Survey on Quality Analysis of Collaboration Motivation Approach in Wireless Ad Hoc Networks

In Wireless Ad Hoc Networks (WANETs), tasks are conducted based on the cooperation of nodes in the networks. However, since the nodes are usually constrained by limited computation resources, selfish nodes may refuse to be cooperative. Reputation system is one of the main solutions to the node non cooperation problem. A reputation system evaluates node behaviours by reputation values and uses a reputation threshold to distinguish trustworthy nodes and untrustworthy nodes. Although this system has been widely used, very little research has been devoted to investigating the effectiveness of the node cooperation incentives provided by the systems. We propose a protocol called Enhanced Reverse Ad Hoc On Demand Vector Routing Protocol (ERAODV), which uses Hybrid Reputation System (HRS). A Hybrid Reputation system is an enhanced version of Classical Reputation System (CRS). Unlike the CRS it takes into account all the reputation values from the node to determine whether it is trustworthy or not. Keywords: WANET; Reputation System; Price Based System; Quality Analysis; Multipath Routing

Sector Routing Protocol (SRP) in Ad-hoc Networks

Routing protocols for wireless ad-hoc networks face the challenge of dynamic topology due to node mobility, limited channel bandwidth and low transmission power. Both proactive and reactive protocols have trade-off in them. Proactive protocols have large overhead and less latency while reactive protocols have less overhead and more latency. The ZRP is a hybrid protocol that overcomes the shortcomings of both proactive and reactive routing protocol. ZRP divides the entire network into overlapping zones of variable size where routing inside the zone is performed using proactive approach and outside the zone is performed using reactive approach. Keywords: Ad-hoc Networks, Routing, Reactive, Proactive, ZRP

Antifungal activity of triterpenoid isolated from Azima tetracantha leaves.

The present study was designed to evaluate the antifungal activity of Azima tetracantha extracts and isolated compound (friedelin) against fungi. Antifungal activity was carried out using broth microdilution method and fractions were collected using (silica gel) column chromatography. The antifungal activity of Azima tetracantha crude extracts and isolated compound (friedelin) were evaluated using the micro dilution method. Hexane extract showed some antifungal activity. The compound also exhibited antifungal activity against tested fungi. The lowest MIC against Trichophyton rubrum (296) was 62.5 microg/ml and the MIC for Curvularia lunata was 62.5 microg/ml. These results suggest that Friedelin is a promising antifungal agent

A Comparative Study of Endoscopic Tympanoplasty Cartilage Vs Temporalis Fascia in Chronic Suppurative Otitis Media with Tubotympanic Disease

INTRODUCTION: Chronic suppurative otitis media is highly prevalent middle ear disease, particularly in the developing countries like India. It is defined as a persistent, disease affecting the mucoperiosteal lining of the middle ear cleft more than 3 month which is insidious in onset, and capable of causing the destruction and some irreversible sequela, and also it clinically manifests with ear discharge and hard of hearing. It causes numerous pathological changes in tympanic membrane, and middle ear such as perforation, ossicular destruction, myringosclerosis, tymapanosclerosis, granulation tissue polyp, cholesteatoma, etc. it causes significant conductive hearing loss. The surgical treatment of chronic suppurative otitis media primarily aims at eradication of disease process, and reconstruction of conductive hearing mechanism Tympanoplasty is surgical procedure to reconstruct sound conducting apparatus, tympanic membrane, ossicular system with or without grafting. AIM OF THE STUDY: 1. The aim of the study is to compare the efficacy of endoscopic cartilage shield tympanoplasty versus endoscopic temporalis fascia. 2. To compare the audiological improvement and anatomical perforation closure after cartilage and temporalis fascia. graft tympanoplasty. METHODS AND MATERIALS: A sample of 40 Patients with a clinical diagnosis of chronic suppurative otitis media tubotympanic disease, were enrolled in the study.Each patient preoperatively underwent otoscopic examination of ear and pure tone audiometery, after procuring the consent from them. And they randomly divided into two group viz. cartilage and temporalis fascia group. We did tympanoplasty with cartilage or temporalis fascia graft. Post operatively all the operated patients were asked to come for review at a date 3 month following surgery. Each patient postoperatively underwent otoscopic examination of ear and pure tone audiometery and impedence at 3 rd month .The methodology used for each patient was similar to that used preoperatively. INCLUSION CRITERIA: • Age group 20-60 years, with diagnosis of chronic suppurative otitis media, tubotympanic disease with large size perforation. • Non discharging ear for atleast 6 weeks. • conductive hearing loss, mild and moderate. • good cochlear reserve. • intact ossicular chain. • pneumatised mastoid in x ray. EXCLUSION CRITERIA: • Patients not willing for surgery. • Age 60 years of age. • Cholesteatoma of ear. • Previous history of ear surgery. • pregnancy. • Systemic diseases like diabetes, hypertension, immunocompromised and cancer patients. RESULTS: In our study of 40 patients Graft uptake of temporalis fascia group is 90% and cartilage group graft up taken is 100%. Failure rate low in cartilage group than temporalis fascia group. The audiological gain between two group show statically significance (p value = 0.769) so it is statistically proved that there is no significant difference in the gain in AirBone gap attained by using either temporalis fascia or cartilage graft material in tympanoplasty. Impedence audiometry shows B curve in all cartilage tympanoplasty patients. CONCLUSION: Cartilage is a reliable and durable graft for reconstruction of tympanic membrane and capable of withstanding adverse conditions for longer period of time. The cartilage tympanoplasty gives better anatomic and functional results

