37 research outputs found

    Evaluation of the effect of lycopene on lipid profile, serum antioxidant enzymes and blood sugar level in New Zealand white rabbits

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    Background: Dyslipidaemias are the major cause of increased atherogenesis. Lycopene is a pigment that imparts red colour to fruits and vegetables like tomatoes. Risk of cardiovascular diseases has been shown to decrease with dietary intake of tomatoes. Although the antioxidant and hypolipidaemic properties of tomatoes have been studied extensively, beneficial effect of pure lycopene supplement as hypolipidaemic is still debatable So, we aimed to evaluate the effect of pure lycopene powder on lipid profile, serum antioxidant enzymes and blood sugar level in hyperlipidaemic rabbits.Methods: Adult male New Zealand White rabbits (1.5-2.5kg) were divided into three groups of six each. Group I-High Fat Diet (HFD) (5ml/kg). Group II-HFD (5ml/kg) + lycopene (10mg/kg) orally. Group III-HFD (5ml/kg) + lycopene (20mg/kg) orally. Blood samples were taken from all rabbits for baseline estimations of serum lipids, serum superoxide dismutase (SOD) and blood sugar. Same tests were performed after six weeks.Results: There was significant decrease in the levels of serum TC, LDL-C, TG and VLDL and an increase in serum HDL-C and antioxidant SOD with lycopene administration. However, significant increase in HDL was not seen with lycopene 10mg. TG and VLDL levels were significantly less with 20mg lycopene compared to 10mg lycopene. There was however no change in blood sugar level with lycopene.Conclusions: Pure lycopene supplement showed significant hypolipidaemic and antioxidant activity. However, it did not show significant effect on blood glucose levels

    A Review and an Approach of Water Pollution Indication using Arduino Uno

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    Drinking water is critical for the wellbeing and prosperity of all people and creatures because water play major role in all living beings and most danger disease are caused by water and it is our duty to provide clean and safe water and also to monitor the pollution level in water it is additionally essential for farming utilization for good product yielding and natural way of life linkage wellbeing issues. With over 200 children dying per day due to unsafe water, drinking water crisis is ranked one on the global risk by World Economic Forum, 2015. This paper presents an easy and comprehensive methodology is microcontroller sensor based system continuous observing and pollution recognition for both drinking and non-drinking water dissemination frameworks and in addition for customer locales

    A Review and an Approach of Flying Electric Generators as Alternate Source of Energy

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    This paper presents a review of flying electric generators which are used to harness kinetic energy in powerful, persistent high altitude winds. It has been found that FEGs could give individual output of up to 40MW. It is a lighter wind turbine that rotates about a horizontal axis in response to wind, generating electrical energy. This electrical energy is transferred down for immediate use, or to a set of batteries for later use, or to the power grid. This paper presents the critical analysis of existing literature which is relevant to flying electric generator Though, the literature consists of a lot many research contributions, but, here, we have analyzed some important research and review papers. The existing approaches are categorized based on the basic concepts involved in the mechanisms. The emphasis is on the concepts used by the concerned authors, the database used for experimentations and the performance evaluation parameters. Their claims are also highlighted. Finally, the findings are summarized related to the studied and analyzed research papers. Paper concludes with the motivation behind identified problem

    Study of effects of donepezil and aspirin on working memory in rats using electroconvulsive shock model

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    Background: Memory is the most common cognitive ability lost with dementia commonly seen in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Donepezil was the first cholinesterase inhibitor to be licensed in UK for AD. There is preliminary evidence that aspirin decreases the risk and delays the onset of AD. Low dose aspirin users had numerically lower prevalence of Alzheimer’s dementia and had better cognitive function than non-users.Methods: Retention of conditioned avoidance response (CAR) was assessed by using repeated electroconvulsive shocks (ECS) in rats. Rats were divided into five groups: control (pretreated with distilled water), ECS (150 V, 50 Hz, with intensity of 210 mA for 0.5 sec) pretreated, combined aspirin (6.75 mg/kg) and pretreated ECS, combined donepezil (0.32 mg/kg) and pretreated ECS, combined aspirin, donepezil and pretreated ECS groups. Data were analyzed using the Chi-square test and ANOVA.Results: Findings show that administration of ECS daily for 8 days results in transient amnesia and disruption of retention of CAR. Aspirin and donepezil administration significantly increased the retention of CAR in comparison to ECS. However, aspirin failed to show an increase in the retention of CAR as compared to donepezil. The combination of the two drugs showed statistically significant increase in the retention of CAR than either of these drugs given alone.Conclusion: Neuroinflammation plays an important role in the pathophysiology of neurodegenerative disorder like AD. Combination of aspirin with donepezil increased the nootropic and neuroprotective effect of aspirin and thus may hold great clinical significance in such disorders

