Radioprotective and anti-diabetic effects of Costus speciosus and carnosine

Purpose: To evaluate the possible radioprotective effect of Costus speciosus and carnosine as natural antioxidants in order to control the  hyperglycemia developed in male albino rats exposed to acute oxidative stress induced by gamma radiation. Methods: Twenty-eight adult male albino rats were divided into four groups. The first group was taken as a control group, while the three other groups were exposed to Ɣ irradiation at a single 7.5 Gy dose. Furthermore, the rats in the second and third groups were i.p. injected with Costus speciosus root powder and carnosine, respectively. On the 3rd day, after irradiation, the serum levels of glucose, insulin, C peptide, copper, iron, calcium, total antioxidant capacity (TAC) and malondialdehyde (MDA) were measureded. Results: The results revealed that exposure to Ɣ irradiation induced significant increases in serum glucose, iron, and malondialdehyde. However, the levels of serum calcium, copper, total antioxidant capacity and insulin significantly decreased (p < 0.05). A significant decrease was observed in Cpeptide in the exposed group, compared to control group. All the test parameters indicate improvement after treatment with Costus speciosus and carnosine (p < 0.05). Conclusion: Costus speciosus and carnosine ameliorate the effect of gamma radiation, indicating their role as antidiabetic agents and  radioprotectors; however, Costus speciosus was critically more efficient than carnosine. Keywords: Costus speciosus, Carnosine, Diabetes, Insulin, Gamma radiation protectio

An examination of the relationship between acculturation, Islamic religious practice, and academic performance among Saudi Arabian students in the United States

Recent data have indicated that universities in the United States (U.S.) host as many as 21,933 students from Saudi Arabia, making Saudi Arabia one of the top four countries for international students attending U.S. universities. Several research studies have indicated that religiosity and acculturation influence student’s performance. However, there is a scarcity of studies that assessed the relationships among acculturation, religious practices, and the academic performances among Saudi Arabian students in the U.S. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship among acculturation, religiosity, and academic performance among Saudi Arabian students in the United States. This study was a cross-sectional quantitative survey design with a sample of 393 Saudi students enrolled in U.S. universities. Islamic religious practices and beliefs were measured by the Religiosity of Islam Scale, whereas acculturation was measured by the Vancouver Index of Acculturation. The findings of this study indicate that the overall mean GPA was 3.56, and female students had significantly higher overall GPA than male students. The results show that there was a statistically significant, weak positive relationship between religious practices and academic performance, and a significant, weak negative relationships between acculturation heritage and religious practices and beliefs. The study findings also indicate that religious practice and gender were significant predictor of academic performance. Other factors, such as religious beliefs and acculturation were not predictors of academic performance. Keywords: Religiosity, Saudi Arabia, Academic Performance, Acculturatio

CYTOTOXIC ACTIVITY OF ALKALOID EXTRACTS OF DIFFERENT PLANTS AGAINST BREAST CANCER CELL LINE

Objectives: To study in vitro cytotoxic activity of total alkaloid extracts of Pinus sabiniana L., Phoenix dactylifera L. and Ferocactus sp. L. against breast cancer cell line Michigan Cancer Foundation-7 (MCF-7) and non-tumorigenic fetal hepatic cell line (WRL-68). Methods: Plant powder of each P. sabiniana L. leaves, P. dactylifera L. pollen grains, and Ferocactus sp. L. The leaves were extracted separately with 80% methanol, chloroform at pH 2 and pH 10 and the chloroform portion was dried to obtain the total alkaloid extracts. The total alkaloids were detected qualitatively by Mayer's, Dragendorff's and Hager's reagents and estimated quantitatively by bromocresol green spectrophotometry depending on the atropine calibration curve. The cytotoxic activity was evaluated by 3-[4, 5-dimethylthiazoyl]-2, 5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide assay. Results: The extract of P. sabiniana L. had highest total alkaloid content (164.62±2.8 mg/100 g dry weight of plant) than the other plants (P. dactylifera l., Ferocactus sp. L.), the total alkaloids of Ferocactus sp. L. and P. dactylifera L., reduced the cell viability of both cell lines, the highest reduction occurred in the concentration 400 μg/ml was 46±2.20% (MCF-7) and 56.2±2.2% (WRL-68) for Ferocactus sp. L., followed by 56.2±2.2% (MCF-7) and 57.5±3.2% (WRL-68) for P. dactylifera L. The alkaloids of P. sabiniana was very lower effects on both cell lines MCF-7, and WRL-68 was 89.3±3.44% and 90.16±2.7%, respectively, at the same concentration. Conclusion: Plant alkaloids had variable effects against cancer and normal cell lines depending on the type of alkaloid compounds and their concentration in the extract

Magnetic and Optical properties of strained films of multiferroic GdMnO3

The effects of strain on a film of mulitferroic GdMnO3 are investigated using both magnetometry and magneto-optic spectroscopy. Optical spectra, in the energy range 1.5eV - 3.5eV, were taken in Faraday geometry in an applied magnetic field and also at remanence. This yielded rich information on the effects of strain on the spin ordering in these films. Epitaxial films of GdMnO3 were grown on SrTiO3 and LaAlO3 substrates. The LaAlO3 was twinned and so produced a highly strained film whereas the strain was less for the film grown on SrTiO3. The Ne\'el temperatures and coercive fields were measured using zero field data and hysteresis loops obtained using a SQUID magnetometer. Optical absorption data agreed with earlier work on bulk materials. The two well known features in the optical spectrum, the charge transfer transition between Mn d states at ~2eV and the band edge transition from the oxygen p band to the d states at ~3eV are observed in the magnetic circular dichroism; however they behaved very differently both as a function of magnetic field and temperature. This is interpreted in terms of the magnetic ordering of the Mn spins.Comment: 9 pages of text including figure

