Friends in Fiction: Bonding with Fictional Characters Introduced Through Fictional Narrative Positively Affects and Interplays with the Psychology and Social Behaviors of Adults to Influence Engagement

Just as people can form relationships with each other, they can befriend and interact with characters. As broadening media outlets continue to introduce fictional characters, it is vital to understand the effects relationships with characters, referred to as parasocial phenomena, have on individuals. In turn, this will offer a new perspective on the effects of engaging with fiction. Bonding with fictional characters introduced through television or print narratives affects and interplays with the psychology and social behaviors of adults. Most studies support the positive effects of parasocial phenomena in terms of personality, mindset, and social skills. Other studies state that the repercussions of parasocial breakups outweigh its advantages. Some researchers believe parasociality is negative throughout the interaction, such as when readers engage with immoral or alienating content. Although many dispute or minimize the impact of engaging with fictional narratives and characters, forming relationships with characters positively affects people’s behavior and disposition. These effects are evident through personality changes and prosocial participation in viewers and readers. Specific attributes of both people and characters mediate these effects, such as personality traits and motives. The topic is further complicated by dimensions such as content, but overall, parasociality positively affects readers and viewers during and after interacting with the characters. Content creators and readers should keep this strong connection and the magnitude of its influence in mind when engaging with fictional narratives. Discovering what narrative conditions maximize the positive effects of parasociality should be a priority for future research

Bee Shadow Recognition in Video Analysis of Omnidirectional Bee Traffic

Over a decade ago, beekeepers noticed that the bees were dying or disappearing without any prior health disorder. Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) has been a major threat to bee colonies around the world which affects vital human crop pollination. Possible instigators of CCD include viral and fungal diseases, decreased genetic diversity, pesticides and a variety of other factors. The interaction among any of these potential facets may be resulting in immunity loss for honey bees and the increased likelihood of collapse. It is essential to rescue honey bees and improve the health of bee colony. Monitoring the traffic of bees helps to track the status of hive remotely. An Electronic beehive monitoring system extracts video, audio and temperature data without causing any interruption to the bee hives. This data could provide vital information on colony behavior and health. This research uses Artificial Intelligence and Computer Vision methodologies to develop and analyze technologies to monitor omnidirectional bee traffic of hives without disrupting the colony. Bee traffic means the number of bees moving in a given area in front of the hive over a given period of time. Forager traffic is the number of bees coming in and/or leaving the hive over a time. Forager traffic is a significant component in monitoring food availability and demand, colony age structure, impacts of pests and diseases, etc on hives. The goal of this research is to estimate and keep track of bee traffic by eliminating unnecessary information from video samples

Gestational Vulnerability to Ozone Air Pollution - A Placental Story

About 99% of the global population resides in areas with air pollution surpassing World Health Organization standards. Air pollution is associated with adverse neonatal health outcomes such as low fetal birth weight and an increased risk for maternal pre-eclampsia. A particularly reactive air pollutant is ozone, which forms reactive oxygen species that induce cellular damage. Research exists on the dispersion of reactive oxygen species through the bloodstream leading to fetal vulnerability during pregnancy, specifically via the placenta. Yet, placental and fetal development is a temporal process with varied susceptibility to negative gestational outcomes. To addressing this gap, our laboratory utilized non-targeted proteomic analysis of amniotic fluid collected at term after either gestational day (GD) 10 or GD20 ozone exposure. Results provided a comprehensive list of proteins that indicated distinct outcome phenotypes. The acute GD20 exposure resulted in a potent acute-phase increase in antioxidant factors while the subacute GD10 exposure had a greater influence of growth factors. In follow-up, selected markers of these phenotypes will be assessed within matched placentas. Relevant to the antioxidant GD20 response, we will assess superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1) and catalase, which catalyze superoxide and hydrogen peroxide, respectively. Per the GD10 subacute response, connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) is produced by cells involved with structure and stabilization of the ECM and affects cellular growth, migration, adhesion, and vascularization. Together with CTGF, collagen T1A2 plays a vital role in the extracellular matrix (ECM) and has been linked to pregnancy complications such as miscarriage, gestational diabetes, and preeclampsia. To assess differential impacts on the placental vasculature, we will be investigating vascular endothelial cell adhesion molecule 1 (VCAM-1) and vascular endothelial cadherin (VE-Cadherin), which have both been identified as biomarkers of preeclampsia. In our experiments, pregnant Sprague-Dawley rats were exposed once to 0.3 ppm of ozone (O3) or filtered air (FA) via whole-body inhalation at GD10 or GD20 while control animals received a sham filtered air exposure at both times. Placentas were collected and snap-frozen at GD21 followed by thin-sectioning using a frozen microtome and formaldehyde fixation. Primary antibodies to our protein targets are incubated overnight at 4C followed by secondary alexa-fluor conjugated antibodies to allow for multi-channel immunofluorescence detection. Images are generated on a Zeiss Axio Imager.M2 microscope at 200x magnification. Ongoing experiments are set at optimizing primary antibody concentrations. The experimental design involves creating three wells of two sample placental tissues per slide that are prepared and marked with primary and then secondary antibodies specific to the protein of interest. Each well contains a different dilution of the antibody that yields different fluorescence. Densitometric analysis is used to determine the concentration with the greatest signal-to-noise ratio. Once optimized, antibodies will be co-imaged on placenta tissues across five replicate animal exposure per experimental group. Quantification of mean fluorescence intensity will then be tabulated across decidual, labyrinth and chorionic placental lamina. Results will be assessed using analysis of variance with post-hoc testing for group differences. Expected outcomes will demonstrate the relationship between prior amniotic fluid proteomic findings and effects within the placenta while differentiating placental vulnerability across windows of gestation. These findings will prove significant in understanding outcomes at term for both the mother and fetus when exposed to ozone pollution.https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/uresposters/1432/thumbnail.jp

