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Magnetic Nanoparticles for Self-Controlled Hyperthermia Applications
No full textIn this thesis different magnetic nanoparticle systems have been investigated with the objective of finding materials most suited to self-controlled hyperthermia applications. This requires materials with Curie temperature close to the therapeutic limit of 42 - 47 °C together with large heat dissipation in RF magnetic fields. These two objectives are usually difficult to achieve in a given system. Therefore three different approaches have been used to address the problem; these include tuning exchange interactions, modifying magnetic anisotropy and reducing dipolar interactions between magnetic nanoparticles. \ud
Different nanoparticle systems viz. La1-xSrxMnO3 and mixed phase composites based on SrFe12O19 and MgFe2O4 and ZrO2 have been investigated in this context. In case of the strontium doped lanthanum manganite La1-xSrxMnO3 nanoparticle system, the exchange interactions and thereby the magnetic properties have been tuned by varying the Sr content x in the range 0.15 - 0.45. It was found that both magnetic and thermomagnetic behaviors are governed by the strontium content x. The saturation magnetization, coercivity and SAR vary non-monotonically with x. The measured SAR was found to be in close agreement with theoretically determined values obtained using the linear response theory (LRT). \ud
In the second approach using this system, the effect of particle size on magnetic anisotropy of La1-xSrxMnO3 with x lying in the range of 0.20 ? x ? 0.45 has been investigated. Magnetic properties such as saturation magnetization and Curie temperature were found to increase with the increase in particle size for each concentration. The measured SAR is maximum for particles lying in the range 25 - 30 nm for all values of x. Good agreement was found between the experimental and theoretically determined values of the SAR for samples lying in the single domain regime and having the largest anisotropy energies. It was therefore concluded that the effective anisotropy is the key parameter determining the SAR of in La1-xSrxMnO3 nanoparticles. Also, the LRT can be successfully used to calculate the SAR of these nanoparticles, provided they possess large enough effective anisotropies. \ud
Mixed phase composites based on magnetically hard SrFe12O19 and soft MgFe2O4 have been investigated by varying the weight percentage of the constituent phases whereby ZrO2 was used as a non-magnetic component. Room temperature magnetization measurements of the samples show significant variation in saturation magnetization, coercivity and remanence depending on the amount of the highly anisotropic Sr-hexaferrite phase. The composite samples show significant magnetothermia effect as opposed to pure SrFe12O19 in which no heating could be observed. This is due to the remarkable softening in the magnetic behaviour of pure SrFe12O19 upon addition of small amounts of the soft-magnetic MgFe2O4 and the nonmagnetic ZrO2, making these composites suitable for magnetic hyperthermia.\ud
The effect of reducing dipolar interactions on the SAR was investigated in MgFe2O4 and ZrO2 composite nanoparticles with different weight percentages of ZrO2. The objective of introducing ZrO2, a biocompatible ceramic, was to prevent MgFe2O4 nanoparticles from aggregation and to reduce interparticle magnetic dipolar interactions in order to enhance the specific absorption rate (SAR). The blocking temperature and coercivity were significantly reduced in the composite samples by increasing the content of ZrO2 phase, indicating a decrease in interparticle interactions. This is an important finding from the point of view of biomedical applications, because ZrO2 in known to have low toxicity and high biocompatibility in comparison to that of ferrites. The reduced dipolar interactions were found to play a pivotal role in enhancing hyperthermia and we therefore, suggest the suitability of these composites as efficient mediators for magnetic hyperthermia
Evaluation of newer drugs (Linezolid & Meropenem) and classical second line drugs (Amikacin & Levofloxacin) in clinical isolates of MDR-TB utilizing broth based Bactec MGIT 960 technique
