Pomegranate (Punicagranatum. Linn. var. Ganesh) Leaf Extracts Ameliorates Neurotoxicity In Transgenic Drosophila Expressing Human Amyloid Pathology

To prescreen the in vivo neuroprotective activity of the chloroform, ethanol extracts of the leaves of Punicagranatum L.var. Ganesh family Punicaceae, commonly called pomegranate, using the model organism Aβ42 -amyloid neurotoxicity included Drosophila melanogaster. Chloroform(CEPGL), ethanol, (EEPGL) extracts were prepared, and its analysis by HPLC were carried out. Acute toxicity assessments were also performed. The neuroprotective effect of CEPGL, EEPGL in vivo was evaluated on the transgenic Aβ42 model of Drosophila melanogaster, a novel model system for screening drugs for Alzheimer’s disease by longevity assay, Climbing assay, Pseudopupil assay and nail polish imprint technique, and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). HPLC profile of the CEPGL, EEPGL showed the presence of Ursolic acid. Toxicity assessment using brine shrimp lethality bioassay (BSLA) of the CEPGL, EEPGL showed nontoxic up to 2500, 2000 ppm, respectively. The extracts possess potential in vivo neuroprotective activity on Drosophila melanogaster against beta-amyloid included neuronal toxicity. Conclusion: In the present study, we have presented the first evidence of the extracts of the leaves could significantly ameliorate the adverse morphological changes from Aβ42 protein in Drosophila, as indicated by prolonging the lifespan, by improving locomotor abilities and rescuing neuro-degeneration in ommatidia of Aβ42 expressing Drosophila which is comparable with donepezil. So it demonstrated the novel use of Ursolic acid of the extracts CEPGL, EEPGL effectively protect, rescue and most importantly, restore the impaired movement activity (i.e., climbing capability) in Drosophila melanogaster

EFFECT OF ETHANOLIC EXTRACT OF CALOPHYLLUM INOPHYLLUM LEAVES ON OXIDATIVESTRESS COMPLICATIONS IN MOUSE MODEL

Objectives: To find out the effect of the extract of Calophyllum inophyllum leaves on the streptozotocin-induced oxidative stress complications in mice.Methods: The plant extract was first checked for its radical scavenging activity by the 2,2-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl hydrate (DPPH) method andL-ascorbic acid was used as the standard. DPPH assay activity of the plant extract was found to be close to the standard drug ascorbic acid. Acutetoxicity was conducted as per OECD 425 guidelines. From the results obtained, 250, 300, and 350 mg/kg dose were chosen for further experimentation.After 16 days of drug treatment, glucose, cholesterol, triglyceride and enzymatic antioxidants levels were estimated in serum samples.Results: C. inophyllum leaves extract has significantly reduced the glucose, cholesterol, triglyceride and enzymatic antioxidants levels. Hence, thisproves that the plant has anti-diabetic property. However, vitamin E had no effect on the triglyceride level. Antioxidant activity was monitored bysuperoxide dismutase, catalase, glutathione peroxidase, malondialdehyde assay and it was found that the plant extract has effectively increased theantioxidant activity as the dose increases.Conclusion: C. inophyllum leaves extract have anti-diabetic activity and effective in curbing the oxidative stress complications.Keywords: Calophyllum inophyllum, Oxidative stress complications, Anti-diabetic activity, Free radicals

Management of Ocular Siderosis: Visual Outcome and Electroretinographic Changes

Purpose. Ocular siderosis (OS) is a sight threatening complication of retained iron-containing Intraocular Foreign Body (IOFB). Successful localization of the IOFB and timely removal are crucial to its management. The purpose of this study was to review the presentation, management, and outcome of OS at our institution. Methods. A retrospective case series of eyes with OS that underwent IOFB removal from January 2009 to March 2015 at our institution. Results. OS was seen in 9 eyes of 9 patients during the study period. There were 8 males and 1 female with an age range of 31.6 years. An IOFB was in all the eyes. The most common features of siderosis were cataract and pigmentary retinopathy seen in 6 (67%) and 4 (44%) eyes, respectively. Electroretinogram (ERG) readings were reduced in the 9 eyes. The IOFB was removed by pars plana vitrectomy in all the cases with improvement in ERG amplitudes occurring postoperatively in 7 (78%) eyes. Conclusion. A retained iron-containing IOFB can manifest itself after several years with features of OS. A careful clinical and radiologic evaluation is imperative in patients with history suggestive of penetrating ocular injury to rule out retained or occult IOFB and thus prevent this catastrophic condition

