Scientific Workflow Makespan Minimization in Edge Multiple Service Providers Environment

The edge computing model offers an ultimate platform to support scientific and real-time workflow-based applications over the edge of the network. However, scientific workflow scheduling and execution still facing challenges such as response time management and latency time. This leads to deal with the acquisition delay of servers, deployed at the edge of a network and reduces the overall completion time of workflow. Previous studies show that existing scheduling methods consider the static performance of the server and ignore the impact of resource acquisition delay when scheduling workflow tasks. Our proposed method presented a meta-heuristic algorithm to schedule the scientific workflow and minimize the overall completion time by properly managing the acquisition and transmission delays. We carry out extensive experiments and evaluations based on commercial clouds and various scientific workflow templates. The proposed method has approximately 7.7% better performance than the baseline algorithms, particularly in overall deadline constraint that gives a success rate.

     

Physical vapor deposition of SnS:PbS-dithiocarbamate chalcogenide semiconductor thin films: elucidation of optoelectronic and electrochemical features

Abstract

This work reports the first investigation on the physical vapor deposition of thin films of tin sulfide doped lead sulfide (SnS:PbS). In-situ synthesis route using diethyldithiocarbamate (DTC) ligand was adopted for SnS-DTC, PbS-DTC and SnS:PbS-DTC complex formation. PbS-DTC and SnS:PbS-DTC expressed an average crystallite size of 30.98 and 29.74?nm, respectively shown by X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. A face centered cubic geometry was revealed from XRD. Ultraviolet visible spectrophotometry expressed a direct and indirect band gap of 3.4 and 3.2?eV, respectively for SnS:PbS-DTC. A smooth morphology with presence of larger agglomerated particles was disclosed by scanning electron microscopy for SnS:PbS-DTC thin films with 615?nm thickness. SnS:PbS-DTC thin films expressed remarkable electrochemical behavior explored via cyclic voltammetry, linear sweep voltammetry and chronoamperometry showing an improvement in the photo-current response upon potential bias increment. The results of the current research indicated the potential of SnS:PbS-DTC thin films for utilization in different types of photovoltaic devices.     

Isolation and characterization of novel antibacterial compound from an untapped plant,Stereospermum fimbriatum

Abstract

Stereospermum fimbriatum or locally known as “Chicha” is traditionally used for itchy skin, earache, stomachache and postpartum treatments. This study was designed to evaluate the antimicrobial potential of S. fimbriatum’s stem bark against 11 pathogens and isolate its bioactive compound. Successive soxhlet extraction was conducted using n-hexane, dichloromethane (DCM) and methanol. Disc diffusion, minimum inhibitory and bactericidal concentration (MIC & MBC) assays were done to examine the antimicrobial activity. Bioassay-guided isolation was conducted on S. fimbriatum’s extract. The DCM extract of stem bark (DS) was the most potent extract followed by n-hexane extract of the stem bark (NS). A novel compound was isolated and coded as C1 which demonstrated potent antibacterial effects with the MIC values as low as 3.13?µg/mL to 6.25?µg/mL, against S. epidermidis, MRSA and S. aureus. Thus, S. fimbriatum could be a potential source of antimicrobial agents for the treatment of skin infections, specifically, MRSA.     

Cytotoxicity and Apoptosis Effects of Curcumin Analogue (2E,6E)-2,6-Bis(2,3-Dimethoxybenzylidine) Cyclohexanone (DMCH) on Human Colon Cancer Cells HT29 and SW620 In Vitro

