Predictive Modeling of Spring Wheat Varieties by Cluster Analysis

Spring wheat varieties were subjected to physico-chemical, mixographic and amino acid analysis. The data obtained was subjected statistically analyzed. The cluster analysis classification based on centroid method indicated that for lysine and overall cookie scores, generally most wheat varieties fell in one group, while for total chapati score most of the wheat varieties were classified into two groups. The wheat varieties falling in same cluster group have similarities in respect of lysine, chapati and cookie quality. This indicated that wheat varieties in Pakistan have narrow ranges of spectrum in their genetic make up for their quality attributes. However, some wheat varieties were distinguished into different groups having a wide distance range especially Shahkar 95 for lysine content, LU 26 and Punjab 96 for cookie quality and Punjnad 88 in case of chapati quality. The present grouping suggests that wheat varieties in cluster group with wider range for lysine content may be used further in a hybridization program to improve the nutritional quality of wheat.     

Functional role of bioactive peptides with special reference to cheeses

Growing perception about diet in relation to health has extended the necessity to explore the biologically active components present in native foods. In this review, bioactive peptides released from cheeses that may have important physiological functions are discussed. Bioactive encrypted peptides can be generated from precursor milk proteins during food processing via enzymatic hydrolysis and fermentation. Generally, biofunctionalities of peptides are latent within precursor proteins. Bioactive peptides liberated from cheeses exhibit numerous potential therapeutic roles: for example, angiotensinogen‐converting enzyme (ACE) inhibition, antioxidant, anti‐thrombotic, anti‐microbial, anti‐cancer and anti‐inflammatory. This article critically focuses on the functional roles of bioactive peptides derived from different cheeses.     

Effect of CuO-, SiO2-, and Al2O3-based nanofluids on automotive cooling systems from laminar to turbulent flow regime—A CFD study

In recent studies, much attention has been given to nanofluids suggesting that adding nanoparticles in base fluids offers a higher heat transfer rate compared with conventional fluids. This study is based on the numerical investigation of different types of nanofluids, consisting of CuO (50 nm), SiO₂ (40 nm), and Al₂O₃ (15 nm) nanoparticles at different volume concentrations. Several simulations were performed from low to high Reynolds numbers, corresponding to laminar and turbulent flow regimes using ANSYS-Fluent CFD solver. Results suggest that under a laminar flow regime with the same Reynolds number of 2000, CuO-based nanofluids perform better as compared with SiO₂ and Al₂O₃-based nanofluids with Nusselt number (Nu) having percentage increase of 90% and 60% comparing with SiO₂- and Al₂O₃-based nanofluids, respectively. However, at higher Reynolds numbers when the flow is turbulent, Al₂O₃-based nanofluids demonstrate better performance having a percentage increase in Nusselt numbers equal to 40% and 23% as compared with CuO and SiO₂-based nanofluids respectively under the same Reynolds number of 15,000. This implies that turbulence has a significant effect on heat transfer rate, and is not only related to thermal conductivity. This study will help in designing more compact cooling systems for engines and the internal environment of motor vehicles.     

Rheological Properties of Soybean β-Conglycinin in Aqueous Dispersions: Effects of Concentration,Ionic Strength and Thermal Treatment

Steady shear and dynamic oscillatory measurements were used to investigate the effect of concentration, ionic strength and thermal treatment on rheological properties of soybean β-conglycinin in aqueous dispersions. SDS-PAGE and Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) showed that β-conglycinin exhibited partial denaturation and formation of aggregates during isolation. Under steady shear flow, strong shear-thinning behavior was observed with increasing shear rate from 0.001 to 1200 s^?1. A dispersion of β-conglycinin (≥5% w/v, without applying thermal treatment) exhibited gel-like dynamic mechanical spectra at 20°C. This suggested that β-conglycinin in aqueous dispersions showed rheological properties of typical weak gel-like (entanglement) or semi diluted polymeric solution. Weak gel network of β-conglycinin was susceptible to ionic strength, suggesting that electrostatic forces play an important role in the formation of weak gel network. These properties of β-conglycinin have practical significance for the food processors in the formulation of new products.     

