Hydrodynamic lubrication of rough slider bearings with couple stress fluids

The combined effects of couple stresses and surface roughness on the performance characteristics of hydrodynamic lubrication of slider bearings with various film shapes, such as plane slider, exponential, secant and hyperbolic, are studied. A stochastic random variable with non-zero mean, variance and skewness is used to mathematically model the surface roughness of the slider bearing’s. The Stokes couple stress fluid model is used to characterize the rheological behavior of the lubricant with polymer additives. The modified expressions for the bearing characteristics, namely pressure, load carrying capacity, center of pressure, frictional force are obtained for the general lubrication film shape on the basis of Stokes microcontinuum theory for couple stress fluids. Results are computed numerically for various film shapes under consideration. It is observed that, for all the lubricant film shapes under consideration, the negatively skewed surface roughness increases the load carrying capacity, frictional force and temperature rise, while it reduces the coefficient of friction. On the contrary, the reverse trend is observed for positively skewed surface roughness. Further, these effects are more pronounced for the couple stress fluids.     

Blockchain Assisted Disease Identification of COVID-19 Patients with the Help of IDA-DNN Classifier

Wireless Personal Communications - Globally, millions of people were affected by the Corona-virus disease-2019 (COVID-19) causing loads of deaths. Most COVID-19 affected people recover in a few...     

Stabilized protein waste as a source for removal of color from wastewaters

Seeking solution to pollution problems is a prime concern of many researchers today. The waste from one industry can be judiciously used to treat another waste. This concept has been used in this study, wherein, the fleshing, a solid waste (biopolymer) emanating from leather industry has been used as an adsorbent for removal of dyes from wastewater. Fleshing has been crosslinked with glutaraldehyde to stabilize it against degradation. The various parameters like effect of pH, role of salt concentration, adsorbent dosage, and initial concentration of dye have been standardized. About 90% dye removal has been achieved by treating 100 mg/L dye solution with 12 g/L of glutaraldehyde‐crosslinked fleshing. The dye removal has been found to follow Langmuir type of adsorption isotherm. The optimized parameters of batch adsorption studies have been applied to treat sectional wastewater from a commercial tannery. The study also explores the possibility of reusing the dye loaded fleshing as a reductant in the manufacture of a tanning salt, which is used in leather industry for tanning of leathers. Thus, a holistic solution to both solid and liquid waste has been presented in this work. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2010     

Synthesis and characterizations of nanosized iron(II) hydroxide and iron(II) hydroxide/poly(vinyl alcohol) nanocomposite

Nanosized Fe(OH)₂ was synthesized by a coprecipitation method. Peaks between 500 and 1250 cm^?1 in Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy confirmed the presence of metal hydroxide stretching. X‐ray diffraction showed the suppressed crystalline system of Fe(OH)₂/aniline (ANI) due to the presence of a higher weight percentage of the dispersing agent, ANI. Thermogravimetric analysis implied that 75.5 wt % of residue remained up to 800°C. High resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM) analysis of Fe(OH)₂/ANI revealed that its size ranged from 10 to 50 nm with a rodlike morphology. Scanning electron microscopy implied that pristine Fe(OH)₂ had a nanotriangular platelet morphology, and a higher weight percentage of dispersing agent intercalated with Fe(OH)₂ had a spheroid with an agglomerated structure. The (UV–visible) spectrum implied the presence of Fe²⁺ ions at 326 nm and the existence of an amino group intercalated with Fe(OH)₂ showed a sharp peak at 195 nm, the intensity of which increased with increasing intercalated dispersing agent weight percentage. Photoluminescence showed that ANI‐intercalated Fe(OH)₂ showed a lesser intensity than the pristine Fe(OH)₂. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2010     

Influence of functionalized nanoparticles on conformational stability of type I collagen for possible biomedical applications

Collagen–nanoparticle interactions are vital for many biomedical applications including drug delivery and tissue engineering applications. Iron oxide nanoparticles synthesized using starch template according to our earlier reported procedures were functionalized by treating them with Gum Arabic (GA), a biocompatible polysaccharide, so as to enhance the interaction between nanoparticle surfaces and collagen. Viscosity, circular dichroism (CD) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) techniques have been used to study the collagen–nanoparticle interactions. The relative viscosity for collagen–nanoparticle conjugate was found to increase with increase in concentration of the nanoparticle within the concentration range investigated, which is due to the aggregation of protein onto the surface of nanoparticle. The CD spectra for the collagen–nanoparticle at different concentration ratios do not have much variation in the Rpn values (ratio of positive peak intensity over negative peak intensity) after functionalization with GA. The variation of molar ellipticity values for collagen–nanoparticle is due to the glycoprotein present in GA. The collagen triple helical structure is maintained after interaction with nanoparticles. The FTIR spectra of native collagen, Coll–Fs (nanoparticle without functionalization) and Coll–FsG (nanoparticle functionalized with GA) show clearly the amide I, II, III bands, with respect to collagen. The ability of polysaccharide stabilized/functionalized nanoparticles to maintain the collagen properties would help in its biomedical applications.     

