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A metamaterial-based resonator is presented in this paper for liquid-sensing applications. The designed sensor operates at millimetre-wave (mm-w) frequencies, and it can characterise the samples that may possess identical characteristics. This paper relies on the extracted permittivity of the structure in the characterisation of the samples, mainly liquids. The sensor requires a very small amount of samples for sensing and it is used in distinguishing oil, ethanol, methanol, glycerol and water. A shift in the resonance frequency of about 200 MHz per unit increase in the epsilon value of samples was achieved. The oil sample showed the lowest value in the extracted permittivity value, while water showed the nearest to zero extracted permittivity. This relationship of variation in extracted permittivity parameter with the change in the sample’s epsilon value is found to be linear and reliable regardless of the change in thickness of the sample.

This paper discusses a new sensing technique for detecting ethanol concentration in aqueous solutions rapidly based on electromagnetic resonance. The sensor consists of two substrate layers and operates at 5G millimetre-wave frequencies (5G mm-wave). An experimental study of the new resonator's configuration is undertaken in determining the sensor's sensitivity. During the measurements, 6 samples were modelled with varying amounts of ethanol concentration in the water. The results showed that S11 resonance moves linearly towards higher frequencies as the ethanol content increases. The resonance shifted by 178 MHz for every 10% increase in ethanol. As a result, the proposed 5G mm-Wave sensing technique based on a replaceable sensing layer proves to be suitable for rapid, accurate, and low-cost alcohol content detection in liquids.

During the safety and feasibility 'Study of Intravenous Autologous Marrow in Multiple Sclerosis (SIAMMS)', intravenous infusion of autologous marrow was well tolerated. The efficacy of the approach is being explored in a placebo-controlled randomised controlled trial (ACTiMuS, NCT01815632) but it is not known whether repeated infusions will be required to optimise benefit. The objective of the current study was to explore the safety and feasibility of repeat treatment with intravenous autologous bone marrow for patients with progressive multiple sclerosis (MS).'SIAMMS II' was a prospective, single centre phase I extension study in which participants in the SIAMMS study were offered repeat bone marrow harvest and infusion of autologous, unfractionated bone marrow as a day-case procedure. The primary outcome measure was number of adverse events and secondary outcome measures included change in clinical rating scales of disability, global evoked potential and cranial magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).In total, 4 of the 6 participants in the SIAMMS study had repeat bone marrow harvest and infusion of filtered autologous marrow as a day case procedure which was well tolerated. There were no serious adverse effects. Additional outcome measures including clinical scales, global evoked potentials and cranial MRI were stable.SIAMMS II demonstrates the safety and feasibility of repeated, non-myeloablative autologous bone marrow-derived cell therapy in progressive MS.

The characterisation of the cooking oils presents a significant challenge due to minor changes in their dielectric behaviour. In this paper, a new metamaterial-based sensor incorporating a split-ring resonator (SRR) with a microstrip transmission line is presented to characterise cooking oils. The design demonstrates metamaterial characteristics of negative permittivity and permeability simultaneously at the resonance frequency. Furthermore, its operation in the range of millimetre-wave frequencies can further enhance its sensitivity, especially for liquid materials. The sensor’s novelty is the operation at millimetre-wave frequencies that offers a high shift in the transmission coefficient while operating at 30 GHz. The sensor’s performance analysis is undertaken by using six MUTs with dielectric constants ranging from 0.126 to 4.47. The presented structure designed on 12 × 8 mm2 Rogers substrate offers a sensitivity of 1.12 GHz per unit change in dielectric constant. The phase's shift demonstrates a lower percentage error than the amplitude and linearly moves towards higher frequencies with the increase in dielectric constant and tangent loss of MUT. The designed sensor can be prominently useful for detecting liquids' chemical characteristics in chemistry and medicine fields.

A novel microwave technology-based biosensor operating at 36 GHz is developed for liquid-sensing properties for 5G applications. The metamaterial resonator in the designed biosensor consists of a single ring connected by two microstrip lines. The overall dimensions of the biosensor are $5 \times 8$ mm2. The simulated results demonstrate the resonant frequency drops as the MUT of higher permittivity value is introduced in place of the gap of the ring resonator. Therefore, the proposed metamaterial ring resonator can provide good sensitivity when sensing the MUT that are resonant in mm-W for 5G applications.

