Enhancement of glass-ceramic performance by TiO2 doping: In vitro cell viability,proliferation, and differentiation

A new TiO₂-containing bioactive glass and glass-ceramics based on 50SiO₂-(45-X)CaO-(XTiO₂)-5P₂O₅ system was designed using a sol–gel technique (where X = 5, 7.5 and 10 wt %). The roles of the crystallization behavior and physicochemical characteristics of the designed glass and glass-ceramics which were played in the introduction of TiO₂ substitutions were investigated. Moreover, cell proliferation and differentiation were evaluated against human osteosarcoma cells (Saos-2). The TiO₂/CaO replacements led to the formation of a stronger glass structure and thus increased thermal parameters and the chemical stabilization of the designed materials. The FTIR data confirmed the existence of Ti within the glass and glass-ceramics samples, and no remarkable effect on their chemical integrity was observed. The XRD patterns indicated that calcium-containing minerals, including Ca₂SiO₄,Ca₃(PO₄)₂, Ca(Ti,Si)O₅, CaTiSiO₅, and Ca₁₅(PO₄)₂·(SiO₄)₆ phases were developed as a role of structure/texture under the applied heat-treatment. The results of the cytotoxicity test proved that a safe sample dose is 12–50 μg/ml, at which cell viability is ≥ 85%. The cell differentiation determined by ALP test proved the superiority of glass-ceramics compared with their native glasses. Therefore, the obtained materials could be safely used as novel biocompatible materials for the regeneration of bone tissue.     

The Impact of PbF2-Based Glasses on Radiation Shielding and Mechanical Concepts: An Extensive Theoretical and Monte Carlo Simulation Study

Journal of Inorganic and Organometallic Polymers and Materials - This work aimed to investigate the impact of Lead-fluoride based glasses via theoretical and simulation techniques on mechanical and...     

Capacity planning in job-shop environment

Presented here is a computerized capacity planning system for the IBM Microcomputer family. The system maintains the profile of the job shop in a data base along with data pertinent to various products that can be manufactured in the shop. Projected orders for the planning period are input to the system with their associated quantities and delivery dates. The system uses the forward and backward loading rules in generating capacity loading scenarios. User selects the best course of action which may satisfy delivery dates subject to the limitations of the work centers. Efficiency figures are provided to aid the user in his/her decision.     

Printing cotton fabrics with reactive dyes of high reactivity from an acidic printing paste

The behaviour of reactive dyes of high reactivity during the printing process of 100% cotton fabrics from an alkaline and acidic printing paste was studied in detail. The printing pastes were stored for different periods of time and then the fabrics were printed. The samples were subjected to two methods of fixation, the first by steaming and the second by thermofixation. The effects of different factors such as alkali and acid concentration, storage time of the printing pastes and method of fixation on the K/S values of the prints were investigated. The fastness properties of the printed areas were also measured to determine the improvement obtained by acidic printing with high-reactivity reactive dyes on cotton fabrics.     

Using model transformation to refactor use case models based on antipatterns

Use Case modeling is a popular technique for documenting functional requirements of software systems. Refactoring is the process of enhancing the structure of a software artifact without changing its intended behavior. Refactoring, which was first introduced for source code, has been extended for use case models. Antipatterns are low quality solutions to commonly occurring design problems. The presence of antipatterns in a use case model is likely to propagate defects to other software artifacts. Therefore, detection and refactoring of antipatterns in use case models is crucial for ensuring the overall quality of a software system. Model transformation can greatly ease several software development activities including model refactoring. In this paper, a model transformation approach is proposed for improving the quality of use case models. Model transformations which can detect antipattern instances in a given use case model, and refactor them appropriately are defined and implemented. The practicability of the approach is demonstrated by applying it on a case study that pertains to biodiversity database system. The results show that model transformations can efficiently improve quality of use case models by saving time and effort.     

Optimal Machine Learning Enabled Performance Monitoring for Learning Management Systems

Learning Management System (LMS) is an application software that is used in automation, delivery, administration, tracking, and reporting of courses and programs in educational sector. The LMS which exploits machine learning (ML) has the ability of accessing user data and exploit it for improving the learning experience. The recently developed artificial intelligence (AI) and ML models helps to accomplish effective performance monitoring for LMS. Among the different processes involved in ML based LMS, feature selection and classification processes find beneficial. In this motivation, this study introduces Glowworm-based Feature Selection with Machine Learning Enabled Performance Monitoring (GSO-MFWELM) technique for LMS. The key objective of the proposed GSO-MFWELM technique is to effectually monitor the performance in LMS. The proposed GSO-MFWELM technique involves GSO-based feature selection technique to select the optimal features. Besides, Weighted Extreme Learning Machine (WELM) model is applied for classification process whereas the parameters involved in WELM model are optimally fine-tuned with the help of Mayfly Optimization (MFO) algorithm. The design of GSO and MFO techniques result in reduced computation complexity and improved classification performance. The presented GSO-MFWELM technique was validated for its performance against benchmark dataset and the results were inspected under several aspects. The simulation results established the supremacy of GSO-MFWELM technique over recent approaches with the maximum classification accuracy of 0.9589.     

