Inhibition of hepatitis B virus assembly with synthetic peptides derived from the viral surface and core antigens

The long surface antigen (L-HBsAg) of hepatitis B virus (HBV) plays a central role in the production of infectious virions. During HBV morphogenesis, both the PreS and S domains of L-HBsAg form docking sites for the viral nucleocapsids. Thus, a compound that disrupts the interaction between the L-HBsAg and nucleocapsids could serve as a therapeutic agent against the virus based upon inhibition of morphogenesis. Synthetic peptides correspond to the binding sites in L-HBsAg inhibited the association of L-HBsAg with core antigen (HBcAg). A synthetic peptide carrying the epitope for a monoclonal antibody to the PreS1 domain competed weakly with L-HBsAg for HBcAg, but peptides corresponding to a linear sequence at the tip of the nucleocapsid spike did not, showing that the competing peptide does not resemble the tip of the spike

Nucleotide Sequence Analysis of the HN Gene of the Heat Resistant NDV Strain Af2240 and Substrain V4-UPM

Newcastle disease virus (NOV) is the prototy peavian Paramyxovirus which causes a major disease in poultry. The highlyvi rulentv elogenic NDV strain AF 2240 andavi rulent substrainV4 - UPM possess thermost a blehaemag glutination andneura minidase activities compared to other strains. Therefore,the purpose of this study is to sequence the ha emagglutinin- neura minidase(HN)genes of AF 2240 and V4-UPM. The virus was propagated in the allantoic fluid of 9-10day-old embryonated eggs. The allantoic fluid was harvested after 72 hours incubation at 37°C. Viral purification was carried out on 30% to 60% (N/V ) sucrose density gradient centrifugation at 2 75,000 x g, for 4 hour sat 4°C. The viral RNA was extracted using the hot phenol extraction method. RNA sequencing was performed directly on the genomic RNA using the dideoxy chain termination method. The nucleotide sequence was then confirmed by cycle sequencing and analysed using the computer programs of RIBIODNASIS and MicroGenie which were linked to the Data Bank

Short-run and Long-run Determinants of Violent and Property Crimes in Malaysia Based on National and State Level Data

This study aims to provide a systematic investigation of the socio-economic causes of crime offences in Malaysia for national and state levels. Two empirical analyses, time series and panel data analysis have been used to examine the interactions between different categories of crime and four explanatory variables namely: police size, unemployment rate, higher education level, and real GDP per capita. The econometric modeling adopted in this study is ARDL bound testing method for time series analysis and PMG estimating technique for panel data analysis, to examine both the long-run and short-run effects of socio-economic determinants on various categories of crime listed in the Malaysian crime index. The main findings of the study can be summarized as follows: First, the results have constantly shown that, for both the national and state level, except for higher education level, all socio-economic variables considered have more significant effect on property crimes than violent crimes in the long-run. However, the effect of higher education level on crime is different because it has more effect on violent crimes than property crimes. All socio-economic variables considered do not affect or is less influential on most categories of the crime in the short-run. Second, the influences of the socio-economic factors on crime at the national and state level are slightly different. At the state level, the socio-economic variables considered have a significant effect on the most categories of property and violent crimes, especially in the long-run. The results are mixed with negative and positive correlation or even insignificant and show up most strongly for property crimes than violent crimes. However, their effects are different at the national level where police size, unemployment rate and higher educational level generally do not affect violent crime rate whether in the short-run or long-run. They do affect the property crime; however, police size and higher education level play a limited influence on this type of crime. Third, real GDP per capita and unemployment rate are the most important factors that influence property and violent crime for both at the national level and at the state level in the long-run. Therefore, our results are consistent with most of empirical studies in the economics of crime which suggests that economic conditions play an important role influencing particularly property crime

Development of a Saltwater Intrusion Software Using Visual Basic

Coastal aquifers play important roles for sources of water. With growing concern on groundwater resources both in term of quantity and quality, proper assessments and computation tools are becoming more important. Groundwater regional scale phenomena usually cannot be studied accurately using laboratory scale physical models; therefore mathematical tools of analysis must be applied. The advance of the computer technology should be used to solve the complicated mathematical task in solving arithmetic operations. The purpose of this study was to develop a user-friendly steady state model for simulation of saltwater intrusion into coastal aquifers. The model made use of the mathematical formulation developed by Ganfoud (1997). Two equations were derived, one for water flow, and the other for solute transport that were coupled through Darcy's velocity and concentration. In the numerical model formulation, two-dimensional Galerkin finite element approach was applied for deriving the elemental matrix equation through quadrilateral elements. The system of linear equations was solved using successive substitution employing the Gaussian elimination techniques. The whole formulation was set up by using the Visual Basic programming and Surfer graphic program (developed by Golden Software) to analyze the results. The results of intrusion were shown graphically under steady state conditions. The program has been proven to be user- friendly than other programming languages. For model verification, a hypothetical unconfined model and a physical model were used to compare the model's results with previous studies. These models applied the constant and velocity-dependent dispersion coefficient. The comparison showed a good agreement in numerical term between the proposed model and the previous ones. However, the Visual Basic program is not as powerful as the FORTRAN engineering programming and caused minor discrepancies when compared to the previous study

