Advanced Journal of Microbiology Research

Advanced Journal of Microbiology Research Vol. 2015

Available online at http://internationalscholarsjournals.org/journal/ajmr

© 2015 International Scholars Journals

Review

Effects of parental involvement on students’ attitude and performance in science

T. A. Oluwatelure* and K. O. Oloruntegbe

Department of Science and Technical Education, Adekunle Ajasin University. Akungba – Akoko, Ondo State, Nigeria.

Accepted 10 July, 2014

Abstract

This paper examines the attitude of students towards Biology and Chemistry. There was also a focus on the parental involvement. This research was set out find out how parental involvement influences students’ attitude towards, and performance in the two science subjects. An attitude questionnaire developed and standardized by the researcher was used. It’s split-half reliability coefficient yielded 0.59 and 0.51 for Biology and Chemistry respectively. A sample of four hundred and eighty students participated in the study. Three hypotheses were raised and tested. The result obtained using chi-square analysis revealed that the level of the home influence has implication on school learning and that performances of students in science are a function of their attitudes to the subject. The phenomena observed were discussed in the light of prevailing conditions in most of the developing West African countries. Conclusively, home influence can be a tool to enhance school learning.

Key words: Attitude of students, biology, chemistry, parental involvement, performance, level of the home influence, influence of parental involvement.

Advanced Journal of Microbiology Research Vol. 2015

Available online at http://internationalscholarsjournals.org/journal/ajmr

© 2015 International Scholars Journals

Full Length Research Paper

Evaluation of in vitro solubilization potential of phosphate solubilising Streptomyces isolated from phyllosphere of Heritiera fomes (mangrove)

Nibha Gupta¹*, Dolly Sahoo¹ and Uday Chand Basak²

¹Department of Microbiology, Division of Biotechnology, Regional Plant Resource, Centre, Bhubaneswar -751 015 Orissa, India.

²Division of Taxonomy and Conservation, Regional Plant Resource Centre, Bhubaneswar -751 015 Orissa, India.

Accepted 12 November, 2014

Abstract

Phosphate solubilising ability of five Streptomyces isolated from the phyllosphere of Heritiera fomes grown in Bhitarkanika mangrove ecosystem was evaluated using tricalcium phosphate (TCP) in both plates and broth culture conditions as well as with and without NaCl. Streptomyces ST24 showed highest solubilization of TCP, with 50.8 and 48.0 mm of halo zone in the plate assay done at pH 7.2 and temperatures 30 and 37°C. Streptomyces ST21, ST24 and ST26 showed good solubilization of TCP in culture medium with 52.15, 50.77 and 52.07 µg/ml, respectively. The requirement of NaCl for better solubilization of TCP was observed in all Streptomyces. However, ST23 and ST24 showed solubilization activity without addition of NaCl. Thus the solubilization potential varies among different isolates of Streptomyces. It also differed according to incubation period. Over all, the best solubilization ability of all test Streptomyces could be observed in the presence of 0.2% NaCl. The solubilization might be due to production of acids by the culture, since the pH of the culture broth was changed from initial pH of 7.2 and 9.0 to lower pH values.

Key words: Phosphate solubilization, Streptomyces, mangrove, salt, NaCl.

Advanced Journal of Microbiology Research Vol. 2015

Available online at http://internationalscholarsjournals.org/journal/ajmr

© 2015 International Scholars Journals

Full Length Research Paper

Screening of potential infants’ lactobacilli isolates for amino acids production

Tarek, M. El-Nemr¹ and Hesham E. Mostafa²*

¹Department of Dairy Science and Technology, Faculty of Agriculture, Alexandria University, Egypt.

²Bioprocess Development department, Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology Research Institute, Mubarak City for Scientific Research, Research Area-Borg El-Arab, Post Code 21934, Alexandria, Egypt.

