Exploration Robot Controlled by an Android Application

Exploration Robot Controlled by an Android Application (ERCAA), University of Palestine Faculty of Information TechnologyIn recent years, with the pace of technological development, people have become more and more demanding in terms of quality of life. At the same time, there is an increasing need for bringing and merging new ideas of technology to create new products. That need is stemming out of the big curiosity of people to try new technologies that helps and entertain them in their daily life. A robot is usually an electro-mechanical machine that is guided by computer and electronic programming. Many robots have been built for manufacturing purpose and can be found in factories around the world. We have designed ROBOT which can be controlled using an APP of android mobile. This Robot is provided with Camera on it to empowers user to explore. We have developed the remote buttons in the android app by which we can control the robot motion and the Camera View with them. And in which we use Wi-Fi communication to interface controller and android. Controller can be interfaced to the Wi-Fi module. According to commands received from android the robot motion can be controlled. Robot can be reprogrammable and tooling can be interchanged to provide for multiple applications according to the Arduino Chip we use. We have used the Android, C, HTML Programming Languages to develop each of the Application and the Hardware components and electronic Chips. Following, is the test analysis section, which discusses whether the proposed system met its objectives. Performance is also evaluated near the end of the paper along with possible extensions of the system

Complementing privacy and utility trade-off with self-organising maps

This research received no external funding.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Antihyperlipidaemic And Antioxidant Activities Of Extracts Of Different Parts Of Averrhoa Carambola And Elucidation Of Their Mechanisms Of Action

Averrhoa carambola, biasanya dikenali sebagai belimbing merupakan salah satu herba yang digunakan secara meluas dalam perubatan tradisional masyarakat Malaysia, daun dan buahnya merupakan bahagian yang paling banyak digunakan. Kajian ini bertujuan menyiasat kesan antihiperlipidemik, aktiviti anti-oksidan dan toksisiti ekstrak metanol dan akueus bahagian yang berlainan daripada A. carambola dengan tumpuan untuk elusidasi mekanisme tindakannya. Daripada semua ekstrak yang diuji, ekstrak metanol bahagian daun A. carambola menunjukkan aktiviti antihiperlipidemik terbaik dalam model tikus hiperlipidemik akut teraruh oleh poloxamer-407 berbanding kawalan hiperlipidemik yang setanding dengan aktiviti atorvastatin. Berikutan pemberian kronik sehingga lima minggu, tiada penurunan signifikan diperhatikan dalam aras parameter lipid bagi tikus normal yang dirawat dengan 1000 mg/kg ekstrak metanol daun. Sebaliknya, perbezaan yang signifikan diperhatikan dalam parameter lipid tikus hiperlipidemik teraruh diet tinggi lemak selepas dirawat dengan 500 dan 1000 mg/kg ekstrak metanol daun berbanding kawalan normal. Averrhoa carambola, commonly known as star fruit is one of the widely used herbs in the Malaysian traditional medicine, with the leaf and fruits being the most utilized parts. This study aims to investigate the antihyperlipidaemic effect, antioxidant activity and toxicity of methanolic and aqueous extracts of different parts of A. carambola with focus on elucidating the underlying mechanism of action. Of the tested extracts, the methanolic extract of A. carambola leaf showed the most potent antihyperlipidaemic activity in poloxamer-407-induced acute hyperlipidaemic rat model compared to the hyperlipidaemic control, which was comparable with that of atorvastatin. Upon chronic administration up to five weeks, no significant decrease was observed in the levels of the lipid parameters of normal rats treated with 1000 mg/kg of methanolic extract of leaf. In contrast, significant changes were observed in lipid parameters of high-fat diet induced hyperlipidemic rats after treated with 500 and 1000 mg/kg leaf methanolic extract as compared with the hyperlipidaemic control

Fruta de la estrella (Averrhoa carambola L.): Desde los usos tradicionales a las actividades farmacológicas]

Averrhoa carambola L. (Familia: Oxalidaceae), comúnmente conocida como fruta de la estrella tiene una gran importancia en la medicina tradicional. La  Medicina Tradicional reporta el uso de A. carambola en dolencias tales como: artralgia, dolor de cabeza crónico, forúnculos y piodermas, resfriados, tos,  epistaxis, espermatorrea, fiebre,  intoxicación alimentaria, gastroenteritis, malaria, paludismo, esplenomegalia malárica, oliguria, edema post-parto, dolor de  garganta , subcalorismo y lesiones traumáticas. Investigaciones farmacológicas en A. carambola han demostrado efectos anti-inflamatorios, antimicrobianos,  antitumorales, antifúngicas, y actividades anti-úlcera, hipocolesterolémico, hipoglucemiante, hipotensor, nefrotóxicos, y efectosneurotóxicos  y cronotrópicos  negativos.  Proyecciones preliminares fitoquímicas han demostrado la presencia de saponinas, taninos, alcaloides y flavonoides. Esta revisión constituye un  esfuerzo para actualizar las actividades farmacológicas y estudios clínicos sobre A. carambola

