Bilateral congenatal renal arteriovenous malformation: a rare entity with uncommon presentation

Renal arteriovenous malformation (AVM) is a rare congenital anomaly of the urinary system. We present a patient with bilateral renal AVMs who presented with back pain and microscopic hematuria. This case highlights the importance of careful diagnostic work-up in the evaluation of upper tract hematuria

Development of a user-adaptable human fall detection based on fall risk levels using depth sensor

Unintentional falls are a major public health concern for many communities, especially with aging populations. There are various approaches used to classify human activities for fall detection. Related studies have employed wearable, non-invasive sensors, video cameras and depth sensor-based approaches to develop such monitoring systems. The proposed approach in this study uses a depth sensor and employs a unique procedure which identifies the fall risk levels to adapt the algorithm for different people with their physical strength to withstand falls. The inclusion of the fall risk level identification, further enhanced and improved the accuracy of the fall detection. The experimental results showed promising performance in adapting the algorithm for people with different fall risk levels for fall detection

EFFECT OF ZANJABĪL (ZINGIBER OFFICINALE) IN NON-ALCOHOLIC FATTY LIVER DISEASE- A RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED TRIAL

Non Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD) is a reversible condition of the liver, wherein large vacuoles of triglyceride fat accumulates in liver cells via the process of steatosis, despite any evidence of excessive alcohol consumption. In view of present scenario of high prevalence and limited treatment options, this study was conducted to assess the effect of Murabba-i- Zanjabīl in NAFLD. Present study was designed as a randomized placebo controlled trial with 30 patients in test group and 10 patients in control group. Participants in test group were administered with Murabba-i- Zanjabīl, 5 gm twice daily, 30 minutes before food for 45 days and those in control group were given 1 capsule of 500 mg each containing wheat flour twice daily, 30 minutes before food for 45 days. All the participants were asked to follow up at every 15 days for assessment of subjective parameters. Objective parameter was assessed before and after the trial period. On statistical analysis the test formulation showed significant reduction in scores (p<0.05) for most of the parameters on both inter and intra group analysis, while the reduction in control group was not found to be statistically significant (p.0.05). This study lays out that Murabbā-i Zanjabīl in a dose of 5gm twice daily given for 45 days is more effective than placebo in treating NAFLD. There was no adverse effect reported during the trial. It was thus concluded that Murabbā-i Zanjabīl is effective and safe in therapeutic management of NAFLD

Effect of Crystallization Conditions on the Metastable Zone Width and Nucleation Kinetics of p ‐Aminobenzoic Acid in Ethanol

A detailed knowledge of the metastable zone width (MSZW) and nucleation kinetics is vital for the design of batch cooling crystallization processes. Factors such as cooling rate and impeller speed affect the MSZW and nucleation kinetics. Crystallization and dissolution temperatures were measured as a function of cooling rate and impeller speed during the batch cooling crystallization of p ‐aminobenzoic acid (pABA) from ethanol in a 0.5‐L stirred‐tank crystallizer. The polythermal experimental data were analyzed using the Nyvlt and first principles‐based Kashchiev‐Borissova‐Hammond‐Roberts (KBHR) methods. In all experimental cases, the latter model revealed that the nucleation process of pABA in ethanol was dominated by an instantaneous nucleation mechanism. The Nyvlt and KBHR analyses delivered a range of parameter values associated with a power‐law model describing the nucleation rate as well as the concentration of nuclei

Lipid lowering and anti-atherosclerotic properties of Tinospora crispa aqueous extract on high-cholesterol diet-induced hyperlipidemic rabbits

This study was aimed to investigate the hypocholestrolemic and anti-atherosclerotic properties of Tinospora crispa aqueous extract (TCAE) on rabbits for 10  weeks. The hyperlipidemic rabbits were induced and the rabbit were given different concentration of TCAE (200, 450 and 600 mg/kg). Results from lipid analysis  show that the level of total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG) and LDL-C on the hyperlipidemic rabbits were reduced with the treatment of TCAE while HDL level  was elevated. Through plasma analysis, the activity of gamma glutamyl transferase (GGT) and alkaline phosphates (ALP) were also reduced with the treatment of  TCAE compared to hyperlipidemia group. All group of rabbits tested with TCAE again had significantly higher (p < 0.05) total  antioxidant status (TAS), glutathione  peroxidase (GPx) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activities. Among the concentrations of TCAE tested, medium dose showed more potent effect in reducing blood  serum TC, TG and LDL-C levels and increasing HDL-C level compared to low and high dosages counterparts. No foam cell formation was visible in aorta of rabbits treated with TCAE in dose dependent manner. However, there was visible foam cell formation in the aorta of hyperlipidemia group. In conclusion, this study suggests that supplementation of 450 mg/kg of T. crispa extract would be able to reduce or retard the progression of atherosclerotic plaque development induced by dietary cholesterol.Key words: Hypocholesterolemia, Tinospora crispa, anti-atherosclerotic properties, cardiovascular diseases

Antepartum fetal heart rate feature extraction and classification using empirical mode decomposition and support vector machine

