FORMULATION AND EVALUATION OF NANOSTRUCTURED LIPID CARRIERS BASED ANTI-INFLAMMATORY GEL FOR TOPICAL DRUG DELIVERY SYSTEM

Objective: Nanostructured lipid carrier (NLC)-based topical gel of lornoxicam (LXM) was formulated with the aim of controlled release action and to reduce systemic side effect for the treatment of an arthritic condition. Methods: NLCs developed using high-pressure homogenization method and optimized using a 32 factorial design with response surface methodology using design expert software. NLCs were characterized for particle size, zeta potential analysis, drug entrapment efficiency, and in vitro drug release studies to select the optimized formulation. The NLCs were suitably gelled and evaluated with respect to homogeneity, pH, viscosity, gel strength, spreadability, rheological characteristics, drug content, in vitro diffusion, and stability study. Safety of the NLC-based gel was assessed using primary skin irritation studies, and efficacy was confirmed using carrageenan-induced rat paw edema model. Results: NLCs formulation comprising 2% of lipid (60:40) and surfactant (1.50%) was confirmed as an optimized batch having a particle size (138.2±3.60 nm) with polydispersibility index value 0.344±0.034. The zeta potential value indicates good physical stability. Based on the results from the in vitro release study it was shown that the formed gels had the ability to extend release of LXM for 24 h and showing percentage drug release of 90.92%±1.96% at the end of 24 h. Skin irritation studies revealed that the optimized gel formulation shows no erythema, edema, or ulceration. Conclusion: The overall results of the present study clearly indicated promising potentials of NLC-based gel for delivering LXM topically over the conventional gel

Study of Authentication and Authorization in Cloud Computing

Cloud Computing is aconvenient model for on-demand network. Cloud Computing (CC) refers to applications & services which we can run on a distributed network. This Network use hosted services and virtualized resources delivered over the internet. Cloud computing is characterized into two main categories(a) Virtualization– As the network has no limit resources are virtual and limitless.(b)Abstraction–All details of physical systems which run the software are abstracted from users.There are three categories of Cloud Computing: (a) Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), (b) Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and (c) Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). The data we are storing on CC must be safe and secure then only users will trust on this environment. Access Controls for file and directory, Flex list Models, SLAs etc are some of the facilities available for this. But still there are some drawbacks in security. When users access data from CC, Authorization and Authentication are very important. We call this as first stage of Security. This paper focuses on Authentications and Authorizations in CC

Medication adherence: the critical step towards better patient outcome

Medication adherence is defined as patient’s adherence to take their medications as prescribed and continue to take the prescribed medication for stipulated time frame. Medication non-adherence is a growing concern to physicians, healthcare systems, and other stakeholders (e.g., payers) and there is an increasing evidence of its prevalence and is associated with adverse clinical outcomes eventually resulting into higher costs of care. The cost of non-adherence has been estimated at $100 billion to$300 billion annually, including costs from avoidable hospitalizations, nursing home admissions, and premature deaths. Improving adherence to medication is critical to improve the quality of health care, to encourage better chronic care management, and promote better health outcomes. Reasons for non-adherence are multiple and complex. Studies have reported that poor adherence to drug dosage is due to patient perception that the disease is non-significant, adverse drug effects, lack of treatment effectiveness, and the patient’s poor or incomplete knowledge of the disease and (cost). A multifactorial approach is required to tackle this complex problem as a single approach will be ineffective for all patients. The most effective intervention is to use a combination of approaches and address literacy, behavior, and organizational issues. There are challenges as well as opportunities in addressing the public health issue of medication adherence. Changing healthcare reforms, advances in digital health media, social media and modern technologies can now provide alternatives to tackle this issue

Medical devices in India: a perspective of guidelines and the way forward

In recent times, emerging countries including India have become favored destination for medical device companies to leverage the growth opportunities. However, the Indian regulatory system is not ready to meet the challenges that may come up with growing medical device business. It needs major amendments to current Drugs and Cosmetic Act 1940, to include medical device as a separate entity. Like in developed world, the challenges could be addressed by defining medical devices, risk based classification of devices, guidelines for device safety surveillance, and clinical trials for medical devices. Drugs and Cosmetic (Amendment) Bill 2013, which is yet to be released has addressed the concerns to some extent. However, it needs a major revamp to establish effective regulatory framework for medical devices

