Bird’s eye chilli (
Capsicum frutescens
L.) is one of the most important species of the genus
Capsicum
, and is grown and consumed widely across north-east India, particularly in the states of ...Mizoram and Manipur. The bioactive compounds present in this landrace of north-east India are very less studied. The antioxidant property was assayed by scavenging abilities using diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), azinobisethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulphonic acid (ABTS), assay of ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP), and determining total phenolics (TP) and total flavonoids (TF) contents. There was a significant variation in the total phenolic content (12.4–133.2 mg GAE/g dry weight), total flavonoid (22.1–58.8 mg quercetin/g dry weight), DPPH (0.5–6.1 mM AAE/g dry weight), ABTS (20.5–44.3 mM AAE/g dry weight) and FRAP (0.7–7.8 mM GAE/dry weight) antioxidant capacity in
Capsicum frutescens
L. landraces. Two landraces of
Capsicum chinense
viz. MN-1 and MN-2 exhibited highest values for all the antioxidant assays. Positively significant correlation coefficients were observed between ABTS–FRAP, TF–FRAP, TP–FRAP, TP–DPPH and TP–TF. From principal component analysis (PCA) first two PCs explained 67.3 % of total variance and it was contributed mainly by TP, TF, ABTS and FRAP activities. Seventy-two
Capsicum
landraces were grouped into five clusters based on the standardized squared Euclidean distance using Ward’s hierarchical clustering method and separation based on PCA biplot. The experiment established that the landraces of
Capsicum frutescens
L. are potent source of natural antioxidants which reduce the oxidation processes in the body by protecting against reactive oxygen species.
The U.S. Global Climate Change Research Program has identified climate change as a growing public health threat. We investigated the potential effects of changes in ambient daily maximum temperature ...on hyperthermia and cardiovascular emergency department (ED) visits using records for patients age 64 and younger from a private insurance database for the May–September period for 2005–2012. We found a strong positive relationship between daily maximum temperatures and ED visits for hyperthermia but not for cardiovascular conditions. Using the fitted relationship from 136 metropolitan areas, we calculated the number and rate of hyperthermia ED visits for climates representative of year 1995 (baseline period), as well as years 2050 and 2090 (future periods), for two climate change scenarios based on outcomes from five global climate models. Without considering potential adaptation or population growth and movement, we calculate that climate change alone will result in an additional 21,000–28,000 hyperthermia ED visits for May to September, with associated treatment costs between $6 million and $52 million (2015 U.S. dollars) by 2050; this increases to approximately 28,000–65,000 additional hyperthermia ED visits with treatment costs between $9 million and $118 million (2015 U.S. dollars) by 2090. The range in projected additional hyperthermia visits reflects the difference between alternative climate scenarios, and the additional range in valuation reflects different assumptions about per‐case valuation.
Key Points
Quantified relationship of daily maximum temperature and hyperthermia emergency department visits for subset of insured age less than or equal to 64
Unconstrained climate change increases the rate of hyperthermia ED visits fourfold from 2010 to 2090 in 136 modeled metropolitan areas
A Representative Concentration Pathway 4.5 scenario versus a RCP 8.5 avoids ~37,000 annual hyperthermia ED visits in 2090
The extended Kalman filter (EKF) is widely adopted for the state-of-charge (SOC) estimation of batteries. The trial and error selection of noise covariance and variation of operating temperatures ...lead to convergence uncertainty and poor robustness of the EKF. This paper presents an adaptive EKF (AEKF) for online SOC estimation of lithium-ion batteries based on the Thevenin equivalent circuit model (ECM) that can mitigate the problems with EKF. The parameters of the first-order Thevenin ECM are estimated using the recursive least square (RLS) method at different operating temperatures. A pulse discharge test with lithium-iron-phosphate cell has been carried out in the LabVIEW platform, where SOC of the cell is determined by the coulomb counting method (CCM). Then the SOC is estimated using the EKF and AEKF methods and compared with the CCM method. The simulation and experimental results confirm that the AEKF shows better performance compared to the conventional EKF method.
