A Novel Neural Network based Classification for ECG Signals

Cardiac Arrhythmia represents heart abnormalities. This problem is faced by people, irrespective of age. Even the physicians feel difficulty in diagnosing the abnormal behavior of heart accurately. Accurate detection of cardiac abnormalities helps to provide right treatment. Classification plays an important role in predicting abnormal behaviors of heart and it helps the physician to treat the patients who are having cardiac arrhythmia. Extracted features from ECG (Electrocardiogram) signals are used for classification. It is possible to extract multiple features from ECG signal regardless of the features used for classification. Classification performed using all the extracted features leads to misclassification of abnormalities. So feature selection is an important concept in classifying the normal and abnormal behavior of heart. MIT BIH Arrhythmia dataset is used in our proposed work where the classification is done in MATLAB using Fitting Neural Network. DOI: 10.17762/ijritcc2321-8169.150314

Pre-Exercise ORS drink and muscle efficiency by bicycle ergography

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY: Dehydration, substrate and electrolyte depletion are the major problems seen during a prolonged bout of exercise. Administration of Oral Rehydration Solution (WHO) can be of great benefit to those involved in the exercise programs of longer duration as it contains water, carbohydrates and electrolytes which help to delay fatigue. INTRODUCTION: Nutrition is found to play an important role that mediates skeletal muscle adaptations during exercise performance of an individual. Carbohydrates,electrolytes and water help to improve exercise performance. AIM OF THE STUDY: To record the muscle efficiency parameters by performing exercise in bicycle ergometer till fatigue in male students by administering Oral Rehydration Solution(WHO) before the exercise session. MATERIALS AND METHODOLOGY: This is a Cross Sectional study, performed in the Research laboratory of the Department of Physiology, Coimbatore Medical College, Coimbatore. About 50 male students performed cycling exercise in bicycle ergometer in seven sessions at 50, 75 and 100 watts intensities, without and with ORS ingestion before the start of the cycling exercise. Parameters like energy expenditure, cycling duration and cycling distance. METs and RPP, SpO2 and VO2max were recorded. RESULTS: The data collected from the selected subjects were recorded in a Master Chart.Using SPSS 22 version software, mean, standard deviations and 'p' values were calculated. Unpaired ‘t’ test and ANOVA test was used for comparison of parameters. There was a significant relationship between the comparison of parameters without and with ORS ingestion before the onset of cycling exercise. CONCLUSION: In the present study there is an increase in the muscle efficiency parameters, RPP, METs and VO2max values following ORS ingestion and exercise by bicycle ergometry

ECOLOGY AND THE RAPD TECHNIQUES USED TO ASSESS THE GENETIC DIVERSITY IN PTEROLOBIUM HEXAPETALUM, A SCRAMBLING MEDICINAL SHRUB IN MARUTHAMALAI AND CHENNIMALAI HILLS, THE WESTERN GHATS

Objective: To investigate the ecological and genetic diversity, climatic factors, edaphic factors morphological and reproductive characters and RAPD analysis of medicinal plant species Pterolobium hexapetalum in two hills viz., Maruthamalai (arid) and Chennimalai (very arid), which is located in Coimbatore and Erode districts, Tamil Nadu. Methods: The present research was carried out by using a random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) analysis was made to determine the genetic variation between the two populations of the medicinal shrub, Pterolobium hexapetalum in an environmental gradient. Among the five primers tested, the OPN7 (80 %) and OPN17 (71.4 %) produced higher polymorphism was used in RAPD analysis. Results: The results of RAPD analysis showed the presence of 51 individual bands were formed, out of which, 29 were polymorphic bands which showed the existence of genetic variation between populations. A dendrogram was constructed based on Jaccard’s coefficient to determine the degree of genetic relationship among the two populations and analysed. The primers OPN7 and OPN17 were clustered together at a genetic distance level 10. Considering the elevation and proximity, the temperature ranges from 18 °C to 37.6 °C in Maruthamalai hill and 20 °C to 39.4 °C in Chennimalai hill. Conclusion: From the morphoecological studies the results indicated that both arid and very arid climatic conditions showed slight differences in their vegetative and reproductive characters

Botany, chemistry, and pharmaceutical significance of Sida cordifolia: a traditional medicinal plant

