EFEKTIVITAS KOMUNIKASI DALAM PEMBELAJARAN DARING DALAM MENINGKATKAN PEMAHAMAN MURID DI SMPN 3 KOTA KOMBA, KEC. KOTA KOMBA, KABUPATEN MANGGARAI TIMUR

Pandemi Covid-19 telah menyebabkan berhentinya kegiatan pembelajaran tatap muka dalam waktu yang cukup lama, dan digantikan oleh sistem pembelajaran daring (dalam jaringan) guna mengurangi penyebaran virus corona. Pembelajaran daring memiliki banyak tantangan, salah satunya adalah kurangnya efektivitas fokus siswa karena proses penyampaian materi tidak dilakukan secara langsung atau tatap muka. Penelitian ini ingin melihat bagaimana efektivitas pembelajaran daring pada siswa dan guru di SMPN 3 Kota Komba, Kab. Manggarai Timur. Penelitian ini menggunakan metode penelitian kualitatif dengan jenis penelitian lapangan yang menghasilkan data deskriptif berupa kata-kata tertulis. Pengumpulan data dilakukan melalui pendekatan yang mendalam terhadap subjek penelitian, dengan dukungan tinjauan literatur yang telah ada sebelumnya. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa proses pembelajaran daring dalam hal pemahaman siswa di SMPN 3 Kota Komba masih belum efektif, disebabkan oleh berbagai kendala seperti keterbatasan sarana dan prasarana seperti ponsel, komputer, dan jaringan internet yang tidak stabil. Upaya yang telah dilakukan antara lain adalah memaksimalkan sumber daya yang tersedia, merancang desain pembelajaran yang mudah diakses oleh siswa, serta memilih aplikasi yang sesuai dengan kondisi dan kemampuan siswa

combining irreversible electroporation (IRE) with TLR3/9 agonists and PD-1 blockade for potent anti-tumor immunity

Cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide, taking nearly 10 million lives each year. CD8+ T cytotoxic lymphocytes (CTLs) play a critical role in human immunity against cancer. Irreversible electroporation (IRE) is a new cancer ablation technology that utilizes electric current to induce tumor cell apoptosis. Compared to other thermal ablative techniques, IRE is safer to use around sensitive structures such as blood vessels or nerves. Although IRE has been successful as a cancer ablation therapy, patients often die due to the recurrence of residual tumors. Therefore, it is critical to improve tumor ablation technology to achieve better therapeutic outcomes for cancer patients. Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are conserved pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) that recognize microbial compounds and stimulate innate and adaptive immune responses. TLR3 agonist Poly I:C (pIC) and TLR9 agonist CpG are known to stimulate strong CD4+ Th1 and CD8+ CTL responses and have been used in combination with other treatments to improve cancer immunotherapy. Programmed death 1 (PD-1) receptors are expressed on activated CTLs, and the interaction between PD-1 and its ligand (PDL-1) on activated CTLs leads to CTL exhaustion and inhibition of CTL-mediated anti-tumor immunity. PD-1 blockade by monoclonal antibodies against PD-1 or PDL-1 blocks their interaction, relieves T cell inhibition and enhances T cell responses. In this study, we developed a mouse model bearing large primary (300 mm3) and medium distant (100 mm3) EG7 lymphomas engineered to express ovalbumin (OVA) as a nominal tumor antigen. We established experimental protocols including IRE alone and IRE combined with TLR3/9 agonists (poly I:C/CpG) (IRE+pIC/CpG) or PD-1 blockade (IRE+PD-1 blockade) or both (IRE+Combo) to investigate the therapeutic effects on primary and distant EG7 tumors and conversional effects on an immunotolerant tumor microenvironment (TME). A dominant immunosuppressive TME is created by tumor cells to promote tumor progression and inhibit effective anti-tumor immune responses. We demonstrate that IRE alone stimulates very weak OVA-specific CD8+ T cell responses and does not inhibit primary tumor growth. IRE+pIC/CpG synergistically stimulates more efficient OVA-specific CD8+ T cell responses and inhibition of primary tumor growth than IRE+PD-1 blockade. IRE+pIC/CpG plays a major role in the modulation of immune cell profiles (ICP), but a minor role in the down-regulation of PDL-1 expression in the TME, and vice versa for IRE+PD-1 blockade. IRE+Combo cooperatively induces potent OVA-specific CD8+ T cell immunity and rescues exhausted intratumoral CD8+ T cell, leading to eradication of not only primary but also untreated concomitant distant tumors and lung metastases. IRE+Combo efficiently modulates ICPs, as evidenced by a reduction of immunotolerant type-2 macrophages (M2), myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs), plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs) and CD4+Foxp3+ regulatory T (Treg) cells and an increase of immunogenic M1, CD169+ macrophages, type-1 conventional dendritic cells (cDC1) and CD8+ T cells, leading to conversion of immunotolerance in not only primary but also untreated distant TMEs. IRE+Combo also shows effective therapeutic results in two breast cancer models. Targeting immunotolerant subsets in the TME represent a future direction towards improved immunotherapy and IRE-ablated cancer therapy. Therefore, our IRE+Combo protocol capable of eradicating both primary and distant tumors as well as lung metastases via converting immunotolerant TME may become a promising strategy for cancer IRE-ablation therapy

