Apart from its role as a digestive and absorptive organ, the gastrointestinal (GI) tract is a vital immune organ that encompasses roughly 70 % of the total immune cells of the body. As such, the physical, chemical and nutrient composition of the diet influences overall GI function, effectively as an immune organ. With the improvement in feed technology, agro-industrial co-products that are high in fibre have been widely used as a feed ingredient in the diets of pigs and poultry. Arabinoxylan (AX) and mannan are the most abundant hemicellulosic polysaccharides present in cereal grain and co-product ingredients used in the livestock industry. When monogastric animals consume diets containing high amounts of AX and mannans, stimulation of GI immune cells may occur. This involves the activation of several cellular and molecular pathways of the immune system and requires a considerable amount of energy and nutrients to be expended by the animal, which may ultimately influence overall health and growth performance of animals. Therefore, a better understanding of the role of AX and mannan in immune modulation will be helpful in modulating untoward GI immune responses, thereby minimising nutrient and energy expenditure toward this effort. This review will summarise pertinent research on the role of oligosaccharides and polysaccharides containing AX and mannans in immune modulation in order to preserve gut integrity.

The eastern Arabian Sea is influenced by both the advection of upwelled water from the western Arabian Sea and winter convective mixing. Therefore, sediments collected from the eastern Arabian Sea can help to understand the long-term seasonal hydrographic changes. We used the planktonic foraminifera census and stable isotopic ratio (δ18O) from sediments drilled during the International Ocean Discovery Program Expedition 355 to reconstruct surface hydrographic changes in the eastern Arabian Sea during the last 350 kyr. The increased abundance of Globigerina bulloides suggests enhanced advection of upwelled water during the latter half of MIS7 and the beginning of MIS6, as a result of a strengthened summer monsoon. A large drop in upwelling and/or advection of upwelled water from the western Arabian Sea is inferred during the subsequent interval of MIS6, based on the rare presence of G. bulloides. The comparable relative abundance of Neogloboquadrina dutertrei, G. bulloides and Globigerinoides ruber suggests that during the early part of MIS5, hydrographic conditions were similar to today. The upwelling decreased and winter convection increased with the progress of the glacial interval. A good coherence between planktonic foraminiferal assemblage-based monsoon stacks from both the eastern and western Arabian Sea suggests a coeval response of the entire northern Arabian Sea to the glacial–interglacial changes. The glacial–interglacial difference in δ18Osw-ivc was at a maximum with 4–5 psu change in salinity during Termination 2 and 3, and a minimum during Termination 4. The significantly reduced regional contribution to the glacial–interglacial change in δ18Osw-ivc during Termination 4 suggests a lesser change in the monsoon.

Large amplitude ion-acoustic double layer (IADL) is studied using Sagdeev's pseudo-potential technique in collisionless unmagnetized plasma comprising hot and cold Maxwellian population of electrons, warm adiabatic ions, and dust grains. Variation of both Mach number (M) and amplitude |φm | of large amplitude IADL with charge, concentration, and mass of heavily charged massive dust grains is investigated for both positive and negative dust in plasma. Our numerical analysis shows that system supports only rarefactive large amplitude IADL for the selected set of plasma parameters. Our investigations for both negative and positive dust grains reveal that ion temperature increases the mobility of ions, resulting in increase in the Mach number of IADL. The larger mobility of ions causes leakage of ions from localized region, resulting into decrease in the amplitude of IADL. Other parameters, e.g. temperature ratio of hot to cold electrons, charge, concentration, mass of heavily charged massive dust grains also play significant role in the properties and existence of double layers. Since it is well established that both positive and negative dust are found in space as well as laboratory plasma, and double layers have a tremendous role to play in astrophysics, we have included both positive and negative dust in our numerical analysis for the study of large amplitude IADL. Further data used for negative dust are close to experimentally observed data. Hence, it is anticipated that our parametric studies for heavily charged (both positive and negative) dust may be useful in understanding laboratory plasma experiments, identifying nonlinear structures in upper part of ionosphere and lower part of magnetosphere structures, and in theoretical research for the study of properties of nonlinear structures.

Maximization of non-coking coal in coal blend is eloquent interest among researchers incoke making throughout the world. To maximize the non-coking coals in coal blend with thescarce and expensive coking coals is an essential practice in the iron and steel industry.The fundamental aspect of the coal blending theory of low value coals to produce goodquality of metallurgical coke in non-recovery coke making process was investigated in thisstudy by using the composite coking potential technique. The implementation of thetechnique has yielded use of up to 25% pulverized coal injection, 20% raw petroleum cokeas a component of coal blend. Results show that the coal blend having composite cokingpotential value of \hbox{$\geqslant $}⩾4.8 is desired to achieve the targeted coke strengthafter reaction of \hbox{$\geqslant $}⩾65.

