Prevention of Fungal Growth on Rubber Earpads of Telecommunication Equipments

This paper recommends an addition of 100% zinc oxide to the rubber composition during its manufacture to effectively prevent fungal growth on the earpads without producing any adverse on its materials/performance or the user

Analysis of densification mechanisms of dry granulated materials

International audienceDry granulation by roll compaction is a continuum manufacturing process to produce granules with improved flowability which can further be easily used in tableting process. However, the granules are non-homogeneous in density and have non-spherical shapes which impact their densification behaviour during die-compaction. The aim of this study was to investigate both the densification mechanism and the failure strength of granules of microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) and mannitol using Cooper-Eaton and Adams models. For both materials, the Cooper-Eaton approach led to the quantification of fractional volume compaction by particle rearrangement and by plastic deformation respectively to explain the difference in densification behaviour of raw material and granules. Moreover, the model showed its ability to capture the effect of granule density and granule sizes and to differentiate the densification mechanisms of MCC as a plastic material and mannitol as a brittle material. The Adams model was used to compute the failure strength of single granule from in-die compression data. The obtained results of the granules were in the range [0.6–1.43  MPa]. However, regarding the effect of granule density, the model showed mixed results indicating that the model is not representative of the studied granules which are not spherical and have a relatively wide range of sizes, nevertheless, the model was derived for near spherical particles with a narrow size distribution

Hypothalamic Α 2 -Noradrenergic Receptor System Relation to Dietary, Genetic, and Hormonally Induced Obesity

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/73970/1/j.1749-6632.1989.tb53313.x.pd

Does Combined Therapy of Curcumin and Epigallocatechin Gallate have a synergistic Neuroprotective Effect Aainst Spinal Cord Injury?

Systematic inflammatory response after spinal cord injury (SCI) is one of the factors leading to lesion development and a profound degree of functional loss. Anti-inflammatory compounds, such as curcumin and epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) are known for their neuroprotective effects. In this study, we investigated the effect of combined therapy of curcumin and EGCG in a rat model of acute SCI induced by balloon compression. Immediately after SCI, rats received curcumin, EGCG, curcumin + EGCG or saline [daily intraperitoneal doses (curcumin, 6 mg/kg; EGCG 17 mg/kg)] and weekly intramuscular doses (curcumin, 60 mg/kg; EGCG 17 mg/kg)] for 28 days. Rats were evaluated using behavioral tests (the Basso, Beattie, and Bresnahan (BBB) open-field locomotor test, flat beam test). Spinal cord tissue was analyzed using histological methods (Luxol Blue-cresyl violet staining) and immunohistochemistry (anti-glial fibrillary acidic protein, anti-growth associated protein 43). Cytokine levels (interleukin-1beta, interleukin-4, interleukin-2, interleukin-6, macrophage inflammatory protein 1-alpha, and RANTES) were measured using Luminex assay. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction was performed to determine the relative expression of genes (Sort1, Fgf2, Irf5, Mrc1, Olig2, Casp3, Gap43, Gfap, Vegf, NfkappaB, Cntf) related to regenerative processes in injured spinal cord. We found that all treatments displayed significant behavioral recovery, with no obvious synergistic effect after combined therapy of curcumin and ECGC. Curcumin and EGCG alone or in combination increased axonal sprouting, decreased glial scar formation, and altered the levels of macrophage inflammatory protein 1-alpha, interleukin-1beta, interleukin-4 and interleukin-6 cytokines. These results imply that although the expected synergistic response of this combined therapy was less obvious, aspects of tissue regeneration and immune responses in severe SCI were evident

Topological and system‑level protein interaction network (pin) analyses to deduce molecular mechanism of curcumin

Curcumin is an important bioactive component of turmeric and also one of the important natural products, which has been investigated extensively. The precise mode of action of curcumin and its impact on system level protein networks are still not well studied. To identify the curcumin governed regulatory action on protein interaction network (PIN), an interectome was created based on 788 key proteins, extracted from PubMed literatures, and constructed by using STRING and Cytoscape programs. The PIN rewired by curcumin was a scale-free, extremely linked biological system. MCODE plug-in was used for sub-modulization analysis, wherein we identified 25 modules; ClueGo plug-in was used for the pathway’s enrichment analysis, wherein 37 enriched signalling pathways were obtained. Most of them were associated with human diseases groups, particularly carcinogenesis, inflammation, and infectious diseases. Finally, the analysis of topological characteristic like bottleneck, degree, GO term/pathways analysis, bio-kinetics simulation, molecular docking, and dynamics studies were performed for the selection of key regulatory proteins of curcumin-rewired PIN. The current findings deduce a precise molecular mechanism that curcumin might exert in the system. This comprehensive in-silico study will help to understand how curcumin induces its anti-cancerous, anti-inflammatory, and anti-microbial effects in the human body

LANDSLIDE HAZARD ZONATION IN AND AROUND KEDARNATH REGION AND ITS VALIDATION BASED ON REAL TIME KEDARNATH DISASTER USING GEOSPATIAL TECHNIQUES

Landslides are one of the frequently happening disasters in this hilly state of Uttarakhand which accounts to the loss of lives and property every year especially during the rainy season which lead to affect the families. With the development of satellite observation technique, advanced data analysis tool and new modeling techniques landslide hazard zonation map can be prepared.In the present study, Landslide Hazard Zonation (LHZ) for Kedarnath to Augustmuni region of Rudraprayag district of Uttarakhand state was carried out using Remote Sensing and GIS technique. For the preparation of LHZ map, year 2010 high resolution satellite data have been used. After preprocessing of the data various thematic layers are prepared in GIS environment. The weighted-rating system technique were used for the LHZ map showing the five zones, namely “very low hazard”, “low hazard”, “moderate hazard”, “high hazard” and “very high hazard” . This map has been validated after the tragedy of Kedarnath in Uttarakhand, Total no. of 224 Landslides has been marked from Kedarnath to Augustmuni region just after the kedarnath tragedy in year 2013. When this landslides thematic layer is overlaid on LHZ, the study shows that approximately 50% landslides was there where in LHZ map high and very high hazard zones have been identified. After the tragedy our team workers have gone to the field, with the help of DGPS around 40 ground control points have been taken to validate our result. So by using this geospatial technique around 50% people’s life can be saved.</p