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The aim of the present study is to analyse the transesterification of blend of high free fatty acid FFA) sunflower oil with low free fatty acid algae oil. The high FFA content of sunflower oil is reduced by blending it with low FFA algae oil so that the resultant oil will be converted into biodiesel at low temperature using single-step base-catalyzed transesterification process. The process parameters of transesterification were optimized using response surface methodology (RSM). Box–Behnken experimental design was adopted and the three process parameters considered were methanol to oil percentage (v/v) (20–60%), catalyst concentration (0–2 wt%) and reaction time (60–180 min) at constant temperature of 50 °C. The results of the present work indicate that RSM has good predictability with an optimized biodiesel yield of 95%. The optimum conditions for the reaction were found to be methanol/oil percentage of 60% (v/v), catalyst amount of 1.392% (w/w) for a reaction time of 130 min at a constant temperature of 50 °C. A significant quadratic regression model with a value of R2 of 0.99 was obtained.

Biodiesel production from algae oil at low temperature as well as a comparative study of response surface methodology (RSM) and artificial neural networks (ANN) for the modeling of yield and process parameters was carried out in this research work. Box–Behnken experimental design was adopted and the three process parameters considered were methanol to oil percentage (v/v) (20–60%), catalyst concentration (0–2 wt%) and reaction time (60–180 min) at constant temperature of 50 °C. The results of the present work indicate that ANN has good predictability as compared to RSM. A significant quadratic regression model with value of R2 of 0.99 and 0.96 was obtained in case of ANN and RSM respectively.

We read with great interest the results of the recently published Riociguat Safety and Efficacy in Systemic Sclerosis (RISE-SSc) trial1 and believe that additional analyses could further elucidate the role of riociguat in systemic sclerosis (SSc). First, considering the pleiotropic (antifibrotic, anti-inflammatory and antiproliferative) actions of riociguat, an analysis of the radiographic findings [pattern- cellular non-specific interstitial pneumonia (NSIP), fibrotic NSIP or usual interstitial pneumonia (UIP); and …

The genome is traditionally viewed as atime-independentsource of information; a paradigm that drives researchers to seek correlations between the presence of certain genes and a patient’s risk of disease. This analysis neglectsgenomic temporal changes, which we believe to be a crucial signal for predicting an individual’s susceptibility to cancer. We hypothesize that each individual’s genome passes through anevolution channel(The termchannelis motivated by the notion of communication channel introduced by Shannon1 in 1948 and started the area ofInformation Theory), that is controlled by hereditary, environmental and stochastic factors. This channel differs among individuals, giving rise to varying predispositions to developing cancer. We introduce the concept ofmutation profilesthat are computed without any comparative analysis, but by analyzing the short tandem repeat regions in asingle healthy genomeand capturing information about the individual’s evolution channel. Using machine learning on data from more than 5,000 TCGA cancer patients, we demonstrate that thesemutation profilescan accurately distinguish between patients with various types of cancer. For example, the pairwise validation accuracy of the classifier between PAAD (pancreas) patients and GBM (brain) patients is 93%. Our results show that healthy unaffected cells still contain a cancer-specific signal, which opens the possibility of cancer prediction from a healthy genome.

The current paradigm in data science is based on the belief that given sufficient amounts of data, classifiers are likely to uncover the distinction between true and false hypotheses. In particular, the abundance of genomic data creates opportunities for discovering disease risk associations and help in screening and treatment. However, working with large amounts of data is statistically beneficial only if the data is statistically unbiased. Here we demonstrate that amplification methods of DNA samples in TCGA have a substantial effect on short tandem repeat (STR) information. In particular, we design a classifier that uses the STR information and can distinguish between samples that have an analyte code D and an analyte code W. This artificial bias might be detrimental to data driven approaches, and might undermine the conclusions based on past and future genome wide studies.

Jatropha curcas plants are cultivated to obtain the oil extracted from the seeds. Owing to the toxicity of J. curcas seeds, they are not ingested by humans. The oil yield depends on the type of oil extraction method used. This is partly inaccurate, since an effective extraction method would only yield the optimum quantity and not more than that however, the extraction of oil also depends upon the lipid contents present in the seed. The optimum oil content in J. curcas plants varies from species to species.

Continued use of petroleum-sourced fuels is now widely recognized as unsustainable because of depleting supplies and the contribution of these fuels to the accumulation of carbon dioxide in the environment. Renewable, carbon-neutral, transport fuels are necessary for environmental and economic sustainability. Biodiesel derived from oil crops is a potential renewable and carbon-neutral alternative to petroleum fuels. Unfortunately, biodiesel from oil crops, waste cooking oil, and animal fat cannot realistically satisfy even a small fraction of the existing demand for transport fuels. As demonstrated here, microalgae appear to be the only source of renewable biodiesel that is capable of meeting the global demand for transport fuels. Like plants, microalgae use sunlight to produce oils but they do so more efficiently than crop plants. Oil productivity of many microalgae greatly exceeds the oil productivity of the best-producing oil crops. Approaches for making microalgal biodiesel economically competitive with petrodiesel are discussed in this chapter.

