DRDO and Expectations of Stakeholders

DRDO is India’s major credible research and development organization that enables self-reliance and indigenisation of defence technologies and weapon systems to empower India in the emerging geo-political balance. The Organisation has its genesis in a technical inspection agency which over the years have transformed into a highly professional R&D organization with strong design and technology capabilities and skilled entrepreneurship to undertake development of state-of-the-art defence systems. DRDO driven R&D efforts have catalysed the growth of domestic defence and civilian industries in the country as well. The overarching endeavours of DRDO encompassing academia, private industry and Defence PSUs have helped in establishing a self-reliant defence industrial eco-system and collectively all have contributed in the Hon’ble Prime Minister’s vision of “skill development” and “Make-in-India”. Yet, DRDO’s struggle at the national level continues since Armed Forces continue to depend on imports for major acquisitions. Indigenous options have not always established themselves as the preferred options even when they are available. The acceptability of DRDO developed products remains at a low ebb. The question is what more DRDO should do to ensure the acceptability of the users? This study examines the evolution of the DRDO and whether over the years DRDO has done enough or should do more to increase its visibility, acceptability, credibility and respectability? And how DRDO should reposition itself beyond MoD/Armed Forces in the national and international context to fulfill the ambitions of the country to play global roles? This paper also discusses how building the brand “DRDO” may possibly help DRDO.&nbsp

The Economic Aspects of Chilli Production in Central Java

This study analyses the economic aspects of chilli in Central Java where chilli is massively and intensively cultivated. Data for this study is compiled during 2009-2011 in three chilli producing districts: Brebes, Magelang and Rembang. Analyses is conducted using qualitative and quantitative approaches. The results indicate that many important findings related to economic aspects of chilli. There are various ranges of economic aspects across regions. The main findings is that chilli provided positive net returns, has relatively high economic risk and intensive use of chemicals. The policies related to improvement of chilli cultivation need to be formulated based on local specific constraints

Scope of Pre-trained Language Models for Detecting Conflicting Health Information

An increasing number of people now rely on online platforms to meet their health information needs. Thus identifying inconsistent or conflicting textual health information has become a safety-critical task. Health advice data poses a unique challenge where information that is accurate in the context of one diagnosis can be conflicting in the context of another. For example, people suffering from diabetes and hypertension often receive conflicting health advice on diet. This motivates the need for technologies which can provide contextualized, user-specific health advice. A crucial step towards contextualized advice is the ability to compare health advice statements and detect if and how they are conflicting. This is the task of health conflict detection (HCD). Given two pieces of health advice, the goal of HCD is to detect and categorize the type of conflict. It is a challenging task, as (i) automatically identifying and categorizing conflicts requires a deeper understanding of the semantics of the text, and (ii) the amount of available data is quite limited. In this study, we are the first to explore HCD in the context of pre-trained language models. We find that DeBERTa-v3 performs best with a mean F1 score of 0.68 across all experiments. We additionally investigate the challenges posed by different conflict types and how synthetic data improves a model's understanding of conflict-specific semantics. Finally, we highlight the difficulty in collecting real health conflicts and propose a human-in-the-loop synthetic data augmentation approach to expand existing HCD datasets. Our HCD training dataset is over 2x bigger than the existing HCD dataset and is made publicly available on Github

Evaluation of the Addition of Granular Media Filtration to Wastewater Treatment Plants to Meet New Standards

A dual media filtration study was carried out at the central Weber Wastewater Treatment Plant in Ogden, Utah, to evaluate its feasibility as a tertiary treatment to meet new effluent quality standards. A review of the literature indicated that dual media filters were more efficient than conventional single media sand filters because of the “in depth” filtration achieved by dual media filters. An experimental filter was operated at four different hydraulic loading rates, ranging from 3 to 6 gpm/ft 2 (122.10 to 244.20 1/min/m2), to evaluate its effects on effluent quality. Hydraulic loading rate was shown not to affect suspended solids removal. The experimental filter produced excellent suspended solids removal; however, BOD5 removal efficiency was relatively poor because the influent to the filter contained high concentrations of soluble BOD5 and colloidal organic solids. Filter effluent quality met State of Utah standards of 10 mg/1 of BOD5 at the hydraulic loading rate of 3 gpm/ft2 and exceeded the standard by less than 2 mg/1 at loading rates due to removal of 4, 5, and 6 gpm/ft2. Filter cycle durations were very short at higher filtration rates due to removal of influent suspended solids in the intermixed portions of the filter media. Biological growth within the filter media was a major problem in the operation of the filter. The filter influent was chlorinated to prevent this growth. The study indicated that dual media filtration of trickling filter plant effluent to meet new effluent quality standards is economically feasible and can produce an effluent which meets state and federal standards

In vitro Release kinetics and Bio availability of Layered Matrix tablets of Diclofenac Sodium

