Detection of Adulteration of Meat and Meat Products with Buffalo Meat Employing Polymerase Chain Reaction Assay

The primer pair was designed based on mitochondrial d-loop gene for detection of adulteration of buffalo meat in admixed meat and meat products by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay. Amplification of 537-bp DNA fragments was observed from buffalo, without any cross-reaction with cattle, sheep, goat, pig, and chicken. The amplification was further confirmed by BamHI restriction enzymes. No adverse effect of processing was found on PCR amplification of buffalo meat DNA extracted from processed meat and meat products, even from meat emulsion autoclaved at 121 °C, 20 psi for 15–20 min. The detection limit for buffalo meat was found to be 1% in the admixed meat and meat products; however, very faint and inconsistent results were obtained in autoclaved meat emulsion at 1% level. The developed PCR assay was found to be specific for buffalo and could be a useful tool for detection of meat adulteration.     

Estimation of convective mass transfer in solar distillation systems

In this article a thermal model has been developed to determine the convective mass transfer for different Grashof Number range in solar distillatiOn process. The model is based on simple regression analysis. Based on the experimental data obtained from the rigorous outdoor experimentation on passive and active distillation systems for summer climatic conditions, the values of C and n have been calculated. The modified values of C and n for Nu=C(GrPr)ⁿ, are proposed as C=0.0322; N=0.4114 for 1.794 × 10⁶6 in a passive solar still and C=0.0538; N=0.383 for 5.498 × 10⁶6 in an active solar still. The percentage deviation between experimental and theoretical results are found within an accuracy of 12%.     

Effect of organic modifiers and silicate type on filler dispersion,thermal, and mechanical properties of ABS‐clay nanocomposites

Acrylonitrile–butadiene–styrene (ABS)–clay composite and intercalated nanocomposites were prepared by melt processing, using Na‐montmorillonite (MMT), several chemically different organically modified MMT (OMMT) and Na‐laponite clays. The polymer–clay hybrids were characterized by WAXD, TEM, DSC, TGA, tensile, and impact tests. Intercalated nanocomposites are formed with organoclays, a composite is obtained with unmodified MMT, and the nanocomposite based on synthetic laponite is almost exfoliated. An unintercalated nanocomposite is formed by one of the organically modified clays, with similar overall stack dispersion as compared to the intercalated nanocomposites. T_g of ABS is unaffected by incorporation of the silicate filler in its matrix upto 4 wt % loading for different aspect ratios and organic modifications. A significant improvement in the onset of thermal decomposition (40–44°C at 4 wt % organoclay) is seen. The Young's modulus shows improvement, the elongation‐at‐break shows reduction, and the tensile strength shows improvement. Notched and unnotched impact strength of the intercalated MMT nanocomposites is lower as compared to that of ABS matrix. However, laponite and overexchanged organomontmorillonite clay lead to improvement in ductility. For the MMT clays, the Young's modulus (E) correlates with the intercalation change in organoclay interlayer separation (Δd₀₀₁) as influenced by the chemistry of the modifier. Although ABS‐laponite composites are exfoliated, the intercalated OMMT‐based nanocomposites show greater improvement in modulus. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2008     

Photochemistry on a polarisable semi-conductor: what do we understand today?

The continued development of ferroelectric materials into more and more consumer led applications has been at the forefront of recent ferroelectric material research. It is, however, possible to view a ferroelectric as a wide band gap semi-conductor that can sustain a surface charge density. This charge density arises from the movement of ions in the crystal lattice and the need to compensate for this charge. When viewing ferroelectrics as polarisable semi-conductors a large number of new interactions are possible. One such is the use of super band gap illumination to generate electron–hole pairs. These photogenerated carriers can then perform local electrochemistry. What is most interesting for ferroelectric materials is that the REDOX chemistry can be chosen by selectively modifying the domain structure of the ferroelectric—we can perform oxidation and reduction on the surface of the same material at spatially separate locations, or use the material to drive photoexcited carriers apart. This means we can separate the REDOX products or produce patterns of photogenerated material in places we have predetermined. This review aims to introduce the background research that has led to the current understanding as well a highlight some of the current areas that require further development.     

Failure Analysis of AISI 440C Steel Ball Screws Used in the Actuator System of a Satellite Launch Vehicle

In view of its excellent wear and corrosion resistance, AISI 440C steel is the material of choice for the fabrication of ball screws used in actuator systems of satellite launch vehicles. During the routine acceptance test of a ball screw, longitudinal cracks were observed at the shaft location of the ball screw. The optical microstructure of the ball screw material (AISI 440C) revealed the presence of aligned carbides (carbide banding). Fractographic observations revealed the cracking to be along the carbide bands. Based on detailed optical and scanning electron microscopic observations, the cracking of the ball screws was attributed to the carbide bands.     

Estimation of internal heat transfer coefficients of a hybrid (PV/T) active solar still

In this paper, an attempt is made to estimate the internal heat transfer coefficients of a deep basin hybrid (PV/T) active solar still. The estimation is based on outdoor experimental observation of hybrid (PV/T) solar still for composite climate of New Delhi (latitude 28°35′N and longitude 77°12′E). The internal heat transfer coefficients are evaluated by using thermal models proposed by various researchers. The comparison of hourly yield predicted using various thermal models to the experimental has also been carried out by evaluating the correlation coefficient and percentage deviation. It is observed that, Kumar and Tiwari model (KTM) better validate the results than the others model. The average annual values of convective heat transfer coefficient for the passive and hybrid (PV/T) active solar still are observed as 0.78 and 2.41 W m⁻² K⁻¹, respectively at 0.05 m water depth.     

Tuning parallel applications in parallel

In this paper, we present and evaluate a parallel algorithm for parameter tuning of parallel applications. We discuss the impact of performance variability on the accuracy and efficiency of the optimization algorithm and propose a strategy to minimize the impact of this variability. We evaluate our algorithm within the Active Harmony system, an automated online/offline tuning framework. We study its performance on three benchmark codes: PSTSWM, HPL and POP. Compared to the Nelder–Mead algorithm, our algorithm finds better configurations up to seven times faster. For POP, we were able to improve the performance of a production sized run by 59%.