A stoichiometric reaction scheme for Saccharothrix algeriensis growth and thiolutin production

A new bacterial species, Saccharothrix algeriensis NRRL B-24137, was isolated in 1992 in the Sahara desert. This filamentous bacterium is able to produce dithiolopyrrolones, molecules presenting antibacterial, antifungal, and anticancer properties. In this study, a “reaction engineering” approach was adopted to gain more knowledge on the growth of Sa. algeriensis and its dithiolopyrrolone production on a semi-synthetic liquid medium. The objective is to establish a reaction scheme of the bacterium metabolism from extracellular experimental information, relatively easy to obtain. The approach enabled us to show that Sa. algeriensis could grow using several substrates that were sequentially consumed and that substrate limitation may induce a secondary metabolism in antibiotic production. From these qualitative data, a general reaction scheme was extracted consisting of four reactions: growth via amino acids, glucose consumption for maintenance, growth using glucose, and thiolutin production. The stoichiometric coefficients and the reaction extends were identified using a factorial analysis based on the bilinear structure of the component mass balances in a batch reactor. The analysis of the reaction stoichiometry enabled us to draw some conclusions concerning the substrate consumption pathway

Kinetics of exoglucanase and endoglucanase produced by Aspergillus niger NRRL 567

In this study we reported for the first time kinetics of exoglucanase (EXG) and endoglucanase (EG) from Aspergillus niger NRRL 567. The optimum pH and temperature for crude EXG and EG was found to be 3.5 and 30°C respectively. Zn2+, Ca2+, Mn2+ and Co2+ enhanced the crude activity of EXG and EG whereas Mg2+, Fe2+ and Hg2+ showed various degree of inhibitory effects. Cu2+ enhanced crude EXG activity and inhibited crude EG activity. The energy of activation (Ea) for the EXG and EG were 21.20 and 22.52 kJ mol-1, respectively. The Q10 values obtained for the EXG and EG were 1.38 and 1.4, respectively. These enzymes had lower Km value that shows their high affinity for the substrates. Overall, the studies demonstrate that these enzymes may be suitable for industrial use.Key words: Exoglucanase, endoglucanase, kinetics, characterization, Aspergillus niger NRRL 567

Corn stover-enhanced cellulase production by Aspergillus niger NRRL 567

The production of extracellular cellulases by Aspergilus niger NRRL 567 on corn stover was studied in liquid state fermentation. In this study, three cellulases, exoglucanase (EXG), endoglucanase (EG) and β-glucosidase (BGL) were produced by A. niger NRRL 567. The optimal pH, temperature and incubation time for cellulases production was found to be 3.5, 30°C and 96 h, respectively. Maximal cellulases activities were achieved with 4% corn stover, 0.1% molasses and 1% yeast sludge. To our knowledge, this is the first report on production of cellulases by using corn stover as a substrate from A. niger NRRL 567.Key words: Corn stover, yeast sludge, cellulases, Aspergi l lus niger

A Novel Dataset for English-Arabic Scene Text Recognition (EASTR)-42K and Its Evaluation Using Invariant Feature Extraction on Detected Extremal Regions

© 2019 IEEE. The recognition of text in natural scene images is a practical yet challenging task due to the large variations in backgrounds, textures, fonts, and illumination. English as a secondary language is extensively used in Gulf countries along with Arabic script. Therefore, this paper introduces English-Arabic scene text recognition 42K scene text image dataset. The dataset includes text images appeared in English and Arabic scripts while maintaining the prime focus on Arabic script. The dataset can be employed for the evaluation of text segmentation and recognition task. To provide an insight to other researchers, experiments have been carried out on the segmentation and classification of Arabic as well as English text and report error rates like 5.99% and 2.48%, respectively. This paper presents a novel technique by using adapted maximally stable extremal region (MSER) technique and extracts scale-invariant features from MSER detected region. To select discriminant and comprehensive features, the size of invariant features is restricted and considered those specific features which exist in the extremal region. The adapted MDLSTM network is presented to tackle the complexities of cursive scene text. The research on Arabic scene text is in its infancy, thus this paper presents benchmark work in the field of text analysis

