Fertilizer requirements for specified yield targets. I. Theoretical derivation of mathematical models for the computation of soil and fertilizer nutrient efficiencies

The conventional deduction procedure of computation of soil () and fertilizer () nutrient efficiencies for the amount of fertilizer required for specified yield targets does not make provision of the amount of soil nutrient derived by crops from the available pool of soil nutrients not accounted for in the amount extracted by a soil test procedure. The derivation of two mathematical models, viz., Tamil Nadu Agricultural University Model I [TNAU Model I] and Model II [TNAU Model II] is reported in this paper which aim at computing the soil () and fertilizer () nutrient efficiencies not accounted for by the conventional method.In the case of TNAU Model I, the relationship between the nutrient uptake (U) and the soil (S) and the fertilizer (F) nutrients was established by assuming a functional relationship of the type U =S +F such that 0 1 and 0 1. In TNAU Model II the same relationship was established as U =S +F + such that 0 1, 0 1 and > 0. The term in the latter model is a measure of the amount of soil nutrient the crop absorbs from a slowly available pool of nutrients not accounted for in the amounts extracted by the soil test procedure employed or applied through fertilizer.The field verification of these models is reported elsewhere.     

Gold nanoparticle-based method for detection of calcium carbide in artificially ripened mangoes (Magnifera indica)

A new approach was developed for a simple and easy colorimetric detection assay to detect the use of calcium carbide in artificial ripening of fruits. Residues of arsenic on the fruit surface were used as an indicator for this. Use of calcium carbide in artificial ripening has been banned in many countries including India. In the present study, we have used a gold nanoparticle (AuNP)-based colorimetric detection method for determination of artificial ripening of fruits. ICP-MS analysis showed the presence of higher amounts of arsenic on fruits ripened using calcium carbide. Lauryl sulphate (LS)-capped AuNP aggregates in the presence of arsenic, replacing the LS, resulting in a colour change from red to purple. Hence, the developed method can be used for easy and rapid detection of use of calcium carbide in artificial ripening of fruits.     

Testing and qualification of Control & Safety Rod and its drive mechanism of Fast Breeder Reactor

Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) has two independent fast acting diverse shutdown systems. The absorber rod of the first system is called Control & Safety Rod (CSR). CSR and its Drive Mechanism (CSRDM) are used for reactor control and for safe shutdown of the reactor by scram action. In view of the safety role, the qualification of CSRDM is one of the important requirements.CSR & CSRDM were qualified in two stages by extensive testing. In the first stage, the critical subassemblies of the mechanism, such as scram release electromagnet, hydraulic dashpot & dynamic seals and CSR subassembly, were tested and qualified individually simulating the operating conditions of the reactor. Experiments were also carried out on sodium vapour deposition in the annular gaps between the stationary and mobile parts of the mechanism.In the second stage, full-scale CSRDM and CSR were subjected to all the integrated functional tests in air, hot argon and subsequently in sodium simulating the operating conditions of the reactor and finally subjected to endurance tests. Since the damage occurring in CSRDM & CSR is mainly due to fatigue cycles during scram actions, the number of test cycles was decided based on the guidelines given in ASME, Section III, Div. 1. The results show that the performance of CSRDM & CSR is satisfactory. Subsequent to the testing in sodium, the assemblies having contact with liquid sodium/sodium vapour were cleaned using CO₂ process and the total cleaning process has been established, so that the mechanism can be reused in sodium. The various stages of qualification programmes have raised the confidence level on the performance of the system as a whole for the intended and reliable operation in the reactor.     

Budget constrained energy conservation-an experience with a textileindustry

The conservation and efficient use of energy in industry has, for a long time, been a priority of the Government of India. In anticipation of the enactment of federal legislation on energy management for industry, the State of Government of Tamilnadu, Kerala, and other Southern States, made energy audits mandatory for large-scale energy-consuming industries. So among industrial consumers, the aspect of energy conservation is gaining due importance of the realization that "Energy Saved is Energy Produced and that too at Economical Cost". This paper shares the experiences of the authors on energy conservation projects carried out in a textile industry situated in India's Tamilnadu State. Economic and efficient measures of energy conservation have been followed subject to budget constraints and the effect of such measures were realized through reduction in energy costs with the added advantage of environmental safety     

CORDIC-Based VLSI Architecture for Implementing Kaiser-Bessel Window in Real Time Spectral Analysis

Windowing techniques have been widely used for preprocessing of samples before fast Fourier transform (FFT) in real time spectral analysis to minimize spectral leakage and picket fence effect. Among all popular window functions, Kaiser-Bessel window is an obvious choice for its better spectral characteristics. In this paper, CORDIC (CO-ordinate Rotation DIgital Computer) based VLSI architecture for implementing Kaiser-Bessel window has been proposed for real time applications. The parallel-pipelined technique has been adopted for the present design to ensure high throughput. Various architectural design and implementation issues have been discussed. The physical synthesis for ASIC implementation of proposed architecture using Synopsys design compiler(Design Vision) and commercially available 0. 18 μm CMOS yields the core area of 52 mm ²and worst case dynamic power of 890 mW at an operating frequency and voltage of 400 MHz and 1.8 V respectively.     

