Hepatoprotective Effect of Adenema hyssopifolium G. Don (Gentianaceae) in Carbon Tetrachloride-Induced Hepatotoxicity in Rats

Purpose: The effects of oral administration of ethyl acetate, ethanol and aqueous extracts of Adenema hyssopifolium G.Don (Gentianaceae) on carbon tetrachloride-induced liver disorders were investigated.Methods: Rats were individually treated daily with 300 and 600 mg/kg dose of either ethyl acetate, ethanol or aqueous extracts of A. hyssopifolium, respectively, following induction of liver damage with the hepatotoxin, carbon tetrachloride. The hepatoprotective activity of the extracts was assessed by estimating the levels of serum aspartate aminotransferase (ASAT), alanine aminotransferase (ALAT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and total bilirubin (TBL) in the rats. Silymarin was used as the reference hepatoprotective agent. Acute toxicity test on the extracts in male mice was also carried out.Results: At doses of 300 and 600 mg/kg p.o., the ethyl acetate and ethanol extracts showed significant (p < 0.001 and p < 0.01) dose-dependent hepatoprotective activity, showing decreases in serum levels of ASAT, ALAT, ALP and TBL. The aqueous extract, however, did not exert any significant effect on hepatoprotective activity. All three extracts, up to a dose of 3000 mg/kg p.o. each, did not cause mortality in the acute toxicity test.Conclusion: The ethyl acetate and ethanol extracts showed significant hepatoprotective activity when compared to untreated (normal) control group while the aqueous extract did not. The active extracts could find future use in countering hepatic damage.Keywords: Hepatoprotection; Iridoid glycosides; Hepatotoxicity

Litterfall, decomposition and nutrient release patterns of different tree species in Taran Taran district of Punjab, India

The present investigation was attempted to assess the leaf litter production, decomposition rate and amount of major nutrient return in Populus deltoides, Eucalyptus tereticornis, Tectona grandis and Pyrus pyrifolia based agroforestry land use systems in Taran Taran district which falls in the north western agro-climatic zone of thePunjab state, India. The litter production in selected tree species was quantified using litter traps and decomposition pattern of leaf litter was investigated by litter bag technique. Litterfall in the selected tree species varied significantly (5 % level of significance) during different months of the study period. Among the four species, P. deltoides exhibited highest leaf litter production (7.8 tons/ha) followed by T. grandis (1.83 tons/ha) and E. tereticornis (1.77 tons/ha) whereas, lowest leaf litter production was observed in P. pyrifolia (0.34 tons/ha). The present study also showed that temperature as compared to rainfall play a significant (5 % level of significance) role in litter decomposition. In case of P. pyrifolia, P. deltoides and T. grandis decomposition take place 100 per cent, 98 per cent and 99 per cent respectively after 10 months whereas in E. tereticornis 87.7 per cent leaf decomposed after 10 months. The nutrients percentage through litter fall was maximum of nitrogen (2.27 %) followed by potassium (1.90 %) and phosphorous (0.32 %). Maximum and minimum N input through leaf litter was in P. deltoides (2.27 %) and P. pyrifolia (1.15 %). The K input (%) was maximum in leaves of T. grandis (0.32) and minimum in E. tereticornis (0.21). The maximum input of P (%) through leaf litter was in P. deltoides (1.90) whereas, minimum value was observed in E. tereticornis (1.27). Tree based agroforestry land use systems improve soil nutrient status as compared to traditional wheat and paddy based land use systems under this region of Punjab. Therefore tree based land use systems need to be promoted over the traditional field crops for realizing better environmental benefits in this region

An Intelligent Sensor based Automatic Attendance Management System Using IoT

The need for intelligent and distributed monitoring systems based on sensor networks of diverse application systems is growing as a result of the field of industrial control in network applications developing so quickly. It is required to check the body temperatures and attendance when students and staffs visit schools and colleges during this COVID 19 pandemic. A solution is developed here for the purpose of tracking temperatures and attendance management using a smart thermometer without being in contact in order to keep social distance. The person (both staff and student) faces are captured by the ESP32 Camera for training and testing purposes. After the training is over, the ESP32 Micro Controller board registers the student or faculty facial image. For attendance purposes, the MLX90614 IR Temperature Sensor will measure the body temperature of students or instructors. Both the collected data and the email-based attendance notification will be transferred to the cloud using IoT. The message "Please leave the college and take care of your health" will be communicated to the person if their temperature exceeds the threshold level

