COUMARIN (ESCULETIN) - AN ANTIRHEUMATOID ARTHRITIC COMPOUND: AN UPDATE

Context: Esculetin is a natural polyphenolic compound. It is chemically 6,7-dihydroxycoumarin and one of the ingredients of Cortex fraxini, a Chinese traditional medicine. It is used as a dietary supplement and found as non-toxic. Recently, there are many research works evaluated on esculetin in arthritis with supported molecular mechanisms.Objectives: Esculetin becoming more attractive prodrug for arthritis. Hence, the present minireview will consolidate the targeted site of esculetin in the treatment of arthritis over the past decade.Results: The most important molecular mechanism of esculetin is an antioxidant activities with decreased level of reactive oxygen species/reactive nitrogen species. It also inhibited lipoxygenase 5, lipoxygenase 12, and tyrosinase enzymes. It reduces the inflammation by modulating the key inflammatory enzyme matrix metalloproteinase-1 activity. It also lowers the nitrous oxide and prostaglandin E2 level in synovial fluid. Esculetin derivatives such as 5-methoxy esculetin inhibited the activity of nitrogen-activated protein kinases. The updated data also reveal that esculetin suppresses the leukotriene B4 level in plasma of adjuvant-induced arthritis tested animals.Conclusion: The presented update showed that esculetin may be useful as a tool in regulating the mechanism and physiological functions of the inflammatory mediators and enzyme. Hence, the presented review work may be considered as a scientific proof for the development of an attractive drug candidate for the patient with rheumatoid arthritis

Women Empowerment through Self Help Group: A Theoretical Perspective

Most of the great works accomplished in the human civilization can be attributed to the groups rather than a single individual. Group approach to decision making and programme implementation has long been employed in various areas including politics – almost all the difficult matters are referred to committees. Most of the successful functioning organisations be it at micro level ( a single firm ) or at macro level ( parliament, as for instance ) reinforce the significance of group approach to problem solving. This paper explores the impact of participation in Self Help Groups on the empowerment of women in the context of the great importance being given to the group approach while conceptualizing any programme for rural women. The present paper looks at various dimensions of empowerment – political, material, cognitive, perceptual and relational. Access to credit can help in expansion of material base of women by enabling them to start and expand small businesses, often accompanied by market access; the women also experienced ‘Power within’: feelings of freedom, strength, self- identity and increases in levels of confidence and self-esteem. However, gender discrimination is most deeply entrenched in the family, evident in bias attitudes towards the fairer sex. At the social level, an encouraging trend is that women have been able to challenge the norm of purdah. Besides, involvement in SHGs has enabled women to have a voice in the community affairs and they have been able to tackle problems which not only tend to impoverish the lives of women but the society in general.This paper sets the stage for argument and discussion that whether the SHGs can also be used as a tool to motivate the women to increase their role in political arena or not. Though women face handicaps to their involvement in politics, their participation in SHGs has a great potential to alter this trend and these women can be prospective leaders in the political field. Democracy has the greatest role to play but which role it continues to be vague. It may be comparatively easier to ensure material change than to cause a change in power structures and the ideologies and attitudes which accompany them. However, no milieu is static, and some of the recommendations for a way forward include providing a convergence of inputs, ensuring a proactive involvement of women in the program, changing social norms and perceptions and anchoring with wider movements of political and social change

Prevalence of Vitamin A deficiency among school going children of Jasra block of Allahabad, India

The present study was conducted to find out the prevalence of vitamin A deficiency(VAD) among school going children of district Allahabad in year 2015 to assess the nutritional status of selected school going children (aged 6-12 years). The six months study was based on school going children in four selected village in Jasra block of Allahabad district.A structured Performa was used to collect the information. Out of the 105 children examined, 2 (1.90%) had clinical signs of night blindness. The overall prevalence of VAD was found to be 10.47%. Most of them exhibited dull and lusterless appearance of conjunctiva, non-had bitot’s spot, any corneal xerosis, corneal scare and keratomalacia. The prevalence of VAD was higher in girls rather than in boys. To overcome this problem of VAD persisting in community, nutrition education regarding regular intake of plant food rich in carotene such as green leafy vegetables, yellow fruits, carrots and animal foods containing retinol like fish liver oil, fortified food like vana- spati, margarine should be strengthened

PLASMA SEROTONIN LEVELS IN BIPOLAR DISORDER

Bipolar disorder is a debilitating psychiatric disorder with prevalence of 1-3% in general population. It is a multifactorial disorder which involves environmental, genetic, nutritional and other factors. 5HT widely known as serotonin is synthesized in enterochromaffin cells of intestine, blood platelets and serotonergic neurons of brain. In blood 5HT is stored in platelets. 5HT is an intermediate product of tryptophan metabolism and is a monoamine neurotransmitter in central nervous system. Abnormality in this neurotransmitter is associated with development of bipolar disorder and other psychiatric disorders like depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, mania, aggression. Disturbances in the level of 5HT changes one’s mood. Low level of 5HT is associated with violent behaviour in humans. In the present study plasma 5HT levels were estimated in 38 bipolar disorder individuals and 38 age and sex matched controls without a family history of bipolar disorder. All the patients included in the present study belonged to North Coastal Andhra Pradesh. Student t test was used to compare the 5HT levels in cases and controls. A decrease in the level of plasma 5HT was observed in bipolar cases

