Effect of alcoholic extract of Juglans regia leave on brain antioxidant enzymes in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rat

Background: Diabetes is considered as one of the most common chronic disease. Studies show that diabetes decreases the activity of antioxidant enzymes. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of the alcoholic extract of Juglans regia leave on brain antioxidant enzymes in Streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats. Materials and Methods: In this study, adult male Wistar rats (n=40, weight 250±20 gr) were randomly divided into 4 groups: 1) Control (intact animals); 2) Streptozotocin-induced diabetics; 3) Treatment-1 (500 mg/kg extract); Treatment 2 (250 mg/kg extract). The two treatment groups received the extract through gastric gavages for 21 days. At the end of the treatment, the blood glucose and level of brain antioxidant enzymes (catalase, glutathione peroxidase, superoxide dismutase) and malone dealdeid (MDA) were determined. Results: Results showed that the MDA concentration was significantly increased in brain tissue in the diabetic compared to the control group (P<0.05) and leave extract of Juglans regia decreased the MDA level. Furthermore, the levels of catalase, glutathione peroxidase and superoxide dismutase significantly decreased in brain tissues in the diabetic compared to the control group (P<0.05) and leave extract of Juglans regia increased these enzymes. Conclusion: It can be concluded that oral administration of alcoholic extract of Juglans regia leave has the antidiabetic and antioxidant activities in Streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats

Evaluation of Cytotoxicity of Sagebrush Plain Extract on Human Breast Cancer MCF7 Cells

Abstract Background & aim: Several studies have reported anti-cancer properties of sagebrush plain. The aim of this study was to evaluate the cytotoxicity of the methanol extract of sagebrush plain on human breast cancer MCF7 cells. Methods: In the present experimental study, the toxic effects of methanol extracts of flowers, leaves, stems and roots of sagebrush plain from of Khorassan and Esfahan province were tested on human breast cancer cells MCF-7 and normal cells HEK293 . Plant samples were extracted by methanol and their toxic effects on normal and breast cancer cells at concentrations of 5.62, 125, 250 and 500 µg/ml was determined by MTT. Both breast cancer cells MCF-7 and normal HEK293 cells were cultured in RPMI-1640 medium and DMEM containing 10% fetal calf serums were cultured. Data were analyzed by one-way ANOVA. Results: The methanol extract of sagebrush showed toxicity on MCF7 cells. The extract of Khorasan showed higher toxicity than Esfahan province. IC50 of sagebrush plant for all parts of the plant were obtained more than 500 µg/ml, but the IC50 of sagebrush plant of Khorasan region in leaf and flower were 205 ± 1.3 and 213 ± 5.3µg respectively. The leaves and flowers in both cases had the highest cytotoxicity. Plant extracts in both regions did not show significant cytotoxicity on normal HEK293 cells. Conclusion: The extract of the sagebrush plain region of Khorasan region showed greater cytotoxicity than Esfahan. It seems that different environmental conditionshas considerable cytotoxicity. Keywords: Sagebrush Plain, MTT, Breast Cance

Carbopol: From a simple to a thixotropic yield stress fluid

There is an ongoing discussion in the literature about the flow behavior of the widely used model yield-stress fluid Carbopol. Some papers show that it is indeed the simple model yield-stress fluid that many people believe it to be. However, other authors report rheological hysteresis in the flow curve, transient shear banding that persists for a very long time, and the breaking of fore-aft symmetry in a falling ball experiment. Such behaviors have in the past been associated with thixotropic yield stress fluids, which are very different from simple ones. We present experiments that suggest that both types of behavior may be found in the same type of Carbopol, depending on the preparation: After strong stirring for a long time, the system becomes slightly thixotropic. Flow visualization experiments with fluorescently labeled Carbopol elucidate the difference between the simple and thixotropic behavior of the systems: The stirring breaks the polymers into smaller fragments, some of which are so small that they exhibit Brownian motion. We propose that this generates a depletion interaction that leads to gel formation, which in turn leads to the thixotropy

Evaluation of Genetic Variation of Yellow and White Astragals (Astragalus sp.) in Protected Regions of Isfahan Province Using ISSR Marker

Genetic variation of 16 white and yellow astragal accessions collected from three protected regions of Isfahan province (Mooteh, Kolah-Ghazi and Ghamishloo) were evaluated using ISSR marker. Nine ISSR primers produced 221 bands in which 204 were polymorphic among astragal accessions. ISSR banding patterns were transformed into binary data of presence–absence and matrices were processed with NTSYS Ver. 2 software. Mantel correspondence tests were conducted to select the best similarity coefficient. Dendrogram was constructed using the simple matching coefficient with unweighted pair group mathematical average (UPGMA). Cluster analysis showed the presence of two large and five small groups and the PCoA data confirmed the results of clustering. Results showed that white astragals have more genetic similarity but yellow astragals have more genetic diversity and it is necessary to improve their systematic identification. The highest gene diversity was observed in Kolah-Ghazi (0.366) and the least gene diversity belonged to Moote (0.129). So, the regions with low gene diversity (e. g. Mooteh) should be more protected in relation to astragal accessions and it is necessary to apply genetic conservation strategies in these regions

The yield normal stress

Normal stresses in complex fluids lead to new flow phenomena because they can be comparable to, or even larger than, the shear stress. In addition, they are of paramount importance for formulating and testing constitutive equations for predicting nonviscometric flow behavior. Very little attention has thus far been paid to the normal stresses of yield stress fluids, which are difficult to measure. We report the first systematic study of the first and second normal stress differences in both continuous and slow oscillatory shear of three model nonthixotropic yield stress fluids, with N1 > 0 and N2 < 0. We show that both normal stress differences are quadratic functions of the shear stress both above and below the shear yield stress, leading to the existence of a yield normal stress. However, the contribution of the normal stresses to the von Mises yield criterion for these materials is small

Improving the Performance of a Fuzzy Logic Model in Seismic Damage Prediction using a Guided Adaptive Search-based Particle Swarm Optimization ALGORITHM

This paper proposes a fuzzy logic model to improve the accuracy of seismic damageability simulations for buildings. The Rapid Visual Screening (RVS) method is often used to evaluate seismic damages in buildings due to its speed and simplicity, but it can be subject to human error and other uncertainties. The proposed model uses fuzzy logic to address these uncertainties and build a more robust simulator for estimating the seismic damage state. To fine-tune the hyperparameters of the fuzzy model, the Guided Adaptive Search-based Particle Swarm Optimization (GuASPSO) algorithm is used, which has been shown to be efficient and effective. The model is applied to simulate the damageability of reinforced concrete buildings damaged in the 2017 Sar-Pol-Zahab earthquake in Iran, and the results are compared to those obtained using two popular meta-heuristic optimizers, the PSO and GWO algorithms. The results demonstrate that the GuASPSO algorithm outperforms the other two in terms of performance metrics in the training, validation, and total data sets. The proposed model is a significant step toward more accurate and practical seismic damageability simulations

The yield normal stress

Normal stresses in complex fluids lead to new flow phenomena because they can be comparable to, or even larger than, the shear stress. In addition, they are of paramount importance for formulating and testing constitutive equations for predicting nonviscometric flow behavior. Very little attention has thus far been paid to the normal stresses of yield stress fluids, which are difficult to measure. We report the first systematic study of the first and second normal stress differences in both continuous and slow oscillatory shear of three model nonthixotropic yield stress fluids, with N 1 > 0 and N 2 < 0. We show that both normal stress differences are quadratic functions of the shear stress both above and below the shear yield stress, leading to the existence of a yield normal stress. However, the contribution of the normal stresses to the von Mises yield criterion for these materials is small. </p