Development and Validation of a Dissolution Test Method for Artemether and Lumefantrine in Tablets

Purpose: To develop and validate a dissolution test method for dissolution release of artemether and lumefantrine from tablets.Methods: A single dissolution method for evaluating the in vitro release of artemether and lumefantrine from tablets was developed and validated. The method comprised of a dissolution medium of 1000 ml of 2 %w/v of Myrj 52 in 0.005M HCl per vessel with the paddle rotating at 100 rpm for 120 min. The dissolution samples were analysed using a Waters HPLC system with Waters symmetry column (C-18 column of 250mm x 4.6mm i.d., 5 μ particle size). The mobile phase was a mixture of 20 volumes of 0.5 %v/v of triethylamine in water (adjusted to a pH of 3.0 with orthophosphoric acid) and 80 volumes of acetonitrile. The detection wavelength was set at 216 nm and 100 μl of each sample was injected. The HPLC method used for the determination of drug release was validated for the parameters of accuracy, precision, linearity, specificity, filter validation, solution stability and robustness.Results: The dissolution test provided sink conditions for artemether and lumefantrine and was able to discriminate between tablet formulations of different hardness and different composition. Application of Mann-Whitney U test for significant difference between samples at various time points during the dissolution test yielded z values > 1.96 (1.96 = critical z value at p = 0.05) for the various formulations tested, indicating the discriminatory power of the dissolution test.Conclusion: This validated dissolution test may be used as a single dissolution test for artemether and luminfantrine in tablet formulations.Keywords: Artemether, Lumefantrine, Tablet formulations, Single dissolution test, HPL

A study on clinical profile, management and outcome in pediatric patients admitted with scorpion envenomation

Background: Scorpion envenomation is a common medical emergency. The main aim is to study clinical profile, management and outcome.Methods: Prospective observational study of Scorpion envenomation cases for six months. case sheets were analysed for clinical profile, symptoms, complications, management and outcome.Results: During the study period first 50 cases were admitted and treated for the following results 66% were males and 34% were females, 46% were upper extremity and 54% were lower extremity. common clinical symptoms are pain at site, autonomic storm, palpitation, headaches, abdominal pain, altered sensorium, vomiting. 40% of patients received prazosin with 1-2 hrs. the major complications were myocarditis, encephalopathy, Peripheral circulatory failure & congestive cardiac failure. There was no mortality in this study.Conclusions: The study finding shows that early and effective use of prazosin treatment showed good outcome in patients. Less complications were seen in patients those who received the first aid. This study concludes that majority of patient were exposed to complication due to shortfall in education, awareness and pre-hospitalization. We, as a clinical pharmacist, tried to create awareness and provide education to health care workers in all primary health care center through distributing pamphlets to general public in and around hospital

Standardization of optimum melatonin concentration for drought tolerance at germination and early development stage in rice (CO-54)

Drought stress poses a serious threat to production and nutritional security. In recent years, foliar application of plant growth regulators (PGRs) and nutrients are increasingly employed to overcome physiological constraints resulting in enhanced crop production. Melatonin is a new biomolecule recently found to ameliorate the effect of biotic and abiotic stresses in crop plants. Hence, the present experiment was conducted to assess the optimum concentration of melatonin to mitigate the adverse effect of drought stress on germination and growth components in rice variety CO-54. In this experiment, PEG-mediated drought stress (-0.5 MPa) was imposed with different concentrations of melatonin (at doses of 50, 100, 150, 200, and 250 µM) seed treatments. Together, these results indicated that 200 µM melatonin-treated seeds showed a greater germination percentage (60%), root length (12.23cm), shoot length (8.23cm), fresh and dry weight (0.126g and 0.095g), high vigor index (1910.22), promptness index (64.83), and germination stress index (100) respectively. The result of this experiment provides a shred of strong evidence suggesting that seed treatment of 200 µM melatonin could be considered an effective technique for mitigating the detrimental effects of drought by promoting seed germination and thereby increasing the growth components of seedlings in rice. The study demonstrates that melatonin can shield rice seedlings from the effects of drought stress

Hybridization of ALO and GOA for Combined Economic Emission Dispatch

A hybrid algorithm is presented for CEED problem with generation, emission and combustion of fuel & emission cost as an objective. The proposed algorithm is combined with both ant lion optimizer and grass hopper optimizations called as integrated ant lion grasshopper optimization algorithm (IALGOA). To find an optimal solution for a CEED, the IALGOA is proposed in this paper. The IALGOA performance is compared and analyzed with conventional hybrid algorithms like PSO, GSA and Adaptive Wind Driven Optimization (AWDO) under standard IEEE 30-bus test system. The presented numerical results explain IALGOA algorithm’s excellent convergence characteristics

