BackgroundSepsis is a global healthcare problem, characterized by whole body inflammation in response to microbial infection, which leads to organ dysfunction. It is becoming a frequent complication in hospitalized patients. Early and differential diagnosis of sepsis is needed critically to avoid unnecessary usage of antimicrobial agents and for proper antibiotic treatments through the screening of biomarkers that sustains with diagnostic significance.Main body of abstractCurrent targeting conventional markers (C-reactive protein, white blood cell, tumour necrosis factor-α, interleukins, etc.) are non-specific for diagnosing sepsis. Procalcitonin (PCT), a member of the calcitonin super family could be a critical tool for the diagnosis of sepsis. But to distinguish between bacterial versus viral infections, procalcitonin alone may not be effective. Rapid elevation in the concentration of procalcitonin and other newly emerging biomarkers during an infection and its correlation with severity of illness makes it an ideal biomarker for bacterial infection. Beside this, the procalcitonin levels can be used for monitoring response to antimicrobial therapy, diagnosis of secondary inflammations, diagnosis of renal involvement in paediatric urinary tract infection, etc.The present article summarizes the relevance of procalcitonin in the diagnosis of sepsis and how it can be useful in determining the therapeutic approaches.ConclusionFurther studies are needed to better understand the application of PCT in the diagnosis of sepsis, differentiating between microbial and non-microbial infection cases and determining the therapeutic approaches for sepsis.

Online measurements of the magnetic dipole moments and isotope shifts of 58 Cu and 59 Cu by the in-source laser spectroscopy method are reported. The results for the magnetic moments are µ( 58 Cu) = +0.52(8) µ N , µ( 59 Cu) = +1.84(3) µ N and for the isotope shifts δν 59,65 = 1.72( 22) GHz and δν 58,65 = 1.99(30) GHz in the transition from the 3d 10 4s 2 S 1/2 ground state to the 3d 10 4p 2 P 1/2 state in Cu I. The magnetic moment of 58 Cu is discussed in the context of the strength of the subshell closure at 56 Ni, additivity rules and large-scale shell model calculations.

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Curcuma zedoaria belonging to the family Zingiberaceae has been used in the traditional system of medicine in India and Southwest Asia in treating many human ailments and is found to possess many biological activities. The rationale of the present study was to isolate, identify, and characterize antitumour principles from the rhizomes of Curcuma zedoaria, to assess its cytotoxic effects on human and murine cancer cells, to determine its apoptosis inducing capacity in cancer cells, and to evaluate its tumour reducing properties in in vivo mice models. Isocurcumenol was characterized as the active compound by spectroscopy and was found to inhibit the proliferation of cancer cells without inducing significant toxicity to the normal cells. Fluorescent staining exhibited the morphological features of apoptosis in the compound-treated cancer cells. In vivo tumour reduction studies revealed that a dose of 35.7 mg/kg body weight significantly reduced the ascitic tumour in DLA-challenged mice and increased the lifespan with respect to untreated control mice.