The Effect Of Selected Adjuvants On The In Vitro Percutaneous Penetration Of Benzocaine

This research project was designed to test whether the in vitro percutaneous penetration of benzocaine through human cadaver skin could be enhanced by dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), urea, polyoxyethylene (20) isohexadecyl ether and 1-dodecylazacycloheptan-2-one (Azone) in propylene glycol/water systems. Solubility and partitioning of benzocaine in propylene glycol/water systems was investigated. The adjuvant effects were studied in a 60/40 (V/V) propylene glycol/water co-solvent system. The well known drug penetration enhancer dimethyl sulfoxide did not enhance the penetration of benzocaine at any concentration level of DMSO under the conditions of the experiment. This lack of enhancement effect was probably due to increased solubility of benzocaine in the DMSO/water system and a consequent decrease in the partitioning of drug into the skin. Urea enhanced benzocaine penetration initially but no significant steady-state penetration enhancement was noted. Polyoxyethylene (20) isohexadecyl ether appeared to retard rather than enhance the percutaneous penetration of benzocaine at concentrations below and around the critical micelle concentration. Azone showed concentration dependence for its enhancement effect on penetration of benzocaine. With 1% V/V Azone, the initial benzocaine penetration rate was higher compared to the other Azone concentrations. On the basis of comparative analysis of the steady-state rates, 5% V/V Azone was observed to be the most effective penetration enhancer for benzocaine. Azone also showed additive enhancement properties with increasing percentages of propylene glycol. The results of this investigation emphasize the importance of in vitro skin penetration studies prior to clinical evaluation. The results also underscore the importance of a proper experimental design that will minimize variables during the study in order to properly identify cause and effect relationships

Anti-proliferation of MDA-MB-231 cells by Averrhoa bilimbi extract is associated with G0/G1 perturbation and mitochondria-mediated apoptosis independent of p53

Practiced as folk medicine since ancient times, bilimbi (Averrhoa bilimbi) is commonly consumed and widely cultivated in Malaysia. In search for naturally occurring anticancer agents, a potential fruit extract was found to exert anticancer properties in vitro without any cytotoxic effect on normal cells. This study investigated the anti-proliferative effect and underlying cell death pathway induced by bilimbi ethanolic extract on human non-hormone-dependent breast cancer cell line, MDA-MB-231. Anticancer potential of bilimbi extract was conducted by investigating the in vitro growth inhibitory effect, DNA fragmentation, cell cycle progression and anti-proliferation assay. Release of caspases, cytochrome c and apoptotic proteins were demonstrated to determine the mechanism of cell death pathway. Findings revealed that bilimbi inhibited growth of MDA-MB-231 cells through the induction of apoptosis mediated by cell cycle arrest at G0/G1 checkpoint. Released of cytochrome c coupled with up-regulation of caspase-3/7, caspase-9 and Bax pro-apoptotic proteins in addition to down-regulation of dysfunctional p53 and Bcl-2 anti-apoptotic proteins implied that bilimbi induced a p53-independent mitochondrial apoptosis pathway in MDA-MB-231. These results suggest that bilimbi could induce tumor cell anti-proliferation through apoptosis. As a natural product, bilimbi could be a promising anticancer agent and an inexpensive approach to cancer chemoprevention strategy

Comparison of total phenolic contents and antioxidant activities of turmeric leaf, pandan leaf and torch ginger flower

Synthetic antioxidants are added to food in the powdered form to preserve it. However these compounds posed serious health concern since they have been associated with causing cancer. Thus using fresh herbs with antioxidant activities would be good alternative. The objectives of this study were to evaluate and compare the total phenolic contents and antioxidant activities of both powdered and fresh forms of turmeric leaf, pandan leaf and torch ginger flower. Total phenolic content (TPC) was assayed based on the redox reaction between Folin-Ciocalteu with phenolics in the sample extracts. Antioxidant activity (AA) was assayed using the ß-carotene linoleate model system and the percentage of antioxidant activity was calculated from the values of degradation rate. Scavenging activity (SA) was assayed using the DPPH radical scavenging model system whereby EC50 value was determined from the plotted graph of scavenging activity against the concentration of sample extracts. Analyses revealed that powdered forms of turmeric leaf, pandan leaf and torch ginger flower had higher TPC (2013.09 ± 5.13, 1784.25 ± 7.59 and 1937.42 ± 6.61 mg GAE/100g, respectively) than their respective fresh forms (348.75 ± 1.26, 356.42 ± 1.32 and 211.59 ± 6.29 mg GAE/100g, respectively). Similarly, powdered forms of turmeric leaf, pandan leaf and torch ginger flower possessed better AA (64.31 ± 0.99, 65.09 ± 0.74 and 11.80 ± 0.40 %, respectively) than their respective fresh forms (24.93 ± 0.71, 16.91 ± 0.70 and 1.45 ± 0.10 %, respectively). Powdered forms of turmeric leaf, pandan leaf and torch ginger flower were also better radical scavenger as compared to their respective fresh forms. In conclusion, all samples in their powdered forms have high total phenolic contents, antioxidant and scavenging activities than their respective fresh forms

