Formulation, In Vitro and In Vivo Pharmacokinetics of Anti-HIV Vaginal Bioadhesive Gel

Inexpensive and female-controlled pre-exposure prophylaxis strategies to prevent mucosal transmission of the virus, is urgently needed with the rising prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1 and HIV2) infections in women. Zidovudine-loaded bioadhesive vaginal gel may become one of the very useful strategies, as it can be used not only for controlled release but also for enhancing bioavailability. Drug delivery through vaginal gel is a promising area for continued research with the aim of achieving controlled release with enhanced bioavailability over longer periods of time. The aim of the study was to develop a newer prolong releasing Zidovudine (AZT) bioadhesive vaginal gel to treat HIV infections with increased patient convenience. AZT-loaded bioadhesive vaginal gel was prepared successfully by using cold mechanical method. F3 formulation containing carbopol–HPMC (1:3) was selected and evaluated in order to achieve objectives of this study. In vitro drug release study of F3 showed in 24 h drug released following case I Fickian (n ≤ 0.5) transport mechanism, and in vivo drug release was found much better (Tmax), (Cmax), and bioavailability (F) comparison with oral pour drug solution. It was also showed good extrudability, spreadability, and bioadhesive strength. A generalized protocol, for the further research, in this area will surely expected to yield significant outcome with improved drug delivery system

Search for jet extinction in the inclusive jet-pT spectrum from proton-proton collisions at s=8 TeV

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published articles title, journal citation, and DOI.The first search at the LHC for the extinction of QCD jet production is presented, using data collected with the CMS detector corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 10.7  fb−1 of proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 8 TeV. The extinction model studied in this analysis is motivated by the search for signatures of strong gravity at the TeV scale (terascale gravity) and assumes the existence of string couplings in the strong-coupling limit. In this limit, the string model predicts the suppression of all high-transverse-momentum standard model processes, including jet production, beyond a certain energy scale. To test this prediction, the measured transverse-momentum spectrum is compared to the theoretical prediction of the standard model. No significant deficit of events is found at high transverse momentum. A 95% confidence level lower limit of 3.3 TeV is set on the extinction mass scale

Searches for electroweak neutralino and chargino production in channels with Higgs, Z, and W bosons in pp collisions at 8 TeV

Searches for supersymmetry (SUSY) are presented based on the electroweak pair production of neutralinos and charginos, leading to decay channels with Higgs, Z, and W bosons and undetected lightest SUSY particles (LSPs). The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of about 19.5 fb(-1) of proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 8 TeV collected in 2012 with the CMS detector at the LHC. The main emphasis is neutralino pair production in which each neutralino decays either to a Higgs boson (h) and an LSP or to a Z boson and an LSP, leading to hh, hZ, and ZZ states with missing transverse energy (E-T(miss)). A second aspect is chargino-neutralino pair production, leading to hW states with E-T(miss). The decays of a Higgs boson to a bottom-quark pair, to a photon pair, and to final states with leptons are considered in conjunction with hadronic and leptonic decay modes of the Z and W bosons. No evidence is found for supersymmetric particles, and 95% confidence level upper limits are evaluated for the respective pair production cross sections and for neutralino and chargino mass values

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Not AvailableA study was conducted to develop a plug- and finger-type onion seedling transplanting mechanisms in a soil bin and examine the effects of age of seedling and machine parameters (speed of operation, height of seedling drop, finger material) on plant spacing, planting depth, successful transplanting, furrow closure, filling efficiency and plant damage. Plant spacing ranged from 121.4 mm to 133.5 mm using plug metering mechanism, while it was 167.9 mm to 195.0 mm with finger-type metering mechanism. The percent seedling transplanted and percent furrow closure with plug mechanism varied from 76.67 % to 100 % and 73.33 % to 100 %, respectively; and in finger-type metering mechanism they ranged from 18.33 % to 78.33 % and 15 % to 73.33 %, respectively. Plug filling efficiency ranged from 96.67 % to 32.22 % with plug mechanism, and 95.28 % to 22.5 % with finger metering mechanism. Percent seedling damage with plug mechanism ranged from 0 % to 17.54 %, and was lower than 0 % to 31.05 % caused by finger-type metering mechanism. The performance of plug-type metering mechanism for onion seedling was closer to the recommended practices as compared to finger-type metering mechanism.Not Availabl

