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VOLUME 65 |
NUMBER 11 |
NOVEMBER
2006 |
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CONTENTS |
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Review
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859 |
Carbon dioxide enrichment technologies for crop
response studies |
In recent years, a number of technologies have been developed to study the impact of rising atmospheric CO2 in agricultural systems. Earlier techniques were based on the controlled environment such as phytotrons, closed chambers, cuvettes etc, which are far from the natural environment, in which plants generally grow. However, technologies such as FACE (Free Air CO2 Enrichment), OTCs (Open Top Chambers) and SPAR (Soil Plant Atmosphere Research) with holistic approach have been developed and are being currently used for crop response studies. South Asian Mid FACE and open top chambers are such holistic technologies, developed at Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi, for crop response studies under natural field condition. The data base generated using these facilities will be more realistic for impact assessment analysis of the rising atmospheric CO2 on crop plants and for developing models to predict responses for future climatic conditions. IPC Code: A01C3/00
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Management &
Information Technology |
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867 |
Optimal operating conditions for
reactor-separator-recycle system
Xuyun Wang, Chunli Wang ,
Siyi Jin & Huanlin Chen |
Characteristic equation (CE) for the Reactor-Separator-Recycle (RSR) system is obtained using geometrical methods. Total yield is selected as the objective function of the complex reaction in two-dimensional concentration space. CE for RSR system can be separated into Plug Flow Reactor (PFR) and Continuous Stirred-Tank Reactor (CSTR) based CEs. By combining CE curves of RSR system with the attainable region boundary curves, optimal operating conditions of RSR system for maximal total yield can be conveniently determined. Besides consecutive reaction, application of CE for RSR system can also be extended to other kinds of complex reaction processes. IPC Code: B01J |
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873 |
Enhancing the availability and reliability of power
plants through macroergonomics approach
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This paper describes an integrated macroergonomics model for
operation and maintenance of power plants. Statistical tests on questionnaire
survey data shows the importance of total human factors on job pressure. An
integrated approach based on interview methods, questionnaires, information
flow analysis and anthropometric and environmental assessment is discussed.
The integrated approach provides detailed knowledge about ergonomics,
management and safety conditions of power plants. Highlight of this study is
the employment of a total system approach based on integration of the
traditional human factors engineering and macroergonomics considerations. The
approach of this study is applied to an advanced thermal power plant. |
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879 |
Balanced scorecard for performance evaluation of
R&D organization: A conceptual model
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Research and Development has been recognized as most important for future competitiveness to survive in this competitive and highly turbulent environment. A huge amount of money and other resources are being deployed in R&D by government as well as private organizations. A major consideration is required on performance improvement that needs to continuously evaluate the performance of R&D in line with vision and strategy of the organization. This paper deals with evaluating the performance of R&D organizations from four perspectives (financial, customers’, innovative and learning, and internal business processes) using the balanced scorecard technique. |
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887 |
Four legged walking robot control using neural
networks
Şahin
Yıldırım |
This paper presents neural network (NN) control of planar four-legged walking robot. The control system consists of a neural controller, standard PD controller and walking robot. Proposed NN is employed as an inverse controller of the robot. In addition to feedforward connections from the input layer to the hidden layer and from the hidden layer to the output layer, there is also feedback connection from the output layer to the hidden layer and from the hidden layer to itself. The reason to use hybrid layer is that robot's dynamics consists of linear and non-linear parts. The results show good performance of the proposed neural and control schemes.