The effectiveness of health education programme on knowledge and attitude on cervical cancer prevention and human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination among secondary school girls in Kota Bharu, Kelantan

Introduction: Cervical cancer ranks as the third most frequent cancer among women in Asia and second in Malaysia after breast cancer. Malaysia introduced school-based National HPV prophylaxis vaccination programme started in 2010 to the girls aged 13 years old. However, many studies reported that adolescents had poor knowledge about cervical cancer and HPV vaccination with no standardised education module provided. The aim of our study is to determine the effectiveness of health education intervention in increasing the knowledge and attitude on cervical cancer prevention and HPVvaccination among students in Kelantan. Methodology: This is an open, non-randomised interventional study with control performed between April and August 2015 using multi-stage cluster sampling among female students in two secondary schools in Kota Bharu, Kelantan.The intervention group received health education programme about HPV vaccination and cervical cancer. It was delivered in Malay language by a trained-personnel consists of health talk with PowerPoint presentation, video show, flip chart and interactive presentation as well as equipped with related references. The students from control group received the standard education materials. A self-administered validated questionnaire was used for evaluation of the effectiveness of intervention on knowledge and attitude score at the baseline and at 3 months. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 22. Results: A total of 198 Malay female students was involved with equal number of subjects. Of those, 176 of them responded to post-test evaluation with 88.8% response rate. At the baseline, the mean (SD) of knowledge percentage score in intervention group was 44.9 (18.66) and for control group was 47.2 (15.29). Attitude mean (SD) percentage score in intervention group was 69.86 (10.43) and 66.37 (9.18) in control group. Mean knowledge percentage score within each group based on time at baseline and 3 months shows the mean difference (95% CI) was 12.23 (16.48,7.98) for intervention group and 3.80 (0.77,6.83) for control group. Post intervention, the estimated marginal mean (EMM) (95% CI) for knowledge percentage score was 57.6 (49.12,60.71) in the intervention group and 50.63 (47.81,53.47) in the control group. Respectively, the EMM (95% CI) for attitude percentage score was 70.3 (68.32,72.70) in the intervention group and 66.3 (64.09,68.59) in the control group. The mean difference between groups at baseline and 3 months was statistically significant for knowledge (P=0.001) but not for attitude (P=0.870). Conclusion: The new health education intervention has been shown to increase the knowledge on cervical cancer and HPV vaccination among the girls. However, it is not effective in increasing the attitude score when compared to the current standard health education practice. This new health education intervention could be used as culturallycompetent intervention and as the standard education module to improve the current education practice by school health unit. In addition, this could assist the health staff and paramedics in delivering health education to the students about cervical cancer and HPV vaccination

Biodegradation of paracetamol and its intermediate metabolite hydroquinone by bacterial strains isolated from two mines of the iberian pyrite belt

