scholarly journals PREPARATION AND EVALUATION OF NEEM (AZADIRACHTA INDICA) EXTRACT MICROBEADS USING HYDROGEL SYSTEM FOR WOUND HEALING

Author(s):  
Vinu V Nair ◽  
Rajesh Asija ◽  
A Gupta

Introduction: Neem (Azadirachta indica, Meliaceae) is being used as an antimicrobial agent in traditional systems of medicines since ancient times. Neem is also applied on wounds in the form of aqueous extracts of various parts of the plant but is associated with problems of stability on long term storage. Objective: In the present work, the aim was to incorporate Neem (Azadirachta indica) extract in hydrogel system and prepare microbeads for application on wounds. Material and methods: The microbeads were prepared by mixing of drug and polymers to cause poly ionic complexation. The formulation was evaluated for various pharmaceutical parameters such as Solubility, Drug Release, Water Holding Capacity, % Drug Entrapped, Bead Diameter Measurement and Antimicrobial study. Result and Discussion: The evaluation of the optimized batch showed % drug entrapped to be 5.61 %, drug release of 65.688% in phosphate buffer pH 8 within 5 hrs and water uptake of 80% which were similar to the solutions obtained by the design expert DX7 Statease software. This suggested that the optimization model is validated. The microbeads of the optimized batch had a diameter of approximately 80 μm. Conclusion: Polymeric encapsulation in the form of beads allowed controlled delivery as well as enhanced stability of Azadirachtin. It provides a cost-effective antimicrobial therapy.

2018 ◽  
Vol 84 (23) ◽  
Author(s):  
Cecilia Rad-Menéndez ◽  
Mélanie Gerphagnon ◽  
Andrea Garvetto ◽  
Paola Arce ◽  
Yacine Badis ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Parasitic Chytridiomycota (chytrids) are ecologically significant in various aquatic ecosystems, notably through their roles in controlling bloom-forming phytoplankton populations and in facilitating the transfer of nutrients from inedible algae to higher trophic levels. The diversity and study of these obligate parasites, while critical to understand the interactions between pathogens and their hosts in the environment, have been hindered by challenges inherent to their isolation and stable long-term maintenance under laboratory conditions. Here, we isolated an obligate chytrid parasite (CCAP 4086/1) on the freshwater bloom-forming diatom Asterionella formosa and characterized its infectious cycle under controlled conditions. Phylogenetic analyses based on 18S, 5.8S, and 28S ribosomal DNAs (rDNAs) revealed that this strain belongs to the recently described clade SW-I within the Lobulomycetales. All morphological features observed agree with the description of the known Asterionella parasite Zygorhizidium affluens Canter. We thus provide a phylogenetic placement for this chytrid and present a robust and simple assay that assesses both the infection success and the viability of the host. We also validate a cryopreservation method for stable and cost-effective long-term storage and demonstrate its recovery after thawing. All the above-mentioned tools establish a new gold standard for the isolation and long-term preservation of parasitic aquatic chytrids, thus opening new perspectives to investigate the diversity of these organisms and their physiology in a controlled laboratory environment. IMPORTANCE Despite their ecological relevance, parasitic aquatic chytrids are understudied, especially due to the challenges associated with their isolation and maintenance in culture. Here we isolated and established a culture of a chytrid parasite infecting the bloom-forming freshwater diatom Asterionella formosa. The chytrid morphology suggests that it corresponds to the Asterionella parasite known as Zygorhizidium affluens. The phylogenetic reconstruction in the present study supports the hypothesis that our Z. affluens isolate belongs to the order Lobulomycetales and clusters within the novel clade SW-I. We also validate a cryopreservation method for stable and cost-effective long-term storage of parasitic chytrids of phytoplankton. The establishment of a monoclonal pathosystem in culture and its successful cryopreservation opens the way to further investigate this ecologically relevant parasitic interaction.


