Showing papers by "Thapar University published in 2011"

Barriers to implement green supply chain management in automobile industry using interpretive structural modeling technique: An Indian perspective

Abstract: Purpose : Green Supply Chain Management (GSCM) has received growing attention in the last few years. Most of the automobile industries are setting up their own manufacturing plants in competitive Indian market. Due to public awareness, economic, environmental or legislative reasons, the requirement of GSCM has increased. In this context, this study aims to develop a structural model of the barriers to implement GSCM in Indian automobile industry. Design/methodology/approach: We have identified various barriers and contextual relationships among the identified barriers. Classification of barriers has been carried out based upon dependence and driving power with the help of MICMAC analysis. In addition to this, a structural model of barriers to implement GSCM in Indian automobile industry has also been put forward using Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM) technique. Findings: Eleven numbers of relevant barriers have been identified from literature and subsequent discussions with experts from academia and industry. Out of which, five numbers of barriers have been identified as dependent variables; three number of barriers have been identified as the driver variables and three number of barriers have been identified as the linkage variables. No barrier has been identified as autonomous variable. Four barriers have been identified as top level barriers and one bottom level barrier. Removal of these barriers has also been discussed. Research limitations/implications: A hypothetical model of these barriers has been developed based upon experts’ opinions. The conclusions so drawn may be further modified to apply in real situation problem. Practical implications: Clear understanding of these barriers will help organizations to prioritize better and manage their resources in an efficient and effective way. Originality/value: Through this paper we contribute to identify the barriers to implement GSCM in Indian automobile industry and to prioritize them. The structured model developed will help to understand interdependence of the barriers. This paper also suggests the removal of these barriers.

Utilization of silica fume in concrete: Review of hardened properties

Abstract: Several types of industrial byproducts are generated. With increased environmental awareness and its potential hazardous effects, utilization of industrial byproducts has become an attractive alternative to disposal. One such by-product is silica fume (SF), which is a byproduct of the smelting process in the silicon and ferrosilicon industry. Silica fume is very effective in the design and development of high strength high performance concrete. This paper covers the physical, chemical properties of silica fume, and its reaction mechanism. It deals with the effect of silica fume on the workability, porosity, compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, flexural strength, creep and shrinkage of concrete.

Utilization of silica fume in concrete: Review of durability properties

Abstract: With increased environmental awareness and its potential hazardous effects, utilization of industrial byproducts has become an attractive alternative to disposal. Silica fume (SF), which is byproduct of the smelting process in the silicon and ferrosilicon industry. Silica fume is very effective in the design and development of high strength high performance concrete. This paper covers the physical, chemical properties of silica fume, and its reaction mechanism. It deals with the effect of silica fume on the permeability, freezing and thawing resistance, corrosion, sulfate resistance, carbonation, and alkali-aggregate resistance of concrete.

Microbial Concrete: Way to Enhance the Durability of Building Structures

Abstract: Natural processes, such as weathering, faults, land subsidence, earthquakes, and human activities, create fractures and fissures in concrete structures that can reduce the service life of the structures. A novel strategy to restore or remediate such structures is biomineralization of calcium carbonate using microbes, such as those in the genus of the Bacillus species. The present study investigated the effects of Bacillus sp. CT-5, isolated from cement, on compressive strength and water-absorption tests. The results showed a 36% increase in compressive strength of cement mortar with the addition of bacterial cells. Treated cubes absorbed six times less water than control cubes as a result of microbial calcite deposition. The current work demonstrated that production of "microbial concrete" by Bacillus sp. on constructed facilities could enhance the durability of building materials.

Effect of calcifying bacteria on permeation properties of concrete structures

Abstract: Microbially enhanced calcite precipitation on concrete or mortar has become an important area of research regarding construction materials. This study examined the effect of calcite precipitation induced by Sporosarcina pasteurii (Bp M-3) on parameters affecting the durability of concrete or mortar. An inexpensive industrial waste, corn steep liquor (CSL), from starch industry was used as nutrient source for the growth of bacteria and calcite production, and the results obtained with CSL were compared with those of the standard commercial medium. Bacterial deposition of a layer of calcite on the surface of the specimens resulted in substantial decrease of water uptake, permeability, and chloride penetration compared with control specimens without bacteria. The results obtained with CSL medium were comparable to those obtained with standard medium, indicating the economization of the biocalcification process. The results suggest that calcifying bacteria play an important role in enhancing the durability of concrete structures.

