Evaluation of Hepatoprotective Effect of Leaves of Cassia sophera Linn.

In the present study, the hepatoprotective activity of ethanolic extracts of Cassia sophera Linn. leaves was evaluated against carbon-tetrachloride- (CCl4-) induced hepatic damage in rats. The extracts at doses of 200 and 400 mg/kg were administered orally once daily. The hepatoprotection was assessed in terms of reduction in histological damage, changes in serum enzymes, serum glutamate oxaloacetate transaminase (AST), serum glutamate pyruvate transaminase (ALT), serum alkaline phosphatase (ALP), total bilirubin, and total protein levels. The substantially elevated serum enzymatic levels of AST, ALT, ALP, and total bilirubin were restored towards the normalization significantly by the extracts. The decreased serum total protein level was significantly normalized. Silymarin was used as standard reference and exhibited significant hepatoprotective activity against carbon tetrachloride-induced hepatotoxicity in rats. The biochemical observations were supplemented with histopathological examination of rat liver sections. The results of this study strongly indicate that Cassia sophera leaves have potent hepatoprotective action against carbon tetrachloride-induced hepatic damage in rats. This study suggests that possible activity may be due to the presence of flavonoids in the extracts

Integrating geospatial, remote sensing, and machine learning for climate-induced forest fire susceptibility mapping in Similipal Tiger Reserve, India

Accurately assessing forest fire susceptibility (FFS) in the Similipal Tiger Reserve (STR) is essential for biodiversity conservation, climate change mitigation, and community safety. Most existing studies have primarily focused on climatic and topographical factors, while this research expands the scope by employing a synergistic approach that integrates geographical information systems (GIS), remote sensing (RS), and machine learning (ML) methodologies for identifying and assessing forest fire-prone areas in the STR and their vulnerability to climate change. To achieve this, the study employed a comprehensive dataset of forty-four influencing factors, including topographic, climate-hydrologic, forest health, vegetation indices, radar features, and anthropogenic interference, into ten ML models: neural net (nnet), AdaBag, Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGBTree), Gradient Boosting Machine (GBM), Random Forest (RF), and its hybrid variants with differential evolution algorithm (RF-DEA), Gravitational Based Search (RF-GBS), Grey Wolf Optimization (RF-GWO), Particle Swarm Optimization (RF-PSO), and genetic algorithm (RF-GA). The study revealed high FFS in both the northern and southern portions of the study area, with the nnet and RF-PSO models demonstrating susceptibility percentages of 12.44% and 12.89%, respectively. Conversely, very low FFS zones consistently displayed susceptibility scores of approximately 23.41% and 18.57% for the nnet and RF-PSO models. The robust mapping methodology was validated by impressive AUROC (>0.88) and kappa coefficient (>0.62) scores across all ML validation metrics. Future climate models (ssp245 and ssp585, 2022–2100) indicated high FFS zones along the northern and southern edges of the STR, with the central zone categorized from low to very low susceptibility. Boruta analysis identified actual evapotranspiration (AET) and relative humidity as key factors influencing forest fire ignition. SHAP evaluation reinforced the influence of these factors on FFS, while also highlighting the significant role of distance to road, distance to settlement, dNBR, slope, and humidity in prediction accuracy. These results emphasize the critical importance of the proposed approach for forest fire mapping and provide invaluable insights for firefighting teams, forest management, planning, and qualification strategies to address future fire sustainability

Dual Stimuli-Responsive Self-Assembly Behavior of a Tailor-Made ABC-Type Amphiphilic Tri-Block Copolymer

