Nonlinear formation control strategies for agents without relative measurements under heterogeneous networks

This paper proposes cooperative control protocols for a group of unmanned vehicles to make a stable formation around a maneuvering target. The control protocols are proposed on the basis of heterogeneous communication networks, which represents more challenging and generalized situations. Two different scenarios are considered. Separate control protocols are developed for each case. In both scenarios, agents do not have relative position, velocity, and acceleration measurements as feedback. In the first scenario, each agent uses its own position and velocity measurement in a consensus algorithm. In the second scenario, each agent needs only its own position information for the consensus algorithm. For both protocols, agents compute virtual estimates of a target's position and velocity and exchange these among the neighbors. Three different communication networks are used for exchanging two virtual estimates calculated by each agent and a time derivative of one virtual estimate. Each interagent communication network is represented by a fixed, undirected, and connected graph. Furthermore, it is considered that at least one agent receives the position, velocity, and acceleration information of the maneuvering target. It is not necessary that the agent receiving the target's position and the agent receiving the velocity and/or the acceleration information of the target be the same. However, the target does not receive any information about any agent. Stability of the formation is analyzed by using Barbalat's lemma. It is also shown that, despite the large difference in received information, the acceleration of the agents remains bounded for all time. The performance of the proposed formation control protocols is illustrated through numerical simulations.     

Steady‐State Creep Analysis of Functionally Graded Rotating Cylinder

Axi‐symmetric component like cylinder etc. has to operate under severe thermo‐mechanical loads, which cause significant creep. It, thus, reduces its service life. The present study investigates the steady‐state creep in a functionally graded rotating cylinder at constant angular speed. The cylinder is made up of aluminium matrix and reinforced with silicon carbide particles. The thermal gradient in the functionally graded rotating cylinder is estimated by performing finite element analysis on ANSYS software (ANSYS Inc., Canonsburg, USA). The creep behaviour of the cylinder has been described by threshold stress‐based creep law. The creep parameters are obtained by conducting regression analysis. The mathematical models have been developed to describe steady‐state creep in the cylinder. The study reveals that the radial, tangential, axial and effective stresses in the cylinder are significantly affected by the presence of particle gradient alone as well as with the presence of particle & thermal gradient both. It has been found that the creep rates have been reduced significantly by imposition of particle and thermal gradients together and thus increases the service life of cylinder.     

Is the adjustment of the impeller speed a reliable attempt to influence granule size in continuous dry granulation?

As the field of continuous manufacturing of solid pharmaceutics is developing, the interest in implementing continuous granulation methods is growing. Process analytical technology tools should be integrated to ensure the monitoring of the product quality and therefore enforce control strategies.Three single materials which are often used in dry granulation and additionally two formulations, one containing ibuprofen and the other acetaminophen were processed at various process parameters. They all differed in their compaction and fracture behavior. A statistical analysis of the influence of process parameters was executed, to work out which parameters could be used for a granule size control approach in continuous dry granulation. Thereby, the specific compaction force and the impeller speed were found to be significant factors in each design of experiment. However, the impeller speed was evaluated as the only suitable parameter to control granule size, as an impact on granule density is unlikely. Nevertheless, some restrictions such as an upper impeller speed limitation to avoid excessive fines and a lower speed limitation to impede a downturn of the throughput, have to be considered. Furthermore, a decreasing median granule size was observed at higher throughputs for plastically deforming materials and formulations.     

Molecular Detection of Foodborne Pathogens: A Rapid and Accurate Answer to Food Safety

Food safety is a global health concern. For the prevention and recognition of problems related to health and safety, detection of foodborne pathogen is of utmost importance at all levels of food production chain. For several decades, a lot of research has been targeted at the development of rapid methodology as reducing the time needed to complete pathogen detection tests has been the primary goal of food microbiologists. With the result, food microbiology laboratories now have a wide array of detection methods and automated technologies such as enzyme immunoassay, polymerase chain reaction, and microarrays, which can cut test times considerably. Nucleic acid amplification strategies and advances in amplicon detection methodologies have been the key factors in the progress of molecular microbiology. A comprehensive literature survey has been carried out to give an overview in the field of foodborne pathogen detection. In this paper, we describe the conventional methods, as well as recent developments in food pathogen detection, identification, and quantification, with a major emphasis on molecular detection methods.     

