Intracardiac Calcification - An Interesting Chest X-ray Report.

We report a case of chest X-ray finding of mitral annular calcification. Mitral annular calcification is a degenerative process involving the fibrous annulus of the mitral valve. It is generally an incidental finding associated with aging and atherosclerosis. It may lead to significant mitral regurgitation and can rarely cause symptomatic mitral stenosis. In addition, mitral annulus calcification may be associated with atrial fibrillation and cardiac arrhythmia. Calcification of mitral annulus in the chest X-ray generally follows the C-shape of the mitral annulus. Confirmation is by echocardiography. Symptomatic cases require repair by surgery

Enhancing Learning Technology: By Incorporating Social Media Platforms in Language Teaching Classrooms

Social Media performs a high-surpassed position in English, as it allows English language beginners to improve their studying and writing abilities. Social media is utilized in classrooms, wherever students can begin their blogs. They will make their connections with humans more prominent and construct a social community known as PLN (Personal Learning Network). Throughout COVID-19, all social media networks became popular, and plenty of used sites for an off-the-cuff time-pass. With the assistance of web 2.0 technology, blogs became treasured and engaging equipment for English and Foreign Languages, teachers the scope of these social networks, significantly blogs, thus, will broaden the learner-learner and learner-teacher interactions. The researcher will analyze the difficulties of EFL learners and suggest technical remedies to eliminate the problem and face barriers in writing English via educational technology

QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVE PHYTOCHEMICAL ANALYSIS AND BACTERICIDAL ACTIVITY OF PELARGONIUM GRAVEOLENS L'HER

Objective: The present study investigates the qualitative and quantitative phytoconstituents and bactericidal effect of medicinally important Pelargonium graveolens L' Her leaves extracts. Methods: Preliminary phytochemical screening analyses were determined using standard protocol methods. In addition, antibacterial activities of the P. graveolens leaves extracts were evaluated by disc diffusion method against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. Results: The results revealed that ethanolic extract of P. graveolens was found to be the predominant occurrence of phytochemicals (9/11) which contains flavonoid, phenol, tannins, saponins, reducing sugar, glycosides, terpenoids, anthraquinone, and phlorotannins while starch and steroids were absent. In quantitative estimation of bioactive phytoconstituents showed carbohydrates (74 mg/gdw), protein (41.25 mg/gdw), chlorophyll (2.2±0.05 mg/gdw), lipids (0.07 mg/gdw), tannins (135.3 gm/gdw), phenolic compounds (123.75 mg/gdw) and flavonoids (50 mg/gdw) were found to have higher amount in ethanolic extract followed by acetone, methanol and aqueous extract and also showed an inhibitory action on growth of tested bacteria. Conclusion: Ethanolic extract of the P. graveolens leaves hold promises as a potential source of pharmaceutically important phytochemicals and also have strong antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeroginosa and Klebsiella pneumonia. Keywords: Phytochemical screening, Primary and secondary metabolites, Antibacterial screening, Pelargonium graveolen

A Survey on Digital Image Restoration

AbstractDigital image restoration is a field of engineering that deals with methods used to recover an original scene from degraded observations. The goal of this article is to introduce digital image restoration to the reader, who is just beginning in this field, and to provide a review and analysis for the reader who may already be familiar in image restoration. The perspective on the topic offered here is to let the readers to know various methods of digital image restoration. It should be noted, however, that digital image restoration is a very broad field, as we will discuss, and thus contains many other triumphant approaches that have been developed from different perspectives, such as optics, astronomy, and medical imaging. In the process of reviewing this topic, we hope to address a number of very significant issues in this field that are not classically discussed in the technical literature

RADIOPROTECTIVE ACTIVITY OF FICUS RACEMOSA ETHANOL EXTRACT AGAINST ELECTRON BEAM INDUCED DNA DAMAGE IN VITRO, IN VIVO AND IN SILICO

