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Purpose It is challenging to treat and manage gentamicin mycelial residue (GMR) due to the high residual antibiotic content in GMR. The objective of this study is aimed to investigate the viability of recycling GMR by co-composting with rice chaff, describe the dynamics of the physicochemical and biology parameters and microbial community, and evaluate the maturity of the compost products. Methods The co-composting process applied was a pilot-scale composting process under the conditions found outside the laboratory. Three 1-tonne piles of fresh GMR were composted in each treatment; test treatment contained rich chaff and the control did not. Dried GMR was made by drying fresh GMR. Three compost treatments were as follows: (1) no rice chaff, 8:1 weight/weight fresh GMR-to-dried GMR (CK); (2) 8:1 weight/weight fresh GMR-to-rice chaff (T1); and (3) 4:1 weight/weight fresh GMR-to-rice chaff (T2). The raw materials were made into three compost cones of 2 m diameter and 1.5 m height.Results The optimal fresh GMR:rice chaff ratio (w/w) was 4:1. Over 99% of gentamicin was degraded after 73 days of co-composting. The key parameters of the final products, such as the pH, C/N ratio, germination index and crop growth indexes, all met the national standards for compost maturity indicators. Compared with those of fungi, the abundance and diversity of bacteria obviously increased during co-composting. Canonical correlation analysis (CCA) revealed that the bacterial community dynamics were closely correlated with the amount of residual gentamicin. Micromonospora and Enterococcus may have been the key microorganisms degrading the gentamicin.Conclusion The addition of rice chaff improved the decomposition of gentamicin residue in the GMR and made the GMR usable in fertilizer; this result could help antibiotic production factories recycle more of their waste products. The results provide new insight into the potential for co-composting with rice chaff to achieve sustainable GMR management.

1. Feather pecking (FP) is said to be a redirection of food-related foraging pecks to feathers. The effects of three foraging enrichments on the pecking behaviours of layer pullets in pens and as hens in cages (Gallus gallus domesticus) were studied. 2. Treatments included no added enrichment (Control), addition of a mix of wheat and sorghum grains (Grain), a mix of wheat and sorghum grains with lucerne and oaten chaff (Chaff), and lucerne hay (Hay). In pens, Hay was provided in racks, while Grain and Chaff were scattered on the floor. In cages, all treatments were provided in racks. It was predicted that enrichments that encouraged more pecking activity would be most successful at reducing FP. 3. Overall pecking activity was similar between all treatments. The Chaff groups tended to FP less than Grain groups, and Hay groups had the least FP. In cages, both Chaff and Hay groups had significantly less FP than either the Grain or Control groups. FP did not reflect stimulus peck rates. Although Chaff groups pecked at their rack significantly less than either Grain or Hay groups, their FP was on a par with the birds in the Hay groups. Feather quality followed these trends. 4. The fact that these results were inconsistent with the original hypothesis led to a proposal for a modified hypothesis. Rather than the appetitive component of food searching motivation being redirected to feathers, it is the appetitive component of exploratory motivation, and the ability to reach the goal to update information about the environment is what feeds back to the motivation which leads to FP. This modified hypothesis is consistent with the results of this and many other studies and with modern concepts of motivation, foraging, exploration and food selection.

Large cryptographic-key ensures high security and robustness of asymmetric and symmetric cryptography. The conventional Fuzzy Vault Scheme (FVS) biocrypto-system is employed to shield private or secret-key using biometric features. The strength of FVS consists in its polynomial degree and chaff-points. In FVS, the system's performance is degraded with increment in the polynomial degree to make system robust against attacks. Similarly, valid chaff-point generation is also a crucial task that needs to be considered in the conventional FVS. Therefore, an efficient and more secure Modified FVS (MFVS) using Least Square Polynomial Curve Fitting (LSPC) is proposed in this paper to enhance the security of conventional FVS. Moreover, Newton’s Divided Difference Interpolation (NDDI) based new chaff-points generation method is also proposed to minimize the number of required candidate points. The proposed system demonstrations average accuracy as 100%, Genuine Acceptance Rate (GAR) as 99%, False Rejection Rate (FRR) as 1%, and False Acceptance Rate (FAR) as 0%. Security of MFVS is analyzed against brute-force attack, it evident that 10-Million more combinations are required to break the generated Fuzzy Vault as compared to prior research. Consequently, proposed chaff-point generation reduces required candidate points by 13-times than existing methods

