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Spent sulfite liquor (SSL) from softwood processing is rich in hemicellulose (acetyl galactoglucomannan, AcGGM), lignin, and lignin-derived compounds. We investigated the effect of sequential AcGGM purification on the enzymatic bioconversion of AcGGM. SSL was processed through three consecutive purification steps (membrane filtration, precipitation, and adsorption) to obtain AcGGM with increasing purity. Significant reduction (~99%) in lignin content and modest loss (~18%) of polysaccharides was observed during purification from the least pure preparation (UFR), obtained by membrane filtration, compared to the purest preparation (AD), obtained by adsorption. AcGGM (~14.5 kDa) was the major polysaccharide in the preparations; its enzymatic hydrolysis was assessed by reducing sugar and high-performance anion-exchange chromatography analysis. The hydrolysis of the UFR preparation with Viscozyme L or Trichoderma reesei β-mannanase TrMan5A (1 mg/mL) resulted in less than ~50% bioconversion of AcGGM. The AcGGM in the AD preparation was hydrolyzed to a higher degree (~67% with TrMan5A and 80% with Viscozyme L) and showed the highest conversion rate. This indicates that SSL contains enzyme-inhibitory compounds (e.g., lignin and lignin-derived compounds such as lignosulfonates) which were successfully removed.

The major evolution of the semantic web has become exchanging data between applications in all domains of activities. Based on this vision, different applications in recent days, e.g. in the fields of community web portals, social networking, e-learning, multimedia retrieval, etc. have been designed. Due to growing number of web services, clustering of web resources becomes a valuable tool for semantic web mining. Clustering of internet objects like Internet web pages’ intimate new methods for grouping correlated content for better understanding and satisfies massive user query results in web pages’ search. Hence, web pages clustering algorithms should be able to handle massive irregular content and discover knowledge regardless of the web page complexity. These algorithms vary depending on the characteristics and data types. So, choosing the most appropriate algorithm is not an easy process as it should be accurate in terms of time and space complexity. Therefore, this paper rigorously surveys the most important algorithms of different types used for web page clustering. In addition, a comparative analysis of all such algorithms are provided in terms of several parameters. Finally, a brief discussion is provided on why web page clustering isimportant in emerging era of Semantic Web of Thing (SWoT) applications.

The multicriteria decision-making methodology is utilized to assess different portable hard disk drive alternatives, according to the purchaser/retailer/wholesaler liking with respect to various attributes. The hard disk drive comes under various types and has a number of attributes connected with it such as storage capacity, size, data transfer speed and physical dimensions. The modern market caters to a wide variety of customer needs. Therefore, it becomes the need of the hour to present a simple technique to select the best alternative for purchaser/retailer/wholesaler to satisfy their combined needs. Among the multicriteria decision-making methods, the more simple and widely used technique weighted aggregated sum product assessment is utilized in this work. The data of different hard disk drives were collected that were available in the Indian market and 24 different models of five brands were considered in decision-making. The equal weights method and objective weights method, that is standard deviation method, are utilized to allocate weights of significance to the criteria. The ranks obtained with simple additive weighting, weighted product method and weighted aggregated sum product assessment are presented, and final ranks are considered with weighted aggregated sum product assessment method because it is an amalgamation of the simple additive weighting and weighted product method. The result reveals that Western Digital comes out to be the first choice as a brand because the top three models belong to them with both equal and objective weights. While utilizing these techniques, a consumer can purchase the best hard disk drive and it is also very advantageous for merchants and sellers to aid users in procuring their gadgets while manufacture of hard disk drive can produce their product with unique technological features aimed at particular users. Furthermore, the subjective weights can be considered to select the best alternative.

