To compare the effectiveness of oral azithromycin versus intravenous ceftriaxone for treating uncomplicated enteric fever

Objectives: To compare the clinical effectiveness of oral azithromycin versus intravenous (IV) ceftriaxone for treating uncomplicatedenteric fever. Methods: Children aged 2-17 years with uncomplicated enteric fever and positive blood cultures for Salmonellatyphi were included in the study. These were grouped as Group A (50 cases) and Group B (50 cases). Group A was given oralazithromycin 10 mg/kg/day once a day (azithromycin group) and Group B was given IV ceftriaxone 100 mg/kg/day in 2 divideddoses (ceftriaxone group) for 6 and 7 days, respectively. Every day the child was examined, and the study results were assigned as aclinical and microbiological cure or failure. Results: A total of 100 patients in sex ratio of 1.2:1 (male:female) with uncomplicatedenteric fever were enrolled in the study. Mean duration to become afebrile was less with azithromycin (2.72 days) as comparedto ceftriaxone (5.52 days) treatment (p=0.000). 96% of the cases treated with azithromycin attained defervescence by the 5th dayof treatment, but only 27% of cases treated with ceftriaxone attained defervescence by the 5th day of treatment. A clinical curewas earlier with azithromycin than with ceftriaxone treatment (p=0.027). Microbiological cure was achieved in 100% and 98%cases treated with azithromycin and ceftriaxone, respectively (p=0.5). Conclusion: Oral azithromycin was more efficacious in thetreatment of uncomplicated enteric fever in children as compared to IV ceftriaxone

A STABILITY-INDICATING AND VALIDATED REVERSE-PHASE HIGH-PERFORMANCE LIQUID CHROMATOGRAPHIC METHOD FOR THE SIMULTANEOUS ESTIMATION OF PHENYLEPHRINE AND FEXOFENADINE IN BULK AND TABLET DOSAGE FORMS

ABSTRACTObjective: A simple and accurate stability indicating reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography method was developed and validatedfor the simultaneous estimation of phenylephrine and fexofenadine in pharmaceutical dosage forms.Methods: Chromatography was carried out on an ODS C-18 column (4.6 mm×250 mm, 5 µ particle size) with a isocratic mobile phase composed oforthophosphoric acid buffer, acetonitrile, (75:25% v/v) at a flow rate of 1 mL/minutes. The column temperature was maintained at 30°C and thedetection was carried out using a photodiode array detector at 210 nm.Results: The retention times for phenylephrine and fexofenadine were 2.096 minutes and 4.241 minutes, respectively. The percentage recoveriesof phenylephrine and fexofenadine were 100.63% and 99.84%, respectively. The relative standard deviation for assay of tablets was found to be<2%. The detection and quantification limits were found to be 0.10 and 0.31 µg/mL for phenylephrine and 0.01 and 0.03 µg/mL for fexofenadine,respectively.Conclusion: Thus, the method was fast, accurate, precise, and sensitive; hence, it can be employed for routine quality control of tablets containingboth drugs in quality control laboratories and pharmaceutical industries.Keywords: Phenylephrine, Fexofenadine, Stability indicating method, Validation method, Reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography

Heterosis and combining ability for yield and its related traits in ridge gourd [Luffa acutangula (L.)Roxb.]

Line × Tester analysis involving three lines and four testers was carried out in ridge gourd [Luffa acutangula (Roxb.) L.]. Significant variation was noticed in the mean performance of the parents and hybrids for all the characters studied except for vine length and fruit girth. The results from GCA and SCA variance indicated the predominance of non-additive gene action for all the traits except fruit girth. Significant heterosis of 177.78% over standard check, Arka Sumeet for fruit weight per plant was expressed by the cross GARG-1 × CO-1. The best general combiners were GARG-1 and Pusa Nutan among the lines, and Jaipur long and CO-1 among testers. Best specific combining ability effects for fruit length and yield (t/ ha) were recorded by the crosses Pusa Nasdar × Arka Sumeet and GARG-1 × CO-1

A Two Phase Interleaved Boost Single Stage PFC Converter using Flying Capacitor

The equipment connected to an electricity distribution network customarily needs rectification. In order to decrease DC voltage ripple, a Single phase diode rectifier utilizes a large electrolytic capacitor which yields a non-sinusoidal line current. So power factor correction (PFC) techniques are required. The boost topology is utmostwidespread than others in PFC applications. Thus a two phase interleaved boost single-stage PFC converter using flying capacitor is proposed in this paper. Due to its interleaved structure, the proposed converter can operate with reduced input current ripple and peak switch currents.The proposed system is simulated in MATLAB/SIMULINK and the performance parameters such as power factor (PF) and total harmonic distortion (THD) are computed

PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF GREEN INHIBITORS IN CHLORIDE INDUCED CORROSION OF REINFORCING STEEL EMBEDDED IN CONCRETE

Abstract This study investigates the corrosion inhibition efficiency of some organic inhibitors and compares its performance against inorganic inhibitors. The inorganic inhibitors used in the study were sodium molybdate dihydrate (Na2MoO4·2H2O), benzotriazole, while organic inhibitors were prepared from Azadirachta indica (AI) and Calotropis gigantea (CG) plant. The concrete specimens were contaminated during concrete preparation with 2% NaCl by weight of cement. To evaluate the effect of these inhibitors on corrosion of reinforcing steel, cylindrical concrete specimens with centrally embedded reinforcement were prepared. Further to accelerate the corrosion process the specimens after curing period were exposed to NaCl(4%) solution. Concrete cube specimens were used to evaluate the effect of inhibitors on the compressive strength of concrete. The results of the study indicated that the corrosion inhibitors investigated in this study did not have adverse effects on compressive strength of concrete. Furthermore, Benzotriazole proved to be effective in delaying corrosion initiation of reinforcing steel embedded in concrete specimens contaminated with NaCl compared to Na2MoO4·2H2O. Observing the performance of both organic inhibitors, AI inhibitor performed better in mitigating the reinforcing steel corrosion compared to CG

