Usability Test of Personality Type within a Roommate Matching Website: A Case Study

We designed and built a roommate matching website, exclusively for students, which allow students to have a central point in which they can meet credible roommate candidates, search for verified housing, and easily reach out to these individuals to further their relationship, and eventually share living space. Our website aims to allow a user to search for compatible roommates not just by living habits, but by tying in the personality of candidates in reference to their own personality type. This type of personality matching in conjunction with a standard behavioral survey is the basis of the algorithm used for roommate matching. In addition to designing and building this website, we also conducted a research around two questions. First, does the idea of personality type in conjunction with living habits have the capacity to form a stronger foundation on which roommates can be selected? Second, is there a means in which we can collect this information from a user and apply it, while avoiding the typical result of survey fatigue that is inherent in existing personality quizzes? We found that majority of our respondents felt that knowing the personality compatibility would influence their decision of sharing a living space with someone. Our respondents also preferred a more visual and interactive quiz to determine personality type in comparison to questionnaires

Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density

Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals <1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data

An Improved Approach for Deep Web Data Extraction

The World Wide Web is a valuable wellspring of data which contains information in a wide range of organizations. The different organizations of pages go about as a boundary for performing robotized handling. Numerous business associations require information from the World Wide Web for doing insightful undertakings like business knowledge, item insight, serious knowledge, dynamic, assessment mining, notion investigation, and so on Numerous scientists face trouble in tracking down the most fitting diary for their exploration article distribution. Manual extraction is arduous which has directed the requirement for the computerized extraction measure. In this paper, approach called ADWDE is proposed. This drew closer is essentially founded on heuristic methods. The reason for this exploration is to plan an Automated Web Data Extraction System (AWDES) which can recognize the objective of information extraction with less measure of human intercession utilizing semantic marking and furthermore to perform extraction at a satisfactory degree of precision. In AWDES, there consistently exists a compromise between the degree of human intercession and precision. The objective of this examination is to diminish the degree of human intercession and simultaneously give exact extraction results independent of the business space to which the site page has a place

Prevalence of Keratinophilic Fungi in Public Park Soils of Mumbai, India

The parks of Mumbai are frequently visited by local residents every morning and evening. However, there are no reports on the occurrence of keratinophilic fungi in these areas. The purpose of this research was to study the occurrence of keratinophilic fungi in the public parks of Mumbai. One hundred soil samples were collected from five public parks: Kamla Nehru Park, Powai Garden, CD Deshmukh Garden, Five Gardens and Chota Kashmir. Keratinophilic fungi were isolated by the hair baiting technique using human hair as keratin bait. The cultures were identified using macroand micro-morphological features. Identification was also confirmed by the BLAST search of sequences of the ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 rDNA region against the NCBI/Genbank data and compared with deposited sequences. The ability of these fungi to use human hair was also evaluated by release of protein in liquid media. A total of 75 strains of keratinophilic fungi were recovered from 100 (75.0%) soil samples. The isolated fungi were composed of eleven species of eight genera: Arthrographis kalrae, Auxarthron conjugatum, Chrysosporium indicum, C. queenslandicum, C. zonatum, Gymnascella dankaliensis, G. hyalinospora, Microsporum gypseum (15.0%), Myriodontium keratinophilum, Trichophyton mentagrophytes and Uncinocarpus reesii. These fungi can release 148.8-307.6 μg/mL protein in liquid media when grown on human hair in shake flask culture and also decompose 16.2-38.6% of human hair after four weeks of incubation. Our study indicates that keratinophilic fungi are to be found in the soils of various public parks in Mumbai and that human hair can be a source of pathogenic fungi

