ARPN Journal of Agricultural and Biological Science ANTIBACTERIAL ACTIVITY OF FRUITS AGAINST Escherichia coli

ABSTRACT Numerous fruits are unquestionably utilized to prevent food borne illness diseases. Fruits were analyzed for their antibacterial activity. The antibacterial activity was determined by disc diffusion method. Nearly eight fruits with their various concentrations (25%, 50%, 75%, 100%,) were prepared in order to check their antibacterial activity opposing E. coli. Mango (Mangifera indica L), Apricot (Prunus armeniaca), Grapes (Vitisvinifera), Apple (Malus domestica), Peach (Prunus Persica), Lemon (Citrus limonum), Melon (Cucumismelo) and watermelon (Cirtrullus lanatus) were the selected fruits. The highest inhibition zone was observed in the juice extract of Apricot with concentration of 100%. The mean value of inhibition zone was (8.2± 1.1121). The minimum inhibition was surely noticed in the juice extract of mango with also concentration of 100%. The mean value of inhibition zone was (5± 0.9574). Other fruits showed different inhibition zones along with different concentrations and observed that the effect of fruits against E. coli was concentration dependent. Response against in increase and decrease in concentration was varied among all the fruits

Changing clinical patterns in rheumatoid arthritis management over two decades:Sequential observational studies

This article attempts to examine the problem of friendship as it was understood by Seneca in his letters sent to Lucillus. The author scrutinizes the main items in the philosopher’s autobiography to investigate the influence of the events from Seneca’s biography in the shaping of the opinions of the thinker. Lucillus, the addressee of the letters, was actually Seneca’s long-time friend and confidant. The issue of friendship has a long and rich tradition of its own in the antique times. This particular relationship between human beings was of much interest to Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus, Cicero and many others. Seneca does not venture into an attempt at creating a vision for coherent science related to friendship. What he does though is to furnish a vast array of thoughts concerning such questions as: who is worthy of friendship, why is it worth having a friend and what forms the basis for friendship? Strangely enough, these establishments made by Seneca somehow seem to be more close to us than those in which the philosopher constructs the image of a superhuman wise man, a stoic

Changing clinical patterns in rheumatoid arthritis management over two decades:Sequential observational studies

BACKGROUND: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) treatment paradigms have shifted over the last two decades. There has been increasing emphasis on combination disease modifying anti-rheumatic drug (DMARD) therapy, newer biologic therapies have become available and there is a greater focus on achieving remission. We have evaluated the impact of treatment changes on disease activity scores for 28 joints (DAS28) and disability measured by the health assessment questionnaire scores (HAQ). METHODS: Four cross-sectional surveys between 1996 and 2014 in two adjacent secondary care rheumatology departments in London evaluated changes in drug therapy, DAS28 and its component parts and HAQ scores (in three surveys). Descriptive statistics used means and standard deviations (SD) or medians and interquartile ranges (IQR) to summarise changes. Spearman’s correlations assessed relationships between assessments. RESULTS: 1324 patients were studied. Gender ratios, age and mean disease duration were similar across all cohorts. There were temporal increases in the use of any DMARDs (rising from 61 % to 87 % of patients from 1996-2014), combination DMARDs (1 % to 41 %) and biologic (0 to 32 %). Mean DAS28 fell (5.2 to 3.7), active disease (DAS28 > 5.1) declined (50 % to 18 %) and DAS28 remission (DAS28 < 2.6) increased (8 % to 28 %). In contrast HAQ scores were unchanged (1.30 to 1.32) and correlations between DAS28 and HAQ weakened (Spearman’s rho fell from 0.56 to 0.44). CONCLUSIONS: Treatment intensity has increased over time, disease activity has fallen and there are more remissions. However, these improvements in controlling synovitis have not resulted in comparable reductions in disability measured by HAQ. As a consequence the relationship between DAS28 and HAQ has become weaker over time. Although the reasons for this divergence between disease activity and disability are uncertain, focussing treatment entirely in suppressing synovitis may be insufficient

Flexural behaviour of steel hollow sections filled with concrete that contains OPBC as coarse aggregate

