Rationality and Novelty of Instrumental Use in Neuropsychological Research Evaluations: Taking Infinity to Singularity

Background: Few studies address the rationality of utilization of instrumental tasking and maze learning in neuropsychological research evaluations; this is apparent from the literature search in biomedical databases with appropriate keywords yielding nil hits for rationality of such usage. Furthermore, how could such rationality be interpreted and used for scientific benefits of the researcher? What is the scope of applicability of such research in neuropsychology to patient care? This systematic review addresses such key issues and focuses on ways to appraise such research articles using rationality as the key criterion in such appraisals and interpretations. Objectives & scope: The systematic review focuses on deciphering the rationality and novelty of instrumental usage in neuropsychological research and patient care, from a thorough literature search in a seven month period from January 2013 to July 2013 in the “medline” database. The review was a pilot initiative to give a recommended harmonized validated checklist to best search, select, appraise, and apply such research for two purposes – psychological research and patient care. Methods: To this end, this meta-analysis uses “medline” index and “pubmed” database to establish a list of the pre-clinical and clinical research articles using instrumental tasks and maze learning in the last seven months. Then, quantitative analysis of these included articles are performed using MS Excel 2013 with Daniel XL-add in. Qualitative analysis of the selected articles has been performed using a pilot checklist validation, provided in this article; the same can be used for appraising and applying such research to the benefits of researcher and patients. The last seven months has been chosen appropriately since this is a pilot attempt to fulfilling the objective that it intends to do so. Conclusions & limitations: This meta-analysis will be useful in giving recommendation about how to select and critically appraise and interpret such neuropsychological evaluations in research using maze and neurological instrumentation. The study has not considered in-depth the methodologies of each individual research study. Although novelty was one of the objectives, it could not be met with appropriately due to the diverse nature of methodologies followed in each of the included research articles. Nonetheless, this pilot meta-analysis must encourage more explorations in this research area from a broader perspective in the future

Development of DNA probes for M. tuberculosis

Attempts were made to develop DNA probes for M. tuberculosis. Random library of M. tuberculosis was constructed in plasmid pGEM -4. Selection of recombinant clones was made by hybridisation with 32P labelled M. tuberculosis probe. Ten recombinant clones were selected on the basis of strong signals from the random library. These 10 clones named pTRC1-10 were subjected to tests for specificity and sensitivity. On this basis, pTRC4 was chosen and this is also, useful in restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) studies

Psychopharmacological characterization of effects of Ferula asafoetida linn. formulation in mouse on a Y-maze, EPM, and open field apparatus

Background: Asafoetida is an herbal food supplement that has numerous peripheral pharmacological actions. Its central nervous system effects have not yet been completely elucidated in both animals and human participants. The study focuses on deciphering the effects of this Herbaceutical with that of Donepezil and vitamin C in mouse models of short term novelty object recognition memory and open field test.Methods: The study was conducted in two stages - a pilot stage which assessed the most effective dose of asafoetida on cognition, followed by a post-pilot study phase wherein its effects at that dose were compared with those of Donepezil and vitamin C. Novelty Preference Test (NPT) on y-maze and Open field test on Open field box were used to evaluate the effects of the formulation on memory and motor activity in mice.Results: A dose of 400mg/day of asafoetida orally was found to improve memory significantly in comparison to 200mg/day in mice. Asafoetida showed a greater potency in improving memory than Donepezil and vitamin C. After 11 days of daily treatment with Asafoetida commercial powder, more than fifty percent of the mice showed an increase in recognition index of 0.7-0.8 as compared to 0.55 at baseline.Conclusions: Asafoetida powder has nootropic efficacy in mouse model - this has to be explored mechanistically and pharmaceutically to enable the psychopharmacological characterization of the active principles and its pharmacological effects in the central nervous system

Improving Tomato Productivity for Changing Climatic and Environmental Stress Conditions

Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) growth, cultivation and its productivity are adversely influenced by severe environmental pressures. Several environmental abiotic factors that are limited not only to drought, salinity, temperature and heat but also to mechanical stress affect tomato yield and productivity. Salinity is a persistent problem throughout the world that affects soil properties. Further, tomato productivity due to salinity stress is affected at all stages of plant development. Seed priming, a method to alleviate salinity stress is an effective technique that can improve performance and growth. It is a method that permits controlled hydration of seeds thereby, maintaining metabolic activity, without allowing the protrusion of the radicle. Mechanical conditioning, a term applied to plant stimulation by tactile stimuli through various methods like touching, brushing, or rubbing the plant material, is another environmentally friendly and simple method to regulate plant growth and also stress tolerance. Therefore, the mechanical conditioning practice primes plants for enhanced plant growth and also allows plants to defend against an impending stress factor. These two methods can be developed into successful production practices. In this chapter, we summarize current knowledge of seed priming and mechanical conditioning for plant growth, cross-tolerance and plant productivity improvement

A Nonlinear Model for Wind-Induced Oscillations of Trees

Ambient wind causes trees to oscillate. Wind-induced oscillations of trees constitute a fluid-structure interaction problem, which has been studied by many researchers from various points of view. However, there is yet a lot to be done. From an engineering point of view, the complex structure of trees, which are very different from man-made structures, as well as the highly nonlinear interaction between wind and tree, makes it a challenging task to predict the amplitude and frequency of the resulting oscillations. From a biological point of view, the influence of wind on photosynthesis as well as the growth and death of plants is crucial. A nonlinear model is derived for wind-induced oscillations of trees to investigate the effect of structural nonlinearities. It is shown that the structural nonlinearities in the system can result in a hardening behavior of the tree, indicating the importance of taking such nonlinearities into account. The influence of various system parameters such as tree’s age, taper and slenderness ratio on the tree oscillations is studied using this nonlinear model