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Various reactive species which are either radicals or non radicals formed during normal metabolic processes. Oxidative stress has been identified as a major causative factor in the development and progression of several life threatening diseases, including neurodegenerative and cardiovascular disease, Antioxidants play a vital role in preventing or delaying oxidation and scavenging free radicals. Plants have been used as exogenous antioxidants from several years. In this contest, the rhizome extracts of two important medicinal plants Curcuma amada Roxb and Zingiber officinale Rosc were investigated for antioxidant properties and phytochemical constituents. Antioxidant capacity of different solvent extracts of these plants was estimated by scavenging diphenyl picryl hydrazyl (DPPH), nitric oxide (NO) and hydrogen peroxide. The petroleum ether and alcohol extracts of Curcuma amada showed stronger antioxidant activity with IC50 values of 26-30µg/ml and 25-29µg/ml, respectively in all the methods while methanol extract showed moderate activity, while petroleum ether and ethanol extracts Zingiber officinale reported good scavenging activity in all the three methods with IC50 ranging from 25-30µg/ml except hydroxyl radical scavenging method. Petroleum ether extracts of both the test plants exhibited good inhibition of free radicals generated by DPPH, hydrogen peroxide and nitric oxide when compared to standard ascorbic acid. The phenolic substances are commonly present in all the studied extracts. Among the two medicinal plants tested, Zingiber officinale has better scavenging activity in all the performed methods followed by Curcuma amada. In the present study, potent antioxidant activity of Zingiber officinale and Curcuma amada extracts leads to scientific validation of these plants. A natural substance which is a part of daily diet and nutritional supplement with antioxidant property constitutes a new source of herbal drug.

New Cobalt(II) and Nickel(II) metal complexes of 2-aminothiazole (ATZ) and benzoate ion (BEN) ligands were synthesized under microwave irradiation. The empirical formulae and the structure of the complexes have been deduced from CHN analysis, electrical conductance, magnetic moment, electronic (DRS method), Infra Red spectra, TGA analysis, cyclic voltammetry and powder-XRD techniques. The low electrical conductance values indicate that the complexes are non-electrolyte (1:0) type. The electronic spectra and the magnetic moment indicate the structures of the complexes are found to be octahedral geometry. Infra Red spectra illustrate that 2-aminothiazole and benzoate ion is bonded to the metal ion in a monodentate approach. The antifungal activities of ligands and their cobalt(II) and nickel(II) metal complexes were studied aligned with the few microorganisms by agar - well diffusion method at 100,200 and 400 conc. µg/ml concentration. The prepared cobalt(II) and nickel(II) metal complexes show prospective action against the tested fungi as compared to free 2-aminothiazole ligand. The free radical scavenging action of the prepared complexes and the ligand has been resolute by measuring their interface with the stable free radical DPPH. The complexes have larger antioxidant activity as compared to the free ligand. DNA-binding properties have been calculated by fluorescence-emissions method. The obtained results suggest that the complexes powerfully bind to DNA because of metal complexes are well-known to speed up the drug action and the capability of healing agent which can repeatedly be enhanced leading coordination with a metal ion.

Objectives: 2-aminobenzonitrile is used as the starting materials for the synthesis of many biologically active compounds. The main objective of the study was to synthesize, characterization and biological evaluation of a binuclear bridged Cr(III) complex containing 2-aminobenzonitrile (N,Ndonor) and octanoate ion (OC) as ligands. Methods: This study formulated, the required mole ratio of 2-aminobenzonitrile in methanol and sodium octanoate in ethanol were added to the chromium chloride in methanol followed by microwave irradiation for few seconds after each addition by using microwave oven and the precipitate was filtered off, washed with 1:1 ethanol: water and characterized by various spectral studies and biological significance. Results: The resulted complex was investigated by the help of elemental analysis, molar conductance, magnetic moment, electronic spectra, FT-IR, cyclic voltammetry, thermal analysis and powder-XRD techniques. The spectral data’s indicates that the geometry of the complex is octahedral. The antimicrobial activities of ligands and their Cr(III) complex were studied by agar-well diffusion method. The free radical scavenging activity of the complex and the ligands has been determined by measuring their interaction with the stable free radical DPPH. DNA-binding properties have been studied by fluorescence-emission method. Conclusion: The formulated Cr(III) complex showed moderate and potential activity against the tested bacteria, enhanced activity against the fungi and larger antioxidant activity as compared to the free ligands. The DNA binding study result suggests that the complex strongly binds to DNA.

