Design for manufacturability : re-design of pencil sharpener for the ease of assembly

A Design For Manufacturability (DFM) approach is used to analyze the existing design of a pencil sharpener, and to reduce and re-design the parts of pencil sharpener for the ease of assembly. The procedure for the selection of a suitable and economical assembly method is based on the Boothroyd and Dewhurst methods. Analysis of the initial design for manual assembly and re-design for automatic as well as manual assembly is presented. An algorithmic approach for simplified generation of all mechanical assembly sequences and selection of the assembly sequences is presented using De Fazio and Whitney approach

COVID-19 and fear processing

The world faces a global crisis that encompasses health, financial, and psychological aspects as a result of the coronavirus disease. While the health crisis is significant, it is important to recognize that the human and social crises that have emerged are equally impactful. These crises have resulted in various negative outcomes, such as social rejection, economic disparity, unemployment, and mental distress. Fear is a significant psychological barrier that can impede recovery from any disease process, and thus, it plays a critical role in determining the mortality and morbidity of any given disease. The COVID-19 pandemic has generated a pervasive fear of infection that has further exacerbated the situation. This study explored the mechanisms by which humans may have elicited conditional fear, using the COVID-19 pandemic as a specific case study. Our goal was to examine the process of fear in humans by exploring our knowledge of neuroanatomy and the systemic response regulated by the autonomic nervous system

Borderline Ovarian Malignancies : A Single Institute Retrospective Study.

Background: Borderline ovarian tumors are histologically characterized as epithelial tumors with a stratified growth pattern but without destructive stromal invasion. Little is known about the histological subtypes and outcome, role of fertility sparing surgery and role of postoperative therapy in advanced stage in Indian scenario. While there is ample data in the world literature about this disease, prognosis in Indian patients is largely unknown due to dearth of studies in our setting. Objective: To study the demographic profile, clinical features, imaging, treatment and outcome of borderline ovarian tumors. Methods: This is a retrospective study of eighty seven patients with pathologically proven diagnosis of borderline ovarian tumor, diagnosed and treated from January 2006 to October 2011 at our institution. Most patients underwent surgical staging which incuded total abdominal hysterectomy and bilateral salphingo-oophorectomy, infracolic omentectomy, bilateral pelvic and para aortic lymphadenectomy. Young patients who had not completed their family underwent fertility sparing surgery. Patients with invasive metastatic implants received adjuvant chemotherapy. The outcome of these patients was correlated with stage, type of peritoneal implant, type of surgical procedure and with histological subtype. Results: At a median follow-up of 48 months, 100 percent survival was noted. One patient with stage III disease had recurrence. Conclusions: Borderline ovarian tumors occur at a younger age compared to invasive tumors. In patients with early stage disease who wish to preserve fertility, hysterectomy and contralateral oophorectomy are not necessary. Serous tumors occur at a younger age. They can be associated with invasive peritoneal implants and raised CA125 values. Majority of the serous tumors are bilateral and smaller in size compared to mucinous and endometroid tumors. Raised CA125 values did not correlate with the stage of disease. These patients have an excellent prognosis even in Indian scenario where majority of patients present with big ovarian masses

Feature Extraction and Classification of Flaws in Radio Graphical Weld Images Using ANN

In this paper, a novel approach for the detection and classification of flaws in weld images is presented. Computer based weld image analysis is most significant method. The method has been applied for detecting and discriminating flaws in the weld that may corresponds false alarms or all possible nine types of weld defects (Slag Inclusion, Wormhole, Porosity, Incomplete penetration, Under cuts, Cracks, Lack of fusion, Weaving fault Slag line), after being successfully tested on80 radiographic images obtained from EURECTEST, International scientific Association Brussels, Belgium, and 24 radiographs of ship weld provided by Technic Control Co. (Poland) were used, obtained from Ioannis Valavanis Greece.. The procedure to detect all the types of flaws and feature extraction is implemented by segmentation algorithm which can overcome computer complexity problem. Our problem focuses on the high performance classification by optimization of feature set by various selection algorithms like sequential forward search (SFS), sequential backward search algorithm (SBS) and sequential forward floating search algorithm (SFFS). Features are important for measuring parameters which leads in directional to understand image. We introduced 23 geometric features, and 14 texture features. The Experimental results show that our proposed method gives good performance of radiographic images

Dry sliding wear behavior and its relation to microstructure of artificially aged Al-Si-Mg/TiB2 in situ composites

