Preparation of composite nanofibres for Bone Tissue Regeneration

Electro spinning technique is used to produce continuous nanofiber for different application area like preparation of scaffold, microbial filtration membrane, gas filtration membrane and controlled drug delivery system. The present study is an attempt to develop composite nanofibers that are biomimetic and bioactive and accordingly promote cell-scaffold interactions while being used as scaffolds for engineering tissues. The approach proposed involves compounding (hybridizing) two different polymers, both of which are biocompatible and biodegradable, but one is synthetic and the other is of natural origin. They are incorporated into one composite nanofiber from random blending or forming into a core-sheath structure via an advanced electrospinning technique. Composites in the form of nanofibers have been obtained by electrospinning technique. A gelatin/PMMA (Poly Methyl-Methacrylate) nanofibrous scaffold was prepared using Electro-spinning Technique to mimic both the physical architecture and chemical composition of natural bone ECM (Extra Cellular Matrix). With the help of electrospinning technique composite nanofibers were fabricated and it was found that with 45:55 gelatin:PMMA concentration was the most suitable composition for spinning to obtained fiber. This 45:55 ratio composite scaffold was then characterised using various techniques like SEM (Scanning Electron Microscopy), FTIR (Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy), EDS (Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy). The gelatin/PMMA nanofibers obtained under optimum composition of the solution are again electrospun by varying the feed rate values to see its affect on the fiber morphology. Thus it was found that with the feed rate 0.3 ml/h, the nanofibers formed had an average diameter in the range of 250-300 nm and had suitable properties mostly desired for bone tissue regeneratio

Report of dioxidovanadium complexes of bioactive heterocycles: synthesis, characterization and study of biological activity

A series of new dioxidovanadium(V) complexes [VO2L1-4] (1-4) have been reported. The complexes are obtained from the reaction of the HL1-4 with VO(acac)2 in 1:1 molar ratio in different solvent medium. All the synthesized ligands and the metal complex are successfully characterized by elemental analysis, IR and UV-vis spectroscopy. From various studies it is indicated that all the complexes possess square pyramidal structure

Development of a Strategy to Reach the Folk-Buddha Lepcha Community of Sikkim

The majority of the Lepchas who live in the land of Sikkim are unreached with the gospel message. A preliminary investigation of current literature indicated that 70 to 80 percent of the Sikkimese are followers of folk-Buddhism. The purpose of this dissertation is to develop a strategy to reach the Folk-Buddhist Lepcha community of Sikkim with the gospel message. The dissertation traces the historical development of the Lepcha community in Sikkim,,its culture, economy, health situations, and education. Chapter 3 details the beliefs, practices, and world view of the Lepchas, discusses government restrictions against Christianity in Sikkim, and describes the growth of Christianity among the Lepchas. Chapter 4 describes the process used in establishing a church among the Lepchas. Social service and educational programs were used to provide points of contact with the Lepchas. The Lepchas\u27 fear of death, suffering, and sickness provided bridges whereby the gospel answers to these questions were welcomed and accepted

Experimental Studies of a Direct Injection Diesel Engine Fuelled with Light Fraction Pyrolysis Oil-Diesel Blend

One of the important problems currently faced by the humanity is disposal of different wastes that originate everywhere. Different wastes are present in houses, villages, municipalities, agricultural lands and industries, and they are found in the form of solid, liquid and gas. It is impossible to completely avoid disposal of wastes. But, it can be minimized by adopting effective waste management practices. Generally, wastes can be categorized into two types viz., (i) non reusable, and (ii) recyclable and reuse. A few examples of non-reusable wastes are broken glass, broken concrete and some of the liquid effluents. Most of the organic wastes can be considered as recyclable or reusable. Few examples include food waste, textile waste, wood waste and agricultural waste. Waste to energy (W2E) is one of the methods adopted in recycling of organic wastes. Among all the wastes available for waste to energy process, automobile tyres and waste plastics are beleived to have adequate potential of energy source, as they are disposed in a large quantity throughout the world. Pyrolysis is one of the methods for converting waste automobile tyres into energy and value added products. In pyrolysis process, the waste tyres are heated in a closed vessel by external heating with the presence of little oxygen. The evolving volatiles in the pyrolysis reactor are condensed in a condenser to obtain the value added energy or chemicals. Generally, the temperature required for pyrolysis of tyres is in the range of 400-600oC. The process offers three principal products namely, (a) pyrolysis oil, (b) pyrogas and (c) carbon black. In recent years, the recycling of waste tyres by pyrolysis process has been found to be more attractive and technically feasible. There have been several tyre recycling pilot level and demonstrative plants installed, and commissioned in the world. In such a pyrolysis plant that follows vacuum pyrolysis process, four products are obtained such as, (i) light and heavy fraction oils, (ii) pyro gas, (iii) carbon black and (iv) steel wire. The light and heavy fraction oils are obtained in different condensers, based on the method of condensing the volatiles that are evolved from the pyrolysis reactor. In the present research study, the light fraction pyrolysis oil (LFPO) was examined for its suitability as a partial substitute to diesel fuel for compression ignition (CI) engines. Eight different modules of experimental investigations have been proposed and performed in a single cylinder, four stroke, air cooled, direct injection (DI) diesel engine with a power of 4.4 kW at a constant speed of 1500 rpm. Few fuel and engine modifications were carried out to examine the engine behaviour in terms of combustion, performance and emissions when the engine was run on LFPO mode....

