Low carbon building: Experimental insight on the use of fly ash and glass fibre for making geopolymer concrete

Due to the environmental impacts resulting from the production of Ordinary Portland cement (OPC), the drive to develop alternative binders that can totally replace OPC is gaining huge consideration in the construction field. In the current study, attempt was made to determine the strength characteristics of glass fibre-reinforced fly ash based geopolymer concrete. Sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and sodium silicate (Na2SiO3) were used as alkaline solutions (for activation of geopolymer reaction) at 12, 16, 20 M. Glass fibres were added to the geopolymer concrete in varying proportions of 0.1e0.5% (in steps of 0.1%) by weight of concrete. A constant weight ratio of alkaline solution to fly ash content of 0.43 was adopted for all mixes. British standard concrete test specimens were cast for measuring compressive strength, splittensile strength, and flexural strength. Concrete specimens were cured by heating in oven at 90 �C for 24 h and natural environment, respectively. From the results, thermally cured concrete samples had better mechanical properties than the ambient (natural) cured samples. Thermally cured concrete specimen, containing 0.3% glass fibre and 16 M NaoH, achieved a maximum compressive strength of 24.8 MPa after 28 d, while naturally cured samples achieved a strength of 22.2 MPa. There was substantial increase in tensile strength of geopolymer concrete due to the addition of glass fibres. Split tensile strength increased by 5e10% in glass fibre-reinforced geopolymer concrete, containing 0.1e0.5% glass fibre and 16 M NaoH when compared to the unreinforced geopolymer concrete (1.15 MPa)

Characterization and in Vitro Drug Release Performance of Eudragit Coated Hibiscus Esculentus-Sodium Alginate Beads for Colon Specific Delivery System

INTRODUCTION: Oral delivery of drugs is by far the most preferred route of drug delivery due to ease of administration, patient compliance and flexibility in formulation.Conventional oral dosage forms provide a specific drug concentration in systemic circulation without offering any control over drug delivery(1).These systems achieve as well as maintain drug concentration within therapeutically effective range needed for treatment only when taken several times a day. This results in significant fluctuation in drug levels.Now-a-days most of the pharmaceutical scientists are involved in developing an ideal drug delivery system (DDS). An ideal oral drug delivery system should steadily deliver a measurable and reproducible amount of drug to the target site over a prolonged period. Oral route has been the most popular and successfully used for sustained delivery of drugs because of convenience and ease of administration, greater flexibility in dosage form design and ease of production and low cost of such a system. CONTROLLED DRUG DELIVERY SYSTEMS: Controlled drug delivery is one which delivers the drug at a predetermined rate, locally or systemically, for a specified period of time. Continuous oral delivery of drugs at predictable and reproducible kinetics for pre determined period throughout the course of GIT. Recently, a new generation of pharmaceutical products, called controlled release drug delivery systems, such as those developed from the osmotic pressure activated drug delivery system, have recently received regulatory approval for marketing, and their pharmaceutical superiority and clinical benefits over the sustained release and immediate release pharmaceutical products have been increased AIM AND OBJECTIVE: Alginates are generally regarded as safe (GRAS) by the FDA .Sodium alginate (SA) is the sodium salt of alginic acid, which is aco-polymer o

Maternal effects on anogenital distance in a wild marmot population

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Impact of deficit irrigation management and growth retardants application on yield attributes and yield of groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) variety VRI8

Groundnut, an important oilseed crop, requires effective management such as maintaining less oil moisture content and providing growth retardant chemicals to prevent pre-harvest sprouting, which can adversely affect yield. A field experiment was conducted at the Agricultural College and Research Institute, Madurai, in the early summer of 2024 to evaluate the impact of growth retardants and deficit irrigation on the sprouting of groundnut kernels. The study included three irrigation strategies: conventional irrigation and two deficit regimes with irrigation withheld from 90 to 105 DAS (Days After Sowing) and 85 to 100 DAS. Additionally, growth retardants [maleic hydrazide (MH) @ 1250 ppm, cycocel (CCC) @ 1000 ppm, abscisic acid (ABA) @ 750 ppm, and salicylic acid (SA) @ 750 ppm] were sprayed at 75 and 90 DAS. Results showed that MH @ 1250 ppm was the most effective treatment for inducing dormancy. A split-plot design was used. Withholding irrigation from 90 to 105 DAS also significantly increased pod yield by reducing pod loss due to field sprouting. The combination of MH @ 1250 ppm and no irrigation from 90 to 105 DAS resulted in a pod yield of 2776 kg ha-1, which was higher than the control plot. The foliar application of MH @ 1250 ppm combined with irrigation withdrawal from 90 to 105 DAS emerged as the most effective method for inducing dormancy in groundnut, resulting in a substantial reduction in pod loss and enhanced pod yield, as well as seed storage potential. The reduction in soil moisture content during the harvest stage, combined with changes in hormonal activities, significantly impacts seed sprouting. These factors can lead to stress conditions that inhibit germination, ultimately affecting crop yields. Addressing these issues is crucial for ensuring optimal seed development and enhancing agricultural productivity