To investigate the effects of bedding types on the performance, skeletal and behavioral characteristics, health and immunity conditions of suckling Holstein calves, an experiment was conducted in a completely randomized design using 80 Holstein calves. The calves were distributed over 5 treatments and 4 replicates (each replicate included 2 male and 2 female calves). The 5 experimental treatments werechaff, straw, bagasse, sand, or mat. The results showed that the highest feed intake was related to the sand and chaff beddings and the highest weight gain (P

In recent years, according to the sharp increase in the number of breweries and high competition on the consumer market, it is very important to extend the raw material base of the industry and the range of produced beer from the recommended raw materials. One of the ways to expand the raw material base of breweries is developing recommendations for the use of new zoned varieties of barley, in particular as well as the use of special malts, wheat malt, the development of new recipes and technologies for beer producing. As it is known, barley, wheat, rye, and malt produced from these cereal crops are processed to a greater extent at present. Along with traditional types of cereals, such cereals as amaranth, buckwheat, triticale, sorghum, oats, etc. are used. Among the listed alternative crops, wheat should be noted as the most promising type of cereal raw materials. Wheat (Triticum) is an herbaceous annual plant of the cereal family. Hard wheat (T. durum) and soft wheat (T. aestivum) are the most important. Both species are holo-grain, i.e., the grain is covered with fruiting and seed shells, fused and consisting of several layers of cells, and do not have flower (chaff) shells. At present time, high-yielding winter and spring wheat (T.aestivum) is mainly cultivated. This species has loose floury grains and rather low protein content. It should be noted that unmalted wheat is rarely used in brewing. This is because that the use of this cereal as unmalted material leads to significant deviations in the technological process, in particular, the filtration of wort and beer slows down, reduces the colloidal stability of the final product. At the same time, as a raw material for malt, wheat has some advantages over barley. The article deals with the effect of different amounts of wheat malt on the mashing process, the percentage of mashing and mashing modes of barley and wheat malt are selected experimentally.

Non-woody plant raw materials are of scientific interest in the effective processes of their chemical processing into fibrous semi-finished products and the properties of the finished product. A feature is the study of local species of annual plants that are among the most cultivated. Therefore, scientists are increasingly experimenting with corn waste for the possibility of their use in the manufacture of paper or cardboard, the study of their properties, but the results are not always stable. Our work focuses on the use of corn waste in the form of cob wrappers and obtaining from them fibrous semi-finished products by the soda-soda method. The restraining factor of obtaining cellulose from this raw material is the variability of chemical composition, features of morphological structure, the insufficient study of delignification depending on the cost of active alkali, the influence of impregnation on this process, its duration, and temperature. Wraps in the form of chaff were boiled with a solution at the consumption of active alkali 6 %, 10 %, and 14 % in units. Na2O by mass abs. dry. raw materials for impregnation for 15 min or without impregnation and subsequent cooking at a final temperature in the range of 100 0C - 160 0C for 15 or 30 min. The semi-finished products obtained as a result of cooking were ground, samples were made and their strength indicators were determined. It should be noted that the wrappers contain about twice less lignin, about 7.5-14 %, compared to wood – 23-28 %, which led to the choice of the minimum duration of cooking. However, the semi-finished products obtained from them are difficult to grind. This pattern is partly explained by the location of fibrils in the secondary wall of the middle layer S2 at an angle of 45-500 to the fiber axis, and the direction of fibrils in adjacent layers S1 and S3 of the cell wall is opposite, which inhibits splitting into individual fibrils. It is shown that impregnation has a positive effect on the quality of raw material digestion and physical and mechanical properties. At a temperature of 130 0C for only 15 and 30 minutes of cooking with impregnation and the consumption of active alkali 14 % in units. Na2O achieved high strength of semi-finished products. Increasing the cooking temperature to 160 0C and the maximum consumption of active alkali to 14 % per unit. Na2O leads to a sharp decrease in the yield and strength of semi-finished products. This pattern is logically explained by theoretical provisions on the processes of delignification of raw materials. At the same time, the temperature and the consumption of alkali increase the destruction of the carbohydrate part, primarily its low-molecular fractions, which are responsible for the formation of strong hydrogen bonds between the fibers. The optimal conditions for delignification at a temperature of 160 0C can be considered the consumption of active alkali 10 % per unit. Na2O with impregnation and cooking time of 15 minutes and obtaining high yield cellulose. The proposed raw materials for corn cob wrappers and technological modes of its chemical processing provide the production of fibrous semi-finished products with high strength.

