Evaluation of glycemic index, glycemic load and biochemical traits of rice associated with anti-diabetic properties

Diabetes mellitus, a modern lifestyle disease and metabolic disorder, is closely associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. Research on carbohydrates, particularly white rice with a high glycemic index, has been linked to an increased risk of type II diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. In this study, we aimed to understand the nutritional composition, estimated glycemic index, and glycemic load of twenty-eight rice accessions, particularly focusing on those with low starch digestibility associated with low GI levels. The proximate composition analysis revealed that tested rice accessions exhibited higher levels of genetic variation for amylose (18.45 - 25.97%), phenolic content (5.00-34.08%), protein (5.52-14.54%), and crude fibre (1.64-3.91%) content in brown rice. Huge variability for estimat?ed glycemic index, ranging from low to high GI was observed among all the varieties (49.37 - 78.58%). Traditional varieties viz., Thavalakannan and Kavuni depicted low estimated glycemic index (49.37 % and 54.55 %) and moderate glycemic load (14.60 and 15.80), respectively. The estimated glycemic index exhibited significant and negative association with amylose (r = -0.57**), phenolic (r = -0.67**), and crude fibre (r = -0.52**) content. In contrast, glycemic load showed a significant positive correlation with the amount of carbohydrate content. Principal component analysis revealed considerable variability among rice accessions' biochemical traits with the first two principal components accounting for 68.57% of the total variance. The hierarchical clustering based on Darwin software identified two major clusters. Cluster I comprise popular varieties and Cluster II contains traditional varieties with low to moderate glycemic index. Moreover, identifying rice varieties with lower glycemic index can facilitate the development and enhancement of breeding lines for the diabetic population

mRNA Expression of MMP-28 (Epilysin) in Gingival Tissues of Chronic and Aggressive Periodontitis Patients: A Reverse Transcriptase PCR Study

Background and Objectives. Matrix metalloproteinases degrade extracellular membrane and also release bioactive fragments and growth factors, thus influencing fundamental biological and pathological processes. Epilysin (MMP-28) differs from most other MMPs as it is expressed in a number of normal tissues, suggestive of functions in tissue homeostasis. The aim of the present study was to quantitatively evaluate and compare the mRNA expression of epilysin (MMP-28) in gingival tissues of healthy patients and of patients affected by chronic or aggressive periodontitis.Methods. A total of 60 subjects, 20 periodontally healthy subjects, 20 with chronic periodontitis, and 20 with aggressive periodontitis, were included in this study. Periodontal status was evaluated by measuring gingival index, probing depth and clinical attachment level. mRNA expression of MMP-28 was determined by quantitative real-time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) in gingival tissue samples collected.Results. Relative quantification of mRNA expression of MMP-28 was highest in healthy tissues () when compared to subjects with chronic periodontitis () and aggressive periodontitis (), but the difference was not statistically significant.Conclusion. mRNA expression of MMP-28 was highest in healthy tissues when compared to diseased periodontal tissues suggesting that MMP-28 could act as a biomarker for periodontal health.</jats:p

A Review on Thermal Properties of Hybrid Polymer Matrix Composites

Abstract The requirement and demand of hybrid polymer composites increasing in every filed of applications day by day due to low weight high strength. Since the polymers have found low thermal properties and low strength to high temperature conditions, similarly glass fibre reinforced epoxy resin composites are high strength and stiffness but poor in thermal stability and easily degrades at high temperatures. Which encourages to enhance thermal properties to increase the thermal stability of glass fibre reinforced epoxy resin composites without compromising the strength and stiffness, solution of that is adding high thermal conductivity filler particles to glass fibre reinforced epoxy resin composites, increases the thermal stability and thermal resistivity.</jats:p

Blockchain Based Framework for COVID-19 Vaccine Delivery using Smart Contracts

Abstract A blockchain is a continuously expanding list of documents known as blocks that are connected together via cryptography. A smart contract is a computer program that executes itself in accordance with the terms of a contract. In Traditional vaccine delivery systems, vaccine delivery information is not visible to all the supply chain entities, thereby prone to data tampering. Thus, transparency is the biggest concern in this system. In the case of the COVID-19 pandemic, the rapid launch of a vaccine and the implementation of a worldwide vaccination campaign is crucial, but their success depends on the availability of an operable and transparent distribution chain that all necessary stakeholders can assess. In the proposed work, we show how blockchain technology may be used to enable transparent tracing of COVID-19 vaccination registration, storage, and distribution and self-reporting of side effects by constructing a prototype using smart contracts.</jats:p

Direction and Gender Classification Using Convolutional Neural Network for Side-view Images Captured from a Monitored Trail

Prior work by a subset of authors led to a development of optical camera platform, which has a capability of distinguishing between human and animal movement in an outdoor environment. Once the image is classified as a human, an idea of providing additional information and insights led to the exploration of gender (men vs women) and direction (left to right vs right to left) classifications. The proposed method classifies the human gender, based on the full body image oriented in a side view manner. An additional feature is to classify the direction of the movement. In the current paper, the Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) are used to distinguish between men and women gender classes and to identify the direction of the movement. Furthermore, different aspects of CNN are visualized (for example, attention heat maps, t -Distributed Stochastic Neighbor Embedding plot, etc.) to provide useful insights corresponding to classifications and misclassifications. Additionally, different CNN architectures were tried to figure out the best possible choice. The classification accuracies for gender (men vs women) and direction classification (left to right vs right to left) on the test data are close to 93.3% and 94%, respectively

