A Study on Genetic Variability, Character Association and Path Co-Efficient Analysis on Morphological and Yield Attributing Characters of Taro [Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott]

The study investigated genotypic and phenotypic co-efficients of variation, heritability, genetic advance at 5% selection intensity and in percentage of population mean of nine characters (plant height, leaf number, length and width of leaf lamina, number and weight of cormels per plant, weight of corm per plant, dry matter percentage in the tubers and tuber yield per from 14 cultivars of taro [Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott]). Results indicated highest genotypic co-efficient of variation for dry matter percentage (47.91), which was 95.78% of the phenotypic co-efficient of variation, whereas tuber yield per plant showed the widest range (819.37). Number of cormels per plant and dry matter percentage ehibited considerably higher heritability (84.90% and 91.70%, respectively) and genetic advance (81.19 and 79.00, respectively), indicating the potentiality of selection for improvement of such characters. These two characters were found to be positively correlated to tuber yield per plant. Path analysis revealed that weight of cormels per plant possessed the highest direct effect on tuber yield, indicating the importance of selection based on this character to increase tuber yield per plant.

Detection of Mechanical Deformation in Old Aged Power Transformer Using Cross Correlation Co-Efficient Analysis Method

Detection of minor faults in power transformer active part is essential because minor faults may develop and lead to major faults and finally irretrievable damages occur. Sweep Frequency Response Analysis (SFRA) is an effective low-voltage, off-line diagnostic tool used for finding out any possible winding displacement or mechanical deterioration inside the Transformer, due to large electromechanical forces occurring from the fault currents or due to Transformer transportation and relocation. In this method, the frequency response of a transformer is taken both at manufacturing industry and concern site. Then both the response is compared to predict the fault taken place in active part. But in old aged transformers, the primary reference response is unavailable. So Cross Correlation Co-Efficient (CCF) measurement technique can be a vital process for fault detection in these transformers. In this paper, theoretical background of SFRA technique has been elaborated and through several case studies, the effectiveness of CCF parameter for fault detection has been represented.

A high Li-ion diffusion kinetics in multidimensional and compact-structured electrodes via vacuum filtration casting

Manufacturing process,diffusion co-efficient and areal capacity are the three main criteria for regulating thick electrodes for lithium-ion batteries(LIBs).However,simultaneously regulating these criteria for LIBs is desirable but remains a significant challenge.In this work,niobium pentoxide(Nb_(2)O_(5))anode and lithium iron phosphate(LiFePO_(4))cathode materials were chosen as the model materials and demonstrate that these three parameters can be simultaneously modulated by incorporation of micro-carbon fibers(MCF)and carbon nanotubes(CNT)with both Nb_(2)O_(5) and LFP via vacuum filtration approach.Both as-prepared MNC-20 anode and MLC-20 cathode achieves high reversible areal capacity of≈5.4 m A h cm^(-2)@0.1 C and outstanding Li-ion diffusion coefficients of≈10~(-8)cm~2 s~(-1)in the half-cell configuration.The assembled MNC-20‖MLC-20 full cell LIB delivers maximum energy and power densities of244.04 W h kg^(-1)and 108.86 W kg^(-1),respectively.The excellent electrochemical properties of the asprepared thick electrodes can be attributed to the highly conductive,mechanical compactness and multidimensional mutual effects of the MCF,CNT and active materials that facilitates rapid Li-ion diffusion kinetics.Furthermore,electrochemical impedance spectroscopy(EIS),symmetric cells analysis,and insitu Raman techniques clearly validates the enhanced Li-ion diffusion kinetics in the present architecture.

Estimation of Variability, Heritability and Genetic Advance for Phenological, Physiological and Yield Contributing Attributes in Wheat Genotypes under Heat Stress Condition

