Showing papers by "Government College published in 2015"

Functionalized Gold Nanoparticles: Synthesis, Properties and Applications--A Review.

Abstract: The past few decades have witnessed significant advances in the development of functionalized gold nanoparticles for applications in various fields such as chemistry, biology, pharmacy and physics. Although it has been more than 150 years since they were first synthesized, extensive research has recently been undertaken to improve or modify gold nanoparticles, thereby opening up opportunities to enhance and optimize their potential and breadth of their applicability. Recently developed methods have allowed a precise control of gold nanoparticle size and the modification of gold nanoparticles with suitable protecting and functionalizing agents, facilitate their applications in different areas such as chemical and biological sensing, imaging and biomedical applications. This review focuses on the recent developments in various methods for the size and shape controlled synthesis of gold nanoparticles, understanding of different properties of gold nanoparticles and their applications in various fields. Particular attention is given to the chemical and biological sensing applications of gold nanoparticles and on the advances in the controlled ordering of gold nanoparticles for creating nanostructures for diverse applications.

Crossover Operators in Genetic Algorithms:A Review

Abstract: The performance of Genetic Algorithm (GA) depends on various operators. Crossover operator is one of them. Crossover operators are mainly classified as application dependent crossover operators and application independent crossover operators. Effect of crossover operators in GA is application as well as encoding dependent. This paper will help researchers in selecting appropriate crossover operator for better results. The paper contains description about classical standard crossover operators, binary crossover operators, and application dependant crossover operators. Each crossover operator has its own advantages and disadvantages under various circumstances. This paper reviews the crossover operators proposed and experimented by various researchers.

Luminescence and electrochemical properties of rare earth (Gd, Nd) doped V2O5 nanostructures synthesized by a non-aqueous sol–gel route

Abstract: Vanadium pentoxide nanostructures have been obtained from an alkoxide sol–gel, prepared by a simple and inexpensive facile non-aqueous method. The progressive addition of rare earth (RE) ions (Gd3+, Nd3+) to pristine V2O5 and the structural, functional, morphological, optical and electrochemical properties were studied. XPS studies confirmed the presence of RE ions in the orthorhombic phase of pristine V2O5, which was supported by XRD. The doping of RE ions significantly altered the morphology of V2O5 into various nanostructures by the linkage of small V2O5 nanoparticles. A significant red shift from undoped V2O5 was observed from UV absorption and PL spectra. From the CV experiment, it was observed that the overall cell potential was increased for the doped samples. The specific capacity of the Gd3+ and Nd3+ doped V2O5 increased upto 10%, which is useful for secondary Li-ion rechargeable batteries.

Green synthesis of gold nanoparticles under sunlight irradiation and their colorimetric detection of Ni2+ and Co2+ ions

Abstract: The present work describes the preparation of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) under natural sunlight irradiation and their use in colorimetric detection of heavy metal ions. The AuNPs were prepared by an environmentally benign method using N-cholyl-l-valine (NaValC) as a self-reducing as well as stabilizing agent in aqueous medium. The size and shape of the particles were systematically controlled by varying the ratio of NaValC and Au3+ ions. The pH of the solution medium, sunlight irradiation and reaction time also influence the size and shape selectivity. The prepared NPs were thoroughly characterized by using UV-visible spectroscopy, TEM, DLS, EDX, XRD, XPS, FT-IR, cyclic voltammetry and TGA techniques. Natural solar energy acting as a driving force for the generation of AuNPs in aqueous medium makes the process eco-friendly, attractive and economical. As these NPs are highly reactive towards the surrounding environment the prepared AuNPs were effectively utilized for the colorimetric detection of Co2+ and Ni2+ ions in environmental samples.

Chemical Composition and in-Vitro Evaluation of the Antimicrobial and Antioxidant Activities of Essential Oils Extracted from Seven Eucalyptus Species

