DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION OF RP-HPLC METHOD FOR SIMULTANEOUS ESTIMATION OF IVERMECTIN AND CLORSULON IN IVERCAM INJECTION

A precise, simple, accurate and selective method was developed and validate for estimation of Ivermectin and Clorsulon in Ivercam injection, Reversed phase high performance liquid chromatographic (RP-HPLC) method was developed for routine quantification of Ivermectin and Clorsulon in laboratory prepared mixtures as well as in combined dosage form. Chromatographic separation was achieved on a BDS hypersil C18 (5μ, 250 x 4.6 mm) utilizing mobile phase of filtered and degassed mixture of 60 phosphate buffer (pH 5.5 adjusted with 1% O-phosphoric acid) and Methanol (60:40 v/v) at a flow rate of 1 mL/min with UV detection at 234 nm. The method has been validated for linearity, accuracy and precision. In RP-HPLC method, the calibration graphs were linear in the concentration range of 2.5-7.5 μg/ml for Ivermectin and 25-75 μg/ml for Clorsulon with percentage recoveries of 100.34 % and 99.76% for Ivermectin and Clorsulon respectively. Conclusion: The results obtained by RP-HPLC methods are rapid, accurate and precise. Therefore proposed method can be used for routine analysis of Clorsulon and Ivermectin in injection

The optimization of 3.3 kV 4H-SiC JBS diodes

The article reports a comprehensive study optimizing the OFF- and ON-state characteristics of 3.3 kV junction barrier Schottky (JBS) diodes made using nickel, titanium, and molybdenum contact metals. In this design, the same implants used in the optimized termination region are used to form the P-regions in the JBS active area. The width and spacing of the P-regions are varied to optimize both the ON- and OFF-state of the device. All the diodes tested displayed high blocking voltages and ideal turn-on characteristics up to the rated current of 2 A. However, the leakage current and the Schottky barrier height (SBH) were found to scale with the ratio of Schottky to p + regions. Full Schottkys, without p + regions, and those with very wide Schottky regions had the lowest SBH (1.61 eV for Ni, 1.11 eV for Mo, and 0.87 eV for Ti) and the highest leakage. Those diodes with the lowest Schottky openings of 2 μm had the lowest OFF-state leakage, but they suffered severe pinching from the surrounding p + regions, increasing their SBH. The best performing JBS diodes were Ni and Mo devices with the narrowest pitch, with the p + implants/Schottky regions both 2 μm wide. These offered the best balanced device design, with excellent OFF-state performance, while the Schottky ratio guaranteed a relatively low forward voltage drop

Minimal hepatic encephalopathy: consensus statement of a working party of the Indian National Association for study of the liver

Hepatic encephalopathy (HE) is a major complication that develops in some form and at some stage in a majority of patients with liver cirrhosis. Overt HE occurs in approximately 30-45% of cirrhotic patients. Minimal HE (MHE), the mildest form of HE, is characterized by subtle motor and cognitive deficits and impairs health-related quality of life. The Indian National Association for Study of the Liver (INASL) set up a Working Party on MHE in 2008 with a mandate to develop consensus guidelines on various aspects of MHE relevant to clinical practice. Questions related to the definition of MHE, its prevalence, diagnosis, clinical characteristics, pathogenesis, natural history and treatment were addressed by the members of the Working Party

The development and validation of a scoring tool to predict the operative duration of elective laparoscopic cholecystectomy

Background: The ability to accurately predict operative duration has the potential to optimise theatre efficiency and utilisation, thus reducing costs and increasing staff and patient satisfaction. With laparoscopic cholecystectomy being one of the most commonly performed procedures worldwide, a tool to predict operative duration could be extremely beneficial to healthcare organisations. Methods: Data collected from the CholeS study on patients undergoing cholecystectomy in UK and Irish hospitals between 04/2014 and 05/2014 were used to study operative duration. A multivariable binary logistic regression model was produced in order to identify significant independent predictors of long (> 90 min) operations. The resulting model was converted to a risk score, which was subsequently validated on second cohort of patients using ROC curves. Results: After exclusions, data were available for 7227 patients in the derivation (CholeS) cohort. The median operative duration was 60 min (interquartile range 45–85), with 17.7% of operations lasting longer than 90 min. Ten factors were found to be significant independent predictors of operative durations > 90 min, including ASA, age, previous surgical admissions, BMI, gallbladder wall thickness and CBD diameter. A risk score was then produced from these factors, and applied to a cohort of 2405 patients from a tertiary centre for external validation. This returned an area under the ROC curve of 0.708 (SE = 0.013, p  90 min increasing more than eightfold from 5.1 to 41.8% in the extremes of the score. Conclusion: The scoring tool produced in this study was found to be significantly predictive of long operative durations on validation in an external cohort. As such, the tool may have the potential to enable organisations to better organise theatre lists and deliver greater efficiencies in care

