Prospective study of ovarian function in hysterectomised females

Background: Hysterectomy is one of the most common operations performed in the world. The aim of this study was to determine prospectively the influence of hysterectomy on ovarian function by measuring gonadotrophin levels and studying ovarian doppler over a two-year period.Methods: Authors conducted a prospective cohort study at the department of obstetrics and gynecology in study tertiary care center. The study was carried out over a period of two years November 2012-November 2014. Serum FSH, ovarian PI and questionnaire data were obtained at baseline and at 6 and 12 months postoperatively.Results: There was significant difference in the mean FSH and mean PI at follow-up visits of 6 and 12 months. Patient characteristics did not contribute to the changes that were observed during the follow-up.Conclusions: Authors conclude that hysterectomy affects ovarian function by affecting blood supply (reducing blood supply). This is reflected by increased FSH levels and increased PI values on ovarian Doppler

A Robust Digital Image Watermarking Using Dwt -Pca

A comprehensive approach for watermarking is introduced in this system, and a hybrid digital watermarking scheme based on Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is used. There are some watermarking techniques like DCT, DWT, and DWT-SVD, but there is disadvantage in the watermarking to withstand attacks. Hence the new digital image watermarking algorithm is proposed which provide robust watermarking with minimal amount of distortion in case of attacks. DWT offers scalability and PCA helps in reducing correlation among the wavelet coefficients obtained from wavelet decomposition of each block thereby dispersing the watermark bits into the uncorrelated coefficient. Peak signal ratio is used to measure invisibility whereas similarity between two images by normalized correlation coefficient test the transparency and robustness against various attacks like cropping, noise, rotation, filtering etc. The proposedsystem should provide recoverable watermark without any reasonable amount of distortion even in case of attacks

Review Paper On Design And Fabrication Of Hydraulic Groundnut Oil Expeller

A manually operated multi-application oilseed expressing machine was designed and constructed usinglocally available materials. The machine consists of a frame, press plate, press cage, perforated cylinderand hydraulic jack. Each of these components was analyzed and results obtained were used as parameterfor sizing and fabrication of the components. Performance tests were conducted on the oilseed expressingmachine using groundnut seeds that were subjected to pre-pressing treatments of roastingtemperature and duration in the ranges of 30 –120oC and 10 –30 min and ground in to pastesrespectively. The results of performance test analysis showed that pre-pressing treatments significantlyinfluenced the performance indices of the machine at 1% level. Extraction rate decreased with increase inroasting temperature from30 to 120oC and duration from 10 to 30 min, while machine extractionefficiency depended on the product being processed. The maximum extraction rate obtained was 0.00125and 0.00133 kg/s for groundnut seeds roasted at 60oC for 10min and 30oC for 10 minrespectively. The maximum extraction efficiency of 45 and 46.6% was obtained at pre-pressin

Chlortetracycline-Functionalized Silver Nanoparticles as a Colorimetric Probe for Aminoglycosides: Ultrasensitive Determination of Kanamycin and Streptomycin

Aminoglycosides (AMGs) have been extensively used to treat infectious diseases caused by Gram-negative bacteria in livestock and humans. A selective and sensitive colorimetric probe for the determination of streptomycin and kanamycin was proposed based on chlortetracycline-coated silver nanoparticles (AgNPs–CTC) as the sensing element. Almost all of the tested aminoglycoside antibiotics can rapidly induce the aggregation of AgNPs, along with a color change from yellow to orange/red. The selective detection of aminoglycoside antibiotics, including tobramycin, streptomycin, amikacin, gentamicin, neomycin, and kanamycin, with other types of antibiotics, can be achieved by ultraviolet (UV) spectroscopy. This developed colorimetric assay has ability to detect various AMGs using in-depth surface plasmon resonance (SPR) studies. With this determination of streptomycin and kanamycin was achieved at the picomolar level (pM) by using a UV–visible spectrophotometer. Under aqueous conditions, the linear range of the colorimetric sensor for streptomycin and kanamycin was 1000–1,1000 and 120–480 pM, respectively. The corresponding limit of detection was 2000 pM and 120 pM, respectively. Thus, the validated dual colorimetric and ratiometric method can find various analytical applications for the ultrasensitive and rapid detection of AMG antibiotics in water samples

Green-Synthesis of Anisotropic Peptone-Silver Nanoparticles and Its Potential Application as Anti-Bacterial Agent

This study demonstrates a green-route-based synthesis of high-concentration suspensions of anisotropic silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) by peptone (Pep), a soluble protein hydrolysate and an abundantly used nutrient source in microbial-media. The transformation of Ag ions from solution into a high-concentration suspension of anisotropic Pep-AgNPs, at an extremely low concentration of peptone (0.02%), indicates that the present green-route synthesis method follows “low volume high concentration nano-synthesis„, and, hence, enhances the economic significance of the process. Process optimization with different concentrations of AgNPs (1⁻5 mM), NaOH solution (5⁻40 mM), and peptone (0.004%⁻0.12%) gave the optimized Pep-AgNPs synthesis at 3 mM of AgNO3, 20 mM of NaOH, and 0.02% of the peptone concentrations. The green-route synthesized Pep-AgNPs were structurally characterized by the TEM, XPS, FT-IR, and XRD analyses. The Pep-AgNPs against the clinically relevant bacteria Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus gave significant anti-bacterial properties, with a MIC (minimum inhibitory concentration) of 100 ppm. The colony counting and morphological observation of the bacterial cell under SEM corroborated an anti-bacterial potential of the Pep-AgNPs. Therefore, Pep-AgNPs are green-route synthesized, anisotropic, and have a significant anti-bacterial potential that can be used in many relevant applications

