Isolation of Lactobacillus salivarius from Children and Purification of Bacteriocin to Inhibition Cancer Cell in Vitro

Bacteria being used to make anticancer agents could provide an extra source of lead compounds for the pharmaceutical industry.  Bacterium Lactobacillus salivarius produce compounds that selectively inhibit growth of human cancer cells Lactobacillus salivarius naturally produces a compound called Bacteriocins.  Bacteriocins are bacterial proteins produced to prevent the growth of competing microorganisms in a particular biological niche and we can use it as antineoplastic. The aim of this study was to isolate bacteriocin produced by lactic acid bacteria. A preparation of bacteriocin from a strain Lactobacillus salivarius has long been shown to have antineoplastic activity against a variety of human tumor and animal tumor cell lines in vitro. A total of 60 LAB  were isolated from children stool 45 isolate showed a clear antimicrobial activity against indicator strain Streptococcus aureus and by used sodium phosphate buffer (pH8) from an 80% ammonium sulfate precipitate. The inhibition  activity was determent by well diffusion assay method technique, Bacteriocin purification processes were carried out by using ion-exchange (Trisacryl SP) and gel filtration chromatography (Sephacryl – S300). The apparent molecular mass of partially purified bacteriocin was 15. 848 kDa,  Cell Culture was maintained in RPMI 1640 medium supplemented with 10% (vol/vol) fetal calf serum,  Cytotoxicity of bacteriocin was assessed on human cell line (RD) and animal cell line (MDCK) cell viability after incubation for 48 h in medium containing 500AU/ml (1.15 mg/ml). Both cell types used in this study were sensitive to bacteriocin and the bacteriocin appeared to inhibit proliferation of tumor cell line. The animal cell line was more sensitivity than human cell line

Optimal Number of States in Hidden Markov Models and its Application to the Detection of Human Movement

In this paper, Hidden Markov Model is applied to model human movements as to facilitate an automatic  detection of the same. A number of activities were simulated with the help of two persons. The four  movements considered are walking, sitting down-getting up, fall while walking and fall while standing. The data is acquired using a biaxial accelerometer attached to the person’s body. Data of the four body gestures were then trained to construct several Hidden Markov models for the two people. The problem is to get a good  representation of the data in terms of the number of states of the HMM. Standard general methods used for training pose some drawbacks i.e. the computational burden and initialisation process for the model estimate.  For this reason, a sequential pruning strategy is implemented to address the problems mentioned.Keywords: Hidden Markov Models, sequential pruning strategy, Bayesian Inference Criterio

Alternatives Strategies to Empower Youth Volunteering in Omani Society Using SWOTAnalysis Technique

The study aimed to develop strategic alternatives to activate volunteer work among Omani youth. SWOT analysis was used to indicate the strength, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges faced by youth. A questionnaire of 32 items with two domains was developed. An estimation of reliability using Cronbach-Alpha indicated 0.887 for level of effectiveness, and 0.918 for level of existences. A sample of 89 experts from civil society organizations and higher education institutions from different Omani governorates was selected. The results revealed that the most powerful aspects of volunteering were the incentives to encourage youth, notably the Sultan Qaboos Award for Volunteerings at the national level, and the existence of many charities, including those related to women associations, and others that provide voluntarily services to special needs people. The overall average weight of the strengths and weaknesses was 194.44 and 186.46 respectively. The main opportunities were reflected by existing governmental departments to follow up the work of the voluntary institutions, and the NGO civil societies’ global awareness of volunteering. Further, the study results showed that average percentage means of opportunities and challenges were 145.04 and 143.79 respectively. Considering these results, four strategic alternatives were developed

The effect of Aqueous Olive Leaves Extract on the Pancreatic Islets of Streptozotocin Induced Diabetes Mellitus in mice

The objectives of this study were to investigate the effects of the aqueous crude extract of Olea europaea on serum glucose level and histopathological changes in islets of Langerhans in an induced-diabetic mellitus in mice. The experimental recommended 60 male mice were divided into three groups contained 20 mice each. The fi rst group was the control and they were given normal saline pH 7.0. The second group was intraperitoneally injected by a dose of 100mg/Kg of STZ and 10% glucose instead of normal drinking water over the 24 hours followed the treatment. The third group was injected intraperitoneally with 100mg/kg STZ and orally given 0.33g/ Kg aqueous extract of olive leaves everyday for four weeks. Blood specimens were collected, and the serum separated and stored at 4OC until it is used. The animals were dissected and the pancreatic tissues were obtained, the tissue specimens were fi xed in the Boun’s solution for 24 hr, and processed for histological studies. There was a signifi cant increase in blood glucose level of the STZ- diabetic mice by the fi rst week of injection with STZ in comparison with control group. A signifi cant decrease in blood glucose level occurred in the STZ-diabetic group treated with Olea europaea aqueous extract. Islets of langerhans are hypertrophied in the STZ-diabetic group and this hypertrophy showed a signifi cant increased in the average of islets size at the last week, while the treatment with Olea europaea aqueous extract showed a reduction of the islet size compared with the islets of the STZ –diabetic Mic

Measurement of extracellular fluid compartment volume using inulin:

