Multicriteria Analysis of a Capacity Expansion Problem:Damaturu, Northeastern Nigeria as Case Study

1IntroductionThedecisionmakingprocessinWaterResourcesPlanningandMallagement(WRPM)isapublicplanningprocessandtheoptimumsolutionmustbeacceptedbydecisionmakerswhoinawayrepresentthegeneralPublic(Miloradov,M.etal.,1990).WRPMwithinaMulticriteriaAnalysis(MA)isacomplexanddynamoicprocessinwhichtwodecisionlevelsmaybedistinguished.Theupperleveldefinesthegoals,identifiesthecriteriaandchoosesthefinal"optimum"solution.Thesecondlevelistheengineeringlevelofatechnicalnature;itdefinesalternativesandpoin…     

Cloning and expression of HIV-1 p24 gene in insect cells by using BAC-TO-BAC system

Recombinant transposing vector pFHIV24 was constructed by cloning the HIV-1 p24 gene into the Multiple cloning site (MCS) of the transposing vector pFastBac1 in the correct orientation with respect to the polyhedrin promoter. Recombinant bacmid bHIV24 was obtained by transposing a mini-att Tn7 element from the recombinant pFHIV24 to the mini-att Tn7 attachment site on the bacmid by Tn7 transposition functions provided by the helper plasmid. Minipreparation of recombinant bacmid DNA was transfected intoSpodoptera frugiperda (Sf9) cells to get the recombinant virus. Fresh insect Sf9 cells were infected with the recombinant virus containing p24 to express the target protein. The target protein expressed was analyzed on a 15% polyacrylamide gels and then used as antigen to check HIV-1 positive serum by ELISA. Our positive result shows that the expressed p24 protein could be used as standard antigen for HIV-1 diagnosis by ELISA and other reliable diagnostic methods of HIV-1 infection. Supported by the World Bank Boan Program Mallam Nock Joshua: born in 1967, Master of Science To whom correspondence should be addressed (027-7882712-2938)     

Nucleotide sequence of polyhedrin gene of LsNPV and analysis of baculovirus polyhedron proteins

The intact 741 bp polyhedrin gene of LsNPV was sequenced by Silver, Sequencing System, and shares 90.6% and 97.0% nucleotide identity, 97.2% and 97.6% amino acid identity with PfNPV and MdNPV polh genes respectively. The 14 bp conservative sequence with the core element GTAAG, is located in the 5′untranslated region of the gene. The polh gene was predicted to encodes a 246 amino acid residures with molecular weight of 29.0 kd, in which the number of acidic amino acids and alkaline amino acids was roughly equal resulting in almost no charges in polyhedrin protein molecule and hence occlusion body. It gives a valuable implication that ionic bonds as well as hydrophobic bonds and hydrogen bond may play an important role in the crystallization of polyhedrin, by comparing amino acid variation of twenty—one polyhedrin. The comparsion of promoter regions of polyhedrin gene and class II gene shown that they are very similar, but also have differences in GC content. This could explain that both categories of gene are highly expressed, and polyhedrin genes are expressed more higher than class II gene. Wang Jiawang: born in 1962, Doctor of science. Present address: Cancer Institute, CAMS, Beijing 100005     

Cloning and expression of HIV-1 p24 gene in insect cells by using BAC-TO-BAC system

Recombinant transposing vector pFHIV24 was constructed by cloning the HIV-1 p24 gene into the Multiple cloning site (MCS) of the transposing vector pFastBac1 in the correct orientation with respect to the polyhedrin promoter. Recombinant bacmid bHIV24 was obtained by transposing a mini-att Tn7 element from the recombinant pFHIV24 to the mini-att Tn7 attachment site on the bacmid by Tn7 transposition functions provided by the helper plasmid. Minipreparation of recombinant bacmid DNA was transfected intoSpodoptera frugiperda (Sf9) cells to get the recombinant virus. Fresh insect Sf9 cells were infected with the recombinant virus containing p24 to express the target protein. The target protein expressed was analyzed on a 15% polyacrylamide gels and then used as antigen to check HIV-1 positive serum by ELISA. Our positive result shows that the expressed p24 protein could be used as standard antigen for HIV-1 diagnosis by ELISA and other reliable diagnostic methods of HIV-1 infection. Supported by the World Bank Boan Program Mallam Nock Joshua: born in 1967, Master of Science To whom correspondence should be addressed (027-7882712-2938)     

Construction and<Emphasis Type="Italic">in vitro</Emphasis> study of an E1B-defective adenovirus

An E1B-defective adenovirus named rl/Ad was constructed by homologous recombination.The construction,selection and propagation of recombinant virus was done in the human embryonic kidney 293 cells (HEK293).The in vitro study demonstrated that the recombinant virus has the ability to replicate in and lyse some p53-deficient human tumor cells such as the human glioblastoma tumor cells (U251) and human bladder tumer cells (EJ) but not in the normal cells with functional p53 such as the human fibroblast cells (MRC-5).Also,based on the cytopathic effect (CPE),it was demonstrated that the U251 cells were more sensitive to the infection of rl/Ad than that of EJ cells under identical conditions.In this paper,it was found that rl/Ad could be very useful in studying the in vitro selective replication of E1B-defective adenovirus.This may help to determine the safety of using any E1B-defective adenoviruses in cancer gene therapy.