SEEMAKA: Secured Energy-Efficient Mutual Authentication and Key Agreement Scheme for Wireless Body Area Networks

Wireless Personal Communications - Sparse code multiple access (SCMA) is one of the algorithms in non-orthogonality multiple access. The algorithm utilizes advanced multi-dimensional codebook to...     

Effect of Transglutaminase Enzyme on Physico-mechanical Properties of Rambouillet Wool Fiber

ABSTRACT

Rambouillet wool fiber was scoured and treated with transglutaminase (TG) enzyme for different concentrations and duration at neutral pH at 45°C. The physical, mechanical, dyeing, and antimicrobial properties of the wool fiber before and after enzymatic treatment were evaluated as per standard methods. Results inferred that TG enzyme-treated wool fiber sample showed improvement in softness, luster, and tensile strength in comparison with scoured wool fiber. It is found that 0.5% TG enzyme treatment at 45°C for 60 min at pH 7 was an optimum condition. Scanning electron microscope images also confirmed the flattened and smooth scales of wool fiber after enzymatic treatment.     

Manual small incision cataract surgery for subluxated cataract with lens coloboma

Introduction

The lens coloboma results from a segmental defective or absent development of the zonules. It is usually unilateral and bilateral cases are rare. These eyes are at greater risk of complications during cataract surgery due to ocular malformations. In addition the capsular bag requires stabilization using modified capsule tension ring, capsular tension segment or capsular anchor.

Methods

Lens extraction is indicated for cataract or subluxation if visual function is sufficiently compromised. We report our surgical experience in a patient with bilateral isolated lens coloboma by performing manual small incision cataract surgery (MSICS) in left eye and phacoemulsification in right eye.

Results

The nuclear rotation was hampered because of the lack of zonules and presence of lens coloboma. MSICS was converted to the intracapsular technique in left eye, though breaking the nucleus into pieces during phacoemulsification in right eye enabled its mobilization and successful completion with implantation of modified capsule tension ring.

Conclusions

A patient with lens subluxation and lens coloboma is better managed by phacoemulsification as compared to the MSICS.     

Preparation and characterization of porous polyester fibres by salt leaching method

Porous polyester fibres with cotton-like dull characteristics were produced by salt leaching method. Polyester was synthesized in the presence of common salt. Fibres containing submicron size salt particles (0.5–1%) were prepared by melt spinning. The fibres were washed in hot water to remove the salt particles creating small craters of size 50–1000?nm. Partially oriented yarn (POY) and fully drawn yarn (FDY) were produced. POY samples were textured to produce polyester textured yarn containing salt particles. The influence of salt particles on polymer crystallization was investigated and found that the presence of salt significantly influences the rate of crystallization. The gloss values of porous FDYs were compared with standard semi-dull polyester yarns of same denier. The light scattering behaviour of the yarn has been enhanced due to porosity. This resulted in a fibre with better dullness characteristics. The light reflectance of porous yarn is lower in the 400–700?nm region compared to control FDY samples. The dyeability of the porous fibre was better than non-porous counterpart.     

PBT/Thermoplastic Elastomer Blends—Mechanical,Morphological, and Rheological Characterization

The blends of poly(butylene terephthalate) (PBT) with thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) at a blending composition of 10–30 wt.% TPE were prepared with an objective to enhance impact toughness of PBT. Two different grades of PBT were selected based on carboxyl end group and viscosity. Melting behavior, mechanical properties, morphology, and rheology of the blends were studied. At all levels of TPE, PBT showed negligible changes in its melting and crystallization temperature; however, percentage crystallinity decreased with an increase in the amount of thermoplastic elastomer. The notched as well as unnotched Izod impact strength of PBT increased with the incorporation of TPE, the increase being about 47% (unnotched) and 54% (notched) with low molecular weight PBT and 18% (unnotched) and 70% (notched) with high molecular weight PBT at 10% TPE level. The tensile strength and tensile modulus of the blends decreased steadily as the weight percent of TPE increased. Analysis of the tensile data using predicted theories indicated that at TPE levels of 30 wt.%, the blends cannot take excessive stress because the interfacial adhesion is lowered. Small angle light scattering (SALS) studies of the samples indicated the decreased rate of crystallization and, hence, an increase in spherulitic radius in the presence of TPE. The increasing incorporation of TPE in PBT/TPE blends increased the shear thinning behavior and hence eased processability.     

