Search results for: improved potato varieties

Authors: Shilpa Bhilegaonkar, Ram Gaud

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Candesartan cilexetil is a poorly soluble antihypertensive agent with solubility limited bioavailability (15%). To initiate process of solubilisation, it is very much necessary to displace the air at the surface and wet the drug surface with a solvent, with which drug is compatible. Present research adopts the same principle to improve solubility and dissolution of candesartan cilexetil. Solvents used here are surfactant and modified surfactant in different drug: solvent (1:1-1:9) ratio’s for preparation of adsorbates. Adsorbates were then converted into free flowing powders as liquisolid compacts and compressed to form tablets. Liquisolid compacts were evaluated for improvement in saturation solubility and dissolution of candesartan cilexetil. All systems were evaluated for improvement in saturation solubility and dissolution in different medias such as water, 0.1 N HCl, Phosphate buffer pH 6.8 and media given by office of generic drugs along with other physicochemical testing. All systems exhibited a promising advantage in terms of solubility and dissolution without affecting the drug structure as confirmed by IR and XRD. No considerable advantage was seen of increasing solvent ratio with drug.

Keywords: candesartan cilexetil, improved dissolution, solubility, liquisolid

Procedia PDF Downloads 317

Authors: Matias Hargreaves, Martin Del Valle, Diego Rodriguez, Riveros Jose Luis

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Trough years, all kind of social development projects have tried to solve social problems such as hunger, poverty, malnutrition, food insecurity, among others, with poor success. Both private and state initiatives have invested resources in several countries and communities. Nevertheless, most of these initiatives are scientific or external developers-centered, with a lack of local participation. This compromises the sustainability of any intervention and also leads to a poor empowerment of local community. The participatory approach aims to rescue and enhance the local knowledge since it recognizes that this kind of problems are better known by native actors. The objective of the study was to describe the role played by the community empowerment on food security improvement in the NGO “O Viveiro” (15°43'37.77"S; 32°46'27.53"E) and Barrio Broma village (15°43'58.78"S; 32°46'7.27"E) in Chitima, Mozambique. A center for training in goat livestock and orchard was build. A community orchard was co-constructed between foreign technicians and local actors. The prototype was installed in February, 2016 by the technician team and local community with 16 m2 as a nursery garden. Two orchard workshops were conducted in order to design a sustainable productive model which mixes both local and technological approaches. Two goat meat workshops were conducted in order to describe local methods and train the community to conduce their own techniques with high sanitary and productive standards. Technician team stayed in Mozambique until May, 2016. The quorum for the orchard workshops was 20 and 14 persons respectively, which represents 100% and 70%of the total requested quorum (20). For the goat meat workshops were 4 and 5 persons, which representa80% and 100% of the total requested quorum (5). Until August, 2016, the orchard is 3.219 m2 and it grows several vegetables as beans, chili pepper, garlic, onion, tomatoes, lettuce, sweet potato, yuca potato, cabbage, eggplant, papaya trees, mango, and cassava. The process of increasing in size and diversification of vegetables grown was led entirely by the local community. In connection with this, the local community started to harvest and began to sell the vegetable products at the local market. At the meat goat workshops, local participants rescued a local knowledge by describing and practicing a traditional way to process goat meat by drying it outdoors and then doing a smoked treatment. This information might contribute to describe the level of empowerment of this community, and thus give evidence of acceptance of foreign intervention for improving their own proceedings and traditions.

Keywords: children malnutrition, food security, Local community, participatory approach

Procedia PDF Downloads 267

Authors: Okwara O. S., Osunsina I. O. O., Pitan O. R., Afolabi C. G.

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Rice (Oryza sativa L.) belongs to the family poaceae and has become the most popular food. Globally, this crop is been faced with the menace of vertebrate pests, of which birds and rodents are the most implicated. The study avian and rodents’ infestations and the evaluation of attributable losses was carried out in 2020 and 2021 with the objectives of identifying the types of bird and rodent species associated with lowland rice and to determine the infestation levels, damage intensity, and the crop loss induced by these pests. The experiment was laid out in a split plot arrangement fitted into a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD), with the main plots being protected and unprotected groups and the sub-plots being four rice varieties, Ofada, WITA-4, NERICA L-34, and Arica-3. Data collection was done over a 16-week period, and the data obtained were transformed using square root transformation model before Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was done at 5% probability level. The results showed the infestation levels of both birds and rodents across all the treatment means of thevarieties as not significantly different (p > 0.05) in both seasons. The damage intensity by these pests in both years were also not significantly different (p > 0.05) among the means of the varieties, which explains the diverse feeding nature of birds and rodents when it comes to infestations. The infestation level under the protected group was significantly lower (p < 0.05) than the infestation level recorded under the unprotected group.Consequently, an estimated crop loss of 91.94 % and 90.75 % were recorded in 2020 and 2021, respectively, andthe identified pest birds were Ploceus melanocephalus, Ploceus cuculatus, and Spermestes cucullatus. Conclusively, vertebrates pest cause damage to lowland rice which could result to a high percentage crop loss if left uncontrolled.

