Mechanistic insights into the analgesic and anti-inflammatory effects of alcoholic extracts from Curcuma longa

Background: Aim of the study was to scientifically validate the traditional Indian claims of Curcuma longa's (turmeric) antinociceptive (pain-relieving) and anti-inflammatory effects. Methods: The alcoholic extract of C. longa was tested in three rodent nociceptive models: acetic acid-induced writhing: examines visceral pain, formalin test: evaluates both acute and chronic neurogenic and inflammatory pain and tail immersion test to assess thermal pain. The extract's effects were compared to a control group and morphine (reference drug). Results: C. longa extract significantly reduced abdominal constrictions in the acetic acid test (59.36% inhibition). In the formalin test, the extract significantly decreased paw licking response time in both early (54.12% inhibition) and late phases (78.59% inhibition). C. longa extract significantly increased the tail flick reaction time in the immersion test, indicating pain relief. Conclusions: This study confirms the antinociceptive and anti-inflammatory activities of C. longa, providing scientific evidence for its traditional use in pain management

Natural treasures from Picrorhiza kurrooa: a computational exploration of drug-like properties and bioactivity of kutkin, cucurbitacin, apocynin and lupanine

Background: To analyse and predict the basic pharmacokinetic and toxicological properties of four compounds of interest found in Picrorhiza kurroa (Kutkin, cucurbitacin, apocynin and lupanine) using computational bioinformatics tools. Methods: The chemical structures and molecular properties of the compounds were obtained from authentic sources and processed for data profiling. 2D structures were converted to 3D structures using ChemSketch software and PHASE module. In silico screening of the 3D structures was performed using bioinformatics prediction software to assess drug-likeness, absorption, blood-brain barrier penetration, enzyme interaction potential, skin penetration, and acute oral toxicity. Results: Kutkin exhibited poor drug-likeness and low oral absorption, while the other three compounds showed promising drug-like properties and good oral absorption. Cucurbitacin and lupanine were predicted to cross the blood-brain barrier, while Kutkin and Apocynin were not. None of the compounds were substrates for P-glycoprotein, but Kutkin and cucurbitacin were substrates for CYP3A4. All four compounds had low skin penetration. Acute oral toxicity varied, with cucurbitacin classified as highly toxic and the others as slightly toxic. Conclusions: Cucurbitacin, apocynin, and lupanine have potential for further development as therapeutic agents due to their favorable drug-like properties and good absorption. Kutkin's poor drug-likeness and low absorption make it less suitable for oral drug development. This information provides valuable insights for further research on the medicinal properties of Picrorhiza kurroa and the development of new drugs based on its active compounds

Maintaining Integrity for Shared Data In Cloud With Ring Signatures

The wild success of cloud data services bring the cloud commonplace for data to be not only stored in the cloud, but also shared across multiple users. Unfortunately, the integrity of cloud data is subject to skepticism due to the existence of hardware/software failures and human errors. Several mechanisms have been designed to allow both data owners and public verifiers to efficiently audit cloud data integrity without retrieving the entire data from the cloud server. However, public auditing on the integrity of shared data with these existing mechanisms will inevitably reveal confidential information—identity privacy—to public verifiers. In this paper, we propose a novel privacy-preserving mechanism that supports public auditing on shared data stored in the cloud. In particular, we exploit ring signatures to compute verification metadata needed to audit the correctness of shared data. With our mechanism, the identity of the signer on each block in shared data is kept private from public verifiers, who are able to efficiently verify shared data integrity without retrieving the entire file. In addition, our mechanism is able to perform multiple auditing tasks simultaneously instead of verifying them one by one. Our experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of our mechanism when auditing shared data integrity

Buccal films: A review of therapy possibilities, treatment plans and appropriate evaluation techniques

Due to apparent greater patient acceptance compared to buccal tablets and enormous therapeutic opportunities compared to traditional oral drug delivery methods, particularly for those who suffer from dysphagia, the potential of the mucoadhesive film technology is difficult to ignore. Despite this, there are currently no authorised mucoadhesive buccal films, and the translation of published literature into the commercial market is essentially non-existent. In order to help this patient-centred dosage form become more widely used, this review aims to give an overview of mucoadhesive buccal film technology and highlight crucial areas on which to concentrate scientific efforts. While discussing the patient-related aspects influencing the utilisation of various dosage forms, a number of indications and development potential were noted. A technical description of the processes used to create these films, including solvent casting, hot melt extrusion, inkjet printing, and three-dimensional printing, was also offered. The utilisation of more than thirty mucoadhesive polymers in film formulations was found, and information about their mucoadhesive properties as well as their inclusion with other essential formulation ingredients was supplied

Assessment of groundwater potential using geospatial techniques for urbanized Mambakkam mini-watershed, Kancheepuram district, India

