ANTI HYPERGLYCAEMIC AND ANTIOXIDANT ACTIVITY OF CATUNAREGAM SPINOSA (THUNB) AGAINST DEXAMETHASONE INDUCED DIABETES IN RATS

Objective: The study was aimed at evaluating the folkloric use of the Catunaregam spinosa (Thunb) bark for its hypoglycaemic and antioxidant activity against dexamethasone-induced diabetes in wistar rats. Methods: Diabetes was induced in wistar rats by dexamethasone administration 10 mg/kg, b. wt., s. c for 11 consecutive days to all group animals (except Group I). After confirmation of diabetes, the animals were divided into 5 groups (n=6). Group I: Vehicle control treated with normal saline only, Group II: Diabetic control treated with dexamethasone only, Group III: Standard control treated with dexamethasone plus glibenclamide (5 mg/kg, b. wt., p. o), Group IV and V: Test control received dexamethasone plus ethanolic extract of Catunaregam spinosa (EECS) at graded doses of 200 mg/kg, b. wt. and 400 mg/kg, b. wt., p. o for 21days respectively. On the last day of the experiment, the effect of Catunaregam spinosa bark was measured by estimating the biochemical and antioxidant parameters. Results: There was a significant alteration in the serum glucose, HbA1c, total proteins, serum lipid profile and tissue antioxidant parameters in dexamethasone-treated animals when compared to the normal control rats. In test groups treated with glibenclamide and EECS, it was significantly ameliorated the altered parameters such as serum glucose, HbA1c, total proteins, serum lipid profile and the antioxidant parameters like SOD, CAT, GSH and MDA when compared to dexamethasone-treated animals with evidence of histopathological studies of the pancreas. Conclusion: The results indicated that the ethanolic extract of Catunaregam Spinosa (Thunb) bark has shown the hypoglycemic and antioxidant property

HS-C reactive protein and red blood cell distribution width as effective markers for hypertension

Background: Hypertension or elevated blood pressure is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality. HsCRP, which is a known marker for CVD, is also one of the predictive markers of inflammation processes which result in hypertension. Increased RDW is also believed to be associated with CVD morbidity and mortality in patients with previous myocardial infarction, brain vascular disease, strokes, septicemia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and hepatitis B. Methods: 200 patients 100 male and 100 females and 50 each of controls were selected for the study. Complete demographic details were collected from all the patients including the age, sex, height, weight, BMI, smoking/nonsmoking status, alcoholism etc. After a thorough clinical examination, venous blood was collected from all the patients after an overnight fast for lipid profile, hs-CRP and complete blood count. Results: The patients in both males and females had a higher BMI than that of the controls. Hs-CRP levels in males was 1.64 mg/L and in females it was 1.47 mg/L. Significant difference was seen in the RDW values also in the patients. Conclusions: Hs-CRP levels and RDW levels are both equally effective as a predictive marker for hypertension.Background: Hypertension or elevated blood pressure is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality. HsCRP, which is a known marker for CVD, is also one of the predictive markers of inflammation processes which result in hypertension. Increased RDW is also believed to be associated with CVD morbidity and mortality in patients with previous myocardial infarction, brain vascular disease, strokes, septicemia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and hepatitis B. Methods: 200 patients 100 male and 100 females and 50 each of controls were selected for the study. Complete demographic details were collected from all the patients including the age, sex, height, weight, BMI, smoking/nonsmoking status, alcoholism etc. After a thorough clinical examination, venous blood was collected from all the patients after an overnight fast for lipid profile, hs-CRP and complete blood count. Results: The patients in both males and females had a higher BMI than that of the controls. Hs-CRP levels in males was 1.64 mg/L and in females it was 1.47 mg/L. Significant difference was seen in the RDW values also in the patients. Conclusions: Hs-CRP levels and RDW levels are both equally effective as a predictive marker for hypertension

Attitudes and barriers of medical students towards conducting research in a medical college

Background: It is well known that evidence-based medicine is the rule for clinical practice. This can be enhanced by conducting good research. Medical students being the future doctors should contribute significantly. But the research among the medical students is very poor with respect to presentations and publications. In view of this data the study was done to know their perception, attitude and barriers for conducting research.Methods: This was a cross sectional observational study involving three different batches of medical students by giving a semi-structured questionnaire.Results: The response among the participants to involve in research was only 30%. Among them the overall attitude and barrier score were 3.69±0.29 and 3.63±0.42 respectively with statistical significance shown between genders and not between batches. The biggest barrier was lack of previous research experience (91.67%). The most common motivational factor was self-interest (90.7%).Conclusions: If given sufficient training and facilities provided, we should be able to get more research among the medical students

