1 Dietary food consumption patterns in Sudan, Samar Abdalla
The food consumption patterns varies among the regions and population. The goal of this paper is to determine the dietary food consumption patterns for the rural farm households in the dry land sector of Sudan. A sample of 200 farm households was selected randomly from three localities in North Kordofan State. The primary data was collected using food frequency questionnaire during the agricultural season of 2008/09. The results disclose that the dietary food patterns for the farm households depends largely upon cereal foods, particularly millet and sorghum products. The consumption of millet products is less than that of sorghum products due to its high market prices and production fluctuations. About 8%, 34.5%, 52.5%, and 52% of the farm households are rarely consumed meat, milk, chicken, and eggs respectively. The rural households consumed pulses, because they are available and inexpensive source of protein. Vegetables and fruit consumption were also very low since they depend on their availability in the market and household’s income level as well. The paper recommends to launch a major nutrition programs in order to encourage the diversity of food consumption and to improve the attitudes and capacity building for the rural people in the dry land sector as well as in Sudan. Keywords: farm households, food patterns, food frequency, cereal foods, Sudan.
2 Dietary food consumption patterns in Sudan, Samar Abdalla
The food consumption patterns varies among the regions and population. The goal of this paper is to determine the dietary food consumption patterns for the rural farm households in the dry land sector of Sudan. A sample of 200 farm households was selected randomly from three localities in North Kordofan State. The primary data was collected using food frequency questionnaire during the agricultural season of 2008/09. The results disclose that the dietary food patterns for the farm households depends largely upon cereal foods, particularly millet and sorghum products. The consumption of millet products is less than that of sorghum products due to its high market prices and production fluctuations. About 8%, 34.5%, 52.5%, and 52% of the farm households are rarely consumed meat, milk, chicken, and eggs respectively. The rural households consumed pulses, because they are available and inexpensive source of protein. Vegetables and fruit consumption were also very low since they depend on their availability in the market and household’s income level as well. The paper recommends to launch a major nutrition programs in order to encourage the diversity of food consumption and to improve the attitudes and capacity building for the rural people in the dry land sector as well as in Sudan. Keywords: farm households, food patterns, food frequency, cereal foods, Sudan.
3 Bacteria and schitosome parasite associated with cooked Lanistes libycus and Potadoma moerchi from Ago-Iwoye, Southwestern Nigeria, Agbolade, O. M. and Agu, G. C.
Food poisoning is caused by pathogenic bacteria, viruses or parasites. The best method of processing Lanistes libycus and Potadoma moerchi (edible freshwater snails) that would render them microbiologically safe for human consumption was investigated. L. libycus and P. moerchii specimens, from Omi and Konigba streams in Ago-Iwoye, Ijebu North, southwestern Nigeria, were processed by one of boiling, frying and roasting methods. Subsequently, they were separately mashed, and cultured and sub-cultured onto MacConkey and nutrient agar plates respectively. 100%, 100% and 50.0% of boiled, roasted and fried L. libycus had bacterial growths (P < 0.001). 85.7%, 55.6%, and 66.7% of boiled, fried and roasted P. moerchi, respectively had bacterial growths (P < 0.05). 11.1% of roasted P. moerchi had schistosome sporocysts. The probable pathogenic bacteria identified in L. libycus and P. moerchi were Staphylococcus sp., Clostridium sp., Bacillus sp., Salmonella sp., Enterobacter sp., Klebsiella pneumoniae, Proteus mirabilis, Citrobacter freundii and Serratia marcescens, and their probable frequency of occurrence range was 20.0 – 60.0%. Streptococcus sp. (6.7%), Providencia sp. (13.3%), and Neisseria sp. (6.7%) were also identified as probable bacteria in P. moerchi. The results of this study show that L. libycus and P. moerchi are best cooked by frying. Keywords: food poisoning, bacterial contamination, schistosome infection, Lanistes libycus, Potadoma moerchi, edible water snails
4 Endophytic fungus: a potential source of biologically synthesized nanoparticle, Rekha, Kumari Jyoti, Manju Bala and Vedpriya Arya
