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Biodiesel obtained from low-cost non-edible oils is the most promising alternative fuel for conventional diesel fuel. In this current work, Prunus domestica kernel oil was used as a feedstock for synthesizing methyl ester. The FFA value of the kernel oil was examined by employing the isopropyl alcohol technique and found to be 11.63 mg KOH/g. Hence, oil was processed with a two-step transesterification process using acid (H2SO4) and base (NaOH) catalyst reaction to convert into biodiesel. To obtain maximum yield and high-quality biodiesel, an optimization technique was employed. In this technique, the process parameters such as experimental duration, reaction temperature, NaOH concentration, and methanol to oil ratio were optimized based on Taguchi technique. The investigations revealed that 150 min, 60°C, 8:1 ratio, and 1 wt% NaOH were optimal process parameters obtained with a reaction efficiency of 97.86%. The experimental analysis considered that the methanol to oil ratio was happened to be the most substantial entity using ANOVA. The biodiesel Prunus domestica methyl ester produced matched and fulfilled the standards EN14214.

Background and objectives: documentation is important for quality improvement, education, and research. There is currently a lack of recommendations regarding key aspects of documentation in regional anesthesia. The aim of this study was to establish recommendations for documentation in regional anesthesia. Methods: following the formation of the executive committee and a directed literature review, a long list of potential documentation components was created. A modified Delphi process was then employed to achieve consensus amongst a group of international experts in regional anesthesia. This consisted of 2 rounds of anonymous electronic voting and a final virtual round table discussion with live polling on items not yet excluded or accepted from previous rounds. Progression or exclusion of potential components through the rounds was based on the achievement of strong consensus. Strong consensus was defined as >= 75% agreement and weak consensus as 50%-74% agreement. Results: seventy-seven collaborators participated in both rounds 1 and 2, while 50 collaborators took part in round 3. In total, experts voted on 83 items and achieved a strong consensus on 51 items, weak consensus on 3 and rejected 29. Conclusion: by means of a modified Delphi process, we have established expert consensus on documentation in regional anesthesia., European Society of Regional Anaesthesia and Pain Therapy (ESRA); ASRA Pain Medicine

Achalasia cardia is a motility disorder characterised by failure of relaxation of the lower oesophageal sphincter (LES) and associated with lack of peristalsis in the body of oesophagus. The mainstay of treatment in achalasia cardia is to reduce the LES pressure and improve oesophageal emptying by gravity. LHM is still considered the gold standard against which other methods are compared. The records of all patients who underwent surgery for achalasia cardia between August 2018 and December 2021 in the department of Surgical Gastroenterology, Government Rajaji Hospital and Madurai Medical College, Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India were reviewed retrospectively. Eighteen patients underwent surgery for achalasia cardia with median age of 32.5 years and the median duration of symptoms was 30 months. Seven patients had undergone pneumatic dilatation previously. Two patients who had mucosal injury had undergone pneumatic dilatation previously. The duration of surgery was significantly higher for the patients who underwent previous pneumatic dilatation when compared to those who did not undergo dilatation (200 minutes vs 170 minutes). The Eckardt score was zero in 12 patients in follow-up. One patient had a score of 1 and five patients had a score of 2. Laparoscopic Heller myotomy is the most effective current surgical management for achalasia cardia. It can be safely performed even in patients with prior pneumatic dilatations with lesser reintervention rates.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the central axis dose in the build-up region and the surface dose of a 6 MV and 10 MV flattened photon beam (FB) and flattening filter free (FFF) therapeutic photon beam for different square field sizes (FSs) for a Varian Truebeam linear accelerator using parallel-plate ionization chamber and Gafchromic film. Knowledge of dosimetric characteristics in the build-up region and surface dose of the FFF is essential for clinical care. The dose measurements were also obtained empirically using two different commonly used dosimeters: a p-type photon semiconductor dosimeter and a cylindrical ionization chamber. Surface dose increased linearly with FS for both FB and FFF photon beams. The surface dose values of FFF were higher than the FB FSs. The measured surface dose clearly increases with increasing FS. The FFF beams have a modestly higher surface dose in the build-up region than the FB. The dependence of source to skin distance (SSD) is less significant in FFF beams when compared to the flattened beams at extended SSDs.

Solid waste disposal has become a major problem in India, Either it has to be disposed safely or used for the recovery of valuable materials as agricultural wastes like turmeric waste,ferroniashell waste,jatropha curcusseed shell waste,delonixshell waste andipomea carniastem. Therefore these wastes have been explored for the preparation of activated carbon employing various techniques. Activated carbons prepared from agricultural solid wastes by chemical activation processes shows excellent improvement in the surface characteristics. Their characterization studies such as bulk density, moisture content, ash content, fixed carbon content, matter soluble in water, matter soluble in acid, pH, decolourising power, phenol number, ion exchange capacity, ion content and surface area have been carried out to assess the suitability of these carbons as absorbents in the water and wastewater. For anionic dyes (reactive, direct, acid) a close relationship between the surface area and surface chemical groups of the modified activated carbon and percentage of dye removal by adsorption can be observed. Cationic dyes large amount of surface chemical groups present in the sample (mainly carboxylic, anhydrides, lactones and phenolsetc.) are good anchoring sites for adsorption. The present study reveals the recovery of valuable adsorbents from readily and cheaply available agriculture wastes.

