Phytochemical screening and antimicrobial activity of Capsicum chinense Jacq.

The present study investigated on the comparative evaluation of the extraction, quantification, phytochemical and antimicrobial activity of Capsaicin from acetone and acetonitrile extracts of Capsicum chinense Jacq. The polar aprotic solvent extracts showed high amount of Capsaicin with pungency level of 1,529,500 Scoville Heat Units. The Thin layer chromatography method is providing a fingerprint of plant extract. The Capsaicin extracted in the solvents on TLC chromatogram was viewed under UV 254 nm and UV 366 nm and documented. The extraction and estimation of chlorophyll and Carotenoids were also performed for the plant sample following standard procedure. Phytochemical analysis shows that acetone and acetonitrile extract of callus, leaf, shoot, fruit and seed which shows abundant presence of alkaloids, flavonoids, phenols, saphonins etc. The acetone and acetonitrile extract showed maximum zone of inhibition of Klebsiella pneumonia and Staphylococcus aureus against the gram positive and gram negative bacteria respectively through agar well diffusion method. The acetone and acetonitrile extract was found to be more effective at different concentration against all the tested bacteria and fungi. The results revealed that the Capsaicin and other secondary metabolites present in the acetone and acetonitrile extract of Capsicum chinense would contribute for the further extraction and purification of capsaicin as an antimicrobial agent

Invasive plant species as potential bioenergy producers and carbon contributors

Among recent advances in developing cellulosic and noncellulosic biofuel sources, corn, switchgrass, and others (e.g., camelina, canola) have risen to the top. In surveying the landscape, a potentially promising new area of bioenergy production exists—invasive plant species. The addition of invasive plant species as a bioenergy source will help to diversify the nation’s energy dependence and help in the reduction of the negative environmental and social impacts from energy crop production. In addition, belowground carbon stores may provide an opportunity to reduce the impacts associated with global climate change. In the agriculture sector, harvesting equipment is well advanced for facilitating efficient crop production on both small and large scales. In noncrop systems, the number of limitations and lack of need have slowed the progress of equipment development for biomass harvesting (Graneli 1984). The lack of economic return is an important reason for less intensive management in noncrop areas. With new markets emerging for cellulosic energy sources and advances in equipment technology, this increased incentive could help improve the level of management of invasive plant species in noncrop areas and subsequent harvest or removal of excess biomass. Using invasive plant species in bioenergy facilities would provide enticing opportunities for land managers and business developers. Since the primary focus of most invasive plant species management is on control of unwanted vegetation, the massive amounts of biomass from high cellulosic plants creates a challenge for disposal. Research has shown that piling or dispersing cut portions of many woody and herbaceous invasive plant species can result in the reestablishment by new plants from propagule segments (Boose and Holt 1999; Decruyenaere and Holt 2001). With advances in processing equipment, invasive plant species biomass could be processed into pellets for transporting to facilities that burn biomass or convert biomass to liquid biofuels. The processing of invasive plant species into a useable form (i.e., pellets) that does not promote the spread or introduction of unwanted vegetation minimizes the risks of environmental contamination and provides an economic opportunity for business development in rural communities. While corn and switchgrass are the leading plant candidates for biofuel production, they may not be the most sustainable. Alternatively, the removal of existing invasive plant species biomass and processing into pellets for combustion or liquid fuel conversion maybe more sustainable as it would comply with the US Executive Order 13112 on invasive species (Clinton 1999), support climate change initiatives (Crowl et al. 2008), and expand economic opportunities in rural areas by helping fulfill the mandate by the US Renewable Fuels Standards (USDA 2010)

Lignin and Lipid Impact on Sorption and Diffusion of Trichloroethylene in Tree Branches for Determining Contaminant Fate during Plant Sampling and Phytoremediation