No full textWith the increase in MDR-TB strains around the globe, there has been an urgent need to carry out drug susceptibility to first and second line antituberculosis drugs. It is imperative that treatment of patients suffering from drug resistant TB should be carried out based on quick, reliable and quantitative measure of susceptibility testing. This endeavor is a cornerstone for prevention of resistance in treatment of tuberculosis and a way forward for optimal exploitation of the available antituberculosis drugs (Mukherjee et al., 2004). The increase in MDR-TB rates has lead to pressing demands for appropriate treatment with second line antituberculosis drugs and need to find newer compounds with potential in vitro activity against MDR-TB. A number of antimicrobial compounds i.e. Linezolid, Levofloxacin, Moxifloxacin, Carbepenems and Amoxicillin/ clavulananic acid have been considered as potentially active agents against MDR-TB (Schectoret al., 2009; Wong et al., 1988; Bozeman et al., 2005).\ud
The reliable drug susceptibility testing method provides us with detailed knowledge on quantitative drug resistance pattern which ultimately paves the way for empirical treatment of drug resistant tuberculosis. During the last decade or so MGIT 960 system has been extensively studied and validated for susceptibility testing of first line antituberculosis drugs (Bemer et al., 2002). The multicentre laboratory validation of the BACTEC MGIT 960 technique for testing susceptibilities of M. tuberculosis to classical second line drugs and newer antimicrobials (Rusch-Gerdes et al., 2006) has provided us with a guideline for resource poor countries like Pakistan to endeavor testing such compounds against our local isolates.\ud
According to WHO global report 2013, tuberculosis culture facility in Pakistan is possible in only seven laboratories accounting to 0.2 laboratory per 5 million population while in whole country only four laboratories can perform drug susceptibilities accounting to only 0.1 laboratory per 5 million population. To add fuel to the fire, Pakistan also could not achieve the target of having at least one centre for carrying out smear microscopy under the WHO global plan to stop TB 2011-2015 (WHO, 2013 ). In the backdrop of such sorry state of affairs our laboratory was one of the very few in Pakistan with capacity to carry out DST to first and second line antituberculosis drugs (Ghafoor et al., 2014)). With the aim of finding the susceptibility pattern to classical second line and newer investigational drugs, it was challenge to embark upon journey on the guidelines provided by validation studies
Impact of Climate and Urbanization on Dengue Transmission in Different Regions (Lahore, Karachi and Twin Cities) of Pakistan
No full textPakistan has experienced worst environmental impacts of heavy rains and flooding during the last decade. These extreme environmental conditions became responsible for the outbreak of many fatal diseases like the sudden outbreak of dengue fever in different cities of Pakistan. The high death toll in Lahore city as a result of dengue fever during the year 2011 became an awakening signal to look into the mysteries and myths behind this disease. The present research intended to study the physical environments that have been responsible to cause the sudden mega outbreak of dengue fever during 2011 in Lahore. The comparison of climatic and social covariates of four selected cities of Pakistan (Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore, and Karachi) has conducted for the years 2009-2012 to analyze the factors that serve and do not serve the spread of dengue fever in urban areas. The reasons and regions of higher risk of dengue fever transmission have been identified by land use classification, processing of digital elevation models, and analyzing the climate and social covariates. Landsat 30 m TM imagery, SPOT 10 m imagery, and SRTM 90 m DEM have been used for the analysis. The Dengue fever case registry, climatic data sets, travelling data, population data, and malaria case registry for the study period have been acquired from respective national departments. The land use classification has done to analyze the change in urbanization over a period of time. DEMs have been processed to identify the drainage patterns and magnitude of drainage density in study areas. The changes in climate covariates like rainfall, temperature, and wind speed; social covariates like population, travelling, change in urbanization, drainage density and patterns have also been analyzed. A macro level study to understand the dengue transmission in urban environmental gradients has conducted comprising the analyses of flow accumulation, drainage pattern, drainage density, change in population, change in urbanization, dengue incidence during 2009-2012, and climate covariates. A micro level study to understand the dengue transmission