Accepted 15 October, 2014

Abstract

A total of 9 lactic acid bacteria (LAB) isolated from Egyptian infants, belonging to lactobacilli strains, were screened and selected according to their amino acids production. The isolate strains produced different essential amino acids in fermentation of M17 medium. Lactobacillus strain L1 produced the highest yield of histidine 92.5 mg/l, L2 strain produced the highest amount of asparagine 59.61 mg/l, cysteine 32.96 mg/l, phenylalanine 17.49 mg/l and tyrosine 244.91 mg/l. On the other hand, Lactobacillus strain L3 is the most potential culture for the production of citrulline 61.12 mg/l and glutamic 68.78 mg/l. This strain also produced the highest amount of lysine, ornithine and proline, which were 57.04, 95.58 and 87.06 mg/l, respectively. While the strain L4 produced the highest amount of glycine 32.12 mg/l, strain L7 produced the highest amount of alanine 147.55 mg/l and strain L5 produced the highest amount of asparatic acid 218.09 mg/l. The present study concluded that the Lactobacillus strains have the potential to produce different amino acids with variance concentrations.

Key words: Lactobacilli, Lactobacillus, amino acids, screening, production.

Advanced Journal of Microbiology Research Vol. 2015

Available online at http://internationalscholarsjournals.org/journal/ajmr

© 2015 International Scholars Journals

Full Length Research Paper

Seroprevalence of Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever (CCHF) in risk groups in Tokat Province of Turkey

Saban Tekin^1*, Sener Barut², Ahmet Bursali¹, Gul Aydogan¹, Onem Yuce¹, Fatma Demir³ and Beytullah Yildirim⁴

¹Department of Biology, Gaziosmanpa a University, Faculty of Art and Sciences, Tokat, Turkey.

²Department of Infectious Diseases, Gaziosmanpa a University, School of Medicine Tokat, Turkey.

³Intensive Care Unit, C. Aykan State Hospital, Tokat, Turkey.

⁴Department of General Medicine, Gaziosmanpasa University, School of Medicine Tokat, Turkey.

Accepted 17 December, 2014

Abstract

Crimean Congo Haemorrhagic Fever (CCHF) is a fatal viral haemorrhagic fever affecting humans. Serious CCHF outbreaks with high mortality have been reported from Asia, Africa and Europe. Endemic CCHF outbreaks have been seen in Turkey between 2002 and 2009, with about 5% mortality rate. People working with animals, people having tick bites, health workers and relatives of CCHF patients may be infected by CCHF virus and therefore they have been considered as CCHF risk groups. In the present study, CCHF prevalence of a control group, people working with animals (PA), people having tick bites (PT), health workers (HW) and relatives of CCHF patients (RP) from Tokat province in Turkey was investigated. A total of 715 people in control and risk groups were tested for the presence of the anti-CCHF IgG in their sera by using anti-CCHF IgG ELISA and compared. Results showed that people working with animals and relatives of CCHF patients had significantly higher CCHF prevalence (p < 0.001) than other groups. The higher seroprevalence of CCHF in people working with animals and relatives of patients indicate that they might be infected with CCHFV in a way that clinical symptoms of disease did not occur or not apparent in a hyper endemic region.

Key words: CCHF, ELISA, human, ticks, Tokat, seroprevalence.

Advanced Journal of Microbiology Research Vol. 2015

Available online at http://internationalscholarsjournals.org/journal/ajmr

© 2015 International Scholars Journals

Full Length Research Paper

Lack of antimicrobial activities of Dicranopteris linearis extracts and fractions

Z.  A. Zakaria¹*, A. Mat Desa², K. Ramasamy², N. Ahmat³, A. S. Mohamad1, D. A. Israf¹ and M. R. Sulaiman1’

¹Department of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health Science, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.

²Faculty of Pharmacy, University Technology MARA, 40450 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia.

³Faculty of Applied Sciences, University Technology MARA, 40450 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia.

