Angiotensin I‐converting enzyme inhibitory activity of protein hydrolysates prepared from three freshwater carps (Catla catla,Labeo rohita and Cirrhinus mrigala) using Flavorzyme

Fish protein hydrolysates from three freshwater carps, Catla catla, Labeo rohita and Cirrhinus mrigala with different degree of hydrolysis (DH) (5%, 10%, 15% and 20%), were prepared using Flavorzyme enzyme and designated as HCF, HRF and HMF, respectively. The angiotensin I‐converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitory activity of hydrolysates was found to vary from 43 ± 2% to 71 ± 3%. Based on ACE inhibitory activity, HRF with DH‐15% was taken up for further study. The mode of ACE activity inhibition by HRF‐DH 15% was mixed type as revealed by Lineweaver–Burk plot. Sequential digestion of HRF‐DH 15% using pepsin and pancreatin decreased the ACE inhibitory activity from 76% to 63%. Partial purification of HRF‐DH 15% by size exclusion chromatography gave three different fractions designated as F‐1, F‐2 and F‐3 with the molecular mass in the range of 6456–407 Da. Fraction 2 had significantly higher ACE inhibitory activity than the other fractions.     

Intestine-Specific, Oral Delivery of Captopril/Montmorillonite: Formulation and Release Kinetics

The intercalation of captopril (CP) into the interlayers of montmorillonite (MMT) affords an intestine-selective drug delivery system that has a captopril-loading capacity of up to ca. 14 %w/w and which exhibits near-zero-order release kinetics.     

Numerical Studies on Natural Convection in a Trapezoidal Enclosure With Discrete Heating

Abstract

A steady state laminar natural convection flow in a trapezoidal enclosure with discretely heated bottom wall, adiabatic top wall, and constant temperature cold inclined walls is performed. The finite volume based commercial code “ANSYS-FLUENT” is used to investigate the influence of discrete heating on natural convection flows in a trapezoidal cavity. The numerical solution of the problem covers various Rayleigh numbers ranging from 10³ to 10⁶, non-dimensional heating length ranging from 0.2 to 0.8 and Prandtl number is 0.7. The performance of the present numerical approach is represented in the form of streamfunction, temperature profile and Nusselt number. Heat transfer increases with increase of Rayleigh numbers at the corners of the cavity for same heating length from center of the bottom wall. However, the heat transfer rate is less and almost constant for the Rayleigh numbers considered. It is found that the average Nusselt number monotonically increases with increase of Rayleigh number and length of heat source. The variation of local and average Nusselt numbers is more significant for larger length of heating than smaller one. The heat transfer correlations useful for practical design problems have been predicted.     

IRKO: An Improved Runge-Kutta Optimization Algorithm for Global Optimization Problems

Optimization is a key technique for maximizing or minimizing functions and achieving optimal cost, gains, energy, mass, and so on. In order to solve optimization problems, metaheuristic algorithms are essential. Most of these techniques are influenced by collective knowledge and natural foraging. There is no such thing as the best or worst algorithm; instead, there are more effective algorithms for certain problems. Therefore, in this paper, a new improved variant of a recently proposed metaphorless Runge-Kutta Optimization (RKO) algorithm, called Improved Runge-Kutta Optimization (IRKO) algorithm, is suggested for solving optimization problems. The IRKO is formulated using the basic RKO and local escaping operator to enhance the diversification and intensification capability of the basic RKO version. The performance of the proposed IRKO algorithm is validated on 23 standard benchmark functions and three engineering constrained optimization problems. The outcomes of IRKO are compared with seven state-of-the-art algorithms, including the basic RKO algorithm. Compared to other algorithms, the recommended IRKO algorithm is superior in discovering the optimal results for all selected optimization problems. The runtime of IRKO is less than 0.5 s for most of the 23 benchmark problems and stands first for most of the selected problems, including real-world optimization problems.     

