Determining the freshness of fruits in the food industry by image classification using transfer learning

Multimedia Tools and Applications - Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) play a significant role in a number of computer vision applications like image classification and object detection. Past...     

A Comprehensive Review of Milk Fouling on Heated Surfaces

Heat exchanger performance degrades rapidly during operation due to formation of deposits on heat transfer surfaces which ultimately reduces service life of the equipment. Due to scaling, product deteriorates which causes lack of proper heating. Chemistry of milk scaling is qualitatively understood and the mathematical models for fouling at low temperatures have been produced but the behavior of systems at ultra high temperature processing has to be studied further to understand in depth. In diversified field, the effect of whey protein fouling along with pressure drop in heat exchangers were conducted by many researchers. Adding additives, treatment of heat exchanger surfaces and changing of heat exchanger configurations are notable areas of investigation in milk fouling. The present review highlighted information about previous work on fouling, influencing parameters of fouling and its mitigation approach and ends up with recommendations for retardation of milk fouling and necessary measures to perform the task.     

Synthesis of a diallylammonio propanephosphonate‐alt‐(sulfur dioxide) copolymer and its evaluation as an antiscalant in desalination plants

The cationic monomer N,N‐diallyl‐3‐(diethylphosphonato)propylammonium chloride was cyclo‐copolymerized with sulfur dioxide in dimethylsulfoxide using azoisobutyronitrile as initiator to afford a cationic polyelectrolyte (CPE) having a (diethylphosphonato)propyl pendent moiety. The CPE on acidic hydrolysis of the diester groups gave pH‐responsive polyzwitterionic acid (PZA) which on treatment with one and two equivalents of NaOH gave zwitterionic/anionic polyelectrolyte (ZAPE) and dianionic polyelectrolyte (DAPE), respectively. The solution properties of CPE, PZA, ZAPE and DAPE were investigated in detail using a viscometric technique. For comparison, the solution properties of the polymers were correlated with those of the structurally similar polyzwitterion prepared from copolymerization of the corresponding zwitterionic monomer ethyl‐3‐(N,N‐diallylammonio)propanephosphonate and sulfur dioxide. Evaluation of antiscaling properties using concentrated brine solutions revealed that DAPE at a meagre concentration of 10 ppm is very effective in inhibiting the formation of calcium sulfate scale, and as such can be used effectively as an antiscalant in reverse osmosis plants. © 2013 Society of Chemical Industry     

Template‐Assisted Synthesis of π‐Conjugated Molecular Organic Nanowires in the Sub‐100 nm Regime and Device Implications

π‐conjugated molecular organics such as rubrene, Alq₃, fullerene, and PCBM have been used extensively over the last few decades in numerous organic electronic devices, including solar cells, thin‐film transistors, and large‐area, low‐cost flexible displays. Rubrene and Alq₃, have emerged as promising platforms for spin‐based classical and quantum information processing, which has triggered significant research activity in the relatively new area of organic spintronics. Synthesis of these materials in a nanowire geometry, with feature sizes in the sub‐100 nm regime, is desirable as it often enhances device performance and is essential for development of high‐density molecular electronic devices. However, fabrication techniques that meet this stringent size constraint are still largely underdeveloped. Here, a novel, versatile, and reagentless method that enables growth of nanowire arrays of the above‐mentioned organics in the cylindrical nanopores of anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) templates is demonstrated. This method 1) allows synthesis of high‐density organic nanowire arrays on arbitrary substrates, 2) provides electrical access to the nanowire arrays, 3) offers tunability of the array geometry in a range overlapping with the relevant physical length scales of many organic devices, and 4) can potentially be extended to synthesize axially and radially heterostructured organic nanowires. Thus prepared nanowires are characterized extensively with an aim to identify their potential applications in diverse areas such as organic optoelectronics, photovoltaics, molecular nanoelectronics, and spintronics.     

