Effect of chemotherapy on serum nitric oxide levels in advanced stage breast cancer patients

Background: The role of nitric oxide is still unclear in advanced breast cancer patients undergoing adjuvant chemotherapy. This study was undertaken to investigate the effect of chemotherapy on serum nitric oxide levels in advanced stage breast cancer patients.Methods: In this observational study, clinically and histopathologically proven sixty female patients with advanced stage breast cancer were included. According to Tumor-Node-Metastasis (TNM) classification, patients were further grouped as stage III and stage IV. Thirty healthy and age-matched female controls were selected for comparison. Blood was collected from healthy controls and from breast cancer patients after surgery prior to chemotherapy and after three weeks of administration of first adjuvant chemotherapy cycle. Serum nitric oxide levels were measured by spectrophotometric method.Results: Significantly higher concentrations of serum nitric oxide were observed in breast cancer patients before chemotherapy in stage III (p<0.0001) and stage IV (p<0.0001) of the disease as compare to concentrations in healthy controls. The serum levels of nitric oxide were significantly decreased in stage III as well as stage IV of breast cancer patients after three weeks of receiving first adjuvant chemotherapy cycle as compare to levels before chemotherapy (p<0.0001), however serum nitric oxide levels were higher in stage III (p=0.0036) and stage IV (p<0.0001) of the disease as compare to healthy controls.Conclusions: Chemotherapy drug administration causes decrease in serum nitric oxide levels in advanced stages of breast cancer patients. Monitoring serum nitric oxide levels could be used to predict patients’ response to chemotherapy treatment in breast cancer

Detection and Localization of Wireless Jammer using XBee module

Now days, wireless technologies has becomes more popular and affordable. In every field e.g. government sector, education, business, military, medical etc. use of wireless network have been increased which enables broad class of new applications. These applications make work easier and faster but one threat which is harmful i.e. jamming attack. The wireless jammer continually emits a radio signal along the same frequency that the wireless nodes use. Jamming technology generally does not discriminate between desirable and undesirable communication. A jammer can block all radio communication on any device that operates on radio frequencies within its range which create nuisance in our critical communication services. Most reliable solution to avoid nuisance is detection and localization of wireless jammer which helps to take further security actions. This project aims to detect wireless jammer and find the location of wireless jammer by experimental setup. DOI: 10.17762/ijritcc2321-8169.15017

COMPARATIVE STUDY OF ANTI-INFLAMMATORY ACTIVITY OF AQUEOUS AND METHANOLIC EXTRACTS OF HIBISCUS CANNABINUS LEAF (MALVACEAE)

Objective: The present study was undertaken to investigate and compare the anti-inflammatory activity of an aqueous and methanolic extract of Hibiscus cannabinus (Malvaceae) using carrageenan-induced rat paw edema.Methods: Aqueous and methanolic extracts of Hibiscus cannabinus was prepared and tested for anti-inflammatory activity in female spargue dawley rat weighing 150-180 g. The animals were randomly divided into 6 groups of 6 each. First group served as vehicle control, second group served as standard, third and fourth group served as high (400 mg/kg) and low (200 mg/kg) dose of methanolic extract of Hibiscus cannabinus leaves (MHCL) respectively and fifth and sixth group as high (400 mg/kg) and low (200 mg/kg) dose of aqueous extract of Hibiscus cannabinus leaves (AHCL) respectively. The In vivo anti-inflammatory activity was studied using carrageenan induce rat paw edema animal model. The estimation of liver and blood parameters consist of serum glutamic oxalate transaminase (SGOT), serum glutamic pyruvate transaminase (SGPT), lipid peroxidation (LPO), reduced glutathione (GSH) and superoxide dismutase (SOD).Results: Both MHCL and AHCL extracts showed significant (*p&lt;0.05) inhibition of rat paw edema in dose-dependent manner. The maximum percent inhibition in paw edema was found in MHCL at dose of 400 mg/kg was 52.00% and AHCL at dose of 400 mg/kg was 49.93%. Both MHCL and AHCL at dose of 400 mg/kg reduce LPO level as 31.10 nmol/g and 35.23 nmol/g respectively when compared with standard indomethacin.Conclusion: An anti-inflammatory activity was found in both MHCL and AHCL extracts. But the MHCL showed more significant anti-inflammatory activity.Keywords: Hibiscus cannabinus, Anti-inflammatory, Carrageenan, Indomethacin, EdemaÂ

