Storage characteristics of solar-dried Indian mackerel

Fresh Rastrelliger kanagurta (Indian mackerel) was thoroughly washed, eviscerated, cleaned and salted overnight with dry salt (fish : salt :: 5:1). Salted mackerel was dried in solar drier and on cement floor under direct sun for three days. The temperature inside the drier was 948°C higher than the ambient temperature. The rate of drying was higher in solar drier than on cement floor. The dried fish packed in 300-gauge polythene bags was subjected to biochemical, microbiological and organoleptic evaluation at regular intervals to assess the storage life. The overall quality of fish dried in solar drier was better than that of the fish dried on cement floor under direct sun

Variación en la morfología de semillas y parámetros de aceites seleccionados de lilas india (Azadirachta indica A. Juss.) de diferentes zonas agroclimáticas de Tamil Nadu, India

Tamil Nadu, in southern India, has the second-largest number of neem trees in the country. The oil from the seeds has high economic significance for cottage industries in the region. This paper examines 28 Candidate Plus Trees (CPTs) selected from six agroclimatic zones in Tamil Nadu which exhibit exceptional traits such as superior growth and other desirable characteristics. We aimed to understand seed morphology variations and physicochemical properties in the oil across different regions. Significant differences were observed for morphometric traits. Fruit production correlated negatively with rainfall. 100-seed kernel weight and seed length correlated with oil percentage. Rainfall influenced seed breadth and pericarp weight. Clustering using morphological characters did not group genotypes from the same region; while soil type could distinguish them. Correlation helped us determine the prominent features which influence the traits of interest, which can be useful for breeding programs, cultivation practices, and the development of neem-based products in Tamil Nadu and beyond.Tamil Nadu, en el sur de la India, tiene el segundo mayor número de árboles de lilas india del país. El aceite de las semillas tiene una gran importancia económica para las industrias artesanales de la región. En este trabajo se examinan 28 árboles Candidate Plus (CPT) seleccionados de seis zonas agroclimáticas en Tamil Nadu, que exhiben rasgos excepcionales como un crecimiento superior y otras características deseables. Nuestro objetivo era comprender las variaciones de la morfología de las semillas y las propiedades fisicoquímicas del aceite en diferentes regiones. Se observaron diferencias significativas para los rasgos morfométricos. La producción de frutos se correlacionó negativamente con las precipitaciones. El peso de 100 semillas y granos y la longitud de la semilla se correlacionaron con el porcentaje de aceite. Las lluvias influyeron en el ancho de la semilla y el peso del pericarpio. El agrupamiento utilizando caracteres morfológicos no agrupó genotipos de una misma región, mientras que el tipo de suelo pudo distinguirlos. La correlación nos ayudó a diseccionar las características prominentes que influyen en las características de interés, que pueden informar los programas de reproducción, las prácticas de cultivo y el desarrollo de productos a base de neem en Tamil Nadu y más allá

An FPGA based Efficient Fruit Recognition System Using Minimum Distance Classifier

The paper deals with a simple yet effective fruit identification system developed on an FPGA, SPARTAN 3(XC3S200-5PQ208) platform .The fruits under consideration were apple, banana, sapodilla and strawberry. Out of these selected fruits there were four different classes of apples, two different classes of sapodillas and one class each of the other two fruits. A total of 800 color images, 200 images of each fruit of size 64x64 were used for training. The fruit identification success rate mainly depends on the feature vector and the Classifier used. The 3D feature vector incorporates two first order statistical features and the shape feature. Using the 3D feature vector the MATLAB analysis of The Minimum Distance Classifier (MID) fetched a success rate of 85%.The Verilog coded Hardware platform was developed by burning the COE file of a Test image generated by JAVA ECLIPSE IDE onto the IP core. The MATLAB results were verified using the Hardware Platform. Keywords: RGB image, feature vector, MID, Verilog, FPGA, IP core, COE file

Multi-scale modelling to estimate spall parameters in metallic single crystals

Modeling dynamics fracture in materials involves usage of hydrodynamic codes which solve basic conservation laws of mass, energy and momentum in space and time. This requires appropriate models to handle elastic-plastic deformation, equation of state, material strength, and fracture. Nucleation and Growth (NAG) damage model is a micro-physical model which computes amount of damage in the material by accounting for phenomena like nucleation, growth and coalescence of voids or cracks. The NAG model involves several material model parameters, such as nucleation threshold, growth threshold, etc. Traditionally these parameters are fitted to experimental void volume distributions. In the present paper we fit these parameters to molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of void nucleation and growth and use the fitted parameters in hydrodynamic simulations in a multi-scale computational approach. Cubic metallic single crystals are subjected to isotropic deformation and the nucleation of voids and their growth were post-processed from the simulations. These results are used in an in-house Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) code to obtain NAG parameters for materials of our interest. Using these parameters in a 1D hydrodynamic code developed in-house, fracture parameters such as spall strength and thickness are obtained. The results are validated with published experimental data for Mo, Nb and Cu which have been simulated using the multi-scale model. This paper describes the application of the multi-scale model to obtain the NAG fracture model parameters of Al and its spall data. The results are compared with published experimental results in single crystal Al.Comment: 8 pages, 10 figures, 2 table

