Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Metabolite Accumulation During m-Cresol Degradation by Aquatic Bacteria

CLAIRE CAUGHEY MOST. Metabolite Accumulation during mCresol Degradation by Aquatic Bacteria. (Under the Direction of DR. FREDERIC K. PFAENDER) The accumulation of metabolites in the aqueous phase was measured during studies of m-cresol biodegradation with natural water samples. 14C-m-cresol was separated from radiolabeled products remaining in the aqueous filtrates using HPLC. In heterotrophic activity studies, which involve short-term incubations (< 24 h), metabolite accumulation accounted for only a small fraction of the radiolabeled m-cresol originally added. After longer incubations characteristic of die-away studies, metabolite accumulation accounted for as much as 30% of the label originally added. The nature of metabolite accumulation varied, and appeared to reflect differences in the initial environmental samples. Sometimes no metabolite accumulation was detected. One time, a few products accumulated and they were less polar than m-cresol. At other times, many different products accumulated and they were more polar than m-cresol. When metabolite accumulation occurred, it was greater in samples receiving 960 ug/1 m-cresol than 120 ug/1 m-cresol. No one metabolite accumulated consistantly to a level greater than 5% of the radiolabel originally injected.
Acute Toxicity Study and Comparative effect of Kigelia Pinnata (Cucumber Tree) Ethanolic leaf extract on Serum Lipid profile of Albino Wistarrats treated fat diet.

The aim of this study was designed to evaluate the activity of the Kigelia Pinnata ethanolic leaf extract on the serum lipid profile of male albino Wistar rats exposed to a fat diet. Kigelia Pinnata leaves were obtained, air dried, powdered and extracted in a Soxhlet apparatusin 400ml ethanol solution. Hypolipidaemic activity studies on rat models fed with palm oil and coconut milk was conducted. The acute toxicity test of the extract was carried out by the lorke's method. Results showed that Kigelia Pinnata ethanolic leaf extract significantly lowered (P<0.05) plasma Total Cholesterol (TC), Low Density Lipoprotein (LDL)-Cholesterol and Triacylglycerol (TG) and significantly (P<0.05) increased plasma High Density Lipoprotein (HDL)-Cholesterol. Toxicity studies suggested that, the extract was safe at the doze 2000mg/kg. Overall findings from this study showed that the ethanolic extract exhibited hypolipidaemic activity and may possess cardio-protective properties.
Certificateless Public Integrity Checking of Group Shared Data on Cloud Storage

Cloud storage service supplies people with an efficient method to share data within a group. The cloud server is not trustworthy, so lots of remote data possession checking (RDPC) protocols are proposed and thought to be an effective way to ensure the data integrity. However, most of RDPC protocols are based on the mechanism of traditional public key infrastructure (PKI), which has obvious security flaw and bears big burden of certificate management. To avoid this shortcoming, identity-based cryptography (IBC) is often chosen to be the basis of RDPC. Unfortunately, IBC has an inherent drawback of key escrow. To solve these problems, we utilize the technique of certificateless signature to present a new RDPC protocol for checking the integrity of data shared among a group. In our scheme, user's private key includes two parts: a partial key generated by the group manager and a secret value chosen by herself/himself. To ensure the right public keys are chosen during the data integrity checking, the public key of each user is associated with her unique identity, for example the name or telephone number. Thus, the certificate is not needed and the problem of key escrow is eliminated too. Meanwhile, the data integrity can still be audited by public verifier without downloading the whole data. In addition, our scheme also supports efficient user revocation from the group. The security of our scheme is reduced to the assumptions of computational Diffie-Hellman (CDH) and discrete logarithm (DL). Experiment results exhibit that the new protocol is very efficient and feasible.
A Fast Factorization Method

Integer factorization is one of the mathematical aspects which are largely applied in our daily activities. One of the situations where factoring is applied is in cryptography which is the treasured portion of e-commerce systems. Due improved encryption currently banking institutions, business firms, government institutions, online merchants and many other groups and individuals are using e-commerce platform to send and receive confidential information such as transferring money. Cryptography enhances the integrity and authenticity of the data and communication between legit by assigning specific private keys to participants. The keys are generated by factorizing a large number, and they can only be decrypted by the assigned individuals only. The number under quest is large enough such that finding their factors which are the keys takes a lot of time and becomes costly than the information encrypted by those keys especially when using the old Trial Division method. Therefore it has been a concern of researchers to come up with a better method of finding the Keys.
Evaluation of second osmotic virial coefficients from molecular simulation following scaled-particle theory

