An IAD type framework for Blockchain enabled smart tourism ecosystem

The concept of smart tourism remains fuzzy when it comes to practice because of the lack of clarity on the roles and responsibilities of stakeholders in addition to complex institutional ecosystem that exist within the tourism industry. Further, trust and safety of the data generated due to the advancement of smart tourism in varied institutional arrangements pose huge challenges. Extant literature proposes that the application of decentralized ledger promises possible solutions to most of these problems due to the inherent features of the Blockchain technology. This suggestion raises two practical questions. First, does the sophisticated additional layer adds complexity to its practical application? Second, will the suggested solutions really lead to a win-win for all the stakeholders involved? In this study, we use Ostrom's action arena to examine the exchanges (information, contractual and monetary) between various stakeholders in a BCT enabled smart tourism of a Blockchain enabled tourism industry to answer these two questions.     

Arsenic-Induced Hepatic Toxicity and Its Attenuation by Fruit Extract of Emblica officinalis (Amla) in Mice

Arsenic a metalloid and environmental contaminated has been found to be associated with public health problems in the affected areas. It is naturally occurred in groundwater and its accumulation in plant and animals leads to toxicity in several tissues most notably hepatic organ. Arsenic exposures (3 mg/kg body weight/day for 30 days) in mice exhibited increased arsenic and Zn levels in hepatocytes associated with enhanced oxidative stress in hepatocytes while there were no significantly changes were observed in Cu level. An increase in the lipid peroxidation and decrease in the levels of reduced glutathione and activity of superoxide dismutase, catalase, and glutathione peroxidase were observed in arsenic treated mice as compared to controls. Arsenic exposure in mice also caused a significant change in serum biomarkers in the SGOT, SGPT and creatinine as compared to the controls. There were no significant changes in the serum levels of total protein in these mice. Co-administration of arsenic and fruit extract of amla (500 mg/kg body weight/day for 30 days) caused a significant reduction of arsenic transference associated with significantly decreases hepatic arsenic levels and balanced the antioxidant enzyme and levels of serum hepatic enzymes like SGOT and SGPT. The results of the present study clearly demonstrate the antioxidant property of amla that could be responsible for its protective efficacy in arsenic induced hepatic toxicity.     

Serum Lactate Dehydrogenase in Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma: A Prognostic Indicator

Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma constitutes a group of disorders originating from the malignant transformation of lymphocytes and involving either the lymph nodes or extranodal sites. NHL commonly presents in the sixth to seventh decade of life with a male preponderance (50–75 %). Recent studies have shown importance of serum LDH in prognosis of NHL. Authors report a case of a 63 year old male presenting with complaints of fever and backache for past 4 months. General and systemic examination revealed bilateral axillary lymphadenopathy and splenomegaly respectively. Serum LDH level was highly elevated (3441 U/l). Excisional axillary and bone marrow biopsy were done before oncology referral. Complete workup revealed diffuse Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma with bone marrow infiltration. Patient died because of acute renal failure due to NHL and DM 2 (Type 2 diabetes mellitus).     

Curcumin Suppresses the Production of Pro-inflammatory Cytokine Interleukin-18 in Lipopolysaccharide Stimulated Murine Macrophage-Like Cells

Curcumin is a major bioactive compound of turmeric that exerts its anti-inflammatory effects by suppressing the many pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines in a number of cell types and pathologic conditions. Interleukin-18 (IL-18) is a novel pro-inflammatory cytokine which plays an important role not only in generating Th1 responses but also in inducing severe inflammatory reactions. As curcumin induced inhibition of IL-18 production in keratinocytes and mice is well known, effect of curcumin on IL-18 release in macrophages remains unknown. Hence, this present study has been designed to evaluate the effect of curcumin on IL-18 production and necrotic cell death in murine macrophages-like cells treated with or without lipopolysaccharide (LPS). The IL-18 secretion in cell culture supernatants was assayed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and cytotoxicity was determined by lactate dehydrogenase release assay. Our results demonstrate that curcumin significantly inhibited the production of pro-inflammatory cytokine IL-18 in E.coli LPS stimulated murine macrophage-like cells RAW264.7 in a concentration-dependent manner. Interestingly, curcumin had no cytotoxic effect on murine macrophage-like cells. Our findings suggest that curcumin may be used as a potential therapeutic agent for the treatment of inflammatory diseases.     

