An efficient protocol for in vitro propagation of Rosa gruss an teplitz and Rosa centifolia

Rose is a beautiful flower having commercial and ornamental value. In order to establish protocol shoot tips explants of Rosa gruss an teplitz and Rosa centifolia were proliferated in vitro using MS medium supplemented with different levels of benzylaminopurine (0, 0.5,1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5 and 3.0 mg l-1 ). Maximum numbers of shoots (3.906), shoot length (3.106 cm), fresh weight (178.47 mg) and dry weight (43.06 mg) was recorded at 1.0 mg l-1 BAP. For induction of root, uniform micro-shoots were excised and transferred to the rooting medium (1/2 MS macro, micro elements and vitamins) supplemented with 20 g l-1 sucrose and different concentrations (0.00, 0.25, 0.50, 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0 mg l-1) of indole-3-butyric acid (IBA). IBA increased culture rooting percentage (89.375), number of roots (8.7188) and root length (3.5781 cm) more efficiently at 0.50 mg l-1.Key words: In vitro propagation, BAP, indole-3-butyric acid (IBA), Rosa gruss an teplitz, Rosa centifolia

Isolation and screening of alkaline protease producing bacteria and physio-chemical characterization of the enzyme

Soil samples from different habitats including tanneries, soap industries, garden soil and soil compost were screened for the presence of alkalophilic Bacillus isolates capable of producing alkaline protease in large quantities. One hundred and eighteen (118) isolates were found having proteolytic activity on skim milk agar plates. Isolates forming larger zones, as a result of casein hydrolysis were further studied for quantitative production of extracellular alkaline protease activity in the shake flask studies. Isolate CEMB10370 gave maximum activity. Time course studies indicated that strain CEMB10370 had the highest protease activity (380 APU/mL) after 48 h of fermentation. The wild type enzyme was biochemically characterized. The enzyme exhibits optimal activity at 50°C and pH 11.5. The protease enzyme was completely inhibited by phenylmethylsulfonyl (PMSF, serine protease inhibitor) and its isoelectric point was ~9.5. The enzyme was purified by ion-exchange chromatography using CMSepharose column as a ~29 Kilo Dalton (kDa) protein.Key words: Alkaline protease, alkalophilic ,Bacillus subtili

A cross-sectional study on understanding and attitude of peri-urban Malaysians towards monosodium glutamate use

The aim of this research was to explore the understanding of peri-urban Malaysians toward monosodium glutamate (MSG) use and their attitude toward its use and whether there were any correlations among the respondents' understanding, attitude, and their demographic profile. This was a cross-sectional study which involved 600 respondents. The respondents were conveniently approached and recruited from Gurun and Jitra, in Kedah region and Kampung Lemal, Kampung Cherang Hangus, Pasir Mas, and Rantau Panjang, in Kelantan region. Information about the understanding and attitude of peri-urban Malaysians toward MSG use were collected using an interview-administered structured questionnaire. The study incorporated an interviewer so that the uneducated were not left out and also to reduce the non-response rate. Slightly more than half of the respondents (53%) were aware that there are only a few unwanted effects attributed to the consumption of MSG. This showed a significant association with the age of respondents (p = .014), with 41.5 percent (out of 53%) from the age group above 35 years. A significant association was also noted between income and the bad effects caused by MSG consumption (p = .016) with a high propensity among those earning below MYR 2,000. This study revealed a relatively high percentage of respondents who were using or had previously used MSG. Significant associations were found between respondent's income and their understanding of MSG, with the higher income respondents having a better understanding

A Bio-Inspired Heuristic Algorithm for Solving Optimal Power Flow Problem in Hybrid Power System

In recent studies, emphasis has been placed on optimal power flow (OPF) problems in traditional thermal, wind, and solar energy sources-based hybrid power systems. Various metaheuristic algorithms have been proposed to find optimal solutions to the OPF problems in the hybrid power system. The OPF, due to the quadratic nature of its primary objective function, is a nonlinear, nonconvex, and quadratic optimization problem. In this study, we have proposed a bio-inspired bird swarm algorithm (BSA) to find an optimal solution to the OPF problem in the hybrid power system because it performs well in the case of optimizing the well-known Rastrigin quadratic benchmark function. In this study, uncertainty of utility load demand and stochastic electricity output from renewable energy resources (RESs) including wind and solar are incorporated into the hybrid power system for achieving accuracy in operations and planning of the system. We have used a modified IEEE-30 bus test system to verify and measure the performance of BSA and a comparison is made with well-known evolutionary metaheuristic algorithms. The proposed BSA consistently achieves more accurate and stable results than other metaheuristic algorithms. Simulation-based optimization results have shown the superiority of BSA approach to solve the OPF problems by satisfying all constraints and minimum power generation cost 863.121 $\$$ /h is achieved in case study 1. Simulation-based experiment results have indicated that by imposing the carbon tax ( $ton/h$ ) the power generation from RESs was increased. In case study 2, the proposed BSA approach has also outperformed and minimum electricity cost 890.728 $\$$ /h is achieved as compared to other algorithms

A Cost-Effective Optimization for Scheduling of Household Appliances and Energy Resources

