Search results for: Mn residues

Authors: Navkiran Kaur, Apoorva Mathur, Abhishree Agarwal, Sakshi Gupta, Tuhin Rashmi

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Aim: Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women worldwide, and resistance to the current therapeutics, often concurrently, is an increasing clinical challenge. Glycosylation of proteins is one of the most important post-translational modifications. It is widely known that aberrant glycosylation has been implicated in many different diseases due to changes associated with biological function and protein folding. Alterations in cell surface glycosylation, can promote invasive behavior of tumor cells that ultimately lead to the progression of cancer. In breast cancer, there is an increasing evidence pertaining to the role of glycosylation in tumor formation and metastasis. In the present study, an attempt has been made to study the disease associated sialoglycoproteins in breast cancer by using bioinformatics tools. The sequence will be retrieved from UniProt database. A database in the form of a word document was made by a collection of FASTA sequences of breast cancer gene sequence. Glycosylation was studied using yinOyang tool on ExPASy and Differential genes expression and protein analysis was done in context of breast cancer metastasis. The number of residues predicted O-glc NAc threshold containing 50 aberrant glycosylation sites or more was detected and recorded for individual sequence. We found that the there is a significant change in the expression profiling of glycosylation patterns of various proteins associated with breast cancer. Differential aberrant glycosylated proteins in breast cancer cells with respect to non-neoplastic cells are an important factor for the overall progression and development of cancer.

Keywords: breast cancer, bioinformatics, cancer, metastasis, glycosylation

Procedia PDF Downloads 292

Authors: L. F. Tamele Jr., G. Buonocore, H. F. Muiambo

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Asphalt binders play an essential role in the performance and properties of asphalt mixtures. The increase in heavy loads, greater traffic volume, and high tire pressure, combined with a substantial variation in daily and seasonal pavement temperatures, are the main responsible for the failure of asphalt pavements. To avoid or mitigate these failures, the present research proposes the use of thermoplastic polymers, HDPE and LLDPE, and nanoclay Dellite 43B for modification of asphalt in order to improve its thermomechanical and rheological properties. The nanocomposites were prepared by the solution intercalation method in a high shear mixer for a mixing time of 2 h, at 180℃ and 5000 rpm. The addition of Dellite 43B improved the physical, rheological, and thermal properties of asphalt, either separated or in the form of polymer/bitumen blends. The results of the physical characterization showed a decrease in penetration and an increase in softening point, thermal susceptibility, viscosity, and stiffness. On the other hand, thermal characterization showed that the nanocomposites have greater stability at higher temperatures by exhibiting greater amounts of residues and improved initial and final decomposition temperatures. Thus, the modification of asphalt by polymers and nanoclays seems to be a suitable solution for road pavement in countries which experiment with high temperatures combined with long heavy rain seasons.

Keywords: asphalt, nanoclay dellite 43B, polymer modified asphalt, thermal and rheological properties

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Authors: Ana Tsokilauri

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The uppermost factor in the regulation of lignin-cellulose activity of decaying white rot or free rot are the substances serving as carbon and nitrogen nutrition of microorganisms and are considered as the most important factor of generative activity of white rot. The research object was Basidiomycete Fungi, peculiar and common in Georgia, and the separation of 10 of them as pure crops. The unidentified pure crops have tasted in order to be determined the potential of synthesis of lignin-degrading enzymes and the substrate of optimal lignocellulose growth. One of the most important aspects of the research conducted on Basidiomycetes was the use of specific lignocellulosic residues for selecting Fungi as a substrate of their growth. In order to increase lignocellulose with the help of substrate, crops were selected from the screening stage that showed good laccase activity. (Dusheti 1; Dusheti 10; Fshavi 5; Fshavi1; Fshavi 8; Fshavi 32; Manglisi 26; Sabaduri20; Dusheti 7; Sabaduri 1 ), Among the selected cultures, the crops with good laccase activity against the following substances, in particular: Dusheti 1- in this case, the rate of enzymatic activity on bran substrate was -105,6 u/ml, mandarin-96,4 u/ml. In case of corn - 102,9 u/ml. In case of Dusheti 7- the indicators were as follows: bananas-121,7 u/ml, mandarin-125,4 u/ml, corn - 117,1 u/ml. In the case of Sanaduri 32, the laccase activity was as follows: pomegranate- 101,2 u/ml. As a result of conducted experiments, the synthesis and activity rates of enzymes depending on plant substrates varied within a fairly wide range, which is still being under research.

Keywords: Lignocellulosic substrate, Basidiomycetes, white-rot basidiomycetes, Laccase

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Authors: Rohit Singh Dangi, Ravi Kant Pal, Monica Sundd

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Acyl-CoA binding protein (ACBP) is a housekeeping protein which functions as an intracellular carrier of acyl-CoA esters. Given the fact that the amastigote stage (blood stage) of Leishmania depends largely on fatty acids as the energy source, of which a large part is derived from its host, these proteins might have an important role in its survival. In Leishmania major, genome sequencing suggests the presence of six ACBPs, whose function remains largely unknown. For functional and structural characterization, one of the ACBP genes was cloned, and the protein was expressed and purified heterologously. Acyl-CoA ester binding and stoichiometry were analyzed by isothermal titration calorimetry and Dynamic light scattering. Our results shed light on high affinity of ACBP towards longer acyl-CoA esters, such as myristoyl-CoA to arachidonoyl-CoA with single binding site. To understand the binding mechanism & dynamics, Nuclear magnetic resonance assignments of this protein are being done. The protein's crystal structure was determined at 1.5Å resolution and revealed a classical topology for ACBP, containing four alpha-helical bundles. In the binding pocket, the loop between the first and the second helix (16 – 26AA) is four residues longer from other extensively studied ACBPs (PfACBP) and it curls upwards towards the pantothenate moiety of CoA to provide a large tunnel space for long acyl chain insertion.

