Tailoring self-assembled monolayers at the electrochemical interface

The main focus of this review is to illustrate the amenability of self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) for functionalisation with different receptors, catalytic materials, biomolecules, enzymes, antigen- antibody, etc for various applications. The review discusses initially about the preparation and characterization of SAMs and tailoring of SAMs by incorporation of suitable recognition elements. A description of how the molecular recognition is achieved through forces like electrostatic, covalent and host–guest interactions is included in the review

Priority-based reserved spectrum allocation by multi-agent through reinforcement learning in cognitive radio network

Research in cognitive radio networks aims at maximized spectrum utilization by giving access to increased users with the help of dynamic spectrum allocation policy. The unknown and rapid dynamic nature of the radio environment makes the decision making and optimized resource allocation to be a challenging one. In order to support dynamic spectrum allocation, intelligence is needed to be incorporated in the cognitive system to study the environment parameters, internal state, and operating behaviour of the radio and based on which decisions need to be made for the allocation of under-utilized spectrum. A novel priority-based reserved allocation method with a multi-agent system is proposed for spectrum allocation. The multi-agent system performs the task of gathering environmental artefacts used for decision making to give the best of effort service in this adaptive communication

Fabric Texture Analysis and Weave Pattern Recognition by Intelligent Processing

Coimbatore is a major city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu located on the banks of the Noyyal River surrounded by the Western Ghats. It is one of the biggest centers of textile manufacturing in India. A fast-growing metropolitan area city, it is home to over 25,000 textile and manufacturing companies and has spawned many new centers of textiles around it. Textile fabric automation and manufacturing has been of great concern over the past decade. This is a remarkable task because of the accidental changes of fabric material properties. Due to the increasing demand of consumers for high-quality textile products, an automatic and objective evaluation of the fabric texture appearance is necessary with respect to geometric structure characteristics, surface, and mechanical properties. The precise measurement of the fabric texture parameters, such as weave structure and yarn counts find wide applications in the textile industry, virtual environments, e-commerce, and robotic telemanipulation. The weave pattern and the yarn count are analyzed and determined for computer simulated sample images and also for the scanned real fabric images. 2-D integral projections are used to identify the accurate structure of the woven fabric and to determine the yarn count. They are used for segmenting the crossed areas of yarns and also to detect the defects like crossed area due to the random distribution of yarns. Fuzzy C-Means Clustering (FCM) is applied to multiscale texture features based on the Grey Level Co-Occurrence Matrix (GLCM) to classify the different crossed-area states. Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) is used to improve the classifier performance

A CRITICAL REVIEW ON AVALEHA KALPANA

Avaleha is the most common secondary Kalpana (dosage form) which has been employed in various disorders and this product is gaining popularity due to its easy administration, palatability and longer shelf life. It is a semisolid preparation of herbal drugs prepared in decoction or extracts of different herbs by adding sweetening agents like jaggery, sugar or sugar candy. The component drugs which are used in the preparation of Avaleha are aqueous medium, substrate, Oushada dravyas, lipid medium, additives etc. By analyzing consistency of various Avaleha varies from freely-flowing, paste-like, semisolid and granular, which depends upon the substrate and Oushada churna ratio. Avaleha can be compared to confections because both contains essential ingredients as sugar and water and optional ingredients as edible oils, honey, flours, starches, edible salts etc. Avaleha are intend to provide better drug absorption through the oral cavity along with absorption through villi. The literature related to Avaleha has been surveyed from various Ayurvedic literatures, journals, Ayurvedic Formulary of India etc. and presented briefly here. Here we have discussed the information regarding Avaleha like ingredients, method of preparation, Avaleha paka lakshana, non-conformances related to Avaleha production, comparison between Avaleha and confections and absorption

Development and characterization of Brain Targeted Niosomal Formulations of Emtricitabine to treat HIV associated CNS Disorders

