Modulation of DMBA- induced biochemical and histopathological changes by Syzygium cumini seed extract during skin carcinogenesis

Aim & Method: The current study was designed to elucidate the protective effect of Syzygium cumini seed extract (SCE) on skin carcinogenesis induced by a single topical application of 7,12-dimethylbenz(a)anthracene (100 μg/100 μl of acetone) and 2 weeks later promoted by repeated application of croton oil (1% in acetone/three times a week) till the end of the experiment (16 weeks). Result: Oral administration of SCE at a dose of 125 mg/kg b.wt./day for 15 days at the peri-initiational stage (i.e., 7 days before & 7 days after DMBA application) and for 14 weeks at the promotional stage (i.e., from the time of croton oil application), revealed a significant reduction in lipid peroxidation (p<0.05-0.001) along with an elevation in the activities of enzymatic antioxidants (superoxide dismutase, p<0.05-0.001 & catalase, p<0.05-0.001), non-enzymatic antioxidant (reduced glutathione, p<0.05-0.01 & vitamin-C, p<0.01-0.001) and total proteins levels (p<0.01-0.001) when compared to the carcinogen treated control animals. Histopathological study revealed that dyskeratosis of the epidermis, deposition of keratinous pearl and epidermal hyperplasia in skin tumors of DMBA treated control and the same were found to be of lesser degree in both the SCE treated experimental animals. Conclusions: These results demonstrate that SCE ameliorate the DMBA/croton oil induced adverse biochemical and histopathological alterations during skin carcinogenesis in mice

Reducible Correlations in Dicke States

We apply a simple observation to show that the generalized Dicke states can be determined from their reduced subsystems. In this framework, it is sufficient to calculate the expression for only the diagonal elements of the reudced density matrices in terms of the state coefficients. We prove that the correlation in generalized Dicke states $|GD_N^{(\ell)}>$ can be reduced to $2\ell$-partite level. Application to the Quantum Marginal Problem is also discussed.Comment: 12 pages, single column; accepted in J. Phys. A as FT

The Relationship between Parkin and Protein Aggregation in Neurodegenerative Diseases

The most prominent changes in neurodegenerative diseases are protein accumulation and inclusion formation. Several neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's, the Synucleinopathies and Tauopathies share several overlapping clinical symptoms manifest in Parkinsonism, cognitive decline and dementia. As degeneration progresses in the disease process, clinical symptoms suggest convergent pathological pathways. Biochemically, protein cleavage, ubiquitination and phosphorylation seem to play fundamental roles in protein aggregation, inclusion formation and inflammatory responses. In the following we provide a synopsis of the current knowledge about protein accumulation and astrogliosis as a common denominator in neurodegenerative diseases, and we propose insights into protein degradation and anti-inflammation. We review the E3-ubiquitin ligase and other possible functions of parkin as a suppressant of inflammatory signs and a strategy to clear amyloid proteins in neurodegenerative diseases

Geometric signatures of tissue surface tension in a three-dimensional model of confluent tissue

In dense biological tissues, cell types performing different roles remain segregated by maintaining sharp interfaces. To better understand the mechanisms for such sharp compartmentalization, we study the effect of an imposed heterotypic tension at the interface between two distinct cell types in a fully 3D Voronoi model for confluent tissues. We find that cells rapidly sort and self-organize to generate a tissue-scale interface between cell types, and cells adjacent to this interface exhibit signature geometric features including nematic-like ordering, bimodal facet areas, and registration, or alignment, of cell centers on either side of the two-tissue interface. The magnitude of these features scales directly with the magnitude of the imposed tension, suggesting that biologists can estimate the magnitude of tissue surface tension between two tissue types simply by segmenting a 3D tissue. To uncover the underlying physical mechanisms driving these geometric features, we develop two minimal, ordered models using two different underlying lattices that identify an energetic competition between bulk cell shapes and tissue interface area. When the interface area dominates, changes to neighbor topology are costly and occur less frequently, which generates the observed geometric features

PRICE TRANSPARENCY ISSUES AND TREATING CUSTOMER FAIRLY BY E-COMMERCE FIRMS IN INDIA

The Indian E-commerce industry is growing rapidly due to outbreak of pandemic, rapid increase in use of smartphones and access to high speed internet have resulted in customers looking for convenience by making online purchase thereby saving time and cost. Technology plays an inevitable role in helping ecommerce firms maximize their profit by analyzing customer behavior online, making recommendations and providing personalized pricing. This paper will focus of understanding and analyzing the present scenario in the online retail space to explore the following concerns which is a point of discussion in this field. Are customers really being treated fairly by ecommerce firms? Are customers guided to make purchase through recommendation engines and personalized pricing and end up paying more as firms are able to identify their willingness to pay more? This provides a qualitative study to answer these questions

Quantum two-photon algebra from non-standard U_z(sl(2,R)) and a discrete time Schr\"odinger equation

The non-standard quantum deformation of the (trivially) extended sl(2,R) algebra is used to construct a new quantum deformation of the two-photon algebra h_6 and its associated quantum universal R-matrix. A deformed one-boson representation for this algebra is deduced and applied to construct a first order deformation of the differential equation that generates the two-photon algebra eigenstates in Quantum Optics. On the other hand, the isomorphism between h_6 and the (1+1) Schr\"odinger algebra leads to a new quantum deformation for the latter for which a differential-difference realization is presented. From it, a time discretization of the heat-Schr\"odinger equation is obtained and the quantum Schr\"odinger generators are shown to be symmetry operators.Comment: 12 pages, LaTe

Citric acid: A potential permeabilizer against multiple drug resistance enteropathogenic Escherichia coli

Enteric diseases enter through the mouth and are usually spread by contaminated food, water or contact with contaminated vomit or feces. Enteric infection encompasses all the infections of the intestinal tract. These intestinal infections include organisms like Escherichia coli, Salmonella, Shigella, Klebsiella, Proteus etc. Out of these, E. coli are one of the common causes of enteric infection. In spite the introduction of a wide variety of antimicrobial agents against enteric diseases, life threatening infections caused by E. coli contributes to morbidity and mortality in patients. The present study was conducted to determine the antibiotic sensitivity pattern of E. coli obtained from stool samples and potentiation of antibiotic activity by citric acid against multiple drug resistant E. coli. Out of the 200 isolates of E. coli, 150 were found to be resistant to one or more antibiotics tested. 0.05% and 0.1% citric acid was found to be effective in increasing the potency of the all the antibiotics used in the study