Perillyl Alcohol Protects Against Fe-NTA-Induced Nephrotoxicity and Early Tumor Promotional Events in Rat Experimental Model

Plants have been widely used as protective agents against a wide variety of processes and compounds that damage tissues via free radical mechanisms. Perillyl alcohol (PA) is a naturally occurring monoterpene found in the essential oils of numerous species of plants including mints, cherries and celery seeds. This monocyclic monoterpene has shown antioxidant and therapeutic activity in various studies against various xenobiotics. In this study, we have analyzed the effects of PA against single intraperitoneal dose of ferric nitrilotriacetate (Fe-NTA) (9 mg iron per kg body weight)-induced nephrotoxicity and early tumor promotional events. The pretreatment of Fe-NTA-treated rats with 0.5% per kg body weight dose and 1% per kg body weight dose of PA for seven consecutive days significantly reversed the Fe-NTA-induced malondialdehyde formation, xanthine oxidase activity (P < 0.001), ornithine decarboxylase activity (P < 0.001) and 3[H]thymidine incorporation in renal DNA (P < 0.001) with simultaneous significant depletion in serum toxicity markers blood urea nitrogen and creatinine (P < 0.001). Significant restoration at both the doses was recorded in depleted renal glutathione content, and its dependent enzymes with prophylactic treatment of PA. Present results suggest that PA potentially attenuates against Fe-NTA-induced oxidative damage and tumor promotional events that preclude its development as a future drug to avert the free radical-induced toxicity

Pomegranate juice attenuates acetaminophen induced hepatotoxicity in rat model of experiment

Background: Pomegranate fruit has high contents of various polyphenols and antioxidants due to which it possesses variety of therapeutic properties. In particular, pomegranate fruit peel and flowers have exhibited high antioxidant activity in different studies. Acetaminophen (APAP) overdose is the most common cause of drug induced liver toxicity including both accidental and intentional types. In our study, we investigated the protecting mechanism of pomegranate fruit juice (PJ) against toxicity caused by APAP in Wistar rats.Methods: Rats were fed with 0.2% (w/v) pomegranate fruit extract as prophylaxis to counter single dose of APAP (2 g/kg, p.o). After that variation in levels of glutathione, glutathione peroxidase (GPx), and glutathione reductase (GR) were marked.Results: A single dose of APAP elevated serum toxicity markers including lipid peroxidation. A simultaneous sharp depletion of glutathione and its metabolizing enzymes glutathione peroxidase (GPx), glutathione reductase (GR) was observed. Oral doses of PJ at (0.1% & 0.2% w/v) caused a significant (P<0.001) reduction in toxicity marker enzymes. A striking elevation in antioxidant armory was seen as in response to PJ.Conclusion: The results provide a clear picture of the defensive effect of PJ against APAP induced hepatic toxicity

Web based home automation

This thesis report is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Science in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, 2015.This project is developed by using a real time database that can be accessed and modified through internet. For hardware components Ethernet shield, ATmega32A microcontroller and little circuitry is incorporated. In attempt to control appliances, motion from surrounding environment and command from real time server is required. The main focus of our work is to control appliances in a time range through internet and sensing motion of a particular area. Based upon this the whole system is developed. Now-a-days people have desire to make a system which can be managed and upgraded from distant place. For accomplishing that web based Home automation is established. Signal from web database and motion of a certain area provide signals to ATmega32A microcontroller. Further, processing and using logics the incoming signals are sent to control the connected appliances through relay. The database is developed using PHP, HTML, CSS and some other scripting languages. On the other hand, microcontroller codes are developed in its AVR studio. In the whole system database along with Atmega32A microcontroller and motion sensor control the connected appliances with the circuit

Luteolin ameliorates ferric nitrilotriacetic acid induced renal toxicity and tumor promotional response in rat

355-360Ferric nitrilotriacetic acid (Fe-NTA) (9 mg Fe/kg body weight, ip) caused significant depletion in the detoxification and antioxidant enzyme armory with concomitant elevation in renal lipidperoxidation, serum toxicity markers viz. creatinine, blood urea nitrogen, hydrogen peroxide generation, ornithine decarboxylase activity and [3H] thymidine incorporation into renal DNA in wistar rats. However, pretreatment of animals with luteolin (10 and 20 µmol/kg body weight) for 7 consecutive days resulted in significant decrease in above parameters level. Renal glutathione content, glutathione metabolizing enzymes and antioxidant enzymes were also recovered to significant level. The enhanced reduced glutathione level and enzyme activities involved in xenobiotic metabolism and maintaining antioxidant status of cells is suggestive of a chemopreventive efficacy of luteolin against Fe-NTA mediated oxidative stress, toxicity and cell proliferation response in rats

Effect of <i>Emblica officinalis </i>(Gaertn) on CCl₄ induced hepatic toxicity and DNA synthesis in Wistar rats

