No abstract provided.

Fig, or Ficus carica, is a fruit tree from the Moraceae family and is widely grown in tropical and subtropical regions of the world. Fig plants are mainly propagated through grafting, air layering, and hardwood cutting whereby these methods were found to be less efficient. Plant tissue culture is efficient method to propagate plants, particularly to produce true-to-type platelets for mass multiplication. The aim of this study is to induce multiple shoot formation on Ficus carica cv. Japanese BTM 6 through identifying and optimising the concentrations of 6-Benzylaminopurine (BAP) and Zeatin suited for shoot formation. The axillary shoot tip explants were cultured in MS media supplemented with different concentrations of BAP and Zeatin (0, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0 mg/L) to determine the optimal concentration for the formation of multiple shoots. Number of shoots per explants and the differences in shoot height of explants were calculated after 8 and 12 weeks of culture respectively. Of all the treatments of BAP, MS media containing with 2 mg/L BAP marked the highest number of shoots per explant with the average value of 1.67 ± 0.33 while 1.5 and 2 mg/L of BAP produced the highest differences in shoot height with 0.51 ± 0.08 cm and 0.51 ± 0.07 cm after 12 weeks respectively. Murashige and Skoog (MS) media supplemented with 2 mg/L Zeatin showed the highest production of multiple shoots and differences in shoot height with the average of 0.83 ± 0.219 and 0.32 ± 0.04 cm respectively among all the different treatments of Zeatin. In this study, BAP performed better in shoot induction and elongation as compared to Zeatin for the cultivar Japanese BTM 6.

The development of free and total cholesterol nanobiosensors based on a single step electrochemical integration of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs), cholesterol oxidase (COx), cholesterol esterase (CE) and a mediator with polypyrrole (PPy) films is described. The incorporation of the various components in the PPy films was confirmed by chronopotentiometry, cyclic voltammetry (CV), scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray analysis (SEM-EDX), and Fourier transformed infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. The free cholesterol, PPy-NO3--Fe(CN)64--AuNPs-COx, nanobiosensor achieved a minimum detectable concentration of 5 μM, a linear concentration range of 5-25 μM and a sensitivity of 1.6 µA cm-2 µM-1 in 0.05 M phosphate buffer (pH 7.00). For the total cholesterol, PPy-NO3--Fe(CN)64--AuNPs-COx-CE, nanobiosensor which also involved the co-incorporation of cholesterol esterase (CE) with the other components, the achieved performances include a minimum detectable total cholesterol concentration of 25 μM, a broader linear concentration range of 25-170 μM and a lower sensitivity of 0.1 µA µM-1 cm-2. Owing to its high selectivity, the presence of common interferants did not affect the total cholesterol measurement with the PPy-NO3--Fe(CN)64--AuNPs-COx-CE nanobiosensor. Both nanobiosensors were successfully used for direct and indirect determination of total cholesterol in human blood serum samples.

Although landfilling is still the most suitable method for solid waste disposal, generation of large quantity of leachate is still considered as one of the main environmental problem. Efficient treatment of leachate is required prior to final discharge. Persulfate (S2O82-) recently used for leachate oxidation, the oxidation potential of persulfate can be improved by activate and initiate sulfate radical. The current data aimed to evaluate the performance of utilizing Al2SO4 reagent for activation of persulfate to treat landfill leachate. The data on chemical oxygen demand (COD), color, and NH3-H removals at different setting of the persulfate, Al2SO4 dosages, pH, and reaction time were collected using a central composite design (CCD) were measured to identify the optimum operating conditions. A total of 30 experiments were performed, the optimum conditions for S2O82-/Al2SO4 oxidation process was obtained. Quadratic models for chemical oxygen demand (COD), color, and NH3-H removals were significant with p-value < 0.0001. The experimental results were in agreement with the optimum results for COD and NH3-N removal rates to be 67%, 81%, and 48%, respectively). The results obtained in leachate treatment were compared with those from other treatment processes, such as S2O82- only and Al2SO4 only, to evaluate its effectiveness. The combined method (i.e., /S2O82-/Al2SO4) showed higher removal efficiency for COD, color, and NH3-N compared with other studied applications.

Rhinosinusitis is a common health problem encountered in primary care. It is due to mucosal inflammation of the nose and paranasal sinuses. Less than 2% of the cases are associated with bacterial infections. Diagnosis is based on clinical symptoms and supported by nasal endoscopy and imaging studies. Intranasal corticosteroids and normal saline irrigation are important treatments. Antibiotics are seldom indicated.