Arsenic tolerance and phytoremediation potential of Conocarpus erectus L. and Populus deltoides L.

The present study was conducted to explore arsenic (As) tolerance and phytostabilization potential of the two tree species, buttonwood (Conocarpus erectus) and eastern cottonwood (Populus deltoides). Both plant species were grown in pots and were exposed to various soil As levels (control, 5, 10, 15, and 20 mg kg). The plants were harvested after 9 months for the evaluation of growth parameters as well as root and shoot As concentrations.

Potential Antiosteoporotic Natural Product Lead Compounds That Inhibit 17β-Hydroxysteroid Dehydrogenase Type 2.

17β-Hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 2 (17β-HSD2) converts the active steroid hormones estradiol, testosterone, and 5α-dihydrotestosterone into their weakly active forms estrone, Δ-androstene-3,17-dione, and 5α-androstane-3,17-dione, respectively, thereby regulating cell- and tissue-specific steroid action. As reduced levels of active steroids are associated with compromised bone health and onset of osteoporosis, 17β-HSD2 is considered a target for antiosteoporotic treatment. In this study, a pharmacophore model based on 17β-HSD2 inhibitors was applied to a virtual screening of various databases containing natural products in order to discover new lead structures from nature.

Identification of a novel copper-activated and halide-tolerant laccase in Geobacillus thermopakistaniensis.

Genome search of Geobacillus thermopakistaniensis, formerly Geobacillus sp. SBS-4S, revealed the presence of an open reading frame (ESU71923) annotated as laccase. However, the gene product did not display any laccase-like activity against the substrates examined.

Decision Support System for Detection of Papilledema through Fundus Retinal Images.

A condition in which the optic nerve inside the eye is swelled due to increased intracranial pressure is known as papilledema. The abnormalities due to papilledema such as opacification of Retinal Nerve Fiber Layer (RNFL), dilated optic disc capillaries, blurred disc margins, absence of venous pulsations, elevation of optic disc, obscuration of optic disc vessels, dilation of optic disc veins, optic disc splinter hemorrhages, cotton wool spots and hard exudates may result in complete vision loss. The ophthalmologists detect papilledema by means of an ophthalmoscope, Computed Tomography (CT), Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and ultrasound.

Subsequent Injuries Are More Common Than Injury Recurrences: An Analysis of 1 Season of Prospectively Collected Injuries in Professional Australian Football.

Background: It is known that some people can, and do, sustain >1 injury over a playing season. However, there is currently little high-quality epidemiological evidence about the risk of, and relationships between, multiple and subsequent injuries.

Purpose: To describe the subsequent injuries sustained by Australian Football League (AFL) players over 1 season, including their most common injury diagnoses.

Inhibition of 11β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase 2 by the fungicides itraconazole and posaconazole.

Impaired 11β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 2 (11β-HSD2)-dependent cortisol inactivation can lead to electrolyte dysbalance, hypertension and cardiometabolic disease. Furthermore, placental 11β-HSD2 essentially protects the fetus from high maternal glucocorticoid levels, and its impaired function has been associated with altered fetal growth and a higher risk for cardio-metabolic diseases in later life. Despite its important role, 11β-HSD2 is not included in current off-target screening approaches.

Synthesis, biological evaluation and docking studies of 2,3-dihydroquinazolin-4(1H)-one derivatives as inhibitors of cholinesterases.

In search of potent inhibitors of cholinesterases, we have synthesized and evaluate a number of 2,3-dihydroquinazolin-4(1H)-one derivatives. The synthetic approach provided an efficient synthesis of the target molecules with excellent yield. All the tested compounds showed activity against both the enzymes in micromolar range.

Geographic Variation of the Incidence Rate of Lower Limb Amputation in Australia from 2007-12.

In Australia, little is known about how the incidence rate (IR) of lower limb amputation (LLA) varies across the country. While studies in other economically developed countries have shown considerable geographic variation in the IR-LLA, mostly these have not considered whether the effect of common risk factors are the same across regions. Mapping variation of the IR-LLA, and the effect of common risk factors, is an important first step to focus research into areas of greatest need and support the development of regional specific hypotheses for in-depth examination.

Effect of a mass media campaign on ambulance use for chest pain.

Objectives: To evaluate the impact of comprehensive public awareness campaigns by the National Heart Foundation of Australia on emergency medical service (EMS) use by people with chest pain.

