Systematics, biology, ecology And zoogeography of holothurians: Some observations on the biology of the holothurian Holothuria (metriatyla) scabra (Jaeger)

Some aspects on the biology of commercially most important holothuriam Holothuria (Metriatyla) acabra are presented. It subsists on the organic matter present in the mud or sand. An analysis of gut content revealed fine mud (75-125 ^), sand particles (250-500 p.), moUuscan shells, debris and bits of algae. This species spawns in June and October. By external examination and by taking sections of the gonads, five maturity stages such as immature, maturing, early mature, late mature and spent have been fixed. The characteristics of different stages of maturity are presented in detail

Studies on the Biology, Ecology and Fishery of the sea cucumber Holothuria (Metriatyla) scabra (Jaeger) from southeast coast of India, embodies

Among the echinoderms, holothurians are commercially imnortant. Certain species of holothurians are processed and the processed material is known as Beche-de-mer or Trepang in trade parlance. Beche-de-mer is considered a Chinese delicacy. At present, Indie is earning a foreign exchange of more than one crore rupees by exporting Beche-de-mer . This product has no internal market. It has been introduced by the Chinese and is in existence in the Gulf of Manner and Palk Bay for more than one thousand years. It has high nutritive value and also considered to have certain medicinal properties. The main international markets are Hongkong, Singapore and Malaysia

Size and weight reduction in Holothuria scabra processed as beche-de-mer

Growing demand for beche-de-mer in the marine export market has naturally led to considerable debate among fishery biologists in our country on the problem of irrational exploitation of the natural stock. Along the Tamil Nadu coast Holothuria scabra is fished for beche-de-mer preparation. Studies on the size at first maturity indicated that the spawning size is 201-230 mm and this size group after processing attains a reduced size of 73-80 mm. Revival of the natural stock can take place and this would help in encountering specimens beyond the size of 75 mm in length. More studies are required on the biology of Holothurians to determine precisely the period of maturity and spawning in different species in a year and it is advisable to observe a 'closed season' each year to conserve the holothurian resources

Design Development and Evaluation of Cefixime Solid Lipid Nanoparticles for Enhancement of Oral Bioavailability

Solid Lipid Nanoparticles (SLNs) of Cefixime were prepared by hot homogenization and ultrasound dispersion method using glyceryl monostearate (GMS) as the lipid. Particle size and zeta potential of Cefixime loaded SLN was measured using a Malvern Zetasizer 3000 Nano ZS (Malvern instruments) SLN dispersion prepared using Poloxamer 188 2.0% as stabilizer (F4, F5 and F6) showed lower particle size than the other surfactants. The entrapment efficiency (EE) of SLN dispersion was determined by the centrifugation method. Among the various surfactants used Poloxamer 188 shows highest drug entrapment. The invitro drug release study was determined using USP Type II apparatus paddle in phosphate saline buffer pH7.2. The drug release of F6 formulation at the end of 5 hrs was about 94.71±0.53%. The morphology of Cefixime loaded SLN dispersion was examined by scanning electron microscope. The above observation shows that Cefixime absorption is enhanced by using solid lipid nanoparticles formulations

Electrochemical behaviour of some alkyl substituted N-hydroxy-2,6-diarylpiperidin-4-one thiosemicarbazone and the antifungal studies of the products

A series of 3-ethyl-2,6-diarylpiperidin-4-one thiosemicarbazone and 3,5-dimethyl-2,6-diarylpiperidin-4-one thiosemicarbazone were synthesised. The thiosemicarbazones were subjected to cyclic voltammetric study using graphite electrode with variable scan rate at moderate acidic conditions maintained in the electrolytic solution. The reduction takes place by two electron transfer and the reaction is pH dependent. The reduced products were isolated and purified by column chromatography. The structure was proved by 1H and 13C NMR spectroscopy. The electrode process was found to be irreversible and diffusion controlled. Further the products were analysed for anti fungal activity in which nitro substituted compound showed high inhibition towards the fungi Asperillus nige

Studies on the biology, ecology and fishery of the sea cucumber Holothuria (Metriatyla) scabra (Jaeger) from south east coast of India

Among the echinoderms, holothurians (also known as 'Sea cucumbers) are commercially important. Introduced by the Chinese, they are in existence in the Gulf of Mannar and Palk Bay for more than one thousand years