and identifying the high risk prone localities has conducted comprising the hotspot analysis, outlier analysis, and regression analysis. Furthermore, the relationship of daily dengue fever incidence with climate covariates during the months of July-October for the year 2011 has also analyzed. The aspect of relationship of dengue fever occurrence with other factors and malaria has analyzed to fill the research gap. The relationship between the occurrences of dengue fever and Malaria, dengue fever and flooding, dengue fever and population, and dengue fever and travelling in the study areas for the years 2009-2012 have been taken into account. Linear Regression Model, Generalized Linear Mixed Model (GLM) with Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithm has computed to see the random effects of different social (population, travelling, and malaria) and climate (minimummaximum temperature, and rainfall) covariates on dengue fever occurrence. Neural Network with Multilayer Perceptron has used to analyze the normalized importance of different covariates relative to dengue fever occurrence. At the end, the general Dengue prevention and control strategies have been discussed. \ud
Results suggest that the low elevation areas with calm winds and higher than the normal minimum temperatures, rapid increase in unplanned urbanization and population, low flow accumulation, and higher drainage density areas favored the dengue fever transmission. The hotspot analysis highlighted the high risk prone urban localities of four cities. Regression model highlighted the risk prone localities and relationship of dengue fever occurrence with population and area of localities. Results show that each dry spell of 2-4 days have provided the suitable conditions for the development and survival of Dengue vector during the wet months of July and August (2011) in the areas of high stream density and population. It has revealed that most of the dengue fever cases reported after the onset of summer monsoon season. Very few cases have been reported in July while higher numbers of cases have reported in the months of August, September, until late October during 2011. Flooding, travelling, population and occurrence of Malaria have significantly affected the occurrence of dengue fever in the study areas. Magnitude of these relationships has also shown by the results of neural network. Change in occurrence of Malaria has affected the occurrence of dengue fever as much as 5.4 times, whereas GLM with MCMC also showed significant random effects of malaria, population and rainfall on the dengue fever occurrence during the studied years (2009-2012).\ud
The efficiency of control activities may be improved by highlighting the localities of higher risk within a vulnerable region. Recognizing the high risk areas of dengue fever threat will strengthen the control strategies and support in reducing the impacts for future. Such studies would also be helpful in the decision-making on public health prevention programs. The present study of recent Dengue risk burden and distribution in four major cities of Pakistan will become the basis for future endeavors and help to achieve the goal in mitigation of this dreadly disease
Fabrication and Characterization of II-VI Semiconductor Thin Films and the Study of Post Doping Effects
No full textFabrication and Characterization of II-VI Semiconductor Thin Films and the Study of Post Doping Effects II-VI semiconductors have great importance in solar cell applications due to their excellent optical and electrical properties. This thesis is mainly concerned with the study of II-VI semiconductor thin films with a particular interest in their potential application in solar cells. A coating system based on close spaced sublimation (CSS) has been developed and thin films of zinc telluride (ZnTe), Zn and Te enriched ZnTe, cadmium sulfide (CdS) and cadmium zinc sulfide (CdZnS) were fabricated. CdS is transparent to electromagnetic radiations; in particular to the visible and infra-red regions and are highly resistive materials. This research work pertained to improve CdS thin films as window materials using close spaced sublimation technique. The optimization of deposition parameters including vacuum in the chamber, distance between source-substrate, source and substrate temperatures are all investigated. \ud
