Structural and luminescence enhancement properties of Eu3＋/Ag nanocrystallites doped SiO2-TiO2 matrices

We reported here the structural and optical characterisation of silver nanocrystallites/Eu3+ :SiO2-TiO2 matrices synthesised through sol-gel route. Structural characterisations were done by using energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDX), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), atomic force microscope (AFM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) measurements and optical characterisations were performed by absorption and emission spectroscopy. The TEM and XRD measurements confirmed the presence of nanocrystals. A broad absorption band was observed due to surface plasmon resonance of silver nanocrystals. The effect of silver nanocrystals on the emission spectrum of Eu3+ doped SiO2-TiO2 matrices was discussed. An attempt was made to explain this fluorescence enhancement by invoking phenomena such as energy transfer, asymmetry ratio, surface plasmon, surface roughness, crystallinity and grain boundary. Our analysis, based on the experimental results, suggested that all the phenomena except crystallinity and grain boundary had favourable effects on fluorescence enhancement. We also estimated the relevant parameters associated with the phenomena that affected the fluorescence emission from the Eu3+ ions in the matrix. It was seen that the theoretical estimate of fluorescence enhancement agreed well with the experimental estimate.     

Soft Computing Techniques for the Prediction and Analysis of Compressive Strength of Alkali-Activated Alumino-Silicate Based Strain-Hardening Geopolymer Composites

Silicon - A futuristic class of concrete that has ductile nature with zeroed cement and eco-friendly materials is popularly known as Engineered Geopolymer Composites (EGC). Research on...     

Storage studies of mango packed using biodegradable chitosan film

The effect on the quality of mango fruits (Mangifera indica) during modified atmosphere packaging was investigated. The fruits were kept in carton boxes whose top surface was covered with either chitosan film or with low-density polyethylene (positive control) or kept as such (control) and stored at room temperature (27ǃ °C at 65% RH). The CO₂ and O₂ levels measured on day 3 were 23-26% and 3-6%, and at the end of the storage period they were 19-21% and 5-6%, respectively. Various quality parameters such as colour, chlorophyll, acidity, vitamin C, carotenoid and sugar contents were studied. The fruits stored as such had a shelf-life of 9ǃ days, whereas those stored in low-density polyethylene showed off-flavour due to fermentation and fungal growth on the stalk and around the fruits, and were partially spoiled. On the other hand, fruits stored in chitosan-covered boxes showed an extension of shelf-life of up to 18 days and without any microbial growth and off-flavour. Being biodegradable and ecofriendly, chitosan films are useful as an alternative to synthetic packaging films in the storage of freshly harvested mangoes.     

Hash-Indexing Block-Based Deduplication Algorithm for Reducing Storage in the Cloud

Cloud storage is essential for managing user data to store and retrieve from the distributed data centre. The storage service is distributed as pay a service for accessing the size to collect the data. Due to the massive amount of data stored in the data centre containing similar information and file structures remaining in multi-copy, duplication leads to increase storage space. The potential deduplication system doesn’t make efficient data reduction because of inaccuracy in finding similar data analysis. It creates a complex nature to increase the storage consumption under cost. To resolve this problem, this paper proposes an efficient storage reduction called Hash-Indexing Block-based Deduplication (HIBD) based on Segmented Bind Linkage (SBL) Methods for reducing storage in a cloud environment. Initially, preprocessing is done using the sparse augmentation technique. Further, the preprocessed files are segmented into blocks to make Hash-Index. The block of the contents is compared with other files through Semantic Content Source Deduplication (SCSD), which identifies the similar content presence between the file. Based on the content presence count, the Distance Vector Weightage Correlation (DVWC) estimates the document similarity weight, and related files are grouped into a cluster. Finally, the segmented bind linkage compares the document to find duplicate content in the cluster using similarity weight based on the coefficient match case. This implementation helps identify the data redundancy efficiently and reduces the service cost in distributed cloud storage.     

Carbon capture and storage using coal fly ash with flue gas

Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy - Rising CO2 emissions call for actions to urgently address climate change and its impacts. To avoid the harmful consequences of climate change, limiting...     

Metabolic Dysfunction-Associated Fatty Liver Disease (MAFLD)—A Condition Associated with Heightened Sympathetic Activation

Metabolic dysfunction-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD) is the most common liver disease affecting a quarter of the global population and is often associated with adverse health outcomes. The increasing prevalence of MAFLD occurs in parallel to that of metabolic syndrome (MetS), which in fact plays a major role in driving the perturbations of cardiometabolic homeostasis. However, the mechanisms underpinning the pathogenesis of MAFLD are incompletely understood. Compelling evidence from animal and human studies suggest that heightened activation of the sympathetic nervous system is a key contributor to the development of MAFLD. Indeed, common treatment strategies for metabolic diseases such as diet and exercise to induce weight loss have been shown to exert their beneficial effects at least in part through the associated sympathetic inhibition. Furthermore, pharmacological and device-based approaches to reduce sympathetic activation have been demonstrated to improve the metabolic alterations frequently present in patients with obesity, MetSand diabetes. Currently available evidence, while still limited, suggests that sympathetic activation is of specific relevance in the pathogenesis of MAFLD and consequentially may offer an attractive therapeutic target to attenuate the adverse outcomes associated with MAFLD.     

