Archives-October 2011

Micro Electro Mechanical System (MEMS) controlled paper-like flexible display was designed with basic cantilever structure using comsol software. This model increased the picture clarity by spacer design. Foldable and flexible display achieved by having the flexible substrate. Low operating voltage can be obtained for the device by proper material usage and thickness of the layers. Electro static analysis showed that the distribution of the potential and the stability. This model promised for high picture clarity with more compact structure.

We herein discuss TLC analyzer software (freeware) as an inexpensive tool for the analysis of astronomical images. Interestingly, recently developed TLC analyzer software has been used by the chemist for the quantitative chromatographic analysis of organic compounds. The high accuracy measurement software utilities for analysis of astronomical images have been too expensive for most of the schools and the colleges. However, this is the beginner’s spectrophotometer of its kind which makes elaboration even at pixel level of high resolution astronomical JPEG images. The TLC analyzer even has found to be more proficient with other image processing software such as ImageJ (public domain software), Spectra.

An innovative method for the decomposition of the elastic constant tensor into its irreducible parts is presented. The norm concept of elastic constant tensor, norm ratios and irreducible decomposed parts of elastic constant tensor are used to study the anisotropy of tool steel, rock types and the relationship of their structural properties and other properties with their anisotropy are given. Finally the results are indicated.

This article is based on a Ph.D. research study of the voluntary sector in India, of which non-governmental organizations are a part. The perceptions, assessment and recommendations of donors and experts on various aspects of NGO functioning were examined in depth as one of the components of the research, in the backdrop of social marketing objectives. The study covered the most important aspect of the application of marketing principles to socio-economic development, besides identifying important issues governing the operating effectiveness of NGOs and the traits and qualities that make them eligible for donor support on a sustained basis. .The results suggest that in the Indian context, level of funding significantly influences performance of NGOs. While the program component of social marketing effectiveness had a significant relationship with level of expenditure, there was, however, no relationship between level of expenditure and social marketing effectiveness as a whole. A significant conclusion of the paper is that NGOs should project a more positive image of their performance and credibility to donors. The paper also suggests that systematic outcome measurement is critical to assess NGO performance.

For many years, actinobacteria were best known as a source of large numbers of antibiotics. More recently, they have been found to be a promising source of a wide range of important enzymes. Studies on proteolytic marine actinobacteria especially in the southeast coast of Tamilnadu have not been carried out adequately. Actinobacteria were isolated from the flesh content of the Mud crab, Scylla serrata. This is first report on isolation of protease producing actinobacteria from crab. These crabs have a high tolerance to both nitrate and ammonia. Partial purification of the enzyme by DEAE Cellulose yielded 2.16-fold purity. Streptomyces nigellus showed highest enzyme activity at pH7 and 40°C. Out of the 7 morphological different strains, the strain LK-3 which was tentatively identified as Streptomyces nigellus showed protease activity. Therefore, the present study was undertaken to isolate the proteolytic actinobacteria from the crab.

The Availability-Redundancy Allocation Problem (ARAP) is a kind of reliability optimization problems. It involves the selection of components with appropriate levels of redundancy or reliability/availability for maximizing the system availability under some predefined constraints. Identical redundant elements are included in order to achieve a desirable level of availability. Classical mathematical methods fail in handling non-convexities and non-smoothness in optimization problems. This drawback has been removed through meta-heuristics due to their ability of finding an almost global optimal solution in reliability–redundancy optimization problems. Artificial bee colony (ABC) is one of such meta-heuristic algorithm. This paper aims to present an ABC algorithm to search the optimal solution of ARAP with nonlinear resource constraints of a parallel-series system. A washing unit of a paper mill has been taken to illustrate the approach. The experimental results demonstrate that the evolutionary approach can provide more promising solutions in comparison with the widely used single-objective approaches by classical method on parallel-series systems which are frequently studied in the field of reliability optimization.

The elastic properties of mantle minerals are important for the interpretation of the structure and composition of the lower mantle and also in seismic studies. The elastic properties of minerals depend on its composition, crystal structure, temperature and the level of defect. In the present work we have calculated the elastic parameters such as bulk modulus, shear modulus, seismic velocities, and Debye temperatures of some garnets such as Pyrope garnet (Mg3Al2Si3O12) and Grossular garnet (Ca3Al2Si3O12) at different temperature ranges by using Hill's averaging method and other methods of thermodynamics.

Table of contents for the month of October 2011