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ThesisItem Restricted Impact of climate change on groundwater behaviour in Sirhind Canal Tract of Punjab(Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, 2019) Navdeep Kaur; Samanpreet KaurA warmer future due to global climate change is the proven phenomenon which may lead to changes in the hydrological cycle, surface water as well as underground water resource. Since Punjab is a part of the arid and semi-arid regions of the India, underground water plays an indelible role in supplying its water needs that should specifically address the issue of groundwater resources and the effects of climate change. Therefore, a study was done to quantify the impacts of climate change on groundwater behaviour in Sirhind Canal Tract of Punjab under CSRIO-Mk 3 RCP 4.5 and RCP 6.0 future climate scenarios using MODFLOW. The study spanned 20 years of baseline (1998-2018) as well as two future periods‘ mid-century (MC) (2020-2050) and end century EC (2065-2095). The spatial distribution of recharge and draft was mapped to GIS and was provided as input to groundwater model. The results showed that that the temperature and rainfall would increase by 1.9 °C and 91 mm in MC and 3.6 °C and 72 mm in EC under RCP 4.5. While under RCP 6.0, the corresponding increase would be of 1.6 °C and 70 mm in MC and 3.5 °C and 73 mm in EC. The climate scenarios estimated an increase in evapotranspiration and runoff loss of 38% and 15%, respectively by EC. Two pumping scenarios were developed up to the year 2095, i.e. maintaining the current pumping rate for the study period and an increase in pumping rate according to the historical trend. In condition I, the above normal rainfall during MC under both the scenarios predicts a marginal rise of 0.8 m in 2050, with a gradual fall of 5.6 m in EC. While in condition II, the water table would fall by 34.3 m in MC and 51.2 m in EC. The results presented here should be interpreted as trends and not as accurate quantitative predictions of the hydrological changes as there are numerous sources of uncertainties associated with climate change prediction.ThesisItem Open Access Study of Different Filter Media for Quality Improvement of Village Pond Water for Irrigation(Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, 2019) Mishra, Shrankhala; Satpute, SanjayThe village ponds in Punjab state had great importance and these were considered as the gift to the mankind. Quality of village pond water is degraded and not used for irrigation therefore; it is desirable to develop a technology to reuse the village pond water and to make village pond water suitable for irrigation. Thus, the study was planned with the objective of improving the village pond water quality using filter media and make that water fit for irrigation. Five materials viz. biochar, activated charcoal, zeolite, fine and course sand were individually tested for the quality improvement of the village pond wastewater. The water quality parameters such as BOD, COD, TDS, TSS, TS pH, and EC were analyzed before and after passing through the filter media. Uncontrolled flow of water at media depth 30 and 40 cm and water head of 10, 20 and 30 cm was passed through each filter media and discharge was collected for the analysis. BOD was decreased by 12% for activated charcoal, COD decreased by 9.7%, for zeolite, TSS decreased upto 28% by fine sand and TDS decreased upto 13% by fine sand. To further enhance the performance of the filter materials, the study was conducted with the controlled discharge of 5 and 8 l/h through the same thickness of filter media. Result concluded that the discharge rate of 5 l/h, material depth 40 cm and water head 10cm decreases the values of BOD, COD, TSS and TDS more efficiently than uncontrolled flow of water and for discharge rate of 8l/h. The 40cm depth of material was found more efficient than the 30cm depth of material whereas there was insignificant difference in the efficiency at 10, 20 and 30 cm head so 10 cm head along with 40cm material depth was selected. Efficient materials based on the removal efficiency was selected (zeolite, activated charcoal, biochar and fine sand) and each selected materials were put in the column one over the other as a depth of 40 cm each by keeping course material at the bottom and finer at the top and water head 10 cm. Two cycles of 24, 48, 96 and 168 h duration was performed and effluents were collected at the outlet and again parameters were determined. For combination of materials during first wet cycle at 24, 48, 96 and 168 h samples were