Effect of Ethrel and 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP) on antioxidants in mango (Mangifera indica var. Dashehari) during fruit ripening

Ripening affects the quality and nutritional contents of fleshy fruits. Mango, a climacteric fruit, is very susceptible to post-harvest losses, due to fast softening. In the present paper we report the effect of 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP) and Ethrel on antioxidant levels in mango fruit during ripening. Use of 1-MCP is applied commercially to delay ripening while Ethrel is used to accelerate ripening of climacteric fruits. 1-MCP treatment led to decreased levels of H₂O₂ and lipid peroxidation, concomitant with increased activities and isozymes of catalase (CAT) and superoxide dismutase (SOD), as compared to respective controls. On the other hand, Ethrel treatment led to an increase in H₂O₂ and lipid peroxidation, concomitant with a decrease in the activities and isozymes of catalase and SOD. Guaiacol peroxidase (GPX) could not be detected in the control or in treated fruits. Activity of ascorbate peroxidase (APX) was found to drastically increase in the presence of Ethrel while 1-MCP treatment led to only a marginal increase in APX.     

Dimensional analysis of performance of a solar-cum-wind aspirator developed at ciae

Air flow through a solar-cum-wind aspirator is induced by both thermal buoyancy and wind effects. A similitude study has been conducted to characterize air flow rates through solar-cum-wind aspirators. A relationship between the air flow rate and height and diameter of the aspirator, wind speed, temperature rise inside the stack, and relevant air properties has been developed on the basis of the experimental data collected under field conditions.     

Cost analysis of a two unit priority standby system with imperfect switch and arbitrary distributions

This paper deals with cost analysis of a single server two-unit (one priority and the other ordinary) cold standby system with two modes—normal and total failure. A switch is used to operate the standby unit (ordinary) and it works successfully with known probability p( = 1 ? q). Priority unit gets preference both for operation and repair. Failure and repair time distributions are arbitrary. System fails when switch or both the units fail totally. The system is observed at suitable regenerative epochs in order to obtain reliability characteristics of interest to system designers and operations managers. Explicit results for the exponential time distributions have been obtained in particular cases.     

Determination of fibre-matrix interfacial properties in ceramic-matrix composites by a fibre push-out technique

A simple concentric cylinder model is developed for the fibre push-out test in order to interpret the experimentally observed indenter load-displacement curves in ceramic-matrix composites. The fibre-matrix interface is assumed to be partially bonded and partially frictionally coupled. It is shown that a slope change in the loading curve corresponds to bonding at the fibre-matrix interface. In contrast an insignificant change in the slope is predicted for composites in which the fibre-matrix interface is frictionally coupled. This model also provides a framework for determining the interfacial debond energy and the interfacial shear strength in ceramic composites using the fibre push-out tests. The predictions of this model are compared with the push-out test results performed on zircon-SiC composites uniaxially reinforced with either uncoated or BN-coated SiC monofilaments, which suggested that the fibre-matrix interfaces in both of these composites are frictionally coupled.     

Evaluation of Mangosteen juice blend on biomarkers of inflammation in obese subjects: a pilot, dose finding study

Background  

The ability to reduce inflammation in overweight and obese individuals may be valuable in preventing the progression to metabolic syndrome with associated risks for heart disease and diabetes. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of multiple dosages of a proprietary Mangosteen Juice blend on indicators of inflammation and antioxidant levels in obese patients with elevated C-reactive protein (CRP) levels.     

Mobility and distribution of cadmium, nickel and zinc in contaminated soil profiles from Bangladesh

We investigated the mobility and distribution of cadmium (Cd), nickel (Ni) and zinc (Zn) in four contaminated soil profiles from Bangladesh. The sources of contamination of these profiles were tannery wastes, city sewage and the wastes of pharmaceutical and paper mill factories at different locations in Bangladesh. The samples were collected from the A-, B- and C-horizons of each profile: two sub-samples from the A-horizon at depths of 0–5 cm (A1) and >5 cm (A2), and one sample each from the B- and C-horizons. Soil samples were analysed for total metal content by dissolution in aqua regia followed by sequential extraction of the fractions based on their varying solubility. There were six operationally defined groups of extraction sequences: water soluble (F1), exchangeable (F2), carbonate (F3), oxide (F4), organic (F5) and residual (F6). The total concentration of Cd, Ni and Zn in the A-horizon (0–5 cm) ranged from 0.10 to 0.62, from 31 to 54 and from 85 to 838 mg kg⁻¹, respectively. In the B- and C-horizons, the concentrations of these metals decreased many fold, particularly in the city sewage profile where the decrease for Cd and Zn was approximately fourfold. The distribution of metals among the chemical fractions depended on their total concentrations. In the A1-horizon, Cd had the highest mobility factor [MF = (F1+F2+F3)/(F1+F2+F3+F4+F5+F6) × 100] at 41–43% and Ni had the lowest at 3–13%, while Zn, showed intermediate values at 8–25%. The MF decreased with depth in all soil profiles. Among the fractions, the residual fraction contained the lowest levels of Cd but the highest levels of Ni and Zn. This state affected their relative mobility and distribution in soil profiles. Of the soil profiles, the mobility of all metals was higher in the city sewage soil than in any of the other three soils investigated, suggesting that the former may create a health risk by contaminating agricultural products and ground water as it also contained higher amounts of Cd and Zn.     