[Au]/[Ag]-catalysed expedient synthesis of branched heneicosafuranosyl arabinogalactan motif of Mycobacterium tuberculosis cell wall

Emergence of multidrug-resistant and extreme-drug-resistant strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTb) can cause serious socioeconomic burdens. Arabinogalactan present on the cellular envelope of MTb is unique and is required for its survival; access to arabinogalactan is essential for understanding the biosynthetic machinery that assembles it. Isolation from Nature is a herculean task and, as a result, chemical synthesis is the most sought after technique. Here we report a convergent synthesis of branched heneicosafuranosyl arabinogalactan (HAG) of MTb. Key furanosylations are performed using [Au]/[Ag] catalysts. The synthesis of HAG is achieved by the repetitive use of three reactions namely 1,2-trans furanoside synthesis by propargyl 1,2-orthoester donors, unmasking of silyl ether, and conversion of n-pentenyl furanosides into 1,2-orthoesters. Synthesis of HAG is achieved in 47 steps (with an overall yield of 0.09%) of which 21 are installation of furanosidic linkages in a stereoselective manner

Thiolation of Chitosan Loaded over Super-Magnetic Halloysite Nanotubes for Enhanced Laccase Immobilization

This study focuses on the development of a nanosupport based on halloysite nanotubes (HNTs), Fe3O4 nanoparticles (NPs), and thiolated chitosan (CTs) for laccase immobilization. First, HNTs were modified with Fe3O4 NPs (HNTs-Fe3O4) by the coprecipitation method. Then, the HNTs-Fe3O4 surface was tuned with the CTs (HNTs-Fe3O4-CTs) by a simple refluxing method. Finally, the HNTs- Fe3O4-CTs surface was thiolated (-SH) (denoted as; HNTs- Fe3O4-CTs-SH) by using the reactive NHS-ester reaction. The thiol-modified HNTs (HNTs- Fe3O4-CTs-SH) were characterized by FE-SEM, HR-TEM, XPS, XRD, FT-IR, and VSM analyses. The HNTs-Fe3O4-CTs-SH was applied for the laccase immobilization. It gave excellent immobilization of laccase with 100% activity recovery and 144 mg/g laccase loading capacity. The immobilized laccase on HNTs-Fe3O4-CTs-SH (HNTs-Fe3O4-CTs-S-S-Laccase) exhibited enhanced biocatalytic performance with improved thermal, storage, and pH stabilities. HNTs-Fe3O4-CTs-S-S-Laccase gave outstanding repeated cycle capability, at the end of the 15th cycle, it kept 61% of the laccase activity. Furthermore, HNTs-Fe3O4-CTs-S-S-Laccase was applied for redox-mediated removal of textile dye DR80 and pharmaceutical compound ampicillin. The obtained result marked the potential of the HNTs-Fe3O4-CTs-S-S-Laccase for the removal of hazardous pollutants. This nanosupport is based on clay mineral HNTs, made from low-cost biopolymer CTs, super-magnetic in nature, and can be applied in laccase-based decontamination of environmental pollutants. This study also gave excellent material HNTs-Fe3O4-CTs-SH for other enzyme immobilization processes

α-Cellulose Fibers of Paper-Waste Origin Surface-Modified with Fe3O4 and Thiolated-Chitosan for Efficacious Immobilization of Laccase

The utilization of waste-paper-biomass for extraction of important α-cellulose biopolymer, and modification of extracted α-cellulose for application in enzyme immobilization can be extremely vital for green circular bio-economy. Thus, in this study, α-cellulose fibers were super-magnetized (Fe3O4), grafted with chitosan (CTNs), and thiol (-SH) modified for laccase immobilization. The developed material was characterized by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM), HR-TEM energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (HR-TEM-EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) analyses. Laccase immobilized on α-Cellulose-Fe3O4-CTNs (α-Cellulose-Fe3O4-CTNs-Laccase) gave significant activity recovery (99.16%) and laccase loading potential (169.36 mg/g). The α-Cellulose-Fe3O4-CTNs-Laccase displayed excellent stabilities for temperature, pH, and storage time. The α-Cellulose-Fe3O4-CTNs-Laccase applied in repeated cycles shown remarkable consistency of activity retention for 10 cycles. After the 10th cycle, α-Cellulose-Fe3O4-CTNs possessed 80.65% relative activity. Furthermore, α-Cellulose-Fe3O4-CTNs-Laccase shown excellent degradation of pharmaceutical contaminant sulfamethoxazole (SMX). The SMX degradation by α-Cellulose-Fe3O4-CTNs-Laccase was found optimum at incubation time (20 h), pH (3), temperatures (30 °C), and shaking conditions (200 rpm). Finally, α-Cellulose-Fe3O4-CTNs-Laccase gave repeated degradation of SMX. Thus, this study presents a novel, waste-derived, highly capable, and super-magnetic nanocomposite for enzyme immobilization applications