Paper is the most abundant and inexpensive polymeric structure of cellulose available. Paper has micro-porous capillary-like networks which are responsible for flow of solvents instead of pumps or ...electronic power, making paper an ideally usable tool. Microfluidic paper-based analytical devices use fabricated paper devices on which hydrophilic zones are formed within hydrophobic barriers. Hydrophilic zones act as regions for actual analytical purposes, whereas hydrophobic zones act to demarcate separate zones from one another. Clinically, these devices have been proved to be excellent point-of-care-devices in diagnosis which can bypass use of costly and time-consuming laboratory techniques. In the presented review, the basic principles and components involved in the design of paper-based devices were then summarised in understandable manner. Further, various applications in different fields were also compiled in the form of text under different sections and tables. Paper-based analytical devices may serve as an excellent tool in variety of analytical works as these techniques are simple, rapid, economic, and require less human power or trainings. They have prominent applications in analysis of biological fluids, drugs/metabolites, food stuffs, colorants, biomarkers, and several other fields.
ICP-OES is a powerful, versatile, and advanced analytical technique with excellent detection properties. Due to its extraordinary features, it has been widely employed for the analysis of a wide ...variety of chemical elements in the past few years with great success. It offers the least detection time, lower detection limits, broader linear dynamic range, and greater matrix tolerability as well as negligible chemical interferences. Beyond this, it can handle multiple varieties of samples including aqueous, inorganic, organic liquids, and solids as well. It comprises complex instrumental makeup which enables it to detect up to 2 to 70 elements simultaneously with great accuracy. Recent reports evidenced that this hyphenated technique has been employed in several analytical determinations including food analysis, agricultural investigations, geological studies, drug/metabolite analysis, and environmental and forensic sciences. In the present compilation, a detailed description of the fundamental principles of ICP-OES has been provided along with its various sophisticated functional components. Also, the reported applications of this technique in different fields have been discussed highlighting the basic experimental setups and outcomes by presenting the data as tables. This summarization may be helpful to analysts to get insights into the working as well as performance characteristics of this technique.
Graphical abstract
Introduction
Chronic migraine is a disease of altered cortical excitability. Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation provides a novel non-invasive method to target the nociceptive circuits in ...the cortex. Motor cortex is one such potential target. In this study, we targeted the left motor cortex using fMRI-guided neuronavigation.
Materials and Methods
Twenty right-handed patients were randomized into real and sham rTMS group. Baseline subjective pain assessments were done using visual analog scale (VAS) and questionnaires: State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, Becks Depression Inventory, and Migraine Disability Assessment (MIDAS) questionnaire. Objectively, pain was assessed by means of thermal pain thresholds using quantitative sensory testing. For corticomotor excitability parameters, resting motor thresholds and motor-evoked potentials were mapped. For rTMS total, 600 pulses in 10 trains at 10 Hz with an intertrain interval of 60 s were delivered in each session. Ten such sessions were given 5 days per week over 2 consecutive weeks. The duration of each session was 10 min. Real rTMS was administered at 70% of Resting MT. All the tests were repeated post-intervention and after 1 month of follow-up. There are no studies reporting the use of fMRI-based TMS for targeting the motor cortex in CM patients.
Results
We observed a significant reduction in the mean VAS rating, headache frequency, and MIDAS questionnaire in real rTMS group which was maintained after 1 month of follow-up.
Conclusion
Ten sessions of fMRI-based rTMS over the left motor cortex may provide long-term pain relief in CM, but further studies are warranted to confirm our preliminary findings.
We have successfully functionalized multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) using nitrene approach employing the two aryl azides as a precursor for nitrene generation. The dispersion of functionalized ...MWCNTs has been enhanced in various organic solvents. These functionalized MWCNTs have been successfully doped in various concentrations in the bulk heterojunction (BHJ) organic photovoltaic (OPV) cells with a poly (3-hexyl thiophene) (P3HT) and 6,6-phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) photoactive blended layer. The incorporation of MWCNTs with aryl functional groups, in active the layer, results in enhanced performance with respect to a reference cell. The maximum power conversion efficiency of 1.86% is achieved with adduct I while in the case of adduct II it gets double to 2.0% in comparison with a reference cell. This improvement in the device performance is attributed to enhanced exciton dissociation and improved charge transport properties due to the formation of a nanotube percolation network in the photoactive composite layer.
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•This review is focused on synthetic prospective of 4-thiazolidinones.•This review is also focused on medicinal prospective of 4-thiazolidinones.•It includes structure–activity ...relationship study of different activities.
In the modern scenario, thiazolidinone scaffold has emerged as a very potent scaffold as per its clinical significance concerned. It has attracted the keen interest of the researchers due to its great diversity in biological activities. Thiazolidinones are the saturated form of thiazole, called thiazolidine with a carbonyl group. The 1,3-thiazolidin-4-ones possess wide range of pharmacological activities such as anti-cancer, anti-diabetic, anti-microbial, anti-viral, anti-inflammatory and anti-convulsant. In the past few years, various newer synthetic approaches have been designed to synthesize diverse scaffolds to explore the various types of biological activities. In this review, an attempt has been made by the authors to summarize various synthetic strategies for thiazolidinone derivatives as well as their biological significance.
