On the fuzzy nature of constructed algebraic structure

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Factors affecting utilization of long lasting insecticide treated nets

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Isolation and Characterization of Palmitic Acid from Ethyl Acetate Extract of Root Bark of Terminalia Glaucescens

The aim of this study is to identify and characterized the bioactive compounds from the root bark of the plant. Preliminary phytochemical screening of the root bark extract of Terminalia glaucescens revealed the presence of steroids, terpenoids, saponins, flavonoids, tannins and cardiac glycoside. The plant has wide folk medicinal use in traditional medicine. The air dried root bark was pulverized to powder, subjected to hot extraction (soxhlet) with methanol, and fractionated into n-hexane, ethyl acetate, and n-butanol fractions. Ethyl acetate as bioactive fraction based on sensitivity test was subjected to TLC and column chromatography. The isolated compound was colourless powder, which was further subjected to IR, UV, 13CNMR and 1HNMR for proper characterization and elucidation of the structure. The compound was concluded as palmitic acid

A Histopathological Exploration of the Madurella mycetomatis Grain

Although the Madurella mycetomatis grains seem to interfere with the host defense mechanisms and impede the antifungal drugs penetration, yet their histological features are not fully known and hence this study was set out to determine that. The study included 80 patients with confirmed M. mycetomatis eumycetoma. After informed written consent, surgical biopsies were obtained from the excised tissues during the patients' surgical treatment. All sections were stained with haematoxylin and eosin, Grocott's hexamine silver, Periodic Acid-Schiff's, Masson-Fontana, Perl's Prussian Blue, Von-kossa's, Formalin Inducing Fluorescence and Schmorl's stains. Modified bleaching technique was used. The concentrations of Zinc, Copper, Calcium, Iron, Lead, Cobalt and Nickel were determined by Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer. The M. Mycetomatis grai

Influence of weed control methods, poultry manure and planting pattern on growth and yield attributes of maize (Zea mays l.) in the northern Guinea Savannah zone of Nigeria

Field trials were conducted during the rainy seasons (2012 and 2013) at the  Research Farm of Institute for Agricultural Research, Samaru Zaria and College of Agriculture and Animal Science, Mando Kaduna, in the Northern Guinea Savannah Zone of Nigeria, to determine the Influence of weed control methods, poultry manure and planting pattern on the performance of maize (Zea mays L.). The treatments consisted of six levels of weed control (S-metolachlor + atrazine at 1.98 and 2.64 kg a.i/ha, butachlor at 1.5 and 2.5 kg a.i/ha, hoe weeding at 3 and 6 weeks after sowing (WAS) and a weedy check), three levels of poultry manure (0, 4 and 8 t/ha) and two planting pattern (single and double row per ridge). The treatments were laid out in spit-plot design replicated three times. Weed control and poultry manure were assigned to the main plots, while planting pattern was assigned in the sub-plots. Results from the study showed that application of S-metolachlor + atrazine at 2.64 kg a.i/ha, butachlor at 2.5 kg a.i/ha and hoe weeding at 3 and 6 WAS produced taller maize plants, increase in relative growth rate and higher grain yield. However, application of poultry manure at 8t/ha gave the tallest maize plants, increase in relative growth rate and higher total grain yield, while double planting pattern (double row per ridge) suppressed weed population and ensured better crop performance and higher grain yield compared to the single planting pattern (single row per ridge).Key words: weed control, planting pattern, poultry manur

Kynurenine 3-Monooxygenase gene associated with Nicotine initiation and addiction: Analysis of novel regulatory features at 5' and 3'-Regions

© 2018 Aziz, Abdel-Salam, Al-Obaide, Alobydi and Al-Humaish. Tobacco smoking is widespread behavior in Qatar and worldwide and is considered one of the major preventable causes of ill health and death. Nicotine is part of tobacco smoke that causes numerous health risks and is incredibly addictive; it binds to the α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (α7nAChR) in the brain. Recent studies showed α7nAChR involvement in the initiation and addiction of smoking. Kynurenic acid (KA), a significant tryptophan metabolite, is an antagonist of α7nAChR. Inhibition of kynurenine 3-monooxygenase enzyme encoded by KMO enhances the KA levels. Modulating KMO gene expression could be a useful tactic for the treatment of tobacco initiation and dependence. Since KMO regulation is still poorly understood, we aimed to investigate the 5' and 3'-regulatory factors of KMO gene to advance our knowledge to modulate KMO gene expression. In this study, bioinformatics methods were used to identify the regulatory sequences associated with expression of KMO. The displayed differential expression of KMO mRNA in the same tissue and different tissues suggested the specific usage of the KMO multiple alternative promoters. Eleven KMO alternative promoters identified at 5'-regulatory region contain TATA-Box, lack CpG Island (CGI) and showed dinucleotide base-stacking energy values specific to transcription factor binding sites (TFBSs). The structural features of regulatory sequences can influence the transcription process and cell type-specific expression. The uncharacterized LOC105373233 locus coding for non-coding RNA (ncRNA) located on the reverse strand in a convergent manner at the 3'-side of KMO locus. The two genes likely expressed by a promoter that lacks TATA-Box harbor CGI and two TFBSs linked to the bidirectional transcription, the NRF1, and ZNF14 motifs. We identified two types of microRNA (miR) in the uncharacterized LOC105373233 ncRNA, which are like hsa-miR-5096 and hsa-miR-1285-3p and can target the miR recognition element (MRE) in the KMO mRNA. Pairwise sequence alignment identified 52 nucleotides sequence hosting MRE in the KMO 3' UTR untranslated region complementary to the ncRNA LOC105373233 sequence. We speculate that the identified miRs can modulate the KMO expression and together with alternative promoters at the 5'-regulatory region of KMO might contribute to the development of novel diagnostic and therapeutic algorithm for tobacco smoking

