EXPERIMENTAL EVIDENCES FOR THE PROMISING HERAPEUTIC ROLE OF VITIS VINIFERA SEED EXTRACT AGAINST NONALCOHOLIC STEATOHEPATITIS

Objective: The present study was planned to investigate the possible therapeutic effect of methanolic extract of Vitis vinifera seeds on high fat diet-induced nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) in forty adult female Wistar rats.Methods: The animals were divided into four groups, (G1)was served as healthy control group and the other three groups received high fat diet for 32 weeks for induction of NASH were assigned as follow: (G2) in which the animals bearing NASH were left untreated, (G3) in which the animals bearing NASH were treated with Vitis vinifera seed extract in a dose of 0.28g/kg b. wt (GSH) and (G4) in which the animals bearing NASH were treated with Vitis vinifera seed extract in a dose of 0.14g/kg b. wt (GSL).Results: The results revealed significant increase in serum ALT activity, plasma glucose, insulin levels, serum resist in, NF-κB, TNF-α, HGF levels, hepatic TNF-α and HGF gene expression levels. While, serum albumin, adiponectin levels and hepatic adiponectin gene expression level were decreased significantly in NASH group. Conversely, treatment of NASH groups with GSH or GSL resulted in significant decrease in serum ALT activity, plasma glucose, insulin levels, serum resist in, NF-κB, TNF-α, HGF levels, hepatic TNF-α and HGF gene expression levels. However, serum albumin, adiponectin levels and hepatic adiponectin gene expression level were increased significantly as a consequence of treatment with GSH or GSL.Conclusions: The efficacy of Vitis vinifera extract against NASH might be attributed to its strong hepatoprotective potential and powerful anti-inflammatory activity in addition to its potent role in ameliorating insulin resistance indices.Â

Effect of extreme low and high temperatures on the almond moth, Ephestia cautella (Walker) (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae)

he different immature stages of the almond moth, Ephestia cautella (Walker) were exposed to low temperature of -5ºC for different exposure times. Exposure of eggs to 240 to 360 minutes is sufficient to achieve 100% mortality for this stage. Exposed early larval instar to -5ºC for 180 minutes is sufficient to achieve 100% mortality. Exposure of the late larval instars to 300 and/or 360 minutes is effective to achieve a complete mortality for the late larval instars of the pest. The calculated LT50 and LT95 were 113.73 and 208.64 minutes. Exposure of pupae to 300 minutes or more is effective to get a complete mortality for the pupal stage. High temperatures of 45º, 50º, 55º and 60ºC were tested against egg, late larval instars and pupal stages of E. cautella. Mortality tended to be increased with the increasing of temperature and exposure time. Exposure time for more than one hour at 45ºC, 15 minutes at 50ºC and 10 minutes at 55ºC were more effective and led to more than 95% mortality for the egg stage of E. cautella. Exposure of the late larval instars for more than 97.22, 72.17, 17.65 minutes at 45, 50 and 55ºC is sufficient to achieve more than 95% mortality for the late larval instars as indicated by LT95 values. Exposing the pupae to 25 minutes at high temperatures of 50ºC and to 15 minutes at 55ºC is an effective to get complete mortality for the pupal stage. Thus exposure times for more than 90 minutes at high temperature of 45ºC; 33 minutes at 50ºC and/or 11.67 minutes at 55ºC were more effective to achieve more than 95% mortality of the pupal stage of E. cautella.

Design of Embedded Image Processing System Using FPGAs

The work aims to design an image processing system to be configured on Spartan-3E FPGA. Embedded design techniques were adopted to construct a soft core processor system. Intel strata flash parallel NOR PROM is added to the system to meet the requirement of storing huge number of image samples. Suitable software driver with C language are used for purpose of erasing the flash PROM and write operations. High- pass and unsharp digital filers were used for the purpose of image processing. Matlab program is used for verifying the results

Spice Foods effects on Body Weight Reductions between Obese Animal Models

The aim of this study was determination and identification of phenolic and flavonoids fraction in addition to the antioxidant activities of used herbals (curcumin, black pepper and cumin) by HPLC in addition to evaluating the effects of such different spicy food consumptions on body weight reduction between obese animal models. Rats were randomly divided to ten groups fed; Black Papers, Cumin and Curcumin either alone or in different mixtures additionally to groups fed Orlistat (control body weight loss), Non-obese negative control group (C-ve) and Obese control positive group (C+ve). Blood glucose and body weight levels were measured at the beginning and end of the experimental in addition to rats’ lipid profiles (total cholesterol; triglycerides;, high dense lipoprotein cholesterol; low dense lipoprotein cholesterol; and very low dense lipoprotein cholesterol). Results presented that obese models received (Cumin)  Cu/( Curcumin ) Cur mixture have the biggest effective significant treatment (about -80% body weight reduction  ) followed by both groups fed mixtures of (Curcumin ) Cur/( Black Papers ) Bp  and (Curcumin) Cur/( Black Papers ) Bp/( Cumin ) Cu; decreased by -68.0 and -65.6g respectively. The study could be more valuable causing significant body weight reduction between obese models, however human studies are needed

