ANTI-ATHEROSCLEROTIC ACTIVITY OF ETHANOLIC EXTRACT OF CHRYSANTHEMUM INDICUM L. FLOWERS AGAINST HIGH-FAT DIET-INDUCED ATHEROSCLEROSIS IN MALE WISTAR RATS

  Objective: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the anti-atherosclerotic activity of ethanolic extract of Chrysanthemum indicum (EECI) flowers against high-fat diet induction in male Wistar rats.Methods: The method used for induction of atherosclerosis was high-fat diet for 28 days. Rats were divided into five groups (n=6). Group I served as normal. Group II serves as high-fat diet-treated group. Group III serves as standard treated with high-fat diet+atorvastatin (30 mg/kg, p.o). Group IV serves as low dose treated with high-fat diet+EECI (150 mg/kg, p.o.). Group V serves as high dose treated with high-fat diet+EECI (300 mg/kg, p.o.). The following parameters, glucose, high-density lipoprotein (HDL), low-density lipoprotein (LDL), total cholesterol (TC), very LDL (VLDL), triglycerides (TG), atherogenic index (AI), serum glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase, serum glutamic pyruvic transaminase, total protein, food consumption, and body weight, were evaluated and histopathological studies were performed.Results: The results showed that EECI at a dose of 150 mg/kg and 300 mg/kg exhibited significant decrease in glucose, TG, TC, LDL-cholesterol (LDL-C), HDL, VLDL, AI, and total protein levels when compared to high-fat diet group. This investigation reveals that the extract-treated groups lower the serum TC and LDL-C levels significantly, which reduces the risk of coronary heart disease.Conclusion: The experimental studies show that the EECI of both doses 150 mg/kg and 300 mg/kg, respectively, showed significant reduction in lipid profile, glucose, and total protein. From the study, the plant extract showed anti-atherosclerotic activity and thus authenticates its ethnomedicinal use.Â

DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION OF DAPAGLIFLOZIN BY REVERSED-PHASE HIGH-PERFORMANCE LIQUID CHROMATOGRAPHY METHOD AND IT'S FORCED DEGRADATION STUDIES

  Objective: To develop and validate a simple, selective, precise, and accurate method for the estimation of dapagliflozin using reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) technique in bulk and tablet formulation.Methods: The proposed method utilizes chromatographic conditions hypersil BDS (250 mm × 4.6 mm, 5 μ), mobile phase was buffer:acetonitrile (60:40) ratio, flow rate was maintained 1 ml/minute, column temperature was set at 30°C, detection wave length was 245 nm, and diluent was mobile phase.Results: By injecting 5 times of the standard solution system suitability parameters were studied, and results were found well under the acceptance criteria. The linearity study was performed by taking 25-150% levels, and the R2 value was found to be 0.999, precision was found to be 0.5 for repeatability and 0.31 for intermediate precision. The % recovery was found to be 99.89%. Limit of detection and limit of quantitation were found to be 0.60 μg/ml and 1.81 μg/ml, respectively. The % purity was found to be 99.71%. Degradation study on dapagliflozin was performed and concluded that the purity threshold was more than purity angle and within the acceptable range.Conclusion: The developed RP-HPLC method for dapagliflozin was found to be simple, precise, accurate, reproducible, and cost effective. Statistical analysis of the developed method conforms that the proposed method is an appropriate and it can be useful for the routine analysis. This method gives the basic idea to the researcher who is working in area such as product development and finish product testing

Permethrin induced neuronal inefficiency in the supraoesophageal ganglion of mulberry silkworm, Bombyx mori. L

The primary target for pyrethroid insecticides is the nervous system. Available literature on the toxicity of pyrethroids to mulberry silkworm, are confined to specific tissues like haemolymph, fat body, eggs of silk moth and no study is indicated on supraoesophageal ganglion tissue, hence this study was conducted. In this study the changes occurring in the level of cholinergic and GABAergic transmitters (ACh and GABA)​; their connected enzymes viz., ChAT, AChE, GAD were studied in the supraoesophageal ganglionic tissue of silkworm Bombyx mori upon permithrin intoxication. Findings indicate that suppression of acetyl cholinesterase has led to the accumulation of ACh in greater quantities. Contrary to the cholinesterase suppression, a profound increase in GABAergic system was evident in the nervous tissue suggesting existence of an imbalance of excitatory-​inhibitory interplay in the supraoesophageal ganglia due to the toxic insult caused by permethrin; this substantially affects the growth, development, fecundity and silk prodn. In conclusion, the permethrin induced neurotoxicity resulted a series of perturbations in silkworm neurotransmitter metab

