Protective effect of the fruits of Terminalia arjuna against cadmium-induced oxidant stress and hepatic cell injury via MAPK activation and mitochondria dependent pathway

Cadmium (Cd), a highly toxic environmental pollutant, induces hepatic disorders. The present study has been undertaken to investigate the protective role of the fruit extract of Terminalia arjuna (AE) against Cd-induced oxidative liver impairment using a murine model. Cadmium reduced hepatocytes viability, activated MAPKs, disturbed Bcl-2 family protein balance, increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and induced apoptotic cell death by mitochondria dependent caspases-3 activation. AE treatment, however, suppressed all the apoptotic actions of cadmium. Similarly, mice treated with cadmium altered a number biomarkers related to hepatic oxidative stress and other apoptotic indices. Oral administration of AE both pre and post prevented all the Cd-induced hepatic damages.     

Impact of adhesive ingredients on adhesion between rubber and brass-plated steel wire in tire

Proficiency on underlying mechanism of rubber-metal adhesion has been increased significantly in the last few decades. Researchers have investigated the effect of various ingredients, such as hexamethoxymethyl melamine, resorcinol, cobalt stearate, and silica, on rubber-metal interface. The role of each ingredient on rubber-metal interfacial adhesion is still a subject of scrutiny. In this article, a typical belt skim compound of truck radial tire is selected and the effect of each adhesive ingredient on adhesion strength is explored. Out of these ingredients, the effect of cobalt stearate is found noteworthy. It has improved adhesion strength by 12% (without aging) and by 11% (humid-aged), respectively, over control compound. For detailed understanding of the effect of cobalt stearate on adhesion, scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive spectroscopy are utilized to ascertain the rubber coverage and distribution of elements. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy results helped us to understand the impact of Cu_XS layer depth on rubber-metal adhesion. The depth profile of the Cu_XS layer was found to be one of the dominant factors of rubber-metal adhesion retention. Thus, this study has made an attempt to find the impact of different adhesive ingredients on the formation of Cu_XS layer depth at rubber-metal interface and establish a correlation with adhesion strength simultaneously.     

In-house contamination of potable water in urban slum of Kolkata, India: a possible transmission route of diarrhea

We have investigated and determined the potentiality of different water sources, both for drinking and domestic purposes, in diarrheal disease transmission in diarrhea endemic foci of urban slums in Kolkata, India in a one and half year prospective study. Out of 517 water samples, collected from different sources, stored water (washing) showed higher prevalence of fecal coliforms (58%) (p < 0.0001) in comparison with stored (drinking) samples (28%) and tap/tubewell water (8%) respectively. Among different sources, stored water (washing) samples had the highest non-permissible range of physico-chemical parameters. Fecal coliform levels in household water containers (washing) were comparatively high and almost 2/3 of these samples failed to reach the satisfactory level of residual chlorine. Interestingly, 7% stored water (washing) samples were found to be harboring Vibrio cholerae Improper usage of stored water and unsafe/poor sanitation practices such as hand washing etc. are highlighted as contributory factors for sustained diarrheal episodes. Vulnerability of stored water for domestic usage, a hitherto unexplored source, at domiciliary level in an urban slum where enteric infections are endemic, is reported for the first time. This attempt highlights the impact of quality of stored water at domiciliary level for fecal-oral contamination vis-à-vis disease transmission.     

A Decision Making Methodology to Assess Power Quality Monitoring Index of an AC Microgrid Using Fuzzy Inference Systems

Abstract

The power quality issues are challenging in microgrid due to the presence of various types of renewable energy resources unlike conventional power system. So, the main objective of this research is to quantify the power quality considering the fuzziness in variation of voltage, frequency, power factor and total harmonic distortion (THD) due to the occurrence of voltage sag, swell, interruption and unbalancing in three-phase AC microgrid feeding static and rotational loads. Therefore, a novel power quality monitoring index (PQMI) is proposed to determine the status of power quality. Total 256 numbers of rules are formed for fuzzy inference system (FIS) to assess PQMI considering the acceptable limits of above mentioned four input variables as per IEEE/IEC standards. The proposed methodology is verified through Mamdani and Sugeno type FIS using Matlab-Simulink software. It is also found that the proposed PQMI is significant to define the status of microgrid even during transition from grid-connected to islanded mode and vice-versa.     

Automated analysis of images in documents for intelligent document search

Authors use images to present a wide variety of important information in documents. For example, two-dimensional (2-D) plots display important data in scientific publications. Often, end-users seek to extract this data and convert it into a machine-processible form so that the data can be analyzed automatically or compared with other existing data. Existing document data extraction tools are semi-automatic and require users to provide metadata and interactively extract the data. In this paper, we describe a system that extracts data from documents fully automatically, completely eliminating the need for human intervention. The system uses a supervised learning-based algorithm to classify figures in digital documents into five classes: photographs, 2-D plots, 3-D plots, diagrams, and others. Then, an integrated algorithm is used to extract numerical data from data points and lines in the 2-D plot images along with the axes and their labels, the data symbols in the figure’s legend and their associated labels. We demonstrate that the proposed system and its component algorithms are effective via an empirical evaluation. Our data extraction system has the potential to be a vital component in high volume digital libraries.     