Keywords: acyl-coa binding protein (ACBP), acyl-coa esters, crystal structure, isothermal titration, calorimetry, Leishmania

Procedia PDF Downloads 447

Authors: Gabriel Sanjo Aruwajoye, E. B. Gueguim Kana

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Agricultural residues present a low-cost feedstock for bioenergy production around the world. Cassava peels waste are rich in organic molecules that can be readily converted to value added products such as biomaterials and biofuels. However, due to the presence of high proportion of structural carbohydrates and lignin, the hydrolysis of this feedstock is imperative to achieve maximum substrate utilization and energy yield. This study model and optimises the release of Fermentable Sugar (FS) from cassava peels waste using the Response Surface Methodology. The investigated pretreatment input parameters consisted of soaking temperature (oC), soaking time (hours), autoclave duration (minutes), acid concentration (% v/v), substrate solid loading (% w/v) within the range of 30 to 70, 0 to 24, 5 to 20, 0 to 5 and 2 to 10 respectively. The Box-Behnken design was used to generate 46 experimental runs which were investigated for FS release. The obtained data were used to fit a quadratic model. A coefficient of determination of 0.87 and F value of 8.73 was obtained indicating the good fitness of the model. The predicted optimum pretreatment conditions were 69.62 oC soaking temperature, 2.57 hours soaking duration, 5 minutes autoclave duration, 3.68 % v/v HCl and 9.65 % w/v solid loading corresponding to FS yield of 91.83g/l (0.92 g/g cassava peels) thus 58% improvement on the non-optimised pretreatment. Our findings demonstrate an efficient pretreatment model for fermentable sugar release from cassava peels waste for various bioprocesses.

Keywords: feedstock pretreatment, cassava peels, fermentable sugar, response surface methodology

Procedia PDF Downloads 365

Authors: Ncoza Dlova, Tivani Mashamba-Thompson

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Garcinia livingstonei (Clusiaceae) extracts, morelloflavone- 7″- sulphate and sargaol were shown to be effective against hyper-pigmentation through inhibition of tyrosinase enzyme, in vitro . The aim of this study is to elucidate the structural mechanism through which morelloflavone- 7″- sulphate and sargaol binds human tyrosinase. Implementing a homology model to construct a tyrosinase model using the crystal structure of a functional unit from Octopus hemocyanin (PDB: 1JS8) as a reference template enabled us to create a human tyrosinase model. Molecular dynamics and binding free energy calculations were optimized to enable molecular dynamics simulation of the copper dependent inhibitors. Results show the importance of the hydrogen bond formation morelloflavone- 7″- sulphate and sargaol between compound and active site residues. Both complexes demonstrated the metallic coordination between compound and arginine residue as well as copper ions within the active site. The comprehensive molecular insight gained from this study should be vital in understanding the binding mechanism morelloflavone- 7″- sulphate and sargaol. Moreover, these results will assist in the design of novel of metal ion dependent enzyme inhibitors as potential anti-hyper-pigmentation disorder therapies.

Keywords: hyper-pigmentation disorders, dyschromia African skin, morelloflavone- 7″- sulphate, sagoal

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Authors: Nurcihan Hacioglu, Cigdem Gul, Murat Tosunoglu

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In this article, the antibiogram and heavy metal resistance profile of the bacteria isolated from total 34 studied animals (Pelophylax ridibundus = 12, Mauremys rivulata = 14, Natrix natrix = 8) captured around the Biga Stream, are described. There was no database information on antibiogram and heavy metal resistance profile of bacteria from these area’s amphibians and reptiles. In this study, a total of 200 bacteria were successfully isolated from cloaca and oral samples of the aquatic amphibians and reptiles as well as from the water sample. According to Jaccard’s similarity index, the degree of similarity in the bacterial flora was quite high among the amphibian and reptile species under examination, whereas it was different from the bacterial diversity in the water sample. The most frequent isolates were A. hydrophila (31.5%), B. pseudomallei (8.5%), and C. freundii (7%). The total numbers of bacteria obtained were as follows: 45 in P. ridibundus, 45 in N. natrix 30 in M. rivulata, and 80 in the water sample. The result showed that cefmetazole was the most effective antibiotic to control the bacteria isolated in this study and that approximately 93.33% of the bacterial isolates were sensitive to this antibiotic. The Multiple Antibiotic Resistances (MAR) index indicated that P. ridibundus (0.95) > N. natrix (0.89) > M. rivulata (0.39). Furthermore, all the tested heavy metals (Pb+2, Cu+2, Cr+3, and Mn+2) inhibit the growth of the bacterial isolates at different rates. Therefore, it indicated that the water source of the animals was contaminated with both antibiotic residues and heavy metals.

Keywords: bacteriological quality, amphibian, reptile, antibiotic, heavy metal resistance

Procedia PDF Downloads 384

Authors: T. Tommasi, E. Batuecas, G. Mancini, G. Saracco, D. Fino

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Extra virgin olive-oil (EVO) production is an important economic activity for several countries, especially in the Mediterranean area such as Spain, Italy, Greece and Tunisia. The two major by-products from olive oil production, solid-liquid Olive Pomace (OP) and the Olive Mill Waste Waters (OMWW), are still mainly disposed on soil, in spite of the existence of legislation which already limits this practice. The present study compares the environmental impacts associated with two different scenarios for the management of waste from olive oil production through a comparative Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). The two alternative scenarios are: (I) Anaerobic Digestion and (II) current Disposal on soil. The analysis was performed through SimaPro software and the assessment of the impact categories was based on International Life Cycle Data and Cumulative Energy Demand methods. Both the scenarios are mostly related to the cultivation and harvesting phase and are highly dependent on the irrigation practice and related energy demand. Results from the present study clearly show that as the waste disposal on soil causes the worst environmental performance of all the impact categories here considered. Important environmental benefits have been identified when anaerobic digestion is instead chosen as the final treatment. It was consequently demonstrated that anaerobic digestion should be considered a feasible alternative for olive mills, to produce biogas from common olive oil residues, reducing the environmental burden and adding value to the olive oil production chain.

