Deceleration of a porous rotating disk in a viscous fluid

The flow due to a rotating disk decelerating with an angular velocity inversely proportional to time with either surface suction (or injection) which again varies with time is investigated. The unsteady Navier-Stokes equations are transformed to non-linear ordinary differential equations using similarity transformations. The resulting equations are solved numerically using a globally convergent homotopy method. The flow depends on two non-dimensional parameters, namely an unsteadiness parameter $\text{S}$ and a suction (or injection) parameter $\text{A}$. Some interesting numerical results are presented graphically and discussed.     

Thermal Reactivity of Double-Base Rocket Propellants

Thermal decomposition studies on double-base propellants have been carried out in air and vacuum using differential scanning calorimetric, thermogravimetric and mass spectrometric techniques. Low temperature (90 °C–170 °C) decomposition seems to involve diffusion controlled process, the mechanism in air and vacuum being different. High temperature (170 °–205 °C) decomposition involves bond breakage.     

Dynamic resource allocation schemes during handoff for mobilemultimedia wireless networks

User mobility management is one of the important components of mobile multimedia systems. In a cell-based network, a mobile should be able to seamlessly obtain transmission resources after handoff to a new base station. This is essential for both service continuity and quality of service assurance. In this paper, we present strategies for accommodating continuous service to mobile users through estimating resource requirements of potential handoff connections. A diverse mix of heterogeneous traffic with diverse resource requirements is considered. The investigate static and dynamic resource allocation schemes. The dynamic scheme probabilistically estimates the potential number of connections that will be handed off from neighboring cells, for each class of traffic. The performance of these strategies in terms of connection blocking probabilities for handoff and local new connection requests are evaluated. The performance is also compared to a scheme previously proposed by Yu and Leung (see IEEE J. Select. Areas Commun., vol.15, p.1208-25, 1997). The results indicate that using dynamic estimation and allocation, we can significantly reduce the dropping probability for handoff connections     

Hybrid plasmonic label-free multi-analyte refractive index sensor

We propose a label-free refractive index sensor based on hybrid plasmonic resonator which consists of silver split-ring resonator and photonic waveguide. The finite difference time domain evaluation of the design exhibit strong field confinement at the center of the ring and introduces tunable and sensitive notches in the transmission spectrum. The planar tunable architecture which performs well over the range of micro fluid detection, holds the promise of developing multi-analyte label-free biosensors and compactness towards a complete on-chip integrated sensing system. The performance of the proposed refractive index sensor is evaluated by placing different analytes such as saline water and ethanol at the center of the hybrid plasmonic ring which exhibits sensitivity of 847.50 nm.RIU-1 with a figure of merit of 563.25 RIU-1.     

Performance evaluation of an IEEE 802.15.4 sensor network with a star topology

One class of applications envisaged for the IEEE 802.15.4 LR-WPAN (low data rate—wireless personal area network) standard is wireless sensor networks for monitoring and control applications. In this paper we provide an analytical performance model for a network in which the sensors are at the tips of a star topology, and the sensors need to transmit their measurements to the hub node so that certain objectives for packet delay and packet discard are met. We first carry out a saturation throughput analysis of the system; i.e., it is assumed that each sensor has an infinite backlog of packets and the throughput of the system is sought. After a careful analysis of the CSMA/CA MAC that is employed in the standard, and after making a certain decoupling approximation, we identify an embedded Markov renewal process, whose analysis yields a fixed point equation, from whose solution the saturation throughput can be calculated. We validate our model against ns2 simulations (using an IEEE 802.15.4 module developed by Zheng [14]). We find that with the default back-off parameters the saturation throughput decreases sharply with increasing number of nodes. We use our analytical model to study the problem and we propose alternative back-off parameters that prevent the drop in throughput. We then show how the saturation analysis can be used to obtain an analytical model for the finite arrival rate case. This finite load model captures very well the qualitative behavior of the system, and also provides a good approximation to the packet discard probability, and the throughput. For the default parameters, the finite load throughput is found to first increase and then decrease with increasing load. We find that for typical performance objectives (mean delay and packet discard) the packet discard probability would constrain the system capacity. Finally, we show how to derive a node lifetime analysis using various rates and probabilities obtained from our performance analysis model.

