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Pancreatic cancer (PC) is considered a silent killer because it does not show specific symptoms at an early stage. Thus, identifying suitable biomarkers is important to avoid the burden of PC. Stratifin (SFN) encodes the 14-3-3σ protein, which is expressed in a tissue-dependent manner and plays a vital role in cell cycle regulation. Thus, SFN could be a promising therapeutic target for several types of cancer. This study was aimed at investigating, using online bioinformatics tools, whether SFN could be used as a diagnostic and prognostic biomarker in PC. SFN expression was explored by utilizing the ONCOMINE, UALCAN, GEPIA2, and GENT2 tools, which revealed that SFN expression is higher in PC than in normal tissues. The clinicopathological analysis using the ULCAN tool showed that the intensity of SFN expression is commensurate with cancer progression. GEPIA2, R2, and OncoLnc revealed a negative correlation between SFN expression and survival probability in PC patients. The ONCOMINE, UCSC Xena, and GEPIA2 tools showed that cofilin 1 is strongly coexpressed with SFN. Moreover, enrichment and network analyses of SFN were performed using the Enrichr and NetworkAnalyst platforms, respectively. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves revealed that tissue-dependent expression of the SFN gene could serve as a diagnostic and prognostic biomarker. However, further wet laboratory studies are necessary to determine the relevance of SFN expression as a biomarker.

In this research, we improve the quality parameter of prepared yogurt using different levels (5%, 10%, and 15%) of strawberry juice. We investigated different organoleptic, chemical and microbiological quality characteristics. We found that plain yogurt is clearly better than 15% strawberry juice yogurt while 5% strawberry juice yogurt is almost as like as the plain yogurt. Acceptance of 10% strawberry juice yogurt is between 5% and 15%. We note that the organoleptic characteristics decrease with the addition of strawberry juice level. Analyzed chemical composition showed that strawberry juice incorporation increases the moisture content and acidity from 0% to 15% as strawberry juice contains higher moisture content (90.329%) and acidity (1%) than collected milk which contains 87.15% moisture content and 0.19% acidity. On the other hand, ash and fat content decreases as strawberry juice contains low ash (0.311%) and fat (1.64%) content than collected milk which contains 0.74% ash and 4.36% fat. Thus, nutritional quality decreases with the addition of strawberry juice. After performing the microbiological tests, it was recommended to consume the samples before the 5th day. We also found that various types of microbial (TPC, TCC, TFC) counts decline due to the high acidity of strawberry juice.

Consumer demand for food nutritional content and quality is driving the design of plant-based foods that are enhanced with proteins. In this study, we aimed to reveal the nutrient compositional differences of various states of soy flours. We compared soy protein concentrate (SPC) with full fat (FF), raw soy flour (RSF), and defatted (DF) soy flour for investigating nutritional content, phytochemicals, and

The number of artificially ripened pineapples is outnumbered than the naturally ripened pineapples. However, there is a lack of understanding between artificially ripened and naturally ripened pineapples. Thus the inquiry was anticipated to explore the physicochemical changes and organoleptic acceptability of the naturally ripened and artificially ripened pineapples. Farmers used different chemicals such as calcium carbide, ethylene, besides growth hormones to reduce production loss. Here we evaluated the content of moisture, ash, protein, fat, crude fiber, reducing sugar, total sugar, titratable acidity, sucrose, and vitamin C in both naturally ripened and artificially ripened pineapples. Artificially ripened pineapples showed a significantly lower vitamin C than naturally ripened ones, but arsenic content was nil in both samples. In the case of color and appearance, there was no significant difference between the two samples, but in case of the other organoleptic properties, such as flavor, sweetness, sourness, the natural one was more acceptable. Thus naturally ripened pineapples are more beneficial to consumers than artificially ripened ones.

This study was conducted to evaluate the toxic effects of an azo dye carmoisine widely used in foods and to investigate its relation to carcinogenicity. Carmoisine administered into mice orally in four different doses as control, low, medium, and high equivalent to 0, 4, 200, and 400 mg/kg bw, respectively, for 120 days. The key toxicological endpoint was observed including animal body weight, organ weights, hematology, biochemistry, and molecular biology assessment. The body weights of medium‐ and high‐dose carmoisine‐treated mice group were significantly decreased as compared to the control mice group. Platelet, white blood cell and monocyte counts of treated group were considerably higher, while Hb and red blood cell counts were drastically lower than the control group. The biochemical parameters such as serum alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, alkaline phosphatase, total protein, globulin, urea, and creatinine level were significantly increased, while serum cholesterol level was decreased after treatment as compared to the control. RT‐PCR results showed that expression of Bcl‐x and PARP gene was intensively increased, whereas expression of p53 gene was decreased in the mouse liver tissues treated with carmoisine. This study revealed that high‐dose (400 mg/kg bw) treatment of carmoisine was attributable to renal failure and hepatotoxicity. It also would be suspected as a culprit for liver oncogenesis.

