Background and objectives: Tragacanth gum (GT) is one of the natural secreted hydrocolloids which has many applications in food and pharmaceutical industries. Unfortunately, there is limited scientific information about the electrostatic interactions of tragacanth gum with proteins, especially the proteins unfolded by physical approaches. In this regard, the main objective of this study was to investigate the effect of thermal processing on the whey protein isolate (WPI) properties and its COMPLEXation with tragacanth gum. Materials and methods: The influence of heating time (0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 and 35 min at 80 C) on the turbidity of WPI, alone and mixed with GT (r = 0. 1, pH 4. 0 and Cp 0. 1 w/w) was surveyed. Then, the flow behaviour and VISCOSITY of GT-WPI mixture at a shear rate of 0-100 S-1 (pH 4. 0) was compared with the individual solutions of gum and protein. Since the maximum turbidity was observed in the range of 15-35° C, the impact of heating time at three levels (15, 25 and 35 min) and biopolymer mixing ratio at six levels (2: 1, 1: 1, 1: 2, 1: 5, 1: 10 and 1: 20) on the protein and carbohydrate compositions of precipitate and supernatant was investigated by Lowry and phenol-sulphuric acid methods, respectively. Results: Turbidity of protein solutions significantly changed with rising the heating time such that the maximum turbidity achieved after 25 min thermal processing. While these solutions were unstable due to protein-protein interaction and formation of protein aggregates, GT addition led to significant changes in the stability of protein solutions as a result of protein-polysaccharide interactions. Similar to protein solutions, the maximum turbidity of the COMPLEXes was achieved after 25min thermal processing. The rheological measurements showed that the mixture solution had pseudoplastic behavior with a large hysteresis loop as well as the higher VISCOSITY rather than the blank solutions, indicating the formation of electrostatic interactions between protein and polysaccharide. By determining protein and polysaccharide content in the supernatant and precipitate phases, the least ratio of Pr: PS was observed for the 25-min heated WPI. Furthermore, the ratio of Pr: PS in the precipitate was increased significantly as Pr: PSratio was increased in the mixture. Conclusion: Addition of tragacanth gum to the whey protein isolate led to a significant stability in the solution. Due to unfolding of WPI, using thermal processing on the whey protein isloate solution resulted in a meaningful increase in the turbidity of protein solution and the efficiency of GT-WPI COMPLEX formation.

Introduction: Men with unexplained infertility and azoospermia are often observed in the context of genetic defects. The expression of a wide variety of genes is developmentally regulated  during human meiosis. Synaptonemal Protein 3 (SYCP3) gene, located on chromosome 12, encodes a DNA-binding protein as the structural component of the synaptonemal COMPLEX,which mediates the synopsis or homologous pairing of chromosomes during meiosis. Absence of SYCP3 in mice may lead to male infertility as well as female sub-fertility. SYCP3 expression analysis could be a tool for the prediction of human spermatogenesis progression, especially in infertile men.Materials & Methods: SYCP3 mRNA expression in testicular samples of 110 patients with non-obstructive azoospermia were studied in Avesina Infertility Clinic in Tehran, Iran during 2005 and early 2006. Semi-quantitative nested reverse transcriptase-PCR was employed in order to find the strength of gene expression. Using histopathological scoring for all samples, the expression level of SYCP3 during spermatogenesis was also evaluated.Results: Testicular SYCP3 mRNA expression was observed in 67 patients (60.9%). The expression level correlated with the degree of spermatogenic failure (p<0.0001). While this gene had been expressed in patients with hypo-spermatogenesis and maturation arrest, a lack of expression was seen in those with spermatogonial arrest, Sertoli cell-only syndrome and testicular atrophy.Conclusion: These data indicate that SYCP3 is expressed in the human testis and it is restricted to germ cells. Our findings, in association with those obtained in experimental animals, show that lack of SYCP3 expression may have negative effects on spermatogenesis and male fertility. SYCP3 gene expression may help detect specific spermatogenesis stages in conjunction with histopathological findings.

Persian gum is an anionic polysaccharide, exudes from mountain almond tree. Unfortunately, there is no information about its interaction with unfolded proteins. The objectives of the current study are investigation of heating time on the properties of WPI and the COMPLEXes thereof. In this regard, first the effect of thermal processing (at 80°C, for 0-35 min) on the turbidity of whey protein isolate was surveyed at pH 4.0. The electrostatic interaction between treated WPI and Persian gum was also surveyed as a function of heating time and mixing ratios (2: 1, 1: 1, 1: 2, 1: 5, 1: 10 and 1: 20). Results indicated the significant increasing in the turbidity of treated WPI solutions (mainly after 25 min) with a high inconsistency leading to the precipitation due to the protein-protein interactions at low pH and formation of large aggregates. Addition of Persian gum (PG) caused the formation of WPI-PG COMPLEXes and meaningful increasing in the stability of the mixture solutions. Furthermore, the rheological measurements (0-100 S-1) showed that the mixture solution has pseudo plastic behavior with a large hysteresis loop and higher VISCOSITY rather than the blank solutions, indicating the formation of protein polysaccharide COMPLEXes. By calculation of protein and polysaccharide in the supernatant and precipitation phases, the most biopolymer concentration in the precipitation phase was demonstrated for the 35-min-treated WPI. On the other hand, the amount of polysaccharide was increased in the precipitation as WPI: PG mixing ratio decreased.

In this study, the effect off adding SiO2 nanoparticles on the VISCOSITY of base fluid is investigated experimentally. Base fluids are chosen among common heat transfer fluids such as ethylene glycol, transformer oil and water. In addition different volume percentages of ethylene glycol in water are used as ethylene glycol-water solution. In every base fluid different volume fractions of SiO2 nanoparticles is added. It is shown that the VISCOSITY of solution enhance by adding nanoparticles. The effect of cooling and heating process on the VISCOSITY of nanofluid is also discussed. The presented data show that as the temperature increases the VISCOSITY of base fluid and nanofluid decrease. It is also revealed that there are very little differences between the VISCOSITY of nanofluid in a specific temperature at cooling and heating cycles. According to the experimental results new correlations for predicting the VISCOSITY of nanofluids is presented. These correlations relate the VISCOSITY of nanofluid to the particle volume fraction and temperature.

In this study, the Potential Applied VISCOSITY (PAV) has been measured on 5 types of raw material in wied varities range.The lowest and highest PAV values were observed for maize and barley, respectively.Cereal PAV caj be properly estimated by extraction at PH, 1.5 without ethanolic treatment. Real applied VISCOSITY(RAV) was affected by temperature of pelleting(2.5mm), The high RAV values were observed only when PAV was also high and the temperature of pelleting was above 90°C. Particle size of extracted flours greatly changes the RAV values and coarse grinding result the low RAV values. It is demonstrated that enzymi activity could not affected by particle size.Excretion and consumption of water relative to feed intake are measured in 5 week-old meat-turkey poults by 5 diets. Regression lines are fixed with the data (for raw material) as the dependant variables, and the diet parameters were as the independent variables.The most efficient equations are based on RAV and potassium on PAV, temperature of pelleting and potassium. The highest R2values was 0.758. According to the expressions of equations, the effects of dependant variables are not increased in this case.