Mesalazine based topical hydrogel formulation enhances anti-oxidant and cytokine activity in wounded STZ-induced mice

Background: The present study is targeted to elucidate the wound healing potential of mesalazine in STZ induced diabetic mice by comparing various antioxidant, pro-inflammatory cytokine levels and other wound healing parameters at 3,7 and 14th day. Methods: Full thickness excisional wounds of 6mm size were created on the dorsal side of STZ induced mice and topical treatment of mesalazine based different hydrogels was applied for 14 days. Wound tissues were excised on day 3, 7 and 14 for various wound healing parameters. Results: Delayed in wound healing was observed in diabetic group which eventually got accelerated after application of ethosome based mesalazine loaded hydrogel designated as D5 in study. Significant wound contraction rate was observed in D5 group and tissue hydroxyproline and tensile strength was also elevated after treatment with mesalazine loaded ethosomal hydrogel. The level of ROS was found to be significantly decreased in SOD, CAT and GSH experiment. LPO level were found to be elevated in D5 group. Finding of levels of pro-inflammatory cytokine suggested significant decrease and showed significant elevation in vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF).  Conclusion: D5 group of ethosome based mesalazine loaded hydrogel showed promising results in controlling all the factors to their normal range and was effective in accelerating wound 51healing in diabetic mice.  Keywords: Diabetic wounds; hydrogels; antioxidants; cytokines; VEGF; Mesalazin

BirdCollect: A Comprehensive Benchmark for Analyzing Dense Bird Flock Attributes

Automatic recognition of bird behavior from long-term, un controlled outdoor imagery can contribute to conservation efforts by enabling large-scale monitoring of bird populations. Current techniques in AI-based wildlife monitoring have focused on short-term tracking and monitoring birds individually rather than in species-rich flocks. We present Bird-Collect, a comprehensive benchmark dataset for monitoring dense bird flock attributes. It includes a unique collection of more than 6,000 high-resolution images of Demoiselle Cranes (Anthropoides virgo) feeding and nesting in the vicinity of Khichan region of Rajasthan. Particularly, each image contains an average of 190 individual birds, illustrating the complex dynamics of densely populated bird flocks on a scale that has not previously been studied. In addition, a total of 433 distinct pictures captured at Keoladeo National Park, Bharatpur provide a comprehensive representation of 34 distinct bird species belonging to various taxonomic groups. These images offer details into the diversity and the behaviour of birds in vital natural ecosystem along the migratory flyways. Additionally, we provide a set of 2,500 point-annotated samples which serve as ground truth for benchmarking various computer vision tasks like crowd counting, density estimation, segmentation, and species classification. The benchmark performance for these tasks highlight the need for tailored approaches for specific wildlife applications, which include varied conditions including views, illumination, and resolutions. With around 46.2 GBs in size encompassing data collected from two distinct nesting ground sets, it is the largest birds dataset containing detailed annotations, showcasing a substantial leap in bird research possibilities. We intend to publicly release the dataset to the research community. The database is available at: https://iab-rubric.org/resources/wildlife-dataset/birdcollec