An investigation was conducted to assess the approximate nutrient composition of Miniket rice collected from different regions and market places of Tangail district in Bangladesh to understand actual fact. Moreover, mostly available variety BRRI-28 milled rice was also analysed to compare with the Miniket milled rice.Moisture, protein, fat, crude fibre, and ash content were higher in Miniket brown rice as compared to the parboiled milled rice except available carbohydrate. Among Miniket parboiled milled rice, Miniket TM-1 (Tangail Market-1) rice and Miniket TM-2 (Tangail Market-2) rice, the content of protein (7.04%), fat (0.37%), crude fibre (0.26%) and ash (0.58%) were comparatively higher in parboiled milled rice than that of two market samples. In a comparison among other cheaper coarse varieties like BRRI-28 and Miniket TM-1 rice and Miniket TM-2 rice, protein, fat, crude fibre and ash content were found lower in Miniket rice of TM-1 and TM-2 than BRRI-28. Beside chemical composition, some physical properties were studied including length, width, L/W ratio, shape and weight.J. Environ. Sci. & Natural Resources, 8(2): 97-102 2015

Background: Occupational exposure is a significant factor for having respiratory symptoms and impairment of lung function in the working population. Construction workers impose a great risk of respiratory diseases since they continuously expose to construction hazards at their working place. The objective of this study was to explore the status of respiratory health of construction workers as well as correlation of blood parameters with it.Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted among construction workers along with the control group (university staffs) by randomly selecting 50 individuals in each group from September 2019 to February 2020 in Tangail, Bangladesh. Questionaries’ survey was executed followed by spirometry and oximetry. After confirming abnormalities of lung function, blood was drawn for further IgE, ESR, and CRP analysis.Results: Significantly (p

Objective: To investigate bioactive phytochemicals and antioxidant activities of Nymphaea nouchali and to explore its anticancer pathways by a network pharmacology approach. Methods: Using a spectrophotometer and high-performance liquid chromatography-diode array detector (HPLC-DAD), we quantified bioactive phytochemicals in methanolic extract of Nymphaea nouchali tuber. The extracts were investigated for in vitro antioxidant properties. Targets of these bioactive phytochemicals were predicted and anticancer-associated pathways were analyzed by a network pharmacology approach. Moreover, we identified the predicted genes associated with cancer pathways and the hub genes in the protein-protein interaction network of predicted genes. Results: Quantitative results indicated the total phenolics, total flavonoids, and total proanthocyanidins in the methanolic extract of Nymphaea nouchali tuber. HPLC-DAD analysis showed rutin (39.44 mg), catechin (39.20 mg), myricetin (30.77 mg), ellagic acid (11.05 mg), gallic acid (3.67 mg), vanillic acid (0.75 mg), rosmarinic acid (4.81 mg), p-coumaric acid (3.35 mg), and quercetin (0.90 mg) in 1 g of dry extract. The extract showed the radical scavenging activities of 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl, 2,2’-azino- bis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) and N,N-dimethyl-p phenylenediamine. By using network pharmacology, we predicted 130 target genes associated with cancer pathways. The top hub genes (IL6, AKT1, EGFR, JUN, PTGS2, MAPK3, CASP3, and CXCL8) were also identified, which were associated with cancer pathways and interacted with bioactive phytochemicals of the methanolic extract of Nymphaea nouchali tuber. Conclusions: Our study provides insights into the mechanism of anticancer activities of the methanolic extract of Nymphaea nouchali tuber.

16th February 2015. Due to a number of missing tables and figures, this article (DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/jesnr.v7i1.22182) was withdrawn from Vol.7(1) and has been republished with corrections in Vol.7(2) pp.185-190 (DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/jesnr.v7i2.22230). The Editor

A lectin was purified (designated as TCSL) from the Snake guard seeds with molecular mass of 56±2 kDa containing two subunits (34±1 and 22±1 kDa.). TCSL exhibited high agglutination activity at the temperature range 30 to 70°C and did not lose its activity between pH 3.0 to 12.0. The lectin was stable in the presence of denaturants and agglutinated mouse, goat, cow, chicken and human erythrocytes. TCSL did not show antifungal activity whereas it agglutinated six pathogenic bacteria and showed less toxicity against brine shrimp nauplii with the LC50 of 261±29 μg/ml. TCSL showed 28% and 72% inhibition against Ehrlich ascites carcinoma (EAC) cells in vivo in mice when administered 1 mg/kg/day and 2 mg/kg/day (i.p.) respectively for five days. TCSL enhanced the number of macrophages remarkably in the normal mice. The lectin reduced the tumor burden to 62% of EAC cells and significantly increased the hemoglobin and RBC. Treating the EAC bearing mice with TCSL at 2 mg/Kg/day for ten days with a monitoring of 20 days decreased the total WBC towards the normal level and it increased the life span by 39%.

Improvement in magnetic and electrical properties of multiferroic BiFeO$_3$ in conjunction with their dependence on particle size is crucial due to its potential applications in multifunctional miniaturized devices. In this investigation, we report a study on particle size dependent structural, magnetic and electrical properties of sol-gel derived Bi$_{0.9}$Ba$_{0.1}$FeO$_3$ nanoparticles of different sizes ranging from $\sim$ 12 to 49 nm. The substitution of Bi by Ba significantly suppresses oxygen vacancies, reduces leakage current density and Fe$^{2+}$ state. An improvement in both magnetic and electrical properties is observed for 10 % Ba-doped BiFeO$_3$ nanoparticles compared to its undoped counterpart. The saturation magnetization of Bi$_{0.9}$Ba$_{0.1}$FeO$_3$ nanoparticles increase with reducing particle size in contrast with a decreasing trend of ferroelectric polarization. Moreover, a first order metamagnetic transition is noticed for $\sim$ 49 nm Bi$_{0.9}$Ba$_{0.1}$FeO$_3$ nanoparticles which disappeared with decreasing particle size. The observed strong size dependent multiferroic properties are attributed to the complex interaction between vacancy induced crystallographic defects, multiple valence states of Fe, uncompensated surface spins, crystallographic distortion and suppression of spiral spin cycloid of BiFeO$_3$., Comment: 9