UAV Based Data Gathering in Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless Personal Communications - Recently, Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have turned out to be a dominant subject of research due to its application areas. Moreover, with the integration of...     

Effects of Dehulling Sacha Inchi (Plukenetia volubilis L.) Seeds on the Physicochemical and Sensory Properties of Oils Extracted by Means of Cold Pressing

Sacha Inchi (Plukenetia volubilis L.) is a plant native to the Peruvian Amazon, with great expansion because of the high industrialization potential of its seeds (SIS). The Sacha Inchi oil (SIO) is commonly obtained by pressing the SIS, and it is of high commercial value because of its excellent nutritional properties. In this study, we investigated the effects of the dehulling of SIS on the physicochemical and sensory properties of the SIO extracted by means of cold pressing. The fatty acid composition, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectra, density, refractive index (RI), acid value (AV), peroxide value (PV), p-anisidine index (p-An), oxidative stability index (OSI), color, and sensory profiles of the SIO samples were evaluated. The oils obtained from whole SIS showed similar fatty acid profiles, physicochemical properties, and sensory profiles to those extracted from dehulled SIS. After 60 days of storage, the total oxidation values of both SIO samples significantly increased, but there were no significant differences between oils from whole and dehulled SIS. Thus, the dehulling process could be avoided without affecting significantly the quality of the obtained oils.     

Optical Versus Electrical: Performance Evaluation of Network On-Chip Topologies for UWASN Manycore Processors

Wireless Personal Communications - Optical network on chip (ONoC) has evolved as an innovative technology for on-chip interconnects that can fulfill the upcoming requirements of manycore processors...     

Strengthening potential of xanthan gum biopolymer in stabilizing weak subgrade soil

Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy - This article presents a comprehensive study on the efficacy of xanthan gum (XG) biopolymer as a green construction material in treating problematic...     

Replication and data management-based workflow scheduling algorithm for multi-cloud data centre platform

The Journal of Supercomputing - Scientific workflow applications have a large amount of tasks and data sets to be processed in a systematic manner. These applications benefit from cloud computing...     

Pre-versus post-occupancy evaluation of daylight quality in hospitals

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of space occupancy on indoor daylight quality in hospitals. It assesses the effect of various design variables on the indoor daylight quality in King Abdullah University Hospital (KAUH) in Jordan. By conducting a comparative study on the indoor daylight quality of pre- and post-occupancy in patient wards, it was found that hospital occupancy is highly correlated with indoor daylight quality.     

Electrical, Thermal, Photocatalytic and Antibacterial Studies of Metallic Oxide Nanocomposite Doped Polyaniline

ZnOe-ZrO2 nanocomposite was prepared by sole gel method and in-situ polymerization was used to synthesize ZnOe-ZrO2 nanocomposite doped polyaniline(PANI).The materials were characterized by X-ray diffraction(XRD),Fourier transform infrared(FTIR) spectroscopy,transmission electron microscopy(TEM),scanning electron microscopy(SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy(EDX) to ensure the crystallite size,functional groups,morphology and chemical composition of the polymer nanocomposite complex.The average particle size of the ZnOe-ZrO2 nanoparticles was found to be 20.5 nm.Thermal gravimetric analysis(TGA) was used to study the thermal stability of the complex,shows improved thermal stability of polymer nanocomposite as compared to the pure organic polymer.The material also possesses good electrical conductivity.Additionally,the photocatalytic activity of the materials was investigated by monitoring the decolorization of Acid Blue 29 dye in a UV photocatalytic reactor and PANI-ZnOe-ZrO2 was found to possess higher photocatalytic activity than pure PANI.Finally,the antibacterial activity of the materials was examined and it was observed that PANI-ZnOe-ZrO2 could be used as an excellent antibacterial agent.Hence,desired properties could be integrated by mixing appropriate phases of the materials for specific applications such as heterogeneous catalyst,antibacterial agents,antibiotics delivery and high temperature conducting polymers.     

Numbering with spiral pattern to prove authenticity and integrity in medical images

With the rapid development of technology in digital multimedia, manipulation and misconduct of digital data are soaring. The watermarking procedure is seen as helpful to protect the security of digital images which are highly confidential such as medical images. In this study, an efficient watermarking method for greyscale images is proposed. The scheme is designed to achieve good numbering pattern, exact detection and image recovery. The proposed scheme uses a unique spiral pattern numbering before implementing the block-based mechanism for embedding. The experiment tests the difference between using normal pattern and unique spiral pattern in numbering, and the results show that the proposed method produces a great quality value of embedded image with great tamper localization and recovery ability. This function can help in proving authenticity and integrity of medical images in the system.     

Effects of the Emulsion Composition on the Physical Properties and Oxidative Stability of Sacha Inchi (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Plukenetia volubilis</Emphasis> L.) Oil Microcapsules Produced by Spray Drying

Sacha Inchi (Plukenetia volubilis L.) oil (SIO) is one of the vegetable oils with the highest content of polyunsaturated fatty acids (about 50% α-linolenic acid, and 35% linoleic acid), thus being prone to oxidation. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of the emulsion composition on the physical properties and oxidative stability of SIO microencapsulated by spray drying using modified starch (Hi-Cap 100) and maltodextrin in a mass ratio of 75:25, as wall material. The processing yield (PY), microencapsulation efficiency (MEE), and some selected physical properties (moisture content, A _w , color, sorption isotherms, flowing and thermal stability) of the SIO microcapsules (SIO-M) were investigated as a function of the oil loading (10, 20, and 30%) and the concentration of wall material solids (20 and 30%). The obtained results indicated that both the PY and MEE were significantly reduced as the oil loading increased, varying from 50 to 35%, and between 96 and 82%, respectively. FTIR analyses revealed that SIO was effectively encapsulated into the wall material. SIO-M were spherical in shape, and showed high oxidation stability upon accelerated tests. According to the thermogravimetric analysis, SIO-M could resist the pasteurization and sterilization processes used in the food industry, without suffering thermal decomposition. The sorption isotherms of SIO-M fitted better with the Guggenheim-Anderson-de Boer model. These results indicate that SIO could be successfully microencapsulated by spray drying using Hi-Cap 100 and maltodextrin as wall materials, from emulsions with a concentration of 30% wall material, and 20 to 30% oil loading.