Problems and prospects of application and utilization of Automated Teller Machine (ATM) in rural transaction in a Covid-19 era

The paper investigated the effects of Automated Teller Machine (ATM) on rural transaction during the Covid-19 pandemic and how it affects the society in relation to transaction activities. Despite the increasing number of ATM installations across the country, the rural areas severally lack such facilities. Customers’ service needs are not adequately met as customers are always seen on long queue in large numbers at various ATM selected centres mostly in the cities with poor service delivery of the ATM machine at it centres. The spread of the virus and death tolls occasioned by the pandemic can be minimize towards cashless method through adopting cashless society policy

Geographies of imagination: why decolonizing Polish children’s classics matters

This article examines the iconography of blackness in the book covers of early Polish children’s literature. In doing so, it draws attention to textual practices that consciously or unconsciously reproduce the long-existing Eurocentric colonial/racial imaginaries of Africa and its people. This literature often depicts the inferiority of illustrated Black bodies, whilst highlighting the superiority of whiteness and Europeanness, as part of the global colonial/racial order. Such cultural productions, which contribute to the reproduction and dissemination of contemporary racism, are intertwined with the everyday experiences of people of colour in Poland

Quantifying non-Gaussianity for quantum information

We address the quantification of non-Gaussianity of states and operations in continuous-variable systems and its use in quantum information. We start by illustrating in details the properties and the relationships of two recently proposed measures of non-Gaussianity based on the Hilbert-Schmidt (HS) distance and the quantum relative entropy (QRE) between the state under examination and a reference Gaussian state. We then evaluate the non-Gaussianities of several families of non-Gaussian quantum states and show that the two measures have the same basic properties and also share the same qualitative behaviour on most of the examples taken into account. However, we also show that they introduce a different relation of order, i.e. they are not strictly monotone each other. We exploit the non-Gaussianity measures for states in order to introduce a measure of non-Gaussianity for quantum operations, to assess Gaussification and de-Gaussification protocols, and to investigate in details the role played by non-Gaussianity in entanglement distillation protocols. Besides, we exploit the QRE-based non-Gaussianity measure to provide new insight on the extremality of Gaussian states for some entropic quantities such as conditional entropy, mutual information and the Holevo bound. We also deal with parameter estimation and present a theorem connecting the QRE nonG to the quantum Fisher information. Finally, since evaluation of the QRE nonG measure requires the knowledge of the full density matrix, we derive some {\em experimentally friendly} lower bounds to nonG for some class of states and by considering the possibility to perform on the states only certain efficient or inefficient measurements.Comment: 22 pages, 13 figures, comments welcome. v2: typos corrected and references added. v3: minor corrections (more similar to published version

Prostacyclin Promotes Degenerative Pathology in a Model of Alzheimer’s Disease

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder that is the most common form of dementia in aged populations. A substantial amount of data demonstrates that chronic neuroinflammation can accelerate neurodegenerative pathologies. In AD, chronic neuroinflammation results in the upregulation of cyclooxygenase and increased production of prostaglandin H2, a precursor for many vasoactive prostanoids. While it is well-established that many prostaglandins can modulate the progression of neurodegenerative disorders, the role of prostacyclin (PGI2) in the brain is poorly understood. We have conducted studies to assess the effect of elevated prostacyclin biosynthesis in a mouse model of AD. Upregulated prostacyclin expression significantly worsened multiple measures associated with amyloid-β (Aβ) disease pathologies. Mice overexpressing both Aβ and PGI2 exhibited impaired learning and memory and increased anxiety-like behavior compared with non-transgenic and PGI2 control mice. PGI2 overexpression accelerated the development of Aβ accumulation in the brain and selectively increased the production of soluble Aβ42. PGI2 damaged the microvasculature through alterations in vascular length and branching; Aβ expression exacerbated these effects. Our findings demonstrate that chronic prostacyclin expression plays a novel and unexpected role that hastens the development of the AD phenotype

Inhibitory action of novel hydrogen sulfide donors on bovine isolated posterior ciliary arteries