A NOVEL MATLAB MODEL OF ANN BASED CONTROLLERS TO IMPROVE THE DYNAMIC PERFORMANCE OF A SHUNT ACTIVE POWER FILTER

This paper attempts to enhance the dynamic performance of a shunt-type active power filter. The predictive and adaptive properties of artificial neural networks (ANNs) are used for fast estimation of the compensating current. The dynamics of the dc-link voltage is utilized in a predictive controller to generate the first estimate followed by convergence of the algorithm by an adaptive ANN (adaline) based network. Weights in adaline are tuned to minimize the total harmonic distortion of the source current. Extensive simulations and experimentations confirm the validity of the proposed scheme for all kinds of load (balanced and unbalanced) for a three-phase three-wire system

Fast Local Binary Patterns for Efficient Face Recognition

LBP, Local Binary Patterns, is an accepted technique for efficient face recognition. The local features improve the recognition process. However, high memory and computational resources are needed for LBP required approaches to improve the performance. Many people used LBP for extracting features and Support Vector Machine (SVM), histogram matching, neural networks as recognition tools. These approaches consume considerable computational resources. We have proposed a fast LBP which uses Two-level Correlation for the classification & recognition. The exhaustive experiments on FERET database 8750 images substantiate the performance compared to others. [Keywords— Face Recognition, LBP, Histogram Matching, Two-level Correlation, FERET data set

Tanaostigmodes cajaninae Promotes Pod Growth in Pigeonpea

Different observations on the effect of T. cajaninae infestation on pigeon pea pod development are briefly discussed

Genetic diversity among Arachis species based on RAPDs

Thirty-two accessions of wild species of Arachis belonging to twenty-five species and grouped under six sections were used to study genetic relationship using RAPOs. Twenty-nine primers belonging to OPH 1–20 and and OPM 1–9 were used in the study. All the primers showed polymorphic bands and the number of bands varied from five to thirty-three. Similarity values (Sij) for 464 pairwise comparisons among 32 accessions ranged from a minimum of 0 to a maximum of 49%, with an average of 15%. The data obtained from cluster analysis matched that obtained from multidimensional scaling (MDS). Cultivated species A. hypogaea grouped with A. monticola, a tetraploid wild species and a probable progenator of A. hypogaea. A. stenosperma accessions grouped together. Wild species from section Arachis with B genome formed two clusters, with one cluster having A. batizocoi showing distant relationship than the other cluster with A. hoehnei showing closer relationship. A. glandulifera having the 0 genome remained apart. It was possible to explain the grouping of wild species grouped as per their relationship with each other. The exception was the two accessions of A. cardenasii (ICG 11558 and 11559) from section Arachis. They did not group with any of the A, B or the D genome species from section Arachis nor with each other

Haptic Feedback for Injecting Biological Cells using Miniature Compliant Mechanisms

Abstract We present a real-time haptics-aided injection technique for biological cells using miniature compliant mechanisms. Our system consists of a haptic robot operated by a human hand, an XYZ stage for micro-positioning, a camera for image capture, and a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) miniature compliant device that serves the dual purpose of an injecting tool and a force-sensor. In contrast to existing haptics-based micromanipulation techniques where an external force sensor is used, we use visually captured displacements of the compliant mechanism to compute the applied and reaction forces. The human hand can feel the magnified manipulation force through the haptic device in real-time while the motion of the human hand is replicated on the mechanism side. The images are captured using a camera at the rate of 30 frames per second for extracting the displacement data. This is used to compute the forces at the rate of 30 Hz. The force computed in this manner is sent at the rate of 1000 Hz to ensure stable haptic interaction. The haptic cell-manipulation system was tested by injecting into a zebrafish egg cell after validating the technique at a size larger than that of the cell

Effect of SEN immersion depth on mold flow profile and slag entrapment during continuous casting of steel

Mold flux entrapment during continuous casting of steel contributes to both surface and sub-surface defects in the final product. Continuous casting operating parameters such as casting speed, SEN immersion depth, SEN port geometry, argon flow, and mold EMS significantly affect the mold flow conditions and flow profile. During continuous casting operation, SEN immersion depth is continuously varied to avoid localized erosion of SEN, and it impacts the flow dynamics in the mold. In the present work, water modeling studies were carried out for a wide range of mold widths (1200-1800 mm) and casting speeds (0.8-1.4 m/min) on a 0.5 scaled down water model to optimize casting speed for different combinations of SEN immersion depth and mold width. Results from water modeling were further validated using nail board studies in the actual plant. A safe operating matrix was identified from these experiments to avoid mold slag entrapment during continuous casting