, sexual satisfaction, and attachment to parents. CONCLUSION: A majority of the population has some degree of aggression. Aggression is a multifactorial behavior corresponding with several demographical, social, cultural, and religious factors, some of which back to early childhood events.

Epidemiological profile of meningitis in Iran before pentavalent vaccine introduction.

BACKGROUND: No reliable and comprehensive study has been published on the incidence and epidemiological profile of meningitis in Iran from 2008 to 2014, before pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) and pentavalent vaccine (DTPw-Hep B-Hib (PRP-T) vaccine (pentavac) (adsorbed)) introduction. The present study aimed to portray the epidemiological profile of meningitis in Iran from 2008 to 2014. METHODS: Data on meningitis cases aged from 1 day to 110 years were extracted from national notifiable diseases surveillance system from March 2008 to December 2014 in Iran. A total number of 48,006 cases of suspected meningitis were identified and 1468 cases of which met the criteria for diagnosis-confirmed meningitis. Of 1468 cases, 1352 patients were included in the study. RESULTS: The great number of cases reported from urban areas. Moreover, males were more predominant than females (58.51% vs. 33.81%) in total. The estimated annual incidence rate of meningitis varied from 0.28/100000 in 2008 to 0.09/100000 in 2014. Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae and Neisseria meningitidis were the most leading pathogens causing bacterial meningitis, accounted for 266(23.44%), 145(12.78%), 95(8.37%) of cases, respectively. Each of the three bacterial species showed a descending trend. The majority of infected subjects are children under five years. CONCLUSIONS: Unlike the decreasing trend of meningitis and high percentage of cultures with negative results, according to World Health Organization recommendation PCV introduction into routine immunization is evident. Implementing an enhanced surveillance system to provide high quality data on epidemiological profile of meningitis in Iran is necessary.