ZnTe has been used as a buffer layer between CdTe and the metal back contact in II-VI semiconductor solar cells due to its compatibility with p-type cadmium telluride (CdTe). The purpose of the buffer layer is to help CdTe form a good Ohmic contact with the metal back contact, however, ZnTe itself is highly resistive. The main goal is to reduce electrical resistivity of ZnTe for its use as buffer layer in the back contact. The resistivity of the ZnTe thin film is modified by doping with silver (Ag) and/or copper (Cu). The compositions of zinc (Zn) and tellurium (Te) in the enriched (Zn or Te) ZnTe thin film is also explored to lower the resistivity of ZnTe film, which has not been reported earlier using CSS technique. In all these processes, the structural, surface, electrical and optical properties are studied for strong correlation. Ion exchange process is adopted for Ag and Cu doping in as-deposited ZnTe thin films with subsequent annealing.</BR>\ud
CdS is a potential candidate for window layer due to its suitable and tunable energy band gap (2.42 eV). Effects of doping are investigated on the structural, electrical and optical properties of CdS thin films fabricated by the CSS technique. These properties of fabricated CdS thin films are found to be suitable for solar cell applications. To enhance band gap, CdS and Zn powder are mixed mechanically with different weight percentages to deposit thin films CZS fabricated by CSS technique that has not been documented earlier. The increased energy band gap for CZS is 2.57 eV, which has improved the window region
Development, Modification and Applications of Polymeric Substances for Biomolecules in Separation Science
No full textThe availability of stationary phases for crude and specific separations is an important task \ud
achieved by a separation chemist. This necessity becomes vital when the complex samples like \ud
biofluids are to be dealt with proteome science. The emergence of new synthetic polymers has a \ud
massive and continuing effect on the direction and capabilities of modern analytical science. The \ud
derivatization of these polymers has made them an efficient class of substrate, having unique \ud
properties and the selectivity tailored surface chemistries for target molecules. The deeper and \ud
detailed characterization of complex sample types has become feasible due to the enhanced \ud
selectivity and sensitivity offered by these polymer materials. The work presented here involves \ud
the synthesis and application of a terpolymeric sorbent and two bi-functional polymers with \ud
different functionalizations adapted for the selective enrichment of biomolecules of interest from \ud
biological fluids. Also a polymeric monolith is prepared and modified by controlled growth of \ud
porous coordination network to enable it for the selective enrichment for biologically relevant \ud
phosphopeptides. \ud
Each of bifunctional monomers, glycidyl propargyl ether (GPE) and allylglycidyl ether (AGE) is \ud
thermally polymerized with divinylbenzene (DVB) to form poly(GPE/DVB) and \ud
poly(AGE/DVB). Synthesis of terpolymer is carried out by the radical polymerization of \ud
monomers; methyl acrylate, acrylic acid and vinyl acetate with diethylene glycol dimethacrylate \ud
as cross-linking agent benzoyl peroxide as initiator. Synthesized polymers are characterized by \ud
scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-Ray spectroscopy (EDX) and Fourier \ud
transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The polymers are further derivatized to IMAC \ud
(immobilized metal ion affinity chromatography) and are investigated by loading different metal \ud
ions (Fe3+, Ti4+, Zr4+ and La3+). The trypsin digested products of phosphoproteins, such as casein, \ud
non-fat milk, egg yolk, HeLa cell extract and human blood serum, are used to explore \ud
phosphopeptide enrichment ability of the modified polymers from complex samples. Serum \ud
profiling of healthy and diseased samples demonstrates the potential of new polymer to impart in \ud
the disease diagnosis. The identification with their sequence coverage is made using mascot and \ud
Phosphosite Plus. Poly(AGE/DVB) has high selectivity of 1:2000 with BSA background. \ud
Hydrophobicity is introduced to the polymers through octadecyl amine (ODA) which provides \ud
compatible results to commercially available reverse phase materials for the desalting of \ud
complex mixtures of all caseins. \ud
In another approach, an iron-benzenetricarboxylate (FeBTC) coordination network has been \ud
confined within the pores of a polystyrene-divinyl benzene-methacrylic acid polymer monolith \ud
by means of a step-by-step in-situ growth mechanism. The enhanced amount of active metal sites \ud
due to the gradual incorporation of Fe(III) through coordination with trimesic acid enables the \ud