Abstract: Eucalyptus is well reputed for its use as medicinal plant around the globe. The present study was planned to evaluate chemical composition, antimicrobial and antioxidant activity of the essential oils (EOs) extracted from seven Eucalyptus species frequently found in South East Asia (Pakistan). EOs from Eucalyptus citriodora, Eucalyptus melanophloia, Eucalyptus crebra, Eucalyptus tereticornis, Eucalyptus globulus, Eucalyptus camaldulensis and Eucalyptus microtheca were extracted from leaves through hydrodistillation. The chemical composition of the EOs was determined through GC-MS-FID analysis. The study revealed presence of 31 compounds in E. citriodora and E. melanophloia, 27 compounds in E. crebra, 24 compounds in E. tereticornis, 10 compounds in E. globulus, 13 compounds in E. camaldulensis and 12 compounds in E. microtheca. 1,8-Cineole (56.5%), α-pinene (31.4%), citrinyl acetate (13.3%), eugenol (11.8%) and terpenene-4-ol (10.2%) were the highest principal components in these EOs. E. citriodora exhibited the highest antimicrobial activity against the five microbial species tested (Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli, Aspergillus niger and Rhizopus solani). Gram positive bacteria were found more sensitive than Gram negative bacteria to all EOs. The diphenyl-1-picrylhydazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging activity and percentage inhibition of linoleic acid oxidation were highest in E. citriodora (82.1% and 83.8%, respectively) followed by E. camaldulensis (81.9% and 83.3%, respectively). The great variation in chemical composition of EOs from Eucalyptus, highlight its potential for medicinal and nutraceutical applications.

Examining pyrethroids, carbamates and neonicotenoids in fish, water and sediments from the Indus River for potential health risks.

Abstract: This 3 × 3 factorial study assessed pyrethroids, carbamates and neonicotenoids groups of pesticides in replicated samples of three fish species from low (S1, reference), medium (S2) and heavy (S3) polluted sites receiving agricultural run-offs around the Indus River. Water and sediment samples from the same sites were also analysed for these pesticides by using high-performance liquid chromatography. Out of nine investigated pesticides, only three pesticides (deltamethrin, carbofuran and cypermethrin) were detected in fish and sediment samples. Deltamethrin in Cyprinus carpio ranged from 0.490 to 0.839 μg/g, mostly exceeding 0.5 μg/g as the maximum residual limit suggested by FAO-WHO, whereas it ranged from 0.214 to 0.318 μg/g in the sampled sediments. The carbofuran concentrations were 0.0425-0.066 and 0.613-0.946 μg/g in Labeo rohita and Channa marulius muscles respectively and 0.069-0.081 μg/g in the corresponding sediment samples. These values were either higher or lower than the maximum limit (0.1 μg/g) as suggested by FAO-WHO. Conversely, the cypermethrin concentration ranged from 0.141 to 0.174 in Ch. marulius and 0.183-0.197 μg/g in sediments which were both below the FAO-WHO maximum limit of 2 μg/g. No pesticide residues were detected in water from these sampling sites. Most selected physicochemical variables were within the acceptable range of World Health Organization for the water quality for aquatic life. The detected pesticide contents were mostly higher in fish muscles from heavily polluted sites. This is worrying because these pesticides may pose health risks for the fish and people of the study area. However, a preliminary risk assessment indicated that the calculated daily intake of detected pesticides by people consuming fish from the Indus River was low and did not present an immediate risk to the fish-consuming people. This study may be used as a benchmark to determine the safety of fish meat in order to develop intervention strategies to maintain the water quality and to protect the health of fish and fish-consuming people.

Surveillance of anomaly and misuse in critical networks to counter insider threats using computational intelligence

Abstract: The Insider threat is minimally addressed by current information security practices, yet the insider poses the most serious threat to organization through various malicious activities. Forensic investigation is a technique used to prove the presence of malicious insider with digital evidence. The proposed surveillance mechanism for countering insider threats operates in two phases. In phase one, the network has to be monitored for incoming and outgoing packets. The information is transferred using packets, and these packets are monitored and captured and the important features are extracted. By performing investigation on the captured packets, information related to suspicious activities can be obtained. In phase two, we mine various log files which are considered to posses vital traces of information when insider attack has been performed. The analysis of the log files is performed in order to extract the key pattern from files. The extracted patterns from log files are further processed. The suspicious data patterns are grouped into clusters to trace the anomaly. They are classified as legal and anomaly pattern with the help of KNN classifier .If anomaly is traced, the user's past activities are referred and a cross check is made with the features of captured packets the computational intelligence based on Dempster---Shafer theory is applied to prove with digital evidence, the presence of malicious insider in the critical networks with utmost accuracy.

An Analysis on Efficient Resource Allocation Mechanisms in Cloud Computing

Abstract: Cloud computing is considered as a striking computing model which allows for the provisioning of resources on-demand. Cloud computing environment enables multiple users to place request for various cloud services simultaneously. Effective and efficient resource allocation is the challenging task in cloud computing. The efficiency of allocation is measured by optimizing appropriate parameters such as execution time, demand, network delay time, capacity of resources and cost. This paper reveals how effectively resource allocation problem can be addressed in the perspective of cloud service provider and also provides a comparative analysis which helps in selecting parameters to meet the objective function for optimizing the demand to maximize the profit.

