Investigation on Indigenous Bacillus Isolates With Bioremediation Properties for Improving Water Quality and Shrimp Health in Malaysian Aquaculture

Indigenous marine bacteria of the genus Bacillus were selected to study their properties as potential use for bioremediation owing to their inherent versatility. Bacteria were isolated from water and sediment samples collected along the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia in brackishwater environment. Selected isolates were identified to species level using biochemical and API CH kit and three suitable isolates, Bacillus pumilus AB58, B. subtilis AB65 and B. lichenifonnis AB69 were selected for the study. Optimum growth requirements of temperature, NaCI and pH were 30°C, 1.5% and 7.5 respectively, determined for the isolates by measuring the optical density and corresponding cell number. The growth curves of the isolates were plotted and all of them reached maximum cell number during a 16-20 h incubation. The cell density in overnight cultures of B. pumilus AB58, B. subtilis AB65 and B. licheniformis AB69 were 5.7xl09 (± 0.8), 3.7xl08 (± 0.6), 5.0x109 (± 0.6) cfu/ml respectively. They had the ability to tolerate ammonia levels of up to 20 mg/l without a considerable change in cell numbers for 48 h. However, the growth was suppressed completely at 25 mg/l of ammonia. At 40 ppt salinity, all the isolates survived for 4 days without significant change in initial cell numbers (108 cfu/ml). The selected isolates were found to secrete extracellular enzymes viz., protease, gelatinase, amylase and lipase as detected by clear zone formation on substrate based agar plates. Bacillus pumilus AB58 and B. subtilis AB65 produced significantly (P < 0.05) bigger protease clear zones (19.0 ± 2.0 and 23.0 ± 4.0 diameter in mm respectively) than B. licheniformis AB69. However, B. subtiUs AB65 secreted significantly (P < 0.05) more amylase (31.0 ± 5.0 diameter in mm) than the other two isolates. All the isolates were sensitive to most of the antibiotics tested on MHA plates. These isolates were compatible with each other in mixed culture conditions. They inhibited as well as excluded all the pathogenic vibrios (Vibrio algillolyticus MIl, V. alginolyticus M12, V. parahaemolyticus MI, V. parahaemolyticus M3, V. parahaemolyticus M6, V. alginolyticus T, V. parahaemolyticus T, V. harveyi I and V. parahaemolyticus I) tested by diffusion disc, streak plate and common broth methods. Synergistic effect of isolates had significantly higher (P < 0.05) inhibition of all vibrios than the individual isolates. The isolates were confirmed for their non-pathogenicity to shrimp postlarvae (PL 29). All three isolates were tested for their effect on ammonia in simulated pond conditions. All non-aerated treatment tanks had significantly lower ammonia levels (P < 0.05) than the non-aerated control tanks, which were not treated with bacterial isolates both in case of single and combination treatments. Synergistic effect of isolates reduced the ammonia levels at a faster rate than the treatments with single isolate. Sediment properties were not significantly different between treated and control groups except for the total and available phosphorous levels, which were significantly higher in tanks treated with B. licheniformis AB69 (P < 0.05) compared to the others. The selected Bacillus isolates satisfied the criteria to qualifY them for bioremediation in aquaculture

A holistic approach for selection of Bacillus spp. as a bioremediator for shrimp postlarvae culture.

Indigenous Bacillus pumilus, B. licheniformis, and B. subtilis were isolated from marine water and soil samples and investigated for potential bioremediation ability in Penaeus monodon culture. Bacillus spp. were selected based on their wide range of growth conditions, ease of mass culture, tolerance to total ammonia nitrogen (TAN), inhibition of pathogenic vibrios, nonpathogenicity, and ability to reduce TAN. Results showed that optimum growth of the selected Bacillus spp. occurred at 30 °C, pH 7.5, and 1.5% NaCl, and they secreted protease, amylase, and lipase. Vibrio spp. were also inhibited by 3 Bacillus spp. In addition, the selected Bacillus spp. had no pathogenic effect on shrimp postlarvae (PL) and were able to reduce TAN. They promoted better growth and survival in shrimp PL without water exchange. This study was a systematic approach undertaken for the selection of suitable Bacillus spp. as bioremediators for a Penaeus monodon culture system

