Analysis for full face mechanical behaviors through spatial deduction model with real-time monitoring data

Mechanical analysis for the full face of tunnel structure is crucial to maintain stability, which is a challenge in classical analytical solutions and data analysis. Along this line, this study aims to develop a spatial deduction model to obtain the full-faced mechanical behaviors through integrating mechanical properties into pure data-driven model. The spatial tunnel structure is divided into many parts and reconstructed in a form of matrix. Then, the external load applied on structure in the field was considered to study the mechanical behaviors of tunnel. Based on the limited observed monitoring data in matrix and mechanical analysis results, a double-driven model was developed to obtain the full-faced information, in which the data-driven model was the dominant one and the mechanical constraint was the secondary one. To verify the presented spatial deduction model, cross-test was conducted through assuming partial monitoring data are unknown and regarding them as testing points. The well agreement between deduction results with actual monitoring results means the proposed model is reasonable. Therefore, it was employed to deduct both the current and historical performance of tunnel full face, which is crucial to prevent structural disasters.

Cytotoxicity and Sedative Activity of Steam Bark of Dillenia indica L.

The study aims to assess the cytotoxic activity of the methanolic extract (CME) and various fractions from the bark of Dillenia indica L (Family: Dilleniaceae) using brine shrimp lethality bioassay and sedative activities using hole cross, open field, and elevated-plus maze (EPM) test in Swiss albino mice. In brine shrimp assay, the LC50 for CME, pet-ether (PETF), chloroform (CHF) and aqueous (AQF) fraction were found to be 110, 24.55, 85 and 14.45 μg/ml, respectively, indicating significant cytotoxicity of PETF and AQF when compared to the standard vincristine sulfate (7.5 μg/ml). In open field test, the number of movements per min (after 120 min) was 40.90, 12.43, 5.45, 3.66, and 29.74 for control, standard diazepam, CME, CHF and AQF, respectively, indicating strong activity of the chloroform soluble fraction compared to the other test samples of D. indica. Similar data was observed in hole cross test where the number of movements per minute after 120 min were 3.60, 5.56, 4.77, and 7.99 for the standard, CME, CHF and AQF, respectively. In EPM test, the CME showed a significant decreased percentage of entries of mice into the open arms of EPM as well as the percentage of time spent in the open arms. The result indicates that the CHF significantly suppressed the locomotor activity than that of methanol and aqueous fractions. These findings will be helpful for bioassay-guided isolation of active principles responsible for cytotoxicity and sedative activities. Bangladesh Pharmaceutical Journal 24(2): 105-110, 2021

Thermal Inversion and Particulate Matter Concentration in Wrocław in Winter Season

Studies on air quality frequently adopt clustering, in particular the k-means technique, owing to its simplicity, ease of implementation and efficiency. The aim of the present paper was the assessment of air quality in a winter season (December–February) in the conditions of temperature inversion using the k-means method, representing a non-hierarchical algorithm of cluster analysis. The air quality was assessed on the basis of the concentrations of particulate matter (PM10, PM2.5). The studies were conducted in four winter seasons (2015/16, 2016/17, 2017/18, 2019/20) in Wrocław (Poland). As a result of the application of the v-fold cross test, six clusters for each fraction of PM were identified. Even though the analysis covers only four winter seasons, the applied method has unequivocally revealed that the characteristics of surface-based (SBI) and elevated inversions (ELI) affect the concentration level of both fractions of particulate matter. In the case of PM10, the average lowest daily concentration (15.5 µg·m−3) was recorded in the conditions of approx. 205 m in thickness, 0.5 °C intensity of the SBI and at the height of the base of the ELI at approx. 1700 m a.g.l., a thickness of 148 m and an intensity of 1.2 °C. In turn, the average highest concentration (136 µg·m−3) was recorded at a thickness of SBI of approx. 400 m and an intensity of 1.4 °C. Such high concentration occurred when the lowest location of ELI formed at 764 m a.g.l. with a thickness of 308 m and an intensity of 0.96 °C. A marked role of the thickness of the SBI and ELI as well as the height of the base of the lowest location of ELI was also manifested with respect to PM2.5 concentrations.

