Organically modified montmorillonite hyperbranched polyurethane–urea hybrid composites

The synthesis and characterization of hyperbranched polyurethane/clay (HBPu/o-clay) hybrid coatings prepared from HB aliphatic polyester polyols (HPs) and isophorone diisocyanate (IPDI) is reported. The HPs are prepared by reacting adipic acid (AA) separately with pentaerythritol (PE), trimethylol propane (TMP) and glycerol (Gly) in different mole ratios of 0.6:1.0, 0.8:1.0 and 1.0:1.0, respectively. K⁺-montmorillonite (K10) modified with cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) is used to increase the compatibility between the clay and polymer matrix. The clay is well-dispersed into the polyester matrix by ultrasonication method. Later on, NCO capped HBPU prepolymer (NCO–HBPu) is synthesized from the clay-dispersed polyester by reacting with IPDI at NCO/OH ratio of 1.6:1.0. In the next step, excess NCO content in the binder is cured with moisture. The properties of different HBPu/o-clay hybrid coatings were studied by FTIR, TGA and DMTA instruments and a structure to property correlation is drawn. The deconvolution technique is used to identify the amount of hydrogen bonding present in the hybrid coatings. The TGA and DMTA result showed an enhancement of the thermal stability, room temperature modulus (E′) and glass transition value (T_g) for the clay modified hybrid coatings, and increases with increasing clay content. TGA results also suggest that the PE-based HBPu/o-clay hybrid coatings have higher thermal stability than TMP or Gly-based systems, which are in close agreement to the FTIR analysis.     

Viscometric and conductometric studies of poly(vinyl alcohol)-g-polyacrylamide composites

Poly(vinyl alcohol)-g-polyacrylamide composites have been prepared by γ-radiation-initiated polymerization of acrylamide (AAm) in the presence of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) in aqueous medium by the mutual method in air. Percentage conversion of AAm has been studied as a function of total dose, monomer concentration, and amount of water. Optimum conditions leading to maximum percent conversion of the monomer to give the composite have been evaluated. The products of polymerization of AAm in the presence of PVA consisted of unreacted PVA, the graft copolymer, PVA-g-PAAm, and the homopolymer polyacrylamide, PAAm, and this mixture is referred to as PVA-g-PAAm composite. AAm was also polymerized in the absence of PVA under similar conditions, and optimum conditions leading to maximum conversion of AAm to PAAm have been evaluated. A comparative study of the polyelectrolytic behavior of PVA, PAAm, and the composite has been made by viscometric and conductometric methods. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Significance of Nutrition in Pulmonary Tuberculosis

Malnutrition and tuberculosis are both problems mostly of the developing countries. Tuberculosis can lead to malnutrition and malnutrition may predispose to tuberculosis. Poor nutrition leads to protein–energy malnutrition and micronutrients deficiencies which lead to immunodeficiency. This secondary immunodeficiency increases the host's susceptibility to infection and hence increase the risk for developing tuberculosis. Tuberculosis itself leads to reduction in appetite, nutrient malabsorption, micronutrient malabsorption, and altered metabolism leading to wasting and poor nutritional status. Nutritional status and dietary intake and hence nutritional status of patients get improved during antituberculosis treatment.     

Strength degradation and fractographic analysis of carbon fiber reinforced polymer composite laminates with square / circular hole using scanning electron microscope micrographs

In this article, experimental study has been carried out to obtain comparative information intended for designing and assembly of structural components made of carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) composite. Investigation on tensile strength has been done on unidirectional CFRP composite laminates with hole. Effect of stacking sequence, hole size, and hole shape on tensile strength has been examined independently by open hole tensile (OHT) test. Reduction in OHT strength is observed when stacking sequence is changed from [0]₈ to [0/90]_2s and when the hole size is increased. However, OHT strength is noticed to get increased when hole shape is changed from circular to square. Laminates containing square shaped hole demonstrate less sensitiveness towards tensile strength and show negligible effect of stacking sequences on the normalized strength than the circular hole. Fractographic analysis figures out the failure mechanism of tested specimens by correlating their mechanical properties. SEM micrographs and data analysis reveal that axial splits and local delamination effectively blunt the stress concentration around the hole resulting in higher OHT strength and less notch sensitiveness towards tensile strength.     

