Extraction of Jatropha curcas fruits for antifungal activity against anthracnose (Colletotrichum gloeosporioides) of papaya

Extracts from seeds and leaves of Jatropha curcas have shown molluscidal, insecticidal and fungicidal properties. J. curcas extracts were found to inhibit the mycelium growth of Colletotrichum musae that causes anthracnose disease in bananas. The antimicrobial activity of crude methanol extracts of J. curcas fruits, pulp and seeds were investigated. J. curcas fruits, pulp and seeds were collected from the farm of Universiti Putra Malaysia. The samples were air dried at ambient temperature, then oven-dried to remove the residual moisture. Equivalent amounts of each ground sample of the J. curcas fruits, pulp and seeds were soaked in methanol solvent and left to stand for 7 days before being filtered and evaporated. The extract was spread over potato dextrose agar (PDA) medium under an aseptic condition and incubated. The zone of inhibition of mycelial growth (mm) around the disc was measured. Both J. curcas seed and pulp extracts had higher antifungal activity than whole fruit extract. J. curcas seed extract showed significant antifungal activities with growth inhibition zone of 5.6 mm or equivalent to 78.87% inhibition followed by pulp with zone of 7.4 mm or equivalent to 72.07%, and whole fruits with zone of 14.2 mm or equivalent to 46.42% as compared to the control with zone of 26.5 mm or equivalent to 100%. Active microbial components in J. curcas have the potential of an antifungal compound to control Colletotrichum gloeosporioides which causes anthracnose disease in papaya in vitro.Key words: Methanol extracts, inhibition zone, postharvest pathogen

Synthesis, Characterization and Application of Nano-adsorbent Materials in the Sorption of Pb(II), Ni(II), Co(II), Mn(II), Li(I) from Aqueous Solution

In this study, nano-adsorbent materials were synthesized from two different precursors by thermal activation technique. The first was the synthesizing of nano-zinc silicate from chemical reagents of zinc oxide and commercial silica gel. The second was the preparation of nano-pore size activated carbon from different biomass. The synthesized nano-adsorbent materials were characterized by different techniques; Surface Area, FTIR, XRD and SEM. The prepared nano-adsorbent materials were applied in the sorption and separation of some heavy metals from aqueous solution. These metals includes; Pb (II), Ni(II), Co(II), Mn(II) and Li(I). Some factors affecting on the sorption process (e.g. contact time and pH) were investigated. It was found that: the nano-zinc silicate (of ratio 1:1 thermally treated at 700 0C) and nano-pores activated carbon (prepared from saw dust impregnated with 70% H3PO4 overnight, then heated to 500 0C in presence of steam for 80 min.) were the best samples for sorption and separation of concerned heavy metals

Electric vehicles charging station configuration with closed loop control

Recently, the demand for electric vehicles (EV) has been on the rise in global markets due to the orientation of national policies to reduce emissions and global warming through the electrification of the transportation sector and the use of clean energy sources. Electric vehicles function on batteries, which must be recharged, either by slow charging at home or by fast charging with a direct current. In the fast-charging process, the batteries can be charged in less than 15 minutes. In this paper, an off-board charger with a three-phase, six-pulse voltage rectifier was designed using the MATLAB/Simulink program. The closed control circuit was simulated, where the simulation results were influenced by changes to the input voltage. When the input voltage was increased or decreased by 5%, this control maintained the value of the current and voltage at the output to be equal to the reference values required to achieve fast charging. The simulation results showed that in the first case where no filter was used, the output voltage and current had a high amount of ripple that exceeded the permissible value. Therefore, a low-pass filter was designed to reduce the ripple factor to a value that was within the permissible limit

Upper airway muscle exercises outcome in patients with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome

AbstractBackgroundObstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) is an important disease that represent a challenge for both patients and physicians to reach optimum choice for treatment mostly because genesis of OSAS is multifactorial. Upper airway muscle function plays a major role in maintenance of the upper airway patency especially during sleep. Oropharyngeal exercises may be an effective treatment option for OSAS.ObjectiveAim of this study was to evaluate upper airway muscle exercise as method to treat OSAS.Patients and methods30 patients divided into 2 groups; Group I moderate OSAS and Group II: severe OSAS patients. Follow up, as regard ESS, AHI, oxygen saturation and snoring was done after 3months of oropharyngeal exercises.ResultsAfter end of study, daytime sleepiness and AHI improved significantly in group I (moderate OSA) 13 out of 15 patients shifted from moderate to mild OSAS. There was significant decrease in oxygen desaturation and snoring index. As for group II, there was decrease but not significant change in same parameters. Only for moderate OSAS, there was, significant decrease in neck circumference, which inversely correlated with changes in AHI (r=0.582; P<0.001).ConclusionUpper airways exercises can be a novel easy non invasive technique to improve AHI, O2 saturation and snoring thus used in treatment of OSAS patients mainly moderate type