Electrocardiogram‐based emotion recognition system using empirical mode decomposition and discrete Fourier transform

Emotion recognition using physiological signals has gained momentum in the field of human computer–interaction. This work focuses on developing a user‐independent emotion recognition system that would classify five emotions (happiness, sadness, fear, surprise and disgust) and neutral state. The various stages such as design of emotion elicitation protocol, data acquisition, pre‐processing, feature extraction and classification are discussed. Emotional data were obtained from 30 undergraduate students by using emotional video clips. Power and entropy features were obtained in three ways – by decomposing and reconstructing the signal using empirical mode decomposition, by using a Hilbert–Huang transform and by applying a discrete Fourier transform to the intrinsic mode functions (IMFs). Statistical analysis using analysis of variance indicates significant differences among the six emotional states (p < 0.001). Classification results indicate that applying the discrete Fourier transform instead of the Hilbert transform to the IMFs provides comparatively better accuracy for all the six classes with an overall accuracy of 52%. Although the accuracy is less, it reveals the possibility of developing a system that could identify the six emotional states in a user‐independent manner using electrocardiogram signals. The accuracy of the system can be improved by investigating the power and entropy of the individual IMFs.     

Glass-ceramic glazes for future generation floor tiles

Glaze in the CaO–MgO–Al₂O₃–SiO₂ system was heated at 950–1190 °C for 2 h and characterized. X-ray diffraction showed that only trace amount of mullite was formed in the glass-ceramic glaze heated at 950 °C. Both mullite and α-cordierite were formed in the glass-ceramic glaze heated at 1050 °C as primary and secondary phases. Glass-ceramic glazes heated at 1120 °C and 1190 °C contained α-cordierite and mullite as major and minor phases. Rietveld analysis revealed that the amount of α-cordierite increased and mullite decreased with increasing heating temperature. Field emission scanning electron microscopy showed presence of mullite crystals dispersed within residual glassy phase in the glass-ceramic glazes heated at 950 °C and 1050 °C. In the microstructures of glass-ceramic glazes heated at 1120 °C and 1190 °C α-cordierite crystals were mainly appeared. Energy Dispersive X-ray analysis corroborated X-ray diffraction results. Vickers microhardness measurement demonstrated highest hardness (8.38 ± 0.07 GPa) of the glass-ceramic glaze heated at 1190 °C.     

Recursive formulation of the matrix Padé approximation in packed storage

The Extended Euclidean algorithm for matrix Padé approximants is applied to compute matrix Padé approximants when the coefficient matrices of the input matrix polynomial are triangular. The procedure given by Bjarne S. Anderson et al. for packing a triangular matrix in recursive packed storage is applied to pack a sequence of lower triangular matrices of a matrix polynomial in recursive packed storage. This recursive packed storage for a matrix polynomial is applied to compute matrix Padé approximants of the matrix polynomial using the Matrix Padé Extended Euclidean algorithm in packed form. The CPU time and memory comparison, in computing the matrix Padé approximants of a matrix polynomial, between the packed case and the non-packed case are described in detail.     

Instruction Set Extensions for Matrix Decompositions on Software Defined Radio Architectures

Emerging wireless applications consistently demand higher data rates. Unfortunately, it is challenging to achieve high data rates within the limited amount of available frequency spectrum. Hence, enhanced spectral efficiency and link reliability within the available frequency spectrum are of the utmost importance in current and next generation wireless protocols. To attain high spectral efficiency and link reliability, wireless protocols employ increasingly complex 2-dimensional techniques that involve computationally-intensive matrix operations. Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) communication is an example of a promising technique employed by wireless protocols to deliver higher data rates at the cost of increased algorithmic complexity. Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) have traditionally been used to implement compute-intensive wireless protocols. The wireless industry has been gradually moving towards an alternative programmable platform called Software Defined Radio (SDR) due to its significant benefits, such as reduced development costs, and accelerated time-to-market. The computationally-intensive matrix operations used in current and next generation wireless protocols are extremely expensive to implement in SDR platforms with conventional Digital Signal Processor (DSP) instruction sets. Hence there is a need for novel instructions, hardware designs and algorithm enhancements to enable higher spectral efficiency on SDR platforms. In this paper, we propose Single Instruction Multiple Data (SIMD) CoOrdinate Rotation DIgital Computer (CORDIC) instruction set extensions with CORDIC hardware support to speedup computationally-intensive matrix decomposition algorithms. The CORDIC instruction set extensions have been implemented on the Sandbridge Sandblaster SB3000 SDR platform and evaluated on conventional algorithms used for decomposing a closed loop 4-by-4 Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) MIMO channel into independent Single-Input Single-Output (SISO) channels. Our experimental results on the closed-loop MIMO channel decomposition using CORDIC instructions demonstrate more than 6x speedup over a Sandblaster baseline implementation that uses state-of-the-art SIMD DSP instructions. The CORDIC instructions also provide similar numerical accuracy when compared to the baseline implementation. The techniques we propose in this paper are also applicable to other SDR and embedded processor architectures.