Estimation of drying rate constant from static bed moisture profile by neural network inversion

This study aims at extracting a mathematical expression for describing the moisture loss kinetics from grains dried in the form of a static bed, based on a measured grain moisture profile across the bed, and validating its reliability in predicting the drying times.  The target expression for moisture transfer is the Lewis equation with Arrhenius type dependence of the drying rate constant on temperature, thereby reducing the problem to the determination of two coefficients (i.e., Ea and K0) for the drying rate constant.  The scheme of numerical solution of the non-equilibrium model of the deep bed drying process is represented as a trained neural network, with the values of the coefficients as inputs and the sum squared error (SSE) in the prediction of moisture content at various bed depths as the output.  Training data for the neural network were generated for static bed drying of barley at an airflow rate of 638 kg/m2·h.  The two coefficients were estimated by inversion of the trained neural network.  The derived expression for drying rate constant was found to give a better prediction of the drying time and drying air temperature profiles at different experimental runs with air flow rates close to 638 kg/m2·h.  It underlines the fact that grain moisture loss kinetics, extracted from a known moisture profile across the static bed can reliably be used to predict the batch drying time.   Keywords: static bed drying, non-equilibrium model, drying rate constant, bed moisture profile, neural network inversion, sum squared erro

A competitive enzyme immunoassay for the quantitative detection of cocaine from banknotes and latent fingermarks

A sensitive and versatile competitive enzyme immunoassay (cEIA) has been developed for the quantitative detection of cocaine in complex forensic samples. Polyclonal anti-cocaine antibody was purified from serum and deposited onto microtiter plates. The concentration of the cocaine antibody adsorbed onto the plates, and the dilution of the cocaine-HRP hapten were both studied to achieve an optimised immunoassay. The method was successfully used to quantify cocaine in extracts taken from both paper currency and latent fingermarks. The limit of detection (LOD) of 0.162 ng mL-1 achieved with the assay compares favourably to that of conventional chromatography-mass spectroscopy techniques, with an appropriate sensitivity for the quantification of cocaine at the low concentrations present in some forensic samples. The cEIA was directly compared to LC-MS for the analysis of ten UK banknote samples. The results obtained from both techniques were statistically similar, suggesting that the immunoassay was unaffected by cross-reactivity with potentially interfering compounds. The cEIA was used also for the detection of cocaine in extracts from latent fingermarks. The results obtained were compared to the cocaine concentrations detected in oral fluid sampled from the same individual. Using the cEIA, we have shown, for the first time, that endogeneously excreted cocaine can be detected and quantified from a single latent fingermark. Additionally, it has been shown that the presence of cocaine, at similar concentrations, in more than one latent fingermark from the same individual can be linked with those concentrations found in oral fluid. These results show that detection of drugs in latent fingermarks could directly indicate whether an individual has consumed the drug. The specificity and feasibility of measuring low concentrations of cocaine in complex forensic samples demonstrates the effectiveness and robustness of the assay. The immunoassay presents a simple and cost-effective alternative to the current mass spectrometry based techniques for the quantitation of cocaine at forensically significant concentrations

Decision Making in Optimizing a Product of a Small Scale Industry: A Bayesian Analysis Approach

This paper intends to find Expected monetary value (EMV), Expected opportunity loss (EOL) and conditional profit of the main product (Mukta) of a small scale industry–“ORGAMAN” situated at Jorhat District of Assam. To meet the above specific objectives, the method of Bayesian Analysis has been adopted. The data used in this endeavor is secondary in nature, collected by direct personal investigation. As per prior information, the target of the industry is to produce a minimum of 50 MT (low production) of product and a maximum of 350 MT (high production) of the same per month. The prior analysis reveals that the expected monetary value and expected opportunity loss are optimum against high production. Based on both the prior analysis and posterior analysis, it is observed that the profit for the product of the industry is maximum against high production of 350 MT per month. Although, the profit based on posterior analysis is slightly high, it seems that the additional amount of money has to be spend to collect additional information for posterior analysis

Near room-temperature colossal magnetodielectricity and multiglass properties in partially-disordered La2NiMnO6

