Protective effect of Nigella sativa against paracetamol induced hepatic and renal damages

Background: Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs are very commonly used as an analgesic, antipyretic, anti-inflammatory, and antiplatelet agent. They have significant adverse effect on liver and kidney besides damaging stomach. Their effect on liver and kidney are of serious concern. Hence, we have decided to study the preventive effect of Nigella sativa against paracetamol induced hepatic and renal damages.Methods: Ethanolic and aqueous extracts of N. sativa were prepared with the help of Soxhlet’s apparatus. Totally, 36 wistar albino rats (150-200 g) of either sex were divided into six groups of six each. Group I was administered with distilled water, Group II-VI were treated with paracetamol 750 mg/kg i.p. Group III-VI were test groups also treated with N. sativa aqueous extract (200 and 400 mg/kg p.o) and ethanolic extract (200 and 400 mg/kg p.o), respectively. The treatment was given daily for 7 days and on 8th all the rats were sacrificed and the blood was analyzed for hepatic and renal function tests and tissue was preserved for histopathological examination.Results: Paracetamol administration caused a marked hepatic and renal damage, which is evidenced by the increase in liver and renal function test parameters in the negative control group. N.sativa extracts prevented this damage. The protective was seen maximum in ethanolic extract followed by the aqueous extract in dose-dependent manner.Conclusion: Ethanolic extract showed significant protection against paracetamol-induced and renal damage

What Explains the Current High Rate of Inflation in Pakistan?

One of the most significant developments in the current economic scene in Pakistan has been the sharp increase in the rate of inflation. The annual average rate of increase in the wholesale price index (WPI) during the first seven months (July-January 1994-95) of the current fiscal year has been about 19 percent as opposed to 11.3 percent during the same period last year. A similar increase was also witnessed in the consumer price index (CPI) which accelerated to 13 percent as opposed to 11.1 percent during the previous period. Such a sharp increase in prices in recent months has not only caused alarm in the academic circles but has equally disturbed the country’s chief executive, the Prime Minister. The recent surge of inflation is a matter of serious concern for a variety of reasons. First, Pakistan has been a low-inflation country as it has experienced price stability during the last three decades. The rate of inflation, as measured by an increase in the WPI, averaged 2.6 percent during the 1960s. The components of the WPI, i.e., food, raw materials, manufactures, and fuel and lubricants, also grew by an average rate ranging from 2.0 to 3.4 percent p.a. during then 1960s (see Table 1 for relevant statistics). The rate of inflation crossed the single-digit threshold during the 1970s. The WPI and its components increased at an annual average rate ranging from 12 to 18 percent. The double-digit inflation during the 1970s has been the result of two major oil shocks, a massive devaluation of currency, and devastating floods destroying agricultural crops. Pakistan returned to the fold of the single-digit inflation during the 1980s. The rate of inflation remained at the single-digit level during the first three years of the 1990s with the exception of 1990-91, when the rate of inflation increased to 11.7 percent as a result of the Gulf War. It is only during the outgoing fiscal year and in the current year that the rising inflation is posing a major threat to macroeconomic stability.

Evaluation and Analysis of Rate Control Methods for H.264/AVC and MPEG-4 Video Codec

Audio, image and video signals produce a vast amount of data. The only solution of this problem is to compress data before storage and transmission. In general there is the three crucial terms as, Bit Rate Reduction, Fast Data Transfer and Reduction in Storage. Rate control is a vigorous factor in video coding. In video communications, rate control must ensure the coded bitstream can be transmitted effectively and make full use of the narrow bandwidth. There are various test models usually suggested by a standard during the development of video codes models in order to video coding which should be suffienciently be efficient based on H.264 at very low bit rate. These models are Test Model Number 5 (TMN5), Test Model Number 8 for H.263, and Verification Model 8 (VM8) for MPEG-4 and H.264 etc. In this work, Rate control analysis for H.264, MPEG-4 performed. For Rate control analysis test model verification model version 8.0 is adopted

A splice variant in KRT71 is associated with curly coat phenotype of Selkirk Rex cats.

