Assessment of Blood Glucose and Calcium Concentrations Among healthy female volunteers Blood glucose & calcium in females

Abstract: Hypoglycemia and Hyperglycemia are associated with a number of complications including kidney damage, neurological damage, cardiovascular damage,  damage to the retina or damage to feet and legs,  lethargy, impaired mental functioning and irritability. The most abundant mineral in the body is calcium. Its abnormal levels also associated with multiple disorders. Objectives: The aim of this study was to assess the blood glucose and calcium levels in healthy female volunteersMethods: A cross sectional study was conducted at the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Lahore, over a period of 6 months, after obtaining the ethical approval from the The University of Lahore. A total number of 60 females were enrolled through consecutive sampling technique. Females of all age groups were included. All of the females had gone through routine history taking and lab investigations for the assessment of blood glucose an calcium concentrations. Results: In this study out 60 female participants, 33.3% were between ages of 15-30 years, 33.3% were between age of 31-50 years and remaining 33.3% were above 50 years old. All females of age group 15-30 years had normal glucose levels while single case of age group 15-30 years had abnormal calcium level. The results indicated that females of above age 50 years had low calcium and high glucose levels due to poor nutrition and less physical activity. Conclusions: The results of the current study showed that females with increasing age should intake food enriched in calcium and low glucose and adopt a physically active life style to manage normal blood glucose levels.

Synthesis and Characterization of Nanoparticles Added Cutl-Based Superconductors

Low anisotropic (Cu 0.5 Tl 0.5 )Ba 2 Ca 2 Cu 3 O 10-δ (CuTl-1223) phase of Cu 1-x Tl x Ba 2 Ca 2 Cu 3 O 10- δ [CuTl-12(n-1)n]; n=1, 2, 3, ... high temperature superconducting (HTSC) family was synthesized by solid-state reaction method. Nanoparticles (NPs) were prepared separately by different techniques (i.e. co-precipitation, sol-gel, and colloidal solution methods). Different kinds and sizes of NPs such as non-magnetic metallic (Ag, Au), non-magnetic metallic oxide (Al 2 O 3 ) and magnetic ferrite (CoFe 2 O 4 ) were added with different wt.% during the final sintering process of CuTl-1223 superconducting matrix to get the required (NPs) x /CuTl-1223 nanoparticles-superconducting composites. These composites were characterized by different experimental techniques such as x-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy dispersive x-ray (EDX) spectroscopy, resistivity versus temperature measurements, critical current density (J c ) measurements, magnetic ac-susceptibility measurements, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy etc. The experimental data were analyzed by different well established theoretical models such as Aslamazov-Larkin (AL), Lawerence-Doniach (LD) and Maki-Thompson (MT) models. It was observed that tetragonal structure and stoichiometry of the host CuTl-1223 superconducting phase remained unaltered after the addition of these NPs, which indicates about the occupancy of these NPs at the inter-granular spaces. Non-magnetic metallic NPs (Ag, Au) have improved the superconducting transport properties (T c , J c , etc) up to certain optimum concentration of these NPs in CuTl-1223 matrix. The improvement in the superconducting properties can be attributed to an increase in the inter-grains connectivity by healing up the inter-grains voids and pores after the addition of these NPs. The improved inter-grains connections can facilitate the carriers transport processes across the inter-crystallite sites due to their metallic nature. But the superconducting volume fraction starts to be decreased after certain optimum inclusion level of these non-magnetic non-superconducting metallic NPs, which causes the suppression of superconductivity parameters. The effects of highly coercive cobalt ferrite (CoFe 2 O 4 ) nanoparticles addition on superconducting properties of CuTl-1223 matrix were also explored. The magnetic behavior of CoFe 2 O 4 nanoparticles was determined by MH-loops with the help of superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID). The resistivity versus temperature measurements showed an increase in T c (0), which could be most probably due to improvement of weak-links by the addition of these nanoparticles. The increase of mass density with xxviincreasing content of these NPs can also be an evidence of filling up the voids in the matrix. But the addition of these NPs beyond an optimum level caused the agglomeration and produced additional stresses in material and suppressed the superconductivity. We observed non- monotonic variation of superconducting properties after the inclusion of nano-Al 2 O 3 particles, which can be associated with inhomogeneous distribution of these NPs at the grain-boundaries in CuTl-1223 matrix. But overall suppression of superconducting properties was attributed to a pair-breaking mechanism caused by reflection/scattering of carriers across these insulating nano- Al 2 O 3 particles present at the grain-boundaries of the host CuTl-1223 matrix. The presence of Al 2 O 3 nanoparticles at the grain-boundaries possibly reduced the number of flux pinning centers, which were present in the form of weak-links in pure CuTl-1223 superconducting matrix. The suppression of activation energy {U (eV)} may be due to weak flux pinning in the nano-Al 2 O 3 particles added samples. The superconducting microscopic parameters (i.e. zero temperature coherence length along c-axis {xc (0)}, inter-layer coupling (J), inter-grain coupling (a) etc.) deduced from fluctuation induced conductivity (FIC) analysis with the help of above mentioned theoretical models explained the experimental findings very well. For example, the increase in the values of inter-grain coupling (a) deduced from FIC analysis is a theoretical evidence of improved inter-grain coupling in the host CuTl-1223 matrix with the increased contents of these nanoparticles. We also calculated the activation energy {U (eV)} of (NPs) x /CuTl-1223 nanoparticles-superconducting composites. The increase in T c (0), J c , U (eV) etc and decrease in normal state resistivity {ρ 300 K (Ω-cm)} were observed after the addition Ag, Au and CoFe 2 O 4 NPs in CuTl-1223 superconducting phase. The suppression of superconducting properties (i.e. T c (0), J c , U (eV) etc) after the addition of Al 2 O 3 nanoparticles in host CuTl-1233 superconducting matrix was observed.