Antifungal Profiles of Extracts of Vitellaria paradoxa (Shea-Butter) Bark

The antifungal profiles of the bark of Vitellaria paradoxa were examined against clinical isolates of Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus flavus, Epidermophyton floccosum, Microsporum audouinii and Trichophyton mentagrophytes. Decoction method was used for the extraction of the active substances from the plant bark with cold and hot water and ethanol as extraction solvents. Agar dilution method was used in the antifungal susceptibility studies while the Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC, mg/ml) and Minimum Fungicidal Concentration (MFC, mg/ml) of the ethanolic extract were determined. Generally, the ethanolic extract was the most effective, followed by the hot aqueous extract. The cold aqueous extract was the least effective against all the test fungi. All the extracts exhibited greater antifungal activity against the dermatophytes than the Aspergillus sp. Growth of T. mentagrophytes was completely inhibited by both the hot aqueous and ethanolic extracts. The similarity between the low values of the MIC and MFC obtained revealed that the plant bark possesses potent fungicidal components against the test isolates. The rate of kill study showed that with 200mg/ml of the ethanolic extract, 106 spores/ml of the Aspergillus sp. were reduced by over 50% while spores of T. . mentagrophytes were completely killed after 60 minutes contact time. This study therefore suggests that the bark of V. paradoxa could contain high concentrations of biocidal substances against the dermatophytes

FSM-F: finite state machine based framework for denial of service and intrusion detection in manet

Due to the continuous advancements in wireless communication in terms of quality of communication and affordability of the technology, the application area of Mobile Adhoc Networks (MANETs) significantly growing particularly in military and disaster management. Considering the sensitivity of the application areas, security in terms of detection of Denial of Service (DoS) and intrusion has become prime concern in research and development in the area. The security systems suggested in the past has state recognition problem where the system is not able to accurately identify the actual state of the network nodes due to the absence of clear definition of states of the nodes. In this context, this paper proposes a framework based on Finite State Machine (FSM) for denial of service and intrusion detection in MANETs. In particular, an Interruption Detection system for Adhoc On-demand Distance Vector (ID-AODV) protocol is presented based on finite state machine. The packet dropping and sequence number attacks are closely investigated and detection systems for both types of attacks are designed. The major functional modules of ID-AODV includes network monitoring system, finite state machine and attack detection model. Simulations are carried out in network simulator NS-2 to evaluate the performance of the proposed framework. A comparative evaluation of the performance is also performed with the state-of-theart techniques: RIDAN and AODV. The performance evaluations attest the benefits of proposed framework in terms of providing better security for denial of service and intrusion detection attacks

Screening for Antibacterial Activity of Andrographis paniculata Used in Malaysian Folkloric Medicine: A Possible Alternative for the Treatment of Skin Infections

In this study non-polar (dichloromethane) and polar (MeOH & aqueous) extracts of A. paniculata (whole plant) were evaluated for in vitro antibacterial activity against 12 skin disease causing bacterial strains (7 gram positive strains; Staphylococcus saprophyticus, Staphylococcus epidermis, Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pyogenes, Bacillus anthracis, Micrococcus luteus, Enterococcus faecalis) and 5 gram negative strains; Proteus mirabilis, Proteus vulgaris, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Neisseria meningitis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa ) using the disc diffusion method at three concentrations; 1000, 500, and 250 μg/disc respectively in order to ascertain its folkloric claim to treat skin infections. The extracts showed significant antibacterial activities against both the Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacterial strains tested. Highest significant antibacterial activity was exerted by the MeOH extract against E. faecalis at 1000 μg/disc (24.00 ± 0.00 mm) and the least activity by the DCM extract against N. meningitis at 250 μg/disc (6.00 ± 0.00mm). The minimum inhibitory concentration ranged between 150 μg /mL and 300 μg /mL depending on microorganism and various extracts. Presence of phytochemicals such as terpenoids, tannins, flavonoids, saponins, alkaloids, amino acids and steroids were observed. These results candidly suggest the presence of promising antibacterial substances in the polar as well as non-polar extracts which could be potential phytomedicine for the treatment of skin infections caused by pathogenic bacterial strains. These findings explicitly support its traditional claims and form a strong basis for further efforts to explore A. paniculata’s antibacterial potential to treat skin frailties efficaciously. Our results confer the utility of this plant extracts in developing a novel broad spectrum antimicrobial agent

F3TM: flooding factor based trust management framework for secure data transmission in MANETs

Due to the absence of infrastructure support, secure data dissemination is a challenging task in scalable mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) environment. In most of the traditional routing techniques for MANETs, either security has not been taken into account or only one aspect of security concern has been addressed without optimizing the routing performance. This paper proposes Flooding Factor based Framework for Trust Management (F3TM) in MANETs. True flooding approach is utilized to identify attacker nodes based on the calculation of trust value. Route Discovery Algorithm is developed to discover an efficient and secure path for data forwarding using Experimental Grey Wolf algorithm for validating network nodes. Enhanced Multi-Swarm Optimization is used to optimize the identified delivery path. Simulations are carried out in ns2 to assess and compare the performance of F3TM with the state-of-the-art frameworks: CORMAN and PRIME considering the metrics including delay, packet delivery ration, overhead and throughput. The performance assessment attests the reliable security of F3TM compared to the state-of-the-art frameworks

