Clinical evaluation of purified Shilajit on testosterone levels in healthy volunteers.

Purified Shilajit, an Ayurvedic rasayana, was evaluated in healthy volunteers of age between 45 and 55 years for its effect on male androgenic hormone viz. testosterone in a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical study at a dose of 250 mg twice a day. Treatment with Shilajit for consecutive 90 days revealed that it has significantly (P < 0.05) increased total testosterone, free testosterone and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEAS) compared with placebo. Gonadotropic hormones (LH and FSH) levels were well maintained.

Towards a smart non-invasive fluid loss measurement system.

In this article, a smart wireless sensing non-invasive system for estimating the amount of fluid loss, a person experiences while physical activity is presented. The system measures three external body parameters, Heart Rate, Galvanic Skin Response (GSR, or skin conductance), and Skin Temperature. These three parameters are entered into an empirically derived formula along with the user's body mass index, and estimation for the amount of fluid lost is determined. The core benefit of the developed system is the affluence usage in combining with smart home monitoring systems to care elderly people in ambient assisted living environments as well in automobiles to monitor the body parameters of a motorist.

Assessment of pelt quality in leather making using a novel non-invasive sensing approach.

Excessive removal of structural material from skin during leather processing results in unattractive crease formation in leather. It is difficult to detect this in pelts at an early processing stage as it only becomes really apparent once the skin is made into leather. There would be great advantages in detecting the problem at the pickled pelt stage (skins treated with sodium sulphide and lime, bated with enzymes, and then preserved in NaCl and sulphuric acid) so that adjustments to the processing could be made to mitigate the effect. A novel bio-sensor for inspection of pickled lamb pelts has been fabricated and developed. The sensor has the planar Interdigital structure. The experimental results show that the sensor has a great potential to predict the quality of leather in a non-invasive and non-destructive way.

Studies on central nervous system function in diabetes mellitus.

Fifty-seven insulin dependent (IDDM) and non-insulin dependent (NIDDM) diabetic patients and 25 controls were studied. Patients with history of strokes, hypoglycaemia, hearing impairment, diabetic retinopathy, etc, were excluded. Clinical examination of central nervous system (CNS) and computerised tomography scan of brain were absolutely normal in all cases. Neuroelectrophysiological tests done were the visual evoked potential (VEP), brainstem auditory evoked response (BAER) and somatosensory evoked potential (SEP). The mean VEP latency was significantly raised in both NIDDM and IDDM compared with controls. The mean BAER and SEP latencies were both significantly raised in NIDDM but not in IDDM. The percentage of cases with abnormally raised CNS latencies were as follows: In NIDDM, VEP-16.7%, BAER-50% and SEP-26.7%; in IDDM, VEP-11.1%, BAER-14.8% and SEP-18.5%. Thus, subclinical CNS dysfunction is common in diabetes mellitus particularly in NIDDM and this can be reliably detected by measuring the CNS latencies, specially VEP.