Search

The Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has emerged as a global epidemic, posing a significant threat to countries worldwide. COVID-19 is closely associated with pneumonia, leading to the unfortunate loss of many lives due to pulmonary conditions. Differentiating between pneumonia and COVID-19 based on chest X-ray images has become a challenging task. This paper proposes a Local Search Enhanced AHO-based Inception-ResNet-v2 Model to develop a robust and accurate classification model for identifying and categorizing chronic lung diseases in patients who have recovered from COVID-19. The proposed model utilizes the Inception-ResNet-v2 architecture to extract features from CT scan images, which are then used to classify the lung diseases present in the patients. A curated dataset of CT scan images from post-COVID-19 patients with known lung disease classes is used to train the model. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method achieves an accuracy of 98.97%, precision of 98.95%, sensitivity of 98.91%, F-score of 98.86%, and specificity of 98.89%. These performance metrics are comparable to those achieved by methods based on manually delineated contaminated areas.

The newest developments in the IoMT, wearable devices, and communications systems to offer smart healthcare services have made human life in the age of pervasive computing wiser. The healthcare sector may transform thanks to IoMT. Through software and Information Communication Technology (ICT), IoMT links wearable devices, patients, healthcare professionals, and careers. Ambient Assisted Lifestyle (AAL) allows it to incorporate new technology into day-to-day activities. Edge computation and cloud technologies are essential to achieving this goal to meet the needs of smart medical infrastructures. In this research wok, the IoMT-AAL architecture in the edge computing-assisted IoMT system based Deep Neural Networks (DNN) is presented in this study. The proposed IoMT-AAL aims to speed up timely data collecting and processing so that judgments are made utilizing the data. The IoMT-AAL model is used to identify the patient via the IoMT sensors, sending the data they have collected to edge computation. Then, many empirical analyses are conducted, and the outcomes are examined from many angles. It can be said that the IoMT-AAL effectively predicts the healthcare framework using DNN based on various parameters like specificity, precision, improvement, physical activity, tracking, and security. The simulation results demonstrated the IoMT-AALmodel's advantages over the other techniques.

The aim of the present study was to make a polyherbal formulation of three herbs that would offset the negative effects of the high-fat cafeteria diet on rats and the beneficial effects of exercise. The ingredients for this herbal remedy included a water extract of Garcinia cambogia fruit, Trigonella foenum-graecum seed, and Glycyrrhiza glabra root in a 1:1:1 ratio. Nine groups of six male Wistar albino rats were chosen. Animals in Group I were normal and fed a standard diet; animals in Group II were given HFCD to prevent disease; animals in Group III were given HFCD plus exercise; while animals in Groups IV and V were given PHF at doses of 400 and 200 mg/kg p. o. Daily, respectively, in addition to HFCD; while animals in Groups VI and VII were exercised obese rats prevented from gaining more weight had their serum glucose, total cholesterol, triglycerides, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and very low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels lowered. HDL cholesterol was raised. Further, the liver biopsy showed increased mononuclear cells; fat globules numbered less; and the enzymes and cells that are regenerating were at lower levels. The polyherbal formulation plus exercise exhibited significant anti-obesity efficacy at 400 mg/kg p. o.; the effect was equivalent to orlistat plus exercise. The research employed HFCD-induced obese rats as a model to investigate the joint effects of PHF and exercise against obesity.

One of the most critical operations aspects is power management strategies for hybrid AC/DC microgrids. This work presented power management in hybrid AC–DC microgrids with a droop control strategy. At first, photovoltaic, Wind, and battery are used as the power sources, which supply the power with uncertainties. The AC and DC microgrids are controlled by an Adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) controller and Proportional Integral Derivative (PID) controller. Simultaneously we calculate the running cost for photovoltaic, Wind, and Battery. Moreover, an optimizer based on the elephant herding optimization algorithm is formulated to reduce the cost price. This method utilizes two stages like clan updating operator and separating operator. This cost value is used to calculate the Droop Coefficients in Droop Control Strategy. The autonomous droop control strategy is utilized in the interlinking converter to share the load between AC and DC. This proposed concept is implemented in the MATLAB tool, and the performance is taken in terms of voltage, power, and current for PV and wind, DC link voltage and load current. The bidirectional ac/dc interlinking converter power flow was subsequently changed from 2.2k W to −2k W. The effectiveness of the power dispatch mode under uniform control has been verified.