Novel Proposed Work for Empirical Word Searching in Cloud Environment

People's lives have become much more convenient as a result of the development of cloud storage. The third-party server has received a lot of data from many people and businesses for storage. Therefore, it is necessary to ensure that the user's data is protected from prying eyes. In the cloud environment, searchable encryption technology is used to protect user information when retrieving data. The versatility of the scheme is, however, constrained by the fact that the majority of them only offer single-keyword searches and do not permit file changes.A novel empirical multi-keyword search in the cloud environment technique is offered as a solution to these issues. Additionally, it prevents the involvement of a third party in the transaction between data holder and user and guarantees integrity. Our system achieves authenticity at the data storage stage by numbering the files, verifying that the user receives a complete ciphertext. Our technique outperforms previous analogous schemes in terms of security and performance and is resistant to inside keyword guessing attacks.The server cannot detect if the same set of keywords is being looked for by several queries because our system generates randomized search queries. Both the number of keywords in a search query and the number of keywords in an encrypted document can be hidden. Our searchable encryption method is effective and protected from the adaptive chosen keywords threat at the same time

Low carbon building: Experimental insight on the use of fly ash and glass fibre for making geopolymer concrete

Due to the environmental impacts resulting from the production of Ordinary Portland cement (OPC), the drive to develop alternative binders that can totally replace OPC is gaining huge consideration in the construction field. In the current study, attempt was made to determine the strength characteristics of glass fibre-reinforced fly ash based geopolymer concrete. Sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and sodium silicate (Na2SiO3) were used as alkaline solutions (for activation of geopolymer reaction) at 12, 16, 20 M. Glass fibres were added to the geopolymer concrete in varying proportions of 0.1e0.5% (in steps of 0.1%) by weight of concrete. A constant weight ratio of alkaline solution to fly ash content of 0.43 was adopted for all mixes. British standard concrete test specimens were cast for measuring compressive strength, splittensile strength, and flexural strength. Concrete specimens were cured by heating in oven at 90 �C for 24 h and natural environment, respectively. From the results, thermally cured concrete samples had better mechanical properties than the ambient (natural) cured samples. Thermally cured concrete specimen, containing 0.3% glass fibre and 16 M NaoH, achieved a maximum compressive strength of 24.8 MPa after 28 d, while naturally cured samples achieved a strength of 22.2 MPa. There was substantial increase in tensile strength of geopolymer concrete due to the addition of glass fibres. Split tensile strength increased by 5e10% in glass fibre-reinforced geopolymer concrete, containing 0.1e0.5% glass fibre and 16 M NaoH when compared to the unreinforced geopolymer concrete (1.15 MPa)

Characterization of Salivary Glutathione reductase in Normal Individuals and its Implications on Smokers

Abstract: The assay of saliva is an increasing area of research with implications for basic and clinical purposes. Although this biological fluid is easy to manipulate and collect, careful attention must be directed to limit variation in specimen integrity. In this study, glutathione reductase (GR) activity of saliva obtained from smokers and non smokers of both the sex of various age groups were assessed. The investigation of salivary GR from non smokers revealed a pH optimum of 6.8, temperature optimum as 37ºC and a low K m of 0.058 mM for the substrate (Oxidized glutathione, GSSG). A significant reduction in the salivary GR activity has been observed from smokers of both acute and chronic than the non smokers. A drastic decrease in the GR activity was noticed in chronic smokers than the acute smokers, proving the possibility of utilizing the enzyme as a diagnostic biomarker for detecting the oral, throat and neck cancers. This optimized developed protocol was also found to be simple and cost effective

Clustering Algorithms: Their Application to Gene Expression Data

Gene expression data hide vital information required to understand the biological process that takes place in a particular organism in relation to its environment. Deciphering the hidden patterns in gene expression data proffers a prodigious preference to strengthen the understanding of functional genomics. The complexity of biological networks and the volume of genes present increase the challenges of comprehending and interpretation of the resulting mass of data, which consists of millions of measurements; these data also inhibit vagueness, imprecision, and noise. Therefore, the use of clustering techniques is a first step toward addressing these challenges, which is essential in the data mining process to reveal natural structures and iden-tify interesting patterns in the underlying data. The clustering of gene expression data has been proven to be useful in making known the natural structure inherent in gene expression data, understanding gene functions, cellular processes, and subtypes of cells, mining useful information from noisy data, and understanding gene regulation. The other benefit of clustering gene expression data is the identification of homology, which is very important in vaccine design. This review examines the various clustering algorithms applicable to the gene expression data in order to discover and provide useful knowledge of the appropriate clustering technique that will guarantee stability and high degree of accuracy in its analysis procedure

Flavonoids mediated 'Green' nanomaterials: A novel nanomedicine system to treat various diseases - Current trends and future perspective

Nanomedicine utilizes biocompatible nanomaterials for therapeutic purposes to treat various diseases. Flavonoids present in the plant materials act as both reducing and electrostatic stabilizing agents for the ‘Green’ synthesis of metal nanomaterials. Further, these nanomaterials are effectively used to treat various cancer cells and pathogenic microbes. The experimental approach for flavonoids-mediated nanomaterial (FMN) synthesis is simple, rapid, cost-effective and reproducible. However, the detailed reports on synthesis, mechanism, and in vivo application of FMN are very limited in literatures. Thus, this focused review will definitely help researchers who are working on biocompatible nanomaterial synthesis and application in biomedical sector. Further, this is the first review to discuss the significance, mechanisms, and future trends of FMN. The FMN and their dual function as both nano-carrier and nano-drug in various biomedical sectors might be a hot research topic in upcoming days