In silico analysis of the efficacy of some natural compounds as antituberculosis agents

207-213Tuberculosis (TB) remains a disease of global importance with approximately two million deaths annually worldwide. Effective treatment of TB has been hampered by the emergence of drug resistant strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Natural products have a proven global history of treating TB diseases and ailments. Available vast reservoir of chemically diverse natural products that provide new templates for drug design can be scrutinized and the most efficient may be chosen by molecular docking studies with the TB proteins. In the present study, an attempt has been made to find out a potential natural product to inhibit M. tuberculosis – protein kinase B (PknB) protein by molecular docking method. Docking has been performed for around 40 natural products against M. tuberculosis – PknB protein target to determine their potentiality against TB diseases. The anti-TB ability has been analysed in terms of binding energy. The results indicate that 80% of the natural products (B.E ≥ -7 kcal/mol) under study, exhibit good anti-TB activity. It is known that most of the natural product under study is found to possess greater binding activity than that of the conventional anti-TB drugs

Enhanced User-driven Ranking System with Splay Tree

E-learning is one of the information and communication technology products used for teaching and learning process [35]. An efficient and effective way to construct trust relationship among peer users in e-learning environment is ranking. User-driven ranking systems are based only on the feedback or rating provided by the users. In [46-48] the authors provide a variety of trust and reputation methods. Certified Belief in Strength (CBS) [45] is a novel trust measurement method based on reputation and strength. In [38] author presents a recommendation system based on the relevant feedback review to predict the user's interests, that are ranked based on the recommendations history they provide previously. Users with higher rating obtain high reputation compared to less scored users. In question answering websites like StackOverflow, new or low scored users are ignored by the community. This discourage them and their involvement with the community reduces further down, as power law states, alleged low users are pushed to the bottom of the ranking list. Avoid this condition by encouraging less reputed users and prevent them from moving further down in ranking level. Thus, low reputed users are provided with few more chances to participate actively in the e-learning environments. A splay tree is a Binary Search Tree with self-balancing skill. The splay tree brings the recently accessed item to the top of the tree, thus active users are always on the top of the tree. A splay tree is used to represent user's ranks, and to semi-splay low ranked users again in the tree thus preventing them from further drowning in the ranking list. The focus of this research work is to find and enhance low reputed users in reputation system by providing few more chances to take part actively in the e-learning environment using the splay tree. Normalized discounted cumulative gain (NDCG) acts as a decision part for identifying drowning users

A NOVEL RP-HPLC METHOD DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION FOR THE QUANTIFICATION OF A POTENTIAL ANTI-DIABETIC DRUG METFORMIN HYDROCHLORIDE IN TABLET DOSAGE FORM

Objective: This study was conducted to develop a simple, economical, linear, rapid method for the assay studies of Metformin HCl by RP-HPLC method and to carry out the method validation. Methods: A simple, robust and accurate method to carryout assay of Metformin hydrochloride tablet(500 mg) by RP-HPLC method in which the stationary phase used is Shimadzu shim-pack GIST C18 column with specification (5μm×4.6×250 mm). This method involves isocratic elution of mobile phase containing 70% buffer and 30% acetonitrile. The buffer used for analysis is Tetra-Butyl Ammonium Hydroxide (0.002%), the flow rate was maintained at 0.5 ml/min. detection was done at 232 nm. Principal peak for Metformin was observed at 3.5 min and the runtime for each injection was set to 10 min. The standard solutions of Metformin were prepared using purified water (milli-Q water) and scanned from 190 nm to 400 nm. Sharp peaks were observed in the range of 232 nm and thus, wavelength of 232 nm was selected and used throughout the validation process. Results: Linearity graph generated was found acceptable and accurate and the graph was generated in the range of 50% to 150% concentration. The regression coefficient was found to be 0.999(acceptable range). Validation was carried out according to ICH guidelines and found to be acceptable. Conclusion: This developed method was found to be simple, robust, economical, accurate, linear and can be used in the assay of Metformin tablet using RP-HPLC

The Influence of High-Energy Lithium Ion Irradiation on Electrical Characteristics of Silicon and GaAs Solar Cells

Space-grade Si and GaAs solar cells were irradiated with 15 & 40 MeV Li ions. Illuminated (AM0 condition) and unilluminated I-V curves reveal that the effect of high-energy Li ion irradiation has produced similar effects to that of proton irradiation. However, an additional, and different, defect mechanism is suggested to dominate in the heavier-ion results. Comparison is made with proton-irradiated solar-cell work and with non-ionizing energy-loss (NIEL) radiation-damage models.Comment: 8 pages, 12 figures, Data presented at 2006 NSREC, Final Version to be published in IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, 53, NO. 6, December 2006. Index Terms: GaAs, Ion-irradiation, Lithium, NIEL, Photovoltaic cells, Radiation effects, Silico

