Heats of Solution of Uranyl Nitrate Dihydrate in Methanol & Ethanol

823-82

Thermochemical Studies of Diaquodiacetatodioxouranium(VI)

821-82

Said Nursi’s psycho-spiritual therapy for psychological reactions of patients with physical illnesses

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Extrapancreatic actions of incretin-based therapies on bone in diabetes mellitus

Diabetes mellitus is correlated with modifications in bone microarchitectural and mechanical strength, leading to increased bone fragility. The incretin hormones, with a classical effect to increase insulin secretion following food ingestion, are now postulated to have important direct effects on bone. As such, glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) has dual actions on bone cells; enhancing bone�forming activity of osteoblasts and suppressing bone resorption by osteoclasts. The sister incretin of GIP, glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), is also suspected to directly influence bone health in a beneficial manner, although mechanism are less clear at present. The physiological actions of incretins are attenuated by dipeptidyl peptidase (DPP-4) activity and it is speculated that introduction of DPP-4 inhibitor may also positively affect quality of the skeleton. As such, this thesis evaluates the potential beneficial effects of a DPP-4 resistant GIP analogue, namely [D-Ala2 ]GIP, on osteoblastic-derived, SaOS-2 cells, and also preliminary in vivo studies on the impact of genetic deficiencies of GIPRs and GLP-1Rs on bone mineral density and content. Further studies characterised the beneficial effects of incretin-based therapies on metabolic control, bone microstructure and bone mechanical integrity in animal models of pharmacologically-, genetically- and environmentally-induced diabetes. GIP and related stable analogue increased bone-forming biomarkers in SaOS-2 cells and importantly, [D-Ala2 ]GIP was shown to be more potent than native GIP. Knockout mouse studies revealed that both GIPR and GLP-1R signaling are important for optimum bone mass. All diabetic mouse models displayed reduced bone mass, altered bone micromorphology and impairment of bone mechanical strength, similar to the human situation, confirming their appropriateness. The incretin-based therapeutics, [D-Ala2 ]GIP and Liraglutide, in streptozotocin-diabetic significantly increased bone matrix properties, indicating recovery of bone strength at the tissue level. The beneficial effects of administration of [D-Ala2 ]GIP�oxyntomodulin on bone health in db/db mice were more prominent as the Oxm analogue did not only improve bone strength at tissue level, but also at whole-bone level. These modifications were independent of metabolic status. Twice-daily Exendin-4 therapy improved glycaemic control and increased work required to resist bone fracture in high-fat fed mice. It was also established that Sitagliptin had neutral effects on bone microstructure and mechanical strength in high-fat mice. In summary, these data demonstrate the negative impact of diabetes mellitus on normal skeleton development and bone quality. Moreover, this thesis highlights the growing potential of incretin-based therapies for ameliorating bone defects and improving the increased fragility fracture risk associated with diabete

Comparative evaluation of doxofylline and theophylline in patients of mild bronchial asthma

Background: Asthma is common chronic disease worldwide. Methylxanthines has been used in the treatment of asthma. The study was undertaken to compare two Methylxanthines theophylline and doxofylline at doses recommended and commonly used in clinical practice in Mild Bronchial Asthma Patients.Methods: Study was conducted in patients of Mild Bronchial Asthma in TB and chest disease department of a medical college hospital. It was randomized, prospective and open label. A total of 107 patients were divided in two group .Group I was administered 400 mg theophylline SR once daily and group II was administered doxofylline 400 mg twice a day orally. Spirometric variables symptom score, and adverse effects were recorded on day 0, 7 and 21 of therapy. Data were compared and analysed using SPSS version 16.Results: Results of the study showed that there was significant improvement in spirometric variables and clinical symptom score compared to pretreatment values after medication in both groups on 7th and 21st days of treatment. But there was no statistically significant difference between improvement in theophylline and doxofylline groups with respect to spirometric variables and symptom score. There was no significant difference in two groups with respect to side effects (p>0.05).Conclusions: It is concluded in Patients of mild Bronchial Asthma Theophylline and doxofylline improve the spirometric and clinical symptoms and doxofylline has no advantage over theophylline in terms of either efficacy or safety on the doses commonly used in current clinical practice

Herbal drugs: knowledge, attitude and practice of its concurrent use with allopathic drugs, scientific testing and effectiveness in common diseases among educated class

