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bstract: Given a corrupted image, image inpainting aims to complete the image and outputs a plausible result. When we complete the missing region, we always borrow the information from a known area, which is aimless and causes unsatisfactory results. In our daily life, some other information is often used for corrupted images, such as text descriptions. Therefore, we introduce the use of text information to guide image inpainting. To fullfill this task, We introduce an inpainting model named TG Net (Text-Guided Inpainting Network). We provide a text-image gated feature fusion module to fuse text feature and image feature deeply. A mask attention module is proposed to enhance the consistency of known areas and the repaired area. Extensive quantitative and qualitative experiments on three public datasets with captions demonstrate the effectiveness of our method. The goal of our paper is to semantically edit parts of an image matching a given text that describes desired attributes (e.g., texture, colour, and background), while preserving other contents that are irrelevant to the text. To achieve this, we propose a novel generative adversarial network (Mani GAN), which contains two key components: text-image affine combination module (ACM) and detail correction module (DCM). The ACM selects image regions relevant to the given text and then correlates the regions with corresponding semantic words for effective manipulation. Meanwhile, it encodes original image features to help reconstruct text-irrelevant contents. The DCM rectifies mismatched attributes and completes missing contents of the synthetic image. Finally, we suggest a new metric for evaluating image manipulation results, in terms of both the generation of new attributes and the reconstruction of text-irrelevant contents. Extensive experiments on the CUB and COCO datasets demonstrate the superior performance of the proposed method. Code is available at this https URL.

Understanding protein adsorption behavior on rough and wrinkled surfaces is vital to applications including biosensors and flexible biomedical devices.

Author Profiling is a technique of predicting demographic characteristics like gender, age, location, nativity language, educational background etc., of an author by analysing their written texts. Author profiling is used in several text processing applications like forensics analysis, marketing, security. The author profiling techniques identify the stylistic differences among the author writing styles to identify the demographics of authors. Researchers experimented with various stylistic features like lexical features, content-based features, syntactic features, semantic features, domain specific features, structural features, readability features etc., to identify the stylistic differences among different author’s texts. The dataset plays an important role to analyse the stylistic differences of authors. PAN is one competition organizes different types of tasks in every year to encourage the participants around the globe for providing solutions to different types of text classification problems like plagiarism detection, authorship attribution, authorship verification, authorship profiling, celebrity profiling, style change detection, fake news spreaders detection, hate speech spreaders detection etc. The author profiling task was introduced in 2013 by the organizers of PAN competition. The organizers carefully gather the datasets and make available to the researchers for providing solutions to the problems. Every year the organizers conduct competitions on different sub-tasks of author profiling and provides datasets in different languages and in different genres. In 2017 competition, PAN introduces a task of predicting the language variety of an author. They release the dataset in four languages. In this work, we proposed an approach for English language dataset of language variety prediction. The proposed approach used the word embeddings generated by the Word2Vec model and BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers) model. The word embeddings are used for generating the document vectors by combining the word embeddings of words those contain in documents. The document vectors are trained with two machine learning algorithms such as support vector machine and random forest. The Random Forest attained best accuracy of 96.87 for language variety prediction when experiment conducted with BERT embeddings

Au/oxides are extensively studied as CO oxidation catalyst but often limited by cost and stability. Hence we propose a novel catalyst, AuCu3 supported on Ti2CO2 MXene, with superior activity, stability, and/or cost in comparison with its analogs.

The predictability of triglyceride glucose index (TyG index) as a biomarker for identification of insulin resistance (IR) is being extensively studied in various ethnic populations. TyG index could be a beneficial tool for identification of IR and populations at high risk for developing diabetes in future. However, more studies are required to standardize optimal cut-off values in different ethnicities and populations. The present review describes existing literature, and identifies merits and demerits of TyG index as a surrogate marker for IR. Keywords: Triglyceride Glucose Index, Insulin resistance, Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus.

