Value Education : Need Of The Hour & Great Opportunity For The Librarians.

This article was presented as a Seminar Paper in the Refresher Course held at University of Pune in Dec 2003- Jan 04.Today's education gives importance to the total marks, merit positions, awards & such thing. The education system has changed into the examination system & now it is becoming an information system; pushing back the value system that the earlier system used to emphasize. An education should be rooted to culture and committed to progress. Indian heritage, culture & values need to be thoroughly studied, analyzed & incorporated comprehensively in the education system. In achieving the above goal librarians can definitely help the educators. They can re-establish the self-confidence of the youth, show them the way of regaining their faith in themselves & it should be done with a spiritual touch. The aim of our teaching should be to help manifest this spirit in every thought, word and action. Shree Aurobindo says, Education to be complete must have principal aspects relating to the five primary activities of the Human being : the physical, the vital, the mental, the psychic & the spiritual. Librarians should take this moral task into our hands & start teaching the students this great spirituality for their successful, value-based, moral & peaceful life with the help of books, guidance etc..Dr. A.R.D. Prasa

Measurements of carbon dioxide and heat fluxes during monsoon-2011 season over rural site of India by eddy covariance technique

An increase in carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations in the atmosphere due to anthropogenic activities is responsible for global warming and hence in recent years, CO2 measurement network has expanded globally. In the monsoon season (July-September) of year 2011, we carried out measurements of CO2 and water vapour (H2O) concentrations along with wind and air temperature over a tropical site in southeast India having rural topography. To collect these observations, the instrumentations used were the sonic anemometer for wind and temperature, and the open path H2O/CO2 infrared gas analyzer for CO2 and H2O concentrations. Using these observations, we explored the diurnal variability of CO2 flux along with sensible and latent heat. The CO2 flux was positive during night-time and negative during daytime and in phase with convective instability. The CO2 flux relationships with the meteorological parameters such as wind speed, temperature and heat fluxes have been analysed. The seasonal (monsoon) half hour mean of CO2 flux which was -3.55 μmol m-2 s-1 indicated the experimental site as a CO2 sink region (net seasonal uptake). An increase in CO2 concentrations during weekends was not observed due to unavailability of heavy vehicular traffic

Preparation, characterization and in vitro evaluation of tablets containing microwave-assisted solid dispersions of apremilast.

BACKGROUND: Solid dispersions are among the techniques successfully employed to enhance the dissolution of poorly water-soluble drugs. Microwave (MW)-assisted evaporative crystallization has been used to prepare solid dispersions of drugs and polymers. OBJECTIVES: The aim of the study was to investigate the solubility of apremilast (APM) in water by exploring the effect of MW-assisted solid dispersion technology. MATERIAL AND METHODS: In the present study, solid dispersions of APM, a poorly water-soluble drug, were prepared. The solid dispersions were prepared using the conventional method (CM) and the MW-based solvent evaporation technique. Microwave energy was used to enhance the solubility and dissolution rate of APM. The physical mixture and solid dispersions were characterized using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Apremilast tablets containing MW-assisted solid dispersions were prepared by the direct compression technique and compared with the marketed formulation (Aprezo tablets). RESULTS: The results obtained confirmed the conversion of crystalline APM to an amorphous form. The XRPD pattern of the MW-assisted formulation at a 2:1 ratio suggests the amorphous structure of APM within the formulation. Based on solubility studies results, Syloid® 244FP was selected as the best carrier. The dissolution study results suggested that the APM tablet prepared using MW-assisted solid dispersions at a 2:1 carrier/drug ratio improved the APM dissolution rate compared to the marketed formulation. CONCLUSIONS: Based on the results, it can be concluded that the MW-assisted solid dispersion technique may be an effective approach to enhancing the dissolution profile of other poorly water-soluble drugs

Tricarbonyl(chlorodiphenylstannyl){η5-[2-(dimethylamino)ethyl]cyclopenta­dienyl}molybdenum

Reaction of the tricarbon­yl{η5-[2-(dimethyl­amino)eth­yl]cyclo­penta­dien­yl}molybdenum anion and dichlorido­diphenyl­stannane affords the title compound, [MoSn(C6H5)2Cl(C9H14N)(CO)3], which exhibits a four-legged piano-stool geometry with chlorido­diphenyl­stannyl ligands unperturbed by the pendant 2-(dimethyl­amino)ethyl groups. The Mo—Sn bond length [2.7584 (5) Å] and the distortion of the tetra­hedral tin coordination geometry are similar to those observed in related tin-substituted tricarbonyl­molybdenum and -tungsten complexes

Instability of black hole formation under small pressure perturbations

We investigate here the spectrum of gravitational collapse endstates when arbitrarily small perfect fluid pressures are introduced in the classic black hole formation scenario as described by Oppenheimer, Snyder and Datt (OSD) [1]. This extends a previous result on tangential pressures [2] to the more physically realistic scenario of perfect fluid collapse. The existence of classes of pressure perturbations is shown explicitly, which has the property that injecting any smallest pressure changes the final fate of the dynamical collapse from a black hole to a naked singularity. It is therefore seen that any smallest neighborhood of the OSD model, in the space of initial data, contains collapse evolutions that go to a naked singularity outcome. This gives an intriguing insight on the nature of naked singularity formation in gravitational collapse.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure, several modifications to match published version on GR

