Malva sylvestris inhibits Candida albicans biofilm formation

Introduction: Candidiasis-associated biofilm formed by Candida species complicates treatment and contributes to unacceptable high mortality rates. We performed the aqueous and ethanol extracts of the different parts of Malva sylvestris, Dorema aucheri, Ferulago angulata and Citrullus colocynthis plants to identify best plant extract that inhibits growth of Candida albicans or Candida krusei, and conducted a series of follow-up studies to examine the inhibitors of C. albicans biofilm formation of the identified plant extract.Methods: The antifungal activities of the aqueous and ethanol extracts of the different parts of M. sylvestris, D. aucheri, F. angulata and C. colocynthis plants were evaluated in vitro using disk diffusion test and broth microdilution test against C. albicans and C. krusei. The crystal violet assay, morphological response and expression pattern of hyphal wall protein 1 (HWP1) gene were carried out to investigate the biofilm-inhibitory properties of the best plant extract tested in C. albicans.Results: The screen identified ethanol extract of M. sylvestris root that largely represented antifungal activity among the tested extracts. M. sylvestris root inhibited C. albicans biofilm formation. Ethanol extract of M. sylvestris root demonstrated significant reduction in C. albicans biofilm formation (P &lt; 0.005). Moreover, morphological observation of ethanol extract of M. sylvestris root treated cells confirmed a decrease in biofilm thickness and cellular density. Finally, ethanol extract of M. sylvestris root displayed significant down-regulation of HWP1.Conclusion: These results provide proof of concept for the implementation of ethanol extract of M. sylvestris root as inhibitor of C. albicans biofilm formation.</p

A New Sparse Representation Algorithm for 3D Human Pose Estimation

This paper addresses the problem of recovering 3D human pose from single 2D images using Sparse Representation. While recent Sparse Representation (SR) based 3D human pose estimation methods have attained promising results estimating human poses from single images, their performance depends on the availability of large labeled datasets. However, in many real world applications, accessing to sufficient labeled data may be expensive and/or time consuming, but it is relatively easy to acquire a large amount of unlabeled data. Moreover, all SR based 3D pose estimation methods only consider the information of the input feature space and they cannot utilize the information of the pose space. In this paper, we propose a new framework based on sparse representation for 3D human pose estimation which uses both the labeled and unlabeled data. Furthermore, the proposed method can exploit the information of the pose space to improve the pose estimation accuracy. Experimental results show that the performance of the proposed method is significantly better than the state of the art 3D human pose estimation methods

Political Institutions and Government Spending Behavior: Theory and Evidence from Iran

This study examines how quality of political institutions affects the distribution of government budget in Iran. We first introduce a mechanism through which this can shift government expenditure from patronage to more constructive public spending. Using impulse response functions (IRF) and variance decomposition analysis (VDC) on the basis of Vector Autoregressive (VAR) model, our results imply that a positive shock towards more democratic institutions leads to negative and statistically significant response of military spending and positive and statistically significant response of education expenditures. Our results are robust to different political institutional quality indicators, ordering of variables in the VAR and different specifications of government spending categories

Surface reconstructions and premelting of the (100) CaF2 surface

In this work, surface reconstructions on the (100) surface of CaF2 are comprehensively investigated. The configurations were explored by employing the Minima Hopping Method (MHM) coupled to a machine-learning interatomic potential, that is based on a charge equilibration scheme steered by a neural network (CENT). The combination of these powerful methods revealed about 80 different morphologies for the (100) surface with very similar surface formation energies differing by not more than 0.3 J m−2. To take into account the effect of temperature on the dynamics of this surface as well as to study the solid–liquid transformation, molecular dynamics simulations were carried out in the canonical (NVT) ensemble. By analyzing the atomic mean-square displacements (MSD) of the surface layer in the temperature range of 300–1200 K, it was found that in the surface region the F sublattice is less stable and more diffusive than the Ca sublattice. Based on these results we demonstrate that not only a bulk system, but also a surface can exhibit a sublattice premelting that leads to superionicity. Both the surface sublattice premelting and surface premelting occur at temperatures considerably lower than the bulk values. The complex behaviour of the (100) surface is contrasted with the simpler behavior of other low index crystallographic surfaces

Optical properties of CdS/PVA nanocomposite films synthesized using the gamma-irradiation-induced method

Monodispersed spherical CdS nanoparticles embedded into polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) films are synthesized by using an in-situ gamma-irradiation-induced method. The formation mechanism of CdS nanoparticles capped by two united cells of PVA is purposed by means of surrounding the CdS nanoparticles with OH bonds of the PVA chain. CdS nanoparticles are found to possess an unusual orthorhombic structure in monoclinic crystalline PVA. The polymer matrix affords protection from agglomeration and controls the particle size. It is found that the distribution of the prepared nanoparticles increases and a narrower size distribution is observed when the gamma radiation is varied from 10 to 50 kGy. While the average size of the nanoparticles is found to be less affected by the variation of the gamma radiation doses. The size range of the synthesized nanoparticles is 14±1 nm. The optical absorption spectra of synthesized CdS nanoparticles in a polymer matrix reveal the blue shift in the band gap energy with respect to CdS bulk materials owing to quantum confinement effect. The photoluminescence study of nanocomposite films shows the green emission arising from the crystalline defects

The influence of exploited compounds type in the vermicompost medium on the quality of produced compost from kitchen waste, garden waste and cow dung by Eisenia fetida