The investigation was carried out in focusing the genetic variability for different traits of wheat influenced by heat tolerance mechanism to find out relationships among phenological, physiological and yield contributing traits. Spring wheat cultivar of 25 genotypes were selected and cultivated under late sowing condition at the Regional Wheat Research Institute, Shympur, Rajshahi, Bangladesh from December, 2016 to April, 2017. Significant variability among the genotypes exposed for different traits related to heat tolerance. Results showed that the genotypes G24, G10, G01, G13, G16, G25 and G14 ranked as better category considering maximum number of traits in mean performance indicating their tolerance to heat stress under late sowing condition. Phenotypic variances (σg2) of all traits were greater than those of genotypic variances (σg2). The same trends were also found in their co-efficient of variances. The phenotypic co-efficient of variances (PCV) of all traits were greater compare to those of genotypic co-efficient of variances (GCV) and their values were closer to each other. The heading days (HD), canopy temperature at vegetative stage (CTvg), canopy temperature at grain filling stage (CTgf), biomass, plant height (PH), spike/m2 (SPM), spikelet/spike (SPS), grain/ spike (GPS), thousand grain weight (TGW) and yield exhibited higher heritability (hb2) estimated under irrigated late sowing (ILS) condition. Under the same ILS condition SPAD, SPM, SPS, GPS, TGW and yield showed moderate to high genetic advance (GA) obtained through computing their mean percentage (%) and the rest traits HD, maturity days (MD), CTvg, CTgf, biomass, PH and harvest index (HI) exposed smaller genetic advance (% mean). The co-efficient of variation (CV%) of all attributes in all genotypes were significantly lower (1.36 - 6.96). Both heritability and genetic advance were found lower for MD, SPAD and HI indicated their non additive genetic effects for which these traits might not be recommended for selection. However, spike/m2, spikelet/spike, grain/spike, thousand grain weight and yield belonged to higher heritability and high to moderate genetic advance in mean percentage (%) along with wide genetic variation and lower environmental influence in heat stress situation indicated the most likely heritability due to the effects of additive genes that might be suggested as effective process of selection for these traits in heat stress condition.

Performance Assessment of a Shell Tube Evaporator for a Model Organic Rankine Cycle for Use in Geothermal Power Plant

The global energy demand increases with development and population rise. Most electrical power is currently generated by conventional methods from fossil fuels. Despite the high energy demand, the conventional energy resources such as fossil fuels have been declining and harmful combustion byproducts are causing global warming. The Organic Rankine Cycle power plant is a very effective option for utilization of low grade heat sources for power generation. In the Organic Rankine Cycle heat exchangers such as evaporators and condensers are key components that determine its performance. Researches indicated that shell tube heat exchangers are effectively utilized in this cycle. The design of the heat exchanger involves establishing the right flow pattern of the interacting fluids. The performance of these exchangers can be optimized by inserting baffles in the shell to direct the flow of fluid across the tubes on shell side. In this work heat exchangers have been developed to improve heat recovery from geothermal brine for additional power generation. The design involved sizing of heat exchanger (evaporator) using the LMTD method based on an expected heat transfer rate. The heat exchanger of the model power plant was tested in which hot water simulated brine. The results indicated that the heat exchanger is thermally suitable for the evaporator of the model power plant.

Optical study of Ba(Mn_xTi_(1-x)O_3) thin films by spectroscopic ellipsometry

Stoichiometric Ba（MnxTi（1-x）O3） （BMT） thin films with various values of x were deposited on Si（111） substrates by the sol-gel technique. The influence of Mn content on the optical properties was studied by spectroscopic ellipsometry （SE） in the UV–Vis–NIR region. By fitting the measured ellipsometric parameter （Ψ and Δ） with a four-phase model （air/BMT＋voids/BMT/Si（111））, the key optical constants of the thin films have been obtained. It was found that the refractive index n and the extinction coefficient k increase with increasing Mn content due to the increase in the packing density. Furthermore, a strong dependence of the optical band gap Eg on Mn/Ti ratios in the deposited films was observed, and it was inferred that the energy level of conduction bands decreases with increasing Mn content.

Genetic Variability and Path Analysis Studies in Hybrid Maize (<i>Zea mays</i>L.)

The present study was carried out to access correlation coefficient, path analysis and genetic variability among twenty one locally developed maize hybrids for ten characters. Positive and significant genotypic, phenotypic correlation coefficient were recorded for yield with anthesis silking interval (rg = 1.00**, rp = 0.96**), cob diameter (rg = 0.99** and rp = 0.95**) and ear height (rg = 0.98** and rp = 0.94**). But days to 50% tasseling had moderate but significant positive correlation at both phenotypic and genotypic level. High genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV) was obtained from thousand seed weight, days to 50% silking, cob diameter and anthesis silking interval. The highest phenotypic coefficient of variation (PCV) was observed in thousand seed weight followed by days to 50% silking and cob diameter. The highest heritability (Hb) was observed for cob diameter (95.25) followed by days to 50% silking (94.15), days to maturity (93.85) and ear height (93.06). The characters with high GCV and higher values of heritability indicated high potential for selection. Anthesis silking interval (0.79) had the highest positive direct effect on yield followed by cob diameter (0.31), cob length (0.31) and plant height (0.04) indicating the effectiveness of direct selection. While some other characters such as days to 50% tasseling (-0.12), days to 50% silking (-1.78), ear height (-1.16), days to maturity (-0.64) exhibited indirect negative effect on yield indicating the effectiveness of indirect selection.

