Caracterização do componente moluscicida das folhas da Moringa oleifera e das frutas da Momordica charantia e seus modos de ação sobre o caramujo Lymnaea acuminata

SUMMARY The molluscicidal activity of the leaf powder of Moringa oleifera and lyophilized fruit powder of Momordica charantia against the snail Lymnaea acuminata was time and concentration dependent. M. oleifera leaf powder (96 h LC50: 197.59 ppm) was more toxic than M. charantia lyophilized fruit powder (96 h LC50: 318.29 ppm). The ethanolic extracts of M. oleifera leaf powder and Momordica charantia lyophilized fruit powder were more toxic than other organic solvent extracts. The 96 h LC50 of the column purified fraction of M. oleifera leaf powder was 22.52 ppm, while that of M. charantia lyophilized fruit powder was 6.21 ppm. Column, thin layer and high performance liquid chromatography analysis show that the active molluscicidal components in M. oleifera leaf powder and lyophilized fruit of M. charantia are benzylamine (96 h LC50: 2.3 ppm) and momordicine (96 h LC50: 1.2 ppm), respectively. Benzylamine and momordicine significantly inhibited, in vivo and in vitro, the acetylcholinesterase (AChE), acid and alkaline phosphatase (ACP/ALP) activities in the nervous tissues of L. acuminata. Inhibition of AChE, ACP and ALP activity in the nervous tissues of L. acuminata by benzylamine and momordicine may be responsible for the molluscicidal activity of M. oleifera and M. charantia fruits, respectively.RESUMO A atividade moluscicida do pó das folhas de Moringa oleifera e do pó liofilizado das frutas da Momordica charantia contra o caramujo Lymnaea acuminata é dependente do tempo e da sua concentração. O pó da folha da M. oleifera (96 h LC50: 197.59 ppm) foi mais tóxico do que o pó liofilizado da fruta da M. charantia (96 h LC50: 318.29 ppm). Os extratos etanólicos do pó de folha da M. oleifera e do pó liofilizado da fruta da M. charantia foram mais tóxicos do que outros extratos orgânicos solventes. O 96 h LC50 da fração purificada por coluna do pó das folhas da M. oleifera foi 22.52 ppm enquanto que o pó liofilizado do fruto da M. charantia foi 6.21 ppm. Coluna, camada fina e a alta performance da análise da cromatografia líquida mostram que os componentes ativos moluscicidas do pó da folha da M. oleifera e do liofiliizado da fruta da M. charantia são a benzilamina (96 h LC50: 22.3 ppm) e a momordicina (96 h LC50: 1.2 ppm), respectivamente. A benzilamina e a momordicina inibiram de maneira significante in vivo e in vitro a acetilcolinesterase (AChE), as atividades das fosfatases alcalina e ácida (ACP/ALP) nos tecidos nervosos da L. acuminata. A inibição da atividade da AChE, ACP e ALP nos tecidos nervosos da L. acuminata pela benzilamina e momordicina podem ser responsáveis pela atividade moluscicida da M. oleifera e dos frutos da M. charantia, respectivamente

Complete Remission in Newly Diagnosed Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus Patient

Type 1 diabetes mellitus is a chronic disease affects pancreatic beta cells. Usually it has a life long duration, however, in few cases, it can be transient. We reported a 20 year old male patient who visited the diabetic clinic of Lok Nayak Hospital with classical symptoms of type 1 diabetes mellitus. He was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes on the basis of lab parameters. He was found to be positive for ICA512 and GAD antibodies. Measurement of C-peptide was also done by mixed meal tolerance test. Initially, Insulin was advised to control hyperglycemia. After 2 weeks, he was given 14 infusions of Teplizumab injection, one infusion per day and the same has been repeated after six months. As per clinical judgment, it was assumed that he was not on placebo arm and probably received Teplizumab as investigational product. Teplizumab injection drastically reduces the insulin doses and after some time, his insulin was completely waived off. Complete remission was seen in this patient after treatment with Teplizumab injection. During the 4 years follow-up, this remission is still ongoing in this patient. He had normal fasting and home blood glucose concentration with normal HbA1c without insulin therapy from last 4 years. To keep his blood sugar values under control, patient was also advised regular exercise and a diabetic diet

Vitamin D Supplementation improves Bone Mineral Density in Patients with Hyperthyroidism

Background: Diseases of the thyroid gland are a common occurrence in India. Thyrotoxicosis causes acceleration of bone remodeling and even though it is one of the known risk factors for osteoporosis, the metabolic effects of thyroxine on bone is a little- discussed subject.Materials & Methods: 70 consecutive patients with hyperthyroidism attending endocrine clinic of Maulana Azad Medical College. Serum total calcium, phosphorous, urinary creatinine and alkaline phosphatase were measured by standard methods. Serum T4, serum 25(OH)D estimations were done by radioimmunoassay assay. Serum intact PTH and TSH concentration was measured by immune-radiometric assay using commercial kits. Bone mineral density was measured using Hologic DR 4500A densitometer. Bone mineral density was measured at both hips, and lumbar spine (L2-L4) using anteroposterior view. 50% of the patients were randomized for vitamin D supplementation.Results: The mean age of the patients was 39±10.01 years. The baseline vitamin D of the patients was 19.24±10.15 ng/ml. The values of vitamin D in randomized and non-randomized patients were 27.82±16.43 vs 11.82±6.58 ng/ml (p>0.0001) respectively. Patients who received vitamin D had acquired optimum level of vitamin significantly, whereas, BMD at lumbar spine was also found increased after post treatment of vitamin D. However, it was not significantly raised when compared with the pre treatment. BMD at hip region was found elevated after post-treatment. There was an improvement noticed in total body BMD as well.Conclusion: Patients with active thyrotoxicosis, acquired optimum vitamin D levels, elevated lumbar spine and hip BMD after one year of vitamin D supplementation. Vitamin D supplementation is necessary to be advocated in patients with hyperthyroidism

