A CONTROLLED CLINICAL STUDY ON THE EFFECT OF CERTAIN INDIGENOUS DRUGS IN SHAKHASHRITA KAMALA WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO VIRAL HEPATITIS-B

Hepatitis-B is an infective disease predominantly affecting liver. Along with AIDS, which has been a major concern since 90s. Many of the Ayurvedic herbal medicines have been tried and have been proved to be effective in treating Shakhashrita kamala. The objective of the study was to see the effect of tablet Nirocil and indigenous drugs Kashaya in Shakhashrita kamala (Hepatitis-B) and to compare both of them. A Total of 26 patients, after considering the inclusion and exclusion criteria, having signs and symptoms of Shakhashrita kamala were included in the study and after diagnosing Hepatitis-B by elevated liver function tests and HBsAg (Elisa). Patients were assessed and scores were given with regards to the subjective parameters like Peetata of netra, Peetata of Mootra, Peetata of Jihwa jala, Swethavarchas, Kandu and objective parameters like total bilirubin, and HBsAg. All the subjective parameters are recorded and assessed on initial day, during and after treatment. Objective parameters are assessed before and after treatment. Out of 26 patients, 10 patients got completely cured, 8 patients got improvement and 8 patients got slight improvement. Overall assessment of the study revealed that, after treatment of 26 patients, there were 8 patients having HBsAg positive result and 18 patients were having HBsAg negative result which was highly significant. Both the groups showed significant positive in subjective parameters. Thus study revealed that indigenous drugs Kashaya has significant role to play in the management of Shaksahashrita kamala. To conclude, the study emphasized that indigenous drugs Kashaya has significant role to play in the management of Shaksahashrita kamala

Long-Term Immune Recovery After Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation for ADA Deficiency: a Single-Center Experience

Unconditioned hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) is the recommended treatment for patients with adenosine deaminase (ADA)-deficient severe combined immunodeficiency with an HLA-matched sibling donor (MSD) or family donor (MFD). Improved overall survival (OS) has been reported compared to the use of unrelated donors, and previous studies have demonstrated that adequate cellular and humoral immune recovery can be achieved even in the absence of conditioning. Detailed insight of the long-term outcome is still limited. We aim to address this by studying a large single-center cohort of 28 adenosine deaminase-deficient patients who underwent a total of 31 HSCT procedures, of which more than half were unconditioned. We report an OS of 85.7% and event-free survival of 71% for the entire cohort, with no statistically significant differences after procedures using related or unrelated HLA-matched donors. We find that donor engraftment in the myeloid compartment is significantly diminished in unconditioned procedures, which typically use a MSD or MFD. This is associated with poor metabolic correction and more frequent failure to discontinue immunoglobulin replacement therapy. Approximately one in four patients receiving an unconditioned procedure required a second procedure, whereas the use of reduced intensity conditioning (RIC) prior to allogeneic transplantation improves the long-term outcome by achieving better myeloid engraftment, humoral immune recovery, and metabolic correction. Further longitudinal studies are needed to optimize future management and guidelines, but our findings support a potential role for the routine use of RIC in most ADA-deficient patients receiving an HLA-identical hematopoietic stem cell transplant, even when a MSD or MFD is available

Reinforcement learning or active inference?

This paper questions the need for reinforcement learning or control theory when optimising behaviour. We show that it is fairly simple to teach an agent complicated and adaptive behaviours using a free-energy formulation of perception. In this formulation, agents adjust their internal states and sampling of the environment to minimize their free-energy. Such agents learn causal structure in the environment and sample it in an adaptive and self-supervised fashion. This results in behavioural policies that reproduce those optimised by reinforcement learning and dynamic programming. Critically, we do not need to invoke the notion of reward, value or utility. We illustrate these points by solving a benchmark problem in dynamic programming; namely the mountain-car problem, using active perception or inference under the free-energy principle. The ensuing proof-of-concept may be important because the free-energy formulation furnishes a unified account of both action and perception and may speak to a reappraisal of the role of dopamine in the brain

Field Emission Properties and Fabrication of CdS Nanotube Arrays

A large area arrays (ca. 40 cm2) of CdS nanotube on silicon wafer are successfully fabricated by the method of layer-by-layer deposition cycle. The wall thicknesses of CdS nanotubes are tuned by controlling the times of layer-by-layer deposition cycle. The field emission (FE) properties of CdS nanotube arrays are investigated for the first time. The arrays of CdS nanotube with thin wall exhibit better FE properties, a lower turn-on field, and a higher field enhancement factor than that of the arrays of CdS nanotube with thick wall, for which the ratio of length to the wall thickness of the CdS nanotubes have played an important role. With increasing the wall thickness of CdS nanotube, the enhancement factorβdecreases and the values of turn-on field and threshold field increase

Bioengineering of the plant culture of Capsicum frutescens with vanillin synthase gene for the production of vanillin

