Glutathione-S-Transferase and Thiol Stress in patients with acute renal failure

Introduction: Tubular damage is common finding in acute renal failure (ARF). Various etiologies have been put forth to explain the tubular damage in ARF, one important mechanism among them is oxidative damage to renal tubules. Several biomolecules including low-molecular weight peptides and enzymes in urine have been proposed as early markers of renal failure. Current study has been undertaken to study the thiol stress and glutathione-S-transferase (GST) levels in ARF patients. Method: 58 ARF patients and 55 healthy controls were selected based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. Serum thiols, GST, malanoldehyde (MDA) and urine thiols were determined by spectrophotometer based methods. Results: Serum thiols and urine thiols were significantly decreased (p<0.0001), and serum GST and MDA levels were significantly increased (p<0.0001) in ARF patients compared to healthy controls. Serum GST and MDA correlated positively in ARF cases (r2 = 0.6938, p<0.0001). Conclusion: There is significant thiol stress and increased lipid peroxidation in ARF patients which leads to tubular cell membrane damage and release of GST into blood stream and into urine. This may be possible mechanism for the increased presence of GST in urine (enzymuria) found in other studie

Spectroscopic characterization and quantum chemical investigation of molecular structure and vibrational spectra of phthalazine-1(2H)-one

In this study, vibrational and electronic transition analysis of phthalazine-1(2H)-one have been presented using experimental techniques FT-IR, FT-Raman and density functional theory (DFT) calculation. The structural properties of the molecule in the ground state have been calculated using DFT employing B3LYP/6-311++G(d,p) basis set. Optimized geometrical parameters have been interpreted and compared with the experimental values. The complete assignments have been performed on the basis of the experimental data and potential energy distribution (PED) of the vibrational modes. The calculated HOMO and LUMO energies and energy difference (ΔEHOMO‒LUMO = − 4.876 eV), confirm that charge transfers occur within the molecule. The stability of the molecule arising from hyperconjugative interactions and the charge delocalization has been analyzed using natural bond orbital’s analysis (NBO). The specific heat, Gibb’s free energy, and entropy of molecule have been calculated as a function of temperature by using statistical mechanics coupled with quantum chemical calculation. Observed vibrational wave numbers have been compared with calculated values, and found to be in agreement with experimental results. The study of dielectric properties like dielectric constant at microwave frequency, static dielectric constant and dielectric constant at optical frequency of Phthalazine-1(2H)-one have been determined. The dielectric relaxation studies provide information about the molecular structure and intermolecular interaction between phthalazine-1(2H)-one and alcohol mixture

α-Turns in protein structure

The occurrence of 5 → 1 type of hydrogen bonds (α-turn) in proteins has been studied using a data set comprising of 107 proteins with resolution ≤2.0 Å. A very large majority of such α-turn segments (96%) form part of regular α-helices. The examples (84) which do not form part of an α-helix are termed 'isolated α-turns' and are grouped into two major families and seven minor groups along with two isolated examples based on the similarity of conformational angles, The family with large number of examples (50) have (φ, ψ) angles close to an α-helix and hence belong to the class of the shortest α-helices, The 'end to end' distances of these α-turns vary between 4.7 and 6.7 Å, the range being nearly the same as that of α-helices. The propensity calculations show that some amino acids such as Glu, Ser and Thr have statistically significant higher preferences to occur in α-turns than in α-helices, In addition to the 5 → 1 type, the residues in the α-turn are involved in hydrogen bonds with other parts of the chain, The residues are in general more hydrophilic compared to those in α-helices, In many cases (70%) the α-turn occurs at the ends of extended strands, and whenever it occurs at the loop regions connecting two extended strands, it brings about a hairpin bend

Effect of pre harvest foliar spray of growth regulators on pre and post harvest parameters in ornamental sunflower genotype M-17R

An experiment was conducted to study the effect of pre harvest foliar application of growth regulators on the pre and post harvest flower quality in ornamental sunflower during the year 2012-13, at College of Horticulture, GKVK campus, UHS, Bagalkot. At 60 DAS highest plant height was with GA3 @ 150 ppm (154.73 cm) followed by GA3 @ 200 ppm (146.20 cm) and GA3 @ 250 ppm (145.53 cm). Sodium silicate @ 250 ppm (4508.77 cm2) registered maximum plant spread at 60 DAS. Foliar application of GA3 @ 150 ppm (25.00) produced highest number of leaves which was at par with Sodium silicate @ 250 ppm, GA3 @ 200 ppm and GA3 @ 250 ppm recording 24.87, 24.80 and 24.67 leaves respectively. Calcium sulphate @ 200 ppm registered highest leaf area of (4930.30 cm2) which was at par with Sodium silicate @ 250 ppm, Calcium sulphate @ 300 ppm, Chlormequat chloride @ 500 ppm, Sodium silicate @ 350 ppm, and Chlormequat chloride @ 1000 ppm with 4792.64, 4735.04, 4721.75, 4503.05 and 4430.02 cm2 respectively

Standardisation of agro-techniques for flower quality parameters in ornamental sunflower (Helianthus annus L.)