430-436A single dose of CCl4 (1 ml/kg body weight, po in corn oil) increased the levels of SGOT (serum glutamate oxaloacetate transaminase), SGPT (serum glutamate pyruvate transaminase), LDH (lactate dehydrogenase), glutathione-S-transferase and depletion in reduced glutathione, glutathione peroxidase and glutathione reductase. It also caused enhancement in the levels of lipid peroxidation (LPO) and DNA synthesis. There was also pathological deterioration of hepatic tissue as evident from multi vacuolated hepatocytes containing fat globules around central vein. The pretreatment of E. officinalis for 7 consecutive days showed a profound pathological protection to liver cell as depicted by univacuolated hepatocytes. Pretreatment with E. officinalis at doses of 100 and 200 mg/kg body weight, prior to CCl4 intoxication showed significant reduction in the levels of SGOT, SGPT, LDH, glutathione-S-transferase , LPO and DNA synthesis. There was also increase in reduced glutathione, glutathione peroxidase and glutathione reductase. The results suggest that E. officinalis inhibits hepatic toxicity in Wistar rats

Mini nurse-bot: a healthcare assistance for elderly people

In this study, an Arduino based mini nurse robot has been developed for assisting elderly people. Bangladesh which is a low income developing country has 7% of its total population of elderly people (60+ age) [8]. Elderly people are often neglected in this developing society where providing support is challenging from the family structure. An automated robot can assist them in such a situation, especially in healthcare. In the context of developing countries, automated solutions are not available and affordable compared to the developed countries. Our major contribution is to develop a low-cost healthcare robot for the elderly people to assist in taking medicines according to schedule

A low-cost healthcare bot for elderly people

Modern days are not so comfortable for the elderly people compare to young people, because naturally they are passing a lonely day for a longer period of time. Elderly and physically weak people would like to lead an independent and quality life in their everyday lonely period, and some physical or mental support may help to improve their lifestyle. Today young people cannot give proper attention to them for their own engagements and that has a massive impact to the healthcare of the elderly people. Healthcare is considered as an important issue all over the world, and developed countries always try to ensure better healthcare support to the civilians in different ways, whereas South Asian developing countries do not pay much attention to this aspect. There exist some multi-purpose robots, which are developed to assist elderly people, but the cost is significantly higher that people from developing countries cannot afford this. From this perspective, to support their healthcare, we are thinking of similar kind of low cost solution. This paper deals with the development of a mini healthcare bot which is able to assist the elderly people to take medicines as per to their schedule. This bot was initially built only for research purpose and now we can consider it as full functioning robot

Agricultural diversification and intra-household dietary diversity: Panel data analysis of farm households in Bangladesh

This paper investigates the associations between agricultural diversification and dietary diversity among men, women and children of farm households in Bangladesh. Using three waves of nationally representative Bangladesh Integrated Household Survey (BIHS- 2011–12, 2015 and 2018) data and a panel data model, the study found that agricultural production diversification can emphasize the dietary diversification across the life cycle of farm household members. The balanced panel data reveals that agricultural production diversification has a statistically significant and positive impact on dietary diversity of individual members (men, women and children) of farm households. Moreover, other important factors that impact on agricultural diversification and improve dietary diversity like women’s education and employment, commercialization of farm households, access to non-farm income sources, and access to information facilities also have a strong association in improving dietary status, food and nutritional security as well. Although there is currently limited diversity in the diets of adult men, women and children of rural farm households, the situation can be improved over time with proper and consistent support. The findings suggest policy interventions should target not only agricultural diversification but also improve women’s education and on and off farm employment opportunities and facilitate better access to information for rural households. These recommendations can support improved dietary diversity for all household members under different settings

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on vegetable farmers in Bangladesh

AbstractThe COVID-19 pandemic not only imposed severe health risks but also raised major challenges to the economy, due to widespread and severe measures to control the spread of the disease. Food value chains were disrupted by restrictions of the movement of people and commodities, which had significant impacts on the livelihoods of smallholder farmers. The purpose of this research is to determine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Bangladeshi vegetable farmers. A total of 320 vegetable farmers were selected from the North-West region of Bangladesh. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected through a digital survey method. Analysis revealed that around 3–5% of the marketed surplus of the farms was reduced during the pandemic due to the disturbances. The majority of the farm households reported that there was a significant reduction in their family income and, as a consequence, around 38% of farm households had cut down on their food consumption during the pandemic. The farmers were found to follow different strategies to cope with the difficulties and respond to government initiatives to mitigate such impacts. Despite all the restrictions and risks, extension services were still available to help the farmers. On the basis of the findings, this study suggests the importance of collaborative participation of the relevant bodies to decrease the effects of COVID-19 on farm households by employing all available mechanisms and focusing more on identifying effective coping strategies that can be supported in the event of future shocks, for more sustainable and resilient food systems