The distributions of Cu, Zn, and Pb concentrations in the selected soft tissues (foot, cephalic tentacle, mantle, muscle, gill, digestive caecum, and remaining soft tissues) and shells of the mud-flat snail Telescopium telescopium were determined in snails from eight geographical sites in the south-western intertidal area of Peninsular Malaysia. Generally, the digestive caecum compared with oth...

Background: The method of proton induced X-ray emission (PIXE) has been widely used as a sensitive technique to trace elemental analysis in both biological and medical fields. The sensitivity of this powerful method is in the order of ppm .The aim of this work is to analyze structural composition of 4 heavy trace elements with Z greater than 24 (Mn, Fe, Cu, Zn) in two kinds of gallstones and to...

Angular momentum changing collisions can be suppressed in atoms whose valence electrons are submerged beneath filled shells of higher principle quantum number. To determine whether spin-exchange collisions are suppressed in these "submerged shell" atoms, we measured collisional rates for six hyperfine states of Mn at T < 1 K. Although the 3d valence electrons in Mn are submerged beneath a fille...

The present study investigated the accumulation and depuration of two heavy metals Cd and Pb in the freshwater clam  (Corbicula fluminea) under laboratory conditions. Treated clams were exposed to single and combined treatments of Cd and Pb at the concentration of 5 mg L-1 and 10.5 mg L-1 for 10 days, respectively. The animals were then placed in metal free water for the following 5 days for de...

Background: Anzali wetland has been subjected to high levels of pollution due to contamination from several industrial sites in addition to agricultural chemicals. Mussels have been widely used for monitoring pollution in aquatic ecosystems, because they, as filter feeders, bioaccumulate pollutants. Therefore we decided to evaluate Anodonta cygnea for its application as a bio-monitor for copp...

BACKGROUND Class B CpG oligodeoxynucleotides primarily interact with Toll-like receptor 9 (TLR9) in B cells and enhance the immune system through induction of various interleukins including interleukin-6 in these immune cells. Although free class B CpG oligodeoxynucleotides do not induce interferon (IFN)-α production, CpG oligodeoxynucleotide molecules have been reported to induce IFN-α when lo...

Objective: The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of tissue composition on dose distribution in electron beam radiotherapy.Methods: A Siemens Primus linear accelerator and a phantom were simulated using MCNPX Monte Carlo code. In a homogeneous cylindrical phantom, six types of soft tissue and three types of tissue-equivalent materials were investigated. The tissues included muscle (ske...