Effect of Physical and Chemical Parameters on the Activity of Purified Phosphatase Enzyme Produced by Bacillus cereus

Phosphorus is one of the most important nutrients for plant growth and development. This study aimed to survey the optimum condition for phosphatase enzyme production, purified and studied its properties. Phosphatase enzyme activity was determined by end point method. Phosphatase enzyme was obtained from Bacillus cereus EME 66 isolate. The enzyme was purified and characterized, using a three-step purification procedure with 12.3-fold. The phosphatase enzyme was partially purified using ammonium sulfate fractionation followed by ultrafiltration. The acid phosphatase is a monomer protein purified gel filtration to 5.6 fold. Results showed that the optimum temperature for the purified enzyme activity was 60 °C and it was stable at temperatures below 60 °C. This enzyme was stable between pH 4.0-6.0, and the optimal pH activity was found to 5.0. The activity of the enzyme enhanced by heavy metals (Fe3+, Cu2+, Ca2+, Mg2+ and K+). The enzyme activity was strongly inhibited by heavy metals Zn2+. The present article reveals on enzymatic characterization of acid phosphatase enzyme

NATURAL ANTIMICROBIALS IN THE PIPELINE AND POSSIBLE SYNERGISM WITH ANTIBIOTICS TO OVERCOME MICROBIAL RESISTANCE

The unresponsive use of antibiotics led to the appearance of multiple drug-resistant bacteria strains. Studying the mechanism by which bacteria can resist antibiotics, the so called quorum sensing and biofilm formation, enabled the researchers to find bioactive compounds, derived from eukaryotes and prokaryotes. The disrupt of this mechanism is called quorum sensing inhibitors or quorum quenchers. This article provides an overview on the current research done on such bioactive compounds, the possible use of them as antibiotic alternatives, what are the advantage and disadvantages, the source from which it has been extracted, and how it may succeed to overcome bacterial resistance. The recommendation of researchers is to use some of these natural antimicrobial compounds combined to lower doses of antibiotics for treatment, the fastest way to limit the adverse effects of the exploitation of antibiotics and to avoid bacterial resistance

Characterization of Industrial and Biological Complex Fluids Using Confocal Microscopy.

Complex fluids are materials that respond to applied stresses in a way that is intermediate between that of a purely viscous fluid or a fully elastic solid. The characterization of material properties depends upon the ability to both apply variable stresses or strains to the complex fluid and to measure the resulting response. Often the macroscopic response of these materials depends upon the microscale structure. In this dissertation, confocal laser scanning microscopy is used to analyze microscopic changes in complex fluids. We developed methods to apply the stress or strain that matches the application or environment of the material to be characterized. For instance, confocal images of the emulsion structure of fountain solution in ink exposed to oscillatory shear flow on model substrates were acquired. We found that surfactants inhibit aqueous droplet wetting on hydrophobic substrates. Without surfactants, surface coverage of the aqueous fountain solution on the hydrophobic substrate became quite high. This result is relevant to defects in lithographic printing. To characterize the material properties of biofilms a tunable small-scale device was needed. We developed a flexible microfluidic rheometer to apply a compressive force of ~200 pL volume. We used confocal microscopy to detect the deformation of a membrane in contact with a test material when compressive stresses were applied. This measurement allowed us to characterize material properties including elastic modulus and relaxation time of soft viscoelastic solids, biofilms in particular. We report evidence of strain hardening in biofilms; a result that could have implications for the understanding of clearance of biofilms in industrial and physiological environments. To understand the source of this phenomenon we applied confocal microscopy to characterize the structure of bacteria aggregated in a polysaccharide matrix. Interestingly, while aggregated bacteria and bacteria in biofilms are held together by ostensibly the same material we find their inter-bacterial distance to be quite different. Once this tool was developed the origin of strain-hardening in biofilms could be addressed. The strain-induced trajectories of individual bacteria found using image processing of confocal micrographs were analyzed to show that strain hardening occurs without an increase in volume fraction.Ph.D.Chemical EngineeringUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/61778/1/dnhohne_1.pd

Density Functional Study of Cubic to Rhombohedral Transition in α\alpha-AlF3_3

Under heating, $\alpha$-AlF$_3$ undergoes a structural phase transition from rhombohedral to cubic at temperature $T$ around 730 K. The density functional method is used to examine the $T$=0 energy surface in the structural parameter space, and finds the minimum in good agreement with the observed rhombohedral structure. The energy surface and electronic wave-functions at the minimum are then used to calculate properties including density of states, $\Gamma$-point phonon modes, and the dielectric function. The dipole formed at each fluorine ion in the low temperature phase is also calculated, and is used in a classical electrostatic picture to examine possible antiferroelectric aspects of this phase transition.Comment: A 6-page manuscript with 4 figures and 4 table