Keywords: anaerobic digestion, waste management, agro-food waste, biogas

Procedia PDF Downloads 145

Authors: O. A. Babalola, A. F Adekunle, F. Oladeji, A. T. Osungbade, O. A. Akinlaja

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Optimizing microbiological activities in an organic crop production system is crucial to the realization of optimum growth and development of the crops. Field and pot experiments were conducted to assess soil microbial activities, growth and yield of tomato varieties in response to 4 rates of composted plant and animal residues. The compost rates were 0, 5, 10 and 20 t ha-1, and improved Ibadan and Ibadan local constituted the varieties. Fungi population, microbial biomass nitrogen, cellulase and proteinase activities were significantly higher (P≤ 0.05) at the rhizosphere of the local variety than that of improved variety. This led to a significantly higher number of branches, plant height, leaf area, number of fruits and less days to maturity in the local variety. Furthermore, compost-amended soil had significantly higher microbial populations, microbial biomass N, P and C, enzyme activities, soil N, P and organic carbon than control, but amendment of 20 t ha-1 gave significantly higher values than other compost rates. Consequently, growth parameters and tissue N significantly increased in all compost treatments while dry matter yield and weight of fruits were significantly higher in soil amended with 20 t ha-1. Correlation analysis showed that microbial activities at 6 weeks after transplanting (6 WAT) were more consistently and highly correlated with growth and yield parameters. It was concluded that microbial activities could be optimized to improve the yield of the two tomato varieties in an organic production system, through the application of compost, particularly at 20 t ha-1.

Keywords: compost, microbial activities, microbial contribution, tomato growth and yield

Procedia PDF Downloads 263

Authors: Nidhi Chadha, A. K. Tiwari, Marilyn D. Milton, Anil K. Mishra

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Translocator protein (18 kDa) TSPO is highly expressed during microglia activation in neuroinflammation. Although a number of PET ligands have been developed for the visualization of activated microglia, one of the advantageous approaches is to develop potential optical imaging (OI) probe. Our study involves computational screening, synthesis and evaluation of TSPO ligand through various imaging modalities namely PET/SPECT/Optical. The initial computational screening involves pharmacophore modeling from the library designing having oxo-benzooxazol-3-yl-N-phenyl-acetamide groups and synthesis for visualization of efficacy of these compounds as multimodal imaging probes. Structure modeling of monomer, Ala147Thr mutated, parallel and anti-parallel TSPO dimers was performed and docking analysis was performed for distinct binding sites. Computational analysis showed pattern of variable binding profile of known diagnostic ligands and NBMP via interactions with conserved residues along with TSPO’s natural polymorphism of Ala147→Thr, which showed alteration in the binding affinity due to considerable changes in tertiary structure. Preliminary in vitro binding studies shows binding affinity in the range of 1-5 nm and selectivity was also certified by blocking studies. In summary, this skeleton was found to be potential probe for TSPO imaging due to ease in synthesis, appropriate lipophilicity and reach to specific region of brain.

Keywords: TSPO, molecular modeling, imaging, docking

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Authors: Sabita Subedi, Bhojan Dhakal, Shankar Raj Pant, Naba Raj Devkota

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An assessment was made about the available feed resources, its utilization pattern, specifically, roughage and concentrate, produced from the Manaslu Conservation Area (MCA) of Nepal to formulate the appropriate strategies in satisfying the annual dietary requirements of the livestock covering its present production and management scenarios. A comparative study was done by employing a purposively conducted survey to deduct the distribution of forage sources in the area. Findings revealed that natural vegetation, seasonally available crop residues, and dried grasses were major feed resources, whereas their contribution to the total supply varied significantly (p < 0.01). The amount of feed obtained from various sources was calculated by standard conversion and using primary household data. Findings revealed that farmers practice significantly higher (p < 0.01) number of grazing days and hours per day for large ruminants such as Yak and Chauries as compared to small ruminants such as goats and sheep. The findings also indicated seasonal variations of feed supply, whereas January to March is the period of short supply (p < 0.01). It was relatively in good supply from June to September though average roughage and crude protein supplement for the animals was far below than optimum requirements. These scenarios suggest the need for immediate attention to improve the range productivity in the MCA as the deteriorating situations of the rangelands may raise questions on the sustainability of livestock herders.

Keywords: altitude, carrying capacity, dietary requirement, feed resources, rangeland, ruminant

Procedia PDF Downloads 199

Authors: Renata Shitakubo, Hanyu Yangcheng, Jay-lin Jane, Fernanda Peroni Okita, Beatriz Cordenunsi

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In the degradation transitory starch model, the enzymatic activity of glucan/water dikinase (GWD) and phosphoglucan/water dikinase (PWD) are essential for the granule degradation. GWD and PWD phosphorylate glucose molecules in the positions C6 and C3, respectively, in the amylopectin chains. This action is essential to allow that β-amylase degrade starch granules without previous action of α-amylase. During banana starch degradation, as part of banana ripening, both α- and β-amylases activities and proteins were already detected and, it is also known that there is a GWD and PWD protein bounded to the starch granule. Therefore, the aim of this study was to quantify both Gluc-6P and Gluc-3P in order to estimate the importance of the GWD-PWD-β-amylase pathway in banana starch degradation. Starch granules were isolated as described by Peroni-Okita et al (Carbohydrate Polymers, 81:291-299, 2010), from banana fruit at different stages of ripening, green (20.7%), intermediate (18.2%) and ripe (6.2%). Total phosphorus content was determinate following the Smith and Caruso method (1964). Gluc-6P and Gluc-3P quantifications were performed as described by Lim et al (Cereal Chemistry, 71(5):488-493, 1994). Total phosphorous content in green banana starch is found as 0.009%, intermediary banana starch 0.006% and ripe banana starch 0.004%, both by the colorimetric method and 31P-NMR. The NMR analysis showed the phosphorus content in C6 and C3. The results by NMR indicate that the amylopectin is phosphorylate by GWD and PWD before the bananas become ripen. Since both the total content of phosphorus and phosphorylated glucose molecules at positions C3 and C6 decrease with the starch degradation, it can be concluded that this phosphorylation occurs only in the surface of the starch granule and before the fruit be harvested.

