Aquatic Fungi from Nasik District-I

The paper deals with five species of aquatic fungi belonging to five genera of freshwater hyphomycetes found in foam samples collected from Trambkeshwar stream of Nasik District. The foam spora of this region represents mixture of both tropical and temperate species. Brief notes and illustration are given for each taxon. Geographical distribution of each species in India is also provided

A rare case of pregnancy with Sturge-Weber syndrome

Sturge-Weber syndrome is a rare sporadic neurocutaneous syndrome characterized by facial angiomas, ocular abnormalities (glaucoma and choroidal hemangioma), and leptomeningeal angioma. We report a case of Sturge Weber syndrome type I, associated with seizures, with gestational diabetes. She had successful labour outcome. Very few such cases have been reported in literature. The effect of pregnancy on neurological symptoms of Sturge Weber syndrome is not known.

Pregnancy with neurofibromatosis type II: the enigma continues

Neurofibromatosis type II in pregnancy has variable presentations. The recurrence rate and bilaterality of CP angle tumour is very high. We present a case of bilateral schwanomma diagnosed in midpregnancy, for which patient was operated in second trimester and postpartum radiotherapy will now be given

DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION OF UV SPECTROPHOTOMETRIC METHODS FOR DETERMINATION OF MEGLUMINE IN BULK

UV, first, second and third derivative spectrophotometric methods have been developed for the determination of meglumine. The solutions of standard and sample were prepared in distilled water. For the first method i.e. calibration curve UV spectrophotometric method, the quantitative determination of the drug was carried at 254 nm and the linearity range was found to be 10 – 60 µg/ml. For the first, second, third derivative spectrophotometric methods the drug was determined at 247 nm, 216 nm, 266 nm with the linearity range 10 – 60 µg /ml. The calibration graphs constructed at their wavelength of determination were found to be linear for UV and derivative spectrophotometric methods. All the proposed methods have been extensively validated. There was no significant difference between the performance of the proposed methods regarding the mean values and standard deviations

A Review on Storage of Pure Methane Gas in LPG Tank

This paper evaluates the use of renewable sources of energy i.e. biogas and suitability of a compact biogas system as a centralized decomposition of solid waste like kitchen waste and cow dung etc. and treatment option for the organic decomposition and fraction use of pure methane gas for the cooking, power generation purpose etc. This paper gives an idea and state of art innovations and research in the field of waste digestion and utilization of wasteful energy. In air-tight anaerobic digester bacteria were flourished and used for digestion of kitchen food waste and cow dung. Tremendous amount of Bio-gas was found to be produced which can be utilized for cooking or gas powered vehicles

Contribution of Matrix Metalloproteinase-9 to Cerebral Edema and Functional Outcome following Experimental Subarachnoid Hemorrhage

Background: Cerebral edema is an important risk factor for death and poor outcome following subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH). However, underlying mechanisms are still poorly understood. Matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-9 is held responsible for the degradation of microvascular basal lamina proteins leading to blood-brain barrier dysfunction and, thus, formation of vasogenic cerebral edema. The current study was conducted to clarify the role of MMP-9 for the development of cerebral edema and for functional outcome after SAH. Methods: SAH was induced in FVB/N wild-type (WT) or MMP-9 knockout (MMP-9(-/-)) mice by endovascular puncture. Intracranial pressure (ICP), regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF), and mean arterial blood pressure (MABP) were continuously monitored up to 30 min after SAH. Mortality was quantified for 7 days after SAH. In an additional series neurological function and body weight were assessed for 3 days after SAH. Subsequently, ICP and brain water content were quantified. Results: Acute ICP, rCBF, and MABP did not differ between WT and MMP-9(-/-) mice, while 7 days' mortality was lower in MMP-9(-/-) mice (p = 0.03; 20 vs. 60%). MMP-9(-/-) mice also exhibited better neurological recovery, less brain edema formation, and lower chronic ICP. Conclusions: The results of the current study suggest that MMP-9 contributes to the development of early brain damage after SAH by promoting cerebral edema formation. Hence, MMP-9 may represent a novel molecular target for the treatment of SAH. Copyright (C) 2011 S. Karger AG, Base

