Improving delamination resistance of carbon fiber reinforced polymeric composite by interface engineering using carbonaceous nanofillers through electrophoretic deposition: An assessment at different in-service temperatures

In this article, modification of carbon fiber surface by carbon based nanofillers (multi-walled carbon nanotubes [CNT], carbon nanofibers, and multi-layered graphene) has been achieved by electrophoretic deposition technique to improve its interfacial bonding with epoxy matrix, with a target to improve the mechanical performance of carbon fiber reinforced polymer composites. Flexural and short beam shear properties of the composites were studied at extreme temperature conditions; in-situ cryo, room and elevated temperature (−196, 30, and 120°C respectively). Laminate reinforced with CNT grafted carbon fibers exhibited highest delamination resistance with maximum improvement in flexural strength as well as in inter-laminar shear strength (ILSS) among all the carbon fiber reinforced epoxy (CE) composites at all in-situ temperatures. CNT modified CE composite showed increment of 9% in flexural strength and 17.43% in ILSS when compared to that of unmodified CE composite at room temperature (30°C). Thermomechanical properties were investigated using dynamic mechanical analysis. Fractography was also carried out to study different modes of failure of the composites.     

Response Surface Methodology Based Modelling of Friction–Wear Behaviour of Al6061/9%Gr/WC MMCs and Its Optimization Using Fuzzy GRA

In the present paper an attempt is made to establish a response surface methodology based non-linear mathematical model for the friction–wear behaviour of as cast and heat-treated Al6061/9%Gr/WC (with WC at 1, 2 and 3 wt%) metal matrix composites (MMCs). During experimentation, the process parameters, namely percentage of WC, load, sliding distance and sliding velocity have been considered as inputs and wear loss (WL) and coefficient of friction (COF) have been treated as the responses. Results reveal that, for as-cast Al6061/9%Gr/WC hybrid composites, the WL decreases with increase in percentage of WC and increases with the increase in load, sliding distance and sliding velocity. Moreover, COF decreases with increase in percentage of WC and sliding velocity and increases with increase in the load and sliding distance. It has also been observed that the WL and COF of heat treated composites are found to be less than the as cast MMCs. Further, fuzzy grey relational analysis (GRA) has been used to perform the multi objective optimization of the said wear process. Finally, the evidence of wear phenomenon for the said composites have been examined with the help of scanning electron microscopy.     

Seasonal variation of sea surface temperature in the Bay of Bengal during 1992 as derived from NOAA-AVHRR SST data

Monthly maps of sea surface temperature (SST) derived from NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)-AVHRR (Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer) data during 1992 for the Bay of Bengal are analysed and compared with the available/compiled monthly seatruth (bucket thermometer) data of this region. It was noticed that the computed SST bias (AVHRR SST minus Seatruth SST), in general, varied between 2.0 and 2.5 C with smaller bias values (1.5 to 1.5 C) during January-June and December. Larger bias values were noticed in the south-eastern Bay in July and in the Andaman Sea in October. The large SST biases suggested the necessity for improvement of SST algorithms by properly removing the clouds. The spatial variation of Standard Deviation of SST bias was particularly high (0.7) in the western Bay when compared to other parts of the Bay of Bengal. The monthly maps of AVHRR SST clearly depicted the seasonal cycle of SST showing the well known bi-modal SST distribution of the study region with winter cooling, summer heating, monsoonal cooling and post-monsoon warming phases. The seasonal cycle of SST further revealed the persistence of Warm Pool (SST 28 C) in the Bay of Bengal from March through October.     

Remote sensing of sea surface temperature through infrared radiometry — a review

A review on the estimation of sea surface temperature (SST) from space using infrared radiometry is presented. The principle of the remote sensing technique, the infrared radiometers and the theory of SST measurement have been explained briefly. The absorption of infrared radiation from earth by the atmospheric constituents has been a major problem in the retrieval of SST from space-borne sensors. The effect of clouds and other atmospheric constituents, especially moisture content/water vapour, has been discussed and the various techniques used for evaluating the atmospheric correction and their limitations are summarised. Development of separate algorithms for each oceanic area coupled with validation by realistic sea truth measurements has been suggested for improving the accuracy of SST measurements from space. The first author was supported by a CSIR fellowship.     

