Abstract: Portugal is an important wine and olive oil producer, activities which generate a high quantity of residues commonly called grape stalks and olive cake, respectively. In this work grape stalks and olive cake were used as lignocellulosic adsorbents for wastewater containing lead treatment. To attain a better knowledge of the factors that could influence the quality of the treated wastewater, a chemical characterization of the materials used in the treatment was done. To access the ecotoxicological safety of the treated wastewater, several tests were performed.
The results of the toxicity test show that the samples leachate has a mild effect on the living models tested. The tests performed in lemna and bacteria were the most sensible to toxicity effects of the samples. The results obtained in this work evidenced the importance of use of simple and fast toxicity tests to predict impacts in the environment.
Abstract: Protein kinases participate in a myriad of cellular
processes of major biomedical interest. The in vivo substrate
specificity of these enzymes is a process determined by several
factors, and despite several years of research on the topic, is still
far from being totally understood. In the present work, we have
quantified the contributions to the kinase substrate specificity of
i) the phosphorylation sites and their surrounding residues in the
sequence and of ii) the association of kinases to adaptor or scaffold
proteins. We have used position-specific scoring matrices (PSSMs),
to represent the stretches of sequences phosphorylated by 93 families
of kinases. We have found negative correlations between the number
of sequences from which a PSSM is generated and the statistical
significance and the performance of that PSSM. Using a subset
of 22 statistically significant PSSMs, we have identified specificity
determinant residues (SDRs) for 86% of the corresponding kinase
families. Our results suggest that different SDRs can function as
positive or negative elements of substrate recognition by the different
families of kinases. Additionally, we have found that human proteins
with known function as adaptors or scaffolds (kAS) tend to interact
with a significantly large fraction of the substrates of the kinases to
which they associate. Based on this characteristic we have identified
a set of 279 potential adaptors/scaffolds (pAS) for human kinases,
which is enriched in Pfam domains and functional terms tightly
related to the proposed function. Moreover, our results show that
for 74.6% of the kinase–pAS association found, the pAS colocalize
with the substrates of the kinases they are associated to. Finally, we
have found evidence suggesting that the association of kinases to
adaptors and scaffolds, may contribute significantly to diminish the
in vivo substrate crossed-specificity of protein kinases. In general, our
results indicate the relevance of several SDRs for both the positive
and negative selection of phosphorylation sites by kinase families and
also suggest that the association of kinases to pAS proteins may be
an important factor for the localization of the enzymes with their set
of substrates.
Abstract: Waste of certain process can be the input source of
other sectors in order to reduce environmental pollution. Today there
are more and more solid wastes are generated, but only very small
amount of those are recycled. So, the threatening of environmental
pressure to public health is very serious. The methods considered for
the treatment of solid waste are biogas tanks or processing to make
animal feed and fertilizer, however, they did not perform well. An
alternative approach is growing mushrooms on waste residues. This
is regarded as an environmental friendly solution with potential
economical benefit. The substrate producers do their best to produce
quality substrate at low cost. Apart from other methods, this can be
achieved by employing biologically degradable wastes used as the
resource material component of the substrate. Mushroom growing is
a significant tool for the restoration, replenishment and remediation
of Earth’s overburdened ecosphere. One of the rational methods of
waste utilization involves locally available wastes. The present study
aims to find out the yield of mushroom grown on locally available
waste for free and to conserve our environment by recycling wastes.
Abstract: Today, preservation of the historical constructions in "single construction" scale creates an inadequate preservation model in terms of the integrity of the historical environment in which they are located. However, in order to preserve these structures forming this integrity with a holistic approach, the structures either need to continue their unique functions or to be reshaped for function conforming to today's comfort conditions brought by the modern life.