Keywords: starch, GWD, PWD, 31P-NMR

Procedia PDF Downloads 453

Authors: Kakha Nadiardze, Nana Phirosmanashvili

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The goal of this paper is to present the problems of lack of information among farmers in food safety. Global food supply chains are becoming more and more diverse, making traceability systems much harder to implement across different food markets. In this abstract, we will present our work for analyzing the key developments in Georgian food market from regulatory controls to administrative procedures to traceability technologies. Food safety and quality assurance are most problematic issues in Georgia as food trade networks become more and more complex, food businesses are under more and more pressure to ensure that their products are safe and authentic. The theme follow-up principles from farm to table must be top-of-mind for all food manufacturers, farmers and retailers. Following the E. coli breakout last year, as well as more recent cases of food mislabeling, developments in food traceability systems is essential to food businesses if they are to present a credible brand image. Alongside this are the ever-developing technologies in food traceability networks, technologies that manufacturers and retailers need to be aware of if they are to keep up with food safety regulations and avoid recall. How to examine best practice in food management is the main question in order to protect company brand through safe and authenticated food. We are working with our farmers to work with our food safety experts and technology developers throughout the food supply chain. We provide time by time food analyses on heavy metals, pesticide residues and different pollutants. We are disseminating information among farmers how the latest food safety regulations will impact the methods to use to identify risks within their products.

Keywords: food safety, GMO, LMO, E. coli, quality

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Authors: Juan Antonio Mondragon Sanchez, Ruben Santamaria

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The DNA G-quadruplex is a four-stranded DNA structure conformed by stacked planes of four base paired guanines (G-quartet). The guanine rich DNA sequences are present in many sites of genomic DNA and can potentially lead to the formation of G-quadruplexes, especially at the 3'-terminus of the human telomeric DNA with many TTAGGG repeats. The formation and stabilization of a G-quadruplex by small ligands at the telomeric region can inhibit the telomerase activity. In turn, the ligands can be used to regulate oncogene expression making the G-quadruplex an attractive target for anticancer therapy. Clearly, the G-quadruplex structured in the telomeric DNA is of fundamental importance for rational drug design. In this context, we investigate two G-quadruplex structures, the first follows from the sequence TTAGGG(TTAGGG)3TT (HUT1), and the second from AAAGGG(TTAGGG)3AA (HUT2), both in a K+ solution. We determine the free energy surfaces of the HUT1 and HUT2 structures and investigate their conformations using replica-exchange metadynamics simulations. The carbonyl-carbonyl distances belonging to different guanines residues are selected as the main collective variables to determine the free energy surfaces. The surfaces exhibit two main local minima, compatible with experiments on the conformational transformations of HUT1 and HUT2 under substitution of the K+ ions by the Na+ ions. The conformational transitions are not observed in short MD simulations without the use of the metadynamics approach. The results of this work should be of help to understand the formation and stability of human telomeric G-quadruplex in environments including the presence of K+ and Na+ ions.

Keywords: g-quadruplex, metadynamics, molecular dynamics, replica-exchange

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Authors: Sarita Puri, Tapan K. Chaudhuri

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Chaperonin GroEL is a tetradecameric Escherichia coli protein having identical subunits of 57 kDa. The elucidation of thermodynamic parameters related to stability for the native GroEL is not feasible as it undergoes irreversible unfolding because of its large size (800kDa) and multimeric nature. Nevertheless, it is important to determine the thermodynamic stability parameters for the highly stable GroEL protein as it helps in folding and holding of many substrate proteins during many cellular stresses. Properly folded monomers work as building-block for the formation of native tetradecameric GroEL. Spontaneous refolding behavior of monomeric GroEL makes it suitable for protein-denaturant interactions and thermodynamic stability based studies. The urea mediated unfolding is a three state process which means there is the formation of one intermediate state along with native and unfolded states. The heat mediated denaturation is a two-state process. The unfolding process is reversible as observed by the spontaneous refolding of denatured protein in both urea and head mediated refolding processes. Analysis of folding/unfolding data provides a measure of various thermodynamic stability parameters for the monomeric GroEL. The proposed mechanism of unfolding of monomeric GroEL is a three state process which involves formation of one stable intermediate having folded apical domain and unfolded equatorial, intermediate domains. Research in progress is to demonstrate the importance of specific residues in stability and oligomerization of GroEL protein. Several mutant versions of GroEL are under investigation to resolve the above mentioned issue.

