Immunogenic Modulations Induced by Prospective Anti-Malarial Herbal Extracts in Murine Model

Keeping in view the ever increasing problem of drug resistance and affordability of the antimalarial drugs by the poor mass, herbal medicines can become an important and alternative sustainable strategy for malaria treatment. Aqueous extracts of three Himalayan herbs― _Equisetum ravense_, _Artemisia vulgaris_ and _Centella asiatica_, with reported antimalarial property were screened for clinical efficacy against a local strain of _Plasmodium vivax_ antigen in murine model. _E. arvense_ extract was consistent in boosting phagocytic activity, nitric oxide generation, acid phosphatase and alkaline phosphatase activities in the peritoneal macrophages. The effectiveness of the rest herbals was discrete. A need for further detailed investigation to evaluate the clinical efficacy of these herbals seems essential

The old man with heavy proteinuria: An uncommon case of lupus nephropathy in elderly male

Systemic lupus erythematosus is an autoimmune systemic disease, particularly affecting women of reproductive age group. Male lupus and associated nephropathy is very uncommon. Elderly male presenting with lupus nephropathy is still a rare finding in literature. We report a case of lupus nephropathy in a 67-year-old male presenting with heavy proteinuria. We also conclude that age and sex of a patient is no bar for lupus, and every physician must consider autoimmune disease even in elderly male patients

Computationally Efficient Non-linear Kalman Filters for On-board Space Vehicle Navigation

The Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) is the most popular non-linear estimation algorithm due to its computational efficiency. It is frequently used in on-board space vehicle navigation. However, for highly non-linear applications, due to the degraded performance of the EKF, the Unscented Kalman Filter (UKF) was proposed to deliver better accuracy. The UKF requires more computational time than the EKF. This dissertation proposes two computationally efficient UKFs called the Single Propagation Unscented Kalman Filter (SPUKF) and the Extrapolated Single Propagation Unscented Kalman Filter (ESPUKF), which predict the state vector by propagating only one sample state vector.These new algorithms are accurate to the first and second order Taylor series terms. Using theoretical analysis and several example space applications with radar and Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) observations, it is demonstrated that these new techniques can reduce the processing time of the UKF by up to 90%. The Unscented-type Kalman Filters have advantages when the problem is “highly” non-linear. However, the relationship between non-linearity and the UKF performance improvement over the EKF had not been thoroughly investigated. A mathematical relation between a quantitative measure of non-linearity and the UKF performance relative to the EKF is presented in this dissertation. The performance improvement the UKF can attain is shown to depend on the non-linearity of the system and the measurements. Several non-linear problems are examined to verify the relation. This analysis provides a quantitative approach to selecting between the UKF and the EKF.The effect of the Position Dilution of Precision (PDOP) of GNSS observations on the EKF and UKF performance in space vehicle navigation was also studied. Using the least square method, the position standard deviation has a linear relation with the PDOP. It is shown that, in the Kalman Filter framework, the position standard deviation has a hyperbolic relation with the PDOP.The new algorithms will facilitate accurate on-board implementation of estimation algorithms for highly non-linear space vehicle navigation problems. The analytical results relating the Kalman Filter performance, non-linearity and PDOP enable structured selection between the EKF and UKF

State Estimation Methods in Navigation: Overview and Application

The goal of this article is to introduce selected methods of the state estimation, which are used in navigation applications. In particular, the article is focused on navigation applications, which belong into the area of expertise of the IEEE AESS Navigation Systems Panel 34 2 (NSP), of which the authors are members

Synthesis, structural and magnetic properties of macrocyclic aza-amido binuclear copper(II) complexes

Binuclear, antiferromagnetically coupled, macrocyclic copper(II) complexes, [Cu2(C28H32N4O4)]•H2O (II) and [Cu2(C36H32N4O4)]•CH3CN•H2O (III), involving asymmetric ligands with two deprotonated amide, two azomethine nitrogen, and two phenoxide donors at the binuclear centre, have been synthesized and characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction and variable temperature magnetic studies. Complex II crystallizes in the monoclinic system, space group P21/n, with a = 16.4854(9) Å, b = 7.6005(13) Å, c = 21.1617(11) Å, β = 104.090(5)°, Z = 4, Rf = 0.068 for 2062 significant reflections. The two copper(II) centres have square planar N2O2 donor sets with two phenoxide oxygen atoms bridging the copper centres with a copper-copper separation of 2.898(2) Å. A long copper-oxygen (amide) contact (2.808(10) Å) forms a weak dimer association. Complex III crystallizes in the triclinic system, space group P1-, with a = 8.7771(9) Å, b = 12.3983(16) Å, c = 15.7299(16) Å, α = 85.003(11)°, ß = 84.574(8)°, γ = 76.838(10)°, Z = 2, Rf = 0.041 for 2966 significant reflections. The two copper(II) centres have distorted square-pyramidal geometry involving an N2O2 in plane donor set and two phenoxide oxygen bridges with a copper-copper separation of 3.018(1) Å. The fifth coordination site at each copper centre involves an amide oxygen from a neighbouring molecule (Cu(1)-O 2.371(4), Cu(2)-O 2.413(3) Å) in a staggered intermolecular array. Very strong antiferromagnetic exchange is observed in both cases (-2J = 689 ± 7 cm-1 (II), -2J = 816 ± 8 cm-1 (III))