STUDY OF IN VIVO PHARMACOKINETIC DRUG INTERACTIONS OF CURCUMIN ON TACRINE

Objective: Tacrine is a potent acetylcholine esterase inhibitor (AChEI), and curcumin has been recently proven to possess AChEI, amyloid β aggregation inhibitory activity in addition to its diverse pharmacodynamic nature. Tacrine undergoes biological transformation by cytochrome P450 (CYP 1A2) to a hydroxy metabolite, which is hepatotoxic. Curcumin is known for its inhibitory nature for various metabolic enzymes along with CYP1A2. The present study was undertaken to evaluate the influence of curcumin on the disposition kinetics of tacrine and to assess its impact on dosage regimen.Methods: It was hypothesized that the simultaneous administration of curcumin and tacrine can minimize the toxicity along with increased absorption of tacrine and curcumin into the biological system during the treatment of Alzheimer's patients.Results and Discussion: Hence, an attempt was made to develop a simple, precise, accurate, and cost-effective reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography method for simultaneous determination of curcumin and tacrine and also to estimate the effect of curcumin on absorption of tacrine, in rat plasma.Conclusion: Concomitant administration of curcumin with tacrine improved the parameters such as Cmax and AUC, which indicates that the curcumin would improve the absorption of tacrine

Prevalence study of Duchene Muscular Dystrophy and its Genetic Sequence in Southern India

  Objective Duchene Muscular dystrophy (DMD) is the common X-linked heterogenous progressive muscular dystrophy characterized by mutations in the DMD gene. The frequency of dystrophin gene mutations is varied in different DMD population. A precise diagnosis can help to reduce the severity of DMD since it aids in planning oftargeted medical treatment and required therapies. This study was aimed to investigate the mutation type, their rate and distribution of DMD’S in southern India. Materials & Methods An observational study was conducted on 250 genetically confirmed DMD patients from March,2019 to March,2021. The distribution pattern and rate of mutations (deletion, duplication, nonsense mutations, minor mutations) were investigated. Results Mutation spectrum was studied on 250 DMD patients, of which 63% exon deletion pattern were reported. 16% deletions were detected in proximal hot region (exons 3-28). The duplications were found 21% in the proximal hotspot largest region (exon 3-25). 16% of the patients reported single deletion (45 exon), 10.7% reported deletions of exon 44. Point mutations detected in 6%, small mutations were detected in 1.2%, non-sense mutations were detected in 2% of study population respectively. Missense Missense Mutations were detected in 0.8% of study population Conclusion This study estimates mutation spectrum of exon deletion pattern (63%) was predominantly identified in distal region; duplication was most frequent in proximal region. Point mutations, Nonsense mutations and small mutations have a least accountability. This study adds a real world evidence for developing research therapies in DM

DMPK studies in rat model for comparative evaluation of bioavailability of alpha-mangostin and its formulated solid lipid nanoparticle using a validated LC-MS/MS method