This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Experimental Eye Research. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Experiemental Eye Research, Vol. 134, (2015) doi:10.1016/j.exer.2015.04.001.In the present study, we investigate the inhibitory effect of novel H2S donors, AP67 and AP72 on isolated bovine posterior ciliary arteries (PCAs) under conditions of tone induced by an adrenoceptor agonist. Furthermore, we examined the possible mechanisms underlying the AP67- and AP72-induced relaxations. Isolated bovine PCA were set up for measurement of isometric tension in organ baths containing oxygenated Krebs solution. The relaxant action of H2S donors was studied on phenylephrine-induced tone in the absence or presence of enzyme inhibitors for the following pathways: cyclooxygenase (COX); H2S; nitric oxide and the ATP-sensitive K(+) (KATP) channel. The H2S donors, NaHS (1 nM - 10 μM), AP67 (1 nM - 10 μM) and AP72 (10 nM - 1 μM) elicited a concentration-dependent relaxation of phenylephrine-induced tone in isolated bovine PCA. While the COX inhibitor, flurbiprofen (3 μM) blocked significantly (p < 0.05) the inhibitory response elicited by AP67, it had no effect on relaxations induced by NaHS and AP72. Both aminooxyacetic acid (30 μM) and propargylglycine (1 mM), enzyme inhibitors of H2S biosynthesis caused significant (p < 0.05) rightward shifts in the concentration-response curve to AP67 and AP72. Furthermore, the KATP channel antagonist, glibenclamide (300 μM) and the NO synthase inhibitor, l-NAME (100 μM) significantly attenuated (p < 0.05) the relaxation effect induced by AP67 and AP72 on PCA. We conclude that H2S donors can relax pre-contracted isolated bovine PCA, an effect dependent on endogenous production of H2S. The inhibitory action of only AP67 on pre-contracted PCA may involve the production of inhibitory endogenous prostanoids. Furthermore, the observed inhibitory action of H2S donors on PCA may depend on the endogenous biosynthesis of NO and by an action of KATP channels.National Institutes of Health/National Eye Institute Gran

TGF-beta(2)- and H2O2-Induced Biological Changes in Optic Nerve Head Astrocytes Are Reduced by the Antioxidant Alpha-Lipoic Acid

Background/Aims: The goal of the present study was to determine whether transforming growth factor-beta(2) (TGF-beta(2))- and oxidative stress-induced cellular changes in cultured human optic nerve head (ONH) astrocytes could be reduced by pretreatment with the antioxidant alpha-lipoic acid (LA). Methods: Cultured ONH astrocytes were treated with 1.0 ng/ml TGF-beta(2) for 24 h or 200 mu M hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) for 1 h. Lipid peroxidation was measured by a decrease in cis-pari-naric acid fluorescence. Additionally, cells were pretreated with different concentrations of LA before TGF-beta 2 or H2O2 exposure. Expressions of the heat shock protein (Hsp) alpha B-crystallin and Hsp27, the extracellular matrix (ECM) component fibronectin and the ECM-modulating protein connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) were examined with immunohistochemistry and real-time PCR analysis. Results: Both TGF-beta(2) and H2O2 increased lipid peroxidation. Treatment of astrocytes with TGF-beta(2) and H2O2 upregulated the expression of alpha B-crystallin, Hsp27, fibronectin and CTGF. Pretreatment with different concentrations of LA reduced the TGF-beta(2)- and H2O2-stimulated gene expressions. Conclusion: We showed that TGF-beta(2)- and H2O2-stimulated gene expressions could be prevented by pretreatment with the antioxidant LA in cultured human ONH astrocytes. Therefore, it is tempting to speculate that the use of antioxidants could have protective effects in glaucomatous optic neuropathy. Copyright (C) 2012 S. Karger AG, Base

Creating Acceptable Tablets 3D (CAT 3D): A Feasibility Study to Evaluate the Acceptability of 3D Printed Tablets in Children and Young People

