Adoption of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) in Chilli (Capsicum annuum L.): A Case Study from Guntur District, Andhra Pradesh

An Integrated Pest Management (IPM) project was implemented in the cropping season 2006-07 in six villages of Guntur District. Survey was conducted in the six villages and all 150 chilli farmers participating in Crop Life India (CLI) sponsored IPM project were treated as a sample for the study. In the case of sucking pests, 56% of the farmers expressed that mites were an important pest. Among the fruit borers, a majority (83.33%) felt that Spodoptera litura was a serious problem and; among diseases, 56% opined die-back to be the major problem. More than twothirds of the respondents adopted all components of IPM, with the exception of bioagents where adoption was just 46%. 44% felt leaf spot was a major disease. Over 80% adopted border crops, trap crops, scouting techniques and mechanical-control measures. All the respondents followed 10-15 day pre-harvest interval of pesticide application as a measure for obtaining quality produce and better price. Problems of post-harvest pests and diseases were not observed in the case of well-dried chillies

Determination of Low-Level sulfur compounds in Natural gas and Petrochemicals by Gas Chromatography and Pulsed flamed photometric Detector

The natural gas and petrochemical industries are just some areas in which the analysis of sulfur containing compounds in process streams is a critical quality control step. Not being able to right away detect and accurately assess or quantify these compounds can lead to contaminated products, damaged equipment, poisoned catalysts and process downtime. This article presents a fast, reliable and robust method for the determination of individual volatile sulfur containing compounds in gaseous fuels by gas chromatography coupled with pulsed flame photometric detection

Self-Healing Ability of High-Strength Fibre-Reinforced Concrete with Fly Ash and Crystalline Admixture

The aim of this study is to analyse the self-healing capability of high-strength fibre-reinforced concrete (M70) with fly ash and crystalline admixture (CA) in four types of environmental exposures i.e. Water Immersion (WI), Wet-Dry Cycles (WD), Water contact (WC) and Air Exposure (AE). Specimens for four mixes are cast, one mix containing 1.1% of CA and three mixes with 10%, 20% and 30% partial replacement of cement with fly ash and additions of 1.1% CA. The specimens were pre-cracked at 28 days, in the range of 0.10-0.40 mm and the time set for healing was 42 days. The result shows that all the mixes have considerable amount of closing ability and strength-regaining capability for all exposure conditions. The concrete with 20% fly ash and 1.1% CA has complete crack closing ability and 100% strength-regaining capability for WI and WD cycle conditions. From SEM analysis, it is confirmed that self-healing products are CaCO3 and C-S-H gel

ANALYTICAL METHOD DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION OF DEXMETHYLPHENIDATE AND SERDEXMETHYLPHENIDATE BY USING RP-HPLC IN BULK AND PHARMACEUTICAL DOSAGE FORM

Objective: The current investigation was pointed at developing and progressively validating novel, simple, responsive and stable RP-HPLC method for the simultaneous measurement of active pharmaceutical ingredients of Dexmethylphenidate and Serdexmethylphenidate. Methods: A simple, selective, validated and well-defined stability that shows isocratic RP-HPLC methodology for the simultaneous determination of Dexmethylphenidate and Serdexmethylphenidate. The chromatographic strategy utilized inertsil ODS column of dimensions 250x4.6 mm, 5 µ, using isocratic elution with a mobile phase of acetonitrile and 0.1% orthophosphoric acid (70:30). A flow rate of 1 ml/min and a detector wavelength of 262 nm utilizing the PDA detector were given in the instrumental settings. Recovery, specificity, linearity, accuracy, robustness, ruggedness were determined as a part of method validation and the results were found to be within the acceptable range. Validation of the proposed method was carried out according to an international conference on harmonization (ICH) guidelines. Results: LOD and LOQ for the active ingredient were established with respect to test concentration. The calibration chart plotted was linear with a regression coefficient of R2>0.999, which means the linearity was within the limit. Conclusion: The proposed method to be fast, simple, feasible and affordable in assay condition. During stability tests, it can be used for routine analysis of production samples and to verify the quality of drug samples during stability studies

Anticancer activity of curcumin alone and in combination with piperine in Dalton lymphoma ascites bearing mice

181-189Curcumin has been reported for its anticancer activity, but clinically it suffers from low bioavailability. In this context, we explored the potential of a natural bioavailability enhancing agent piperine in the present study. Piperine too has anticancer activity, and thereby combination of these two natural ingredients were tested for better therapeutic use. Curcumin (50 mg/kg, 100 mg/kg), piperine (10 mg/kg) alone and in combination was evaluated in Dalton lymphoma ascites (DLA) bearing mice by assessing various biochemical and histopathological parameters. Treatment with the curcumin at two different concentrations and piperine alone has shown some therapeutic benefit in reducing the tumors and increased the lifespan of the tested animals (%ILS). The treatment groups have shown significant therapeutic benefits in restoration of hematological and biochemical parameters, particularly in combination treatment groups. Precisely, curcumin and piperine in combination have shown more significant influence in the restoration of various hematological and biochemical parameters. Histopathological observations also revealed that combination of curcumin and piperine improves repairing of the tissue damage due to inoculation of lymphoma significantly

