Evaluation of heavy metal pollution in coastal sediments of Bandar Abbas, the Persian Gulf, Iran: Mercury pollution and environmental geochemical indices.

Mercury has been measured by using Cold Vapor-Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometry in coastal sediments of the Persian Gulf (Bandar Abbas region). The mean concentration of the six stations followed a decreasing order of S6 (3.95) > S1 (3.75) > S4 (3.55) > S5 (3.33) > S2 (2.72) > S3 (2.17), and the mean concentration ± standard error was calculated to be 3.24 ± 0.28 (µgg-1 dry weight) for the heavy element Mercury in the sediments. The statistical investigation indicated that the concentration means of the Mercury existing in transects sediments are meaningfully different from each other (p < 0.05). To properly assess the availability and mobility of elements, Enrichment Factor (EF), Geoaccumulation index (Igeo), Contamination factor (Cf) and Toxicity Risk Index (TRI) were provided. The results show that the pollution caused by Mercury in sediments is highly polluted and the source of the presence of Mercury in the region is human-made.

Synthesis and characterization of magnetized-PEGylated dendrimer anchored to thermosensitive polymer for letrozole drug delivery.

Letrozole as a target loaded drug on siliceous magnetized Fe3O4 nanoparticles grafted with high-branched dendrimers. Grafted polymer coating contained N-vinyl caprolactam as a stimulus-responsive polymer which functionalized with five generations of dendrimers containing oxime functional group. The precursors underwent PEGylating polymerization to form PEGylated dendrimer coating on the particle surface as the final carrier. The final product has the average size of ˜79 nm. The final product characterized by FT-IR, TGA, VSM, SEM-EDAX to investigate carrier features further. Some characteristic parameters in adsorption process like pH, time, the temperature investigated for letrozole using the final carrier. The physical and chemical properties of the final polymerized generations were also studied. Letrozole releasing process examined in the simulated intestinal fluid (pH = 7.4) revealed 95% of letrozole released during 25 h which also considered by Korsmeyer-Peppas equation to verify Fickian diffusion mechanism.

Assessment of RF radiation levels in the vicinity of 60 GSM mobile phone base stations in Iran.

Increasing development of mobile communication infrastructure while enhancing availability of the technology raises concerns among the public, who see more cell towers erected each day, about possible health effects of electromagnetic radiations. Thereon, a survey of radio-frequency radiation from 60 GSM base stations was carried out in Tehran, Iran at several places mostly located in major medical and educational centres. Measurements were performed at 15 locations near each base station site, i.e. 900 locations in total. Since there are other RF radiation sources such as broadcasting services whose carrier frequencies are <3 GHz, the whole band of 27 MHz to 3 GHz has been assessed for hazardous exposures as well. The results were compared with the relevant guideline of International Commission on Non-Ionising Radiation Protection and that of Iran, confirming radiation exposure levels being satisfactorily below defined limits and non-detrimental.