Biotechnology: A way to Control Environmental Pollution by Alternative Lubricants

Environmental concerns are gaining lot of interest due to increasing environmental pollution. Pollution is caused from various sources like fuel, lubricants, industrial waste, chemicals, noise etc. One of the major source of pollution is lubricant as it directly affect the environment when it is handled improperly, as lubricants from petroleum based oils have very poor biodegradability and also have high toxicity. Environmental pollution can be controlled by the use of biotechnology in the field of alternative lubricants from different available biomass. The current paper deals with the ways of reducing the environmental pollution by various alternative resources

An Optimal Preventive Maintenance Strategy for Efficient Operation of Boilers in Industry

This paper present optimal preventive maintenance strategy for efficient operation of boilers. Efficient operation of Boiler can be achieved from an optimal preventive maintenance strategy. It would be especially beneficial for those plants that rely on breakdown or run-to-failure maintenance. There are many advantages for having an optimal preventive maintenance strategy. The advantages apply to every kind and size of plant. The law of preventive maintenance strategy is that the higher the value of plant assets and equipment per square foot of plant, the greater will be the return on a preventive maintenance strategy. Keywords: Preventive maintenance, Boiler, Scheduling, Downtime, Cost, Safety

An interventional study on functional outcome of combined anterior cruciate ligament and anterolateral ligament reconstruction

Background: The anterolateral ligament (ALL) is an important structure for rotational stability of knee joint after anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) rupture. Outcome of combined ACL and ALL reconstruction will change view of high demanding ACL tear cases.Methods: A hospital based prospective interventional study was done in Department of Orthopaedics, SMS Medical College, Jaipur to find the functional outcome of combined anterior cruciate ligament and anterolateral ligament reconstruction. A total of 45 patients underwent ACL and ALL reconstruction. Indications for a combined procedure were associated grade 3 pivot shifts, high level of sporting activity and pivoting sports. Patients were assessed pre- and post-operatively with objective and subjective International Knee Documentation Committee (IKDC) score, Lysholm score, and Tegner activity scale.Results: The mean follow up time was around 5 months. Two patients lost to follow up. Leaving 45 patients for final evaluation. At the last follow-up, all patients had full range of motion. The Lysholm, subjective IKDC, and objective IKDC scores were significantly improved (all p<0.0001). Pre-operatively, 38 patients had a grade 3 pivot shifts and 7 had a grade 2 according to the IKDC criteria. Post-operatively, 42 patients had a negative pivot shift (grade 0), and 3 patients were grade 1 (p<0.0001).Conclusions: This study demonstrates that a combined reconstruction can be an effective procedure without specific complications at a minimum follow-up of 6 months. Longer follow up is required to know any long term complications and functional outcome

Wideband Antennas of Passive Seekers for Anti Radiation Missiles

Suppression of Enemy Air Defence (SEAD) is a fundamental element of Air Power application by means of in protecting friendly air attackers and destroying the enemy’s ability to defend against air attack. Most of the SEAD operation even today relies on Anti-radiation missile (ARM) which is an air-to-surface tactical missile designed to detect, seek, attack and destroy opponent’s radar. Passive seeker of ARM is a miniaturized ESM receiver which is capable of extracting the necessary angular data from the enemy radar emissions. Single head passive seeker covering wide frequency range from L to Ku band is the preferred choice. Wideband antennas have been designed and utilized for Direction Finding applications of ESM/ELINT receivers for ground, air and ship borne platforms. Unlike these platforms, there are several restrictions for passive seeker based compact ESM receiver for missile borne platform specially air to surface missile where lesser diameter is one of the preferred design parameter. This review paper mainly discusses the existing wideband antennas such as spiral, log-periodic, printed circuit vivaldi and all-metal vivaldi antennas and the comparison of their various parameters for passive seeker. The paper also suggests their suitability with respect to their placement on the missile for three configurations: concealed inside the radome, flush-mounted and conformal antenna based. The paper also brought about the specific test facility required for testing and evaluation of passive seeker to characterize it with missile radome which is the most challenging and time consuming task. Among the three passive seeker configuration discussed, conformal antenna based passive seeker using all-metal Vivaldi is the best option avoiding radome aberration correction which is being utilized in the present third generations of ARM. The second commonly and established passive seeker configuration is concealed inside the radome using spiral antennas where handling radome aberration correction is a limitation.&nbsp

A cross-sectional study of socio-demographic and clinical profile of HIV patients at ART plus centre, Sawai Man Singh Hospital, Jaipur, India