Endophytic fungus is an endosymbiont which colonize healthy plant without causing any harm. These are relatively unexplored producers of metabolites useful to pharmaceutical industries. These are divided into four classes. These fungi protect plant from insect attack and diseases. They are potential source of biologically synthesized silver nanoparticles. Silver nanoparticles are environment friendly and a very good choice of antimicrobial agent. The metabolite produced by the endophytic fungus used as alternative source of antimicrobial agent against clinical pathogens. These are also sources of anticancer, antidiabetic, insecticidal and immunosuppressive compound. Keywords: Endophytic, nanoparticles, biological synthesis
5 Systematic implementation and maintenance of a quality system in environmental laboratories, A.Y. Karikari
Implementation of an effective and efficient quality system in environmental laboratories requires a committed long-term effort that is characterised by numerous challenges. However, when the system is implemented, it becomes a useful tool for the laboratory. The first hurdle is to get management convinced about the rationale for the quality system. This is important because management defines the quality policy and its objectives. Once development of a quality system has been agreed upon, resources are assigned to the development of key quality system components. Compliance with the quality system is a vital step in the process, once the implementation is started. Important to successful implementation is on-going assessment and refinement of the quality system. Fundamental and key elements of the laboratory quality system are manifold and need to work in concert with each other. Quality system elements discussed in this paper range from quality assurance roles and functions of management through equipment and staff to documentation of laboratory procedures. All environmental laboratories need to invest in and implement a quality system based on a recognised standard i.e. ISO 17025. The paper discusses implementation of a quality system on routine basis, which is geared towards producing analytical data that are accurate, reliable and adequate for intended purposes. Keywords: Quality System, Environmental Laboratories, Quality Assurance, Quality Management.
6 Activation and Inhibition of Staphylococcus aureus Group 2 AgrC by synthetic AIP and its derivatives, Ayman M. AL-Ghamdi
Staphylococcus aureus is one of the main significant pathogens that are wide spread in human environment. It is responsible for several diseases some of which are considered as life threatening. Although many antibiotics are available, there is the possibility that the organism may develop a new mechanism to evade the effect of those drugs. Many bacteria have been recognised as multiple antibiotic resistant which increase the need to invent a new techniques that can be used to control the spread of those infectious organism. In fact, using quorum sensing (QS) to dominate virulence factors has been shown to have good results. In this project, a group 2 agr bio-reporter was constructed after identifying the correct start codon of the AgrC gene. Then several synthetic AIPs were used in order to activate or inhibit the bio-reporter. There was an obvious inhibition by using AIP-I and Ala5 (AIP-I), while using AIPI-IV presented no inhibition against AgrC-2 activation. A new AIP molecule (CpgAIP73) was used in this study which showed very little inhibition by using the highest concentration (100nM). It is becoming increasingly important to create potent antibacterial agents; inhibition of QS is an excellent mechanism to potentially reduce the virulence of these bacteria Keywords: Pathogens bacteria- Staphylococcus aureus - synthetic AIP AgrC-2 inhibition
7 Infectious etiology of male urethritis at hospital Aristide Le Dantec (Dakar Sénégal), Ndiaye M, Diop A, Tounkara TM, Diallo M, Laraki L, Niang SO, Diatta B.A, Ly F, Dieng MT, Kane A
