Dental Fluorosis: its prevalence and sternness in Dindigul district

Background: Dental Fluorosis is still a depreciated condition which lacks felicitous awareness among people. Fluorosis is an endemic problem affecting different parts of the country. This condition is generally perceived in places where there is excessive amount of fluoride in the drinking water. Clinical Dental fluorosis is a biomarker of exposure to fluoride. Hence, this study was conducted among 1505 school children of age 3-5 years to find the existence and severity of dental fluorosis in Dindigul district, one of the endemic areas of fluorosis. Materials & Methods: A cross sectional study was carried out in 1505 children of age group 3-15 years from two schools in Dindigul. The schools were selected by random sampling. All the students were screened for presence or absence of dental fluorosis and graded based on Dean’s fluorosis index. The children were divided into 9 groups based on their residential areas. Water samples were collected from the 9 areas and fluoride levels were assessed. Results: An overall prevalence of 43.05% of dental fluorosis was observed among the study population. It was also observed that a high prevalence rate of 47.25% of fluorosis was prevalent in subjects using bore well water as drinking source. The levels of fluoride in drinking water ranged from 2.2ppm – 2.9 ppm.  In our study Dental fluorosis was found to have a positive correlation with age, source of drinking water used and level of fluoride in drinking water. There is a gradual increase in severity of dental fluorosis with increase in levels of fluoride present in drinking water. Conclusion: We conducted this study to assess if, children living in endemic areas of fluorosis consuming water containing more than 1.5ppm of fluoride are at increased risk of developing dental fluorosis and the same has been reflected in our results. Skeletal and dental fluorosis should be managed by providing surface water from nearby dams if any. Rain water harvesting can be done and provided as source of drinking water. Water sources which are good as per WHO guidelines should be used for drinking and cooking purposes

Photoinduced Excited State Electron Transfer at Liquid/Liquid Interfaces

Several aspects of the photoinduced electron transfer (ET) reaction betweencoumarin 314 (C314) and N,N-dimethylaniline (DMA) at the water/DMA interface areinvestigated by molecular dynamics simulations. New DMA and water/DMA potentialenergy surfaces are developed and used to characterize the neat water/DMA interface.The adsorption free energy, the rotational dynamics and the solvation dynamics of C314at the liquid/liquid interface are investigated and are generally in reasonable agreementwith available experimental data. The solvent free energy curves for the ET reactionbetween excited C314 and DMA molecules are calculated and compared with thosecalculated for a simple point charge model of the solute. It is found that thereorganization free energy is very small when the full molecular description of the soluteis taken into account. An estimate of the ET rate constant is in reasonable agreement withexperiment. Our calculations suggest that the polarity of the surface “reported” by thesolute, as reflected by solvation dynamics and the reorganization free energy, is strongly solute-dependent

Two-dimensional phase transitions of water dipoles at mercury/aqueous solution interfaces

965-967The critical temperatures pertaining to order-disorder transitions of water dipoles at mercury/aqueous solution interfaces are estimated taking into account the hydrogen bonding considerations and surface coordination effects via Gibbs free energies. The computed values are in agreement with the experimental data deduced using Laser-induced temperature jump methods as well as empirical correlations

37th National Systems Conference

The book is a collection of peer-reviewed scientific papers submitted by active researchers in the 37th National System Conference (NSC 2013). NSC is an annual event of the Systems Society of India (SSI), primarily oriented to strengthen the systems movement and its applications for the welfare of humanity. A galaxy of academicians, professionals, scientists, statesman and researchers from different parts of the country and abroad are invited to attend the conference. The book presents research articles in the areas of system’s modelling, complex network modelling, cyber security, sustainable systems design, health care systems, socio-economic systems, and clean and green technologies. The book can be used as a tool for further research

Electrodeposited Ni/SiC composite coating on graphite for high temperature solar thermal applications

Ni/SiC nanocomposite coatings were electrodeposited on graphite (of different shapes) under galvanostatic condition. The effect of the shape of graphite on the morphological, composition, structural properties of the composite coatings, thermal stability and anti-oxidative behaviour at high temperatures were studied. The major composition of the composite coating is silicon carbide (Si5C3, CSi), nickel silicon (Ni0.92Si0.08) and graphite (C). Porous and fine grain structure is formed with cracks. Uniform distributions of SiC nanoparticle were observed. Circular graphite possessed higher adhesion and thickness of the coatings in comparison with rod and square shaped graphite substrate. Thermal analysis of the coated samples indicates the weight loss of SiC coated graphite as 16.5% (rod), 30% (square), 2.5% (Circular). Uncoated graphite had a weight loss of 32.5%. The thermal oxidation of the coated sample in air is least for circular geometry in comparison to rod and square. Thus SiC coated circular graphite can be utilized for high temperature applications such as solar thermal absorbers. Keywords: SiC, Graphite, High temperature coatings, Solar thermal, Anti-oxidation, Geometr

High Efficiency Graphene Coated Copper Based Thermocells Connected in Series

Conversion of low-grade waste heat into electricity had been studied employing single thermocell or flowcells so far. Graphene coated copper electrodes based thermocells connected in series displayed relatively high efficiency of thermal energy harvesting. The maximum power output of 49.2 W/m2 for normalized cross sectional electrode area is obtained at 60°C of inter electrode temperature difference. The relative carnot efficiency of 20.2% is obtained from the device. The importance of reducing the mass transfer and ion transfer resistance to improve the efficiency of the device is demonstrated. Degradation studies confirmed mild oxidation of copper foil due to corrosion caused by the electrolyte