Textural and magnetic properties of cross-rolled silicon steels

Silicon steels are widely used for their electrical applications in motors, generators, small transformer cores due to their high permeability, low core losses and their uniform magnetic properties in all directions of the material. The major processing steps involved for the production of silicon steels are hot rolling, cold rolling and annealing. The processing steps largely affect the texture of these steels which subsequently improves the electrical properties of these steels. The objective of the present study is to investigate the cross-rolling effect on texture development of silicon steels and its magnetic/electrical properties. X- ray Diffraction (XRD) method is carried out on the sample to understand the textural development. PC based Pulse Field Hysteresis Loop Tester is used to estimate the magnetic properties. It is observed that the steels have improved textural and magnetic properties

Experimental investigation and optimisation in EDM process of AISI P20 tool steel

Electro Discharge Machining (EDM) is an extremely prominent machining process among newly developed non -traditional machining techniques for “difficult to machine” conducting materials such as heat treated tool steels, composites, super alloys, ceramics, hastelloys, nitralloy, nemonic alloys, carbides, heat resistant steels etc. In EDM, the material removal of the electrode is achieved through high frequency sparks between the tool and the work-piece immersed into the dielectric. The Material Removal Rate (MRR), Tool Wear Rate (TWR) and surface integrity are some of the important performance attributes of EDM process. The objective of EDM is to get high MRR along with achieving reasonably good surface quality of machined component.The machining parameters that achieve the highest MRR strongly depend on the size of the machining surface i.e. the engaged electrode and work-piece surface.With upcoming worldwide applications of AISI P20 machining has become an important issue which needs to be investigated in detail. The AISI P20 steel is applied by the tooling industry as material for injection molding tools. These steel are categorized as “difficult to machine” materials, since they posses greater strength and toughness. Therefore, AISI P20 steel is usually known to create major challenges during conventional and non- conventional machining.Keeping this in view, an experimental investigation to explore the productivity, quality, surface integrity, and accuracy on the EDM surface. The work has been carried out by conducting a set of experiments using AISI P20 tool steel work-piece with copper electrode. Important machining parameters like Discharge current (Ip), Pulse on Time(Ton), Pulse off Time (Toff ), Lift Time (Tup) and Work Time (Tw) are considered for investigation. The effect of the machining parameters on the responses such as MRR, TWR, Surface Roughness (SR), and Micro hardness were investigated. Now-a-days optimization and modeling of EDM process is a highly demanding r

Popularization of organic chilli cultivation in the Eastern Ghat high land zone of Odisha, India

The present study was conducted in the Koraput district of Odisha in India during 2012-13 and 2013-14 under National Horticulture Mission for popularization of organic chilli cultivation through frontline demonstrations.The green chilli yield of hybrid Guntur Hope varied from 5.0 t/ha to 6.67 t/ha in different FLD organic plots, where as it varied from 5.75 t/ha to 6.83t/ha in inorganic plots (Farmers Practice). The average yield in organic plots was 6.29 t/ha in comparison with average yield 6.52 t/ha of inorganic plots in farmers practice. The average cost of cultivation per ha of chilli on FLD plots was Rs.46, 100/- as against Rs. 43,400/- on inorganic plots (Farmers Practice). The cost of chilli cultivation in organic farming was comparatively higher than the conventional practice because of use of bio inputs in the field. However, the averages net return of Organic chilli in different FLD plots was Rs. 58,167/- in contrast to Rs. 43,107/- in inorganic chilli. The organic farming recorded higher net return than that of the Farmers Practice. The B:C ratio was found to be 1: 2.28 in Organic chilli and 1: 2.00 in Inorganic chilli. Organic chilli growers were highly satisfied with their organic production and economic return. Chilli farmers were advised to switch over to organic farming which can give high return and minimize environmental degradation

Application development for multicore processor

With multicore processors now in every computer, server, and embedded device, the need for cost-effective, reliable parallel software has never been greater. The efficiency of single core processors does not match the necessary levels for the development of applications

Cholinergic cells in the nucleus basalis of mice express the N-methyl-D-aspartate-receptor subunit NR2C and its replacement by the NR2B subunit enhances frontal and amygdaloid acetylcholine levels

It is known that glutamatergic and cholinergic systems interact functionally at the level of the cholinergic basal forebrain. The N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDA-R) is a multiprotein complex composed of NR1, NR2 and/or NR3 subunits. The subunit composition of NMDA-R of cholinergic cells in the nucleus basalis has not yet been investigated. Here, by means of choline acetyl transferase and NR2B or NR2C double staining, we demonstrate that mice express both the NR2C and NR2B subunits in nucleus basalis cholinergic cells.We generated NR2C-2B mutant mice in which an insertion of NR2B cDNA into the gene locus of the NR2C gene replaced NR2C by NR2B expression throughout the brain. This NR2C-2B mutant was used to examine whether a subunit exchange in cholinergic neurons would affect acetylcholine (ACh) content in several brain structures. We found increased ACh levels in the frontal cortex and amygdala in the brains of NR2C-2B mutant mice. Brain ACh has been implicated in neuroplasticity, novelty-induced arousal and encoding of novel stimuli. We therefore assessed behavioral habituation to novel environments and objects as well as object recognition in NR2C-2B subunit exchange mice. The behavioral analysis did not indicate any gross behavioral alteration in the mutant mice compared with the wildtype mice. Our results show that the NR2C by NR2B subunit exchange in mice affects ACh content in two target areas of the nucleus basalis.