Bathua (
) is a rich source of extensive-ranging nutrients, including bio-active carbohydrates, flavonoids and phenolics, minerals, and vitamins that translate to countless health benefits such as ...anticancer, antidiabetic, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, and antioxidant activity. Ascaridole, an important phytoconstituent present in aerial parts of the plant, contributes to its anthelmintic property. Even with vast historical use and significant health benefits, its renown has not spread, and utilization has significantly decreased in recent decades. Gradually, the plant has become known under the name of Non-conventional edible plant (NCEP). This compilation is prepared to bring out the plant under the spotlight for further research by foregrounding previous studies on the plant. Scientific research databases, including PubMed, Google Scholar, Scopus, SpringerLink, ScienceDirect, and Wiley Online, were used to fetch data on
. This review offers over up-to-date knowledge on nutritious values, phytochemical composition, volatile compounds, as well as health benefits of
. The ethnobotanical and ethnomedicinal uses of the plant in India and other parts of the world are deliberately discussed. Scrutinizing the reported literature on
reveals its powerful nutrient composition advantageous in the development of food products. The impact of various cooking and processing methods on the nutritional profile and bioavailability are discussed. The future perspectives with regards to the potential for food and nutraceutical products are critically addressed. This review proves the necessity of breakthrough research to investigate the pharmacology and safety of phytochemicals and nutraceutical development studies on the
.
Chemical crosslinking refers to intermolecular or intramolecular joining of two or more molecules by a covalent bond. The reagents that are used for the purpose are referred to as 'crosslinking ...reagents' or 'crosslinkers'. Based on factors like reactivity and spacer length these are classified into different types, each having its own specific function and application. In recent times, chemical crosslinking has emerged as an efficient tool for the study of biomolecules like proteins. It finds its application in various studies including the attachment of proteins to a solid support for the study of membrane receptors, protein-protein complexes, protein-DNA complexes, and others. When coupled with techniques like mass spectroscopy, it has been used not only for the determination of three dimensional structures of proteins but also for the study of protein-protein interactions and determination of interesting sites. This combination of mass spectrometry techniques and bioinformatics, added yet another dimension to our present day understanding of protein chemistry. Thus, chemical crosslinking has multitude uses that it can be put to.
We undertook a systematic search of bibliographic databases and search engine such as Google Scholar, Scifinder, Scopus, Mendeley etc for review of research literature. We excluded research paper which only reported synthesis of crosslinker molecules and did not involve any mass spectrometry studies.
Sixty-four papers were included in the review. The majority of references were taken from last ten years as there has been an immense progress in this area in the recent years. Eleven classical papers in this field were included which talk about basic of this methodology. Thirty-two papers discussed about various types of organic groups used for designing chemical cross-linkers and various methodologies which were used to enhance the crosslinking efficiency. These papers also highlight various strategies used to enhance detection of cross-linked proteins and various computer software used to detect cross-linking sites from mass data. Twenty-one papers showed the proof concept application of this methodology to detect protein crosslinking in-vivo and in-vitro.
The findings of this review confirm the importance chemical crosslinking combined with mass spectroscopy as a low cost alternative to understand protein-protein interaction. The information generated by this methodology can help in better understating of various diseases and for the development of better drugs for them.
Summary Background In patients with intracerebral haemorrhage (ICH), early haemorrhage expansion affects clinical outcome. Haemostatic treatment reduces haematoma expansion, but fails to improve ...clinical outcomes in many patients. Proper selection of patients at high risk for haematoma expansion seems crucial to improve outcomes. In this study, we aimed to prospectively validate the CT-angiography (CTA) spot sign for prediction of haematoma expansion. Methods PREDICT (predicting haematoma growth and outcome in intracerebral haemorrhage using contrast bolus CT) was a multicentre prospective observational cohort study. We recruited patients aged 18 years or older, with ICH smaller than 100 mL, and presenting at less than 6 h from symptom onset. Using two independent core laboratories, one neuroradiologist determined CTA spot-sign status, whereas another neurologist masked for clinical outcomes and imaging measured haematoma volumes by computerised planimetry. The primary outcome was haematoma expansion defined as absolute growth greater than 6 mL or a relative growth of more than 33% from initial CT to follow-up CT. We reported data using standard descriptive statistics stratified by the CTA spot sign. Mortality was assessed with Kaplan-Meier survival analysis. Findings We enrolled 268 patients. Median time from symptom onset to baseline CT was 135 min (range 22–470), and time from onset to CTA was 159 min (32–475). 81 (30%) patients were spot-sign positive. The primary analysis included 228 patients, who had a follow-up CT before surgery or death. Median baseline ICH volume was 19·9 mL (1·5–80·9) in spot-sign-positive patients versus 10·0 mL (0·1–102·7) in spot-sign negative patients (p<0·001). Median ICH expansion was 8·6 mL (−9·3 to 121·7) for spot-sign positive patients and 0·4 mL (−11·7 to 98·3) for spot-negative patients (p<0·001). In those with haematoma expansion, the positive predictive value for the spot sign was 61% (95% CI 47–73); the negative predictive value was 78% (71–84), sensitivity was 51% (39–63), and specificity was 85% (78–90). Median 3-month modified Rankin Scale (mRS) was 5 in CTA spot-sign-positive patients, and 3 in spot-sign-negative patients (p<0·001). Mortality at 3 months was 43·4% (23 of 53) in CTA spot-sign positive versus 19·6% (31 of 158) in CTA spot-sign-negative patients (HR 2·4, 95% CI 1·4–4·0, p=0·002). Interpretation These findings confirm previous single-centre studies showing that the CTA spot sign is a predictor of haematoma expansion. The spot sign is recommended as an entry criterion for future trials of haemostatic therapy in patients with acute ICH. Funding Canadian Stroke Consortium and NovoNordisk Canada.
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