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Abstract Designing machines and equipment for post-harvest operations of agricultural products requires information about their physical properties. The aim of the work was to evaluate the possibility of introducing a new approach to predict the moisture content in bean and corn seeds based on measuring their dimensions using image analysis using artificial neural networks (ANN). Experimental tests were carried out at three levels of wet basis moisture content of seeds: 9, 13 and 17%. The analysis of the results showed a direct relationship between the wet basis moisture content and the main dimensions of the seeds. Based on the statistical analysis of the seed material, it was shown that the characteristics examined have a normal or close to normal distribution, and the seed material used in the investigation is representative. Furthermore, the use of artificial neural networks to predict the wet basis moisture content of seeds based on changes in their dimensions has an efficiency of 82%. The results obtained from the method used in this work are very promising for predicting the moisture content.

The worldwide manufacturing industries are actively adopting greener and eco-friendly production approaches, aligning with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and particularly focusing on Goal 12. This objective strives for responsible material management, with a strong emphasis on significantly decreasing waste generation through preventive measures, recycling, and reusing resources. This research introduces a sustainable method for manufacturing Siro grindle yarn, which involves maximizing the utilization of recycled cotton fibers sourced from pre-consumer fabric waste. The process involved the preparation of two rovings, one colored (red) and the other white, incorporating varying percentages of recycled cotton fibers along with virgin cotton. To achieve a vibrant grindle effect in the yarn, the compact-Siro spinning technique was employed that involves separately compacting two drafted fiber strands before uniting them through twisting. Grindle yarns with a count of Ne 20 (29.52 tex) containing up to 50% recycled fiber were successfully manufactured. As a point of comparison, Siro grindle yarn was also manufactured in a conventional-Siro ring frame. The yarns produced using the compact-Siro spinning technique exhibited notable enhancements in both structure (reduced hairiness, unevenness, and imperfections) and properties (increased strength and elongation). These grindle yarns demonstrated suitability for producing knit fabrics with esthetics comparable to commercial grindle fabrics made entirely with virgin fibers.

Purpose: This study explores the impact of Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) practices on supply chain performance, with a focus on cost efficiency, within the dynamic context of Bangladesh. The purpose is to elucidate the relationships between SRM practices, specifically Supplier Collaboration, Supplier Development, Supplier Evaluation and Selection, and Long-Term Supplier Relationships, and their influence on cost efficiency within supply chains. Design/Methodology/Approach: A quantitative research approach was employed, utilizing regression analysis and correlation analysis to analyze data collected through a structured survey from 270 Participants within Bangladesh’s Manufacturing and Service Sectors. The research adopted a cross-sectional time horizon, providing a snapshot view of the relationships between SRM practices and cost efficiency. Findings: The findings reveal that Supplier Collaboration and Long-Term Supplier Relationships significantly and positively influence cost efficiency within the supply chains of Bangladeshi organizations. These SRM practices collectively contribute to approximately 64.2% of the variance in cost efficiency, emphasizing their critical role in optimizing supply chain performance. Research Limitations/Implications: Limitations of this study include its cross-sectional nature and the focus on a specific set of SRM practices. Future research can explore additional SRM dimensions and employ longitudinal approaches for deeper insights. Practical Implications: Practitioners can leverage the study's findings to enhance supply chain performance by implementing holistic SRM strategies, fostering collaborative supplier relationships, and nurturing long-term partnerships with suppliers. Social Implications: This research contributes to the broader economic landscape of Bangladesh by highlighting the importance of SRM practices in enhancing cost efficiency, which can ultimately lead to economic growth and competitiveness. Originality/Value: This study extends the understanding of SRM practices by examining their applicability and significance in an emerging market like Bangladesh. It underscores the originality and value of SRM as a strategic imperative for organizations operating in diverse contexts.

