Comparative Analysis of Ti,Ni,and Au Electrodes on Characteristics of TiO2 Nanofibers for Humidity Sensor Application

The effect of metal（Ti,Ni,and Au） electrodes on humidity sensing properties of electrospun TiO₂ nanofibers was investigated in this work.The devices were fabricated by evaporating metal contacts on SiO₂ layer thermally grown on silicon substrate.The separation between the electrodes was 90μm for all sensors.The sensors were tested from 40%to 90%relative humidity（RH） by AC electrical characterization at room temperature. When sensors are switched between 40%and 90%RH,the corresponding response and recovery time are 3 s and 5 s for Ti-electrode sensor,4 s and 7 s for Ni-electrode sensor,and 7 s and 13 s for Au-electrode sensor.The hysteresis was 3%,5%and 15%for Ti-,Ni-,and Au-electrode sensor,respectively.The sensitivity of Ti,Ni,and Au-electrode sensors are 7.53 MΩ/%RH,5.29 MΩ/%RH and 4.01 MΩ/%RH respectively at 100 Hz.Therefore Ti-electrode sensor is found to have linear response,fast response and recovery time and higher sensitivity as compared with those of Ni- and Au-electrode sensors.Comparison of humidity sensing properties of sensors with different electrode material may propose a compelling route for designing and optimizing humidity sensors.     

Saliency-weighted graphs for efficient visual content description and their applications in real-time image retrieval systems

The exponential growth in the volume of digital image databases is making it increasingly difficult to retrieve relevant information from them. Efficient retrieval systems require distinctive features extracted from visually rich contents, represented semantically in a human perception-oriented manner. This paper presents an efficient framework to model image contents as an undirected attributed relational graph, exploiting color, texture, layout, and saliency information. The proposed method encodes salient features into this rich representative model without requiring any segmentation or clustering procedures, reducing the computational complexity. In addition, an efficient graph-matching procedure implemented on specialized hardware makes it more suitable for real-time retrieval applications. The proposed framework has been tested on three publicly available datasets, and the results prove its superiority in terms of both effectiveness and efficiency in comparison with other state-of-the-art schemes.     

Probiotics for cure of Helicobacter pylori infection: A review

Human physiology normally contains pathogenic and non-pathogenic microorganisms in the gastrointestinal flora. Disturbance of these microorganism balance results in the formation of infection. Extensive use of antibiotics for cure of these disturbances like Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection leads to patient discomfort and associated side-effects. There is a need to adopt adjunct or alternative approach in order to minimize such conditions. Probiotics is one of the potential therapies to cure gastrointestinal discomforts especially associated with H. pylori. It competes through non-immune and immune systems. This review article concludes that probiotics are used to eradicate the infection at increased rate, and decreased associated side-effects are caused by triple therapy. A proper evaluation of these probiotics is demanded before their use in future as a commercial product. Furthermore, their effect on immune system requires more research work so that their usage for other chronic disorders can also be considered.     

An assessment of energy benefits of efficient household air-conditioners in Brazil

Increasing efficiency of electrical equipment is essential to national energy rationality, enabling energy consumption reduction and postponing inversion in distribution, transmission and generation, as well as mitigating environmental impacts associated with such activities. Considering such purposes, two actions have been promoted in Brazil: (a) minimum energy performance standards (MEPS) have been required for some appliances and (b) consumers have been informed about the most efficient products by ??endorsement labeling.?? The purpose of this study is to assess window and split air-conditioners with Brazilian MEPS. To evaluate the impact of efficient air-conditioners in this market, a model was developed based on estimates for quantity of equipment in operation and unitary consumption, as determined by local temperature records. From this model, it was deduced that using only efficient conditioners (class A for Brazilian Labeling Program/INMETRO, with PROCEL Label) an annual saving of 322?GWh and a reduction in demand of 109?MW could be obtained in 2007. Furthermore, it was observed that the current MEPS established by Brazilian legislation for air-conditioners may be considered relatively low. Considering that MEPS are similar to those observed in China (the main exporter of air-conditioners to the Brazil), an energy saving of roughly 222?GWh could be achieved in the same year. Impacts on emission of greenhouse gases are also estimated.     

Improved oil treatment conditions for soft degumming

“Soft degumming” is a new physicochemical degumming process. It involves the complete elimination of phospholipids by using a chelating agent, EDTA, in the prescence of an emulsifying additive. To study the optimal cost of the process, a laboratory study was undertaken to find a method based on substituting the emulsifying additive by endogenous phospholipids. The phospholipids were first extracted from the oil by an initial hot-water treatment. In a second stage, a solution containing a chelating agent was incorporated. The mixture was then vigorously stirred to form an emulsion. The degummed oil was obtained after centrifugation. A comparative study carried out on several oils provided an indication of the efficiency of this alternative procedure. The phospholipid content of the processed oils was about 5 ppm phosphorus.     