Garcinia mangostana L., contains the xanthone ?-mangostin, which is a bioactive secondary metabolite. The Caco-2 cell line transport of ?-mangostin was explored to see whether it could be used to study oral uptake. There has been little in-vivo research on the drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics of solid lipid nanoparticles of ?-mangostin. The ?-mangostin content estimation in plasma of rat was accomplished using a validated LC-MS/MS technique. The Papp (permeability coefficient apparent) across the Caco-2 cell monolayer is used to predict the absorption of orally administered ?-mangostin and ?-mangostin solid lipid nanoparticles (AM-SLNP). In the presence of the solid lipid and emulsifiers, AM-SLNP had 3.72 times higher Papp than ?-mangostin after 4 hours of study across the Caco-2 cell line. In-vivo rat model study show that formulated AM-SLNP has a 3.3-fold higher bioavailability than pure ?-mangostin. High tissue distribution of the AM-SLNP is observed compared to ?-mangostin, which may improve the efficacy of the product when compared to pure extract, as the available drug at the site of distribution is high. Because both cell monolayer and animal studies demonstrate the same pattern of drug intake mechanism for SLNP’s and as it is almost identical, nanotechnology can be utilized in avoiding hepatic metabolism and improving bioavailability

Cloning, characterization and expression analysis of porcine microRNAs

Background: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small ~22-nt regulatory RNAs that can silence target genes, by blocking their protein production or degrading the mRNAs. Pig is an important animal in the agriculture industry because of its utility in the meat production. Besides, pig has tremendous biomedical importance as a model organism because of its closer proximity to humans than the mouse model. Several hundreds of miRNAs have been identified from mammals, humans, mice and rats, but little is known about the miRNA component in the pig genome. Here, we adopted an experimental approach to identify conserved and unique miRNAs and characterize their expression patterns in diverse tissues of pig.Results: By sequencing a small RNA library generated using pooled RNA from the pig heart, liver and thymus; we identified a total of 120 conserved miRNA homologs in pig. Expression analysis of conserved miRNAs in 14 different tissue types revealed heart-specific expression of miR-499 and miR-208 and liver-specific expression of miR-122. Additionally, miR-1 and miR-133 in the heart, miR-181a and miR-142-3p in the thymus, miR-194 in the liver, and miR-143 in the stomach showed the highest levels of expression. miR-22, miR-26b, miR-29c and miR-30c showed ubiquitous expression in diverse tissues. The expression patterns of pig-specific miRNAs also varied among the tissues examined.Conclusion: Identification of 120 miRNAs and determination of the spatial expression patterns of a sub-set of these in the pig is a valuable resource for molecular biologists, breeders, and biomedical investigators interested in post-transcriptional gene regulation in pig and in related mammals, including humans.Peer reviewedBiochemistry and Molecular BiologyAnimal Scienc

A long-term outcome of therapeutic angiogenesis by transplantation of peripheral blood stem cells in critical limb ischemia after interventional revascularization

A 61-year-old male patient with atherosclerotic critical limb ischemia in the left leg underwent stent insertion into the left superficial femoral artery. Stenting procedures improved Rutherford grade from III-5 to II-4. Granulocyte colony-stimulating factor stimulated the production of white blood cells over four-fold and mononuclear cells (MNCs) 1.5-fold in the whole blood. Transplantation of 7.9×10 9 autologous MNCs into the left femoral artery rapidly decreased the leg pain intensity, with further improvement of Rutherford grades from II-4 to 0-0 without any side effects. In the four-year follow-up, significant improvement was found in terms of ankle brachial index, from nondetectable to 0.67, and peak systolic velocity, from 14.8 to 36.1 cm/s. Limb salvage and decreased resting pain were the notable outcomes of the treatment

Fuzzy logic and neural networks: basic concepts & application

About the Book: The primary purpose of this book is to provide the student with a comprehensive knowledge of basic concepts of fuzzy logic and neural networks. The hybridization of fuzzy logic and neural networks is also included. No previous knowledge of fuzzy logic and neural networks is required. Fuzzy logic and neural networks have been discussed in detail through illustrative examples, methods and generic applications. Extensive and carefully selected references is an invaluable resource for further study of fuzzy logic and neural networks. Each chapter is followed by a question bank which is intended to help in the preparation for external examination. This book consists of 125 illustrations. Contents: Introduction Part I: Fuzzy Logic Fuzzy Sets and Fuzzy Logic Fuzzy Relations Fuzzy Implications The Theory of Approximate Reasoning Fuzzy Rule-Based Systems Fuzzy Reasoning Schemes Fuzzy Logic Controllers Fuzzy Logic Applications Part II: Neural Networks Fundamentals Perceptron and Adaline Back-Propagation Recurrent Networks Self-Organising Networks Reinforcement Learning Neural Networks Applications Part III: Hybrid Fuzzy Neural Networks Hybrid Fuzzy Neural Networks Hybrid Fuzzy Neural Networks Applications