We recently developed expansion microscopy (ExM), which achieves nanoscale-precise imaging of specimens at ~70 nm resolution (with ~4.5x linear expansion) by isotropic swelling of chemically processed, hydrogel-embedded tissue. ExM of C. elegans is challenged by its cuticle, which is stiff and impermeable to antibodies. Here we present a strategy, expansion of C. elegans (ExCel), to expand fixed, intact C. elegans. ExCel enables simultaneous readout of fluorescent proteins, RNA, DNA location, and anatomical structures at resolutions of ~65–75 nm (3.3–3.8x linear expansion). We also developed epitope-preserving ExCel, which enables imaging of endogenous proteins stained by antibodies, and iterative ExCel, which enables imaging of fluorescent proteins after 20x linear expansion. We demonstrate the utility of the ExCel toolbox for mapping synaptic proteins, for identifying previously unreported proteins at cell junctions, and for gene expression analysis in multiple individual neurons of the same animal.

Bifid mandibular canal is a variation of the normal anatomy. Such anomalies can result in difficult anesthesia while performing surgeries of the posterior mandible under local anesthesia. Moreover there is a high chance of damaging the neurovascular bundle leading to complications. Here we present a case of a bifid mandibular canal which posed difficulty in achieving appropriate anesthesia. The inferior alveolar nerve is of special interest for maxillofacial and oral surgeons. Its relation with mandibular third molar plays an important role while performing disimpaction surgery, in cases of bilateral sagittal split osteotomy, prosthesis placement in resorbed ridges, mandibular trauma procedures, and may be traumatized by penetration of the implant drill.

Alternanthera philoxeroides (Mart.), a weed, mainly from tropical origin and easily available worldwide. People used to eat it as a food mainly in South Africa. In our previous report we have thoroughly characterise several important phenolics, monoterpene and phenylpropane from methanol soluble fraction of Alternenthera leaves (fraction X) and also reported their α-glucosidase inhibitory, antimicrobial and antioxidant activities. All these isolated natural compounds are well characterised and widely studied. In our present study we try to use this beneficial fraction (named fraction X) in green synthesis of gold nanoparticles (X-GNP). We also try to explore the beneficial aspects of green synthesis in comparison with commonly used chemical synthesis method (GNP) in context with their antimicrobial activity. UV/Vis spectroscopy, DLS, Zeta potential, FT-IR, EDAX and other microscopic techniques namely: SEM, AFM were used to characterise the synthesised nanoparticles. Different important microbial strains were used to evaluate the antimicrobial activity of prepared nanoparticles. Overall the studies suggest successful synthesis of green nanoparticles (X-GNP) and also showed the improvement in antimicrobial activity of X-GNP nanoparticles.

Sweet sorghum bagasse (SSB) and corncob (CC) have been identified as promising feedstocks for the production of second-generation biofuels and other value-added chemicals. In this study, lime (Ca(OH)2) and NaOH pretreatment efficacy for decreasing recalcitrance from SSB and CC was investigated, and subsequently, the pretreated biomass was subjected to the hydrolytic action of an in-house formulated holocellulolytic enzyme cocktail (HEC-H). Compositional analysis revealed that SSB contained 29.34% lignin, 17.75% cellulose and 16.28% hemicellulose, while CC consisted of 22.51% lignin, 23.58% cellulose and 33.34% hemicellulose. Alkaline pretreatment was more effective in pretreating CC biomass compared to the SSB biomass. Both Ca(OH)2 and NaOH pretreatment removed lignin from the CC biomass, while only NaOH removed lignin from the SSB biomass. Biomass compositional analysis revealed that these agricultural feedstocks differed in their chemical composition because the CC biomass contained mainly hemicellulose (33–35%), while SSB biomass consisted mainly of cellulose (17–24%). The alkaline pretreated SSB and CC samples were subjected to the hydrolytic action of the holocellulolytic enzyme cocktail, formulated with termite derived multifunctional enzymes (referred to as MFE-5E, MFE-5H and MFE-45) and exoglucanase (Exg-D). The HEC-H hydrolysed NaOH pretreated SSB and CC more effectively than Ca(OH)2 pretreated feedstocks, revealing that NaOH was a more effective pretreatment. In conclusion, the HEC-H cocktail efficiently hydrolysed alkaline pretreated agricultural feedstocks, particularly those which are hemicellulose- and amorphous cellulose-rich, such as CC, making it attractive for use in the bioconversion process in the biorefinery industry.

