Search

Objectives: Tramadol, an atypical opioid, is clinically efficacious in treating moderate to severe pain. The aim of current study was to find out the toxicological effects of tramadol exposure to pregnant rats and fetuses during the late phase of pregnancy. Methods: Wistar pregnant rats were exposed to 1.25, 2.5, or 5 mg/kg/day tramadol from 14th to 20th day of pregnancy. The same therapy was given to nonpregnant rats for 7 days. The body weight, oral glucose and lipid tolerance tests, and effect on complete blood parameters in both pregnant and nonpregnant rats were determined. On 20th day, maternal placentas were excised and weighed while fetuses were observed for any deformity and growth retardation. Oxidative stress biomarkers were estimated in the liver and kidney tissue homogenates of the pregnant and nonpregnant rats while the whole fetus homogenate was processed for the same. Moreover, histopathology of the liver and kidney of pregnant and nonpregnant rats were carried out. Results: Tramadol administration did not significantly alter the area under curve of the blood glucose and triglyceride levels in both the pregnant and nonpregnant rats. It reduced the live fetuses, placental weights, fetal length, and fetal weights. Tramadol treated pregnant rats showed significantly (p <.05) reduced red blood cells, hematocrit, hemoglobin, and platelets with reference to control group. Similarly, structural abnormalities and malfunctioning of the liver and kidney of pregnant rats were instituted; however, it did not affect the structural integrity of nonpregnant rats. A substantial (p <.001–.0001) altered glutathione and malondialdehyde levels in the fetuses, pregnant, and nonpregnant animals (tissue homogenates) at all dosage levels were indicative of tramadol induced oxidative stress. Furthermore, tramadol exposure resulted in more significant (p <.01–.001) alteration of lipid profile in the pregnant than the nonpregnant animals. Conclusion: Acquired results suggested

The current research was aimed to evaluate the antidiabetic activity of Terminalia citrina methanolic extract (TCME) by streptozotocin-induced diabetes in male Wistar rats. TCME exhibited better in-vitro antioxidant and alpha-amylase inhibitory activity as compared to other tested extracts. TCME at 250, 500, and 750 mg/kg showed notable (p <.05) antidiabetic potential by lowering fasting blood glucose level, restoring lipid level, serum amylase, HbA1c, kidney, and liver function tests as coevidenced from histological findings of the liver, pancreas, and kidney. TCME remarkably reinstated the antioxidant enzymatic activities (CAT: 0.181 ± 0.011 IU/mg protein, SOD: 21.45 ± 1.53 IU/mg protein) and reduced lipid peroxidation level (40.60 ± 2.41 µM/mg protein) in the liver and kidney tissue of diabetic rats at 750 mg/kg dose. The acute and subacute oral toxicity study of TCME exhibited no clinical toxicity signs and mortality. Its GC-MS spectrum unveiled the existence of 10-octadecenoic acid and other compounds which might have contributed to antidiabetic potential.

Online signatures are one of the most commonly used biometrics. Several verification systems and public databases were presented in this field. This paper presents a combination of k-nearest neighbor and dynamic time warping algorithms as a verification system using the recently published DeepSignDB database. Our algorithm was applied on both finger and stylus input signatures which represent both office and mobile scenarios. The system was first tested on the development set of the database. It achieved an error rate of 6.04% for the stylus input signatures, 5.20% for the finger input signatures, and 6.00% for a combination of both types. The system was also applied to the evaluation set of the database and achieved very promising results, especially for finger input signatures., Comment: 2nd International Conference on Machine Learning Techniques and Data Science (MLDS 2021) ISPN: 978-1-925953-52-7

