E2BNAR: Energy Efficient Backup Node Assisted Routing for Wireless Sensor Networks

In Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs), each sensor node can only use so much power before recharging. If energy is depleted too quickly, nodes will fail one by one, bringing down the network as a whole. To this end, a design is needed to reduce the burden on the sensor nodes' power supplies while extending the network's useful life. This paper proposes a new approach, called Energy Efficient Backup Node Assisted Routing, to accomplish this (E2BNAR). Each primary node in the network has a group of backup nodes to ensure the network continues functioning. Assuming that the sensor nodes are capable of energy harvesting, E2BNAR finds the best backup node by analyzing the statistical relationship between energy harvesting and consumption rates. Periodically, residual energy is used to analyze the current energy consumption rate. When evaluating performance, several different indicators are taken into account. These include the Packet Delivery Ratio, Throughput, Average Energy Consumption, and Number of Awakened Sensor Nodes. Through analysis and experimentation in several settings, the proposed method's efficacy has been established

Cortical thickness of primary visual cortex correlates with motion deficits in periventricular leukomalacia

Abstract Impairments of visual motion perception and, in particular, of flow motion have been consistently observed in premature and very low birth weight subjects during infancy. Flow motion information is analyzed at various cortical levels along the dorsal pathways, with information mainly provided by primary and early visual cortex (V1, V2 and V3). We investigated the cortical stage of the visual processing that underlies these motion impairments, measuring Grey Matter Volume and Cortical Thickness in 13 children with Periventricular Leukomalacia (PVL). The cortical thickness, but not the grey matter volume of area V1, correlates negatively with motion coherence sensitivity, indicating that the thinner the cortex, the better the performance among the patients. However, we did not find any such association with either the thickness or volume of area MT, MST and areas of the IPS, suggesting damage at the level of primary visual cortex or along the optic radiation

A COMPARITIVE EVALUATION OF SPECIES OF GUDUCHI (TINOSPORA CORDIFOLIA (WILID.) MEIRS EX HOOK. F & THOMS., TINOSPORA MALABARICA MEIRS EX HOOK, TINOSPORA CRISPA MEIRS.) W.R.T SATWA

Background: Guduchi is a plant belonging to Menispermaceae family and widely used in Ayurvedic system of medicine. Tinospora cordifolia is the accepted botanical source of Guduchi. All the three species are indigenous to the tropical areas of India, Sri Lanka and Myanmar. Guduchi Satwa is the most commonly used dosage form of the plant for various conditions like fever, arthritis, gastric ulcer cough etc. Tinospora cordifolia (Guduchi) is a widely used shrub in folk and Ayurvedic systems of medicine. Species of the plant, stem size, collection time, season and maturity of the plant may affect the yield and physico-chemical profile of Guduchi Satwa. Due to high demand and less yield of Satwa from Guduchi plant, market sample of Guduchi Satwa is subjected to adulteration. Hence this study is aimed at standardizing Guduchi Satwa prepared from all the three available species of the plant. Methodology: The study deals with preparation of Satwa as per the classical text of Ayurveda, identifying organoleptic features, conducting physicochemical and photochemical screening of the Satwa of all the above mentioned species of Guduchi (Tinospora cordifolia (wilid.) Meirs ex hook. f & thoms., Tinospora malabarica meirs ex hook, Tinospora crispa meirs.). Results: The study provided significant difference in the yield of Satwa. Variations in the organoleptic characters were insignificant. All the phytoconstituents were found to be same and the physicochemical values were within the limits in all three species

Analgesic Activity of Sebastiania chamaelea (L.) Muell. Arg.

Background: This study intended to experimentally evaluate the analgesic activity of Sebastiania chamaelea (L.) Muell. Arg. which is widely used by folklore and traditional healers in pain relief. The drug is commonly known as ‘Bhumi Eranda’ among the locals.Methods: The plant material of Sebastiania chamaelea (L.) Muell. Arg. was collected from the fields of Sri Sri College of Ayurvedic Science and Research, Bangalore and preserved as per the standard method. The toxicity studies carried out earlier has proved that, the drug was non-toxic up to 3000 mg/kg body weight. The effective doses were derived as 300 mg/kg (lower) and 600 mg/kg (higher) body weight and the experimental study was conducted. Analgesic screening models used for the study are – Eddy’s Hot plate and Tail immersion models. The study was carried out in 4 groups i.e. Control, Standard, Lower dose Kashaya of Sebastiania chamaelea (L.) Muell. Arg. and Higher dose Kashaya of Sebastiania chamaelea (L.) Muell. Arg. in each model. The activity was compared with a standard reference drug, Tramadol and Diclofenac.Results: The results were analyzed by using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) test followed by Dunnett test to detect the significance of differences between each group and control.Conclusion: The study helped to conclude, Sebastiania chamaelea (L.) Muell. Arg. as an ideal analgesic and supported the traditional claim