COLD STRESS INDUCED MODULATIONS ON ANTIOXIDANT STATUS OF STZ INDUCED DIABETIC FEMALE RAT REPRODUCTIVE SYSTEM: A PROTECTIVE ROLE OF TRIBULUS TERRESTRIS FRUIT EXTRACT

Diabetes mellitus induced oxidative stress could lead to the impairment of female reproductive antioxidant defense mechanism and low temperature exposure leads to oxidative stress as well. There is a positive relationship between hypothalamic noradrenergic neuronal activity and blood glucose concentrations under stressful conditions. Treatment of female reproductive disorders using herbal remedies is gaining popularity in human medicine. In light of this, the study was designed to investigate the effectiveness of TTF ethanol extract in STZ-induced diabetic female rat reproductive system exposed to cold stress and to evaluate their therapeutic potential for the treatment of cold stress induced modulations on antioxidant status of DM.  Diabetic rats exposed to cold stress by housing in an acute cold stress apparatus at 4±2 °C for 3hrs per day for 7 days later they were supplemented with TTF extract at a dose of 200mg/kgbw. To check the efficacy of TTF on oxidative stress indices in uterus, ovary and oviduct, the animals were sacrificed on the 19th day of TTF extract exposure and subjected to in vivo biochemical and hormonal assays.  The findings of this study confirm the deleterious effect of diabetes and cold stress on the reproductive organs weight, antioxidant defense system and hormones of female reproductive organs viz uterus, ovary and oviduct.  Supplementation of TTF (200mg/kgbw) extract to diabetic rats exposed to cold stress, the serum glucose levels decreased significantly (P<0.05) and significantly increased the weights of reproductive organs and serum oestrogen, FSH and LH levels when compared with the intoxicated control groups.  Diabetes toxicity and cold stress in the female reproductive organs may result in disruption of oxidants and antioxidants balances, which provides a strong coupling of altered equilibrium processes and loss of energy capacity to meet an oxidation challenge. Moreover, exposure to diabetes and cold stress can increase the effects of oxidative stress. Exogenous supplementation of TTF extract has been found to counter free radical generated oxidative stress and to facilitate reduction of the toxic effects induced by diabetes and cold stress, there by strengthening the cellular antioxidant defense and improved reproductive functioning ability

Implementation of CQM on SSR Enhanced Images

Image enhancement is one of the key issues in high quality pictures such as digital camera and HDTV. The image enhancement targets on transforming input image as better one, so that the enhanced image solve the purpose of specific application or set of objectives. Since image clarity is very easily affected by lighting, weather, or equipment that has been used to capture the image. These conditions lead to image may suffer from loss of information. As a result, many techniques have developed known as image enhancement techniques to recover the information in an image. Contrast Stretching, Histogram equalization is a primitive and well established technique for enhancing image contrast but cannot preserve the brightness and color of the original Image and Homomorphic filtering technique has the problem of bleaching of the image. Modern technique like Single Scale Retinex (SSR) performs much better than those listed above because it is based on the color constancy theory and white balancing. Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio (PSNR) and Calculation of Quality Measurement(CQM) are the measurable parameters which are considered in this project

Microstrip Line Fed Leaky Wave Antenna with Shorting Vias for Wideband Systems

In this work a complex structured shorted vias microstrip leaky wave antenna is designed and analysed. A Leaky wave antenna is a travelling wave structure with complex propagation constant. When shorting vias are loaded in a periodic structure the fundamental resonant mode shows some stop band characteristics and some of the modes will strongly attenuated. Three different types of iterations are examined in this work with and without defected ground structures. The defected ground structure based leaky wave antennas are showing better performance characteristics with respect to efficiency and phase. A micro strip line feeding with impedance of 50 ohms at both ports are providing excellent impedance matching to the conducting path on the microstrip surface. The shorting vias are suppressing certain higher order frequency bands and providing excellent wide band characteristics with low loss