Numerical simulation of heat transfer to separation air flow in an annular pipe

Separation and reattachment of air flow through a sudden expansion in an annular passage are considered in this study. Backward facing steps play a vital role in the design of many heat related applications where heat transfer is concerned. In the present work, numerical simulation is performed using computer fluid dynamics package (Fluent) to study the effect of step flow in an annular passage. The results are compared with the preliminary experimental findings. In the study, the flowing fluid was considered heated uniformly from the beginning of the expansion. Constant heat flux approach was also considered for the heat transfer investigation. Annular pipe flow system having a step ratio of D/d = 1.8 was considered where d and D are representing the diameter of the pipe before and after expansion. Numerical simulation review shows that the reattachment point extends further with the increase of velocity for different occasions. Finally, the local Nusselt number (Nu) in separation flow increases with the increase of Reynolds number (Re).     

Influence of Annealing Conditions on Nanocrystalline and Ultra-Soft Magnetic Properties of Fe75.5Cu1Nb1Si13.5B9 Alloy

The magnetic and structural properties of FINEMET alloy with a composition of Fe75.5Cu1Nb1Si13.5B9 were investigated after primary and secondary crystallization of amorphous ribbon sample.The crystallization behavior and the nanocrystal formation of the samples were performed by differential thermal analysis(DTA) which in turn was supported by X-ray diffraction(XRD) study.Temperature dependence of initial permeability of amorphous and devitrified toroid shaped samples has been measured.Enhancement of Curie temperature of the amorphous alloy has been observed due to the irreversible structural relaxation.With the appearance of nanocrystalline phase the Curie temperature of the residual amorphous phase gradually decrease with the increase of annealing temperature.Their temperature dependence reflects the characteristic annealing temperature evolution of the basic magnetic parameters in these nanocrystalline systems.Saturation magnetization,Ms,increases with annealing temperature Ta for the samples and finally decreases during annealing at a temperature much higher than peak crystallization temperature.     

MAXIMUM LIKELIHOOD SOURCE SEPARATION FOR FINITE IMPULSE RESPONSE MULTIPLE INPUT—MULTIPLE OUTPUT CHANNELS IN THE PRESENCE OF ADDITIVE NOISE

Blind identification-blind equalization for finite Impulse Response(FIR)Multiple Input-Multiple Output(MIMO)channels can be reformulated as the problem of blind sources separation.It has been shown that blind identification via decorrelating sub-channels method could recover the input sources.The Blind Identification via Decorrelating Sub-channels(BIDS)algorithm first constructs a set of decorrelators,which decorrelate the output signals of subchannels,and then estimates the channel matrix using the transfer functions of the decorrelators and finally recovers the input signal using the estimated channel matrix.In this paper,a new qpproximation of the input source for FIR-MIMO channels based on the maximum likelihood source separation method is proposed.The proposed method outperforms BIDS in the presence of additive white Garssian noise.     

Group communication models

This paper presents an abstract model of an ODP-based group communication platform. The focus of this paper is on the computational and engineering models of a group communication environment. The group interaction requirements of advanced cooperative applications structured as an object-group are identified, and the distributed object models for group support are presented. The paper develops the notion of a policy-driven group support machine which can be used as a prototype model for integration in object-based platforms such as CORBA, DCE and TINA-DPE.     

Validation of analysis of arsenic in water samples using Wagtech Digital Arsenator

Groundwater, the only source of potable water for millions of people in Bangladesh during dry season, is often contaminated with arsenic (As) above the allowable drinking water limit of 50 μg/L. Testing well water - with arsenic field test kits (FTKs) - and switching to safe-wells can effectively reduce exposure to As. FTKs are low cost, provide fast results, and are commercially available. There are between 10 and 11 million shallow tubewells in Bangladesh. Approximately, 5 million have been tested using FTKs. FTKs with color comparator rely on visual identification for generating qualitative results, which may not be highly reliable at the lower range because human eyes have low sensitivity in this range and sensitivity varies from person to person. The Wagtech Digital Arsenator does not suffer from this limitation and should, in theory, be able to generate quantitative, accurate, and reliable results. The instrument has a linear range of 0-100 μg/L, an accuracy of ± 20% for the 50 μg/L quality control standards, and a detection limit of about 4.4 μg/L. All Arsenators employed in this investigation also displayed high bias for 50 μg/L arsenic standard and were calibrated in order to improve measurement accuracy and reliability. Analyses of 179 raw and 92 treated well waters in the field and in two analytical laboratories were found to be highly correlated with the Spearman rank correlation coefficient of ≥ 0.800, indicating that Arsenator results are perhaps nearly as accurate and reliable as those from analytical laboratories.