Formulations of drug-free niosomes were prepared by four different methods (Thin layer evaporation-vortex, Thin layer evaporation-paddle, Reverse phase evaporation method and Proniosome method) using two surfactants, Span 60 and Span 40 with cholesterol and Solulan C24. Variations were made in the molar ratios and the total concentration of lipid components. Among all the formulations niosomes prepared by TLE-vortex and TLE-paddle methods produced narrow sized niosomal dispersions. It was found that vesicles formulated with Span alone yielded comparatively larger niosomes than those with cholesterol and Solulan added to it. Since, small unilamellar vesicles exhibit prolonged plasma concentrations with more entrapment of aqueous phase compared with that of large unilamellar and multilamellar vesicles, two widely used size reduction methods (sonication and size extrusion) were carried out. Among the two methods of size reduction employed, probe sonication was found to be more satisfactory in reducing the vesicle size by approximately two times than that of size extrusion method for all formulations. The suitability of the drug at different hydration temperatures was evaluated by subjecting the drug solution to 65±50 and 90±50C. The results showed that the drug is stable and can be subjected to such temperatures. Based on the results of mean particle size, formulations containing Span 60 and Span 40 with a total molar concentration of 38mM in the molar ratio of Span:CHL:SOL:NPG as 50:40:10:10 prepared by TLE-vortex and TLE-paddle were selected as the optimized formulations. The NPG drug-free niosomes were prepared by varying the hydration temperatures of 65±50 and 90±50C and the hydration temperature was optimized to 65±50C. IMPACT OF STUDY: Emtricitabine is nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor used in the treatment of HIV patients. The drug is an intermediate CNS penetrating drug. So, the effective concentration of the drug required to reduce the viral load in the CSF of HIV patients is not attained. In this regard, considering the potential benefits of niosomal formulations with glucose analogues for brain-targeted drug delivery, emtricitabine loaded N-palmitoyl glucosamine niosomal formulations were developed and optimized for various formulation parameters. The optimized emtricitabine loaded N-palmitoyl glucosamine niosomal formulation (FTC-NPG-F1B2) with good drug entrapment and stability showed improved CNS penetration as determined by the in vitro blood-brain barrier penetration of emtricitabine from drug loaded NPG niosomes using immobilized artificial membrane phosphatidylcholine column chromatography. Thus, this formulation may be a boon for HIV patients suffering from HIV associated neurocognitive disorders by improving their living during the survival period

CHARACTERIZATION OF CARBAPENEM RESISTANT ACINETOBACTER BAUMANNII ISOLATED IN A TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL: EPIDEMIOLOGY AND TREATMENT OUTCOME

Objective: Carbapenem resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (CR-Ab) has emerged as a major nosocomial pathogen, but optimal treatment regimens are unknown. Our objectives were to determine the epidemiology and outcome of CR-Ab infections at a tertiary care hospital.Methods: CR-Ab isolates were collected from January to April 2013. MICs were determined and isolates were subjected to screening for carbapenemase production by Modified Hodge test (MHT), metallo-β-lactamase (MBLs) by EDTA disk synergy test and AmpC β-lactamase by AmpC disk test. 15 isolates were subjected to PCR for detection of resistant genes, blaOXA-23, blaVIM and blaNDM. Treatment outcomes of infections were evaluated.Results: 51 CR-Ab isolates from tracheal aspirate (21), blood (15); tissue/wound/drainage (13) and urine samples (2) were collected. Colistin appeared to be the most effective agent with 98% in vitro activity. MHT showed 98% positivity, MBLs production was detected in 94.1% isolates and 64.7% were positive for AmpC β-lactamase production. All 15 isolates carried blaOXA-23 and blaVIM, of these 3 also carried blaNDM gene. Colistin containing combinations were more commonly used (68.3%). Colistin-noncarbapenem combination showed improved clinical response compared to colistin-carbapenem combination against Acinetobacter isolates carrying blaOXA-23 and blaVIM.Conclusion: A stringent infection control practice along with antimicrobial stewardship is needed to prevent emergence of Acinetobacter carrying multiple carbapenemase genes along with blaNDM. Various colistin combinations are preferentially used to treat CR-Ab infections. Identification of antimicrobial combinations with proven in vitro activity that encompass local susceptibility patterns as well as molecular mechanisms of resistance is needed to provide better outcome.Keywords: Acinetobacter baumannii, Carbapenem resistance, Carbapenemases, Colistin combination, metallo-β-lactamase, NDMÂ

58Ni(n,p)58Co and 58Ni(n,2n)57Ni reactions at the neutron energy of 14.54 MeV with covariance analysis

