Design, Development and Testing of a Peeler Cum Cutter Machine for Tender Jackfruit

Jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus), is native to Southeast Asia. India is believed to be the land of Jackfruit and from centuries it has been play a significant role in Indian agriculture and culture. Jackfruit is widely distributed fruit crop in India. The young fruit is used as vegetable, which contain high amount of vitamins and minerals. Jackfruit is found to be a novel, highly nutritive and inexpensive edible fruit available in all parts of India including Odisha, Bihar and West Bengal. However, due to lack of proper processing technology the marketing and transportation of jackfruit is a challenge. Existing traditional practices results in higher cost of processing, because these are time consuming, labour intensive processes, low processing capacity. The physical and chemical properties of the product are helpful in planning and fabrication of equipment or structure for transportation, handling, processing, storing and even for value addition and quality control. The research was conducted on two varieties of tender jackfruit [hard (HV) and soft variety (SV)]. Based on maturity, the tender jackfruits were divided into four stages (i.e. Stage 1, 2, 3 and 4) and their physical, mechanical, chemical and textural properties were determined for both the varieties. Physical properties like weight, length, diameter, geometric mean and arithmetic mean diameter were increasing with the increase in size for both the varieties. There was a significant increase in TSS in both the varieties (HV: 1.5 ± 0.02 to 5.1 ± 0.03; SV: 2.7 ± 0.05 to 7.1 ± 0.05 oBrix) from stage 1 to 4 because of ripening of fruit (at level p<0.05 of significance). The hardness, fracturability and springiness increased with maturity but on the counterpart, there is a decrease in adhesiveness, cohesiveness, chewiness and gumminess. The nutritional properties and energy values were inevitably increased whereas vitamin content was decreased from stage 1 to 4 in both the varieties. Jackfruit peeling cum cutting machine was designed by using SolidWorks-2015 software and fabricated for tender jackfruit. It is capable of washing, peeling and cutting of tender jackfruit effectively. It can process all sizes of tender jackfruit with the effective throughput capacity of 25 kg/hr. All food contact parts of the machine are of Stainless Steel- Grade 304. The operating conditions such as forward speed of peeling arm, rotating speed of jackfruit and rotating speed of cutter were optimized for maximum efficiency of machine and minimum loss in processing of tender jackfruits. The processing activities like washing, sorting, peeling and cutting enhanced oxidative stress in fresh cut jackfruit during storage. Moreover, it also has the ill effects on quality of fresh-cut tender jackfruit with an increase in microbial contaminations, excessive tissue softening, and depletion of phytochemicals and browning during the storage. Hence, this study was conducted as a solution to the above problem. The synergistic effect of pre-treatment (i.e. blanching of peeled tender jackfruit slices in optimised conditions) with different storage conditions (i.e. room, refrigerated and freeze) with different packaging films (i.e. High density polyethylene, Low density polyethylene and Polypropylene) were determined. The packaging of jackfruit slices reportedly increase the shelf life of fresh-cut tender jackfruit slices. The modified atmospheric packaging was also used to increase the shelf life of fresh cut tender jackfruit slices. From the response variables, the best combination of independent variables resulted in 10% concentration of CO2 and 20% concentration of O2 for HDPE packaging film. At these conditions, the sample can be preserved for 15 days at 5±1°C and for 20 days at -18±1°C. However, during storage, changes in physicochemical properties of fresh cut tender jackfruit was related to change in its colour as well. Colorimeter measurements are best for the samples with homogeneous colour. However, for samples with non-homogenous colour or large size (like fruits and vegetables), the colorimeters are inappropriate and inaccurate.The aim for this study to quantify the amount of browning in fresh cut tender jackfruit slices by using image analysis technique and justified by comparing them with existing techniques like sensory examination, enzyme activity, and colorimeter. It can be concluded from the results that, rate of browning was rapid in fresh cut tender jackfruit slices in control and normally packed groups. Correlation co-efficient of 0.96, which showed that image analysis system is an accurate and highly consistent method to quantify the color of fruits and vegetables. The value for Return on investment (ROI) for the machine is 209.61%. Pay-back period of the investment is very less, i.e. 34 working days. Thus the fabricated machine can highly be considered due to lower operating cost with low breakeven point and very high return on investment. Cost of minimal processing and packaging of tender jackfruit slices is ₹3.46INR (0.05 US$) per kg

