Search results for: body control modules

Authors: Cagdas Agirdas

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Background: The Affordable Care Act (ACA) requires non-grandfathered private insurance plans, starting with plan years on or after September 23rd, 2010, to provide certain preventive care services without any cost sharing in the form of deductibles, copayments or co-insurance. This requirement may affect racial and ethnic disparities in preventive care as it provides the largest copay reduction in preventive care. Objectives: We ask whether the ACA’s free preventive care benefits are associated with a reduction in racial and ethnic disparities in the utilization of four preventive services: cholesterol screenings, colonoscopies, mammograms, and pap smears. Methods: We use a data set of over 6,000 individuals from the 2009, 2010, and 2013 Medical Expenditure Panel Surveys (MEPS). We restrict our data set only to individuals who are old enough to be eligible for each preventive service. Our difference-in-differences logistic regression model classifies privately-insured Hispanics, African Americans, and Asians as the treatment groups and 2013 as the after-policy year. Our control group consists of non-Hispanic whites on Medicaid as this program already covered preventive care services for free or at a low cost before the ACA. Results: After controlling for income, education, marital status, preferred interview language, self-reported health status, employment, having a usual source of care, age and gender, we find that the ACA is associated with increases in the probability of the median, privately-insured Hispanic person to get a colonoscopy by 3.6% and a mammogram by 3.1%, compared to a non-Hispanic white person on Medicaid. Similarly, we find that the median, privately-insured African American person’s probability of receiving these two preventive services improved by 2.3% and 2.4% compared to a non-Hispanic white person on Medicaid. We do not find any significant improvements for any racial or ethnic group for cholesterol screenings or pap smears. Furthermore, our results do not indicate any significant changes for Asians compared to non-Hispanic whites in utilizing the four preventive services. These reductions in racial/ethnic disparities are robust to reconfigurations of time periods, previous diagnosis, and residential status. Conclusions: Early effects of the ACA’s provision of free preventive care are significant for Hispanics and African Americans. Further research is needed for the later years as more individuals became aware of these benefits.

Keywords: preventive care, Affordable Care Act, cost sharing, racial disparities

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Authors: Shahida Mohd Sharif, Norsidah Ujang

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Recent research has shown that many of the urban population in Kuala Lumpur, especially from the lower-income group, suffer from socio-psychological problems. They are reported as experiencing anxiety, depression, and stress, which is made worst by the recent COVID-19 pandemic. Much of the population was forced to observe the Movement Control Order (MCO), which is part of pandemic mitigation measures, pushing them to live in isolation as the new normal. The study finds the need to strategize for a better approach to help these people coping with the socio-psychological condition, especially the population from the lower-income group. In Kuala Lumpur, as part of the Local Agenda 21 programme, the Kuala Lumpur City Hall has introduced Green Initiative: Urban Farming, which among the approaches is the community garden. The local authority promotes the engagement to be capable of improving the social environment of the participants. Research has demonstrated that social interaction within community gardens can help the members improve their socio-psychological conditions. Therefore, the study explores the residents’ experience from low-cost flats participating in the community gardening initiative from a social attachment perspective. The study will utilise semi-structured interviews to collect the participants’ experience with community gardening and how the social interaction exchange between the members' forms and develop their ties and trust. For a context, the low-cost flats are part of the government social housing program (Program Perumahan Rakyat dan Perumahan Awam). Meanwhile, the community gardening initiative (Projek Kebun Kejiranan Bandar LA21 KL) is part of the local authority initiative to address the participants’ social, environmental, and economic issues. The study will conduct thematic analysis on the collected data and use the ATLAS.ti software for data organization and management purposes. The findings could help other researchers and stakeholders understand the social interaction experience within community gardens and its relation to ties and trusts. The findings could shed some light on how the participants could improve their social environment, and its report could provide the local authority with evidence-based documentation.

Keywords: community gardening participation, lower-income population, social attachment, social interaction

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Authors: Lalit Kumar, Rashid Al Shidi

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Phoenix dactylifera (date palm) is a major crop in many middle-eastern countries, including Oman. The Dubas bug Ommatissus lybicus is the main pest that affects date palm crops. However not all plantations are infested. It is still uncertain why some plantations get infested while others are not. This research investigated whether tree density and the system of planting (random versus systematic) had any relationship with infestation and levels of infestation. Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Systems were used to determine the density of trees (number of trees per unit area) while infestation levels were determined by manual counting of insects on 40 leaflets from two fronds on each tree, with a total of 20-60 trees in each village. The infestation was recorded as the average number of insects per leaflet. For tree density estimation, WorldView-3 scenes, with eight bands and 2m spatial resolution, were used. The Local maxima method, which depends on locating of the pixel of highest brightness inside a certain exploration window, was used to identify the trees in the image and delineating individual trees. This information was then used to determine whether the plantation was random or systematic. The ordinary least square regression (OLS) was used to test the global correlation between tree density and infestation level and the Geographic Weight Regression (GWR) was used to find the local spatial relationship. The accuracy of detecting trees varied from 83–99% in agricultural lands with systematic planting patterns to 50–70% in natural forest areas. Results revealed that the density of the trees in most of the villages was higher than the recommended planting number (120–125 trees/hectare). For infestation correlations, the GWR model showed a good positive significant relationship between infestation and tree density in the spring season with R² = 0.60 and medium positive significant relationship in the autumn season, with R² = 0.30. In contrast, the OLS model results showed a weaker positive significant relationship in the spring season with R² = 0.02, p < 0.05 and insignificant relationship in the autumn season with R² = 0.01, p > 0.05. The results showed a positive correlation between infestation and tree density, which suggests the infestation severity increased as the density of date palm trees increased. The correlation result showed that the density alone was responsible for about 60% of the increase in the infestation. This information can be used by the relevant authorities to better control infestations as well as to manage their pesticide spraying programs.

Keywords: dubas bug, date palm, tree density, infestation levels

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Authors: Sheng-Yu Lee

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Aim: Opioid use disorder is often characterized by repetitive drug-seeking and drug-taking behaviors with severe public health consequences. Animal model showed that opioid-induced perturbations in the gut microbiota causally relate to neuroinflammation, deficits in reward responding, and opioid tolerance, possibly due to changes in gut microbiota. Therefore, we propose that the dysbiosis of gut microbiota can be associated with pathogenesis of opioid dependence. In this current study, we explored the differences in gut microbiota between patients and normal controls and in patients before and after initiation of methadone treatment program for 12 weeks. Methods: Patients with opioid use disorder between 20 and 65 years were recruited from the methadone maintenance outpatient clinic in 2 medical centers in the Southern Taiwan. Healthy controls without any family history of major psychiatric disorders (schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder) were recruited from the community. After initial screening, 15 patients with opioid use disorder joined the study for initial evaluation (Week 0), 12 of them completed the 12-week follow-up while receiving methadone treatment and ceased heroin use (Week 12). Fecal samples were collected from the patients at baseline and the end of 12th week. A one-time fecal sample was collected from the healthy controls. The microbiota of fecal samples were investigated using 16S rRNA V3V4 amplicon sequencing, followed by bioinformatics and statistical analyses. Results: We found no significant differences in species diversity in opioid dependent patients between Week 0 and Week 12, nor compared between patients at both points and controls. For beta diversity, using principal component analysis, we found no significant differences between patients at Week 0 and Week 12, however, both patient groups showed significant differences compared to control (P=0.011). Furthermore, the linear discriminant analysis effect size (LEfSe) analysis was used to identify differentially enriched bacteria between opioid use patients and healthy controls. Compared to controls, the relative abundance of Lactobacillaceae Lactobacillus (L. Lactobacillus), Megasphaera Megasphaerahexanoica (M. Megasphaerahexanoica) and Caecibacter Caecibactermassiliensis (C Caecibactermassiliensis) were increased in patients at Week 0, while Coriobacteriales Atopobiaceae (C. Atopobiaceae), Acidaminococcus Acidaminococcusintestini (A. Acidaminococcusintestini) and Tractidigestivibacter Tractidigestivibacterscatoligenes (T. Tractidigestivibacterscatoligenes) were increased in patients at Week 12. Conclusion: In conclusion, we suggest that the gut microbiome community maybe linked to opioid use disorder, such differences may not be altered even after 12-week of cessation of opioid use.