Shatkriyakala Concept and its Importance in Disease Diagnosis and Treatment: A Review

Ayurveda aims towards the maintenance of health of a healthy person and helps to curing the diseases of diseased person. Ayurveda suggested various therapeutic approaches for maintaining balances of Dosha, Dhatu and Mala. Similarly ayurveda described mentioned different modalities of disease diagnosis and Kriyakala is one such modality which helps to recognize various stages of disease progression. The concept of Kriyakala provides benefits to plant appropriate treatment according to the stage of disease progression. The appropriate measures can be taken to correct the balances of Doshas in particular stages of disease. Ayurveda explored the concept of Shatkriyakala as a “six stages of disease progression” in which the pathogenesis of disease can be assessed in different stages. This article explained six stages of Shatkriyakala, its importance in disease diagnosis and treatment. The modern correlation of Shatkriyakala also described in present article

Gray Image Colorization using Thepade’s Transform Error Vector Rotation With Cosine, Walsh, Haar Transforms and various Similarity Measures

The paper presents various gray image colorization methods based on vector quantization for performing automatic colorization. To colorize gray target image by extracting color pixels from source color image, Thepade’s Transform Error Vector Rotation vector quantization methods such as Thepade’s Cosine Error Vector Rotation (TCEVR), Thepade’s Walsh Error Vector Rotation (TWEVR) and Thepade’s Haar Error Vector Rotation (THEVR) are used along with varied similarity measures. The quality of colorization of gray image is subjective to the source color image and target gray image (to be colored). Here the image test bed of 25 images is used to recolor the gray equivalent of the original color images for qualitative performance comparison of proposed colorization methods with help of PSNR between original color and recolored images. Colorization is performed using diverse similarity measures which belong to different families. These nine similarity measures are used for mapping gray image pixels with relatively corresponding multichorme image pixels. When these similarity measures are assessed for their comparison for colorizing the target gray image, it is observed that Chebychev outruns all other similarity measures and the worst performance is consistently given by Jaccard and Hamming distances. Among all the considered colorization methods Thepade’s Haar Error Vector Rotation is much suitable algorithm for performing gray image colorization. DOI: 10.17762/ijritcc2321-8169.150516

Terbinafine induced fulminant hepatic failure and patient death

A 72 year-old-patient without known past medical history presented to the hospital with worsening cough, dyspnea on exertion, decreased appetite, weight loss for two months. Prior to admission, he was treated with a 10- day course of levofloxacin and prednisone as a case of bronchitis with minimal improvement. Then he started to develop red urine with marked changes in mental status. On physical examination, the patient had notifiable scleral icterus, confusion and abdominal tenderness in the right upper quadrant. On admission his labs were significant for alkaline phosphatase 541, aspartate transaminase 557, alanine transaminase 94, total bilirubin 8.6, lactate 11.7. CT scan of abdomen showed hepatosplenomegaly, mild ascites and trace bilateral pleural effusion. Work up with Viral hepatitis serology, cryptococcal antigen, histoplasma antigen, respiratory virus panel, Epstein Barr virus tests were negative. Anti-nuclear antibodies (ANA) and anti-mitochondrial antibody were also negative. Blood level of amylase, lipase, acetaminophen and alcohol were negative at admission too. The patient was started initially on broad spectrum antibiotics, N-acetyl cysteine empirically and aggressive intravenous fluid hydration. Patient condition rapidly worsened and he developed profound shock requiring mechanical ventilation and started on stress dose steroid and pressor support. Upon further investigation, patient was noted to take terbinafine for toe onychomycosis (day 112). Ferritin level was elevated to 1596 with 93% iron saturation. Ceruloplasmin level was normal. Patient was not a transplant candidate due to multiple organ failure. As per family request, patient was palliatively extubated and died. Terbinafine is a fungicidal drug with activity against dermatophytes including Epidermophyton flccosum and trichophyton rubrum. It works by inhibition of squalene epoxidase with a resultant accumulation of squalene in the fungal cell and killing it as a result. Commonly used orally to treat onychomycosis and other fingernails and toenails infections. Shortly after its introduction to the market, DILI had been reported with elevation with serum aminotransferases elevation that was usually self-limited. Usually presents within first 6 weeks of therapy with either hepatocellular or cholestatic initially with sings of hypersensitivity. Mechanism of injury entails hypersensitivity reaction, though the full pathogenesis was not elucidated yet, but genetic polymorphism is implicated in the variable presentation especially among HLA-A 33:01 allele carriers. Terbinafine DILI resolves usually within 6 months of stopping the medication but can lead to death or need liver transplantation in some cases

PREPARATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF CO-CRYSTALS OF DIACEREIN

Diacerein, anti-inflammatory drug used in the treatment of osteoarthritis. Being a BCS class II drug, it has poor solubility, dissolution rate and other physicochemical properties. Thus the aim of present study was to prepare co-crystals of diacerein to improve solubility, dissolution rate. The diacerein co-crystals were prepared using urea and tartaric acid as conformer by Solvent drop grinding method. The diacerein co-crystals were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), FT-IR spectroscopy (FT-IR), Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and X-ray diffractometry (XRD). The co-crystals were evaluated for solubility, dissolution rate and other physicochemical properties and compared with commercial diacern sample. The co-crystals exhibit the difference in the size and shape of crystals. The FT-IR spectra of diacerein co-crystals showed slightly different in the characteristic peaks compared to commercial diacerein sample. DSC data indicate the decrease in the melting endotherm of co-crystals compare to diacerein. The co-crystals with urea showed increase and intense peak and co-crystals with tartaric acid showed decreased number of peaks compared to commercial diacerein. The co-crystals of diacerein formulated in to the Tablet and evaluated for tablet properties. The tablet formulation showed improved tablet characteristics as well as dissolution rate compared to commercial diacerein

Occupational Health in the Digital Age: Implications for Remote Work Environments

In this digital age, where working from home is becoming more common, the patterns of workplace health are changing in ways that require a thorough analysis of the effects on employee health. This study looks into the many parts of job health in places where people work from home, looking at how technology, human behavior, and company rules interact.The digital age has made work plans more flexible than ever before, letting workers do their jobs from anywhere. This paradigm shift has some benefits, like making things more flexible and easy to access, but it also brings a lot of problems that need to be carefully thought through. Long-term use of digital devices can be bad for your body, and being alone at work can be bad for your mental health. Remote work situations have their own health issues that need a unique approach.This study brings together different pieces of research on workplace health to highlight the new health risks that come with the digitalization of work. There is a close look at how technology can help or hurt employee health and a study of how companies can lower health risks in remote work settings.Additionally, the study looks into the possible long-term effects of long-term remote work on mental and physical health, as well as how well present workplace health systems can adapt to the changing nature of work. By critically evaluating the intersection of technology and health, this study provides valuable insights for policymakers, organizations, and individuals seeking to optimize the well-being of remote workers in the digital age

Photovoltaic System with Step Up Converter

A novel  step up converter which is proposed for a front end photovoltaic power system. Through a voltage multiplier module in which an asymmetrical interleaved step up converter usually high step up gain without which act as a function at an extreme duty ratio. The voltage multiplier module which is create of a conventional boost converter and coupled inductors. An extra conventional boost converter is combine into the first phase to achieve a considerably higher voltage conversion ratio. The two phase configuration not only decreases the current stress through each power switch but also force to do some thing the input current ripple, in which decreases the conduction losses of MOSFETs. The proposed step up converter functions as an active clamp circuit which moderate large voltage spikes across the power switches. So, the low-voltage rated MOSFETs which can be adopted for reduces of conduction losses and also cost. Efficiency improves because the energy which is stored in leakage inductances is energized to the output terminal. Finally, the prototype circuit which with a 40V input voltage, 380V output is operated to verify its performance. The highest efficiency of the step up converter is 96.8%