Search

We have examined the dielectric relaxation of hexyltrimethylammonium bromide solutions at 278.15 K and at 298.15 K in order to investigate the impact of hydrophobic and hydrophilic hydration on temperature. The dynamics of micelles and their hydrophilic and hydrophobic hydration of n-hexyltrimethylammonium bromide solutions are investigated at a low temperature of 278.15 K using dielectric measurements. The concentration ranged from 0.0982 to 0.8534 mol•dm-3, and the frequency range covered from 0.2 to 89 GHz. Four Debye processes added together fit all the spectra. Micelle relaxation processes are visible below the critical micelle concentration, which denotes premicellar aggregation. The relaxation mechanisms were investigated with the aid of Grosse's hypothesis. Due to the radial and tangential diffusion of unbound and bound counter ions around the charged micelles, the two low frequencies are consequently ascribed to these processes. The hydrophilic hydration, in which the water molecules are entirely immobilised, is shown to be temperature independent. On the other side, at lower temperatures, the hydrophobic hydration rises [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we have studied the density functional theory of four drugs ibuprofen, alendronate, Sulfasalazine and paracetamol with quartz, propylamine, trimethylamine functionalized quartz and carboxyl modified carbon nanotube. The attractive and repulsive interaction energies between drugs and quartz is obtained at various pH values. The attractive and repulsive energies are well correlated with experimental drug loading and releasing behavior by mesoporous silica nanoparticles. Further, a theoretical model is developed that accounts the electrostatic interaction between silica and drug and the model can predict the drug loading and releasing behavior by silica nanoparticles at various pH values. Sulfasalazine can be taken orally and loaded with trimethyl ammonium functionalized mesoporous silica nanoparticles, which keeps the drug in tact with the carrier in the acidic environment of the stomach and releases it into the neutral or basic medium of the small intestine. Alendronate may be loaded and released from propylamine functionalized mesoporous silica nanoparticles in the ranges of 1-5 and > 8, respectively. Ibuprofen is absorbed in an acidic environment and released in basic conditions for carboxyl modified carbon nanotube. The loading and releasing pH ranges for paracetamol in trimethylammonium functionalized mesoporous silica nanoparticles are 4-8 and >8, respectively. We also convert the pH-dependent variant of the diffusion-controlled Higuchi equation. We have changed the original Higuchi equation to produce the pH-dependent variation by incorporating the Nernst-Planck equation into Flick's first law. The updated equation could be used to forecast when medication particles with varying release times will emerge from a nanoparticles matrix., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors reaffirm that they are not aware of any personal or financial conflicts that might have appeared to affect the research described in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Key Message: Two MYB genes have been identified which regulate apocarotenoid metabolism in Crocus sativus. Apocarotenoids like crocin, picrocrocin and safranal are restricted to genus Crocus and are synthesized by oxidative cleavage of zeaxanthin followed by glycosylation reactions. In Crocus sativus, these apocarotenoids are synthesized in stigma part of the flower in developmentally regulated manner. Most of the genes of apocarotenoid pathway are known, however, the mechanism that regulates its tissue and stage specific biosynthesis remains elusive. MYB family was identified as the largest transcription factor family from Crocus transciptome which indicated its possible role in apocarotenoid regulation besides regulating other metabolic pathways. Towards this, we started with identification of 150 MYB genes from Crocus transcriptome databases. The phylogenetic analysis of Crocus MYB genes divided them into 27 clusters. Domain analysis resulted in identification of four groups of MYBs depending upon the number of R repeats present. Expression profiling indicated that 12 MYBs are upregulated in stigma out of which expression of four genes CstMYB1, CstMYB14, CstMYB16 and CstMYB1R2 correlated with crocin accumulation. Transient overexpression of two nuclear localized MYB genes (CstMYB1 and CstMYB1R2) in Crocus confirmed their role in regulating carotenoid metabolism. Yeast-one-hybrid confirmed that CstMYB1 binds to carotenoid cleavage dioxygenase 2 (CCD2) promoter while CstMYB1R2 binds to phytoene synthase (PSY) and CCD2 promoters. Overall, our study established that CstMYB1 and CstMYB1R2 regulate apocarotenoid biosynthesis by directly binding to promoters of pathway genes., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V.)

