The key objective of the present project was to study the preventive and curative effects of some natural products in a rat model of kidney stone disease. The first part of this thesis includes results of in vitro studies in which Boerhavia diffusa (Linn.) and Bryophyllum pinnatum (Lam.) exhibited anti-kidney stone activity by inhibiting the crystallization of calcium oxalate monohydrate crystals. A well known natural product, caffeic acid (1), was also evaluated for its in vitro antiurolithic activity, which showed a protective effect against the formation of calcium oxalate monohydrate crystals. Compound I has been obtained from various medicinal plants, including B. pinnatum (Lam.). In the second part, in vivo studies showed that B. pinnatum (Lam.) is a potent antiurolithic herb in ethylene glycol-induced urolithic rats. Twenty four hours urine analysis of the preventive group showed significant effects of herbal treatment on the urinary citrate (**p < 0.01), oxalate (**p < 0.01), calcium (*p < 0.05), magnesium (***p < 0.001), urea (***p < 0.001), and creatinine (**p < 0.01) levels. The curative treatment of rats with B. pinnatum extract also significantly regulated the altered urinary levels of citrate (***p < 0.001), oxalate (**p < 0.01), calcium (***p < 0.001), magnesium (***p < 0.001), urea (***p < 0.001), and creatinine (**p < 0.01). Similarly, caffeic acid (1) significantly regulated the pathologically altered levels of citrate (*p < 0.05) and oxalate (**p < 0.01) in the urine. Histopathological studies also revealed the protective effects of Bryophyllum pinnatum (Lam.) extract, and caffeic acid (1) on renal architecture. The third part comprised molecular studies in which renal tissues of rats from different groups were processed for RNA isolation, cDNA synthesis, reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), agarose gel electrophoresis, and real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR). B. pinnatum (Lam.) extract increased the expression of prothrombin fragment 1 (*p < 0.05), bikunin (*p < 0.05), and Tamm-Horsfall genes (*p < 0.05), while it decreased the renal expression of osteopontin gene ((*p < 0.05), in comparison to the pathological control. In case of caffeic acid (1), prominent effects were observed where the expression of bikunin (*p < 0.05), prothrombin fragment 1 (*p < 0.05), and Tamm-Horsfall (**p < 0.01) increased significantly, while that of osteopontin gene (**p < 0.01) significantly decreased as compared to the pathological control. The results of western blotting also indicated that caffeic acid (1) has the potential to affect the expression of prothrombin fragment 1 at the protein level. The outcomes of this study could help to understand the possible molecular mechanism behind the antiurolithic effects of related natural products, and to investigate their therapeutic potential. A bioassay-guided isolation of secondary metabolites from these plants needs to be conducted in order to identify compounds responsible of the antiurolithic activity.
ڈاکٹر سید ابراہیم ندوی مرحوم ماہ جون میں جامعہ عثمانیہ حیدرآباد کے شعبہ عربی کے صدر اور ندوۃ العلماء کے ایک لایق فرزند ڈاکٹر سید محمد ابراہیم ندوی کے انتقال کی خبر بھی علمی و دینی حلقوں میں بڑے رنج و غم کے ساتھ سنی گئی، ابھی ان کی عمر تقریباً پچاس برس تھی۔ ان کا اصل وطن استھانواں ضلع پٹنہ ہے، یہاں انکا خاندان اپنے علم و فضل کی وجہ سے نمایاں تھا، ان کے دادا مولانا محمد احسن استھانوی اپنے وقت کے اچھے اہل علم و قلم تھے اور ان کے والد مولانا سید ہاشم ندوی بھی ذی علم بزرگ تھے جو تلاش معاش کے لیے حیدر آباد گئے اور وہیں دائرۃ المعارف سے وابستہ ہوئے، تاریخ کامل ابن اثیر حصہ دوم کا ترجمہ ان کی محنت و کاوش کا نتیجہ ہے جس کو دارالترجمہ نے ۲۷ء میں شایع کیا، عرصہ تک دائرۃ المعارف کی عربی کتابیں ان کی تصحیح و حواشی کے ساتھ چھپتی رہیں جس کے آخر میں وہ ناظم بھی ہوگئے تھے، ابن ورید کی المجتنیٰ شایع ہوئی تو اس میں صاحب کتاب کے سوانح انھوں نے دیدہ ریزی سے لکھے جس کی تحسین مولانا سید سلیمان ندویؒ نے کی، انھوں نے اپنے فرزند سید ابراہیم کو دارالعلوم ندوۃ العلما میں تعلیم کے لیے بھیجا جنھوں نے بعد میں ایم۔ اے، پی۔ایچ۔ڈی کی ڈگری بھی حاصل کی اور عثمانیہ یونیورسٹی میں صدر شعبہ عربی کے عہدہ تک ترقی کی مگر ان کی عالمانہ وضع قطع میں فرق نہیں آیا، اپنی پاک و صاف زندگی کی وجہ سے انھوں نے اپنے خاندان اور ادارہ کے نام نیک میں اضافہ ہی کیا، رابطہ ادب اسلامی کے رکن کی حیثیت سے انھوں نے استنبول ترکی کے ایک اہم اجتماع میں شرکت کی، یونیورسٹی کی جانب سے بھی وہ مذاکروں اور مباحثوں میں شریک ہوتے رہے،...
Over the years, Mauritanian Moorish women have managed to have their own poetry, an oral literature known locally as "tebrāʕ" translated into French by the word "ingenuity", sometimes also "invention". It is a love poetry originally used by girls or by women in general to express feelings that social norms prevent them from manifesting publicly. Tebrāʕ is deeper than a mere female expression of passion, it is rather a social and psychological state of mind that empowers women and helps them break taboos virtually for a short period of time. This article is an analytical reading of Tebrāʕ and presents new models and ways of examining this oral literature. It tries also to answer several questions which can be summarized as follows: Can this form of poetry be considered as a female literature? The closed circle where these words are composed and pronounced, can it be considered a therapy session? And above all, what power do these women and girls derive from this practice? This article is also a study of the perception of men and women in Mauritania in relation to this oral art practice based
Estimating and forecasting the term structure of interest rate is a challenging task since various models(Vasicek, Clk, Nelson Siegel, etc.) exist and all models have their merits and demerits. For example, the Vasicek and Clk models, as opposed to the Nelson Siegel model, impose the desirable absence of arbitrage restriction; however, the Nelson Siegel model renders a better empirical fit as compared to the Clk and Vasicek models. The Arbitrage Free Nelson Siegelmodel by combining the empirical attractiveness of the original Nelson Siegel model and the no-arbitrage condition is considered better in terms of in-sample fit and forecasting performance to the original Nelson Siegel model. The study aims to compare the in-sample fit and out-sample forecasting performance of the three-factor Vasicek, Clk, and AFNS models in the state-space framework in the context of Pakistan's bond market, a scenario rarely considered in the literature. The study concludes that the 3 factor Clk model has better in-sample performance than the AFNS and Vasicek models. Moreover, the Random Walk model has better forecasting performance than all three models, but the Clk model has better out-sample results than the AFNS and Vasicek models. The Vasicek model has the poorest performance compared to all models in terms of in-sample and out-sample