Introduction: the aim of our study was to determine the etiological, clinical and the outcome aspects of infectious urethritis in Aristide Le Dantec’s Hospital. Material and methods: a study during six months (from October 2009 to March 2010) including all the cases of urethritis occurring in men and observed in the dermatological and urological departments of Aristide Le Dantec’s Hospital. Results: 74 patients were recruited, including 36 patients in the dermatological department and 38 in the urological department. The mucopurulent and serous discharge was found in 50 cases of acute urethritis and 24 cases of chronic urethritis. Bacteriological examinations were positive in 69 cases. The germs responsible of acute urethritis; Neisseria gonorrhoeae (n = 34), Candida albicans (n = 2) and Trichomonas vaginalis (n = 2). The association Neisseria gonorrhoeae and Chlamydia was found in 5 cases. The germs responsible for chronic urethritis, Chlamydia trachomatis (n = 24) and Ureaplasma urealyticum were found in one case. Retroviral serology was positive in 4 patients. The outcome after treatment was favorable in 69 patients and 5 patients were lost of view. Conclusion: Urethritis are still a present complaint in dermatology and venereology and constitute a real public health problem despite efforts in the fight against sexually transmitted infections. Keywords: urethritis man, Dantec, Senegal
8 Antibacterial and synergistic effect of honey and cocoa extract against extended spectrum Beta lactamase producing Escherichia coli, O.S. Musa, B.T.Thomas, R.M. Kolawole, O.M. Adebayo
Extended spectrum Beta lactamase producing Escherichia coli has become a serious clinical problem worldwide, due to its ability of hydrolyzing beta lactams antibiotics. This consequently increases the cost of medication. This study was aimed at determining the antibacterial and synergistic effect of concoction and decoctions of honey and cocoa extract using disc diffusion and tube dilution methods. Results of this study, suggest that, both the concoction and decoctions had marked antibacterial activity. However, the concoction was found to be significantly efficacious against the ESBL producing Escherichia coli than the decoctions (F= 583.630, P
9 Optimization of the environmental and physiological factors affecting microbial caffeine degradation and its application in caffeinated products, El- Mched F, Olama Z and Holail H
Ten bacterial isolates were tested for their ability to utilize caffeine as the sole source of carbon and nitrogen source. The isolates identified as Pseudomonas stutzeri Gr 21 ZF showed 59% of 1.2 g/l caffeine degradation in 24 hrs when caffeine was used as the sole source of carbon and nitrogen source. In this study, the physical parameters viz, incubaton time, temperature, culture volume, inoculums size and pH were carried out to select a suitable conditions that lead to maximum caffeine degradation. The optimum values were found to be 48hrs, 50 ml, 3ml and 7 respectively. In the presence of sucrose (5g/l), 80.1 % degradation of caffeine was achieved in 48 hrs. The addition of inorganic source NH4Cl2 and KNO3 increase the caffeine degradation to 80.2% and 86% respectively. The critical medium components viz: Na2HPO4, KH2PO4, caffeine, sucrose, MgSO4.7H2O, CaCl2, Fe2+ affecting the caffeine degradation were determined by Plackett- Burman design. The optimum concentration that lead to 99.07% of caffeine degradation with 10% of crude enzyme were found to be 0.2 g/l; 2.6 g/l; 0.3g/l; 0.6 g/l; 10 g/l; 5g/l and 0.02% respectively Keywords: Caffeine degradation, microbial degradation, medium composition, Plackett-Burman.
10 Phenotypic and molecular characterization of white calla lily soft rot caused by Pectobacterium carotovorum subsp. carotovorum, Nazerian E, Biramizadeh E, Zarei R, Hosseini Nia A, Shafiei MR
A destructive disease on white calla lily was observed in commercial ornamental plants greenhouses in Markazi province, Iran. Disease symptoms on leaves and stems were gray to pale brown discoloration and expanding water soaked lesions on stem. PCR amplification of pectatelyase encoding gene produced a 434bp banding pattern on 1% agarose gel. The causal agent identification was confirmed by sequencing of the Pel gene. The ITS-PCR products were digested with RsaI restriction enzyme. For discrimination of the P. carotovorum from Pectobacterium odoriferum, all isolates were subjected to ?- methyl glucoside test. All isolates were identified as Pectobacterium carotovorum subsp. carotovorum. Keywords: Molecular detection, Identification, White calla lily, Soft rot.
11 Pullulan production from Aureobsidium pullulans by continuous culture, Hani Moubashera and Salwa S. Wahsh
Ten isolates of Aureobasidium pullulans were screened for the highest production of pullulan and minimal melanin production from Fayoum Governorate, Egypt. The optimum conditions for continuous culture were studied; temperature was 24°C, while pH 5.0, and agitation speed was at 500 rpm, while the aeration rate was 2.5 vvm and the best flow rate was 1 L/ 24 h. The maximum production of pullulan concentration with minimum melanin production was reached 10.18±0.04 gl-1. Keywords: Aureobasidium, pullulan, Continuous culture, Aeration, Flow rate, pH.