International Journal of Basic and Applied Science

Ratio estimator for double sampling procedure with non-response: An empirical study

2024-03-02T15:25:03+00:00

This study proposes a ratio-type estimator for population mean estimation using auxiliary variables with double sampling in the presence of non-response. The study provides expressions for the constant, bias, and mean square errors (MSE) of the proposed estimator and compares it with ten existing estimators. The study employed the secondary source of data collection to evaluate the efficiency of the proposed and existing estimators by analyzing five natural populations from three different sources. The performance of ten (10) estimators was considered in this study. The findings suggest that the proposed estimator and the H estimator provide more accurate and precise estimates of the population mean using an auxiliary variable. Additionally, the study found significant differences amongst the mean values of the constant and bias for the different estimators. A Dunn Kruskal-Wallis multiple comparison tests with the Bonferroni method was performed to ascertain the pair of estimators that contributed to the significant difference observed. When estimating the population means using an auxiliary variable, the proposed estimator outperformed other existing estimators that were taken into consideration in the study

Total plate count and yeast mold count in liquid traditional medicine (Jamu) sold in the sukoharjo region market

2024-03-02T18:08:56+00:00

Jamu is the name for traditional medicine from Indonesia. This liquid traditional medicine is made by boiling all the ingredients, then squeezing the juice and mixing it with boiled water. This simple process of making liquid traditional medicine can cause undesirable impacts, microbial contamination which can cause diseases such as Escherichia coli bacteria which can cause diarrhea. In Sukoharjo, in several areas, there are still many sellers of liquid traditional medicine selling their wares in the market. There is no information regarding the quality of this liquid traditional medicine. This research aims to determine microbial contamination in traditional medicinal liquids sold at the Sukoharjo Regional Market. Research methods include total plate count to determine bacterial contamination and yeast mold count to determine fungal contamination in the kencur rice liquid traditional medicine. The results of calculating the total plate count showed that 3 samples exceeded the contamination limit with the highest total bacterial value of Colony Forming Unit (CFU)/ml. The results of the research showed that from the calculation of yeast mold count, 9 samples exceeded the contamination limit with the highest total yeast mold value of CFU/ml. This results can provide information to the public to increase awareness of consuming herbal medicine and to the local government to provide education to herbal medicine traders. There are still several traditional medicine quality standards that have not been observed in this study, so it is recommended that the quality of the types of microorganisms contamination, be further analyzed

Preliminary in silico study of a novel paratransgenic weapon against malaria

2024-03-15T01:54:28+00:00

Malaria is an infectious disease caused by Plasmodium spp., a protist whose infection is spread by Anopheles mosquito as a vector. A potential method to counter the infection is through paratransgenesis, a promising genetic control approach. This study proposed a new approach by using a transgene carried in a modified Ti plasmid hosted in Asaia bacterium to carry out two purposes: sensing the presence of Plasmodium protein biomarkers and transferring the toxin transgene to the parasite upon detection, thereby killing it without harming the Asaia carrier. The biosensor mechanism was created by repurposing a TonB dependent iron-uptake transport pathway to transcribe the vir genes of Agrobacterium tumefaciens that facilitate the gene transfer. The aim of this in silico project was to serve as a preliminary study on the likelihood of success of the aforementioned biosensor mechanism. This study utilized Alphafold and RCSB (Research Collaboratory for Structural Bioinformatic Protein Data Bank). As for the research tools: PyMOL, ClusPro website, and PRODIGY (PROtein binDIng enerGY prediction) server was used for data preparation, protein-protein docking and binding affinity analysis respectively. The results were assessed with t-test to analyze the significance of the binding affinity, in comparison to other studies that employed similar methods. The result showed Plasmodium protein GGCS (Gamma-glutamylcysteine synthetase) having the highest binding affinity with FecA (Fe(3+) dicitrate transport protein A). The preliminary data suggested that introducing the toxin transgene may be possible through vir gene transcription from the TonB pathway.

α-glucosidase Inhibitory Activity of Probiotic Isolate LBSU9 Isolated from Traditional Food “Trites”: a Preliminary Study

2024-03-12T05:18:53+00:00

As the prevalence of type 2 diabetes mellitus continues to increase over the years, research into antidiabetic drugs needs to continue. Probiotics are non-pathogenic microorganisms that have potential as α-glucosidase inhibitors. This study aimed to characterize and determine the α-glucosidase inhibitor activity of LBSU9 isolate, a probiotic isolated from "trites," a traditional food of North Sumatra. The results showed that LBSU9 had bacillus morphology, Gram positive, negative catalase test, TSIA (Triple Sugar Iron Agar) A/A test and non-hemolysis. LBSU9 had good tolerance to simulated gastric acid and bile salts, with growth percentages of 66.54% and 64.74%. LBSU9 also has potent antimicrobial activity against S.aureus and E.coli, with 20 mm and 17 mm inhibition zones, respectively. The alpha-glucosidase inhibitor activity of LBSU9 was 98.4% greater than that of acarbose, which was 97%. Based on the results of this study, it is concluded that LBSU9 isolate has the potential to be a complementary therapy to prevent or treat type 2 diabetes mellitus