A retrospective case–case control study was conducted, including 60 cases with daptomycin-nonsusceptible vancomycin-resistant enterococci (DNS-VRE) matched to cases with daptomycin-susceptible VRE and to uninfected controls (1:1:3 ratio). Immunosuppression, presence of comorbid conditions, and prior exposure to antimicrobials were independent predictors of DNS-VRE, although prior daptomycin exposure occurred rarely. In summary, a case–case control study identified independent risk factors for the isolation of DNS-VRE: immunosuppression, multiple comorbid conditions, and prior exposures to cephalosporines and metronidazole.

Radio frequency (RF) and microwave amplifier research has been largely focused on solid-state technology in recent years. This paper presents design and performance characterization of a 50-kW modular solid-state amplifier, operating at 505.8 MHz. It includes architecture selection and design procedures based on circuit and EM simulations for its building blocks like solid-state amplifier modules, combiners, dividers, and directional couplers. Key performance objectives such as efficiency, return loss, and amplitude/phase imbalance are discussed for this amplifier for real-time operation. This amplifier is serving as the state-of-the-art RF source in Indus-2 synchrotron radiation source. Characterization on component level as well as system level of this amplifier serves useful data for RF designers working in communication and particle accelerator fields.

Obliquely propagating ion-acoustic nonlinear periodic waves in a magnetized plasma consisting of warm adiabatic ions and two Maxwellian electron species are studied. Using the reductive perturbation method, the Korteweg–de Vries (KdV) equation is derived and its cnoidal wave solution is discussed. It is found that as the amplitude of the cnoidal wave increases, so does its frequency. The effects of variations in the density and temperature ratios of the two electron species, the ion temperature, the angle of obliqueness and the magnetization on the characteristics of the cnoidal wave are discussed in detail. When the coefficient of the nonlinear term of the KdV equation, a1, vanishes, the modified Korteweg–de Vries equation is derived, and its periodic-wave solutions are discussed in detail. In the limiting case these periodic-wave solutions reduce to soliton or double-layer solutions.

A theoretical analysis of acoustic-like modes in a plasma consisting of two kinds of ions with different temperatures has been performed using fluid equations. The electrons are assumed to form a dynamic neutralizing background, and their perturbation has been neglected – which is permissible for k2λ2De ≫ 1. The analysis shows that an acoustic-like mode appears to propagate as a normal mode when the hotter ion concentration is very large compared with that of the colder ions.

The theory of particle aspect analysis is extended to the drift wave in the presence of an inhomogeneous magnetic field. The dispersion relation and growth rate of the wave are evaluated and discussed when the magnetic field gradient is directed opposite to the density gradient. The plasma under consideration is assumed to be anisotropic and the effects of temperature anisotropy on the dispersion characteristics and growth rate of the wave are also studied. The dispersion relation and the growth rate are evaluated for the space plasma parameters.

Thin films of 3 different thicknesses each of Ni83.2Fe3.3Mo13.5 and Ni83.1Fe6.0Mo10.9alloys have been grown using Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD) technique. Our motivation is to investigate the magnetic properties of a few nm thick Ni alloys with mostly Mo (4d element) addition since the corresponding soft ferromagnetic bulk alloys have shown very small coercivity of ˜ 0.1 Oe. Detailed structural characterization has been undertaken before probing the magnetic properties. Arc melted alloy buttons after homogenization are used directly as targets for the deposition. Films were deposited on single crystal Sapphire (0001) substrates using excimer laser. The structural characterization has been done by X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray reflectivity (XRR), Energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDS), and Atomic force microscopy (AFM). The X-ray diffraction pattern shows that the films are highly textured and grown along [111] direction of the alloys. They have high lattice strain which makes the films highly resistive and the resistance decreases with increasing thickness. The EDS measurements, using Scanning electron microscope (SEM), indicate that the compositions of the films are almost the same as those of the targets. Thickness, roughness, and density gradients are estimated using XRR measurements. The thinner films have higher roughness compared to the thicker ones for both the compositions. The films have density gradient across their thickness. The bottommost low density layer has high roughness which is supposed to be the result of initial non uniform coverage of the substrate. The density of the middle layer, having the lowest roughness, is approximately near the bulk value and it increases with increasing film thickness. The change in density is not due to the variation of composition; instead it is due to the variation of void densities in the layers. The topmost layer, having the lowest density and the highest roughness, is interpreted as a porous layer which is also evident from the AFM images.

