Plants used traditionally to treat malaria in Brazil: the archives of Flora Medicinal

The archives of Flora Medicinal, an ancient pharmaceutical laboratory that supported ethnomedical research in Brazil for more than 30 years, were searched for plants with antimalarial use. Forty plant species indicated to treat malaria were described by Dr. J. Monteiro da Silva (Flora Medicinal leader) and his co-workers. Eight species, Bathysa cuspidata, Cosmos sulphureus, Cecropia hololeuca, Erisma calcaratum, Gomphrena arborescens, Musa paradisiaca, Ocotea odorifera, and Pradosia lactescens, are related as antimalarial for the first time in ethnobotanical studies. Some species, including Mikania glomerata, Melampodium divaricatum, Galipea multiflora, Aspidosperma polyneuron, and Coutarea hexandra, were reported to have activity in malaria patients under clinical observation. In the information obtained, also, there were many details about the appropriate indication of each plant. For example, some plants are indicated to increase others' potency. There are also plants that are traditionally employed for specific symptoms or conditions that often accompany malaria, such as weakness, renal failure or cerebral malaria. Many plants that have been considered to lack activity against malaria due to absence of in vitro activity against Plasmodium can have other mechanisms of action. Thus researchers should observe ethnomedical information before deciding which kind of screening should be used in the search of antimalarial drugs

Knowledge and Practices of Cypriot Bovine Farmers towards Effective and Safe Manure Management

Manure from bovine farms is commonly used as an organic fertiliser. However, if not properly managed, it can spread significant biological and chemical hazards, threatening both human and animal health. The effectiveness of risk control hugely relies on farmers' knowledge regarding safe manure management and on the application of suitable management practices. This study aims to evaluate the knowledge and practices of Cypriot bovine farmers towards safer manure management, from its generation to its final use, in line with the One Health approach. Factors affecting farmers' knowledge and applied practices are also investigated through a questionnaire survey. The questionnaire was developed and sent to all eligible bovine farmers in Cyprus (n = 353), and 30% (n = 105) of them returned the completed questionnaire. Results revealed there are some gaps in farmers' knowledge. The use of manure for fertilising crops dominated. Only half of the farmers stored manure in appropriate facilities, with 28.5% of them using a dedicated area with cement floors and 21.5% utilising leakproof tanks. The majority (65.7%) stored manure for more than three months before its use as a fertiliser in a dried form. In multiple regression analysis, education level and farming purpose were significant determinants of farmer knowledge. In conclusion, Cypriot farmers' knowledge must be reinforced to ensure proper manure management. The results highlight the importance of providing relevant training to farmers. Although the current practices partially decrease manure pathogens, interventions to promote the use of more effective treatment methods, such as biogas transformation and composting, would be beneficial

ORPHEUS: A Virtual Learning Environment of Ancient Greek Music

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A New Freeze Concentration Process for Minimum Effluent Process in Bleached Pulp

This project researches freeze concentration as a primary volume reduction technology for bleaching plant effluents from paper-pulp mills before they are treated by expensive technologies, such as incineration, for the destruction of the adsorbable organic halogens. Previous laboratory studies show that freeze concentration has a greater than 99.5% purification efficiency for volatile, semivolatile, and nonprocess elements, or any other solute, thus producing pure ice that can be reused in the mill as water. The first section evaluates the anticipated regulatory and public pressures associated with implementing the technology; the remaining sections deal with the experimental results from a scaled-up freeze concentration process in a 100-liter pilot-plant at Tufts University. The results of laboratory scale experiments confirmed that the freeze concentration technology could be an efficient volume reduction technology for the above elements and for removing adsorbable organic hologens and or nonprocess elements from recycled water. They also provide the necessary data for designing and operating a larger pilot plant, and identify the technical problems encountered in the scale-up and the way they could be addressed in the larger scale plants. This project was originally planned to include the operation of a large pilot plant in the facilities of Swenson Process Equipment Inc., and a field test at a pulp mill, but the paper company withdrew its financial support for the field test. In place of a final economic evaluation after the field test, a preliminary evaluation based on the small pilot plant data predicts an economically reasonable freeze concentration process in the case of reduction of the bleaching-effluent flow to less than 5 m3/kkg pulp, a target anticipated in the near future

