Preface

Microsystem Technologies -     

Structure,properties, and applications of polyacrylonitrile/carbon nanotube (CNT) fibers at low CNT loading

Bi-component, polyacrylonitrile (PAN)/carbon nanotube (CNT) fibers were processed, at different core-sheath area ratios, by gel spinning. A percolated CNT network at 10 wt% CNT in the sheath enhanced electrical conductivity as compared to the neat PAN fiber, while PAN polymer in the core contributed to the good mechanical properties. Fibers with relatively thin sheath allowed overall CNT loading as low as 3.7 wt% to be made with good electrical conductivity, and PAN stabilization by Joule heating was demonstrated. Such fibers with combined good mechanical properties and electrical conductivity can also potentially be used for electrical heating of fabrics, for making smart textiles, and for electromagnetic interference shielding.     

Wallace E. Lambert (1922–2009).

On August 23, 2009, psychology lost an innovative researcher with the passing, at 86, of Wallace E. Lambert. A professor of psychology at McGill University from 1954 until 1990, Wallace (“Wally”) Lambert was among the founders of psycholinguistics and sociolinguistics. His highly productive career included contributions to social and cross-cultural psychology (intergroup attitudes, child-rearing values, and psychological consequences of living in multicultural societies), language education (the French immersion program), and bilingualism (measurement of language dominance, attitudes and motivation in second-language learning, and social, cognitive, and neuropsychological consequences of bilingualism). Indeed, because of the scope and influence of his work, Wally Lambert is widely considered the father of the psychological study of bilingualism. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Chemical,rheological and parotta making characteristics of flourmill streams

Chemical, rheological and parotta-making characteristics of wheat-milling flour streams were studied with the main aim of developing a speciality flour for parotta. Important quality characteristics such as ash, flour colour, dry gluten content, sedimentation value, free and bound lipid content, farinograph and alveograph characteristics of the mill streams were determined. The studies showed an increase in ash, gluten content and sedimentation value with increasing numbers of breaks in the flour streams. An increase in percentage whiteness and bound lipids was observed in the first five reduction passages (C1 to C5). The alveograph characteristics indicated that the average abscissa at rupture (L) length of the curve increased with increasing reduction streams from C1 to C5, and also that the curves were better balanced when compared to 1 BK to 5 BK. The parottas made from the first five break passages had a decreased spread ratio, dull brown colour, and fused layers and lower overall quality score (43–79). The initial reduction streams (C1 to C5) produced good quality parottas in terms of appearance, spread, layers and texture. The shear force values indicating the texture of the product ranged from 1,120 to 1,250 g. The speciality flour made by combining C1 to C5 streams had 0.45% ash, 9.63% dry gluten, 45 ml sodium dodecyl sulphate sedimentation value, 0.7% free lipid and 1.8% bound lipid and produced parottas having creamish white colour, excellent pliability, thin, transparent and distinct layers, soft texture and moderate chewiness. In the mouth the parottas broke down easily, without leaving any residue. The overall quality score of parotta was highest (93.5) for the speciality flour when compared to break and reduction streams (43–77 and 56–92 respectively).     

Feasibility of neural network approach in spectral mixture analysis of reflectance spectra

In the present work, we perform spectral mixture analysis using Chi‐square minimization (χ² minimization) procedure and test the feasibility of applying an inverse technique, neural network (NN) approach, for the spectral unmixing. The training of NN is carried out using the Levenberg–Marquardt algorithm (LM) with the initial weights for training being chosen randomly. The experiments are performed in the laboratory by mixing young, matured and dead leaves of a sequoia tree in various proportions and reflectance spectra of these mixtures are recorded. The proportions are chosen to model a few near‐real situations like different kinds of vegetation in a forest (by mixing young leaves and matured leaves) and trees damaged in a forest fire or affected by certain virus (by mixing matured and dead leaves) and a combination of all these (by mixing young, matured and dead leaves). The spectral mixture analysis employing χ² minimization and the inverse procedure utilizing NN with two hidden layers yielded consistent results in accordance with the proportion of each kind of leaf.     

Reliability analysis of a powerloom plant with cold standby for its strategic unit

A powerloom plant consists of two units A and B(n) connected in series. Unit B(n) has n components in parallel redundancy that carry threads of different varieties/colours to unit A. Unit A is the strategic unit that weaves these threads together and produces a long piece of cloth of some standard size. Failure of unit A makes the entire system fail whereas the failure of k components out of n in unit B(n) results in the system working in a degraded state. The present paper deals with the reliability analysis of the powerloom plant with a cold standby for its strategic unit. The common cause failure and critical human errors have also been considered to avoid overestimation of the reliability of the system. Results of Dhillon [Int. J. cyst. Sci. 23, 1277–1287 (1992)] have been deduced as a particular case of our result.     

Editorial preface

Innovations in Systems and Software Engineering -     

An approach for deployment of BRS in software-defined network

Innovations in Systems and Software Engineering - In the recent years due to technological development, Internet is omnipresent. With advancement, more and more people are connected through...     

Effect of replacement of fat with sesame oil and additives on rheological, microstructural, quality characteristics and fatty acid profile of cakes

Effect of replacement of fat with 25, 50, 75 and 100% sesame oil (on fat basis); 50% sesame oil, hydrocolloids and emulsifiers on the rheological, microstructural, quality characteristics and fatty acid profile of cake was studied. Addition of increasing amount of sesame oil decreased viscosity, increased specific gravity of cake batter; decreased cake volume and overall quality score. Microstructure studies showed disrupted gluten matrix. Among the two different hydrocolloids [hydroxypropylmethylcellulose (HPMC) and xanthan] and emulsifiers [glycerol monostearate (GMS) and sodium stearoyl-2-lactylate (SSL)] tried, HPMC and SSL increased the batter viscosity, decreased the specific gravity, increased the volume and overall quality score. Use of combination of HPMC and SSL improved significantly the quality characteristics of cake with 50% sesame oil in such a way that the overall quality score was higher than that of the control cake with fat. The microstructure of cake crumb with 50% sesame oil and HPMC showed a smooth structure with less number of cavities and SSL showed a continuous protein matrix. On replacing the fat with 50% sesame oil, there was a decrease in saturated fatty acids and increase in unsaturated fatty acids, particularly linoleic acid. The fatty acid profile of cake with 50% sesame oil was better than the control cake as there was 2.4 times decrease in palmitic acid content and 5.9 times increase in essential fatty acids (EFA) content.