Keywords: equilibrium unfolding, monomeric GroEl, spontaneous refolding, thermodynamic stability

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Authors: M. López-Moreno, L. Lugo Avilés, F. Román, J. Lugo Rosas, J. Hernández-Viezcas Jr., Peralta-Videa, J. Gardea-Torresdey

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Degradation of agricultural soils has increased rapidly during the last 20 years due to the indiscriminate use of pesticides and other anthropogenic activities. Currently, there is an urgent need of soil restoration to increase agricultural production. Utilization of sewage sludge or municipal solid waste is an important way to recycle nutrient elements and improve soil quality. With these amendments, nutrient availability in the aqueous phase might be increased and production of healthier crops can be accomplished. This research project aimed to achieve sustainable management of tropical agricultural soils, specifically in Puerto Rico, through the amendment of water treatment plant sludge’s. This practice avoids landfill disposal of sewage sludge and at the same time results cost-effective practice for recycling solid waste residues. Coriander sativum was cultivated in a compost-soil-sludge mixture at different proportions. Results showed that Coriander grown in a mixture of 25% compost+50% Voladora soi+25% sludge had the best growth and development. High chlorophyll content (33.01 ± 0.8) was observed in Coriander plants cultivated in 25% compost+62.5% Coloso soil+ 12.5% sludge compared to plants grown with no sludge (32.59 ± 0.7). ICP-OES analysis showed variations in mineral element contents (macro and micronutrients) in coriander plant grown I soil amended with sludge and compost.

Keywords: compost, Coriandrum sativum, nutrients, waste sludge

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Authors: Ali Kuzu

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There are about 800 thousand chemicals in our environment and the number is increasing more than a thousand every year. While most of these chemicals are used as components in various consumer products, some are faced as industrial waste in the environment. Unfortunately, many of these chemicals are hazardous and affect humans. According to the “International Program on Chemical Safety” of World Health Organization; Among the chronic health effects of chemicals, cancer is of major concern. Many substances have found in recent years to be carcinogenic in one or more species of laboratory animals. Especially with respect to long-term effects, the response to a chemical may vary, quantitatively or qualitatively, in different groups of individuals depending on predisposing conditions, such as nutritional status, disease status, current infection, climatic extremes, and genetic features, sex and age of the individuals. Understanding the response of such specific risk groups is an important area of toxicology research. People with age 65+ is defined as “aged (or elderly)”. The elderly population in the world is about 600 million, which corresponds to ~8 percent of the world population. While every 1 of each 4 people is aged in Japan, the elderly population is quite close to 20 percent in many developed countries. And elderly population in these countries is growing more rapidly than the total population. The negative effects of chemicals on elderly take an important place in health-care related issues in last decades. The aged population is more susceptible to the harmful effects of environmental chemicals. According to the poor health of the organ systems in elderly, the ability of their body to eliminate the harmful effects and chemical substances from their body is also poor. With the increasing life expectancy, more and more people will face problems associated with chemical residues.

Keywords: elderly, chemicals’ effects, aged care, care need

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Authors: David B. Kisakye, Paul Mugabi

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Biomass briquettes have been identified as a plausible and close alternative to commonly used energy fuels such as charcoal and firewood, whose prices are escalating due to the dwindling natural resource base. However, briquettes do not seem to be as popular as would be expected. This study assessed the production, distribution, and acceptability of the briquettes in the Kampala district. A total of 60 respondents, 50 of whom were briquette users and 10 briquette producers, were sampled from five divisions of Kampala district to evaluate consumer acceptability, preference for briquette type and shape. Households and institutions were identified to be the major consumers of briquettes, while community-based organizations were the major distributors of briquettes. The Chi-square test of independence showed a significant association between briquette acceptability and briquette attributes of substitutability and low cost (p < 0,05). The Kruskal Wallis test showed that low-income class people preferred non-carbonized briquettes. Gender, marital status, and income level also cause variation in preference for spherical, stick, and honeycomb briquettes (p < 0,05). The major challenges faced by briquette users in Kampala were; production of a lot of ash, frequent crushing, and limited access to briquettes. The producers of briquettes were mainly challenged by regular machine breakdown, raw material scarcity, and poor carbonizing units. It was concluded that briquettes have a market and are generally accepted in Kampala. However, user preferences need to be taken into account by briquette produces, suitable cookstoves should be availed to users, and there is a need for standards to ensure the quality of briquettes.

Keywords: consumer acceptability, biomass residues, briquettes, briquette producers, distribution, fuel, marketability, wood fuel

Procedia PDF Downloads 142

Authors: Kolela J Nyembwe, Darlington C. Ashiegbu, Herman J. Potgieter

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Over the past few decades, the demand for metals has increased significantly. This has led to a decrease and decline of high-grade ore over time and an increase in mineral complexity and matrix heterogeneity. In addition to that, there are rising concerns about greener processes and a sustainable environment. Due to these challenges, the mining and metal industry has been forced to develop new technologies that are able to economically process and recover metallic values from low-grade ores, materials having a metal content locked up in industrially processed residues (tailings and slag), and complex matrix mineral deposits. Several methods to address these issues have been developed, among which are ionic liquids (IL), heap leaching, and bioleaching. Recently, the gas phase extraction technique has been gaining interest because it eliminates many of the problems encountered in conventional mineral processing methods. The technique relies on the formation of volatile metal complexes, which can be removed from the residual solids by a carrier gas. The complexes can then be reduced using the appropriate method to obtain the metal and regenerate-recover the organic extractant. Laboratory work on the gas phase have been conducted for the extraction and recovery of aluminium (Al), iron (Fe), copper (Cu), chrome (Cr), nickel (Ni), lead (Pb), and vanadium V. In all cases the extraction revealed to depend of temperature and mineral surface area. The process technology appears very promising, offers the feasibility of recirculation, organic reagent regeneration, and has the potential to deliver on all promises of a “greener” process.