Stretch denim is an exclusive and stylish textile made with elastic core-spun yarns. It has gained substantial traction for offering essential elasticity and resilience to the garments while retaining a snug fit and comfort when worn. Denim is produced from coarser cotton yarns necessitating a significant quantity of cotton fiber. Owing to the escalating costs of cotton and the harmful environmental impacts associated with its cultivation, it is imperative to explore alternative fibers for denim. Herein, for the very first time, an expedient technique of manufacturing elastic core-spun denim yarns utilizing recycled cotton is investigated. Recycled cotton fibers, in the range of 10–60 %, extracted from pre-consumer fabric waste were blended with virgin cotton and spun into 16 Ne (36.9 Tex) elastic core-spun yarns. To address the challenges posed by the lower spinnability of recycled fibers, attributed to lower fiber length, uniformity index, and higher short fiber content, a compact spinning system featuring a novel pin spacer was used. This combination effectively improved the fiber control within the drafting zone, enabling maximum incorporation of recycled cotton, up to 60 %, into the yarn. The produced yarns exhibited significantly lower unevenness, imperfections, and hairiness along with higher strength and elongation that fell within the top 5 %–50 % ranking of Uster Statistics 2023. The elastic core yarn, even containing 60 % recycled fiber, demonstrated its suitability for use as a weft yarn in a commercial high-speed air-jet loom operating at 950 rpm (equivalent to weft speed 94 km/h or 1577 m/min). The production of denim yarn incorporating 60 % recycled cotton represents an innovative concept to advance sustainable development goal (SDG) 12. This initiative aims to reduce the proportional demand for cotton cultivation and its subsequent processing, thereby making significant contributions to environmental preservation on various fronts. Moreover, this approach offers potential cost savings in the production of denim clothing.

Macrobenthos animals are an architect of a variety of roles including as a part of the food web of aquatic ecosystem and improve the structure of the sediment and can determine the quality of the water. Macrobenthos communities have shown their potential role in biomonitoring to analyze contaminant loads due to high sensitivity to organic pollutants along the coastal water area. Besides, it is also used to determine heavy metals and petroleum hydrocarbons in coastal water due to their long sustainability with chemicals are primarily related with industrial calamities and occupational activities. Based on above perspectives, this systematic review has shown interesting findings about the macrobenthic diversity including community composition in the coastal areas of Malaysia. The study has focused on the diversity and abundance of macrobenthos communities along some potential coastal areas of Malaysia which emphasis on the states of Johor, Pulau Pinang, Selangor, Pahang, Terengganu, and Sarawak. Several studies have evidently revealed that pollutants and human activities have contributed to loss of macrobenthos towards abundance (individuals/m2) and species richness. The highest abundance of macrobenthos was Coleoptera sp. (1650 ind./m2 followed by Hemiptera sp. (860 ind./m2) were observed in Sarawak and Crustacea sp. (597 ind/m2) was found in Selangor, respectively. While Crustacea (10 ind/m2) was found as the lowest in the coastal water Pahang only. A major shortcoming among the studies was sampling time along with sampling method which was observed in this systematic review of different studies of macrobenthic assemblages in the coastal waters of Malaysia. However, the existing study reveals the baseline information on macrobenthic community which are still inadequate in Malaysia. Hence, a long-term monitoring for eco-biology and species diversity of macrobenthic assemblages are necessary for their sustainable development in this fascinating tropical coastal water of Malaysia.

The textile sector is among the leading industries globally in terms of releasing pollutants and producing waste. Despite being reusable, many wastes are squandered by disposing to landfills or incineration, creating a serious environmental threat. Because the cost of raw materials makes up a significant portion of the total product cost, manufacturers can obtain significant profits by exploiting waste generated during the manufacturing process. Herein, an attempt has been taken to utilize cotton filter waste (CFW) (collected from the humidification plant of the spinning mill) as reinforcement in manufacturing biocomposites with the corn starch (CS) matrix. Starch was considered to be the most suitable matrix as it is sustainable, abundant, natural, biodegradable, and, more importantly, capable of showing thermoplastic behavior under high temperatures. Sheets of corn starch composites reinforced with different wt% of cleaned cotton filter waste were fabricated using hand layup and compression molding techniques. The 50 wt% cotton waste was found to be optimum loading in terms of tensile strength, Young's modulus, bending strength, toughness, impact strength, and thermal Conductivity of the biocomposites. SEM micrographs revealed good interfacial adhesion (bonding) in matrix and filler interfaces, with the most substantial bonding for composites containing 50% fibers that concomitantly enhanced the mechanical properties of composites. The obtained biocomposites are deemed to be a sustainable alternative to non-degradable synthetic polymeric materials like Styrofoam for packaging and insulation applications.

