SIGNAL STRENGTH AND ENERGY AWARE RELIABLE ROUTE DISCOVERY IN MANET

Frequent changes in network topology and confined battery capacity of the mobile devices are the main challenges for routing in ad-hoc networks. In this paper, we propose a novel, Signal strength and Energy Aware routing protocol (SEA-DSR), which directly incorporates signal strength and residual battery capacity of nodes into route selection through cross layer approach. This model defines a metric called Reliability Factor for route selection among the feasible routes. It is simulated using ns2, under different mobility conditions. The simulation results shows better performance in terms of packet delivery ratio, control overhead and average end-end delay. The proposed model has extended the time to network partition and reduce the path breakages when compared with similar routing protocols DSR and SSA

STUDIES ON THE EFFECT OF ANTIDIABETIC ACTIVITY OF ACHYRANTHES ASPERA L. ON ALLOXAN INDUCED WISTAR RATS

Objective: The present study was designed to investigate the effect of anti-diabetic activity of Achyranthes aspera on alloxan induced wistar rats.Methods: Diabetes was induced by administration of alloxan mono hydrate (150 mg/kg body weight i. p) to albino wistar rats. Diabetic rats were stabilized for four days and from fifth-day aqueous extract of A. aspera were administered at the dose of 250 mg/kg and 500 mg/kg for 45 days. Metformin 1 mg/kg was used as a standard. The effects of A. aspera and standard drug on following parameters was recorded-fasting blood glucose, glycogen, plasma insulin, glycosylated hemoglobin and protein were analyzed in blood samples. Glucose-6-phosphatase, Glucose-6 phosphate dehydrogenase, tissue protein, reduced glutathione, and lipid peroxide were estimated in liver tissues.Results: Our results collectively suggested that administration of aqueous extracts of A. aspera considerably lower the blood glucose level which was comparable to standard anti-diabetic drug metformin (1 mg). Also, the extract shows that considerable increase (p˂0.05) in glucokinase activity when compared to untreated diabetic rats. Lipid peroxidation and reduced glutathione (GSH) level were also studied and the A. aspera aqueous extract and metformin-treated groups shows that the significant (p˂0.05) reduction in lipid peroxide and marked elevation in reduced glutathione levels.Conclusion: Aqueous extract of A. aspera possess anti-diabetic action in alloxan induced diabetic rats

Bacterial lipid modification of proteins for novel protein engineering applications

Functioning of proteins efficiently at the solid-liquid interface is critical to not only biological but also modern man-made systems such as ELISA, liposomes and biosensors. Anchoring hydrophilic proteins poses a major challenge in this regard. Lipid modification, N-acyl-S-diacylglyceryl-Cys, providing an N-terminal hydrophobic membrane anchor is a viable solution that bacteria have successfully evolved but remains unexploited. Based on the current understanding of this ubiquitous and unique bacterial lipid modification it is possible to use Escherichia coli, the popular recombinant protein expression host, for converting a non-lipoprotein to a lipoprotein with a hydrophobic anchor at the N-terminal end. We report two strategies applicable to non-lipoproteins (with or without signal sequences) employing minimal sequence change. Taking periplasmic Shigella apyrase as an example, its signal sequence was engineered to include a lipobox, an essential determinant for lipid modification, or its mature sequence was fused to the signal sequence of abundant outer membrane lipoprotein, Lpp. Lipid modification was proved by membrane localization, electrophoretic mobility shift and mass spectrometric analysis. Substrate specificity and specific activity measurements indicated functional integrity after modification. In conclusion, a convenient protein engineering strategy for converting non-lipoprotein to lipoprotein for commercial application has been devised and tested successfully

FPGA acceleration of structured-mesh-based explicit and implicit numerical solvers using SYCL

