12,311 research outputs found
Antimicrobial Diterpenes: Recent Development From Natural Sources
Antimicrobial resistance has been posing an alarming threat to the treatment of infectious diseases over the years. Ineffectiveness of the currently available synthetic and semisynthetic antibiotics has led the researchers to discover new molecules with potent antimicrobial activities. To overcome the emerging antimicrobial resistance, new antimicrobial compounds from natural sources might be appropriate. Secondary metabolites from natural sources could be prospective candidates in the development of new antimicrobial agents with high efficacy and less side effects. Among the natural secondary metabolites, diterpenoids are of crucial importance because of their broad spectrum of antimicrobial activity, which has put it in the center of research interest in recent years. The present work is aimed at reviewing recent literature regarding different classes of natural diterpenes and diterpenoids with significant antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, and antiprotozoal activities along with their reported structure–activity relationships. This review has been carried out with a focus on relevant literature published in the last 5 years following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. A total of 229 diterpenoids from various sources like plants, marine species, and fungi are summarized in this systematic review, including their chemical structures, classification, and significant antimicrobial activities together with their reported mechanism of action and structure–activity relationships. The outcomes herein would provide researchers with new insights to find new credible leads and to work on their synthetic and semisynthetic derivatives to develop new antimicrobial agents
Algorithms to Compute the Lyndon Array
We first describe three algorithms for computing the Lyndon array that have
been suggested in the literature, but for which no structured exposition has
been given. Two of these algorithms execute in quadratic time in the worst
case, the third achieves linear time, but at the expense of prior computation
of both the suffix array and the inverse suffix array of x. We then go on to
describe two variants of a new algorithm that avoids prior computation of
global data structures and executes in worst-case n log n time. Experimental
evidence suggests that all but one of these five algorithms require only linear
execution time in practice, with the two new algorithms faster by a small
factor. We conjecture that there exists a fast and worst-case linear-time
algorithm to compute the Lyndon array that is also elementary (making no use of
global data structures such as the suffix array)
Antibacterial efficacy of raw and commercially available honey
In vitro antibacterial activity of raw and commercially available honey was tested against Gram-positive bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus) and Gram-negative bacteria (Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Shigella spp. and Salmonella spp.). Both types of honey showed antibacterial activity against test organisms with the zone of inhibition ranging from 8.13 to 30.85 mm, while E. coli, S. aureus, and Shigella spp. showed sensibility towards both types of honey. Raw honey possesses more inhibitory activity against S. aureus and Shigella spp., than commercially available honey. On the other hand, commercially available honey possesses more inhibitory activity than raw honey against E. coli. Both types of honey showed no effects on Salmonella spp. The potency of honey at 100% concentration was found to be higher than all other concentrations tested. However, no effect was observed at concentration of 6.25% v/v honey in the case of both samples.Key words: Honey, antibacterial activity, raw honey, commercially available honey, minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC)
Mountain-Shaped Coupler for Ultra Wideband Applications
This paper demonstrates a novel mountain-shaped design for a compact 3-dB coupler operating at ultra-wideband (UWB) frequencies from 3.1GHz to 10.6 GHz. The proposed design was accomplished using multilayer technology in which the structure is formed by three layers of conductors interleaved by a layer of substrate between each conductor layer. Simulation was carried out using CST Microwave Studio; the result was then compared with results from rectangular and star-shaped couplers that implemented the same technique. The results obtained show that the proposed new coupler has better performance compared to both rectangular and star-shaped coupler designs in terms of return loss, isolation, and phase difference. The coupler was fabricated and measured; the measurement results satisfactorily agree with the simulation results
Health seeking behaviour of parents of burned children in Bangladesh is related to family socioeconomics
Objective: The study was design to explore the health seeking behaviour of Bangladeshi parents for their children during burn injuries.
Methods: A population-based cross-sectional survey was conducted between January and December 2003 in Bangladesh. Nationally representative data were collected from 171,366 rural and urban households comprising of a total population of 819,429, including 351,651 children of 0–18 years. Mothers or heads of households were interviewed with a structured questionnaire in obtaining the information.
