The role of heparin and heparin-binding growth factors in pre-eclampsia

The aims of this study tested the hypothesis that expression of heparin-binding growth factors (HBGFs) in normal placental development was altered in a specific pregnancy disorder preeclampsia. HBGFs bind to heparin, a glycosaminoglycan (GAG) affecting activity. I investigated the role of heparin and HBGFs in pathophysiology of pre-eclampsia. Placental tissue from a cohort study of 87 women was performed following uncomplicated pregnancy at term, but not in labour (TNL, n=26), preterm labour (PTL, n=17), following labour onset (TL, n=21), first trimester (FNL, n=4) and pre-eclampsia (PE, n=19). The HBGFs studied were vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), placental growth factor (PLGF), fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF2), hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF), heparin-binding epidermal growth factor (HB-EGF), midkine (MK), pleiotrophin (PTN), and cluster differentiation (CD105). The localisation of HBGFs and receptors VEGFR-1, /(sflt-1), PLGFR-1, VEGFR-2 and FGF2R-1 in placenta were detected. The expression of VEGF, PLGF, FGF2, HGF, PDGF, CD105 was confined to villous trophoblast, endothelial cells except for MK, HB-EGF and PTN was specifically to villous trophoblast. The total RNA production in human placentae samples (n=7) from PE and controls were analysed using qRTPCR. Placental expression of mRNA was extracted for primer assays of PLGF, FGF2, MK, PTN, and endogenous housekeeping gene as Succinate dehydrogenase complex subunit A (SDHA). FGF2 and SDHA mRNA expression was significantly different using Mann-Whitney U test. An in vitro villous trophoblast invasion model was performed with human fibrosarcoma HT1080 invasive cells (positive control), mouse embryonic fibroblast NIH/3T3 non-invasive cells (negative control) and immortalised human primary villous trophoblastic cell lines TCL-1.The greatest stimulation was by FGF2, PDGF-BB, HGF, MK and co-incubation with heparin enhanced these responses, except for PTN using the Mann-Whitney U test. Heparin’s role is indicated in mediating the effects of HBGFs. It’s suggests heparin therapeutic use in the treatment of pre-eclampsia

Synergistic effect of Glomus fasciculatum and Trichoderma pseudokoningii on Heliathus annuus to decontaminate tannery sludge from toxic metals

The effect of two soil amendments of tannery sludge (10% and 20%) on growth and metal uptake of Helianthus annuus L. was studied under three treatments of rhizosphere and mycorrhizal fungi. Trichoderma pseudokoningii Rifai was used as rhizosphere fungal inoculum (F) and Glomus fasciculatum (Thax.) Gerd. & Trappe as the mycorrhizal inoculum (M). The third treatment comprised of combined inoculation (F+M). The control (C) treatment was without any inoculum of the fungi. The plants given both the fungus and mycorrhizal (F+M) treatment showed the maximum growth among all treatments. Plants given only fungus (F) and only mycorrhizal (M) treatment also showed significantly better growth as compared with control (C) treatment. Among the two sludge amendments, the statistical analyses of the results showed increase in all growth parameters in lower (10%) sludge amendment ratio. The accumulation of potentially toxic metals (Cd, Cr, Na and Zn) in different parts of H. annuus grown on tannery sludge amended soil increased with increasing concentration of sludge in the soil. The plants treated with both fungus and mycorrhizal (F+M) treatment showed the maximum uptake of metals and thus the synergistic effect of these fungi can be exploited in decontamination of metals from tannery sludge.Key words: Phytoextraction, tannery sludge, heavy metals, resistant  rhizosphere fungi, Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi

