A STUDY ON DIFFERENT PELLET FORMATION TECHNIQUES AND ITS EVALUATION PARAMETERS-A REVIEW

This review article deals with the various pelletization techniques utilized in the pharmaceutical industry for spheroidal particle production i.e., pellet for mainly oral administration which can be further formulated into several other dosage forms such as tablets, capsules or can be administered as such. Now-a-days oral administration has become the most versatile, convenient and common route of drug administration which ultimately focuses on patient compliance. The technique which is setting horizon in pelletization is “Extrusion Spheronization” because of its simple and easy steps involved in pellet production in a faster way. This review also includes the characterization and evaluation of pellets to ensure its quality, safety and efficacy to give out the required therapeutic activity after administration

Effect of amino acid composition of cereal-based diets on growth of preschool children

The efficacy of two diets, one based on wheat and the other on rice, on the growth (height) of preschool children has been tested in trials lasting 6 months. Both diets provided 2 g vegetable protein and 100 kcal/kg body wt. The increase in height of the children fed the rice-based diet was 0.67 cm/month and that of the children on the wheat-based diet, 0.43 cm/month. The children maintained positive nitrogen balance on both diets. Amino acid analyses of the cooked foods showed the wheat-based diet to be limiting in lysine, methionine, threonine, and isoleucine and the rice-based diet in methionine. However, the rate of growth of the children fed the rice-based diet suggests that methionine was not a limiting factor; the recommended intake of methionine (FAO/WHO) is likely to be higher than the requirements of preschool children

FIGGS: Faint Irregular Galaxies GMRT Survey - Overview, observations and first results

The Faint Irregular Galaxies GMRT Survey (FIGGS) is a Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) based HI imaging survey of a systematically selected sample of extremely faint nearby dwarf irregular galaxies. The primary goal of FIGGS is to provide a comprehensive and statistically robust characterization of the neutral inter-stellar medium properties of faint, gas rich dwarf galaxies. The FIGGS galaxies represent the extremely low-mass end of the dwarf irregular galaxies population, with a median M${\rm{_B\sim-13.0}}$ and median HI mass of $\sim 3 \times 10^7$ M$_\odot$, extending the baseline in mass and luminosity space for a comparative study of galaxy properties. The HI data is supplemented with observations at other wavelengths. In addition, distances accurate to ~ 10% are available for most of the sample galaxies. This paper gives an introduction to FIGGS, describe the GMRT observations and presents the first results from the HI observations. From the FIGGS data we confirm the trend of increasing HI to optical diameter ratio with decreasing optical luminosity; the median ratio of D$_{\rm HI}$/D$_{\rm Ho}$ for the FIGGS sample is 2.4. Further, on comparing our data with aperture synthesis surveys of bright spirals, we find at best marginal evidence for a decrease in average surface density with decreasing HI mass. To a good approximation the disks of gas rich galaxies, ranging over 3 orders of magnitude in HI mass, can be described as being drawn from a family with constant HI surface density.Comment: 17 pages, 14 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRA

Surveillance of the Disease Incidence and Severity of Papaya Ringspot Virus at Four Selected Districts of Bangladesh

An experiment was conducted to survey the prevalence of disease incidence and severity of Papaya ringspot virus (PRSV) at eight locations of four districts in Bangladesh. Papaya is one of the most popular fruits in the world. It suffers from several diseases including fungi, bacteria, nematodes and viruses. Among them, viral diseases are found to cause considerable yield loss, with the most important one being PRSV. The survey was conducted at three plain districts and one hill tract area from July 2016 to December 2016. During the survey period, six different symptoms were found in the selected fields and were identified as PRSV based on symptomology. These symptoms were mild mosaic (MM), mosaic (MO), severe mosaic (SM), fern leaf (FL), leaf distortion (LD) and vein clearing (VC). The highest disease incidence (36.24%) was found in BSMRAU farm in Gazipur whereas the lowest (12.04%) was found in Panchari, Khagrachari hill tract. The maximum severity (11.53%) was found in BSMRAU campus, Gazipur on the country and the lowest severity (2.50%) was found in Panchari, Khagrachari hill tract. The yield and yield contributing parameters of papaya found to be differ significantly among the surveyed area. The lowest fruit weight (324.3 gm) due to PRSV infection was recorded in BSMRAU, Gazipur while the highest fruit weight (643.6 gm) was conducted in SAU Campus, Dhaka

