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The wickability of jute and coir yarns have been investigated using standardized soil slurry (soil mixed water). In many geotextile applications, the yarns constituents of a geo-fabric are exposed to slurry in order to drain out the water through their structures under variety of state i.e. vertical, horizontal and bent configurations. Wickability of the geo-textile yarn is extremely important for drainage applications. Wickability of two commonly used natural fibre yarns (Jute and coir) was therefore assessed, under vertical, horizontal, and syphon configurations using normal tap water, and slurries made from Delhi silt and Kaolinite. The wicking parameters (maximum wicking height/distance and wicking rate) and water discharging capacity of the yarns were determined. Soil slurry was found to adversely affect wicking performance in comparison to normal tap water. The slurry discharge rate, normalized over yarn linear density, was found to be greater for jute yarn in comparison to coir yarn. The intrusion of soil particles into the yarn structure clog the capillaries and adversely affect the wickability and discharge with time.

This paper is focused on analysing the complete business environment with the help of information technology. It takes into account various interactions between different business processes while conducting BPR exercise. It also provides a framework based on event diagrams to record logical flow and other relevant details, which can be used for design of an information system. The event diagrams are useful for intelligent information system design. This methodology can also be used to develop a system for system design. Each event can be analyzed for requirement of data, operations and resources. Interactions between various forces, events, modules, applications can be shown through interaction diagrams. The paper also lists out the driving forces for BPR and their contents. Keywords: System analysis and design; Business process reengineering; Inter-organisational information systems; Enterprise resource planning

In a staple yarn, the composition, distribution and arrangement of fibres can influence its properties. Arrangement and distribution of fibres in a yarn being spinning system dependent, any change in the system causes variation in product performance. Here, an attempt has been made to investigate the fibre distribution in Eli-Twist yarn and it comparison with that of ring spun TFO and SIRO yarn. Yarns of three compositions from cotton and polyester were produced on Eli-Twist, TFO and SIRO spinning systems. Three different counts (39.4, 29.5 and 23.6 tex) from each composition were produced maintaining 40 twist factor for each. Fibre distribution, yarn cross-section, average packing density and number of fibre in yarn cross-section in Eli-Twist yarn were measured and compared with conventional ring spun TFO and SIRO yarn. Migration index helped in identifying the location of fibre in blended yarn. In the polyester–cotton yarn, polyester had a preferential tendency to predominate near the core. Average packing density in Eli-Twist yarn was found to be higher than that of ring spun TFO and SIRO yarn.

The implementation of a bias‐correction and signal amplification technique to the National Center for Environmental Prediction's Climate Forecast System‐based Grand Ensemble Prediction System Multi‐Model Ensemble outputs is studied for improvements in track predictions of three cyclonic storms over North Indian Ocean. Bias‐correction method involves the removal of lead‐dependent climatological bias from multi‐model ensemble forecasts by using European Centre for Medium‐Range Weather Forecasts Re‐analysis (ERA‐Interim) daily‐averaged data sets as observations. The corrected data are then subjected to signal amplification procedure involving a two‐point space and time correction of ensembles based on the leading signal (ensemble mean), whereby large uncertainties and disagreements between different model outputs are reduced. Results show that bias‐correction and signal amplification technique is, indeed, improving the track forecasts of selected cyclonic storm cases with significant reduction in track errors even at longer lead times. Cyclonic storms forming over warm North Indian Ocean region, which track toward land, are major threats to vast growing and thickly populated coastal communities of Indian Peninsula. Proper prediction of the storm formation and track as well as providing an advance warning on its development can aid the public in better planning and disaster management. This study introduces a technique of bias‐correction and signal amplification for improving early storm‐track forecasts, which can be applied on tracks of cyclones predicted by combining multiple climate model ensembles. Three storms, which formed over Bay of Bengal basin in 2013, are studied, and corrected tracks using this technique along with uncorrected track from models are compared with observations. Results show that corrected tracks are more matching with the observations than uncorrected tracks with reduced track errors for all cases studied even for predictions from more than a week before storm‐genesis. A bias‐correction and signal amplification method is applied on a Climate Forecast System‐based Multi‐Model Ensemble Prediction outputsAnalyses indicate significant improvement in cyclone track prediction and reduction in track errors even at longer lead timesResults are of socio‐economic importance and vital to the field of tropical cyclone track prediction

