Starch and Starch Derivatives Industry in India

Tapioca and maize are the major sources of starch in India. Tapioca starch is produced in very small units which are not extensively mechanized. This quality of the starch produced is not of a high quality. Maize starch is produced in mechanized units. The liberalization of the economy and growing consumerism bode well for the starch industry in India. Growth of the starch industry would depend on developing applications for starch as well as optimizing usage to derive maximum benefits. The unique properties of maize and tapioca should be considered.     

Development and Application of Competencies for Graduate Programs in Energy and Sustainability

Educational competencies represent learning objectives and are used to plan educational programs, develop curricula, and assess existing programs, among other functions. After reviewing the literature and offerings at more than 20 universities, the existence of a comprehensive set of educational competencies in the area of energy and sustainability was not identified. This paper motivates and presents model competencies for graduate education programs in the energy and sustainability area, which is called Energy for Sustainability (EfS). Energy for Sustainability follows from the perspective that the provision of energy is a key element in promoting the goals of sustainability. The nature and use of competencies in education planning and assessment is reviewed, and recommendations for model competencies for two EfS specialties, “Buildings and Urban Environments” and “Energy Systems and Policy,” are presented. Competencies are prioritized, and their use in developing new multidisciplinary master’s and doctoral programs at the University of Coimbra is discussed. The competencies promote a wide range of understanding and capabilities aimed at the technical, economical, social, and institutional factors needed to manage and transition current energy systems towards the goals of sustainability.     

Precise null-pointer analysis

In Java, C or C++, attempts to dereference the null value result in an exception or a segmentation fault. Hence, it is important to identify those program points where this undesired behaviour might occur or prove the other program points (and possibly the entire program) safe. To that purpose, null-pointer analysis of computer programs checks or infers non-null annotations for variables and object fields. With few notable exceptions, null-pointer analyses currently use run-time checks or are incorrect or only verify manually provided annotations. In this paper, we use abstract interpretation to build and prove correct a first, flow and context-sensitive static null-pointer analysis for Java bytecode (and hence Java) which infers non-null annotations. It is based on Boolean formulas, implemented with binary decision diagrams. For better precision, it identifies instance or static fields that remain always non-null after being initialised. Our experiments show this analysis faster and more precise than the correct null-pointer analysis by Hubert, Jensen and Pichardie. Moreover, our analysis deals with exceptions, which is not the case of most others; its formulation is theoretically clean and its implementation strong and scalable. We subsequently improve that analysis by using local reasoning about fields that are not always non-null, but happen to hold a non-null value when they are accessed. This is a frequent situation, since programmers typically check a field for non-nullness before its access. We conclude with an example of use of our analyses to infer null-pointer annotations which are more precise than those that other inference tools can achieve.     

A precise computation of stress intensity factor on the front of a convex planar crack

In this paper, we consider a general integral expression for mode I stress intensity factor along the fronts of convex planar cracks. For this integral approximation, we develop a simple numerical quadrature formula on every convex set Ω which allows a precise estimation of the error. This permits the use of extrapolation techniques for the accurate computation of the integral. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Preliminary geochemical model of the Cerro Prieto geothermal field

The distribution of the Na-K-Ca index values in the geothermal aquifer of Cerro Prieto indicates a probable cold-water recharge in the northern and western parts of the present producing field. In the central part of the field, the distribution of Na-K-Ca values is very irregular, due to the effect of percolation or the vertical descending flow of colder waters caused by apparent over-exploitation.The large area with indices varying between 0·5 and 0·7 to the east, southeast, and south of the field confirm the presence of hotter geothermal waters than those observed in the present producing field. The limits of this hot aquifer have not yet been determined toward the east and southeast.The temperature distribution in the Cerro Prieto aquifer confirms the conclusions reached using the Na-K-Ca index. The maximum temperature calculated was in well M-53 (350°C) and the minimum was in M-9 (250°C), when wells M-6 and M-1A, which have lower temperatures, are not taken into account.The chloride distribution in the aquifer confirms the recharge of colder, less saline waters in the northern and western parts of the field. It was surprising to find that the chloride content in the aquifer was lower in the eastern part (M-53) than in the present field, even though the temperature is higher. Another interesting fact is the extremely low chloride content found in well M-101, with temperatures around 290°C.The distribution of potassium and silica in the aquifer was not as useful for the interpretation of fluid movement as originally expected. Discrepancies were found with respect to the interpretations based on the Na - K - Ca index and the chloride content.In regard to the changes in the Na - K - Ca index, in temperature, and in chloride content during the exploitation of the field, a gradual increase in Na - K - Ca index values was observed in wells with high and low enthalpy. In exceptional cases these values decrease or remain constant. This increase in the index has represented a 10 to 20°C temperature decrease with respect to the original values existing at the beginning of the exploitation of the field (1973). The chloride content in the aquifer has decreased at different rates, from 670 mg/l per year in M-26 to 371 mg/1 per year in well M-42, even though in some wells (M-20) it has increased and in others (M-5) it has remained almost constant.In order to decrease the rate of temperature and pressure reduction in the present producing field, it is recommended that production of low enthalpy wells be suspended and be replaced by new wells located in the periphery of the field, preferably to the southwest and northeast. Thus, the production area would at least be doubled, in an attempt to avoid the percolation or vertical flow, which is apparently causing the cooling of the reservoir.Another measure, which could help prevent a rapid drawdown, is to exploit the deeper hot aquifers that apparently exist in the center of the field. This would first have to be confirmed by an exploratory well or by deepening one of the present wells.     

