Systematics study through scanning electron microscopy; a tool for the authentication of herbal drug Mentha suaveolens Ehrh

In all over the world, herbal drugs are usually adulterated with similar species or varieties due to incorrect identification. Most of herbal products devoid purity and quality, therefore an attempt was carried out to identify plant species and authenticate its herbal drug products from Mentha suaveolens. Microscopy tools provide an excellent platform to identify plants at species level. In this study, microscopic and pharmacokinetic parameters of M. suaveolens were observed. Plant species were collected from high diverse areas of Northern Pakistan. Macro and micro‐morphology including palynology and anatomical features were analyzed to study M. suaveolens. Species characteristics were studied, while implementing microscopic techniques for the delimitation and identification of the species. Traditionally Mentha species are used to cure several diseases that is, digestive disorders, respiratory disorders. Micromorphology (stem, leaves, flowers structure, length etc.), palynology (shape, size of pollen etc.), and anatomical characters (types of stomata, epidermal cell shape, and trichomes) were studied. Micromorphology and anatomical characters were of great interest and significance to discuss the taxonomy of the species. Taxonomic characters were studied to characterize and authenticate the species. The aim of the present study is to observe in detail the taxonomic identification of the species in term of morphology, palynology, and foliar epidermal anatomy for the correct identification along with their medicinal uses in the area.     

pH Responsive Abelmoschus esculentus Mucilage and Administration of Methotrexate: In-Vitro Antitumor and In-Vivo Toxicity Evaluation

The rapid progression in biomaterial nanotechnology apprehends the potential of non-toxic and potent polysaccharide delivery modules to overcome oral chemotherapeutic challenges. The present study is aimed to design, fabricate and characterize polysaccharide nanoparticles for methotrexate (MTX) delivery. The nanoparticles (NPs) were prepared by Abelmoschus esculentus mucilage (AEM) and chitosan (CS) by the modified coacervation method, followed by ultra-sonification. The NPs showed much better pharmaceutical properties with a spherical shape and smooth surface of 213.4–254.2 nm with PDI ranging between 0.279–0.485 size with entrapment efficiency varying from 42.08 ± 1.2 to 72.23 ± 2.0. The results revealed NPs to possess positive zeta potential and a low polydispersity index (PDI). The in-vitro drug release showed a sustained release of the drug up to 32 h with pH-dependence. Blank AEM -CS NPs showed no in-vivo toxicity for a time duration of 14 days, accompanied by high cytotoxic effects of optimized MTX loaded NPs against MCF-7 and MD-MBA231 cells by MTT assay. In conclusion, the findings advocated the therapeutic potential of AEM/CS NPs as an efficacious tool, offering a new perspective for pH-responsive routing of anticancer drugs with tumor cells as a target.     

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.     

Evaluation of machinability and economic performance in cryogenic-assisted hard turning of α-β titanium: a step towards sustainable manufacturing

Abstract

Titanium, a difficult-to-cut material, consumes higher time and cost in removing material by machining to produce parts. Machining of Ti alloys has got serious attention owing to its reactive nature with tool materials at elevated temperature that aggravates tool wear. Reportedly, effective and efficient cooling and lubrication at the tool–work interface can ameliorate the machinability of Ti-alloys. In this perspective, this article interrogates the underlying mechanism of critical responses such as surface roughness, temperature, tool life and machining cost under dry, minimum quantity lubrication (MQL) and cryogenic liquid nitrogen (LN2) modes. The effect of cutting speeds and feed rates on such responses have been considered as a function of cooling strategy to standardize the cooling technique as the best alternative for machining. Cryogenic cooling seems to be preponderant regarding machining cost, temperature, surface roughness and tool life in hard turning of a–b titanium alloy. The feasibility of cryogenic cooling was investigated using the iso-response technique in comparison with dry and MQL-assisted hard turning. Experimental results revealed longer tool life and lower machining cost under cryogenic condition followed by MQL and dry machining. Moreover, cryogenic LN2 has been identified as an appropriate alternative to reduce the temperature and surface roughness. On contrary, dry turning evoked a high-temperature and rapid tool wear. In a nutshell, cryogenic assisted hard turning has acceded as a sustainable strategy from an environmental and economic perspective.     

Investigation of structural and electrochemical properties of Na2Mn2(SO4)3 cathode for sodium-ion batteries

Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics - Electrode materials with the benefits of high working voltage, low cost, and environmental benign are needed for the realization of...     

Mn1-xCuxO2/ reduced graphene oxide nanocomposites: Synthesis,characterization, and evaluation of visible light mediated catalytic studies

The narrow optical band gap, higher electrical conductivity, and wider-absorption range are three key features that a good photocatalyst must possess. Herein, we have fabricated Cu-doped MnO₂ (Mn_1-xCu_xO₂) nanostructure by facile wet chemical approach and formed its nanocomposite with r-GO (Mn_1-xCu_xO₂/r-GO) via ultra-sonication approach. The successful replacement of host metal ions (Mn⁴⁺) with the dopant metal ions (Cu²⁺) was supported with the PXRD, FT-IR, and EDX characterizations. The effect of Cu-doping on the band gap and r-GO matrix on the conductivity of the fabricated nanocomposite was also evaluated via Tauc plots and I–V tests, respectively. The photocatalytic efficiency of the fabricated photocatalysts was tested and compared against the methylene blue (MB) under visible light irradiation. The photocatalytic experiments revealed that Mn_1-xCu_xO₂/r-GO photocatalyst exhibited superior photocatalytic aptitude than that of pristine MnO₂ and Mn_1-xCu_xO₂ photocatalysts. More precisely, the Mn_1-xCu_xO₂ photocatalysts degraded 86.89% MB dye at the rate of 0.021 min^?1 after a 90-min exposure to the visible light. Observed superior catalytic activity of the nanocomposite can be attributed to the synergistic effects between the Cu doped MnO₂ and r-GO nanosheets that resulted in its narrow band-gap (2.19 eV) and excellent conductivity (2.217 × 10^?2 Scm^?1).     

Arc and flash burn hazards at various levels of an electricalsystem

This paper discusses the effect on humans of arcing and flashing from high-energy electrical equipment. It reviews the results of a survey of several large petrochemical facilities in the US about personal protective equipment (PPE) and other equipment used for protection from arcing and flashing. This paper also presents the results of calculations done for typical industrial and large commercial electrical distribution systems and supports the use of personal and other protective equipment for work performed on or near high-energy electrical equipment     

Pore diffusion: Dependence of the effective diffusivity on the initial sorbate concentration in single and multisolute batch adsorption systems

The present work studies the intraparticle diffusivity in batch adsorption systems as a function of the initial sorbate concentration. The systems under investigation are basic dyes, namely Basic Blue 69, Basic Red 22 and Basic Yellow 21 and their binary and ternary combinations, all adsorbing onto activated carbon Filtrasorb 400. They study is based on the film-pore diffusion model and the output is a combination of the external mass transfer coefficient, k_f and the effective diffusivity, D_eff that yields congruent experimental and theoretical kinetic data. It has been found the D_eff varies with C_o in an exponential decay function. Furthermore. D_eff values undergo a general reduction in the multisolute systems compared to the single component systems. Also, the relative diffusion rates in the multisolute systems are found to change such that D_eff of the slower diffuser is enhanced and that D_eff of the faster diffuser is inhibited.     

Fifth-generation microprocessors

The authors describes the evolution of various microprocessor chip families. Those discussed are: the Pentium chips, the PowerPC chips, The Cyrix 5×86 chips and the AMD-K5 chips. Future evolution is also briefly considered