Giant Hepatic Hemangiomas - analysis of presentation, management and outcome : A Single Center experience.

BACKGROUND : Hemangiomas represents a congenital, hamartomatous proliferation (Non-neoplastic) of vascular origin, arising from mesodermal layer. Its etiology emains idiopathic, with the liver being the most common visceral organ affected. Majarity of the cases are of a incidental discovery rather than a attempted search for the lesion. Therefore the natural history of the Hemangioma are often asymptomatic and persists throughout the lifespan of the patient. Only less than 10% of the lesions become symptomatic, and come for clinical attention. Within this a small percentage can meet with complications, particularly in those where the lesion is quite large, of the order of more than 10cm. Management options are varied ranging from simple observation to interventions like resection, eunucleation, hepatic artery ligation and liver transplantation ,besides non operative procedures like angio embolisation, radiation therapy, and recently molecular target agents like Sorafenib , bevacizumab and so on . AIM : To study the different modes of presentation, gender predilection, symptomatology, complications, various management modalities, outcome of the varsious treatment strategies, in patients with Giant Cavernous symptomatic Hepatic Hemangioma ,who were admitted in our center, between march 2012 to 2014. MATERIALS AND METHODS : Only those cases of hemangioma liver who were persistenly symptomatic,and those presenting with complications , were included in this retrospective analysis. A total of eleven such patients were listed in this series(2012 -2014). Asymptomatic ,incidentally diagnosed hemangioma liver were excluded from this analysis. Variables analysed in this study: Gender differences, Average size, Predominant symptom, Imaging modality employed, Predominant mode of intervention (resection or eunucleation anatomical or nonanatomical resection) ,Morphology of the tumour, Peroperative and Post operative parameters, Duration of post operative stay and Mortality were analysed in this study. RESULTS : Age incidence in this analysis ranged between 22 and 60 yrs, with a median age of 40 yrs. Predominantly occurring in the female gender (90.9%), but no chronic OCP usage, or any exogenous hormonal intake were found in this study. Majority of the lesions were in the Lt lobe (66.66%), supporting the fact that lesions in the left lobe are often symptomatic. Besides this finding, there is a linear relationship between size and symptoms in this analysis, with over 90% of the patients becoming symptomatic when the lesion is over 15 cm. And moreover pain abdomen was found to be the predominant symptom which made the patient to seek medical attention in this study. All were diagnosed with imaging alone, with CECT being the predominant diagnostic imaging in our series . As far as the treatment strategy is concerned, all the patients were persistently symptomatic and therefore deserved intervention. Ten out of eleven patients (10/11 patients) underwent surgery, either alone or with combined modality like angioembolisation, or Sorafenib therapy, particularly for a patient who was harbouring a lesion of size (37x19x15cm), in her right lobe. Amongst the surgical options, resection and not enucleation, was the surgical modality employed in this series. The reason being that we could find no well defined plane of cleavage between the liver parenchyma and the lesion in any of the patients that we operated. For those surgically high risk group, mere angio embolisation alone could be an safe alternative, which we offered as a sole management in a patient who presented with tumour rupture. Angioembolisation stopped the bleeding. Literature also reports no increase in size or any malignant transformation in the lesions that were left behind as remnants after such therapy. Resection in this series varied between a simple stapled hepatic resection where the operative blood loss and the duration of surgery were very minimal (0.07 litre blood loss, 2hrs 15min.) to major resection utilizing thoracoabdominal access in the form of median sternotomy, interpericardiac IVC control, (requiring about 14 units of blood, 4.2 litres blood loss and taking 7 hour long surgery). Mortality in this analysis is a patient wherein the liver is found to be fatty and after resection, bled from the remnant raw area, wherein we tried with perihepatic packing, but subsequently she succumbed to multiorgan dysfunction after second look lapatrotomy, even though raw area has stopped its bleeding. CONCLUSION : Hemangioma liver can sometimes be therauptically very challenging. Even though the indications for intervention are clear ,the choice of the various management options must be tailored to the patient’s clinical condition and the expertise availability. Complications that can occur in hemangioma may be life endangering too, sometimes demanding multidisciplinary approach. Offering surgery for those patients requires a great deal of knowledge and experience in liver resection and requires a well equipped center with multidisciplinary personnels for successful outcome in the management of these patients

