Design and Fabrication of Densified Biomass Briquette Maker Machine

The project we designing & fabricating is to reduce the problems of Cutting Trees for fire logs. “Leaf Log Maker Machine” is designed to make dry leaves get compressed and made to logs as a fuel. Typically, dead leaves are dumped a lot in landfills and one of the problems with leaving wet leaves to decompose like this is that they give off methane 20 times more poisonous gas than carbon dioxide. In contrast, when leaves are burnt, they only give off the carbon they absorb while on the tree they add nothing extra to the environment. This machine is compact, easily accessible & eco-friendly. It can also able to compress wood wastes, papers & tin cans. This machine is to make fuels from the natural resources like dry leaves, instead of cutting them. This machine is easy to understand the operation to user. It had come over many changes and modifications within it

Production of Biodiesel using waste temple oil from Shani Shingnapur temple (Dist. Ahmednagar), Maharashtra, India using chemical and biological methods

In India, due to various mythological and religious reasons hundreds of devotees pour oil over the idols in Hanuman or Maruti and Shani temples. The oil once poured cannot be reutilized and was ultimately wasted. These waste temple oil from Shani Shingnapurwas used to produce biodiesel. Immobilized Pseudomonas aeruginosa was used to catalyze transesterification of waste temple oil. The cells of P.aeruginosa were immobilized within the sodium alginate. Biodiesel production and its applications were gaining popularity in recent years due to decreased petroleum based reserves. Biodiesel cost formed from waste temple oil was higher than that of fossil fuel, because of high raw material cost.To decrease the cost of biofuel, waste temple oil was used as alternative as feedstock. It has lower emission of pollutants; it is biodegradable and enhances engine lubricity. Waste temple oil contains triglycerides that were used for biodiesel production by chemical and biological method.Transesterification reaction of oil produces methyl esters that are substitutes for fatty acid alkyl biodiesel fuel. Characteristics of oil were studied such as specific gravity, viscosity, acid number, saponification number.Parameters such as temperature,oil: methanol ratio were studied and 88%, 96% of biodiesel yield was obtained with effect of temperature and oil: methanol ratio on transesterification reaction. Withaddition ofNaOH or KOH to fatty acids which formed salt known as soap,which is excellent emulsifying and cleaning agents

Situation based strategic positioning for coordinating a team of homogeneous agents

. In this paper we are proposing an approach for coordinating a team ofhomogeneous agents based on a flexible common Team Strategy as well as onthe concepts of Situation Based Strategic Positioning and Dynamic Positioningand Role Exchange. We also introduce an Agent Architecture including a specifichigh-level decision module capable of implementing this strategy. Ourproposal is based on the formalization of what is a team strategy for competingwith an opponent team having opposite goals. A team strategy is composed of aset of agent types and a set of tactics, which are also composed of several formations.Formations are used for different situations and assign each agent a defaultspatial positioning and an agent type (defining its behaviour at several levels).Agents reactivity is also introduced for appropriate response to the dynamicsof the current situation. However, in our approach this is done in a way thatpreserves team coherence instead of permitting uncoordinated agent behaviour.We have applied, with success, this coordination approach to the RoboSoccersimulated domain. The FC Portugal team, developed using this approach wonthe RoboCup2000 (simulation league) European and World championshipsscoring a total of 180 goals and conceding none

A validation of the Oswestry Spinal Risk Index

Purpose The purpose of this study was to validate the Oswestry Spinal Risk Index (OSRI) in an external population. The OSRI predicts survival in patients with metastatic spinal cord compression (MSCC). Methods We analysed the data of 100 patients undergoing surgical intervention for MSCC at a tertiary spinal unit and recorded the primary tumour pathology and Karnofsky performance status to calculate the OSRI. Logistic regression models and survival plots were applied to the data in accordance with the original paper. Results Lower OSRI scores predicted longer survival. The OSRI score predicted survival accurately in 74% of cases (p = 0.004). Conclusions Our study has found that the OSRI is a significant predictor of survival at levels similar to those of the original authors and is a useful and simple tool in aiding complex decision making in patients presenting with MSC

