Validated High Performance Liquid Chromatography Method for Analysis of Cefadroxil Monohydrate in Human Plasma

Purpose: To develop a simple, rapid and sensitive high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method for the determination of cefadroxil monohydrate in human plasma.Methods: Schimadzu HPLC with LC solution software was used with Waters Spherisorb, C18 (5 μm, 150mm × 4.5mm) column. The mobile phase was sodium dihydrogen phosphate buffer pH 4.0 and methanol in a ratio of 96:4. Flow rate was 1.5 ml/min and injection volume was 100 μl. Peak response was detected at 260 nm.Results: System suitability results revealed that the coefficient of variation (CV) for retention time, peak response, tailing factor and resolution of six replicate injections was < 3 %. The method was selective to determine cefadroxil in plasma because there was no peak interference of plasma with cefadroxil at its retention time (7.792 min). Linearity was in the range of 0.5 - 30 μg/ml with slope and intercept of 41694.53 and 22614.87, respectively (R2 = 0.9953). Limit of detection (LOD) and lower limit of quantification (LLOQ) of the method were 0.03 and 0.06 μg/ml, respectively. Absolute recovery of cefadroxil from plasma was in the range 71 - 90.4 %, while inter-day and intra-day analysis showed satisfactory precision and accuracy; thus, the method was reproducible with the range of CV, i.e., 0.35 - 4.01 and 1.88 - 7.9 % for interday and intraday precision, respectively.Conclusion: The developed method being simple, rapid, reproducible can be suitably employed in pharmacokinetic and bioequivalence studies of cefadroxil monohydrate.Keywords: Validation, Cefadroxil monohydrate, Human plasma, Pharmacokinetics Bioequivalenc

Paradoxical Immune Responses in Non-HIV Cryptococcal Meningitis

The fungus Cryptococcus is a major cause of meningoencephalitis in HIV-infected as well as HIV-uninfected individuals with mortalities in developed countries of 20% and 30%, respectively. In HIV-related disease, defects in T-cell immunity are paramount, whereas there is little understanding of mechanisms of susceptibility in non-HIV related disease, especially that occurring in previously healthy adults. The present description is the first detailed immunological study of non-HIV-infected patients including those with severe central nervous system (s-CNS) disease to 1) identify mechanisms of susceptibility as well as 2) understand mechanisms underlying severe disease. Despite the expectation that, as in HIV, T-cell immunity would be deficient in such patients, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) immunophenotyping, T-cell activation studies, soluble cytokine mapping and tissue cellular phenotyping demonstrated that patients with s-CNS disease had effective microbiological control, but displayed strong intrathecal expansion and activation of cells of both the innate and adaptive immunity including HLA-DR+ CD4+ and CD8+ cells and NK cells. These expanded CSF T cells were enriched for cryptococcal-antigen specific CD4+ cells and expressed high levels of IFN-gamma as well as a lack of elevated CSF levels of typical T-cell specific Th2 cytokines -- IL-4 and IL-13. This inflammatory response was accompanied by elevated levels of CSF NFL, a marker of axonal damage, consistent with ongoing neurological damage. However, while tissue macrophage recruitment to the site of infection was intact, polarization studies of brain biopsy and autopsy specimens demonstrated an M2 macrophage polarization and poor phagocytosis of fungal cells. These studies thus expand the paradigm for cryptococcal disease susceptibility to include a prominent role for macrophage activation defects and suggest a spectrum of disease whereby severe neurological disease is characterized by immune-mediated host cell damage

Body composition, blood pressure and dietary habits among young qatari male adults

Introduction: Due to a rapidly changing lifestyle in Qatar, determinants of non-communicable diseases and linked levels of risk factors have risen. These facts pose a national challenge (1). Information about Qatari adults` (19-30yr.) dietary habits is essential because of the increase in the incidence and prevalence of obesity in Qataris. In 2006, the percentage of Qatari boys who are overweight and obese is 28.6%, and 7.9%, respectively (3). Aim of this study was to determine body composition, blood pressure and dietary habits of the next cohort, those 18-29 yrs old. Methods: 80 Qatari male students, 18-29 yrs of age, from Qatar University (QU) participated. Blood pressure (BP) was measured by Omron HEM-780, body composition (body weight and percent of body fat (BF), were measured by OMRON BF-400. Dietary habits were evaluated using the NHANES Food Frequency Questionnaire. For data analysis, Chi-square test and univariate analyses of variance were conducted using SPSS version 20. Results: The mean systolic and diastolic BP was 128.6±1.42 mmHg, 73.32±1.1 mmHg, respectively. The mean arterial pressure (MAP) was 91.74±1.06 mmHg. The mean BF is 23.79±1.19%. 30.77% of the subjects were classified as overweight, 38.46% as obese. The crosstab statistical analyses yielded a difference between fast food (FF) vs. seafood (SF) consumptions (p=.007). No statistical difference between vegetables consumption vs. pasta intake occur. However, the subjects` soda consumption was greater than fruit juices (p=.05). The BF is expressed by an interaction between salad and SF consumption, p=.047, ηp2=.409, but these main effects are not qualified by a separate interaction on BF (p=.234, ηp2=.181 vs. p=.34, ηp2=.149, respectively). No interaction was found between FF, SF or sweets and blood pressure values. Conclusion: Obesity is uniformly considered to be the most important factor in developing non-communicable diseases in Qatar (2). Our study supports the results. In our sample, the prevalence of overweight and obesity was higher compared to previously published studies. No correlation between dietary habits and MAP occurred though, due to the wide range of nutrients consumed. High caloric diets are prevalent among QU students

