System Support for Bandwidth Management and Content Adaptation in Internet Applications

This paper describes the implementation and evaluation of an operating system module, the Congestion Manager (CM), which provides integrated network flow management and exports a convenient programming interface that allows applications to be notified of, and adapt to, changing network conditions. We describe the API by which applications interface with the CM, and the architectural considerations that factored into the design. To evaluate the architecture and API, we describe our implementations of TCP; a streaming layered audio/video application; and an interactive audio application using the CM, and show that they achieve adaptive behavior without incurring much end-system overhead. All flows including TCP benefit from the sharing of congestion information, and applications are able to incorporate new functionality such as congestion control and adaptive behavior.Comment: 14 pages, appeared in OSDI 200

Detection, Isolation and Characterization of Principal Synthetic Route Indicative Impurities in Verapamil Hydrochloride

Two unknown impurities were detected in verapamil hydrochloride bulk drug using isocratic reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). These impurities were isolated by preparative HPLC. Spectral data for the isolated impurities were collected. Based on the spectral data derived from two-dimensional nuclear magnetic resonance (2D-NMR) spectroscopy and mass spectrometry (MS), impurity-1 and impurity-2 were characterized as 2-(3,4-dimethoxyphenyl)-3-methylbut-2-enenitrile and 2-(3,4-dimethoxyphenyl)-2-isopropyl-3-methylbutanenitrile, respectively

Taxonomical Keys for Morphological Identification of Coral-Associated Polychaetes from Great Nicobar Islands

The present study illustrates the insufficient taxonomy records and highlights the use of microscopic diagnostic tool in polychaete taxonomy. It leads to a better understanding of coral-associated polychaete taxonomy in Great Nicobar Islands, India. A total of 24 species under 14 genera, 7 orders, and 11 families were identified, in spite of 3 species of Phyllocidae, 8 species of Nereidae, 5 species of Eunicidae, 2 species of Spionidae, and 1 species of Opheliidae, Sabellariidae, Terebellidae, Polynoidae, Amphinomidae, and Sabellidae. The current status of taxonomic information varies greatly among taxa and among geographic areas within taxa. The problems encountered included nomenclature, diagnoses, and determination of taxonomic relationships. We provide examples of a variety of these problems. Each species has distinct features of the particular families, and taxonomic section to assist the polychaete identification that is necessary to assess the biodiversity and taxonomy at any level. This chapter considers the importance of monitoring biological diversity, current morphological taxonomy of polychaetes and describes the approach developed for protected areas in Great Nicobar Islands

Clostridium leptum group bacteria abundance and diversity in the fecal microbiota of patients with inflammatory bowel disease: a case–control study in India

BACKGROUND: Alterations in the fecal bacterial flora occur in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). We examined the abundance and diversity of Clostridium leptum group, an important group of carbohydrate-fermenting bacteria, in the feces of patients with IBD and compared them with healthy controls. METHODS: Seventeen healthy controls (HC), 20 patients with Crohn’s disease (CD) and 22 patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) participated in the study. DNA extracted from fecal samples was amplified by PCR targeting 16S rRNA gene sequences specific to C. leptum group. The PCR product was subjected to temporal temperature gradient electrophoresis (TTGE) and the number and position of individual bands were noted and diversity was estimated. The identity of bands at different positions was confirmed by cloning and sequencing. Real time quantitative PCR with Mesa Green, targeted at specific 16S rRNA gene sequences, was used to quantitate C. leptum group and its most prominent constituent, Faecalibacterium prausnitzii. RESULTS: Twenty five different operational taxonomic units (OTUs, equivalent to species) were identified constituting the C. leptum group in these participants. Their sequences were deposited in GenBank [accession numbers GQ465348 to GQ465370]. OTU number was significantly reduced in CD (7.7±3.7, mean±SD) and UC (9.0±3.0) compared to HC (11.9±2.2) (P=0.0005). The Simpson D index of alpha diversity was not significantly different between the three groups. Total numbers of C. leptum group bacteria and F. prausnitzii were reduced in both CD and UC compared to HC (P=0.0036 and P<0.0001 respectively). Disease activity did not influence numbers of C. leptum or F. prausnitzii in patients with CD or UC. CONCLUSION: C. leptum numbers and diversity were significantly reduced in both CD and UC suggesting that alterations noted were not specific to one disease. This could contribute to reduced short chain fatty acid production in IBD