Controlled release tablets having near zero-order release of diclofenac sodium water soluble drug were prepared using guar gum (GG) in matrix core and Hydroxy Propyl Cellulose (HPC), Hydroxy Propyl Methyl Cellulose (HPMCK4M) and Sodium Carboxy Methyl Cellulose (Na CMC) as barrier layers. The optimum ratio of drug: guar gum was found to be 1:1, anionic GG in the matrix core and anionic Na CMC as barrier layers resulted in near zero order release of diclofenac sodium. Different dissolution models were applied to drug release data in order to evaluate release mechanisms and kinetics. The nature of drug release from matrix tablets and layered matrix tablets followed non-Fickian diffusion and super case II mechanism respectively. Mean dissolution time (MDT) for the formulations MT-GG and MLT-06 were found to be 3.65h and 16.57h, while Dissolution Efficiency (DE8%) decreases, indicating that the release of drug is slower from layered matrix tablets. On the basis of in vitro release data, MLT-06 was subjected to bioavailability studies. The in-vivo characterization of diclofenac sodium in human volunteers from formulation MLT-06 showed delayed Tmax unaltered bio availability indicating a slow and controlled release of the drug from layered matrix tablets.Keywords: Diclofenac sodium, Matrix and layered matrix tablets, Controlled released

Comparative Study of Ram Air Turbines based on Wind Tunnel Study for Specific Air Borne Energy Extraction

Ram Air Turbines (RAT) are used for emergency on-board power generation on aircraft and associated systems. Many studies on usage of RATs have shown promising results in terms of using RATs as a source of emergency on-board power generation. Many external podded systems on aircraft utilise RATs for self-sufficient adaptation. These pods generate their own power using RATs for their power requirements instead of depending on the mother aircraft power. Commercial cargo planes use RATs for generating emergency hydraulic power. A RAT was suggested to be used for emergency power, during failure of main alternator on a prototype aircraft. A specific requirement of the RAT was also to produce high drag for aerodynamic braking when deployed and concurrently generate electrical energy. Three models with different solidity were studied in wind tunnel at different wind speeds for suitability of this drag-energy combination. This paper presents the results of the study. Based on the results, a suitable RAT was selected for further analysis and ground trials

FORMULATION AND EVALUATION OF BILAYERED FELODIPINE TRANSDERMAL PATCHES: IN VITRO AND EX VIVO CHARACTERIZATION

Objective: Felodipine (FD) is an effective Biopharmaceutics Classification System Class II calcium channel blocker mainly used in the management of hypertension and angina pectoris. It has poor solubility and low oral bioavailability (15%). To overcome these disadvantages and to maintain constant plasma concentration for maximum therapeutic activity, there is a need to design an alternative route, that is, transdermal route. The pharmacokinetic parameters make FD a suitable candidate for transdermal delivery. The present investigation consists of the study of in vitro and ex vivo skin flux of FD from bilayered transdermal patches. Methods: The patches were fabricated by solvent casting method using hydrophilic and hydrophobic polymer with different composition. Tween 80 incorporated as solubilizer, polyethylene glycol 600 as plasticizer, menthol, eucalyptus oil, and lemongrass oil used as permeation enhancers, respectively. The prepared transdermal drug delivery system was extensively evaluated for in vitro release, ex vivo permeation through pig ear skin, moisture content, moisture absorption, water vapor transmission, and mechanical properties. The physicochemical interaction between FD and polymers was investigated by Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. Results: All the formulations exhibited satisfactory physicochemical and mechanical characteristics. A flux of 35.2 μg/cm2 h, 27.9 μg/cm2 h, and 25.25 μg/cm2 h was achieved for optimized formulations containing lemongrass oil, eucalyptus oil, and menthol, respectively, permeation enhances. Values of tensile strength (0.0652±0.034 kg/mm²) and elongation at break (0.8749±0.0.0029% mm²) revealed that formulation F9 was strong but not brittle. Drug and excipients compatibility studies showed no evidence of interaction between the active ingredient and polymers. Conclusion: Bilayered FD transdermal patches could be prepared with required flux and suitable mechanical properties

Knowledge and attitude of medical students towards bioethics- A cross sectional study from a medical college in northern Tamil Nadu

Studies have shown that a significant proportion of healthcare professionals were unaware of the universally recognized bioethical principles. The study was conducted to assess the knowledge and attitude towards bioethics among undergraduate medical students of a Medical College and also to find out the association of knowledge and attitude towards bioethics with other factors. This was a Cross Sectional study conducted at a medical college of Chengalpattu district between April to September of 2019. Study participants included medical undergraduate students from second academic year to fourth academic year of the medical college who had clinical exposure. Data was collected from a total of 224 subjects using a pretested, self-administered questionnaire. 89.3% of the respondents had poor knowledge about medical ethics.  The prevalence of good+excellent knowledge about bioethics was highest among 17-19 years age group (95.8%) and least among >22 (60%) years age group, highest among those with <12 months of clinical exposure (100%) and least among those with 25-36 months of exposure (57.8%) and both these associations were found to be statistically significant by Chi square test. (P= 0.048 and <0.001 respectively). Majority of the subjects (>58%) had a favourable attitude towards the correct ethical practices with respect to most of the issues (11/15). However, majority of them (>53.1%) also had a favorable attitude towards certain issues (4/15) which are debatable. The most preferred sources for learning about medical ethics were seminars (81.7%), clinical discussions (78.1%) and lectures (57.1%). Majority of the subjects had poor knowledge about bioethics. The knowledge was better among students of earlier years of course compared to those in the later part. Majority of the subjects had a favorable attitude towards the correct ethical practices in most of the cases. The most preferred sources for learning about medical ethics were seminars, clinical discussions and lecture