FABRICATION AND EVALUATION OF HERBAL OINTMENT FORMULATIONS OF MORINGA OLEIFERA FOR TOPICAL DELIVERY

Objective: Traditional medicine is an important source of potentially useful new compounds for the development of chemotherapeutic agents. Moringa oleifera Lam. is a multipurpose and exceptionally nutritious vegetable tree with a variety of potential uses. It is distributed in many countries of the tropics and subtropics. Ointments are semisolid systems which behave as viscoelastic materials when shear stress is applied. They contain medicaments and are intended to be applied externally to the body or to the mucous membrane. Methods: In present study the Morenga oleifera leaves extract was used to formulate four different ointment formulations with different bases like cetostearyl alcohol, hard paraffin, and liquid paraffin. Formulations were evaluated for different parameters such as general appearance, spreadability, pH, extrudability, centrifugation,   irritancy, loss on drying, stability study etc. Results: All formulations were found to be free of grittiness, homogeneous, without phase separation with green colour with a smooth homogeneous texture and glossy appearance. Viscosity of the ointment formulations was in the range of 32.21±0.51 to 35.3±0.4. Formulations were found to be stable at different temperature. Conclusion: On the basis of results it can be concluded that ointment preparations with extract of Morenga oleifera leaves indicated the suitability of method for the production of ointments. Peer Review History: Received 13 June 2018;   Revised 27 August; Accepted 1 September, Available online 15 September 2018 UJPR follows the most transparent and toughest ‘Advanced OPEN peer review’ system. The identity of the authors and, reviewers will be known to each other. This transparent process will help to eradicate any possible malicious/purposeful interference by any person (publishing staff, reviewer, editor, author, etc) during peer review. As a result of this unique system, all reviewers will get their due recognition and respect, once their names are published in the papers. We expect that, by publishing peer review reports with published papers, will be helpful to many authors for drafting their article according to the specifications. Auhors will remove any error of their article and they will improve their article(s) according to the previous reports displayed with published article(s). The main purpose of it is ‘to improve the quality of a candidate manuscript’. Our reviewers check the ‘strength and weakness of a manuscript honestly’. There will increase in the perfection, and transparency. Received file:        Reviewer's Comments: Average Peer review marks at initial stage: 3.5/10 Average Peer review marks at publication stage: 7.5/10 Reviewer(s) detail: Dr. Jennifer Audu-Peter, University of Jos, Nigeria, [email protected] Dr. Emmanuel O. Olorunsola, Department of Pharmaceutics & Pharmaceutical Technology, University of Uyo, Nigeria, [email protected] Similar Articles: A RECENT OVERVIEW OF LOCALLY ADMINISTERED TOPICAL OTIC DOSAGE FORM

FORMULATION AND EVALUATION OF IBUPROFEN GASTRO-RETENTIVE FLOATING TABLETS

Objective: The objective of the present study was to formulate the gastro-retentive floating tablets containing Ibuprofen, which would remain in stomach and/or upper part of GIT for prolonged period of time. Floating systems have low bulk density so that they can float on the gastric juice in the stomach. Ibuprofen is an anti inflammatory drug.   Methods: On trial and error basis formulation design was done. Four different batches of floating tablets of Ibuprofen were prepared using HPMC, Xanthan gum, and gas generating agent sodium bicarbonate and citric acid. The tablets were characterized for the pre and post compression parameters such as friability, hardness, thickness, drug content, weight variation, in-vitro buoyancy studies and 13 hrs in-vitro drug release studies and the results were within the limits. Results: There was no interaction found in between drug and other ingredients. Maximum release was shown by formulation of batch F4 (47.38%), and minimum by the formulations of batch F2 (34.46%) in the duration of 13 hrs. Conclusion: From the results obtained, it was concluded that the optimized formulation F4 desired drug release properties and floating behavior.      Peer Review History: Received 13 June 2018;   Revised 26 August; Accepted 3 September, Available online 15 September 2018 UJPR follows the most transparent and toughest ‘Advanced OPEN peer review’ system. The identity of the authors and, reviewers will be known to each other. This transparent process will help to eradicate any possible malicious/purposeful interference by any person (publishing staff, reviewer, editor, author, etc) during peer review. As a result of this unique system, all reviewers will get their due recognition and respect, once their names are published in the papers. We expect that, by publishing peer review reports with published papers, will be helpful to many authors for drafting their article according to the specifications. Auhors will remove any error of their article and they will improve their article(s) according to the previous reports displayed with published article(s). The main purpose of it is ‘to improve the quality of a candidate manuscript’. Our reviewers check the ‘strength and weakness of a manuscript honestly’. There will increase in the perfection, and transparency. Received file:        Reviewer's Comments: Average Peer review marks at initial stage: 2/10 Average Peer review marks at publication stage: 7/10 Reviewer(s) detail: Dr. Heba M. Abd El-Azim, Damanhour University, Egypt, [email protected] Dr. Sally A. El-Zahaby, Pharos University in Alexandria, Egypt, [email protected] Similar Articles: DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION OF RITONAVIR HOLLOW MICROBALLOONS FOR FLOATING DRUG DELIVERY DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION OF IN SITU GELLING GASTRORETENTIVE FORMULATIONS OF MELOXICAM This article has been cited by: Sachin Sarashetti, Vikas Jain, Gowda D V, Pooja Mallya, & Satish Babu. (2020). Recent developments in orally disintegrating mini tablets. International Journal of Research in Pharmaceutical Sciences, 11(3), 3606-3612. Pubme

