Search

The “AUTOMATIC RAILWAY GATE CONTROL SYSTEM” with IR based application and ARDUINO NANO to systematic traffic control of railway gates that are both manned and unmanned. In Generally, there are manual gate control system which are maintained by person. As vehicles are increasing day by day it has become more difficult to control the gate manually. As a result, often accident occurs and many people become injured badly and sometimes it becomes very serious when people died due to this type of accidents. So, this work can help us to reduce accidents in our country by introducing automatic railway control system.In this work deals with one IR sensor, the sensor is fixed at certain distance of the gate, that is before the train arrive and after the train departure. Place the servo motor with a barrier attached to it so it can move up and down easily. Provide the power supply to ARDUINO so that the machine starts working. When the train arrives the sensor detects it and servo barrier blocks the crossing and when the sensor detects that the train goes away the servo barrier opens. In this way, the system works.

The Solar Mean Magnetic Field (SMMF) is the mean value of the line of sight (LOS) component of the solar vector magnetic field averaged over the visible hemisphere of the Sun. So far, the studies on SMMF have mostly been confined to the magnetic field measurements at the photosphere. In this study, we calculate and analyse the SMMF using magnetic field measurements at the chromosphere, in conjunction with that of photospheric measurements. For this purpose, we have used full disk LOS magnetograms derived from spectropolarimetric observations carried out in Fe I 630.15 nm and Ca II 854.2 nm by the Synoptic Optical Long term Investigations of the Sun (SOLIS)/Vector Spectromagnetograph (VSM) instrument during 2010 to 2017. It is found from this study that the SMMF at the chromosphere is weaker by a factor of 0.60 compared to the SMMF at the upper photosphere. The correlation analysis between them gives a Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.80. The similarity and reduced intensity of the chromospheric SMMF with respect to the photospheric SMMF corroborate the idea that it is the source of the Interplanetary Magnetic Field (IMF)., 11 pages, 6 figure, 3 tables

India is a developing country and GDP growth of India is appreciable. The automobile industry in India is a vast business producing a large number of cars and bikes annually, fueled mostly by the huge population of the country. Under the previous tax system, there were several taxes applicable on this sector like excise, VAT, sales tax, road tax, motor vehicle tax, registration duty on car and bikes which were included by Goods and Service tax. CGST and SGST are the part of the GST system in India. One nation, one tax and one market were the basic principle in the present GST system. GST system in India has made taxation system in India more efficient by reducing burden of paying different taxes to the state. Key words: Automobile Sectors, GDP, GST, CGST, IGST, Cascading Effect. CAGR, Automobiles. Cite this Article: Nagaraju K, Impact of GST on Automobile Sectors- An Empirical Analysis, International Journal of Management (IJM), 11(1), 2020, pp. 368-374.

The growing advancement in technology has led to a lot of changes in every aspect of life. Our education system does not eliminated to this. Lot of transformation can be witnessed in the field of education systems from the past few decades. Traditional concept of classroom learning has now changed to E- learning. Various digital learning platforms have made students continue their education through the virtual mode of learning. Growing usage of the internet has also made students prefer these platforms rather than the traditional classroom learning. The concept of E- learning has become even more fundamental after Covid-19. Most of the students have now experienced both classroom learning as well as E-learning. The present study tries to understand the students' perception towards E- learning and its impact on their academic performance. 80 students studying in various streams from Tumkur city were selected for the study using non-random based convenience sampling method. The data required for the study has been collected from both primary and secondary sources. Structured questionnaires were used to collect the required primary data. The study throws light on the perception of the respondents regarding e-learning and its effect on their academic performance. Key words: E-learning, Perception, Traditional Classroom Teaching, Academic Performance. Cite this Article: Nagaraju K, A Study on Students’ Perception About E- Learning and Its Impact on Their Academic Performance, International Journal of Management (IJM), 11(12), 2020, pp. 4755-4761.

