Rheological Behaviour of Ceramic Inks for Direct Ceramic Inkjet Printing

In this paper, studies were made on the preparation of ceramic inks with: (i) alumina powderin ethyl alcohol and (ii) zirconia powder in ethyl alcohol at different volume fractions of ceramic.Different amounts (0.75-3.00 vol %) of an organic dispersant (oleic acid) were added to ceramicink containing 5 per cent of ceramic by volume in ethyl alcohol. The viscosities of the suspensionswere determined with Brookefield viscometer (model: DV-E), which is suitable for measuringthe viscosities of suspensions accurately. These inks were deposited on a substrate to see theirspread. The sediment packing densities ( m) of the resulting suspensions were calculated usingtheoretical models which can be related to the density that can be achieved in the final product.The highest sediment packing density was arrived at low viscosity values of the ink and occurredwhen 1 per cent of dispersant by volume was used for 5 per cent alumina content. For 5 percent zirconia content, 2 per cent of dispersant by volume gave a similar result. Experimentswere also conducted to find the value of m for different solid loadings (5-25 vol %) of ceramicwith 1 per cent dispersant. It was observed that the sediment packing density and the apparentviscosities were increasing when solid loading concentrations were increased for both aluminaand zirconia-based inks. The optimum value of m and viscosity have been determined from thisstudy. The results of this preliminary study will be useful for further investigations on therheological behaviour of ceramic inks for direct ceramic inkjet printing

Implementation of lean manufacturing and lean audit system in an auto parts manufacturing industry – an industrial case study

Lean manufacturing is one of the innovative manufacturing concepts being applied in many industries to avoid the wastages of resources and improving the quality of products and help the company to become more effective and productive. It also focuses on continuous improvements with the total involvement of all employees with optimum utilization of man power and machine by reducing idle time and reducing lead time with help of lean tools like value stream mapping and kaizen. This paper presents a case study carried out in a foundry division of an auto parts manufacturing industry, where lean tools are implemented for the defect reduction and productivity improvement. In this paper, a conceptualized implementation of total productive maintenance practices of lean tools: Kaizen or continuous improvement and value stream map in an auto parts industry are presented. The result shows improved performance in terms of average core rejections, sand leakage and air lock problem

Low Power and Efficient Re-Configurable Multiplier for Accelerator

Deep learning is a rising topic at the edge of technology, with applications in many areas of our lives, including object detection, speech recognition, natural language processing, and more. Deep learning's advantages of high accuracy, speed, and flexibility are now being used in practically all major sciences and technologies. As a result, any efforts to improve the performance of related techniques are worthwhile. We always have a tendency to generate data faster than we can analyse, comprehend, transfer, and reconstruct it. Demanding data-intensive applications such as Big Data. Deep Learning, Machine Learning (ML), the Internet of Things (IoT), and high- speed computing are driving the demand for "accelerators" to offload work from general-purpose CPUs. An accelerator (a hardware device) works in tandem with the CPU server to improve data processing speed and performance. There are a variety of off-the-shelf accelerator architectures available, including GPU, ASIC, and FPGA architectures. So, this work focus on designing a multiplier unit for the accelerators. This increases the performance of DNN, reduced the area and increasing the training speed of the system

Simulation of Droplet Formation, Ejection, Spread, and Preliminary Designof Nozzle for Direct Ceramic Inkjet Printing

Recent advances in drop-on-demand (DOD)-type inkjet printing techniques have increasedresearch activities in the area of direct ceramic inkjet printing. In an attempt to develop a ceramicinkjet printer for the manufacture of ceramic components with their sizes in micro scale, theformation of ceramic ink droplet (ethyl alcohol loaded with different volume fractions of aluminaparticles) and its spread from a reservoir using piezoelectric actuation are simulated. The propertiesof the ceramic ink are taken from the data reported in literature. The simulations were performedwith computational fluid dynamics software (CFD-ACE+), CFDRC. This study gives details ofthe interaction among different physical phenomena that contribute to the droplet formation andejection process. The results from this study are being used for a preliminary design of nozzleand for the preparation of ceramic inks to achieve the desired droplet characteristics

A Study on Urban Water Reuse Management Modeling

Water reuse is being recognized as a sustainable urban water management strategy and is becoming increasingly attractive in urban water resources management. This paper focuses on urban water reuse planning and management in the context of sustainable development, and introduces a state of the art urban water reuse management model which utilizes a network flow optimization model and various stochastic programming methods. The objective of the model is to minimize the overall cost of the system subject to technological, societal and environmental constraints, therefore the optimum allocation of urban water resources can be obtained. Uncertainty issues associated with water demand and treatment quality are modeled by introducing stochastic programming methods, namely, twostage stochastic recourse programming and chance-constraint programming. An application is presented in order to demonstrate the modeling process and to analyze the impact of uncertainties. This research is important in aiding the achievement in sustainable urban water resource management practices

Endosome-to-plasma membrane recycling of VEGFR2 receptor tyrosine kinase regulates endothelial function and blood vessel formation.