Mizoram and Manipur are the two north-eastern states of India, where maximum diversity of
Capsicum frutescens
is found. Seventy two
Capsicum
landraces, consisting predominantly of
C. frutescens
...accessions were collected from the major growing states of north-eastern India. Landraces were compared for 29 qualitative traits and 14 quantitative traits using multivariate methods, including clustering and principal component analysis to assess the patterns of morphological variation. Landraces collected revealed significant differences (
P
< 0.0001) for all the quantitative traits. Fruit length of >4 cm was found in three landraces (MN-1, MN-2 and MZBEC-2), whereas smallest
C. frutescens
landraces (in length) were MZBEC-42 (1.15 cm), MZBEC-13 (1.17 cm) and MZBEC-55 (1.27 cm); a variation of 6.5 folds was found in fruit length. Among the 91 inter correlation coefficients studied in quantitative traits, 17 were positively significant (8 at
P
< 0.01 and 9 at
P
< 0.05) and three were negatively significant (2 at
P
< 0.01 and 1 at
P
< 0.05). Five significant principal components (PC) were identified and accounted for a cumulative variation of 69.88%. Hierarchical cluster analysis grouped 72 landraces into five clusters based on the qualitative traits and into six clusters based on quantitative traits. Altogether, the present study has generated baseline information about the vast intra-specific diversity of
C. frutescens
landraces of North-East India.
The present study was undertaken to evaluate the effect of α-eleostearic acid and punicic acid, two isomers of conjugated linolenic acid (CLnA) present in bitter gourd (Momordica charantia) and snake ...gourd oil (Trichosanthes anguina), respectively, against oxidative stress, inflammatory challenge and aberration in erythrocyte morphology due to streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetes. Male albino rats were divided into four groups consisting of eight animals in each group. The first group served as control and diabetes was induced in rats in groups 2-4 by a single intraperitoneal injection of STZ. Moreover, rats in groups 3 and 4 were treated with 0·5 % of α-eleostearic acid and 0·5 % of punicic acid of the total lipid given, respectively, by oral administration once per d. After administration, CLnA isomers had significantly reduced oxidative stress, lipid peroxidation and restored antioxidant and pro-inflammatory enzymes such as superoxide dismutase, catalase, and glutathione peroxidase, reduced glutathione, NO synthase level in pancreas, blood and erythrocyte lysate. The ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) assay of plasma showed that CLnA treatment caused improvement in the FRAP value which was altered after STZ treatment due to an increased level of free radicals. Expression of inflammatory cytokines such as TNF-α and IL-6 in blood and expression of hepatic NF-κB (p65) increased significantly after STZ treatment due to increased inflammation which was restored with the administration of CLnA isomers. From the obtained results, it could be concluded that α-eleostearic acid and punicic acid showed potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity with varying effectivity.
In this paper, the combined kinematic and sensitivity optimization of a rack-and-pinion steering linkage is performed. This steering linkage is the most common steering system used in passenger cars. ...Although, the steering linkage has received a lot of attention for the minimization of the steering errors, no attempt has been made so far to investigate the sensitivities of optimum dimensions relative to variation of link lengths. The kinematic optimization of the linkage is carried out using three homogenous design parameters. The objective of the proposed optimization is to minimize maximum steering error during cornering. This is followed by a sensitivity analysis to predict how the steering error is affected by manufacturing tolerances, assembly errors, and clearances resulting due to wear. Since the optimized kinematic error is very sensitive to the variations of the linkage parameters, the kinematic and post-optimal sensitivity optimization of the steering linkage is performed in an integrated manner. The methodology proposed in this work helps the designers of rack-and-pinion steering linkage to choose the linkage parameters whose maximum steering error (MSE) and sensitivity are minimum.
This study investigates the possible changes in future winter temperature and precipitation extremes in the Arctic using the regional climate model HIRHAM4. Under the B2 emission scenario conditions, ...frequency and intensity of future (2037–2051) extremes have changed significantly compared to the present‐day (1981–1995) extremes. Extreme precipitations have intensified and the number of extreme events has changed significantly over East Siberia and Barents Sea. Extreme warm and extreme cold temperatures have become warmer with maxima over Barents Sea and Central Eurasia. Changes in the mean climate and its variability are modulating the future winter extreme events.
Numerical study of heat transfer phenomena has become a major field of research nowadays. In engineering applications, different boundary conditions arise which have various effects on heat transfer ...characteristics. For the present work, a triangular-shape cavity has been analyzed for the sine-squared thermal boundary condition which is common in practical cases. The augmentation of heat transfer has been done by introducing a nanofluid inside the cavity. Different solid volume fractions
(φ
= 0, 0.05, 0.1, 0.2
)
of water-CuO, water-Al
2
O
3
, and water-TiO
2
nanofluid have been tested for the cavity with a wide range of Rayleigh number
(Ra
= 10
5
-10
8
)
and for dimensionless time
(τ
= 0.1 to 1
)
. The Galerkin weighted residual finite-element method has been applied for the numerical solution, and numerical accuracy has been checked by code validation. The heat transfer augmentation for different nanofluids has been done in the light of local
(
Nu
L
)
and overall Nusselt number
(Nu
av
)
, and the results have been presented with streamline, isotherm, and related contours, in graphs and charts. It has been found that variable boundary condition has significant effect on flow and thermal fields and increase of solid volume fraction enhances the heat transfer.
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