THE POTENTIAL MODULATORY EFFECT OF RUTIN ON TITANIUM DIOXIDE NANOPARTICLES-INDUCED RENAL INJURY IN MALE MICE

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the possible protective effect of rutin in management of TiO2NPs-induced renal injury in mice. Methods: Forty male Swiss albino mice were randomly divided into four groups (n=10). Group (I) served as a control group, group (II) received 100 mg/kg body weight (b. wt) of rutin (orally), group (III) received 70 mg/kg b. wt of TiO2NPs,injected intraperitoneally (i. p.), Group (IV) received 70 mg/kg b. wt of TiO2NPs plus 100 mg/kg b. wt of rutin; for 14 successive days. The renal toxicity was determined through evaluating the renal function biomarkers (serum creatinine, urea, and uric acid) and the levels of malondialdehyde (MDA), reduced glutathion (GSH), nuclear factor kappa B (NF-kB), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF)-α, B-cell lymphoma (BCL)-2 and caspase-3 in renal tissues. Results: Administration of TiO2NPs plus rutin prevented the deleterious effect of TiO2NPs on mice kidneys through improving the renal functions, and alleviating the increase in MDA, NF-kB, TNF-α, and caspase-3 levels, as well as the decrease in GSH andBCL-2 levels, in renal tissues. Conclusion: Taken together, these findings suggested that rutin plays a role in alleviating TiO2NPs-induced oxidative stress, inflammation, and apoptosis, and exerts renal protective effects

Approach to dysglycemia: Do we need to treat impaired glucose tolerance and impaired fasting glucose?

AbstractImpaired glucose tolerance (IGT) and impaired fasting glucose (IFG) are not only a surrogate for the state of insulin resistance but are also associated with the microvascular and macrovascular complications traditionally linked to diabetes. They predict an increased risk for death and morbidity due to cardiovascular disease.There is growing evidence that early detection of this state of “pre-diabetes” enables us to limit these recognized complications and perhaps to halt the progression to diabetes. For all pre-diabetes patients’ life style modifications, emphasizing modest weight loss & moderate physical activity are strongly recommended. Pharmacological intervention may also be necessary. Many studies have shown several drugs, both antidiabetic and nonhypoglycemic agents to be useful. If pharmacological treatment is required, Metformin is considered the first choice because of its safety, tolerability, efficacy and low cost

Enzymes and Phytohormones from Micromonospora

Actinobacteria produce diverse and huge amounts of enzymes that are widely used in different industrial purposes. Specific properties of enzymes allow to run the reactions under milder conditions with improved yield and reduced wastes. Further redesign for natural enzymes is very essential because they are often not suitable for biocatalytic processes. Recently, new microbial natural and creating enzymes are discovered synchronous with the late advanced technologies of genomics, metagenomics, proteomics, efficient expression systems and emerging recombinant DNA. The ongoing development of enzyme biotechnology aids in the improvement of the industrial biocatalysis field. Thermophilic actinobacteria produce thermostable enzymes that are widely used in industrial processes. In contrast, psychrophilic actinobacteria grow well at low temperatures and subsequently their enzymes are more effective at low temperatures. The advanced DNA sequencing technique allows determining and identifying the sequences and functions of all the genes that synthesize proteins that are widely use in the industry. Recombinant strains can be obtained by using certain biotechnological tools to potentially increase enzymes production on a large scale. The ongoing development in this field will lead to the improvement of different industrial purposes such as food, chemicals, textiles, leather, pharmaceuticals, and so on

Plant Pathogens

Plants cover the most area of the earth’s living environment as trees, grasses, flowers, and so on. Plants play different important roles in the environment such as ecosystem balance and food supplement for animals and humans. Moreover, wild or cultivated plants are considered the powerful biofertilizers for the soil, where the plant debris after death and degradation provides the soil with sufficient organic matters. Accordingly, plant care is a great duty and hard mission, which must be constantly improved. The study of plant pathogens belongs to the branch of biology known as plant pathology. The latter is also concerned to overcome the plant diseases arising from the biotic and/or abiotic origin. Biotic (infectious) diseases are developed owing to microbial infection, while abiotic (noninfectious) diseases are developed due to environmental factors. In this chapter, we are concerned with plant pathogens or phytopathogenic microbes such as bacteria, viruses, fungi, mollicutes, and so on