Keywords: opioid use disorder, gut microbiota, methadone treatment, follow up study

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Authors: Coriolano Salvini, Ambra Giovannelli

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The use of renewable energy sources for electric power production leads to reduced CO2 emissions and contributes to improving the domestic energy security. On the other hand, the intermittency and unpredictability of their availability poses relevant problems in fulfilling safely and in a cost efficient way the load demand along the time. Significant benefits in terms of “grid system applications”, “end-use applications” and “renewable applications” can be achieved by introducing energy storage systems. Among the currently available solutions, CAES (Compressed Air Energy Storage) shows favorable features. Small-medium size plants equipped with artificial air reservoirs can constitute an interesting option to get efficient and cost-effective distributed energy storage systems. The present paper is addressed to the design and off-design analysis of the compression system of small size CAES plants suited to absorb electric power in the range of hundreds of kilowatt. The system of interest is constituted by an intercooled (in case aftercooled) multi-stage reciprocating compressor and a man-made reservoir obtained by connecting large diameter steel pipe sections. A specific methodology for the system preliminary sizing and off-design modeling has been developed. Since during the charging phase the electric power absorbed along the time has to change according to the peculiar CAES requirements and the pressure ratio increases continuously during the filling of the reservoir, the compressor has to work at variable mass flow rate. In order to ensure an appropriately wide range of operations, particular attention has been paid to the selection of the most suitable compressor capacity control device. Given the capacity regulation margin of the compressor and the actual level of charge of the reservoir, the proposed approach allows the instant-by-instant evaluation of minimum and maximum electric power absorbable from the grid. The developed tool gives useful information to appropriately size the compression system and to manage it in the most effective way. Various cases characterized by different system requirements are analysed. Results are given and widely discussed.

Keywords: artificial air storage reservoir, compressed air energy storage (CAES), compressor design, compression system management.

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Authors: Ahmed Elaksher, Islam Omar

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For many years, Mars surface has been a mystery for scientists. Lately with the help of geospatial data and photogrammetric procedures researchers were able to capture some insights about this planet. Two of the most imperative data sources to explore Mars are the The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) and the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA). HiRISE is one of six science instruments carried by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, launched August 12, 2005, and managed by NASA. The MOLA sensor is a laser altimeter carried by the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) and launched on November 7, 1996. In this project, we used MOLA-based DEMs to orthorectify HiRISE optical images for generating a more accurate and trustful surface of Mars. The MOLA data was interpolated using the kriging interpolation technique. Corresponding tie points were digitized from both datasets. These points were employed in co-registering both datasets using GIS analysis tools. In this project, we employed three different 3D to 2D transformation models. These are the parallel projection (3D affine) transformation model; the extended parallel projection transformation model; the Direct Linear Transformation (DLT) model. A set of tie-points was digitized from both datasets. These points were split into two sets: Ground Control Points (GCPs), used to evaluate the transformation parameters using least squares adjustment techniques, and check points (ChkPs) to evaluate the computed transformation parameters. Results were evaluated using the RMSEs between the precise horizontal coordinates of the digitized check points and those estimated through the transformation models using the computed transformation parameters. For each set of GCPs, three different configurations of GCPs and check points were tested, and average RMSEs are reported. It was found that for the 2D transformation models, average RMSEs were in the range of five meters. Increasing the number of GCPs from six to ten points improve the accuracy of the results with about two and half meters. Further increasing the number of GCPs didn’t improve the results significantly. Using the 3D to 2D transformation parameters provided three to two meters accuracy. Best results were reported using the DLT transformation model. However, increasing the number of GCPS didn’t have substantial effect. The results support the use of the DLT model as it provides the required accuracy for ASPRS large scale mapping standards. However, well distributed sets of GCPs is a key to provide such accuracy. The model is simple to apply and doesn’t need substantial computations.

Keywords: mars, photogrammetry, MOLA, HiRISE

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Authors: Minjuan Sun

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Ever since the late 1990s, China has experienced explosive growth in consumer lending, especially in short-term consumer loans, among which, the growth rate of non-bank lending has surpassed bank lending due to the development in financial technology. On the other hand, China does not have a universal credit scoring and registration system that can guide lenders during the processes of credit evaluation and risk control, for example, an individual’s bank credit records are not available for online lenders to see and vice versa. Given this context, the purpose of this paper is three-fold. First, we explore if and how alternative digital footprint data can be utilized to assess borrower’s creditworthiness. Then, we perform a comparative analysis of machine learning methods for the canonical problem of credit default prediction. Finally, we analyze, from an institutional point of view, the necessity of establishing a viable and nationally universal credit registration and scoring system utilizing online digital footprints, so that more people in China can have better access to the consumption loan market. Two different types of digital footprint data are utilized to match with bank’s loan default records. Each separately captures distinct dimensions of a person’s characteristics, such as his shopping patterns and certain aspects of his personality or inferred demographics revealed by social media features like profile image and nickname. We find both datasets can generate either acceptable or excellent prediction results, and different types of data tend to complement each other to get better performances. Typically, the traditional types of data banks normally use like income, occupation, and credit history, update over longer cycles, hence they can’t reflect more immediate changes, like the financial status changes caused by the business crisis; whereas digital footprints can update daily, weekly, or monthly, thus capable of providing a more comprehensive profile of the borrower’s credit capabilities and risks. From the empirical and quantitative examination, we believe digital footprints can become an alternative information source for creditworthiness assessment, because of their near-universal data coverage, and because they can by and large resolve the "thin-file" issue, due to the fact that digital footprints come in much larger volume and higher frequency.

Keywords: credit score, digital footprint, Fintech, machine learning

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Authors: Bruno Baptista, Andreia S. R. Oliveira, Patricia V. Mendonca, Jorge F. J. Coelho, Fani Sousa

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Drug delivery systems are designed to allow adequate protection and controlled delivery of drugs to specific locations. These systems aim to reduce side effects and control the biodistribution profile of drugs, thus improving therapeutic efficacy. This study involved the synthesis of polymeric nanoparticles, based on amphiphilic diblock copolymers, comprising a biocompatible, poly (oligo (ethylene oxide) methyl ether methacrylate (POEOMA) as hydrophilic segment and a pH-sensitive block, the poly (2-diisopropylamino)ethyl methacrylate) (PDPA). The objective of this work was the development of polymeric pH-responsive nanoparticles to encapsulate and carry small RNAs as a model to further develop non-coding RNAs delivery systems with therapeutic value. The responsiveness of PDPA to pH allows the electrostatic interaction of these copolymers with nucleic acids at acidic pH, as a result of the protonation of the tertiary amine groups of this polymer at pH values below its pKa (around 6.2). Initially, the molecular weight parameters and chemical structure of the block copolymers were determined by size exclusion chromatography (SEC) and nuclear magnetic resonance (1H-NMR) spectroscopy, respectively. Then, the complexation with small RNAs was verified, generating polyplexes with sizes ranging from 300 to 600 nm and with encapsulation efficiencies around 80%, depending on the molecular weight of the polymers, their composition, and concentration used. The effect of pH on the morphology of nanoparticles was evaluated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) being verified that at higher pH values, particles tend to lose their spherical shape. Since this work aims to develop systems for the delivery of non-coding RNAs, studies on RNA protection (contact with RNase, FBS, and Trypsin) and cell viability were also carried out. It was found that they induce some protection against constituents of the cellular environment and have no cellular toxicity. In summary, this research work contributes to the development of pH-sensitive polymers, capable of protecting and encapsulating RNA, in a relatively simple and efficient manner, to further be applied on drug delivery to specific sites where pH may have a critical role, as it can occur in several cancer environments.

