Characterization of nitric oxide synthase activity in rabbit uterus and vagina: downregulation by estrogen

Nitric oxide synthase (NOS) was determined in the soluble (cytosolic) and particulate fractions of rabbit uterus, vagina and cerebellum and the influence of estrogen treatment on NOS activity was studied. NOS in both the cytosolic and particulate fractions was highly calcium dependent. The activity in cytosolic fraction was nearly 4-fold higher than the particulate fractions from all three organs. The concentration of NOS was highest in cerebellum followed by vagina and uterus. Vaginal NOS activity was 3-4-fold higher than the uterine NOS. After a continuous treatment of rabbits for one week with estrogen, cytosolic NOS was reduced by nearly 7 and 4-fold in the uterus and vagina, respectively, whereas there was no significant change in the particulate NOS. Estrogen treatment caused no change in cytosolic or particulate NOS from the cerebellum. Downregulation of cytosolic NOS by estrogen in the estrogen target tissues like uterus and vagina and absence of effect in the cerebellum strongly suggests a physiological significance.     

Strengthening of a 12CrMoV turbine blade steel by retempering

Commercially available martensitic 12CrMo, 12CrMoV, and HCrMoVNb steels in the tempered condi-tion are often used to fabricate turbine blades. Tempering, done at the processing stage itself, is usually carried out at a temperature approximately 100 to 150 ° above the service temperature. At the service temperature, the steel undèrgoes a second tempering. The effect of this second tempering at a lower tem-perature on the strength of 12CrMoV steel is delineated and discussed in this paper.     

An adaptive mesh refinement technique for the analysis of shear bands in plane strain compression of a thermoviscoplastic solid

We have developed an adaptive mesh refinement technique that generates elements such that the integral of the second invariant of the deviatoric strain-rate tensor over an element is nearly the same for all elements in the mesh. It is shown that the finite element meshes so generated are effective in resolving shear bands, which are narrow regions of intense plastic deformation that form in high strain-rate deformation of thermally softening viscoplastic materials. Here we assume that the body is deformed in plane strain compression at a nominal strain-rate of 5000 sec^-1, and model a material defect by introducing a temperature perturbation at the center of the block.     

IoTSim-Edge: A simulation framework for modeling the behavior of Internet of Things and edge computing environments

With the proliferation of Internet of Things (IoT) and edge computing paradigms, billions of IoT devices are being networked to support data-driven and real-time decision making across numerous application domains, including smart homes, smart transport, and smart buildings. These ubiquitously distributed IoT devices send the raw data to their respective edge device (eg, IoT gateways) or the cloud directly. The wide spectrum of possible application use cases make the design and networking of IoT and edge computing layers a very tedious process due to the: (i) complexity and heterogeneity of end-point networks (eg, Wi-Fi, 4G, and Bluetooth); (ii) heterogeneity of edge and IoT hardware resources and software stack; (iv) mobility of IoT devices; and (iii) the complex interplay between the IoT and edge layers. Unlike cloud computing, where researchers and developers seeking to test capacity planning, resource selection, network configuration, computation placement, and security management strategies had access to public cloud infrastructure (eg, Amazon and Azure), establishing an IoT and edge computing testbed that offers a high degree of verisimilitude is not only complex, costly, and resource-intensive but also time-intensive. Moreover, testing in real IoT and edge computing environments is not feasible due to the high cost and diverse domain knowledge required in order to reason about their diversity, scalability, and usability. To support performance testing and validation of IoT and edge computing configurations and algorithms at scale, simulation frameworks should be developed. Hence, this article proposes a novel simulator IoTSim-Edge, which captures the behavior of heterogeneous IoT and edge computing infrastructure and allows users to test their infrastructure and framework in an easy and configurable manner. IoTSim-Edge extends the capability of CloudSim to incorporate the different features of edge and IoT devices. The effectiveness of IoTSim-Edge is described using three test cases. Results show the varying capability of IoTSim-Edge in terms of application composition, battery-oriented modeling, heterogeneous protocols modeling, and mobility modeling along with the resources provisioning for IoT applications.     

Development of glacier mapping in Indian Himalaya: a review of approaches

The paper reviews the status of glacier mapping with special reference to the Indian Himalaya. The review provides information on various satellite remote sensing data interpretation methods used with special emphasis laid on recent semi-automated algorithms used for glacier and debris-cover mapping, along with their limitations and challenges. Further, the pragmatic solutions on offer are discussed, and the emerging areas of glacier mapping research are highlighted. The review also touches – contribution of Survey of India (SOI) and Geological Survey of India (GSI) in the glacier mapping. Finally, it discusses the wider range of spatial and spectral domains in which remote sensing data helps to inventories glaciers. The review also identifies gaps in using the latest techniques like Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and machine learning algorithms to improvise on the ongoing efforts. At last, the review provides an exhaustive list of references on glacier mapping from the Indian Himalaya as benefit to readers.     

A parallel computational approach for similarity search using Bloom filters

Finding similar items in a large and unstructured dataset is a challenging task in many applications of data science, such as searching, indexing, and retrieval. With the increasing data volume and demand for real time responses, similarity search has gained much consideration. In this paper, a parallel computational approach for similarity search using Bloom filters (PCASSB) has been proposed, which uses Bloom filter for the representation of features of document and comparison with user's query. Query features are stored in integer query array (^IQ_A), an array of integer. The PCASSB, an approximate similarity search technique, has been implemented on graphics processing unit with compute unified device architecture as the programming platform. To compute the similarity score between query and reference dataset, Dice coefficient has been used as a baseline method. The accuracy of the results generated by PCASSB is compared with the baseline method and other state‐of‐the‐art methods. The experimental results show that the proposed technique is quite effective in processing large number of text documents as it takes less computational time.     

Creation of ultrafine-grained surfaces by large strain extrusion machining (LSEM)

Large strain extrusion machining (LSEM) is examined as a route for achieving controlled microstructure refinement at freshly generated surfaces in a single pass of the machining tool. It is shown that the extrusion ratio λ of LSEM, which is the ratio of the thickness of the chip to that of the preset depth of cut, controls the extent of the ultrafine-grained (UFG) zone. Microstructure analysis was performed using orientation imaging microscopy (OIM) and mechanical testing using nanoindentation was used to characterize the UFG microstructure beneath the freshly generated surfaces. The mechanics of deformation in LSEM were examined using infrared thermography and modeled. The present research demonstrates LSEM as a novel platform for tailoring surficial microstructures and controlling their spatial extents in fabricated components.