Enhancement of Bioavailability and Pharmacodynamic Effects of Thymoquinone Via Nanostructured Lipid Carrier (NLC) Formulation

Thymoquinone (TQ), obtained from black cumin (Nigella sativa), is a natural product with anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, and hepatoprotective effects but unfortunately with poor bioavailability. Aiming to improve its poor oral bioavailability, TQ-loaded nanostructured lipid carriers (NLCs) were prepared by high-speed homogenization followed by ultrasonication and evaluated in vitro. Bioavailability and pharmacodynamic studies were also performed. The resultant NLCs showed poor physical homogeneity in Compritol 888 ATO Pluronic F127 system which consequently produced larger particle size and polydispersity index, smaller zeta potential values, and lower short-term (30 days) physical stability than other systems. Encapsulation efficiency percentage (EE%) lied between 84.6?±?5% and 96.2?±?1.6%. TQ AUC_0–t values were higher in animals treated with NLCs, with a relative bioavailability of 2.03- and 3.97-fold (for F9 and F12, respectively) higher than TQ suspension, indicating bioavailability enhancement by NLC formulation. Hepatoprotective effects of F12 showed significant (P?<?0.05) decrease in both serum alanine amino transferase and aspartate amino transferase to reach 305.0?±?24.88 and 304.7?±?23.55 U/ml, respectively, when compared with untreated toxic group. Anti-oxidant efficacy of F12 showed significant (P?<?0.05) decline of malondialdehyde and elevation of reduced glutatione. This improvement was also confirmed histopathologically.     

Optimizing the spectrofluorimetric determination of cefdinir through a Taguchi experimental design approach

The aim of this work is to optimize a spectrofluorimetric method for the determination of cefdinir (CFN) using the Taguchi method. The proposed method is based on the oxidative coupling reaction of CFN and cerium(IV) sulfate. The quenching effect of CFN on the fluorescence of the produced cerous ions is measured at an emission wavelength (λ_em) of 358 nm after excitation (λ_ex) at 301 nm. The Taguchi orthogonal array L₉ (3⁴) was designed to determine the optimum reaction conditions. The results were analyzed using the signal‐to‐noise (S/N) ratio and analysis of variance (ANOVA). The optimal experimental conditions obtained from this study were 1 mL of 0.2% MBTH, 0.4 mL of 0.25% Ce(IV), a reaction time of 10 min and methanol as the diluting solvent. The calibration plot displayed a good linear relationship over a range of 0.5–10.0 µg/mL. The proposed method was successfully applied to the determination of CFN in bulk powder and pharmaceutical dosage forms. The results are in good agreement with those obtained using the comparison method. Finally, the Taguchi method provided a systematic and efficient methodology for this optimization, with considerably less effort than would be required for other optimizations techniques. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

AUXIN RESPONSE FACTOR 2 Intersects Hormonal Signals in the Regulation of Tomato Fruit Ripening

The involvement of ethylene in fruit ripening is well documented, though knowledge regarding the crosstalk between ethylene and other hormones in ripening is lacking. We discovered that AUXIN RESPONSE FACTOR 2A (ARF2A), a recognized auxin signaling component, functions in the control of ripening. ARF2A expression is ripening regulated and reduced in the rin, nor and nr ripening mutants. It is also responsive to exogenous application of ethylene, auxin and abscisic acid (ABA). Over-expressing ARF2A in tomato resulted in blotchy ripening in which certain fruit regions turn red and possess accelerated ripening. ARF2A over-expressing fruit displayed early ethylene emission and ethylene signaling inhibition delayed their ripening phenotype, suggesting ethylene dependency. Both green and red fruit regions showed the induction of ethylene signaling components and master regulators of ripening. Comprehensive hormone profiling revealed that altered ARF2A expression in fruit significantly modified abscisates, cytokinins and salicylic acid while gibberellic acid and auxin metabolites were unaffected. Silencing of ARF2A further validated these observations as reducing ARF2A expression let to retarded fruit ripening, parthenocarpy and a disturbed hormonal profile. Finally, we show that ARF2A both homodimerizes and interacts with the ABA STRESS RIPENING (ASR1) protein, suggesting that ASR1 might be linking ABA and ethylene-dependent ripening. These results revealed that ARF2A interconnects signals of ethylene and additional hormones to co-ordinate the capacity of fruit tissue to initiate the complex ripening process.     

Bio-seismic and sequence stratigraphy of the Neogene of the Northwest Damietta Concession,Nile Delta,Egypt

The stratigraphic framework of the Neogene sequence drilled by two offshore wells located in the north-eastern shore of the Nile Delta (the wells Sekhmet-1 and Sekhmet-2) has been established. The lithostratigraphic units with their sequences, from older to younger, are as follows: the Sidi Salim Formation (including Sr1 SB, Sr2 SB, Sr2 MFS, Sr3 SB and Sr3 MFS), a sequence representing the uppermost part of the Sidi Salim and most of the lower part of the Qawasim Formations (including Tor 1.1 SB, Tor 1.2 SB, Tor 1.3 SB, Tor 1.4 SB and ?Tor 2 SB), a sequence representing the uppermost part of Qawasim and the lower part of the Abu Madi Formations (including ?Me1 SB, Me2 SB and Me2 MFS), the Kafr El Sheikh Formation (including alternatively Za 1 and 2 SB and MFS and Ge 1 SB and MFS), the El Wastani Formation (including Ge 2 SB and MFS) and a Quaternary sequence represented by the topmost part of El Wastani and Mit Ghamr/Bilqas Formation (including alternatively ?Cala 1 and 2 SB and MFS and ?Io 2 SB). The lower part of the Qawasim in well Sekhmet-2 includes two LST: Tor 2 LST and Me 1 LST.     

