Bacterial flora of marine fish doma (Sciaenoids) (Small spp.) from Bombay coast

Marine fish doma (Sciaenoids) (Small spp.) from Bombay coast was studied for total bacterial counts on the surface and gut. Large number of Micrococcus species (77.4%) was found whereas few species from Achromobacter, Bacillus, Bacterium, Flavobacter, Pseudomonas and Sarcina were noted

Determination of ubiquinone and tocopherol in heart, liver and muscle tissues of fresh water fish, Rohu (Labeo rohita, Hamilton)

The liver, heart and muscle tissues of Rohu, (Labeo rohita, Hamilton) were examined for their ubiquinone (UQ) and tocopherol contents. These three tissues contained respectively 11.60, 3.94 and 0.19 mg of ubiquinone and 10.16, 5.32 and 3.58 mg of tocopherol per 100 g. The 4% (V/V) of diethyl ether (EE) in light petroleum ether (PE) fractions of all three tissues on paper chromatographic separation gave spots having the same Rf value as standard ubiquinone-50 (UQ 10). Both the 4% and 6% (V/V) diethyl ether in light petroleum ether fraction of liver, heart and muscle tissues gave a single spot with the same Rf value as α – tocopherol

Microencapsulation of Paraffin Wax in Melamine-Formaldehyde for use in Thermal Management Study

Melamine formaldehyde microcapsules containing paraffin wax as phase change material (PCM) were synthesized. Free space was generated in-situ inside microcapsules. These were characterized by FTIR Spectrophotometer, Scanning electron microscope (SEM), Differential Scanning colorimeter (DSC), and optical microscope. It was confirmed that PCM was successfully encapsulated inside the shell material. Encapsulated PCM showed good phase change properties during heating and cooling. Enthalpy value of about 100 J/g was observed. The shape of the microcapsule, showing rough morphology is expected to help during processing and crystallization. It has been experimentally confirmed that no leakage occurs during the melting of PCM. Effectiveness in temperature control in a hot environment was also found to be satisfactory

Solid Waste Management and Route OptimizationBy Using GIS-A Case Study of Indapur City

: In today’s world solid waste management is a global environmental issue. In India this issue is not taken seriously. There is a tremendous amount of loss in terms of environmental degradation, health hazards and loss due to direct disposal of waste. There has to be appropriate planning for proper solid waste management by means of analysis of the waste situation of the area. The growth in the urban population and activity has resulted in an increased solid waste generation. In the process of solid waste management, more attention needs to be paid towards collection as it itself requires 60-70% of the total cost. For effective management, the municipal corporation of Indapur has divided the entire region into seventeen wards which are further divided into six health units to collect the solid waste. Two alternate disposal systems are considered. In first case the entire solid waste of the city of Indapur is dumped at one dumping site. In next case there are three sites proposed at different locations in the city Indapur city. A comparison is made considering transportation cost, site maintenance cost, labour cost, and diesel cost. This study would deal with, how Geographical Information System (GIS) can be used as a decision support tool for planning waste management and for route optimization. Hence an attempt is made in this study to second optimum route for solid waste transportation in Indapur city. DOI: 10.17762/ijritcc2321-8169.150516

Tracking development assistance for health and for COVID-19 : a review of development assistance, government, out-of-pocket, and other private spending on health for 204 countries and territories, 1990-2050

Background The rapid spread of COVID-19 renewed the focus on how health systems across the globe are financed, especially during public health emergencies. Development assistance is an important source of health financing in many low-income countries, yet little is known about how much of this funding was disbursed for COVID-19. We aimed to put development assistance for health for COVID-19 in the context of broader trends in global health financing, and to estimate total health spending from 1995 to 2050 and development assistance for COVID-19 in 2020. Methods We estimated domestic health spending and development assistance for health to generate total health-sector spending estimates for 204 countries and territories. We leveraged data from the WHO Global Health Expenditure Database to produce estimates of domestic health spending. To generate estimates for development assistance for health, we relied on project-level disbursement data from the major international development agencies' online databases and annual financial statements and reports for information on income sources. To adjust our estimates for 2020 to include disbursements related to COVID-19, we extracted project data on commitments and disbursements from a broader set of databases (because not all of the data sources used to estimate the historical series extend to 2020), including the UN Office of Humanitarian Assistance Financial Tracking Service and the International Aid Transparency Initiative. We reported all the historic and future spending estimates in inflation-adjusted 2020 US$, 2020 US$ per capita, purchasing-power parity-adjusted US$per capita, and as a proportion of gross domestic product. We used various models to generate future health spending to 2050. Findings In 2019, health spending globally reached$8. 8 trillion (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 8.7-8.8) or $1132 (1119-1143) per person. Spending on health varied within and across income groups and geographical regions. Of this total,$40.4 billion (0.5%, 95% UI 0.5-0.5) was development assistance for health provided to low-income and middle-income countries, which made up 24.6% (UI 24.0-25.1) of total spending in low-income countries. We estimate that $54.8 billion in development assistance for health was disbursed in 2020. Of this,$13.7 billion was targeted toward the COVID-19 health response. $12.3 billion was newly committed and$1.4 billion was repurposed from existing health projects. $3.1 billion (22.4$2.4 billion (17.9%) was for supply chain and logistics. Only $714.4 million (7.7$1519 (1448-1591) per person in 2050, although spending across countries is expected to remain varied. Interpretation Global health spending is expected to continue to grow, but remain unequally distributed between countries. We estimate that development organisations substantially increased the amount of development assistance for health provided in 2020. Continued efforts are needed to raise sufficient resources to mitigate the pandemic for the most vulnerable, and to help curtail the pandemic for all. Copyright (C) 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.Peer reviewe

International nosocomial infection control consortium (INICC) report, data summary of 36 countries, for 2004-2009

