Process variables in biomimetic synthesis of silver nanoparticles by aqueous extract of Azadirachta indica (Neem) leaves

Owing to widespread applications, synthesis and characterization of silver nanoparticles is recently attracting considerable attention. Increasing environmental concerns over chemical synthesis routes have resulted in attempts to develop biomimetic approaches. One of them is synthesis using plant parts, which eliminates the elaborate process of maintaining the microbial culture and often found to be kinetically favourable than other bioprocesses. The present study deals with investigating the effect of process variables like reductant concentrations, reaction pH, mixing ratio of the reactants and interaction time on the morphology and size of silver nanoparticles synthesized using aqueous extract of Azadirachta indica (Neem) leaves. The formation of crystalline silver nanoparticles was confirmed using X-ray diffraction analysis. By means of UV spectroscopy, Scanning and Transmission Electron Microscopy techniques, it was observed that the morphology and size of the nanoparticles were strongly dependent on the process parameters. Within 4 h interaction period, nanoparticles below 20-nm-size with nearly spherical shape were produced. On increasing interaction time (ageing) to 66 days, both aggregation and shape anisotropy (ellipsoidal, polyhedral and capsular) of the particles increased. In alkaline pH range, the stability of cluster distribution increased with a declined tendency for aggregation of the particles. It can be inferred from the study that fine tuning the bioprocess parameters will enhance possibilities of desired nano-product tailor made for particular applications.

Nonlinear structural dynamical system identification using adaptive particle filters

The problem of identifying parameters of nonlinear vibrating systems using spatially incomplete, noisy, time-domain measurements is considered. The problem is formulated within the framework of dynamic state estimation formalisms that employ particle filters. The parameters of the system, which are to be identified, are treated as a set of random variables with finite number of discrete states. The study develops a procedure that combines a bank of self-learning particle filters with a global iteration strategy to estimate the probability distribution of the system parameters to be identified. Individual particle filters are based on the sequential importance sampling filter algorithm that is readily available in the existing literature. The paper develops the requisite recursive formulary for evaluating the evolution of weights associated with system parameter states. The correctness of the formulations developed is demonstrated first by applying the proposed procedure to a few linear vibrating systems for which an alternative solution using adaptive Kalman filter method is possible. Subsequently, illustrative examples on three nonlinear vibrating systems, using synthetic vibration data, are presented to reveal the correct functioning of the method. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Simultaneous material selection and geometry design of statically determinate trusses using continuous optimization

In this work, we explore simultaneous geometry design and material selection for statically determinate trusses by posing it as a continuous optimization problem. The underlying principles of our approach are structural optimization and Ashby’s procedure for material selection from a database. For simplicity and ease of initial implementation, only static loads are considered in this work with the intent of maximum stiffness, minimum weight/cost, and safety against failure. Safety of tensile and compression members in the truss is treated differently to prevent yield and buckling failures, respectively. Geometry variables such as lengths and orientations of members are taken to be the design variables in an assumed layout. Areas of cross-section of the members are determined to satisfy the failure constraints in each member. Along the lines of Ashby’s material indices, a new design index is derived for trusses. The design index helps in choosing the most suitable material for any geometry of the truss. Using the design index, both the design space and the material database are searched simultaneously using gradient-based optimization algorithms. The important feature of our approach is that the formulated optimization problem is continuous, although the material selection from a database is an inherently discrete problem. A few illustrative examples are included. It is observed that the method is capable of determining the optimal topology in addition to optimal geometry when the assumed layout contains more links than are necessary for optimality.

Rendering stiffer walls: a hybrid haptic system using continuous and discrete time feedback

Instability in conventional haptic rendering destroys the perception of rigid objects in virtual environments. Inherent limitations in the conventional haptic loop restrict the maximum stiffness that can be rendered. In this paper we present a method to render virtual walls that are much stiffer than those achieved by conventional techniques. By removing the conventional digital haptic loop and replacing it with a part-continuous and part-discrete time hybrid haptic loop, we were able to render stiffer walls. The control loop is implemented as a combinational logic circuit on an field-programmable gate array. We compared the performance of the conventional haptic loop and our hybrid haptic loop on the same haptic device, and present mathematical analysis to show the limit of stability of our device. Our hybrid method removes the computer-intensive haptic loop from the CPU-this can free a significant amount of resources that can be used for other purposes such as graphical rendering and physics modeling. It is our hope that, in the future, similar designs will lead to a haptics processing unit (HPU).

Optimal threshold policies for admission control in communication networks via discrete parameter stochastic approximation

The problem of admission control of packets in communication networks is studied in the continuous time queueing framework under different classes of service and delayed information feedback. We develop and use a variant of a simulation based two timescale simultaneous perturbation stochastic approximation (SPSA) algorithm for finding an optimal feedback policy within the class of threshold type policies. Even though SPSA has originally been designed for continuous parameter optimization, its variant for the discrete parameter case is seen to work well. We give a proof of the hypothesis needed to show convergence of the algorithm on our setting along with a sketch of the convergence analysis. Extensive numerical experiments with the algorithm are illustrated for different parameter specifications. In particular, we study the effect of feedback delays on the system performance.

Heat transfer in rarefied couette flow on the basis of discrete ordinate method

The method of discrete ordinates, in conjunction with the modified "half-range" quadrature, is applied to the study of heat transfer in rarefied gas flows. Analytic expressions for the reduced distribution function, the macroscopic temperature profile and the heat flux are obtained in the general n-th approximation. The results for temperature profile and heat flux are in sufficiently good accord both with the results of the previous investigators and with the experimental data.