We report magnetic, dielectric and magnetodielectric responses of pure monoclinic bulk phase of partially-disordered La2NiMnO6, exhibiting a spectrum of unusual properties and establish that this system intrinsically is a true multiglass with a large magnetodielectric coupling (8-20%) over a wide range of temperatures (150 - 300 K). Specifically, our results establish a unique way to obtain colossal magnetodielectricity, independent of any striction effects, by engineering the asymmetric hopping contribution to the dielectric constant via the tuning of the relative spin orientations between neighboring magnetic ions in a transition metal oxide system. We discuss the role of anti-site (Ni-Mn) disorder in emergence of these unusual properties.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, Slightly revised version of previous article in condmat: arXiv:1202.4319v

Primary pleomorphic adenoma of minor salivary gland in the parapharyngeal space

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>World literature suggests parapharyngeal space lesions account for only 0.5% head and neck tumours and the majority of the minor salivary gland tumours are malignant. The parapharyngeal space is very rare site for this tumour.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>Two cases of primary pleomorphic adenomas arising <it>de novo </it>from minor salivary glands in the para pharyngeal space are reported. Review of literature, clinical features, pathology, radiological findings and treatment of these tumours are discussed.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Pleomorphic adenoma arising de novo in the parapharyngeal space is of rare occurrence. High index of suspicion and an adequate clearance of the tumour with a cuff of surrounding dispensable normal tissues is the key to successful treatment of such tumours.</p

Elyyal oleate synthesis by Porcine pancreatic lypase in organic solvent

The Porcine pancreatic lipase catalysed esterification of oleic acid with ethanol was studied in 10 different solvents with constant initial water content in the reaction mixture. The initial rates of the esterification reaction were attempted to correlate with such solvent properties as hydrophobicity (log P), water solubility (Sw), dielectric constant, electron pair acceptance and donation index (expressed as EN T + DNN), polarisability etc. While significantly good linear correlations with log P and log Sw were obtained, the correlations with the other properties were found to be inferior. The kinetics of the reactions was found to conform to the so-called Ping-Pong-Bi-Bi model with ethanol inhibition effect and the estimated model parameters exhibited statistically significant correlation with log P consistent to its correlation with the initial rate. Assuming that organic solvents do not interfere with the lipase–substrate binding process nor with the catalytic mechanism, the contribution of substrate–solvent interactions to enzyme kinetics was accounted for by replacing the substrate concentrations of the intrinsic kinetic equations by thermodynamic activities. The values of the corrected intrinsic parameters (Km, ksp) and the maximal rate (Vmax) were found to be nearly equal for all the medi

Electric and magnetic polarizabilities of hexagonal Ln2CuTiO6 (Ln=Y, Dy, Ho, Er and Yb)

We investigated the rare-earth transition metal oxide series, Ln2CuTiO6 (Ln=Y, Dy, Ho, Er and Yb), crystallizing in the hexagonal structure with non-centrosymmetric P63cm space group for possible occurrences of multiferroic properties. Our results show that while these compounds, except Ln=Y, exhibit a low temperature antiferromagnetic transition due to the ordering of the rare-earth moments, the expected ferroelectric transition is frustrated by the large size difference between Cu and Ti at the B-site. Interestingly, this leads these compounds to attain a rare and unique combination of desirable paraelectric properties with high dielectric constants, low losses and weak temperature and frequency dependencies. First-principles calculations establish these exceptional properties result from a combination of two effects. A significant difference in the MO5 polyhedral sizes for M = Cu and M = Ti suppress the expected co-operative tilt pattern of these polyhedra, required for the ferroelectric transition, leading to relatively large values of the dielectric constant for every compound investigated in this series. Additionally, it is shown that the majority contribution to the dielectric constant arises from intermediate-frequency polar vibrational modes, making it relatively stable against any temperature variation. Changes in the temperature stability of the dielectric constant amongst different members of this series are shown to arise from changes in relative contributions from soft polar modes.Comment: Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. B (21 pages, 2 Table, 8 Figures