Enhanced coyote optimizer-based cascaded load frequency controllers in multi-area power systems with renewable

Neural Computing and Applications - Recently, the renewable energy has been occupied a lot of attention around the world since it presents cheap and sustainable energy. Consequently, its presence...     

Fabrication and Characterization of Matrix-Type Transdermal Patches Loaded with Ramipril and Repaglinide Through Cellulose-based Hydrophilic and Hydrophobic Polymers: In Vitro and Ex Vivo Permeation Studies

Transdermal patches loaded with ramipril and repaglinide were prepared with the ambition to develop matrix-type transdermal drug delivery system for enhanced permeability and hence improved bioavailability. Different formulations were designed by intermittent concentrations of hydroxypropyl methylcellulose K4M as hydrophilic polymer and ethyl cellulose as hydrophobic polymer. Solvent casting method was used for the fabrication of transdermal patches. Oleic acid and propylene glycol were used to enhance permeability along with polyethylene glycol 400 as plasticizer. Newly designed patches were then evaluated for various physicochemical and mechanical properties. Compatibility studies were performed by Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy which did not reveal any interaction between drug and polymers. Crystalline nature of drugs was confirmed when they were subjected to X-ray diffraction study and surface morphological studies using scanning electron microscopy. Transdermal patches were of good mechanical strength with folding endurance of more than 300-fold and 100% flatness. Percent drug contents of ramipril and repaglinide ranged from 90 to 105%, i.e., analogous to official limits. In vitro and ex vivo permeation studies were executed using franz diffusion cell. The cumulative amount of drug permeated through skin was 55.22–112.72% for repaglinide and 73.14–91.46% for ramipril. The release behavior of the permeated drug was analyzed by the application of model-dependent approaches. The results showed that Korsmeyer–Peppas model was found to be dominating in most of the formulations and drugs followed diffusion mechanism. It could be concluded that hydroxypropyl methylcellulose K4M and ethyl cellulose has great potential for ramipril and repaglinide as a vector for transdermal drug delivery effectively because of the formation of smooth surfaces of patches, high folding endurance, and entrapment efficiency with the ability to release the drugs in sustained manner.     

Linker-free chemical preparation of palladium nanoparticles on aluminum-doped zinc oxide electrodes for electrochemical water oxidation

Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics - Despite the growing popularity and promising properties of aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO) among other transparent conducting oxides (TCOs),...     

Double gene targeting PCR assay for the detection of Crocodylus porosus in commercial products

The demand for crocodile meat is quickly growing because of its exotic and organoleptic appeal and also the low content of cholesterol and lipids. Moreover, crocodile oil and blood have been used in alternative medicines for treating asthma and several other ailments since ancient times. Furthermore, crocodile hides have great demand in leather industries. All of these have collectively contributed to the extensive hunting, illegal trading and consequent decline of crocodiles in most parts of the world. To keep space with the growing demands, some crocodile species such as Crocodylus porosus have been raised in farms and its commercial trades have been legalised. However, demand for wild crocodiles in foods and medicines has continued in high gear. Recently, several DNA-based methods have been proposed for crocodile detection, but those assays are based on single gene and longer-sized amplicon targets that break down during extensive processing. To address this gap, here we developed and validated a highly stable double gene targeted multiplex PCR assay for the identification of C. porosus materials in commercial products. The assay involved two short sites from C. porosus atp6 (77 bp) and cytb (127 bp) genes and a universal internal control (99 bp) for eukaryotes. The PCR primers were cross-tested against 18 species and validated under pure and mixed matrices under extensive boiling, autoclaving and microwave cooking conditions. Finally, it was used to identify five crocodile-based commercial products. The lower limits of detection for atp6 and cytb genes were 0.001 ng and 0.01 ng DNA, respectively, in pure meat and 1% under mixed matrices. Some inherent features, such as 77–127 bp amplicon sizes, exceptional stability and superior sensitivity, suggested the assay could be used for the identification of C. porosus in any forensic specimen.     

A cross layer error control scheme for efficient WLAN multimedia streaming

Multimedia Tools and Applications - Efficient streaming of bandwidth intensive and delay sensitive multimedia contents over error prone wireless links has proven to be one of the most challenging...     

Efficient rule mining and compression for RDF style KB based on Horn rules

The volume of published linked open datasets in RDF format is growing exponentially in the last decades. With this continuous proliferation of this growth, demands for managing, accessing, and compressing the RDF dataset have become increasingly important. Most approaches are focused on the structured compression technique while a very few researches have been done for compact representation of the RDF dataset. In this paper, we have proposed an efficient rule mining and compression approach for RDF datasets through various meaningful semantic association rules determined from the RDF graph. We have introduced grammar-based pattern system, clustering of rules, rules pruning, and Top-k scheme to improve the expressiveness of rule patterns, identify the similarity within the random pair of rules, extract the most delicate rules, find the accurate mining threshold, and efficiently learn the rules during the rule mining process from RDF Knowledge Base. Our proposed system uses Horn rules to achieve better compression through storing the triples matched with the precedent part while deleting the triples matched with the head part of the rules. For decreasing the mining time, we have introduced the ranking of the rules. The experimental result on the benchmark dataset asserts that our proposed rule mining and compression scheme has achieved approximately 22.10%, 40.5%, and 44% better compression than the exiting AMIE+, Rule-based compression, and TripleBit approaches, respectively. Our system also has achieved better performance both in terms of compression time and rule mining cost.

     

Synthesis of Ester Based Cationic Pyridinium Gemini Surfactants and Appraisal of Their Surface Active Properties

New pyridinium gemini surfactants have been synthesized by esterification of halogenated carboxylic acids with long chain fatty alcohols furnishing respective esters (dodecyl-2-chloroacetate, tetradecyl-2-chloroacetate, hexadecyl-2-chloroacetate, dodecyl-2-bromoacetate, tetradecyl-2-bromoacetate and hexadecyl-2-bromoacetate) followed by their subsequent treatment with 4,4′-trimethylene dipyridine resulting in the formation of title Gemini surfactants: 4,4′-(propane-1,3-diyl)bis1-{2-(dodecyloxy)-2-oxoethyl}; 4,4′-(propane-1,3-diyl)bis{1-(2-(tetradecyloxy)-2-oxoethyl}; 4,4′-(propane-1,3-diyl)bis{1-(2-(hexadecyloxy)-2-oxoethyl} dipyridinium chlorides; 4,4′-(propane-1,3-diyl)bis{1-(2-(dodecyloxy)-2-oxoethyl}; 4,4′-(propane-1,3-diyl)bis{1-(2-(tetradecyloxy)-2-oxoethyl} and 4,4′-(propane-1,3-diyl)bis{1-(2-(hexadecyloxy)-2-oxoethyl} dipyridinium bromides. Their identifications are based on IR, ¹H-NMR, ¹³C-NMR, DEPT, COSY and Mass spectral studies. Their surface active properties were also evaluated on the basis of surface tension and conductivity measurements.