EDUCATIONAL METHODS TO CHANGE THE ATTITUDES OF TRANSPORT PLANNERS TOWARDS ENVIRONMENTALLY SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

This paper describes a pilot project aimed at increasing the exposure of transport planners in Bangkok and Colombo to Bus Rapid Transit (BRT). The objective of the project was to examine the efficiencies of three educational methods used to increase the understanding of local transport officials about BRT as well as changing their attitudes toward the implementation of BRT in their cities. Two methods were found to increase the planners' inclination to implement BRT: 1) providing the planners with information on public attitudes and perceptions of BRT, and 2) asking them to make their intentions more concrete by specifying possible BRT routes on a city map. A method that provided detailed information on using and operating a model BRT system appeared to increase the feeling of “obligation” of the planners to develop a BRT system for their countries. The combination of these methods would possibly be effective in strategies to change transport planners' attitudes toward BRT

Characterization of carboxymethyl cellulase produced by Trichoderma asperellum

Background: The present study characterized extracellular carboxymethyl cellulase (CMCase), an enzyme catalyzes the hydrolysis of the cellulose, from Trichoderma asperellum PQ34 that was isolated from agricultural cultivation soil in Thua Thien Hue, Vietnam.Methods: CMCase was produced by culturing T. asperellum PQ34 on Czapek-Dox medium supplemented with carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) at 28ºC for 96 h at a shaking speed of 150 rpm. Enzyme activity was spectrophotometerically determined with CMC used as a substrate and the absorbance was measured at 540 nm. The molecular weight of CMCase was determined by zymogram based on sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis with 0.2% CMC.Results: CMCase achieved the highest activity after 4 days of culture with the optimal pH and temperature at 4 and 55°C. The enzyme maintains pH and thermal stability in the range of 4-5 and 10-40°C and the relative activity of both is more than 90%. The presence of metal ions at 5 mM such as Ca2+, Al3+, or Co2+ increased the enzyme activity up to 133%, 124%, and 217%, respectively. CMCase was stable with 1 mM ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid and 1 M urea, but inhibited by 5% sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and 5% Triton-X100. Zymographic analysis showed that CMCase from T. asperellum PQ34 consists of two enzymes with a molecular weight of about 31 and 66 kDa.Conclusion: CMCases from T. asperellum PQ34 exhibited characteristics of an acidic and thermostable enzyme. The interaction of Co2+ and CMCase resulted in a significant increase in enzyme activity, however they were strongly inhibited by 5% SDS.Keywords: Carboxymethyl cellulase; Cellulase; Endo-β-1,4-glucanase, Trichoderma asperellu

Chemical components and biological properties from acetone extracts of Conamomum vietnamense

Conamomum vietnamense is an endemic and rare species from Vietnam. The aim of this study is to determine the chemical compositions, antibacterial and antioxidant properties of the acetone extracts obtained from the different organs of this species for the first time. A total of 82 components were identified from the acetone extracts of leaf, flower, and rhizome of C. vietnamense using Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC/MS) technique. Furthermore, the agar disk-diffusion method was also used to determine the antibacterial activity of the C. vietnamense extracts. Accordingly, the leaf extract was found to be effective against eight out of nine bacterial strains while the flower and rhizome extracts displayed activity against four out of nine tested bacteria. In addition, the three organs of C. vietnamense also possessed the high DPPH scavenging properties. The results of this study indicate that C. vietnamense extracts have the potential to be developed into pharmaceutical products in the future

Outage performance of underlay cognitive radio networks over mix fading environment

In this paper, the underlay cognitive radio network over mix fading environment is presented and investigated. A cooperative cognitive system with a secondary source node S, a secondary destination node D, secondary relay node Relay, and a primary node P are considered. In this model system, we consider the mix fading environment in two scenarios as Rayleigh/Nakagami-m and Nakagami-m/Rayleigh Fading channels. For system performance analysis, the closed-form expression of the system outage probability (OP) and the integral-formed expression of the ergodic capacity (EC) are derived in connection with the system's primary parameters. Finally, we proposed the Monte Carlo simulation for convincing the correctness of the system performance

RESEARCH ON BUILDING A COMPOSTING PROCESS OF PEELED SHRIMP SHELLS PRODUCED IN SUPER-INTENSIVE SHRIMP FARMING INTO ORGANIC FERTILIZER BY PROBIOTICS

In this study, the author mixed peeled shrimp shells in intensive shrimp farming and straw with probiotics using the aerobic organic composting process to produce calciumrich organic fertilizer. After 50 days of composting of peeled shrimp shells and straw with BioUSD or Fito-Biomix RR probiotics, the resulting fertilizer was brown-black in color, highly soft, spongy and highly degraded and has a relatively uniform size. Due to the action of microorganisms in Bio-USD probiotics, the nutritional compositions in peeled shrimp shell fertilizer had total nitrogen 4.34%, NH4+-N 269 (mg/kg), total carbon 14.6%, organic matter 51.3%, total calcium 22.0%, and C/N ratio 3.26. Similarly, the nutritional compositions in that fertilizer by FitoBiomix RR probiotics were total nitrogen 4.17%, NH4+-N 329 (mg/kg), total carbon 17.8%, organic matter 53.8%, total calcium 17.8%, and C/N ratio 4.27. Finally, the author evaluated the quality of the fertilizers with different probiotics in bok choy cultivation

Antibacterial, antioxidant and cytotoxic activities of different fractions of acetone extract from flowers of Dipterocarpus intricatus Dyer (Dipterocarpaceae)

