Comparative light and scanning electron microscopy in authentication of adulterated traded medicinal plants

The medicinal plants are utilized globally considering the cheap and chemical free source, but their correct identification and authentication is prerequisite for safety and efficacy of plant‐based medicines. The present study encompassed traded medicinal plants (16) with high therapeutic value from diverse families like Brassicaceae, Berberidaceae, Malvaceae, Salicaceae, Myrtaceae, Papilionaceae, Ascelpiadaceae, Colchicaceae, Violaceae, and Vitaceae for detailed microscopic study of characters that is, morphology, pollen shape and sizes, P/E ratio, pore length and width, spine length, colpi dimensions, and exine sculpture pattern. The plants showed noteworthy differences in microscopy of Wattakaka volubilis having pollinia, translator and corpusculum like structures while pores were visible in Colchicum luteum, Alcea rosea, and Hibiscus syriacus. The spines were observed in Centipeda minima, A. rosea, and H. syriacus being dimorphic spines in A. rosea and monomorphic in H. syriacus. The exine sculpturing pattern was reticulate in mostly studied plants however distinctive exine pattern was noted in Berberis aristata and Berberis lyceum. The highest polar diameter, equatorial diameter and exine thickness among studied plants were observed in H. syriacus (161 μm), C. luteum (50 μm) and Vitis jacquemontii (1.10), respectively. Thus, microscopy of medicinal plants in addition to other taxonomic evidence offers a supportive skill in authentication, consequently utilization by local consumers and pharmaceutical industries.     

The ToxicFarm Integrated Cooperation Framework for Virtual Teams

Developing a collaboration solution, that scales to an entire organization, that offers an integrated collection of cooperation tools, that is general enough to address a large range of applications, and that is easy to deploy for most people, is still an open challenge. This paper presents ToxicFarm services that are an integral part of a framework for hosting Internet virtual teams. The originality of this work is in providing a synthesis between contributions from different domains, including version management in software engineering, process management in data engineering, and awareness in groupware tools. The paper describes the overall services offered, discusses design choices for their integration and implementation, presents relations with existing work and describes their use in several emerging e-business application domains, such as e-finance, e-learning and e-telecom.     

Synthesis of phosphorus‐ and phenyl‐based ROMP polymers and investigation of their effects on the thermomechanical and flammability properties of a polypropylene–IFR system

In this study, we present an approach for the synthesis of novel phosphorous‐ or phenyl‐ containing polymers, 2_phenyl, 3_phospho, and 2_phenyl‐co‐3_phospho, derived from ring‐opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP), to reduce the flammability of polypropylene (PP). The composites were processed by melt‐blending ROMP polymers and octaphenyl–polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane with PP/intumescent flame retardant (IFR) compounds at different compositions. The composites were characterized by limiting oxygen index (LOI), UL‐94, and mechanical tests as well as thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The molecular structures of phosphorous‐ and phenyl‐containing polymers were proved by ¹H‐NMR, ¹³C‐NMR, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The online rheological measurements indicated that the addition of additives to the PP/IFR system increased the melt viscosity of the compounds regardless of the type. The DSC analysis showed that the addition of ROMP polymers to the PP/IFR system influenced the crystal perfection and degree of crystallization. TGA analysis of the composites revealed that the addition of ROMP polymers to PP/IFR compounds deteriorated the thermal stability as the amount of phosphorus increased in the matrix. Dynamic mechanical properties such as storage modulus (E′) and loss modulus (E″) of the composites were lowered by the addition of ROMP polymers. The LOI and UL‐94 rating of PP/IFR were enhanced by the addition of ROMP polymers. It was successfully demonstrated that the novel phosphorous‐ or phenyl‐containing polymers were highly potent additives in optimizing the flammability of PP composites. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2018 , 135, 45998.     

Influences of elastic foundations and shear deformations on the buckling behavior of functionally graded material truncated conical shells under axial compression

This article presents an investigation on the buckling of functionally graded (FG) truncated conical shells under an axial load resting on elastic foundations within the shear deformation theory (SDT). The governing equations are solved using the Galerkin method, and the closed-form solution of the axial buckling load for FG conical shells on elastic foundations within the SDT is obtained. Various numerical examples are presented and discussed to verify the accuracy of the closed-form solution in predicting dimensionless buckling loads for FG conical shells on the Winkler–Pasternak elastic foundations within the SDT.     

