Objective: This study evaluated compressive strength and setting time of some types of calcium silicate-based materials modified with chicken eggshell powder (CESP). Material And Methods: The samples were classified into eight major categories, including Group 1 (non-modified glass ionomer cement (GIC) as a control group), Group 2 (1 wt.% eggshell incorporated GIC powder), Group 3 (3 wt.% eggshell incorporated GIC powder), Group 4 (5 wt.% eggshell incorporated GIC powder), Group 5 (non-modified biodentine (BD) as a control group), Group 6 (1 wt.% eggshell incorporated (BD) powder) Group 7 (3 wt.% eggshell incorporated (BD) powder) and Group 8 (5 wt.% eggshell incorporated (BD) powder). Results: (group 2), (group 6) exhibited the highest statistically significant compressive strength means values, while (group 4), (group 8) exhibited the lowest statistically significant setting time means values, Conclusion : Addition of CESP to GIC and BD can increase compressive strength and decrease setting time of materials.

Low DNA concentration recovered from highly processed products such as gelatin and gelatin-based products renders difficulty in detecting porcine contamination using conventional PCR techniques. We documented here a porcine-specific loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) to identify porcine traces in gelatin products. The porcine-specific primers were designed according to mitochondrial DNA of Cytochrome b gene sequence. Here we used two different reaction mixtures for LAMP assay (GENIE and MYRM) against the same DNA samples extracted from gelatin products and porcine-specific primers to detect the presence of porcine DNA. The porcine-specific primers were shown to be specific only to Sus scrofa against 14 DNA of other meat species. The analytical sensitivity of the LAMP assay for porcine DNA detection is 1 pg/µL using both GENIE (within 30 m) and MYRM (within 60 m) reaction mixtures. Analysis against 32 samples of gelatin products showed that five samples were found to contain porcine DNA; two samples out of six gelatin powder samples and three gelatin capsule samples out of nine. Out of these five positive samples, three were not labeled containing porcine gelatin. Overall, LAMP assay in this study showed an excellent specificity, sensitivity and rapidity in detection of porcine DNA in gelatin products.

The significance of total polyaromatic hydrocarbons (TPAH) determination in assessing the carcinogenicity of environmental samples for measuring the level of environmental pollution cannot be overemphasized. Despite the environmental danger of TPAH, its laboratory quantification is laborious, which consumes appreciable time and other valuable resources. This research work develops a computational intelligence-based model for the first time, which directly estimates and quantifies the level of TPAH of any environmental solid samples using total petroleum hydrocarbons descriptor that can be easily determined experimentally. The hyperparameters of the developed support vector regression (SVR)-based model are optimized using manual search (MS) approach and genetic algorithm (GA) search approach with Gaussian and polynomial kernel functions. Experimental validation of the developed model was carried out using samples obtained from the marine sediments of Arabian Gulf Sea. The future generalization and predictive strength of the developed models were assessed using correlation coefficient (CC), root-mean-square error, mean absolute error and mean absolute percentage deviation (MAPD). GA-SVR-Gaussian performs better than MS-SVR and GA-SVR-poly with performance enhancement of 63.89% and 536.32%, respectively, on the basis of MAPD as a performance-measuring parameter, while MS-SVR model performs better than GA-SVR-poly with performance improvement of 288.25% using MAPD to evaluate the model performance. The estimation accuracy and generalization strength of the developed models indicate the potential of the models in measuring the level of environmental pollution of oil-spilled area without experimental stress, while experimental precision is preserved.

