An Exploration of Attitudes toward Dogs among College Students in Bangalore, India

Conversations in the field of anthrozoology include treatment and distinction of food animals, animals as workers versus pests, and most recently, emerging pet trends including the practice of pet parenting. This paper explores attitudes toward pet dogs in the shared social space of urban India. The data include 375 pen-and-paper surveys from students at CHRIST (Deemed to be University) in Bangalore, India. Reflecting upon Serpell’s biaxial concept of dogs as a relationship of affect and utility, the paper considers the growing trend of pet dog keeping in urban spaces and the increased use of affiliative words to describe these relationships. The paper also explores potential sex differences in attitudes towards pet and stray dogs. Ultimately, these findings suggest that the presence of and affiliation with pet dogs, with reduced utility and increased affect, is symptomatic of cultural changes typical of societies encountering the second demographic transition. Despite this, sex differences as expected based upon evolutionary principles, remain present, with women more likely to emphasize health and welfare and men more likely to emphasize bravery and risk taking

Grandparenting in Urban Bangalore, India: Support and Involvement From the Standpoint of Young Adult University Students

A variety of caregivers, including grandparents, help raise children. Among grandparents, most Western samples evidence a matrilateral (i.e., mother’s kin) bias in caregiving, and many studies show more positive impacts and stronger relationships with grandmothers than grandfathers. The aim of the present study is to test competing hypotheses about a potential laterality bias and explore contrasts between grandmothers and grandfathers in a sample of urban young adult university students in Bangalore, India. A sample of 377 (252 women) relatively mobile and high socioeconomic status individuals 17 to 25 years of age completed a survey consisting of sociodemographic and grandparenting questions. Results reveal generally little evidence of either a patrilateral or matrilateral bias, though findings varied for some outcomes. As illustrations, there were no differences in residential proximity or the most recent time when a participant saw matrilateral or patrilateral grandparents, whereas maternal grandmothers were more approving of one’s choice of a life partner than were paternal grandmothers. In inductively coded responses to an open-ended item about the roles of grandparents, maternal grandmothers were more often identified as “guides” and less often deemed “non-significant” than paternal grandmothers, while paternal grandfathers were less often viewed as guardians and more often noted for their influence compared with maternal grandparents. Findings also revealed differences between grandmothers and grandfathers, such as grandmothers playing more prominent roles in community and religious festivals. Findings are interpreted within changing residential, work, education, and family dynamics in urban India as well as a primary importance on parents relative to grandparents

Edge Cover Domination in Mangoldt Graph

In their recent study of arithmetic graphs associated with certain arithmetic functions, the authors have introduced a new class of arithmetic graphs associated with Mangoldt function Λ(n), n ≥ 1, an integer and studied their basic properties and vertex cover. In this paper the edge cover, edge domination set, bondage number, non – bondage number and their parameters have been obtained for these graphs. Key words: Vertex cover, Edge cover, Edge domination, Bondage number, Non-Bondage number

FORMULATION AND IN VITRO CHARACTERIZATION SOLID SELF EMULSIFYING DRUG DELIVERY SYSTEM OF RAMIPRIL PREPARED BY ADSORPTION TECHNIQUE

Objective: The primary goal of the present work was to formulate solid self-emulsifying drug delivery systems (S-SEDDS) in order to improve the solubility of the highly lipophilic antihypertensive drug, ramipril. Methods: SEDDS are generally liquid form preparations obtained by homogeneously mixing oils, surfactants and co-surfactants along with drug component. Based on solubility studies Capmul PG8 NF, Gelucire 44/14 and Transcutol P were selected as oil, surfactant, co-surfactant respectively in order to prepare liquid SEDDS (L-SEDDS). Nine different liquid SEDDS were prepared and subjected to various evaluation tests in order to obtain optimized L-SEDDS. Finally, the optimized formulation was converted to S-SEDDS by physical adsorption technique using an inert carrier. Further, S-SEDDS were also subjected to solid state characterization. Results: Out of 9 different L-SEDDS, S9 formulation was optimized as it formed thermodynamically stable emulsion without any drug precipitation and phase separation on storage and also showed least globule size (22.56 nm). The optimized formulation was loaded onto inert carrier (Sylysia FCP 350) to obtain S-SEDDS. S-SEDDS showed acceptable flow properties. They were further processed for solid state characterization such as XRD, DSC and SEM and the results confirmed the transformation of native crystalline nature of drug to an amorphous state. FTIR analysis also confirmed no drug-excipient interaction. S-SEDDS showed improved in vitro dissolution behaviour of ramipril over that of pure drug. Conclusion: Ramipril S-SEDDS retained emulsification characteristics of L-SEDDS. Further, S-SEDDS was encapsulated in hard gelatin capsules and this formulation proved to have improved solubility for ramipril

