Seed anatomical studies on dormancy and germination in Chamaecrista absus

Present study was conducted to analyze the anatomical structure of seed to study the dormancy behaviour in Chamaecrista absus. Seed germination behaviour was also studied after breaking the seed dormancy by artificial seed treatments. The anotamical studies revealed that seed has apical hilar region and seed coat has four layers consisting of outer cuticle, sub cuticle, palisade layer and inner tegma leading to physical dormancy. Outer cuticle and sub cuticle layers are very hard to break naturally and hence seeds possess hard seed coat dormancy. This physically hard seed coat should be made soft to enhance germination. Studies to break dormancy were conducted involving treatments like hot water, hormones and in combinations of both. The results revealed that seeds dipped in boiling water made inner layers permeable for water absorption in hilar region and thus germination enhanced. In specific seeds treated with boiling water for 5 minutes recorded higher germination (82 %) over untreated control (26 %). . Other artificial treatments with hormones gibberellic acid (33 % ) and ethrel (34 % ) did not enhanced the germination significantly over control. C. absus has hard coat dormancy and can be overcame by treating seeds with boiling water treatment

Modified Lifting Scheme for DWT along with Parallel scanning Architecture 1

Abstract To overcome the inefficiencies in the JPEG standard and serve emerging areas of mobile and Internet communications, the new Lifting Scheme and processing element has been developed based on the principles of DWT. Previous DWT architectures are mostly based on the lift ing scheme/flipping structure where at least four pipelining stages were required for each multiplier or a large temporal buffer is needed. In this brief, modifications are made to the lifting scheme, and the intermediate results are recombined in the processing element and stored to get three number of pipelining stages and with reduced design complexity, computational time and to get the result in 2Dimensional image. Through optimizing the lifting scheme, Wu and Lin [10] implemented the parallel 2-D DWT. The design is a pipelined two-input/two-output architecture, and a 2×2 transposing module with four registers was developed. In addition, the critical path delay is one Tm. Nevertheless, it needs eight pipelining stages to complete the 1-D DWT and makes the total number of registers reach 22. The flipping structure is another important DWT architecture that was proposed by Huang et al. In this brief, further optimization on the processing element is proposed to overcome shortages in previous works and minimize sizes of the logic units and the memory without loss of the throughput. By recombining the intermediate results of the row and column transforms, the number of pipelining stages and registers is reduced, while keeping the critical path delay as Tm. In addition, a novel architecture is developed to implement the 2-D DWT based on the above modified scheme. The parallel scanning method is employed to reduce the computational time. As a result, our design achieves higher efficiency. The rest of this brief is organized as follows. Section II reviews the lifting scheme of the DWT in and Section III presents the proposed architecture for the 2-D DWT, and Section IV provides implementation results and comparisons with previous architectures. Conclusion is drawn in Section

Anti-Microbial Activity of Hempseed Oil and Sage Oil against Streptococcus mutans and Candida albicans: An In-Vitro Study

Objective: To assess the anti-microbial activity of sage oil and hempseed oil against Streptococcus mutans and Candida albicans. Material and Methods: The sage oil and hempseed oil in pure extract form were collected from an authorized government organization. The anti-microbial activity from the oils was assessed by Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion method. Standard antibiotics Vancomycin and Fluconazole were taken as a positive control for Streptococcus mutans and Candida albicans, respectively. The mean zone of inhibition (ZOI) was measured at 24 hours, 48 hours and 72 hours by HI-MEDIAs antibiotic zone scale. One-way Analysis of variance with Tukey’s Post Hoc was applied for statistical analysis. Results: The mean zone of inhibition of sage oil and hempseed oil at 24 hours, 48 hours and 72 hours against Streptococcus mutans was (7.0 ± 4.24, 9.1 ± 3.71 and 8.4 ± 3.02) and (0.0, 3.2 ± 0.75, 1.9 ± 1.24) respectively. The zone of inhibition against Candida albicans 24 hours, 48 hours and 72 hours for sage oil (2.80 ± 1.151, 6.70 ± 1.30 and 6.30 ± 1.44), hempseed oil (0.0, 3.80 ± 0.75, 3.10 ± 0.41). Sage oil presented potential anti-microbial activity against Streptococcus mutans and Candida albicans. Comparing the anti-microbial efficacy, standard antibiotic (Vancomycin/Fluconazole) was more effective than test oils. Conclusion: Test oils showed anti-bacterial and anti-fungal activity against Streptococcus mutans and Candida albicans. Among these, sage oil showed efficacy at 24 hours, while hempseed oil did not show any effect at this time point. Further studies are needed to affirm the same and test their efficacy in different forms and concentrations

