Potential uses of Parthenium hysterophorous, the obnoxious weed

Parthenium hysterophorous is an obnoxious weed and is largely spread all over the world. It widely affects the loss of natural vegetation in the areas of its growth. It has detrimental effects on human health and livestock and also reduces the agricultural produce. Because of its enormous availability, studies have been conducted to validate its employability. Researchers have shown that it can be used efficiently to a considerable level in various fields such as bio manure production &   vermi- composting, bioremediation, as a substrate for the synthesis of biomolecules etc. Though the uses of it are explored very little, it has the potential that could be tapped for a few sustainable approaches

REVIEW ON SAFETY ASSESSMENT OF A COSMETIC PRODUCT

Cosmetics can be defined as, substances which are intended to be applied to the human body for cleansing, beautifying, promoting attractiveness, or altering the appearance without affecting the body's structure or functions†according to USFDA. This review encompasses a brief description of the process of safety assessment of a cosmetic product. There is no significant systemic absorption of cosmetics by penetration through skin, but some products are intended to apply on the mucous membranes or skin surrounding the mucous membranes which may result in significant systemic absorption on continuous use. Serious health hazards have not been observed mostly, but in some cases, lead to severe reactions like, allergy, irritation, comedogenicity, genotoxicity, photosensitivity etc. At the same time, long terms effects of usage of cosmetics are still unknown as the products are used repeatedly over a long period of time. Hence, safety evaluation of a cosmetic product is the most prominent step before release of the product into the market. There are no specific safety regulations for cosmetics, but the safety of the product is the responsibility of the manufacturer. The article explains about different organizations that are responsible for the safety of the cosmetic products before they are released into the market in different countries and also about the Product Information File (PIF). The safety of a cosmetic product both at industrial level and finished product level are explained. The different tests deployed for the safety assessment of a cosmetic product are also explained

Modeling of Energy Amplification Recorded within Greater Los Angeles Using Irregular Structure

We have investigated energy amplification observed within Greater Los Angeles basin by analyzing regional waveforms recorded from several Nevada Test Site (NTS) nuclear explosions. Although the stations are located nearly at the same azimuth (distances ranging from 350 to 400 km), the seismograms recorded in Compton (the central part of the basin), Long Beach (the southern edge of the basin), and downtown Los Angeles are remarkably different, even for a common explosion. Following the onset of L_g waves, the Long Beach sites have recorded surface waves for more than 100 sec. From one explosion, the sites within downtown Los Angeles have recorded seismograms with strong 3-sec surface waves. These waves are not observed on the seismograms recorded in the neighboring hard-rock site California Institute of Technology (CIT) station. Thus, they must have been generated by local wave guides. Numerically, we modeled these 3-sec waves by convolving the CIT seismogram with the response of a sedimentary strata dipping gently (about 6°) from CIT toward downtown. We also examined the irregular basin effect by analyzing the variation of cumulative temporal energy across the basin relative to the energy recorded at CIT from the same explosion. Variation up to a factor of 30 was observed. To model the energy variation that is caused by extended surface waves in the Long Beach area, we used numerically simulated site transfer functions (STF) from a NNE-SSW oriented two-dimensional basin structure extending from Montebello to Palos Verdes that included low-velocity sedimentary material in the uppermost layers. These STFs were convolved with the CIT seismogram recorded from the MAST explosion. To simulate elongated duration of surface waves, we introduced in the upper sedimentary structure some discontinuous microbasin structures of varying size, each microbasin delaying the seismic waves propagating through them. Consequently, the surface-reflected phases through these structures are delayed and reflected into the upper medium by the underlying interfaces. This mechanism helps delayed energy to appear at a later time and result in a longer time duration at sites located at southern edge of the basin

Electron-Hole Asymmetry in the Electron-phonon Coupling in Top-gated Phosphorene Transistor

