Nanotechnology makes mango farming more profitable in Krishnagiri

Annex 19 to final technical report : CIFSRF final technical report : Enhanced Preservation of Fruits Using Nanotechnology (CIFSRF Phase 2)The natural spray called hexanal can prolong the shelf life of mangoes and delay ripening of fruit by two weeks. This article introduces and describes innovative hexanal-based preservative sprays and other nanotechnology. Trees that are treated with hexanal have increased yields. With techniques such as post-harvest dip (briefly dipping fruit in hexanal and water mix) and the use of stickers that release nano-particles in packaging, one of the farmers interviewed in the article has found that “even after being plucked, the fruit stays firm and fresh for weeks.

The Importance of Being Early

The assumption that the penalty for being early is less than that for being late was put forward by Vickrey (1963) who analyzed how commuters compare penalties in the form of schedule delay (due to peak hour congestion), against penalties in the form of reaching their destination (ahead or behind their desired time of arrival). This assumption has been tested by many researchers since then for various applications, especially in modeling congestion pricing (Arnott et al., 1990) where it is critical to understand the tradeoff between schedule delay and travel delay. Key findings are summarized in the second section of this paper. This research aims to test this hypothesis of earliness being less expensive than lateness using empirical data at different levels and across different regions. New methods to estimate the ratio of earliness to lateness for different types of datasets are developed, which could be used by agencies to implement control policies like congestion pricing or other schemes more accurately. Travel survey data from metropolitan areas provide individual travel patterns while loop detector data provide link level traffic flow data.Schedule Delay, Travel Time, Traffic, Travel Behavior.

Tocolytic effect of combined sildenafil citrate and nifedepine versus nifedipine alone for management of preterm labour at a tertiary centre

Background: This study was conducted to evaluate tocolytic effect of sildenafil citrate and nifedipine versus nifedipine alone for management of preterm labour.Methods: Prospective randomized study on 80 women aged 18-35 years with singleton pregnancy of 28-34 weeks gestation with preterm labour, fulfilling the inclusion criteria were randomly divided in two groups of 40 each. In regimen A women were given sildenafil citrate and nifedipine while in regimen B nifedipine alone for 72 hours as tocolysis.Results: Higher mean latency in sildenafil and nifedipine combination regimen compared to nifedipine alone regimen (28.23±18.3 versus 12.98±13.35 days, p<0.001). In regimen A, less days of hospital stay (3.23±0.92 versus 3.9±0.38 days, p<0.0001); improve perinatal outcomes in form of fewer deliveries during hospitalization or within 7 days after discharge (p=0.018); reduction in NICU admission (0.68±1.54 versus 3.18±4.61 days, p=0.002); improvement in birth weight (p<0.001) and fewer neonatal complications. Only minor side-effects like facial flushing (42.5% versus 22.5%, p=0.029), headache (40% versus 25%), dyspepsia (15% versus 2.5%, p=0.047), nasal congestion, palpitation, hypotension, constipation, nausea, dizziness were seen.Conclusions: Our study found combination of sildenafil citrate with nifedipine as superior and successful regimen with future potential as a tocolytic therapy.

Perioperative Haemostatic Management in a Patient Undergoing Craniotomy for Excision of Meningioma: Role of Thromboelastography

Although there is a general predisposition towards hyper-coagulability during brain tumour surgery, hypocoagulability may exist in certain cases even before surgery, detectable only when the physical characteristics of clot formation are studied by viscoelastic point-of-care tests like thromboelastography (TEG). Herein we present a case of a 66-year old male patient with left frontal convexity meningioma, scheduled for craniotomy and excision of tumor. Patient’s preoperative coagulation profile (as assessed by conventional tests) was within normal limits but he was bleeding profusely from the beginning of the surgery and there was massive bleeding during tumour resection. Based on findings of TEG which revealed a severe hypocoagulable picture (low α angle, MA value and CI value with high K value), 10 units of cryoprecipitate and 4 units of random donor platelets were transfused intra-operatively in addition to 2 units of PRBCs.Haemodynamic stability was achieved and subsequent intra-operative course was better. One more unit of PRBC was transfused in the immediate post-operative period and a repeat TEG after 4 hours showed a trend towards normalization of TEG parameters suggesting a restoration of coagulation competency which also correlated with improved clinical condition of the patient

Cognitive deficits in euthymic patients with bipolar disorder: State or trait marker?

Cognitive deficits have been demonstrated in people in the euthymic phase of bipolar disorder. This cross-sectional study compared euthymic bipolar disorder patients (N=30) with never psychiatrically ill controls (N=30) on a neuropsychological test battery containing tasks of executive function, the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), attention and working memory, Digits Forward and Backward, and speed of information processing, Digit Symbol. Scores on the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) and Vocabulary Test did not differ between the groups. The bipolar group were significantly impaired compared to controls on various indices of executive function on the Wisconsin Card Sort Test and on the Digit tests. The impaired performance on the Digit tests, but not the WCST, was significantly associated with medication status, notably prescribed benzodiazepines. There was no significant effect of severity or course of illness on performance. The findings support the hypothesis that impairments in executive function are present between illness episodes in bipolar disorder, and so are not simply state markers

A study of turbulent heat transfer in convergent-divergent shaped microchannel with ribs and cavities using CFD

