Novel Approach of Key Predistribution for Grid Based Sensor Networks

Wireless Personal Communications - Grid based sensor networks are significant for applications such as monitoring goods in a warehouse, studying traffic level of city streets, monitoring energy...     

Process Optimization and Characterization of Popped Brown Rice

The popping process was optimized for brown rice based on an expansion ratio. A central composite design with interactive effect of three independent variables, including salt content (1–2.5 g/100 g raw material), moisture content (13–17 g/100 g raw material), and popping temperature (210–240°C) was used to study their effects on the expansion ratio of rice using response surface methodology. The experimental values of expansion ratio were ranged from 5.24 to 6.85. On fitting the experimental values of expansion ratio to a second order polynomial equation, a mathematical model with the predictability was developed with the statistical adequacy and validity (p ? 0.05). From the model, the optimal condition including salt content (1.75 g/100 g raw material), moisture content (15 g/100 g raw material), and popping temperature (225°C) were predicted for a maximum expansion ratio of 6.79, which was then proved to be 6.85 through experiment. Raw and popped brown rice were investigated for physical properties including hardness, L*, a*, and b* value, length/breadth ratio, bulk density, and minerals, which showed the significant differences. The optimized popped rice sample was evaluated for structural, spectroscopic, and thermal properties, which showed the significant difference from raw rice.     

Liaison of phenolic acids and biological activity of escalating cultivars of Daucus carota

The objective of the present study was to analyze and compare the phenolic compounds and their antioxidant capacities of new lines of Dacus carota. The selected cultivars showed high variation in the contents of total phenolics (30.26–65.39 mg/100 g FW) and total ascorbic acid (41.12–58.36 mg/100 g FW). Analysis on RP-HPLC revealed that hydroxycinnamic acids and its derivatives were major phenolic compounds present in D. carota extracts, whereas 5-caffeolquinic acid was a major hydroxycinnamic acid (ranged from 30.26 to 65.39 mg/100 g FW). DCP cultivar showed high total antioxidant capacity (77.69 mg/100 g), 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) scavenging capacity (52.36 mg/100 g), superoxide radical scavenging capacity (53.69 mg/100 g), and hydroxyl radical scavenging capacity (51.91 mg/100 g). A linear relationship was found between total phenolic acid contents and antioxidant capacity. Both phenolic compounds and antioxidant capacities varied significantly (ρ < 0.05) among cultivars. DCP cultivar was found to be a rich source of phenolics and ascorbic acid with high antioxidant activity.     

Varietal Differentiation of Grape Juice Based on the Analysis of Near- and Mid-infrared Spectral Data

The aim of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of visible (VIS), near-infrared reflectance (NIR) and mid-infrared (MIR) spectroscopy combined with pattern recognition methods as tools to differentiate grape juice samples from commercial Australian Chardonnay (n = 121) and Riesling (n = 91) varieties. Principal component analysis (PCA), partial least squares discriminant analysis and linear discriminant analysis (LDA) were applied to classified grape juice samples according to variety based on both NIR and MIR spectra using full cross-validation (leave-one-out) as a validation method. Overall, LDA models correctly classify 86% and 80% of the grape juice samples according to variety using MIR and VIS-NIR, respectively. The results from this study demonstrated that spectral differences exist between the juice samples from different varietal origins and confirmed that the infrared (IR) spectrum contains information able to discriminate among samples. Furthermore, analysis and interpretation of the eigenvectors from the PCA models developed verified that the IR spectrum of the grape juice has enough information to allow the prediction of the variety. These results also suggested that IR spectroscopy coupled with pattern recognition methods holds the necessary information for a successful classification of juice samples of different varieties.     

Suitability of Different Food Grade Materials for the Encapsulation of Some Functional Foods Well Reported for Their Advantages and Susceptibility

Functional foods find a very important place in the modern era, where different types of cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, etc. are on a high. Irrespective of the abundance of bioactive components in different fruits and vegetables, their low solubility in aqueous solution, vulnerability to destruction in different environmental and gastrointestinal conditions and a low intestinal absorption becomes a concern. Because it is quite difficult to commercialize non food materials for the food encapsulation purposes due to their safety concerns in the human body, scientists in the recent times have come up with the idea of encapsulating the different bioactive components in different food grade materials that are able to safeguard these bioactive components against the different environmental and gastrointestinal conditions and ensure their safe and targeted delivery at their absorption sites. Different food grade encapsulation materials including various oligosaccharides, polysaccharides (starch, cyclodextrins, alginates, chitosan, gum arabic, and carboxymethyl cellulose) and proteins and their suitability for encapsulating various bioactive components like flavonoids (catechins, rutin, curcumin, hesperetin, and vanillin), nonflavonoids (resveratrol), carotenoids (β-carotene, lycopene, and lutein), and fatty acids (fish oil, flaxseed oil, and olive oil) of high medical and nutritional value are reviewed here.     