Performance evaluation of a low-cost, novel vanadium nitride xerogel (VNXG) as a platinum-free electrocatalyst for dye-sensitized solar cells

A vanadium nitride xerogel (VNXG) was synthesised by a simple and effective method of ammonialising a vanadium pentoxide xerogel at a higher temperature. Xerogel-structured materials possess salient features such as high surface area, tunable porosity and pore size that result in enhancing the catalytic activity by a fast electron-transport pathway and increase electrolyte diffusion channels. Metal nitrides are reported as promising alternate low-cost counter electrodes to replace the conventional and expensive platinum (Pt) counter electrode. Though few studies are reported on aerogel-based CEs for DSSCs, the present work is the first attempt to synthesize and evaluate the performance of xerogel-structured metal nitrides as counter electrode materials for dye-sensitized solar cells. The synthesized material was well characterized for its structural and morphological characteristics and chemical constituents by photoelectron spectroscopy. Finally, the VNXG was tested for its electrocatalytic performance as a choice of counter electrodes for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The photo-current studies were performed under standard 1 SUN, class AAA-simulated illumination with AM1.5G. The consolidated results revealed that the vanadium nitride xerogel exhibited good photocatalytic activity and low charge transfer resistance. This identified it as a promising low-cost counter electrode (CE) material for dye-sensitized solar cells. The photo-current conversion efficiency of the vanadium nitride xerogel CE-based DSSC reached 5.94% comparable to that of the conventional thermal decomposed Pt CE-based DSSC, 7.38% with the same iodide/triiodide electrolyte system. Moreover, the 28 days stability study of VNXG CE DSSCs provided an appreciably stable performance with 37% decrement in the PCE under the same test condition

Biochemical Characterization and Evaluation of a Brugia malayi Small Heat Shock Protein as a Vaccine against Lymphatic Filariasis

Filarial nematodes enjoy one of the longest life spans of any human pathogen due to effective immune evasion strategies developed by the parasite. Among the various immune evasion strategies exhibited by the parasite, Interleukin 10 (IL-10) productions and IL-10 mediated immune suppression has significant negative impact on the host immune system. Recently, we identified a small heat shock protein expressed by Brugia malayi (BmHsp12.6) that can bind to soluble human IL-10 receptor alpha (IL-10R) and activate IL-10 mediated effects in cell lines. In this study we show that the IL-10R binding region of BmHsp12.6 is localized to its N-terminal region. This region has significant sequence similarity to the receptor binding region of human IL-10. In vitro studies confirm that the N-terminal region of BmHsp12.6 (N-BmHsp12.6) has IL-10 like activity and the region containing the alpha crystalline domain and C-terminus of BmHsp12.6 (BmHsp12.6αc) has no IL-10 like activity. However, BmHsp12.6αc contains B cell, T cell and CTL epitopes. Members of the sHSP families are excellent vaccine candidates. Evaluation of sera samples from putatively immune endemic normal (EN) subjects showed IgG1 and IgG3 antibodies against BmHsp12.6αc and these antibodies were involved in the ADCC mediated protection. Subsequent vaccination trials with BmHsp12.6αc in a mouse model using a heterologous prime boost approach showed that 83% protection can be achieved against B. malayi L3 challenge. Results presented in this study thus show that the N-BmHsp12.6 subunit of BmHsp12.6 has immunoregulatory function, whereas, the BmHsp12.6αc subunit of BmHsp12.6 has significant vaccine potential