Retrospective evaluation of whole exome and genome mutation calls in 746 cancer samples

Funder: NCI U24CA211006Abstract: The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) curated consensus somatic mutation calls using whole exome sequencing (WES) and whole genome sequencing (WGS), respectively. Here, as part of the ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium, which aggregated whole genome sequencing data from 2,658 cancers across 38 tumour types, we compare WES and WGS side-by-side from 746 TCGA samples, finding that ~80% of mutations overlap in covered exonic regions. We estimate that low variant allele fraction (VAF < 15%) and clonal heterogeneity contribute up to 68% of private WGS mutations and 71% of private WES mutations. We observe that ~30% of private WGS mutations trace to mutations identified by a single variant caller in WES consensus efforts. WGS captures both ~50% more variation in exonic regions and un-observed mutations in loci with variable GC-content. Together, our analysis highlights technological divergences between two reproducible somatic variant detection efforts

Recovery of trifluoroacetic acid from dilute aqueous solutions by reactive distillation

It is difficult to recover trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) from its dilute aqueous solutions by conventional techniques. This work investigates the feasibility of using reactive distillation to recover TFA through esterification with 2-propanol. A kinetic model is proposed based on batch reactor data. Experiments performed using reactive distillation in batch and continuous modes, show significant recovery. Independent column simulations, based on kinetics and vapor–liquid equilibrium (VLE) developed in this work, agree well with our experimental results. The validated model is further used to obtain suitable design and operating parameters to give nearly complete recovery. A complete process recovery process sheet is suggested based on the results obtained.© Elsevie

Unusual presentations and associations of hyper IgE Syndrome: Retrospective analysis of ten cases at tertiary care institute – With review of indian published reports

Background: Job syndrome also known as hyper IgE syndrome (HIES) is primary immunodeficiency syndrome. Autosomal dominant variant caused by mutation in signal transducer and activator of transcription-3 gene is characterized by recurrent staphylococcal skin infections, sinopulmonary infections, eczema, recurrent bone fractures, and coarse facial features. Autosomal recessive (AR) variant is because of mutation in DOCK8 gene which lacks the skeletal and dental involvement but manifest with severe viral infection and develop neurological complications. Aims: This study aims to evaluate variable presentations and associations of job syndrome. Methods: Analysis of ten cases, presented at our department between October 2015 and September 2016, with suspected HIES was done retrospectively. All cases were studied for their presentations and associations and were investigated accordingly for the same. Score for HIES was counted as per National Institutes of Health (NIH) scoring system. Indian published reports were found by internet search engine and were reviewed for unusual presentations. Results: NIH scoring was indeterminate in two patients and was highly likely for autosomal dominant-HIES in five patients. Three patients were diagnosed as AR-HIES. Two of our patients had multiple endocrinopathy, one had pyoderma gangrenosum and two patients had autoimmune disorders. Limitations: Genetic analysis was not done because of nonavailability of testing in our state and poor financial conditions of patients. It is a retrospective study. Conclusion: Our patients had unusual association in the form of multiple endocrinopathy, pyoderma gangrenosum, dermatomyositis, and all were diagnosed very much late in life. Hence, a vigilant eye for suspicion at a younger age might benefit patients

Efficacy and safety of propranolol on the proliferative phase of infantile hemangioma: A hospital-based prospective study