Skyline: Interactive In-Editor Computational Performance Profiling for Deep Neural Network Training

Training a state-of-the-art deep neural network (DNN) is a computationally-expensive and time-consuming process, which incentivizes deep learning developers to debug their DNNs for computational performance. However, effectively performing this debugging requires intimate knowledge about the underlying software and hardware systems---something that the typical deep learning developer may not have. To help bridge this gap, we present Skyline: a new interactive tool for DNN training that supports in-editor computational performance profiling, visualization, and debugging. Skyline's key contribution is that it leverages special computational properties of DNN training to provide (i) interactive performance predictions and visualizations, and (ii) directly manipulatable visualizations that, when dragged, mutate the batch size in the code. As an in-editor tool, Skyline allows users to leverage these diagnostic features to debug the performance of their DNNs during development. An exploratory qualitative user study of Skyline produced promising results; all the participants found Skyline to be useful and easy to use.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures. Appears in the proceedings of UIST'2

Los beneficios del CRM móvil para la empresa desde la perspectiva del marketing relacional y el modelo TOE

Firms that achieve to establish reciprocal and successful relationships with their clients can obtain greater profitability in their relationship marketing inversions. This study adopts the TOE model to consider technological factors (technological competence), organizational factors (innovativeness and employee support) and environment factors (customer information management) to define the perceived benefits deriving from mobile CRM. The empirical study was performed with information obtained from 125 firms and analyzed with structural equation modeling. Results suggest that the firm perceives benefits from the m-CRM use if it is technologically competitive, shows propensity to innovativeness, manages customers’ information and has employees’ support. The main contribution is the simultaneous use of the TOE model and the relationship marketing approach to understand, from the Spanish firm perspective, the perception of the management of the relationship with customers through the mobile phone.Las empresas que logran establecer relaciones recíprocas y exitosas con sus clientes pueden obtener mayor rentabilidad de sus inversiones en marketing relacional. Este estudio aplica el modelo TOE para contemplar factores del contexto tecnológico (competencia tecnológica), organizacional (propensión a la innovación y apoyo de los empleados) y del entorno empresarial (gestión de la información de los clientes) para determinar la percepción de los beneficios de la gestión de las relaciones con los clientes a través del móvil (m-CRM). El estudio empírico fue realizado con información proporcionada por directivos de 125 empresas españolas, y fue analizado mediante ecuaciones estructurales. Los resultados sugieren que la empresa percibe beneficios del uso de m-CRM siempre que se considere tecnológicamente competitivo, tienda a la innovación tecnológica, gestione la información de los clientes, y cuente con el apoyo de los empleados. La principal contribución de este estudio es la aplicación conjunta del modelo TOE y el enfoque del marketing relacional para entender, desde la perspectiva de la empresa española, la percepción de los beneficios de la gestión de las relaciones con los clientes a través del teléfono móvilMinistry of Economy and Competitiveness (Spain) for its support of this research through the project ECO2014-53060-

Effect of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor and angiotensin receptor blocker initiation on organ support-free days in patients hospitalized with COVID-19

