DICE: A Beneficial Short-Channel Effect in Nanoscale Double-Gate MOSFETs

Physics-based compact modeling, supported by numerical simulations, is used to show the significance of "drain-induced charge enhancement" (DICE) in nanoscale double-gate (DG) MOSFETs. DICE, which is the strong-inversion counterpart of drain-induced barrier lowering (DIBL), is shown to significantly benefit drive current, without affecting the gate capacitance much, and hence can improve nanoscale DG CMOS speed substantially.     

Strength characteristics and stability analysis of GGBS stabilised fly ash-overburden dump

ABSTRACT

Stability of OB dump slope has been a major concern and require a proper design for safe mining operation. Utilisation of fly ash with OB material for construction of mine haul road and external dumping, may provide an alternative mode of fly ash disposal. In this study, fly ash was mixed with OB material at different percentages to evaluate the compaction characteristics, California Bearing Ratio (CBR), Unconfined Compressive Strength (UCS) and shear strength parameter. Tests were also performed with the addition of a different percentage of Ground Granulated Blast Furnace Slag (GGBS) with fly ash-OB mix. Further, the effects of GGBS at various curing period on CBR and UCS characteristics were highlighted. Numerical modelling was carried out for dump containing OB material, fly ash and GGBS at different proportions to evaluate the Factor of Safety (FoS) and to suggest the optimum dump geometry. Experimental result infers that maximum CBR and UCS values were obtained for 78% OB material, 10% fly ash and 12% GGBS at 28 days curing period. Based on the observed FoS from numerical modelling, an optimal multiple regression model and artificial neural network model have been suggested for the direct prediction of FoS by various input parameters.     

Model updating of rotors supported on ball bearings and its application in response prediction and balancing

This work attempts experimental studies in finite element model updating of an actual rotor system mounted on ball bearings by using Inverse Eigen Sensitivity Method (IESM). The IESM is applied on state space representation of equations of motion and is used to identify bearing stiffness, damping and shaft material damping parameters. Non-proportional viscous damping model is used to model the bearing and shaft material damping. The experimental identification of viscous coefficient of shaft material damping was not found in the available literature and this work attempts the same as well. The updated model is validated for its accuracy by comparing the predicted frequency response with that obtained from the experiments. Finally, it is shown that the updated finite element model of the rotor system can be efficiently used to predict the unbalance in the rotor.     

Amylose‐lipid complex formation during extrusion cooking: effect of added lipid type and amylose level on corn‐based puffed snacks

The effect of amylose‐lipid complex formation during extrusion was studied with respect to expansion characteristics and oxidative stability of the extrudates. Full factorial design was adopted to investigate the effects of variables, amylose (two levels, 25% and 45%), types of lipid (coconut oil, fish oil and MaxEPA) and levels of lipid (1.5% and 3%), on amylose‐lipid complex formation, expansion ratio, crispness, hardness and oxidative stability. Increased amylose content in feed mixture produced crispy extrudates with significantly higher (P < 0.05) amylose‐lipid complex formation, greater radial expansion, lower hardness and higher oxidative stability. Amylose‐lipid complex formation and its complimentary effect, that is, oxidative stability were significantly higher in extrudates incorporated with coconut oil compared to those with fish oil or MaxEPA. However, better physical properties viz. radial expansion, crispness and lesser hardness were displayed by extrudates added with MaxEPA followed by those with fish oil. Between these two, fish oil‐incorporated extrudates exhibited significantly higher oxidative stability compared to MaxEPA incorporated products. Thus, the study demonstrates the usefulness of amylose rich corn flour to make oxidatively stable fish oil‐incorporated extrudates with better expansion characteristics.     

Delivery of Omega-3 Fatty Acids into Cake Through Emulsification of Fish Oil-in-Milk and Encapsulation by Spray Drying with Added Polymers

Fortification of cakes with fish oil encapsulates was performed to enhance the consumption of health-beneficial polyunsaturated fatty acids like eicosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid. Fish oil-in-milk emulsions prepared by ultrasonication at different amplitudes were encapsulated by spray drying using different wall materials. The oxidative stability of fish oil encapsulates was determined for 32 days at room and refrigerated temperatures. Oxidatively stable encapsulates and organoleptic quality of fortified cakes reveal that emulsification of fish oil-in-milk and encapsulation by spray drying are potential processes to produce fish oil encapsulates suitable for fortification of bakery products with omega-3 fatty acids.     

