Search

This purpose of this research work primarily focuses on assessing the contact characteristics of a novel 3D printed flexible poly lactic acid (PLA) fingertip exposed to a normal load ranging from 1–750 N. The 3D printed fingertip is pressed against three different target surfaces having concave, convex and flat profiles to facilitate a rational comparison. The growth of contact area is recorded for a wide range of applied normal force against the fingertip on logging sheets and the same is converted in vector format for facilitating digital measurements. From close examination of the results, it may be noted that the rate of growth of contact area follows the parametric relationship a = cN γ . A weighted least squares fit algorithm is used to formulate the parametric relationship based on experimental data. Further, the contact characteristics of the 3D printed fingertip follows the same pattern of soft neoprene fingertip, and it is well in line with the expected results. Hence, it is evident that 3D printed fingertips could be utilized for handling fragile to hard objects and capable of handling multi-profiled objects in dexterous robotic manipulation. Moreover, complex profiled fingertips can easily be manufactured by 3D printing, and it can be considered as a better alternative for conventionally manufactured anthropomorphic robotic grippers. Practical implications of this research will be highly useful for development of soft-fingered robotic grippers for dexterous robotic manipulations.

At present, with the enormous development of cloud-based applications, the demand of related enterprises for computing and a large number of storage resources is increasing day by day. Due to the characteristics of ultra-large scale and low cost, cloud computing has been gradually applied to complex workflow scheduling problems in various fields. The traditional scheduling algorithms have lot of limitations such as inefficient task management and unreasonable resource allocation. The workflow scheduling problem in the cloud computing environment has been proved to be an NP-complete problem. To solve these problems, this paper proposes an improved ant colony optimization workflow scheduling for workflow execution of tasks within a user-specified deadline. On this basis, a hybrid cloud deadline-constrained cost workflows scheduling algorithm under the hybrid cloud is proposed, which will prioritize scheduling execution in the private cloud, and use the public cloud to schedule part of the workflow when the task execution time exceeds the task deadline constraint. The simulation results show that the proposed workflow scheduling algorithm reduces the cost and attain faster execution time.

This article presents the investigations on RF-behavioral aspects for the possible operation of a V -band, continuous wave (CW) second harmonic gyrotron for plasma diagnostic application. Keeping in view the design goals and constraints, initial design studies for the mode selection and the computation of starting currents are carried out. From these studies, two possible modes, namely, TE 7,3 and TE 8,3 are considered for the second harmonic operation. Later, the cold cavity design and self-consistent calculations are carried out for the selected operating modes. All the computations are performed using the latest version of our in-house code Gyrotron Design Studio Second Harmonic Version 2020 (GDS2H-2020) with Glidcop as the cavity material. The RF behavior studies confirm the feasible operation of such a second harmonic gyrotron with power levels in excess of 115.52/217.64 kW with the chosen modes of operation.

Peroxisome proliferator activated receptors (PPARs) are a group of nuclear receptors and the ligand-activated intracellular transcription factors that are known to play a key role in physiological processes such as cell metabolism, proliferation, differentiation, tissue remodeling, inflammation, and atherosclerosis. However, in the past two decades, many reports claim that PPARs also play an imperious role as a tumor suppressor. PPAR- gamma (PPARγ), one of the best-known from the family of PPARs, is known to express in colon, breast, bladder, lung, and prostate cancer cells. Its function in tumour cells includes the modulation of several pathways involved in multiplication and apoptosis. The ligands of PPARγ act by PPARγ dependent as well as independent pathways and are also found to regulate different inflammatory mediators and transcription factors in systemic inflammation and in tumor microenvironment. Both synthetic and natural ligands that are known to activate PPARγ, suppress the tumor cell growth and multiplication through the regulation of inflammatory pathways, as found out from different functional assays and animal studies. Cancer and inflammation are interconnected processes that are now being targeted to achieve tumor suppression by decreasing the risks and burden posed by cancer cells. Therefore, PPARγ can serve as a promising target for development of clinical drug molecule attenuating the proliferation of cancer cells. In this perspective, this mini review highlights the PPARγ as a potential target for drug development aiming for anti-inflammatory and thereby suppressing tumors.

The growing interest for the alternative fuel has replaced the usage of diesel fuel in engines. This paper determines and evaluates the combustion characteristics of the new fuel blend comprising nanoparticles blended with cottonseed oil added diesel. The burning rates, variation of droplet size and temperature at various periods were studied. The fuel mix containing the blends of cottonseed oil in proportions of B20 (20% Cottonseed oil), B40 (40% Cottonseed oil) and B60 (60% Cottonseed oil) with Nano additive combinations of SiO2 (Silicon dioxide), Co3O4 (Cobalt oxide), Co3O4 + SiO2 with proportions of 100 ppm, 50 ppm (parts per million) and 25 ppm blended in diesel fuel by Ultrasonic dispersed techniques. The diameter of the injected fuel, time-taken to complete the combustion process, and the temperature of prepared fuel blends were tested using the self-designed droplet combustion chamber and the results were processed and analyzed. The time taken for the better blend proportions is expected to be 6 s favouring micro-explosion by eliminating agglomeration.

Dissimilar (AA6061 & AA7075-T6) friction welded aluminum joints were taken into the investigation to correlate the influences of friction time on tensile and metallurgical properties. The dissimilar metals were welded by varying the friction time from 2 s to 6 s with the following constant parameters: a rotating speed of 1200 rpm, friction pressure of 35 MPa, upset pressure of 35 MPa, and upset time of 3 s. The higher friction time during joint fabrication needs to be selected to attain good metallurgical bonding between rubbing surfaces. The highest tensile strength of 228 MPa was attained when the friction time was given as 4 s. Furthermore, the increase in friction time widened the width and reduced the hardness of the heat affected zone on the AA6061 side where joint failure occurred. Finally, the metallurgical features of the dissimilar specimens were characterized using optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and X-ray diffraction. Other details related to the characterization and results of the testing were recounted.