Conversion of Natural Resources through Waste reduction at the Processing Step by Briquetting Technique

India is gifted by nature by way of large quantities of high grade nonferrous mineral resources like barite containing more than 90% barium sulphate. The processing of barite to win chemicals from it requires its carbotherrnic reduction at high temperatures being carried out in rotary furnaces. The powdered charge containing barium sulfide is prone to get damaged due to reverse reaction caused by infiltered oxygen at the end of reduction state. This hampers the yield of water soluble barium sulfide.The paper discusses about the means of achieving favourbale kinetics and high recovery of water soluble barium sulphide in the carbothermic reduction of barite at high temperatures. The reaction rate of reduction step was enhanced many folds by using briquetting technique. Even with barite containing large amnount of harmful impurites, the yield of barium was improved considerably on pilot plant scale, thus achieving better utilisation of natural resoures such as barite and coke

Remote Video Monitoring System Using Raspberry Pi 3 and GPRS Module

Now a day’s security has prime importance in different areas such as home security, monitoring of remote areas etc. with advancement in embedded system and wireless technology, it is possible to build a remote area monitoring system with low cost. This paper represents a system implemented by using Raspberry Pi 3 and GPRS module. Transmitter section is implemented at remote area where images are captured by using USB camera interfaced with Raspberry pi. Images are compressed by software programming using libjpeg library and uploaded to HTTP server via SIM900A/800 GSM/GPRS module. Internet connection is established using PPP stack of SIM900A/800 GSM/GPRS module. Receiver section is monitoring center where images are downloaded using 3g or Wi-Fi wireless connection. Received images are decompressed and streamed on web browser using MJPG streamer

Trend of Crop Water Requirement at Akola (Maharashtra), India

Climate change scenario badly affects the agriculture. The present study aimed to characterize the trend in maximum temperature and crop water requirement over a last decade at Akola station (Maharashtra State), because of changing trend in meteorological parameters. Study investigated the trends in temperature and reference evapotranspiration using various statistical parameters like mean, coefficient of variation, coefficient of skewness and coefficient of kurtosis. Monthly maximum air temperature showed slightly decreasing trend over summer season while increasing trend over monsoon and winter season. On the contrary, the monthly reference evapotranspiration showed decreasing linear trend over monsoon and winter season, while increasing trend over summer season. The study concluded that as the monthly reference evapotranspiration showed decreasing linear trend over cropping seasons (i.e. monsoon and winter), the crop water requirement at Akola station shall decrease in future

Fabrication and characterization of a polymeric microcantilever with an encapsulated hotwire CVD polysilicon piezoresistor

We demonstrate a novel photoplastic nanoelectromechanical device that includes an encapsulated polysilicon piezoresistor. The temperature limitation that typically prevents deposition of polysilicon films on polymers was overcome by employing a hotwire CVD process. In this paper, we report the use of this process to fabricate and characterize a novel polymeric cantilever with an embedded piezoresistor. This device exploits the low Young's modulus of organic polymers and the high gauge factor of polysilicon. The fabricated device fits into the cantilever holder of an atomic force microscope (AFM) and can be used in conjunction with the AFM's liquid cell for detecting the adsorption of biochemicals. It enables differential measurement while preventing biochemicals from interfering with measurements using the piezoresistor. The mechanical and electromechanical characterization of the device is also reported in this paper

Study of potential drug interactions between prescribed drugs in geriatric patients attending outpatient department in a government tertiary care hospital in Maharashtra