An experiment was carried out on standardisation of agro-techniques for flower quality parameters in ornamental sunflower during 2012-13 at GKVK, campus, College of Horticulture, University of Horticultural Sciences, Bagalkot. In three way interaction effect longest stalk length (36.33) was in the treatment combination of mulching i.e M1 (with mulch) with a spacing of S1 (60 cm x 40 cm) at the fertilizer rate F1 (40:60:40 NPK kg ha-1). Stalk girth was maximum with mulching treatment of M1 (with mulch) at a spacing of S1 (60 cm x 40 cm) with the fertilizer rate of F3 (80:90:80 NPK kg ha-1) and without mulch at the spacing of S1 (60 cm x 40 cm) with fertilizer rate of F3 (80:90:80 NPK kg ha- 1) recording 0.49 and 0.46 cm respectively. Mulching i.e M1 (with mulch) at spacing S1 (60 cm x 40 cm) with fertilizer rate if F3 (80:90:80 NPK kg ha-1) produced plants with largest flower head diameter (13.24 cm). The treatment combinations of M1 (with mulch) + S1 (60 cm x 40 cm) + F3 (80:90:80 NPK kg ha-1) 4.65 cm recorded broadest flower disc diameter. Considering the results ornamental sunflower can be grown best without mulching, at a spacing of 60 x 30 cm or 60 x 40 cm with optimum to higher fertilizer dose to give best flower quality in ornamental sunflower

Evaluation of ornamental sunflower for value addition

An experiment was conducted at College of Horticulture, GKVK, campus, Bengaluru, UHS, Bagalkot during 2012-13 to study the suitability of ornamental sunflower for dry flower production. Highest flower weight loss was with corn meal and silica gel (90.75 and 88.45 per cent). Silica gel followed by borax powder took least number of days for drying of flower heads (9.40 and 12.60 days respectively). Colour retention in dried ornamental sunflower was highest with control treatment and silica gel with a score of 4.63 and 4.44. Flower appearance was best with silica gel (4.44) which was at par with control with a score of 3.81. Best texture score of (4.31) was highest with silica gel followed by control (shade), corn meal and alum powder which recorded 3.63, 3.31 and 3.25 respectively. Best flower shape after drying period as with silica gel (4.38).The results reveal silica gel and corn meal as best drying agents in ornamental sunflower

Has My Algorithm Succeeded? An Evaluator for Human Pose Estimators

Abstract. Most current vision algorithms deliver their output ‘as is’, without indicating whether it is correct or not. In this paper we propose evaluator algorithms that predict if a vision algorithm has succeeded. We illustrate this idea for the case of Human Pose Estimation (HPE). We describe the stages required to learn and test an evaluator, including the use of an annotated ground truth dataset for training and testing the evaluator (and we provide a new dataset for the HPE case), and the development of auxiliary features that have not been used by the (HPE) algorithm, but can be learnt by the evaluator to predict if the output is correct or not. Then an evaluator is built for each of four recently developed HPE algorithms using their publicly available implementations: Eichner and Ferrari [5], Sapp et al. [16], Andriluka et al. [2] and Yang and Ramanan [22]. We demonstrate that in each case the evaluator is able to predict if the algorithm has correctly estimated the pose or not.

PERFORMANCE STUDIES OF CUSTOM CONTINUOUSLY VARIABLE TRANSMISSION FOR ALLTERRAIN VEHICLE APPLICATIONS

The off-road vehicles are a necessary in today’s world for rescuing operations, military, racing and farming applications creating a huge demand for the AllTerrain Vehicle in the automobile market. The market size is estimated to be worth about $ 9.2bn (₹594Cr) by 2020. The drive-train of an All-Terrain Vehicle(ATV) is one of the major component in propelling the vehicle. Continuously Variable Transmission(CVT) coupled to a constant reduction gearbox, provides ease of driveability and the required high torque and top speed. In case of an ATV, high torque and high-top speed is the requirement, since it should be able to negotiate various terrains such as bumps, hill-climb, etc. Several authors have discussed, methods in designing CVT components of commercial vehicles which run on tarmac, and only few researchers have discussed methods to develop a CVT for an ATV requiring high velocity and high torque. The aim is to develop a lightweight, compact CVT system with high torque and top speed without any compromise on reliability. The force balance method is used to develop the analytical model. This model is used to design the various components of the CVT operating with gear ratios between 4:1 to 0.7:1. The structural analysis of all the CVT components are carried out. The designed and fabricated CVT components were then assembled on the ATV and performance studies were done by testing in various terrain conditions such as bumps, drops, slush and pulling weight from zero speed. All the components performed well, with no failures in all these conditions