Background: This study aimed to understand the regional variation in the socio-demographic and clinical profile of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infected patients at antiretroviral therapy plus centre of Sawai Man Singh (SMS) hospital, Jaipur, India.  Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted on HIV patients from January to December 2019. The HIV-positive patients of all age groups and all categories were included in the study. The socio-economic status was assessed by BG Prasad classification-based consumer price index. However, the clinical staging was done according to the World Health Organization (WHO) classification of HIV/AIDS. Data were expressed as mean ± standard deviation. Results: Among 525 HIV patients 59.16% were males, 40.26% females and 0.57% intersex. About half (51.0%) in the reproductive age group with mean age 36 ±13 years. The commonest mode of HIV transmission was heterosexual (89.77%). Maximum belonged to social class I (57.84%) and class II (26.05 %) of BG Prasad's socioeconomic status. Each of the non-agricultural laborers and semi-skilled workers constitutes 18.0%, and the housewives were 23.6%. At the time of presentation, baseline CD4+Tcell count was <350 /mm3 in 55.0% of HIV patients. Pulmonary tuberculosis and skin involvement were the most predominant secondary opportunistic infections accounting for 24.8% and 7.8%, respectively. More than half (52.09%) of patients were in WHO clinical stage I of HIV disease. Conclusion: Socio-demographic and clinical profile of study participants reflect an impact of early case detection and timely institution of highly active antiretroviral therapy

EFFECT OF PREVIOUS SCORPION BITE ON THE EFFICACY OF INTRATHECALLY ADMINISTERED LEVOBUPIVACAINE IN SUBARACHNOID BLOCK

Objectives: Local anesthetics administered by spinal anesthesia acts through sodium channels. Mutations of sodium channels may be responsible for resistance to local anesthetic agents. The scorpion venom contains neurotoxins that block the sodium channels. In view of the high prevalence of scorpion stings in our region and observation of failure of spinal anesthesia in patients with a history of scorpion stings in routine practice, the present study is planned. Methods: Forty patients of the American Society of Anesthesiologists Grade I or II who were undergoing infraumbilical surgery were divided into two groups as S (patients with h/o scorpion bite) and C (patients with no such history). The subarachnoid block was given with 3.2 ml of injection Levobupivacaine 0.5% heavy using 26 gauzes Quincke spinal needle. A blind observer recorded a sensory block using a needle prick and a motor block using the Bromage scale. Onset of sensory and motorized block, time to peak of sensory, and motor block and its relation to number of scorpion bites were observed in both the groups. Results: The onset of sensory (2.61±1.68 mins) and motor blockade (2.91±1.80 mins) was significantly delayed in Group S (p=0.010 and 0.004, respectively). Time to peak of sensory and motor blockade was also prolonged in Group S (6.45±2.83 mins and 7.8±3.95 mins) compared to Group C (3.60±0.84 mins and 4.56±1.30 mins) which was statistically significant (p<0.05). Patients who had previous scorpion bites (Group S) had a significant failure rate of spinal anesthesia compared to the control group. Conclusion: In this study, it was observed that the patients with scorpion bites had a significant failure rate of spinal anesthesia, suggesting probable resistance to the local anesthetic agents

A PRECISE STUDY ON “BERBERIS ARISTATA

Indian barberry is a very common plant with miraculous therapeutic activity. This plant was being used from very ancient times. It generally has Habitat of North-western Himalayas, Nilgiris, Kulu, and Kumaon. Propagation of this herb is carried out during the spring season. It is listed in “Ayurveda” for the treatment of various dysenteries. It is well known as “Daruhaldi” in Ayurveda because it is having properties like turmeric. It is also used in different systems of medication like in Ayurveda, Siddha, and Yunani. Twigs are either white or pale yellowish-brown in colour. The bark is having a pale brown appearance on the outside and has deep yellowish colour inside. Leaves are obovate, with reticulated venation, and are arranged in tufts of five to eight. These leaves are having a glossy dark green appearance on the outside and a light green colour inside. Flowers are yellow and are usually bisexual. The fruits are bright red. The stem is subterete, pale brownish yellow. It chiefly contains “berberine” as an active phytoconstituent that belongs to alkaloids. Other than berberine it also contains contain barbamine, oxyberberine, palmatine, and taxilamine. Roots of Berberis aristata contain berberine, barbamine, Jatrorrhizine, columbamine and oxyberberine. This plant is having various therapeutic activities like; antibacterial, antiperiodic, antidiarrheal, antipyretic, antidiabetic, and anticancer activities. Several research works were performed for this plant with the use of systemic animal models. A significant result was obtained. Investigations suggested that it can be used as an antimalarial, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, hypoglycaemic, and hepatoprotective