GAS CHROMATOGRAPHY-MASS SPECTROSCOPIC ANALYSIS OF BLACK PLUM SEED (SYZYGIUM CUMINI) EXTRACT IN HEXANE

Objective: Black plum seed has unique medicinal value and used as antidiabetics, antibacterial, and anti-inflammatory. Methods: Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis of the extracts of black plum seed obtained using solvent extraction with hexane as a solvent is used to attempt the identification of prominent components. Results: Black plum seed extract is obtained by solvent extraction technique using Soxhlet extractor. A total of 10 compounds are predicted in black plum seed extract by GC-MS analysis. Conclusion: The work presented relates to the study of GC-MS analysis of the extract of black plum seed obtained using solvent extraction with hexane as a solvent. Of ten compounds of black plum seed extract, five compounds are known to have antimicrobial properties

Inhibitory Effects of Several Essential Oils towards Salmonella typhimurium, Salmonella paratyphi A and Salmonella paratyphi B

Plant essential oils are natural products extracted from plants and because of their antimicrobial properties can be used as natural additives in foods. They are also useful for decontamination of food-borne pathogens and can be a safe additive in foods. The antimicrobial activities of essential oils belonging to Saturiea hortensis, Thymus vulgaris, Mentha polegium, Cuminum cyminum, Lavandula officinalis and Mentha viridis L. (spearmint) were investigated at different concentrations (0.1, 0.3, 0.5, 1, 2, 5 and 10%v/v) against Salmonella typhimurium, Salmonella paratyphi A and Salmonella paratyphi B by using the agar well diffusion method. Essential oils showed inhibitory effect on Salmonella spp. in the agar well diffusion assay. In addition, the capability of essential oils for decontamination of minced row beef, ground beef, minced raw chicken and minced raw fish inoculated with Salmonella spp. at 0.1 and 0.5%v/v were assessed. Reduction of the Salmonella spp. population was observed following the inoculation of the cultures with 0.1 and 0.5%v/v essential oils

Análise de desenhos experimentais com outliers

Primary purpose of the article is to develop outlier robust designs. As a matter of fact, negative effect of outliers in any experimental settings is established where the outliers at any specific design point can destroy the features of the design for which it is being developed. It is attempted here in this article to develop a version of robustness for central composite designs which may protect it for outliers by introducing the idea of minimax outlying effect. This involves the calculation of the degree of outlying effect(s) outlier(s) may produce and then minimize the maximum of these outlying effects in an attempt to equalize the influence of all design points. On comparison, these outlier robust designs are proved to be more optimal, on the scales of A, D, and E optimalities, against existing conventional rotatable, orthogonal, and other such designs. The outlier robust designs, developed here, are suitable for settings prone to outliers where conventional designs fail to represent and analyze the processes and systems.El objetivo principal del artículo es desarrollar diseños robustos atípicos. De hecho, el efecto negativo de los valores atípicos en cualquier configuración experimental se establece donde los valores atípicos en cualquier punto de diseño específico pueden destruir las características del diseño para el que se está desarrollando. En este artículo se intenta desarrollar una versión de robustez para los diseños compuestos centrales que pueden protegerlo de los valores atípicos mediante la introducción de la idea del efecto periférico minimax. Esto implica el cálculo del grado de efecto (s) externo (s) que puede producir un valor atípico y luego minimizar el máximo de estos efectos externos en un intento de igualar la influencia de todos los puntos de diseño. En comparación, se demuestra que estos diseños robustos atípicos son más óptimos, en las escalas de las optimidades A, D y E, frente a los diseños convencionales existentes, ortogonales, rotativos y otros similares. Los diseños robustos atípicos, desarrollados aquí, son adecuados para configuraciones propensas a los valores atípicos en los que los diseños convencionales no representan ni analizan los procesos y sistemas.Objetivo principal do artigo é desenvolver projetos robustos outlier. De fato, o efeito negativo de outliers em qualquer ambiente experimental é estabelecido onde os outliers em qualquer ponto de design específico podem destruir os recursos do design para o qual ele está sendo desenvolvido. Neste artigo, tenta-se desenvolver uma versão de robustez para projetos compostos centrais que possam protegê-lo de outliers, introduzindo a ideia de efeito periférico minimax. Isso envolve o cálculo do grau de efeito (s) outlier (s) outlier (s) pode produzir e, em seguida, minimizar o máximo desses efeitos periféricos em uma tentativa de equalizar a influência de todos os pontos do projeto. Em comparação, esses designs robustos discrepantes são comprovadamente mais otimizados, nas escalas de otimalidades A, D e E, contra os designs convencionais rotacionais, ortogonais e outros existentes. Os designs robustos outlier, desenvolvidos aqui, são adequados para configurações propensas a outliers em que projetos convencionais não representam e analisam os processos e sistemas

Some biological studies on Hypnea pannosa J. Ag.