Keywords: gas-phase extraction, hydrometallurgy, low-grade ore, sustainable environment

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Authors: N. Boontian

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Biological conversion of biomass to methane has received increasing attention in recent years. Grasses have been explored for their potential anaerobic digestion to methane. In this review, extensive literature data have been tabulated and classified. The influences of several parameters on the potential of these feedstocks to produce methane are presented. Lignocellulosic biomass represents a mostly unused source for biogas and ethanol production. Many factors, including lignin content, crystallinity of cellulose, and particle size, limit the digestibility of the hemicellulose and cellulose present in the lignocellulosic biomass. Pretreatments have used to improve the digestibility of the lignocellulosic biomass. Each pretreatment has its own effects on cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin, the three main components of lignocellulosic biomass. Solid-state anaerobic digestion (SS-AD) generally occurs at solid concentrations higher than 15%. In contrast, liquid anaerobic digestion (AD) handles feedstocks with solid concentrations between 0.5% and 15%. Animal manure, sewage sludge, and food waste are generally treated by liquid AD, while organic fractions of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) and lignocellulosic biomass such as crop residues and energy crops can be processed through SS-AD. An increase in operating temperature can improve both the biogas yield and the production efficiency, other practices such as using AD digestate or leachate as an inoculant or decreasing the solid content may increase biogas yield but have negative impact on production efficiency. Focus is placed on substrate pretreatment in anaerobic digestion (AD) as a means of increasing biogas yields using today’s diversified substrate sources.

Keywords: anaerobic digestion, lignocellulosic biomass, methane production, optimization, pretreatment

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Authors: Kriyapa lairungruang, Arunporn Itharat

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Limonia acidissima L. (LA) (Common name: wood apple, Thai name: ma-khwit) is a medicinal plant which has long been used in Thai traditional medicine. Its bark is used for treatment of diarrhea, abscess, wound healing and inflammation and it is also used in oral cancer. Thus, this research aimed to investigate antioxidant and cytotoxic activities of the LA bark extracts produced by various extraction methods. Different extraction procedures were used to extract LA bark for biological activity testing: boiling in water, maceration with 95% ethanol, maceration with 50% ethanol and water boiling of each the 95% and the 50% ethanolic residues. All extracts were tested for antioxidant activity using DPPH radical scavenging assay, cytotoxic activity against human laryngeal epidermoid carcinoma (HEp-2) cells and human oral epidermoid carcinoma (KB) cells using sulforhodamine B (SRB) assay. The results found that the 95% ethanolic extract of LA bark showed the highest antioxidant activity with EC50 values of 29.76±1.88 µg/ml. For cytotoxic activity, the 50% ethanolic extract showed the best cytotoxic activity against HEp-2 and KB cells with IC50 values of 9.55±1.68 and 18.90±0.86 µg/ml, respectively. This study demonstrated that the 95% ethanolic extract of LA bark showed moderate antioxidant activity and the 50% ethanolic extract provided potent cytotoxic activity against HEp-2 and KB cells. These results confirm the traditional use of LA for the treatment of oral cancer and laryngeal cancer, and also support its ongoing use.

Keywords: antioxidant activity, cytotoxic activity, Laryngeal epidermoid carcinoma, Limonia acidissima L., oral epidermoid carcinoma

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Authors: Serpa A. M., Gómez Hoyos C., Velásquez-Cock J. A., Ruiz L. F., Vélez Acosta L. M., Gañan P., Zuluaga R.

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Turmeric (Curcuma Longa L) is an Indian rhizome known for its biological properties, derived from its active compounds such as curcuminoids. Curcumin, the main polyphenol in turmeric, only represents around 3.5% of the dehydrated rhizome and extraction yields between 41 and 90% have been reported. Therefore, for every 1000 tons of turmeric powder used for the extraction of curcumin, around 970 tons of residues are generated. The present study evaluates the effect of different mechanical treatments (waring blender, grinder and high-pressure homogenization) on the physical and chemical properties of turmeric, as an alternative for the transformation of the entire rhizome. Suspensions of turmeric (10, 20 y 30%) were processed by waring blender during 3 min at 12000 rpm, while the samples treated by grinder were processed evaluating two different Gaps (-1 and -1,5). Finally, the process by high-pressure homogenization, was carried out at 500 bar. According to the results, the luminosity of the samples increases with the severity of the mechanical treatment, due to the stabilization of the color associated with the inactivation of the oxidative enzymes. Additionally, according to the microstructure of the samples, the process by grinder (Gap -1,5) and by high-pressure homogenization allowed the largest size reduction, reaching sizes up to 3 m (measured by optical microscopy). This processes disrupts the cells and breaks their fragments into small suspended particles. The infrared spectra obtained from the samples using an attenuated total reflectance accessory indicates changes in the 800-1200 cm⁻¹ region, related mainly to changes in the starch structure. Finally, the thermogravimetric analysis shows the presence of starch, curcumin and some minerals in the suspensions.

Keywords: characterization, mechanical treatments, suspensions, turmeric rhizome

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Authors: Sumra Siddique Abbasi, Cheng Shikun

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Biogas technology has rapidly developed in agriculture sector to upgrade and improve the life of farmers by providing them alternative and cost-effective energy source. Main purpose of this study is to understand the advantages of biogas plants by livestock owners either they are household-based livestock owners or may own farms for livestock. Similarly, a pertinent and major purpose of this research is to examine the factors affecting the decision to adopt biogas technologies at the household level. Based on the result, both public and private sector organization can make decisions related to the installation of biogas projects. Biogas is major energy source which can be used as an alternative and renewable energy source. This energy production technology can contribute in uplifting the lifestyle of farmers and can contribute into sustainable development of rural communities in Pakistan. People with livestock in any community in Pakistan can get benefit from biogas plants and it will contribute in sustainable development program which generates socio economic benefits, heath upgradation, cost effective energy source and positive impact on climate change or environmental issues. This study was conductive using survey method and descriptive analysis. One hundred fifty (150) farmers were the respondents who participated in survey. These farmers were from Layyah district of Punjab and were selected using snowball sampling technique. To generate the results, SPSS tool was used for data analysis.

