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.     

Twenty-first century research needs in electrostatic processes applied to industry and medicine

From the early 20th century Nobel Prize winning (1923) experiments with charged oil droplets, resulting in the discovery of the elementary electronic charge by Robert Millikan, to the early 21st century Nobel Prize (2002) awarded to John Fenn for his invention of electrospray ionization mass spectroscopy and its applications to proteomics, electrostatic processes have been successfully applied to many areas of industry and medicine. Generation, transport, deposition, separation, analysis, and control of charged particles involved in the four states of matter: solid, liquid, gas, and plasma are of interest in many industrial and biomedical processes. In this paper, we briefly discuss some of the applications and research needs involving charged particles in industrial and medical applications including: (1) generation and deposition of unipolarly charged dry powder without the presence of ions or excessive ozone, (2) control of tribocharging process for consistent and reliable charging, (3) thin film powder coating and powder coating on insulative surfaces, (4) fluidization and dispersion of fine powders, (5) mitigation of Mars dust, (6) effect of particle charge on the lung deposition of inhaled medical aerosols, (7) nanoparticle deposition, and (8) plasma/corona discharge processes. A brief discussion on the measurements of charged particles and suggestions for research needs are also included.     

Master–Slave Current-Sharing Control of a Parallel DC–DC Converter System Over an RF Communication Interface

Using analog wireless communication, we demonstrate a master-slave load-sharing control of a parallel dc-dc buck converter system, thereby eliminating the need for physical connection to distribute the control signal among the converter modules. The current reference for the slave modules is provided by the master module using radio-frequency (RF) transmission, thereby ensuring even sharing of the load current. The effect of delay due to RF transmission on system stability and performance is analyzed, and regions of operation for a stable as well as satisfactory performance are determined. We experimentally demonstrate a satisfactory performance of the master-slave converter at 20-kHz switching frequency under steady state as well as transient conditions in the presence of a transmission delay. The proposed control concept, which can potentially attain redundancy that is achievable using a droop method, may lead to more robust and reconfigurable control implementation of distributed converters and power systems. It may also be used as a (fault-tolerant) backup for wire-based control of parallel/distributed converters.     

Modeling and Optimization for a Comprehensive Gas Processing Plant with Sensitivity Analysis and Economic Evaluation

Sweetening, dehydration, natural gas liquid (NGL) recovery, and sale gas compression are four major treatment stages for the general natural gas processing. Here, a comprehensive gas processing plant (CGPP) coupling sweetening, dehydration, NGL recovery, and compression subsystems have been conceptually designed, modeled, and optimized based on field data. The development includes four major stages of work: (i) CGPP process development with Aspen HYSYS simulator; (ii) sensitivity studies for all distillation columns involved in the CGPP process to optimize their performances; (iii) sizing of major equipment of the CGPP; and (iv) economic evaluations with Aspen process economic analyzer to calculate the expected capital and operating expenditures for the developed CGPP process. Valuable insights of natural gas monetization from the viewpoint of large-scale process system integration, modeling, and optimization are provided.     

A novel 0.9KNbO3–0.1BaNi0.5Nb0.5O3(KBNNO):Ag2O/Bi2O3 heterojunction photocatalyst: synthesis,characterization and excellent photocatalytic performance

In the present study, first 0.9KNbO₃–0.1BaNi_0.5Nb_0.5O₃(KBNNO) nanosized powder was synthesized by solution combustion method and then a series of KBNNO:Ag₂O and KBNNO:Bi₂O₃ composites with varying weight ratios (75:25, 50:50, and 25:75) were prepared by a simple precipitation technique/solid-state method. Preparation method and processing temperature have significant effect on phase stability and interface formation. The structural, morphological and photoabsorption behaviour of the synthesized powders were studied systematically by XRD, TEM, XPS and UV–visible spectroscopy. The photocatalytic performance of the photocatalysts was evaluated for the degradation of rhodamine B (RhB) solution under visible light exposure. In particular, KBNNO:Ag₂O composites exhibited better photodegradation of RhB. KBNNO:Ag₂O (50:50) nanocomposite can completely mineralize the RhB in 25 min, whereas KBNNO:Bi₂O₃ (25:75) can mineralize 96% of RhB in 45 min. The rate constant (k) for dye degradation of KBNNO:Ag₂O (50:50) (0.113 min^?1) sample showed the highest value which was 4.71 and 5.94 times better than that of KBNNO and Ag₂O under visible light irradiation. The rate constant for KBNNO:Bi₂O₃ (25:75) (0.048 min^?1) exhibited the highest k value which is 1.94 and 3.13 times greater than that of KBNNO and Bi₂O₃ under similar irradiation condition. The significant absorption in visible region and reduced recombination time of charge carriers in the composite than the parent materials were responsible for excellent photocatalytic properties. The mechanism for degradation was also studied in detail. Moreover, a reasonable degradation of 95% (on an average) was observed after five cycles, suggesting a good photocatalytic stability of the composites.