In rural areas electricity is either unavailable or available for limited period. So performing many activities with the help of animal driven rotary mode power can be a good alternative. The bullocks can be used in rotary mode power transmission system, post-harvest operations like mini rice mill, flour milling, chaff cutting, dal milling, groundnut decortications, oil extraction, threshing Shevai making machine and other stationery operations. Draught animals are used for a limited period for agricultural work 40 to 50 days and the rest of the time they stand idle. The farmer has to feed them throughout the year despite no work output during off season, leading to high maintenance cost as compared to power output. But this idle period can be utilized and converted to work through rotary mode operation. The proposed research work presents the performance evaluation of shevai machine unit. The mean draft was 418.1N which was 4.84 per cent of bodyweight of the bullocks. The increase in respiration rate, pulse rate decreased with duration. The rpm of bullock from 30 min. of trials was initially 65 and reduced to 60 at load condition. The mean rpm of the shevai machine shaft was observed to be 150. The output of machine gradually decreased with duration may be due to a decrease in the speed of the shaft of the shevai machine. The mean output was found to be 8 kg/h were as the output of shevai machine operated with an electric motor was 10 kg/h. The average power output from the bullock over three times 30 minutes of working in Shevai machine was 0.498Kw. The operation of the Shevai machine was found to be feasible considering the draft ability of Red Kandhari type bullocks. The total cost of operation of unit was calculated Rs. 8.33 Rs / h with an output capacity of flour mill observed 1.0 hp.

Chaff cloud is widely used in target covering. In this paper, a jamming performance estimation strategy is presented for the elliptical and cubic chaff clouds. The range profiles of the composite models of the plane with the chaff cloud are experimentally accessed in an anechoic chamber using a stepped-frequency waveform measurement system. Then, dimensions, characteristic length, and distributing entropy of the equivalent scattering centers of the plane and the jammer are extracted from the measured range profiles, respectively. Based on these features, support vector machines, naïve Bayesian classification, and decision tree classification methods are employed to determine the recognition rate of the target under the chaff jamming, and then determine the jamming efficiency of the two kinds of chaff clouds. Results show that two types of chaff clouds are able to reduce the target recognition rate. Besides, when the radar uses the Euclidean distance and decision tree classification methods to complete the recognition task, a good jamming efficiency can be achieved by releasing the elliptical or the cubic chaff cloud. Meanwhile, a low level of jamming performance outcomes using the support vector machines classification method. It is also found that the chaff cloud released from the side of the plane achieves a better jamming performance compared with the other releasing locations. Finally, the influence of environmental noise on the recognition rate of the plane is studied. Estimating results show that the recognition rates decrease with the increasing of the power level of the noise. When the transmitting power level of the noise reaches 1.2 times the reflected power level of the target, it is quite hard to estimate the jamming performance of two kinds of chaff clouds.

Chaff is one of the most extensively used passive electronic countermeasure to disrupt radar tracking and are designed to cover wide frequency range from 2-18 GHz. There are various factors to improve backscattered RCS of the chaff cloud at higher frequencies. In this paper, the effect of coating thickness of conducting material of electrically conducting fibre (which is used as chaff) on its backscattered RCS has been studied. The relationship between fiber coating thickness of conducting material and its backscattered RCS were obtained by performing simulations in Ansys HFSS with dipole length of 50mm and 15mm and later validating the same with the measured results. It is observed that with an increase in coating thickness of conducting material of the fibre there is increase in its backscattered RCS. When coating thickness of conducting metal becomes greater than the skin depth of the conducting metal, the increase in observed RCS with increase in coating thickness is marginal. Thus, further increase in coating thickness greater than the skin depth of the conducting metal will not improve the backscattered RCS of the fiber significantly but it will add weight penalty for the fiber.

The aims of this study were to evaluate the quality of feedstuff as concentrate feed raw material, the quality of feed concentrate, and customer satisfaction toward concentrate quality produced by the cooperative. The parameters observed were nutrient contents (moisture, ash, crude protein, crude fat, and crude fibre) and physical quality (density, bulk density, and compacted bulk density). Farmer satisfaction was measured using customer satisfaction index (CSI) and gap analysis. The data obtained consisted of primary data (nutrient content of feedstuff and physical quality) and secondary data (nutrient content of concentrates) that were then analysed descriptively. Total respondents in the satisfaction analysis were 100 farmers. The results of this study indicated that feedstuff nutrient content varied, even though corn gluten feed (CGF) was in the range of Indonesian National Standards (SNI). The highest density and bulk density were limestone, and the highest compacted bulk density was salt, while the lowest physical quality was coffee chaff. Nutrient content of concentrate complied with SNI except for crude fat content. Meanwhile, the physical quality of the concentrate was still within the normal range. Farmer satisfaction was in the satisfied category with the highest gap values absence of foreign objects. Key words: concentrate feed, CSI, farmer satisfaction, feedstuff, quality