The media ingestion in India has gone through numerous disruptive deviations. At present statistics disclose that in 2020, India had over 749 million internet users across the country. This figure was projected to grow to over 1.5 billion users by 2040, indicating a big market potential in internet services for the south Asian country and about 83.2 % of the population is active through their smartphone devices. On the basis of user base and incomes for most global internet companies India is one of the largest markets. Internet is where the population spends maximum time particularly young students and working administrators, with the digital advertising spends accounting for a growth of over 2,200 crores in December 2013 thus making it one of the most powerful brand communication platforms in the current scenario. Urban 15 suggests that “Digital Marketing uses the internet and information technology to extend and improve traditional marketing functions”. It has a wide spread application across sectors, however in the current context with propagation digital and social media have gained gigantic popularity and are integral parts of the decision making of young students seeking higher education. Digitalization has changed the way information is conveyed and perceived by viewers/information hunters. At times the information conveyed through digital media may not be accurate and appropriate creating a scope for misleading the target audience. The paper aims to study how digitalization can mislead thus influencing decision making among a certain target group taking Education Industry as a sample. It seeks to complement the claim by relevant data of an institute to assess whether the information provided for marketing purpose is legitimate enough to take fundamental decisions. Keywords: Decision, Digitalization, Digital Marketing, Digital Media. Cite this Article: Nagaraju K, Effectiveness of Digital Marketing in Education: An Insight into Consumer Perceptions, International Journal of Management (IJM), 10(4), 2019, pp. 620-630.

We investigated the diagnostic potential of the Stokes $V$ profile of the H$α$ line to probe the chromospheric line-of-sight (LOS) magnetic field ($B_{\mathrm{LOS}}$) by comparing the $B_{\mathrm{LOS}}$ inferred from the weak field approximation (WFA) with that of inferred from the multi-line inversions of the Ca II 8542 Å, Si I 8536 Å and Fe I 8538 Å lines using the STiC inversion code. Simultaneous spectropolarimetric observations of a pore in the Ca II 8542 Å and H$α$ spectral lines obtained from the SPINOR at the Dunn Solar Telescope on the 4th of December, 2008 are used in this study. The WFA was applied on the Stokes $I$ and $V$ profiles of H$α$ line over three wavelength ranges viz.: around line core ($Δλ=\pm0.35$ Å), line wings ($Δλ=[-1.5, -0.6]$ and $[+0.6, +1.5]$ Å) and full spectral range of the line ($Δλ=\pm1.5$ Å) to derive the $B_{\mathrm{LOS}}$. We found the maximum $B_{\mathrm{LOS}}$ strengths of $\sim+800$ and $\sim+600$ G at $\logτ_{\mathrm{500}}$ = $-$1 and $-$4.5, respectively in the pore. The morphological map of the $B_{\mathrm{LOS}}$ inferred from the H$α$ line core is similar to the $B_{\mathrm{LOS}}$ map at $\logτ_{\mathrm{500}}$ = $-$4.5 inferred from multi-line inversions. The $B_{\mathrm{LOS}}$ map inferred from the H$α$ line wings and full spectral range have a similar morphological structure to the $B_{\mathrm{LOS}}$ map inferred at $\logτ_{\mathrm{500}}$ = $-$1. The $B_{\mathrm{LOS}}$ estimated from H$α$ using WFA is weaker by a factor of $\approx 0.53$ than that of inferred from the multi-line inversions., Accepted to be published in the ApJ on 25th February, 2023

ADITYA-L1 is India's first dedicated mission to observe the sun and its atmosphere from a halo orbit around L1 point. Visible emission line coronagraph (VELC) is the prime payload on board at Aditya-L1 to observe the sun's corona. VELC is designed as an internally occulted reflective coronagraph to meet the observational requirements of wide wavelength band and close to the solar limb (1.05 Ro). Images of the solar corona in continuum and spectra in three emission lines 5303{\AA} [Fe xiv], 7892{\AA} [Fe xi] and 10747 [Fe xiii] obtained with high cadence to be analyzed using software algorithms automatically. A reasonable part of observations will be made in synoptic mode, those, need to be analyzed and results made available for public use. The procedure involves the calibration of instrument and detectors, converting the images into fits format, correcting the images and spectra for the instrumental effects, align the images etc. Then, develop image processing algorithms to detect the occurrence of energetic events using continuum images. Also derive physical parameters, such as temperature and velocity structure of solar corona using emission line observations. Here, we describe the calibration of detectors and the development of software algorithms to detect the occurrence of CMEs and analyze the spectroscopic data.