Keywords: drug delivery systems, pH-responsive polymers, POEOMA-b-PDPA, small RNAs

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Authors: Ariadne Katsouras, Andrea Chareunsy

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The number of large hydroelectric dams in the world has increased from almost 6,000 in the 1950s to over 45,000 in 2000. Dams are often built to increase the economic development of a country. This can occur in several ways. Large dams take many years to build so the construction process employs many people for a long time and that increased production and income can flow on into other sectors of the economy. Additionally, the provision of electricity can help raise people’s living standards and if the electricity is sold to another country then the money can be used to provide other public goods for the residents of the country that own the dam. Dams are also built to control flooding and provide irrigation water. Most dams are of these types. This paper will give an overview of the environmental and economic theories of the impact of dams in different regions of the world. There is a difference in the degree of environmental and economic impacts due to the varying climates and varying social and political factors of the regions. Production of greenhouse gases from the dam’s reservoir, for instance, tends to be higher in tropical areas as opposed to Nordic environments. However, there are also common impacts due to construction of the dam itself, such as, flooding of land for the creation of the reservoir and displacement of local populations. Economically, the local population tends to benefit least from the construction of the dam. Additionally, if a foreign company owns the dam or the government subsidises the cost of electricity to businesses, then the funds from electricity production do not benefit the residents of the country the dam is built in. So, in the end, the dams can benefit a country economically, but the varying factors related to its construction and how these are dealt with, determine the level of benefit, if any, of the dam. Some of the theories or practices used to evaluate the potential value of a dam include cost-benefit analysis, environmental impacts assessments and regressions. Systems analysis is also a useful method. While these theories have value, there are also possible shortcomings. Cost-benefit analysis converts all the costs and benefits to dollar values, which can be problematic. Environmental impact assessments, likewise, can be incomplete, especially if the assessment does not include feedback effects, that is, they only consider the initial impact. Finally, regression analysis is dependent on the available data and again would not necessarily include feedbacks. Systems analysis is a method that can allow more complex modelling of the environment and the economic system. It would allow a clearer picture to emerge of the impacts and can include a long time frame.

Keywords: comparison, economics, environment, hydroelectric dams

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Authors: Emielex M. Aguilar, Kristen Angela G. Cruz, Czarina Joie L. Rivera, Francis Dave C. Tan, Gavino Ivan N. Tanodra, Dianne Katrina G. Usana, Mary Grace T. Valentin, Nico Albert S. Vasquez, Edwin Monico C. Wee

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The risk of diabetes mellitus is increasing in the Philippines, with Metformin and Insulin as drugs commonly used for its management. The use of herbal medicines has grown increasingly, especially among the elderly population. Moringa oleifera or malunggay is one of the most common plants in the country, and several studies have shown the plant to exhibit a hypoglycemic property with its flavonoid content. This study aims to investigate the possible effects of concomitant use of Metformin and powdered M. oleifera leaves (PMOL) on blood glucose levels. Twenty male Sprague-Dawley rats were equally distributed into four groups. Fasting blood glucose levels of the rats were measured prior to experimentation. The following treatments were administered to the four groups, respectively: glucose only 2 g/kg; glucose 2 g/kg + Metformin 100 mg/kg; glucose 2 g/kg + PMOL 200 mg/kg; and glucose 2 g/kg + PMOL 200 mg/kg and Metformin 100 mg/kg. Blood glucose levels were determined on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th hour post-treatment and compared between groups. Statistical analysis showed that the type of intervention did not show significance in the reduction of blood glucose levels when compared with the other groups (p=0.378), while the effect of time exhibited significance (p=0.000). The interaction between the type of intervention and time of blood glucose measurement was shown to be significant (p=0.024). Within each group, the control and PMOL-treated groups showed significant reduction in blood glucose levels over time with p-values of 0.000 and 0.000, respectively, while the Metformin-treated and the combination groups had p-values of 0.062 and 0.093, respectively, which are not significant. The descriptive data also showed that the mean total reduction of blood glucose levels of the Metformin and PMOL combination treatment group was lower than the PMOL-treated group alone, while the mean total reduction of blood glucose levels of the combination group was higher than the Metformin-treated group alone. Based on the results obtained, the combination of Metformin and PMOL did not significantly lower the blood glucose levels of the rats as compared to the other groups. However, the concomitant use of Metformin and PMOL may affect each other’s blood glucose lowering activity. Additionally, prolonged time of exposure and delay in the first blood glucose measurement after treatment could exhibit a significant effect in the blood glucose levels. Further studies are recommended regarding the effects of the concomitant use of the two agents on blood glucose levels.

Keywords: blood glucose levels, concomitant use, metformin, Moringa oleifera

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Authors: Adebisi Adunola Demehin, Wanlaya Thamnarak, Jaruwan Chatwichien, Chatchakorn Eurtivong, Kiattawee Choowongkomon, Somsak Ruchirawat, Nopporn Thasana

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The epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is a transmembrane glycoprotein involved in cellular signalling processes and, its aberrant activity is crucial in the development of many cancers such as lung cancer. Selaginellaceae are fern allies that have long been used in Chinese traditional medicine to treat various cancer types, especially lung cancer. Biflavonoids, the major secondary metabolites in Selaginellaceae, have numerous pharmacological activities, including anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory. For instance, amentoflavone induces a cytotoxic effect in the human NSCLC cell line via the inhibition of PARP-1. However, to the best of our knowledge, there are no studies on biflavonoids as EGFR inhibitors. Thus, this study aims to investigate the EGFR inhibitory activities of biflavonoids isolated from Selaginella siamensis and Selaginella bryopteris. Amentoflavone, tetrahydroamentoflavone, sciadopitysin, robustaflavone, robustaflavone-4-methylether, delicaflavone, and chrysocauloflavone were isolated from the ethyl-acetate extract of the whole plants. The structures were determined using NMR spectroscopy and mass spectrometry. In vitro study was conducted to evaluate their cytotoxicity against A549, HEPG2, and T47D human cancer cell lines using the MTT assay. In addition, a target-based assay was performed to investigate their EGFR inhibitory activity using the kinase inhibition assay. Finally, a molecular docking study was conducted to predict the binding modes of the compounds. Robustaflavone-4-methylether and delicaflavone showed the best cytotoxic activity on all the cell lines with IC50 (µM) values of 18.9 ± 2.1 and 22.7 ± 3.3 on A549, respectively. Of these biflavonoids, delicaflavone showed the most potent EGFR inhibitory activity with an 84% relative inhibition at 0.02 nM using erlotinib as a positive control. Robustaflavone-4-methylether showed a 78% inhibition at 0.15 nM. The docking scores obtained from the molecular docking study correlated with the kinase inhibition assay. Robustaflavone-4-methylether and delicaflavone had a docking score of 72.0 and 86.5, respectively. The inhibitory activity of delicaflavone seemed to be linked with the C2”=C3” and 3-O-4”’ linkage pattern. Thus, this study suggests that the structural features of these compounds could serve as a basis for developing new EGFR-TK inhibitors.

Keywords: anticancer, biflavonoids, EGFR, molecular docking, Selaginellaceae

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Authors: Marek Dosbaba

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Within the mining sector, SEM-based Automated Mineralogy (AM) has been the standard application for quickly and efficiently handling mineral processing tasks. Over the last decade, the trend has been to analyze larger numbers of samples, often with a higher level of detail. This has necessitated a shift from interactive sample analysis performed by an operator using a SEM, to an increased reliance on offline processing to analyze and report the data. In response to this trend, TESCAN TIMA Mineral Analyzer is designed to quickly create a virtual copy of the studied samples, thereby preserving all the necessary information. Depending on the selected data acquisition mode, TESCAN TIMA can perform hyperspectral mapping and save an X-ray spectrum for each pixel or segment, respectively. This approach allows the user to browse through elemental distribution maps of all elements detectable by means of energy dispersive spectroscopy. Re-evaluation of the existing data for the presence of previously unconsidered elements is possible without the need to repeat the analysis. Additional tiers of data such as a secondary electron or cathodoluminescence images can also be recorded. To take full advantage of these information-rich datasets, TIMA utilizes a new archiving tool introduced by TESCAN. The dataset size can be reduced for long-term storage and all information can be recovered on-demand in case of renewed interest. TESCAN TIMA is optimized for network storage of its datasets because of the larger data storage capacity of servers compared to local drives, which also allows multiple users to access the data remotely. This goes hand in hand with the support of remote control for the entire data acquisition process. TESCAN also brings a newly extended open-source data format that allows other applications to extract, process and report AM data. This offers the ability to link TIMA data to large databases feeding plant performance dashboards or geometallurgical models. The traditional tabular particle-by-particle or grain-by-grain export process is preserved and can be customized with scripts to include user-defined particle/grain properties.