2009 ◽  
Vol 14 (5) ◽  
pp. 492-498 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Joseph Pfeifer ◽  
Guenther Scheel

This report describes the features and the performance of a new and significantly improved 1536-well microplate design. The design allows for simple, automation-friendly, and cost-effective storage of compound solutions for high-throughput screening. The plate design is based on Society for Biomolecular Sciences standards for microplates and can be molded from polystyrene or cycloolefin copolymer, thus making the plate suitable for use with acoustic dispensing as well as other conventional liquid dispensing in the nanoliter range. For a 9:1 DMSO/water mix as solvent, the novel plate design has shown to perform over 4 months with only minor losses in solvent. Thus, this novel plate design creates the basis for further reductions in compound storage volumes and allows for an increase in the storage times for microliter volumes for up to a year or more. The high protection against solvent evaporation is also visible for aqueous solutions, thus allowing for reduced edge effects during screening campaigns.


2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (5) ◽  
pp. 160-164 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. Shishkin ◽  
E. Shulzhenko

A by-product of soybean production, as a non-grain part of the crop, can be used to meet the needs of livestock in providing complete feeding of livestock. Pressing the floor allows to reduce the volume of plant material in order to reduce the cost of storage and transportation, improve the safety of its nutrients during long-term storage. Therefore, the development of an efficient, cost-effective and less energy-intensive technology and a process line for compacting the soybean floor by pressing is a promising direction. The pile of the floor is a complex mixture of particles of different sizes, as well as voids filled with air. Equipment compaction chaff should provide a stable preparation of pellets under all the fluctuations of the moisture content and fractional composition of chaff. In 2018, research experiments were carried out in the Far Eastern Scientific–Research Institute of Mechanization and Electrification of Agriculture to study the process of pressing the soybean floor, depending on its fractional composition and humidity, on the manufactured laboratory unit for compaction with the production of soybean floor briquettes. It was found that when the humidity of the sample increases from 9 to 21%, the energy consumption decreases by 17.1%. The coefficient of compaction of the floor when the humidity changes almost does not change. By increasing the length of the sex particles from 14 to 87 mm, the compaction coefficient increases by 73.3% and the energy intensity by 6.2 %. For transportation and storage of the soybean floor briquette, it is recommended to pack it tightly with polyethylene film or tie it with twine, this will increase the shelf life and eliminate losses.


Animals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 1369
Author(s):  
Pamela Carolina Köster ◽  
Begoña Bailo ◽  
Alejandro Dashti ◽  
Carolina Hernández-Castro ◽  
Rafael Calero-Bernal ◽  
...  

Preservation and conservation of biological specimens, including faecal samples, is a challenge in remote areas or poor-resource settings where the cold chain cannot be maintained. This study aims at evaluating the suitability of filter cards for long-term storage of faecal samples of animal and human origin positive to the diarrhoea-causing protozoan parasites, Giardia duodenalis and Cryptosporidium hominis. Three commercially available Whatman® Filter Cards were comparatively assessed: the FTA® Classic Card, the FTA® Elute Micro Card, and the 903 Protein Saver Card. Human faecal samples positive to G. duodenalis (n = 5) and C. hominis (n = 5) were used to impregnate the selected cards at given storage (1 month, 3 months, and 6 months) periods and temperature (−20 °C, 4 °C, and room temperature) conditions. Parasite DNA was detected by PCR-based methods. Sensitivity assays and quality control procedures to assess suitability for genotyping purposes were conducted. Overall, all three Whatman® cards were proven useful for the detection and molecular characterisation of G. duodenalis and C. hominis under the evaluated conditions. Whatman® cards represent a simple, safe, and cost-effective option for the transportation, preservation, and storage of faecal samples without the need of the cold chain.


2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 15
Author(s):  
Felix Bach ◽  
Björn Schembera ◽  
Jos Van Wezel

Research data as the true valuable good in science must be saved and subsequently kept findable, accessible and reusable for reasons of proper scientific conduct for a time span of several years. However, managing long-term storage of research data is a burden for institutes and researchers. Because of the sheer size and the required retention time apt storage providers are hard to find. Aiming to solve this puzzle, the bwDataArchive project started development of a long-term research data archive that is reliable, cost effective and able store multiple petabytes of data. The hardware consists of data storage on magnetic tape, interfaced with disk caches and nodes for data movement and access. On the software side, the High Performance Storage System (HPSS) was chosen for its proven ability to reliably store huge amounts of data. However, the implementation of bwDataArchive is not dependant on HPSS. For authentication the bwDataArchive is integrated into the federated identity management for educational institutions in the State of Baden-Württemberg in Germany. The archive features data protection by means of a dual copy at two distinct locations on different tape technologies, data accessibility by common storage protocols, data retention assurance for more than ten years, data preservation with checksums, and data management capabilities supported by a flexible directory structure allowing sharing and publication. As of September 2019, the bwDataArchive holds over 9 PB and 90 million files and sees a constant increase in usage and users from many communities.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. 2491-2498