RP-HPLC METHOD FOR SIMULTANEOUS ESTIMATION OF RITONAVIR, OMBITASVIR AND PARITAPREVIR IN TABLET DOSAGE FORMS AND THEIR STRESS DEGRADATION STUDIES

Objective: The objective of the present study was to develop and validate a novel reverse phase high performance liquid chromatographic (RP-HPLC) method, for simultaneous determination of ritonavir (RIT), ombitasvir (OMB) and paritaprevir (PAR) in bulk mixtures, and in tablets. Methods: Determination of the drugs ritonavir (RIT), ombitasvir (OMB), and paritaprevir (PAR), was carried out applying Hypersil BDS C18 column (250 mm X 4.6 mm i.e., 5 µm particle size), with photodiode array detector at λmax of 254 nm. The mobile phase applied for the current study composed of two solvents, i.e. A (0.01N % w/v potassium di-hydrogen orthophosphate buffer, pH 3.0 adjusted with dilute orthophosphoric acid) and B (acetonitrile). The mobile phase was pumped at a flow rate of 1.0 ml/min in the isocratic mode. The validation study with respect to specificity, linearity, precision, accuracy, and robustness, limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ) was carried out employing the ICH guidelines. Results: Ritonavir, ombitasvir, and paritaprevir showed linearity of response between 12.5-75 μg/ml for ritonavir, 3.125-18.75 µg/ml for ombitasvir and 18.75–112.5 µg/ml for paritaprevir, with a correlation coefficient (R2) 0.999, 0.999,0.999 for RIT, OMB, and PAR respectively. The % recovery obtained was 99.82±0.14 % RIT, OMB 100.03±0.96 % and for 99.96±0.26 % PAR. The LOD and LOQ values for RIT, OMB, PAR were obtained to be 0.02, 0.019and0.02, µg/ml and 0.07, 0.06 and 0.07 µg/ml, respectively. The method also exhibits good robustness for different chromatographic conditions like wavelength, flow rate, mobile phase, and injection volume. Conclusion: The method was successfully employed, for the quantification of RIT, OMB, and PAR, in the quality control of in-house developed tablets, and can be applied for the industrial use

Molecular characterisation of bacterial pathogens of finfish and shellfish.

Microbial molecular genetics is gaining popularity in recent times as an essential tool in the classification of the microbes. Numerical taxonomy of bacteria, unless supported by molecular taxonomy is not acceptable in the modem times. Proper understanding o f the DNA and protein profiles o f bacteria can be used as an efficient and sensitive tool for rapid identification o f bacteria whereas, the conventional methods are tiresome, time consuming and not fit for mass scale screening o f bacteria

NEW VALIDATED METHOD FOR THE ESTIMATION OF ALLANTOIN AND PERMETHRIN USIGN RP-HPLC IN BULK AND PHARMACEUTICAL DOSAGE FORM

Objective: Special, effective high pressure liquid chromatography method has been developed for the simultaneous quantification of Allantoin and Permethrin. Methods: By using Waters HPLC e-2695 quaternary pump with a PDA detector of 2998 instrument the chromatographic separation of Allantoin and Permethrin was achieved on the column of Symmetry C18 (150x4.6 mm, 3.5 µm) using an isocratic elution with a buffer containing 0.1percent ortho phosphoric acid and acetonitrile at a rate of 40:60 as a mobile phase with a flow rate of 1 ml/min at ambient temperature. A detector wavelength of 226 nm utilizing the PDA detector were given in the instrumental settings. The linearity was studied between the concentration range of 1-15 µg/ml of Allantoin and 25-375 µg/ml of Permethrin were injected with a run time of 6 min. As a part of method validation the parameters like specificity, linearity, accuracy, ruggedness, robustness were determined and the results were found to be within the allowable limit. Validation of the proposed method was carried out according to an International Conference on Harmonization (ICH) guidelines. Results: LOD and LOQ for the two active ingredients were established with respect to test concentration. The plotted calibration curves were linear with a regression coefficient of R2>0.999, indicates that the linearity was with in the limit. As a part of method validation the parameters like specificity, linearity, accuracy, ruggedness, robustness were determined and the results were found to be within the allowable limit. Conclusion: The method developed was found to be applicable to routine analysis and to be used for the measurement of both active pharmaceutical ingredients (i. e, Allantoin and Permethrin). Since, there is no HPLC method reported in the literature for the estimation of Allantoin and Permethrin, there is a need to develop quantitative methods under different conditions to achieve improvement in specificity, selecivity etc

