Glimepiride Loaded Poly(D,L-lactide-co-glycolide) Microspheres Improve Osseointegration of Dental Implants in Type 2 Diabetic Rats

The patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) have high dental implant failure frequency. This study explores the function of glimepiride local delivery on dental implant osseointegration in diabetes animal. Glimepiride loaded PLGA microspheres were loaded on the surface of the dental implant, and transplanted into ten Goto-Kakizaki (GK) rats. Blood sugar level and Implant Stability Quotient (ISQ) were measured every week after surgery. Histological, osseointegration rate and bone-implant contact (BIC) rate analysis were performed to evaluate dental osseointegration. The results showed that Glimepiride loaded Poly-lactide-co-glycolide (PLGA) microspheres have sustained-release curve. The glimepiride group exhibited greater ISQ than the control group. The BIC rate of the control and glimepiride group was 44.60%±1.95% and 59.80%±1.79%, respectively. This study demonstrated that the glimepiride group has a significantly greater osseointegration rate than that of the control group. Thus, Glimepiride could provide an alternative drug release microspheres for enhance the dental implant osseointegration in diabetes patients.

Analyzing optical TDMA to mitigate interference in downlink LiFi optical attocell networks

Co-channel interference in the downlink of LiFi attocell networks significantly decreases the network performance in terms of rate. Analysis of multiple access schemes is essential to mitigate interference and improve rate. The light-emitting diodes (LEDs) being centrally monitored, the time division multiple access (TDMA) scheme over the LEDs will be suitable to analyze. This work considers the interference characterization in Ref. (Surampudi A, Ganti RK. Interference characterization in downlink Li-Fi optical attocell networks. J Lightwave Technol 2018;36:3211–28) over M-PAM modulated signals to derive an exact expression for the goodput G of the time scheduled attocell network, which is arranged as a deterministic square lattice in two dimensions. Given this TDMA over the LEDs, numerical simulations show that the LEDs can be optimally time scheduled to maximize the goodput, which implies that the TDMA mitigates interference in an attocell network compared to the case when the LEDs are unscheduled.

Traditional Piscicidal Knowledge along the Chakpi River and other Water Bodies in Chandel District, Manipur State : Past and Present Scenario

The present study was undertaken with an aim to expound the various indigenous technical knowledge (ITK) practices centring around the stagnant or semi-stagnant water bodies in Chandel district of Manipur. The prevailing indigenous practices were considered and only three groups of indigenous practices were found to be rational in the present scenario which could be further assessed, documented and propagated for the benefit of farming community. The three group of indigenous practices involve the age-old methods of stupefying the fish in ponds or rivers using tree barks, roots and leaves of specific trees or plants having ichthyotoxic properties. Two filters were applied to identify the ITKs. The first filter being rationality therein only ITK practices having rationality score more than 2.4 being explained in the study. The second filter was mean perceived effectiveness index (MPEI). Of the 17 practices evaluated, 3 were rational (42.08%) while the remaining 14 were rejected as irrational (57.92%). The perceived effectiveness and adoption rate analysis of these age-old ITKs indicated that, the traditional use of stupefying barks was rated as rational (3.01), perceived as highly effective (2.60) and adopted by 78 per cent of the respondents whereas on the lower end, the method incorporating the juice extract of ichthyotoxic leaves was rated as rational (2.48), perceived as effective (1.9) and adopted by 48 per cent of respondents.

In vivo identification and validation of novel potential predictors for human cardiovascular diseases

Genetics crucially contributes to cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), the global leading cause of death. Since the majority of CVDs can be prevented by early intervention there is a high demand for the identification of predictive causative genes. While genome wide association studies (GWAS) correlate genes and CVDs after diagnosis and provide a valuable resource for such causative candidate genes, often preferentially those with previously known or suspected function are addressed further. To tackle the unaddressed blind spot of understudied genes, we particularly focused on the validation of human heart phenotype-associated GWAS candidates with little or no apparent connection to cardiac function. Building on the conservation of basic heart function and underlying genetics from fish to human we combined CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing of the orthologs of human GWAS candidates in isogenic medaka with automated high-throughput heart rate analysis. Our functional analyses of understudied human candidates uncovered a prominent fraction of heart rate associated genes from adult human patients impacting on the heart rate in embryonic medaka already in the injected generation. Following this pipeline, we identified 16 GWAS candidates with potential diagnostic and predictive power for human CVDs.