Background: Craving for a holistic approach for healthcare and concern about side effect of the chemically produced drug is increasing interest in herbal medicine. There is a favourable perception about its effectiveness in complete cure of certain diseases. Its regulation, concurrent use with allopathic medicine and scientific testing has always been of concern.Methods: Cross sectional descriptive study was done using predesigned questionnaire among the educated class. Socio-demographic data, attitude and practice about simultaneous use, effectiveness in common disease, scientific testing and regulation of herbal medicine were asked. Also a rating of different system of medicine i.e allopathy, unani, ayurveda, homeopathy was asked.Results: Total completed participants were 120. Across level of education use of herbal medicine was 55% in the last 1 year, 56.7% have used or intend to use herbal along with allopathic and only 18.9 % tell it to treating physician. 50% consider concurrent use as safe, 43% believe it cures completely, 31.7% consider equally effective than allopathic and 95% have not encountered any side effect or allergic reaction with it. A majority did not know about any scientific testing and clinical study of herbal drugs.Conclusions: Herbal medicines have very positive perception. The regulatory authorities are also patronising it in many countries. They are also being used along with allopathic medicine and many times even without knowledge of treating doctor. The perception about herbal medicine is historical based on personal or clinical experiences, mostly lacking with good grade of strength of evidence. There is need to have Level Ia or Ib evidence for their effectiveness and safety

OBE course analysis and learning reflections / Arnida Jahya...[et al.]

This paper aims to share the findings of outcome-based education (OBE) analysis done on Human Resource Development (HRM549) course from the Faculty of Business Management that was conducted in one of the public universities. Generally, the curriculum documentation of an academic program includes written program educational objectives (PEOs) at the program level together with the course information for all courses in the program. Course information is a document that provides the details of the course outcomes, teaching methodology, assessment, details of students learning time (SLT), program outcomes-course outcomes (POs-COs) matrix, taxonomy and soft skills matrix that serve as an official guideline to a lecturer to conduct the course, deliver the learning activities and assessment of the students. This OBE course analysis was done as a part of an assignment for the Certificate of Education program conducted by Institute of Leadership and Quality Management (ILQAM) in 2014. Findings of the analysis on this HRM549 course showed that there were several items were not mapped to the course learning outcomes. Henceforth, it was recommended that the lecturer should identify the key important elements in the course analysis that will guide them to map the course learning outcomes with program educational objectives. In conclusion, doing OBE course analysis provides an insight of how the curriculum of a course is being designed (or formulated) using OBE approach

Effect of seeding time on the formation of gold nanoplates

Metallic nanostructures, such as gold, is very sensitive to the dielectric environment of the materials due to strong dependency of plasmon on shapes and sizes. Thus, its unique properties are very good and can be used as sensing material in plasmonic sensor. This paper reports a study on the surface density on the formation of gold nanoplates with variation of seeding time. The gold nanoplates have been grown on a quartz substrate using seed mediated growth method. In this study, the seeding time was varied from one to three hours and labelled as MP1, MP2 and MP3. The XRD analysis shows two peaks of the diffraction angle occurs at the plane (111) in position ~ 38.2º and plane (200) at ~ 44.20º. Through variation of the seeding time, the optimum surface density is 61.8 % with a total of 43.7 % of the nanoplates shape from sample MP2. The optical absorption spectrum of the sample shows two resonance peaks, ~ 550 nm and 660 nm, which are corresponding to the transverse surface plasmon resonance (t-SPR) and the longitudinal surface plasmon resonance (l-SPR) respectively. Thus, in this study, it is found that the seeding time affected the growth of the gold nanostructures with optimum seeding time of two hours. Longer seeding time caused the growth of stacking nanogold and it is not suitable to be used in sensing application because of its broad and wider optical spectrum

X-Ray Crystallography and Isothermal Titration Calorimetry Studies of the Salmonella Zinc Transporter ZntB

SummaryThe ZntB Zn2+ efflux system is important for maintenance of Zn2+ homeostasis in Enterobacteria. We report crystal structures of ZntB cytoplasmic domains from Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium (StZntB) in dimeric and physiologically relevant homopentameric forms at 2.3 Å and 3.1 Å resolutions, respectively. The funnel-like structure is similar to that of the homologous Thermotoga maritima CorA Mg2+ channel and a Vibrio parahaemolyticus ZntB (VpZntB) soluble domain structure. However, the central α7 helix forming the inner wall of the StZntB funnel is oriented perpendicular to the membrane instead of the marked angle seen in CorA or VpZntB. Consequently, the StZntB funnel pore is cylindrical, not tapered, which may represent an “open” form of the ZntB soluble domain. Our crystal structures and isothermal titration calorimetry data indicate that there are three Zn2+ binding sites in the full-length ZntB, two of which could be involved in Zn2+ transport