FORMULATION OF IMMEDIATE RELEASE (IR) ATORVASTATIN CALCIUM PELLETS AND SUSTAINED RELEASE (SR) GLIBENCLAMIDE FOR FIXED-DOSE COMBINATION DOSAGE FORM

Objective: The objective of the present research was to develop fixed-dose combinations for the treatment of dyslipidemia, associated with type-II diabetes mellitus for improvement of glucose tolerance.Methods: Multiple unit pellet systems (MUPSs) consisting immediate release atorvastatin calcium pellets and sustained release glibenclamide were formulated by spheronization technique. The characterization of formulated pellets was done by Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) studies, and formulated pellets were evaluated for solubility, viscosity, pH, and in vitro studies.Results: From FT-IR and DSC studies, it was confirmed that no chemical interaction existed between the drug and the natural polymers used. Solubility of glibenclamide was found to be 4.38 and 18.24 and atorvastatin calcium was found to be 6.84, 214.67, and 287.43 g/L. The viscosity of 1% w/v of locust bean gum, guar gum, and ghatti gum was found to be 169 cP, 124 cP, and 31 cP in distilled water. The pH of locust bean gum, guar gum, and gum ghatti solutions was found to be 5.6±0.49, 5.2±0.27, and 4.7±0.51. The in vitro studies suggested that glibenclamide pellets had shown a sustained release till 12 h, while atorvastatin calcium had shown immediate release of drug due to rapid disintegration of pellets.Conclusion: Thus, MUPS can be considered as an alternative approach to treat diabetes induced dyslipidemia

Effect of Kasni seed preparations on serum glutamic pyruvic transaminase and glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase levels in newly diagnosed patients of type 2 diabetes mellitus

Background: Kasni (Cichorium intybus L.) reported to play an important role in the effective management of serum liver enzymes SGPT & SGOT in various animal models and this study is extension to newly diagnosed patients of type 2 diabetes mellitus.Methods: Newly diagnosed 90 patients of Type2 DM, age 35-65years, of either sex were divided into 3 groups. In group I only Metformin sustained release once a day and in group II/III 6 grams crude seed powder or 50 ml decoction of crude seed powder was given twice a day for 90 days in combination with Metformin sustained release orally once in a day. Serum liver enzyme levels of SGPT & SGOT were measured at zero, 30th, 60th and 90th day.Results: All the three groups showed a significant reduction in SGPT & SGOT across the four time periods. Post hoc Tukey HSD test shown that there was a significant difference between group I & II (p=0.011) and group I & III (p=0.000) for SGPT and group I & II (p=0.012) and group I & III (p=0.000) for SGOT.Conclusions: The add on  therapy with Kasni seed preparations is more effective for the management of altered SGPT and SGOT levels in Type2 diabetes mellitus patients than only oral hypoglycaemic agent in decreasing SGPT & SGOT of selected patients. Among Kasni seed preparation treated groups, decoction was found more effective than crude seed powder.

Visual detection of Brucella in bovine biological samples using DNA-activated gold nanoparticles

Brucellosis is a bacterial disease, which, although affecting cattle primarily, has been associated with human infections, making its detection an important challenge. The existing gold standard diagnosis relies on the culture of bacteria which is a lengthy and costly process, taking up to 45 days. New technologies based on molecular diagnosis have been proposed, either through dip-stick, immunological assays, which have limited specificity, or using nucleic acid tests, which enable to identify the pathogen, but are impractical for use in the field, where most of the reservoir cases are located. Here we demonstrate a new test based on hybridization assays with metal nanoparticles, which, upon detection of a specific pathogen-derived DNA sequence, yield a visual colour change. We characterise the components used in the assay with a range of analytical techniques and show sensitivities down to 1000 cfu/ml for the detection of Brucella. Finally, we demonstrate that the assay works in a range of bovine samples including semen, milk and urine, opening up the potential for its use in the field, in low-resource settings

Engineered mesenchymal stem cells with self-assembled vesicles for systemic cell targeting