People have been taking the drug in various forms for many years for enjoyment, relaxation, sleeping, stimulation, or another reason. In the starting, people takes the drug for taste and alter the consciousness, behavior, mood, and thoughts but he/she becomes habitual and dependent on any substance use disorder such as alcohol, tobacco, cannabis, ecstasy, cocaine, methamphetamine, and heroin, amphetamines, or illegal drugs. As per my thoughts and watching surroundings, if you ask a drug intake person “how do you become a drug addictive”? Most people will answer this “they started taking the drug in their friend circle, at relatives home or with relationship partner”. The first time they take it for taste or due to forcing by someone but after some time this becomes a habit. Peer pressure can fall you in this black world. Also, if someone has family history of addiction then he/she may chance to catch this addiction and make habitual others as well. So good friend circle really matters. Drugs such as heroin and marijuana are structured in the same way as chemical messengers known as neurotransmitters. These neurotransmitters are produced naturally by the human brain. As a result of this similarity, the drugs can fool the receptors of human brain and activate the nerve cells in such a way that they send some abnormal messages. In case of drugs like methamphetamine and cocaine, the nerve cells get activated and they release extraordinarily large volumes of neurotransmitters. They are also capable of preventing the brain from recycling these chemicals in a normal manner. A normal level of production is necessary in order to end the signal between neurons. Keywords: Alcohol – Beer, Wine, & Liquor, Opioids – Heroin, Fentanyl & Oxycodone, Cannabinoids – Marijuana & Hashish, Benzodiazepines – Ativan, Valium & Xanax, Stimulants – Adderall, Cocaine & Meth.

Aditya-L1 is India’s first observatory class Solar space mission to study the Sun from Lagrangian 1 position. The Solar Ultra-Violet Imaging Telescope (SUIT) is one of the payloads on-board Aditya-L1. SUIT is an off-axis Ritchey-Chretien (RC) telescope, which images the Sun on to a 4k x 4k CCD covering a field-of-view of 1.5Ro with a plate scale of 0.7'/pixel. One of the primary objectives of SUIT is to study the early evolution of solar flares with high time cadence in Near UV wavelength (200 nm – 400 nm). The SUIT on-board intelligence is developed to achieve this objective. The complete intelligence algorithm is divided into several sub-modules each working on a specific aspect of intelligence. These are, HEL1OS flare trigger module: generates flare trigger using HEL1OS hard X-ray data, flare localization module: locates flare on the SUIT full-disc images, Region of Interest (RoI) tracking module: accounts for shift in RoI coordinates caused due to rotation of the Sun, auto-exposure control module: adjusts the exposure time depending upon the flare intensity for better contrast. In this paper, these on-board intelligence modules are explained in detail. The working principles of these modules are tested using available data from various existing missions and also using synthesized data and the obtained results are presented. The modules are implemented in hardware using Actel RTAX 2000S FPGA and are tested using laboratory setup. From the testing, it is found that, flares are successfully localized in a mean time of 40 seconds from the GOES soft X-ray catalog start time. Also, a time cadence of under 3 seconds for a single filter flare RoI images is achieved.

The diagnostic capabilities of spectral lines in far ultraviolet (FUV) and extreme ultraviolet (EUV) wavelength range are explored in terms of their Hanle and Zeeman sensitivity to probe vector magnetic field in the solar corona. The temperature range covered is log$_{10}(T)=5.5-6.3$. The circular polarization signal due to longitudinal Zeeman effect is estimated for spectral lines in the wavelength range of 500 to 1600 \r{A}. The Stokes $V/I$ signal for a FUV line is found to be in the order of 10$^{-4}$ for a longitudinal field strength of 10 Gauss, which further reduces to 10$^{-5}$ for wavelengths below 1200 \r{A}. Due to such low signals, the present study aims to find combination of spectral lines having different Hanle sensitivity but with identical peak formation temperature to probe coronal magnetic field vector. The combination of Hanle sensitive lines is better suited because the Hanle signals are stronger by at least an order of magnitude compared to Zeeman signals. The linear polarization signals due to Hanle effect from at least two spectral lines are required to derive information on the full vector. It is found from this study that there is always a pair of Hanle sensitive lines for a given temperature range suitable for probing coronal vector magnetic field and they are located in close proximity with each other in terms of their wavelength., Comment: 22 pages, 2 figures, 1 table. Accepted for publication in Solar Physics journal