Summary The incidence of malignant melanoma in the UK is rising. Increased awareness of melanoma has led to an increase in patients presenting with pigmented lesions to their general practitioner (GP) and to pigmented lesion clinics. The sensitivity and specificity of the general practitioner in diagnosing melanoma remains poor. Objectives A trial was conducted to establish the effectiveness of SIAscope in triaging patients referred by GPs on suspicion of melanoma. Materials and methods After Ethical Committee approval, all consenting patients attending the Pigmented Lesion Clinic at Frenchay Hospital were scanned with the SIAscope. The consultant then examined all the patients and all suspicious lesions were excised and examined. Results Eight hundred and eighty-six patients were included in the trial. The SIAscope had a sensitivity of 94.4% with a false negative rate of 3.7% for malignant melanoma. Conclusions The SIAscope could be useful in reducing the number of benign lesions seen by the consultant while still identifying most melanomas.

Pilonidal sinus (PNS) and its surgical management have a profound impact on hospital resources in terms of finances and productive man-hours. Surgical treatment has been the mainstay of treatment of both acute and chronic pilonidal sinus but recurrence is common. The control of hair growth in the sinus region plays an important role in preventing recurrence. Here, we discuss our experience of treating 19 patients suffering from recurrent pilonidal sinus with laser depilation and its long-term cost effectiveness. This is a retrospective study on patients who had recurrence of pilonidal sinus following multiple surgical treatments. They were treated using long-pulsed alexandrite laser for depilation in the sinus area, an outpatient procedure. Their clinical characteristics and outcomes were then evaluated. There was a significant reduction in hair density after laser treatment (p

Co-cultures of N. frontalis with a formate-utilizing methanogen, Methanobacterium formicicum and/or an aceticlastic methanogen, Methanosaeta concilii, were performed for methane production from cellulose. In the co-culture with M. formicicum, ca. 16 mM CH4 was produced after 7 days without accumulation of H2 and formate. In the co-culture with M. concilii, 12 mM CH4 was produced after 17 days with decreasing acetate production. In the tri-culture of N. frontalis with M. formicicum and M. concilii, 24 mM CH4 was produced after 17 days where acetate still remained at 23 mM, but production of lactate and ethanol decreased. When a 4-times concentrated culture broth of M. concilii was inoculated in this tri-culture system in a bioreactor, 150 mM CH4 was produced after 24 days by feeding of cellulose, although 57 mM acetate still accumulated.

Enterprises are migrating towards cloud computing for their ability to provide agility, robustness and feasibility in operations. To increase the reliability and availability of services, clouds have grown into federated clouds i.e., union of clouds. There are still major issues in federated clouds, which when solved could lead to increased satisfaction to both service providers and clients alike. One such issue is to select the optimal foreign cloud amongst the federation, which provides services according to the client requirements. In this paper, we propose a model to select the optimal cloud service provider based on the capability and performance of the available clouds in the federation. We use two matrix models to obtain the capability and performance parametric values. They are matched with the client requirements and the optimal foreign cloud service provider is selected.

In a batch culture of Neocallimastix frontalis in a medium (pH 6.8) containing 8 g· l −1 cellulose, the concentrations of the fermentation products and the cellulolytic and xylanolytic enzymes did not increase in comparison with those of cultures in a medium containing 4 g· l −1 cellulose. Therefore, kinetic studies were performed to determine the effect that products such as acetate, formate, lactate and ethanol have in inhibiting the growth. The reduction of the specific growth rate by the fermentation products could be expressed by using a noncompetitive inhibition model, and it was found that at low concentrations, acetate was the strongest inhibitor among the inhibitory products studied. In order to reduce the inhibition by the fermentation products, a repeated batch culture was carried out whereby none of the fatty acids exceeded 50 mM. In this repeated batch culture, xylanase, endoglucanase, β-glucosidase, and avicelase were continuously produced in the medium during cultivation, and 18200, 4550, 3790 and 129 IU g· l −1 of these enzymes, respectively, were produced up to 20 d of culture.

Background Production or consumption of protons in growth medium during microbial metabolism plays an important role in determining the pH of the environment. Such pH changes resulting from microbial metabolism may influence the geochemical speciation of many elements in subsurface environments. Protons produced or consumed during microbial growth were measured by determining the amount of acid or base added in a 5 L batch bioreactor equipped with pH control for different species including Escherichia coli, Geobacter sulfurreducens, and Geobacter metallireducens. Results An in silico model was used to predict the proton secretion or consumption rates and the results were compared with the data. The data was found to confirm predictions of proton consumption during aerobic growth of E. coli with acetate as the carbon source. However, in contrast to proton consumption observed during aerobic growth of E. coli with acetate, proton secretion was observed during growth of Geobacter species with acetate as the donor and Fe(III) as the extracellular electron acceptor. Conclusions In this study, we have also shown that the final pH of the medium can be either acidic or basic depending on the choice of the electron acceptor for the same electron donor. In all cases, the in silico model could predict qualitatively the proton production/consumption rates obtained from the experimental data. Therefore, measurements of pH equivalents generated or consumed during growth can help characterize the microbial physiology further and can be valuable for optimizing practical applications such as microbial fuel cells, where growth associated pH changes can limit current generation rates.