Judul: Pengaruh Pupuk Fosfor dan Pengapuran (CaCO3) terhadap Pertumbuhan Semai Balsa (Ochroma sp.) pada Tanah Podsolik Darmaga (Dystrudept) serta Pembuatan Kurva Buffer
Abstrak: Tanah Podsolik merupakan salah satu jenis tanali mineral yang banyak digunakan sebagai media tumbuh (tersebar paling luas di Indonesia yaitu sekitar 38.401 juta ha (Hakim el al., 1986)). Namuu kendalanya adalali tanah ini umumnya bereaksi masam, kompleks adsorpsi didominasi oleli Al dan 11 dengao tiogkar kesuburan yang rendali. Pemanfaatan kayu Balsa (Ochroma sp.) dewasa ini semakin berkembang sejalan dengan ketmajuan industri perkayuan yang semakin meningkat. Kayu Balsa ini banyak digunakan sebagai isolator panas, suara, dan getaran, alat-alat olali raga, pelampung kapal, balian pelindung barang penting yang terbuat dari keramik dan gelas serta bahan baku pulp serat pendek.
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Judul: Pengaruh pemberian kapur (CaCO3) dan pemupukan dengan unsur kalium (KCl) pada tanah podsolik Darmaga terhadap semai sengon (Paraserianthes falcataria (L) Nielsen) serta pembuatan kurva buffer
Abstrak: Tanah Ultisol (Podsolik) merupakan salah satu jenis tanah mineral yang banyak digunakan sebagai media tumbuh bibit. Hal ini terjadi karena jenis tanah tersebut tersebar cukup luas di Indonesia. Kelemahan tanah Ultisol sebagai media tumbuh adalah karena tanah ini umumnya bereaksi sangat masam (Supraptohardjo, 1974). Oleh karena itu untuk menaikkan pertumbuhan bibit tanaman diperlukan media tumbuh yang baik bagi tanaman. Untuk menciptakan media tumbuh yang baik tersebut diperlukan pupuk yang mengandung zat bereaksi basa seperti Kalium (K). Salah satu jenis pupuk yang mengandung unsur Kalium adalah pupuk KCI. Untuk memperbaiki kesuburan tanah akibat keasaman tanah dan adanya kelarutan unsur Al, Fe dan Mn pada umumnya dilakukan pengapuran. Dengan kegiatan pengapuran diharapkan kisaran pH akan mendekati normal yang cocok untuk ketersediaan unsur hara dan pertumbuhan tanaman pada umumnya. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui pengaruh pemupukan Kalium dan pengapuran pada pertumbuhan semai sengon (P.falcataria) dan pembuatan Kurva Buffer untuk tanah Podsolik Darmaga. Metode penelitian yang digunakan adalah Rancangan Faktorial (3×4) dengan 10 kali pengulangan. Pemberian kapur kalsit (CaCO3) dapat meningkatkan pertumbuhan semai sampai dosis A (1.5 gram/polybag) dengan peningkatan pertumbuhan tinggi sebesar 18.18% dan pertumbuhan diameter sebesar 8.57% dibanding kontrol. Kemudian cenderung menurun pada dosis 3 dan 4.5 gram/polybag dengan penurunan tinggi sebesar 9.16% dan 20.30% dan penurunan diameter sebesar 13.9% dan 20.68%. Hal ini disebabkan karena pada saat pH mendekati netral, tanaman dapat leluasa tumbuh dengan baik tanpa mendapat gangguan akibat unsur-unsur tosik yang timbul akibat kemasaman tanah. Pemberian pupuk KCI dapat meningkatkan pertumbuhan semai sampai dosis B, (0.2 gram/polybag) dengan peningkatan pertumbuhan diameter sebesar 21.4% dan penurunan pertumbuhan jumlah panjang daun sebesar 0.13%. Fungsi kalium yaitu memberikan pengaruh terhadap pembentukan protein dan karbohidrat dan mengeraskan bagian kayu dari tanaman sehingga pertumbuhan diameter batang meningkat (Sarief, 1985).
Keyword: Plant growth regulators

Judul: Seroprevalence of Chikungunya and The Risk of Transmission Transmitted Among Blood Donors In Sulawesi-Indonesia
Abstrak: Chikungunya (CHIK) is an arthritogenic alphavirus in the Togaviridae family of arboviruses with an enveloped RNA containing a positive single-stranded 11.8 kb genome. Transmission occurs through the bite of infected Aedes mosquitoes, which are commonly found in tropical and temperate regions. Primary vertebrate hosts include monkeys and humans, in whom this virus replicates efficiently (Diallo et al. 1999). Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is known for causing acute illness, manifesting with fever, rash, and arthralgia known as Chikungunya fever (Horwood dan Buchy 2015). Despite the high number of Chikungunya cases in Indonesia, comprehensive data are lacking in CHIKV seroprevalence. Previous studies reported the median seroprevalence of anti-CHIKV antibodies in all situations 18.5%, ranging from 0.0 – 73.% (Harapan et al., 2019). However, the gap in epidemiological data of CHIKV in many regions of Indonesia including Sulawesi, is noteworthy. The objective of this study was to determine the seroprevalence of CHIKV infection among healthy individuals from North and South Sulawesi using archive samples. Additionally, an asymptomatic course of CHIKV infection and the high pre-symptomatic viral load as 108pfu/mL (Appassakij et al. 2013) suggest that the infection can threaten blood transfusion safety. Evidence of CHIKV infection among blood donors (Simmons et al. 2016) indicates transfusion-transmitted is probable, although it has not been documented (Petersen dan Epstein 2014). Our study also aimed to test the archive blood donor specimens from North Sulawesi for CHIKV IgM and viremia to determine blood safety in endemic areas. Samples were screened for anti-CHIKV IgG antibodies to determine exposure to CHIKV using an in-house IgG ELISA as previously described (Kosasih et al. 2013) with minor modifications. CHIKV IgM, a marker for recent infection and endemicity, was tested in 303 samples randomly selected from IgG-positive samples using a Euroimmun anti-CHIKV IgM ELISA kit (Luebeck, Germany) following the manufacturer’s instructions. CHIKV RNA detection was carried out using one-step-qRT-PCR. The data generated were analyzed with IBM-SPSS v20 (IBM Corporation, USA). Chi-square (χ2) test to determine significant differences between categorical variables, and a p-value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. As many as 1092 serum and plasma samples were analyzed, with CHIK IgG seropositivity at 53.48% (584/1092). The results also show a statistically significant difference in the seropositive rates based on gender (58.8% male and 48.5% female) and region (53.9% South Sulawesi versus 48.7% North Sulawesi). Seropositivity increased with age; approximately half of adults between their 40s and 60s had seroconverted. Most of the participants, 304 (27.8%), were between 21-30 years. The age groups with the least participants were those >60 years and <20 years, with 93 participants each (8.5%), followed by the 51–60-years age group with 142 (13.0%) participants. In addition to IgG, the overall anti-CHIKV IgM seropositivity comprised 12.9% (39/303). A Chi-square analysis shows a statistical significance of anti-CHIKV IgM seropositivity based on gender and region with p-values (p=0.047 and p=0.038, respectively). On the contrary, there was no significant difference in anti-CHIK IgM based on age. The age group with the most participants was the 21-30 years with 19.3% (16/83), while those with the least participants were those >60 years. The current study
Keyword: Chikungunya, Serosurvey, Sulawesi, Blood donors, ELISA, qRT-PCR.