Complementing Privacy and Utility Trade-Off with Self-Organising Maps

open access articleIn recent years, data-enabled technologies have intensified the rate and scale at which organisations collect and analyse data. Data mining techniques are applied to realise the full potential of large-scale data analysis. These techniques are highly efficient in sifting through big data to extract hidden knowledge and assist evidence-based decisions, offering significant benefits to their adopters. However, this capability is constrained by important legal, ethical and reputational concerns. These concerns arise because they can be exploited to allow inferences to be made on sensitive data, thus posing severe threats to individuals’ privacy. Studies have shown Privacy-Preserving Data Mining (PPDM) can adequately address this privacy risk and permit knowledge extraction in mining processes. Several published works in this area have utilised clustering techniques to enforce anonymisation models on private data, which work by grouping the data into clusters using a quality measure and generalising the data in each group separately to achieve an anonymisation threshold. However, existing approaches do not work well with high-dimensional data, since it is difficult to develop good groupings without incurring excessive information loss. Our work aims to complement this balancing act by optimising utility in PPDMprocesses. To illustrate this, we propose a hybrid approach, that combines self-organising maps with conventional privacy-based clustering algorithms. We demonstrate through experimental evaluation, that results from our approach produce more utility for data mining tasks and outperforms conventional privacy-based clustering algorithms. This approach can significantly enable large-scale analysis of data in a privacy-preserving and trustworthy manner

A comparison of the gene expression profiles of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease between animal models of a high-fat diet and methionine-choline-deficient diet

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) embraces several forms of liver disorders involving fat disposition in hepatocytes ranging from simple steatosis to the severe stage, namely, non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). Recently, several experimental in vivo animal models for NAFLD/NASH have been established. However, no reproducible experimental animal model displays the full spectrum of pathophysiological, histological, molecular, and clinical features associated with human NAFLD/NASH progression. Although methionine-choline-deficient (MCD) diet and high-fat diet (HFD) models can mimic histological and metabolic abnormalities of human disease, respectively, the molecular signaling pathways are extremely important for understanding the pathogenesis of the disease. This review aimed to assess the differences in gene expression patterns and NAFLD/NASH progression pathways among the most common dietary animal models, i.e., HFD- and MCD diet-fed animals. Studies showed that the HFD and MCD diet could induce either up- or downregulation of the expression of genes and proteins that are involved in lipid metabolism, inflammation, oxidative stress, and fibrogenesis pathways. Interestingly, the MCD diet model could spontaneously develop liver fibrosis within two to four weeks and has significant effects on the expression of genes that encode proteins and enzymes involved in the liver fibrogenesis pathway. However, such effects in the HFD model were found to occur after 24 weeks with insulin resistance but appear to cause less severe fibrosis. In conclusion, assessing the abnormal gene expression patterns caused by different diet types provides valuable information regarding the molecular mechanisms of NAFLD/NASH and predicts the clinical progression of the disease. However, expression profiling studies concerning genetic variants involved in the development and progression of NAFLD/NASH should be conducted

Integrated microRNA and mRNA Expression Profiling Identifies Novel Targets and Networks Associated with Ebstein’s Anomaly

Little is known about abundance level changes of circulating microRNAs (miRNAs) and messenger RNAs (mRNA) in patients with Ebstein’s anomaly (EA). Here, we performed an integrated analysis to identify the differentially abundant miRNAs and mRNA targets and to identify the potential therapeutic targets that might be involved in the mechanisms underlying EA. A large panel of human miRNA and mRNA microarrays were conducted to determine the genome-wide expression profiles in the blood of 16 EA patients and 16 age and gender-matched healthy control volunteers (HVs). Differential abundance level of single miRNA and mRNA was validated by RealTime quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR). Enrichment analyses of altered miRNA and mRNA abundance levels were identified using bioinformatics tools. Altered miRNA and mRNA abundance levels were observed between EA patients and HVs. Among the deregulated miRNAs and mRNAs, 76 miRNAs (49 lower abundance and 27 higher abundance, fold-change of ≥2) and 29 mRNAs (25 higher abundance and 4 lower abundance, fold-change of ≥1.5) were identified in EA patients compared to HVs. Bioinformatics analysis identified 37 pairs of putative miRNA-mRNA interactions. The majority of the correlations were detected between the lower abundance level of miRNA and higher abundance level of mRNA, except for let-7b-5p, which showed a higher abundance level and their target gene, SCRN3, showed a lower abundance level. Pathway enrichment analysis of the deregulated mRNAs identified 35 significant pathways that are mostly involved in signal transduction and cellular interaction pathways. Our findings provide new insights into a potential molecular biomarker(s) for the EA that may guide the development of novel targeting therapies

