Prevalence and antibiotic resistance of Salmonella serovars in ducks,duck rearing and processing environments in Penang,Malaysia

An investigation was carried out to determine the prevalence and antibiotic resistance of Salmonella serovars in ducks, their rearing and processing environments in Penang, Malaysia. A total of 531 samples collected from wet markets and duck farms, were examined from August 2009 to October 2010. The overall prevalence of Salmonella serovars was 23.5% (125/531). The 125 Salmonella isolates belong to 10 different serovars namely Typhimirium (29.6%), Enteritidis (12.0%), Gallinarum (2.4%), Braenderup (12.0%), Albany (11.2%), Hadar (20.8%), Derby (6.4%), Weltevreden (1.6%), Newbrunswick (3.4%) and London (0.8%). Salmonella serovars also showed various resistance patterns against 13 different antibiotics. All the serovars were resistant to erythromycin but susceptible to cephalothin, gentamicin and ceftriaxone. Plasmids were detected in 91 (72.8%) of the isolates with sizes ranging from 1.4 to 23.1 Kbp. Our findings provide baseline information on the distribution of Salmonella serovars in ducks, their rearing and processing environments, and indicate that ducks should be considered as an important source of food-borne pathogens.     

Technical note Proper utilization of solar energy in Bangladesh: effect on the environment, food supply and the standard of living

The only really sustainable form of energy is solar energy. The densely populated tropical countries can do very well from this completely sustainable energy source without any novel technologies. Most of the commercial energy used world-wide is supplied by using non-renewable resources. Environmental damage—global warming, ozone hole, noise, chemical and radioactive waste—is due to high energy use. Environmental deterioration is a direct consequence of wealth generated and sustained by extremely cheap fossil fuel. The price of fossil fuel does not include the cost for the deterioration of the environment. We show in this paper that even a densely populated country like Bangladesh can attain a high standard of living by a proper utilization of solar energy. We suggest that poor tropical countries should mobilize their resources to develop solar technology.     

Marinobacter lipolyticus from Red Sea for lipase production and modulation of silver nanomaterials for anti‐candidal activities

In this study, the bacterial strain CEES 33 was isolated from the coastal area of the Red Sea, Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The bacterium isolate was identified and characterized by using biochemical and molecular methods. The isolate CEES 33 has been identified as Gram‐negative rod shaped and cream pigmented spherical colonies. It also demonstrated a positive result for nitrate reduction, oxidase, catalase, citrate utilization, lipase and exopolysaccharide production. Strain CEES 33 was characterized at the molecular level by partial 16S rRNA sequencing and it has been identified as Marinobacter lipolyticus (EMBL|{"type":"entrez-nucleotide","attrs":{"text":"LN835275.1","term_id":"824555294"}}LN835275.1). The lipolytic activity of the isolate was also observed 2.105 nkatml⁻¹. Furthermore, the bacterial aqueous extract was used for green synthesis of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs), which was further confirmed by UV‐visible spectra (430 nm), XRD and SEM analysis. Moreover, the biological functional group that involved in AgNPs synthesis was confirmed by FTIR spectra. The biological activities of AgNPs were also investigated, which showed a significant growth inhibition of Candida albicans with 16 ± 2 mm zone of inhibition at 10 μg dose/wells. Therefore, bacterium Marinobacter lipolyticus might be used in future for lipase production and nanoparticles fabrication for biomedical application, to control fungal diseases caused by C. albicans.Inspec keywords: enzymes, molecular biophysics, biochemistry, silver, nanoparticles, nanofabrication, nanomedicine, antibacterial activity, biomedical materials, ultraviolet spectra, visible spectra, Fourier transform infrared spectra, microorganisms, reduction (chemical), RNA, molecular configurations, X‐ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, diseasesOther keywords: lipase production, silver nanomaterial modulation, anticandidal activities, bacterial strain CEES 33, bacterial isolate, biochemical method, molecular method, gram‐negative rod shaped colonies, cream pigmented spherical colonies, nitrate reduction, oxidase, catalase, citrate utilisation, exopolysaccharide production, molecular level, partial 16S rRNA sequencing, Marinobacter lipolyticus strain EMBL|{"type":"entrez-nucleotide","attrs":{"text":"LN835275.1","term_id":"824555294"}}LN835275.1, lipolytic activity, bacterial aqueous extract, green synthesis, UV‐visible spectra, X‐ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, biological functional group, AgNPs synthesis, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, Candida albicans, media plate, industrial lipase production, biomedical application, fungal diseases, wavelength 430 nm, Ag     