Perspectives of family members participating in cultural assessment of psychiatric disorders: Findings from the DSM-5 International Field Trial

Despite the important roles families play in the lives of many individuals with mental illness across cultures, there is a dearth of data worldwide on how family members perceive the process of cultural assessment as well as to how to best include them. This study addresses this gap in our knowledge through analysis of data collected across six countries as part of a DSM-5 Field Trial of the Cultural Formulation Interview (CFI). At clinician discretion, individuals who accompanied patients to the clinic visit (i.e. patient companions) at the time the CFI was conducted were invited to participate in the cultural assessment and answer questions about their experience. The specific aims of this paper are (1) to describe patterns of participation of patient companions in the CFI across the six countries, and (2) to examine the comparative feasibility, acceptability, and clinical utility of the CFI from companion perspectives through analysis of both quantitative and qualitative data. Among the 321 patient interviews, only 86 (at four of 12 sites) included companions, all of whom were family members or other relatives. The utility, feasibility and acceptability of the CFI were rated favourably by relatives, supported by qualitative analyses of debriefing interviews. Cross-site differences in frequency of accompaniment merit further study

NF-κB: A lesson in family values

A set of mobile robots (represented as points) is distributed in the Cartesian plane. The collection contains an unknown subset of byzantine robots which are indistinguishable from the reliable ones. The reliable robots need to gather, i.e., arrive to a configuration in which at the same time, all of them occupy the same point on the plane. The robots are equipped with GPS devices and at the beginning of the gathering process they communicate the Cartesian coordinates of their respective positions to the central authority. On the basis of this information, without the knowledge of which robots are faulty, the central authority designs a trajectory for every robot. The central authority aims to provide the trajectories which result in the shortest possible gathering time of the healthy robots. The efficiency of a gathering strategy is measured by its competitive ratio, i.e., the maximal ratio between the time required for gathering achieved by the given trajectories and the optimal time required for gathering in the offline case, i.e., when the faulty robots are known to the central authority in advance. The role of the byzantine robots, controlled by the adversary, is to act so that the gathering is delayed and the resulting competitive ratio is maximized. The objective of our paper is to propose efficient algorithms when the central authority is aware of an upper bound on the number of byzantine robots. We give optimal algorithms for collections of robots known to contain at most one faulty robot. When the proportion of byzantine robots is known to be less than one half or one third, we provide algorithms with small constant competitive ratios. We also propose algorithms with bounded competitive ratio in the case where the proportion of faulty robots is arbitrary

Feasibility of the porous zone approach to modelling vegetation in CFD

Vegetation within stormwater ponds varies seasonly and its presence affects the flow field, which in turn affects the pond’s Residence Time Distribution and its effectiveness at pollutant removal. Vegetated flows are complex and, as a result, few suitable tools exist for evaluating realistic stormwater pond designs. Recent research has suggested using a porous zone to represent vegetation within a CFD model, and this paper investigates the feasibility of this approach using ANSYS Fluent. One of the main benefits of using a porous zone is the ability to derive the relevant parameters from the known physical characteristics of stem diameter and porosity using the Ergun equation. A sensitivity analysis on the viscous resistance factor 1/α1/α and the inertial resistance factor C2C2 has been undertaken by comparing model results to data collected from an experimental vegetated channel. Best fit values of C2C2 were obtained for a range of flow conditions including emergent and submerged vegetation. Results show the CFD model to be insensitive to 1/α1/α but very sensitive to values of C2C2. For submerged vegetation, values of C2C2 derived from the Ergun equation are under-predictions of best-fit C2C2 values as only the turbulence due to the shear layer is represented. The porous zone approach does not take into account turbulence generated from stem wakes such that no meaningful predictions for emergent vegetation were obtained. C2C2 values calculated using a force balance show better agreement with best-fit C2C2 values than those derived from the Ergun equation. Manually fixing values of kk and εε within the porous zone of the model shows initial promise as a means of taking stem wakes into account