QoS–Aware Web Service Composition using Weight Improved Particle Swarm Optimization

Lots of Web Services are available which differ in their QoS values but can perform a similar task. Discovery mechanism selects the best Web Service according to their QoS values and functional attributes. Cases arise, where the discovery mechanism fails, as a user’s complex query cannot be satisfied by a single Web Service. This can be solved by Web Service composition where multiple Web Services are combined to give a composite Web Service which meet user’s complex query. Our work is mainly focused on composition of Web Services that efficiently meets the user’s query. Different algorithms have been discussed and used by different researchers in this field. One of the most blooming topics is the use of evolutionary algorithms in optimization problems. In our work, we have chosen Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithm approach to discover the best efficient composition. Then, Weight Improved Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithm is used to improve the results which were found to be quite satisfying and efficient.

Potential Application of Indigenous Microorganism Derived Biosorbent in the Efficient Removal of Congo Red from Aqueous Solution

IMO compost was obtained using Indigenous Microorganisms (IMO) as inoculant through anaerobic fermentation process from kitchen waste biomass. The Physico-chemical analysis of the solid was obtained by taking pH, MC, OM, OC, N, K and P content. The biosorbent material was further characterized by SEM, IR and BET analytical techniques. Various physico-chemical parametric studies viz. effect of pH, initial dye concentration and background electrolyte concentrations are performed in the removal of Congo red (CR) dye using the IMO compost. The lower pH condition pH < 6.0 favoured the removal of Congo red and the percent removal was decreased with increase in the CR concentration. The removal of Congo red followed the pseudo-second order rate kinetics and the equilibrium state sorption data was reasonably fitted well to the Freundlich adsorption isotherm. In addition, the minimal effect of background electrolyte concentrations (0.0001 to 0.1 mol/L NaNO3) in the removal of CR inferred a specific sorption of Congo red forming ‘inner sphere’ complexes at the surface of the biosorbent.

Non-Linear Optical Properties and Global Reactivity Descriptors by ab initio Hartree-Fock (H.F.) Calculations of Simple Coumarins

In this present analysis, the measurement of optimized molecular structure and molecular hyperpolarizability (βtotal) of simple coumarin molecules were investigated using the HF method at 6-311G basis set level Gaussian09W. The measured nonlinear optical parameters (NLO); polarizability (α), the anisotropy of the polarizability (Δα), and first-order molecular hyperpolarizability (βtotal) of the studied coumarins indicate promising optical properties. The energy difference between HOMO and LUMO helped determine the molecular descriptors; global hardness (η), softness (σ) electronegativity (χ) Chemical potential (μ), and electrophilicity index (ω) in gas and different solvents. The molecular hyperpolarizability (βtotal) and descriptors that have been calculated in the solvent medium were taken into consideration through the Polarizable Continuum Model (PCM), This study shows the high static hyperpolarizability exhibited by HNR, FXT, and CNT and offers the potential the materials may have for NLO devices. The molecular descriptors, hardness, and chemical potential values are high for CNT and UCAcompared to other studied coumarins. This suggested that CNT and CA have the most significant chemical potential resistance to change the number of electrons among the other molecules.

Sorption of Rhodamine B Dye onto Bentonite Clay-silane Composite Materials

The aim of this communication is to assess the sorption behavior of silanes grafted bentonite composite materials for Rhodamine B (RhB) from aqueous solution. The nanocomposites were synthesized by functionalization of the bentonite with 3-mercaptopropyltrimethoxysilane and 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane under inert atmosphere. The batch experimental data indicated that the composite materials showed high percentage removal of RhB over a wide pH range, i.e., pH ~4.0 to 10.0. A high percentage removal of RhB was achieved within the concentrations studied from 1.0 to 25.0 mgL-1. Langmuir and Freundlich adsorption isotherm were obtained using equilibrium state sorption data. The equilibrium sorption was attained within 180 min of contact and the kinetic model best fitted the pseudo-second-order model. Further, the change in background electrolyte (NaCl) concentrations from 0.0001 to 0.1molL-1 NaCl and the presence of co-existing ions do not significantly affect the sorption of RhB by the composite sorbents except for EDTA.

Isolation and Molecular Characterisation of Ginger (Zingiber officinale. rosc.) Soft Rot Pathogenic Fungi from Champhai District of Mizoram, India

Ginger (Zingiber officinale Rosc.,Zingiberaceae) is an important crop grown in India known for its therapeutic uses. Wilting caused by bacteria, soft rot and yellow disease caused by fungi are the major diseases affecting Ginger production and its cultivation hampering its growth and development. The current study emphasize on the morphological and molecular identification of fungal pathogens causing soft rot disease in ginger that have become one of the major problem among farmers of Mizoram, India as a result of which resulted in a huge decline in rhizome yield and its production. Nevertheless, due to limited studies of the medicinal plants the causative agents associated with these plants are not available. The objective of this study is to investigate the diversity of fungi that cause soft rot in ginger. Twenty fungi were successfully isolated from four villages of Champha iDistrict, Mizoram. The fungi isolated from the infected rhizome were cultured and identification was carried out using morphological characteristics and molecular analysis of DNA sequence generated from Internal Transcribed Spacer rDNA region. Of the samples collected, F. solani,F. oxysporum, P. myriotylum were the most common causative agents. Much research work has yet to be undertaken explore the diversity of pathogrnic fungi causing soft rot in Mizoram which could be very significant in introducing competent and eco-friendly disease management programme.