A fast preconditioner for the incompressible Navier Stokes Equations

The pressure matrix method is a well known scheme for the solution of the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations by splitting the computation of the velocity and the pressure fields (see, e.g., [17]). However, the set-up of effective preconditioners for the pressure matrix is mandatory in order to have an acceptable computational cost. Different strategies can be pursued (see, e.g., [6, 22 , 4, 7, 9]). Inexact block LU factorizations of the matrix obtained after the discretization and linearization of the problem, originally proposed as fractional step solvers, provide also a strategy for building effective preconditioners of the pressure matrix (see [23]). In this paper, we present numerical results about a new preconditioner, based on an inexact factorization. The new preconditioner applies to the case of the generalized Stokes problem and to the Navier–Stokes one, as well. In the former case, it improves the performances of the well known Cahouet–Chabard preconditioner (see [2]). In the latter one, numerical results presented here show an almost optimal behavior (with respect to the space discretization) and suggest that the new preconditioner is well suited also for flexible or inexact strategies, in which the systems for the preconditioner are solved inaccurately.     

Fuel with advanced burnable absorbers design for the IRIS reactor core: Combined Erbia and IFBA

IRIS is an advanced medium-size (1000 MW) PWR with integral primary system targeting deployment already around 2015–2017. Consistent with its aggressive development and deployment schedule, the “first IRIS” core design assumes current, licensed fuel technology, i.e., UO₂ fuel with less than 5% ²³⁵U enrichment. The core consists of 89 fuel assemblies employing the 17×17 Westinghouse Robust Fuel Assembly (RFA) design and Standard Fuel dimensions. The adopted design enables to meet all the objectives of the first IRIS core, including over 3-year cycle length with low soluble boron concentration, within the envelope of licensed, readily available fuel technology. Alternative fuel designs are investigated for the subsequent waves of IRIS reactors in pursuit of further improving the fuel utilization and/or extending the cycle length. In particular, an increase in the lattice pitch from the current 0.496 in. for the Standard Fuel to 0.523 in. is among the objectives of this study. The larger fuel pitch and increased moderator-to-fuel volume ratio that it entails fosters better neutron thermalization in an altogether under-moderated lattice thereby offering the potential for considerable increase of fuel utilization and cycle length, up to 5% in the two-batch fuel management scheme considered for IRIS. However, the improved moderation also favors higher values of the Moderator Temperature Coefficient, MTC, which must be properly counteracted to avoid undesired repercussions on the plant safety parameters or controllability during transient operations. This paper investigates counterbalancing the increase in the MTC caused by the enhanced moderation lattice by adopting a suitable choice of fuel burnable absorber (BA). In particular, a fuel design combining erbia, which benefits MTC due to its resonant behavior but leads to residual reactivity penalty, and IFBA, which maximizes cycle length, is pursued. In the proposed approach, IFBA provides the bulk of the hold-down, with no penalty on cycle length, while the amount of erbia is adjusted to obtain the desired margin in the core peaking power and MTC. Preliminary economic analysis proves that within the IRIS design envelope, the combined BA fuel together with the enhanced moderation lattice offer the potential for considerable fuel cycle cost savings when compared to the current core design based on the Westinghouse Standard 17×17 lattice with IFBA. Therefore a combined BA fuel with the enhanced moderation lattice is a promising option to consider for future developments of the IRIS core.     

Steric factors controlling the surface hybridization of PCR amplified sequences

This study elucidated the hybridization behavior of surface-bound oligonucleotides to their longer PCR-amplified targets. The screen-printed gold surface of disposable electrodes was the platform onto which thiol-tethered oligonucleotides (21-mer) were immobilized by chemisorption. As a model case, approximately 600-bp amplicons were studied. Surface hybridization was monitored by means of an enzyme-linked assay with electrochemical detection. Use of different surface-tethered probe sequences over a wide range of surface densities was explored to achieve the highest duplex yield. Both the surface coverage by the probe and its relative position on the target strand were found to control the efficiency of capture of the target sequence. Interfacial hybridization occurred with the highest efficiency for a probe coverage of approximately 2.9 x 10(12) molecules/cm2 and when the 3' end of the amplicon was involved. An unusual (bell-shaped) response/amplicon concentration profile was additionally found. It was hypothesised that when the amount of solution-phase target is relatively high, random collisions make reannealing of the approximately 600-bp strands favored over formation of the surface-tethered probe-amplicon complex. This paper also describes a strategy to enhance the sensitivity of enzyme-linked hybridization assays. Such a strategy relies on formation, around the long target sequence, of dendritic-like structures, which could offer multiple anchoring points for the enzyme conjugate. The results shown in this work might have great significance for the practical application of hybridization to oligonucleotide chips.