Effortless data exploration with zenvisage: an expressive and interactive visual analytics system

Data visualization is by far the most commonly used mechanism to explore data, especially by novice data analysts and data scientists. And yet, current visual analytics tools are rather limited in their ability to guide data scientists to interesting or desired visualizations: the process of visual data exploration remains cumbersome and time-consuming. We propose zenvisage, a platform for effortlessly visualizing interesting patterns, trends, or insights from large datasets. We describe zenvisage's general purpose visual query language, ZQL ("zee-quel") for specifying the desired visual trend, pattern, or insight — ZQL draws from use-cases in a variety of domains, including biology, mechanical engineering, climate science, and commerce. We formalize the expressiveness of ZQL via a visual exploration algebra, and demonstrate that ZQL is at least as expressive as that algebra. While analysts are free to use ZQL directly, we also expose ZQL via a visual specification interface. We then describe our architecture and optimizations, preliminary experiments in supporting and optimizing for ZQL queries in our initial zenvisage prototype, and a user study to evaluate whether data scientists are able to effectively use zenvisage for real applications

You can't always sketch what you want: Understanding Sensemaking in Visual Query Systems

Visual query systems (VQSs) empower users to interactively search for line charts with desired visual patterns, typically specified using intuitive sketch-based interfaces. Despite decades of past work on VQSs, these efforts have not translated to adoption in practice, possibly because VQSs are largely evaluated in unrealistic lab-based settings. To remedy this gap in adoption, we collaborated with experts from three diverse domains---astronomy, genetics, and material science---via a year-long user-centered design process to develop a VQS that supports their workflow and analytical needs, and evaluate how VQSs can be used in practice. Our study results reveal that ad-hoc sketch-only querying is not as commonly used as prior work suggests, since analysts are often unable to precisely express their patterns of interest. In addition, we characterize three essential sensemaking processes supported by our enhanced VQS. We discover that participants employ all three processes, but in different proportions, depending on the analytical needs in each domain. Our findings suggest that all three sensemaking processes must be integrated in order to make future VQSs useful for a wide range of analytical inquiries.Comment: Accepted for presentation at IEEE VAST 2019, to be held October 20-25 in Vancouver, Canada. Paper will also be published in a special issue of IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (TVCG) IEEE VIS (InfoVis/VAST/SciVis) 2019 ACM 2012 CCS - Human-centered computing, Visualization, Visualization design and evaluation method

A Clinical Insight into Gestational Diabetes

Pregnancy is a diabetogenic state manifested by insulin resistance and hyperglycaemia. The age group at risk of getting gestational diabetes is between 20 and 39 years in 96.8% of cases. Gestational diabetes is the development of symptoms and signs of diabetes mellitus during pregnancy and the glucose level reverting to normal during puerperium. Depending on the type of population and the diagnostic criteria used, gestational diabetes is said to complicate 1–16% of all pregnancies. Many researchers in American, European and Asian surveys have reported 3–6% of prevalence. Compared with white European women, the prevalence rate for GD is increased approximately elevenfold in women from the Indian subcontinent, eightfold in South East Asia, sixfold and threefold in Arab and black Afro-Caribbean women, respectively. Such figures draw a potent clinical interest towards gestational diabetes (GD), and this chapter attempts to highlight some major aspects of GD in respect to both the mother and the foetus or the newborn specially emphasizing on its management as per the World Health Organization (WHO) and International Federation of Gynaecology and Obstetrics (FIGO)

Protective effect of hydro-alcoholic extract of Ruta graveolens Linn. leaves on indomethacin and pylorus ligation-induced gastric ulcer in rats

