Effect of mixing male sex types of cattle on their meat quality and stress-related parameters

Mixing of male cattle prior to slaughter results in increased physical activity, particularly homosexual behaviour, teasing and mounting. The number of mounts exhibited during the initial 4 h after mixing showed statistically significant correlations with serum enzyme levels at slaughter, pHu, glycolytic metabolites, colour and pigment proportions of M. longissumus dorsi at 48 h post-mortem. The amount of teasing showed significant correlations with pHu, glycolytic metabolites, colour and pigment proportions. The aggressive behaviour, pushing and butting, occurred only as retaliative acts and did not seem to affect meat quality. Among the male types used in this study, the vasectomised bulls were found to be more homosexually hyperactive and thus produced the highest number of dark-cutting carcasses, suggesting that the vasectomised bulls are more prone to dark-cutting due to mounting that occurs during pre-slaughter mixing.     

Influence of microstructure on the premature failure of a second-intermediate sendzimir mill drive roll

Although a precise understanding of roll failure genesis is complex, the microstructure of a broken roll can often unravel intrinsic deficiencies in material quality responsible for its failure. This is especially relevant in circumstances when, even under a similar mill-operating environment, the failure involves a particular roll or a specific batch of rolls. This paper provides a microstructural insight into the cause of premature breakage of a second-intermediate Sendzimir mill drive roll used at a stainless steel sheet rolling plant under the Steel Authority of India Limited. Microstructural issues influencing roll quality, such as characteristics of carbides, tempered martensite, retained austenite, etc., have been extensively studied through optical and scanning electron microscopy, electron-probe microanalysis, image analysis, and x-ray diffractometry. These are discussed to elucidate specific microstructural inadequacies that accentuated the failure. The study reveals that even though retained austenite content is low (6.29 vol%) and martensite is non-acicular, the roll breakage is a consequence of intergranular cracking caused by improper carbide morphology and distribution.     

The corrosion behaviour of Fe-15Mn-7Si-9Cr-5Ni shape memory alloy

The corrosion behaviour of Fe-15Mn-7Si-9Cr-5Ni (mass%) shape memory alloy at 25 °C in 0.5 M H₂SO₄ and 3.5% NaCl solutions has been studied using potentiodynamic polarization and electrochemical impedance techniques. Three different microstructures viz., single-phase γ, γ-δ and γ-Fe₅Ni₃Si₂, were produced by heat-treating the alloy in different equilibrium phase fields. The corrosion behaviour in 0.5 M H₂SO₄ solution is almost same for all three microstructures, barring a slight difference in the passivation range. Although, the passivation current in 0.5 M H₂SO₄, is in the same range as that of SS 304, the critical current required for onset of passivation is almost three orders higher and the passivation range is much shorter. In 3.5% NaCl solution the corrosion behaviour of all three microstructures of the Fe-15Mn-7Si-9Cr-5Ni shape memory alloy was that of general dissolution without passivity or localized attack (pitting). The best corrosion resistance in both H₂SO₄ and NaCl solutions is shown by the single-phase γ microstructure.     

Corner optimization for pocket machining

The aim of this paper is to propose a pocketing tool path improvement method by adapting the geometry of the tool path to the kinematic performance of high speed machining machine tools. The minimization of the machining time is a major objective, which should be taken into account for the tool path computation. In this way the tool path length can be reduced or the real feedrate increased. The described method proposes modification of the values of the corner radii in order to increase real feedrate. In the same way, this method checks the radial depth of cut variations along the tool path. The computed tool path presents a smaller length and the machine tool produces a higher average feedrate at the same time. In addition, the use of Bspline for the tool path computation is a significant improvement compared with straight lines and circle arcs for the machining time reduction. Several tests are realized on various machine tools in order to quantify the benefits: the proposed method can reduce the machining time by approximately 25% compared with classical tool paths computed using a CAM system.     

Simultaneous determination of size and wavelength-dependent refractive indices of thin-layered droplets from optical resonances

A technique for determining the size and wavelength-dependent refractive indices of a droplet coated with a thin layer is presented. The existence of a layer on the droplet is identified by a procedure that involves separate alignments of independently measured TE- and TM-mode resonances with computed homogeneous-sphere resonances. The procedure also yields the mode and the order numbers associated with the measured resonances. The observed resonances are then aligned with layered-sphere resonances of the same mode and order numbers to determine the core radius, layer thickness, and constants of core and shell dispersion formulas that minimize the difference between the observed and the calculated positions of resonances. The technique has been tested with synthetic data with various levels of random errors as well as with experimental data from two droplets under identical conditions. The results show that the core radius, layer thickness, and core and layer refractive indices can be determined with relative errors of 3.5 × 10(-4), 4.5 × 10(-2), 2.3 × 10(-4), and 4.4 × 10(-3), respectively, with the technique.     

In situ grown superconducting YBCO films on buffered silicon substrates for device applications

Thin films of YBa₂Cu₃O_7– (YBCO) have been grownin situ on silicon single-crystal (100) substrate by using SrTiO₃ as a buffer layer. The deposition has been carried out by on-axis rf magnetron sputtering method. The deposition condition have been optimized by studying the plasma characteristics and correlating them with the superconducting performance of the film. Films deposited at substrate temperature in the range of 680–700°C from stoichiometric YBCO targets in an argon + oxygen mixture (31) are superconducting and showc-axis epitaxy. Compositional confirmation has been carried out using Rutherford backscattering. Scanning tunneling microscopy of the films reveal formation of well-defined layered structure with some defects in the initial stages ofin situ growth of the films. Films grown on SrTiO₃ substrates have excellent crystalline quality (XRD), transition temperatureT _c0=81 K and the critical current densityJ _c >2×10⁵ A/cm² for unpatterned films at 77 K. On silicon substrates using buffer layers thein situ deposited YBCO films shows a higher transition width andT _c0 is also slightly less (71 K).     

Pulse compression with a high-energy Nd:YAG regenerative amplifier system

We describe a method for the generation of readily synchronizable, near-transform-limited, 1064-nm, 6-mJ pulses with <20-ps duration at a repetition rate of 20 Hz. The method employs chirped pulse amplification of spectrally broadened and temporally stretched pulses from a cw mode-locked Nd:YAG laser in a commercial Nd:YAG regenerative amplifier followed by pulse compression with a grating pair. Linear amplification subsequent to regenerative amplification is not required with this method, although higher energies would be easily obtained.     

Counselors network for intrusion detection

Intrusion detection systems (IDSs) are a fundamental component of defense solutions. In particular, IDSs aim to detect malicious activities on computer systems and networks by relying on data classification models built from a training dataset. However, classifiers' performance can vary for each attack pattern. A common technique to overcome this issue is to use ensemble methods, where multiple classifiers are employed and a final decision is taken combining their outputs. Despite the potential advantages of such an approach, its usefulness is limited in scenarios where (i) multiple expert classifiers present divergent results, (ii) all classifiers present poor results due to lack of representative features, or (iii) detectors have insufficient labeled signatures to train their classifiers for a specific attack pattern. In this work, we introduce the concept of a counselors network to deal with conflicts from different classifiers by exploiting the collaboration among IDSs that analyze multiple and heterogeneous data sources. Empirical results demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed architecture in improving the accuracy of the intrusion detection process.