Formation of acrylamide in microwave-roasted sorghum and associated dietary risk

The effect of microwave roasting parameters (300, 450 and 600 W; 5, 10 and 15 min) on acrylamide content in sorghum grain was determined using High Pressure Liquid Chromatography (HPLC)-photo diode array (PDA) detector coupled with C-18 column. Samples roasted at 300 and 450 W did not possess acrylamide, whereas 600 W (15 min) favoured formation of 2740.19 µg/kg of acrylamide, levels far exceeding the defined European Union (EU) limits. The chronic daily intake (CDI) for acrylamide through consumption of such grain flour was 3.25–9.5-fold higher to Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) defined high exposure limits. The margin of exposure (MOE) values ranged from 4.3 to 12.76 and from 11.07 to 32.27 for neoplastic and neurological effects, respectively, demonstrating high exposure and serious health concerns associated with dietary intake of this toxicant. This study assesses the risk for the Indian population and highlights the importance of optimising process parameters for food product to minimise such exposure risks.     

Escherichia coli,Salmonella spp., and Staphylococcus aureus susceptibility to antimicrobials of human and veterinary importance in poultry sector of India

In India, little attention has been paid on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in the context of developing “One Health” approach. Hence, utilizing multi-disciplinary approach, we assess the AMR level and dynamics/pattern of multi-drug resistance (MDR) in Escherichia coli, Salmonella spp., and Staphylococcus aureus circulating over the different stages of poultry in India. A total of 342 isolates including E. coli (n = 143), Salmonella spp. (n = 104), and S. aureus (n = 95) were recovered from fecal (n = 80) and cecal (n = 80) samples of chicken, collected across the different poultry-retail shops and poultry-farms located at urban and rural areas of Rajasthan, India, respectively. High rates of AMR to drugs that are critically/highly important both in human and veterinary medicine were observed among all the isolates. Upward trends in AMR prevalence was observed in poultry-retail shops than in poultry-farms. Notably, >90% of all the isolates were MDR, of particular, pattern/prevalence of MDR was substantially varied across the poultry-farms vs. poultry-retail shops. Our results indicate AMR including MDR to be common in E. coli, Salmonella spp., and S. aureus distributed frequently in poultry. The study encourages the formulation of national policy, programmes and further research with a “One Health” approach that can benefits to the human/animal and the environment.     

High‐performance thermosets with tailored properties derived from methacrylated eugenol and epoxy‐based vinyl ester

A renewable chemical, eugenol, is methacrylated to produce methacrylated eugenol (ME) employing the Steglich esterification reaction without any solvent. The resulting ME is used as a low‐viscosity co‐monomer to replace styrene in a commercial epoxy‐based vinyl ester resin (VE). The volatility and viscosity of ME and styrene are compared. The effect of ME loading and temperature on the viscosity of the VE–ME resin is investigated. Moreover, the thermomechanical properties, curing extent and thermal stability of the fully cured VE–ME thermosets are systematically examined. The results indicate that ME is a monomer with low volatility and low viscosity, and therefore the incorporation of ME monomer in VE resins allows significant reduction of viscosity. Moreover, the viscosity of the VE–ME resin can be tailored by adjusting the ME loadings and processing temperature to meet commercial liquid molding technology requirements. The glass transition temperatures of VE–ME thermosets range from 139 to 199 °C. In addition, more than 95% of the monomer is incorporated and fixed in the crosslinked network structure of VE–ME thermosets. Overall, the developed ME monomer exhibits promising potential for replacing styrene as an effective low‐viscosity co‐monomer. The VE–ME resins show great advantages for use in polymer matrices for high‐performance fiber‐reinforced composites. This work is of great significance to the vinyl ester industry by providing detailed experimental support. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry     

