Preparation of bio-synthesized Ag nanoparticles and assessment of their antidiabetic and antioxidant potential against STZ-induced diabetic albino rats.

Bio-synthesized silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) were successfully obtained using the leaf extract from Ventilago maderaspatana. Extensive analysis was conducted to evaluate the physical and chemical characteristics of the bioderived AgNPs. XRD analysis confirmed their cubic structure, and revealed a well-defined size distribution with average crystallite size of 11.7 nm. FE-SEM and TEM images visually supported the observed size range. The presence of plant-mediated phytochemicals on the surface of AgNPs was confirmed through DLS, FTIR, and TGA/DTA studies. To assess their antidiabetic potential, rats were induced with streptozotocin, resulting in elevated levels of biochemical parameters associated with diabetes. Conversely, serum insulin levels (2.50 ± 0.55) and glucokinase activity (64.50 ± 8.66) decreased. However, treatment with AgNPs demonstrated a dose-dependent reduction in blood glucose, total protein, albumin, and HbA1c levels, effectively restoring them to normal ranges. Moreover, the treatment significantly increased insulin levels (7.55 ± 0.63) and glucokinase activity (121.50 ± 4.60), indicating the antidiabetic potential of V. maderaspatana-mediated AgNPs. Notably, the exitance of phytochemicals, like flavonoids and phenols, on the surface of AgNPs facilitated their ability to neutralize reactive oxygen species (ROS) through electron donation. This property enhanced their overall antidiabetic efficiency.

Various Techniques and Outcomes of Arterial Anastomosis in Live Renal Transplant: An Institutional Experience.

Introduction Renal transplantation with multiple arteries is associated with a major index of surgical complications. Relevant papers and meta-analyses have shown relatively more vascular and urological complications in transplant of donor kidneys with multiple arteries. In live donor grafts due to the unavailability of a carrel patch, several techniques for bench and in situ reconstruction have been described in order to reduce the incidence of these vascular complications. In this study, the short and long-term results of living donor kidney transplants with multiple renal arteries (MRAs) versus single renal artery (SRA) were compared retrospectively. Methods This is a retrospective study done on patients who received a living donor kidney between January 2012 and January 2018 at the Institute of Urology, Madras Medical College, Chennai. We have excluded deceased donor kidney transplants and ABO-incompatible cases done in the same time period. The study was approved by the Institutional Ethics Committee (Approval No: IES-MMC-008) and performed in accordance with the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki. Open live donor nephrectomy was performed through an extra-peritoneal flank incision in all cases. In the SRA group, the renal artery was anastomosed end to end to the Internal iliac artery, while the renal vein was anastomosed to the external iliac vein in the end to side fashion. Urinary tract reconstruction was accomplished by the Gregoir technique in both groups. We looked at recipient complications, baseline and postoperative serum creatinine, total ischemia time, mean operating time, and short- and long-term graft and patient survival as postoperative outcomes. Results In a six-year period (2012-2018) at our institute, 256 living donor transplantations were performed; 36 (14%) kidneys had two or more renal arteries which were anastomosed using various techniques. Cold ischemia time was relatively longer in the MRA group (45 mins vs 28 mins in the SRA group) (p-value <0.05). while warm ischemia time was comparable in both groups (2.5 vs 2.9 mins) serum creatinine was comparable in both groups at the 30th postoperative day (1.4 in SRA group vs 1.2 in MRA group) (p-value >0.05). Incidence of surgical complications in SRA and MRA groups was: vascular - 3.6% and 2.7%; urological - 3.2% and 2.7%; the incidence of lymphocele was 4.5% and 5.5% and delayed graft function 4.5% and 5.5% respectively. Conclusion Multiple renal arteries are no longer a relative contraindication with advanced surgical techniques. in renal grafts with multiple arteries, all techniques of vessel anastomosis are comparable in terms of post-surgical complications.

Groundwater vulnerability mapping using the modified DRASTIC model: the metaheuristic algorithm approach.

Vulnerability assessment and mapping is a significant tool for sustainable management of the precious natural groundwater resources. DRASTIC is an extensively used index model to map groundwater vulnerable zones. However, the original DRASTIC model rates and weights used in most of the research depict the poor correlation between nitrate concentration and groundwater vulnerability index. Wilcoxon test and five population-based metaheuristic (MH) algorithms, namely, firefly algorithm (FA), invasive weed optimization (IWO), teaching learning-based optimization (TLBO), shuffled frog leaping algorithm (SFLA), and particle swarm optimization (PSO), were used to optimize the rates and weights of the DRASTIC model to improve its accuracy. The performance of all the employed metaheuristic algorithms converges to a global optimal solution at different iterations, and to choose the best algorithm for DRASTIC weights optimization, a ranking methodology was proposed. The algorithms were ranked by calculating the relative closeness of alternatives with computational speed and the number of iterations as attributes in the TOPSIS method. This study identifies FA as the outperforming algorithm among the employed for this specified weight optimization problem based on ranking. The result of the optimization model proposed depicts significant improvement in the correlation coefficient between the groundwater vulnerability index and nitrate concentration from 0.0545 for the original DRASTIC model to 0.7247 for the Wilcoxon-MH- DRASTIC. Hence, this ranking approach can be adopted when global optimal solution is found by all employed algorithms in DRASTIC weight optimization.