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Earth is known as a blue planet since 71% of it is covered with water. But the fact is that 96% of it is saline water so only 4% is available as fresh water that can be used by all life exists in the earth. So from this, it’s understood the significance of fresh water. So a proper water management system is essential for the society. Continuous monitoring of water level from the resource will give an idea that how many days more users could use water which is available in the open-well or bore-well. Attaining the water level from the source, it provides a control valve at the outlet of house-top tank which will be operated by the control action provided by the actuator according to the water level present in the source which is already assigned by user. Arduino is easier to access and more user-friendly for common people, and more than that the system operation will be easier. A GSM-based monitoring system will be more helpful for common people too. Automatic water tank filling and dry pump protection are also an essential part of this system for smooth availability of water for all household works.

The Farmer Producer Company (FPC) can serve as a potential alternative to improve the socio-economic condition of the farmers. The present study was conducted with Velliangiri Uzhavan Producer Company Limited (VUPCL), located at Thondamuthur block in Coimbatore district. The primary data were collected through personal interview from 50 members and 50 non-members of selected Farmer Producer Company (FPC). The study revealed that membership in the company directly affected the socio-economic conditions of the coconut farmers in the study area. Using various statistical techniques it was found that members of the Farmer Producer Company (FPC) were highly benefitted compared to non-members of the company. A significant difference between the members and non-members was also observed in terms of socio-economic conditions.

Background: The mastoid process characteristics are of great utility in the determination of sex. Studies on human skeletal remains for sex determination have been a topic of interest among researchers. Osteometric studies using individual bones exhibiting sexual dimorphism have been reported among different populations. Skull is important in this regard as it resists adverse environmental conditions over time. The mastoid process can be used as a marker of sex determination in unidentified human skull remains. Objective: The objective of this study is to evaluate the use of mastoid process as a tool for sex determination in unidentified skeleton. Aim: The aim of this study was to evaluate the accuracy of different craniometric parameters of mastoid process in sex determination. Materials and Methods: In the present study, 50 adult human skulls of Telangana population were studied to determine the accuracy of mastoid process in sex determination. Parameters studied were length, breadth, antero-posterior diameter, size, and area of mastoid process. Results: Statistics revealed high significance (P < 0.0001) for mastoid length and size for sex determination. Conclusion: To our knowledge, this is the only study including various craniometric parameters of mastoid process.

In the classical p-median problem, the objective is to find a set Y of p vertices on an undirected graph $$G=(V,E)$$ in such a way that $$ Y \subseteq V$$ and the sum of distances from all the vertices to their respective closest vertices in Y is minimized. In this paper, we have considered the weighted case where every vertex in G has either a positive or a negative weight under two different objective functions, viz. the sum of the minimum weighted distances and the sum of the weighted minimum distances. In this paper, we have proposed a hybrid artificial bee colony (ABC) algorithm for the positive/negative weighted p-median problem where each solution generated by ABC algorithm is improved by an interchange based randomized local search. In addition, an interchange based exhaustive local search is applied on some of the best solutions obtained after the execution of ABC algorithm in a bid to further improve their quality. We have compared our approach with the state-of-the-art approaches available in the literature on the standard benchmark instances. Computational results demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach.

Image denoising is a classical and vital problem in image processing community. The objective line of picture denoising techniques is to recover the first picture from an uproarious estimation. Denoising is performed using averaging. However, local smoothing has some limits to recover the original image like blurring the image and degradation. The nearby smoothing channels are Gaussian sifting, anisotropic and neighborhood separating. In this paper, we propose a nonlocal means algorithm to remove the noise. The removal of noise is based on PSNR, MSE, and SSIM. First, we add the noise to the image. By using the local smoothing filters, we compute the noisy measurement. Second, we compute using nonlocal means algorithm. At last, we do an examination with nearby smoothing and non-neighborhood implies calculation. Test comes about the effectiveness of proposed algorithm; it is not only eliminating the noise but conserving the edges in the image.