Utilization of waste foundry sand (WFS) in concrete manufacturing

Abstract: Due to ever increasing quantities of waste materials and industrial by-products, solid waste management is the prime concern in the world. Scarcity of land-filling space and because of its ever increasing cost, recycling and utilization of industrial by-products and waste materials has become an attractive proposition to disposal. There are several types of industrial by-products and waste materials. The utilization of such materials in concrete not only makes it economical, but also helps in reducing disposal concerns. One such industrial by-product is waste foundry sand (SFS). Waste foundry sand is a by-product of ferrous and nonferrous metal casting industries. Foundries successfully recycle and reuse the sand many times in a foundry. When the sand can no longer be reused in the foundry, it is removed from the foundry and is termed as waste foundry sand. Published literature has shown that WFS could be used in manufacturing Controlled Low-Strength Materials (CLSM) and concrete. This paper presents an overview of some of the research published on the use of WFS in concrete. Effect of WFS on concrete properties such as compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, modulus of elasticity, freezing-thawing resistance, and shrinkage are presented.

Study of size and mass distribution of particulate matter due to crop residue burning with seasonal variation in rural area of Punjab, India

Abstract: Emission from field burning of agricultural crop residue is a common environmental hazard observed in northern India. It has a significant potential health risk for the rural population due to respirable suspended particulate matter (RSPM). A study on eight stage size segregated mass distribution of RSPM was done for 2 wheat and 3 rice crop seasons. The study was undertaken at rural and agricultural sites of Patiala (India) where the RSPM levels remained close to the National Ambient Air quality standards (NAAQS). Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) contributed almost 55% to 64% of the RSPM, showing that, in general, the smaller particles dominated during the whole study period with more contribution during the rice crop as compared to that of wheat crop residue burning. Fine particulate matter content in the total RSPM increased with decrease in temperature. Concentration levels of PM10 and PM2.5 were higher during the winter months as compared to that in the summer months. Background concentration levels of PM10, PM2.5 and PM10−2.5 were found to be around 97±21, 57±15 and 40±6 μg m−3, respectively. The levels increased up to 66, 78 and 71% during rice season and 51, 43 and 61% during wheat crop residue burning, respectively. Extensive statistical analysis of the data was done by using pair t-test. Overall results show that the concentration levels of different size particulate matter are greatly affected by agricultural crop residue burning but the total distribution of the particulate matter remains almost constant.

Influence of Y2O3 on structural and optical properties of SiO2–BaO–ZnO–xB2O3–(10−x) Y2O3 glasses and glass ceramics

Abstract: SiO 2 –BaO–ZnO–xB 2 O 3 –(10−x) Y 2 O 3 , (0 ≤ x ≤ 10) glasses are synthesized. The effect of Y 2 O 3 on the structural and optical properties of glasses has been investigated using different characterization techniques. The results are discussed in light of non-bridging oxygens (NBO), optical basicity and heat-treatment of glasses. The band gap has been calculated for as cast and heat-treated glasses. The band gap energy is found to decrease with the increasing content of Y 2 O 3 in the glasses and heat-treatment. The presence of the crystalline phase in the glass matrix showed remarkable effect on band gap which decreases to semiconducting range.

Enhancement of Cellulase Activity from a New Strain of Bacillus subtilis by Medium Optimization and Analysis with Various Cellulosic Substrates.

Abstract: The cellulase activity of Bacillus subtilis AS3 was enhanced by optimizing the medium composition by statistical methods. The enzyme activity with unoptimised medium with carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) was 0.07 U/mL and that was significantly enhanced by CMC, peptone, and yeast extract using Placket-Burman design. The combined effects of these nutrients on cellulase activity were studied using 22 full factorial central composite design. The optimal levels of medium components determined were CMC (1.8%), peptone (0.8%), and yeast extract (0.479%). The maximum enzyme activity predicted by the model was 0.49 U/mL which was in good agreement with the experimental value 0.43 U/mL showing 6-fold increase as compared to unoptimised medium. The enzyme showed multisubstrate specificity, showing significantly higher activity with lichenan and β-glucan and lower activity with laminarin, hydroxyethylcellulose, and steam exploded bagasse. The optimised medium with lichenan or β-glucan showed 2.5- or 2.8-fold higher activity, respectively, at same concentration as of CMC.