Keywords: Tescan, electron microscopy, mineralogy, SEM, automated mineralogy, database, TESCAN TIMA, open format, archiving, big data

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Authors: Hsin-Yueh Chang, Pin-Chen Liao, Jo-Shu Chang, Chun-Yen Chen

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Biofuel has drawn much attention as a potential substitute to fossil fuels. However, biodiesel from waste oil, oil crops or other oil sources can only satisfy partial existing demands for transportation. Due to the feature of being clean, green and viable for mass production, using microalgae as a feedstock for biodiesel is regarded as a possible solution for a low-carbon and sustainable society. In particular, Thraustochytrium sp. BM2, an indigenous heterotrophic microalga, possesses the potential for metabolizing glycerol to produce lipids. Hence, it is being considered as a promising microalgae-based oil source for biodiesel production and other applications. This study was to optimize the culture pH, scale up, assess the feasibility of producing microalgal lipid from crude glycerol and apply operation strategies following optimal results from shake flask system in a 5L stirred-tank fermenter for further enhancing lipid productivities. Cultivation of Thraustochytrium sp. BM2 without pH control resulted in the highest lipid production of 3944 mg/L and biomass production of 4.85 g/L. Next, when initial glycerol and corn steep liquor (CSL) concentration increased five times (50 g and 62.5 g, respectively), the overall lipid productivity could reach 124 mg/L/h. However, when using crude glycerol as a sole carbon source, direct addition of crude glycerol could inhibit culture growth. Therefore, acid and metal salt pretreatment methods were utilized to purify the crude glycerol. Crude glycerol pretreated with acid and CaCl₂ had the greatest overall lipid productivity 131 mg/L/h when used as a carbon source and proved to be a better substitute for pure glycerol as carbon source in Thraustochytrium sp. BM2 cultivation medium. Engineering operation strategies such as fed-batch and semi-batch operation were applied in the cultivation of Thraustochytrium sp. BM2 for the improvement of lipid production. In cultivation of fed-batch operation strategy, harvested biomass 132.60 g and lipid 69.15 g were obtained. Also, lipid yield 0.20 g/g glycerol was same as in batch cultivation, although with poor overall lipid productivity 107 mg/L/h. In cultivation of semi-batch operation strategy, overall lipid productivity could reach 158 mg/L/h due to the shorter cultivation time. Harvested biomass and lipid achieved 232.62 g and 126.61 g respectively. Lipid yield was improved from 0.20 to 0.24 g/g glycerol. Besides, product costs of three kinds of operation strategies were also calculated. The lowest product cost 12.42 $NTD/g lipid was obtained while employing semi-batch operation strategy and reduced 33% in comparison with batch operation strategy.

Keywords: heterotrophic microalga Thrasutochytrium sp. BM2, microalgal lipid, crude glycerol, fermentation strategy, biodiesel

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Authors: Ezzati Givi M., Hoveizi E., Nezhad Marani N.

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Platinum-based anticancer therapeutics are the most widely used drugs in clinical chemotherapy but have major limitations and various side effects in clinical applications. Gonadotoxicity and sterility is one of the most common complications for cancer survivors, which seem to be drug-specific and dose-related. Therefore, many efforts have been dedicated to discovering a new structure of platinum-based anticancer agents with improved therapeutic index, fewer side effects. In this regard, new Pt(II)-phosphane complexes containing heterocyclic thionate ligands (PCTL) have been synthesized, which show more potent antitumor activities in comparison to cisplatin. Cisplatin, the best leading metal-based antitumor drug in the field, induces testicular toxicity on Leydig and Sertoli cells leading to serious side effects such as azoospermia and infertility. Therefore in the present study, we aimed to investigate the cytotoxicity effect of PCTL on mice TM4 Sertoli cells with particular emphasis on the role of autophagy in comparison to cisplatin. In this study, an MTT assay was performed to evaluate the IC50 of PCTL and to analyze the TM3 Leydig cell's viability. Cells morphology was evaluated via invert microscope and Changing in morphology for nuclei swelling or autophagic vacuoles formation were assessed by DAPI and MDC staining. Testosterone production in the culture medium was measured using an ELISA kit. Finally, the expression of Autophagy-related genes, Atg5, Beclin1 and p62, were analyzed by qPCR. Based on the obtained results by MTT, the IC50 value of PCTL was 50 μM in TM3 cells and cytotoxic effects was in a dose- and time-dependent manner. Cells morphological changes investigated by inverted microscopy, DAPI, and MDC staining which showed the cytotoxic concentrations of PCTL was significantly higher than cisplatin in the treated TM3 Leydig cells. The results of PCR showed a lack of expression of the p62, Atg5 and Beclin1 gene in TM3 cells treated with PCTL in comparison to cisplatin and control groups. It should be noted that the effects of 25 μM PCTL concentration on TM3 cells have been associated with increased testosterone production and secretion, which requires further study to explain the possible causes and involved molecular mechanisms. The results of the study showed that the PCTL had less-lethal effects on TM3 cells in comparison to cisplatin and probably did not induce autophagy in TM3 cells.

Keywords: platinum-based anticancer agents, cisplatin, Leydig TM3 cells, autophagy

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Authors: Maxence Queyrel, Edi Prifti, Alexandre Templier, Jean-Daniel Zucker

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Analysis of the human microbiome using metagenomic sequencing data has demonstrated high ability in discriminating various human diseases. Raw metagenomic sequencing data require multiple complex and computationally heavy bioinformatics steps prior to data analysis. Such data contain millions of short sequences read from the fragmented DNA sequences and stored as fastq files. Conventional processing pipelines consist in multiple steps including quality control, filtering, alignment of sequences against genomic catalogs (genes, species, taxonomic levels, functional pathways, etc.). These pipelines are complex to use, time consuming and rely on a large number of parameters that often provide variability and impact the estimation of the microbiome elements. Training Deep Neural Networks directly from raw sequencing data is a promising approach to bypass some of the challenges associated with mainstream bioinformatics pipelines. Most of these methods use the concept of word and sentence embeddings that create a meaningful and numerical representation of DNA sequences, while extracting features and reducing the dimensionality of the data. In this paper we present an end-to-end approach that classifies patients into disease groups directly from raw metagenomic reads: metagenome2vec. This approach is composed of four steps (i) generating a vocabulary of k-mers and learning their numerical embeddings; (ii) learning DNA sequence (read) embeddings; (iii) identifying the genome from which the sequence is most likely to come and (iv) training a multiple instance learning classifier which predicts the phenotype based on the vector representation of the raw data. An attention mechanism is applied in the network so that the model can be interpreted, assigning a weight to the influence of the prediction for each genome. Using two public real-life data-sets as well a simulated one, we demonstrated that this original approach reaches high performance, comparable with the state-of-the-art methods applied directly on processed data though mainstream bioinformatics workflows. These results are encouraging for this proof of concept work. We believe that with further dedication, the DNN models have the potential to surpass mainstream bioinformatics workflows in disease classification tasks.

Keywords: deep learning, disease prediction, end-to-end machine learning, metagenomics, multiple instance learning, precision medicine

Procedia PDF Downloads 125

Authors: Venkata Srikanth Meka, Nur Arthirah Binti Ahmad Tarmizi Tan, Muhammad Syahmi Bin Md Nazir, Adinarayana Gorajana, Senthil Rajan Dharmalingam

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Biphasic drug delivery systems are designed to release drug at two different rates, either fast/prolonged or prolonged/fast. A fast/prolonged release system provides a burst drug release at initial stage followed by a slow release over a prolonged period of time and in case of prolonged/fast release system, the release pattern is vice versa. Terminalia catappa gum (TCG) is a natural polymer and was successfully proven as a novel pharmaceutical excipient. The main objective of the present research is to investigate the applicability of natural polymer, Terminalia catappa gum in the design of oral biphasic drug delivery system in the form of mini tablets by using a model drug, buspirone HCl. This investigation aims to produce a biphasic release drug delivery system of buspirone by combining immediate release and prolonged release mini tablets into a capsule. For immediate release mini tablets, a dose of 4.5 mg buspirone was prepared by varying the concentration of superdisintegrant; crospovidone. On the other hand, prolonged release mini tablets were produced by using different concentrations of the natural polymer; TCG with a buspirone dose of 3mg. All mini tablets were characterized for weight variation, hardness, friability, disintegration, content uniformity and dissolution studies. The optimized formulations of immediate and prolonged release mini tablets were finally combined in a capsule and was evaluated for release studies. FTIR and DSC studies were conducted to study the drug-polymer interaction. All formulations of immediate release and prolonged release mini tablets were passed all the in-process quality control tests according to US Pharmacopoeia. The disintegration time of immediate release mini tablets of different formulations was varied from 2-6 min, and maximum drug release was achieved in lesser than 60 min. Whereas prolonged release mini tablets made with TCG have shown good drug retarding properties. Formulations were controlled for about 4-10 hrs with varying concentration of TCG. As the concentration of TCG increased, the drug release retarding property also increased. The optimised mini tablets were packed in capsules and were evaluated for the release mechanism. The capsule dosage form has clearly exhibited the biphasic release of buspirone, indicating that TCG is a suitable natural polymer for this study. FTIR and DSC studies proved that there was no interaction between the drug and polymer. Based on the above positive results, it can be concluded that TCG is a suitable polymer for the biphasic drug delivery systems.