Multi-state analysis functional models using Bayesian networks

Multilevel Flow Modeling (MFM) model maps functionality of components in a system through logical interconnections and is effective in predicting success rates of tasks undertaken. However, the output of this model is binary, which is taken at its extrema, i.e., success and failure, while in reality, the operational status of plant components often spans between these end. In this paper, a multi-state model is proposed by adding probabilistic information to the modelling framework. Using a heat exchanger pilot plant as a case study, the MFM model is transformed into its fault tree [1] equivalent to incorporate failure probability information. To facilitate computations, the FT model is transformed into Bayesian Network model, and applied for fault detection and diagnosis problems. The results obtained illustrate the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed method

High performance supercapacitor based on laser induced graphene for wearable devices

To ensure maximum comfort for the wearer, electronic components that include energy harvesters need to be mechanically conformable. In this context, we demonstrate a versatile, cost-effective and efficient method for fabricating graphene supercapacitor electrodes using Laser Induced Graphene (LIG). A CO2 laser beam instantly transforms the irradiated polyethersulfone polymer (PES) into a highly porous carbon structure. The LIG method was used to deposit graphene layers on graphite sheets to produce the supercapacitor electrodes. Graphene formation and morphology were examined and confirmed using several techniques including Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Energy Dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy, Raman Spectroscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Moreover, the electrochemical characterization was performed in different electrolytes (NaOH and KOH). At 5 mV s-1, the LIG electrode achieved 165 mF cm-2 and 250 mF cm-2 in NaOH and KOH electrolytes, respectively. Consequently, we show that a wearable symmetric supercapacitor device with LIG electrodes achieved 98.5 mF cm-2 at 5 mV s-1 in KOH electrolyte. The device demonstrated an energy density of 11.3 μWh.cm-2 with power density of 0.33 mWcm-2 at 0.5 mA cm-2. The retention of capacitance was 75% after 2000 cycles, with outstanding performance for the comparable graphene-based electrodes. These results further validate the use of LIG for developing flexible energy harvesters for wearable applications

Integration of fault tree and importance measure for toxic prevention barrier

This paper discusses the procedure of integrating importance measures into fault tree analysis. Importance measures (IM) are analytical tools developed to quantitatively appraise the contribution of a plant component towards the overall risk. As part of safety assessment, this method can be used to rank and identify the root cause of undesired events. The critical component is usually prioritised in order to improve the reliability of the system. Fussell-Vesely (FV) importance measure is one of the most commonly used IM. This method is applied to a case study involving typical toxic prevention barriers based on an LNG liquefaction plant. This paper also includes event ranking using other IM

Adrenal medulla of AS/AGU rats: a histological and immunohistochemical study

Background: The outcome of the autograft therapy for Parkinson’s disease including autologous cells from adrenal medulla was disappointing. This could be attributed to the pathological process in Parkinson’s disease affecting cells of the adrenal medulla. This study was performed to investigate the histopathological changes in the adrenal medulla of AS/AGU rat, a model of Parkinson’s disease, in comparison with Albino Swiss (AS) rats. Materials and methods: A total of 24 male AS rats were divided into four groups, each of 6 animals: AS W1 — AS rats aged 1 week; AS adult — AS adult rats; AS/ /AGU W1 — AS/AGU rats aged 1 week; and AS/AGU adult — AS/AGU adult rats. The rats were sacrificed and the adrenal glands were dissected and processed for histological staining with haematoxylin and eosin and periodic acid Schiff and for immunohistochemical staining for S100 protein, ubiquitin and tyrosine hydroxylase. Results: The histological investigation of the adrenal medulla of AS/AGU rats showed vascular congestion, inflammatory cellular infiltration, pyknotic nuclei, necrotic chromaffin cells and medullary inclusion bodies. The immunohistochemical investigation of AS/AGU rats showed a statistically significant decrease in the expression of S100 protein, ubiquitin and tyrosine hydroxylase compared to AS rats. Conclusions: The histological and immunohistological changes in the adrenal medulla could explain the failure of outcome of adrenal autograft therapy in Parkinson’s disease.