DETERMINATION OF 10-GINGEROL IN INDIAN GINGER BY VALIDATED HPTLC METHOD OF SAMPLES COLLECTED ACROSS SUBCONTINENT OF INDIA

Objective: A simple, sensitive, precise, and accurate stability indicating HPTLC (high-performance thin-layer chromatography) method for analysis of 10-gingerol in ginger has been developed and validated as perICH guidelines.Methods: The separation was achieved on TLC (thin layer chromatography) aluminum plates pre-coated with silica gel 60F254 using n-hexane: ethyl acetate 55:45 (%, v/v) as a mobile phase. Densitometric analysis was performed at 569 nm.Results: This system was found to have a compact spot of 10-gingerol at RF value of 0.57±0.03. For the proposed procedure, linearity (r2 = 0.998±0.02), limit of detection (18ng/spot), limit of quantification (42 ng/spot), recovery (ranging from 98.35%–100.68%), were found to be satisfactory.Conclusion: Statistical analysis reveals that the content of 10-gingerol in different geographical region varied significantly. The highest and lowest concentration of 10-gingerol in ginger was found to be present in a sample of Patna, Lucknow and Surat respectively which inferred that the variety of ginger found in Patna, Lucknow are much superior to other regions of India

Impact of dark matter models on the EoR 21-cm signal bispectrum

The nature of dark matter sets the timeline for the formation of first collapsed haloes and thus affects the sources of reionization. Here, we consider two different models of dark matter: cold dark matter (CDM) and thermal warm dark matter (WDM), and study how they impact the epoch of reionization (EoR) and its 21-cm observables. Using a suite of simulations, we find that in WDM scenarios, the structure formation on small scales gets suppressed, resulting in a smaller number of low-mass dark matter haloes compared to the CDM scenario. Assuming that the efficiency of sources in producing ionizing photons remains the same, this leads to a lower number of total ionizing photons produced at any given cosmic time, thus causing a delay in the reionization process. We also find visual differences in the neutral hydrogen (H I) topology and in 21-cm maps in case of the WDM compared to the CDM. However, differences in the 21-cm power spectra, at the same neutral fraction, are found to be small. Thus, we focus on the non-Gaussianity in the EoR 21-cm signal, quantified through its bispectrum. We find that the 21-cm bispectra (driven by the HI topology) are significantly different in WDM models compared to the CDM, even for the same mass-averaged neutral fractions. This establishes that the 21-cm bispectrum is a unique and promising way to differentiate between dark matter models, and can be used to constrain the nature of the dark matter in the future EoR observations

GENETIC DIVERSITY IN ACCESSIONS OF INDIAN TURMERIC (CURCUMA LONGA L.) USING RAPD MARKERS

Objective: The present investigation was undertaken for identification and assessment of eight accessions of Curcuma longa collected from all ecological zones in India by random amplification of polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers.Methods: DNA was isolated using modified cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) method. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was performed according to the method based on Williams et al. and data analysis was done using Alpha Imager EC software.Results: Eleven out of twenty primers screened were informative and produced 150 amplification products among which 132 products (88%) were found to be polymorphic. The percentage polymorphism of all 08 accessions ranged from 44.44% to 100%. A total of 150 amplification products were scored with an average frequency of 13.63 bands per primer. Most of the RAPD markers studied showed a different level of genetic polymorphism. The data of 150 RAPD bands were used to generate Jaccard's similarity coefficients and to construct a dendrogram by means of UPGMA.Conclusion: Results shows that C. longa undergoes genetic variation due to a wide range of ecological conditions within distribution area of its population in India. This investigation as an understanding of the level and partitioning of genetic variation within the accessions and would provide an important input into determining efficient management strategies and will help to breeders for turmeric improvement program

Spontaneous Ventral Spinal Epidural Hematoma in an Infant: An Unusual Presentation

