EFFICIENCY OF CURCUMIN AND CHITOSAN NANOPARTICLES AGAINST TOXICITY OF POTASSIUM DICHROMATE IN MALE MICE

Objective: The purpose of this work is to examine the protective effect of nanocurcumin and nanochitosan supplementation against potassium dichromate toxicity in male mice. Methods: Male albino mice weighing 25-30 gm were divided into six groups; the first group received saline. Second and third groups were given oral dose of nanocurcumin and nanochitosan respectively for 5 d. Fourth group was injected subcutaneously with a single dose of potassium dichromate for 24 h. Group five and six were administrated nanocurcumin and nanochitosan, respectively prior to potassium dichromate. Animals were anesthetized by ether anesthesia then bone marrow was harvested for chromosomal examination and epididymal sperms were collected for sperm morphology, while Kidneys and testes were collected for western blot and biochemical analysis. Results: Potassium dichromate induced significant (P≤0.05) increase in chromosome and sperm abnormalities as well as testicular and renal MDA, renal MPO, renal contents of IL-18 and IGF-1, testicular contents of caspase 3 and cytosolic cytochrome c, a reduction in testosterone level, and GPx of renal and testicular tissues compared to control group. Pretreatment with both types of nanoparticles showed significant (P≤0.05) mitigation against most alterations induced by potassium dichromate; moreover, nanochitosan gave more significant (P≤0.05) improvement against chromosome and sperm abnormalities than nanocurcumin. Conclusion: The present study revealed that the selected nanoparticles have antioxidant as well as antigenotoxic properties against toxicity of potassium dichromate

Isolation and biochemical characterization of a novel antimicrobial agent produced by Streptomyces violaceusniger isolated from Yemeni soil

Background: Infections caused by multidrug-resistant bacteria present daily challenges to infectious disease physicians in hospitals throughout the world and these pathogens are spreading into the community. The development of new antibacterial agents to combat worsening antibiotic resistance is still a priority area in anti-infective research.Methods: The experiments were carried out to search for new natural antibiotics through isolation of various Streptomyces strains from different soil samples from Yemen and studying the antimicrobial effects of metabolites that produced. In the same time, the toxicological and biochemical effects of the extracted antibiotic on animals were studied.Results: Streptomyces violaceusniger, was isolated from Yemeni soil sample produced active metabolite that was designated faqihmycin has substantial antimicrobial potential against different microbial species. Investigations into the possible mode of action of faqihmycin revealed that it affects cell wall synthesis and intracellular macromolecule contents of the Gram-positive bacteria Bacillus subtilis. Toxicity studies of faqihmycin confirmed the hepatotoxicity of faqihmycin, there is no strong evidence to suggest that it is nephrotoxic.Conclusions: Further studies with Faqihmycin are needed in order to elucidate its detailed mechanism of action on bacterial cells, as well as studies with Faqihmycin with different doses in order to determine its potential therapeutic use.

Assessment of Fences as Noise Barriers: A Case Study in New Cairo, Egypt

Noise levels in Egypt exceed acceptable thresholds due to high population and lack of mandatory sound regulations. According to noise measurements done by “The National Network for Noise Level Measurement in Greater Cairo” most of the areas examined ( main squares, industrial areas, main roads, residential areas, commercial and administrative areas in Cairo governorate)  had shown that noise levels exceeded the standard permissible levels that are identified by the Environmental Law 4/1994 and its executive regulations. Noise levels reached up to 75-85 decibels (dB), which is considered unacceptable as noise levels should not exceed 65 dB during daytime and 55 dB during night due to law number 4/1994. On the other hand, fences are considered a common feature within the Egyptian urban context and are mainly constructed for safety and privacy reasons. This research assesses the effectiveness of existing fences as noise barriers and specifies factors that reduce noise levels. Site measurements and photographs were taken for the fence of a residential compound in new Cairo, where noises arising from surrounding places cause annoyance. MEP services were the main sources of disturbing continuous noise along with social activities and traffic noises. Measurements were performed using TM-102 digital sound level meter. Readings were recorded at various time intervals in front and behind of the fence and noise reduction levels were calculated. Measurements revealed that the fence acts as a good noise barrier and that combined configuration of the fence resulted in the attenuation of noise to acceptable levels

Potentiometric determination of oxybutynin hydrochloride in pharmaceutical formulations at modified carbon paste electrodes

324-332New potentiometric sensitive and selective modified carbon paste (MCPE) electrodes based on ion pair formation between phosphotungestic acid (PTA), sodium tetraphenyl borate (NaTPB), phosphomolybdic acid (PMA) or ammonium reineckate (RN) and oxybutynin hydrochloride (Ox.HCl) has been developed. The proposed electrodes have Nernstian slope values of 58.50±0.71, 58.71±1.20, 54.80±1.30 and 59.20±0.70 mV decade−1 for electrodes modified with 20, 10, 5 and 10 mg of Ox-TPB (electrode I), Ox-RN (electrode II), Ox-PMA (electrode III) and Ox-PTA (electrode IV) ion pairs, respectively. It is found that the dynamic drug concentration range at 25 °C is 1.0×10−5–1.0×10−2 mol L−1. The response of MCPEs is pH independent in the range 2.0–6.0 with a fast response time of 10 s for electrode I and 12 s for electrodes II-IV. These electrodes have good Nernstian response in the temperature range 10–60 °C with slope (isothermal coefficient) equal 0.791×10−3, 0.769×10−3, 0.629×10−3 and 1.277×10−3 V/°C for electrodes I, II , III and IV respectively. These small values indicate the high thermal stability of the electrodes. The MCPEs have shown a relatively long life time of 36 days. A pure and pharmaceutical formulation of Ox.HCl has quantified using calibration and standard addition methods and the obtained results agreed with that of the official HPLC method. Validation parameters have been optimized according to ICH recommendations. Limits of detection and quantification are calculated under the optimized conditions. For the analytical applications, pharmaceutical dose form has performed. Various interferents have been used to investigate the interference in the analytical application and found that the proposed method would be well adopted for real sample analysis