Integrated Front-End Radar Receivers at Ka-Band

This paper describes the Integrated Finline Front-end Radar Receivers at Ka-Band. The Front-receivers developed for Radar applications include combining of finline components on a single MIC substrate with various planar transmission lines. The integrated systems so developed have better noise figure and control over phase and gain imbalances as compared to discrete component systems. Two types of Integrated Front-ends Radar receivers are described here. The developed systems are highly compact and reliable.     

In situ micro/nano-hydrogel synthesis from acrylamide derivates with lecithin organogel system

Acrylamide based hydrogel particles with variable charge were synthesized in different sizes using a biocompatible surfactant. We use microemulsion polymerization to synthesize the hydrogel particles in lecithin organogel systems. The phospholipid, lecithin, is a soybean extract that exhibits a rich phase behavior depending on various factors such as amount of water, co-solvent, additives and their concentrations. By UV irradiation of water-in-oil microemulsions of lecithin, containing different monomers, phospholipid coated hydrogels were synthesized in situ. The hydrogel particle size varies from a few hundred nanometers to tens of micrometer. The response time of these micron sized hydrogel particles, as measured by swelling experiments, is very fast (∼10⁰ s) in comparison with their corresponding bulk hydrogels (∼10¹ h). The positively charged cationic hydrogel microparticles were embedded/dispersed into another hydrogel matrix to render responsive behavior to a non-responsive matrix. Besides TEM and SEM studies, fluorescein dye absorption studies were also performed in order to visualize the hydrogel microparticles. Additionally, anionic hydrogel micro/nano-particles were also synthesized in the lecithin system.     

Synthesis,structure and calculated NLO properties of [(n-Bu)2Sn-μ-O-μ-OH-Sn(n-Bu)2(CH3CO2)]2 and its putative derivatives

Title compound[(n-Bu)₂Sn-μ-O-μ-OH-Sn(n-Bu)₂(CH₃CO₂)]₂ was obtained accidentally by the reaction of n-Bu₂SnCl₂ with the metalloligand K₂[Ni(CDC)₂] in ethanol - water mixture while synthesizing a heterobimetallic complex [n-Bu₂Sn Ni(CDC)₂]. This has been characterized by micro analysis, UV–Vis, ¹H, ¹³C and ¹¹⁹Sn NMR spectroscopy and the single crystal X-ray. The complex forms an interesting supramolecular architecture via (acetate)O?HO hydrogen bonding interactions which generates hydrophobic “pseudo-cage”. The electronic absorption bands of the title complex were assigned with the help of the time dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) calculations. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations have been performed at the optimized molecular geometry of some of its putative derivatives e. g. trans p-amino cinnamic acid derivative 2; trans p-amino cinnamic acid and trans p-nitro cinnamic acid derivative 3; trans p-amino cinnamic acid and trans p-(N,N dimethylamino) cinnamic acid derivative 4. The first static hyperpolarizability (β) of the title compound and its derivatives were calculated with double numerical differentiation of total energies. The derivatives 3 and 4 showed three times and five times enhancement in the non-linear optical (NLO) responses than the standard p-nitroaniline (pNA).     

Microwave‐assisted facile and convenient synthesis of fatty acid amide (erucamide): Chemical‐catalyzed rapid method

The present investigation explores a process for the production of erucamide, utilizing microwave irradiation as the heating element for the reaction between erucic acid and gaseous ammonia liberated by urea in the presence of catalyst (di‐ammonium hydrogen ortho‐phosphate) at atmospheric pressure and high temperature. In this process, the time of reaction is very short (25 min) and the yield is also good (92%).