Objective: To investigate the radioprotective effect of Ficus racemosa (Fr) ethanol stem bark extract against electron beam radiation (EBR) induced DNA damage using in vitro, in vivo and in silico models.Methods: The extract of Fr was tested against radiation induced DNA damage by exposing pBR322 plasmid to different EBR dose rates. Comet assay was conducted using mice which were exposed at 6Gy EBR. In silico study was performed by inhibiting p53 protein C-chain (1TUP C) using phyto chemicals of Fr.Results: The in vitro results revealed that, Fr at lower concentration (50µg) showed inhibitory effect on radiation induced DNA damage compared with control. Exposure of mice to 6Gy EBR increased comet parameters like TL (Tail length), OTM (Olive tail moment) and %T (percentage of DNA in the tail) of blood lymphocytes. Fr ethanol extract given orally prior to irradiation at a dose of 400 mg/kg body weight protected the DNA from the radiation damage. The phytochemicals of Fr showed clear interaction with p53 protein chain C, specifically binding to Arginine 248 (ARG248) and Arginine 273 (ARG273) amino acid residues thereby inhibiting the p53 protein-DNA interaction upon radiation.Conclusion: The present study indicates that Fr ethanol extract significantly reduced radiation induced DNA damage in vivo and in vitro. It also showed that the biologically active compounds of Fr have ability to inhibit wild p53 protein which is responsible for apoptosis; these compounds can be used as radioprotectors during chemotherapy to protect normal tissues surrounding cancerous tissue.Â

Evidence of Balanced Diversity at the Chicken Interleukin 4 Receptor Alpha Chain Locus

Background: The comparative analysis of genome sequences emerging for several avian species with thefully sequenced chicken genome enables the genome-wide investigation of selective processes infunctionally important chicken genes. In particular, because of pathogenic challenges it is expected thatgenes involved in the chicken immune system are subject to particularly strong adaptive pressure.Signatures of selection detected by inter-species comparison may then be investigated at the populationlevel in global chicken populations to highlight potentially relevant functional polymorphisms.Results: Comparative evolutionary analysis of chicken (Gallus gallus) and zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata)genes identified interleukin 4 receptor alpha-chain (IL-4Rα), a key cytokine receptor as a candidate with asignificant excess of substitutions at nonsynonymous sites, suggestive of adaptive evolution. Resequencingand detailed population genetic analysis of this gene in diverse village chickens from Asia and Africa,commercial broilers, and in outgroup species red jungle fowl (JF), grey JF, Ceylon JF, green JF, grey francolinand bamboo partridge, suggested elevated and balanced diversity across all populations at this gene, actingto preserve different high-frequency alleles at two nonsynonymous sites.Conclusion: Haplotype networks indicate that red JF is the primary contributor of diversity at chickenIL-4Rα: the signature of variation observed here may be due to the effects of domestication, admixtureand introgression, which produce high diversity. However, this gene is a key cytokine-binding receptor inthe immune system, so balancing selection related to the host response to pathogens cannot be excluded

Isolated HbA1c identifies a different subgroup of individuals with type 2 diabetes compared to fasting or post-challenge glucose in Asian Indians: The CARRS and MASALA studies.

AIMS: Guidelines recommend hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) as a diagnostic test for type 2 diabetes, but its accuracy may differ in certain ethnic groups. METHODS: The prevalence of type 2 diabetes by HbA1c, fasting glucose, and 2 h glucose was compared in 3016 participants from Chennai and Delhi, India from the CARRS-2 Study to 757 Indians in the U.S. from the MASALA Study. Type 2 diabetes was defined as fasting glucose ≥ 7.0 mmol/L, 2-h glucose ≥ 11.1 mmol/L, or HbA1c ≥ 6.5%. Isolated HbA1c diabetes was defined as HbA1c ≥ 6.5% with fasting glucose < 7.0 mmol/L and 2 h glucose < 11.1 mmol/L. RESULTS: The age, sex, and BMI adjusted prevalence of diabetes by isolated HbA1c was 2.9% (95% CI: 2.2-4.0), 3.1% (95% CI: 2.3-4.1), and 0.8% (95% CI: 0.4-1.8) in CARRS-Chennai, CARRS-Delhi, and MASALA, respectively. The proportion of diabetes diagnosed by isolated HbA1c was 19.4%, 26.8%, and 10.8% in CARRS-Chennai, CARRS-Delhi, and MASALA respectively. In CARRS-2, individuals with type 2 diabetes by isolated HbA1c milder cardio-metabolic risk than those diagnosed by fasting or 2-h measures. CONCLUSIONS: In Asian Indians, the use of HbA1c for type 2 diabetes diagnosis could result in a higher prevalence. HbA1c may identify a subset of individuals with milder glucose intolerance