Iron oxide nanoparticles fabricated by electric explosion of wire: Focus on magnetic nanofluids

Nanoparticles of iron oxides (MNPs) were prepared using the electric explosion of wire technique (EEW). The main focus was on the fabrication of de-aggregated spherical nanoparticles with a narrow size distribution. According to XRD the major crystalline phase was magnetite with an average diameter of MNPs, depending on the fraction. Further separation of air-dry EEW nanoparticles was performed in aqueous suspensions. In order to provide the stability of magnetite suspension in water, we found the optimum concentration of the electrostatic stabilizer (sodium citrate and optimum pH level) based on zeta-potential measurements. The stable suspensions still contained a substantial fraction of aggregates which were disintegrated by the excessive ultrasound treatment. The separation of the large particles out of the suspension was performed by centrifuging. The structural features, magnetic properties and microwave absorption of MNPs and their aqueous solutions confirm that we were able to obtain an ensemble in which the magnetic contributions come from the spherical MNPs. The particle size distribution in fractionated samples was narrow and they showed a similar behaviour to that expected of the superparamagnetic ensemble. Maximum obtained concentration was as high as 5 % of magnetic material (by weight). Designed assembly of de-aggregated nanoparticles is an example of on-purpose developed magnetic nanofluid. Copyright © 2012 Author(s)

Glucosamine HCl-based solid dispersions to enhance the biopharmaceutical properties of acyclovir

The objective of the work presented here was to assess the feasibility of using glucosamine HCl as a solid-dispersion (SD) carrier to enhance the biopharmaceutical properties of a BCS class III/IV drug, acyclovir (ACV). The solid-dispersions of acyclovir and glucosamine HCl were prepared by an ethanol-based solvent evaporation method. The prepared formulations characterized by photomicroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), Fourier transforms infrared spectrophotometry (FTIR), powder x-ray diffractometry (PXRD) and drug content analysis. The functional characterization of ACV-SD was performed by aqueous solubility evaluation, dissolution studies, fasted versus fed state dissolution comparison, ex vivo permeability, and stability studies. Photomicroscopy and SEM analysis showed different surface morphologies for pure ACV, glucosamine HCl and ACV-SD. The physical-chemical characterization studies supported the formation of ACV-SD. A 12-fold enhancement in the aqueous solubility of ACV was observed in the prepared solid dispersions, compared to pure ACV. Results from in vitro dissolution demonstrated a significant increase in the rate and extent of ACV dissolution from the prepared ACV-SD formulations, compared to pure ACV. The rate and extent of ACV permeability across everted rat intestinal membrane were also found to be significantly increased in the ACV-SD formulations. Under fed conditions, the rate and extent of the in vitro dissolution of ACV from the formulation was appreciably greater compared to fasted conditions. Overall, the results from the study suggest the feasibility of utilizing glucosamine HCl as a solid dispersion carrier/excipient for enhancement of biopharmaceutical properties of acyclovir, and similar drugs with low solubility/permeability characteristics

Blasting technique for stabilizing accidentprone slope for sustainable railway route

Konkan Railway has many unstable slopes along the 741 km long route from Roha to Thokur in the states of Maharashtra, Goa and Karnataka in India. Frequent cases of boulder fall, slope failure and landslide used to occur on the track during the rainy season. Such cases have resulted in several severe train accidents, traffic interruptions, loss of lives and assets. Hence the Konkan Railway Corporation deployed several geotechnical measures such as wire-netting, retaining wall, rock bolting and shotcreting for stability enhancement. However, none of these measures proved effective and accidents continued. Finally, the Konkan Railway Corporation decided to redesign the cut-slopes using blasting. Excavation of hard rock for its removal without damaging the existing track (2– 3 m away from the slope) and disrupting the traffic, was a daunting task. An unplanned blast would have resulted in the closure of the route for hours. The present study explains the method in which entire cutting was redesigned by formation of 5 to 2 m wide berms at an interval of 6 m bench height from rail track level using novel direction controlled blasting technique. Further, stability of the cut-slope, before and after exacavation, has been determined using kinematic analysis and 3D numerical modelling. Similar technique can be adopted to widen or stabilize an active transportation route in hills