This article presents SVC-onGoing, an on-going competition for on-line signature verification where researchers can easily benchmark their systems against the state of the art in an open common platform using large-scale public databases, such as DeepSignDB and SVC2021_EvalDB, and standard experimental protocols. SVC-onGoing is based on the ICDAR 2021 Competition on On-Line Signature Verification (SVC 2021), which has been extended to allow participants anytime. The goal of SVC-onGoing is to evaluate the limits of on-line signature verification systems on popular scenarios (office/mobile) and writing inputs (stylus/finger) through large-scale public databases. Three different tasks are considered in the competition, simulating realistic scenarios as both random and skilled forgeries are simultaneously considered on each task. The results obtained in SVC-onGoing prove the high potential of deep learning methods in comparison with traditional methods. In particular, the best signature verification system has obtained Equal Error Rate (EER) values of 3.33% (Task 1), 7.41% (Task 2), and 6.04% (Task 3). Future studies in the field should be oriented to improve the performance of signature verification systems on the challenging mobile scenarios of SVC-onGoing in which several mobile devices and the finger are used during the signature acquisition., Comment: arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:2106.00739

This paper describes the experimental framework and results of the ICDAR 2021 Competition on On-Line Signature Verification (SVC 2021). The goal of SVC 2021 is to evaluate the limits of on-line signature verification systems on popular scenarios (office/mobile) and writing inputs (stylus/finger) through large-scale public databases. Three different tasks are considered in the competition, simulating realistic scenarios as both random and skilled forgeries are simultaneously considered on each task. The results obtained in SVC 2021 prove the high potential of deep learning methods. In particular, the best on-line signature verification system of SVC 2021 obtained Equal Error Rate (EER) values of 3.33% (Task 1), 7.41% (Task 2), and 6.04% (Task 3). SVC 2021 will be established as an on-going competition, where researchers can easily benchmark their systems against the state of the art in an open common platform using large-scale public databases such as DeepSignDB and SVC2021_EvalDB, and standard experimental protocols.

The study was intended to find in vitro antioxidant, cytotoxicity and safety profile of Polystichum braunii roots extracts and chemically characterise it by GC–MS and FTIR spectroscopy. Acute and sub-chronic (90-day oral repeated dose at 150, 300 and 600 mg/kg) toxicity studies of P. braunii methanol extract (PBME) were performed in Wistar rats by adopting OECD guidelines. The PBME exerted the highest in vitro antioxidant potential. There was no substantial change in blood parameters and body weight except a notable (p < 0.01) rise in ALT, ALP, MDA and HDL, and decrease in cholesterol and LDL (p < 0.05) in animals sub-chronically treated with PBME at 600 mg/kg dose. The IC50 in HepG2 was more than 1000 µg/ml. The GC–MS analysis revealed Pentadecanoic acid and 9,12-Octadecadienoic acid in PBME. The P. braunii might be safe in acute usage, however, monitoring of liver function tests should be carried out during long-term use.

S100A4 oncoprotein plays a critical role during prostate cancer progression and induces immunosuppression in host tissues. We hypothesized that S100A4-regulated oncogenic activity in immunosuppressed prostate tumors promotes growth of neoplastic cells, which are likely to become aggressive. In the current study, we investigated whether biopsy-S100A4 gene alteration independently predicts the outcome of disease in patients and circulatory-S100A4 is druggable target for treating immunosuppressive prostate cancer. Aided by DECIPHER-genomic test, we show biopsy-S100A4 over-expression as predictive of (i) poor ADT response and (ii) high risk of mortality in 228 radical prostatectomy-treated patients. Furthermore, analysis of tumor genome data of more than 1,000 patients with prostate cancer (PRAD/SU2C/FHCRC studies) validated the association of S100A4-alteration to poor survival and metastasis. We show that increased serum-S100A4 levels are associated to the prostate cancer progression in patients. The prerequisite for metastasis is the escape of tumor cells via vascular system. We show that extracellular-S100A4 protein as a growth factor induces vascular transmigration of prostate cancer cells and bone demineralization thus forms an ideal target for therapies for treating prostate cancer. By employing surface plasmon resonance and isothermal titration calorimetry, we show that mab6B12 antibody interacts with and neutralizes S100A4 protein. When tested for therapeutic efficacy, the mab6B12 therapy reduced the (i) osteoblastic demineralization of bone-derived MSCs, (ii) S100A4-target (NFkB/MMP9/VEGF) levels in prostate cancer cells, and (iii) tumor growth in a TRAMPC2 syngeneic mouse model. The immuno-profile analysis showed that mAb6B12-therapy (i) shifted Th1/Th2 balance (increased Stat4þ/T-betþ and decreased GATA2þ/CD68þ/CD45þ/CD206þ cells); (ii) modulated cytokine levels in CD4þ T cells; a