The main objective of the current study was to isolate bacterial strains able to biodegrade the emerging pollutants paracetamol (APAP) and hydroquinone (HQ), amongst the most worldwide prescribed drugs, also frequently detected in wastewater treatment plants influents and effluents and the environment. The most promising microbial consortia of Poderosa and Lousal mines for APAP removal were selected based on the previous reports of PROBIOMA project (European Regional Development Fund ERDF - Interreg V-A Spain-Portugal program (POCTEP)). The ability of the selected microbial consortia to remove APAP from the Mineral Salt Medium (MSM) at an initial concentration of about 500 mgL-1 (MSM-APAP (500 mgL-1)), under dark shaking conditions of 160 rpm at 25 °C, was confirmed using UV-vis molecular spectroscopy. Subsequently, the isolation step from selected samples proceeded from three successive enrichment cultures using MSM-drug (500 mgL-1) under the aforementioned conditions by spreading first on LB-drug and then on MSM-drug (500 mgL-1) agar plates and resulted in seven isolates able to utilize APAP as sole carbon source, and identified according to 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis as members of genera Aeromonas, Bacillus (two isolates), Niallia, Paraburkholderia, Rhizobium, and Variovorax, as well as one HQ utilizing isolate (Mycolicibacterium sp.). The HPLC analysis of APAP removal, in MSM-APAP (500 mgL-1) under the same culture conditions, by the two putative APAP biodegrading Bacillus sp. isolates revealed that Bacillus sp. (PDE3.1) showed maximal APAP %removal of 63+3 after 18 days, while Bacillus. sp. (PLC2.1) showed %removal of only 8+1 at the end of the experiment after 21 days. The key metabolites of APAP degradation (4-aminophenol and HQ) were detected through GC-MS analysis in the experiment with Bacillus sp. (PDE3.1) at very low concentrations. Then, the seven potential APAP biodegrading bacterial isolates were tested for APAP removal in MSM at a lower concentration of 50 mgL-1. Rhizobium sp. (PDE3.3) and Paraburkholderia sp. (PLA3.3) seemed the most promising where APAP %removal was 49±4 and 47.9±0.9, respectively. Later, the co-culture of the three most promising isolates (Rhizobium sp. (PDE3.3), Paraburkholderia sp. (PLA3.3), and Bacillus sp. (PDE3.1) didn’t improve the %removal compared with the pure cultures, while the co-culture with the seven potential APAP biodegrading isolates did not show removal capacity. Mycolicibacterium sp. (HPB1.1) showed at least 88% removal of HQ from MSM-HQ (50 mgL-1) after four days; hence, was checked for APAP removal in MSM-APAP (50 mgL-1) and showed APAP %removal of 41.6±0.1. Overall, some bacterial strains isolated from Poderosa and Lousal mines showed removal capacity; hence, more efforts should be directed at investigating if biodegradation is the main removal mechanism involved, and at exploring the biodegradation potentials of The Iberian Pyrite Belt mines associated bacteria.As crescentes preocupações ambientais sobre a incapacidade das estações de tratamento de águas residuais (ETARs) para remover completamente os produtos farmacêuticos e outros poluentes das águas residuais, são apoiadas por estudos que reportam as ETAR como a principal fonte de poluentes emergentes no ambiente aquático. Desde a década de 80 que a aplicação da tecnologia de bioaumentação em sistemas de ETAR convencionais usando estirpes bacterianas com as capacidades de biodegradação desejadas tem recebido atenção com o objetivo da remoção completa dos medicamentos contaminantes das águas residuais antes da liberação no meio ambiente. Por outro lado, ambientes extremos sempre foram considerados como uma fonte valiosa de estirpes microbianos com extraordinários potenciais metabólicos considerados como mecanismos de adaptação às condições circundantes de habitats tão extremos, permitindo que esses micróbios extremófilos dominem e se sobreponham a outras comunidades microbianas. O principal objetivo do presente estudo foi isolar e identificar estirpes bacterianas com potencial metabólico para biodegradar o poluente emergente paracetamol (APAP) e seu metabólito hidroquinona (HQ) em ETARs. A escolha do APAP como modelo de estudo deve-se à sua classificação entre os medicamentos mais prescritos no mundo, à sua deteção frequente em afluentes e efluentes de ETARs e no meio ambiente, bem como sua inclusão na Lista Modelo da Organização Mundial da Saúde de Medicamentos Essenciais. Para monitorização da remoção de APAP e HQ foram utilizados diferentes métodos de análise em diferentes fases do trabalho: absorvância de UV-vis em leitor de placas, HPLC com detetor de UV-vis e GC-MS. A análise espectral de UV-vis em leitor de placas foi usada para monitorizar