AN OVERVIEW ON THE BIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES OF NARDOSTACHYS JATAMANSI

Nardostachys jatamansi is a flowering plant of the Valerianaceae family, which is a native plant of the Indian and Nepal Himalaya. It is found from 2200m to 5000m asl. in random forms. It is also called as spikenard, nard, nardin, or muskroot used in the formulation of traditional Ayurvedic medicines as well as modern herbal preparations for curing various ailments. The plant abounds in sesquiterpenes predominantly; jatamansone and nardostachone. Nardostachys jatamansi possesses biological properties such as antioxidant, antimicrobial, anticholinesterase, oxidative stress, antidepressant and anti-inflammatory activities. It is also useful in the management of insomnia and CNS disorders. This study has detailed information regarding the various activities and mainly focuses on the pharmacological activity of Nardostachys jatamansi.Â

AI Solutions for MDS: Artificial Intelligence Techniques for Misuse Detection and Localisation in Telecommunication Environments

This report considers the application of Articial Intelligence (AI) techniques to the problem of misuse detection and misuse localisation within telecommunications environments. A broad survey of techniques is provided, that covers inter alia rule based systems, model-based systems, case based reasoning, pattern matching, clustering and feature extraction, articial neural networks, genetic algorithms, arti cial immune systems, agent based systems, data mining and a variety of hybrid approaches. The report then considers the central issue of event correlation, that is at the heart of many misuse detection and localisation systems. The notion of being able to infer misuse by the correlation of individual temporally distributed events within a multiple data stream environment is explored, and a range of techniques, covering model based approaches, `programmed' AI and machine learning paradigms. It is found that, in general, correlation is best achieved via rule based approaches, but that these suffer from a number of drawbacks, such as the difculty of developing and maintaining an appropriate knowledge base, and the lack of ability to generalise from known misuses to new unseen misuses. Two distinct approaches are evident. One attempts to encode knowledge of known misuses, typically within rules, and use this to screen events. This approach cannot generally detect misuses for which it has not been programmed, i.e. it is prone to issuing false negatives. The other attempts to `learn' the features of event patterns that constitute normal behaviour, and, by observing patterns that do not match expected behaviour, detect when a misuse has occurred. This approach is prone to issuing false positives, i.e. inferring misuse from innocent patterns of behaviour that the system was not trained to recognise. Contemporary approaches are seen to favour hybridisation, often combining detection or localisation mechanisms for both abnormal and normal behaviour, the former to capture known cases of misuse, the latter to capture unknown cases. In some systems, these mechanisms even work together to update each other to increase detection rates and lower false positive rates. It is concluded that hybridisation offers the most promising future direction, but that a rule or state based component is likely to remain, being the most natural approach to the correlation of complex events. The challenge, then, is to mitigate the weaknesses of canonical programmed systems such that learning, generalisation and adaptation are more readily facilitated

Antitumor and antioxidant potential of Tragia Plukenetii R.Smith on Ehrlich ascites carcinoma in mice

This investigation aims to evaluate the antitumour and antioxidant potential of the ethanol extract of Tragia Plukenetii R.Smith (ETP) on Ehrlich ascites carcinoma (EAC) tumor model. Tumor was inducedin mice by intraperitoneal injection of EAC cells (2x106 cells/mouse). Ethanol extract of T. Plukenetii (ETP) was administered to the experimental animals at the dose levels of 100, 200 and 300 mg/kg/day after 24 h of tumour inoculation. The antitumour effect of ETP was evaluated by assessing in vitro cytotoxicity, survival time, hematological and antioxidant parameters. Oral administration of ETPincreased the survival time of the EAC bearing mice. The ETP brought back the altered levels of the hematological and antioxidant parameters in a dose dependent manner in EAC bearing mice. The results were comparable to that of the result obtained from the animals treated with the standard drug 5-flurouracil (20 mg/kg.bw). Thus present study revealed that ETP possessed significant antitumor and antioxidant activity

Acute effect of gibberellic acid on serum enzymes and blood markers in male albino rats

This study was designed to evaluate the influence of a phytohormone, gibberellic acid (GA3) on marker enzymes and biomarkers of serum, and blood hemoglobin and its blood cells counts of rat. In order to evaluate the positive/negative effects, the rats were administered 75μg, 150μg and 300μg of GA3/kg body weight as a single dose. GA3 treatments produced differential effects on the different parameters at dose dependent manner after 4 hours.The down regulation in specific activities of ALT, ALP, GGT and amylase were noted against the control with significant up regulation of AST activity. GA3 also produced dose dependent effect on biomarkers. There is a substantial reduction in the quantity of glucose, urea, creatinine, calcium, phosphorus, sodium and potassium was recorded against the control. On the other hand, the insignificant increase in content of total protein, albumin and uric acid was observed at all dose of GA3 treatment against the control. GA3 increased the RBC, WBC and neutrophil by decreasing the lymphocyte total numbers. Platelets, monocytes and oesinophils count were not altered by any dose of GA3.In conclusion, GA3 produced dose dependent effect on different parameters of rat blood serum.Keywords: phytohormone; gibberellic acid; creatinine; neutrophi

Short term effect of 28-homobrassinolide on serum, liver and kidney marker enzymes and other biochemical parameters of male albino rats

