AN ALGORITHM FOR PROMOTER MAPPING OF ALGT (ECF SUB FAMILY OF SIGMA FACTOR)

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is the most common lethal inheritable disease in Caucasians [1]. The primary contributors to the high morbidity and mortality in CF are the chronic respiratory infections caused by bacterial pathogens [2]. The predominant CF pathogen is Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and over 90% of CF patients eventually become colonized with this organism [3]. A classical feature of P. aeruginosa strains infecting CFpatients is that they mutate into the mucoid, exopolysaccharide alginate-overproducing form, in a process referred to as conversion to the mucoid phenotype [4]. The conversion of Pseudomonas aeruginosa to the mucoid phenotype coincides with the establishment of chronic respiratory infections in cystic fibrosis (CF). A major pathway of conversion to mucoidy in clinical strains of P. aeruginosa is dependent upon ctivation of the alternative sigma factor AlgU (P. aeruginosa _E) [5]. At the genetic level, the conversion to mucoidy in P. aeruginosaoccurs via mutations in a cluster of genes encoding the alternative sigma factor AlgU [6], also known as AlgT [7, 8], and an array of AlgU regulators: MucA, MucB, MucC, and MucD [9, 10, 11, 12]. Extracytoplasmic function (ECF) sigma factors constitute a diverse family of proteins, within the class of the sigma 70 subunit of RNA polymerase

Hepatoprotective Effect of Rheum emodi Roots (Revand chini) and Akseer-e-Jigar Against Paracetamol-induced Hepatotoxicity in Rats

Hepatoprotective effects of Rheum emodi roots and their aqueous and methanolic extracts were studied against liver damage induced by paracetamol in albino rats. In addition, the effects of herbal preparation, Akseer-e- Jigar and a control drug, silymarin were also studied. Pretreatment and post-treatment hepatoprotective effects of all these drugs were determined. The prevention of liver damage and curative effects of the drugs were judged by changes in serum ALT, AST, ALP, albumin and bilirubin (total and direct) levels. Powdered Rheum emodi roots (1 and 1.5 g/kg) and their aqueous extract did not significantly affect serum enzymes, albumin and bilirubin levels. However, treatment with powder (2 g/kg), methanolic extract (0.6 g/kg), Akseer-e-Jigar (1 g/kg) and silymarin (50 mg/kg) in both pre and post-treatment studies significantly prevented the paracetamol-induced rise of serum enzymes and bilirubin levels whereas serum albumin was raised after treatment with these drugs. It is conceivable, therefore, that Rheum emodi roots and Akseer-e-Jigar possess hepatoprotective principles that can prevent and/or treat liver damage due to paracetamol. The study has supported empirical use of the plant and its compound preparation used in traditional medicine

Effect of Berberis lycium Royle on Lipid Profile in Alloxan Induced Diabetic Rabbits

Berberis lycium Royle (B.l.R) commonly known as Ishkeen (Kashmal and Darbald) is widely used in folk medicines for the treatment of Diabetes mellitus. Experimental diabetes use to alter the lipid profile. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effects of Berberis lycium root bark on various lipid profiles in alloxan induced diabetic rabbits. Diabetes was induced by single intravenous injection of Alloxan (150 mg/kg).Oral administration of 250mg/kg and 500mg/kg crude powder of Berberis lycium root for four weeks resulted in significant reduction in total cholesterol, triglyceride and low density lipids (LDLs) levels. Berberis lycium treatment increased the levels of high density lipids (HDLs). Furthermore same doses stabilized the weight of diabetic rabbits. Thus our investigation clearly shows that crude powder of Berberis lycium Royle has antihyperlipidemic effect

Evaluation of in vitro and in vivo therapeutic efficacy of Ribes alpestre Decne in Rheumatoid arthritis

Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune inflammatory disorder, despite the discovery of numerous drugs there is still need to introduce newer, safer and more effective sources of drugs such as medicinal herbs. Present research work was an attempt to appraise the antiarthritic potential of Ribes alpestre Decne in rheumatoid arthritis. In vitro inhibition of protein (bovine serum albumin and egg albumin) denaturation, Human red blood cell membrane stabilization assays along with formaldehyde induced arthritis in rats were commenced in this study. Findings of present investigation demonstrated significant and dose dependent antiarthritic effect of Ribes alpestre. Aqueous ethanolic extract, butanol and aqueous fraction illustrated 95%, 69.233% and 92.840% protection at 6400 ug/mL against bovine serum albumin denaturation respectively. Similarly, plant extract together with butanol and aqueous fractions showed 3653.47%, 1484.03% and 3563.19% inhibition of pathological alteration of egg albumin in that order. Moreover, hydroethanolic extract with butanol and aqueous fraction exhibited 91.29%, 65.73% and 89.62% stabilization against erythrocyte hemolysis at 6400 ug/mL correspondingly. Furthermore, hydroethanolic extract, butanol and aqueous fraction notably 73.49%, 66.42% and 68.87% decreased paw edema at highest dose (200 mg/kg). Similarly aqueous ethanolic extract, butanol and aqueous fraction illustrated 72.38%, 54.90% and 66.33% decrease in paw thickness at 200 mg/kg. Hence results suggested that Ribes alpestre possess antiarthritic potential thus supporting its use as natural remedy in rheumatic conditions

Deep learning based objective quality assessment of multidimensional visual content

Tese (doutorado) — Universidade de Brasília, Faculdade de Tecnologia, Departamento de Engenharia Elétrica, 2022.Na última década, houve um tremendo aumento na popularidade dos aplicativos multimídia, aumentando assim o conteúdo multimídia. Quando esses conteúdossão gerados, transmitidos, reconstruídos e compartilhados, seus valores de pixel originais são transformados. Nesse cenário, torna-se mais crucial e exigente avaliar a qualidade visual do conteúdo visual afetado para que os requisitos dos usuários finais sejam atendidos. Neste trabalho, investigamos recursos espaciais, temporais e angulares eficazes desenvolvendo algoritmos sem referência que avaliam a qualidade visual de conteúdo visual multidimensional distorcido. Usamos algoritmos de aprendizado de máquina e aprendizado profundo para obter precisão de previsão.Para avaliação de qualidade de imagem bidimensional (2D), usamos padrões binários locais multiescala e informações de saliência e treinamos/testamos esses recursos usando o Random Forest Regressor. Para avaliação de qualidade de vídeo 2D, apresentamos um novo conceito de saliência espacial e temporal e pontuações de qualidade objetivas personalizadas. Usamos um modelo leve baseado em Rede Neural Convolucional (CNN) para treinamento e teste em patches selecionados de quadros de vídeo.Para avaliação objetiva da qualidade de imagens de campo de luz (LFI) em quatro dimensões (4D), propomos sete métodos de avaliação de qualidade LFI (LF-IQA) no total. Considerando que o LFI é composto por multi-views densas, Inspired by Human Visual System (HVS), propomos nosso primeiro método LF-IQA que é baseado em uma arquitetura CNN de dois fluxos. O segundo e terceiro métodos LF-IQA também são baseados em uma arquitetura de dois fluxos, que incorpora CNN, Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) e diversos recursos de gargalo. O quarto LF-IQA é baseado nas camadas CNN e Atrous Convolution (ACL), enquanto o quinto método usa as camadas CNN, ACL e LSTM. O sexto método LF-IQA também é baseado em uma arquitetura de dois fluxos, na qual EPIs horizontais e verticais são processados no domínio da frequência. Por último, mas não menos importante, o sétimo método LF-IQA é baseado em uma Rede Neural Convolucional de Gráfico. Para todos os métodos mencionados acima, realizamos experimentos intensivos e os resultados mostram que esses métodos superaram os métodos de última geração em conjuntos de dados de qualidade populares.Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES).In the last decade, there has been a tremendous increase in the popularity of multimedia applications, hence increasing multimedia content. When these contents are generated, transmitted, reconstructed and shared, their original pixel values are transformed. In this scenario, it becomes more crucial and demanding to assess visual quality of the affected visual content so that the requirements of end-users are satisfied. In this work, we investigate effective spatial, temporal, and angular features by developing no-reference algorithms that assess the visual quality of distorted multi-dimensional visual content. We use machine learning and deep learning algorithms to obtain prediction accuracy. For two-dimensional (2D) image quality assessment, we use multiscale local binary patterns and saliency information, and train / test these features using Random Forest Regressor. For 2D video quality assessment, we introduce a novel concept of spatial and temporal saliency and custom objective quality scores. We use a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) based light-weight model for training and testing on selected patches of video frames. For objective quality assessment of four-dimensional (4D) light field images (LFI), we propose seven LFI quality assessment (LF-IQA) methods in total. Considering that LFI is composed of dense multi-views, Inspired by Human Visual System (HVS), we propose our first LF-IQA method that is based on a two-streams CNN architecture. The second and third LF-IQA methods are also based on a two-stream architecture, which incorporates CNN, Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM), and diverse bottleneck features. The fourth LF-IQA is based on CNN and Atrous Convolution layers (ACL), while the fifth method uses CNN, ACL, and LSTM layers. The sixth LF-IQA method is also based on a two-stream architecture, in which, horizontal and vertical EPIs are processed in the frequency domain. Last, but not least, the seventh LF-IQA method is based on a Graph Convolutional Neural Network. For all of the methods mentioned above, we performed intensive experiments, and the results show that these methods outperformed state-of-the-art methods on popular quality datasets