Phyllanthus Niruri Standardized Extract Alleviates the Progression of Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease and Decreases Atherosclerotic Risk in Sprague–Dawley Rats

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is one of the major global health issues, strongly correlated with insulin resistance, obesity and oxidative stress. The current study aimed to evaluate anti-NAFLD effects of three different extracts of Phyllanthus niruri (P. niruri). NAFLD was induced in male Sprague–Dawley rats using a special high-fat diet (HFD). A 50% methanolic extract (50% ME) exhibited the highest inhibitory effect against NAFLD progression. It significantly reduced hepatomegaly (16%) and visceral fat weight (22%), decreased NAFLD score, prevented fibrosis, and reduced serum total cholesterol (TC) (48%), low-density lipoprotein (LDL) (65%), free fatty acids (FFAs) (25%), alanine aminotransferase (ALT) (45%), alkaline phosphatase (ALP) (38%), insulin concentration (67%), homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) (73%), serum atherogenic ratios TC/high-density lipoprotein (HDL) (29%), LDL/HDL (66%) and (TC–HDL)/HDL (64%), hepatic content of cholesterol (43%), triglyceride (29%) and malondialdehyde (MDA) (40%) compared to a non-treated HFD group. In vitro, 50% ME of P. niruri inhibited �-glucosidase, pancreatic lipase enzymes and cholesterol micellization. It also had higher total phenolic and total flavonoid contents compared to other extracts. Ellagic acid and phyllanthin were identified as major compounds. These results suggest that P. niruri could be further developed as a novel natural hepatoprotective agent against NAFLD and atherosclerosis

Toxicity evaluation of standardized and nanoliposomal extracts of Labisia pumila whole plant (Blume, Myrsinaceae) in Sprague Dawley rats

Purpose: To investigate the toxicity of Labisia pumila standardized extract (LPE) and its liposomal extract (LLP). Methods: For acute toxicity study, LPE or LLP was orally administered (2000 mg/kg) in single doses to Sprague Dawley rats and the routine activity of the rats was continuously monitored for a total of 14 days. After 14 days of treatment, all rats were sacrificed and their vital organs were excised, weighed and macroscopically examined, while for a repeated dose toxicity study, the rats were orally administered with LPE or LLP at the selected doses (250, 500 and 1000 mg/kg) for a period of 28 days. The animals were sacrificed (anaesthetized by sodium pentobarbitone and blood was collected by cardiac puncture), followed by examination of their body organs and blood serum. Results: LPE and LLP at 2000 mg/kg did not produce mortality or significant changes in the general behaviour, body weight and organ gross appearance of the rats. In repeated dose toxicity study no significant changes in, growth, organ weights, haematological parameters, biochemical values and histological features of vital organs of the treated groups, compared to the control group. Conclusion: The no-adverse-effect-level for LPE and LLP is (1000 mg/kg/day) when administered orally for 28 days

Balanced Crystalloids versus Normal Saline in Adults with Sepsis: A Comprehensive Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

The crystalloid fluid of choice in sepsis remains debatable. We aimed to perform a comprehensive meta-analysis to compare the effect of balanced crystalloids (BC) vs. normal saline (NS) in adults with sepsis. A systematic search of PubMed, EMBASE, and Web of Sciences databases through 22 January 2022, was performed for studies that compared BC vs. NS in adults with sepsis. Our outcomes included mortality and acute kidney injury (AKI), need for renal replacement therapy (RRT), and ICU length of stay (LOS). Pooled risk ratio (RR) and mean difference (MD) with the corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were obtained using a random-effect model. Fifteen studies involving 20,329 patients were included. Overall, BC showed a significant reduction in the overall mortality (RR 0.88, 95% CI 0.81-0.96), 28/30-day mortality (RR 0.87, 95% CI 0.79-0.95), and AKI (RR 0.85, 95% CI 0.77-0.93) but similar 90-day mortality (RR 0.96, 95% CI 0.90-1.03), need for RRT (RR 0.91, 95% CI 0.76-1.08), and ICU LOS (MD -0.25 days, 95% CI -3.44, 2.95), were observed between the two groups. However, subgroup analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) showed no statistically significant differences in overall mortality (RR 0.92, 95% CI 0.82-1.02), AKI (RR 0.71, 95% CI 0.47-1.06), and need for RRT (RR 0.71, 95% CI 0.36-1.41). Our meta-analysis demonstrates that overall BC was associated with reduced mortality and AKI in sepsis compared to NS among patients with sepsis. However, subgroup analysis of RCTs showed no significant differences in both overall mortality and AKI between the groups. There was no significant difference in the need for RRT or ICU LOS between BC and NS. Pending further data, our study supports using BC over NS for fluid resuscitation in adults with sepsis. Further large-scale RCTs are necessary to validate our findings