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Aim and Objectives: The aim of the current study is to isolate the starch from elephant foot yam (Amorphophallus paeonifolius) and investigate its potential as a disintegrant in tablet formulation as compare to standard corn starch. The objective of the study is to explore the applications of natural resources and develop an alternative to commercially available starches. Materials and Methods: Starch was isolated by a simple method, evaluated for phytochemical and physico-chemical properties. Tablets were prepared by wet granulation by varying concentrations of elephant foot yam or corn starch in the range of 2.5%, 5%, 7.5% and 10%. Further granules were evaluated for flow properties and tablets were evaluated for post-compression parameters. Results: It was found that the pH of the isolated starch sample was found to be neutral; it exhibited good swelling capacity and fair flow properties. P-XRD pattern showed a C-type diffraction pattern, SEM studies indicated that starch granules had a smooth surface. Granules possessed good flow properties and tablets complied with standard limits of weight variation. Hardness and friability were found in the range of 4.11-4.69 kg/cm2 and 0.11-0.50% respectively. The wetting time was found in the range of 7 to 35 sec for elephant foot yam starch and 16-49 sec for corn starch. Disintegration time for elephant foot yam starch was found to be 28 to 84 sec and for corn starch, it was 40 to 90 sec. Conclusion: Formulations containing elephant foot yam starch showed a similar dissolution profile as that of corn starch. Stability studies were performed on F4 batch and it was found stable for three months. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, a simple, economical, rapid, precise and accurate stability indicating HPTLC method was developed and validated for estimation of Pazopanib hydrochloride in tablet dosage form. For development of chromatogram Ethyl acetate: Toluene: Methanol (5.5:4:0.5 v/v/v) was used as a mobile phase. The TLC plates used for chromatography as a stationary phase were aluminium plates precoated with silica gel 60F254. The densitometric scanning was performed at 270nm and separation occurred was found to be at Rf value of 0.42 ± 0.04. As per the ICH guidelines the method was validated for different parameters and good results were obtained. Linearity was found to be 200-1200ng/band for Pazopanib hydrochloride which indicates the good linear relationship. Regression equation obtained was y=7.9419x + 2348.7 and the R2was 0.994. All the results obtained from precision parameters were within the limits (%RSD Less than 2) which showed that the method was more precise. Percentage recovery was found to be in the range of 98% to 102%. The method was found to be robust as indicated by its results obtained below 2.0% RSD. LOD and LOQ values of the method were 0.26ng/band and 0.81ng/band respectively. Assay of the tablet dosage form was found to be 100.6%. In forced degradation study, the drug was sensitive to various stressed conditions such as acidic, alkaline, neutral, oxidative and thermal degradation whereas highly sensitive to photolytic degradation. Overall from this study we can conclude that the developed method can be used for the routine analysis of Pazopanib hydrochloride. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Common variants in interferon regulatory factor 6 ( IRF6) have been associated with nonsyndromic cleft lip with or without cleft palate (NSCL/P) as well as with tooth agenesis (TA). These variants contribute a small risk towards the 2 congenital conditions and explain only a small percentage of heritability. On the other hand, many IRF6 mutations are known to be a monogenic cause of disease for syndromic orofacial clefting (OFC). We hypothesize that IRF6 mutations in some rare instances could also cause nonsyndromic OFC. To find novel rare variants in IRF6 responsible for nonsyndromic OFC and TA, we performed targeted multiplex sequencing using molecular inversion probes (MIPs) in 1,072 OFC patients, 67 TA patients, and 706 controls. We identified 3 potentially pathogenic de novo mutations in OFC patients. In addition, 3 rare missense variants were identified, for which pathogenicity could not unequivocally be shown, as all variants were either inherited from an unaffected parent or the parental DNA was not available. Retrospective investigation of the patients with these variants revealed the presence of lip pits in one of the patients with a de novo mutation suggesting a Van der Woude syndrome (VWS) phenotype, whereas, in other patients, no lip pits were identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT This study is concerned with the modelling the ductile fracture in ASTM A992 steels using the Gurson-Tvergaard-Needleman (GTN) model for high stress triaxiality regime. The GTN model for ASTM A992 structural steels is calibrated from the experiments performed on axisymmetrically notched tensile specimens. The experiments are designed to obtain a range of stress triaxiality and different fracture initiation locations. The non-uniqueness in the constitutive parameters of the GTN model is illustrated in this study. The choice of a unique set of GTN constitutive parameters is made by choosing the nucleation strain ( ɛ N) as a material constant. The process of estimating this material specific nucleation strain