Fungal diversity in wounded stems of Aquilaria malaccensis.

Aquilaria malaccensis is a tropical tree which produces agarwood in its trunk often after being wounded and attacked by pathogens or insects. Fungi are generally viewed as the main microbial component responsible for agarwood formation. In this study, isolation of fungi from agarwood in damaged trees was carried out. Culture morphology and microscopic characteristics plus PCR amplification of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region from the fungal isolates as well as wood samples, were used to identify the fungal community composition of wounded A. malaccensis trees from a natural forest in West Malaysia. Conventional culture methodology revealed Cunninghamella, Curvularia, Fusarium and Trichoderma species as members of the agarwood community. Analysis of genomic DNA confirmed the identifications. When wood samples were used directly in PCR, an additional Lasiodiplodia species was identified. Neighbor-joining trees were constructed to examine the relationships between the isolates sequence data and reference sequences in GenBank. Five distinct clades resulted, supported with high bootstrap values, indicating the presence of five distinct taxa. The wounded trunks of A. malaccensis in the natural environment harbor multiple fungal taxa that exist in a complex system as a whole or in succession leading to agarwood production in the tree trunk

Penbactam for Helicobacter pylori eradication: A randomised comparison of quadruple and triple treatment schedules in an Iranian population

Background & study aims: Selection of the best drug regimens for eradication of Helicobacter pylori infection especially in patients at risk of peptic ulcer relapses and the development of complications is challenging. This study assessed and compared the efficacy of the two common PPI based triple therapies to a quadruple therapy including PPI, metronidazole, amoxicillin and a bismuth compound in Iranian population. Patients & Methods: Three hundred and thirty patients with peptic ulcer and H. pylori infection were included in the study. Patients were randomly assigned to one of the three treatment protocols all given twice daily: (a) A 14-day quadruple therapy (OMAB group) comprising omeprazole 20. mg, metronicazole 500. mg, amoxicillin 1. g, and bismuth subcitrate 240. mg; (b) A 14-day triple regimen (OCP group) comprising omeprazole 20. mg plus clarithromycine 500. mg and penbactam 750. mg and (c) A 14-day triple regimen (OCA group) comprising omeprazole 20. mg plus clarithromycine 500. mg and amoxicillin 1. g. Cure was defined as a negative urea breath test at least six weeks after treatment. Results: The per-protocol eradication rates achieved with both OCP regimen (87.0%) and OCA treatment (90.8%) were significantly higher than the OMAB treatment protocol (56.0%); however, no significant difference emerged in eradication rates between the two triple treatment schedules. No significant differences between the groups were found in most side-effects. Conclusion: Two-week quadruple therapy showed a lower eradication rate compared to common triple treatment schedules when used as first-line eradication treatment for H. pylori infection in Iranian population. © 2012 Arab Journal of Gastroenterology

Fault detection and classification in wind turbine by using artificial neural network

Wind turbine is one of the present renewable energy sources that has become the most popular. The operational and maintenance cost is continuously increasing, especially for wind generator. Early fault detection is very important to optimise the operational and maintenance cost. The goal of this project is to study fault detection and classification for a wind turbine (WT) by using artificial neural network (ANN). In this project, a single phase fault was placed at 9 MW doubly-fed induction generator (DFIG) WT in MATLAB Simulink. The WT was tested under different conditions, i.e., normal condition, fault at Phase A, Phase B and Phase C. The simulation results were used as inputs in the ANN model for training. Then, a new set of data was taken under different conditions as inputs for ANN fault classifier. The target outputs of ANN fault classifier were set as ‘0’ or ‘1’, based on the fault condition. Results obtained showed that the ANN fault classifier outputs had followed the target outputs. In conclusion, the WT fault detection and classification method by using ANN were successfully developed

Stator winding fault detection of induction generator based wind turbine using ANN

This paper presents a stator winding faults detection in induction generator based wind turbines by using artificial neural network (ANN). Stator winding faults of induction generators are the most common fault found in wind turbines. This fault may lead to wind turbine failure. Therefore, fault detection in induction generator based wind turbines is vital to increase the reliability of wind turbines. In this project, the mathematical model of induction generator based wind turbine was developed in MATLAB Simulink. The value of impedance in the induction generators was changed to simulate the inter-turn short circuit and open circuit faults. The simulated responses of the induction generators were used as inputs in the ANN model for fault detection procedures. A set of data was taken under different conditions, i.e. normal condition, inter-turn short circuit and open circuit faults as inputs for the ANN model. The target outputs of the ANN model were set as ‘0’ or ‘1’, based on the fault conditions. Results obtained showed that the ANN model can detect different types of faults based on the output values of the ANN model. In conclusion, the stator winding faults detection procedure for induction generator based wind turbines by using ANN was successfully developed