    Automatic Overhead Water Tank Cleaning System: A Review and an Approach

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    Aim of this paper is to develop a mechanical system for cleaning domestic cylindrical water tank. The mechanical system includes two main mechanisms which are rack and pinion gear mechanism and reciprocating four bar linkage mechanism. The rack and pinion arrangement is used to move whole mechanical system up and down for cleaning the cylindrical tank. The rack is fixed on the motor and the four-bar mechanism is attached to the motor shaft. PVC brushes are attached to the ends of the four-bar linkage. Four bar linkage is made in such a way that it can be adjusted according to inside diameter of the tank. When the motor is started the linkage rotates and with the help of brushes, cleaning of wall and base of tank takes place. The purpose of this project is to reduce the human efforts and to avoid the chemical influence on health of person entering the tank for cleaning. In this modern world, cleaning of overhead tanks manually is a tedious job. To overcome this we have aimed at tackling the disadvantages of cleaning overhead tanks, so an automatic system overhead tank cleaning is designed to provide high safety, high efficiency, less time for cleaning and to avoid environmental pollution problems. Purpose of this paper is to clean domestic cylindrical water tank with the help of mechatronics system. The mechatronics system consists of a grooved gear rod attached to two arms with brushes at ends. The two arms are connected to the gear rod by nut. By rotating the gear rod, the up and down motion of the two arms is achieved. The gear rod is rotated with the help of a D.C gear motor. The main grooved shaft is powered by an A.C motor. The motor and the shaft are connected by a rubber belt. The clockwise rotation of the main shaft will make the arms move and vice versa. The whole operation is controlled by a circuit consisting of relay switches, buttons, and PIC microcontroller. The number of times for the operation to repeat can be fed into the circuit. The achievement of this project is reduction of cost and manual labour because there will be harmful diseases for the person who will go inside and it will affect the health as well as the other human being who consumes water from the tank

    A comparative study of American ginseng (spp. Panax quinquefolius) and Donepezil on working memory in rats using scopolamine induced disruption of memory

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    Background: Treatment of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) includes acetylcholinesterase inhibitors like Donepezil. American ginseng has been postulated to enhance learning and memory owing to its antiapoptotic activity as well as inhibition of formation of β amyloid plaque. Scarce data is available on effect of combination of these two drugs. Hence, we have conducted this study to evaluate the same. Aim and objectives of the study were to evaluate the role of American ginseng on working memory in rats and to compare the effect of American ginseng with Donepezil on working memory in rats.Methods: Sprague-Dawley rats of either sex, weighing 150-200g were used and obtained from animal house of Dr. D. Y. Patil Medical College, Hospital and Research Centre, Pimpri, Pune. To study the effects of the drugs on working memory in rats, they were trained for conditioned avoidance response (CAR) using Cook's pole climbing apparatus. The method of Fellow and Cook was used.Results: In the group C (i.e. the control group), 50% of rats showed the retention of CAR. In the group S (i.e. only scopolamine group), only 20% of rats showed the retention of CAR. In the group S+AG (i.e. scopolamine and American ginseng), 60% of rats showed the retention of CAR. In the group S+ D (i.e. scopolamine and Donepezil) 70% of rats showed retention of CAR. In the group S+D+AG (i.e. the combination group of scopolamine, Donepezil and American ginseng), 80% of rats showed the retention of CAR.Conclusions: From this study we can conclude that American ginseng and Donepezil have comparable effects in retention of working memory. The combination of American ginseng and Donepezil can have additive effect on the retention of working memory

