Case Study and Analysis of a Low Cost Housing Project in an Urban Area in India

An urban development project involving residential and school buildings as an extension of Madras city is described. The analysis of the project is made using the systems approach as a problem of human settlements. The methods adopted for efficient utilisation of space at optimal cost by functional planning, use of prefabricated units and use of new constructional procedures is described. The interrelationship between environmental, technical, social, cultural, psychological, economic, financial and management factors in making decisions for the project is discussed

DNA Barcoding Of Coral Reef Associated Fishes Collected From Cuddalore, Southeast Coast Of India

DNA barcoding is the significant species identification method, it helps in the construction of phylogenetic tree and avert mislabeling of species. DNA barcoding of some of the coral reef associated fishes from Indian southeast coast were very scarce. Hence, in the present study DNA barcoding of five species of coral reef associated fishes such as Lutjanus russellii, Siganus canaliculatus, Siganus javus, Acanthurus tristis and Trachinocephalus myops collected from Cuddalore, southeast coast of India were studied. The sequences were submitted to the GenBank and their accession numbers were obtained. The GC content in the sequence of COI genes were also calculated, the maximum GC content was found in Trachinocephalus myops (50.47%) and minimum was in Acanthurus tristis (45.33%). The average GC content was 47.64 ± 1.01%. Among the five species analyzed the sequence for Acanthurus tristis was not available in the NCBI database earlier, hence this sequence may the first molecular evidence for GenBank database

Preparation and Evaluation of Mucoadhesive Gastro Retentive Tablets of Gliclazide by using Mucoadhesive Polymers

INTRODUCTION: The newer drug delivery systems have been developed from time to time with a goal of providing the therapeutic amount of drug to the proper site in the body and to increase the bioavailability of the drug. An appropriately designed controlled-release drug delivery system can be major advance towards solving the major issues like delivering drug to the site, controlling the rate of drug delivery. This can be achieved by better control of plasma drug levels and less frequent dosing. Historically, oral drug administration has been the predominant route for drug delivery. Oral dosage forms capable of having prolonged retention time in the stomach to extend the duration of drug delivery have been receiving much attention in recent years2. More often, drug absorption is unsatisfactory and highly variable among and between individuals, despite excellent in vitro release patterns. The reasons for this are essentially physiological and usually affected by the GI transit of the form, especially its gastric residence time (GRT). OBJECTIVES: The main objectives of present study are as below- 1. To carryout preformulation studies for possible drug and polymer interactions by infrared studies. 2. To formulate mucoadhesive tablets by using natural polymers like Chitosan, Xanthan gum, and Moringa gum 3. To develop gastroretentive dosage form for prolong period of time for continuous release of drug in the stomach. 4. Evaluation of prepared mucoadhesive tablets for their physical and chemical characteristics. 5. To carry out Stability studies for optimized formulations as per ICH guidelines. 6. To maximize bioavailability of the drug and increased patient compliance. EXPECTED RESULTS: 1. Tablets prepared should have good satisfactory physico-chemical properties. 2. Tablet remains for 24 hours in GIT and releases the drug in controlled manner. 3. Prepared tablets should be stable throughout their shelf-life. CONCLUSION: The present study has been a satisfactory attempt to formulate mucoadhesive drug delivery system of gliclazide, an orally administrated anti-diabetic drug with a view of improving its oral bioavailability and giving sustained release of the drug for prolonged period of time. From the experimental results it can be concluded that, 1. Mucoadhesive drug delivery systems of gliclazide can be prepared by direct compression method using various polymers like Chitosan, Xanthan gum, and Moringa gum 2. A suitable method of analysis of drug by UV spectrophotometry was developed. Gliclazide showed maximum absorption at a wavelength 229 nm in pH 1.2 buffer (0.1N HCl). The value of regression coefficient (r2) was found to be 0.999, which showed linear relationship between concentration and absorbance. 3. IR spectroscopic studies indicated that there is no drug-polymer interaction in the prepared formulations. 4. On the basis of prepared preliminary formulations, final formulations were formulated using combinations of two or three natural polymers. 5. All the prepared tablet formulations were found to be good without capping and chipping. 6. From this study, it was concluded that as the concentration of gum increases the swelling index also increases. Xanthan gum found more swelling as compare to other polymers. The increasing order of swelling is Moringa gum>Xanthan gum > chitosan. 7. All most of the designed formulations of gliclazide Mucoadhesive Drug Delivery Systems displayed zero order release kinetics, and drug release follows non-Fickanian diffusion mechanism. 8. From this study, it was concluded that as the concentration of gum increases the in vitro mucoadhesive strength also increases. Chitosan showed greater mucoadhesive strength. The increasing order of mucoadhesive strength is Chitosan > Xanthan gum > Moringa gum. 9. Short-term stability studies of optimized formulations F9 and F10 indicates, that there are no significant changes in drug content and dissolution parameter values after 1 month storage at 400C ± 20C and 75 % RH ± 5 %