Soybean (Glycine max) Response to Imazosulfuron Drift and Carryover from Rice (Oryza sativa)

In the Midsouth, soybean is often grown in close proximity to rice or in rotation with rice. Herbicides used in rice can injure soybean via drift or carryover. Consequently, field trials were conducted to determine the response of soybean (cv. AG 4703) to imazosulfuron drift and carryover (at Fayetteville, Marianna, Keiser and Pine Tree, AR) from rice. To assess the potential for carryover, soybean was planted into rice fields treated the previous year with imazosulfuron (rotation study). To evaluate in-season sensitivity of soybean to imazosulfuron (tolerance study) relative to halosulfuron, a common sulfonylurea herbicide applied to rice, both imazosulfuron and halosulfuron were applied preemergence (PRE) at varying rates and soybean was immediately seeded into treated plots. For the drift study, imazosulfuron was applied at the VC, V2, V6, and R2 growth stages of soybean at 1/256 to 1/4 times (X) the labeled rate of imazosulfuron (336 g ai ha-1). To evaluate carryover potential, imazosulfuron was applied PRE to rice at 112 to 672 g ha-1for the rotation study; whereas for the tolerance study, imazosulfuron and halosulfuron were applied at 1/256 to 1/4X the labeled rate of imazosulfuron and halosulfuron (52 g ha-1). Soybean was highly sensitive to imazosulfuron drift, with injury (stunting and purple veins, typical of acetolactate synthase-inhibiting herbicides) resulting at all rates and application timings. At 2 weeks after treatment (2 WAT), topical application of the highest (1/4X) rate of imazosulfuron caused more than 73% injury at the VC application timing. Soybean recovered from the injury, with little to no injury observed from the lowest four rates of imazosulfuron applied at the VC and V2 growth stages by the end of the growing season. For the carryover trial at 2 weeks after planting (2 WAP), soybean exhibited 3 and 13% injury at Keiser and Pine Tree, respectively, when imazosulfuron was applied to rice the previous year at 672 g ha-1, a 2X rate. Injury to soybean was transient and not apparent by the end of the growing season. For the tolerance study, sulfonylurea-tolerant (STS) soybean was not injured. Moreover, no injury was observed on non-STS soybean by PRE-applied imazosulfuron or halosulfuron regardless of herbicide rate, and yield was comparable to the non-treated control. Results of this research indicate that imazosulfuron should be applied with extreme caution to rice as off-target movement will likely cause injury to non-STS soybean (cv. AG 4703) in adjacent fields and applications of imazosulfuron may carryover to non-STS (cv. AG 4703) soybean on silt loam soils having low organic matter and a high soil pH, especially in fields where overlap of an imazosulfuron spray occurred in the preceding rice crop. Under conditions conducive for imazosulfuron to injure soybean via off-target movement or carryover, planting of STS soybean is recommended to avoid possible risks of soybean injury

Inflation with an antisymmetric tensor field

We investigate the possibility of inflation with models of antisymmetric tensor field having minimal and nonminimal couplings to gravity. Although the minimal model does not support inflation, the nonminimal models, through the introduction of a nonminimal coupling to gravity, can give rise to stable de-Sitter solutions with a bound on the coupling parameters. The values of field and coupling parameters are sub-planckian. Slow roll analysis is performed and slow-roll parameters are defined which can give the required number of e-folds for sufficient inflation. Stability analysis has been performed for perturbations to antisymmetric field while keeping the metric unperturbed, and it is found that only the sub-horizon modes are free of ghost instability for de-Sitter space.Comment: 10 pages; minor correction to the claim of Sec. IV; to appear in EPJ

Exploring Post-Adoption Behavior of the UPI users with Cognitive and Affective Factors