Plants Draw All They Need from their Surrounding Environment and in Doing So Also Draw Anthropogenic Contaminants from their Surroundings. Several Natural Processes (E.g., Active Transport, Diffusion, Sorption, and Degradation) Occur within Trees and Affect Chemical Concentrations in Tree Samples. This Study Elucidates Tree Contaminant Chemical Interactions on Equilibrium Sorption and Diffusion into Branch Tissue (I.e., Wood Core and Bark), Specifically the Impacts of Lipid and Lignin Content. Five Tree Species Were Selected to Span a Range of Lignin and Lipid Contents. Linear Isotherms Were Obtained for All Sampled Species over a Limited Concentration Range (2 Μg/ ML \u3c C Gas \u3c 12 Μg/mL), and Equilibrium Distribution Coefficients (Kd) Were Linearly Correlated to Lipid (R2 \u3e 0.83) But Not Lignin (R2 \u3c 0.4) Content. Lipid Content Was Generally Higher in Bark Than in Wood Cores, So Mass Concentrated in This Tissue. Diffusion into Trees Was Modeled, Showing Mass Transfer Resistance in Bark Was Different from Wood Cores. Diffusion Coefficients for Bark Were 2-10 Times Less Than Those for Wood Cores for All Species, and Diffusion Was Linearly Related to Lipid Content (R2 \u3e 0.96) and Sorption Coefficients (R2 \u3e 0.83). Data from This Study and Previous Research Were Used to Develop the Following Correlation between the Diffusion Coefficient and Relevant Plant and Chemical Parameters for Branch Samples: D = (-7 X 10 -11) X [Flipid X 10 (1.48xlogKow+0.54)] + 4 X 10 -8. © 2009 American Chemical Society

A Simplified 3D Ultrasound Freehand Imaging Framework Using 1D Linear Probe and Low-Cost Mechanical Track

Ultrasound imaging is the most popular medical imaging modality for point-of-care bedside imaging. However, 2D ultrasound imaging provides only limited views of the organ of interest, making diagnosis challenging. To overcome this, 3D ultrasound imaging was developed, which uses 2D ultrasound images and their orientation/position to reconstruct 3D volumes. The accurate position estimation of the ultrasound probe at low cost has always stood as a challenging task in 3D reconstruction. In this study, we propose a novel approach of using a mechanical track for ultrasound scanning, which restricts the probe motion to a linear plane, simplifying the acquisition and hence the reconstruction process. We also present an end-to-end pipeline for 3D ultrasound volume reconstruction and demonstrate its efficacy with an in-vitro tube phantom study and an ex-vivo bone experiment. The comparison between a sensorless freehand and the proposed mechanical track based acquisition is available online (shorturl.at/jqvX0).Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Mechanistic insights into the early life stage microbiota of silver pompano (Trachinotus blochii)

Deep investigations of host-associated microbiota can illuminate microbe-based solutions to improve production in an unprecedented manner. The poor larval survival represents the critical bottleneck in sustainable marine aquaculture practices. However, little is known about the microbiota profiles and their governing eco-evolutionary processes of the early life stages of marine teleost, impeding the development of suitable beneficial microbial management strategies. The study provides first-hand mechanistic insights into microbiota and its governing eco-evolutionary processes in early life stages of a tropical marine teleost model, Trachinotus blochii

COVID-19 Severity and Cardiovascular Outcomes in SARS-CoV-2-Infected Patients With Cancer and Cardiovascular Disease

BACKGROUND: Data regarding outcomes among patients with cancer and co-morbid cardiovascular disease (CVD)/cardiovascular risk factors (CVRF) after SARS-CoV-2 infection are limited. OBJECTIVES: To compare Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) related complications among cancer patients with and without co-morbid CVD/CVRF. METHODS: Retrospective cohort study of patients with cancer and laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2, reported to the COVID-19 and Cancer Consortium (CCC19) registry from 03/17/2020 to 12/31/2021. CVD/CVRF was defined as established CVD RESULTS: Among 10,876 SARS-CoV-2 infected patients with cancer (median age 65 [IQR 54-74] years, 53% female, 52% White), 6253 patients (57%) had co-morbid CVD/CVRF. Co-morbid CVD/CVRF was associated with higher COVID-19 severity (adjusted OR: 1.25 [95% CI 1.11-1.40]). Adverse CV events were significantly higher in patients with CVD/CVRF (all CONCLUSIONS: Co-morbid CVD/CVRF is associated with higher COVID-19 severity among patients with cancer, particularly those not receiving active cancer therapy. While infrequent, COVID-19 related CV complications were higher in patients with comorbid CVD/CVRF. (COVID-19 and Cancer Consortium Registry [CCC19]; NCT04354701)