Surface states modification techniques has a vital impact on the opto-electronic properties of nanostructures grown via low temperature process. In this research case, electron transport phenomenon is explored for ZnO nanostructures which are grown on seed crystals with distinct surface states. ZnO nanostructures grown on seed crystals annealed in vacuum ambient showed superior photonic response in contrast to nanostructures grown on seed crystals annealed in air ambient. By synthesizing n-ZnO nanostructures on p-Si substrate, we observed 2.3 times increase in ultra violet emission intensity along with 2.1 times suppression of visible emission intensity from the nanostructures grown vacuum annealed seed crystals. Similarly, the ratio of dark to ultra violet current of p-Si/n-ZnO photodetector based on nanostructures grown on vacuum annealed seed crystals is enhanced 20 times in forward bias condition and 14 times in reverse bias condition. Moreover, we observed a significant decrease of 9 s in transient time of photodetector for nanostructures annealed in vacuum ambient. Modification of surface states for seed crystals to grow high quality crystalline nanostructures can be deployed in wide range of optics, light emitting diodes, nano-generators, piezoelectric transducers and several other practical applications., QC 20190902

Under våra VFU-perioder på gymnasiet har vi observerat att olika matematiklärare arbetar på olika sätt när det kommer till problemlösning inom matematikundervisningen. Detta kan bero på lärarens eget förhållningssätt till den matematiska problemlösningen och vilken lärobok läraren använder sig av i sin undervisning.Syftet med detta arbete är att synliggöra och jämföra lärares och läroböckers synsätt på problemlösning inom matematikämnet.Vi har genomfört en kvalitativ undersökning inom vilken vi skickade en e-enkät till tre gymnasielärare där de uppmanades att svara på frågor gällande deras tankar och förhållningssätt till problemlösning inom matematik på gymnasiet. Vidare undersöktes även läroböckerna för att se hur dessa hanterar problemlösning. Analysresultaten visar att samtliga tre lärare väljer att undervisa enligt läroboken och när det gäller problemlösning så tar lärare upp andra källor som komplement när innehållet i läroboken inte räcker till. Själva synsättet gällande hur problemlösning ska undervisas skiljde sig mellan lärarna och läroböckernas innehåll.Efter en genomgång av läroböckernas innehåll visade det sig att läroböckerna följer en sekvens från enklare till svårare uppgifter. Uppgifterna är ofta uppdelade i två till tre svårighetsnivåer. Vi fann att en stor del av uppgifterna i läroböckerna var procedurbaserade eller berörde utveckling av andra förmågor än just problemlösning, endast 5-10% av uppgifterna var problemlösningsorienterade.Däremot så bestod de svar vi fick från lärarna av att eleverna fick strategier om hur de ska angripa problem. Lärarna anser att tiden problemlösningen tar i anspråk är det största hindret. Även språkförbistring tas upp som en hindrande faktor.I vår undersökning tillämpar lärare problemlösning och använder sig av andra kanaler exempelvis sociala medier och kollegiala diskussioner och anammar kreativare metoder., During our VFU periods in upper secondary school, we have observed that different mathematics teachers work in different ways when it comes to problem solving. This may be due to the teacher's approach to the mathematical problem solving and which textbook the teacher chooses to use in his or her teaching.The purpose of this study is to address the various factors that make the teacher work with problem solving in a certain way, examine what teaching aids the teacher is using and why the teacher chooses to use a particular teaching material.We did a qualitative study where we sent out a digital questionnaire to three high school teachers where they had to answer questions regarding their thoughts and approaches to problem solving in mathematics in high school. Furthermore, literature (mathematical textbooks) were examined to see how these handle the issues we asked teachers: we studied the textbooks’ view of mathematical problem solving and compared it to the mathematical teachers’ perspective on problem solving.After a thorough analysis with discussion and investigation, we have in this study been able to draw the following conclusions: the majority of teachers choose to teach through a mathematical textbook, following a solution procedure.

