Friedelin Attenuates Neuronal Dysfunction and Memory Impairment by Inhibition of the Activated JNK/NF-κB Signalling Pathway in Scopolamine-Induced Mice Model of Neurodegeneration

Oxidative stress (OS) and c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) are both key indicators implicated in neuro-inflammatory signalling pathways and their respective neurodegenerative diseases. Drugs targeting these factors can be considered as suitable candidates for treatment of neuronal dysfunction and memory impairment. The present study encompasses beneficial effects of a naturally occurring triterpenoid, friedelin, against scopolamine-induced oxidative stress and neurodegenerative pathologies in mice models. The treated animals were subjected to behavioural tests i.e., Y-maze and Morris water maze (MWM) for memory dysfunction. The underlying mechanism was determined via western blotting, antioxidant enzymes and lipid profile analyses. Molecular docking studies were carried out to predict the binding modes of friedelin in the binding pocket of p-JNK protein. The results reveal that scopolamine caused oxidative stress by (1) inhibiting catalase (CAT), peroxidase enzyme (POD), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and reduced glutathione enzyme (GSH); (2) the up-regulation of thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) in mice brain; and (3) affecting the neuronal synapse (both pre- and post-synapse) followed by associated memory dysfunction. In contrast, friedelin administration not only abolished scopolamine-induced oxidative stress, glial cell activation, and neuro-inflammation but also inhibited p-JNK and NF-κB and their downstream signaling molecules. Moreover, friedelin administration improved neuronal synapse and reversed scopolamine-induced memory impairment accompanied by the inhibition of β-secretase enzyme (BACE-1) to halt amyloidogenic pathways of amyloid-β production. In summary, all of the results show that friedelin is a potent naturally isolated neuro-therapeutic agent to reverse scopolamine-induced neuropathology, which is characteristic of Alzheimer’s disease.     

Spatially Homogeneous Rotating Solution in f(R) Gravity and Its Energy Contents

In this paper, the metric approach of f(R) theory of gravity is used to investigate the exact vacuum solutions of spatially homogeneous rotating spacetimes. For this purpose, R is replaced by f(R) in the standard Einstein-Hilbert action and the set of modified Einstein field equations reduce to a single equation. We adopt the assumption of constant Ricci scalar which maybe zero or non-zero. Moreover, the energy density of the non-trivial solution has been evaluated by using the generalized Landau-Lifshitz energy-momentum complex in the perspective of f(R) gravity for some appropriate f(R) model, which turns out to be a constant quantity.     

Superhydrophobic elastomer surfaces with nanostructured micronails

New approaches to the fabrication of microstructures of special shape were developed for polymers. Unusual superhydrophobic surface structures were achieved with the use of flexible polymers and hierarchical molds.Flexible polyurethane?acrylate coatings were patterned with microstructures with use of microstructured aluminum mold in a controlled UV-curing process. Electron microscope images of the UV-cured coatings on polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) substrates revealed micropillars that were significantly higher than the corresponding depressions of the mold (even 47 vs. 35 μm). The elongation was achieved by detaching the mold from the flexible, partially cured acrylate surface and then further curing the separated microstructure. The modified acrylate surface is superhydrophobic with a water contact angle of 156° and sliding angle of < 10°.Acrylic thermoplastic elastomers (TPE) were patterned with micro?nanostructured aluminum oxide molds through injection molding. The hierarchical surface of the elastomer showed elongated micropillars (57 μm) with nail-head tops covered with nanograss. Comparison with a reference microstructure of the same material (35 μm) indicated that the nanopores of the micro?nanomold assisted the formation of the nail-shaped micropillars. The elasticity of the TPE materials evidently plays a role in the elongation because similar elongation has not been found in hierarchically structured thermoplastic surfaces. The hierarchical micronail structure supports a high water contact angle (164°), representing an increase of 88° relative to the smooth TPE surface. The sliding angle was close to zero degrees, indicating the Cassie–Baxter state.     

Exact Solution of a(2+1)-Dimensional Anisotropic Star in Finch and Skea Spacetime

We provide a new class of interior solution of a(2+1)-dimensional anisotropic star in Finch and Skea spacetime corresponding to the BTZ black hole. We develop the model by considering the MIT bag model EOS and a particular ansatz for the metric function grrproposed by Finch and Skea [M.R. Finch and J.E.F. Skea, Class. Quantum.Grav. 6(1989) 467]. Our model is free from central singularity and satisfies all the physical requirements for the acceptability of the model.     

Intelligent reversible watermarking technique in medical images using GA and PSO

The advances in recording, editing, and broadcasting multimedia contents in digital form motivate to protect these digital contents from illegal use, such as duplication, manipulation, and redistribution. However, watermarking algorithms are designed to satisfy requirements of applications, as different applications have different concerns. We intend to design a watermarking algorithm for applications which require high embedding capacity and imperceptibility, to maintain the integrity of the host signal as well as embedded information. Reversible watermarking is a promising technique which satisfies our requirements. In this paper, we concentrate on improving the watermark capacity and reducing the perceptual degradation of an image. We investigated the Luo's [1] additive interpolation-error expansion algorithm and enhanced it by incorporating with two intelligent techniques: genetic algorithm (GA), and particle swarm optimization (PSO). Genetic algorithm is applied to exploit the correlation of image pixel values to obtain better estimation of neighboring pixel values, which results in optimal balance between information storage capacity and imperceptibility. Particle swarm optimization (intelligent technique) is also applied for the same purpose. Experimental results show that PSO and GA nearly give the same results, but GA outperforms the PSO. Experimental results also reveal that the proposed strategy outperforms the state of art works in terms of perceptual quality and watermarking payload.     

Quantum Corrections for Regular Black Holes with Charge and Coupling Constant

In this paper, we use semi-classical tunneling approach to calculate the quantum corrections to the Hawking temperature as well as entropy of the Kehagias-Sftesos asymptotically flat black hole solution and charged regular black hole with Fermi-Dirac distribution. For this purpose, we apply the first law of black hole thermodynamics to investigate the semi-classical entropy of both black holes having mass as well as charge or coupling constant. For both black holes, the entropy corrections contain the logarithmic term as a leading order correction term. For Kehagias-Sftesos asymptotically flat black hole, the semi-classical Hawking temperature and black hole entropy will behave asymptotically by considering the vanishing coupling constant b = 0. We have obtained the same analysis for the corrected thermodynamical quantities for this BH. For charged regular black hole with Fermi-Dirac distribution, if we neglect the charged effects in our analysis, i.e., q = 0, then these corrections approximately leads to the Schwarzschild black hole which is already given in the literature.     

Les Sels de Bismuth (III) Comme Catalyseurs Dans la Reaction D'ouverture Des Epoxydes Par Les Amines

BiCl 3 and Bi (OTf) 3 catalyze the opening of epoxides ( 1-7 ) by amines ( 8-12 ). High regioselectivities are observed. BiCl 3 et Bi (OTf) 3 catalysent la réaction d'ouverture des époxydes ( 1-7 ) par les amines ( 8-12 ). La réaction est fortement régiosélective.     

A novel bit permutation-based image encryption algorithm

Nonlinear Dynamics - In recent years, substantial work has been done for developing image encryption algorithms. Image encryption requires handling of large data, which needs computationally...