Comparison of gene nature used in real-time PCR for porcine identification and quantification: A review

Pork adulteration has been a major concern nowadays for Halal verification. Unintentional pork inclusion by contamination in highly processed food materials involves a minute amount of porcine DNA to be detected, emphasizing the need of specific and sensitive method for porcine detection. Real-time PCR is a widely used technique for species identification that can serve this purpose besides providing a powerful quantification method. Incorporation of a highly sensitive and specific probe can greatly improve the specificity and sensitivity of the assay. However, derivation of PCR primers, either from nuclear DNA (nDNA) or mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) can relatively affect the sensitivity and specificity of the reaction as well as the quantitative measurement. In this review, both types of DNA are compared in terms of their characteristics and their influence on species identification and quantification using real-time PCR.     

Thermal buckling analysis of laminated composite beams using hyperbolic refined shear deformation theory

In this article, thermal buckling of laminated composite beams, based on hyperbolic refined shear deformation theory, presented for the first time, is formulated using the principle of minimum total potential energy. Navier’s analytical solution is derived to analytically solve the differential equations and the thermal critical buckling is presented in closed-form solution. The effects of temperature distribution, length to thickness ratio, modulus ratio, and thermal expansion coefficient ratio on thermal buckling of isotropic, orthotropic and laminated composite beams are investigated. The accuracy of the numerical model is verified by comparison with the available results in the literature.     

Photovoltaic enhancement of nanostructured boron-doped rutile phase TiO2 nanorods via facile hydrothermal method

Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics - Several doping processes are being investigated for the enhancement and efficient utilization of TiO2 properties with increased focus on the...     

Macroscale assessment of low-velocity impact on hybrid composite laminates

Composites are usually brittle materials and have low impact properties. Structural dimensions, stacking sequence, ply materials, ply thicknesses and ply angles are standard variables that influence composite‘s performance against impact loads. Stacking sequence in hybrid laminates affects the failure and impact resistance. Failure mechanisms at the low-velocity impact of a rigid object in hybrid laminates are complex, and the subsurface damage in a composite laminate cannot be detected directly. However, various simulation platforms make it easy to see the impact damage between the plies of laminate. This paper numerically investigated the effect of stack sequence and hybridization of two fiber types against low-velocity impact. The current study adopted four-layer composite laminates of carbon and glass fiber layers with a stacking plan [C/C/C/C], [C/G/C/G] and [G/C/G/C], having lay-up angles as [0°/45°/−45°/90°]. Keeping the impactor mass and the incident velocity constant, the laminates were subjected to low-velocity impact. The damage contours for a failure mode were recorded and compared at the ply level. The numerical study resulted in impact imitations showing comparisons of the damage contours using Hashin failure criteria. Hybrid laminates display better performance in absorbing impact energies; however, hybrid laminates experienced more subsurface damage due to more impact energy absorption.     

Dealing with feature interactions for prismatic parts in STEP-NC

Determining the precedence of machining features is a critical issue in feature-based process planning. It becomes more complex when geometric interaction occurs between machining features. STEP-NC, the extension of STEP (ISO 10303) standard developed for CNC controllers, is a feature-based data model. It represents all the geometric and topological product data minus feature interactions. In this paper, machining precedence of interactive and non-interactive STEP-NC features is discussed. Local and global precedence of machining features are defined on the basis of geometric constraints, such as geometric interaction of features and feature approach face and technological constraint such as access direction of the cutting tool. A software tool has been developed to visualize the STEP-NC part model and to generate the graphs of feature interaction and feature precedence. The output can be then used to augment the STEP-NC data in order to generate the optimal sequence of operations.     

Conditions for stabilizability of linear switched systems

This paper investigates some conditions that can provide stabilizability for linear switched systems with polytopic uncertainties via their closed loop linear quadratic state feedback regulator. The closed loop switched systems can stabilize unstable open loop systems or stable open loop systems but in which there is no solution for a common Lyapunov matrix. For continuous time switched linear systems, we show that if there exists solution in an associated Riccati equation for the closed loop systems sharing one common Lyapunov matrix, the switched linear systems are stable. For the discrete time switched systems, we derive a Linear Matrix Inequality (LMI) to calculate a common Lyapunov matrix and solution for the stable closed loop feedback systems. These closed loop linear quadratic state feedback regulators guarantee the global asymptotical stability for any switched linear systems with any switching signal sequence.     

An efficient evolutionary optimization algorithm for multiobjective distribution feeder reconfiguration

In this paper, a Multi-objective Modified Honey Bee Mating Optimization (MMHBMO) evolutionary algorithm is proposed to solve the multi-objective Distribution Feeder Reconfiguration (DFR). The real power loss, the number of the switching operations and the deviation of the voltage at each node are considered as the objective functions. Conventional algorithms for solving the multiobjective optimization problems convert the multiple objectives into a single objective using a vector of the user-predefined weights. This paper presents a new MHBMO algorithm for the DFR problem. In the proposed algorithm an external repository is utilized to save non-dominated solutions found during the search process. A fuzzy clustering technique is used to control the size of the repository within the limits because of the objective functions are not the same. The proposed algorithm is tested on a distribution test feeder.     

Fault management in wireless sensor networks

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have gradually emerged as one of the key growth areas for pervasive computing in the twenty-first century. Recent advances in WSN technologies have made possible the development of new wireless monitoring and environmental control applications. However, the nature of these applications and harsh environments also created significant challenges for sensor networks to maintain a high quality of service in potentially harsh environments. Therefore, efficient fault management and robust management architectures have become essential for WSNs. In this article, we address these challenges by surveying existing fault management approaches for WSNs. We divide the fault management process into three phases: fault detection, diagnosis, and recovery and classify existing approaches according to these phases. Finally, we outline future challenges for fault management in WSNs.     

Gamma Radiation-induced Graft Copolymerization of – Phenylmaleimide onto Polypropylene Films

Polypropylene (PP) films were grafted with N-phenylmaleimide using γ-radiation. The effect of both monomer concentration and dose rate on the degree of grafting was measured. Characterization of the grafted PP films included IR spectroscopy, X-ray spectroscopy, electrical conductivity, mechanical properties and thermal stability has been studied. © of SCI.     

Dielectric relaxation of poly(tetrafluoroethylene–perfluorovinyl ether) films

Dielectric constant and dielectric loss have been studied for poly(tetrafluoroethylene–perfluorovinyl ether) (PFA) films over a wide temperature range in the frequency range 0.1–100 kHz. Two relaxation peaks were observed, one at room temperature (α_a-relaxation) and the other in the range 170–140 K (β-relaxation), with activation energies of 143·2 and 16·4 kcal/mol, respectively. The β-absorption is attributed to the short segmental local mode motion of the main chains. The α_a-relaxation can be interpreted as due to large-scale conformational rearrangement. The Cole–Cole diagrams are given at different temperatures and the distribution parameters (ϵ₀–ϵ_∞) and (1–α) of the relaxation times were calculated. The X-ray diffraction pattern of PFA shows both a diffuse halo and sharp reflections, characteristic of amorphous and crystalline phases of conventional semicrystalline polymers. Also, no evidence of crystallinity in the films due to thermal treatment during dielectric measurements was observed. IR spectra revealed the absence of any new peaks after the heat treatment.