The current systematic review and meta-analysis demonstrate the genotypic distribution of canine echinococcosis worldwide. Studies published from the inception until 21 May 2021 were screened, relevant articles were selected and the random-effect model was used to draw forest plots with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Totally, 44 articles were included, mostly examined dogs (37 records), followed by wolf (8 records), jackal (7 records), fox (3 records), pump fox (3 records) and coyote (1 record). Echinococcus granulosus sensu stricto (G1–G3) and G6/7 cluster of Echinococcus canadensis were the most common genotypes among canids. Most studies were conducted in Asia and Europe with 17 and 15 datasets, respectively. Exclusively, Iran possessed the highest number of studies (10 records). Meta-analysis showed that the pooled molecular prevalence of echinococcosis was 33.82% (95% CI 24.50–43.83%). Also, the highest and lowest prevalence of canine echinococcosis was calculated for South America (66.03%; 95% CI 25.67–95.85%) and Europe (19.01%; 95% CI 9.95–30.16%). Additionally, there were statistically significant differences between the global prevalence of echinococcosis in canines and publication year, continent, country, sample type, host and molecular test. These findings will elevate our knowledge on the poorly known canine echinococcosis worldwide.

Hydatidosis is a potential zoonotic helminthic disease affecting a broad spectrum of mammals, including humans, worldwide. The current review was conducted to investigate the genotypic status and prevalence of hydatid disease in camels across the world. For the purpose of the study, the articles addressing the worldwide prevalence of hydatidosis in camels were searched in several English language databases. The search process resulted in the inclusion of 122 papers. Based on the data presented in the reviewed articles, the pooled prevalence of hydatid disease in camels across the world was measured at 23.75% (95% CI 20.15–27.55). Moreover, the subgroup analysis demonstrated significant differences in the overall prevalence of hydatidosis among camels based on year, geographic area, climate parameters, camel population, gender, infected organ, fertility rate of the cyst and laboratory diagnostic technique. Furthermore, the Echinococcus granulosus genotypes identified in camels with hydatidosis included G1, G2, G3, G1–G3, G5, G6, G7, G6–G7 and G6–G10, with G6 being the most common genotype throughout the world. The data obtained from the current study are central to the better conceptualization of the biological and epidemiological characteristics of E. granulosus s.l. genotypes around the world, which can be helpful in the planning and adoption of more comprehensive control strategies.

We show that standard cyclic actions on Brieskorn homology 3-spheres with non-empty fixed set do not extend smoothly to any contractible smooth 4-manifold it may bound. The quotient of any such extension would be an acyclic 4-manifold with boundary a related Brieskorn homology sphere. We briefly discuss well-known invariants of homology spheres that obstruct acyclic bounding 4-manifolds and then use a method based on equivariant Yang–Mills moduli spaces to rule out extensions of the actions.

Plasmodium falciparum is the main cause of severe malaria in humans that can lead to death. There is growing evidence of drug-resistance in P. falciparum treatment, and the design of effective vaccines remains an ongoing strategy to control the disease. On the other hand, the recognition of specific diagnostic markers for P. falciparum can accelerate the diagnosis of this parasite in the early stages of infection. Therefore, the identification of novel antigenic proteins especially by proteomic tools is urgent for vaccination and diagnosis of P. falciparum. The proteome diversity of the life cycle stages of P. falciparum, the altered proteome of P. falciparum-infected human sera and altered proteins in P. falciparum-infected erythrocytes could be proposed as appropriate proteins for the aforementioned aims. Accordingly, this review highlights and proposes different proteins identified using proteomic approaches as promising markers in the diagnosis and vaccination of P. falciparum. It seems that most of the candidates identified in this study were able to elicit immune responses in the P. falciparum-infected hosts and they also played major roles in the life cycle, pathogenicity and key pathways of this parasite.

In this analytical research, the dependency of trust on the user interface in e-commerce has been reviewed. The approach of this case study on payment gateways (PGs) was a combination of the cross-sectional analysis and empirical study. First, the situation of a PG was evaluated in the marketing campaign. Then, the UI of 8 famous PGs was redesigned and 160 volunteers ranked the credibility of each page. Finally, the highest-ranked page was implemented, and the campaign was repeated. Results showed the users who trusted increased from 23.4% to 54.5% due to a new UI design.