For moisture regulation, careful selection of fibre, fibre packing in yarns and fabric structure are necessary. Introducing selective porosity in yarn can significantly influence moisture transport properties in fabrics made out of profiled fibre yarn. The arrangement of fibres in the yarn and that of yarn in fabric provide wide variability in the size and shape of the passage of liquid to flow. A change in the cross sectional diameter of the capillary leads to a change in interfacial speed for liquid. The mechanism of liquid transmission in fabric is expected to be different from that in yarn in isolated state. Generally, openness in fabric offers least resistance to flow. However, at each cross over points of threads the pressure exerted by one set of yarn on another can influence the capillary geometry affecting flow of liquid. The present work reports on the investigation made to study the wicking performance of five sets of fabrics made out of five homogeneous profiled fibre yarns as weft and respective double yarns as warp. It was observed that the wicking time and height in the weft direction were different than that in the corresponding yarns. Interestingly, wicking height attained in warp direction and individual yarn in isolation does not show any significant difference. It was observed that the points of interlacements between warps and wefts were constantly splitting the fluid flow both in horizontal and vertical directions.

Geometrical shape of fibre cross section affects its degree of association with the surrounding fibres and thereby decides physical, mechanical and functional properties of yarn. While a circular cross section brings close proximity between fibres, non-circular fibres inhibit this. Proximity between fibres affects inter-fibre spaces and thus many properties of yarn and corresponding fabrics. The present study, reports on the influence of profiled polyester fibre with micro-channels on its surface and within on the fibre packing and wicking behavior of spun yarn. Five profile polyester fibres, viz; 4DG, circular hollow, conjugate hollow, octalobal and trilobal were used in the study. Yarns made from conjugate and trilobal fibres were found to have highest and lowest packing fraction respectively. Wicking height and wicking rate was the maximum for octalobal fibre yarn followed by 4DG and hollow, trilobal and conjugate fibre yarn. The doubled yarns have shown greater wicking height and wicking rate in comparison to single yarn.

Mathematical model is a powerful tool in engineering for studying variety of problems related to design and development of products and processes, optimization of manufacturing process, understanding a phenomenon and predicting product’s behaviour in actual use. An insight of the process and use of appropriate mathematical tools are necessary for developing models. In the present paper, a review of types of model, procedure followed in developing them and their limitations have been discussed. Modeling techniques being used in few textile processes available in the literature have been cited as examples.

The isotopic values of rainfall in the southern parts of India exhibit strong seasonality. Such a contrast in isotopic values arises mainly due to the seasonal reversal of the monsoon winds. During the summer monsoon season, moisture is primarily transported from the Arabian Sea, while during the winter, it is sourced mainly from the Bay of Bengal. Additionally, atmospheric processes contribute to these differences. We collected precipitation samples from a southern Indian site and two neighboring island locations to study their isotopic characteristics from intra‐seasonal to seasonal timescale. Oxygen isotopes in the marine environment seem to respond differently to the surface and tropospheric temperature than their counterparts from the land region. The seasonal isotopic gradient in the marine environment appears to be modulated by the tropospheric temperature anomaly. Oxygen isotopic values showed a strong association with the Webster‐Yang monsoon index. Two distinct clusters were formed when the oxygen isotopes were plotted against the above‐mentioned monsoon index. The formation of these clusters indicates the precipitation isotopes' response to moisture dynamics, which significantly change during the transition phase of the southwest to the northeast monsoon. Finally, we examine the potential of the precipitation isotopic records in studying the monsoon process, viz, the use of precipitation isotopes in characterizing the thermodynamical properties of the atmosphere and estimating the summer monsoon withdrawal phase. Atmospheric parameters such as temperature, rainfall, humidity, wind circulation, etc., vary significantly across the seasons. Such kind of variations or the seasonality also varies from place to place. The heavy to light isotopic distributions of hydrogen and oxygen atoms in atmospheric water also differ considerably from summer to winter, termed isotopic seasonality (defined here as Δδ18O). This feature manifests well in southern peninsular India, wherein the summer monsoon season is characterized by higher isotopic values relative to the winter season. Monsoon circulation is south‐westerly during the summer and north‐easterly during the winter. These two opposing circulation regimes cause isotopic seasonality in south peninsular India. Meteorological parameters such as rainfall, wind speed, etc., display sharp changes during the summer monsoon onset in early June. But they change rather slowly during the transition from summer to winter monsoon season around late September–early October. As a result, the estimation of the summer monsoon withdrawal date may have considerable uncertainty. It is proposed that applying the isotopic technique may be potentially helpful in reducing such an uncertainty. Precipitation isotopic time series at the northern Indian Ocean reveal strong seasonality, driven by monsoon thermodynamicsTwo well‐defined clusters are formed when δ18O is plotted against the Webster‐Yang circulation indexThe formation of clusters is indicative of isotopic response to moisture dynamics Precipitation isotopic time series at the northern Indian Ocean reveal strong seasonality, driven by monsoon thermodynamics Two well‐defined clusters are formed when δ18O is plotted against the Webster‐Yang circulation index The formation of clusters is indicative of isotopic response to moisture dynamics