Background: The effectiveness of self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG) in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients is debated in the literature. We aimed at elucidating the association and patterns of complications between SMBG use and plasma glucose values. Methods: This cross-sectional study comprised 303 participants from outpatient departments with T2DM for over 12 months. We analyzed sociodemographic and clinical variables including: anthropometry, SMBG use, disease duration, treatment modality, complications, plasma glucose level, and glycated hemoglobin level (%). Results: The mean duration of T2DM was 93±76 months. Participants were grouped into SMBG users (n=115, 38%) and non-SMBG users (n=188, 62%). The mean fasting plasma glucose levels of SMBG and non-SMBG users were 140.7±42.7 (95% Confidence Interval [95%CI]: 132.72;148.67) mg/dl and 145.4±50 (95%CI: 138.12;152.67) mg/dl (p=0.03), respectively. The mean post-prandial plasma glucose levels of the SMBG and non-SMBG groups were 202±63.42 (95%CI: 190.23;213.76) mg/dl and 209±84.54 (95%CI: 196.56;221.43) mg/dl (p=0.002), respectively. The mean difference in HbA1c among the groups were 8.14±1.69% (95%CI: 7.59;8.68) and 8.15±1.98% (95%CI: 7.27;9.02) (p=0.4), respectively. Hypoglycemia (n=50, 43.5%) was the most common complication. The prevalence of neuropathy (n=5, 4.3%, p=0.036) and cardiovascular disease (n=21, 18.3%, p=0.042) were significantly higher in the SMBG group. Conclusion: Although plasma glucose values were significantly lower in the SMBG group, its clinical significance remains questionable. Furthermore, many participants in both the groups had shortfalls in awareness, monitoring, and glycemic control. SMBG use needs to be evaluated in a cohort of patients with T2DM with adequate health awareness.

Abatement of CO, due to its poisonous nature, is an extensively researched topic. Oxidation to CO

Transcriptomic analysis of the mammalian retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) aims to identify cellular networks that influence ocular development, maintenance, function, and disease. However, available evidence points to RPE cell heterogeneity in the native tissue, which adds complexity to transcriptomic analysis. Here, to assess cell heterogeneity, we performed single-cell RNA sequencing of RPE cells from two young adult male C57BL/6J mice. Following quality control to ensure robust transcript identification limited to cell singlets, we detected 13,858 transcripts among 2,667 and 2,846 RPE cells, respectively. Dimensional reduction by principal component analysis and uniform manifold approximation and projection revealed six distinct cell popu-lations. All clusters expressed transcripts typical of RPE cells; the smallest (C1, containing 1–2% of total cells) exhibited hallmarks of stem and/or progenitor cells. Placing C1–6 along a pseudotime axis suggested a relative decrease in melanogenesis and stem/progenitor gene expression, and a corresponding increase in visual cycle gene expression upon RPE maturation. K-means testing of all detected transcripts identified additional expression patterns that may advance understanding of RPE stem/pro-genitor cell maintenance and the evolution of cellular metabolic networks during development. This work provides new insights into the transcriptome of the mouse RPE and a baseline for identifying experimentally induced transcriptional changes in future studies of this tissue.

Background: Online classes have been started in many colleges amidst the COVID-19 lock-down. Our study aimed to evaluate the opinions of medical teachers who conducted online classes and to determine their views on the viability of these classes in a post-COVID-19 era. Methods: We carried out a cross-sectional study using an online survey. Teachers working in medical colleges who conducted online classes during COVID-19 lockdown were included. Questionnaires were shared in the WhatsApp groups of the medical teachers belonging to the states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu, India. Sampling was consecutive and convenient. Results: Respondents were 101 teachers among which 89 were included in the analysis. The majority of the teachers gave classes after intense preparation. The participants felt that the quality of their work would have been better with enhanced Information Technology (IT) infrastructure. One of the major reasons for favoring online classes was the opportunity it gave them to access the content later (56.2%, n=50). More than half 63% (n=56) of the teachers faced network issues and felt discouraged by lack of interaction. 36% (n=32) of the teachers opined that online classes were very poor, compared with regular classes. However, 49.4% (n=44) favored the continuation of online classes after the COVID-19 lockdown. Conclusion: Despite experiencing problems, most participants in our survey wanted to continue online classes in the future. The participants felt that the classes were less interactive and educational institutions should improve their IT infrastructure to address the increasing need for online education.

We report on the changes in the dual fluorescence of two cyanine dyes IR144 and IR140 as a function of viscosity and probe their internal conversion dynamics from S

Surface defects and organic surface-capping ligands affect the photoluminescence properties of semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) by altering the rates of competing nonradiative relaxation processes. In this study, broadband two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy reveals that absorption of light by QDs prepares vibronic excitons, excited states derived from quantum coherent mixing of the core electronic and ligand vibrational states. Rapidly damped coherent wavepacket motions of the ligands are observed during hot-carrier cooling, with vibronic coherence transferred to the photoluminescent state. These findings suggest a many-electron, molecular theory for the electronic structure of QDs, which is supported by calculations of the structures of conical intersections between the exciton potential surfaces of a small ammonia-passivated model CdSe nanoparticle.