APAP e HQ nas culturas de enriquecimento dos consórcios microbianos utilizados para os isolamentos, o HPLC foi utilizado nos estudos de remoção com os isolados selecionados e o GC-MS para detetar produtos da degradação do APAP. Para a construção de retas de calibração a usar nas análises das amostras fizeram-se os seguintes testes e/ou afinações: no leitor de placas foram selecionados comprimentos de onda com picos de absorbância em soluções padrão dos compostos APAP e HQ; no HPLC determinaram-se os tempos de retenção destes compostos e também do metabolito 4-aminofenol com um método previamente utilizado para estes compostos em trabalhos anteriores já publicados pelo grupo onde o trabalho foi efetuado, no GC-MS testou-se um método previamente utilizado pelo grupo para análises de outro fármaco (17α-etinilestradiol) e determinaram-se os tempos de retenção dos compostos em estudo neste trabalho. Os consórcios microbianos mais promissores das minas Poderosa e do Lousal para biodegradação de APAP foram selecionados com base nos relatórios anteriores do projeto PROMIOMA. A capacidade dos consórcios microbianos selecionados de biodegradar APAP em meio mineral MSM suplementado com uma concentração de 500 mgL-1 (MSM-APAP (500 mgL-1)), no escuro sob condições de agitação de 160 rpm a 25 °C, foi confirmada por análise de absorbância de UV-vis. Subsequentemente, a etapa de isolamento fez-se a partir de três culturas de enriquecimento sucessivas em MSM-APAP (500 mgL-1) nas condições descritas, por espalhando primeiro em placas de LB-agar e depois em placas de MSM-agar-APAP (500 mgL-1), e resultou em sete isolados potencialmente degradadores de APAP identificados de acordo com análises das sequências do gene ARNr 16S como membros dos géneros Aeromonas, Bacillus (dois isolados), Niallia, Paraburkholderia, Rhizobium e Variovorax. Foi também selecionado um isolado degradador de HQ identificado como Mycolicibacterium sp.. Estes géneros, exceto o Bacillus, são relatados pela primeira vez para a biodegradação de APAP. As análises por HPLC da biodegradação do APAP, em MSM-APAP (500 mgL-1) nas mesmas condições de cultivo, pelos dois Bacillus sp. revelaram que o isolado Bacillus sp. (PDE3.1) mostrou uma percentagem máxima de remoção de APAP de 63±3 após 18 dias, enquanto o isolado Bacillus. sp. (PLC2.1) mostrou apenas 8±1% de remoção no final da experiência. Nenhum dos principais metabólitos da degradação do APAP (HQ e 4-aminofenol) foi detetado por análise de HPLC, no entanto eles foram detetados na análise por GC-MS, ainda que em concentrações baixas, na experiência com o Bacillus sp. PDE3.1, sugerindo que a biodegradação do APAP pode ter ocorrido através da descarboxilação inicial do APAP em 4-aminofenol no qual o grupo amina é depois substituído pelo grupo hidroxilo produzindo-se HQ. Os sete isolados bacterianos potencialmente biodegradadores de APAP foram também testados quanto à biodegradação de APAP em MSM numa concentração mais baixa: 50 mgL-1. Nestes testes, os isolados Rhizobium sp. (PDE3.3) e Paraburkholderia sp.(PLA3.3) pareceram os mais promissores, com com % de remoção de APAP de 49±4 and 47,9±0,9, respectivamente. Posteriormente, uma co-cultura dos três isolados mais promissores (Rhizobium sp. (PDE3.3), Paraburkholderia sp. (PLA3.3) e Bacillus sp. PDE3.1) não melhorou a remoção de APAP em comparação com as culturas de isolados puros, enquanto uma co-cultura com todos os sete isolados potencialmente biodegradadores de APAP não apresentou capacidade degradadora. Por outro lado, o isolado Mycolicbacterium sp. (HPB1.1) revelou pelos menos 88% de remoção de HQ após quatro dias numa experiência em MSM-HQ (50 mgL-1). Portanto, este promissor isolado foi também testado para biodegradação em MSM-APAP (50 mgL-1), tendo sido comprovada a remoção de 41,6±0,1% do APAP inicial com uma concentração residual de 29,34±0,05 mgL-1. Por fim, o isolado Mycolicibacterium sp. (HPB1.1) foi selecionado para trabalhos futuros e foi cultivado em meio LB (pH 7) a 25°C sob condições de agitação (160 rpm) para estudo da cinética de crescimento da cultura ao longo de 68 h, com base na densidade ótica a 600 nm (OD600) de amostras em intervalo de 2 h. As células cresceram exponencialmente sem fase lag visível e o crescimento exponencial, associado ao crescimento mais rápido com coeficiente de determinação R2 de 0,99, estendeu-se até 36 h onde foi alcançado uma OD600 máxima de 1,27. A taxa de crescimento específico μ durante o crescimento exponencial foi calculada como 0,047 h-1. Depois, uma fase de desaceleração ou aceleração negativa de crescimento parece seguir-se ao crescimento exponencial e estender-se das 36 h até às 42 h, onde a fase estacionária parece começar e durar até às 68 h, havendo depois uma diminuição da OD600

