Role of Libraries in Promoting the Use of Open Education Resources (OER) in India: A Study of NPTEL Resources and Major Technology Libraries

The number of higher educational Institutions in India is growing steadily. Institutions imparting higher education in science and technology, particularly the ones setup up by Government of India as Institutes of national importance has almost doubled during last one decade. This development is a part of the national strategy to increase the capacity building in the S & T area. In order to support this major initiative, the eight major Institutes of national importance viz Indian Institute of Technology located in different parts of country and the Indian Institute of Science with support from Ministry of Human Resources and Development, Govt. of India, have initiated a major collaborative project called National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning ( NPTEL) in 2003. The major objective of this programme is to develop high quality video & web based courses, each covering 40-45 lectures, delivered by well-known faculty members from the eight participating Institutes in the respective areas and make all these freely available to large number of students and teachers in India who are not able have access to quality teaching materials & education. As a result of this initiative, we have now over 125 web based courses and over 135 video based courses in the major engineering disciplines available in open access domain for any one and every one to access both within and outside India. This is number will further grow in due course. Over 800 + Institutions in India are registered and regular users of these Open Education Resources. This has created a major impact on S & T education in India. For the successful utilization of these valuable resources at the national level, several Institutions and communities have worked together. Among them and quite understandably, the librarians’ community has also played a vital role by promoting the use of these resources within their respective Institutions. This study (using a survey method) being undertaken by the authors focuses on what and how are the different & creative methods of librarianship, the librarians have used to enhance the usage of these resources ( courses) in order to make these resource so popular and useful among the student community. This study is based on the data being collected from over 50 major Technology Institutes’ Libraries in India. It is hoped that, the methods so successfully used by the Librarians in these Institutes to promote and guide the usage will be useful to Librarians in other part of the world

Screening of Ketoprofen-Poloxamer and Ketoprofen-Eudragit solid dispersions for improved physicochemical characteristics and dissolution profile

The aim of the present study was to enhance the dissolution rate of an NSAID drug Ketoprofen by formulating it into solid dispersions with water soluble carrier Poloxamer 188 and Eudragit S 100. The solid dispersions of Ketoprofen with Poloxamer 188 were prepared at 1:1, 1:1.5 and 1:2 (Ketoprofen: Poloxamer 188) ratio by Solvent evaporation methods. The same concentration ratio was used for the preparation of solid dispersion with Eudragit S 100 by melting/fusion technique. Further, solid dispersions were investigated by solubility, ATR-FTIR, XRD, DSC, surface morphology, in-vitro dissolution and accelerated stability study. Results demonstrated that both Poloxamer 188 and Eudragit S 100 improve solubility of drugs by 8–10 folds. The result of ATR-FTIR study showed the slight shifting/broadening of principle peaks. In vitro dissolution studies showed that in the solid dispersion system containing Ketoprofen: Poloxamer 188 batch P2 (1:1.5) gives faster dissolution rate of Ketoprofen than the physical mixtures. The solid dispersion with Eudragit S 100, batch E1 (1:1) gives faster dissolution rate of Ketoprofen than the physical mixtures. In phase solubility study with Poloxamer 188 showed concentration dependent solubilization of drug but Eudragit S 100 produced opposite result. The effect of pH on solubility of Eudragit S 100 was carried out which showed solubility at pH 7.4. The dissolution profile of solid dispersion with Eudragit S 100 at pH 7.4 gives excellent result. The Accelerated stability of solid dispersions & its physical mixtures were studied at 400±2 °C/75 ± 5% RH for a period of 1 month. In these studies, Solid Dispersion batches produced an unstable formulation. The Ketoprofen solid dispersions with Poloxamer 188 and Eudragit S 100 could be introduced as a suitable form with improved solubility

RANS study of very high Reynolds-number plane turbulent Couette flow

The objective of this study is to expound on the deliverables of a steady-state RANS (Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes) simulation in one of the simplest flows, Couette flow, at a very high Reynolds number. To that end, a process to perform better grid sensitivity testing is introduced. Three two-equation turbulence models ( , , and ) are compared against each other as well as pitted against formal literature on the subject and core flow velocities, slopes, wall-bounded velocities, shear stresses and kinetic energies are analyzed. applied with enhanced wall functions is consistently found to be in better agreement with previous studies. Finally, plane turbulent Couette flow at 51,099, the range at which it has not been studied experimentally, numerically or analytically in former studies, is simulated. The results are found to be consistent with the trends asserted by literature and preliminary computations of this study

Spray washes of organic acids to decontaminate pork carcass tissues in India

Medical and commercial requirements to extend safe, high quality shelf life of food, have focussed attention on decontamination systems. Organic acid sprays of acetic, propionic and lactic at 3Kg/cm\u27 pressure and 1%, 2% and 3% concentrations, individually and in combination, were used to decontaminate pork samples. It was observed that out of 3 acids lactic acid at 2% was found to reduce the total viable count (TVC) by 0.07 log units whereas the combination treatment of 3% acetic and propionic acids resulted in 0.09 log unit reduction of TVC without affecting the color and odour score. The shelf life, on analysis, was sound to almost double at refrigeration storage as compared to control. Thus, 2 % lactic acid and 3% acetic + propionic acids offer scope for reduction in microflora and suppression of pathogen proliferation on pork samples during refrigeration storage and transport, thereby improving meat quality and shelf life

Towards Quality Culture in the Digital Environ: Management and Optimization of Services in Research Libraries of India