Accepted 3 December, 2014

Abstract

The aim of the present study is to determine the antimicrobial activity of the aqueous, chloroform and methanol extracts of the leaves of Dicranopteris linearis (Gleicheniaceae) using the micro-broth dilution method. The leaves of D. linearis were soaked separately in distilled water (dH₂O), chloroform and methanol in the ratio of 1:20 (w/v) for 72 h at room temperature, while some part of the methanol extracts was also partitioned with hexane, chloroform and methanol. The target microbe used were Staphylococcus aureus 25923, S. aureus 33591 (a methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) isolate), S. aureus 700699 (a vancomycin-intermediate resistant S. aureus (VISA) isolate), S. aureus 156 (a vancomycin -resistant S. aureus (VRSA) isolate), Escherichia coli 35218 and Candida albicans 10231. The results obtained show that the methanol extract was the most active in antimicrobial testing with the MIC/MBC values of 625 µg/ml. Based on this result, fractionation was carried out on the methanol extract and yielded eleven fractions. Of these, only B5, B6 and B11 fractions were found to be effective against S. aureus 33591 and S. aureus 25927 with MIC/MBC values ranging between 1250 - 2500 µg/ml. In conclusion, the D. linearis possess mild antibacterial activity against the selected panel of microbes, which explained the lack of claimed on the plant antimicrobial activity.

Key word: Dicranopteris linearis, Gleicheniaceae, micro-broth dilution method, mild antibacterial, Stapylococcus aureus.

Advanced Journal of Microbiology Research Vol. 2015

Available online at http://internationalscholarsjournals.org/journal/ajmr

© 2015 International Scholars Journals

Full Length Research Paper

Patients with suspected visceral leishmaniasis in Istanbul

Huseyin Cakan¹, Suat Saribas²*, Vecdet Oz¹, Erdal Polat², Mustafa Aslan² and Bekir Kocazeybek²

¹Institute of Forensic Sciences, Istanbul University, Turkey.

²Microbiology and Clinical Microbiology Department, Cerrahpasa Faculty of Medicine, Istanbul University, Turkey.

Accepted 29 October, 2014

Abstract

We performed a four year study to investigate the Visceral Leishmaniasis (VL) cases in, Turkey. Fifty-nine patients with suspected VL from Istanbul were included in this work. Bone marrow and blood samples of these patients were tested for possible VL infection using several methods including serological tests, microscopy, PCR. Nineteen (32.2%) patients had positive results for VL after one or more of the tests performed, while only 7 patients (11.8%) had positive results with all the tests including Giemsa stain. Four (6.8%) patients had negative results based on all the serological tests performed except for positive results with Giemsa stain, culture and PCR. The other 4 (6.8%) patients had positive results with Formol-gel, ELISA IgG (>1.1 ISR) and IFAT IgG, (>1/256) but negative results were obtained with direct microscopic examination, culture and PCR. Using PCR Leishmania infantum DNA was detected in 11(18.6%) of the (Leishmania) cultures originated from the bone marrow samples. Plasmodium vivax was found in 2 (3.4%) patients and leptospira was detected in 1 (1.7%) patient. One (1.7%) patient was diagnosed with Pneumonia (Streptococcus pneumoniae) . Forty (67.8%) patients had negative results after direct microscopic examination, culture, serological tests and PCR. The kappa coefficients = 0.80 = 1.00, = 0.51, = 0.55 and = 0.45 were evaluated for PCR and direct microscopic examination, PCR and culture, PCR and ELISA, PCR and IFAT and PCR and Formol-Gel, as perfect agreement, perfect agreement, moderate agreement and moderate agreement fair moderate, respectively. The probability values (p) for comparisons of all the above tests with PCR showed a significant correlation (p < 0.000) In conclusion, we found that no single method alone was sufficient enough to diagnose VL accurately; however, combined with PCR, all these methods can reveal better and sensitive results ultimately leading to a correct diagnosis. We also suggest that PCR has to be applied with other laboratory diagnostic tests in order to increase the sensitivity in diagnosis and decrease the possible defects in diagnosis.

Key words: Visceral leishmaniasis, Leishmania infantum, Turkey.