Investigation into the automatic drilling of cortical bones using ANFIS-PSO and sensitivity analysis

Neural Computing and Applications - During the bone drilling process, in case of excessive force can cause breakage, crack initiation and severe damage to bone tissue. Additionally, if drilling...     

Concentrated emulsion polymerization for preparation of β‐cyclodextrin‐supported chromatography columns

Concentrated inverse emulsion polymerization was used for making chromatography columns (based on crosslinked polystyrene divinylbenzene (PS‐DVB)) with pore sizes less than 10 μm. According to DSC‐thermal gravimetry thermograms, it was confirmed that the residual monomer concentration after polymerization process is negligible. For application of these columns in chiral chromatography, the β‐cyclodextrin is chemically fixed on the PS‐DVB resin pore surface. The presence of hydroxyl groups in the PS‐DVB resin after chemical modification was confirmed by FTIR spectroscopy. By chemical modification of the PS‐DVB resin, thermal stability increased up to 446°C. The structure of columns was analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). SEM evaluations showed that the porous structure of PS‐DVB resin was maintained intact after the chemical modification with β‐cyclodextrin. According to X‐ray data, presence of the crystalline domain that is related to β‐cyclodextrin is confirmed.© 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 102: 857–863, 2006     

Mechanical alloying and consolidation of copper-iron-silicon carbide nanocomposites

Mechanical alloying, cold pressing, and sintering were used for synthesizing bulk copper, copper-iron, and copper-iron-silicon carbide nanomaterials. The precipitation of iron during sintering of the supersaturated mechanically alloyed powder significantly enhanced the thermal stability of the nanocomposite against grain growth. Moreover, the hardness of sintered composites was found to increase with increasing milling time, which was attributed to the work-hardening, crystallite refinement, and increasing the relative density (decrease in porosity). Although the addition of silicon carbide did not affect the mean crystallite size of the bulk samples, it effectively increased the hardness of the nanocomposite based on its composite strengthening effect.     

Application of the dry‐spinning method to produce poly(ε‐caprolactone) fibers containing bovine serum albumin laden gelatin nanoparticles

We designed and manufactured a polymeric system with combined hydrophilic–hydrophobic properties by loading gelatin nanoparticles (GNPs) containing bovine serum albumin (BSA) into poly(ε‐caprolactone) (PCL) fibers. Our ultimate goal was to create a device capable of carrying and releasing protein drugs. Such a system could find several biomedical applications, such as those in controlled release systems, surgical sutures, and bioactive scaffolds for tissue engineering. A two‐step desolvation method was used to produce GNPs, whereas PCL fibers were produced by a dry‐spinning method. The morphological, mechanical, and thermal properties of the produced system were investigated, and the distribution of nanoparticles both inside and on the surface of the fibers was examined. The effect of the particles on the biodegradability of the fibers was also evaluated. In vitro preliminary tests were performed to study the release of BSA from nanoparticle‐laden fibers and to compare this with its release from free nanoparticles. Our results indicate that the distribution of particles inside the fibers was quite homogeneous and only a few of them were present on the surface. The presence of the particles in the fibers did not affect the thermal properties of the PCL polymer matrix, although it created voids that affected the degradation characteristics so the PCL fibers favored faster erosion compared to the plain fibers. Preliminary results indicate that the release from GNP‐laden fibers occurred much more slowly compared to that in the free GNPs. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2016 , 133, 44233.     

Effect of Zirconia Concentration on the Growth of Nanowires in Bioactive Glass–Ceramic Coatings

Bioactive glass–ceramic with various zirconia concentrations was applied on stainless steel (SS) by the sol–gel method. Bioactive glass powder was prepared by the sol–gel method, and thermal properties of the prepared powders were studied by differential thermal analysis (DTA). The effects of zirconia were investigated to explore the growth of nanowires. The growth model of nanowires, in this study, is proposed in terms of the surface diffusion. The coatings showed the hardness values to be in the range of 3000–4500 MPa. The hardness values of prepared composite coatings increased with an increase in zirconia amounts.     

No-wait two stage hybrid flow shop scheduling with genetic and adaptive imperialist competitive algorithms

This article studies a no-wait two-stage flexible flow shop scheduling problem with setup times aiming to minimize the total completion time. The problem is solved using an adaptive imperialist competitive algorithm (AICA) and genetic algorithm (GA). To test the performance of the proposed AICA and GA, the algorithms are compared with ant colony optimisation, known as an effective algorithm in the literature. The performance of the algorithms are evaluated by solving both small and large-scale problems. Their performance is evaluated in terms of relative percentage deviation. Finally the results of the study are discussed and conclusions and potential areas for further study are highlighted.     

