Enhanced Ad Hoc On-Demand Distance Vector Routing Protocol For Mobile Ad Hoc Network Internet Connectivity

An ad hoc network is a collection of wireless mobile nodes dynamically forming a temporary network without the use of any existing network infrastructure or centralized administration and consists of mobile nodes that use a wireless interface to communicate with each other. These mobile nodes serve as both hosts and routers so they can forward packets on behalf of each other. Hence, the mobile nodes are able to communicate beyond their transmission range by supporting multi hop communication. However, the fact that there is no central infrastructure and that the devices which can move randomly gives rise to various kinds of problems, such as routing and security and quality of service (QoS). In this thesis the problem of routing is considered. An Ad-Hoc network has certain characteristics, which impose new demand on the routing protocol the most important characteristic is the dynamic topology, which is a consequence of node mobility. Nodes can changes position quite frequently, which means that we need a routing protocol that quickly adapts to topology changes. The nodes in ad hoc network can consist of laptops and PDA (Personal Digital Assistants) and are often very limited in resources such as CPU capacity, storage capacity, battery power and bandwidth. This means that routing protocol should try to minimize control traffic, such as period update message. Instead the routing protocol should be reactive, thus only calculate routes upon receiving a specific request. The Internet Engineering Task Force (IEFT) currently has a working group called mobile Ad hoc network (MANET) that is working on routing specification for Ad hoc networks. This thesis evaluates some of the routing protocols such as AODV (Ad hoc on demand Distance vector) and DSR (Dynamic Sources Routing) and DSDV (Destination Sequenced Distance vector) for performance testing and an enhanced implementation of AODV, which is able to detect Internet gateway in the proactive, reactive, and hybrid situation. This evaluation is done by means of simulation using NS-2 developed by University California Berkeley. There are several ad hoc routing protocols, such as AODV, DSR, and DSDV that propose solutions for routing within a mobile ad hoc network. However, since there is an interest in communication between not only mobile devices in an ad hoc network, but also between a mobile device in an ad hoc network and a fixed device in a fixed network (e.g. the Internet), the ad hoc routing protocols need to be modified. In this thesis the ad hoc routing protocol AODV is used and modified to examine the interconnection between a mobile ad hoc network and the Internet. For this purpose Network Simulator 2, NS 2, has been used. Moreover, three proposed approaches for gateway discovery are implemented; propose a forwarding algorithm, and route determination algorithm for default route and host route in MANET are investigated

Accumulation And Extraction Of Polyhydroxyalkanoate From Aerobic Granules Treating Palm Oil Mill Effluent

Polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) is a biodegradable polymer which has attracted a lot of interests among researchers lately. In tandem with that, PHA synthesis in microorganisms treating palm oil mill effluent (POME) is an interesting prospect. Aerobic granules developed using POME are totally unexplored till date for PHA synthesis. POME (acidogenically digested) used in this study was collected from an existing anaerobic pond of palm oil mill wastewater treatment plant. The findings of this study showed that aerobic granules were successfully developed using acidogenically digested POME within 9 days and 85 % of the influent COD was removed on average. The developed aerobic granules had an average sludge volume index (SVI) of 48 mL/g. The extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) in aerobic granules contained higher proportion of protein than carbohydrate. Besides that, 16S rRNA analysis indicated that Bacillus and Bordetella genera were the dominating group of bacteria in aerobic granules developed using acidogenically digested POME. The ensuing analysis reveals that aerobic granules were able to accumulate PHA during the treatment of acidogenically digested POME. The average PHA content was 0.68 g PHA/g CDW and the PHA accumulated was co-polymer of poly-3-hydroxybutyrate-co-hydroxyvalerate (P3(HB-co-HV)). The subsequent study reveals that at the cycle time of 6 hrs, the aerobic dynamic feeding (ADF) strategy accumulates the highest PHA (0.651 g PHA/g CDW) of all other strategies. Meanwhile, the PHA recovery study reveals that the sodium hypochlorite-chloroform dispersion method is the best choice compared to other three methods used. The key element in recovering PHA from aerobic granules found to be nearly complete removal of EPS layer in the aerobic granules. The PHA recovery yield was 0.89 g PHA/g CDW in the sodium hypochlorite-chloroform dispersion method. On the other hand, the growth-disintegration processes found to influence the amount of PHA accumulating capability. Granules in between 0.35 and 0.50 mm accumulated 0.68 g PHA/g CDW compared to 0.60 g PHA/g CDW in granules larger than 2 mm. Substrate and oxygen diffusion into the aerobic granules found to be the reason for this difference. Increase of organic loading rate (OLR) from 0.91 to 3.64 kg COD/m3.day has increased the PHA content from 0.66 to 0.87 g PHA/g CDW, respectively. Meanwhile, increase of aeration rate from 1 to 4 L/min has accelerated the formation of PHA only, whereas the PHA content in aerobic granules remained constant. The residual oil was found to attach on the surface of aerobic granules and subsequently limits the substrate diffusion which in turn decreased the PHA content. The inhibition constant was 5.61 g/L residual oil. The overall outcome of this study converges towards the successful PHA accumulation in aerobic granules

