Influence of γ-irradiation on antioxidant,thermal and rheological properties of native and irradiated whole grain millet flours

Millets of different types like Barnyard (Echinochloa utilis), Finger (Eleusine coracana), Foxtail (Setaria italic), Kodo (Paspalum setaceum) Little (Panicum sumatrense), Pearl (Pennisetum glaucum) and Proso millets (Penicum miliaceum) are staple foods for Indian and African diets. The germination, fungal and microbial contamination leads to postharvest losses mainly due to poor warehouse storage in Asia and Africa. Six millet varieties conditioned at 12% and 14% moisture content and irradiated at a dosage of 2.5 and 5 kGy and then milled into flours. The flour was analysed for composition, antioxidant and the rheological and thermal properties. Pearl, Proso, Finger Kodo at 12% moisture contents showed significant (P ≤ 0.05) increase in Phenolic contents at 2.5 kGy level of irradiation treatments compared with native and 5% irradiation treatment level. The DPPH activity showed an interesting results (42.77–72.65%) with wide variation and a mixed trend of high and low results with irradiation. Thermal transition temperatures showed that the irradiation decreased the transition temperatures primarily due to loss of the crystalline and amorphous starch structure due to radiation that lead to rapid water uptake and shorter time to reach peak viscosity. We are further studying the application of the irradiated flours in different food products to understand the influence of irradiation on nutritional, sensory and functional properties in cereal-based products.     

Distribution system adequacy assessment accounting customer controlled generator sets

This paper describes a probabilistic approach for the adequacy assessment of a distribution system having distribution generator (DG) sets, which are owned and controlled by customers. Markov modeling has been employed to obtain capacity outage table for DG sets. Available capacity of distribution substation has been assumed as continuous random variable. Discrete capacity distribution is added to continuous distribution of substation capacity and merged with hourly peak load for obtaining probability of failure and expected demand not supplied (EDNS) annually with the help of derived closed form relations. The procedure has been illustrated with a case study.     

Insertion based Lin–Kernighan heuristic for single row facility layout

The single row facility layout problem (SRFLP) is the problem of arranging facilities with given lengths on a line, while minimizing the weighted sum of the distances between all pairs of facilities. The problem is known to be NP-hard. In this paper, we present a neighborhood search heuristic called LK-INSERT which uses a Lin–Kernighan neighborhood structure built on insertion neighborhoods. To the best of our knowledge this is the first such heuristic for the SRFLP. Our computational experiments show that LK-INSERT is competitive for most instances, and it improves the best known solutions for several large sized benchmark SRFLP instances.     

A modified approach to transient stability enhancement with fast valving and braking resistor applications

Fast valving and braking resistor are two important members of the family of the discrete supplementary controllers (DISCOS). Both of these are very effective and economic means of transient stability enhancement under extreme contingencies. Being stationed at the similar end of a power system the two schemes carry a very good potential of an effective coordination. Such a coordinated control is helpful not only in obtaining an improved gain in stability, but also in overcoming the limitations and avoiding excessive duty on the part of an individual controller. In this work, a detailed study has been carried out to evaluate the scope and limitations of fast valving and dynamic braking resistor controls in enhancing the transient stability of power systems. Improvements have been suggested over the conventional schemes of control so as to improve their adaptability under different conditions of fault and loading or with different types of generating units.     

On the representation of solutions for the theory of generalized thermoelasticity with three phase-lags

An analytical investigation on the plastic zone size (PZS) of a crack near a circular inclusion has been carried out. Both the crack and the circular inclusion are embedded in an infinite matrix, with the crack oriented along the radial direction of the inclusion. In the solution procedure, the crack is simulated as a continuous distribution of edge dislocations. With the Dugdale model of small scale yielding, two stripe plastic zones at both crack tips are introduced. Using the solution of a circular inclusion interacting with a single dislocation as the Green’s function, the physical problem is formulated as a set of singular integral equations. With the aid of Erdogan and Gupta’s method and iterative numerical procedures, the singular integral equations are solved numerically for the PZS and the crack tip opening displacement. The results obtained in the current work can be reduced to those simpler cases of the Dugdale model.     