collected and analysed for all parameters and efficiency of 49%, 57%, 75% and 10% was achieved in terms of BOD, COD, TSS and TDS. Whereas for second cycle the values were 44%, 56%, 63% and 6% which showed that there is decrease in the values of efficiencies than first cycle.ThesisItem Open Access Development of a prototype for shelf life enhancement of guava juice using manothermosonication(Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, 2019) Kalsi, Baldev Singh; SandhyaInvestigation was carried out to study the effect of ultrasound in combination with temperature and pressure treatment on the juice of guava (variety: Arka Amulya). For experiments, a pressurizing system was designed in CREO 3.0 software and constructed from the local market of Ludhiana. The juice samples were exposed to manothermosonication at combinations of three temperatures (40, 60 and 800C) and three pressure levels (100, 200, and 300 kPa) for three holding times (2, 6, and 10 min). Response surface methodology (RSM) was applied to optimize the conditions of the manothermosonication of guava juice. The main criteria for constraints optimization were minimum color change, pH, total plate count, total mold/ yeast and maximum ascorbic acid, total soluble solids, titratable acidity and overall acceptability. The juice samples treated under optimized conditions for manothermosonication were packed in two packaging material (glass and PET bottles) and stored at ambient and refrigerated conditions. The juice samples were also treated with ultrasonication and thermosonication for storage and their physicochemical, phytochemical, microbial anyalysis and sensory evaluation was done at regular intervals of 7 days. The optimized conditions for manothermosonication obtained were: Heating temperature= 63.810C, Pressure= 184.16 kPa and holding time = 2 minutes for each process. The highest microbial inactivation and retention of TSS and color (*L-value) along with highest overall acceptability score was observed in manothermosonicated samples. Thus, results showed that guava juice manothermosonicated and packed in glass bottles have better quality and a shelf life of six weeks under refrigerated conditions.ThesisItem Open Access Modification and evaluation of indirect type solar dryer for bitter gourd slices (Momordica charantia L.)(Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, 2019) Borse, Sudarshan Murlidhar; Manpreet SinghThe present study was conducted to modify the drying cabinet of indirect type solar dryer and evaluate its performance for drying of bitter gourd slices. Drying cabinet was modified with skewers on rack arrangement for proper air circulation over the samples and better maneuvering of samples during drying. Modified drying cabinet was evaluated in comparison to existing drying cabinet having trays for bitter gourd slices. The drying experiments were conducted to evaluate the effect of different process parameters viz., pretreatment, loading, drying method on the drying behavior and quality of dried bitter gourd slices. The quality parameters viz., total phenolic content, total flavonoid content, total chlorophyll content, antioxidant capacity, colour (L, a, b, ΔE), ascorbic acid content, shrinkage, rehydration characteristics (rehydration ratio, coefficient of rehydration and percent water in the rehydrated sample) and hardness were studied. The final moisture content of the solar dried bitter gourd slices was in the range 6.84-8.27% wb. The dried product obtained using modified drying cabinet was of better quality as compared to existing drying cabinet of indirect type solar dryer and open sun drying. The average values for total phenolic content, total flavonoid content, total chlorophyll content, ascorbic acid content and antioxidant capacity for best sample dried using modified drying cabinet of indirect type solar dryer were 0.227, 0.032, 0.248, 1.26 mg/g dw and 72.90 % respectively. The dried bitter gourd samples were stored in different packaging materials (LDPE, LAF and vacuum) and the storage quality of dried bitter gourd slices was also studied at regular intervals. The quality attributes of dried bitter gourd slices were affected during storage in different packaging materials. The vacuum sealed pouches for storage of dried bitter gourd slices were found to be best on the basis of quality retention. The quality data obtained for various dried samples was statistically analyzed by using completely randomized design and the quality data obtained during storage experiment was analyzed by factorial completely randomized