Archives-November 2011

Air pollution is one of the serious environmental problem now-a-days, particularly in urban areas of all over the world. Pollution of air is broadly due to particulate matter dispersed in it or gaseous pollutant like CO, NOx, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), completely miscible with it in various proportions. PAHs are one of the carcinogenic compound observed in environment due to automobile exaust and other sources. In this work PAHs samplings were done by collection of particulate matter (PM) with the help of cascade impactor. Cascade impactor collect the respirable PM. The effect of these particulate matters were also observed on the basis of size of PM. For this purpose three sampling sites were selected at various petrol pump of Hissar city. Both indoor and outddor sampling were done for this . PAHs analysis were done with the help of high pressure liquid chromatography.

The aim of this work was to determine the concentrations of some essential elements ( Br, Ca, Fe, Mg, Mn, Na, K and Cl ) in the muscle of three species of commercial fish, Dentex macrophthalmus, Sardinella maderensis, Engraulis encrasicolus (fin fishes) and a Mollusk (Cymbium cymbium ) consumed in Ghana. The concentrations of the elements in the four marine organisms from different areas along the coast of Ghana were determined using Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis (INAA). The irradiation using thermal neutrons were done using the Ghana Research Reactor – 1 (GHARR – 1) facility at Ghana Atomic Energy Commission, Kwabenya. Only the edible tissues of the marine organisms were analyzed. The range of concentrations of the essential elements measured in the studied samples were : Br (2.7-33mg/kg), Ca (2150-9300mg/kg), Fe (50.2-90.3mg/kg), Mg (3300-7700mg/kg), Mn (0.18-9.88mg/kg), Na (3600-21700mg/kg), K (9900-17400mg/kg), Cl (3960-9400mg/kg). The precision in terms of relative standard deviation was within ±4. The accuracy of the method was evaluated by analyzing a reference material. Our values were within ±3% of the certified or information values in all cases.

Digital image processing is now increasingly being used in electron accelerators to characterize electron beam. Measurement of electron beam parameters like beam size, beam centroid with high accuracy is required to optimize accelerator performance. Measurement accuracy of these parameters using digital image processing is limited by the noise present in the images. Reduction of noise without altering the features present in the image is a desired goal of image processing. In this paper we evaluate the noise reduction capability of median, mean, gaussian and wiener filters from digital images of electron beam image. The images were collected from Transport Line-1 in Indus Accelerator Complex at Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology (RRCAT), Indore, India. We also evaluate the effect of these filters on the measurement accuracy of beam parameters like beam size and beam centroid. It has been observed that performance of median filter for noise reduction is better than mean, gaussian and wiener filter. Median filter also creates less distortion in beam size and centroid of the beam in comparison with other filters.

Different node splitting criteria are available for the construction of classification and regression trees. Two of these criteria i.e. Gini and Twoing criterion have been implemented in CART (Salford systems, 1995), Entropy function in C4.5 (Quinlan, 1993) etc. These criteria provide similar results especially for the small number of categories but not for large. To overcome this problem, we proposed a new node splitting method for the construction of classification trees. The performance of the new method is compared with conventional methods using two real life datasets and it is observed that the new method gives better results in terms of misclassification and deviance.

This paper aims at examining the state capacity in enforcement of environmental standards in the context of organizational development, central to which is the need for continuous effectiveness. The neo-liberal proponents presuppose that with a limited scope of functions, the state becomes more effective and efficient in discharging its core functions. From the mid 1980s Tanzania has been implementing neo-liberal reforms. A new environmental policy was formulated in 1997 then followed by the enactment of the new environmental management legislation in 2004. The question is, to what extent have these changes improved the Tanzanian state capacity in effectively managing the environment? The central argument of the paper is that in spite of the changes in the policy and legal framework in order to improve its mandate, the state, through the National Environmental Management Council (NEMC), is still institutionally impaired to the extent it cannot effectively ensure and monitor compliance with environmental standards. This then suggests that the assumption that the state’s capacity would be enhanced if the state had concentrated on its ‘core’ functions requires re-examination.