Design of an optimal multi-layer neural network for eigenfaces based face recognition

Face recognition is one of the most popular problems in the field of image analysis. In this paper, we discuss the design of an optimal multi-layer neural network for the task of face recognition. There are many issues while designing the neural network like number of nodes in input layer, output layer and hidden layer(s), setting the values of learning rate and momentum, updating of weights. Lastly, the criteria for evaluating the performance of the neural network and stopping the learning are to be decided. We discuss all these design issues in the light of the eigenfaces based face recognition. We report the effects of variations of these parameters on number of training cycles required to get optimal results. We also list the optimized values for these parameters. In our experiments, we use two face databases namely ORL and UMIST. These databases are used to construct the eigenfaces. The original faces are reconstructed using the top eigenfaces. The factors used in the reconstruction of the faces are used as the inputs to the neural network

Diversity of mosses in some selected regions of Nagaland (North-East India), India

During an investigation on mosses of some underexplored regions of Nagaland, 121 taxa of mosses belonging to 74 genera and 29 families have been identified. Atrichum crispulum Schimp. & Besch. and Plagiothecium neckeroideum var. niitakayamae (Toyama) Z. Iwats. are new records for India. Five taxa namely Fissidens crassinervis var. laxus (Sull & Lesq.) A. Eddy., Barbula inaequalifolia Taylor, Amblystegium saxatile Schimp., Dicranum orthophylloides Dixon and Fabronia madurensis Dixon & Vard. are reported for the first time from Eastern Himalaya, while 57 taxa are new additions to Nagaland

Lossless gray image compression using logic minimization

A novel approach for the lossless compression of gray images is presented. A prediction process is performed followed by the mapping of prediction residuals. The prediction residuals are then split into bit–planes. Two-dimensional (2D) differencing operation is applied to bit-planes prior to segmentation and classification. Performing an Exclusive-OR logic operation between neighboring pixels in the bit planes creates the difference image. The difference image can be coded more efficiently than the original image whenever the average run length of black pixels in the original image is greater than two. The 2d difference bit-plane is divided in to windows or block of size 16*16 pixels. The segmented 2d difference image is partitioned in to non-overlapping rectangular regions of all white and mixed 16*16 blocks. Each partitioned block is transformed in to Boolean switching function in cubical form, treating the pixel values as a output of the function. Minimizing these switching functions using Quine- McCluskey minimization algorithm performs compression

Analysis of genetic diversity among tropical and subtropical maize inbred lines using SSR markers

Genetic diversity of 24 tropical and subtropical elite maize lines was assessed at molecular level employ-ing 42 Simple Sequence Repeats. A total of 107 alleles with an average of 2.55 alleles per locus were detected. The Polymorphism Information Content (PIC) values of 42 SSR loci ranged from 0.08 (UMC1428) to 0.68 (UMC2189 and UMC2332) with the overall calculated PIC mean value of 0.44, whereas the Discrimination Rate (DR) value for SSR markers ranged from 0.09 (UMC2089) to 0.42 (UMC1311) with the average DR value of 0.26. Pair-wise genet-ic similarity (GS) values, calculated by Jaccard’s coefficients, ranged between 0.25 and 0.78 with a mean genetic similarity of 0.63, indicating the existence of adequate amount of genetic divergence among the genotypes selected for the study. The cluster dendrogram separated all the inbred lines into six main clusters with sub clusters based on genetic similarity. Factorial analysis also confirmed a nearly similar pattern for grouping these inbred lines as pre-sented by cluster dendrogram. In this study, SSR markers were found to be powerful tool for detection of genetic diversity in maize inbred lines. These findings could provide information for effective utilization of these materials for development of maize hybrids as well as for genetic improvement of inbred lines

Is yoga an effective modality of stress reduction within medical population; a qualitative study within MBBS students of BRD medical college, Gorakhpur

Background: Stress is very common in medical professionals. Stress begins in the first year of medical school and increases with subsequent years of medical life. Stress decreases overall performance and had a multitude of health-related adverse effect. Yoga has been tried as a stress reduction technique in different populations. In present study yoga was performed in the 1st year MBBS students and impact on stress reduction was studied using PSS-10 stress scale.Methods: Study groups, yoga and control contained 26 and 27 subjects respectively. The yoga group practiced selected yogic asana, pranayama, and yoga nidra 1hour daily 6days a week for 3months. Control group kept in touch and allowed their usual activity as before. The PSS-10 scale used to measure the level of stress in both groups pre and post study.Results: There was a highly significant reduction in the PSS-10 Score (stress level) in the yoga group (P Value <0.0001) but there was no significant change in the PSS-10 Score of control group (P Value = 0.2930).Conclusions: Yoga is an effective modality of stress reduction technique in 1st year medical students. Therefore, yoga should be introduced as a part of the curricula in the first year of medical school. This may be taken as the 1st step in implantation of healthy lifestyle in future health care providers