Morphology,Mineralogy and Mixing of Individual Atmospheric Particles Over Kanpur (IGP): Relevance of Homogeneous Equivalent Sphere Approximation in Radiative Models

Estimation of the direct radiative forcing (DRF) by atmospheric particles is uncertain to a large extent owing to uncertainties in their morphology (shape and size), mixing states, and chemical composition. A region-specific database of the aforementioned physico-chemical properties (at individual particle level) is necessary to improve numerically-estimated optical and radiative properties. Till date, there is no detailed observation of the above mentioned properties over Kanpur in the Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP). To fill this gap, an experiment was carried out at Kanpur (IITK; 26.52°N, 80.23°E, 142 m msl), India from April to July, 2011. Particle types broadly classified as (a) Cu-rich particles mixed with carbon and sulphur (b) dust and clays mixed with carbonaceous species (c) Fe-rich particles mixed with carbon and sulfur and (d) calcite (CaCO₃) particles aged with nitrate, were observed. The frequency distributions of aspect ratio (AR; indicator of extent of particle non-sphericity) of total 708 particles from April to June reveal that particles with aspect ratio range >1.2 to ≤1.4 were abundant throughout the experiment except during June when it was found to shift to high AR range, >1.4 to ≤1.6 (followed with another peak of AR i.e. >2 to ≤2.4) due to dust storm conditions enhancing the occurrence of more non-spherical particles over the sampling site. The spherical particles (and close to spherical shape; AR range, 1.0 to ≤1.2) were found to be <20% throughout the experiment with a minimum (11.5%) during June. Consideration of Homogeneous Equivalent Sphere Approximation (HESA) in the optical/radiative model over the study region is found to be irrelevant during the campaign.     

Study of Size Distribution in Nanostructured Se<Subscript>58</Subscript>Ge<Subscript>39</Subscript>Pb<Subscript>3</Subscript> Glass Using Various Characterization Methods

The present paper aims at the study of size distribution of particles in nanostructured Se₅₈Ge₃₉Pb₃ glass using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and UV–visible spectrophotometer. The thin film sample has been prepared using melt quenching technique and inert gas consolidation method. The particle size distribution obtained from XRD and UV–Vis spectrophotometer shows more uncertainty than the results obtained from TEM measurements. The absorption spectra recorded on UV–Vis spectrophotometer is employed to get band gap values corresponding to different size distribution in sample. Further, it is concluded that TEM is the best measurement technique for size distribution as it has less uncertainty in the obtained results.     

Osmotic dehydration of lemon (Citrus limon L.) slices: Modeling mass transfer kinetics correlated with dry matter holding capacity and juice sac losses

Osmotic dehydration of lemon slices was performed using hypertonic NaCl solution. Due to low dry matter holding capacity (DHC) of lemon, the moisture loss, salt gain, and solid loss kinetics during osmotic dehydration were studied by considering the loss of juice sacs from lemon. The slices were immersed in the osmotic solutions maintained with four concentrations of NaCl (5–20%, w/v) and three temperatures (30, 40, and 50°C) for predetermined time intervals (10–180?min). The sample to solution ratio was maintained at 1:10. Azuara model based on Peleg model was used to determine the equilibrium moisture loss and salt gain. Apart from the moisture loss and salt gain, it was found that the loss of solid constituents and juice sacs from the fruit into the osmotic solution was significant. Therefore, the DHC was determined to correlate the rate of solid loss. The DHC was found to be greatly affected by temperature as lemon was less capable to withhold its cell integrity at higher temperature. A combined correlation model was used to determine the effect of osmosis time, solution concentration, and temperature on moisture loss, salt gain, and solid loss. High temperature is not preferable for osmotic dehydration of lemon as it increases losses. The optimal condition was found to be 20% salt concentration and 30°C osmotic solution for 180?min to attain high moisture loss, less solid loss, and required salt uptake within allowable limits.     

The Enriched Feature Enhancement Technique for Satellite Image Based on Transforms Using PCNN

The features of the satellite images can be improved by fusing or combining two images with complementary property. By fusing these two images the spatial property of the resultant image is improved. Satellite images are one of the agents that give the features of the earth’s surface. Processing these satellite images will provide more geographical information hidden in the images. This research paper have an detailed insight study of two types of the satellite images one is Panchromatic (PAN) and other Multispectral (MS). The PAN image with high spatial resolution and MS image with spectral resolution are fused to get better resultant output. For fusion process Nonsubsampled Contour let Transform is used to decompose the images into low and high frequency values. Pulse Coupled Neural Network is used to motivate the low frequency pixel and Morphological filter is applied to the edge detected image for finding the features in the images. This is an real time transformations which will give better results in SAR image processing, video processing, stereo based reconstruction of depth and width of the features present in the image.