DRUG POLYMORPHISM IDENTIFICATION USING FOURIER TRANSFORM-RAMAN SPECTROSCOPY: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF LAMIVUDINE AND FINASTERIDE DRUGS

Objectives: Maintaining the quality of the pharmaceutical drug product during its shelf life is highly desirable. The crystalline form of the drug having the great thermodynamic stability is essential for the manufacturers in pharmaceutical industry in view of their profit and also for the safety of the customer. Many pharmaceutical drugs have the tendency to exhibit polymorphism which is unwanted for pharmaceutical companies, where they have experienced market shortages due to these unpredicted polymorphic and/or pseudomorphic changes. The property of a drug exhibiting more than one crystal form is considerably regarded as polymorphism and each of the crystalline form has its own physicochemical properties, namely, solubility, heat capacity, melting point, and sublimation point. To relieve this ultimate effect on the drug quality and stability, a prior detection of polymorphism in the final dosage form is highly recommended. Hence, many analytical techniques have been proposed for the detection of polymorphism in pharmaceutical drug products. Methods: Fourier transform (FT)-Raman spectrometer is used for the investigation of drug polymorphism and the instrument is advanced with charge coupled device detectors, ease of sample preparation and handling, mitigation of sub-sampling problems using different geometric laser irradiance patterns and having different optical components of Raman spectrometers. Results: In this work, we carefully studied the Raman spectral patterns for Lamivudine as well as Finasteride drug substances for the detection of polymorphism. Further, we have highlighted the advantages of FT-Raman spectroscopy over other polymorphism detection techniques. For example, Raman spectra showed invariably sharp, well resolved bands compare to IR spectra due to the minor contribution of overtone vibrations in Raman spectra, resulting in much less broadening and a better resolution of bands. Besides, Raman spectroscopy does not suffer from the sampling problems that are common in X-ray powder diffraction, where preferred orientation and specimen displacements are serious restrictions for the application of quantitative method. Conclusion: Here, in this paper, we are presented and compared the experimental results regarding the detection of polymorphism in Lamivudine and Finasteride drugs using FT-Raman spectroscopy, to illustrate the advantages of the technique in the detection of polymorphism over other techniques

TO ANALYZE THE COMPOSITE BEAM AT EARTHQUAKE CONDITIONS

A entire studies on the unfastened vibration and balance analysis of beams made from functionally graded materials containing open location cracks utilizing four beam theories, Euler-Bernoulli, Rayleigh, shear, and Timoshenko, is completed right here. It is assumed that the material residences variety along the beam thickness exponentially and the cracked beam is modelled as segments connected by means of mass-much fewer springs, extensional and rotational spring. Afterward, the equations of movement for the unfastened vibrations and buckling evaluation are set up and solved analytically for clamped-loose boundary conditions. The effect of the muse and vertical cracks at the strain distribution and crucial buckling hundreds for a curved composite sandwich beam were investigated numerically. The vibration evaluation was completed experimentally and numerically. Experimental and numerical results had been in a high-quality settlement for the in-aircraft vibrations. It become seen that the vital buckling forces changed not uniformly for the transverse crack and additionally, buckling masses decreased with developing root crack duration

Synthesis, magnetic, AC conductivity and dielectric properties of hematite nanocrystallites

We are reporting the synthesis along with magnetic, ac conductivity and dielectric properties of hematite nanocrystallites. The prepared Fe2O3 is crystallizing in corundum structure which belongs to the rhombohedron system with the space group R3-c. The magnetization data shows a typical Morin transition, TN = 265 K for 110 nm crystallites, whereas this transition is decreasing with decrease in crystallite size, TN = 252 K for 33 nm. The value of magnetization is increased with increasing crystallite size. The enhanced dielectric permittivity and ac conductivity were observed in higher hematite crystallite size. The overall dielectric response has revealed conduction mechanism is due to the extrinsic contribution from the dominant Maxwell-Wagner polarization

Anticancer activity of curcumin alone and in combination with piperine in Dalton lymphoma ascites bearing mice

Curcumin has been reported for its anticancer activity, but clinically it suffers from low bioavailability. In this context, we explored the potential of a natural bioavailability enhancing agent piperine in the present study. Piperine too has anticancer activity, and thereby combination of these two natural ingredients were tested for better therapeutic use. Curcumin (50 mg/kg, 100 mg/kg), piperine (10 mg/kg) alone and in combination was evaluated in Dalton lymphoma ascites (DLA) bearing mice by assessing various biochemical and histopathological parameters. Treatment with the curcumin at two different concentrations and piperine alone has shown some therapeutic benefit in reducing the tumors and increased the lifespan of the tested animals (%ILS). The treatment groups have shown significant therapeutic benefits in restoration of hematological and biochemical parameters, particularly in combination treatment groups. Precisely, curcumin and piperine in combination have shown more significant influence in the restoration of various hematological and biochemical parameters. Histopathological observations also revealed that combination of curcumin and piperine improves repairing of the tissue damage due to inoculation of lymphoma significantly