Prevalence of keratinophilic fungi in usar soils of Uttar Pradesh, India

Alkaline soils commonly called as <em>Usar</em> soil having pH 7.5 to 11.0 is commonly found in regions having poor drainage and little percolation. These soils occupy vast tracts of barren lands in the northern parts of India. These areas are frequently visited by man and animals, however there are no reports on the occurrence of keratinophilic fungi from the <em>Usar</em> soils. The purpose of this research was to study the occurrence of keratinophilic fungi in the alkaline Usar soil. To investigate the occurrence of soil keratinophilic fungi from <em>Usar</em> soil, 120 samples were collected from five districts of Uttar Pradesh viz. Lucknow, Bareilly, Azamgarh, Balia and Pratapgarh. Keratinophilic fungi were isolated by the hair baiting techniques using human hair as keratin bait. The cultures were identified using macro- and micro morphological features. Eighty-tow strains of keratinophilic fungi were recovered from 120 (68.33%) soil samples. The isolated fungi were composed of ten species of five genera viz. <em>Chrysosporium indicum</em> (19.16%), <em>Microsporum gypseum</em> (12.5%), <em>Chrysosporium tropicum</em> (10.0%), <em>Chrysosporium pannicola</em> (7.5%), <em>Trichophyton terrestre</em> (5.83%), <em>Chrysosporium lucknowense</em> (4.16%), <em>Chrysosporium</em> state of <em>Ctenomyces serratus</em> (3.33%), <em>Gymnascella dankailensis</em> (3.33%), <em>Gymnoascus reessii</em> (1.66 %) and <em>Trichophyton mentagrophytes</em> (1.66 %). The presence of keratinophilic fungi in the <em>Usar</em> soils of Uttar Pradesh, India indicates that these fungi do occur at higher alkalinity

Endophytic Fungi: A Reservoir of Antibacterials

Multidrug drug resistant bacteria are becoming increasingly problematic particularly in the undeveloped countries of the world. The most important microorganisms that have seen a geometric rise in are Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus, Vancomycin resistant Enterococcus faecium, Penicillin resistant Streptococcus pneumonia and multiple drug resistant tubercule bacteria to name a just few. New drug scaffolds are essential to tackle this every increasing problem. These scaffolds can be sourced from nature itself. Endophytic fungi are an important reservoir of therapeutically active compounds. This review attempts to present some data relavent to the problem. New, very specific and effective antibiotics are needed but also at the affordable price!!!. Herculean task for researcher all over the world. In the Asian subcontinent indigenous therapeutics that has been practiced over the centuries such as Ayurveda that has been effective as ‘handed down data’ in family generations. May need a second, third and more in-depth investigations

A randomized, controlled, comparative, proof-of-concept study to evaluate the efficacy and safety of Nisha-Amalaki capsules in prediabetic patients for preventing progression to diabetes

Background: Prediabetes is an intermediate state of hyperglycemia, which acts as a precursor to Diabetes mellitus if left untreated. Nisha (Curcuma longa) and Amalaki (Emblica officinalis) combination has been advocated as drugs of choice to treat the early manifestations of Diabetes mellitus. Objective: This prospective, randomized, single-blind, placebo-controlled, comparative study was planned to assess the efficacy and safety of Nisha-Amalaki capsules in preventing progression to Diabetes mellitus in prediabetic patients when administered for 6 months. Methods: The study was conducted on prediabetic participants randomized to receive either Nisha-Amalaki (500 mg) or placebo one capsule twice a day for six months. The effect of study medications on IDRS (Indian Diabetes Risk Score), BMI (Body Mass Index), blood sugar, serum insulin, HOMA-IR (Homeostasis Model Assessment-Estimated Insulin Resistance), HbA1c (glycated hemoglobin), oxidative markers, Ayurvedic symptoms and Quality of Life (QoL) scores was assessed at regular intervals. Results: 58 of the 62 participants enrolled completed the study. Significant fall in IDRS score [p < 0.001], BMI [p < 0.001], fasting, and 2 h post-OGTT sugar, insulin, HbA1c, HOMA-IR, and oxidative stress markers [p < 0.001] was observed in patients receiving Nisha-Amalaki at 6 months. Ayurvedic symptoms and QoL scores also improved at 6 months in the treatment group. Conclusion: Treatment with Nisha-Amalaki capsules improved all study parameters including insulin sensitivity at 6 months as compared to placebo in prediabetic patients. Thus Nisha-Amalaki should be considered as prophylactic therapy in prediabetics to delay progression to diabetes