TOBACCO INTAKE STATUS–A REVIEW

One of the global health issues is tobacco consumption, either in the form of smoked tobacco and smokeless tobacco (ST). In the world wide more than 300 million people consumes various ST product. Tobacco makes addiction and cause cancer, the cardiovascular mortality risk level more and poor pregnancy outcomes. The smoked tobacco and ST causes major disease burden in different countries and regions. This article reviews briefly about the various health issues causes by tobacco products consumption and its effects of stimulating diseases

DEVELOPMENT AND COMPARISON OF ORALLY INHALABLE SUSTAINED RELEASE FORMULATIONS FOR THREE RESPIRATORY DRUGS FOR ASTHMA

The present work was designed to develop and compare orally inhalable sustained release formulation for salbutamol sulphate (SS), ambroxol hydrochloride (AH) and montelukast sodium (MS).The emulsion solvent evaporation method was used to prepare microparticles with the polymers. The prepared polymer encapsulated microparticles were blended with carrier inhalable lactose and filled in size 3 hard empty gelatin capsule. Formulations T1-T9 were prepared with 1:1 ratio of PLGA (50:50), PLGA (75:25) and Eudragit RS100. The formulation T1 prepared with SS:PLGA (50:50) produces best result when compared with other formulations T2-T9. Formulation T1 gives in vitro release 91.23% at 12 h and having particle size of microparticles (D0.5 µm) 1.94±0.6 and respiratory fraction 34.9± 2.59 %

Process modelling of a PVC production plant

This paper presents the modelling of a Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) resins manufacturing process with batch process simulator, SuperPro Designer V6.0. The simulation model has been developed based on the operating condition of a local PVC manufacturing plant. As the polymerisation process is carried out in batch operation mode, efforts have been made to document the scheduling details of each unit operation and results are presented in the Gantt chart. Cycle time for a complete polymerisation process is determined to be 14.28 hours. The model also reveals that approximately 17 batches of polymerisation reaction can be processed per day, which tallies the real operation of the PVC manufacturing plant

Alpha- and Gammaproteobacterial Methanotrophs Codominate the Active Methane-Oxidizing Communities in an Acidic Boreal Peat Bog

The objective of this study was to characterize metabolically active, aerobic methanotrophs in an ombrotrophic peatland in the Marcell Experimental Forest, Minnesota, USA. Methanotrophs were investigated in the field and in laboratory incubations using DNA-stable isotope probing, expression studies on particulate methane monooxygenase (pmoA) genes, and amplicon sequencing of 16S rRNA genes. Potential rates of oxidation ranged from 14-17 μmol CH4 g dry wt soil-1 d-1. Within DNA-SIP incubations, the relative abundance of methanotrophs increased from 4% in situ to 25-36% after 8 -14 days. Phylogenetic analysis of the 13C-enriched DNA fractions revealed the active methanotrophs were dominated by the genera Methylocystis (Type II; Alphaproteobacteria), Methylomonas, and Methylovulum (Type I; Gammaproteobacteria). In field samples, a transcript-to-gene ratio of 1 to 2 was observed for pmoA in surface peat layers which attenuated rapidly with depth, indicating the highest methane consumption was associated with the 0-10 cm depth interval. Metagenomes and sequencing of cDNA pmoA amplicons from field samples confirmed the dominant active methanotrophs were Methylocystis and Methylomonas. Although Type II methanotrophs have long been shown to mediate methane consumption in peatlands, our results indicate members of the genera Methylomonas and Methylovulum (Type I) can significantly contribute to aerobic methane oxidation in these ecosystems

HLA-G DNA sequence variants and risk of perinatal HIV-1 transmission

BACKGROUND: HLA-G gene is a non-classical MHC class 1 molecule that is highly expressed in the trophoblast at the maternal-fetal interface. In an attempt to elucidate possible immunological mechanisms facilitating protection of infants born to human immunodeficiency virus type (HIV-1) infected mothers, we have been studying genetic variations in the coding and untranslated regions of HLA-G antigen between HIV-1-infected mothers and their infected or uninfected infants. This study investigated whether HLA-G DNA sequence variants are associated with perinatal HIV-1 transmission. RESULTS: Genomic DNA samples were obtained from a nested case-control study of 34 mother-child pairs co-enrolled in a cohort of the Perinatal AIDS Collaborative Transmission Study in New York. The samples were from two groups predominantly of African-American and Hispanic origin: In the first group, both mother and child were HIV-1-infected; in the second group, only the mother was infected while the child remained uninfected. Genotyping of HLA-G gene were performed on the extracted DNA from peripheral blood mononuclear cells using PCR based sequencing and restriction fragment-length polymorphism analyses. Among the studied HLA-G exons, dissimilarities in HLA-G DNA sequence variants between the HIV-1 non-transmitting mother child pairs were mostly observed in exon 8-3'-untranslated region at nucleotide positions T3742A, C3743T, G3777C (P = 0.001). Non-transmitting HIV-1 mother child pairs exhibited dissimilarities at nucleotide position C3743T allele with decreased risk of perinatal HIV-1 transmission, compared with HIV-1 transmitting mother-child pairs carrying this allele (odds ratio 0.02 [95% confidence interval 0.00–0.15] P = 0.00001). In addition, heterozygous dissimilarities at nucleotide positions C634G and 714 insT/G in the 5'-upstream regulatory region were observed between the mother child pairs of the HIV-1-non-transmitting group while homozygous similarities of C634C, and either 714insG/G or mother-child pairs with similar 714insT/G were observed among the transmitting group in the same region. CONCLUSION: This study identified new variants in the HLA-G gene and provides further evidence that dissimilarities in the HLA-G DNA sequence variants could influence the transmission of HIV-1 from infected mothers to their infants

Targeting Btk/Etk of prostate cancer cells by a novel dual inhibitor.