This investigation describes the synthesis of a dual stimuli-responsive, amphiphilic ABC tri-block copolymer (BCP) based on the functional monomers via RAFT polymerization. In this case, ABC-type BCP was prepared based on N-isopropylacrylamide, n-butyl acrylate, and 4-vinylpyridine in DMF solvent using cyanomethyl dodecyl trithiocarbonate as the RAFT agent and azobisisobutyronitrile as a thermal initiator in a subsequent macro-RAFT approach, respectively. The BCPs were characterized by SEC, 1H-NMR, FTIR spectroscopy, and DSC analyses. Temperature and pH-dependent properties of the smart BCP micelles in aqueous medium were investigated using dynamic light scattering. Transmission electron microscopic images were taken at cryogenic and dry conditions to study the morphology of molecular assemblies of block copolymers in an aqueous medium. The phase and topographical images were captured by atomic force microscopy to understand the assembly of block copolymers in solvents of different polarities. The morphology of BCP micelles was transformed from flower-like to spherical in the presence of solvents with different polarities (H2O or CHCl3). © 2020 The Authors. Journal of Polymer Science published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc

Synthesis, characterization and potent antimicrobial and antifungal activity of 2-substituted benzimidazole derivatives

Benzimidazole is the heterocyclic compound formed by the fusion of benzene and imidazole ring. Benzimidazole analogs are of great significance because of their clinical application and biological activity. Benzimidazoles are considered as an optimistic class of bioactive heterocyclic compound that possesses a range of biological activities. We have synthesized five substituted Benzimidazole derivative using on both microwave irradiation and conventional heating method. The newly synthesized compounds are characterized by IR, NMR and Mass spectra analysis. In the present study, we have reported the synthesis, spectral studies and biological evaluation of some benzimidazole derivatives. Benzimidazole play important role in medical field with so many pharmacological activities such as antimicrobial, anti bacterial, etc. The potency of this clinically useful drug in treatment in microbial action and other activities has encouraged the development of some more potent and significant compounds.

A comprehensive review of techniques for natural fibers as reinforcement in composites::preparation, processing and characterization

Designing environmentally friendly materials from natural resources represents a great challenge in the last decade. However, the lack of fundamental knowledge in the processing of the raw materials to fabricate the composites structure is still a major challenge for potential applications.Natural fibers extracted from plants are receiving more attention from researchers, scientists and academics due to their use in polymer composites and also their environmentally friendly nature and sustainability. The natural fiber features depend on the preparation and processing of the fibers. Natural plant fibers are extracted either by mechanical retting, dew retting and/or water retting processes. The natural fibers characteristics could be improved by suitable chemicals and surface treatments. This survey proposes a detailed review of the different types of retting processes, chemical and surface treatments and characterization techniques for natural fibers. We summarize major findings from the literature and the treatment effects on the properties of the natural fibers are being highlighted

Azimuthal anisotropy of charged jet production in root s(NN)=2.76 TeV Pb-Pb collisions

We present measurements of the azimuthal dependence of charged jet production in central and semi-central root s(NN) = 2.76 TeV Pb-Pb collisions with respect to the second harmonic event plane, quantified as nu(ch)(2) (jet). Jet finding is performed employing the anti-k(T) algorithm with a resolution parameter R = 0.2 using charged tracks from the ALICE tracking system. The contribution of the azimuthal anisotropy of the underlying event is taken into account event-by-event. The remaining (statistical) region-to-region fluctuations are removed on an ensemble basis by unfolding the jet spectra for different event plane orientations independently. Significant non-zero nu(ch)(2) (jet) is observed in semi-central collisions (30-50% centrality) for 20 <p(T)(ch) (jet) <90 GeV/c. The azimuthal dependence of the charged jet production is similar to the dependence observed for jets comprising both charged and neutral fragments, and compatible with measurements of the nu(2) of single charged particles at high p(T). Good agreement between the data and predictions from JEWEL, an event generator simulating parton shower evolution in the presence of a dense QCD medium, is found in semi-central collisions. (C) 2015 CERN for the benefit of the ALICE Collaboration. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).Peer reviewe

Forward-central two-particle correlations in p-Pb collisions at root s(NN)=5.02 TeV

Two-particle angular correlations between trigger particles in the forward pseudorapidity range (2.5 2GeV/c. (C) 2015 CERN for the benefit of the ALICE Collaboration. Published by Elsevier B. V.Peer reviewe

Event-shape engineering for inclusive spectra and elliptic flow in Pb-Pb collisions at root(NN)-N-S=2.76 TeV

Peer reviewe