Preliminary Genetic Manipulation Studies On Muskmelon (Cucumis Melo L.) Using Protoplast Technology

In this study, parallel attempts have been made to initiate somatic embryos from two different explants on various hormone combinations and the results obtained were then applied to establish plant regeneration system for protoplastderived macrocalli. Simultaneously, optimisation of plant transformation system using electroporation techniques (direct uptake) were carried out to facilitate future research on the genetic improvement of muskmelon.Somatic embryos were successfully initiated from Birdie radicle region and Hami melon cotyledon using MS medium containing 1.0 mg/L 2,4-0, 2.0 mg/L NAA and 0.1 mg/L BAP and medium gave 2.0 mg/L NAA and 0. 1 mg/L BAP, respectively. The somatic embryos developed into normal plantlets after subculturing onto hormone-free M S media solidified with 0.4% (w/v) Gelrite®.Both Birdie and Hami melon protoplasts were successfully isolated using cotyledons of seven day in vitro seedlings incubated in different enzyme concentrations. Birdie melon explants were incubated in 0.05% (w/v) pectolyase Y23 and 1.0% (w/v) cellulase RS while Hami melon explants were incubated in 0.025% (w/v) Pectolyase Y23 and 1 .0% (w/v) Cellulase RS for 1.5 hours . . Subsequently, Birdie protoplast which were cultured onto semi-solid (0.09% Gelrite®) medium containing 1/2 strength MS supplemented with 0.1 mg/L NAA and 0.5 mg/L BAP gave the highest number of macrocolonies formation (60.96 number of colonies/field) after 30 days in culture, while Hami melon protoplast gave highest number of macrocolonies formation (30.48 number of colonies/field) in liquid culture containing 1/2 strength MS supplemented with 0.5 mg/L NAA and 1 .0 mg/L zeatin. Further experiments were conducted to establish the regeneration system for the macrocalli with addition of auxin and cytokinin, sucrose, growth regulators and amino acids. The results obtained showed that the macrocalli had potential to regenerate into plantlets on two types of medium (0.5 mg/L and 2.0 mg/L BAP). However. further studies must be performed to obtain a more suitable regeneration media from protoplast-derived macrocalli.In this study, genetic transformation of muskmelon protoplasts were carried out using electroporation system. Using pBI22 1 as a standard, various parameters for electroporation were optimised and the GUS activities were assayed. Pulse strength of 3.0 kV/cm, single pulse, 10.0 us pulse length, 25.0 ug/ml plasmid DNA and 15 hours incubation time were optimum for efficient DNA uptake and transient assay. Treatment of the protoplast with external stimulus such as UV irradiation in the presence of different plasmid constructs showed that the plasmid pYCN01 and pYCN02 containing different length of PSPAL promoter fragment gave higher GUS activity compared to the CaMV 35S promoter. The results indicate that ultra violet irradiation of the protoplasts was at least partly responsible for the activation of PAL promoter

Detection Of Misplaced And Missing Regions In Image Using Neural Network

Jigsaw puzzle is a printed picture that is cut into various pieces of different shapes. The game requires assembly of many oddly shaped pieces into producing a complete picture. However, misplaced or missing jigsaw puzzle pieces are difficult to be detected by human eyes. This scenario can be bridged to circuit on the breadboard, which also has similar condition like having several components on the board. Based on research, most of the algorithms are not intelligent enough and only able to detect the missing component. Therefore, it is necessary to develop an algorithm that is able to detect both misplaced and missing jigsaw puzzles. The main objective of this project is to develop an intelligent system to solve the jigsaw puzzle using Matlab software. The developed system consists of the image processing and the neural network phases. In image processing phase, the captured image is split into regions and the RGB (Red Green Blue) value of the regions is obtained. The neural network used in this research is a back-propagation neural network and it is trained by using Scaled Conjugate Gradient training algorithm. The neural network uses the RGB value from the image processing phase and analyzes the regions to check whether there is misplaced or missing jigsaw puzzle. Two experiments have been conducted, which are time performance in order for the system to analyze the regions and the ability of the system in detecting the misplaced and missing jigsaw puzzle. From the result, it is found that the time needed for the system to analyze 20 pieces of the image is around 89 seconds. The system also gives almost 100% of accuracy in detecting the missing or misplaced regions of the jigsaw puzzles image

Game Theory In Aviation And Port Industry

Kajian ini memberi tumpuan kepada aplikasi-aplikasi model teori permainan dalam industri pengangkutan dan logistik yang melibatkan 3-pemain, dalam konteks bekerjasama dan persaingan. This research focuses on the applications of 3-player cooperative and noncooperative game theoretic models in the transportation and logistics industry. In particular, respective game theory models have been applied in the scenario analyses of the China’s aviation sector and the port industries of Malaysia and Singapore

