Chemical identification,antioxidant, cholinesterase inhibitory,and cytotoxic properties of fucoidan extracted from Persian Gulf Sargassum angustifolium

Marine macroalgal sulfated fucose-containing polysaccharides, like fucoidan, have drawn significant attention due to their biotechnological potentials, such as anti-cancer, antioxidant, and anti-cholinesterase activities. The fucoidan derived from brown macroalgae Sargassum angustifolium species (FSA) was investigated for its cytotoxic effects and alterations in cell proliferation, and cell cycle-related gene expression in the present study occurred on NB4 cell line. The results showed that FSA would induce p53, p21, pro-apoptotic genes and increase expression of the p15 gene as a cell arrest marker. Also, FSA inhibited the anti-apoptotic effect of the Bcl-2 gene and decreased dnmt-1 gene expression. FSA significantly exhibited potent 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging activity (p<0.05) with an IC₅₀ value of 0.157 mg/mL and showed moderate anti-acetylcholinesterase activity with an IC₅₀ value of 1.20 μg/mL. These results indicated the potential of FSA for the development of therapeutic or preventive agents of cancer and Alzheimer’s disease mainly through cytotoxic effect and AChE (acetylcholinesterase) inhibition as well as additional antioxidant capacities.     

Assessment of reference evapotranspiration across an arid urban environment having poor data monitoring system

Estimation of reference evapotranspiration (ET₀) in urban areas is challenging but essential in arid urban climates. To evaluate ET₀ in an urban environment and non-urban areas, air temperature and relative humidity were measured at five different sites across the arid city of Isfahan, Iran, over 4 years. Wind speed and sunshine hours were obtained from an urban surrounding weather station over the same period and used to estimate ET₀. Calculated ET₀ was compared with satellite-based ET₀ retrieved from the MOD16A2 PET product. Although MODIS PET was strongly correlated with the Valiantzas equation, it overestimated ET₀ and showed average accuracy (r = 0.93–0.94, RMSE = 1.18–1.28 mm/day, MBE = 0.73–0.84 mm/day). The highest ET₀ differences between an urban green space and a non-urban area were 1.1 and 0.87 mm/day, which were estimated by ground measurements and MODIS PET, respectively. The sensitivity of ET₀ to wind speed and sunshine hours indicated a significant effect on cumulative ET₀ at urban sites compared to the non-urban site, which has a considerable impact on the amount of irrigation required in those areas. Although MODIS PET requires improvement to accurately reflect field level microclimate conditions affecting ET₀, it is beneficial to hydrological applications and water resource managers especially in areas where data is limited. In addition, our results indicated that using limited data methods or meteorological data from regional weather stations, leads to incorrect estimation of ET₀ in urban areas. Therefore, decision-makers and urban planners should consider the importance of precisely estimating ET₀ to optimize management of urban green space irrigation, especially in arid and semi-arid climates such as the city of Isfahan.     

The reaction garnet+clinopyroxene+quartz =2 orthopyroxene+anorthite: A potential geobarometer for granulites

A mineralogic geobarometer based on the reaction garnet+clinopyroxene+quartz=2 orthopyroxene+anorthite is proposed. The geobarometric formulations for the Fe- and Mg- end member equilibria are $$\begin{gathered} P_{({\text{Fe}})} {\text{ }}({\text{bars}}){\text{ = 32}}{\text{.097 }}T{\text{ }} - {\text{ 26385 }} - {\text{ 22}}{\text{.79 (}}T - 848 - T1{\text{n(}}T/848{\text{))}} \hfill \\ {\text{ }} - (3.655 + 0.0138T){\text{ }}\left( {\frac{{{\text{(}}T - 848{\text{)}}^{\text{2}} }}{T}} \right) \hfill \\ {\text{ }} - {\text{(3}}{\text{.123) }}T1{\text{n }}\frac{{(a_{a{\text{n}}}^{{\text{Plag}}} )(a_{{\text{fs}}}^{{\text{P}}\ddot u{\text{x}}} )^2 }}{{(a_{{\text{alm}}}^{{\text{Gt}}} )(a_{{\text{hed}}}^{{\text{Opx}}} )}} \hfill \\ P_{({\text{Mg}})} {\text{ (bars) = 9}}{\text{.270 }}T + 4006 - 0.9305{\text{ }}(T - 848 - T1{\text{n (}}T/848{\text{)}}) \hfill \\ {\text{ }} - (1.1963{\text{ }} - {\text{ }}6.0128{\text{ x 10}}^{ - {\text{3}}} T)\left( {\frac{{(T - 848)^2 }}{T}} \right) \hfill \\ {\text{ }} - 3.489{\text{ }}T1{\text{n }}\frac{{(a_{an}^{{\text{Plag}}} ){\text{ }}(a_{{\text{ens}}}^{{\text{Opx}}} )}}{{{\text{(}}a_{{\text{pyr}}}^{{\text{Gt}}} {\text{) (}}a_{{\text{diop}}}^{{\text{Cpx}}} {\text{)}}}}. \hfill \\ \end{gathered}$$ The end member thermodynamic data have been taken from the data base of Helgeson et al. (1978) and Saxena and Erikson (1983). The activities of pyroxene components and anorthite in plagioclase have been modelled after Wood and Banno (1973) and Newton (1983) respectively. The activities of pyrope and almandine are calculated from the binary interaction parameters for garnet solid solutions proposed by Saxena and Erikson (1983). Pressures computed from these equations for fifty sets of published mineral data from several granulite areas are comparable with those obtained from dependable geobarometers. The pressure values determined from the Fe-end member equilibrium appear to be more reasonable than those from the Mg-end member reaction. It is likely that the difference in pressures computed from the Fe- and Mg-end members, ΔP ^*, have been caused by non-ideal mixing in the phases, especially in garnets.