Detection and Localization of Wireless Jammer

In recent years, wireless technology has become more advanced, popular and affordable. Because of this broad class of new applications such as traffic monitoring, patient tracking, patient monitoring, video conferencing, video surveillance cameras monitoring of places like public buildings, banks, malls, railway stations etc. has increased which utilizes wireless networks. These applications are totally depends on wireless communication for their successful deployment. Security is most important issue to avoid nuisance in both routine and critical communications services. One threat for the security of wireless network is jamming attack. Jamming attacks can severely affect the performance of Wireless Networks due to their broadcast nature. The most reliable solution to reduce the impact of such attacks is to detect and localize the source of the attack. This will help to take further security actions. This project aims to find the location of wireless jammer by simulation method using MATLAB software

The road to good spirits: perceived stress, self esteem and coping skills in patients with alcohol dependence

Background: Alcohol is the commonest psychoactive substance used by Indians. Stress and self-esteem issues may cause alcohol use as a coping mechanism. The purpose of this study was to analyze the severity of alcohol dependence, gauge levels of perceived stress and self-esteem and study coping skills in patients. It further examined the relations between sociodemographic variables of patients, their perceived stress, self esteem and coping skills as well as duration and severity of alcohol dependence.Methods: Cross-sectional study of 200 patients with alcohol use disorder recruited by complete enumeration technique was undertaken. They were administered a semi-structured questionnaire along with Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10), Rosenberg’s Self-Esteem Scale (RSES), Coping Inventory for Stressful situations (CISS-21) and Severity of Alcohol Dependence Questionnaire (SADQ). Associations and correlations were examined.Results: Almost half the patients had severe alcohol dependence. Less than one-fourth of the patients had low self esteem. There was a significant negative correlation between self esteem and severity of alcohol dependence as well as duration of alcohol use. Nearly half the patients had high perceived stress. There was a significant positive correlation between severity of alcohol dependence and perceived stress. Majority patients used task oriented coping skills. Patients of alcohol dependence having low self-esteem used predominantly avoidant-oriented coping skills.Conclusions: This study highlights the importance of thorough evaluation and screening in patients having alcohol dependence for self-esteem issues and perceived stress levels. Teaching effective coping skills, supportive psychotherapy and counselling can be effective. Multimodal treatment protocols will effectively lighten the stress caused by alcohol dependence

Rapid Node Cardinality Estimation in Heterogeneous Machine-to-Machine Networks

Machine-to-Machine (M2M) networks are an emerging technology with applications in various fields, including smart grids, healthcare, vehicular telematics and smart cities. Heterogeneous M2M networks contain different types of nodes, e.g., nodes that send emergency, periodic, and normal type data. An important problem is to rapidly estimate the number of active nodes of each node type in every time frame in such a network. In this paper, we design two schemes for estimating the active node cardinalities of each node type in a heterogeneous M2M network with $T$ types of nodes, where $T \ge 2$ is an arbitrary integer. Our schemes consist of two phases-- in phase 1, coarse estimates are computed, and in phase 2, these estimates are used to compute the final estimates to the required accuracy. We analytically derive a condition for one of our schemes that can be used to decide as to which of two possible approaches should be used in phase 2 to minimize its execution time. The expected number of time slots required to execute and the expected energy consumption of each active node under one of our schemes are analysed. Using simulations, we show that our proposed schemes require significantly fewer time slots to execute compared to estimation schemes designed for a heterogeneous M2M network in prior work, and also, compared to separately executing a well-known estimation protocol designed for a homogeneous network in prior work $T$ times to estimate the cardinalities of the $T$ node types, even though all these schemes obtain estimates with the same accuracy.Comment: 14 pages, 21 figure