Background: A drug interaction is defined as a modification of the effect of a drug when it is administered with other drugs. Geriatric population is exposed to multiple drugs and consequently suffers many drug interactions (DIs). The objective of this study was to assess the potential drug interactions (PDI) in the geriatric population attending out-patient department (OPD) in a tertiary care hospital.Methods: A cross sectional observational study was carried out from July to September 2015. Patients of either gender, age 60 years or more, attending OPD in tertiary care hospital and prescribed two or more drugs, were included in the study. Prescriptions of medical officers were screened for PDIs with Medscape drug interaction software available on the website www.medscape.com.Results: In the present study, out of 600 prescriptions, 48.50% were identified having at least one drug interaction. Total 584 PDIs were found in 111 drug pairs. 29.62% PDIs were pharmacodynamic, 42.80% pharmacokinetic type and 10.78% PDIs were found affecting serum potassium level. Majority of PDIs (61.81%) were found significant followed by minor (36.98%) and severe (1.19%). Ranitidine and cyanocobalamin was the most common pair showing PDI (105) followed by aspirin and enalapril (44). Aspirin was found to be the most common single drug amongst pairs to cause PDI in the present study.Conclusions: In the present study, PDIs were studied in geriatric population. Knowledge of the prevalence and predictors of clinically important PDIs will help physicians and pharmacists identify patients at higher risk of adverse drug interactions requiring more cautious pharmacotherapy

FORMULATION OPTIMIZATION OF PROMETHAZINE THEOCLATE IMMEDIATE RELEASE PELLETS BY USING EXTRUSION-SPHERONIZATION TECHNIQUE

Objective: Promethazine theoclate is a BCS Class II drug having anti-histaminic property and mainly used for the treatment of motion sickness and postoperative emesis. The main objective of the research work was to formulate and optimize immediate release pellets of promethazine theoclate by using the extrusion-spheronization technique to offer immediate release dosage form suitable for treatment of nausea and vomiting associated with motion sickness and post-operative conditions.Methods: Immediate release pellets of promethazine theoclate were prepared by using microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) and corn starch as filler and disintegrant respectively along with other excipients. Pellet formulation was further optimized for bulk density, disintegration time and percent drug release after 10 min. using 32 factorial design. Formulations were also characterized for drug-polymer interactions using Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), surface morphology by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and other physicochemical properties.Results: Optimised pellet formulation contains 2.5:4.5:1 ratio of MCC: Corn Starch: Drug and spheronization time of 60 seconds showing highest percent yield of 78% and immediate drug release of 100.52±0.65% after 10 min.Conclusion: Promethazine theoclate pellets formulated in this study can serve as an alternative to tablet dosage form which can give immediate drug release for treatment of motion sickness and postoperative emesis

DRUG UTILIZATION PATTERN IN GERIATRIC PATIENTS ATTENDING OUT PATIENT DEPARTMENT AT RURAL TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL IN MAHARASHTRA.

Objective: To observe a prescription pattern in elderly patients attending outpatient department (OPD) and evaluating prescriptions according to theWorld Health Organization (WHO) prescription indicators.Methods: A cross-sectional observational study was conducted from July to September 2015. Patients of either gender, age 60 years or more, attending OPD in tertiary care hospital were included in the study. Prescriptions of medical practitioners were collected and evaluated for demographic data and the WHO drug prescribing indicators.Results: A total of 600 patients were enrolled in the study. The majority of the patients were in the age group 60-69 years (66.33%) with male preponderance (61%). The average number of drugs per prescription was 3.41. Out of 2045 drugs prescribed, 1261 drugs (61.66%) were prescribed by their generic name and 784 drugs (38.33%) were prescribed by their brand name. 1700 drugs (83.12%) prescribed were from the WHOs essential medicines list 2015. Total encounters involving injectable usage were 0.15%. Drugs acting on the cardiovascular system (21.12%) were the most frequently prescribed, followed by nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) (20%). Ranitidine (16.62%) is the most frequently prescribed drug. Conclusions: In this study, drug prescription pattern was rational as per the WHO drug prescribing indicators. However, issues such as polypharmacy and inaccuracies of dose and duration were seen.Keywords: Drug utilization study, Geriatric, Outpatient department, Rational use of medicines

James van Allen and his namesake NASA mission

Abstract In many ways, James A. Van Allen defined and “invented” modern space research. His example showed the way for government-university partners to pursue basic research that also served important national and international goals. He was a tireless advocate for space exploration and for the role of space science in the spectrum of national priorities