In this work, the preservation of Ayazma Social Complex located in Ayazma Neighborhood of Üsküdar, one of the most important historical districts of İstanbul, with integrated preservation method has been discussed. In the conventional Turkish architecture, the social complex is a structure complex formed via constructing the public buildings required for the daily life of the people living in a settlement. Thus, the preservation of the social complexes within the scope of "integrated preservation" has gained importance. Ayazma Social Complex that forms the examination area of this work consists of a mosque in its center and structures around this mosque such as sultan mansion, time assignment center, primary school, stores, bath and water reservoirs. Mosque, sultan mansion and the water reservoirs survived to today as mostly preserved status. However, time assignment center, primary school and the stores didn't survive to today and new structures were built on their plots. The bath was mostly damaged and only the wall residues survive to today. Thus, it's urgent and crucial especially carry out the preservation restoration of the bath in accordance with integrated preservation principles. The preservation problems of the bath based on the social complex were determined as a working method and preservation suggestions were made to overcome these problems and to include the bath into daily life. Furthermore, it was suggested that the bath should be reshaped for a different function in order to be preserved with the social complex.
Abstract: The purpose of this research is to analyze the marketing strategies of Thai Halal products which related to the way of life for Thai Muslims. The expected benefit is the marketing strategy for brand building process for Halal products in Thailand. 4 elements of marketing strategies which necessary for the brand identity creation is the research framework: consists of Attributes, Benefits, Values and Personality. The research methodology was applied using qualitative and quantitative; 19 marketing experts with dynamic roles in Thai consumer products were interviewed. In addition, a field survey of 122 Thai Muslims selected from 175 Muslim communities in Bangkok was studied. Data analysis will be according to 5 categories of Thai Halal product: 1) Meat 2) Vegetable and Fruits 3) Instant foods and Garnishing ingredient 4) Beverages, Desserts and Snacks 5) Hygienic daily products; such as soap, shampoo and body lotion. The results will explain some suitable representation in the marketing strategies of Thai Halal products as are: 1) Benefit; the characteristics of the product with its benefit. Consumers will purchase this product with the reason of; it is beneficial nutrients product, there are no toxic or chemical residues. Fresh and clean materials 2) Attribute; the exterior images that attract to consumer. Consumers will purchase this product with the reason of; there is a standard proof mark, food and drug secure proof mark and Halal products mark. Packaging and its materials should be draw attention. Use an attractive graphic. Use outstanding images of product, material or ingredients. 3) Value; the value of products that affect to consumers perception; it is healthy products. Accumulate quality of life. It is a product of expertise, manufacturing of research result. Consumers are important. It’s sincere, honest and reliable to all. 4) Personality; reflection of consumers thought. The Personality feedback to them after they were consumes this product; they are health care persons. They are the rational person, moral person, justice person and thoughtful person like a progressive thinking.
Abstract: These studies have been carried out on the behavior of pesticides in aquatic environments of marshes to monitoring water and sediment. A total of 25 water and 25 sediment samples were collected at five sampling station during April, June and September. 2013 the levels of organochlorine (OCP) pesticide as a case study to find out the extent of pesticide contamination and accumulation, in water was the concentration of OCPs (0.02, 0.066, 0.7, 0.8, 0.072, 0.058) ppb. In sediment was the concentration of OCPs (5.897, 10.987, 0.089, 0.096, 7.897, and 12.389) ppb respectively in DDT, DDE, Chlordane, Heptachlor, Lindane, and Endosulfan. There is a relationship between pesticides and sediment and water with physical properties because the concentrations of pesticide in water and sediment are not always in equilibrium Furthermore, when sediments are smaller, the rate of deposition is slower. There the wetlands of pesticides due to factors of high temperature and evaporation but used in the control of pesticides in water and sediment also there still exist a variety of organochlorine pesticide residues in water and sediments of wetlands.