ABSTRACT We report a scaled particle theory-based method for evaluation of second osmotic virial coefficients from molecular simulations of dilute species in solution. In this method, we evaluate the work associated with growing a cavity in solution that is perfectly permeable to the solvent but is completely impermeable to the solutes, thereby establishing an osmotic stress between the cavity interior and exterior. Extrapolating our results to determine the solute concentration in contact with a cavity with an infinite radius, we are able to evaluate the solute osmotic pressure and second osmotic virial coefficient. A finite size correction is introduced to account for the impact of effectively concentrating the solutes in the periphery of the simulation box with increasing cavity size. We demonstrate the utility of the proposed method by evaluating second osmotic virial coefficients for methane in water as a function of temperature. The approach proposed here provides a physically transparent route for calculation of second osmotic virial coefficients by direct interrogation of simulation configurations without having to explicitly evaluate the long-range integral over solute-solute correlations required following McMillan-Mayer theory.
GH70 dextransucases : Insights on the molecular determinants of dextran molar mass control

Glucansucrases (GS) from glycoside hydrolase family 70 (GH70) are -transglucosylases produced by lactic acid bacteria. From sucrose, an economical and abundant agro resource, they catalyze the polymerization of glucosyl residues. Depending on the enzyme specificity, α-glucans vary in terms of size, types of glucosidic bonds and degree of branching and have found multiple industrial applications mainly related to their molar mass (MM). However synthesizing polymers of controlled size with average MM ranging from 1 kg/mol to several millions g/mol and low polydispersity using one single enzyme remains challenging. Indeed, the molecular mechanisms underpinning the control of polymer size have been scarcely explored. To tackle this question, two GSs producing dextran (glucan composed of a majority of α-(1,6) linkages) were selected, and their mode of action explored via biochemical and structural analyses coupled to mutagenesis. The first enzyme selected, called DSR-M synthesizes only low molar mass (LMM) dextran (28 kg/mol) exclusively composed of -(1→6) linkages without any trace of HMM dextran (105 to 108 g/mol). In contrast, DSR-OK (second model), produces the highest MM dextran (>109 g/mol) described to date. Several 3D crystallographic structures of a truncated form of DSR-M (DSR-M2), either free or in complex with its substrate or product (isomaltotetraose) in the domain V or in the active site were solved. Such complexes were never obtained before. Noteworthy, one structure encompassed the most complete domain V reported to date. Analyses of these structures coupled to dextran synthesis monitoring, showed that the LMM dextran specificity of DSR-M2 is explained by a distributive elongation mode due to the weak affinity of its two sugar binding pockets in the domain V which interact with the growing dextran chains and allow the synthesis of dextran longer than 16 kg/mol. 15N1H NMR analyses (HSQC), for the first time performed with such a big protein, further revealed the crucial role of aromatic residues in the catalytic domain for the production of dextran from 2 to 16 kg/mol. In comparison, synthesis of HMM dextran by DSR-OK was shown to be mainly due to the sugar binding pockets of its domain V, ensuring much stronger interactions with growing dextran chains. The role of these pockets was evidenced for both enzymes, their functionality proposed to be linked to the presence of one aromatic stacking residue. Their positioning along domain V relatively to the active site is also important to promote efficient binding. All these findings highlight the cooperation between domain V and the catalytic domain for dextran elongation, offer new perspectives to acquire a deeper knowledge on this interplay and open promising strategies for GH70 enzyme engineering aiming at modulating glucan size.
Cyclo(L-Pro-L-Tyr) from Streptomyces sp. 150: Exploiting in vitro Potential in Controlling Foodborne Pathogens and Phytopathogens