Keywords: Terminalia catappa gum, biphasic release, mini tablets, tablet in capsule, natural polymers

Procedia PDF Downloads 393

Authors: Peter Edwar Mortada Nasif

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The use of CAD (Computer Aided Design) technology is ubiquitous in the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry. This has led to its inclusion in the curriculum of architecture schools in Nigeria as an important part of the training module. This article examines the ethical issues involved in implementing CAD (Computer Aided Design) content into the architectural education curriculum. Using existing literature, this study begins with the benefits of integrating CAD into architectural education and the responsibilities of different stakeholders in the implementation process. It also examines issues related to the negative use of information technology and the perceived negative impact of CAD use on design creativity. Using a survey method, data from the architecture department of Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu Uli University was collected to serve as a case study on how the issues raised were being addressed. The article draws conclusions on what ensures successful ethical implementation. Millions of people around the world suffer from hepatitis C, one of the world's deadliest diseases. Interferon (IFN) is treatment options for patients with hepatitis C, but these treatments have their side effects. Our research focused on developing an oral small molecule drug that targets hepatitis C virus (HCV) proteins and has fewer side effects. Our current study aims to develop a drug based on a small molecule antiviral drug specific for the hepatitis C virus (HCV). Drug development using laboratory experiments is not only expensive, but also time-consuming to conduct these experiments. Instead, in this in silicon study, we used computational techniques to propose a specific antiviral drug for the protein domains of found in the hepatitis C virus. This study used homology modeling and abs initio modeling to generate the 3D structure of the proteins, then identifying pockets in the proteins. Acceptable lagans for pocket drugs have been developed using the de novo drug design method. Pocket geometry is taken into account when designing ligands. Among the various lagans generated, a new specific for each of the HCV protein domains has been proposed.

Keywords: drug design, anti-viral drug, in-silicon drug design, hepatitis C virus, computer aided design, CAD education, education improvement, small-size contractor automatic pharmacy, PLC, control system, management system, communication

Procedia PDF Downloads 22

Authors: Fatima Muhammad Abdulkadir, D. B. Maikaje, Y. A. Umar

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A study conducted to determine cercariae diversity and prevalence of trematode infection in freshwater snails from six freshwater bodies selected by systematic random sampling in Kaduna State was carried from January 2013 to December 2013. Freshwater snails and cercariae harvested from the study sites were morphologically identified. A total of 23,823 freshwater snails were collected from the six freshwater bodies: Bagoma dam, Gimbawa dam, Kangimi dam, Kubacha dam, Manchok water intake and Saminaka water intake. The observed freshwater snail species were: Melanoides tuberculata, Biomphalaria pfeifferi, Bulinus globosus, Lymnaea natalensis, Physa sp., Cleopatra bulimoides, Bellamya unicolor and Lanistes varicus. The freshwater snails were exposed to artificial bright light from a 100 Watt electric bulb in the laboratory to induce cercarial shedding. Of the total freshwater snails collected, 10.55% released one or more types of cercariae. Seven morphological types of cercariae were shed by six freshwater snail species namely: Brevifurcate-apharyngeate distome, Amphistome, Gymnocephalus, Longifurcate-pharyngeate monostome, Longifurcate-pharyngeate distome, Echinostome and Xiphidio cercariae. Infection was monotype in most of the freshwater snails collected; however, Physa species presented a mixed infection with Gymnocephalus and Longifurcate-pharyngeate distome cercariae. B. globosus and B. pfeifferi were the most preferred intermediate hosts with the prevalence of 13.48% and 13.46%, respectively. The diversity and prevalence of cercariae varied among the six freshwater bodies with Manchok water intake having the highest infestation (14.3%) and the least recorded in Kangimi dam (3.9%). There was a correlation trend between the number of freshwater snails and trematode infection with Manchok exhibiting the highest and Bagoma none. The highest cercarial diversity was observed in B. pfeifferi and B. globosus with four morphotypes each, and the lowest was in M. tuberculata with one morphotype. The general distribution of freshwater snails and the trematode cercariae they shed suggests the risk of human and animals to trematodiasis in Manchok community. Public health education to raise awareness on individual and communal action that may control snail breeding sites, prevent transmission and provide access to treatment should be intensified.

Keywords: Cercariae, diversity, freshwater snails, prevalence, trematodiasis

Procedia PDF Downloads 233

Authors: Arianna Nativio, Zoran Kapelan, Jan Peter van der Hoek

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Bio-composite materials are becoming increasingly popular in various applications, such as the automotive industry. Usually, bio-composite materials are made from natural resources recovered from plants, now, a new type of bio-composite material has begun to be produced in the Netherlands. This material is made from resources recovered from drinking water treatments (calcite), wastewater treatment (cellulose), and material from surface water management (aquatic plants). Surface water, raw drinking water, and wastewater can be contaminated with pathogens and chemical compounds. Therefore, it would be valuable to develop a framework to assess, monitor, and control the potential risks. Indeed, the goal is to define the major risks in terms of human health, quality of materials, and environment associated with the production and application of these new materials. This study describes the general risk assessment framework, starting with a qualitative risk assessment. The qualitative risk analysis was carried out by using the HAZOP methodology for the hazard identification phase. The HAZOP methodology is logical and structured and able to identify the hazards in the first stage of the design when hazards and associated risks are not well known. The identified hazards were analyzed to define the potential associated risks, and then these were evaluated by using the qualitative Event Tree Analysis. ETA is a logical methodology used to define the consequences for a specific hazardous incidents, evaluating the failure modes of safety barriers and dangerous intermediate events that lead to the final scenario (risk). This paper shows the effectiveness of combining of HAZOP and qualitative ETA methodologies for hazard identification and risk mapping. Then, key risks were identified, and a quantitative framework was developed based on the type of risks identified, such as QMRA and QCRA. These two models were applied to assess human health risks due to the presence of pathogens and chemical compounds such as heavy metals into the bio-composite materials. Thus, due to these contaminations, the bio-composite product, during its application, might release toxic substances into the environment leading to a negative environmental impact. Therefore, leaching tests are going to be planned to simulate the application of these materials into the environment and evaluate the potential leaching of inorganic substances, assessing environmental risk.

Keywords: bio-composite, risk assessment, water reuse, resource recovery

Procedia PDF Downloads 109

Authors: Geliashvili T. M., Tyulyandina A. S., Valiev A. K., Kononets P. V., Kharatishvili T. K., Salkov A. G., Pronin A. I., Gadzhieva E. H., Parnas A. V., Ilyakov V. S.

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Aim/Introduction: Metastasis (Mts) to the sternum, while extremely rare in differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) (1), requires a personalized, multidisciplinary treatment approach. In aggressively growing Mts to the sternum, which rapidly become unresectable, a comprehensive therapeutic and diagnostic approach is particularly important. Materials and methods: We present a clinical case of solitary Mts to the sternum as first manifestation of a papillary thyroid microcarcinoma in a 55-year-old man. Results: 18F-FDG PET/CT after thyroidectomy confirmed the solitary Mts to the sternum with extremely high FDG uptake (SUVmax=71,1), which predicted its radioiodine-refractory (RIR). Due to close attachment to the mediastinum and rapid growth, Mts was considered unresectable. During the next three months, the patient received targeted therapy with the tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) Lenvatinib 24 mg per day. 1st course of radioiodine therapy (RIT) 6 GBq was also performed, the results of which confirmed the RIR of the tumor process. As a result of systemic therapy (targeted therapy combined with RIT and suppressive hormone therapy with L-thyroxine), there was a significant biochemical response (decrease of serum thyroglobulin level from 50,000 ng/ml to 550 ng/ml) and a partial response with decrease of tumor size (from 80x69x123 mm to 65x50x112 mm) and decrease of FDG accumulation (SUVmax from 71.1 to 63). All of this made possible to perform surgical treatment of Mts - sternal extirpation with its replacement by an individual titanium implant. At the control examination, the stimulated thyroglobulin level was only 134 ng/ml, and PET/CT revealed postoperative areas of 18F-FDG metabolism in the removed sternal Mts. Also, 18F-FDG PET/CT in the early (metabolic) stage revealed two new bone Mts (in the area of L3 SUVmax=17,32 and right iliac bone SUVmax=13,73), which, as well as the removed sternal Mts, appeared to be RIRs at the 2nd course of RIT 6 GBq. Subsequently, on 02.2022, external beam radiation therapy (EBRT) was performed on the newly identified oligometastatic bone foci. At present, the patient is under dynamic monitoring and in the process of suppressive hormone therapy with L-thyroxine. Conclusion: Thus, only due to the early prescription of targeted TKI therapy was it possible to perform surgical resection of Mts to the sternum, thereby improve the patient's quality of life and preserve the possibility of radical treatment in case of oligometastatic disease progression.

