Production Of Anti-Fungal Agent By Schizophyllum Commune Against Wood-Degrading Fungi Of Rubberwood

Wood-degrading fungi are serious threat to rubberwood. Chemical preservatives commonly used in rubberwood preserving industry become awareness as it give impact to health and environmental problem. Biological control may be used as an alternative method to solve this problem. In this study, twelve locally isolated wild strains of wood-degrading fungi were screened for their capability to produce antifungal agent. Results showed that methanol extract of Schizophyllum commune biomass provided the highest antifungal activity among the tested fungi with minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) ranging from 0.1 to 5.0 μg/μl. Chemical compound presence in the biomass extract was analyzed via gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and high performance liquid chromatograph (HPLC). It was found that 4H-pyran-4-one, 2,3-dihydro-3,5-dihydroxy-6-methyl- (DDMP), a flavonoid fraction, was presence in the biomass extract. Optimization strategy based on one-factor-at-a-time (OFTA) method and statistical tool were employed to optimize the growth of S. commune in shake flask culture. Based on Plackett-Burman design (PBD), the variables such as yeast extract, glucose and MgSO4·7H2O significantly affected the fungus growth. The optimal values of these process variables were determined using Response Surface Methodology (RSM) coupled with Box-Behnken design (BBD). For the extraction of antifungal agent, the optimum conditions were 70.75% (v/v) methanol, 29 °C, and 145 rpm. All optimization studies were verified and the experimental data fitted well to the selected models with error percentage less than 1%

Kinetic and isotherm studies for lead adsorption from aqueous phase on carbon coated monolith

Adsorption of lead [Pb(II)] ions on two different types of carbon coated monoliths (CCM 600 and CCM 8000) was investigated with variations in the parameters such as agitation speed, pH, contact time, and Pb(II) initial concentration. Optimum Pb(II) adsorption was observed at pH: 5. The observed equilibration time on CCM 600 and CCM 8000 was 470 min and 350 min, respectively while, the equilibrium adsorption capacities were 14.2 mg/g and 15.2 mg/g at 50 mg/L initial Pb(II) concentration. The adsorption capacities on CCM 600 and CCM 8000 increased to 48 mg/g and 53.5 mg/g at 250 mg/L initial Pb(II) concentration. Linear and non-linear isotherm studies showed that equilibrium data better fitted to Freundlich isotherm model. Kinetic studies showed better applicability of pseudo-second order kinetics model. It was concluded that CCM 8000 showed better performance for Pb(II) ions removal compared to CCM 600

Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in √s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks is presented. Final states containing third-generation quarks and miss- ing transverse momentum are considered. The analysis uses 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at √s = 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess of events above the estimated backgrounds is observed. The results are in- terpreted in the framework of simplified models of spin-0 dark-matter mediators. For colour- neutral spin-0 mediators produced in association with top quarks and decaying into a pair of dark-matter particles, mediator masses below 50 GeV are excluded assuming a dark-matter candidate mass of 1 GeV and unitary couplings. For scalar and pseudoscalar mediators produced in association with bottom quarks, the search sets limits on the production cross- section of 300 times the predicted rate for mediators with masses between 10 and 50 GeV and assuming a dark-matter mass of 1 GeV and unitary coupling. Constraints on colour- charged scalar simplified models are also presented. Assuming a dark-matter particle mass of 35 GeV, mediator particles with mass below 1.1 TeV are excluded for couplings yielding a dark-matter relic density consistent with measurements