Biodegradation of isoproturon using a novel Pseudomonas aeruginosa strain JS-11 as a multi-functional bioinoculant of environmental significance

Biodegradation of phenylurea herbicide isoproturon was studied in soil microcosm bioaugmented with a novel bacterial strain JS-11 isolated from wheat rhizosphere. The molecular characterization based on 16SrDNA sequence homology confirmed its identity as Pseudomonas aeruginosa strain JS-11. The herbicide was completely degraded within 20 days at ambient temperature with the rate constant of 0.08 day(-1), following the first-order rate kinetics. In stationary phase, at a cell density of 6.5 × 10(9) CFU mL(-1), the bacteria produced substantially increased amounts of indole acetic acid (IAA) in the presence of tryptophan as compared with the control. Also, the bacteria exhibited a time-dependent increase in the amount of tri-calcium phosphate solubilization in Pikovskaya's medium. Further screening of the strain JS-11 for auxiliary activities revealed its remarkable capability of producing the siderophores and hydrogen cyanide (HCN), besides antifungal activity against a common phytopathogen Fusarium oxysporum. Thus, the versatile P. aeruginosa strain JS-11 with innate potential for multifarious biological activities is envisaged as a super-bioinoculant for exploitation in the integrated bioremediation, plant growth and disease management (IBPDM) in contaminated agricultural soils.     

Subchronic oral hepatotoxicity of turmeric in mice--histopathological and ultrastructural studies

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the effects of flutamide in patients with physical and/or mental disorders consulting for urinary symptoms secondary to benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). METHODS: 50 patients with BPH in whom surgical treatment was contraindicated due to their physical and/or mental condition were treated with flutamide 250 mg/day. Four patients presented with urinary retention and 46 patients had prostatic symptomatology. Patients were evaluated using the symptoms score (I-PSS) and quality of life (QL). Prostate volume was measured by transabdominal US; the maximum flow rate at spontaneous micturition and residual urine were determined. RESULTS: At 12 months, the I-PSS and QL scores decreased by a mean of 7 and 3 points, respectively. The US demonstrated that treatment had reduced prostatic volume by a mean of 10 gms. The maximum flow rate at spontaneous micturition increased 3 ml/sec and residual urine decreased by 15 ml. CONCLUSION: Flutamide is another alternative to surgery in specific patients with BPH.     

Magnetic hysteresis and domain states in Li1+ substituted Ni–Zn ferrites

Compositions of Ni_0.32Zn_0.68-2xLi_xFe_2+xO₄ with x=0.0, 0.025, 0.050, 0.075, 0.100, 0.125, 0.150, 0.175, 0.200 were prepared by oxalate precursors. The M_s–T curves resemble type R. The magnetic moment (n_B) values were found to increase with increase of Li¹⁺ content up to x=0.175, and thereafter it decreased. The former explained on the basis of the exchange interactions, whereas the decrease of n_B is related to the migration of Ni to tetrahedral (A) sites. There is a decrease in Yafet–Kittle (Y–K) angles at octahedral (B) sites, suggesting that lithium does not favor H_c canting. Actually, Li¹⁺ tends to reduce canting, resulting in the increase of n_B coercive force (H_c) and remanance ratio (R) variations have been related to increase of anisotropy constant (K_l) with increasing Li¹⁺ content. The values of R are comparable with the theoretical value, 0.87, which is probably due to the very high density of the samples. Thermal variations of H_c and R reveal that neither parameter changes rapidly with increasing temperature, indicating that the material contains multi-domain (MD) grains in predominance. These results are also supported by a.c. susceptibility studies. The values of wall susceptibility are higher than those of rotational susceptibility, suggesting that the susceptibility is contributed mainly by the domain wall motion.     

CRYSTAL SIZE GROWTH IN THE LIQUID PHASE METHANOL SYNTHESIS CATALYST

The phenomenon of crystal growth in the methanol synthesis catalyst has been studied. Crystallite size distributions in the cuo/ZnO/Al₂O₃ methanol synthesis catalyst have been determined. The effects of temperature, reaction environment and time under reaction conditions have been studied. It is observed that water in the reaction mixture promotes crystal growth.     

Dispersion of dielectric constant and resistivity of Cu x Zn1−x Fe2O4 samples

Cu _x Zn_1−x Fe₂O₄ samples exhibit dispersion of dielectric constant, tanδ and resistivity in the frequency range of 1 kHz to 50 MHz. The dispersion exhibited is in general accord with Koops’ model. However, the details of the conducting and non-conducting regions must be taken into account when composition tends to change interrelationship between the elementary capacitor resistor circuits. On quenching these samples from 800°C the dielectric constantε ¹ showed an increase for CuFe₂O₄ and Cu_0·8Zn_0·2Fe₂O₄ samples. The dielectric constant of the remaining samples showed no influence on quenching. The compositional variation showed that the dielectric constant has higher value for the ferrite Cu_0·4Zn_0·6Fe₂O₄ The results are explained on the basis of cation transfer.     

Comparison of the Effects of an Ionic Liquid and Other Salts on the Properties of Electrospun Fibers, 2 – Poly(vinyl alcohol)

Understanding the effect of conductivity in electrospinning solutions is crucial in order to improve or control the electrospinning process. In this paper the effect of adding small amounts (0.039–0.259 mol · kg^?1) of three different conductive additives to aqueous solutions of polyvinyl alcohol has been investigated. The salts were HMICl (a room temperature ionic liquid), TEBAC (a quaternary ammonium salt) and KCl. Addition of these salts caused a steady increase in the solution conductivity but the fiber diameter was typically greater than that of PVA alone, and exhibited an oscillatory trend. The oscillatory trend on the fiber diameter is attributed to fiber backbuilding and fusion that occurs prior to deposition on the collector.

     

Direct‐Write Assembly of Microperiodic Silk Fibroin Scaffolds for Tissue Engineering Applications

Three–dimensional, microperiodic scaffolds of regenerated silk fibroin have been fabricated for tissue engineering by direct ink writing. The ink, which consisted of silk fibroin solution from the Bombyx mori silkworm, was deposited in a layer‐by‐layer fashion through a fine nozzle to produce a 3D array of silk fibers of diameter 5 µm. The extruded fibers crystallized when deposited into a methanol‐rich reservoir, retaining a pore structure necessary for media transport. The rheological properties of the silk fibroin solutions were investigated and the crystallized silk fibers were characterized for structure and mechanical properties by infrared spectroscopy and nanoindentation, respectively. The scaffolds supported human bone marrow‐derived mesenchymal stem cell (hMSC) adhesion, and growth. Cells cultured under chondrogenic conditions on these scaffolds supported enhanced chondrogenic differentiation based on increased glucosaminoglycan production compared to standard pellet culture. Our results suggest that 3D silk fibroin scaffolds may find potential application as tissue engineering constructs due to the precise control of their scaffold architecture and their biocompatibility.     

Quantitative Analysis of Crime Incidents in Chicago Using Data Analytics Techniques

In this paper we aim to identify certain social factors that influence, and thus can be used to predict, the occurrence of crimes. The factors under consideration for this analytic are social demographics such as age, sex, poverty, etc., train ridership, traffic density and the number of business licenses per community area in Chicago, IL. A factor will be considered pertinent if there is high correlation between it and the number of crimes of a particular type in that community area.