Particle swarm optimization for scheduling batch processing machines in a permutation flowshop

Batch processing machines are capable of processing several jobs in a batch simultaneously. These machines are used in many real-life applications. This paper presents solution approaches to schedule batch processing machines arranged in a permutation flowshop in order to minimize its makespan (or completion time of the last batch). The processing time of each job on all the machines and their sizes are given. Each machine can process a batch of jobs as long as its capacity is not violated. The batch processing time is equal to the longest processing job in the batch. Since the problem under study is NP-hard, commercial mixed-integer solvers may require prohibitively long run time to solve even modest sized problems. Consequently, a particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm is proposed. Three heuristics to update the particle’s positions are also proposed. The effectiveness of the proposed PSO algorithm is compared with a commercial solver (which was used to solve a mathematical model) and several heuristics from the literature. The experimental study conducted indicates that the proposed PSO algorithm outperforms both the commercial solver and the heuristics in terms of solution quality. The commercial solver requires longer run times compared to PSO.     

An Experimental Study on the Response of Model Footings Resting on Reinforced Flyash Beds under Repeated Load

In the present, investigation an attempt has been made to study the behavior of reinforced flyash beds under repeated loads by conducting carefully designed experiments. The main objective of the experiments conducted is to evaluate the beneficial effects of using flyash as a backfill material in the reinforced beds to resist the repeated loads. As no unique standard equipment is available for the application of repeated loads and to measure the response, different researchers have designed and fabricated different types of equipments for the testing. The repeated load of known intensity with waveform type and frequency is applied on the surface and embedded footing in unreinforced and reinforced flyash beds. The response of the flyash beds, in the form of settlement is measured using linear variable differential transducers. The experimental results clearly demonstrated that the provision of reinforcement in the flyash beds is effective in improving the performance of both surface and embedded footing under repeated loads.     

Influence of soil density on gas permeability and water retention in soils amended with in-house produced biochar

Biochar has been used as an environment-friendly enhancer to improve the hydraulic properties(e.g.suction and water retention) of soil.However,variations in densities alter the properties of the soil-biochar mix.Such density variations are observed in agriculture(loosely compacted) and engineering(densely compacted) applications.The influence of biochar amendment on gas permeability of soil has been barely investigated,especially for soil with diffe rent densities.The maj or obj ective of this study is to investigate the water retention capacity,and gas permeability of biochar-amended soil(BAS) with different biochar contents under varying degree of compaction(DOC) conditions.In-house produced novel biochar was mixed with the soil at different amendment rates(i.e.biochar contents of 0%,5% and 10%).All BAS samples were compacted at three DOCs(65%,80% and 95%) in polyvinyl chloride(PVC)tubes.Each soil column was subjected to drying-wetting cycles,during which soil suction,water content,and gas permeability were measured.A simplified theoretical framework for estimating the void ratio of BAS was proposed.The experimental results reveal that the addition of biochar significantly decreased gas permeability k_g as compared with that of bare soil(BS).However,the addition of 5%biochar is found to be optimum in decreasing kg with an increase of DOC(i.e.k_(g,65%) k_(g,80%) k_(g,95%)) at a relatively low suction range(200 kPa) because both biochar and compaction treatment reduce the connected pores.     

The Stabilizing Effects of Polyols and Sugars on Porcine Pancreatic Lipase

Porcine pancreatic lipase (PPL) has been used as a biocatalyst for many years and is one of the most widely used enzymes for biotechnological applications; however, it is a rather complex mixture with various active enzymes. The present study has been undertaken to determine the effects of polyols and sugars (cosolvents) on the thermal stability of PPL preparation. The thermal stability of PPL exposed to 60°C for 10 min was enhanced in the presence of cosolvents in terms of both residual specific activity and conformational stability. Thermal denaturation, changes in circular dichroism, fluorescence spectra, apparent kinetic parameters, activity, and preferential interaction parameter of PPL preparation are discussed in terms of contributions to the mechanism of thermal stability and the activity enhancement. Partial specific volume measurement of PPL in the presence of cosolvents is presented for the first time. The preferential interaction parameter (ξ ₃) was negative in all cosolvents used, and maximum hydration was observed in the presence of trehalose, where the preferential interaction parameter was −0.076 g/g. The observed increase in the thermal stability of PPL preparation in the presence of cosolvents is due to the preferential hydration of the enzyme.     

