mohsin ali

Egypt’s direct political contact with France during Napoleon’s rule over it produced new circumstances which led to the emergence of new patterns and horizons of relationship. It heralded into a new era of cultural encounter with the West via France which inaugurated the process of modernization in Egypt. The process of modernization started earlier during the period of Napoleon’s rule, however it was fully re-appropriated later on by Muhammad Ali, the architect of modern Egypt. This development brought about the following salient features of modernization in Egypt. First, it was no more externally imposed in character. Second, the Egyptian rulers independently presided over the process as well as the outcomes of the modernization project. Third, it instilled a new sense of national identity and the idea of modern nation which culminated into the emergence of the idea of Egyptian nation and nationalism, and finally it transformed Egypt into a land of renaissance in the entire Arab world and thus helped Egypt in becoming center of regional power and power politics. Though this paper is about the role of Muhammad Ali in introducing modernization process in Egypt and its consequences but it also takes the wider views of the subject under consideration.

The study of civilizations of South and Southeast Asia seem meaningless without an insight on Hinduism and Buddhism that exerted an enormous influence in the region before the arrival of Islam. The two beliefs, though originated in India, but contributed greatly to the development of socio-cultural relations among countries as far as Afghanistan in the west and China, Japan, and Indonesia in the east. About the beginning of the Common Era, Indian merchants may have settled there, bringing Hindu and Buddhist priests with them. These religious men were patronized by rulers who converted to Hinduism or Buddhism. The earliest material evidence of Hinduism in Southeast Asia comes from Borneo, where late 4th-century Sanskrit inscriptions testify to the performance of Vedic sacrifices at the behest of local chiefs. Chinese chronicles attest an Indianized kingdom in Vietnam two centuries earlier. The dominant form of Hinduism exported to Southeast Asia was Shaivism, though some Vaishnavism was also known there. The current study tries to explain how Hinduism and Buddhism could influence Socio-Cultural Relations between Pre-Islamic India and Afghanistan taking into account of historical records and inscriptions.

We report thermal, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and cytotoxicity studies of complexes of fluconazole (FCZ) with Cu (II), Fe(II), Cd(II), Co(II), Ni(II), and Mn(II). From XRD measurements, FCZ and its metal complexes were identified as polycrystalline. Marked differences in the X-ray patterns of drug and its metal complexes revealed that the complexes are indeed different compounds and not just the mixture of the starting materials. Unlike pristine FCZ, which did not exhibit cytotoxicity, three complexes derived from Fe(II), Cu(II) and Co (II) proved to be effective in the cytotoxicity assay. The Cu(II)-FCZ exhibited significant activity against SNB-19, HCT-15, COLO-205, and KB-3-1 cell lines, while Fe(II)-FCZ and Co(II)-FCZ were found cytotoxic only to KB-3-1 cell line. For the pure FCZ, thermogravimetry revealed massive weight loss in the temperature range of 215 to 297 °C, due to the volatilization of FCZ. All the complexes followed multi-stage degradation profiles, eventually resulting in the formation of metal oxides. For pure FCZ, differential scanning calorimetry revealed melting point at 137°C, followed by two further endothermic transitions at 294 °C and 498.44 °C representing the volatilization and subsequent degradation of FCZ, respectively. The absence of endothermic FCZ melting peak at around 137 °C indicates that the complexes represent different compounds. All complexes exhibit endothermic transitions at around 240-300 °C, representing melting and removal of ligand moiety, followed by another endothermic transition at around 498-499 °C, representing the ligand decomposition.

A novel Schiff base was synthesized by the reaction of piperonal and anthranilic acid, which was further utilized in the synthesis of five novel complexes by reaction with different metal salts ultrasonically. Time for the reaction was greatly reduced through ultrasound irradiations and the yield of reactions was also high as compared to the conventional methods using reflux conditions. The synthesized Schiff base and its metal complexes were characterized by spectroscopic techniques like UV-Visible, IR, and 1H NMR. The synthesized compounds were tested for their antibacterial and antioxidant activity. Good results were obtained in the case of antibacterial activities.

The interest in the synthesis of metallic complexes of different drugs to make them more efficient in biological environment of the human body is seen for the last few decades. Wide range of metal complexes are already used in clinical practice which encourages additional research for innovating new metal based drugs, such as metal-mediated antibiotics, antiparasitic, antiviral, antibacterial, and anticancer compounds. Tuberculosis has been known as one of the most disastrous disease putting burden on health system worldwide. Though the therapeutic agents to combat the disease are well practiced, emergence of multi drug resistant strains makes the treatment strategies more difficult. The following work aims to synthesize copper, ferrous, ferric, cobalt and manganese complexes of renowned anti tuberculosis drug, pyrazinamide (PZ). These compounds were tested for anti-tuberculosis using five multidrug resistant strain of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. For this purpose BACTEC MGIT 960 system was used. The drug PZ was also screened with the synthesized complexes. The two complexes of cobalt and manganese proved potent among all of the compounds tested.

Bacillus licheniformis RM44 was isolated from hot spring near Karachi and screened for the production of extracellular amylase Amy RM44. Amy RM44 was purified to homogeneity on a single step by affinity chromatography using insoluble corn starch. The molecular weight of Amy RM44 was estimated to be 66 kDa by SDS–PAGE and zymographic analysis. Nine fold purification was achieved with the specific activity of 870 U/mg that provides the total yield of the enzyme up to 31%. Studies on purified AmyRM44 characterization revealed that the optimum temperature of enzyme was 100 ºC. Amy RM44 was proved to be highly thermostable as it retained 50% activity after 2 h at 100 ºC. Amy RM44 was stable over wide range of pH with optimum activity at pH 5. Enzyme activity was not significantly inhibited by SDS and EDTA. Amy RM44 also exhibited its activity towards various carbohydrates such as dextrin, pullulan, α-cyclodextrin, β-cyclodextrin, and γ-cyclodextrin.

The aim of this study was to characterize the effect of typhoid fever on pharmacokinetic parameters of levofloxacin (LF) and compare the pharmacokinetic parameters of the said antibiotic in healthy human volunteers and patients with typhoid fever. Total of 12 subjects were divided into two groups “A” (healthy volunteers) and “B” (typhoid patients). Single oral dose of LF 500 mg was given and 5 mL of blood was collected from each subject at 0, 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 3, 6, 12, 24, 36 and 72 h. Plasma concentrations of LF were measured by HPLC. Pharmacokinetic parameters were calculated from plasma concentration-time data by using MW/PHARM pharmacological analysis. In healthy volunteers, the average pharmacokinetic parameters were as Cmax (6.79 μg/mL), Tmax (1.84 h), T½ (10.03 h), Ka (2.23 h-1), AUC (110.09 µgh/mL), Vd (85.84 L), Cl (4.57 L/h) and in typhoid patients were Cmax (6.90 μg/mL), Tmax (1.82 h), T½ (9.42 h), Ka (2.21 h-1), AUC (105.55 µgh/mL), Vd (64.31 L), Cl (4.75 L/h). The difference between pharmacokinetic parameters of LF in healthy human volunteers and typhoid patients was calculated by using unpaired t-test. As the p-value in case of all pharmacokinetic parameters was more than 0.05, the difference between pharmacokinetic parameters in both healthy human volunteers and typhoid patients was insignificant. It is concluded that there is no need to adjust the dose of LF in typhoid patients.