Composition, repellent and fumigant toxicity of Mentha longifolia essential oil on Tetranychus urticae and three predatory mites of the family phytoseiidae (Acari: Tetranychidae: Phytoseiidae)

The chemical composition of essential oil extracted from leaves of the medicinal plant Mentha longifolia (L.) Huds growing in Egypt, were determined through Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry ( GC/MS). The analyses revealed that the major component of M. longifolia was Monterpene ketone (piperitone oxide). Mentha longifolia was potent for the pest Tetranychus urticae Koch with a significant increase in repellency. In addition, it exhibited strong oviposition deterrence to the pest based on a 99.4% reduction of the total number of eggs on leaf discs treated with the oil. The LC50 values of M. longifolia against eggs, nymphs and females of T. urticae by fumigant application, were 2.95, 3.47, 3.74 μL / L, while the LC90 values were 8.99, 9.41, 11.01 μL/ L, respectively. The toxicity of M. longifolia oil by fumigant application to females and eggs of 3 predatory phytoseiid mites was tested. Neoseiulus californicus (McGregor) is extremely insusceptible to M. longifolia oil than the pest T. urticae and both phytoseiid mites, Neoseiuls barkeri (Hughes) and Typhlodromips swirskii (Athias Henriot) under laboratory conditions. When both stages of tested predatory mites, exposed to fumigant of LC50 and LC90 μL/L values reported on T. urticae, female’s mortality of N. californicus was lesser than that reported on N. barkeri and T. swirskii. These show that the fumigant toxicity of M. longifolia oil has the highest lethal activity to the pest T. urticae and the least to the predatory mite N. californicus. Results indicated that the mode of delivery of the essential oil was largely a result of action in the vapor phase via respiratory system. Data was suggested that M. longifolia oil have the potential agent to be used in the maintainable management of T. urticae combined with N. californicus

Influence of Melissa officinalis essential oil and its formulation on Typhlodromips swirskii and Neoseiulus barkeri (Acari: Phytoseiidae)

The toxicity of Melissa officinalis L. essential oil and its formulation (Melissacide) were evaluated against eggs and females of two predatory phytoseiid mites, Typhlodromips swirskii (Athias Henriot) and Neoseiulus barkeri (Hughes), using direct spray. Results indicate that both tested materials were potent on predatory females than egg stage. Typhlodromips swirskii was proved to be more sensitive to the oil and formulation than N. barkeri. Females mortality were (62-100%) in T. swirskii, and (46-69%) in N. barkeri, when both predatory mites were sprayed with LC50 and LC90 of the oil and Melissacide reported on Tetranychus urticae Koch. Females of both predators were suffered from reduction in food consumption when sprayed with two sublethal concentrations of Melissacide, while insignificant differences reported in daily number of eggs deposited by females of T. swirskii, when sprayed with its LC25 value of Melissacide and control

A phylogeny analysis on six mullet species (Teleosti: Mugillidae) using PCR-sequencing method

In this study, genetic differences and phylogenic relationships among six Mugillidae species (Mugil cephalus, M. capito, Liza subviridis, L. saliens, L. aurata, Valamugil buchanani) were determined using PCR-sequencing. M. cephalus, L. subviridis, and V. buchanani from the Persian Gulf and Oman Sea, and L. aurata and L. saliens from the Caspian Sea were collected. Samples of an imported, Egyptian species M. capito were obtained from the Gomishan Research Center in Gorgan. Total DNA from the samples were extracted according to phenol-chloroform procedure. The extracted total DNAs were amplified using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and then sequenced. The number of bases in the mitochondrial 16s rRNA genome used in this study approximated 600 base pairs. The size of the bands was identical in all the studied species and no heteroplasmia was observed. In addition, the numbers of variable, preserved, and Pi sites were about 114/624, 488/624, and 110/624, respectively. Analysis of the sequences showed great differences between Mugil species and the other studied species. The phylogenetic tree obtained through Neighbor-Joining method revealed that L. saliens and L. aurata were in the same branch while L. subviridis was in a separate branch. In contrast, Maximum Parsimony tree located L. subviridis and L. aurata in a single branch and assigned L. saliens to a distinct branch. This result brings in the question of monophyletic origin of the genus Liza

Temperature dependence of J–V and C–V characteristics of n-InAs/p-GaAs heterojunctions prepared by flash evaporation technique and liquid phase epitaxy

In this work, n-type of InAs films have been successfully fabricated on p-GaAs monocrystalline substrates by both flash evaporation technique and liquid phase epitaxy. The elemental composition of the prepared films has been confirmed by energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy. The morphology of the films has been characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The current transport mechanisms of n-InAs/p-GaAs heterojunctions in the temperature range 300-400 K have been investigated. Temperature-dependent dark current density-voltage (J–V) studies under forward and reverse bias have been carried out for this purpose. In the temperature range studied, the dark current contribution in the low bias range is believed to be due to the generation-recombination of minority carriers in the space-charge region. A change in the preparation technique does not seem to have altered the dark current conduction mechanism. Capacitance-voltage (C–V) at various temperatures has been measured to identify the junction type as well as determination of the important junction parameters

Polyphenols content and antioxidant power of fruits and leaves of Juniperus phoenicea L. From Tounfite (Morocco)