Prediction of Precipitation in the Western Mountainous Regions of China Using a Statistical Model

During the summer in the western mountainous regions of China (WMR), the disasters such as mountain floods, landslides, and debris flows caused by heavy rain occur frequently, which often result in huge economic losses and many casualties. Therefore, it is of great significance to predict the precipitation accurately in these regions. In this paper, a statistical model is established to predict the precipitation in the WMR using the linear regression statistical method, in which the summer area-averaged precipitation anomaly in WMR is taken as the predictand and the prewinter Niño3 SST is taken as the predictor. The results of the return cross test for the historical years from 1979 to 2008 and independent sample return test from 2009 to 2018 show that this statistical model has a good performance in predicting the summer precipitation in the WMR, especially in the flood years. It has better skill in the prediction of WMR precipitation than the dynamical model SINTEX-F.

GC-MS Phytochemical Profiling, Pharmacological Properties, and In Silico Studies of Chukrasia velutina Leaves: A Novel Source for Bioactive Agents

Chukrasia velutina is a local medicinal plant commonly known as chikrassy in Bangladesh, India, China, and other South Asian countries. The leaves, bark, and seeds are vastly used as herbal medicine for fever and diarrhea, and its leaves essential oils are used for antimicrobial purposes. In this study, we discuss the neuropsychiatric properties of C. velutina leaves through several animal models, quantitative and qualitative phytochemical analysis, and computational approaches. Neuropsychiatric effects were performed in rodents on the methanolic extract of C. velutina leaves (MECVL). Antidepressant, anxiolytic, and sedative effects experimented through these rodent models were used such as the force swimming test (FST), tail suspension test (TST), hole board test (HBT), elevated plus maze test (EPMT), light/dark box test (LDBT), open field test (OFT), and hole cross test (HCT). In these rodent models, 200 and 400 mg/kg doses were used which exhibited a significant result in the force swimming and tail suspension test (p < 0.001) for the antidepressant effect. In the anxiolytic study, the results were significant in the hole board, elevated plus maze, and light/dark box test (p < 0.001) for doses of 200 and 400 mg/kg. The result was also significant in the open field and hole cross test (p < 0.001) for sedative action in the sake of similar doses. Moreover, qualitative and quantitative studies were also performed through phytochemical screening and GC-MS analysis, and fifty-seven phytochemical compounds were found. These compounds were analyzed for pharmacokinetics properties using the SwissADME tool and from them, thirty-five compounds were considered for the molecular docking analysis. These phytoconstituents were docking against the human serotonin receptor, potassium channel receptor, and crystal structure of human beta-receptor, where eight of the compounds showed a good binding affinity towards the respective receptors considered to the reference standard drugs. After all of these analyses, it can be said that the secondary metabolite of C. velutina leaves (MECVL) could be a good source for inhibiting the neuropsychiatric disorders which were found on animal models as well as in computational studies.

Penanganan Inkompatibilitas Darah pada Wanita Hamil yang Menderita Lupus Eritematosus Sistemik