selective enrichment of biologically relevant phosphopeptides. The FeBTC-porous polymer \ud
monolith preparation is adapted to a capillary column format, obtaining for the first time, a flow\ud
through miniaturized device containing a porous coordination polymer thin layer, which is \ud
implementable for the efficient purification of biological samples
FABRICATION, CHARACTERIZATION AND MICROWAVE ABSORPTION STUDIES OF HEXAGONAL FERRITES
No full textW-type hexagonal ferrite is the most important magnetic materials used for the \ud
manufacturing of microwave absorbers. The present work is focused on the influence of \ud
divalent, trivalent cations substitutions on physical, electrical, magnetic and \ud
electromagnetic properties of these hexagonal ferrites. \ud
This dissertation presents a systematic study on four series namely, BaHoxZ n2Fe16-xO27 \ud
(x = 0.0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, 1.0), Ba1-xHoxCo2Fe16O27(x= 0.0, 0.02, 0.04, 0.06, 0.08, 0.1), \ud
SrGaxZn2Fe16-xO27 (x=0.0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4), SrNdxZn2Fe16-xO27 (x=0.0, 0.05, 0.1, 0.15, \ud
0.2, 0.25) hexagonal ferrites. \ud
A series of BaHoxZn2Fe16-xO27 (x = 0.0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, 1.0) W-Type hexagonal ferrites \ud
were prepared by co-precipitation technique at high annealing temperature of 1320 ºC. \ud
XRD reveals single W-type hexagonal phase in these ferrites. The grain size is measured \ud
by SEM analysis using line intercept method. Saturation magnetization, retentivity and \ud
coercivity were measured from MH-loops taken on VSM. It was observed that \ud
magnetization increases with the increase of Ho content due to difference in ionic radii \ud
of Ho3+ (0.901Å) and Fe3+ (0.67Å) ions. Room temperature dc resistivity increases as a \ud
function of Ho3+ that may be due to separation between grains. The dc electrical \ud
resistivity decreases as a function of temperature which indicates the semi-conducting \ud
behavior of the samples.\ud
Ba-based W-type hexagonal ferrite with composition Ba1-xHoxCo2Fe16O27(x= 0.0, 0.02, \ud
0.04, 0.06, 0.08, 0.1) were prepared by sol gel auto-combustion technique. The \ud
precursors were prepared by Ba2+, Fe3+ nitrates solutions with citric acid as chelating \ud
agent. The as-prepared powder was sintered at 950 0C for 8 hrs to produce a single phase \ud
of W-type hexaferrite with corresponding crystallite size ranging from 34nm to 44nm. \ud
The thermal decomposition of nitrate-citrate gel of as-prepared powder was investigated \ud
by TG/DTA. The FTIR spectral study reveals the presence of two absorption bands \ud
which are characteristics of hexaferrites. DC electrical resistivity increases from \ud
3.01×109 to 5.69× 1010 (ohm-cm).The real and imaginary parts of dielectric constant (?, \ud
??) and dielectric loss tangent (tan ?) are determined in the frequency range of 20Hz to \ud
1MHz. It is observed that both real and imaginary parts of the dielectric constant and \ud
tan? decrease with the increase of frequency on the basis of Wagner and Koop's theory. \ud
A series of nano-sized single phase W-type SrGaxZn2Fe16-xO27 (x=0.0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4) \ud
hexaferrites prepared by sol gel technique and sintered at 950 0C have been investigated. \ud
The thermal decomposition behavior of nitrate-citrate gel of as prepared powder was \ud
investigated by means of DTA/TGA analysis. The sintered powders were characterized \ud
by FTIR, XRD, SEM, VSM and vector network analyzer (VNA). X-ray diffraction \ud
patterns for pure and substituted W-type hexaferrites show the single phase structure \ud
with no impurity phase. The lattice parameters (a and c) decrease with the increase of Ga \ud
contents (x). The grain size estimated from SEM images is in the range of 139-76 nm \ud
which confirms the nanocrystalline nature of the investigated samples. The saturation \ud
magnetization (Ms) decreases whereas coercivity (Hc) increases with the increase of Ga \ud
contents (x). The values of Hc for all of the investigated samples lie in the range of few \ud
hundred Oersteds which is one of the necessary conditions for EM materials. The \ud
microwave absorption property is enhanced in the frequency (with respect to -20dB) \ud
from 0.5-13 GHz, and the bandwidth reaches 0.899 GHz. The attenuation peak value is \ud
32dB at the matching thickness of 3.4mm. \ud
Rare earth substituted SrNdxZn2Fe16-xO27 W-type single phase hexagonal ferrites (x = \ud
0.0---0.25) have been investigated. It is shown that lattice parameters increases with the \ud