Cotton-wrapped elastane core yarns have been widely used in producing stretch denim fabrics due to their comfortable stretching and recovery, but they suffer from undesirable fabric growth under prolonged or repeated stress. To reduce that problem, an additional semi-elastic multifilament has been incorporated with the elastane core, called dual-core yarn. Herein, it was intended to produce well-engineered dual-core yarns possessing high elasticity with low bagging. Twenty types of cotton-wrapped elastane/T400 multifilament dual-core yarns with different combinations of elastane and T400 tension draft were produced on industrial scale in a spinning mill. Structural parameters, tensile properties and elastic recovery behavior under cyclic loading of the yarns were thoroughly studied. For an optimum combination of elastane/T400 draft, the dual-core yarn attained excellent tenacity and elongation with significantly low evenness, imperfections and hairiness values. More importantly, the results of the cyclic loading study explicitly revealed a remarkable reduction in plastic deformation and stress decay indicating low growth and high resilience of yarn after deformation. The dual-core yarn containing high strength, high elongation and low growth obtained here can have durable stretch jeans with high body movement comfort and long-lasting shape retention.

Betel-nut leaf plate fiber (BLPF) is a lingo-cellulosic natural fiber that can be used to make eco-friendly and biodegradable blended or hybrid fabric with Banana fiber. In the world of organic textiles, naturally dyed BLPF-Banana fiber can be used for wearable products and satisfy health and hygiene issues. BLPF and Banana fiber can be good natural fibers for hybrid fabrics despite being considered waste materials. In this research work, both of the fibers were pretreated carefully to get the desired fineness, color, flexibilities, etc., which are necessary to manufacture fabric. BLPF-Banana woven (1 × 1) hybrid fabric was developed where 12 Ne Banana yarns were used in the warp direction, and 20 Ne BLPF yarns were used in the weft direction and it was dyed naturally with Turmeric. Evaluations of different physico-mechanical properties; tensile strength (854.9 N), tearing strength (14.5 N), stiffness (3.1 N), crease recovery (75° angle), and fabric thickness (1.33 mm) of naturally dyed BLPF-Banana blended fabric were tested, and found satisfactory. SEM, FTIR, and Water vapor transmission tests were also conducted in this study. It attempted to turn the wastages into an asset to make a unique biodegradable BLPF-Banana hybrid fabric by blending two types of natural fibers with the help of natural dyeing substance; it could be a god replacement for synthetic blended fabric.

