Archives-December 

It is observed that formal training given on basic communication skills (CS) during medical undergraduate years can help to develop better doctor patient relationship throughout the clinical practice. Developing communication skills was felt as a need through formal training as well as in assessment, hence Maharashtra University of Health Sciences, India, incorporated it in curriculum. To sensitize and train third year BDS students for communication skills and evaluate the module through their feedback. 55 third year BDS students were sensitized for communication skills through a module. The module was divided into four important aspects; 1) Components and barriers of effective CS while dealing with patients2) Training for effective communication viva voce examination 3) communicating effectively with different types of patients, 4) Improve Prescription writing as communication skill Knowledge gained by the participants through the module was statistically analyzed by comparing pre and post test results. At the end module was evaluated by the feedback obtained from students. Wilcoxon signed rank test used for comparison of responses before and after the implementation of module, showed highly significant differences. 98% students wrote in the feedback that the module was a key to learn nuances in routine clinical practice and guide to communicate well in viva. Sensitizing and training third year BDS students for communication skills was effective and would remain as an important component of University curriculum.

The purpose of writing the current paper is to formulate and rank strategies of Tehran Gas Company – one of the most powerful ones in Iran- by 2 different techniques: QSPM and fuzzy TOPSIS. After designing SWOT matrix and formulating 18 strategies, QSPM and fuzzy TOPSIS techniques were applied to rank strategies. The results of utilizing both techniques show that “Observing environmental, social and economical by employees’ training”, “Applying new technologies and utilization expert human resources to upgrade assessment and evaluation systems” and “Establishment affective customer relationship systems and projects timely execution to enhance liquidity and decrease the effect of inflation and sanctions” were selected as the most important ones but in different order. Finally by applying SAW technique two applied techniques were comprised in which showed fuzzy TOPSIS technique obtains better and more credible results.

The aim of the present study is to formulate and evaluate Captopril micro-encapsules. Microspheres and micropellets of captopril prepared with different polymers through the techniques of microencapsulation were found to have a good spherical shape, and were non-aggregated exhibiting good flow properties. In addition, all the formulations prepared, showed a good drug incorporation efficiency and an extended release of the drug, thereby enhancing the duration of action. The different techniques used in the preparation such as, emulsion-phase separation, solvent-evaporation and ionotropic- gelation techniques were found to be simple and reproducible. All the polymers used viz, chitosan, ethyl cellulose, sodium alginate and HPMC were economic, easily available and biocompatible. And hence, the industrial applicability of the methods would be simple and rapid, provided the work being extended to in-vivo studies. It is obvious from the above work that, the study has engineered a drug delivery profile in which the drug release is controlled to a great extend and that the formulations in therapy can minimize untoward side effects, thus improving patient compliance.

The purpose of the present study was to formulate and evaluate once daily sustained release matrix tablets of carvidolol phosphate. Carvedilol Phosphate is a nonselective beta blocker indicated in the treatment of mild to severe congestive heart failure Various formulations of sustained release tablets of Carvidolol phosphate were developed using various polymers Guargum, SCMC, HPMC100M in different concentrations by direct compression method. Observations of all formulations for physical characterization had shown that, all of them comply with the specifications of official pharmacopoeias and a standards reference. Results of in-vitro release profile indicated that formulation(F9) was the most promising formulation as the extent of drug release from this formulation was high(100.75 %) as compared to other formulations.From the above results and discussion it is concluded that formulation of sustain release tablets of carvidolol phosphate containing Guar gum (33.33%) ,formulation F9 can be taken as an ideal for optimized formulation of sustain release tablets for 24 hours release as it fulfills all the requirements for sustained release tablets.

LAM or Pulmonary lymphangioleiomyomatosis is an uncommon disease that predominantly touches women in their reproductive years. The disease is usually discovered in an incidentally way and detected in a high resolution thoracic CT scan. Its progress could lead to respiratory failure. This article is about a patient in our ward that got a chest CT scan in which the final diagnosis was a lymphangioleiomyomatosis in a case of tuberous sclerosis complex.