AbstractThe spinning limit for three different fibres (cotton, viscose rayon and polyester) on aDref-3 friction spinning machine has been investigated. The change in yarn propertieswith progressive change in count has also been reported. The count range has beenseen to be dependent on fibre type. As one progresses from very coarse to fine counts,the yarn tensile property remain fairly unaltered for cotton, but changes for polyester andviscose yarns.

Bahera gum, extracted from the bark of Terminalia bellerica, is a waste material. The present study involves the use of this natural gum as a multifunctional additive in natural rubber (NR) and brominated isobutylene‐co‐paramethyl styrene (BIMS). Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) analysis was employed to study the functional groups present in the gum. It was found that fatty acids/esters in the gum act as accelerator activator and can replace stearic acid in rubber formulations. Polyphenols in the gum act as antioxidant and the action is comparable with the commercial antioxidant 2,2,4‐trimethyl‐1,2‐dihydroquinoline (TQ) in natural rubber. The gum improves the tack strength of the rubbers (21% at 2.5 phr loading for NR and 54% at 10 phr loading for BIMS). The gum imparts plasticization effect which is reflected in the reduction in k and enhancement in n values, the exponents in the power law equation, with increasing gum concentration. The activation energy of flow is also reduced with the addition of the gum. Moreover, it decreases the elastic memory of the system which causes reduction in die swell. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 102: 4897–4907, 2006

AbstractWomen in India were placed in oblivion right from the ancient times. The long episode of anguish and misery of the women met with optimism only in the 19thcentury, when the whole of Bengal was bathed in the spirit of Renaissance, which of course helped the women- folk to come to limelight for the first time. After Independence, some space was made for the women folk in a constitutional way. The 73rdAmendment made a revolutionary gateway open for women by reservation of 1/3 seats in the political platform. Though, in the urban areas women are slowly able to make their position firm both socially and economically, in the rural areas women are still living in a world of ignorance, superstition and obscurity. The forest- fringe people, who mainly formed the backbone of the rural community, thus naturally belonged to the backward category. The JFM regulations were formed in 1988 and one of the greatest strengths of the JFM model was the inclusion of women in the administrative set- up. But unfortunately, women were deprived of their rightful status and they still remained in their secluded den for a long time due to numerous hurdles. The present paper unfolds the problems and disdains of the women- folk in a rural set- up. At the same time, the paper uncovers an empirical study which tells the tale of gender upsurge in a JFM scenario through series of technological experiments, trainings and through courses of sensitization.

AbstractWomen entrepreneurship is a much nurtured notion of today. Women, after long years of toil and torment have come out of their painful past and they are now standing in a situation when they can handle all hurdles in firm hands and they have even established themselves as women entrepreneurs in different corners of the Third World Countries. In the urban sector, of course, women are displaying their acumen in different spheres. But rural women in India are for centuries living in a world of seclusion and inhibition. The age-long superstitious slumber has turned rural Indian women sterile and inefficient. They have forgotten their traditional skills for lack of training, polishing and suitable financial back-up. That they can ever come to limelight and can have an exposure in entrepreneurship arena is still an enigma. It is a laborious task to sensitize the gender rural section and persuade them to take up such activities which would help them in their process of livelihood generation with the application of simple and low cost technology which would finally motivate them to be self reliant. This paper unfolds the tale of struggle and strife witnessed by the tribal women in a rural set-up of South West Midnapore, West Bengal to give a realistic tune to the role of women entrepreneurship in a stringent manner. The message that we get from this paper is that a micro experiment of rural entrepreneurship can be a macro experiment in the years ahead.

