Hardness and Fracture Toughness of SiC-Particle-Reinforced MoSi2 Composites

The indentation technique has been used to evaluate the hardness and fracture toughness of SiC-reinforced MoSi₂ composites made by hot-pressing. It is seen that the toughness increases with increasing indentation crack length (under increasing load) and a probable mechanism responsible for this behavior is described. It is also observed that there is an optimum volume fraction of SiC particles for which the maximum fracture toughness of the composite can be achieved.     

The effect of temperature and moisture on the rheology of black coal-oil suspensions

Rheological properties of black coal-KC220 oil suspensions have been investigated using a Contraves rheometer over a temperature and coal volume fraction range of 18–200°C and 0.247-0.385, respectively. The suspensions behaved as Newtonian fluids. Variation of viscosity with temperature does not follow any regular trend and peak viscosity values occur in the temperature range of 80–140°C for dry coal and 70–130°C for moist coal, depending upon the concentrations of coal in the suspension. Freshly prepared suspensions of moist coal exhibit viscosity peaks at a temperature lower than that of the corresponding suspension with dry coal. However, when aged, the suspensions of moist coal exhibit very small peak viscosity and follow an Arrhenius type behavior. For both dry and moist coal, the maximum volume fraction, ?_m, continues to decrease with an increase in temperature.     

A piezoelectric model based multi-objective optimization of robot gripper design

The field of robotics is evolving at a very high pace and with its increasing applicability in varied fields, the need to incorporate optimization analysis in robot system design is becoming more prominent. The present work deals with the optimization of the design of a 7-link gripper. As actuators play a crucial role in functioning of the gripper, the actuation system (piezoelectric (PZ), in this case) is also taken into consideration while performing the optimization study. A minimalistic model of PZ actuator, consisting different series and parallel assembly arrangements for both mechanical and electrical parts of the PZ actuators, is proposed. To include the effects of connector spring, the relationship of force with actuator displacement is replaced by the relation between force and the displacement of point of actuation at the physical system. The design optimization problem of the gripper is a non-linear, multi modal optimization problem, which was originally formulated by Osyczka (2002). In the original work, however, the actuator was a ‘constant output-force actuator model’ providing a constant output without describing the internal structure. Thus, the actuator model was not integrated in the optimization study. Four different cases of the PZ modelling have been solved using multi-objective evolutionary algorithm (MOEA). Relationship between force and actuator displacement is obtained using each set of non-dominated solutions. These relationships can provide a better insight to the end user to select the appropriate voltage and gripper design for specific application.     

Studies on microbridges of superconducting YBCO thin film

Critical current densities of the superconducting Y-Ba-Cu-O (YBCO) films have been observed to decrease with the increase of power of microwave radiation. Presence of Josephson type of junctions in the microbridges has been established from the microwave irradiation and magnetic field studies. BCS energy gap parameter (2/kT _c ) has been calculated from thedI/dV characteristics and found to be 3.7 at 13 K.     

Multi‐response optimization and empirical modeling of cardiopulmonary responses during manual lifting tasks

An experimental study involving five independent lifting variables (namely weight, lift frequency, horizontal distance from the object, operator, and vertical distance) and their interactions was conducted using the Taguchi L₂₇ design. Two responses—heart rate and oxygen uptake—were measured during each trial. To optimize both responses simultaneously, the signal‐to‐noise ratio was normalized to obtain a multi‐response signal‐to‐noise (MRSN) ratio for each trial. The MRSN ratio was analyzed using analysis of variance to identify the optimal condition in which both responses were optimized at the same time. Lift frequency was found to be the most significant factor, and operator and horizontal distance were found to be least significant. The empirical modeling equation was developed and can be used to predict the response values during experimental trials involving similar work conditions. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Affine-based registration of CT and MR modality images of human brain using multiresolution approaches: comparative study on genetic algorithm and particle swarm optimization

We present a non-linear 2-D/2-D affine registration technique for MR and CT modality images of section of human brain. Automatic registration is achieved by maximization of a similarity metric, which is the correlation function of two images. The proposed method has been implemented by choosing a realistic, practical transformation and optimization techniques. Correlation-based similarity metric should be maximal when two images are perfectly aligned. Since similarity metric is a non-convex function and contains many local optima, choice of search strategy for optimization is important in registration problem. Many optimization schemes are existing, most of which are local and require a starting point. In present study we have implemented genetic algorithm and particle swarm optimization technique to overcome this problem. A comparative study shows the superiority and robustness of swarm methodology over genetic approach.     

Differential regulation of redox proteins and chaperones in HbEβ-thalassemia erythrocyte proteome

Purpose: In (hemoglobin, Hb) HbEβ‐thalassemia, HbE (β‐26 Glu→Lys) interacts with β‐thalassemia to produce clinical manifestation of varying severity. This is the first proteomic effort to study changes in protein levels of erythrocytes isolated from HbEβ‐thalassemic patients compared to normal. Experimental design: We have used 2‐DE and MALDI‐MS/MS‐based techniques to investigate the differential proteome profiling of membrane and Hb‐depleted fraction of cytosolic proteins of erythrocytes isolated from the peripheral blood samples of HbEβ‐thalassemia patients and normal volunteers. Results: Our study showed that redox regulators such as peroxiredoxin 2, Cu‐Zn superoxide dismutase and thioredoxin and chaperones such as α‐hemoglobin stabilizing protein and HSP‐70 were upregulated in HbEβ‐thalassemia. We have also observed larger amounts of membrane associated globin chains and indications of disruption of spectrin‐based junctional complex in the membrane skeleton of HbEβ‐thalassemic erythrocytes upon detection of low molecular weight fragments of β‐spectrin and decrease in β‐actin and dematin content. Conclusion and clinical relevance: We have observed interesting changes in the proteomic levels of redox regulators and chaperons in the thalassemic hemolysates and have observed strong correlation or association of the extent of such proteomic changes with HbE levels. This could be important in understanding the role of HbE in disease progression and pathophysiology.     

Surface modes of a sessile water drop: an optical tweezer based study

A high-precision method to study the dynamics of two-fluid interfaces using an optical tweezer and a phase-sensitive detection technique are described. The disturbances set up at the interface are studied by analyzing the motion of an optically trapped particle in the bulk of the fluid, i.e., away from the interface. The usefulness of the technique is demonstrated for the well-known problem of a horizontally vibrated sessile liquid drop. The vibrational modes of the liquid drop excited by sinusoidally vibrating the support in a horizontal plane appear as resonances in the motion of the trapped particle. The nature of the resonance is studied in detail by measuring the real part, the imaginary part, and the phase response of the motion of the particle as a function of the "effective" size of the liquid drop. Excellent quantitative agreement with the theoretically predicted values of the eigenfrequencies and damping of the surface modes is obtained.