Design and analysis of text document clustering using salp swarm algorithm

The Journal of Supercomputing - In the technological era, exponential increase of unorganized text documents offers increased difficulties retrieving the most relevant data. The document clustering...     

Biosynthesised silver and copper nanoformulation as foliar spray to control bird's eye spot disease in tea plantations

Tea leaves have economic importance in preparation of the popular beverage of the world “tea”. Bird’s eye spot disease of tea leaves creates significant revenue loss in tea trade of many tea plant cultivating countries. Management of this disease by silver (AgNps) and copper (CuNps) nanoparticles that are biosynthesised by efficient antagonists was studied. The biocontrol agents like Pseudomonas fluorescens, Trichoderma atroviride and Streptomyces sannanensis were evaluated for nanoparticle synthesis against Cercospora theae isolates namely KC10, MC24 and VC38. Initially, the freshly prepared extracellular AgNps showed high disease control (59.42 – 79.76%), but the stability of antagonistic property in stored nanoparticles were significantly high in CuNps (58.71 – 73.81%). Greenhouse studies on various treatments imposed also showed reduced disease incidence percentage of 13.4, 7.57 and 10.11% when treated with CuNps synthesized by P. fluorescens, T. atroviride and S. sannanensis respectively. Various treatment schedule in fields suggested the use of Bionanocopper@1.5 ppm for highest yield (3743 kg/ha) with 66.1% disease prevention. The results suggest the use of biosynthesised CuNps using Streptomyces sannanensis for controlling the tea plant pathogens causing foliar disease with higher stability in releasing the antagonistic activity during sporadic disease incidence of bird’s eye spot disease in tea plants.Inspec keywords: silver, copper, crops, plant diseases, nanoparticles, air pollution, agrochemicals, nanobiotechnologyOther keywords: biosynthesised silver, biosynthesised copper, nanoformulation, foliar spray, bird eye spot disease control, tea plantations, tea leaves, economic importance, revenue loss, tea trade, tea plant cultivating countries, silver nanoparticles, AgNps, copper nanoparticles, CuNps, biocontrol agents, nanoparticle synthesis, Cercospora theae isolates, KC10, MC24, VC38, greenhouse studies, antagonistic property, P. fluorescens, T. atroviride, S. sannanensis, fungicides, synthetic nanomaterials, bionanomaterials, disease prevention, green leaf yield, BionanoCu, tea plant pathogens, foliar disease     

Optical and surface morphological properties of triethylamine passivated lead sulphide nanoparticles

The triethylamine capped lead sulphide (PbS) nanoparticles were successfully synthesized by simple wet chemical method. The synthesized product has been characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), UV–vis spectrophotometry, FTIR spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy (AFM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and photoluminescence studies. The size of the PbS nanoparticles was determined from AFM, TEM, XRD and from these studies it is found that the size of the particles of the order of 10–15 nm. Significant “blue shift” from bulk material was observed on the PbS nanoparticles using UV–vis and photoluminescence spectrum.     

Antioxidant effect of turmeric powder,nitrite and ascorbic acid on stored chicken mince

This investigation was carried out to evaluate the antioxidant effect of turmeric (turmeric 1000 ppm, turmeric 5000 ppm), nitrite (nitrite 200 ppm) and ascorbic acid (ascorbic acid 500 ppm) on raw minced chicken stored at 4 ± 1 °C. Physicochemical properties [pH, water activity, cooking loss, thiobarbituric acid (TBA) value, peroxide value (PV), free fatty acid (FFA)] were evaluated on 0, 2, 4 and 6th day of storage. Highly significant differences (P < 0.01) in pH, TBA value, PV and FFA value were noticed between treatments and between storage periods. TBA values were observed to be lowest for nitrite 200 ppm and then turmeric 5000 ppm, and there was no significant difference between nitrite 200 ppm and turmeric 5000 ppm, and both were superior to ascorbic acid 500 ppm and turmeric 1000 ppm. Among different treatments, PV was found to be lowest in turmeric 5000 ppm and highest in nitrite 200 ppm. FFA value was found to be lowest in turmeric 5000 ppm and highest in ascorbic acid 500 ppm among all treated samples. It can be concluded that turmeric has potential to replace synthetic antioxidants presently used in meat processing with many added advantages.     

Maintenance of postharvest quality and bioactive compounds of fresh‐cut sweet leaf bush (Sauropus androgynus L. Merr.) through hot CaCl2 dips

The effects of hot CaCl₂ dips on postharvest quality and bioactive compounds of fresh‐cut sweet leaf bush were investigated. The vegetable was dipped in 0.5% or 1.0% (w/v) of CaCl₂ solutions at 40 °C for 30 s and the control was the untreated sample. Hot CaCl₂ dips significantly delayed the weight loss, maintained the overall quality and inhibited the wiltness (P < 0.05). Both hot CaCl₂ dips had no effect on the changes in lightness (L*) and delayed the decrease in greenness (‐a*) and total chlorophyll content and the increase in both yellowness (b*) and carotenoid content. Hot CaCl₂ dips enhanced total antioxidants, total phenolics content and both AsA‐POD and G‐POD activities from 38.6, 0.44, 15.2 and 22.4 at day 0 to 55.3, 0.55, 50.5 and 362.4 at day 8, respectively. Moreover, hot CaCl₂ dips also delayed the loss of DPPH free radical scavenging activity, total flavonoid, ascorbic acid and CAT activity when compared to other treatments during storage. This study showed that hot CaCl₂ dip maintains postharvest quality and enhanced bioactive compounds of fresh‐cut sweet leaf bush during storage.     

Optical,electrical, mechanical,and thermal properties and non-isothermal decomposition behavior of poly(vinyl alcohol)–ZnO nanocomposites

Iranian Polymer Journal - Poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) nanocomposites incorporated with ZnO nanofiller were prepared and examined to study the influence of nanofiller on their properties. All the...     

Preparation and characterization of poly(ethylene/tetramethylene terephthalate) copolyesters

Random copolyesters were prepared from dimethyl terephthalate (DMT), ethylene glycol (EG) and butane 1,4-diol (BD) by melt-polycondensation techniques, using varying amounts of EG and BD. Compositions have been established by ¹H n.m.r. spectroscopy. Intrinsic viscosity and number average molecular weight ($\text{M}\text{?}{}_{\mathrm{n}}$) were measured. Thermal properties have been studied by differential thermal analysis. Melting and crystallization temperatures and thermodynamic parameters are discussed in terms of structural differences, particularly the effect of composition and chain flexibility. The degree of crystallinity from differential thermal analysis, i.r. and wide angle X-ray scattering (WAXS) are discussed.     

Effects of mixing technique and filler content on physical properties of bovine bone‐based CHA/PLA composites

This study presented influence of mixing technique as well as filler content on physical and thermal properties of bovine bone‐based carbonated hydroxyapatite (CHA)/poly(lactic acid) (PLA) composites. CHA/PLA composites at various contents of CHA were prepared by either melt‐mixing or solution‐mixing techniques. Thermal properties, morphologies, and mechanical properties of the CHA/PLA composites including molecular weight deterioration of PLA matrices were investigated. Average molecular weights of PLA in the composites prepared by both techniques decreased with increasing CHA content, whereas their molecular weight distributions (MWDs) increased. Nonetheless, average molecular weights of PLA in melt‐mixed composites were lower than those of solution‐mixed composites. With increasing CHA content, elongation at break, tensile strength, and impact strength of the composites were decreased, whereas the tensile moduli of the composites were increased. In comparison between two mixing techniques, the melt‐mixing distributed and dispersed CHA into PLA matrix more effectively than the solution‐mixing did. Therefore, tensile moduli, tensile strength, and impact strength of the melt mixed composites were higher than those of the solution‐mixed composites of the corresponding CHA content. Moreover, decomposition temperatures and % crystallinity of the melt‐mixed composites were higher than those of the solution‐mixed composites. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2011.     

Effect of microstructure on oxygen permeation in SrCo0.8Fe0.2O3−δ

The effect of microstructure on oxygen permeation in SrCo0.8Fe0.2O3– membranes was investigated using disc samples fabricated under different processing conditions of applied pressure and sintering temperature. The average grain size of the samples was found to remain unchanged as a function of applied pressure, but increased considerably when the sintering temperature was increased from 950 to 1200°C. This change in grain size has a strong effect on the oxygen permeation flux, which increased considerably as the grain size was decreased. The density as well as the microhardness of these samples were also measured and found to change slightly as the processing conditions were changed.