In literature, proposed approaches mostly focused on household appliances scheduling for reducing consumers' electricity bills, peak-to-average ratio, electricity usage in peak load hours, and enhancing user comfort level. The scheduling of smart home deployed energy resources recently became a critical issue on demand side due to a higher share of renewable energy sources. In this paper, a new hybrid genetic-based harmony search (HGHS) approach has been proposed for modeling the home energy management system, which contributes to minimizing consumers' electricity bills and electricity usage during peak load hours by scheduling both household appliances and smart home deployed energy resources. We have comparatively evaluated the optimization results obtained from the proposed HGHS and other approaches. The experimental results confirmed the superiority of HGHS over genetic algorithm (GA) and harmony search algorithm (HSA). The proposed HGHS scheduling approach outperformed more efficiently than HSA and GA. The electricity usage cost for completing one-day operation of household appliances was limited to 1305.7 cents, 953.65 cents, and 569.44 cents in the proposed scheduling approach for case I, case II, and case III, respectively and was observed as lower than other approaches. The electricity consumption cost was reduced upto 23.125%, 43.87% and 66.44% in case I, case II, and case III, respectively using proposed scheduling approach as compared to an unscheduled load scenario. Moreover, the electrical peak load was limited to 3.07 kW, 2.9478 kW, and 1.9 kW during the proposed HGHS scheduling approach and was reported as lower than other approaches

Nano-fe<inf>3</inf>o<inf>4</inf>/carbon nanotubes composites by one-pot microwave solvothermal method for supercapacitor applications

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are being increasingly studied as electrode materials for supercapacitors (SCs) due to their high electronic conductivity and chemical and mechanical stability. However, their energy density and specific capacitance have not reached the commercial stage due to their electrostatic charge storage system via a non-faradic mechanism. Moreover, magnetite (Fe3O4) exhibits higher specific capacitance originating from its pseudocapacitive behaviour, while it has irreversible volume expansion during cycling. Therefore, a very interesting and facile strategy to arrive at better performance and stability is to integrate CNTs and Fe3O4. In this study, we demonstrate the microwave-solvothermal process for the synthesis of Fe3O4 nanoparticles uniformly grown on a CNT composite as an electrode for SCs. The synthesized Fe3O4/CNT composite delivers a reversible capacitance of 187.1 F/g at 1 A/g, superior rate capability by maintaining 61.6% of 10 A/g (vs. 1 A/g), and cycling stability of 80.2% after 1000 cycles at 1 A/g.</jats:p

Fe3+ @ ZnO/polyester based solar photocatalytic membrane reactor for abatement of RB5 dye

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Elsevier via the DOI in this recordHeterogeneous photocatalysis, employing semiconductor metal oxides, especially at nano scale is a promising technique to mortify the dye residues from effluent. The photocatalysts on doping with a suitable dopant can be modified to enhance the photocatalytic activity. In this study, undoped and series of Fe3+ doped ZnO have been grown on polyester fabric through low temperature hydrothermal method to generate photocatalytic membrane reactors (PMRs). The material grown on the surface of fabric was characterized by XRD, EDX, SEM, TEM, STEM, AFM, XPS, ICP-MS, DRS and PL studies. For ZnO/PMR and Fe3+@ZnO/PMR photocatalytic activity was determined and examined to increase for Fe3+@ZnO/PMR in the solar region due to the reduction of band gap from 3.2 to 2.6 eV on Fe3+doping. The surface properties of PMRs were also determined by zeta potential and contact angle. The characterized ZnO and Fe3+@ZnO nano discs based PMRs have been used to degrade RB5 reactive dye on irradiating with artificial sunlight (D65, 72 W). The reaction parameters i.e. initial dye and oxidant concentration, pH and irradiation time have been optimized by Response Surface Methodology (RSM). The extent of dye degradation has been evaluated by UV/vis spectroscopy and FTIR. The maximum degradation achieved was 88.89% for ZnO/PMR and 98.34% for Fe3+@ZnO PMR in 180 min. The photocatalytic efficiency of Fe3+@ZnO PMR was investigated for 15 batches, with a slight gradual decrease in activity after eight batches.Endowment Fund Secretariat of University of Agriculture Faisalaba

Formal Modeling and Analysis of the MAL-Associated Biological Regulatory Network: Insight into Cerebral Malaria

The discrete modeling formalism of René Thomas is a well known approach for the modeling and analysis of Biological Regulatory Networks (BRNs). This formalism uses a set of parameters which reflect the dynamics of the BRN under study. These parameters are initially unknown but may be deduced from the appropriately chosen observed dynamics of a BRN. The discrete model can be further enriched by using the model checking tool HyTech along with delay parameters. This paves the way to accurately analyse a BRN and to make predictions about critical trajectories which lead to a normal or diseased response. In this paper, we apply the formal discrete and hybrid (discrete and continuous) modeling approaches to characterize behavior of the BRN associated with MyD88-adapter-like (MAL) – a key protein involved with innate immune response to infections. In order to demonstrate the practical effectiveness of our current work, different trajectories and corresponding conditions that may lead to the development of cerebral malaria (CM) are identified. Our results suggest that the system converges towards hyperinflammation if Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK) remains constitutively active along with pre-existing high cytokine levels which may play an important role in CM pathogenesis

Two decades of neuroscience publication trends in Africa.

Neuroscience research in Africa remains sparse. Devising new policies to boost Africa's neuroscience landscape is imperative, but these must be based on accurate data on research outputs which is largely lacking. Such data must reflect the heterogeneity of research environments across the continent's 54 countries. Here, we analyse neuroscience publications affiliated with African institutions between 1996 and 2017. Of 12,326 PubMed indexed publications, 5,219 show clear evidence that the work was performed in Africa and led by African-based researchers - on average ~5 per country and year. From here, we extract information on journals and citations, funding, international coauthorships and techniques used. For reference, we also extract the same metrics from 220 randomly selected publications each from the UK, USA, Australia, Japan and Brazil. Our dataset provides insights into the current state of African neuroscience research in a global context