BACKGROUND Thyroid hormone is known to regulate metabolisms which are an integral part of normal growth and development. It affects key metabolisms involved in energy storage and expenditure. We wanted to study the correlation of thyroid function test with metabolic markers. METHODS After appropriate clearance from Human Institutional Ethics Committee and proper permission from author of article by Dr Sindhu et al, the secondary, blinded data was adopted for this study. This is an observational, cross-sectional retrospective study. Anthropometric measurements were taken, and lipid and thyroid profile were analysed in overnight fasting sample. As per our inclusion and exclusion criteria 120 of 253 subjects included in primary study were recruited in our study. Statistical analysis was done in Microsoft Excel 2007 and SPSS software version 16.0. ATP III criteria were used as a benchmark for metabolic syndrome markers. RESULTS Our study suggests that prevalence of subclinical hypothyroidism was higher in young South Indian women and it significantly correlated with the markers of metabolic syndrome like BMI, waist circumference, Low Density Lipoprotein (LDL) and systolic blood pressure. TSH values strongly correlated with BMI and LDL values. FT4 values correlated well with LDL. CONCLUSIONS High TSH and lower thyroxine values in blood can be a marker associated with metabolic syndrome. Our study suggests routine screening for thyroid status and lipid profile in young females to categorize them as high risk for cardiovascular mortality and morbidity along with anthropometric measurements. The study can be continued by long term follow up of the study subjects and correlation of these study subjects into mid or old age can give significant information of their cardiac status at that age. Counseling on appropriate diet and lifestyle modification may be beneficial for young people categorized as high risk to reduce the cardiovascular mortality later in life. KEYWORDS Thyroid Stimulating Hormone, Free Thyroxine, BMI, Lipid Profile

Recurrent acute respiratory tract infections (ARTI) are the commonest form of infections affecting children irrespective of socioeconomic status and geographical limits. Immaturity of immune response involving neutrophils, NK cells, T and B cells, in the early childhood, is often cited as a reason for this RRTI. There is a comparatively high incidence of ARTI in South East Asian countries when compared with global statistics. The possibility of using immune stimulation as a method of reducing the recurrence of ARTI prompted the use of Pidotimod as an add on drug. We tried to explore the safety, efficacy and a cost benefit analysis of Pidotimod as add-on treatment for paediatric use. After registering for Clinical trial and getting IEC approval, we started an open labelled prospective single arm interventional study by recruiting 65 children between 2-12 years with ARTI to receive 800 mg daily for 15 days and 400 mg for 45 days and was followed up for 6 months. Study revealed a significant reduction in number and duration of RRTI as well as reduction in episodes requiring antibiotics and reduction in duration of treatment. The reduction in number of school days lost and treatment expenses were statistically significant. There was a significant increase in mean absolute count in CD45, CD3, CD4, CD8 and lymphocyte counts at 6 months follow-up. Hence, we conclude that 60day Pidotimod therapy has immunostimulatory activity preventing the RRTI in paediatric population when considered as an add-on therapy to standard treatment.

