QUANTIFICATION USING ULTRAVIOLET SPECTROSCOPY METHOD AND IN VITRO STABILITY STUDY OF NANOVESICULAR SYSTEM CONTAINING PHYTIC ACID

Objective: The quantification of drug and stability of nanoparticulate delivery systems is one of the major apprehensions in biomedical applications. The present research work was attempted to quantify phytic acid by utilizing ultraviolet (UV) spectroscopy method and to evaluate the stability of nanovesicular (niosomes) system containing phytic acid.Methods: Niosomes containing phytic acid were developed by thin-film hydration method. Nanoformulation was subjected to stability testing as per the International Council for Harmonisation (ICH) guidelines. The formulation was stored at 30°C±2°C and 65%±5% RH, samples were withdrawn at 15th, 30th, 60th, 90th, 120th, and 180th day of analysis and examined for the integrity of vesicular/particle size, polydispersity index, zeta potential, and percent encapsulation efficiency.Results: Prepared nanoformulation displayed a straight line (y=mx+c) equation of y=−0.0309x+1.0413. Optimized batch of niosomes, which was prepared including dicetylphosphate showed zeta potential value of −36±0.36. Stability study showed that prepared niosomal formulation was stable up to 180 days at room temperature.Conclusion: Findings of the current research work suggested that UV spectroscopy method can be effectively used for the quantification of phytic acid and niosomal formulation of phytic acid. The formulation was found to be stable as per the ICH guidelines for stability testing

An updated review on Physalis peruviana fruit: Cultivational, nutraceutical and pharmaceutical aspects

Plants have always been rich sources of medicinally active constituents in the quest for curing numerous diseases. Among those, Physalis peruviana has been utilized traditionally as a therapeutic (antispasmodic, diuretic, antiseptic, sedative, and analgesic) and nutraceutical herb. It contains numerous active components like essential minerals, α-linolenic acid, iron, vitamins, carbohydrates, phytosterols etc. Its potential as a multifunctional agent in beverages, foods and nutraceutical industries makes it an important crop for consideration. From the agricultural point of view, this fruit is a profitable commercial crop for arid regions also and does not require much effort and investment for cultivation. It easily grows in wild and arid regions. Despite being a nutraceutical and a medicinally important crop, its utilization is not up to the mark. Thus the objective of the present review was to explore and emphasize the nutraceutical and therapeutic potential of Physalis peruviana. It provides exhaustive insight into the origin, distribution, cultivation, harvesting, active constituents and its prospective utility in food, nutrition and pharmaceutical industries

An updated review on Physalis peruviana fruit: Cultivational, nutraceutical and pharmaceutical aspects

97-110Plants have always been rich sources of medicinally active constituents in the quest for curing numerous diseases. Among those, Physalis peruviana has been utilized traditionally as a therapeutic (antispasmodic, diuretic, antiseptic, sedative, and analgesic) and nutraceutical herb. It contains numerous active components like essential minerals, α-linolenic acid, iron, vitamins, carbohydrates, phytosterols etc. Its potential as a multifunctional agent in beverages, foods and nutraceutical industries makes it an important crop for consideration. From the agricultural point of view, this fruit is a profitable commercial crop for arid regions also and does not require much effort and investment for cultivation. It easily grows in wild and arid regions. Despite being a nutraceutical and a medicinally important crop, its utilization is not up to the mark. Thus the objective of the present review was to explore and emphasize the nutraceutical and therapeutic potential of Physalis peruviana. It provides exhaustive insight into the origin, distribution, cultivation, harvesting, active constituents and its prospective utility in food, nutrition and pharmaceutical industries

Diagnostic utility of cytospin, cell block and immunocytochemistry in pleural effusion cytology

