33.7 MHz heavy-ion radio frequency quadrupole linac at VECC Kolkata

A 33.7 MHz heavy-ion radio frequency quadrupole (RFQ) linear accelerator has been designed, built, and tested. It is a four-rod-type RFQ designed for acceleration of 1.38 keVu, qA> or =116 ions to about 29 keVu. Transmission efficiencies of about 85% and 80% have been measured for the unanalyzed and analyzed beams, respectively, of oxygen ((16)O(2+), (16)O(3+), (16)O(4+)), nitrogen ((14)N(3+), (14)N(4+)), and argon ((40)Ar(4+)). The system design and measurements along with results of beam acceleration test will be presented.     

A learning automata-based fault-tolerant routing algorithm for mobile ad hoc networks

Reliable routing of packets in a Mobile Ad Hoc Network (MANET) has always been a major concern. The open medium and the susceptibility of the nodes of being fault-prone make the design of protocols for these networks a challenging task. The faults in these networks, which occur either due to the failure of nodes or due to reorganization, can eventuate to packet loss. Such losses degrade the performance of the routing protocols running on them. In this paper, we propose a routing algorithm, named as learning automata based fault-tolerant routing algorithm (LAFTRA), which is capable of routing in the presence of faulty nodes in MANETs using multipath routing. We have used the theory of Learning Automata (LA) for optimizing the selection of paths, reducing the overhead in the network, and for learning about the faulty nodes present in the network. The proposed algorithm can be juxtaposed to any existing routing protocol in a MANET. The results of simulation of our protocol using network simulator 2 (ns-2) shows the increase in packet delivery ratio and decrease in overhead compared to the existing protocols. The proposed protocol gains an edge over FTAR, E2FT by nearly 2% and by more than 10% when compared with AODV in terms of packet delivery ratio with nearly 30% faulty nodes in the network. The overhead generated by our protocol is lesser by 1% as compared to FTAR and by nearly 17% as compared to E2FT when there are nearly 30% faulty nodes.     

An inertia-adaptive particle swarm system with particle mobility factor for improved global optimization

Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) has recently emerged as a nature-inspired algorithm for real parameter optimization. This article describes a method for improving the final accuracy and the convergence speed of PSO by firstly adding a new coefficient (called mobility factor) to the position updating equation and secondly modulating the inertia weight according to the distance between a particle and the globally best position found so far. The two-fold modification tries to balance between the explorative and exploitative tendencies of the swarm with an objective of achieving better search performance. We also mathematically analyze the effect of the modifications on the dynamics of the PSO algorithm. The new algorithm has been shown to be statistically significantly better than the basic PSO and four of its state-of-the-art variants on a twelve-function test-suite in terms of speed, accuracy, and robustness.     

Evaluation of fire performance of organic fire retardant free acrylic based coatings applied on various building materials by cone calorimetric method

Fire performance of water‐based plaster systems containing acrylic copolymer binder and non‐flammable mineral and ceramic fillers intended for decorative coating application was determined by cone calorimetric method. The coatings were applied on common building substrate materials used in construction sector, namely, Medium Density Fibre (MDF) boards, Gypsum Boards (GIB) and Stainless Steel (SS), and the different plaster finishes attempted on these substrates were Tierrafino, Suave and Bone China respectively. Group numbers of the different test samples were also evaluated following the Kokkala method. Based on various measurements, especially heat release, smoke evolution, mass loss data and the Group number estimates, it is evident that these organic fire retardant free coatings can offer good fire safety if applied on appropriate substrates like GIB or SS. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Hydrodynamic dispersion of reactive solute in a Hagen-Poiseuille flow of a layered liquid

An analysis of the solute dispersion in the liquid flowing through a pipe by means of Aris-Barton's ⒈method of moments',under the joint effect of some finite yield stress and irreversible absorption into the wall is presented in this paper.The liquid is considered as a three-layer liquid where the center region is Casson liquid surrounded by Newtonian liquid layer.A significant change from previous modelling exercises in the study of hydrodynamic dispersion,different molecular diffusivity has been considered for the different region yet to be constant.For all time period,finite difference implicit scheme has been adopted to solve the integral moment equation arising from the unsteady convective diffusion equation.The purpose of the study is to find the dependency of solute transport coefficients on absorption parameter,yield stress,viscosity ratio,peripheral layer variation and in addition with various diffusivity coefficients in different liquid layers.This kind of study may be useful for understanding the dispersion process in the blood flow analysis.     