Evaluation of earth fault location algorithm in medium voltage distribution network with correction technique

This paper focused on studying an algorithm of earth fault location in the medium voltage distribution network. In power system network, most of the earth fault occurs is a single line to ground fault. A medium voltage distribution network with resistance earthing at the main substation and an earth fault attached along the distribution network is modeled in ATP Draw. The generated earth fault is simulated, and the voltage and current signal produced is recorded. The earth fault location algorithm is simulated and tested in MATLAB. The accuracy of the earth fault location algorithm is tested at several locations and fault resistances. A possible correction technique is explained to minimize the error. The results show an improvement fault location distance estimation with minimum error

Nitazoxanide and doxycycline sensitivity among metronidazole resistant helicobacter pylori isolates from patients with gastritis

Background: Antibiotic therapy should be done based on resistance characteristics of Helicobacter pylori strains to commonly prescribed antibiotics in areas with higher resistance rates. Objectives: This study examined antibacterial activity of nitazoxanide and doxycycline against clinical H. pylori isolates showing different metronidazole resistance levels. Methods: A total of 122 patients, who underwent endoscopy were enrolled in this study from 3 hospitals of Tehran, during November 2014 to July 2015. Helicobacter pylori isolates were obtained from gastric biopsies of the patients after culture in specific culture medium and characterization by both biochemical and molecular methods. Antimicrobial susceptibility to metronidazole was detected using the agar dilution method and minimum inhibitory concentrations of nitazoxanide and doxycycline were determined for metronidazole resistant strains. Results: From a total of 122 gastric biopsy specimens, 55 H. pylori strains were recovered (45). Thirty-three of these strains (60.0) were resistance to metronidazole. MIC50 and MIC90 values for metronidazole were 32 and 64 µg/mL, respectively. MIC50 and MIC90 values for doxycycline and nitazoxanide were measured as 4 and �8 µg/mL, and 8 and �32 µg/mL, respectively. Conclusions: Dominance of high level metronidazole resistance H. pylori strains among the studied patients questioned its usefulness for first-line therapy in Iran. Nitazoxanide and doxycycline showed superior activity against H. pylori strains in comparison to metronidazole, which should be considered for alternative therapies. © 2018, Kowsar Medical Publishing Company. All rights reserved

A panel data approach towards the effectiveness of energy policies in fostering the implementation of solar photovoltaic technology: Empirical evidence for Asia-Pacific

Today, the growing Asia-Pacific population causes a dramatic growth in energy supply to meet energy demand. The rapid rise in energy demand is causing concern in the region. Thus, the present study scrutinizes the effect of energy policy involvement in steering-up renewable energy development by empirically assessing the role of policy instruments in encouraging residen-tial-scale and commercial-scale photovoltaic (PV) systems. The analysis is performed using a fixed effects estimator on a selected range of policy approaches (market-pull policies and tax incentives) and a technology-push policy (capital grants) in selected Asia-Pacific countries between 1998 and 2015. The return on investment is estimated to measure the incentives of feed-in tariff (FIT) tariff policies for both residential-scale and commercial-scale PV systems. This study has shown the im-portance of a strategic combination between technology-push and market-pull policies as comple-mentary to adopting technology and increasing renewable energy utilization for solar PV systems on a residential scale. Investigations into the effectiveness of regulatory support policies for solar PV systems indicate that energy policies are necessary to facilitate solar PV growth on a residential scale in the Asia-Pacific.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

STATUS REPRODUKSI DAN POTENSI SAPI SONOK DI KABUPATEN PAMEKASAN

The method of data collection was done by interviewing farmers directly (respondents) using questionnaires. There were 4 subdistricts those were being the targets of the population, namely from 13 subdistricts in Pamekasan District were the locations for maintaining sonok cattle. Cluster proporsive sampling was determined by the sample of respondents, that was the method of sampling by setting characteristics those were in accordance with the objectives and criteria, namely all of the Sonok cattle those were kept by farmers in 4 subdistricts in Pamekasan District which were the centers for Sonok cattle breeding. The reproduction status of Sonok cattle in Pamekasan District was quite good. The first age of marriage was 23.40 ± 4.17, S / C 1.59 ± 0.53 times, the distance between young calf 14.50 ± 1.83 months, and the value of reproductive efficiency (ER) is 90.51%. The natural increase (NI) value of Sonok cattle in Pamekasan District in 2014 was 9.55%, the value of net replacement rate (NRR) was 101, 48%. The estimation result of Sonok cattle output was 8.24%. Madura cattle population dynamics at the Sonok cattle Nursery Center in Pamekasan District in the period of 2013 to 2017 experienced an average increase of 7.98% annually. The estimated results of the population dynamics from 2018 to 2022 were expected to increase annually by 9.18%. It was concluded that Sonok cattle in Pamekasan District still had the potential to increase the population and the output value was lower than NI (5.06% vs. 15.81%). Keywords : Pamekasan District, Reproduction Status, Natural Increase Value, Sonok Cattle, Questionnair

