Carob Kibble: A Bioactive‐Rich Food Ingredient

Carob (Ceratonia siliqua L.) is well known for its valuable locust bean gum obtained from the carob seeds. Separation of seeds from the pod leaves behind the carob kibble which is a good source of dietary fiber, sugars, and a range of bioactive compounds such as polyphenols and pinitol. Bioactive compounds present in carob kibble have been found to be beneficial in the control of many health problems such as diabetes, heart diseases, and colon cancer due to their antidiabetic, antioxidant, and anti‐inflammatory activities. Carob kibble has substantial potential to be used as a food ingredient. This article focuses on the composition, health benefits, and food applications of carob kibble.     

Symplectic Simulations of Radial Diffusion of Fast Alpha Particles in the Presence of Low-Frequency Modes in Rippled Tokamaks

The symplectic Hamiltonian guiding centre code which enables efficient calculation of charged particle trajectories and diffusion coefficients has been applied to fast ion motion in magnetically perturbed tokamak plasmas. Particularly fusion born alpha particle drift motion, in constant of motion space, is examined in the presence of low mode-number neoclassical tearing mode (NTM) perturbation in a toroidally rippled tokamak. The main focus of this study is to investigate the dependence of the radial diffusion coefficient of energetic ions on the perturbation strength and on the localization of the perturbation. The resonance between bounce motion and toroidal field ripples plays a significant role in this context. The presence of NTMs results in substantial enhancement of radial diffusion coefficient for passing particles. Depending on the strength and localization of the NTM it can cause enhancement or degradation of the radial ripple diffusion coefficient of trapped particles.     

Microemulsions as a Surrogate Carrier for Dermal Drug Delivery

Microemulsions are isotropic, thermodynamically stable transparent (or translucent) systems of oil, water, and surfactant, frequently in combination with a cosurfactant with a droplet size usually in the range of 20–200 nm. Since their discovery, they have attained increasing significance both in basic research and in industry. Due to their distinct advantages such as enhanced drug solubility, thermodynamic stability, facile preparation, and low cost, uses and applications of microemulsions have been numerous. Recently, there is a surge in the exploration of microemulsion for transdermal drug delivery for their ability to incorporate both hydrophilic (5-fluorouracil, apomorphine hydrochloride, diphenhydramine hydrochloride, tetracaine hydrochloride, and methotrexate) and lipophilic drugs (estradiol, finasteride, ketoprofen, meloxicam, felodipine, and triptolide) and enhance their permeation. Very low surface tension in conjunction with enormous increase in the interfacial area due to nanosized droplets of the microemulsion influences the drug permeation across the skin. A large number of oils and surfactants are available, which can be used as components of microemulsion systems for transdermal delivery but their toxicity, irritation potential, and unclear mechanism of action limit their use. Besides surfactants, oils can also act as penetration enhancers (oleic acid, linoleic acid, isopropyl myristate, isopropyl palmitate, etc.). The transdermal drug delivery potential of microemulsions is dependent not only on the applied constituents of the vehicle but also drastically on the composition/internal structure of the phases which may promote or hamper the drug distribution in the vehicles. This article explores microemulsion as transdermal drug delivery vehicles with emphasis on components selection for enhanced drug permeation and skin tolerability of these systems and further future directions.     

Preparation,characterization, biological activity,and transport study of polystyrene based calcium–barium phosphate composite membrane

Calcium–barium phosphate (CBP) composite membrane with 25% polystyrene was prepared by co-precipitation method. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transformed infrared (FTIR), and Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) were used to characterize the membrane. The membrane was found to be crystalline in nature with consistent arrangement of particles and no indication of visible cracks. The electrical potentials measured across the composite membrane in contact with univalent electrolytes (KCl, NaCl and LiCl), have been found to increase with decrease in concentrations. Thus the membrane was found to be cation-selective. Transport properties of developed membranes may be utilized for the efficient desalination of saline water and more importantly demineralization process. The antibacterial study of this composite membrane shows good results for killing the disease causing bacteria along with waste water treatment.     