Introduction: Diagnosis of acute appendicitis (AA) is purely based on history, examination and few laboratory investigations. However, it is often a perplexing diagnostic problem during the early stages of the disease. Failure to make an early diagnosis is a primary reason for morbidity and mortality. Elevated leukocyte count is one of the indicators of appendiceal inflammation in patients with right iliac fossa pain and most of the patients with acute appendicitis present with leucocytosis. Recently, it has been seen that the neutrophil: lymphocyte count ratio (NLCR) is a more sensitive marker than leukocytosis in patients with acute appendicitis. Method: This is a prospective observational study conducted over a period of one year in the department of surgery at the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital, from September 2013 to August 2014. The clinical diagnosis of Acute appendicitis was made by history and clinical examinations and laboratory investigations. Total leukocyte count (TLC) and NLCR of patients diagnosed as AA were measured and recorded in the pro forma. Histological diagnosis was taken as the final diagnosis. Results: A total of 106 patients were included in the study. Two third of the patients were male. Right iliac fossa tenderness was the most common sign. Ultrasound was able to diagnose acute appendicitis in 40.65% of the cases. NLCR> 3.5 was observed in 90.56% of patients with acute appendicitis, whereas 78.3% of patients had leukocytosis only. High NLCR (5.60) is associated with complicated AA. Conclusion: NLCR is a more sensitive laboratory parameter than TLC in patients with RIF pain to diagnose acute appendicitis. A high NLCR ratio has a high likelihood of a complicated AA.

Earthworms show a wide spectrum of regenerative potential with certain species like Eisenia fetida capable of regenerating more than two-thirds of their body while other closely related species, such as Paranais litoralis seem to have lost this ability. Earthworms belong to the phylum Annelida, in which the genomes of the marine oligochaete Capitella telata and the freshwater leech Helobdella robusta have been sequenced and studied. Herein, we report the transcriptomic changes in Eisenia fetida (Indian isolate) during regeneration. Following injury, E. fetida regenerates the posterior segments in a time spanning several weeks. We analyzed gene expression changes both in the newly regenerating cells and in the adjacent tissue, at early (15days post amputation), intermediate (20days post amputation) and late (30 days post amputation) by RNAseq based de novo assembly and comparison of transcriptomes. We also generated a draft genome sequence of this terrestrial red worm using short reads and mate-pair reads. An in-depth analysis of the miRNome of the worm showed that many miRNA gene families have undergone extensive duplications. Sox4, a master regulator of TGF-beta mediated epithelial-mesenchymal transition was induced in the newly regenerated tissue. Genes for several proteins such as sialidases and neurotrophins were identified amongst the differentially expressed transcripts. The regeneration of the ventral nerve cord was also accompanied by the induction of nerve growth factor and neurofilament genes. We identified 315 novel differentially expressed transcripts in the transcriptome, that have no homolog in any other species. Surprisingly, 82% of these novel differentially expressed transcripts showed poor potential for coding proteins, suggesting that novel ncRNAs may play a critical role in regeneration of earthworm.

Distributed constraint satisfaction problems (DisCSPs) are among the widely endeavored problems using agent-based simulation. Fernandez et al. formulated sensor and mobile tracking problem as a DisCSP, known as SensorDCSP In this paper, we adopt a customized ERE (environment, reactive rules and entities) algorithm for the SensorDCSP, which is otherwise proven as a computationally intractable problem. An amalgamation of the autonomy-oriented computing (AOC)-based algorithm (ERE) and genetic algorithm (GA) provides an early solution of the modeled DisCSP. Incorporation of GA into ERE facilitates auto-tuning of the simulation parameters, thereby leading to an early solution of constraint satisfaction. This study further contributes towards a model, built up in the NetLogo simulation environment, to infer the efficacy of the proposed approach.