Meat and meat products are widely consumed worldwide as a source of high-quality proteins, essential amino acids, vitamins, and necessary minerals. The acceptability of Halal and Kosher meat products relies not only on the species origin but also on the manner of slaughtering of animals. Both Islam and Judaism have their own dietary laws in their holy books regarding acceptance and forbiddance of dietary items particularly meat and meat products. They also include many strictures to follow for ritual cleanliness of foods. Since the authenticity of Halal and Kosher food created increased concerns among consumers, the integrity of Halal and Kosher meat and meat products must be assured so that consumers can be accomplished with the originality of products. There is an increasing demand for reliable and sensitive techniques for the authentication of various Halal and Kosher meat products. This up-to-date review intends to provide an updated and extensive overview critically on the present situation, progress, and challenges of analytical techniques to authenticate animal species in meat items. It also addresses slaughtering procedure with brief discussion on Halal and Kosher laws with a view to creating consumer awareness against fraudulent practices. The available methods are schematically presented, and their salient features are comparatively elucidated in tables. Potential future technologies are predicted, and probable challenges are summarized. Overall, the present review article possesses substantial merits to be served as a reference guide in the field of academia and industry for the preparation/processing and identification of Halal and Kosher meat and meat products as well as may act as a platform to help improve existing authentication methods.

Detection of animal materials in gelatin-based products is required to address religious and cultural concerns, because porcine and bovine gelatins are prohibited in Halal, Kosher and Hindus consumer goods. In this paper, multiplex quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) assay using TaqMan probe was developed to discriminate bovine, porcine and fish gelatin species in a single assay platform. The assay was specific to cattle, pigs and fish, having been tested against 14 non-target species. The limit of detection, under gelatin admixed conditions, was 0.005 ng/µL. Finally, a pilot survey was undertaken testing 35 Halal branded processed food and dietary items. Out of 35 samples, only two were found to be positive for porcine species. The authenticity of these two qPCR products was confirmed by DNA sequencing analysis, which showed 99-100% similarity with Sus scrofa (Wild boar) species.

Day by day, the water sources are increasingly being adulterated due to various reasons including the uncontrolled discharge of pollutants from the point and nonpoint sources. Therefore, it is a timely need to develop suitable, inexpensive and efficient treatment techniques for water purification. This review aims at evaluating different water treatment technologies, their basic principles, cost and suitability for pollutants’ removal from wastewater. Among various water treatment technologies, adsorption technique appears to be techno-economically more attractive due to its inexpensiveness, universality and environment friendliness. Here, wide varieties of adsorbents (silica gel, activated alumina, clays, limestone, chitosan, activated carbon, zeolite, etc.) and their capacities for pollutant removal are described. The limitations of conventional adsorbent applications for water treatment are also discussed. Recently, nanotechnology has introduced nanoadsorbents, which have drawn additional attention due to their unique properties and are considered to be the viable alternative to conventional adsorbents. The potential applications, separation and regeneration of nanoadsorbents for wastewater treatment are also included in this review. Furthermore, prospects including commercial and health aspects of nanoadsorbents are also added.

Authentication of the species origins of animal-originated food products is a rapidly growing field because of its direct relevance to public health as well as people’s religious and cultural traditions. Current polymerase chain reaction assay (PCR) based methods to authenticate the animal materials in food chain are based on mainly single gene targets which are generally longer in length and thus breakdown during food processing treatments. Consequently, there is a chance of a false negative result. For the first time, here we targeted double gene sites in short-amplicon length multiplex PCR (mPCR) for confirmed detection and differentiation of bovine, buffalo and porcine materials in food chain. Multiple targets detection in single assay saves analytical cost and time. The design of primer sets for mPCR assay is more complex and complicated because all biomarkers are annealed to their respective targets under a single set of PCR conditions. Inaccurately designed primers might prompt less amplification or formation of primer-dimer and/or non-specific products. Here we approached the techniques to design biomarkers for the development of double gene targeted mPCR assay. Mitochondrial cytochrome b (cytb) and NADH dehydrogenase subunit 5 (ND5) genes were targeted to design six different biomarkers, two for each of cow (121 and 106 bp), buffalo (90 and 138 bp) and pig (73 and 146 bp). The in-silico specificity of the developed primers was checked against three targets and 28 non-target species. Complete sequence matching was found only with target species, and 3−18 nucleotides (12.5−80%) mismatches were found with other species. The pairwise distance was also computed using the neighbour-joining method; the lowest and highest distances were observed between 0.144 and 1.993. These indicated adequate genetic distances among the studied species, eliminating the probability of any cross-target detection and thus facilitated the target detection through mPCR assay.