Optimization of neem methyl ester from transesterification process and fuel characterization as a diesel substitute

Abstract: The present work aimed at the standardization of transesterification process parameters for the production of methyl ester of filtered neem oil and fuel characterization for engine performance. The effect of process parameters such as molar ratio, preheating temperature, catalyst concentration and reaction time was studied to standardize the transesterification process for estimating the highest recovery of ester with lowest possible viscosity. Based on the observations of the ester recovery and kinematic viscosity, it was found that filtered neem oil at 6:1 M ratio (methanol to oil) preheated at 55 °C temperature and maintaining 60 °C reaction temperature for 60 min in the presence of 2 percent KOH and then allowed to settle for 24 h in order to get lowest kinematic viscosity (2.7 cSt) with ester recovery (83.36%). Different fuel properties of the neem methyl ester and neem oil were also measured. Results show that the methyl ester of neem obtained under the optimum condition is an excellent substitute for fossil fuels.

A new approach for ranking of L-R type generalized fuzzy numbers

Abstract: Ranking of fuzzy numbers play an important role in decision making, optimization, forecasting etc. Fuzzy numbers must be ranked before an action is taken by a decision maker. Cheng (Cheng, C. H. (1998). A new approach for ranking fuzzy numbers by distance method. Fuzzy Sets and Systems, 95, 307-317) pointed out that the proof of the statement ''Ranking of generalized fuzzy numbers does not depend upon the height of fuzzy numbers'' stated by Liou and Wang (Liou, T. S., & Wang, M. J. (1992). Ranking fuzzy numbers with integral value. Fuzzy Sets and Systems, 50, 247-255) is incorrect. In this paper, by giving an alternative proof it is proved that the above statement is correct. Also with the help of several counter examples it is proved that ranking method proposed by Chen and Chen (Chen, S. M., & Chen, J. H. (2009). Fuzzy risk analysis based on ranking generalized fuzzy numbers with different heights and different spreads. Expert Systems with Applications, 36, 6833-6842) is incorrect. The main aim of this paper is to modify the Liou and Wang approach for the ranking of L-R type generalized fuzzy numbers. The main advantage of the proposed approach is that the proposed approach provide the correct ordering of generalized and normal fuzzy numbers and also the proposed approach is very simple and easy to apply in the real life problems. It is shown that proposed ranking function satisfy all the reasonable properties of fuzzy quantities proposed by Wang and Kerre (Wang, X., & Kerre, E. E. (2001). Reasonable properties for the ordering of fuzzy quantities (I). Fuzzy Sets and Systems, 118, 375-385).

Dual Inoculation of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal and Phosphate Solubilizing Fungi Contributes in Sustainable Maintenance of Plant Health in Fly Ash Ponds

Abstract: Fly ash is one of the residues produced during combustion of coal, and its disposal is a major environmental concern throughout coal-based power-generated counties. Deficiencies of essential nutrients, low soil microbial activity, and high-soluble salt concentrations of trace elements are some of the concerns for reclamation of fly ash ponds. The effect of fly-ash-adapted arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi and phosphate solubilizing fungus Aspergillus tubingensis was studied on the growth, nutrient, and metal uptake of bamboo (Dendrocalamus strictus) plants grown in fly ash. Co-inoculation of these fungi significantly increased the P (150%), K (67%), Ca (106%), and Mg (180%) in shoot tissues compared control plants. The Al and Fe content were significantly reduced (50% and 60%, respectively) due to the presence of AM fungi and A. tubingensis. The physicochemical and biochemical properties of fly ash were improved compared to those of individual inoculation and control. The results showed that combination of AM fungi and A. tubingensis elicited a synergetic effect by increasing plant growth and uptake of nutrients with reducing metal translocation.