Effect of Interferon and Ribavirin on hepatitis C virus

Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) is a blood-borne infection that can lead to many liver diseases and hence leads to its failure [1]. The current treatment for HCV infection involves combination therapy of pegylated Interferon and Ribavirin [2]. Combination therapy induces long term response in almost 50% of the patients [2-3]. No alternative therapy exists to those patients who do not respond to the combination therapy [3]. Therefore, it is necessary to identify the markers of the disease that leads to its progression and also the factors which can result in the long term response of the drugs. Beside this the exposure to the drug should be minimised; it should not cause side effects and should be inexpensive. With the onset of therapy, the viral load declines in a biphasic or triphasic manner. A biphasic decay pattern is observed in those patients who respond to the therapy. In biphasic decay, there is a sharp decline initially and then decreases gradually until the infection is not detected. In certain patients there could be relapse of the infection after the therapy and in some cases there might not be any second phase decline, i.e. in non-responders. So these changing patterns of the viral load under therapy, holds clues for the HCV pathogenesis and outcomes of therapy. So a mathematical model for the suppression of HCV in the presence of the potential drugs was developed. From experimental and theoretical kinetic data, we can work on how we can decrease the level of viral RNA (ribonucleic acid) in hepatocyte cells. Using the model, we can verify the estimates for the efficiency of the effect of potential drugs on replication of viral RNA and viral protein processing. We have written the code in FORTRAN; the code has been tested against the published result and a good match is found. The developed mathematical model may serve as a tool for the evaluation of the efficiency of potential drug on the HCV genome

Study of various data mining techniques

The advent of computing technology has significantly influenced our lives and two major impacts of this effect are Business Data Processing and Scientific Computing. During the initial years of the development of computer techniques for business, computer professionals were concerned with designing files to store the data so that information could be efficiently retrieved. There were restrictions on storage size for storing data and on speed of accessing the data. Needless to say, the activity was restricted to a very few, highly qualified professionals. Then came the era when the task was simplified by a DBMS [1]. The responsibilities of intricate tasks, such as declarative aspects of the program were passed on to the database administrator and the user could pose his query in simpler languages such as query languages

Prediction of difficult cholecystectomy, a study of 100 cases

Background: Cholelithiasis is a common problem in day to day surgical practice, which has a prevalence of 10-15%. The prevalence is more here in this part of the country as this is a pocket of sickle cell disease region. Laparoscopic cholecystectomy is the gold standard procedure for gall stone diseases. Out of many complications one of the most important complications of laparoscopic cholecystectomy is bile duct injury particularly in difficult cases.  Difficulties arise during creation of pneumoperitonium, releasing adhesion, identifying anatomy, anatomical variations and during extraction of gall bladder.Methods: A prospective study was carried out at VSS institute of Medical Science and Research, Burla, Sambalpur, a tertiary referral centre and a teaching hospital in the western Odisha. One hundred patients with symptomatic cholelithiasis were taken up for the study after due clearance from the institutional ethical committee. They were evaluated for risk factors such as-age of the patient, sex of the patient, previous abdominal surgery, number of previous attacks, total WBC count, gall bladder wall thickness and pericholecystic collection on ultrasonography.Results: Previous abdominal surgery, duration since acute attack, number of previous attacks, ultrasonography findings of increased wall thickness, stone impaction at neck and pericholecystic collection, increased total WBC count are associated with difficult laparoscopic cholecystectomy.Conclusions: The predictors for difficult cholecystectomy will make the surgeon extra cautious during the procedure so as to minimize the complications

Processing and Characterization of Natural Fiber Reinforced Polymer Composites

Polymeric materials reinforced with synthetic fibres such as glass, carbon, and aramid provide advantages of high stiffness and strength to weight ratio as compared to conventional construction materials, i.e. wood, concrete, and steel. Despite these advantages, the widespread use of synthetic fibre-reinforced polymer composite has a tendency to decline because of their high-initial costs, their use in non-efficient structural forms and most importantly their adverse environmental impact. On the other hand, the increase interest in using natural .bres as reinforcement in plastics to substitute conventional synthetic fibres in some structural applications has become one of the main concerns to study the potential of using natural fibres as reinforcement for polymers. In the light of this, researchers have focused their attention on natural fibre composite (i.e. bio-composites) which are composed of natural or synthetic resins, reinforced with natural fibres. Accordingly, manufacturing of high-performance engineering materials from renewable resources has been pursued by researchers across the world owning to renewable raw materials are environmentally sound and do not cause health problem. The present work includes the processing, characterization of coconut fiber reinforced epoxy composites. . It further outlines a methodology based on Taguchi’s experimental design approach to make a parametric analysis of erosion wear behaviour. The systematic experimentation leads to determination of significant process parameters and material variables that predominantly influence the wear rate

Schedulability Analysis of periodic task of uniprocessor system on Real Time System

A real time system is a system that must satisfy explicit bounded response-time constraints, otherwise risk severe consequences including failure. Failure happens when a system cannot satisfy one or more of the requirements laid out in the formal system specification. The problem of real-time scheduling spans a broad spectrum of algorithms from simple uniprocessor to highly sophisticated multiprocessor scheduling algorithms. In this project, we will study the characteristics and constraints of real-time tasks which should be scheduled to be executed. Analysis methods and the concept of optimality criteria, which leads to design appropriate scheduling algorithms, will also be addressed. Then, we study real-time scheduling algorithms for uniprocessor systems, which can be divided into two major classes: off-line and on-line. On-line algorithms are partitioned into either static or dynamic-priority based algorithms. We will observe both preemptive and non-preemptive static-priority based algorithms. For dynamic-priority based algorithms, we study the two subsets; namely, planning based and best effort scheduling algorithms. This project compares RM against EDF under several aspects, using existing theoretical results, specific simulation experiments, or simple counter examples to show that many common beliefs are either false or only restricted to specific situations