Modified octahedron shaped antenna with parasitic loading plane having dual band notch characteristics for UWB applications

The design of a compact modified octahedron shaped dual band notched ultra wide‐band antenna is presented in this article. The impedance bandwidth of the designed antenna has been enhanced by modifying the shape of the radiator by introducing fractal geometry and a modified ground plane. The proposed antenna offered an impedance bandwidth of 2.4 GHz–19.5 GHz (156% Fractional bandwidth). Two rectangular split ring resonator structures are introduced in the radiator to achieve two notched bands which ranges from 3.3 GHz to 3.7 GHz (WiMAX) and 5.15 GHz–5.85 GHz (WLAN) band. The antenna gain varies from 1 to 4 dBi over the operating band except the notched bands. The overall dimension of the designed antenna has a compact size of 33 × 40 mm². The experimental and simulation results are in good agreement. The proposed antenna has wider bandwidth and smaller dimension over the already reported in the literature. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE 26:426–434, 2016.     

Therapeutic Targeting of Ovarian Cancer Stem Cells Using Estrogen Receptor Beta Agonist

Ovarian cancer (OCa) is the deadliest gynecologic cancer. Emerging studies suggest ovarian cancer stem cells (OCSCs) contribute to chemotherapy resistance and tumor relapse. Recent studies demonstrated estrogen receptor beta (ERβ) exerts tumor suppressor functions in OCa. However, the status of ERβ expression in OCSCs and the therapeutic utility of the ERβ agonist {"type":"entrez-nucleotide","attrs":{"text":"LY500307","term_id":"1371032831","term_text":"LY500307"}}LY500307 for targeting OCSCs remain unknown. OCSCs were enriched from ES2, OV90, SKOV3, OVSAHO, and A2780 cells using ALDEFLUOR kit. RT-qPCR results showed ERβ, particularly ERβ isoform 1, is highly expressed in OCSCs and that ERβ agonist {"type":"entrez-nucleotide","attrs":{"text":"LY500307","term_id":"1371032831","term_text":"LY500307"}}LY500307 significantly reduced the viability of OCSCs. Treatment of OCSCs with {"type":"entrez-nucleotide","attrs":{"text":"LY500307","term_id":"1371032831","term_text":"LY500307"}}LY500307 significantly reduced sphere formation, self-renewal, and invasion, while also promoting apoptosis and G2/M cell cycle arrest. Mechanistic studies using RNA-seq analysis demonstrated that {"type":"entrez-nucleotide","attrs":{"text":"LY500307","term_id":"1371032831","term_text":"LY500307"}}LY500307 treatment resulted in modulation of pathways related to cell cycle and apoptosis. Western blot and RT-qPCR assays demonstrated the upregulation of apoptosis and cell cycle arrest genes such as FDXR, p21/CDKN1A, cleaved PARP, and caspase 3, and the downregulation of stemness markers SOX2, Oct4, and Nanog. Importantly, treatment of {"type":"entrez-nucleotide","attrs":{"text":"LY500307","term_id":"1371032831","term_text":"LY500307"}}LY500307 significantly attenuated the tumor-initiating capacity of OCSCs in orthotopic OCa murine xenograft models. Our results demonstrate that ERβ agonist {"type":"entrez-nucleotide","attrs":{"text":"LY500307","term_id":"1371032831","term_text":"LY500307"}}LY500307 is highly efficacious in reducing the stemness and promoting apoptosis of OCSCs and shows significant promise as a novel therapeutic agent in treating OCa.