Nephroprotective Effects of Alhagi camelorum against Cisplatin-Induced Nephrotoxicity in Albino Wistar Rats

Alhagi camelorum (AC) is an old plant with a significant therapeutic value throughout Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The overuse of cisplatin (Cis > 50 mg/m²) is associated with observed nephrotoxicity, ototoxicity, gastrotoxicity, myelosuppression, and allergic reactions. Remedial measures are needed for the protection of nephrotoxicity against cisplatin. Thus, we investigated the nephroprotective effects of AC plant extract to prevent cisplatin-induced nephrotoxicity in albino Wistar rats. The presence of polyphenols, phenolic compounds, tannins, and saponins was revealed during phytochemical investigation, and a significantly intense antioxidant activity was recorded. There were no toxicological symptoms in the treated rats, and no anatomical, physiological, or histological abnormalities were found compared to the control rats. The results of correcting cisplatin-induced nephrotoxicity revealed that the extract has a significant ability to treat kidney damage, with most parameters returning to normal after only three weeks of therapy. It is concluded that co-administration of cisplatin with AC extract showed exceptional nephroprotective effects at a dose of 600 mg/kg for Cis-induced nephrotoxicity.     

Approximating the Pathway Axis and the Persistence Diagrams for a Collection of Balls in 3-Space

Given a collection ℬ of balls in a three-dimensional space, we wish to explore the cavities, voids, and tunnels in the complement space of ∪ℬ. We introduce the pathway axis of ℬ as a useful subset of the medial axis of the complement of ∪ℬ and prove that it satisfies several desirable geometric properties. We present an algorithm that constructs the pathway graph of ∪ℬ, a piecewise-linear approximation of the pathway axis. At the heart of our approach is an approximation scheme that constructs a collection K{\mathcal{K}} of same-size balls that approximate ℬ so that the Hausdorff distance between ∪ℬ and èK\bigcup{\mathcal{K}} is bounded by a prescribed parameter. We prove a bound on the ratio between the number of balls in K{\mathcal{K}} and the number of balls in ℬ. We employ this bound and the approximation scheme to show how to approximate the persistence diagrams for ∪ℬ, which can be used to extract major topological features such as the large voids and tunnels in the complement of ∪ℬ. We show that our approach is superior in terms of complexity to the standard point-sample approaches for the two problems that we address in this paper: approximating the pathway axis of ℬ and approximating the persistence diagrams for ∪ℬ. In a companion paper we introduce MolAxis, a tool for the identification of channels in macromolecules that demonstrates how the pathway graph and the persistence diagrams are used to identify plausible pathways in the complement of molecules.     

A study of the reactions π−p → K1X, K1Σ and K1Y11(1385) at 3.93 GeV/c

We have investigated the final states K¹⁰(890)Σ, $\text{K}{}^{10}\text{(890)Σ}{}^0$ and K¹⁰(890) Y₁¹⁰(1385) produced in π^?p interactions at 3.93 GeV/c. We present the differential cross sections and spin density matrix elements for the resonances as functions of momentum transfer, as well as the gL and Σ⁰ polarizations. The Σ⁰ polarization is found to be positive and maximal. An amplitude analysis is performed for the K¹ Λ and $\text{K}{}^1\text{Σ}{}^0$ reactions, and it is found that one natural parity transversity amplitude is dominant for the latter.     

Reduction electrochimique des oxydes de fer: Confrontation des caracteristiques electrochimiques et crist allographiques

Electrochemical properties of iron oxides, crystallographic data and examination of etching pits by scanning electron microscopy, suggest that ferric iron has electrochemical reactivity which differs according to its crystallographic position in the solid.     

Role of copper species in the oxidative dimerization of arylboronic acids: synthesis of symmetrical biaryls

Certain Cu(I) and Cu(II) salts are able to mediate the dimerization of arylboronic acids in DMF. They provide the corresponding symmetrical biaryls in moderate to very good yields. It is possible to run the reaction catalytically under an oxygen atmosphere without a significant loss of yields.     

Almost isometric embeddings into configuration-compacta

We show that a Polish metric space X which has ‘compact configuration spaces’ is free of almost isometric embeddings, i.e. given such an embedding into X one gets an isometric embedding. By assuming a continuous version of ℵ₀-homogeneity we get the converse statement, and also prove almost isometry uniqueness.     

Electrophoretic deposition of bacterial cells

The possibility to use alternating current electrophoretic deposition (AC-EPD) to deposit living cells in the form of Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli on stainless steel was assessed. The experimental results revealed that these bacteria can be successfully deposited on metallic surfaces from demineralized water and sucrose based solutions using asymmetric unbalanced electric fields. Cell viability of the deposited bacteria was influenced by the strain and deposition medium.     

Fluid polling systems

We study N-queues single-server fluid polling systems, where a fluid is continuously flowing into the queues at queue-dependent rates. When visiting and serving a queue, the server reduces the amount of fluid in the queue at a queue-dependent rate. Switching from queue i to queue j requires two random-duration steps: (i) departing queue i, and (ii) reaching queue j. The length of time the server resides in a queue depends on the service regime. We consider three main regimes: Exhaustive, Gated, and Globally-Gated. Two polling procedures are analyzed: (i) cyclic and (ii) probabilistic. Under steady-state, we derive the Laplace–Stieltjes transform (LST), mean, and second moment of the amount of flow at each queue at polling instants, as well as at an arbitrary moment. We further calculate the LST and mean of the “waiting time” of a drop at each queue and derive expressions for the mean total load in the system for the various service regimes. Finally, we explore optimal switching procedures.