Protective effect of lemongrass oil against dexamethasone induced hyperlipidemia in rats: possible role of decreased lecithin cholesterol acetyl transferase activity

AbstractObjectiveTo evaluate the anti-hyperlipidemic activity of lemongrass oil against in dexamethasone induced hyperlipidemia in rats.MethodsAdministration of dexamethasone was given at 10 mg/kg, sc. to the adult rats for 8 d induces hyperlipidemia characterized by marked increase in serum cholesterol and triglyceride levels along with increase in atherogenic index.ResultsLemongrass oil (100 and 200 mg/kg, po.) treatment has showed significant inhibition against dexamethasone hyperlipidemia by maintaining the serum levels of cholesterol, triglycerides and atherogenic index near to the normal levels and the antihyperlipidemic effect of the lemongross oil was comparable with atorvastatin 10 mg/kg, po. The possible mechanism may be associated with decrease in lecithin cholesterol acetyl transferase (LCAT) activity.ConclusionsThese results suggested that Lemon gross oil possess significant anti-hyperlipidemic activity

Living environment and health of under-five children in urban slums of a coastal region in South India

Objective: The primary objective of the study was to determine the association between the living environment and morbidity, nutritional status, immunization status, and personal hygiene of under-five children living in urban slums in southern India. Methods: This study included 224 mothers of under-five children living in urban slums of Udupi Taluk, Karnataka. A total of 17 urban slums were selected randomly using random cluster sampling. Results: Undernutrition was high among children of illiterate mothers (63.8%), and the children of working mothers were affected by more morbidity (96.6%) as compared with housewives. Morbidity was also found to be high among children belonging to families with low incomes (66.1%) and low socio-economic backgrounds (93.1%). Safe drinking water, water supply, sanitation, hygiene, age of the child, mother’s and father’s education, mother’s occupation and age, number of children in the family, use of mosquito nets, type of household, and family income were significantly associated with child morbidity, nutritional status, immunization status, and personal hygiene of under-five children living in urban slums. Conclusion: Overall, in our study, family characteristics including parental education, occupation and income were significantly associated with outcomes among under-five children. The availability of safe drinking water and sanitation, and the use of mosquito nets to prevent vector-borne diseases are basic needs that need to be urgently met to improve child health

AWAKENING CHARACTERISTICS AND RECOVERY OF COGNITIVE FUNCTION IN PATIENTS UNDERGOING SHORT SURGICAL PROCEDURES: COMPARISON BETWEEN DESFLURANE AND PROPOFOL

Objectives: Early awakening and recovery of the cognitive function improves post-operative outcome and early discharge of the patients. Desflurane and Propofol offer rapid emergence from anesthesia. We compared the awakening and recovery of cognitive function between these two agents. Methods: A total of 50 patients aged 30–60 years belonging to ASA 1 and 2 were studied. In both the groups baseline, Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) score was recorded and were induced with Target controlled infusion (TCI) of Propofol to achieve plasma site concentration (Cp) of 6 mcg/ml. Group P continued with TCI Propofol Cp 3 mcg ml-1 and in group D, TCI was stopped and started Desflurane 6% end tidal concentration followed by Desflurane 3%. Hemodynamic variables were noted and after stopping the agent, time to eye open, squeeze hands, removal of laryngeal mask airway, state name, and modified Aldrete score were noted. MMSE score was recorded 1, 6, and 24 h postoperatively. Results: Awakening time was significantly shorter in duration in Desflurane group compared to Propofol. The mean time to eye open in the Propofol group was 10.41±2:31 min and Desflurane group was 06.21±01.42 min (***p=0.000). There was an increase in the mean MMSE score postoperatively at 6 h and 24 h interval when compared to the baseline within the groups. However, there was no difference in recovery of cognitive function between the two groups. Conclusion: The use of inhalational agent Desflurane provided shorter awakening time than intravenous Propofol in short surgical procedures but the recovery of cognitive function was comparable. There were no significant side effects

Reconstructing Indian-Australian phylogenetic link

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>An early dispersal of biologically and behaviorally modern humans from their African origins to Australia, by at least 45 thousand years via southern Asia has been suggested by studies based on morphology, archaeology and genetics. However, mtDNA lineages sampled so far from south Asia, eastern Asia and Australasia show non-overlapping distributions of haplogroups within pan Eurasian M and N macrohaplogroups. Likewise, support from the archaeology is still ambiguous.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In our completely sequenced 966-mitochondrial genomes from 26 relic tribes of India, we have identified seven genomes, which share two synonymous polymorphisms with the M42 haplogroup, which is specific to Australian Aborigines.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our results showing a shared mtDNA lineage between Indians and Australian Aborigines provides direct genetic evidence of an early colonization of Australia through south Asia, following the "southern route".</p

Hydrogels with intrinsic antibacterial activity prepared from naphthyl anthranilamide (NaA) capped peptide mimics

In this study, we prepared antibacterial hydrogels through the self-assembly of naphthyl anthranilamide (NaA) capped amino acid based cationic peptide mimics. These ultra-short cationic peptide mimics were rationally designed with NaA as a capping group, l-phenylalanine, a short aliphatic linker, and a cationic group. The synthesized peptide mimics efficiently formed hydrogels with minimum gel concentrations between 0.1 and 0.3%w/v. The resulting hydrogels exhibited desirable viscoelastic properties which can be tuned by varying the cationic group, electronegative substituent, or counter anion. Importantly, nanofibers from the NaA-capped cationic hydrogels were found to be the source of hydrogels’ potent bacteriacidal actvity against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria while remaining non-cytotoxic. These intrinsically antibacterial hydrogels are ideal candidates for further development in applications where bacterial contamination is problematic

Integrated modeling and validation for phase change with natural convection

Water-ice systems undergoing melting develop complex spatio-temporal interface dynamics and a non-trivial temperature field. In this contribution, we present computational aspects of a recently conducted validation study that aims at investigating the role of natural convection for cryo-interface dynamics of water-ice. We will present a fixed grid model known as the enthalpy porosity method. It is based on introducing a phase field and employs mixture theory. The resulting PDEs are solved using a finite volume discretization. The second part is devoted to experiments that have been conducted for model validation. The evolving water-ice interface is tracked based on optical images that shows both the water and the ice phase. To segment the phases, we use a binary Mumford Shah method, which yields a piece-wise constant approximation of the imaging data. Its jump set is the reconstruction of the measured phase interface. Our combined simulation and segmentation effort finally enables us to compare the modeled and measured phase interfaces continuously. We conclude with a discussion of our findings

Probing ultrafast carrier dynamics and nonlinear absorption and refraction in core-shell silicon nanowires

We investigate the relaxation dynamics of photogenerated carriers in silicon nanowires consisting of a crystalline core and a surrounding amorphous shell, using femtosecond time-resolved differential reflectivity and transmission spectroscopy at photon energies of 3.15 eV and 1.57 eV. The complex behavior of the differential transmission and reflectivity transients is the mixed contributions from the crystalline core and the amorphous silicon on the nanowire surface and the substrate where competing effects of state filling and photoinduced absorption govern the carrier dynamics. Faster relaxation rates are observed on increasing the photo-generated carrier density. Independent experimental results on crystalline silicon-on-sapphire help us in separating the contributions from the carrier dynamics in crystalline core and the amorphous regions in the nanowire samples. Further, single beam z-scan nonlinear transmission experiments at 1.57 eV in both open and close aperture configurations yield two-photon absorption coefficient \$beta$ (~3 cm/GW) and nonlinear refraction coefficient \$gamma$ (-2.5x10^-4 cm2/GW).Comment: 6 pages, 6 figure