AbstractBackgroundThe search for an ideal and new antiulcer drug has been extended to herbals for novel molecules that decrease the incidence of relapse and afford better protection.ObjectiveThe present study was designed to investigate the protective effect of hydro-alcoholic extract of Ruta graveolens (RGE) Linn. leaves on indomethacin (IND) and pylorus ligation-induced gastric ulcer in Wistar rats.Materials and methodsThe rats of all the six groups were deprived of food for 24 h. Then, the first group received 1 ml/kg/day p.o. of 1% carboxymethylcellulose calcium (CMC), second group 1 ml/kg/day p.o. of 1% CMC and third group 20 mg/kg/day p.o. of IND. Fourth and fifth groups received RGE 200 and 400 mg/kg/day p.o., respectively; while the sixth group 10 mg/kg/day p.o. omeprazole. After 30 min, last three groups received 20 mg/kg/day p.o. of IND also. All these treatments after food deprivation were repeated each day for 5 consecutive days. Pylorus ligation was performed on 6th day in last five groups. After 4 h, stomach by sacrifice of the rats was examined for ulcer index (UI) and gastric mucus. Gastric juice was assessed for acidity, pH and pepsin; while gastric tissues were assessed for thiobarbituric acid reactive substance (TBARS) and glutathione (GSH).ResultsFifth group showed significant decrease in UI (10.33 ± 0.67), TBARS (0.33 ± 0.03 mmol/mg), free acidity (48.78 ± 5.12 meq/l/100 g), total acidity (99.33 ± 9.31 meq/l/100 g), and pepsin activity (8.47 ± 0.41 μg/ml) levels while it showed significant increase in mucus (412.4 ± 21.6 μg/g), GSH (57.9 ± 4.8 mmol/mg) and pH (3.32 ± 0.27) compared to third group. Percent protection in RGE 400 mg was found to be 63.32 compared to indomethacin.ConclusionRGE possesses antiulcerogenic activity as it exhibits protective effect on gastric ulcer in rats

EFFECT OF TERMINALIA CHEBULA (HARAD) FRUIT EXTRACT ON CARDIOTOXICITY IN STREPTOZOTOCIN INDUCED DIABETIC RATS

Objective: The aim of the study was to explore the protective activity of Terminalia chebula fruit extract on cardiotoxicity in streptozotocin (STZ) induced diabetic rats.Methods: The animals were divided into eight groups of five each and were fed with high fat diet (HFD) except sham control, diabetic control and isoproterenol control. Diabetes was induced by administering single intraperitoneal (i. p.) injection of STZ (0.05 g/kg) in all groups except sham and isoproterenol control and was confirmed by testing blood glucose level after 48 h. Rats were pretreated with ethanolic extract of Terminalia chebula (0.25& 0.5 g/kg/d; per oral (p. o.)), pioglitazone (0.01 g/kg/d), carvedilol (0.002 g/kg/d) and normal saline throughout the study period (14 days). Cardiotoxicity was induced by the administrating two subcutaneous (s. c) injection of isoproterenol (ISO) (0.085 g/kg) at an interval of 24 h. Troponin was checked to confirm cardiotoxicity. The evaluation parameters include initial and final blood glucose level, change in body weight, food efficiency ratio (FER), heart weight-body weight ratio, biochemical estimations and histopathological studies.Results: Pretreatment with Terminalia chebula produced significant (p<0.01) decrease in blood glucose level and heart weight-body weight ratio. It significantly decrease the elevated activity of the cardiac marker enzymes, alanine transaminase (ALT), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), creatinine kinase (CK-MB) (p<0.01), similar to the standard drug carvedilol in isoproterenol injected rats. Pretreatment with Terminalia chebula showed absence of troponin and lesser degree of necrosis, edema, and myofibrillar degeneration.Conclusion: Terminalia chebula has significant cardioprotective action against cardiotoxicity in STZ induced diabetic rats, which is comparable with standard drugs i.e., pioglitazone and carvedilol.Â

A COMPREHENSIVE STUDY ON LITERATURE EVIDENCE, CLINICAL STUDIES AND PRACTICES OF HERBAL DRUGS FOR DIABETIC NEUROPATHY AND CARDIOMYOPATHY