Selection of Machining Parameters of Face Milling operation for Aluminium with HSS cutter using Response Surface Methodology and Genetic Algorithm

Components used in chemical equipments are produced from forging, extrusion and casting processes with classic dimension tolerances due to its producing ability. So machining processes were introduced for close tolerance assembly and improve the product working efficiencies. At present,  lot of machining processes are available for producing chemical equipments such as turning, milling, drilling and grinding etc.,. Milling operation is playing critical role on making the chemical equipment’s components with high accuracy and higher productivity. Face milling operation is one of the milling processes which is used for achieving higher flatness and surface finish of chemical equipment’s parts. Thiswork concentrates the parameters influence on Material Removal Rate (MRR) and Surface Roughness (SR) by using aluminium as work piece material. Actually, aluminium alloy has the  most significant in chemical industries because of its inherent properties such as, corrosive resistance , low weight to strength ratio. The milling parameters such as feed rate, spindle speed  and depth of cut are selected as parameters for improving the quality and productivity. This work put together the link between input and response variables for developing the face milling performances. The Response Surface Methodology (RSM) is employ for making the link between dependent and independent variables. Building the empirical model by conducting regression analysis The performance of developed regression models are verified with experimental results. Verification results show the developed models have best agreement with experimental results. The developed models are used for achieving the best input parameters by using Genetic Algorithm (GA). Finally, the optimal parameters are evaluated by GA

On Weakly Symmetric and Weakly Conformally Symmetric Spaces Admitting Veblen Identities

In the present paper some properties involving curvature tensor,conformal curvature tensor, Ricci tensor and scalar curvature, on weakly symmetric, weakly conformally symmetric and pseudo symmetric spaces are obtained

Analysis of cutaneous adverse drug reactions in a tertiary care hospital in South Tamil Nadu

Background: Cutaneous adverse drug reactions (CADRs) are among the most frequently reported adverse drug reactions (10 to 30%) with overall incidence of 6.2/1000 cases in India and 8% of hospitalisation among Dermatology inpatients. The aim was to analyse the CADRs with reference to its prevalence, causative drugs, morphological patterns, polypharmacy and drug reaction severity by Hartwig’s severity assessment scale.Methods: This study was a retrospective study done in the Department of Dermatology, Venereology and Leprosy (DVL) over a period of 5 years (2015 to 2019) from CADR registers. Mean, standard deviation and chi square test were used for statistical analysis. P≤0.05 was considered as statistically significant.Results: A total of 134 cases of CADRs were encountered which comprised 0.2% (2/1000) of total OP census with equal gender ratio and involved most commonly the younger adults. The drug groups mainly responsible were anticonvulsants (24.7%) followed by non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS) (22.5%), antibiotics (20.9%) followed by antiretrovirals (ART) and antituberculous drugs (ATT). The common morphological patterns were acute exanthem (32.2%), exfoliative dermatitis (14.9%) and toxic epidermal necrolysis (14.2%). Over the counter drugs accounted for 25.6% of cases. Around 38.1% were on polypharmacy. In this study, 15.7% had mild CADR, 53.7% had moderate and 30.6% had severe drug reactions with 2.2% mortality based on the Hartwig’s severity assessment scale. Commonest cause of severe CADRs was anticonvulsants and benign CADRs was NSAIDS.Conclusions: Proper history taking and documentation of data, recollection of sequence of events by the patient and drug re-challenge will help us in deciding the causative drug preventing further occurrence

Two-dimensional surface properties of 2-methoxy ethyl oleate at the air/water interface

Methoxy ethyl oleate, a nonionic surfactant, has been investigated at the air/water interface for various surface properties by employing the Langmuir film balance technique. The ester forms an expanded isotherm at the air/water interface. The minimum area of packing (A0), initial area of increase of surface pressure (Ai), collapse pressure (πc), and area/molecule at collapse pressure (Ac) have been estimated from the isotherm curve. The higher compressibility coefficient (K) suggests that the ester forms a more expanded liquid film than the parent oleic acid. Besides, the ester film is fairly stable as suggested by only about 30% loss in area over a period of 20 min. The relaxation rates of the ester film at different surface pressures of 10, 15, and 20 mN.m-1 have been estimated from changes in the surface area/molecule with time. Interestingly, the surface area (54.2 Å2/molecule) that corresponds to a minimized structure projected for the ester, calculated theoretically, agrees reasonably well with the experimental value (57.2 Å2/molecule)