Chemical Reaction of Soybean Flavonoids with DNA: A Computational Study Using the Implicit Solvent Model

Genistein, daidzein, glycitein and quercetin are flavonoids present in soybean and other vegetables in high amounts. These flavonoids can be metabolically converted to more active forms, which may react with guanine in the DNA to form complexes and can lead to DNA depurination. We assumed two ultimate carcinogen forms of each of these flavonoids, diol epoxide form and diketone form. Density functional theory (DFT) and Hartree-Fock (HF) methods were used to study the reaction thermodynamics between active forms of flavonoids and DNA guanine. Solvent reaction field method of Tomasi and co-workers and the Langevin dipoles method of Florian and Warshel were used to calculate the hydration free energies. Activation free energy for each reaction was estimated using the linear free energy relation. Our calculations show that diol epoxide forms of flavonoids are more reactive than the corresponding diketone forms and are hence more likely flavonoid ultimate carcinogens. Genistein, daidzein and glycitein show comparable reactivity while quercetin is less reactive toward DNA

Effects of hospital facilities on patient outcomes after cancer surgery: an international, prospective, observational study

Background Early death after cancer surgery is higher in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) compared with in high-income countries, yet the impact of facility characteristics on early postoperative outcomes is unknown. The aim of this study was to examine the association between hospital infrastructure, resource availability, and processes on early outcomes after cancer surgery worldwide.Methods A multimethods analysis was performed as part of the GlobalSurg 3 study-a multicentre, international, prospective cohort study of patients who had surgery for breast, colorectal, or gastric cancer. The primary outcomes were 30-day mortality and 30-day major complication rates. Potentially beneficial hospital facilities were identified by variable selection to select those associated with 30-day mortality. Adjusted outcomes were determined using generalised estimating equations to account for patient characteristics and country-income group, with population stratification by hospital.Findings Between April 1, 2018, and April 23, 2019, facility-level data were collected for 9685 patients across 238 hospitals in 66 countries (91 hospitals in 20 high-income countries; 57 hospitals in 19 upper-middle-income countries; and 90 hospitals in 27 low-income to lower-middle-income countries). The availability of five hospital facilities was inversely associated with mortality: ultrasound, CT scanner, critical care unit, opioid analgesia, and oncologist. After adjustment for case-mix and country income group, hospitals with three or fewer of these facilities (62 hospitals, 1294 patients) had higher mortality compared with those with four or five (adjusted odds ratio [OR] 3.85 [95% CI 2.58-5.75]; p<0.0001), with excess mortality predominantly explained by a limited capacity to rescue following the development of major complications (63.0% vs 82.7%; OR 0.35 [0.23-0.53]; p<0.0001). Across LMICs, improvements in hospital facilities would prevent one to three deaths for every 100 patients undergoing surgery for cancer.Interpretation Hospitals with higher levels of infrastructure and resources have better outcomes after cancer surgery, independent of country income. Without urgent strengthening of hospital infrastructure and resources, the reductions in cancer-associated mortality associated with improved access will not be realised

Nurses' perceptions of aids and obstacles to the provision of optimal end of life care in ICU

Contains fulltext : 172380.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access

Robust Gait-Based Gender Classification for Video Surveillance Applications

In the paper, the main objective is to develop a gait-based gender classification in video surveillance applications that can run in real time. The Most important contribution of this work is a new fast feature extraction strategy that uses the 2D point cloud obtained from the frames in a gait cycle. For each frame, these points are aligned according to their centroid and arranged into groups. After that, they are projected into their PCA plane, obtaining a representation of the cycle particularly robust against view changes. By analysing the discriminatory capability of different body components, it is observed that hair, back, chest and thigh components are more distinct than other components. Then, final discriminative features are computed and KNN tool is used as a classifier. Experiments over auditorium datasets, CASIA-B database and TUM-IITKGP dataset are verified and the proposed method can essential characters determine the target, efficiently label moving targets, and classify the gender

Microstructure and EDS analysis on titanium/aluminium dissimilar laser welded joint subjected to age hardening

377-382Laser beam welding of titanium and aluminium alloy is very much needed for aerospace and automotive industries due to its high strength and light weight. The dissimilar welding is having a bearing on high temperature at the weldment and grain coarsening may cause if thermal cycle is not checked. In order to maintain good weld joint properties, phase transformation during rapid thermal cycles is required. Such cycles occur during welding of titanium/aluminium dissimilar sheets and age hardening heat treatment after welding. Titanium and aluminium alloys are sensitive to heat due to their difference in melting temperatures. This may cause changes in microstructures in weldment. The aim of this study is to analyse the changes in titanium (TI6AL4V) and aluminium (AA2024) alloy thin sheets welded joint using SEM and EDS studies before and after age hardening heat treatment. From the results, it is observed that laser beam focusing from titanium side gives well refined age hardened structure and EDS reveals that the bond is metallurgical one

Short term outcomes of Endoscopic Pilonidal Sinus Treatment (EPSiT)