Pattern of tuberculosis among tribal population of Central India with special reference to cartridge based nucleic acid amplification test as diagnostic tool: a descriptive study at tertiary care hospital

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) kills close to half a million Indians every year. Lack of reliable rapid diagnostic techniques for TB hampers timely diagnosis and leads to continued disease transmission, causing significant morbidity and mortality. The potential of newly recommended CBNAAT in TB and MDR-TB detection has been underutilized in our area due to lack of awareness regarding the same. Hence we utilized this rapid, logistically simplified test to study the pattern of tuberculosis among tribal population of Central India.Methods: Descriptive study of suspected TB patients in tertiary care centre from March 2016 to March 2019. Appropriate specimens from suspected TB patients were collected and subjected to CBNAAT and AFB smear to study the pattern of TB and Rifampicin- Resistant(RR) TB  in our area.Results: CBNAAT detected overall 27% MTB cases; 27.72 % Pulmonary-TB cases as against smear positivity rate of 20.73% whereas 12.74% Extra-pulmonary-TB (EPTB) cases as against smear positivity rate of 1.59%.Overall 94.91% were RiF Sensitive( RS-TB) and 4.58% were RR-TB. Of the 57 (4.16%) HIV-TB coinfected cases; 96.49% were RS-TB and 5.26% were RR-TB. Co-infected patients have high incidence of EPTB(21.05%) involvement  with RR-TB 3.50%. Among EPTB cases; lymph node aspirate and pus provided highest CBNAAT positive cases and almost 90.62% EPTB specimens were RS-TB .Conclusions: Availability of new diagnostic services has increased early identification of TB and RR-TB. Awareness among physicians regarding diagnostic utility of CBNAAT should be further increased as early identification of possible MDR cases is key to reducing community transmission and treatment initiation, particularly in high-burden, resource-limited settings. 

A 9.38-bit, 422nW, high linear SAR-ADC for wireless implantable system

In wireless implantable systems (WIS) low power consumption and linearity are the most prominent performance metrics in data acquisition systems. successive approximation register-analog to digital converter (SAR-ADC) is used for data processing in WIS. In this research work, a 10-bit low power high linear SAR-ADC has been designed for WIS. The proposed SAR-ADC architecture is designed using the sample and hold (S/H) circuit consisting of a bootstrap circuit with a dummy switch. This SAR-ADC has a dynamic latch comparator, a split capacitance digital to analog converter (SC-DAC) with mismatch calibration, and a SAR using D-flipflop. This architecture is designed in 45 nm CMOS technology. This ADC reduces non-linearity errors and improve the output voltage swing due to the usage of a clock booster and dummy switch in the sample and hold. The calculated outcomes of the proposed SAR ADC display that with on-chip calibration an ENOB of 9.38 (bits), spurious free distortion ratio (SFDR) of 58.621 dB, and ± 0.2 LSB DNL and ± 0.4LSB INL after calibration

Nanoencapsulation of pesticides: Sustainable perspective in agriculture

The concern towards the increasing challenges of sustainable agriculture made the researchers towards significant technological development and innovations in recent years. In particular, Nanotechnology offers potential solutions to improve agricultural production assuring sustainability. The incorporation of nanotechnology as a means of nano pesticides delivers the pesticides appropriately i.e., targeted delivery of pesticides by lowering the indiscriminate use of conventional pesticides. The assets of a nanoencapsulated pesticide formulation are controlled releasing properties with enhanced solubility, specificity, permeability and stability. They provide in-built switches to control the release and subsequent availability of pesticides to be used effectively over a given period of time and their design enables them to resist the severe environmental processes such as leaching, evaporation, photolytic hydrolytic and microbial degradation over conventional pesticides. This review provides fundamental information to critically assess the significant role of nanotechnology for the encapsulation of pesticides. © 2020 Author(s)