Removal Of Methylene Blue By Adsorption Of Water Hyacinth Derived Active Carbon Embedded With Cobalt Nanoparticles

In this research, active carbon-based catalyst synthesis and characterization were tested for potential catalysts to be used in dye removal of methylene blue (MB). Water hyacinth is one of the major problems that is facing humankind and especially here in Egypt. One of the implications of industrial activities is environmental pollution. Dyes used in the production of textiles, paper, and clothes are one of the major pollutants. The waste of those dyes discharged into water supplies without treatment or with ineffective treatment harmfully impacts the environment. In this research, the treatment is implemented using active carbon-based catalysts using embedded nanoparticles. This leads to a huge increase in the adsorbent\u27s surface area, also increasing the adsorbent efficiency. The activated carbon was derived from water hyacinth that grows near the Nile River. Water hyacinth has many practical uses as it can absorb heavy metals like lead and dyes. Water hyacinth was converted into activated carbon through carbonization. Different dyes were used with different contact times in fixed conditions

Anti-diabetic properties of Securinega virosa (Euphorbiaceae) leaf extract

This study was undertaken to evaluate the hypoglycemic effect of methanol extract of securinega virosa leaves on blood levels of streptozocin-induced diabetes rats. Three doses of the extract (100, 300 and 600 mg/kg) were administered intraperitoneally. After 2 h of extract administration there was no significant change in the blood glucose levels in all the three doses of the extract. Also after 4, 8 and 24 h of extract administration there was a significant (p < 0.05 - 0.001) decrease in the blood glucose levelsin all the three doses of the extract. The preliminary phytochemical screening revealed the presence of reducing sugars, cardiac glycosides, resin, tannins, saponins, glycosides, flavonoids, glycerin carbohydrate, anthraquine and steroids. The median lethal dose (LD50) in rats was calculated to be 1264.9 mg/kg body weight

Multi-level selection and the issue of environmental homogeneity

In this paper, I identify two general positions with respect to the relationship between environment and natural selection. These positions consist in claiming that selective claims need and, respectively, need not be relativized to homogenous environments. I then show that adopting one or the other position makes a difference with respect to the way in which the effects of selection are to be measured in certain cases in which the focal population is distributed over heterogeneous environments. Moreover, I show that these two positions lead to two different interpretations – the Pricean and contextualist ones – of a type of selection scenarios in which multiple groups varying in properties affect the change in the metapopulation mean of individual-level traits. Showing that these two interpretations stem from different attitudes towards environmental homogeneity allows me to argue: a) that, unlike the Pricean interpretation, the contextualist interpretation can only claim that drift or selection is responsible for the change in frequency of the focal trait in a given metapopulation if details about whether or not group formation is random are specified; b) that the traditional main objection against the Pricean interpretation – consisting in arguing that the latter takes certain side-effects of individual selection to be effects of group selection – is unconvincing. This leads me to suggest that the ongoing debate about which of the two interpretations is preferable should concentrate on different issues than previously thought

ANTI-NOCICEPTIVE AND ANTI-INFLAMMATORY ACTIVITIES OF ETHANOL EXTRACT OF SYZYGIUM AROMATICUM FLOWER BUD IN WISTAR RATS AND MICE

The ethanol extracts of Syzygium aromaticum flower bud were tested for anti-nociceptive and anti-inflammatory effects in mice and Wistar rats which were carried out using acetic acid-induced abdominal contractions in mice and formalin-induced hind paw edema in Wistar rats. Three doses of the ethanol extract (50, 100, and 200mg/kg body weight i.p.) were used for both studies. The extract had an LD50 of 565.7 mg/kg body weight intraperitoneally in mice. The extracts produced significant effect (

Intermediate-Distance String Effects in Wilson Loops via Boundary Action

The density profile of the QCD flux tube is investigated within the framework of the L¨ uscher-Weisz (LW) string action with two boundary terms. The transverse action profile and potential between static quarks are considered using Wilson’s loop overlap formalism at zero temperature in SU(2) Yang-Mills theory. We find the predictions of the LWstring matching the lattice data for the width of the energy-density and Q ¯Q potential up to a small color-source separation of R = 0.32 fm

Internet-based search of randomised trials relevant to mental health originating in the Arab world

BACKGROUND: The internet is becoming a widely used source of accessing medical research through various on-line databases. This instant access to information is of benefit to busy clinicians and service users around the world. The population of the Arab World is comparable to that of the United States, yet it is widely believed to have a greatly contrasting output of randomised controlled trials related to mental health. This study was designed to investigate the existence of such research in the Arab World and also to investigate the availability of this research on-line. METHODS: Survey of findings from three internet-based potential sources of randomised trials originating from the Arab world and relevant to mental health care. RESULTS: A manual search of an Arabic online current contents service identified 3 studies, MEDLINE, EMBASE, and PsycINFO searches identified only 1 study, and a manual search of a specifically indexed, study-based mental health database, PsiTri, revealed 27 trials. CONCLUSION: There genuinely seem to be few trials from the Arab world and accessing these on-line was problematic. Replication of some studies that guide psychiatric/psychological practice in the Arab world would seem prudent

Breast cancer and childhood anthropometry: emerging hypotheses?

In this issue of Breast Cancer Research, Baer and colleagues report a strong protective effect of childhood and adolescent body fatness on premenopausal breast cancer risk based on a large prospective study. Methodological issues are discussed, as are tentative biological interpretations regarding the findings

Hierarchy Theory of Evolution and the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis: Some Epistemic Bridges, Some Conceptual Rifts

Contemporary evolutionary biology comprises a plural landscape of multiple co-existent conceptual frameworks and strenuous voices that disagree on the nature and scope of evolutionary theory. Since the mid-eighties, some of these conceptual frameworks have denounced the ontologies of the Modern Synthesis and of the updated Standard Theory of Evolution as unfinished or even flawed. In this paper, we analyze and compare two of those conceptual frameworks, namely Niles Eldredge’s Hierarchy Theory of Evolution (with its extended ontology of evolutionary entities) and the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis (with its proposal of an extended ontology of evolutionary processes), in an attempt to map some epistemic bridges (e.g. compatible views of causation; niche construction) and some conceptual rifts (e.g. extra-genetic inheritance; different perspectives on macroevolution; contrasting standpoints held in the “externalism–internalism” debate) that exist between them. This paper seeks to encourage theoretical, philosophical and historiographical discussions about pluralism or the possible unification of contemporary evolutionary biology