Atmospheric CO2 is one of the main components of the greenhouse effect. To overcome this problem there are ongoing efforts to convert CO2 to some other useful and harmless products. The capture, activation and dissociation of CO2 are the preliminary steps in this process. In an effort to understand the role of surface composition and structure in CO2 adsorption and dissociation, in this work, with the help of first principles density functional theory based calculations, we have studied the same on the {100} surface of cubic Ti2C and MXene (also the {0001} surface of trigonal Ti2C). Our results show that CO2 undergoes barrierless chemisorption on both of these surfaces with a preference towards {100} cubic Ti2C. We attribute the reason for this to a lower value of the work function of the {100} surface. Furthermore, on MXene, the barrier for CO2 dissociation is lower compared to that on the {100} surface. Coverage dependent CO2 chemisorption studies on these two surfaces show that on the Ti2C surface the CO2 molecules form clusters around the C-vacancies while on MXene they are uniformly spread on the surface.

Industry 4.0 covers the readiness of achieving expertise that impacts the society, strategy, talent and technology. Individual, social and economic demands pose ever-changing challenges for education and training even in today’s world. In spite of the shrinking rapidity, which progressively affects the cognitive, biological, and information offerings into the new insights on people learning, for an effective reformation to an even more miniature of scientific and technological connect, ultimately on the knowledge content. Today’s students will compete in a technological, diverse, multi-cultural world and must be prepared to thrive in that futuristic environment; therefore, it is vital that today’s pedagogy produce lifelong learners, who can succeed in a global arena. To ensure our educational technology progresses at the rate demanded by today’s ubiquitous digital learners, we are reviewing emerging technologies and traditional teaching methods and propose desirable changes. Further enhancement in student learning and outcomes through technology enabled learning builds alliances among institutional units, employers, community partners and provides the effective delivery of learning services and opportunities to students. Technology depends on the cleverness and the innovative application of theoretical tools from control and estimation for scalability through hierarchy and multi-modality. Educational technology enhances the learning experience for students, faculty, the university and community at large. Hence, to develop a richer context for student learning, covering societal inadequacies, injustices in empowerment to learning access among students, cross-cultural involvements, and opportunity to learn, we deliberate on the latest trends in pedagogy - intelligent tutoring systems and ICT integration that can be modified during their implementation to suit future needs for industry 4.0 requirements.

Transcriptomic analysis of the mammalian retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) aims to identify cellular networks that influence ocular development, maintenance, function, and disease. However, available evidence points to RPE cell heterogeneity within native tissue, which adds complexity to global transcriptomic analysis. Here, to assess cell heterogeneity, we performed single-cell RNA sequencing of RPE cells from two young adult male C57BL/6J mice. Following quality control to ensure robust transcript identification limited to cell singlets, we detected 13,858 transcripts among 2667 and 2846 RPE cells. Dimensional reduction by principal component analysis and uniform manifold approximation and projection revealed six distinct cell populations. All clusters expressed transcripts typical of RPE cells; the smallest (C1, containing 1–2% of total cells) exhibited the hallmarks of stem and/or progenitor (SP) cells. Placing C1–6 along a pseudotime axis suggested a relative decrease in melanogenesis and SP gene expression and a corresponding increase in visual cycle gene expression upon RPE maturation. K-means clustering of all detected transcripts identified additional expression patterns that may advance the understanding of RPE SP cell maintenance and the evolution of cellular metabolic networks during development. This work provides new insights into the transcriptome of the mouse RPE and a baseline for identifying experimentally induced transcriptional changes in future studies of this tissue.

