The occurrence of aflatoxins in mustard and mustard products

Natural occurrence of aflatoxins at concentrations of 750, 87 and 1420 micrograms/kg was recorded in 44, 33 and 80 samples out of 100 samples each of seeds, oil and cakes of mustard respectively. Out of 17 species of fungi isolated from mustard seeds, percentage incidence of the Aspergillus flavus group was maximum during monsoon and summer. Twenty-five per cent of isolates (out of 1143 isolates screened) of the A. flavus group were toxigenic, producing different components of aflatoxins in varying concentrations.     

Predicting Transient Storage Model Parameters of Rivers by Genetic Algorithm

The presence of transient storage zone modifies the riverine pollutant transport. In the present work, new empirical expressions for three key parameters of transient storage model (TSM), an important method for predicting concentration variation of pollutants in rivers, have been derived employing genetic algorithm on published hydraulic data on river reaches and TSM parameters. The proposed expressions use few hydraulic and geometric characteristics of rivers that are usually available. Based on various performance indices, it can be concluded that the proposed expressions predict TSM parameters more reliably in comparison to the other empirical expressions for predicting TSM parameters.     

Heating rate effects during non-isothermal annealing of AIK steel

The effects of heating rate on microstructural size and shape parameters during annealing of cold rolled aluminum killed steel strips have been examined under non-isothermal condition. It is shown that decrease in the heating rate results in accelerated grain growth behavior compared with the prediction by quasi-isothermal based kinetics. The {111} and {112} crystallographic orientations, which enhance the normal anisotropy and deep drawability of cold rolled annealed sheets, are found to exhibit a strong correlation with the grain shape anisotropy. This grain shape anisotropy itself is strongly dependent on heating rates. Lower heating rates result in higher aspect ratios and thus better drawability of the cold rolled sheets. A Hall-Petch type relationship is observed between grain size and hardness of the annealed samples.     

Cognitive Radio Concept and Challenges in Dynamic Spectrum Access for the Future Generation Wireless Communication Systems

Recently, the Dynamic Spectrum Access (DSA) techniques are proposed to solve the problem of spectrum scarcity and help to use the limited spectrum resource as effectively as possible. The current ongoing spectrum reform opens up the possibilities to exploit the DSA techniques. This paper aims to provide a critical review on the various ongoing efforts towards the use of DSA concept for the frequency management of future wireless communications systems, especially from the Cognitive Radio (CR) perspective. The CR aims for an efficient and dynamic access to the spectrum, and provides a new method of spectrum management. This paper also highlights the various challenges associated with CR in order to realize the concept of DSA.     

Cytokinesis: A problem in morphomechanics

The probable role of mechanics in understanding the cytokinesis in animal cell is discussed. A case is made for invoking mechanics to explain the phenomena of morphogenesis.