This paper presents the ongoing development of SCAPER, a random utility based travel demand model that consistently incorporates time decisions. The paper focusses on how SCAPER can be used for large scale simulations, and more specifically: 1. How computational speed of SCAPER is improved using sampling of locations, and how it influences the simulation results. 2. Interfacing SCAPER to MATSim simulation framework, and estimating the SCAPER model with travel times and travel costs produced by the simulation of Stockholm demand (simulated) over Stockholm network using MATSim. 3. Preliminary results from 1 and 2., QC 20181812

This paper presents a rectangular planar monopole antenna with triple stop bands for ultra-wide band Applications. The antenna is compact size (24mm x 24mm x 1.6mm) and is covering the entire UWB band with VSWR < 2 except the band of WiMAX range from 3.07 - 4.73 GHz, the WLAN band range from 5.14 - 5.97 GHz and the ITU frequency band range from of 7.92 - 8.61 GHz. The three slots are added to this antenna to stop various bands. Different shaped slots i.e. inverted Z, C and U are introduced in radiating element to stop WiMAX, WLAN and ITU respectively. The antenna is simulated using High Frequency Structure Simulator (HFSS) using FR4 as a substrate., QC 20180531

This paper presents a small dual notched band printed monopole antenna. Dimensions of the antenna are 32mm×29.3mm×1.6 mm. The antenna is designed for Ultra-Wide Band (UWB) applications. The impedance bandwidth of the antenna is 2.9-16 GHz with VSWR < 2, except the bandwidth of 3.1-4.1 GHz and 4.9-5.9 GHz, used for WiMAX and WLAN applications respectively. A large wide slot is added to the radiating patch to obtain the stop band of 3.1-4.1 GHz and a small narrow slot is used to obtain the stop band of 4.9-5.9 GHz. The presented design is printed on a FR4 low cost dielectric substrate. The antenna is simulated using Agilent Advance Design System. Radiation pattern, VSWR and various other parameters are also discussed in detail., QC 20170223

This paper presents a printed monopole antenna for Ultra-Wideband (UWB) communication. The designed antenna consists of a circular disc radiator and a partial ridged ground plane. The proposed antenna has overall dimensions of 38mm × 38mm × 1.6 mm. The printed monopole antenna has been realized by using the FR-4 printed circuit board substrate. The permittivity of the substrate is 4.6 and loss tangent is 0.02. The proposed antenna is simulated using Agilent Advance Design System (ADS). Simulated result show that the antenna operates in entire UWB region: from 2.9 GHz to 10.7 GHz, with reflection coefficient S11 less than -10 dB over the entire band. It achieves an impedance bandwidth of 7.2 GHz. Simulated E-plane and H-plane radiation patterns are stable for the entire UWB frequency range. These characteristics make the proposed antenna suitable for different UWB applications., QC 20170223

Maryam Abbaspour Babaei,1 Behnam Kamalidehghan,2,3 Mohammad Saleem,4–6 Hasniza Zaman Huri,1,7 Fatemeh Ahmadipour1 1Department of Pharmacy, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; 2Department of Medical Genetics, National Institute of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (NIGEB), Shahrak-e Pajoohesh, 3Medical Genetics Department, School of Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran; 4Department of Urology, 5Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota, 6Section of Molecular Therapeutics & Cancer Health Disparity, The Hormel Institute, Austin, MN, USA; 7Clinical Investigation Centre, University Malaya Medical Centre, Lembah Pantai, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Abstract: c-Kit, a receptor tyrosine kinase, is involved in intracellular signaling, and the mutated form of c-Kit plays a crucial role in occurrence of some cancers. The function of c-Kit has led to the concept that inhibiting c-Kit kinase activity can be a target for cancer therapy. The promising results of inhibition of c-Kit for treatment of cancers have been observed in some cancers such as gastrointestinal stromal tumor, acute myeloid leukemia, melanoma, and other tumors, and these results have encouraged attempts toward improvement of using c-Kit as a capable target for cancer therapy. This paper presents the findings of previous studies regarding c-Kit as a receptor tyrosine kinase and an oncogene, as well as its gene targets and signaling pathways in normal and cancer cells. The c-Kit gene location, protein structure, and the role of c-Kit in normal cell have been discussed. Comprehending the molecular mechanism underlying c-Kit-mediated tumorogenesis is consequently essential and may lead to the identification of future novel drug targets. The potential mechanisms by which c-Kit induces cellular transformation have been described. This study aims to elucidate the function of c-Kit for

