Cellulose nanoparticles synthesised from potato peel for the development of active packaging film for enhancement of shelf life of raw prawns (Penaeus monodon) during frozen storage

In this study, the cellulose nanoparticles (CNP) isolated from potato peel were used for reinforcement of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)-based active packaging film. The above film was used to pack the raw prawns (Penaeus monodon) at −20 °C, and the colour change, protein content, TVB-N, TMA and microbial analysis were done at regular interval for prawns stored in CNP-PVA active packaging film. A significant difference was observed in the quality of prawns stored in potato CNP-PVA film compared with prawns packed and stored in polyethylene film. The newly designed active packaging with CNP and fennel seed oil enhanced the shelf life of prawns up to two months for both HOSO (head on shell on) prawn and PD (peeled and deveined) prawn. Hence, the study recommends the potato peel CNP-PVA film with fennel seed oil as better choice to extend the shelf life of the prawns during storage compared with polyethylene packaging.     

Macrophage Immunomodulation Through New Polymers that Recapitulate Functional Effects of Itaconate as a Power House of Innate Immunity

Itaconate (ITA) is an emerging powerhouse of innate immunity with therapeutic potential that is limited in its ability to be administered in a soluble form. A library of polyester materials that incorporate ITA into polymer backbones resulting in materials with inherent immunoregulatory behavior is developed. Harnessing hydrolytic degradation release from polyester backbones, ITA polymers result in the mechanism specific immunoregulatory properties on macrophage polarization in vitro. In a functional assay, the polymer-released ITA inhibits bacterial growth on acetate. Translation to an in vivo model of biomaterial associated inflammation, intraperitoneal injection of ITA polymers demonstrate a rapid resolution of inflammation in comparison to a control polymer silicone, demonstrating the value of sustained biomimetic presentation of ITA.     

Novel Short-chain Crosslinked Cationomeric Polyurethanes

Summary Novel PUs containing pyridinium moieties were synthesized by chain extending isocyanate endcapped prepolymers with N, N’-bis (2-hydroxyethyl) isonicotinamide. The pyridinium moieties in the PUs were chemically crosslinked using short-chain divalent quaternising agents. The polyurethane cationomers were characterized by spectral, thermal and mechanical analysis. Spectral results confirmed the quaternisation of tertiary nitrogen leading to crosslinking. Compared to conventional PUs, the crosslinked PU networks exhibited improved thermal stability. The damping value (i.e.) tan δ for cationomers were improved over a broad temperature range when compared to conventional PU.     

Thermal degradation of poly(dimethylsilylene) and poly(tetramethyldisilylene‐co‐styrene)

Thermal degradation of poly(dimethylsilylene) homopolymer (PDMS) and poly(tetramethyldisilylene‐co‐styrene) copolymer (PTMDSS) was investigated by pyrolysis‐gas chromatography and thermogravimetry (TG). PDMS decomposes by depolymerization, producing linear and cyclic oligomeric products, whereas PTMDSS decomposes by random degradation along the chain resulting in each monomeric product and various other combination products. The homopolymer was found to be much less stable than the copolymer. The decomposition mechanisms leading to the formation of various products are shown. The kinetic parameters of thermal degradation were evaluated by different integral methods using TG data. The activation energies of decomposition (E) for the homopolymer and the copolymer are found to be 122 and 181 kJ/mol, respectively, and the corresponding values of order of reaction are 1 and 1.5. The observed difference in the thermal stability and the values of the kinetic parameters for decomposition of these polymers are explained in relation with the mechanism of decomposition. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2006     

Dislocations in strained layers: The Ge-Si system

The Ge-Si on Si epilayer system, besides being an interesting technological system in its own right, is a superb model for strained-layer studies. The point defect and symmetry defect structures associated with compound semiconductors can be avoided, allowing a focus on the mechanics of the system. Dislocation sources, glide behavior, and performance effects have been examined for strained-layer systems. Surprises have appeared along the way, but these materials are now becoming characterized well enough for industrial device applications.     