Transcriptional Regulation by the Oncogenic ZNF217/CoREST Complex

The ZNF217 transcription factor is an oncogene found within the 20q13 amplicon and is amplified and overexpressed in many cancers including breast and ovarian. Overexpression of ZNF217 leads to increased cell proliferation, survival, and causes resistance to TGFβ\u27s anti-proliferative effects. ZNF217 is a core constituent of a transcriptional complex that includes CoREST, HDAC1/2, LSD1, and the CtBP1/2. In this study, I have combined genome-wide biochemical approaches to identify genes directly regulated by ZNF217. I have identified the tumor suppressor and cell cycle inhibitor, p15ink4b, as a direct target of the ZNF217 complex and demonstrated that ZNF217 represses the p15ink4b gene by promoting a repressive chromatin environment and facilitating promoter DNA hypermethylation that involves a novel interaction with DNMT3A. Furthermore, treatment of cells with TGFβ triggers DNA demethylation of the p15ink4b promoter and the release of ZNF217/CoREST/DNMT3A complex. Subsequently, a novel activation complex is recruited that consists of SMAD2/3, CBP, and the DNA glycosylase TDG which precedes increases in p15ink4b protein expression. Knockdown of TDG, or its functional homolog MBD4, prevents TGF-β-dependent demethylation of the p15ink4b promoter suggesting that the demethylation occurs through an active mechanism and is required for TGFβ dependant activation of gene expression. DNA immunoprecipitation experiments indicate that 5mC undergoes conversion to 5hmC in response to TGFβ treatment. AID/APOBEC2 deaminases are also required for the DNA demethylation by TGFβ supporting a mechanism whereby 5mC is hydroxylated to 5hmC and then deaminated to 5hmU which is reverted to the unmethylated cytosine by the BER enzymes. Overexpression of ZNF217 inhibits promoter demethylation and expression of the p15ink4b gene in response to TGFβ by preventing recruitment of SMAD2/3/TDG complex. These findings suggest that the coregulator balance at promoters of genes is an important determinant of gene regulation and oncogenic amplifications such as ZNF217 can upset this balance causing deregulation of many genes. Taken together, these results establish the ZNF217 complex as a negative regulator of the p15ink4b gene and may constitute an important link between amplification of ZNF217, increased cell proliferation and loss of TGFβ responsiveness in cancer

Mechanical properties related to use of glass waste as a raw material in porcelain stoneware tile mixtures

Porcelain represents one of the most complex ceramics, formulated from a mix of clay, feldspar and quartz are sintered to conform a glass-ceramic composite. Porcelain stoneware tile has excellent technical characteristics. Nowadays, research of new materials, for example non-hazardous wastes, that are able to replace the traditional fluxing agent with out changing the process or quality of the final products has been realized. The aim of this work is to study the possibility of the use of glass powder waste, in ceramic mixtures, for manufacturing of porcelain stoneware tiles. It was prepared by mixtures containing different amount of fireclay, glass waste, feldspar and quartz. The samples were fired reaching different maximum temperatures in the range 900-12000 C, with a soaking time of 1 hour. The fired samples were characterized and the use of small amounts of glass powder in addition with feldspar and quartz showed good results of mechanical technological properties. The 10F5Q5G was the only product that can be classified as a porcelain stoneware tile due to its properties

Extended distribution of the invasive Sucker catfish Pterygoplichthys pardalis (Pisces: Loricariidae) to Cauvery river system of Peninsular India.

This report provides the first record of the exotic sucker fish P. pardalis from the Cauvery river system, Tamilnadu state, India. Information on the assumed presence of this invasive species based on sightings of a hitherto unknown species by local people and fishermen in stretches of Cauvery river have been confirmed by our study. Sailfin sucker fishes are popular among pet traders and aquarists in south east Asian countries and have been regarded as invaders worldwide. Occurrence of P. pardalis in newer habitats due to its potential invasion in the South Indian waters issues threat to native fauna. 

Impact of Viewing Fatphobic Messages on Facebook in Generation X

Social media has been found to directly affect body image dissatisfaction (BID), which is defined as a discrepancy between how a person views their weight, shape and size, and what is indicated by objective measures (Silva et al., 2011). Previous studies on body image and social media have mostly been limited to women and girls (Ginsberg et al., 2015), and little research is available for individuals past early adulthood. The current study surveyed individuals from Generation X, defined as anyone born between 1965 and 1980. In addition, this study recruited participants from all genders, asking participants to self-identify as male, female, or non-binary. Our team hopes to fill in current gaps in the literature relative to the study of BID in an older generation and among people of all genders. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three mock Facebook pages; one containing body positive posts, one depicting fatphobic media, and a third with neutral images to act as a control group. Pre and post tests were used to gather information about participants’ BID before and after viewing the Facebook pages. We hypothesized that individuals exposed to the fatphobic page would report higher levels of posttest BID when compared with their pretests. Additionally, we expected that individuals in the neutral and body positive conditions would show less variation between pretest and posttest BID