In this study an extended geophysical survey using gravity and high angle refracted seismic methods with recorded earthquake has been carried out in Kerman province in southeast of Iran. The purpose of the applied geophysical surveys was to provide information on crustal structure and lithospheric thickness. The purpose of this research is focused on determination of Moho depth and for this reason several profiles for both methods were performed and by use of topography and gravity data with a reasonable combination with high angle refracted seismic data and earthquake record, the crustal and lithospheric thickness of Kerman province was calculated. Oldenburg- Parker algorithm was the base of gravity survey of the present work but by use of Matlab programming environment and generated C Sharp computer codes was optimized, improve and then executed. The key factor of this study was generated computer code, which named as “MOHO R.A.T 1.01”. For seismic data, a least-squares analysis of the travel-time data was made and the uncertainties were taking in to account. Finally, depth calculations for the velocity discontinuities and gravity anomaly contour maps were made. The comprehensive comparison between the obtained results and other studies on the selected area showed good agreement, which verified the ability of produced code.

The dairy waste, whey protein was modified by reaction with phthalic anhydride. The phthalated whey protein (PWP) and its mixture with bagasse, and corn cob were prepared. Such mixtures were used for removal of heavy metals (Pb, Cr, Cd, Ni, Cu, Fe and Zn) by batch adsorption method from electroplating industrial wastewater. In such a batch adsorption process the above adsorbent materials were used as bed and the parameters; effect of contact time, dosage, a temperature and pH were evaluated. The finding of this investigation reveals that the product natural adsorbents have excellent capacity to remove heavy metals from industrial effluents.

The Bibiani government hospital over the years has recorded high cases of hypertension, anaemia and muscoskeletal pain. Analysis of data acquired from the Bibiani government hospital showed that, cases of hypertension increased in the years 2015, 2016 and 2017. Similar trend was observed for the other diseases. Using the World Health Organisation standard age categorisation to know the age distribution of the reported cases, of the total number of cases reported for the respective diseases, the adult age group recorded higher percentages. The infant age group, recorded an abnormal percentage for anaemia cases. However, the high percentages recorded for the adult and infant age category needs to be investigated. The groundwater quality parameters were compared with the World Health Organisation WHO and Burae of Indian Standard (BIS). Essential trace elements namely Iron, Zinc, Copper and Magnesium were found to be deficient in the drinking water of the inhabitants of Bibiani. The deficiency of the above-mentioned trace elements can be assessed as a possible source to health problems in Bibiani.

Human health risk assessment on intake of fish contaminated with organochlorine contaminants has been investigated in seven fish species from Lake Bosomtwi and Weija Lake in Ghana. The species studied were Tilapia busumana, Hemiscrimis faciatus, Sarotherodon galileu from Lake Bosomtwi and Tilapia zilli, Tilapia nile, Tilapia galilaea and Clarius gariepinus from Weija Lake. Risk assessment was carried out by estimating daily exposure as well as carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic implications on consumption of the studied fishes. Estimated daily exposures to OCs on dietary intake of fish were in the range of 0.002 µg/kg to 0.176 µg/kg and 0.001 µg/kg to 0.0892 µg/kg for children and adults respectively. Consumption of Clarias gariepinus indicated the highest health risk to organochlorine exposure. Children were exposed to more OCs than adults on consumption of the same quantity of contaminated fish. Estimated daily exposures however, fell below USEPA reference doses. Cancer hazard analysis showed that more than one in a million of the consuming population could get cancer on eating Clarias gariepinus due to hexachlorocyclohexanes (HCHs) contamination. However, consumption of the investigated fish from Lake Bosomtwi presents no risk of cancer. Organochlorines were extracted from samples by sonicating on an ultrasonic bath with hexane/acetone solvent system and organochlorine contaminants were determined using capillary gas chromatograph equipped with electron capture detector.

This paper presents comparative study and simulation results for different Hybrid Multilevel Inverter configurations. This paper covers hybrid multilevel inverters such as cascaded multilevel inverter with high voltage low-frequency pulse width-modulation (PWM) and low voltage high frequency pulse width-modulation (PWM) and series connected half-bridge modules hybrid multilevel inverters. Here the operating principle of each topology is discussed with a review of the relevant modulation method focusing mainly on total harmonic distortion (THD). Such multilevel inverters achieve higher power quality with a given switch count when compared to traditional multilevel inverters. The purpose of the circuits presented here is to minimize the reverse voltage stress that affects the power switches and decrease the harmonic distortion of the voltage applied to the load.