Effect of Combined Leaf Extracts of Vernonia amygdalina (Bitter Leaf) and Gongronema latifolium (Utazi) on the Pancreatic beta-Cells of Streptozotocin- Induced Diabetic Rats

The study evaluated the effect of combined extracts of Vernonia amygdalina (VA) and Gongronema latifolium (GL) on the pancreas of streptozotocin (STZ) induced diabetic Wistar rats. Thirty-two (32) albino rats were divided equally into 4 groups. Groups A and B which served as normal (NC) and diabetic (DC) controls respectively, received placebo treatment. The diabetic test groups C and D were respectively treated with combined extracts of VA and GL (200mg/kg b. w., p. o.) and insulin, (humulin 5 IU/kg, s.c.) for 28 days. Thereafter, the animals were sacrificed and blood and pancreas were collected for serum glucose and histological evaluation, respectively. Changes in animal weight were also measured within the period. From the results it was revealed that both the combined extracts and humulin significantly increased the animals’ body weight (p<0.05) from -10.5% reduction in the DC, to 7.6% and 8.9% respectively. In the same order, serum glucose significantly decreased (p<0.05) by 12.49% and 14.96% after the 28-day treatment compared to DC. The extent of reversal of hyperglycemia in the extract treated animals compared well with the insulin treated group. The biochemical results were corroborated with results of histological evaluations: The pancreatic β-cells of DC animals which were distorted and degenerated with shrunken cell mass as against prominent islet cells with normal exocrine pancreas of NC animals became rapidly proliferated upon intervention with the combined extracts, suggesting a possible regeneration of the islet cells. On the otherhand, intervention with humulin did not produce observable differences in the cyto-architecture of the pancreatic islets compared to the diabetic control, confirming an extra-pancreatic mechanism of insulin

DOSE DEPENDENT EFFECT ON HYPOGLYCEMIC AND ANTIHYPERGLYCEMIC ACTIVITIES OF CHLOROFORM EXTRACT OF PHYSALIS MINIMA IN STREPTOZOTOCIN INDUCED DIABETIC RATS

This study was undertaken to investigate the effect of chloroform extract of Physalis minima (CPM) whole plant on blood glucose levels and other biochemical parameters in streptozotocin (55 mg/kg. b. w., i. p) induced diabetic rats. The treatment was given at doses of (200, 300 and 400mg/kg. b. w., p. o), for 28 days. After the treatment with there is a significant reduction was observed in fasting blood glucose levels in treated diabetic rats. The CPM showed considerable lowering effect of total cholesterol, triglycerides, LDL &amp; VLDL levels and considerably increase HDL cholesterol levels. There is a significant reduction of the SGOT, SGPT and ALP levels in diabetic rats treated with CPM, compared with disease control group. These results suggest that Physalis minima possesses antidiabetic activity in streptozotocin induced diabetic rats

OXIDATIVE STRESS IN GASTRIC MUCOSA IN EXPERIMENTAL MODELS OF ACUTE ULCEROGENESIS. EFFECT OF PARACETAMOL AND PROPACETAMOL

The role of the oxidative stress in acute experimental ulcerogenesis with different pathogenesis and the effect of paracetamol and propacetamol were investigated. The study was performed on male Wistar rats (220-250g) body weight. Gastric ulcer was induced by cold restraint stress (CRS, 4 hours, 4°C), acetyl salicylic acid (ASA, 300mg/kg, 0,2mL/100 g b. w., p. o.) and absolute ethanol (1 ni 1. animal, p. o.). For the assessment of the ulcerogenesis a mean ulcer area and as markers for the oxidative stress malon dialdehyde (MDA), reduced glutathione (GSH) and uric acid (UA) levels in mucosa were used. The mean ulcer area was 101,4, 13,6 and 9,31mm2 for ethanol, CRS and ASA models. Lipid peroxidation evaluated as MDA level was activated strongly in CRS and ASA and mildly in ethanol-induced ulcerogenesis. The GSH was significantly higher in CRS and ASA models. Paracetamol (250mg/kg) and propacetamol (500mg/kg) exerted antiulcerogenic effect in the three experimental models, more pronounced for paracetamol. Their protective effect was strongest (68% and 85%, respectively) for absolute ethanol. Paracetamol and propacetamol decreased MDA in gastric mucosa and sustained the elevated levels of GSH and uric acid. Gastric ulcer induced by CRS, ASA and absolute ethanol was associated with activation of lipid peroxidation. Paracetamol and propacetamol showed gastroprotective effect associated with decreased lipid peroxidation in gastric mucosa

Convergence Rates for Newton’s Method at Singular Points

If Newton’s method is employed to find a root of a map from a Banach space into itself and the derivative is singular at that root, the convergence of the Newton iterates to the root is linear rather than quadratic. In this paper we give a detailed analysis of the linear convergence rates for several types of singular problems. For some of these problems we describe modifications of Newton’s method which will restore quadratic convergence

K-independent percolation on trees

Consider the class of k-independent bond, respectively site, percolations with parameter p on an infinite tree T. We derive tight bounds on p for both a.s. percolation and a.s. nonpercolation. The bounds are continuous functions of k and the branching number of T. This extends previous results by Lyons for the independent case (k=0) and by Bollob\`as & Balister for 1-independent bond percolations. Central to our argumentation are moment method bounds \`a la Lyons supplemented by explicit percolation models \`a la Bollob\`as & Balister. An indispensable tool is the minimality and explicit construction of Shearer's measure on the k-fuzz of Z.Comment: 28 pages, 4 figure

Rhode Island Report on the Judiciary 2006

The year 2006 brought the final decommissioning of the Wang computer system with the conversion of the remaining three departments in the Judiciary. In its second full year of operation in 2006, our court interpreter program doubled its caseload, assisting 6,150 people in our courts. We have been able to expand this service beyond Providence by assigning a full-time interpreter to Kent County

Rhode Island Report on the Judiciary 2005

Within these pages you will find a wealth of statistical data and information about our six individual courts, judicial committees, task forces, and ancillary services. I hope you will find it a useful overview that provides accountability of the valuable service the Judiciary provides to all who pass through its doors in the quest for justice

Constrained Circular Hidden Markov Models for Recognizing Deformed Shapes

In this paper, we analyse the properties of the standard circular hidden Markov model (HMM) on 2D shape recognition. We point out the limitations of the circular HMMs and further propose to impose the constraint on the relationship between the initial and final states of circular HMMs to improve the performance. We develop two modified Viterbi algorithms to implement our proposal. The proposed algorithms have been tested on the database of the MPEG-7 Core Experiments Shape-1, Part B. The experiments show that both proposed algorithms can achieve better performance than that of the standard circular HMM in terms of accuracy. In particular, the second proposed algorithm, which is faster than elastic matching algorithms, has much potential due to its accuracy and speed