Treatment of raw and ozonated oil sands process-affected water under decoupled denitrifying anoxic and nitrifying aerobic conditions: a comparative study

Batch experiments were performed to evaluate biodegradation of raw and ozonated oil sands process-affected water (OSPW) under denitrifying anoxic and nitrifying aerobic conditions for 33 days. The results showed both the anoxic and aerobic conditions are effective in degrading OSPW classical and oxidized naphthenic acids (NAs) with the aerobic conditions demonstrating higher removal efficiency. The reactors under nitrifying aerobic condition reduced the total classical NAs of raw OSPW by 69.1 %, with better efficiency for species of higher hydrophobicity. Compared with conventional aerobic reactor, nitrifying aerobic condition substantially shortened the NA degradation half-life to 16 days. The mild-dose ozonation remarkably accelerated the subsequent aerobic biodegradation of classical NAs within the first 14 days, especially for those with long carbon chains. Moreover, the ozone pretreatment enhanced the biological removal of OSPW classical NAs by leaving a considerably lower final residual concentration of 10.4 mg/L under anoxic conditions, and 5.7 mg/L under aerobic conditions. The combination of ozonation and nitrifying aerobic biodegradation removed total classical NAs by 76.5 % and total oxy-NAs (O3–O6) by 23.6 %. 454 Pyrosequencing revealed that microbial species capable of degrading recalcitrant hydrocarbons were dominant in all reactors. The most abundant genus in the raw and ozonated anoxic reactors was Thauera (~56 % in the raw OSPW anoxic reactor, and ~65 % in the ozonated OSPW anoxic reactor); whereas Rhodanobacter (~40 %) and Pseudomonas (~40 %) dominated the raw and ozonated aerobic reactors, respectively. Therefore, the combination of mild-dose ozone pretreatment and subsequent biological process could be a competent choice for OSPW treatment.     

Online flow cytometry for monitoring apoptosis in mammalian cell cultures as an application for process analytical technology

Apoptosis is the main driver of cell death in bioreactor suspension cell cultures during the production of biopharmaceuticals from animal cell lines. It is known that apoptosis also has an effect on the quality and quantity of the expressed recombinant protein. This has raised the importance of studying apoptosis for implementing culture optimization strategies. The work here describes a novel approach to obtain near real time data on proportion of viable, early apoptotic, late apoptotic and necrotic cell populations in a suspension CHO culture using automated sample preparation in conjunction with flow cytometry. The resultant online flow cytometry data can track the progression of apoptotic events in culture, aligning with analogous manual methodologies and giving similar results. The obtained near-real time apoptosis data are a significant improvement in monitoring capabilities and can lead to improved control strategies and research data on complex biological systems in bioreactor cultures in both academic and industrial settings focused on process analytical technology applications.     

The effect of nutrients and environmental conditions on biomass and oil production in Botryococcus braunii Race B strains

The green alga Botryococcus braunii is widely recognized as a source of non-fossil oil. However, limitations in Botryococcus biomass production hamper its commercial exploitation. This study examines the effects of nutrients (nitrogen and iron) and environmental conditions (temperature, light intensity and photoperiod) on biomass and oil production in two B. braunii Race B strains, Kossou-4 and Overjuyo-3. The highest biomass and oil production were obtained at a nitrogen concentration of 750 mg l^?1, iron concentration of 6 mg l^?1, at 25°C and at 135 µmol photons m^?2 s^?1 with a photoperiod of 16 h light:8 h darkness. Culturing the strains in Blue-green (BG11) medium containing optimized nutrients under optimal conditions resulted in an up to ~10.6-fold increase in biomass. In Kossou-4 and Overjuyo-3 strains, biomass increased from 1.647 g 10 l^?1 and 3.137 g 10 l^?1 respectively in normal BG11 medium to 17.390 g 10 l^?1 and 21.721 g 10 l^?1 in optimized BG11 media and growth conditions. This was accompanied by ~8–10.5-fold increase in oil production compared with that in normal BG11 medium. Oil (0.324 g 10 l^?1 and 0.211 g 10 l^?1) was produced in normal BG11 medium in Kossou-4 and Overjuyo-3 strains respectively, compared with 2.642 g 10 l^?1 (Kossou-4) and 2.206 g 10 l^?1 (Overjuyo-3) in modified BG11 media under optimized conditions. Therefore, optimization of nutrients and environmental conditions can increase biomass and oil production in the two strains of B. braunii.     

When mental fatigue maybe characterized by Event Related Potential (P300) during virtual wheelchair navigation

The goal of this study is to investigate the influence of mental fatigue on the event related potential P300 features (maximum pick, minimum amplitude, latency and period) during virtual wheelchair navigation. For this purpose, an experimental environment was set up based on customizable environmental parameters (luminosity, number of obstacles and obstacles velocities). A correlation study between P300 and fatigue ratings was conducted. Finally, the best correlated features supplied three classification algorithms which are MLP (Multi Layer Perceptron), Linear Discriminate Analysis and Support Vector Machine. The results showed that the maximum feature over visual and temporal regions as well as period feature over frontal, fronto-central and visual regions were correlated with mental fatigue levels. In the other hand, minimum amplitude and latency features didn’t show any correlation. Among classification techniques, MLP showed the best performance although the differences between classification techniques are minimal. Those findings can help us in order to design suitable mental fatigue based wheelchair control.