Introduction. Solar photovoltaic system is one of the most essential and demanding renewable energy source in the current days, due to the benefits of high efficiency, reduced cost, no pollution, and environment friendly characteristics. Here, the maximum power point tracking controller has been implemented for obtaining an extreme power from the photovoltaic array. For this purpose, there are different controller and converter strategies have been deployed in the conventional works. It includes perturb and observation, incremental conductance, fuzzy logic systems, and hill climbing, and these techniques intend to extract the high amount of power from the solar systems under different climatic conditions. Still, it limits with the issues like increased design complexity, high cost consumption, high harmonics, and increased time consumption. The goal of this work is to deploy an improved controlling and converter topologies to regulate the output voltage and power fed to the single phase grid systems. The novelty of the work aims to develop an enhanced fuzzy logic controller based maximum power point tracking mechanism with the boost DC-DC converter topology for a single phase grid tied photovoltaic systems. Practical value. Also, the higher order harmonics suppression and unbalanced current elimination are handled by the use of LCL filtering technique, which efficiently reduces the harmonics in the output of inverter voltage and current. Moreover, it helps to obtain the reduced total harmonics distortion value with improved accuracy and efficiency. Results. There are different performance indicators have been evaluated for validating the proposed enhanced fuzzy logic controller–maximum power point tracking controlling technique. Moreover, the obtained results are compared with some of the conventional controlling algorithms for proving the betterment of the proposed work.

The aim of the study was to investigate the presence of volatility among the Energy Indices of Asia Pacific Stock Markets. To test the volatility among the daily returns of Energy Indices of Asia Pacific Stock Markets, the study selected five sample Asian Pacific stock markets’ Energy Indices on the basis of availability of data. The findings of descriptive statistics and the ADF Test revealed, that the daily returns of the sample energy indices of Asian Pacific stock markets were not normally distributed and achieved stationarity at level difference, over the research period. Hence the data may be used for additional analysis. The data were then analysed, by using the GARCH (1,1) model to assess the considerable volatility of daily returns of sample energy indices and the study, which revealed that during the study period, all of the sample energy indices were volatile.

The electric power distribution plays a crucial part in the power systems to maintain the power quality and stability of the system for loss mitigation and voltage regulation. The reactive power compensators like a capacitor, DG, and DSTATCOM play a vital role in power quality and stability improvement by providing proper reactive power in the distribution system. This article provides a critical review and comparative analysis of various compensating devices allocation to achieve power loss mitigation and voltage regulation in the radial distribution system (RDS). The Bat Algorithm (BA) and Voltage Stability Index (VSI) are utilized for determining the optimal size and site of the compensating devices in the RDS. Further, the application of Blockchain technology is utilized for voltage regulation of energy trading RDS. To show the effectiveness of the present study, an IEEE 33 test system is considered. All three compensators are implemented in IEEE 33 test system and compared with existing approaches. The present study is very much helpful to the Distribution Network Operators for selecting the suitable compensator in real-time applications.

Abstract Axions are well-motivated candidates for dark matter. Recently, much interest has focused on the detection of photons produced by the resonant conversion of axion dark matter in neutron star magnetospheres. Various groups have begun to obtain radio data to search for the signal, however, more work is needed to obtain a robust theory prediction for the corresponding radio lines. In this work we derive detailed properties for the signal, obtaining both the line shape and time-dependence. The principal physical effects are from refraction in the plasma as well as from gravitation which together lead to substantial lensing which varies over the pulse period. The time-dependence from the co-rotation of the plasma with the pulsar distorts the frequencies leading to a Doppler broadened signal whose width varies in time. For our predictions, we trace curvilinear rays to the line of sight using the full set of equations from Hamiltonian optics for a dispersive medium in curved spacetime. Thus, for the first time, we describe the detailed shape of the line signal as well as its time dependence, which is more pronounced compared to earlier results. Our prediction of the features of the signal will be essential for this kind of dark matter search.

The commodity futures market plays a major role in reducing the price risk for the participants. Unfortunately, the farmers’ participation in the futures market particularly from the Tamil Nadu region is very less. A survey was conducted using the interview method to identify the information sources used by farmers for taking pricing decisions, the awareness and perception of farmers towards the futures market, and its effect on preferred marketing alternatives. The data cleaning process was done using content validity, confirmatory factor analysis, and reliability test using Cronbach's alpha, and the assumptions of normality and multicollinearity were examined. The data will be of potential use to researchers who wish to explore farmers’ behavior towards hedging in the commodity futures market.

The Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm plays a vital role for improving smart city applications by tracking and managing city processes in real-time. One of the most significant issues associated with smart city applications is solid waste management, which has a negative impact on our society’s health and the environment. The traditional waste management process begins with waste created by city residents and disposed of in garbage bins at the source. Municipal department trucks collect garbage and move it to recycling centers on a fixed schedule. Municipalities and waste management companies fail to keep up with outdoor containers, making it impossible to determine when to clean them or when they are full. This work proposes an IoT-enabled solid waste management system for smart cities to overcome the limitations of the traditional waste management systems. The proposed architecture consists of two types of end sensor nodes: PBLMU (Public Bin Level Monitoring Unit) and HBLMU (Home Bin Level Monitoring Unit), which are used to track bins in public and residential areas, respectively. The PBLMUs and HBLMUs measure the unfilled level of the trash bin and its location data, process it, and transmit it to a central monitoring station for storage and analysis. An intelligent Graphical User Interface (GUI) enables the waste collection authority to view and evaluate the unfilled status of each trash bin. To validate the proposed system architecture, the following significant experiments were conducted: (a) Eight trash bins were equipped with PBLMUs and connected to a LoRaWAN network and another eight trash bins were equipped with HBLMUs and connected to a Wi-Fi network. The trash bins were filled with wastes at different levels and the corresponding unfilled levels of every trash bin were monitored through the intelligent GUI. (b) An experimental setup was arranged to measure the sleep current and active current contributions of a PBLMU to estimate its average current consumption. (c) The life expectancy of a PBLMU was estimated as approximately 70 days under hypothetical conditions.

In the present study, 2(E)-3-(anthracen-9-yl)-1-(1-methyl-1H-pyrrol-2-yl) prop-2-en-1-one (3AMP) crystal was grown by slow evaporation method. The single crystal X-ray diffraction analysis and density functional theory (DFT) calculations were carried out for 3AMP crystal. The 3AMP crystallizes in orthorhombic space group Pbca with a = 14.818 (8) Å, b = 9.796 (5) Å, c = 23.239 (11) Å. Hirshfeld surface and finger print plots were analyzed to confirm the existence of intra-, inter-molecular and other weak interactions using Crystal Explorer. The optimized molecular structure and harmonic wavenumbers were calculated by DFT method using B3LYP functional with 6-31G(d,p) basis set. The FT-IR, 1H, 13C NMR and UV–Vis spectra of 3AMP were recorded and analyzed. The optimized geometrical parameters, calculated wavenumbers by DFT method were compared with the experimental results. Natural bond orbital (NBO) analysis was carried out to evaluate the intra- and inter-molecular interactions in the crystal. The energy gap for 3AMP was calculated as 3.156 eV. Molecular electrostatic potential (MEP), Mulliken atomic charges and non-linear optical (NLO) properties for the title crystal were calculated. In addition, gauge invariant atomic orbital (GIAO) method was used to calculate the 1H and 13C NMR chemical shifts in the ground state. To obtain the electronic transitions in UV–Vis spectra of the title molecule in DMSO and ethanol solvents, TD-DFT calculations were performed on the optimized geometry. Furthermore, the compound was subjected to in silico ADMET evaluation. Molecular docking study was carried out to determine the interactions of ligand with the protein Hyaluronidase (PDB ID: 1FCQ).

In robotics, mechanized and computer simulation for accurate and fast crash detection between general geometric models is a fundamental problem. The explanation of this problem will gravely improve driver safety and traffic efficiency, vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) have been employed in many scenarios to provide road safety and for convenient travel of the people. They offer self-organizing decentralized environments to disseminate traffic data, vehicle information and hazardous events. In order to avoid accidents during roadway travels, which are a major burden to the society, the data, such as traffic data, vehicle data and the road condition, play a critical role. VANET is employed for disseminating the data. Still the scalability issues occur when the communication happens under high-traffic regime where the vehicle density is high. The data redundancy and packet collisions may be high which cause broadcast storm problems. Here the traffic regime in the current state is obtained from the speed of the vehicle. Thus the data reduction is obtained. In order to suppress the redundant broadcast D-SAC data, dissemination protocol is presented in this paper. Here the data are classified according to its criticality and the probability is determined. The performance of the D-SAC protocol is verified through conventional methods with simulation.

An immiscible nanocrystalline (NC) copper-tantalum (Cu-Ta) alloy is shown to exhibit a stable microstructure under thermo-mechanical loading conditions with exceptional mechanical strength (i.e., 1200 MPa strength at 298 K) indicating anomalous deformation mechanisms as compared to microstructurally unstable nanocrystalline materials. Therefore, in this work, various aspects of strength partitioning in such NC Cu-Ta alloys are discussed and the role of tantalum nanoclusters on the dominant deformation mechanism is presented as a function of temperature. Toward this, initially, the mechanical responses of NC Cu-Ta alloy were measured under uniaxial compression experiments at various temperatures. Later, atomistic simulations were performed along with the high-resolution electron microscopy to identify and validate the rate limiting mechanism behind the plastic deformation in NC Cu-Ta alloys. In general, the observed trend through experiments and simulations identify a transition from a dislocation – nanocluster interaction mediated deformation mechanism to one controlled by grain boundary strengthening as the temperature increases. The former mechanism is shown here to have a crucial role in the observed strengthening behavior of microstructurally stable NC materials. Overall, the paper demonstrates that through effective nano-engineering techniques, it is expected to extend the scope of nanocrystalline materials to a number of engineering design applications. Keywords: Nanocrystalline, Deformation, Transmission electron microscopy, Atomistic