Preliminary study of haplotypes linked to the rare cystic fibrosis E1104X mutation

The analysis of some extra- and intragenic markers within or closely linked to the cystic fibrosis transmembrane regulator (CFTR) gene is useful as a molecular method in clinical linkage analysis. Indeed, knowing that the molecular basis of cystic fibrosis (CF) is highly heterogeneous in our population, the study of haplotype association with normal and CF chromosomes could be very helpful in cases where one or both mutations remain unidentified. In this study, we analysed with PCR-RFLP and capillary electrophoresis some extra (pJ3.11, KM19 and XV2C) and intragenic (IVS8CA, IVS17bTA and IVS17bCA) polymorphic markers in 50 normal and 10 Tunisian patients carrying the rare E1104X mutation in order to determine the haplotype associated with this mutation. For the extragenic markers, 8 haplotypes were identified. The most frequent of them are the 221 and 112 accounting for 80% of total haplotypes. For the intragenic markers, five haplotypes were present on the E1104X chromosomes. One of them 16-31-13 accounted for 50%. To our knowledge, this is the first work to be interested to the haplotypes linked to the E1104X mutation. This preliminary study of haplotypes could be a helpful method to determine the molecular lesions responsible of this pathology

Efek Diet Tinggi Kolesterol Terhadap Peningkatan Kolesterol Darah, Gambaran Histopatologi Hati, Dan Bobot Badan Kelinci New Zealand White Jantan

This study was conducted to analyze the high cholesterol diet effect of egg yolk powder toward the increase of blood cholesterol and body weight in male New Zealand White rabbit and learned their liver histophatology figure. The experimental studies with Completely Randomized Design (CRD) used 13 male New Zealand White rabbit aged 6 – 7 months and weight 2,9 – 4,0 kg. Rabbit were divided into 3 groups: group 0 (n=4) given the standard feed, group 1 (n=4) given high cholesterol diet from egg yolk powder, and group 2 (n=5) given high cholesterol diet from egg yolk powder and red palm oil mix. The intervention was implemented for 8 weeks after 4 weeks adaptation period. The results showed that intervention of high cholesterol diet from egg yolk powder significantly increased levels of serum cholesterol and fatty liver, but did not significantly affect body weight of male New Zealand White rabbit

Low-bit Shift Network for End-to-End Spoken Language Understanding

Deep neural networks (DNN) have achieved impressive success in multiple domains. Over the years, the accuracy of these models has increased with the proliferation of deeper and more complex architectures. Thus, state-of-the-art solutions are often computationally expensive, which makes them unfit to be deployed on edge computing platforms. In order to mitigate the high computation, memory, and power requirements of inferring convolutional neural networks (CNNs), we propose the use of power-of-two quantization, which quantizes continuous parameters into low-bit power-of-two values. This reduces computational complexity by removing expensive multiplication operations and with the use of low-bit weights. ResNet is adopted as the building block of our solution and the proposed model is evaluated on a spoken language understanding (SLU) task. Experimental results show improved performance for shift neural network architectures, with our low-bit quantization achieving 98.76 \% on the test set which is comparable performance to its full-precision counterpart and state-of-the-art solutions.Comment: Accepted at INTERSPEECH 202

Penggunaan Garam Beriodium Tingkat Rumah Tangga di Kecamatan Sibolga Utara, Kota Sibolga

The use of iodized salt in the household is highly recommended because of the iodine function that is essensial for the human body. This survey aims to test the iodine content qualitatively and study the use of iodized salt at the household level in North Sibolga sub-district, Sibolga city.The analytical survey with cross sectional design was conducted in 19 integrated service posts (POSYANDU) located in the working area of Pintu Angin Public Health Centre (PUSKESMAS Pintu Angin) in November 2016. The respondents in this survey were representatives of household member who came to POSYANDU and brought the salt commonly consumed by family. A total of 237 respondents were interviewed. Respondents were interviewed using structured questionnaire. Rapid test of iodine content in salt using reagent kit (PT Kimia Farma) was done to test he iodine qualitatively. Survey results show that all of households of respondents use salt in packs that have labeled “iodized salt” or similar statements. However, from iodine rapid test results found 2.5% of households whose iodine content in ithe salt has been lost. The quality of iodine content in salt at the household is significantly influenced only by salt storage (open or closed)