Trigeminocardiac reflex is a sudden physiologic response due to mechanical manipulation of any of the branches of trigeminal nerve. Trigeminocardiac reflex occurs due to pressure effect or stretching of trigeminal nerve which causes fall in blood pressure and decrease in heart rate. In this reflex arc, the trigeminal nerve serves as afferent pathway and vagus nerve, which is cardio inhibitory in nature, serves as efferent pathway. Two episodes of trigeminocardiac reflex during maxillofacial trauma surgery is not a common phenomenon. The present case report describes a case of 40-year-old male patient, diagnosed with pan facial fracture in which two episodes of trigeminocardiac reflex were seen intraoperatively during fracture reduction and fixation of left zygomaticomaxillary complex fracture and inferior orbital rim fracture. Intraoperative management of trigeminocardiac reflex was done by withholding the stimulus and administration of atropine.

Introduction: Incidence of acute pancreatitis (AP) varies in different parts of the world. The published data are mainly based on retrospective analysis of hospital admissions, which show that there are considerable geographical differences in the incidence rate. There are also regional divergences with regard to the etiology, and its impact on morbidity and mortality. Therefore, we compare the clinical course of acute biliary and non-biliary pancreatitis at the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital (TUTH) as well as we compare the morbidity and mortality and duration of hospital stay in these groups. Methods: This prospective study included the patients with a diagnosis of AP over a period of one year. Eighty-five patients with the diagnosis of AP were included in the study. Revised Atlanta classification system (2012) was used to diagnose and define the severity of disease. The occurrence of local and systemic complications, median duration of hospital stay and mortality in AP was studied. Results: Among 85 patients, 34 patients were females and 51 were males. Among them, 46 patients belonged to the biliary group and 39 belonged to the non-biliary group. Alcohol intake was the major etiology in the non-biliary group (n = 26) and all of them were male. The majority of the gallstone induced AP patients were female (n = 29). Twenty-nine patients developed severe acute pancreatitis (SAP: 16 in biliary and 13 patients in non-biliary group). Complications were mostly seen in SAP. The acute fluid collection was the most common local complication (15 patients in biliary and 15 patients in non-biliary group, p > 0.05) and respiratory failure was the most common systemic complication (18 patients in biliary and 16 patients in non-biliary group, p > 0.05) in both groups. Three patients in biliary group and four patients in non-biliary group died due to multi-organ failure (p > 0.05). There was no statistical significant difference in the median duration of hospital stay in these groups. Conclusion: Though pathogenesis vary for different etiologies, once the disease process has started, local complications, systemic complications, duration of hospital stay and mortality in AP depends on the severity of the disease irrespective of the etiology.

Serratiopeptidase is a proteolytic enzyme that has been used for reducing inflammation, it has antiedemic, analgesic, fibrinolytic and caesinolytic properties. Serratiopeptidase is often used in oral surgery for its anti-inflammatory purpose after impaction surgery, maxillofacial trauma and infections but its use should be limited in cases of abscess due to its fibrinolytic activity. Here, we report a case of a buccal space abscess which had spread into deeper muscular layers after serratiopeptidase administration in a 32-year-old male without any systemic condition. Patient presented with a painful swelling on the right mid region of the face since seven days. Serratiopeptidase was discontinued. After routine blood investigation and ultrasonography, incision and drainage was done and the patient recovered after seven days of treatment.

Wireless sensor nodes are highly energy constrainedand hence formulating energy-efficient protocols in order toenhance network lifetime and performance are of utmostimportance in wireless sensor networks. A few solutions exist tothe problem, LEACH and PEGASIS protocols being the mostelegant ones. Both schemes try to achieve a solution byminimizing the overall energy dissipation by the nodes in thenetwork. While randomizing cluster heads for achieving equalenergy dissipation has been done in the LEACH protocol, thePEGASIS protocol forms a chain of all the nodes in thenetwork, each node taking rounds in transmitting to the basestation. In this paper we propose energy efficient protocolswhich enhance the performance of LEACH, PEGASIS. Theindividual nodes being deployed randomly in the play field thebase station is located at variable distances from them. Hence itis clear that the nodes would actually dissipate a differentamount of energy during their turn of transmission to the basestation. The inter-nodal distance also being variable it too playsa role in unequal energy dissipation of the nodes. This energydifference between the various nodes keeps on increasingresulting in poorer network performance. In our schemes we tryto nullify the differences occurring due to these abovementioned causes and thus increase the network performanceby balancing the energy dissipation by the nodes. We alsoemploy the Ant Colony Optimization algorithm (ACO) for chainconstruction instead of the greedy algorithm to enhance thenetwork performance. Extensive simulations have been carriedout which show significant improvement over PEGASIS whichin turn implies substantial increment over LEACH.