Group Based Interference Alignment

In the $K$-user single-input single-output (SISO) frequency-selective fading interference channel, it is shown that the maximal achievable multiplexing gain is almost surely $K/2$ by using interference alignment (IA). However, when the signaling dimensions are limited, allocating all the resources to all users simultaneously is not optimal. So, a group based interference alignment (GIA) scheme is proposed, and it is formulated as an unbounded knapsack problem. Optimal and greedy search algorithms are proposed to obtain group patterns. Analysis and numerical results show that the GIA scheme can obtain a higher multiplexing gain when the resources are limited.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figures. resubmitted to IEEE Communications Letter

Femtoscopy of the system shape fluctuations in heavy ion collisions

Dipole, triangular, and higher harmonic flow that have an origin in the initial density fluctuations has gained a lot of attention as they can provide additional important information about the dynamical properties (e.g. viscosity) of the system. The fluctuations in the initial geometry should be also reflected in the detail shape and velocity field of the system at freeze-out. In this talk I discuss the possibility to measure such fluctuations by means of identical and non-identical particle interferometry.Comment: 4 pages, Proceedings of Quark Matter 2011 Conference, May 23 - May 28, Annecy, Franc

Recovery of Heavy Metals from Eletroplating Rinse Wastewater by Reverse Osmosis

Electroplating rinse wastewater contains a number of toxic metals which are harmful to receiving waters. The Tubular B 1 Module (PCI Membrane Systems) with AFC 99 polyamide membrane was used to treat the aluminium anodizing rinse water at different feedwater concentrations and diff erent transmembrane pressures. Penneate flux was found to be directly proportional to transmembrane pressure and indirectly proportional to natural logarithms of feedwater concentrations. Aluminium concentration was reduced from 747.1 mg/l to 2. rejection at 65 bar transmembrane pressure and 40°C feedwater temperature. Overall conductivity rejection was in excess of 9 8% at 65 bar. Rejection efficiency was increased with increasing transmembrane pressure. However, permeate quality deteriorated with increasing feedwater concentrations. High production rate was recorded with 3.3 m3/m2.d at 7% recovery and 65 bar transmembrane pressure with a feedwater concentration of approximately 9,500 mg/l TDS (Total Dissolved Solids). Reverse osmosis penneate is suitable for reuse as rinse water in the factory. No membrane fouling was encountered during the study. Reverse osmosis was found to be an effective alternative for recovery of rinse water and heavy metals from the waste effluent compared to other conventional treatment technologie

Monetary and exchange rate policies in an open economy: The Malaysian case, 1959-1992

The main purpose of this paper is to analyse the role of the exchange rate and monetary policy in a small open economy and to discuss the interaction of these policies in the Malaysian context. The Malaysian experience indicates that there is a close interaction and sometimes a trade-off, between monetary and exchange rate policies. The experience of Malaysia, particularly in 1992, underscores the need to view stabilisation policies in their totality within the proper perspective. Both exchange rate and monetary policies must be seen as part and parcel of an integrated package of macroeconomic measures. In addition, there is a need for co-operative actions across the full range of policies, both domestically and across countries, in order to promote stable longterm economic developments

Cosmic positron and antiproton constraints on the gauge-Higgs Dark Matter

We calculate the cosmic ray positron and antiproton spectra of a gauge-Higgs dark matter candidate in a warped five-dimensional $SO(5) \times U(1)$ gauge-Higgs unification model. The stability of the gauge-Higgs boson is guaranteed by the H parity under which only the Higgs boson is odd at low energy. The 4-point vertices of HHW^+W^- and HHZZ, allowed by H parity conservation, have the same magnitude as in the standard model, which yields efficient annihilation rate for $m_H > m_W$. The most dominant annihilation channel is $H H \to W^+ W^-$ followed by the subsequent decays of the $W$ bosons into positrons or quarks, which undergo fragmentation into antiproton. Comparing with the observed positron and antiproton spectra with the PAMALA and Fermi/LAT, we found that the Higgs boson mass cannot be larger than 90 GeV, in order not to overrun the observations. Together with the constraint on not overclosing the Universe, the valid range of the dark matter mass is restricted to 70-90 GeV.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figure