Tindakan Protektif terhadap Kelenjar Tiroid pada Kecelakaan Radiasi

Kata-kata ”radiasi” dan ”nuklir” bagi orang awam adalah sesuatu yang menakutkan. Hal ini cukup beralasan karena nuklir pertama kali dikenali karena efek negatifnya. Hal ini juga tidak selamanya benar karena radiasi terbukti merupakan suatu alat dan teknologi yang telah dipergunakan secara meluas untuk membantu kebutuhan manusia seperti dalam hal kesehatan, makanan dan pertanian, industri, energi dan lingkungan. Banyak data dan informasi mengenai pemanfaatan teknologi berbasis radiasi ini, bahkan tidak dapat diperoleh atau dilakukan melalui teknologi lain, dan hasilnya pun dapat diandalkan (impresif). Sebagai contoh lebih dari 25 juta prosedur pencitraan nuklir dilakukan setiap tahunnya di seluruh dunia untuk diagnosa penyakit, dan setiap tahun hampir 10 juta orang memanfaatkan radiofarmasi (obat mengandung zat radioaktif) terutama untuk pengobatan kanker. Pada saat yang sama, teknik molekuler dan radioisotop saat ini sedang digunakan untuk mengembangkan teknologi dan pengukuran yang lebih efektif untuk melawan dan memberantas penyakit infeksi seperti malaria, hepatitis dan tuberkulosis. Teknologi berbasis radiasi yang telah terbukti efektif selama berpuluh-puluh tahun ini digunakan untuk memenuhi kebutuhan manusia pada hampir setiap sektor kehidupan

An Assessment of Customer's Preferences on the Selection of Takaful Over Conventional: a Case of Saudi Arabia

This paper aims at assessing the motivational factors that influence the customer's preferences of Takaful over conventional insurance. The customers' information about the Takaful products and services based on sharia are identified in order to enable them differentiate Takaful and conventional insurance. The research uses mixed method of data collection. This comprises of questionnaires and in-depth interviews with the respondents from four selected Takaful industries in Saudi Arabia. The questionnaires were analysed using simple percentages and for the interviews, thematic analyses were used. Based on the findings of the study, the customer's preferences on the selection of Takaful over conventional insurance include protection of Takaful product by sharia, support from the government. Similarly, the absence of risk incurred or transferred to participants, funds contributed in the spirit of brotherhood for all members. Moreover, another customer's preferences is that contributions (tabarru') are invested in non-interest based capitalization by the Takaful agents and profits are shared according to individual contributions. Based on Takaful, donations are established at the pooling system in line with sharia and they are formed on the bases of sympathy, consciousness of the idea of tabarru' as well as abstaining from gharar, maysir and riba

Bacillus thuringiensis and its application in agriculture

Presently, a number of approaches to pest control via genetic engineering have been developed and genetically engineered crops expressing insecticidal characteristics are under cultivation for the last 15 years. Use of Bacillus thuringiensis genes encoding o̅ endotoxins with insecticidal characteristics is the major approach and a number of such B. thuringiensis genes have been expressed in crops with variable level of efficiency. It is very crucial to achieve adequate level of B. thuringiensis gene expression to have durable resistance against target insect pests. As with many aspects of genetic engineering, politics can impact on the success of a project involving the development of B. thuringiensis transgenic crops, irrespective of its apparent social, economic or environmental benefits. Public education will be essential to ensure the widespread adoption of genetic adoption technologies in agriculture, and scientists will have to play an active role in this process

Penentuan Persentase Uptake Radiofarmaka Tc99m Sulfur Colloid pada Sidik Hati (Liver Scan)