The natural antioxidants have attracted considerable attention of researchers because of their beneficial roles in human health. In the framework of the development of new antioxidants from natural sources, we are interested in this work in studying the phenolic compounds and evaluating the antioxidant properties of Juniperus phoenicea L. leaves and fruits collected in the mountains of Eastern High-Atlas (Tounfite). The phytochemical screening has allowed highlighting the existence of polyphenols, tannins, flavonoids, sterols and triterpenes, and oses and holosides in both studied samples. Mucilages are also present in these samples but in small quantities, while alkaloids and saponins are entirely absent. Extracts from leaves and fruits have been obtained by different extraction solvents: water, methanol, chloroform, ethyl acetate and n-butanol. The contents of total phenols and flavonoids were evaluated using gallic acid and quercetin as standard respectively. The ethyl acetate extracts of the leaves and fruits contain high levels of total phenolic estimated 2,91mg/g and 5,35mg/g equivalent of gallic acid (GAE) respectively. As for the flavonoid content, the ethyl acetate extracts have also reached the increased levels 11,82mg/g and 2,66mg/g equivalent of quercetin (QE). The antioxidant activities by DPPH test were quantified by spectrophotometry; the results showed that the ethyl acetate extracts from the leaves and fruits exhibit an antioxidant activity with inhibitory concentrations 50% (IC50) of 94,4μg/ml and 185,83μg/ml respectively compared to that of vitamin C (47,76μg/ml). The antioxidant test allowed concluding that the leaves and fruits have a strong anti-radical activity that was assumed to be related closely to the content of polyphenols, which are generally very good antioxidants and that the leaves show a higher activity than fruits.

Evaluation of combined disc method for the detection of metallo-β-lactamase producing Gram negative bacilli

Aims: Infections due to metallo-β-lactamase (MBL) producing Gram negative rods are a cause of high mortality and morbidity. Early detection by an economical and accurate method may improve patient outcome. This study was aimed to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of combined disc method for MBL detection by comparing it with MBL-Etest.Methodology and Results: This cross-sectional, validation study was carried out in the Department of Microbiology, Army Medical College, National University of Sciences and Technology, Rawalpindi, over a period of six months. A total of 52 non-duplicate Gram-negative rods isolated from the routine clinical specimens and found resistant to meropenem/imipenem on Kirby Bauer Disc Diffusion method were subjected to two tests for metallo-β-lactamase detection. One was combined Disc test using imipenem with Ethylene Diamine Tetraacetic Acid (EDTA), where a strain showing an increase in zone of inhibition of combined disc of ≥ 7 mm as compared to imipenem alone, was considered as MBL producer and the other one was MBL-Etest for which results were interpreted as per manufacturer’s guidelines. Combined disc method for MBL detection was found to have a sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and accuracy of 97.5%, 100%, 100%, 92% and 98%.Conclusion, Significance and Impact of study: Combined disc method is an economical and reliable method for metallo-β-lactamase detection which can be used routinely in any laboratory

Context Mining of Sedentary Behavior for Promoting Self-Awareness Using Smartphone

Sedentary behaviour is increasing due to societal changes and is related to prolonged periods of sitting. There is sufficient evidence proving that sedentary behaviour has a negative impact on people’s health and wellness. This paper presents our research findings on how to mine the temporal contexts of sedentary behaviour by utilizing the on-board sensors of a smartphone. We use the accelerometer sensor of the smartphone to recognize user situations (i.e., still or active). If our model confirms that the user context is still, then there is a high probability of being sedentary. Then, we process the environmental sound to recognize the micro-context, such as working on a computer or watching television during leisure time. Our goal is to reduce sedentary behaviour by suggesting preventive interventions to take short breaks during prolonged sitting to be more active. We achieve this goal by providing the visualization to the user, who wants to monitor his/her sedentary behaviour to reduce unhealthy routines for self-management purposes. The main contribution of this paper is two-fold: (i) an initial implementation of the proposed framework supporting real-time context identification; (ii) testing and evaluation of the framework, which suggest that our application is capable of substantially reducing sedentary behaviour and assisting users to be active

categoryCompare, an analytical tool based on feature annotations

Assessment of high-throughput—omics data initially focuses on relative or raw levels of a particular feature, such as an expression value for a transcript, protein, or metabolite. At a second level, analyses of annotations including known or predicted functions and associations of each individual feature, attempt to distill biological context. Most currently available comparative- and meta-analyses methods are dependent on the availability of identical features across data sets, and concentrate on determining features that are differentially expressed across experiments, some of which may be considered “biomarkers.” The heterogeneity of measurement platforms and inherent variability of biological systems confounds the search for robust biomarkers indicative of a particular condition. In many instances, however, multiple data sets show involvement of common biological processes or signaling pathways, even though individual features are not commonly measured or differentially expressed between them. We developed a methodology, categoryCompare, for cross-platform and cross-sample comparison of high-throughput data at the annotation level. We assessed the utility of the approach using hypothetical data, as well as determining similarities and differences in the set of processes in two instances: (1) denervated skin vs. denervated muscle, and (2) colon from Crohn's disease vs. colon from ulcerative colitis (UC). The hypothetical data showed that in many cases comparing annotations gave superior results to comparing only at the gene level. Improved analytical results depended as well on the number of genes included in the annotation term, the amount of noise in relation to the number of genes expressing in unenriched annotation categories, and the specific method in which samples are combined. In the skin vs. muscle denervation comparison, the tissues demonstrated markedly different responses. The Crohn's vs. UC comparison showed gross similarities in inflammatory response in the two diseases, with particular processes specific to each disease