Evaluation and comparison of the hepatoprotective effects of trimetazidine and lovastatin against doxorubicin-induced hepatotoxicity

Background: The dosage of highly efficacious anti-cancer drug doxorubicin (DOX) is often constrained as limited data exists on its hepatotoxic potential. The present study not only evaluated the extent of its hepatotoxicity but also aimed at curtailing it, by administration of two drugs i.e. trimetazidine and lovastatin, both of which are otherwise known for their cardioprotective benefits.Methods: The study was a lab-based randomized controlled study on mice. Acute toxicity was introduced with DOX injected intraperitoneally at a dose of 10 mg/kg and it was protected by oral administration of trimetazidine and lovastatin, both in a dose of 10 mg/kg. The protective drugs were both given for five and ten consecutive days in short and long term study designs whereby DOX was administered on the third and eighth days of the respective studies.Results: Doxorubicin administration caused significant hepatotoxicity reflected by markedly raised biomarkers (serum alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase) and mild inflammation of liver parenchyma with a score of 4 as per Ishak grading scale. The changes were significantly attenuated by both the protective drugs in the ten days study design. However, in the five days study, lovastatin exhibited more significant hepatoprotection than trimetazidine.Conclusions: Pretreatment with two commonly available, cost effective and safe drugs can effectively prevent a potentially life-threatening adverse effect of DOX. This approach might prove very convenient for the health care providers as well as for the patients without burdening the economics

Comparing Study of The Stability and spectral properties vibrations for some Tellurium (IV) compounds containing cycloctadienyl group by Quantum Mechanical Calculations

Density Functional Theory (DFT) with B3LYP hybrid exchange-correlation functional and 3-21G basis set and semi-empirical methods (PM3) were used to calculate the energies (total energy, binding energy (Eb), molecular orbital energy (EHOMO-ELUMO), heat of formation (?Hf)) and vibrational spectra for some Tellurium (IV) compounds containing cycloctadienyl group which can use as ligands with some transition metals or essential metals of periodic table at optimized geometrical structures

ONE DEATH, THREE REGIONS AND TWO STORIES: A STUDY OF THE MEDIA COVERAGE OF THE KILLING OF OSAMA BIN LADEN IN PAKISTANI, BRITISH AND AMERICAN MEDIA

This research study explores the death coverage of Osama bin Laden across the seven media outlets of the three countries – US, UK and Pakistan. These three countries are closely tied to each other in the fight against terror, and have also suffered a lot in this regard. This study focuses only on the content of the selected media outlets which includes both print and electronic media. These include: The New York Times from the US, The Daily Telegraph and the Guardian from the UK, the Geo News, the Duniya News, Pakistan Television Corporation and the daily Dawn from Pakistan. The basic research question raised in this study is: How the seven identified media outlets across the three different countries covered the death of Osama bin Laden? This basic research question is supplemented with some additional research questions to explore the content from different dimensions in order to show a broader comparative picture of the coverage carried out by these identified media outlets in these three countries. This study focuses only on the content of the broadcast and print media outlets. It does not explore the production of the content. The research study is based on ‘Quantitative Content Analysis’ and has examined 957 news articles. The findings support that despite being close allies in the ongoing War on Terror, two different set of stories appeared. It includes: the story of dominance and reliance; the story of joy and grief; the story of mistrust and incompetence; the story of success and embarrassment; the story of politics and geostrategic interests; the story covered through joint reporting and individual reporting; the story reported from the field and studio; and the story of mistrust (among the allies) and the future of the war on terror. Additionally, this research study also investigates the questions whether most of the coverage, of the selected media outlets, was based on counterterrorism, i.e., highlighting the narratives of Allies vs bin Laden; or show the impact of bin Laden’s death on the future of War on Terror, on the volatile region, or even on the Al Qaeda itself. It also points out that how these media outlets approached the Pakistani government, Pakistani military/ Intelligence Agencies, and the US government/ Army – besides looking at the rhetoric used for Osama bin Laden and Abbottabad Operation

A tapered fibre optics biosensor for histamine detection

Purpose: This paper aims to estimate the level of histamine in fish and fish products, as it is very important because of their implication in fish poisoning in humans; hence, ascertaining histamine levels in the aforementioned serves as a chemical index for spoilage. Design/methodology/approach: A technique was developed to immobilize an ordered multilayer of diamine oxidase (DAO) by means of chemical cross-linking on the biconical taper surface stepwisely alternating between chitosan, glutaraldehyde and the enzyme. A spectrophotometric signal results from horseradish peroxidase catalyzed reduction of H2O2, a secondary product of the oxidative deamination of histamine monitored at 450 nm. Findings: The biosensor showed a linear response range up to 1.5 mM, a good sensitivity of 0.64 mM-1 with detection and quantification limits towards histamine of 0.086 mM (15.8 ppm) and 0.204 mM (37.7 ppm) and a linear response range of 0-1.5 mM. It showed a response and recovery time of 14 sec and operational stability up to 40 repeated analyses without significant loss of sensitivity. Practical implications: The developed biosensor has a good potential for use in the quantitative determination of histamine in seafood. Originality/value: The paper described an outcome of an experimental work on tapered fibre optics (taper)-based biosensor coated with DAO embedded into a chitosan membrane to measure histamine

