PHYTOCHEMICAL SCREENING AND ANALGESIC EFFECTS OF ETHANOLIC EXTRACT OF PLANT MURDANIA NUDIFLORA (L) BRENAN (COMMELINACEAE) IN ALBINO MICE USING HOT PLATE METHOD

Objective: Murdania nudiflora (L) Brenan (Commelinaceae) has long been used in folk medicine in treatment of many diseases. In this study, attempts have been made for pharmacological screening of the plant Murdania nudiflora (L) Brenan (Commelinaceae) for analgesic activity and presence of different phytochemicals. Methods: To this end, ethanolic extract of Murdania nudiflora (L) Brenan (Commelinaceae) was evaluated for analgesic properties using plate reaction time in mice and phytochemical screening of the plant was done by different methods. Results: The analgesic study showed that the ethanolic extract of the leaves have significant analgesic effects (P < 0.05; P < 0.001) as compared to morphine sulphate (10 mg/kg) used as a standard drug. The result of the preliminary phytochemical studies revealed the presence of tannins, flavonoids, saponins, alkaloids as a whole and which are reported to be responsible for the analgesic and anti-inflammatory activities in many medicinal plants of this family. Conclusion: From these studies, it may be concluded that ethanol extracts of Murdania nudiflora (L) Brenan may contain novel bioactive principles with analgesic activity. Further study is required for evaluation of active principle(s) in different animal models

Inadmissible Class of Boolean Functions under Stuck-at Faults

Many underlying structural and functional factors that determine the fault behavior of a combinational network, are not yet fully understood. In this paper, we show that there exists a large class of Boolean functions, called root functions, which can never appear as faulty response in irredundant two-level circuits even when any arbitrary multiple stuck-at faults are injected. Conversely, we show that any other Boolean function can appear as a faulty response from an irredundant realization of some root function under certain stuck-at faults. We characterize this new class of functions and show that for n variables, their number is exactly equal to the number of independent dominating sets (Harary and Livingston, Appl. Math. Lett., 1993) in a Boolean n-cube. We report some bounds and enumerate the total number of root functions up to 6 variables. Finally, we point out several open problems and possible applications of root functions in logic design and testing

Ghost diffraction: A spatial statistical approach

We report the reconstruction of a transparency image in Ghost diffraction scheme using a statistical optics approach. This is implemented by using a static diffuser rather than a pseudo thermal light source with a rotating diffuser. The experimental implementation makes use of spatial ergodicity and spatial stationarity for spatially distributed random fields. A strategy to realize the Ghost diffraction scheme through spatial intensity correlation with a phase retrieval algorithm permits reconstruction of the transparency

Polymer transduction cavity based optical fiber Fabry-Perot interferometer for VOC sensing

Frequent exposure to volatile organic compounds (VOC) above the permissible limit can result in adverse health effects. Therefore, VOC detection and monitoring at trace levels are essential in both indoor and outdoor environments. A highly sensitive and accurate method is desired for this purpose and optical interferometry is a sensitive measurement technique useful for trace-level VOC sensing. We have fabricated and experimentally studied the sensing properties of the optical fiber Fabry–Perot interferometer polymer sensor cast on the fiber tip for acetone detection. Polystyrene, deposited at the end facet of the fiber act as the FP cavity. A significant shift in the interference pattern resonant dip positions is observed in the interaction of the FP cavity with acetone vapor due to changes in the properties of the polymer resulting in physical thickness variation and a change in refractive index. Emphasis has been put on studying the sensor performance over multiple measurement cycles to affirm the reproducibility of the results for repeated usage instead of one-time disposable measurements. Excellent repeatable sensing performance with a sensitivity of 5.78 pm/ppm is observed for 09 data sets recorded over 09 days consisting of 190 individual experimental studies

Dual plane in-line digital holographic microscopy

We report a dual plane in-line digital holographic microscopy technique that exploits the method of subtraction of average intensity of the entire hologram to suppress the zero-order diffracted wave. Two interferograms are recorded at different planes to eliminate the conjugate image. The experimental results demonstrate successful reconstruction of phase objects as well as of amplitude objects. The two interferograms can be recorded simultaneously, using two CCD or CMOS sensors, in order to increase the acquisition rate. This enhanced acquisition rate, together with the improved reconstruction capability of the proposed method, may find applications in biomedical research for visualization of rapid dynamic processes at the cellular level

Quantitative phase-contrast imaging through a scattering media

We report a new technique for the recovery of quantitative phase and amplitude information of an object hidden behind a scattering medium. Two-point intensity correlation measurement together with digital holography principles are utilized for this purpose. The hologram information of the object and a reference beam is scrambled by the presence of a scattering medium in its path. A direct digital holographic recording of this scattered light does not lead to the reconstruction of actual object information. We propose the idea of recovering this hologram information from the spatially fluctuating field of a laser speckle pattern using the intensity correlation, and subsequently apply digital reconstruction of the hologram for recovery of quantitative phase and amplitude information of objects hidden by a random diffuser

Quantitative phase-contrast imaging through a scattering media

We report a new technique for the recovery of quantitative phase and amplitude information of an object hidden behind a scattering medium. Two-point intensity correlation measurement together with digital holography principles are utilized for this purpose. The hologram information of the object and a reference beam is scrambled by the presence of a scattering medium in its path. A direct digital holographic recording of this scattered light does not lead to the reconstruction of actual object information. We propose the idea of recovering this hologram information from the spatially fluctuating field of a laser speckle pattern using the intensity correlation, and subsequently apply digital reconstruction of the hologram for recovery of quantitative phase and amplitude information of objects hidden by a random diffuser

Planning of Fixed-Route Fixed-Schedule Feeder Service to Bus Stops in Rural India

Rural feeder service between villages and bus stops is largely a missing component in developing countries such as India. Traditionally, planning of rural feeder service has been carried out without due consideration to indirect costs associated with hard factors (e.g., walking distance and waiting time) and soft factors (e.g., crowding inside vehicles) of the service. A case study is presented for the planning of rural feeder service with due consideration to direct and indirect costs to users and operational viability of the service. Direct and indirect costs to users are expressed in terms of a comprehensive measure called generalized cost (GC). GC is developed on the basis of the willingness to pay (WTP) of rural commuters with respect to various attributes of rural feeder service. The work demonstrates the effect of catchment characteristics (i.e., number of villages, size of villages, and spatial separation represented by road network connecting villages to bus stop) on feeder service attributes (i.e., type of vehicle, route, headway of service and fare). It is also shown that planning of feeder service could be instrumental in bringing benefits to rural communities. The results presented in the paper are case specific, but the methodology can be applied to the planning of feeder services in other rural regions