Cell therapy has the potential to impact the quality of life of suffering patients. Systemic infusion is a convenient method of cell delivery; however, the efficiency of engraftment presents a major challenge. It has been shown that modification of the cell surface with adhesion ligands is a viable approach to improve cell homing, yet current methods including genetic modification suffer potential safety concerns, are practically complex and are unable to accommodate a wide variety of homing ligands or are not amendable to multiple cell types. We report herein a facile and generic approach to transiently engineer the cell surface using lipid vesicles to present biomolecular ligands that promote cell rolling, one of the first steps in the homing process. Specifically, we demonstrated that lipid vesicles rapidly fuse with the cell membrane to introduce biotin moieties on the cell surface that can subsequently conjugate streptavidin and potentially any biotinylated homing ligand. Given that cell rolling is a pre-requisite to firm adhesion for systemic cell homing, we examined the potential of immobilizing sialyl Lewis X (SLeX) on mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) to induce cell rolling on a P-selectin surface, under dynamic flow conditions. MSCs modified with SLeX exhibit significantly improved rolling interactions with a velocity of 8 μm/s as compared to 61 μm/s for unmodified MSCs at a shear stress of 0.5 dyn/cm[superscript 2]. The cell surface modification does not impact the phenotype of the MSCs including their viability and multi-lineage differentiation potential. These results show that the transitory modification of cell surfaces with lipid vesicles can be used to efficiently immobilize adhesion ligands and potentially target systemically administered cells to the site of inflammation.American Heart Association (Grant 0970178N)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant DE019191

Urbanisation Effect on Hydrological Response: A Case Study of Asan River Watershed, India

Human being keeps on modifying the environment especially land use/land cover (LULC), in pursuance of excel, comfort and development. The subsequent impact of urbanization to the environment, especially land cover change, now occurs on scales that significantly affect hydrologic variations. The altering environment makes it necessary to understand and quantify various hydrological components for efficient water resource management. Therefore, in the present study, an attempt was  made to study the impact of LULC change on runoff generation potential. Asan River watershed, which lies in Dehradun, capital of newly created Uttarakhand State, India, is selected as study region. A huge industrialization is been taken place within this watershed immediately after declaration of state in year 2000. Initially, LULC change detection analysis was carried out by simple LULC class area difference between two years under consideration i.e. 2000 and 2010. The hydrological simulation using variable infiltration capacity macro-scale hydrological model depicted increase in runoff after urbanization took place. Keywords: Land use land cover change, Urbanization, Impact assessment, hydrological modeling, variable infiltration capacity model, runoff potentia

Reliability and Network Performance Enhancement by Reconfiguring Underground Distribution Systems

Contemporary distributions are now going to underground their overhead distribution lines due to techno-social reasons. Reliability and loss reduction are the two prime objectives for distribution system operation. Since failure rates of ungrounded cables are the function of Joules heating besides their physical lengths, the reliability evaluation of undergrounded distribution systems needs to be reviewed. This paper suggested a suitable modification in existing reliability indices in order to make them more appropriate for underground distribution systems. A multi-objective network reconfiguration problem is formulated to enhance the reliability and performance of distribution systems while duly addressing the variability and uncertainty in load demand and power generation from renewables. The application results on a standard test bench shift the paradigm of the well-known conflicting nature of reliability and network performance indices defined for overhead distribution systems

Optimal planning of hybrid energy conversion systems for annual energy cost minimization in Indian residential buildings

The increasing interest in renewables has encouraged power system planners to include the concept of hybrid energy systems in modern power industry. Besides, the modern power consumers are becoming more concerned about their energy bills which has led to the concept of hybrid energy management systems (HEMSs) for buildings to monitor, control and optimally manage energy consumptions without any waste. In this study, an optimal planning framework is proposed to determine optimal capacities and sharing of hybrid energy conversion systems (HECS) such as wind turbine, solar photovoltaic, battery energy storage and the utility grid. The objective is to maximize the net present value of the project/system which includes the cost of annual investment, operation and maintenance costs of HEMS expected to have incurred in the planning period. All the costs and parameters are considered in the Indian context, and Genetic Algorithm (GA) is adopted to solve this proposed planning framework. The simulation results obtained are compared with same obtained for conventional houses in India. The comparison shows that the proposed framework effectively reduces the electricity bills while improving its reliability

Gadolinium silicide (Gd5Si4) nanoparticles for tuneable broad band microwave absorption

