Assessment of Physicochemical Parameters from Vermicompost of Eudrilus eugenae and Esienia foetida

In present investigation attempt has been made to investigate the physicochemical parameters like pH, temperature, moisture, salinity, nitrogen, electrical conductivity, nitrate, phosphate, chemical oxygen demand (COD) and biological oxygen demand (BOD) from vermicompost of Eudrilus eugenae and Esienia foetida species. The shade of size 10x10 meter and height 1.98 meter was constructed for rearing Eudrilus eugenae and Esienia foetida species. The production of vermicompost was found better in Eudrilus eugenae than Esienia foetida

DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION OF UV SPECTROSCOPIC METHOD FOR ESTIMATION OF ABACAVIR IN TABLET DOSAGE FORM

Objective: To develop and validate simple, rapid, linear, accurate, precise and economical UV Spectroscopic method for estimation of Abacavir in tablet dosage form. Methods: The drug is freely soluble in analytical grade methanol. The drug was identified in terms of solubility studies and on the basis of melting point done on the melting point apparatus of Equiptronics. It showed absorption maxima were determined in analytical grade methanol. The drug obeyed the Beer’s law and showed good correlation of concentration with absorption, which reflect in linearity. The UV spectroscopic method was developed for estimation of Abacavir in tablet dosage form and also validated as per ICH guidelines. Results: The drug is freely soluble in analytical grade methanol, slightly soluble in water and practically insoluble in ethanol. So, the analytical grade methanol is used as a diluent in method. The melting point of Abacavir was found to be 164-165 ˚C (uncorrected). It showed absorption maxima 256 nm in analytical grade methanol. On the basis of absorption spectrum the working concentration was set on 15µg/ml (PPM). The linearity was observed between 5-25 μg/ml (PPM). The results of analysis were validated by recovery studies. The recovery was found to be 98.75, 101 and 99.17% for three levels respectively. The % RSD for precision was found to be 0.32% and for Ruggedness is 0.46% Conclusion: A simple, rapid, linear, accurate, precise and economical UV Spectroscopic method has been developed for estimation of Abacavir in tablet dosage form. The method could be considered for the determination of Abacavir in quality control laboratories

HISTOCHEMICAL INVESTIGATION OF TWO MEDICINAL PLANTS IN MAHARASHTRA

The histochemical studies of leaves and wood of Butea monosperma ­Lam and Madhuca indica Gmel. are medicinal important plants in Maharashtra. For histochemical studies the free hand sections of leaves and wood were taken and treated with the respective reagent in localize components, viz. starch, protein, tannin, saponin, fat, glucosides and alkaloids in the tissues. Key words: Histochemistry, starch, protein, tannin, saponin, fat, glucosides and alkaloid

A validation of the Oswestry Spinal Risk Index

Purpose The purpose of this study was to validate the Oswestry Spinal Risk Index (OSRI) in an external population. The OSRI predicts survival in patients with metastatic spinal cord compression (MSCC). Methods We analysed the data of 100 patients undergoing surgical intervention for MSCC at a tertiary spinal unit and recorded the primary tumour pathology and Karnofsky performance status to calculate the OSRI. Logistic regression models and survival plots were applied to the data in accordance with the original paper. Results Lower OSRI scores predicted longer survival. The OSRI score predicted survival accurately in 74% of cases (p = 0.004). Conclusions Our study has found that the OSRI is a significant predictor of survival at levels similar to those of the original authors and is a useful and simple tool in aiding complex decision making in patients presenting with MSC

Bubble size prediction in gas–solid fluidized beds using genetic programming

The hydrodynamics of a gas–solid fluidized bed (FB) is affected by the bubble diameter, which in turn strongly influences the performance of a fluidized bed reactor (FBR). Thus, determining the bubble diameter accurately is of crucial importance in the design and operation of an FBR. Various equations are available for calculating the bubble diameter in an FBR. It has been found in this study that these models show a large variation while predicting the experimentally measured bubble diameters. Accordingly, the present study proposes a new equation for computing the bubble diameter in a fluidized bed. This equation has been developed using an efficient, yet infrequently employed computational intelligence (CI)-based datadriven modelling method termed genetic programming (GP). The prediction and generalization performance of the GP-based equation has been compared with that of a number of currently available equations for computing the bubble diameter in a fluidized bed and the results obtained show a good performance by the newly developed equation