Keywords: differentiated thyroid cancer, metastasis to the sternum, radioiodine therapy, radioiodine-refractory cancer, targeted therapy, lenvatinib

Procedia PDF Downloads 105

Authors: Yohannes Kelifa, Gomathi Periasamy, Aman Karim

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Introduction: Diabetes mellitus has become a major public health and economical problem across the globe. Modern antidiabetic drugs have a number of limitations, and scientific investigation of traditional herbal remedies used for diabetes may provide novel leads for the development of new antidiabetic drugs that can be used as alternative or complementary to available antidiabetic allopathic medications. Though Myrica salicifolia Hochst. ex A. Rich. is used for the management of diabetes in Ethiopian traditional medicine, there was no previous scientific evidence about its antidiabetic effect to the authors’ knowledge. This study was undertaken to evaluate the antidiabetic activity the root extracts of Myrica salicifolia in streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic mice. Methods: Experimental diabetes was induced by intraperitoneal administration of STZ (150 mg/kg) in male mice. Diabetic mice were treated with oral doses of M. salicifolia root extracts at 200, 400 and 600 mg/kg, and its fractions (chloroform, ethyl acetate, n-butanol and aqueous) at a dose of 400 mg/kg daily for 15 days. Fasting blood glucose level (BGL) was measured at 0, 5th,10th, and 15th day. The free radical scavenging activity of the crude extract was determined using in vitro by DPPH assay. The statistical significance was assessed by one-way ANOVA, followed by Tukey’s multiple comparison tests. Results were considered significant when p < 0.05. Results: Daily administration of the M. salicifolia 80% methanol root extracts (at three different doses (200, 400 and 600 mg/kg) significantly (p < 0.05, p < 0.01 and p < 0.001) reduced fasting BGL compared with diabetic control. The aqueous and butanol fractions at a dose of 400 mg/kg resulted in maximum reduction of fasting BGL by 42.39%, and 52.13%, respectively at the 15th day in STZ-induced diabetic mice. Free radical scavenging activity of the 80% methanol extract of M. salicifolia was comparable to ascorbic acid. The IC50 values of the crude extract and ascorbic acid (a reference compound) were found to be 4.54 μg/ml and 4.39 μg/ml, respectively. Conclusion: These findings demonstrated that the methanolic extracts of M. salicifolia root and its fractions (n-butanol and aqueous) exhibit a significant antihyperglycemic activity in STZ-induced diabetic mice. Furthermore, the result of the present study indicates that M. salicifolia root extract is a potential source of natural antioxidants.

Keywords: antidiabetic, diabetes mellitus, DPPH, mice, Myrica salicifolia, streptozotocin

Procedia PDF Downloads 196

Authors: Kevin Kellner, Nga Lao, Orla Coleman, Paula Meleady, Niall Barron

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Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cells are the prominent cell line used in biopharmaceutical production. To improve yields and find beneficial bioprocess phenotypes genetic engineering plays an essential role in recent research. The miR-23 cluster, specifically miR-24 and miR-27, was first identified as differentially expressed during hypothermic conditions suggesting a role in proliferation and productivity in CHO cells. In this study, we used sponge decoy technology to stably deplete the miRNA expression of the cluster. Furthermore, we implemented the CRISPR/Cas9 system to knockdown miRNA expression. Sponge constructs were designed for an imperfect binding of the miRNA target, protecting from RISC mediated cleavage. GuideRNAs for the CRISPR/Cas9 system were designed to target the seed region of the miRNA. The expression of mature miRNA and precursor were confirmed using RT-qPCR. For both approaches stable expressing mixed populations were generated and characterised in batch cultures. It was shown, that CRISPR/Cas9 can be implemented in CHO cells with achieving high knockdown efficacy of every single member of the cluster. Targeting of one miRNA member showed that its genomic paralog is successfully targeted as well. The stable depletion of miR-24 using CRISPR/Cas9 showed increased growth and specific productivity in a CHO-K1 mAb expressing cell line. This phenotype was further characterized using quantitative label-free LC-MS/MS showing 186 proteins differently expressed with 19 involved in proliferation and 26 involved in protein folding/translation. Targeting miR-27 in the same cell line showed increased viability in late stages of the culture compared to the control. To evaluate the phenotype in an industry relevant cell line; the miR-23 cluster, miR-24 and miR-27 were stably depleted in a Fc fusion CHO-S cell line which showed increased batch titers up to 1.5-fold. In this work, we highlighted that the stable depletion of the miR-23 cluster and its members can improve the bioprocess phenotype concerning growth and productivity in two different cell lines. Furthermore, we showed that using CRISPR/Cas9 is comparable to the traditional sponge decoy technology.

Keywords: Chinese Hamster ovary cells, CRISPR/Cas9, microRNAs, sponge decoy technology

Procedia PDF Downloads 198

Authors: Olfat A. Mohamed

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Rhamnolipids biosurfactants have distinct properties given them importance in many industrial applications, especially their great new future applications in cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries. These applications have encouraged the search for diverse and renewable resources to control the cost of production. The experimental results were then applied to find a suitable mathematical model for obtaining the design criteria of the batch bioreactor. This research aims to produce Rhamnolipids from different oily wastewater sources such as petroleum crude oil (PO) and vegetable oil (VO) by using Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 9027. Different concentrations of the PO and the VO are added to the media broth separately are in arrangement (0.5 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5 % v/v) and (2, 4, 6, 8 and 10%v/v). The effect of the initial concentration of oil residues and the addition of glycerol and palmitic acid was investigated as an inducer in the production of rhamnolipid and the surface tension of the broth. It was found that 2% of the waste (PO) and 6% of the waste (VO) was the best initial substrate concentration for the production of rhamnolipids (2.71, 5.01 g rhamnolipid/l) as arrangement. Addition of glycerol (10-20% v glycerol/v PO) to the 2% PO fermentation broth led to increase the rhamnolipid production (about 1.8-2 times fold). However, the addition of palmitic acid (5 and 10 g/l) to fermentation broth contained 6% VO rarely enhanced the production rate. The experimental data for 2% initially (PO) was used to estimate the various kinetic parameters. The following results were obtained, maximum rate or velocity of reaction (Vmax) = 0.06417 g/l.hr), yield of cell weight per unit weight of substrate utilized (Yx/s = 0.324 g Cx/g Cs) maximum specific growth rate (μmax = 0.05791 hr⁻¹), yield of rhamnolipid weight per unit weight of substrate utilized (Yp/s)=0.2571gCp/g Cs), maintenance coefficient (Ms =0.002419), Michaelis-Menten constant, (Km=6.1237 gmol/l), endogenous decay coefficient (Kd=0.002375 hr⁻¹). Predictive parameters and advanced mathematical models were applied to evaluate the time of the batch bioreactor. The results were as follows: 123.37, 129 and 139.3 hours in respect of microbial biomass, substrate and product concentration, respectively compared with experimental batch time of 120 hours in all cases. The expected mathematical models are compatible with the laboratory results and can, therefore, be considered as tools for expressing the actual system.

