Fabrication and characterization of textured Ti[3]SiC[2] by external field assisted colloidal processing

Thesis (Ph. D. in Engineering)--University of Tsukuba, (A), no. 6426, 2013.3.25On t.p. "[3]" is subscriptOn t.p. "[2]" is subscriptIncludes bibliographical reference

Analysis of Nebivolol hydrochloride and Valsartan in Pharmaceutical Dosage Form by High Performance Thin Layer Chromatographic Method

A simple, accurate and precise high performance thin layer chromatographic method has been developed for the estimation of Valsartan and Nebivolol hydrochloride simultaneously from a tablet dosage form. The method employed silica gel 60 F254 pre-coated plates as stationary phase and a mixture of Ethyl acetate: Methanol: Ammonia (6.5:2.5:0.5 %v/v/v) as mobile phase. Densitometric scanning was performed at 280 nm using a Camag TLC scanner 3. Beer’s law was obeyed in the concentration range of 800ng/spot-2400ng/spot for Nebivolol hydrochloride and 200ng/spot-1000ng/spot for Valsartan. The Retention factor for Nebivolol hydrochloride is 0.75 ± 0.04 and is 0.27 ± 0.01 for Valsartan . The method was validated as per ICH Guidelines, proving its utility in estimation of Valsartan and Nebivolol hydrochloride in combined dosage form

Investigation on effect of time of planting in cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) under polyhouse conditions in Manipur, India

An experiment on the standardization of time of planting for growing cucumber(Cucumis sativus L.) inside polyhouse was conducted during 2010-11 at the Horticutural Experimental Field, College of Agriculture, Central Agricultural University, Imphal (Manipur), India. The experiment comprised of four dates of planting (September, October, November and December) and two cucumber varieties viz.Alamgir CT 280 and Alamgir CT 380, in Factori-al Randomised Block Design with three replications and eight treatments.Impact of time of planting was established on vegetative characters; flowering and fruiting characters; yield and yielding attributes. Effect of different time of planting and variety on growth of cucumber was found to produce significant effect (at 5% level of probability) on main vine length, numbers of leaves per plant and leaf area. For both the varieties, September planting gave maxi-mum values of main vine length (221.93 cm and 240.51 cm, respectively), number of leaves per plant (21.21 and 21.92, respectively) and leaf area (393.26 cm2 and 413.76 cm2, respectively). The treatment combination of Septem-ber planting with Alamgir CT 280 gave shorter number of days (12.6) from fruit set to maturity. The different time of planting and varieties and their interactions showed significant effect on number of fruits per plant, fruit length (cm), fruit diameter (cm), single fruit weight (g), fruit yield/plant (kg) and fruit yield/ha (t). The results revealed that the treatment combination of September planting with Alamgir CT 380 gave the highest yield (47.31t/ha), as compared with October, November and December plantings. However, the maximum cost- benefit ratio (1: 2.24) was found in October planting. The present study suggests that cucumber can be grown successfully during winter months under polyhouse in Manipur, India condition

Logical Operation Based Literature Association with Genes and its application, PosMed.

PosMed prioritizes candidate genes for positional cloning by employing our original database search engine GRASE, which uses an inferential process similar to an artificial neural network comprising documental neurons (or 'documentrons') that represent each document contained in databases such as MEDLINE and OMIM (Yoshida, _et al_. 2009, Makita, _et al_. 2009). PosMed immediately ranks the candidate genes by connecting phenotypic keywords to the genes through connections representing gene–gene interactions other biological relationships, such as metabolite–gene, mutant mouse–gene, drug–gene, disease–gene, and protein–protein interactions, ortholog data, and gene–literature connections.

To make proper relationships between genes and literature, we manually curate queries, which are defined by logical operation rules, against MEDLINE. For example, to detect a set of MEDLINE documents for the AT1G03880 gene in _A. thaliana_, we applied the following logical query: (‘AT1G03880’ OR ‘CRU2’ OR ‘CRB’ OR ‘CRUCIFERIN 2' OR ‘CRUCIFERIN B’) AND (‘Arabidopsis’) NOT (‘chloroplast RNA binding’). Curators refined these queries in mouse, rice and _A. thaliana_. For human and rat genes, we use mouse curation results via ortholog genes in PosMed.

PosMed is available at "http://omicspace.riken.jp/PosMed":http://omicspace.riken.jp/PosMed

References:
Yoshida Y, et al. _Nucleic Acids Res_. 37(Web Server issue):W147-52. 2009. 
Makita Y, et al. _Plant Cell Physiol_. 2009 Jul;50(7):1249-59.
&#xa