Nutritional components as mitigators of cellular senescence in organismal aging: a comprehensive review

Food Science and Biotechnology - The process of cellular senescence is rapidly emerging as a modulator of organismal aging and disease. Targeting the development and removal of senescent cells is...     

MRMR Based Feature Vector Design for Efficient Citrus Disease Detection

In recent times, the images and videos have emerged as one of the most important information source depicting the real time scenarios. Digital images nowadays serve as input for many applications and replacing the manual methods due to their capabilities of 3D scene representation in 2D plane. The capabilities of digital images along with utilization of machine learning methodologies are showing promising accuracies in many applications of prediction and pattern recognition. One of the application fields pertains to detection of diseases occurring in the plants, which are destroying the widespread fields. Traditionally the disease detection process was done by a domain expert using manual examination and laboratory tests. This is a tedious and time consuming process and does not suffice the accuracy levels. This creates a room for the research in developing automation based methods where the images captured through sensors and cameras will be used for detection of disease and control its spreading. The digital images captured from the field's forms the dataset which trains the machine learning models to predict the nature of the disease. The accuracy of these models is greatly affected by the amount of noise and ailments present in the input images, appropriate segmentation methodology, feature vector development and the choice of machine learning algorithm. To ensure the high rated performance of the designed system the research is moving in a direction to fine tune each and every stage separately considering their dependencies on subsequent stages. Therefore the most optimum solution can be obtained by considering the image processing methodologies for improving the quality of image and then applying statistical methods for feature extraction and selection. The training vector thus developed is capable of presenting the relationship between the feature values and the target class. In this article, a highly accurate system model for detecting the diseases occurring in citrus fruits using a hybrid feature development approach is proposed. The overall improvement in terms of accuracy is measured and depicted.     

Polyaniline-Acetylene black-Copper cobaltite based ternary hybrid material with enhanced electrochemical properties and its use in supercapacitor electrodes

A new system based on Polyaniline-Acetylene black-Copper cobaltite composite has been prepared and affirmed by XRD, UV, SEM, FTIR, and EDS characterizations. The rod-like texture of ternary hybrid system offered excellent electrochemical activity in comparison to single and binary systems. CV and CD results revealed outstanding redox behavior of the ternary hybrid electrodes. Ternary electrode (PACC) presented the highest specific capacitance value of 690 F/g at 1 mA/cm² current density. PACC electrode based symmetric supercapacitor had a specific capacitance of 137.25 Fg^-1 at 1 mA/cm² of current density. PACC symmetric supercapacitor had the highest specific power and specific energy of 3308.85 W.kg^-1 and 19.064 Wh.kg^-1, respectively. The ternary system provides less charge transfer resistance values compared to all other systems. Thermal stability of the ternary composite is way better than polyaniline, which is due to the contribution of copper cobaltite and acetylene black. The overwhelming characteristics of the ternary hybrid composite bring it to the limelight as an excellent candidate in the field of supercapacitors.     

Studies on the boundary lubrication regime in a four-ball machine

In a four-ball contact after seizure recovery a boundary lubrication zone sets in which fails with scuffing when conditions are made more severe. In the present paper the conditions under which scuffing occurs are studied and a mechanism of scuffing is described on the basis of the contact temperature at the time of failure. The scuffing of a four-ball contact was shown to occur when the contact temperature exceeds the desorption temperature of the lubricant.