Current systematic review and meta-analysis demonstrate the prevalence reports of filariasis in animals in Iran along with human cases. Studies were screened, relevant papers were selected and the random-effect model was used by forest plot with 95% confidence interval (CI). Of 17 records of human case-reports, particularly from Khuzestan province (5 cases), Dirofilaria repens was the most detected parasite (10 cases) with higher involvement of the right eye (7 cases) than other organs. Eleven animal species were reported to be parasitised by filarioids in Iran. The prevalence of Dirofilaria immitis in canids was 14.69% (95% CI: 10.33–19.67), with highest rates (20.92%; 95% CI: 13.84–29.03) in free-ranging dogs. Male (10.07%; 95% CI: 5.10–16.47) and more than 1-year old (20.77%; 95% CI: 8.66–36.42) dogs were more likely to be found infected. The frequency of other filarioids of zoonotic interest was: Acanthocheilonema reconditum in dogs 2.15% (95% CI: 0.71–4.33), Dipetalonema evansi in camels 10.16% (95% CI: 4.73–17.34), Onchocerca cervicalis in horses 3.63% (95% CI: 1.44–6.75%) and Onchocerca fasciata 16.57% (95% CI: 10.12–24.24%) in camels. Still, our knowledge on parasitic filariae in Iran is limited and more investigation is needed in both human and animal populations.

Çatalhöyük is one of the most well-known and important Neolithic/Chalcolithic sites in the Middle East. Settlement at the site encompasses two separate tell mounds known as Çatalhöyük East and West, with the focus of attention having traditionally been upon what is often regarded as the main site, the earlier East Mound. Limitations of dating evidence have, however, rendered the nature of the relationship between the settlements on these mounds unclear. Traditional models favoured a hiatus between their occupation, or, alternatively, a rapid shift from one site to the other, often invoking changes in natural conditions by way of an explanation. New dates challenge these theories, and indicate a potentially significant overlap between the occupation of the mounds, starting in the late seventh millennium BC.

Propagation of Gaussian X-ray laser beam is presented in collisional quantum plasma and the beam width oscillation is studied along the propagation direction. It is noticed that due to energy absorption in collisional plasma, the laser energy drops to an amount less than the critical value of the self-focusing effect and consequently, the laser beam defocuses. It is found that the oscillation amplitude of the laser spot size enhances while passing through collisional plasma. For the greater values of collision frequency, the beam width oscillates with higher amplitude and defocuses in a shallower plasma depth. Also, it is realized that in a dense plasma environment, the laser self-focusing occurs earlier with the higher oscillation amplitude, smaller laser spot size and more oscillations.

The aim of this work was to evaluate dose response of fluoroscopic EPID for transit dosimetry applications. Properties studied included warm up time, build-up thickness evaluation, dose history, linearity, stability, and short and long-term reproducibility of EPID response, as well as field size dependence.

Pixel value matrices of electronic portal images in DICOM format were analysed in central and 8 off axis points using customised written codes in Matlab. In order to do this, nine 26×26 pixel matrices were selected as regions of interest, the regions represented by these arrays were 1×1 and 0·65×0·65 cm2 at the EPID and isocentre level, respectively.

Necessary warm up time for stable operation of EPID is 30 minutes, and there is no need for extra build-up layer to increase the dose response. Linearity tests indicate charged coupled device camera of EPID saturates at 50 cGy level, and does not have linear relationship with dose. Reproducibility and stability of the measurements were excellent and the detector showed same signal with a maximum deviation of <0·3% both in short and long terms. Results of dosimetric evaluation have shown the TheraView fluoroscopic EPID can be used for transit dosimetry purposes.

This study was aimed to optimise lactose, inulin and yeast extract concentration and also culture pH for maximising the growth of a probiotic bacterium, Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis in apple juice and to assess the effects of these factors by using response surface methodology. A second-order central composite design was applied to evaluate the effects of these independent variables on growth of the microorganism. A polynomial regression model with cubic and quadratic terms was used for analysis of the experimental data. It was found that the effects involving inulin, yeast extract and pH on growth of the bacterium were significant, and the strongest effect was given by the yeast extract concentration. Estimated optimum conditions of the factors on the bacterial growth are as follows: lactose concentration=9·5 g/l; inulin concentration=38·5 mg/l; yeast extract concentration=9·6 g/l and initial pH=6·2.

This paper presents the formation and the characterization of silicon germanium oxide (SixGeyO1-x-y) infrared sensitive material for uncooled microbolometers. RF magnetron sputtering was used to simultaneously deposit Si and Ge thin films in an Ar/O2 environment at room temperature. The effects of varying Si and O composition on the thin film's electrical properties which include temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) and resistivity were investigated. The highest achieved TCR and the corresponding resistivity at room temperature were -5.41 %/K and 3.16×103 ohm cm using Si0.039Ge0.875O0.086 for films deposited at room temperature.

The purpose of this paper is to prove that the general derivative of a completely additive singular set-function defined on certain measurable subsets of an abstract measure space is zero almost everywhere. As a corollary the celebrated Lebesgue decomposition theorem has been sharpened.

This result is well known for set-functions defined on measurable subsets of an n-dimensional Euclidean space (2, p. 119). The proof in this setting depends on two things: Vitali's covering theorem and the fact that for every measurable set A there exists an open set O which contains A and the images of O and A under the set-function can be made arbitrarily close. Here the covering theorem is due to Trjitzinsky and the open set is replaced by an envelope, an entirely measure-theoretic concept.