Utilization of Banana Extract for Eco-friendly Functional Finishing of Textile Materials: A review

With the consumer's enhanced awareness of eco-safety, there has been an increasing tendency towards the use of sustainable and environmentally friendly materials. Thus considerable attention has been given to products from plants, for use in various industries notably in the textile industry. Among these plants banana is selected for this review, since it is the second largest produced fruit after citrus, contributing about 16% of the world’s total fruit production. This review provides literature information about classification of functional finishing, some important finishes, and their evaluation tests methods. In addition to focus on recent researches concerning utilization and application of banana extract for various textile finishing purposes such as coloration, deodorizing, flame retardant, UV protection, antimicrobial activity, and other important applications around the world for producing appealing and highly functional value-added textiles such as fibers, dyes , pigments, polyphenols, and other biologically active compounds. &nbsp

A MOF-based social web services description metamodel

© Copyright 2016 by SCITEPRESS - Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved. To promote and support the development and use of social Web services by the IT community on the Web, both social Web service-based applications and their support platforms should evolve independently from each other while sharing a common model that represents the characteristics of these social Web services. To achieve this duality, this paper proposes a model-driven approach. First, the approach identifies a social Web service\u27s properties. Then a Meta-Object-Facility (MOF)-based social Web services description metamodel is developed. Finally, a prototype illustrates how the MOF-based metamodel is used

Cutaneous tuberculosis of the foot clinically mimicking mycetoma:A case report

KEY CLINICAL MESSAGE: In a resource-limited setting such as Sudan, where diagnostic and surveillance capacities are limited and several dermal diseases with similar clinical presentation are endemic, further precautious must taking into account.ABSTRACT: Cutaneous tuberculosis (CTB) is a rare infection caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Atypical clinical presentations of CTB may resemble other skin neglected diseases. For definitive diagnosis, we require a holistic diagnostic approach including clinical examination and deployment of laboratory investigations including microbial culture, histopathological, and molecular examinations of the proper samples per test. In this communication, we report a case of CTB that was initially misidentified clinically as mycetoma. </p

Cutaneous tuberculosis of the foot clinically mimicking mycetoma:A case report

KEY CLINICAL MESSAGE: In a resource-limited setting such as Sudan, where diagnostic and surveillance capacities are limited and several dermal diseases with similar clinical presentation are endemic, further precautious must taking into account.ABSTRACT: Cutaneous tuberculosis (CTB) is a rare infection caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Atypical clinical presentations of CTB may resemble other skin neglected diseases. For definitive diagnosis, we require a holistic diagnostic approach including clinical examination and deployment of laboratory investigations including microbial culture, histopathological, and molecular examinations of the proper samples per test. In this communication, we report a case of CTB that was initially misidentified clinically as mycetoma. </p

The possible effect of Hypoxis hemerocalledia (African potato) on blood glucose levels : an in vitro study

>Magister Scientiae - MScThe plant Hypoxis hemerocallidea, also known as the African potato, is commonly used as a traditional medicine to treat diabetes in South Africa. The mechanism by which it lowers blood glucose levels is not known. The main aim of this research was to study the possible hypoglycemic effect of HH using RIN-5 F pancreatic tumor cells. To accomplish this, the study was divided into three parts: (1) to test whether exposure of RIN-5F cells to glucose and HH extract affect the cell proliferation and cell viability, (2) to test whether the HH extract have an effect on insulin secretion, and (3) to test whether the HH extract has an effect on alpha amylase and alpha glucosiadase enzyme activity. The RIN-5F cells were exposed to different concentrations of glucose (5, 10, 20, 37.5, 50, 55, 74, and 92.3 mM) for different times (1, 3, 6 and 24 hours). The RIN-5F cells were also exposed to different concentrations of HH (50, 100, 150, 200 and 500 μ/ml) for different times (1, 3, 6 and 24 hours). Cell proliferation was evaluated using crystal violet staining and cell viability was evaluated using the XTT assay. To evaluate the effect of glucose and HH on RIN-5 F cell insulin secretion the cells were exposed to HH (100 μg/ml or 500 μg/ml) and / or glucose (2 mM or 50 mM) for 30 or 90 minutes. Insulin, α-amylase activity and α-glucosidase activity were evaluated by using commercially available colorimetric assays. Enzymatic activity in the presence of HH was compared with positive controls for α-amylase activity or α-glucosidase activity. Results are expressed as means ± SEM or median. Statistical differences among groups were analyzed by analyses of variance. P < 0.05 was considered as significant. An increase in the cell viability and cell proliferation was found when RIN-5 F cells were exposed to high glucose concentrations and a high dose of HH extract for a short time period (1, 3 and 6 hours). When the cells were exposed to the HH extract over 24 hours, HH did not affect cell viability significantly. Insulin secretion from RIN-5 F cells was increased when exposed to low glucose (2 mM) or high glucose (50 mM) for 30 minutes. Insulin secretion was increased from RIN5F cells after exposure to low HH (100 μg/ml) or high HH (500 μg/ml) for 30 minutes. Exposure of RIN5-F cells to HH for 90 minutes caused a further increase in insulin secretion from (4.3±0.17 mIU/mg protein; P ≤ 0.01) in 100 μg/ml, to (7.87±0.17 mIU/mg protein; P ≤ 0.001) in 500 μg/ml. At both 30 minutes and 90 minutes, insulin secretion was significantly higher when cells where exposed to 500 μg/ml HH compared to 100 μg/ml HH. Insulin secretion by cells exposed to 2 mM glucose + 100 μg/ml HH (4.69±0.16 mIU/mg protein; P ≤ 0.001) was significantly higher than when exposed to 2 mM glucose only (2.27±0.17 mIU/mg protein), while the insulin secretion in 2 mM glucose + 500 μg/ml HH (2.56±0.17 mIU/mg protein; P > 0.05) was not significantly different from that in 2 mM glucose treated cells (2.27±0.17 mIU/mg protein). Similar results are obtained after 90 minutes. In the presence of high-glucose (50 mM), at both 30 minutes and 90 minutes, insulin secretion was significantly decreased when cells where exposed to low concentration of HH (100 μg/ml) and high concentration of HH (500 μg/ml). The HH extract produced α-amylase enzyme inhibition. The maximum inhibition was at a concentration of 10μg/ml (922±117U/ml; P ≤ 0.01). The 5 μg/ml concentrations failed to produce significant inhibition. The HH extract had significant α- glucosidase inhibitory activity at a concentration of 5μg/ml (0.12±0.3U/ml; P ≤ 0.001) or 10μg/ml (0.13±0.3U/ml; P ≤ 0.001). In conclusion, based on its ability to inhibit α-amylase and α- glucosidase activity HH has the potential to be used in control of blood glucose levels. The HH aqueous extract increased insulin secretion under our basic experimental conditions and in the presence of low glucose levels, but not at high (50 mM) glucose concentrations. Insulin secretion in the presence of different glucose concentrations, in the presence of HH, needs further investigation. It is recommended that the ability of HH to stimulate insulin secretion be evaluated at 15-20 mM glucose

