α-Glucosidase, α-amylase inhibition kinetics,in vitro gastro-intestinal digestion,and apoptosis inducing abilities of Ficus microcarpa L. f. and Ficus racemosa L. fruit polysaccharides

Food Science and Biotechnology - A rich source of nutrients, figs have a number of clinically validated benefits. This study aimed to evaluate the in vitro simulated gastrointestinal digestion, and...     

Indium selenide microrod films: chemical bath deposition from acidic bath

Films of indium selenide was deposited onto glass and indium tin oxide coated glass substrates in acidic medium using chemical bath deposition at room temperature. Indium sulphate and sodium selenosulphate were used as precursors of In³⁺ and Se^2?, respectively. The structural, surface morphological and optical properties of the deposited films were studied. Diffractograms in structural study revealed the deposited material is In₂Se₃ films. Controlled bath conditions resulted in the evolution of the In₂Se₃ microrod-like morphology. The optical band gap of the film was found to be 1.7 eV.     

Coupled dynamical system based arm–hand grasping model for learning fast adaptation strategies

Performing manipulation tasks interactively in real environments requires a high degree of accuracy and stability. At the same time, when one cannot assume a fully deterministic and static environment, one must endow the robot with the ability to react rapidly to sudden changes in the environment. These considerations make the task of reach and grasp difficult to deal with. We follow a Programming by Demonstration (PbD) approach to the problem and take inspiration from the way humans adapt their reach and grasp motions when perturbed. This is in sharp contrast to previous work in PbD that uses unperturbed motions for training the system and then applies perturbation solely during the testing phase. In this work, we record the kinematics of arm and fingers of human subjects during unperturbed and perturbed reach and grasp motions. In the perturbed demonstrations, the target’s location is changed suddenly after the onset of the motion. Data show a strong coupling between the hand transport and finger motions. We hypothesize that this coupling enables the subject to seamlessly and rapidly adapt the finger motion in coordination with the hand posture. To endow our robot with this competence, we develop a coupled dynamical system based controller, whereby two dynamical systems driving the hand and finger motions are coupled. This offers a compact encoding for reach-to-grasp motions that ensures fast adaptation with zero latency for re-planning. We show in simulation and on the real iCub robot that this coupling ensures smooth and “human-like” motions. We demonstrate the performance of our model under spatial, temporal and grasp type perturbations which show that reaching the target with coordinated hand–arm motion is necessary for the success of the task.     

SUSANS With Polarized Neutrons

Super Ultra-Small Angle Neutron Scattering (SUSANS) studies over wave vector transfers of 10^–4 nm^–1 to 10^–3 nm^–1 afford information on micrometer-size agglomerates in samples. Using a right-angled magnetic air prism, we have achieved a separation of ≈10 arcsec between ≈2 arcsec wide up- and down-spin peaks of 0.54 nm neutrons. The SUSANS instrument has thus been equipped with the polarized neutron option. The samples are placed in a uniform vertical field of 8.8 × 10⁴ A/m (1.1 kOe). Several magnetic alloy ribbon samples broaden the up-spin neutron peak significantly over the ±1.3 × 10^–3 nm^–1 range, while leaving the down-spin peak essentially unaltered. Fourier transforms of these SUSANS spectra corrected for the instrument resolution, yield micrometer-range pair distribution functions for up- and down-spin neutrons as well as the nuclear and magnetic scattering length density distributions in the samples.     

Synthesis and characterization of high molecular weight polyaniline for organic electronic applications

High molecular weight polyaniline (PANI) was synthesized by a combined procedure incorporating various synthesis methods. Temperature and open circuit potential of the reaction mixture were collected to monitor the reaction progress. The polymer is characterized by various techniques including gel permeation chromatography, dynamic light scattering, infrared spectroscopy, solid‐state nuclear magnetic resonance, and differential scanning calorimetry for elucidating the molecular architecture obtained by this method. As‐synthesized PANI was found to possess high molecular weight, reduced branching, reduced cross‐linking, and to predominantly consist of linear polymer chains. This polymer was also found to be more stable in solution form. J–V characteristics of as‐synthesized PANI films indicate a high current density which is due to increased free pathways and less traps for the charge transport to occur in PANI films. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 2012. © 2012 Society of Plastics Engineers     

Machine learning in continuous casting of steel: a state-of-the-art survey

Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing - Continuous casting is the most important route for the production of steel today. Due to the physical, mechanical, and chemical components involved in the...     

Development of mefenamic acid–loaded polymeric microparticles using solvent evaporation and spray-drying technique

Ethyl cellulose (EC) and Eudragit RL-100 (ERL-100) were used for the preparation of sustained released microparticles of mefenamic acid (MFN) by using oil-in-oil (o/o) solvent evaporation as well as spray drying. A Plackett-Burman design was employed using Design-Expert software. The resultant microparticles were characterized for their size, surface morphology, encapsulation efficiency, and drug release. Imaging of microparticles was performed by field emission scanning electron microscopy. The drug and polymer interaction was investigated by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and X-ray powder diffractometry (XRPD). The microparticles showed encapsulation efficiency in the range of 29.44 to 89.20% by solvent evaporation and 83.73 to 96.69% by spray drying. The surface of the microparticles was smooth, round, and regular, without any erosion and cracking. The size of the microparticles was found to be in the range of 6.55 to 41.1 µm. FTIR analysis confirmed no interaction of MFN with the polymers. XRPD showed the dispersion of the drug within the microparticle formulation. These results helped in finding the optimum formulation variables for encapsulation efficiency (EE) of microparticles.