Prediction of optimum process parameters to achieve eco-friendly desizing of organic cotton fabrics with indigenously produced alpha-amylase and their enzyme kinetics

An attempt has been made to study the desizing of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) starch-based organic cotton fabric using alpha-amylase enzyme with various process parameters such as enzyme concentration, temperature and reaction time. These process variables are selected based on the Box–Behnken design of experiment and the output of experiment resulted in weight loss of the fabric and their results are optimized with minimum error. The test results are analyzed using Design-Expert software 8.0 to predict the optimum process parameters to achieve the required desizing efficiency and their results are compared with actual trials. The alpha-amylase enzyme kinetics are studied at various concentrations, temperatures and reaction times to optimize the desizing process parameters. The performance of desizing was assessed by an iodine test and FTIR results to confirm the degradation of PVA starch in the desized organic cotton fabrics.     

Crystalline selenite substituted carbonated hydroxyapatite nanorods: Synthesis,characterization, evaluation of bioactivity and cytotoxicity

Synthesis of pure and selenite substituted hydroxyapatites (HAP and Se‐HAP with 0.02–0.10 Se) by sol–gel method and evaluation of their morphological features, nature of functional groups, phase purity, in vitro bioactivity and cytotoxicity are addressed. Spectral studies confirm the incorporation of selenite into the HAP lattice, accompanied by an increase in CO₃^2? content to maintain the charge imbalance following replacement of P⁵⁺ with Se⁴⁺, thus making the formation of selenite substituted carbonated HAP. Selenite substitution in the HAP lattice has led to a higher crystallinity and increased the crystallite size. The morphology of HAP is changed from sphere to rod‐like structure upon substitution by selenite and the size of the rod is increased with an increase in the selenite content. Among the Se‐HAPs, a better in vitro bioactivity and cell viability are observed for 0.02 Se‐HAP and 0.04 Se‐HAP while the trend is reversed when the extent of selenite substitution becomes higher.     

Agricultural proteins as multifunctional additives in ZnO-free synthetic isoprene rubber vulcanizates

Corn zein and wheat gliadin protein are compounded into synthetic cis-1,4-polyisoprene rubber (IR) and sulfur-cured in a zinc oxide (ZnO)-free system. The curing kinetics and mechanical and morphological properties are compared to a ZnO-activated or carbon black (CB)-reinforced cure system. The proteins provide reversion resistance and reinforcement to IR at filler loadings as low as 1 part per hundred rubber (phr). The zein-IR composites exhibit higher moduli, better filler–matrix adhesion, and less filler agglomeration/migration than gliadin-IR because zein is more chemically compatible with IR. The gliadin-IR composites have a lower percent set and hysteresis, indicating the formation of an elastic restoring gliadin network. Optimal properties are achieved at 2-phr gliadin and 4-phr zein. At gliadin loading >2 phr and zein loading >4 phr, the protein domain size increases and mechanical properties deteriorate. At equal filler loading, property improvements over CB-IR are observed for one or both proteins. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2019 , 136, 48141.     

Ultrastructural and immunohistochemical study of the effect of sodium alendronate in the progression of experimental periodontitis in rats

The aim of the present research was to investigate the ultrastructural aspects and the immunoexpression of receptor activator of NFκB ligand (RANKL) and osteoprotegerin (OPG) on experimental periodontal disease of alendronate (ALN)‐treated rats. Male Wistar rats received daily injections of 2.5 mg/kg body weight of ALN during 7 days previously and 7, 14, and 21 days after the insertion of a 4.0 silk suture into the gingival sulcus around the right upper second molar. Specimens were fixed in 0.1% glutaraldehyde + 4% formaldehyde under microwave irradiation, decalcified in 4.13% EDTA and paraffin embedded for TRAP histochemistry and immunohistochemistry for RANKL and OPG, or embedded in Spurr epoxy resin for TEM analysis. ALN reduced the activity of osteoclasts and significantly decreased the resorption of the alveolar crest. In the control group the alveolar crest appeared resorbed by TRAP‐positive osteoclasts, which presented ultrastructural features of activated cells. The immunoexpression of RANKL was not inhibited by the drug; however, the expression of OPG was increased in the treated animals. The alveolar crest of ALN‐treated specimens at 21 days showed signs of osteonecrosis, like empty osteocyte lacunae, the exposed bone regions and bacterial infection. The results showed that ALN treatment in individuals with periodontal disease represents a risk of osteonecrosis because of the reduced activity of osteoclasts resultant of the increased immunoexpression of OPG. Microsc. Res. Tech. 77:902–909, 2014. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Evolution of supramolecular healable composites: a minireview

