Archives-January 2015

The preparations available in the market for the treatment diseases have several disadvantages like greasiness, inconvenient to store and requires applicator or use of fingertip, which may lead to contamination. Therefore, it was found essential to find an alternative to counter all the above disadvantages effectively and hence in the present work, formulation and development of medicated derma sticks has been planned with the drug, salicylic acid that has keratolytic activity. The preparation and characterization of medicated sticks was carried out in four phases. Phase I studies includes optimization of non medicated sticks using the ointment bases with varied concentrations of waxes which is done by measuring the parameters like weight, thickness and length. From these parameters optimized formula is screened out. Phase II studies involves incorporation of medicament in the optimized formula by heating and congealing process. Phase III studies includes characterization of prepared medicated sticks for weight variation, thickness, length, size, shape and drug content uniformity. Phase IV studies involves in vitro drug diffusion studies by using prehydrated cellophane membrane for 160 minutes in pH 7.4 phosphate buffer showed an excellent drug release. Primary skin irritation studies carried out on guinea pigs, showed no sensitization and edema on skin after 72 hrs of application. Stability studies conducted for a period of 3 weeks and FT-IR Spectral analysis conducted. The results of present study revealed that the prepared medicated sticks of salicylic acid are convenient, equally effective, without any contamination chances on application and free from skin irritation.

The present investigation was to develop and characterize orally disintegrating tablets (ODT) of cinnarizine using sublimation technique. ODT of cinnarizine were prepared using different subliming agents like camphor, thymol and different concentrations of menthol using direct compression method. Compatibility study between drug and excipients was done by DSC techniques, found compatible. The porous sublimed and non sublimed granular blends were examined for angle of repose, bulk density, tapped density, compressibility index and Hausner’s ratio. The prepared tablets were evaluated for general appearance, content uniformity, hardness, friability, taste evaluation, mouth feel, wetting time, in vitro disintegration time, and in vitro dissolution studies. Tablets with menthol at 10.0% concentration have shown desired disintegrating features, i.e., within 20s. The dissolution study revealed that menthol at a concentration of 10.0 %W/W of the dosage form weight was able to improve the release of cinnarizine. The study concludes that sublimation technique is a useful to enhance the disintegrating and dissolution rate of poorly water-soluble drug like Cinnarizine.

In this study, the long-term impacts of poultry manure (PM) on vertical distribution of soil macronutrients (N, P, K, Ca and Mg) have been determined. In addition, change in other soil fertility indicators such as organic matter (OM) and cation exchange capacity (CEC) levels were assessed. Soil samples from four depths (0-15, 15-30, 30-60, and 60-120 cm) from the sites were analyzed. Generally, the mean total soil nitrogen increased with depth in the cultivated poultry manure amended soils up to 60cm depth and decreased sharply at depth range 60-120 cm in both wet and dry seasons. At both the cultivated and uncultivated sites at Deduako, available P levels were highest at the top 15 cm depth of the soil and decreased rapidly with increasing depths for both seasons in both the cultivated and uncultivated sites. The exchangeable K content at Deduako during the wet and dry season was significantly higher at all sampling depths than the corresponding depths of uncultivated land. Generally, the exchangeable Ca levels were significantly higher in cultivated soils at the experimental sites than those of the uncultivated land. There were significantly higher exchangeable Ca levels in wet season than that of dry season at both sites. Significantly higher (p < 0.05) Mg levels recorded in wet season. The OM contents at all sampling depths of cultivated site were also higher than that of the uncultivated sites. At the Deduako vegetable site, during the wet season, the CEC in cultivated soils at the various sampling depth were significantly higher (p < 0.05) than those of uncultivated soil. Increases in all selected soil properties were, generally, higher in the wet season than the dry season.

Novel series of compounds containing 2-(2-substituted benzylidene hydrazinyl)-4-(4-(4-methoxyphenyl) piperazin-1-yl)-6-(4-tolyl oxy)-1,3,5-triazine (s-triazine) derivatives were synthesized. The formed compounds have been evaluated by physical methods (melting point, TLC, elemental analyses) and upon spectral data (IR and NMR). The newly synthesized compounds were also evaluated for antimicrobial activity against variety of bacterial strains in which some of these derivatives exhibited potential antibacterial and antifungal activity.

