Non-enzymatic electrochemical detection of creatinine based on a glassy carbon electrode modified with a Pd/Cu2O decorated polypyrrole (PPy) nanocomposite: an analytical approach.

The major constraints of standard enzymatic biosensors are poor long-term storage stability and high cost. Hence, there is extensive research towards fabrication of reliable enzymeless biosensors based on nanomaterials. In this paper, we present the development of an enzymeless electrochemical biosensor for highly precise detection of creatinine. This involves the use of a simple yet effective alternative to the commonly utilized Pd/Cu2O/PPy nanocomposite, which was characterized by different analytical methods. The present electrochemical sensor provides a wide detection range (0.1 to 150 µM), low detection limit (0.05 µM) and high sensitivity (0.207 µA), and is capable of detecting the creatinine level in human urine samples, which are inexpensive. The results are reproducible, and the sensor is stable. The sensor demonstrates good electrocatalytic activity and selectivity towards the detection of creatinine in the presence of various other similar biological entities. When compared to other existing counterparts, the electrocatalytic behaviour of the present sensor is comparable, if not better. So, the present electrochemical sensor for creatinine might be employed as a long-term diagnostic alternative.

An ensemble approach for healthcare application and diagnosis using natural language processing.

Integration of healthcare records into a single application is still a challenging process There are additional issues when data becomes heterogeneous, and its application based on users does not appear to be the same. Hence, we propose an application called MEDSHARE which is a web-based application that integrates the data from various sources and helps the patient to access all their health records in a single point of source. Apart just from the collection of data, this portal enables the process of diagnosis using Natural language processing. The process is carried out by fuzzy logic ruleset which is generated by using NLP packages. The resulted information is given to the SVM classifier which helps in the prediction of diseases resulting in 89% of accuracy and standing the best compared to other classifiers. Finally, the observations resulted are sent to the front end application and the concerned user mobile through text message in their own native language for which translation package is been used.

Fuzzy segmentation and black widow-based optimal SVM for skin disease classification.

The skin, which has seven layers, is the main human organ and external barrier. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), skin cancer is the fourth leading cause of non-fatal disease risk. In medicinal fields, skin disease classification is a major challenging issue due to inaccurate outputs, overfitting, larger computational cost, and so on. We presented a novel approach of support vector machine-based black widow optimization (SVM-BWO) for skin disease classification. Five different kinds of skin disease images are taken such as psoriasis, paederus, herpes, melanoma, and benign with healthy images which are chosen for this work. The pre-processing step is handled to remove the noises from the original input images. Thereafter, the novel fuzzy set segmentation algorithm subsequently segments the skin lesion region. From this, the color, gray-level co-occurrence matrix texture, and shape features are extracted for further process. Skin disease is classified with the usage of the SVM-BWO algorithm. The implementation works are handled in MATLAB-2018a, thereby the dataset images were collected from ISIC-2018 datasets. Experimentally, various kinds of performance analyses with state-of-the-art techniques are performed. Anyway, the proposed methodology outperforms better classification accuracy of 92% than other methods. Workflow diagram of the proposed methodology.

In Vitro Protective Effect of Ascorbic Acid Against Antibiotic-Induced Hepatotoxicity.

BACKGROUND: Although antibiotic-induced hepatotoxicity is recoverable with mild impairment, and some cases were reported to cause morbidity. However, an adjuvant is essential in reducing such incidences. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to evaluate the protective effect of ascorbic acid on antibiotic induced liver toxicity using liver slices. METHOD: Fresh liver slices were incubated with different concentrations of sulfamethoxazole tetracycline and clavulanic acid along with ascorbic acid (200µg/ml) for 2 hours. The liver homogenate was assessed for markers like ALT, AST, MDA and CAT levels. Cytotoxicity assessment was performed using MTT assay. RESULTS: Incubating liver slices with all three antibiotics shows elevated levels of aminotransferases, MDA and CAT enzyme when compared to the control groups which indicates the level of hepatotoxicity. In the presence of ascorbic acid, the elevated levels of TBARS, ALT and AST were significantly reduced which showcases the protective effect of ascorbic acid. The percentage survival of cell was also shown to have improved while accessed using cell viability assay. CONCLUSION: Obtained data suggests that consuming vitamin C or vitamin C containing food like citrus fruits or green leafy vegetables equivalent to 3g/day during antibiotic treatment, perhaps put down the risk of liver toxicity to a greater extent.

A highly sensitive and selective electrochemical determination of non-steroidal prostate anti-cancer drug nilutamide based on f-MWCNT in tablet and human blood serum sample.

