Polysaccharides from Sesamum indicum meal: Isolation and structural features

Defatted Sesamum indicum seed cake was extracted, following two separate sequences, and the effects of extraction medium on yield and composition of the extracts were compared. Polysaccharides extracted sequentially with dilute acid and alkali represented 250 mg/g of defatted meal. The isolated polymers contained arabinan, rhamnogalacturonan I (RG I) and arabinogalactan proteins. Polysaccharides extracted during chlorite treatment and with dilute alkali had a higher proportion of rhamnose, suggesting a more branched variety of polymer. Three extracts, which were further characterized by size exclusion chromatography, gave two overlapping peaks. Structural characterisation of hemicellulosic polysaccharides, isolated with KOH, using specific enzyme hydrolysis, ion exchange chromatography (HPAEC) and matrix assisted laser desorption ionisation-time-of-flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectroscopy, showed that sesame meal xyloglucan (XG) contained XXXG, XXFG and XXLG, and XLLG (named according to Fry et al., 1993) as the major building sub-units in the ratio of 1:0.9:0.3. Hydrolysis with endo-β-(1 → 4)-d-xylanase and analysis of the xylan derived oligosaccharides showed the presence of monomeric xylose (40%), xylobiose (46%) and acidic xylan oligosaccharides containing 4-O-methyl-d-glucuronic acid residues (14%).     

Biotransformation of 3-nitro-4-hydroxybenzene arsonic acid (roxarsone) and release of inorganic arsenic by Clostridium species

The extensive use of 3-nitro-4-hydroxybenzene arsonic acid (roxarsone) in the production of broiler chickens can lead to increased soil arsenic concentration and arsenic contaminated dust. While roxarsone is the dominant arsenic species in fresh litter, inorganic As (V) predominates in composted litter. Microbial activity has been implicated as the cause, but neither the specific processes nor the organisms have been identified. Here we demonstrate the rapid biotransformation of roxarsone under anaerobic conditions by Clostridium species in chicken litter enrichments and a pure culture of a fresh water arsenate respiring species (Clostridium sp. strain OhILAs). The main products were 3-amino-4-hydroxybenzene arsonic acid and inorganic arsenic. Growth experiments and genomic analysis indicate strain OhILAs may use roxarsone as a terminal electron acceptor for anaerobic respiration. Electronic structure analysis suggests that the reducing equivalents should go to the nitro group, while liberation of inorganic arsenic from the intact benzene ring by cleaving the C-As bond is unlikely. Clostridium and Lactobacillus species are common in the chicken cecum and litter. Thus, the organic-rich manure and anaerobic conditions typically associated with composting provide the conditions necessary for the native microbial populations to transform the roxarsone in the litter releasing the more toxic inorganic arsenic.     

A Desymmetrization Approach to the Enantiopure syn/anti‐1,5‐Diols via Hydrolytic Kinetic Resolution (HKR) of Functionalized meso‐Bis‐Epoxides: Further Elaboration to syn/syn‐1,3,5‐Triols and Application to the Formal Synthesis of Cryptocarya Diacetate

A new approach has been developed for the synthesis of enantiopure syn/anti‐1,5‐diols by desymmetrization of functionalized meso‐bis‐epoxides using hydrolytic kinetic resolution (HKR). The usage of this protocol was demonstrated by converting syn‐1,5‐diols into syn/syn‐1,3,5‐triols and its subseqent application to the formal synthesis of cryptocarya diacetate.     

Information Capacity of Nonlinear Wavelength Division Multiplexing Fiber Optic Transmission Line

We report the first determination of the impact of optical nonlinearities on the information capacity of a fiber optic transmission channel. By modeling interchannel interference in a nonlinear wavelength division multiplexing transmission system as multiplicative Gaussian noise, we show that the information capacity is reduced below the Shannon capacity of the linear communications channel. For systems of practical interest, this imposes a fundamental limitation on the spectral efficiency of optical data transmission.     

