α-Glucosidase, α-amylase inhibition kinetics,in vitro gastro-intestinal digestion,and apoptosis inducing abilities of Ficus microcarpa L. f. and Ficus racemosa L. fruit polysaccharides

Food Science and Biotechnology - A rich source of nutrients, figs have a number of clinically validated benefits. This study aimed to evaluate the in vitro simulated gastrointestinal digestion, and...     

Molecular Epidemiological Study of Pyrazinamide-Resistance in Clinical Isolates of Mycobacterium tuberculosis from South India

Pyrazinamide (PZA) has been in use for almost 50 years as a first-line drug for short-course chemotherapy against Mycobacterium tuberculosis. In this study, PCR mediated automated DNA sequencing is used to check the prevalence of PZA resistance among treatment failure cases of pulmonary tuberculosis. Out of 50 clinical isolates examined, 39 had mutations in the pncA gene that encodes Pyrazinamidase, an enzyme required to activate PZA. Of these, 31 (79.5%) were localized to three regions of pncA. We found two isolates with hitherto unreported mutation at amino acid 26 (Ala→Gly) of pncA.     

Amalgamation and application of nano chitosan cross‐linked with fish scales based activated carbon as an adsorbent for the removal of reactive dye (RB9)

The extensive discomfort in the expulsion of toxic pollutants even at mild concentrations has demanded the need for prompt methods for the evacuation of dyes and heavy metals. The effective method for depuration of dye from the effluent is by sorption. Chitosan is a bio‐polymer which is gaining an increasing interest as one of the sorbents. It was obtained from the crab shells by undergoing several chemical processes and used as an adsorbent for dye, metal removal and also for pharmaceutical purposes. Cross linking it with other co polymers will increase the capacity of adsorption to a maximum level. Fish scales are considered to be a major waste in the food industry and since it takes a long time for decomposing it is considered to be one of the pollutants. Hence it is utilised by converting it into activated carbon by preliminary treatment and into a muffle furnace. The obtained activated carbon is combined with chitosan by using a cross linker and utilised for adsorption mechanism. To analyse the effect of chitosan cross linked with activated carbon obtained from fish scales in adsorption of dye Reactive Blue 9 (RB9) to evaluate the adsorption studies, kinetics, mass transfer studies, thermodynamics of the bio adsorbent.Inspec keywords: dyes, wastewater treatment, effluents, mass transfer, activated carbon, adsorption, polymer blends, water pollution control, thermodynamics, reaction kinetics, furnaces, recycling, industrial waste, waste recovery, food processing industry, pharmaceutical industry, renewable materials, nanoparticles, toxicologyOther keywords: fish scales, activated carbon, reactive dye removal, toxic pollutants, heavy metals, bio‐polymer, nanochitosan, bio adsorbent, amalgamation, RB9 dye, industrial effluent, crab shells, adsorption method, pharmaceutical purposes, copolymers, food industry waste, waste recovery, recycling process, muffle furnace, reaction kinetics, mass transfer, thermodynamic analysis, ReactiveBlue 9, wastewater treatment, water pollution control, C     

CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF WIND FARMS FOR SUSTAINABLE GENERATION

A critical analysis on wind farms has been carried out to improve the performance and reliability of wind energy system. The effect of its improvement has been studied with the Optimal Renewable Energy Mathematical (OREM) model which is developed for sustainable generation in India. The performance and reliability of the wind turbine generators have been evaluated in a demonstration windfarm (6 MW) in India. The windfarm is situated in Kayathar, a village in the south of Tamil Nadu State. The average technical availability, real availability and capacity factor have been analysed from 1991 to 1995 and they are found to be 92%, 54% and 19% respectively. Fault analysis for grid failures has been done using pareto analysis. The analysis indicates that when grid drop failures are reduced by 50%, the overall reduction in the frequency of faults would be 35.2%, which is significant. The reliability analysis has also been done for the wind turbine generator. The failure rate is high to an extent of 6.7×10⁻⁵ h⁻¹ in the case of a yaw control defect and the factor of reliability is found to be 0.5 at 10 000 h. The OREM model developed reveals that when the reliability factor of wind energy system is improved from 0.5 to 0.9 then the utilisation of wind energy would be increased by 82%.     