We show theoretical and experimental results from a tunable laser, with its center wavelength in the C-band, designed using coupled-ring resonator mirrors. The effective cavity length enhancement and negative optical feedback obtained from the resonators helps to narrow the laser linewidth in a small form factor. We report a linewidth of 160 kHz and a side-mode suppression ratio of > 40 dB over the full tuning range.

Pipeline networks are the most widely used mode for transporting fluids and gases around the world. Leakage in this pipeline causes harmful effects when the flowing fluid/gas is hazardous. Hence the detection of leak becomes essential to avoid/minimize such undesirable effects. This paper presents the leak detection by spectral analysis methods in a laboratory pipeline system. Transient in the pressure signal in the pipeline is created by opening and closing the exit valve. These pressure variations are captured and power spectrum is obtained by using Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) method and Filter Diagonalization Method (FDM). The leaks at various positions are simulated and located using these methods and the results are compared. In order to determine the quantity of leak a 2 × 1 fuzzy inference system is created using the upstream and downstream pressure as input and the leak size as the output. Thus a complete leak detection, localization and quantification are done by using only the pressure variations in the pipeline.

We report the sightings of the Jerdon’s Baza Aviceda jerdoni from Pocharam Wildlife Sanctuary, Medak district and Maredumili Reserve Forest, East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh, India. The sighting records from Pocharam Wildlife Sanctuary confirms the presence of this species in tropical forested tracts further away from the Eastern Ghats. We provide video evidence to of species; presence from both the sites and corroborate the findings with the species’ vocalization.

The Topographic maps and Aerial Photographs are used for morphometric analysis of drainage basins and mapping contours with drainage. The stereo pairs of 2.5 m resolution Cartosat 1, Indian satellite 2 and merged data with 5.5 m resolution P6 Resourcesat 1 LISS 4 Indian satellite of 2001 is used to map, rills, gullies, and streams of first order to evaluate part of drainage basin of Cooum and Poondi Reservoir in Thiruvallur taluk of Tamil Nadu state. The Geo Eye latest 2011data is also used with Catrosat 1Stereo data to study present morphology of tiny micro watersheds to study the use of High resolution data for delineation and codification of watersheds. This study area is in an inter fluvial drainage basin of Cooum and Kusasthalai rivers. Kusasthalai river drains in Poondi reservoir which is about 50 km from Chennai. The excess water from Kosasthalai is also diverted through Kesawaram weir to Cooum river which passes through Thiruvallur and Chennai city before it's confluence with Bay of Benegal in the east. As Cooum basin is at higher elevation, water for irrigation is again diverted through chain of tanks to Kusasthalai river basin to drain in Poondi reservoir. Delineation of water sheds in this fluvial basin is difficult by manual survey as man made irrigation channels, natural drainage streams etc., have to be clearly identified. The streams of various orders are identified based on Strahler stream order hierarchy of tributaries, slops and contours using large scale satellite data. The micro water sheds are delinated identifying the ridges from Catrosat data for this interfluves basin which has mild slop. To illustrate this research, parts of two micro watersheds which were delineated using 1:50000 data for Tamil Nadu watershed Atlas up to 7th order streams are taken up for a detailed study using high resolution data. 19 Micro watersheds with streams up to 10th order are mapped. The capability of high resolution satellite data for digital as well as visual interpretation in conjunction with village cadastral maps has been studied. This research will be useful to consider creation of digital micro watershed atlas for management and protecting area affected by floods as well as for water and land resource management of the River basins in Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria states of Australia. The research explains the need of using stream orders, delineation and codification micro watersheds based the principles of Dr.A.N.Khosla. This methodology was used in creation of web site of Districts soil water sheds atlas of Tamil Nadu state. With this principal of codification and delineation of watersheds based on stream order using stereo data of Cartosat 1 PAN 2.5 m data merged with Resourcesat LISS 4 data of 5.5m resolution and updating latest changes as on 2011 with non stereo Geo eye data of 0.5m resolution it is possible to create Australian micro water sheds GIS with deatils of streams with various stream orders, drainage pattern, slope, micro water sheds boundary in 1:5000 scale to manage the flood prone drainage basin in Australia. The High resolution data of satellites data apart from creation Micro watersheds GIS can be used for creation of Urban and Argicultural land parcel owenership details in Micro watershed GIS.