Abstract: In Pharmaceutical industries, it is very important to remove drug residues from the equipment and areas used. The cleaning procedure must be validated, so special attention must be devoted to the methods used for analysis of trace amounts of drugs. A rapid, sensitive and specific reverse phase ultra performance liquid chromatographic (UPLC) method was developed for the quantitative determination of Albendazole in cleaning validation swab samples. The method was validated using an ACQUITY HSS C18, 50 x 2.1mm, 1.8μ column with a isocratic mobile phase containing a mixture of 1.36g of Potassium dihydrogenphosphate in 1000mL MilliQ water, 2mL of triethylamine and pH adjusted to 2.3 ± 0.05 with ortho-phosphoric acid, Acetonitrile and Methanol (50:40:10 v/v). The flow rate of the mobile phase was 0.5 mL min-1 with a column temperature of 350C and detection wavelength at 254nm using PDA detector. The injection volume was 2µl. Cotton swabs, moisten with acetonitrile were used to remove any residue of drug from stainless steel, teflon, rubber and silicon plates which mimic the production equipment surface and the mean extraction-recovery was found to be 91.8. The selected chromatographic condition was found to effectively elute Albendazole with retention time of 0.67min. The proposed method was found to be linear over the range of 0.2 to 150µg/mL and correlation coefficient obtained is 0.9992. The proposed method was found to be accurate, precise, reproducible and specific and it can also be used for routine quality control analysis of these drugs in biological samples either alone or in combined pharmaceutical dosage forms.
Abstract: Spoilage occurs in plant produce due to the action of field and storage microorganisms. The conditions of storage can also cause physiological spoilage. Various methods exist to ensure that these food substances maintain their quality long after harvesting. However, many of these methods either fail to keep the plant for the required period or predispose the plant to other spoilage risks. The major shortcoming posed by the use of many antimicrobials is the chemical residues it deposits in the food substance. The use of plants in preservation has been in use for a long period, though little understood then, it served its purposes. A better understanding of the roles of these plant parts in increasing the shelf life of farm produce has helped in the creation of more effective and safer means of pest and microbial control. This can be extended to plants that have not been used for these purposes initially. Microbial sources should also be investigated as these have provided cheaper sources of secondary metabolites.
Abstract: Open burning of sugarcane fields is recognized to have a negative impact on soil by degrading its properties, especially soil organic carbon (SOC) content. Better understating the effect of open burning on soil carbon dynamics is crucial for documenting the carbon sequestration capacity of agricultural soils. In this study, experiments to investigate soil carbon stocks under burned and unburned sugarcane plantation systems in Thailand were conducted. The results showed that cultivation fields without open burning during 5 consecutive years enabled to increase the SOC content at a rate of 1.37 Mg ha-1y-1. Also it was found that sugarcane fields burning led to about 15% reduction of the total carbon stock in the 0-30 cm soil layer. The overall increase in SOC under unburned practice is mainly due to the large input of organic material through the use of sugarcane residues.
Abstract: In this research, the optimum conditions for the synthesis of activated carbon from biodiesel wastes such as palm shells (PS) and Jatropha curcas fruit shells (JS) by chemical activation method using potassium hydroxide (KOH) as an activating agent under nitrogen atmosphere were investigated. The effects of soaking in hydrofluoric acid (HF), impregnation ratio, activation temperature and activation time on adsorption capacity of methylene blue (MB) and iodine (I2) solution were examined. The results showed that HF-treated activated carbons exhibited higher adsorption capacities by eliminating ash residues, which might fill up the pores. In addition, the adsorption capacities of methylene blue and iodine solution were also significantly influenced by the types of raw materials, the activation temperature and the activation time. The highest adsorption capacity of methylene blue 257.07mg/g and iodine 847.58mg/g were obtained from Jatropha curcas wastes.
Abstract: The highest extractable concentration in the artificial sweat fluid was observed for Ba (120mg/kg; d.w.). The highest extractable concentration in the artificial gastric fluid was observed for Al (9030mg/kg; d.w.). Furthermore, the extractable concentrations of Ba (550mg/kg; d.w.) and Zn (400mg/kg: d.w.) in the bottom ash using artificial gastric fluid were elevated. The extractable concentrations of all heavy metals in the artificial gastric fluid were higher than those in the artificial sweat fluid. These results are reasonable in the light of the fact that the pH of the artificial gastric fluid was extremely acidic both before (pH 1.54) and after (pH 1.94) extraction, whereas the pH of the artificial sweat fluid was slightly alkaline before (pH 6.50) and after extraction (pH 8.51).