S100A4, a calcium-binding protein, is known for its role in the metastatic spread of tumor cells, a late event of cancer disease. This is the first report showing that S100A4 is not merely a metastatic protein but also an oncoprotein that plays a critical role in the development of tumors. We earlier showed that S100A4 expression progressively increases in prostatic tissues with the advancement of prostate cancer (CaP) in TRAMP, an autochthonous mouse model. To study the functional significance of S100A4 in CaP, we generated a heterozygously deleted S100A4 (TRAMP/S100A4(+/-)) genotype by crossing TRAMP with S100A4(-/-) mice. TRAMP/S100A4(+/-) did not show a lethal phenotype, and transgenes were functional. As compared to age-matched TRAMP littermates, TRAMP/S100A4(+/-) mice exhibited 1) an increased tumor latency period (P < 0.001), 2) a 0% incidence of metastasis, and 3) reduced prostatic weights (P < 0.001). We generated S100A4-positive clones from S100A4-negative CaP cells and tested their potential. S100A4-positive tumors grew at a faster rate than S100A4-negative tumors in vitro and in a xenograft mouse model. The S100A4 protein exhibited growth factor-like properties in multimode (intracellular and extracellular) forms. We observed that 1) the growth-promoting effect of S100A4 is due to its activation of NFκB, 2) S100A4-deficient tumors exhibit reduced NFκB activity, 3) S100A4 regulates NFκB through the RAGE receptor, and 4) S100A4 and RAGE co-localize in prostatic tissues of mice. Keeping in view its growth-promoting role, we suggest that S100A4 qualifies as an excellent candidate to be exploited for therapeutic agents to treat CaP in humans.

Aijaz Parray,1 Hifzur R Siddique,1 Sanjeev Nanda,1,2 Badrinath R Konety,3 Mohammad Saleem1,3,41Molecular Chemoprevention and Therapeutics, The Hormel Institute, University of Minnesota, Austin, 2Department of Internal Medicine, Mayo Clinic Health Systems, Austin, 3Department of Urology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, 4Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USAAbstract: The treatment landscape for patients with castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) is undergoing significant changes with the advent of new therapies and multidisciplinary efforts by scientists and clinicians. As activation of multiple molecular pathways in the neoplastic prostate makes it impossible for single-target drugs to be completely effective in treating CRPC, this has led to combination therapy strategy, where several molecules involved in tumor growth and disease progression are targeted by a therapeutic regimen. In the present review, we provide an update on the molecular pathways that play an important role in the pathogenesis of CRPC and discuss the current wave of new treatments to combat this lethal disease.Keywords: chemoresistance, CRPC, molecular pathways, neoplastic prostate

The standard model for electroweak interactions uses the concepts of weak hypercharge and local gauge invariance of the Lagrangian density under the gauge group SU(2) x U(1). Taylor has remarked that U(1), being a multiply-connected group, in general, should have different coupling strengths for singlets and doublets. But in the development of the standard model, even for U(1), the coupling strength has been taken to be the same for all the multiplets without a priori justification. Wilczek has pointed out that the assignment of hypercharge values to left- and right-handed leptons and quarks is very peculiar. However, no solution has been provided. Ellis has also reservations for the rather bizarre set up of group representations and hypercharges. It has also been noticed that, in addition to the above weak points of the model, the generator of the group U(1) is changed at different stages during a single analysis. In this paper, a new basis is provided that avoids these peculiar and odd concepts and hypercharge assignments, and a satisfactory solution is given for the first time. This is done by generalising the expression for the transformation law for 4-vector potential in electromagnetism. It gives exactly the same results as obtained in the standard model for electroweak interactions., Comment: 8 pages

