Stability and Equilibrium Analysis of Laneless Traffic with Local Control Laws

In this paper, a new model for traffic on roads with multiple lanes is developed, where the vehicles do not adhere to a lane discipline. Assuming identical vehicles, the dynamics is split along two independent directions: the Y-axis representing the direction of motion and the X-axis representing the lateral or the direction perpendicular to the direction of motion. Different influence graphs are used to model the interaction between the vehicles in these two directions. The instantaneous accelerations of each car, in both X and Y directions, are functions of the measurements from the neighbouring cars according to these influence graphs. The stability and equilibrium spacings of the car formation is analyzed for usual traffic situations such as steady flow, obstacles, lane changing and rogue drivers arbitrarily changing positions inside the formation. Conditions are derived under which the formation maintains stability and the desired intercar spacing for each of these traffic events. Simulations for some of these scenarios are included.Comment: 8 page

Studies on Seasonal Variation of Indoor Airborne Fungal Spores in Rabbit House

The indoor airborne fungal spore survey has been conducted for one year to assess the seasonal variation of the fungal flora in a rabbit house situated at Hessaraghatta village, near Bangalore city. The investigation was carried out by using an Andersen two stage viable sampler, at monthly intervals over a period of 12 months from January 2011 to December 2011. A total of 1.16 x 104 CFU/m3 belonging to fifteen different genera, excluding some unidentified ones were recorded. The differences in distribution among these fungi for seasonal and meteorological factors were correlated and the mean significant difference was expressed statistically at 0.05% and 0.01% level of significanc

Design and implementation of DA FIR filter for bio-inspired computing architecture

This paper elucidates the system construct of DA-FIR filter optimized for design of distributed arithmetic (DA) finite impulse response (FIR) filter and is based on architecture with tightly coupled co-processor based data processing units. With a series of look-up-table (LUT) accesses in order to emulate multiply and accumulate operations the constructed DA based FIR filter is implemented on FPGA. The very high speed integrated circuit hardware description language (VHDL) is used implement the proposed filter and the design is verified using simulation. This paper discusses two optimization algorithms and resulting optimizations are incorporated into LUT layer and architecture extractions. The proposed method offers an optimized design in the form of offers average miminimizations of the number of LUT, reduction in populated slices and gate minimization for DA-finite impulse response filter. This research paves a direction towards development of bio inspired computing architectures developed without logically intensive operations, obtaining the desired specifications with respect to performance, timing, and reliability

FORMULATION AND OPTIMIZATION OF LEVAMISOLE CHEWABLE TABLETS

Objective: The aim of the present study was to prepare and optimize levamisole chewable tablets by using various super disintegrants, namely; sodium starch glycolate, DRC Indion 204, and DRC Indion 234. Methods: Drug excipient compatibility study was carried out by FTIR spectroscopy to verify the compatibility of levamisole with the excipients. Nine batches of levamisole chewable tablets were prepared according to 32 factorial designs using a direct compression method by optimizing the super disintegrant concentration. The powder blend was exposed to pre-compression studies of the powder blend followed by post-compression studies of the formulated tablets. Results: FTIR study revealed that the excipients used in the formulations were compatible with the drug. The pre-compression and post-compression parameters were found within the IP limits. Form the dissolution studies, it was evident that the formulation prepared with DRC Indion 234 (50 mg) showed maximum percentage drug release in 45 min (97.13%) hence it is considered as optimized formulation. When compared to all other formulation, the batches with DRC Indion 234 (F7-F9) showed a better release of the drug (90 % drug release within 45 min). Conclusion: Nine batches of levamisole chewable tablets were successfully formulated by optimizing the concentration of super disintegrants such as sodium starch glycolate, DRC Indion 204, and DRC Indion 234. It was concluded from the dissolution studies that the DRC Indion 234 is the best super disintegrant irrespective of their concentration for the formulation of levamisole chewable tablets when compared to sodium starch Glycolate and DRC Indion 204

AN IN VITRO STUDY OF CINNAMOMUM ZEYLANICUM AS NATURAL INHIBITOR OF ANGIOTENSIN-CONVERTING ENZYME (ACE) ON SHEEP (OVIS ARIES) TISSUES

Objective: The present study was aimed to find the angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitory activity using the methanolic extract ofCinnamomum zeylanicum (as a natural inhibitor) on sheep tissues as the enzyme source.Methods: Hippuryl-histidyl-leucine (HHL) as a substrate, tissue ACE activity was measured spectrophotometrically at 228 nm. For an incubationperiod of 30 minutes at 37°C, the linearity of ACE activity of kidney, lung, and testis enzyme was established. A known medicinal plant C. zeylanicumwas used as natural inhibitor of ACE. In this enzyme assay, inhibitory effect of methanolic extract of C. zeylanicum on kidney, lung and testicular ACEwas determined. ACE activity was confirmed by captopril, a standard inhibitor of ACE.Results: In the presence of a methanolic extract of C. zeylanicum (10:1), ACE activity was determined and this has inhibited ACE activity verysignificantly. C. zeylanicum leaves extract has reduced sheep kidney, lung, and testis ACE activity by 70.06%, 12.63%, and 20.23%, respectively.Conclusion: Significant inhibition was observed in the kidney ACE than in lung and testis ACE activity. This can propose that there may be a possiblerole in controlling blood pressure or reduction in cardiovascular diseases. Some plants with the great medicinal property may be considered aspromising sources of natural inhibitors of ACE for medicine and commercial uses. This comprehensive study may show numerous beneficial effects asa potential therapeutic agent for lowering blood pressure.Keywords: Angiotensin-converting enzyme, Natural angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor, Kinetic assay, Hippuryl-histidyl-leucine, Cinnamomumzeylanicum, Cardiovascular diseases