Keywords: pests, infestations, evaluation, losses, rodents, avian

Procedia PDF Downloads 116

Authors: Autumporn Buranapongphan, Ketsirin Meethong, Phukan Pahaphom

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The objectives of this research is aim to study the standard formula of choux cream recipe. Formulation of choux cream were used gluten free as a replacer with flour in choux dough, quinoa milk in cream and shelf life on product. The results showed the acceptance test using 30 target consumers revealed that liking of choux dough with water 34%, egg 30% flour 19% butter 16% baking powder 1% and cream with milk 68% sugar 13% butter 6.8% egg 4.5% and vanilla 0.9%. The gluten free exhibited the formulation of dough is rice flour 12% potato starch 26% tapioca 7.7% and quinoa flour 4.3%. The ratio of corn flour at 40% had significant effects on liking of viscosity for quinoa cream. During storage by Total viable count (TVA) were kept in room temperature for 8 hours and chilled for 18 hours.

Keywords: choux cream, gluten free, quinoa, dough

Procedia PDF Downloads 394

Authors: Yakup Sahin, Naim Suleyman Ting, Ismail Aksoy

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In this paper, an improved active snubber cell is proposed on account of soft switching (SS) family of pulse width modulation (PWM) DC-DC converters. The improved snubber cell provides zero-voltage transition (ZVT) turn on and zero-current transition (ZCT) turn off for main switch. The snubber cell decreases EMI noise and operates with SS in a wide range of line and load voltages. Besides, all of the semiconductor devices in the converter operate with SS. There is no additional voltage and current stress on the main devices. Additionally, extra voltage stress does not occur on the auxiliary switch and its current stress is acceptable value. The improved converter has a low cost and simple structure. The theoretical analysis of converter is clarified and the operating states are given in detail. The experimental results of converter are obtained by prototype of 500 W and 100 kHz. It is observed that the experimental results and theoretical analysis of converter are suitable with each other perfectly.

Keywords: active snubber cells, DC-DC converters, zero-voltage transition, zero-current transition

Procedia PDF Downloads 1014

Authors: Muhammad Irfan Aziz, Thomas Owens, Uzair Khaleeq uz Zaman

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The instantaneous and spatial localization for visually impaired people in dynamically changing environments with unexpected hazards and obstacles, is the most demanding and challenging issue faced by the navigation systems today. Since Bluetooth cannot utilize techniques like Time Difference of Arrival (TDOA) and Time of Arrival (TOA), it uses received signal strength indicator (RSSI) to measure Receive Signal Strength (RSS). The measurements using RSSI can be improved significantly by improving the existing methodologies related to RSSI. Therefore, the current paper focuses on proposing an improved method using trilateration for localization of Bluetooth devices for visually impaired people. To validate the method, class 2 Bluetooth devices were used along with the development of a software. Experiments were then conducted to obtain surface plots that showed the signal interferences and other environmental effects. Finally, the results obtained show the surface plots for all Bluetooth modules used along with the strong and weak points depicted as per the color codes in red, yellow and blue. It was concluded that the suggested improved method of measuring RSS using trilateration helped to not only measure signal strength affectively but also highlighted how the signal strength can be influenced by atmospheric conditions such as noise, reflections, etc.

Keywords: Bluetooth, indoor/outdoor localization, received signal strength indicator, visually impaired

Procedia PDF Downloads 125

Authors: Nader Saadatkhah, Jafar Rahnamarad, Shattri Mansor, Zailani Khuzaimah, Arnis Asmat, Nor Aizam Adnan, Siti Noradzah Adam

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Kelantan river basin as a flood prone area at the east coast of the peninsular Malaysia has suffered several flood and mudflow events in the recent years. The current research attempted to assess the land cover changes impact in the Kelantan river basin focused on the runoff contributions from different land cover classes and the potential impact of land cover changes on runoff generation. In this regards, the hydrological regional modeling of rainfall induced runoff event as the improved transient rainfall infiltration and grid based regional model (Improved-TRIGRS) was employed to compute rate of infiltration, and subsequently changes in the discharge volume in this study. The effects of land use changes on peak flow and runoff volume was investigated using storm rainfall events during the last three decades.

Keywords: improved-TRIGRS model, land cover changes, Kelantan river basin, flood event

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Authors: Mamata Mohanty, J. T. Shahu

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The in-situ deep mixing is an effective ground improvement technique which involves columnar inclusion into soft ground to increase its bearing capacity and reduce settlement. The first part of the study presents the results of unconfined compression on cement-admixed clay prepared at different cement content and subjected to varying curing periods. It is found that cement content is a prime factor controlling the strength of the cement-admixed clay. Besides cement content, curing period is important parameter that adds to the strength of cement-admixed clay. Increase in cement content leads to significant increase in Unconfined Compressive Strength (UCS) values especially at cement contents greater than 8%. The second part of the study investigated the bearing capacity of the clay ground improved by a group of end-bearing column using model tests under plain-strain condition. This study mainly focus to examine the effect of cement contents on the ultimate bearing capacity and failure stress of the improved clay ground. The study shows that the bearing capacity of the improved ground increases significantly with increase in cement contents of the soil-cement columns. A considerable increase in the stiffness of the model ground and failure stress was observed with increase in cement contents.

