A gestão do risco na indústria da aviação: o caso da Jet Fuel

J.E.L. classification: G32, G39In the current context of great uncertainty, risk management has assumed an important role in the organizations. The actual environment of fierce competition and the volatility associated with financial markets and commodities prices have led to an increasing search of the derivatives. This thesis intends to approach the risk that the airlines face due to the instability of the oil market. Jet fuel is one of the most important costs that airlines support, being in some cases the biggest cost. To achieve a discount in the unit cost of jet fuel relative to the market price can mean an excellent competitive advantage against the other competitors in the aviation business. Lufthansa is known as one of the best airline carrier in terms of managing the risk of jet fuel price. Using the German company as an example, this study describes how to develop a strategy to manage efficiently the risk of jet fuel and to assess the impact in the accounts of the company.No actual contexto de grande incerteza, a gestão de risco tem assumido um papel cada vez mais importante nas organizações. O clima de concorrência feroz e a volatilidade associada aos mercados financeiros e aos preços das commodities têm levado a uma procura crescente dos derivados. Este trabalho pretende abordar o risco que as companhias de aviação correm face à instabilidade do mercado petrolífero. O jet fuel é um dos custos mais relevantes que uma empresa de transporte aéreo suporta, sendo em alguns casos o maior. Conseguir que, numa empresa, o custo com o jet fuel seja ligeiramente menor que o preço de mercado pode significar uma vantagem competitiva relevante face às demais congéneres. A Lufthansa é reconhecida como uma das empresas que melhor gere o risco de preço do jet fuel. Recorrendo ao exemplo da empresa de transporte aéreo germânica, abordam-se os factores a ter em conta na implementação de uma estratégia de cobertura de risco eficaz e aprecia-se qual o seu impacto nas contas da empresa

Antibacterial and anti-biofilm activities of crude extracts of Lawsonia inermis against Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus

 Objective:The continuous rise in the prevalence of multi drug resistance pathogens globally is threatening the treatment and management of infectious diseases. Ethno medicine plays a key role in the exploration for novel bioactive compounds. The present study evaluates the antibacterial and antibiofilm activities of the crude extracts of Lawsonia inermis against clinical isolates of methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).Materials and methods: Shade dried and finely powdered leaves of the plant were extracted by maceration method using six solvents methanol, acetone, ethyl acetate, chloroform, petroleum ether and n-hexane. Antibacterial and antibiofilm activities of the extracts against MDR MRSA by agar cup diffusion and tube method respectively.Results: Methanol extract showed the highest antibacterial activity of 18mm compared to other extracts. Similarly, petroleum ether extract showed highest biofilm inhibition of 84.7%. Other solvent extracts also exhibited significant biofilm inhibition [n-Hexane-83.6%, Ethyl acetate -79.5%, Chloroform-79.2%, Acetone -77% and Methanol-77%].Conclusion: The leaf extracts of L. inermis have shown promising biofilm inhibitory activity and good antibacterial activity, which can be explored for the development of new drugs for the MDR pathogens. Keywords: Antibioticacivity, Antibiofilm activity, L.inermis, MRS

Synthesis and antibacterial activity of some 2,4,6-trisubstituted-1,3,5-triazines

A series of 2,4-bis(substitutedphenyl)-6-(4-(4-substitutedphenyl)thiazol-2-yl)-1,3,5-triazine- 2,4,6-triamine were synthesised, characterised by FT-IR, 1H NMR, 13C NMR, mass and elemental analysis and evaluated for in vitro antibacterial activity against three gram positive and gram negative bacteria by disk diffusion test and agar dilution technique with reference to streptomycin as standard. The antibacterial data revealed that compounds 2,4-bis(substitutedphenyl)-6-(4-(4-nitrophenyl)thiazol-2-yl)-1,3,5-triazine- 2,4,6-triamine had significant activity against the tested gram negative organism in reference to standard. However, these were nearly inactive against gram positive organisms.Colegio de Farmacéuticos de la Provincia de Buenos Aire

Synthesis and antibacterial activity of some 2,4,6-trisubstituted-1,3,5-triazines

A series of 2,4-bis(substitutedphenyl)-6-(4-(4-substitutedphenyl)thiazol-2-yl)-1,3,5-triazine- 2,4,6-triamine were synthesised, characterised by FT-IR, 1H NMR, 13C NMR, mass and elemental analysis and evaluated for in vitro antibacterial activity against three gram positive and gram negative bacteria by disk diffusion test and agar dilution technique with reference to streptomycin as standard. The antibacterial data revealed that compounds 2,4-bis(substitutedphenyl)-6-(4-(4-nitrophenyl)thiazol-2-yl)-1,3,5-triazine- 2,4,6-triamine had significant activity against the tested gram negative organism in reference to standard. However, these were nearly inactive against gram positive organisms.Colegio de Farmacéuticos de la Provincia de Buenos Aire

