Development of Abrasive Grain Coating Technology Protective Polymer Casing for Water-Abrasive Cutting

The article presents the technology of covering abrasive grains with a protective polymer shell, which allows to reduce the wear of the focusing tube of the nozzle of a hydroabrasive installation. A description of the manufacturing process of a prototype abrasive with a polymer coating in a fluidized bed is presented in order to determine the critical processing modes at which a high-quality product will be obtained in a minimum operating time of the installation.

Opinion of Croatian consumers on traditional Dalmatian lamb in the process of obtaining a PDO label

The protection of Dalmatian lamb ("Dalmatinska janjetina") with a protected designation of origin label (PDO) is based on the specific quality of meat of Dalmatian pramenka lamb and the traditional lamb breeding method in the geographic area that coincides with the breeding area of Dalmatian pramenka (indigenous Croatian sheep breed). Under the name of "Dalmatinska janjetina", only the meat of lambs of Dalmatian pramenka, bred exclusively in Dalmatia, can be placed on the market. In the process of obtaining a PDO label, which has recently been completed at the Croatian national level and is currently in the process at the EU level, a survey among Croatian consumers (a sample of 1,034 consumers from all over Croatia) was conducted to determine the recognition of this product on the Croatian market, as well as consumer preferences considering similar products from other Croatian regions. The research has shown that Croatian consumers recognize Dalmatian lamb as a traditional, high-quality product. Thus, almost 75 % of the respondents recognize it as a particular type of lamb of better quality than others on the Croatian market. Almost 85 % of the respondents use lamb regardless of type in their diet, but more than 58 % always on special occasions (folk festivals and family celebrations), especially if prepared in the traditional way (lamb on a spit) by which Dalmatia as a region is recognized by more than 85 % of the respondents. The market reputation and connection with the geographic production area are why Croatian consumers rather buy Dalmatian lamb over others.

Effect of Steam and Smoke Cooking Processes on Web-Foot Octopus (Amphioctopus sp.) Home Meal Replacement Product

In Korea, the web-foot octopus (Amphioctopus sp.) is commonly consumed as jjukkumi bokkeum, a spicy stir-fried octopus dish. Using steaming and smoking methods, we made jjukkumi bokkeum home meal replacement (HMR) products. The response surface methodology (RSM) was employed to optimize the steam and smoke processes. Quick freezing was applied to freeze the test product at −35 °C. Then, the physicochemical, biological, nutritional characteristics, and shelf-life of the test HMR products were evaluated. The optimal conditions for steaming and smoking were 95 °C for 2 min and 70 °C for 11 min, respectively. The pH, volatile basic nitrogen content, and thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances content decreased after steaming and smoking, indicating that these processes maintained these parameters well. Sensory evaluation revealed that there were no changes in these characteristics after freezing and reheating. Further, the test HMR products contained the daily nutritional requirements of macro and micronutrients, as well as amino acids and fatty acids. The shelf-life of the HMR products was estimated to be 15 months. The findings of this study indicate that the application of steam and smoke processes to produce a jjukkumi bokkeum HMR product results in a high-quality product with a long shelf-life.

INSTALLATION PROCESSING WOOD WASTE ACTIVATED CARBON

Activated carbon can be obtained in a variety of ways. The most promising in terms of resource conservation and economic benefits is the method of producing activated carbon from wood waste. The production of activated carbon by this method is based on the process of pyrolysis of wood waste. As a result of thermochemical processing, charcoal and pyrolysis gas are formed. Then the charcoal must undergo a high-temperature activation process, during which micropores are formed in the coal and it significantly increases its adsorption properties. The hardware design of these processes is a set of complex design and technological solutions. When designing the installation, it is necessary to carry out calculations designed to optimize the equipment and operating parameters of the processes of thermal decomposition and activation of coal, which make it possible to obtain a high-quality product. The paper describes a plant for processing wood waste into activated carbon. The processes occurring in each zone of the installation, as well as the principle of their operation, are considered in detail.

Vermicomposting—Facts, Benefits and Knowledge Gaps

Industrialization and urbanization have led to an increased accumulation of waste materials that are transformed into a nutrient-rich and high-quality product called vermicompost by the vermicomposting process. Vermicomposting is an ecofriendly and economically favorable biotechnological process that involves the interaction of earthworms and microorganisms. Due to the importance of this process and its great potential in dealing with the consequences of waste accumulation, this review aims to provide key insights as well as highlight knowledge gaps. It is emphasized that there is a great challenge in understanding and clarifying the mechanisms involved in the vermicomposting process. The optimization of the factors affecting the possible application of vermicompost is crucial for obtaining the final product. Information on the composition of bacterial communities, amount of vermicompost, effect on heavy metal content, plant pathogens, diseases and organic waste selection is here recognized as currently the most important issues to be addressed. By answering these knowledge gaps, it is possible to enable wider utilization of vermicompost products.

