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Protection against environmental and bacterial contamination, lack of cost effective and energy efficient drying techniques, need for greater moisture removal, shorter drying times and better dried quality product have necessitated the use of solar greenhouse drying for many applications. The present paper analyses the dryer performance in open sun dried (OSD) conditions and in solar greenhouse drying unit. Fig and bitter gourd were dried and their quality monitored for dryer performance. Results indicate quicker drying and better quality of figs in solar greenhouse drying. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Machining is the process of removal of material from workpiece. Machining can be done by physical, chemical or biological methods. Though physical and chemical methods have been widely used in machining process, they have their own disadvantages such as development of heat affected zone and usage of hazardous chemicals. Biomachining is the machining process in which bacteria is used to remove material from the metal parts. Chemolithotrophic bacteria such as Acidothiobacillus ferroxidans has been used in biomachining of metals like copper, iron etc. These bacteria are used because of their property of catalyzing the oxidation of inorganic substances. Biomachining is a suitable process for micromachining of metals. This paper reviews the biomachining process and various mechanisms involved in biomachining. This paper also briefs about various parameters/factors to be considered in biomachining and also the effect of those parameters on metal removal rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Robotic arms are commonplace in automation factories and are being used for variety of applications such as painting, welding, pick and place etc. The use of such robotic arms for manipulating objects has become easier with the help of forward and inverse kinematic equations. When coupled with modern tools such as image processing and sensors, robots help in improving the capacity and efficiency of a production line. In this paper, we aim to explore the integration of image processing and robotic arms to simultaneously detect colours of objects and sort them accordingly. RGB colour detection algorithm is one such technique that helps in improving efficiency through color detection of the object at a very fast rate. We have employed this image processing technique as it is very useful in an industrial environment where the object location is fixed and a quick means of sorting is necessary. The pick and place robot setup consists of a pick and place robot, control unit and a camera. The object is placed at a predetermined point with the reach of the robot, where the camera is used to determine its color. Based on its color the the object is placed in its corresponding drop point. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Single-Phase BaTiO3 (BTO) and Cr3+ ions doped BTO i.e. BaTi0.8Cr0.2O3 (BTCO) were prepared by solid state reaction of ceramics. The value of dielectric permittivity at room temperature (ε'RT ~1200 at 100 Hz) of BTO was found to be higher than BTCO (ε'RT ~1000), this type of behavior may be ascribed due to distortion in lattice parameters (c/a). Substitution of Cr3+ ions at the site of Ti4+ ions (d0) will create oxygen vacancies and induce O2-(p)-Cr3+(d) hybridization. Magnetic moment of BTCO was found to be ~ 0.02 emu/g at an applied magnetic field of 4 kOe. The value of the magnetocapacitance was observed ~3.3%, which may be a sign of magnetoelectric coupling in the Cr3+ ions doped BTO multiferroic system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]