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common type of cancer worldwide and a leading cause of cancer death. According to the Malaysian National Cancer Registry Report 2012–2016, colorectal cancer was the second most common cancer in Malaysia after breast cancer. Recent treatments for colon cancer cases have caused side effects and recurrence in patients. One of the alternative ways to fight cancer is by using natural products. Curcumin is a compound of the rhizomes of Curcuma longa that possesses a broad range of pharmacological activities. Curcumin has been studied for decades but due to its low bioavailability, its usage as a therapeutic agent has been compromised. This has led to the development of a chemically synthesized curcuminoid analogue, (2E,6E)-2,6-bis(2,3-dimethoxybenzylidine) cyclohexanone (DMCH), to overcome the drawbacks. This study aims to examine the potential of DMCH for cytotoxicity, apoptosis induction, and activation of apoptosis-related proteins on the colon cancer cell lines HT29 and SW620. The cytotoxic activity of DMCH was evaluated using the [3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide] (MTT) cell viability assay on both of the cell lines, HT29 and SW620. To determine the mode of cell death, an acridine orange/propidium iodide (AO/PI) assay was conducted, followed by Annexin V/FITC, cell cycle analysis, and JC-1 assay using a flow cytometer. A proteome profiler angiogenesis assay was conducted to determine the protein expression. The inhibitory concentration (IC₅₀) of DMCH in SW620 and HT29 was 7.50 ± 1.19 and 9.80 ± 0.55 µg/mL, respectively. The treated cells displayed morphological features characteristic of apoptosis. The flow cytometry analysis confirmed that DMCH induced apoptosis as shown by an increase in the sub-G0/G1 population and an increase in the early apoptosis and late apoptosis populations compared with untreated cells. A higher number of apoptotic cells were observed on treated SW620 cells as compared to HT29 cells. Human apoptosis proteome profiler analysis revealed upregulation of Bax and Bad proteins and downregulation of Livin proteins in both the HT29 and SW620 cell lines. Collectively, DMCH induced cell death via apoptosis, and the effect was more pronounced on SW620 metastatic colon cancer cells, suggesting its potential effects as an antimetastatic agent targeting colon cancer cells.     

Chitosan Nanoparticle-Based System: A New Insight into the Promising Controlled Release System for Lung Cancer Treatment

Lung cancer has been recognized as one of the most often diagnosed and perhaps most lethal cancer diseases worldwide. Conventional chemotherapy for lung cancer-related diseases has bumped into various limitations and challenges, including non-targeted drug delivery, short drug retention period, low therapeutic efficacy, and multidrug resistance (MDR). Chitosan (CS), a natural polymer derived from deacetylation of chitin, and comprised of arbitrarily distributed β-(1-4)-linked d-glucosamine (deacetylated unit) and N-acetyl-d-glucosamine (acetylated unit) that exhibits magnificent characteristics, including being mucoadhesive, biodegradable, and biocompatible, has emerged as an essential element for the development of a nano-particulate delivery vehicle. Additionally, the flexibility of CS structure due to the free protonable amino groups in the CS backbone has made it easy for the modification and functionalization of CS to be developed into a nanoparticle system with high adaptability in lung cancer treatment. In this review, the current state of chitosan nanoparticle (CNP) systems, including the advantages, challenges, and opportunities, will be discussed, followed by drug release mechanisms and mathematical kinetic models. Subsequently, various modification routes of CNP for improved and enhanced therapeutic efficacy, as well as other restrictions of conventional drug administration for lung cancer treatment, are covered.     

Cross-term elimination in Wigner distribution based on 2D signal processing techniques

An efficient method based on 2D signal processing techniques and fractional Fourier transform is presented to suppress interference terms of Wigner distribution (WD). The proposed technique computes Gabor transform (GT) of a multi-component signal to obtain a blurred time-frequency (t-f) image. Signal components in GT image are segmented using connected component segmentation and are filtered out using precise application of fractional Fourier transform. A crisp t-f representation is then obtained by computing the sum of products of WD and GT of the isolated signal components. The efficacy of the proposed technique is demonstrated using examples of synthetic signals and real-life bat signals. Proposed scheme gives satisfactory performance even when cross-terms of WD overlap auto-terms and computational cost analysis shows that it is more efficient than recent interference suppression techniques of comparable performance. Moreover, the proposed technique does not require any prior info regarding the nature of signal.