Investigation on the Effect of ECAP Routes on the Wear Behavior of AA2014

ECAP is an effective process to improve the mechanical strength and wear resistance along with mechanical and microstructural properties. AA2014 solutionized at 495 °C and aged at 195 °C was subjected to Equal Channel Angular Pressed (ECAP) through route A and B_c at room temperature. It was well proved that the mechanical strength increased due to ECAP in AA2014. In order to investigate their wear behavior after ECAP, dry sliding wear tests were conducted using vacuum tribometer at nominal loads of 10N and 30N with constant speed of 2 m/s for sliding distance of 2000 m. The co-efficient of friction and loss in volume were decreased after ECAP both in route A and B_c. The dominant wear mechanisms observed were adhesive, delamination and stick slip process. In addition to these wear mechanisms, abrasive wear also appeared along with transfer of iron particles from the counter surface to the AA2014 pin. Presence of black powder and oxide formation were observed using EDAX analysis on wear debris. Routes A and B_c showed similar wear mechanisms and characteristics which were better than in unECAPed specimens.     

Optimized and low-complexity power allocation and beamforming with full duplex in massive MIMO and small-cell networks

The Journal of Supercomputing - By combining massive multiple-input and multiple-output (Ma-MIMO) and small-cell approaches, it is possible to improve the capacity of the network, with the features...     

Jute sticks derived novel graphitic porous carbon nanosheets as Li-ion battery anode material with superior electrochemical properties

Graphitic porous carbon sheets (GPCS), which were synthesized at a low temperature of 900°C by KOH chemical activation technique, possess a specific surface area of 1246 m² g^-1 with high pore volume. The size of the pores varied in micro-mesopore regions and exhibited three-dimensional sheet-like morphology composed of multilayered graphene sheets with an inter planar distance of 0.360 nm. The GPCS material was tested as anode for Li-ion battery (LIB) application in half cell mode (vs Li⁺/Li). The fabricated GPCS electrode shows excellent electrochemical properties in comparison with commercial graphite such as a high discharge specific capacity of 1022 mA h g^-1 after 10 cycles at 100 mA g^-1 and excellent specific capacity retention of 170 mA h g^-1 at a very high current rate of 8000 mA g^-1 and also retains a high capacity of 541 mA h g^-1 after 250 cycles at 500 mA g^-1, which suggests that GPCS material can be a promising electrode for LIB application. A brief comparison with commercial graphite and various carbonaceous materials from literature demonstrated that the GPCS electrode was potential material for high rate LIBs.     

FastFabric: Scaling hyperledger fabric to 20 000 transactions per second

Blockchain technologies are expected to make a significant impact on a variety of industries. However, one issue holding them back is their limited transaction throughput, especially compared to established solutions such as distributed database systems. In this paper, we rearchitect a modern permissioned blockchain system, Hyperledger Fabric, to increase transaction throughput from 3000 to 20 000 transactions per second. We focus on performance bottlenecks beyond the consensus mechanism, and we propose architectural changes that reduce computation and I/O overhead during transaction ordering and validation to greatly improve throughput. Notably, our optimizations are fully plug‐and‐play and do not require any interface changes to Hyperledger Fabric.     

A comprehensive review on bioinspired solar photovoltaic cells

Researchers have derived inspiration from the biophotosynthetic structures in nature and have started to synthesize the modified bioinspired solar cells copying the evolved organic and inorganic material properties. One of the highlighted examples of bioinspired photo voltaic (PV) cells is the astonishing achievement of an increase in the absorption of integrated sunlight waves in unpatterned solar cells simulated from the wings of the butterfly. Further, deployment possibilities of incorporating flexible cells on flat or curved surfaces for optimizing performance are also under progress. This article mainly discusses the recent concepts of bioinspired solar cells at the research and development level with the prospects and challenges that lie ahead in the upcoming field of photovoltaic renewable energy cell technology. Different potential materials found suitable for bioinspired solar cells construction are reviewed with their particular challenges.     