Adsorption, desorption, and kinetic study on Cr(III) removal from aqueous solution using Bacillus subtilis biomass

Discharge of untreated industrial effluents containing heavy metals is hazardous to the environment as they are highly toxic and accumulates throughout the food chain. This study reports the removal of trivalent chromium from aqueous solution using Bacillus subtilis biomass, best suited for the treatment of real tannery effluents since Cr(III) salt is used for tanning. The optimum pH and temperature for biosorption was found to be 4.0 and 60°C, respectively. A biosorbent dosage of 1 g l^?1 showed maximum metal uptake (q _e ) of 23.9 mg g^?1 for an initial metal concentration of 100 ppm. Pseudo-second-order kinetics best describes the adsorption process. Best fit for adsorption was obtained with Freundlich model. Desorption experiments with 5 M NaOH, inferred the reusability of the biomass. Fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy was used to study the mechanism of metal binding.     

Breast cancer detection by using associative classifier with rule refinement method based on relevance feedback

Neural Computing and Applications - Computer-aided diagnosis system that uses classification process for an automated detection of breast cancer could provide a second opinion that improves...     

Selected 1,3-Benzodioxine-Containing Chalcones as Multipotent Oxidase and Acetylcholinesterase Inhibitors

Chalcones are considered effective templates for the development of monoamine oxidase (MAO) and cholinesterase (ChE) inhibitors. The present work describes the syntheses of selected 1,3-benzodioxine-containing chalcones ( CD3, CD8 and CD10 ), and their inhibitory activities against MAO-A, MAO-B, acetylcholinesterase (AChE), and butyrylcholinesterase (BChE). Compound CD8 most potently inhibited MAO-B with an IC₅₀ value of 0.026 μM, followed by CD10 and CD3 (1.54 and 1.68 μM, respectively). CD8 potently and non-selectively inhibited MAO-A (IC₅₀ value of 0.023 μM). On the other hand, CD10 and CD8 inhibited AChE with IC₅₀ values of 5.40 and 9.57 μM, respectively. Kinetics and reversibility experiments showed that all synthesized molecules were competitive and reversible inhibitors, and the K_i values of CD8 for MAO-A and MAO-B were 0.018 and 0.0019 μM, respectively. By in vitro and in silico analyses, all compounds were found to have high passive human gastrointestinal absorptions, blood-brain barrier permeabilities, and non-toxicities. Molecular docking simulations revealed that docking affinity of each compound for MAO-B was higher than that for MAO-A. The results indicate that CD8 is a potent non-selective MAO inhibitor, and CD10 is an effective selective MAO-B inhibitor, and both possess AChE inhibitory activity. Therefore, we suggest that CD8 and CD10 be considered potential dual-targeting inhibitors of MAO and AChE for the treatment of various neurodegenerative disorders.     

Surface modification of a novel glass to optimise strength and deliverability of an injectable alginate composite

It is estimated that 1–6% of the adult population have an intracranial aneurysm. Aneurysm coiling is the current preferred treatment method; however, over 20% of coiled aneurysms recur. A novel glass–alginate composite hydrogel has been developed to treat aneurysms, which is designed to completely fill the aneurysm space and prevent aneurysm recurrence. This hydrogel is composed of a polymeric alginate, a novel bioactive glass and glucono-delta-lactone. This novel injectable hydrogel exhibits characteristics suitable for the treatment of cerebral aneurysms. However, poor hydrophilicity of the glass phase results in inhomogeneity and agglomerate formation within the composite, resulting in suboptimal deliverability and strength. This study examines the effect of surface modification of the glass particles using an acid washing technique, designed to increase glass surface hydrophilicity resulting in a homogeneous sample. This study found that acid washing of the glass not only decreased agglomeration and inhomogeneity but also lengthened working times and increased strength of the resultant hydrogel. This lengthened working time, allowed for an increased glass content and, as a result, further increased compressive strength and radiopacity of the resultant hydrogel. Glass particle size analysis revealed that the relative quantity of fine particles was reduced. Surface analysis of the glass particles revealed an increase in hydrophilic silanol groups and increased surface network connectivity. These factors, combined with a decreased surface calcium and an increased surface gallium content, are postulated as the likely reasons for the observed increased strength, working time and hardening time.