Archives-August 2014

The aim of the present study is to formulate and evaluate buccoadhesive compacts of Lacidipine. Compacts were prepared with different grades of polymers like HPMC, Carbopol and Ethyl cellulose by direct compression technique. Compacts were evaluated for weight uniformity, thickness, surface pH, mucoadhesive strength, in vitro residence time and in vitro release. Physicochemical properties and content uniformity were found well within limits. FTIR studies showed no evidence on interaction between drug, polymers and other excipients. Surface pH and swelling index was found in the range of 6.42 to 6.80 and 44.83 – 97.87 %. F2 formulation showed controlled drug release of 90.42% in 8h and selected as optimized formulation. Optimized compacts were not dislodged within 8h. In vivo mucoadhesion studies showed that compacts were retained for more than 8h. Mucoadhesive force was found in the range of 3.47 to 5.82 N. Stability studies has been be performed for 3 months on the optimized formulation concluded that there were no significant changes in drug content and in vitro dissolution characteristics than initial results. The results indicate that suitable compact of lacidipine HCl with in vivo residence time and control release could be formulated for commercial scale.

Global concerns about the depletion of the world`s non- renewable energy sources and the associated environmental impact of fossil fuel provided the incentives to seek alternative to petroleum based fuels. Nigeria is no exception in the fears for crude oil production going extinction as recently stated by the energy commission of Nigeria. Alternative renewable foundin vegetable oils such as palm kernel oil (PKO) abound in Nigeria forest. In this work, biodiesel was produced from palm kernel oil. Potassium hydroxide was selected to catalyze the transesterification process with methanol. The temperature was varied between 50oCand 70oC and catalyst weight varied between 2.5g and 3.5g. The highest amount of biodiesel (205 ml) was obtained at temperature of 70oC and 3.5g catalyst weight gave highest of biodiesel (210 ml). The biodiesel was characterized and the measured properties found to be closed with that of petroleum diesel. The fuel characterization carried out show that the biodiesel produced can successfully fuel a diesel engine by the level of agreement between the results obtained and fossil fuel.

Road runoff water harvesting is a process in which the water flowing in the road side drains along the hills or plains can be transported and stored in a reservoir and can be used subsequently for agricultural or domestic use. Road runoff harvesting can solve water shortage problems of various hamlets and villages located adjacent to hills and Highways with side drains. This paper focuses on introduction of this system in India and its viability in Indian scenario.

An analysis is carried out to study the parametric influences of thermal radiation and first order chemical reaction on a two dimensional unsteady heat and mass transfer flow of Newtonian viscous incompressible fluid past an oscillating plate with Soret effect. It is observed that, the temperature and the fluid velocity decrease due to increase in Peclet number (Pe), whereas the concentration as well as the velocity is found to decrease as mass transfer Peclet number ( ) increases. It is also seen that, the vorticity vector of fluid particles increases due to increase in frequency parameter and time but found to decrease as mass transfer Peclet number increases.

Modelling is an important part of any large scale decision making process in a system. There are large numbers of factors that affect the performance of the system. It is not possible for the human brain to keep track of the all the players in the system, their interactions and interrelationships at a time. Therefore, to get the solution of the complex theoretical problems, one resort to the techniques, which are simple to use. Also, these techniques should be capable to reproduce all the essential and important relationships of the reality. Mathematical modelling is one such basic technique. This paper presents a literature review of the work done by several researchers to study the problems faced by industries, using mathematical modelling; particularly in the field of Diffusion innovation, Inventory Control and Production function.

The present students at the tertiary level need a learning environment in which they seek more involvement. The challenge for the English language teacher is to create such a situation and enhance the morale of the students. Cooperative learning certainly does augment the motivational levels of the students and provides a platform for better learning. The present paper explores the cooperative learning as a learning strategy and includes the findings of a questionnaire on English language learning at the tertiary level in VIT University. As competition is valued over cooperation, a student should be made aware of the need for healthy and positive interaction.

A numerical analysis is carried out to study the effects of mass transfer and thermal radiation on a steady boundary layer flow of a viscous incompressible electrically conducting fluid with uniform transverse magnetic field and variable free stream near a stagnation point on a non-conducting stretching sheet through a porous medium in presence of variable thermal conductivity, heat generation and viscous dissipation. The equations of continuity, momentum, energy and mass are transformed into ordinary differential equations and solved numerically using shooting method. The velocity, temperature and concentration distributions are discussed numerically and presented through graphs. Skin-friction coefficient, Nusselt number and Sherwood number at the sheet are derived, discussed numerically and their numerical values for various values of physical parameters are presented through tables.

Knowledge inspires human behaviours and actions and also influences the nature and directions of development. The study of knowledge [sources and contents] technically known as epistemology is traditionally rooted in philosophy. However, this branch of philosophy being bedeviled with much controversy has shredded scholars into various groups and created relationship impasse between them. Consequently, modern direction of development became adversely affected with its emphasis on the material aspect of mankind and nature. This method reduces the spiritual/ metaphysical aspect of mankind and nature to state of triviality in modern development. Thus we suffer personality crisis as we live without knowledge of ourselves and our world. Therefore, this paper betook itself to explore a complementary epistemology based on the spiritual aspect of human nature. This model is couched in Carl Jung’s Psycho-Religious ideality. The paper discovers through Histo-religious and philosophical investigations that the centerpiece of Jung’s epistemology/metaphysics hinges on ‘Collective unconscious. Jung’s epistemology oscillates between psychology, sciences, philosophy, various religious traditions and mythology and he uses the composite knowledge of these disciplines to guide humanity in her desire for holistic knowledge. Against this backdrop, this paper concludes that if Jung’s Psycho-Religious epistemology is explored as a complementary epistemic system for the 21st Century, then humanity would have attained a holistic knowledge of herself and nature and this will reduce the violation of all lives and in consequence facilitates a balanced development.

Adopting critical discourse analysis, this study investigated good and evil roles of women in 30 top-grossing action movies with the following objectives: 1) to examine the verbal and non-verbal elements in women’s representation and 2) to trace significant changes in good and evil roles of female characters between 1930 to 2012. Findings indicated that good female characters were kind and gracious in the first two eras. They were allowed to fight on the battlefield in the new era. The classic good characters used imperatives while they showed their supporting nature by using modal verbs in the new Hollywood. Evil women appeared as sexy alluring spy in the second era. They got supernatural power in the last era. The post-classical villains preferred to use imperatives, but they used a variety of verbs to reveal their villainy in recent movies.

An analysis of Mongolian idioms reveals that there is lot of cultural significance which could be compared with cultural context of other society especially Tamil society. The paper highlights some of the idioms used in Mongolian cultural context and presents the meaning of each idiom. The study is made in general perspective and the meaning of each idiom is explained both in Mongolian and Tamil context. The culture of Mongolia has been heavily influenced by the Mongolian nomadic way of life. A few idioms used in the contexts of family life, discussion with older people and village people are analyzed and their contextual significance is highlighted. The present attempt is to bring out the contextual relevance of some of the Mongolia idioms and show how significantly they fit into Tamil culture and tradition.