Intravenous cyclosporine for severe attacks of ulcerative colitis: a survey of Canadian gastroenterologists

A single randomized trial evaluated the use of intravenous cyclosporine treatment for severe attacks of ulcerative colitis. The perceived efficacy and safety of this intervention were measured through a survey of the membership of the Canadian Association of Gastroenterology (CAG). METHODS: All CAG members were mailed a survey with questions regarding their familiarity with the data supporting the use of cyclosporine, their perception of the efficacy and toxicity of the drug, and whether patients who fail conventional treatment should receive this therapy. The proportion of respondents who had used cyclosporine to treat severe ulcerative colitis was determined. RESULTS: One hundred and sixty-one responses were received (34% response rate). Sixty-four per cent of respondents were academic faculty members and 82% treated patients with severe colitis. Using multivariate analyses, positive associations were found between the respondents' age (P = 0.004) and subspecialty training in gastroenterology (P = 0.001), and whether respondents treat patients with severe ulcerative colitis. Twenty-six per cent of individuals had prescribed cyclosporine for this indication, of whom 88% were in academic practice (P = 0.007). Over 90% of respondents believe that further clinical trials are needed before cyclosporine becomes accepted as standard therapy. CONCLUSIONS: Although the use of cyclosporine is measurable among Canadian gastroenterologists, the majority believe that further clinical trials are necessary before the drug is accepted as a standard therapy.     

Research productivity of health care policy faculty: a cohort study of Harvard Medical School

Scientometrics - In today’s publish or perish environment, the scholarly impact of a research article holds great importance. The present study examined 2343 articles having both altmetric...     

Double emulsion‐encapsulated guggul exhibits improved in vivo hypocholesterolaemic action in rats

Guggul tree or Commiphora mukul is a small thorny herb having remarkable hypocholesterolaemic properties. Its therapeutic effects are because of its biocomponent guggulsterones, especially guggulsterone E and Z. In this research, double emulsion‐based spread was tried to improve the bioavailability of the herb guggul in in vivo rat model. The effect of the different diets with encapsulated and nonencapsulated guggul was evaluated and compared after 6 weeks, based on the final body weight and analysis of organs, serum and faeces of normal and hypercholesterolaemic (H) rats. It was evident from the results that double emulsion‐encapsulated guggul showed better control on weight of H rats (25.98% lower), inhibition of HMG CoA reductase (3.95 times less) activity and reduction in atherosclerotic index (47.2%), as compared to diet with unencapsulated guggul. Encapsulation of guggul also improved faecal excretion of bile acids, lipids and total cholesterol in H and normal rats.     

Geometric optimization of trapezoidal thermoelectric heat pump considering contact resistances through genetic algorithm

An alternate option for improving the performance of the thermoelectric heat pump (TEHP) is the variation in thermoelectric leg configuration. In this paper, the thermodynamic model based on first and second law of thermodynamics for an exoreversible TEHP including influence of Thomson effect as well as leg geometry on the coefficient of performance and heating load of the device has been developed and optimized. Modified expressions have been derived analytically for dimensionless heating load, irreversibilities, figure of merit, energy, and exergy efficiency. The effects of operating and geometry parameters such as shape parameter (A_c/A_h), temperature ratio (T_c/T_h), Thomson effect, thermal and electrical contact resistances on the coefficient of performance, and heating load of the TEHP have been analysed. The results indicate that the Thomson effect has adverse effect on heating load of the system. The optimal parameters obtained through GA optimization process have been compared with the optimal parameters obtained through analytical method which proved the validity of GA optimization method for optimization of TEHP. After the testing, the GA optimization has been performed to determine the optimum parameters corresponding to maximum energy efficiency and maximum heating load. It was found that the GA population converges quickly after 20 runs only which proved the GA as time and cost‐effective optimization tool. This study will be useful for designing of practical TEHP systems of different leg geometries.     

Whole grains and resistant starch rich,reduced‐calorie biscuit diet as a hypoglycaemic,hypolipidaemic and insulin stimulator in streptozotocin‐induced diabetic rats

A fibre‐enriched, reduced‐calorie biscuit [formulated biscuit (FB)] was evaluated for its antidiabetic and antilipidaemic potential in streptozotocin‐induced diabetes in Wistar rats against control biscuit (CB) having high calorie and low fibre content. Animals were allocated into five groups: a control group fed with synthetic diet, two diabetes‐induced groups (CBD and FBD) and two nondiabetic groups (CBND and FBND). CBD and CBND were fed with synthetic diet + CB while FBD and FBND were fed with synthetic diet + FB. After 6 weeks of feeding, the change in weight of nondiabetic group fed with FB (+16.20%) was nonsignificantly lower compared to control (+33.01%) and CB‐fed (+34.55%) group. Nonsignificant loss in body weight was observed among diabetic group fed with FB (?11.76%) or CB (?36.88%). Feeding of FB led to a significant decrease in fasting and postprandial blood glucose levels, total cholesterol, triglycerides, LDL‐C, VLDL‐C and atherosclerotic index and increase the HDL‐C. Histological examination showed that feeding of FB was able to partially recover the destroyed β‐cell in STZ‐induced diabetic rats.     

Linear and non-linear optical transmission from multi-walled carbon nanotubes

The multi walled carbon nanotubes grown by the CVD technique were suspended in methanol and their linear and non-linear transmission properties have been studied. It is observed that the linear transmission spectrum, measured in the range 450–1100 nm, depicts features similar to those of single walled nanotubes. The observed features may be well characterized as the van-Hove singularities of the one-dimensional electronic density of states. Further, excellent non-linear optical properties have been observed in these suspensions. Experiments are conducted to study the optical limiting behavior in the visible (532 nm) as well as in the near infra-red (1064 nm) region by using a dual beam pulsed pump-CW probe, technique. The grown multi walled carbon nanotubes show a strong limiting behavior at both of these wavelengths. The recovery time as observed from the probe beam transmission is measured at different values of the incident pulse energy. The results are discussed in the light of the existing results.     

Synthesis of hysteresis-free nonlinear sharp-cutoff filters

This letter describes a technique for the synthesis of lowpass sharp-cutoff filters employing a nonlinear element. The nonlinearity is preselected, and the linear portion of the filter is synthetised around it. Such a procedure yields a very simple technique for synthetising the above class of nonlinear filters.     

Mapping of topics in DESIDOC Journal of Library and Information Technology,India: a study

Scientometrics - This study analyzed 928 full-text research articles retrieved from DESIDOC Journal of Library and Information Technology for the period of 1981–2018 using Latent Dirichlet...