In the prokaryotic unicellular bacteria, Streptomyces species are the most frequent producers of bioactive secondary metabolites. Our continuous quest for new antibiotics from Actinomycetes genera put us forward for isolation of a strain Streptomyces sp. 150 from the soil samples collected at the Daegu University premises in Korea. The aims of this study was to isolate and identify bioactive compounds from the isolated microorganism and assess the efficacy of the compounds in controlling foodborne pathogens and phytopathogens. The isolated bacterium was characterized by the taxonomic analyses and a compound was isolated from the fermentation broth by applying different chromatographic techniques e.g. column chromatography, TLC and PTLC. The structure of the compound was established by UV, IR, 1H-NMR and 13C-NMR spectral data analyses. The antibacterial and antifungal efficacy of the compound was assessed by disc diffusion assay, poisoned food technique, MIC determination and SEM analysis. Different chromatographic techniques resulted in isolation and purification of a secondary metabolite from the fermentation broth of Streptomyces sp. 150. The analyses of the spectroscopic data identified the compound as cyclo(L-Pro-L-Tyr). The compound exhibited potential efficacy in controlling all the seven foodborne pathogenic bacteria with corresponding inhibition zone and minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) ranging from 15.1 to 20.1 mm and 15.6 to 62.5 μg/mL respectively, and tested phytopathogenic fungi with mycelium growth inhibition varying from 57.1 to 68.5% and MIC from 125 to 250 μg/mL. Moreover, in scanning electron microscopy, morphological changes in Listeria monocytogenes ATCC 19166 at MIC dose of compound was observed. This study demonstrated the possibility to use the compound cyclo(L-Pro-L-Tyr) in food and agrochemical industries to control foodborne pathogens and phytopathogens.
Environmental mobility and geochemical partitioning of Fe, Mn, Co, Ni and Mo in sediments of an urban river

Environmental mobility and geochemical partitioning of iron (Fe), manganese (Mn), cobalt (Co), nickel (Ni) and molybdenum (Mo) were examined in sediments collected from the whole old Nakagawa river (NR), Tokyo, Japan. A combined 6- step sequential extraction procedure was employed for the partitioning of the metals and the concentrations were measured in the liquid extracts by atomic absorption spectrophotometry (AAS) and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). The observed order of potential mobility of metals in the aquatic system of NR was: Ni > Co > Mo > Mn > Fe. The association of Co, Ni and Mo (26.6-30.5; 23.2-38.5 and 19.0-40.1% of total, respectively) were found highest with amorphous Fe oxyhydroxide phase, and the maximum fraction of Fe and Mn were in silicates and residual phase. The normalization of the concentrations of metals using Al as a conservative element confirmed that most of the sampling stations of NR were enriched with Ni, Mo and Mn. Geoaccumulation index (Igeo) values for most of the sites have higher for Ni and Mo. Environmental risk of metals were also evaluated by using risk assessment code (RAC) and found medium risk for Ni, Mo, Co and Mn. Key words: Mobility, partitioning, pollution, metals, sediment.
New Limonoids from Dictyoloma vandellianum and Sohnreyia excelsa: Chemosystematic Considerations

Molecular phylogenetic studies separated and united a group of genera that constituted the Spathelia-Ptaeroxylon clade, in which Dictyoloma and Sohnreyia have been included. Our taxonomic interest in the Dictyoloma vandellianum and Sohnreyia excelsa stimulated an investigation of both species searching for limonoids. Leaves from D. vandellianum afforded the new limonoid 1,2-dihydro-1α-hydroxy-8,30-epoxy-cneorin R, and heartwood yielded the new rearranged limonoid dictyolomin. Leaves from S. excelsa afforded the new protolimonoid 3β-angeloyloxy-7α,24,25-trihydroxy-21,23-oxide-14,18-cycloapotirucall-21-methoxycetal and the new cycloheptanyl ring C limonoid with carbonate substituent and named as sohnreyolide. The new limonoids from Sohnreyia and Dictyoloma show similarities with those from Rutaceae and Meliaceae, providing support for moving Spathelia-Ptaeroxylon clade near to these associated large families.
Thiol/disulphide homeostasis in Helicobacter pylori infected patients