"If I don't do well tomorrow, there's a reason": Predictors of adolescents' use of academic self-handicapping strategies.

It has been suggested that some students procrastinate, fool around, reduce effort, and use other self-handicapping strategies so that if subsequent performance is low, these circumstances will be seen as the cause. Surveys were given to 112 8th graders. The handicapping items formed a single factor with good internal consistency. Handicapping was positively associated with self-deprecation, negative attitudes toward education, ego-oriented goals, and low grades. There was a significant interaction between race and both ego-oriented goals and negative attitudes. The relation between ego-oriented goals and handicapping was stronger for African Americans than for European Americans, whereas the relation between negative attitudes and handicapping was stronger for European Americans than for African Americans. Path analysis revealed that handicapping mediated the relationship between negative attitudes about education and grade point average. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Microbial biofilm prevention on wound dressing by nanobiocoating using magnetosomes‐coupled lemon grass extract

In the present study, bacterial magnetosomes were used as a carrier molecule to couple with lemon grass extract (LGE) for the prevention of microbial biofilm in wound dressing material. Magnetosomes were extracted from Magnetospirillum sp. VITRJS‐1 and characterised by microscopic and X‐ray diffraction analysis. The phytochemical analyses of the extract showed the presence of bioactive compounds that are reported for antimicrobial and anti‐inflammatory activity. Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry analysis revealed the presence of antimicrobial citral and fernesal compounds. The extract was conjugated onto the magnetosomes and confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy analysis. The prepared magnetosome–lemon grass extract (MLGE) was evaluated for its antibiofilm property against the biofilm‐forming pathogens Bacillus subtilis, Pseudomonas, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella and Staphylococcus aureus on wound dressing material by plate assay. The results indicated that the number of colonies formed was considerably reduced in MLGE coated wound dressing compared with that of LGE and control. Furthermore, SEM analysis displayed that the MLGE drastically reduced the spread of biofilm formation. Thus, MLGE coated wound dressings are effective in preventing the microbial biofilm formation, and further investigation on animal models will enable its use commercially.Inspec keywords: microorganisms, cellular biophysics, wounds, X‐ray diffraction, antibacterial activity, chromatography, mass spectra, Fourier transform infrared spectra, scanning electron microscopy, biochemistry, molecular biophysics, nanomedicineOther keywords: microbial biofilm, nanobiocoating, magnetosomes‐coupled lemon grass extract, extract bacterial magnetosomes, carrier molecule, wound dressing material, Magnetospirillum sp. VITRJS‐1, microscopic analysis, X‐ray diffraction, phytochemical analyses, bioactive compounds, antimicrobial activity, antiinflammatory activity, gas chromatography‐mass spectrometry, antimicrobial citral compounds, antimicrobial fernesal compounds, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, biofilm‐forming pathogens, Bacillus subtilis, Pseudomonas, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella, Staphylococcus aureus, SEM, MLGE coated wound dressings, microbial biofilm formation, animal models     

Green technology of liquid biphasic flotation for enzyme recovery utilizing recycling surfactant and sorbitol

Liquid biphasic flotation (LBF) system has been recognized as an efficient, green, economically sustainable and biocompatible technique for biomolecules separation and purification. The main drawbacks of the conventional process of biomolecules separation are expensive production cost, utilization of phase components that are inefficiently recycled and global pollution due to high chemical consumption and wastage. In this paper, a novel approach of LBF system for lipase recovery utilizing recycling phase components comprising surfactant and xylitol was investigated. The scope of this study focuses on pollution prevention as well as clean and environmentally friendly process for enzyme extraction via LBF. The green process proposed in this study uses phase-forming components that have recovery and recycling abilities for minimal use of chemicals for enzyme extraction. This novel method utilized Triton X-100 and xylitol for lipase extraction from Burkholderia cepacia. A few parameters were optimized to obtain high lipase separation efficiency and yield. Based on the ideal conditions of LBF, the average lipase separation efficiency and yield are 86.46 and 87.49%, correspondingly. Phase components recycling were proposed in order to reduce the chemicals consumption in LBF system. Upscaling of the recycling study exhibited consistent result with the laboratory scale. It was found that 97.20 and 98.67% of Triton X-100 and xylitol were recovered after five times of recycling and that a total of 75.87% of lipase separation efficiency was obtained. Recovery and recycling of phase components in the extraction process are established as the principal green chemistry method, which yields high separation efficiency and is economically feasible on an industrial scale.     

A hybrid approach of Weighted Fine-Tuned BERT extraction with deep Siamese Bi – LSTM model for semantic text similarity identification

Multimedia Tools and Applications - The conventional semantic text-similarity methods requires high amount of trained labeled data and also human interventions. Generally, it neglects the...