Effective Use of Non-blocking Data Structures in a Deduplication Application

Abstract Efficient multicore programming demands fundamental data structures that support a high degree of concurrency. Existing research on non-blocking data structures promises to satisfy such demands by providing progress guarantees that allow a significant increase in parallelism while avoiding the safety hazards of lock-based synchronizations. It is well-acknowledged that the use of non-blocking containers can bring significant performance benefits to applications where the shared data experience heavy contention. However, the practical implications of integrating these data structures in real-world applications are not well-understood. In this paper, we study the effective use of non-blocking data structures in a data deduplication application which performs a large number of concurrent compression operations on a data stream using the pipeline parallel processing model. We present our experience of manually refactoring the application from using conventional lock-based synchronization mechanisms to using a wait-free hash map and a set of lock-free queues to boost the degree of concurrency of the application. Our experimental study explores the performance trade-offs of parallelization mechanisms that rely on a) traditional blocking techniques, b) fine-grained mutual exclusion, and c) lock-free and wait-free synchronization

Exploring the Solubility and Bioavailability of Sodium Salt and Its Free Acid Solid Dispersions of Dolutegravir

Amorphous salt solid dispersion (ASSD) of Dolutegravir amorphous salt (DSSD) was generated using quench cooling and compared to its Dolutegravir free acid solid dispersion (DFSD) to improve the solubility and bioavailability. Soluplus (SLP) was used as a polymeric carrier in both solid dispersions. The prepared DSSD and DFSD, physical mixtures, and individual compounds were characterized by employing DSC, XRPD, and FTIR to assess the formation of the single homogenous amorphous phase and the existence of intermolecular interactions. Partial crystallinity was observed for DSSD, unlike DFSD, which is completely amorphous. No intermolecular interactions were observed between the Dolutegravir sodium (DS)/Dolutegravir free acid (DF) and SLP from the FTIR spectra of DSSD and DFSD. Both DSSD and DFSD improved the solubility of Dolutegravir (DTG) to 5.7 and 4.54 folds compared to the pure forms. Similarly, drug release from DSSD and DFSD was 2 and 1.5 folds higher than that in the pure form, owing to the rapid dissolution of the drug from the formulations. The permeability of DSSD and DFSD was estimated using the dialysis membrane, which enhanced the DTG permeability. The improvement in in vitro studies was translated into in vivo pharmacokinetic profiles of DSSD and DFSD, where 4.0 and 5.6 folds, respectively, improved the Cmax of DTG

Effective Use Of Non-Blocking Data Structures In A Deduplication Application

Efficient multicore programming demands fundamental data structures that support a high degree of concurrency. Existing research on non-blocking data structures promises to satisfy such demands by providing progress guarantees that allow a significant increase in parallelism while avoiding the safety hazards of lock-based synchronizations. It is well-acknowledged that the use of non-blocking containers can bring significant performance benefits to applications where the shared data experience heavy contention. However, the practical implications of integrating these data structures in real-world applications are not well-understood. In this paper, we study the effective use of non-blocking data structures in a data deduplication application which performs a large number of concurrent compression operations on a data stream using the pipeline parallel processing model. We present our experience of manually refactoring the application from using conventional lock-based synchronization mechanisms to using a wait-free hash map and a set of lock-free queues to boost the degree of concurrency of the application. Our experimental study explores the performance trade-offs of parallelization mechanisms that rely on a) traditional blocking techniques, b) fine-grained mutual exclusion, and c) lock-free and wait-free synchronization. Copyright © 2013 by the Association for Computing Machinery, Inc. (ACM)

Methanol extract of Pergularia daemia (Forssk.) Chiov. leaves induce apoptosis in triple-negative breast cancer through intrinsic pathway

329-338Most traditional anticancer medications are ineffective in treating triple negative breast cancer (TNBC), which has enhanced resistance to chemotherapeutic agents. Herbs continue to be a key element in the discovery of anticancer medications. In the present study, we assessed the cytotoxicity of methanol extract of leaves of Pergularia daemia (MLPD) in MDA-MB-231 triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) cell line. The cytotoxicity of MLPD was assessed using MTT assay which revealed significant concentration-dependent cytotoxicity with an IC50 value of 35.95±3.57 μg/mL. Morphological evaluation of MDA-MB-231 cells treated with MLPD showed cytotoxic changes like vacuole formation, altered morphology, and reduction in the number of cells with apoptotic bodies formation. Staining techniques, such as acridine orange and ethidium bromide (AO/EB) showed early apoptosis characterized by yellow-green fluorescence and crescentshaped nucleus. Hoechst 33258 staining of MDA-MB-231 cells treated with MLPD showed nuclear marginalization indicative of nuclear apoptotic changes. To assess the mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP), we did JC-1 staining and the results revealed green fluorescence indicative of mitochondrial dependent apoptotic pathway. Comet assay confirmed significant DNA damaging property in MDA-MB-231 cells treated with MLPD. Western blotting analysis showed significant downregulation of Bcl-2 by 0.52±0.03 folds with no significant change in caspase-8 expression. Hence, the present study demonstrated that MLPD possessed potent cytotoxic effect against MDA-MB-231 TNBC cells through mitochondria mediated intrinsic pathway of apoptosis