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Alginate was recovered from Sargassum latifolium biomass using different conditions of alkali treatment.Box-Behnken experimental design was evaluated to study the influence of alkali:alga ratio, temperatureand time on alginate yield, and its molecular weight (MW) and mannuronic/guluronic acid ratio (M/G).The second-order polynomial equations were analyzed by appropriate statistical methods. Extractiontemperature and time were the most important factors during alginate alkaline extraction. MW andM/G ratio played an important role in controlling the reducing power of alginate. Increasing pH of thealginate solutions enhanced its reducing capacity, while thermal treatment showed a negative effect.Additionally, alginate exhibited good emulsion stabilizing capacities with diverse hydrophobic com-pounds. Emulsifying activity was less sensitive to temperature, ionic strength and more stable at acidicpH.

There is a growing demand for chitosan production from fungi as it provides superior physico-chemical properties over traditional crustacean sources. Chitosan was recovered from Aspergillus niger biomass using different conditions of alkali deproteinization and Box-Benhken experimental design was evaluated to study the influence of alkali concentration, temperature and time on chitosan yield, degree of deacetylation (DD) and molecular weight (MW). Chitosan with different physico-chemical properties was obtained under different combinations of extraction factors. Desirability function was then used to predict the best overall combinations of responses. The most desirable compromise allowed for the recovery of chitosan with a yield of 7.0% (w/w), DD 83.64% and MW 2.70 × 104 Da, which were in good agreement with the predicted values. The recovered chitosan exhibited a good hydroxyl radical scavenging activity and ferrous ions chelating ability reached to 82.40% and 87.23%, respectively. Additionally, it demonstrated good emulsion stabilizing capacities with different vegetable oils. The results suggest that fungal mycelia can be used as a promising source of chitosan with important physico-chemical properties suitable for several applications such as food, pharmaceutical, and cosmetic industries.

The beta-amyloid (Aβ) peptide was used as an important biomarker for Alzheimer's disease (AD) diagnosis. The development of an accurate, selective, rapid, and highly sensitive technique for detecting of Aβ level is an important issue in biology, and medicine to assess human health risks. Here, gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) with different size were electrochemically deposited onto the indium tin oxide (ITO) substrate in the presence of different molecular weights of surfactants. The modified substrates were used as a high sensitive electrochemical sensor of in-vitro as well as ex-vivo monitoring of Aβ based on cyclic voltammetry and square wave voltammetry techniques. Our findings revealed that the modification of ITO electrode with Au NPs could enhance its sensor performance with high sensitivity for low concentration levels of Aβ over a wide linear range with a detection limit of about 20.7 ng/g, which is less than the concentration of insoluble Aβ40 (105.4±40.2 μg/g) in brain of AD induced. In addition, Au NPs/ITO modified electrodes have demonstrated ability to monitor Aβ in the brain extracted samples without any potential interference with other components. Raman spectroscopy has been used to confirm the presence of Aβ in the AD-induced samples. Thus, it is applicable for analyzing ex-vivo samples.

The incidence of onion purple blotch disease was investigated at Assiut Governorate, Egypt during 2011. Lesions with typical symptoms of the disease were colonized by Alternaria porri, Stemphylium vesicarium or mixtures of the both pathogens comprising 2.6, 39.8 and 57.6 % of samples, respectively. Four isolates were selected for virulence evaluation according to the nature of isolation, whereas two isolates were individually associated with the diseased samples and two isolates were collectively recovered. Individually, A. porri AUMC9301 and AUMC10453 showed high virulence contributing 81.25 and 78.13 %, respectively. Also, S. vesicarium AUMC10512 and AUMC10519 exhibit severity comprising 37.50 and 25.00 %, respectively. On the other hand, mixture of A. porri AUMC10453 and S. vesicarium AUMC10519 exhibited highest virulence (91.50 %). In conclusion, this investigation proved that onion plants showing purple blotch symptoms mainly colonized by both A. porri and S. vesicarium. Consequently, increase in the disease may be attributed to the association between these pathogens.

4-Nonylphenol (NP) is an emerging concern contaminant which is widely spread in the aquatic ecosystem. Nigella sativa seed (NSS) has multifaceted therapeutic values. This study aimed to give insight into the potential protective effect of NSS on NP-induced haematotoxicity in Clarias gariepinus through evaluation of haematological parameters, oxidant/antioxidant balance of blood lysate and histopathological investigation of blood smear. One hundred and fifty fish were divided into five groups (30/group). First group served as control which did not received NP exposure and fed basal diet without NSS supplementation. The other four groups were exposed to NP at a dose of 0.1 mg L−1 and fed diets supplemented with NSS at levels of 0, 10, 25 and 50 g/kg diet, respectively. Macrocytic hypochromic anaemia, thrombocytopenia, leucopenia, neutrophilia, lymphopenia, monocytosis and eosinophilia were observed following NP exposure together with increase in morphological erythrocyte alterations and micronuclei formation. Elevation in total peroxide and malondialdehyde and depletion in total antioxidant capacity of blood lysate were reported. We concluded that supplementation of NSS markedly ameliorated the previously listed manifestations, and the most effective doses were 25 and 50 g/kg feed.

4-Nonylphenol (NP) is an emerging concern contaminant which is widely spread in the aquatic ecosystem. Nigella sativa seed (NSS) has multifaceted therapeutic values. This study aimed to give insight into the potential protective effect of NSS on NP-induced haematotoxicity in Clarias gariepinus through evaluation of haematological parameters, oxidant/antioxidant balance of blood lysate and histopathological investigation of blood smear. One hundred and fifty fish were divided into five groups (30/group). First group served as control which did not received NP exposure and fed basal diet without NSS supplementation. The other four groups were exposed to NP at a dose of 0.1 mg L−1 and fed diets supplemented with NSS at levels of 0, 10, 25 and 50 g/kg diet, respectively. Macrocytic hypochromic anaemia, thrombocytopenia, leucopenia, neutrophilia, lymphopenia, monocytosis and eosinophilia were observed following NP exposure together with increase in morphological erythrocyte alterations and micronuclei formation. Elevation in total peroxide and malondialdehyde and depletion in total antioxidant capacity of blood lysate were reported. We concluded that supplementation of NSS markedly ameliorated the previously listed manifestations, and the most effective doses were 25 and 50 g/kg feed.

Comments on the recent work of Guo et al. [1] are presented, in order to correct the erroneous equations. The corrected equations of the Chebychev rational moments, for gray-level images, are presented. In addition, one numerical experiment is performed to ensure the validity of the corrected equations.