This study has shown for the first time the antimicrobial, antioxidant and cytotoxicity of 3 fractions of acetone extract, including hexane, chloroform and ethyl acetate from flowers of Dipterocarpus intricatus. Antibacterial test using disc diffusion method showed that the chloroform and ethyl acetate fractions inhibited the growth of all the tested bacteria, including Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Salmonella enteritidis, Salmonella typhimurium, Bacillus cereus and Staphylococcus aureus while the hexane fraction showed the antibacterial activity against B. cereus and S. enteritidis. Antioxidant activity and cancer cell resistance of those extracts were conducted using DPPH and MTT methods respectively. As a result, the DPPH radical scavenging activity of the hexane, chloroform and ethyl acetate fractions were determined with the IC50 values of 0.508, 0.22 and 0.075 mg/mL respectively while the cytotoxicity to HepG2 cell line of those fractions was 163.3 ppm, 106.7 ppm and 459.3 ppm. These results suggested the potential application of these fractions isolated from D. intricatus flowers as the natural antimicrobial, antioxidant and cytotoxic agents for medicine

Sleeping Beauty screen reveals Pparg activation in metastatic prostate cancer

Prostate cancer (CaP) is the most common adult male cancer in the developed world. The paucity of biomarkers to predict prostate tumor biology makes it important to identify key pathways that confer poor prognosis and guide potential targeted therapy. Using a murine forward mutagenesis screen in a Pten-null background, we identified peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (Pparg), encoding a ligand-activated transcription factor, as a promoter of metastatic CaP through activation of lipid signaling pathways, including up-regulation of lipid synthesis enzymes [fatty acid synthase (FASN), acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACC), ATP citrate lyase (ACLY)]. Importantly, inhibition of PPARG suppressed tumor growth in vivo, with down-regulation of the lipid synthesis program. We show that elevated levels of PPARG strongly correlate with elevation of FASN in human CaP and that high levels of PPARG/FASN and PI3K/pAKT pathway activation confer a poor prognosis. These data suggest that CaP patients could be stratified in terms of PPARG/FASN and PTEN levels to identify patients with aggressive CaP who may respond favorably to PPARG/FASN inhibition

Analysis of Nkx3.1:Cre-driven Erk5 deletion reveals a profound spinal deformity which is linked to increased osteoclast activity

Extracellular signal-regulated protein kinase 5 (ERK5) has been implicated during development and carcinogenesis. Nkx3.1-mediated Cre expression is a useful strategy to genetically manipulate the mouse prostate. While grossly normal at birth, we observed an unexpected phenotype of spinal protrusion in Nkx3.1:Cre;Erk5fl/fl (Erk5fl/fl) mice by ~6–8 weeks of age. X-ray, histological and micro CT (µCT) analyses showed that 100% of male and female Erk5fl/fl mice had a severely deformed curved thoracic spine, with an associated loss of trabecular bone volume. Although sex-specific differences were observed, histomorphometry measurements revealed that both bone resorption and bone formation parameters were increased in male Erk5fl/fl mice compared to wild type (WT) littermates. Osteopenia occurs where the rate of bone resorption exceeds that of bone formation, so we investigated the role of the osteoclast compartment. We found that treatment of RANKL-stimulated primary bone marrow-derived macrophage (BMDM) cultures with small molecule ERK5 pathway inhibitors increased osteoclast numbers. Furthermore, osteoclast numbers and expression of osteoclast marker genes were increased in parallel with reduced Erk5 expression in cultures generated from Erk5fl/fl mice compared to WT mice. Collectively, these results reveal a novel role for Erk5 during bone maturation and homeostasis in vivo

Chemical composition and antibacterial activities of essential oils from Homalomena pierreana (Araceae)

30-37Homalomena is a genus of the Araceae family which contains several remedies used extensively in traditional Vietnamese medicine. H. pierreana is a rare plant species of Homalomena genus and found only in Phu Quoc National Park, Phu Quoc Island, Kien Giang Province, Vietnam. Therefore, the number of studies about this species is limited and the bioactivity of this species is still unknown. In this study, the chemical composition of essential oils was investigated which was isolated from leaves and rhizomes of H. pierreana at the first time by GC-MS. Eight and twelve compounds were identified from the essential oils of rhizomes and leaves, respectively. The major component from both the rhizomes and the leaves was aromadendrene (44 and 48%, respectively). Furthermore, the antibacterial activity of essential oils collected from leaves and rhizomes of H. pierreana was investigated and it was observed that the essential oil of rhizomes could inhibit the growth of Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, while the essential oil of leaves exhibited an inhibitory effect against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli.</em

Systematic analysis of secreted proteins reveals synergism between IL6 and other proteins in soft agar growth of MCF10A cells

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>Breast cancer, the most common malignancy in women, still holds many secrets. The causes for non-hereditary breast cancer are still unknown. To elucidate any role for circulating naturally secreted proteins, a screen of secreted proteins' influence of MCF10A cell anchorage independent growth was set up.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>To systematically screen secreted proteins for their capacity to transform mammalian breast epithelial cells, a soft agar screen of MCF10A cells was performed using a library of ~ 470 secreted proteins. A high concentration of infecting viral particles was used to obtain multiple infections in individual cells to specifically study the combined effect of multiple secreted proteins.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Several known breast cancer factors, such as Wnt, FGF and IL were retained, as well as factors that were previously unknown to have a role in breast cancer, such as paraoxonase 1 and fibroblast growth factor binding protein 2. Additionally, a combinatory role of Interleukin 6 with other factors in MCF10A anchorage-independent growth is demonstrated.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The transforming effect of combinations of IL6 with other secreted proteins allows studying the transformation of mammary epithelial cells <it>in vitro</it>, and may also have implications in <it>in vivo </it>studies where secreted proteins are upregulated or overexpressed.</p