Assessment of maternal and fetal outcome in trial of labor after cesarean

Background: Nowadays, cesarean sections are increasing consistently. Repeat cesarean sections are performed for a large percentage and associated with a higher rate of surgical complications and Long-term morbidities. The trial of labor after cesarean offers an alternative choice. This study carried out to assess the maternal and fetal outcome and to evaluate various parameters as a predictor of success of TOLAC.Methods: This prospective observational study conducted on 150 pregnant women with one previous LSCS who delivered at Mahatma Gandhi hospital, from January 2017 to July 2018. Patient having a singleton pregnancy, cephalic presentation, adequate pelvis size with spontaneous onset of labor were included. Cases were monitored carefully during the labor. Emergency LSCS was done if any indication appeared.Results: 78% of cases delivered safely by the vaginal birth and 22% of cases had an emergency repeat cesarean section (EmRCS). Favorable Bishop Score, active stage of labor and prior vaginal delivery were associated with higher success rate. One (0.66%) case of uterine scar rupture and 2 (1.33%) cases of scar dehiscence noted. No maternal mortality observed. Perinatal mortality occurred in 2 cases (1.33%).Conclusions: Present study shows that appropriate clinical settings and the properly selected group of patients can make the TOLAC safe and effective

A clinical study on maternal and fetal outcome in pregnancy with oligohydromnios

Background: Oligohydramnios is associated with various maternal and fetal complication. It’s correlated fetal complications like FGR, increased risk of meconium aspiration syndrome, Birth asphyxia, low APGAR scores and increased congenital abnormalities in fetus. It’s also associated with maternal morbidities in view of operative interventions for delivery. To study effect of oligohydramnios in mother in form of, operative delivery and progress of labour. To study effect of oligohydramnios in fetus in form of fetal compromise i.e.  FGR, fetal distress, altered APGAR score, need for NICU admission. congenital anomaly and perinatal death.Methods: 50 patients with ≥ 28 weeks POG with oligohydramnios, confirmed by ultrasonographic measurement of AFI using four quadrant technique; were selected randomly after fulfilling inclusion and exclusion criteria.Results: Incidence of oligohydramnios were more found in primigravida (56%) in present study. Most common cause of oligohydramnios was idiopathic (62%) followed by PIH (20%). Most common cause of caesarean was fetal distress (23%) either due to cord compression or FGR. oligohydramnios was related to higher rate of Fetal Growth restriction and NICU admission (24%).Conclusions: Oligohydramnios is very common encounter during pregnancy, Because of its frequent occurrence; it demands intensive fetal monitoring and systemic approach to antepartum and intrapartum fetal surveillance. There is increased risk of intrapartum complication, perinatal morbidity, perinatal mortality; thus, the rate of caesarean increasing day by day.one should always know the fine line between vaginal delivery and caesarean section; move ahead with best option without hampering fetal wellbeing and avoid unnecessary operative morbidity

PROVIDING A FLEXIBLE AND COSTLESS SOLUTION FOR TRANSITIONAL SETS

Within this paper, we advise a manuscript upper bound privacy leakage constraint-based method of identify which intermediate data sets have to be encoded and that do not, to ensure that privacy-protecting cost could be saved as the privacy needs of information holders can nonetheless be satisfied. To be able to curtail the general expenses by staying away from frequent computation to acquire these data sets. Such situations are very common because data customers frequently reanalyze results, conduct new analysis on intermediate data sets, or share some intermediate results with other people for collaboration. Across the processing of these programs, a sizable amount of intermediate data sets is going to be produced, and frequently stored in order to save the price of computing them. Cloud computing provides massive computation power and storage capacity which enable customers to deploy computation and knowledge-intensive programs without infrastructure investment. However, protecting the privacy of intermediate data sets turns into a challenging problem because opponents may recover privacy-sensitive information by examining multiple intermediate data sets. Evaluation results show the privacy-protecting price of intermediate data sets could be considerably reduced with this approach over existing ones where all data sets are encoded. Encrypting ALL data takes hold cloud is broadly adopted in existing methods to address this concern. But we reason that encrypting all intermediate data sets are neither efficient nor cost-effective since it is very time intensive and pricey for data-intensive programs to en/decrypt data sets frequently while carrying out any operation in it. Finally, we design an operating heuristic formula accordingly to recognize the information sets that should be encoded

Screening of traditionally used medicinal plants for their antimicrobial efficacy against oral pathogens and GC-MS analysis of <em>Acacia nilotica </em>extract

162-168Oral diseases are one of the major public health issues. Due to acquisition of pathogenic resistance over conventional antimicrobials, the search for natural alternatives continues. In the present study, thirty two methanol and ethyl acetate extracts prepared from 14 different plant species were screened against oral pathogens. Principal Component Analysis indicated that methanol extract of Acacia nilotica twig was the most influential with highest F1 score and showed almost 2 fold higher antimicrobial activity in comparison to others. GC-MS analysis of Acacia nilotica twig revealed the presence of various bioactive such as limonene, stigmasterol, linoleic acid, ricinoleic acid, santalol, undecylenic acid. Evaluation of antimicrobial potential of medicinal plants may thrive a safe, inexpensive and efficient therapeutic in developing formulation for oral care products

Production of sterile Atlantic salmon by germ cell ablation with antisense oligonucleotides

Cultivation of sterile-only fish in aquaculture offers multiple benefits of environmental, economical, and social value. A reliable method for efficient sterilization without affecting fish welfare and performance traits would have significant impact on fish production practices. Here, we demonstrate sterilization of Atlantic salmon embryos by targeting the dead end gene with antisense oligonucleotides. Successful gene knock down and sterilization was achieved only when using Gapmer oligonucleotides and not with morpholino oligos. Germ cell-depleted embryos developed into morphologically normal male and female salmon with rudimentary gonads devoid of gametes