Consumers with specialised and diverse experience produce more helpful reviews

PurposeExperienced reviewers in general can produce high-quality product reviews, and thereby get more helpful votes. This paper explores the question that whether the depth and width of the reviewers' experience distribution have effects on the helpfulness of their reviews.Design/methodology/approachAdopting the restaurant review data from Yelp, the present paper classifies the restaurants in to different categories applying the Word2Vec technique, such as Asian or fast food. By evaluating the number of a user's historical reviews in a specific category, and the evenness of such distribution in different categories, the experience specialty and experience diversity are defined respectively.FindingsThe analysis shows that users specialised in a given category can produce more helpful reviews in that category. The users with diverse historical experience, i.e. have posted reviews for many categories, also can produce helpful reviews. In addition, the experience diversity shows a positive moderation effect on the influence of experience specialty. Thus, users with diverse experience while specialized in a particular category are the source of most helpful reviews.Originality/valueWhile previous studies mostly consider the raw number of historical reviews as a reviewer's experience, we distinguish such experience by product category and focus on the width and depth of its distribution. The results not only shed lights on the mining of high-quality reviews and reviewers but also provide insights on the management of online review platforms and electronic marketing.

Text based smart answering system in agriculture using RNN.

Agriculture is an important aspect of India's economy, and the country currently has one of the highest rates of farm producers in the world. The world of agriculture is becoming increasingly serious. Delivering a high-quality product is only part of the equation in today's industry. A chatbot is a tool or assistant that you may communicate with via instant messages. The chatbot understands what you're trying to say and responds with a sensible, relevant reply or just completes the best errand for you. The goal of this project is to create a Chatbot that uses natural language processing to promote remote interaction between users/farmers and the agriculture environment. A chatbot is being developed that can answer basic questions from farmers as well as give possible agricultural knowledge and solutions. This technology assists farmers in distant areas without internet access in better understanding the crop to be cultivated based on atmospheric conditions and answering fundamental agricultural concerns. In this project we have tried implementing Multi-Layer Perceptron model and Recurrent Neural Network models on the dataset. The accuracy given by RNN was 97.83% much better comparable to MLP.

Impact of Selected Feed Additives in Broiler Nutrition on Breeding and the Meat Quality Features

The aim of the study was to overview the results of scientific research on the impact of feed additives used in broiler nutrition on breeding and meat quality. Selected additives used in feeding broilers with immunomodulatory properties, prebiotics and probiotics, herbs and herbal extracts and protein additives were characterised. The application of insects in poultry feeding as a good source of proteins and fat as a substitute of expensive feed rich in proteins was presented. Further research is needed on their nutritional value, levels of incorporation into diets and the performance of this feed ingredient. However, there are many challenges that need to be overcome by adoptingsuitable strategies to produce antibiotic-free broiler meat with regards to food safety and chickenwelfare issues. The additives available on the market should be used in accordance with the manufacturers’ recommendations and the grace period should be observed in order to obtain the expected production results and a high-quality product.

Study on the Articulated Finger Based on Pneumatic Soft Joint

This article described a novel pneumatic soft joint used to make articulated soft fingers. This soft joint was designed by improving the basic structure of the fast pneumatic network. The joint was made of high modulus E630 silicon, which can increase the reverse exhaust speed through its high structural elasticity. Aramid fabric was used to restrain the non-working direction of joints to reduce ineffective expansion, thereby reducing air consumption. The kinematics and statics model of the joint was established by the piecewise constant curvature (PCC) method, and the model was proved to be effective. The silicone staging pouring process was used in the manufacture of joints and fingers, which can achieve high-quality product rates. A soft finger actuator composed of three soft joints was designed and manufactured, whose length was 1.3 times the human finger. The finger can nimbly achieve the target motion, and the gripping force of the fingertip can reach 7.1N. The articulated soft finger actuator has applications in soft dextrous hands and soft gripper.

HARVEST AND POST HARVEST MANAGEMENT FOR ENSURING QUALITY OF MEDICINAL PLANTS

The instant rising demand of plant-based drugs is unfortunately creating heavy pressure on some selected high-value medicinal plant population in the wild. The safety, quality and efficacy of these products have become a major concern for health authorities and the consumers. Unavailability of proper production technology and suitable area of cultivation, post-harvest processing, market constraints and low economic returns as compared to major cereal crops, are the main problems in cultivation of these herbs and spices. Safe, efficacious and a high-quality product showing batch to batch consistency can be maintained by following harvesting and post harvesting standard guidelines for MAPs (Medicinal & Aromatic Plants).