Deduction of a facile method to construct Antheraea mylitta silk fibroin/gelatin blend films for prospective biomedical applications

Blend films of two types (I and II) were prepared by mixing Antheraea mylitta silk fibroin (AMF) and gelatin solution in various blend ratios via the solution casting method. Two different crosslinkers, namely glutaraldehyde and genipin, were used during blend preparation. The structural characteristics and thermal properties of the blend films were examined by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, X‐ray diffraction (XRD), Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and Diffrential scanning calorimetery (DSC). The FTIR spectra showed conformational alterations in type I blend films while type II films attained high β‐sheet crystallinity. The XRD diffractograms presented a high degree of crystallinity in type II blend films compared to type I, which showed an almost amorphous structure. Further, thermal and biological studies were conducted on type II films. According to the TGA thermograms, the degradation temperature of the crosslinked blend films shifted compared to pure gelatin and pure AMF films. Partial miscibility of the two components was indicated by DSC thermograms of the blends. The high water uptake capacity of type II blend films was found to imitate hydrogel behaviour. The blend films did not show any toxicity in 3‐(4,5‐dimethylthiazol‐2‐yl)‐2,5‐diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay and supported L929 fibroblast cell spreading and proliferation. The biodegradation of the blend films was significantly faster than the pure silk film. © 2020 Society of Industrial Chemistry     

Interface cracking between functionally graded coatings and a substrate under antiplane shear

Coating technology plays a significant role in a number of applications such as high temperatures, corrosion, oxidation, wear, and interface. In this paper, we investigate the interface cracking between ceramic and/or functionally graded coatings (FGM coatings) and a substrate under antiplane shear. Four coating models are considered, namely single layered homogeneous coating, double layered piece-wise homogeneous coating, single layered FGM coating and double layered coating with an FGM bottom coat. Mode III stress intensity factors (SIFs) are calculated for the different coating models. In the case of μ_L > μ₀ where μ₀ is the shear modulus of the substrate and μ_L the shear modulus of the material at the surface of the coating, it is found that the single layered FGM coating reduces SIF slightly, whereas the coating system with a top homogeneous layer and a thin FGM bottom layer reduces SIF significantly. In the case of μ_L < μ₀ the SIF is found to be larger for the FGM coatings than for the homogeneous coatings. The FGM coating, however, may still be superior to homogeneous coatings in this case as FGM coatings usually provide better bonding strength between the coating and substrate. Finally, the applicability of the SIF concept in the fracture of FGM coatings is discussed. Large modulus gradients in thin coatings may seriously restrict the application of SIFs as the SIF-dominant zone may fall into the crack tip nonlinear deformation and damage zone. The same argument exists for some interphase models in interface crack solutions.     

Haemangiopericytoma of the nasal cavity

Haemangiopericytoma of nose and paranasal sinuses is relatively uncommon tumour. It occurs in adults in sixth and seventh decades of life. In view of paucity of intranasal haemangiopericytoma old in Indian literature and young age of patient, we are reporting one case in 28-year-old female who presented with recurrent, profuse epistaxis.     

Effect of epitaxial realignment on the leakage behavior of arsenic-implanted,as-deposited polycrystalline Si-on-single crystal Si diodes

When dopants are indiffused from a heavily implanted polycrystalline silicon film deposited on a silicon substrate, high thermal budget annealing can cause the interfacial “native” oxide at the polycrystalline silicon-single crystal silicon interface to break up into oxide clusters, causing epitaxial realignment of the polycrystalline silicon layer with respect to the silicon substrate. Anomalous transient enhanced diffusion occurs during epitaxial realignment and this has adverse effects on the leakage characteristics of the shallow junctions formed in the silicon substrate using this technique. The degradation in the leakage current is mainly due to increased generation-recombination in the depletion region because of defect injection from the interface.     

