ANTIEPILEPTIC RECTAL HYDROGEL LOADED WITH CARBAMAZEPINE – RICE BRAN WAX MICROSPHERES

ABSTRACTObjectives: The objective behind the study is to develop a mucoadhesive rectal hydrogel from carbamazepine (CBZ) – rice bran wax (RBW)microspheres for the purpose of controlled release for the treatment of epilepsy.Methods: The study was conducted to formulate controlled release rectal hydrogel loaded with CBZ – RBW microspheres in two different natural polymers,RBW and collagen which are prepared by modified cooling induced solidification method and gel preparation along with their evaluation studies.Results: A thorough analysis of the optimized gel revealed that all the evaluation parameters evaluated are within the acceptable limits. Further, theoptimized microsphere formulation (M5) was used to formulate it as rectal hydrogel using polymer collagen and was characterized. The mucoadhesiontime of 25% w/w collagen hydrogel (H4) was 565 minutes, allowing the loaded microspheres to be attached on rectal mucosa. In vitro drug releasefrom the mucoadhesive hydrogel formulations showed controlled drug release pattern with a maximum drug release of 96.45±0.35% for optimizedH4 formulation after 12 hr, followed zero order release pattern with diffusion mediated Higuchi model. Ex vivo permeation studies using bovine rectalmucosa revealed that H4 formulation showed greater permeability compared to control. Histopathological findings revealed that H4 formulation issafer for rectal administration without any signs of rectal irritancy. The stability studies of optimized formulation (H4) proved that hydrogel remainedstable over a wide range of temperature condition.Conclusion: Hence, the developed rectal hydrogel formulation seems to be a viable alternative to conventional drug delivery system for the effectivemanagement of epilepsy.Keywords: Carbamazepine, Rice bran wax, Rectal hydrogel, Sustainability

PREPARATION AND EVALUATION OF CHITOSAN SODIUM ALGINATE CARBAMAZEPINE MICROSPHERES

ABSTRACTObjective: The objective behind our study is that a mucoadhesive rectal hydrogel chitosan sodium alginate carbamazepine (CBZ) microspheres forthe purpose of controlled release for the treatment of epilepsy to avoid the possible side effects.Methods: The study was conducted to formulate controlled release chitosan sodium alginate CBZ microspheres with the dispersion of CBZ into thenatural polymers chitosan and sodium alginate forming microspheres conducting along with their evaluation studies.Results: The formulated microspheres were subjected to various evaluation parameters, and all the physical parameters examined are within theacceptable limits. Further, the optimized microsphere formulation (CM5) was characterized. Hence, the developed optimized microsphere formulation(CM5) seems to be a viable substitute to conventional drug delivery system for the effective management of epilepsy.Conclusion: The prepared formulation also provides a desired CBZ loaded sodium alginate microspheres with the controlled release drug delivery.Keywords: Carbamazepine, Sodium alginate microspheres, Particle size

How Good Are Popular Matchings?

In this paper, we consider the Hospital Residents problem (HR) and the Hospital Residents problem with Lower Quotas (HRLQ). In this model with two sided preferences, stability is a well accepted notion of optimality. However, in the presence of lower quotas, a stable and feasible matching need not exist. For the HRLQ problem, our goal therefore is to output a good feasible matching assuming that a feasible matching exists. Computing matchings with minimum number of blocking pairs (Min-BP) and minimum number of blocking residents (Min-BR) are known to be NP-Complete. The only approximation algorithms for these problems work under severe restrictions on the preference lists. We present an algorithm which circumvents this restriction and computes a popular matching in the HRLQ instance. We show that on data-sets generated using various generators, our algorithm performs very well in terms of blocking pairs and blocking residents. Yokoi [Yokoi, 2017] recently studied envy-free matchings for the HRLQ problem. We propose a simple modification to Yokoi\u27s algorithm to output a maximal envy-free matching. We observe that popular matchings outperform envy-free matchings on several parameters of practical importance, like size, number of blocking pairs, number of blocking residents. In the absence of lower quotas, that is, in the Hospital Residents (HR) problem, stable matchings are guaranteed to exist. Even in this case, we show that popularity is a practical alternative to stability. For instance, on synthetic data-sets generated using a particular model, as well as on real world data-sets, a popular matching is on an average 8-10% larger in size, matches more number of residents to their top-choice, and more residents prefer the popular matching as compared to a stable matching. Our comprehensive study reveals the practical appeal of popular matchings for the HR and HRLQ problems. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study on the empirical evaluation of popular matchings in this setting

A CASE REPORT ON ALLOPURINOL INDUCED DRESS SYNDROME

Allopurinol-induced DRESS Syndrome or Drug Rash with Eosinophilia and Systemic Symptom is a rare but potentially fatal drug reaction. Fever, rashes, swelling, and hematologic abnormalities, particularly short-term or long-term injury to one or more organs, have been reported by over 0.4 percent of patients following the course of medicine. Here, a 54-year-old female patient was admitted to the hospital with complaints of fever, purpuric rashes over the body with itching mainly in the oral cavity and lips, and the extent to the upper back and lower limbs for three days. She had known complaints of Type 2 Diabetes, Systemic hypertension, Coronary artery disease with recent NSTEMI, Dyslipidaemia, Psychosis (20y), and Chronic kidney disease. She had been taking Allopurinol for the past three months for hyperuricemia. Allopurinol treatment stopped while topical Steroid treatment started along with supportive therapy. After ten days, the rashes improved significantly, allowing her to leave the hospital

