Nω –CLOSED SETS IN NEUTROSOPHIC TOPOLOGICAL SPACES

Neutrosophic set and Neutrosophic Topological spaces has been introduced by Salama. Neutrosophic Closed set and Neutrosophic Continuous Functions were introduced by Salama et. al.. In this paper, we introduce the concept of Nω- closed sets and their properties in Neutrosophic topological spaces

Formulation of Sodium Alginate Nanospheres Containing Amphotericin B for the Treatment of Systemic Candidiasis

Purpose: The aim of this work was to formulate sodium alginate nanospheres of amphotericin B by controlled gellification method and to evaluate the role of the nanospheres as a “passive carrier” in targeted antifungal therapy. Methods: Sodium alginate nanospheres of amphotericin B were prepared by controlled gellification method, and the particle size analysis was carried out by scanning electron microscopy. The carrier capacity of sodium alginate was evaluated in terms of drug to polymer ratio. In vitro release study was carried out on all drug loaded nanospheres by the dialysis method. Release kinetics of drug from different drug loaded nanospheres was also determined. The in vivo antifungal efficacy of nanospheres bound drug vis-à-vis the free drug was evaluated in candidiasis- induced mice models. Results: Preparation of nanospheres through controlled gellification method yielded particles with a size range of 419.6 ± 0.28 nm. Studies on drug to polymer ratio showed a linear relationship between concentration of drug and drug loading capacity. In vitro release kinetic study revealed that the release of drug from the nanospheres followed Fickian diffusion. In vivo studies showed that the nanosphere-bound drug produced a higher antifungal efficacy than the free drug. Conclusion: The formulated sodium alginate nanospheres containing amphotericin B was found to have better antifungal activity when compared to the free drug and also yielded sustained in vitro release. Keywords: Nanospheres, sodium alginate, amphotericin B, controlled gellification method, in vitro & in vivo release > Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research Vol. 6 (1) 2007: pp. 653-65

Development and in-vitro Evaluation of a Topical Drug Delivery System Containing Betamethazone Loaded Ethyl Cellulose Nanospheres

Purpose: Lipid nanospheres are used for the passive targeting of cosmetic agents to skin, thereby achieving major benefits such as reduction of total dose and avoidance of systemic absorption. The present study was carried out to exploit the feasibility of using polymeric nanospheres as an alternative and cheaper carrier for targeting corticosteroids to the skin. Methods: Nanospheres were prepared from ethyl cellulose by a modified method of desolvation and cross linking. The drug betamethazone was incorporated into nanospheres and the drug: polymer ratio was evaluated to determine the carrier capacity of the polymer. In-vitro release studies of drug-loaded nanospheres were carried out by the centrifugal ultrafiltration method. The kinetics of release was determined and fitted to an empirical equation. The release of drug from drug-loaded nanospheres dispersing in a conventional cream was evaluated. A comparative in-vitro diffusion study was carried out between a commercial brand of cream and the cream incorporating nanospheres. Results: Formulation of nanospheres of betamethazone by a modified method produced discrete particles. Studies on drug:polymer ratio showed a linear relationship between drug concentration and percentage of loading. The in-vitro release of drug-loaded nanospheres was found to be first order. The comparative in-vitro diffusion study between the commercial cream and the formulated cream showed a marked reduction in release rate from nanospheres-bound cream. Conclusion: Formulated topical cream containing nanospheres of betamethazone was found to be a potential dermal delivery system for sustaining the release of the drug. Keywords: Nanospheres, desolvation and cross-linking method, ethyl cellulose, betamethazone, in-vitro diffusion studies.> Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research Vol. 4 (2) 2005: pp. 495-50

Wind Integrated Thermal Unit Commitment Solution Using Grey Wolf Optimizer

The augment of ecological shield and the progressive exhaustion of traditional fossil energy sources have increased the interests in integrating renewable energy sources into existing power system. Wind power is becoming worldwide a significant component of the power generation portfolio. Profuse literature have been reported for the thermal Unit Commitment (UC) solution. In this work, the UC problem has been formulated by integrating wind power generators along with thermal power system. The Wind Generator Integrated UC (WGIUC) problem is more complex in nature, that necessitates a promising optimization tool. Hence, the modern bio-inspired algorithm namely, Grey Wolf Optimization (GWO) algorithm has been chosen as the main optimization tool and real coded scheme has been incorporated to handle the operational constraints. The standard test systems are used to validate the potential of the GWO algorithm. Moreover, the ramp rate limits are also included in the mathematical WGIUC formulation. The simulation results prove that the intended algorithm has the capability of obtaining economical resolutions with good solution quality

Awareness on antibiotic usage among undergraduate medical students in a teaching hospital, Guntur

Background: Antibiotics are the mainstay treatment of most of the infectious diseases. Inappropriate and irrational use of antimicrobial agents has led to increase in the development of antimicrobial resistance. Medical students are a part of health care system and they must be aware of increasing antibiotic resistance as they are the future prescribers. The objectives of the study were to assess the awareness on antibiotic usage and its resistance among medical students and to study the perception on antibiotic medication among medical students.Methods: This was a cross-sectional, semi-structured questionnaire-based study. Questionnaire consists of 4 parts- socio-demographic details, awareness on antibiotics and its resistance, knowledge on specific treatment of a disease, perception levels. Prior IEC approval was taken. The obtained data was statistically analyzed using Microsoft excel sheet.Results: Among 230 participants, majority of the students have awareness on general antibiotic usage and 97.8% were having knowledge about antibiotic resistance. The main source of information on antibiotic resistance is identified as classroom teaching (67.8%). 46.9% and 25.2% students correctly identified the drug of choice for treating enteric fever and community acquired pneumonia respectively.Conclusions: Degrees of awareness on antibiotics and its resistance is found to be good. Antibiotic usage pattern is not on par with knowledge. Knowledge on specific treatment of infectious disease is found to be less. So, antibiotic teaching should be integrated with clinical subjects