design using statistical software SAS 9.3. The quality parameters were significantly (p<0.0001) affected by the drying method, pretreatment, loading, packaging material and storage period.ThesisItem Open Access Development and evaluation of system for torrefaction of paddy straw(Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, 2019) Gurpreet Singh; Soni, RajeshThe disposal of surplus paddy straw is a serious problem in North-West India. About two-third of the 22 MT paddy straw produced in Punjab is openly burnt in fields. All the existing onsite and offsite methods to manage paddy straw have met with limited success. Biomass co-firing with coal in large thermal power plants is a promising technology for its utilization. Agricultural residues including paddy straw are herbaceous type of biomass. This herbaceous biomass have several unfavorable characteristics that hinder their use in power plants. These include low bulk density, hydrophobicity, high moisture content, and degradation during storage, and low energy density. Pre-treatment of biomass through torrefaction (followed by pelletization) can resolve most of these problems. In this study, the paddy straw was torrefied in an oven at various temperatures viz 230, 240 and 250°C and various durations viz 20, 30 and 40 minutes. The effect of torrefaction on paddy straw properties were studied. Thereafter, a bench scale reactor for torrefaction of around 0.8 kg of paddy straw was designed and fabricated. The unique feature of this reactor was the division of the reactor into four vertical zones. The lower most zone was meant for combustion of the paddy straw to provide additional heat to the upper zones and to assist heat transfer to the upper zones. On the basis of lab studies done earlier, the duration and temperature of 30 minutes and 250°C respectively were selected for bench scale studies. With proper insulation of the reactor, the desired torrefaction condition could be achieved in the lower 10 cm of the reactor. The studies show that with the existing mode of heating, the height of the torrefaction reactor should be limited to 10 cm only. The grinding energy reduced to 6-7 kW/kg. The average particle size decreased, moisture content of straw also decreased to less than 6.4% while the gross heating value increased to 17.07 MJ/kg, mass yield and energy yield of torrefied paddy straw was 0.87 and 1.05 respectively. Thus torrefied straw acquired more coal like properties. This improves the suitability of torrefied straw co-firing with coal in unmodified thermal power plants.ThesisItem Open Access Development and evaluation of chain pot paper type onion (Allium cepa L.) transplanter(Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, 2019) Kamalpreet Singh; Thakur, S.S.The present study was conducted to develop and evaluate the chain pot paper type transplanter for onion crop. The transplanter was developed using Solid Edge V20 and then fabricated with the help of local manufacturer. Two varieties of onion were selected i.e Punjab Naroya and PRO 6. Two ages of seedlings were kept i.e 30 days and 40 days. Evaluation of the developed transplanter was performed using two surface treatments i.e flat and raised bed. Performance was evaluated on the basis of field capacity, plants per metre length, damage to seedlings, seedling height, bulb size and yield. There was significant effect of age of seedlings on their height. The average height of seedlings after 80 days from transplanting observed were 31.50 cm, 25.93 cm, 31.17 cm, 24.27 cm, 34.00 cm, 28.17 cm, 34.63 cm and 27.97 cm for treatments S1V1A1, S1V1A2, S1V2A1, S1V2A2, S2V1A1, S2V1A2, S2V2A1 and S2V2A2 respectively. The average plants per metre length was found to be 10 in all the treatments. The effect of varieties and age of seedlings on the bulb size was found to be significant. The average bulb size observed were 5.18 cm, 5.10 cm, 5.51 cm, 5.60 cm, 5.70 cm, 5.70 cm, 5.61 cm and 5.55 cm for treatments S1V1A1, S1V1A2, S1V2A1, S1V2A2, S2V1A1, S2V1A2, S2V2A1 and S2V2A2 respectively. The effect of varieties of onion and field surface on the yield was found to be significant. The average yield observed were 33.5 t/ha, 32.8 t/ha, 29.5 t/ha, 28.5 t/ha, 34.9 t/ha, 34.1 t/ha, 30.9 t/ha and 29.8 t/ha for treatments S1V1A1, S1V1A2, S1V2A1, S1V2A2, S2V1A1, S2V1A2, S2V2A1 and S2V2A2 respectively. Theoretical field capacity of the transplanter was 0.024 ha/h and actual field capacity of the transplanter was 0.016 ha/h.ThesisItem Open Access Development of a prototype for shelf life enhancement of guava juice using