EEG pattern of cognitive activities for non dyslexia (engineering student) due to different gender

The purpose of this study is to identify the electroencephalogram (EEG) pattern of male and female engineering student during the cognitive activity. EEG is a method to monitoring electrical activity in the brain and has four main brainwave signal Delta Wave, Theta Wave, Alpha Wave and Beta Wave. Delta wave is a slow wave generated in deepest meditation, Theta Wave usually occurs in sleep, Alpha Wave dominant in calming, relaxing condition and Beta Wave dominant in wakeful condition. The raw data collected analysis using SPSS and Microsoft Excel to analysis the accuracy and the brainwave pattern between male and female. The average, standard derivation, correlation and Q-Q Plot are used to identify the EEG pattern between male and female during cognitive activity. Cognitive is one of the bloom taxonomy formulate for education activities. The process involves in decision making, understanding of information, attitudes and solving. Subjects are given a set of question to answer. A total of 24 students, 12 males and 12 female involve recording their EEG signal while answering the cognitive question by wearing the Emotive Insight device. All subjects are from UTHM engineering students. Data collected are focused in Alpha Wave and Beta wave which exist in when someone is in awaken condition. The difference between male and female brainwave during the cognitive activity can be observed from the analysis and discussion of the result. For future recommendation for this research is the number of subject can be increased to get more accurate data

BAD modulates counterregulatory responses to hypoglycemia and protective glucoprivic feeding.

Hypoglycemia or glucoprivation triggers protective hormonal counterregulatory and feeding responses to aid the restoration of normoglycemia. Increasing evidence suggests pertinent roles for the brain in sensing glucoprivation and mediating counterregulation, however, the precise nature of the metabolic signals and molecular mediators linking central glucose sensing to effector functions are not fully understood. Here, we demonstrate that protective hormonal and feeding responses to hypoglycemia are regulated by BAD, a BCL-2 family protein with dual functions in apoptosis and metabolism. BAD-deficient mice display impaired glycemic and hormonal counterregulatory responses to systemic glucoprivation induced by 2-deoxy-D-glucose. BAD is also required for proper counterregulatory responses to insulin-induced hypoglycemia as evident from significantly higher glucose infusion rates and lower plasma epinephrine levels during hyperinsulinemic hypoglycemic clamps. Importantly, RNA interference-mediated acute knockdown of Bad in the brain provided independent genetic evidence for its relevance in central glucose sensing and proper neurohumoral responses to glucoprivation. Moreover, BAD deficiency is associated with impaired glucoprivic feeding, suggesting that its role in adaptive responses to hypoglycemia extends beyond hormonal responses to regulation of feeding behavior. Together, these data indicate a previously unappreciated role for BAD in the control of central glucose sensing

A Multifaceted Device for Discreetly Acquiring Natural Behaviors of Children with Autism

Autism is a multifaceted neurological disorder that affects the four fundamental areas of sensory processing, communication mechanisms, social interaction skills, and whole child/self-esteem. The underlying mechanisms and symptoms of the disorder have been shown to largely vary from patient to patient, and therefore, a durable, effective therapy is best achieved through multifaceted, multidisciplinary approaches that allow a direct assessment of each individual’s behavior, both quantitatively and qualitatively. The aim of this project was to simulate, design, manufacture, and assess a device that can help cultivate sensory, social, communication, and motor skills in autistic children while being able to extract data of the child’s behavior that could be used by the therapist. Critical components of the toy involve auditory and visual stimulation, as well as interactive mechanisms to promote development. The most important features of the toy are hidden cameras that discreetly monitor the child’s reactions in order to provide analytical feedback mechanisms, allowing parents, caregivers, or therapists to monitor and evaluate the child’s learning and therapy. The performance of the toy was examined on 17 children with autism at two specialized centers for child with developmental disorders. The results showed that the device was found satisfactory by the majority of children as assessed by their willingness to spend time accomplishing the tasks on the device, as well as by captured videos of their natural reactions throughout. Furthermore, improved performance was observed on the same population of children who were tested multiple times, indicating the potential use of the toy for therapeutic and learning purposes

Inverse problem of photoelastic fringe mapping using neural networks

This paper presents an enhanced technique for inverse analysis of photoelastic fringes using neural networks to determine the applied load. The technique may be useful in whole-field analysis of photoelastic images obtained due to external loading, which may find application in a variety of specialized areas including robotics and biomedical engineering. The presented technique is easy to implement, does not require much computation and can cope well within slight experimental variations. The technique requires image acquisition, filtering and data extraction, which is then fed to the neural network to provide load as output. This technique can be efficiently implemented for determining the applied load in applications where repeated loading is one of the main considerations. The results presented in this paper demonstrate the novelty of this technique to solve the inverse problem from direct image data. It has been shown that the presented technique offers better result for the inverse photoelastic problems than previously published works