Hybridization of ALO and GOA for Combined Economic Emission Dispatch

894-897A hybrid algorithm is presented for CEED problem with generation, emission and combustion of fuel & emission cost as an objective. The proposed algorithm is combined with both ant lion optimizer and grass hopper optimizations called as integrated ant lion grasshopper optimization algorithm (IALGOA). To find an optimal solution for a CEED, the IALGOA is proposed in this paper. The IALGOA performance is compared and analyzed with conventional hybrid algorithms like PSO, GSA and Adaptive Wind Driven Optimization (AWDO) under standard IEEE 30-bus test system. The presented numerical results explain IALGOA algorithm’s excellent convergence characteristics

Textured NiSe₂ Film: Bifunctional Electrocatalyst for Full Water Splitting at Remarkably Low Overpotential with High Energy Efficiency

Herein we have shown that electrodeposited NiSe2 can be used as a bifunctional electrocatalyst under alkaline conditions to split water at very low potential by catalyzing both oxygen evolution and hydrogen evolution reactions at anode and cathode, respectively, achieving a very high electrolysis energy efficiency exceeding 80% at considerably high current densities (100 mA cm-2). The OER catalytic activity as well as electrolysis energy efficiency surpasses any previously reported OER electrocatalyst in alkaline medium and energy efficiency of an electrolyzer using state-of-the-art Pt and RuO2 as the HER and OER catalyst, respectively. Through detailed electrochemical and structural characterization, we have shown that the enhanced catalytic activity is attributed to directional growth of the electrodeposited film that exposes a Ni-rich lattice plane as the terminating plane, as well as increased covalency of the selenide lattice which decreases the Ni(II) to Ni(III) oxidation potential. Thereby, the high efficiency along with extended stability makes NiSe2 as the most efficient water electrolyzer known to-date

Role of Melatonin in Directing Plant Physiology

Melatonin (MT), a naturally occurring compound, is found in various species worldwide. In 1958, it was first identified in the pineal gland of dairy cows. MT is an "old friend" but a "new compound" for plant biology. It brings experts and research minds from the broad field of plant sciences due to its considerable influence on plant systems. The MT production process in plants and animals is distinct, where it has been expressed explicitly in chloroplasts and mitochondria in plants. Tryptophan acts as the precursor for the formation of phyto-melatonin, along with intermediates including tryptamine, serotonin, N-acetyl serotonin, and 5-methoxy tryptamine. It plays a vital role in growth phases such as the seed germination and seedling growth of crop plants. MT significantly impacts the gas exchange, thereby improving physio-chemical functions in plant systems. During stress, the excessive generation and accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) causes protein oxidation, lipid peroxidation, nucleic acid damage, and enzyme inhibition. Because it directly acts as an antioxidant compound, it awakens the plant antioxidant defense system during stress and reduces the production of ROS, which results in decreasing cellular oxidative damage. MT can enhance plant growth and development in response to various abiotic stresses such as drought, salinity, high temperature, flooding, and heavy metals by regulating the antioxidant mechanism of plants. However, these reactions differ significantly from crop to crop and are based on the level and kind of stress. The role of MT in the physiological functions of plants towards plant growth and development, tolerance towards various abiotic stresses, and approaches for enhancing the endogenous MT in plant systems are broadly reviewed and it is suggested that MT is a steering compound in directing major physiological functions of plants under the changing climate in future

Corneal Confocal Microscopy: A novel noninvasive test to diagnose and stratify the severity of human diabetic neuropathy

OBJECTIVE: The accurate quantification of human diabetic neuropathy is important to define at-risk patients, anticipate deterioration, and assess new therapies. ---------- RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: A total of 101 diabetic patients and 17 age-matched control subjects underwent neurological evaluation, neurophysiology tests, quantitative sensory testing, and evaluation of corneal sensation and corneal nerve morphology using corneal confocal microscopy (CCM). ---------- RESULTS: Corneal sensation decreased significantly (P = 0.0001) with increasing neuropathic severity and correlated with the neuropathy disability score (NDS) (r = 0.441, P 3) defined an NFD of 6) defined a NFD cutoff of <20.8/mm2 with a sensitivity of 0.71 (0.42–0.92) and specificity of 0.64 (0.54–0.74). ---------- CONCLUSIONS: CCM is a noninvasive clinical technique that may be used to detect early nerve damage and stratify diabetic patients with increasing neuropathic severity. Established diabetic neuropathy leads to pain and foot ulceration. Detecting neuropathy early may allow intervention with treatments to slow or reverse this condition (1). Recent studies suggested that small unmyelinated C-fibers are damaged early in diabetic neuropathy (2–4) but can only be detected using invasive procedures such as sural nerve biopsy (4,5) or skin-punch biopsy (6–8). Our studies have shown that corneal confocal microscopy (CCM) can identify early small nerve fiber damage and accurately quantify the severity of diabetic neuropathy (9–11). We have also shown that CCM relates to intraepidermal nerve fiber loss (12) and a reduction in corneal sensitivity (13) and detects early nerve fiber regeneration after pancreas transplantation (14). Recently we have also shown that CCM detects nerve fiber damage in patients with Fabry disease (15) and idiopathic small fiber neuropathy (16) when results of electrophysiology tests and quantitative sensory testing (QST) are normal. In this study we assessed corneal sensitivity and corneal nerve morphology using CCM in diabetic patients stratified for the severity of diabetic neuropathy using neurological evaluation, electrophysiology tests, and QST. This enabled us to compare CCM and corneal esthesiometry with established tests of diabetic neuropathy and define their sensitivity and specificity to detect diabetic patients with early neuropathy and those at risk of foot ulceration