Dengue-induced autophagy, virus replication and protection from cell death require ER stress (PERK) pathway activation

Avirus that reproduces in a host without killing cells can easily establish a successful infection. Previously, we showed that dengue-2, a virus that threatens 40% of the world, induces autophagy, enabling dengue to reproduce in cells without triggering cell death. Autophagy further protects the virus-laden cells from further insults. In this study, we evaluate how it does so; we show that dengue upregulates host pathways that increase autophagy, namely endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress and ataxia telangiectasiamutated (ATM) signaling followed by production of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Inhibition of ER stress or ATM signaling abrogates the dengueconferred protection against other cell stressors. Direct inhibition of ER stress response in infected cells decreases autophagosome turnover, reduces ROS production and limits reproduction of dengue virus. Blocking ATM activation, which is an early response to infection, decreases transcription of ER stress response proteins, but ATM has limited impact on production of ROS and virus titers. Production of ROS determines only late-onset autophagy in infected cells and is not necessary for dengue-induced protection from stressors. Collectively, these results demonstrate that among the multiple autophagy-inducing pathways during infection, ER stress signaling is more important to viral replication and protection of cells than either ATM or ROS-mediated signaling. To limit virus production and survival of dengue-infected cells, one must address the earliest phase of autophagy, induced by ER stress

Impact of Safety-Related Dose Reductions or Discontinuations on Sustained Virologic Response in HCV-Infected Patients: Results from the GUARD-C Cohort.

BACKGROUND: Despite the introduction of direct-acting antiviral agents for chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, peginterferon alfa/ribavirin remains relevant in many resource-constrained settings. The non-randomized GUARD-C cohort investigated baseline predictors of safety-related dose reductions or discontinuations (sr-RD) and their impact on sustained virologic response (SVR) in patients receiving peginterferon alfa/ribavirin in routine practice. METHODS: A total of 3181 HCV-mono-infected treatment-naive patients were assigned to 24 or 48 weeks of peginterferon alfa/ribavirin by their physician. Patients were categorized by time-to-first sr-RD (Week 4/12). Detailed analyses of the impact of sr-RD on SVR24 (HCV RNA <50 IU/mL) were conducted in 951 Caucasian, noncirrhotic genotype (G)1 patients assigned to peginterferon alfa-2a/ribavirin for 48 weeks. The probability of SVR24 was identified by a baseline scoring system (range: 0-9 points) on which scores of 5 to 9 and <5 represent high and low probability of SVR24, respectively. RESULTS: SVR24 rates were 46.1% (754/1634), 77.1% (279/362), 68.0% (514/756), and 51.3% (203/396), respectively, in G1, 2, 3, and 4 patients. Overall, 16.9% and 21.8% patients experienced ≥1 sr-RD for peginterferon alfa and ribavirin, respectively. Among Caucasian noncirrhotic G1 patients: female sex, lower body mass index, pre-existing cardiovascular/pulmonary disease, and low hematological indices were prognostic factors of sr-RD; SVR24 was lower in patients with ≥1 vs. no sr-RD by Week 4 (37.9% vs. 54.4%; P = 0.0046) and Week 12 (41.7% vs. 55.3%; P = 0.0016); sr-RD by Week 4/12 significantly reduced SVR24 in patients with scores <5 but not ≥5. CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, sr-RD to peginterferon alfa-2a/ribavirin significantly impacts on SVR24 rates in treatment-naive G1 noncirrhotic Caucasian patients. Baseline characteristics can help select patients with a high probability of SVR24 and a low probability of sr-RD with peginterferon alfa-2a/ribavirin.This study was sponsored by F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd, Basel, Switzerland. Support for third-party writing assistance for this manuscript, furnished by Blair Jarvis MSc, ELS, of Health Interactions, was provided by F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd, Basel, Switzerland