ISOLATION, SCREENING AND CHARACTERIZATION OF L-ASPARAGINASE PRODUCING FUNGI FROM MEDICINAL PLANTS

Objective: To isolate and characterize of L-asparaginase producing fungi from medicinal plants.Methods: Fungal strains were isolated on standard media, characterized and were screened for their ability to produce L-asparginase, used in the treatment of certain types of cancers, using modified Czapek-Dox medium supplemented with L-asparagine.Results: A total of 10 fungal isolates were obtained from 3 plant leaf samples and two isolates exhibited significant L-aspargniase production. Fusarium sp. (SMGR-F1) isolated from the papaya leaves showed the maximum activity. The organism was grown under submerged fermentation conditions at 30 °C produced 111.07±1.53 IU/ml of L-asparaginase at 120 h.Conclusion: L-asparaginase is being effectively used for the treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukemia and tumor cells. Fusarium sp. was isolated from the papaya plant leaves showing significant L-asparaginase activity and thus can be further exploited for the commercial production of L-asparaginase.Â

A randomised controlled trial to compare the efficacy of preinduction with mifepristone 12 hours versus 24 hours prior for second trimister pregnancy termination

Background: Since the second trimester termination of pregnancy is on rise due to the detection of anomalies, this study aims to provide a safe regimen with respect to efficacy, side effects and acceptability for second trimester pregnancy termination.Methods: It is a randomized controlled trial, conducted on 48 cases at BLDE Medical college, Vijayapur, Karnataka. They were divided into two groups; all patients were given mifepristone 200mg orally followed by misoprostol 400mcg vaginally after 12 hours in group I and 24 hours in group II respectively. Subsequent doses were decided depending on the Bishops score. Results were analyzed in terms of induction-abortion interval and dosage of misoprostol.Results: The mean induction abortion interval was 563.9 minutes (9.3hrs) in group I and 714.6 minutes (11.9hrs) in group II; but was statistically not significant (p value 0.611) The total dose of misoprostol used was 783.3mcg in group I compared to 550mcg in group II, but was statistically not significant. The success rate was 100% in both the groups as none of them had incomplete abortion. There were no cases of uterine rupture, infection, need for check curettage and laparotomy.Conclusions: Our study proves that the interval between mifepristone and misoprostol can be safely reduced to 12 hours without affecting the efficacy. But in gestational age <16 weeks and primigravida 24 hours interval may be of benefit. Both the regimens were 100% successful

Neural Network-Based Prediction Model to Investigate the Influence of Temperature and Moisture on Vibration Characteristics of Skew Laminated Composite Sandwich Plates

The present study deals with the development of a prediction model to investigate the impact of temperature and moisture on the vibration response of a skew laminated composite sandwich (LCS) plate using the artificial neural network (ANN) technique. Firstly, a finite element model is generated to incorporate the hygro-elastic and thermo-elastic characteristics of the LCS plate using first-order shear deformation theory (FSDT). Graphite-epoxy composite laminates are used as the face sheets, and DYAD606 viscoelastic material is used as the core material. Non-linear strain-displacement relations are used to generate the initial stiffness matrix in order to represent the stiffness generated from the uniformly varying temperature and moisture concentrations. The mechanical stiffness matrix is derived using linear strain-displacement associations. Then the results obtained from the numerical model are used to train the ANN. About 11,520 data points were collected from the numerical analysis and were used to train the network using the Levenberg–Marquardt algorithm. The developed ANN model is used to study the influence of various process parameters on the frequency response of the system, and the outcomes are compared with the results obtained from the numerical model. Several numerical examples are presented and conferred to comprehend the influence of temperature and moisture on the LCS plates

Synthesis and antibacterial activity of some 2,4,6-trisubstituted-1,3,5-triazines

A series of 2,4-bis(substitutedphenyl)-6-(4-(4-substitutedphenyl)thiazol-2-yl)-1,3,5-triazine- 2,4,6-triamine were synthesised, characterised by FT-IR, 1H NMR, 13C NMR, mass and elemental analysis and evaluated for in vitro antibacterial activity against three gram positive and gram negative bacteria by disk diffusion test and agar dilution technique with reference to streptomycin as standard. The antibacterial data revealed that compounds 2,4-bis(substitutedphenyl)-6-(4-(4-nitrophenyl)thiazol-2-yl)-1,3,5-triazine- 2,4,6-triamine had significant activity against the tested gram negative organism in reference to standard. However, these were nearly inactive against gram positive organisms.Colegio de Farmacéuticos de la Provincia de Buenos Aire

Co-Simulation Framework to Verify Large-Scale Mixed-Signal Designs.

Analog floating-gate transistors enable complex analog processing to be implemented in VLSI circuits, but simulating these elements in a SPICE simulator is challenging. The difficulty is setting the initial voltage on the floating-gate to start the simulation, a lack of simple methodology to change the inputs to the transistor in response to the changing charge on the floating-gate, and transistor models that do not include the injection and tunneling phenomenon that change the stored parameter on a floating-gate transistor. Another challenge is embedding complex, sequentially-triggered events required to simulate programming of a floating-gate transistor. A co-simulation framework is used to combine a circuit simulator with a system simulator which can model serially executing instructions to verify the functionality of a large-scale mixed-signal design with floating-gate elements. The framework offers a simple methodology to simulate the programming of a single floating-gate transistor using available models for injection and tunneling. An array of floating-gate elements that is a part of analog memory is verified using the co-simulation framework. A simple methodology is presented to create unique test benches for verifying designs that have a large number of inputs and outputs. The test bench is used in an interactive method, where the the inputs to the design can be changed during the simulation. The large-scale design is verified quickly by logging the simulation state of design elements, monitoring the results in the test bench and selectively plotting the results