Requirements for multidisciplinary design of aerospace vehicles on high performance computers

The design of aerospace vehicles is becoming increasingly complex as the various contributing disciplines and physical components become more tightly coupled. This coupling leads to computational problems that will be tractable only if significant advances in high performance computing systems are made. Some of the modeling, algorithmic and software requirements generated by the design problem are discussed

Calcium channel Orai1 promotes lymphocyte IL-17 expression and progressive kidney injury

We hypothesized that the store-operated calcium entry (SOCE) channel, Orai1, participates in the activation of Th17 cells and influences renal injury. In rats, following renal ischemia/reperfusion (I/R), there was a rapid and sustained influx of Orai1+ CD4 T cells and IL-17 expression was restricted to Orai1+ cells. When kidney CD4+ cells of post-acute kidney injury (post-AKI) rats were stimulated with angiotensin II and elevated Na+ (10-7 M/170 mM) in vitro, there was an enhanced response in intracellular Ca2+ and IL-17 expression, which was blocked by SOCE inhibitors 2APB, YM58483/BTP2, or AnCoA4. In vivo, YM58483/BTP2 (1 mg/kg) attenuated IL-17+ cell activation, inflammation, and severity of AKI following either I/R or intramuscular glycerol injection. Rats treated with high-salt diet (5-9 weeks after I/R) manifested progressive disease indicated by enhanced inflammation, fibrosis, and impaired renal function. These responses were significantly attenuated by YM58483/BTP2. In peripheral blood of critically ill patients, Orai1+ cells were significantly elevated by approximately 10-fold and Th17 cells were elevated by approximately 4-fold in AKI versus non-AKI patients. Further, in vitro stimulation of CD4+ cells from AKI patients increased IL-17, which was blocked by SOCE inhibitors. These data suggest that Orai1 SOCE is a potential therapeutic target in AKI and CKD progression

Mathematical modelling: A wonderful tool if Judiciously used

The excerpts of the lecture delivered by Prof. S.P. Mehrotra on the occassion of CSIR Diamond Jubilee Celebration

Computer Aided Design and Synthesis of Flotation Circuits

The design and synthesis of flotation circuits is conven-tionally based on rules of thumb derived from industrial practice. The heuristic approach is dependent on past experience and engineering judgement of experts. With the advent of relatively inexpensive computing power and easy availability of powerful optimization techniques, it is now possible to synthesize optimal multicomponent, multi-stage flotation separation base on rigorous quantitative analysis of alternate possibilities. For optimum synthesis of flotation circuits both cir-cuit. configuration as well as operating parameters are optimized simultaneously. Existing literature on circuit synthesis and optimization is broadly divided into two groups. While the literature pertaining to group one incor-porates the flotation models directly in the optimization models, those belonging to the second group use flotation models to characterize the constraints on component flows from a flotation bank only. The mass balance equation comprising the optimization models in the latter cate-gory are independent of flotation models. Recent advances in the field are reviewed in this paper

Mathematical Modelling of Contrinuous Casting of Steel Strips by Single Roll Process

Schematic representation of the Single Roll Continuous Casting of Steel Strips is shown in Figure 1. The liquid metal at a particular temperature Tl it held in the res-ervoir where the liquid metal level is always kept cons-tant. The metal continuously enters the annular space between the rotating chilled drut and the nozzle block through a graphite (refractory) nozzle. As soon as the molten metal comes in contact with the drum a skin of solid metal is formed which continues to grow as long as the liquid is in contact with this solidifies skin. Water at an input temperature TC extracts heat from the copper drum between the angles h and P2 . The drum rotates at an angular velocity W is anticlockwise directio

Nuclear structure study around Z=28

Yrast levels of Ni, Cu and Zn isotopes for $40 \leq N \leq50$ have been described by state-of-the-art shell model calculations with three recently available interactions using $^{56}$Ni as a core in the $f_{5/2}pg_{9/2}$ model space. The results are unsatisfactory viz. large $E(2^+)$ for very neutron rich nuclei, small B(E2) values in comparison to experimental values. These results indicate an importance of inclusion of $\pi f_{7/2}$ and $\nu d_{5/2}$ orbitals in the model space to reproduce collectivity in this region.Comment: 12 pages, 14 figure

Iron Ore Resources and Beneficiation Practices

Iron and Steel Industry provides foundation for indust-rial development of a country. The per capita consumption of steel is considered as one of the important parameters of a nation's prosperity. Iron ore is the basic raw mater-ial for iron and steel making. The world reserves of iron ore are estimated to around 370 bill on tonnes. The prin-cipal minerals of iron are the oxides(hematite and magne-tite), hydroxide (limonite and goethite) and carbonate (siderite). In nature the commercial deposits are mostly of bed type, although deposits of magnetic, contact meta-somatic and of a replacement nature also exist. In many cases, ground water circulation and weathering have resul-ted in concentration of the ore from primary sources. The major iron ore producing countries in the world are the Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, India, USA, Russia, Kazakhstan, South Africa, Ukraine and Sweden. Pre Cambrian banded iron formations containing 30% or more of iron are the predominant sources of iron

Studies on Particle Suspension in Air-agitated Pachuca tanks

The paper presents the findings of an investigation involving extensive experiments on three laboratory scale Pachuca tanks to examine the effect of design and oper-ating parameters, as well as scale up on particle suspension. Some important results, crucial to the design and scale up have emerged. Full center column (FCC) Pachucas with a draft tube to tank diameter ratio (Dd/Dt) on the order of 0.1 are found to be energetically more efficient in suspending particles than Free-Air.Lift (FAL) and Stub Column (SC) Pachuca tanks. It has been established that the energy required for generating suspension from settled particles is more than that is required for maintaining the particles already in suspension. The magn-itude of hysterisis in FCC Pachuca tanks is of the order of 20%. Effect of novel split air injection technique on critical velocity for particle suspension has been rigorously investigated. Split air injection, with 30% air injected into the annulus from top and 70% air injected from the bottom into the draft tube lowers the critical air velocity for particle suspension by about 37% with respect to bottom blown Pachuca tanks. Mechanisms for particle suspension in bottom blow Pachucas as well as those with split air injection are proposed