Inhibitory effect of gemcitabine and brucine on MDA MB-231human breast cancer cells

Combination of natural compounds and cytotoxic drugs represents a logical therapeutic approach for breast cancer. Brucine, a natural plant alkaloid is reported to possess cytotoxic, anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer activities. Gemcitabine is a nucleoside analog, commonly used in the treatment of several solid tumors, including breast cancer. In the present study we have examined the anticancer effect of brucine and gemcitabine on MDA MB-231 human breast cancer cells. Cell proliferation was assessed using MTT assay. Soft agar assay was used to evaluate the in-vitro clonogencity of MDA MB-231 cells. Cell migration was determined by in-vitro scratch assay and expression of p65 (NF-kB subunit) was evaluated by western blot analysis. Combination treatment with brucine and gemcitabine resulted in a significant inhibition of cell proliferation than either brucine or gemcitabine alone. Cells treated with combination of brucine and gemcitabine showed additive inhibition in colony formation and cell migration than treated with individual agents. The cells treated with brucine at 300 µM showed a significant decrease in p65-NF-kB expression but in combination treatment there was no additive inhibition of p65 expression compared to brucine treated cells. Overall, our results suggested that brucine in combination with gemcitabine showed supra-additive anticancer effects in MDA MB-231 cells and warrants further in-vivo studies in experimental animal models.

OMSketch : Graphical Sketch Editor in OpenModelica Interactive Notebook

Modelica is an object-oriented equation based language to model complex physical systems containing mechanical, electrical and other types of components. It provides libraries that enable to simulate these systems. Many commercial and free simulation environments are available. It is maintained by the non-profitable organization called the “Modelica Association” containing members from different parts of the world. Many industries use Modelica for model based development. OpenModelica is an open source object-oriented equation based language based on Modelica. DrModelica is a guide to learn Modelica, and it provides a detailed tutorial for Modelica that range from beginner to expert level. OMNotebook document provides an interactive way to learn DrModelica. It provides series of tutorials that help to learn to use Modelica. It provides dynamic way to simulate models. OMSketch is a graphical editor to OMNotebook document. Its main aim is to provide shapes to OMNotebook document. The editor provides different shapes that can be drawn dynamically and also have properties such as colors, pen styles and brush properties. The shapes can be dynamically resized, translated and rotated. These operations can be performed on single shape and also on a group of shapes. Edit operations such as cut, copy and paste are supported. Keyboard shortcuts are also available to perform edit operations. The drawn shapes can be saved into different file formats such as png, bmp etc. These can also be open to edit and make changes. The OMSketch editor saves the shapes in regular graphical file formats with some information. The shape's properties are also saved into a file as text. Thus every saved shape from OMSketch contains the shape, and its coordinates and other properties. This makes it possible to edit the image when it is open in the editor. The main purpose of OMSketch is to embed shapes into OMNotebook document and also edit back from OMNotebook document to OMSketch. OMSketch is a very interactive and advance graphical editor for OMNotebook document

OMSketch : Graphical Sketch Editor in OpenModelica Interactive Notebook

Modelica is an object-oriented equation based language to model complex physical systems containing mechanical, electrical and other types of components. It provides libraries that enable to simulate these systems. Many commercial and free simulation environments are available. It is maintained by the non-profitable organization called the “Modelica Association” containing members from different parts of the world. Many industries use Modelica for model based development. OpenModelica is an open source object-oriented equation based language based on Modelica. DrModelica is a guide to learn Modelica, and it provides a detailed tutorial for Modelica that range from beginner to expert level. OMNotebook document provides an interactive way to learn DrModelica. It provides series of tutorials that help to learn to use Modelica. It provides dynamic way to simulate models. OMSketch is a graphical editor to OMNotebook document. Its main aim is to provide shapes to OMNotebook document. The editor provides different shapes that can be drawn dynamically and also have properties such as colors, pen styles and brush properties. The shapes can be dynamically resized, translated and rotated. These operations can be performed on single shape and also on a group of shapes. Edit operations such as cut, copy and paste are supported. Keyboard shortcuts are also available to perform edit operations. The drawn shapes can be saved into different file formats such as png, bmp etc. These can also be open to edit and make changes. The OMSketch editor saves the shapes in regular graphical file formats with some information. The shape's properties are also saved into a file as text. Thus every saved shape from OMSketch contains the shape, and its coordinates and other properties. This makes it possible to edit the image when it is open in the editor. The main purpose of OMSketch is to embed shapes into OMNotebook document and also edit back from OMNotebook document to OMSketch. OMSketch is a very interactive and advance graphical editor for OMNotebook document