increase of Nd content due to larger ionic radius of Nd3+ than Fe3+ and grain size is also \ud
increased due to crystal deformation and inner stress. Saturation magnetization increases \ud
may be due to enhancement of magneto crystalline anisotropy with anisotropic Fe2+ ions \ud
locating on 2a sites as usually found in rare earth ions substitution. This material can be \ud
used for application in high density recording media. Dielectric behavior of material \ud
deceases with the increase of applied field frequency according to Maxwell and Wagner \ud
two layer model and the material is useful for the absorption of microwave radiations \ud
and attenuation of electromagnetic interference due to high value of dissipation factor
Fiscal Decentralization and Macroeconomic Performance: The Case of Pakistan
No full textThe study aimed at investigating the impact of fiscal decentralization on macroeconomic performance of Pakistan. For gauging macroeconomic performance of Pakistan key economic indicators like economic growth, public investment, inflation, employment and private savings have been used. Most of the work regarding fiscal decentralization is related to developed economies to examine the relationship of fiscal decentralization and economic performance or growth. The results of these studies are not established a clear cut relationship between decentralization and economic growth as the findings of most of studies are quite contradictory with each other for example; studies by Davoodi and Zou (1998), Woller and Phillips (1998), Zhang and Zou (1998), and Xie et al. (1999) found an inverse association between fiscal decentralization and economic growth. While other studies like Akia and Sakata (2002), Iimi (2005), Lin and Liu (2000), Stansel (2005) and Yilmaz (2000) found a positive relationship between fiscal decentralization and economic growth. Besides that very little work has been done in developing and transitional economies to explore the connection between fiscal decentralization and economic performance. This association demanded more attention and research work to provide explicit guidelines for policy makers to design and propose successful completion of fiscal decentralization in developing economies like Pakistan. \ud
To investigate the impact of fiscal decentralization on macroeconomic performance in Pakistan study summarized the brief history of resource distribution among the provinces. It has been concluded that since 1991, the NFC awards have improved the process of resource allocation to the Provincial Governments in Pakistan. Moreover, due to these awards direct shifting of funds and grants have been enhanced to all provinces. Likewise, the incentive of matching grants forced the provinces to bring improvement in their efficiency, self-reliance and resource generation and in turn obtain financial independence. \ud
To explore the impact of fiscal decentralization on macroeconomic performance in Pakistan the study used a time series data for the period from 1972 to 2010. The empirical results show that fiscal decentralization (revenue and expenditures) is an effective tool to enhance the economic stability, encourage the public investment and foster the economic growth in Pakistan. Fiscal decentralization is also an effective tool to promote the employment level and induce the rise in private savings. The increase in subnational share of total government expenditures due to fiscal decentralization generate more development projects and create more employment opportunities in Pakistan. Specifically, expenditure decentralization is a mean of economic development and can bring positive change in employment opportunities. Contrary to this, the rise in subnational revenue share in total government revenue has negative association with employment. The major part of subnational revenue share is collected through \ud
taxes. It means that higher tax rates can have a discouraging impact on productive ability of local industries which may raise the level of unemployment in Pakistan. For empirical investigation study used aggregate and disaggregate macroeconomic performance indicators and suggested that fiscal decentralization has significant and positive influence on macroeconomic performance of Pakistan. These findings are matched with the majority of previous literature which stated the positive impact of fiscal decentralization on macroeconomic indicators (Naqvi and Khan, 1989; Gregorio, 1996; Frenkel and Mehrez, 1998; Burdekin et al. 2004; Lin and Liu, 2000; Zhang and Zou, 2001; Qaio et al. 2002; Ahmad and Mortaza, 2005 and Jin et al. 2005). However, these studies also indicate that in developing economies the numbers of constraints which can curb the effectiveness of fiscal decentralization are greater than in developed economies. \ud