Arabic cursive text recognition from natural scene images

© 2019 by the authors. This paper presents a comprehensive survey on Arabic cursive scene text recognition. The recent years' publications in this field have witnessed the interest shift of document image analysis researchers from recognition of optical characters to recognition of characters appearing in natural images. Scene text recognition is a challenging problem due to the text having variations in font styles, size, alignment, orientation, reflection, illumination change, blurriness and complex background. Among cursive scripts, Arabic scene text recognition is contemplated as a more challenging problem due to joined writing, same character variations, a large number of ligatures, the number of baselines, etc. Surveys on the Latin and Chinese script-based scene text recognition system can be found, but the Arabic like scene text recognition problem is yet to be addressed in detail. In this manuscript, a description is provided to highlight some of the latest techniques presented for text classification. The presented techniques following a deep learning architecture are equally suitable for the development of Arabic cursive scene text recognition systems. The issues pertaining to text localization and feature extraction are also presented. Moreover, this article emphasizes the importance of having benchmark cursive scene text dataset. Based on the discussion, future directions are outlined, some of which may provide insight about cursive scene text to researchers

Enhancement of In Vitro Skin Transport and In Vivo Hypoglycemic Efficacy of Glimepiride Transdermal Patches

Purpose: To utilize hydroxybutyl-β-cyclodextrin (HB-β-CD) and polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) for the enhancement of the transdermal delivery of glimepiride (GMD).Methods: Matrix-type transdermal patches containing GMD, drug  coprecipitate or its inclusion complex were prepared using different gelling agents, viz, hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC), hydroxypropyl cellulose (HPC), carbopol and chitosan. In vitro skin permeation evaluation of the formulations was conducted using automated diffusion system. Selected patch formulations were assessed for hypoglycemic activity as well as for GMD plasma concentration in rats.Results: GMD- hydroxybutyl-β-cyclodextrin (HB-β-CD) binary systems (1:2 molar ratio) enhanced GMD aqueous solubility by > 10-fold. Diffusion test showed improved release of GMD-HB-β-CD inclusion complex compared with GMD alone. Maximum cumulative amounts of GMD- HB-β-CD that permeated through rat skin was 26.97 and 14.28 µg/cm2 for patches prepared with fchitosan and HPMC, respectively. Thus, GMD-chitosan  patches showed significantly higher (p < 0.05) drug permeation than GMD-HPMC after 6 h. Both chitosan and HPMC patches of GMD-HB-β-CD demonstrated substantial reduction (p < 0.05) in blood glucose level (192.67 ± 21.18 and 201 ± 15.11 mg/ dl, respectively), compared with the baseline value of 240 mg/ dl.Conclusion: Application of chitosan and HPMC transdermal patches of GMD-HB-β-CD can serve as a potential alternative to peroral GMD with improved bioavailability and patient compliance.Keywords: Glimepiride, Transdermal patch, Coprecipitate, Inclusion complex, Hydroxypropyl methylcellulose, Polyvinyl pyrrolidone, Chitosan, Skin permeatio

The transcriptional repressor Blimp1 is expressed in rare luminal progenitors and is essential for mammary gland development

Mammary gland morphogenesis depends on a tight balance between cell proliferation, differentiation and apoptosis, to create a defined functional hierarchy within the epithelia. The limited availability of stem cell/progenitor markers has made it challenging to decipher lineage relationships. Here, we identify a rare subset of luminal progenitors that express the zinc finger transcriptional repressor Blimp1, and demonstrate that this subset of highly clonogenic luminal progenitors is required for mammary gland development. Conditional inactivation experiments using K14-Cre and WAPi-Cre deleter strains revealed essential functions at multiple developmental stages. Thus, Blimp1 regulates proliferation, apoptosis and alveolar cell maturation during puberty and pregnancy. Loss of Blimp1 disrupts epithelial architecture and lumen formation both in vivo and in three-dimensional (3D) primary cell cultures. Collectively, these results demonstrate that Blimp1 is required to maintain a highly proliferative luminal subset necessary for mammary gland development and homeostasis

Velocity map imaging of inelastic and elastic low energy electron scattering in organic nanoparticles.

