Antibacterial activity of nano goldparticles synthesized by Bacillus Sps.

The synthesis and bioactivity of gold nanoparticles has been extensively studied. However, the antibacterial activity of gold nano particles individually or in combination with different antibiotics has not been demonstrated. In the present study the effect of gold nano particles on the antibacterial activity of different antibiotics was evaluated against Staphylococcus aureus, k.pnemonea, P.aureginosa, E.coli. Disk diffusion method was used to determine the antibacterial activity of various antibiotics in the absence and presence of sub inhibitory concentration of gold nano particles. A clinical isolates of S. aureus, k.pnemonea, p.aureginosa,E.coli.  were used as the test strains. In the presence of sub-inhibitory concentration of gold nano particles the antibacterial activities of all antibiotics have . Increased from minimum 2 mm to a maximum of 8 mm. The highest increase was observed for ceftazidime followed by genthamycin. These results signify that the gold nano particles potentiate the antimicrobial action of cephalosporins and amino glycosides, suggesting a possible utilization of nano compounds in combination therapy against S. aureus, k.pnemonea, p.aureginosa,E.coli

Towards Comparative Analysis of Resumption Techniques in ETL

Data warehouses are loaded with data from sources such as operational data bases. Failure of loading process or failure of any of the process such as extraction or transformation is expensive because of the non-availability of data for analysis. With the advent of e-commerce and many real time application analysis of data in real time becomes a norm and hence any misses while the data is being loaded into data warehouse needs to be handled in an efficient and optimized way. The techniques to handle failure of process to populate the data are very much important as the actual loading process. Alternative arrangement needs to be made for in case of failure so that processes of populating the data warehouse are done in time. This paper explores the various ways through which a failed process of populating the data warehouse could be resumed. Various resumption techniques are compared and a novel block based technique is proposed to improve one of the existing resumption techniques

Evalution of Antibacterial and Antioxidant Activity of Methanolic and Hydromethanolic Extract of Sweet Orange Peels

The in vitro antibacterial and antioxidant properties of hydromethanolic extract of peel from Citrus sinensis (Sweet orange) was investigated. In this study the antibacterial activity of Citrus sinensis peel extract against different gram positive and gram negative bacteria by disc diffusion method and antioxidant activity by Fenton reaction was undertaken. Citrus sinensis peels had shown mild activity against gram positive and gram negative bacteria and the MIC value was measured. In another experiment antioxidant activity was observed and IC50 was shown at 600 µg/ml

Influence of Torrefaction on Lignocellulosic Woody Biomass of Nigerian Origin

Torrefaction process is a thermal treatment that can improve quality of lignocellulosic biomass into a carbon-rich and hydrophobic feedstock which is applicable as fuel and metallurgical reductant. Biomass (Melina and Teak wood) of Nigerian origin was subjected to mild (240o C) and severe (300o C) torrefaction treatment at different residence times (30 and 60 min) and particle sizes (+0.5 - 2 mm and +4 - 6.35 mm). Raw biomass and biochar from torrefaction were subjected to proximate, ultimate, higher heating value and SEM analyses. The mass yield obtained for mild treatment conditions for both biomass was in the range of 72 - 84 (wt. %) compared to 40 - 54 (wt. %) under severe treatment conditions. However, 33 - 56 % increment in higher hating value was observed for severe treatment conditions as against 11 - 17 % of mild treatment condition. This ultimately led to a 60 - 72 (wt. %) energy yield for severe treatment conditions and 73 - 94 (wt. %). The fixed carbon content increased from the range of 8 - 11 (wt. %) to 20 - 61 (wt. %) after torrefaction. The volatile matter content under mild condition was reduced by 7 - 10 % for both biomass as against 41 - 47 % under severe treatment condition. The fuel ratio increased from 0.11 and 0.15 for Melina and Teak woods respectively to a range of 0.22 - 0.25 for mild treatment conditions and 0.97 - 1.75 for severe treatment condition. The H/C and O/C atomic ratios of biochar were lowered towards that of sub-bituminous coal and peat. A honey-comb-like structure with cylindrical holes were observed for biochar compared to the fibrous and spongy nature of the raw biomass. Biomass of Nigerian origin were improved under torrefaction and thus can be suitable as feedstock in thermal or metallurgical applications