Brassinosterols (BS) are ubiquitous pluripotent growth regulator present in plants. They exist in isoforms of epi and homobrassinolides (HB).  BS act as potent stimulators of root and shoot elongation, cell division, DNA and RNA polymerase activity, ethylene production and of stress tolerance to temperature, water scarcity and salinity in plants. It is also used to increase the yield of crop and to protect the plants against pesticides. Consumption of plant material as diet and used as growth regulator in animals, and application of BS in agriculture would increases its availability to the host tissues. In the present study, the effect of 28-HB, an isomer of brassinosterol on serum, liver and kidney marker enzymes, lipid peroxidation, tissue histology and the blood parameters of rat were investigated. The rats were given the compound by intradermal mode at the concentration of 75µg, 150µg and 300µg as single dose and the effects were observed after 4 hr to study the immediate response of the animal. The treatment of rats with 28-HB, caused different effects on the serum, liver and kidney parameters of this study. In conclusion, the present study showed that 28-HB affects the structure and function of rat tissues in a dose dependent manner.Keywords: Brassinosterols; homobrassinolides; 28-HB; lipid peroxidatio

Short term effect of 28-homobrassinolide on serum, liver and kidney marker enzymes and other biochemical parameters of male albino rats

Brassinosterols (BS) are ubiquitous pluripotent growth regulator present in plants. They exist in isoforms of epi and homobrassinolides (HB).  BS act as potent stimulators of root and shoot elongation, cell division, DNA and RNA polymerase activity, ethylene production and of stress tolerance to temperature, water scarcity and salinity in plants. It is also used to increase the yield of crop and to protect the plants against pesticides. Consumption of plant material as diet and used as growth regulator in animals, and application of BS in agriculture would increases its availability to the host tissues. In the present study, the effect of 28-HB, an isomer of brassinosterol on serum, liver and kidney marker enzymes, lipid peroxidation, tissue histology and the blood parameters of rat were investigated. The rats were given the compound by intradermal mode at the concentration of 75µg, 150µg and 300µg as single dose and the effects were observed after 4 hr to study the immediate response of the animal. The treatment of rats with 28-HB, caused different effects on the serum, liver and kidney parameters of this study. In conclusion, the present study showed that 28-HB affects the structure and function of rat tissues in a dose dependent manner.Keywords: Brassinosterols; homobrassinolides; 28-HB; lipid peroxidatio

Biochemical evaluation of low dose methyl 2-benzimidazole carbamate fungicide on male albino rats

Methyl 2-benzimidazole carbamate (carbendazim) is one of the synthetic fungicides that controlled organisms that caused plant diseases of different types. It is widely used as a preservative in leather, paint, textile, fruits and papermaking industry. It is also used as an anticancer drug in chemical medicine. In the present study low concentrations of carbendazim was administered at 5, 10, 25 and 50mM doses intradermally to male albino rats. At the end of 6 hr, 12hr and 24hr duration, blood samples were collected from the animal for the analysis of biochemical and haematological parameters. Carbendazim caused an increase of cholesterol, uric acid, glucose and creatinine while serum phosphorous content was decreased. However, mean hemoglobin, WBC, E, and platelet counts increased and total RBC, N and L counts decreased. These results indicated that low dose level carbendazim contributed to toxicological effects in the rat tissues.Keywords: Methyl 2-benzimidazole carbamate; Fungicide; Rat tissue

ANTIMICROBIAL AND ANTI-INFLAMMATORY STUDIES ON SARGASSUM WIGHTII EXTRACTS

Objective: To evaluate the antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory effect of hexane, chloroform and ethanolic extract of Sargassum wightii. Methods: Hexane, chlorofom and ethanolic extractions of these algae were done and evaluated for biological activity. Assay of antimicrobial activity was perfomed by disc diffusion method against various microorganisms. Assay of anti-inflammatory activity was performed in albino rats with paw edema, induced by Carrageenan. Results: Chloroform and ethanol extracts exhibited antimicrobial activity against various microorganisms. All the extracts revealed anti-inflammatory activity, in which chloroform extract showed maximum activity in dose dependent manner. Conclusions: Among the three different extracts tested, chloroform extract of S. wightii possess significant antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory activities. Further in-depth studies, could result in the development of a good antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory agent from this chloroform extract of S.wightii

Sustainable degradation of carbon tetrafluoride to non-corrosive useful products by incorporating reduced electron mediator within electro-scrubbing

The degradation of CF4 gas using existing technologies produces other types of greenhouse gas (CO2) and corrosive side products. The main aim of this study is to degrade CF4 gas at room temperature into useful products without producing corrosive side products by mediated electrochemical reduction (MER) process using an electrogenerated Cu1+[Ni2+(CN)4]1− mediator. Initial studies on the electrolytic reduction of the hetero-bimetallic complex in catholyte solution at anodized Ti cathode was monitored by oxidation/reduction potential (ORP) variation whether the Cu2+ or Ni2+ was reduced in the Cu2+[Ni2+(CN)4] and confirmed by electron spin resonance (ESR) spectroscopy the Cu1+[Ni2+(CN)4]1− formation. The concentration variation of Cu1+[Ni2+(CN)4]1− during CF4 injection demonstrated the degradation of CF4 followed the MER by electrogenerated Cu1+[Ni2+(CN)4]1−. Maximum removal efficiency of CF4 using electroscrubbing process was 96% at room temperature. Through the variation in gas phase parameters, the gas phase mass transfer coefficient was calculated that can facilitate scale up the developed process. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy analysis in both the gas and solution phases showed that CH3CH2OH was the main product that formed during the removal of CF4 by electrogenerated Cu1+[Ni2+(CN)4]1− at electroscrubber along with a small amount of CF3CH3 intermediate. Importantly, this mechanism also avoided formation of the corrosive product HF