Background: Crocus sativus stigmas form rich source of apocarotenoids like crocin, picrocrocin and saffranal which besides imparting color, flavour and aroma to saffron spice also have tremendous pharmacological properties. Inspite of their importance, the biosynthetic pathway of Crocus apocarotenoids is not fully elucidated. Moreover, the mechanism of their stigma specific accumulation remains unknown. Therefore, deep transcriptome sequencing of Crocus stigma and rest of the flower tissue was done to identify the genes and transcriptional regulators involved in the biosynthesis of these compounds., Results: Transcriptome of stigma and rest of the flower tissue was sequenced using Illumina Genome Analyzer IIx platform which generated 64,604,402 flower and 51,350,714 stigma reads. Sequences were assembled de novo using trinity resulting in 64,438 transcripts which were classified into 32,204 unigenes comprising of 9853 clusters and 22,351 singletons. A comprehensive functional annotation and gene ontology (GO) analysis was carried out. 58.5 % of the transcripts showed similarity to sequences present in public databases while rest could be specific to Crocus. 5789 transcripts showed similarity to transcription factors representing 76 families out of which Myb family was most abundant. Many genes involved in carotenoid/apocarotenoid pathway were identified for the first time in this study which includes zeta-carotene isomerase and desaturase, carotenoid isomerase and lycopene epsilon-cyclase. GO analysis showed that the predominant classes in biological process category include metabolic process followed by cellular process and primary metabolic process. KEGG mapping analysis indicated that pathways involved in ribosome, carbon and starch and sucrose metabolism were highly represented. Differential expression analysis indicated that key carotenoid/apocarotenoid pathway genes including phytoene synthase, phytoene desaturase and carotenoid cleavage dioxygenase 2 are enriched in stigma thereby providing molecular proof for stigma to be the site of apocarotenoid biosynthesis., Conclusions: This data would provide a rich source for understanding the carotenoid/apocarotenoid metabolism in Crocus. The database would also help in investigating many questions related to saffron biology including flower development.

Endophytism is the phenomenon of mutualistic association of a plant with a microorganism wherein the microbe lives within the tissues of the plant without causing any symptoms of disease. In addition to being a treasured biological resource, endophytes play diverse indispensable functions in nature for plant growth, development, stress tolerance, and adaptation. Our understanding of endophytism and its ecological aspects are overtly limited, and we have only recently started to appreciate its essence. Endophytes may impact plant biology through the production of diverse chemical entities including, but not limited to, plant growth hormones and by modulating the gene expression of defense and other secondary metabolic pathways of the host. Studies have shown differential recruitment of endophytes in endophytic populations of plants growing in the same locations, indicating host specificity and that endophytes evolve in a coordinated fashion with the host plants. Endophytic technology can be employed for the efficient production of agricultural and economically important plants and plant products. The rational application of endophytes to manipulate the microbiota, intimately associated with plants, can help in enhancement of production of agricultural produce, increased production of key metabolites in medicinal and aromatic plants, as well as adaption to new bio-geographic regions through tolerance to various biotic and abiotic conditions. However, the potential of endophytic biology can be judiciously harnessed only when we obtain insight into the molecular mechanism of this unique mutualistic relationship. In this paper, we present a discussion on endophytes, endophytism, their significance, and diverse functions in nature as unraveled by the latest research to understand this universal natural phenomenon.

