Refurbishing Pacemakers: A Viable Approach

Cardiologists implant permanent pacemakers widely for indications like sick sinus syndrome and complete heart block. The guidelines for such implantations are well established1. However, in developing countries like India, all patients who need pacemakers do not receive them because of financial constraints. Even when such patients get a pacemaker, it is often a more affordable VVI pacemaker rather than the costly DDD pacemaker. The lack of a health insurance scheme and improper social support programs prevent the more widespread implantation of appropriate pacemakers. However, in the developed countries and in affluent pockets of developing countries like India, the pacemaker implantation rates are quite high. Often permanent pacemakers are implanted in the very old and people with predicted brief longevities, due to medico-legal and other social reasons. There are quite a few instances when pacemakers are explanted within a year or even within a few months. This is often due to the unfortunate death of the patient due to unrelated causes. Such pacemakers have battery lives, which are near normal. These can be explanted from the dead patient after taking consent from the relatives and “refurbished” for use in another needy patient. Refurbishing involves proper re-sterilization, checking of battery life, pacing mode and other parameters and re-labelling with the current parameters including predicted battery life. These refurbished pacemakers are a suitable alternative for the financially ‘no option’ group of patients who otherwise would not afford a pacemaker. These can last nearly as long as the original pacemakers. Even pulse generators whose shelf lives have expired can also be resterilised and used gainfully for the economically deprived

Developing a Scale to Measure the Indigenous Wisdom Orientation of Rice Farmers

The traditional rice farmers had adopted various indigenous technologies in rice farming which in due course of time was forgotten after the advent of high yielding varieties that warranted excessive use of chemical inputs. Hence a study was designed to develop a scale to measure the indigenous wisdom orientation of stakeholders in rice farming. The study was conducted in Palakkad district of Kerala. Fifty statements reflecting the indigenous wisdom orientation were generated. Likert’s method was employed in the scale construction and the final scale comprising 14 statements was standardized

E-Learning Initiatives in India

Abstract: emergence of world wide web has completely globalized the whole world into a global village business, entertainment, education, teaching, learning every field has achieved new dimensions and plays important role in the development of nation.one of the outcome of this is e learning. E-Learning is the extended form of traditional classroom teaching. The paper highlights concept, tools and initiatives taken by several and institutions and Library centers around the world and in India

Production and purification of biodiesel produced from used frying oilusing hydrodynamic cavitation

This work describes the biodiesel production from used frying oil using a hydrodynamic cavitation reactor as well as separation and purification of fatty acid methyl esters (FAME). Under the optimized process conditions, i.e., methanol to oil molar ratio of 4.5:1 and catalyst (KOH) concentration of 0.55 wt%, the conversion achieved was 93.86 mol%. Higher conversion (93.6%) was obtained in only 20 min as compared to 88.5% in 1 h in stirred tank reactor. Due to the completion of transesterification reaction, the amount of intermediate diglycerides and monoglycerides present in the reaction mixture was less. It helps for the complete separation of methyl ester and glycerol layers without hindrance in 1 h. Small amount KOH catalyst used for completion of reaction reduces amount of KOH and soap in ester layer which further helps to form a less stable emulsion during water washing step. The complete separation was observed at 70 °C temperature in just 3 h. Thus, this study indicates that the increased production capacity can be achieved by shortening the time for the separation and purification

METHOD DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION FOR THE ESTIMATION OF ROPINIROLE HCL IN TABLETS BY RP-HPLC

A simple and precise and accurate RP - High-performance liquid chromatography (Reverse Phase - HPLC) method has been developed for the estimation of Ropinirole in tablet formulations. The separation was achieved on a C18(250 x 4.6 mm) 5 - micron Hypersil BDS using a mobile phase consisting of a degassed mixture of 0.05 M glacial acetic acid (2.85 mL of glacial acetic acid in 1000 mL of water) and acetonitrile (50:50) with a flow rate of 1.0 mL/min. The mobile phase showed the most favorable chromatographic parameter for analysis. The detection of the constituent was done using UV detector at 250 nm. The retention time of ropinirole was found to be 3.987 minutes. The method was validated for system suitability, precision, accuracy, linearity, robustness. The linear range for ropinirole was 4 12 g / ml. The method is validated for accuracy, precision, linearity, specificity and robustness in accordance with ICH guidelines and revealed that the method established specific, accurate, rapid, precise, reliable and reproducible for the method has been successfully used to analyze commercial solid dosage forms which are locally available 0.25 mg ropinirole tablets and its percentage recovery was found to be 99.82%

Novel Lipase(s): Application in Biodiesel production from Wastewater Grown Microalgae