Abstract: An expressed sequence tag (EST) analysis provideus portions of expressed genes. We have constructed cDNA library and determined randomly sequences from cDNA library clones of T. molitor injected with acholeplasma lysate. We identified the homologous to a galectin gene. As the result of cloning and characterization of novel, we found that the protein has an open reading frame (ORF) of 495 bp, with 164 amino acid residues and molecular weight of 18.5 kDa. To characterize the role of novel Tm-galectin in immune system, we quantified the mRNA level of galectin at different times after treatment with immune elicitors. The galectin mRNA was up-regulated about 7-folds within 18 hrs. This suggests that Tm-galectin is a novel member of animal lectins, and has a role in the process of pathogen recognition. Our study would be helpful for the study on immune defense system and signaling cascade.
Abstract: This study focused on the estimation of carbon released to the atmosphere from dry dipterocarp forest (DDF) fires in Thailand. Laboratory experiments were conducted using a cone calorimeter to simulate the DDF fires. The leaf litter collected from DDF in western Thailand was used as biomass fuel. Three different masses of leaf litter were employed, 7g, 10g and 13g, to estimate the carbon released from this type of vegetation fire to the atmosphere. The chemical analysis of the leaf litter showed that the carbon content in the experimental biomass fuel was 46.0±0.1%. From the experiments, it was found that more than 95% of the carbon input was converted to carbon released to the atmosphere, while less than 5% were left in the form of residues, and returned to soil. From the study, the carbon released amounted 440.213±2.243 g/kgdry biomass, and the carbon retained in the residues was 19.786±2.243 g/kgdry biomass. The quantity of biomass fuel consumed to produce 1 g of carbon released was 2.27±0.01gkgdry biomass. Using these experimental data of carbon produced by the DDF fires, it was estimated that this type of fires in 2009 contributed to 4.659 tonnes of carbon released to the atmosphere, and 0.229 tonnes of carbon in the residues to be returned to soil in Thailand.
Abstract: A new approach to predict the 3D structures of proteins by combining the knowledge-based method and Molecular Dynamics Simulation is presented on the chicken villin headpiece subdomain (HP-36). Comparative modeling is employed as the knowledge-based method to predict the core region (Ala9-Asn28) of the protein while the remaining residues are built as extended regions (Met1-Lys8; Leu29-Phe36) which then further refined using Molecular Dynamics Simulation for 120 ns. Since the core region is built based on a high sequence identity to the template (65%) resulting in RMSD of 1.39 Å from the native, it is believed that this well-developed core region can act as a 'nucleation center' for subsequent rapid downhill folding. Results also demonstrate that the formation of the non-native contact which tends to hamper folding rate can be avoided. The best 3D model that exhibits most of the native characteristics is identified using clustering method which then further ranked based on the conformational free energies. It is found that the backbone RMSD of the best model compared to the NMR-MDavg is 1.01 Å and 3.53 Å, for the core region and the complete protein, respectively. In addition to this, the conformational free energy of the best model is lower by 5.85 kcal/mol as compared to the NMR-MDavg. This structure prediction protocol is shown to be effective in predicting the 3D structure of small globular protein with a considerable accuracy in much shorter time compared to the conventional Molecular Dynamics simulation alone.
Abstract: HIV-1 genome is highly heterogeneous. Due to this
variation, features of HIV-I genome is in a wide range. For this
reason, the ability to infection of the virus changes depending on
different chemokine receptors. From this point of view, R5 HIV
viruses use CCR5 coreceptor while X4 viruses use CXCR5 and
R5X4 viruses can utilize both coreceptors. Recently, in
Bioinformatics, R5X4 viruses have been studied to classify by using
the experiments on HIV-1 genome.
In this study, R5X4 type of HIV viruses were classified using
Auto Regressive (AR) model through Artificial Neural Networks
(ANNs). The statistical data of R5X4, R5 and X4 viruses was
analyzed by using signal processing methods and ANNs. Accessible
residues of these virus sequences were obtained and modeled by AR
model since the dimension of residues is large and different from
each other. Finally the pre-processed data was used to evolve various
ANN structures for determining R5X4 viruses. Furthermore ROC
analysis was applied to ANNs to show their real performances. The
results indicate that R5X4 viruses successfully classified with high
sensitivity and specificity values training and testing ROC analysis
for RBF, which gives the best performance among ANN structures.