Energy is the capacity to do work and requires supply and end-use technologies for effective conversion. The energy system delivers the benefits of providing energy to consumers for applications like illumination, cooking food, comfortable indoor temperature, refrigeration, transportation, and other commercial and industrial activities. Energy has been universally recognized as one of the most important inputs for economic growth and human development and, therefore, is a strong two-way relationship between economic development and energy consumption. On one hand, the growth of an economy with its global competitiveness, hinges on the availability of the cost-effective and environmentally friendly energy sources and, on the other hand, the level of economic development has been found to be dependent on the different types of energy demands.

Sharjah National Oil Corporation (SNOC) currently operates 3 fractured carbonate mature gas-condensate fields with some 35 years of production history. Until recent years these fields were operated by leading International Oil Companies (IOCs) which utilised some of the then latest technologies, such as underbalanced coil tubing drilling in order to maximise the production rate. The reservoir development and management scheme, however, did not involve gas re-injection to maintain reservoir pressure above the dew point. This led to production by simply blowing-down the field. Since there was negligible aquifer support the reservoir pressure declined rapidly and the dew point pressure was reached within 3 years, resulting in condensate drop-out in the reservoir. It is estimated that more than half of the original condensate in place still remains in the reservoir, although more than 97% of the gas in place has already been produced and the reservoir pressure have declined to around 10% of initial pressure. In order to determine the location and quantity of condensate remaining in the field, dual porosity reservoir models were created with legacy data which replicated the naturally fractured reservoir. These models were history matched and gas injection simulation runs were performed in order to estimate the injection rates, reservoir pressure increase, field communication and potential for condensate re-vaporization and mobilisation theory at a variety of pressures. This theory was put to test and confirmed when SNOC recently performed a pilot gas injection project in one of its fields. A mixture of processed gas from the gas plant was injected and allowed to stabilise. The new mixture of injected and reservoir gas was reproduced to estimate the deliverability and ability of dry gas to vaporise the in-situ condensate. A fundamental challenge with SNOC was to determine the PVT property of the initial reservoir fluid from a surface recombined sample which made it extremely difficult to decipher the original fluid properties and history matching the reservoir model. Utilising the field for gas storage can help elevate the reservoir pressure and increase the vaporisation of condensate, however since the field is naturally fractured it is susceptible to the injected gas fingering into a producing well. SNOC now plans to continue the next phase of the project to mature the modelling work, evaluate various sources of injection gas, understand the project uncertainties and establish the conditions required for the ECR project to be economically viable. This paper discusses the challenges, observations and its conclusion through the pilot gas injection project and its impact on the decision making for large scale implementation of enhanced condensate recoveries in the Middle East. Maximizing field development objectives by combining various opportunities is the key to determining sustainability in the lower oil price environment. This paper demonstrates how new technology combined with large volumes of legacy data can provide the perfect platform to evaluate the potential for enhanced condensate recovery (ECR) projects and take informed decisions for operators.

The paradigm of the cloud computing model brings the expectations of the services consumed from the cloud to be always on and available for global consumption around the clock. Hence, the challenge for the service providers becomes to accommodate the planned maintenance windows to keep them to a minimum duration in order to reduce the impact on the consumers of their services. In this paper, we assess the continuous delivery methodology called Blue/Green deployment which targets to enable service updates with zero maintenance windows, and thus with no disruption to the end users. To overcome current issues we proposed an optimized Blue/Green technique based on automated service discovery, dynamic routing and automated application deployment. Our experiments indicate that the service discovery based Blue/Green deployment has a better performance for service continuous delivery compared to the available technologies.

Purpose Intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) is widely used in the treatment of head and neck cancers (HNC). There is not enough evidence to suggest that some radiation oncologists (ROs) are associated with better outcomes in patients with HNC. We conducted a cross-sectional analysis to evaluate the effect of ROs' characteristics on outcomes in patients with HNC treated with IMRT. Methods and materials The study used the Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results-Medicare linked database to identify patient characteristics. Physician records were obtained from the American Medical Association. Logistic regression models with propensity scores were analyzed to look for an association between RO characteristics and patient outcomes. Results RO characteristics showed that approximately 30% of ROS completed their training in or after the year 2000 (recently trained), and 17% were in top decile of treatment volume (high volume). Less than 3% of ROs work in academic settings. We found that ROs who were recently trained have higher odds (odds ratio [OR]: 1.10; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.011-1.191) compared with those who were not. In addition, ROs who were treating high volumes of patients have higher odds (OR: 1.08; 95% CI, 1.010-1.165) compared with those treating low volumes of an event of adverse effect of IMRT or death among patients. ROs who work in academic settings have a protective effect (OR: 0.72; 95% CI, 0.569-0.925). Conclusions ROs who were recently trained and had a high treatment volume are associated with poorer outcomes among patients with HNC who receive IMRT treatment.