Keywords: bearing capacity, cement content, curing time, unconfined compressive strength, undrained shear strength

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Authors: Olokor O. Julius, Ngwu E. Onyebuchi, Ajani K. Emmanuel, Omitoyin O. Bamidele, Olokor O. Linda, Akomas Stella

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The study assessed the quality changes of Clarias gariepenus obtained from integrated culture systems (rice, poultry and fish) which were displayed at 31-33oC average daily temperature on the traditional market table used by local fish farmers to sell fish harvested from their ponds and those on an improved table designed for this study. Unlike the conventional table, the improved table was screened against flies and indiscriminate touch by customers. The fishes were displayed on both tables for 9 hours and quality attributes were monitored hourly by trained panelists. For C. gariepinus, the gills, and intestine recorded faster deterioration starting from the fourth and fifth hours while those on the improved table were prolonged by one hour. Scores for skin brightness and texture did not indicate quality deterioration throughout the display period. However, at the end of the storage time, samples on the improved table recorded 1.5 x 104 cfu/g while samples in unscreened table recorded 3.7 x 10 7 cfu/g. The study shows how simple modifications of a traditional practice can help extend keeping qualities of farmed fish, reduce health hazards in local communities where there is no electricity to preserve fish in whatever form despite a boom in aquaculture. Monai community has a fish farm estate of over 200 small holder farmers with annual output capacity of over $10 million dollars. The simple improvement made to farmers practice in this study is to ensure Community hygiene and boost income of peasant fish farmers by improving the market quality of their products.

Keywords: fish spoilage, improved handling, income generation, retail table

Procedia PDF Downloads 440

Authors: Reshu Yadav, Himanshu Joshi, S. K. Tripathi

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Fresh water is a scarce resource which is essential for humans and ecosystems, but its distribution is uneven. Agricultural production accounts for 70% of all surface water supplies. It is projected that against the expansion in the area equipped for irrigation by 0.6% per year, the global potential irrigation water demand would rise by 9.5% during 2021-25. This would, on one hand, have to compete against the sharply rising urban water demand. On the other, it would also have to face the fear of climate change, as temperatures rise and crop yields could drop from 10-30% in many large areas. The huge demand for irrigation combined with fresh water scarcity encourages to explore the reuse of wastewater as a resource. However, the use of such wastewater is often linked to the safety issues when used non judiciously or with poor safeguards while irrigating food crops. Paddy is one of the major crops globally and amongst the most important in South Asia and Africa. In many parts of the world, use of municipal wastewater has been promoted as a viable option in this regard. In developing and fast growing countries like India, regularly increasing wastewater generation rates may allow this option to be considered quite seriously. In view of this, a pilot field study was conducted at the Jagjeetpur Municipal Sewage treatment plant situated in the Haridwar town of Uttarakhand state, India. The objectives of the present study were to study the effect of treated wastewater on the production of various paddy varieties (Sharbati, PR-114, PB-1, Menaka, PB1121 and PB 1509) and emission of GHG gases (CO2, CH4 and N2O) as compared to the same varieties grown in the control plots irrigated with fresh water. Of late, the concept of water footprint assessment has emerged, which explains enumeration of various types of water footprints of an agricultural entity from its production to processing stages. Paddy, the most water demanding staple crop of Uttarakhand state, displayed a high green water footprint value of 2966.538 m3/ton. Most of the wastewater irrigated varieties displayed upto 6% increase in production, except Menaka and PB-1121, which showed a reduction in production (6% and 3% respectively), due to pest and insect infestation. The treated wastewater was observed to be rich in Nitrogen (55.94 mg/ml Nitrate), Phosphorus (54.24 mg/ml) and Potassium (9.78 mg/ml), thus rejuvenating the soil quality and not requiring any external nutritional supplements. Percentage increase of GHG gases on irrigation with treated municipal waste water as compared to control plots was observed as 0.4% - 8.6% (CH4), 1.1% - 9.2% (CO2), and 0.07% - 5.8% (N2O). The variety, Sharbati, displayed maximum production (5.5 ton/ha) and emerged as the most resistant variety against pests and insects. The emission values of CH4 ,CO2 and N2O were 729.31 mg/m2/d, 322.10 mg/m2/d and 400.21 mg/m2/d in water stagnant condition. This study highlighted a successful possibility of reuse of wastewater for non-potable purposes offering the potential for exploiting this resource that can replace or reduce existing use of fresh water sources in agricultural sector.

Keywords: greenhouse gases, nutrients, water footprint, wastewater irrigation

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Authors: Thavananthan Sivananthawerl

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Coconut palm is existing for more than 2000 years in Sri Lanka. However, cultivation on a large scale (plantation) began only in the 19th century. Due to different light perceptions during the growth stages of palm, there is a huge potential to grow crops in-between rows of coconut plants which are grown with wider, fixed spacing. Intercropping under coconut will have multiple benefits such as increasing soil fertility, increasing sunlight utilization, increasing total crop productivity, increasing income & profit, maximum use of resources, reducing the risk, and increasing food security. Growing potential annual, agricultural intercrops could be classified as ‘agri-silvicultural’ system. This is the best agri-silvicultural system that can be named under any perennial crop system in Sri Lanka. In the late 1970’s cassava, pepper and cacao are the major intercrops under the coconut plantations. At the early ages of the palm (<5 years) light-loving crops such as pineapple, passion, papaya, and cassava are recommended and preferred by the cultivators. In between 5-20 years of age, the availability of light is very low, and therefore shade tolerant/loving crops (pasture, yam, ginger) could be used as the intercrops. However, after 20 years of age (>20 years) canopy is getting small, and the light availability on the ground increases. So, light demanding crops such as pepper, banana, pineapple, betel, cassava, and seasonal crops could be grown successfully. Even though this is a sustainable system in several aspects, there are potential challenges ahead to the system. The major ones are land fragmentation and infrastructure development. The other factors are drought, lack of financial support, price instability of the intercrops, availability of improved planting materials, and development of dwarf varieties which reduces the light.