Efforts to further extend the range of applications of polymer based materials have resulted in the recent production of healable polymers that can regain their strength after damage. Within this field of healable materials, supramolecular polymers have been subject to extensive investigation. By virtue of their reversible non‐covalent interactions, cracks and fractures in such polymers can be readily and repeatedly healed in order to regain key physical properties. However, many supramolecular polymers are relatively weak and elastomeric in nature, which renders them unsuitable for high strength structural applications. To overcome these deficiencies, preliminary studies have shown that it is possible to reinforce supramolecular polymers with microscale and nanoscale fillers to afford composites that are not only stronger and stiffer compared with the polymers alone but also retain their healing abilities. In this minireview we discuss the evolution of these supramolecular composites and their advantages over more conventional, covalent polymeric materials. © 2014 Society of Chemical Industry     

Synthesis and optical characteristics of ZnO nanocrystals

Zinc oxide nanomaterials with an average particle size of 20–30 nm are readily synthesized by the reaction of zinc acetate and oxalic acid under hydrothermal conditions. The samples are characterized by XRD, SEM, TEM, UV and photoluminescence (PL) studies. The average crystal size of the as prepared ZnO nanopowder is determined by XRD and the values are in good agreement with the TEM analysis. UV absorption spectra revealed the absorption at wavelength < 370 nm indicating the smaller size of ZnO nanoparticles. The quality and purity of ZnO nanomaterial crystalline samples are confirmed by photoluminescence spectra.     

The combustion behavior of epoxy-based multifunctional electrolytes

Multifunctional or structural electrolytes are characterized by ionic conductivity high enough to be used in the electrochemical devices and mechanical performance suitable for the structural applications. Preliminary insights are provided into the combustion behavior of structural bi-continuous electrolytes based on bisphenol A diglycidyl ether (DGEBA), synthesized using the techniques of reaction induced phase separation and emulsion templating. The effect of the composition of the structural electrolytes and external heat flux on the behavior of the formulations were studied using a cone calorimeter with gases formed during testing analyzed using FTIR. The composition of the formulations investigated was changed by varying the type and amount of the ion conductive part of the bi-continuous electrolyte. Two ionic liquids, 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(fluorosulfonyl)imide (EMIM-TFSI) and 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate (BMIM-BF₄), as well as a deep eutectic solvent (DES) based on ethylene glycol and choline chloride, were used. The results obtained confirm that time to ignition, heat release rate (HRR), total mass loss, as well as the composition of the gases released during tests depend on the composition of the formulations. Addition of liquid electrolyte is found to reduce the time to ignition by up to 10% and the burning time by between 28% and 60% with the added benefit of reducing the HRR by at least 34%. Gaseous products such as CO₂, CO, H₂O, CH₄, C₂H₂, N₂O, NO, and HCN were detected for all formulations with the gases SO₂, NH₃, HCl, C₂H₄, and NH₃ found to be for certain formulations only.     