Endoscopic Proximal Adductor Lengthening for Chronic Adductor-Related Groin Pain

© 2018 Arthroscopy Association of North America Proximal adductor injuries are relatively common groin injuries in athletes. Various tenotomy techniques have been described including open, partial, and percutaneous approaches. Current techniques help most athletes return to sport; however, many develop adductor weakness. Moreover, the procedures lack full visualization of the tendon and do not allow for return to athletes’ preinjury level of play. We describe an endoscopic z-lengthening of the proximal adductor tendon with the potential to minimize complications associated with open procedures such as incisional pain and neurovascular injury while affording a more complete tenotomy than current percutaneous techniques. This is a safe and reproducible technique that allows for release of tension as a result of pathologic adductor tendon pathologies

Construction of Data Driven Decomposition Based Soft Sensors with Auto Encoder Deep Neural Network for IoT Healthcare Applications

The architecture of IoT healthcare is motivated towards the data-driven realization and patient-centric health models, whereas the personalized assistance is provided by deploying the advanced sensors. According to the procedures in surgery, in the emergency unit, the patients are monitored till they are stable physically and then shifted to ward for further recovery and evaluation. Normally evaluation done in ward doesn’t suggest continuous parameters monitoring for physiological condition and thus relapse of patients are common. In real-time healthcare applications, the vital parameters will be estimated through dedicated sensors, that are still luxurious at the present situation and highly sensitive to harsh conditions of environment. Furthermore, for real-time monitoring, delay is usually present in the sensors. Because of these issues, data-driven soft sensors are highly attractive alternatives. This research is motivated towards this fact and Auto Encoder Deep Neural Network (AutoEncDeepNN) is proposed depending on Health Framework in the internet assisting the patients with trigger-based sensor activation model to manage master and slave sensors. The advantage of the proposed method is that the hidden information are mined automatically from the sensors and high representative features are generated by multiple layer’s iteration. This goal is consistently achieved and thus the proposed model outperforms few standard approaches which are considered like Hierarchical Extreme Learning Machine (HELM), Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) and Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM). It is found that the proposed AutoEncDeepNN method achieves 94.72% of accuracy, 41.96% of RMSE, 34.16% of RAE and 48.68% of MAE in 74.64 ms

A review on biomass-derived materials and their applications as corrosion inhibitors, catalysts, food and drug delivery agents

Owing to the overconsumption of petroleum-based resources and growing demand for fossil-based fuels and chemicals, it has become imperative to adopt alternative resources that are renewable. With the availability of biomass, it is believed that this technology has the capability to valorize waste into wealth. Recently, efficient utilization of plant biomass, a chief renewable resource, has gained tremendous attention in research as it offers distinct social, economic, and sustainable benefits. The present review focuses on the various biomass from waste resources. Subsequently, the applications of these polymeric biomass composites are reviewed in catalysis, drug delivery, and food applications. Finally, corrosion studies along with DFT calculations and theoretical aspects have also been reviewed. Naturally occurring carbohydrate polymers found in lignocellulosic biomass are biopolymers have been used for various physical and chemical applications; as catalyst, coatings, drug delivery, corrosion inhibitors etc. This review reports these material applications of carbohydrate polymers. In this review, we focus on new and emerging applications of polymers from lignocellulosic biomass

TIRSPEC : TIFR Near Infrared Spectrometer and Imager

We describe the TIFR Near Infrared Spectrometer and Imager (TIRSPEC) designed and built in collaboration with M/s. Mauna Kea Infrared LLC, Hawaii, USA, now in operation on the side port of the 2-m Himalayan Chandra Telescope (HCT), Hanle (Ladakh), India at an altitude of 4500 meters above mean sea level. The TIRSPEC provides for various modes of operation which include photometry with broad and narrow band filters, spectrometry in single order mode with long slits of 300" length and different widths, with order sorter filters in the Y, J, H and K bands and a grism as the dispersing element as well as a cross dispersed mode to give a coverage of 1.0 to 2.5 microns at a resolving power R of ~1200. The TIRSPEC uses a Teledyne 1024 x 1024 pixel Hawaii-1 PACE array detector with a cutoff wavelength of 2.5 microns and on HCT, provides a field of view of 307" x 307" with a plate scale of 0.3"/pixel. The TIRSPEC was successfully commissioned in June 2013 and the subsequent characterization and astronomical observations are presented here. The TIRSPEC has been made available to the worldwide astronomical community for science observations from May 2014.Comment: 20 pages, 21 figures, 2 tables. Accepted for publication in Journal of Astronomical Instrumentatio