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The role of sodium sulfate was considered relative to pulp washing liquors and its impact on the reattachment of lignin to pulp fibers during the brownstock washing process. The dissolution of lignin during washing and its potential redeposition onto the pulp fibers is influenced by various factors. Three distinct types of pulp – unbleached, bleached, and cotton linters – were used to explore these effects. The washing experiments were conducted using industrial wash liquor and were repeated further with the addition of sodium sulfate. The resulting products of the washing process, including the liquor discharge and the washed pulp, were thoroughly evaluated. Analytical techniques, such as UV measurements of lignin content in the liquor discharge and characterization of the pulp, were employed to assess the outcomes. The findings reveal that the addition of sodium sulfate to the washing liquor resulted in an increase in its conductivity and ionic strength. Moreover, it was observed that lignin reattachment to pulp fibers was noticeably greater when washing was performed with sodium sulfate addition. Among the pulps studied, unbleached kraft pulp exhibited the highest degree of lignin reattachment, followed by bleached kraft pulp, with cotton linters showing the least.

A long-term goal of the pulping industry is to optimize process parameters for efficiently removing degraded and soluble lignin during the fiber line processes such as kraft pulping, brownstock washing, and bleaching. This study investigates how pulp storage affects the efficiency of brownstock washing and oxygen delignification. Three pulp groups were rinsed with warm and cold water at 40 °C and 5 °C, respectively, and then stored under varying conditions (1 day, 1 week at temperatures of 5 °C and 60 °C. Our findings indicate that after one week of storage at 60 °C, more lignin was extracted, highlighting the influence of storage temperature and time on Kappa reduction (lignin removal) during storage. Additionally, larger lignin fragments were removed with increased storage temperature and time, suggesting that degraded lignin molecules trapped within the fibers can leach out during storage and be subsequently removed in washing. The different storage conditions had only a slight effect on oxygen delignification performance. We conclude that storage conditions, particularly temperature and time, significantly impact lignin removal efficiency and can enhance the pulp washing process. This study also provides valuable insights into lignin mass transfer during storage, offering guidance for industrial applications. The study also revealed that pulp quality after oxygen delignification is influenced by pH and lignin agglomeration and retention in the fibers during preceding washing and storage operations, emphasizing the need for careful control of the latter conditions to minimize cellulose degradation.

Pogostemon benghalensis has been used traditionally as anticancer in India. The present study was undertaken to investigate the antitumor activity of hydroethanolic extract of P. benghalensis (HEEPB) and aqueous extract of P. benghalensis (AEPB) on ehrlich ascites carcinoma (EAC) tumor bearing mice. For antitumor effect, treatments with HEEPB and AEPB at doses of 250 mg/kg and 500 mg/kg/day orally were started after 24 h of intraperitoneal inoculation of EAC cells. After the treatment period, median survival time (MST), hematological parameters and solid tumor volume were used to evaluate antitumor activity of the extracts. Both, HEEPB and AEPB, have increased MST (P<0.05), reduced solid tumor volume (P<0.05) and normalized hematological parameters (P<0.05) significantly. As HEEPB and AEPB were effective in reducing the severity of morphological and biochemical parameters induced by EAC cells, this study justifies the traditional use of this plant in cancer.

Asthma is an inflammatory disorder that results in the obstruction of air pathways and causes difficulty in breathing. Oral dosage forms associated with lag time and delayed onset of action are among the available means of treatment. However, aerosols and parenterals have a rapid onset of action but strongly affect the patient compliance. Thus, an attempt was made to improve the onset of action of bronchodilator used commonly in the treatment of asthma. Fast dissolving tablets of terbutaline sulfate were prepared by the direct compression method after incorporating superdisintegrants such as Explotab, Ac-Di-Sol and Polyplasdone XL in different concentrations. The prepared tablets were evaluated for weight variation, thickness, hardness, friability, wetting time, drug content, water absorption ratio, in vitro dispersion time, in vitro disintegration time and in vitro drug release. Among all, the formulation F9 (containing 5% w/w concentration of Polyplasdone XL) was considered to be the best formulation, which releases up to 99.33% of the drug in 10 min.

In order to scientifically appraise some of the anecdotal, folkloric, ethno medical uses of Pisonia aculeata Linn. (Nyctaginaceae), the present study was undertaken to examine the antitumor activity of Pisonia aculeata leaves extract on Ehrlich Ascites Carcinoma (EAC) in mice. Tumor was induced in mice by intraperitoneal injection of Ehrlich Ascites Carcinoma cells (1X106 cells/mouse). Ethanol extract of Pisonia aculeata (EEPA) was administered to the experimental animals at the doses of 250 & 500 mg/kg/day, p.o. The antitumor effect of the extract was evaluated by using survival time, hematological parameters, increase in body weight, solid tumour volume and peritoneal cell count. Oral administration of EEPA increased the survival time and inhibits the weight gain of the tumor bearing mice. After 14 days of inoculation, the extract also reduces the solid tumor volume developed by the EAC cells. The findings of this study indicate that the EEPA possesses significant antitumor activity on dose dependent manner.