Geotechnical Investigations for Foundation Design for Multi-storeyed Building

Oil and Natural Gas Commission of India plans to construct a multi-storeyed building in Dehradun city at the foothills of Himalayas. The geotechnical investigations were carried out at site to determine soil parameters for foundation design. It was found that it was not possible to provide a raft foundation for the building and hence alternatively the pile foundation was suggested. The pile load capacity was predicted on the basis of soil parameters determined and a comparison was then made with the results obtained by carrying out load tests on constructed piles

Basic fibroblast growth factor modulates cell cycle of human umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stem cells.

Background: Mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) have great potential in regenerative medicine, immunotherapy and gene therapy due to their unique properties of self-renewal, high plasticity, immune modulation and ease for genetic modification. However, production of MSC at sufficient clinical scale remains an issue as in vitro generation of MSC inadequately fulfils the demand with respect to patients. Objectives: This study has aimed to establish optimum conditions to generate and characterize MSC from human umbilical cord (UC-MSC). Materials and methods: To optimize MSC population growth, basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) was utilized in culture media. Effects of bFGF on expansion kinetics, cell cycle, survival of UC-MSC, cytokine secretion, expression of early stem-cell markers and immunomodulation were investigated. Results: bFGF supplementation profoundly enhanced UC-MSC proliferation by reducing population doubling time without altering immunophenotype and immunomodulatory function of UC-MSC. However, cell cycle studies revealed that bFGF drove the cells into the cell cycle, as a higher proportion of cells resided in S phase and progressed into M phase. Consistent with this, bFGF was shown to promote expression of cyclin D proteins and their relevant kinases to drive UC-MSC to transverse cell cycle check points, thus, committing the cells to DNA synthesis. Furthermore, supplementation with bFGF changed the cytokine profiles of the cells and reduced their apoptotic level. Conclusion: Our study showed that bFGF supplementation of UC-MSC culture enhanced the cells' growth kinetics without compromising their nature

Population genomics of pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br.): Comparative analysis of global accessions and Senegalese landraces

Citation: Hu, Z., Mbacké, B., Perumal, R., Guèye, M. C., Sy, O., Bouchet, S., . . . Morris, G. P. (2015). Population genomics of pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br.): Comparative analysis of global accessions and Senegalese landraces. Bmc Genomics. doi:10.1186/s12864-015-2255-0Background: Pearl millet is a staple food for people in arid and semi-arid regions of Africa and South Asia due to its high drought tolerance and nutritional qualities. A better understanding of the genomic diversity and population structure of pearl millet germplasm is needed to support germplasm conservation and genetic improvement of this crop. Here we characterized two pearl millet diversity panels, (i) a set of global accessions from Africa, Asia, and the America, and (ii) a collection of landraces from multiple agro-ecological zones in Senegal. Results: We identified 83,875 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 500 pearl millet accessions, comprised of 252 global accessions and 248 Senegalese landraces, using genotyping by sequencing (GBS) of PstI-MspI reduced representation libraries. We used these SNPs to characterize genomic diversity and population structure among the accessions. The Senegalese landraces had the highest levels of genetic diversity (?), while accessions from southern Africa and Asia showed lower diversity levels. Principal component analyses and ancestry estimation indicated clear population structure between the Senegalese landraces and the global accessions, and among countries in the global accessions. In contrast, little population structure was observed across in the Senegalese landraces collections. We ordered SNPs on the pearl millet genetic map and observed much faster linkage disequilibrium (LD) decay in Senegalese landraces compared to global accessions. A comparison of pearl millet GBS linkage map with the foxtail millet (Setaria italica) and sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) genomes indicated extensive regions of synteny, as well as some large-scale rearrangements in the pearl millet lineage. Conclusions: We identified 83,875 SNPs as a genomic resource for pearl millet improvement. The high genetic diversity in Senegal relative to other regions of Africa and Asia supports a West African origin of this crop, followed by wide diffusion. The rapid LD decay and lack of confounding population structure along agro-ecological zones in Senegalese pearl millet will facilitate future association mapping studies. Comparative population genomics will provide insights into panicoid crop evolution and support improvement of these climate-resilient crops. © 2015 Hu et al