The need to optimize the utilization of garri processing by-products and improve the protein availability through egg production motivated this study. 165 Acro Black laying hen of 41 weeks old were grouped into five dietary treatments of 35 birds per treatment and five replicates of seven birds each. Layers' diets were compounded at 0%, 11.25%, 22.5%, 33.5% and 45% of garri chaff and 0%, 3.575%, 7.15%, 10.275% and 14.3% of sun dried cassava peel levels of inclusion. The diets and groups of birds were labelled A, B, C, D and E and the birds were fed with their corresponding diets for 6 consecutive weeks. Records of feed consumption and number of eggs laid were taken daily throughout the period of experimentation. The results showed that egg laying performance was of the order C>D>A>B>E among the dietary treatments. While egg laying performance hovered around 60% in the control treatment A, it increased from 57% to 86% in group C. Birds in treatment E had the least feed consumption and least egg laying performance. Weight increase of the birds at the end of the experimentation were of the order A>B>D>C>E. It was thus concluded that garri chaff and cassava peel appeared useful as ingredients in layers' diets at about equal quantity with maize and wheat offal, respectively but the feed should be adequately fortified with protein rich feedstuffs and the diets must be introduced early to avoid rejection by the birds.Keywords: Garri chaff, cassava peel, layers mash, egg laying, performance

Chaff lining and chaff tramlining are harvest weed seed control (HWSC) systems that involve the concentration of chaff material containing weed seed into narrow (20 to 30 cm) rows between or on the harvester wheel tracks during harvest. These lines of chaff are left intact in the fields through subsequent cropping seasons in the assumption that the chaff environment is unfavorable for weed seed survival. The chaff row environment effect on weed seed survival was examined in field studies, and chaff response studies determined the influence of increasing amounts of chaff on weed seedling emergence. The objectives of these studies were to determine the influences of (1) chaff lines on the summer–autumn seed survival of selected weed species and (2) chaff type and amount on rigid ryegrass seedling emergence. There was frequently no difference (P > 0.05) in seed survival of four weed species (rigid ryegrass, wild oat, annual sowthistle, and turnip weed) when seeds were placed beneath or beside chaff lines. In one instance, wild oat seed survival was increased (P < 0.05) when seed were placed beneath compared to beside a chaff line. The pot studies determined that increasing amounts of chaff consistently resulted in decreasing numbers of rigid ryegrass seedlings emerging through chaff material. The suppression of emergence broadly followed a linear relationship in which there was approximately a 2.0% reduction in emergence with every 1,000 kg ha–1 increase in chaff material. This relationship was consistent across wheat, barley, canola, and lupin chaff types, indicating that the physical presence of the chaff was more important than chaff type. These studies suggested that chaff lines may not affect the survival over summer–autumn of the contained weed seeds but that the subsequent emergence of weed seedlings will be restricted by high amounts of chaff (>40,000 kg ha–1).

Chaff cloud is widely used in target covering. It contains huge numbers of chaff elements. An optimization method is presented in this letter for determining the mixing ratio of the chaff elements for wideband jamming. The electromagnetic scattering is calculated first for single chaff element with different lengths using the method of moments. Then, the superposition method is adopted to obtain the radar cross section (RCS) of the chaff cloud based on the scattering results of the chaff elements. Finally, the particle swarm optimization algorithm is used to determine the mixing ratio of the chaff elements to minimize RCS fluctuations within the jamming frequency band. Simulations show that the optimized chaff cloud can achieve good jamming performance over a wide frequency range.

Human Life on earth is driven by energy and with the global challenge on best ways to manage waste, there is need to convert organic waste to bioenergy which will help reduce the rate of environmental pollution and over dependence on conventional source of energy. In this investigation maize chaff were inoculated with cow rumen using different concentration ratios (S/I) of 1:1, 1: 1.55, 1:3.5 for 25, 31 and 37 days Retention Time (RT) as design by Central Composite Face Centered Design to optimize the process and predict the best response. The result obtained shows that the mixture ratio of 0.65 (1:1.55) for 31 days gave the optimum yield while 0.65 mixing ratio for 37 days gave the maximum yield at 0.42L under mesophilic (20°C to 45°C) condition. The Flash point of the cummulative maximum yield was -164°C which is really flammable. The model F-value is 95.03, p-values is < 0.0001 which is less than 0.05 and both values indicate model terms are significant. Lack of Fit F-value of 0.43 implies the fitting effect is good. Its R2 value of 0.9855 is very close to 1 which is good. In addition, the biogas products were characterized by FTIR spectroscopy and Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The FTIR analyzes showed the presence of Alcohol and was further proven by 69% methane gotten as indicated by the GC-MS. Thus, the result shows high methane yield, flammability and suitability for maize chaff inoculated with cow rumen for energy production.