Feasibility of recycled newspaper as cellulose source for regenerated cellulose membrane fabrication

An environmental friendly regenerated cellulose membrane (RCM) was successfully prepared via NaOH/urea aqueous solution system by utilizing recycled newspaper (RNP) as the cellulose source. The morphological and chemical structure of resulting membrane were characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, X‐ray diffraction (XRD) spectroscopy, and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Results from FTIR and XRD verified that the transparent RCM possesses cellulose II structure. SEM observation revealed that the transparent RCM consist of homogeneous dense symmetric membrane structure and composed of a skin layer with mean roughness parameter R_a, obtained from AFM analysis of 29.53 nm. Pure water flux, water content, water contact angle, porosity, and pore size of the resulting membrane were also measured. This study promotes the potential of the cellulose‐based membrane obtained from low cost cellulose source for application in filtration and separation system. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2015 , 132, 42684.     

Influence of different viscosity grade cellulose-based polymers on the development of valsartan controlled release tablets

This work is based on formulating and optimizing controlled release (CR) valsartan (160 mg) tablets using different viscosity grades of the cellulosic polymer. The objective was to develop an effective once-daily drug delivery system of this cardiovascular agent. Central composite design was used for designing the formulations. Polymers used were Methocel® K4M, K15M and K100M. Compatibility of excipients with active was studied through FT-IR. Micromeritic properties were determined and formulations exhibiting appropriate flow characteristics were compressed. Swelling behavior and in vitro buoyancy effect were studied and response surface curves were constructed to optimize the formulation. Multi-point dissolution profiles of valsartan CR tablets at pH 1.2, 4.5 and 6.8 were obtained. Model-dependent and model-independent methods were performed including f2, stability test as per ICH guidelines and ANOVA. FT-IR studies revealed the compatibility of valsartan with all excipients. Formulation K4T9 (containing 25% K4M polymer) was selected to be the best optimized trial, based on physical properties and controlled release profile (23% at 4 h, 82% at 16 h and 100% at 24 h). Results of buoyancy and swelling behavior indicated that HPMC-K4M polymer exhibited excellent floating lag time and swelling indexes. In vitro drug release kinetics showed that formulation K4T9 displayed Korsmeyer–Peppas drug release pattern with r value > 0.99. The manufacturing process of K4T9 was also found to be reproducible with a shelf life period of 41 and 36 months at room temperature and accelerated conditions, respectively. Valsartan CR matrix-based formulation was successfully prepared with Methocel K4M retardant.     

In vitro synergism of antimutagenic and antioxidant activities of Phoenix dactylifera fruit

The availability of total phenolics of date flesh (Pheonix dactylifera) in aqueous and acidified methanol and in vitro synergism of their antimutagenic and antioxidant activities were investigated. The antimutagenic activities of date flesh extracts tested against Salmonella strains TA-98 and TA-100 using Ames bacterial testing were in the range of 36.47 to 79.74% against the standard mutagens potassium dichromate and sodium azide. The antioxidant activities assessed as maximal inhibitory concentrations (IC₅₀) for DPPH radicals and linoleic acid peroxidation inhibition were 812.90 to 2,076.10 μg/mL and 54.43 to 80.89%, respectively. The total phenolic contents of date flesh extracts (35.76 to 114.09mg/g of gallic acid equivalents) were found to be correlated with the biological activities. Use of 0.5 N acidified methanol was efficient for extraction of phenolic compounds with retained antioxidant and antimutagen activities. Dates are a good candidate as a source for development of chemotherapeutic drugs, nutracueticals, and functional food ingredients.     

Lipid Class and Fatty Acid Composition of Psoralia corylifolia Seed

The purified crude lipid of Psoralia corylifolia seeds was subjected to lipid class and fatty acid analysis by thin layer and gas chromatography. The lipid classes identified were triacyl glycerol, free fatty acid, diacyl glycerol, mono acyl glycerol, hydrocarbon-waxester and polar lipid fractions. Most of the fractions were found to contain high level of C_18:1 while C_18:0, C_18:3 and C_20:0 were also found to be present in all the lipid fractions. It has been observed that the diacyl and monoacyl glycerol fractions contain significant amounts of C_14:0 and C_18:0 while the hydrocarbon-waxester fraction was rich in C_22:0. The polar lipids contain high level of C_18:3 and low level of C_18:1 as compared to other lipid fractions. The fatty acid composition of the whole oil was also determined and found to be similar to other fractions. Unidentified long chain fatty acids were also present in significant amounts in all the lipid fractions.