A study on waterlogging tolerance in sugarcane: a comprehensive review.

Sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum) is an important crop, native to tropical and subtropical regions and it is a major source of sugar and Bioenergy in the world. Abiotic stress is defined as environmental conditions that reduce growth and yield below the optimum level. To tolerate these abiotic stresses, plants initiate several molecular, cellular, and physiological changes. These responses to abiotic stresses are dynamic and complex; they may be reversible or irreversible. Waterlogging is an abiotic stress phenomenon that drastically reduces the growth and survival of sugarcane, which leads to a 15-45% reduction in cane's yield. The extent of damage due to waterlogging depends on genotypes, environmental conditions, stage of development and duration of stress. An improved understanding of the physiological, biochemical, and molecular responses of sugarcane to waterlogging stress could help to develop new breeding strategies to sustain high yields against this situation. The present review offers a summary of recent findings on the adaptation of sugarcane to waterlogging stress in terms of growth and development, yield and quality, as well as biochemical and adaptive-molecular processes that may contribute to flooding tolerance.

Screening and production of a potential extracellular fungal laccase from Penicillium chrysogenum: Media optimization by response surface methodology (RSM) and central composite rotatable design (CCRD).

This paper describes the isolation of potent extracellular-laccase producing white-rot fungus, identified by 18 s-rRNA as Penicillium-chrysogenum and its medium optimization by central-composite-rotatable-design using RSM. The optimum laccase-activity of 6.0 U ml-1 was obtained and maximum activity of 7.9 U ml-1 was achieved by statistical-optimization of the medium at 32 °C for 5 days. The molecular-weight of the laccase was found to be 67 kDa. UV-visible absorption-spectrum analysis shows peak at 600 nm and 325 nm corresponding to the type-I Cu(II) & type-III binuclear Cu(II) pair respectively confirming presence of laccase. The sharp endothermic peak at 150 °C and three-phases of protein denaturation was observed by DSC and TGA analysis for enzyme protein. The FT-IR analysis of laccase shows band at 1405cm-1, 1656 cm-1 &3400cm-1 corresponding to amide-I band, amide-II band and amino-acid group respectively. Results of the study show the enzyme is capable of carrying-out hydrolytic-cleavage of chemical-pollutants from the industrial waste-water for providing sustainable-greener environment.

Design of PID controllers in double feedback loops for SISO systems with set-point filters.

A PID controller is widely used to control industrial processes that are mostly open loop stable or unstable. Selection of proper feedback structure and controller tuning helps to improve the performance of the loop. In this paper a double-feedback loop/method is used to achieve stability and better performance of the process. The internal feedback is used for stabilizing the process and the outer loop is used for good setpoint tracking. An internal model controller (IMC) based PID method is used for tuning the outer loop controller. Autotuning based on relay feedback or the Ziegler-Nichols method can be used for tuning an inner loop controller. A tuning parameter (λ) that is used to tune IMC-PID is used as a time constant of a setpoint filter that is used for reducing the peak overshoot. The method has been tested successfully on many low order processes.

Design of a simple setpoint filter for minimizing overshoot for low order processes.

Setpoint filters are widely used along with a PID controller. The aim of the present paper is to reduce the peak overshoot to a desired/tolerable limit. To design a setpoint filter, numerous methods are available, which need extensive calculations. Moreover, the existing methods need information regarding the process parameters, values of controller settings and are laborious. But the proposed method is very simple and requires only the information about the peak overshoot and peak time of the system response regardless of type and order of the system with arbitrary PID parameters. Several examples are taken to show efficacy of the process.

Parameter estimation of integrating and time delay processes using single relay feedback test.

Autotuning using relay feedback is widely used to identify low order integrating plus dead time (IPDT) systems as the method is simple and is operated in closed-loop without interrupting the production process. Oscillatory responses from the process due to ideal relay input are collected to calculate ultimate properties of the system that in turn are used to model the responses as functions of system model parameters. These theoretical models of relay response are validated. After adjusting the phase shift, input and output responses are used to find land mark points that are used to formulate algorithms for parameter estimation of the process model. The method is even applicable to distorted relay responses due to load disturbance or measurement noise. Closed-loop simulations are carried out using model based control strategy and performances are calculated.

PID tuning rules for SOPDT systems: review and some new results.

PID controllers are widely used in industries and so many tuning rules have been proposed over the past 50 years that users are often lost in the jungle of tuning formulas. Moreover, unlike PI control, different control laws and structures of implementation further complicate the use of the PID controller. In this work, five different tuning rules are taken for study to control second-order plus dead time systems with wide ranges of damping coefficients and dead time to time constant ratios (D/tau). Four of them are based on IMC design with different types of approximations on dead time and the other on desired closed-loop specifications (i.e., specified forward transfer function). The method of handling dead time in the IMC type of design is important especially for systems with large D/tau ratios. A systematic approach was followed to evaluate the performance of controllers. The regions of applicability of suitable tuning rules are highlighted and recommendations are also given. It turns out that IMC designed with the Maclaurin series expansion type PID is a better choice for both set point and load changes for systems with D/tau greater than 1. For systems with D/tau less than 1, the desired closed-loop specification approach is favored.