Objectives: The aim of the study was to evaluate the oxidative stress level in patients, diagnosed with Helicobacter pylori infection, using a novel marker (thiol/ disulphide homeostasis) and to compare the level in infected individuals with that in healthy volunteers. Methods: A total of 60 patients diagnosed with gastritis, erosive gastritis or ulcer by endoscopy were included and biopsied. The 30 patients diagnosed with H. pylori and 30 healthy individuals were enrolled. Medical histories, physical examination results, body mass index (BMI), hemogram, free triiodothyronine (FT3), free thyroxine (FT4), thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), urea, creatinin, aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), albumin, total cholesterol, triglycerides , high density lipoprotein (HDL), low density lipoprotein) LDL and thiol/disulphide levels obtained in the study groups were compared. Results: There was no significant difference between the total thiol , native thiol , di sulphide /native thiol a nd dis sulphide /total thiol ratios of the patient and control group. When the H . pylori patients were stratified by endoscopic evaluation as having mild (superficial gastritis or normal appearance) or severe (ulcer or erosive areas) symptoms, there were significant differences in disulphide, disulphide /native thiol, disulphide/ total thiol and native thiol / total thiol levels . We also observed BMI and the total, native thiol levels of H. pylori patients were inversely related. ( r: 0.562, p = 0.001; r: 0.0552, p = 0.002). Conclusions: Thiol/disulphide homeostasis is likely to differ with both duration and severity of H. pylori infection. Further investigations are needed to investigate the effect of H. pylori on oxidative stress.
Biochemical Indices and Haematological Studies of Ethyl Acetate Extract of Persea americana Leaf in Albino Rats

The aim of this present study was to evaluate the effect of ethyl acetate extract of P. americana (avocado) on liver and kidney function, lipid profile as well as haematological parameters in albino rats. A total of 20 albino rats were used for this experiment and they were divided into four groups of 5 (A-D) rats each. Group A served as normal control, group B-D served as experimental groups administered with 100, 200 and 400 mg/kg body weight of ethyl acetate extract of Persea americana leaf per day for 4 weeks respectively. This study was conducted in the Department of Biochemistry, Bayero University, Kano, in the month of May, 2018. Liver function test (colorimetric method), kidney indices and lipid profile (spectrophotometry method), and hematological examination (SYSMEX XE-2000) were analysed. Administration of ethyl acetate extract did not produced significant effect on liver and kidney indices in all the treated groups. The extract significantly (P=.05) decrease total cholesterol, triglyceride, low density lipoprotein and very low density lipoprotein in all the treated groups. Haematological parameters analysed were not significantly affected in all the treated groups. Thus, ethyl acetate extract of P. americana leaf possesses hypolipidemic potentials and relatively safe for kidney, liver and hematological indices but extremely high doses may not be advisable.
Effect of Time on Disinfection of Gutta-Percha Cones with Sodium Hypochlorite: Experimental Research

The success of endodontic treatment is to eliminate as much bacteria as possible, reaching a point where the organism is able to remain free of the infectious process. Gutta-percha cones are one of the most biocompatible dental materials, not interfering in the repair process that occurs after obturation, are the most used means in obturation of the root canal and, therefore, responsible for preventing microorganisms from penetrating in the root canal after obturation initiating a new infectious process. The objective of the present study was to investigate the efficacy of sodium hypochlorite in the concentration of 2.5% in the decontamination of gutta-percha cones contaminated with microorganisms after their manipulation. Contaminated cones were treated by immersion in 2.5% sodium hypochlorite solution for 2, 3, 4 and 5 minutes and rinsed with sterile distilled water. The treated cones were inserted into Petri dishes with the culture medium nutrient agar to verify the existence and proliferation of microorganisms. The sodium hypochlorite solution after the 4 minute exposure period eliminated all microorganisms, making the cones safe for use.
Exploiting Reconfigurable Antennas in Communication Systems with Delay-Sensitive Applications