A New Effective and Efficient Measure of PAPR in OFDM

In multi-carrier wireless OFDM communication systems, a major issue is related to high peaks in transmitted signals, resulting in such problems as power inefficiency. In this regard, a common practice is to transmit the signal that has the lowest Peak to Average Power Ratio (PAPR). Consequently, some efficient and accurate method of estimating the PAPR of a signal is required. Previous literature in this area suggests a strong relationship between PAPR and Power Variance (PV). As such, PV has been advocated as a good measure of PAPR. However, contrary to what is suggested in the literature, our research shows that often low values of PV do not correspond to low values of PAPR. Hence, PV does not provide a sound scientific basis for comparing and estimating PAPR in OFDM signals. In this paper a novel, effective, and efficient measure of high peaks in OFDM signals is proposed, which is less complex than PAPR. The proposed measure, termed as Partial Power Variance (PPV), exploits the relationship among PAPR, Aperiodic Autocorrelation Co-efficient (AAC), and Power Variance (PV) of the transmitted signal. Our results demonstrate that, in comparison to PV, Partial Power Variance is a more efficient as well as a more effective measure of PAPR. In addition, we demonstrate that the computational complexity of PPV is far less than that of PAPR.

Design and Analysis of Different Types of Rotors for Pico-Turbine

Small-scale vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT) rotor is developed for use in areas lacking adequate energy infrastructure. The materials and methods of construction are selected to minimize cost as much as possible. The paper describes the design of different kinds of vertical axis wind turbine rotors having different number of blades and twist angle. The aim of the work is to study the influence of the different designs on rotational speed and power of rotor in different wind speed.

Impact Analysis of Genetically Modified (Bt) Cotton Genotypes on Economically Important Natural Enemies under Field Conditions

Field studies were conducted at Hisar during Kharif, 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 under natural and unsprayed condition. RCH 134 Bt, HS 6 (non Bt), H 1117 and Ganganagar Ageti (non Bt) were selected for the studies. The experiment was laid down in Randomized Block Design replicated thrice having plant spacing 67.5 × 60 cm. Among the bollworms, Erias spp. exhibited positive correlation with rainfall, minimum temperature and relative humidity morning hours significantly at 5 percent level whereas Helicoverpa and Pectinophora displayed positive relations only with evening hours relative humidity significantly while Spodoptera were significantly positive correlated with relative humidity of morning and evening hours. Bollworm complex was negatively correlated with all the weather parameters employed to study although being non-significant in case of rainfall, maximum and minimum of temperature, morning and evening hours of relative humidity. Among the sucking pests, leafhoppers, whitefly, thrips and aphids population showed significantly negative correlation with weather parameters. The comparison of natural bio-agents in cotton hybrids under study revealed that overall mean population of natural enemies were higher in Bt cotton hybrid as compared to non-Bt. These results confirm that use of genetically modified (Bt) cotton in lieu of conventional genotypes could positively impact non-target and beneficial insect species by preserving their host populations.

Crop Calendar Mapping of Bangladesh Rice Paddy Field with ALOS-2 ScanSAR Data

Rice paddy mapping with optical remote sensing is challenging in Bangladesh due to the heterogeneous cropping pattern, fragmented field size and cloud cover during the growing period. The high-resolution Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) sensor is the potential alternate to mapping rice area in Bangladesh. The L-band SAR sensor onboard Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS) acquires multi-polarization and multi-temporal images are a very useful tool for rice area mapping. In this study, we used ALOS-2 ScanSAR dual (HH + HV) polarized time series data in the study area. We used orthorectification and slope corrected backscatter (sigma-naught) images and median filtering (3 × 3) window for image processing. The unsupervised classification with the k-means++ algorithm is used for initial clustering (20 categories) of images over the study area. The GPS location of rice paddy field with cropping pattern over study area uses for classifying the different rice-growing season from the k-means clustering data. The result is compared with the moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) based rice area and national statistical agricultural yearbook statistics. The results show that, based on the MODIS based rice map, the rice fields can be mapped with a conditional Kappa value of 0.68 and at user’s and producer’s accuracies of 86% and 90%, respectively. The large commission error primarily came from confusion between wet season Aus rice and others crop, Aus-Amon and Boro-Aus-Amon cropping pattern because of their similar backscatter amplitudes and temporal similarities in the rice growing season. The relatively high rice mapping accuracy in this study indicates that the ALOS/PALSAR-2 data could provide useful information in rice cropping management in subtropical regions such Bangladesh.

