Epidemiology of gastro-intestinal nematodes of sheep in wet tropical conditions in Malaysia

A study on the seasonal variations in the population structure of Haemonchus contortus and Trichostronglyus colubriformis was conducted for a period of 12 months in a typical large scale sheep farm on improved pasture in Peninsular Malaysia which has a wet tropical climate. Successive groups of helminth-free tracer lambs were grazed for 4 weeks together with naturally infected sheep and were necropised for worm counts 2 weeks after their removal from the pasture. The monthly populations of H. contortus fluctuated slightly except in May and August during which more worms were found in the tracer animals. The numbers of T. colubriformis were comparatively high from October to December 1992 and again in March 1993, low during April and June 1992. Small numbers of hypobiotic larvae of H. contortus were detected in the tracer animals. Development and survival of infective larvae of H. contortus and T. colubriformis on pasture were investigated by spreading faeces containing eggs on grass plots in October 1993, February and May 1994. Development of the eggs to the infective larvae occurred within one week and their survival times were 7 weeks in the 3 experiments. The potential for control by rotational grazing is discussed.     

Iron(III)‐Catalyzed Peroxide‐Mediated C‐3 Functionalization of Flavones

An iron(III)‐catalyzed C‐3 functionalization of flavones has been achieved using tert‐butyl peroxybenzoate (TBPB)/potassium persulphate (K₂S₂O₈) oxidant combinations with a suitable solvent. In the presence of iron(III)/tert‐butyl peroxybenzoate/potassium persulphate, the reaction of flavones in cycloalkanes afforded exclusive C‐3 cycloalkylation via C –C coupling, whereas the solvent N,N‐dialkylformamide provided C‐3 amidation via C –C coupling. Under identical reaction conditions just by switching the solvent to chlorobenzene, C‐3 methylated flavones were obtained where tert‐butyl peroxybenzoate (TBPB) served as the source of the methyl group.

     

Growth kinetics of an indigenous mixed microbial consortium during methylene chloride degradation in a batch reactor

Biodegradation of methylene chloride by a mixed microbial culture, isolated from a common sewage treatment plant, was investigated in a batch system. Batch experiments were performed at room temperature (27 °C) and pH value of 7. The methylene chloride concentration in growth media varied from 25 mgl^?1 to 250mgl^?1. A maximum observed degradation was 1 mgl^?1h^?1 at 100 mgl^?1 of methylene chloride. The culture followed substrate inhibition kinetics and specific growth rate were fitted to different substrate inhibition models (Haldane, Aiba and Edwards models) by MATLAB 7.1@. Among all models, Haldane was found to better fit with root mean square of 0.947. The biokinetic constants estimated using these models show good potential of the mixed microbial culture in methylene Chloride degradation. Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus are predominant microbes present in the mixed culture.     

Reliability of a cascade system with normal stress and exponential strength

In this paper we study the reliability of an N-cascade system whose stress and strength follow normal and exponential distributions, respectively. In this system we can observe that reliability increases for lower values of strength parameter (λ) and stress parameter (μ). Marginal reliability rate also increases at higher values of λ. Hence we conclude that the addition of components by a cascade system gives a significant improvement.     

Phenanthroline derivatives with improved selectivity as DNA-targeting anticancer or antimicrobial drugs

Phenanthroline derivatives are of interest due to their potential activity against cancer, and viral, bacterial, and fungal infections. In a search for highly specific antitumor and antibacterial compounds, we report the activities of 1,10-phenanthroline-5,6-dione (phendione or L(1)), dipyrido[3,2-a:2',3'-c]phenazine (dppz or L(2)), and their corresponding platinum complexes ([PtL(1)Cl2] and [PtL(2)Cl2]), and provide the solid-state 3D structure for [PtL(1)Cl2]. It is generally known that a toxic metal ion coordinated to an active organic moiety leads to a synergistic effect; however, we report herein that the platinum complexes [PtL(1)Cl2] and [PtL(2)Cl2] have weaker activities relative to those of the free ligands, especially against bacteria. Testing these agents against a variety of human cancer cell lines revealed that L(1) and [PtL(1)Cl2] were at least as active as cisplatin against several of the cell lines (including a cisplatin-resistant cell line). The absence of antibacterial activity of [PtL(1)Cl2] removes the detrimental effect of phenanthrolines toward intestinal flora, suggesting a highly promising new strategy for the development of anticancer drugs with reduced side effects.     

Error Rate and Capacity Analysis for Incremental Hybrid DAF Relaying using Polar Codes

The deployment of an incremental hybrid decode-amplify and forward relaying scheme is a promising and superior solution for cellular networks to meet ever-growing network traffic demands. However, the selection of a suitable relaying protocol based on the signal-to-noise ratio threshold is important in realizing an improved quality of service. In this paper, an incremental hybrid relaying protocol is proposed using polar codes. The proposed protocol achieves a better performance than existing turbo codes in terms of capacity. Simulation results show that the polar codes through an incremental hybrid decode-amplify-and-forward relay can provide a 38% gain when γ_th(1) and γ_th(2) are optimal. Further, the channel capacity is improved to 17.5 b/s/Hz and 23 b/s/Hz for 2 × 2 MIMO and 4 × 4 MIMO systems, respectively. Monte Carlo simulations are carried out to achieve the optimal solution.     

Near-field optical imaging of flagellar filaments of salmonella in water with optical feedback control

We report on the high-resolution observation of biological samples in water with a collection-mode near-field optical microscope (c-mode NOM) operating under optical feedback control. With rapidly decreasing evanescent field power used as the feedback signal, for the first time to our knowledge, an image of straight-type flagellar filaments of salmonella in water has been obtained. The estimated diameter of a single filament is around 55 nm with a pixel size of 10 nm. A comparison with its nominal value of 25 nm obtained from electron microscope observations under high vacuum confirms that our c-mode NOM performs high-resolution imaging in water.     

Node Degree Based Energy Efficient Two-Level Clustering for Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless Personal Communications - Recently fuzzy based hierarchical routing protocols such as F-MCHEL and F-SCH were proposed to improve the lifetime of a wireless sensor network. In certain cases...