Achieving the customer demand in manufacturing industries during Covid-19 situation is a challenging task since the industry needs to stick on to the local government policies such as high safety, work from home, man power reduction for the purpose of social distance, travelling in transport etc. If the machines produce quality products without any interruption, minor stoppages or breakdown, then the industry can achieve its production demand satisfying the customer need along with Covid-19 restrictions. By implementing autonomous maintenance called Jisu Hazen (JH) pillar of Total Productive Maintenance, around 70% of breakdown caused due to forced deterioration can be eliminated. Data centric digitalization through Industry 4.0 and Industrial Internet of Things, manpower and manmade errors are reduced which intern eliminate breakdown, defects and increase productivity. Using smart sensors, the signature parameters related to Clean Lubricate Inspection and Tightening CLIT are digitalized and a smart JH is followed. Through smart JH, operators working hours, number of employees are reduced, work from home situation is made for maintenance engineers to maintain Covid-19 rules.

The phycobilisome is an oligomeric chromoprotein complex that serves as the principal mid-visible light-harvesting system in cyanobacteria. Here we report the observation of excitation-energy-transfer pathways involving delocalized optical excitations of the bilin (linear tetrapyrrole) chromophores in intact phycobilisomes isolated from Fremyella diplosiphon. By using broadband multidimensional electronic spectroscopy with 6.7-fs laser pulses, we are able to follow the progress of excitation energy from the phycoerythrin disks at the ends of the phycobilisome's rods to the C-phycocyanin disks along their length in600 fs. Oscillation maps show that coherent wavepacket motions prominently involving the hydrogen out-of-plane vibrations of the bilins mediate non-adiabatic relaxation of a manifold of vibronic exciton states. However, the charge-transfer character of the bilins in the allophycocyanin-containing segments localizes the excitations in the core of the phycobilisome, yielding a kinetic bottleneck that enables photoregulatory mechanisms to operate efficiently on the10-ps timescale.

The nonadiabatic mechanism that mediates nonradiative decay of the bright S

We thank the editor for allowing us to respond to the comments by Akshara et al. The authors concur with us on unpreparedness and goes on to highlight how female doctors are over-worked during the pandemic. In this response, we also discuss why providing free data will not bring about significant change in students’ perception of online classes. We then advise how students can learn basic examination skills during the pandemic. Finally, we express our views on government and universities and finish with a recommendation that would help future doctors in times like the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background: In view of COVID-19 lockdown in India, many colleges started online classes. This study aimed to evaluate the attitudes of, and the factors affecting, medical students attending online classes during lockdown. Methods: We designed an online questionnaire with open-ended, close-ended, and Likert scale questions. Links to the questionnaires were shared with the medical students who have attended at least one online class during the COVID-19 lockdown period. Respondents were 1061 participants from 30 medical colleges from the states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu in India. Results: The majority of students – 94% (955/1016) – used smartphones to attend online classes. ZOOM/ Skype – by 57.1% (580/1016) – and Google platforms – by 54.4% (553/1016) – were commonly used. Learning at leisure – 44.5% (452/1016) – was the top reason why students liked online classes, whereas network problems – 85.8% (872/1016) – was the top reason why students disliked them. Lack of sufficient interaction – 61.1% (621/1016) was another reason why students disliked online learning. More than half the participants – 51.7% (526/1016) – did not want to continue online classes after COVID-19 lockdown. More students – 55% (558/1016) – favored regular classes than online classes. Conclusion: Students in our survey did not seem favorably disposed to online classes. Network problems experienced by students should be addressed. Furthermore, teachers should try to make the classes more interactive and educational institutions should address the problems pointed out by the students in order to make online classes more effective in the future.

Atmospheric CO2 is one of the main components of the greenhouse effect. To overcome this problem there are ongoing efforts to convert CO2 to some other useful and harmless products. The capture, activation and dissociation of CO2 are the preliminary steps in this process. In an effort to understand the role of surface composition and structure in CO2 adsorption and dissociation, in this work, with the help of first principles density functional theory based calculations, we have studied the same on the {100} surface of cubic Ti2C and MXene (also the {0001} surface of trigonal Ti2C). Our results show that CO2 undergoes barrierless chemisorption on both of these surfaces with a preference towards {100} cubic Ti2C. We attribute the reason for this to a lower value of the work function of the {100} surface. Furthermore, on MXene, the barrier for CO2 dissociation is lower compared to that on the {100} surface. Coverage dependent CO2 chemisorption studies on these two surfaces show that on the Ti2C surface the CO2 molecules form clusters around the C-vacancies while on MXene they are uniformly spread on the surface.