Fama-French Three Factors Model in Indian Mutual Fund Market

Tax Saving Mutual Fund Schemes were established with the objective of inviting Indian Tax assessees into the stock market-oriented investment. Tax saving mutual fund is an avenue which offers an investor the opportunity to avail tax exemption on investment along with diversified risk and market-related return. All Tax Saving Mutual Fund Schemes have same the objective but each scheme differs in returns produced and risks involved. The mutual fund performance is based on the performance of market and there is no assurance on return of mutual fund investments. As such, an analysis have been made in this paper to measure the performance of Indian Mutual funds market by using Fama French three factor model. In particular, 32 growth-oriented open-ended Tax Saving Mutual Fund Schemes have been taken for the study. The performance of the TSMF has been compared with the market benchmark S&P CNX Nifty. It is found that there is a difference between expected return and actual return of mutual funds. It is also found that there are certain mutual fund schemes have underperformed than the market benchmark. Not all the mutual fund schemes are safe and secured. It is the responsibility of the investors to find the better performing funds

A PIPELINED APPROACH FOR FPGA IMPLEMENTATION OF BI MODAL BIOMETRIC PATTERN RECOGNITION

ABSTRACT A Biometric system is essentially a pattern recognition system that makes use of biometric traits to recognize individuals. Systems which are built upon multiple sources of information for establishing identity which are known as multimodal biometric systems can overcome some of the limitations like noisy captured data, intra class variations etc… In this paper a Bi modal biometric system of iris and palm print based on Wavelet Packet Transform (WPT), gabor filters and a neural classifier implemented in FPGA is described. Iris is the unique observable visible feature present in the detailed texture of each eye. Palmprint is referred to the textural data like principal lines wrinkles and ridges present in the palm. The visible texture of a person's iris and palm print is encoded into a compact sequence of 2-D wavelet packet coefficients constituting a biometric signature or a feature vector code. In this paper, a novel multi-resolution approach based on WPT for recognition of iris and palmprint is proposed. With an adaptive threshold, WPT sub image coefficients are quantized into 1, 0 or -1 as biometric signature resulting in the size of biometric signature as 960 bits. The combined pattern vector of palm print features and iris features are formed using fusion at feature level and applied to the pattern classifier. The Learning Vector Quantization neural network is used as pattern classifier and a recognition rate of 97.22% is obtained. A part of the neural network is implemented for input data of 16 dimensions and 12 input classes and 8 output classes, using virtex-4 xc4vlx15 device. This system can complete recognition in 3.25 microseconds thus enabling it being suitable for real time pattern recognition tasks

Circadian period and the timing of melatonin onset in men and women: Predictors of sleep during the weekend and in the laboratory

Sleep complaints and irregular sleep patterns, such as curtailed sleep during workdays and longer and later sleep during weekends, are common. It is often implied that differences in circadian period and in entrained phase contribute to these patterns, but few data are available. We assessed parameters of the circadian rhythm of melatonin at baseline and in a forced desynchrony protocol in 35 participants (18 women) with no sleep disorders. Circadian period varied between 23 h 50 min and 24 h 31 min, and correlated positively (n = 31, rs = 0.43, P = 0.017) with the timing of the melatonin rhythm relative to habitual bedtime. The phase of the melatonin rhythm correlated with the Insomnia Severity Index (n = 35, rs = 0.47, P = 0.004). Self-reported time in bed during free days also correlated with the timing of the melatonin rhythm (n = 35, rs = 0.43, P = 0.01) as well as with the circadian period (n = 31, rs = 0.47, P = 0.007), such that individuals with a more delayed melatonin rhythm or a longer circadian period reported longer sleep during the weekend. The increase in time in bed during the free days correlated positively with circadian period (n = 31, rs = 0.54, P = 0.002). Polysomnographically assessed latency to persistent sleep (n = 34, rs = 0.48, P = 0.004) correlated with the timing of the melatonin rhythm when participants were sleeping at their habitual bedtimes in the laboratory. This correlation was significantly stronger in women than in men (Z = 2.38, P = 0.017). The findings show that individual differences in circadian period and phase of the melatonin rhythm associate with differences in sleep, and suggest that individuals with a long circadian period may be at risk of developing sleep problems

CATHARANTHUS ROSEUS: ORNAMENTAL PLANT IS NOW MEDICINAL BOUTIQUE

India possesses a rich biodiversity of the medicinal plants that were still not explored completely. Catharanthus roseus is native to the Indian Ocean island of Madagascar. This herb is now common in many tropical and subtropical regions worldwide, including the southern United States. It is a popular ornamental plant found in gardens and homes across the warmer parts of the world. The need for the novel pharmaceutical products out from the plant has attained a great interest in the present research world due to the cost and the higher side effects that are associated with the chemically manufactured drugs. Catharanthus roseus, which is a potent medicinal plant many of the pharmacological actions. That is used to treat many of the fatal diseases. Alkaloids were the major phytochemical constituent of the above medicinal plant and have different types possessing various medicinal uses. This review highlights the marvelous properties of this plant. Key words: periwinkle, vinca, alkaloids, catharanthus, MadagascarÂ