Flame resistant cellulosic substrate using banana pseudostem sap

Flame retardancy was imparted in cellulosic cotton textile using banana pseudostem sap (BPS), an eco-friendly natural product. The extracted sap was made alkaline and applied in pre-mordanted bleached and mercerized cotton fabrics. Flame retardant properties of both the control and the treated fabrics were analysed in terms of limiting oxygen index (LOI), horizontal and vertical flammability. Fabrics treated with the non-diluted BPS were found to have good flame retardant property with LOI of 30 compared to the control fabric with LOI of 18, i.e., an increase of 1.6 times. In the vertical flammability test, the BPS treated fabric showed flame for a few seconds and then, got extinguished. In the horizontal flammability test, the treated fabric showed no flame, but was burning only with an afterglow with a propagation rate of 7.5 mm/min, which was almost 10 times lower than that noted with the control fabric. The thermal degradation and the pyrolysis of the fabric samples were studied using a thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and the chemical composition by FTIR, SEM and EDX, besides the pure BPS being characterized by EDX and mass spectroscopy. The fabric after the treatment was found to produce stable natural khaki colour, and there was no significant degradation in mechanical strengths. Based on the results, the mechanism of imparting flame retardancy to cellulosic textile and the formation of natural colour on it using the proposed BPS treatment have been postulated

Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay for Detecting Herpesvirus Exposure in Mediterranean Tortoises (Spur-Thighed Tortoise [Testudo graeca] and Hermann's Tortoise [Testudo hermanni])

An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was developed for the detection of antibodies to a herpesvirus associated with an upper respiratory tract disease in Mediterranean tortoises [spur-thighed tortoise (Testudo graeca) and Hermann's tortoise (Testudo hermanni)]. This serodiagnostic test was validated through a hyperimmunization study. The mean of the A(405) readings of the plasma samples collected at time zero of the hyperimmunization study plus three times the standard deviation was used as the cutoff for seropositivity in tortoises. ELISA results were compared to serum neutralization (SN) values for the same samples by using the McNemar test. The results obtained by SN and ELISA were not significantly different (P > 0.05). This new ELISA could be used as an important diagnostic tool for screening wild populations and private and zoo collections of Mediterranean tortoises