Preliminary Assessment of Growing Oyster Mushroom, Pleurotus sajor-caju on Coconut Husk Substrate Supplemented with Different Amounts of Copra Cake

Mushroom cultivation is a newly introduced technology in the Marshall Islands to promote food security and community health due to its soluble fiber content and nutritive values. Mushroom is also known to have naturally occurring beta-glucans that could prevent high cholesterol and some other non-communicable disease (NCDs). Majuro Atoll has an ample amount of coconut husk and copra cake, a by-product from Tobolar Copra Processing Plant. The study aimed to assess the possibility of using copra cake for mushroom cultivation. The capability of oyster mushroom in utilizing coconut by-product was assessed in terms of mycelial growth, number of fruiting body, cap diameter and biological efficiency conversion (BEC). The mushroom growing media used for this study were composed of shredded coconut husk, dolomitic lime, brown sugar and varying amounts (0%, 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 25%) of copra cake with 45-60% moisture content. It was hypothesized that copra cake supplementation will increase production yield. Treatments were distributed in 10 replications and data were analyzed using the Duncan’s Multiple Test Range at 5% level of significance. Mycelial growth occurred in all treatments in the following order: 10%\u3e 0%, 5%, 15% \u3e20% \u3e25%. Thin mycelial growth occurred at 0%, and slowest growth was observed for 25%. Fruiting bodies did not take place for treatment without copra cake supplementation (0%). The overall growth performance was observed to be very favorable at 10% copra cake supplementation. This result suggests that coconut husk supplemented with the right amount of copra cake could be utilized effectively as locally available materials for mushroom cultivation

Assessment of cardiac remodeling in asymptomatic mitral regurgitation for surgery timing: a comparative study of echocardiography and magnetic resonance imaging

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Early surgery is recommended for asymptomatic severe mitral regurgitation (MR), because of increased postoperative left ventricular (LV) dysfunction in patients with late surgery. On the other hand, recent reports emphasized a "watchful waiting" process for the determination of the proper time of mitral valve surgery. In our study, we compared magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and transthoracic echocardiography to evaluate the LV and left atrial (LA) remodeling; for better definitions of patients that may benefit from early valve surgery.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Twenty-one patients with moderate to severe asymptomatic MR were evaluated by echocardiography and MRI. LA and LV ejection fractions (EFs) were calculated by echocardiography and MRI. Pulmonary veins (PVs) were measured from vein orifices in diastole and systole from the tangential of an imaginary circle that completed LA wall. Right upper PV indices were calculated with the formula; (Right upper PV diastolic diameter- Right upper PV systolic diameter)/Right upper PV diastolic diameter.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In 9 patients there were mismatches between echocardiography and MRI measurements of LV EF. LV EFs were calculated ≥60% by echocardiography, meanwhile < 60% by MRI in these 9 patients. Severity of MR evaluated by effective regurgitant orifice area (EROA) didn't differ with preserved and depressed EFs by MRI (p > 0.05). However, both right upper PV indices (0.16 ± 0.06 vs. 0.24 ± 0.08, p: 0.024) and LA EFs (0.19 ± 0.09 vs. 0.33 ± 0.14, p: 0.025) were significantly decreased in patients with depressed EFs when compared to patients with normal EFs.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>MRI might be preferred when small changes in functional parameters like LV EF, LA EF, and PV index are of clinical importance to disease management like asymptomatic MR patients that we follow up for appropriate surgery timing.</p

Synthesis by wet chemistry and characterization of LiNbO3 nanoparticles

Actually, lithium niobate (LiNbO3) has been used for optical wavelength conversion and ultrafast optical signal processing because of its outstanding rapid nonlinear optical response behavior, low switching power and broad conversion bandwidth. LiNbO3nanoparticles, which belong to the ferroelectric oxide class, were synthesized by chemical reaction with wetchemistry. Their sizedistributionwascenteredaround200 nm. Xray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used to further investigate the quality of the obtained LiNbO3powders.The present work shows thatby employingthis chemical method the correct stoichiometric phasewas obtained. This wascorroborated by XPS (X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy) results. Also, the nanoparticles showed a defined crystallinity and uniform morphology. This way of obtaining nanoparticles is innovative because of its low cost and simple way to reproduce it. It isan important method of increasing the surfacearea, controlling thephase purityand reducing theparticle size distribution. The samples were obtained under low temperature annealing at500, 650 and 800 ºC. Those features can be controlled using variables such temperature, time of synthesis,and calcination. In previous worksit wasfound that hydrothermal methods offer many advantages over conventional ceramic synthesis methods