Production of vanillin by bioengineering has gained popularity due to consumer demand towards vanillin produced by biological systems. Natural vanillin from vanilla beans is very expensive to produce compared to its synthetic counterpart. Current bioengineering works mainly involve microbial biotechnology. Therefore, alternative means to the current approaches are constantly being explored. This work describes the use of vanillin synthase (VpVAN), to bioconvert ferulic acid to vanillin in a plant system. The VpVAN enzyme had been shown to directly convert ferulic acid and its glucoside into vanillin and its glucoside, respectively. As the ferulic acid precursor and vanillin were found to be the intermediates in the phenylpropanoid biosynthetic pathway of Capsicum species, this work serves as a proof-of-concept for vanillin production using Capsicum frutescens (C. frutescens or hot chili pepper). The cells of C. frutescens were genetically transformed with a codon optimized VpVAN gene via biolistics. Transformed explants were selected and regenerated into callus. Successful integration of the gene cassette into the plant genome was confirmed by polymerase chain reaction. High performance liquid chromatography was used to quantify the phenolic compounds detected in the callus tissues. The vanillin content of transformed calli was 0.057% compared to 0.0003% in untransformed calli

Towards a General Theory of Neural Computation Based on Prediction by Single Neurons

Although there has been tremendous progress in understanding the mechanics of the nervous system, there has not been a general theory of its computational function. Here I present a theory that relates the established biophysical properties of single generic neurons to principles of Bayesian probability theory, reinforcement learning and efficient coding. I suggest that this theory addresses the general computational problem facing the nervous system. Each neuron is proposed to mirror the function of the whole system in learning to predict aspects of the world related to future reward. According to the model, a typical neuron receives current information about the state of the world from a subset of its excitatory synaptic inputs, and prior information from its other inputs. Prior information would be contributed by synaptic inputs representing distinct regions of space, and by different types of non-synaptic, voltage-regulated channels representing distinct periods of the past. The neuron's membrane voltage is proposed to signal the difference between current and prior information (“prediction error” or “surprise”). A neuron would apply a Hebbian plasticity rule to select those excitatory inputs that are the most closely correlated with reward but are the least predictable, since unpredictable inputs provide the neuron with the most “new” information about future reward. To minimize the error in its predictions and to respond only when excitation is “new and surprising,” the neuron selects amongst its prior information sources through an anti-Hebbian rule. The unique inputs of a mature neuron would therefore result from learning about spatial and temporal patterns in its local environment, and by extension, the external world. Thus the theory describes how the structure of the mature nervous system could reflect the structure of the external world, and how the complexity and intelligence of the system might develop from a population of undifferentiated neurons, each implementing similar learning algorithms

Small Heat Shock Protein αA-Crystallin Prevents Photoreceptor Degeneration in Experimental Autoimmune Uveitis

The small heat shock protein, αA-crystallin null (αA−/−) mice are known to be more prone to retinal degeneration than the wild type mice in Experimental Autoimmune Uveoretinitis (EAU). In this report we demonstrate that intravenous administration of αA preserves retinal architecture and prevents photoreceptor damage in EAU. Interestingly, only αA and not αB-crystallin (αB), a closely related small heat shock protein works, pointing to molecular specificity in the observed retinal protection. The possible involvement of αA in retinal protection through immune modulation is corroborated by adaptive transfer experiments, (employing αA−/− and wild type mice with EAU as donors and Rag2−/− as the recipient mice), which indicate that αA protects against the autoimmune challenge by modulating the systemic B and T cell immunity. We show that αA administration causes marked reduction in Th1 cytokines (TNF-α, IL-12 and IFN-γ), both in the retina and in the spleen; notably, IL-17 was only reduced in the retina suggesting local intervention. Importantly, expression of Toll-like receptors and their associated adaptors is also inhibited suggesting that αA protection, against photoreceptor loss in EAU, is associated with systemic suppression of both the adaptive and innate immune responses

Transverse electric field–induced deformation of armchair single-walled carbon nanotube

The deformation of armchair single-walled carbon nanotube under transverse electric field has been investigated using density functional theory. The results show that the circular cross-sections of the nanotubes are deformed to elliptic ones, in which the tube diameter along the field direction is increased, whereas the diameter perpendicular to the field direction is reduced. The electronic structures of the deformed nanotubes were also studied. The ratio of the major diameter to the minor diameter of the elliptic cross-section was used to estimate the degree of the deformation. It is found that this ratio depends on the field strength and the tube diameter. However, the field direction has little role in the deformation

Annealing of gold nanostructures sputtered on polytetrafluoroethylene

Gold nanolayers sputtered on polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) surface and their changes induced by post-deposition annealing at 100°C to 300°C are studied. Changes in surface morphology and roughness are examined by atomic force microscopy, electrical sheet resistance by two point technique, zeta potential by electrokinetic analysis and chemical composition by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) in dependence on the gold layer thickness. Transition from discontinuous to continuous gold coverage takes place at the layer thicknesses 10 to 15 nm and this threshold remains practically unchanged after the annealing at the temperatures below 200°C. The annealing at 300°C, however, leads to significant rearrangement of the gold layer and the transition threshold increases to 70 nm. Significant carbon contamination and the presence of oxidized structures on gold-coated samples are observed in XPS spectra. Gold coating leads to a decrease in the sample surface roughness. Annealing at 300°C of pristine PTFE and gold-coated PTFE results in significant increase of the sample surface roughness