Voice Conversion by Prosody and Vocal Tract Modification

In this paper we proposed some exible methods, which are useful in the process of voice conversion. The pro-posed methods modify the shape of the vocal tract system and the characteristics of the prosody according to the de-sired requirement. The shape of the vocal tract system is modied by shifting the major resonant frequencies (for-mants) of the short term spectrum, and altering their band-widths accordingly. In the case of prosody modication, the required durational and intonational characteristics are im-posed on the given speech signal. In the proposed method, the prosodic characteristics are manipulated using instants of signicant excitation. The instants of signicant excita-tion correspond to the instants of glottal closure (epochs) in the case of voiced speech, and to some random excita-tions like onset of burst in the case of nonvoiced speech. Instants of signicant excitation are computed from the Lin-ear Prediction (LP) residual of the speech signals by using the property of average group delay of minimum phase sig-nals. The manipulations of durational characteristics and pitch contour (intonation pattern) are achieved by manipu-lating the LP residual with the help of the knowledge of the instants of signicant excitation. The modied LP residual is used to excite the time varying lter. The lter parameters are updated according to the desired vocal tract characteris-tics. The proposed methods are evaluated using listening tests. 1

Intonation modeling for Indian languages

Abstract In this paper we propose models for predicting the intonation for the sequence of syllables present in the utterance. The term intonation refers to the temporal changes of the fundamental frequency ðF 0 Þ. Neural networks are used to capture the implicit intonation knowledge in the sequence of syllables of an utterance. We focus on the development of intonation models for predicting the sequence of fundamental frequency values for a given sequence of syllables. Labeled broadcast news data in the languages Hindi, Telugu and Tamil is used to develop neural network models in order to predict the F 0 of syllables in these languages. The input to the neural network consists of a feature vector representing the positional, contextual and phonological constraints. The interaction between duration and intonation constraints can be exploited for improving the accuracy further. From the studies we find that 88% of the F 0 values (pitch) of the syllables could be predicted from the models within 15% of the actual F 0 . The performance of the intonation models is evaluated using objective measures such as average prediction error ðlÞ, standard deviation ðrÞ and correlation coefficient ðcÞ. The prediction accuracy of the intonation models is further evaluated using listening tests. The prediction performance of the proposed intonation models using neural networks is compared with Classification and Regression Tree (CART) models

Economic Feasibility of Vegetable Production under Polyhouse:A Case Study of Capsicum and Tomato

Polyhouse cultivation of vegetables is emerging as a specialized production technology to overcome biotic and abiotic stresses and to break the seasonal barrier to production. It also ensures round the year production of highvalue vegetables, like capsicum, especially, during off-season. Cost is the major issue in sustaining this technology. The present study examined the economic viability of production of capsicum and tomato in a naturally ventilated polyhouse of medium cost category with drip irrigation system. Data were generated by cost accounting method for estimating the feasibility of production and was analyzed by using project evaluation methods, like Pay Back Period (PBP), Benefit Cost Ratio (BCR), Net Present Value (NPV) and Internal Rate of Return (IRR). Cultivation of capsicum in a polyhouse was found to be highly feasible as reflected in higher values of NPV (Rs.3,23,145/500 m2), BCR (1.80) and IRR (53.7%) with payback period of less than two years. Breakeven price for capsicum production in a polyhouse (Rs.11.80/kg) was lesser than average wholesale price. Production of tomato in a polyhouse was found not feasible, as the breakeven price was more than the average market price and all the project appraisal parameters indicated that it was not feasible. Only at about 48% premium price over the prevailing market price or reduction of cost of polyhouse structure by 60% from Rs.400 to Rs.160 /m2, could make the tomato production viable in a poly house

A randomized controlled study of nebulized 3% saline versus 0.9% saline with adrenaline in the treatment of acute bronchiolitis

Objective: The objective was to determine whether nebulized hypertonic (3%) saline with adrenaline is more effective than nebulized0.9% saline with adrenaline in the treatment of acute bronchiolitis. Materials and Methods: In this randomized, double-blind, controlledstudy 100 patients were randomly allocated into two groups (50 patients in each group). In Group A (normal saline group), 4 ml ofnormal saline (0.9%) and 1 ml of 1:1,000 adrenaline was given as nebulization with oxygen flow of 6-8 L/min. In Group B (hypertonicsaline group), 4 ml of hypertonic saline (3%) and 1 ml of 1:1,000 adrenaline was given as nebulization with oxygen flow of 6-8 L/min.The nebulization was given at an interval of 4 h, 6 times daily till the patient was ready for discharge. Results: The percentageimprovement in clinical severity scores after inhalation therapy was not significant in Group A on 1st-3rd day after admission (3.4%,2.1%, and 4%, respectively). In Group B, significant improvement was observed on these days (7.4%, 8.7%, and 9.9%, respectively,p<0.001). Furthermore, the improvement in clinical severity scores differed significantly on each of these days between the two groups.Using 3% saline decreased the hospitalization stay by 25%, from 3.4±1.7 days in Group A to 2.5±1.4 days in Group B (p<0.05).Conclusion: In the treatment of acute bronchiolitis, 3% saline nebulization with adrenaline decreases the length of hospitalization andsymptoms as compared to 0.9% saline nebulization