A Cyberinfrastructure for BigData Transportation Engineering

Big Data-driven transportation engineering has the potential to improve utilization of road infrastructure, decrease traffic fatalities, improve fuel consumption, decrease construction worker injuries, among others. Despite these benefits, research on Big Data-driven transportation engineering is difficult today due to the computational expertise required to get started. This work proposes BoaT, a transportation-specific programming language, and it's Big Data infrastructure that is aimed at decreasing this barrier to entry. Our evaluation that uses over two dozen research questions from six categories show that research is easier to realize as a BoaT computer program, an order of magnitude faster when this program is run, and exhibits 12-14x decrease in storage requirements

Brief Reports: Depressive Phenomena in Infants

Interest in childhood depression is demonstrated by an increasing amount of research in the area. A review of literature suggests that depression as a clinical entity is observable in children ( I )

IN VITRO BIOLOGICAL STUDY OF SEVEN NEPALESE MEDICINAL PLANTS AND ISOLATION OF CHEMICAL CONSTITUENTS FROM CISSAMPELOS PAREIRA

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the phytochemical analysis and biological activities of methanol extracts of seven medicinal plants such as Anisomeles indica, Achyranthes bidentata, Sphenomeris chinensis, Cleistocalyx operculatus, Malvaviscus arboreus, Cissampelos pareira, and Tectaria coadunate collected from Tanahun district of Nepal. Methods: Phytochemical analysis was performed by color differentiation methods adopting the standard protocol. Antioxidant activity of plant extracts was evaluated by 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl radical scavenging assay. Flavonoid content was estimated by aluminum chloride colorimetric method. Antidiabetic activity was evaluated by α-amylase inhibition assay where acarbose was used as standard. Toxic effect was studied by brine shrimp bioassay. Results: Phytochemical analysis showed the presence of alkaloids, polyphenols, flavonoids glycoside, and terpenoid in most of the extracts. T. coadunate and C. pareira exhibited high antioxidant activity with IC50 41.84 and 52.03 μg/ml, respectively. Whereas, the plant extracts of Malvaviscus arboretum, S. chinensis, and A. bidentata exhibited moderate antioxidant activity with IC50 76.07, 81.05, and 89.93 µg/ml, respectively. The result of flavonoid content showed the values ranged A. indica (1.84 mg quercetin equivalent per gram [mg QE/g]) to A. bidentata (5.93 mg QE/g). C. pareira and S. chinensis exhibited the highest α amylase inhibition activity with IC50 471.68 and 517.59 µg/ml, respectively. Whereas, A. indica and M. arboreus showed moderate activity with IC50 626.12 and 952.39 μg/ml, respectively. C. pareira exhibited against Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 25923) with a zone of inhibition 12 mm/well, and Escherichia coli (ATCC 25922) 9 mm/well but, T. coadunate showed 14 mm/well against S. aureus. The plant extracts of A. bidentata and C. operculatus showed toxic effect against newly hatched brine shrimp larvae. The chemical compounds isolated from C. pareira indicated by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis were 3-isopropoxy-1,1,1,7,7,7-hexamethyl-3,5,5-tris(trimethylsiloxy) tetrasiloxane, alpha-tocopherol, pentadecanoic acid, and 4,22-stigmastadiene-3-one. The major compound was indicated by percent peak area and base m/z value as alpha-tocopherol. Conclusion: Present study revealed that plant extracts are the potential source of antioxidant, antidiabetic, and antibacterial agents showing different biological activities. The results of this study provide partial scientific support for the traditional application of medicinal plants to cure diabetes and infectious diseases, although further studies are needed to assess the mechanism of action

Total phenolic and flavonoids contents in the standardized polyherbal formulation “vayusadi guggulu”

Vayusadi guggulu vati (VGV), a polyherbal formulation is recommended for the management of diseases like obesity, arthritis, hyperlipidaemia and hyper cholesterol. Though Vayusadi guggulu vati is widely used for the treatment of obesity in Ayurvedic System of Indian Medicine, but till date, its quality standard study has not been carried out.  In the present article, we evaluated the total phenolic and flavonoid contents in the standarised polyherbal VGV. The total phenolic content was determined by Folin Ciocalteu reagent (FC reagent) method. Aluminum chloride colorimetric method was used for total flavonoids contents determination. The VGV was standardized by physic-chemical parameters like total ash value, acid insoluble ash, loss on drying (LOD), PH, extractive value, phytochemical tests and thin layer chromatography (TLC). Determination of microbial load in different dilutions was also performed. Quality determination of vati (tablet) was also evaluated with help of various tablet parameters. Microbial load study revealed the growth of microbes increases with increases the dilutions. The phenolic and flavonoid contents in VGV were 190.16 ± 5.07 mg/g and 80.216 ± 2.07 mg/ g respectively. Physicochemical parameters such as total ash value (9.73 ± 1.45% W/W), acid insoluble ash (1.85± 0.40 % W/W), LOD (4.77 ± 0.45%W/W), PH 1% (4.6) water soluble extract (64.69 ± 3.42% W/W), alcohal soluble extract (50.56 ± 2.48% W/W) were assessed in preliminary physicochemical scanning. Thin layer chromatography (TLC) fingerprints study revealed that alcoholic and hexane extract of formulation showed 3 spots with different resolution in long wave UV 366 nm. TLC study revealed genuinely, quality and purity of formulation. Physico-chemical and microbial load result revealed that the formulation has a good quality. The inference from the present study may be used as reference standard in the further quality control researches. Key words:  Phenolic contents, flavonoid contents, microbial load, vayusadi guggulu vat