Btk and Etk/BMX are Tec-family non-receptor tyrosine kinases. Btk has previously been reported to be expressed primarily in B cells and has an important role in immune responses and B-cell malignancies. Etk has been shown previously to provide a strong survival and metastasis signal in human prostate cancer cells, and to confer androgen independence and drug resistance. While the role of Etk in prostate carcinogenesis is well established, the functions of Btk in prostate cancer have never been investigated, likely due to the perception that Btk is a hematopoietic, but not epithelial, kinase. Herein, we found that Btk is overexpressed in prostate cancer tissues and prostate cancer cells. The level of Btk in prostate cancer tissues correlates with cancer grades. Knockdown of Btk expression selectively inhibits the growth of prostate cancer cells, but not that of the normal prostate epithelial cells, which express very little Btk. Dual inhibition of Btk and Etk has an additive inhibitory effect on prostate cancer cell growth. To explore Btk and Etk as targets for prostate cancer, we developed a small molecule dual inhibitor of Btk and Etk, CTN06. Treatment of PC3 and other prostate cancer cells, but not immortalized prostate epithelial cells with CTN06 resulted in effective cell killing, accompanied by the attenuation of Btk/Etk signals. The killing effect of CTN06 is more potent than that of commonly used inhibitors against Src, Raf/VEGFR and EGFR. CTN06 induces apoptosis as well as autophagy in human prostate cancer cells, and is a chemo-sensitizer for docetaxel (DTX), a standard of care for metastatic prostate cancer patients. CTN06 also impeded the migration of human prostate cancer cells based on a 'wound healing' assay. The anti-cancer effect of CTN06 was further validated in vivo in a PC3 xenograft mouse model

EFFECT OF INCORPORATION OF WHEY PROTEIN CONCENTRATE ON QUALITY OF ICE CREAM

ABSTRACT Ice cream was prepared by replacing skimmed milk powder (SMP) wit

Experimental Performance Analysis Of Free And Forced Fully Developed Air Flow Green House Solar Dryer Using Curry Leaves

The world is beginning to move away from its consumption of fossil fuels. Various technologies are being developed to make use of renewable energy sources such as wind, solar, and tidal, etc. Solar energy is the best choice among these sources because of it is readily available, abundant, and capable of producing both electric energy and space heating. Solar energy can be used directly or indirectly to dry agricultural and non-agricultural products to preserve them for long a period without formation of fungi. Drying of herbal leaves is an important process in Siddha and Ayurvedic industries to produce herbal medicines in power form. However, as herbal leaves are dried in the open sun, they are susceptible to environmental factors such as rain, insects, and livestock. These disadvantages of open-air drying shall be overwhelmed by greenhouse solar dryer. Greenhouse solar dryer with natural convection, forced convection with hot air supply are the existing methods, but when supplied with hot air, the rise in temperature leads to nutrient loss in herbal leaves. In order to avoid this loss in nutrients, the current work gives a solution that the temperature of forced convection greenhouse dryer can be reduced and controlled by supplying the ambient air at inlet flow in a fully developed air region, and this method can also leads to reduction in colour loss with possibly same or higher drying rate compare to natural convection greenhouse dryer

THE VIABILITY OF YOGHURT PROBIOTIC CULTURE IN MICROENCAPSULATED IRON FORTIFIED YOGHURT

Abstract: A study was designed to develop microencapsulated whey protein-chelated iron (Fewp) using ferrous sulphate as the iron source that could be used in the development of iron fortified yoghurt. Influence of iron on survival of yoghurt culture, TBA values of yoghurt and sensory properties of yoghurt were tested by control, free iron and encapsulated iron fortification. Statistically no significant (P>0.05) difference was noticed in count of Lactobacillus delbrueckii ssp. bulgaricus and Streptococcus salivarius ssp. thermophilus between control and different iron fortified yoghurt treatments on 0, 7, 14 and 21 days. During storage period, the count of Lactobacillus delbrueckii ssp. bulgaricus and Streptococcus salivarius ssp. thermophilus significantly (P<0.05) decreased both in control and as well as in iron fortified yoghurt and thus the fortified iron did not affect the viability of yoghurt bacteria. The TBA values of unencapsulated iron fortified yoghurt was significantly (P<0.05) higher when compared to control and encapsulated iron fortified yoghurt. Significant (P<0.05) difference was observed in oxidized flavour at 0, 7, 14 and 21 st day of storage between control and different treatments of yoghurt. In addition, significant (P<0.05) difference was observed in overall preference at 0, 7, 14 and 21 st day of storage between control and different treatments of yoghurt and between different storage periods. The present study demonstrated that microencapsulated whey protein chelated iron can be added up to a level of 80 mg per litre of yoghurt using ferrous sulphate without affecting the viability of yoghurt probiotic culture