Keywords: coconut cultivation, agri-silviculture, intercrop, sunlight, annuals, sustainability

Procedia PDF Downloads 114

Authors: S. Jayasinghe, R. B. N. Dissanayake

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Optimization modelling together with the Network models and Linear Programming techniques is a powerful tool in problem solving and decision making in real world applications. This study developed a mathematical model to optimize the net profit by minimizing the transportation cost. This model focuses the transportation among decentralized production plants to a centralized distribution centre and then the distribution among island wide agencies considering the customer satisfaction as a requirement. This company produces basically 9 types of food items with 82 different varieties and 4 types of non-food items with 34 different varieties. Among 6 production plants, 4 were located near the city of Mawanella and the other 2 were located in Galewala and Anuradhapura cities which are 80 km and 150 km away from Mawanella respectively. The warehouse located in the Mawanella was the main production plant and also the only distribution plant. This plant distributes manufactured products to 39 agencies island-wide. The average values and average amount of the goods for 6 consecutive months from May 2013 to October 2013 were collected and then average demand values were calculated. The following constraints are used as the necessary requirement to satisfy the optimum condition of the model; there was one source, 39 destinations and supply and demand for all the agencies are equal. Using transport cost for a kilometer, total transport cost was calculated. Then the model was formulated using distance and flow of the distribution. Network optimization and linear programming techniques were used to originate the model while excel solver is used in solving. Results showed that company requires total transport cost of Rs. 146, 943, 034.50 to fulfil the customers’ requirement for a month. This is very much less when compared with data without using the model. Model also proved that company can reduce their transportation cost by 6% when distributing to island-wide customers. Company generally satisfies their customers’ requirements by 85%. This satisfaction can be increased up to 97% by using this model. Therefore this model can be used by other similar companies in order to reduce the transportation cost.

Keywords: mathematical model, network optimization, linear programming

Procedia PDF Downloads 340

Authors: Mohammed Bello Sokoto, Adewumi Babatunde Adebayo, Ajit Singh

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The field experiment was conducted at the dry land Teaching and Research Farm of Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, during the 2023 rainy season to determine the effects of organic, inorganic, soil conditioner and integrated use of soil conditioners (Agzyme) with organic (super gro) and inorganic fertilizers on the growth and yield of cowpea varieties. The research consisted of two cowpea varieties (SAMPEA-20-T and ex-GidanYunfa) and six combinations of organic and inorganic fertilizers and soil conditioners factorially combined and laid out in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) replicated three times. Data were collected on plant height, leaf area index, number of pods per plant, number of seeds per pod, days to 50% flowering, grain yield, and 100 seed weight. Results indicated that the 100% inorganic fertilizer had a significantly increased growth parameter such as plant height and number of leaves, while combined application of the organic fertilizer and soil conditioner resulted in a significant increase in yield parameters such as number of pods per plant, number of seeds per pod, 100 seed weight and grain yield. The study observed that the use of soil conditioner in combination with fertilizers supports sustainable cowpea production. Application of 50% recommended inorganic + 50% soil conditioner or 50% liquid organic + 50% soil conditioner was better in increasing the number of pods/plant, seeds/pod, 100 seed weight and grain yield. The ex-Gidan Yunfa cowpea variety generally performed better in most parameters measured, such as plant height, days to 50% flowering, number of pods per plant, number of seeds per pod, 100 seed weight and grain yield. Therefore, the combined application of 50% recommended inorganic + 50% soil conditioner or 50% liquid organic + 50% soil conditioner is effective for the sustainable production of cowpeas.

Keywords: integrated, fertilizers, growth, yield, cowpea, Sudan Savannah

Procedia PDF Downloads 33

Authors: A. K. M. Zakir Hossain, Faruk-Ul Islam, Muhammad Alamgir Chowdhury, Kazi Morshed Alam, Md. Rashidul Islam, Muhammad Humayun Kabir, Noshin Ara Tunazzina, Taufiqur Rahman, Md. Ashik Mia, Ashaduzzaman Sagar

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The jute retting process is one of the key factors for the excellent jute fibre production as well as maintaining water quality. The traditional method of jute retting is time-consuming and hampers the fish cultivation by polluting the water body. Therefore, a low cost, time-saving, environment-friendly, and improved technique is essential for jute retting to overcome this problem. Thus the study was focused to compare the extent of water pollution and fibre quality of two retting systems, i.e., traditional retting practices over-improved retting method (macha retting) by assessing different physico-chemical and microbiological properties of water and fibre quality parameters. Water samples were collected from the top and bottom of the retting place at the early, mid, and final stages of retting from four districts of Bangladesh viz., Gaibandha, Kurigram, Lalmonirhat, and Rangpur. Different physico-chemical parameters of water samples viz., pH, dissolved oxygen (DO), conductivity (CD), total dissolved solids (TDS), hardness, calcium, magnesium, carbonate, bicarbonate, chloride, phosphorus and sulphur content were measured. Irrespective of locations, the DO of the final stage retting water samples was very low as compared to the mid and early stage, and the DO of traditional jute retting method was significantly lower than the improved macha method. The pH of the water samples was slightly more acidic in the traditional retting method than that of the improved macha method. Other physico-chemical parameters of the water sample were found higher in the traditional method over-improved macha retting in all the stages of retting. Bacterial species were isolated from the collected water samples following the dilution plate technique. Microbiological results revealed that water samples of improved macha method contained more bacterial species that are supposed to involve in jute retting as compared to water samples of the traditional retting method. The bacterial species were then identified by the sequencing of 16SrDNA. Most of the bacterial species identified belong to the genera Pseudomonas, Bacillus, Pectobacterium, and Stenotrophomonas. In addition, the tensile strength of the jute fibre was tested, and the results revealed that the improved macha method showed higher mechanical strength than the traditional method in most of the locations. The overall results indicate that the water and fibre quality were found better in the improved macha retting method than the traditional method. Therefore, a time-saving and cost-friendly improved macha retting method can be widely adopted for the jute retting process to get the quality jute fiber and to keep the environment clean and safe.