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Cardiotocography (CTG) is the most widely used tool for fetal surveillance. The visual analysis of fetal heart rate (FHR) traces largely depends on the expertise and experience of the clinician involved. Several approaches have been proposed for the effective interpretation of FHR. In this paper, a new approach for FHR feature extraction based on empirical mode decomposition (EMD) is proposed, which was used along with support vector machine (SVM) for the classification of FHR recordings as 'normal' or 'at risk'.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The FHR were recorded from 15 subjects at a sampling rate of 4 Hz and a dataset consisting of 90 randomly selected records of 20 minutes duration was formed from these. All records were labelled as 'normal' or 'at risk' by two experienced obstetricians. A training set was formed by 60 records, the remaining 30 left as the testing set. The standard deviations of the EMD components are input as features to a support vector machine (SVM) to classify FHR samples.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>For the training set, a five-fold cross validation test resulted in an accuracy of 86% whereas the overall geometric mean of sensitivity and specificity was 94.8%. The Kappa value for the training set was .923. Application of the proposed method to the testing set (30 records) resulted in a geometric mean of 81.5%. The Kappa value for the testing set was .684.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Based on the overall performance of the system it can be stated that the proposed methodology is a promising new approach for the feature extraction and classification of FHR signals.</p

Effect of Addition of Palm Oil Biodiesel in Waste Plastic Oil on Diesel Engine Performance, Emission, and Lubricity.

This research was aimed to examine the diesel engine's performance and emission of secondary fuels (SFs), comprising waste plastic oil (WPO) and palm oil biodiesel (POB), and to analyze their tribological properties. Their compositions were analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Five SFs (10-50% POB in WPO) were prepared by mechanical stirring. The results were compared to blank WPO (WPO100) and Malaysian commercial diesel (B10). WPO90 showed the maximum brake power (BP) and brake torque (BT) among the SFs, and their values were 0.52 and 0.59% higher compared to B10, respectively. The increase in POB ratio (20-50%) showed a negligible difference in BP and BT. WPO70 showed the lowest brake-specific fuel consumption among the SFs. The brake thermal efficiency (BTE) increased with POB composition. The maximum reductions in emission of hydrocarbon (HC, 37.21%) and carbon monoxide (CO, 27.10%) were achieved by WPO50 among the SFs. WPO90 showed the maximum reduction in CO2 emission (6.78%). Increasing the POB composition reduced the CO emissions and increased the CO2 emissions. All SFs showed a higher coefficient of friction (COF) than WPO100. WPO50 showed the minimal increase in COF of 2.45%. WPO90 showed the maximum reduction in wear scar diameter (WSD), by 10.34%, compared to B10. Among the secondary contaminated samples, SAE40-WPO90 showed the lowest COF, with 5.98% reduction compared to SAE40-WPO100. However, with increasing POB content in the secondary contaminated samples, the COF increased. The same trend was also observed in their WSD. Overall, WPO90 is the optimal SF with excellent potential for diesel engines

Evaluation on the Preference of Coffee Shop among the Undergraduate Students with Analytic Hierarchy Process Model

Emergence of coffee shop in recent years has proven the demand of coffee shop in modern lifestyle. Nowadays, visitation to coffee shop has become a common trend for most of the undergraduate students for group discussion or chatting. This study aims to evaluate the preference of undergraduate students from Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman in selecting the coffee shop based on multiple criteria. There are 19 respondents participating in this study who have visited all the 4 selected coffee shops which are Simple Coffee, Bean Caf, Starbucks and Old Town White Coffee. An Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) model is proposed to determine the weight of criteria, priority of coffee shop selection in terms of each criterion and the overall performance of the coffee shop. The findings show that the most important criterion is cleanliness, followed by flavor, store atmosphere, sales promotion, speed of service, price and location. Starbucks is the most preferred coffee shop while the followings are Simple Coffee, Bean Caf and Old Town White Coffee. The significance of this study is to propose a conceptual framework to identify the most preferred coffee shop and the most important criteria in coffee shop selection among the undergraduate students by using AHP model

Zinc oxide nanoparticles selectively induce apoptosis in human cancer cells through reactive oxygen species

Mohd Javed Akhtar1,2, Maqusood Ahamed3, Sudhir Kumar1, MA Majeed Khan3, Javed Ahmad4, Salman A Alrokayan31Department of Zoology, University of Lucknow, Lucknow, India; 2Fibre Toxicology Division, CSIR-Indian Institute of Toxicology Research, Lucknow, India; 3King Abdullah Institute for Nanotechnology, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; 4Department of Zoology, College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi ArabiaBackground: Zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) have received much attention for their implications in cancer therapy. It has been reported that ZnO NPs induce selective killing of cancer cells. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms behind the anticancer response of ZnO NPs remain unclear.Methods and results: We investigated the cytotoxicity of ZnO NPs against three types of cancer cells (human hepatocellular carcinoma HepG2, human lung adenocarcinoma A549, and human bronchial epithelial BEAS-2B) and two primary rat cells (astrocytes and hepatocytes). Results showed that ZnO NPs exert distinct effects on mammalian cell viability via killing of all three types of cancer cells while posing no impact on normal rat astrocytes and hepatocytes. The toxicity mechanisms of ZnO NPs were further investigated using human liver cancer HepG2 cells. Both the mRNA and protein levels of tumor suppressor gene p53 and apoptotic gene bax were upregulated while the antiapoptotic gene bcl-2 was downregulated in ZnO NP-treated HepG2 cells. ZnO NPs were also found to induce activity of caspase-3 enzyme, DNA fragmentation, reactive oxygen species generation, and oxidative stress in HepG2 cells.Conclusion: Overall, our data demonstrated that ZnO NPs selectively induce apoptosis in cancer cells, which is likely to be mediated by reactive oxygen species via p53 pathway, through which most of the anticancer drugs trigger apoptosis. This study provides preliminary guidance for the development of liver cancer therapy using ZnO NPs.Keywords: ZnO nanoparticles, cancer therapy, p53, apoptosis, RO