The effect of essential oil of Achillea wilhelmsii flowers on cisplatin-induced hepatotoxicity

Background: The essential oil of Achillea wilhelmsii has‎ anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. Cisplatin is one of the most important anticancer drugs that are widely used to treat various types of cancers. This study aimed at examining the effects of the essential oil of A. wilhelmsii flowers on cisplatin-induced hepatotoxicity in rats. Materials and Methods: In this study, 36 male Wistar rats weighing 200-250 g were divided into 6 groups: 1) control, 2) cisplatin (0.4 mg/kg), 3) cisplatin and essential oil (30 mg/kg), 4) cisplatin and essential oil (60 mg/kg), 5) essential oil (30 mg/kg) and 6) essential oil (60 mg/kg).The injection was performed in the groups every day for 8 weeks. Then, serum levels of liver enzymes were measured and the liver tissue was removed for histopathological studies. Results: The results showed no significant changes in the albumin level (P>0.05). However, the activities of hepatic factors ALT, AST, ALP and bilirubin were decreased significantly in the groups received essential oil 30 and 60 mg/kg + cisplatin and in groups only received the essential oil 30 and 60 mg/kg compared to the cisplatin group (P<0.05). Histopathological analysis of liver showed a significant difference in all groups compared to the control group, which this difference in the group received essential oil 60 mg/kg + cisplatin was higher than other groups. Conclusion: The essential oil of A. wilhelmsii decreases serum levels of liver factors and bilirubin against cisplatin

Experimental study on repeatedly loaded foundation soil strengthened by wraparound geosynthetic reinforcement technique

In the recent past, the potential benefits of wraparound geosynthetic reinforcement technique for constructing the reinforced soil foundations have been reported. This paper presents the experimental study on the behaviour of model strip footing resting on sandy soil bed reinforced with geosynthetic in wraparound and planar forms under monotonic and repeated loadings. The geosynthetic layers were laid according to the reinforcement ratio to minimise the scale effect. It is found that for the same amount of reinforcement material, the wraparound reinforced model resulted in less settlement in comparison to planar reinforced models. The efficiency of wraparound reinforced model increased with the increase in load amplitude and the rate of total cumulative settlement substantially decreased with the increase in number of load cycles. The wraparound reinforced model has shown about 45% lower average total settlement in comparison to unreinforced model, while the double-layer reinforced model has about 41% lower average total settlement at the cost of approximately twice the material and 1.5 times the occupied land width ratio. Moreover, wraparound models have shown much greater stability in comparison to their counterpart models when subjected to incremental repeated loading. © 2021 Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

A histopathological outlook on nephrotic syndrome: A pediatric perspective

The developing world is observing changing histopathological patterns of idiopathic nephrotic syndrome (INS). However, the true burden of non-minimal change disease (non-MCD) presenting as INS remains unestimated owing to a paucity of data on renal biopsies. Data were collected from January 2006 to June 2014 on 75 children up to 16 years of age who underwent renal biopsies for INS. Mean age at biopsy was 11.2 ± 3.7 years. The male to female ratio was 1.5:1. A total of 25 (33.3%) children were steroid sensitive, 36 (48%) were steroid resistant, 10 (13.3%) were steroid dependent and 4 (5.3%) came with relapse of nephrotic syndrome (NS). Focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) was the most common histopathological subtype observed in 35 (46.8%) children followed by membranous glomerulonephritis (MGN) in 11 (14.7%), membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis (MPGN) and mesangioproliferative glomerulonephritis (MSGN) in 4 (5.3%) each and IgA nephropathy in one (1.3%). MCD was the histological lesion in 19 (25.3%) children. The histopathology established FSGS as the main underlying cause of steroid resistant NS. The study highlights the emergence of non-MCD as the common cause of INS in the pediatric population and signifies the importance of renal biopsies in children with INS

Exogenous application of polyamines improves germination and early seedling growth of hot pepper

Polyamines are low molecular weight organic compounds involved in diverse range of biological processes in all living organisms. Seed priming is a technique that improves seed performance by rapid and uniform germination with normal and vigorous seedlings. A laboratory study was performed to explore the benefits of seed priming with polyamines on seed germination and seedling growth of hot pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) Hot pepper seeds were primed in aerated solution of putrescine, spermine, or spermidine (25, 50, 75, and 100 mM) for 48 h at 25 ± 2 °C. Significant results (P < 0.05) were observed for different attributes of seed germination and early seedling growth. Polyamines priming resulted in earlier and synchronized germination via improving final germination percentage, time to 50% germination, mean germination time, germination energy, germination speed and germination index compared with control. Improvement in shoot and root length, seedling fresh and dry weight, seedling growth rate and seedling vigor index was clearly indicative of positive effects of seed priming with polyamines. Out of all polyamines, putrescine proved to be better at low concentrations (i.e. 25 and 50 mM) for most of the traits related to seed emergence and seedling growth

Observing the Structure of the Landscape with the CMB Experiments

Assuming that inflation happened through a series of tunneling in the string theory landscape, it is argued that one can determine the structure of vacua using precise measurements of the scalar spectral index and tensor perturbations at large scales. It is shown that for a vacuum structure where the energy gap between the minima is constant, i.e. $\epsilon_i=i m_f^4$, one obtains the scalar spectral index, $n_s$, to be $\simeq 0.9687$, for the modes that exit the horizon 60 e-folds before the end of inflation. Alternatively, for a vacuum structure in which the energy gap increases linearly with the vacuum index, i.e. $\epsilon_i=\frac{i^2}{2} m_f^4$, $n_s$ turns out to be $\simeq 0.9614$. Both these two models are motivated within the string theory landscape using flux-compactification and their predictions for scalar spectral index are compatible with WMAP results. For both these two models, the results for the scalar spectral index turn out to be independent of $m_f$. Nonetheless, assuming that inflation started at Planckian energies and that there had been successful thermalization at each step, one can constrain $m_f<2.6069\times 10^{-5} m_P$ and $m_f<6.5396\times 10^{-7} m_P$ in these two models, respectively. Violation of the single-field consistency relation between the tensor and scalar spectra is another prediction of chain inflation models. This corresponds to having a smaller tensor/scalar ratio at large scales in comparison with the slow-roll counterparts. Similar to slow-roll inflation, it is argued that one can reconstruct the vacuum structure using the CMB experiments.Comment: v1: 8 pages, 2 figures; v2: grammatical typos corrected, results unchanged v3: To be published in JCA