Short-lived (100s or less), sub-arcsec to a couple of arcsec size features of enhanced brightenings in the narrowband images at the $\mathrm{H_{2V}}$ and $\mathrm{K_{2V}}$ positions of the Ca II H and K lines in the quiet Sun are known as bright grains. With simultaneous observations of a quiet Sun internetwork region in the Fe I 6173 {\AA}, Ca II 8542 {AA}, and Ca II K lines acquired by the CRisp Imaging Spectro-Polarimeter and the CHROMospheric Imaging Spectrometer instruments on the Swedish 1-m Solar Telescope, we performed multi-line non-local thermodynamic equilibrium inversions using the STockholm inversion Code to infer the time-varying stratified atmosphere's physical properties such as the temperature, line-of-sight (LOS) velocity, and microturbulence. The Ca II K profiles of bright grains show enhancement in the $\mathrm{K_{2V}}$ peak intensities with absence of the $\mathrm{K_{2R}}$ features. At the time of maximum enhancement in the $\mathrm{K_{2V}}$ peak intensities, we found average enhancements in temperature at lower chromospheric layers (at $\log\tau_{500}$ $\simeq$ $-$4.2) of about 1.1 kK with maximum enhancement of about 4.5 kK. These temperature enhancements are colocated with upflows, as strong as $-$6 $\mathrm{km\;s^{-1}}$, in the direction of the LOS. The LOS velocities at upper chromospheric layers at $\log\tau_{500}$ < $-$4.2 show consistent downflows greater than $+$8 $\mathrm{km\;s^{-1}}$. The retrieved value of microturbulence in the atmosphere of bright grains is negligible at chromospheric layers. The study provides observational evidence to support the interpretation that the bright grains observed in narrowband images at the $\mathrm{H_{2V}}$ and $\mathrm{K_{2V}}$ positions of the Ca II H and K lines are manifestations of upward propagating acoustic shocks against a background of downflowing atmospheres., Comment: 23 pages, 12 figures, accepted to be published in Astronomy and Astrophysics on 3rd October, 2022

Disaggregated memory architectures provide benefits to applications beyond traditional scale out environments, such as independent scaling of compute and memory resources. They also provide an independent failure model, where computations or the compute nodes they run on may fail independently of the disaggregated memory; thus, data that's resident in the disaggregated memory is unaffected by the compute failure. Blind application of traditional techniques for resilience (e.g., checkpoints or data replication) does not take advantage of these architectures. To demonstrate the potential benefit of these architectures for resilience, we develop Memory-Oriented Distributed Computing (MODC), a framework for programming disaggregated architectures that borrows and adapts ideas from task-based programming models, concurrent programming techniques, and lock-free data structures. This framework includes a task-based application programming model and a runtime system that provides scheduling, coordination, and fault tolerance mechanisms. We present highlights of our MODC prototype and experimental results demonstrating that MODC-style resilience outperforms a checkpoint-based approach in the face of failures., 9 pages, 4 figures

Background: The interplay between COVID-19 pandemic and asthma in children is still unclear. We evaluated the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on childhood asthma outcomes. Methods: The PeARL multinational cohort included 1,054 children with asthma and 505 non-asthmatic children aged between 4 and 18 years from 25 pediatric departments, from 15 countries globally. We compared the frequency of acute respiratory and febrile presentations during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic between groups and with data available from the previous year. In children with asthma, we also compared current and historical disease control. Results: During the pandemic, children with asthma experienced fewer upper respiratory tract infections, episodes of pyrexia, emergency visits, hospital admissions, asthma attacks, and hospitalizations due to asthma, in comparison with the preceding year. Sixty-six percent of asthmatic children had improved asthma control while in 33% the improvement exceeded the minimal clinically important difference. Pre-bronchodilatation FEV₁ and peak expiratory flow rate were improved during the pandemic. When compared to non-asthmatic controls, children with asthma were not at increased risk of LRTIs, episodes of pyrexia, emergency visits, or hospitalizations during the pandemic. However, an increased risk of URTIs emerged. Conclusions: Childhood asthma outcomes, including control, were improved during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, probably because of reduced exposure to asthma triggers and increased treatment adherence. The decreased frequency of acute episodes does not support the notion that childhood asthma may be a risk factor for COVID-19. Furthermore, the potential for improving childhood asthma outcomes through environmental control becomes apparent.