     

Hand Gesture Recognition Based Omnidirectional Wheelchair Control Using IMU and EMG Sensors

This paper presents a hand gesture based control of an omnidirectional wheelchair using inertial measurement unit (IMU) and myoelectric units as wearable sensors. Seven common gestures are recognized and classified using shape based feature extraction and Dendogram Support Vector Machine (DSVM) classifier. The dynamic gestures are mapped to the omnidirectional motion commands to navigate the wheelchair. A single IMU is used to measure the wrist tilt angle and acceleration in three axis. EMG signals are extracted from two forearm muscles namely Extensor Carpi Radialis and Flexor Carpi Radialis and processed to provide Root Mean Square (RMS) signal. Initiation and termination of dynamic activities are based on autonomous identification of static to dynamic or dynamic to static transition by setting static thresholds on processed IMU and myoelectric sensor data. Classification involves recognizing the activity pattern based on periodic shape of trajectories of the triaxial wrist tilt angle and EMG-RMS from the two selected muscles. Second order Polynomial coefficients extracted from the sensor trajectory templates during specific dynamic activity cycles are used as features to classify dynamic activities. Classification algorithm and real time navigation of the wheelchair using the proposed algorithm has been tested by five healthy subjects. Classification accuracy of 94% was achieved by DSVM classifier on ‘k’ fold cross validation data of 5 users. Classification accuracy while operating the wheelchair was 90.5%.     

The effect of lubricant inertia in externally pressurized bearings using a viscoelastic lubricant

The inertia effects in an externally pressurized bearing with a viscoelastic lubricant were considered using the methods of averaged inertia and of iteration. The inertia forces reduce the load-bearing capacity at a given flow rate. The effect of the elasticity of the liquid is to increase the pressure and the load-bearing capacity at any point. The effects of the elastic number S, the volume flow rate Q, the ratio σ of the inner radius of the bearing to the outer radius of the bearing and $\text{H =}\text{h}\text{a}$ on the pressure and the loadbearing capacity are presented graphically. The results obtained by the two methods are in good agreement.     

Inhibition of mild steel corrosion in hydrochloric acid medium by polymeric inhibitors containing residues of essential amino acid methionine

Ethyl ester hydrochloride of amino acid l-methionine 1 was converted to cationic monomers N,N-diallyl methionine ethyl ester hydrochloride 2 and hydrochloride salt of N,N-diallylmethionine 3. Cationic monomers 2 and 3 underwent alternate copolymerization with SO₂ in dimethyl sulfoxide to give terpolymers 4 and 5, respectively, both having?≈?1:1 ratio of sulfide and sulfoxide motifs owing to O transfer from dimethyl sulfoxide to the S. The sulfide groups in 5 have been oxidized with H₂O₂ to give polymer sulfoxide 6. In the presence of a small concentration of 35.2 µM (~?11?±?1 ppm) of each of the polymers 4, 5 and 6, the inhibition efficiency against mild steel corrosion in 1.0 M HCl at 60 °C was determined to be 90.8, 98.7 and 93.0%, respectively. The inhibition efficiency obtained from gravimetric weight loss was corroborated by the findings of potentiodynamic polarization and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy methods. Adsorption of polymer compounds onto the mild steel surface followed a mixture of chemisorption and physisorption processes and obeyed Langmuir, Temkin and Freundlich adsorption isotherms. The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy techniques further confirmed that the synthesized compounds formed a protective film onto the metal surface and prove it against further corrosion attack.     

Electrical and mechanical properties of MgO added 0.5Ba(Zr<Subscript>0.2</Subscript>Ti<Subscript>0.8</Subscript>)O<Subscript>3</Subscript>–0.5(Ba<Subscript>0.7</Subscript>Ca<Subscript>0.3</Subscript>)TiO<Subscript>3</Subscript> (BZT–0.5BCT) composite ceramics

MgO (0–2.0 vol%) added Ba(Zr_0.2Ti_0.8)O₃–0.5(Ba_0.7Ca_0.3)TiO₃ (BZT-0.5BCT) ceramics have been prepared by the conventional solid-state reaction method. The effects of MgO powder on the phase formation, densification, dielectric, piezoelectric and mechanical properties (flexural strength, hardness) of the BZT-0.5BCT ceramics have been studied systematically. The synthesized powder could be densified to 97 % of true density at a temperature of 1350 °C. The MgO addition also provided materials with better mechanical properties. The most interesting aspect of MgO added samples is their relative permittivity vs. temperature response. MgO additions effectively suppress the relative permittivity around phase transition temperature. The aging rate of d₃₃ observed for BZT-0.5BCT is 14 %/decade. MgO addition reduces the ageing rate and for 1 vol% MgO added, BZT-0.5BCT shows aging rate of 3 %/decade. BZT-0.5BCT/MgO ceramics possesses good mechanical properties viz., flexural strength 93 MPa, which is almost 25 % higher than that of monolithic BZT-0.5BCT (73 MPa).