Multi-item production routing problem with backordering: a MILP approach

The aim of this paper is to present mixed integer linear programming formulations for the production routing problem with backordering (PRP-B) and a new hybrid heuristic to solve the problem. The PRP-B is considered in the context of a supply chain consisting of a production facility with limited production and storage capacities and geographically dispersed points of sale with limited storage capacities. The PRP-B integrates multiple item lot sizing decisions and vehicle routing decisions to the points of sale, where backordering of end customer demands is allowed at a penalty. Two integrated mixed integer programming models are formulated and a solution procedure consisting of a relax-and-fix heuristic combined with a local search algorithm is proposed. The numerical results show that this hybrid heuristic outperforms a state-of-the-art MIP commercial solver, in terms of solution quality and CPU times.     

Contribution to the path planning of a multi-robot system: centralized architecture

The current study is set to investigate the problem of planning trajectories for a multi-robot system in a dynamic environment. The planning study is conducted in a “barrier-free” and “with obstacle” environment, based on the artificial potential field (APF) technique. This study seeks to improve the APF method in order to have good trajectory planning of a multi-robot system. Also, for multi-robot mobile systems, one of the main technical considerations is the technique used to coordinate the movements of different robots. In this paper, we proposed a centralized architecture for the trajectory planning of a multi-robot system.

     

Deep learning for vision‐based fall detection system: Enhanced optical dynamic flow

Accurate fall detection for the assistance of older people is crucial to reduce incidents of deaths or injuries due to falls. Meanwhile, vision‐based fall detection system has shown some significant results to detect falls. Still, numerous challenges need to be resolved. The impact of deep learning has changed the landscape of the vision‐based system, such as action recognition. The deep learning technique has not been successfully implemented in vision‐based fall detection system due to the requirement of a large amount of computation power and requirement of a large amount of sample training data. This research aims to propose a vision‐based fall detection system that improves the accuracy of fall detection in some complex environments such as the change of light condition in the room. Also, this research aims to increase the performance of the pre‐processing of video images. The proposed system consists of Enhanced Dynamic Optical Flow technique that encodes the temporal data of optical flow videos by the method of rank pooling, which thereby improves the processing time of fall detection and improves the classification accuracy in dynamic lighting condition. The experimental results showed that the classification accuracy of the fall detection improved by around 3% and the processing time by 40–50 ms. The proposed system concentrates on decreasing the processing time of fall detection and improving the classification accuracy. Meanwhile, it provides a mechanism for summarizing a video into a single image by using dynamic optical flow technique, which helps to increase the performance of image preprocessing steps.     

Optimization of Stirling engine performance based on an experimental design approach

The Stirling engine performances depend on several physicals characteristics and functioning parameters. The influence of each parameter and of their interactions is difficult to achieve with classical univariate studies. The experimental design is an alternative to identify the parameters sets allowing optimal Stirling engine performances. Hence, a four factor Central Composite Rotatable Design was used to observe the effect of cooling water flowrate, initial charge pressure, heating temperature, and operation time on a Stirling engine brake power. The influence of each parameter and the effect of the interaction between two or three parameters on the engine performances are presented and discussed. Using the surface response method, it appears that initial charge pressure and heating temperature are the more influencing parameters on the Stirling engine performances. With modeling, optimal conditions for the Stirling engine functioning are the following: charge pressure of 8 bar, heating temperature of 500 °C, and cooling water flow rates of 7.34 l/min, independent of the engine operation time. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Chemical composition and antimicrobial activity of the essential oils from four Ruta species growing in Algeria

Antimicrobial properties of plants essential oils have been investigated in order to suggest them as potential tools to overcome the microbial drug resistance and the increasing incidence of food borne diseases problems. The aim of this research is to study the antibacterial and antifungal effects of four traditional plants essential oils, Ruta angustifolia, Ruta chalepensis, Ruta graveolens and Ruta tuberculata, against standard bacterial and fungal strains. The chemical compounds of the oils were examined by GC/MS. Results revealed a powerful antifungal activity against filamentous fungi. Aspergillus fumigatus and Cladosporium herbarum are the most sensitive strains to these oils with MIC values less than 3.5 μg ml⁻¹ for certain oils, reaching 7.8 μg ml⁻¹ for other. GC/MS essay exhibited ketones as the most abundant constituent of these oils except for R. tuberculata essential oil which has a completely different composition, monoterpenes alcohols being the most abundant. These compositions explain their potential antifungal activity.