Solution structure of the donor site of a trans-splicing RNA

The CYP51 gene encoding eburicol 14 alpha-demethylase (P450(14DM)) was cloned from a genomic library of the filamentous fungal plant pathogen Penicillium italicum, by heterologous hybridisation with the corresponding gene encoding lanosterol 14 alpha-demethylase from the yeast Candida tropicalis. The nucleotide sequence of a 1739-bp genomic fragment and the corresponding cDNA clone comprises an open reading frame (ORF) of 1545 bp, encoding a protein of 515 amino acids with a predicted molecular mass of 57.3 kDa. The ORF is interrupted by three introns of 60, 72 and 62 bp. The C-terminal part of the protein includes a characteristic haem-binding domain, HR2, common to all P450 genes. The deduced P. italicum P450(14DM) protein and the P450(14DM) proteins from Candida albicans, C. tropicalis and Saccharomyces cerevisiae share 47.2, 47.0 and 45.8% amino acid sequence identity. Therefore, the cloned gene is classified as a member of the CYP51 family. Multiple copies of a genomic DNA fragment of Pl italicum containing the cloned P450 gene were introduced into Aspergillus niger by transformation. Transformants were significantly less sensitive to fungicides which inhibit P450(14DM) activity, indicating that the cloned gene encodes a functional eburicol 14 alpha-demethylase.     

Volume effects and associations in liquid alloys

The regular associated solution model for binary systems has been modified by incorporating the size of the complex as an explicit variable. The thermodynamic properties of the liquid alloy and the interactions between theA _μB type of complex and the unassociated atoms in anA-B binary have been evaluated as a function of relative size of the complex using the activity coefficients at infinite dilution and activity data at one other composition in the binary. The computational procedure adopted for determining the concentration of clusters and interaction energies in the associated liquid is similar to that proposed by Lele and Rao. The analysis has been applied to the thermodynamic mixing functions of liquid Al-Ca alloys believed to contain Al₂Ca associates. It is found that the size of the cluster significantly affects the interaction energies between the complex and the unassociated atoms, while the equilibrium constant and enthalpy change for the association reaction exhibit only minor variation, when the equations are fitted to experimental data. The interaction energy between unassociated free atoms remains virtually unaltered as the size of the complex is varied between extreme values. Accurate data on free energy, enthalpy, and volume of mixing at the same temperature on alloy systems with compound forming tendency would permit a rigorous test of the proposed model.     

A routing framework for providing robustness to node failures in mobile ad hoc networks

Nodes in a mobile ad hoc network are often vulnerable to failures. The failures could be either due to fading effects, battery drainage, or as a result of compromised nodes that do not participate in network operations. Intermittent node failures can disrupt routing functionalities. As such, it is important to provide redundancy in terms of providing multiple node-disjoint paths from a source to a destination. In line with this objective, we first propose a modified version of the widely studied ad hoc on-demand distance vector routing protocol to facilitate the discovery of multiple node-disjoint paths from a source to a destination. We find that very few of such paths can be found. Furthermore, as distances between sources and destinations increase, bottlenecks inevitably occur and thus, the possibility of finding multiple paths is considerably reduced. We conclude that it is necessary to place what we call reliable nodes (in terms of both being robust to failure and being secure) in the network to support efficient routing operations. We propose a deployment strategy that determines the positions and the trajectories of these reliable nodes such that we can achieve a framework for reliably routing information. We define a notion of a reliable path which is made up of multiple segments, each of which either entirely consists of reliable nodes, or contains a preset number of multiple paths between the end points of the segment. We show that the probability of establishing a reliable path between a random source and destination pair increases tremendously even with a small number of reliable nodes when we use our algorithm to appropriately position these reliable nodes.     

Photoacoustic Thermal Characterization of Porous Rare-Earth Phosphate Ceramics

The laser induced non-destructive photoacoustic technique has been employed to measure the thermal diffusivity of lanthanum phosphate ceramics prepared by the sol–gel route. The thermal diffusivity value was evaluated by knowing the transition frequency between the thermally thin to thermally thick region from the log–log plot of photoacoustic amplitude versus chopping frequency. Analysis of the data was carried out on the basis of the one-dimensional model of Rosencwaig and Gersho. The present investigation reveals that the sintering temperature has great influence on the propagation of heat carriers and hence on the thermal diffusivity value. The results were interpreted in terms of variations in porosity with sintering temperature as well as with changes in grain size.