In Silico and in Vivo Investigations of Bioagent Helicoverpa Nucleopolyhedrovirus against Helicoverpa armigera in Chickpea

During investigations; homology model of 3D-structure was built for sequence of polyhedrin protein of Helicoverpa armigera nucleopolyhedrovirus, containing 246 amino acids (Accession: ACI05106.1 GI: 205946055), and evaluated through multiple tools/ applications to judge extent of accuracy in light of existing crystal structure. Further, in vivo experiments were conducted and determined response of different adjuvants with HaNPV and their efficacy. The pooled mean mortality of larvae exposed to virus mixed with 5% green tea and 5% rice bran filtrates (8.3 larvae per 25 plants) was differ significantly from control (15.8 larvae per 25 plants), suggesting that UV protectants & diet enhancer (mannitol) has ability to protect stability of virulence of the virus, under field conditions. The minimum percent pod damage of 8.6% and maximum yield of 1604.8 Kg ha-1 at harvesting was recorded with formulation of indigenous BHA virus isolate @ 2.2 x 105 POBs mL-1 mixed with Roket @50 ppm; followed by formulation with mannitol (@ 1% + green tea 5% + 5% rice bran filtrates) with percent pod damage of 16.8 % and yield of 1045.8 Kg ha-1 of chickpea. Furthermore, in vitro toxicity of fresh virus suspension @ 250 mL ha-1 was recorded more toxic in terms of percent mortality and LT50 (5.65 days). However, three months stored HaNPV formulations [(A) mannitol @ 1%+ green tea@ 5% and (B) mannitol @ 1% + green tea 5% + 5% rice bran filtrates] were more effective in larval reduction with LT50 of 7.89 and 6.00 days, respectively. Virus mixed with 5% green tea and 5% rice bran filtrates gave stability to formulation up-to one year with LT50 of 7.64 days. Findings showed that HaNPV formulations with mannitol (B) have potential that can be used in integrated manner with other IPM practices, to reduce the use of toxic synthetic pesticides in chickpea.

Cardinal Metrics in Blockchain Functioning

Blockchain technology has been acquiring pace in deployments and implementations across globe vide association with large number of domains apart from widely known finance domain. These deployments are variegated in designs, have various architectures and possess functional differences. The commonality exists in deriving the benefits of blockchain technology through various technical variants of the widely known bitcoin blockchain architecture. Though still in evolving stage, the blockchain technology has been able to make an absolute mark in the industries, corporate and governance mechanisms to affirm that it’s part of a definite future. With devices estimate up to 50 billion in ecosystem of Internet-of-Things by 2025, the blockchain technology is soon going to be an integral part of future smart world. The deployment of any blockchain architecture might be able to accomplish the functional requirements as per design but the measurement of desired blockchain performance persists on a lot of parameters which need a balance and fine tuning established on purpose it has been designed for. In current times, transaction commit delays are being observed in bitcoin ecosystem. This paper identifies parameter effects on a bitcoin blockchain and measures the performance vide a bitcoin simulator effecting into tuning parameters like block size, blocks and number of nodes to analyze performance. The tuning effects into blockchain performance has been quantified, analyzed and discussed with focus on measuring and reducing the transaction propagation delays in a bitcoin environment. The paper concludes with heat map modeling plotted on Jupyter notebook with datasets derived.

Absence of NRAS Mutations in Ampulla of Vater Carcinoma

Ampulla of vater carcinomas (AVCs) are malignancies that occur in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. AVCs mainly remain asymptomatic until the more advanced stages of tumor, making it imperative to identify early diagnostic tools. In addition to this, it is pertinent to also understand the factors that may contribute to cancer progression. In this study, we have collected paraffin embedded tissues from 38 AVC patients and blood samples from 38 controls to study the mutational profile of NRAS in AVCs. In addition to this, general characteristics such as tumor size, stage, differentiation and tumor subtype were taken into account in this study. The lifestyle factors were obtained from the patients and the controls were matched accordingly. We observed no mutations in the NRAS gene in our cohort. Studies with a larger cohort are necessary to better understand the mutational profile of AVCs to provide better therapeutic and treatment options. More research is essential in this area to pinpoint the molecular landscape of AVCs

Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Colonization Status in Selected Alien Invasive Plants of Asteraceae

Invasive alien plants tend to grow much faster than non-invasive plants. The colonization by AM fungi is confirmed by the presence of mycorrhizal structures in the roots of invasive plants. The pattern of hyphae and arbuscules denotes Arum and Paris type of AM fungal morphology. The most common and abundant invasive plants from Asteraceae family were selected for the study. Ageratum conyzoides, Mikania micrantha, Ageratum haustonianum and Bidens Pilosa were selected and eventually showed that they have a high percentage of mycorrhizal colonization. Arum type of morphology is found in three of the plant species and Paris type of morphology is found in one of the species. The extent of AM fungal colonization is fairly high ranging from 60% to 90% among the studied plants. The percentage of arbuscular colonization is highest in Bidens pilosa and the percentage of vesicle and hyphal colonization is highest in Ageratum conyzoides.

Improved Cuckoo Search Algorithm for Future Selection

The classification of high-dimensional dataset is challenging as it contains large amount irrelevant and noisy features. Thus, feature selection is performed in the dataset to eliminate these redundant features. It reduces the dimensionality of the dataset and increases the classification accuracy. Hence, for selecting the relevant features in high dimensional data, an improved cuckoo search algorithm (ICSA) was proposed in this paper. After feature selection, the dataset undergo classification using KNN classifier and SVM classifier. The experimental process illustrates that the improved cuckoo search algorithm effectively increases the classification accuracy by reducing the number of features in the dataset. For analysing the proposed algorithm, seven UCI repository dataset have been utilised. Also, the ICS algorithm is compared with other existing algorithms for the given dataset. From the investigation process, it was concluded that the proposed algorithm selects lesser number of features and also enhances the classification accuracy than the other existing algorithms.