Apigenin inhibits PMA-induced expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines and AP-1 factors in A549 cells

Acute and chronic alveolar or bronchial inflammation is thought to be central to the pathogenesis of many respiratory disorders. Cytokines and granulocyte macrophage colony-stimulating factors (GM-CSF) play an important role in chronic inflammation. Activator protein-1 (AP-1) the superfamily of transcription factors is involved in proliferation, differentiation, apoptosis, and transformation including inflammation. Understanding the function and regulation of proinflammatory factors involved in inflammation may provide the novel therapeutic strategies in the treatment of inflammatory diseases. Our aim of the present study is to investigate the pro-inflammatory cytokines and pattern of AP-1 factors expressed during activation of lung adenocarcinoma A549 cells by Phorbol-12-myristate-13-acetate (PMA) and to understand the anti-inflammatory effect of apigenin. A549 cells were treated with and without PMA or apigenin, and the cell viability was assessed by MTT assay. Expressions of inflammatory mediators and different AP-1 factors were analyzed by semi-quantitative RT-PCR. IL-6 protein secreted was analyzed by ELISA, and expressions of IL-1β, c-Jun, and c-Fos proteins were analyzed by Western blotting. Activation of A549 cells by PMA, induced the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokine (IL-1β, IL-2, IL-6, IL-8, and TNF-α) mRNAs and secretion of IL-6 and the expression of specific AP-1 factors (c-Jun, c-Fos, and Fra-1). Treatment of cells with apigenin, significantly inhibited PMA-stimulated mRNA expression of above pro-inflammatory cytokines, AP-1 factors, cyclooxygenase-2, and secretion of IL-6 protein. Results suggested that the AP-1 factors may be involved in inflammation and apigenin has anti-inflammatory effect, which may be useful for therapeutic management of lung inflammatory diseases. © 2015, Springer Science+Business Media New York

Aqueous areca nut extract induces oxidative stress in human lung epithelial A549 cells: Probable role of p21 in inducing cell death

Areca nut a well-known masticator used across globe. Habitual chewing of areca nut is associated with serious oral health effects. However, the role of areca nut in oxidative stress induction and cell death is less understood. Hence, in the present study we aimed to evaluate the toxic mechanism of areca nut extract on human lung epithelial A549 cells. Cells were treated with or without aqueous areca nut extract and cell viability was measured by MTT assay. Cells treated with areca nut extract show reduced viability in a dose dependent manner with the IC50 of 0.5 concentration. Areca nut extract induced the reactive oxygen species (ROS), lipid peroxidation followed by membrane damage with leakage of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) enzyme. Cells with continuous exposure of areca nut extract depletes the free radical neutralizing anti-oxidant enzymes like superoxide dismutase (SOD), Glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) and Glutathione-S-transferase (GST). Further, the analysis of mRNA expression of apoptotic genes and cell cycle regulators show decreased expression of anti-apoptotic gene (Bcl-2), Cyclin E1, Cyclin D1, CDK4, Rb and p53 whereas induced expression of p21 and marginal increase of pro-apoptotic gene (Bax) confirms the toxic nature of areca nut. Thus, cell death due to areca nut exposure may be through different mechanism rather than the conventional apoptotic pathway, where p21 induction might be independent of p53 action, which possibly suggests that there may be a role of p21 in oxidative stress induced cell death. Further FACS analysis confirms cell death in areca nut treated cells. © 2016 Elsevier Inc