k-nearest neighbor based offline handwritten Gurmukhi character recognition

Abstract: Offline handwritten character recognition has been a frontier area of research for the last few decades under pattern recognition. Recognition of handwritten characters is a difficult task owing to various writing styles of individuals. A scheme for offline handwritten Gurmukhi character recognition based on k-NN classifier is presented in this paper. The system first prepares a skeleton of the character, so that feature information about the character is extracted. There is abundant literature on the handwriting recognition on non-Indian scripts, but there are very few article available related to recognition of Indian scripts such as Gurmukhi. This paper presents an efficient offline handwritten Gurmukhi character recognition system based on diagonal features and transitions features using k-NN classifier. Diagonal and transitions features of a character have been computed based on distribution of points on the bitmap image of character. In k-NN method, the Euclidean distance between testing point and reference points is calculated in order to find the k-nearest neighbors. In this work, we have taken the samples of offline handwritten Gurmukhi characters from one hundred different writers. The partition strategy for selecting the training and testing patterns has also been experimented in this work. We have used in all 3500 images of Gurmukhi characters for the purpose of training and testing. The proposed system achieves a maximum recognition accuracy of 94.12% using diagonal features and k-NN classifier.

Enhanced biosurfactant production through cloning of three genes and role of esterase in biosurfactant release.

Abstract: Biosurfactants have been reported to utilize a number of immiscible substrates and thereby facilitate the biodegradation of panoply of polyaromatic hydrocarbons. Olive oil is one such carbon source which has been explored by many researchers. However, studying the concomitant production of biosurfactant and esterase enzyme in the presence of olive oil in the Bacillus species and its recombinants is a relatively novel approach. Bacillus species isolated from endosulfan sprayed cashew plantation soil was cultivated on a number of hydrophobic substrates. Olive oil was found to be the best inducer of biosurfactant activity. The protein associated with the release of the biosurfactant was found to be an esterase. There was a twofold increase in the biosurfactant and esterase activities after the successful cloning of the biosurfactant genes from Bacillus subtilis SK320 into E.coli. Multiple sequence alignment showed regions of similarity and conserved sequences between biosurfactant and esterase genes, further confirming the symbiotic correlation between the two. Biosurfactants produced by Bacillus subtilis SK320 and recombinant strains BioS a, BioS b, BioS c were found to be effective emulsifiers, reducing the surface tension of water from 72 dynes/cm to as low as 30.7 dynes/cm. The attributes of enhanced biosurfactant and esterase production by hyper-producing recombinant strains have many utilities from industrial viewpoint. This study for the first time has shown a possible association between biosurfactant production and esterase activity in any Bacillus species. Biosurfactant-esterase complex has been found to have powerful emulsification properties, which shows promising bioremediation, hydrocarbon biodegradation and pharmaceutical applications.

Growth and physiological responses of grape (Vitis vinifera “Combier”) to excess zinc

Abstract: Cuttings of Vitis vinifera (cultivar Combier) were exposed to seven different zinc (Zn) concentrations (control, 3.5, 7.0, 14.0, 21.0, 28.0, and 35.0 mM) to investigate growth and physiological responses to excess amount of zinc (Zn). The apparent plant growth, as indicated by daily height growth, daily stem diameter variation, and biomass accumulation, was increased by 3.5–7.0 mM surplus Zn addition. Coupled with the increase in plant growth, grape retained low level of leaf Zn concentration, and also retained high level of leaf iron concentration due to increasing translocation of iron (Fe) from root and shoots to leaves. Leaf N and K were increased or found at a constant high level, paralleling with low oxidative pressure and enhanced catalase (CAT) activity. Moreover, plant growth was depressed under high Zn levels (>14.0 mM). Generally excess Zn was stored in the non-sensitive plant parts (roots and shoots), and it caused significant reductions of P, Fe, Mn, Cu in different parts of plant. At the same time, excess Zn caused a pronounced increase in abscisic acid concentration. Our results showed that cultivar Combier is a highly Zn-tolerant grape cultivar and could be used as pioneer plants in metalliferous site and in acidic soil of the tropical and subtropical area.

Dielectric behaviour of the composite system: multiwall carbon nanotubes dispersed in ferroelectric liquid crystal

Abstract: Ferroelectric liquid crystal–multiwall carbon nanotube (FLC-MWCNTs) composite systems have been prepared by dispersing low (0.03 and 0.10 wt.%) concentration of MWCNTs in the liquid crystal matrix. Relaxation behaviours of pure and composite systems have been investigated. Thermo-optic studies infer a small shift (∼5 K) in the clearing temperature of the dispersed systems. Dielectric measurements reveal that the MWCNTs influenced the permittivity. The relaxation time, relaxation frequency and dielectric strength have been evaluated and discussed. The influence of MWCNTs concentration on the conductivity of composite systems has been investigated.