Keywords: biogas plant, animal dunk, renewable energy, pakistan

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Authors: Kyou Hee Shim, Hwa Sung Shin

Abstract:

When a thrombolysis agent is administered to treat ischemic stroke, excessive reactive oxygen species are generated due to a sudden provision of oxygen and occurs secondary damage cell necrosis. Thus, it is necessary to administrate adjuvant as well as thrombolysis agent to protect and reduce damaged tissue. As cerebral blood vessels have specific structure called blood-brain barrier (BBB), it is not easy to transfer substances from blood to tissue. Therefore, development of a drug carrier is required to increase drug delivery efficiency to brain tissue. In this study, cyanobacterial pigment from the blue-green algae known for having neuroprotective effect as well as antioxidant effect was nasally administrated for bypassing BBB. In order to deliver cyanobacterial pigment efficiently, the nano-sized liposome was used as a carrier. Liposomes were coated with a positive charge of chitosan since negative residues are present at the nasal mucosa the first gateway of nasal administration. Characteristics of liposome including morphology, size and zeta potential were analyzed by transmission electron microscope (TEM) and zeta analyzer. As a result of cytotoxic test, the liposomes were not harmful. Also, being administered a drug to the ischemic stroke animal model, we could confirm that the pharmacological effect of the pigment delivered by chitosan coated liposome was enhanced compared to that of non-coated liposome. Consequently, chitosan coated liposome could be considered as an optimized drug delivery system for the treatment of acute ischemic stroke.

Keywords: ischemic stroke, cyanobacterial pigment, liposome, chitosan, nasal administration

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Authors: Tivani Phosa Mashamba-Thompson, Mahmoud E. S. Soliman

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To date, the cause of neurodegeneration is not well understood and diseases that stem from neurodegeneration currently have no known cures. Cathepsin B (CB) enzyme is known to be involved in the production of peptide neurotransmitters and toxic peptides in neurodegenerative diseases (NDs). CA-074Me is a membrane-permeable irreversible selective cathepsin B (CB) inhibitor as confirmed by in vivo studies. Due to the lack of the crystal structure, the binding mode of CA-074Me with the human CB at molecular level has not been previously reported. The main aim of this study is to gain an insight into the binding mode of CB CA-074Me to human CB using various computational tools. Herein, molecular dynamics simulations, binding free energy calculations and per-residue energy decomposition analysis were employed to accomplish the aim of the study. Another objective was to identify novel CB inhibitors based on the structure of CA-074Me using fragment based drug design using scaffold hoping drug design approach. Results showed that two of the designed ligands (hit 1 and hit 2) were found to have better binding affinities than the prototype inhibitor, CA-074Me, by ~2-3 kcal/mol. Per-residue energy decomposition showed that amino acid residues Cys29, Gly196, His197 and Val174 contributed the most towards the binding. The Van der Waals binding forces were found to be the major component of the binding interactions. The findings of this study should assist medicinal chemist towards the design of potential irreversible CB inhibitors.

Keywords: cathepsin B, scaffold hopping, docking, molecular dynamics, binding-free energy, neurodegerative diseases

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Authors: Natcha Ruamyat, Nichakorn Khondee

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The potential of an alkaliphilic bacteria isolated from soil in Thailand to utilized agro-industrial and agricultural wastes for the production of biosurfactants was evaluated in this study. Among five isolates, Pseudomonas mendocina NK41 used soapstock as substrate showing a high biosurfactant concentration of 7.10 g/L, oil displacement of 97.8 %, and surface tension reduction to 29.45 mN/m. Various agricultural residues were applied as mixed substrates with soapstock to enhance the synthesis of biosurfactants. The production of biosurfactant and bacterial growth was found to be the highest with coconut oil cake as compared to Sacha inchi shell, coconut kernel cake, and durian shell. The biodegradability of agro-industrial wastes was better than agricultural wastes, which allowed higher bacterial growth. The pretreatment of coconut oil cake by combined alkaline and hydrothermal method increased the production of biosurfactant from 12.69 g/L to 13.82 g/L. The higher microbial accessibility was improved by the swelling of the alkali-hydrothermal pretreated coconut oil cake, which enhanced its porosity and surface area. The pretreated coconut oil cake was reused twice in the repeated batch production, showing higher biosurfactant concentration up to 16.94 g/L from the second cycle. These results demonstrated the capability of using lignocellulosic wastes from agricultural and agro-industrial activities to produce a highly valuable biosurfactant. High biosurfactant yield with low-cost substrate reveals its potential towards further commercialization of biosurfactant on large-scale production.

Keywords: alkaliphilic bacteria, agricultural/agro-industrial wastes, biosurfactant, combined alkaline-hydrothermal pretreatment

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Authors: Keyur Raval, Steffen Krohn, Bruno Moerschbacher

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Chitin, the biopolymer of the N-acetylglucosamine, is the most abundant biopolymer on the planet after cellulose. Industrially, chitin is isolated and purified from the shell residues of shrimps. A deacetylated derivative of chitin i.e. chitosan has more market value and applications owing to it solubility and overall cationic charge compared to the parent polymer. This deacetylation on an industrial scale is performed chemically using alkalis like sodium hydroxide. This reaction not only is hazardous to the environment owing to negative impact on the marine ecosystem. A greener option to this process is the enzymatic process. In nature, the naïve chitin is converted to chitosan by chitin deacetylase (CDA). This enzymatic conversion on the industrial scale is however hampered by the crystallinity of chitin. Thus, this enzymatic action requires the substrate i.e. chitin to be soluble which is technically difficult and an energy consuming process. We in this project wanted to address this shortcoming of CDA. In lieu of this, we have modeled a fusion protein with CDA and an auxiliary protein. The main interest being to increase the accessibility of the enzyme towards crystalline chitin. A similar fusion work with chitinases had improved the catalytic ability towards insoluble chitin. In the first step, suitable partners were searched through the protein data bank (PDB) wherein the domain architecture were sought. The next step was to create the models of the fused product using various in silico techniques. The models were created by MODELLER and evaluated for properties such as the energy or the impairment of the binding sites. A fusion PCR has been designed based on the linker sequences generated by MODELLER and would be tested for its activity towards insoluble chitin.