OBJECTIVE:The objective of this study was to employ real-time or quantitative polymerase chain reaction (q-PCR) using novel species specific primer (SSP) targeting on mitochondrial cytochrome-b of wild boar species (CYTBWB2-wb) gene for the identification of non-halal meat of wild boar meat (WBM) in meatball products.MATERIALS AND METHODS:The novel SSP of CYTBWB2-wb was designed by our group using PRIMERQUEST and NCBI software. DNA was extracted using propanol-chloroform-isoamyl alcohol method. The designed SSP was further subjected for validation protocols using DNA isolated from fresh meat and from meatball, which include specificity test, determination of efficiency, limit of detection and repeatability, and application of developed method for analysis of commercially meatball samples.RESULTS:The results showed that CYTBWB2-wb was specific to wild boar species against other animal species with optimized annealing temperature of 59°C. The efficiency of q-PCR obtained was 91.9% which is acceptable according to the Codex Allimentarius Commission (2010). DNA, with as low as 5 pg/μl, could be detected using q-PCR with primer of CYTBWB2-wb. The developed method was also used for DNA analysis extracted from meatball samples commercially available.CONCLUSION:q-PCR using CYTBWB2-wb primers targeting on mitochondrial cytochrome-b gene (forward: CGG TTC CCT CTT AGG CAT TT; Reverse: GGA TGA ACA GGC AGA TGA AGA) can be fruitfully used for the analysis of WBM in commercial meatball samples.