Background: Fractures of tibia shaft are most common of long bone fractures. Proximal tibia fractures account for approximately 5% to 11% of all tibial injuries and affect knee function and stability in most of the cases. Higher rates of malunion and increased incidence of associated complications have made these fractures particularly problematic. In recent years due to advancement in technique, proximal tibia plating and multidirectional locked intramedullary nailing, both have become widely used treatment modalities for proximal tibial metaphyseal fractures. This study was performed to compare plating and nailing options in proximal tibia extra-articular fractures. Materials and methods: This randomized prospective clinical study was conducted on 62 skeletally mature patients with closed extra-articular fracture of the proximal tibia treated with proximal tibial locking compression plating (PTLCP) or intramedullary nailing (IMN) by expert surgeons at a tertiary trauma center. Results: Postoperative hospital stay (p = 0.043), postoperative infection rate (p = 0.036) were significantly high in the PTLCP group than in the IMN group, while rate of malunion (p=0.041) and nonunion(0.037) were significantly high in IMN group than in PTLCP group. However there was no clear advantage of either technique in terms of functional recovery of knee. Conclusion: Present comparison of IMN and PTLCP for the treatment of proximal one third tibia fracture showed no clear advantage of either technique. Present study concluded that both forms of treatment (IMN and PTLCP) provide adequate fracture stability. Level of evidence: Level 2, randomized controlled trial.

Municipal solid waste (MSW) management is becoming a serious issue in all over the world. Anaerobic digestion (AD) is one of the technologies to convert that waste into useful form of energy. But megacities like Singapore having limited resources, cannot fulfill the cow dung or other animal manure requirements in AD. Therefore there is a need to study critically the operating parameters and also the pretreatment technologies available for treating the substrate so that one can get the maximum output with limited input. To fulfill the need, the present paper deals with the review of various operating parameters and their effects on AD. This paper also reviews different pretreatment methods including mechanical, thermal, chemical and biological methods to improve the effectiveness of AD of MSW.

The production of biofuels as alternative energy source over fossil fuels has gained immense interest over the years as it can contribute significantly to reduce the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from energy production and utilization. Also with rapidly increasing fuel price and fall in oil wells, the present scenario forces us to look for an alternative source of energy that will help us in the operation of industrial as well as the transportation sector. The pulp mills in India are one of the many options. The pulp mills in India can help us to produce bio-fuels by thermo-chemical/biochemical conversion of black liquor and wood residues. These technologies include extraction of hemi-cellulose from wooden chips and black liquor, lignin from black liquor, methanol from evaporator condensates, biogas production from waste sludge, syngas production from biomass using gasification and bio-oil production from biomass using pyrolysis. The objective of this paper is to overview these emerging bio-refinery technologies that can be implemented in Indian Forest Industry to get bio-fuels, bio-chemicals and bio-energy to reduce GHG emissions.

The present work demonstrates a new variant of the harmony search (HS) algorithm where bandwidth (BW) is one of the deciding factors for the time complexity and the performance of the algorithm. The BW needs to have both explorative and exploitative characteristics. The ideology is to use a large BW to search in the full domain and to adjust the BW dynamically closer to the optimal solution. After trying a series of approaches, a methodology inspired by the functioning of a low-pass filter showed satisfactory results. This approach was implemented in the self-adaptive improved harmony search (SIHS) algorithm and tested on several benchmark functions. Compared to the existing HS algorithm and its variants, SIHS showed better performance on most of the test functions. Thereafter, the algorithm was applied to geometric parameter optimization of a friction stir welding tool.

The objective of this study was to study the cold flow properties of JCB (Jatropha curcas biodiesel) and WCB (Waste cooking oil biodiesel). For the purpose two methods were examined experimentally viz. winterization and blending of biodiesel samples with petro diesel and kerosene. Winterization was found to be effective as it improved the cold flow properties of biodiesel samples but at the same time decreased the yield and stability due to partially removal of saturated fatty acids. Blending was found to be more favorable for improvement in cold flow properties of biodiesel without any effect on yield, however, the biodiesel become more stable after blending. The CP and PP (pour point) for JCB for B20 blends with petro diesel were reported as 14.9 °C and 14 °C respectively, however, for WCB it was 12 °C and 11.5 °C respectively. Kerosene K20 samples was showing best result as the reported CP and PP were −1 °C and −2.2 °C respectively for JCB. However in case of WCB blends with kerosene, the reported CP and PP for K20 blends are −10.5 °C and −12 °C respectively.