A compact and robust inversely E-shaped antenna (IESA) integrated with electromagnetic band-gap (EBG) is presented for wearable applications at 2.4 GHz. The EBG introduced in this paper to shield the antenna from body effects, due to its high natural dielectric. With EBG, the antenna shows good performance under bending and loading human body. The design has overall dimension of $46 \times 46 \times 2.4$ mm3. The integration of antenna with EBG shows an improvement of a gain of 7.8 dBi and bandwidth of 27%. It also reduces the specific absorption rate (SAR) by more than 95.

In this paper, a metamaterial-based resonator is proposed for the detection of dengue infection. The replaceable top layer can measure the dielectric characteristics of blood samples to detect the dengue virus. The sensor observed a shift in the resonant frequency towards higher frequencies with the reduction in the blood's permittivity. The sensor showed a 0.325 GHz shift in resonance per unit change in the dielectric permittivity. To corroborate the sensor’s practical sensing capability, a sensor prototype was fabricated and validated with alcohol-aqueous solutions. The sensor exhibited shifting of resonance towards lower frequencies with the addition of water contents in methylated alcohol. With the enhanced sensitivity and repeatable measuring capability, the results suggested that this sensor can be applied with real-time applications on the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) for early remote detection of the dengue outbreak.

A simple, accurate rapid and precise has been developed and validated for simultaneous estimation of Clobetasol Propionate and Ketoconazole in Pharmaceutical Cream Formulation by RP-HPLC Method. The successful estimation was carried out of the drug product is developed on the ODS Qualisil Column C18 (250 mm x 4.6 mm, 5μm or equivalent) at ambient temperature using Methanol: Acetonitrile: Phosphate buffer (50:20:30 v/v/v) as mobile phase composition. The flow rate was adjusted to 1.5mL/minute and the absorption maxima were observed on UV detector at 254 nm. Retention Time for Clobetasole Propionate 11.1±0.1min and Ketoconazole 12.2±0.1min. The linearity was obtained in the concentration range of 6-14µg/mL and 120-280µg/mL for Clobetasole Propionate and Ketoconazole respectively. Mean percentage recoveries were 99.16% for Clobetasole Propionate and 99.17% for Ketoconazole. The LOD of Clobetasole Propionate and Ketoconazole were found to be 0.7μg/mL and 2.0μg/mL whereas the LOQ was 3.0μg/mL and 10.0μg/mL respectively. Percentage relative standard deviation of percent assay values for replicate sample preparation was 0.28% for Clobetasole Propionate and 0.47% for Ketoconazole. The method was robust with respect to change in flow rate, temperature and composition of mobile phase. The method was validated statistically and applied successfully for the determination of Clobetasole Propionate and Ketoconazole. Validation studies revealed that method is specific, rapid, reliable, and reproducible. The high recovery and low relative standard deviation confirm the suitability of the method for the routine determination of Clobetasole Propionate and Ketoconazole in pharmaceutical cream formulation. Keywords: Clobetasol Propionate, Ketoconazole, RP – HPLC, Method Validation

Acute bronchitis is inflammation of the main air passage to the lungs generally follows a viral respiratory infection. Children generally suffer from acute bronchitis at any stage. Fumes, dusts, decreased immunity, indigestion, viral infections are some causes due to which air passage get inflamed and irritated. Acute bronchitis is a clinical syndrome produced by inflammation of the trachea, bronchi, and bronchioles. In children, acute bronchitis usually occurs in association with viral respiratory tract infection. Acute bronchitis is rarely a primary bacterial infection in otherwise healthy children. In modern therapies using excessive expectorant, antihistaminics, and cough suppressants causes certain side effects and has no roll in rejuvenating the respiratory system. Unicough is a herbal remedy with the herbs which acts as a mucolytic and mild expectorant by its smoothening effect which helps in easy evacuation of cough and rejuvenate the respiratory passages. Current open labeled study on forty four children of acute bronchitis showed significant improvement after first and second week of the treatment in all associated symptoms which proves that Unicough syrup is a safe and effective remedy for acute bronchitis. 3 . Antibiotics are commonly prescribed, this type of therapy remains controversial, particularly since only half of all exacerbations are bacterial in origin, the rest being viral or chemical. Thus some believe that antibiotic therapy of acute exacerbation of bronchitis is an abuse of antibiotics, and can contribute to antimicrobial resistance 4 . The natural approach to treating bronchitis avoids creating new disease problems. It involves two goals: stimulating the normal processes that expel mucus, and stimulating the immune system to deal with viral infection. Expectorant herbs increase the fluidity and volume of phlegm, and stimulate cough. They are not cough suppressants, since cough suppression traps phlegm in the bronchi and lungs 5 . Unicough is a herbal remedy with Khaira Chhal (Acacia catechu),Vasakapatra (Adhatoda vasika), Vach (Acorus calamus), Elaichi (Elettaria cardamomum), Nagkeshar (Mesua ferrea), Talispatra (Abies webbina), Tulsi (Ocimum scantum), Dalchini (Cinnamomum zeylanicum), Sounth (Zingiber officinale), Pippali (Piper longum), Kababchini (Piper cubeba), Mulethi (Glycyrrhiza glabra), Somlata (Ephedra gerardiana), Dhatura panchang (Datura metel), Ajowan sat (Thymol), Pudina sat (Menthol). All these ingredients act as a smoothening, expectorant, bronchodilator and also improve the metabolism. This was an open labeled, non comparative study in the patients of acute bronchitis for the period of 15 days.