Soft magnetic Gd5Si4 nanoparticles exhibit excellent microwave absorption in the Ku-band (12.4-18 GHz) when dispersed in poly (dimethyl siloxane), PDMS. The minimum experimentally recorded reflection loss (RL) of Gd5Si4-PDMS nanocomposite is −69 dB, with a large bandwidth for a single 6 mm-thick layer. The bandwidth can be further extended by using a novel design where 1 mm-thick layers of the nanocomposite are arranged into a modified pyramid-shaped absorber. Standard electromagnetic (EM) simulations confirm experimental results

Interferon Alpha Characterization and Its Comparative Expression in PBM Cells of Capra hircus and Antelope cervicapra Cultured in the Presence of TLR9 Agonist

TLR9 plays pivotal role in innate immune responses through upregulation of costimulatory molecules and induction of proinflammatory cytokines like type I interferons including interferon alpha (IFNA). The present study characterized IFNA cDNA and predicted protein sequences in goat and black buck. Response of the PBM cells to TLR9 agonist CpG ODN C and Phorbol Myristate Acetate (PMA) was evaluated by realtime PCR. IFNA coding sequences were amplified from leukocyte cDNA and cloned in pGEMT-easy vector for nucleotide sequencing. Sequence analysis revealed 570 bp, IFNA ORF encoding 189 amino acids in goat and black buck. Black buck and goat IFNA has 92.1% to 94.7% and 93% to 95.6% similarity at nucleotide level, 86.3% to 89.5% and 70.9% to 91.6% identity at amino acid level with other ruminants, respectively. Nonsynonymous substitutions exceeding synonymous substitutions indicated IFNA evolved through positive selection among ruminants. In spite of lower total leukocyte count, the innate immune cells like monocytes and neutrophils were more in black buck compared to goat. In addition, CpG ODN C-stimulated PBM cells revealed raised IFNA transcript in black buck than goat. These findings indicate sturdy genetically governed immune system in wild antelope black buck compared to domestic ruminant goat

Association of cataract and sun exposure in geographically diverse populations of India: The CASE study. First Report of the ICMR-EYE SEE Study Group.

PURPOSE: To determine the prevalence of cataract and its association with sun exposure and other environmental risk factors in three different geographically diverse populations of India. DESIGN: Population based cross sectional study during 2010-2016. PARTICIPANTS: People aged ≥ 40 years residing in randomly sampled villages were enumerated (12021) and 9735 (81%) underwent ophthalmic evaluation from plains, hilly and coastal regions (3595, 3231, 2909 respectively). METHODS: A detailed questionnaire-based interview about outdoor activity in present, past and remote past, usage of sun protective measures, exposure to smoke, and detailed ophthalmic examination including assessment of uncorrected and best corrected visual acuity, measurement of intraocular pressure, slit lamp examination, lens opacities categorization using LOCS III and posterior segment evaluation was done. Lifetime effective sun exposure was calculated using Melbourne formula and expressed as quintiles. These were supplemented with physical environmental measurements. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Lifetime sun exposure hours, smoking, indoor kitchen smoke exposure and their association with cataract and subtypes. Prevalence of cataract calculated based on lens opacities or evidence of cataract surgery. RESULTS: Cataract was identified in 3231 (33.3%) participants. Prevalence of cataract in males (32.3%) and females (34.1%) was similar. Nuclear cataract was the commonest sub-type identified in 94.7% of affected eyes. Sun exposure had a significant association with cataract with odds ratio (OR) increasing from 1.6 (95% Confidence Intervals [CI]: 1.4, 1.9) in 3rd quintile, to 2.6 (CI: 2.2, 3.1) in 4th quintile and 9.4 (CI: 7.9, 11.2) in 5th quintile (p<0.0001). Cataract also showed a significant association with smoking (OR: 1.4, CI: 1.2, 1.6) and indoor kitchen smoke exposure (OR: 1.2, CI: 1.0-1.4). Nuclear cataract showed a positive association with increasing sun exposure in 3rd (β coefficient 0.5, CI:0.2-0.7), 4th (β: 0.9, CI: 0.7-1.1) and 5th (β: 2.1, CI:1.8-2.4) quintiles of sun exposure, smoking (β: 0.4, CI: 0.2-0.6) and indoor kitchen smoke exposure (β: 0.3, CI: 01-0.5) while cortical cataract showed a positive association with sun exposure only in 5th quintile (β: 2.6, CI:1.0-4.2). Posterior subcapsular cataract was not associated with any of the risk factors. CONCLUSION: Cataract is associated with increasing level of sun exposure, smoking and exposure to indoor kitchen smoke