Mobileman,Construction Agile Goods Delivery Robot?

The traditional automated guided vehicle ( AGV) on goods delivery faces the challenges when task space expands beyond 2D plans. 3D environments such as uneven t...     

Bioactive compounds, antioxidant, xanthine oxidase inhibitory, tyrosinase inhibitory and anti-inflammatory activities of selected agro-industrial by-products

Evaluation of abundantly available agro-industrial by-products for their bioactive compounds and biological activities is beneficial in particular for the food and pharmaceutical industries. In this study, rapeseed meal, cottonseed meal and soybean meal were investigated for the presence of bioactive compounds and antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, xanthine oxidase and tyrosinase inhibitory activities. Methanolic extracts of rapeseed meal showed significantly (P < 0.01) higher phenolics and flavonoids contents; and significantly (P < 0.01) higher DPPH and nitric oxide free radical scavenging activities when compared to that of cottonseed meal and soybean meal extracts. Ferric thiocyanate and thiobarbituric acid tests results showed rapeseed meal with the highest antioxidant activity (P < 0.01) followed by BHT, cotton seed meal and soybean meal. Rapeseed meal extract in xanthine oxidase and tyrosinase inhibitory assays showed the lowest IC(50) values followed by cottonseed and soybean meals. Anti-inflammatory assay using IFN-γ/LPS stimulated RAW 264.7 cells indicated rapeseed meal is a potent source of anti-inflammatory agent. Correlation analysis showed that phenolics and flavonoids were highly correlated to both antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities. Rapeseed meal was found to be promising as a natural source of bioactive compounds with high antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, xanthine oxidase and tyrosinase inhibitory activities in contrast to cotton and soybean meals.     

Improvement of Superelastic Performance of Ti-Nb Binary Alloys for Biomedical Applications

Recently, β-Ti-based alloys consisting of non-cytotoxic elements and possessing a low elastic modulus attracted considerable attention for biomedical applications. In addition to low elastic modulus, these alloys must also present a high strength level required to endure stresses. However, it is not easy to find a thermomechanical route in order to achieve low elastic modulus and high strength simultaneously. In this study, we show that severe cold-rolling deformation followed by a short aging treatment on Ti-Nb binary alloys, in order to produce ultrafine grains and/or omega phase, is an effective way to improve both strength and superelasticity. High stress (900 MPa), low modulus (35 GPa), and high recoverable strain (2.5%) are obtained using this route. The obtained results on mechanical properties are explained in relation with microstructure evolution during thermomechanical processing.     

The structure of crystalline polyethylene sulphide — a laser Raman study

That polyethylene sulphide crystallizes in lamellar units within spherulites, has been presumed. In this paper further evidence for lamellae from Raman spectroscopy is presented and discussed. Thickening of the lamellae betweenT _M-90 andT _M-15 is also demonstrated.     

Structure and properties of linear polyethylene crystallized by rapid cooling of melts: 3. The effect of shear

This paper investigates the relationship between the mechanical performance of an injection moulded product and the flow and temperature characteristics within the mould during manufacture. This has been achieved by devising a laboratory experiment involving production of a thin moulded rod. We have shown that the modulus in linear polyethylene is anomalously high when the polymer melt is rapidly solidified whilst being exposed to a high shear gradient. We have related this observation to the morphology of the solid product.     

WebFindIt: an architecture and system for querying Web databases

The Web offers a single user interface to data sharing across heterogeneous and autonomous databases, but it was not designed to handle the rigid DBMS protocols and data formats used by relational and object-oriented databases. WebFindIt is an ongoing project to develop the database equivalent of the World Wide Web-namely, a World Wide Database-through a middleware infrastructure for describing, locating, and accessing data from any kind of Web-accessible database. A special-purpose language, Web-Tassili, supports the definition and manipulation of middleware constructs for organizing the information space. An implementation of WebFindIt combines Java, CORBA and database technologies     

Deposition of thick and 50% porous YpSZ layer by spraying nitrate solution in a low pressure plasma reactor

The deposition of Yttria partially Stabilized Zirconia (YpSZ) for Thermal Barrier Coating application (TBC) is a current topic of interest. The TBC must exhibit high thickness (100–300 μm), vertical cracks in order to be a strain tolerant layer, and high porosity to decrease the thermal conductivity. In this paper, a solution of nitrate salt is introduced into a low pressure plasma discharge (600 Pa, 80–220 W) to obtain YpSZ layers.Several analytical techniques were used to study the characteristics and the stability of the YpSZ layers obtained in the low pressure plasma reactor. Optical emission spectroscopy indicated that the oxidant chemistry in the plasma is responsible for the formation of the oxide and the elimination of the nitrates at low temperature (T < 300 °C on the layer). SEM, water porosimetry, thermal diffusivity and XRD analyses were performed to study the effect of the parameters (power of the plasma discharge, post-treatment, heat treatment) on the structure, the morphology and the stability of YpSZ coatings. For example, it was observed that YpSZ is 50% porous in all cases and that the nanostructures of the coating resist against high temperature conditions (1200 °C/5 h).