Colonoscopy: Advanced and Emerging Techniques-A Review of Colonoscopic Approaches to Colorectal Conditions.

A complete colonoscopy is key in the diagnostic and therapeutic approaches to a variety of colorectal diseases. Major challenges are incomplete polyp removal and missed polyps, particularly in the setting of a difficult colonoscopy. There are a variety of both well-established and newer techniques that have been developed to optimize polyp detection, perform complete polypectomy, and endoscopically treat various complications and conditions such as strictures and perforations. The objective of this article is to familiarize the colorectal surgeon with techniques utilized by advanced endoscopists

Incarcerated foreign body in the vagina of a postmenopausal lady

Vaginal foreign bodies retained for long duration are uncommon in present day scenario. When a female presents with recurrent foul smelling vaginal discharge, foreign body should be suspected. Here is a report of foreign body in the vagina of a postmenopausal lady

FACILE SYNTHESIS, SPECTRAL STUDIES, DFT CALCULATIONS AND BIOLOGICAL ACTIVITIES OF NOVEL NI (II), CU (II), AND PD (II) COMPLEXES OF THIADIAZOLE ANALOGS

Objective: A facile synthesis of some novel Schiff base derivatives of 2-substituted-5-amino-thiadiazoles along with their Ni (II), Cu (II), and Pd (II) complexes were achieved by sonication and the conventional method. In addition to establish the structure by DFT studies and to explore antimicrobial and anticancer activities of these novel compounds.Methods: The precursor 2-substituted-5-amino-thiadiazoles (T1-T3), target ligands and their metal complexes were synthesized by ultra-sonication and conventional means. The isolated products were thoroughly characterized by physical and spectroscopic techniques including 1H-NMR, [13]C-NMR and IR spectroscopy. All characterized compounds were screened for antimicrobial activities using well diffusion method, and MTT assay was performed for cytotoxicity.Results: All novel compounds were synthesized by a green route i.e. ultra sonication and a noticeable improvement in yield with shorter reaction time than the conventional method were observed. The octahedral geometry was proposed for Ni (II)/Cu (II) complexes whereas square planar for Pd (II) complexes on the basis of the spectral techniques which were supported by DFT analysis by Gaussian03. On the analysis of antimicrobial activities, the compound T7 and T10 showed maximum antibacterial and antifungal activities respectively. However, compounds T25, T37, T31 found to be a potential cytotoxic compound with IC50 value 0.469, 0.865 and 1.131 μM respectively.Conclusion: Analysis of synthetic protocol, it could be concluded that ultra-sonication is the better method to synthesize these potential biological active moiety. On the whole Cu (II) and Ni (II) complexes showed promising activity towards all microorganisms while Pd (II) complex emerged an excellent moiety in carcinoma cell line

Physico-chemical Characterization of Biochar from Selected Ligno-cellulosic Biomass for The Sustainable Utilization

Biochar is a thermal decomposition product known to mitigate climate change and a supplement to enhance soil fertility. The fine-grained, highly porous structure of biochar makes it a popular choice in environmental research. This study aims to assess the Physico-chemical properties and morphological changes in the biochar prepared from feedstocks: sawdust, sugarcane bagasse, and soapnut pith of Sapindus trifoliatus, native to the foothills of Western Ghats, Kerala, at a temperature of 300 oC and 600oC with 30 minutes residence time. The pyrolytic temperature and feedstock type may affect the yield, ash content, volatile matter (VM), fixed carbon (FC), and nutrient composition of biochar. The selection of these two factors is critical before proceeding with charring. The efficiency of biochar was determined through proximate, ultimate, and morphological characterizations. The pH of high-temperature biochar (sawdust biochar, sugarcane bagasse biochar, and soapnut pith biochar prepared at 600oC) was more alkaline (≥7) compared with low-temperature ones. The char yield was highest at 300oC, whereas the fixed carbon was limited. The VM/FC ratio of SDB600 at 1.09±2.3 represents the highest aromaticity and long-term stability. Therefore, SDB600 can be recommended for soil supplementation purposes. The macrospores were uniformly distributed throughout the biochar surface. Sugarcane bagasse pyrolyzed at 600oC (SBB600) possessed the minimum pore diameter (0.87-9.17µm), with the highest surface area; so that it could be an optimum habitat for soil microbiota as well as a suitable adsorbent for environmental remediation applications. The study suggests that biochar made from these ligno-cellulosic feedstocks is a sustainable tool and a value-added product for environmental management

Open Access Extracts from Acacia catechu suppress HIV-1 replication by inhibiting the activities of the viral

Background: Acacia catechu (Mimosa family) stem bark extracts have been used traditionally as a dietary supplement as well as a folk medicine given its reported anti-inflammatory, immunomodulatory, hepatoprotective, antioxidant, anti-microbial and anti-tumor activities. The present study was undertaken to evaluate the anti-HIV-1 activity of the extracts from stem bark of A. catechu. Methods: The aqueous and 50 % ethanolic extracts of A. catechu stem bark were prepared and 50 % ethanolic extract was further fractioned by successively partitioning with petroleum ether, chloroform and n-butanol. All the extracts and fractions were evaluated for cytotoxicity and anti-HIV-1 activity using different in vitro assays. The active n-butanol fraction was evaluated for its inhibition against HIV-1 reverse transcriptase, integrase, protease, pro-viral genome integration and viral Tat protein mediated transactivation. The effect of n-butanol fraction on the induction of pro-inflammatory cytokines secretion in Vk2/E6E7 cells and transepithelial resistance in Caco-2 and HEC-1A cells was investigated. Results: The aqueous and 50 % ethanolic extracts of A. catechu showed IC50 values of 1.8 ± 0.18 μg/ml and 3.6 ± 0.31 μg/ml, respectively in cell-free virus based assay using TZM-bl cells and HIV-1NL4.3 (X-4 tropic). In the above assay, n-butanol fraction exhibited anti-HIV-1 activity with an IC50 of 1.7 ± 0.12 μg/ml. The n-butanol fractio

Simplifying the analysis of software design variants with a colorful alloy

Formal modeling and automatic analysis are essential to achieve a trustworthy software design prior to its implementation. Alloy and its Analyzer are a popular language and tool for this task. Frequently, rather than a single software artifact, the goal is to develop a full software product line (SPL) with many variants supporting different features. Ideally, software design languages and tools should provide support for analyzing all such variants (e.g., by helping pinpoint combinations of features that could break a property), but that is not currently the case. Even when developing a single artifact, support for multi-variant analysis is desirable to explore design alternatives. Several techniques have been proposed to simplify the implementation of SPLs. One such technique is to use background colors to identify the fragments of code associated with each feature. In this paper we propose to use that same technique for formal design, showing how to add support for features and background colors to Alloy and its Analyzer, thus easing the analysis of software design variants. Some illustrative examples and evaluation results are presented, showing the benefits and efficiency of the implemented technique.This work is financed by the ERDF - European Regional Development Fund - through the Operational Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalisation - COMPETE 2020 - and by National Funds through the Portuguese funding agency, FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, within project POCI-01- 0145-FEDER-016826. The third author was also supported by the FCT sabbatical grant with reference SFRH/BSAB/143106/2018