Phenotypic characterisation of Pasteurella multocida obtained from poultry in Iran

Phenotypic patterns of twenty-five isolates of P. multocida strains isolated from northern provinces of Iran were determined by using different carbohydrates from hexoses, pentoses, disaccharides and polyhydric alcohols. The strains showed a high homogeneity. All strains were able to ferment sorbitol, mannitol, galactose, dextrose, fructose, glucose, mannose and sucrose. However none of them could produce acid from dulcitol, inositol, arabinose, salicine, raffinose and inoline. According to this pattern all of isolates belonged to subspecies multocida. The in-vitro sensitivity of isolates against 13 chemotherapeutic agents was determined by the paper disc method. Among the antibiotics tested, chloramphenicol, combination of sulfamethoxazine and trimethoprim and nitrofurantoin were found to be the most effective (100%) followed by tetracycline (96%), penicillin (88%), and gentamicin (76%). Strains showed 100% resistance to lincomycin and bacitracin followed by 84% and 68% resistance to furazolidone and colistin respectively. All P. multocida isolates identified as to capsular type A

Proses pembuatan gambus masyarakat melayu Brunei Sabah = The process of making the Sabah Malay Bruneian ”Gambus”

Walaupun pelbagai muzik moden telah menjadi sebahagian penting daripada kehidupan masyarakat Melayu Brunei Sabah, namun seni permainan gambus masih lagi digemari oleh kalangan generasi lama dan baru. Setelah membuat pemerhatian terhadap Pesta Gambus Sabah yang diadakan saban tahun (yang mengandungi elemen pertandingan dan pertunjukan, kini telah memasuki tahun yang ke-10), terdapat faktor sosiobudaya dan ekonomi yang mempengaruhi kelestarian seni warisan gambus ini. Masyarakat Melayu Brunei Sabah mendiami sekitar pantai Barat Sabah iaitu dari Kota Kinabalu hingga ke Sipitang. Namun, “pusat kehidupan” gambus berada di daerah Papar khususnya di kawasan Bongawan dan sekitarnya. Salah satu daripada faktornya ialah kemampuan masyarakat Melayu Brunei menghasilkan sendiri seni gambus berkenaan iaitu alat muzik itu sendiri, irama dan senikata yang dihasilkan, falsafah dan kecintaan mereka kepada gambus. Projek Pengesahan Fakta Jabatan Muzium Malaysia telah memberi perhatian kepada proses pembuatan gambus iaitu dari aspek pemilihan pokok, kaedah pertukangan yang diamalkan, kepercayaan sehingga sebuah gambus dapat dimainkan. Sehingga kini masih terdapat beberapa pembuat gambus dari kalangan generasi tua (berusia 60 tahun ke atas) tetapi hanya seorang sahaja pembuat yang mewakili generasi muda (berusia di bawah 40 tahun). Empat orang pembuat gambus telah dirakam kaedah pembuatan mereka, tetapi hanya seorang sahaja yang dipilih untuk dipaparkan proses pembuatannya. Manakala tiga orang pembuat gambus yang lain dirujuk sebagai pembanding pada tahap-tahap pembuatannya

Modelling the Ghanaian Inflation Rates Using Interrupted Time Series Analysis Approach

The article considers the application of interrupted time series analysis to model yearly inflation rates in Ghana from 1996 to 2006. This article, therefore, explored the effectiveness of the economic policy intervention in the year 2001 on the inflation rate time series for the period 2001 to 2006 using the interrupted time series experiment. We also sort to use this model to make forecasts of future values. To achieve this objective, yearly inflation rates for the period were obtained from Bank of Ghana (BoG). The Box-Jenkins Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) method with interruption was employed in analyzing the data using Statistical Product for Service Solution (SPSS) version 20. It was found that the rate of inflation in Ghana can be fitted with an autoregressive model of order one, i.e. AR (1) model. From the results of the tests of the difference between the means before and after intervention, as well as the interrupted time series experiment, indicated that the intervention successfully reduced the rate of inflation in the Ghana’s economy. Keywords: Inflation, Interrupted Time Series, Box-Jenkins Method

Effect of Spiral Split Ring Resonator (S-SRR)structure on Truncated Pyramidal Microwave Absorber Design

This paper discusses on the effect of the spiral split ring resonator on the truncated pyramidal microwave absorber. Split ring resonator (SRR) structure can potentially be incorporated onto the truncated pyramidal microwave absorber to increase the reflection loss performance. There are many ways to increase the pyramidal microwave absorber performance. The ways are focusing the new hybrid shapes, using high carbon material, and adding the left handed material structure on the pyramid microwave absorber. Left handed material or metamaterial is an artificial material that does not exist in the real nature like FR4, Taconic, Rogers or RT Duriod.There are many types of left handed material that had been used by several researchers such as split ring resonator (SRR), and photonic band gap (PBG), electromagnetic band gap (EBG) and artificial magnetic conductor (AMC). In this research, spiral split ring resonator (S-SRR) is used to increase the microwave absorber performance. It has the potential to increase the reflection loss or 811 results of the microwave absorber at the several frequencies