Antimicrobial activity of some ethno-medicinal plants used in Pakistan

Medicinal plants have been used for their antimicrobial activity to discover new antimicrobial agents. Antimicrobial activity of aqueous and methanolic extracts of four ethnomedicinal plants such as Acacia modesta, Thymus serphylum, Syzygium cumuni L and Olea ferruginea were evaluated against five bacterial strains such as S. aureus, E. coli, P. aeruginosa, S. epidermidis and B. subtilis by disc diffusion method. The results showed that Acacia modesta showed maximum activity against E. coli with zone of inhibition (16.2 mm). Thymus serphylum showed maximum activity against B. subtilis with zone of inhibition (13.3 mm) but no activity against P. aeruginosa and E. coli. Syzygium cumuni L showed maximum activity against S.epidermidis with zone of inhibition (14.5 mm) but no activity against E. coli, P. aeruginosa and B. subtilis. Similarly Olea ferruginea displayed maximum activity against S. epidermidis with zone of inhibition (16.8 mm). Antimicrobial activity of plants was concentration dependent. Methanolic extracts of plants showed better activity than aqueous extracts

Gastroprotective potential and mechanisms of action of Hedera nepalensis

Hedera nepalensis (H. nepalensis) , belonging to the family Araliaceae, is a medicinal plant traditionally used to treat stomach problems. The current study investigated the gastroprotective potential and the mechanism of action of H. nepalensis in diclofenac-and ethanol-induced ulcer models. Anti-oxidant and lipid peroxidation inhibitory prospects of H. nepalensis were checked out by free radical scavenging assay and UV spectrophotometer respectively. Effect of H. nepalensis on the pH, gastric total acidity of gastric juice and protective effects of H. nepalensis against ulcer models have been examined. Histopathological studies have been carried out. The aqueous methanol extract of H. nepalensis (100 µg/mL) showed anti-oxidant (83.55%) and lipid peroxidation inhibitory (70.88%) potential at 1000 µg/mL; the extract had no buffer potential. The extract (400 mg/kg) significantly (81.12% and 63.46%) showed gastroprotective effect in diclofenac and ethanol-induced rat ulcer models respectively. Histopathological studies confirmed the biochemical findings. FTIR analysis showed the presence of carboxylic acid, alkanes, conjugated alkanes, aldehydes and alkyl-aryl ethers. Gallic acid, M-coumaric acid and quercetin were found by HPLC analysis. H. nepalensis exhibited significant protection against diclofenac and ethanol induced gastric damage by anti-oxidant and lipid peroxidation suppression effects suggesting potential broad utility in treatment of diseases characterized with gastric damage