用于控制变速电动机的功率模块

改善洗衣机、电冰箱以及空调等家用电器能源使用效率的需求正在增加。从传统的固定转速马达转换到变速马达可以节省能耗30％之多。但这种设计的难度较大，虽已经出现了几种方案来降低此类项目的数字设计工作难度，但是设计人员仍需要集成模块和相关的设计工具来促进功率级的设计。为了使低成本变速马达控制器成为可能，元器件供应商设法通过简化设计和降低结构复杂度来减少变速控制器的成本。例如，已经出现了几种数字信号控制平台，它们结合了DSP和集成PWM和马达控制外围设备的RISC处理器。这些平台可运行第三方或者自行开发的马达控制算法。     

Minimizing power dissipation in optical interconnects at low voltage using optimal modulator design

A strong motivation for insertion of optical interconnects in short-distance applications such as chip-to-chip or back-plane communication, apart from high bit rates, is their potential to achieve these bit rates at low power compared to the currently prevalent copper based interconnects. Thus, it is imperative to construct design methodologies which minimize the total optical link power dissipation. We present one such methodology, where we optimize the quantum-well modulators to minimize the power dissipation in modulator-based optical interconnects. In the first part of the paper, the focus is on obtaining the optimal modulator metrics [contrast ration (CR) and insertion loss], which yield the lowest total power (receiver and the modulator). The trends are studied as a function of the input laser power and bit rate. Having obtained the desirable modulator metrics and the corresponding power dissipation, in the second part, the focus is on the feasibility of these metrics in the light of voltage swing constraints. The biggest concern with the modulator based optical link is the low CR, especially at low voltage swing. While studying these concerns, we also provide insight into the physical design of the modulator including, its intrinsic region thickness, pre-bias voltage, and the size and the number of quantum-wells. Specifically, we outline the method to obtain the design parameters, which allows minimum power dissipation with the least laser power. This ultimately yields higher aggregate I/O bandwidth for chip to chip communication in power limited chips.     

A fast algorithm and practical considerations for passive macromodeling of measured/simulated data

Passive macromodeling of high-speed package and interconnect modules characterized by measured/simulated data has generated immense interest during the recent years. This paper presents an efficient algorithm for transient simulation of interconnect networks characterized by measured/simulated data in the presence of other linear and nonlinear devices. A new set of linear constraints are proposed, which help in preserving the passivity of resulting macromodels. Examples are presented to demonstrate the validity and efficiency of the proposed algorithm.     

Irradiation of large area Mylar membrane and characterization of nuclear track filter

Ion irradiation of Si⁸⁺ ion beam of 100 MeV was scattered by a gold foil on a Mylar membrane of 25 Μm thickness in the form of film roll (width, 12.5 cm and length, 400 cm) at the Nuclear Science Centre, New Delhi. The characterization of etched nuclear tracks was carried out by gas permeation measurements. The samples cut from the film roll of required size for permeability measurements were etched in a controlled manner in a constant temperature bath of 6N NaOH solution. The opening of the conical etched tracks was characterized by hydrogen gas permeation.     

A radix-8 wafer scale FFT processor

Wafer Scale Integration promises radical improvements in the performance of digital signal processing systems. This paper describes the design of a radix-8 systolic (pipeline) fast Fourier transform processor for implementation with wafer scale integration. By the use of the radix-8 FFT butterfly wafer that is currently under development, continuous data rates of 160 MSPS are anticipated for FFTs of up to 4096 points with 16-bit fixed point data.     

Microclusters as superatoms for developing new materials

With the discovery of solid C₆₀, efforts are being made to develop new clusters and molecules which could be assembled to form new materials. Here we present some recent developments in this direction and discuss bonding in such materials.     

Simulation of leachate migration in leaky aquifers

A two-dimensional cross-section finite difference model is presented to simulate density dependent leachate migration in leaky aquifers. Unlike existing models, a new approach is adopted to couple the groundwater-flow equation and the hydrodynamic dispersion equation with the elimination of the intermediate step of calculating velocities. The concept of the reference density is employed, permitting increased accuracy (over pressure-based models) in the representation of the transport process. The model is then used to study the effect of several hydraulic and transport parameters on the flow pattern and plume migration which are found to be very sensitive to most of these parameters. Equiconcentration and equipotential lines are overlapped to provide a better understanding of the coupling effect.