    The LOFAR view of intergalactic magnetic fields with giant radio galaxies

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    Context. Giant radio galaxies (GRGs) are physically large radio sources that extend well beyond their host galaxy environment. Their polarization properties are affected by the poorly constrained magnetic field that permeates the intergalactic medium on megaparsec scales. A low frequency (< 200 MHz) polarization study of this class of radio sources is now possible with LOFAR. Aims. Here we investigate the polarization properties and Faraday rotation measure (RM) of a catalog of GRGs detected in the LOFAR Two-meter Sky Survey. This is the first low frequency polarization study of a large sample of radio galaxies that were selected on their physical size. We explore the magneto-ionic properties of their under-dense environment and probe intergalactic magnetic fields using the Faraday rotation properties of their radio lobes. LOFAR is a key instrument for this kind of analysis because it can probe small amounts of Faraday dispersion (< 1 rad m-2), which are associated with weak magnetic fields and low thermal gas densities. Methods. We used RM synthesis in the 120-168 MHz band to search for polarized emission and to derive the RM and fractional polarization of each detected source component. We study the depolarization between 1.4 GHz and 144 MHz using images from the NRAO VLA Sky Survey. We investigate the correlation of the detection rate, the RM difference between the lobes, and the depolarization with different parameters as follows: the angular and linear size of the sources and the projected distance from the closest foreground galaxy cluster. In our sample, we also included 3C 236, which is one of the largest radio galaxies known. Results. From a sample of 240 GRGs, we detected 37 sources in polarization, all of which have a total flux density above 56 mJy. We detected significant RM differences between the lobes, which would be inaccessible at gigahertz frequencies, with a median value of ∼1 rad m-2. The fractional polarization of the detected GRGs at 1.4 GHz and 144 MHz is consistent with a small amount of Faraday depolarization (a Faraday dispersion < 0.3 rad m-2). Our analysis shows that the lobes are expanding into a low-density (< 10-5 cm-3) local environment that is permeated by weak magnetic fields (< 0.1  μG) with fluctuations on scales of 3-25 kpc. The presence of foreground galaxy clusters appears to influence the polarization detection rate up to 2R500. In general, this work demonstrates the ability of LOFAR to quantify the rarefied environments in which these GRGs exist and highlights them as an excellent statistical sample to use as high precision probes of magnetic fields in the intergalactic medium and the Milky Way

    Higher risk of renal impairment associated with tenofovir use amongst people living with HIV in India: A comparative cohort analysis between Western India and United Kingdom

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    Background: Data on the renal safety of Tenofovir (TDF) in Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs) is scarce. We compared development of various forms of renal impairment with use of TDF-containing antiretroviral therapy (ART) between a cohort from the Institute of Infectious Diseases (IID) Pune, Western India and the Royal Free Hospital (RFH) London, UK. Methods: This is a retrospective analysis of change in estimated glomerular filtration rates (eGFRs) at 6, 12 and 24 months post TDF initiation using the Modification of Diet in Renal Disease (MDRD) equation. In people living with Human Immunodeficiency virus (PLHIV) with pre-TDF eGFR > 90 ml/min/1.73 m2 time to development of and factors associated with progression to eGFR < 60 ml/min/1.73 m2 were calculated using standard survival methods. Results: A total of 574 (59% Caucasian) at the RFH, and 708 (100% Indian ethnicity) PLHIV from IID were included. Baseline median eGFR were similar; RFH 102 (IQR 89, 117), IID 100 (82, 119). At 24 months, mean (SD) decline in eGFR was -7(21) at RFH (p  90 ml/min/1.73 m2 PLHIV at IID were more likely to develop an eGFR < 60 ml/min/1.73 m2 (aHR = 7.6 [95% CI 3.4, 17.4] p < 0.0001) and had a faster rate of progression estimated using Kaplan Meier methods. Risk factors included age (per 10 years older: aHR = 2.21 [1.6, 3.0] p < 0.0001) and receiving concomitant ritonavir boosted Protease Inhibitor (PI/r) (aHR = 2.4 [1.2, 4.8] p = 0.01). Conclusions: There is higher frequency of treatment limiting renal impairment events amongst PLHIV receiving TDF in Western India. As TDF scale up progresses, programs need to develop capacity for monitoring and treatment of renal impairment associated with TDF
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