Equation of State and Isentropic Releasem of Aluminum Foam and Fluoropolymer Composites

There is considerable interest in developing a better understanding of the dynamic behavior of heterogeneous materials. This study investigates and compares the dynamic response of 20 and 47% dense aluminum foam systems with and without a polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE or Teflon) fill. Experiments on 47% foam were conduced in a 60 mm bore gun in a reverse ballistic configuration at velocities ranging from 350 m/s to 2.5 km/s. The particle velocity of the backside of the anvil was monitored with a VISAR system. Mesoscale simulations are in good agreement with the available experimental data. Both the experimental and simulated data are in good agreement with an analytic release isentrope when released from Hugoniot stress levels less than 5 GPa. However there is significant deviation from the analytic isentrope as the Hugoniot stress level is increased

Development of Graph from D-matrix based on Ontological Text Mining Method

Fault dependency (D-matrix) is a diagnostic model that catches the fault system data and its causal relationship at the hierarchical system-level. It consists of dependencies and relationship between observable failure modes and symptoms associated with a system. Constructing such D-matrix fault detection model is time consuming task. In this paper, a system is proposed that describes an ontology based text mining method for automatically constructing D-matrix by mining hundreds of repair verbatim text data (typically written in unstructured text) collected during the diagnosis episodes. First we construct fault diagnosis ontology and then text mining techniques are applied to identify dependencies among failure modes and observable symptom. D-matrix is represented in graph so that analysis gets easier and faulty parts becomes easily detectable. The proposed method will be implemented as a prototype tool and validated by using real-life data collected from the automobile domain. DOI: 10.17762/ijritcc2321-8169.15055

Maternal mortality: a tertiary centre panic

Background: Maternal death has a serious implication on the family, society and nation. The preventable and avoidable factors have been noted in most of the maternal deaths and these can be reduced by effective and affordable actions. The objective of present study was to evaluate the causes of maternal mortality in a tertiary care hospital, assess its epidemiological aspects and suggest remedial measures to reduce the same.Methods: A retrospective study of all hospital records and death summaries of all maternal deaths over a period of 16 months from April 2015 to July 2016 was carried out and epidemiological factors and causes affecting maternal mortality were assessed.Results: A total of 100 maternal deaths occurred over a period of 15 months out of which unbooked and late referrals constituted 75.55 % of maternal deaths. Most maternal deaths occurred in the age group of 20–30 years, multiparous women (73%) and women from rural areas (71.%). Direct obstetric causes were responsible for 91 maternal deaths whereas 50 maternal deaths were due to indirect causes. Most common cause of death (41) was hemorrhage, followed by pregnancy-induced hypertension including eclampsia (15) and sepsis (21).Conclusions: Hemorrhage, sepsis and hypertension including eclampsia were seen as the direct major causes of death. There is a wide scope of improvement because a large proportion of the observed deaths are preventable

SOLUBILITY AND DISSOLUTION ENHANCEMENT OF PIOGLITAZONE USING SOLID DISPERSION TECHNIQUE

Objective: To design the study to improve the solubility and hence enhance the dissolution of hydrophobic drug Pioglitazone in order to increase its bioavailability.Methods: Solid dispersion of Pioglitazone using carriers Poloxomer 188 and HPβCD was formulated in different ratios by microwave induced fusion method. In particular, the Microwave technology has been considered in order to prepare an enhanced release dosage form for poorly water soluble drug Pioglitazone. Statistical Analysis: Their physicochemical characteristics and solubility were compared to the corresponding dispersions and marketed drug. Drug and polymer were further characterized by FTIR.Results: The results of FTIR revealed that no chemical interaction between the drug and the polymer exist.Conclusion: All the formulations showed a marked increase in drug release with the increase in the concentration of Poloxomer 188 and HPβCD.Â