manothermosonication(Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, 2019) Kalsi, Baldev Singh; SandhyaInvestigation was carried out to study the effect of ultrasound in combination with temperature and pressure treatment on the juice of guava (variety: Arka Amulya). For experiments, a pressurizing system was designed in CREO 3.0 software and constructed from the local market of Ludhiana. The juice samples were exposed to manothermosonication at combinations of three temperatures (40, 60 and 800C) and three pressure levels (100, 200, and 300 kPa) for three holding times (2, 6, and 10 min). Response surface methodology (RSM) was applied to optimize the conditions of the manothermosonication of guava juice. The main criteria for constraints optimization were minimum color change, pH, total plate count, total mold/ yeast and maximum ascorbic acid, total soluble solids, titratable acidity and overall acceptability. The juice samples treated under optimized conditions for manothermosonication were packed in two packaging material (glass and PET bottles) and stored at ambient and refrigerated conditions. The juice samples were also treated with ultrasonication and thermosonication for storage and their physicochemical, phytochemical, microbial anyalysis and sensory evaluation was done at regular intervals of 7 days. The optimized conditions for manothermosonication obtained were: Heating temperature= 63.810C, Pressure= 184.16 kPa and holding time = 2 minutes for each process. The highest microbial inactivation and retention of TSS and color (*L-value) along with highest overall acceptability score was observed in manothermosonicated samples. Thus, results showed that guava juice manothermosonicated and packed in glass bottles have better quality and a shelf life of six weeks under refrigerated conditions.ThesisItem Open Access Analysis of Techniques to Retrieve Big Database(Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, 2019) Puri, Shivani; Jain, LokeshIn today’s world there are large amount of data which need to be processed with big databases. From the past years, there is plethora of organisations that has adopted many types of non-relational database. The goal of this research is to implement techniques to retrieve big database for the big datasets and investigate the performance of the big database techniques on CPU utilization and high-performance computing software enabling switching the SQL database with NoSQL database. In this research mainly concerns on the new technology of NoSQL database i.e. MongoDB, HadoopDB. Performance comparison of two big data techniques is carried out. The result found that Aggregation technique consumes less execution time than MapReduce technique and more efficient with MongoDB database where as MapReduce technique has less efficient with HadoopDB. Aggregation technique also produces fine relevant information results with less CPU utilization. The result also shows that MongoDB has capability to switch SQL databases as compare to HadoopDB.ThesisItem Open Access Analysis of image forgery detection algorithms(Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, 2019) Priyanka; Derminder SinghDigital images are a momentous part of today’s digital communication. It is very easy to manipulate digital images for hiding some useful information by image rendering tools such as Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Paint etc. The common image forgery which is easy to carry out is copy-move in which some part of an image is copied and pasted on another part of the same image to hide the important information. This study proposes an algorithm to spot the copy-move forgery based on exact match block based technique. The design of interface and development of algorithm have been implemented using GNU Octave 4.2.2 as an IDE and Octave as a programming language. The algorithm works by matching the regions in image that are equivalent by matching the small blocks of size b×b. The program is tested for 45 images of mixed image file formats by considering block sizes 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, and 16. It is observed from the experimental results that the proposed algorithm can detect copy-move image forgery in TIF, BMP and PNG image formats only. Results reveal that as the block size increases, execution time (time taken by CPU to display output) also increases but the number of detected forged images increases till block size 10 and attains saturation thereafter. Consequently block size should be set to 10 for getting good results in terms of less execution time.