Brinjal (Solanum melongena L.) is an important solanaceous vegetable in many countries of Asia and Africa. It is a good source of minerals and vitamins in the tropical diets. Assessment of genetic resources is the starting point of any crop improvement programme. In India, the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources is the nodal institute for management of germplasm resources of crop plants and holds more than 2500 accessions of brinjal in its genebank. In the present study, morphological diversity in a set of 622 accessions, comprising 543 accessions from indigenous sources and 79 accessions of exotic origin, was assessed. Wide range of variations for 31 descriptors, 13 quantitative and 18 qualitative, were recorded. The wide regional variations for plant, flower and fruit descriptors revealed enough scope for improvement of yield characters by selection. The genetic differences among the landraces are potentially relevant to breeding programmes in that the variability created through hybridization of the contrasting forms could be exploited.

The recent introduction of dual inlaid Cu and oxide based interconnects within sub-0.25μm CMOS technology has delivered higher performance and lower power devices. Further speed improvements and power reduction may be achieved by reducing the interconnect parasitic capacitance through integration of low-k interlevel dielectric (ILD) materials with Cu. This paper demonstrates successful multi-level dual inlaid Cu/low-k interconnects with ILD permittivities ranging from 2.0 to 2.5. Integration challenges specific to inorganic low-k and Cu based structures are discussed. Through advanced CMP process development, multi-level integration of porous oxide materials with moduli less than 0.5 GPa is demonstrated. Parametric data and isothermal annealing of these Cu/ low-k structures show results with yield comparable to Cu/oxide based interconnects.

The recent introduction of dual inlaid Cu and oxide based interconnects within sub-0.25μm CMOS technology has delivered higher performance and lower power devices. Further speed improvements and power reduction may be achieved by reducing the interconnect parasitic capacitance through integration of low-k interlevel dielectric (ILD) materials with Cu. This paper demonstrates successful multi-level dual inlaid Cu/low-k interconnects with ILD permittivities ranging from 2.0 to 2.5. Integration challenges specific to inorganic low-k and Cu based structures are discussed. Through advanced CMP process development, multi-level integration of porous oxide materials with moduli less than 0.5 GPa is demonstrated. Parametric data and isothermal annealing of these Cu/ low-k structures show results with yield comparable to Cu/oxide based interconnects.

The kinetics of the C49 to C54 TiSi2 phase transformation in nitrogen ambient have been investigated in a temperature range from 700 °C to 800 °C for a range of titanium film thicknesses (135 Å to 350 Å) using sheet resistance measurement, Auger electron spectroscopy(AES), Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy(RBS) and transmission electron microscopy(TEM). About 80% of the titanium converts to titanium silicide with the rest converting to titanium nitride. The activation energies obtained for the C49 to C54 transformation in nitrogen ambient are lower, at least by 2–2.25 eV, than that obtained for the transformations occuring either in argon ambient or vacuum environment. This has been explained with a model involving stress state of titanium silicide film with titanium nitride overlayer.

The lattice deformation caused by 100 MeV Ti7+ ion irradiation in Si (100) has been studied using X-ray topographic techniques. An important finding is the appearance of a strain field perpendicular to the ion beam direction in the irradiated region well separated from the projected range of implanted ions. This in-plane strain extends in the bulk of the sample and is not merely confined to the surface. The implanted region has been found to experience an out of plane strain which is expected to be tensile in nature.

Rapidly solidified Al78Mn20Ge2 alloy exhibits a curious structural feature; this corresponds to the simultaneous occurrence of almost all the quasicrystalline phases, e.g., primitive and face-centered icosahedral phase, rational approximant, and a new metastable cubic phase. The cubic crystalline phase shows yet another type of recently observed twin relation which effectively produces an icosahedral symmetry, a feature that has so far been specific to alloy systems Al–Mn–Si and Al–Mn–Fe–Si only. The diffraction evidences obtained in the present investigation reveal that the orientation of the structural subunit, which is a MacKay icosahedron, remains invariant across the various interphase boundaries. These results elucidate clearly the structural interrelationship among the various phases.

Vacuum plasma spraying has been used to fabricate dense MoSi2 and TiB2-reinforced MoSi2-based composites. The spray-formed deposits have high hardness and fracture toughness as compared to that achieved by other processing techniques. Annealing of the spray formed MoSi2 leads to a decrease in hardness and an increase in fracture toughness. Reinforcement with TiB2 leads to toughening and strengthening of the spray-formed MoSi2.