Oil-palm-boiler clinker (OPBC) is an agricultural waste from the palm oil industry and is considered a serious threat to the environment. Moreover, the high consumption of concrete as a construction material results in a continuous demand for natural aggregates, thereby negatively affecting the environment. Thus, channeling OPBC waste materials into the concrete industry aids in promoting the use of a sustainable and lightweight member. This research presents a novel sustainable composite beam that uses an OPBC as a replacement of the natural coarse aggregate. Flexural behaviour of steel tubes infilled with conventional and OPBC concretes were investigated. The results showed that the ductility, flexural stiffness and structural efficiency were higher in the OPBC concrete filled steel tube (CFST) than conventional CFST by 15%, 12% and 20%, respectively. Furthermore, in comparison to conventional CFST, the 10% less self-weight in OPBC CFST will significantly reduce the construction cost of the material. Conclusively, the utilisation of OPBC as infill material for CFSTs will solve disposal problem, preserve natural resources, reduce environmental pollution and will make the structural system sustainable

Experimental and numerical study of flexural behavior of novel oil palm concrete filled steel tube exposed to elevated temperature

Oil palm boiler clinker (OPB) is a waste byproduct obtained at elevated temperature in an oil palm processing mill. Moreover, in recent years, Concrete filled steel tube (CFST) has been used widely in structures throughout the world. This paper presents an experimental and numerical study on novel sustainable composite beam by using OPB as replacement of natural coarse aggregate in CFSTs. Steel hollow beams (3.2 m length) infilled with natural aggregate concrete and OPB concrete were subjected to flexural load and elevated temperature. The parameters selected for the experimental tests were the cross-section type (square, rectangular) and the infilling type (natural aggregate concrete and OPB concrete). The thermal response, failure modes, critical temperature, temperature distribution in steel tube and infilled concrete, deflection along the span and fire concrete contribution ratio were evaluated. The critical temperature and fire concrete contribution ratio of OPB CFST was found to be higher than natural aggregate CFST, showing superior performance of OPB CFST. Thereafter, simulations were performed and more than 50 models were analyzed to evaluate the effect of yield strength of steel (235–400 MPa), compressive strength of infilled concrete (30–75 MPa), load ratio (0.3–0.6), width-to-depth ratio (2–0.5) and steel ratio (4.4%–2.1%) on the fire resistance time of CFST beam. It was found that the increase in load ratio, steel ratio and yield strength of steel has adverse effected on the fire resistance (FR) time of CFST member. However, the FR time increased significantly with an increase in compressive strength of infilled concrete and cross-sectional dimension of CFST member. Finally, the experimental results were compared with existing equations for CFST columns filled with natural aggregate concrete. It was found that current equations may underestimate the fire resistance of CFST filled with OPB

FE modelling of the flexural behaviour of square and rectangular steel tubes filled with normal and high strength concrete

In this research, numerical investigations were carried out to study the behaviour of concrete filled steel tubes having square or rectangular cross-sections. Separate models were used for both normal strength concrete and high strength concrete. More than 50 experimental results were used to verify the FE model and it was found that the FE model accurately predicts the load-deflection curve and ultimate moment capacity of the Concrete filled steel tube (CFST) beams. Thereafter, a parametric study was carried out to evaluate the effect of depth-to-thickness ratio (20−200), compressive strength of infilled concrete (2–100 MPa), shear span-to-depth ratio (1–8), depth-to-width ratio (0.6–2), and yield strength of steel tube (380–490 MPa) on the flexural behaviour of square and rectangular CFST members. It was found that the depth-to-thickness ratio, yield strength of steel and height-to-width ratio has significant effect on the ultimate capacity of CFST beams. The effect of shear span-to-depth ratio and strength of infilled concrete was found to be marginal. Finally, the results of parametric study and experimental data available in literature were used to check the accuracy of the existing design methods presented in EC4 (2004), CIDECT, AISC (2010) and GB50936 (2014). From comparison, it was found that GB50936 (2014) was more accurate but unsafe for low strength infilled concrete. For all cases, EC 4 (2004) was found to be safe and hence is recommended