Potentiometric determination of oxybutynin hydrochloride in pharmaceutical formulations at modified carbon paste electrodes

324-332New potentiometric sensitive and selective modified carbon paste (MCPE) electrodes based on ion pair formation between phosphotungestic acid (PTA), sodium tetraphenyl borate (NaTPB), phosphomolybdic acid (PMA) or ammonium reineckate (RN) and oxybutynin hydrochloride (Ox.HCl) has been developed. The proposed electrodes have Nernstian slope values of 58.50±0.71, 58.71±1.20, 54.80±1.30 and 59.20±0.70 mV decade−1 for electrodes modified with 20, 10, 5 and 10 mg of Ox-TPB (electrode I), Ox-RN (electrode II), Ox-PMA (electrode III) and Ox-PTA (electrode IV) ion pairs, respectively. It is found that the dynamic drug concentration range at 25 °C is 1.0×10−5–1.0×10−2 mol L−1. The response of MCPEs is pH independent in the range 2.0–6.0 with a fast response time of 10 s for electrode I and 12 s for electrodes II-IV. These electrodes have good Nernstian response in the temperature range 10–60 °C with slope (isothermal coefficient) equal 0.791×10−3, 0.769×10−3, 0.629×10−3 and 1.277×10−3 V/°C for electrodes I, II , III and IV respectively. These small values indicate the high thermal stability of the electrodes. The MCPEs have shown a relatively long life time of 36 days. A pure and pharmaceutical formulation of Ox.HCl has quantified using calibration and standard addition methods and the obtained results agreed with that of the official HPLC method. Validation parameters have been optimized according to ICH recommendations. Limits of detection and quantification are calculated under the optimized conditions. For the analytical applications, pharmaceutical dose form has performed. Various interferents have been used to investigate the interference in the analytical application and found that the proposed method would be well adopted for real sample analysis

Extra skeletal chondroma a rare presentation in the big toe of a pediatric patient: a case report

Extra-skeletal chondroma is a rare benign tumor of juxta-articular soft tissues rarely seen in pediatric cases. It is formed mainly of hyaline cartilage and presented as a painless swelling. It is not well evident on conventional X-rays radiography. MRI is the preferred diagnostic modality. Surgical excision is the recommended form of treatment for symptomatic cases. We are reporting a case of this rare tumor in the big toe of a child

A novel MapReduce Lift association rule mining algorithm (MRLAR) for Big Data

Big Data mining is an analytic process used to dis-cover the hidden knowledge and patterns from a massive, com-plex, and multi-dimensional dataset. Single-processor's memory and CPU resources are very limited, which makes the algorithm performance ineffective. Recently, there has been renewed inter-est in using association rule mining (ARM) in Big Data to uncov-er relationships between what seems to be unrelated. However, the traditional discovery ARM techniques are unable to handle this huge amount of data. Therefore, there is a vital need to scal-able and parallel strategies for ARM based on Big Data ap-proaches. This paper develops a novel MapReduce framework for an association rule algorithm based on Lift interestingness measurement (MRLAR) which can handle massive datasets with a large number of nodes. The experimental result shows the effi-ciency of the proposed algorithm to measure the correlations between itemsets through integrating the uses of MapReduce and LIM instead of depending on confidence.Web of Science7315715

Airborne Direct Georeferencing of Frame Imagery: An Error Budget

ABSTRACT This paper presents an error analysis for the airborne direct georeferencing technique, where integrated GPS/IMU positioning and navigation systems are used in conjunction with aerial cameras for airborne mapping. The technical specifications for the Applanix POS/AV TM family of airborne positioning and attitude determination systems are used in this study. Two cases are discussed herein, namely the standard stereo model case and the single photo case. The first example is based upon standard map production -where the aerotriangulation step is ultimately bypassed when using the direct exterior orientation information, measured by the POS/AV TM systems during image data acquisition. The second case is not as widely used, yet provides a more economical alternative. In this example, single photos are processed together with the available DEMs to produce orthorectified quads/images. The effect of exterior orientation parameter accuracy on the ground point positioning accuracy is discussed in some detail. In addition to the theoretical analysis, an error breakdown is performed to an airborne set of data where the POS/AV TM 510 system was used to directly georeference or to aid the georeferencing of the aerial frame imagery. Finally, a comparison between the theoretical and practical investigations is presented. The results show that the use of POS/AV enables a variety of mapping products to be generated from airborne navigation and imagery data using ground control only for Q/A purposes