In prospective study from November 2011- November 2013, we performed 44 laparoscopic nephrectomies for benign non-functioning kidney diseases. Twenty eight patients underwent laparoscopic transperitoneal nephrectomies (63.6%), ten were laparoscopic assisted (22.7%) and six (13.6%) were converted to open. Patient's age, gender, laterality and etiology of renal failure were noted. Outcomes were measured as operative time, intraoperative and post operative complications, blood loss, pain score and hospital stay. Patients were followed up at one, three and 12 weeks and 6 monthly thereafter. Of the 44, ten (22.7%) were 15-24 years old, 32 (72%) between 25-50 years and two were more than 50 years old. Females were 54.6%. 22 patients had either right or left nephrectomy. Pelviureteric-junction (PUJ) obstruction was the commonest cause, 26 cases (59.0%). Operative time: less than two hours in 30 (68.2%) patients, more than two hours in 14 cases. Blood loss: less than 100 ml in 12 (27.3%), 100-200 ml in 20 (45.4%) and more than 200 ml in 12 (27.3%) patients. All four major complications were converted to open, two had injury to mesocolic veins and two had vascular stapler malfunction. Post-operative complications: surgical site infection (SSI), paralytic ileus and mild grade fever in six cases each and non infected benign intra abdominal collection in two cases. Maximum pain score on POD-1: four in 20 cases (45.7%), two in 24 (54%). Two had pain score between 3-4 three weeks after surgery. Oral intake started by POD-2 in 30 (68.2%) and by POD-4 in 100% cases. 22 (50%) patients were ambulating by POD-2, 16 (36.7%) by POD-4. Our study and randomized and non-randomized published literature report acceptables complication and conversion rates. In conclusion, laparoscopic nephrectomy for benign non functional kidney is a better alternative to open nephrectomy.

A 35-year-old male presented with repeated episodes of fever and abdominal pain of 3-month duration. He had been hospitalized twice with similar complaints in the past 3-month. He was diagnosed as pyelonephritis and managed with intravenous antibiotics. However, fever recurred after ten days of discharge from the hospital. With these complaints, he was referred to the Department of Medicine, AIIMS, New Delhi. After evaluation, he was diagnosed as pyelonephritis with right sided consolidation and was started on broad spectrum antibiotics. After a transient initial improvement, his dyspnea worsened, fever recurred and he developed a tender submandibular abscess. Further evaluation for the actual focus of infection, revealed a small mass attached to the right coronary aortic cusp on transthoracic ECHO. Diagnosis of native Aortic valve endocarditis was made and suitably treated. The patient became afebrile on the 8th day of therapy and was discharged after 20-day. He is doing well on subsequent follow-up.

Introduction: Asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) patients constitute a major portion of the inflow of a medical Out Patient Department (OPD). Incorrect use of Metered Dose Inhalers (MDI) is a significant barrier in improving the quality of medical care given to most patients with chronic respiratory diseases. Aim: This study was carried out to analyse the issues pertinent to incorrect MDI use and to assess the impact of a quality improvement initiative involving practical demonstration of correct technique using a standardized checklist. Materials and Methods: This was an interventional pre and post-test study conducted in medical OPD among COPD or asthma patients already on MDI. A baseline assessment of correctness of MDI use technique was done based on ADMITGINA guidelines, following which a practical demonstration of correct technique was done. These patients were followed up after one month and their technique was reassessed. The mean score was calculated for each patient pre and post intervention based on the correctness of steps and was compared using paired t-test. Results: Total 56 out of 102 patients completed the study. The mean score of MDI technique knowledge was 3.5±1.5, which increased to 6.7±1.2 after intervention (p

In the present study, an attempt has been made to estimate the snow/glacier melt contribution in the head water region of the Beas Basin using a conventional hydrograph approach and a modeling (SNOWMOD) technique. The discharge and other meteorological data from 1996 to 2008 of the Manali site were used for the study. The results of SNOWMOD modeling reveal that snow/glacier melt contribution to the Beas River in the head water region varied between 52 (minimum) and 56% (maximum) with an annual average of 54% during the study period. The results obtained using the conventional approach showed the contribution of snow/glacier melt varied between 48 (minimum) and 52% (maximum) with an annual average of 50%. Results obtained using both techniques corroborate each other. This study reveals that the Beas River is mainly sustained by the snow/glacier melt contribution in the head water region.

Mining colossal patterns is one of the budding fields with a lot of applications, especially in the field of bioinformatics and genetics. Gene sequences contain inherent information. Mining colossal patterns in such sequences can further help in their study and improve prediction accuracy. The increase in average transaction length reduces the efficiency and effectiveness of existing closed frequent pattern mining algorithm. The traditional algorithms expend most of the running time in mining huge amount of minute and midsize patterns which do not enclose valuable information. The recent research focused on mining large cardinality patterns called as colossal patterns which possess valuable information. A novel parallel algorithm has been proposed to extract the closed colossal frequent patterns from high-dimensional datasets. The algorithm has been implemented on Hadoop framework to exploit its inherent distributed parallelism using MapReduce programming model. The experiment results highlight that the proposed parallel algorithm on Hadoop framework gives an efficient performance in terms of execution time compared to the existing algorithms.