Comparison between Phage-ELISA and Phage Dot-Blot Assay Methods for the Detection of Hepatitis B Surface Antigen and its Antibodies in Human Serum

A modified phage-enzyme link immunosorbent assay (phage-ELISA) and a phage dot-blot assay specific for hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and its antibody were developed by using phage display technology. The phage-ELISA and phage dot-blot assays enabled to detect HBsAg and anti-HBsAg in human sera, and compatible to commercial detection kit. The fusion phages were immobilized onto microtiter plate wells and nitrocellulose membrane sheets, then blocked with 10% milk diluent, and added with human serum at dilution of 1:5000. The absorbance at 405 nm was determined once the colour changes formed. The same human serum also applied on the commercial diagnostic kit for comparison. The statistical analysis was carried out using ANOVA and T Test (LSD) for variable comparison between phage-ELISA and phage dot-blot assays. Based on these studies, the phage-ELISA was found to be more sensitive compared to phage dot-blot assay as the detection of HBsAg in human sera was about 80% as compared to 51.7% by using phage dot-blot assay. Meanwhile, the sensitivity for detection of anti-HBsAg by using phage-ELISA was slightly higher which showed about 83.3%. However, the sensitivity of the assay was dropped almost half when using phage dot-blot assay. Therefore, they are practical to be used as a reliable alternative way for the detection HBsAg and its antibody in human sera

Performance Evaluation Of Substrate Intergrated Waveguide Band-Stop Filters

This thesis presents the findings of the research work done on the evaluation and performance of substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) band-stop filters. The conventional waveguide has the advantages of low-insertion losses and high Q in microwave communication systems but their physical sizes of rectangular waveguides are large. The introduction of substrate integrated waveguide with similar properties of low insertion loss that can be integrated with planar circuits fulfill the requirement of microwave communication systems. Many researches have carried out detail research work on SIW band-pass filters but not many researches have spent enough time on the research of performance of SIW band-stop filters. In the construction of SIW band-stop filters, resonators feature significantly to realize the structure. Resonators can be constructed from closed sections of SIW. Circular and radial shape cavity resonators are proposed to design the SIW band-stop filters. The SIW band-stop filters are designed by coupling the cavity resonator to the SIW line. The effects on the variation of parameters value of each type of resonators are investigated. CST microwave studio is used for all the simulation work in this research. The designs of the SIW band-stop filters have been realized by using standard PCB process. The measured results are found to be in consistent to the simulated results. The dual-radial cavity resonators SIW band-stop filter has shown enhanced performance in 9GHz band-stop response with a high stopband attenuation level and provide better roll-off of 0.15dB/MHz. These provide better frequency selectivity as compared to the rectangular cavity resonator in the previous research work. This band-stop filter can be used to provide better signal rejection in the X-band

Identifying opportunities for latino bi-cultural entrepreneurship in Iowa: A community capitals approach to economic development

This study focused on innovative Latino entrepreneurs in urban and rural areas of Iowa. Recognized as bi-cultural entrepreneurs (BCEs), these immigrant Latino business owners are seizing opportunities and transforming their cultural heritage into new business ventures. These BCEs capitalize on marketplace opportunities related to their cultural background, and generate cultural-creative products and services (e.g. handcrafts, Quinceañera, festivals) to both make a living and express their cultural heritage (Ellmeier, 2003). The study investigated the potential contributions of cultural-creative industries (CCIs) such as handcrafts, food form this study and Latino BCEs to the economic and social vitality of rural and urban communities in Iowa. Framed by Flora and Flora’s community capitals framework (2008), a qualitative research method was employed, utilizing an adapted grounded theory approach. Data was collected through interviews with twenty BCEs and four focus groups with 12 community leaders in rural and urban communities. Open and axial coding was used and a code book created to facilitate constant comparison of all cases (Zickmund, No date). The researcher then reviewed the code book to organize and reorganize emergent themes into major categories and subcategories. Based on the code book list, a taxonomy was developed to provide a better understanding of the relationship between conceptual themes and sub-themes (Bradley, Curry, & Devers, 2007). Conceptual themes and subthemes, together with the community capitals framework, were utilized to address and respond to a series of eight stated research questions. Findings of this study demonstrated that Latino BCEs are both users and producers of community capitals, who contribute to community economic development in Iowa. The challenges that hindered Latino BCEs included lack of business training and educational programs, technology know-how, English language, business start-up assistance, and access to financial capital. Opportunities for BCEs for business and economic development included growth of customer base, develop and serve market niches, cultural interaction, and culture retention. Overall, results of this study provide important insights to enhance Latino BCE business growth and community and economic development. In addition, a micro theory that depicts the evolution and process of BCE business development and community impact was developed