Tribological and Mechanical Properties of Hybrid nHAp/ SiO2/chitosan Composites Fabricated from Snail Shell Using Grey Rational Grade (GRG) Analysis

Silicon - The inorganic nanomaterial plays a crucial role in bone defect repair. Nano hydroxyapatite (nHAp) is the most important inorganic substance that closely resembles the mineral component of...     

Mechanical and Wear Characteristics Investigation on 3D Printed Silicon Filled Poly (Lactic Acid) Biopolymer Composite Fabricated by Fused Deposition Modeling

Silicon - Fused deposition modeling (FDM) has attracted much attention in recent years because it allows the rapid fabrication of customizable biopolymer-based composite components. In this...     

HSVNN: an efficient medical data classification using dimensionality reduction combined with hybrid support vector neural network

Early diagnosis and therapy are the most essential strategies to prevent deaths from diseases, such as cancer, brain tumors, and heart diseases. In this regard, information mining and artificial intelligence approaches have been valuable tools for providing useful data for early diagnosis. However, high-dimensional data can be challenging to examine, practically difficult to visualize, and costly to measure and store. Transferring a high-dimensional portrayal of the data to a lower-dimensional one without losing important information is the focal issue of dimensionality reduction. Therefore, in this study, dimensionality reduction-based medical data classification is presented. The proposed methodology consists of three modules: pre-processing, dimension reduction using an adaptive artificial flora (AAF) algorithm, and classification. The important features are selected using the AAF algorithm to reduce the dimension of the input data. From the results, a dimension-reduced dataset is obtained. The reduced data are then fed as input to the hybrid classifier. A hybrid support vector neural network is proposed for classification. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed method is analyzed in terms of different metrics, namely accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity. The proposed method is implemented in MATLAB.

     

Surface Engineering of CeO2 Catalysts: Differences Between Solid Solution Based and Interfacially Designed Ce1−xMxO2 and MO/CeO2 (M = Zn,Mn) in CO2 Hydrogenation Reaction

Catalysis Letters - Zn- and Mn-doped Cerium-oxide based catalyst textured as a solid solutional as well as interfacial form was compared in CO2 hydrogenation reaction to understand the role of...     

Drying Kinetics of Tomato Slices in Vacuum Assisted Solar and Open Sun Drying Methods

A lab model vacuum-assisted solar dryer was developed to study the drying kinetics of tomato slices (4, 6, and 8 mm thicknesses) compared with open sun drying under the weather conditions of Montreal, Canada. The drying study showed that the time taken for drying of tomato slices of 4, 6, and 8 mm thicknesses from the initial moisture content of 94.0% to the final moisture content of around 11.5 ± 0.5% (w.b.) was 360, 480, and 600 min in vacuum-assisted solar dryer and 450, 600, and 750 min in open sun drying, respectively. During drying, it was observed that the temperature inside the vacuum chamber was increased to 48°C when the maximum ambient temperature was only 30°C. The quality of tomato slices dried under vacuum-assisted solar dryer was of superior quality in terms of color retention and rehydration ratio. The drying kinetics using thin-layer drying models and the influence of weather parameters such as ambient air temperature, relative humidity, solar insolation, and wind velocity on drying of tomato slices were evaluated.     

Investigation of inhibiting properties of self-assembled films of 4-aminothiophenol on copper in 3.5% NaCl

A self-assembled monolayer (SAM) of 4-aminothiophenol (4-ATP) was formed on copper surface which was characterized using cyclic voltammetry, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and Raman spectroscopic techniques. The surface morphology of the monolayer was examined by scanning electron microscopy. The anticorrosive property of the SAM was investigated using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and polarization studies. The electrochemical measurements showed that the inhibition efficiency increased with the immersion time of copper in ethanolic solution of 4-ATP in 3.5% NaCl. The significant corrosion protection efficiency of SAM could be due to the compact and dense monolayer on metallic surfaces.     

Thermal analysis of nanostructured alumina stabilized zirconia coating on exhaust manifold

Rapid rise in pollution has increased the number of automobiles usage worldwide. The exhaust manifold is an important part in the automobile since it acts as a passage for the transport of exhaust gases from the combustion chamber to the atmosphere. It is a sensitive component since it handles high-temperature exhaust gases. Continuous exposure of high-temperature exhaust gas may cause thermal stress which decreases the life of the exhaust manifold. Cast iron or steel is the most common material used for exhaust manifold. The present study deals with the improvement of material properties of exhaust manifold. In order to optimize the cast iron properties such as thermal conductivity and corrosion resistance, a zirconia-based nanocomposite coating such as alumina stabilized Zirconia (ASZ) can be coated on both sides of the exhaust manifold, instead of replacing the whole material. By coating nano structured ASZ, the amount of heat flow from exhaust gases to the exhaust manifold is decreased, thereby reducing the thermal fatigue. The method of coating can be achieved by radio frequency Magnetron sputtering technique. A steady-state thermal analysis is performed by simulation approach using ANSYS R17.2 to validate the output in the numerical approach. The results obtained shows that ASZ nanocomposite coating acts as an efficient thermal barrier coating for the exhaust manifold thus increasing its reliability.     

A dietary antioxidant supplementation of Jamaican cherries (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Muntingia calabura</Emphasis> L.) attenuates inflammatory related disorders

The polyphenolic extract from Jamaican cherries (Muntingia calabura L.) was screened for its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities. The extract contained considerable amounts of vitamin C (33.6 mg AAE/g extract) and E (14.7 mg TE/g extract), total phenolics (121.1 mg GAE/g extract), flavonoids (173.2 mg RE/g extract), and anthocyanins (82.4 mg CGE/g extract) estimated through standard spectrophotometric methods. The extract also revealed the presence of volatile compounds such as phytol (26.26%), n-hexadecanoic acid (11.97%), cyclopropaneoctanoic acid (10.26%), γ-sitosterol (11.15%), stigmasterol (7.20%), and campesterol (4.47%) as main constituents in the extract. The polyphenol extract demonstrated DPPH radical scavenging activity (IC₅₀ 10.6±0.6 μg/mL) and effectively inhibited hydroxyl (IC₅₀ 24.9±3.3 μg/mL), and nitric oxide (IC₅₀ 15.01±1.2 μg/mL) radicals in vitro. The extract also exhibited anti-inflammatory activity in a dose dependent manner by significantly (p<0.01) inhibiting carrageenan induced paw edema and reducing the weight of granuloma in cotton pellet-induced granuloma model in rats. Results indicated that Jamaican cherries could be a potential source of nutrient supplement with anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties and require promotion of their consumption for public health benefits.