IMPORTANCE Overactivation of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) may contribute to poor clinical outcomes in patients with COVID-19. Objective To determine whether angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor or angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) initiation improves outcomes in patients hospitalized for COVID-19. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS In an ongoing, adaptive platform randomized clinical trial, 721 critically ill and 58 non–critically ill hospitalized adults were randomized to receive an RAS inhibitor or control between March 16, 2021, and February 25, 2022, at 69 sites in 7 countries (final follow-up on June 1, 2022). INTERVENTIONS Patients were randomized to receive open-label initiation of an ACE inhibitor (n = 257), ARB (n = 248), ARB in combination with DMX-200 (a chemokine receptor-2 inhibitor; n = 10), or no RAS inhibitor (control; n = 264) for up to 10 days. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES The primary outcome was organ support–free days, a composite of hospital survival and days alive without cardiovascular or respiratory organ support through 21 days. The primary analysis was a bayesian cumulative logistic model. Odds ratios (ORs) greater than 1 represent improved outcomes. RESULTS On February 25, 2022, enrollment was discontinued due to safety concerns. Among 679 critically ill patients with available primary outcome data, the median age was 56 years and 239 participants (35.2%) were women. Median (IQR) organ support–free days among critically ill patients was 10 (–1 to 16) in the ACE inhibitor group (n = 231), 8 (–1 to 17) in the ARB group (n = 217), and 12 (0 to 17) in the control group (n = 231) (median adjusted odds ratios of 0.77 [95% bayesian credible interval, 0.58-1.06] for improvement for ACE inhibitor and 0.76 [95% credible interval, 0.56-1.05] for ARB compared with control). The posterior probabilities that ACE inhibitors and ARBs worsened organ support–free days compared with control were 94.9% and 95.4%, respectively. Hospital survival occurred in 166 of 231 critically ill participants (71.9%) in the ACE inhibitor group, 152 of 217 (70.0%) in the ARB group, and 182 of 231 (78.8%) in the control group (posterior probabilities that ACE inhibitor and ARB worsened hospital survival compared with control were 95.3% and 98.1%, respectively). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE In this trial, among critically ill adults with COVID-19, initiation of an ACE inhibitor or ARB did not improve, and likely worsened, clinical outcomes. TRIAL REGISTRATION ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT0273570

Gnathostomiasis: A rare case of cutaneous creeping eruptions

A 21-year-old vegetarian lady presenting with migratory erythema and pain in her right hand subsequently developed a blister on the palm. A worm-like structure came out of the wound and was identified as Gnathostoma spp. adult male worm. It is a very rare cause of creeping eruptions and so far only one case of cutaneous gnathostomiasis caused by a larva has been reported from India. This is the first case of cutaneous gnathostomiasis due to an adult Gnathostoma spp. in India

Hematological parameters in COVID-19 patients at admission in a tertiary care centre in central India

Introduction: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by SARS-CoV-2 virus is an acute respiratory infection with systemic manifestations.Studies have shown that abnormal hematological parameters can help in prognostication of patients. Our study analyses hematological parameters for prognostication and prediction of mortality in SARS-CoV-2 patients from central India. Aim: Present study aims to compare the mean value of hematological parameters from 350 hospitalized COVID-19 patients (survivors and non-survivors), in order to assess their role in prognostication and prediction of mortality. Our study evaluates complete blood count (CBC) and their ratios, neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR), monocyte to lymphocyte ratio (MLR), platelet to lymphocyte ratio (PLR) and systemic immune inflammation index (SII) in COVID-19 patients admitted to a tertiary care hospital in central India. Materials and Methods: Retrospective cross-sectional study was performed on 350 patients hospitalized for treatment of COVID-19. They were divided into two groups on the basis of their outcome: group 1 comprised of 28 non- survivors; group 2 comprised of 322 survivors.Results: Male predominance was seen in both survivors and non survivors.Mortality rate was 8%. Statistically significant differences were observed with respect to total leucocyte count (TLC), neutrophil percent (N%), absolute neutrophil count (ANC), Lymphocyte percent (L%), zero eosinophil percent (E%), absolute eosinophil count (AEC), NLR, MLR, PLR and SII at admission between survivors and non survivors of COVID-19 patients.Conclusion: Elevated TLC, neutrophil percent, ANC, NLR, MLR, PLR and SII at admission are useful in prognostication and prediction of mortality in COVID-19 patients