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Rodents and Felidae whiskers are highly sensitive, detecting extrinsic inputs such as airflow or contact and intrinsic inputs such as base vibrations or self-induced motion. Building effective artificial whisker sensors faces a challenge due to the intricate coupling of responses at the whisker base. There is a research gap in understanding whisker sensors’ responses to intrinsic and extrinsic inputs. To address this, we propose two methods, using base acceleration as a reference input: 1) employing frequency-domain adaptive filtering (FDAF) and 2) introducing the base vibration response model (BVRM) that mathematically represents the whisker sensor’s behavior to base vibrations or self-induced motion. Validation of FDAF and BVRM is conducted through simulation and experimentation. The BVRM excels in both simulation and experiment, demonstrating a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 35.20, slightly outperforming the laboriously tuned partitioned constrained FDAF with an SNR of 34.96, despite FDAFs slower convergence and poorer performance in experiments. In addition, BVRM can be useful in filtering sensor responses for independent use cases, such as terrain identification, flow sensing, and surface profile identification. By separating responses to extrinsic and intrinsic inputs without discarding either, whisker sensors become more versatile and multipurpose.

In this paper, we study a family of sense-preserving harmonic mappings whose analytic part is convex in one direction. We first establish the bounds on the pre-Schwarzian norm. Next, we obtain radius of fully starlike and radius of fully convex for this family of harmonic mappings.

Herein, the detailed investigation of frequency and temperature dependent dielectric behavior of Zn2SnO4@SiO2core shell nanocomposites (CSNs) is reported. Powder XRD analysis and FTIR spectral analysis were employed to comprehend the structure. The chemical and valence states are analyzed using XPS which confirms the existence of Zn, Sn, and SiO2, each with their distinctive Zn 2p, Sn 3d, and Si 2p valence states. The core shell formation is confirmed from their distinct color contrast in the TEM micrographs. The electrical response was investigated using impedance spectroscopy in the frequency range 1Hz-1 MHz at various temperatures. Positive temperature coefficient of resistance type behavior was established from impedance and modulus formalism. The total conductivity values were well fitted by the universal Jonscher law σtotal = σdc+ Aωn, and the temperature dependence of dc conductivity was discussed.

The spreading of a liquid on another is often encountered in oil spills and coatings and is also of industrial relevance in pharmaceuticals and petrochemicals. In this study, the spreading of oil drops on aqueous solutions containing cationic, anionic, and nonionic surfactants over a wide range of surfactant concentrations is investigated. The spreading behavior quantified by measuring the time evolution of the projected area of the oil lens reveals the occurrence of a maximum, which is strongly dependent on the concentration of the surfactant in the aqueous solution. Our experiments show that this dependence is different at concentrations above and below the critical micelle concentration (CMC) of the surfactant and can be captured by two straight lines of different slopes. Interestingly, these two straight lines intersect at a concentration that coincides with the CMC of the surfactants in solution. We find that this behavior is universal as shown by performing experiments with different types of surfactants, their purity, and other system variables. Thus, we propose a method to unambiguously determine the CMC of surfactant solutions compared to the conventional techniques. The proposed method is simple, versatile, and applicable for the determination of CMC of both ionic and nonionic surfactants.

Background: Inedia (Latin for “fasting”) is the ability of a person to live without consuming food and water and to sustain solely by prana, the vital life force in Hinduism. According to Ayurveda, sunlight is one of the main sources of prana, and some practitioners believe that it is possible for a person to survive on sunlight alone. Purpose: In this study, we report the unusual sizes and volumes of both the pineal and pituitary glands in a subject with inedia state for nearly 70 years. Methods: The pineal and pituitary glands were located in the MRI of the subject from coronal, axial, and sagittal images. Segmentation of the pineal and pituitary glands was performed using level set active contours method. Results: The overall volume, size, and shape of the glands were calculated as 38.7604 mm3 for the pineal gland and 272.552 mm3 for the pituitary gland and compared with that of the normal volumes (94.2 ± 40.65 mm3 and 320–718 mm3, respectively). Conclusion: It was found that the subject has significantly low pineal and pituitary volumes, which fall under the category of normal young child and we could show that the neurohormonal morphology of inedia subject is within childhood range.

