β-glucosidase assisted biosynthesis of gold nanoparticles: A green chemistry approach

Biogenic gold nanoparticles using medically important phytochemical (β-glucosidase) are demonstrated herein. The reduction capabilities of phytochemical and their ability to stabilize the new genre gold nanoparticles, were characterized using UV-visible, FT-IR, HR-TEM and XRD measurements. This report also focuses the newly formed gold nanoparticles application on promoting the defensive mechanism of silkworm Bombyx mori. The results highlight the possibility of green pathways to produce functionalized gold nanoparticles of medicinal significance.     

Fair Adaptive Cross-Layer Resource Allocation Scheme for IEEE 802.16 Broadband Wireless Networks

In a WiMAX network, the Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol deals with resource allocation to different types of traffic. The key components that ensure Quality of Service (QoS) guarantees in a WiMAX network include Call Admission Control (CAC), Bandwidth and Burst allocation. In this Paper, a Cross-layer framework is designed to efficiently allocate resources to various classes of traffic. CAC and Bandwidth allocation are dealt in the MAC layer, while Burst allocation in the PHYsical layer. The predominant goal of this work is to reduce delay and Information Element (IE) overheads by efficiently utilizing the available frame space. The History based CAC (HCAC) proposed in this paper deals with call acceptance based on the Contention Window (CW) values. The History based Bandwidth Allocation (HBA) scheme deals with allocating bandwidth based on Consumption and Equity measures. The proposed tightly coupled Delay Tolerance based Scheduler (DTS) and Bucket based Burst Allocator (BBA) allocate resources by prioritizing flows with least delay tolerance. It is seen that the proposed schemes offer better performance in contrast to the existing benchmarked schemes in terms of Throughput, Average Delay and Packet Loss Ratio (PLR).

     

Effects of urbanization on historical heritage buildings in Kumbakonam,Tamilnadu, India

Urbanization is a common and inevitable occurrence everywhere. While growth and expansion are beneficial for manypeople and businesses, there is apotential for loss of historical areas that are the heritage value to people. This paper investigates the effects of urbanization on the heritage buildings in the historical-heritage temple town of Kumbakonam in Tamilnadu, India. Heritage temple towns are frequent targets for the rapid transition to urbanization that is often accompanied by alteration of historical areas. The primary objective of this study was to identify how urbanization could change the heritage characteristics in a temple town. An ordinal regression model was used to analyze urbanization data from the heritage town of Kumbakonam. Our findings revealed specific physical, socioeconomic, and sociocultural factors of urbanization that caused identifiable and significant changes in the heritage characteristics of Kumbakonam. These factors play a significant role and wouldaid in the implementation of the Local Development Plan (LDP) for sustainable urban growth and preservation of the heritage character of Kumbakonam.     

Olive oil protects rat liver microsomes against benzo(a)pyrene-induced oxidative damages: an in vitro study

Benzo(a)pyrene (B(a)P), a member of the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon family is present ubiquitously in the environment. One of its toxic effects is induction of oxidative stress (mediated by the enzyme B(a)P hydroxylase) which leads to various diseases like cancer. Olive oil (OO) that consists of many antioxidant compounds is reported to have many beneficial properties including protection against cancer. The objective of the present study is to evaluate the effect of OO on B(a)P hydroxylase enzyme and further elucidate the antioxidant capacity of OO against B(a)P-induced toxicity. Rat liver microsomes were divided into three groups: vehicle control, B(a)P treated group, and OO + B(a)P co-incubated group. Antioxidant enzymes which were decreased and protein carbonyl content and lipid peroxidation products which were increased on exposure to B(a)P was attenuated to near normal on OO exposure. B(a)P hydroxylase enzyme was very low in OO incubated group which may be due to inhibition of the enzyme by OO or high utilization for the metabolism of B(a)P. Further, no B(a)P metabolites (3-OH B(a)P and B(a)P 7,8-dihydrodiol) were identified in HPLC during B(a)P + OO exposure. The results prove the protective role of OO against B(a)P-induced oxidative damage.     

DSSCs: a facile and low-cost MgSnO3-based transparent conductive oxides via nebulized spray pyrolysis technique

Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics - The primary focus of this investigation was constructing worthwhile and cost-effective TCO substrate to make low-cost dye-sensitized solar...