With the rapid increasing popularity of the computer and internet in recent years, the diversity of learning programs continue to shift and change according to the demand of the society. The purpose of this research project was to study the attitude of B.Ed students towards ICT and Blended learning. To achieve this goal, a descriptive survey method was adopted by using standardized questionnaires. To administrate these questionnaires, 200 students of B.Ed from various colleges were selected as sample by simple random sampling method. Statistical analysis has been made and the result shows that there is a significant difference found between male and female students in attitude towards ICT, but not for Blended Learning. And also result shows that there is no significant differences exist between the students aged below and above 25 in their attitude towards ICT and Blended Learning. KEYWORDS: ICT, Blended Learning, Descriptive Survey Method

This paper proposes a hybrid artificial bee colony algorithm for the cooperative maximum covering location problem (CMCLP) on a network. In location covering problems, it is assumed that each facility generates a signal whose strength decreases with the increase in distance and a demand point is considered to be covered if the total signal strength received by it from various facilities exceeds a certain threshold. The objective of the CMCLP is to locate the facilities in such a way that maximizes the total demands covered. The proposed hybrid approach obtained better quality solutions in comparison to the methods available in the literature.

The Smart Driving Test Automation System presented in this paper expedite the testing of Candidates aspiring for a driving license in a more efficient and transparent manner, as compared to the present manual testing procedure existing in most parts of Asia and Pacific region. The manual test procedure is also subjected to multiple limitations like time consuming, costly and heavily controlled by the experience of examiner in conducting the test. This technological solution is developed by customizing PIC controller based embedded system. The controller module senses the motion of the test vehicle on the test track referred to as zero rpm measurement. The proposed technological solution for the automation of existing manual test process enables the elimination of human intervention and improves the driving test accuracy while going paperless with Driving Test Automation System. As a contribution to the society this technological solution can reduce the number of road accidents because most accidents results from lack of planning, anticipation and control which are highly dependent on driving skil.

The incumbent trend in process industry is to deploy information and communication technology (ICT), enabled wired process control systems. Distributed control system, supervisory control and data acquisition systems with wireless open loop control systems are commonly used to facilitate the same. However, wireless closed loop control system is a flexible system, which is not yet been introduced in the process industry. The major theme of this research work is to model the enablers of implementing ICT enabled control system in the process industry based on their interrelationships, with the help of industrialists in an oil refinery in central Kerala. The relationships of enablers have been established effectively by interpretive structural modeling (ISM). However, the interpretation of links is comparatively weak in ISM. Qualitative criteria are often accompanied by obscurities and vagueness. To compensate for this, ISM is further modified by total ISM (TISM). TISM is a novel qualitative modeling technique that has been used by researchers in diverse fields of investigation. For this study, TISM is used to develop the performance model for the enablers of a flexible control system for industry. The structural model developed using this methodology helps to understand the interaction between the various elements of enablers. After the model is developed, it is further subjected to assessment by a different group of domain experts so as to enhance its validity.

Groundwater availability depends on its accessibility, as well as on its quality. Factor analysis (FA) has been used to analyze quality problems and provide strategies for water resources exploitation. The present study demonstrated the use of factor analysis to evaluate temporal variations in groundwater quality and find latent sources of water pollution in coastal areas of Ramanathapuram District, Tamil Nadu, India. The data set included data of eleven water quality parameters viz., pH, electrical conductivity, salinity, total dissolved solids, total alkalinity, calcium hardness, magnesium hardness, total hardness, chloride and fluoride for two different seasons (pre- and post-monsoon) in 2012. FA of the two seasons resulted in two latent factors accounting for 80.38 % of total variance for pre-monsoon (summer) and 73.03 % for post-monsoon (winter) in the water quality data sets. The results obtained from FA prove that the groundwater quality in winter is better than that of summer. Langelier Saturation Index was used to find out scaling and corrosive tendency of the groundwater samples for the study area. Karl Pearson correlation matrix was used to study the correlation between the studied water quality parameters. Hence, the analysis suggests that FA techniques are useful tools for identification of influence of various quality parameters on overall nature of the groundwater.