Transportation of Chromium (VI) to Bombyx mori L. from mulberry Plant (Morus alba L.) grown at soil irrigated with Chromium (VI) containing effluents

The research was conducted to determine Chromium (VI) toxicity in population Bombyx mori. The synthetic wastewater used to irrigate soil to evaluate the impact of pH (4 to 8) at 100 mg/L and initial Chromium (VI) concentrations (25 mg/L to 300 mg/L) at 5 pH in its bioaccumulation in B. mori foodchain.  By using atomic absorption spectrophotometer (AAS) analysis the amount of Chromium (VI) determined in soil, mulberry plants, B. mori larvae, silk glands and silkworm feces. The results showed that local cobalt pollution can be indicated by using B. mori as a template as its body length, body weight and the mortality rate were found to be strongly related to Chromium (VI) concentration. Higher the Chromium (VI) amount in mulberry leaves causes more toxicity to B. mori population. At 300 mg/L Cr (VI) concentration and pH 4 there was maximum deposition of Chromium (VI) in soil, mulberry plants, B. mori larvae, faeces and silk glands from the synthetic effluent. The maximum deposition was 123.5±0.03 mg/kg, 89.76±.031 mg/kg, 23.31±0.019 mg/kg, 41.32±0.069 mg/kg and 35.67±0.04 mg/kg observed respectively

Psychological Reasons for Committing Crimes: A Case Study of Central Jail Peshawar

The present study was conducted in District Central Jail, Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan to assess the factors shaping the criminal attitude of adults. The study proceeded with the objectives to assess the relationship between psychological factors with criminal attitude among criminals. A sample size of N=196 was randomly drawn from the universe. Sampling covered all the adult criminal of the age group of 18-64 years from the total population of N=360 convicted criminals. Frequency distribution and bi-vitiate analysis between dependent variable i.e. criminal attitude and independent variables namely psychological aspects were ascertain through cross tabulation while indexing the dependent variable. At bi-variate level, parents sentence several time was found significant, relatives’ involvement in criminal activities, large family was responsible for crimes, parents using intoxicants, joint family generating criminal attitude. Moreover, feeling of low social status, unhappy family life, commitment to family cause, broken family, low moral values, internalization of criminal values and vicious tendencies of crimes were found significant with criminal attitude.. The study concluded that poor family with large size had high interaction with criminals were some of the attributing factors for committing crimes

Determinants of Increasing Trend of Self-Medication in a Pakistani Community

Purpose: To determine the major reasons, sources, diseases and drugs responsible for increasing trend of self-medication.Method: A community-based cross-sectional survey was carried out in the district of Faisalabad in Pakistan. Respondents (1488) were classified on the basis of age, sex, education, lifestyle and their economical level. A questionnaire was distributed among the sample population to collect data.Results: Majority of respondents involved in self-medication were aged between 15 and 20 years. Family members (N = 717, 48 %) were considered the major source of information for self-medicated drugs. Lack of time (N = 504, 37 %) while economic issues (N = 485, 33 %) were the major reasons for self-medication. Medical stores were the source of drug purchase by 1087 (73 %) respondents. Headache (N = 772, 52 %) and fever (N = 600, 40 %) were the main indications for self-medication while 694 respondents reported that they engage in single-dose self-medication. Paracetamol (N = 689, 46 %), other analgesics (N = 488, 33 %),  non-steroidal anti-inflammatory (N = 680, 46 %) were reported to be used frequently for self-medication.Conclusion: Self-medication is prevalent in the Pakistani community due to easy access to over the counter (OTC) and prescription-only medicines  (POM). This may lead to untoward effects in consumers of the products. Special interventions by relevant regulatory agencies regarding the sale of the drugs are therefore required.Keywords: Self-medication, OTC drugs, Pharmacist