Effective fault detection and routing scheme for wireless sensor networks

In a wireless sensor network (WSN), random occurrences of faulty nodes degrade the quality of service of the network. In this paper, we propose an efficient fault detection and routing (EFDR) scheme to manage a large size WSN. The faulty nodes are detected by neighbour node’s temporal and spatial correlation of sensing information and heart beat message passed by the cluster head. In EFDR scheme, three linear cellular automata (CA) are used to manage transmitter circuit/ battery condition/microcontroller fault, receiver circuit fault and sensor circuit fault representation. On the other hand, L-system rules based data routing scheme is proposed to determine optimal routing path between cluster head and base station. The proposed EFDR technique is capable of detecting and managing the faulty nodes in an efficient manner. The simulation results show 86% improvement in the rate of energy loss compared to an existing algorithm.     

A new modelling and identification scheme for time-delay systems with experimental investigation: a relay feedback approach

In this paper, the conventional relay feedback test has been modified for modelling and identification of a class of real-time dynamical systems in terms of linear transfer function models with time-delay. An ideal relay and unknown systems are connected through a negative feedback loop to bring the sustained oscillatory output around the non-zero setpoint. Thereafter, the obtained limit cycle information is substituted in the derived mathematical equations for accurate identification of unknown plants in terms of overdamped, underdamped, critically damped second-order plus dead time and stable first-order plus dead time transfer function models. Typical examples from the literature are included for the validation of the proposed identification scheme through computer simulations. Subsequently, the comparisons between estimated model and true system are drawn through integral absolute error criterion and frequency response plots. Finally, the obtained output responses through simulations are verified experimentally on real-time liquid level control system using Yokogawa Distributed Control System CENTUM CS3000 set up.     

Selection of industrial robots using compromise ranking and outranking methods

Selection of a robot for a specific industrial application is one of the most challenging problems in real time manufacturing environment. It has become more and more complicated due to increase in complexity, advanced features and facilities that are continuously being incorporated into the robots by different manufacturers. At present, different types of industrial robots with diverse capabilities, features, facilities and specifications are available in the market. Manufacturing environment, product design, production system and cost involved are some of the most influencing factors that directly affect the robot selection decision. The decision maker needs to identify and select the best suited robot in order to achieve the desired output with minimum cost and specific application ability. This paper attempts to solve the robot selection problem using two most appropriate multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods and compares their relative performance for a given industrial application. The first MCDM approach is ‘VIsekriterijumsko KOmpromisno Rangiranje’ (VIKOR), a compromise ranking method and the other one is ‘ELimination and Et Choice Translating REality’ (ELECTRE), an outranking method. Two real time examples are cited in order to demonstrate and validate the applicability and potentiality of both these MCDM methods. It is observed that the relative rankings of the alternative robots as obtained using these two MCDM methods match quite well with those as derived by the past researchers.     

Lindex: a lattice-based index for graph databases

Subgraph querying has wide applications in various fields such as cheminformatics and bioinformatics. Given a query graph, q, a subgraph-querying algorithm retrieves all graphs, D(q), which have q as a subgraph, from a graph database, D. Subgraph querying is costly because it uses subgraph isomorphism tests, which are NP-complete. Graph indices are commonly used to improve the performance of subgraph querying in graph databases. Subgraph-querying algorithms first construct a candidate answer set by filtering out a set of false answers and then verify each candidate graph using subgraph isomorphism tests. To build graph indices, various kinds of substructure (subgraph, subtree, or path) features have been proposed with the goal of maximizing the filtering rate. Each of them works with a specifically designed index structure, for example, discriminative and frequent subgraph features work with gIndex, δ-TCFG features work with FG-index, etc. We propose Lindex, a graph index, which indexes subgraphs contained in database graphs. Nodes in Lindex represent key-value pairs where the key is a subgraph in a database and the value is a list of database graphs containing the key. We propose two heuristics that are used in the construction of Lindex that allows us to determine answers to subgraph queries conducting less subgraph isomorphism tests. Consequently, Lindex improves subgraph-querying efficiency. In addition, Lindex is compatible with any choice of features. Empirically, we demonstrate that Lindex used in conjunction with subgraph indexing features proposed in previous works outperforms other specifically designed index structures. As a novel index structure, Lindex (1) is effective in filtering false graphs (2) provides fast index lookups, (3) is fast with respect to index construction and maintenance, and (4) can be constructed using any set of substructure index features. These four properties result in a fast and scalable subgraph-querying infrastructure. We substantiate the benefits of Lindex and its disk-resident variation Lindex+ theoretically and empirically.