The Redekop Seed Control Unit™ is an integrated reversible cage mill with a blade system added, but the effects of this addition on harvest weed seed control efficacy and chaff flow are not known. Volunteer canola control when processed by a cage mill with either eight fan blades or four fan blades plus four cutting blades at 5 and 10 Mg h−1 was tested. Blade configuration in combination with chaff feeding rate did not affect volunteer canola control, which remained above 99%. If the blade system allows for reduced energy requirements, it will be a useful development in integrated mill systems.

Panicle architecture is an important character that influence reproductive success and contributes directly to grain yield. In the present study, we evaluated diversity of panicle traits in 77 indigenous rice landraces from Koraput and compared with three popularity cultivated hybrid varieties of the locality for possibility of using in crop improvement program. Significant morphological variations of panicle traits such as panicle number, panicle angle, panicle weight, panicle length, grain number and grain weight were recorded in studied rice landraces. Based on the principal component analysis, first two axis of principal component captures 56.34% of the total variation and indicated significant variability of panicle traits among the genotypes. Panicle length, panicle weight, grain number and flag leaf area are the major determinants of phenotypic diversity. Multiple correlation between traits indicated that panicle weight in studied rice landraces were positively correlated with panicle number, grain number and leaf area and negatively associated with panicle length, panicle angle and chaff number. The genetic advance as percentage of mean (GAM) ranged from 22.19% for panicle length to 147.02% for panicle angle. High GAM along with heritability was observed for panicle number, panicle weight, grain number and chaff number and are important traits for selection during crop improvement. Some of the landraces such as Matidhan, Bhatagurumukhi, Chiklakoli and Kamuntana remarkably showed superior panicle weight along with higher grain number and length of panicle, which can be used in the future rice breeding program. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1007/s12298-020-00871-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Objective The cultivation and production of industrial hemp [Cannabis sativa containing Materials and Methods Single lots of industrial hemp plants and by-products of cannabinoid production were obtained from a licensed research station located in south-central Kansas. Samples obtained were (1) whole industrial hemp plants (no roots), (2) stalks remaining after seed harvesting, (3) unprocessed female flowers intended for cannabinoid extraction, (4) whole seed heads for seed production, (5) leaves obtained from the drying process, (6) chaff obtained after seed harvesting and cleaning, and (7) processed female flowers after cannabinoid extraction. Plant materials were submitted for nutrient concentration and digestibility analysis, and for cannabinoid concentration determination, to a commercial nutrition laboratory. Results and Discussion Dry matter of the plant material ranged from 65 to 96.6%. Crude protein ranged from 5.3 to 24.5%. Calcium concentration was from 1.0 to 5.7% DM. The plants tested had high fiber concentrations, with NDF ranging from 28 to 80% and ADF ranging from 18 to 65% DM. Total digestible nutrients was 19.8 to 61.5. Six of the 10 cannabinoids tested were detected in all samples. Cannabidiolic acid, cannabidiol, and Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinolic acid A were detected in all samples at the highest concentrations. Implications and Applications These findings will assist livestock producers in using industrial hemp in animal feeds through consideration of both the nutritional and cannabinoid concentrations in the ration.

The high cost of Maize as energy source in fish feed has necessitated the need to search for low cost and locally available indigenous sources. A six months feeding trial was conducted to examine the effects of replacing maize with roasted rice chaff as a dietary energy source on the growth of juveniles of Clarias gariepinus using Completely Randomized block Design with five different treatments. The fishes were subjected to five different inclusion levels of roasted rice chaff meal (0%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%). The trial was conducted in a 50litres plastic bowl with replicates and feeding was done initially at 3% body weight, but the quantity of feeds was adjusted based on the new weight gain. The measurements of the fishes were carried out biweekly according to standard methods and procedures. The Roasted rice chaff meal (RRCM) contains 5.93% crude protein, 14.53% crude fibre, 0.92% moisture content, while Ash content, crude lipid and carbohydrates had 19.98%, 3.28% and 55.36% respectively. Fishes fed 100% RRCM recorded the best growth performance in body weight (435.10 ± 20.60gm), total length (45.30 ± 0.70cm), Specific growth rate (1.44 ± 0.01), Feed Conversion Ratio (2.50 ± 0.04) and Feed Intake (92.00 ± 3.40). While the least growth ware observed in 0% RRCM. However, all the physico-chemical parameters measured are within the recommended range for fish culture. Therefore, the result obtained shows that roasted rice chaff can replace maize as a source of energy in Clarias gariepinus.juveniles diets without any negative effect.

