Archives-J 

Universe is continuously expanding, and is observed to expand at a continuous increasing speed, much greater than that of light, though the theory of relativity destroys the relevance of this statement. This gave birth to a theory called Big Bang theory, which says universe was born from a single point, started from pure energy and then came matter, space, and time. Within a short time, it is said to have “fight” with anti-matter and a small part of total matter constructed this whole universe.

Mangifera indica L. (Anacardiaceae), commonly known as Mango, is a large evergreen tree indigenous to Asia and found throughout the Indian subcontinent. In the present study, the in vitro antileishmanial activity of petroleum ether, chloroform and methanol extracts from M. indica leaf was evaluated against Leishmania donovani (strain AG 83) promastigotes by in vitro promastigote cell toxicity assay by using MTT [3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5 diphenyltetrazolium bromide]. Here, all the test extracts markedly inhibited the growth of L. donovani promastigotes in vitro in a dose dependent manner. The methanol extract was found to be the most active followed by the chloroform and petroleum ether extracts respectively. Therefore, from the present study it can be inferred that M. indica leaf extracts exhibited remarkable antileishmanial activity against Leishmania donovani promastigotes in vitro.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a plan for reducing a lead time in a small scale furniture manufacturing industry by using Value Stream Mapping Technique with Value Engineering. In this paper VSM technique is applied in furniture manufacturing small scale industry to identify the ways of reducing waste while at the same time increasing the proportion of the processes that add value to the product. The wastes in this furniture industry is mostly in the form of over production, transportation and delay. The reasons observed are inadequate coordination among the operators, improper planning, non effective use of machine, improper flow etc. Here the flow process chart is constructed to calculate the number of operation, transportation, delay, inspection and storage with distance travelled by the product for existing and proposed methods in which considerable saving is achieved. Also the Current and Future VSM is created for small scale furniture industry which manufactures office tables. In this the lead time can be reduced considerably with the reduction in NVA time and the process time. There is a considerable rise in VA time of 10.41% with the value addition by modification of the table with less process time.

Sickle cell disease an inherited common blood disorder due to the presence of the abnormal haemoglobin S. This is a prospective study done at Kenyatta National Hospital that describes a point of care method for diagnosis of HbAS, HbSS, HbSC and HbAA using the Sickle SCAN™ test. It determines the sensitivity, specificity in comparison with haemoglobin electrophoreisis.These results validate the use of sickle Scan as a low cost method for screening and diagnosing children and adults with esickle cell disease.

The presence of heavy metal residues in food products is a potential hazard to humans and animals as these metals cannot be degraded and stay permanently in the environment hence there is a need to ascertain the safety of these products for human consumption. The concentration of heavy metal residues in meat, milk and cheese were assessed in three locations in Ondo State. A total number of 120 animals (comprising 30 cows and 90 bulls) and 30 cheese samples were sampled for the investigation. The samples were digested with concentrated nitric acid and the resulting solutions were analyzed using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer (AAS) for lead, copper, zinc, cadmium and chromium. The result revealed that the concentration of each metal was significantly (P < 0.05) different due to the location. The results were compared with Maximum Recommended Limit (MRL) as set by FAO. The cadmium concentration in the kidney samples obtained from Owo has a mean concentration level of 1.23mg/kg, which is above those collected from Ondo (0.53mg/kg). However, Cadmium was not detected in kidney samples from Akure. Chromium concentration was high in kidney samples from Ondo and Owo with values of 1.11 and 1.21mg/kg respectively than those recorded in Akure (0.31mg/kg). The mean level of copper in skeletal muscle from Akure (3.17kg/kg) was higher when compared with the 2 other locations (Ondo 1.48mg/kg; Owo 1.82mg/kg). The mean concentration of lead in skeletal muscle (2.09mg/kg) and kidney samples (0.89mg/kg) were significantly higher than liver samples (0.78mg/kg). Of these skeletal muscle, kidney and liver samples, 100%, 46.7%, 73.3% exceeded the MRL by FAO respectively. For cadmium, the result showed that kidney samples of slaughtered cattle contained a mean value of 0.59mg/kg. Also, the concentration of zinc in skeletal muscle and liver of slaughtered cattle were 37.65and 50.55mg/kg out of which 36.7% and 43.3% exceeded the MRL by FAO for skeletal muscle and liver respectively. The mean concentration of chromium is higher in kidney samples (0.88mg/kg) than skeletal muscle (0.77mg/kg and liver (0.83mg/kg). Of these skeletal muscle, kidney and liver samples, 16.7%, 36.7%, 20% exceeded the MRL as set by FAO respectively. Copper mean concentration was higher in liver samples (20.57mg/kg) of which 100% of liver samples exceeded MRL by FAO. 

