Bamboo Shoots: A Novel Source of Nutrition and Medicine

Bamboos, a group of large woody grasses belonging to the family Poaceae and subfamily Bambusoideae, are much talked about for their contribution to the environment. However, the food potential of Bamboo shoot per se remains unexploited. Literature on the nutritional and medicinal potential of bamboo shoots is scarce. This paper therefore provides insight on bamboo shoot as a food resource. Various edible species and exotic food products (fermented shoots, pickle, etc.) and recipes of bamboo shoots (bamboo beer, bamboo cookies) are consumed worldwide. Change in nutritional composition of different species of bamboo shoots with processing has also been reviewed. Bamboo shoots possess high protein, moderate fiber, and less fat content. They are also endowed for having essential amino acids, selenium, a potent antioxidant, and potassium, a healthy heart mineral. Occurrence of taxiphyllin, a cyanogenic glycoside in raw shoots, and its side effect on human health calls for the demand to innovate processing ways using scientific input to eliminate the toxic compound without disturbing the nutrient reserve. Lastly, the paper also reviews the utilization of medicinal properties acquired by bamboo shoot. Using the traditional knowledge, pharmaceutical preparations of bamboo shoots like bamboo salt, bamboo vinegar, bamboo extracts for diabetes and cholesterol control, etc. are now gaining importance. Further investigation is required by the researchers to make novel nutraceutical products and benefit the society.     

Modification of novel bio‐based resin‐epoxidized soybean oil by conventional epoxy resin

Conventional epoxy resin (DGEBA), in varying proportion, was used to modify epoxidized soybean oil (ESO) based systems, crosslinked by phthalic anhydride. The properties of DGEBA modified ESO systems were investigated by dynamic mechanical analysis, impact testing, tensile and flexural testing, scanning electron microscopy, and thermogravimetric analysis. Single loss factor tan δ peak was obtained for all of the modified systems. The results show the improvement in mechanical properties from their high crosslinking densities through the introduction of DGEBA with increase in initial degradation temperature, as obtained from thermogravimetric analysis. Results approaches to an ideal composition which gives the optimum property. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 2011. © 2011 Society of Plastics Engineers     

Pheromone-based Mating and Aggregation in the Sorghum Chafer, <Emphasis Type="Italic">Pachnoda interrupta</Emphasis>

Adults of the sorghum chafer, Pachnoda interrupta Olivier (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Cetoniinae), form aggregations during the mating period in July, but also in October. The beetles aggregate on food sources, e.g., Acacia spp. trees or sorghum with ripe seeds, to feed and mate. During the mating season, field trapping experiments with live beetles as bait demonstrated attraction of males to unmated females, but not to mated females or males, indicating the presence of a female-emitted sex pheromone. Unmated females combined with banana (food source) attracted significantly more males and females than did unmated females alone. Other combinations of beetles with banana were not more attractive than banana alone. Thus, aggregation behavior appears to be guided by a combination of pheromone and host volatiles. Females and males were extracted with hexane during the mating period, and the extracts were compared by using GC-MS. In a field trapping experiment, 19 compounds found only in females were tested, both singly and in a mixture. Traps baited with one of the female-associated compounds, phenylacetaldehyde, caught significantly more beetles than any other treatment. However, the sex ratio of beetles caught in these traps did not differ from that of control traps, and it is possible that other components may be involved in the sex pheromone signal. Furthermore, traps baited with a mixture of all 19 compounds attracted significantly fewer beetles than did phenylacetaldehyde alone.     

A new meshless “fragile points method” and a local variational iteration method for general transient heat conduction in anisotropic nonhomogeneous media. Part II: Validation and discussion

Abstract

In the first part of this two-paper series, a new computational approach is presented for analyzing transient heat conduction problems in anisotropic nonhomogeneous media. The approach consists of a truly meshless Fragile Points Method (FPM) being utilized for spatial discretization, and a Local Variational Iteration (LVI) scheme for time discretization. In the present article, extensive numerical results are provided as validations, followed by a discussion on the recommended computational parameters. The FPM?+?LVIM approach shows its capability in solving 2?D and 3?D transient heat transfer problems in complex geometries with mixed boundary conditions, including preexisting cracks. Both functionally graded materials and composite materials are considered. It is shown that, with appropriate computational parameters, the FPM?+?LVIM approach is not only accurate, but also efficient, and has reliable stability under relatively large time intervals.     

Fault Tolerant Attitude Synchronization Control during Formation Flying

It is necessary for precise satellite formations to keep each satellite in accurate relative attitude synchronization and to maintain relative angular velocity synchronization. An adaptive fuzzy terminal sliding mode control is proposed for a formation flying tracking system which includes acquisition, tracking, and pointing. The relative attitude of the leader and follower spacecraft under gravity gradient torque and external periodic disturbances is controlled by four reaction wheels. First, a terminal sliding mode controller is used to obtain stable and fast tracking. Then, the adaptive fuzzy logic system is used to approximate and learn the system uncertainty with the online fault and time-varied external disturbances. The system is proved to be stable, and the parameters are proved to be bounded under the control scheme, using a Lyapunov methodology. Finally, simulation results (under actuator faults like wheel failure and wheel degradation) show that the proposed control method has the advantages of high tracking accuracy, low computation load, robustness, and ease of engineering application.     

Lateral straggling and its influence on lateral diffusion in implantation with a focused ion beam

Parallel stripes of nanostructures on an n-type Si substrate have been fabricated by implanting 30 keV Ga⁺ ions from a focused ion beam (FIB) source at three different fluences: 1 × 10¹⁵, 2 × 10¹⁵ and 5 × 10¹⁵ ions/cm². Two sets of implantation were carried out. In one case, during implantation the substrate was held at room temperature and in the other case at 400 °C. Photoemission electron microscopy (PEEM) measurements were carried out on these samples. The implanted parallel stripes, each with a nominal dimension of 4000 × 100 nm², appear as bright regions in the PEEM image. Line scans of the intensities from PEEM images were recorded along and across these stripes. Intensity profile at the edges of a line scan is broader for the implantation carried out at 400 °C compared to room temperature. From the analysis of this intensity profile lateral diffusion coefficient of Ga in silicon was estimated assuming that the PEEM intensity is proportional to Ga concentration. The diffusion coefficient at 400 °C has been estimated to be ∼10⁻¹⁵ m²/s. No significant dependence of diffusion coefficient on ion fluence was observed in the fluence range investigated here. Radiation enhanced diffusion has been discussed in the light of the associated defect distribution due to lateral straggling of the implanted ions.     

On The Scheduling Of Identical Processors With Entrapment

In an attempt to reduce computational requirements, parallel processor tardiness related scheduling algorithms incorporate a fathoming condition, “entrapment,” which at times helps, whereas, at other times, increases CPU time requirements. This paper establishes certain guidelines that can be used as a priori rule deciding the inclusion or exclusion of the entrapment subroutine part of the scheduling algorithm to solve a given problem. Since entrapment is a dominance condition, the implications of this work can be used to examine the applicability of other such conditions in algorithms designed to solve NP complete problems.