Inclusive Agricultural Growth in Pakistan— Understanding Some Basic Constraints

Inclusive agricultural growth is important for overall economic growth and particularly critical for rural socio-economic stability and poverty reduction in Pakistan. The majority of Pakistan‘s population and 44 percent of the overall labour force are dependent upon agriculture which only accounts for a little over 20 percent of national GDP. The paper highlights some basic constraints that have not been explicitly addressed in the policy research and implementation and have impeded inclusive agriculture growth. A descriptive analysis based on data from the Agriculture Census of Pakistan and the Pakistan Household Income and Economic Survey—both of which were conducted in 2010-11—is used to show how high levels of poverty and its disparity across regions, combined with the declining size of operated holdings and associated fragmentation especially in the smallest size categories which now form over 60 percent of the agricultural holdings in Pakistan, are fundamental constraints. Poverty is both the result as well as the consequence of fragmented markets, weak institutions including governance; and, inadequate policy research and implementation. A better research based policy understanding of some basic constraints, and the variations across regions in such factors such as the declining size and fragmentation of operated farms, rural poverty; and, the levels of market development and institutions is essential along with effective implementation. One size fits all policies have not and will not work. JEL Classification: O40, Q15, I32, P46 Keywords: Inclusive Growth, Land Holding, Land Tenure, Income Distribution, Povert

Ideological Collocation in Meta-Wahhabi Discourse Post-911 : A Symbiosis of Critical Discourse Analysis and Corpus Linguistics.

This thesis attempts to answer the following overarching question: How has Wahhabi Islam been ideologically recontextualized across post-9/11 opposing discourses via collocation? Drawing on a methodological synergy of corpus linguistics and CDA (Baker et al. 2008; Salama 2011), I propose a linguistic model for explicating the ideological nature of collocation between two clashing books: Stephen Schwartz's (2002) The Two Faces of Islam: The House of Sa'ud from Tradition to Terror and Natana DeLong-Bas's (2004) Wahhabi Islam: From Revival and Reform to Global Jihad. The two books, produced post-9/11, take diametrically opposing stances towards the same socio-religious practice of Wahhabi Islam/Wahhabism. First, using WorSmith5, keywords were used to identify the different semantic foci in the two texts, along with their relevant 'macropropositions' (Van Dijk 1980, 1995, 2009b). A small number of keywords were selected for further analysis, and their functions in contributing towards ideologies were investigated by examining their collocates, relying on the concepts of textual synonymy, oppositional paradigms and argumentative fallacies. Second, the meta-Wahhabi discourses underlying the two texts are analysed by focusing on the discourse processes of producing, interpreting and explaining the patterns of collocations in the texts. Contextual information, such as relevant biographical information relating to the text producers, was taken into account. Additionally, a socio-cognitive approach was used to consider ideological coherence and socio-religious schemas which motivated the ideological use of collocations in both texts. Finally, from a social-semiotic perspective, interdiscursive meanings and the symbolic power invested with the collocating words as religious or political signs are queried. The findings offered in the present thesis cover methodological and theoretical aspects. First, on a theoretical level, there are findings that relate to how collocation as a micro textual resource can closely interface with other macro discourse and language processes, e. g. ideology, (social) cognition, semiotics and interdiscursivity. Second, on a methodological level, this study has contributed to the presently well-established 'methodological synergy' of corpus linguistics and CDA in a symbiotic fashion. This can be recognized in two respects: 1) compared to pure CDA research, the methodological procedure followed in this study (which goes from the quantitative to the qualitative methods) renders the identification of the linguistic phenomenon - collocation - studied in this research far less subjectively identified; 2) the possibility of contextualizing the keywords extracted from one text by conducting a macropropositional analysis (i. e. identifying the topics and themes) in this text

THE POTENTIAL BENEFIT AND THE MECHANISM OF ACTION OF THYROXINE ON SERUM LIPIDS AND BLOOD FLOW INDEXES IN SUBCLINICAL HYPOTHYROIDISM WOMEN

Objective: Even previous reports mentioned that thyroxine has beneficial effects on subclinical hypothyroidism (SCH); however, the mechanism by which thyroxine mediated such effect still unclear. Thus, we aim to find out the potential benefit of thyroxine administration in women with SCH through assessment of lipids profile with evaluation of uterine and ovarian blood flow indexes.Methods: The current study included 80 women with SCH who had a history of recurrent intrauterine death. Those women were chosen from the cohort of pregnant ladies that routinely seek medical advice. For each woman, estimation of serum thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), serum lipids profile (low-density lipoprotein [LDL], total cholesterol [TC], and triglyceride [TG]), and also uterine and ovarian pulsatile index (PI) and resistance index (RI) using color Doppler ultrasound, was done at the beginning of study and then repeated following 2 months during which women were given oral thyroxine supplementation (50 μg/d). The study was carried out in Al-Diwaniyah Maternity and Child Teaching Hospital in Al-Diwaniyah province, Iraq and extended from September 2016 to January 2018.Results: Mean serum TSH, LDL, TG, and TC were significantly reduced (p<0.05). Mean early follicular phase ovarian RI and PI and uterine RI were significantly reduced (p<0.05). In addition, mean late follicular phase ovarian RI and PI and uterine RI were significantly reduced (p<0.05).Conclusion: Thyroxine administration to women with SCH significantly decreases serum lipids and increases uterine and ovarian blood flow by mechanism involving reduction in arterial RI and PI