Indigenous Uses of Some Important Ethnomedicinal Herbs of Ayubia National Park, Abbottabad, Pakistan

This paper is based on the results of an ethno botanical research project conducted in Ayubia National Park. The people of the park have always used the medicinal herbs for various ailments and are dependent on the plants in their surroundings for food, shelter, health, medicines, fodder and various cultural purposes. A total of 21 important herbs belonging to 19 Families were recorded which were used medicinally by the local inhabitants. About 100 informants were interviewed in this regard. The precious ethno botanical knowledge is disappearing very fast, so this study could be helpful in conserving the precious knowledge. Podophyllum emodi Wall. ex Royle and Viola canescens Wall. ex Roxb. are found vulnerable to harvesting

3D Face Reconstruction from Light Field Images: A Model-free Approach

Reconstructing 3D facial geometry from a single RGB image has recently instigated wide research interest. However, it is still an ill-posed problem and most methods rely on prior models hence undermining the accuracy of the recovered 3D faces. In this paper, we exploit the Epipolar Plane Images (EPI) obtained from light field cameras and learn CNN models that recover horizontal and vertical 3D facial curves from the respective horizontal and vertical EPIs. Our 3D face reconstruction network (FaceLFnet) comprises a densely connected architecture to learn accurate 3D facial curves from low resolution EPIs. To train the proposed FaceLFnets from scratch, we synthesize photo-realistic light field images from 3D facial scans. The curve by curve 3D face estimation approach allows the networks to learn from only 14K images of 80 identities, which still comprises over 11 Million EPIs/curves. The estimated facial curves are merged into a single pointcloud to which a surface is fitted to get the final 3D face. Our method is model-free, requires only a few training samples to learn FaceLFnet and can reconstruct 3D faces with high accuracy from single light field images under varying poses, expressions and lighting conditions. Comparison on the BU-3DFE and BU-4DFE datasets show that our method reduces reconstruction errors by over 20% compared to recent state of the art

Synthesis, structural and antibacterial study of new silver complex with 3-acetyl-2H chromene-2-one

A new silver complex [Ag(C11H8O3)2]NO3 was synthesized by the reaction of silver nitrateand coumarin based ligand (3-acetyl-2H-chromene-2-one) through solution method. The product was characterized using different analytical techniques like melting point, Infrared spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, powder X-ray diffraction, thermogravimetric analysis, scanning electron microscopy, atomic absorption spectroscopy and mass spectrometry. An antibacterial study of the complex was also studied for its possible use in medical treatment. KEY WORDS: Silver complex, Acetyl coumarin, Vibrational analysis, Antibacterial study Bull. Chem. Soc. Ethiop. 2016, 30(3), 403-411DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/bcse.v30i3.

Acute-on-chronic Liver Failure: MELD Score 30-day Mortality Predictability and Etiology in a Pakistani Population

Background: Cirrhosis is a pathological condition that ultimately leads to liver failure. Acute on chronic liver failure (ACLF) has a high short term mortality rate. Viral hepatitis is the most common cause of liver failure in our local population. We carried out this study to identity the 30-day mortality and etiology of patients presenting with ACLF using Model for End-Stage Liver Disease (MELD) score predictability. Methodology: This was a descriptive case series, conducted at Sheikh Zayed Hospital, Lahore, Pakistan from January 31, 2018 to July 30, 2018. One hundred and eighty five patients who met the inclusion criteria were enrolled using 95% confidence level and 4% margin of error. Data was entered and analyzed with SPSS version 23.0. Numerical variables including age was presented by Mean ± S.D. Categorical variables i.e. gender, etiology of acute-on-chronic liver failure and 30-day mortality were presented by frequency and percentage. Data was stratified for age, gender, duration of chronic liver disease and MELD grade to address the effect modifiers. Post-stratification chi-square test was calculated using 95% significance (p≤0.05). Results: Majority of the enrolled patients were male (74.6%) while only 25.4% of the patients were female. One hundred and thirty patients (70.3%) had underlying viral hepatitis while twelve patients (6.5%) and forty three patients (23.2%) presented with alcoholic liver disease and drug-induced ACLF, respectively. Eighty patients (43.2%) died within 30 days of admission.The 30-day mortality with respect to MELD grade was statistically significant (p<0.001) with the highest mortality noted in grade-IV and thirty five patients (43.8%) dying within 30 days of admission (p<0.001). Grade-II and III MELD scores also contributed to the 30-day mortality with twenty three patients (28.8%) and nineteen patients (23.8%) dying within 30 days of admission (p<0.001). Conclusion: MELD scores are able to accurately predict the short-term mortality in patients with ACLF and viral hepatitis was the most common etiology in our population. Early detection and use of appropriate prognostic models may alleviate mortality and morbidity in paitents with ACLF

Nonstationary spatiotemporal Bayesian data fusion for pollutants in the near‐road environment