Electron transport is of fundamental importance and has application in a variety of fields. Different scattering mechanisms affect electron transport in the condensed phase; hence, it is important to comprehensively understand these mechanisms and their scattering cross sections to predict electron transport properties. Whereas electron transport is well understood for high kinetic energy (KE) electrons, there is a discrepancy in the experimental and theoretical values for the Inelastic Mean Free Path (IMFP) in the low KE regime. In this work, velocity map imaging soft X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy is applied to unsupported organic nanoparticles (squalene) to extract experimental values of inelastic and elastic mean free paths (EMFPs). The obtained data are used to calculate corresponding scattering cross sections. The data demonstrate a decrease in the IMFP and increase in the EMFP with increasing electron KE between 10 and 50 eV

Evaluation of handwritten Urdu text by integration of MNIST dataset learning experience

© 2019 IEEE. The similar nature of patterns may enhance the learning if the experience they attained during training is utilized to achieve maximum accuracy. This paper presents a novel way to exploit the transfer learning experience of similar patterns on handwritten Urdu text analysis. The MNIST pre-trained network is employed by transferring it's learning experience on Urdu Nastaliq Handwritten Dataset (UNHD) samples. The convolutional neural network is used for feature extraction. The experiments were performed using deep multidimensional long short term (MDLSTM) memory networks. The obtained result shows immaculate performance on number of experiments distinguished on the basis of handwritten complexity. The result of demonstrated experiments show that pre-trained network outperforms on subsequent target networks which enable them to focus on a particular feature learning. The conducted experiments presented astonishingly good accuracy on UNHD dataset

Effect of low protein diet supplemented with or without amino acids on the production of broiler

Experiment was carried out to investigate the effect of low protein diet supplemented with or without amino acids on the performance of broiler. Hubbard 375 day-old broiler were purchased, initially weighed and randomly divided into five groups (75 broilers in each group). Group A was kept as control given commercial feed, group B further divided into two group B1 and B2 were fed low CP (15 and 16%) ratio supplemented with lysine (1.0%) and methionine (0.5%) , while group C also further divided into group C1 and C2 were fed with the same low CP(15 and 16%) ratio without lysine and methionine supplementation. The experimental ratios were start up from fourth week of the experiment. Feed intake of broiler in group A, B1, B2, C1 and C2 was 3.793, 3.781, 3.739, 3.837 and 3.852 kg/b,(P > 0.05) and water intake 11.113, 11.494, 11.850, 11.277 and 11.252 lit/b, (P > 0.05), respectively. Live body weight of broiler was higher in B1 (2.149), than A(2.091), B2(2.069), C1(1.952) and C2(1.929), kg/b (P < 0.05) and their FCR was better for B1(1.75) than B2(1.80), A(1.81), C1(1.85) and C2(1.99), respectively. Carcass weight of broiler for A (1.227), B1 (1.339), B2 (1.210), C1 (1.155) and C2 (1.200) kg/b, (P > 0.05) and their dressing percentage were A(60.46), B1 ( 62.41), B2(60.48), C1 (59.59) and C2(59.22) percent (P > 0.05), respectively. Mortality of broiler in group A (5.3), B1 (2.6), B2 (6.6), C1 (4.0) and C2 (1.3) percent (P > 0.05), respectively. The average weight of liver, heart, gizzard, spleen and intestine for various group of broiler were found non significant (P > 0.05). Net profit was better in group B1 (75.5), followed by B2 (68.3), A (62.5), C1 (51.8) and C2 (49.9) Rs/b, respectively. It was concluded that low protein diet supplemented with lysine plus methionine significantly improved live body weight of broiler.Key words: Protein, amino acid, supplemented, broiler