Exploiting Reconfigurable Antennas in Communication Systems with Delay-Sensitive Applications. (December 2011) Eman Mahmoud Hammad, B.S., University of Jordan Chair of Advisory Committee: Jean-Francois Chamberland Wireless communication systems continue to face the challenge of time varying quality of the underlying communication channel. When a slow fading channel goes into a deep fade, the corresponding communication system might face successive decoding failures at the destination, and for delay-sensitive communication systems, this amounts to delays that are not desired. In such situations, it becomes a priority to get out of the deep fades. Many techniques and approaches are already available in the literature to counteract fading effects. This work is motivated by recent advances in fast reconfigurable antennas, which provide new means to change the statistical profile of fading channels, and hence reduce the probability of prolonged fades. Fast reconfigurable antennas are poised to improve overall performance, especially for delay-sensitive traffic in slow-fading environments. This potential enhanced performance motivates this study of the queueing behavior of point-to-point communication systems with reconfigurable antennas. We focus on finite-state channels with memory, and we analyze the queueing behavior of the wireless communication system over erasure channels, for a traditional system versus a reconfigurable antenna implementation. We provide numerical results for situations where using reconfigurable antennas yield substantial performance gains in terms of throughput, delay and buffer overflow.
Metal-free mechanochemical oxidations in Ertalyte® jars

Aimed at eliminating or at least significantly reducing the use of solvents, sodium hypochlorite pentahydrate crystals (NaOCl·5H2O) in the presence of a catalytic amount of a nitrosyl radical (TEMPO or AZADO) have been successfully used to induce mechanochemical oxidative processes on several structurally different primary and secondary alcohols. The proposed redox process is safe, inexpensive and performing effectively, especially on the macroscale. Herein, an Ertalyte® jar has been successfully used, for the first time, in a mechanochemical process.
Human keloid cultured fibroblasts irradiated with blue LED light: evidence from an in vitro study

Keloids are an exuberant response to cutaneous wound healing, characterized by an exaggerated synthesis of collagen probably due to the increase of fibroblasts activity and their proliferation rate. Currently, there are not definitive treatments or pharmacological therapies able to prevent keloid formation and its recurrence. In the last years, physical treatments have been proposed and among them the photobiomodulation therapy. In this work, the effects of Blue LED light (410-430 nm wavelength, 0.69 W/cm2 power density, 5÷60s treatment time) were evaluated on seven boundary keloid tissues by using two different colorimetric assays. Micro-Raman spectroscopy was used to explore direct effects of the Blue LED light on the endogenous cellular redox system and in particular to probe any variation in the oxidation state of the photosensitive heme-protein Cytochrome C (Cyt C) upon irradiation. We also investigated the effects of Blue LED light on membrane currents correlated to cell cycle modulation by patch-clamp recordings. Twenty-four hours after irradiation, a significant reduction of cell metabolism and proliferation was observed. The decrease in cell metabolism was maintained up to 48 hours when we found also an increased reduction in cell proliferation. Electrophysiological recordings showed an enhancement of voltage-dependent outward currents elicited by a depolarizing ramp protocol after a 30s irradiation. Data indicates that Blue LED light irradiation directly affects human keloid fibroblasts: it possesses a long lasting inhibitory effect on cell metabolism and proliferation whereas acutely increases membrane currents. Similar responses were obtained in our recent works conducted on human keloid tissues. The proposed photomodulation treatment by using Blue LED light represents a non-invasive approach in the management of hypertrophic scars and keloids.
In vivo lifetimes of the three color-sectors in bioluminescence emissions of the firefly Luciola praeusta at different temperatures

Abstract Bioluminescence emissions from fireflies have been well-studied for over a century. From the apparent features of the emitted light, conclusions have been drawn and hypotheses put forward on the characteristics of the highly efficient light emitting system. The basic emitter oxyluciferin, being chemically unstable, is difficult to study in isolation and, therefore, its analogs have been prepared and analyzed. In this letter, the lifetimes of the excited-state emitter oxyluciferin are measured, and an inference is drawn on the chemiluminescence reaction in vivo. The light from the Indian species of firefly Luciola praeusta contains three color-sectors: green, yellow, and red, and hence three optical filters are used to study time-resolved emissions from these sectors at different temperatures. All the three color-sectors are observed to be temperature sensitive in the time domain. An exponential variation of lifetime with temperature is observed for the emissions in these three regions.