Angelica archengelica extract induced perturbation of rat skin and tight junctional protein (ZO-1) of HaCaT cells

Background and purpose of the study: Herbal enhancers compared to the synthetic ones have shown less toxis effects. Coumarins have been shown at concentrations inhibiting phospoliphase C-Y (Phc-Y) are able to enhance tight junction (TJ) permeability due to hyperpoalation of Zonolous Occludense-1 (ZO-1) proteins. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the influence of ethanolic extract of Angelica archengelica (AA-E) which contain coumarin on permeation of repaglinide across rat epidermis and on the tight junction plaque protein ZO-1 in HaCaT cells. Methods: Transepidermal water loss (TEWL) from the rat skin treated with different concentrations of AA-E was assessed by Tewameter. Scanning and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) on were performed on AA-E treated rat skin portions. The possibility of AA-E influence on the architecture of tight junctions by adverse effect on the cytoplasmic ZO-1 in HaCaT cells was investigated. Finally, the systemic delivery of repaglinide from the optimized transdermal formulation was investigated in rats. Results: The permeation of repaglinide across excised rat epidermis was 7-fold higher in the presence of AA-E (5% w/v) as compared to propylene glycol:ethanol (7:3) mixture. The extract was found to perturb the lipid microconstituents in both excised and viable rat skin, although, the effect was less intense in the later. The enhanced permeation of repaglinide across rat epidermis excised after treatment with AA-E (5% w/v) for different periods was in concordance with the high TEWL values of similarly treated viable rat skin. Further, the observed increase in intercellular space, disordering of lipid structure and corneocyte detachment indicated considerable effect on the ultrastructure of rat epidermis. Treatment of HaCaT cell line with AA-E (0.16% w/v) for 6 hrs influenced ZO-1 as evidenced by reduced immunofluorescence of anti-TJP1 (ZO-1) antibody in Confocal Laser Scanning Microscopy studies (CLSM) studies. The plasma concentration of repaglinide from transdermal formulation was maintained higher and for longer time as compared to oral administration of repaglinide. Major conclusion: Results suggest the overwhelming influence of Angelica archengelica in enhancing the percutaneous permeation of repaglinide to be mediated through perturbation of skin lipids and tight junction protein (ZO-1).

High Throughput, Low Latency, Memory Optimized 64K Point FFT Architecture using Novel Radix-4 Butterfly Unit

In this paper we propose a fully parallel 64K point radix-4(4) FFT processor. The radix-4(4) parallel unrolled architecture uses a novel radix-4 butterfly unit which takes all four inputs in parallel and can selectively produce one out of the four outputs. The radix-4(4) block can take all 256 inputs in parallel and can use the select control signals to generate one out of the 256 outputs. The resultant 64K point FFT processor shows significant reduction in intermediate memory but with increased hardware complexity. Compared to the state-of-art implementation 5], our architecture shows reduced latency with comparable throughput and area. The 64K point FFT architecture was synthesized using a 130nm CMOS technology which resulted in a throughput of 1.4 GSPS and latency of 47.7 mu s with a maximum clock frequency of 350MHz. When compared to 5], the latency is reduced by 303 mu s with 50.8% reduction in area.

Two-way converter logic for positive and negative binary numbers

This paper describes a hardware implementation of a two-way converter logic by which conversion between numbers from positive to negative binary representation is possible. Index terms: (i) Negative radix, (ii) Positive radix, (iii) Two-way conversion.

Climate change and crop yields in the Indian Cardamom Hills, 1978-2007 CE

In this study we analyzed climate and crop yields data from Indian cardamom hills for the period 1978-2007 to investigate whether there were significant changes in weather elements, and if such changes have had significant impact on the production of spices and plantation crops. Spatial and temporal variations in air temperatures (maximum and minimum), rainfall and relative humidity are evident across stations. The mean air temperature increased significantly during the last 30 years; the greatest increase and the largest significant upward trend was observed in the daily temperature. The highest increase in minimum temperature was registered for June (0.37A degrees C/18 years) at the Myladumpara station. December and January showed greater warming across the stations. Rainfall during the main monsoon months (June-September) showed a downward trend. Relative humidity showed increasing and decreasing trends, respectively, at the cardamom and tea growing tracts. The warming trend coupled with frequent wet and dry spells during the summer is likely to have a favorable effect on insect pests and disease causing organisms thereby pesticide consumption can go up both during excess rainfall and drought years. The incidence of many minor pest insects and disease pathogens has increased in the recent years of our study along with warming. Significant and slight increases in the yield of small cardamom (Elettaria cardamomum M.) and coffee (Coffea arabica), respectively, were noticed in the recent years.; however the improvement of yield in tea (Thea sinensis) and black pepper (Piper nigrum L.) has not been seen in our analysis.

Design of a Low Power 64 Point FFT Architecture for WLAN Applications

This paper presents a Radix-4(3) based FFT architecture suitable for OFDM based WLAN applications. The radix-4(3) parallel unrolled architecture presented here, uses a radix-4 butterfly unit which takes all four inputs in parallel and can selectively produce one out of the four outputs. A 64 point FFT processor based on the proposed architecture has been implemented in UMC 130nm 1P8M CMOS process with a maximum clock frequency of 100 MHz and area of 0.83mm(2). The proposed processor provides a throughput of four times the clock rate and can finish one 64 point FFT computation in 16 clock cycles. For IEEE 802.11a/g WLAN, the processor needs to be operated at a clock rate of 5 MHz with a power consumption of 2.27 mW which is 27% less than the previously reported low power implementations.

CTFS-ForestGEO: a worldwide network monitoring forests in an era of global change

Global change is impacting forests worldwide, threatening biodiversity and ecosystem services including climate regulation. Understanding how forests respond is critical to forest conservation and climate protection. This review describes an international network of 59 long-term forest dynamics research sites (CTFS-ForestGEO) useful for characterizing forest responses to global change. Within very large plots (median size 25ha), all stems 1cm diameter are identified to species, mapped, and regularly recensused according to standardized protocols. CTFS-ForestGEO spans 25 degrees S-61 degrees N latitude, is generally representative of the range of bioclimatic, edaphic, and topographic conditions experienced by forests worldwide, and is the only forest monitoring network that applies a standardized protocol to each of the world's major forest biomes. Supplementary standardized measurements at subsets of the sites provide additional information on plants, animals, and ecosystem and environmental variables. CTFS-ForestGEO sites are experiencing multifaceted anthropogenic global change pressures including warming (average 0.61 degrees C), changes in precipitation (up to +/- 30% change), atmospheric deposition of nitrogen and sulfur compounds (up to 3.8g Nm(-2)yr(-1) and 3.1g Sm(-2)yr(-1)), and forest fragmentation in the surrounding landscape (up to 88% reduced tree cover within 5km). The broad suite of measurements made at CTFS-ForestGEO sites makes it possible to investigate the complex ways in which global change is impacting forest dynamics. Ongoing research across the CTFS-ForestGEO network is yielding insights into how and why the forests are changing, and continued monitoring will provide vital contributions to understanding worldwide forest diversity and dynamics in an era of global change.