Synthesis and thermomechanical characterization of polyurethane elastomers extended with α,ω‐alkane diols

A series of polyurethane (PU) elastomers was prepared by the reaction of poly(?‐caprolactone) and 4,4′‐diphenylmethane diisocyanate, which was extended with a series of chain extenders (CEs) having 2–10 methylene units in their structure. The completion of the reaction was confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The chemical structures of the synthesized PU samples were characterized with Fourier transform infrared, ¹H‐NMR, and ¹³C‐NMR spectroscopy, and the thermal properties were determined by thermogravimetric analysis, DSC, and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis techniques. The mechanical properties were also studied and are discussed. The thermogravimetric analysis and DSC analysis showed that CE length had a considerable effect on the thermal properties of the prepared samples. The dynamic mechanical thermal analysis and damping peaks were also affected by the number of methylene units in the CE length. The elastomer extended with 1,2‐ethane diol exhibited optimum thermal properties, whereas the elastomer based on 1,10‐decane diol displayed the worst thermal properties. Tensile strength and elongation at break decreased with increasing CE length, whereas hardness showed the opposite trend. The glass‐transition temperature moved toward lower temperatures with increasing CE length. The decrease in the glass‐transition temperature and tensile properties were interpreted in terms of decreasing hard segments and increasing chain flexibility. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2008     

A hybrid model for spelling error detection and correction for Urdu language

Neural Computing and Applications - Detecting and correcting misspelled words in a written text are of great importance in many natural language processing applications. Errors can be broadly...     

Light weight model for intra mode selection in HEVC

Multimedia Tools and Applications - The High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) efficiently reduces the size of the multimedia contents, but at the cost of high computation complexity. In order to make...     

An AW-HARIS Based Automated Segmentation of Human Liver Using CT Images

In the digestion of amino acids, carbohydrates, and lipids, as well as protein synthesis from the consumed food, the liver has many diverse responsibilities and functions that are to be performed. Liver disease may impact the hormonal and nutritional balance in the human body. The earlier diagnosis of such critical conditions may help to treat the patient effectively. A computationally efficient AW-HARIS algorithm is used in this paper to perform automated segmentation of CT scan images to identify abnormalities in the human liver. The proposed approach can recognize the abnormalities with better accuracy without training, unlike in supervisory procedures requiring considerable computational efforts for training. In the earlier stages, the CT images are pre-processed through an Adaptive Multiscale Data Condensation Kernel to normalize the underlying noise and enhance the image’s contrast for better segmentation. Then, the preliminary phase’s outcome is being fed as the input for the Anisotropic Weighted–-Heuristic Algorithm for Real-time Image Segmentation algorithm that uses texture-related information, which has resulted in precise outcome with acceptable computational latency when compared to that of its counterparts. It is observed that the proposed approach has outperformed in the majority of the cases with an accuracy of 78%. The smart diagnosis approach would help the medical staff accurately predict the abnormality and disease progression in earlier ailment stages.     

Fabrication of Mn–ZnO photoanodes for photoelectrochemical water splitting applications

Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics - A photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting ability of pure ZnO and manganese-incorporated ZnO thin films fabricated via a simple...     

Liaison of phenolic acids and biological activity of escalating cultivars of Daucus carota

The objective of the present study was to analyze and compare the phenolic compounds and their antioxidant capacities of new lines of Dacus carota. The selected cultivars showed high variation in the contents of total phenolics (30.26–65.39 mg/100 g FW) and total ascorbic acid (41.12–58.36 mg/100 g FW). Analysis on RP-HPLC revealed that hydroxycinnamic acids and its derivatives were major phenolic compounds present in D. carota extracts, whereas 5-caffeolquinic acid was a major hydroxycinnamic acid (ranged from 30.26 to 65.39 mg/100 g FW). DCP cultivar showed high total antioxidant capacity (77.69 mg/100 g), 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) scavenging capacity (52.36 mg/100 g), superoxide radical scavenging capacity (53.69 mg/100 g), and hydroxyl radical scavenging capacity (51.91 mg/100 g). A linear relationship was found between total phenolic acid contents and antioxidant capacity. Both phenolic compounds and antioxidant capacities varied significantly (ρ < 0.05) among cultivars. DCP cultivar was found to be a rich source of phenolics and ascorbic acid with high antioxidant activity.     

Development,In Vitro and In Vivo Evaluation of pH Responsive β-CD-Comethacrylic Acid-Crosslinked Polymeric Microparticulate System for Solubility Enhancement of Rosuvastatin Calcium

Current research work was conducted for enhancing solubility of rosuvastatin calcium. A highly stable, biocompatible, and nontoxic β-cyclodextrin-g-poly(methacrylic acid) graft polymeric network was developed. Formulations proved entrapment efficacy (%) in between 82.30?±?0.25 and 89.00?±?0.25 and gel fraction between 90.34?±?1.012 and 95.25?±?1.331. Formulation HM2 had shown optimum swelling and drug release, i.e., 85.74% at pH 6.8. The best-fit model was first-order kinetics with anomalous diffusion as release mechanism. Likewise, solubility enhancement, i.e., 9.59-folds was determined at pH 6.8. It was concluded that hydrogel microparticles are the promising tools for improving solubility and bioavailability of hydrophobic drugs.     

pH Responsive Abelmoschus esculentus Mucilage and Administration of Methotrexate: In-Vitro Antitumor and In-Vivo Toxicity Evaluation

The rapid progression in biomaterial nanotechnology apprehends the potential of non-toxic and potent polysaccharide delivery modules to overcome oral chemotherapeutic challenges. The present study is aimed to design, fabricate and characterize polysaccharide nanoparticles for methotrexate (MTX) delivery. The nanoparticles (NPs) were prepared by Abelmoschus esculentus mucilage (AEM) and chitosan (CS) by the modified coacervation method, followed by ultra-sonification. The NPs showed much better pharmaceutical properties with a spherical shape and smooth surface of 213.4–254.2 nm with PDI ranging between 0.279–0.485 size with entrapment efficiency varying from 42.08 ± 1.2 to 72.23 ± 2.0. The results revealed NPs to possess positive zeta potential and a low polydispersity index (PDI). The in-vitro drug release showed a sustained release of the drug up to 32 h with pH-dependence. Blank AEM -CS NPs showed no in-vivo toxicity for a time duration of 14 days, accompanied by high cytotoxic effects of optimized MTX loaded NPs against MCF-7 and MD-MBA231 cells by MTT assay. In conclusion, the findings advocated the therapeutic potential of AEM/CS NPs as an efficacious tool, offering a new perspective for pH-responsive routing of anticancer drugs with tumor cells as a target.     

Implementation of OpenFlow based cognitive radio network architecture: SDN&R

Wireless Networks - The static conventional network architecture is ill-suited to the growing management complexity and highly dynamic wireless network topologies. Software Defined Radio systems...     

Changes in in vitro protein digestion of retort‐pouched pork belly during 120‐day storage

To investigate the effect of long‐term storage on in vitro protein digestion of the retort‐pouched pork belly. The products were stored at 25 °C for 0, 30, 60 and 120 days and digested with pepsin and trypsin at each time point. SDS‐PAGE and LC‐MS‐MS were applied to separate and identify proteins and their digested products. In vitro protein digestibility decreased from 47.7% after 60‐day storage to 25.4% after 120‐day storage for the samples digested by pepsin, and from 63.9% to 45.7% for the samples digested by pepsin and trypsin at corresponding time points. LC‐MS‐MS demonstrated changes in peptide composition and abundance with storage time. Long‐term storage could deteriorate nutritive values of meat products by reducing digestible protein content.