Isolation and Identification of Rhizobacteria from Paddy Land and Their Benefit as a Biofertilizer

Biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) studies have been emphasized following the problem faced in the application of chemical nitrogen fertilizer in wetland rice cultivation. Among fertilizer inputs, nitrogen is the major limiting nutrient for crop production. Besides energy intensive, chemical nitrogen fertilizer also cause groundwater pollution. One of the approaches to alleviate this problem is by isolating the beneficial rhizobacterial from wetland rice which have the capability to fix nitrogen biologically and produce plant growth hormones, indole-3-acetic acid (1M) in vitro. The study consisted of three experiments. Experiment I was the isolation and identification of rhizobacterial strains from paddy land and their reactions toward several biochemical tests. Experiment II was the determination of 1M production by the rhizobacterial using modified colorimetric methods. Experiment III was to determine the effects of 1M production by rhizobacterial isolates on growth of rice variety MR 211, the colonization of these isolates on rice roots and nitrogenase activity of rhizobacteria through Acetylene Reduction Assay. From the isolation procedures, several strains of bacterial were isolated from the rice rhizosphere. The population of these rhizobacterial ranged from 105 to 109 cfu/mL. By using Biolog Identification System, these rhizobacterial have been identified as Corynebacterium spp., Proteus mirabilis and Spirillum spp., which showed their unique characteristics to Gram staining, pellicle formation, motility, starch hydrolysis, catalase, antibiotic test and carbohydrate fermentation with different carbon sources. The experimental results indicate that Corynebacterium spp., Proteus mirabilis and Spirillum spp. were able to produce 1M in culture medium supplemented with L-tryptophan as a precursor, which ranged between 1-10 J-lg/mL. The presence of precursor was essential for detection of 1M production by the bacteria. 1M production increased in the presence of 0.1 mg/L, 10 mg/L and 100 mg/L of precursor

P-Nilpotent completion is not idempotent

Let P be an arbitrary set ofprimes. The P-nilpotent completion ofa group G is defined by the group homomorphism η : G → GP where GP = invlim(G/ΓiG)P . Here Γ2G is the commutator subgroup [G, G] and ΓiG the subgroup [G, Γi−1G] when i > 2. In this paper, we prove that P-nilpotent completion ofan infinitely generated free group F does not induce an isomorphism on the first homology group with ZP coefficients. Hence, P-nilpotent completion is not idempotent. Another important consequence of the result in homotopy theory (as in [4]) is that any infinite wedge ofcircles is R-bad, where R is any subring ofrationals

Production of Hepatitis B Viral Antigens and Antibodies using Phage Display Technology for the Development of a Diagnostic Test

Hepatitis B is one of the most common infectious diseases in the world. It is caused by the hepatitis B virus (HBV) which is estimated to infect more than one third of the world's population and there are about 400 million carriers of HBV worldwide. The infection can now be prevented through immunization with a vaccine based on the surface antigen (HBsAg) produced in yeast by genetic engineering. In order to provide additional means to control the disease, rapid, easier and cheaper diagnostic assay have been developed using phage display technology in these studies. From the present studies, bacteriophage T7 was employed to display the immune dominant region of S-HBsAg, amino acid residues 1 1 1-1 56, on the exterior of the phage particles. The expressed immune dominant region of S-HBsAg remained antigenic and it was displayed on the coat protein of the recombinant phage particle, T7-HBsAglll-lj6, which has the potential to be used as an immunological reagent for the detection of anti-HBsAg antibody in human serum samples at as low as 0.25 mIUIml. In addition, the hsion phage also applied on dotblot for detection of anti-HBsAg antibody. However, the sensitivity of this assay is low as compared to ELISA method. A phage heptapeptide random library was used to identify peptide ligands that interact with HBsAg. From the third round of panning, 75% of phages screened carried the peptide sequence C-ETGAKPH-C which is the most frequently identified phage clones in this round. The phage clone was characterized and a cyclic synthetic peptide bearing the identical peptide sequence was synthesized. The phage was able to compete with anti-HBsAg monoclonal antibody as well as the synthetic peptide for the binding site on HBsAg. The optimum pH and temperature for phage binding was around 4 to 8 and 4"C, respectively. An equilibrium binding assay in solution showed that the phage binds tightly to HBsAg with a relative dissociation constant (KC') of 2.9 f 0.9 nM, illustrating that the phage bearing ETGAKPH has the potential to be used as a diagnostic reagent for detecting HBsAg in human sera. As a preliminary effort to study the detection of HBcAg in the serum samples, single chain variable fragment (scfv) of anti-HBcAg antibody library was constructed by fusion to gpIII protein of bacteriophage M13, which allows for the display of the fusion protein (scfv) at the tip of the filament. Truncated HBcAg was inoculated into female BalbIC mice before the antibody and spleen cells were harvested for the construction of library. Multiple reactions of PCR were carried out, and the size of the antibody library was 2.18 x lo7 cfidml. This library was further panned against HBcAg to get the specific phage clone that interacts with HBcAg. The phage clone with higher absorbance value was further rescued by helper phage M13K07, and the phagemid was digested to determine the insert of scfi. In this study, a phage-ELISA assay was established and the minimum amount of HBcAg that can be detected was about 10 ng with 1.0 x 1 012 pfidml of purified fusion phage. This hsion phage scfv showed a promising result for the detection of HBcAg in the human treated serum samples. In conclusion, development of phage-ELISA for the detection of anti-HBsAg antibody, HBsAg and HBcAg based on phage display can be an alternative choice to reduce the cost of detection kits. This study also provides a model in the development of diagnostic test for the detection of other biological samples based upon phage display technology