A CMOS RF front-end for a multistandard WLAN receiver

This letter describes the design and performance of a dual band tri-mode receiver front-end compliant with the IEEE 802.11a, b, and g standards. The receiver front-end was built in a 0.18-/spl mu/m CMOS process and achieves a noise figure of 4.7 dB/5.1 dB for the 2.4-GHz/5-GHz bands, respectively. The receiver front-end provides a dual gain mode of 5 dB/30 dB with an IIP3 of -1dBm for the low gain mode. The front-end draws 25 mA/27 mA from a 1.8-V supply for the 2.4-GHz/5-GHz bands, respectively.     

Flux method for the analysis of excess carrier transport in multilayer devices in the presence of electric field

The flux method of treating the one-dimensional steady-state transport problem of excess charge carriers, created by the generating sources, is analysed for multilayer devices in the presence of electric field. General analytical expressions for the forward (parallel to the electric field) and backward (antiparallel to the electric field) fluxes of excess carriers at any arbitrary boundary of the multilayer device are derived in terms of the reflection and transmission coefficients of the individual layers and boundaries. As an application of this general analysis, a simple example of a multilayer device consisting of only two layers is considered. The results are shown to reduce those obtained by other calculations in appropriate limiting cases.     

Influence of altitudinal variation on the antioxidant potential of tartar buckwheat of Western Himalaya

In the present work, the effect of altitudinal variations on the total phenol, flavonoid, and antioxidant potential of seeds and hull of Tartar buckwheat collected from 15 different locations of Western Himalaya has been investigated. Methanolic and acetonic extracts of seed and hull powder showed significantly increasing amounts of total polyphenol content, and antioxidant potential with rising altitude. Methanolic extract of seed and hull powder were found to have significantly greater polyphenol, and antioxidant potential as compared to acetonic extract. The methanolic seed extract of Inderdhara (3,133 m) showed the maximum total phenolic content 1,651 μg gallic acid equivalent/50 mg of dry weight. The methanolic seed extract of Inderdhara showed the maximum antioxidant activity (77.29±1.2%) and antiradical activity (55.5±0.5%) also. The results of this study exhibited good correlation with total polyphenol and antioxidant potential in all the samples followed by the increasing tendency towards rising altitude.     

Exploitation of microbial antagonists for the control of postharvest diseases of fruits: a review

Fungal diseases result in significant losses of fruits and vegetables during handling, transportation and storage. At present, post-production fungal spoilage is predominantly controlled by using synthetic fungicides. Under the global climate change scenario and with the need for sustainable agriculture, biological control methods of fungal diseases, using antagonistic microorganisms, are emerging as ecofriendly alternatives to the use of fungicides. The potential of microbial antagonists, isolated from a diversity of natural habitats, for postharvest disease suppression has been investigated. Postharvest biocontrol systems involve tripartite interaction between microbial antagonists, the pathogen and the host, affected by environmental conditions. Several modes for fungistatic activities of microbial antagonists have been suggested, including competition for nutrients and space, mycoparasitism, secretion of antifungal antibiotics and volatile metabolites and induction of host resistance. Postharvest application of microbial antagonists is more successful for efficient disease control in comparison to pre-harvest application. Attempts have also been made to improve the overall efficacy of antagonists by combining them with different physical and chemical substances and methods. Globally, many microbe-based biocontrol products have been developed and registered for commercial use. The present review provides a brief overview on the use of microbial antagonists as postharvest biocontrol agents and summarises information on their isolation, mechanisms of action, application methods, efficacy enhancement, product formulation and commercialisation.     

Vitamin C kinetic degradation of strawberry juice stored under non-isothermal conditions

Strawberries are a good source of nutritional compounds and may be considered among the fruit most rich in ascorbic acid (AA). Strawberry juice is easily damaged in transit due to temperature fluctuations that may significantly reduce shelf life. In this way, the use of “best before” and “use by” dates should be reconsidered in the light of temperature variability during transport or storage. Kinetic degradation of ascorbic acid and shelf life estimation of strawberry juice stored under non-isothermal conditions was performed using a Weibullian-logistic model. A kinetic order of 1.1 was estimated as the best value to fit AA degradation under isothermal conditions and may be considered as the value for this particular medium. Moreover, the Weibullian-logistic model well fitted AA degradation under non isothermal conditions and may be used to predict shelf life under different fluctuation temperature histories. On the basis of temperature profiles considered in this paper, a retention of 46.8% and 42.7%, respectively for experimental and predicted data after 15 days were measured. Furthermore, it was showed a significant decrease of shelf life (about 5 days) for samples exposed to fluctuation temperature in comparison whit samples kept at constant temperature.