基于NPU和NSE系统的控制平面分析

典型的网络系统包括一个或多个用于监视数据平面分组处理的控制平面CPU。通过CPU进行的控制更新将导致存储于网络搜索引擎(NSE)和相联SRAM中的路由表和政策表的更新。在数据平面中，NSE和SRAM通过诸如网络处理机论坛的LookAside-1(LA-1)接口等高速接口连接至网络处理单元(NPU)。从外部CPU至NSE和SRAM的控制平面更新信息可以经由带内线路(即在NPU内部并通过NPU的LA-1接口)来传送。     

Low-temperature fabrication of TiO<Subscript>2</Subscript> film on flexible substrate by atmospheric roll-to-roll CVD

Titanium dioxide (TiO₂) thin film was fabricated using titanium isopropoxide as a precursor through an atmospheric low-temperature roll-to-roll chemical vapor deposition method. TiO₂ was deposited on the PET substrate in the temperature range of room temperature to 100°C, and the working pressure was 740 Torr. The surface morphology of TiO₂ thin film was analyzed by field emission scanning electron microscopy and a 2D surface profiler. The results revealed that the growth rate of TiO₂ film was 31 nm/min at 100°C, and it also showed that the surface is uniform and smooth. Moreover, the lowest root mean square roughness (R _q) value of 1.87 nm was obtained for TiO₂ film prepared at 100°C. The composition of TiO₂ film was confirmed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis. The film showed very good chemical and optical properties while increasing the substrate deposition temperature. The UV–Vis spectroscopy analysis revealed that TiO₂ films exhibited excellent optical transmittance, more than 91% observed in the visible region.     

Sisl: Several Interfaces, Single Logic

Modern interactive services such as information and e-commerce services are becoming increasingly more flexible in the types of user interfaces they support. These interfaces incorporate automatic speech recognition and natural language understanding and include graphical user interfaces on the desktop and web-based interfaces using applets and HTML forms. To what extent can the user interface software be decoupled from the service logic software (the code that defines the essential function of a service)? Decoupling of user interface from service logic directly impacts the flexibility of services, or how easy they are to modify and extend. To explore these issues, we have developed Sisl, an architecture and domain-specific language for designing and implementing interactive services with multiple user interfaces. A key principle underlying Sisl is that all user interfaces to a service share the same service logic. Sisl provides a clean separation between the service logic and the software for a variety of interfaces, including Java applets, HTML pages, speech-based natural language dialogue, and telephone-based voice access. Sisl uses an event-based model of services that allows service providers to support interchangeable user interfaces (or add new ones) to a single consistent source of service logic and data. As part of a collaboration between research and development, Sisl is being used to prototype a new generation of call processing services for a Lucent Technologies switching product.     

Alkaline biosolids and EDTA for phytoremediation of an acidic loamy soil spiked with cadmium

A greenhouse experiment was conducted to investigate the growth of Brassica juncea and Cd phytoextraction in a mimicked Cd contaminated acidic loamy soil amended with alkaline biosolids, prepared from sewage sludge and coal fly ash, in the presence and absence of EDTA at 2 mmol kg(-1). The acidic loamy soil was spiked with 0, 5, 20, 50 and 100 mg Cd kg(-1) in the form of CdCO(3) and then amended with 4% alkaline biosolids (w/w). Alkaline biosolids and 0.12% CaCO(3) amendments resulted in a higher biomass than unamended soil spiked with 20 mg kg(-1) Cd where plants did not survive and of the two amendments, alkaline biosolids amendment had higher plant dry weight yield and phytoextraction of Cd. Adding 2 mmol kg(-1) EDTA to alkaline biosolids amended soil significantly increased the solubility of Cd ions by 9- to 29-fold, but plant Cd accumulation decreased by a factor of 24-48%. The results indicate that alkaline biosolids amendment is an effective approach for assisting growth of B. juncea and phytoextraction of Cd from the contaminated acidic loamy soil, but further application of chelating agents did not enhance the phytoextraction efficiency of Cd.     

Fault analysis of wind turbine generators in India

Wind energy has become a techno-economically viable source of energy and is considered as a preferable renewable energy resources option in the power sector in India. If the current pace of development is maintained for at least a few decades, India would soon possess the highest windfarm installation in the world and a significant portion of the country's energy needs could be met through wind power. The available wind energy resource can be utilised to the greater extent by optimally siting the windfarms, by appropriate machine selection and by proper maintenance. An attempt has been made to evaluate the performance of wind turbine generators for the largest demonstration windfarm (10 MW) in Asia. This windfarm is situated at Lamba, Gujarat State with 50 wind turbine machines of 200 kW capacity. The technical availability, real availability, capacity factor and maximum down time of the wind turbine generators have been calculated and plotted over the year. About 30 fault conditions have been identified and analysed by pareto diagram.