Cloning and characterization of a symbiosis-related gene from an ectomycorrhizal fungus Laccaria bicolor

Point-to-point functional movements involve simultaneous shoulder and elbow joint rotations. In able-bodied subjects these movements are fully automatic, and feed-forward control ensures the synergistic activity of many muscles. Synergy between joint rotations was defined and described as a scaling between joint angular velocities [19]. Similarly, subjects who can control their shoulder movements may be assisted in reaching tasks by functional electrical stimulation (FES) of elbow extensor muscles. The synergistic control paradigm can be implemented in real-time by employing a hierarchically structured production-rules method. The use of production-rules necessitates the acquisition of knowledge and the assembly of a rule-base. A nonparametric technique was designed for the identification of the rules. The identification process was divided into two phases: determination of the scaling parameters, and determination of the stimulation parameters. The scaling parameters, needed for the coordination of movements, were determined in able-bodied subjects. Those depend exclusively on the initial and target positions of the hand. The number of scalings could be reduced by dividing the workspace into 12 zones. The stimulation parameters, needed for the execution of movements, were determined in subjects with paralyzed elbow extensor muscles by identifying triplets: elbow angular velocity, elbow angular acceleration (velocity increments), and the corresponding pulse durations for various classes of movements and loads attached to the hand.     

Fine grinding of thermoplastics by high speed friction grinding assisted by guar gum

High speed friction grinding has been used to grind plant and food substances in water but never been explored for grinding of thermoplastics like polylactic acid (PLA), low and high density polyethylene and polypropylene. Such grinding was investigated in this work and was made possible by using 0.5% guar gum solution instead of just water because increasing the viscosity of water reduced their settling and the speed of passing through the grinder. Tensile, flexural, and impact strengths of the plastics were studied and higher grinding efficiency of PLA could be explained by its low elongation-at-break compared to low density polyethylene, high density polyethylene, and polypropylene. The microplastics (2000–45 μm) were studied for mass and particle size distributions and by scanning electron microscopy, ¹³C CP/MAS NMR, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry, and thermogravimetric analysis. In addition, viscosity of guar gum and contact angles was measured. This new technology can produce finely ground microplastics (710–45 μm) for a variety of applications.     

Free convection effects on the oscillatory flow of a couple stress fluid through a porous medium

Summary Effects of free convection currents on the oscillatory flow of a polar fluid through a porous medium, which is bounded by a vertical plane surface of constant temperature, have been studied. The surface absorbs the fluid with a constant suction and the free stream velocity oscillates about a constant mean value. Analytical expressions for the velocity and the angular velocity fields have been obtained, using the regular perturbation technique. The effects of Grashof numberG; material parameters and ; Prandtl numberP; permeability parameterK and frequency parametern on the velocity and the angular velocity are discussed. The effects of cooling and heating of a polar fluid compared to a Newtonian fluid have also been discussed. The velocity of a polar fluid is found to decrease as compared to the Newtonian fluid.List of symbols C _p specific heat at constant pressure - g acceleration due to gravity - G Grashof number - K ⁺ permeability of the porous medium - K dimensionless permeability - P Prandtl number - t ⁺ time - t dimensionless time - T _w ⁺ mean temperature of the surface - T ⁺ temperature of the fluid - T ⁺ temperature of the fluid away from the surface - density of the fluid - viscosity - _r rotational viscosity - C _a ,C _d coefficients of couple stress viscosities - I a scalar constant of dimension equal to that of the moment of inertia of unit mass - x ⁺,y ⁺ coordinate system - u ⁺,v ⁺ velocity components in thex ⁺ andy ⁺ directions - u dimensionless velocity in thex ⁺-direction - ⁺ angular velocity component - dimensionless angular velocity - n ⁺ frequency of oscillations - n dimensionless frequency - perturbation parameter - U a constant velocity - u ₀ mean velocity - u ₁ fluctuating part of the velocity - ⁰ mean angular velocity - ¹ fluctuating part of the angular velocity - T ₀ mean temperature - T ₁ fluctuating part of the temperature - ⁰ coefficient of the volume expansion - kinematic viscosity - ^r rotational kinematic viscosity - , material parameters characterizing the polarity of the fluid - v ₀ suction velocity - density of the fluid far from the surface - y dimensionless coordinate normal to the surface     

Coupled dynamical system based arm–hand grasping model for learning fast adaptation strategies

Performing manipulation tasks interactively in real environments requires a high degree of accuracy and stability. At the same time, when one cannot assume a fully deterministic and static environment, one must endow the robot with the ability to react rapidly to sudden changes in the environment. These considerations make the task of reach and grasp difficult to deal with. We follow a Programming by Demonstration (PbD) approach to the problem and take inspiration from the way humans adapt their reach and grasp motions when perturbed. This is in sharp contrast to previous work in PbD that uses unperturbed motions for training the system and then applies perturbation solely during the testing phase. In this work, we record the kinematics of arm and fingers of human subjects during unperturbed and perturbed reach and grasp motions. In the perturbed demonstrations, the target’s location is changed suddenly after the onset of the motion. Data show a strong coupling between the hand transport and finger motions. We hypothesize that this coupling enables the subject to seamlessly and rapidly adapt the finger motion in coordination with the hand posture. To endow our robot with this competence, we develop a coupled dynamical system based controller, whereby two dynamical systems driving the hand and finger motions are coupled. This offers a compact encoding for reach-to-grasp motions that ensures fast adaptation with zero latency for re-planning. We show in simulation and on the real iCub robot that this coupling ensures smooth and “human-like” motions. We demonstrate the performance of our model under spatial, temporal and grasp type perturbations which show that reaching the target with coordinated hand–arm motion is necessary for the success of the task.     