Mechanical stir casting is utilized to produce an artificially aged Al-Si-Mg alloy, whereas halide slat (K2TiF6 and KBF4) synthesis is utilized to produce Al-Si-Mg/TiB2 aluminum matrix composites. The dry sliding pin on disc wear test was conducted using a DUCOM/TR-20LE-PHM-200 machine to simulate an automobile application (Piston-Ring assembly).  Where pistons are made of aluminum alloy (for the Pin) and rings are made of grey cast iron (for the disc material). At room temperature, a wear test was conducted by altering the ageing time (3, 6, 9, 12), sliding speed (2, 2.5 m/s), and applied load (14.71, 19.62, 24.52 N) with the disc speed (500 rpm) held constant (10 min).  The results indicate that the aluminum matrix composite (AMC) wear rate is reduced by 37 percent at higher sliding speeds (2.5 m/s) and by 4 percent at lower sliding speeds (2.0 m/s) compared to the base alloy. Field emission scanning electron microscope-energy dispersive spectroscopy (FESEM-EDS) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis revealed that the formation of the mechanically mixed layer (MML) or oxidative layers on the worn surfaces reduces the wear rate under conditions of longer ageing time, higher sliding speed, and lower applied load. The research demonstrates that composite wear is a function of sliding velocity, aging period, and applied force. As sliding speed rose from 2 m/s to 2.5 m/s, the wear rate of composites dropped reasonably, yet composites are softer than basic alloys. It is conceivable due to the presence of a considerable amount of MML and the formation of oxidative layers between pins and their equivalents

Review on “Standardization an Imp Tool for Herbal Drug Development”

The medicinal plants are important source for pharmaceutical manufacturing. Medicinal plants & herbal medicines account for a significant percentage of the pharmaceutical market. There is increasing awareness and general acceptability of the use of herbal drugs in today’s medical practice although most of these applications are not scientific. Herbal medicines are not a simple task since many factors influence the biological efficacy and Reproducible therapeutic effect. So it is necessary to improve safety of herbal drugs by developing certain quality control parameters & by following the WHO guidelines for herbal medicines. This review seeks to enlighten the need to establish quality parameters for collection, handling, processing and production of herbal medicine as well as employ such parameters in ensuring the safety of the global herbal market. It is necessary to introduce measures on the regulation of herbal medicines to ensure quality, safety, efficacy of herbal medicines by using modern suitable standards & GMP. The processes of good quality assurance and standardization of herbal medicines and products using various spectroscopic, chromatographic and electrophoretic methods were also discussed. In fact, the research field of quality control of herbal medicines is really an interdisciplinary research. It needs crossover of chemistry, pharmacology, medicine and even statistics to provide a platform for the quality control of traditional herbal medicines and further to discover the novel therapeutics composed of multiple chemical compounds. Keywords: Herbal drugs, Adulteration, Standardization, Chromatography, Electrophoresis, HP-LC and GC-MS

Antimicrobial activity of medicinal plant to control seed borne pathogen of soybean

Several species of fungi belonging to 12 genera viz. Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus fumigatus, Mucor mucedo, Penicillium chrysogenum, Fusarium oxysporum, Rhizopus stolonifer, Cephalosporium acromonium, Rhizopus leguminicola, Alternaria alternata, Colletotrichum dematium, Macrophomina phaseolina, Phoma sp., Sclerotium rolfsii and Curvularia lunata were isolated from seeds of soybean cultivars. Among these fungi Aspergillus flavus,  Fusarium oxysporum, and  Alternaria alternata were found to  dominant. Seed borne fungi of soybean can be controlled by using leaf extract of medicinal plant and biocontrol agent. The seeds were treated with leaf extracts of plants like, Azadirachta indica A.Juss., Acacia nilotica (L.) Del., Datura stramonium L., Polyalthia longifolia (Sooner.)Thw., Allium sativum L. and Annona squamosa. An attempt has made to know the efficacy of leaf extract by food poisoning technique. Among these plants Polyalthia longifolia Thw., Allium sativum L. and Azadirachta indica A. Juss. Were more effective than other plants. All these plant extracts showed inhibitory effect on linear growth of dominant fungi

Extracellular Hydrolytic Enzymes Action of Alternaria Species under the Influence of Different Nutritional Sources

Influence of nutritional sources like carbohydrates, nitrogen, phosphorous and sulpher on amylase, lipase and protease action of six Alternaria species viz. A. alternata, A. citri, A. crassa ,A. macrospora, A. dianthicola and A. tenuissima were studied. It was reported that Carboxy methyl cellulose (CMC), ferrous sulphate, calcium sulphate, sodium sulphate, copper sulphate and sodium dihydrogen orthophosphate retarded the enzyme action of some Alternaria species

Experimental Studies of UV Irradiation Induced Changes in Optical, Mechanical and Microstructural Properties of PVA/Modified Cellulose Composite

Poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA)/modified Cellulose composite films with 85:15 wt.% were prepared by solution casting method and subjected to UV irradiation for different intervals of time. The UV irradiation induced modifications in optical, mechanical and morphological properties were studied. The FTIR results confirm the chemical interaction between PVA and Cellulose. The optical absorption also supports the formation of crosslinked network in the polymer composite. The XRD result shows an increase in the amorphousness with increase in UV irradiation time. The Young’s modulus (YM), tensile strength (TS), stiffness and percentage (%) elongation at break (% EB) of the composite films increase with increase in UV irradiation time. The Scanning Electron microscope (SEM)    images    confirm th