Background: The interplay between COVID-19 pandemic and asthma in children is still unclear. We evaluated the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on childhood asthma outcomes. Methods: The PeARL multinational cohort included 1,054 children with asthma and 505 non-asthmatic children aged between 4 and 18 years from 25 pediatric departments, from 15 countries globally. We compared the frequency of acute respiratory and febrile presentations during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic between groups and with data available from the previous year. In children with asthma, we also compared current and historical disease control. Results: During the pandemic, children with asthma experienced fewer upper respiratory tract infections, episodes of pyrexia, emergency visits, hospital admissions, asthma attacks, and hospitalizations due to asthma, in comparison with the preceding year. Sixty-six percent of asthmatic children had improved asthma control while in 33% the improvement exceeded the minimal clinically important difference. Pre-bronchodilatation FEV1 and peak expiratory flow rate were improved during the pandemic. When compared to non-asthmatic controls, children with asthma were not at increased risk of LRTIs, episodes of pyrexia, emergency visits, or hospitalizations during the pandemic. However, an increased risk of URTIs emerged. Conclusion: Childhood asthma outcomes, including control, were improved during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, probably because of reduced exposure to asthma triggers and increased treatment adherence. The decreased frequency of acute episodes does not support the notion that childhood asthma may be a risk factor for COVID-19. Furthermore, the potential for improving childhood asthma outcomes through environmental control becomes apparent. © 2021 The Authors. Allergy published by European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Introduction: Chronic viral hepatitis is a condition of hepatotropic viral infection associated with chronic inflammation, hepatocyte injury and progressive fibrosis. Non-invasive assessment of liver fibrosis in chronic hepatitis B and C patients has been increasing and used instead of liver biopsy. Aim: To assess the diagnostic performance of ElastPQ Point Shear Wave Elastography (ElastPQ PSWE) with liver biopsy as the gold standard and comparing these results with other serum fibrosis markers namely Aspartate to Platelet Ratio Index (APRI), Fibrosis-4 Score (FIB4). Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out in which 73 patients underwent ElastPQ PSWE and Histopathological Examination (HPE) with METAVIR Scoring system staging. Serum fibrosis indices including APRI and FIB4 values were calculated. The diagnostic performance of ElastPQ PSWE, APRI and FIB4 was evaluated using Area Under Receiver Operating Characteristic (AUROCAUROC) curve analysis, correlations of ElastPQ PSWE, APRI and FIB4 ratio index with histopathological findings (as the reference standard) were determined using Spearman’s correlation coefficient. Results: Study included 73 patients with chronic hepatitis B and hepatitis C, of which 8 (10.96%) were no/early fibrosis (F0- F1); 20 (27.40%) were significant fibrosis (F2); 22 (30.13%) were severe fibrosis (F3), and 23 (31.51%) were cirrhosis (F4). There was a significant positive correlation between different stages of liver fibrosis by liver biopsy and liver stiffness detected by ElastPQ PSWE (r=0.912, p

Background: It is unclear whether asthma may affect susceptibility or severity of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in children and how pediatric asthma services worldwide have responded to the pandemic. Objective: To describe the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on pediatric asthma services and on disease burden in their patients. Methods: An online survey was sent to members of the Pediatric Asthma in Real Life think tank and the World Allergy Organization Pediatric Asthma Committee. It included questions on service provision, disease burden, and the clinical course of confirmed cases of COVID-19 infection among children with asthma. Results: Ninety-one respondents, caring for an estimated population of more than 133,000 children with asthma, completed the survey. COVID-19 significantly impacted pediatric asthma services: 39% ceased physical appointments, 47% stopped accepting new patients, and 75% limited patients' visits. Consultations were almost halved to a median of 20 (interquartile range, 10-25) patients per week. Virtual clinics and helplines were launched in most centers. Better than expected disease control was reported in 20% (10%-40%) of patients, whereas control was negatively affected in only 10% (7.5%-12.5%). Adherence also appeared to increase. Only 15 confirmed cases of COVID-19 were reported among the population; the estimated incidence is not apparently different from the reports of general pediatric cohorts. Conclusions: Children with asthma do not appear to be disproportionately affected by COVID-19. Outcomes may even have improved, possibly through increased adherence and/or reduced exposures. Clinical services have rapidly responded to the pandemic by limiting and replacing physical appointments with virtual encounters. © 2020 American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology

A new line of dystrophic mdx mice on the DBA/2J (D2) background has emerged as a candidate to study the efficacy of therapeutic approaches for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). These mice harbor genetic polymorphisms that appear to increase the severity of the dystropathology, with disease modifiers that also occur in DMD patients, making them attractive for efficacy studies and drug development. This workshop aimed at collecting and consolidating available data on the pathological features and the natural history of these new D2/mdx mice, for comparison with classic mdx mice and controls, and to identify gaps in information and their potential value. The overall aim is to establish guidance on how to best use the D2/mdx mouse model in preclinical studies.

