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One of the many visions of the National Education Policy 2020 (NEP, 2020), is to make efforts to internationalize the higher education system of the country. The purpose of internationalization is to make sure that like the universities from Europe, the US, Australia and other whitecentric geopolitical locations of the world, the universities in India can attain global distinctions in terms of rankings, publications, curriculums and pedagogies. However, the execution process is plagued with flawed, superficial and grossly researched policies. To explain further, the initiatives for internationalizing the higher education systems are being undertaken at a rapid pace and in uncritical ways. For example, the focus of internationalization is centered on private universities, with not much focus on government-run institutions. In the name of student and faculty exchange programs, the universities in India are being flooded with white academicians whose physical visibility matters more than scholarliness. Their visibility on the university campuses is regarded as a potential marketing tool to initiate various forms of degree programs and motivate students to pay enormous amounts of registration fees. This opinion piece discusses how the project of internationalization of universities in India is engulfed with the phenomena of cargo cultism and whiteness syndrome. The arguments have been supported with personal conversations with two research participants from two private universities that are based in Noida and Hyderabad. Besides personal conversations, the arguments have also been supported by informal conversations with friends and colleagues and by analyzing photos, videos, and writings that are posted on social media by the university as markers of appreciation and success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products (PPCPs) are synthetic compounds widely used as consumer items such as cosmetics and therapeutic drugs across the globe. The inappropriate disposal of PPCPs in the environment has raised serious concerns regarding their potential adverse impacts on human and animal health. Hence, the present study aims to delve into the environmental contamination of numerous PPCPs and their detrimental impacts on biota and climate change. Mining of data published in the relevant literature has revealed that active ingredients of PPCPs and their metabolites generally invade the ecosystem via multiple sources. Varying concentrations of these contaminants are reported in surface water, groundwater, and wastewater treatment plants. The majority of PPCPs pose acute and chronic toxicity to living organisms. They adversely affect the structure and function of the algal community along with the feeding, mating, metabolic activities, and reproductive behavior of invertebrates, fishes, and higher vertebrates, including humans. The occurrence of antibiotic resistance in bacterial populations as a response to PPCP contamination is another health concern. In addition, targeting mitochondrial respiratory proteins and cytochrome enzymes by PPCPs might contribute to the onset of multiple physiological ailments. Studies have deciphered the connection between PPCP contamination and methanogenesis, which could potentially impact climate change. Several degradation methods have been used for the removal of PPCPs. However, none of them completely remove the PPCPs from samples. Therefore, developing more advanced eco-friendly approaches is warranted for better treatment of PPCPs in water media. In addition, further investigations are required for the risk assessment of several PPCPs that have not yet been investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: To design and develop propranolol hydrochloride sustained-release tablet formulations using different grades of HPMC and MCC and their in vitro evaluations. The effect on drug release from tablets and other characteristics by various grades of polymers were studied and compared. Materials and Methods: Propranolol hydrochloride, microcrystalline cellulose (PH-101), Microcrystalline Cellulose (PH-102), HPMC (K15 M), HPMC (K100 M), HPMC (K4 M), HPC LF, Isopropyl alcohol, Povidone (K-30), Magnesium Stearate were used in the different formulations. Direct compression, dry granulation and wet granulation methods were used for the preparation of tablets. Results: Among different formulations, SR008 having HPMC K100M was showing better sustained release characteristics, 69.1%, 76.6%, 82.3% for 8, 10, 12 hr respectively compared to other formulations with 71% moisture content and 71N hardness. Conclusion: The matrix embedding technique using HPMC K100M has successfully extended the release of propranolol hydrochloride. It is particularly suitable for obtaining directly compressed sustained-release matrix tablets with appropriate standards and well-reproducible drug release profiles. In contrast to thrice daily prescriptions of the conventional formulation, the designed formulations can be prescribed once daily dose leading to a reduction in dosing frequency and per-day drug dose. It is concluded that HPMC K100M in appropriate proportions is suitable for formulating sustained-release tablets which exhibit diffusion-controlled Higuchi kinetics for propranolol hydrochloride. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study uses full-field thermo-mechanically coupled crystal plasticity to simulate the stress distribution in thermally strained β-Sn films to better understand the conditions causing the generally rare nucleation of whiskers from such films. Following the notion that stress-driven diffusion along the grain boundary network is leading to and supporting whisker formation, the goal is to identify critical factors of crystallographic and/or geometric nature that influence the hydrostatic stress in such films prior to the onset of actual whisker formation. Approximating the film as a periodic structure of around a hundred columnar grains on an isotropic substrate, the simulations reveal a strong spatial variation of hydrostatic stress over distances comparable to the grain size but without apparent long-range gradients, suggesting whisker nucleation to be a phenomenon that depends on specifics within a relatively small neighborhood of grains. Furthermore, neither the grain size distribution nor the presence of oblique surface grains alters the width of the stress distribution by much. In contrast, the variation of hydrostatic stress notably depends on the crystallographic texture of the film, where β-Sn films for which the film normal is aligned with ⟨ 0 0 1 ] show a narrower distribution than films with ⟨ 1 0 0 ] parallel to the normal. The former film texture, therefore, is predicted to be less prone to whisker formation than the latter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]