Use of production functions in assessing the profitability of shares of insurance companies

In this study the production functions (Cobb-Douglas, Zener-Rivanker, and the transcendental production function) have been used to assess the profitability of insurance companies, by reformulating these nonlinear functions based on the introduction of a set of variables that contribute to increase the explanatory capacity of the model. Then the best production function commensurate with the nature of the variable representing the profitability of insurance companies was chosen, to use it to assess the efficiency of their profitability versus the use of different factors of production and thus the possibility of using it in forecasting. It was found that the proposed model of the production function "Zener-Rivanker" is the best production functions representing the profitability of the Tawuniya and Bupa Insurance Companies. The proposed model of the Cobb-Douglas production function is suitable for the results of both Enaya and Sanad Cooperative Insurance Companies. The explanatory capacity of the production functions was also increased when the proposed variables were added (net subscribed premiums-net claims incurred)

Misidentification of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in hospitals in Tripoli, Libya

Background: Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a nosocomial (hospital-acquired) pathogen of exceptional concern. It is responsible for life-threatening infections in both the hospital and the community. Aims: To determine the frequency of MRSA misidentification in hospitals in Tripoli, Libya using current testing methods. Methods: One hundred and seventy S. aureus isolates previously identified as MRSA were obtained from three hospitals in Tripoli. All isolates were reidentified by culturing on mannitol salt agar, API 20 Staph System and retested for resistance to methicillin using the cefoxitin disk diffusion susceptibility test and PBP2a. D-tests and vancomycin E-tests (Van-E-tests) were also performed for vancomycin-resistant isolates. Results: Of the 170 isolates examined, 86 (51%) were confirmed as MRSA (i.e. 49% were misidentified as MRSA). Fifteen (17%) of the confirmed MRSA strains exhibited inducible clindamycin resistance. Of the 86 confirmed MRSA isolates, 13 (15%) were resistant to mupirocin, 53 (62%) were resistant to ciprofloxacin, 41 (48%) were resistant to trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, and none were resistant to linezolid. Although disc-diffusion testing indicated that 23 (27%) of the isolates were resistant to vancomycin, none of the isolates were vancomycin-resistant by Van-E-test. Conclusions: Misidentification of nosocomial S. aureus as MRSA is a serious problem in Libyan hospitals. There is an urgent need for the proper training of microbiology laboratory technicians in standard antimicrobial susceptibility procedures and the implementation of quality control programs in microbiology laboratories of Libyan hospitals

Spice Foods effects on Body Weight Reductions between Obese Animal Models

The aim of this study was determination and identification of phenolic and flavonoids fraction in addition to the antioxidant activities of used herbals (curcumin, black pepper and cumin) by HPLC in addition to evaluating the effects of such different spicy food consumptions on body weight reduction between obese animal models. Rats were randomly divided to ten groups fed; Black Papers, Cumin and Curcumin either alone or in different mixtures additionally to groups fed Orlistat (control body weight loss), Non-obese negative control group (C-ve) and Obese control positive group (C+ve). Blood glucose and body weight levels were measured at the beginning and end of the experimental in addition to rats’ lipid profiles (total cholesterol; triglycerides;, high dense lipoprotein cholesterol; low dense lipoprotein cholesterol; and very low dense lipoprotein cholesterol). Results presented that obese models received (Cumin)&nbsp; Cu/( Curcumin ) Cur mixture have the biggest effective significant treatment (about -80% body weight reduction&nbsp; ) followed by both groups fed mixtures of (Curcumin ) Cur/( Black Papers ) Bp&nbsp; and (Curcumin) Cur/( Black Papers ) Bp/( Cumin ) Cu; decreased by -68.0 and -65.6g respectively. The study could be more valuable causing significant body weight reduction between obese models, however human studies are needed

Autonomous Moving Target-Tracking for a UAV Quadcopter Based on Fuzzy-PI

Moving target-tracking is an attractive application for quadcopters and a very challenging, complicated field of research due to the complex dynamics of a quadcopter and the varying speed of the moving target with time. For this reason, various control algorithms have been developed to track a moving target using a camera. In this paper, a Fuzzy-PI controller is developed to adjust the parameters of the PI controller using the position and change of position data as input. The proposed controller is compared to a gain-scheduled PID controller instead of the typical PID controller. To verify the performance of the developed system and distinguish which one has better performance, several experiments of a quadcopter tracking a moving target are conducted under the varying speed of the moving target, indoor and outdoor and during day and night. The obtained results indicate that the proposed controller works well for tracking a moving target under different scenarios, especially during night