Background: Propranolol may be more effective and safer than previously established therapies, and it may be used as a first-line therapy for infantile hemangioma (IH). Propranolol is thought to inhibit the growth of blood vessels by decreasing vascular endothelial growth factor. Aims and Objectives: The aim of this study is to study the efficacy and safety of propranolol in IH and for standardization of dose in tablet form. Materials and Methods: A total of 23 patients with 30 IH s were recruited in the study prospectively, after ruling out any contraindications for oral propranolol and obtaining consent from parents. Patients with 7 kg weight were given 5 mg thrice daily. Patients were evaluated according to visual analog scale and ultrasonographically on day 0, day 30, day 60, and day 90. Results: Out of a total of 30, 25 (83.33%) were superficial, 3 (10%) were deep, and 2 (6.66%) were mixed hemangioma. All patients with superficial hemangiomas showed a change in the color of the lesion and arrest of growth within the 1st month of therapy and a gradual decrease in size was noticed in 23 (92%, n = 25) patients during the study period except in 2 (8%). Complete clearance was noticed in 68% of patients of superficial hemangioma at the end of the study period. Out of 25 patients, a total of 5 (20%) patients had ulceration at the time of presentation which started to heal within 15 days of therapy. Five (16.66%, n = 30) patients with deep and mixed variety showed arrest of growth but no decrease in size. No side effects were seen except temporary coldness of extremity in 1 (3.33%) patient. Conclusion: Propranolol is safe and effective for treatment of proliferative phase of superficial hemangiomas with very less side effects compared to oral steroids and other recommended therapies, and unavailability of syrup can be overcome by giving tablet in fixed dosage

Hydrodynamic optimization of bulk and tank ship hulls

International shipping transports more than 80 percent of global trade. Traditionally bulk carriers have been built to minimize construction cost and maximize cargo-carrying capacity, neglecting hydrodynamic characteristics. By 2025, all new ships will be required to be 30% more energy efficient than those built in 2014. When designing bulk ships, a number of restrictions have already been applied even before the naval architect has stated designing the ship, e.g. port restrictions, canals and legislative limitations. This thesis investigate how speed performance and power requirements may be improved by lifting some of the restriction on main dimensions when designing ship hulls. Lindstad et al. (2013) introduce the idea that increasing the breadth of bulk carriers while keeping the length, draft and displacement constant, and thereby reducing the block coefficient, will be an efficient way of reducing the resistance and fuel consumption of a ship. Lindstad et al. (2013) uses an empirical model based on Holtrop and Mennen (1984) and conclude that the brake power is reduced with reduced block coefficient. However, when evaluating hull dimensions outside the range the empirical data is based on, the result obtained has high uncertainty. Numerical methods using CFD has been applied in combination with CAD program to optimize hull lines. Using CFD to calculate added resistance in waves is however very computational demanding and time consuming and can hardly be applied in an optimization process. By using a simplified numerical method on a wide range of hull designs, this thesis attempts to bridge the gap between the idea of Lindstad et al. (2013) and the numerical approach used in simulation based design. Based on an adaption of a commercial bulk carrier (CBC) and MOERI KVLCC2 there has been designed two series of ships with a deadweight of 80 000 tons. The block coefficient varies from 0,59 to 0,8 for the MOERI KVLCC2 series and 0,64 to 0,87 for the CBC series. When designing the hull and ship lines the focus has been on optimizing the bow, the transition between the bow and parallel midship area (forward shoulder), the parallel midship body and the stern area. Initially, the two numerical calculations programs ShipX and Michlet was tested. ShipX calculates the wave resistance of conventional monohull ships using potential theory. To make ShipX more robust it satisfies the boundary condition of the surface some distance away from the hull surface. The satisfying of the boundary condition makes it less prone to catch details in different hulls. Using Geritsma & Beukelman method combined with strip-theory approximation the added resistance in waves is calculated. Michlet is an open source research code utilizing thin ship theory to calculate wave resistance. The essential assumption is that the hull is thin, that is, the breadth is small compared to all other characteristic lengths of the problem. A benchmarking with the MOERI KVLCC2 show that results from ShipX are correlating best with experimental results. ShipX is therefore used to calculate the calm water resistance and added resistance in waves for the two design series. When comparing the brake power as a function of block coefficient calculated using empirical and numerical methods there is a clear disagreement in the results. For both of the design series the empirical calculations show a decreasing brake power with decreasing block coefficient, giving no clear optimum. For the CBC series the numerical calculations show an optimal block coefficient of 0,73. For the MOERI KVLCC2 series the numerical calculations show an optimal block coefficient of 0,78. In additions, results indicate that for a given block coefficient moving the longitudinal center of buoyancy (LCB) backward reduce the wave resistance. From the results it is concluded that the optimal block coefficient for ships in the New Panamax and Capesize segment (60 00