Metamaterial inspired fabric antenna for wearable applications

A compact and robust fabric antenna incorporated with metamaterials (MTM) at 2.4 GHz is introduced for wearable devices application where the MTM behaves as EBG/AMC. The benefit of introducing MTM in a wearable antenna is to diminish the influence of frequency detuning and reduces the backward radiation specifically when loaded on the human body. The overall size of the presented antenna incorporated with MTM is 60 × 60 × 2.4 mm3. Furthermore, the integrated design has the capability of controlling Specific absorption rate (SAR) and improved the bandwidth, front‐to‐back ratio (FBR), and gain up to 14.5%, 13.7dB, and 7.5dBi, respectively. The operations under different bending diameters on real and modelled human body are studied. Compared with conventional antennas, MTM‐inspired antennas reduce the SAR to safe levels of more than 90%. The presented integrated design can be a good candidate for incorporation into a variety of flexible systems for medical application.     

Intercalation of primary alkylamines into lambda-zirconium phosphate: lambda-type materials with extended interlayer separation

The intercalation of primary alkylamine into Zirconium phosphate (ZrP) is very powerful synthetic tool to facilitate the diffusion and incorporation of huge organic and inorganic molecules inside the interlayer gallery of ZrP. The intercalation of primary alkylamine into α- and γ-type ZrP is well studied. However, the intercalation chemistry of λ-ZrP has never been investigated until now. It has been found that λ-type materials with extended interlayer separation can be obtained by intercalation of primary alkylamines (C_nH_2n+1NH₂; n = 1, 2, 4 and 6) into the interlayer gallery of λ-ZrP.     

Chitosan-<Emphasis Type="Italic">g</Emphasis>-poly(4-acrylamidobenzenesulfonamide) copolymers: synthesis,characterization, and bioactivity

The monomer, 4-acrylamidobenzenesulfonamide (ABS), was synthesized via reaction of acryloyl chloride with 4-aminobenzenesulfonamide in acetone at 0 °C. This monomer was then grafted onto chitosan using solution containing 2% acetic acid and mixture of K₂S₂O₈ and Na₂SO₃ as the redox promoter. An optimal G% of 150% was obtained when the process is conducted at 60 °C for 3 h employing 3.0 × 10^?3 M K₂S₂O₈ and 1.5 × 10^?3 M Na₂SO₃. The graft copolymers, chitosan-g-poly(4-acrylamidobenzenesulfonamide), were characterized by using FTIR, XRD, and SEM. The results were shown that the crystallinity of chitosan is enhanced by increasing the monomer content through the grafting process. Potential Antimicrobial activities of the permethyl ammonium salt forms of chitosan and its grafted copolymers against selected microorganisms were evaluated. The results show that the graft copolymers display better inhibitory effects on the growth of bacteria and some fungi than does chitosan.     

New LiCo0.5PrxFe2−xO4 nanoferrites: Prepared via low cost technique for high density storage application

Praseodymium substituted nano crystalline LiCo spinel ferrites with different concentrations were fabricated by micro-emulsion route. TGA, X-ray diffraction and magnetic properties was employed to study the effect of substitution of the Pr on the structure and magnetic parameters. XRD confirmed the formation of the single phase spinel ferrites with minor coexistence of orthophase. The particle size from XRD data was calculated in range from 53 nm to 106 nm. The VSM was employed for magnetic studies between ? 10,000 Oe and 10,000 Oe range. Considerable high value of ‘Hc’ coercivity (1581 Oe) and an enhanced value of ‘Ms’ saturation magnetization (51 emu/g) have been obtained as result of substitution. The value of Hc is high enough value but in soft ferrite range. Hence synthesized LiCo_0.5Pr_xFe_2?xO₄ ferrites are suitable for high density storage devices application.