Experimental Study On Plastic Waste As A Course Aggregate For Structural Concrete

The use of plastic is increasing day by day, although steps were taken to reduce its consumption. This creates substantial garbage every day which is much unhealthy. The suitability of recycled plastics as coarse aggregate in concrete and its advantages are discussed here. In this project, Plastic Coarse Aggregates (PCA) and steel fibers were used as replacement of Natural Coarse aggregate by different percentage of plastic aggregate for making concrete of M-25 grade, with w/c ratio 0.48. The study involves replacement of natural coarse aggregates by 0, 15 and 30 percentage of PCA. The steel fibers are used 1 to 3 percent by weight of cement. OPC-53 grade cement was used for making concrete. The waste plastic of HDPE (High density poly Ethylene) is collected from Agriculture waste, E-waste. The study also involves casting cube, beam and cylinder by using M-25 concrete with varying percentage of PCA and then testing compressive strength, flexural strength and Split tensile strength respectively. Also, from this study Optimum percentage replacement of natural aggregate by PCA was found out and that can be used in structural concrete

Role of Host Immune Response and Viral Load in the Differential Outcome of Pandemic H1N1 (2009) Influenza Virus Infection in Indian Patients

BACKGROUND: An unusually high number of severe pneumonia cases with considerable mortality is being observed with the pandemic H1N1 2009 virus infections globally. In India, all mild as well as critically ill cases were admitted and treated in the government hospitals during the initial phase of the pandemic. The present study was undertaken during this early phase of the pandemic. METHODOLOGY: The role of viral load and host factors in the pathogenesis were assessed by examining 26 mild (MP), 15 critically ill patients (CIP) and 20 healthy controls from Pune, India. Sequential blood and lung aspirate samples were collected from CIP. Viral load and cytokines/chemokine levels were determined from the plasma and lung aspirates of the patients. TLR levels were determined by staining and FACS analysis. Gene profiling was done for both cells in the lung aspirates and PBMCs using TaqMan Low Density arrays. Antibody titres and isotyping was done using HA protein based ELISAs. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: 13/15 critically ill patients expired. All plasma samples were negative for the virus irrespective of the patient's category. Sequential lung samples from CIP showed lower viral loads questioning association of viral replication with the severity. Anti-rpH1N1-09-HA-IgG titres were significantly higher in critically ill patients and both categories circulated exclusively IgG1 isotype. Critically ill patients exhibited increase in TLR-3, 4, 7 and decrease in TLR-2 expressions. The disease severity correlated with increased plasma levels of IL1RA, IL2, IL6, CCL3, CCL4 and IL10. Majority of the immune-function genes were down-regulated in the PBMCs and up-regulated in the cells from lung aspirates of critically ill patients. No distinct pattern differentiating fatal and surviving patients was observed when sequential samples were examined for various parameters. CONCLUSIONS: Disease severity was associated with pronounced impairment of host immune response

Simultaneous Determination of Amlodipine and Valsartan

A spectrophotometric method was developed for simultaneous determination of amlodipine (Aml) and valsartan (Val) without previous separation. In this method amlodipine in methanolic solution was determined using zero order UV spectrophotometry by measuring its absorbency at 360.5 nm without any interference from valsartan

Electron paramagnetic resonance studies of photorefractive crystals II: Fe<SUP>3+</SUP> doped Bi<SUB>12</SUB>SiO<SUB>20</SUB> with copper vapour laser illumination in 10-100 K range

Photo-induced charge transfer and its kinetics were investigated in Bi12SiO20 in 10-300 K temperature range, using EPR of Fe3+ centre, underin situ illumination with copper vapour laser (CVL). The decay kinetics was found to follow double exponential behaviour. Relaxation of the photo-induced electron transfer to the preillumination condition occurred even at 10 K. Shallow traps were, therefore, associated with the electron trapping, leading to a better understanding of the fast photorefractive response of BSO