Studies evaluating the effects of high-saturated fat diets on cardiac function are most often confounded by diet-induced obesity and by systemic insulin resistance. We evaluated whether coconut oil, containing C12:0 and C14:0 as main fatty acids, aggravates pressure overload-induced cardiomyopathy induced by transverse aortic constriction (TAC) in C57BL/6 mice. Mortality rate after TAC was high...

Rapid increase in construction activities has resulted in shortage of conventional construction materials.In the present scenario, the high cost of conventional building materials is a major factor affecting housing delivery in the world.This has necessitated research into alternative materials of construction.The effective housing techniques deal with reduction in cost of construction as well ...

Processing of coir, which is the fibre obtained from the husk of the coconut, is a dusty procedure; 779 workers in two coir processing factories in Sri Lanka were examined clincally and radiographically for evidence of respiratory disease. Respiratory symptoms were present in 20 (2-6%) of them, which is no higher than in the general population. Respiratory disease such as asthma, chronic bronch...

Activated carbon is used in sugar industries for the removal of colorants from sugar liquor and for treatment of drinking water and industrial wastewater. Coal is a commercially used activated carbon, which is a limited non renewable resource. There are different renewable resources such as sugarcane Bagasse, Almond nutshells, Rice husk, Rice straw, Coconut shells, which could be used as altern...

Nocardiopsis sp. KNU was found to degrade various lignocellulosic waste materials, namely, sorghum husk, sugarcane tops and leaves, wheat straw, and rice husk very efficiently. The strain was found to produce high amounts of cellulase and hemicellulase. Augmentation of cotton seed cake as an organic nitrogen source revealed inductions in activities of endoglucanase, glucoamylase, and xylanase u...

The efficiency of four low-cost sorbent materials namely peas husk, broad bean husk, medlar peel and fig leaves, for removing cadmium ions from aqueous solutions, in single systems, has been investigated in batch mode. Kinetic data and equilibrium sorption isotherms were measured. Kinetics of cadmium sorption was contact time, initial cadmium concentration and sorbent type dependent. For a give...

Rice husk is an abundant agricultural by-product reaching the output of 80 million tons annually in the world. The most common treatment method of rice husk is burning or burying, which caused serious air pollution and resource waste. In order to solve this problem, a new method is proposed to comprehensively utilize the rice husk in this paper. Firstly, the D-xylose was prepared from the semic...

Agroindustrial wastes such as spent grain, cocoa husk, rice bran and sawdust, unamended and amended with cattle, poultry and goat droppings were studied as to their effect on growth, fruit yield and nutrient composition of tomato (Lycopersicum escutentum Mill) in two experiments. Analysis of the wastes showed varying nutrient composition with C:N values of 11.1, 12.5, 23.3 and 18.2 respectively...

The use of waste materials as organic amendments in soil remediation can affect metal solubility; this interaction will vary with the characteristics of the organic matter that is added to the soil. A pot experiment was carried out in a calcareous, metal-polluted soil, using Beta maritima L. as an indicator species for the treatment effects on metal solubility. The treatments were: fresh solid ...

Three growth trials and one digestion trial were conducted to compare the effect of dietary fat sources and combinations on starter pig performance, nutrient digestibility and intestinal morphology. Growth trials 1 and 2, utilizing a total of 324 weanling pigs (21 +/- 3 d), were conducted to determine the influence of addition of soybean oil, coconut oil, choice white grease, 50% soybean oil: 5...