Keywords: jute retting methods, physico-chemical parameters, retting microbes, tensile strength, water quality

Procedia PDF Downloads 151

Authors: Zafar Tabrez, Nizamuddin Khan

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Agriculture in India in the pre-green revolution period was mostly controlled by terrain, climate and edaphic factors. But after the introduction of innovative factors and technological inputs, green revolution occurred and agricultural scene witnessed great change. In the development of India’s agriculture, speedy, and extensive introduction of technological change is one of the crucial factors. The technological change consists of adoption of farming techniques such as use of fertilisers, pesticides and fungicides, improved variety of seeds, modern agricultural implements, improved irrigation facilities, contour bunding for the conservation of moisture and soil, which are developed through research and calculated to bring about diversification and increase of production and greater economic return to the farmers. The green revolution in India took place during late 60s, equipped with technological inputs like high yielding varieties seeds, assured irrigation as well as modern machines and implements. Initially the revolution started in Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh. With the efforts of government, agricultural planners, as well as policy makers, the modern technocratic agricultural development scheme was also implemented and introduced in backward and marginal regions of the country later on. Agriculture sector occupies the centre stage of India’s social security and overall economic welfare. The country has attained self-sufficiency in food grain production and also has sufficient buffer stock. Our first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru said ‘everything else can wait but not agriculture’. There is still a continuous change in the technological inputs and cropping patterns. Keeping these points in view, author attempts to investigate extensively the mechanization of agriculture and the change by selecting western Trans-Ghaghara plain as a case study and block a unit of the study. It includes the districts of Gonda, Balrampur, Bahraich and Shravasti which incorporate 44 blocks. It is based on secondary sources of data by blocks for the year 1997 and 2007. It may be observed that there is a wide range of variations and the change in farm mechanization, i.e., agricultural machineries such as ploughs, wooden and iron, advanced harrow and cultivator, advanced thrasher machine, sprayers, advanced sowing instrument, and tractors etc. It may be further noted that due to continuous decline in size of land holdings and outflux of people for the same nature of works or to be employed in non-agricultural sectors, the magnitude and direction of agricultural systems are affected in the study area which is one of the marginalized regions of Uttar Pradesh, India.

Keywords: agriculture, technological inputs, farm mechanization, food production, cropping pattern

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Authors: Noufe H. Aljahdaly

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The Laplace homotopy perturbation method (LHPM) is an approximate method that help to compute the approximate solution for partial differential equations. The method has been used for solving several problems in science. It requires the initial condition, so it solves the initial value problem. In physics, when some important terms are taken in account, we may obtain non-integrable partial differential equations that do not have analytical integrals. This type of PDEs do not have exact solution, therefore, we need to compute the solution without initial condition. In this work, we improved the LHPM to be able to solve non-integrable problem, especially the damped PDEs, which are the PDEs that include a damping term which makes the PDEs non-integrable. We improved the LHPM by setting a perturbation parameter and an embedding parameter as the damping parameter and using the initial condition for damped PDE as the initial condition for non-damped PDE.

Keywords: non-integrable PDEs, modified Kawahara equation;, laplace homotopy perturbation method, damping term

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Authors: Amit Arora, P. M. V. Subbarao, R. S. Agarwal

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This study attempts to find promising locations of upwash delta winglets for an inline finned tube heat exchanger. Later, location of winglets that delivers highest improvement in thermal performance is identified. Numerical results clearly showed that optimally located upwash delta winglets not only improved the thermal performance of fin area in tube wake and tubes, but also improved overall thermal performance of heat exchanger.

Keywords: apparent friction factor, delta winglet, fin and tube heat exchanger, longitudinal vortices

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Authors: L. I. Izhar, T. Stathaki, K. Howell

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Analyzing and interpreting of thermograms have been increasingly employed in the diagnosis and monitoring of diseases thanks to its non-invasive, non-harmful nature and low cost. In this paper, a novel system is proposed to improve diagnosis and monitoring of morphoea skin disorder based on integration with the published lines of Blaschko. In the proposed system, image registration based on global and local registration methods are found inevitable. This paper presents a modified normalized gradient cross-correlation (NGC) method to reduce large geometrical differences between two multimodal images that are represented by smooth gray edge maps is proposed for the global registration approach. This method is improved further by incorporating an iterative-based normalized cross-correlation coefficient (NCC) method. It is found that by replacing the final registration part of the NGC method where translational differences are solved in the spatial Fourier domain with the NCC method performed in the spatial domain, the performance and robustness of the NGC method can be greatly improved. It is shown in this paper that the hybrid NGC method not only outperforms phase correlation (PC) method but also improved misregistration due to translation, suffered by the modified NGC method alone for thermograms with ill-defined jawline. This also demonstrates that by using the gradients of the gray edge maps and a hybrid technique, the performance of the PC based image registration method can be greatly improved.