Müller-Weiss disease (MWD) is a complex idiopathic foot condition of the adult tarsal navicular characterised by progressive navicular fragmentation and talo-navicular joint destruction leading to mid and hind foot pain and deformit. This article reviews, the current literature regarding this condition and discusses the surgical treatment options., (Copyright © 2013 European Foot and Ankle Society. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

This study was conducted from 10.02.08 to 23.05.09 in general surgery wards of Chittagong Medical College Hospital, Bangladesh with multi-factorial views of clinical aspects and an alarming model image in such relation was depicted. 188 (72.9 %) patients in this study out of 258 were male it was and found that different types of trauma had been relatively higher in 51-70 yrs (35.1 %) age group followed by 31-50 yrs (28.7 %) age group in case of male subjects. On the contrary, in female, those were quite higher in 11-30 yrs (31.4 %) age group followed by 51-70 yrs (24.8 %) age group. As for the mortality, this study suggest that it was significantly higher in case of female subjects (31.4 %) (22) in relation to male subjects (18.1 %) (34). But to our knowledge probably it has no clinical significance at all. Rather, it may have socio-economic associations, as for instance- traditional negligence to female in developing countries like Bangladesh. Another remarkable observation that was clear in this study was variation in different levels of morbidity. In male, 30.9 % patients had morbidity from 1 week to 1 month; followed by 28.7 % patients with morbidity less than 1 week, whereas, in case of female, it was 25.7 % and 20 %, respectively. With regard to morbidity over 1 month 23.4 % male and 22.9 % female were found in this group and in case of both male and female, the so called p-values were quite significant. This study also reflects that majority of trauma occurred due to road traffic accidents (RTAs) (24.5 %) followed by natural disasters (21.3 %) and assault (17 %) in case of male, whereas, in female 34.3 % trauma occurred by assault and homicidal attempts followed by 20 % due to natural disaster. One of the most remarkable associations of traumatic patients was that 82.3 % (28) of all deaths occurred in the first 24 hours of injury in male and on the other hand, it was 72.7 % (16) in case of female patients (Tab. 3, Fig. 7, Ref. 31).

We report our experience in treating such patients. A retrospective chart review was performed from 2004 through 2007 in Urology Department of Dhaka Medical College Hospital by using the convenient type of purposive sampling. In cases undergoing perineal urethrostomy, we suggested the "side-to-side" technique, which comprised longitudinal urethrotomy and everting the mucosal and submucosal layers of the urethra to the incised skin. Graft-based urethroplasty using buccal mucosal graft, in one-stage or two-stage repairs, was the preferred choice of formal reconstruction. Patients undergoing hypospadias surgery should receive lifelong follow-up protocol to detect latent urethral strictures (Fig. 8, Ref. 12).

The umbilical tumor as a presenting symptom must be investigated for the possibility of metastasis. In this case, it was unlikely, as there was no primary carcinoma found elsewhere. Primary peritoneal carcinoma (also termed serous surface papillary carcinoma) is a malignancy that arises primarily from peritoneal cells. The mesothelium of the peritoneum and the germinal epithelium of the ovary arise from the same embryological origin. Although primary peritoneal carcinoma has a very poor prognosis, our patient had a disease-free interval of two years post surgery. Clinically, primary peritoneal carcinoma may be difficult to distinguish from ovarian carcinoma. Compared to ovarian carcinoma, primary peritoneal carcinoma has a higher rate of abdominal distension, volume of ascites, malignant cells in the ascitic fluid, lower rate of pelvic palpable mass, and personal breast cancer history. However, primary ovarian cancer can be excluded in this case, based on both ovaries being of normal size with no tumor involvement and a histology that favors serous carcinoma. The disease is normally disseminated throughout the peritoneum. Our patient's disease was confined to the umbilicus with no evidence of dissemination. We report a rare case of adenocarcinoma confined to the umbilicus of a 64-year-old menopausal woman presented with an umbilical lump of nine years. After five years, she presented with a 6-cm irregular periumbilical mass. She agreed to undergo an excision biopsy of the mass with total abdominal hysterectomy and bilateral salpingo-oopherectomy with omentectomy. The excision biopsy showed adenocarcinoma with an appearance suggestive of metastasis from an ovarian cystadenocarcinoma. The frozen section of the tumor showed a papillary adenocarcinoma. Histology showed adenocarcinoma favoring serous cancer. It was found that tumor markers of ovarian malignancy were normal. There was no tumor seen in the ovaries, uterus and omentum. On follow-up, there was no disease recurrence. The patient has been disease-free for two years post surgery (Fig. 5, Ref. 10).