Reduced Order Modelling of Mistuned Integrally Bladed Rotors

This work aims to study the mode localization behavior of the mistuned rotor, which is the root cause of the unexpected premature fatigue failure. The unsteady loading, flow separations, tip leakage flows, vortex shedding, and acoustic instabilities induce nonlinear blade vibrations and responses. An accurate finite element model can help predict the maximum dynamic response and shed light on the dynamics of the mistuned system, which can lay out guidelines for design and manufacturing processes. Cyclic symmetry structures are generally simplified as Finite Element (FE) models of single sectors for analysis purposes to reduce computational costs. However, inherent blade mistuning breaks the cyclic symmetry, and often the full blisk must be modeled, which has millions of degrees of freedom (DOF), making it computationally too expensive. These simulations are often coupled with Monte Carlo simulations (MCS) and Latin hypercube for the probabilistic analysis of random mistuning, which requires a large sample set, further increasing the computational costs. Previous research and aeromechanical analysis used lumped mass and beam frame assembly models, which were very robust but had a low order of accuracy. This paved the way for developing FE-based Reduced Order Models (ROM). These high-fidelity complex models can capture the simplified nonlinearities in reduced-order models. The CMM (Component Mode Mistuning) and FMM (Fundamental Mode Mistuning) models were studied on the embedded stage of the Purdue 3-Stage axial compressor to understand the accuracy and usability of these methods for regions of interest. A brief comparison between the ROM models is made in this study. Although the FMM model is a simple, accurate model for determining the impact of mistuning on forced response when we have an isolated family of blade modes, the accuracy decreases considerably in cases with strong modal participation from other families. The more complex CMM model is required to study mistuned responses in veering regions, regions with high modal density, and instances of disk-dominated modes. The FMM model estimates the amplification well for mistuning cases with low deviations and high nodal diameters. The CMM model captures the intricate details of the response well and converges rapidly with the increasing number of tuned system modes. The modal participation in the veering regions was also captured reasonably well by CMM. The forced response for cases with small standard deviation was predicted well by both the reduced order models. The effect of the arrangement of the deviations was also explored, which showed significant amplification reduction. This study will guide the future to predict forced response incorporating frequency mistuning and aerodynamic coupling, which would be validated with the experimental data

Formulation and Evaluation of Mouth Dissolving Tablets of Metoprolol tartrate by new Co-processed Technique

ABSTRACT Metoprolol tartrate is effective β-blocker which is having antianginal properties and used in the treatment of myocardial infarction. Oral bioavailability of Metoprolol tartrate is around 40%. In present work an attempt has been made to prepare mouth dissolving tablets of Metoprolol tartrate by direct compression method with a view to enhance patient compliance. The two superdisintegrants used in this study were Croscarmellose sodium and Sodium starch glycolate. The prepared batches of tablets were evaluated for uniformity of weight, thickness, hardness, friability, wetting time, water absorption ratio, disintegration time and dissolution study. Using the same excipients, the tablets were prepared, without disintegrants and were evaluated in the similar way. From the results obtained, it can be concluded that the tablet formulation (M5) showed the promising formulation. Also the hardness, friability, disintegration time and dissolution rate of prepared tablets were found to be acceptable according to standard limits

Pacemaker site infection caused by Rapidly Growing Nontuberculous Mycobacteria (RGM)

There has been an increased use of cardiac pacemaker device utilization in cardiac patients with a corresponding increase of device-related infections in these patients. The common cause of postpacemaker implantation infection is either Gram-positive or Gram-negative bacteria. Infection of pacemaker implantation site due to nontuberculous mycobacteria is rare. Globally, thirty-two cases of pacemaker device infections caused by nontuberculous mycobacteria were reported. It is important to carry out not only species identification of mycobacteria but also drug susceptibility testing to start precise treatment to those patients, who are infected with atypical mycobacteria. We report a patient with pacemaker pocket infection due to Mycobacterium chelonae

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Not AvailableBackground: Rice is the staple food of Indians and it is attacked by more than 100 species of insects. Among all, brown planthopper (BPH), Nilaparvata lugens (Stal) (Hemiptera: Delphacidae) is one of the major sucking insects, which can cause appreciable damage by sucking sap on other hand transmitting viral diseases. Farming community using several insecticides for managing the BPH. However, continuous use of these insecticides causes health hazards and environmental pollution and also leads to development of insecticide resistance. Keeping this view in mind, the present investigation has been planned with combined use of fungal formulations and commonly used neonicotinoid insecticides in rice eco system for managing BPH. Methods: This experiment was carried out in two parts, one is studied the compatibility between neonicotinoids (Thiamethoxam 25 SG and Dinotefuran 20 SG) and entomopathogenic fungi (Beauveria bassiana, Metarhizium anisopliae and Lecanicillium lecanii =Verticillium lecanii) by following the standard poison food technique. Second one is after studied the compatibility between neonicotinoids and entomopathogenic fungal agents, inhibitory studies were conducted under glasshouse conditions. Result: The study revealed that two tested insecticides affected the radial growth of fungi partially at all the three concentrations (0.5RC, RC and 1.5RC). At recommended concentration (RC), dinotefuran 20 SG @0.4 g/l was found to be slightly harmful to all three fungi (20% - 35% reduction of the growth of the fungus) and thiamethoxam 25 SG @ 0.25g/l appeared to be slightly harmful to B. bassiana and M. anisopliae and moderately harmful to L. lecanii (35-50% reduction of the growth of the fungus). Thiamethoxam 25SG alone recorded 65.0% mortality of BPH and when mixed with B. bassiana and M. anisopliae gave 86.25% and 81.25% mortality of BPH respectively under glass house conditions. Similarly, Dinotefuron 20 SG alone could gave 98.75% mortality of BPH.DST-INSPIR