Traditional clay pottery of Odisha, India

325-332Pottery making is an important event of past. It has marked the beginning of the revolution in Neolithic period in human society. It all started with mud that indicates the emergence of civilization leading to development of culture. Pottery was introduced from different civilizations and was accepted, developed, changed and adapted. Few of the traditional communities in the world still maintain this tradition as their occupation. The present paper discusses the pottery making process and related activities in rural areas of Bhadrak district of Odisha, India. The field survey was conducted during the year 2015-2017 to access the present status of this unique clay-based craft as well as the condition of the artisans involved in this craft making. The information on pottery technique was obtained through semi-structured questionnaires, complemented by free interviews and informal conversations with 79 artisans. The result revealed that making artifacts from clay is exclusively the hand work of rural Kumbhara community. Most of these artisans are marginal farmers while making such craft is their primary occupation. They collect the raw material, i.e., clay from the nearby field, river bed or shallow land, process it and make varieties of attractive craft items for traditional domestic use as well as in socio-religious rituals. The existing conditions of this folk craft as well as the artisans were analysed. Some remedial measures are suggested to save this endangered craft from oblivion

Traditional clay pottery of Odisha, India

325-332Pottery making is an important event of past. It has marked the beginning of the revolution in Neolithic period in human society. It all started with mud that indicates the emergence of civilization leading to development of culture. Pottery was introduced from different civilizations and was accepted, developed, changed and adapted. Few of the traditional communities in the world still maintain this tradition as their occupation. The present paper discusses the pottery making process and related activities in rural areas of Bhadrak district of Odisha, India. The field survey was conducted during the year 2015-2017 to access the present status of this unique clay-based craft as well as the condition of the artisans involved in this craft making. The information on pottery technique was obtained through semi-structured questionnaires, complemented by free interviews and informal conversations with 79 artisans. The result revealed that making artifacts from clay is exclusively the hand work of rural Kumbhara community. Most of these artisans are marginal farmers while making such craft is their primary occupation. They collect the raw material, i.e., clay from the nearby field, river bed or shallow land, process it and make varieties of attractive craft items for traditional domestic use as well as in socio-religious rituals. The existing conditions of this folk craft as well as the artisans were analysed. Some remedial measures are suggested to save this endangered craft from oblivion

Fermentation process for alcoholic beverage production from mahua (Madhuca indica J. F. Mel.) flowers

Mahua flowers are rich in sugar (68-72%), in addition to a number of minerals and one of the most important raw materials for alcohol fermentation. The present investigation was for the development of a non-distilled alcoholic beverage from Mahua flowers. Eighteen (18) treatment combinations consisting of two temperatures (25 and 30°C), three pH (4.0, 4.5 and 5.0) and three period of fermentation (7, 14 and 21 days) were used in the fermentation conditions. The maximum yield of ethanol (9.51 %) occurred at 25°C with pH 4.5 after 14 days of  fermentation of Mahua flower juice. The fermented non-distilled alcoholic beverage contained total sugar (8.83 mg/ml), reducing sugar (0.82 mg/ml), total soluble solids (6.37°Brix) titrable acidity (0.65 %), and volatile acidity (0.086%). Methanol was not detected at any stage of fermentation. The developed fermented alcoholic beverage had characteristic flavor and aroma of Mahua flowers with about 7 to 9% alcohol.Keywords: Madhuca indica, ethanol, reducing sugar, fermentation.African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(39), pp. 5771-577

Interventions to promote cost-effectiveness in adult Intensive care units: consensus statement and considerations for best practice from a multidisciplinary and multinational eDelphi study

