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Considering the effects of probiotic supplementation on the reduction of glycemic and inflammatory indices in patients with NAFLD, consumption of probiotics is recommended as a complementary therapy in these patients.

Salinity, a severe environmental factor, has limited the growth and productivity of crops. Many compounds have been applied to minimize the harmful effects of salt stress on plant growth. An experiment was conducted to investigate the interactive effects of exogenous ascorbic acid (AsA) and gibberellic acid (GA 3 ) on common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L. cv. Naz) seedlings under salt stress. The changes of growth parameters, photosynthetic and non-photosynthetic pigments and potassium content showed that the addition of 1 mM AsA and/or 0.05 mM GA 3 considerably decreased the oxidative damage in common bean plants treated with 200 mM NaCl. The NaCl-stressed seedlings exposed to AsA or GA 3 , specifically in their combination, exhibited an improvement in sodium accumulation in both roots and shoots, as compared to NaCl-treated plants. NaCl treatment increased hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) content and lipid peroxidation indicated by accumulation of malondialdehyde (MDA), whereas the interaction of AsA with GA 3 decreased the amounts of MDA and H 2 O 2 . In the meantime, interactive effect of these substances enhanced protein content and the activity of the antioxidant enzyme, guaiacol peroxidase, in common bean plants under salt stress. It was concluded that synergistic interaction between AsA and GA 3 could alleviate the adverse effects of salinity on P. vulgaris seedlings.

In this paper, the selective laser sintering process was used to fabricate the TiO2/PA12 nano‐composite parts by considering the parameters of laser power, scanning speed, and TiO2 content. The response surface methodology was used to improve the mechanical properties of TiO2/PA12 nano‐composite parts. The fracture surface characteristics of the specimens were examined using the scanning and transmission electron microscopy. The results indicated that the increase in laser power from 10 to 15 W improved the tensile strength, modulus, and impact strength of the nano‐composite parts because of the fine dispersion of TiO2 nano‐particles. An increase in the scanning speed from 2000 to 3000 mm/s resulted in the reduction of tensile strength and modulus due to lower heat input and consequently incomplete densification of polyamide‐12. In addition, the increase of TiO2 content up to 5 wt% can improve the tensile strength, modulus, and impact strength, but requires increasing the laser power. However, the mechanical properties of the nano‐composite parts were enhanced simultaneously at laser power of 12.4 W, scanning speed of 2000 mm/s and TiO2 content of 1.9 wt%. Moreover, the addition of TiO2 up to 5 wt% showed a slight influence on thermal stability and crystallinity of the sintered specimens.

In recent years, a novel technique has been developed for the extraction of natural products of plants based upon exertion of microwave energy at atmospheric pressure namely microwave assisted extraction. Microwave accelerated distillation (MAD) was applied for the extraction of essential oil from the leaves of Eucalyptus microtheca. The microwave assisted extraction method has been compared with hydrodistillation (HD) conventional technique, in terms of extraction time, yields and chemical compositions. Also, effect of microwave powers were investigated on extraction of some major constituents of E. microtheca essential oil. The obtained results show that, the extraction of essential oils from Eucalyptus by microwave assisted extraction is more efficient rather than hydrodistillation especially from yield and time of extraction points of view (10 min versus 3 h and 1.72 % versus 0.29 %). The extracted essential oils involved 18 and 34 components constituting 94.04 and 89.07 % of the chemical profiles in the hydrodistillation and microwave assisted extraction methods, respectively. The results also show that, each type of Eucalyptus microtheca essential oil compounds has an optimum microwave power for efficient extraction and this power should be used to enhance useful components of essential oil and to save energy.