Role of FNAC in the diagnosis of intraosseous jaw lesions

Background: FNAC of intraosseous jaw lesions has not been widely utilized for diagnosis due to rarity and diversity of these lesions, limited experience and lack of well established cytological features. Aim of the study was to determine the role of FNAC in the diagnosis of intraosseous jaw swellings. Material and Methods: 42 patients underwent FNAC over a period of 7 years (2007-2013), of which 37 (88.1%) aspirates were diagnostic. Histopathology correlation was available in 33 cases and diagnostic accuracy of FNAC was calculated. Results: Lesions were categorized into inflammatory 3, cysts/hamartomas 15 and neoplasms 19. Mandibular and maxillary involvement was seen in 21 and 16 patients respectively. Of these, benign cysts and malignant lesions were commonest, accounting for 27% lesions (10 cases) each. One case of cystic ameloblastoma was misdiagnosed as odontogenic cyst on cytology. Overall, sensitivity and specificity of FNAC were 94.7% and 100% respectively with a diagnostic accuracy of 97.3%. Definitive categorization of giant cell lesions, fibro-osseous lesions, odontogenic tumors and cystic lesions was not feasible on FNAC. Conclusions: FNAC is a simple, safe and minimally invasive first line investigation which can render an accurate preoperative diagnosis of intraosseous jaw lesions, especially the malignant ones in the light of clinic-radiological correlation

Automated Fourier space region-recognition filtering for off-axis digital holographic microscopy

Automated label-free quantitative imaging of biological samples can greatly benefit high throughput diseases diagnosis. Digital holographic microscopy (DHM) is a powerful quantitative label-free imaging tool that retrieves structural details of cellular samples non-invasively. In off-axis DHM, a proper spatial filtering window in Fourier space is crucial to the quality of reconstructed phase image. Here we describe a region-recognition approach that combines shape recognition with an iterative thresholding to extracts the optimal shape of frequency components. The region recognition technique offers fully automated adaptive filtering that can operate with a variety of samples and imaging conditions. When imaging through optically scattering biological hydrogel matrix, the technique surpasses previous histogram thresholding techniques without requiring any manual intervention. Finally, we automate the extraction of the statistical difference of optical height between malaria parasite infected and uninfected red blood cells. The method described here pave way to greater autonomy in automated DHM imaging for imaging live cell in thick cell cultures

Second-line failure and first experience with third-line antiretroviral therapy in Mumbai, India

Background: There are limited data on the failure of second-line antiretroviral therapy (ART) and the use of third-line ART in people living with HIV in resource-limited settings. Since 2011, the Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) HIV/tuberculosis programme in Mumbai, India, has been providing third-line ART to patients in care. Objective: To describe the experiences and programmatic challenges during management of suspected second-line ART failure and third-line ART therapy for patients living with HIV, including the use of HIV viral load (VL) testing. Design: This was a retrospective, observational cohort study of patients with suspected second-line ART treatment failure, who were followed for at least 12 months between January 2011 and March 2014. Results: A total of 47 patients with suspected second-line failure met the inclusion criteria during the study period. Twenty-nine of them (62%) responded to enhanced adherence support, had a subsequent undetectable VL after a median duration of 3 months and remained on second-line ART. The other 18 patients had to be initiated on a third-line ART regimen, which consisted of darunavir–ritonavir, raltegravir, and one or more appropriate nucleoside or nucleotide reverse transcriptase inhibitors, based on the results of HIV genotype testing. Of the 13 patients for whom follow-up VL results were available, 11 achieved virological suppression after a median duration of 3 months on third-line ART (interquartile range: 2.5–3.0). No serious treatment-related adverse events were recorded. Conclusions: With intensive counselling and adherence support in those suspected of failing second-line ART, unnecessary switching to more expensive third-line ART can be averted in the majority of cases. However, there is an increasing need for access to third-line ART medications such as darunavir and raltegravir, for which national ART programmes should be prepared. The cost of such medications and inadequate access to VL monitoring and HIV genotype testing are currently major barriers to optimal management of patients failing second-line ART

Mobile Apps Making a Socio-Economic Impact for Managing Power at Underprivileged Homes

The paper presents how connectivity feature integrated into a roof-top solar power system, Inverterless500, designed and developed to electrify off-grid and near off-grid homes in an energy efficient manner, is critical in optimum service delivery, especially for lower income homes. It makes such products not only suitable for different categories of homes, but also economically viable, offering a promising business solution. Monitoring and manageability are unique features that help in maintaining the solution at remote areas of installation where manual intervention is not routinely feasible. The paper the describes the technology and learnings gained from deployment of these systems that helped in improving the product and overall management process

Usability Test of Personality Type within a Roommate Matching Website: A Case Study

We designed and built a roommate matching website, exclusively for students, which allow students to have a central point in which they can meet credible roommate candidates, search for verified housing, and easily reach out to these individuals to further their relationship, and eventually share living space. Our website aims to allow a user to search for compatible roommates not just by living habits, but by tying in the personality of candidates in reference to their own personality type. This type of personality matching in conjunction with a standard behavioral survey is the basis of the algorithm used for roommate matching. In addition to designing and building this website, we also conducted a research around two questions. First, does the idea of personality type in conjunction with living habits have the capacity to form a stronger foundation on which roommates can be selected? Second, is there a means in which we can collect this information from a user and apply it, while avoiding the typical result of survey fatigue that is inherent in existing personality quizzes? We found that majority of our respondents felt that knowing the personality compatibility would influence their decision of sharing a living space with someone. Our respondents also preferred a more visual and interactive quiz to determine personality type in comparison to questionnaires