3D printing (3DP) has been proposed as a novel approach for personalising dosage forms for children and young people (CYP). Owing to its low cost and the lack of need for finishing steps, fused deposing modelling (FDM) 3DP has been heavily researched in solid dosage forms (SDFs) manufacturing. However, the swallowability and overall acceptability of 3D printed dosage forms are yet to be established. This work is the first to evaluate the acceptability of different sized 3D printed placebo SDFs in CYP (aged 4–12 years). All participants had previously participated in a feasibility study (CAT study) that assessed the swallowability and acceptability of different sized GMP manufactured placebo conventional film-coated tablets, and therefore only attempted to swallow one 3D printed tablet. The participants assessed the swallowability, acceptability, mouthfeel, volume of water consumed, and taste of the sample using a 5-point hedonic facial scale on a partic-ipant questionnaire. A total of 30 participants were recruited, 87% of whom successfully swallowed the 3D printed tablet that they attempted to take. Attributes of the 3D printed tablets were scored as acceptable by the following percentage of participants—swallowability (80%), mouthfeel/texture (87%), the volume of water consumed (80%), taste (93%), and overall acceptability (83%). Overall, 77% of children reported they would be happy to take the tablet every day if it was a medicine. Participants were also asked which tablets felt better in the mouth—the film-coated tablets or the 3D printed tablets, and the most popular response (43%) was that both were acceptable. This study shows that FDM-based 3D printed SDFs may be a suitable dosage form for children aged 4–12 years. The results from this feasibility study will be used to inform a larger, definitive study looking at the acceptability of 3D printed tablets in children

Mitochondrial DNA Polymorphism A4917G Is Independently Associated with Age-Related Macular Degeneration

The objective of this study was to determine if MTND2*LHON4917G (4917G), a specific non-synonymous polymorphism in the mitochondrial genome previously associated with neurodegenerative phenotypes, is associated with increased risk for age-related macular degeneration (AMD). A preliminary study of 393 individuals (293 cases and 100 controls) ascertained at Vanderbilt revealed an increased occurrence of 4917G in cases compared to controls (15.4% vs.9.0%, p = 0.11). Since there was a significant age difference between cases and controls in this initial analysis, we extended the study by selecting Caucasian pairs matched at the exact age at examination. From the 1547 individuals in the Vanderbilt/Duke AMD population association study (including 157 in the preliminary study), we were able to match 560 (280 cases and 280 unaffected) on exact age at examination. This study population was genotyped for 4917G plus specific AMD-associated nuclear genome polymorphisms in CFH, LOC387715 and ApoE. Following adjustment for the listed nuclear genome polymorphisms, 4917G independently predicts the presence of AMD (OR = 2.16, 95%CI 1.20–3.91, p = 0.01). In conclusion, a specific mitochondrial polymorphism previously implicated in other neurodegenerative phenotypes (4917G) appears to convey risk for AMD independent of recently discovered nuclear DNA polymorphisms

Does Glycine max leaves or Garcinia Cambogia promote weight-loss or lower plasma cholesterol in overweight individuals: a randomized control trial

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Natural food supplements with high flavonoid content are often claimed to promote weight-loss and lower plasma cholesterol in animal studies, but human studies have been more equivocal. The aim of this study was firstly to determine the effectiveness of natural food supplements containing <it>Glycine max </it>leaves extract (EGML) or <it>Garcinia cambogia </it>extract (GCE) to promote weight-loss and lower plasma cholesterol. Secondly to examine whether these supplements have any beneficial effect on lipid, adipocytokine or antioxidant profiles.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Eighty-six overweight subjects (Male:Female = 46:40, age: 20~50 yr, BMI > 23 < 29) were randomly assigned to three groups and administered tablets containing EGML (2 g/day), GCE (2 g/day) or placebo (starch, 2 g/day) for 10 weeks. At baseline and after 10 weeks, body composition, plasma cholesterol and diet were assessed. Blood analysis was also conducted to examine plasma lipoproteins, triglycerides, adipocytokines and antioxidants.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>EGML and GCE supplementation failed to promote weight-loss or any clinically significant change in %body fat. The EGML group had lower total cholesterol after 10 weeks compared to the placebo group (p < 0.05). EGML and GCE had no effect on triglycerides, non-HDL-C, adipocytokines or antioxidants when compared to placebo supplementation. However, HDL-C was higher in the EGML group (p < 0.001) after 10 weeks compared to the placebo group.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Ten weeks of EGML or GCE supplementation did not promote weight-loss or lower total cholesterol in overweight individuals consuming their habitual diet. Although, EGML did increase plasma HDL-C levels which is associated with a lower risk of atherosclerosis.</p