Finally, study verified that on one hand fiscal decentralization will promote macroeconomic stability by controlling the inflation and unemployment in Pakistan and on other it will enhance public investment, private savings and encourage economic growth in the long run. The findings of the study revealed that the expenditures and revenue autonomy to subnational governments has a positive impact on macroeconomic performance in. These findings are also endorsed by the empirical findings of Oates' (1999) which suggested that the fiscal autonomy to provincial and local governments will promote economic growth and ensure the efficient provision of public good and services at local level
Voters Behaviour, Political Cleavages and Process of Democratization in Pakistan (First Decade of 21st Century)
No full textN/
Effect of GABAB receptor antagonists (CGP family) on learning and memory formation in albino mouse following neonatal hypoxia ischemia insult
No full textGABAB receptors and its antagonists play a critical role in inhibitory synaptic transmission in the hippocampus as a result of which memory formation takes place. Hypoxia-ischemia (HI) during the perinatal period is a common cause of mortality and morbidity in the human neonate. GABAB receptor plays an important role in learning and memory. GABAB receptor antagonist are experimentally proved to act as spatial memory enhancers in mouse models but has not been studied under hypoxic ischemic insult. \ud
The main objective of this study was to demonstrate effect of different GABAB antagonists on learning, memory formation, long term potentiation and brain infarct size. 10 days old albino mice were subjected to murine model of hypoxia and ischemia i.e right common carotid artery was ligated followed by 8 % hypoxia for 25 minutes. During short term experiments various (Righting, Cliff Aversion and Negative geotaxis) reflexes were studied in pups to demonstrate the effect of hypoxia ischemia insult. Brain infarcts of male and female pups were measured as well. During long term experiments, following hypoxia ischemic insult at postnatal day 10, mice were divided into three groups. All mice fed on normal rodent diet till they were 13 week old. At this time point, group 1 received saline, group 2 CGP 35348 and group 3 received CGP 55845 intraperitionaly for 12 days at the rate of 1mg/kg body weight/day. A battery of tests used to assess long term neurofunction (Morris water maze, Rota rod and open field) along with infarct measurement and determination of interlukin-6 and 18 in serum. \ud
During short term experiments it was observed that albino mice pups subjected to murine model of hypoxia ischemia on postnatal day 10 exhibited poor sensorimotor reflexes 1 and 24 hour after brain damage but effect was more pronounced in female than in male pups. The size of infract was also larger in female than male pups. During long term experiment it was observed that, overall GABAB receptor antagonists improved the motor function in male and female albino mice but effects of CGP 35348 were more pronounced in females and CGP 55845 had improved neuromuscular coordination in \ud
male albino mice following brain damage. In open field, both GABAB receptor antagonists had no effect in male albino mice but in female albino mice they worsen their exploratory and locomotry behavior. During morris water maze study, gender specific effects were observed as CGP 35348 improved spatial learning and memory and swimming speed in male albino mice but had no effect in female albino mice following hypoxia ischemia encephalopathy (HIE). CGP 55845 had non significant effect on learning and memory formation in both genders. It was observed that CGP 35348 helped in reducing the inflammatory interlukin-6 and interlukin-18 concentrations in male albino mice but CGP 55845 caused increased in IL-6 and IL-18 concentrations in female albino mice following HIE. Overall CGP 35348 improved the neuromuscular coordination in female albino mice, improved spatial learning and memory and reduced IL-6 and IL-18 concentration level in male albino mice. On the other hand CGP 55845 improved neuromuscular coordination in male albino mice but did not improve spatial learning and memory and also caused increase in IL-6 and IL-18 concentration levels in female albino mice