Assessment of quality of fruits using impedance spectroscopy

This study deals with the development of a nondestructive impedance spectroscopic technique that may assess the conditions of the fruits to pluck them with the help of robotic arms. Preliminary investigations are made with the help of two‐terminal probe and an accurate LCR meter. The bulk impedance of mango has been measured to characterise raw and ripe fruits. Effective resistance and effective capacitance vs. frequency characteristics have been determined. The bulk effective resistances, of the ripe fruits, are found to be more than those of the raw fruits, in the frequency range of 1–6 kHz. In the same frequency range, effective capacitances of the raw fruits are found more than those of the ripe fruits. In the light of the data obtained, it can be said that the effective resistance may be used to differentiate between raw and ripe fruits in the frequency range of 1–6 kHz.     

Hygrothermal aging studies of short carbon fiber reinforced nylon 6.6

A study of hygrothermal aging, in terms of the kinetics of moisture absorption by nylon 6.6 and its carbon fiber-reinforced composites, has been undertaken. The diffusion of water into the various materials was investigated at 100% relative humidity, by immersion of specimens in water at temperatures of between 25 and 100°C. A mathematical treatment used in analyzing the data was that of a single free phase model of diffusion, which assumed Fickian diffusion and utilized Fick's second law of diffusion. Good agreement was observed between the experimental and theoretical values. The equilibrium moisture content and the apparent diffusion coefficient of the various composites were evaluated. Hygrothermal aging has reduced the tensile properties of both unreinforced and reinforced nylon 6.6, albeit a better recoverability of the properties was achieved by the former after drying. This behavior is explained in terms of the combined action of moisture-induced plasticization and interfacial degradation. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

On the failure mode in dry and hygrothermally aged short fiber-reinforced injection-molded polyarylamide composites by acoustic emission

The failure mode in injection-molded short glass (GF) and carbon fiber (CF) reinforced polyarylamide (PAR) composites was studied on compact tension (CT) specimens in as-received (AR), hygrothermally aged (HA) and re-dried (RD) states, respectively, using acoustic emission (AE) and fractography. A significant difference was revealed in the failure manner characterized by the cumulative run, amplitude and energy distribution of the AE events as a function of the water content of the composites. Furthermore, a correlation was found between the cumulative AE events up to the maximum load and the fracture toughness of the composites. It was shown that the fracture response and thus the failure behavior of the water-saturated PAR composites can be restored by drying. This fact indicates that the water absorption and desorption are of a purely physical nature, i.e. they are reversible processes. It was established that chopped fiber-reinforced PAR composites fail by matrix deformation along with fiber/matrix debonding in the crack initiation, whereas fiber pull-out becomes dominant in the crack propagation range. Water uptake shifts both the AE amplitude and energy curves toward lower values, a phenomenon attributed to plastification of the PAR matrix by water.On leave from Institute of Machine Parts, Technical University of Budapest, H-1111 Budapest, Hungary.On leave from School of Industrial Technology, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 Penang, Malaysia.     

Nanocomposite-based controlled release formulation of an herbicide, 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetate incapsulated in zinc–aluminium-layered double hydroxide

Controlled release formulation of an herbicide, 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetate (24D) was developed by the virtue of the formation of organic–inorganic nanohybrid material and its ion exchange property. The inorganic Zn–Al layered double hydroxide (ZAL) was used as a matrix, hosting an active agent or a guest, 24D by self-assembly technique. The resulting material (ZAD) was subsequently used to study the release property of 24D into aqueous solutions containing chloride, carbonate as well as distilled water. The release of the guest 24D was found to be rapid initially followed by a more sustained release thereafter and this behavior was dependent on the type of anions and their concentrations in the release medium, the aqueous solution. The mechanism of release has been interpreted on the basis of the ion exchange process between the 24D anion intercalated into the interlamellae host and carbonate or chloride and/or hydroxyl anions in the aqueous solution.     

The catalytic deacidification of acidic crude oil using Cu-doped alkaline earth metal oxide catalysts

Naphthenic acids (NAs) tend to cause operational problems that can lead to the deactivation of catalysts. To overcome the problem, catalytic deacidification was introduced utilizing an ammonia solution in ethylene glycol with the aids of alkaline earth metal catalyst with alumina as a support. The initial total acid number observed for NAs in n-dodecane was 4.21 mg KOH/g. In total, 1,000 mg/L of 0.4% NH₃-EG were used as the acid removal agent. Calcium, barium, and magnesium catalysts were tested in this study. The results showed Cu/Ca/Al₂O₃ was found to be the best catalyst that could be used to enhance the reaction.     

Microbial-Catalyzed Biotransformation of Multifunctional Triterpenoids Derived from Phytonutrients

Microbial-catalyzed biotransformations have considerable potential for the generation of an enormous variety of structurally diversified organic compounds, especially natural products with complex structures like triterpenoids. They offer efficient and economical ways to produce semi-synthetic analogues and novel lead molecules. Microorganisms such as bacteria and fungi could catalyze chemo-, regio- and stereospecific hydroxylations of diverse triterpenoid substrates that are extremely difficult to produce by chemical routes. During recent years, considerable research has been performed on the microbial transformation of bioactive triterpenoids, in order to obtain biologically active molecules with diverse structures features. This article reviews the microbial modifications of tetranortriterpenoids, tetracyclic triterpenoids and pentacyclic triterpenoids.     

Development of Drug Delivery Systems Based on Layered Hydroxides for Nanomedicine

Layered hydroxides (LHs) have recently fascinated researchers due to their wide application in various fields. These inorganic nanoparticles, with excellent features as nanocarriers in drug delivery systems, have the potential to play an important role in healthcare. Owing to their outstanding ion-exchange capacity, many organic pharmaceutical drugs have been intercalated into the interlayer galleries of LHs and, consequently, novel nanodrugs or smart drugs may revolutionize in the treatment of diseases. Layered hydroxides, as green nanoreservoirs with sustained drug release and cell targeting properties hold great promise of improving health and prolonging life.     

Lattice Sphere Decoding for Data Transmission Systems with Special Channel Matrices

This paper presents the effects of condition number ( \(\tau \) ) in communication system performance. It has been shown that a small condition number ( \(\tau \) ) results a better performance. The proposed scheme is using special kind of matrices with Lattice Sphere Decoding (LSD) technique for Block Data Transmission Systems (BDTS). Hankel and Toeplitz matrices are used separately as a channel matrix (H) while circulant matrix is used in the previous works. The proposed scheme reduced the condition number ( \(\tau \) ) and, therefore, improve the system performance. As a result; LSD-based BDTS with Toeplitz/Hankel matrix outperforms the LSD-based BDTS with circulant matrix. Complexity analysis is also done which based on lattice dimension and initial radius selection.