10—THE UNWINDING OF YARNS FROM PACKAGES PART II: UNWINDING FROM CYLINDRICAL PACKAGES

The particular case of unwinding from cylindrical packages is considered. Tables of balloon parameters are given for various unwinding conditions, and empirical formulae for estimating these parameters are presented.     

Some studies on hairiness reduction of polyester ring spun yarns by using air-nozzles during winding

This paper reports on the hairiness reduction of polyester yarns at winding using air-nozzles. Three yarns of the same count were spun each from fibres of 1.0, 1.2 and 1.4 deniers respectively. Using a CFD (computational fluid dynamics) model, airflow inside the nozzles is simulated to explain the role of nozzle parameters viz., axial angle of air inlets and yarn channel diameter on yarn hairiness reduction during winding. Air drag forces acting on hairs are calculated. Transverse drag forces acting on hairs play a major role in bending the hairs. Vortex nature of air and air velocity profile inside the nozzle are the important phenomena in reducing yarn hairiness. Box and Behnken factorial design of experiments is used to optimize nozzles parameters, fibre denier, and air pressure to maximize the hairiness reduction. Axial angle of 45° for air inlets, 2.2 mm yarn channel diameter, 1.4 denier fibre, and 0.9 bar (gauge) air pressure are the combinations to get maximum reduction in S3 hairiness values of nozzle wound yarns. Fibre denier is a major influencing factor in reducing yarn hairiness.     

Studies on cotton–acrylic bulked yarns and fabrics. Part I: Yarn characteristics

The effect of variables, namely yarn fineness, shrinkable acrylic proportion and twist level, on various properties of cotton–acrylic blended bulked yarns has been studied by relaxing shrinkable component of the yarns using boiling water treatment. A three-variable factorial design technique proposed by Box and Behnken was used to investigate the combined interaction effect of the above variables on the properties of these yarns. The design variables were optimized for all the yarn properties by using the response surface equations. The shrinkage percentage of yarn was found to be higher in the case of coarser yarn, yarn with higher proportion of acrylic fibre and higher twist level. During bulking treatment as the yarns shrink, the effective number of twist per unit length also increases significantly. It is observed that the specific volume of the yarn increases with an increase in the acrylic proportion and decreases with an increase in the twist factor. The breaking extension increases significantly after bulking with a slight increase in tenacity. The flexural rigidity and initial modulus of yarn considerably decrease on bulking. The vertical wicking heights for all the bulked yarns were found to be higher than comparable 100% cotton yarn.     

Moisture management properties of plated knit structures with varying fiber types

Thermo-physiological comfort of clothing designed for next-to-skin applications is influenced by the clothing’s ability to manage heat and moisture transfer thereby maintaining dry skin microclimate. Plated knit structures designed and engineered with correct selection of fiber and yarn constituents in the distinct bottom (exposed to environment) and top (next to sin) layers can serve well for next-to-skin applications. In this study, plated fabrics with altering hydrophilic and hydrophobic fibers in top and bottom layers and different types of hydrophobic fibers in top layers have been compared for the moisture management properties. Results show that fabrics knitted with hydrophobic fibers (polypropylene, polyester) in top layers seem suitable for next-to-skin applications as they were classified as moisture management fabrics owing to high values of accumulative one-way transport index and bottom spreading speed. Though both fabrics can be recommended for next-to-skin applications, however, polypropylene on account of superior moisture management properties in the top layer would be more effective in providing dry feel next to skin and hence, seems to be a preferred choice over polyester for such applications. Fabric knitted with nylon in top layer was classified as water penetration fabric due to poor liquid transfer properties. Fabrics knitted with cotton in top layer irrespective of the hydrophobic fiber in bottom layer were poor in moisture management properties. Univariate analysis of variance with a confidence level of 95% showed the results to be statistically significant. Pearson correlation coefficient was obtained for all the moisture management indices by bivariate correlation procedure to determine strength and direction of association between the different moisture management indices. Most of the indices were found to be significantly correlated also, OWTC and OMMC were found to be positively and linearly related to each other.