One of the salient features of the domestic cat is the aesthetics of its fur. The Selkirk Rex breed is defined by an autosomal dominant woolly rexoid hair (ADWH) abnormality that is characterized by tightly curled hair shafts. A genome-wide case - control association study was conducted using 9 curly coated Selkirk Rex and 29 controls, including straight-coated Selkirk Rex, British Shorthair and Persian, to localize the Selkirk autosomal dominant rexoid locus (SADRE). Although the control cats were from different breed lineages, they share recent breeding histories and were validated as controls by Bayesian clustering, multi-dimensional scaling and genomic inflation. A significant association was found on cat chromosome B4 (Praw = 2.87 × 10(-11)), and a unique haplotype spanning ~600 Kb was found in all the curly coated cats. Direct sequencing of four candidate genes revealed a splice site variant within the KRT71 gene associated with the hair abnormality in Selkirk Rex

Non-small cell lung cancer: disease spectrum and management in a tertiary care hospital

Objectives: To review the spectrum of presentation and the surgical management of Non Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) and the role of various diagnostic modalities in predicting the post-operative stage and the correlation of the post-operative stage with the chances of recurrence.SETTINGS: The Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi--a tertiary care referral center in Paksitan.Methods: This is a retrospective study of medical records of all the patients who were managed at the Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH) between 1988 and 1998. The patients with a diagnosis of lung cancer were identified using the ICD-9-CM coding system and the data was analyzed for patients with NSCLC only.Results: A total of 773 patients were admitted with a diagnosis of lung cancer at AKUH over 10 years period. Out of these 21 (2.71%) underwent staging mediastinoscopy and 20 (2.58%) patients underwent exploratory thoracotomy and biopsy without any resection, as the disease was found to be unresectable. Only 18 (2.32%) patients underwent surgical resection. There were 15 males and 3 females and the mean age was 53 years. Mean duration of symptoms was 12 months and cough and haemoptysis were the main presenting symptoms. Most of the tumors were located on the right side. CT scan and mediastinoscopy were mainly used to stage the disease. Complete surgical resection including en-bloc resection of adjacent structures was attempted, when possible. Median follow up was 24 months and the recurrence rate was 39%. There was no significant correlation between post-op stage and recurrence.CONCLUSION: It is concluded that most of the patients present at the advanced stage and resection is possible only in a small number of patients. The size of primary tumor and local extension should not contra-indicate surgery in patients with negative mediastinal nodes and without distant metastasis as it can be performed safely. All pulmonary lesion in the adults must be thoroughly investigated as early diagnosis and complete resection is the only key to cure and long term survival

Mediastinal mass diagnosed as a benign schwannoma

Neurogenic tumours of the mediastinum are most commonly present in the posterior mediastinal compartment. Schwannomas, being the most frequently encountered type, can be either benign or malignant, although the former is more common. They typically appear as an asymptomatic mass on radiographic imaging. These tumours with spindle-shaped cells are often asymptomatic, and are routinely detected on standard pulmonary radiography. However, computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging, especially for posterior mediastinal tumours, provide additional information and help to determine its possible extension to adjacent structures. Therefore, radiographic and histopathological examinations are vital diagnostic tools in the detection of these silent tumours. Complete surgical resection using video-assisted thoracic surgical technique is the mainstay of treatment, and offers an excellent prognosis

Study of fusion reactions of light nuclei at low energies using complex nucleon-nucleus potential function

Nuclear fusion reactions, at energies, far below the Coulomb barrier play a significant role in the synthesis of light elements in the primordial nucleosynthesis as well as in the interior of compact stellar objects. Many different kinds of nuclear reactions are occurring simultaneously inside the stellar core depending upon the density and temperature conditions of the nuclear plasma along with other relevant parameters of these stars. Nuclear fusion reactions in the energy range ($E\sim$ 1 eV to few keV) can be explained successfully by quantum mechanical tunneling through the mutual Coulomb barrier of interacting nuclei. The measurement of the cross-sections at extremely low energy is quite difficult because of the larger width of the Coulomb barrier, which results in a very small value of the reaction cross-section. Hence, any improvement in the data on astrophysical S-factors for the light nuclei fusion may give a better picture of the elemental abundance in nucleosynthesis. In this work, we have theoretically investigated the energy dependence of fusion cross-sections and astrophysical S-factors for fusion reaction of light nuclei like D-D and p-$^{11}$B using complex Gaussian nuclear potential with adjustable depth and range parameters plus the mutual Coulomb interaction of the interacting nuclei. Numerical computation of the observables is done in the framework of the selective resonant tunneling model approach. The results of our calculation are compared with those found in the literature.Comment: 13 Pages, 5 Figure