Lipase-basedcatalysis in organic solvents offerseveraladvantages and,therefore, havebeen widely researched and applied. Nature provides a vast microbial enzyme pool thatcan be easily bio-discovered through the targeted exploration of existing extremophiles.Among the large number of bacterial lipases, those from species like Geotrichum, Bacillus, Pseudomonas, BurkholderiandStreptomyceshave shownadequate stability forbiosynthetic application. In this study, severalbacterial strains isolated from soils in the Dublin and Laois regionsofIrelandwere screened forpresence ofsolvent stable lipases.Fivebacterialstrains producing most solvent stable lipase(s) were identified asPseudomonas sp. BIM B-86, Sphingomonas sp., Listeria monocytogenes, Pseudomonas reinekeiand Pseudomonas brennerivia 16S rRNA sequencing.Amonst thesefive strains, new lipolytic enzymes from only two strains of Pseudomonassp. i.e. P.reinekeiand P. brenneriwere explored in the present work.Production of lipase(s)from P.reinekei(termed H1)and P. brenneri(termed H3) was enhanced by changing the nitrogen sourcein culture medium to 1%(w/v) L-Lysine and 1% (w/v) peptone respectively. Characterisation of these purified lipases revealed their stability towardsbroad pH range (5.0-9.0) and activation in the presence of organic solvents withlog P≥ 2.0.T50(half-life) of lipase from P. brenneri(H3) andP. reinekei(H1)was found to be 189mins at 60°Cand 89mins at45°Crespectively.Thesepurified lipase were usedin industrially relevant applications, specifically biodieselsynthesis.This study also explored development of an alternative and sustainable lipidssourcefor biodiesel production. Microalgae were selected as cheap, alternate source as theycan grow inwide range of environmental conditionsand can utilise nutrients from wastewaterfor their growth. In this study, two microalgae strains i.e. Chlorella emersoniiand Pseudokirchneriella subcapitatawere examined as potential lipids source for biodiesel production.Both strains were grown in simulated wastewater andunder nitrogen deficient conditionsgeneratedneutral lipid content of 0.61±0.017mg/mg and 0.31±0.006mg/mg biomass respectively. In-situtransesterification of neutral lipids generated from these two microalgae strainsusinglipases from H1 (P. reinekei), H3 (P. brenneri) and porcine pancreas (as a standard) generated FAMEs (Fatty Acid Methyl Esters) with a high proportion of unsaturated fatty acids esters.Blending these FAMEs 3with other FAME sources can producebiodiesel comparable to existing biofuels. Thisstudy is a good illustration for generation/productionof energy rich molecules from waste byproducts exploitingenzymes obtained from extremophilesand wastewater grown microalgae

Botnets and Distributed Denial of Service Attacks

With their ever increasing malicious capabilities and potential to infect a vast majority of computers on the Internet, botnets are emerging as the single biggest threat to Internet security. The aim of this project is to perform a detailed analysis of botnets and the vulnerabilities exploited by them to spread themselves and perform various malicious activities such as DDoS attacks. DDoS attacks are without doubt the most potent form of attacks carried out by botnets. In order to better understand this growing phenomenon and develop effective counter measures, it is necessary to be able to simulate DDoS attacks in a controlled environment. Simulating a DDoS attack with control over various simulation and attack parameters will give us insights into how attacks achieve stealth and avoid detection. A detailed analysis of existing DDoS defense strategies and proposals combined with the insights derived from simulation should enable us to come up with innovative and feasible solutions to prevent and mitigate DDoS attacks carried out using Botnet

Comparative Study of Selected Physical Components of Male Boxers, Wrestlers and Judokas

Most of the skill performances and execution of techniques in the sports such as boxing, wrestling and judo were based on the basic fitness components. The purpose of the study was to determine the existence of statistically significant difference on selected fitness components (speed, agility, power, flexibility and endurance) among boxers wrestlers and judokas. For this purpose, ninety sportsmen (30 boxers, 30 wrestlers, and 30 judokas) were selected. Their age ranged between 18 to 23 years. The selected variables were assessed using 50 metres dash, shuttle run, jump and reach, sit and reach, and Harward step test. The data was analyzed by applying ANOVA and Scheffe S post hoc test. The result showed that there were significant difference in all the selected physical fitness components among boxers, wrestlers and judokas. The boxers showed a better capability in speed, agility and power, while the wrestlers were better in endurance and the judokas with greater flexibility

Method of producing high T(subc) superconducting NBN films

Thin films of niobium nitride with high superconducting temperature (T sub c) of 15.7 K are deposited on substrates held at room temperature (approx 90 C) by heat sink throughout the sputtering process. Films deposited at P sub Ar 12.9 + or - 0.2 mTorr exhibit higher T sub c with increasing P sub N2,I with the highest T sub c achieved at P sub n2,I= 3.7 + or - 0.2 mTorr and total sputtering pressure P sub tot = 16.6 + or - 0.4. Further increase of N2 injection starts decreasing T sub c