Information was recorded and transmitted through the use of many traditional methods in ancient times using naturally available material like palm leaves, tree barks etc. which were found suitable for long-term storage. With passage of time, these materials are increasingly prone to deterioration from many internal and external agents, and we are at a risk of losing the valuable information inscribed on them. Digitization is a feasible and available solution preservation of such content. Scanning and digitizing these manuscripts facilitates making it visible and readable for the users. The process of Knowledge retrieval from these manuscripts begins with the first step of Character Recognition. This primary step itself is a very complex task due to the variety of scripts and handwritings on the palm leaf manuscripts. This paper provides an overview about different challenges faced by global researchers pertaining to palm leaf scripts and the solutions proposed by them.


Author(s):  
Allen Angel ◽  
Kathryn A. Jakes

Fabrics recovered from archaeological sites often are so badly degraded that fiber identification based on physical morphology is difficult. Although diagenetic changes may be viewed as destructive to factors necessary for the discernment of fiber information, changes occurring during any stage of a fiber's lifetime leave a record within the fiber's chemical and physical structure. These alterations may offer valuable clues to understanding the conditions of the fiber's growth, fiber preparation and fabric processing technology and conditions of burial or long term storage (1).Energy dispersive spectrometry has been reported to be suitable for determination of mordant treatment on historic fibers (2,3) and has been used to characterize metal wrapping of combination yarns (4,5). In this study, a technique is developed which provides fractured cross sections of fibers for x-ray analysis and elemental mapping. In addition, backscattered electron imaging (BSI) and energy dispersive x-ray microanalysis (EDS) are utilized to correlate elements to their distribution in fibers.


2015 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 242-251 ◽  
Author(s):  
Éva Kállay

Abstract. The last several decades have witnessed a substantial increase in the number of individuals suffering from both diagnosable and subsyndromal mental health problems. Consequently, the development of cost-effective treatment methods, accessible to large populations suffering from different forms of mental health problems, became imperative. A very promising intervention is the method of expressive writing (EW), which may be used in both clinically diagnosable cases and subthreshold symptomatology. This method, in which people express their feelings and thoughts related to stressful situations in writing, has been found to improve participants’ long-term psychological, physiological, behavioral, and social functioning. Based on a thorough analysis and synthesis of the published literature (also including most recent meta-analyses), the present paper presents the expressive writing method, its short- and long-term, intra-and interpersonal effects, different situations and conditions in which it has been proven to be effective, the most important mechanisms implied in the process of recovery, advantages, disadvantages, and possible pitfalls of the method, as well as variants of the original technique and future research directions.


1997 ◽  
Vol 17 (03) ◽  
pp. 161-162
Author(s):  
Thomas Hyers

SummaryProblems with unfractionated heparin as an antithrombotic have led to the development of new therapeutic agents. Of these, low molecular weight heparin shows great promise and has led to out-patient therapy of DVT/PE in selected patients. Oral anticoagulants remain the choice for long-term therapy. More cost-effective ways to give oral anticoagulants are needed.


Author(s):  
W.J. Parker ◽  
N.M. Shadbolt ◽  
D.I. Gray

Three levels of planning can be distinguished in grassland farming: strategic, tactical and operational. The purpose of strategic planning is to achieve a sustainable long-term fit of the farm business with its physical, social and financial environment. In pastoral farming, this essentially means developing plans that maximise and best match pasture growth with animal demand, while generating sufficient income to maintain or enhance farm resources and improvements, and attain personal and financial goals. Strategic plans relate to the whole farm business and are focused on the means to achieve future needs. They should be routinely (at least annually) reviewed and monitored for effectiveness through key performance indicators (e.g., Economic Farm Surplus) that enable progress toward goals to be measured in a timely and cost-effective manner. Failure to link strategy with control is likely to result in unfulfilled plans. Keywords: management, performance


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