Effect of Azadirachta indica leaf extracts on duration of oestrous cycle of adult rats was studied. The extract (200 mg/kg) induced cornified phase of the cycle which persisted till the last day of treatment. Possible reasons behind the results are discussed.

Phenological data have recently emerged as particularly effective tools for studying the impact of climate change on plants, but long phenological records are rare. The lack of phenological observations can nevertheless be filled by herbarium specimens as long as some correction procedures are applied to take into account the different climatic conditions associated with sampling locations. In ...

The antimicrobial effect of the mastic tree (Pistacia atlantica) under in vitro conditions has been reported. Therefore, it is of interest to evaluate the effect of the plant leaf extract (aqueous) on bacterial load in mouth and saliva. The leaf of the Pistacia atlantica plant was collected and cleaned, dried at 40⁰c and then powdered. The extraction was carried out using the maceration method ...

The application of photonics to astronomy offers major advantages in the area of highly-multiplexed spectroscopy, especially when applied to extremely large telescopes. These include the suppression of the near-infrared night-sky spectrum [J. Bland-Hawthorn et al, Opt. Express 12, 5902 (2004), S. G. Leon-Saval et al, Opt. Lett. 30, 2545 (2005)] and the miniaturisation of spectrographs so that t...

We measure momentum transferred from a single pulse of a standing wave of light to a sample of ultracold sodium atoms, and observe a sharp increase in the momentum transfer when the pulse duration exceeds a critical value tcr . A classical analysis of nonlinear resonances shows that resonance overlap occurs at tcr , and there is a transition to global classical chaos. These results are a direct...

alphabeta and gammadelta T cell lineages develop in the thymus from a common precursor. It is unclear at which stage of development commitment to these lineages takes place and in which way T cell receptor signaling contributes to the process. Recently, it was demonstrated that strong TCR signals favor gammadelta lineage development, whereas weaker TCR signals promote alphabeta lineage fate. Tw...

Introduction: Our previous studies showed that hydroalcoholic extract of leaf of Vitis vinifera relaxes the phenylephrine-induced contraction in rat thoracic aorta. This effect was dependent on endothelial integrity and NO-cGMP system. The vasorelaxant effect of extract was much lesser on KCl-induced contraction. We, therefore, postulated that K+ channels are involved. The main aim of the prese...

The mechanism by which the ligand occupancy state of the T cell receptor complex is converted into intracellular signaling information has been a controversial topic. Although the majority of structural studies argue against a conformational change, recent studies support the possibility for such a change within the CD3 components of the TCR complex. In this commentary, the evidence for TCR con...

BACKGROUND The common usage of chewing sticks prepared from Neem tree (Azadirachta indica) in India suggests its potential efficacy in periodontal diseases. The objective of this study is to explore the antibacterial effects of Neem leaf extract on the periodontophatic bacteria Porphyromonas gingivalis and Fusobacterium nucleatum, and its antioxidant capacities alone and in combination with bac...