We explore the design and development of structured-mesh based solvers on current Intel FPGA hardware using the SYCL programming model. Two classes of applications are targeted : (1) stencil applications based on explicit numerical methods and (2) multidimensional tridiagonal solvers based on implicit methods. Both classes of solvers appear as core modules in a wide-range of realworld applications ranging from CFD to financial computing. A general, unified workflow is formulated for synthesizing them on Intel FPGAs together with predictive analytic models to explore the design space to obtain near-optimal performance. Performance of synthesized designs, using the above techniques, for two non-trivial applications on an Intel PAC D5005 FPGA card is benchmarked. Results are compared to performance of optimized parallel implementations of the same applications on a Nvidia V100 GPU. Observed runtime results indicate the FPGA providing better or matching performance to the V100 GPU. However, more importantly the FPGA solutions provide 59%-76% less energy consumption for their largest configurations, making them highly attractive for solving workloads based on these applications in production settings. The performance model predicts the runtime of designs with high accuracy with less than 5% error for all cases tested, demonstrating their significant utility for design space explorations. With these tools and techniques, we discuss determinants for a given structuredmesh code to be amenable to FPGA implementation, providing insights into the feasibility and profitability of a design, how they can be codified using SYCL and the resulting performance

Studies on the antidiarrhoeal activity of Aegle marmelos unripe fruit: Validating its traditional usage

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p><it>Aegle marmelos </it>(L.) Correa has been widely used in indigenous systems of Indian medicine due to its various medicinal properties. However, despite its traditional usage as an anti-diarrhoeal there is limited information regarding its mode of action in infectious forms of diarrhoea. Hence, we evaluated the hot aqueous extract (decoction) of dried unripe fruit pulp of <it>A. marmelos </it>for its antimicrobial activity and effect on various aspects of pathogenicity of infectious diarrhoea.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The decoction was assessed for its antibacterial, antigiardial and antirotaviral activities. The effect of the decoction on adherence of enteropathogenic <it>Escherichia coli </it>and invasion of enteroinvasive <it>E. coli </it>and <it>Shigella flexneri </it>to HEp-2 cells were assessed as a measure of its effect on colonization. The effect of the decoction on production of <it>E. coli </it>heat labile toxin (LT) and cholera toxin (CT) and their binding to ganglioside monosialic acid receptor (GM1) were assessed by GM1-enzyme linked immuno sorbent assay whereas its effect on production and action of <it>E. coli </it>heat stable toxin (ST) was assessed by suckling mouse assay.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The decoction showed cidal activity against <it>Giardia </it>and rotavirus whereas viability of none of the six bacterial strains tested was affected. It significantly reduced bacterial adherence to and invasion of HEp-2 cells. The extract also affected production of CT and binding of both LT and CT to GM1. However, it had no effect on ST.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The decoction of the unripe fruit pulp of <it>A. marmelos</it>, despite having limited antimicrobial activity, affected the bacterial colonization to gut epithelium and production and action of certain enterotoxins. These observations suggest the varied possible modes of action of <it>A. marmelos </it>in infectious forms of diarrhoea thereby validating its mention in the ancient Indian texts and continued use by local communities for the treatment of diarrhoeal diseases.</p

Development and optimization of Diltiazem hydrochloride loaded microspheres by using different Eudragit polymers

The problems of frequent administration and variable low bioavailability (40-60%) after oral administration of conventional dosage forms of Diltiazem hydrochloride can be attenuated by designing it in the form of microspheres which would prolong the residence time at the absorption site to facilitate intimate contact with the absorption surface and thereby improve and enhance the bioavailability. Microspheres of Diltiazem hydrochloride were formulated using Eudragit S 100 and Eudragit L 100 alone by solvent evaporation methods with an aim to prolong its release. Six formulations prepared by using different drug to polymer ratios, were evaluated for relevant parameters. Depending upon the drug to polymer ratio, the entrapment efficiency were found to range between 86.11 ± 0.37, 88.84 ± 0.28, 91.80 ± 0.29, 94.38 ± 0.26, 95.57 ± 0.39, 98.11 ± 0.29 respectively. The scanning electron microscopic study indicated that the microspheres were spherical in shape and the drug remained dispersed in the polymer matrix at amorphous state, In vitro studies were carried out at different pH for a period of 12 hours. Drug polymer interaction was absent as evidenced by FT-IR