Reconfigurable elastic neuromorphic metasurfaces towards mechanical intelligence and cognitive wave-based computing

The ability of mechanical systems to perform basic computations has gained traction over recent years, providing an unconventional alternative to digital computing in off grid, low power, and severe thermal environments which render the majority of electronic components inoperable. However, much of the work in mechanical computing has focused on logic operations via quasi-static prescribed displacements in origami, bistable, and soft deformable matter. In here, we present a first attempt to describe the fundamental framework of an elastic neuromorphic metasurface that performs distinct classification tasks, providing a new set of challenges given the complex nature of elastic waves with respect to scattering and manipulation. Multiple layers of reconfigurable waveguides are phase-trained via constant weights and trainable activation functions in a manner that enables the resultant wave scattering at the readout location to focus on the correct class within the detection plane. We demonstrate the neuromorphic system's ability to exhibit high accuracy in two distinct tasks owing to a fully reconfigurable design, eliminating the need for costly remanufacturing

Hydrodynamic performance comparison between the outflow of the breakwater oscillating water column (OWC's) devices and offshore OWC device attached to an offshore structure by using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis.

The oscillating water column (OWC) Device is a type of wave energy converters (WEC), as it intends to transform energy from wave energy at sea into electricity by using the wave heaving to move confined air and thus drive an air turbine to generate the power. Furthermore, this thesis manages the hydrodynamic analysis of two types of the oscillating water column (OWC) devices that are gliding freely in limited profundity waters and presented in the activity of standard surface waves. The hydrodynamic analysis, the comparison was made by applying the technique of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis. The significant agreement that CFD is an extremely encouraging device that an originator can utilize it to explore and survey gadget survivability under various conditions upon further approvals in different wave conditions, This method provided an efficient tool for complete hydrodynamic analysis of these devices, the hydrodynamic pressure Parameters; and by using the inputs of wave’s characteristics in the Arabian Gulf Area which have an average historical wave height of 1m. The OWC chamber model used in previous experiments has detailed that it is for the breakwater and for the offshore OWC using the inner diameter, which achieves the same cross-sectional area with the breakwater chamber. A numerical model and Numerical Wave Tank (NWT) established to evaluate the interaction of an OWC with the water in different cases of different depths of the sea. ANSYS is used here to find the effects of the water surface in and around the central column, breakwater-mounted OWC, and calculate the equations of Navier-Stokes to get the vertical component of air entering and exiting the vent of the OWC. After modeling and analysis of the output flow, we got to conclusions for the hydrodynamic performance of the breakwater chamber shows higher efficiency than the open ocean fixed OWC, in addition to that the variation of the energy with the wave steepness.Chapter 1.Introduction 1 1.1. Introduction 1 1.2. Forces acting on an OWC 2 1.3. Classification of OWCs by location and shape 3 1.3.1. Location of OWCs 4 1.4. Power take-off for OWC-WEC 7 1.4.1. Rectifying airflow using valves 8 1.4.2. The Wells turbine 8 Chapter 2.Theory behind OWC 11 2.1. Theory 11 2.2. Wave Theoretical Considerations 11 2.3. Wave Small Amplitude Theory 12 2.4. Wave Velocity and Wave Classification 13 2.5. Higher-Order Theories 15 2.5.1. General 15 2.5.2. OWC Efficiency 18 2.6. Research Background 25 Chapter 3.CFD modeling and analysis 26 3.1. Research contents 26 3.2. Research Goals 26 3.3. Modeling and Analysis 27 3.3.1. Numerical Wave Tank 28 3.3.2. Validation of Wave Propagation 37 3.3.3. OWC Numerical Analysis 41 3.3.4. Summarized efficiency equations 43 3.4. Performance of the OWC in a real sea 44 3.4.1. Describing real seas 45 3.4.2. Irregular waves Performance 47 3.4.3. Annual performance 49 3.5. Review of the Modelling 57 3.5.1. Impulse Functions and Mechanical Oscillators 57 3.5.2. Methods of Boundary Element and Diffraction 58 3.5.3. Investigations for Computational Fluid Dynamics 60 3.6. Summary 65 Chapter 4.The Comparative evaluation of analysis results 66 4.1. Hydrodynamics 66 4.1.1. Modeling 66 4.1.2. Major findings 75 4.1.3. Importance 75 4.1.4. Limitations 75 4.2. Time-domain modeling 76 4.2.1. Time-Domain Modeling Main Findings 76 4.2.2. The time-domain modeling Importance 77 4.2.3. Limitations 78 4.3. Computational fluid dynamics 80 4.4. Fluent Results 84 Chapter 5.Discussion 89 5.1. Discussions 89 Chapter 6.Conclusions 95 6.1. Numerical Wave Tank NWT 95 6.2. Parametric Simulations of the OWC 96 6.3. Practical Modeling of the OWC 97 6.4. Limitations 98 Acknowledgment 100 References 100Docto

