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Background Avian infectious bronchitis (IB) is a disease that can result in huge economic losses in the poultry industry. The high level of mutations of the IB virus (IBV) leads to the emergence of new serotypes and genotypes, and limits the efficacy of routine prevention. Medicinal plants, or substances derived from them, are being tested as options in the prevention of infectious diseases such as IB in many countries. The objective of this study was to investigate extracts of 15 selected medicinal plants for anti-IBV activity. Results Extracts of S. montana , O. vulgare , M. piperita , M. officinalis , T. vulgaris , H. officinalis , S. officinalis and D. canadense showed anti-IBV activity prior to and during infection, while S. montana showed activity prior to and after infection. M. piperita , O. vulgare and T. vulgaris extracts had > 60 SI. In further studies no virus plaques (plaque reduction rate 100%) or cytopathogenic effect (decrease of TCID 50 from 2.0 to 5.0 log 10 ) were detected after IBV treatment with extracts of M. piperita , D. canadense and T. vulgaris at concentrations of extracts ≥0.25 cytotoxic concentration (CC 50 ) ( P < 0.05). Both PFU number and TCID 50 increased after the use of M. piperita , D. canadense , T. vulgaris and M. officinalis extracts, the concentrations of which were 0.125 CC 50 and 0.25 CC 50 ( P < 0.05). Real-time PCR detected IBV RNA after treatment with all plant extracts using concentrations of 1:2 CC 50 , 1:4 CC 50 and 1:8 CC 50 . Delta cycle threshold (Ct) values decreased significantly comparing Ct values of 1:2 CC 50 and 1:8 CC 50 dilutions ( P < 0.05). Conclusions Many extracts of plants acted against IBV prior to and during infection, but the most effective were those of M. piperita , T. vulgaris and D. canadense .

A capacitance-to-digital converter integrated circuit was implemented in an automated CE device as a single chip detector. In this paper, design and hardware issues related to the fabrication and application of a miniature detector for contactless measurement of complex impedance are discussed. The capacitance-to-digital converter integrated circuit was used as the whole detector. The advantage of this setup is that the single integrated circuit provides digital data and neither additional signal conditioning nor analog-to-digital converter is required. Different separation conditions were used to evaluate the detection characteristics of the constructed detection unit. A 1 μM LOD for sodium and a 1.6 μM LOD for potassium ions were revealed for the detector. The detection system designed is competitive with miniaturized contactless conductivity detectors or UV absorbance detectors with respect to overall parameters (sensitivity, resolution, power consumption properties, and size). The obtained separation and detection results show that such detection technique can be used as an extremely low power consuming and space saving solution for CE detection with potential applications in environmental monitoring, process control, and various analytical measurements.

The capacitance-to-digital single chip detector was upgraded. The paper discusses hardware issues and benefits of the designed/upgraded detector. The device can be operated from rechargeable lithium-ion battery as stand-alone, portable system and is capable of transmitting real-time data wirelessly. The detector and additional modules (battery, battery holder, microcontroller board, wireless module) weight is less than 85 g. Electrophoretic separation in low conductivity 20 mM MES/L-His buffer, pH 6.1, was performed in order to evaluate detection parameters. The system is capable of quantification of potassium ions down to 0.31 μM. Investigation of differential signal acquisition configuration showed improved performance regarding external noise and temperature fluctuations. The system can be a solution for stand-alone, field-portable capillary format separation detector.

Machine learning methods identify antiviral phytochemicals using CART decision trees.