Particle fracture and plastic deformation in vanadium pentoxide powders induced by high energy vibrational ball-mill

An X-ray powder profile analysis in vanadium pentoxide powder milled in a high energy vibrational ball-mill for different lengths of time (0–250 h), is presented. The strain and size induced broadening of the Bragg reflection for two different crystallographic directions ([001] and [100]) was determined by Warren-Averbach analysis using a pattern-decomposition method assuming a Pseudo-Voigt function. The deformation process caused a decrease in the crystallite size and a saturation of crystallite size of ∼ 10 nm was reached after severe milling. The initial stages of milling indicated a propensity of size-broadening due to fracture of the powder particles caused by repeated ball-to-powder impact whereas with increasing milling time microstrain broadening was predominant. WA analysis indicated significant plastic strain along with spatial confinement of the internal strain fields in the crystallite interfaces. Significant strain anisotropy was noticed in the different crystallographic directions. A near-isotropy in the crystallite size value was noticed for materials milled for 200 h and beyond. The column-length distribution function obtained from the size Fourier coefficients progressively narrowed down with the milling time.     

A transmission electron microscopy study of WC-10Co cemented carbides with modified hard and binder phases

The alloy design of WC-10Co cemented carbide, modified with addition of a hard carbide phase, TiC, and with Ni and Mo in the binder phase, has been highlighted by the authors in a number of publications. The present article deals with the fine microstructural features of various phases in such cemented carbides. WC grains in all the investigated cemented carbide compositions appear to develop straight facets during sintering because of their anisotropic nature. In contrast, the TiC phase is characterized by its rounded shape. Dislocations are present in both WC and TiC grains, being of lesser density in the latter. The binder phase is always associated with stacking faults. The nature of the hard phase/binder interfaces has been found to be dependent on the binder phase chemistry. The observed changes in microstructures and mechanical properties have been correlated with the wettability and solubility of the hard phases in the binder melt, and with the different strengthening mechanisms in the binder phase.     

Real-time event-driven sensor data analytics at the edge-Internet of Things for smart personal healthcare

The Journal of Supercomputing - Real-time service has become a key for efficient serving of the Internet of Things (IoT)-based smart e-Healthcare. Several orientations have tried to pave this side...     

On the Functionality and Usefulness of Quadraginta Octants of Naive Sphere

This paper presents a novel study on the functional gradation of coordinate planes in connection with the thinnest and tunnel-free (i.e., naive) discretization of sphere in the integer space. For each of the 48-symmetric quadraginta octants of naive sphere with integer radius and integer center, we show that the corresponding voxel set forms a bijection with its projected pixel set on a unique coordinate plane, which thereby serves as its functional plane. We use this fundamental property to prove several other theoretical results for naive sphere. First, the quadraginta octants form symmetry groups and subgroups with certain equivalent topological properties. Second, a naive sphere is always unique and consists of fewest voxels. Third, it is efficiently constructible from its functional-plane projection. And finally, a special class of 4-symmetric discrete 3D circles can be constructed on a naive sphere based on back projection from the functional plane.     

FPGA based area efficient RS(23, 17) codec

Generally in digital communication systems and storage mediums, Reed–Solomon (RS) codes are employed to detect and correct errors. RS code is a promising code for Ultra Wide Band (UWB) which is ideally suitable for wireless application. Design of compact, high-speed and low-power RS(23, 17) code is challenging for today’s wireless communication systems. Here, an optimization algorithm is introduced which is very simple and it is employed to reduce the number of XOR gates required to design constant Galois Field (GF) multipliers. In this paper, a compact RS(23, 17) encoder and decoder circuit is designed and implemented for Ultra Wide Band(UWB) application. The number of two input XOR gates is reduced by 29.27 (20.00) and 56.10 (66.15) % respectively for local and global optimization compared to unoptimized RS encoder (syndrome block) without increasing its delay. The proposed algorithm is also employed to design the RS(204, 188) and RS(255, 223) encoder. All designs are simulated and synthesized for Vertex4 FPGA platform. Proposed algorithm is also used for the design of Chien Search and Forney blocks. Implemented RS(23, 17) codec requires lesser number of slices and LUTs over the unoptimized RS codec. The synthesis results reflect that the proposed design is suitable for resource constraint applications.