ISOLATION OF POTENT HYDROCARBON DEGRADING MICRO-ORGANISMS AND ITS APPLICATION IN BIOREMEDIATION

Objective: Oil spillage has become a global environmental problem as its constituents are toxic, mutagenic and carcinogenic. Natural bioremediation is the only eco-friendly solution to resist its devastating environmental and economic damage. Microbes are used to change harmful substances to non-toxic substances. The current work focuses on the performance of different bacterial species in degrading the oil components like benzene and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH)s.Methods: Sample was collected from different areas affected by the oil spill in Mumbai that is from the shore of Juhu, Dadar and Manori in form of tar balls and was enriched and isolated on Bushnell and Hass's media containing 1% crude oil as a sole source of carbon. The potent isolates were then identified by standard biochemical tests referring to Bergey's Manual.Results: Two partially identified strains were Pseudomonas flavescens and Bacillus sp. biofilms of Pseudomonas spp. was prepared on glass matrix to determine its oil degrading efficiency. An indigenous consortium was developed by the assembly of seven isolates of oil-degrading bacteria.Conclusion: The developed consortium was able to degrade crude oil completely within 4 d. The obtained isolates seemed to have the potential for bioremediation of oil contaminated soil and tar balls which was justified by setting up of a bioreactor

Safety profile of imatinib in Indian chronic myeloid leukemia patients

Introduction: Imatinib mesylate has become the choice of drug in the treatment of chronic myeloid leukemia. Objective: To study safety profile of Imatinib (specific inhibitor or bcrabl tryosne kinase protein) in Philadelphia chromosome t {(9:22), bcr-abl} positive chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) chronic phase patients. Materials and Methods: After IEC clearance, 36, BCR-ABL positive CML patients in the chronic phase of the disease were recruited. Imatinib mesylate (Gleevec, Novartis), was started (400mg daily) and followed up weekly in first month, two weekly till three months & monthly thereafter. Safety profile data, recorded in pre-designed proforma, were analyzed for time of onset, duration and severity of adverse effects. Causality relationship of recorded adverse events was established with imatinib therapy using WHO-UMC criteria. Results: A total of 222 adverse events were reported in 36 CML-CP patients over 12 months of follow up. Thrombocytopenia was the most commonly reported in 60% of the patients followed by musculoskeletal (17%), dermatological (16%), gastrointestinal disturbances (13%), body weight changes (11%), superficial edema (8%) and liver enzyme rise (4%). More than 80% events reported within months of therapy which persisted for less than 3 months in most of the cases. No treatment was needed in 68% of cases while therapy alteration was not needed in 88% of cases. Most of the reactions (60%) had probable relationship with the therapy. Conclusion: Imatinib was well tolerated, having only mild to moderate grade of toxicities, mostly within 3 months of therapy and most of them persisted for less than 3 months of duration, requiring only symptomatic treatment and drug withhold or dose decrement in only few cases

3D MODELING AND CHARACTERIZATION OF HDAC9

Objective: Histones are the most abundant proteins associated with the eukaryotic DNA. The N-terminal tails of these histones are subjected to modifications primarily by two enzymes namely, Histone acetyl transferases (HATs) and Histone deacetylases (HDACs). HDACs help in the regulation of the acetylation of histones and the condensation of the chromatin in its sTable form. HDACs are considered as one of the promising targets in cancer biology studies. HDAC9 is a class II member of HDAC family and they are associated with many neurological disorders and a variety of cancers. The 3D structure of this HDAC9(Q9UKV0) was not published. Thus, the aim of this study was to develop and validate the model structure of HDAC9 (Q9UKV0) using bioinformatics tools.Methods: The Physiochemical characterization was carried out using Ex PASy Prot Param tool, the Functional characterization using Cysteine Recognition Server and HMMTOP Server and Molecular Modeling using I-TASSER. Model Refinement, Validation and verification are carried out using SPDBV, RAMPAGE Server and ERRAT Server respectively. Result and Conclusion: This3D model of HDAC9 now can be further used to target drug discovery studies related to HDAC9 neurological disorders and a variety of cancers.Â

Students’ attitude toward didactic lecture versus problem-based learning in pharmacology: a questionnaire based study

Background: The study was conducted to assess student attitude toward learning by didactic lectures versus problem-based learning (PBL).Methods: A questionnaire containing 11 statements was distributed to the students. Statements ranged from general information on lectures and PBL to benefits of lecture-based learning (LBL) over PBL and vice versa. The students were asked to score each individual statement. The median total scores and median with inter-quartile range of individual statements was calculated. A comparison between questions that support LBL or PBL was performed. Student t-test was employed to compare the mean scores of different groups.Results: Two hundred and seven students participated in this questionnaire study. The individual median total score was 42 when compared with possible total score of 55. There was a statistically significant (p<0.05) difference between the total score (mean±standard deviation) for the questions related to LBL (3.2391±0.05120) and those related to PBL (4.0640±0.05688).Conclusion: The score for PBL was significantly higher than LBL showing that students liked PBL more than LBL