NOVEL APPROACHES IN LIPID BASED DRUG DELIVERY SYSTEMS

The use of lipids in drug delivery is by no means a new trend. “Old†lipid dosage forms such as suppositories, creams or emulsions have been on the market for a long time, and some of them in use since a long time. However, over the last decade, approaches in new designs of lipid carriers have considerably evolved for the delivery of poorly soluble drugs. Lipid based drug delivery systems (DDS) can play a direct role in improving efficacy and drug safety, whereby new and improved therapies are possible. The spectrum of applications for lipid based formulations has widened as the nature and type of active drugs under investigation vary. Lipid based formulations may also protect active compounds from biological degradation or transformation, which in turn can lead to an enhancement of drug potency. In addition, lipid based particulate DDS have been shown to reduce the toxicity of various drugs by changing the biodistribution of the drug away from sensitive organs. This article mainly focuses on novel lipid formulations namely emulsions, vesicular systems and lipid particulate systems and their subcategories as well as on their prominent applications in pharmaceutical drug delivery

Fish growth, yield and economics of conventional feed and weed based polyculture in ponds

Fish growth, yield and economics of polyculture were evaluated for six months from April to September, 2011 in ponds of Kushtia district, Bangladesh under 4 treatments of feeds and weeds as T0: rice bran, wheat bran and mustard oilcake; T1: Azolla; T2: Grass and T3: Banana leaf. Each treatment had 3 replications. Mean initial stocking weight of fishes like Hypophthalmichthyes molitrix, Catla catla, Labeo rohita, Cirrhinus mrigala, Cyprinus carpio, Ctenopharyngodon idella and Barbonymus gonionotus was 62, 64, 57, 54, 63, 65 and 25 g, respectively. Stocking density (11,115 fishes/ha), liming (250 kg/ha), basal fertilization (Cowdung, 1,500 kg/ha; urea, 60 kg/ha; and Triple Super Phosphate, TSP 60 kg/ha) and periodic fertilization (Urea, 2.5 kg/ha/day; TSP, 2.5 kg/ha/day) were same for all the treatments. Water quality parameters (water temperature, transparency, dissolved oxygen, pH, alkalinity and free carbon dioxide) were monitored fortnightly and fish growth parameters (weight gain and Specific Growth Rate, SGR) were monitored monthly. Treatments did not vary significantly for the mean water quality parameters. Treatment T0 varied more significantly for the mean final weight,  weight gain, SGR, survival rate and yield for almost all the species except C. idella and B. gonionotus. Significantly highest CBR was recorded with treatment T1

Amaru: plug&play resilient in-band control for SDN

Software-Defined Networking (SDN) is a pillar of next-generation networks. ImplementingSDN requires the establishment of a decoupled control communication, which might be installed either as anout-of-band or in-band network. While the benefits of in-band control networks seem apparent, no standardprotocol exists and most of setups are based on ad-hoc solutions. This article defines Amaru, a protocolthat provides plug&play resilient in-band control for SDN with low-complexity and high scalability. Amarufollows an exploration mechanism to find all possible paths between the controller and any node of thenetwork, which drastically reduces convergence time and exchanged messages, while increasing robustness.Routing is based on masked MAC addresses, which also simplifies routing tables, minimizing the numberof entries to one per path, independently of the network size. We evaluated Amaru with three differentimplementations and diverse types of networks and failures, and obtained excellent results, providing almoston-the-fly rerouting and low recovery time.Comunidad de MadridUniversidad de Alcal

Evaluation of acute intradialytic complications, management & outcome in end-stage renal disease patients