The Chou-Yang model based on multiple diffraction theory has already been used by us to predict the characteristics of antiproton-proton elastic scattering at very high energies. But the recent precise data on proton elastic form factor obtained at JLab essentially deviates from the dipole approximation. We have parametrized the data for the form factor. The computations have been made by using the new expression for the form factor. The implications of the new form factor on the characteristics of antiproton-proton elastic scattering at very high energy have been studied., Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, DIFFRACTION 2002, Dubna-Alushta, Crimea, August 31-September 5, 2002

The unitarity of the CKM matrix is examined in the light of the latest available accurate data. The analysis shows that for the elements in the first row, there are two types of experimental measurements leading to different results for the violation of unitarity. A conclusive result cannot be derived at present. Only more precise data can determine whether the CKM matrix opens new vistas beyond the standard model or not. The experimental data for the elements in the second row are not as precise as for those in the first row, and within the measured uncertainty, the unitarity is not violated. The desired data is not available for the elements in the third row., Comment: 8 pages

We give the recent experimental results and theoretical analysis of CP violating ratio epsilon'/epsilon. The present status is discussed in the light of the standard model., Comment: 3pages

Hyperglycaemia associated with diabetes may have detrimental effects on vascular function. Diabetes may be accompanied by obesity which can potentially compound impaired vascular function by altering the physiological state of adipose tissue. Perivascular adipose tissue (PVAT), the exterior covering layer of most blood vessels, is receiving interest as a paracrine modulator of vascular function. Most conventional pharmacological studies dissect off the adherent adipose tissue and so this aspect of vascular control is often neglected. The present study aimed to investigate the effects of hyperglycaemia and PVAT on control of the porcine coronary artery (PCA). In vitro studies were carried out, using PCAs obtained from the abattoir, in organ-bath set ups. Exposure of PCAs to acute hyperglycaemia (22 mM) caused a significant contractile response, which was similar to that caused by the osmotic control (mannitol) and which was attenuated by superoxide dismutase. Superoxide production was detected in the buffer solution incubated with PCAs during hyperglycaemia. These findings suggest that acute hyperglycaemia increased PCA contractility by inducing oxidative stress, which involved superoxide production. Osmotic stress may possibly have contributed to hyperglycaemia-induced vasoconstriction, which needs to be investigated in future work. The relaxant responses of PCAs to the NO donor (SNP) in the presence of PVAT showed significant potentiation, compared to the vessels without PVAT. Inhibition of NOS in PCAs (denuded of endothelium) led to a contractile response, which was significantly greater in the presence of PVAT. The Griess reaction detected the presence of nitrite in buffer solutions incubated with PVAT. Moreover, the expression of eNOS was identified in PVAT using Western blotting. These data indicate that the PVAT of PCAs released the relaxant factor NO. Exposure of cleaned PCAs to PVAT significantly increased the basal tone of the vessels which was significantl

On 21 March 1945, the Fifth Infantry Division was alerted to prepare to launch a surprise night crossing of the Rhine River at Oppenheim, Germany. Despite the haste involved in the assault timing, engineers made elaborate preparations for supporting the infantry and bridging the river. The crossing of the Rhine in assault boats by the 11th Infantry Regiment at 2200 hours on 22 March was lightly opposed and successful. On 23 March other regiments of the Fifth Infantry Division crossed the river and exploitation of the bridgehead began on 24 March. The Fifth Infantry Division crossed the Rhine River without benefit of aerial bombardment, artillery preparation, ground smoke, or airborne assistance. This operation is an excellent example of a well planned and ably executed river crossing by an Army on the move.