INTRODUCTIONEndoscopic treatment of pilonidal disease (EPSiT) was initially described by Meinero in 2013. This minimally invasive technique has both technical and aesthetic advantages. The diagnostic application helps identify the anatomy of the pilonidal disease and the operative phase ablates and cleans the infected cavity. Our aim was to study the short-term outcomes of EPSiT and evaluate complications and recurrence ratesMETHODSProspectively maintained database of all consecutive patients who underwent EPSiT by a single surgeon in a District General Hospital from 01/11/2014 to 31/03/2018 were analysed. Follow-up was available until 30/09/2018. Data are presented as median (range).RESULTS74 (56 males) patients underwent EPSiT. Median age was 21 (16-62) years. All patients underwent EPSiT as day case procedures of which 7 patients had under local anaesthesia. There were no immediate postoperative complications, return to theatre or re-admissions within 90 days. On a median follow-up of 52 (2-114) weeks, 57 patients healed completely, and 8 patients were lost to follow-up. We achieved primary healing rates of 67% (44/66) and delayed healing rate of 77% (51/66) with EPSiT.CONCLUSIONEPSiT is a safe, effective, minimally invasive technique that should be considered as first-line treatment in selected cases of pilonidal sinus disease, thereby reducing morbidity related to conventional procedures

Reno productive activity of Ipomoea digitata in gentamicin induced kidney dysfunction

Kidneys endowed with million units termed as “nephrons†that act as natural sieves. The kidneys provide the final common pathway for the excretion of many drugs and their metabolites and therefore are frequently subjected to high concentrations of potentially toxic substances. Administration of several antibiotics like Gentamicin causes kidney dysfunction. Rats treated with Gentamicin developed significant kidney dysfunction was observed from increased level of urea, creatinine, sodium and decreased level of protein, potassium and non enzymatic antioxidants such as vitamin C and vitamin E. The plant, Ipomoea digitata is found to have nephroprotective activity. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *Department of Biochemistry and Chemistry, Faculty of Science, PRIST University, Vallam, Tanjavur – 613 403, Tamilnadu, India **Department of Zoology, Annamalai University, Annamalainagar - 608 002, Tamilnadu, India 1Corresponding author, Email: [email protected] Cite This Article As: A. Kalaiselvan, T. Anand and M. Soundararajan.Reno productive activity of Ipomoea digitata in gentamicin induced kidney dysfunction. J. Ecobiotechnol. 2(2): 57-62

Solid-phase preparation and characterization of albendazole solid dispersion

La dispersión sólida de albenzadol (ABZ) se preparó mediante el método de mezclado de polvos utilizando Eudragit E-100 (EGT) como transporte. Los patrones de difracción de rayos X y los termogramas calorimétricos diferenciales de barrido demostraron que la cristalinidad del fármaco en la mezcla física disminuían con el tiempo de almacenamiento. Al aumentar la temperatura de almacenamiento, la humedad relativa y la proporción en peso de polímero de la mezcla, se reducía el calor de fusión de la mezcla almacenada. La interacción específi ca de ABZ y EGT en el estado sólido se investigó mediante espectroscopia de infrarrojos y resonancia magnética nuclear. Se dedujo que el EGT experimenta una protonación N, formando un enlace de hidrógeno en el nitrógeno terciario, con preferencia respecto de una protonación O. En el estudio de solubilidad de fase se observó un aumento lineal de la solubilidad con la concentración de polímero. La mejora de la velocidad y la efi ciencia de disolución dependió del valor del calor de fusión, así como de la proporción de mezcla del polímero. La mezcla almacenada presentó una mejora signifi cativa de la biodisponibilidad en conejos, en comparación con la de la mezcla recién preparada.Solid dispersion of albendazole (ABZ) was prepared by powder mixing method using Eudragit E-100 (EGT) as a carrier. The X-ray diffraction patterns and differential scanning calorimetric thermograms demonstrated that the crystallinity of the drug in the physical mixture decreased with the storage time. The higher the storage temperature and the higher the relative humidity, and the higher the weight ratio of polymer in the mixture, the lower was the heat of fusion of the stored mixture. The specifi c interaction of ABZ with EGT in the solid state was investigated by infrared spectroscopy, and nuclear magnetic resonance. It was understood that EGT undergoes N-protonation, forming hydrogen bond at the tertiary nitrogen, in preference to O-protonation. Phase solubility study showed a linear increase in the solubility with the polymer concentration. The enhancement of dissolution rate and the dissolution effi ciency depended on the heat of fusion value as well as mixing ratio of the polymer. The stored mixture showed a signifi cantly enhanced bioavailability in rabbits compared to the freshly prepared one.Consejo Indio de Investigación Médica (Indian Council of Medical Research, ICMR), Nueva Delhi

Influence of LBW parameters on properties of Ti6Al4V/AA2024 dissimilar alloy joint

445-449Light weight dissimilar metal joints are very much needed for aerospace, automobile and similar such industries. While assessing the feasibility of joining dissimilar metals to produce sound weldment, numerous factors are to be considered. In the present investigation an attempt is made to join Ti6Al4V and AA2024 dissimilar metals using laser beam welding (LBW) under different weld speeds. For evaluating microstructure, scanning electron microscope (SEM) analysis has been adopted. Experimental investigations reveal that weld speed is found to be a significant variable to enhance strength of weld joint. Finer grains with homogeneous distribution at higher speeds as seen using SEM support this finding