Study of residual stresses around cold-expanded holes

Split sleeve cold expansion is one of the most widely used methods in the aerospace industry to enhance the fatigue performance of fastener holes in airframe structures. The initial motivation, which led to this research programme, was to develop an understanding of the behaviour of fatigue cracks emanating from cold-expanded holes, with a particular emphasis on the influence of these cracks on the surrounding compressive residual stresses. There are two strands of the research presented in this thesis: first being related to the study of hole deformation resulting from split sleeve cold expansion; and the second one focused on the fatigue behaviour of cracks emanating from cold-expanded holes. The strain fields developed from cold expansion were measured using stereoscopic digital image correlation (DIC) technique in aluminium specimens of two different thicknesses giving thickness to hole diameter ratio of 0.25 and 1. The capability of DIC in providing full-field strain data was exploited to determine the shape and size of the plastic zones developed from cold expansion. The results showed that the existing split sleeve cold expansion process is not as effective in creating an axisymmetric compressive residual elastic stress zone around the fastener holes in thin as it is in the thick specimens. The thin specimens used in this investigation were equivalent in thickness to sheet material commonly used in an aircraft fuselage or wing skins and the results indicate that there is a need to review the use of cold expansion process using a split sleeve and mandrel for holes in thin sheets. A simple approach utilising DIC was presented to analyse the strain fields resulting from cold expansion in stacked specimens. The results showed that stacking offers some improvement in the cold expansion of thin sheet components. They also demonstrated the workability of this approach which can be applied effectively to analyse cold expansion of fastener holes associated with a real joint configuration in an airframe. The propagation of fatigue cracks initiating from the cold-expanded holes was investigated by employing the thermoelastic stress analysis (TSA) technique and their influence on the surrounding residual stresses was determined using synchrotron x-ray diffraction (SXRD) technique. A long-standing ambiguity in the literature regarding the potential relaxation of beneficial compressive residual stresses, as a result of fatigue crack propagation, was addressed; and it was established, from TSA and SXRD results, that the formation or propagation of a fatigue crack does not cause any significant relaxation of these residual stresses. The results also clearly identify the loading conditions under which the residual stresses are expected to relax. This information is important in improving the theoretical models for fatigue life assessment of cold-expanded holes. The results should also be useful for the engineers in the aerospace industry to realise the full potential of the cold expansion process and to utilise it more effectively in the manufacturing of airframes leading to improved fatigue endurance under different loading conditions

Airline brand equity: do advertising and sales promotion matter? An empirical evidence from UAE traveler’s perspective

Purpose: This study aims to examine the roles of advertising (ADV) and sales promotion (SP) in creating airline brand equity (BE) in the UAE, and to test the mediational effect of customer perceived value on the proposed relationships. Additionally, the study examines the outcomes of airline BE (i.e. trust, satisfaction and loyalty). Design/methodology/approach: A structured and self-administered survey was used targeting 234 passengers, from which 197 were valid for the analysis. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were used to assess the research constructs unidimensionality, validity and composite reliability. Findings: The empirical findings support the direct relationship between ADV and BE. Perceived value fully mediates the effect of SP on BE. In addition, BE positively affects trust, satisfaction and loyalty. Research limitations/implications: Future research could investigate BE and perceived value as multidimensional constructs. Additionally, future research should expand the effect of other variables such as airline type, airline class and other marketing mix elements. Practical implications: The findings from this research highlight the importance of both ADV and sale promotion in enhancing airline BE, and the pivotal role of perceived value. Originality/value: The originality of this research is highlighted in conceptualizing a parsimonious model of the preceding constructs (i.e. ADV, SP, customer perceived quality) and subsequent constructs of BE (i.e. customer trust, customer satisfaction, customer loyalty), which has never been investigated collectively in one model in the literature particularly in the airline’ context of emerging economies such as UAE

Analysing the effect of membership and perceived trust on sport events electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) intention

© 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. The main scope of this paper examines the relationship among perceived trust, membership and electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) intention. A structured questionnaire based on a nonprobability purposive sample resulted in 413 responses, from which a structural equation model was developed. The results demonstrate that perceived trust significantly influences membership among a virtual group, and membership subsequently affects eWOM. From a sample drawn among international participants of a sporting event in Taiwan, results demonstrate the positive relationship and importance of perceived trust in creating a sense of membership among athletes

A New Approach in Solving Regular and Singular Conformable Fractional Coupled Burger's Equations

The conformable double ARA decomposition approach is presented in this current study to solve one-dimensional regular and singular conformable functional Burger's equations. We investigate the conformable double ARA transform's definition, existence requirements, and some basic properties. In this study, we introduce a novel interesting method that combines the double ARA transform with Adomian's decomposition method, in order to find the precise solutions of some nonlinear fractional problems. Moreover, we use the new approach to solve Burgers' equations for both regular and singular conformable fractional coupled systems. We also provide several instances to demonstrate the usefulness of the current study. Mathematica software has been used to get numerical results