Immunogenicity Studies of Various Experimental Vaccines in Chickens

In this paper, the main objective was to raise chickens’ antibodies against three crucial public health microorganisms: the human immunodeficiency virus-1, Salmonella spp, and Staphylococcus aureus. Immunogens were prepared from the said microorganisms. Chickens were vaccinated either orally or intramuscularly. After a booster immunization, mostly eggs were collected and assess for the presence of specific antibodies. The most important results were the production of a large amount of anti-HIV antibodies in chicken’s eggs, and also the synthesis of anti-protein a antibodies with the ability to inhibit the growth of S. aureus in vitro and to serve as anti-anti-idiotypic antibodies with the capacity of neutralizing the original antigen. Enzyme- linked immune absorbent assays detected the presence of these antibodies as anti-Salmonella antibodies that were critical in reducing the bacterial load in the stomach and caeca compared with a control group. The vaccines were effective and safe, but more laboratory work, and economics have to be carried out to start a human trial.

Analysis of some factors affecting production process of rubber seed oil-based biodiesel by opinion discrimination analytical modelling

The concept of biodiesel viewed by pundits as a renewable alternative fuel to diesel engines that could partially or fully replace or reduce the use of petroleum diesel fuel has been gaining great importance worldwide for its good quality exhaust, sustainability and biodegradability. The irregularity in production output, low quality, wastes, and downtimes appears to be a serious production problem being faced by manufacturers of biodiesel products which this study seeks to address. This study seeks to analyze some factors affecting the production process of rubber seed oil based biodiesel using opinion discrimination analysis. The research entails the application of survey method to gather relevant information required to build appropriate data matrix of 31 factors that were used to craft questionnaire administered to 100 respondents for their expert evaluation. Rensis Likert's 5-point attitudinal scale was used in dimensioning the respondent's responses, which were recorded in descending order of rating and were captured in a 100 × 31 data matrix and subsequently analyzed with the use of opinion discriminative analytical tool to obtain the discriminative powers (DP). The result of the DP-values obtained enabled us to appreciate the main factors that significantly influence the rubber seed oil based biodiesel production. In particular their relative influence is indicative of the magnitude of the DP-values. This study has revealed that the opinion discrimination analytical approach employed is effective in dealing with the problem of process variability and degraded output

The emergence of Stenotrophomonas maltophilia as a significant nosocomial pathogen at the University Hospital of the West Indies

Stenotrophomonas maltophilia is emerging worldwide as a nosocomial pathogen. It is associated with certain risk factors and a wide range of infections. This study was done to document its emergence at the University Hospital of the West Indies and to determine the incidence, distribution and risk factors associated with it. A retrospective study was conducted over the period April 1997 to December 2000. Clinical records were available for 46 of the 66 patients identified over the study period. Fifty-five per cent of the cases came from the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and the rest from other wards. There was a slight increase in the prevalence of infection with increasing age. The surgical service accounted for the largest number of isolates. Of the cases presented, 95.7 were exposed to a wide range of antibiotics and had some form of instrumentation. Underlying disease was found in 71.7 of the patients. S maltophilia was found most often in the sputum of ICU patients whereas it was most often isolated from wound swabs in the ward patients. The organism was isolated from blood more often in ICU patients (23.3) than in ward patients (9.5) and there was a 44 mortality rate among the cases in ICU compared with those on the wards (4.8). Stenotrophomonas maltophilia is an important nosocomial pathogen and occurs in a wide cross-section of patients. The risk factors must be addressed and infection control measures implemented to restrict the spread of this organism