Ethnomedicinal plants used against common digestive problems

Background: Ethnomedicinal knowledge is highly significant for persistence of human health care. Different studies have shown that medicinal plants are considered as curing agent for digestive disorders in Pakistan. The aim of present review is to explore this ethnomedicinal information all over the Pakistan and to investigate the ecological status of these species in the country.Methodology: Online literatures on ethnomedicinal plants used to treat digestive complaints in Pakistan were searched and gathered using online bibliographic databases including PubMed, Scopus, Google Scholar, Web of Science and Flora of Pakistan.Results: The review documented 178 medicinal plant species, belonging to 59 families, used for different digestive ailments. The majority of species were herbs (60%), used in drug preparation. The most frequent part used in preparation of these remedies is leaves (23%), followed by roots (19%).Conclusion: In conclusion, the study provides enormous ethno-medicinal knowledge and due to the unsustainable activities of the people of Pakistan, some medicinal plants need to be conserved for the future.Key words: Ethno-medicine, medicinal plants, gastrointestinal diseases, ecological status

Extreme hydrological changes in the southwestern US drive reductions in water supply to Southern California by mid century

The Southwestern United States has a greater vulnerability to climate change impacts on water security due to a reliance on snowmelt driven imported water. The State of California, which is the most populous and agriculturally productive in the United States, depends on an extensive artificial water storage and conveyance system primarily for irrigated agriculture, municipal and industrial supply and hydropower generation. Here we take an integrative high-resolution ensemble modeling approach to examine near term climate change impacts on all imported and local sources of water supply to Southern California. While annual precipitation is projected to remain the same or slightly increase, rising temperatures result in a shift towards more rainfall, reduced cold season snowpack and earlier snowmelt. Associated with these hydrological changes are substantial increases in the frequency and the intensity of both drier conditions and flooding events. The 50 year extreme daily maximum precipitation and runoff events are 1.5–6 times more likely to occur depending on the water supply basin. Simultaneously, a clear deficit in total annual runoff over mountainous snow generating regions like the Sierra Nevada is projected. On one hand, the greater probability of drought decreases imported water supply availability. On the other hand, earlier snowmelt and significantly stronger winter precipitation events pose increased flood risk requiring water releases from control reservoirs, which may potentially decrease water availability outside of the wet season. Lack of timely local water resource expansion coupled with projected climate changes and population increases may leave the area in extended periods of shortages

THE FEDERATION OF STUDENT ISLAMIC SOCIETIES PROGRAMME TO CHALLENGE MENTAL HEALTH STIGMA IN MUSLIM COMMUNITIES IN ENGLAND: THE FOSIS BIRMINGHAM STUDY

Background: 1 in 4 people experience mental health problems at some point during their lives and Muslims are no exception. Exacerbating the morbidity and mortality associated with mental health problems in Muslims is Islamophobia. Stigma and shame are major barriers to accessing and using mental health services and many Muslims with mental health problems do not receive the treatment they need. The Federation of Student Islamic Societies (FOSIS) United Kingdom branch organized a mental health conference to challenge the stigma attached to psychological problems in Muslims and to encourage care seeking in this group. Design: We conducted a single arm, pre-post comparison study on Muslims who attended the FOSIS mental health conference in Birmingham Medical School, England. Validated stigma scales measuring knowledge, attitudes and behavior were administered on participants before and immediately after exposure to the programme. Participants were also asked to respond to statements, the items of which were on a 5-point Likert scale, about the role that Islam plays in Muslim mental health, stigma as a barrier for Muslims with mental health problems to accessing and using mental health services and if they felt inspired to challenge stigma. Results: 50/250 (20%) of participants completed the study. There were statistically significant improvements in the \u27Reported and Intended Behavior\u27 score (p=0.0036), the \u27Inspired to Take Action\u27 Score (p=0.0202) and the \u27Incorporating Islamic Principles into Mental Health Treatment for Muslims is Beneficial\u27 score (p=0.0187). Discussion: The findings of our study suggest that a \u27bespoke\u27 Muslim mental health conference comprised of talks delivered by experts in Islam and mental health and a Muslim who has first-hand experience of psychological distress might be effective at reducing mental health stigma in the Muslim community. Our results should help to inform the design, development and delivery of future Muslim mental health conferences however more robust research in this area is needed