Agglomeration is a major setback in the use of pristine multiwall carbon nanotube for many applications. Therefore, application of hydroxyl functionalized multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNT-OH) for the removal of naphthalene and fluorine was investigated and compared with pristine MWCNT for the first time. FTIR, BET, TGA, SEM, and TEM were used to investigate the functional group, microstructure and morphology of MWCNT and MWCNT-OH. The BET results showed more mesoporosity for MWCNT-OH than MWCNT. Batch equilibrium adsorption data were fitted to the Langmuir, Freundlich and Temkin models, of which the Langmuir model exhibited the best fit. The correlation of Langmuir model for naphthalene adsorption on MWCNT-OH was observed to be higher (i.e. R-2 = 0.9703 for MWCNT-OH and R-2 = 0.5082 for MWCNT) while the correlation for adsorption of flourene is higher for MWCNT (i.e. R-2 = 0.998 for MWCNT and R-2 = 0.9517 for MWCNT-OH). The maximum adsorption capacity (qe) for MWCNT-OH (57.401 ng/g-356.121 ng/g for naph and 61.235 ng/g - 367.361 ng/g for fluorene) was generally higher and more stable for lower concentration ranges while it is comparable with MWCNT (48.177 ng/g - 354.00 ng/g for naph and 59.635 ng/g- 366.709 ng/g for fluorene) at higher concentration. The qe calculated (344.828 ng/g for naph and 357.143 ng/g for fluorene) using PSO was observed to be much closer to experimental qe (356.121 ng/g for naph and 367.361 ng/g for fluorine) for MWCNT-OH adsorbent than MWCNT (cal qe are 384.615 ng/g for naph and 400.000 ng/g for fluorene; exp qe 354.00 ng/g for naph and 366.709 ng/g for fluorene). The value of boundary layer thickness, is >0, this indicates the reaction process is quite complex and is not solely controlled by the intra-particle diffusion. The results of this study indicate the high potential of the developed MWCNT-OH adsorbent as an efficient and successful material for the removal of carcinogenic PAHs from the water body. (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) that increasingly emanating from natural and human activity sources are invisible pollutants and the presence of even minute amounts of these substances makes them undesirable due to their negative attributes. The PAHs extraction and removal from effluents are major steps for analysis and removal. Chemical, biological and physical approaches are used for the removal of PAHs from wastewater. However, some of these techniques have toxic by-products. Currently, physical approaches such as liquid-liquid solvent extraction, filtration, and adsorption appear to be the best methods due to their safety, affordability, universal nature and ease of operation. However, some of the materials used in the currently available physical methods face the challenges of fouling, low recovery, their relatively long extraction time and high usage of toxic solvent. To overcome these limitations, and for the cleaner production of water, the incorporation of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) into existing physical procedures without distorting their existing structural architectures is proposed. CNTs are considered because hydrophobic hollow pores of CNTs absorb most aromatic pollutants while allowing the friction-free passage of water without consuming much energy. The functionalization of CNTs with various receptors and groups further permit the selective trapping of pollutants of interest. The ability of the proposed methods to cheaply and sustainably remove PAHs from contaminated water will make hitherto carcinogenic polluted water cleaner for public consumption. This comprehensive article presents an extensive literature review of CNTs and their use for various physical techniques. It further presents CNT as a central focus, with an in-depth critical analysis of the state-of-the-art trends of PAH removal using CNTs, current hurdles and future challenges, so that it could be used as a reference manual adding scientific value for developing any future methods for water purification and the removal of any aromatic pollutants. (C) 2018 Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The antibacterial nature of graphene oxide (GO) has stimulated wide interest in the medical field. Although the antibacterial activity of GO towards bacteria has been well studied, a deeper understanding of the mechanism of action of GO is still lacking. The objective of the study was to elucidate the difference in the interactions of GO towards Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. The synthesized GO was characterized by Ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy (UV-vis), Raman and Attenuated Total Reflectance-Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR). Viability, time-kill and Lactose Dehydrogenase (LDH) release assays were carried out along with FESEM, TEM and ATR-FTIR analysis of GO treated bacterial cells. Characterizations of synthesized GO confirmed the transition of graphene to GO and the antibacterial activity of GO was concentration and time-dependent. Loss of membrane integrity in bacteria was enhanced with increasing GO concentrations and this corresponded to the elevated release of LDH in the reaction medium. Surface morphology of GO treated bacterial culture showed apparent differences in the mechanism of action of GO towards Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria where cell entrapment was mainly observed for Gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus and Enterococcus faecalis whereas membrane disruption due to physical contact was noted for Gram-negative Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. ATR-FTIR characterizations of the GO treated bacterial cells showed changes in the fatty acids, amide I and amide II of proteins, peptides and amino acid regions compared to untreated bacterial cells. Therefore, the data generated further enhance our understanding of the antibacterial activity of GO towards bacteria.

Consumption and exploitation of crocodiles have been rampant for their exotic, nutritive and medicinal attributes. These depredations are alarming and although they have continued to be monitored by wildlife and conservation agencies, unlawful trading of crocodiles shows an increasing trend worldwide. Recently, conventional polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) assays for crocodile have been documented but they are only suitable for identification and cannot quantify adulterations. We described here a quantitative duplex real-time PCR assay with probes to quantify contributions from Crocodylus porosus materials simultaneously. A very short amplicon size of 127bp was used because longer targets could have been broken down in samples, bringing considerable uncertainty in molecular analysis. We have validated a TaqMan probe-based duplex real-time PCR (qPCR) assay for the detection of 0.004 ng DNA in pure state and 0.1% target meat in model chicken meatball. False negative detection was eliminated through an endogenous control (141-bp site of eukaryotic 18S rRNA). Analysis of 12 model chicken meatballs adulterated with C. porosus reflected 96.3-120.2% target recovery at 0.1-10% adulterations. A validation test of 21 commercial food and traditional medicine (TM) crocodile-based products showed 100% effectiveness. Short amplicon sizes, alternative complementary target, exceptional stability and superior sensitivity suggested the assay could be used for the identification and quantitative determination of C. porosus in any food or TM samples even under degraded conditions.

