Mall restructuring at A-one Mall

Mr. Ajay Kumar, the regional manager of A-one Mall was presiding over the weekly meeting with his category management team. All his apprehensions were coming true as his team started sharing facts of the last six months.The growth was stagnant, categories were not performing as per expectations and customer feedback was also moving towards negative.The entire fourth floor was not performing and retail space was turning out to be a nonproductive space.“In the retail sector, the total contribution of Food & Grocery Industry is 60-65% as per latest market reports (Maheshwari & Ghosh, 2016).I thought that food category would be a crowd puller, but it is turning out to be dampener.” said Mr. Vikram Bhathija, who was heading the Men’s Division.“It is so disappointing, but we must think of corrective actions. What if we focus on fashion category which is the second most preferred category amongst consumers (IBEF, 2017) ?” replied Mr. Ajay.Instead of focussing on corrective actions towards one category or on one floor it was decided that the entire mall including all the categories needs to be restructured for long term benefits

ANTIMICROBIAL INVESTIGATION AND BINDING MODE ANALYSIS OF SOME NEWLY SYNTHESIZED 4-AMINO-5-((ARYL SUBSTITUTED)-4H-1, 2, 4-TRIAZOLE-3-YL)-THIO LINKED HYDROXAMIC ACID DERIVATIVES

Objective: A series of 5-substituted-4-amino-1, 2, 4-triazole-linked hydroxamic acid derivatives have been synthesized and explored in vitro to evaluate antibacterial and antifungal activities. Methods: Different 5-phenyl group substituted-4-amino-1,2,4-triazole-3-thiol reacted with chlorine substituted hydroxamic acid to produce the desired compounds and characterized spectroscopically. Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC), zone of inhibition (ZOI), growth kinetic studies, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were employed to elicit the antimicrobial efficacy of synthesized compounds against a wide range of bacterial and fungal strains. Results: Compounds 6a, 6b, 6d, and 6k (MIC of 25 μg/ml) have been found to be more potent against Klebsiella pneumoniae, Bacillus cereus, Bacillus pumilus, Micrococcus luteus, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, compounds 6a-6d, 6k, and 6l (MIC of 25–50 μg/ml) have shown potent antibacterial efficacy against Klebsiella pneumonia, P. aeruginosa, and Vibrio cholera compare to the standard drug amoxicillin (MIC of 60 μg/ml, 65 μg/ml, and 25 μg/ml, respectively). Screening for the antifungal activity revealed that the compounds were found to be most active against Candida albicans (6a, 6b, and 6l), Candida tropicalis (6b and 6d), and Aspergillus niger (6a, 6b, 6d, and 6j) with MIC of 15–25 μg/ml. Bacteriostatic and fungistatic effect of titled compounds was revealed from growth kinetics study. Conclusion: Electron donating group at the 5-position of the 5-substituted-1,2,4-triazole-linked hydroxamic acid derivatives conferred the biological effectiveness of the synthesized compounds and also offer a therapeutically effective prototypical structure for further development of new chemical entities with superior antimicrobial activity

Pancreatic tumor margin detection by oblique incidence diffuse reflectance spectroscopy

In surgical treatment of pancreatic cancers, the effectiveness of the procedures largely depends on the ability to completely and precisely remove the malignant tumors. We present the ex-vivo use of oblique incidence diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (OIRDS) to detect and differentiate normal from neoplastic tissue. An OIRDS probe has been constructed to provide scattering and absorption information of the pancreatic tissue. To reveal the physiological origin of the difference in these optical signatures, the optical scattering coefficients were extracted along the pancreatic duct with 1-cm spacing. Experimental results show that OIDRS was able to successfully determinate the tumor margins based on the higher optical scattering on malignant tissue

Characterization Studies on Lead-Zinc Tailings from Rampura-Agucha Mines

The process tailings of base metal industries contain considerable amounts of acid generating 'pyrite and sul-fides of other minerals. The recovery of sulfide minerals from the tailings not only will have environmental advan-tage but will also result in conservation of mineral wealth.For any such recovery activity, it is essential to characterize the tailings for physical, chemical and mineralogical characteristics. In the present study, typi-cal lead-zinc tailings sample from the operating plant at Rampura-Agucha mines of Hindustan Zinc Limited was collec-ted and characterized for size distribution, size by size chemical composition and mineral phase analysis through X-ray diffraction method. The size-by-size metal contents indicated increasing levels of silver and pyrite with decreasing particle size and the lead and zinc bearing minerals are segregated at relatively coarser size fract-ions. Microscopic studies of the coarser fractions have indicated that the lead and zinc minerals are in unliber-ated form. The XRD study has indicated that quartz is the major mineral phase followed by pyrite, sphalerite, galena and silver. The overall tailings sample was found to cont-ain 19.41% of pyrite, 2.02 % of zinc, 0.69 % lead, and 26.94 ppm of silver contents

MGS Studies for Recovering Iron and Silver Values from Lead-Zinc Tailings

In mineral processing plants valuable minerals are recovered by rejecting gangue materials through various physical processing techniques to produce high-grade concentrate. However, after processing these ores, the tailings generated contain considerable amount of valua-bles because of inefficient of process plant or due to fluctuations in the mineralogical composition of the ore. Therefore, recovery of these valuable minerals is prerequisite from environmental and mineral conservation point of views

Classification of Ultra Fine Particles from Fly Ash

The annual generation of coal combustion residue in the country is 110 MT. The generation of coal combustion residue is expected to increase with ever increasing demand for power. Management of this solid waste has been a great concern to the nation. Most of the reports on utilization of coal combustion residue are limited to direct usage of the material or selective collection from ESP fields in the thermal power plants. In this connection several efforts are being made in the country to enhance its application as a replacement to cement, soil modifier, roads and embankments etc. Very little or no research attempts are made in understanding the appropriate compo-nents which results in beneficial properties and value added products. Fly ash in very fine size range exhibits spherical morphological characteristics and thus acts as good fillers in rubber and polymer compounds. However, recovery of this size material from the bulk is yet a challenge in the process industry as the material forms clusters at very fine sizes. The present study is an atte-mpt to beneficiate fly ash to obtain material with an average particle size around 5 microns. A cyclone separa-tor, which employs very high g* forces for separation of particles is employed for achieving the separation. At this high g* forces, the declustering of particles is observed. This technique has generated product with an average particle size (ds& between 4 to 8 microns. The results obtained at different test runs are discussed

High-Transmission-Efficiency and Side-Viewing Micro OIDRS Probe for Fast and Minimally Invasive Tumor Margin Detection

The determination of a cancer free margin I organ is a difficult and time consuming process, with an unmet need for rapid determination of tumor margin at surgery. In this paper, we report the design, fabrication, and testing of a novel miniaturized optical sensor probe with “side-viewing” capability. Its unprecedented small size, unique “side-viewing” capability, and high optical transmission efficiency enable the agile maneuvering and efficient data collection even in the narrow cavities inside the human body. The sensor probe consists of four micromachined substrates with optical fibers for oblique light incidence and collection of spatially resolved diffuse reflectance from the contacted tissues. The optical sensor probe has been used to conduct the oblique incidence diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (OIDRS) on a human pancreatic specimen. Based on the measurement results, the margin of the malignant tumor has been successfully determined optically, which matches well with the histological results