Sharif Digital Repository

The demand and importance of fairness creams as a major cosmetic have increased significantly in recent years. However, some of these cosmetics contain heavy metals, hydroquinone and microorganism that can cause various health problems. Therefore, the aim of this study is to determine and examine the concentration of metals (i.e. Cd, Pb, Cr, Ni, Zn, Hg), hydroquinone and microorganisms in nine different fairness creams produced by local and international brands. The health risk assessment of the tested substances for consumers was accessed through systemic exposure dosage (SED), margin of safety (MoS), lifetime cancer risk (LCR), hazard quotient (HQ) and hazard index (HI). The concentration... 

Cancer has long been a leading cause of death. The primary tumor, however, is not the main cause of death in more than 90% of cases. It is the complex process of metastasis that makes cancer deadly. The invasion metastasis cascade is the multi-step biological process of cancer cell dissemination to distant organ sites and adaptation to the new microenvironment site. Unraveling the metastasis process can provide great insight into cancer death prevention or even treatment. Microfluidics is a promising platform, that provides a wide range of applications in metastasis-related investigations. Cell culture microfluidic technologies for in vitro modeling of cancer tissues with fluid flow and the... 

Cell separation microfluidic devices have evolved into a multitude of biomedical and clinical research. Nonetheless, many critical issues remain in the way of achieving an excellent separation of target cells from a heterogeneous sample. Parallel to the abundant experimental studies related to the hybrid microfluidic methods, it is easy to perceive the lack of numerical investigations in order to optimize the separation process and its accuracy. In this study, for the first time to the best of our knowledge, a hybrid system by integrating acoustophoresis and pinched-flow fractionation (PFF) is proposed to achieve a viable system for a wide-range, precise separation. Employing the ultrasound... 

Investigations have shown the traces of antibiotics in surface water, groundwater, wastewater treatment plants, and drinking water. However, conventional wastewater treatment is not entirely effective for vancomycin degradation. Advanced oxidation is one of the most widespread methods of antibiotic degradation in aqueous media. Vancomycin was quantified by high-performance liquid chromatography. The Response Surface Methodology (RSM) based on Central Composite Design (CCD) was used to explore and optimise the effect of the independent variables on vancomycin degradation. Independent variables were as follows: pH (3–11), vancomycin concentration (15–75 mg/L), TiO2–clinoptilolite (25–125 mg in... 

The feasibility of employing the biological activated carbon (BAC) process to debilitate azo dye Carmoisine by Klebsiella spp. was investigated. Plate assay revealed the capability of Klebsiella spp. for removal of Carmoisine via degradation. Kinetic parameters were measured for Carmoisine debilitation by Klebsiella spp. using the suspended anaerobic process. Two types of granular and rod-shaped activated carbon were used to form the biological beds in order to study the Carmoisine debilitation in batch processes. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) were used to indicate the colonization and biofilm formation of bacteria grown on activated carbon... 

A multi-residue method using gas chromatography coupled with flame ionisation detector has been developed for simultaneous determination of 10 pesticides in milk. The methodology involved a sample clean-up procedure using ‘quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged and safe’ followed by a preconcentration step based on dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction. In this regard, acetonitrile was added to the milk sample with specific pH and ionic strength, and the mixture was rigorously shaken. The extracts were centrifuged; then, the organic phase (acetonitrile) was transferred to a test tube and was mixed with deionised water. The mixture was sonicated and chloroform was added as an acceptor phase... 

In this study, optimized preparation, quality control, cell assessments and biostribution of 188Re-HYNIC-PSMA in normal rats and tumor bearing mice are studied. Optimized conditions for radiolabeling were evaluated and radiochemical purity (> 99%) was investigated using ITLC and HPLC methods. 188Re-HYNIC-PSMA was stable both in PBS (4 °C) and in human serum (37 °C) even after 48 h. The results showed the complex was cleared from the blood very fast via urinary track. This new radiolabeled compound has a high potential to be considered as an agent for the treatment of patients with PSMA expressing tumors however more biological studies are still needed. © 2022, Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest,... 

Biomass, originates from plant- or animal-based materials with a huge potential to be reused. Here we report a simple, rapid and inexpensive method for preparation of modified biochars derived from the banana peel followed by their applications in pipette-tip micro solid-phase extraction (PT-µSPE). Due to the contribution of various effective parameters on modification of banana peel biochars (BPBs), Taguchi design was used to optimize activation temperature, activation repetition, treatment material and impregnation ratio. Efficiency of the prepared BPBs were studied by extraction of twelve various pesticides, as model analytes with an extended range of log P values (1.4–5.7), followed by... 

Fluopyram, flupyradifurone, and indaziflam are novel systemic pesticides developed by Bayer. Based on available data, these pesticides appears to have a favorable safety profile in the case of pesticide residue problems. Herein, we report an effective analytical method for the determination of novel pesticides were developed using ultra-high performance liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry coupled with a quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, and safe procedure. These target compounds were extracted with acetonitrile and cleaned up with PSA, and were separated successfully between 10.2 and 18.3 min using a C18 chromatographic column connected to an electrospray ionization... 

The feasibility of employing the biological activated carbon (BAC) process to debilitate azo dye Carmoisine by Klebsiella spp. was investigated. Plate assay revealed the capability of Klebsiella spp. for removal of Carmoisine via degradation. Kinetic parameters were measured for Carmoisine debilitation by Klebsiella spp. using the suspended anaerobic process. Two types of granular and rod-shaped activated carbon were used to form the biological beds in order to study the Carmoisine debilitation in batch processes. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) were used to indicate the colonization and biofilm formation of bacteria grown on activated carbon... 