In this paper, we propose to maintain the topology of a MANET by suitably selecting multiple coordinators among the nodes constituting the MANET. The maintenance of topology in a mobile ad–hoc network is of primary importance because the routing techniques can only work if we have a connected network. Thus of the burning issues at present is to device algorithms which ensure that the network topology is always maintained. The basic philosophy behind our algorithm is to isolate two coordinators amongst the system based on positional data. Once elected, they are entrusted with the responsibility to emit signals of different frequencies while the other nodes individually decide the logic they need to follow in order to maintain the topology, thereby greatly reducing the overhead. As far as our knowledge goes, we are the first ones to introduce the concept of multiple coordinators which not only reduces the workload of the coordinator, but also eliminates the need of different signal ranges thereby ensuring greater efficiency. We have simulated the algorithm with the help of a number of robots using embedded systems. The results we have obtained have been quite encouraging.

Wireless sensor nodes, being highly energyconstrained, formulating energy-efficient protocols in orderto enhance network lifetime are of prime importance inwireless sensor networks. The LEACH and PEGASISprotocols which are elegant solutions to this problem try tominimize the overall energy dissipation by the nodes in thenetwork. While the LEACH protocol randomizes clusterheads for achieve equal energy dissemination, the PEGASISprotocol forms a chain of cluster heads taking rounds intransmitting to the base station. In this paper we propose anenergy efficient protocol which enhances the performance ofLEACH, PEGASIS. As the individual nodes are deployedrandomly in the area under surveillance the base station islocated at variable distances from them Thus each nodeactually dissipates a different amount of energy during itsturn of transmission to the base station. This energydifference between the various nodes keeps on increasingwith resulting in poorer network performance. In ourscheme each node only communicates with a close neighborand takes turns in transmitting to the base station dependingon its distance from it. This helps to iron out the unequalenergy dissipation by the individual nodes of the networkand results in superior performance as compared to LEACHand PEGASIS. Extensive simulations have been carried outwhich shows that significant improvement is over theseschemes.

This study empirically investigates the usage of a customized discrete firefly algorithm (DFA) for ordering the disk requests to minimize the total access time. The procedure simulates the movement of each firefly within a population towards others using a variation of edge-based mutation. The algorithm was applied to randomized standard disk sequences with varying length of input disk requests. Owing to the greater impact of seek time in the determination of access time for a disk having sizable number of tracks, this has been taken as the primary performance factor in the scheduling of tasks. The analysis of the results obtained establishes the relative advantage of using the firefly optimization method over the traditional disk scheduling algorithms.

In Drosophila eye development, a wave of differentiation follows a morphogenetic furrow progressing across the eye imaginal disc. This is subject to negative regulation attributed to the HLH repressor proteins Hairy and Extramacrochaete. Recent studies identify negative feedback on the bHLH gene daughterless as one of the main functions of extramacrochaete. Here the role of hairy was assessed in relation to daughterless and other HLH genes. Hairy was not found to regulate the expression of Daughterless, Extramacrochaete or Atonal, and Hairy expression was largely unregulated by these other genes. Null alleles of hairy did not alter the rate or pattern of differentiation, either alone or in the absence of Extramacrochaete. These findings question whether hairy is an important regulator of the progression of retinal differentiation in Drosophila, alone or redundantly with extramacrochaete.