The National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) has been established in India for ensuring quality and excellence in higher education and has developed a set of objective indicators for the library, as it is the fulcrum of support for the community of academic and research pursuits. This resulted in a general consensus for rising demands of evaluation and accountability of academic and research libraries to develop performance evaluation and measure service quality and thereby build a culture of quality. Advancements in information and communication technology, transforming the world into the global village, contributed significant scope for development of electronic information resources and Internet resources in the library for continuous quality improvement. Library and information centers need to map the information needs of the customers into quality information services by making use of various information technology-based information retrieval tools. The quality gurus especially Parasuraman, Barry, and Zeithaml have developed the SERVQUAL to measure the quality dimension in the academic and research environment

I2MAPREDUCE: DATA MINING FOR BIG DATA

This project is an extension of i2MapReduce: Incremental MapReduce for Mining Evolving Big Data . i2MapReduce is used for incremental big data processing, which uses a fine-grained incremental engine, a general purpose iterative model that includes iteration algorithms such as PageRank, Fuzzy-C-Means(FCM), Generalized Iterated Matrix-Vector Multiplication(GIM-V), Single Source Shortest Path(SSSP). The main purpose of this project is to reduce input/output overhead, to avoid incurring the cost of re-computation and avoid stale data mining results. Finally, the performance of i2MapReduce is analyzed by comparing the resultant graphs

Comprehensive Assessment of Degradation Behavior of Aspirin and Atorvastatin Singly and in Combination by Using a Validated RP-HPLC Method

A fixed-dose combination of atorvastatin and aspirin is widely used for the treatment of myocardial infarction. The present work describes a compre-hensive study of the stress degradation behavior of atorvastatin and aspirin alone as well as in combination of 1:1 and 1:7.5 ratios, respectively, as per ICH guidelines. The degradation products of aspirin as well as atorvastatin were successfully separated by a developed simple, selective, and precise stability-indicating reversed-phase HPLC method. Chromatographic separation was achieved on the Phenomenex Luna analytical column, 150 mm x 4.6 mm, 5μm. The mobile phase consisted of 0.1% glacial acetic acid in water and acetonitrile in the ratio of 50:50 v/v at a flow rate of 1.0 ml/min. UV detection was performed at 246 nm. The extent of degradation was significantly influenced when both of the drugs were present in combination. Stress degradation behavior of atorvastatin was highly influenced by aspirin under acid hydrolysis, thermal degradation, and oxidative stress conditions. Similarly, the stress degradation behavior of aspirin was affected by atorvastatin especially under neutral hydrolysis, thermal degradation, and oxidative stress conditions. Additionally, the combination ratio of aspirin and atorvastatin also influenced the percentage degradation of each other. A mixture of aspirin and atorvastatin was also analyzed after a one-month stability study at 40 °C and 75% RH. All the results indicate chemical incompatibility of both aspirin and atorvastatin if present in combination

Parametric Study of Turbulent Couette Flow over Wavy Surfaces Using RANS Simulation: Effects of Aspect-Ratio, Wave-Slope and Reynolds Number

A turbulent Couette flow over a wavy surface is subject to a detailed parametric study in which three parameters—Aspect Ratio, Wave Slope and Reynolds number—are independently varied over an order of magnitude to investigate their influence on the flow. Stdk−ε turbulence model with enhanced wall functions is used to simulate all cases in the study and the results are validated against experimental data as well as analytical theories pertaining to flow over wavy surfaces. Gross flow properties such as mean velocity profiles, mass flow rate, shear stress and pressure on the walls, as well as turbulent flow characteristics such as inner-wall coordinates, log-law fit, eddy viscosity profiles and turbulence kinetic energy across the domain, are presented and their corroboration with existing literature is discussed. The effect of the three parameters on the flow variables is investigated. It is observed that while all response flow variables scale monotonically with a progressive change in the parameters, there are certain flow characteristics that can be ascribed exclusively to one of the three parameters. The study also discusses the influence of the top plate, a much-needed discussion that seems to be absent in most literature pertaining to Couette flow in wavy channels

Spray washes of organic acids to decontaminate pork carcass tissues in India

Medical and commercial requirements to extend safe, high quality shelf life of food, have focussed attention on decontamination systems. Organic acid sprays of acetic, propionic and lactic at 3Kg/cm' pressure and 1%, 2% and 3% concentrations, individually and in combination, were used to decontaminate pork samples. It was observed that out of 3 acids lactic acid at 2% was found to reduce the total viable count (TVC) by 0.07 log units whereas the combination treatment of 3% acetic and propionic acids resulted in 0.09 log unit reduction of TVC without affecting the color and odour score. The shelf life, on analysis, was sound to almost double at refrigeration storage as compared to control. Thus, 2 % lactic acid and 3% acetic + propionic acids offer scope for reduction in microflora and suppression of pathogen proliferation on pork samples during refrigeration storage and transport, thereby improving meat quality and shelf life.</p

Comparative Analysis of Routine Laboratory Diagnostic Tests for Rabies

Present study was undertaken to compare various routine laboratory diagnostic tests for rabies detection. Seller's staining, mouse inoculation test (MIT), Dot-ELISA, Agar gel precipitation test (AGPT) and counter immunoelectrophoresis test (CIET) were the main basic tests performed in the laboratory for the rabies diagnosis. Out of 200 brain specimens, Negri bodies were observed in 52 brain samples by Seller's staining. Rabies virus was isolated in 56 samples by intra-cerebral inoculation in newborn Swiss-albino mice. Dot-ELISA and AGPT could detect rabies antigen in 55 and 57 samples respectively. Comparative analysis revealed that the CIET is the most sensitive and rapid test among performed diagnostic tests