For many years, parallel I/O schemes ruled the chipto chip, board to board or backplane communication. ParallelI/O had to experience performance issues like crosstalk, signalintegrity and increased skew after passing certain I/O clockfrequencyrates [1]. Also parallel I/O methods increased thecomplexity of the hardware (high pin count, more wires) andmade bandwidth sharing inevitable. In many newcommunication protocols serial data transmission has becomevery common due to low pin count (reduced cost). Serial I/Omethods can also transmit at much higher clock rates per bittransmitted, thus outweighing the parallel transmissionmethod. High speed serialization with large bandwidth plays amajor role in transmitter of high speed interfacing circuitssuch as PCIe, USB, and SATA. Various encoding schemes areused based on the protocols. Efficient equalizers with interfaceunits are required to avoid ISI (Inter Symbol Interference) andto drive the back-panel line. This also makes the designcomplex, which in turn makes the design verification andvalidation more challenging.

Forensic anthropology is the application of anthropology to criminal investigations. It incorporates con- cepts and methods from biological anthropology (the study of the physical aspects of humanity).Identifying unknown individuals is a key part of forensic anthropology. Anthropologists assist in identifications primarily by constructing a bio- logical profile. This includes estimating age, sex, stature, and ancestry, as well as identifying specific characteristics, like diseases or injuries. In addition to helping identify human remains, the anthropologist analyzes injuries that happened around the time of a per- son's death, which can help determine how a person died. To do these things, an anthropologist begins by asking a series of important questions. In order to correctly identify found human remains using skeletal material, forensic anthropologists focus on determining as many physical characteristics as possible, including age, gender, stature, and body type. Methods of estimation are quite reliable, though not 100% accurate, especially regarding phenotypic representations such as weight distribution or race. This paper will outline the methods used to determine these characteristics, and explain some of the problems forensic anthropologists face when attempting to match an individual with a set of skeletal remains.

Context. Remote sensing of weak and small-scale solar magnetic fields is of utmost relevance for a number of important open questions in solar physics. This requires the acquisition of spectropolarimetric data with high spatial resolution (0.1 arcsec) and low noise (1e-3 to 1e-5 of the continuum intensity). The main limitations to obtain these measurements from the ground, are the degradation of the image resolution produced by atmospheric seeing and the seeing-induced crosstalk (SIC). Aims. We introduce the prototype of the Fast Solar Polarimeter (FSP), a new ground-based, high-cadence polarimeter that tackles the above-mentioned limitations by producing data that are optimally suited for the application of post-facto image restoration, and by operating at a modulation frequency of 100 Hz to reduce SIC. Results. The pnCCD camera reaches 400 fps while keeping a high duty cycle (98.6 %) and very low noise (4.94 erms). The modulator is optimized to have high (> 80%) total polarimetric efficiency in the visible spectral range. This allows FSP to acquire 100 photon-noise-limited, full-Stokes measurements per second. We found that the seeing induced signals present in narrow-band, non-modulated, quiet-sun measurements are (a) lower than the noise (7e-5) after integrating 7.66 min, (b) lower than the noise (2.3e-4) after integrating 1.16 min and (c) slightly above the noise (4e-3) after restoring case (b) by means of a multi-object multi-frame blind deconvolution. In addition, we demonstrate that by using only narrow-band images (with low SNR of 13.9) of an active region, we can obtain one complete set of high-quality restored measurements about every 2 s., Accepted for publication in A&A on March 30, 2016