This paper presents the effects of microchannel shape with ribs and cavities on turbulent heat transfer. Three-dimensional conjugate heat transfer using the SST k-ω turbulence model has been investigated for four different microchannels, namely, rectangular, rectangular with ribs and cavities, convergent-divergent (CD) and convergent-divergent with Ribs and Cavities (CD-RC). The flow field, pressure and temperature distributions and friction factor are analyzed, and thermal resistance and average Nusselt number are compared. The thermal performance of the CD-RC microchannel is found to be better than that of other microchannels considered in terms of an average Nusselt number increased from 16% to 40%. Heat transfer increases due to a strong fluid mixing and periodic interruption of boundary-layer. It is observed that with an increase in Reynolds number (Re), the thermal resitance drops rapidly. The thermal resistance of the CD-RC microchannel is decreased by 30% than that of the rectangular microchannel for Re ranging from 2500 to 7000. However, such design of microchannel loses its heat transfer effectiveness due to a high pumping power at high values of Re

Empirical observations of capacity drop in freeway merges with ramp control and integration in a first-order model

An accurate density monitoring along a stretch of a freeway, especially under congested time-variant conditions is necessary to evaluate congestion levels, understand complex traffic phenomena and develop efficient control strategies. In the first part of the paper (i) we show empirical evidence from freeway-ramp merges in Twin Cities freeway system, in favor of the capacity drop phenomenon, (ii) we provide a methodology based on phase diagrams to quantitatively estimate the level of the drop, (iii) we show that the level of the drop depends on the ratio of mainline vs. ramp flow and (iv) we investigate whether implementation of control strategies has an effect on the value of capacity drop. In the second part of the paper, we develop a methodology to estimate densities with space and time based on data from loop detectors, by integrating the capacity drop. The methodology is based on solving a flow conservation differential equation (using LWR theory) with intermediate (internal) freeway mainline boundaries, which is faster and more accurate from approaches using only external boundaries. To capture the capacity drop phenomenon into the first-order model we utilize a fundamental diagram with two values of capacity and we provide a memory-based methodology to choose the appropriate value in the numerical solution of the problem with a Godunov scheme. Results compared with real data and micro-simulation of a long freeway stretch show that this model produces more reliable and accurate results than previous theories. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

RELEVANCE OF KAKOLI (ONE AMONG ASTAVARGA) IN ANCIENT AYURVEDIC TREATISE ALONG WITH ETYMOLOGY OF ITS VARIOUS SANSKRIT SYNONYMS

The knowledge about medicinally useful plants in the early age is scientifically documented, and systematically organized in Ayurveda Samhitas, Nighantus and other texts. The ancient nomenclature of Ayurvedic herbs was not only useful for their identification but also to know their medicinal values for example, Payasvinī means galactogogue, Kākolī means which contains high moisture value, Madhurā means Madhura in Rasa, etc. Moreover, our Acharyas also suggested different names of the Ayurvedic herbs based on their habits, taxonomy and uses. Though the modern science is successful in classifying the flora taxonomically, but could not reach up to the ground breaking concept of classifying plants according to their medicinal properties. Being aware of taxonomic aspects of nomenclature along with the torch of synonyms coined by ancient seers one may be able to preserve the treasury traditional medicinal knowledge. Kākolī has been mentioned as one of the Aṣṭavarga plants. Kākolī has also been documented in the various Saṁhitā and Nighaṇṭu. Description of Kākolī along with its Sanskrit synonyms, habitat and medicinal properties has also been mentioned in different Nighaṇṭu. However, due to the lack of appropriate taxonomic data, mainly three plant species i.e., Roscoea purpurea Sm., Roscoea capitata Sm. and Roscoea alpina Royle are widely accepted as Kākolī. The main objective of this study was to critically review the Sanskrita name of Kākolī described in classical Ayurvedic literature along with medicinal properties

Simultaneous quantification of Darunavir and Ritonavir in human plasma and pharmacokinetic study by LC MS/MS

285-296The combination of Darunavir (DRV) and Ritonavir (RTV) at a dose of 800/100mg has exhibit durable efficacy in both untreated and treated HIV positive patients with no observed DRV resistance-associated mutations (RAMs) and the RTV improves the pharmacokinetic profile of DRV by enhancing its bioavailability. Hence a sensitive high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS) method has been developed and validated for the simultaneous quantification of Darunavir (DRV) and Ritonavir (RTV) in human plasma. The chromatographic separation has been accomplished on Thermo Hypersil Gold (50×4.6mm, 3μ) analytical column using isocratic elution using 0.1% Formic Acid buffer solution/Acetonitrile (50:50, v/v) at a flow rate of 0.6 mL/min. The linearity of the method ranged 150.000 ng/mL to 15000.000 ng/mL & 10.000 ng/mL to 3000.00 ng/mL for DRV & RTV respectively, using 100 μL of plasma. The method was completely validated for its sensitivity, selectivity, linearity, accuracy and precision, recovery, matrix effect, stability, and dilution integrity. The absolute recovery for DRV ranged from 79.12 to 72.71 % while for RTV it ranged from 63.39% to 66.99 %. For DRV-D9 and RTV-D6 the recovery rates are 94.19 and 80.05% respectively. The method exhibit good intra-day and inter-day precision with low % CV of less than 5.0% at each quality control level for both the analytes. The developed method has been applied successfully for pharmacokinetic study in healthy humans by oral administration of Darunavir/Ritonavir tablets 400/50 mg (dose; 02x400/50 mg) in 77 healthy male volunteers under fed condition