Phase morphology, thermomechanical, and crystallization behavior of uncompatibilized and PP-g-MAH compatibilized polypropylene/polystyrene blends

Abstract: In this article, we discuss the phase morphology, thermal, mechanical, and crystallization properties of uncompatibilized and compatibilized polypropylene/polystyrene (PP/PS) blends. It is observed that the Young's modulus increases, but other mechanical properties such as tensile strength, flexural strength, elongation at break, and impact strength decrease by blending PS to PP. The tensile strength and Young's modulus of PP/PS blends were compared with various theoretical models. The thermal stability, melting, and crystallization temperatures and percentage crystallinity of semicrystalline PP in the blends were marginally decreased by the addition of amorphous PS. The presence of maleic anhydride-grafted polypropylene (compatibilizer) increases the phase stability of 90/10 and 80/20 blends by preventing the coalescence. Hence, finer and more uniform droplets of PS dispersed phases are observed. The compatibilizer induced some improvement in impact strength for the blends with PP matrix phase, however fluctuations in modulus, strength and ductility were observed with respect to the uncompatibilized blend. The thermal stability was not much affected by the addition of the compatibilizer for the PP rich blends but shows some decrease in the thermal stability of the blends, where PS forms the matrix. On the other hand, the % crystallinity was increased by the addition of compatibilizer, irrespective of the blend concentration. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2015, 132, 42100.

Unified dark fluid in Brans–Dicke theory

Abstract: Anisotropic dark energy cosmological models are constructed in the frame work of generalised Brans–Dicke theory with a self-interacting potential. A unified dark fluid characterised by a linear equation of state is considered as the source of dark energy. The shear scalar is considered to be proportional to the expansion scalar simulating an anisotropic relationship among the directional expansion rates. The dynamics of the universe in the presence of a unified dark fluid in anisotropic background have been discussed. The presence of an evolving scalar field makes it possible to get an accelerating phase of expansion even for a linear relationship among the directional Hubble rates. It is found that the anisotropy in expansion rates does not affect the scalar field, the self-interacting potential, but it controls the non-evolving part of the Brans–Dicke parameter.

Ethnomedicinal Evaluation of Medicinal Plants Used against Gastrointestinal Complaints

Abstract: Aim of the present study was to document ethnomedicinal plants used against gastrointestinal complaints in five selected remote regions of Pakistan and to select potential medicinal plants for further in vitro and in vivo investigation. Data on ethnomedicinal plants and ethnographic profile of respondents was documented using semistructured questionnaires. The present study revealed utilization of 52 medicinal plants for the treatment of different gastrointestinal infections in studied regions. Apiaceae was the most dominant family reported to be used for the treatment of these infections (4 plants). Among all the plant parts fruit (24%), whole plants and leaves (23% each) were the most preferred plant parts used by the healers. Dosage of recipe was found to be related with the age of the patient. Highest degree of informant consensus was reported for vomiting, nausea (0.92 each), abdominal pain (0.9), and diarrhea (0.89). Withania coagulans scored highest FL value (86%) followed by Mentha longifolia and Melia azadirachta ranked second with FL value (75% each). Young generation was found to possess little traditional knowledge about utilizing plant recipes against these infections. Plants with high Fic and FL values should be subjected for further phytochemical and pharmacological investigation for scientific validation.

Middle East: research productivity and performance across nations

Abstract: The aim of the paper is to evaluate the research productivity and performance of countries that fall in the Middle East The data was gathered from the research analytical tool of Thomson Reuters, InCites The data was collected over a period of 33 years (1981 through 2013) with "global comparisons" as the dataset and "compare countries/territories" as the report name under "national comparisons" The data was collected from 15 countries of Middle East (as per InCites categorization) viz; Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen Each country was assessed on the basis of six parameters: total no of web of science documents; total citation count; average citations per documents, percentage of cited documents; impact relative to the world; and aggregate performance indicator On all these parameters, Israel occupies the first position The 2nd rank in terms of total web of science documents and total citation count is occupied by Turkey Kuwait has 2nd highest percentage of cited documents, and Lebanon occupies 2nd rank in terms of relative impact (in comparison to world) In terms of aggregate performance, Qatar ranks 2nd

Investigation on the behaviour and strength of cold-formed steel web stiffened built-up battened columns

Abstract: Cold-formed steel built-up sections are commonly used as compression elements to carry larger loads and over longer spans when a single individual section is insufficient. This paper reports a numerical study of the cold-formed steel built-up web stiffened lipped channel sections under axial compression. The built-up sections are formed by two identical lipped channels placed back to back with batten plates and are connected by self-driving screw. The Finite element model is developed by ABAQUS software and the model is validated with the results available in the literature. Three types of web stiffened lipped channel cross section have been chosen for the study, based on the AISI-S100:2007 Geometric limitations. The parametric study is extended by the validated model for various slenderness ratios. The column strength predicted by the finite element analysis is compared with the design column strengths predicted by direct strength method (DSM). Based on this study a recommendation is proposed to DSM.