A STUDY OF INTERNET FINANCIAL REPORTING (IFR) IN INDIAN BANKING SECTOR

The Internet offers a new medium for presentation of financial reports by companies. New applications, new users and faster connections have spurred the Internet to become an important medium for communication, information dissemination and commerce. The need for information disclosure stems from market failures caused by low disclosure of relevant information for users resulting in information asymmetry. The voluntary nature of information provided on the internet by the publicly listed companies has resulted in non- uniformity in their disclosures. The objective of the present study is to test whether is any significant influence of market capitalization, debt-asset ratio, financial performance, profit level, and stock price on Internet Financial Reporting (IFR) Disclosure Index and the tests are conducted by measuring IFR index of as a dependent variable and the above five independent variables in 32 banking sample companies selected from BSE-500. The results indicated that IFR index of Indian banking sector was very strongly associated with market capitalization

Analysis of multi-resolution data aggregation using push-assisted random walks in mobile ad-hoc network (MANET)

ABSTRACT Analysis of Multi-Resolution Data Aggregation using Push-assisted Random Walks in Mobile Ad-hoc Networks (MANETs) Sowmya Srinivasapura Devaraja Data Aggregation in Mobile Ad-hoc Network (MANET) has proven challenging because of changing topology. Structure-based models like tree-based, cluster-based and chain-based have high maintenance cost. In earlier works, different forms of biased random walks have been verified to be effective without need for structure maintenance. The key idea in the protocol was to use one or more tokens that are circulated using biased random walks to effectively compute the data aggregation. One such protocol is EZ-AG that uses Push-assisted Self-Repelling Random Walks . A self-repelling random walk of a token on a graph is one in which at each step, the token moves to a neighbor that has been visited least often. While self-repelling random walks visit all nodes in the network much faster than plain random walks, they tend to slow down when most of the nodes are already visited. It\u27s verified that a single step push phase at each node can significantly speed up the aggregation and eliminate the slow down. Results have been verified that EZ-AG achieves aggregation in only O (N) time and messages. When the network is quite large, obtaining only one aggregate may not be sufficient. It will be more useful to provide distance-sensitive multi-resolution aggregates of data. The contribution in this project is, we have analyzed the Hierarchical EZ-AG proposed to provide multi-resolution results. We show that aggregates for nearby regions are obtained at faster rate in comparison to the farther region. The idea is to introduce the tokens in the network at distinct levels, execute EZ-AG protocol and obtain localized data aggregation output at distinct levels. Existing techniques for hierarchical aggregations require O (N log5.4 (N)) messages. Hierarchical EZ-AG outperforms these techniques by aggregating with only O (N log (N)) messages. We evaluate the performance of hierarchical EZ-AG considering message overhead, token messages, number of aggregations at distinct levels, node speed and mobility. Our results are validated using simulations in network simulator, ns-3 for network ranging from 100 to 4000 nodes under different node speeds and mobility models

Small molecule inhibitors of Late SV40 Factor (LSF) abrogate hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC): evaluation using an endogenous HCC model

