Electron paramagnetic resonance, optical absorption and Raman spectral studies on a pyrite/chalcopyrite mineral

Pyrite and chalcopyrite mineral samples from Mangampet barite mine, Kadapa, Andhra Pradesh, India are used in the present study. XRD data indicate that the pyrite mineral has a face centered cubic lattice structure with lattice constant 5.4179 Å. Also it possesses an average particle size of 91.9 nm. An EPR study on the powdered samples confirms the presence of iron in pyrite and iron and Mn(II) in chalcopyrite. The optical absorption spectrum of chalcopyrite indicates presence of copper which is in a distorted octahedral environment. NIR results confirm the presence of water fundamentals and Raman spectrum reveals the presence of water and sulfate ions

Ethnobotanical Survey on Respiratory Disorders in Eastern Ghats of Andhra Pradesh, India

An Ethnopharmacological survey of the Eastern Ghats region of Andhra Pradesh, comprising Chittoor, Cuddapah, East Godavari, Guntur, Khammam, Krishna, Kurnool, Srikakulam, Visakhapatnam, Vijayanagaram and the West Godavari districts, was conducted during 2000-2005. Eighty-four species of folk drug plants belonging to 72 genera and 41 families were found to be used as a remedy for respiratory disorders by the rural people and forest ethnic people (Chenchus, Erukulas, Lambadas, Koyas, Kondareddies, Nukadoras, Yanadis). The scientific, vernacular and family names of these medicinal plants, along with the parts used and the mode of their administration are enumerated

Modeling and Characterization of MEMS Electrostatic Energy Harvester

In low-power wireless electronic devices, Energy harvesting generators have received increasing research interest in recent years. This paper describes the design and analysis of electrostatic transduction based MEMS energy harvester. Due to the benefit of a folded beam configuration that can be displace large dimensions and compliant in desired direction and stiffer in orthogonal direction. Since, large displacement of proof mass of energy harvester renders the enhance performance. Hence, the folded beam configuration of harvest has been modeled and designed and optimized the dimension of geometry. FEM simulations using COMSOL were conducted to evaluate the natural frequency and mode shape of the system and compared results with that of analytically calculated values. Spice circuit of harvester has been modeled and performed simulation to evaluate the output power of the harvester in LTSPICE. Parameter analysis was conducted to determine the optimal load and optimal output power

Water-saving Rice Production Technologies in Krishna Western Delta Command of Andhra Pradesh – An Economic Analysis

The economic analysis of water-saving rice production technologies, viz. system of rice intensification (SRI), semi-dry and rotational irrigation vis-à-vis farmers’ practice has been carried out based on the study executed in Modukuru pilot area of Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh. Among the three water-saving rice production technologies analyzed, the total cost of cultivation has been recorded highest in SRI (Rs 58645/ha), followed by rotational (Rs 47140/ha) and semi-dry (Rs 39321/ha). But, the per hectare yield has been found highest in SRI (6.85 t), followed by semi-dry (6.66 t) and rotational (6.2 t), inferring that all the three technologies have recorded higher yields over farmers’ practice of 5.5 t/ha. However, the net returns and B-C ratio are maximum in semi-dry (Rs 43,484/ha; 1.11), followed by rotational (Rs 30,085; 0.64) and SRI (Rs 26,466/ha; 0.45) methods. Similarly, the water-use efficiency has been found highest in SRI (8.53 kg/ ha-mm), followed by semi-dry (8.02 kg/ha-mm) and rotational (7.33 kg/ ha-mm) methods, while the water-use efficiency benefit (Rs/ha-mm) has been recorded maximum in semi-dry (52.39), followed by SRI (42.08) and rotational (35.56) methods. With the initiation of Andhra Pradesh Water Management Project, Bapatla, the area under semi-dry rice cultivation has been found increasing over a period of four years, from 0.6 ha in 2004-2005 to 22 ha in 2007 -2008.Agricultural and Food Policy,

Monitoring, evaluation and comparison of adverse effect profile of ciprofloxacin and ofloxacin in acute bacterial exacerbation of chronic bronchitis patients attending pulmonology department of tertiary care teaching hospital: a prospective observational study

Background: In 2016, FDA recommended that “serious side effects associated with flouroquinolones generally outweigh the benefits for the patients with acute sinusitis, acute bronchitis and uncomplicated UTI”. Throughout India the most commonly used flouroquinolones for above conditions are Ciprofloxacin, Ofloxacin, and Levofloxacin. In this scenario, the present study was undertaken to monitor, evaluate and compare the adverse effect profile of Ciprofloxacin and Ofloxacin in acute exacerbation of chronic bronchitis patients.Methods: Prospective, observational study done in 200 patients of tertiary care teaching hospital. The patients diagnosed with, acute bronchitis treated with Ciprofloxacin 500mg BD or Ofloxacin 400mg BD for 7 days were included in the study. The study duration was 6 months. ADR causality assessment was done with Naranjo algorithm. Statistical test applied was chi- square test.Results: 63 ADR were reported in Ofloxacin group and 19 ADR in Ciprofloxacin group. Insomnia was most frequent ADR (40%) in patients treated with Ofloxacin. There is high incidence of ADRs in ofloxacin group. chi square test showed this difference is statistically significant (p<0.05). Insomnia was significantly higher in ofloxacin group (p<0.05).Conclusions: In India frequently used and misused antimicrobials are fluoroquinolones. The present study concluded that no serious ADRs but ofloxacin group of patients have shown increased incidence of ADRs associated with CNS especially Insomnia. However, further large scale, multi-centric studies are needed to confirm these results.

The Stability of Strange Star Crusts and Strangelets

We construct strangelets, taking into account electrostatic effects, including Debye screening, and arbitrary surface tension sigma of the interface between vacuum and quark matter. We find that there is a critical surface tension sigma_crit below which large strangelets are unstable to fragmentation and below which quark star surfaces will fragment into a crystalline crust made of charged strangelets immersed in an electron gas. We derive a model-independent relationship between sigma_crit and two parameters that characterize any quark matter equation of state. For reasonable model equations of state, we find sigma_crit typically of order a few MeV/fm^2. If sigma <= sigma_crit, the size-distribution of strangelets in cosmic rays could feature a peak corresponding to the stable strangelets that we construct.Comment: 11 pages, LaTe

BCS BEC crossover and phase structure of relativistic system: a variational approach

We investigate here the BCS BEC crossover in relativistic systems using a variational construct for the ground state and the minimization of the thermodynamic potential. This is first studied in a four fermion point interaction model and with a BCS type ansatz for the ground state with fermion pairs. It is shown that the antiparticle degrees of freedom play an important role in the BCS BEC crossover physics, even when the ratio of fermi momentum to the mass of the fermion is small. We also consider the phase structure for the case of fermion pairing with imbalanced populations. Within the ansatz, thermodynamically stable gapless modes for both fermions and anti fermions are seen for strong coupling in the BEC regime. We further investigate the effect of fluctuations of the condensate field by treating it as a dynamical field and generalize the BCS ansatz to include quanta of the condensate field also in a boson fermion model with quartic self interaction of the condensate field. It is seen that the critical temperature decreases with inclusion of fluctuations.Comment: 18 pages, 13 figures, one more section added, title modified, version to appear in Phys Rev