Bioecology of macrobenthic communities in the microtidal monsoonal Kodungallur–Azhikode Estuary,southwest coast of India

A comprehensive study of the macrobenthic communities in the Kodungallur–Azhikode Estuary (KAE) was conducted during 2009–2011 period. A total of 18,846 organisms were collected, with 60% being malacostracans, followed by polychaetes (20%), molluscs (9%) and ‘others’ group (11%). A total of 79 species in 71 genera belonging to 49 families were identified, with 33 spp. being polychaetes, 26 spp. being malacostracans, 11 spp. being molluscs and 9 spp. being in the ‘others’ group. A single species of opportunistic amphipod (Americorophium triaeonyx) comprised more than 62.05% of the total numerical abundance of macrobenthos. The other dominant species were Obelia bidentata, Arcuatula senhousia, Cirolana fluviatilis, Prionospio cirrifera and Capitella sp. Canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) results indicated environmental parameters such as water column salinity, turbidity, sediment Eh, substratum type, chlorophyll‐a concentration, depth and organic matter in sediment were the significant factors influencing the distribution of macrobenthic species in the KAE. The present study provides baseline information for future KAE benthic studies.     

Synthesis and anti-bacterial activity of novel dihydrochromeno[8,7-e][1,3]oxazine-2(8H)-thiones

A novel series of sulfur-containing dihydrochromeno[8,7-e][1,3]oxazine-2(8H)-thiones has been synthesized through an eco-friendly Mannich-type condensation cyclization reaction of 7-hydroxy-4-methyl-2-thiocoumarin or 6-chloro-7-hydroxy-4-methyl-2-thiocoumarin with formaldehyde and primary amines in water at 80–90°C for 2 h. All the synthesized compounds were screened for their in vitro anti-bacterial efficacy against two Gram-positive and three Gram-negative bacterial strains by using the disc diffusion method. The compound (8c) was found to be most potent with the zone of inhibition of 16 and 15 mm against Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 2937 and Klebsiella pneumoniae ATCC 31488, respectively.     

Process Variation Study of SELBOX Inverted- T Junctionless FinFET for High-Performance Applications

This work investigates the performance of the inverted-T (IT) junctionless (JL) FinFET with selective buried oxide (SELBOX) topology. The electrical charac     

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.     

Using ensemble techniques to advance adaptive one‐factor‐at‐a‐time experimentation

Ensemble Methods are proposed as a means to extendbiAdaptive One‐Factor‐at‐a‐Time (aOFAT) experimentation. The proposed method executes multiple aOFAT experiments on the same system with minor differences in experimental setup, such as ‘starting points’. Experimental conclusions are arrived at by aggregating the multiple, individual aOFATs. A comparison is made to test the performance of the new method with that of a traditional form of experimentation, namely a single fractional factorial design which is equally resource intensive. The comparisons between the two experimental algorithms are conducted using a hierarchical probability meta‐model and an illustrative case study. The case is a wet clutch system with the goal of minimizing drag torque. In this study, the proposed procedure was superior in performance to using fractional factorial arrays consistently across various experimental settings. At the best, the proposed algorithm provides an expected value of improvement that is 15% higher than the traditional approach; at the worst, the two methods are equally effective, and on average the improvement is about 10% higher with the new method. These findings suggest that running multiple adaptive experiments in parallel can be an effective way to make improvements in quality and performance of engineering systems and also provides a reasonable aggregation procedure by which to bring together the results of the many separate experiments. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Performance assessment of hybrid composite friction materials based on flyash–rock fibre combination

Friction composites based on several combinations of flyash and inorganic mineral rock fibres such as lapinus™ fibre were fabricated, characterised and tribo-evaluated. The tribo-performance in terms of their friction-fade and friction-recovery behaviour has been rigorously evaluated while synchronously taking into account of the in situ braking induced temperature rise in the disc at the braking interface on a Krauss friction testing machine following pulse velocity wave (PVW) 3212 norms as per the Economic Commission for Europe (ECE) regulations. The fade behaviour has been observed to be highly dependent on the combination of flyash–lapinus fibre e.g. fade remained maximum (45%) in the composite with the highest amount of lapinus fibre content and lowest amount of flyash whereas the frictional fluctuations in terms of μ_max − μ_min has been observed to be higher in case of low flyash–high lapinus fibre combination. The recovery response seemed unaffected by the disparity of ingredients and remained consistently stable within the range of 112 ± 2%. The analysis of friction and wear performance has revealed that flyash along with lapinus fibre provide thermo-mechanical stability and overall mechanical integrity to the system causing reduction in friction-fade whereas wear was found to be more recovery-controlled and less fade controlled. Worn surface morphology investigation using SEM has been carried out which has revealed that the interplay of flyash–lapinus combination and topographical attributes vis-a-vis dynamics of contact patches (formation–destruction) largely influence the friction and wear performance of such composites.     

Textural and microstructural properties of Kradi cheese (an indigenous cheese of Jammu and Kashmir,India)

The texture and microstructure of Kradi cheese, an indigenous fresh unripened cheese of Jammu and Kashmir, India, were studied. There were significant differences (P < 0.05) for hardness, adhesiveness, springiness, cohesiveness, chewiness and resilience between samples from four different market areas. The optimised products made in the laboratory from cultures NCDC‐167 and NCDC‐144 showed significant differences (P < 0.05) in the textural and mechanical properties of tensile strength. The microstructure of the market samples was distinguished by the greater size of the voids present in three‐dimensional casein network. The optimised laboratory product had a more compact and fibrous structure compared to the market samples, which was attributed to its higher protein content.     

Numerical study on mixed convection in a lid-driven cavity with non-uniform heating on both sidewalls

A numerical study has been performed on mixed convection in a lid-driven cavity. The vertical sidewalls of the cavity are maintained with sinusoidal temperature distribution. A finite volume method is used to solve numerically the non-dimensional governing equations. Results are analyzed over a range of the Richardson numbers, amplitude ratios and phase deviations. The results show that heat transfer rate is increased on increasing amplitude ratio. It is observed that average Nusselt numbers are increased first and then decreased when increasing the phase deviation from 0 to π. The non-uniform heating on both walls provides higher heat transfer rate than non-uniform heating of one wall.