HEPATOPROTECTIVE ACTIVITY OF THE WHOLE PLANT OF NEPTUNIA PROSTRATA L. IN CARBON TETRACHLORIDE INDUCED RATS

Objective: The aim of this study is to investigate the hepatoprotective activity of the whole plant of Neptunia Prostrata L. Methods: The whole plant was collected and identified as Neptunia Prostrata L. The collected plants were shade dried and pulverized to fine powdered of particle size (#) 40. It was then defatted with petroleum ether for 24 hour and soaked with methanol and ethanol, respectively. The extracts was filtered and distilled off using a rotary evaporator. The phytochemical screening of the extracts was carried out and thin layer chromatography study was also done. Acute toxicity study and in vivo hepatoprotective activity of the methanolic extract using CCL4 (carbon tetra chloride) induced model was investigated. Results: The phytochemical screening revealed the presence of alkaloids, glycosides (saponins), flavonoids, tannins, carbohydrates, proteins, phenolic, steroids and terpenoids. Thin-layer chromatography of the methanolic and ethanolic extracts with their fractions using different solvents were performed by taking petroleum ether and ethyl acetate (2:8) as mobile phase system and were able to observe the presence of many spots. Oral administration of methanolic extract of Neptunia prostrata at doses till 2000 mg/kg was found safe and shows good hepatoprotective activity by showing decreased levels of serum SGOT (serum glutamate oxaloacetate transaminase), SGPT (serum glutamate pyruvate transaminase) and ALP (alkaline phosphatase) when compared with the standard drug silymarin. Conclusion: The preliminary phytochemical screening of the methanol and ethanolic extract shows phytoconstituents such as flavonoids, triterpenoids, tannins, saponins, alkaloids and chromatographic studies indicates the presence of several components in varying abundance. The decrease of serum bilirubin level by the methanolic extract of the plant shows hepatoprotective activity. It has confirmed the traditional claim for its use in the treatment of jaundice

Interval based fuzzy systems for identification of important genes from microarray gene expression data: Application to carcinogenic development

AbstractIn the present article, we develop two interval based fuzzy systems for identification of some possible genes mediating the carcinogenic development in various tissues. The methodology involves dimensionality reduction, classifying the genes through incorporation of the notion of linguistic fuzzy sets low, medium and high, and finally selection of some possible genes mediating a particular disease, obtained by a rule generation/grouping technique. The effectiveness of the proposed methodology, is demonstrated using five microarray gene expression datasets dealing with human lung, colon, sarcoma, breast cancer and leukemia. Moreover, the superior capability of the methodology in selecting important genes, over five other existing gene selection methods, viz., Significance Analysis of Microarrays (SAM), Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR), Neighborhood analysis (NA), Bayesian Regularization (BR) and Data-adaptive (DA) is demonstrated, in terms of the enrichment of each GO category of the important genes based on P-values. The results are appropriately validated by earlier investigations, gene expression profiles and t-test. The proposed methodology has been able to select genes that are more biologically significant in mediating the development of a disease than those obtained by the others

Amplitude's positivity vs. subluminality: Causality and Unitary Constraints on dimension 6 & 8 Gluonic operators in the SMEFT

We derive the causality and unitary constraints on dimension 6 and dimension 8 Gluon field strength operators in the Standard Model Effective Field Theory (SMEFT). In the first part of the paper, we use the 'amplitude analysis' i.e. dispersion relation for $2\rightarrow2$ scattering in the forward limit, to put bounds on the Wilson coefficients. We show that the dimension 6 operators can exist only in the presence of certain dimension 8 operators. It is interesting that the square of the dimension 6 Wilson coefficients can be constrained in this case even at the tree level. In the second part of this work, we successfully rederive all these bounds using the classical causality argument that demands that the speed of fluctuations about any non-trivial background should not exceed the speed of light. We also point out some subtleties in the superluminality analysis regarding whether the low-frequency phase velocity can always be used as the relevant quantity for Causality violation: as an example, we show that, due to these subtleties, if a small pion mass is added in the chiral Lagrangian, it is unclear if any strict positivity bound can be derived on the dimension 8 Wilson coefficient. Finally, we mention an interesting non-relativistic example where the subluminality requirement produces a stronger bound than the 'amplitude analysis'.Comment: 28 page

A STUDY ON ANTIOXIDANT PROPERTIES OF DIFFERENT BIOACTIVE COMPOUNDS

Free radicals induce damage mainly to biomembranes and DNA due to peroxidation, which lead to tissue damage resulting in number of degenerative diseases. Antioxidants can neutralise the effect of these free radicals through various ways and may protect the body from harmful alterations. Antioxidants may be of different types viz. enzymatic, non-enzymatic and also found from plant sources. Nowadays, numerous synthetic antioxidant supplements are also found in the market. The antioxidative potential of samples can be assayed by different in vitro and in vivo methods. The present review describes a brief account of the free radical generation, their role in aging and other diseases, classification of antioxidants, their natural and synthetic sources, possible mechanism and several assay methods of free radical scavenging activity of different bioactive compounds