The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has invested a sizable amount of money in the country's massive payment infrastructure in an effort to enhance the user experience. However, in order for investments to be profitable, NPCI must guarantee the ongoing use of technological solutions and post-adoptive behaviors like continuance and recommendation intention. The impact of cognitive factors (i.e. Performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influences, facilitating conditions; personal innovativeness) and affective factors (such as satisfaction) on conative factors (such as continuation and recommendation intention) in the perspective of UPI applications (apps) was investigated using the UTAUT model. Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modeling when applied on 651 users (PLS-SEM) showed that satisfaction had a direct impact on continuation intentions, which in turn had an impact on recommendations intentions. It was discovered that all cognitive factors, including performance expectations, effort expectations, and facilitating conditions, have an impact on satisfaction. According to the study, adding a significant individual difference variable—personal innovativeness with regard to information technology—would aid in our understanding of the role that these factors play in the development of continuous intention. It further examines the influence of trust and security, and the pace of innovation on continued intentions. Through the mediating function&nbsp; of user satisfaction, it also looked at the impact of performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating variable, and personal innovativeness on the continuance intentions of the UPI system. All factors have been shown to be significant. Future researchers will find it extremely helpful that the study used a validated instrument to better understand user adherence and referral intentions. Therefore, this study adds to the limited body of knowledge in the payment industry literature by examining how users perceive UPI apps and post-adoption behaviors

Medicine and surgery residents\u27 perspectives on the impact of COVID-19 on graduate medical education.

The COVID-19 crisis has had an unprecedented impact on resident education and well-being: social distancing guidelines have limited patient volumes and forced virtual learning, while personal protective equipment (PPE) shortages, school/daycare closures, and visa restrictions have served as additional stressors. Our study aimed to analyze the effects of COVID-19 crisis-related stressors on residents\u27 professional and personal lives. In April 2020, we administered a survey to residents at a large academic hospital system in order to assess the impact of the pandemic on residency training after \u3e6 weeks of a modified schedule. The primary outcome was to determine which factors or resident characteristics were related to stress during the pandemic. Our secondary goals were to examine which resident characteristics were related to survey responses. Data were analyzed with regression analyses. Ninety-six of 205 residents completed the survey (47% response rate). For our primary outcome, anxiety about PP

Design of Human Powered Directories using Mobile Agents

ABSTRACT The Internet is a worldwide mechanism for information dissemination, a medium for collaboration and communication between individuals and their computers from local to global scope. Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via Internet. Web contains billions of visible pages and it is not easy for a user to search for a specific web page. Search Engines help users to search for specific web page out of huge collection of pages. Human powered directories depend on humans to create a repository. In this paper we present use of mobile agents in designing Human powered directories

Effectiveness of a multicomponent school based intervention to reduce bullying among adolescents in Chandigarh, North India: A quasi-experimental study protocol

Background: Bullying perpetration and victimization is associated with significant academic, psychosocial and health related problems among adolescents. There is a need to develop effective interventions to prevent bullying among adolescents, especially in low and middle income countries. This paper presents the study protocol to develop, and evaluate the effect of multi-component school based prevention program for bullying in India. Design: Quasi-experimental study. Methods: The study will be conducted among 846 students of grade 7th and 8th in the intervention and control schools in Chandigarh, Union Territory, North India. A government and a private school will be selected purposively in each of the intervention and control arm. The intervention is based on socio-ecological model, and will be administered at individual, relationship (parents and teachers) and school level. The primary study outcome will be the proportion of students experiencing any kind of bullying (bullying, victimization, or both), in each study arm. The effectiveness of the intervention will be measured by performing difference in difference analysis and generalized estimating equations. Expected impact for public health: Bullying is an aggressive behaviour with significant morbidities, including psychological or physical trauma, affecting individuals not only in their adolescence, but also later in their adulthood. This quasi-experimental study is expected to provide evidence on whether multi-component bullying prevention intervention program, can reduce the burden of bullying perpetration and victimization among school adolescents in India. The results of the study will add in the exiting literature on bullying intervention program, especially, from the low middle-income countries, as there are limited studies available on this topic in these countries