The present investigation focused on studying the toxicity, analgesic, behavioral and anti-emetic activities of the ethanol extract of Hypnea pannosa. The ethanol extract caused 100% lethality at the doses of 250 and 500 mg/kg. Significant analgesic and central depressant effects were observed from 150 mg/ kg dose. The extract at 200 mg/kg dose exhibited significant anti-emetic effect, when compared to standard drug.Key words: Hypnea pannosa, toxicity, analgesic, behavioral, anti-emetic activities, crude extract

Critical success factors for embedding carbon management in organizations: lessons from the UK higher education sector

Organizations are under increasing pressure from governments and stakeholders to reduce carbon emissions from their business operations for climate change mitigation. Universities are not exempt from this challenge and are operating in a complex external environment, not least responding to the UK government's Climate Change Act 2008 (80% carbon reductions by 2050 as per 1990 baseline). In 2012–2013, the UK Higher Education (HE) sector consumed 7.9 billion kWh of energy and produced 2.3 million tonnes of carbon emissions. This indicates the scale of the challenge and carbon management is central to reduce carbon emissions. However, effective processes for implementing and embedding carbon management in organizations in general, and universities in particular, have yet to be realized. This paper explores the critical success factors (CSFs) for embedding carbon management in universities and, more widely, in organizations. This exploratory study adopted a mixed-methods approach including the content analysis of universities' carbon management plans alongside semi-structured interviews in the UK HE sector. The paper identifies six key factors for successfully embedding carbon management that are pertinent not just for the HE sector, but to organizations broadly: senior management leadership; funding and resources; stakeholder engagement; planning; governance and management; and evaluation and reporting

Classification of Macromolecules Based on Amino Acid Sequences Using Deep Learning

The classification of amino acids and their sequence analysis plays a vital role in life sciences and is a challenging task. Deep learning models have well-established frameworks for solving a broad spectrum of complex learning problems compared to traditional machine learning techniques. This article uses and compares state-of-the-art deep learning models like Convolution Neural Networks (CNNs), Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM), and Gated Recurrent Units (GRU) to solve macromolecule classification problems using amino acid sequences. The CNN extracts features from amino acid sequences, which are treated as vectors with the use of word embedding. These vectors are fed to the above-mentioned models to train robust classifiers. The results show that word2vec as embedding combined with VGG-16 performs better than LSTM and GRU. The proposed approach gets an error rate of 1.5%

Exploring relationship between environmentalism and consumerism in a market economy society: a structured systematic literature review

Managing environmental sustainability has become a critical challenge and an essential agenda for academics and corporations alike. This study conducted evidence-based research to explore whether it is possible to maintain a balance between environmentalism and consumerism in a capitalist society. A triangulated approach is followed by combining systematic literature review (SLR) and text mining for cross-validation, thus, limiting subjective bias. The findings suggest that, although, it is possible to achieve a balance in the long run but this necessitate enormous amount of efforts and resources due to the complexity and paradoxical nature of environmentalism and consumerism coupled with the current way of capitalist societies’ life. Building on the findings and the Operations Management Input-Transformation-Output model, a research framework is proposed. The proposed framework suggests that to keep a balance between environmentalism and consumerism in a capitalist society, a progressive and transformational change could be instrumental for a viable solution. Finally, building on current gaps in the research domain, six future research directions are proposed to carry forward the notion of environmentalism and consumerism in a capitalist society

Prevalence of chronic kidney disease in women of reproductive age and observed birth rates

INTRODUCTION: Women of reproductive age with chronic kidney disease (CKD) are recognised to have decreased fertility and a higher risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes. How often CKD afflicts women of reproductive age is not well known. This study aimed to evaluate the burden of CKD and associated birth rates in an entire region.METHODS: This was a retrospective cohort study including women of childbearing age in Stockholm during 2006-2015. We estimated the prevalence of "probable CKD" by the presence of an ICD-10 diagnosis of CKD, a single estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) &lt; 60 mL/min/1.73 m2 or history of maintenance dialysis. By linkage with the Swedish Medical Birth Register we identified births during the subsequent three years from study inclusion and evaluated birth rates.RESULTS: We identified 817,730 women in our region, of whom 55% had at least one creatinine measurement. A total of 3938 women were identified as having probable CKD, providing an age-averaged CKD prevalence of 0.50%. Women with probable CKD showed a lower birth rate 3 years after the index date (35.7 children per 1000 person years) than the remaining women free from CKD (46.5 children per 1000 person years).CONCLUSION: As many as 0.50% of individuals in this cohort had probable CKD, defined on the basis of at least one eGFR&lt;60 ml/min1.73 m2 test result, dialysis treatment (i.e. CKD stages 3-5) or an ICD-10 diagnosis of CKD. This prevalence is lower than previous estimates. Women with probable CKD, according to a study mainly capturing CKD 3-5, had a lower birth rate than those without CKD, illustrating the challenges of this population to successfully conceive.</p

Effect of Various Local Anthropogenic Impacts on the Diversity of Coral Mucus-Associated Bacterial Communities

The global continued decline in coral reefs is intensifying the need to understand the response of corals to local environmental stressors. Coral-associated bacterial communities have been suggested to have a swift response to environmental pollutants. This study aims to determine the variation in the bacterial communities associated with the mucus of two coral species, Pocillopora damicornis (Linnaeus, 1758) and Stylophora pistillata (Esper, 1792), and the coral-surrounding seawater from three areas exposed to contamination at the Jordanian coast of the Gulf of Aqaba (Red Sea), and also explores the antibacterial activity of these bacteria. Corals were collected from three contaminated zones along the coast, and the bacteria were quantified and identified by conventional morphological and biochemical tests, as well as 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The average number of bacteria significantly varied among the coral mucus from the sampling zones and between the coral mucus and the surrounding seawater. The P. damicornis mucus-associated bacterial community was dominated by members of the classes Gammaproteobacteria, Cytophagia, and Actinomycetia, while the mucus of S. pistillata represented higher bacterial diversity, with the dominance of the bacterial classes Gammaproteobacteria, Actinomycetia, Alphaproteobacteria, and Bacilli. The effects of local anthropogenic impacts on coral mucus bacterial communities were represented in the increased abundance of bacterial species related to coral diseases. Furthermore, the results demonstrated the existence of bacterial isolates with antibacterial activity that possibly acted as a first line of defense to protect and maintain the coral host against pathogens. Indeed, the dynamics of coral-associated microbial communities highlight the importance of holistic studies that focus on microbial interactions across the coral reef ecosystem