Using in-situ Raman scattering from phosphorene channel in an electrochemically top-gated field effect transistor, we show that its phonons with A$_g$ symmetry depend much more strongly on concentration of electrons than that of holes, while the phonons with B$_g$ symmetry are insensitive to doping. With first-principles theoretical analysis, we show that the observed electon-hole asymmetry arises from the radically different constitution of its conduction and valence bands involving $\pi$ and $\sigma$ bonding states respectively, whose symmetry permits coupling with only the phonons that preserve the lattice symmetry. Thus, Raman spectroscopy is a non-invasive tool for measuring electron concentration in phosphorene-based nanoelectronic devices

Biofilms: Formation, Properties, Impact on Industries, Strategies for Control

Microbes being one of the oldest inhabitants on the earth, have successfully survived the harsh environments by a number of survival strategies. One such strategy is the formation of a multicellular structure formed by the adherence of the microorganisms to a surface, known as biofilm. This structure is formed by first reversible and then irreversible linkages with the solid support. These are the porous structures with micro colonies, enclosed by exopolysaccharides and are connected by interstitial voids called water channels to promote the influx of nutrients, oxygen and other vital molecules and the efflux of metabolic wastes. Biofouling – formation of biofilms in an industrial setting has been a major problem in the wide range of industries with deleterious effects. The challenges brought about by biofilms in various sectors of the food industry, paper manufacturing and marine industries as well as other technological problems are discussed. Over the years several strategies are used targeting various stages and site of biofilm formation have been formulated to rid industries of biofilms once and for all. Though there exists no ‘perfect solution’ for complete biofilm eradication to date, some of the more recent and potential strategies will be discusse

Functional outcome analysis of fixation of distal radius fractures using five pin technique

Background: One of the most frequent injuries seen in orthopaedic practise is a distal radius fracture. They account for 8-15% of all adult bone injuries. Younger and older age groups are both affected by distal radius fractures, which are bimodal in distribution and correspond to high and low energy trauma, respectively.Methods: 25 patients with distal radius fractures who were hospitalised and subsequently underwent five pin fixations as well as those who came to the outpatient department for postoperative follow-up.Results: We evaluated at 25 patients who had distal radius fractures prospectively. The patients' ages ranged from 22 years to 68 years old, with a mean age of 42.8 years among them at the time the fracture was first noticed. Among the patients, there were 18 men (72%) and 7 women (28%).Conclusions: The five-pin technique treats displaced intra and extra articular fractures without significant articular and metaphyseal comminution and is minimally invasive

Entropic Origin of the Growth of Relaxation Times in Simple Glassy Liquids

Transitions between ``glassy'' local minima of a model free-energy functional for a dense hard-sphere system are studied numerically using a ``microcanonical'' Monte Carlo method that enables us to obtain the transition probability as a function of the free energy and the Monte Carlo ``time''. The growth of the height of the effective free energy barrier with density is found to be consistent with a Vogel-Fulcher law. The dependence of the transition probability on time indicates that this growth is primarily due to entropic effects arising from the difficulty of finding low-free-energy saddle points connecting glassy minima.Comment: Four pages, plus three postscript figure

Extended Self-similarity in Kinetic Surface Roughening

We show from numerical simulations that a limited mobility solid-on-solid model of kinetically rough surface growth exhibits extended self-similarity analogous to that found in fluid turbulence. The range over which scale-independent power-law behavior is observed is significantly enhanced if two correlation functions of different order, such as those representing two different moments of the difference in height between two points, are plotted against each other. This behavior, found in both one and two dimensions, suggests that the `relative' exponents may be more fundamental than the `absolute' ones.Comment: 4 pages, 4 postscript figures included (some changes made according to referees' comments. accepted for publication in PRE Rapid Communication

Conical refraction lasing in a Nd:YVO4 laser with a conerefringent KGW element

A conical refraction (CR) laser based on a separate gain medium (Nd:YVO4) and an intracavity CR element (KGW) was demonstrated. The decoupling of the gain and CR media enabled the laser to produce a well-behaved CR laser beam with excellent quality, while reducing the complexity of the pumping scheme. The proposed laser setup has the potential for power scaling using the efficient diode pumping approach and the properties of the generated CR beam are independent from the laser gain medium