Identifikacija ptičjih vrsta lančanom reakcijom polimerazom i analizom slijeda mitohondrijskoga gena 12S rRNA

Authentic identification and differentiation of avian species is a vital step in conservative, taxonomic, forensic, legal and other ornithological interventions. The present investigation involved the application of molecular biological approach to identify and differentiate avian species i.e. two species of birds, namely black kite (Milvus migrans) and parakeet (Psittacula krameri). The DNA was isolated from blood samples of each species and a part of the mitochondrial 12S rRNA gene was amplified through polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The PCR products were sequenced and aligned using Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST) of the GenBank (NCBI). Based on the alignment and similarity/divergence, these avian species were accurately identified and differentiated.Autentična identifikacija i razlikovanje ptičjih vrsta od presudnoga su značenja u različitim konzervirajućim, taksonomskim, sudbenim, zakonskim i drugim ornitološkim aktivnostima. Ovo istraživanje bavi se molekularnobiološkim pristupom identifikaciji i razlikovanja dviju ptičjih vrsta: crvenkaste lunje (sokola) (Milvus migrans) i papige (Psittacula krameri). DNA je bila izdvojena iz uzoraka njihove krvi te je dio mitohondrijskoga 12S rRNA bio umnožen lančanom reakcijom polimerazom. Proizvodi PCR-a bili su sekvencirani i analizirani upotrebom Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST) genske banke GenBank (NCBI). Na osnovi sličnosti odnosno različitosti nalaza identificirane su te dvije pretraživane vrste

European Academy of Neurology/Peripheral Nerve Society Guideline on diagnosis and treatment of Guillain–Barré syndrome

Guillain–Barré syndrome (GBS) is an acute polyradiculoneuropathy. Symptoms may vary greatly in presentation and severity. Besides weakness and sensory disturbances, patients may have cranial nerve involvement, respiratory insufficiency, autonomic dysfunction and pain. To develop an evidence-based guideline for the diagnosis and treatment of GBS, using Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) methodology a Task Force (TF) of the European Academy of Neurology (EAN) and the Peripheral Nerve Society (PNS) constructed 14 Population/Intervention/Comparison/Outcome questions (PICOs) covering diagnosis, treatment and prognosis of GBS, which guided the literature search. Data were extracted and summarised in GRADE Summaries of Findings (for treatment PICOs) or Evidence Tables (for diagnostic and prognostic PICOs). Statements were prepared according to GRADE Evidence-to-Decision (EtD) frameworks. For the six intervention PICOs, evidence-based recommendations are made. For other PICOs, good practice points (GPPs) are formulated. For diagnosis, the principal GPPs are: GBS is more likely if there is a history of recent diarrhoea or respiratory infection; CSF examination is valuable, particularly when the diagnosis is less certain; electrodiagnostic testing is advised to support the diagnosis; testing for anti-ganglioside antibodies is of limited clinical value in most patients with typical motor-sensory GBS, but anti-GQ1b antibody testing should be considered when Miller Fisher syndrome (MFS) is suspected; nodal–paranodal antibodies should be tested when autoimmune nodopathy is suspected; MRI or ultrasound imaging should be considered in atypical cases; and changing the diagnosis to acute-onset chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy (A-CIDP) should be considered if progression continues after 8 weeks from onset, which occurs in around 5% of patients initially diagnosed with GBS. For treatment, the TF recommends intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg) 0.4 g/kg for 5 days, in patients within 2 weeks (GPP also within 2–4 weeks) after onset of weakness if unable to walk unaided, or a course of plasma exchange (PE) 12–15 L in four to five exchanges over 1–2 weeks, in patients within 4 weeks after onset of weakness if unable to walk unaided. The TF recommends against a second IVIg course in GBS patients with a poor prognosis; recommends against using oral corticosteroids, and weakly recommends against using IV corticosteroids; does not recommend PE followed immediately by IVIg; weakly recommends gabapentinoids, tricyclic antidepressants or carbamazepine for treatment of pain; does not recommend a specific treatment for fatigue. To estimate the prognosis of individual patients, the TF advises using the modified Erasmus GBS outcome score (mEGOS) to assess outcome, and the modified Erasmus GBS Respiratory Insufficiency Score (mEGRIS) to assess the risk of requiring artificial ventilation. Based on the PICOs, available literature and additional discussions, we provide flow charts to assist making clinical decisions on diagnosis, treatment and the need for intensive care unit admission.</p