Effect of Ag‐NPs synthesised by Chamaemelum nobile extract on the inflammation and oxidative stress induced by carrageenan in mice paw

An environmentally friendly and rapid procedure was developed to synthesise silver nanoparticles (Ag‐NPs) by Chamaemelum nobile extract and to evaluate its in vivo anti‐inflammatory and antioxidant activities. The ultraviolet–visible absorption spectrum of the synthesised Ag‐NPs showed an absorbance peak at 422. The average size of spherical nanoparticles was 24 nm as revealed by transmission electron microscopy. Fourier transform infra‐red spectroscopy analysis supported the presence of biological active compounds involved in the reduction of Ag ion and X‐ray diffraction confirmed the crystalline structure of the metallic Ag. The anti‐inflammatory and antioxidant activity of the Ag‐NPs was investigated against carrageenan‐induced paw oedema in mice. The levels of malondialdehyde (MDA) and antioxidant enzymes superoxide dismutase, catalase, glutathione peroxidase and inflammatory cytokines tumour necrosis factor (TNF‐α), interferon gamma and interleukin (IL)‐6, IL‐1β were assessed in this respect. The results demonstrated that anti‐inflammatory activity of the Ag‐NPs might be due to the ability of the nanoparticles to reduce IL‐1β, IL‐6 and TNF‐α. Moreover, reduction of antioxidant enzymes along with an increase in MDA level shows that the anti‐inflammatory activity of the synthesised Ag‐NPs by C. nobile is attributed to its ameliorating effect on the oxidative damage.Inspec keywords: silver, nanoparticles, nanofabrication, ultraviolet spectra, visible spectra, particle size, transmission electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectra, X‐ray diffraction, crystal structure, enzymes, molecular biophysics, tumours, biomedical materials, nanomedicineOther keywords: Chamaemelum nobile extract, oxidative stress, mice paw, silver nanoparticles, antiinflammatory activity, antioxidant activity, ultraviolet‐visible absorption spectrum, spherical nanoparticle size, transmission electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, biological active compounds, X‐ray diffraction, crystalline structure, carrageenan‐induced paw oedema, malondialdehyde, antioxidant enzymes, superoxide dismutase, catalase, glutathione peroxidase, inflammatory cytokines, tumour necrosis factor, interferon gamma, interleukin, IL‐1β, IL‐6, TNF‐α, MDA level, Ag     

On the performance of different capability indices under normal and non-normal distributions

In this article, we have examined the performance of some useful capability indices using normal and non-normal distributions. The confidence intervals are calculated and mean coverage rates are observed for different capability indices. The effects of symmetry and kurtosis of parent distributions are examined on the mean coverage rates of different capability indices. Moreover, we have investigated the robustness (of confidence interval) using the median and percentile-based indices. We have considered the well-known distributions including normal, gamma, t, Weibull, and chi-squared. For these process scenarios, we have observed that some indices resist disturbance only in symmetry of the parent distribution, some resist the disturbance in symmetry and kurtosis of the distribution, and some indices don’t resist against either type of disturbance.     

Green synthesis of silver nanoparticles using Glaucium corniculatum (L.) Curtis extract and evaluation of its antibacterial activity

The metal nanoparticles, due to interesting features such as electrical, optical, chemical and magnetic properties, have been investigated repeatedly. Also, the mentioned nanoparticles have specific uses in terms of their antibacterial activity. The biosynthesis method is more appropriate than the chemical method for producing the nanoparticles because it does not need any special facilities; it is also economically affordable. In the current study, the silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) were obtained by using a very simple and low‐cost method via Glaucium corniculatum (L.) Curtis plant extract. The characteristics of the AgNPs were investigated using techniques including: X‐ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The SEM and TEM images showed that the nanoparticles had a spherical shape, and the mean diameter of them was 53.7 and 45 nm, respectively. The results of the disc diffusion test used for measuring the anti‐bacterial activity of the synthesised nanoparticles indicated that the formed nanoparticles possessed a suitable anti‐bacterial activity.Inspec keywords: silver, nanoparticles, antibacterial activity, nanomedicine, nanofabrication, X‐ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectraOther keywords: green synthesis, silver nanoparticles, Glaucium corniculatum Curtis extract, antibacterial activity, metal nanoparticles, biosynthesis method, X‐ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, SEM, TEM, spherical shape, disc diffusion test, Ag     

Double Auction-based Scheduling of Scientific Applications in Distributed Grid and Cloud Environments

Economy models have long been considered as a promising complement to the classical distributed resource management not only due of their dynamic and decentralized nature, but also because the concept of financial valuation of resources and services is an inherent part of any such model. In its broadest sense, scheduling of scientific applications in distributed Grid and Cloud environments can be regarded as a market-based negotiation between a scheduling service optimizing user-centric objectives (execution time, budget), and a resource manager optimizing provider-centric metrics (resource utilization, income, job throughput). In this paper, we propose a new instantiation of the negotiation protocol between the scheduler and resource manager using a market-based Continuous Double Auction (CDA) model. We analyze different scheduling strategies that can be applied and identify general strategic patterns that can lead to a fast and cheap work ow execution. In the experimental study, we demonstrate that under certain circumstances one can benefit by applying an aggressive scheduling strategy.     