Local probability distribution of natural signals in sparse domains

In this paper, we investigate the local PDF of natural signals in sparse domains. The statistical properties of natural signals are characterized more accurately in the sparse domains because the sparse domain coefficients have heavy‐tailed distribution and have reduced correlation with adjacent coefficients. Our experiments on 3D data in 3D discrete complex wavelet transform domain show that a conditionally (given locally estimated variance and shape) independent Bessel K‐form distribution (BKFD) locally fits the sparse domain's coefficients of natural signals, accurately. To justify this observation, we also investigate the PDF of the locally estimated variance and suggest a Gamma PDF for the locally estimated variance. Because commonly used sparse transformations are orthonormal, the PDF of the sparse domain coefficients must converge to Gaussian distribution by virtue of central limit theorem assuming that natural signals are locally wide sense stationary for small window sizes. Interestingly, we observe that the PDF of the normalized data (on the locally estimated variance) exhibit a Gaussian PDF, which confirms that the BKFD is an appropriate fit. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Comparison of the Growth Kinetics and Scale Morphology for Three Superalloys at 930°C in Air and Low PO2 Environments

This study assessed the oxidation behavior of three commercial alloys in airand low partial pressures of oxygen roman (P_{O 2}. The kinetics ofoxidation in air were compared with values obtained in an atmosphere of lowroman P_{O 2}. The low partial pressure of oxygen was of the order of10–16 atm at 930°C and was generated using an H₂/4% H₂Omixture. The nature of the corrosion products, structure, morphology, andcomposition were assessed and characterized using scanning electronmicroscopy (SEM), X-ray mapping, and scanning Auger microscopy (SAM). Theresults were compared with those obtained for 99.99% pure chromium. Parabolickinetics were exhibited by all of the alloys, with the overall k_p valuesbeing of the order constant for chromia-forming alloys. Large variations inthe morphologies of the oxide scales were observed as a result of oxidationin the high and low roman P_{O 2} environments.     

Risk-free WHO grading of astrocytoma using convolutional neural networks from MRI images

Multimedia Tools and Applications - Astrocytoma is the most common and aggressive brain tumor, in its highest grade, the prognosis is ‘low survival rate’. Spinal tap and biopsy are the...     

VR-Rides: An object-oriented application framework for immersive virtual reality exergames

Exercise can improve health and well-being. With this in mind, immersive virtual reality (VR) games are being developed to promote physical activity, and are generally evaluated through user studies. However, building such applications is time consuming and expensive. This paper introduces VR-Rides, an object-oriented application framework focused on the development of experiment-oriented VR exergames. Following the modular programming pattern, this framework facilitates the integration of different hardware (such as VR devices, sensors, and physical activity devices) within immersive VR experiences that overlay game narratives on Google Street View panoramas. Combining software engineering and interaction patterns, modules of VR-Rides can be easily added and managed in the Unity game engine. We evaluate the code efficiency and development effort across our VR exergames developed using VR-Rides. The reliability, maintainability, and usability of our framework are also demonstrated via code metrics analysis and user studies. The results show that investing in a systematic approach to reusing code and design can be a worthwhile effort for researchers beyond software engineering.     

Superelastic Behavior of Biomedical Metallic Alloys

Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A - In this this work, superelastic NiTi and Ni-free Ti-23Hf-3Mo-4Sn biomedical alloys were investigated by tensile tests in relationship with their...     

Circularly polarized 4 × 8 stacked patch antenna phased array with enhanced bandwidth for commercial drones

This paper demonstrates the design procedure of a 4 × 8 phased array antenna. Initially, a unit element in multilayer topology with orthogonal slots in the ground plane to couple electromagnetic energy is designed. Then, a stacked patch with truncated edges is placed on the top thick substrate layer to enhance the bandwidth to 600 MHz. This multilayered stacked patch unit element is then used to design a 1 × 4 and 4 × 8 slot coupled stacked patch array. On the bottom side, a novel feedline structure is designed to provide a 90 ^o phase difference at the antenna feed for the circular polarization. The phase difference is achieved in the feedline structure using a quarter wavelength ( λ_g/4 ) difference in the lengths. After the numerical validation, both 1 × 4 and 4 × 8 stacked patch antenna arrays are fabricated to validate the simulations. The final 4 × 8 array achieved the target specification of an active reflection of less than ?10 dB over 2.4 to 3.0 GHz, axial ratio of less than 3 dB, and stable radiation pattern over the complete band. In addition, beam scanning characteristics of the proposed stacked patch antenna arrays are also verified. The prototype resulted a peak gain of 19.5 dB at 2.7 GHz, 3‐dB beamwidth around 12 ^o in the xz‐plane, and scanning range of 90 ^o . Overall, good agreement between measured and simulated results showed that the proposed designed array capable of providing 600 MHz is an excellent candidate for the radar communication, small commercial drones, and synthetic aperture radar applications.