A feeding trial was conducted to evaluate the effects of different ratios of fish meal (FM) to a fermented blend (FB: fermented soybean meal and squid by-product blend) on growth and economic performance of climbing perch, Anabas testudineus (Bloch, 1792), in earthen ponds. Five diets were prepared where FB was substituted for 0 (D1), 25 (D2), 50 (D3), 75 (D4), or 100% FM protein (D5), while a commercial diet (D6) was used for comparison. Triplicate groups of fish (1.03 +/- 0.07 g) were fed twice daily up to satiation for 70 days in earthen ponds. No significant (P > 0.05) differences were found in growth performance of fish fed D1, D2, D3, and D6 diets, while fish growth decreased significantly (P < 0.05) in D4 and D5 groups. Feed intake decreased (P < 0.05) with the increasing levels of FB with no significant difference in the feed conversion ratio, which ranged from 1.98 to 2.08. The fish survival decreased significantly in D5 alone. While considering the overall production, the total yield and economic return were found to be highest in D2 (64176.7 TK ha(-1)) and lowest in D5 (14418.3 Tk. ha(-1)). Based on the present experimental condition, it is concluded that FB can economically be included in aquafeed as a substitute for up to 50% of FM protein from the diets of climbing perch.

Cat, rabbit, rat, and squirrel species are very sensitive in food products because most of them are potential carriers of zoonotic diseases and rejected in most religions and cultures. Since cats and rats are abundant in most parts of the world and their meats do not carry any value in legal markets, these meats could be considered as potential adulterants in halal, kosher, and other food markets. Rabbit and squirrel meats are also susceptible to adulteration. Therefore, both health and economic interests in rat, rabbit, cat and squirrel species are significant. In this work, a novel tetraplex real-time PCR assay with TaqMan probes was described to discriminate and identify all four species (cat, rabbit, rat, and squirrel) in a single assay platform. Species-specific primers and probes were developed against ATP6, and cytochrome b genes to amplify 108, 123, 161 and 176 bp DNA fragments from rat, rabbit, squirrel and cat meat products under various states. A 141-bp internal amplification control (IAC) of 18S rRNA was used to avoid any false-negative results. Specificity was evaluated against 22 species but no cross-reactivity was found. Efficiency of PCR assay as well as target quantification were determined based on a standard curve that was generated using tenfold serially diluted mixed DNA extract (1:1:1:1) from squirrel, rat, rabbit and cat species. The assay was valid under pure, processed and admixed states with 10–0.1% (w/w) adulterant from each species. The limit of detection was 0.1% under admixed samples and 0.003 ng DNA under pure states from each species. Analyses of 18 model burgers (9 chicken and 9 beef) and 18 frankfurters (9 chicken and 9 beef) revealed 91–122% target recovery at 0.1–10% adulteration. Finally, 72 commercial burgers (36 chicken and 36 beef) and 72 frankfurters (36 chicken and 36 beef) were screened but no target species was detected except IAC.

Mislabelling in fish products is a highly significant emerging issue in world fish trade in terms of health and economic concerns. DNA barcoding is an efficient sequencing-based tool for detecting fish species substitution but due to DNA degradation, it is in many cases difficult to amplify PCR products of the full-length barcode marker (~650 bp), especially in severely processed products. In the present study, a pair of universal primers targeting a 198 bp sequence of the mitochondrial 16s rRNA gene was designed for identification of fish species in the processed fish products commonly consumed in Malaysia. The specificity of the universal primers was tested by both in-silico studies using bioinformatics software and through cross-reaction assessment by practical PCR experiments against the DNA from 38 fish species and 22 other non-target species (animals and plants) and found to be specific for all the tested fish species. To eliminate the possibility of any false-negative detection, eukaryotic endogenous control was used during specificity evaluation. The developed primer set was validated with various heat-treated (boiled, autoclaved and microwaved) fish samples and was found to show high stability under all processing conditions. The newly developed marker successfully identified 92% of the tested commercial fish products with 96-100% sequence similarities. This study reveals a considerable degree of species mislabelling (20.8%); 5 out of 24 fish products were found to be mislabelled. The new marker developed in this work is a reliable tool to identify fish species even in highly processed products and might be useful in detecting fish species substitution thus protecting consumers' health and economic interests.