The dysferlin-deficient A/J mouse strain represents a homologous model for limb-girdle muscular dystrophy 2B. We evaluated the disease phenotype in 10 month old A/J mice compared to two dysferlin-sufficient, C57BL/6 and ALOlaHsd, mouse lines to determine which functional end-points are sufficiently sensitive to define the disease phenotype for use in preclinical studies in the A/J strain. A/J mice had significantly lower open field behavioral activity (horizontal activity, total distance, movement time and vertical activity) when compared to C57BL/6 and A/JolaHsd mice. Both A/J and A/JOIaHsd mice showed decreases in latency to fall with rotarod compared to C57BL/6. No changes were detected in grip strength, force measurements or motor coordination between these three groups. Furthermore, we have found that A/J muscle shows significantly increased levels of the pro-inflammatory cytokine TNF-alpha when compared to C57BL/6 mice, indicating an activation of NF-kappa B signaling as part of the inflammatory response in dysferlin-deficient muscle. Therefore, we assessed the effect of celastrol (a potent NF-kappa B inhibitor) on the disease phenotype in female A/J mice. Celastrol treatment for four months significantly reduced the inflammation in A/J muscle; however, it had no beneficial effect in improving muscle function, as assessed by grip strength, open field activity, and in vitro force contraction. In fact, celastrol treated mice showed a decrease in body mass, hindlimb grip strength and maximal EDL force. These findings suggest that inhibition of inflammation alone may not be sufficient to improve the muscle disease phenotype in dysferlin-deficient mice and may require combination therapies that target membrane stability to achieve a functional improvement in skeletal muscle. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Accurate measurement of polarization in spectral lines is important for the reliable inference of magnetic fields on the Sun. For ground based observations, polarimetric precision is severely limited by the presence of Earth's atmosphere. Atmospheric turbulence (seeing) produces signal fluctuations which combined with the non-simultaneous nature of the measurement process cause intermixing of the Stokes parameters known as seeing induced polarization cross-talk. Previous analysis of this effect (Judge et al., 2004) suggests that cross-talk is reduced not only with increase in modulation frequency but also by compensating the seeing induced image aberrations by an Adaptive Optics (AO) system. However, in those studies the effect of higher order image aberrations than those corrected by the AO system was not taken into account. We present in this paper an analysis of seeing induced cross-talk in the presence of higher order image aberrations through numerical simulation. In this analysis we find that the amount of cross-talk among Stokes parameters is practically independent of the degree of image aberration corrected by an AO system. However, higher order AO corrections increase the signal-to-noise ratio by reducing the seeing caused image smearing., Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures, in press Applied Optics

We performed high resolution spectroscopy of the solar corona during the total solar eclipse of 22 July 2009 in two emission lines: the green line at 5303 due to Fe xiv and the red line at 6374 due to Fe x, simultaneously from Anji (latitude 30A degrees 28.1' N; longitude 119A degrees 35.4' E; elevation 890 m), China. A two-mirror coelostat with 100 cm focal length lens produced a 9.2 mm image of the Sun. The spectrograph using 140 cm focal length lens in Littrow mode and a grating with 600 lines per millimeter blazed at 2 mu m provided a dispersion of 30 m and 43 m per pixel in the fourth order around the green line and third order around the red line, respectively. Two Peltier cooled 1k x 1k CCD cameras, with a pixel size of 13 mu m square and 14-bit readout at 10 MHz operated in frame transfer mode, were used to obtain the time sequence spectra in two emission lines simultaneously. The duration of totality was 341 s, but we could get spectra for 270 s after a trial exposure at an interval of 5 s. We report here on the detection of intensity, velocity, and line width oscillations with periodicity in the range of 25 -50 s. These oscillations can be interpreted in terms of the presence of fast magnetoacoustic waves or torsional Alfv,n waves. The intensity ratios of green to red emission lines indicate the temperature of the corona to be 1.65 MK in the equatorial region and 1.40 MK in the polar region, relatively higher than the expected temperature during the low activity period. The width variation of the emission lines in different coronal structures suggests different physical conditions in different structures.

An eight stage balanced modulation scheme for dual beam polarimetry is presented in this paper. The four Stokes parameters are weighted equally in all the eight stages of modulation resulting in total polarimetric efficiency of unity. The gain table error inherent in dual beam system is reduced by using the well known beam swapping technique. The wavelength dependent polarimetric efficiencies of Stokes parameters due to the chromatic nature of the waveplates are presented. The proposed modulation scheme produces better Stokes $Q$ and $V$ efficiencies for wavelengths larger than the design wavelength whereas Stokes $U$ has better efficiency in the shorter wavelength region. Calibration of the polarimeter installed as a backend instrument of the Kodaikanal Tower Telescope is presented. It is found through computer simulation that a 14% sky transparency variation during calibration of the polarimeter can introduce $\approx 1.8%$ uncertainty in the determination of its response matrix., Comment: accepted for publication in BASI