How to Cite This Article: Abbad A, Afzal K, Mujeeb AA, Shahab T, Khalid M. Spontaneous Ventral Spinal Epidural Hematoma in an Infant: An Unusual Presentation. Iran J Child Neurol. 2013  Spring;7(2):47-50.Abstract Spontaneous ventral spinal epidural hematomas are extremely rare in children and clinically recognized by the appearance of acute asymmetric focal motor and sensory involvement. In infants, the initial presenting symptoms are very non-specific and irritability is often the only initial manifestation. Appearance of other neurological signs may be delayed up to hours or even days later. In the absence of significant precipitating factors such as severe trauma or previously known coagulopathies,the diagnosis is usually delayed until the full picture of severe cord compression is developed. The diagnosis is finally made by performing magnetic resonance imaging. We report a 5-month-old infant with spinal epidural hematoma who presented with symmetrical upper limb weakness and diaphragmatic involvement to highlight the importance of recognizing the atypical manifestations for early diagnosis andintervention. References:1. Phillips TW, Kling TF Jr, McGillicuddy JE. Spontaneous ventral spinal epidural hematoma with anterior cordsyndrome: report of a case. Neurosurgery 1981;9:440-3.2. Patel H, Boaz JC, Phillips JP, Garg BP. Spontaneous spinal epidural hematoma in children. Pediatr Neurol1998;19:302-7. Review.3. Penar PL, Fischer DK, Goodrich I, Bloomgarden GM, Robinson F. Spontaneous spinal epidural hematoma. IntSurg 1987;72:218-21.4. Noth I, Hutter JJ, Meltzer PS, Damiano ML, Carter LP. Spinal epidural hematoma in a hemophilic infant. Am JPediatr Hematol Oncol 1993;15:131-4. Review.5. Beatty RM, Winston KR. Spontaneous cervical epidural hematoma. A consideration of etiology. J Neurosurg1984;61:143-8.6. Alva NS. Traumatic spinal epidural hematoma of a 10-month-old male: a clinical note. Pediatr Neurol2000;23:88-9. Review.7. Aminoff MJ: Vascular disorders of the spinal cord, in Davidoff RA (ed): Handbook of the Spinal Cord.Infections and Cancer, Vol 5. New York: Marcel Dekker, 1986, pp 271-273.8. Blount J, Doughty K, Tubbs RS, Wellons JC, Reddy A, Law C, et al. In utero spontaneous cervical thoracicepidural hematoma imitating spinal cord birth injury. Pediatr Neurosurg 2004;40:23-7.9. Iguchi T, Ito Y, Asai M, Ito J, Okada N, Murakami M. [A case of spontaneous spinal epidural hematoma]. No ToHattatsu 1993;25:267-70. Review. Japanese.10. Nagel MA, Taff IP, Cantos EL, Patel MP, Maytal J, Berman D. Spontaneous spinal epidural hematoma in a7-year-old girl. Diagnostic value of magnetic resonance imaging. Clin Neurol Neurosurg 1989;91:157-60.11. Metzger G, Singbartl G. Spinal epidural hematoma following epidural anesthesia versus spontaneous spinalsubdural hematoma. Two case reports. Acta Anaesthesiol Scand 1991;35:105-7.12. Patel H, Garg BP. Increasing irritability with sudden onset of flaccid weakness. Semin Pediatr Neurol 1996;3:192-7.13. Tewari MK, Tripathi LN, Mathuriya SN, Khandelwal N, Kak VK. Spontaneous spinal extradural hematomain children. Report of three cases and a review of the literature. Childs Nerv Syst 1992;8:53-5. Review.14. Pecha MD, Able AC, Barber DB, Willingham AC. Outcome after spontaneous spinal epidural hematoma in children: case report and review of the literature. Arch Phys Med Rehabil 1998;79:460-3. Review

Improving constraints on the reionization parameters using 21-cm bispectrum

Radio interferometric experiments aim to constrain the reionization model parameters by measuring the 21-cm signal statistics, primarily the power spectrum. However the Epoch of Reionization (EoR) 21-cm signal is highly non-Gaussian, and this non-Gaussianity encodes important information about this era. The bispectrum is the lowest order statistic able to capture this inherent non-Gaussianity. Here we are the first to demonstrate that bispectra for large and intermediate length scales and for all unique $k$-triangle shapes provide tighter constraints on the EoR parameters compared to the power spectrum or the bispectra for a limited number of shapes of $k$-triangles. We use the Bayesian inference technique to constrain EoR parameters. We have also developed an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) based emulator for the EoR 21-cm power spectrum and bispectrum which we use to remarkably speed up our parameter inference pipeline. Here we have considered the sample variance and the system noise uncertainties corresponding to $1000$ hrs of SKA-Low observations for estimating errors in the signal statistics. We find that using all unique $k$-triangle bispectra improves the constraints on parameters by a factor of $2-4$ (depending on the stage of reionization) over the constraints that are obtained using power spectrum alone.Comment: 27 pages, 9 figures, Accepted for publication in JCA

Nutrition and immunity : the effects of the combination of arginine and tryptophan on growth performance, serum parameters and immune response in broiler chickens challenged with infectious bursal disease vaccine