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894 |
A new approach to
determination of compressive strength of fly ash concrete using fuzzy logic
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In
this study, determination of effect of fly ash (FA) content on the
compressive strength of concrete depending on water/cement ratio and concrete
age was investigated by use of fuzzy logic (FL) approach. In the approach of
modelling with FL, compressive strength values of various sample of concrete
that produced by replacement of cement by F class of FA by ratio of 0
(control), 10%, 20% and 30% were used. Water/binder ratio of these concrete
samples was varied between 0.27-0.60 in six different values. Experimental
compressive strength values of the concrete specimens at 3, 7, 28, 90, 180
and 365 days compared with FL values obtained using the fuzzy sets. Optimum
FA content and water/binder ratio for the best compressive strength for early
age and hardened concrete can be obtained with FL. IPC Code: B01F3/80 |
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S & T and Industrial
Research |
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900 |
Comparison of pipelined IEEE-754
standard floating point multiplier with unpipelined multiplier
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The IEEE-754 standard floating point multiplier that provides highly precise computations to achieve high throughput and low area on the IC have been improved by insertion of pipelining technique. Floating point multiplier-using pipelining has been simulated, analyzed and its superiority over traditional designs is discussed. To achieve pipelining, one must subdivide the input process into sequence subtasks, each of which can be executed by specialized hardware stage that operates concurrently with other stages in the pipeline without the need of extra computing units. Detailed synthesis and simulation report operated upon Xilinx ISE 5.2i and Modelsim software is given. Hardware design is implemented on Virtex FPGA chips. |
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905 |
Ultrasonic
velocity and acoustical parameters of poly (4, 4’-cyclo-hexylidene
diphenyloxy-4, 4’-diphenylenesulfone) solutions at different temperatures R R
Amrutia, N M Mehta, F D Karia & |
Density, viscosity and ultrasonic velocity of pure solvents and PES-C [poly (4,4’–cyclohexylidene diphenyloxy-4,4’-diphenylene sulfone)] solutions and various thermodynamic parameters have been investigated at three different temperatures (30, 35 and 40°C) and correlated with concentration. A fairly good to excellent correlation between a given parameter and concentration has been observed in various solvent systems (chloroform, 1,2-dichloroethane, tetrahydrofuran and 1,4-dioxane) at all the three temperatures. Linear or nonlinear increase or decrease of thermodynamic parameters with concentration and temperature supported existence of strong molecular interactions in solutions. PES-C has structure-forming tendency in solvent systems studied as supported by positive values of solvation number. Structural modification is observed especially in 1,2-dichloroethane system above 2% concentration. IPC Code: G01N30/52 |
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912 |
Design of pilot plant for the production of essential
oil from Eucalyptus leaves
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Study presents design,
construction and test run of a pilot plant for the production of essential
oils (0.864 l/h) from Eucalyptus
leaves. Analysis shows that the rate at which steam passes through the leaf
bed may deviate from linear relationship to curve depending on the loading
capacity. An oil/leave production rate of 3.0x10-2ml/g was
obtained. In designing pilot plant, tank still has a dimension of 0.45 m diam
and length of 1.65 m. Packed bed height was 0.565 m with an expected pressure
head loss of 0.013 m. Overall heat transfer coefficient was calculated as
176.12W/m2 °C. The condenser has a heat load of 4970 kJ/s
requiring a cooling water flow rate of 0.047 kg/sec. IPC Code: C11B1/04
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916 |
Pharmacognostic evaluation
of Curcuma haritha Linn Sharad Srivastava, Sanjay
Srivastava, |
Curcuma haritha Linn (Family: Zingiberaceae), a lesser-known medicinal zingiber, is wildly distributed in Kerala. It is common throughout the costal regions and grows along with C. caesia and C. raktakanta, but is rarely found in high altitude grasslands. It is closely related to C. aromatica, but differs in the yellowish-grey, non-aromatic rhizome, leathery, semipilicate, erect leaves, white corolla and yellow tip with a median dark yellow band. It also resembles C. raktakanta but differs from it in having green puesdostem with light pink spots, white corolla lobes and swollen placenta. A paste of rhizome is useful externally for cuts, wounds, itching and in sprains. Pharmacognostic evaluation of its rhizome showed: total ash, 7.4; acid insoluble ash, 1.5; alcohol soluble extractives, 8.50; water soluble extractives, 19.50; sugar, 5.11; starch, 42.88 and tannins, 1.78%. On hydro distillation, rhizomes and sessile tubers yield oil (0.58%). |
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921 |
Flow characteristics of an annular gas turbine
combustor model for reacting flows using CFD
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Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) approach can reduce the expenses as well as time to provide an insight into the characteristics of flow and combustion process inside combustion chamber at design stage. Geometry of combustor simulated for present investigation is a 45° sector of an annular combustor. Primary, secondary and dilution holes are simulated on the inner and outer liner walls with swirler being placed at the center of the liner dome. Flow has been analyzed in the annulus region. The results are fed as input for the flow analysis in the liner. Uniform velocity distribution is obtained in the annulus passage around the liner. For the liner flow, it is observed that on moving axially from nozzle to outlet, velocity and temperature contours become more uniform and symmetric in circumferential plane. Mass fraction of CH4 and O2 decreases whereas concentration of CO2, NO and H2O increases in the axial direction (nozzle to outlet). IPC Code: F15D1/00; G09B23/08
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Waste Treatment and Utilization |
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935 |
Comparative evaluation of natural adsorbent for pollutants removal from distillery spent wash
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Adsorption capacity of three
different adsorbents (activated charcoal, fly ash and wood ash) has been
tested and compared for the removal of various pollutants and heavy metals
from distillery-spent wash. Adsorption was brought about at polyhouse
conditions and the changes in pH, colour, COD, TS, TDS, TSS, Ca, Mg, Na, K
and heavy metals (Cu, Zn, Fe) of distillery effluent using various adsorbents
has been examined. Activated charcoal was found to be best adsorbent followed
by fly ash and wood ash.
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Book Review |
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939 |
Membrane
Technology and Applications |
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Author-Reader Platform
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942 |
Instructions to contributors |
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Author Index