Identifying crop water stress using deep learning models

Neural Computing and Applications - The identification of water stress is a major challenge for timely and effective irrigation to ensure global food security and sustainable agriculture. Several...     

Production of biodiesel from waste fryer grease using mixed methanol/ethanol system

Transesterification of waste fryer grease (WFG) containing 5–6 wt.% free fatty acid (FFA) was carried out with methanol, ethanol, and mixtures of methanol/ethanol maintaining the oil to alcohol molar ratio of 1:6, and initially with KOH as a catalyst. Mixtures of methanol and ethanol were used for transesterification in order to use the better solvent property of ethanol and rapid equilibrium using methanol. Formation of soap by reaction of FFA present in WFG with KOH instigated difficulty in the separation of glycerol from biodiesel ester. To untangle this problem, two-stage (acid and alkali catalyzed) method was used for biodiesel synthesis. More than 90% ester was obtained when two-stage method was used compared to ∼ 50% ester in single stage alkaline catalyst. In the case of mixed alcohol, a relatively smaller amount of ethyl esters was formed along with methyl esters. Acid value, viscosity, and cetane number of all the esters prepared from WFG were within the range of the ASTM standard. Esters obtained from WFG showed good performance as a lubricity additive.     

Effect of Calcium Lactate, 4-Hexyl Resorcinol and Vacuum Packing on Physico-chemical, Sensory and Microbiological Qualities of Minimally Processed Litchi (Litchi chinensis Sonn.)

Litchi (Litchi chinensis Sonn.) fruits are very susceptible to pericarp browning which adversely affects consumer acceptability even though the aril portion remains in excellent condition. Litchi arils (litchis) were treated with a solution containing 0–2% (w/v) calcium lactate (CL), 0–0.02% (w/v) 4‐hexyl resorcinol (4‐HR) and 1% potassium sorbate. The pH of solution was adjusted to 4.0 with citric acid. Treated litchis were packed in polystyrene trays, over‐wrapped with polypropylene film, vacuum‐packed (0, 47409.3, 94831.9 Pa) and stored at 4 ± 2 °C. Drip losses, pH, total soluble solids (TSS), sensory attributes and microbiological quality of stored samples were estimated. A four‐factor, three‐level experimental design (D₆ Hokes design) with 19 experiments was chosen. Mathematical models were developed to analyse and predict the effect of CL, 4‐HR, in‐package vacuum and storage time on the responses. TSS, pH and sensory scores decreased significantly (P 0.01), whereas drip losses and microbial count increased significantly (P 0.01) with time. Drip loss was significantly (P 0.1) reduced by addition of CL. 4‐HR prevented browning and changes in colour score during storage were significantly less. Vacuum in packages exerted significant (P 0.01) effect over pH, TSS, sensory and microbiological qualities of minimally processed litchis.     

Laser Induced Liquid Phase Reaction Synthesis Assisted Joining of Metal Matrix Composites

A Laser Induced Liquid Phase Reaction Synthesis Assisted Joining technique is employed for SiC-particulate/Al-alloy composite to produce joints. Joints in SiC/Al-alloy composite are produced by synthesis of suitable material product as a result of interaction between composite and Ti (or Ti-alloy) reactive filler material induced by laser energy in the joint region. Such reaction product minimizes or eliminates the formation of deleterious aluminum carbide phase in the joint region depending upon the type and nature of die interfacial reactive filler material and also the laser processing parameters. A laser beam is utilized to both synthesize the interfacial reactant mixture and to heat the base material adjacent to the joint region to minimize the thermal stresses. The technique along with suitable filler material, further can be extended to a variety of metal matrix composite systems including combinations of Gr/Al, B/Al, B₄C/Mg, Steel/Al, W/Al, Al₂ O₃ and Gr/Cu which are excellent for use in various automotive, aerospace and electronic applications. Preliminary observations describing the proof of concept of laser induced reaction joining of metal matrix composites are reported     