AbstractThe principal meaning of ecology is adaptation in environment. Since the time of Darwin, environment has been conceived as the total web of life where in all plant and animal species interact with one another with physical features in a particular unit of territory. Ecology has a particular role in moulding the culture and history of a particular region and has great contribution towards the splendour of a nation. But natural hazards created out of ecological imbalance bring about devastating results. An analysis has been made in this paper to show the effects of ecology rendering growth and decay of two river valley civilizations that existed 4000 years apart in the annals of world history.

In recent years, neural networks have been used as a tool for modeling an industrial process. An improvement in their performance may be expected either by divining more efficient training algorithms or by intelligently manipulating the data set. The second method is examined. The problem chosen is one of predicting the properties of cotton yarn from the fiber properties. When the input data are known to correlate with each other, principal component analysis can be used to improve the performance of neural networks. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 91: 1746–1751, 2004

During the opening of fibers by the opening roller, a considerable number of fibers suffer breakage at one or more points along their length. The vigorous action of the teeth of opening roller also causes a drop in fiber tenacity and elongation. Majority hooks fed in the leading direction cause a greater loss in tenacity than in the trailing direction.

The opening roller system of fiber separation in rotor spinning is known to cause considerable fiber breakage. An earlier work reported an experimental technique for determining fiber breakage. This study proposes a simple probability model based on the number-length relationship of the fibers, before and after the breakage, for estimating the probabilities of multisegmental breakages. The experimental and theo retical values show a reasonably good agreement.

Sirospun yarns have been texturized using an air-jet process to improve the bulk of the parent yarn. The study examines the effects of twist in the parent yarn, as well as overfeed and air pressure during texturing on the properties of the textured yarn. When suitable process parameters are chosen, Sirospun yarns lend themselves to excellent texturing with desirable properties.

The combustion of single bituminous char particles (4‐12 mm diameter) was studied in a turbulent fluidized bed operated at 1098 K using air as the fluidising medium. Results indicated that particles burn with constant density following a shrinking sphere model. Burning rates are much higher than those observed in a bubbling fluidized bed. The rate of transfer of oxygen to the particle surface is also higher than that observed in bubbling beds. A model is proposed to calculate the Sherwood numbers of the burning carbon particles. Experimental values of the Sherwood numbers agree well with those predicted from the model.

One of the most important operations in rotor spinning is the transportation of separated fibers from the feed to the rotor chamber through the transport channel. Any disturbance in the smooth flow of fibers through the channel is detrimental to yarn quality and spinning stability. In this investigation, many fibers changed their directions during passage through the channel. Straight fibers present in the feed sliver changed configurations by either getting hooked or looped. Surprisingly, long fibers changed configurations less than to short fibers.

The opening roller system of fiber separation which is invariably used on all the modern rotor spinners, entails considerable breakage of fibers. Various indirect measures have been proposed over the years for estimating the incidence of such fiber breakage. This paper describes a technique for direct measurement of fiber breakage. It has been shown that the number of fibers that break increases as the opening roller speed is raised. Besides, many fibers undergo multiple breaks at higher speeds. The pattern of fiber breakage is quite similar with opening rollers fitted with pins and saw-tooth wire. A probable mechanism has been preferred when explaining these results on fiber breakage.

An improved technique for the study of change in fiber configuration during transfer from cylinder to doffer in a card is reported. It is observed that the majority of fibers change their configuration during transfer. Hooks are formed and previously formed hooks are removed. Transfer of fibers takes place both with and without reversal of ends. Those fibers that transfer without reversal change their configura tions more. A mechanism for the formation of leading hooks through buckling of front ends is suggested.