Pullulan (PUL) has a diverse range of applicationsdue to its many therapeutic benefits, including biodegradability, biocompatibility, nontoxicity, antimicrobial activity, and adsorption. They are combined with chitosan, polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP), polycaprolactone (PCL), heparin, fluorescent polystyrene nanoparticles (PS-NPs), and carboxyl Pullulan to develop properties such as thermal stability, mechanical properties, pH resistance, chemical stability, toughness. The effects of Pullulan content on the properties of the solution, as well as the morphology of the resultant nanofibers, were investigated >80%. The concept of a scaffold can be a useful notion to improve the mechanical behavior of hydrogel-based scaffolds. Compositional analysis by Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) revealed that Pullulan might enhance the mechanical properties of the nanofibers. This review focuses on the combination and analysis of Pullulan blends and composites of natural and synthetic polymers, as well as their capability in biomedical fields and bone tissue engineering, for example in drug delivery, insulin delivery, food industry, medicinal and biomedical applications, antimicrobial wound dressings, cancer cell targeting, anticancer vaccine improvement, new biopolymer development, food product development and sensing. The electro spinning procedure and the materials employed in it will be covered in this review. The use of Pullulan electrospun nanofibers structures in tissue engineering will also be covered in this paper. The benefits, restrictions, and future opinions were studied. This is because of Pullulan-based polymers have a variety of properties.

In laparoscopic surgery, no external feedback on the magnitude of the force exerted is available. Hence, surgeons and residents tend to exert excessive force, which leads to tissue trauma. Ability of surgeons and residents to perceive their own force output without external feedback is a critical factor in laparoscopic force-skills training. Additionally, existing methods of laparoscopic training do not effectively train residents and novices on force-skills. Hence, there is growing need for the development of force-based training curriculum. As a first step towards force-based laparoscopic skills training, this study analysed force perception difference between laparoscopic instrument and finger in contralateral bimanual passive probing task. The study compared the isometric force matching performance of novices, residents and surgeons with finger and laparoscopic instrument. Contralateral force matching paradigm was employed to analyse the force perception capability in terms of relative (accuracy), and constant errors in force matching. Force perception of experts was found to be better than novices and residents. Interestingly, laparoscopic instrument was more accurate in discriminating the forces than finger. The dominant hand attempted to match the forces accurately, whereas non-dominant hand (NH) overestimated the forces. Further, the NH of experts was found to be most accurate. Furthermore, excessive forces were applied at lower force levels and at very high force levels. Due to misperception of force, novices and residents applied excessive forces. However, experts had good control over force with both dominant and NHs. These findings suggest that force-based training curricula should not only have proprioception tasks, but should also include bimanual force-skills training exercises in order to improve force perception ability and hand skills of novices and residents. The results can be used as a performance metric in both box and virtual reality based force-skills training.

Laparoscopic instruments have limited haptics feedback. Hence, novices tend to exert excessive force which leads to tissue trauma. In laparoscopic surgery, no external information is available on the magnitude of excessive force. Therefore, novices should be trained to accurately perceive their own force output. This study analyzed the force perception of 18 novices in the absence of external information, by comparing the isometric force matching performance of index finger (i.e. used in conventional procedures) in extended arm posture with that of laparoscopic instrument in a force-based probing task. The study also examined the effect of handedness on force perception. A contra-lateral force matching paradigm was employed to analyze the matching performance of the novice subjects. Interestingly, matching error was found to be lower for laparoscopic instrument. An effect of handedness was visible for laparoscopic instrument only. The dominant hand overestimated the forces of non-dominant hand. The results can be used as a performance metric to evaluate the force perception of novices in laparoscopic force skills-training tasks.

The chelating ability of aqueous leaf extract of Aerva lanatawas assessed in vitro. The aqueous leaf extract showed a dose dependent decrease in chelating ability using FeCl2. The highest chelating ability of aqueous leaf extract was observed at 2 × 10−5g/mL (100 ± 0.00). The antioxidant activity of the aqueous leaf extract ranged from 42.13% to 88.66%. At 2 × 10−5g/mL concentration, a strong positive significant correlation was observed between chelating ability and total phenolics concentration (R = 0.94; P = 0.001). The chelating ability of aqueous leaf extract (2 × 10−5g/mL) showed a high positive significant correlation with antioxidant activity (R = 0.78; P = 0.001). Aqueous leaf extract removed the chromium from tannery effluent by 43 mg/g. Allium cepatoxicity test was performed on tannery effluent treated with aqueous leaf extract that increased the root length of onion.

A new varying section cantilever beam type RF MEMS switch has been proposed. The main advantage of this switch is that it is inherently stiction free and therefore enhances design flexibility. An analytical model developed using unit load approach for the spring constant of the proposed switch has been presented and it has been shown that the spring constant and therefore the pull in voltage (Vpi) can be considerably reduced with the proposed switch. Simulation studies conducted on two groups of devices clearly demonstrate that the pull in voltage can be reduced by 26% with ten sections. Comparision of the pull in voltage obtained in the simulation studies for devices with the theoretically estimated Vpi shows that the spring constant model presented in this paper accurately estimates the spring constant. The results of analytical studies also demonstrate that the new proposed cantilever beam can considerably reduce the pull in voltage.

The article focuses on patient safety practices and strategies in India. Topics discussed include the World Health Organization (WHO), medical errors in the country, and medical decision making based on data in an electronic medical record (EMR). It says that centrally maintained EMR (CEMR) could be a way to ensure patient safety.