     

Screening selected strains of probiotic lactic acid bacteria for their ability to produce biogenic amines (histamine and tyramine)

The aim of this study was to investigate the production of biogenic amines (BA), histamine and tyramine by some probiotic lactic acid bacteria (LAB). Fifteen strains representing six LAB species were screened qualitatively by growing them in a decarboxylase medium. Quantitative analysis was carried out by HPLC analysis with direct derivatization of acid extracts. Lactobacillus casei (TISTR 389) and Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus (TISTR 895) were found to produce BA. The highest levels of histamine (1820.9 ± 3.5 mg L^?1) and tyramine (5486.99 ± 47.6 mg L^?1) formation were observed for the TISTR 389 strain, while TISTR 895 produced only histamine (459.1 ± 0.63 mg L^?1) in the decarboxylase broth. Biogenic amine potential was not observed for the Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus lactis subsp. lactis, Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis, and Lactobacillus plantarum strains studied. This study confirmed that BA formation is strain dependent and not related to the species. Therefore, careful screening for amino acid decarboxylase activity is recommended before selecting LAB as appropriate starter or probiotic strains in food and dairy industry.     

Influence of variation in calcium content on casein micelle stability and techno-functional properties of buffalo milk

Changes in techno-functional properties of buffalo milk were evaluated due to variation in calcium content. Decalcification resulted in significant variation in ζ-potential, casein size, colour and η_app. However, calcium addition only influenced ζ-potential of milk. In case of acid gelation, the time and temperature required for coagulation decreased significantly for both calcium-depleted and -added milks. However, during chymosin gelation, only 20%–30% of calcium-depleted milk coagulated with an increased clotting time. Furthermore, calcium addition increased firmness, consistency and cohesiveness of both chymosin and acid-induced gelation.     

Study of the biodegradation behavior of soy protein‐grafted polyethylene by the soil burial method

In this article, we report on the biodegradation of soy‐protein‐grafted polyethylene, which was successfully synthesized by a graft copolymerization method with benzoyl peroxide as the radical initiator. The biodegradation behavior of the grafted polyethylene was ascertained by a soil burial test. The weight‐loss percentage was measured as a function of the number of days, and it was observed that the percentage weight loss increased with increasing number of days. To further substantiate the degradation, microanalysis of the soil containing the samples was carried out. An increase in microorganism colonies was observed with increasing number of days. The hydrolysis of the samples taken from the soil after a specified number of days also corroborated the findings and revealed a continuous loss of weight. The effect of the degradation of the grafted samples on the growth of plants (wheat and soybean) was studied, and we observed that the products of degradation were not harmful to the growth of the plants. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2009     

Centralized sliding mode frequency regulation approach for an uncertain islanded micro grid integrated with disturbance observer

This paper proposes a novel secondary frequency regulation technique for an uncertain islanded micro grid (MG). The major motivation of the work is to integrate the intrinsic robustness of the sliding mode control scheme with the disturbance observer to estimate and alleviate the unknown mismatched uncertainties caused by renewable resources and load variations. To this end, a dynamical sliding manifold is first utilized and then a control law is derived with Lyapunov's method which stabilizes the MG dynamics. Moreover, in order to ensure faster time domain responses of the closed‐loop system, we employ a power rate reaching law in our proposed control design. Thereafter, the performances of the introduced control strategy are tested on an islanded MG using MATLAB/Simulink, and robustness analysis is also carried out by considering five different case studies. Further, in contrast to the existing approaches such as robust H _∞ and robust PID control, the proposed strategy renders appealing time domain characteristics such as settling time, peak overshoot, and integral absolute frequency error.     

Synthesis of a New Robust Exponential Sliding Mode Differentiator with its Observer Applications

This paper proposes a new robust exponential sliding mode differentiator for estimating the (n ? 1) derivatives of a non‐linear function. Finite time convergence, robustness, and exactness are also ensured analytically with the proposed methodology. In addition, the results of the proposed sliding mode differentiator are extended to derive theorems for the novel state (SO) and extended state observers (ESO), which would estimate the system states as well as uncertainties recursively in finite time. Finally, three examples are implemented to validate the proposed methodologies and the obtained simulations are compared with the previously developed methods in literature.