is provided. All the other GTN model parameters corresponding to the material specific nucleation strain ( ɛ N) are evaluated to best fit the experimental results. The calibrated GTN model is shown to predict the load displacement behaviour, ductility and fracture initiation locations in the notched specimens. The calibrated GTN parameters are used to successfully predict the ductility of structural components: (a) bars with a hole; (b) plate with reduced section and (c) plate with holes; that are typically found in structural engineering applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Triphala Mashi is an ayurvedic formulation that was prepared in our lab. Aqueous and alcoholic extracts of both Triphala and Triphala Mashi were used, to evaluate antimicrobial activity. Comparative phytochemical profile of Triphala and Triphala Mashi was done by preliminary phytochemical screening, total phenolic content and thin layer chromatography (TLC). Antimicrobial activity includes isolation of pathogens from clinical samples, its characterization, testing its multiple drug resistance against standard antibiotics and antimicrobial activity of aqueous and alcoholic extracts of both Triphala and Triphala Mashi against these organisms by using agar gel diffusion method. Triphala Mashi containing phenolic compounds, tannins exhibited comparable antimicrobial activity in relation to Triphala against all the microorganisms tested. It inhibits the dose-dependent growth of Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. In conclusion, it appears that Triphala Mashi has non-specific antimicrobial activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The anti-diarrhoeal effect of aqueous and alcoholic extracts of Triphala and Triphala Mashi were studied employing castor oil-induced-diarrhoeal model in rats. The gastrointestinal transit rate was expressed as the percentage of the longest distance travelled by the charcoal divided by the total length of the small intestine. All the extracts, at various doses 200, 400 and 800 mg/kg displayed remarkable anti-diarrhoeal activity as evidenced by a significant increase in first defecation time, cumulative fecal weight and intestinal transit time. Aqueous and alcoholic extracts of Triphala and Triphala Mashi were considered safe up to a dose of 1750 mg/kg when evaluated for acute oral toxicity in accordance with the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) guidelines. In conclusion, the remarkable anti-diarrhoeal effect of Triphala and Triphala Mashi extracts against castor oil-induced diarrhoea suggest its potential for application in a wide range of diarrhoeal states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of present study was to evaluate anthelmintic potential of anterdhum Padhati Mahi (APM) and Bahirdhum Padhati mashi (BPM) using Pheretima posthuma and Ascardia galli as test worms. Various concentrations (10 - 100 mg/ml) of APM and BPM were tested in the bioassay, which involved determination of time of paralysis (P) and time of death (D) of the worms. Piperazine citrate (10 mg/ml) was included as standard reference and distilled water as control. The results of present study indicated that APM and BPM significantly demonstrated paralysis, and also caused death of worms especially at higher concentration of 100 mg/ml, as compared to standard reference Piperazine citrate. In conclusion, the Mashi as an anthelmintic have been confirmed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Infective endocarditis of aortic valve with peri-annular extension leading to a large mycotic aneurysm of aortic root is a rare yet grave complication. A 65-year-old male presented with on and off fever since 2 years, and dyspnea since 20 days. ECG showed complete heart block with narrow complex escape rhythm. Echocardiography study showed Rheumatic Heart Disease with severe mitral regurgitation and mild aortic regurgitation. There was a 53 * 47 mm thick walled mycotic aneurysm of aortic root posterior coronary sinus. Duke's criteria were suggestive of definite infective endocarditis, though the blood culture was negative. To the best of our knowledge, this is the largest aortic root mycotic aneurysm reported till date. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is a vector borne disease caused by various species of Leishmania parasite. CL is endemic in the Thar desert of Rajasthan state and Himachal Pradesh in India. Immune suppression caused by human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection is associated with atypical clinical presentation of CL which responds poorly to the standard treatment and causes frequent relapses. We are reporting three cases of localized and disseminated CL due to Leishmania tropica which failed to respond to conventional intralesional/intramuscular sodium stibogluconate (SSG) injections. Initially, we did not think of HIV infection because CL is endemic in this region. When patients did not respond to SSG injections, we performed enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) tests for HIV and they turned out to be HIV positive. Our report showed that CL is emerging as an opportunistic infection associated with HIV/AIDS and may be the first manifestation in HIV positive patients in an endemic area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) is still the second causative agent of death worldwide after COVID-19. It is caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) infection., Objective: The aim of the current study was to compare the performance of GeneNAT real-time polymerase chain reaction analyzer and pre-loaded chip-based MTB screening and multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) detection kit (Smart Sure TM MTB & MDR-TB, Genetix Biotech Asia Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi, India) against the established WHO-approved GeneXpert Ultra (MTB/rifampicin (RIF)), line probe assay (LPA), and mycobacteria growth indicator tube (MGIT) culture at point of care (POC) level., Methods: A total of 450 pulmonary TB (PTB) suspect patients were enrolled from October 2023 to March 2024 at the Intermediate Reference Laboratory, Department of Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India. GeneXpert and GeneNAT tests were done directly from sputum specimens. However, processed sputum specimens were used for both LPA (GenoType MTBDRplus) and liquid culture and drug susceptibility testing (MGIT culture and drug susceptibility testing (DST))., Results: On comparing with GeneXpert, for the detection of MTB and rifampicin (RIF), Smart Sure TM showed a sensitivity of 98.18% and 97.5% with a specificity of 100% and 98.92%, respectively. While comparing mutations in the  rpoB gene with LPA, the Smart Sure TM MDR-TB kit exhibited sensitivity and specificity of 96.77% and 99.12%, respectively. For katG and inhA genes, sensitivity and specificity were 97.6% & 85.71% and 98.66% & 98.01%, respectively, for both genes. Smart Sure TM MDR-TB showed comparable results with MGIT-DST with sensitivity and specificity of 96.88% & 96.15% and 98.99% & 99.02%, respectively, for both RIF and isoniazid (INH) drugs., Conclusion: The GeneNAT system test may provide the status of RIF and INH resistance in PTB cases in a short time with the use of minimal specimens. It required very little infrastructure with less skilled laboratory staff in comparison with other WHO-approved diagnostics used in resource-limited countries with TB and drug-resistant TB burdens., Competing Interests: Human subjects: Consent was obtained or waived by all participants in this study. Institute Ethical Committee, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi issued approval IEC-609/06.10.2023, RP-41/2023. The ethical approval for the study was taken from the Institute Ethical Committee, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi (IEC-609/06.10.2023, RP-41/2023). All the study subjects were enrolled in the study after getting written informed consent. Study subjects who did not give consent were excluded from the study. Animal subjects: All authors have confirmed that this study did not involve animal subjects or tissue. Conflicts of interest: In compliance with the ICMJE uniform disclosure form, all authors declare the following: Payment/services info: All authors have declared that no financial support was received from any organization for the submitted work. Financial relationships: All authors have declared that they have no financial relationships at present or within the previous three years with any organizations that might have an interest in the submitted work. Other relationships: All authors have declared that there are no other relationships or activities that could appear to have influenced the submitted work., (Copyright © 2024, Jorwal et al.)

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) is caused due to the infection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) and it can infect the various parts of the human body. The disease is highly prevalent and is the second most common cause of death worldwide after COVID-19. Apart from sputum specimen, it is exceedingly difficult to diagnose due to its paucibacillary nature. The current study was intended to evaluate the accuracy of Smart Sure™ MTB and multidrug-resistant-TB (MDR-TB) kits (Genetix Biotech Asia Pvt. Ltd., India) with Xpert ultra and Mycobacterium growth indicator tube (MGIT) culture on nonsputum specimens from TB suspects., Methods: A total of 205 nonsputum specimens were received between October 2023 and May 2024 at Intermediate Reference Laboratory, Department of Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India. Xpert ultra and Smart Sure™ MTB and MDR-TB tests were done directly on samples. However, processed specimens were used for MGIT culture and drug-susceptibility testing (DST). Invalid and MGIT contaminated specimens were excluded from the final calculation., Results: Overall, sensitivity and specificity of Smart Sure™ MTB screening kit was 71.59% and 98.28%, respectively, with Xpert ultra and 68.35% and 90.83%, respectively, with MGIT culture. While comparing with both Xpert ultra and MGIT-DST to detect rifampicin (RIF) resistant, Smart Sure™ MDR-TB kits showed sensitivity of 75.0% and 100% of specificity. However, for isoniazid (INH) resistance, Smart Sure™ MDR-TB kits showed 100% of sensitivity and specificity with MGIT-DST., Conclusion: For the detection of MTB and its drug-resistance patterns (RIF and INH) in the specimens other than sputum, Smart Sure™ MTB and MDR-TB kits could play a vital role in TB endemic countries. While comparing the set-ups and skilled staffs, it required almost same as compared with previously approved WHO diagnostics used in resource-limited countries., (Copyright © 2024 Copyright: © 2024 International Journal of Mycobacteriology.)