Membership Determination of Open Cluster M48 Based on BATC Thirteen-Band Photometry

Beijing-Arizona-Taiwan-Connecticut (BATC) multi-band photometric data in the field of open cluster M48 are used to determine its membership. By comparing observed spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of stars with theoretical ones, membership probabilities of 750 stars with limiting magnitude of 15.0 in BATC $c$ band ($\lambda_{eff}=4194$ \AA) are determined. 323 stars with membership probabilities higher than 30% are considered as candidate members of M48. Comparing membership probabilities of 229 common stars obtained by the present method and the proper-motion based methods, a 80% agreement among these methods is obtained.Comment: 27 pages,7figures, accepted for publication in PAS

Goals Of Care Rapid Response Team at a Comprehensive Cancer Center: Feasibility and Preliminary Outcomes

Parema Enriquez pictured.https://openworks.mdanderson.org/aprn-week-22/1012/thumbnail.jp

Effect of processing condition on the yield of Oscimum Gratissimum extract

Ocimum gratissimum (O. gratissimum) is a medicinal plant which native in Southeast Asia. Containing various compound with medicinal value, it acts as herb and spices in cooking, perfumery and used in traditional preparation. It is reported that O. gratissimum has many phenolic compounds which responsible for many biological activities such as eugenol, limonene, ocimene and rosmarinic acid. Scientific studies regarding O. gratissimum are widely known due to its beneficial therapeutic properties, such as antioxidant, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory and others. However, different extraction techniques approaches will give different effects on extraction yield of bioactive compounds according to the processing condition such as solvent polarity, concentration of solvent, temperature and solvent to sample ratio that applied. This study applied Soxhlet and Ultrasonic-assisted Extraction (UAE) techniques to determine the extraction yield of O. gratissimum. The results indicated Soxhlet techniques requires 2 hours, sample to solvent ratio; 1:10 and temperature at 60oC to obtained highest yield of O. gratissimum extract with percentage yield at 1.723% compared to others processing conditions. Meanwhile, UAE techniques showed highest yield of O. gratissimum extract at sample to solvent ratio at 1:10 with results 20.60% and 60% Methanol as the best solvent for extraction. Throughout analysis, UAE techniques was chosen as the methods of extraction for O. gratissimum with processing conditions that gives high yield of extraction

Chitosan Modification of Adenovirus to Modify Transfection Efficiency in Bovine Corneal Epithelial Cells

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study is to modulate the transfection efficiency of adenovirus (Ad) on the cornea by the covalent attachment of chitosan on adenoviral capsids via a thioether linkage between chitosan modified with 2-iminothiolane and Ad cross-linked with N-[gamma-maleimidobutyryloxy]succinimide ester (GMBS). METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Modified Ad was obtained by reaction with the heterobifunctional crosslinking reagent, GMBS, producing maleimide-modified Ad (Ad-GMBS). Then, the chitosan-SH was conjugated to Ad-GMBS via a thioether bond at different ratios of Ad to GMBS to chitosan-SH. The sizes and zeta potentials of unmodified Ad and chitosan-modified Ads were measured, and the morphologies of the virus particles were observed under transmission electron microscope. Primary cultures of bovine corneal epithelial cells were transfected with Ads and chitosan-modified Ads in the absence or presence of anti-adenovirus antibodies. Chitosan modification did not significantly change the particle size of Ad, but the surface charge of Ad increased significantly from -24.3 mV to nearly neutral. Furthermore, primary cultures of bovine corneal epithelial cells were transfected with Ad or chitosan-modified Ad in the absence or presence of anti-Ad antibodies. The transfection efficiency was attenuated gradually with increasing amounts of GMBS. However, incorporation of chitosan partly restored transfection activity and rendered the modified antibody resistant to antibody neutralization. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Chitosan can provide a platform for chemical modification of Ad, which offers potential for further in vivo applications