The helium trimer with soft-core potentials

The helium trimer is studied using two- and three-body soft-core potentials. Realistic helium-helium potentials present an extremely strong short-range repulsion and support a single, very shallow, bound state. The description of systems with more than two helium atoms is difficult due to the very large cancellation between kinetic and potential energy. We analyze the possibility of describing the three helium system in the ultracold regime using a gaussian representation of a widely used realistic potential, the LM2M2 interaction. However, in order to describe correctly the trimer ground state a three-body force has to be added to the gaussian interaction. With this potential model the two bound states of the trimer and the low energy scattering helium-dimer phase shifts obtained with the LM2M2 potential are well reproduced.Comment: 15 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Few-Body System

Effectiveness of pre-procedural rinsing with essential oils-based mouthrinse to reduce aerosol contamination of periodontitis patients

This research aims to evaluate the effectiveness of pre-procedural rinsing using essential oils-mouthwash (Listerine®) in reducing bioaerosol contamination in a dental clinic. Thirty (30) subjects who consisted of those receiving treatment for periodontitis problems were randomly assigned to rinse with either 20 mL of Listerine® or 20 mL of placebo as control rinse. Every subject was instructed to gargle using the rinse for 1 min. Microbial samples of environmental air and saliva were collected before and after the rinse. All samples were further analyzed for total plate counts to measure the microbial level. Rinsing using Listerine® showed significant reduction in the level of microbial load in saliva compared to the control mouthrinses. Analysis done at three defined distance intervals from the operating site showed the level of bioaerosol contamination was highest at distance nearest to the treatment point of 1 ft. Based on counts of cfu, there was higher presence of microbial contaminant in bioaerosols of the control-rinsed group compared to the test-rinsed group using Listerine®. Therefore, it can be concluded that rinsing using Listerine® was effective towards reducing the microorganisms in saliva and oral cavity in general

Electronic Patient Record for Dental Charting

The use of electronic patient records has a great positive potential to improve clinical practice and patient safety. These improvements can be realized through improved legibility and communication, standardized documentation, streamlined storage and consistent reporting. This paper addresses the development of an electronic patient record for dental charting as an alternative means towards a user-friendly and patient-centered dental environment. It considers prevalent dental charting practices, proposes a patient dental database and presents a dental charting application prototype, capable of capturing and displaying patient dental records. Data from this database is mapped and can be further manipulated through the patient's interactive dental chart. This interactivity not only offer quick-to-comprehend interfaces, but also reduces miscommunicationss. It will affect positively the legibility of dental records, enable a standardized documentation and a more consistent reporting

The Debye-Waller Factor in solid 3He and 4He

The Debye-Waller factor and the mean-squared displacement from lattice sites for solid 3He and 4He were calculated with Path Integral Monte Carlo at temperatures between 5 K and 35 K, and densities between 38 nm^(-3) and 67 nm^(-3). It was found that the mean-squared displacement exhibits finite-size scaling consistent with a crossover between the quantum and classical limits of N^(-2/3) and N^(-1/3), respectively. The temperature dependence appears to be T^3, different than expected from harmonic theory. An anisotropic k^4 term was also observed in the Debye-Waller factor, indicating the presence of non-Gaussian corrections to the density distribution around lattice sites. Our results, extrapolated to the thermodynamic limit, agree well with recent values from scattering experiments.Comment: 5 figure

High performance supercapacitor based on laser induced graphene for wearable devices

To ensure maximum comfort for the wearer, electronic components that include energy harvesters need to be mechanically conformable. In this context, we demonstrate a versatile, cost-effective and efficient method for fabricating graphene supercapacitor electrodes using Laser Induced Graphene (LIG). A CO2 laser beam instantly transforms the irradiated polyethersulfone polymer (PES) into a highly porous carbon structure. The LIG method was used to deposit graphene layers on graphite sheets to produce the supercapacitor electrodes. Graphene formation and morphology were examined and confirmed using several techniques including Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Energy Dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy, Raman Spectroscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Moreover, the electrochemical characterization was performed in different electrolytes (NaOH and KOH). At 5 mV s-1, the LIG electrode achieved 165 mF cm-2 and 250 mF cm-2 in NaOH and KOH electrolytes, respectively. Consequently, we show that a wearable symmetric supercapacitor device with LIG electrodes achieved 98.5 mF cm-2 at 5 mV s-1 in KOH electrolyte. The device demonstrated an energy density of 11.3 μWh.cm-2 with power density of 0.33 mWcm-2 at 0.5 mA cm-2. The retention of capacitance was 75% after 2000 cycles, with outstanding performance for the comparable graphene-based electrodes. These results further validate the use of LIG for developing flexible energy harvesters for wearable applications