Background There is limited evidence to guide interventions that promote cost-effectiveness in adult intensive care units (ICU). The aim of this consensus statement is to identify globally applicable interventions for best ICU practice and provide guidance for judicious use of resources. Methods A three-round modified online Delphi process, using a web-based platform, sought consensus from 61 multidisciplinary ICU experts (physicians, nurses, allied health, administrators) from 21 countries. Round 1 was qualitative to ascertain opinions on cost-effectiveness criteria based on four key domains of high-value healthcare (foundational elements; infrastructure fundamentals; care delivery priorities; reliability and feedback). Round 2 was qualitative and quantitative, while round 3 was quantitative to reiterate and establish criteria. Both rounds 2 and 3 utilized a five-point Likert scale for voting. Consensus was considered when > 70% of the experts voted for a proposed intervention. Thereafter, the steering committee endorsed interventions that were identified as ‘critical’ by more than 50% of steering committee members. These interventions and experts’ comments were summarized as final considerations for best practice. Results At the conclusion of round 3, consensus was obtained on 50 best practice considerations for cost-effectiveness in adult ICU. Finally, the steering committee endorsed 9 ‘critical’ best practice considerations. This included adoption of a multidisciplinary ICU model of care, focus on staff training and competency assessment, ongoing quality audits, thus ensuring high quality of critical care services whether within or outside the four walls of ICUs, implementation of a dynamic staff roster, multidisciplinary approach to implementing end-of-life care, early mobilization and promoting international consensus efforts on the Green ICU concept. Conclusions This Delphi study with international experts resulted in 9 consensus statements and best practice considerations promoting cost-effectiveness in adult ICUs. Stakeholders (government bodies, professional societies) must lead the efforts to identify locally applicable specifics while working within these best practice considerations with the available resources

Development of Photonic Crystal Fiber Based Gas/ Chemical Sensors

The development of highly-sensitive and miniaturized sensors that capable of real-time analytes detection is highly desirable. Nowadays, toxic or colorless gas detection, air pollution monitoring, harmful chemical, pressure, strain, humidity, and temperature sensors based on photonic crystal fiber (PCF) are increasing rapidly due to its compact structure, fast response and efficient light controlling capabilities. The propagating light through the PCF can be controlled by varying the structural parameters and core-cladding materials, as a result, evanescent field can be enhanced significantly which is the main component of the PCF based gas/chemical sensors. The aim of this chapter is to (1) describe the principle operation of PCF based gas/ chemical sensors, (2) discuss the important PCF properties for optical sensors, (3) extensively discuss the different types of microstructured optical fiber based gas/ chemical sensors, (4) study the effects of different core-cladding shapes, and fiber background materials on sensing performance, and (5) highlight the main challenges of PCF based gas/ chemical sensors and possible solutions

Lessons to be learnt from Leishmania studies

Leishmaniasis is a disease caused by infection with the protozoan parasite Leishmania, which is responsible for three main types of disease: cutaneous leishmaniasis, visceral leishmaniasis and mucocutaneous leishmaniasis based to the site of infection for the particular species. This presents a major challenge to successful drug treatment, as a drug must not only reach antileishmanial concentrations in infected macrophages, the parasites' host cell, but also reach infected cells in locations specific to the type of disease. In this paper we discuss how studies using Leishmania have contributed to our knowledge on how drug delivery systems can be used to improve drug efficacy and delivery

Comprehensive Modeling of Multimode Fiber Sensors for Refractive Index Measurement and Experimental Validation

We propose and develop a comprehensive model for estimating the refractive index (RI) response over three potential sensing zones in a multimode fiber. The model has been developed based on a combined ray optics, Gaussian beam, and wave optics analysis coupled to the consideration of the injected interrogating lightwave characteristics and validated experimentally through the realization of three sensors with different lengths of stripped cladding sections as the sensing region. The experimental results highly corroborate and validate the simulation output from the model for the three RI sensing zones. The sensors can be employed over a very wide dynamic RI range from 1.316 to over 1.608 at a wavelength of 1550 nm, with the best resolution of 2.2447 × 10−5 RI unit (RIU) obtained in Zone II for a 1-cm sensor length

Azimuthal Anisotropy of Photon and Charged Particle Emission in Pb+Pb Collisions at 158 A GeV/c

The azimuthal distributions of photons and charged particles with respect to the event plane are investigated as a function of centrality in Pb + Pb collisions at 158 A GeV/c in the WA98 experiment at the CERN SPS. The anisotropy of the azimuthal distributions is characterized using a Fourier analysis. For both the photon and charged particle distributions the first two Fourier coefficients are observed to decrease with increasing centrality. The observed anisotropies of the photon distributions compare well with the expectations from the charged particle measurements for all centralities.Comment: 8 pages and 6 figures. The manuscript has undergone a major revision. The unwanted correlations were enhanced in the random subdivision method used in the earlier version. The present version uses the more established method of division into subevents separated in rapidity to minimise short range correlations. The observed results for charged particles are in agreement with results from the other experiments. The observed anisotropy in photons is explained using flow results of pions and the correlations arising due to the decay of the neutral pion