Nutritional and toxicological evaluation of mango kernel oil

Mango-kernel fat is a solid fat at room temperature and has a melting point of ca. 35 C. The fat was analyzed for its physico-chemical properties. It is rich in equal amounts of stearic and oleic acids (42%). Nutritional and toxicological evaluation of this fat was carried out by multigeneration breeding studies in weanling albino rats, feeding them mango-kernel fat or groundnut oil (GNO) at a 10% level in a 20% protein diet that was adequate in vitamins and minerals. The feed-efficiency ratio and growth rate of rats fed mango-kernel fat were comparable with the control group. Studies of calcium, phosphorous and nitrogen balance showed that the retention of these nutrients was not adversely affected by the mango-fat intake. The apparent digestibility of mango fat was comparable with GNO when fed to rats. Toxicological evaluation of the fat showed a comparable reproductive performance with the GNO-fed animals. Liver serum total cholesterol, triglycerides and total lipids were found to be within normal levels. The organ weights of the various tissues of the animals of both groups in the last generation were comparable. Histopathological studies of various organs revealed no abnormalities. These studies indicate that mangokernel fat can substitute for any solid fat without adverse effect.     

Structural and magnetic investigations of some new boron containing rare earth intermetallic compounds

By alloying boron with RPd₃ (R=rare earth) compounds, new ternary alloys of the formula RPd₃B _x (0 ≤x ≤ 1) have been prepared. The parent RPd₃ compounds crystallise in the cubic AuCu₃ type structure. The addition of boron does not change the structure but results in an expansion of the lattice. Therefore, it is likely that the small boron atoms occupy the vacant body centred position in AuCu₃ type structure. It is also observed that compounds of the composition RRh₃B can be formed in the cubic structure for all rare earths R though the parent RRh₃ compounds exist only for R=Ce (AuCu₃ type) and La, Sm, Nd and Gd (all hexagonal CeNi₃ type). This points out the role of boron in stabilising new crystallographic phases. The results of susceptibility measurements on some of the RPd₃B and RRh₃B compounds are presented. In particular, it is noted that while GdPd₃ orders antiferromagnetically withT _N=6 K, GdPd₃B does not order magnetically down to 4.2 K.     

Nutritional and toxicological evaluation ofHibiscus sabdariffa oil andCleome viscosa oil

Mesta seed oil (Hibiscus sabdariffa), like cottonseed oil, contains cyclopropenoid fatty acids (2.9%) and epoxy fatty acids (2.6%) in addition to normal fatty acids found in vegetable oils.Cleome viscosa (Capparidaceae) seed oil is rich in linoleic acid (70%) and free from any abnormal chemical constituents. Nutritional and toxicological evaluations of these two oils were done by multigeneration breeding studies by feeding the respective oils and groundnut oil as control at 10% level in a 20% protein diet with adequate vitamins and minerals. These studies revealed that rats fed mesta oil had inferior growth and reproductive performance and also had altered liver metabolism. Rats fedC. viscosa oil did not show any abnormal growth or reproductive performance or altered liver lipid levels. Thus, these studies indicate that raw or refined mesta oil may not be suitable for human consumption whereasC. viscosa oil can be used safely by humans.     

Remarks on some aspects of language structure and their relevance to pattern analysis

Some specific aspects of language structure are examined in detail in the context of pattern analysis. In particular, a transformational grammar is constructed for a class of patterns, following the linguistic formulation very closely, by taking a simple example and working it out in detail. Many of the characteristics of the transformational grammars of linguists show up even in this simple example. The need for looking for grammars of different styles and the problem of making meaningful assignment of probabilities to sentences in the context of transformational grammars have also been briefly discussed.     

Wireless Aspects of Telehealth

Telehealth is the use of electronic information and communication technology to deliver health and medical information and services over large and small distances. Broadband wireless services available today, along with more powerful and convenient handheld devices, will enable a transformational change in health management and healthcare with the introduction of real-time monitoring and timely responses to a wide array of patient needs. Further, a network of low-cost sensors and wireless systems help in creating constantly vigilant and pervasive monitoring capability at home and at work. This paper addresses recent efforts in this growing field, including standards, system architectures, propagation models, and lower layer protocols for body area networks. The paper also suggests the use of cooperative transmission-based strategies for such wireless topologies.     

First and second law analysis of a new power and refrigeration thermodynamic cycle using a solar heat source

The first and second laws of thermodynamics were used to analyze a novel thermodynamic cycle proposed by Goswami in 1995 that uses an ammonia–water binary mixture as the working fluid, while producing both power and refrigeration simultaneously. The thermodynamic performance of the cycle was optimized for maximum second law efficiency using a commercially available optimization program. A maximum second law efficiency of 65.8% was obtained at a heat source temperature of 420 K. An exergy analysis was performed to study losses in different components of the cycle. It is seen that the largest contribution to cycle irreversibility comes from the absorber, with the rectifier and solution heat exchanger also contributing significantly. Irreversibility generation in the boiler is high at very low heat source temperatures, but drops at higher temperatures.     

3D and simplified pseudo-2D modeling of single cell of a high temperature solid oxide fuel cell to be used for online control strategies

In the current study, a single cell of a planar SOFC is firstly modeled in 3D using commercial SOFC module of ANSYS Fluent and the results are validated against the experimental investigations in the literature. Many researchers have used ANSYS Fluent for simulating solid oxide fuel cells. However, there is a huge gap in the literature on explaining the detailed procedure that should be followed in order to use this software effectively. A thorough step-by-step approach is presented to provide a deep insight into the software. Thereafter, a simplified quasi-2D method with infinitely shorter computational time is developed and the results are compared with the 3D model. It is found that the reduced model is capable of being utilized as an alternate method for both online diagnosis and designing active control strategies.