Modifying old sewage treatment plants (STP) to meet revised stringent discharge standards is of great concern. Process modeling can serve as an essential tool for this. This work reports a BioWin©-activated sludge model/anaerobic digestion for a 55 million litres per day STP located in South India. Fifty state variables and eighty process equations were used in the model to achieve biological nutrient removal. The model was calibrated and was validated with plant data. The proposed modification was to incorporate an intermediate virtual anoxic zone to achieve simultaneous nitrification-denitrification and total dissolved phosphorus (TDP as PO4) removal. Several scenarios, namely, different hydraulic residence time (HRT) between 1.5 to 2.5 h, dissolved oxygen (DO) between 2.5 to 4.5 mg/L, and mixed liquor suspended solid (MLSS) between 2500 to 4500 mg/L in the bioreactor, were studied to identify optimum conditions. The optimum DO and MLSS levels were identified as 4 mg/L and 4000 mg/L, respectively. The optimum HRT of 2 h in aeration zone, 1 h in anoxic, and 3 h in reaeration zone was identified. Implementation of these modifications in the STP, with minimal operational interventions and no capital costs, improved its performance as predicted by the model. The total nitrogen and TDP (as PO4) reduced from 20 mg/L to 8 mg/L and 3.5 mg/L to 0.9 mg/L, respectively, and met the revised discharge standards. This intervention gave a cost saving of approximately 5.6 million USD.

BACKGROUND Very few cases of conservative laryngectomy in recurrent carcinoma of subglottis postradiotherapy have been reported. Technical aspects of conservative resection and reconstruction in subglottic carcinoma have not been well described. METHODS Herein, we present a case of recurrent carcinoma of subglottis for which conservative resection with adequate margins was done with endoscope assistance and defect reconstructed by buccal mucosa, conchal cartilage, and temporoparietal free flap. The technique of resection, reconstruction, complications, postoperative outcome, and our suggestions are described. RESULTS The lesion could be removed with wide margins. Reconstruction could preserve the voice, and deglutition was unaffected. There was no donor site-related complication. Complications were a result of the choice of the stent, which included infection and difficulty in removal. CONCLUSION Selected cases of recurrent carcinoma of the subglottis can be managed by conservative resection with adequate margins and appropriate reconstruction with good functional outcomes.

This paper discusses about a low-cost wearable assistive device designed for people carrying back loads in mountainous regions of Uttarakhand, a northern state of India. People usually carry commodities like stationeries, gas cylinders, cow feeds and other daily supplies in a basket made of bamboo skin which they hang on to their back using a thin cloth strap which runs around their shoulders. This kind of practice leads to excessive loading on their shoulders and vertebra, which gradually leads to musculoskeletal disorders in the future. The presented device will provide assistance in carrying the loaded basket with much ease. The paper also studies the capability of the proposed assistive device in distributing the load effectively to the human body in comparison with the ineffective load distribution happening in the currently practiced method of carrying the basket. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Selection and/or Peer-review under responsibility of International Conference on Advances in Materials and Manufacturing Applications [IConAMMA 2017].

This research paper is based on the designing and analysis of a track-based robot which has the capability of climbing stairs and rough terrain maneuverability with an IR sensor to conduct infrared thermography of buildings. The data generated by this can be used to detect and optimize HVAC systems, moisture damage and Electrical issues. The robot is designed in Solidworks software and motion analysis is done using Adams and structural analysis through Ansys. The Thermal imaging camera was tested in the real world to check the feasibility and accuracy of Infrared Thermography.

India, the country with the fastest growing economy, has been unable to provide most of its population with proper shelter. According to a survey from the homeless world cup foundation, worldwide there are 1.6 billion peoples living without adequate homes. This is primarily because of multidimensional poverty, construction cost and lack of resources for construction. In the rural sectors of India there is an abundance of low income and tribal people living in unsanitary homes with low living standards. A group of researchers from Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham (Amrita University) has embarked on a project to create a system to develop a semi-automation construction system, which will reduce construction costs and which uses readily available materials, making it possible for low income and tribal peoples to construct basic homes in India’s urban, rural and tribal areas. The system has additional benefits such as low carbon emissions, a reduction in material wastage, reduced human labor, as well as increased efficiency and rate of production. Basic huts can be built using our semi-automation construction system; and can be constructed within a single day. The conceptual design of this system is the focus of this paper. Our intention is to introduce a semi-automation construction system that improves upon current technology and serves as a humanitarian tool. This system promises to improve lives by providing access to quality housing with easy construction and low cost. The paper presents the design and development of the semi-automation construction system and its value as a new introduction in the construction field.