Keywords: Blaschko’s lines, image registration, morphoea, thermal imaging

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Authors: Amir Mukhtar, Dr. Likun Xia

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An improved, robust and efficient visual target tracking algorithm using particle filtering is proposed. Particle filtering has been proven very successful in estimating non-Gaussian and non-linear problems. In this paper, the particle filter is used with color feature to estimate the target state with time. Color distributions are applied as this feature is scale and rotational invariant, shows robustness to partial occlusion and computationally efficient. The performance is made more robust by choosing the different (YIQ) color scheme. Tracking is performed by comparison of chrominance histograms of target and candidate positions (particles). Color based particle filter tracking often leads to inaccurate results when light intensity changes during a video stream. Furthermore, background subtraction technique is used for size estimation of the target. The qualitative evaluation of proposed algorithm is performed on several real-world videos. The experimental results demonstrate that the improved algorithm can track the moving objects very well under illumination changes, occlusion and moving background.

Keywords: tracking, particle filter, histogram, corner points, occlusion, illumination

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Authors: J. V. Thanikal, M. Torrijos, Philipe Sousbie, S. M. Rizwan, R. Senthil Kumar, Hatem Yezdi

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Co-digestion is one of the advantages of anaerobic digestion process because; several wastes having complimentary characteristics can be treated in a single process. The anaerobic co-digestion process, which can be defined as the simultaneous treatment of two –or more – organic biodegradable waste streams by anaerobic digestion offers great potential for the proper disposal of the organic fraction of solid waste coming from source or separate collection systems. The results of biogas production for sewage sludge, when used as a single substrate, were low (350ml/d), and also the biodegradation rate was slow. Sewage sludge as a co-substrate did not show much effect on biogas yield. The vegetable substrates (Potato, Carrot, Spinach) with a total charge of 27–36 g VS, with a HRT starting from 3 days and ending with 1 day, shown a considerable increase in biogas yield 3.5-5 l/d.

Keywords: anaerobic digestion, co-digestion, vegetable substrate, sewage sludge

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Authors: Muhammad Nawaz, Waqas Ahmad

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Dimension stone is used in construction since prehistoric time; however, its use in the construction has gained significant attention for the last few decades. The present study is designed to investigate the physical and strength properties of volcanic rocks from the Kohistan Island Arc to assess their use as dimension stone. On the basis of the composition, color and texture, five varieties of andesites (MMA, PMA-1, PMA-2, CMA and FMA) and two varieties of agglomerates (AG-1 and AG-2) were identified. These were characterized in terms of their petrography (compositional and textural), physical properties (specific gravity, water absorption, porosity) and strength properties (Unconfined compressive strength and Unconfined tensile strength). Two non-destructive tests (Ultrasonic pulse velocity test and Schmidt Hammer) were conducted and the degree of polishing was evaluated. In addition, correlation analyses were carried out to establish possible relationships among these parameters. The presence of chlorite, epidote, sericite and recrystallized quartz showed the signs of low-grade metamorphism in andesites. The results showed feldspar, amphibole and quartz imparted good physical and strength properties to the samples MMA, CMA, FMA, AG1 and AG2. Whereas, the abundance of alteration products such as chlorite, sericite and epidote in PMA-1 and PMA-2 reduced the physical and strength properties. The unconfined compressive strength showed a strong correlation with ultrasonic pulse velocity, dry density, porosity and water absorption. The values of ultrasonic pulse velocity and Schmidt hammer were considerably affected by the weathering grade. The samples PMA-1 and PMA-2, due to their high water absorption and low strength values, were not recommended for use in load-bearing masonry units and outdoor applications. Whereas, the excellent properties, i.e. high strength and good polishing, the samples, FMA and MMA suggested their use as a decorative and facing stone, in the external pavement, ashlar, rubbles and load-bearing masonry units etc.

Keywords: Physico-mechanical properties, Volcanic rocks, Kohistan Island Arc, Pakistan

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Authors: H. El-Kamchouchi, Heba Gaber, Fatma Ahmed, Dalia H. El-Kamchouchi

Abstract:

Fault tolerance and data security are two important issues in modern communication systems. In this paper, we propose a secure and efficient digital signature scheme with fault tolerance based on the improved RSA system. The proposed scheme for the RSA cryptosystem contains three prime numbers and overcome several attacks possible on RSA. By using the Chinese Reminder Theorem (CRT) the proposed scheme has a speed improvement on the RSA decryption side and it provides high security also.