Dependency of Torque on Aerofoilcamber Variation in Vertical Axis Wind Turbine

The advancements in the wind turbine technology specially associated with Vertical Axis Wind Turbines (VAWT), has been improved for last couple of years. This is due to extensive use of computational techniques. This paper investigates dependency of torque on aerofoil geometry by performing numerical simulation on Darrieustype VAWT with fix pitch blades. Coordinate points for aerofoil was generated using Java Foil software. Reynolds-Averaged Navier Stokes (RANS) turbulence modelling was used for predicting the flow and efficiency of the three blades VAWT. The unsteady flow condition was considered to make simulation as realistic as possible. In order to visualize high strain flow and separation, we used two equation models i.e. k-ε with RNG. NACA 0012 aerofoil was used and camber variations were carried out for developing samples of aerofoil to check the enhancement in performance of VAWT. Results demonstrate the torque and power along with its coefficients. It has been investigated that the performance efficiency was significantly improved by changing the aerofoil camber, demonstrating highest torque with camber (C3) aerofoil and the least performance was observed using camber (C0).

Environmental variables affecting the gillnet catches and condition of Labiobarbus festivus and Osteochilus hasseltii in northern Malaysia

The influences of technical factors on the catching efficiencies of gillnets are well understood,but less is known about the importance of environmental factors and how these might concurrently affect target-species condition.Here we address this deficit for two economically important southeast Asian cyprinids(Labiobarbus festivus and Osteochilus hasseltii)during a one-year study at a key fishing location in Lake Kenyir,Malaysia.Three gillnets(each 200 m long,2 m deep and comprising either 38-,51-,or 76-mm mesh)were deployed each month concurrent with sampling of benthic macroinvertebrates and various environmental parameters.Various multivariate analyses(detrended correspondence analysis,redundancy analysis and permutational multivariate analysis of variance)were used to explore potential relationships between the extrinsic variables(mesh size,sampling season,water quality and,based on known prey items,benthic macroinvertebrates)and gillnet catches and the biological condition(growth co-efficient and hepatosomatic index)of the target species.Catches of L.festivus(the most abundant species)were positively influenced by water turbidity without seasonal effects,while their biological condition was positively influenced by benthic macroinvertebrates(mostly Trichoptera)and the concentrations of DO and phosphate,and negatively influenced by water temperature.By comparison,seasonal influences on the catches and biology of O.hasseltii were somewhat size specific with positive and negative effects of the monsoon on small and large fish,respectively.The abundance of phytoplankton also positively affected the catches of O.hasseltii,while their biological condition was positively influenced by water temperature,but negatively influenced by water turbidity.Such species-specific differences were attributed to life histories,and although the more abundant L.festivus might be best sought during any period of turbidity,effort should be focused during the monsoon when individuals have optimal condition(and therefore better flesh quality).In contrast,larger O.hasseltii might be best sought during non-monsoon months concurrent with greater catches and optimal condition.Collecting similar data for other freshwater species both nationally and internationally might facilitate future efforts at fine-tuning gillnet fishing effort.

Transmission Efficiency of Different Shielding Structures in Wireless Power Transfer Systems for Electric Vehicles

Wireless Power Transfer(WPT)charging systems can cause eddy loss on the steel part and the chassis of an Electric Vehicle(EV).To study different shielding structures’influence on the transmission efficiency of a WPT system,boundary conditions and assumptions of the WPT model in a quasistationary electromagnetic field were established and a finite element method(FEM)was adopted.The shielding effectiveness of ferrite plate and annular aluminum plate were investigated as well as their effects on the coupling coefficient of WPT.It was found that,the setting of ferrite core enhanced the transmission field strength,improved the coupling between two coils,and increased transmit power as well as the actual eddy loss.The actual necessary shielding-area was not confined into the samesize area but distributed around the edge of the ferrite.By arranging specialized size annular aluminum plates between the chassis and ferrite core,the eddy loss can be effectively shielded and an optimal transmission efficiency can breached with an acceptable coupling coefficient decrease.The optimized ferrite bar structure and its EMC characteristics were also studied.It was also found that with equal volume,the optimized ferrite bar structure had better performance in EMC and coupling enhancement than the full ferrite plate.