Wearable computing has variety of applications in which Body Sensor Network (BSN), or Wireless Body Network (WBN) used for pervasive health monitoring and pervasive smart environment. Application of sensors is increasing in the modern environment. In this paper an attempt has been made for probable preventions of drunken and medically affected driving strategies. This leads the future generation vehicles which are invisible servant or pervasive in nature to use pervasive intelligence based inbuilt application such as automatic configuring of car accessories. This paper deals with various characteristic parameter based analysis and design of a smart vehicles that guides the said categories of drive systems. Our simulation results proved good enough for drunker (or) medically affected drunken strategies, with the selected set of the unique parameters under consideration for our experiment.

Diabetic neuropathy is a type of nerve damage that is seen in people who have diabetes. This makes it difficult for the nerves to carry messages to the brain and parts of the body. Diabetic neuropathy can result in numbness or painful tingling in different parts of the body. Diabetic neuropathy can affect any part of the nervous system. This nerve disorder should be suspected in all patients with type 2 diabetes and in patients who have had type 1 diabetes for more than five years. About 60 to 70 percent of people with diabetes have some form of neuropathy. People with diabetes can develop nerve problems at any time, but the risk increases with age and duration of the disease. The highest rates of neuropathy occur among people who have had diabetes for at least 25 years and among people who have trouble controlling their blood sugar levels, as well as those with high levels of blood fat and blood pressure and those who are overweight. Diabetic neuropathy is long-term damage to the nerve fibres. It happens when high blood glucose levels are present over several years. In diabetes, the form it usually first takes is reduced sensation in the feet. The nerve damage affects each foot equally and eventually spreads up the legs. Poor sensation in your feet makes them more prone to injury. Combined with poor circulation this can easily lead to ulcers and infections. As community Pharmacist becomes a consultant for patients who are put on therapy. He counsels the patients about the disease process and simultaneously role of drugs. He informs the patient of drug interations and adverse reactions.

In this work the antibacterial activity of several steroid derivatives (compounds 1, 2 and 3)againstE. coli,S. Typhi,K. pneumoniae and S. aureuswas performed according to NCCLS (now CLSI)²² with some modifications. The results indicate that compounds 1, 2 and 3 induce antibacterial activity against both K. pneumoniaeand S. Typhiin a dose-dependent way.In addition, the growth bacterial of E. coliwas inhibited in presence of the compound 2 and 3. These experimental data obtained in this study, suggest that antibacterial activity of steroid derivatives against to E. coli, K. pneumoniae, V. cholerae and S. tiphy may depend of chemical structure.

Hexane, diethyl ether, dichloromethane and ethyl acetate extracts of twenty five plant species, including fourteen varieties of leaves, five varieties of whole plants, two varieties of barks and one variety of flower, fruit, seed and root were tested for ovicidal activity against Culex quinquefasciatus at 1000 ppm. During preliminary screening, significant ovicidal activity was observed in all four solvent extracts of Cleistanthus collinus, Hydrocotyle javanica, Leucas aspera, Murraya koeingii, Sphaeranthus indicus and Zanthophyllus limonella.  Solvent crude extracts of plants showing maximum ovicidal activity were selected and treated at 500 ppm. The percentage of egg hatchability significantly reduced in different solvent extracts of above mentioned plants and eggs treated with different plant extracts varied from 26.59 per cent  in diethyl ether extract of Murraya koeingii  to 82.61 per cent in hexane extract of Leucas aspera.

The cyclic voltammetric measurement and molecular interaction studies using ultrasonic technique of Cu(II),Ni(II) and Pb(II) complexes of  8-[2-Methoxy-5-(propane-1-sulfonyl)-phenylazo]-naphthalene-1-ol using DMSO, were carried out at 303 K. The cyclic voltammetric were carried out at a stationary platinum electrode in DMSO with 0.1M tetrabutylammonium per chlorate (TBAP) as a supporting electrolyte. The measured values of ultrasonic velocity, density, acoustical parameters, adiabatic compressibility and free length are evaluated. From the properties of these parameters the nature and strength of the interactions in these complexes and oxidation, reduction behaviors were discussed.