Abstract Little is known about the challenges of routine renal replacement therapy in Bangladesh. We investigated the fatal and nonfatal acute hemodialysis complications in patients with end stage renal disease (ESRD) in dialysis centers in Mymensingh. 500 consecutive hemodialysis sessions incurred over a 4-month period by 50 patients with ESRD, receiving two weekly hemodialysis sessions of 4 hours each were considered. Personal and clinical profiles before, during, and within 24 hours after hemodialysis sessions were used to diagnose complications. The mean age of the patients was 45.5 ± 16.8 years and the lowest and highest ages were 17 and 82 years respectively. Male was predominant of the patients and male to female ratio was 2:1. Hypotension, muscular cramps, pruritus, nausea and vomiting were the common complications in end-stage renal disease patients. Twenty eight percent of patients presented with hypertensive crisis, 34% fever, 18% bleeding, 44% headache, 32% vomiting, 16% lumber pain, 16% palpitations, 22% disequilibrium syndrome, 36% dyspnea, 28% chest pain, 20% syncope, 32% abdominal problem, 44% neurological problem, 46% electrolyte imbalance, 34% articular & musculoskeletal problems, 48% cramps, 38% convulsions and 20% loss of consciousness. The vascular access was the main bleeding site of the patients (44.5%), followed by 33.3% through nose and 22.2% digestive tract bleeding. Most of patients experienced muscular cramps, hypertensive crisis, pruritus, vomiting, palpitations, disequilibrium syndrome, dyspnea, chest pain, neurologic problem, electrolyte disorders, nausea, vomiting, convulsions and loss of consciousness in shorter duration of dialysis than those in longer duration of dialysis sessions. Bleeding, disequilibrium syndrome and cardiovascular disease were leading cause of death in end-stage renal disease patients. Those complications occurred mostly during understaffed periods. Urgent strategies are needed to quickly solve the human capital crisis in the health care sector

Antidiarrheal, Antioxidant and Antimicrobial Activities of the Musa sapientum Seed

Abstract Musa sapientum (M.sapientum) commonly known as 'banana' is widely used in Bangladeshi folk medicine for the treatment of various ailments including diarrhea. Hence, the present study was designed to investigate antidiarrheal, antioxidant and antibacterial potential of the methanolic extract of M.sapientum seed (MMSS). The extract was studied for antidiarrheal property using castor oil and magnesium sulfate induced diarrheal model and charcoal induced gastrointestinal motility test in mice. Total phenolic and flavonoids content, total antioxidant activity, scavenging of 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical, as well as nitric oxide (NO) and assessment of reducing power were used to evaluate antioxidant potential of MMSS. In addition, disc diffusion methods were used for antibacterial assay using various diarrheal induced bacterial strains. At the doses of 100 and 200 mg/kg body weight, the extract reduced the frequency and severity of diarrhea in test animals throughout the study period. At the same doses, the extracts significantly (p<0.001) delayed the intestinal transit of charcoal meal in test animals as compared to the control. In DPPH and NO scavenging method, MMSS showed good antioxidant potentiality in a dose dependent manner with the IC 50 value of 12.32±0.33 μg/ml and 18.96±1.01 μg/ml, respectively with a significant (p<0.001) good reducing power. The extract also displayed strong antibacterial effect against when tested against Escherichia coli, Shigella dysenteriae, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Altogether, these results suggest that the MMSS could be used as a potential antidiarrheal agent along with its antioxidant and antibacterial potentiality

An Update of Lectins from Marine Organisms: Characterization, Extraction Methodology, and Potential Biofunctional Applications

Lectins are a unique group of nonimmune carbohydrate-binding proteins or glycopro-teins that exhibit specific and reversible carbohydrate-binding activity in a non-catalytic manner. Lectins have diverse sources and are classified according to their origins, such as plant lectins, animal lectins, and fish lectins. Marine organisms including fish, crustaceans, and mollusks produce a myriad of lectins, including rhamnose binding lectins (RBL), fucose-binding lectins (FTL), mannose-binding lectin, galectins, galactose binding lectins, and C-type lectins. The widely used method of extracting lectins from marine samples is a simple two-step process employing a polar salt solution and purification by column chromatography. Lectins exert several immunomodulatory functions, including pathogen recognition, inflammatory reactions, participating in various hemocyte functions (e.g., agglutination), phagocytic reactions, among others. Lectins can also control cell prolifer-ation, protein folding, RNA splicing, and trafficking of molecules. Due to their reported biological and pharmaceutical activities, lectins have attracted the attention of scientists and industries (i.e., food, biomedical, and pharmaceutical industries). Therefore, this review aims to update current information on lectins from marine organisms, their characterization, extraction, and biofunctionali-ties. © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.Ural Federal University, UrFUThe author O.N.K is grateful to the “Priority 2030” program of the Ural Federal University for support

Effects of stocking density on growth performance and production of Mola, Amblypharyngodon mola

