Insect-Damaged Wheat – Effects on Starch Characteristics

Damage to the baking quality of wheat due to attack by insects has been reported in many countries. The insects responsible for the problem have been identified as Eurygaster integriceps and Aelia rostrata in Europe and the Near East and as Nysius huttoni in New Zealand. Damage to the protein in affected wheats in very apparent and damage to the starch seems possible. It was the purpose of this study to look for damage to the starch of wheat caused by specific insects. At the flowering stage of wheat, cages were placed over the wheat plots and different insects were introduced and kept in the respective cages until harvest. Starch was isolated from affected wheats for determination of physico-chemical properties and functional characteristics. Scanning electron micrographs showed that starch granule damage due to insect attack can be severe. However, the damage was confined to a rather small area around the bite mark. This damage was not extensive enough to cause adverse effects on physico-chemical properties of the starch. Bread baking potential of the starch was not significantly affected.     

A study of users' acceptance and satisfaction of emergency call service

In recent years, there has been rapid and significant development of road transport technologies in order to reduce the number of killed and injured people on roads. These include safety technologies, emergency call systems (eCall), and advanced traveler information systems. The eCall system is an automatic in‐vehicle emergency call service, which is mainly used for notifying emergency services about dangerous road situations and their exact location. In this paper, an eCall platform prototype is developed to allow quick and efficient rescue of injured people in dangerous road situations. The eCall function is developed and installed in nomadic devices (e.g., smartphones and tablets). Large‐scale field operational tests were conducted in real settings to assess the impacts of the eCall function provided by in‐vehicle nomadic devices. More precisely, experiments were conducted by more than 250 participants with different sociodemographic profiles in order to study the users' acceptance of the use of the developed eCall function for large‐scale usage. The collected data are analyzed, and results are reported. Performed experiments showed the usefulness, acceptance, and satisfactory performance of the eCall service. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Enhanced red emission from praseodymium-doped GaN nanowires by defect engineering

GaN nanowires (NWs) were implanted with low fluences of rare-earth ions. Ion channelling measurements revealed the perfect vertical alignment of the NWs and their orientation with respect to the silicon substrate. The channelling properties were not altered by the implantation or annealing treatments, and X-ray diffraction measurements demonstrated the full structural recovery of the NWs after post-implant annealing. Strong Pr-related cathodoluminescence at room temperature was observed after annealing and results indicate the successful incorporation of Pr on substitutional Ga sites inside the NWs. Furthermore, an intriguing behaviour of the cathodoluminescence as a function of the electron beam irradiation time was observed, suggesting that Pr luminescence can be sensitized by the same defect that is responsible for the yellow luminescence band frequently seen in GaN. The formation of this Pr–defect complex can be controlled by defect engineering using a combination of ion implantation, annealing and electron beam irradiation, and leads to an increase of the Pr luminescence by a factor of more than 4.     

Technische Lebensdaueruntersuchungen an Ausbaumaterialien

The article presents a cutout in the field of the research on the technical lifetime of support elements. During the construction of tunnels a large number of investigations were performed to evaluate the durability of supporting materials. The previous results show no deterioration of the material properties of each support element. Performed tension measurements in the secondary lining confirm the supporting character of the primary lining after 30 years of operation. Further investigations, calculations and FE simulations are intended to illustrate a new design concept based on the current standards and guidelines.     

High-quality torque control at zero and very high speed operation

This article focuses on the design and analysis of a direct field orientation (DFO) approach based upon a closed-loop loop rotor flux observer. The approach is ideally suited for applications requiring both zero and very high (i.e., several times base) speed operation. Such applications are common in manufacturing automation where both zero speed position control and high traverse rates with controlled position trajectories are required. Examples include robot motion control systems as used for assembly and the more traditional machining center axis control. The quality of the proposed approach is largely based on the unique structure of its flux observer. The observer effectively combines the best accuracy attributes of rotor flux indirect (feedforward) field orientation (IFO) and stator flux DFO. The parameter sensitivity is similar to IFO at low and zero speeds and to stator flux DFO at high speeds. The closed-loop structure of the observer provides a smooth transition between two open-loop rotor flux observers referred to as the current and voltage models in a deterministic manner set by the closed-loop bandwidth (eigenvalues). The proposed DFO approach is analytically evaluated in comparison with both IFO and stator flux DFO. Experimental results verify the viability of this approach     

Crack healing of ferrosilicochromium-filled polymer-derived ceramic composites

In this study, SiOC/FeSiCr/SiC-ceramics were derived by using polymethylsilsesquioxane as a polymeric precursor and FeSiCr (iron-chromium-silicide) and SiC powders as ceramic fillers in a polymer-extrusion process followed by pyrolytic conversion in a nitrogen atmosphere. The crack healing properties of the ceramic in an oxidising atmosphere were subsequently investigated. The SiOC/FeSiCr/SiC-ceramics showed crack closure and strength recovery behaviour after oxidation treatments in air from 600 to 1300?°C with various holding times from 2 to 1000?min. The crack healing mechanisms at different oxidation temperatures and with various dwell times are discussed.