The problems of increasing soybean production in Russia’s Amur oblast through the optimization of the structure of sown areas, enhancement of the material and technical basis, restoration of soil fertility, and the use of other techniques are considered. The obtained data on the chemical composition and nutrient value of the noncereal part of the soybean yield confirm the high fodder advantages of chaff (0.56 fodder units), which should be used in animal husbandry, while the straw should be chopped and covered with the soil. Taking into account significant differences in the structure, thickness, and stiffness of soybean stalks compared to grain crops, a design of a grinding device has been developed and proposed. This device is provided with rotary cutting elements of a segment type, placed double-thread-wise along the helix and along the entire length of the shredding drum at an angle of 36°; these cutting elements rotate in a vertical plane and alternately interact with shearing segments, which are rigidly fixed on an adjustable beam. Due to the uniform action of the cutting elements, this grinding device, IRVS-1200, allows for reducing the cost of power for grinding and provides high-quality grinding and uniform distribution of chopped straw on the field surface. When using this grinding device on the combine harvester with reapers over 6 m wide, it is necessary to increase the air flow rate to 7 m/s by increasing the rotation frequency of the shredding drum up to 40 s–1 and the angle of installation of the guiders to 70°. Embedding of chopped straw into the soil by disking or cultivation improves the structure of the soil and increases the fertility and productivity of grain crops and soybean.

The chaff quality or, more specifically, the distribution of stalk length after straw shredding during wheat harvest with a combined harvester is of significant interest for ploughless tillage practices. The currently applied characterization methods (manual length measurement or the cascade sieve analysis) are time-consuming and labour-intensive. Image analysis-based size characterization has the potential to solve these problems. In this study, two techniques of digital image processing, the well-known method of image moments (rectangular model) and a sub-pixel skeletonization approach (flow lines-tracing), were applied comparatively for stalk length measurement. Upon applying the rectangular model, the analyzed stalks were found to be longer than when the flow lines-tracing algorithm was applied. This was attributed to the unbiased decision criteria of the measuring method. A greater length of the stalk is to be expected in the main stalk than when the length of a twisted or branched stalk is measured from the edge length of a rectangular box that encloses it.

The study considers the use of rice chaffs (husks) as an aggregate in a composite cement matrix system. Cement mortars were modified using styrene butadiene rubber polymer for strengthening. The goal is to develop a lightweight building material with good thermal insulation properties out of agricultural waste. The compressive strength, split tensile strength and flexural strength were experimentally evaluated. Further analyses of the samples were carried out by means of scanning electron microscope and energy dispersive spectroscopy. The key results obtained were presented and analysed with the performance of the proposed husk-crete building material showing adequate properties essential for a lightweight structural material with possible applications for non-structural purposes.

Rice is one of the most important cereal crop in the world. This paper present the design and performance evaluation of a rice hulling machine fabricated for removing chaffs from paddy rice as the consumer’s demand for rice requires the most hygienic, easy and less time consuming process. The design was segmented into the hopper and housing (processing) unit, the frame support and the power transmission unit. The housing unit consists of the upper and lower body where the sieve, hulling blade and cylinder is enclosed. The machine is powered by a 3.0 H.P. 950 rpm electric motor via a V-belt mechanism which deliverers the power requirement to the shaft on which the hulling cylinder is mounted. The hulling cylinder presses the paddy rice against the hulling blade to remove the chaff. The paddy rice is fed into the housing unit for processing through the machine hopper. The probability failure of the machine during loading has been minimized by proper material selection and using a factor of safety of 4 in the design process. The machine was designed to process about 8 kg of rice for small scale production. Performance evaluation of the machine shows that its efficiency is within the range of 83 to 88%, the hulling capacity is within the range of 22 to 25 kg/h and the maximum efficiency is at 5 kg paddy rice hopper loading which is about 60% of the hoppers’ volume. Key words: Rice, hulling, dehusking machine, paddy, fabrication.