To explore the effects of the combination of tryptophan (Trp) and arginine (Arg) on growth performance, serum parameters and immune response of broiler chickens challenged with intermediate plus strain of infectious bursal disease virus vaccine, an in vivo experiment was conducted. A corn-soybean meal-based diet containing different levels of Arg and Trp was used. Cobb500 male broiler chickens from 0 to 49 days of age were subjected to a diet supplemented with the combination of Trp and Arg. Growth performance parameters and serum parameters were measured at 27 and 49 days of age. To evaluate the immunomodulatory effects of the combination of Trp and Arg on the challenged chickens, we measured the serum levels of interferon-α, interferon-γ and immunoglobulin G at 27, 35, 42, and 49 days of age. The results showed that the three evaluated immune system parameters including interferon-α, interferon-γ and immunoglobulin G were significantly enhanced after treatment. This enhancement resulted in the recovery of infectious bursal disease virus-infected chickens compared with controls as confirmed by histopathological examinations. Moreover, serum parameters such as albumin and total protein increased, whereas the treatment decreased (P<0.05) the feed:gain ratio, aspartate amino-transferase, alkaline phosphatase, lactic dehydrogenase, triglyceride and cholesterol. These findings suggest that the combination of Arg and Trp has a regulatory effect on growth performance. Moreover, it modulates the systemic immune response against infectious bursal disease

Distinguishing reionization models using the largest cluster statistics of the 21-cm maps

The evolution of topology and morphology of ionized or neutral hydrogen during different stages of the Epoch of Reionization (EoR) have the potential to provide us a great amount of information about the properties of the ionizing sources during this era. We compare a variety of reionization source models in terms of the geometrical properties of the ionized regions. We show that the percolation transition in the ionized hydrogen, as studied by tracing the evolution of the Largest Cluster Statistics (LCS), is a robust statistic that can distinguish the fundamentally different scenarios -- inside-out and outside-in reionization. Particularly, the global neutral fraction at the onset of percolation is significantly higher for the inside-out scenario as compared to that for the outside-in reionization. In complementary to percolation analysis, we explore the shape and morphology of the ionized regions as they evolve in different reionization models in terms of the Shapefinders (SFs) that are ratios of the Minkowski functionals (MFs). The shape distribution can readily discern the reionization scenario with extreme non-uniform recombination in the IGM, such as the clumping model. In the rest of the reionization models, the largest ionized region abruptly grows only in terms of its third SF - 'length' - during percolation while the first two SFs - 'thickness' and 'breadth' - remain stable. Thus the ionized hydrogen in these scenarios becomes highly filamentary near percolation and exhibit a 'characteristic cross-section' that varies among the source models. Therefore, the geometrical studies based on SFs, together with the percolation analysis can shed light on the reionization sources.Comment: 33 pages, 16 figures, accepted for publication in JCA

Tryptophan Stimulates Immune Response in Broiler Chickens Challenged with Infectious Bursal Disease Vaccine

Infectious bursal disease is still a challenging issue by posing a serious threat to the commercial poultry industry especially due to the emergence of highly Infectious Bursal Disease Virus (IBDV). In the present study, we evaluated the immunomodulatory effects of Tryptophan (Tip) on innate, humoral and cellular immune responses in chickens challenged by oral administration of intermediate plus strain of IBD virus at 28 days of age. A corn-soybean meal based diet containing different levels of Tip (0, 0.10 and 0.20) for the starter, (0, 0.07 and 0.15) for the grower and (0, 0.05 and 0.13) for the finisher has been utilized. In a completely randomized design with three treatments of five replicates each and 10 chickens per replicate, 150 Cobb 500 male broiler chickens from 0-49 days of age were subjected to Tip diet. To measure the innate, cellular and humoral immunity indicators (interferon-alpha, interferon-gamma, immunoglobulin G, respectively) at 27, 35, 42 and 49 days of age, serum samples from each replicate of treatments were collected and subjected to ELISA. The result showed that Trp supplementation in the chickens basal diets significantly increased the serum levels of interferon-alpha at 35, 42 and 49 days of age (p<0.05), interferon-gamma at 27, 35 and 49 days of age (p<0.05) and immunoglobulin G at 27, 35, 42 and 49 days of age (p<0.05). These results strongly suggest that tryptophan plays a vital role in modulation of protective immune response against IBDV

Growth performance and blood parameters as influenced by different levels of dietary Arginine in broiler chickens.

An experiment was conducted to determine effects of dietary Arginine (ARG) on growth performance and blood serum parameters in broiler chickens. A corn-soybean meal based diet containing different levels of ARG (0, 0.67, 1.37, 2.07 and 2.77) for the starter (0, 0.53, 1.1, 1.68 and 2.25) for the grower and (0, 0.52, 1.04, 1.56 and 2.08) for the finisher was used. In a completely randomized design with five treatments of five replicates each and 10 chickens per replicate, 250 Cobb 500 male broiler chickens from 0-49 days of age were used. Growth performance (body weight gain, feed intake and feed: gain ratio) and blood serum (albumin, total protein, glucose, cholesterol, triglyceride, urea, uric acid, aspartate amino-transferase, alanine amino-transferase, alkalin phosphatase, lactic dehydrogenase and creatine kinase) parameters were measured at 27 and 49 days of age. Increase of dietary ARG increased (p0.05) aspartate amino-transferase and cholesterol. It was concluded that dietary ARG might have positive effects on health status of the broiler chickens