一种基于复数域网络编码的双层卫星通信系统

针对卫星通信网络吞吐量不足、可靠性不高的问题,提出一种基于复数域网络编码(Complex Field Network Coding,CFNC)的卫星通信方案。该方案在信号发送前对源信息作预编码处理,即在复数域上选取一个大小合适的参数化空时码与源信号相乘,编码后的信号与源信号在复数域上有着一一映射关系。对该方案的吞吐量和成对差错概率(Pairwise Error Probability,PEP)做了详尽的理论分析,结果表明,采用该编码方案的卫星通信系统在终端发射功率不变的情况下,吞吐量比路由模式提高了100%以上,比传统的CFNC方式至少可提高75%。该方案还可以扩展至更多的地面源节点,从而支持多用户网络通信。最后,仿真实验表明,在较高的信噪比下,PEP仿真值逼近于渐近值,验证了理论分析的正确性。     

Thermally actuated buckling beam memory: a non-volatile memory configuration for extreme space exploration environments

A new nano-thermo-mechanical data storage memory is presented which combines two technologies of thermal actuation and buckling beam memory. The memory design is resistant in high radiation environments, making it a reliable memory for spacecraft computer systems. This memory has a data storage density, write/erase speed, and power consumption comparable with current memories. An integrated thermal–mechanical simulation of buckling in nano-mechanical memory is performed to optimize the design parameters. The preliminary system is a bridge with lengths of 20–40 μm, a width of 1 μm, and a thickness of 0.3 μm, in air with a pressure of 5 kPa. The simulation of high energy particle collisions shows radiation does not cause undesired buckling for silicon and silicon carbide bits, which makes the memory applicable for Jovian exploration. Optimization simulations are performed for silicon, silicon carbide, and kapton with various dimensions and actuation heating rates. The current work suggests the length of 20 μm for the bridge to balance the write time and the storage density. Among the beams with the fixed dimensions, kapton shows the fastest write time, with the lowest energy cost. However, high energy electron collision causes buckling in kapton, limiting its use in high radiation applications. The results show that silicon and silicon carbide based systems are viable for use in the extreme radiation environments that will be encountered in future space exploration missions.     

Advanced EPI-X4 Derivatives Covalently Bind Human Serum Albumin Resulting in Prolonged Plasma Stability

Advanced derivatives of the Endogenous Peptide Inhibitor of CXCR4 (EPI-X4) have shown therapeutic efficacy upon topical administration in animal models of asthma and dermatitis. Here, we studied the plasma stability of the EPI-X4 lead compounds WSC02 and JM#21, using mass spectrometry to monitor the chemical integrity of the peptides and a functional fluorescence-based assay to determine peptide function in a CXCR4-antibody competition assay. Although mass spectrometry revealed very rapid disappearance of both peptides in human plasma within seconds, the functional assay revealed a significantly higher half-life of 9 min for EPI-X4 WSC02 and 6 min for EPI-X4 JM#21. Further analyses demonstrated that EPI-X4 WSC02 and EPI-X4 JM#21 interact with low molecular weight plasma components and serum albumin. Albumin binding is mediated by the formation of a disulfide bridge between Cys10 in the EPI-X4 peptides and Cys34 in albumin. These covalently linked albumin–peptide complexes have a higher stability in plasma as compared with the non-bound peptides and retain the ability to bind and antagonize CXCR4. Remarkably, chemically synthesized albumin-EPI-X4 conjugates coupled by non-breakable bonds have a drastically increased plasma stability of over 2 h. Thus, covalent coupling of EPI-X4 to albumin in vitro before administration or in vivo post administration may significantly increase the pharmacokinetic properties of this new class of CXCR4 antagonists.     

Study of rigidity of semiconducting vanadate glasses and its importance in use of coatings

The elastic moduli of some multicomponent vanadate based glasses were analysed in terms of the bond compression model by some physical parameters such as, the density, average stretching force constant and average atomic ring size. These parameters were calculated for all the glass series and for all the glass composition to estimate the rigidity of these glasses. The results showed that the average force constant and the elastic moduli of these glasses are sensitive to the decrease in PbO content. This behaviour was attributed to the increase in the molar volume and the role of different modifiers. These parameters along with the coordination number of the glasses affect the glass transition temperature. The correlation between the elastic moduli and thermal properties of these samples showed that 0·25MoO₃–0.25PbO–0·5V₂O₅ glass is the most rigid and has an applicable glass transition temperature for coating.