Plasma vitamin E status in head and neck cancers

Plasma vitamin E and malondialdehyde (MDA) concentrations were estimated in a group of 25 patients (17 males and 8 females) with head and neck cancer and the results were compared with a group of normal healthy controls. Plasma vitamin E levels were found to be significantly reduced while MDA levels were increased in patients than the controls. The fall in vitamin E was nearly same in all the patients studied irrespective of the site, TNM stage, histopathology and character of lesion. The levels did not vary immediately after radiotherapy but were significantly increased 3 months after the radiotherapy. These preliminary data suggest that the cancer patients have suboptimal vitamin E status which may be a contributory factor for increased lipid peroxidation in such cases.     

Effects of some antituberculous and anti-leprotic drugs on cathepsins B,H and L

The cysteine proteinases like cathepsins B, L and H are main hydrolytic enzymes present in lysosomes and play an important role in intracellular protein degradation. Tuberculosis and leprosy, both are tissue- destructive diseases. Main drugs used in chemotherapy of these diseases may inhibit the main lysosomal cysteine proteinases i.e. cathepsins B, L and H released during tissue destruction and thus prevent the further destruction of tissue by these enzymes. So the aim of this study is to see the effect of antituberculous and antileprotic drugs on these proteolytic enzymes. The effect of commonly used antituberculous and antileprotic drugs was screened on the activities of purified brain lysosomal cysteine proteinases namely cathepsins B [EC 3.4.22.1], L [EC 3.4.22.15] and H [EC 3.4.22.16]. Among the antileprotic drugs, only clofazimine inhibited the enzymic activities whereas dapsone had no effect whatsoever. In antituberculous drugs, rifampicin was the most inhibitory while isoniazid had little inhibitory potency. Streptomycin and pyrazinamide did not effect the activities at all. As regards the mechanism of inhibition, clofazimine and isoniazid inhibited the enzymes in a non-competitive manner with K values of 0.25 mM and 5.0 mM for cathepsin B, 0.071 mM and 0.833 mM for cathepsin L and 1.513 mM and 0.885 mM for cathepsin H, While rifampicin could effect in a competitive manner with K_i values of 0.03 mM, 0.125 mM and 0.027 mM for cathepsin B, L and H respectively.     

Contextualized mobile game-based learning application for computing education

This paper intends to present an overview of a mobile game-based learning application, BaghLearn that develops and upskills programming and algorithmic knowledge by cross-curricular capabilities through a traditional world-based game. The focus of this research was to explore the learning effectiveness of BaghLearn on students. Mixed method research approach was applied to collect, process and analyze the research data in which undergraduate students who had some prior knowledge or had taken algorithm courses were instructed to test the mobile game learning application. This study exhibits the idea of integrating learning with contextual mobile game as an effective approach in understanding the influence of games towards cognitive achievements of students in computing education. In addition, there are no major requirements for the use of this application (can be maintained in resource-constrained contexts such as Nepal), which makes it expressively satisfying and useful for students who are relentlessly using mobile devices. Besides, this study evaluated the influence of BaghLearn towards learning of the design and analysis of algorithm course, which is a compulsory course for most undergraduate computing education program. Furthermore, the study findings can be used as a guideline for developing learning solutions and usability evaluation of such solutions, especially for infrastructure-constrained contexts. Students using the BaghLearn opined that the application is easy to use, supportive and lead to improved learning satisfaction.

     

Rapid Detection of Mutation in RRDR of <Emphasis Type="Italic">rpo B</Emphasis> Gene for Rifampicin Resistance in MDR-Pulmonary Tuberculosis by DNA Sequencing

To detect the site of mutation in RRDR of rpo B gene for rifampicin resistance in MDR-TB by DNA sequencing. 50 MDR-TB patients were enrolled in our study after informed written consent. Mycobacterial DNA was extracted from sputum samples by Universal Sample Processing (USP) method and RRDR of rpo B gene was amplified by PCR using primers RP4T and RP8T and then sequenced by automated DNA sequencing. The nucleotide sequences of RRDR of rpo B gene were compared with the reference sequence. We observed three different types of mutation in the RRDR of rpo B gene. The frequency of mutation in codon 531 (TCG → TTG), 526 (CAC → TAC) and 516 (GAC → GTC) are 60, 26.6 and 6.6% respectively. Of the total cases studied, 6.6% cases, although resistant to rifampicin, did not show any mutation in the RRDR of rpo B gene. Codon 531 (TCG → TTG) is the most common site of mutation in RRDR of rpo B gene for rifampicin resistance in MDR-pulmonary tuberculosis followed by codon 526 (CAC → TAC) and codon 516 (GAC → GTC).