An experiment was conducted to determine the effects of stocking density on growth performance and production of Amblypharyngodon mola during 09 July to 09 October, 2011. There were three treatments, each with three replications in nine earthen ponds with an average depth of 1.5 m. Ponds of three treatments T1, T2 and T3 were stocked with mola at the density of 145000; 73000 and 36500 ind. ha-1. The water temperature, transparency, total alkalinity, pH, dissolved oxygen, nitrate-nitrogen, nitrite-nitrogen, ammonia-nitrogen, phosphate-phosphorus and chlorophyll-a of the ponds water were measured weekly. Among the water quality parameters, significant differences (p<0.05) were observed in case of temperature and dissolved oxygen. The lowest PO4-P and chlorophyll-a concentration were observed in T1. All water quality parameters were in suitable range of fish culture. The number of fishes at harvest were 15633.31±11.5; 84200±4 and 45600±7.21 indi. ha-1 in T1, T2 and T3, respectively. The mean weight of mola during harvest decreased significantly (p<0.05) with increasing stocking density. The net production of mola was significantly higher in treatment T3 (43.22±8.66 kg ha-1) than T2 (34.82±6.53 kg ha-1) and T1 (32.74±6.53 kg ha-1). Considering the highest net production among the three tested densities, the stocking density applied in T3 was found the best

Planning and Scheduling Supply Chain Integrated Projects

Project planning and scheduling are two major tasks directly impacting an organization’s profitability. Traditionally, project managers first schedule project activities and then plan for the associated supply chain, such as materials ordering, procurement, and supplier selection. This sequential, disintegrated approach lacks results in lower profit. Greater advantage can come from the integrated planning and scheduling of projects and their associated supply chain. This dissertation comprises three parts. The first part proposes two hybrid meta-heuristic algorithms for resource-constrained project scheduling problems with discounted cash flows (RCPSPDC). First, an immune genetic algorithm (IGA) is proposed by hybridizing genetic algorithm (GA), and immune algorithm (IA) approaches. Two local searches, named variable insertion neighborhood search (VINS) and forward-backward improvement (FBI), are also utilized in the IGA to intensify the exploration of the solutions. Second, an adaptive multi-operator-based IGA (MO-IGA) is developed that prioritizes the most-suitable operator among various GA, IA, and local search operators. Both proposed algorithms, the IGA and MO-IGA, are shown to be effective in solving benchmark RCPSPDC instances. The second part develops a mathematical model and solution approaches for supply chain integrated resource-constrained single-project scheduling problems (SCIRCSPSP). A net present value (NPV) based mixed integer programming (MIP) approach is proposed for integrated supply chain planning and scheduling activities. Three meta-heuristics, IA, GA, and IGA, are proposed to solve the supply chain integrated single-project scheduling model. The hybrid IGA maximizes project NPV better than GA and IA. The final part develops a mathematical model and solution methods for supply chain integrated resource-constrained multi-project scheduling problems (SCIRCMPSP). The proposed SCIRCMPSP not only plans for the materials ordering and suppliers selection but also for allocating local resources within a project, allotting global resources among various projects, and scheduling project activities. Five meta-heuristic approaches are designed: IA, GA, IA with FBI (IA-FBI), GA with FBI (GA-FBI), and surrogation-based GA (SGA). The proposed SGA is shown to be effective in solving the SCIRCMPSP instances and in solving multi-project scheduling benchmark instances

Robustness-based portfolio optimization under epistemic uncertainty

Abstract In this paper, we propose formulations and algorithms for robust portfolio optimization under both aleatory uncertainty (i.e., natural variability) and epistemic uncertainty (i.e., imprecise probabilistic information) arising from interval data. Epistemic uncertainty is represented using two approaches: (1) moment bounding approach and (2) likelihood-based approach. This paper first proposes a nested robustness-based portfolio optimization formulation using the moment bounding approach-based representation of epistemic uncertainty. The nested robust portfolio formulation is simple to implement; however, the computational cost is often high due to the epistemic analysis performed inside the optimization loop. A decoupled approach is then proposed to un-nest the robustness-based portfolio optimization from the analysis of epistemic variables to achieve computational efficiency. This paper also proposes a single-loop robust portfolio optimization formulation using the likelihood-based representation of epistemic uncertainty that completely separates the epistemic analysis from the portfolio optimization framework and thereby achieves further computational efficiency. The proposed robust portfolio optimization formulations are tested on real market data from five S&P 500 companies, and performance of the robust optimization models is discussed empirically based on portfolio return and risk