Based on data from the World Health Organization, showed that liver disease in Indonesia is in endemic high ranks. Early diagnosis of liver disease is very necessary for prevention and minimize the risk of liver disease. Research has been conducted on 28 patients on the biodistribution test of the liver scan using in vivo nuclear medicine technique that aims to determine the accumulation of counts Tc99m Sulfur Colloid in the body's metabolism, the percentage uptake activity in the heart, spleen, kidney, bladder, and liver as the target organ. The study was conducted using Tc99m obtained from elution of Mo99 generator and mixed with sulfur colloid. Tc99m allows a radiopharmaceutical can be detected and known location and sulfur colloid to determine where the target of radiopharmaceutical is accumulated. Liver scan is performed by injecting Tc99m Sulfur Colloid intravenously into the patient's arm as much as 2- 6mCi. Furthermore, the anterior posterior planar imaging in abdominal cavity at 5 minutes and 1 hour after injection of the patient by using a gamma camera. Determining the state of liver function can be seen from the percentage uptake activity at 5 minutes and 1 hour, the shape and size of the heart which can be evaluated from the image obtained. Biodistribution of Tc99m Sulfur Colloid showed a high percentage of the liver after 5 minutes and 1 hour. Based on the value percentage uptake activity obtained, there were 18 patients with a normal liver and 10 patients with abnormal liver

RbA: Segmenting Unknown Regions Rejected by All

Standard semantic segmentation models owe their success to curated datasets with a fixed set of semantic categories, without contemplating the possibility of identifying unknown objects from novel categories. Existing methods in outlier detection suffer from a lack of smoothness and objectness in their predictions, due to limitations of the per-pixel classification paradigm. Furthermore, additional training for detecting outliers harms the performance of known classes. In this paper, we explore another paradigm with region-level classification to better segment unknown objects. We show that the object queries in mask classification tend to behave like one \vs all classifiers. Based on this finding, we propose a novel outlier scoring function called RbA by defining the event of being an outlier as being rejected by all known classes. Our extensive experiments show that mask classification improves the performance of the existing outlier detection methods, and the best results are achieved with the proposed RbA. We also propose an objective to optimize RbA using minimal outlier supervision. Further fine-tuning with outliers improves the unknown performance, and unlike previous methods, it does not degrade the inlier performance

SISTEM ADMINISTRASI LAB KOMPUTER BERBASIS WEB DI SMK NURUL ULUM MANGAR

The computer laboratory department of SMK Nurul Ulum currently still has not implemented the concept of information systems in its laboratory management. The procedures for daily activities are still carried out manually so that the use of computers is only limited to making practicum schedules, and typing reports. Furthermore, there is no specific program or application that can be used to process these data. In addition, neither damage nor damage handling has ever been recorded properly. The amount of damaged or lost inventory cannot be controlled because it is not recorded neatly. Based on the problems that exist in the computer laboratory of SMK Nurul Ulum, researchers are interested in making a lab management administration application for computer laboratory management that can help in processing data so that it can produce easier and more accurate information. Keywords: laboratory, SMK Nurul Ulum

Utilization of mensiang (Actinoscorpus grosus L.) as a cellulose-rich material for furfural synthesis

The cellulose content of mensiang varies from 22% in the flower to 33% in the root. This could be used as a starting point for furfural synthesis. To separate furfural, several conditions are set for the distillation and evaporation processes. The conditions were rootstock part (A), upper stem part (B), whole stem part (C), whole stem with flowers part (D), and whole stem, flowers, and root part (E). Furfural content in the mensiang plant was conducted using Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectroscopy (GCMS) for the highest yield 11.78%, D treatment. Furfural synthesized from the mensiang plant has a furfural content of 96%. Furfural's density was 1.160 g/ml, boiling point was 161 oC, refractive index was 1.5120 obrix, and its viscosity was 1.46 cp

The biosynthesis of the cannabinoids

Cannabis has been integral to Eurasian civilization for millennia, but a century of prohibition has limited investigation. With spreading legalization, science is pivoting to study the pharmacopeia of the cannabinoids, and a thorough understanding of their biosynthesis is required to engineer strains with specific cannabinoid profiles. This review surveys the biosynthesis and biochemistry of cannabinoids. The pathways and the enzymes’ mechanisms of action are discussed as is the non-enzymatic decarboxylation of the cannabinoic acids. There are still many gaps in our knowledge about the biosynthesis of the cannabinoids, especially for the minor components, and this review highlights the tools and approaches that will be applied to generate an improved understanding and consequent access to these potentially biomedically-relevant materials