Six Sigma is an organized and systematic method for strategic process improvement that relies on statistical and scientific methods to reduce the defect rates and achieve significant quality up-gradation. Six Sigma is also a business philosophy to improve customer satisfaction, a tool for eliminating process variation and errors and a metric of world class companies allowing for process comparisons. Six Sigma is one of the most effective advanced improvement strategies which has direct impact on operational excellence of an organization. Six Sigma may also be defined as the powerful business strategies, which have helped to improve quality initiatives in many industries around the world. With the use of Six Sigma in casting industries, rejection rate is reduced, customer satisfaction is improved and financial benefits also increased. Six Sigma management uses statistical process control to relentlessly and rigorously pursue the reduction of variation in all critical processes to achieve continuous and breakthrough improvements that impact the bottom-line and/or top-line of the organization and increase customer satisfaction. In this paper author reviewed some of the significant previous published papers and focused on the general overview of publication in casting industries.

The Nevado de Toluca Flora and Fauna Protection Area presents a constant fragmentation of its forests. The objective of the research was to identify the processes of forest deterioration and the role of local stakeholders in its conservation. Geographic information systems were used as a basis for the generation of thematic maps, in addition to the application of a flow diagram that defines the problems of the forest and another that describes and analyzes them for the search of solutions. The results show that the main factors affecting deterioration are forest fires, immoderate logging, pests and diseases. Finally, strategies and scenarios for forest management are proposed based on the articulation of local stakeholders.

Diamond-like Nanocomposites (DLN) is a newly member in amorphous carbon (a:C) family. It consists of two or more interpenetrated atomic scale network structures. The amorphous silicon oxide (a:SiO) is incorporated within diamond-like carbon (DLC) matrix i.e. a:CH and both the network is interpenetrated by Si-C bond. Hence, the internal stress of deposited DLN film decreases remarkably compare to DLC. The diamond-like properties have come due to deform tetrahedral carbon with sp³ configuration and high ratio of sp³ to sp² bond. The DLN has excellent mechanical, electrical, optical and tribological properties. Those properties of DLN could be varied over a wide range by changing deposition parameters, precursor and even post deposition treatment also. The range of properties are: Resistivity 10^-4 to 10¹⁴ Ωcm, hardness 10–22 GPa, coefficient of friction 0.03-0.2, wear factor 0.2-0.4 10^-7mm³/Nm, transmission Vis-far IR, modulus of elasticity 150-200 GPa, residual stress 200-300 Mpa, dielectric constant 3-9 and maximum operating temperature 600^°C in oxygen environment and 1200^°C in O₂ free air. Generally, the PECVD method is used to synthesize the DLN film. The most common procedures used for investigation of structure and composition of DLN films are Raman spectroscopy, Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), HRTEM, FESEM and X-ray photo electron spectroscopy (XPS). Interest in the coating technology has been expressed by nearly every industrial segment including automotive, aerospace, chemical processing, marine, energy, personal care, office equipment, electronics, biomedical and tool and die or in a single line from data to beer in all segment of life. In this review paper, characterization of diamond-like nanocomposites is discussed and subsequently different application areas are also elaborated.

The objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of potassium concentrations applied via fertigation on the growth, yield and chemical composition of eggplant ‘Ciça’ in a distroferric red Latosol. The treatments were composed of five concentrations of K₂O (0, 36, 72, 108 and 144 kg ha^-1 supplied via fertigation), using potassium chloride as a source, divided into six applications. The irrigation system was of the drip type and irrigation management was done via a “Class A” evaporometer tank. Harvest started at 62 days after transplanting (DAT) and lasted for five months. The variables evaluated were: plant height, number of leaves, fresh fruit mass, number of fruits per plant, yield per plant, productivity and classification of the fruits according to their length and diameter. At 85 DAT, fruit were collected for characterization as to the percentage of lipids, proteins and fibers. Although the potassium fertigation in cover provided a reduction in the production and productivity, the concentrations of 36 kg ha^-1 and 72 kg ha^-1 of K₂O applied via fertigation, increased the physical-chemical characteristics of the fruits.

BiVO₄ was hydrothermally synthesized under different preparing conditions and characterized by XRD, SEM, Raman spectrum and BET specific surface area. The influence of different pH value and annealing temperature and hydrothermal time on the morphologies and structures of the BiVO₄ samples was investigated systematically. It can be found that annealing would eliminate the effects caused by the pH of precursor, heating temperature and heating time, but preparing conditions still influenced the size and specific surface area of samples. Furthermore, the photocatalytic activities of the fabricated BiVO₄ were also evaluated by the degradation of methyl blue in aqueous solution under UV and visible light irradiation.

The market demand for uniformity and productivity of commercial carrot roots has prioritized hybrid materials over open-pollinated varieties. In this sense, the objective of this work was to estimate the combining ability of carrot genitors for root productivity and resistance to leaf scorch. The experiments were conducted in Gama, DF, in the agricultural years 2012/13 and 2013/14. We evaluated 33 carrot hybrids, originated from crosses between three male-sterile populations, with 11 male-fertile S2 lines, all the genitors being of tropical origin. At 90 days after sowing, the severity of the leaf blight disease was estimated in the plots. At 100 days after sowing, harvesting was performed and root yield characters were evaluated. Analysis of variance and partial diallel analysis were performed for each year and jointly for both years. It was found that additive and non-additive genes are important in the manifestation of root yield and leaf blight resistance traits in carrot hybrids. The male-sterile parents with higher overall combining ability for root productivity are strains LM-649 and LM-650 and, among the male-fertile, strain LM-555-2-2. The best hybrids for root yield and leaf blight resistance are LM-649 × LM-555-11-1, LM-650 × LM-555-7-1 and LM-650 × LM-554-8-1.