Softly Broken A_4 Symmetry for Nearly Degenerate Neutrino Masses

The leptonic Higgs doublet model of neutrino masses is implemented with an A_4 discrete symmetry (the even permutation of 4 objects or equivalently the symmetry of the tetrahedron) which has 4 irreducible representations: 1, 1', 1'', and 3. The resulting spontaneous and soft breaking of A_4 provides a realistic model of charged-lepton masses as well as a nearly degenerate neutrino mass matrix. Phenomenological consequences at and below the TeV scale are discussed.Comment: 11 pages, no figur

Multiphysics Analysis of a Magnetorheological Damper

&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;A Magnetorheological damping has evolved as a potential tool in vibration control. The design of magnetorheological damping involves analysis of fluid flow principles and electromagnetic flux analysis. This research paper involves design and analysis of a magnetorheological damper employed for vibration control. The analysis is carried over by considering the domain as an axisymmetric model. The damping force of the damper depends upon the shear stress due to fluid viscosity and yield stress induced due to magnetic flux applied. The damping force generated by the damper is calculated

Neutrino Mixings and Leptonic CP Violation from CKM Matrix and Majorana Phases

The high scale mixing unification hypothesis recently proposed by three of us (R. N. M., M. K. P. and G. R.) states that if at the seesaw scale, the quark and lepton mixing matrices are equal then for quasi-degenerate neutrinos, radiative corrections can lead to large solar and atmospheric mixings and small reactor angle at the weak scale in agreement with data. Evidence for quasi-degenerate neutrinos could, within this framework, be interpreted as a sign of quark-lepton unification at high scale. In the current work, we extend this model to show that the hypothesis works quite successfully in the presence of CP violating phases (which were set to zero in the first paper). In the case where the PMNS matrix is identical to the CKM matrix at the seesaw scale, with a Dirac phase but no Majorana phase, the low energy Dirac phase is predicted to be ($\simeq 0.3^{\circ}$) and leptonic CP-violation parameter $J_{CP} \simeq (4 - 8)\times 10^{-5}$ and $\theta_{13} = 3.5^{\circ}$. If on the other hand, the PMNS matrix is assumed to also have Majorana phases initially, the resulting theory damps radiative magnification phenomenon for a large range of parameters but nevertheless has enough parameter space to give the two necessary large neutrino mixing angles. In this case, one has $\theta_{13} = 3.5^{\circ} - 10^{\circ}$ and $|J_{CP}|$ as large as $0.02-0.04$ which are accessible to long baseline neutrino oscillation experiments.Comment: 15 pages and 10 figures, typo correcte

Scaling of fluctuation for Directed polymers with random interaction

Using a finite size scaling form for reunion probability, we show numerically the existence of a binding-unbinding transition for Directed polymers with random interaction. The cases studied are (A1) two chains in 1+1 dimensions, (A2) two chains in 2+1 dimensions and (B) three chains in 1+1 dimensions. A similar finite size scaling form for fluctuation establishes a disorder induced transition with identical exponents for cases A2 and B. The length scale exponents in all the three cases are in agreement with previous exact renormalization group results.Comment: Revtex, 4 postscript figures available on request (email: [email protected]); To appear in J. Phys. A Letter

Investigation of Antidiabetic, Antihyperlipidemic, and In Vivo Antioxidant Properties of Sphaeranthus indicus Linn. in Type 1 Diabetic Rats: An Identification of Possible Biomarkers

The present investigation was aimed to study the antidiabetic, antihyperlipidemic, and in vivo antioxidant properties of the root of Sphaeranthus indicus Linn. in streptozotocin- (STZ-) induced type 1 diabetic rats. Administration of ethanolic extract of Sphaeranthus indicus root (EESIR) 100 and 200 mg/kg to the STZ-induced diabetic rats showed significant (P < .01) reduction in blood glucose and increase in body weight compared to diabetic control rats. Both the doses of EESIR-treated diabetic rats showed significant (P < .01) alteration in elevated lipid profile levels than diabetic control rats. The EESIR treatment in diabetic rats produced significant increase in superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), glutathione peroxidase (GPx) and decrease in thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) levels than diabetic control rats. Administration of EESIR 200 mg/kg produced significant (P < .01) higher antioxidant activity than EESIR 100 mg/kg. The high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis of EESIR revealed the presence of biomarkers gallic acid and quercetin. In conclusion, EESIR possess antidiabetic, antihyperlipidemic, and in vivo antioxidant activity in type 1 diabetic rats. Its antioxidant and lipid lowering effect will help to prevent diabetic complications, and these actions are possibly due to presence of above biomarkers