DEVELOPMENT AND IN VITRO EVALUATION OF PHYTOSOME OF TERBINAFINE HYDROCHLORIDE FOR ORAL DRUG DELIVERY

Objective: The purpose of this study was to develop and in vitro evaluation phytosome of terbinafine HCL to enhance the bioavailability for oral route. Methods: The novel phytosome of terbinafine hydrochloride (TFH) was formulated with the molar ratio (1:2) of drug and phospholipid by using solvent evaporation technique. The resulting TFH-PC was determined by means of particle size analyzer (PSA), percentage yield, microscopy, drug content, transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Substantial contact of terbinafine HCL with phospholipids was completed through Fourier transforms infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Results: The all relevant results of TFH-PC were showed that the percentage entrapment efficiency of formulation was found in 76% to 90%. In vitro release data were exhibited approximately 65% to 79% of the drug released from the TFH-PC formulation by using dialysis membrane technique. Therefore, Formulation (F3) was accomplished that phytosome contain the superior physical characters and compatibility with drug and phospholipids than to make it easy to overcome the competence of drug to pass the lipid-rich bio-membrane. Conclusion: In present work, terbinafine loaded phytosome was formulated for increasing the oral bioavailability of selected drug. Hence, TER-HCL phytosome were effectively improved the absorption of drug in form of phospholipids complex

Telemedicine Solution using Django

The average person usually don’t have much information about diseases related to symptoms they have and which doctor to visit for that disease. This causes a lot of wastage of time and money because they have to search doctor by doctor to get the right doctor and get an appointment with that doctor. Also not all doctors treat all diseases, this means just knowing your disease is not enough. Through this telemedicine solution we have tried to mitigate the inefficiency and delays in the system. Patients can get a basic idea of the possible disease they might have and a  list of  doctors suited to cure this disease is given as output to the patient. Then the patient can connect with doctors on a website

IN SILICO ANALYSIS AND DOCKING STUDY OF THE ACTIVE PHYTO COMPOUNDS OF MORINGA OLEIFERA AGAINST MARBURG VIRUS VP35 PROTEIN

Objective: Marburg is a transmissible disease of the Filoviridae family. It infected a million people worldwide. Hence, an attempt was made to identify natural compounds from Moringa oleifera, having multiple medicinal values in Indian Ayurveda, to prevent the disease, using molecular docking, drug likeness prediction, absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion (ADME) analysis, and toxicity prediction. Methods: Marburg main protein was retrieved from the protein data bank database. The ligands with poor binding and molecules that can affect docking were removed and docking is done with the PyRx tool. ADME and drug-likeness analysis were done using Swiss-ADME and absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion, and toxicity (ADMET) lab web server. Results: Ramachandran plot analysis shows the statistical distribution of the combinations of the backbone dihedral angles ϕ and ψ of the protein. Molecular docking studies show three compounds from M. oleifera have potential binding affinity to resist the main protein VP35 by preventing proteolytic cleavage, translation, and replication of the virus. ADMET profile and drug likeness and toxicity prediction showed that all three compounds Melanin, Diclazuril, and Tifentai were safe and possess drug-like properties. Conclusion: The present study suggests that Melanin, Diclazuril, and Tifentai have significant binding affinity and they could inhibit the main protein VP35 and also helps to manage the therapeutic strategies against Marburg Virus

QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS OF MICROCRACKS IN CONCRETE FROM DELAYED ETTRINGITE FORMATION BY IMAGE PROCESSING OF LASER SHEAROGRAPHY IMAGES

The objective of this research was to determine which image processing algorithms were most effective in quantifying the microcrack distribution in concrete in laser shearography images. The motivation is the need for a nondestructive method to measure the development of damage in concrete due to expansive stresses generated by delayed ettringite formation (D.E.F.). This produces networks of fine microcracks. These may not be visible to the human eye or detectable by conventional imaging techniques. However, laser shearography provides a means to visualize them at very early stages of growth. This nondestructive method generates a first derivative image of the surface topography. This can make cracks less than 1 µm visible. These can in turn be quantified by automated image processing algorithms. These crack pattern images can then be analyzed to obtain sets of statistics that can be tracked over time for investigating the D.E.F. process which can provide insights into the crack propagation mechanisms. This research thus concerned the application of automated image processing to a set of laser shearography images of concrete prisms where D.E.F. damage had been induced by an accelerated test method. Four prisms were involved. Two were treated to accelerate the D.E.F. rate of development. The other two were controls. They were imaged periodically at roughly month intervals by laser shearography for up to 200 days. A commercial automated image processing software, ImagePro was used. Two approaches were tried to identify the cracks in each image: manually or by an automated macro. Once a crack was identified, its track was traced by an auto tracing algorithm. It was found that the macro generated too many artifacts, so the manual method was used. The results showed significant differences between the control prisms and the treated ones in terms of crack numbers and their length. Over time the cracks in the treated specimens tended to grow longer but fewer in number as the individual cracks joined up. In the controls, the cracks tended to disappear with time. This may be because they were only superficial in the first place and then were covered by a thin surface layer of calcium hydroxide that precipitated from the lime water bath. The conclusion is that it is feasible to apply automated imaging techniques to quantify damage due to D.E.F. However, a disadvantage of using the existing commercial software was that it produced crack tracks that were only one pixel wide. Thus, it was not possible to measure actual crack width and their changes with expansion. Another issue is that it is designed for images of surfaces in real space whereas the laser shearography image is the first derivative of the surface topography. This contains information that could be used to estimate crack widths. It could also be used to automate the detection of cracks, possibly by the application of artificial intelligence techniques