Effect of Non-Surgical Periodontal Treatment on Clinical and Biochemical Risk Markers of Cardiovascular Disease: A Randomized Trial

Abstract: Background: Various studies have shown periodontal disease is one of the risk factors for coronary heart disease (CHD), and periodontal treatment of patients with CHD has also been correlated with reduction in systemic markers of CHD. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of non-surgical periodontal treatment (NSPT) on the cardiovascular clinical and biochemical status of patients with CHD.Methods: Seventy known patients with CHD were allocated randomly to either a control group (C; no periodontal therapy) (n = 35) or an experimental group (E; NSPT in the form of scaling and root planing [SRP]) (n = 35). Cardiovascular status was assessed using clinical parameters such as pulse, respiratory rate, blood pressure (BP), and biochemical parameters, such as high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP), lipid profile, and white blood cell (WBC) count, at baseline and 1, 3, and 6 months. Intergroup and intragroup comparisons were performed using Student t test, and P <0.05 was considered statistically s...

Fluoride removal study using pyrolyzed delonix regia pod, an unconventional adsorbent

Abstract: Applicability of the new material pyrolyzed Delonix regia pod carbon for the removal of excess fluoride ions from the water that harm the human and the environment was studied. The adsorbent was characterized both physically and chemically. Surface chemistry characterization was done with pH-drift method. Batch adsorption studies were carried out for the effect of pH, dosage, contact time, initial fluoride concentration, temperature and interfering co-ions. The physicochemical properties and textural characters were analyzed. Equilibrium data were studied using Freundlich, Langmuir, Temkin and Dubinin–Radushkevich models, in which Freundlich isotherm was considered to be the best fit for the adsorbent. The sorption nature was studied using thermodynamic parameters which showed spontaneous, irreversible, stable and endothermic. The adsorption kinetics follows pseudo-second order. The mechanism of adsorption was determined from intraparticle diffusion model. Boyd plot showed that the adsorption of fluoride on the carbon was mainly governed by particle diffusion.

A fruitful decade from 2005 to 2014 for anthraquinone patents

Abstract: Introduction: Anthraquinones are aromatic compounds whose structures are related to anthracene (parent structure: 9,10-dioxoanthracene) for which various methods for their synthesis have been developed. In the past decade (2005 – 2014), much work has been done regarding anthraquinone chemistry in order to discover new compounds related to this scaffold as anticancer, antibacterial, antidiabetic, antiviral, anti-HCV, antifibrotic, fungicidal and anti-inflammatory agents.Areas covered: This review covers the patents on therapeutic activities of anthraquinones and their derivatives in the years between 2005 and 2014. A large portion of the therapeutic applications that were reported in international patents will be presented and discussed. Although a large number of patents have been registered over the last decade, this review is focused on important patents related to cancer, inflammation, infectious diseases, diabetic conditions and hepatitis C.Expert opinion: The tricyclic planar ring system of anthraqui...

Measurement of terrestrial gamma radiation dose and evaluation of annual effective dose in Shimoga District of Karnataka State, India

Abstract: Human beings are continuously exposed to the radiations coming from terrestrial and extraterrestrial sources and inside their own bodies. This study presents the results of indoor and outdoor ambient gamma dose rates in and around granite regions of Shimoga District, and these measurements were carried out by using environmental radiation Dosimeter ER-709 which is a portable detector. By the measured average absorbed dose rates, annual effective dose (AED) has been calculated by a standard method. Results showed that the indoor and outdoor absorbed dose rates in air of Shimoga district ranged between 114.05 ± 2.11 to 332.6 ± 3.99 nGy/h and 87 ± 1.7 to 276.66 ± 4.76 nGy/h. The indoor and outdoor AED ranged between 0.559 to 1.631 mSv/year with an average value of 0.872 mSv/year and 0.106 to 0.339 mSv/year with an average value of 0.235 mSv/year, respectively. The calculated indoor and outdoor AEDs were found to be higher than the world average.