Coordination of Mobile Mules via Facility Location Strategies

In this paper, we study the problem of wireless sensor network (WSN) maintenance using mobile entities called mules. The mules are deployed in the area of the WSN in such a way that would minimize the time it takes them to reach a failed sensor and fix it. The mules must constantly optimize their collective deployment to account for occupied mules. The objective is to define the optimal deployment and task allocation strategy for the mules, so that the sensors' downtime and the mules' traveling distance are minimized. Our solutions are inspired by research in the field of computational geometry and the design of our algorithms is based on state of the art approximation algorithms for the classical problem of facility location. Our empirical results demonstrate how cooperation enhances the team's performance, and indicate that a combination of k-Median based deployment with closest-available task allocation provides the best results in terms of minimizing the sensors' downtime but is inefficient in terms of the mules' travel distance. A k-Centroid based deployment produces good results in both criteria.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures, conferenc

Automated team selection and compliance checking in business processes

Plenty of activities in many business contexts must be performed collaboratively, e.g., in a hospital or when organising a conference. Tasks such as team composition and allocation are usually performed manually and on the ground of limited criteria such as individual skills, a.o. because adequate automatic support is missing. This paper addresses this shortcoming. We present an approach for team selection and compliance checking in business processes, which includes (i) a language for describing teams; (ii) a way to de- ne team selection conditions and policies related to team composition; and (iii) a mechanism for the automatic resolution of the team selection conditions and for team-related compliance checking based on formal ontologies.Austrian Research Funding Association (FFG) 845638 (SHAPE)Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación TIN2009-07366 (SETI)Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad TIN2012-32273 (TAPAS)Junta de Andalucía TIC-5906 (THEOS

The Effects of Cocaine on Different Redox Forms of Cysteine and Homocysteine, and on Labile, Reduced Sulfur in the Rat Plasma Following Active versus Passive Drug Injections

Received: 28 November 2012 / Revised: 19 April 2013 / Accepted: 6 May 2013 / Published online: 16 May 2013 The Author(s) 2013. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.comThe aim of the present studies was to evaluate cocaine-induced changes in the concentrations of different redox forms of cysteine (Cys) and homocysteine (Hcy), and products of anaerobic Cys metabolism, i.e., labile, reduced sulfur (LS) in the rat plasma. The above-mentioned parameters were determined after i.p. acute and subchronic cocaine treatment as well as following i.v. cocaine self-administration using the yoked procedure. Additionally, Cys, Hcy, and LS levels were measured during the 10-day extinction training in rats that underwent i.v. cocaine administration. Acute i.p. cocaine treatment increased the total and protein-bound Hcy contents, decreased LS, and did not change the concentrations of Cys fractions in the rat plasma. In turn, subchronic i.p. cocaine administration significantly increased free Hcy and lowered the total and protein-bound Cys concentrations while LS level was unchanged. Cocaine self-administration enhanced the total and protein-bound Hcy levels, decreased LS content, and did not affect the Cys fractions. On the other hand, yoked cocaine infusions did not alter the concentration of Hcy fractions while decreased the total and protein-bound Cys and LS content. This extinction training resulted in the lack of changes in the examined parameters in rats with a history of cocaine self-administration while in the yoked cocaine group an increase in the plasma free Cys fraction and LS was seen. Our results demonstrate for the first time that cocaine does evoke significant changes in homeostasis of thiol amino acids Cys and Hcy, and in some products of anaerobic Cys metabolism, which are dependent on the way of cocaine administration

Dense active matter model of motion patterns in confluent cell monolayers

Epithelial cell monolayers show remarkable displacement and velocity correlations over distances of ten or more cell sizes that are reminiscent of supercooled liquids and active nematics. We show that many observed features can be described within the framework of dense active matter, and argue that persistent uncoordinated cell motility coupled to the collective elastic modes of the cell sheet is sufficient to produce swirl-like correlations. We obtain this result using both continuum active linear elasticity and a normal modes formalism, and validate analytical predictions with numerical simulations of two agent-based cell models, soft elastic particles and the self-propelled Voronoi model together with in-vitro experiments of confluent corneal epithelial cell sheets. Simulations and normal mode analysis perfectly match when tissue-level reorganisation occurs on times longer than the persistence time of cell motility. Our analytical model quantitatively matches measured velocity correlation functions over more than a decade with a single fitting parameter.Comment: updated version accepted for publication in Nat. Com

Gradient Methods for Solving Stackelberg Games

Stackelberg Games are gaining importance in the last years due to the raise of Adversarial Machine Learning (AML). Within this context, a new paradigm must be faced: in classical game theory, intervening agents were humans whose decisions are generally discrete and low dimensional. In AML, decisions are made by algorithms and are usually continuous and high dimensional, e.g. choosing the weights of a neural network. As closed form solutions for Stackelberg games generally do not exist, it is mandatory to have efficient algorithms to search for numerical solutions. We study two different procedures for solving this type of games using gradient methods. We study time and space scalability of both approaches and discuss in which situation it is more appropriate to use each of them. Finally, we illustrate their use in an adversarial prediction problem.Comment: Accepted in ADT Conference 201