The nonadiabatic mechanism that mediates nonradiative decay of the bright S2 state to the dark S1 state of carotenoids involves population of a bridging intermediate state, Sx, in several examples. The nature of Sx remains to be determined definitively, but it has been recently suggested that Sx corresponds to conformationally distorted molecules evolving along out-of-plane coordinates of the isoprenoid backbone near a low barrier between planar and distorted conformations on the S2 potential surface. In this study, the electronic and vibrational dynamics accompanying the formation of Sx in toluene solutions of the ketocarotenoid canthaxanthin (CAN) are characterized with broadband two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy (2DES) with 7.8 fs excitation pulses and detection of the linear polarization components of the third-order nonlinear optical signal. A stimulated-emission cross peak in the 2DES spectrum accompanies the formation of Sx in

The diffused aeration process is the most energy-intensive operation of bioreactor treatment, amounting to 45–75 % of the plant energy costs. To improve its efficiency, it is essential to measure the oxygen transfer rate from the aerators to wastewater. In this study, a multiphase mixture computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model is developed using k- e turbulence closure equations along with a discrete population balance model (PBM) add-on with specific bubble classes, to predict the oxygen mass transfer. The transfer of oxygen species from air to water is modeled using the species transport model. The PBM is used to analyze the formation, growth, breakage, and coalescence of air bubbles. The validated model is then extended for sensitivity analysis for a diffused aeration system in a bench-scale aeration tank. Results show that, the volumetric oxygen mass transfer coefficient increases by 15 %, with a decrease of air bubble size by 10 %. The air bubbles have a wider distribution, with a larger diameter near the bottom of the bioreactor and a narrow distribution with a smaller bubble size at the top. Results show that, in the bioreactor, the dissolved oxygen concentration reaches the equilibrium or saturation value when the height by breadth ratio is 2.5 and does not increase further with increase in height of the water column. Also, the air bubble size of 6 mm was the efficient bubble size for a fixed airflow rate of 1.45 m3 h−1.

Using first principles density functional theory based calculations, we have studied the effect of subsurface C vacancies on the capture and activation of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) on Ti-terminated Ti 2 C(111) surface. Additionally we also probed the effect of CO 2 coverage on its adsorption. Our calculations show that, analogous to surface vacancies, sub-surface vacancies also enhances the strength of chemisorption. Further, coverage dependent adsorption studies showed that the lateral interactions between CO 2 molecules are attractive in nature. Additionally, we find that dissociation of CO 2 to CO and O have almost negligible dissociation barrier on this surface.

Rebar Bending is one of the important trade in the construction industry. Major motor skill like force of bend, bend angle accuracy, lever positioning, lever tilting are guiding factor for doing the manual rebar bending process. To be an expert in rebar bending, one should need at least 3 to 4 years of field experience, to learn all motor skill parameters. This paper describes in detail the skill parameters involved during the manual rebar bending process through experimental methods. Comparing the expert data with novice which outline the design of real time guidance system for effective skill transfer and learning. The lever positioning skill learning in manual rebar bending process projected a high accuracy with the help of feedback system.

MBA Project

Solid waste management is one of the main environmental problems faced by developing nations like India. To effectively cater to this need, this paper proposes a structured waste management system which was effectively implemented in a community in the Alappad panchayat in Kollam district of Kerala. The system was evaluated based on continuous monitoring at each stage of its implementation. The system contains waste stations with coloured waste bins with specific labels, which made the process of sorting easy for the users. The paper also measures the effectiveness in using this approach and its impact in time saving and increase in participation from the community.

Present day haptic devices have yet to achieve multi-finger kinesthetic plus tactile feedback. This paper discusses the design of a Three-Finger gripper module that can attach to a commercial haptic device like the Novint Falcon. It will mimic grasping and lifting action and provide kinesthetic feedback via the Falcon and tactile feedback via the gripper. We first present a study on the forces exerted and typical angle and orientation of fingers while lifting or grasping an object. Based on the results obtained, we present a custom designed Three-Finger gripper module that fits on to the Novint Falcon. We show that when the user places his fingers in the finger holders and when the motors are actuated, the finger holders pull on the users' fingers and provide the required sensation.