Smart Trust Management for Vehicular Networks

Spontaneous networks such as VANET are in general deployed in an open and thus easily accessible environment. Therefore, they are vulnerable to attacks. Trust management is one of a set of security solutions dedicated to this type of networks. Moreover, the strong mobility of the nodes (in the case of VANET) makes the establishment of a trust management system complex. In this paper, we present a concept of ‘Active Vehicle’ which means an autonomous vehicle that is able to make decision about trustworthiness of alert messages transmitted about road accidents. The behavior of an “Active Vehicle” is modeled using Petri Nets

Usporedna studija doze zračenja hipotetske nesreće u istraživačkom reaktoru

This study is a contribution for radiation dose calculations of a hypothetical accident of a 1 MW research reactor Triga Mark II using HotSpot code. A postulated accidental release of noble gases and halogens were considered. The total effective dose (TED) was estimated for 1 day and 50 years after release. The total damage of fuel element cladding with a maximum radioactivity was considered. The obtained results show minimal TED values at the beginning of the release and at a shorter distance from the source. The maximum calculation results are acceptable and below the recommended public dose limit.Ovo istraživanje doprinos je izračunima doze zračenja hipotetske nesreće istraživačkog reaktora Triga Mark II od 1 MW primjenom HotSpot koda. Razmatrano je slučajno oslobađanje plemenitih plinova i halogena. Određena je vrijednost ukupne učinkovite doze nakon 1 dana i nakon 50 godina. Razmatrano je ukupno oštećenje obloge dijela s maksimalnom radioaktivnošću. Dobiveni rezultati pokazuju minimalne vrijednosti ukupne učinkovite doze na početku ispuštanja i na manjoj udaljenosti od izvora. Maksimalni rezultati izračuna su prihvatljivi i ispod preporučenog doznog ograničenja

Synthesis and characterization of biocomposites based polypropylene/thermoplastic starch- reinforced with natural STIPA TENACISSIMA fibers and PP-g-MA

The current work aims to develop environmentally friendly plastic materials by preparing a composite polypropylene/thermoplastic starch (PP/TPS) using a melt-compounding process. In order to improve the compatibility of the two naturally incompatible polymers, natural Stipa tenacissima fibers treated on their surfaces and polypropylene (PP) pellets grafted with Maleic Anhydride (MA) were added to the mixture (PP and TPS). The mixture was then prepared using the melt-mixing method in various concentrations. X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA)/Differential thermal analysis (DTA), and mechanical tensile tests were then used to characterize the various formulations. SEM images revealed that the addition of (PP-g-MA) and natural fibers resulted in good starch plasticization and higher thermoplastic starch dispersion in the polypropylene matrix. It was also discovered that increasing the TPS concentration over the PP concentration tends to reduce the mechanical tensile properties. However, the composite with 15% TPS had the best mechanical properties. The thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) results revealed that the organic filler used acted as a reinforcing agent, increasing the thermal stability of the polypropylene/thermoplastic starch (PP/TPS) compound