An emerging protagonist: Sodium Glucose Co-transporters (SGLTs) as a burgeoning target for the treatment of diabetes mellitus

Contemporary therapies to rationalize the hyperglycaemia in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) generally involve insulin-dependent mechanisms and lose their effectiveness as pancreatic b-cell function decreases to a greater extent. The kidney emerges out as a novel and potential target to trim down the T2DM. The filtered glucose is reabsorbed principally through the sodium glucose co-transporter-2 (SGLT2), a low affinity transport system, which is present at the luminal surface cells that cover the first segment of proximal tubules. Competitive inhibition of SGLT2 therefore represents an innovative therapeutic strategy for the treatment of hyperglycaemia and/or obesity in patients with type 1 or type 2 diabetes by enhancing glucose and energy loss through the urine. Selective inhibitors of SGLT2 reduce glucose reabsorption, causing excess glucose to be eliminated in the urine; this decreases plasma glucose. SGLT2 inhibitors are coupled with osmotic dieresis and loss of weight which aid in reducing blood pressure. The observation that individuals with familial renal glycosuria maintain normal long-term kidney function provides some encouragement that this mode of action will not adversely affect renal function. This novel mechanism of targeting the kidney for the treatment of T2DM is reasonably valuable and is independent of insulin and clutch with the low risk of hypoglycemia

Structure and Optical Properties of Polycrystalline InxSb30 – xSe70 (0 ≤ x ≤ 25) Chalcogenide Alloys

The spectroscopic studies of various physical properties of glassy and polycrystalline chalcogenide alloys are important due to their importance as active materials in various solid state devices. The composition dependence of these properties are explained on the basis of coordination number, but the splitting of this effect from the nature of additive is imperative for furthering the understanding of these systems. In the present work, the structural and spectroscopic investigations of melt quenched bulk In-Sb-Se chalcogenide alloys have been studied by XRD, RAMAN and optical spectroscopic techniques. The XRD study reveals the polycrystalline nature of the samples. The composition was analysed using the energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy technique. The XRD study reveals the crystallization of Sb2Se3 and β-In2Se3 phases while the increase in the intensity for β-In2Se3 phase has been observed with the increase in indium content. The RAMAN spectra also reveal the formation of chalcogenide based Sb and In structural units. The diffused reflectance spectrum was used to calculate the optical absorption in 800-1500 nm spectral region and used to study the composition dependence of the optical gap in these samples. The results have been discussed in conjunction with the heterogeneous phases; density of defect states; electronegativity and average mean bond energy for these polycrystalline alloys

Sensitivity analysis of hand movement classification technique using motion templates

This paper presents the sensitivity analysis of a new technique for automated classification of human hand gestures based on Hu moments for robotics applications. It uses view-based approach for representation, and statistical technique for classification. This approach uses a cumulative image-difference technique where the time between the sequences of images is implicitly captured in the representation of action. This results in the construction of temporal history templates (THTs). These THTs are used to compute the 7 Hu image moments that are invariant to scale, rotation, and translation. The recognition criterion is established using K-nearest neighbor (K-NN) Mahalanobis distance. The preliminary experiments show that such a system can classify human hand gestures with a classification accuracy of 92%. This research has been conducted for medical and robotics framework. The overall goal of our research is to test for accuracy of the recognition of hand gestures using this computationally inexpensive way of dimensionality-reduced representation of gestures for its suitability for medical and robotic application

Racemose Neurocysticercosis: A Rare Cause of Chronic Meningitis

Neurocysticercosis (NCC) is the most common parasitic disease of the nervous system and is the main cause of acquired epilepsy in developing countries. Clinical manifestations result from inflammatory response to cyst degeneration, mass effect, obstruction of CSF pathway or residual scarring but are related to the numbers, size and location of lesions and the severity of host's immune response. The subarachnoid/cisternal form of NCC and majority of the intraventricular NCC are of racemose type, and differ from more common cysticercus cellulose in that they are larger, appear as multiloculated cysts and lack scolex. Racemose NCC is uncommon in India. We are reporting a patient presenting as chronic meningitis due to racemose NCC

Bulk Superconductivity in Bismuth-oxy-sulfide Bi4O4S3

Very recent report [1] on observation of superconductivity in Bi4O4S3 could potentially reignite the search for superconductivity in a broad range of layered sulphides. We report here synthesis of Bi4O4S3 at 5000C by vacuum encapsulation technique and basic characterizations. Detailed structural, magnetization, and electrical transport results are reported. Bi4O4S3 is contaminated by small amounts of Bi2S3 and Bi impurities. The majority phase is tetragonal I4/mmm space group with lattice parameters a = 3.9697(2){\AA}, c = 41.3520(1){\AA}. Both AC and DC magnetization measurements confirmed that Bi4O4S3 is a bulk superconductor with superconducting transition temperature (Tc) of 4.4K. Isothermal magnetization (MH) measurements indicated closed loops with clear signatures of flux pinning and irreversible behavior. The lower critical field (Hc1) at 2K, of the new superconductor is found to be ~39 Oe. The magneto-transport R(T, H) measurements showed a resistive broadening and decrease in Tc (R=0) to lower temperatures with increasing magnetic field. The extrapolated upper critical field Hc2(0) is ~ 310kOe with a corresponding Ginzburg-Landau coherence length of ~100{\AA} . In the normal state the {\rho} ~ T2 is not indicated. Our magnetization and electrical transport measurements substantiate the appearance of bulk superconductivity in as synthesized Bi4O4S3. On the other hand same temperature heat treated Bi is not superconducting, thus excluding possibility of impurity driven superconductivity in the newly discovered Bi4O4S3 superconductor.Comment: 12 pages Text + Fig

Comparative experimental and Density Functional Theory (DFT) study of the physical properties of MgB2 and AlB2

In present study, we report an inter-comparison of various physical and electronic properties of MgB2 and AlB2. Interestingly, the sign of S(T) is +ve for MgB2 the same is -ve for AlB2. This is consistent our band structure plots. We fitted the experimental specific heat of MgB2 to Debye Einstein model and estimated the value of Debye temperature (theta) and Sommerfeld constant (gamma) for electronic specific heat. Further, from gamma the electronic density of states (DOS) at Fermi level N(EF) is calculated. From the ratio of experimental N (EF) and the one being calculated from DFT, we obtained value of Lembda to be 1.84, thus placing MgB2 in the strong coupling BCS category. The electronic specific heat of MgB2 is also fitted below Tc using pi-model and found that it is a two gap superconductor. The calculated values of two gaps are in good agreement with earlier reports. Our results clearly demonstrate that the superconductivity of MgB2 is due to very large phonon contribution from its stretched lattice. The same two effects are obviously missing in AlB2 and hence it is not superconducting. DFT calculations demonstrated that for MgB2 the majority of states come from Sigma and Pi 2p states of boron on the other hand Sigma band at Fermi level for AlB2 is absent. This leads to a weak electron phonon coupling and also to hole deficiency as Pi bands are known to be of electron type and hence obviously the AlB2 is not superconducting. The DFT calculations are consistent with the measured physical properties of the studied borides, i.e., MgB2 and AlB2Comment: 16 pages Text + Figs: comments/suggestions welcome ([email protected])/www.freewebs.com/vpsawana