Fermentation of locust bean (Parkia biglobosa): modulation in the anti-nutrient composition,bioactive profile,in vitro nutrient digestibility,functional and morphological characteristics

The present investigation was undertaken with an objective to assess the impact of fermentation temperatures (22, 30, 38 and 46 °C for 72 h) on physico-chemical, functional and structural characteristics of locust bean (Parkia biglobosa). Alkaline fermentation treatment caused drastic reduction in anti-nutritional factors including tannins (~65%), phytates (~60%) and saponins (~70%) owing to hydrothermal treatment and production of microbial enzymes during fermentation. Furthermore, phytochemical profile and associated antioxidant potential were enhanced due to the breakdown of cell-wall components and polyphenolic complexes, liberating phenolic acids and flavonoids available for extraction. With respect to bioactive properties and in vitro starch and protein digestibility, the most pronounced effect was observed after fermentation at 38 °C for 72 h. The trend was also supported by scanning electron micrographs, which revealed modulation in the macromolecular-structural arrangement. Significant and negative correlation coefficients between anti-nutritional factors and protein digestibility (r > −0.95, P < 0.05) confirmed the degradation of protein–polyphenol matrix. Exposure of hydrophobic regions due to fermentation resulted in altered functional properties including better oil absorption capacity, higher water solubility index, reduced water absorption potential, and lower emulsification and gelation properties. Principal component analysis was further employed to statistically validate the differences among variables and observations.     

Social spider foraging-based optimal resource management approach for future cloud

The Journal of Supercomputing - With the expansion of computing infrastructure of heterogeneous and distributed environment, resource management has become a big challenge. In a cloud computing...     

Influence of bioprocessing treatments on phytochemical and functional properties,in vitro digestibility,protein secondary structure and morphological characteristics of Indian barnyard millet flour

The objective of the present investigation was to assess the effects of different bioprocessing treatments on Indian barnyard millet (Echinochloa frumentacea) at preliminary optimised conditions including soaking (12 h at 25 °C), germination (48 h at 25 °C), lactic acid fermentation (20 h at 38 °C) and combination of aforesaid treatments. Anti-nutritional factors were significantly (P < 0.05) lowered (5–70% reduction) during different treatments. Enhanced enzymatic activity further resulted in liberation of bound phytochemical compounds (phenolic acid and flavonoids) in addition to their synthesis, which enhanced the antioxidant potential by several folds. Variation in the hydrophobic-hydrophilic characteristics of barnyard millet flour during given treatments modified the techno-functionality in terms of hydration properties, surface characteristics, gelation and tristimulus colour parameters. In vitro starch and protein digestibility were significantly (P < 0.05) improved from 6.49 to 23.65 mg maltose released per 100 g and 72.21 to 80.48 g hydrolysed protein per 100 g, respectively. Morphological changes as revealed by scanning electron microscopy showed that bioprocessing of barnyard millet flour disrupted the starch-protein matrix, cell wall constituents and starch-fibre association which made the protein and starch molecules susceptible to in vitro digestibility conditions. Further, Pearson’s correlation matrix was employed to determine the relationship among different observations.     

An Intelligent Fine-Tuned Forecasting Technique for Covid-19 Prediction Using Neuralprophet Model

COVID-19, being the virus of fear and anxiety, is one of the most recent and emergent of various respiratory disorders. It is similar to the MERS-COV and SARS-COV, the viruses that affected a large population of different countries in the year 2012 and 2002, respectively. Various standard models have been used for COVID-19 epidemic prediction but they suffered from low accuracy due to lesser data availability and a high level of uncertainty. The proposed approach used a machine learning-based time-series Facebook NeuralProphet model for prediction of the number of death as well as confirmed cases and compared it with Poisson Distribution, and Random Forest Model. The analysis upon dataset has been performed considering the time duration from January 1^st 2020 to16^th July 2021. The model has been developed to obtain the forecast values till September 2021. This study aimed to determine the pandemic prediction of COVID-19 in the second wave of coronavirus in India using the latest Time-Series model to observe and predict the coronavirus pandemic situation across the country. In India, the cases are rapidly increasing day-by-day since mid of Feb 2021. The prediction of death rate using the proposed model has a good ability to forecast the COVID-19 dataset essentially in the second wave. To empower the prediction for future validation, the proposed model works effectively.