Mechanical property and in vitro biocompatibility of brushite cement modified by polyethylene glycol

Brushite (dicalcium phosphate dihydrate, DCPD) cement, owing to its high solubility in physiological condition and ability to guide new bone formation, is widely used to treat bone defects. In the present study, we have evaluated the effects of poly ethylene glycol (PEG) addition on the setting time, compressive strength and in vitro biocompatibility of brushite cement. The brushite cements were prepared by mixing β-tricalcium phosphate [β-TCP, Ca₃(PO₄)₂] and monocalcium phosphate monohydrate [MCPM, Ca(H₂PO₄)₂ ? H₂O]. PEG was introduced at 2.0 and 5.0 wt% with the liquid. Introduction of PEG resulted in marginal increase in both initial and final setting time, however, significantly affected the compressive strength. Effects of PEG incorporation on in vitro biocompatibility of brushite cements were studied by using human fetal osteoblast cells (hFOB) cells. Field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) images and immunohistochemical analysis indicated that pure and PEG incorporated brushite cement facilitates cell adhesion, proliferation and differentiation. Fewer cells expressed vinculin protein with increased PEG content in the cement. Cell proliferation was found to decrease with increased PEG concentration while the cell differentiation increased with PEG content. Our results provide a better understanding of in vitro biocompatibility of PEG added brushite cements that can be used to customize the cement compositions based on application need.     

Basic drug--enterosoluble polymer coevaporates: development of oral controlled release systems

Precipitation of basic drugs within oral prolonged release systems, at the higher pH values of the intestine, would affect drug release. Coevaporates of a model basic drug verapamil HCl, in single or mixed polymer systems, containing Eudragit L100 (L100) and ethyl cellulose or Eudragit RS100, were prepared from ethanolic solution. XRD and DSC indicated loss of crystallinity of the drug in the coevaporates. The presence of the enterosoluble polymer in the system was found to aid in faster dissolution of the drug at higher pH values. This was affected by the presence and type of retarding polymer present in the system. Compression of the coevaporates resulted in either very slow release of the drug or undesirable changes in the release profile. Pelletization of a coevaporate containing drug and L100 yielded systems, which released the drug uniformly when studied by the buffer change method in simulated gastric (SGF) and intestinal (SIF) fluids. The presence of L100 in intimate contact with the drug was found to be essential for the desirable drug release properties of the system. The drug release occurred predominantly by diffusion in SGF and by a combination of diffusion and polymer dissolution/erosion in SIF. Appropriate choice of release modifiers and formulation variables and development of suitable formulations can yield systems which compensate for the reduced solubility of the drug in the higher pH environments of the intestine.     

Laser surface modification of metallic biomaterials

Load-bearing metal implants often fail prematurely due to inadequate biocompatibility, mechanical/tribological properties, and poor osseointegration. It is well known that biomaterials’ surface plays a vital role in the response to these metal implants in the biological environment. The biological effectiveness of artificial implants is determined mainly by their surface characteristics such as surface morphology, microstructure, composition, mechanical properties, wettabilility, and surface free energy. Hence, there is significant interest toward surface modification and effective design of load-bearing metal implants so as to improve their surface properties and thereby elicit a specific, desired, and timely response from the surrounding cells and tissues. In this article, we provide an insight into laser surface modification of Ti/Ti6Al4V alloy with or without functional gradation in composition and their microstructural, in vitro wear and biological properties for various loadbearing orthopedic applications.     

A Probabilistically Robust Path Planning Algorithm for UAVs Using Rapidly-Exploring Random Trees

The computationally efficient search for robust feasible paths for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in the presence of uncertainty is a challenging and interesting area of research. In uncertain environments, a “conservative” planner may be required but then there may be no feasible solution. In this paper, we use a chance constraint to limit the probability of constraint violation and extend this framework to handle uncertain dynamic obstacles. The approach requires the satisfaction of probabilistic constraints at each time step in order to guarantee probabilistic feasibility. The rapidly-exploring random tree (RRT) algorithm, which enjoys the computational benefits of a sampling-based algorithm, is used to develop a real-time probabilistically robust path planner. It incorporates the chance constraint framework to account for uncertainty within the formulation and includes a number of heuristics to improve the algorithm’s performance. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm can be used for efficient identification and execution of probabilistically safe paths in real-time.