Use of nitrogen (N) fertilizers is gaining popularity to meet crop nutrient requirement for sustaining the food security of the increasing global population. However, improper management of N fertilizers in acid soils causes leaching and surface runoff because of excessive rainfalls and poor N retention in the tropics in particular. This results in N pollution in water bodies (also known as eutrophication), which degrades water quality to the detriment of aquatic ecosystems near farms. Thus, there is a need for using inorganic soil amendments such as Calciprill and sodium silicate to improve soil N adsorption because of the alkalinity and ability of these amendments to retain N for mitigating excessive N contamination in water bodies. To this end, this N sorption study was conducted to determine the effects of Calciprill and sodium silicate on ammonium (NH4+) adsorption and desorption in an acid soil (Bekenu series, Typic Paleudults). The soil was co-applied with different rates of Calciprill (80 %, 90 %, and 100 % Ca saturations) and sodium silicate (90, 105, 120, 135, and 150 kg ha-1), followed by the NH4+ adsorption capacity determination through the additions of NH4+ isonormal solutions at the five concentrations (0, 25, 50, 75, and 100 mg L-1) to establish a linear relationship between the amount of NH4+ absorbed (qe) and the amount of NH4+ left in the solution (Ce) after 24 h of equilibration. Apart from the soil only without any amendment (C0S0), there were another two additional treatments where the soil was added with Calciprill (100 % Ca saturation) (C3) and sodium silicate only (150 kg ha-1) (S5) to determine their respectively effects on N sorption. The collected data were fitted to the Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms. Thereafter, NH4+ desorption was determined using the same soil samples added with 2 mol dm-3. Compared with the soil without any amendment (C0S0), the Calcirpill alone (C3) and the combined use of Calciprill and sodium silicate significantly increased NH4+ adsorption at the NH4+ addition of 250 mg L-1, suggesting that Calciprill is the amendment which dominantly increases NH4+ adsorption and the effects of amendments are more pronounced at the lower soil NH4+ concentration. The results also revealed that the NH4+ adsorption in the soils following the co-application of Calciprill and sodium silicate followed the assumption of Freundlich isotherm. Regardless of the NH4+ concentration used, the effects of Calciprill and sodium silicate on the NH4+ desorption remain unclear, which could be because of the ability of sodium silicate to stabilize the soil structure. This stabilization reaction might have impeded the dissolution of Calciprill and temporarily fixed the absorbed NH4+. These findings suggest that it is possible to use the amendments to amend NH4+ sorption in Bekenu series for mitigating NH4+ leaching and runoff to prevent eutrophication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the tropics, high rainfalls and hot temperatures cause the formation of highly weathered acid soils with low pH buffering capacity (pHBC). Such soils are prone to nutrient losses via leaching, surface runoff, and volatilization. The poor nutrient retention of the highly weathered soils can cause environmental pollution in water bodies and detrimentally affect aquatic ecosystem. A preliminary study was conducted by mixing an acid soil (Bekenu series, Typic Paleudults) with Calciprill (80 %, 90 %, and 100 % Ca saturation) and sodium silicate (90, 105, 120, 135, and 150 kg ha-1) to determine the effects of the amendments on pH and pHBC of Bekenu series. Furthermore, a soil incubation study was carried out to determine the relationship between pH, pHBC, and effective cation exchange capacity (ECEC) after the soil was applied with Calciprill and sodium silicate and incubated for 40, 80, and 120 days. After the soil was harvested, the relationship between pHBC with soil exchangeable ammonium (NH4+), available nitrate (NO3- ), and available phosphorus (P) to determine whether the combined use of Calciprill and sodium silicate is able to mitigate N and P losses through surface runoff and leaching to contaminate the surface and underground water bodies. The results from the studies showed that Calciprill and sodium silicate significantly increased soil pH and pHBC of Bekenu series. Notably, in the soil incubation study, the treatments with Calciprill and sodium silicate consistently improved pHBC compared with the soil without these amendments, suggesting that C2S4 (Calciprill at 90 % Ca saturation and sodium silicate at 135 kg ha-1) is the minimum amount of the amendments required to improve the pHBC of Bekenu series. The significant positive correlation between pH, pHBC, and ECEC throughout the soil incubation study indicates that the amendments are capable of improving pHBC of the Bekenu series when the pH and ECEC increase because of their alkalinity in addition to the presence of carbonate and silicate minerals. The significant positive correlations between pHBC with exchangeable NH4+ and available P at 40 and 80 DAI suggest that the Calciprill and sodium silicate can improve NH4+ and P availability for crop uptake. On the contrary, the significant negative correlation between pHBC and available NO3- at 80 DAI also suggests that the combined use of amendments can significantly reduce the NO3- contamination in water bodies because of improved pHBC. The most suitable combination for improving soil pH, ECEC, and pHBC is C2S4 (Calciprill at 90 % Ca saturation and sodium silicate at 135 kg ha-1) and it is possible to co-apply Calciprill and sodium silicate to mitigate NO3- contamination in water bodies. To further validate the findings of this study, greenhouse study is recommended to elucidate the plant-soil interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigated a modified integral transform method used to solve heat equation in cylindrical coordinate, this modification method has been obtained based on integral transform (x-coordinate), we expand integral transform (x-coordinate) to integral transform (x,y,z,t-coordiantes) and convert it to cylindrical coordinate denoted by integral transform (r,θ,z,t-coordinates). Finally we used integral transform to solve heat equation in cylindrical coordinate.