Evaluation of Wuchereria bancrofti GST as a Vaccine Candidate for Lymphatic Filariasis

Lymphatic parasites survive for years in a complex immune environment by adopting various strategies of immune modulation, which includes counteracting the oxidative free radical damage caused by the host. We now know that the filarial parasites secrete antioxidant enzymes. Among these, the glutathione-S-transferases (GSTs) have the potent ability to effectively neutralize cytotoxic products arising from reactive oxygen species (ROS) that attack cell membranes. Thus, GSTs have the potential to protect the parasite against host oxidative stress. GSTs of several helminthes, including schistosomes, fasciola and the filarial parasite Seteria cervi, are also involved in inducing protective immunity in the host. The schistosome 28 kDa GST has been successfully developed into a vaccine and is currently in Phase II clinical trials. Thus, GST appears to be a potential target for vaccine development. Therefore, in the present study, we cloned W. bancrofti GST, and expressed and purified the recombinant protein. Immunization and challenge experiments showed that 61% of protection could be achieved against B. malayi infections in a jird model. In vitro studies confirm that the anti-WbGST antibodies participate in the killing of B. malayi L3 through an ADCC mechanism and enzymatic activity of WbGST appears to be critical for this larvicidal function

The Effects of Overexpression of Histamine Releasing Factor (HRF) in a Transgenic Mouse Model

Asthma is a disease that affects all ages, races and ethnic groups. Its incidence is increasing both in Westernized countries and underdeveloped countries. It involves inflammation, genetics and environment and therefore, proteins that exacerbate the asthmatic, allergic phenotype are important. Our laboratory purified and cloned a histamine releasing factor (HRF) that was a complete stimulus for histamine and IL-4 secretion from a subpopulation of allergic donors' basophils. Throughout the course of studying HRF, it was uncovered that HRF enhances or primes histamine release and IL-13 production from all anti-IgE antibody stimulated basophils. In order to further delineate the biology of HRF, we generated a mouse model.We constructed an inducible transgenic mouse model with HRF targeted to lung epithelial cells, via the Clara cells. In antigen naïve mice, overproduction of HRF yielded increases in BAL macrophages and statistical increases in mRNA levels for MCP-1 in the HRF transgenic mice compared to littermate controls. In addition to demonstrating intracellular HRF in the lung epithelial cells, we have also been able to document HRF's presence extracellularly in the BAL fluid of these transgenic mice. Furthermore, in the OVA challenged model, we show that HRF exacerbates the allergic, asthmatic responses. We found statistically significant increases in serum and BAL IgE, IL-4 protein and eosinophils in transgenic mice compared to controls.This mouse model demonstrates that HRF expression enhances allergic, asthmatic inflammation and can now be used as a tool to further dissect the biology of HRF

Attempts to Image the Early Inflammatory Response during Infection with the Lymphatic Filarial Nematode Brugia pahangi in a Mouse Model

Helminth parasites remain a major constraint upon human health and well-being in many parts of the world. Treatment of these infections relies upon a very small number of therapeutics, most of which were originally developed for use in animal health. A lack of high throughput screening systems, together with limitations of available animal models, has restricted the development of novel chemotherapeutics. This is particularly so for filarial nematodes, which are long-lived parasites with a complex cycle of development. In this paper, we describe attempts to visualise the immune response elicited by filarial parasites in infected mice using a non-invasive bioluminescence imaging reagent, luminol, our aim being to determine whether such a model could be developed to discriminate between live and dead worms for in vivo compound screening. We show that while imaging can detect the immune response elicited by early stages of infection with L3, it was unable to detect the presence of adult worms or, indeed, later stages of infection with L3, despite the presence of worms within the lymphatic system of infected animals. In the future, more specific reagents that detect secreted products of adult worms may be required for developing screens based upon live imaging of infected animals