The Potential Role of Vitamin B12 in the Prevention of COVID-19 Complications: A Narrative Review

The elderly are more prone to mortality from COVID-19 infection, as they are susceptible to develop acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). For COVID-19 patients with ARDS caused by sepsis or septic shock, high-dose parenteral vitamin B12 appears to be a potential new treatment option. Vitamin B12 may play a substantial impact in COVID-19 morbidity and mortality reduction owing to its function in DNA synthesis, cellular control, improvement of anti-inflammatory immune responses, and decrease of pro-inflammatory responses. This review aims to assess the functional role of Vitamin B12 in COVID-19 in terms of its immunomodulatory effect, role in cellular and humoral immunity and maintaining the gut microbe homeostasis. From data inception to June 2021, accessible electronic databases were searched for research/review articles reporting on the function of Vitamin B12 in COVID-19. Scopus, Web of Science, PubMed, WHO worldwide research on COVID-19 and the clinical trials registration “https://clinicaltrials.gov/” were used to conduct the systematic search by using keywords: “COVID-19 and “Vitamin B12”. Also, based on these outcomes, it can be concluded that Vitamin B12 may have a potential role in preventing COVID-19 complications. Further, studies evaluating the role of Vitamin B12 in COVID-19 may open a new array of ideas on the optimal and the well-tolerated dose and timing of its administration in COVID-19 patients.</jats:p

mRNA Expression of MMP-28 (Epilysin) in Gingival Tissues of Chronic and Aggressive Periodontitis Patients: A Reverse Transcriptase PCR Study

Background and Objectives. Matrix metalloproteinases degrade extracellular membrane and also release bioactive fragments and growth factors, thus influencing fundamental biological and pathological processes. Epilysin (MMP-28) differs from most other MMPs as it is expressed in a number of normal tissues, suggestive of functions in tissue homeostasis. The aim of the present study was to quantitatively evaluate and compare the mRNA expression of epilysin (MMP-28) in gingival tissues of healthy patients and of patients affected by chronic or aggressive periodontitis. Methods. A total of 60 subjects, 20 periodontally healthy subjects, 20 with chronic periodontitis, and 20 with aggressive periodontitis, were included in this study. Periodontal status was evaluated by measuring gingival index, probing depth and clinical attachment level. mRNA expression of MMP-28 was determined by quantitative real-time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) in gingival tissue samples collected. Results. Relative quantification of mRNA expression of MMP-28 was highest in healthy tissues (RQ = 0.97) when compared to subjects with chronic periodontitis (RQ = 0.37) and aggressive periodontitis (RQ = 0.23), but the difference was not statistically significant. Conclusion. mRNA expression of MMP-28 was highest in healthy tissues when compared to diseased periodontal tissues suggesting that MMP-28 could act as a biomarker for periodontal health

A Flow Cytometry-Based Assessment of the Genomic Size and Ploidy Level of Wild Musa Species in India

The genome size variation is an important attribute in evolutionary and species characterization. Musa L. is regarded as one of the taxonomically complicated genera within the order Zingiberales, with more than 75 species from wild seeded to seedless cultivars that may be diploid, triploid or tetraploid. The knowledge of total nuclear DNA content in terms of genome size and ploidy level in wild species of Musa is absolutely important in evolutionary and genomic studies. Methods: In this paper, chromosome spreading was performed via protoplast isolation and a fast air-dry dropping method and flow cytometry were used with Raphanus sativus L. (Brassicaceae) as a standard for ploidy and genome size estimation. Results: The results showed that genome size (2C) varied amongst Musa species, based on the ratio of G1 peak positions. The lowest genome size (2C) was found in M. balbisiana var. andamanica (1.051 &plusmn; 0.060 pg) and the highest genome size (2C) was recorded for Musa ABB.cv. Meitei-hei (1.812 &plusmn; 0.108 pg) for the section Eumusa. Among the species belonging to the section Rhodochlamys, M. rosae had the lowest 2C content of 1.194 &plusmn; 0.033 pg whereas the highest nuclear DNA content (2C) was observed in M. velutina (1.488 &plusmn; 0.203 pg). Cytogenetic analysis revealed that the chromosome number of 14 wild Musa species was 2n = 22, while 1 species&mdash;Ensete glaucum&mdash;showed a chromosome number of 2n = 18 (diploid), and for 3 species, the chromosome number was 2n = 33 (triploids). An association study based on the Pearson correlation coefficient showed 2C nuclear DNA content was significant and positively correlated with ploidy level (R = 0.9) and chromosome number (R = 0.84). Conclusions: The present study provides reliable information on the genome size and ploidy level of wild Musa species from the Indian region through flow cytometric analysis, which could be further utilized in taxonomic and crop improvement programs. For the first time, the nuclear DNA content of eight wild diploid and three triploid Indian species were estimated and reported. Genome size could be an effective indicator in identification of species and evolutionary studies in Musa with varying ploidy levels and morphological similarities