Sedimentation Rate Analysis in Dock C PT. Petrokimia Gresik, Indonesia

Dock C is one of the supporting facilities at PT. Petrokimia Gresik which functions as loading and unloading goods from ships to land and vice versa. Another benefit of the jetty is that it can significantly increase the company's production capacity. Dock C PT. Petrokimia Gresik. In the treatment of sedimentation in port it is necessary to analyze the current pattern and sedimentation rate early, because this is the first step to predict the amount of sedimentation contained in the port in a certain period of time. Several ways can be done to minimize the rate of sedimentation, one of which is the layout of Dock C to reduce the frequency of dredging. This study compares the sedimentation volume at the existing condition jetty and two alternative jetty that occur due to currents and waves, while modeling is done using Mike 21. The results of the existing jetty modeling show the sedimentation volume for 12 months was 20641.68 m3. Whereas the sedimentation volume from alternative jetty 1 and 2 produced for 12 months was 11293.56 m3 and 7426.2 m3. Modifications to the layout of the jetty provided were able to reduce the rate of sedimentation in Dock C, with the most optimal sedimentation volume for 12 months at 13215.48 m3

Nitrogen Availability Affects the Metabolic Profile in Cyanobacteria

Nitrogen is essential for the biosynthesis of various molecules in cells, such as amino acids and nucleotides, as well as several types of lipids and sugars. Cyanobacteria can assimilate several forms of nitrogen, including nitrate, ammonium, and urea, and the physiological and genetic responses to these nitrogen sources have been studied previously. However, the metabolic changes in cyanobacteria caused by different nitrogen sources have not yet been characterized. This study aimed to elucidate the influence of nitrate and ammonium on the metabolic profiles of the cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. strain PCC 6803. When supplemented with NaNO3 or NH4Cl as the nitrogen source, Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 grew faster in NH4Cl medium than in NaNO3 medium. Metabolome analysis indicated that some metabolites in the CBB cycle, glycolysis, and TCA cycle, and amino acids were more abundant when grown in NH4Cl medium than NaNO3 medium. 15N turnover rate analysis revealed that the nitrogen assimilation rate in NH4Cl medium was higher than in NaNO3 medium. These results indicate that the mechanism of nitrogen assimilation in the GS-GOGAT cycle differs between NaNO3 and NH4Cl. We conclude that the amounts and biosynthetic rate of cyanobacterial metabolites varies depending on the type of nitrogen.

Cost and Return in Black Gram Cultivation among Members of Farmer Producer Organization in Tamil Nadu, India

Farmer producer companies normally carry out the activities such as production, harvesting, processing, procurement, grading, handling, marketing, selling, export of primary produce of the members or import of goods or services for their benefit. The present study was conducted in Theni District of Tamil Nadu. Primary as well as secondary data on black gram were collected for this present study. Simple statistical analysis such as arithmetic mean and percentage analysis and Compound growth rate analysis was worked out. Among operational costs, the cost of human labour accounted the highest share (36.03 per cent) in Black gram cultivation. Total cost of cultivation of black gram among the sample farmers of FPO in the study area was Rs. 46477.26/ha. The net return realised from Black gram cultivation was Rs. 21722.74/ha.

WGS- versus ORF5-Based Typing of PRRSV: A Belgian Case Study

Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) is the causative agent of one of the most widespread and economically devastating diseases in the swine industry. Typing circulating PRRSV strains by means of sequencing is crucial for developing adequate control strategies. Most genetic studies only target the highly variable open reading frame (ORF) 5, for which an extensive database is available. In this study, we performed whole-genome sequencing (WGS) on a collection of 124 PRRSV-1 positive serum samples that were collected over a 5-year period (2015–2019) in Belgium. Our results show that (nearly) complete PRRSV genomes can be obtained directly from serum samples with a high success rate. Analysis of the coding regions confirmed the exceptionally high genetic diversity, even among Belgian PRRSV-1 strains. To gain more insight into the added value of WGS, we performed phylogenetic cluster analyses on separate ORF datasets as well as on a single, concatenated dataset (CDS) containing all ORFs. A comparison between the CDS and ORF clustering schemes revealed numerous discrepancies. To explain these differences, we performed a large-scale recombination analysis, which allowed us to identify a large number of potential recombination events that were scattered across the genome. As PRRSV does not contain typical recombination hot-spots, typing PRRSV strains based on a single ORF is not recommended. Although the typing accuracy can be improved by including multiple regions, our results show that the full genetic diversity among PRRSV strains can only be captured by analysing (nearly) complete genomes. Finally, we also identified several vaccine-derived recombinant strains, which once more raises the question of the safety of these vaccines.