Synthesis of plane linkages to generate functions of two variables using point-position reduction—Part 1. Rotary inputs and output

The paper presents simple graphical procedures for position synthesis of plane linkage mechanisms to generate functions of two independent variables. The procedures are based on point-position reduction and permit synthesis of the linkage to satisfy up to six arbitrarily selected precision positions.

Synthesis of plane linkages to generate functions of two variables using point position reduction—II. Sliding inputs and outputs

The paper presents simple graphical procedures for the position synthesis of plane linkage mechanisms with sliding inputs and output to generate functions of two independent variables. The procedures are based on point position reduction and permit synthesis of the linkage to satisfy up to five arbitrarily selected precision positions.

Active vibration suppression of beams with discrete actuators using optimal dynamic inversion

Most of the structural elements like beams, cables etc. are flexible and should be modeled as distributed parameter systems (DPS) to represent the reality better. For large structures, the usual approach of 'modal representation' is not an accurate representation. Moreover, for excessive vibrations (possibly due to strong wind, earthquake etc.), external power source (controller) is needed to suppress it, as the natural damping of these structures is usually small. In this paper, we propose to use a recently developed optinial dynamic inversion technique to design a set of discrete controllers for this purpose. We assume that the control force to the structure is applied through finite number of actuators, which are located at predefined locations in the spatial domain. The method used in this paper determines control forces directly from the partial differential equation (PDE) model of the system. The formulation has better practical significance, both because it leads to a closed form solution of the controller (hence avoids computational issues) as well as because a set of discrete actuators along the spatial domain can be implemented with relative ease (as compared to a continuous actuator).

Protein sequence design on the basis of topology optimization techniques -Using continuous modeling of discrete amino acid types

The notion of optimization is inherent in protein design. A long linear chain of twenty types of amino acid residues are known to fold to a 3-D conformation that minimizes the combined inter-residue energy interactions. There are two distinct protein design problems, viz. predicting the folded structure from a given sequence of amino acid monomers (folding problem) and determining a sequence for a given folded structure (inverse folding problem). These two problems have much similarity to engineering structural analysis and structural optimization problems respectively. In the folding problem, a protein chain with a given sequence folds to a conformation, called a native state, which has a unique global minimum energy value when compared to all other unfolded conformations. This involves a search in the conformation space. This is somewhat akin to the principle of minimum potential energy that determines the deformed static equilibrium configuration of an elastic structure of given topology, shape, and size that is subjected to certain boundary conditions. In the inverse-folding problem, one has to design a sequence with some objectives (having a specific feature of the folded structure, docking with another protein, etc.) and constraints (sequence being fixed in some portion, a particular composition of amino acid types, etc.) while obtaining a sequence that would fold to the desired conformation satisfying the criteria of folding. This requires a search in the sequence space. This is similar to structural optimization in the design-variable space wherein a certain feature of structural response is optimized subject to some constraints while satisfying the governing static or dynamic equilibrium equations. Based on this similarity, in this work we apply the topology optimization methods to protein design, discuss modeling issues and present some initial results.

Optimal infinite-horizon feedback laws for a general class of constrained discrete-time systems: stability and moving-horizon approximations

Stability results are given for a class of feedback systems arising from the regulation of time-varying discrete-time systems using optimal infinite-horizon and moving-horizon feedback laws. The class is characterized by joint constraints on the state and the control, a general nonlinear cost function and nonlinear equations of motion possessing two special properties. It is shown that weak conditions on the cost function and the constraints are sufficient to guarantee uniform asymptotic stability of both the optimal infinite-horizon and movinghorizon feedback systems. The infinite-horizon cost associated with the moving-horizon feedback law approaches the optimal infinite-horizon cost as the moving horizon is extended.

Effect of process variables on die-billet temperature history in a slow speed hot coining type process

A computer code is developed as a part of an ongoing project on computer aided process modelling of forging operation, to simulate heat transfer in a die-billet system. The code developed on a stage-by-stage technique is based on an Alternating Direction Implicit scheme. The experimentally validated code is used to study the effect of process specifics such as preheat die temperature, machine ascent time, rate of deformation, and dwell time on the thermal characteristics in a batch coining operation where deformation is restricted to surface level only.

Estimation of variables at ungaged locations by empirical orthogonal functions

A technique based on empirical orthogonal functions is used to estimate hydrologic time-series variables at ungaged locations. The technique is applied to estimate daily and monthly rainfall, temperature and runoff values. The accuracy of the method is tested by application to locations where data are available. The second-order characteristics of the estimated data are compared with those of the observed data. The results indicate that the method is quick and accurate.

On a Ratio of Functions of Exponential Random Variables and Some Applications

Consider L independent and identically distributed exponential random variables (r.vs) X-1, X-2 ,..., X-L and positive scalars b(1), b(2) ,..., b(L). In this letter, we present the probability density function (pdf), cumulative distribution function and the Laplace transform of the pdf of the composite r.v Z = (Sigma(L)(j=1) X-j)(2) / (Sigma(L)(j=1) b(j)X(j)). We show that the r.v Z appears in various communication systems such as i) maximal ratio combining of signals received over multiple channels with mismatched noise variances, ii)M-ary phase-shift keying with spatial diversity and imperfect channel estimation, and iii) coded multi-carrier code-division multiple access reception affected by an unknown narrow-band interference, and the statistics of the r.v Z derived here enable us to carry out the performance analysis of such systems in closed-form.

Influence of an additional discrete elastic support on the stability of a Leipholz column

The stability characteristics of a conservatively loaded structure are expected to improve if additional supports are provided to the structure. The same, however, may not be said of a non-conservatively loaded structure; several factors, such as the location and stiffness of supports, type of structure and loading, have a significant influence on the stability characteristics. The influence of an arbitrarily located elastic support on the stability characteristics of a Leipholz column is examined.