Design, Setting And Participants: A retrospective analysis of 253428 emergency ambulance attendances for non-traumatic chest pain in Melbourne, January 2008 - December 2013. Time series analyses, adjusted for underlying trend and seasonal effects, assessed the impact of mass media campaigns on EMS use.

rs12603332 is associated with male asthma patients specifically in urban areas of Lahore, Pakistan.

Objective: rs12603332, an important regulatory site variant, is known to alter the regulatory motif E2A that is involved in the maturation of B-lymphocytes. The study was designed to check whether different environmental exposures alter its risk allele association with asthma or not.

Methods: 200 Physician-diagnosed asthma patients and 108 healthy individuals were enrolled from hospitals of Lahore.

Optimizing the phosphorus use in cotton by using CSM-CROPGRO-cotton model for semi-arid climate of Vehari-Punjab, Pakistan.

Crop nutrient management is an essential component of any cropping system. With increasing concerns over environmental protection, improvement in fertilizer use efficiencies has become a prime goal in global agriculture system. Phosphorus (P) is one of the most important nutrients, and strategies are required to optimize its use in important arable crops like cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.

Acromion Types and Role of Corticosteroid with Shoulder Impingement Syndrome.

Objective: To determine the association between shoulder impingement and morphological characteristics of acromion and the role of sub-acromial injection of methylprednisolone in the short-term treatment for relieving pain and improve functional disability of these patients.

Study Design: A descriptive study.

Place And Duration Of Study: Department of Orthopedic Surgery and Traumatology Unit-I (DOST-I), Mayo Hospital, Lahore, between November 2013 to June 2014.

Antimicrobial and antioxidant activities of a new metabolite from Quercus incana.

Phytochemical investigations of Quercus incana led to the isolation of a new catechin derivative quercuschin (1), along with six known compounds: quercetin (2), methyl gallate (3), gallic acid (4), betulinic acid (5), (Z)-9-octadecenoic acid methyl ester (6) and β-sitosterol glucoside (7) from the ethyl acetate fraction of methanolic extract of the bark. Compound 1 was screened for its antibacterial, antifungal and antioxidant potential. Antibacterial and antifungal activities of the compound were tested against different bacterial and fungal strains, employing the agar well diffusion methods.

Modeling framework for piezoelectrically actuated MEMS tunable lenses.

WWe report a modeling framework for evaluating the performance of piezoelectrically actuated MEMS tunable lenses. It models the static opto-electromechanical coupling for symmetric configurations of piezoelectric actuators based on the laminated-plate theory, linear piezoelectricity, and ray tracing. With these assumptions, it helps to find geometrical parameters for actuators on clamped square or circular diaphragms that give a diffraction-limited tunable lens with minimum F-number.

Association between high ambient temperature and acute work-related injury: a case-crossover analysis using workers' compensation claims data.

Objectives The aim of this study was to investigate the association between high ambient temperature and acute work-related injury, expanding on previous research in this area. Specifically we examined the relationship between both daytime and overnight temperatures and injury risk and disentangled physically demanding occupational exposures from exposure to outdoor working conditions. Methods A time-stratified case-crossover study design was used to examine the association between ambient temperatures and acute work-related injuries in Melbourne, Australia, 2002-2012, using workers' compensation claims to identify work-related injuries.

PELLETS AND PELLETIZATION: EMERGING TRENDS IN THE PHARMA INDUSTRY.

The present time is considered as an era of advancements in drug delivery systems. Different novel approaches are under investigation that range from uniparticulate to multi particulate system, macro to micro and nano particulate systems. Pelletization is one of the novel drug delivery technique that provides an effective way to deliver the drug in modified pattern.

Preparation of polymer/calcium phosphate porous composite as bone tissue scaffolds.

Composite scaffolds, especially polymer/calcium phosphate composite scaffolds with porous structures are promising materials for bone tissue engineering. Depositing minerals on the surface of polymer scaffolds is a general method however, attachment between inorganic minerals and organic polymeric is a big challenge, because of the absence of strong interactions between the interfaces. In this work, polymer/calcium phosphate composite scaffolds with good attachment were fabricated through introduction of calcium and alternate mineralization.

Antimicrobial metal-based thiophene derived compounds.