Bcl-xL functions downstream of caspase-8 to inhibit Fas- and tumor necrosis factor receptor 1-induced apoptosis of MCF7 breast carcinoma cells

Stimulation of the Fas or tumor necrosis factor receptor 1 (TNFR1) cell surface receptors leads to the activation of the death effector protease, caspase-8, and subsequent apoptosis. In some cells, Bcl-xL overexpression can inhibit anti-Fas- and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha-induced apoptosis. To address the effect of Bcl-xL on caspase-8 processing, Fas- and TNFR1-mediated apoptosis were studied in the MCF7 breast carcinoma cell line stably transfected with human Fas cDNA (MCF7/F) or double transfected with Fas and human Bcl-xL cDNAs (MCF7/FB). Bcl-xL strongly inhibited apoptosis induced by either anti-Fas or TNF-alpha. In addition, Bcl-xL prevented the change in cytochrome c immunolocalization induced by anti-Fas or TNF-alpha treatment. Using antibodies that recognize the p20 and p10 subunits of active caspase-8, proteolytic processing of caspase-8 was detected in MCF7/F cells following anti-Fas or TNF-alpha, but not during UV-induced apoptosis. In MCF7/FB cells, caspase-8 was processed normally while processing of the downstream caspase-7 was markedly attenuated. Moreover, apoptosis induced by direct microinjection of recombinant, active caspase-8 was completely inhibited by Bcl-xL. These data demonstrate that Bcl-xL can exert an anti-apoptotic function in cells in which caspase-8 is activated. Thus, at least in some cells, caspase-8 signaling in response to Fas or TNFR1 stimulation is regulated by a Bcl-xL-inhibitable step.     

Analytical studies for buckling and vibration of weld-bonded beam shells of rectangular cross-section

An approach to analytical solution is presented for vibration and buckling of thin-walled tubular beam shells typical of automotive structures, which are fabricated by joining sheet metal stampings along the two longitudinal edges with periodic spot welds, adhesive bonding, or combination of spot welds and bonding, known as weld bonding. Solutions are obtained for such beam shells of rectangular cross-section with two opposite ends simply supported. The beam shell is modeled as an assembly of the constituent walls and Levy-type formulation is used to obtain a series solution for the transverse displacement of each of the walls. The challenge of expressing the discrete point support conditions at the spot welds by a continuous function is addressed using the flexibility function approach used in literature. The flexibility function, used earlier to represent the flexibility distribution along weld-bonded edges of rectangular plates with periodic spot welds, is used here. The characteristic equations are obtained by satisfying the displacement, slope, shear, and moment equilibrium at the mating edges of the walls including the two weld-bonded edges and the compatibility conditions at the spot-weld locations. This approach to analytical solution, described here for thin-walled beam shells of rectangular cross-section, can be suitably adopted for more general cross-sections and joints along non-symmetric edges. A parametric study is undertaken to show the effect of aspect ratio of the beam shell, adhesive joint parameters, and the number of spot welds on the elastic buckling loads and the natural frequencies. Such parametric studies can be of use to designers in arriving at an optimal joint configuration of weld-bonded beam shells from buckling and vibration considerations.     

A framework for capacity planning and machine configuration in flexible assembly systems

We consider the problem of simultaneously determining the number of machines (and/or workers), the assignment of tasks (and related tools and components) to these machines, and the number of jobs circulating in a flexible assembly system (FAS), to satisfy steady-state throughput requirements for a family of similar products at minimum cost. We focus on situations where there are precedence relations among the various tasks, as is common in assembly systems. We present a framework for solving this problem based on a heuristic decomposition approach which involves the solution of only a few types of sub-problems. We demonstrate the efficiency and effectiveness of the overall procedure using a number of example problems.     

Microstructural control in hot working of IN-718 superalloy using processing map

The hot-working characteristics of IN-718 are studied in the temperature range 900 °C to 1200 °C and strain rate range 0.001 to 100 s⁻¹ using hot compression tests. Processing maps for hot working are developed on the basis of the strain-rate sensitivity variations with temperature and strain rate and interpreted using a dynamic materials model. The map exhibits two domains of dynamic recrystallization (DRX): one occurring at 950 °C and 0.001 s⁻¹ with an efficiency of power dissipation of 37 pct and the other at 1200 °C and 0.1 s⁻¹ with an efficiency of 40 pct. Dynamic recrystallization in the former domain is nucleated by the δ(Ni₃Nb) precipitates and results in fine-grained microstructure. In the high-temperature DRX domain, carbides dissolve in the matrix and make interstitial carbon atoms available for increasing the rate of dislocation generation for DRX nucleation. It is recommended that IN-718 may be hot-forged initially at 1200 °C and 0.1 s⁻¹ and finish-forged at 950 °C and 0.001 s⁻¹ so that fine-grained structure may be achieved. The available forging practice validates these results from processing maps. At temperatures lower than 1000 °C and strain rates higher than 1 s⁻¹ the material exhibits adiabatic shear bands. Also, at temperatures higher than 1150°C and strain rates more than 1s⁻¹, IN-718 exhibits intercrystalline cracking. Both these regimes may be avoided in hotworking IN-718.