Active wetting of epithelial tissues

Development, regeneration and cancer involve drastic transitions in tissue morphology. In analogy with the behavior of inert fluids, some of these transitions have been interpreted as wetting transitions. The validity and scope of this analogy are unclear, however, because the active cellular forces that drive tissue wetting have been neither measured nor theoretically accounted for. Here we show that the transition between 2D epithelial monolayers and 3D spheroidal aggregates can be understood as an active wetting transition whose physics differs fundamentally from that of passive wetting phenomena. By combining an active polar fluid model with measurements of physical forces as a function of tissue size, contractility, cell-cell and cell-substrate adhesion, and substrate stiffness, we show that the wetting transition results from the competition between traction forces and contractile intercellular stresses. This competition defines a new intrinsic lengthscale that gives rise to a critical size for the wetting transition in tissues, a striking feature that has no counterpart in classical wetting. Finally, we show that active shape fluctuations are dynamically amplified during tissue dewetting. Overall, we conclude that tissue spreading constitutes a prominent example of active wetting --- a novel physical scenario that may explain morphological transitions during tissue morphogenesis and tumor progression

Ballistic nanofriction

Sliding parts in nanosystems such as Nano ElectroMechanical Systems (NEMS) and nanomotors, increasingly involve large speeds, and rotations as well as translations of the moving surfaces; yet, the physics of high speed nanoscale friction is so far unexplored. Here, by simulating the motion of drifting and of kicked Au clusters on graphite - a workhorse system of experimental relevance -- we demonstrate and characterize a novel "ballistic" friction regime at high speed, separate from drift at low speed. The temperature dependence of the cluster slip distance and time, measuring friction, is opposite in these two regimes, consistent with theory. Crucial to both regimes is the interplay of rotations and translations, shown to be correlated in slow drift but anticorrelated in fast sliding. Despite these differences, we find the velocity dependence of ballistic friction to be, like drift, viscous

Dense active matter model of motion patterns in confluent cell monolayers

Epithelial cell monolayers show remarkable displacement and velocity correlations over distances of ten or more cell sizes that are reminiscent of supercooled liquids and active nematics. We show that many observed features can be described within the framework of dense active matter, and argue that persistent uncoordinated cell motility coupled to the collective elastic modes of the cell sheet is sufficient to produce swirl-like correlations. We obtain this result using both continuum active linear elasticity and a normal modes formalism, and validate analytical predictions with numerical simulations of two agent-based cell models, soft elastic particles and the self-propelled Voronoi model together with in-vitro experiments of confluent corneal epithelial cell sheets. Simulations and normal mode analysis perfectly match when tissue-level reorganisation occurs on times longer than the persistence time of cell motility. Our analytical model quantitatively matches measured velocity correlation functions over more than a decade with a single fitting parameter.Comment: updated version accepted for publication in Nat. Com

VARIABILITY IN GROWTH PARAMETERS OF RED FLESHED AND WHITE FLESHED GUAVA GENOTYPES

The present investigation was carried out with object to study morpho-phenological characters of guava genotypes. The three year pooled data indicates that significant variation was found for this trait among the genotypes of guava. The highest height of plant (4.21 m), highest tree volume (55.32 m3) and highest leaf area (81.98 cm2) was recorded in genotype GRS4, whereas, lowest height of plant (2.60 m), tree volume (24.93 m3) was observed for genotype GWS8 and lowest leaf area (52.16 cm2) was recorded in genotype GRS1. The spreading to erect tree habit with medium to dense canopy was observed for all guava genotypes. Whereas, pale to dark green coloured leaves was recorded in most of genotypes. Leaf apex was obtuse in most of genotypes viz., GRS4, GWS5, GWS6, GWS7, GWS8 and L-49 and acute was in GRS1, GRS2 and GRS3.Whereas, Base of leaf was found round in all genotypes. Solitary type with white colour of flower was found in all genotypes viz., GRS1, GRS2, GRS3, GRS4, GWS5, GWS6, GWS7, GWS8, GWS9 and L-49

Reinforcement versus Fluidization in Cytoskeletal Mechanoresponsiveness

Every adherent eukaryotic cell exerts appreciable traction forces upon its substrate. Moreover, every resident cell within the heart, great vessels, bladder, gut or lung routinely experiences large periodic stretches. As an acute response to such stretches the cytoskeleton can stiffen, increase traction forces and reinforce, as reported by some, or can soften and fluidize, as reported more recently by our laboratory, but in any given circumstance it remains unknown which response might prevail or why. Using a novel nanotechnology, we show here that in loading conditions expected in most physiological circumstances the localized reinforcement response fails to scale up to the level of homogeneous cell stretch; fluidization trumps reinforcement. Whereas the reinforcement response is known to be mediated by upstream mechanosensing and downstream signaling, results presented here show the fluidization response to be altogether novel: it is a direct physical effect of mechanical force acting upon a structural lattice that is soft and fragile. Cytoskeletal softness and fragility, we argue, is consistent with early evolutionary adaptations of the eukaryotic cell to material properties of a soft inert microenvironment