All building constructions in India use construction rebars (steel concrete reinforcing bars) to provide structural reinforcement for concrete work. This necessitates experts in bending and cutting rebar to correctly size and bend the long steel rods before they can be installed. This paper presents the design and working of a novel haptic based barbending simulator for providing training to novices in the construction rebar bending skill. The haptic training device is combined with a virtual environment and is capable of providing manual skill training and evaluation of prior knowledge of the trainees. The proposed system provides a multi modal simulation environment with visual, audio and haptic feedback. A preliminary evaluation of the barbending simulator prototype is also presented which demonstrates that this simulator could be used by the trainers and novices to learn the basic principles of bending a rebar.

Background: Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) is a neonatal emergency that affects preterm newborns during the 1st weeks of life. Diagnosis is made mainly by clinical criteria since no specific diagnostic tests are available. Objective: The objective was to evaluate fecal calprotectin (fCal) as a biomarker of gut inflammation to predict NEC in preterm neonates. Methods: Design: Diagnostic test evaluation. Inclusion criteria: 102 preterm neonates 279 μg/g as cutoff, the area under the curve was 0.652 (95% confidence interval: 0.516-0.789). Day 3 fCal levels were high in 65.7% neonates. Using NEC as outcome, sensitivity of the test was 93.3%; specificity was 39%; positive predictive value was 20.8% and negative predictive value was 97.14%. Conclusion: fCal has high sensitivity for diagnosing NEC in preterm neonates. However, further research is needed to establish its clinical usefulness. Key words: Fecal calprotectin, Gut inflammation, Lateral flow rapid assay, Necrotizing enterocolitis, Preterm neonates

Acute undifferentiated fever (AUF) is common in tropical regions of the developing world, its specific etiology is often unknown. It's common causes include malaria, dengue fever, enteric fever, leptospirosis, rickettsial infection. AUF is defined as fever without any localised source of infection, of 14 days or less in duration. The objective of the study was to focus on identifying the causes of AUF in patients admitted to Intensive care units & to determine importance of clinical examination in identifying the cause. It was a prospective study done in our Medical college Hospital at Kolar, Karnataka between 1-11-2010 to 30-11-2011. Cases presenting to hospital aged >18 years with complaints of Fever & admitted in Intensive care units were included in study. A total of 558 cases were enrolled. The clinical findings were noted and subsequent Investigations required were asked for. The study compromised of approximately equal number of Male & Female patients & age varied from 18 - 100 years. There was a clear seasonal variation - More no of cases were admitted between April & November. Majority presented with Fever of Short duration (1-3 days). Certain well defined syndromes were identified like:  Fever with Thrombocytopenia - the most common of all the syndromes.  Fever with Myalgia & Arthralgia,  Fever with Hepatorenal dysfunction,  Fever with Encephalopathy,  Fever with Pulmonary - Renal dysfunction and  Fever with Multiorgan dysfunction (MODS). Out of 558 cases AUF was noted in 339 cases (60.86%). An etiological diagnosis could be made for 218 cases (39.06%). Leptospirosis was the commonest cause with 72 cases (12.9%). The no of cases with Dengue were 48(8.6%), Malaria -25 (4.4%), Viral fever -35 (6.2%), Mixed infections - 12 (2.1%), Pulmonary Tuberculosis -25 ( 4.4%) and one case of Rickettsial Infection. MODS was the most common presentation in AUF patients, seen in 108 cases (31.8%) and 40 cases expired. A study of AUF done at Siriraj Hospital, Bangkok revealed that etiologies of AUF could be determined in 38.7% of study population. It has close relevance to present study where etiologies were determined in 39.06% cases. Mortality rates observed were similar.

Background and Objective : The current study reveals the effect of Aluminum (Al) on Amaranthus tricolor L andsubsequent biochemical changes on the plant. In this study, the effect of Al stress on growth and other related antioxidants andenzymes were investigated. Methodology : This was achieved by investigating plant growth parameters (root/shoot length, dryweight) in presence and absence of various concentrations of Al. The antioxidant activity was determined by estimating proline,ascorbate. The effects of scavenging enzymes were determined by Catalase, Glutathion and SOD activity. The accumulation ofAl in root and shoot was determined by FAAS (Flame Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy). Results: Al induced growthretardation observed more in roots (52.2%) compared to shoots (35.3%). Total concentration of proline increased (18 folds)compared to the control. The antioxidants and enzymes exhibited initial increase and subsequent decrease in response to Alstress. Accumulation of Al (by FAAS) was predominantly in root (70.44ppm ± 0.420).Conclusion: Result thus suggested Alinduced growth inhibition in Amaranthus tricolor and the primary affected region is the root. Al accumulation in the roots couldplay an important role in the acclimation of the genotype to Al stress, and could be used as physiological markers for Al-tolerance. Metal induced scavenging mechanism observed both at enzymatic and antioxidant molecular level.