Antioxidant effect of turmeric powder,nitrite and ascorbic acid on stored chicken mince

This investigation was carried out to evaluate the antioxidant effect of turmeric (turmeric 1000 ppm, turmeric 5000 ppm), nitrite (nitrite 200 ppm) and ascorbic acid (ascorbic acid 500 ppm) on raw minced chicken stored at 4 ± 1 °C. Physicochemical properties [pH, water activity, cooking loss, thiobarbituric acid (TBA) value, peroxide value (PV), free fatty acid (FFA)] were evaluated on 0, 2, 4 and 6th day of storage. Highly significant differences (P < 0.01) in pH, TBA value, PV and FFA value were noticed between treatments and between storage periods. TBA values were observed to be lowest for nitrite 200 ppm and then turmeric 5000 ppm, and there was no significant difference between nitrite 200 ppm and turmeric 5000 ppm, and both were superior to ascorbic acid 500 ppm and turmeric 1000 ppm. Among different treatments, PV was found to be lowest in turmeric 5000 ppm and highest in nitrite 200 ppm. FFA value was found to be lowest in turmeric 5000 ppm and highest in ascorbic acid 500 ppm among all treated samples. It can be concluded that turmeric has potential to replace synthetic antioxidants presently used in meat processing with many added advantages.     

Yield and Functional Properties of Taro Starch as Affected by Ultrasound

Effect of ultrasound pretreatment on yield and functional properties of taro starch was investigated. A three-factor two-level factorial design was employed with treatment time (5 and 10 min), treatment cycle (0.5 and 1), and amplitude of ultrasound (50 and 100 %). Starch yield from ultrasonic treatment varied from 17.45 to 18.97 % compared to 15.29 % in conventional method. The highest yield of 18.97 % was obtained with treatment time 10 min, treatment cycle 0.5, and amplitude 50 %. A significant increase in swelling, solubility, pasting, and texture properties of the ultrasonically extracted starch was observed. A slight decrease in clarity of the starch pastes was also observed after ultrasonic pretreatment, but the differences were not much significant. Freeze-thaw stability of the ultrasonically extracted starches was found to be better compared to starch extracted using conventional method, making them suitable for foods subjected to refrigeration. The whiteness of the ultrasonically extracted starch powders was lower compared to conventionally extracted starch, but the differences were not statistically significant.     

On Testing Prebond Dies with Incomplete Clock Networks in a 3D IC Using DLLs

3D integration of ICs is an emerging technology where multiple silicon dies are stacked vertically. The manufacturing itself is based on wafer-to-wafer bonding, die-to-wafer bonding or die-to-die bonding. Wafer-to-wafer bonding has the lowest yield as a good die may be stacked against a bad die, resulting in a wasted good die. Thus the latter two options are preferred to keep yield high and manufacturing costs low. However, these methods require dies to be tested separately before they are stacked. A problem with testing dies separately is that the clock network of a prebond die may be incomplete before stacking. In this paper we present a solution to address this problem. The solution is based on on-die Delay Lock Loop (DLL) implementations that are only activated during testing prebond unstacked dies to synchronize disconnected clock regions. A problem with using DLLs in testing is that they cannot be turned on or off within a single cycle. Since scan-based testing requires that test patterns be scanned in at a slow clock frequency before fast capture clocks are applied, On-Product Clock Generation (OPCG) must be used. The proposed solution addresses the above problems and allows a prebond with an incomplete clock network to be tested with low skew.     

Optimization of physical and mechanical properties of rubber compounds by a response surface methodological approach

Response surface methodology was used for optimizing the ratio of vegetable oil and carbon black and occluded volume fraction of rubber in the compound. Central composite design for two variables was chosen as the experimental design. The data obtained from measurement of properties was fitted as a two variable second-order equation, and were plotted as contours using software developed from MATLAB v.5.1. From contours it is observed that at the ratio of 0.06 of vegetable oil and carbon black, there is maximum coupling, and a further increment in vegetable oil and carbon black ratio shows less coupling and more plasticizing effect. The ultimate failure properties like tensile and tear strength and elongation decreases with an increase in occluded volume fraction, reaches a minima at the central region, followed by an increase, whereas 300% modulus and hardness decreases throughout.© 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc, J Appl Polym Sci 82: 997-1005, 2001