Supercritical water gasification (SCWG) of lignocellulosic biomass is a promising pathway for the production of hydrogen. However, SCWG is a complex thermochemical process, the modeling of which is challenging via conventional methodologies. Therefore, eight machine learning models (linear regression (LR), Gaussian process regression (GPR), artificial neural network (ANN), support vector machine (SVM), decision tree (DT), random forest (RF), extreme gradient boosting (XGB), and categorical boosting regressor (CatBoost)) with particle swarm optimization (PSO) and a genetic algorithm (GA) optimizer were developed and evaluated for prediction of H 2 , CO, CO 2 , and CH 4 gas yields from SCWG of lignocellulosic biomass. A total of 12 input features of SCWG process conditions (temperature, time, concentration, pressure) and biomass properties (C, H, N, S, VM, moisture, ash, real feed) were utilized for the prediction of gas yields using 166 data points. Among machine learning models, boosting ensemble tree models such as XGB and CatBoost demonstrated the highest power for the prediction of gas yields. PSO-optimized XGB was the best performing model for H 2 yield with a test R 2 of 0.84 and PSO-optimized CatBoost was best for prediction of yields of CH 4 , CO, and CO 2 , with test R 2 values of 0.83, 0.94, and 0.92, respectively. The effectiveness of the PSO optimizer in improving the prediction ability of the unoptimized machine learning model was higher compared to the GA optimizer for all gas yields. Feature analysis using Shapley additive explanation (SHAP) based on best performing models showed that (21.93%) temperature, (24.85%) C, (16.93%) ash, and (29.73%) C were the most dominant features for the prediction of H 2 , CH 4 , CO, and CO 2 gas yields, respectively. Even though temperature was the most dominant feature, the cumulative feature importance of biomass characteristics variables (C, H, N, S, VM, moisture, ash, real feed) as a group was higher than that of the SCWG process condition variables (temperature, time, concentration, pressure) for the prediction of all gas yields. SHAP two-way analysis confirmed the strong interactive behavior of input features on the prediction of gas yields.

Background: We compared long-term mortality and readmission rates after COVID-19 hospitalization based on rural-urban status and assessed the impact of COVID-19 vaccination introduction on clinical outcomes by rurality., Methods: The study comprised adults hospitalized for COVID-19 at 17 hospitals in 4 US states between March 2020 and July 2022, followed until May 2023. The main analysis included all patients, whereas a sensitivity analysis focused on residents from 4 states containing 17 hospitals. Additional analyses compared the pre- and postvaccination periods., Results: The main analysis involved 9325 COVID-19 hospitalized patients: 31% were from 187 rural counties in 31 states; 69% from 234 urban counties in 44 states; the mean age was 65 years (rural, 66 years; urban, 64 years); 3894 women (rural, 41%; urban, 42%); 8007 Whites (rural, 87%; urban, 83%); 1738 deaths (rural, 21%; urban, 17%); and 2729 readmissions (rural, 30%; urban, 29%). During a median follow-up of 602 days, rural residence was associated with a 22% higher all-cause mortality (log-rank, P < .001; hazard ratio, 1.22; 95% confidence interval, 1.10-1.34, P < .001), and a trend toward a higher readmission rate (log-rank, P = .038; hazard ratio, 1.06; 95% confidence interval, .98-1.15; P = .130). The results remained consistent in the sensitivity analysis and in both pre- and postvaccination time periods., Conclusions and Relevance: Patients from rural counties experienced higher mortality and tended to be readmitted more frequently following COVID-19 hospitalization over the long term compared with those from urban counties, a difference that remained even after the introduction of COVID-19 vaccines., (© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Infectious Diseases Society of America.)