Initial experience with GeneXpert MTB/RIF assay in the Arkansas Tuberculosis Control Program

BackgroundMycobacterium tuberculosis remains one of the most significant causes of death from an infectious agent. Rapid and accurate diagnosis of pulmonary and extra-pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) is still a great challenge. The GeneXpert MTB/RIF assay is a novel integrated diagnostic device for the diagnosis of tuberculosis and rapid detection of Rifampin (RIF) resistance in clinical specimens. In 2012, the Arkansas Tuberculosis Control Program introduced GeneXpert MTB/RIF assay to replace the labour-intensive Mycobacterium Tuberculosis Direct (MTD) assay.AimsTo rapidly diagnose tuberculosis within 2 hours and to detect RIF resistance.Objectives1. Describe the procedure used to introduce GeneXpert MTB/RIF assay in the Arkansas Tuberculosis Control Program. 2. Characterize the current gap in rapid M. tuberculosis diagnosis in Arkansas. 3. Assess factors that predict AFB smear-negative but culture-positive cases in Arkansas. 4. Illustrate, with two case reports, the role of GeneXpert MTB/RIF assay in reduction of time to confirmation of M. tuberculosis diagnosis in the first year.MethodBetween June 2012 and June 2013, all sputum smear-positive cases and any others, on request by the physician, had GeneXpert MTB/RIF assay performed as well as traditional M. tuberculosis culture and susceptibilities using Mycobacteria Growth Indicator Tube (MGIT) 960 and Löwenstein-Jensen (LJ) slants. Surveillance data for January 2009–June 2013 were analysed to characterize sputum smear-negative but culture-positive cases. Results Seventy-one TB cases were reported from June 2012–June 2013. GeneXpert MTB/RIF assay identified all culture-positive cases as well as three cases that were negative on culture. Also, this rapid assay identified all 6 smear-negative but culture-positive cases; 2 of these cases are described as case reports.ConclusionGeneXpert MTB/RIF assay has made rapid TB diagnosis possible, with tremendous potential in determining isolation of TB suspects on one hand, and quickly ruling out TB whenever suspected

Investigation of Cyperus Rotundus Root Extract on Diabetic Complications in Rats with Alloxan-Induced Diabetes

Background and Introduction: The prevalence of hyperglycemic diseases known collectively as diabetes has reached epidemic proportions in the current century. Diabetics are particularly vulnerable to infections, which can have devastating health consequences. The purpose of this research was to examine the effects of an aqueous extract of Cyperus rotundus roots on diabetic complications in rats with diabetes caused by Alloxan. Martial and Methods: Specifically: Alloxan monohydrate, Borosilicate, and a diagnostic kit. Specifically: a diagnostic kit, a phrase, or a paraphrase. Centrifuge Micropippet, Glucose check monitoring device, electronic digital scales, EDDY's Hot plate analgesometer MK-11, and the Biofuse pico. All chemicals employed were of the AR grade variety, including the alloxan monohydrate, metformin, chloroform, diethyl ether, and ethyl ether.Results: No deaths or toxicity symptoms were observed in the AECR acute toxicity test in mice, indicating that the extract was well tolerated and the test doses were safe in the animals. The effect of AECR on fasting blood glucose level in alloxan-induced diabetic rats was measured using an auto analyzer glucose kit to determine the compound's antidiabetic activity. The plasma or blood glucose level is measured after an individual has fasted as part of a carbohydrate metabolic test. The hormone glucagon is secreted into the bloodstream during fasting to facilitate the catabolic release of glucose. Conclusion: The results show that in alloxan-induced diabetic rats, the oral administration of an aqueous extract of Cyperus rotundus exhibited neuroprotective, nephroprotective, and hepatoprotective activities by increasing insulin production and decreasing glucogan production and an SGOT snd SGPT level