Measurement of Natural Radioactivity in Porcelain Stoneware Tiles

This paper presents the results of the measurement of natural radio activity present in the Porcelain stoneware tiles samples collected from the ceramic firms of Government Ceramic institute, Virudhachalam.  Natural radioactivity in the porcelain stoneware tiles samples in mainly due to 226Ra, 232Th and 40K and their daughter products.  In this study, these measurements have been estimated in Gamma-ray spectrometry and their levels for six samples are compared and also the Radium equivalent concentration (Raeq) is calculated. The gamma index is calculated and compared well with the reported values

Development Newer Analytical Techniques for the Estimation of Benfotiamine and its Combination with Pyridoxamine Dihydrochloride and Resveratrol

INTRODUCTION: Analytical research is used to identify potential sources of safety problems in the products. The analytical effort required to provide this information can be divided into a number of analytical tasks which are as below, 1. Determination of identify, purity of starting materials and intermediates used in manufacturing the drug substance. 2 Isolation and identification of trace impurities in drug substance. 3. Determination of degradation rates and products. 4. Establishment of an analytical reference standard for the drug substance. The analytical methods require the meet crieterian like sensitivity, specificity, precise, robust and raggedness. The degrees of complexity acceptable in the analytical procedure vary considerably from task to task and therefore require a variety of analytical techniques to satisfy them. AIM AND OBJECTIVE: Benfotiamine is an antioxidant dietary supplement drug used in diabetic neuropathy. The US FDA approved benfotiamine in January 18, 2006 to diabetic neuropathy and benfotiamine in combination of pyridoxamine dihydrochloride and resveratrol. Literature reveals very few analytical techniques for the estimation of benfotiamine from tablets. Also there is no analytical method reported for the combination of benfotiamine with pyridoxamine dihydrochloride and resveratrol, till date. Hence the major objective of the present research work is, 1. To develop and validate UV spectroscopic method for the estimation of benfotiamine in bulk drug and tablet formulation. 2. To develop and validate stability indicating HPTLC method for the determination of benfotiamine and its application of accelerated stability studies of benfotiamine tablets. 3. To develop and validate a HPTLC method for estimation of benfotiamine in combination with pyridoxamine dihydrochloride and resveratrol in combined dosage from. 4. To develop a validated RP-HPLC method for estimation of benfotiamine in combination with pyridoxamine dihydrochloride and resveratrol tablet formulation. SUMMARY: In current research work newer analytical methods were developed and validated for benfotiamine in single dosage form and its combination with pyridoxamine dihydrochloride and resveratrol. An UV spectroscopy and stability indicating HPTLC methods were developed for the quantification of benfotiamine in single dosage form and for the estimation of benfotiamine in combined dosage form two chromatographic methods viz a HPTLC and HPLC were developed. Analytical methods for benfotiamine in single dosage form The development of UV spectrophotometric method involved scanning of the standard and sample solutions in the UV range using UV visible spectrophotometer. Benfotiamine showed maximum absorbance at 240nm. The method was validated for linearity, precision, accuracy and stability. An overly of different concentrations of benfotiamine was noted with absorbance at λmax. The linear concentration was 4-24μg/ml and the correlation value was 0.999. The percentage RSD values of repeatability, interday and intraday were found to be ˂ 2, which proves precision of the method. The drug solution was found to be stable up to 48hrs at room temperature. The method was the applied to estimation of Benfotiamine bulk drug and tablet formulation. For the estimation of Benfotiamine by HPTLC method, the sample solutions were applied on silica gel G60F254 TLC plates and the chromatogram was developed using mobile phase comprising of Glacial acetic acid : Methanol : Triethylamine ( 9: 1% v/v, 2drops) and detection was carried out at 275 nm using densitometer. The Rf value of Benfotiamine was 0.29±0.02, which showed linearity range from 0.1 – 0.6μg/spot and correlation coefficient 0.998. The percentage RSD values of repeatability, intraday and interday were found to be ˂ 2. It proves precision of the method. CONCLUSION: The UV, HPTLC and HPLC methods developed were validated as per ICH guidelines and found to be specific, accurate and precise. The results of all the methods were ascertained by statistical analysis. Among the two analytical methods developed, HPTLC is more sensitive technique, whereas UV is a simpler technique for the estimation of Benfotiamine in single dosage form. The HPTLC is more sensitive than HPLC method for the analysis of Benfotiamine in combination with Pyridoxamine dihydrochloride and Resveratrol. However HPLC offers a more reliable quantification than HPTLC for combination. All the four methods were successfully employed to analyse benfotiamine from single dosage form or in combination with Pyridoxamine dihydrochloride and Resveratrol. They would serve as good analytical tools for the quality control and research involving Benfotiamine and its combined dosage form with Pyridoxamine dihydrochloride and Resveratrol