3D-image restoration technique using Genetic Algorithm to solve blurring problems of images

Most images may not be sharp and clear due to various reasons like noise interference and is said to be in a blurred condition. Image de-blurring is fundamental in making pictures sharp and useful. Normally, along with the input blurred image, Point Spread Function (PSF) of the original image is required for the process of restoration and de-blurring. In this paper, we introduce a technique for image restoration by Richardson–Lucy algorithm where the optimised PSF is generated by the use of Genetic Algorithm (GA). Use of optimised PSF ensures that our proposed technique does not need the original image for the de-blurring purpose and can be greatly beneficial in the real time scenario cases. The dataset used for the evaluation of the proposed technique are real 3D images and the evaluation metrics used are peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR), Second-Derivative like Measure of Enhancement (SDME) and mean squared error (MSE). The technique is compared with existing techniques such as de-convolution method, regularisation filter, Wiener filter and Richardson–Lucy algorithm. From the results, we can observe that our proposed technique has achieved higher PSNR and SDME values and lower MSE values when compared with other techniques. We have achieved average PSNR of 70·94, SDME of 71·46 and MSE of 0·0063. The values obtained show the superior performance of the proposed technique.     

铸造C12A耐热钢的焊接及组织与性能的研究

本文对铸造C12A高强耐热钢进行了组织与性能、可焊性、焊缝组织变化厦性能特点等方面进行了研究分析。试验结果表明：淬火组织为板务马氏体＋部分针状马氏体＋少量残余奥氏体，其硬度比较高，塑性和韧性不是很好；淬火＋回火组织为保留马氏体形态的回火索氏体，其硬度不是很高，塑性和韧性比较好，具有盘好的综合性能；退火组织为铁素体，其硬度低，塑性和韧性高；焊接后的全相组织中，没有焊接裂纹等焊接缺陷存在，具有良好可焊性。对于淬火＋回火后的铸造C12A耐热钢，经过焊接，基体组织和性能没有明显发生变化，过渡区的金相组织为板条马氏体＋奥氏体组织，其硬度有所降低；熔化区的金相组织为针状马氏体＋奥氏体＋板条马氏体，硬度很高；焊后经过回火处理的基体佥相组织与性能没有变化。过度区的金相组织为保留板条马氏体形态的回火索氏体组织，较基体组织要粗大，其硬度要比基体有所下降；熔化区的金相组织转变为保留板每马氏体的回火索氏体，但组织较为基体组织要细小，其性能表现为硬度要比基体的有所升高。铸造C12A焊接后再经回火处理，可使焊接后的组织差别消除；性能变化趋于平缓，有利于材料的使用。     

An application of univariate marginal distribution algorithm in MIMO communication systems

The paper discusses a sequence detector based on univariate marginal distribution algorithm (UMDA) that jointly estimates the symbols transmitted in a multiple input multiple output (MIMO) communication system. While an optimal maximum likelihood detection using an exhaustive search method is prohibitively complex, it has been shown that sphere decoder (SD) achieves the optimal bit error rate (BER) performance with polynomial time complexity for smaller array sizes. However, the worst‐case complexity of SD is exponential in the problem dimensions, this brings in question its practical implementation for larger number of spatial layers and for higher‐order signal constellation. The proposed detector shows promising results for this overly difficult and complicated operating environment, confirmed through simulation results. A performance comparison of the UMDA detector with SD is presented for higher‐order complex MIMO architectures with limited average transmit power. The proposed detector achieves substantial performance gain for higher‐order systems attaining a near optimal BER performance with reduced computational complexity as compared with SD. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Κ‐CN gene polymorphism in Nili‐ravi buffalo,Achai and Sahiwal cattle of Pakistan

Kappa‐casein (κ‐CN) is the subtype of casein protein, an important constituent of bovine milk protein. The current study was undertaken to investigate the genetic polymorphism in κ‐CN gene of Nili‐ravi buffalo, Achai and Sahiwal cattle of Pakistan using polymerase chain reaction–restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR‐RFLP) technique. The Nili‐ravi buffalo was found to be monomorphic (genotype BB only) for κ‐CN gene. Achai cattle were polymorphic for κ‐CN (having three genotypes AA, AB and BB) with a frequency of 0.70, 0.18 and 0.12, respectively, while in Sahiwal cattle, both the genotypes AA and AB were found with genotypic frequencies of 0.92 and 0.08, respectively. The presence of genotype BB in Achai cattle is surprising as it is absent in most of the cattle breeds worldwide.