An approach for selecting text from e-mail in satellite-based education

It was in September 2004 that Indian Space Research Organization(ISRO), in its endeavor to provide sustainable distance education service in India, launched EDUSAT that is designed to supplement the present teaching system in the country.The EDUSAT project has sought to wipe out disparities in quality between the various educational institut ions by addressing itself to key issues of access, interactivity, cost-effectiveness and consistency of information to students.One subject expert can simultaneously teach hundreds of students in multiple locations across a vast geographical area.The major issue of paucity of faculty members in higher education has been tackled in one single stroke. In this regard, VTU has set up a Forum(http://forum.vtu.ac.in), which provides a platform for students to exchange their view, share resources and also get answers from subject experts by sending their queries into this Forum by e-mail.As this VTU-EDUSAT network is being used by a whopping 150,000 students, there will be thousands of questions from students across different subjects that will be handled through the network by hundreds of subject experts.The questions will be aired by the students during the live sessions of the satellite-based programme or by sending e-mail post transmission of sessions.Further, there will be number of questions by the students after they go through the e-Learning content.It has become impossible to answer all these questions by the subject experts because of paucity of time.It is also observed that there will be many questions that are similar or repetitive or these questions would have been answered earlier by the subject experts.Also, it is impossible for the subject expert to go through all the e-mails completely.Therefore, it is required to develop a solution that involves summarization of e-mail text sent by the students, which means selection of important sentences or text so as to compare them with the current database of questions. Once comparison is made, only the non- repetitive questions are extracted and place them before the subject expert. Further, if the answer is already available for questions, the system advices students to refer the FAQ data base.Here, it is necessary to distinguish the important information with less important information within the original text (e-mail).For this, we need the combination of two steps: information filtering and text reduction.The on-going research is to address such an issue by domain-specific text summarization. We have made an attempt to develop a model that examines content-based text selection

Seperation, identification and analysis of pigment (melanin) production in Streptomyces

Nine strains among 180 Streptomyces isolates produce a diffusible dark brown pigment on both peptone-yeast extract agar and synthetic tyrosine-agar. They also show the positive reaction to Ltyrosine or L-dopa substrates. The pigment has been referred to be as merely as dark brown watersolublepigment, as melanoid or melanin. The different carbon and nitrogen sources which influence the pigment production in the Streptomyces isolates were also investigated, and the carotenoid content in the pigment was analyzed. The melanin formation in the Streptomyces species is the key feature for the classification of the Stretomyces grou

Influence of cu addition on the wear behavior of a eutectic Al–12.6Si alloy developed by the spray forming method