Calibration of Harshaw 4500 Thermo luminescence Dosimeter (TLD) Reader was carried out using standard X-ray beam. The response of the TLD reader to the increasing dose was found to be linear and the dose response characteristics measured were 0.68 mSv, 1.80 mSv and 3.39 mSv which were comparable respectively to 0.55 mSv, 1.87 mSv and 3.76 mSv obtained following manufacturers specification. However, at doses below 500 mSv deviation was observed between the two procedures. The supervised and controlled areas at the radiology diagnostic centers were monitored using TLD badges over a period of 60 days. The dose levels obtained ranges from 0.13 mSv/hr to 0.2 mSv/hr for the conventional x-ray rooms and 0.10 to 0.35 to 0.16 mSv/hr for the waiting areas. The readings obtained established that the diagnostics centers were free from under exposure to ionizing radiation.

A laboratory investigation was undertaken to explore the production of cellulase enzyme complex and xylanase enzyme in the Boletus edulis, Ganodrema tsugae and Micoporus xanthopus. The result of the study revealed that the exo-B 1,4 glucanase activity, endo B-1,4 glucanase basidiocarp of mushrooms, viz., activity, B-glucosidase activity and xylanase activity were very much pronounced in Ganoderma tsugae (1.791 Umg-1 1.864 Umg-1,1.127 IUmg-1 and 0.142 IUmg-1 enzyme protien) than Boletus edulis (0.555 Umg-1,1.05 Umg-1,0.683 IUmg-1 and 0.063 IUmg-1 enzyme protein)and Microporus xanthopus (1.142Umg-1,1.503 Umg-1, 0.623 IUmg-1& 0.038 IUmg-1 enzyme protein).

Hydrodistilled flowers (500g) of Ageratum conyzoides yielded 0.25% v/w of essential oil. Characterization of the oil using GC, GC-MS revealed the predominance of demothoxyageratochromene. Other principal constituents were; ?-caryophyllene (19.5%), ?-cubebene (5.2%), germacrene D (3.9%), ?-caryophyllene (2.9%) and trans-?-farnesene (2.4%).

The reported incidence of thyroid nodules in children and adolescents is estimated to be between 1% and 2%. However, this incidence may be increasing because diagnostic radiological procedures are detecting incidental thyroid nodules in children and to find their correlation with histopathology. To Study the Demographic distribution of Papillary carcinoma of thyroid on USG-guided biopsy with free guided biopsy` and confirm the same with cytohistopathological diagnosis. The study was conducted in a teaching hospital for a period of 1 year. It was a prospective hospital based Study. Patients were explained about whole of the procedure & the consent for the procedure was taken in all patients. FNAC of thyroid gland was done both free guided and ultrasonic- guided and the results were correlated statistically followed by histopathological examination wherever possible. Out of 139 patients, maximum numbers of patients were in 31-40 age group i.e., 43 and minimum patients were in < 10 years and > 70 year age group. 24 patients were males and rest 115 were females. The diagnosis of thyroid lesions as per Betheseda System by USG and conventional FNAC. Cytological diagnosis of papillary carcinoma was made in 32 cases in ultrasound guided FNAC. Out of 32 patients, 30 were clinically euthyroid and 2 had clinical toxic features. Two cases was reported as unsatisfactory smears in free hand FNAC while as guided aspirates proved to be papillary carcinoma. Age ranged from 8 to 68 yrs., with mean age of 39.5 yrs. Majority were female numbering 27 and 5 were male. Comparison of neoplastic lesions results both by USG guided FNAC and Free Hand FNAC in 38 patients shows difference of 2 cases in Papillary carcinoma. Number of unsatisfactory smears were 4 and 1 in free and USG Guided FNAC respectively. The Histo-pathological results were same as that seen cytological study. Out of 30 cases of papillary carcinoma diagnosed on Free-Hand FNAC histopathology was available in only in 15 cases. The statistical significance of USG-guded FNAC as: Sensitivity 96.96%, Specificity 93.3%, Positive predictive value 96.96%,negative predictive vale 93.33%,diagnostic accuracy 95%.The statistical significance of USG-guded FNAC as: Sensitivity 90%, specificity 80%, positive predictive value 90%, negative predictive vale 80%, diagnostic accuracy 86.66%.

In recent years energy generation from renewable sources in clean, efficient and environment friendly manner is a real challenge. Among the various non conventional sources, photovoltaic(PV) generation using multilevel inverter topologies are widely used due to the economy of use, flexibility in control under partially shaded conditions and the high quality of voltage waveforms. This work focuses on a single phase nine level cascaded inverter using PIC16F877A microcontroller to generate the required gate signals. The notch angles for the gate signals are calculated using selective harmonic elimination method. Using this method the total harmonic distortion is minimized by eliminating the most significant low frequency harmonic components from the voltage waveforms. The high frequency harmonic components can then be easily eliminated using additional filter circuits. The entire setup has been simulated in MATLAB and verified using the hardware setup.