Abstract: The objective of this research was to investigate biodegradation of water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) to produce bioethanol using dilute-acid pretreatment (1% sulfuric acid) results in high hemicellulose decomposition and using yeast (Pachysolen tannophilus) as bioethanol producing strain. A maximum ethanol yield of 1.14g/L with coefficient, 0.24g g-1; productivity, 0.015g l-1h-1 was comparable to predicted value 32.05g/L obtained by Central Composite Design (CCD). Maximum ethanol yield coefficient was comparable to those obtained through enzymatic saccharification and fermentation of acid hydrolysate using fully equipped fermentor. Although maximum ethanol concentration was low in lab scale, the improvement of lignocellulosic ethanol yield is necessary for large scale production.
Abstract: In this work, we consider the rational points on elliptic curves over finite fields Fp where p ≡ 5 (mod 6). We obtain results on the number of points on an elliptic curve y2 ≡ x3 + a3(mod p), where p ≡ 5 (mod 6) is prime. We give some results concerning the sum of the abscissae of these points. A similar case where p ≡ 1 (mod 6) is considered in [5]. The main difference between two cases is that when p ≡ 5 (mod 6), all elements of Fp are cubic residues.
Abstract: Viral influenza A subtypes H5N1 and pandemic
H1N1 (pH1N1) have worldwide emerged and transmitted. The most
common anti-influenza drug for treatment of both seasonal and
pandemic influenza viruses is oseltamivir that nowadays becomes
resistance to influenza neuraminidase. The novel long-acting drug,
laninamivir, was discovered for treatment of the patients infected
with influenza B and influenza A viruses. In the present study,
laninamivir complexed with wild-type strain of both H5N1 and
pH1N1 viruses were comparatively determined the structures and
drug-target interactions by means of molecular dynamics (MD)
simulations. The results show that the hydrogen bonding interactions
formed between laninamivir and its binding residues are likely
similar for the two systems. Additionally, the presence of
intermolecular interactions from laninamivir to the residues in the
binding pocket is established through their side chains in accordance
with hydrogen bond interactions.
Abstract: This study focuses on emission of black carbon (BC)
from field open burning of corn residues. Real-time BC
concentration was measured by Micro Aethalometer from field
burning and simulated open burning in a chamber (SOC)
experiments. The average concentration of BC was 1.18±0.47 mg/m3
in the field and 0.89±0.63 mg/m3 in the SOC. The deduced emission
factor from field experiments was 0.50±0.20 gBC/kgdm, and 0.56±0.33
gBC/kgdm from SOC experiment, which are in good agreement with
other studies. In 2007, the total burned area of corn crop was 8,000
ha, resulting in an emission load of BC 20 ton corresponding to 44.5
million kg CO2 equivalent. Therefore, the control of open burning in
corn field represents a significant global warming reduction option.
Abstract: The effects of irrigation with dairy factory wastewater on soil properties were investigated at two sites that had received irrigation for > 60 years. Two adjoining paired sites that had never received DFE were also sampled as well as another seven fields from a wider area around the factory. In comparison with paired sites that had not received effluent, long-term wastewater irrigation resulted in an increase in pH, EC, extractable P, exchangeable Na and K and ESP. These changes were related to the use of phosphoric acid, NaOH and KOH as cleaning agents in the factory. Soil organic C content was unaffected by DFE irrigation but the size (microbial biomass C and N) and activity (basal respiration) of the soil microbial community were increased. These increases were attributed to regular inputs of soluble C (e.g. lactose) present as milk residues in the wastewater. Principal component analysis (PCA) of the soils data from all 11sites confirmed that the main effects of DFE irrigation were an increase in exchangeable Na, extractable P and microbial biomass C, an accumulation of soluble salts and a liming effect. PCA analysis of soil bacterial community structure, using PCR-DGGE of 16S rDNA fragments, generally separated individual sites from one another but did not group them according to irrigation history. Thus, whilst the size and activity of the soil microbial community were increased, the structure and diversity of the bacterial community remained unaffected.