Eight lactating Holstein cows were randomly allotted to 2 groups in a trial to establish whether a pathway exists for the transmission of melamine from feed to milk. All cows received oat hay ad libitum and 15 kg of concentrate pellets per cow daily. The concentrate pellets contained either melamine-contaminated corn gluten meal of Chinese origin (melamine treatment) or locally produced melamine-free corn gluten meal (control treatment). Cows in the melamine treatment ingested 17.1 g of melamine per day. Cows were milked twice daily, and milk samples were taken once daily during the afternoon milking for melamine and milk component analyses. Melamine appeared in the milk within 8 h after first ingestion of the melamine containing pellets. Melamine concentration reached a maximum of 15.7 mg/kg within 56 h after first ingestion, with an excretion efficiency of approximately 2%. Milk solids and milk urea nitrogen were not affected by treatment. The melamine concentration dropped rapidly after changing all cows back to the control pellets, but melamine only declined to undetectable levels in the milk more than 6 d (152 h) after last ingestion of melamine. Results from the current trial are important to the feed and dairy industries because, until now, any melamine found in milk and milk products was attributed only to the deliberate external addition of melamine to these products, not to adulterated ingredients in animal feeds.

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Vigilant fault diagnosis and preventive maintenance has the potential to significantly decrease costs associated with wind generators. As wind energy continues the upward growth in technology and continued worldwide adoption and implementation, the application of fault diagnosis techniques will become more imperative. Fault diagnosis and preventive maintenance techniques for wind turbine generators are still at an early stage compared to matured strategies used for generators in conventional power plants. The cost of wind energy can be further reduced if failures are predicted in advance of a major structural failure, which leads to less unplanned maintenance. High maintenance cost of wind turbines means that predictive strategies like fault diagnosis and preventive maintenance techniques are necessary to manage life cycle costs of critical components. Squirrel-Cage Induction Generators (SCIG) are the prevailing generator type and are more robust and cheaper to manufacturer compared to other generator types used in wind turbines. A statistical model was developed using SCADA data to estimate the relationships between winding temperatures and other variables. Predicting faults in stator windings are challenging because the unhealthy condition rapidly evolves into a functional failure.

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This paper summarizes a comparison of an always-on and a programmable type industrial style infrared dryer. The load power supplied for each kind of dryer is analysed. The design and imple-mentation of an infrared radiation controller is also presented. The study includes both the theoretical aspects of the design process as well as an overview of the practical facets involved. The infrared drying system controller was subjected to comparative test-ing with an on/off control model, in order to observe the controller’s performance and validate its effec-tiveness. The proposed controller contributes to a more energy efficient drying system than the always-on techniques that are employed to fluctuate the heater temperature.