A programmable optical few wavelength source for flexgrid optical networks

Multi-wavelength (MW) sources will probably replace discrete lasers or laser arrays in next generation multi-carrier transponders (e.g., 1 Tb/s), currently called multi-flow transponders or sliceable bandwidth variable transponders (SBVTs). We present design and experimental demonstration of a few wavelength (FW) source suitable for SBVTs in a flexgrid scenario. We refer to FW instead of MW since for an SBVT just few subcarriers are required (e.g., eight). The proposed FW source does not require optical filtering for subcarrier modulation. The design exploits frequency shifting in IQ modulators by using single side band suppressed carrier modulation. A reasonable number of lines can be provided depending on the chosen architecture, tunable in the whole C-band. The scheme is also capable of providing symmetric (equally spaced) and asymmetric subcarrier spacing arbitrarily tunable from 6.25 GHz to 37.5 GHz. The control on the number of subcarriers (increase/decrease depending on line rate) provides flexibility to the SBVT, being the spacing dependent on transmission parameters such as line rate or modulation format. Transmission performance has been tested and compared with an array of standard lasers considering a 480 Gb/s transmission for different carrier spacing. Additionally, an integrable solution based on complementary frequency shifter is also presented to improve scalability and costs. The impact on transceiver techno-economics and network performance is also discussed

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Not AvailableA study was conducted to develop a plug- and finger-type onion seedling transplanting mechanisms in a soil bin and examine the effects of age of seedling and machine parameters (speed of operation, height of seedling drop, finger material) on plant spacing, planting depth, successful transplanting, furrow closure, filling efficiency and plant damage. Plant spacing ranged from 121.4 mm to 133.5 mm using plug metering mechanism, while it was 167.9 mm to 195.0 mm with finger-type metering mechanism. The percent seedling transplanted and percent furrow closure with plug mechanism varied from 76.67 % to 100 % and 73.33 % to 100 %, respectively; and in finger-type metering mechanism they ranged from 18.33 % to 78.33 % and 15 % to 73.33 %, respectively. Plug filling efficiency ranged from 96.67 % to 32.22 % with plug mechanism, and 95.28 % to 22.5 % with finger metering mechanism. Percent seedling damage with plug mechanism ranged from 0 % to 17.54 %, and was lower than 0 % to 31.05 % caused by finger-type metering mechanism. The performance of plug-type metering mechanism for onion seedling was closer to the recommended practices as compared to finger-type metering mechanism.Not Availabl

Influência do dano físico na fisiologia pós-colheita de folhas de taioba

Folhas de taioba danificadas fisicamente tornam-se amarelas e escuras na região do dano. Assim, o objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar o efeito do dano físico sobre o metabolismo pós-colheita de folhas de taioba. Para esse fim, avaliou-se o teor de clorofila e o acúmulo de compostos fenólicos solúveis em discos foliares de taioba que continham furos realizados com uma agulha em um dos lados da folha, simulando os danos sofridos no campo e transporte. O lado não danificado foi usado como tratamento controle. Para a avaliação da produção de etileno e CO2, discos foliares danificados e intactos foram infiltrados com ácido 1-carboxílico-1-aminociclopropano (ACC) ou com água desionizada. Houve acentuada queda de clorofila nas primeiras 24 horas após a colheita, porém, o dano físico não estimulou a degradação da clorofila ou elevação da produção de etileno. Entretanto, nos discos foliares danificados e infiltrados com ACC, houve aumento transiente na produção de etileno após 4 horas da realização do dano. Essa resposta demonstra que a enzima ACC sintase não é estimulada pelo dano e a enzima ACC oxidase tem sua atividade aumentada apenas por um curto período. Em contrapartida, as folhas danificadas tiveram maior acúmulo de compostos fenólicos e elevada taxa respiratória