Microstructure and optical characterization of nanometric silicon films prepared by pulsed laser ablation

The effect of laser energy density, during pulsed laser ablation, on the microstructure and optical properties of silicon films has been investigated using techniques such as atomic force microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and UV–visible absorption/transmission spectroscopy. The thickness of prepared films increases with increase in laser energy density. The crystallite size and hence the crystallinity of prepared films have been estimated by X-ray diffraction and found to be dependent on laser energy density. The transmittance of films changes with laser energy density. The absorption coefficient of films has been found to be?>10⁴?cm^?1 in wavelength region 450–1100?nm. The band gap of silicon films has been determined as 2.27, 2.11, and 1.90?eV corresponding to laser energy density of 1.5, 2.5, and 3.5?J?cm^?2, respectively.     

The effect of human factors on the performance of a two level supply chain

Many studies have addressed the issue of coordination in a supply chain. Coordinating mechanisms such as joint lot sizing models, quantity discounts and delay in payments have been used to achieve coordination in a supply chain. An important omission in this literature is the role of human factors, in particular inspection errors and learning, as a tool to improve coordination in a supply chain. In this paper, two coordination mechanisms found in the literature are integrated into a model for a two-level supply chain in which the incoming quality level of raw materials provided to a vendor by a set of suppliers is not perfect. The model addresses supply chain coordination by specifically investigating the role of different human factors on the total cost of the supply chain. These factors are: (a) type I and type II inspection errors; (b) learning in the production process; and (c) learning in quality at the suppliers’ end. Numerical examples are used to compare the costs of the three extensions with the base model (with no defectives).     

Catalytic graphitization and formation of macroporous-activated carbon nanofibers from salt-induced and H2S-treated polyacrylonitrile

We present here a facile method to produce macroporous-activated carbon nanofibers (AMP-CNFs) by post-treating electrospun cobalt(II) chloride (CoCl₂) containing polyacrylonitrile (PAN/CoCl₂) nanofibers with hydrogen sulfide (H₂S) followed by carbonization. A range of techniques including scanning and transmission electron microscopy, FTIR and Raman spectroscopy is used to examine and characterize the process. Because of the phase behavior between carbon and cobalt, cobalt particles are formed in the nanofibers, some of which leave the fibers during the heat treatment process leading to macroporous fibrous structures. The number of the macroporous increase significantly with increasing CoCl₂ concentration in the precursor H₂S-treated PAN/CoCl₂ nanofibers. The cobalt phase in the fibers also leads to catalytic graphitization of the carbon nanofibers. The produced AMP-CNFs may be a promising candidates in many applications including anode layer in lithium ion batteries, air and liquid purifiers in filters, as well as in biomedical applications.     

Preparation and characterization of electrospun nanofibers based on silk sericin powders

The present contribution reports the fabrication and characterization of silk sericin (SS) nanofibers via electrospinning. The function of solution concentration on morphological appearance and average diameter of the electrospun SS membranes was investigated by scanning electron microscopy. The structure and physical properties were observed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and thermogravimetric analysis (TG). All beads were acquired in lower concentration of SS solution, 1.3–8.5 wt% of SS solutions, and beaded fibers were produced from 9.6, 11.7, 14.2, and 16.5 wt% of SS solution. The perfect nanofibers acquiring average diameters of 145 and 184 nm were fabricated from 20.9 to 22.9 wt% of SS solution, respectively. Results from FT-IR showed that in the as-spun fibers, SS was present in a random coil conformation, while after heat treatment, the molecular structure of SS was transformed into a β-sheet containing structure. DSC and TG analysis illustrated that trifluoroacetic acid can be eliminated by heating. The availability of SS nanofibers introduces a new set of possible uses of these amazing fibers at a scale not explored before. New uses include small diameter fibers for cell proliferation purposes, nanocomposite reinforcing fibers for nanotechnology, wound dressing, scaffolds for tissue engineering, and other biomedical applications.