1856-1865Evaluation of groundwater potential and mapping using geospatial platform is crucial especially for semi-arid hard rock and coastal adjoining terrain to identify the zones of very good, good, moderate and poor groundwater potential. The Mambakkam mini watershed, Tamil Nadu (India) is situated towards the southern part of Chennai city. It is experiencing commercial development of groundwater in addition with escalating domestic and industrial demands. The present study is aimed to develop the mapping of groundwater potential zones for the selected urbanized watershed by using the remote sensing and geospatial techniques. Data like water level, water quality, rainfall, climatology and geophysical resistivity from various sources and satellite imageries have been used for this study to observe the changes on the sources of water resource system. The Inverse Distance Weighted (IDW) method was used for generating the thematic layers of rainfall, depth to bed rock, weathered rock, jointed rock and water levels. The generated village wise groundwater potential map has shown a vast spatial variability of ground water potential and the area that belongs to the “very good” potential category is quite less in the entire study area (12 %) which alarms the development of existing groundwater resource. The study concluded that considerable falling trend of groundwater level during pre-monsoon showing the alarming threat for further development. Thus the presented study identified the risk of groundwater development and provides guidelines to water resource mangers and village officials to recommend conservation and protection strategies against the uncontrolled commercial development especially on the identified poor groundwater potential zones

Micro-scale damage tolerance studies in ferroelectric barium titanate thin films

Barium Titanate (BTO) is a brittle, lead free ferroelectric and piezoelectric ceramic used in the miniature form in microscale electrical device applications as capacitors, actuators and sensors. During service this material system develops mechanical stresses due to thermal and electric loads acting on the system, which leads to the failure of the system due to cracking in the films or interface delamination. Micropillar compression revealed a size effect in strength with a size exponent close to 1 and an enhancement in elastic strain limit [1]. It also revealed strain accommodation by dislocation plasticity. However, signature of plastic deformation in compression (Figure 1a) does not necessarily translate to crack tip plasticity tension for brittle ceramics. Please click Download on the upper right corner to see the full abstract

ETMS: Efficient Traffic Management System for Congestion Detection and Alert using HAAR Cascade

Rapid social development has resulted in the emergence of a new major societal issue: urban traffic congestion, which many cities must address. In addition to making  it more difficult for people to get around town, traffic jams are a major source of the city's pollution crisis. In order to address the problems of automobile exhaust pollution and congestion, this paper uses the system dynamics approach to develop a model to study the urban traffic congestion system from the perspectives of trucks,private cars, bikes and public transportation. This project proposes a system for detecting vehicles and sending alerts when traffic levels rise to dangerous levels using Haar Cascade and Fuzzy Cognitive Maps (FCP). The proposed system uses Haar Cascade to detect moving vehicles, which are then classified using FCP. The system can make decisions based on partial or ambiguous information by utilising FCP, a soft computing technique, which allows it to learn from past actions. An algorithm for estimating traffic density is also used by the system to pinpoint active areas. In congested areas, the system will alert the driver if it anticipates a collision with another vehicle and also Experiments show that the proposed system is able to accurately detect vehicles and provide timely alerts to the driver, drastically lowering the probability of accidents occurring in heavily travelled areas. The importance of introducing such a system cannot be overstated in today's transportation system. It's a big deal for the future of intelligent urban planning and traffic control. Congestion relief, cleaner air, and increased security are just some of the long-term benefits that justify the high initial investment. To add, this system is adaptable to suburban and rural areas, which can also experience traffic congestion issues

Progress in interspecific hybridization between Cicer arietinum and wild species C. bijugum.

This paper reports the production of hybrid plants between C. arietinum and C. bijugum in vitro and the transfer of hybrid plants to soil. Four chickpea cultivars, ICCV 92318, ICCV 2, ICCV 10 and KAK 2, were used as female parents. The wild species C. bijugum (accession ILWC 73) from germplasm collection at the International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas, Aleppo, Syria, was used as male parent. Seeds of cultivated and wild chickpea were sown in the glasshouse and in the field in Andhra Pradesh, India. Crosses were carried out from October 2001 to February 2005 (4 postrainy seasons) in the field. Formation of viable green hybrid plants from the cross C. arietinum and C. bijugum with intermediate morphology between the two parents show that it is possible to obtain hybrid plants between C. arietinum and C. bijugum and that concerted efforts will yield hybrids in large numbers. Our study confirms that it is possible to cross C. bijugum with cultivated chickpea, and it would be feasible to produce a large number of hybrids to exploit the genes/traits present in C. bijugum for the improvement of cultivated species

Effect of stiff substrates on enhancing the fracture resistance of Barium Titanate thin films

Damage tolerance of a thin film attached to a substrate is dependent on several parameters such as film thickness, film orientation, residual stresses, nature of interfaces, microstructure and defects present. Here we study the fracture resistance and crack growth trajectory in BaTiO3 thin films attached to elasticially stiff substrates using micromechanical experiments and finite element modeling. Microcantilever fracture tests are carried out on bi-layered systems of BaTiO3 film on Pt-Si and SrTiO3 substrates to study the effect of interfaces, texture and elastic mismatch on fracture toughness. The substrates in the bi-layers are chosen to force the crack to experience a shielding effect in terms of a decrease in the crack driving force. Experiments revealed an unexpectedly large increase in fracture toughness when the crack tip is closer to a stiffer substrate, qualitatively matching the predictions from the numerical model. The bi-layered films attached to the substrate showed 125% (on Pt-Si) and 160% (on SrTiO3) increase in fracture toughness compared to the free-standing films, for the first time, revealing the significant effect of elastic modulus of the substrate on improving the fracture resistance at such micrometer length scales.Peer reviewe