Dynamic provisioning in multi-tenant service clouds

Cloud-based systems promise an on-demand service provisioning system along with a ??pay-as-you-use?? policy. In the case of multi-tenant systems this would mean dynamic creation of a tenant by integrating existing cloud-based services on the fly. Presently, dynamic creation of a tenant is handled by building the required components from scratch. Although multi-tenant systems help providers save cost by allocating multiple tenants to the same instance of an application, they incur huge reconfiguration costs. Cost and time spent on these reconfiguration activities can be reduced by re-constructing tenants from existing tenant configurations supported by service providers. Multi-tenant cloud-based systems also lack the facility of allowing clients to specify their requirements. Giving clients the flexibility to specify requirements helps them avoid spending an excessive amount of time and effort looking through a list of services, many of which might not be relevant to them. Moreover, dynamic provisioning in the cloud requires an integrated solution across the technology stack (software, platform and infrastructure) combining functional, non-functional and resource allocation requirements. Existing research works in the area of web service matching, although numerous, still fall short, since they usually consider each requirement type in isolation and cannot provide an integrated solution. To that end, in this paper we investigate the features needed for dynamic service provisioning on the cloud. We propose a novel User Interface-Tenant Selector-Customizer (UTC) model and approach, which enables cloud-based services to be systematically modeled and provisioned as variants of existing service tenants in the cloud. Our approach considers functional, non-functional and resource allocation requirements, which are explicitly specified by the client via the user interface component of the model. To the best of our knowledge, ours is the first such integrated approach. We illustrate our ideas using a realistic running example, and also present a proof-of-concept prototype built using IBM??s Rational Software Architect modeling tool. We also present experimental results demonstrating the applicability of our matching algorithm. Our results show significant reduction in matching time with the help of an elimination process that reduces the search space needed for performing matching.     

Response of wheat (Triticum aestivum) and pearl-millet (Pennistum americanum) to zinc fertilizers on two soils

Responses of ZnSO₄, Zn₃ (PO₄)₂ · 4H₂O, ZnO, ZnNH₄PO₃ · 2H₂O and zincated superphosphate were studied on wheat (Triticum aestivum) and pearl-millet (Pennistem americanum) in Balsamand sand (Ustipsament) and Ladwa fine loam (Typic Camborthids). In Balsamand sand all Zn fertilizers increased wheat and pearl-milllet grain yield significantly over control but ZnNH₄ PO₄ · 2H₂O and zincated super were the best sources. Straw yield was also highest due to zincated super and ZnNH₄PO₄ · 2H₂O applications. Zinc sulphate was significantly inferior to zincated super and ZnNH₄PO₄ · 2H₂O. In Ladwa fine loam, all fertilizers gave significantly higher grain yield of wheat and pearl-millet than control except ZnO in pearl-millet. Highest yield in this soil was obtained by ZnSO₄ · 7H₂O followed by ZnNH₄ PO₄ · 2H₂O and then zincated super.In Balsamand sand, the Zn fertilizers significantly increased the Zn concentration and Zn uptake of wheat grain. In pearl-millet, only Zn uptake was increased significantly with Zn fertilizers. Zincated super gave highest Zn uptake.The concentration of P in wheat grain was increased by Zn fertilizers in Balsamand sand, and also in pearl-millet where zincated super and ZnNH₄PO₄ were most effective in increasing the P content.When Zn fertilizers were applied to preceding pearl-millet the effect on succeeding wheat crop were in the same order as direct application of Zn fertilizers. Zincated super was the best and ZnO worst with respect to wheat grain and straw yield and uptake of Zn and P.     

Synthesis of poly(vinyl propionate) from poly(vinyl alcohol) in nonaqueous medium using ethyl nitrate dimethyl sulfoxide as a catalyst

Poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) can be dissolved in a nonaqueous medium in the presence of catalytic concentration of ethyl nitrate dimethyl sulfoxide, C₂H₅ONO₂·DMSO. From the PVA solution, poly(vinyl propionate), PVPR was prepared by the homogeneous esterification of PVA with propionic acid. The ester thus formed contained some unconverted hydroxyl group. The formation of the ester was confirmed by the IR and ¹H‐NMR spectra. The molecular weight of the ester was determined by GPC and intrinsic viscosity (η) was determined by viscometric method. Glass transition temperature, T_g, was obtained from differential scanning calorimetric (DSC) analysis. Thermal stabilities of the ester were checked by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential thermogravimetric (DTG) analysis. The efficiency of the ester as a flow improver of crude oil was also examined. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 102: 5675–5679, 2006     

Evolution of Surface Morphology in Laser-Dressed Alumina Grinding Wheel Material

An approach to laser dressing of alumina grinding wheels is proposed based on solidification microstructures associated with rapid cooling rates obtained in laser surface processing. Laser dressing of alumina grinding wheels forms surface microstructures characterized by multifaceted grains that are expected to facilitate the micro-scale material removal during precision machining. A detailed investigation of variation of grain size and melt depth with laser fluence is conducted. The results are correlated with calculated cooling rates derived from a thermal model. In addition, based on microscopic observations, the formation of surface grains by stacking of individual multifaceted grains formed during laser dressing is suggested.