HI power spectrum of the spiral galaxy NGC628

We have measured the HI power spectrum of the nearly face-on spiral galaxy NGC628 (M74) using a visibility based estimator. The power spectrum is well fitted by a power law $P(U)=AU^{\alpha}$, with $\alpha =- 1.6\pm0.2$ over the length scale $800 {\rm pc} {\rm to} 8 {\rm kpc}$. The slope is found to be independent of the width of the velocity channel. This value of the slope is a little more than one in excess of what has been seen at considerably smaller length scales in the Milky-Way, Small Magellanic Cloud (LMC), Large Magellanic Cloud (SMC) and the dwarf galaxy DDO210. We interpret this difference as indicating a transition from three dimensional turbulence at small scales to two dimensional turbulence in the plane of the galaxy's disk at length scales larger than galaxy's HI scale height. The slope measured here is similar to that found at large scales in the LMC. Our analysis also places an upper limit to the galaxy's scale height at $800\ {\rm pc}$ .Comment: 4 Pages, 2 Figures, 1 Table. Accepted for Publication in MNRAS LETTER

Comparison of various body fat indices in early and mid-adolescents of South India: School-based cross-sectional study

Background: The most important bottleneck in the management of obesity is a lack of a gold standard measuring tool. Although body mass index (BMI) is the most commonly used index to identify obesity, other indices such as waist circumference and skinfold thickness are more specific in measuring fatness. Objective: The objective of the study was to determine the agreement between BMI, waist circumference, and triceps skinfold thickness (TSFT) against body fat percentage calculated using 7-site skinfold thickness in South Indian adolescents. Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed in selected government-run schools in Chennai from May 2016 to October 2016. Schoolchildren of age 10–16 years without any medical illness which are known to cause discordant body proportions were included in the study. Sample size was fixed at 700. Date of birth, gender, and the anthropometric parameters, namely, height, weight, waist circumference, and skinfold thickness at triceps, chest, axilla, abdomen, thigh, subscapular, and suprailiac regions were measured by standard procedure and noted. Body fat percentage was calculated from 7-site skinfold thickness using Jackson-Pollock formula. Participants were classified as obese and non-obese based on BMI, waist circumference, TSFT, and body fat percentage using appropriate standards. Agreement between various indices was determined using Cohen’s kappa statistic. Results: BMI, waist circumference, and TSFT showed moderate agreement with body fat percentage calculated from 7-site skinfold measurement. BMI and TSFT showed substantial agreement (k=0.608 for BMI and k=648 for TSFT) with body fat percentage in girls and only fair agreement (k=0.366 for BMI and k=0.291 for TSFT) in boys. Waist circumference showed moderate agreement with body fat percentage in boys (k=0.523) and girls (k=0.575). Conclusion: BMI, waist circumference, and TSFT show moderate agreement with body fat percentage calculated from 7-site skinfold measurement in South Indian adolescents. Measurement of waist circumference is recommended to classify an adolescent as obese, especially boys

Newton-Multigrid FEM Solver for the Simulation of Quasi-Newtonian Modeling of Thixotropic Flows

This paper is concerned with the application of Finite Element Methods (FEM) and NewtonMultigrid solvers to simulate thixotropic flows using quasi-Newtonian modeling. The thixotropy phenomena are introduced to yield stress material by taking into consideration the internal material microstructure using a structure parameter. Firstly, the viscoplastic stress is modified to include the thixotropy throughout the structure parameter. Secondly, an evolution equation for the structure parameter is introduced to induce the time-dependent process of competition between the destruction (breakdown) and the construction (buildup) inhabited in the material. This is done simply by introducing a structure-parameter-dependent viscosity into the rheological model for yield stress material. The nonlinearity, related to the dependency of the diffusive term on the material parameters, is treated with generalized Newton's method w.r.t. the Jacobian's singularities having a global convergence property. The linearized systems inside the outer Newton loops are solved using the geometrical multigrid with a Vanka-like linear smoother taking into account a stable FEM approximation pair for velocity and pressure with discontinuous pressure and biquadratic velocity spaces. We analyze the application of using the quasi-Newtonian modeling approach for thixotropic flows, and the accuracy, robustness and efficiency of the Newton-Multigrid FEM solver throughout the solution of the thixotropic flows using manufactured solutions in a channel and the prototypical configuration of thixotropic flows in Couette device

Fish Diversity in Huchharayanakere, Shikaripura, Shivamogga District, Karnataka, India

Fresh water wetlands are fragile ecosystems, which are fast deterioring and shrinking due to manmade activities. The fish composition of Huchharayanakere of Shikaripura was studied for a period of twelve months from January to December 2015. The icthyo-faunal diversity of this pond confirmed the occurrence of 13 species of fishes belonging to 5 families. The family Cyprinidae represented by 9 species. Families Anabantidae, Bagridae, Clupeidae and Notopteridae were represented by only a single species. Simultaneously the physico-chemical condition of the water body revealed that water quality is suitable for fish culture. The study of fish fauna of an aquatic body is useful for planning of fisheries development. The pond needs proper management and utilization of this fish wealth and sustainable steps to monitor and conserve the fish health. The present study revealed that Huchharayanakere of Shikaripura harbors wide varieties of fish with economic importance in local and global trade. The study will provide future strategies for development and fish conservation