Synthesis and Characterization of Amorphous Nano‐Alumina Powders with High Surface Area for Biodiesel Production

Nano‐alumina powders containing yttrium oxide were synthesized via the sol‐gel method using aluminum chloride hexahydrate as catalyst precursor. Fourier transform infrared analysis showed the presence of Al‐O and Al‐O‐Al bands in the powder structure and X‐ray diffraction spectra proved that the alumina was in the amorphous phase. The amorphous nano‐alumina powders were shown to be mesoporous with a high surface area, and both spherical and slit‐shaped particles were found in the calcined powder. A high percentage of conversion of oil to biodiesel was obtained in the transesterification reaction and the synthesized nano‐alumina powders could be easily regenerated for further use. The amorphous nano‐alumina powder can thus be recommended for use as active catalyst in the transesterification reaction for biodiesel production on the industrial scale.     

Penetration Depth in Nanoparticles Incorporated Radiofrequency Hyperthermia into the Tissue: Comprehensive Study with Histology and Pathology Observations

In present study, the effective penetration of radiofrequency (RF) induced gold decorated iron oxide nanoparticles (GS@IONPs) hyperthermia was investigated. The effective penetration depth of RF also the damage potency of hyperthermia was evaluated during histopathology observations which were done on the chicken breast tissue and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) models. The thermal damages are well‐ documented in our previous cellular study which was engaged with potency of RF hyperthermia in Epithelial adenocarcinoma (MCF‐7) and fibroblast (L‐929) cells deaths [1]. In recent work, PEGylated iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs) were used as base platform for gold magnetic nanoparticles (GS@IONPs) formation. The 144.00015 MHz, 180W RF generator was applied for stimulating the nanoparticles. The chicken breast tissue and the hepatocellular tumor model was considered in the experimental section. In histology studies, the structural changes also the effective penetration depth of RF induced nanoparticles was observed through microscopic monitoring of the tissue slices in histology observations (Gazi medical school). The highest damage level was seen in 8.0 µm tissue slices where lower damages were seen in depth of 1.0 cm and more inside tissue. The histology observations clarified the effective penetration depth of RF waves and irreversible damages in the 2.0 cm inside the tissue.Inspec keywords: nanomedicine, tumours, biomedical materials, cellular biophysics, nanoparticles, gold, cancer, hyperthermia, magnetic particles, iron compounds, radiation therapyOther keywords: Au‐Fe₃ O₄ , depth 1.0 cm, depth 8.0 mum, power 180.0 W, size 2.0 cm, frequency 144.00015 MHz, microscopic monitoring, structural changes, hepatocellular tumour model, standing wave ratio, propylene glycol, thermal damages, hepatocellular carcinoma models, radiofrequency hyperthermia, nanoparticle dispersion, tissue alterations, modified tissues, gold shell magnetic nanoparticles, chicken breast tissue, gold‐coated iron oxide nanoparticles, pathology observations, effective penetration depth, histology observations, tissue slices     

Development of an electrochemical sulfite biosensor by immobilization of sulfite oxidase on conducting polyaniline film

In this work, a biosensor was developed for the determination of sulfite. The bioelectrochemical response of the enzyme-modified electrode based on electrochemical incorporation of sulfite oxidase into polyaniline aluminum modified electrode was investigated. Electropolymerization of polyaniline and simultaneous immobilization of sulfite oxidase on the aluminum were performed in an aqueous solution containing sulfite oxidase. The sulfite biosensor constructed by cycling the potential scan between +1.2 and ?0.5 V vs. saturated calomel electrode (SCE) that showed a sensitive response to sulfite with a linear calibration graph in the concentration ranges of 0.006–5 mM sulfite and detection limit 0.002 mM sulfite (S/N = 3). The obtained results from the stability tests of the biosensor show that the sulfite biosensor can be used for two different applications, for immediate usage and long term usage. Also, the bioelectrochemical response of the enzyme-modified electrode as a sulfite biosensor was evaluated at different experimental conditions. The optimum pH when using phosphate buffer and temperature were 8.5 and 35 °C, respectively. Finally, the apparent Michaelis–Menten constant was determined which has value of 0.365 mM which is really close to the magnitude of the Michaelis–Menten constant of free sulfite oxidase that shows the enzyme was not chemically modified and has its usual kinetic reaction.     

An intelligent hybrid meta-heuristic for solving a case of no-wait two-stage flexible flow shop scheduling problem with unrelated parallel machines

This paper addresses the problem of no-wait two-stage flexible flow shop scheduling problem (NWTSFFSSP) considering unrelated parallel machines, sequence-dependent setup times, probable reworks and different ready times to actualize the problem. The performance measure used in this study is minimizing maximum completion time (makespan). Because of the complexity of addressed problem, we propose a novel intelligent hybrid algorithm [called hybrid algorithm (HA)] based on imperialist competitive algorithm (ICA) which are combined with simulated annealing (SA), variable neighborhood search (VNS) and genetic algorithm (GA) for solving the mentioned problem. The hybridization is carried out to overcome some existing drawbacks of each of these three algorithms and also for increasing the capability of ICA. To achieve reliable results, Taguchi approach is used to define robust parameters' values for our proposed algorithm. A simulation model is developed to study the performance of our proposed algorithm against ICA, SA, VNS, GA and ant colony optimization (ACO). The results of the study reveal the relative superiority of HA studied. In addition, potential areas for further researches are highlighted.