Latar Belakang: Lupus eritematosus sistemik (LES) adalah salah satu penyakit auto-imun yang ditandai dengan produksi antibodi terhadap komponen-komponen inti sel. Kehamilan pada wanita dengan LES dihubungkan dengan meningkatnya risiko bagi ibu dan bayi. Frekuensi kegagalan kehamilan di Amerika Serikat didapat sebesar 43% pada tahun 1960-1965 dan berkurang menjadi 17% pada tahun 2000-2003. RSUD Dr. Soetomo mendapatkan 166 penderita wanita dengan LES di dalam satu tahun (Mei 2003-April 2004). Dari setiap 2000 penderita, ditemukan 1-2 kasus dengan LES.Kasus: Seorang wanita berusia 25 tahun, dengan usia kehamilan 4 minggu datang ke instalasi gawat darurat (IGD) karena adanya perdarahan dari jalan lahir. Dia diketahui mengidap LES dan lupus nefritis sejak tahun 2003. Hasil ultrasonografi (USG) kandungan menunjukkan adanya kematian hasil konsepsi (IUFD). Obat yang rutin diminum adalah metilprednisolon, lansoprazole, asam folat, dan sandimun. Pada pemeriksaan lab didapatkan hemoglobin 5,2 gr/dl, platelet 146.000, albumin 1,56 dan peningkatan APTT. Pasien direncanakan untuk transfusi darah dan albumin. Keesokan harinya, pasien mengalami keguguran dengan plasenta tertinggal disertai dengan penurunan hb menjadi 3,7 gr/dl. Transfusi tertunda oleh karena adanya inkompatibilitas dengan 20 kantung darah. Akhirnya diputuskan untuk melakukan transfusi menggunakan 1 kantung washed erithrocyte dengan major cross match threshold <3. Pada akhirnya Hb berhasil naik menjadi 6.3 g/dl dan plasenta dapat keluar secara spontan.Pembahasan: Terjadinya abortus pada pasien ini dapat disebabkan oleh kehamilan sebelum remisi LES, maupun pengobatan untuk LES yang rutin dikonsumsi. Pada pasien LES yang mengandung, didapatkan peningkatan angka kejadian anemia. Anemia pada pasien ini membutuhkan tranfusi segera, namun karena pada pasien LES yang seringkali mengalami anemia hemolitik, tranfusi tertunda karena hasil cross test yang inkompatible. Keterbatasan biaya menyebabkan pemberian intravenous immunoglobuline tidak dapat dilakukan. Pada akhirnya, tranfusi menggunakan washed erithrocyte dengan major cross match <3 dapat menjadi alternatif pilihan.Kesimpulan: Kehamilan dengan LES dapat sebabkan terjadinya abortus dan anemia berat, sehingga tranfusi menggunakan washed erithrocyte dapat menjadi alternatif terapi yang baik.

Short-term effects of aligning prisms on the objective and subjective fixation disparity in far distance

Fixation disparity (FD) refers to a suboptimal condition of binocular vision. The oculomotor aspect of FD refers to a misadjustment in the vergence angle between the two visual axes that is measured in research with eye trackers (objective fixation disparity, oFD). The sensory aspect is psychophysically tested using dichoptic nonius lines (subjective fixation disparity, sFD). Some optometrists use nonius tests to determine the prisms for constant wear aiming to align the eyes. However, they do not (yet) use eye trackers. We investigate the effect of aligning prisms on oFD and sFD for 60 sec exposure duration of prisms determined with the clinically established Cross test in far distance vision. Without prisms, both types of FD were correlated with the aligning prism, while with prisms the FD was close to zero (these analyses included all base-in and base-out cases). The effect of base-in prisms on oFD was proportional to the amount of the aligning prism for the present 60 sec exposure, similar as for the 2- 5 sec exposure in Schmid et al. (2018). Thus, within 1 minute of prism exposure, no substantial vergence adaptation seems to occur in the present test conditions. Further studies may investigate intra- individual responses to different exposure times of aligning prisms in both prism directions.

Penampilan Fenotipik Populasi Dasar Jagung Pulut Lokal Sulawesi Selatan dengan Seleksi Back Cross

This research aims to see the phenotypic appearance of selected families from the basic population of local waxy corn of South Sulawesi which is back cross with the parents. The technique of crosses used is repeated selection that is to make a cross between selected families (recombination) by means of free crossing. The number of cross-test of 5 selected families and 5 varieties of comparison (parents) with 2 replications. Each replica was planted with 10 lines of 20 lines of with 20 cm x 50 cm spacing), the total number of plants in this research were 400 plants. Each line represented 5 sample plants, so the total sample of 200 plants. The results showed that from 5 selected families who crossed with their parents as a whole can improve the phenotype character. The selected local waxy corn has a superior appearance of the phenotype character. Of the 200 plant samples, there are 75 plants that have superior appearance (better phenotype appearance than their parents) on the character : plant height , the height of cob location, male flowering, female flowering, and husk cover.