On Using Magnetic and optical methods to determine the size and characteristics of nanoparticles embedded in oxide semiconductors

Films of oxides doped with transition metals are frequently believed to have magnetic inclusions. Magnetic methods to determine the amount of nanophases and their magnetic characteristics are described. The amount of the sample that is paramagnetic may also be measured. Optical methods are described and shown to be very powerful to determine which defects are also magnetic.Comment: Manuscript of poster to be presented at MMM-Intermag 2010. Accepted for publication in Magnetic Trans of IEE

New accessory palatine canals and foramina in cone beam computed tomography

Background: Palatal surgeries are associated with many complications. Accessory foramina may be a cause of concern.  The present study was conducted to assess the presence of and to evaluate the anatomical characteristics of accessory palatine foramina and related bony canals in cone beam CT scans. Materials and methods: The incidence, location, and types of foramina on the palate were evaluated in 170 CBCT scans.  Readings from coronal, sagittal, and axial planes were recorded using a computer program and evaluated. Results: Other than nasopalatine, greater and lesser palatine foramina, 278 foramina were seen in the palate in different locations. New accessory palatine foramina were found posteriorly in 14.71% of the studied scans with wide anatomical variations. Unusual foraminal canals were seen crossing the antral floor laterally. The anterior accessory palatine foramina were seen in 73.53% of scans while bilateral accessory palatine foramina were found in 43.53% of cases. Conclusions: Accessory palatine foramina and related canals are frequently seen in CBCT with many anatomical variations. New unusual connecting canals are found passing through the antral floor from palatine foramina to the lateral antral wall. These anatomical structures should be considered in preoperative planning for local analgesia and surgical interventions in the palate

Magneto-optical properties of Co/ZnO multilayer films

Multilayer films of ZnO with Co were deposited on glass substrates then annealed in a vacuum. The magnetisation of the films increased with annealing but not the magnitude of the magneto-optical signals. The dielectric functions for the films were calculated using the MCD spectra. A Maxwell Garnett theory of a metallic Co/ZnO mixture is presented. The extent to which this explains the MCD spectra taken on the films is discussed.Comment: This paper was presented at ICM (2009) and is accepted in this form for the proceeding

Angulated Dental Implants in Posterior Maxilla FEA and Experimental Verification

AIM: This study aimed to evaluate the effect of different implant angulations in posterior maxilla on stress distribution by finite element analysis and verify its results experimentally.METHODS: Two simplified models were prepared for an implant placed vertically and tilted 25° piercing the maxillary sinus. Geometric models' components were prepared by Autodesk Inventor then assembled in ANSYS for finite element analysis. The results of finite element analysis were verified against experimental trials results which were statistically analysed using student t-test (level of significance p < 0.05).RESULTS: Implant - abutment complex absorbed the load energy in case of vertical implant better than the case of angulated one. That was reflected on cortical bone stress, while both cases showed stress levels within the physiological limits. Comparing results between FEA and experiment trials showed full agreement.CONCLUSION: It was found that the tilted implant by 25° can be utilised in the posterior region maxilla for replacing maxillary first molar avoiding sinus penetration. The implant-bone interface and peri-implant bones received the highest Von Mises stress. Implant - bone interface with angulated implant received about 66% more stresses than the straight one

The cell cooling coefficient: A standard to define heatrejection from lithium-ion batteries

Lithium-ion battery development is conventionally driven by energy and power density targets, yet the performance of a lithium-ion battery pack is often restricted by its heat rejection capabilities. It is therefore common to observe elevated cell temperatures and large internal thermal gradients which, given that impedance is a function of temperature, induce large current inhomogeneities and accelerate cell-level degradation. Battery thermal performance must be better quantified to resolve this limitation, but anisotropic thermal conductivity and uneven internal heat generation rates render conventional heat rejection measures, such as the Biot number, unsuitable. The Cell Cooling Coefficient (CCC) is introduced as a new metric which quantifies the rate of heat rejection. The CCC (units W.K−1) is constant for a given cell and thermal management method and is therefore ideal for comparing the thermal performance of different cell designs and form factors. By enhancing knowledge of pack-wide heat rejection, uptake of the CCC will also reduce the risk of thermal runaway. The CCC is presented as an essential tool to inform the cell down-selection process in the initial design phases, based solely on their thermal bottlenecks. This simple methodology has the potential to revolutionise the lithium-ion battery industry

Reduced-rank technique for joint channel estimation in TD-SCDMA systems.

In time division-synchronous code division multiple access systems, the channel estimation for multiple subscribers requires the computation of very complicated algorithms through short training sequences. This situation causes mismodeling of the actual channels and introduces significant errors in the detected data of multiple users. This paper presents a novel channel estimation method with low complexity, which relies on reducing the rank order of the total channel matrix H. We exploit the rank deficient of H to reduce the number of parameters that characterizes this matrix. The adopted reduced rank technique is based on singular value decomposition algorithm. Equations for reduced rank-joint channel estimation (JCE) are derived and compared against traditional full rank-joint channel estimators: least square (LS) or Steiner, enhanced LS, and minimum mean square error algorithms. Simulation results of the normalized mean square error for the above mentioned estimators showed the superiority of reduced rank estimators. Multi-user joint data detectors based linear equalizers are used to suppress inter-symbol interference and mitigate intra-cell multiple access interference. The detectors: zero forcing block linear equalizer and minimum mean square error block linear equalizer algorithms are considered in this paper to recover the data. The results of bit error rate simulation have shown that reduced rank-JCE based detectors have an improvement by 5 dB lower than other traditional full rank-JCE based detectors