From proteomics to discovery of first-in-class ST2 inhibitors active in vivo

Soluble cytokine receptors function as decoy receptors to attenuate cytokine-mediated signaling and modulate downstream cellular responses. Dysregulated overproduction of soluble receptors can be pathological, such as soluble ST2 (sST2), a prognostic biomarker in cardiovascular diseases, ulcerative colitis, and graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). Although intervention using an ST2 antibody improves survival in murine GVHD models, sST2 is a challenging target for drug development because it binds to IL-33 via an extensive interaction interface. Here, we report the discovery of small-molecule ST2 inhibitors through a combination of high-throughput screening and computational analysis. After in vitro and in vivo toxicity assessment, 3 compounds were selected for evaluation in 2 experimental GVHD models. We show that the most effective compound, iST2-1, reduces plasma sST2 levels, alleviates disease symptoms, improves survival, and maintains graft-versus-leukemia activity. Our data suggest that iST2-1 warrants further optimization to develop treatment for inflammatory diseases mediated by sST2

Positive impacts of integrating flaxseed meal as a potential feed supplement in livestock and poultry production: Present scientific understanding

When it comes to food and fiber production, flaxseed (Linum usitatissimum) has been around the longest. Oil makes up over 41% of a flaxseed's total weight; of that, more than 70% is polyunsaturated. Protein, dietary fiber, α-linolenic acid (ALA), flaxseed gum, and many other beneficial compounds are abundant in flaxseed meal (FSM). There is as much as 30% crude protein in FSM. Therefore, FSM can serve as a source of excellent protein for livestock. FSM increases the efficiency and effectiveness of livestock and poultry farming. FSM can be used as an essential protein feed component in cattle and poultry farming, boosting production and profitability. Because it contains anti-nutritional ingredients such as cyanogenic glycosides, tannins, phytic acid, oxalic acid and an anti-vitamin B6 factor, the use of FSM in livestock and poultry diets is restricted. Animal nutritionists have recently shown a growing interest in reducing anti-nutritional elements and boosting FSM's nutritional value. Recently, fermented FSM has been used to feed cattle and poultry; hence its dietary benefits have not yet been fully assessed. The present article, therefore, addresses the chemical make-up, bioactive components, anti-nutritional aspects, and positive impacts of FSM in livestock and poultry production

Green snapper Lethrinus nebulosus in captivity with RAS technology

Vizhinjam, Kerala. Broodstock development, volitional spawning and seed production of spangled emperor, Lethrinus nebulosus under captive conditions in Recirculating Aquaculture System (RAS) was achieved for the first time in Vizhinjam Regional Centre, ICAR-CMFRI and is a global first. This work carried out under the All India Network Project on mariculture, is a breakthrough that can enable larval rearing and hatchery seed production of the green snapper, a prized marine food fish commodity in global markets

National broodbank Of pompano. Serving the marine finfishfarming sector of india

The development and expansion of marine finfish aquaculture in India can lead to enhanced seafood production, both for domestic consumption as well as for export. However, the expansion and commercialisation of this activity is restricted, mainly due to the limited or non-availability of seeds of high-value finfishes. Silver pompano, Indian pompano, cobia, seabass, selected grouper varieties, sea breams and snappers are some of the key species that can be targeted as candidate species for commercial level seed production in the country. The prime requirement to achieve this goal is to ensure year-round commercial level availability of hatcheryproduced seeds of such species, for which, controlled reproductive maturation under bio-secure conditions is essential. Unlike some species of shrimps, it is not easy to source the required brooders directly by wild collection. It is time-consuming to collect pre-adult fishes from the wild and condition them into brooders (broodstock development). Hence, a viable option is to establish a broodstock holding facility (Broodbank) where broodfishes can be developed and maintained under bio-secure conditions. Broodbanks facilitated with recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) can to a large extent, avoid unexpected mortalities of brooders. Induced or volitional breeding techniques can be applied here, and fertilised eggs and newly hatched larvae can be supplied on demand to commercial hatcheries for rearing

Tweet Emotion Dynamics: Emotion Word Usage in Tweets from US and Canada

Over the last decade, Twitter has emerged as one of the most influential forums for social, political, and health discourse. In this paper, we introduce a massive dataset of more than 45 million geo-located tweets posted between 2015 and 2021 from US and Canada (TUSC), especially curated for natural language analysis. We also introduce Tweet Emotion Dynamics (TED) -- metrics to capture patterns of emotions associated with tweets over time. We use TED and TUSC to explore the use of emotion-associated words across US and Canada; across 2019 (pre-pandemic), 2020 (the year the pandemic hit), and 2021 (the second year of the pandemic); and across individual tweeters. We show that Canadian tweets tend to have higher valence, lower arousal, and higher dominance than the US tweets. Further, we show that the COVID-19 pandemic had a marked impact on the emotional signature of tweets posted in 2020, when compared to the adjoining years. Finally, we determine metrics of TED for 170,000 tweeters to benchmark characteristics of TED metrics at an aggregate level. TUSC and the metrics for TED will enable a wide variety of research on studying how we use language to express ourselves, persuade, communicate, and influence, with particularly promising applications in public health, affective science, social science, and psychology.Comment: Accepted for publication at LREC 2022 (camera-ready

The Role of Spermatheca in Ovarian Maturation of the Fiddler Crab, UCA TRIANGULARIS BENGALI

Abstract- In Uca triangularis bengali, when mating occurs, the spermatophores get stored in the spermatheca which in turn induces the maturation of the ovary. The sperm plug prevents further mating and the spermatophores are released in batches. By the time the spermatheca is empty, the ovary reaches the advanced stage of maturation and mature eggs are released for fertilization