Keywords: batch bioreactor design, glycerol, kinetic parameters, petroleum crude oil, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, rhamnolipids biosurfactants, vegetable oil

Procedia PDF Downloads 131

Authors: Mario Perez-Won, Roberto Lemus-Mondaca, Constanza Olivares-Rivera, Fernanda Marin-Monardez

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This research presents the simultaneous application of high hydrostatic pressure (HHP) and osmotic dehydration (DO) as a pretreatment to hot –air drying of jumbo squid (Dosidicus gigas) cubes. The drying time was reduced to 2 hours at 60ºC and 5 hours at 40°C as compared to the jumbo squid samples untreated. This one was due to osmotic pressure under high-pressure treatment where increased salt saturation what caused an increasing water loss. Thus, a more reduced time during convective drying was reached, and so water effective diffusion in drying would play an important role in this research. Different working conditions such as pressure (350-550 MPa), pressure time (5-10 min), salt concentration, NaCl (10 y 15%) and drying temperature (40-60ºC) were optimized according to kinetic parameters of each mathematical model. The models used for drying experimental curves were those corresponding to Weibull, Page and Logarithmic models, however, the latest one was the best fitted to the experimental data. The values for water effective diffusivity varied from 4.82 to 6.59x10-9 m2/s for the 16 curves (DO+HHP) whereas the control samples obtained a value of 1.76 and 5.16×10-9 m2/s, for 40 and 60°C, respectively. On the other hand, quality characteristics such as color, texture, non-enzymatic browning, water holding capacity (WHC) and rehydration capacity (RC) were assessed. The L* (lightness) color parameter increased, however, b * (yellowish) and a* (reddish) parameters decreased for the DO+HHP treated samples, indicating treatment prevents sample browning. The texture parameters such as hardness and elasticity decreased, but chewiness increased with treatment, which resulted in a product with a higher tenderness and less firmness compared to the untreated sample. Finally, WHC and RC values of the most treatments increased owing to a minor damage in tissue cellular compared to untreated samples. Therefore, a knowledge regarding to the drying kinetic as well as quality characteristics of dried jumbo squid samples subjected to a pretreatment of osmotic dehydration under high hydrostatic pressure is extremely important to an industrial level so that the drying process can be successful at different pretreatment conditions and/or variable processes.

Keywords: diffusion coefficient, drying process, high pressure, jumbo squid, modelling, quality aspects

Procedia PDF Downloads 245

Authors: Saddam Husain Dhobi, Bikrant Karki

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The main objective of this paper is save money, balance ecosystem of the terrestrial organism, control global warming, and enhancing the storage capacity of the battery with requiring weight and thinness by using Cyanobacteria in the battery. To fulfill this purpose of paper we can use different methods: Analysis, Biological, Chemistry, theoretical and Physics with some engineering design. Using this different method, we can produce the special type of battery that has the long life, high storage capacity, and clean environment, save money so on and by using the byproduct of Cyanobacteria i.e. glucose. Cyanobacteria are a special type of bacteria that produces different types of extracellular glucoses and oxygen with the help of little sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide and can survive in freshwater, marine and in the land as well. In this process, O₂ is more in the comparison to plant due to rapid growth rate of Cyanobacteria. The required materials are easily available in this process to produce glucose with the help of Cyanobacteria. Since CO₂, is greenhouse gas that causes the global warming? We can utilize this gas and save our ecological balance and the byproduct (glucose) C₆H₁₂O₆ can be utilized for raw material for the battery where as O₂ escape is utilized by living organism. The glucose produce by Cyanobateria goes on Krebs's Cycle or Citric Acid Cycle, in which glucose is complete, oxidizes and all the available energy from glucose molecule has been release in the form of electron and proton as energy. If we use a suitable anodes and cathodes, we can capture these electrons and protons to produce require electricity current with the help of byproduct of Cyanobacteria. According to "Virginia Tech Bio-battery" and "Sony" 13 enzymes and the air is used to produce nearly 24 electrons from a single glucose unit. In this output power of 0.8 mW/cm, current density of 6 mA/cm, and energy storage density of 596 Ah/kg. This last figure is impressive, at roughly 10 times the energy density of the lithium-ion batteries in your mobile devices. When we use Cyanobacteria in battery, we are able to reduce Carbon dioxide, Stop global warming, and enhancing the storage capacity of battery more than 10 times that of lithium battery, saving money, balancing ecology. In this way, we can produce energy from the Cyanobacteria and use it in battery for different benefits. In addition, due to the mass, size and easy cultivation, they are better to maintain the size of battery. Hence, we can use Cyanobacteria for the battery having suitable size, enhancing the storing capacity of battery, helping the environment, portability and so on.

Keywords: anode, byproduct, cathode, cyanobacteri, glucose, storage capacity

Procedia PDF Downloads 348

Authors: Marina Aferiba Tandoh, Elsie Odei

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Peptic Ulcer Disease (PUD) is amongst the commonest gastrointestinal problems that require emergency treatment in order to preserve life. The prevalence of PUD is increasing within the Ghanaian population, deepening the need to identify factors that are associated with its occurrence. This cross-sectional study assessed the nutritional status, socioeconomic and lifestyle factors associated with PUD among patients attending the Out-Patient Department of the Tema General Hospital of Ghana. A food frequency questionnaire and a three-day, 24-hour recall were used to assess the dietary intakes of study participants. A standardized questionnaire was used to obtain information on the participants’ socio-demographic characteristics, lifestyle as well as medical history. The data was analyzed using SPSS version 22. The mean age of study participants was 32.8±15.41years. Females were significantly higher (61.4%) than males (38.6%) (p < 0.001). All participants had received some form of education, with tertiary education being the highest (52.6%). The majority of them managed their condition with medications only (86%), while 10.5% managed it with a combination of medications and diet. The rest were either by dietary counseling only (1.8%), or surgery only (1.8%). or herbal medicines (29.3%), which were made from home (7.2%) or bought from a medical store (10.8%). Most of the participants experienced a recurrence of the disease (42.1%). For those who had ever experienced recurrences of the disease, it happened when they ate acidic foods (1.8%), ate bigger portions (1.8%), starved themselves (1.8%), or were stressed (1.8%). Others also had triggers when they took certain medications (1.8%) or ate too much pepper (1.8%). About 49% of the participants were either overweight or obese with a recurrence of PUD (p>0.05). Obese patients had the highest rate of PUD recurrences (41%). Drinking alcohol was significantly associated with the recurrence of PUD (χ2= 5.243, p=0.026). Other lifestyles, such as weed smoking, fasting, and use of herbal medicine and NSAIDs did not have any significant association with the disease recurrence. There was no significant correlation between the various dietary patterns and anthropometric parameters except dietary pattern one (salty snacks, regular soft drinks, milk, sweetened yogurt, ice cream, and cooked vegetables), which had a positive correlation with weight (p=0.002) and BMI (p=0.038). PUD patients should target weight reduction actions and reduce alcohol intake as measures to control the recurrence of the disease. Nutrition Education among this population must be promoted to minimize the recurrence of PUD.

Keywords: Dietary patterns, lifestyle factors, nutritional status, peptic ulcer disease

Procedia PDF Downloads 81

Authors: Shelin Jin, Jin Huang, Shiqin Cao, Qiuzhen Jia, Bo Zhang, Zhenyu Sun

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Stripe rust and leaf rust, caused by Puccinia striiformis f.sp. tritici and Puccinia recondita f.sp. tritici are two of the most damaging diseases of wheat in China. In recent years, leaf rust has migrated to some wheat growing areas previously suitable for stripe rust, resulting in a mixture of the two diseases occurring in the same area and at the same time, and seriously damage wheat production in China, Gansu Province. The most effective method of prevention those two diseases are through the use of resistant cultivars. However, many studies have only carried out of resistance of wheat varieties for a single disease; resistance to both diseases is unknown. In order to definite the resistance composition of wheat varieties to these two diseases, 715 wheat varieties/lines from 8 breeding units in Gansu province were collected to test for the resistance to stripe rust and leaf rust at seedling stage in greenhouse and at adult plant stage in field in 2016-2018, respectively. Spore suspensions with the fresh mixture races of CYR32, CYR33, and CYR34 of Puccinia striiformis f.sp. tritici and mixture races of THTP, THTT, TKTT, and THTS of Puccinia recondita f.sp. tritici were used for inoculation separately. The result shows that only 4.74% of the varieties/lines show comprehensive resistance to strip rust and leaf rust at all growth stages, and there are 34 wheat varieties/lines including Tianxuan 67, 2006-1-4-1-4-2-7-2-3-10, 03-139-1-2-2-1-2-1, Qingnong 21, Lenghan 5, 04-203-1-1-1 and so on. In seedling stage, the frequencies of resistant varieties/lines to wheat strip rust and leaf rust were 56.64% and 30.23%. While the materials were susceptible to these diseases were 43.36% and 69.77%. 71 varieties/lines were resistant to those two diseases, accounted for 9.93%. 10 varieties/lines, accounted for 1.4%, were highly resistant (including immune/near immune) to those two diseases. In adult-plant stage, the frequencies of resistant varieties/lines to wheat strip rust and leaf rust were 76.53% and 36.11%. While the materials were susceptible to these diseases were 23.47% and 63.89%. 137 varieties/lines were resistant to those two diseases, accounted for 19.16%. 59 varieties/lines, accounted for 8.25%, were highly resistant (including immune/near immune) to those two diseases. Overall, the 715 varieties /lines had high resistance to wheat strip rust, but poor resistance to leaf rust. This study found out some resistant materials which had better comprehensive resistance to leaf rust and strip rust, also pointed out the resistance characteristics of 715 varieties/lines to those two diseases at the seedling stage and adult-plant stage, which will be of great guiding significance in wheat resistance breeding and comprehensive control those two diseases in China, Gansu Province in the future.

