Quality Related Safety Evaluation of a South African Traditional Formulation (PHELA®) as Novel Anti-Biofilm Candidate

A South African traditional formulation, PHELA^®, is consumed by the traditional people for severe chest problems with coughing, diarrhea, oral ulcers etc. The present study focused on establishing the anti-infective properties of a safe and standardized poly-herbal formulation through a series of criteria and specifications.     

Epidemiological impact of waning immunization on a vaccinated population

This is an epidemiological SIRV model based study that is designed to analyze the impact of vaccination in containing infection spread, in a 4-tiered population compartment comprised of susceptible, infected, recovered and vaccinated agents. While many models assume a lifelong protection through vaccination, we focus on the impact of waning immunization due to conversion of vaccinated and recovered agents back to susceptible ones. Two asymptotic states exist, the “disease-free equilibrium” and the “endemic equilibrium” and we express the transitions between these states as function of the vaccination and conversion rates and using the basic reproduction number. We find that the vaccination of newborns and adults have different consequences on controlling an epidemic. Also, a decaying disease protection within the recovered sub-population is not sufficient to trigger an epidemic at the linear level. We perform simulations for a parameter set mimicking a disease with waning immunization like pertussis. For a diffusively coupled population, a transition to the endemic state can proceed via the propagation of a traveling infection wave, described successfully within a Fisher-Kolmogorov framework.     

Chitosan hydrochloride mediated efficient,green catalysis for the synthesis of perimidine derivatives

Chitosan hydrochloride as biopolymer‐based, renewable, and recyclable heterogeneous catalyst was used for efficient one‐pot synthesis of perimidine derivatives. This newly developed greener methodology provides a very simple and greener route for the synthesis of perimidines in short time with excellent yield.     

Isometries of absolute order unit spaces

Positivity - We prove that a unital, bijective linear map between absolute order unit spaces is an isometry if and only if it is absolute value preserving. We deduce that, on (unital) JB-algebras,...     

Use of a microelectromechanical mirror for adaptive optics in the human eye

Ophthalmic instrumentation equipped with adaptive optics offers the possibility of rapid and automated correction of the eye's optics for improving vision and for improving images of the retina. One factor that limits the widespread implementation of adaptive optics is the cost of the wave-front corrector, such as a deformable mirror. In addition, the large apertures of these elements require high pupil magnification, and hence the systems tend to be physically large. We present what are believed to be the first closed-loop results when a compact, low-cost, surface micromachined, microelectromechanical mirror is used in a vision adaptive-optics system. The correction performance of the mirror is shown to be comparable to that of a Xinetics mirror for a 4.6-mm pupil size. Furthermore, for a pupil diameter of 6.0-mm, the residual rms error is reduced from 0.36 to 0.12 microm and individual photoreceptors are resolved at a pupil eccentricity of 1 degrees from the fovea.     

Effect of initial orientation on twinning in commercially pure titanium

Abstract

The effect of initial orientation on twinning micro-mechanisms during tensile deformation of commercially pure titanium has been studied using micro focus X-ray diffraction and electron back scatter diffraction (EBSD) in a scanning electron microscope. Three orientations A, B and C obtained from a rolled and annealed block of commercially pure titanium were deformed in uniaxial tension till failure and the tested specimens were characterised with regard to bulk texture, microstructure and crystal orientation mapping using EBSD. Orientation B along the transverse direction in ND-TD plane exhibits higher strength and lower strain hardening compared to orientations A and C along the rolling direction in TD-RD and ND-RD plane, respectively. This is attributed to different texture of sample B compared to samples A and C leading to dissimilar twinning micro-mechanisms and characteristic variation in nature of twinning. It is observed that limited twin nucleation and prominent lateral growth plays a dominant role in orientation B while multiple twin nucleation with significant non-Schmid behaviour is dominant for the other two orientations. It is proposed from this study that conventional factors associated with twin formation like Schmid factor play a main role in twin nucleation and propagation, however, growth or lateral thickening of the twins is explained by elastic stiffness variation across twins and their parent grains.     

A nonlinear stability analysis for rotating magnetized ferrofluid heated from below saturating a porous medium

A nonlinear (energy) stability analysis is performed for a rotating magnetized ferrofluid layer heated from below saturating a porous medium, in the stress-free boundary case. By introducing a generalized energy functional, a rigorous nonlinear stability result for a thermoconvective rotating magnetized ferrofluid is derived. The mathematical emphasis is on how to control the nonlinear terms caused by magnetic body force. It is found that the nonlinear critical stability magnetic thermal Rayleigh number does not coincide with that of linear instability analysis, and thus indicates that the subcritical instabilities are possible. However, it is noted that, in case of non-ferrofluid, global nonlinear stability Rayleigh number is exactly the same as that for linear instability. For lower values of magnetic parameters, this coincidence is immediately lost. The effect of magnetic parameter, M ₃, medium permeability, D _a , and rotation, , on subcritical instability region has also been analyzed. It is shown that with the increase of magnetic parameter, M ₃, and Darcy number, D _a , the subcritical instability region between the two theories decreases quickly while with the increase of Taylor number, , the subcritical region expands. We also demonstrate coupling between the buoyancy and magnetic forces in the presence of rotation in nonlinear energy stability analysis as well as in linear instability analysis.