Keywords: chitin deacetylase, modeling, chitin binding domain, chitinases

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Authors: Afsheen Aman, Shah Ali Ul Qader

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Dextransucrase [EC 2.4.1.5] is a glucosyltransferase that catalysis the biosynthesis of a natural biopolymer called dextran. It can catalyze the transfer of D-glucopyranosyl residues from sucrose to the main chain of dextran. This unique biopolymer has multiple applications in several industries and the key utilization of dextran lies on its molecular weight and the type of branching. Extracellular dextransucrase from Leuconostoc mesenteroides is most extensively studied and characterized. Limited data is available regarding cell-bound or intracellular dextransucrase and on the characterization of dextran produced by in-vitro reaction of intracellular dextransucrase. L. mesenteroides AA1 is reported to produce extracellular dextransucrase that catalyzes biosynthesis of a high molecular weight dextran with only α-(1→6) linkage. Current study deals with the characterization of an intracellular dextransucrase and in vitro biosynthesis of low molecular weight dextran from L. mesenteroides AA1. Intracellular dextransucrase was extracted from cytoplasm and purified to homogeneity for characterization. Kinetic constants, molecular weight and N-terminal sequence analysis of intracellular dextransucrase reveal unique variation with previously reported extracellular dextransucrase from the same strain. In vitro synthesized biopolymer was characterized using NMR spectroscopic techniques. Intracellular dextransucrase exhibited Vmax and Km values of 130.8 DSU ml-1 hr-1 and 221.3 mM, respectively. Optimum catalytic activity was detected at 35°C in 0.15 M citrate phosphate buffer (pH-5.5) in 05 minutes. Molecular mass of purified intracellular dextransucrase is approximately 220.0 kDa on SDS-PAGE. N-terminal sequence of the intracellular enzyme is: GLPGYFGVN that showed no homology with previously reported sequence for the extracellular dextransucrase. This intracellular dextransucrase is capable of in vitro synthesis of dextran under specific conditions. This intracellular dextransucrase is capable of in vitro synthesis of dextran under specific conditions and this biopolymer can be hydrolyzed into different molecular weight fractions for various applications.

Keywords: characterization, dextran, dextransucrase, leuconostoc mesenteroides

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Authors: Vineeta Kaushik, Manisha Goel

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Chaperones are proteins that help other proteins fold correctly, and are found in all domains of life i.e., prokaryotes, eukaryotes and archaea. Various comparative genomic studies have suggested that the archaeal protein folding machinery appears to be highly similar to that found in eukaryotes. In case of protein folding; slow rotation of peptide prolyl-imide bond is often the rate limiting step. Formation of the prolyl-imide bond during the folding of a protein requires the assistance of other proteins, termed as peptide prolyl cis-trans isomerases (PPIases). Cyclophilins constitute the class of peptide prolyl isomerases with a wide range of biological function like protein folding, signaling and chaperoning. Most of the cyclophilins exhibit PPIase enzymatic activity and play active role in substrate protein folding which classifies them as a category of molecular chaperones. Till date, there is not very much data available in the literature on archaeal cyclophilins. We aim to compare the structural and biochemical features of the cyclophilin protein from within the three domains to elucidate the features affecting their stability and enzyme activity. In the present study, we carry out in-silico analysis of the cyclophilin proteins to predict their conserved residues, sites under positive selection and compare these proteins to their bacterial and eukaryotic counterparts to predict functional divergence. We also aim to clone and express these proteins in heterologous system and study their biophysical characteristics in detail using techniques like CD and fluorescence spectroscopy. Overall we aim to understand the features contributing to the folding, stability and dynamics of the archaeal cyclophilin proteins.

Keywords: biophysical characterization, x-ray crystallography, chaperone-like activity, cyclophilin, PPIase activity

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Authors: Khin Thanda Win, Chunying Zhang, Sanghyeob Lee

Abstract:

Mildew resistance locus o (Mlo), a plant-specific gene family with seven-transmembrane (TM), plays an important role in plant resistance to powdery mildew (PM). PM caused by Podosphaera xanthii is a widespread plant disease and probably represents the major fungal threat for many Cucurbits. The recent Cucurbita maxima genome sequence data provides an opportunity to identify and characterize the MLO gene family in this species. Total twenty genes (designated CmaMLO1 through CmaMLO20) have been identified by using an in silico cloning method with the MLO gene sequences of Cucumis sativus, Cucumis melo, Citrullus lanatus and Cucurbita pepo as probes. These CmaMLOs were evenly distributed on 15 chromosomes of 20 C. maxima chromosomes without any obvious clustering. Multiple sequence alignment showed that the common structural features of MLO gene family, such as TM domains, a calmodulin-binding domain and 30 important amino acid residues for MLO function, were well conserved. Phylogenetic analysis of the CmaMLO genes and other plant species reveals seven different clades (I through VII) and only clade IV is specific to monocots (rice, barley, and wheat). Phylogenetic and structural analyses provided preliminary evidence that five genes belonged to clade V could be the susceptibility genes which may play the importance role in PM resistance. This study is the first comprehensive report on MLO genes in C. maxima to our knowledge. These findings will facilitate the functional analysis of the MLOs related to PM susceptibility and are valuable resources for the development of disease resistance in pumpkin.

Keywords: Mildew resistance locus o (Mlo), powdery mildew, phylogenetic relationship, susceptibility genes

Procedia PDF Downloads 180