Mechanical properties of CNT reinforced hybrid functionally graded materials for bioimplants

The hybrid functionally graded materials (FGM) of hydroxyapatite (HA), stainless steel 316L (SS316L) and carbon nanotubes (CNT) were synthesized for biomedical implants. Three different types of FGM were produced by the combination of SS316L and CNT to reinforce HA in discrete layers of FGM. In the first type of FGM, concentration of SS316L was varied from 10% to 40% (mass fraction) with an increment of 10% to reinforce micro HA. In the second type of FGM, 0.5% (mass fraction) functionalized CNT was added by maintaining the rest of composition as that of the first type of FGM. In the third type of FGM, mixture of micro and nano HA (mass ratio1:1) was used, keeping rest of composition similar to the second type of FGM. All types of FGM were subjected to uniaxial compaction and sintered by pressureless sintering technique at similar compaction and sintering parameters. The results show that the densification is enhanced with the addition of CNT and nanocrystalline HA in the FGM. Hardness and fracture toughness increase in both FGM reinforced with CNT, but the increase of the hardness and fracture toughness are more pronounced in FGM with micro and nanocrystalline HA.     

Theoretical Calculation of Effective Ionic Charge with Lithium Limiter on HT-7 Tokamak

In this work we have described calculation of effective ionic charge, Z_eff through anomaly factor (α) with liquid lithium limiter and graphite limiter on HT-7 Tokamak. This theoretical calculation of effective ionic charge, Z _eff with liquid lithium limiter on HT-7 Tokamak, is lower than as compared with graphite limiter. It is also estimated through 7-channel visible bremsstrahlung and compare with theoretical.     

Lactobacillus acidophilus: Characterization of the Species and Application in Food Production

L. acidophilus is a homofermentative, microaerophilic, short chain gram positive microorganism with rod morphology having its bacteriocins belonging to class II a. Several bacteriocins of L. acidophilus have been isolated and characterized. These are structurally similar, but their molecular weight varies as well as their spectrum of antimicrobial activity. They exhibit important technical properties, i.e., thermostability and retaining of activity at a wide pH range along with strong inhibitory actions against food spoilage and pathogenic bacteria make them an important class of biopreservatives. L. acidophilus can be added as an adjunct in many food fermentation processes contributing to unique taste, flavor, and texture. It also preserves the products by producing lactic acid and bacteriocins. A lot of new information regarding the bacteriocins of L. acidophilus has emerged during the last few years. In this review, an attempt has been made to summarize and discuss all the available information regarding the sources of bacteriocins production, their characteristics, and their antimicrobial action along with their application.     

Nutritional and Health Perspectives of Beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L.): An Overview

Beans, the variants of Phaseolus vulagris, are nutritionally and economically important food crop in each part of the world. Besides providing nutrients such as multifaceted carbohydrates, elevated proteins, dietary fiber, minerals, and vitamins, these also contain rich variety of polyphenolic compounds with prospective health benefits. This review mainly focuses the important nutritional aspects of beans as well as their contribution in decreasing the risks of chronically degenerative diseases.     

Efficient processing of streaming updates with archived master data in near-real-time data warehousing

In order to make timely and effective decisions, businesses need the latest information from data warehouse repositories. To keep these repositories up-to-date with respect to end user updates, near-real-time data integration is required. An important phase in near-real-time data integration is data transformation where the stream of updates is joined with disk-based master data. The stream-based algorithm MESHJOIN (Mesh Join) has been proposed to amortize disk access over fast streams. MESHJOIN makes no assumptions about the data distribution. In real-world applications, however, skewed distributions can be found, such as a stream of products sold, where certain products are sold more frequently than the remainder of the products. The question arises is how much does MESHJOIN lose in terms of performance by not adapting to data skew. In this paper we perform a rigorous experimental study analyzing the possible performance improvements while considering typical data distributions. For this purpose we design an algorithm Extended Hybrid Join (X-HYBRIDJOIN) that is complementary to MESHJOIN in that it can adapt to data skew and stores parts of the master data in memory permanently, reducing the disk access overhead significantly. We compare the performance of X-HYBRIDJOIN against the performance of MESHJOIN. We take several precautions to make sure the comparison is adequate and focuses on the utilization of data skew. The experiments show that considering data skew offers substantial room for performance gains that cannot be found in non-adaptive approaches such as MESHJOIN. We also present a cost model for X-HYBRIDJOIN, and based on that cost model, the algorithm is tuned.     

Supercritical antisolvent synthesis of fine griseofulvin particles

Supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO₂) was used as antisolvent to precipitate griseofulvin (GF), an orally administered antifungal drug, from methylene chloride (DCM) using the supercritical antisolvent (SAS) process. The influence of different operating parameters such as antisolvent addition rate, temperature, concentration, and solution addition rate on product characteristics (particle size and size distribution, and morphology) has been analyzed. This investigation shows that with an adequate selection of process conditions it is possible to selectively produce crystalline needle-shaped particles with narrow size distribution.     

Application and Opportunities of Pulses in Food System: A Review

Pulses are highly nutritious seeds of pod-bearing leguminous plants, specifically dry peas, lentils, and chickpeas. US farmers harvest about 2.6 million pounds of pulses every year but 75% of this is being exported internationally because of its increased consumption in the developing countries. In the current scenario, increasing costs of production, bad economy, and fluctuating food commodity prices have made a strong case for US producers to seek opportunities to increase domestic consumption of pulses through value-added products. Pulses are the richest sources of plant proteins and provide approximately 10% of the total dietary requirements of the proteins world over. Pulses are also high in dietary fibers and complex carbohydrates leading to low GI (glycemic index) foods. Pulses help to lower cholesterol and triglycerides as leguminous fibers are hypoglycosuria because of consisting more amylose than amylopectin. Pulses provide tremendous opportunities to be utilized in the processed foods such as bakery products, bread, pasta, snack foods, soups, cereal bar filing, tortillas, meat, etc. These show excellent opportunities in frozen dough foods either as added flour or as fillings. Pulses in view of their nutrient profile, seem to be ideal for inclusion in designing snack foods, baby, and sports foods.     

Mechanisms Involved in the Therapeutic Effects of Soybean (Glycine Max)

Soybeans contain nutritional and medicinal properties. It is a rich source of quality proteins, phytosterols, fibers, and other biologically active compounds, notably daidzein and genistein. Soybeans provide health benefits due to their functional ingredients such as proteins, polysaccharides, and isoflavones. These functional ingredients play a vital role in the reduction of different types of cancer, cardiovascular diseases, postmenopausal problems, diabetes, and some neurodegenerative disorders. This review primarily envisages the different mechanisms involved in the therapeutic effects of soybean components as well as their contribution toward the reduction of different diseases.