Terminal and broadcast reliability analysis of direct 2-D symmetric torus network

The Journal of Supercomputing - Reliability analysis is one of the crucial issues for any scalable optical interconnection network. Torus is a highly scalable optical interconnect for data centre...     

Data Analysis and Interpretation in IoT-Based Systems for Critical Medical Services and Healthcare Applications

Wireless Personal Communications - The use of Internet of things in health care is a major breakthrough as it can help us save a lot of lives that can be prevented because of prolonged commute...     

Influence of functionalized nanoparticles on conformational stability of type I collagen for possible biomedical applications

Collagen–nanoparticle interactions are vital for many biomedical applications including drug delivery and tissue engineering applications. Iron oxide nanoparticles synthesized using starch template according to our earlier reported procedures were functionalized by treating them with Gum Arabic (GA), a biocompatible polysaccharide, so as to enhance the interaction between nanoparticle surfaces and collagen. Viscosity, circular dichroism (CD) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) techniques have been used to study the collagen–nanoparticle interactions. The relative viscosity for collagen–nanoparticle conjugate was found to increase with increase in concentration of the nanoparticle within the concentration range investigated, which is due to the aggregation of protein onto the surface of nanoparticle. The CD spectra for the collagen–nanoparticle at different concentration ratios do not have much variation in the Rpn values (ratio of positive peak intensity over negative peak intensity) after functionalization with GA. The variation of molar ellipticity values for collagen–nanoparticle is due to the glycoprotein present in GA. The collagen triple helical structure is maintained after interaction with nanoparticles. The FTIR spectra of native collagen, Coll–Fs (nanoparticle without functionalization) and Coll–FsG (nanoparticle functionalized with GA) show clearly the amide I, II, III bands, with respect to collagen. The ability of polysaccharide stabilized/functionalized nanoparticles to maintain the collagen properties would help in its biomedical applications.     

Transport of cationic dye by supported liquid membrane using D2EHPA as the carrier

The transport of cationic dye from an aqueous feed solution through a flat‐type supported liquid membrane containing di‐(2‐ethylhexyl)phosphoric acid as a carrier was studied. The influence of pH on the source phase, the effect of the concentration of the receiving phase, the stirring speed, the effect of the initial dye concentration, the feed‐to‐strip ratio and the influence of the support characteristics were studied. A polytetrafluoroethylene membrane with a 1.0‐μm pore size was found to have more permeability than that with a pore size of 0.5 μm. The results indicated that the aqueous feed solution at an alkaline pH has high permeability. The initial feed phase dye can be completely extracted and stripped with a stripping solution within 7 h.     

Fabrication and evaluation of electrospun collagen/poly(N-isopropyl acrylamide)/chitosan mat as blood-contacting biomaterials for drug delivery

The recent advances in electrospinning have resulted in technologies facilitating easy drug entrapment, obtaining high surface area and thereby higher drug loading and release efficacy, burst control as well as the specific morphology which could be controlled according to the desired requirement. The present study focused on the fabrication of collagen/poly(N-isopropyl acrylamide)/chitosan complex with incorporated 5-fluorouracil, an anticancer drug by the method of electrospinning. The effect of chitosan on the fiber morphology and release kinetics was analyzed by varying its concentration. The release kinetics showed that the increase in chitosan concentration delayed the release of the drug from the fiber network. Nano hydroxyapatite was added to the fiber matrix in order to impart bioactivity, which was confirmed by studies in simulated body fluid. The addition of poly(N-isopropyl acrylamide) increased the blood compatibility of the prepared model. Thus, the model prepared to can find potential application in the field of cancer therapy as a drug-delivery agent in post-surgical treatment of cancer and as blood contacting biomaterial.     