Nutrition Education Modules for Nurses

This paper proposes five nutrition modules for nurses in Michigan Medicine Adult Emergency Services. These modules will be 1) basic nutrition (macro and micronutrients), 2) consistent carbohydrate diet, 3) cardiac and low sodium diet, 4) renal diet, and 5) dysphagia diet. The objectives of this project are to provide a basic understanding of nutrition and special diets, enhance patient care, reduce the order of non-compliant food items from patients, and minimize the delay in obtaining a meal tray. The methods of each module include develop the Microsoft Power Point presentation slides with voice recording, a short interactive activity and a quiz with ten to fifteen multiple-choice questions will be provided to assess the learner’s competency on the module. The learning objectives of each module are clearly defined. Figures and tables are utilized throughout the modules to help the learners better understand the contents. An ordering guide for complex diet such as cardiac and renal will be created. Lastly, this paper includes an example of the Microsoft Power Point Slides and the quiz for the module of dysphagia diet

Epstein-Barr virus-associated malignancies:Susceptibility factors and molecular detection in liquid biopsies

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infects &gt;90% of the world’s population and leads to the development of Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) and nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) in a low percentage of  individuals. In addition, uncontrolled growth of EBV infected B cells can cause post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorder {PTLD) in patients treated with immunosuppressive drugs following organ transplant. The main aims of this thesis are to explore i) risk factors of HL and NPC, and ii) biomarkers in NPC, HL and PTLD. Several human leukocyte antigen (HLA) alleles have been associated with susceptibility to HL and NPC. We identified novel NPC-associated HLA-alleles in the high-risk Bidayuh minority population from Malaysia. We also showed that loss or retention of HLA expression by tumor cells is associated with a subset of known protective or risk alleles in both HL and NPC. These data suggest that the susceptibility effects of HLA alleles are early events in pathogenesis, while the pressure on tumor cells to downregulate HLA is most likely related to emerging immune responses later on.With plasma or nasal washing derived EBV DNA, we could detect NPC disease activity with high sensitivity. Chromosomal copy number variations were detected in cell-free DNA of &gt;50% of HL and PTLD patients. Targeted sequencing of EBV demonstrated 100% sensitivity in detecting disease in EBV-positive HL and PTLD patients. These findings suggest that measuring  cell-free biomarkers in liquid biopsies has clinical value in detecting disease activity in NPC, HL and PTLD.<br/

Non-Taylor series based positioning method for location based services

Location Based Services (LBS) has gained increasing popularity in major cities. Due to blocking from man-made structures, the existing Global Positioning System (GPS) could not satisfy LBS applications, especially in street canyon and indoor surroundings. This has lead to the development of Assisted GPS (A-GPS) which can provide better service availability and accuracy gain. In the conventional positioning method, Taylor series expansion is applied to solve non-linear distance equations. This method requires an initial estimation of A-GPS receiver’s position. This paper investigates the positioning method for LBS based on hybrid E-OTD/GNSS. The proposed positioning method is non-Taylor series based. Therefore, it involves less complicated mathematical expansion and substitution. A flexible LBS positioning tool is developed which can generate position information in convenient way. It supports both Taylor series and non-Taylor series based positioning methods. The obtained results showed that the proposed non-Taylor series based positioning method can achieve better positioning accuracy

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

A comparative analysis of preservation of functional food cultures by freeze-drying, liquid-drying and freezing methods

There are various methods for long term preservation of microorganisms, including freeze-drying (F-drying), liquid-drying (L-drying), and freezing at -80°C or at -196°C. All these methods have been developed and used to avoid degeneration and mutation of strains. L-drying involves vacuum drying of samples from the liquid state without freezing, and it is known to be useful for the preservation of microorganisms that are sensitive to freeze-drying. In this study, all types of functional food cultures were preserved by three methods: freeze-drying, liquid-drying and freezing at -20°C, -80°C and -196°C. The viability and stability of each culture was examined at different stages: before preservation, and six months after preservation storage. This study demonstrated that there were more than 80% of preserved cultures managed to grow after six months of storage in all methods. The success of long term preservation was always depends on the growth rate and desiccation tolerance of the microorganism itself. However, growth media and protective agent also play very important role in viability and stability of the cultures