Conquering maternal mortality: skill development in medical curriculum

Background: Maternal Mortality Rate remains to be high in developing countries despite the advances made in the modern world. A medical student needs to understand the basic clinical subjects and in a short span of one year translate it into patient care. A skill development method was initiated in the final year curriculum of medical students to integrate the basic knowledge of labor with the final outcome of reducing maternal mortality rate.Methods: The skills were demonstrated on mannequins and simulation models of difficult situations in labour were provided. The study was conducted in Saveetha Medical College in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology in May 2015 as a one day hands on workshop for medical undergraduate students. One hundred and fourteen medical students conducted normal labor, applied forceps and ventouse, sutured episiotomies and perineal tear and performed a drill on active management of third stage of labor on training mannequins. All the basic didactic teaching and its translation into clinical skills were tested pertaining to the problem of parturition. Plenary discussion of each demonstrable skill was done by a galaxy of experts. This was followed with Mind Mapping of concepts developed. Pretest and posttest helped the teaching faculty to assess the impact of knowledge generated. Feedback was obtained to improvise the existing teaching method and develop new teaching tools.Results: The students were able to comprehend Conduct of Labor from its basics and decide on the relevant clinical implications. The case based skill demonstrations done on instrumental delivery, episiotomy suturing, clinical pelvimetry, active management of third stage of labor and monitoring of labor using partogram gave students hands on experience and improved their practical knowledge.Conclusion: Skill Development in conduct of labour helps medical students to understand the clinical implications better. A well trained medical student can thus help to reduce maternal mortality rate in developing countries

Cross sectional study on analysis of reasons for refusal of PPIUCD at GIMS, Gadag

Background: Women are highly motivated and receptive to accept Family Planning (FP) methods during the postpartum period. Intrauterine Contraceptive Device (IUCD) is one of the commonly used reversible methods of contraception and provide very effective, safe and long-term protection against pregnancy and the health risks associated with the method are negligible. Taking advantage of the immediate postpartum period for counselling on family planning and IUCD insertion, overcomes multiple barriers to service provision. The increased institutional deliveries are opportunity to provide women easy access to immediate PPIUCD services. Objective-The aim of the study was to determine proportion of women accepting postplacental intrauterine contraceptive device insertion, and to describe the factors associated with acceptability and non-acceptance.Methods: Cross-sectional study conducted from September 2021 to October 2021 in 250 women admitted for delivery at Gadag institute of medical sciences, Gadag. The respondents were interviewed using structured interviewer administered questionnaire.Results: In the study, it is found that overall awareness regarding PPIUCD in the study population is only 32% which is comparable with the study findings of Rajasthan where the 8 awareness was 20.2%. The readiness rate for PPIUCD insertion after the counselling in present study was 8% which is similar the study report from Government Medical College, Trissur, Kerala where the acceptance rate 1 was 10.5%. The major factors associated with nonacceptance were refusal by patient (50%) and relatives.Conclusions: The emerging factors for less acceptance of PPIUCD are low literacy rate among women and infrequent counselling and education during antenatal period. Integration of a PPIUCD counselling service at every delivery point with provision of couple counselling can improve the success of this programme

Structure of Rat Kidneys Following Microwave Accelerated Fixation

In contrast to fixation of tissue in externally heated fixative, microwave-irradiation can generate uniform internal heat, which is of utmost importance for successful fixation of biological tissue. To evaluate the effectiveness of microwave-accelerated chemical fixation, we compared the structure of rat kidney fixed by a conventional method and a microwave-accelerated method, by scanning and transmission electron microscopy. Following perfusion, rat kidney pieces 1-2 mm in size were irradiated in Karnovsky\u27s fixative in a domestic Amana microwave oven, till the temperature of the fixative reached 45-50°C. For conventional fixation, tissue pieces were fixed overnight at room temperature in the same fixative. Both types of samples were processed further for electron microscopy using identical protocols. The microwave fixed samples showed excellent preservation of structure comparable to the samples fixed by the conventional method. Glomeruli and the renal tubules showed normal morphology with no cellular swelling. The cytoplasm and nuclear matrix of the epithelial cells was uniformly dense. Other fixation sensitive organelles like mitochondria and Golgi apparatus showed superior preservation with continuous membranes. These results demonstrate that microwave accelerated chemical fixation results in excellent preservation of tissue structure, reduces processing time significantly and is therefore a practical alternative to conventional protocols

A REVIEW ON SCREENING METHODS OF BREAST CANCER, CANCER BIOMARKERS AND PHYTOCONSTITUENTS AGAINST BREAST CANCER

  A cancer biomarker refers to a substance or process that is used as an indicative the presence of cancer in the body. A biomarker may be a molecule secreted by a tumor or a specific response of the body to the presence of cancer. Biomarkers are utilized in three elementary ways as a diagnostic tool, prognostic tool, and predictive tool. The screening tests employed are clinical and breast exams, mammography, hereditary screening, ultrasound, and attractive reverberation imaging. Biomarkers involved in breast cancer are human epidermal growth factor-2, estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor, Cyclin D1, and Cyclin E. Specific bioactive phytoconstituents used as anticancer include curcumin, genistein, resveratrol, isothiocyanates, silymarin, diallyl sulfisoxazole, lycopene, apigenin, and gingerol. Hence, this review indicates the study of screening methods, various biomarkers in breast cancer and phytoconstituents against breast cancer