Shape memory alloys (SMAs), such as NiTi, exhibit phase transformations during cyclic loading, leading to degradation in functional properties like recovery strain and thermal hysteresis, known as functional fatigue. This study proposes an artificial neural network (ANN) approach to model the functional fatigue behaviour of NiTi SMA under partial thermal cycling at constant stress (100 MPa) and varying electrical current (10–17.5 A) across 1000 cycles. A feed-forward backpropagation ANN with two inputs (current, number of cycles) and four outputs (recovery strain, permanent strain, upper cycle temperature, and strain accumulation per cycle) was developed. The ANN achieved a prediction accuracy of 94.3%, indicating its reliability in capturing the complex fatigue response of SMAs.

Wind energy is an abundant renewable energy resource that is extensively used worldwide in recent years. The present work proposes a new Multi-Objective Optimization (MOO) based genetic algorithm (GA) model for a wind energy system. The proposed algorithm consists of non-dominated sorting which focuses to maximize the power extraction of the wind turbine and the lifetime of the battery. Also, the performance characteristics of the wind turbine and battery energy storage system (BESS) are analyzed specifically torque, current, voltage, state of charge (SOC), and internal resistance. The complete analysis is carried out in the MATLAB/Simulink platform. The simulated results are compared with existing optimization techniques such as single-objective, multi-objective, and non-dominating sorting GA II (Genetic Algorithm-II). From the observed results, the NSGA III optimization algorithm offers superior performance notably higher turbine power output with higher torque rate, lower speed variation, and lesser degradation rate of the battery. This result attested to the fact that the proposed optimization tool can extract a higher rate of power from a self-excited induction generator (SEIG) when compared with a conventional optimization tool.

This study explored the prevalence of multi-drug resistance and virulence factors of enterococcal isolates obtained from various clinical specimens (n = 1575) including urine, blood, pus, tissue, catheter, vaginal wash, semen, and endotracheal secretions. Out of 862 enterococcal isolates, 388 (45%), 246 (29%), 120 (14%), and 108 (13%) were identified as Enterococcus faecalis, Enterococcus faecium, Enterococcus durans, and Enterococcus hirae, respectively, using standard morphological and biochemical methods. The antibiotic resistance profile of all these enterococcal isolates was checked using the disc diffusion technique. High-level resistance was observed for benzylpenicillin (70%) and vancomycin (43%) among E. faecalis and E. faecium isolates, respectively. This study also revealed the prevalence of ‘multi-drug resistance (resistant to 3 antibiotic groups)’ among the vancomycin-resistant enterococcal strains, and this was about 11% (n = 91). The virulence determinants associated with vancomycin resistance (VR) were determined phenotypically and genotypically. About 70 and 39% of E. faecalis and E. faecium isolates showed to be positive for all four virulence factors (gelatinase, protease, hemolysin, and biofilm). Among the several virulence genes, gelE was the most common virulence gene with a prevalence rate of 76 and 69% among E. faecalis and E. faecium isolates, respectively. More than 50% of VRE isolates harbored other virulence genes, such esp, asa, ace, and cylA. Similarly, the majority of the VR enterococcal isolates (n = 88/91) harbored vanA gene and none of them harbored vanB gene. These results disclose the importance of VR E. faecalis and E. faecium and the associated virulence factors involved in the persistence of infections in clinical settings.

Sawdust, Rice husk and seashells are bio waste products. The use of bio waste materials to create a useful product is called green manufacturing. Sawdust-reinforced epoxy resin composites give good mechanical and physical properties. The reinforced epoxy resin has excellent mechanical strength, electrical and chemical resistance, good thermal insulation and is used as filler material. Rice husk is one of the waste products while extracting the rice from the paddy. This rice husk is good in adhesive nature, used as a green manure and filler material. Seashell is one of the solid waste materials. These seashells are rich in calcium carbonate, so their strength is high compared with natural fiber. The powdered seashell is added with the sawdust and rice husk epoxy resin composite with three different ratios. The percentage of epoxy resin is maintained at a constant ratio (65%). The combinations are adding sawdust (35%) with epoxy resin (65%), sawdust (20%) and rice husk (15%) with epoxy resin (65%). The final combination of adding all three sawdust (20%), rice husk (10%) and seashell (5%) with epoxy resin (65%). The above composites are fabricated by compression molding techniques. The mechanical properties like tensile, impact, hardness and compressive tests have been investigated.

Sa wdust, Rice husk and seashells are bio waste products. The use of bio waste materials to create a useful product is called green manufacturing. Sawdust-reinforced epoxy resin composites give good mechanical and physical properties. The reinforced epoxy resin has excellent mechanical strength, electrical and chemical resistance, good thermal insulation and is used as filler material. Rice husk is one of the waste products while extracting the rice from the paddy. This rice husk is good in adhesive nature, used as a green manure and filler material. Seashell is one of the solid waste materials. These seashells are rich in calcium carbonate, so their strength is high compared with natural fiber. The powdered seashell is added with the sawdust and rice husk epoxy resin composite with three different ratios. The percentage of epoxy resin is maintained at a constant ratio (65%). The combinations are adding sawdust (35%) with epoxy resin (65%), sawdust (20%o) and rice husk (15%) with epoxy resin (65%). The final combination of adding all three sawdust (20%o), rice husk (10%o) and seashell (5%) with epoxy resin (65%). The above composites are fabricated by compression molding techniques. The mechanical properties like tensile, impact, hardness and compressive tests have been investigated.