The Characteristics of Glued Tensile Shear Strength Constituted of Wood Cut by CO2 Laser

The performance of engineered wood products is highly associated with proper bonding and an efficient cutting method. This paper investigates the influence of CO2 laser cutting on the wetting properties, the modified chemical component of the laser-cut surface, and the strength and adhesive penetration near the bondline. Beechwood is cut by the laser with varying processing parameters, cutting speeds, gas pressures, and focal point positions. The laser-cut samples were divided into two groups, sanded and non-sanded samples. Polyvinyl acetate adhesive (PVAc) was used to bond the groups of laser-cut samples. After assembly with cold pressing, the tensile shear test was carried out. Numerical modelling was carried out to determine the partial elongation and shear strain of the glue line. Based on this, the shear modulus and linear elasticity of the glue line were estimated. Scanning electron microscopy was used to assess the adhesive penetration into the porosity structure of the laser-cut samples, and the depth of the heat-affected zone. The laser-cut surface was analysed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The wetting properties of the laser-cut surface were investigated by using a contact angle goniometer. The numerical model of the strain-stress curve confirmed the experimental model. The highest modulus of the linear elasticity of the glue in the numerical calculation belongs to the joint containing laser-cut samples at a gas pressure of 21 (bar). The penetration depth of PVAc adhesive into the porosity structure of the laser-cut samples was similar to that of sawn samples. The deepest heat-affected zone in the laser-cut samples was 150 µm. A PVAc drop disappeared immediately on the laser-cut surface without sanding, but gradually on the sanded surface. In contrast, the drop on the sawn surface remained with an angle of 32°–48°. The degradation of hemicellulose and lignin was proven by the lower intensity of the C=O and C-O Bonds, compared to the sawn surface

Multilingual representations for low resource speech recognition and keyword search

© 2015 IEEE. This paper examines the impact of multilingual (ML) acoustic representations on Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) and keyword search (KWS) for low resource languages in the context of the OpenKWS15 evaluation of the IARPA Babel program. The task is to develop Swahili ASR and KWS systems within two weeks using as little as 3 hours of transcribed data. Multilingual acoustic representations proved to be crucial for building these systems under strict time constraints. The paper discusses several key insights on how these representations are derived and used. First, we present a data sampling strategy that can speed up the training of multilingual representations without appreciable loss in ASR performance. Second, we show that fusion of diverse multilingual representations developed at different LORELEI sites yields substantial ASR and KWS gains. Speaker adaptation and data augmentation of these representations improves both ASR and KWS performance (up to 8.7% relative). Third, incorporating un-transcribed data through semi-supervised learning, improves WER and KWS performance. Finally, we show that these multilingual representations significantly improve ASR and KWS performance (relative 9% for WER and 5% for MTWV) even when forty hours of transcribed audio in the target language is available. Multilingual representations significantly contributed to the LORELEI KWS systems winning the OpenKWS15 evaluation

Effect of Iron Therapy on Platelet Counts in Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease-Associated Anemia

Secondary thrombocytosis is a clinical feature of unknown significance. In inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), thrombocytosis is considered a marker of active disease; however, iron deficiency itself may trigger platelet generation. In this study we tested the effect of iron therapy on platelet counts in patients with IBD-associated anemia.Platelet counts were analyzed before and after iron therapy from four prospective clinical trials. Further, changes in hemoglobin, transferrin saturation, ferritin, C-reactive protein, and leukocyte counts, before and after iron therapy were compared. In a subgroup the effect of erythropoietin treatment was tested. The results were confirmed in a large independent cohort (FERGIcor).A total of 308 patient records were available for the initial analysis. A dose-depended drop in platelet counts (mean 425 G/L to 320 G/L; p<0.001) was found regardless of the type of iron preparation (iron sulphate, iron sucrose, or ferric carboxymaltose). Concomitant erythropoietin therapy as well as parameters of inflammation (leukocyte counts, C-reactive protein) had no effect on the change in platelet counts. This effect of iron therapy on platelets was confirmed in the FERGIcor study cohort (n=448, mean platelet counts before iron therapy: 383 G/L, after: 310 G/L, p<0.001).Iron therapy normalizes elevated platelet counts in patients with IBD-associated anemia. Thus, iron deficiency is an important pathogenetic mechanism of secondary thrombocytosis in IBD

Genetic diversity analysis in the section Caulorrhizae (genus Arachis) using microsatellite markers

Diversity in 26 microsatellite loci from section Caulorrhizae germplasm was evaluated by using 33 accessions of A. pintoi Krapov. & W.C. Gregory and ten accessions of Arachis repens Handro. Twenty loci proved to be polymorphic and a total of 196 alleles were detected with an average of 9.8 alleles per locus. The variability found in those loci was greater than the variability found using morphological characters, seed storage proteins and RAPD markers previously used in this germplasm. The high potential of these markers to detect species-specific alleles and discriminate among accessions was demonstrated. The set of microsatellite primer pairs developed by our group for A. pintoi are useful molecular tools for evaluating Section Caulorrhizae germplasm, as well as that of species belonging to other Arachis sections