A novel series of thiophene derived Schiff bases and their transition metal- [Co(II), Cu(II), Zn(II), Ni(II)] based compounds are reported. The Schiff bases act as tridentate ligands toward metal ions via azomethine-N, deprotonated-N of ammine substituents and S-atom of thienyl moiety. The synthesized ligands along with their metal complexes were screened for their in vitro antibacterial activity against six bacterial pathogens (Escherichia coli, Shigella flexneri, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Salmonella typhi, Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus subtilis) and for antifungal activity against six fungal pathogens (Trichophytonlongifusus, Candida albicans, Aspergillus flavus, Microsporum canis, Fusarium solani and Candida glabrata).

Synthesis of ethylene diamine-based ferrocene terminated dendrimers and their application as burning rate catalysts.

Ferrocene-based derivatives are widely used as ferrocene-based burning rate catalysts (BRCs) for ammonium perchlorate (AP)-based propellant. However, in long storage, small ferrocene-based derivatives migrate to the surface of the propellant, which results in changes in the designed burning parameters and finally causes unstable combustion. To retard the migration of ferrocene-based BRCs in the propellant and to increase the combustion of the solid propellant, zero to third generation ethylene diamine-based ferrocene terminated dendrimers (0G, 1G, 2G and 3G) were synthesized.

A new intuitionistic fuzzy rule-based decision-making system for an operating system process scheduler.

We present a new intuitionistic fuzzy rule-based decision-making system based on intuitionistic fuzzy sets for a process scheduler of a batch operating system. Our proposed intuitionistic fuzzy scheduling algorithm, inputs the nice value and burst time of all available processes in the ready queue, intuitionistically fuzzify the input values, triggers appropriate rules of our intuitionistic fuzzy inference engine and finally calculates the dynamic priority (dp) of all the processes in the ready queue. Once the dp of every process is calculated the ready queue is sorted in decreasing order of dp of every process.

On m-polar fuzzy graph structures.

Sometimes information in a network model is based on multi-agent, multi-attribute, multi-object, multi-polar information or uncertainty rather than a single bit. An m-polar fuzzy model is useful for such network models which gives more and more precision, flexibility, and comparability to the system as compared to the classical, fuzzy and bipolar fuzzy models. In this research article, we introduce the notion of m-polar fuzzy graph structure and present various operations, including Cartesian product, strong product, cross product, lexicographic product, composition, union and join of m-polar fuzzy graph structures.

Enhanced acute anti-inflammatory effects of CORM-2-loaded nanoparticles via sustained carbon monoxide delivery.

The aim of this study was to enhance the anti-inflammatory effects of carbon monoxide (CO) via sustained release of CO from carbon monoxide-releasing molecule-2-loaded lipid nanoparticles (CORM-2-NPs). CORM-2-NPs were prepared by hot high pressure homogenization method using trilaurin as a solid lipid core and Tween 20/Span 20/Myrj S40 as surfactant mixture. The physicochemical properties of CORM-2-NPs were characterized and CO release from CORM-2-NPs was assessed by myoglobin assay.

Antiurease and anti-oxidant activity of Vaccinium macrocarpon fruit.

The objective of present study was to evaluate the antiurease and anti-oxidant activity of Vaccinium macrocarpon fruit. The parent extract was ethanolic extract while its sub fractions were prepared in n-hexane, chloroform and n-butanol. The method based on scavenging activity and reduction capability of 1, 1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl radical (DPPH).

ASSESSMENT OF GUAR AND XANTHAN GUM BASED FLOATING DRUG DELIVERY SYSTEM CONTAINING MEFENAMIC ACID.

We aimed to assess guar and xantban gum based floating drug delivery system containing mefenamic acid. Floating tablets of nefenamic acid were formulated with different concentrations of guar and xanthan gum via wet granulation method. The flow properties of granules that is: bulk density, tapped density, flow rate, Carr index, Hausner's ratio, compressibility index and angle of repose as well as physical parameters of the compressed tablets including: hardness, friability, thickness and swelling indices were determined and found to be good.

Uniaxial Drawing of Graphene-PVA Nanocomposites: Improvement in Mechanical Characteristics via Strain-Induced Exfoliation of Graphene.

Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)-stabilized graphene nanosheets (GNS) of lateral dimension (L) ~1 μm are obtained via liquid phase exfoliation technique to prepare its composites in the PVA matrix. These composites show low levels of reinforcements due to poor alignment of GNS within the matrix as predicted by the modified Halpin-Tsai model. Drawing these composites up to 200 % strain, a significant improvement in mechanical properties is observed.