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a lethal malignancy with high mortality and poor prognosis. Oncogenic transcription factor Late SV40 Factor (LSF) plays an important role in promoting HCC. A small molecule inhibitor of LSF, Factor Quinolinone Inhibitor 1 (FQI1), significantly inhibited human HCC xenografts in nude mice without harming normal cells. Here we evaluated the efficacy of FQI1 and another inhibitor, FQI2, in inhibiting endogenous hepatocarcinogenesis. HCC was induced in a transgenic mouse with hepatocyte-specific overexpression of c-myc (Alb/c-myc) by injecting N-nitrosodiethylamine (DEN) followed by FQI1 or FQI2 treatment after tumor development. LSF inhibitors markedly decreased tumor burden in Alb/c-myc mice with a corresponding decrease in proliferation and angiogenesis. Interestingly, in vitro treatment of human HCC cells with LSF inhibitors resulted in mitotic arrest with an accompanying increase in CyclinB1. Inhibition of CyclinB1 induction by Cycloheximide or CDK1 activity by Roscovitine significantly prevented FQI-induced mitotic arrest. A significant induction of apoptosis was also observed upon treatment with FQI. These effects of LSF inhibition, mitotic arrest and induction of apoptosis by FQI1s provide multiple avenues by which these inhibitors eliminate HCC cells. LSF inhibitors might be highly potent and effective therapeutics for HCC either alone or in combination with currently existing therapies.The present study was supported in part by grants from The James S. McDonnell Foundation, National Cancer Institute Grant R01 CA138540-01A1 (DS), National Institutes of Health Grant R01 CA134721 (PBF), the Samuel Waxman Cancer Research Foundation (SWCRF) (DS and PBF), National Institutes of Health Grants R01 GM078240 and P50 GM67041 (SES), the Johnson and Johnson Clinical Innovation Award (UH), and the Boston University Ignition Award (UH). JLSW was supported by Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. DS is the Harrison Endowed Scholar in Cancer Research and Blick scholar. PBF holds the Thelma Newmeyer Corman Chair in Cancer Research. The authors acknowledge Dr. Lauren E. Brown (Dept. Chemistry, Boston University) for the synthesis of FQI1 and FQI2, and Lucy Flynn (Dept. Biology, Boston University) for initially identifying G2/M effects caused by FQI1. (James S. McDonnell Foundation; R01 CA138540-01A1 - National Cancer Institute; R01 CA134721 - National Institutes of Health; R01 GM078240 - National Institutes of Health; P50 GM67041 - National Institutes of Health; Samuel Waxman Cancer Research Foundation (SWCRF); Johnson and Johnson Clinical Innovation Award; Boston University Ignition Award; Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc.)Published versio

Methotrexate promotes platelet apoptosis via JNK-mediated mitochondrial damage: Alleviation by N-acetylcysteine and N-acetylcysteine amide

Thrombocytopenia in methotrexate (MTX)-treated cancer and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients connotes the interference of MTX with platelets. Hence, it seemed appealing to appraise the effect of MTX on platelets. Thereby, the mechanism of action of MTX on platelets was dissected. MTX (10 μM) induced activation of pro-apoptotic proteins Bid, Bax and Bad through JNK phosphorylation leading to Îm dissipation, cytochrome c release and caspase activation, culminating in apoptosis. The use of specific inhibitor for JNK abrogates the MTX-induced activation of pro-apoptotic proteins and downstream events confirming JNK phosphorylation by MTX as a key event. We also demonstrate that platelet mitochondria as prime sources of ROS which plays a central role in MTX-induced apoptosis. Further, MTX induces oxidative stress by altering the levels of ROS and glutathione cycle. In parallel, the clinically approved thiol antioxidant N-acetylcysteine (NAC) and its derivative N-acetylcysteine amide (NACA) proficiently alleviate MTX-induced platelet apoptosis and oxidative damage. These findings underpin the dearth of research on interference of therapeutic drugs with platelets, despite their importance in human health and disease. Therefore, the use of antioxidants as supplementary therapy seems to be a safe bet in pathologies associated with altered platelet functions. © 2015 Paul et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited

Lichens: a novel and potential source as antimicrobials for human use

The use of lichens in medicine is based on the fact that they contain unique and varied biologically active substances, as antimicrobials.  Since they are natural antibiotics, their metabolites exert a wide variety of biological actions including antimycotic, antiviral, anti-inflammatory, analgesic, antipyretic, antiproliferative, and cytotoxic effects, they are considered as potential drugs. They contain a variety of secondary metabolites with strong antioxidant activity. These are substances which have high ability to scavenge toxic free radicals due their phenolic groups. These manifold activities of lichen metabolites have now been recognized, and therefore their therapeutic potential have great impact in pharma industries. The present article discusses the importance of lichens in inhibiting various types of human pathogens in addition to their chemical composition and pharmacological activities

Role of Microfinance Institutions in the Development of Entrepreneurs

Microfinance is the provision that provides access to various financial services such as credit, savings, micro insurance, remittances, leasing to low-income clients including consumers and the self-employed, who traditionally lack access to banking and related services. Its main objective is to provide a permanent access to appropriate financial services including insurance, savings, and fund transfer. Micro finance becomes more widely accepted and moves into main stream, the supply of services to poor may also increase, improving the efficiency and outreach while lowering the costs. Keywords: Entrepreneurs, Funding for start-ups Microfinance, Self Employed, Local Permanent Institution