Antimicrobial Activity of Amomum subulatum and Elettaria cardamomum Against Dental Caries Causing Microorganisms

The in vitro antimicrobial activity of Amomum subulatum and Elettaria cardamomum fruit extracts were studied against Streptococcus mutans, Staphylococcus aureus, Lactobacillus acidophilus, Candida albicans and Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The acetone, ethanol and methanol extracts of the selected plants exhibited antimicrobial activity against all tested microorganism except L. acidophilus. The most susceptible microorganism was S.aureus followed by S.mutans, S.cerevisiae and C.albicans in case of Amomum subulatum while in the case of Elettaria cardamomum; S.aureus was followed by C.albicans, S. cerevisiae and S.mutans. The largest mean zone of inhibition was obtained with the ethanolic extract of A. subulatum and acetonic extract of E.cardamomum against Staphylococcus aureus (16.32mm and 20.96mm respectively). Minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) of the extracts were also determined against the four selected microorganisms showing zones of inhibition ≥10mm. This study depicts that ethanol and acetone extracts of fruits of Amomum subulatum and Elettaria cardamomum can be used as a potential source of novel antimicrobial agents used to cure dental caries

Parametric min-cuts analysis in a network

AbstractThe all pairs minimum cuts problem in a capacitated undirected network is well known. Gomory and Hu showed that the all pairs minimum cuts are revealed by a min-cut tree that can be obtained by solving exactly (n−1) maximum flow problems, where n is the number of nodes in the network.In this paper we consider first the problem of finding parametric min-cuts for a specified pair of nodes when the capacity of an arc i is given by min{bi,λ}, where λ is the parameter, ranging from 0 to ∞. Next we seek the parametric min-cuts for all pairs of nodes, and achieve this by constructing min-cut trees for at most 2m different values of λ, where m is the number of edges in the network

BLOCKING IN PARTIAL DIALLEL CROSSES

Generally the parents are included in the experimental material for combining ability analysis for comparing the performance of crosses with parents and also for calculating heterosis. But unfortunately the parents are ignored for combining ability analysis because of non-availability of analysis procedure. Method of analysis of partial diallel crosses in incomplete blocks for the method -2 of Griffing (1956) has been given

Quantitative Multi-Parametric Evaluation of Centrosome Declustering Drugs: Centrosome Amplification, Mitotic Phenotype, Cell Cycle and Death

Unlike normal cells, cancer cells contain amplified centrosomes and rely on centrosome clustering mechanisms to form a pseudobipolar spindle that circumvents potentially fatal spindle multipolarity (MP). Centrosome clustering also promotes lowgrade chromosome missegregation, which can drive malignant transformation and tumor progression. Putative ‘centrosome declustering drugs’ represent a cancer cell-specific class of chemotherapeutics that produces a common phenotype of centrosome declustering and spindle MP. However, differences between individual agents in terms of efficacy and phenotypic nuances remain unexplored. Herein, we have developed a conceptual framework for the quantitative evaluation of centrosome declustering drugs by investigating their impact on centrosomes, clustering, spindle polarity, cell cycle arrest, and death in various cancer cell lines at multiple drug concentrations over time. Surprisingly, all centrosome declustering drugs evaluated in our study were also centrosome-amplifying drugs to varying extents. Notably, all declustering drugs induced spindle MP, and the peak extent of MP positively correlated with the induction of hypodiploid DNA-containing cells. Our data suggest acentriolar spindle pole amplification as a hitherto undescribed activity of some declustering drugs, resulting in spindle MP in cells that may not have amplified centrosomes. In general, declustering drugs were more toxic to cancer cell lines than non-transformed ones, with some exceptions. Through a comprehensive description and quantitative analysis of numerous phenotypes induced by declustering drugs, we propose a novel framework for the assessm

Ignorance based inference of optimality in thermodynamic processes

We derive ignorance based prior distribution to quantify incomplete information and show its use to estimate the optimal work characteristics of a heat engine.Comment: Latex, 10 pages, 3 figure

Informative priors and the analogy between quantum and classical heat engines

When incomplete information about the control parameters is quantified as a prior distribution, a subtle connection emerges between quantum heat engines and their classical analogs. We study the quantum model where the uncertain parameters are the intrinsic energy scales and compare with the classical models where the intermediate temperature is the uncertain parameter. The prior distribution quantifying the incomplete information has the form $\pi(x)\propto 1/x$ in both the quantum and the classical models. The expected efficiency calculated in near-equilibrium limit approaches the value of one third of Carnot efficiency.Comment: Revtex 6 pages, Submitted for Proceedings of Frontiers of Quantum and Mesoscopic Thermodynamics (FQMT-2011) Conferenc