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Penicillin-binding proteins (PBPs), although characterized from several organisms, have so far not been studied in mycobacteria. The present study is the first characterization of a PBP from Mycobacterium smegmatis. The PBP was purified by solubilization of the membranes with Triton X-100 and successive chromatography of the solubilized proteins on ampicillin-linked CH Sepharose 4B and DE-52. The purified PBP (M(r), 49,500) catalyzed a model transpeptidase reaction with the tripeptide acetyl2-L-Lys-D-Ala-D-Ala as the substrate and Gly-Gly as the acceptor. The transpeptidase activity was inhibited by 50% at a benzylpenicillin concentration of 1.8 x 10(-7) M, which was similar to the concentration (1.1 x 10(-7) M) of benzylpenicillin required to saturate to 50% this PBP. Of several antibiotics tested, the concentration of antibiotic required to inhibit [35S]penicillin binding by 90% was found to be the lowest for cefoxitin and Sch 34343.

An investigation of the high spin isomer in 151Sm was performed via the 150Nd(α, 3nγ) reaction at a projectile energy of 35 MeV. A new γ-transition, 693.6 keV was identified having an exponential delayed component. The transition feeds the 1912 keV state of the negative parity band built on the h11/2state. This transition was also observed in coincidence with γ-rays belonging to 151Sm in the γ-γcoincidence experiment at Eα=37 MeV. A new isomeric state having energy Ex=2605.8 keV and half life T1/2=23.1±3.5 ns is proposed.

The changing nature of policy variables specific to any planned developmental programme often leads to conflicting decisional problems regarding the identification of thrust areas. Hence the inherent requirement is for a composite index which eases out such ambiguous choice issues. The present paper introduces the measure of sectoral importance which is capable of encompassing different variables with their associated weights and ranks sectors in an economy based on such a measure. However, the term importance suggests the qualitativeness and subjectivity involved in defining such a concept and thus establishes the need for the concepts of fuzzy mathematics. The theory of fuzzy subsets is capable of dealing with qualitative variables within a quantitative framework. The sectoral importance measures derived from the sectoral output linkages, employment multipliers and value added multipliers, have been represented as fuzzy subsets, or to be precise, as fuzzy numbers. A comparison of these numbers through the binary approach of determination of the measure of relative strength provides the basis for the ranking of sectors. The novelty of the approach lies in its simplicity and flexibility in treating qualitative factors which characterise most decision support socio economic planning problems. The validity of the exercise has been tested by applying it to the economy of West Bengal, a State of India.

The paper presents the seasonal variation of 6300 Å line intensity at Calcutta with relative sunspot number, solar flare number and variable component of 10.7 cm solar flux. A study has been made and important results have been obtained which are as follows.

The purpose of this paper is to find correlation between OI 6300 Å line intensity with solar and ionospheric parameters. A critical study have been made and the following important results are obtained:Solar flare index plays more important role for the emissions of 6300 Å line than other solar parameters.Intensity of 6300 Å line increases linearly with the increase of solar flare index.Virtual height plays more important role than critical frequency for the emission of 6300 Å line-intensity.Possible explanation of this type of variation is also presented.

The present article considers a problem of missile warfare. It is formulated as a problem of economics and treated as a differential game. Some optimal strategies of targeting and firing of missiles are derived. Conditions under which such a war can be prevented are also developed.

The present article considers a class of simple differential games. Necessary. conditions satisfied along optimal trajectories of such games are derived under the assumption that the class of pure strategies contain the optimal strategies. Two examples are treated for illustrative purposes. Finally, possible areas of future research are discussed.

This paper presents a method for solving a class of constrained optimization problems in finite-dimensional spaces. This type of problem usually arises in connection with parameter optimization in engineering design. Most often, these problems consist of incorporating upper and/or lower bounds on the variables in otherwise unconstrained optimization problems. The proposed method replaces the original optimization problem withm constraints (m>1) by a sequence of optimization problems with one constraint only. The theory behind this method is discussed in the subsequent sections.

This paper proposes to study in a systematic way some classes of test functions for optimization algorithms. Methods are provided for generating test functions with certain specific properties.

The present article considers the Hamilton-Jacobi partial differential equation of some simple differential games. This equation is developed by using Caratheodory's approach to the synthesis problem of optimal control.