Essential Oil Nanoformulations as a Novel Method for Insect Pest Control in Horticulture

Eco-friendly biopesticides based on essential oils (EOs) appear to be a complementary or alternative method to chemically synthesized insecticides in integrated pest management programs. They have the advantage of reducing the adverse effects of chemical insecticides on human health and environment and at the same time increasing horticultural crop productivity and yield. Plant EOs exhibit toxic, repellent, and antifeedant effects on different insect species. However, the main problem in using plant EOs as biopesticides under field conditions is their chemical instability in the presence of air, light, moisture, and high temperatures which lead to the rapid evaporation and degradation of their active constituents. Incorporation of EOs into controlled-release nanoformulations may contribute to solve problems associated with their application; this kind of formulation is expected to be more effective than the bulk (free) substance

Using Chandra to Unveil the High-Energy Properties of the High-Magnetic Field Radio Pulsar J1119-6127

(shortened) PSR J1119-6127 is a high magnetic field (B=4.1E13 Gauss), young (<=1,700 year-old), and slow (P=408 ms) radio pulsar associated with the supernova remnant (SNR) G292.2-0.5. In 2003, Chandra allowed the detection of the X-ray counterpart of the radio pulsar, and provided the first evidence for a compact pulsar wind nebula (PWN). We here present new Chandra observations which allowed for the first time an imaging and spectroscopic study of the pulsar and PWN independently of each other. The PWN is only evident in the hard band and consists of jet-like structures extending to at least 7" from the pulsar, with the southern `jet' being longer than the northern `jet'. The spectrum of the PWN is described by a power law with a photon index~1.1 for the compact PWN and ~1.4 for the southern long jet (at a fixed column density of 1.8E22/cm2), and a total luminosity of 4E32 ergs/s (0.5-7 keV), at a distance of 8.4 kpc. The pulsar's spectrum is clearly softer than the PWN's spectrum. We rule out a single blackbody model for the pulsar, and present the first evidence of non-thermal (presumably magnetospheric) emission that dominates above ~3keV. A two-component model consisting of a power law component (with photon index ~1.5--2.0) plus a thermal component provides the best fit. The thermal component can be fit by either a blackbody model with a temperature kT~0.21 keV, or a neutron star atmospheric model with a temperature kT~0.14 keV. The efficiency of the pulsar in converting its rotational power, Edot, into non-thermal X-ray emission from the pulsar and PWN is ~5E-4, comparable to other rotation-powered pulsars with a similar Edot. We discuss our results in the context of the X-ray manifestation of high-magnetic field radio pulsars in comparison with rotation-powered pulsars and magnetars.Comment: 26 pages including 3 tables and 7 figures. Accepted for publication in Ap

Measuring indian patients' satisfaction : a case of private hospitals

Exposure to global markets and competitors has placed increasing demands on all sectors of the Indian market. Introducing consumer choice was one of the key motivations underpinning the various healthcare utility privatization of the Indian Hospitals in 1980s, along with enhancing the quality of ser­vice provided to consumers. Customer satisfaction is becoming increasingly important for organizational survival, let alone prosperity. This paper aims to study the effect of service facilities provided to patients in private hospitals of India. Suitable satisfaction drivers are identified from the literature and talks with experts. A new customer satisfaction index is discussed. This index is based on American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI}. The concept is developed specially for the private hospitals operating in New Delhi and NCR market of India. A survey was carried out and 180 responses were collected. Application of factor analysis for satisfaction drivers shows that these variables are well represented by four dimensions, viz. information, process, service and expectation. From the point of view of the user, an advantage of the new customer satisfaction index, which can be named the Patients Satisfaction Index (PSI}, is that the values of the coefficients of the satisfaction drivers give clear hints on potential improvements for researchers and practitioner

Spectral clustering for TRUS images

BACKGROUND: Identifying the location and the volume of the prostate is important for ultrasound-guided prostate brachytherapy. Prostate volume is also important for prostate cancer diagnosis. Manual outlining of the prostate border is able to determine the prostate volume accurately, however, it is time consuming and tedious. Therefore, a number of investigations have been devoted to designing algorithms that are suitable for segmenting the prostate boundary in ultrasound images. The most popular method is the deformable model (snakes), a method that involves designing an energy function and then optimizing this function. The snakes algorithm usually requires either an initial contour or some points on the prostate boundary to be estimated close enough to the original boundary which is considered a drawback to this powerful method. METHODS: The proposed spectral clustering segmentation algorithm is built on a totally different foundation that doesn't involve any function design or optimization. It also doesn't need any contour or any points on the boundary to be estimated. The proposed algorithm depends mainly on graph theory techniques. RESULTS: Spectral clustering is used in this paper for both prostate gland segmentation from the background and internal gland segmentation. The obtained segmented images were compared to the expert radiologist segmented images. The proposed algorithm obtained excellent gland segmentation results with 93% average overlap areas. It is also able to internally segment the gland where the segmentation showed consistency with the cancerous regions identified by the expert radiologist. CONCLUSION: The proposed spectral clustering segmentation algorithm obtained fast excellent estimates that can give rough prostate volume and location as well as internal gland segmentation without any user interaction

Structural Evidence for a Copper-Bound Carbonate Intermediate in the Peroxidase and Dismutase Activities of Superoxide Dismutase

Copper-zinc superoxide dismutase (SOD) is of fundamental importance to our understanding of oxidative damage. Its primary function is catalysing the dismutation of superoxide to O2 and H2O2. SOD also reacts with H2O2, leading to the formation of a strong copper-bound oxidant species that can either inactivate the enzyme or oxidise other substrates. In the presence of bicarbonate (or CO2) and H2O2, this peroxidase activity is enhanced and produces the carbonate radical. This freely diffusible reactive oxygen species is proposed as the agent for oxidation of large substrates that are too bulky to enter the active site. Here, we provide direct structural evidence, from a 2.15 Å resolution crystal structure, of (bi)carbonate captured at the active site of reduced SOD, consistent with the view that a bound carbonate intermediate could be formed, producing a diffusible carbonate radical upon reoxidation of copper. The bound carbonate blocks direct access of substrates to Cu(I), suggesting that an adjunct to the accepted mechanism of SOD catalysed dismutation of superoxide operates, with Cu(I) oxidation by superoxide being driven via a proton-coupled electron transfer mechanism involving the bound carbonate rather than the solvent. Carbonate is captured in a different site when SOD is oxidised, being located in the active site channel adjacent to the catalytically important Arg143. This is the probable route of diffusion from the active site following reoxidation of the copper. In this position, the carbonate is poised for re-entry into the active site and binding to the reduced copper. © 2012 Strange et al