  Diabetes mellitus is a worldwide epidemic disease that eventually advances to a chronic stage and affects different vital organs by intensifying the underlying pathological factors, and through the remodeling of the tissues by the generation of reactive oxygen species leading to the development of respective organ failure. Two such complications are painful neuropathy and cardiomyopathy; both of which are common and progressive complications of diabetes. The symptoms of peripheral neuropathy include tingling, burning, lancinating pain, hyperesthesia, and allodynia. The course of the disease progression may vary from intermittent, mild symptoms to severe chronic, and daily pain; which culminates into poor quality of life. Another complication of diabetes mellitus, diabetic cardiomyopathy, is defined as a ventricular dysfunction disorder that occurs in diabetic patients. The development of the disease is characterized by a hidden subclinical period, during which cellular, structural changes and abnormalities lead to diastolic dysfunction, followed by systolic dysfunction, and terminating into heart failure. Left ventricular hypertrophy, metabolic abnormalities, extracellular matrix changes, small vessel disease, cardiac autonomic neuropathy, insulin resistance, oxidative stress, and apoptosis are the most important pathological advancements that lead to diabetic cardiomyopathy. Various pharmaceutical agents from different pharmacological categories have been proposed for the symptomatic treatment of painful diabetic neuropathy; however, it is a herculean task to select a drug due to the wide range of choices and lack of consistent guidelines for treatment. Similarly, treatment of cardiomyopathy is based on the general therapeutic rules of management of heart failure and no specifications have yet been addressed for this condition. Therefore, more studies are required to improve our knowledge of these complex syndromes. From this perspective, this review is designed to delineate a general overview of neuropathy and cardiomyopathy, referring to the conventional therapies in use and possible unconventional, natural, herbal, and safe treatments for both the above-mentioned complications of diabetes

EFFECT OF ETHANOLIC EXTRACT OF GLYCYRIZZA GLABRA AGAINST STEREPTOZOTOCIN AND HIGH FAT DIET INDUCED DIABETES AND HYPERLIPIDEMIA

Objective: To study the effect of ethanolic extract of Glycyrrhiza glabra against streptozotocin and high-fat-diet-induced diabetes and hyperlipidemia.Methods: The present study was conducted on a 14 d model in which Glycyrrhiza glabra extract was given to Streptozotocin (STZ; 50 mg/kg; i. p.) induced diabetic rats fed with high fat diet (HFD), and its protective effect has been studied. The antihyperlipidemic and antihyperglycemic effects have been evaluated on the basis of physical, biochemical as well as histomorphological parameters.Results: The Glycyrrhiza glabra extract pre-treated group showed a significant decrease in biochemical parameters like Total cholesterol (TC), Triglyceride (TG), High-density lipoprotein (HDL), Lactate dehydrogenase(LDH), Alanine transaminase (ALT) compared with D-HFD group (p<0.01). The pre-treated groups also showed significant protection in physical parameters as compared to D-HFD group (p<0.01) which was also confirmed by histopathological studies. All these results were compared and found to be similar with two standard drugs metformin (500 mg/kg) and atorvastatin (10 mg/Kg).Conclusion: This study concluded that alcoholic extract of Glycyrrhiza glabra (500 mg/kg) has significant antidiabetic and antihyperlipidemic potential against streptozotocin and high-fat diet induced diabetic hyperlipidemic rats comparable to the clinically used drugs.Keywords: Atherosclerosis, Diabetic hyperlipidemia, Diabetes mellitus, Hyperlipidemia, Lipid profile, Streptozotoci

A conglomeration of preclinical models related to myocardial infarction

Cardiovascular diseases are the main source of death and morbidity in developed and developing nations. Animal models are required to propel our understanding of the pathogenesis, increase our knowledge, disease progress, and mechanism behind cardiovascular disorder, providing new approaches focused to improve the diagnostic and the treatment of these pathological conditions and additionally to test various therapeutic ways to deal with tissue regeneration and re-establish heart working following damage. A perfect model framework ought to be reasonable, effectively controlled, reproducible, and physiologically illustrative of human disease, show cardinal signs and pathology that resembles after the human ailment and ethically stable. The decision of selection of animal model should be considered precisely since it influences exploratory results and whether results of the research can be sensibly matched with the human. In this way, no specific technique splendidly reproduces the human disease, and relying upon the model, extra cost burden, resources, infrastructure and the necessity for technical hands, should also be kept under consideration. Here we have discussed and compiled various methods of inducing myocardial infarction in animals, basically by surgery, chemicals and through genetic modification, this may benefit the researchers in getting a complied data regarding various methods through which they can induce myocardial infarction in animals