Short term protective effect of digitoxin in sepsis-induced acute lung injury

Purpose: Digitoxin is a cardiac glycoside used in the treatment of heart failure. Inspired by its known anti-inflammatory effect, this study aims to investigate the effect of digoxin in a sepsis model and to bring to light its effect and underlying mechanism in acute lung injury (ALI). Method: 28 wistar albino rats were divided into 4 groups. Sepsis model is performed by the feces intraperitoneal-injection procedure (FIP). Results: TNF-a, CRP, IL-6, IL 1-Beta, lactic acid, and MDA values were significantly decreased in the FIP+digitoxin group compared to the FIP+Saline group. When the same groups were examined, histological improvements such as decrease in alveolar inflammation and decrease in septal thickening in the digitoxin group and thorax CT were found to be significantly higher in the Hounsfield unit digitoxin group compared to the Saline group. Conclusion: Digitoxin has shown biochemical improvement in sepsis with all known mechanisms of action, and healing effects in both computerized tomography and histology in the lung.     

Cancer combination therapy with carnosic acid

Carnosic acid (CA) is a natural phenolic diterpene mainly occurring in some species of the Lamiaceae family.Numerous studies described the cytotoxicity of CA towards different types of cancer both in vitro and in vivo. Particularly,the influence of CA in combination with other drugs, vitamins or natural products through affecting various targets hasraised interest. Current experimental in vivo data suggested that CA may cooperate with clinically used anticancer drugspromoting their activity against cancer. From this point of view, CA gained importance, because it may alterpharmacodynamic profiles of various agents in the case of their co-administration, and thereby, act in a potentiallysynergistic manner, which can provide a basis for potential applications of CA in the management of cancer. In thepresent review, we give an overview of CA as well as CA co-treatment regimens with a special focus on cancer. In thiscontext, the role of CA as an adjuvant treatment alternative is highlighted.     

Surface functionalization of bioactive glasses and hydroxyapatite with polyphenols from organic red grape pomace

An extract of polyphenols was obtained from organic red grape pomace, chemically analyzed, and used for functionalization of two bioactive glasses and porous hydroxyapatite. Functionalization is effective on hydroxyapatite and the bioactive glass with higher surface reactivity with a different grafting mechanism. Grafting does not inhibit redox and radical scavenging activity of polyphenols. The grafted polyphenols make a continuous layer with an almost complete surface coverage. Polyphenols are released with different kinetics according to the mechanism of grafting and maintain their redox activity. A homogeneous thin layer of polyphenols is still firmly grafted on both substrates after 28 days of soaking and it still maintains radical scavenging activity. The functionalized samples can be sterilized by gamma irradiation.     

The effects of inulin as a prebiotic supplement and the synbiotic interactions of probiotics to improve oxalate degrading activity

This paper examines the impact of inulin, Lactobacillus spp. (candidate probiotics), and synbiotic (inulin + Lactobacillus spp.) preparation on oxalate degrading activity and viability of Escherichia coli. In this study, the lowest viability of E. coli was recorded for the synbiotic treatments of Lactobacillus fermentum BP5 (59%) and IP5 (60%). The oxalate degrading activity of L. fermentum IP5 was 38.18 and 29.60% higher than the other strains after growth in 10 mM and 20 mM MRS-ox plus 5% inulin media, respectively. The mixture of three strains demonstrated higher oxalate degrading capacity than the individual strains and showed the same good growth rates (9.43 CFU mL⁻¹) as individuals. The study concludes that the addition of prebiotics has a significant effect on probiotics; therefore, a combination of L. fermentum IP5 with inulin could be a viable probiotic-based functional food approach in administering oxalate metabolism and also treatment of E. coli-related infections.     

Modeling and optimization of the spray drying parameters for soapwort (Gypsophila Sp.) extract

Food Science and Biotechnology - In this study, the effects of spray drying parameters as feed soluble solid content, inlet air temperature and outlet air temperature on spray drying of soapwort...     

Content-Based Recommendations for Sustainable Wardrobes Using Linked Open Data

Mobile Networks and Applications - Textile production industry is one of the biggest industries available and it is known by its negative effects to the environment. Greenhouse gas emissions can...     

Data-driven retail inventory management with backroom effect

OR Spectrum - The backroom effect (BRE) constitutes the handling effort of a replenishment that does not fit on the shelf of a retailer. This effect needs to be included in the decision making of...     

Thermo-mechanical effects caused by martensite formation in powder metallurgy FeMnSiCrNi shape memory alloys

The paper reports solution treatment (ST) and mechanical alloying (MA) effects on the structure and static/dynamic mechanical behaviour of PM-MA’ed FeMnSiCrNi shape memory alloys associated with the formation of thermally and stress-induced martensite. The specimens were subjected to tensile pre-straining, in order to stress induce martensite and their gauges were cut and prepared for X-ray diffraction (XRD) as well as for optical and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). XRD patterns allowed determining the presence of large amounts of α′-body centred cubic (bcc) besides ε-hexagonal close packed (hcp) martensite and γ-face centred cubic (fcc) austenite. The decrease in the amount of α′-bcc at specimens ST’ed at 1273 and 1373?K, with increasing pre-straining degree, was confirmed by XRD patterns and SEM micrographs. Dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) was performed by strain sweeps (SS). The SS-DMA graphs displayed storage modulus plateaux which were associated with the formation of ε-hcp martensite.