A novel electrochemical sensor based on the functionalized multiwalled carbon nanotube (f-MWCNT) was successfully developed for the sensitive and selective determination of non-steroidal prostate anti-cancer drug nilutamide in tablet and blood serum samples. The f-MWCNT was prepared by the simple reflux method and characterized by the scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), Raman spectroscopy, X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) and fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). Interestingly, the f-MWCNT was exhibited a superior electrocatalytic activity towards the anti-cancer drug nilutamide when compared with pristine MWCNT and unmodified electrodes. Besides, the electrochemical sensor was revealed an excellent current response for the determination of nilutamide with wide linear ranges (0.01-21µM and 28-535µM), high sensitivity (11.023 and 1.412µA µM-1cm2) and very low detection limit (LOD) 0.2nM. The developed electrochemical sensor was showed an excellent selectivity even in the presence of electrochemically active biological substances and nitro aromatic compounds. Moreover, it manifested a good reproducibility and stability. In addition, the f-MWCNT modified glassy carbon electrode (GCE) sensor was successfully applied for the detection of nilutamide in tablet and blood serum sample.

High-flow priapism in a 12-year-old boy: Treatment with superselective embolization.

Priapism is caused by an imbalance between penile blood inflow and outflow. There are two types of priapism: low-flow priapism due to venous occlusion and high-flow priapism due to uncontrolled arterial flow to the veins. High-flow priapism most frequently occurs as a result of penile trauma in which the intercavernosal artery disruption causes an arteriocavernosal fistula. It is rarely encountered in the pediatric and prepubertal population. Clinically, it manifests as a painless, prolonged erection after perineal trauma. Treatment ranges from expectant management to open surgical exploration with vessel ligation. We report the successful treatment of high-flow priapism in a 12-year-old prepubertal boy with superselective embolization.

Electroanalysis of some common pesticides using conducting polymer/multiwalled carbon nanotubes modified glassy carbon electrode.

The cyclic voltammetric behaviour of three common pesticides such as isoproturon (ISO), voltage (VOL) and dicofol (DCF) was investigated at glassy carbon electrode (GCE), multiwalled carbon nanotubes modified GCE (MWCNTs/GCE), polyaniline (PANI) and polypyrrole (PPY) deposited MWCNT/GCE. The modified electrode film was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD). The electroactive behaviour of the pesticides was realized from the cyclic voltammetric studies. The differential pulse voltammetric principle was used to analyze the above-mentioned pesticides using MWCNT/GCE, PANI/MWCNT/GCE and PPY/MWCNT/GCE. Effects of accumulation potential, accumulation time, Initial scan potential, amplitude and pulse width were examined for the optimization of stripping conditions. The PANI/MWCNT/GCE performed well among the three electrode systems and the determination range obtained was 0.01-100 mgL(-1) for ISO, VOL and DCF respectively. The limit of detection (LOD) was 0.1 microgL(-1) for ISO, 0.01 microgL(-1) for VOL and 0.05 microgL(-1) for DCF on PANI/MWCNT/GCE modified system. It is significant to note that the PANI/MWCNT/GCE modified system results in the lowest LOD in comparison with the earlier reports. Suitability of this method for the trace determination of pesticide in spiked samples was also realized.

Genetic diversity of UPASI tea clones (Camellia sinensis (L.) O. Kuntze) on the basis of total catechins and their fractions.

Tea leaf catechins and the ratio of dihydroxylated to trihydroxylated catechin fractions were analysed to identify the genetic diversity of 26 UPASI released tea clones. Principal component analysis (PCA) based on regression factor separated tea clones into five groups according to their jats (Jats are region based rays for e.g., Assam, China and Cambod origin) as well as their quality constituents (such as total polyphenols, total catechins, amino acids in the green leaves and liquor characteristics of black tea), particularly the catechins. Group 1 represented medium quality (quality of the final produce) clones, such as UPASI-10, UPASI-12 and UPASI-15 and drought tolerant clones like UPASI-1, UPASI-2, UPASI-9 and UPASI-10. Group 2 contained purely "China" cultivars while group 3 possessed high quality tea cultivars. "Assam" (group 5) teas had the lowest ratio of dihydroxylated to trihydroxylated catechin fractions (1:4) than the "Chinery" (group 2) teas (1:5). This biochemical differentiation indicated that there is a vast genetic diversity in UPASI released tea clones in terms of catechin fractions, even though the majority of them were selected from one tea estate located in the Nilgiris.

A fuzzy guided genetic algorithm for operon prediction.

MOTIVATION: The operon structure of the prokaryotic genome is a critical input for the reconstruction of regulatory networks at the whole genome level. As experimental methods for the detection of operons are difficult and time-consuming, efforts are being put into developing computational methods that can use available biological information to predict operons. METHOD: A genetic algorithm is developed to evolve a starting population of putative operon maps of the genome into progressively better predictions. Fuzzy scoring functions based on multiple criteria are used for assessing the 'fitness' of the newly evolved operon maps and guiding their evolution. RESULTS: The algorithm organizes the whole genome into operons. The fuzzy guided genetic algorithm-based approach makes it possible to use diverse biological information like genome sequence data, functional annotations and conservation across multiple genomes, to guide the organization process. This approach does not require any prior training with experimental operons. The predictions from this algorithm for Escherchia coli K12 and Bacillus subtilis are evaluated against experimentally discovered operons for these organisms. The accuracy of the method is evaluated using an ROC (receiver operating characteristic) analysis. The area under the ROC curve is around 0.9, which indicates excellent accuracy. CONTACT: roschen_csir@rediffmail.com.