Mathematical question retrieval for web-based question-answering

Mathematics is an essential subject, which can be applied in various areas of expertise. Thus, excelling in this core subject would help Secondary School students to adapt themselves better to the mathematical skills required for further education as well as for employment. Traditionally, books serve as the main source of information and practice exercises as students prepare for the ‘A’ - level and ‘O’ – level examinations. However, with the recent rapid expansion in the applications of the Internet and mobile devices, students and educators are looking to online resources to guide them in their preparation for examinations. Thus, the main aim of this project is to develop a web – based mathematical question retrieval system for question – answering specifically for educational purposes. Due to an increasing demand for intelligent and efficient means of aiding in revision, a great number of measures have been taken to create and maintain online systems that result in a fruitful revision process for the student. However, most systems do not offer features such as Concept and Formula Tags and a variety of information retrieval options such as text – based, tag – based and formula – based search. These functionalities have been found to be extremely beneficial in allowing students to identify major concepts and formulae related to examination questions over the years using the custom tags as well as to efficiently look up specific questions using the various search options in addition to viewing related recommended questions to search results. In order to achieve the primary objective, the main emphasize while designing the system was to ensure a search functionality was provided to users to enable them to retrieve questions based on custom concept and formula tags created, the mathematical formulae used in the question, as well as keywords generated from questions. The web application uses the “GCE ‘A’-Level H2 Mathematics” subject as the platform for investigating the efficiency and relevance of various information retrieval techniques and search functionalities in addition to the creation of Concept and Formula Tags. The dataset utilized consisted of questions and answers from previous examination papers, with associated text, images and mathematical formulae.Bachelor of Engineering (Computer Science

Optimal Sampling in a Noisy Genetic Algorithm for Risk-Based Remediation Design

A management model has been developed that predicts human health risk and uses a noisy genetic algorithm to identify promising risk-based corrective action designs [Smalley et al, 2000]. Noisy genetic algorithms are simple genetic algorithms that operate in noisy environments. The noisy genetic algorithm uses a type of noisy fitness function called the sampling fitness function, which utilizes Monte-Carlo-type sampling in order to reduce the amount of noise from fitness evaluations in noisy environments. Unlike Monte Carlo simulation modeling, however, the noisy genetic algorithm is highly efficient and can identify robust designs with only a few samples per design. For water resources and environmental engineering design problems with complex fitness functions, however, it is important that the sampling be as efficient as possible. In this paper, methods for identifying efficient sampling strategies are investigated and their performance evaluated using a case study of a risk-based corrective action (RBCA) design problem. Guidelines for setting the parameter values used in these methods are also developed. Applying these guidelines to the case study resulted in highly efficien

Nature's Sensors: Using Plants as an Alternative Monitoring Approach for Subsurface Contamination

146 p.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2008.Finally, methods to incorporate plant sampling with traditional monitoring techniques were explored at the Argonne phytoremediation site. The impacts on uncertainty estimation and optimal sampling schemes at the site from the inclusion of plant sampling were evaluated. Four methods were compared while evaluating uncertainty; entropy was found to be the most sensitive measure of uncertainty estimation at the site. Optimal sampling plans generated using a non-dominated sorted genetic algorithm found that uncertainty was reduced significantly with a marginal increase in cost when most of the samples collected were plant samples.U of I OnlyRestricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETD