Comprehensive review for energy efficient hierarchical routing protocols on wireless sensor networks

Wireless Networks - In recent years, wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have played a major role in applications such as tracking and monitoring in remote environments. Designing energy efficient...     

Antioxidant activity and protective effect against plasmid DNA strand scission of leaf, bark, and heartwood extracts from Acacia catechu

The antioxidant activity of methanol extract/fractions of leaf, bark, and heartwood of Acacia catechu was evaluated by various antioxidant assays, including free radical, superoxide and hydroxyl radical, reducing power, metal ion chelation, as well as hydroxyl radical induced DNA strand scission. The leaf, bark, and heartwood powder was extracted in methanol and the lyophilized methanol extract was fractionated with different solvents in the order of increasing polarity. The results indicate that ethyl acetate fraction of heartwood has the highest antioxidant capacities, presenting lower EC(50) values particularly in free radical scavenging activity, including DPPH radicals (4.76 ± 0.14 μg/mL), superoxide anions (26.21 ± 0.79 μg/mL), and hydroxyl radicals (33.69 ± 1.42 μg/mL), in direct assay systems. Reducing power was also highest in ethyl acetate fraction of heartwood (EC(50) of 79.05 ± 1.02 μg/mL). As for the chelating power on ferrous ions, leaf extract was more effective than bark and heartwood extracts. Furthermore, the ethyl acetate and acetone fractions of heartwood significantly protected pBR322 supercoiled plasmid DNA against strand scission induced by hydroxyl radicals in a Fenton's reaction mixture. PRACTICAL APPLICATION: The present investigation suggests that the three organs of A. catechu differ significantly in their antioxidant potential as seen in the DPPH radical scavenging assay, reducing power assay, metal ion chelating assay, superoxide radical scavenging assay and hydroxyl radical scavenging assay. Further, our results showed that crude methanol extract and ethyl acetate fraction of heartwood of A. catechu might have a good potential as a source for natural health products due to its antioxidant and DNA protective activities.     

Polymers from renewable resources: Kinetics studies of the radiochemical graft copolymerization of styrene onto cellulose extracted from pine needles and the effect of some additives on the grafting parameters in an aqueous medium

In an attempt to develop an alternative to petro‐based polymers, we graft‐copolymerized cellulose isolated from the needles of Pinus roxburghii with styrene in a limited aqueous medium in air by simultaneous irradiation using gamma rays as the initiator. The optimum conditions for obtaining maximum grafting were determined as a function of monomer concentration, total dose of irradiation, and amount of water. Maximum percentage of grafting (P_g; 79.9) was obtained at a total dose of 1.152 × 10⁴ Gy with 1.325 × 10^?4 mol of styrene. The effect of methanol, LiNO₃, Cu(NO₃)₂, Mohr's salt, H₂SO₄, HNO₃, and AcOH on P_g was studied. All the additives were found to decrease graft yield, contrary to some reported studies. Total percentage conversion and rates of polymerization, grafting, and homopolymerization were evaluated. Evidence of grafting was provided by the characterization of cellulose and its graft copolymers by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, thermogravimetry, and observation of the swelling behavior in some solvents. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 83: 1490–1500, 2002     

Performance optimization in delay tolerant networks using backtracking algorithm for fully credits distribution to contrast selfish nodes

The Journal of Supercomputing - Delay Tolerant Network (DTN) can be characterized as a heterogeneous network of nodes in which nodes mobility is high and resources are limited to transmit messages....     

Distribution and biochemical composition of large and small seeds of soybean (Glycine max L.)

BACKGROUND: The position of soybean seeds on the stem axis brings about differences in seed filling during seed development, which contributes to different seed size and results in determining the quality of seeds for food usage. The quality differences between the large and small seeds are reported. RESULTS: The proportion of large seeds was higher at the apical portion while small seeds predominated at the basal portion of the soybean stem axis. The contents of lipids, starch, soluble sugars and soluble proteins were higher in large seeds as compared to those in small ones. The proportion of membrane lipid components, on a 10‐kernel basis, was higher in large seeds. The proportion of palmitate and oleate was also higher in large seeds. SDS‐PAGE analysis showed that glycinin (11S) proteins of 46 and 32 kDa were at higher concentrations, while 158 and 20 kDa were at lower concentration in large seeds in comparison to small seeds. Likewise, β‐conglycinins (7S) of 75, 62 and 46 kDa were higher in large seeds compared to small ones. CONCLUSION: Segregating the seeds of apical from the basal portion of soybean plant at harvest is expected to improve the germination, growth, yield and food‐processing aspects. Copyright © 2007 Society of Chemical Industry     

Manoeuvring the physicochemical and nutritional properties of vegetable oils through blending

Modification of vegetable oils is carried out to make them suitable according to their specific end use as most of the vegetable oils in original forms do not meet the recommended dietary allowance of saturated (SFA), monounsaturated (MUFA) and polyunsaturated (PUFA) fatty acids. Vegetable oils are modified using a variety of techniques including hydrogenation, interesterification, fractionation, and blending. However, blending is the most widely accepted method for improving the physicochemical properties, nutritive value and oxidative stability of vegetable oils because it is simple, cost-effective, non-destructive, and does not involve chemical treatments. Blending vegetable oils with contrasting fatty acid compositions or blending omega 3 fatty acids and antioxidants rich minor oils with major oils are two common strategies to formulate blends. Blended oil with balanced fatty acids could play substantial role in improving the consumers' health. However, while designing vegetable oil blends, it is important to keep in mind the intended application of the formulated blend, consumer's demands and also food laws. This review paper covers the literature related to blending of vegetable oils with a focus on effect of vegetable oils blending on their physicochemical and nutritional properties, health benefits and utility in food industries.     

Electron beam induced synthesis of CdSe nanomaterials: Tuning of shapes from rods to cubes

Cadmium selenide (CdSe) nanomaterials of different shapes have been synthesized in the water pool of the water-in-oil microemulsions through 7 MeV electron beam irradiation. The rod shaped CdSe nanomaterials of lengths and breadths up to 1 μm and 200 nm, respectively with aspect ratios from 3 to 5 were grown in the case of microemulsions containing lower water content, water to surfactant concentrations ratio, w₀ = 10. In contrast, the cubic shaped CdSe nanomaterials of dimensions about 100 nm were formed in the microemulsions with higher water contents, w₀ values from 20 to 40. Such a transformation of shape from rod to cube was attributed to the change in the hydrophobicity and hydrophilicity of the micro-environment in the microemulsions. The as-grown CdSe nanomaterials were stable at ambient conditions and thus expected to be very useful in the device applications.     

Meta-heuristic Ant Colony Optimization Based Unequal Clustering for Wireless Sensor Network

Wireless Personal Communications - Sensor nodes are randomly deployed to perform specific area monitoring in geographical region and temporal space. The network connectivity maintenance is a major...