The content of a kidney image can be expressed in terms of different features such as auto correlation, contrast, promenance, shade, dissimilarity, energy, entropy, homogeneity, maximum probability, variance, co-variance, correlation, inverse difference moment and inertia. Retrieval methods based on these features can be varied depending on how the feature values are combined. Many of the existing approaches assume linear relationships between different features, and also require users to assign weights to features for themselves. In this paper, we study the neural network-based image retrieval system. This approach allows the user to select an initial query image and incrementally search target images through training the images which are stored in the image database. The experimental results show that this approach provides better image retrieval performance than the existing linearly combining approach methods.

Erosion and sediment yield are important factors that should be taken into account in planning renewable natural resource projects. The EPM model is extensively used to erosion and sediment yield assessments in many catchments of Iran. Because of ambiguities in the validity of the results of EPM model, the objective of this study is to evaluate the output results of this model in five small catchments, Semnan Province, Iran using sediment deposited in reservoir constructed in the outlet of these catchments. The Specific Sediment Yield (SSY) in five reservoirs was assessed by measuring the volume and mass of deposited sediment in the reservoirs and also by characterizing the reservoirs and their respective catchments. The primary data for EPM model was obtained from topographic maps, aerial photographic interpretation, earlier studies and field survey by a team with different professional backgrounds in order to score each model’s factors. Model performance was evaluated by using Nash and Sutcliff’s Model Efficiency (ME) and the Relative Root Mean Square Error (RRMSE). Result showed that although the amount of Model Efficiency is located in acceptable area (0.056) but no high efficiency. The Relative Root Mean Square Error (79.3) show the efficiency of model is low as well.

This study was conducted to determine the prevalence and genetic profile of the rotaviruses involved in gastroenteritis among children in Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, Nigeria. Two hundred and five stool samples were collected from children (1-5yrs) presenting diarrhea at the paediatrics Departments of five hospitals. The stool samples were screened, using Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay. Sixteen stool samples were found positive, representing 7.8% prevalence. Children within 1-2years had 4.39% while those within 3-5years recorded 3.41%.During dry season, the prevalence was more (4.87%) compared to the rainy season (2.93%). Identification of the rotavirus strains using reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) revealed genotypes such as G1, G2, G8, P4, P8, and P6. Hospital and community based studies should be encouraged in order to have a more clear picture about the prevalence and the strains of the virus in circulation in the studied area.

This study was aimed at determining the uptake of heavy metals (Cd, Pb, Ni, Fe and Zn) by plant (Talinum triangulare) if cultivated at some waste dumpsites in Uyo metropolis. Soil samples were taken within 0-15cm and plant samples were collected in triplicate and analysed using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer (AAS). Mean results obtained from the soil and plant samples indicated Fe to have the highest concentration (216.29±29.15mg/kg and 243.339±12.622mg/kg respectively) which is significantly higher than its control (124.00mg/kg and 78.375mg/kg respectively). Concentration of Pb in both dumpsite soil and plant samples were below detectable limit. These results when compared with the acceptable standard revealed that all the metal levels in both soil and plant samples were within the acceptable limits accept Cd in soil sample. Transfer factor for Fe was 1.13, while others were below 1. All the metals showed positive relationship except Cd (-0.60).

In this paper, the motivation has been to give new explicit expressions for the stationary distribution of the buffer content for a fluid queue driven by an M/M/1 queue. The expressions of the buffer content distribution is derived in terms of modified Bessel functions. Finally, numerical assessment is presented to visualize the buffer content distribution.

The focus of this study was to examine the effect of the Millennium Village Primary School Meal Project on enrolment rate and attendance of pupils in public primary schools in Yala Division, Siaya County, Kenya. The evaluation used both ex-post facto and case study research designs. The mixed methods was adopted because when both qualitative and quantitative designs are used in the same study, the strengths of both produce a research synergy in which the whole collective benefits are greater than what is obtained from either designs alone. A sample size of 179 respondents was selected using purposive sampling as well as stratified random sampling procedures. The respondents included the Area Education Officer (AEO), head teachers, other teachers, pupils, project staff and the parents through the Parents Teachers Association (PTA) membership. The instruments of data collection used in the study included questionnaires, interview guide, document analysis guide, Focus Group Discussion (FGD) guide as well as observation guide. The findings indicate that the project had significantly contributed to increased pupils enrollment as well as retention rates. In order to increase its visibility as well as sustainability, the study recommends that there is need for financial support from the government as well as capacity-building the parents on the project related activities like the tendering process so that they may participate and in the process ensure project sustainability.