The impact of ant attendance on protecting <Emphasis Type="Italic">Aphis gossypii</Emphasis> against two aphidophagous predators and it’s role on the Intraguild Predation between them

In this study the changes in Aphis gossypii Glover populations tended by the homopteran- tending ant, Tapinoma simrothi Krausse when exposed to the natural enemies Chrysoperla carnea Stephens and Coccinellia septempunctata Mulsant was studied. We also studied the effect of ant’s attendance on the consequence of intraguild predation (IGP) between these two predators. The presence of ants T. simrothi had deterrent impact on natural enemies of A. gossypii compared to control aphid populations in absence of ants. Equally we observed that IGP between two aphid predators decreased when T. simrothi was present. The lowest IGP level was observed when both aphids and ants were present in the microcosm arena. In the microcosm arena the presence of ants had an indirect effect on the occurrence of IGP. Our results suggest that although the mutualistic ants have an indirect impact on the IGP by aphidophages predators, but their roles should not be ignored.     

Modified Eu‐doped Y2O3 nanoparticles as turn‐off luminescent probes for the sensitive detection of pyridoxine

Europium‐doped yttrium oxide nanoparticles (Y₂O₃:Eu NPs) modified by captopril were prepared in aqueous solution. In this study, we report the effect of pyridoxine hydrochloride on the photoluminescence intensity of Y₂O₃:Eu NPs in pH 7.2 buffer solution. By increasing the pyridoxine concentration, the luminescence intensity of Y₂O₃:Eu NPs is quenched. The results show that this method demonstrates high sensitivity for pyridoxine determination. A linear relationship is observed between 0.0 and 62.0 μM with a correlation coefficient of 0.995 and a detection limit of 0.023 μM. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Health-risk assessment related to the fluoride,nitrate, and nitrite in the drinking water in the Sanandaj,Kurdistan County,Iran

The concentration of fluoride and nitrate in groundwater is usually higher than that of surface water. The main objective of this study was to estimate the health-risk assessment associated with fluoride, nitrate, and nitrite in drinking water in Sanandaj and its villages. The number of samples in the Sanandaj and its rural was 106. The average concentration of fluoride in urban and rural drinking water was 0.22 mg/l and 0.27 mg/l, respectively. Fluoride concentration was also close to urban and rural drinking water. The concentration of nitrate in urban and rural drinking water was in the range between 0.28–27.77 mg/l and 1.28–80 mg/l, respectively. The concentration of nitrate reported in rural samples was higher than that of urban samples. The maximum concentration of nitrate reported in this study was 80 mg/l. The mean CDI for nitrate in the men, women, and children was 0.4258, 0.5110, and 1.1454, respectively. The findings of this study indicated that all three groups studied were exposed to nitrate contact hazards (HQ > 1). Therefore, the HQ in each of the three groups was higher than 1, which should be carefully monitored and necessary measures should be performed.     

Fluoride in Iranian Drinking Water Resources: a Systematic Review,Meta-analysis and Non-carcinogenic Risk Assessment

Biological Trace Element Research - A systematic review, meta-analysis, and non-carcinogenic risk considering fluoride content of drinking water resources of 31 provinces of Iran among some...