A generic scope actuation system for flexible endoscopes

Background: A scope actuation system assists a surgeon in steering a scope for navigating an operative field during an interventional or diagnostic procedure. Each system is tailored for a specific surgical procedure. The development of a generic scope actuation system could assist various laparoscopic and endoscopic procedures. This has the potential to reduce the deployment and maintenance costs for a hospital, making it more accessible for clinical usage. Methods: A modular actuation system (for maneuvering rigid laparoscopes) was adapted to enable incorporation of flexible endoscopes. The design simplifies the installation and disassembly processes. User studies were conducted to assess the ability of the system to focus onto a diagnostic area, and to navigate during a simulated esophagogastroduodenoscopy procedure. During the studies, the endoscope was maneuvered with (robotic mode) and without (manual mode) the actuation system to navigate the endoscope’s focus on a predefined track. Results: Results show that the robotic mode performed better than the manual mode on all the measured performance parameters including (a) the total duration to traverse a track, (b) the percentage of time spent outside a track while traversing, and (c) the number of times the scope focus shifts outside the track. Additionally, robotic mode also reduced the perceived workload based on the NASA-TLX scale. Conclusions: The proposed scope actuation system enhances the maneuverability of flexible endoscopes. It also lays the groundwork for future development of modular and generic scope assistant systems that can be used in both laparoscopic and endoscopic procedures

User defined nodal displacement of numerical mesh for analysis of screw machines in FLUENT

Growing demands to reduce energy consumption are driving researchers towards in-depth analysis of positive displacement machines. Twin screw compressors are amongst the most common types of positive displacement machines. These machines have inherently complex geometry due to intricate rotor profiles used. As the details of the internal flows are difficult to obtain experimentally, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) offers a good alternative for evaluation of internal flow patterns. However, implementation of CFD is challenging due complex deforming geometries. In this paper, a customised grid generator SCORGTM developed by authors is used to generate numerical meshes for commercially available solver ANSYS FLUENT. FLUENT is an unstructured solver which offers flexibility of using both segregated and coupled solution algorithms. Segregated algorithms are generally faster which results in shorter product development time. Interface with FLUENT is implemented by performing User Defined Nodal Displacements (UDND) of grids generated by SCORG in a parallel framework. For this purpose, SCORG and UDND are coupled and extended to work with FLUENT's parallel architecture. The developed code is compiled within the solver. The oil free air screw compressor with 'N' profile rotors and 3/5 lobe combination is modelled for 8000 RPM and 6000 RPM. Finally, the predicted performance values with FLUENT are compared to previously calculated CFX predictions and experimental results. FLUENT requires shorter solution time to obtain same accuracy of CFX

Characterization of antioxidant tapioca/polyaniline composites film prepared using solution casting method

Recently, the incorporation of polyaniline (PANI) as an additive into the biofilm to produce food packaging material is of particular interest due to the need to improve in the properties of the biocomposite film. The aim of this work is to evaluate the effect of concentration and size of PANI loading into the film on the antioxidant properties of PANI/starch film with the analysis of mechanical and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) spectra. Composite films with 0.02 g, 0.05 g, and 0.1 g of PANI loading into the tapioca starch film were prepared with different sizes of PANI. The antioxidant and mechanical properties of tapioca starch/PANI composite film properties were investigated. The composites exhibited an increase in free radical scavenging capacity (a measure of antioxidant activity), with increasing of PANI loading in the film irrespective to the size of PANI. However, the highest free radical scavenging activity showed in sample B with the distribution size of PANI range 100 µm≤x≤125 µm. In the mechanical test, with the favorable to have more flexibility film rather than hard film, sample B with 0.05 g of PANI loading showed more flexible with high elongation at break (EAB) compared to others. Based on the FTIR spectra, the starch/PANI film spectra were similar to the starch/glycerol without PANI. However, one notable weak pick near 1455 cm-1 can be found in sample B and C with respective to the concentration of PANI loaded. The incorporation of PANI greatly affected the antioxidant activity of the film which affected the mechanical properties as well

Inhibition of STAT3 dimerization and acetylation by garcinol suppresses the growth of human hepatocellular carcinoma in vitro and in vivo

10.1186/1476-4598-13-66Molecular Cancer131-MCOA