Irradiation mediated synthesis of a superabsorbent hydrogel network based on polyacrylamide grafted onto salep

The synthesis and swelling behavior of a new superabsorbent hydrogel based on natural salep grafted with polyacrylamide is described. The new biopolymer was synthesized via simultaneous crosslinking and graft copolymerization of acrylamide monomer onto a salep backbone using radiochemical methods. Various parameters such as relative contents of salep and acrylamide, as well as total dose of γ-rays were examined. The best synthesis condition is reported and a mechanism for superabsorbent hydrogel formation suggested. Factors affecting the swelling behavior of hydrogel were also studied.     

A Scalable Call Admission Control Algorithm

In this paper, we propose a scalable algorithm for connection admission control (CAC). The algorithm applies to a multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) ATM switch with a FIFO buffer. The switch carries data from statistically independent variable bit rate (VBR) sources that asynchronously alternate between ON and OFF states with exponentially distributed periods. The sources may be heterogeneous both in terms of their statistical characteristics (peak cell rate, sustained cell rate, and burst size attributes) as well as their quality of service (QoS) requirements. The performance of the proposed CAC scheme is evaluated using known performance bounds and simulation results. For the purpose of comparison, we also present scalability analyses for some of the previously proposed CAC schemes. Our results show that the proposed CAC scheme consistently performs better and operates the link close to the highest possible utilization level. Furthermore, the scheme scales well with increasing amount of resources (link capacity and buffer size) and accommodates intelligently the mix of traffic offered by sources of diversed burstiness characteristics.     

Light microscopy and scanning electron microscopy: Implications for authentication of misidentified herbal drugs

Plant‐based drugs have reached remarkable acceptability as therapeutic remedy for various diseases due to the adverse effects of contemporary medicines. This increasing popularity of herbal drugs leads to a growing herbal market for the development of plant‐based drugs, nutraceuticals, pharmaceuticals and cosmeceuticals. Herbal drug adulteration is a complex problem which currently has undeniable consequences on health and nutrition. Ambiguities in nomenclature, misidentification and resemblance of colour and texture of the crude herbal drugs are the major causes of adulteration. Three different species commercially marketed under the same trade name Halion are Lepidium apetalum, Asparagus officinalis, and Lepidium didymum. The genuine source of Halion is Lepidium apetalum, which is authenticated by using basic and advanced taxonomic techniques. Morphology, anatomy and palynology of the misidentified sources were done using light and scanning electron microscopic techniques for authentication. This study may help to set microscopic techniques as a tool to achieve quality and standardization of the genuine source of the herbal drug. Phytochemical analysis and biological screening is needed for the further establishment of authenticity and quality of herbal drugs.     

An empirical study on vortex-generator insert fitted in tubular heat exchangers with dilute Cu–water nanofluid flow

The heat transfer enhancement(HTE) in tubular heat exchangers fitted with vortex-generator(VG) inserts is experimentally investigated. The studied four parameters and ranges are: winglets-pitch ratio(1.33, 2.67, and 4),winglets-length ratio(0.33, 0.67, and 1), winglets-width ratio(0.2, 0.4, and 0.6), and Reynolds number(5200to 12200). The testing fluids are the water and Cu–water nanofluid at the volumetric fraction of 0.2%. The results obtained on HTE, pressure drop, and performance evaluation criterion(PEC) are compared with those for water in a smooth tube. It is found that the VG inserts with lower winglets-pitch ratio and higher winglets-length/width ratios present higher values of HTE and pressure drop. Over the range studied, the maximum PEC of 1.83 is detected with the Cu–water nanofluid inside the tube equipped with a VG insert at the winglets-width ratio of0.6 for the maximum Reynolds number, when the heat transfer rate and pressure drop are 1.24 times and 2.03 times of those in the smooth tube. Generalized regression equations of the Nusselt number, friction factor, and PEC are presented for the tubular heat exchangers with the VG inserts for both water and Cu–water nanofluid.It is concluded that the main advantage of the VG inserts is their simple fabrication and considerable performance, particularly at higher Reynolds number.     

Effect of hydraulic retention time on biohydrogen production from palm oil mill effluent in anaerobic sequencing batch reactor

The feasibility of hydrogen generation from palm oil mill effluent (POME), a high strength wastewater with high solid content, was evaluated in an anaerobic sequencing batch reactor (ASBR) using enriched mixed microflora, under mesophilic digestion process at 37 °C. Four different hydraulic retention times (HRT), ranging from 96 h to 36 h at constant cycle length of 24 h and various organic loading rate (OLR) concentrations were tested to evaluate hydrogen productivity and operational stability of ASBR. The results showed higher system efficiency was achieved at HRT of 72 h with maximum hydrogen production rate of 6.7 LH₂/L/d and hydrogen yield of 0.34 LH₂/g COD_feeding, while in longer and shorter HRTs, hydrogen productivity decreased. Organic matter removal efficiency was affected by HRT; accordingly, total and soluble COD removal reached more than 37% and 50%, respectively. Solid retention time (SRT) of 4-19 days was achieved at these wide ranges of HRTs. Butyrate was found to be the dominant metabolite in all HRTs. Low concentration of volatile fatty acid (VFA) confirmed the state of stability and efficiency of sequential batch mode operation was achieved in ASBR. Results also suggest that ASBR has the potential to offer high digestion rate and good stability of operation for POME treatment.     