241-245The 58Ni(n,p)58Co and 58Ni(n,2n)57Ni reactions cross sections have been estimated relative to 197Au(n,2n)196Au monitor reaction at the incident neutron energy of 14.54±0.0024 MeV from the D-T fusion nuclear reaction using Purnima neutron generator carried through methods of activation and off-line γ-ray spectrometry. The uncertainty propagation and correlation for measured cross sections have been estimated using covariance analysis through considering the partial uncertainties in different attributes. The present measured reaction cross sections data have been analyzed by comparing with the literature data, with various libraries of evaluated data, like ENDF/B-VIII.0, JEFF-3.3, JENDL/AD-2017, ROSFOND-2010 and TALYS-1.9 theoretical calculations

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Not AvailableThe carbohydrate rich root and tuber crops are next to cereals and grain legumes in supplying energy to the world population. The vegetatively propagated root and tuber crops i.e. sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas), greater yam (Dioscorea alata), taro (Colocasia esculenta), elephant foot yam (Amorphophallus paeoniifolius), cassava (Manihot esculenta), yam bean (Pachyrhizus erosus) and arrowroot (Maranta arundinacea) etc. have great flexibility in adjusting any farming system and also, they are the best climate resilient crops under changing climate. The Regional Centre of ICAR-CTCRI, Bhubaneswar and ICAR-CTCRI, Thiruvananthapuram have developed number of high yielding and nutritionally rich varieties and resource use efficiency technologies of tuber crops. The technologies very well fit into crop diversification as well as farming systems. Under Tribal Sub Plan (TSP), the Regional Centre of ICAR-CTCRI, Bhubaneswar has demonstrated tuber crops technologies in crop diversification as well as location specific farming systems in 1840 tribal farmers fields in Odisha, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh states for a decade (2012-2021). Under TSP, the Regional Centre of ICAR-CTCRI, Bhubaneswar has distributed quality planting materials of greater yam tubers 69500 kg, elephant foot yam corms 34800 kg, colocasia/taro cormel 20000 kg, sweet potato vine cuttings 38.6 lakh and tubers 2080 kg, cassava stem 42800 nos. and yam bean seeds 822.5 kg at free of cost to the tribal farmers. Under this project, backyard poultry 6220 nos., ducks 750 nos., goats 109 nos. and pigs 120 nos. were also distributed to the tribal farmers for improving their livelihood. Seeds of cereals (rice 260 kg and maize 70 kg), millets (ragi 26 kg), pulses (red gram 66 kg) and vegetables seeds 18.6 kg and seed kits 1085 were also distributed to be included in their farming system to achieve food and nutritional security. Tribal farmers also contributed elite land race seeds of rice, ragi, maize, red gram, green gram and black gram for farming system demonstrations. To reduce the drudgery of field operations, small agricultural implements were distributed to the tribal farmers. Sprayers 539, hand hoe 717, sickle 717, crow bar 717, pickaxe 717, cultivator 118, garden hoe 118 and spade 688 numbers were distributed to the tribal farmers. As the tribal farmers’ fields are adjacent to the forest, to protect tuber crops from animals GI mesh fencing material 3370 kg were also distributed. Raised cement floor for goat keeping (57 Nos.) and duck-shed (55 Nos.) were also constructed near to their fields. Most of the tribal villages are remote, with less accessibility and without electricity and hence, during 2016-17, a solar pump set was installed in Dayanidhiguda village, Koraput Block, Koraput District, Odisha and during 2017-18, one more solar pumpset was installed in Ranchi district, Jharkhand for irrigating the crops during dry spell and also to cultivate crops during rabi season. Seventy-four trainings and exposure visits were organized to train 4068 tribal farmers (2505 men and 1563 women) on scientific methods of tuber crops, cereals, pulses and vegetable crops cultivation, backyard poultry, duckery, goatery and piggery farming. Crops and animals performance were monitored by the experts by regular field visits. The results of the demonstrations indicated that tuber crops yield was influenced by the locations. The yield variation of greater yam was 22.3-26.2 t/ha, elephant foot yam 20.2-25.0 t/ha, colocasia/taro 14.3-15.8 t/ha, sweet potato 11.6-14.2 t/ha, yam bean 15.4-20.5 t/ha and cassava 15.4-18.3 t/ha. Tuber crops-based farming system (0.4 ha model) resulted in net return of Rs 120938/0.4 ha with crops and backyard poultry, and Rs 148375/0.4 ha with crops, backyard poultry and goats. The income of the tribal farmer is doubled with the inclusion of tuber crops in their cropping/farming system and they had sufficient food for household consumption. Thus, food and nutrition security and livelihood improvement are achieved through tuber crops technologies.Not Availabl