The comparative study of generic drug registration in BRICS, was to find out the differences among the guidelines. “BRICS” mainly refers to Brazil, Russia, India, china and South Africa. The regulatory requirements of each country is different from each other, “BRICS” has the fastest growing and largest emerging markets which shows the positive growth in the pharmaceutical companies. The medical regulatory system in the BRICS countries is increasing in the medical profession to safeguard and promote the medicine. The BRICS countries together is consider as important emerging economics, which has 40% of world population. To develop the universal health coverage, The BRICS countries of national institution agreed to join hands with (WHO), world health organization.

The p-centre problem is an important facility location problem. In this problem, the objective is to find a set Y of p vertices on an undirected weighted graph G = (V, E) in such a way that Y ⊆ V and the maximum distance over all the distances from vertices to their closest vertices in Y is minimised. The vertices in set Y are called centres. In this paper, we have proposed two swarm intelligence-based approaches for the p-centre problem. The first approach is based on artificial bee colony (ABC) algorithm, whereas the latter approach is based on invasive weed optimisation (IWO) algorithm. The ABC algorithm and IWO algorithm are relatively new metaheuristic techniques inspired respectively from collective intelligent behaviour shown by honeybees while foraging and the sturdy process of weed colonisation and dispersion in an ecosystem. Computational results on the well-known benchmark instances of p-centre problem show the effectiveness of our approaches in finding high quality solutions.

The new mononuclear neutral metal complexes of the type [M(L)2(H2O)nXn] (where n= 0,1,2…; X= Cl; ½ SO4; CH3COO; Br) by using the metal(II/III) salts {M = Cu(II), Co(II), Ni(II), Pd(II) and Ru(III)} with the Clomiphene citrate (L) were synthesized. The ligand and its complexes were characterized by elemental analysis, infrared, ESR, 1H-NMR, electronic spectral studies and magnetic susceptibility measurement, which reveals that L acts as a monodentate ligand. They simultaneously give Thermogravimetric and Differential Thermal Analysis patterns of the complexes recorded at heating rate of 10 °C min-1. The antimicrobial activity of ligand and its metal complexes were evaluated against Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria.

p-median problem is a well-known facility location problem which aims at locating p number of facilities over n demand points in such a way that the sum of distances from all the demand points to their respective closest facilities is minimised. In this paper, we have proposed an artificial bee colony ABC algorithm-based approach for solving this NP-hard problem. The ABC algorithm is a recently proposed metaheuristic technique that has been used successfully for solving numerous NP-hard combinatorial optimisation problems. We have tested the proposed algorithm on the OR-Library and Galvao p-median benchmark test instances, and the results are compared with those obtained with some other approaches available in the literature. The computational results show that the proposed algorithm outperforms other methods.

The long term clinical success of composite restoration depends upon appropriate curing light sources. This in-vitro comparative study investigates the influence of conventional halogen and light emitting diode curing sources on the surface hardness, depth of cure and polymerization shrinkage of composites specimens of 8 mm diameter and 10 mm in height were used to study the depth of cure. Specimens of dimension 8.6 mm in diameter and 2 mm in depth were used to measure the surface hardness and polymerization shrinkage. The results showed that in the long run LED's seem to have great potential to achieve a clinically consistent quality of composite cure.

Artificial communication between the root canal system and supporting tissues of the tooth lowers the prognosis of the endodontic treatment. Studies have found that the second most common reason for failure association with endodontic treatment is root perforation. Hence a study was undertaken to evaluate the effect of calcium sulphate, hydroxylapatite and MTA as internal matrix and their ability on the sealing ability of the perforation repair material (GIC) on 70 recently extracted molar with non fused roots. MTA showed the least microleakage and best sealing ability and resin modified GIC when used alone without any internal matrix showed maximum microleakage and least sealing ability.