Binding studies of E-Cadherin peptides to the EC1 domain of E-Cadherin

The blood brain barrier (BBB) is a key role in delivering medication to the brain; if the drug molecules can overcome this obstacle, many brain diseases (i.e., Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and brain tumor) can be effectively treated. E-cadherin is important in forming cell-cell adhesion in intercellular junctions of the biological barriers (i.e., intestinal mucosa and BBB). Cadherin peptides (HAV6 and ADTC5) have been shown to modulate the BBB in the cell culture and in in-situ rat brain perfusion models. The hypothesis is that cadherin peptides modulate the tight junctions of the BBB by binding to the EC1 domain of E-cadherin. Thus, the objective of this project is to determine the dissociation constants (Kds) of linear and cyclic cadherin peptides (i.e., HAV- and ADT-peptides) to the expressed EC1 domain of E-cadherin using circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy. The data show that the cyclic HAVc3 peptide (Kd = 66.7±18.0 nM) has better binding property to the EC1 domain than the linear HAV6 peptide (Kd = 120.1±11.9 nM). Cyclic ADTC5 (Kd = 50.2± 11 nM) has lower dissociation constant than ADTC1 (Kd = 119.7± 16 nM). Mutation of the valine residue in ADTC5 to glutamic acid (ADTC7; Kd = 0.43± 0.050 nM) and threonine (ADTC8; Kd = 0.45±0.012) makes the peptides to have 100-fold tighter binding compared to the EC1 domain. Mutation of the valine residue in ADTC5 to a tyrosine residue (ADTC9; Kd = 0.038± 0.009) increases binding to the EC1 domain by 1000-fold. Finally, mutation of the valine residue to arginine demolishes the activity of ADTC10. In the future, the activity of ADTC9 to modulate the BBB will be compared to ADTC5 in in vitro and in vivo models of the BBB

An Empirical study of the Forms of Exercising Censorship in the Daily Sudanese Political Newspapers

Forms of exercising censorship in the daily Sudanese political newspapers. An empirical study, from Jan 2017 to Jun 2017. The main objective to this study was identified forms of exercising censorship in the daily Sudanese political newspapers that may limit the freedom in the vocational work of Sudanese journalists in the political news sections. The descriptive method is used to describe the situation and analyze the results. Observation and questionnaire were used as tools of this study. 340 samples were chosen from journalists working in the Sudanese newspaper institutions, representing intended sample from field study community. The results were: censorship is applied in the Sudan’s newspapers; self-censorship topped the forms of censorship, the importance of censorship exercised by the editor-in- chief, and the journalists participating in the questionnaire stated that the importance of censorship is for refrain them from committing breaches

Design of a small-scale solar Dryer to Improve Natural Drying of Vegetables and Fish

This study aimed at improvement of a solar dryer based on the principle of natural–convection used for drying vegetables and fish. The constructed dryer, comprises of three main models, solar collector (tent of polythene sheet collector), drying chamber and solar chimney. Design has been made to eliminate the problem of quality loss and over drying. Okra, Tomato, onion, fish were subjected to solar drying and open – air drying processes. The chemical, microbiological analyses and sensory evaluation were carried out for the dried products. The results gives indication of improved quality for solar dryer compared to products dried in open – air systems which indicates its efficiency in drying. &nbsp

Effects of Some Essential Oils on Aspergillus flavus Growth and Aflatoxin Production

The present study aimed at investigating the effects of some essential oils on inhibiting fungal growth of A. flavus and aflatoxin production. Clove oil was found as the best among the six different oils tested against the radial growth at the concentration of 0.05. mL/100ml. However the other oils were also significantly better than the control except the Pumpkin oil. Different concentrations (0.00, 0.01, 0.03 and 0.05 ml/100ml) of only three of the oils were tested against the radial growth of A. flavus. Clove and Cumin oils were significantly effective than the control at all these concentrations. Although Pumpkin oil was slightly more effective than the control at its higher concentration (0.05) ml/100ml), it was not effective at its lower concentrations (0.01 and 0.03 ml/100ml). Clove oil was also the best in suppressing mycelial growth at the concentration of 0.05 ml/100ml. However, the other oils were also significantly better than the control, while, Pumpkin oil was non-effective. Spore germination was also affected by the oils tested. Clove oil gave complete inhibition at its higher concentration followed by Cumin, Rehan, Garlic and Desert date, while Pumpkin oil was the least one. Aflatoxin production was highly affected by the essential oils tested. Clove and Cumin exhibited a complete inhibition, followed by Rehan; Garlic and Desert date while Pumpkin oil was non-effective

An Enhanced Software Quality Testing Approach Using Metamorphic Testing Technique

The software testing process plays an important role in improving the quality of the software product. The product or program which is free from errors greatly contributes to assuring the quality of the software. An oracle in software testing is a person (tester) who performs the testing process. The oracle problem is the difficulty of determining the expected outcomes of selected test cases. A tester (oracle) may not always be available, or might be available but the process is too expensive and difficult to apply. The research presented in this paper proposes an approach for reducing the effect of the oracle problem during testing software and hence enhancing the quality of testing. Metamorphic Testing (MT) approach has been introduced and applied to generate a follow-up test case for multiple executions of program under test and verify the result automatically.  An experimental method has been used to explain the mechanism of work for (MT). JUNIT tool which supports MT has been used to apply selected case studies (trigonometric function, geometric shapes classification, booking web service). The obtained results showed a good enhancement in the testing process. The importance of this research lies in overcoming oracle problem or alleviates it and thus, the research contributes to knowledge the domain by guiding researchers to use the metamorphic method because of its great advantages, as well as evaluating the effect of metamorphic method through empirical studies

Chemical composition and antimicrobial activity of Mint (Mentha) essential oil

Natural products of plant origin, such as essential oils have great benefit for human life. The objective of this study was to determine the chemical composition and antimicrobial activity of mint (mentha) essential oil (EO). The EO obtained by steam distillation and their constituents were determined by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The disc diffusion method was used for the determination of the antimicrobial activity. In the antimicrobial activity, the concentrations of 3.75, 7.5, 15, 30, 60μg/mL of mint essential oil were prepared and tested against four microbes; one Gram-positive: Staphylococcus aureus; two Gram-negative: Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumonia; and one fungal strain, Candida albicans. The oil content was 0.05% (v/w) and the GC-MS analysis led to the identification 42 components, the major components were found to be, Carvone (53.06%), D-limonene (25.65%), and Eucalyptol (2.56%). The inhibition zones of the oil were compared with standard ciprofloxacin. The results showed that the remarkable inhibition of the bacterial growth against the tested organisms. The microbial activity of mint essential oil was due to the presence of various secondary metabolites. Therefore, may warrant further research to determine the bioactive compound(s)