Ultrafast Hole Trapping and Relaxation Dynamics in p-Type CuS Nanodisks

CuS nanocrystals are potential materials for developing low-cost solar energy conversion devices. Understanding the underlying dynamics of photoinduced carriers in CuS nanocrystals is essential to improve their performance in these devices. In this work, we investigated the photoinduced hole dynamics in CuS nanodisks (NDs) using the combination of transient optical (OTA) and X-ray (XTA) absorption spectroscopy. OTA results show that the broad transient absorption in the visible region is attributed to the photoinduced hot and trapped holes. The hole trapping process occurs on a subpicosecond time scale, followed by carrier recombination (~100 ps). The nature of the hole trapping sites, revealed by XTA, is characteristic of S or organic ligands on the surface of CuS NDs. These results not only suggest the possibility to control the hole dynamics by tuning the surface chemistry of CuS but also represent the first time observation of hole dynamics in semiconductor nanocrystals using XTA

Molecular evidence for the presence of malaria vector species a of the Anopheles annularis complex in Sri Lanka

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p><it>Anopheles annularis s.l</it>. is a wide spread malaria vector in South and Southeast Asia, including Sri Lanka. The taxon <it>An. annularis </it>is a complex of two sibling species viz. A and B, that are differentiated by chromosome banding patterns and ribosomal gene sequences in India. Only species A is reported to be a malaria vector in India while the occurrence of sibling species in Sri Lanka has not been documented previously.</p> <p>Findings</p> <p>Anopheline larvae were collected at a site in the Jaffna district, which lies within the dry zone of Sri Lanka, and reared in the laboratory. Emerged adults were identified using standard keys. DNA sequences of the D3 domain of 28S ribosomal DNA (rDNA) and the internal transcribed spacer-2 (ITS-2) of the morphologically identified <it>An. annularis </it>were determined. BLASTn searches against corresponding <it>An. annularis </it>sequences in GenBank and construction of phylogenetic trees from D3 and ITS-2 rDNA sequences showed that the Sri Lankan specimens, and <it>An. annularis s.l</it>. specimens from several Southeast Asian countries were closely related to species A of the Indian <it>An. annularis </it>complex.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The results show the presence of the malaria vector <it>An. annularis </it>species A in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia. Because <it>An. annularis </it>vectors have been long associated with malaria transmission in irrigated agricultural areas in the Sri Lankan dry zone, continued monitoring of <it>An. annularis </it>populations, and their sibling species status, in these areas need to be integral to malaria control and eradication efforts in the island.</p

Air-sea interaction in the Bay of Bengal

Author Posting. © The Oceanography Society, 2016. This article is posted here by permission of The Oceanography Society for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Oceanography 29, no. 2 (2016): 28–37, doi:10.5670/oceanog.2016.36.Recent observations of surface meteorology and exchanges of heat, freshwater, and momentum between the ocean and the atmosphere in the Bay of Bengal are presented. These observations characterize air-sea interaction at 18°N, 89.5°E from December 2014 to January 2016 and also at other locations in the northern Bay of Bengal. Monsoonal variability dominated the records, with winds to the northeast in summer and to the southwest in winter. This variability included a strong annual cycle in the atmospheric forcing of the ocean in the Bay of Bengal, with the winter monsoon marked by sustained ocean heat loss resulting in ocean cooling, and the summer monsoon marked by strong storm events with dark skies and rain that also resulted in ocean cooling. The spring intermonsoon was a period of clear skies and low winds, when strong solar heating and weak wind-driven mixing led to ocean warming. The fall intermonsoon was a transitional period, with some storm events but also with enough clear skies and sunlight that ocean surface temperature rose again. Mooring and shipboard observations are used to examine the ability of model-based surface fluxes to represent air-sea interaction in the Bay of Bengal; the model-based fluxes have significant errors. The surface forcing observed at 18°N is also used together with a one-dimensional ocean model to illustrate the potential for local air-sea interaction to drive upper-ocean variability in the Bay of Bengal.Deployment of the WHOI mooring and R. Weller and J.T. Farrar were supported by the US Office of Naval Research, grant N00014-13-1-0453. N. Suresh Kumar and B. Praveen Kumar acknowledge the financial support from Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES, Government of India)