January 2010

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

  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...

Author(s): T. A. Oluwatelure and K. O. Oloruntegbe

January 2010

Isolation and characterization of cypermethrin utilizing bacteria from Brinjal cultivated soil

  The ability of five bacterial isolates (Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella Sp.,Escherichia coli, Bacillus Sp. and Corynebacterium) isolated from Brinjal cultivated field to degrade cypermethrin was studied. It was confirmed that these isolated organisms were able to utilize and degrade cypermethrin. In this five different bacterial colonies, P....

Author(s): A. G. Murugesan, T. Jeyasanthi and S. Maheswari

January 2010

Isolation of diverse bacterial species associated with maedi-visna infection of sheep in Ethiopia

  Bacterial species associated with maedi-visna (MV) infection and occurrence of respiratory disease complex (RDC) in sheep in the cool central highlands of Ethiopia was investigated. Of the 80 sheep examined, 61.25% (n= 49) were found to be MV seropositive and 38.75% (n= 31) were MV seronegative. At post-mortem examination, out of the 49 MV seropositive sheep, 75.51% (n= 37) showed pneumonic lesions in the...

Author(s): Legesse Garedew, Gelagay Ayelet, Roman Yilma, Aschalew Zeleke and Esayas Gelaye

January 2010

Nutritional evaluation of yoghurt prepared by different starter cultures and their physiochemical analysis during storage

  Yoghurt was prepared with two different types of starter cultures that areLactobacillus bulgaricus and L. acidophilus. In this study 3, 4 and 5% starter cultures were used and stored at 4°C for 12 days. To analyze the effect of two different   cultures and their concentrations on the properties of yoghurt, different physio-chemical tests (protein, lactose, ash, fat, acidity, total...

Author(s): Ammara Hassan and Imran Amjad

January 2010

Screening of actinomycetes strains for the production of antifungal metabolites

  4 different actinomycetes strains (A1, A2, A3 and A4) were isolated from the laterite soil samples of Guntur region. Growth pattern and antifungal profiles of the strains were evaluated against the test fungi such as Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus niger,Candida albicans and Fusarium oxysporum. Based on the cultural, morphological and physiological characteristics, the strains A1, A2 and...

Author(s): A. Kavitha, M. Vijayalakshmi, P. Sudhakar and G. Narasimha

January 2010

Comparative studies on the efficacy of neem, basil leaf extracts and synthetic insecticide, lambda-cyhalothrin, against Podagrica spp. on okra

  The efficacy of neem (Azadirachta indica A. Juss), basil (Ocimum basilicum L.) leaf extracts and lambda-cyhalothrin were compared at three levels of concentration against flea beetle, Podagrica spp. (Jac.) in okra. The leaf extracts were applied at 5, 10 and 20 ml per litre while lambda-cyhalothrin was applied at 2.5, 3.75 and 5.0 ml per litre. Distilled water only served as control. In this...

Author(s): Ahmed Oladimeji and Musa Abdulrasak Kannike

January 2010

Antimicrobial activity of the new endophytic Monodictys castaneae SVJM139 pigment and its optimization

  The present research work was aimed to screen the endophytic fungal pigment against human pathogenic bacteria and optimize the most suitable medium with specific pH, temperature and elicitors to improve the growth and antimicrobial pigment production. Based on the morphological characters, the isolated strain SVJM139 was identified as Monodictys castaneae SVJM139. Among 13 media tested (Table 1),...

Author(s): S. Visalakchi and J. Muthumary

January 2010

Effect of particulate materials on lactic fermentation of new local white variety cassava (“Bianbasse”) using both spontaneous and starter culture

  The effect of particulate materials on lactic fermentation of cassava using both spontaneous and starter culture - Lactobacillus plantarum was investigated. The mean value counts during spontaneous fermentation, the total dissolved loads in all the samples, the total reducing sugars of all samples, the microbial loads in all the samples, the contents of crude protein, crude fibre, ash contents,...

Author(s): I. A. Adetunde, A. A. Onilude and L. A. Adetunde

January 2010

Microbiological assay of the active component of ampicillin in ampicillin and ampicillin/cloxacillin suspensions using Bacillus megatharium NCTC 10342A76 as indicator organism

  Fifty one different samples from 5 different manufacturers of ampicillin and ampicillin/cloxacillin suspensions were tested for their levels of active components of ampicillin using the microbiological assay method. Bacillus megathariumNCTC10342A76 was selected from amongst a wide range of organisms screened for this purpose because of its detected suitability. Thin layer chromatography and...

Author(s): Udobi Chinweizu Ejikeme and Onaolapo Josiah Ademola

January 2010

Effect of processing on functional properties of Spirulina protein preparations

  The present investigation has been undertaken selecting a protein rich blue green alga Spirulina platensis in relation to change in functional properties of its proteins on chemical treatment with succinic anhydride, acetic anhydride and formaldehyde for succinylation, acetylation and methylation respectively. Modified proteins have been studied for their functional properties such as protein...

Author(s): Amita Mahajan, Neetu and A. S. Ahluwalia