first_pagesettingsOrder Article Reprints Open AccessArticle Influence of Cu Addition on the Wear Behavior of a Eutectic Al–12.6Si Alloy Developed by the Spray Forming Method by Dayanand M. Goudar 1,Julfikar Haider 2ORCID,K. Raju 3,Rajashekar V. Kurahatti 4 andDeesy G. Pinto 5,6,* 1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Tontadarya College of Engineering, Gadag 582101, India 2 Department of Engineering, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester M15GD, UK 3 Department of Mechanical Engineering, St. Joseph Engineering College, Mangaluru 575028, India 4 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Basaveshwar Engineering College, Bagalkot 587101, India 5 Department of Civil Engineering and Geology, University of Madeira, Campus da Penteada, 9020-105 Funchal, Portugal 6 CQM-Centro de Química da Madeira, University of Madeira, Campus da Penteada, 9020-105 Funchal, Portugal * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. J. Compos. Sci. 2024, 8(3), 88; https://doi.org/10.3390/jcs8030088 Submission received: 19 January 2024 / Revised: 9 February 2024 / Accepted: 23 February 2024 / Published: 27 February 2024 (This article belongs to the Special Issue Metal Composites, Volume II) Downloadkeyboard_arrow_down Browse Figures Versions Notes Abstract In the present study, the influence of the addition of copper (Cu) on the wear behavior of a Al-12.6Si eutectic alloy developed using the spray forming (SF) method was discussed, and the results were compared with those of as-cast (AC) alloys. The microstructural features of the alloys were examined using both optical and the scanning electron microscopy, and the chemical composition and phase identification were achieved by X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. The results revealed that the microstructure of binary the SF alloy consisted of fine primary and eutectic Si phases, evenly distributed in the equiaxed α-Al matrix, whereas the Cu-based SF ternary alloy consisted of uniformly distributed fine eutectic Si particulates and spherical-shaped θ-Al2Cu precipitates, uniformly distributed in α-Al matrix. In contrast, the AC ternary (Al-12.6Si-2Cu) alloy consisted of unevenly dispersed eutectic Si needles and the coarse intermetallic compound θ-Al2Cu in the α-Al matrix. The addition of Cu enhanced the micro hardness of the SF ternary alloy by 8, 34, and 41% compared to that of the SF binary, AC ternary, and binary alloys, respectively. The wear test was conducted using a pin-on-disc wear testing machine at different loads (10–40 N) and sliding velocities (1–3 ms−1). The wear tests revealed that SF alloys exhibited an improved wear behavior in the entire applied load and sliding velocity range in comparison to that of the AC alloys. At a load of 40 N and a sliding velocity of 1 ms−1, the wear rate of the SF2 alloy is 62, 47, and 23% lower than that of the AC1, AC2, and SF1 alloys, respectively. Similarly, at a sliding velocity of 3 ms−1, the wear rate of the SF2 alloy is 52%, 42%, and 21% lower than that of the AC1, AC2, and SF1 alloys, respectively. The low wear rate in the SF2 alloy was due to the microstructural modification during spray forming, the precipitation of fine Al2Cu intermetallic compounds, and increased solid solubility. The SF alloys show an increased transition from oxidative to abrasive wear, while the AC alloys demonstrate wear mechanisms that change from oxidative to abrasive, including delamination, with an increase in sliding velocity and load

Belladamadugu Village at a Glance

The Village Dynamics in South Asia (VDSA) Project of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi- Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) has chosen 42 villages as part of the project. These villages – 18 in the semi-arid tropics (SAT) of peninsular India, 12 in the Humid Tropics of East India and 12 in Bangladesh – were selected based on certain relevant characteristics to track rural poverty in household and village economies in the region, to provide the most efficient way to understand the farming systems in rural areas, and to identify the socioeconomic constraints faced by the farming community. In the SAT region, 18 villages spread across 9 districts in 5 states were identified for the study. Of these, 6 were chosen way back in 1975 under the erstwhile Village Level Studies (VLS) project of the Economics Program of ICRISAT, while 12 new villages were included in the expanded VDSA project during 2009. Belladamadugu is one of these 12 new villages

Heat transfer modeling during production of directly reduced iron (DRI) pellets by simulating tunnel kiln condition

Recently CSIR-NML has developed a process for production of Directly Reduced Iron (DRI) utilizing lean grade raw material in Tunnel Kiln. It was observed that the heat transfer across the bed of crucible plays a vital role to ensure the uniform metallization throughout the bed of crucible. Therefore, an attempt has been made in the present investigation to develop a mathematical model to predict the thermal profile across the cross section of the bed of crucible using Finite Volume Method (FVM) during production of DRI by simulating tunnel kiln conditions. The developed model was validated with experimentally obtained results. The mathematical model so developed can be extended to a commercial tunnel kiln process for prediction of thermal profile across the bed of crucible as well as kiln during production of DRI

Optimization of Process Parameter for Smelting and Reduction of Ferrochrome

The increasing costs of electric energy and continuous depletion of quality raw material such as Chromite ore and coke for production of high grade Ferro-chrome imposed a big challenge for the Ferro- alloys industries. In order to sustain in the globalized market, an attempt have been made in the present investigation for production of high grade Ferro-chrome utilizing lean grade raw materials. Chromite ore having different Cr/Fe ratio were smelted in a 100 KVA submerge arc furnace (SAF) with low grade nut coke. The Cr/Fe ratio of the Chromite ore pellets were optimized with respect to the slag basicity and power consumption to yield high grade Ferro-chrome. The basicity of the slag and Cr/Fe ratio of the ore were optimized to produce high grade Ferro-chrome (Cr > 60%) with low power consumption. It was observed that high grade Ferro-chrome can be produced utilizing low grade Chromite ore having Cr/Fe ratio 2.4 at the slag basicity of 1