Thermal Conductivity, Thermal Diffusivity and Specific Heat Of Se98 In2-χSnχ (χ=0,0.5,1,1.5) Semiconducting Glasses

Measurements of thermal conductivity (λ) and thermal diffusivity (χ) of Se98 In2-χSnχ(χ=0,0.5,1,1.5) semiconducting glasses have been presented in this paper. The measured values of both λ and χ have been used to determine the specific heat per unit volume (pcp) of these glasses and in the Composition range of investigation. Both λ and χ are found to increase systematically with the addition of Sn. This compositional dependence behavior of λ and χ is attributed to the replacements of the original structural units by Se-Sn units. These new structural units increase the cohesive energy of the system and account for the observed increase in λ and χ. The type of bond, iono-covalent, which Sn makes with Se as it is incorporated in Se-In-Sn glass, is in support of our results

Fractional Fokker-Planck Equations for Subdiffusion with Space-and-Time-Dependent Forces

We have derived a fractional Fokker-Planck equation for subdiffusion in a general space-and- time-dependent force field from power law waiting time continuous time random walks biased by Boltzmann weights. The governing equation is derived from a generalized master equation and is shown to be equivalent to a subordinated stochastic Langevin equation.Comment: 5 page

Crystallization Mechanism and Thermal Stability of Se98 In2-χ Snχ (χ=0.0.5,1,1.5) Semiconducting Glasses

Results of Differential Scanning Calorimeter (DSC) under non isothermal condition on Se98 In2-χ Snχ (χ=0.0.5,1,1.5) chalcogenide glasses have been reported and discussed. ln the glassy region, the dependence of the glass transition temperature Tg on the heating rate or obey a power law, Tg=To{ɑ}ʏ ,and the glass transition activation energy decreases with the addition of Sn. The crystal growth kinetics has been investigated using Kissinger, Gao et.al, and Ozawa equations. Results indicate that the crystallization activation energy decreases and the crystallization ability is retarded, due to the formation of cross-linked structure, with the addition of Sn. Besides to that the crystal growth is found to occur in 2-dimensions. Investigation of thermal stability through the calculations of the temperature difference TC-Tg, S-parameter, Hruby number, crystallization rate factor and the enthalpy released during the crystallization process, indicates that Se98 In0.5 Sn1.5 glass is thermally most stable in the composition range of stud

Artifact Rejection Methodology Enables Continuous, Noninvasive Measurement of Gastric Myoelectric Activity in Ambulatory Subjects.

The increasing prevalence of functional and motility gastrointestinal (GI) disorders is at odds with bottlenecks in their diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up. Lack of noninvasive approaches means that only specialized centers can perform objective assessment procedures. Abnormal GI muscular activity, which is coordinated by electrical slow-waves, may play a key role in symptoms. As such, the electrogastrogram (EGG), a noninvasive means to continuously monitor gastric electrical activity, can be used to inform diagnoses over broader populations. However, it is seldom used due to technical issues: inconsistent results from single-channel measurements and signal artifacts that make interpretation difficult and limit prolonged monitoring. Here, we overcome these limitations with a wearable multi-channel system and artifact removal signal processing methods. Our approach yields an increase of 0.56 in the mean correlation coefficient between EGG and the clinical "gold standard", gastric manometry, across 11 subjects (p < 0.001). We also demonstrate this system's usage for ambulatory monitoring, which reveals myoelectric dynamics in response to meals akin to gastric emptying patterns and circadian-related oscillations. Our approach is noninvasive, easy to administer, and has promise to widen the scope of populations with GI disorders for which clinicians can screen patients, diagnose disorders, and refine treatments objectively