Background: There is a need to find methods to assess the size of the extracellular fluid (ECF) volume without involving radioactive tracers. For this purpose, the simple delusion method was used to measure the ECF in rabbits and the inulin which is a polysaccharide was used as a marker of ECF measurement. Methods: 18 male rabbits were used in this study. 8 of these animals were bilaterally nephroctomized to calculate the exact time to get diffusion equilibrium time after a bolus dose of inulin at a dose of 25mg/kg of a solution of inulin 10 mg/ml. intravenously. The blood samples were taken after 1, 15, 45, 60, 90, 120, and 180 min. Results: ECF volume was about 144.5 to 149.7 ml/kg depending on the inulin concentration changing with time because the equilibrium time of inulin and the ECF could not be obtained to the end of the experiment.  Conclusion: The inulin takes a space in the body fluids differ than the true ECF volume. It is better to use the term "inulin space" to reflect such measurements rather than the ECF volume

COUNTABLY Z-COMPACT SPACES

Abstract. In this work we study countably z-compact spaces and z-Lindelof spaces. Several new properties of them are given. It is proved that every countably z-compact space is pseuodocompact (a space on which every real valued continuous function is bounded). Spaces which are countably z-compact but not countably compact are given. It is proved that a space is countably z-compact iff every countable z-closed set is compact. Characterizations of countably z-compact and z-Lindelof spaces by multifunctions are given

Study the Effect of Epoxy Additives on Some Physical Properties of Asphalt Cement

Abstract:In the series of study on the asphalt cement to improve properties of asphalt cement several polymers materials are used for this purpose. In this study Epoxy used at different percentage by weight (1, 2, 4 and 6) %. Epoxy was added in three cases, pure Epoxy and the other two cases were mixing of Catalyst-Epoxy by weight in the two ratio (1:3) and (1:4).The effect of additives on the asphalt cement properties are evaluated by penetration test (ASTM D-5)(10), softening point test (ASTM D-2398)(10), and Kinematics viscosity test (ASTM D-2170)(10). Temperature susceptibility of asphalt cement was evaluated by using Penetration viscosity number ( PVN ). The study shows that Epoxy, 1:3 Epoxy and 1:4 Epoxy additives have more effect on the physical properties of asphalt cement and make asphalt softer than original asphalt cement, the additives reduced the temperature susceptibility, but Epoxy have more reduction in the susceptibility of asphalt cement compared with 1:3 Epoxy and 1:4

The Quality of Student Services Provided by the Deanship of Student Affairs at Sultan Qaboos University

This study aimed to investigate the quality of student services provided by the Deanship of Student Affairs at the Sultan Qaboos University. The study sample consisted of 610 students. Data were collected using a questionnaire consisting of 59 items distributed in seven areas which are: social services, housing services, and food services, and counseling and religious guidance services, cultural and artistic services, sports activities, and sustainable training services. The results showed that the highest mean of the responses is in the counseling and religious guidance 3.79, while the lowest mean is for the area of student food services 2.82.the Results of (MANOVA) showed that the quality of services provided by the Deanship of Student Affairs for students for female was a higher level compared with males in the areas of social services, housing services and sustainable training services. As for the results on the year variable, the result of the study revealed that there are statistically significant differences (α=0.05) related to the field of social services in favor of the second year students. Also the results showed that there are statistically significant differences related to students' points of view in humanities colleges in the areas of social services 3.37, and sustainable training 3.27, while in the area of religious guidance services it is in favor of scientific colleges 3.87. Based on the results of this study, many recommendations and suggestions were developed

Adjusted Location Privacy Scheme in VANET Safety Applications

The primary aim of Vehicular Ad hoc NETworks (VANET) is to enhance traffic safety by enabling frequent broadcasting of location information between vehicles. In VANET safety applications, a vehicle requires to broadcast messages, which usually contain its location information, every (1-10 Hz) with other vehicles in its communication area (300m) to facilitate cooperative awareness. This would arise privacy issues because vehicles are vulnerable to tracking attacks via their locations. To prevent long-term linking, many privacy schemes have adopted a silent period in which a vehicle stops sharing its locations for a period. However, silent periods could have a negative impact on safety applications as an accident could have happened if a vehicle stop sharing its locations with other neighbours. Thus, in this paper, we first discuss three privacy schemes (RSP, SLOW and CAPS), which adopted silent periods but in different concepts. Then, we improve the privacy and safety level of CAPS. A privacy simulator PREXT is used to evaluate and compare the performance of schemes

The Effect of the Source and the Concentration of polymers on the Release of Chlorhexidine from Mucoadhesive Buccal Tablets

In the current work, two groups of chlorhexidine mucoadhesive buccal tablets were prepared, using either rod or irregularly-shaped spherical particles of hydroxypropyl methylcellulose and different ratios of poloxamer 407 (P407). The tablets were designed to release the drug over two hours. Their physicochemical properties and drug release profiles were investigated. The impact on dry granulation, the ex-vivo mucoadhesion, the swelling index, the morphology of swollen tablets and the drug release kinetic were investigated. Drug-polymers chemical interaction was studied using Fourier Transforms Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Due to different particle shapes, the preparation of dry granules required a 40 KN force for rod-shaped particles compared to 10 KN for the irregularly-shaped spherical particles. All formulations showed at least two-hours residence time using ex-vivo mucoadhesion. Statistically, there was no significant difference in the swelling index, drug release nor its kinetic for both groups. However, the microscopical morphology of the swollen tablet and the size of the pores were affected by particle shape. Increasing the ratio of P407 to 62.5% resulted in a pronounced increase in drug release from around 60% to >90% after two hours. Following the FTIR and DSC analyses, no chemical interaction was noted apart from the steric hindrance effect of P407, which was observed even with the physical mixtures