Evaluation of in vitro antimicrobial property of seaweed (Halimeda tuna) from Tuticorin coast, Tamil Nadu, Southeast coast of India

The seaweed (Halimeda tuna) was examined for antibacterial and antifungal activity in vitro using the well diffusion method, minimum inhibitory concentration, minimum bactericidal concentration and minimum fungicidal concentration. The activity was against 10 bacterial strains (Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella typhimurium, Salmonella paratyphi, Klebsiella oxytoca, Escherichia coli, Proteus mirabillis, Lactobacillus vulgaris, Pseudomonas sp., Klebsiella pneumonia and Vibrio cholerae) and nine fungal strains (Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus flavus, Alternaria alternaria, Candida albicans, Epidermophyton floccossum, Trichophyton mentagrophytes, Trichophyton rubrum, Pencillium sp. and Rhizopus sp.). The methanolic extracts in the present study exhibited a broad spectrum of antimicrobial activity compared to the ethanolic and chloroform extracts. Results of the present study confirm the potential use of seaweed extracts as a source of antimicrobial compound.Keywords: Halimeda tuna, minimum inhibitory concentration, minimum bactericidal concentration, minimum fungicidal concentration, antimicrobial activityAfrican Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(3), pp. 284-28

Multi-objective Sand Piper Optimization Based Clustering with Multihop Routing Technique for IoT Assisted WSN

Abstract Internet of Things (IoT) can be considered as one of the emergent research topics, which linked several sensor enabled devices. Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) remains a key enabling technology for IoT environment due to their possibility in placing different types of essential smart city applications, like healthcare, smart cities, environment monitoring, etc. At the same time, effectual utilization of energy is required for the design of energy-efficient data transmission strategy in the IoT environment. In this view, this study develops a novel multi-objective sand piper optimization based clustering with multi-hop routing (MOSPO-CMR) technique to IoT assisted WSN. The proposed MOSPO-CMR technique intends to effectively choose cluster heads (CHs) and derive optimal routes to BS. The MOSPO-CMR technique initially performs cluster construction process by the election of CHs using three variables namely Residual energy (RES), distance to BS (DIST), and Node Degree (NDEG). Besides, the MOSPO-CMR technique derives an objective function involving two variables such as RES and DIST to determine optimal routes to destination. In order to demonstrate the enhanced outcomes of the MOSPO-CMR approach, a series of simulations were carried out and the outcomes highlighted the enhanced outcomes of the MOSPO-CMR technique over the other recent approaches

Common NOD2 mutations are absent in patients with Crohn's disease in India

Background: Crohn's disease is being increasingly diagnosed in the Indian subcontinent. Three apparently common mutations in the NOD2 gene are found in up to 30% of sporadic patients with Crohn's disease in western countries. We examined whether such mutations are also found in Indian patients with Crohn's disease. Methods: Venous blood was collected from 82 patients (age range: 7-65 years, 53 men) with Crohn's disease and 149 control subjects; DNA was extracted and subjected to polymerase chain reaction using specific primers. The amplified fragments of size 185, 163 and 151 bp for R702W, G908R and 1007fs, respectively, were digested with MspI, HhaI and ApaI, and the restriction pattern noted after electrophoresis. Results: Twenty-eight patients had ileocolonic disease, 26 ileal disease, 20 colonic disease and 8 had disease limited to proximal small bowel or stomach. None of the 82 patients showed any of the three NOD2 mutations. The control subjects (93 men) had a variety of chronic gastrointestinal disorders (ulcerative colitis 52, irritable bowel syndrome 30, intestinal tuberculosis 20, colon cancer 7, miscellaneous 37). None of the control subjects showed a mutation in any of the three NOD2 mutation analyses. Conclusion: The three NOD2 gene mutations described above are uncommon in Indian patients with Crohn's disease. This study complements information provided by recent studies on NOD2 mutations in Indians