Duplication mutations play a critical role in the generation of biological sequences. Simultaneously, they have a deleterious effect on data stored using in-vivo DNA data storage. While duplications have been studied both as a sequence-generation mechanism and in the context of error correction, for simplicity these studies have not taken into account the presence of other types of mutations. In this work, we consider the capacity of duplication mutations in the presence of point-mutation noise, and so quantify the generation power of these mutations. We show that if the number of point mutations is vanishingly small compared to the number of duplication mutations of a constant length, the generation capacity of these mutations is zero. However, if the number of point mutations increases to a constant fraction of the number of duplications, then the capacity is nonzero. Lower and upper bounds for this capacity are also presented. Another problem that we study is concerned with the mismatch between code design and channel in data storage in the DNA of living organisms with respect to duplication mutations. In this context, we consider the uncertainty of such a mismatched coding scheme measured as the maximum number of input codewords that can lead to the same output.

Introduction A retrocaval ureter is a rare congenital anomaly associated with upper urinary tract obstruction. It can cause varying degrees of ureteral obstruction, and surgical intervention is often necessary. Here, we present a case of a retrocaval ureter repaired with the single-incision multiport laparoendoscopic technique. We used a new fixation technique, Santosh PGI (Postgraduate Institute) ureteric tacking fixation technique, on both ureteric ends for easy ureteroureteric anastomosis. Materials and Surgical Technique A 45-year-old man presented with right loin pain. CT urography showed a retrocaval ureter. Because the patient was symptomatic, he underwent retrocaval ureter repair by the single-incision multiport laparoendoscopic technique. A double-J stent was placed in the right ureter with the patient in the lithotomy position. Then, the patient was placed in a modified flank position. After pneumoperitoneum was created, a 2.5-cm incision was made in the umbilicus, and three conventional laparoscopic ports were inserted. The narrow retrocaval segment of ureter was resected, and both spatulated ureteric ends were fixed using the Santosh PGI ureteric tacking fixation technique, and ureteroureteral anastamosis was done. The duration of the procedure was 105 min. The patient was discharged from the hospital on postoperative day 3. Follow-up intravenous pyelography at 3 months showed normal drainage. Discussion The single-incision multiport laparoendoscopic technique is feasible and cost effective, has good cosmesis, and has minimal morbidity when performed by an expert laparoscopic surgeon. The Santosh PGI ureteric tacking fixation technique enabled us to suture easily and rapidly within the limited range of motion allowed by conventional laparoscopic instruments in SILS.

Neuroendocrine tumour (NET) of the urinary bladder (UB) is a rare entity and comprises of well-differentiated, small cell and large cell types. Small and large cell NET like that in lung and gastrointestinal tract have an aggressive nature and are considered high-grade disease. Well-differentiated NET has been thought to be localised and having a good prognosis. We report the first case of metastatic well-differentiated NET of the UB. Our case is a 44-year-old man with well-differentiated NET of UB presented with hepatic and peritoneal metastases on initial diagnosis. He was treated with metaiodobenzylguanidine (MIBG) therapy and had a modest survival of 16 months. The primary well-differentiated NETs can present as a metastatic disease with an aggressive nature. MIBG therapy can be considered as a useful option but overall prognosis is poor. Further research is needed for better understanding and better treatment protocol.

Background: Specialised female surgical clinics are the need of the day and not addressed routinely in the Surgical Department. The management of surgical problems in female patients requires multidisciplinary approach mainly general surgery, obstetrics and gynaecology, general medicine, paediatrics, dermatology and psychiatry. The aim and objective was to introduce a new concept of subspecialty and super speciality in management of female surgical diseases.Methods: Prospective educational interventional study. 18 out of 60 sensitised interns were introduced and oriented in the specialised female surgical clinic. A total of 952 patients visiting the Clinic were studied. Statistical analysis was done.Results: Feedback of female patients were taken and recorded in a proformas and their analysis was done. There was a significant improvement in the knowledge and skill of the participating interns. 99.2% (944 cases) of the female patients were willing to continue their visit to such a specialized clinic in future.Conclusions: It can be concluded that there is a requirement and need of a fully functional specialized female surgical Clinic in our hospital.

We read with great interest the article on ‘Mycophenolate mofetil versus cyclophosphamide for remission induction in ANCA-associated vasculitis: a randomized, non-inferiority trial’ by Jones et al .1 The trials of mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) for induction in antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA)-associated vasculitis (AAV) done previously were single-centre studies mostly restricted to patients with microscopic polyangiitis (MPA), predominantly from South East Asia.2 3 We commend the authors for including a large population of patients with AAV of different age groups, with true representation of both granulomatosis with polyangiitis, and patients with MPA from different countries, thus overcoming the limitations of previous studies and possibly bringing us closer to the true estimate of efficacy of MMF as an induction agent in AAV. However, certain aspects of this study require clarification and discussion. First, median baseline estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) of 51 mL/min/m2 of the trial patients did not improve considerably at 6 or 18 months in either of the two arms (online supplementary figure 1B of the paper). Non-reversibility of renal dysfunction with immunosuppressive therapy raises a suspicion of a component of chronicity to the underlying renal disease. Since patients with recent decline (eGFR …