Performance analysis of opportunistic broadcast for delay-tolerant wireless sensor networks

This paper investigates a class of mobile wireless sensor networks that are unconnected most of the times; we refer to them as delay-tolerant wireless sensor networks (DTWSN). These networks inherit their characteristics from both delay tolerant networks (DTN) and traditional wireless sensor networks. After introducing DTWSNs, three main problems in the design space of these networks are discussed: routing, data gathering, and neighbor discovery. A general protocol is proposed for DTWSNs based on opportunistic broadcasting in delay-tolerant networks with radio device on-off periods. Three performance measures are defined in the study: the energy for sending queries to ask for data from possible neighbors (querying energy), data transfer energy, and absorption time (delay). A simple yet accurate approximation for the data-transfer energy is proposed. An analytic model is provided to evaluate the querying energy per contact (epc). Simulation results for the data propagation delay show that the querying energy per contact measure obtained from the analytic model is proportional to the product of the querying energy and the delay. A practical rule of thumb for an optimal query interval in terms of delay and energy is derived from different parts of the study.     

Adaptive sliding mode control of chaotic dynamical systems with application to synchronization

We address the problem of control and synchronization of a class of uncertain chaotic systems. Our approach follows techniques of sliding mode control and adaptive estimation law. The adaptive algorithm is constructed based on the sliding mode control to ensure perfect tracking and synchronization in presence of system uncertainty and external disturbance. Stability of the closed-loop system is proved using Lyapunov stability theory. Our theoretical findings are supported by simulation results.     

Task migration in three-dimensional meshes

As a result of the emerging use of mesh-based multicomputers (and recently mesh-based multiprocessor systems-on-chip), issues related to processor management have attracted much attention. In a mesh-based multiprocessor, after repeated submesh allocations and de-allocations, the system network may be fragmented, i.e. there might be unallocated nodes in the network. As a result, in a system with contiguous processor allocation, no new tasks can start running due to the lack of enough free adjacent processors to form a suitable submesh. Although there might be enough free processors available, they remain idle until the allocator can find a set of adjacent free nodes forming a submesh to be used for the new task. This can lead to low system performance. Task migration was introduced as a solution to this problem through migration of tasks running on some submeshes to other free areas in order to reduce fragmentation by chaining the newly freed areas and disengaging nodes to form larger submeshes. In this paper, we propose a novel structured and formulated way to code task migration, which is helpful for congestion detection in different steps of task migration algorithms. Moreover, considering the fact that the 3D mesh-based multicomputers are now very popular, a new task migration algorithm in 3D meshes is proposed. We also address the special case of the 2D migration in a 3D mesh multicomputer.     

An efficient optimal algorithm for the quantity discount problem in material requirement planning

An optimal algorithm based on branch-and-bound approach is presented in this paper to determine lot sizes for a single item in material requirement planning environments with deterministic time-phased demand and constant ordering cost with zero lead time, where all-units discounts are available from vendors and backlog is not permitted. On the basis of the proven properties of optimal order policy, a tree-search procedure is presented to construct the sequence of optimal orders. Some useful fathom rules have been proven, which make the algorithm very efficient. To compare the performance of this algorithm with the other existing optimal algorithms, an experimental design with various environments has been developed. Experimental results show that the performance of our optimal algorithm is much better than the performance of other existing optimal algorithms. Considering computational time as the performance measure, this algorithm is considered the best among the existing optimal algorithms for real problems with large dimensions (i.e. large number of periods and discount levels).     

Stability domains of the delay and PID coefficients for general time-delay systems

Time delays are encountered in many physical systems, and they usually threaten the stability and performance of closed-loop systems. The problem of determining all stabilising proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controllers for systems with perturbed delays is less investigated in the literature. In this study, the Rekasius substitution is employed to transform the system parameters to a new space. Then, the singular frequency (SF) method is revised for the Rekasius transformed system. A novel technique is presented to compute the ranges of time delay for which stable PID controller exists. This stability range cannot be readily computed from the previous methods. Finally, it is shown that similar to the original SF method, finite numbers of singular frequencies are sufficient to compute the stable regions in the space of time delay and controller coefficients.