Background: With the introduction of cytospin, the sensitivity of diagnosing malignancies has increased mainly due to the increase in cellular yield. Cell block also gives the advantage of ancillary testing and allows for retrospective studies. Immunocytochemical markers are used to differentiate and subtype various malignancies in body effusions.Aim of the study was to compare the morphological features of both technique and to assess the diagnostic utility of cell block methods in the cytodiagnosis of pleural effusions.Methods: This was a Prospective observational comparative study of two cytopreparatory techniques. All samples were examined and processed by cytospin and cell block techniques. Continuous data were expressed as Mean±SD (standard deviation) while categorical data were expressed in number, percentage and compared by chi-square (χ2) test.Results: The final diagnosis of both cytospin (147 cases) and cell block (150 cases) techniques was divided into four broad categories: Inadequate, Benign, Suspicious and Malignant. The significant diagnostic cytospin (AUC=0.857, p<0.001) in discriminating positive and negative malignant cases with 75.00% sensitivity (95% CI=53.3-90.2) and 100.00% specificity (95% CI=86.7-100.0) and with 100.0% positive predictive value and 81.2% negative predictive value. In contrast, cell block also showed significant diagnostic but with higher accuracy (AUC=1.000, p<0.001) and sensitivity 100.00% (95% CI=86.7-100.0) and specificity 100.00% (95% CI=86.7-100.0) and 100.0% positive predictive value and 100.0% negative predictive value than cytospin technique.Conclusions: Cell block as a technique should be used in routine practice as it not only increases the diagnostic yield but ancillary test can also be done

Children’s Moral Emotion Attribution in the Happy Victimizer Task: The Role of Response Format

Previous research in the happy victimizer tradition indicated that preschool and early elementary-school children attribute positive emotions to the violator of a moral norm, whereas older children attribute negative moral emotions. Cognitive and motivational processes have been suggested as underlying this developmental shift. The current research investigated whether making the happy victimizer task less cognitively demanding, by providing children with alternative response formats, would increase children’s attribution of moral emotions and moral motivation. In Study 1, 93 4- to 7-year-old British children responded to the happy victimizer questions either in a normal condition (where they spontaneously pointed with a finger), a wait condition (where they had to wait before giving their answers), or an arrow condition (where they had to point with a paper arrow). In Study 2, 40 Spanish 4-year-old children responded in the happy victimizer task either in a normal or a wait condition. In both studies, participants’ attribution of moral emotions and moral motivation was significantly higher in the conditions with alternative response formats (wait, arrow) than in the normal condition. The role of cognitive abilities for emotion attribution in the happy victimizer task is discussed

Ambient-Dried, 3D-Printable and Electrically Conducting Cellulose Nanofiber Aerogels by Inclusion of Functional Polymers

This study presents a novel, green, and efficient way of preparing crosslinked aerogels from cellulose nanofibers (CNFs) and alginate using non-covalent chemistry. This new process can ultimately facilitate the fast, continuous, and large-scale production of porous, light-weight materials as it does not require freeze-drying, supercritical CO2 drying, or any environmentally harmful crosslinking chemistries. The reported preparation procedure relies solely on the successive freezing, solvent-exchange, and ambient drying of composite CNF-alginate gels. The presented findings suggest that a highly-porous structure can be preserved throughout the process by simply controlling the ionic strength of the gel. Aerogels with tunable densities (23–38 kg m−3) and compressive moduli (97–275 kPa) can be prepared by using different CNF concentrations. These low-density networks have a unique combination of formability (using molding or 3D-printing) and wet-stability (when ion exchanged to calcium ions). To demonstrate their use in advanced wet applications, the printed aerogels are functionalized with very high loadings of conducting poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):tosylate (PEDOT:TOS) polymer by using a novel in situ polymerization approach. In-depth material characterization reveals that these aerogels have the potential to be used in not only energy storage applications (specific capacitance of 78 F g−1), but also as mechanical-strain and humidity sensors

Children's trust and the development of prosocial behavior

This study examined the role of children’s trust beliefs and trustworthiness in the development of prosocial behavior using data from four waves of a longitudinal study in a large, ethnically diverse sample of children in Switzerland (mean age = 8.11 years at Time 1, N = 1,028). Prosocial behavior directed towards peers was measured at all assessment points by teacher reports. Children’s trust beliefs and their trustworthiness with peers were assessed and calculated by a social relations analysis at the first assessment point using children’s reports of the extent to which classmates kept promises. In addition, teacher reports of children’s trustworthiness were assessed at all four assessment points. Latent growth curve modeling yielded a decrease in prosocial behavior over time. Peer- and teacher-reported trustworthiness predicted higher initial levels of prosocial behavior, and peer-reported trustworthiness predicted less steep decreases in prosocial behavior over time. Autoregressive cross-lagged analysis also revealed bidirectional longitudinal associations between teacher-reported trustworthiness and prosocial behavior. We discuss the implications of the findings for research on the role of trust in the development of children’s prosocial behavior

Early sympathy and social acceptance predict the development of sharing in children.

