Conceptual Study on Dhoopana Chikitsa in Kashyap Samhita

Dhoopana Chikitsa (Medicinal Fumigation) is one of the important faculties in Ayurvedic treatment. It is used in various ailments and many Dhoopa Yogas (formulations of fumigation) are found in Ayurvedic Samhitas. Reference of Dhoopana can be traced to Vedic period and has been rooted in our traditions. Modern researches have also verified its ability as purifying and sterilizing medium. Dhoopana is said to be extremely effective in preventing as well as curative aspects, yet, there remains an ample scope in this area as its practice is seldom in use. Kashyap Samhita has mentioned number of Dhoopana formulations and present study is an effort to assess the efficacy of the same

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

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

Conceptual study of Dooshivisha (Cumulative toxicity) w.r.t. Ancient classics and Modern science

Ayurveda describes the vast turnover of beauty aid products. More and more new synthetic substances are introduced every day. Many of these are not adequately tested for safety, in particular for routes other than oral or parenteral. Increased incidence of skin conditions like eczema and contact dermatitis after using newer cosmetics suggest that this may be due to local toxic effects or toxic effects manifested on this phenomenon as Dooshivisha. They are relevant to the current way of life considering the prevalence of pollution, occupational hazards and extent of exposure to toxins in food and other articles used in daily life. Present generation is much more likely to consume junk foods-cold drinks, to have unhealthy travelling habits, working late nights, working with computers in A.C rooms. This is referred to by terms like Hetusatatya, Vegavarodha, Diwaswapa, Viparit Chesta, Virudhannasevana which in turn hamper the normal physiology of human body. Same thing is mentioned in Ayurvedic texts also under the topic of Pradnyaparadh which is the basic cause for all diseases. This Pradnyaparadha is responsible to disturb the daily routine life and person has to face with the complaints of ill-health

Automatic Sequential to Parallel Code Conversion

The way software programs are being written has been redefined since the introduction of multicore processors. Software developers have started writing parallel programs that are robust and scalable. This would ensure use of processor power being made available in the form of multiple cores. Though this trend is increasing, there are legacy applications that have been developed over the past few decades. Most of these applications are inherently sequential making no use of multithreading or parallel programming. If such applications are ported to execute on the multicore hardware as they are then optimal usage of all cores is not guaranteed. Such applications would ideally utilize only one core and the other cores would remain idle, unless the operating system supports some parallelism while scheduling. Hence there is a need to convert such legacy sequential codes to their parallel versions so that multicore hardware is exploited to the fullest. In this paper we present a tool that we have developed to automatically convert a sequential C code to parallel code. This Sequential to Parallel (S2P) tool is still in the development phase. We also discuss other parallelization tools available today, compare such tools with S2P tool and present our performance analysis results on different kind of multicore hardware

Symptomatic improvement with gluten restriction in irritable bowel syndrome: a prospective, randomized, double blinded placebo controlled trial

Background/AimsThe existence of non-celiac gluten sensitivity has been debated. Indeed, the intestinal and extra-intestinal symptoms of many patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) but without celiac disease or wheat allergy have been shown to improve on a gluten-free diet. Therefore, this study set out to evaluate the effects of gluten on IBS symptoms.MethodsWe performed a double-blind randomized placebo-controlled rechallenge trial in a tertiary care hospital with IBS patients who fulfilled the Rome III criteria. Patients with celiac disease and wheat allergy were appropriately excluded. The participants were administered a gluten-free diet for 4 weeks and were asked to complete a symptom-based questionnaire to assess their overall symptoms, abdominal pain, bloating, wind, and tiredness on the visual analog scale (0-100) at the baseline and every week thereafter. The participants who showed improvement were randomly assigned to one of two groups to receive either a placebo (gluten-free breads) or gluten (whole cereal breads) as a rechallenge for the next 4 weeks.ResultsIn line with the protocol analysis, 60 patients completed the study. The overall symptom score on the visual analog scale was significantly different between the two groups (P<0.05). Moreover, the patients in the gluten intervention group scored significantly higher in terms of abdominal pain, bloating, and tiredness (P<0.05), and their symptoms worsened within 1 week of the rechallenge.ConclusionsA gluten diet may worsen the symptoms of IBS patients. Therefore, some form of gluten sensitivity other than celiac disease exists in some of them, and patients with IBS may benefit from gluten restrictions

Synthesis, in vitro biological evaluation and molecular docking study of coumarin-1,4-dihydropyridine derivatives as potent anti-inflammatory agents

The green chemistry approach provides for the synthesis of coumarin-1,4-dihydropyridine scaffolds 6a-o via sequential multicomponent reaction using catalytic amount of triethylamine (TEA). These new coumarin scaffolds have been successfully explored for the effective inflammatory as well as microbial infection inhibitors. The antimicrobial activity results of the title compounds have shown potent activity against both gram positive and gram negative bacterial, and fungal stains. Additionally, anti-inflammatory activity of all the compounds has been found to be quite promising in comparison with standard Diclofenac sodium. Furthermore, the in silico docking study has been performed for all the compounds with S. aureus DNA gyrase and cyclooxygenase-2 (PDB ID 4PH9). The computational results are in good agreement with the in vitro antibacterial and anti-inflammatory experimental results.

Synthesis, in vitro biological evaluation and molecular docking study of coumarin-1,4-dihydropyridine derivatives as potent anti-inflammatory agents

418-432The green chemistry approach provides for the synthesis of coumarin-1,4-dihydropyridine scaffolds 6a-o via sequential multicomponent reaction using catalytic amount of triethylamine (TEA). These new coumarin scaffolds have been successfully explored for the effective inflammatory as well as microbial infection inhibitors. The antimicrobial activity results of the title compounds have shown potent activity against both gram positive and gram negative bacterial, and fungal stains. Additionally, anti-inflammatory activity of all the compounds has been found to be quite promising in comparison with standard Diclofenac sodium. Furthermore, the in silico docking study has been performed for all the compounds with S. aureus DNA gyrase and cyclooxygenase-2 (PDB ID 4PH9). The computational results are in good agreement with the in vitro antibacterial and anti-inflammatory experimental results

Presence of Infected Gr-1intCD11bhiCD11cint Monocytic Myeloid Derived Suppressor Cells Subverts T Cell Response and Is Associated With Impaired Dendritic Cell Function in Mycobacterium avium-Infected Mice

Myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSC) are immature myeloid cells with immunomodulatory function. To study the mechanism by which MDSC affect antimicrobial immunity, we infected mice with two M. avium strains of differential virulence, highly virulent Mycobacterium avium subsp. avium strain 25291 (MAA) and low virulent Mycobacterium avium subsp. hominissuis strain 104 (MAH). Intraperitoneal infection with MAA, but not MAH, caused severe disease and massive splenic infiltration of monocytic MDSC (M-MDSC; Gr-1intCD11bhiCD11cint) expressing inducible NO synthase (Nos2) and bearing high numbers of mycobacteria. Depletion experiments demonstrated that M-MDSC were essential for disease progression. NO production by M-MDSC influenced antigen-uptake and processing by dendritic cells and proliferation of CD4+ T cells. M-MDSC were also induced in MAA-infected mice lacking Nos2. In these mice CD4+ T cell expansion and control of infection were restored. However, T cell inhibition was only partially relieved and arginase (Arg) 1-expressing M-MDSC were accumulated. Likewise, inhibition of Arg1 also partially rescued T cell proliferation. Thus, mycobacterial virulence results in the induction of M-MDSC that block the T cell response in a Nos2- and Arg1-dependent manner