Improved thermal properties of borosilicate glass composite containing single walled carbon nanotube bundles

A single walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) incorporated borosilicate glass composite was fabricated by a melt quench technique. The thermal diffusivity, specific heat and the thermal conductivity of the base glass and the composite were determined together with their temperature profile. Enhancement of the diffusivity and the conductivity in the composite was found compared to that of the base glass. The interfacial thermal resistance (R-k) plays a decisive role in the thermal transport properties of the composite. Furthermore, the effect of phonons was discussed to substantiate the transport mechanism and the temperature profile of different thermal parameters

Fast response and low temperature sensing of acetone and ethanol using Al-doped ZnO microrods

We report low temperature acetone and ethanol sensing properties of Al-doped ZnO microrods synthesized using hydrothermal technique. We observe the acetone detection at room temperature as well as ethanol and acetone detection at low temperature of 150 °C using Al-doped ZnO microrods. 3 wt% Al-doped ZnO microrods sensor exhibits the highest response of 231 toward 8100 parts per million (ppm) of ethanol at 150 °C. The response & recovery time are found to be ultrafast of 60 ms & 870 ms for ethanol and 110 ms & 330 ms for acetone of the Al-doped ZnO microrods at an operating temperature of 150 °C, respectively. In addition, sensing mechanism has explained to illuminate the improved sensing performances of Al-doped ZnO microrods. Thus it is revealed that Al-doped ZnO microrods are promising as an ultrafast gas sensor

Is there any difference in efficacy of oral sildenafil therapy in primary vs secondary Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension?

Objective: Oral sildenafil, a phosphodiesterase 5 inhibitor,is now accepted mode of therapy for symptomatic Pulmonary arterial hypertension(PAH).As the pathobiologic mechanisms are different in primary and secondary PAH, we undertook this study to find out any significant difference in efficacy of oral sildenafil therapy in primary versus secondary PAH. Methods: It was an unicentric parallel group longitudinal study. After selection and baseline investigations,all the patients of primary and secondary PAH were given sildenafil in fixed doses (50 mg thrice daily). Study parameters: 1. Distance covered in 6 minute walk test (6MWT), 2.Pulmonary arterial pressure (PAP) by trans-thoracic Doppler echocardiography, 3.quality of life (QOL) score assessed by Minnesota living with heart disease questionnaire. At the end of 6 weeks, 6 MWT, PAP, QOL were compared to the baseline value. Results: 42 subjects completed the study.20 subjects had primary PAH and 22 had secondary PAH. Sildenafil therapy was effective in both groups in reducing PAP, increase in distance covered in 6 minute walk and reducing QOL score. Reduction of PAP is significantly more in primary PAH than secondary PAH but no such difference was found in 6 MWT and QOL score. Conclusion: Though lowering of pulmonary arterial pressure in primary PAH is significantly lower than secondary PAH, this is not translated in better symptomatic relief. Key words: primary pulmonary hypertension, secondary pulmonary hypertension, sildenafil, pulmonary arterial pressure, 6 minute walk test

A water soluble Ni-Schiff base complex for homogeneous green catalytic C S cross-coupling reactions

Since the embarkation of C – S cross-coupling from aryl halides with thiols a handful of works have been contemplated in aqueous medium. Herein, we report an example of a water soluble Ni-Schiff base complex as the green catalyst for the synthesis of thioethers. We have synthesized a Ni-Schiff base complex [NiL(H2O)2 ](ClO4)2 using N 4 -donor Schiff base ligand (1,3-bis(((E)-pyridin-2-ylmethylene)amino)propan-2-ol) and characterized by single crystal X-ray diffraction (SC-XRD) study along with different spectral analyses. The complex is mono-nuclear and cationic in nature having two perchlorate anions. Two water molecules remain coordinated with the Ni(II)-centre. The hydrogen bonding interaction through coordinated water and perchlorate anions connect the monomeric units to form 2D supramolecular structure. Based on its aqueous solubility, the complex has been used for the catalytic C – S cross-coupling reaction between aryl iodide and aryl or alkyl thiols using TBAB at 60 ◦ C in aqueous media (yield 92%). At room temperature, an isolated yield of 57% can be achieved. This environmentally benign protocol is paramount in view of the environmental sustainability

Ab initio determination of the lifetime of the 62P3/26^2P_{3/2} state f or 207Pb+^{207}Pb^+ by relativistic many-body theory

Relativistic coupled-cluster(RCC) theory has been employed to calculate the life time of the $6 ^2P_{3/2}$ state of single ionized lead($^{207}Pb$) to an accurac y of 3% and compared with the corresponding value obtained using second order r elativistic many-body perturbation theory(RMBPT). This is one of the very few ap plications of this theory to excited state properties of heavy atomic systems. C ontributions from the different electron correlation effects are given explicitl y