Rab GTPases are implicated in endosome-to-plasma membrane recycling, but how such membrane traffic regulators control vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 2 (VEGFR2/KDR) dynamics and function are not well understood. Here, we evaluated two different recycling Rab GTPases, Rab4a and Rab11a, in regulating endothelial VEGFR2 trafficking and signalling with implications for endothelial cell migration, proliferation and angiogenesis. In primary endothelial cells, VEGFR2 displays co-localisation with Rab4a, but not Rab11a GTPase, on early endosomes. Expression of a guanosine diphosphate (GDP)-bound Rab4a S22N mutant caused increased VEGFR2 accumulation in endosomes. TfR and VEGFR2 exhibited differences in endosome-to-plasma membrane recycling in the presence of chloroquine. Depletion of Rab4a, but not Rab11a, levels stimulated VEGF-A-dependent intracellular signalling. However, depletion of either Rab4a or Rab11a levels inhibited VEGF-A-stimulated endothelial cell migration. Interestingly, depletion of Rab4a levels stimulated VEGF-A-regulated endothelial cell proliferation. Rab4a and Rab11a were also both required for endothelial tubulogenesis. Evaluation of a transgenic zebrafish model showed that both Rab4 and Rab11a are functionally required for blood vessel formation and animal viability. Rab-dependent endosome-to-plasma membrane recycling of VEGFR2 is important for intracellular signalling, cell migration and proliferation during angiogenesis

Restoring Akt1 activity in outgrowth endothelial cells from south asian men rescues vascular reparative potential

Recent data suggest reduced indices of vascular repair in South Asian men, a group at increased risk of cardiovascular events. Outgrowth endothelial cells (OEC) represent an attractive tool to study vascular repair in humans and may offer potential in cell-based repair therapies. We aimed to define and manipulate potential mechanisms of impaired vascular repair in South Asian (SA) men. In vitro and in vivo assays of vascular repair and angiogenesis were performed using OEC derived from SA men and matched European controls, prior defining potentially causal molecular mechanisms. SA OEC exhibited impaired colony formation, migration, and in vitro angiogenesis, associated with decreased expression of the proangiogenic molecules Akt1 and endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS). Transfusion of European OEC into immunodeficient mice after wire-induced femoral artery injury augmented reendothelialization, in contrast with SA OEC and vehicle; SA OEC also failed to promote angiogenesis after induction of hind limb ischemia. Expression of constitutively active Akt1 (E17KAkt), but not green fluorescent protein control, in SA OEC increased in vitro angiogenesis, which was abrogated by a NOS antagonist. Moreover, E17KAkt expressing SA OEC promoted re-endothelialization of wire-injured femoral arteries, and perfusion recovery of ischemic limbs, to a magnitude comparable with nonmanipulated European OEC. Silencing Akt1 in European OEC recapitulated the functional deficits noted in SA OEC. Reduced signaling via the Akt/eNOS axis is causally linked with impaired OEC-mediated vascular repair in South Asian men. These data prove the principle of rescuing marked reparative dysfunction in OEC derived from these men.This work was supported by the British Heart Foundation, London, UK, and the Diabetes Research and Wellness Foundation, Portsmouth, UK

Prognostic value of members of NFAT family for pan-cancer and a prediction model based on NFAT2 in bladder cancer.

Bladder cancer (BLCA) is one of the common malignant tumors of the urinary system. The poor prognosis of BLCA patients is due to the lack of early diagnosis and disease recurrence after treatment. Increasing evidence suggests that gene products of the nuclear factor of activated T-cells (NFAT) family are involved in BLCA progression and subsequent interaction(s) with immune surveillance. In this study, we carried out a pan-cancer analysis of the NFAT family and found that NFAT2 is an independent prognostic factor for BLCA. We then screened for differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and further analyzed such candidate gene loci using gene ontology enrichment to curate the KEGG database. We then used Lasso and multivariate Cox regression to identify 4 gene loci (FER1L4, RNF128, EPHB6, and FN1) which were screened together with NFAT2 to construct a prognostic model based on using Kaplan-Meier analysis to predict the overall survival of BLCA patients. Moreover, the accuracy of our proposed model is supported by deposited datasets in the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. Finally, a nomogram of this prognosis model for BLCA was established which could help to provide better disease management and treatment

Regulation of follistatin-like 3 expression by miR-486-5p modulates gastric cancer cell proliferation, migration and tumor progression.

Cancer development and progression can be regulated by the levels of endogenous factors. Gastric cancer is an aggressive disease state with poor patient prognosis, needing the development of new diagnostics and therapeutic strategies. We investigated the close association between follistatin-like 3 (FSTL3) and different cancers, and focused on its role in gastric cancer cell function. Using cancer bioinformatics, we found that FSTL3 expression is elevated in a large majority of the 33 cancers we analyzed in publicly available cancer databases. Elevated levels of FSTL3 is associated with poor patient prognosis in gastric cancer. In a comparison of normal gastric epithelial cells and gastric cancer cell lines, FSTL3 expression was consistently elevated in gastric cancer cells. Overexpression of FSTL3 promoted gastric cancer cell viability, proliferation and migration. Conversely, FSTL3 knockdown inhibits these cellular processes. Using bioinformatics, we found that the FSTL3 mRNA has a potential binding site in the 3'-UTR for a small microRNA, miR-486-5p. Further bioinformatics revealed significant negative correlation between FSTL3 and miR-486-5p levels. Using luciferase reporter constructs, we provide evidence that the 3'UTR from the FSTL3 mRNA can confer downregulation in the presence of miR-486-5p. These studies lead us to conclude that FSTL3 has oncogenic properties and increased expression of this gene product promotes gastric cancer development and progression

In silico design and biological evaluation of a dual specificity kinase inhibitor targeting cell cycle progression and angiogenesis

Methodology: We have utilized a rational in silico-based approach to demonstrate the design and study of a novel compound that acts as a dual inhibitor of vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 2 (VEGFR2) and cyclin-dependent kinase 1 (CDK1). This compound acts by simultaneously inhibiting pro-Angiogenic signal transduction and cell cycle progression in primary endothelial cells. JK-31 displays potent in vitro activity against recombinant VEGFR2 and CDK1/cyclin B proteins comparable to previously characterized inhibitors. Dual inhibition of the vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGF-A)-mediated signaling response and CDK1-mediated mitotic entry elicits anti-Angiogenic activity both in an endothelial-fibroblast co-culture model and a murine ex vivo model of angiogenesis