Effect of severing skeletal muscle at different stage of rigor on the quality of pacific white shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei)

Effect of severing skeletal muscle (by beheading) at different stages of rigor on the quality of pacific white shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) during ice storage was assessed by physical, chemical, and sensory evaluation. Shrimps were divided into three lots, one lot (T₁) beheaded immediately after killing, 2nd (T₂), and 3rd (T₃) lots were beheaded after 5 h and 35 h post‐mortem corresponding to pre‐rigor, in‐rigor, and post‐rigor stages, respectively. There was an increase in the moisture content in all the treatments during the storage. PV, TVB‐N, and TMA‐N values also increased with the storage time, though the values of all these parameters were well within the acceptable limits. Total protein, Sarcoplasmic protein, NPN, and water holding capacity showed a decreasing trend in all the treatments. Hardness, springiness, cohesiveness and chewiness values did not differ significantly (p ≤ .05) between the treatments. L* value showed a decreasing trend throughout the study. Information provided in this study can serve as baseline for postharvest preservative treatments of crustacea products.

Practical applications

This work examined the effect of the time of beheading on the quality of shrimps in ice storage. No work ever looked at the possibility of whether the quality of shrimp varies if its skeletal muscle is severed (by beheading) during pre‐rigor, on‐rigor, and post‐rigor stages. The ice storage studies of three lots demonstrated similar deterioration of quality, without significant differences among the lots. This strongly suggests that the transportation of the whole shrimps to a processing factory at a distant site provides no comparative advantage in terms of quality.     

Flexible single walled nanotube based chemical sensor for 2,4-dinitrotoluene sensing

In this work, we have attempted to fabricate flexible single walled carbon nanotube based sensor for detection of 2,4-dinitrotoluene (DNT) an explosive chemical. For analyte sensing study, the flexible sensor is fabricated by vacuum filtration method. These fabricated gas sensors are characterised by SEM and Raman spectroscopy. The sensor response is investigated toward the explosive chemicals which have NO₂ group in their molecular structure. The fabricated sensor is able to detect the traces of DNT at room temperature. The sensor gives 0.28–0.32% repeatable response to 0.22 ppm of DNT. The response of sensor increases with increase in the vapour concentration of the DNT vapours.     

Quality of ready to serve tilapia fish curry with PUFA in retortable pouches

Studies on the physical, chemical, and microbiological qualities of fresh tilapia meat revealed its suitability for the preparation of ready to eat fish curry packed in retort pouches. Studies on the fatty acid profile of tilapia meat suggest fortification with polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) to increase the nutritional value. Based on the commercial sterility, sensory evaluation, color, and texture profile analysis F(0) value of 6.94 and cook value of 107.24, with a total process time of 50.24 min at 116 °C was satisfactory for the development of tilapia fish curry in retort pouches. Thermally processed ready to eat south Indian type tilapia fish curry fortified with PUFA was developed and its keeping quality studied at ambient temperature. During storage, a slight increase in the fat content of fish meat was observed, with no significant change in the contents of moisture, protein, and ash. The thiobarbituric acid (TBA) values of fish curry significantly increased during storage. Fish curry fortified with 1% cod liver oil and fish curry without fortification (control) did not show any significant difference in the levels of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), during thermal processing and storage. Sensory analysis revealed that fortification of fish curry with cod liver oil had no impact on the quality. Tilapia fish curry processed at 116 °C and F(0) value of 7.0 (with or without fortification of cod liver oil) was fit for consumption, even after a period of 1-y storage in retort pouch. PRACTICAL APPLICATION: Tilapia is a lean variety of fish with white flesh and therefore an ideal choice as raw material for the development of ready to serve fish products such as fish curry in retort pouches for both domestic and international markets. Ready to eat thermal processed (116 °C and F(0) value of 7.0) south Indian type tilapia fish curry enriched with PUFA and packed in retort pouch was acceptable for consumption even after a storage period of 1 y at ambient temperature.     

A fast technique for image segmentation based on two Meta-heuristic algorithms

Image segmentation is a primary task in image processing which is widely used in object detection and recognition. Multilevel thresholding is one of the prominent technique in the field of image segmentation. However, the computational cost of multilevel thresholding increases exponentially as the number of threshold value increases, which leads to use of meta-heuristic optimization to find the optimal number of threshold. To overcome this problem, this paper investigates the ability of two nature-inspired algorithms namely: antlion optimisation (ALO) and multiverse optimization (MVO). ALO is a population-based method and mimics the hunting behaviour of antlions in nature. Whereas, MVO is based on the multiverse theory which depicts that there is over one universe exist. These two metaheuristic algorithms are used to find the optimal threshold values using Kapur’s entropy and Otsu’s between class variance function. They examine the outcomes of the proposed algorithm with other evolutionary algorithms based on cost value, stability analysis, feature similarity index (FSIM), structural similarity index (SSIM), peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR), computational time. We also provide Wilcoxon test which justify the response of these parameters. The experimental results showed that the proposed algorithm gives better results than other existing methods. It is noticed that MVO is faster than other algorithms. The proposed method is also tested on medical images to detect the tumor from MRI T1-weighted contrast-enhanced brain images.