Keywords: digital signature, fault tolerance, RSA, security analysis

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Authors: Yugander Arra, Florence Auguy, Melissa Stiebner, Sophie Chéron, Michael M. Wudick, Van Schepler-Luu, Sébastien Cunnac, Wolf B. Frommer, Laurence Albar

Abstract:

Rice yellow mottle virus (RYMV) is one of the most important diseases affecting rice in Africa. The most promising strategy to reduce yield losses is the use of highly resistant varieties. The resistance gene RYMV2 is homolog of the Arabidopsis constitutive expression of pathogenesis related protein-5 (AtCPR5) nucleoporin gene. Resistance alleles are originating from African cultivated rice Oryza glaberrima, rarely cultivated, and are characterized by frameshifts or early stop codons, leading to a non-functional or truncated protein. Rice possesses two paralogs of CPR5 and function of these genes are unclear. Here, we evaluated the role of the two rice candidate nucleoporin paralogs OsCPR5.1 (pathogenesis-related gene 5; RYMV2) and OsCPR5.2 by CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing. Despite striking sequence and structural similarity, only loss-of-function of OsCPR5.1 led to full resistance, while loss-of-function oscpr5.2 mutants remained susceptible. Short N-terminal deletions in OsCPR5.1 also did not lead to resistance. In contrast to Atcpr5 mutants, neither OsCPR5.1 nor OsCPR5.2 knock out mutants showed substantial growth defects. Taken together, the candidate nucleoporin OsCPR5.1, but not its close homolog OsCPR5.2, plays a specific role for the susceptibility to RYMV, possibly by impairing the import of viral RNA or protein into the nucleus. Whereas gene introgression from O. glaberrima to high yielding O. sativa varieties is impaired by strong sterility barriers and the negative impact of linkage drag, genome editing of OsCPR5.1, while maintaining OsCPR5.2 activity, thus provides a promising strategy to generate O. sativa elite lines that are resistant to RYMV.

Keywords: CRISPR Cas9, genome editing, knock out mutant, recessive resistance, rice yellow mottle virus

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Authors: Sophia Anastasiou, Cosmas Nathanailides, Fotini Kakali, Panagiotis Logothetis, Gregorios Kanlis

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The method and rearing conditions of aquaculture may very between different regions and aquaculture sites. Globally, the Aquaculture industry faces a challenge to develop aquaculture methods which safeguard the economic viability of the company, the welfare of farmed fish and final product quality and sustainable development of aquaculture. Marine fish farms in Greece operate in different locations and farmed fish are exposed to a variety of rearing conditions. This paper investigates the variability of product quality and the financial performance of different marine fish farms operating in West Greece. Production parameters of gilthead sea bream fish farm such as feeding regimes, mortalities, fish densities were used to calculate the economic efficiency of six different aquaculture sites from West Greece. Samples of farmed sea bream were collected and lipid content, microbial load and filleting yield of the samples were used as quality criteria. The results indicate that Lipid content, filleting yield and microbial load of fish originating from different fish farms varied significantly with improved quality exhibited in fish farms which exhibited improved Feed conversion rates and lower mortalities. Changes in feeding management practices such as feed quality and feeding regimes have a significant impact on the financial performance of sea bass farms. Fish farms which exhibited improved feeding conversion rates also exhibited increased profitability. Improvements in the FCR explained about 13.4 % of the difference in profitability of the different aquaculture sites. Lower mortality and higher growth rates were also exhibited by the fish farms which exhibited improved FCR. It is concluded that best feeding management practices resulted in improved product quality and profitability.

Keywords: fish quality, aquaculture management, feeding management, profitability

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Authors: Dhiflaoui Hafedh, Khlifi Kaouther, Ben Cheikh Larbi Ahmed

Abstract:

Monolayer and multilayer coatings of CrN and AlCrN deposited on 100Cr6 (AISI 52100) substrate by PVD magnetron sputtering system. The micro structures of the coatings were characterized using atomic force microscopy (AFM). The AFM analysis revealed the presence of domes and craters which are uniformly distributed over all surfaces of the various layers. Nano indentation measurement of CrN coating showed maximum hardness (H) and modulus (E) of 14 GPa and 240 GPa, respectively. The measured H and E values of AlCrN coatings were found to be 30 GPa and 382 GPa, respectively. The improved hardness in both the coatings was attributed mainly to a reduction in crystallite size and decrease in surface roughness. The incorporation of Al into the CrN coatings has improved both hardness and Young’s modulus.

Keywords: CrN, AlCrN coatings, hardness, nanoindentation

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Authors: Appasaheb Raul

Abstract:

Numerical analysis of a plate fin heat exchanger accounting for the effect of fluid flow maldistribution on the inlet header configuration of the heat exchanger is investigated. It is found that the flow maldistribution is very significant in normal to the flow direction. Various inlet configuration has been studied for various Reynolds Number. By the study, a modified header configuration is proposed and simulated. The two-dimensional parameters are used to evaluate the flow non-uniformity in the header, global flow maldistribution parameter (Sg), and Velocity Ratio (θ). A series of velocity vectors and streamline graphs at different cross-section are achieved and studied qualitatively with experimental results in the literature. The numerical result indicates that the flow maldistribution is serious in the conventional header while in the improved configuration less maldistribution occurs. The flow maldistribution parameter (Sg) and velocity ratio (θ) is reduced in improved configuration. The vortex decreases compared to that of the conventional configuration so the energy and pressure loss is reduced. The improved header can effectively enhance the efficiency of plate fin heat exchanger and uniformity of flow distribution.

