UTILIZATION OF UNSERVICEABLE STRAWBERRIES FOR PRODUCTION OF ELLAGIC ACID AND ITS ENHANCEMENT BY ASPERGILLUS NIGER

Objective: Use of Aspergillus Niger (616) for the fabrication of ellagic acid from unserviceable strawberry as a substrate which is readily and chiefly available from Agro-industries and farm waste.Methods: The ellagic acid content was determined by HPLC method which shows a higher concentration of ellagic acid (143.085+1.669 ppm) after fermentation of 96 h at 35 °C. DPPH assay was carried out for antioxidant activity of ellagic acid.Results: Results designated that ellagic acid has higher antioxidant activity as compared with ascorbic acid.Conclusion: Existing study exposes that this agro waste and farm waste can be used at commercially for the production of ellagic acid which has enormous medicinal properties.Keywords: Ellagic acid, Raw strawberry, DPPH assay, Aspergillus Niger, Fermentation, and HPL

Household Effects of School Closure during Pandemic (H1N1) 2009, Pennsylvania, USA

To determine the effects of school closure, we surveyed 214 households after a 1-week elementary school closure because of pandemic (H1N1) 2009. Students spent 77% of the closure days at home, 69% of students visited at least 1 other location, and 79% of households reported that adults missed no days of work to watch children

Enhanced serum concentrations of transforming growth factor-beta1 in simple fatty liver: is it really benign?

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Inside the spectrum of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, simple fatty liver is generally thought of as being "non progressive", differently from non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, which increases in severity due to the presence of apoptosis/inflammation and fibrosis. The "benignity" of fatty liver is widely accepted but conceptually difficult to maintain because the mechanisms underlying this entity are the same ones that determine the more severe form.</p> <p>Findings provide evidence that iron overload is associated with increased liver damage and collagen deposition. Transforming growth factor-beta1 released by hepatic stellate cells during chronic liver injury plays a critical role in liver apoptosis and fibrogenesis.</p> <p>Objective</p> <p>To verify whether both the forms of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease were really dissimilar, evaluating the serum profile of two key parameters, indexes of severity.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A total of 123 patients (57 females) participated, forming three groups: forty five patients with fatty liver, 42 patients with non-alcoholic steatohepatitis and 36 with chronic hepatitis C. All had a biopsy-proven diagnosis.</p> <p>Measurements</p> <p>Serum concentrations of transforming growth factor-beta1 and ferritin.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>High concentrations of transforming growth factor-beta1 were noticed in patients suffering from both fatty liver and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, 129.1 (45.4) versus 116.8 (42.2) ng/mL, P = 0.2; they were significantly superior to those of chronic hepatitis C patients 87.5 (39.5) ng/mL, P < 0.001. Ferritin levels were on average above normal values and similar in the three groups (P = 0.9), also when adjusted for gender (P = 0.5) and age (P = 0.3).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>No difference between serum concentrations of transforming growth factor-beta1 and ferritin in fatty liver and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis suggests that these forms share more common aspects, regarding their progression, than previously thought.</p

Timing of respiratory syncytial virus and influenza epidemic activity in five regions of Argentina, 2007-2016

Fil: Baumeister, Elsa. ANLIS Dr.C.G.Malbrán. Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Infecciosas. Departamento de Virología. Servicio de Virosis Respiratoria; Argentina.Fil: Duque, Jazmin. Influenza Division, National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia; Estados Unidos.Fil: Varela, Teresa. Sistema Nacional de Vigilancia por Laboratorio, Sistema Nacional de Vigilancia de la Salud, Ministerio de Salud de la Nación, Buenos Aires; Argentina.Fil: Palekar, Rakhee. Influenza Division, National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia; Estados Unidos.Fil: Couto, Paula. Pan American Health Organization, Washington, District of Columbia; Estados Unidos.Fil: Savy, Vilma L. ANLIS Dr.C.G.Malbrán. Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Infecciosas. Departamento de Virología. Servicio de Virosis Respiratoria; Argentina.Fil: Giovacchini, Carlos. Pan American Health Organization, Washington, District of Columbia; Estados Unidos.Fil: Haynes, Amber K. Division of Viral Diseases, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia; Estados Unidos.Fil: Rha, Brian. Division of Viral Diseases, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia; Estados Unidos.Fil: Arriola, Carmen S. Influenza Division, National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia; Estados Unidos.Fil: Gerber, Susan I. Division of Viral Diseases, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia; Estados Unidos.Fil: Azziz-Baumgartner, Eduardo. Influenza Division, National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia; Estados Unidos.Within-country differences in the timing of RSV and influenza epidemics have not been assessed in Argentina, the eighth largest country in the world by area

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Comparison Display Resolution On User Impact For Digital Pathology

Introduction/ Background Digital pathology images are very large, up to 100000x100000 pixels which are 30 to 50 times larger than a radiological image for which 12 Mega Pixels (MP) medical displays can be used. Higher resolution displays may have an important influence on digital pathology ergonomics. Three displays with varying resolutions were studied to determine their impact on user interaction. Aims Our hypothesis was that “with higher resolution displays, pathologists need less interaction such as panning and zooming actions and can focus more on image content”. A psycho-physical study has been carried out for validating this hypothesis at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Methods Three experienced pathologists were selected. Seventy pathology including a wide variety of histological and cytological diagnoses were digitized (Aperio Scanscope XT scanner) and used in a previous study [Ava15]. Customized and optimized viewing software was used to display images and record pathologist’s interactions such mouse clicks, zooming and panning. Three medical displays with different different resolutions were used: 2MP (BARCO MDSC-2124), 4MP (BARCO MDPC-4130) and 12MP (BARCO MDCC-12133), all with the same maximum luminance. Scripts were used for statistical analyze and 1D, 2D, 3D plotting results. User interactions with each image were used to recreate videos documenting of their exact navigation with each digital slide. Results The results of number of zooming and panning interactions are given in the Table 1, as well as averages. When display resolution was increased, the number of panning and zooming interactions significantly decreases for all three observers. For panning, there was on average 1172 panning actions for the 2MP and 951 actions for the 12MP display. For zooming actions, there was on average 12315 zoom actions for the 2MP and 2847 actions for the 12MP display. Between the 2MP and 12MP displays, the ratio of the number of zooms was 4:1 in favor of the 12MP monitor. On figure 1, the 3D plots of one case for the three monitors show the navigation through the slide and show lesser points for higher resolution display. With higher resolution the pathologist goes more directly to the Region Of Interest (ROI) for making the decision. Figure 2 shows more analysis of the zoom values across the cases for the three monitors. The pathologists have the tendency to remain close to a value of 1 with the 12 MP display where a value of 1 means that no zoom is applied. This is illustrated by the Figure 2 showing for observer 2 the boxplots of the zoom values for the three displays. It clearly shows that with higher resolution display the trend goes to get closer to one for the zoom value meaning no need to zoom in in the image. We used three different displays instead of one unique display with three different resolutions. Though using just one display would have reduced variability of differing LCD panels, pixel size and structure, it would not have been commercially or clinically realistic. Despite the limited number of pathologists, this study shows that display resolution used for digital pathology is important. Higher resolution monitors significantly help reducing the number of user interactions and thereby can minimize pathologist fatigue when reading digital slides