In this study, a novel, simple and sensitive ratiometric fluorescence method is presented for the detection of very low quantities of the carbaryl in Iranian apple using cadmium telluride quantum dots (CdTe QDs) nanoprobe. The principle of the proposed strategy relies on the rapid hydrolysis of the carbaryl under an alkaline condition and production of the 1-naphthol with a blue emission at 470 nm. Besides, using the CdTe QDs with a yellow emission at 580 nm, as a reference, improves the visual tracking of carbaryl through changes in color tonality. The herein described methodology is applied for enzyme-free visual detection of carbaryl with satisfactory results in the presence of other... 

The simultaneous oxidation performance of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene (BTEX) by nanoscale calcium peroxide particles (nCaO2) activated with ferric ions (Fe(III)) and the mechanism of the enhancement of BTEX degradation by L-cysteine (L-cys) were investigated. The batch experimental results showed that the nCaO2/Fe(III)/L-cys process was effective in the destruction of BTEX in both ultrapure water and actual groundwater. A proper amount of L-cys could enhance BTEX degradation due to the promotion of Fe(II)/Fe(III) redox cycles by the participation of L-cys, but an excessive presence of L-cys would cause inhibition. Adding 1.0 mM L-cys to the nCaO2/Fe(III) system, the... 

In the present work, with the focus on an environmentally–friendly approach, some gels were prepared by synthesizing amine–modified lignin, extracted from sugarcane bagasse, and further esterification and subsequent freeze–drying. These lignin–based gels were implemented as extractive phases in an online micro–solid phase extraction (μSPE) setup in conjunction with high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with UV detector. The developed method was used for analytical determination of valsartan and losartan in urine samples. To study the effect of the functionalization process, the efficiency of the unmodified lignin and the functionalized lignin were compared both in the absence and the... 

A cryogel–based semi–interpenetrating polymer network (Cryo–SIPN) was prepared in which conductive polymers such as polyaniline (PANI) and polypyrrole (PPy) were formed within the super porous network of acrylic acid cryogel. For completion of cryo-polymerization, all the constituent solutions were severely mixed and placed into the plastic straws and kept at -20°C and then the synthesized cyrogels were cut into the 1-cm length and freeze dried after washing with water. The Cryo–SIPN polymeric composite was applied in micro solid phase extraction (µSPE) of some selected antibiotic residues from various samples. The µSPE method combined with a high performance liquid... 

A multi-residue method using gas chromatography coupled with flame ionisation detector has been developed for simultaneous determination of 10 pesticides in milk. The methodology involved a sample clean-up procedure using ‘quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged and safe’ followed by a preconcentration step based on dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction. In this regard, acetonitrile was added to the milk sample with specific pH and ionic strength, and the mixture was rigorously shaken. The extracts were centrifuged; then, the organic phase (acetonitrile) was transferred to a test tube and was mixed with deionised water. The mixture was sonicated and chloroform was added as an acceptor phase... 

The supernatant obtained from the extracellular laccase produced by Phanerochaete chrysosporium was used as the enzyme source to conduct a partial purification, characterization and dye decolorization study. The partially purified enzyme was stable in the pH range of 3–5 and showed an optimum activity at pH 4.0, using guaiacol as a substrate. Laccase stability of pH was determined and discovered to retain 100% of its activity at a pH of 4.0 after 2 h. The maximum enzyme activity was obtained between 30 and 50 °C. The maximum velocity and Michaelis constant were calculated as 3.171 µM−1·min and 1628.23 µM, respectively. The enzyme was activated by Fe2+, Zn2+, Ca2+ and Cu2+, while Hg2+, Mn2+,... 

In this study, QuEChERS combined with dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction is developed for extraction of ten pesticides in complex sample matrices of water and milk. In this regard, effective factors of proposed extraction technique combined with gas chromatography with flame ionization detector were designed, modeled, and optimized using central composite design, multiple linear regression, and Nelder–Mead simplex optimization. Later, univariate calibration model for ten pesticides was developed in concentration range of 0.5–100 ng/mL. Surprisingly, quadratic calibration behavior was observed for some of the pesticides. In this regard, Mandel's test was used for evaluating linearity... 

Polystyrene is one of the best candidates as the extracting medium due to its high stability in different media and acceptable extraction capability. However, the hydrophobic nature and low wettability of polystyrene limits its application to non–polar analytes. To resolve this limitation, in this project, amine groups were chemically attached to the surface of magnetic polystyrene. The resulting hydrophilic magnetic particles were expected to be capable of extracting both polar and non–polar analytes. Non–steroidal anti–inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) were chosen for testing the applicability of modified magnetic polystyrene according to the importance of their analysis and also their wide... 

Sample preparation for non-target analysis is challenging due to the difficulty in the extraction of polar and non-polar analytes simultaneously. Most commercial solid sorbents lack the proper comprehensiveness for extraction of analytes with different physiochemical properties. A possible key is the combination of hydrophobic polymer and hydrophilic surface functional groups in solid based extraction methods in order to generate the susceptibility for retaining both polar and non-polar analytes. To pursue this goal, in this study, four polar groups including [sbnd]NH 2 , [sbnd]NO 2 , [sbnd]COOH, and [sbnd]COCH 3 were chemically bound to Amberlite XAD-4 substrate in order to prepare a... 

In this study, a method was described for the extraction of three antibiotic residues from cow milk samples using a graphene oxide–starch–based nanocomposite. The prepared nanocomposites were employed as an extractive phase for micro-solid phase extraction of antibiotics from cow milk samples. The extracted antibiotics, i.e. amoxicillin, ampicillin and cloxacillin, were subsequently analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography–ultraviolet detection (HPLC–UV). Important variables associated with the extraction and desorption efficiency were optimized. High extraction efficiencies for the selected antibiotics were conveniently achieved using the starch–based nanocomposite as the...