Structural Performance of Shelf Angle Connection with Innovative Detailing

Recent legislations are demanding more efficient thermal insulation of the building envelopes. However, most of the energy used for heating is lost through openings and small air gaps resulting from various penetrations of highly conductive elements through the building envelope. These thermal bridges can also give rise to mould growth and condensation problems. One such example is the anchoring of shelf angles to the load bearing structures, as they have to cut through the exterior insulation used to enhance the thermal performance of a building envelope. Steel through-bolts have been conventionally used by the construction industry to anchor shelf angles to a wooden frame system; however, these fasteners are uneconomical, time-consuming, and poor thermal performers, as they have to penetrate the building envelope. This research program was designed to investigate lag screws as an alternative fastener to anchor shelf angles to wooden frame structures, along with different stand-offs to further enhance the thermal performance of the building envelope. This research program comprises of both lab-based experimental work to evaluate the structural performance of these connections, and a 2-D finite element analysis of their thermal performance. The thermal analysis reveals that though-bolt connections exhibited poor thermal performance among all the connections investigated in this study. While the lag screws helped in truncating the heat flow of the thermal bridge formed in the through-bolt connection. Additionally, it was found that through-bolts had higher load capacity per fastener than lag screws since the through-bolts had a longer embedment length. It was also found that failure mode of through-bolt specimens caused them to experience more mid-span deflection and rotation. Various stand-offs with better thermal performance were also investigated. Specimens with steel C-channel stand-offs exhibited a better structural performance than the fiberglass stand-offs

A MOLECULAR DOCKING STUDY: TARGETING COVID-19 (SARS-COV-2) MAIN PROTEASE USING ACTIVE PHYTOCOMPOUNDS FROM TERMINALIA ARJUNA

Objective: COVID-19 is transmissible disease triggered by SARS-CoV-2 strain of coronavirus family. It infected a million of people worldwide. Hence, an attempt was made to identify natural compounds from Terminalia arjuna, having multiple medicinal values in Indian Ayurveda, to prevent the disease, using molecular docking, drug likeness prediction and ADME analysis. Methods: SARS-CoV-2 main protein was retrieved from the PDB database. The ligands with poor binding and molecules that can affect docking were removed and docking is done with PyRx tool. ADME and drug likeness analysis were done using Swiss-ADME and Admetlab web server. Results: Ramachandran plot analysis shows the statistical distribution of the combinations of the backbone dihedral angles ϕ and ψ of the protein. Molecular docking studies show five compounds from T. arjuna, which have potential binding affinity to resist the main protease Mpro by preventing proteolytic cleavage, translation, and replication of virus. ADMET profile and drug likeness prediction showed that, among these five compounds Triterpenoid and N-Desmethyl Sildenafil were safe and possess the drug-like properties. Conclusion: The present study suggests that Triterpenoid and N-Desmethyl Sildenafil have specific binding affinity and they could inhibit main protease Mpro and also helps to manage the therapeutic strategies against COVID-19

(N,N) Share Generation using Key Share approach for RGB image in VCS

Visual Cryptography is a secure and unique image encryption technique which protects image based secret. In visual cryptography image is encrypted into shares and in decryption process all or some of shares are super imposed with each other to decrypt the original secret image. In this technique no complex computation is needed for decryption of secret image which is the best advantage of Visual Cryptography Scheme. In this report various types of visual cryptographic techniques are discussed from previous research area. In this proposed system (N, N) VCS is used for encryption. It takes color image as an input and extracts in R, G and B components. After that it generates Key-Mask using Key-Mask generation algorithm which XOR-ed with R, G and B components and gives the key shares. Further XOR operation of these key shares with key mask generates the color shares. In decryption process image is recovered by XOR operation between key mask and color shares. It has a better security features compared to previous one

E-cigarette retailer storefront availability following a nationwide prohibition of e-cigarettes in India: A multicentric compliance assessment

Introduction: This study aimed to assess the availability of retailer storefronts that continued to sell electronic nicotine/non-nicotine delivery systems (ENDS/ENNDS) in India, and characterise such retailers following the promulgation of 2019 Indian Ordinance and Act (Ordinance/Act) that prohibit ENDS/ENNDS nationwide. Methods: Discreet observations were conducted of retailer storefronts across different socioeconomic zones in nine major cities of India (Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Dehradun, Delhi, Indore, Kolkata, Ludhiana, Raipur, and Ranchi) from 28 November 2019 to 22 January 2020 to identify the availability of ENDS/ENNDS (i.e. electronic cigarettes, e-cigarette liquid, e-cigarette accessories, heated tobacco products (HTPs), and HTPs accessories). We report the number and proportion (%) of retailers that sold ENDS/ENNDS. Other characteristics of the retailers are also described, including indirect evaluation of the retailer's awareness of the Ordinance/Act. Results: Of the 199 retailer storefronts visited, 37 (18.6%) sold ENDS/ENNDS and, therefore, did not comply with the Ordinance/Act. The highest availability of non-compliant retailers was in Kolkata (n=26; 83.9%). The majority of the non-compliant retailers were tobacco retailers (n=35; 94.6%), sold e-cigarettes (n=22; 59.5%), and e-cigarette accessories (n=24; 64.9%). Although many of the non-compliant retailers displayed their ENDS/ENNDS products (n=33; 89.2%) and did not feature health warnings related to ENDS/ENNDS (n=32; 86.5%) in the stores, nearly 90% (n=33) were aware of the Ordinance/Act. Conclusions: Despite a nationwide ban, ENDS/ENNDS are still available in major cities in India, and concentrated in a particular city. Indian authorities should focus on law enforcement to ensure that the prohibition is effectively implemented