Present paper deals with the evaluation of oxidation stability of metal contaminated biodiesel/diesel blend. Effectiveness of different antioxidants with respect to different biodiesel/diesel blends has also been checked. It is found that pyrogallol (PY) is the most effective antioxidant. As the % of diesel is increased in the blend, the oxidation stability of biodiesel/diesel blend also increased. From the experiments it is found that B-100 required large amount of antioxidant for maintaining the specification followed by B-30, B-20, B-10 and B-7 samples with metal contents. Therefore it is possible to attain requisite oxidation stability of metal contaminated biodiesel by blending 70% petro-diesel in Jatropha curcas biodiesel (JCB). This optimum combination is expected to reduce the cost of biodiesel substantially and require lower quantity of antioxidant. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The present paper deals with the study on the effect of metal contamination on the storage stability of Jatropha curcas biodiesel (JCB). Taking Pyrogallol (PY) as the most effective antioxidant based on the earlier work of the authors, JCB was mixed with different transition metals – Fe, Ni, Mn, Co and Cu in different concentrations with and without PY. Induction period (IP) was measured using Rancimat method (EN 14112). Based on the results, several correlations were developed for assessing the storage stability in terms of IP as a function of antioxidant concentration (A), metal concentration (M) and storage time (T). A comparison between the experimental IP values and those predicted by the correlation showed that about 95% of the predicted data points lie within ±12% deviation lines of the experimental results. This is the first study of its kind being reported showing the relationship of IP with antioxidant concentration, metal contaminants and storage time. The correlations developed can be used to predict the amount of antioxidants required to stabilize the JCB for predefined time period.

The aim of the present study is to investigate engine performance and the exhaust emissions of a diesel engine using oxidatively stabilized biodiesel. Biodiesel fuel used in the study was prepared from Jatropha curcas oil. Different samples with various metal contaminants, generally available in the metallurgy of the containers are oxidatively stabilized with antioxidant (PY) according to EN 14112. The brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC) of biodiesel fuel with and without antioxidant is more than that of petro-diesel fuel. The BSFC of biodiesel fuel with antioxidants is lesser than that of biodiesel fuel without antioxidants, but no specific trends were detected according to the type of metal content and amount of antioxidants. The combustion characteristics and exhaust emissions in diesel engine were not influenced very much by the addition of antioxidants in biodiesel fuel. Also performance and emission characteristics of unstablized biodiesel and stabilized biodiesel (stabilized for 6 months) are measured with respect to time.

Melatonin is widely used for sleep disorders in patients with a range of developmental disorders and neurodisabilities, who also frequently have epilepsy. The aim of our review was to examine published data to assess the evidence for melatonin affecting seizure control. The literature search revealed 26 papers apparently reporting an association between melatonin and epilepsy or seizures but seven of these did not provide relevant information. Of the three double-blind, randomised, controlled trials, two showed no overall worsening or improvement in seizures, and one recent trial reported a statistically significant reduction in seizures. The open studies reported conflicting results. The few studies on the effect of seizures on melatonin levels have reported that baseline melatonin levels may be low in patients with uncontrolled epilepsy and that levels increase markedly following seizures. The striking finding of this review is the paucity of relevant data from the remarkably small number of studies. These results allow no firm conclusions to be drawn, although it would seem reasonable to observe that there was no marked overall effect on seizures, neither improvement nor worsening. There is a need for large, well designed, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials to establish the role of melatonin in either predisposing to or decreasing the likelihood of seizures.

Botanically, green composites belong to an economically important seed plant family that includes maize, wheat, rice, and sorghum known as Saccharum offi cinarum. There are so many natural fibers available in the environment such as rice husk, hemp fibers, flax fibers, bamboo fibers, coconut fiber, coconut coir, grawia optiva and many others also. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a process to estimate the environmental feature and potential impacts related to a product, by organizing a directory of pertinent inputs and outputs of a product system, assessing the potential environmental impacts related with the said inputs and outputs, explaining the results of the inventory analysis and impact evaluation phases in connection to the objectives of the study. Particularly Bagasse, an agricultural residue not only becomes a problem from the environmental point of view, but also affects the profitability of the sugarcane industries. This chapter discusses the properties, processing methods and various other aspects including economic and environmental aspects related to green composites.