Species authentication of meat and fish products is crucial to safeguard public health, economic investment, and religious sanctity. We developed a heptaplex polymerase chain reaction assay targeting short amplicon length (73-198 bp) for the simultaneous detection and differentiation of cow, buffalo, chicken, cat, dog, pig, and fish species in raw and processed food using species-specific primers targeting mitochondrial cytb, ND5, and 16s rRNA genes. Assay validation of adulterated and various heat-treated meatball matrices showed excellent stability and sensitivity under all processing conditions. The detection limit was 0.01-0.001 ng of DNA under pure states and 0.5% meat in meatball products. Buffalo was detected in 86.7% (13 out of 15) of tested commercial beef products, while chicken, pork, and fish products were found to be pure. The developed assay was efficient enough to detect target species simultaneously, even in highly degraded and processed food products at reduced time.

The aim of the study was to isolate digestive enzymes inhibitors from Mimosa pudica through a bioassay-guided fractionation approach. Repeated silica gel and sephadex LH 20 column chromatographies of bioactive fractions afforded stigmasterol, quercetin and avicularin as digestive enzymes inhibitors whose IC50 values as compared to acarbose (351.02 +/- 1.46 mu g mL(-1)) were found to be as 91.08 +/- 1.54, 75.16 +/- 0.92 and 481.7 +/- 0.703 mu g mL(-1), respectively. In conclusion, M. pudica could be a good and safe source of digestive enzymes inhibitors for the management of diabetes in future. [GRAPHICS] Antwidiabetic active principles (stigmasterol, quercetin, avicularin) isolated from neglected weed Mimosa pudica

CT guided transbronchial biopsy has been reported to have a high accuracy for the diagnosis of peripheral lung lesion. Recently, C-arm cone-beam CT (CBCT) with a flatpanel detector system has been developed and offers greater flexibility in orientating the detector around the patient than closed CT gantry systems. We have introduced CBCT to the transbronchial lung biopsy and report the usefulness of the method. Patients with undiagnosed peripheral lung lesions 3 cm or less in size between June 2016 and August 2017 were enrolled．An ultrathin bronchoscope was inserted as far as possible to the target bronchus by comparing the direct vision and virtual bronchoscopic navigation images displayed simultaneously at same monitor. After reaching the target bronchus, the biopsy forceps was introduced to the target bronchus under conventional fluoroscopy. After the biopsy forceps reach the target bronchus, a CBCT scan data was taken. We categorized the CBCT findings into three types according to positions of the target lesion and the forceps as follows: (Type A: The forceps clearly reached within the lesion. Type B: It could not be categorized into neither type A nor C. Type C: The forceps could not reach the lesion.). The diagnosis yields of biopsy or cytology results was examined. Twenty-two patients (12 males and 10 females) were included in the study and age ranged from 50 to 87 with average age of 72.8 years. Thirteen lesions were located at the upper lobe, seven lesions at lower lobe and one lesion at middle lobe. Size of the lesions ranged from 9 to 29 mm with average of 20 mm. They included 13 solid lesions and 8 mixed GGO lesions. Regarding CBCT type, A was 16 cases, B was 4 cases, and C was 1 case. Bronchoscopic diagnosis was malignant in 11 cases, benign in 10 cases (4 mycobacterium infections and 6 non-specific inflammations) and undiagnostic in 1 case. There was one false negative case whose bronchoscopic diagnosis as non-specific inflammation was finally proved as adenocarcinoma. Overall the diagnostic accuracy was 91%(20/22). Based on the CBCT category, the accuracy was 100% (17/17), 75% (3/4), 0% (0/1) in Type A, B and C respectively. CBCT guided bronchoscopy is valuable in the diagnosis of peripheral lung lesions and useful for confirming the position of the forceps.