The usage of recycled fibers has achieved enormous importance in the textile sector due to growing environmental awareness, legal requirements for more sustainability and the cost of raw materials. Recycled cotton fibers derived from mechanical shredding of textile waste possess lower quality values and therefore they are spun through blending with other fibers in rotor spinning system for the production of coarse yarns (10–20 Ne) to make denim, towel and home furnishing. Owing to low fiber migration, rotor yarns require high twist during spinning which makes them stiffer and poorly moisture absorbent. Rotor yarns also feel harsh in skin contact due to the presence of wrapper fibers in the yarn surface. Intending to make knit top garments like T-shirts and polo shirts, apparel manufacturers nowadays demand recycled fiber-contained soft and high moisture absorbent yarn that can be produced in ring spinning system. In the current endeavor, cotton fibers reclaimed from pre- and post-consumer textile waste were blended with virgin cotton and soft-twisted 30 Ne yarns were manufactured in ring spinning frame on an industrial scale in a spinning mill. A thorough analysis of the structure and properties of the yarns revealed that up to 25% recycled cotton fibers can be used as an alternative to virgin cotton to manufacture medium count (30 Ne) yarn in ring spinning suitable to produce knit top garments.

Since the reserves of natural renewable resources are being inexorably diminished, the utilization of the recoverable waste in new area is gaining global attention day by day. Besides, as the cost of raw materials constitutes the majority of a production cost, the usage of undesirable but inevitable processing waste in the manufacturing process provides a considerable advantage to the manufacturers. Herein, it has been attempted to exploit unusable cotton spinning mill waste (filter waste derived from humidification plant) to convert it into paper. Handsheets of 70 g/m2 and 80 g/m2 were successfully produced from 100% cotton waste, 100% bleached cotton waste, and blends of bleached cotton waste with bleached hardwood kraft pulp (HWKP) (HWKP is typically used to produce commercial-grade papers). Morphologies and mechanical properties of handsheets were thoroughly investigated by whiteness index, brightness%, breaking length, tear index, bursting index, FTIR spectroscopy, optical microscope, and scanning electron microscope. Based on detailed observations, it is summarized that the produced handsheets, depending on the chemical treatment and blend ratio with HWKP, possess variations in appearances and properties that will have a wide range of potential applications from newsprint, tissue paper to commercial-grade writing and printing papers.

Dynamic programming is considered one of the most appropriate ways to manage storage systems because of the random and linear nature of these systems, so that it is difficult to reach the optimal solution with other optimization techniques and other techniques used. The first to clarify the issue of reservoir management was Moran in 1945. The issue of the optimal operation of tanks in the form of a dynamic programming issue was done by the scientist Little in 1955. In this research, the data available in Badoush Cement Factory was used to construct a dynamic programming model to find the optimal operation of the plant after processing the fog surrounding the request.

The quest for highly stretchable fabrics with good aesthetic and functional properties has led researchers to constantly involve in mingling of natural and synthetic fibers. Elastane-cotton core yarns have an increasing demand due to their wear comfort and stretch-to-fit properties; therefore, efforts are still going on to optimize the yarn properties to meet the requirements for diversified applications. With a view to enhancing the appearance and performance characteristics of elastane-cotton core yarns, the present work was undertaken to manufacture them by exploiting the most modern and versatile pneumatic compacting mechanism, namely Suessen's EliTe compact spinning system. Elastane-cotton core yarns of different counts (20 tex, 30 tex and 60 tex) were produced with compact and conventional ring spinning system. The difference in morphology and physical properties of two types of yarns were compared after a thorough investigation by scanning electron microscope, evenness tester and strength tester. The results exhibited a noticeable decrease in hairiness, hairiness variation and neps values, especially seed-coat neps, for elastane-cotton compact core yarn. Unevenness & imperfection of compact core yarns were also found to be decreased that were reflected to the proportional enhancements in tenacity & elongation values. The overall observation reveals the potential of pneumatic compacting mechanism in obtaining elastane-cotton core yarn with superior structure and improved mechanical properties.