Antibodies (Ab) to thyroid peroxidase (TPO) are common in patients with autoimmune thyroid disease and may play a role in disease pathogenesis. We have prepared immunoglobulin G kappa (IgG kappa) and IgG lambda phage display combinatorial libraries from the cervical (thyroid-draining) lymph nodes of 2 Hashimoto's thyroiditis patients and from the thyroid of 1 patient. After selection with purified recombinant human TPO, up to 10 high affinity IgG kappa clones from each tissue source were analyzed further. No IgG lambda Fab were detected in the patient with the highest TPO Ab titer. Sequence analysis of the clones showed restricted heavy and light chain usage, similar to that in previously published TPO-reactive Fabs. This was despite the substantially larger sizes of the initial libraries, the use of lymph node tissue to generate libraries, and the analysis of the repertoire in patients with Hashimoto's thyroiditis rather than Graves' disease. There was overall similarity in sequences obtained from lymph node and thyroid libraries, with higher levels of somatic hypermutation in the former. The Fab inhibited binding of serum TPO Ab from five patients by 55-95%. These data together with those from previous reports indicate that although there is no unique Ab gene usage, there is the recurrent presence of certain variable regions in the high affinity TPO Ab response.

Patients with autoimmune thyroid disease frequently have high affinity antibodies to thyroid peroxidase (TPO), although the role they play in disease pathogenesis is not known. We have previously prepared 37 monoclonal anti-TPO IgGκ Fab fragments from two patients with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis and demonstrated the similarity of these Fab sequences to those published previously, mainly derived from patients with Graves’ disease. In this paper, we describe epitope mapping of these Fabs using a previously characterized panel of murine monoclonal antibody (mAb) and show that the Fabs bind to two neighboring epitopes on native TPO. Although the epitope-mapping method differs from that used to characterize previously published TPO-reactive Fab sequences, it indicates a similarly restricted response to neighboring epitopes in both Graves’ disease and Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. The epitope mapping included mAb 47, which binds to a linear TPO peptide of known sequence in addition to native TPO. Although TPO-reactive Fab did not inhibit the binding of mAb 47, mAb 47 did inhibit the binding of Fab, indicating the likely site of the immunodominant region on native TPO. These results confirm the restricted nature of TPO antibody and further delineate the immunodominant region of native TPO as defined by the mAb.

An important medicinal herb, namely Bacopa monnieri (L.) Penn. showed best results on MS with 1 mg/l IAA and 1 mg/l IBA for culture initiation, multiple shoot proliferation, bud breakage, shoot length, shoot numbers and cluster formation. For rooting the best result was obtained on MS solidified with 7 g/l of agar along with sugar 20 gm/l for root, shoot ratio and number of roots. The best hardening was achieved in a mixture of soil : soilrite (1 : 1) where the survival rate was 94%. Further, for callus formation the best result was obtained in the leaf explants on MS supplemented with 0.5 mg/l 2, 4-D. HPLC and HPTLC profile of regenerated shoots revealed a phytochemicals profile similar to that of the market samples and mother plants. The presence of bacoside was detected through HPTLC and HPLC. Key words: Bacopa monnieri , Micropropagation, Bacoside D.O.I. 10.3329/ptcb.v20i2.6890 Plant Tissue Cult. & Biotech. 20 (2): 119-125, 2010 (December)