Synbiotics are recognized means of modulating gut microbiota composition and activities. However, whether synbiotics are superior to prebiotics and probiotics alone in moderating the gut microbiota towards a purportedly healthy composition has not been determined. Eight selected synbiotics (short-chain fructooligosaccharides or fructooligosaccharides, each combined with one of four probiotics, ...

INTRODUCTION Meniscal tears are common debilitating injuries that can have dramatic consequences especially for young athletes. Healing of meniscal tears following surgical repair is essentially only feasible for tears within the peripheral, vascular, zone. By comparison, tears that occur within the inner, avascular, zone do not heal and most commonly are treated by excision. This in turn great...

Background: The pregnancy rates from oocytes matured in vitro are much lower than those of in vivo stimulation cycles, indicating that optimization of IVM remains a challenge. Reduced developmental competence of oocytes matured in vitro indicates that current culture systems for oocytes maturation do not adequately support nuclear and/or cytoplasmic maturation. Therefore in this study, we evalu...

As there is a continuous search for the alternative source for taxol, a million dollar drug due to its scarcity scientists have chosen microorganism as one of the alternate sources.Pestalotiopsis breviseta CR01 produces taxol invitro which was isolated from the plant Catharanceus roceus. The optimum growth of this fungus was analyzed by varying different growth parameters. The presence of taxol...

In this study, αand β-phase As4S4 nanoparticles were prepared by wet nanomilling using sodium dodecyl sulfate as a surfactant. The properties of the nanoparticles were characterized by particle size distribution and Raman scattering. A monomodal distribution, in the 150 – 200 nm range characterized the particle size of both phases after milling. Raman scattering revealed a common pattern for al...

Ashok Balasundaram: Cone beam Computed Tomography imaging of periodontal bone (Under the direction of Dr. André Mol) Cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) is a low-dose, low-cost three dimensional imaging modality used for several oral and maxillofacial applications. This project evaluated the accuracy of Cone-Beam CT imaging to assess periodontal alveolar bone. In Phase I, ground truth measurem...

Cell cycle inhibition is important hallmark of anti cancer research. CDKs are divided into two types based on their Cell cycle controlling and transcriptional control. CDK 9, a transcriptional regulator serves as potential drug target. Only few drugs are under clinical trials phase 1/2/3 of CDK 9 inhibitory potential. 3BLR (pdb id) is used as docking target. Virtual screening is carried out bas...

We present in-vitro sensing of glucose using a newly developed efficient optical fiber glucose sensor based on a Compound Parabolic Concentrator (CPC) tipped polymer optical fiber (POF). A batch of 9 CPC tipped POF sensors with a 35 mm fiber length is shown to have an enhanced fluorescence pickup efficiency with an average increment factor of 1.7 as compared to standard POF sensors with a plane...

Background Xenotransplantation involves the transplantation of nonhuman tissue or organs to humans. Worldwide shortage of organs for clinical applications has shifted the focus towards non-human sources. Pig represents a rich source of organ donors but the presence of porcine endogenous retroviruses (PERVs) represents a particular risk and considered as a major obstacle during xenotransplantati...

We report an integrated ultrasound (US) and optical coherence tomography (OCT) probe and system for intravascular imaging. The dual-function probe is based on a 50 MHz focused ring US transducer, with a centric hole for mounting OCT probe. The coaxial US and light beams are steered by a 45° mirror to enable coregistered US∕OCT imaging simultaneously. Lateral resolution of US is improved due to ...