Green synthesis of copper oxide nanoparticles and its effective applications in Biginelli reaction,BTB photodegradation and antibacterial activity

Metal/metal oxide nanoparticles have gained much attention in the field of organic catalysis and photocatalysis reactions for development of greener methodology. In the present work, copper oxide nanoparticles (CuO NPs) were synthesized by a greener route using Cordia sebestena (C. sebestena) flower aqueous extract. The nanoparticles were evaluated for their catalytic efficiency. The green synthesized CuO NPs were characterized using various analytical studies. A UV–Visible spectrum with peak at 267?nm and the peaks in their FT-IR spectrum at 431 and 542?cm^?1 showed reduction by the plant metabolites. FESEM-EDX analysis of CuO NPs shows an agglomerated spherical shape with signatures of Cu and O and XRD reveals characteristic crystallinity. TEM and DLS analyses showed particle size between 20 and 35?nm and TEM-SAED pattern ensured crystallinity. A Zeta potential of ?26?mV demonstrates moderate stability. The CuO NPs acted as a catalyst in the Biginelli reaction to produce 3,4-dihydropyrimidinones rapidly and at high yield. The NPs also degraded bromothymol blue (BTB) by photocatalysis with hydrogen peroxide. 100% dye removal efficiency was achieved by 3?h exposure of BTB to natural sunlight inferring it as economy, ecofriendly and effective catalyst. This finding illustrates that the NPs could be used in photolysis to remove water pollutants. Moreover, the biological significance of green synthesized CuO NPs was assessed by antibacterial activity against selected pathogenic bacterial organisms.     

Antioxidant and emulsion properties of freshwater carps (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Catla catla</Emphasis>, <Emphasis Type="Italic">Labeo rohita</Emphasis>, <Emphasis Type="Italic">Cirrhinus mrigala</Emphasis>) protein hydrolysates prepared using flavorzyme

Fish protein hydrolysates (FPHs) were prepared from freshwater carps (Catla catla, Labeo rohita, and Cirrhinus mrigala) using flavorzyme at different degrees of hydrolysis (DHs) ranging from 5 to 20%. The 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free-radical-scavenging activity of the FPHs prepared from the three species were in the range of 50–82%; the ferric reducing power of the FPHs prepared from catla was the highest. The linoleic acid peroxidation inhibition activity of the prepared FPHs varied from 71 to 91%. The emulsion activity index of the FPHs prepared from catla and rohu decreased significantly with an increase in the DH (p < 0.05). The emulsion stability index of the FPHs prepared from the three species was the highest at 20% DH. FPHs prepared from freshwater carps possess good antioxidant and surface-active properties and are therefore suitable to be used as natural antioxidants in health-food formulation and as water-soluble antioxidants in the food-processing industry.     

Real-time multi-scale brain data acquisition, assembly, and analysis using an end-to-end OptIPuter

At iGrid 2005 we demonstrated the transparent operation of a biology experiment on a test-bed of globally distributed visualization, storage, computational, and network resources. These resources were bundled into a unified platform by utilizing dynamic lambda allocation, high bandwidth protocols for optical networks, a Distributed Virtual Computer (DVC) [N. Taesombut, A. Chien, Distributed Virtual Computer (DVC): Simplifying the development of high performance grid applications, in: Proceedings of the Workshop on Grids and Advanced Networks, GAN 04, Chicago, IL, April 2004 (held in conjunction with the IEEE Cluster Computing and the Grid (CCGrid2004) Conference)], and applications running over the Scalable Adaptive Graphics Environment (SAGE) [L. Renambot, A. Rao, R. Singh, B. Jeong, N. Krishnaprasad, V. Vishwanath, V. Chandrasekhar, N. Schwarz, A. Spale, C. Zhang, G. Goldman, J. Leigh, A. Johnson, SAGE: The Scalable Adaptive Graphics Environment, in: Proceedings of WACE 2004, 23–24 September 2004, Nice, France, 2004]. Using these layered technologies we ran a multi-scale correlated microscopy experiment [M.E. Maryann, T.J. Deerinck, N. Yamada, E. Bushong, H. Ellisman Mark, Correlated 3D light and electron microscopy: Use of high voltage electron microscopy and electron tomography for imaging large biological structures, Journal of Histotechnology 23 (3) (2000) 261–270], where biologists imaged samples with scales ranging from 20X to 5000X in progressively increasing magnification. This allows the scientists to zoom in from entire complex systems such as a rat cerebellum to individual spiny dendrites. The images used spanned multiple modalities of imaging and specimen preparation, thus providing context at every level and allowing the scientists to better understand the biological structures. This demonstration attempts to define an infrastructure based on OptIPuter components which would aid the development and design of collaborative scientific experiments, applications and test-beds and allow the biologists to effectively use the high resolution real estate of tiled displays.