Quantitative analysis of gallstones in Libyan patients

Gallstone disease is one of the major surgical problems in the Libyan population; it is probably related to diet, especially excessive consumption of meat. The study was conducted to determine the composition of gallstones and their possible etiology in a Libyan population. The chemical composition of gallstones from 41 patients (six males and 35 females) was analyzed. The stones were classified into cholesterol, pigment, and mixed stones (MS). Cholesterol stones (CS) showed a significantly higher cholesterol content than pigment stones (PS) (p=0.0085) though not significantly higher than MS. Their phospholipid content and inorganic phosphates were higher than in the other types of stones and oxalate content was significantly elevated in comparison with MS (p=0.0471). In MS, the cholesterol, bile acids, and bilirubin were intermediate between cholesterol and PS, whereas triglycerides were significantly more than PS (p=0.0004). Bilirubin (0.0001) and bile acids (p=0.0009) were significantly higher than CS (p=0.0001). However, they contained the lowest amounts of sodium, potassium, magnesium, and oxalate. In PS, bilirubin (p=0.0001) was significantly higher than both groups. Bile acid content was significantly higher than CS (p=0.0001) but not significantly more than MS. They showed the highest values of calcium, sodium, potassium, magnesium, and chlorides compared to the other types of stones. High levels of cholesterol in stones and dyslipidemia associated with mixed as well as cholesterol gallstones suggest an etiological association and efforts to reduce dietary fat among the Libyan population may lead to decreased cholesterol and mixed gallstones

Massless D-strings and moduli stabilization in type I cosmology

We consider the cosmological evolution induced by the free energy F of a gas of maximally supersymmetric heterotic strings at finite temperature and weak coupling in dimension D>=4. We show that F, which plays the role of an effective potential, has minima associated to enhanced gauge symmetries, where all internal moduli can be attracted and dynamically stabilized. Using the fact that the heterotic/type I S-duality remains valid at finite temperature and can be applied at each instant of a quasi-static evolution, we find in the dual type I cosmology that all internal NS-NS and RR moduli in the closed string sector and the Wilson lines in the open string sector can be stabilized. For the special case of D=6, the internal volume modulus remains a flat direction, while the dilaton is stabilized. An essential role is played by light D-string modes wrapping the internal manifold and whose contribution to the free energy cannot be omitted, even when the type I string is at weak coupling. As a result, the order of magnitude of the internal radii expectation values on the type I side is (lambda_I alpha')^{1/2}, where lambda_I is the ten-dimensional string coupling. The non-perturbative corrections to the type I free energy can alternatively be described as effects of "thermal E1-instantons", whose worldsheets wrap the compact Euclidean time cycle.Comment: 39 pages, 1 figur

The impact of porous media heterogeneity on non-Darcy flow behaviour from pore-scale simulation

The effect of pore-scale heterogeneity on non-Darcy flow behaviour is investigated by means of direct flow simulations on 3-D images of a beadpack, Bentheimer sandstone and Estaillades carbonate. The critical Reynolds number indicating the cessation of the creeping Darcy flow regime in Estaillades carbonate is two orders of magnitude smaller than in Bentheimer sandstone, and is three orders of magnitude smaller than in the beadpack. It is inferred from the examination of flow field features that the emergence of steady eddies in pore space of Estaillades at elevated fluid velocities accounts for the early transition away from the Darcy flow regime. The non-Darcy coefficient β, the onset of non-Darcy flow, and the Darcy permeability for all samples are obtained and compared to available experimental data demonstrating the predictive capability of our approach. X-ray imaging along with direct pore-scale simulation of flow provides a viable alternative to experiments and empirical correlations for predicting non-Darcy flow parameters such as the β factor, and the onset of non-Darcy flow

Regulation of Apoptotic Effects by Erythrocarpine E, a Cytotoxic Limonoid from Chisocheton erythrocarpus in HSC-4 Human Oral Cancer Cells

The aim of this study was to determine the cytotoxic and apoptotic effects of erythrocarpine E (CEB4), a limonoid extracted from Chisocheton erythrocarpus on human oral squamous cell carcinoma. Based on preliminary dimethyl-2-thiazolyl-2,5-diphenyl-2H-tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assays, CEB4 treated HSC-4 cells demonstrated a cytotoxic effect and inhibited cell proliferation in a time and dose dependent manner with an IC50 value of 4.0±1.9 µM within 24 h of treatment. CEB4 was also found to have minimal cytotoxic effects on the normal cell line, NHBE with cell viability levels maintained above 80% upon treatment. Annexin V-fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC), poly-ADP ribose polymerase (PARP) cleavage and DNA fragmentation assay results showed that CEB4 induces apoptosis mediated cell death. Western blotting results demonstrated that the induction of apoptosis by CEB4 appeared to be mediated through regulation of the p53 signalling pathway as there was an increase in p53 phosphorylation levels. CEB4 was also found to up-regulate the pro-apoptotic protein, Bax, while down-regulating the anti-apoptotic protein, Bcl-2, suggesting the involvement of the intrinsic mitochondrial pathway. Reduced levels of initiator procaspase-9 and executioner caspase-3 zymogen were also observed following CEB4 exposure, hence indicating the involvement of cytochrome c mediated apoptosis. These results demonstrate the cytotoxic and apoptotic ability of erythrocarpine E, and suggest its potential development as a cancer chemopreventive agent