Thinking differently is a unique characteristic of a man, this fact was realized by R.J. STERNBERG (1988). He emphasized that thinking styles are preferred way of thinking. He classified 13 different thinking styles based on functions, forms, level, scope and leaning. On the other hand Emotional intelligence is a ability to sense, understand and effectively apply emotions for better inter personal relations (COOPER AND SAWAF, 1997). GOLEMAN (1995) characterized Emotional Intelligence as the ability of self awareness, mood management, self motivation, empathy and managing relationships. No doubt Thinking Style and Emotional Intelligence both are cognitive abilities of an individual. In this study an attempt has been to find the relationship of these two cognitive abilities. The objective of the study was to find out influence of various forms (monarchic, hierarchic, oligarchic and anarchic) of Thinking Styles on Emotional intelligence of teacher educators of teacher training colleges of Chhattisgarh state. The sample comprises of 25 male and 25 female teacher educators. They were administered part of 'Thinking Style Scale' (only FORMS of thinking style) developed by JOHN, SINGH AND VERMA (2006) and 'Emotional Intelligence Scale' developed by HYDE AND PATHE (2002). The obtained data was analyzed by calculating M, SD and't' value to test the significance of the hypotheses of the study. The results indicates that all the four FORMS of thinking styles have shown significant difference on emotional intelligence. Apart from this gender difference of teacher educators has also shown significant difference on emotional intelligence. I. Introducation :- The idea of styles of cognition was initially introduced by Allport (1937). The concept of thinking style is a relatively recent field for the researchers. Thinking style is major component of cognitive style. Thinking styles is based on the work done by R.J. Sternberg (1994) on 'mental self government'. Central to this theory is the notion that people manage their everyday activity, and their work field responsibilities by using thirteen (13) different thinking styles in a way that feel comfortable in it. Tables 13 thinking styles under 5 sections (Sternberg)

Cost effective management of Well Integrity is crucial for maintaining O&G production economics particularly in mature fields. Optimization of Workover resources, cost, time and associated production outage is the key for maximizing productivity. Monitoring wellbore completion through multi-tubular corrosion scanning provides the ability to operators in making this critical decision. Objective of this field trial conducted in the SNOC Sajaa field, onshore Sharjah, United Arab Emirates; was to determine thru-tubing high resolution metal loss across multiple barriers for well integrity assurance in single completion wells. Wells operating in a low pressure envelope during later life cycle are susceptible to collapse against the original pore pressure due to the loss in wall thickness from corrosion, particularly in the case of legacy packerless completions. Quantitative measurement of thickness in the tubing and casing strings independently was addressed by a real time Magnetic Impulse Defectoscope tool. Scanning metal thickness by measuring magnetic impulse decay including the qualitative detection of the fourth barrier was achieved in the downhole gas-condensate environment. The results were interpreted to classify the average wall loss profile in this pilot project. The results analyzed and presented in this paper demonstrate the effectiveness of continuous corrosion inhibitor using ¼″ capillary strings and direct annulus injection. In addition, a deterioration comparison of tubular integrity over 10+ years of production in a high temperature low pressure corrosive (H2S & CO2) system is presented. Effectiveness and limitations of the Electromagnetic survey against Multi-Finger Caliper is compared and the importance of repeatability in well integrity testing is also demonstrated. An insight into the metal detection accuracy through multiple tubulars and the fundamentals of well integrity assurance in mature assets is presented. Finally, evaluating the true need for intervention- method and timing, resulting in the reduction of mature well life cycle costs in the current low oil price environment.

