Status of woolly aphid Ceratovacuna lanigera and establishment of the parasitoid Encarsia flavoscutellum in sugarcane germplasm

Woolly aphid Ceratovacuna lanigera Zehntner (Hemiptera: Aphididae), a native of north-eastern India, appeared in the world sugarcane germplasm maintained at the ICAR-Sugarcane Breeding Institute Research Center (ICAR-SBIRC), Kannur, Kerala State, India, first in 2004. The aphid colonized Indian hybrids and accessions of Saccharum officinarum, Saccharum sinense, Saccharum robustum and Saccharum barberi in the first year of occurrence and every year thereafter. Early detection and spot application of insecticide were adopted to manage the aphid and protect germplasm. Soap solution was applied in the later years to conserve the predators Dipha aphidivora Metrics (Lepidoptera:Pyralidae) and Micromus sp. (Neuroptera: Hemerobiidae) that occurred intermittently. The parasitoid Encarsia flavoscutellum Zehntner (Hymenoptera: Aphelenidae) maintained at Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu State, India, was released in the germplasm thrice, i.e. in January 2009, November 2014 and June 2015. Post-release, E. flavoscutellum parasitism was detected first during April-June 2015 at low levels (2.0- 3.5%). Clear-cut evidence of establishment was witnessed during September-October 2021 when aphids showed a high 27.0% parasitism. Since E. flavoscutellum was found to regulate populations of woolly aphid wherever it established, it is expected to reach similar equilibrium with the aphid in the germplasm, D. aphidivora and Micromus sp. playing a complementary role at high aphid densities. However, continuous monitoring of aphid and natural enemies, and use of safer emergency control measures would go a long way in maintaining the germplasm free from woolly aphid

Big data analytics for gas turbines

Advisors: Abhijit Gupta.Committee members: Sanjib Basu; Jenn-Terng Gau.Gas turbines have many important variables such as the load, turbine speed, fuel gas flow, and inlet and outlet pressures. The volume, velocity, variability and complexity of the data from various sensors are huge. Monitoring of gas turbines consequently needs big data analytics which is the process of collecting, organizing and analyzing large data sets. The need for big data analytics stems from the need to increase the efficiency, improve operations and predict various trends and comment on the performance. Big data implies that the data sets are too large to be analyzed or even viewed by conventional methods and software. The gas turbine data set is a time series data.;In this thesis, a large data set from gas turbines is first made readable by converting it into the CSV format, as it is beyond the dimensional capability of Microsoft excel. The data is then analyzed using various statistical tools such as R-software. Combustion instabilities have been observed in the units and units with high dynamics have been determined. Data quality issues and missing data were observed. The limits of the blade path temperature spreads have been determined and the correlation of operational parameters were determined. Principle.;Component analysis was performed to reduce the dimensionality of the data and observe health of the gas turbine operation in terms of dynamic behavior.M.S. (Master of Science

Cartouche: Conventions for tangibles bridging diverse interactive systems

We describe an approach for a class of tangible interaction elements that are applicable across a broad variety of interactive systems. These tangibles share certain physical, visual, tagging, and software conventions, while fostering diversity in many aspects of design and function. Building on related techniques using paper and graspable artifacts as interactive embodiments of digital information, we propose several fixed and free parameters, present illustrative examples and applications, and discuss the resulting design space. Copyright 2010 ACM