Diagnostic Methods for an Aircraft Engine Performance

The main gas path components, namely compressor and turbine, are inherently reliable but the operation of the aero engines under hostile environments, results into engine breakdowns and performance deterioration. Performance deterioration increases the operating cost, due to the reduction in thrust output and higher fuel consumption, and also increases the engine maintenance cost. In times when economic considerations dominate airline operators’ strategies, carrying out unnecessary rectification, can be very costly and time consuming. In an attempt to minimize such unexpected circumstances, having detailed knowledge prior to any inspection will allow the gas turbine user to take some of the maintenance action when it is necessary. Advanced engine-fault diagnostics tools offer the possibility of identifying degradation at the module level, determining the trends of these degradations during the usage of the engine, and planning the maintenance action ahead

Antioksidacijski i antimikrobni učinak ekstrakata tršlje (Pistacia lentiscus L.) u kobasicama od svinjskog mesa

Pistacia lentiscus fruits are ingredients of traditional Cypriot sausages. The objective of this study is to evaluate P. lentiscus extracts as natural additives to the sausages. First, the phenolic content and antioxidant activity of fruit and leaf extracts were determined. Results revealed that leaves are richer source of polyphenolic antioxidants than fruits, with methanol being the better extraction solvent. In the next step, the antioxidant and antimicrobial effects of methanolic extracts (300 mg/kg) in the pork sausage formulation were investigated. Peroxide, acid and thiobarbituric acid-reactive substance values demonstrated that both fruit and leaf extracts reduced the rate of lipid oxidation of sausages at 4 °C. Total viable count revealed significant differences on the fifth day of storage, with better microbial inhibition by leaf extract. No significant differences between the extracts were observed after the tenth day of storage. Overall, the extracts can be used to prevent lipid oxidation and reduce microbial spoilage during the first days of storage of fresh traditional pork sausages.Plod tršlje (Pistacia lentiscus) koristi se kao dodatak tradicionalno proizvedenim ciparskim kobasicama. Svrha je ovoga rada bila ispitati djelovanje ekstrakata tršlje kao prirodnih dodataka kobasicama. Prvo je određen udjel fenola u ekstraktima ploda i lista te je izmjerena njihova antioksidacijska aktivnost. Rezultati pokazuju da je lišće tršlje bogatije polifenolnim antioksidansima od plodova, a za njihovu je ekstrakciju najbolje upotrijebiti metanol. Zatim je ispitan antioksidacijski i antimikrobni učinak metanolnih ekstrakata (300 mg/kg) u kobasicama od svinjskog mesa. Peroksidni i kiselinski brojevi te koncentracija reaktivnih spojeva tiobarbiturne kiseline potvrđuju da se dodatkom oba ekstrakta smanjila oksidacija lipida u kobasicama na temperaturi skladištenja od 4 °C. Nakon pet dana skladištenja je u uzorcima kobasica s ekstraktima tršlje u usporedbi s kontrolnim uzorkom znatno smanjen ukupni broj živih stanica mikroorganizama, pri čemu je ekstrakt lišća imao bolji inhibicijski učinak. Nakon deset dana skladištenja nisu uočene bitne razlike u inhibicijskom učinku između ekstrakta ploda i lišća. Iz dobivenih rezultata moguće je zaključiti da se ekstrakti ploda i lišća tršlje mogu primijeniti za sprečavanje oksidacije lipida i produljenje trajnosti tradicionalnih kobasica od svježeg svinjskog mesa

Context-based and human-centred information fusion in diagnostics

Maintenance management and engineering practice has progressed to adopt approaches which aim to reach maintenance decisions not by means of pre-specified plans and recommendations but increasingly on the basis of best contextually relevant available information and knowledge, all considered against stated objectives. Different methods for automating event detection, diagnostics and prognostics have been proposed, which may achieve very high performance when appropriately adapted and tuned to serve the needs of well defined tasks. However, the scope of such solutions is often narrow and without a mechanism to include human contributed intervention and knowledge contribution. This paper presents a conceptual framework of integrating automated detection and diagnostics and human contributed knowledge in a single architecture. This is instantiated by an e-maintenance platform comprising tools for both lower level information fusion as well as for handling higher level knowledge. Well structured maintenance relationships, such as those present in a typical FMECA study, as well as on the job human contributed compact knowledge are exploited to this end. A case study presenting the actual workflow of the process in an industrial setting is employed to pilot test the approach