Optimization of growth and extracellular glucoamylase production by Candida famata isolate

Candida famata was isolated from traditional Moroccan sourdough. It exhibited high glucoamylase and biomass production. Starch induces high glucoamylase production C. famata with maximum glucoamylase activity at 5 g/L. Glucose stimulates good production in biomass but strongly inhibitsglucoamylase production. Among the sources of nitrogen tested, yeast extract and the (NH4)2HPO4 gave maximum glucoamylase and biomass after 72 h of incubation in liquid medium at 30°C, pH 5 and 105 rpm

Mean-field theory of the spin-Peierls systems: Application to CuGeO3

A mean-field theory of the spin Peierls systems based on the two dimensional dimerized Heisenberg model is proposed by introducing an alternating bond order parameter. Improvements with respect to previous mean-field results are found in the one-dimensional limit for the ground state and the gap energies. In two dimensions, the analysis of the competition between antiferromagnetic long range order and the spin-Peierls ordering is given as a function of the coupling constants. We show that the lowest energy gap to be observed does not have a singlet-triplet character in agreement with the low temperature thermodynamic properties of CuGeO3.Comment: 3 Revtex pages. Submitted to Rapid Comm. Figures available upon reques

Cold Atmospheric Pressure Air Plasma Jet for Medical Applications

By flowing atmospheric pressure air through a direct current powered microhollow cathode discharge, we were able to generate a 2 cm long plasma jet. With increasing flow rate, the flow becomes turbulent and temperatures of the jet are reduced to values close to room temperature. Utilizing the jet, yeast grown on agar can be eradicated with a treatment of only a few seconds. Conversely, animal studies show no skin damage even with exposures ten times longer than needed for pathogen extermination. This cold plasma jet provides an effective mode of treatment for yeast infections of the skin

A Comparative Evaluation of Antimicrobial Effect of Thymus capitatus Ethanolic Extract on the Different Respiratory Tract Infections Isolates

© 2017, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC. Natural components, particularly those derived from medicinal plants, provide a promising source of new antimicrobial agents for the treatment of respiratory infections. In this work, we studied the antimicrobial potency of Thymus capitatus ethanolic extract against nine microorganisms isolated from clinical material obtained from patients admitted to hospitals in Egypt and Germany with infections of the respiratory tract (bacterial sinusitis, laryngitis, pharyngitis and bronchitis) using the disc diffusion assay and minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values. All isolates obtained from the Giessen University Clinic (Germany) exhibit susceptibility of different extent to the plant extract tested. The growth inhibition zone diameters for nine strains were in the range of 13–15.5 mm at a concentration of 5 mg/disc. The extract produced large inhibition zones of 14–17 mm diameters for seven microbial strains obtained in Egypt although it failed to inhibit the growth of isolates of Staphylococcus epidermidis and Enterococcus faecalis. In fact, most of the respiratory tract infections isolates from Egypt were generally more susceptible to the ethanolic extract of Thymus capitatus at lower MIC values than those obtained from Giessen University Clinic MIC values. The results of this study suggest that further delineation of bioactive phytomolecules of Thymus capitatus ethanolic extract will improve their potential application for the treatment of respiratory tract diseases

Molecular Dynamics Simulation of Spinodal Decomposition in Three-Dimensional Binary Fluids

Using large-scale molecular dynamics simulations of a two-component Lennard-Jones model in three dimensions, we show that the late-time dynamics of spinodal decomposition in concentrated binary fluids reaches a viscous scaling regime with a growth exponent $n=1$, in agreement with experiments and a theoretical analysis for viscous growth.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Ultrastructural analysis of the human lens fiber cell remodeling zone and the initiation of cellular compaction