Enhancing the thermal destruction of Escherichia coli O157:H7 in ground beef patties by trans-cinnamaldehyde

The effect of trans-cinnamaldehyde (TC) on the inactivation of Escherichia coli O157:H7 in undercooked ground beef patties was investigated. A five-strain mixture of E. coli O157:H7 was inoculated into ground beef (7.0 log CFU/g), followed by addition of TC (0, 0.15, and 0.3%). The meat was formed into patties and stored at 4 °C for 5 days or at −18 °C for 7 days. The patties were cooked to an internal temperature of 60 or 65 °C, and E. coli O157:H7 was enumerated. The numbers of E. coli O157:H7 did not decline during storage of patties. However, cooking of patties containing TC significantly reduced (P < 0.05) E. coli O157:H7 counts, by >5.0 log CFU/g, relative to the reduction in controls cooked to the same temperatures. The D-values at 60 and 65 °C of E. coli O157:H7 in TC-treated patties (1.85 and 0.08 min, respectively) were significantly lower (P < 0.05) than the corresponding D-values for the organism in control patties (2.70 and 0.29 min, respectively). TC-treated patties were more color stable and showed significantly lower lipid oxidation (P < 0.05) than control samples. TC enhanced the heat sensitivity of E. coli O157:H7 and could potentially be used as an antimicrobial for ensuring pathogen inactivation in undercooked patties. However detailed sensory studies will be necessary to determine the acceptability to consumers of TC in ground beef patties.     

Indirect Electrochemical Oxidation of Phenol in the Presence of Chloride for Wastewater Treatment

Electrochemical oxidation of phenol using a Ti/TiO₂‐RuO₂‐IrO₂ anode in the presence of chloride as the supporting electrolyte was investigated. The experiments were performed in an undivided batch reactor. Preliminary investigations showed that only a small fraction of phenol was oxidized by direct electrolysis, while complete degradation of phenol was achieved by indirect electrochemical oxidation using chloride as a supporting electrolyte. The effect of operating parameters such as initial pH, supporting electrolyte concentration, phenol concentration, and charge input was studied using Box‐Behnken second order composite experimental design. The effect of current density on COD removal was studied separately. TOC removal and AOX formation were studied for selected conditions. It was found that the formation of chlorinated organic compounds was pronounced at the beginning of electrolysis, but it was reduced to lower levels by extended electrolysis.     

Profiling of phenolic compounds using UPLC–Q-TOF-MS/MS and nephroprotective activity of Indian green leafy vegetable Merremia emarginata (Burm. f.)

The present study aimed at optimization and identification of phenolic compounds from Merremia emarginata (Burm. f.) through RP-HPLC and UPLC–MS/MS. Further, to investigate nephroprotective effect of M. emarginata against gentamicin induced nephrotoxicity in albino Wistar rats phenolic compound identification was carried out using UPLC–MS/MS in both positive and negative modes of ionization. There are about 29 known and 19 unknown phenolic compounds that have been detected in M. emarginata based on MS/MS fragmentation pattern. The nephrotoxicity was induced by gentamicin in albino Wistar rats through i.p. injection (20 mg/kg of b.wt) and the rats were treated orally with ethanol extract of M. emarginata (150, 200 and 250 mg/kg of b.wt) for fifteen days. Serum biochemical parameters were analyzed and histopathological study was carried out to evaluate nephroprotective activity. The histopathology study shows that compared to the control group, the kidney of the diseased group was highly damaged and the plant extract treated group shows regeneration of glomerular and tubular epithelial cells of damaged kidney.     

A Distributed Stream Query Optimization Framework through Integrated Planning and Deployment

This paper addresses the problem of optimizing multiple distributed stream queries that are executing simultaneously in distributed data stream systems. We argue that the static query optimization approach of "plan, then deployment” is inadequate for handling distributed queries involving multiple streams and node dynamics faced in distributed data stream systems and applications. Thus, the selection of an optimal execution plan in such dynamic and networked computing systems must consider operator ordering, reuse, network placement, and search space reduction. We propose to use hierarchical network partitions to exploit various opportunities for operator-level reuse while utilizing network characteristics to maintain a manageable search space during query planning and deployment. We develop top-down, bottom-up, and hybrid algorithms for exploiting operator-level reuse through hierarchical network partitions. Formal analysis is presented to establish the bounds on the search space and suboptimality of our algorithms. We have implemented our algorithms in the IFLOW [CHECK END OF SENTENCE] system, an adaptive distributed stream management system. Through simulations and experiments using a prototype deployed on Emulab [CHECK END OF SENTENCE], we demonstrate the effectiveness of our framework and our algorithms.