IN VITRO EVALUATION OF PARTIALLY PURIFIED ANTIOXIDANT ENZYMES FROM LICHEN LEPTOGIUM PAPILLOSUM

ABSTRACTObjective: In this study, the enzyme activity of the partially purified six different antioxidant enzymes (AEs) of Leptogium papillosum such assuperoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), peroxidase (POD), polyphenol oxidase (PPO), glutathione transferase (GST), and glutathione peroxidase(GPx) was carried out.Methods: Ammonium sulfate precipitation, dialysis, and DEAE-cellulose column chromatography were the three different methods performed topurify the six different AEs from L. papillosum. The antioxidant enzyme activity of the purified extracts was determined in vitro by the followingstandard procedure of SOD, CAT, POD, PPO, GST, and GPx.Results and Conclusion: The results revealed that there was a significant increase (p<0.001) in the specific activity of purified fractions of all theenzymes with a corresponding increase in the purification fold. The comparable activity of PPO and GST were determined using cluster analysis usingshort linkage distance. Principal component analysis indicated that SOD contributed primarily to the total variation in the AEs among allthe other fractions with the specific activity of 21.70 U/mg by attaining the purification fold of 5.91. Thus, our findings suggested that the purifiedAEs of L. papillosum possess potent antioxidant defense machinery by scavenging free radical population. Moreover, SOD was played a major role ofcapturing free radical by having highest enzyme activity followed by GST and CAT.DEAE-celluloseKeywords: Antioxidant enzymes, Cluster analysis, DEAE-cellulose column chromatography, Lichen, Leptogium papillosum, Principal componentanalysis

Triboelectric Nanogenerators: Design, Fabrication, Energy Harvesting, and Portable-Wearable Applications

Scavenging energy from our day-to-day activity into useful electrical energy be the best solution to solve the energy crisis. This concept entirely reduces the usage of batteries, which have a complex issue in recycling and disposal. For electrical harvesting energy from vibration energy, there are few energy harvesters available, but the fabrication, implementation, and maintenances are quite complicated. Triboelectric nanogenerators (TENG) having the advantage of accessible design, less fabrication cost, and high energy efficiency can replace the battery in low-power electronic devices. TENGs can operate in various working modes such as contact-separation mode, sliding mode, single-electrode mode, and free-standing mode. The design of TENGs with the respective operating modes employed in generating electric power as well as can be utilized as a portable and wearable power source. The fabrication of triboelectric layers with micro-roughness could enhance the triboelectric charge generation. The objective of this chapter is to deal with the design of triboelectric layers, creating micro structured roughness using the soft-lithographic technique, fabrication of TENGs using different working modes, energy harvesting performance analysis, powering up commercial devices (LEDs, displays, and capacitors), and portable-wearable applications

Effect of Caesalpinia pulcherrima (L.) Sw. seeds on serum glucose and other metabolic parameters of normal and alloxan - induced diabetic rats

Oral administration of the ethanol extract of Caesalpinia pulcherrima seeds (CP - 250 and 500 mg/kg) caused significant fall in blood glucose levels even at 2½ h after a single dose of treatment in normal fasted and glucose loaded Wistar rats. At 250 mg/kg dose level, CP completely prevented the elevation of blood glucose caused by oral glucose feeding. In alloxan diabetic rats, CP was able to lower the blood glucose level to around 132 mg / 100 ml from 10th day and thereafter. The biochemical findings were supported by histopathological studies of liver, kidney and pancreas of control and treated rats. CP was able to increase catalase levels of diabetic rats. Reduced levels of serum protein and elevated levels of serum glutamate oxaloacetate transaminase (SGOT), serum glutamate pyruvate transaminase(SGPT), alkaline phosphatase(ALP), cholesterol, triglycerides, creatinine and uric acid were almost normalised in CP treated diabetic rats. CP was also able to reduce in vitro lipid peroxidation in rat liver microsomes and inhibit 1- diphenyl – 2-picryl hydrazyl (DPPH) induced free radicals significantly

An analysis on Free Convection Cooling of a 3×3 Heater Array in Rectangular Enclosure using Cu-EG-Water Nanofluid

This paper deals with the study of natural convection cooling of a discrete heater array in Cu-EG-water nanofluid filled rectangular enclosure. A 3 × 3 array of non-protruding heat sources is embedded on one of the vertical walls of the enclosure while the top horizontal and opposite vertical walls are assumed to be isothermally cold. The remaining portions in which the heaters are mounted and all other walls are insulated. The above setup is modeled into a system of partial differential equations which are solved numerically using finite volume method based on the Semi-Implicit Method for Pressure Linked Equation (SIMPLE) algorithm and power law scheme. The wide range of parameters for computation are the aspect ratio of the enclosure, the mixture proportion of Ethylene glycol-water, the solid volume fraction of the nanoparticle along with two different thermal conductivity models. It is observed that the proper choice of the computation parameters and thermal conductivity models could be able to maximize the heat transfer rate from the heater array. Also, the results obtained in this study will provide new guidelines in the field of electronic equipment cooling