Results: About sixty percent parents seek health care from unqualified service providers for their children during a childhood burn injury. Educated and the higher income groups parents choose qualified service provider at significantly higher rate compared to illiterate and poor. Higher proportion of parents of urban residence chooses qualified service provider compared to rural. No significant difference of health seeking behaviour of parent in choosing care provider was found in relation to sex of the children.
Conclusion: Education, economic condition and place of residence were found as the contributory factors in choosing service provider. Education to the parents can contribute in changes in health seeking behaviour which ultimately contribute in reducing morbidity and mortality from childhood burn injuries. Including parent's education a national burn prevention program needs to be developed to combat the devastating child injury, burn
Some new class of Chaplygin Wormholes
Some new class of Chaplygin wormholes are investigated in the framework of a
Chaplygin gas with equation of state , . Since
empty spacetime () does not follow Chaplygin gas, so the
interior Chaplygin wormhole solutions will never asymptotically flat. For this
reason, we have to match our interior wormhole solution with an exterior vacuum
solution i.e. Schwarzschild solution at some junction interface, say .
We also discuss the total amount of matter characterized by Chaplygin gas that
supplies fuel to construct a wormhole.Comment: 14 pages, 12 figures, Accepted for publication in Mod.Phys.Lett.
Flat Cosmology with Coupled Matter and Dark Energies
Three models of a flat universe of coupled matter and dark energies with
different low-redshift parameterizations of the dark energy equation of state
are considered. The dark energy is assumed to vary with time like the trace of
the energy-momentum tensor of cosmic matter. In the radiation-dominated era the
models reduce to standard cosmology. In the matter-dominated era they are, for
modern values of the cosmological parameters, consistent with data from SNe Ia
searches and with the data of Gurvits et al.(1999)for angular sizes of ultra
compact radio sources. We find that the angular size-redshift tests for our
models offer a higher statistical confidence than that based on SNe Ia data. A
comparison of our results with a recent revised analysis of angular
size-redshift legacy data is made,and the implications of our models with
optimized relativistic beaming in the radio sources is discussed. In particular
we find that relativistic beaming implies a Lorentz factor less than 6,in
agreement with its values for powerful Active Galactic Nuclei.Comment: Version to appear in The Astronomical Journal, with a modified name-
Flat Cosmology with Coupled Matter and Dark Energies. Expanded and Modified
conten
Modeling and Analysis of Power Processing Systems (MAPPS). Volume 1: Technical report
Computer aided design and analysis techniques were applied to power processing equipment. Topics covered include: (1) discrete time domain analysis of switching regulators for performance analysis; (2) design optimization of power converters using augmented Lagrangian penalty function technique; (3) investigation of current-injected multiloop controlled switching regulators; and (4) application of optimization for Navy VSTOL energy power system. The generation of the mathematical models and the development and application of computer aided design techniques to solve the different mathematical models are discussed. Recommendations are made for future work that would enhance the application of the computer aided design techniques for power processing systems
Detection of Abnormalities based on Gamma Wave EEG Signal for Autism Spectrum Disorder
Diagnosing Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) by using the traits of abnormalities in their gamma waveform has been proposed in this study to suggest an objective method to detect the disorder using Electroencephalography (EEG) signal. Gamma waveform plays an important role in learning, memory and information processing where it shows slower activities in ASD person compared to a normal person, thus, causing the patients to have trouble in processing knowledge, communicate and pay attention. This study applies Probabilistic Neural Network (PNN) and General Regression Neural Network (GRNN) to classify the data into normal and abnormal classes. Classification algorithm by PNN was used as a benchmark for the outcomes. The results show that even though PNN and GRNN have similar architecture, but with fundamental difference, the outcomes are different. In this case, PNN performs better than GRNN. To obtain the desired results, we used three and four statistical features (mean, minimum, maximum and standard deviation) for both methods. The outcomes of using PNN with four features are more accurate (99.5% for normal class and 80.5% for abnormal class) compared to only three features. Furthermore, the outcomes of using GRNN with four features also have improvement (95% for normal class and 63.5% for abnormal class) compared to only three features
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