Hairy black holes in theories with massive gravitons

This is a brief survey of the known black hole solutions in the theories of ghost-free bigravity and massive gravity. Various black holes exist in these theories, in particular those supporting a massive graviton hair. However, it seems that solutions which could be astrophysically relevant are the same as in General Relativity, or very close to them. Therefore, the no-hair conjecture essentially applies, and so it would be hard to detect the graviton mass by observing black holes.Comment: References added. 20 pages, 3 figures, based on the talk given at the 7-th Aegean Summer School "Beyond Einstein's theory of gravity", September 201

A unified global investigation on the spectral effects of soiling losses of PV glass substrates: preliminary results.

The present work reports on the initial results of an international collaboration aiming to investigate the spectral effects of soiling losses. Identical glass coupons have been exposed outdoors for eight weeks in different locations worldwide, and weekly direct and hemispherical transmittance (T%) measurements are compared. Maximum losses as high as 7% and 50% in hemispherical and direct transmittance, respectively, have been found during the 8-week outdoor exposure. At the end of the data collection, a preliminary analysis of the spectral impact of soiling has been performed. The results show that the blue end of the spectrum is more affected and that lower hemispherical T% correlate to larger area covered by particles

Modelling photovoltaic soiling losses through optical characterization

The accumulation of soiling on photovoltaic (PV) modules affects PV systems worldwide. Soiling consists of mineral dust, soot particles, aerosols, pollen, fungi and/or other contaminants that deposit on the surface of PV modules. Soiling absorbs, scatters, and reflects a fraction of the incoming sunlight, reducing the intensity that reaches the active part of the solar cell. Here, we report on the comparison of naturally accumulated soiling on coupons of PV glass soiled at seven locations worldwide. The spectral hemispherical transmittance was measured. It was found that natural soiling disproportionately impacts the blue and ultraviolet (UV) portions of the spectrum compared to the visible and infrared (IR). Also, the general shape of the transmittance spectra was similar at all the studied sites and could adequately be described by a modified form of the Ångström turbidity equation. In addition, the distribution of particles sizes was found to follow the IEST-STD-CC 1246E cleanliness standard. The fractional coverage of the glass surface by particles could be determined directly or indirectly and, as expected, has a linear correlation with the transmittance. It thus becomes feasible to estimate the optical consequences of the soiling of PV modules from the particle size distribution and the cleanliness value

Characterization of azo dyes on Pt and Pt/polyaniline/dispersed Pt electrodes

The electrochemical characterization of two organic dyes (amaranth and procion orange MX-2R) has been performed on Pt electrodes and Pt electrodes coated with polyaniline and dispersed Pt. Electrodes with different Pt loads have been synthesized and characterized obtaining that a load of 300 ¿g cm -2 was the optimum one. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) was employed to observe the distribution and morphology of the Pt nanoparticles. The electroactivity of the electrodes has also been characterized by means of scanning electrochemical microscopy (SECM). The chemical characterization of Pt dispersed Pani coated Pt electrodes (Pt-Pani-Pt) was performed by means of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The electrochemical characterization of the dyes has been performed by means of cyclic voltammetry. Voltammograms have shown that the presence of the dyes diminishes characteristic Pt oxidation and reduction peaks. However, redox processes due to the dyes, appeared in the voltammograms. The different species responsible of these redox processes were generated in the vicinity of the electrode and were not adsorbed on the electrode surface since after stirring, the different redox processes disappeared. Characterization with different scan rates showed that redox processes of both dyes were controlled by diffusion. © 2012 Elsevier B.V.Authors thank to the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion and European Union Funds (FEDER) (contracts CTM2010-18842-C02-02 and CTM2011-23583) and Universitat Politecnica de Valencia (Vicerrectorado de Investigacion PAID-06-10 contract 003-233) for the financial support. J. Molina is grateful to the Conselleria d'Educacio (Generalitat Valenciana) for the FPI fellowship. A.I. del Rio is grateful to the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnologia for the FPI fellowship.Molina Puerto, J.; Fernández Sáez, J.; Del Río García, AI.; Bonastre Cano, JA.; Cases Iborra, FJ. (2012). Characterization of azo dyes on Pt and Pt/polyaniline/dispersed Pt electrodes. Applied Surface Science. 258:6246-6256. doi:10.1016/j.apsusc.2012.02.150S6246625625