Core content and stability of n‐octadecane‐containing polyurea microencapsules produced by interfacial polymerization

Microencapsulation of phase change material (PCM) n‐octadecane was carried out by interfacial polymerization technique using core and bulk monomers as toluene‐2,4‐diisocyanate (TDI) and diethylene triamine (DETA), respectively. Cyclohexane was used as the solvent for TDI and n‐octadecane, which formed the oil phase. The effect of encapsulation procedure, core‐to‐monomer ratio (CM ratio) and PCM‐to‐cyclohexane (PC) ratio was investigated on core content, encapsulation efficiency, and stability of microcapsules. Using a modified procedure, the core content was found to increase with the increasing CM ratio and reached a maximum at 3.7, while the encapsulation efficiency continuously decreased with the increasing CM ratio. Also the encapsulation efficiency was found to have a strong dependence on PC ratio and a maximum encapsulation efficiency of 92%, along with the core content of 70% was obtained with CM ratio of 3.7 along with the PC ratio of 6. The microcapsules were well shaped, i.e., round and regular, with narrow size distribution at these conditions. The PCM microcapsules were found to be stable to heat treatment at 150°C for 8 h. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2007     

Effect of Lactose Monolaurate and High Intensity Ultrasound on Crystallization Behavior of Anhydrous Milk Fat

Crystallization behavior of anhydrous milk fat (AMF) was studied with the addition of 0.025 and 0.05 % lactose monolaurate (LML). The crystallization behavior was studied at low (ΔT = 3 °C) and high supercooling (ΔT = 6 °C). Polarized light microscopy and laser turbidimetry indicated a delay in crystallization on addition of 0.025 % and 0.05 % LML or Tween 20 to AMF. High intensity ultrasound (HIU) was applied to AMF samples with 0.05 % LML and lower supercooling (T _c = 31 °C; ΔT = 3 °C). HIU application in AMF and AMF + 0.05 % LML induced crystallization (p < 0.05) changing the induction time (τ) at 31 °C from 34.20 ± 1.67 min (AMF) and 47.07 ± 1.27 min (AMF + 0.05 % LML) to 23.23 ± 3.26 min (AMF) and 25.00 ± 0.87 min (AMF + 0.05 % LML). Melting enthalpies (ΔH) of AMF were significantly higher (p < 0.05) than the ones observed for AMF + 0.05 % LML when crystallized without HIU, while enthalpy values increased significantly in AMF + 0.05 % LML samples when crystallized with HIU reaching similar values to the ones obtained for AMF without LML. The viscosity of AMF significantly decreased (p < 0.05) on addition of 0.05 % LML and significantly increased on HIU application.     

α-Glucosidase, α-amylase inhibition kinetics,in vitro gastro-intestinal digestion,and apoptosis inducing abilities of Ficus microcarpa L. f. and Ficus racemosa L. fruit polysaccharides

Food Science and Biotechnology - A rich source of nutrients, figs have a number of clinically validated benefits. This study aimed to evaluate the in vitro simulated gastrointestinal digestion, and...     

Synthesis and characterization of high molecular weight polyaniline for organic electronic applications

High molecular weight polyaniline (PANI) was synthesized by a combined procedure incorporating various synthesis methods. Temperature and open circuit potential of the reaction mixture were collected to monitor the reaction progress. The polymer is characterized by various techniques including gel permeation chromatography, dynamic light scattering, infrared spectroscopy, solid‐state nuclear magnetic resonance, and differential scanning calorimetry for elucidating the molecular architecture obtained by this method. As‐synthesized PANI was found to possess high molecular weight, reduced branching, reduced cross‐linking, and to predominantly consist of linear polymer chains. This polymer was also found to be more stable in solution form. J–V characteristics of as‐synthesized PANI films indicate a high current density which is due to increased free pathways and less traps for the charge transport to occur in PANI films. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 2012. © 2012 Society of Plastics Engineers     

Experimental analysis of the thermal properties of fused quartz-reinforced Al-6061alloy matrix composites using RSM approach

Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology - This study investigates the thermal property of fused quartz-reinforced aluminum 6061 alloy metal matrix composites for three different chill material...     

Role of stuffer layers and fibre volume fractions on the mechanical properties of 3D woven fabrics for structural composites applications

Using weaving technology, possible manipulations can be done so as to derive maximum advantage from the reinforcements towards desired mechanical properties of the composites. Thus with different sets of weaving parameters and tow linear densities, an attempt has been made to investigate tensile, impact and knife penetration performance of different stuffer layers and fibre volume fractions of 3D orthogonal and interlock E-glass fabrics as reinforcements for composite applications. The tensile properties were effectively influenced by warp tow crimp%, number of stuffer tows per unit width of the fabric and fabric assistance. The tow linear density, fabric sett and the number of cross over points play a determining role towards impact energy absorption capacity. The fabric sett along with tow linear densities also play a vital role towards peak energy during knife penetration test. The number of cross over points were found to be least important in the knife penetration results analysis.