Keywords: Puccinia striiformis f.sp. tritici, Puccinia recondita f.sp. tritici, resistance of variety, wheat

Procedia PDF Downloads 118

Authors: Recep Kesli, Cengiz Demir, Riza Durmaz, Zekiye Bakkaloglu, Aysegul Bukulmez

Abstract:

Objective: Acute diarrhea disease in children is a major cause of morbidity worldwide and is a leading cause of mortality, and it is the most common agent responsible for acute gastroenteritis in developing countries. With hospitalized children suffering from acute enteric disease up to 50% of the analyzed specimen were positive for rotavirus. Further molecular surveillance could provide a sound basis for improving the response to epidemic gastroenteritis and could provide data needed for the introduction of vaccination programmes in the country. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of viral etiology of the gastroenteritis in children aged 0-6 years with acute gastroenteritis and to determine predominant genotypes of rotaviruses in the province of Afyonkarahisar, Turkey. Methods: An epidemiological study on rotavirus was carried out during 2016. Fecal samples obtained from the 144 rotavirus positive children with 0-6 years of ages and applied to the Pediatric Diseases Outpatient of ANS Research and Practice Hospital, Afyon Kocatepe University with the complaint of diarrhea. Bacterial agents causing gastroenteritis were excluded by using bacteriological culture methods and finally, no growth observed. Rotavirus antigen was examined by both the immunochromatographic (One Step Rotavirus and Adenovirus Combo Test, China) and ELISA (Premier Rotaclone, USA) methods in stool samples. Rotavirus RNA was detected by using one step real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). G and P genotypes were determined using RT-PCR with consensus primers of VP7 and VP4 genes, followed by semi nested type-specific multiplex PCR. Results: Of the total 144 rotavirus antigen-positive samples with RT-PCR, 4 (2,8%) were rejected, 95 (66%) were examined, and 45 (31,2%) have not been examined for PCR yet. Ninety-one (95,8%) of the 95 examined samples were found to be rotavirus positive with RT-PCR. Rotavirus subgenotyping distributions in G, P and G/P genotype groups were determined as; G1:45%, G2:27%, G3:13%, G9:13%, G4:1% and G12:1% for G genotype, and P[4]:33%, P[8]:66%, P[10]:1% for P genotype, and G1P[8]:%37, G2P[4]:%21, G3P[8]:%10, G4P[8]:%1, G9P[8]:%8, G2P[8]:%3 for G/P genotype . Not common genotype combination were %20 in G/P genotype. Conclusions: This study subscribes to the global agreement of the molecular epidemiology of rotavirus which will be useful in guiding the alternative and application of rotavirus vaccines or effective control and interception. Determining the diversity and rates of rotavirus genotypes will definitely provide guidelines for developing the most suitable vaccine.

Keywords: gastroenteritis, genotyping, rotavirus, RT-PCR

Procedia PDF Downloads 241

Authors: Radovan Čobanović, Milica Rankov Šicar

Abstract:

In the modern bakery various supplements are used to attract more customers. Analyzed sample decorative toppings are consisted of flax seeds, corn grits, oatmeal, wheat flakes, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, soybean sprouts are used as decoration for the bread. Our goal was to extend the product shelf life based on the analysis. According to the plan of sustainability it was defined that sample which already had expired shelf life had to be stored for 5 months at 25°C and analyzed every month from the day of reception until spoilage occurs. Samples were subjected to sensory analysis (appearance, odor, taste, color, and consistency), microbiological analysis (Salmonella spp., Bacillus cereus, Enterobacteriaceae and moulds) and chemistry analysis (free fatty acids (as oleic), peroxide number, water content and degree of acidity). All analyses were tested according: sensory analysis ISO 6658, Salmonella spp ISO 6579, Bacillus cereus ISO 7932, Enterobacteriaceae ISO 21528-2 and moulds ISO 21527-1, free fatty acids (as oleic) ISO 660, peroxide number ISO 3960, water content and degree of acidity Serbian ordinance on the methods of chemical analysis. After five months of storage, there had been the first changes concerning of sensory properties of the product. In the sample were visible worms and creations which look like spider nets linking seeds and cereal. The sample had smell on rancid and pungent. The results of microbiological analysis showed that Salmonella spp was not detected, Enterobacteriaceae were < 10 cfu/g during all 5 months but in fifth month Bacillus cereus and moulds occurred 700 cfu/g and 1500 cfu/g respectively. Chemical analyzes showed that the water content did not exceed a maximum of 14%. The content of free fatty acids ranged from 3.06 to 3.26%, degree of acidity from 3.69 to 4.9. With increasing degree of acidity the degradation of the sample and the activity of microorganisms was increased which led to the formation of acid reaction which is accompanied by the appearance of unpleasant odor and taste. Based on the obtained results it can be concluded that this product can have longer shelf life for four months than shelf life which is already defined because there are no changes that could have influence on decision of customers when purchase of this product is concerned.

Keywords: bakery products, extension of shelf life, sensory and chemical and microbiological analyses, sustainability

Procedia PDF Downloads 388

Authors: Komal Khan, Hafsa Zaneb, Saima Masood, Muhammad Younus, Sanan Raza

Abstract:

Cigarette smoke induces many physiological and pathological changes in respiratory tract like goblet cell hyperplasia and regional distention of airspaces. It is also associated with elevation of inflammatory profiles in different airway compartments. As probiotics are generally known to promote mucosal tolerance, it was postulated that prophylactic use of probiotics can be helpful in reduction of respiratory damage induced by cigarette smoke exposure. Twenty-four adult mice were randomly divided into three groups (cigarette-smoke (CS) group, cigarette-smoke+ Lactobacillus (CS+ P) group, control (Cn) group), each having 8 mice. They were exposed to cigarette smoke for 28 days (6 cigarettes/ day for 6 days/week). Wright-Giemsa staining of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) was performed in three mice per group. Tissue samples of trachea and lungs of 7 mice from each group were processed by paraffin embedding technique for haematoxylin & eosin (H & E) and alcian blue- periodic acid-Schiff (AB-PAS) staining. Then trachea (goblet cell number, ratio and loss of cilia) and lungs (airspace distention) were studied. The results showed that the number of goblet cells was increased in CS group as a result of defensive mechanism of the respiratory system against irritating substances. This study also revealed that the cells of CS group having acidic glycoprotein were found to be higher in quantity as compared to those containing neutral glycoprotein. However, CS + P group showed a decrease in goblet cell index due to enhanced immunity by prophylactically used probiotics. Moreover, H & E stained tracheas showed significant loss of cilia in CS group due to propelling of mucous but little loss in CS + P group because of having good protective tracheal epithelium. In lungs, protection of airspaces was also much more evident in CS+ P group as compared to CS group having distended airspaces, especially at 150um distance from terminal bronchiole. In addition, a comprehensive analysis of inflammatory cells population of BALF showed neutrophilia and eosinophilia was significantly reduced in CS+ P group. This study proved that probiotics are found to be useful for reduction of changes in micro-architecture of the respiratory system. Thus, dietary supplementation of probiotic as prophylactic measure can be useful in achieving immunomodulatory effects.

Keywords: cigarette smoke, probiotics, goblet cells, airspace enlargement, BALF

Procedia PDF Downloads 364