In this paper, a new system is proposed for connecting a microsource to a weak utility. The proposed system simultaneously conditions the quality of the power supplied to the microgrid loads. This system employs a recently introduced reduced switch count dual-output inverter in a so-called equal frequency mode which offers its best operation features such as maximum dc bus voltage utilization and minimum device ratings. Compared to the counterpart system, the proposed configuration enjoys an integrated structure and uses less number of semiconductor switches. Moreover, it retains the desirable features of the conventional system such as ability to compensate unbalanced/sagged utility and to supply three-phase unbalanced loads with balanced and ceaseless voltage. The proposed system is introduced and its carrier-based modulation scheme is elaborated. Subsequently, a detailed study on the maximum achievable modulation index under different working conditions is carried out. The report concludes with a discussion on control of the system and its controller design. The validity of operation of the proposed system is verified through simulation. Keywords —Distributed generation (DG), dual-output four leg inverter, microgrid.

Inter-molecular and intra-molecular interactions in liquids determine the physical properties of the systems. These interactions are understood through the measurement of these physical properties. These become especially important in the case of alcohols in view of the specific type of interactions involved. Study of the variation of dielectric relaxation time with the viscosity of the medium is relevant in drawing certain quantitative conclusions regarding molecular motion and the inter-molecular forces in liquids, liquid mixtures, dilute solutions and multi-component polar solutes in dilute solution. In the absence of a perfect empirical or theoretical equation for the variation of dielectric relaxation time with viscosity, the experimental investigations on different systems can only give an insight. In the present study, the results of dielectric measurements carried out on pure samples of methyl alcohol and propyl alcohol in dilute solutions in different mixed solvents (benzene + paraffin) and on bi...

Thermodynamic parameters, like, change of activation energy for dipole orientation (DG*), enthalpy (DH*), and entropy (DS*) of activation in the case of binary-, ternary-, etc. mixtures of polar molecules in pure liquid phase or in dilute solution phase in a non polar solvent helps in drawing certain quantitative conclusions regarding their relaxation behavior as to whether a single component is responsible for observed microwave absorption or a cooperative phenomenon (average) by all the dipoles of the mixture contribute to it. Dielectric relaxation behavior of polar molecules in a non-polar sol- vent, or mixtures of these substances at different micro- wave frequencies and over a range of temperatures and concentrations give a method of determining these quan- tities. Such an experimental investigation on verity of systems is necessary to draw quantitative conclusions regarding the system of the molecules which are not studied so as to examine if the results obtained are in favor or against the general conclusions already arrived at, in other systems. With this in view, systematic dielectric measurements in a range of temperatures are carried out at a single microwave frequency on a single weight fraction in benzene of the four substituted indoles, namely, 5-Bro- moindole, 5-Fluoroindole, 2,3-Dimethylindole, 2,5- Dimethylindole and on binary (1:1) mixtures of 2,5- Dimethylindole ? 5-Bromoindole and 2,3-Dimethylin- dole ? 5-Fluoroindole in benzene as solvent at different temperatures. The results are presented and discussed.

The dependence of dielectric relaxation time on the viscosity of the medium is being extensively used to draw certain quantitative conclusions regarding molecular motion and inter-molecular forces in liquids, liquid mixtures, dilute solutions, and multi-component polar solutes in dilute solution. In the absence of proper empirical or theoretical equations for the variation of dielectric relaxation time with viscosity, only the experimental investigations on different systems can give an insight. In the present study, the results of dielectric measurements carried out on pure samples of bromohexane, bromooctane and bromodecane in dilute solutions in different mixed solvents (benzene + paraffin) and on binary mixtures (1 : 1) of (bromohexane + bromodecane); (bromodecane + propyl alcohol) and (propyl alcohol + methyl alcohol) are reported. For comparison, the results of bromodecane + propyl alcohol and propyl alcohol + methyl alcohol are chosen as they form examples of mixture of non-associative + associativ...