Sida cordifolia Linn. belonging to the family, Malvaceae has been widely employed in traditional medications in many parts of the world including India, Brazil, and other Asian and African countries. The plant is extensively used in the Ayurvedic medicine preparation. There are more than 200 plant species within the genus Sida, which are distributed predominantly in the tropical regions. The correct taxonomic identification is a major concern due to the fact that S. cordifolia looks morphologically similar with its related species. It possesses activity against various human ailments, including cancer, asthma, cough, diarrhea, malaria, gonorrhea, tuberculosis, obesity, ulcer, Parkinson’s disease, urinary infections, and many others. The medical importance of this plant is mainly correlated to the occurrence of diverse biologically active phytochemical compounds such as alkaloids, flavonoids, and steroids. The major compounds include β-phenylamines, 2-carboxylated tryptamines, quinazoline, quinoline, indole, ephedrine, vasicinone, 5-3-isoprenyl flavone, 5,7-dihydroxy-3-isoprenyl flavone, and 6-(isoprenyl)- 3-methoxy- 8-C-β-D-glucosyl-kaempferol 3-O-β-D-glucosyl[1–4]-α-D-glucoside. The literature survey reveals that most of the pharmacological investigations on S. cordifolia are limited to crude plant extracts and few isolated pure compounds. Therefore, there is a need to evaluate many other unexplored bioactive phytoconstituents with evidences so as to justify the traditional usages of S. cordifolia. Furthermore, detailed studies on the action of mechanisms of these isolated compounds supported by clinical research are necessary for validating their application in contemporary medicines. The aim of the present chapter is to provide a detailed information on the ethnobotanical, phytochemical, and pharmacological aspects of S. cordifolia

Chimeric nucleolin aptamer with survivin DNAzyme for cancer cell targeted delivery

A chimeric aptamer-DNAzyme conjugate was generated for the first time using a nucleolin aptamer (NCL-APT) and survivin Dz (Sur_Dz) and exhibited the targeted killing of cancer cells. This proof of concept of using an aptamer for the delivery of DNAzyme can be applied to other cancer types to target survivin in cancer cells in a specific manner

Nucleolin-aptamer therapy in retinoblastoma: molecular changes and mass spectrometry–based imaging

Retinoblastoma (RB) is an intraocular childhood tumor which, if left untreated, leads to blindness and mortality. Nucleolin (NCL) protein which is differentially expressed on the tumor cell surface, binds ligands and regulates carcinogenesis and angiogenesis. We found that NCL is over expressed in RB tumor tissues and cell lines compared to normal retina. We studied the effect of nucleolin-aptamer (NCL-APT) to reduce proliferation in RB tumor cells. Aptamer treatment on the RB cell lines (Y79 and WERI-Rb1) led to significant inhibition of cell proliferation. Locked nucleic acid (LNA) modified NCL-APT administered subcutaneously (s.c.) near tumor or intraperitoneally (i.p.) in Y79 xenografted nude mice resulted in 26 and 65% of tumor growth inhibition, respectively. Downregulation of inhibitor of apoptosis proteins, tumor miRNA-18a, altered serum cytokines, and serum miRNA-18a levels were observed upon NCL-APT treatment. Desorption electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (DESI MS)-based imaging of cell lines and tumor tissues revealed changes in phosphatidylcholines levels upon treatment. Thus, our study provides proof of concept illustrating NCL-APT-based targeted therapeutic strategy and use of DESI MS-based lipid imaging in monitoring therapeutic responses in RB

Targeting CD44, ABCG2 and CD133 markers using aptamers: in silico analysis of CD133 extracellular domain 2 and its aptamer

The application of nucleic acid aptamers for the diagnosis and therapy of cancer stem cells (CSCs) is expanding. The current study truncated and probed various existing aptamers against CSC markers CD44, ABCG2 and CD133 in retinoblastoma (RB) primary cells, cell lines, a breast cancer cell line and MCF7-sphere. Truncated CD44 aptamer retained its specific binding to cancer cells, ABCG2+ve MCF7-spheres and CD133+ve RB cells. Similarly, ABCG2 and CD133 aptamers showed higher affinity to ABCG2+ve, CD133+ve cells than the negative population and cell lines. All aptamers appreciably reduced viability of up to 50% and 32% of the primary RB tumor cells and cell lines, respectively. Colony formation of MCF7, RB cell lines and MCF7-sphere growth were inhibited significantly. Structure prediction, simulation of CD133 extracellular domain 2 (ExD2) and A15 followed by docking to comprehend the potential interaction revealed hydrogen bonds and non bonded interactions between them. This information could be used to improve the A15 aptamer to gain more interactions with CD133. Thus approaches undertaken here can be applied universally for cell-specific targeting, and the aptamers studied against CSC markers deserve further in vivo studies