Analytical model for Binding Refresh Request to reduce storage and communication overhead in MIPv6 network

Home agent is a key component of MIPv6 functionality that comprises binding cache to hold the mobile nodes current point of attachment to the Internet. This paper is concerned with binding cache support for home agents within MIPv6 network. Existing binding cache of home agent supports weak cache consistency by using fixed contract length for Binding Refresh Request, which functions reasonably well in normal situations. However, maintaining a strong binding cache consistency in home agent as a crucial exceptional handling mechanism has become more demanding for the following objectives: (i) to adapt increasingly frequent change of care‐of address due to mobile nodes movement detection update; (ii) to provide fine‐grain controls to balance the binding cache load distributions for better delivery services; and (iii) to reduce the overhead allowances around the binding cache. In this paper, we have first verified the effectiveness of Binding Refresh Request contract length, and on the basis of that, two dynamic contract algorithms are suggested to reduce the storage and communication overhead allowances in binding cache. We have also compared our technique with the existing fixed Binding Refresh Request contract length, and our simulation results reveals that the proposed approach provides an effective performance to reduce overhead within the network. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Detection of glucose,galactose, and lactose in milk with a microdialysis-coupled flow injection amperometric sensor

A microdialysis-coupled flow injection amperometric Sensor (microFIAS) was used to determine glucose, galactose, and lactose in milk. The sensor is based on enzyme-catalyzed reaction in combination with the three well-established analytical techniques, namely; microdialysis sampling, flow injection analysis (FIA), and amperometric detection. With the multianalyte sensor it was possible to detect glucose and galactose by sequential injection of their corresponding oxidase enzymes: glucose oxidase and galactose oxidase, while lactose was determined by injection of a mixture of beta-galactosidase and glucose oxidase enzymes. The sensor showed a linear response between 0.05 and 10 mM for glucose, between 0.1 and 20 mM for galactose and between 0.2 and 20 mM for lactose, respectively. The relative standard deviation values of the sensor measurements for glucose, galactose, and lactose were 3-4% (n = 3). The sensor measurements for lactose content in milk were compared with a standard method with an infrared spectrophotometer.     

Concurrent software verification with states, events, and deadlocks

We present a framework for model checking concurrent software systems which incorporates both states and events. Contrary to other state/event approaches, our work also integrates two powerful verification techniques, counterexample-guided abstraction refinement and compositional reasoning. Our specification language is a state/event extension of linear temporal logic, and allows us to express many properties of software in a concise and intuitive manner. We show how standard automata-theoretic LTL model checking algorithms can be ported to our framework at no extra cost, enabling us to directly benefit from the large body of research on efficient LTL verification. We also present an algorithm to detect deadlocks in concurrent message-passing programs. Deadlock- freedom is not only an important and desirable property in its own right, but is also a prerequisite for the soundness of our model checking algorithm. Even though deadlock is inherently non-compositional and is not preserved by classical abstractions, our iterative algorithm employs both (non-standard) abstractions and compositional reasoning to alleviate the state-space explosion problem. The resulting framework differs in key respects from other instances of the counterexample-guided abstraction refinement paradigm found in the literature. We have implemented this work in the magic verification tool for concurrent C programs and performed tests on a broad set of benchmarks. Our experiments show that this new approach not only eases the writing of specifications, but also yields important gains both in space and in time during verification. In certain cases, we even encountered specifications that could not be verified using traditional pure event-based or state-based approaches, but became tractable within our state/event framework. We also recorded substantial reductions in time and memory consumption when performing deadlock-freedom checks with our new abstractions. Finally, we report two bugs (including a deadlock) in the source code of Micro-C/OS versions 2.0 and 2.7, which we discovered during our experiments. This research was sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under grants no. CCR-9803774 and CCR-0121547, the Office of Naval Research (ONR) and the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) under contract no. N00014-01-1-0796, the Army Research Office (ARO) under contract no. DAAD19-01-1-0485, and was conducted as part of the Predictable Assembly from Certifiable Components (PACC) project at the Software Engineering Institute (SEI). This article combines and builds upon the papers (CCO⁺04) and (CCOS04). Received December 2004 Revised July 2005 Accepted July 2005 by Eerke A. Boiten, John Derrick, Graeme Smith and Ian Hayes