Investigation of the structural and reactants properties on the thermal characteristics of a premixed porous burner

Porous burners offer attractive features such as competitive combustion efficiency, high power ranges, and lower pollutant emissions. In the present study, the thermal characteristics of a porous burner are numerically investigated for a range of operating conditions and design specifications within a practical range. The premixed flame propagation of a methane/air mixture in a ceramic porous medium is simulated through an unsteady, one-dimensional model. The combustion process is modeled using a suitable single-step chemical kinetics. The reaction location is not predetermined, thus the flame is allowed to float within the solid matrix or to run off from either side of the porous medium. The numerical results indicate that flame stability and thermal characteristics of the burner are strongly dependent on the inlet mixture specifications and the solid matrix structural properties. For a fixed value of the inlet firing rate, the combustion products temperature will increase by an increase in the inlet gas temperature, an increase in the matrix porosity, or by a decrease of the matrix pore density. Among the geometrical properties, the burner length has virtually no effect on the burner performance. An increase in the solid matrix porosity or burner firing rate will increase the efficiency of the preheating zone, while increasing the inlet gas temperature or matrix pore density will cause a reduction in this efficiency. Simulation results also suggest that in order to prevent flame blow-out or flash-back, critical values of the burner settings and design parameters must be avoided.     

Low‐complexity linear group‐SIC detectors

In this paper, we consider a linear group polynomial expansion successive interference cancellation (GPE‐SIC) detector in a synchronous CDMA system. It is a hybrid detector, which combines parallel and successive cancellation techniques in order to extract the advantages of both schemes. We use the fact that even if the cross‐correlation matrix of the system is not diagonal dominant, the sub‐matrices corresponding to different groups can be forced to be diagonal dominant by suitable grouping of users to approximate the decorrelator/MMSE detector by a low‐complexity polynomial expansion detector. The latter is computationally very efficient if the cross‐correlation matrix of users within the same group is diagonal dominant. Simulation results showed that the (GPE‐SIC) detector has the same performance as the linear group decorrelator successive interference cancellation (GDEC‐SIC) detector but with low‐computational complexity. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Co-Channel and Adjacent Channel Interference in Wireless Cellular Communications

In this paper, the impact of co-channel and adjacent channel interference in mobile cellular radio systems on the cellular system capacity are studied. Simple empirical expressions for average signal to co-channel, signal to adjacent channel and signal to total interference ratios are obtained. The simple empirical results developed in this paper are easier to use in a cellular system design. The maximum number of bits/sec that can be transmitted over a cell area for a given bit error rate and total bandwidth, is proposed as a new definition of capacity of digital cellular systems. The capacity of a cellular system is shown to depend on the excess bandwidth and the number of active users.     

Aggregation of Cystatin C Changes Its Inhibitory Functions on Protease Activities and Amyloid β Fibril Formation

Cystatin C (CST3) is an endogenous cysteine protease inhibitor, which is implicated in cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA). In CAA, CST3 is found to be aggregated. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether this aggregation could alter the activity of the protein relevant to the molecular pathology of CAA. A system of CST3 protein aggregation was established, and the aggregated protein was characterized. The results showed that CST3 aggregated both at 80 °C without agitation, and at 37 °C with agitation in a time-dependent manner. However, the levels of aggregation were high and appeared earlier at 80 °C. Dot-blot immunoassay for oligomers revealed that CST3 could make oligomeric aggregates at the 37 °C condition. Electron microscopy showed that CST3 could make short fibrillary aggregates at 37 °C. Cathepsin B activity assay demonstrated that aggregated CST3 inhibited the enzyme activity less efficiently at pH 5.5. At 7.4 pH, it lost the inhibitory properties almost completely. In addition, aggregated CST3 did not inhibit Aβ_1-40 fibril formation, rather, it slightly increased it. CST3 immunocytochemistry showed that the protein was positive both in monomeric and aggregated CST3-treated neuronal culture. However, His6 immunocytochemistry revealed that the internalization of exogenous recombinant CST3 by an astrocytoma cell culture was higher when the protein was aggregated compared to its monomeric form. Finally, MTT cell viability assay showed that the aggregated form of CST3 was more toxic than the monomeric form. Thus, our results suggest that aggregation may result in a loss-of-function phenotype of CST3, which is toxic and responsible for cellular degeneration.