Synthesis of a model of the spiroketal portion of avermectin B

Avermectin Bia is a member of a class of medicinally important natural products known for its potent antiparasitic activity and interesting structural features. In this thesis, synthesis of a model for the spiroketal portion of the avermectins is presented. Oxidation of (S)-2-methylbutanol, followed by a stereoselective chromium mediated reaction with crotyl bromide, gave (3S,4R15S)-3,5- dimethy1-1-hepten-4-ol as the major isomer. After investigating a variety of protecting groups, the alcohol was masked as a t- butyldimethylsilyl ether and subsequent ozonolytic cleavage of the vinyl group afforded the corresponding aldehyde. Reaction of this aldehyde with carbon tetrabromide and triphenylphosphine resulted in its homologation to a dibromoolefin, which underwent elimination with butyllithium to yield (3S,4R15S)-4-t-butyldimethylsiloxy-3 5-dimethy1-1- heptyne. Selective protection of the primary alcohol of R-(-)-1,3- butanediol as its 214,6-triisopropylbenzenesulfonate, followed by the acetylation of the secondary alcohol, provided (2R)-4-(2,416- triisopropylbenzenesulfonyloxy)-2-acetoxybutane. The latter was converted to the corresponding iodide which, when treated with lithium diisopropylamide, cyclized to (R)-S-caprolactone. Alkylation of the S-lactone with either the dibromoolefin or the alkyne after treatment with butyllithium, followed by reaction with methanol on Amberlite ion exchange resin, gave (2RS16R)-2- [(3S,4R15S)-4-t-butyldimethylsiloxy-3,5-dimethyl-l-heptynyl]-2-methoxy -6-methyltetrahydropyran. Deprotection, and then Lindlar hydrogenation of this compound with an acidic workup led to the formation of the target compound (2R13S16R18R)-318-dimethy1-2f(1S)-1-methylpropy11- 1,7-dioxaspiro[5.5]undec-4-ene

A SOAR-based computational model of mechanical design

Considerable progress ha been made in Computer-Aided Design (CAD) techniques to assist Mechanical Engineers in the detail design stages and adaptive redesign tasks. Currently, CAD tools support the designer in system layouts, sizing of components, drafting, analytical calculations, generating NC machining data and even motion or energy simulations. However, the more critical tasks of conceptual and early layout design have not been facilitated by these computer tools. The primary reason for this is the lack of understanding of the mechanical design process and what actually goes on in the designers' mind in these stages. An empirical approach to studying the mental processes of designers, using protocol analysis, was recently undertaken by Ullman, Stauffer, and Dietterich. The work described in this paper attempts to translate some results of that study of mechanical engineering designers to a more formal and detailed level by building a computational model of the design process. The main contribution of the present work is a control structure for the design model proposed by the protocol study. A computational model of Design, even at an incomplete level, can take us closer to an understanding of the Design Process. For the construction of such a model, it is required to formalize the knowledge involved, the processes, and their interconnections. Like any expert system knowledge base, the pieces of domain knowledge (separate from the control knowledge) used in design have to be identified. The difficulties in building such a model can help to bring forth the deficiencies in the protocol analysis method and suggest improvements. The model can serve as a basis for testing representation techniques for the design knowledge and assessing their adequacy. Similarly, appropriate software architectures needed for incorporating the control strategy of the design process can be studied or developed. The control structure of design, used for the computer model can be refined with further empirical studies. It could be used as a basis to verify and represent future protocol analyses and other design methodology studies. Once a competent theory of design methodology is developed, computer algorithms and other tools can be formulated to support the routine parts of conceptual design. There could be better integration of CAD systems and design knowledge. CAD systems could be made more productive by understanding the intentions of the designer, detecting errors, suggesting alternatives, and answering design queries. Progress made towards such a formal model may also have potential applications in other fields of Engineering

Pro-apoptotic and anti-cancer properties of diosgenin: A comprehensive and critical review

© 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Novel and alternative options are being adopted to combat the initiation and progression of human cancers. One of the approaches is the use of molecules isolated from traditional medicinal herbs, edible dietary plants and seeds that play a pivotal role in the prevention/treatment of cancer, either alone or in combination with existing chemotherapeutic agents. Compounds that modulate these oncogenic processes are potential candidates for cancer therapy and may eventually make it to clinical applications. Diosgenin is a naturally occurring steroidal sapogenin and is one of the major bioactive compounds found in dietary fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum) seeds. In addition to being a lactation aid, diosgenin has been shown to be hypocholesterolemic, gastro-and hepato-protective, anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-diabetic, and anti-cancer. Diosgenin has a unique structural similarity to estrogen. Several preclinical studies have reported on the pro-apoptotic and anti-cancer properties of diosgenin against a variety of cancers, both in in vitro and in vivo. Diosgenin has also been reported to reverse multi-drug resistance in cancer cells and sensitize cancer cells to standard chemotherapy. Remarkably, diosgenin has also been reported to be used by pharmaceutical companies to synthesize steroidal drugs. Several novel diosgenin analogs and nano-formulations have been synthesized with improved anti-cancer efficacy and pharmacokinetic profile. In this review we discuss in detail the multifaceted anti-cancer properties of diosgenin that have found application in pharmaceutical, functional food, and cosmetic industries; and the various intracellular molecular targets modulated by diosgenin that abrogate the oncogenic process