Abstract. Cottonseed damage during processing is a growing concern for cotton ginners and cottonseed oil processors. A test to evaluate the durability of seed samples would be beneficial to breeders and ginners to help reduce problems associated with seed damage. Toward this goal, cottonseed fracture resistance was studied with a tensile tester fitted with an adapter to apply compressive force. Seeds cracked with more compressive force when oriented vertically in the tester than when oriented horizontally. Seeds had a greater fracture resistance when they were drier. Even differences in environmental relative humidity (35% to 65%) were enough to affect the testing, indicating that cottonseed requires conditioning to obtain consistent results. Treating the seed with sulfuric acid to remove surface linters did not affect the seed’s tendency to fracture, but significant differences were discernible among seed samples with different genetic backgrounds and production histories. Because several individual seeds needed to be tested to achieve representative results, the compressive fracture resistance may not be the most convenient tool for determining the potential for seed damage during processing. A better test might be some form of mechanical damaging device (e.g., a shaker or roller mill) that would allow faster analysis of a representative seed sample. Keywords: Cottonseed, Ginning, Seed damage, Seed fracture resistance.
Dermatitis also known as eczema, is inflammation of the skin, typically characterized by itchiness, redness and a rash. Dermatitis was estimated to affect 245 million people globally in 2015 or 3.34% of the world population. In Nepal, studies from different parts of the country have reported the prevalence of dermatitis between 15.9 to 39.2%. Severe dermatitis with repeated scratching and rubbing of the face predisposes the patient to various ocular complications. A hospital-based, cross-sectional, descriptive study was conducted to assess the overall frequency and type of ophthalmological complications among patients with dermatitis at a tertiary care hospital in Kathmandu. A total of 91 patients were enrolled for this study. The minimum age was 5 years and maximum was 78 years, with the mean of 30.48 with a standard deviation of ± 20.28. The upper and lower limits for estimated mean age were 34.63 years to 26.33 years at 95% confidence interval. Seventy-one (78.0%) of all patients had ocular manifestations, many of them had more than one manifestation. Females outnumbered the males (41.8%; 36.3%) with respect to the occurrence of ocular manifestations in dermatitis. The commonest ocular manifestations were blepharitis in 35 (38.5%) patients, followed by eyelid eczema in 13 (14.3%) patients, allergic conjunctivitis in 5 (5.5%) and patients with other manifestations. Based on professional classification, over one fourth of the participants were students accounting for 44.0%, followed by homemakers accounting for 23.1% and shopkeepers accounting for 11.1%, respectively. A statistically significant association was observed with the ocular manifestation in relation to gender (p value=0.03) and occupation (p value=0.03). However, no association was observed between ocular manifestation with duration of dermatitis (p value=0.65), type of dermatitis (p value=0.94), personal and family history of allergy/atopy (pvalues=0.26; 0.58, respectively).
Cotton is a natural fiber and is highly variable. Researchers need to evaluate cotton fiber properties to aid in the development of improved varieties and to ensure that changes in agronomic practices do not harm fiber quality or processing propensity. There is a need for fiber quality evaluation beyond laboratory testing which has primarily been designed to assign a value to cotton for trade purposes. The amount of material available to researchers for evaluation is often limited. It is not possible to spin these small samples using conventional processing techniques and machinery. This limitation has led to the development of miniature-scale spinning systems. The objective of this study was to review previously developed miniature processing systems and to introduce an improved system that addresses the weaknesses of previous systems. Commercially available equipment was modified to develop a new miniature spinning system. The newly developed miniature scale processing system was used to convert fiber into quality ring spun yarn. Data were collected to verify the performance of the new system. Depending on the fiber quality, different yarn qualities were produced. The newly developed miniature spinning system processed small cotton samples more efficiently and produced better quality yarn than previous miniature-scale systems.
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