Background Tuberculosis (TB) of the gastrointestinal tract and any other organ within the abdominal cavity is abdominal TB, and most guidelines recommend the same six-month regimen used for pulmonary TB for people with this diagnosis. However, some physicians are concerned whether a six-month treatment regimen is long enough to prevent relapse of the disease, particularly in people with gastrointestinal TB, which may sometimes cause antituberculous drugs to be poorly absorbed. On the other hand, longer regimens are associated with poor adherence, which could increase relapse, contribute to drug resistance developing, and increase costs to patients and health providers. Objectives To compare six-month versus longer drug regimens to treat people that have abdominal TB. Search methods We searched the following electronic databases up to 2 September 2016: the Cochrane Infectious Diseases Group Specialized Register, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), PubMed, Embase (accessed via OvidSP), LILACS, INDMED, and the South Asian Database of Controlled Clinical Trials. We searched the World Health Organization (WHO) International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP) and ClinicalTrials.gov for ongoing trials. We also checked article reference lists. Selection criteria We included randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that compared six-month regimens versus longer regimens that consisted of isoniazid, rifampicin, pyrazinamide, and ethambutol to treat adults and children that had abdominal TB. The primary outcomes were relapse, with a minimum of six-month follow-up after completion of antituberculous treatment (ATT), and clinical cure at the end of ATT. Data collection and analysis Two review authors independently selected trials, extracted data, and assessed the risk of bias in the included trials. For analysis of dichotomous outcomes, we used risk ratios (RR) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Where appropriate, we pooled data from the included trials in meta-analyses. We assessed the quality of the evidence using the GRADE approach. Main results We included three RCTs, with 328 participants, that compared six-month regimens with nine-month regimens to treat adults with intestinal and peritoneal TB. All trials were conducted in Asia, and excluded people with HIV, those with co-morbidities and those who had received ATT in the previous five years. Antituberculous regimens were based on isoniazid, rifampicin, pyrazinamide, and ethambutol, and these drugs were administered daily or thrice weekly under a directly observed therapy programme. The median duration of follow-up after completion of treatment was between 12 and 39 months. Relapse was uncommon, with two cases among 140 participants treated for six months, and no events among 129 participants treated for nine months. The small number of participants means we do not know whether or not there is a difference in risk of relapse between the two regimens (very low quality evidence). At the end of therapy, there was probably no difference in the proportion of participants that achieved clinical cure between six-month and nine-month regimens (RR 1.02, 95% CI 0.97 to 1.08; 294 participants, 3 trials, moderate quality evidence). For death, there were 2/150 (1.3%) in the six-month group and 4/144 (2.8%) in the nine-month group. All deaths occurred in the first four months of treatment, so was not linked to the duration of treatment in the included trials. Similarly, the number of participants that defaulted from treatment was small in both groups, and there may be no difference between them (RR 0.50, 95% CI 0.10 to 2.59; 294 participants, 3 trials, low quality evidence). Only one trial reported on adherence to treatment, with only one participant allocated to the nine-month regimen presenting poor adherence to treatment. We do not know whether six-month regimens are associated with fewer people experiencing adverse events that lead to treatment interruption (RR 0.53, 95% CI 0.18 to 1.55; 318 participants, 3 trials, very low quality evidence). Authors' conclusions We found no evidence to suggest that six-month treatment regimens are inadequate for treating people that have intestinal and peritoneal TB, but numbers are small. We did not find any incremental benefits of nine-month regimens regarding relapse at the end of follow-up, or clinical cure at the end of therapy, but our confidence in the relapse estimate is very low because of size of the trials. Further research is required to make confident conclusions regarding the safety of six-month treatment for people with abdominal TB. Larger studies that include HIV-positive people, with long follow-up for detecting relapse with reliability, would help improve our knowledge around this therapeutic question. Six-month therapy for people with abdominal tuberculosis What is abdominal tuberculosis and why is duration of treatment important? Abdominal tuberculosis (TB) is a type of TB that affects the gut, the peritoneum (the lining of the abdominal cavity), abdominal lymph nodes, and, more rarely, the solid organs in the abdomen (liver, pancreas, and spleen). Abdominal TB leads to severe illness in adults and children, and can cause complications, such as bowel rupture, which can lead to death. Most current guidelines recommend treating people that have abdominal TB with antituberculous treatment (ATT) for six months, but some clinicians treat for longer periods due to concerns that six months is not adequate to achieve cure and prevent relapse of the disease after the end of treatment. Longer ATT regimens have disadvantages: patients may find it more difficult to adhere to the tablets; patients are exposed to the risk of side effects of ATT for longer periods; and the cost to health systems and to patients is greater. What the evidence shows Cochrane researchers examined the available evidence up to the 2 September 2016. We included three trials with 328 participants that compared six-month ATT with nine-month ATT; two were from India and one was from South Korea. The trials were mostly of high quality, although two had concerns of risk of bias for detecting relapse of the disease. All the trials included HIV-negative adults with TB of the gut (gastrointestinal TB), and one also included TB of the peritoneum (peritoneal TB). The results show that relapse was an uncommon event, but we are uncertain whether or not there is a difference between the six-month and nine-month groups as numbers of participants are small (very low quality evidence). Six-month and nine-month regimens are probably similarly effective in terms of the chances of achieving cure (moderate quality evidence). Death was uncommon in both groups, and all deaths occurred during the first four months of ATT, which suggests that duration of treatment did not have an effect on risk of death. Few people had poor treatment compliance, and few participants experienced side effects that led to their treatment being stopped or changed, and it was not possible to detect a difference between the groups. Six-month regimens are probably as good as nine-month regimens in terms of numbers of people cured. We found no evidence to suggest that six-month regimens are less safe for gastrointestinal and peritoneal TB than nine-month regimens, but we still do not know whether there is a difference in risk of relapse between the two regimens. Further studies are needed to increase our confidence as to whether six-month regimens are as good as nine-month regimens for preventing relapse; and to provide information about treating abdominal TB in children and in people with HIV.

We study the tandem duplication distance between binary sequences and their roots. This distance is motivated by genomic tandem duplication mutations and counts the smallest number of tandem duplication events that are required to take one sequence to another. We consider both exact and approximate tandem duplications, the latter leading to a combined duplication/Hamming distance. The paper focuses on the maximum value of the duplication distance to the root. For exact duplication, denoting the maximum distance to the root of a sequence of length n by f(n), we prove that f(n) = Θ(n). For the case of approximate duplication, where a β-fraction of symbols may be duplicated incorrectly, we show using the Plotkin bound that the maximum distance has a sharp transition from linear to logarithmic in n at β = 1/2.

Green composites are important class of biocomposites widely explored due to their enhanced properties. The biodegradable polymeric material is reinforced with natural fibers to form a composite that is eco-friendly and environment sustainable. The green composites have potential to attract the traditional petroleum-based composites which are toxic and nonbiodegradable. The green composites eliminate the traditional materials such as steel and wood with biodegradable polymer composites. The degradable and environment-friendly green composites were prepared by various fabrication techniques. The various properties of different fiber composite were studied as reinforcement for fully biodegradable and environmental-friendly green composites.