Concentrations of near‐road air pollutants (NRAPs) have increased to very high levels in many urban centers around the world, particularly in developing countries. The adverse health effects of exposure to NRAPs are greater when the exposure occurs in the near‐road environment as compared to background levels of pollutant concentration. Therefore, there is increasing interest in monitoring pollutant concentrations in the near‐road environment. However, due to various practical limitations, monitoring pollutant concentrations near roadways and traffic sources is generally rather difficult and expensive. As an alternative, various deterministic computer models that provide predictions of pollutant concentrations in the near‐road environment, such as the research line‐source dispersion model (RLINE), have been developed. A common feature of these models is that their outputs typically display systematic biases and need to be calibrated in space and time using observed pollutant data. In this paper, we present a nonstationary Bayesian data fusion model that uses a novel data set on monitored pollutant concentrations (nitrogen oxides or NOx and fine particulate matter or PM2.5) in the near‐road environment and, combining it with the RLINE model output, provides predictions at unsampled locations. The model can also be used to evaluate whether including the RLINE model output leads to improved pollutant concentration predictions and whether the RLINE model output captures the spatial dependence structure of NRAP concentrations in the near‐road environment. A defining characteristic of the proposed model is that we model the nonstationarity in the pollutant concentrations by using a recently developed approach that includes covariates, postulated to be the driving force behind the nonstationary behavior, in the covariance function.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/151876/1/env2581.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/151876/2/env2581_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/151876/3/ENV_2581-Supp-0001-BDF_supp_material.pd

Double-Lepton Polarization Asymmetries in B->K_1 l^+ l^- Decay in Universal Extra Dimension Model

Double-lepton polarization asymmetries for the exclusive decay B->K_1 l^+ l^- in the Universal Extra Dimension (UED) Model is studied. It is obtained that double-lepton polarization asymmetries are very sensitive to the UED model parameters. Experimental measurements of double lepton polarizations can give valuable information on the physics beyond the Standard Model (SM).Comment: 15 pages, 10 figure

Studies on antihyperlipidemic and endothelium modulatory activities of polyherbal formulation (POL4) and its ingredients in high fat diet-fed rats

A compound herbal formulation (POL4) is used traditionally in interior parts (Distt. Badin) of Sindh, Pakistan, for the treatment of metabolic disorders like diabetes and hyperlipidemia. This study is aimed to determine the effectiveness of POL4 and its ingredients in hyperlipidemia and associated endothelial dysfunction and hypertension. POL4 is composed of equal proportion of Nigella sativa, Cichorium intybus, Trigonella foenum graecum and Gymnema sylvestre mixed in powdered form. Chronic (6 to 7 weeks) administration of POL4 and its ingredients mixed in diet caused a notable attenuation in total cholesterol, low density lipoprotein cholesterol, triglycerides, atherogenic index, C-reactive protein and glucose, while it has increased high density lipoprotein levels. POL4 intervention markedly (p\u3c0.01) reduced systolic blood pressure in rats to 127±1.92 vs. 145.4±1.07 mm of Hg using tail-cuff method and significantly (p\u3c0.05) improved endothelium-dependent relaxation (75±2.88 vs. 82.75±1.22%) to acetylcholine in isolated aortae of rats in treatment groups using force transducer and PowerLab system. Similar activities were assessed on the part of ingredients of POL4. These findings indicate that POL4 and its ingredients possess antihyperlipidemic, endothelium-dependent modulatory and antihypertensive activities, thus providing an evidence to the vernacular use of POL4 in hyperlipidemia and hypertension

Bias in MRI Measurements of Apparent Diffusion Coefficient and Kurtosis: Implications for Choice of Maximum Diffusion Encoding

Tissue water diffusion is non-Gaussian and the expressions used to calculate diffusion parameters are approximations which introduce systematic errors dependent on the maximum diffusion encoding, diffusion time, etc. This study aimed at characterizing biases in estimates of both apparent diffusion coefficient and kurtosis, and determines their dependence on these parameters. Similar to the approach of several previous studies, Taylor expansion of the diffusion signal was used to calculate biases. Predicted errors were compared with data from one volunteer. Predicted errors agreed well with the measured errors and also the published diffusion tensor imaging measurements. The equations derived predict biases in measured diffusion parameters and explain much of the discrepancy between measurements obtained with different acquisition protocols. The equations may also be used to choose appropriate diffusion encoding for diffusion weighted, tensor, and kurtosis imaging

The analgesic and anticonvulsant effects of piperine in mice

Piperine, is the major active principal of black pepper. In traditional medicine, black pepper has been used as an analgesic, anti-inflammatory agent and in the treatment of epilepsy. This study was conducted to evaluate the in vivo analgesic and anticonvulsant effects of piperine in mice. The analgesic and anticonvulsant effects of piperine were studied in mice using acetic acid-induced writhing, tail flick assay, pentylenetetrazole (PTZ)- and picrotoxin (PIC)-induced seizures models. The intraperitoneal (i.p.) administration of piperine (30, 50 and 70 mg/kg) significantly inhibited (P\u3c0.01) the acetic acid-induced writhing in mice, similar to the effect of indomethacin (20 mg/kg i.p.). In the tail flick assay, piperine (30 and 50 mg/kg, i.p.) and morphine (5 mg/kg, i.p.) caused a significant increase (P\u3c0.01) in the reaction time of mice. Pre-treatment of animals with naloxone (5 mg/kg i.p.), reversed the analgesic effects of both piperine and morphine in the tail flick assay. Piperine (30, 50 and 70 mg/kg, i.p.) and standard drugs, valproic acid (200 mg/kg, i.p.), carbamazepine (30 mg/kg, i.p.) and diazepam (1 mg/kg, i.p.) significantly (P\u3c0.01) delayed the onset of PTZ-and PIC-induced seizures in mice. These findings indicate that piperine exhibits analgesic and anticonvulsant effects possibly mediated via opioid and GABA-ergic pathways respectively. Moreover, piperine being the main constituent of black pepper, may be contributing factor in the medicinal uses of black pepper in pain and epileps