There has been an increase interest in natural plant fibers over the last decades with the intension to identify the ecologically acceptable alternatives to reduce the dependency on synthetic fibers. Naturally extracted okra fiber (Abelmoschus esculentus) was used in this study. Since okra is a stiff fiber, yarns with 100% Okra fiber was not possible to produce and tried to blend with polyester. The maximal ratio of okra was 20% with polyester to spin yarns in traditional ring spinning system. This study explores, for the first time, the possibility of manufacturing woven fabric with polyester-okra (80/20) yarns at weft direction with 100% cotton yarn at warp direction in order to prominent blend effect at weft direction. The properties of produced fabrics were compared with the same produced widely-used polyester-linen (PL) (80/20) counterpart. The both PO and PL woven fabrics were characterized in terms of fabric weight, thickness, abrasion, pilling, fuzzing, air permeability, tensile strength and tear strength. In addition, the morphological aspects of the fiber alignment in the woven fabric structure were observed using optical microscopic images. The performance of PO woven fabric was in acceptable ranges and can be considered as a sustainable blended woven fabric to meet the actual demand in the textile weaving industries.

The ventilation rate is an important parameter for assessing indoor air quality and energy efficiency. In occupied buildings, ventilation measurements utilising passive methods are preferable to active methods due to their simplicity and less intrusive nature. The perfluorocarbon tracer method can be used to measure long-term ventilation rates for this purpose. This method requires the passive release of a tracer gas which is often a liquid chemical diffusing out of a vial. The tracer gas emission rate is a key parameter of the vial design as if it is too low, the sampler will not be able to detect the tracer gas. If the emission rate is too high, the sampler can become saturated. Both scenarios will lead to inaccurate ventilation results. There is wide variability in vial design but little information about the relative impact of each design factor. Thus, the aim of this study was to compare the emission rate of a common tracer gas, perfluoromethylcyclohexane, using different vials designs i.e. capping styles, septa materials, and fill levels. Samples were kept in an incubator and gravimetric analysis was carried out using a semi-microbalance (resolution: 0.01 mg). The results demonstrate that the emission rate is significantly affected by capping style but not by fill level.

In this study, performance characteristics such as power take off (PTO) power consumption, fuel consumption, fuel consumption for the unit field-unit product were determined at different working speeds with two different PTO applications (540 and 540E) in a single row disc type silage machine. In particular, the 540E PTO application greatly reduces fuel consumption for unit work. The best results in terms of hourly fuel consumption were achieved in 540E PTO application and V1 working speed. When the field - product fuel consumption is evaluated, the best results were obtained with the 540E PTO application at the V3 working speed. When an evaluation is made considering all the parameters, it is concluded that the 540E PTO application will provide certain advantages in terms of fuel consumption compared to the 540 PTO application for the silage machine operating by taking the motion from PTO. 540E PTO application can be used as an important alternative to 540 PTO application for machines of similar capacity and features.

Waterlogging is a major constraint of mungbean production in the tropical and subtropical regions of the world and can cause a significant yield loss. The study evaluated 100 mungbean genotypes for tolerance to waterlogging employing rigorous field screening procedures. Three-week-old seedlings of 100 mungbean genotypes were subjected to waterlogging for 3 days maintaining a waterlogging depth of 2.5 cm. Waterlogging tolerance was evaluated during the periods of recovery and final harvest considering relative performance (values of waterlogging relative to non-waterlogging controls) of 18 plant traits. All the genotypes showed a wide range of variation in relative values. Some genotypes subjected to waterlogging produced plenty of adventitious roots that contributed to foliage development and chlorophyll increment, which resulted in better shoot growth, and eventually yield of mungbean increased. Nine plant traits highly associated in waterlogged conditions were used in cluster analysis. The genotypes within cluster 6 and cluster 7 performed better regarding almost all plant traits whereas cluster 4 performed very poorly. Discriminant function analysis showed that function 1 and function 2 explained 54.5% and 32.2%, respectively and altogether 86.7% variation in the genotypes. The harvest index and straw dry matter mostly explained the total variance in function 1. Dry matter of root, shoot and straw explained the maximum variance in function 2. Root dry matter played the most dominant role in explaining the maximum variance in the genotypes. The genotypes IPSA-10 and VC 6379 (23-11) showed a better degree of tolerance to waterlogging concerning yield and associated morpho-physiological traits.