Effect of Yoga on the Stress, Anxiety, and Depression of COVID-19-Positive Patients: A Quasi-Randomized Controlled Study.

The spread of COVID-19 has resulted in reports of increase in stress, anxiety, and depression across society, especially in people who have tested positive for COVID-19, which affects their mental health and well-being. This article reports a quasi-randomized controlled study conducted in the COVID wards of a hospital to examine the efficacy of add-on yoga intervention in reducing stress, anxiety, and depression in COVID-affected patients under quarantine. The peripheral capillary oxygen saturation level and heart rate of the COVID-19-affected patients were also measured. A total of 62 COVID-19-positive patients participated in the study. The participants were randomized into a control group (n = 31), which received conventional medical treatment alone, and a yoga intervention group (n = 31), which received 50 minutes of yoga intervention along with the conventional medical treatment. Standardized Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 Item, Patient Health Questionnaire-9, and Perceived Stress Scale were administered at the beginning and end of the quarantine period. A significant decrease in stress, anxiety, and depression was observed in the patients who undertook the add-on yoga intervention. There was also a significant decrease in anxiety in the control group, but the intervention group had a larger decrease compared to the control group. Further significant improvements in oxygen saturation and heart rate levels were observed in the group of patients who were practicing yoga, but no significant improvement was observed in the control group. Findings of this study suggest that yoga intervention can be an effective add-on practice in reducing stress, anxiety, and depression levels of COVID-19 patients.

Effect of Tribulus terrestris in mercuric chloride-induced renal accumulation of mercury and nephrotoxicity in rat.

Mercury generates free radicals and subsequently increases oxidative stress, which leads to renal injury. Tribulus terrestris (TT) has good anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. Hydroalcoholic extract of different dose of TT was evaluated against mercuric chloride-induced nephrotoxicity. Rats (n = 6) were treated with TT at doses of 100, 200, and 300 mg/kg. Drugs were administered orally for 7 days. Single dose of mercuric chloride (5 mg/kg, intraperitoneal) on the 5th day caused significant elevation of blood urea nitrogen, serum creatinine, malondialdehyde, liver fatty acid binding protein, kidney injury molecule-1, and kidney mercury level and fall in glutathione, superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase, and histopathological changes in disease control as compared to normal control group (P < 0.001). Dose of TT 200 and 300 mg/kg significantly (P < 0.001) prevented the renal injury, and mercury accumulation in kidney tissues significantly decreases in higher dose, i.e., 300 mg/kg as compared to control group. Our result indicates that the treatment of TT exerted significant protection against renal damage induced by mercuric chloride possibly due to its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties and by decreasing the renal accumulation of mercury.

Chromium Influenced High Magnetic Moment and Half-Metallic Nature of GaN Nanotube.

Density functional theory-based calculations have been performed to analyze the electronic and magnetic properties of chromium doped (6, 0) GaN nanotube. The structural stability of GaN nano-tube has been defined in terms of formation energy, which increases as a function of magnetic impurity (Cr). The study demonstrates that the direct band gap semiconducting GaN nanotube transforms to half-metallic as a function of Cr introduction to GaN. This half metallic nature with high magnetic moment of Cr doped GaN nanotube can be a key parameter for its use in spintronics applications.

In vitro antioxidant activity of Rubus ellipticus fruits.

Various studies have been done to identify antioxidants from plant sources and efforts have been taken to incorporate it in conventional therapy. In our present study, petroleum ether, ethanolic, and aqueous extracts of Rubus ellipticus fruits have been evaluated for in vitro antioxidant activity using DPPH radical scavenging and reducing power assay. BHA was used as a standard antioxidant for DPPH radical scavenging activity. The reducing power assay of extracts was carried out with ascorbic acid as a standard reducing agent. All the analysis was made with the use of UV-Visible spectrophotometer. The results of the both assay showed that all the extracts of R. ellipticus fruits possess significant free radical scavenging and reducing power properties at concentration-dependent manner. Hence, it can be concluded that the R. ellipticus fruits could be pharmaceutically exploited for antioxidant properties.

Electronic and structural properties of group III nitrides and phosphides using density functional theory.

In recent years group III nitrides have gained recognition as being the most important materials for optoelectronics and electronics applications. The zinc-blende modification of GaN and AlN is receiving much attention over their wurtzite structure. Our present work deals with the detailed ab initio calculations of group III nitrides and phosphides in the zinc-blende phase. The plane wave pseudopotential approach is used to study the different properties of the material based on the concept of density functional theory (DFT). The converged plane wave cut-off energy (E(cut)) is used to set the number of plane waves, which varies from material to material. The calculated energy bandgaps are based on our theoretical equilibrium lattice constants. Our reported energy bandgap for InN (0.86 eV) is in good agreement with the recently reported experimental result (>0.7 eV and<1.0 eV).