η\eta-weak-pseudo-Hermiticity generators and radially symmetric Hamiltonians

A class of spherically symmetric non-Hermitian Hamiltonians and their \eta-weak-pseudo-Hermiticity generators are presented. An operators-based procedure is introduced so that the results for the 1D Schrodinger Hamiltonian may very well be reproduced. A generalization beyond the nodeless states is proposed. Our illustrative examples include \eta-weak-pseudo-Hermiticity generators for the non-Hermitian weakly perturbed 1D and radial oscillators, the non-Hermitian perturbed radial Coulomb, and the non-Hermitian radial Morse models.Comment: 14 pages, content revised/regularized to cover 1D and 3D case

Analysis of colorectal cancers in British Bangladeshi identifies early onset, frequent mucinous histotype and a high prevalence of RBFOX1 deletion

PMCID: PMC3544714This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

Возможность инвестирования в Йемен, которую необходимо реализовать, чтобы компенсировать последствия экономического кризиса

Attracting foreign investments has become one of the most important, critical, and vital concerns for any country seeking to improve its economy and achieve economic growth, as investments must be attracted by providing incentives and improving the business climate, as Yemen is under- going a serious economic transformation as a result of the country's war and instability. In addition, because the Yemeni economy is in desperate need of attracting investors, as well as giving investors some incentives not just to invest, but also to help the state with infrastructural reforms.Привлечение иностранных инвестиций стало одним из самых критически важных и жизненно необходимых вопросов для страны, стремящейся улучшить свою экономику и добиться экономического роста. Так как Йемен проходит серьезную экономическую трансформацию в результате войны и нестабильности в стране, то инвестиции должны быть привлечены путем предоставления стимулов и улучшения делового климата. Экономика Йемена отчаянно нуждается в привлечении инвесторов, поэтому необходимо предоставить им различные стимулы для вложения инвестиций, это окажет помощь государству в проведении инфраструктурных реформ

An unusual presentation of hemoglobin SD Punjab in a Saudi Arabian adult

HbDPunjab is an uncommon variant hemoglobin that does not result in significant pathology when inherited as a homozygous disorder. When inherited with other hemoglobinopathies, it may result in varying disease phenotypes. HbSDPunjab has been rarely reported in Saudi Arabia, coexisting with alpha or beta thalassemia. In this report, we discuss the case of a 39 years old male who presented with severe anemia and renal injury and was later diagnosed with HbSDPunjab through electropheresis and genetic testing

The effects of the ambient liquid medium on the ablation efficiency, size and stability of silver nanoparticles prepared by pulse laser ablation in liquid technique

Silver (Ag) nanoparticles (NPs) were synthesized by pulsed laser (Nd:YAG, 1064 nm) ablation of individual target in various solutions. The influence of deionized water (DIW), ethanol and Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) as ambient medium on the fundamental aspects such as ablation efficiency, particle size and stability of Ag NPs was studied. UV-vis spectrophotometer and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were used to study the optical characterization and morphological analysis of all the synthesized samples, respectively. Preparation in DIW was carried out as a reference sample. The experiments demonstrated that ablation efficiency and stability of NPs in ethanol medium are lowest than those prepared in PVP medium and the reference sample. PVP medium led to higher stability, lower ablation efficiency and finer average particle size compared to reference sample

A Matrix Model for \nu_{k_1k_2}=\frac{k_1+k_2}{k_1 k_2} Fractional Quantum Hall States

We propose a matrix model to describe a class of fractional quantum Hall (FQH) states for a system of (N_1+N_2) electrons with filling factor more general than in the Laughlin case. Our model, which is developed for FQH states with filling factor of the form \nu_{k_1k_2}=\frac{k_1+k_2}{k_1k_2} (k_1 and k_2 odd integers), has a U(N_1)\times U(N_2) gauge invariance, assumes that FQH fluids are composed of coupled branches of the Laughlin type, and uses ideas borrowed from hierarchy scenarios. Interactions are carried, amongst others, by fields in the bi-fundamentals of the gauge group. They simultaneously play the role of a regulator, exactly as does the Polychronakos field. We build the vacuum configurations for FQH states with filling factors given by the series \nu_{p_1p_2}=\frac{p_2}{p_1p_2-1}, p_1 and p_2 integers. Electrons are interpreted as a condensate of fractional D0-branes and the usual degeneracy of the fundamental state is shown to be lifted by the non-commutative geometry behaviour of the plane. The formalism is illustrated for the state at \nu={2/5}.Comment: 40 pages, 1 figure, clarifications and references adde