Galvanostatic Entrapment of Penicillinase into Polytyramine Films and its Utilization for the Potentiometric Determination of Penicillin

A sensitive and reliable potentiometric biosensor for determination of penicillin has been developed by exploiting the self-limiting growth of the non-conducting polymer, polytyramine. Optimum polytyramine-penicillinase (PTy-PNCnase) films for potentiometric detection of penicillin were accomplished with monomer solutions which contained 0.03 M tyramine, 37 U/mL penicillinase, 0.01 M KNO3, and 3 mM penicillin with an applied current density of 0.8 mA/cm2 and an electropolymerisation time of 40 seconds. The potentiometric biosensor gave a linear concentration range of 3–283 μM for penicillin and achieved a minimum detectable concentration of 0.3 μM. The biosensor was successfully utilized for the detection of Amoxycillin and gave an average percentage recovery of 102 ± 6%. Satisfactory recoveries of penicillin G were also achieved in milk samples with the potentiometric biosensor when concentrations are ≥20 ppm

Serum Insulin-Like Growth Factor-1 and Nitric Oxide Levels in Parkinson's Disease

The aim of this study was to investigate the role of circulating growth hormone (GH), insulin growth factor-1 (IGF-1), IGF binding protein-3 (IGFBP-3), and nitric oxide (NO) concentrations in the patients suffering from Parkinson's disease (PD). The study groups were consisted of 25 patients with PD and 25 matched healthy subjects as a control. The NO level of patients in PD group (2.3 ± 0.4 μmol/L) was significantly lower than that in the control group (2.8 ± 0.6 μmol/L) (P:.011). Although there were no statistically significant differences in the GH, IGF-1, and IGF BP-3 levels among the two groups, in this preliminary study, we found low NO and mildly elevated IGF-1 levels in the patients with PD. The results may be associated with adaptation or protective mechanisms in the neurodegenerative disease processes such as seen in the PD. Further studies should be carried out to confirm our results

Ursolic acid enhances macrophage autophagy and attenuates atherogenesis

Macrophage autophagy has been shown to be protective against atherosclerosis. We previously discovered that ursolic acid (UA) promoted cancer cell autophagy. In the present study, we aimed to examine whether UA enhances macrophage autophagy in the context of atherogenesis. Cell culture study showed that UA enhanced autophagy of macrophages by increasing the expression of Atg5 and Atg16l1, which led to altered macrophage function. UA reduced pro-interleukin (IL)-1β protein levels and mature IL-1β secretion in macrophages in response to lipopolysaccharide (LPS), without reducing IL-1β mRNA expression. Confocal microscopy showed that in LPS-treated macrophages, UA increased LC3 protein levels and LC3 appeared to colocalize with IL-1β. In cholesterol-loaded macrophages, UA increased cholesterol efflux to apoAI, although it did not alter mRNA or protein levels of ABCA1 and ABCG1. Electron microscopy showed that UA induced lipophagy in acetylated LDL-loaded macrophages, which may result in increased cholesterol ester hydrolysis in autophagolysosomes and presentation of free cholesterol to the cell membrane. In LDLR(−/−) mice fed a Western diet to induce atherogenesis, UA treatment significantly reduced atherosclerotic lesion size, accompanied by increased macrophage autophagy. In conclusion, the data suggest that UA promotes macrophage autophagy and, thereby, suppresses IL-1β secretion, promotes cholesterol efflux, and attenuates atherosclerosis in mice

A dual strategy to improve psychotic patients\u27 compliance using sustained release quetiapine oral disintegrating tablets

Quetiapine (QT) is a short acting atypical antipsychotic drug effective in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. This study aims at designing a novel dosage form of sustained release taste-masked QT orally disintegrating tablets (ODTs) based on solid lipid micro-pellets (SLMPs). QT SLMPs were prepared using the hot melt extrusion technique utilizing three lipid carriers: Compritol, Precirol and white beeswax either alone or in mixtures. They showed sustained QT release and a taste masking effect. The selected QT SLMP was further blended with an aqueous solution containing polyvinylpyrollidone (2.5%), croscarmellose sodium (2%) and mannitol (50%); it was then lyophilized into ODT in a mass ratio of 1:2 respectively. ODTs containing QT SLMPs showed: average wetting time (40.92 s), average oral disintegration time (21.49 s), average hardness (16.85 N) and also imparted suitable viscosity to suspend pellets during lyophilization process. In conclusion, lyophilization is a promising technique for the formulation of multiparticulate systems into ODTs