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In view of the dispersible nature of the radiologically significant gaseous radon (222Rn) and its dependence on metrological variables, an investigation was carried out in the uranium mineralized region of Jaduguda. Two distinct locations, comprising of prototype dwellings and outdoor environment outside the dwellings were chosen for the comparative study. The investigation was carried out during monsoon, autumn and winter seasons so that a profile ranging from minima to maxima can be accounted. Along with the 222Rn concentration profile and gamma level, the metrological variables such as ambient temperature, pressure, relative humidity has also been investigated. Results of sixty six (66) outdoor and thirty nine (39) dwellings monitoring was found to have 222Rn concentration ranged from 9 to 68 Bq m−3 and 35 to 130 Bq m−3, respectively, in outdoor and indoor with corresponding average value of 222Rn concentration were found 34 ± 13 and 79 ± 24 Bq m−3, respectively. These values are well within the expected range of a uranium mineralized area. Also, the outdoor 222Rn activity concentration is about 43% of the indoor 222Rn activity concentration, which can be attributed to greater atmospheric dilution and related metrological variables like higher temperature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Underground uranium mines, in particular, is associated with radiological conditions normally not anticipated in other mining industries. Depending on the grade and characteristics of the uranium deposit, the radiological hazard considerations may widely vary. Although short lived radon progeny are the major contributor of individual dose to the miners, dose assessment using their activity concentration data is normally avoided. Mine dust, diesel fumes, high humidity and seepage from the surrounding surface poses additional difficulty in direct estimation of radon progeny activity concentration. Individual doses are computed through radon (222Rn) monitoring data and equilibrium ratio (F) between radon and its short lived progeny. Both ambient and passive techniques are used in Indian uranium mines for the dose assessment but the passive technique is preferred over the ambient as the later can explicitly account the individual worker during its uses. The device, Personal Radon Dosimeter (PRD), based on nuclear track registry on a LR-115 Kotak film has indigenously been designed after detailed scientific studies. Basic features of this device, their uses, track registry and calibration aspects along with dose assessment methodology of uranium miners are provided in the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gases from the breath exhalation can be used for the detection and estimation of associated contaminant in the human body. For the estimation of 226Ra body burden through the analyses of radon (222Rn) in the exhaled breath, similar technique has been considered for uranium miners in India. Initial experiments for Jaduguda underground uranium mine workers were based on qualitative approach due to the limitations of the sensitivity of the then available techniques. The inert gas 222Rn after its formation is soluble in the blood, may escape from the human body like other dissolved gases at lung/blood interface which can be removed through exhalation. Using a sensitive device that can effectively analyze the low activity concentration of radon, 226Ra body burden of the uranium miner can be estimated. The working principle, description and utility of the device as well as estimated 226Ra body burden are provided in the paper. Examination results of 244 subjects of uranium mines have shown a variation in the radium (226Ra) body burden from 0.54 to 3.75 kBq. The inexpensive technique can effectively be used in the field conditions due to high sensitivity, portability, low sampling time and minimal instrumentation requirements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dynamics of business have been altered as a result of modern marketing. Consumers are acquiring more information, but at the same time the market is getting more saturated with competitors. Every day, markets must confront new problems and experiment with different tactics in order to expand their sphere of influence. Because urban markets are reaching their capacity, businesses are being compelled to investigate rural areas, which offer the possibility of significant growth. More so than urban markets, the growth of rural markets has been consistent throughout the course of the previous several years. The vast majority of Indians, as a rule, like fresh food items, and as a result, they tend to buy relatively little amounts of food more often. This stands in stark contrast to the situation in the majority of western countries, where it is becoming more standard practice to buy food in bulk and store it for a comparatively longer amount of time. In point of fact, the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector is primarily the responsibility of the market's end users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Byline: S. Moorthy, H. Elhateer, SKD. Majumdar, S. Mohammed, R. Patnaik, Narayanamurty. Aim of Study: Breast conserving surgery (BCS) is the standard treatment for stage I and II breast cancer. [...]

Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is the most commom cancer in the world. If remain untreated for several years, it may be fatal. Hence, it is important to prevent and treat OSCC at an early stage. In this study the effect of aqueous and dry leaves extract of Ocimum sanctum was observed on Ca9-22 cell line, which is an OSCC cell line. For this, Ca9-22 cell line was cultured and maintained. After 24 h, the cells were treated with aqueous and dry leaves extract of Ocimum sanctum plant. Viability of the cancerous cells were studied by 3-(4, 5-dimethythiazol-2-yl)-2, 5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay and neutral red uptake (NRU) assay. Minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC), lethal concentration 25 (LC 25), lethal concentration 50 (LC 50) and highest permissive concentration (HPC) was calculated by probit computational method. Experimentally, the MIC value was 5 mg/L, whereas the HPC was 30 mg/L of the plant extract in aqueous state. For the dry extract the MIC was 5 mg/L whereas the HPC was 35 mg/L for both MTT and NRU assays. For MTT assay LC values: 7.41 (LC 25), 14.79 (LC 50) and 26.91 mg/L (LC 75) for aqueous extract and 12.58 (LC 25), 20.89 (LC 50), 29.51 mg/L (LC 75) for dry extract. For NRU assay LC values were 10.23 (LC 25), 14.79 (LC 50) and 20.89 mg/L (LC 75) aqueous extract, and 16.59 (LC 25), 23.44 (LC 50), 30.19 mg/L (LC 75) dry extract of the plant. From the above study it was concluded that, Ocimum sanctum have anti-cancerous activity. It can further be used for therapeutic purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present investigation has been carried out in the copper mineralized region of Jharkhand, India. Apart from the natural deposit of copper minerals, which is found along with uranium in this region, different industrial sites of copper were accounted for, in the study. The integrated radon measurement technique has been used with dosimeter deployment interval of 90 days. The indoor 222Rn activity concentration varied at different locations from 58.4 to 100.7 Bq m - 3 with an average of 79.8 ± 14.5 Bq m - 3 . In the outdoor environment, annual average 222Rn activity concentration varies from 36.5 to 75.8 Bq m - 3 with an average of 57.9 ± 14.0 Bq m - 3 . The corresponding annual inhalation dose due to indoor and outdoor 222Rn activity concentration to the inhabitants of the region has been worked out as 1.95 mSv year - 1 to 3.28 mSv year - 1 respectively with a mean of 2.60 ± 0.38 mSv year - 1 . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new differential current-based fast fault detection and location scheme for multiple Photovoltaic-based dc microgrid is proposed in this paper. A multiterminal dc (MTDC) distribution network is an effective solution for present grid scenario, where local distribution is incorporated primarily by power electronics based dc loads. PV systems with auxiliary power sources and local loads are used for MTDC connection, especially when ac utility grid is integrated with it by voltage source converters. Pole to pole and pole to ground faults are basically considered as dc distribution network hazards. As PV is connected through dc cable, high resistive dc arc fault is also studied in present literature. The proposed PV system is considered with arc-fault circuit interrupters as backup protection and is used to detect arcing series fault. Fast acting dc switching is considered for proposed differential current-based unit protection. A discrete frame differential current solution is considered to classify the fault type by modified cumulative sum average approach. By calculating unknown dc cable resistance accurately by non-iterative Moore-Penrose pseudo inverse technique, the fault distance is calculated. TMS320C6713 DSP based test-bench is used for verification of the scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel adaptive terminal sliding mode instantaneous active and reactive power control for both the rotor-side as well as grid-side converters of the doubly fed induction generator (DFIG) based wind power extraction system is proposed in this paper using the abc frame of reference. This approach is independent of unmodeled dynamics of the phase-locked loops that reduces the nonlinearities in computing the control objective. The adaptive nature of the terminal sliding mode controller design offers a better and enhanced transient response as compared with some of the conventional methods for a wide range of disturbances such as switching faults, reference tracking and wind speed variation for both the sub-synchronous and synchronous modes of operation of the doubly fed induction generator subjected to lower and higher wind speeds. Moreover, a maximum power point tracking algorithm has been incorporated to compute the reference power of the stator of the DFIG, which is utilized in designing the control system for the rotor-side converter. Further extensive computer simulations have been carried out with the DFIG operating in a single machine or multimachine environment to validate the effectiveness of the proposed control. Also the robustness and stability of the proposed adaptive terminal sliding mode control is verified using the MATLAB/SIMULINK based DFIG model. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seasonal variation of 222Rn levels was studied in the dwellings in U-Cu mineralized area of East Singhbhum, Jharkhand, India. Copper mining and processing industry is operational in this area for the last hundred years. Copper minerals of this region contain a significant fraction of uranium and the decay products. To measure the activity concentration of 222Rn, LR-115, type-II solid-state nuclear plastic track detector was used in an indigenously developed radon dosimeter cup. A higher value of 222Rn activity concentration was recorded in some of the dwellings in the mineralized zone. The results at different locations adjoining the facilities show that the 222Rn activity concentration varies to a great extent following an approximate log-normal distribution. The observed range varied from 29.1 and 314.6 Bq m-3 with an overall geometric mean of 72.3 Bq m-3 and geometric standard deviation 1.67. Further, in poorly ventilated dwellings 222Rn levels were higher compared to the properly ventilated houses. The peak activity concentration of 222Rn was recorded during winter (December- February). Appreciably lower activity concentration of radon was observed during summer and rainy seasons. The results reflect that the levels are higher than the global average indoor activity concentration of 40 Bq m-3 (UNSCEAR-1993) for 222Rn, but are comparable to the studies carried out in similar types of geological formations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]