Sharing is a fascinating activity of the human species and an important basis for the development of fairness, care, and cooperation in human social interaction. Economic research has proposed that sharing, or the willingness to sacrifice own resources for others, has its roots in social emotions such as sympathy. However, only few cross-sectional experiments have investigated children's other-regarding preferences, and the question how social-emotional skills influence the willingness to share valuable resources has not been tested. In the present longitudinal-experimental study, a sample of 175 6-year-old children, their primary caregivers, and their teachers is examined over a 3-year period of time. Data are analyzed by means of growth curve modeling. The findings show that sharing valuable resources strongly increases in children from 6 to 9 years of age. Increases in sharing behavior are associated with the early-developing ability to sympathize with anonymous others. Sharing at 7 years of age is predicted by feelings of social acceptance at 6 years of age. These findings hold after controlling for children's IQ and SES. Girls share more equally than boys at 6 and 7 years of age, however, this gender difference disappears at the age of 9 years. These results indicate that human sharing strongly increases in middle childhood and, that this increase is associated with sympathy towards anonymous others and with feelings of social acceptance. Additionally, sharing develops earlier in girls than in boys. This developmental perspective contributes to new evidence on change in sharing and its social-emotional roots. A better understanding of the factors underlying differences in the development of sharing and pro-social orientations should also provide insights into the development of atypical, anti-social orientations which exhibit social-emotional differences such as aggression and bullying behavior

Daily Deviations in Anger, Guilt, and Sympathy: A Developmental Diary Study of Aggression

With a diary study of 4- and 8-year-olds, we tested the association between daily deviations in anger and aggressive behavior, and whether this link was moderated by feelings of guilt and sympathy. Caregivers reported their children’s anger and aggression for 10 consecutive days (470 records; N = 80, 53 % girls). To calculate daily anger deviations from average anger levels, we subtracted each child’s average anger score (i.e., across 10 days) from his/her daily anger scores. Children reported their guilty feelings in response to vignettes depicting intentional harm, as well as their dispositional sympathy levels. Multilevel modeling indicated that within-child spikes in daily anger were associated with more aggression, above and beyond between-child differences in average anger levels. However, this association was weaker for children who reported higher levels of guilt. Sympathy did not moderate the anger-aggression link. We discuss potential implications for affective-developmental models of aggression and interventions that target anger-related aggressio

Aptamer-based multiplexed proteomic technology for biomarker discovery

Interrogation of the human proteome in a highly multiplexed and efficient manner remains a coveted and challenging goal in biology. We present a new aptamer-based proteomic technology for biomarker discovery capable of simultaneously measuring thousands of proteins from small sample volumes (15 [mu]L of serum or plasma). Our current assay allows us to measure ~800 proteins with very low limits of detection (1 pM average), 7 logs of overall dynamic range, and 5% average coefficient of variation. This technology is enabled by a new generation of aptamers that contain chemically modified nucleotides, which greatly expand the physicochemical diversity of the large randomized nucleic acid libraries from which the aptamers are selected. Proteins in complex matrices such as plasma are measured with a process that transforms a signature of protein concentrations into a corresponding DNA aptamer concentration signature, which is then quantified with a DNA microarray. In essence, our assay takes advantage of the dual nature of aptamers as both folded binding entities with defined shapes and unique sequences recognizable by specific hybridization probes. To demonstrate the utility of our proteomics biomarker discovery technology, we applied it to a clinical study of chronic kidney disease (CKD). We identified two well known CKD biomarkers as well as an additional 58 potential CKD biomarkers. These results demonstrate the potential utility of our technology to discover unique protein signatures characteristic of various disease states. More generally, we describe a versatile and powerful tool that allows large-scale comparison of proteome profiles among discrete populations. This unbiased and highly multiplexed search engine will enable the discovery of novel biomarkers in a manner that is unencumbered by our incomplete knowledge of biology, thereby helping to advance the next generation of evidence-based medicine