زمينه و اهداف: فرایند توليد کود از پسماند توسط کرم­ها مسيری است که دارای جنبه‌های مثبت زيست محيطی، بهداشتی و اقتصادی می‌باشد. لذا اين مطالعه با هدف بررسی تاثير نوع بستر در درصدهای مختلف بر کيفيت کود از زایدات جامد انجام شد. مواد و روش‌ها: این مطالعه با انتخاب سه نوع بستر شامل ضایعات آشپزخانه، شاخ و برگ پوسیده درختان و فضولات حیوانی در 20 تيمار طراحی گرديد. در انتهای دوره زمانی مناسب پارامترهای TKN، &nbsp;P، TC، pH، EC، Na، K، رطوبت، خاکستر، مواد آلی، نسبت C/N، خصوصیات فیزیکی و ظاهری کمپوست آزمایش شدند. یافته‌ها: نتایج نشان داد در تمامی 20 تيمار کيفيت کود توليدی در محدوده استاندارد می‌باشد. با توجه به بالا بودن ترکيبات نيتروژنه در مواد اولیه تيمارهای M، N، O، Q، R وU، نسبت نيتروژن در کود حاصل از آن­ها بالاتر از بقيه تيمارها بود. بررسی توليد کرم در نمونه‌ها نشان داد که تيمارهای U (90% شاخ و برگ و 10% فضولات حیوانی) و Q (90% شاخ و برگ و 10% مواد غذایی) با 266 و253 عدد کرم بيشترين تعداد توليد کرم را در بين تيمارها داشته‌اند. نتيجه گيري: نوع مواد اوليه بستر اهميت ويژه‌ای در کيفيت کود توليدی دارد. هر گونه تغيير در اين ترکيبات به دليل تغيير در حضور يا عدم حضور ماکرو و ميکرونوترینت‌ها می‌تواند فرايند توليد کود با کيفيت و همچنين توليد کرم را تحت تاثير قرار دهد. لذا بهينه سازی درصد ترکيبات بستر، از اهميت ويژه‌ای برخوردار است که در&nbsp; استفاده بهينه از سرمايه‌ها و کاهش زمان توليد ورمی کمپوست موثر می‌باشد.&nbsp;&nbsp;Background and Aims: The production of fertilizer from waste by the use of worms (vermicomposting), covers all positive environmental, health and economic aspects. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the effect of different media on the quality of produced compost from solid waste.Materials and Methods: Three different media including kitchen waste, rotting foliage of trees and animal waste were designated in the present study through 20 treatments. TKN, P, TC, pH, EC, Na, K, and moisture, ash, organic matter contents as well as C/N ratio and physical properties of produced compost were analyzed at the end of composting process.Results: The results showed that the quality of produced compost was in conformity with current standards in all 20 studied treatments. With regard to the high contents of nitrogen in raw material in some treatments such as M, N, O, Q, R, and U, the corresponding ratio of N in achieved compost was higher than other treatments. A survey of worm growth in studied samples revealed that U (leaf 90% and food waste 10%) and Q (leaf 90% and food waste 10%) treatments superbly overcame other treatments with 266 and 253&nbsp; worms, respectively.Conclusion: Our study found that the type of raw material has a paramount importance on the compost quality, so that any change in the composition can affect the compost production process and the reproduction of worms mainly through the changes in the presence or absence of macro and micronutrients. Thus, optimization of media components, is of particular importance affecting the efficient use of capital investments and reducing the time duration of vermicomposting

Routing a quantum state in a bio-inspired network

We consider a spin network resembling an $\alpha$-helix structure and study quantum information transfer over this bio-inspired network. The model we use is the Davydov model in its elementary version without a phononic environment. We investigate analytically and numerically the perfect state transfer (PST) in such a network which provides an upper bound on the probability of quantum states transfer from one node to another. We study PST for different boundary conditions on the network and show it is reachable between certain nodes and with suitable spin-spin couplings.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figure

Breakouts derived from image logs aid the estimation of maximum horizontal stress: A case study from Perth Basin, Western Australia

 In-situ stresses are highly important for wellbore stability studies during drilling, completion and production. Different methods are available to estimate the horizontal stresses especially maximum horizontal stress. Typically, Circumferential Borehole Image Logs can be run to determine the direction and width of breakouts and then stresses at different depths based on the equation developed by Barton et al. (1988). This research focuses on image logs from Harvey-1 well located in the Southern Perth basin to compare the maximum horizontal stresses obtained by various methods. The magnitudes of stresses from the breakout width approach (Barton’s method) exhibit a considerable offset in comparison with elastic methods. Further investigations show that the likely reason for the offset relates to the fundamental assumption of the breakout width approach in which shear failures are considered to be constrained to horizontal planes. Failures within the wellbore are not necessarily horizontal and can be developed in different non-planar trajectories with various angles to the horizontal plane. Furthermore, the possible in-situ stresses from regional studies are constrained by means of stress polygons against which the reliability of results from breakout methods can be checked. Results indicate that due diligence and special care must be exercised for determination of maximum stresses from breakouts and more reliable methods are required than those currently used.Cited as: Faraji, M., Rezagholilou, A., Ghanavati, M., Kadkhodaie, A., Wood, D. A. Breakouts derived from image logs aid the estimation of maximum horizontal stress: A case study from Perth Basin, Western Australia. Advances in Geo-Energy Research, 2021, 5(1): 8-24, doi: 10.46690/ager.2021.01.0