The purpose is to determine the nature of the cellular rearrangements occurring through the remodeling zone (RZ) in human donor lenses, identified previously by confocal microscopy to be about 100 µm from the capsule. Human donor lenses were fixed with 10% formalin followed by 4% paraformaldehyde prior to processing for transmission electron microscopy. Of 27 fixed lenses, ages 22, 55 and 92 years were examined in detail. Overview electron micrographs confirmed the loss of cellular organization present in the outer cortex (80 µm thick) as the cells transitioned into the RZ. The transition occurred within a few cell layers and fiber cells in the RZ completely lost their classical hexagonal cross-sectional appearance. Cell interfaces became unusually interdigitated and irregular even though the radial cell columns were retained. Gap junctions appeared to be unaffected. After the RZ (40 µm thick), the cells were still irregular but more recognizable as fiber cells with typical interdigitations and the appearance of undulating membranes. Cell thickness was irregular after the RZ with some cells compacted, while others were not, up to the zone of full compaction in the adult nucleus. Similar dramatic cellular changes were observed within the RZ for each lens regardless of age. Because the cytoskeleton controls cell shape, dramatic cellular rearrangements that occur in the RZ most likely are due to alterations in the associations of crystallins to the lens-specific cytoskeletal beaded intermediate filaments. It is also likely that cytoskeletal attachments to membranes are altered to allow undulating membranes to develop

Charged Higgs Bosons decays H^\pm \to W^\pm (\gamma, Z) revisited

We study the complete one loop contribution to H^\pm\to W^\pm V, V= Z, \gamma, both in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) and in the Two Higgs Doublet Model (2HDM). We evaluate the MSSM contributions and compare them with the 2HDM ones taking into account b\to s\gamma constraint, vacuum stability and unitarity constraints in the case of 2HDM, as well as experimental constraints on the MSSM and 2HDM parameters. In the MSSM, we found that in the intermediate range of \tan\beta \la 10 and for large A_t, the branching ratio of H^\pm \to W^{\pm} Z can be of the order 10^{-3} while the branching ratio of H^\pm \to W^{\pm} \gamma is of the order 10^{-5}. We also study the effects of the CP violating phases of Soft SUSY parameters and found that they can modify the branching ratio by about one order of magnitude. However, in the 2HDM where the Higgs sector is less constrained as compared to the MSSM higgs sector, one can reach branching ratio of the order 10^{-2} for both modes.Comment: 18 pages, 9 figure

Prehospital Tibial Intraosseous Drug Administration is Associated with Reduced Survival Following Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest: A study for the CARES Surveillance Group

BACKGROUND: Recent reports have questioned the efficacy of intraosseous (IO) drug administration for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) resuscitation. Our aim was to determine whether prehospital administration of resuscitative medications via the IO route was associated with lower rates of return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) and survival to hospital discharge than peripheral intravenous (IV) infusion in the setting of OHCA. METHODS: We obtained data on all OHCA patients receiving prehospital IV or IO drug administration from the three most populous counties in Michigan over three years. Data was from the Michigan Cardiac Arrest Registry to Enhance Survival (CARES) database. The association between route of drug administration and outcomes was tested using a matched propensity score analysis. RESULTS: From a total of 10,626 OHCA patients, 6869 received parenteral drugs during their prehospital resuscitation (37.8% by IO) and were included in analysis. Unadjusted outcomes were lower in patients with IO vs. IV access: 18.3% vs. 23.8% for ROSC (p \u3c 0.001), 3.2% vs. 7.6% for survival to hospital discharge (p \u3c 0.001), and 2.0% vs. 5.8% for favorable neurological function (p \u3c 0.001). After adjustment, IO route remained associated with lower odds of sustained ROSC (OR 0.72, 95% CI 0.63-0.81, p \u3c 0.001), hospital survival (OR 0.48, 95% CI 0.37-0.62, p \u3c 0.001), and favorable neurological outcomes (OR 0.42, 95% CI 0.30-0.57, p \u3c 0.001). CONCLUSION: In this cohort of OHCA patients, the use of prehospital IO drug administration was associated with unfavorable clinical outcomes