The results of a surveillance study conducted by the International Nosocomial Infection Control Consortium (INICC) from January 2004 through December 2009 in 422 intensive care units (ICUs) of 36 countries in Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Europe are reported. During the 6-year study period, using Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN; formerly the National Nosocomial Infection Surveillance system [NNIS]) definitions for device-associated health care-associated infections, we gathered prospective data from 313,008 patients hospitalized in the consortium's ICUs for an aggregate of 2,194,897 ICU bed-days. Despite the fact that the use of devices in the developing countries' ICUs was remarkably similar to that reported in US ICUs in the CDC's NHSN, rates of device-associated nosocomial infection were significantly higher in the ICUs of the INICC hospitals; the pooled rate of central line-associated bloodstream infection in the INICC ICUs of 6.8 per 1,000 central line-days was more than 3-fold higher than the 2.0 per 1,000 central line-days reported in comparable US ICUs. The overall rate of ventilator-associated pneumonia also was far higher (15.8 vs 3.3 per 1,000 ventilator-days), as was the rate of catheter-associated urinary tract infection (6.3 vs. 3.3 per 1,000 catheter-days). Notably, the frequencies of resistance of Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates to imipenem (47.2% vs 23.0%), Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates to ceftazidime (76.3% vs 27.1%), Escherichia coli isolates to ceftazidime (66.7% vs 8.1%), Staphylococcus aureus isolates to methicillin (84.4% vs 56.8%), were also higher in the consortium's ICUs, and the crude unadjusted excess mortalities of device-related infections ranged from 7.3% (for catheter-associated urinary tract infection) to 15.2% (for ventilator-associated pneumonia). Copyright © 2012 by the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

Study of Self-Curing Concrete Using Polyethylene Glycol

Construction industry use lot of water in the name of curing.In the present situation there is a need for the search of alternate materials in the place of water for curing not only to save the water for the sustainable development of the environment, but also to promote indoor and outdoor construction activates even in remote area where there is scarcity of water. Curing plays an important role on strength development and durability of concrete. Curing takes place immediately after concrete placing and finishing, and involves maintenance of desired moisture and temperature conditions, both at depth and near the surface, for extended periods of time. Properly cured concrete has an adequate amount of moisture for continued hydration and development of strength, volume stability, resistance to freezing, and abrasion and scaling resistance. Keeping importance to this, Self-curing or internal curing is a technique that can be used to provide additional moisture in concrete for more effective hydration of cement and reduced self-desiccation. In the present study involve the use of polyethylene Glycol (PEG 400) like shrinkage reducing admixtures as internal curing compound.In this research paper, the effect of PEG400 on compressive strength by varying the percentage of PEG400by weight of cement 0.5%, 1.0%, 1.5% and 2% were studied. It was also found that 1% of PEG400 by weight of cement was optimum for M20 and M30 grade concrete for achieving maximum strength without compromising workability. The test result indicates that use of water soluble polymers in concrete has improved performance of concrete

Efficacy of Fungicides, Bioagents and Phytoextracts against Alternaria carthami of Safflower in In Vitro Condition

Safflower leaf spot / blight caused by Alternaria carthami (Chowdhury) is serious diseases in India. Considering the economic importance and seriousness of the disease, the present cost effective management practices against the test pathogen present in vitro studies were conducted during 2012-13. All the experiments were planned with CRD and all the treatments replicated thrice. A total six systemic fungicides @ 500, 1000 and 1500 ppm concentration and seven non-systemic / combi fungicides @ 1000, 2000 and 2500 ppm concentrations was evaluated in vitro against A. carthami, applying Poisoned food technique (Nene and Thapliyal, 1993). Results of the present studies revealed that systemic fungicides most effective than non-systemic against the test pathogen. Among systemic fungicides, average cent per cent inhibition of mycelial growth was observed in Hexaconazole (100 %), followed by Propiconazole (94.07 %) and Penconazole (94.75 %); Among non-systemic and combi- fungicides, significantly highest average mycelial growth inhibition was observed in Carbendazim 12 WP + Mancozeb 63 WP (85.80 %), followed by Mancozeb (82.59 %) and Copper-oxychloride (76.65 %). Among bioagents tested T. viride recorded significantly highest mycelial growth inhibition (87.04 %) of the test pathogen, followed by T. harzianum (82.59 %) and T. koningii (78.89 %). Among botanicals A. sativum was found most fungistatic and recorded significantly highest average mycelial growth inhibition 88.33 %, followed by A. indica (78.58 %), O. sanctum (73.83 %) and E. globulus (66.05 %)

RAPD Based Molecular Diversity Analysis of Different Alternaria carthami Isolates of Safflower in Maharashtra

Genetic diversity in safflower blight pathogen (Alternaria carthami) was analyzed using 20 isolates collected from major safflower growing regions of Maharashtra state in India. Experiment was conducted at Department of Agricultural Bioatechnology, College of Agriculture, Latur, VNMKV, Parbhani (M.S.). Genomic DNA extracted from each isolates of Alternaria carthami was subjected to polymerase chain reaction using 20 random decamer primers from OPA series. Only 08 of the 20 RAPD primers were selected based on repeatability. Result revealed that 100 per cent polymorphism were found. The dendrogram analysis revealed two clusters, Cluster I comprised twelve isolates viz., Ac-1, Ac-8, Ac-4, Ac-5, Ac-7, Ac-11, Ac-18, Ac-15, Ac-17, Ac-9, Ac-20 and Ac-19 with similarity coefficient of 77 per cent. Cluster II comprised of eight isolates viz., Ac-2, Ac-3, Ac-6, Ac-13, Ac-12, Ac-14, Ac-10 and Ac-16 with similarity coefficient of 76 per cent