Keywords: global flow maldistribution parameter, Sg, velocity ratio, plate fin heat exchanger, fluent 14.5

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Authors: M. Tohidi, J. Yang, C. Baniotopoulos

Abstract:

Progressive collapse of buildings typically occurs when abnormal loading conditions cause local damages, which leads to a chain reaction of failure and ultimately catastrophic collapse. The tie force (TF) method is one of the main design approaches for progressive collapse. As the TF method is a simplified method, further investigations on the reliability of the method is necessary. This study aims to develop an improved TF method to design the cross wall structures for progressive collapse. To this end, the pullout behavior of strands in grout was firstly analyzed; and then, by considering the tie force-slip relationship in the friction stage together with the catenary action mechanism, a comprehensive analytical method was developed. The reliability of this approach is verified by the experimental results of concrete block pullout tests and full scale floor-to-floor joints tests undertaken by Portland Cement Association (PCA). Discrepancies in the tie force between the analytical results and codified specifications have suggested the deficiency of TF method, hence an improved model based on the analytical results has been proposed to address this concern.

Keywords: cross wall, progressive collapse, ties force method, catenary, analytical

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Authors: Fiston Masudi Tambwe, Lwanga Charles, Arfang Badji, Unzimai Innocent

Abstract:

The development of maize varieties combining Provitamin A (PVA), high yield, and Striga resistance is an effective and affordable strategy to contribute to food security in sub-Saharan Africa, where maize is a staple food crop. There has been limited research on introgressing PVA genes into Striga-resistant maize genotypes. The objectives of this study were to: i) determine the mode of gene action controlling PVA carotenoid accumulation in Striga-resistant maize, ii) identify Striga-resistant maize hybrids with high PVA content and stable yield, and iii) validate the presence of PVA functional markers in offspring. Six elite, Striga-resistant inbred females were crossed with six high-PVA inbred males in a North Carolina Design II and their offspring were evaluated in four environments, following a 5x8 alpha lattice design with four hybrid checks. Results revealed that both additive and non-additive gene action control carotenoid accumulation in the present study, with a predominance of non-additive gene effects for PVA. Hybrids STR1004xCLHP0352 and STR1004xCLHP0046 - identified as Striga-resistant because they supported fewer Striga plants – were the highest-yielding genotypes with a moderate PVA concentration of 5.48 and 5.77 µg/g, respectively. However, those two hybrids were not stable in terms of yield across all environments. Hybrid STR1007xCLHP0046, however, supported fewer Striga plants, had a yield of 4.52 T/ha, a PVA concentration of 4.52 µg/g, and was also stable. Gel-based marker systems of CrtRB1 and LCYE were used to screen the hybrids and favorable alleles of CrtRB1 primers were detected in 20 hybrids, confirming good levels of PVA carotenoids. Hybrids with favorable alleles of LCYE had the highest concentration of non-PVA carotenoids. These findings will contribute to the development of high-yielding PVA-rich maize varieties in Uganda.

Keywords: gene action, stability, striga resistance, provitamin A markers, beta-carotene hydroxylase 1, CrtRB1, beta-carotene, beta-cryptoxanthin, lycopene epsilon cyclase, LCYE

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Authors: Chih-Chiang Hua, Yi-Hsiung Fang, Cyuan-Jyun Wong

Abstract:

An improved PV balancer for photovoltaic applications is proposed in this paper. The proposed PV balancer senses the voltage and current of PV module and adjusts the output voltage of converter. Thus, the PV system can implement maximum power point tracking (MPPT) independently for each module whether it is under shading, different irradiation or degradation of PV cell. In addition, the cost of PV balancer can be reduced due to the low power rating of converter. To assess the effectiveness of the proposed system, two PV balancers are designed and verified through simulation under different shading conditions. The proposed PV balancers can provide more energy than the traditional PV balancer.

Keywords: MPPT, partial shading, PV System, converter

Procedia PDF Downloads 285

Authors: Javed Sidiqi, Stephen Baezinger, Stephen Wegulo

Abstract:

Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) production continues to be challenged by foliar fungal diseases although significant improvement has been made to manage the diseases through developing resistant varieties and the fungicide use to ensure sufficient wheat is produced to meet the growing population’s need. Significant crop losses have been recorded in the history of grain production and yield losses due to fungal diseases, and the trend continues to threat food security in the world and particularly in the less developed countries. The impact of individual fungal diseases on grain yield has been studied extensively to determine crop losses. However, there is limited research available to find out the combined effects of fungal diseases on grain yield and the ways to effectively manage the diseases. Therefore, the objectives of this research were to study the effect of fungal pathogens on grain yield of pre-released winter wheat genotypes in fungicide treated and untreated plots, and to determine whether S7b gene was present in ‘Gage’ wheat as previously hypothesized. Sixty winter wheat genotypes in fungicide treated and untreated plots were studied across four environments. There was a significant effect of fungicide on grain yield consistently across four environments in three years. Fungicide treated wheat lines demonstrated (4,496 kg/ ha-1) grain yield compared to (3,147 kg/ ha-1) grain yield in untreated wheat lines indicating 43% increased grain yield due to severity of foliar fungal diseases. Furthermore, fungicide application also caused an increase in protein concentration from 153 (g kg-1) to 164 (g kg-1) in treated plots in along with test weight from 73 to 77 (kg hL-1) respectively. Gage wheat variety and ISr7b-Ra were crossed to determine presence of Sr7b in Gage. The F2 and F2:3 segregating families were screened and evaluated for stem rust resistance. The segregation of families fell within 15:1 ratio for two separate resistance genes suggesting that Sr7b segregates independently from an unknown resistance gene in Gage that needs to be characterized for its use in the future wheat breeding program to develop resistant wheat varieties.

Keywords: funicide, genetics, foliar diseases, grain

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