CARD: A Contact-based Architecture for Resource Discovery in Wireless Ad Hoc Networks

Traditional protocols for routing in ad hoc networks attempt to obtain optimal or shortest paths, and in doing so may incur significant route discovery overhead. Such approaches may be appropriate for routing long-lived transfers where the initial cost of route discovery may be amortized over the life of the connection. For short-lived connections, however, such as resource discovery and small transfers, traditional shortest path approaches may be quite inefficient. In this paper we propose a novel architecture, CARD, for resource discovery in large-scale wireless ad hoc networks. Our mechanism is suitable for resource discovery as well as routing very small data transfers or transactions in which the cost of data transfer is much smaller than the cost of route discovery. Our architecture avoids expensive mechanisms such as global flooding and complex hierarchy formation and does not require any location information. In CARD resources within the vicinity of a node, up to a limited number of hops, are discovered using a proactive scheme. For resources beyond the vicinity, each node maintains a few distant nodes called contacts. Contacts help in creating a small world in the network and provide an efficient way to query for distant resources. Using contacts, the network view (or reachability) of the nodes increases, reducing the discovery overhead and increasing the success rate. On the other hand, increasing the number of contacts also increases control overhead. We study such trade-off in depth and present mechanisms for contact selection and maintenance that attempt to increase reachability with reduced overhead. Our schemes adapt gracefully to network dynamics and mobility using soft-state periodic mechanisms to validate and recover paths to contacts. Our simulation results show that CARD is scalable and can be configured to provide desirable performance for various network sizes. Comparisons with other schemes show overhead savings reaching over 93% (vs. flooding) and 80% (vs. bordercasting or zone routing) for high query rates in large-scale networks.     

The generalized Kuhn model of linear viscoelasticity

We propose a generalization of the Kuhn model of linear viscoelasticity. This generalization, which has four material parameters, is able to provide a near frequency independent response over a wide range of frequencies. It is useful for highly dissipative materials such as asphalt concrete. It is derived by generalizing Lubliner and Panoskaltsis’s modified Kuhn model, but we also show that it is closely related to fractional derivative models. We show that the model admits a rheological approximation, that is, an approximation by classical springs and dashpots. The model and rheological representation are compared to experimental data.     

Retroviral gene transfer is inhibited by chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans/glycosaminoglycans in malignant pleural effusions

Gene therapy may be an important adjuvant for treating cancer in the pleural space. The initial results of retroviral gene transfer to cancer cells in malignant pleural effusions revealed that transduction was markedly inhibited, and studies to characterize the inhibitory factor(s) were performed. The inhibition was contained within the soluble, rather than cellular, components of the effusions and was demonstrated with amphotropic, gibbon ape leukemia virus, and vesicular stomatitis virus-glycoprotein pseudotyped retroviral vectors. After excluding complement proteins, a series of studies identified chondroitin sulfates (CSs) as the inhibitory substances. First, treatment of the effusions with mammalian hyaluronidase or chondroitinases, but not Streptomyces hyaluronidase, abolished the inhibitory activity. Second, addition of exogenous CS glycosaminoglycans mimicked the inhibition observed with pleural effusions. Third, immunoassays and biochemical analyses of malignant pleural effusion specimens revealed CS in relevant concentrations within pleural fluid. Fourth, proteoglycans/glycosaminoglycans isolated from the effusions inhibited retroviral gene transfer. Analyses of the mechanism of inhibition indicate that the chondroitin sulfates interact with vector in solution rather than at the target cell surface. These results suggest that drainage of the malignant pleural effusion, and perhaps enzymatic pretreatment of the pleural cavity, will be necessary for efficient retroviral vector mediated gene delivery to pleural metastases.     

A bi-criteria model for the inventory aggregation problem under risk pooling

Inventory aggregation, also called Risk Pooling, is one of the most efficient ways to reduce the level of safety stocks thereby reducing inventory across the supply chain. Determining the best level of aggregation is a difficult problem and needs extensive study of all the possible scenarios that can affect this decision. Minimizing costs in a supply chain is no longer the sole priority of businesses. Maintaining a high level of responsiveness is also considered equally important. The conflicting nature of these two criteria makes the solution of the problem difficult. In this paper, we develop a bi-criteria nonlinear stochastic integer programming model to determine the best supply chain distribution network to meet customer demands, where minimizing costs while maintaining high levels of responsiveness is important. We develop a two-stage optimization algorithm to solve this problem.