Performance analysis of cow dung as an eco-friendly binder and additive material for sustainable moulding and casting

Abstract: In the present work, an attempt is made to partially replace the high cost silica sand with sustainable eco-friendly material, namely cow-dung. Practical utility of cow dung as a binding and additive material in foundries has been tested in the present work. Taguchi method is used to plan and conduct nine experiments with three replicates each. Pareto analysis of variance study is done to understand the practical significance of moulding sand variables namely percent of cow dung, percent of clay, percent of water, and degree of ramming on sand mould properties. The conflicting multiple objective functions (maximize: mould hardness, and minimize: collapsibility and gas evolution) are optimized by utilizing data envelopment analysis ranking (DEAR) method. The optimal parameter levels i.e. 6% of clay, 4% of water, 5% of cow-dung and 4 numbers of ramming strokes are obtained by applying hybrid Taguchi- DEAR method. These parameters yielded the best moulding properties i.e. mould hardness 55, gas evolution 5.9 ml/gm , and collapsibility 470 g/cm2. Thereafter, Lovejoy coupling made of aluminium is cast in the sand mould prepared with cow-dung and without cow-dung. The sand mould is prepared with the optimum set of parameters and the casting produced in the mould has been tested for its quality characteristics. The mechanical properties, surface finish, and microstructure of the casting made in sand mould with cow-dung are found to be better than that obtained with sand mould without cow-dung. The present research work is found to be more useful in foundries for sustainable production of good quality casting

CD43-independent augmentation of mouse T-cell function by glycoprotein cleaving enzymes

Previous work has shown that the function of mouse CD4 + T cells can be augmented by an enzyme, O -sialoglycoprotein endopeptidase (OSGE), which cleaves surface CD43, suggesting the idea that the high levels of glycosylated CD43 found on T cells from aged mice may contribute to immune senescence. New results now show that OSGE improves T-cell function even in mice lacking CD43, showing that other glycoproteins must contribute to the OSGE effect on function. Evaluation of other enzymes found two whose ability to stimulate CD4 activation was higher in aged than in young T cells. One of these, PNGase F, is a glycosidase specific for N-linked glycans, and the other, ST-Siase(2,3) from Salmonella typhimurium , is specific for α2,3-linked terminal sialic acid residues. Parallel lectin-binding experiments showed that removal of α2,3-linked sialic acid residues vulnerable to PNGase F and ST-Siase(2,3) was also greater in old than in young T cells. The preferential ability of PNGase F and ST-Siase(2,3) to improve the function of T cells from aged mice may involve cleavage of glycoproteins containing α2,3-linked sialic acid residues on N-linked or O-linked glycans or both.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/75621/1/j.1365-2567.2006.02419.x.pd

Techniques for Arbuscular Mycorrhiza Inoculum Reduction

It is well established that arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi can play a significant role in sustainable crop production and environmental conservation. With the increasing awareness of the ecological significance of mycorrhizas and their diversity, research needs to be directed away from simple records of their occurrence or casual speculation of their function (Smith and Read 1997). Rather, the need is for empirical studies and investigations of the quantitative aspects of the distribution of different types and their contribution to the function of ecosystems. There is no such thing as a fungal effect or a plant effect, but there is an interaction between both symbionts. This results from the AM fungi and plant community size and structure, soil and climatic conditions, and the interplay between all these factors (Kahiluoto et al. 2000). Consequently, it is readily understood that it is the problems associated with methodology that limit our understanding of the functioning and effects of AM fungi within field communities. Given the ubiquous presence of AM fungi, a major constraint to the evaluation of the activity of AM colonisation has been the need to account for the indigenous soil native inoculum. This has to be controlled (i.e. reduced or eliminated) if we are to obtain a true control treatment for analysis of arbuscular mycorrhizas in natural substrates. There are various procedures possible for achieving such an objective, and the purpose of this chapter is to provide details of a number of techniques and present some evaluation of their advantages and disadvantages. Although there have been a large number of experiments to investigated the effectiveness of different sterilization procedures for reducing pathogenic soil fungi, little information is available on their impact on beneficial organisms such as AM fungi. Furthermore, some of the techniques have been shown to affect physical and chemical soil characteristics as well as eliminate soil microorganisms that can interfere with the development of mycorrhizas, and this creates difficulties in the interpretation of results simply in terms of possible mycorrhizal activity. An important subject is the differentiation of methods that involve sterilization from those focussed on indigenous inoculum reduction. Soil sterilization aims to destroy or eliminate microbial cells while maintaining the existing chemical and physical characteristics of the soil (Wolf and Skipper 1994). Consequently, it is often used for experiments focussed on specific AM fungi, or to establish a negative control in some other types of study. In contrast, the purpose of inoculum reduction techniques is to create a perturbation that will interfere with mycorrhizal formation, although not necessarily eliminating any component group within the inoculum. Such an approach allows the establishment of different degrees of mycorrhizal formation between treatments and the study of relative effects. Frequently the basic techniques used to achieve complete sterilization or just an inoculum reduction may be similar but the desired outcome is accomplished by adjustments of the dosage or intensity of the treatment. The ultimate choice of methodology for establishing an adequate non-mycorrhizal control depends on the design of the particular experiments, the facilities available and the amount of soil requiring treatment