In order to prevent, diagnose and treat vascular disease, detailed knowledge of blood vessel mechanics is essential. In this work, 3D finite element models of normal vessel and atherosclerotic vessel with 50% and 90% plaque deposition were developed. The developed models were meshed with tetrahedral elements using the Delaunay triangulation method and were simulated using actual blood pressure signals. Based on the transient analysis performed on the developed models, the parameters such as strain energy density and entropy per unit volume were obtained. Results demonstrate that an inverse relation exists between the considered mechanical parameters and the percentage of plaque deposited on the inner vessel wall. It was observed that the parameters decrease linearly with increasing plaque percentage. In this paper, the objectives of the study, the methodology and significant observations are discussed in detail.

In this paper, we review the recent optimization work in hybrid silicon microring lasers. Device structure and fabrication procedures are discussed first, followed by two major improvements in carrier injection and thermal management. A simple, well-controlled quantum well undercut leads to about 20% enhancement of injection efficiency. A silicon-on-diamond (SOD) substrate is demonstrated to fundamentally solve the device heating issue for silicon-on-insulator (SOI)-based active devices. SOD rib waveguides show low propagation loss of 0.74 dB/cm, which is 0.2 dB/cm higher than SOI counterparts. More than 22$\times$ reduction of device heating in hybrid silicon microring lasers is projected by simulations.

The kinetics of oxidation of cinnamic acids by pyridinium bromochromate (PBC) in the presence of oxalic acid has been studied in acetic acid-water (60:40%) medium. The reaction shows unit order dependence each with respect to oxidant as well as oxalic acid [OX], the order with respect to [H+] and [CA] are fractional. The reaction is acid catalyzed and a low dielectric constant favours the reaction. Increase the ionic strength has no effect on the reaction rate. In the case of substituted cinnamic acids the order with respect to substrate vary depending upon the nature of the substituent present in the ring. In general, the electron withdrawing substituents retard the rate while the electron releasing substituents enhance the rate of reaction. From the kinetic data obtained the activation parameters have been computed and a suitable mechanism has been proposed.

Literature presents several search algorithms to find an item with specified properties from a search space defined by a mathematical formula or procedure. One of the widely accepted algorithms is optimization algorithm which can find the optimal element within a certain period of time if the search space is defined. Recent works formulate several problems as optimization problems which were then solved by many optimization algorithms. Accordingly, in a previous paper, a hybrid optimization algorithm, called FAGA was proposed using fractional order Artificial Bee Colony (ABC) and Genetic Algorithm (GA) for optimization to solve the existing benchmark problems. In this paper, we have planned to apply the FAGA algorithm to well defined-real time problems of neural network training and the clustering process. Through neural network training, data classification will be done by making use of FAGA algorithm as neural network training procedure. Similarly, medical image segmentation will be done using clustering process through FAGA algorithm. The performance of the FAGA algorithm in those two processes will be evaluated with different evaluation metrics and the comparison of the FAGA algorithm will be also carried out with the existing ABC and genetic algorithm.

Fusarium wilt (FW) and Ascochyta blight (AB) are two major constraints to chickpea (Cicer arietinum ) production,Fusarium wilt (FW) and Ascochyta blight (AB) are two major constraints to chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) production. Therefore, two parallel marker-assisted backcrossing (MABC) programs by targeting foc1 locus and two quantitative trait loci (QTL) regions, ABQTL-I and ABQTL-II, were undertaken to introgress resistance to FW and AB, respectively, in C 214, an elite cultivar of chickpea. In the case of FW, foreground selection (FGS) was conducted with six markers (TR19, TA194, TAA60, GA16, TA110, and TS82) linked to foc1 in the cross C 214 × WR 315 (FW-resistant). On the other hand, eight markers (TA194, TR58, TS82, GA16, SCY17, TA130, TA2, and GAA47) linked with ABQTL-I and ABQTL-II were used in the case of AB by deploying C 214 × ILC 3279 (AB-resistant) cross. Background selection (BGS) in both crosses was employed with evenly distributed 40 (C 214 × WR 315) to 43 (C 214 × ILC 3279) SSR markers in the chickpea genome to select plant(s) with higher recurrent parent genome (RPG) recovery. By using three backcrosses and three rounds of selfing, 22 BC3F4 lines were generated for C 214 × WR 315 cross and 14 MABC lines for C 214 × ILC 3279 cross. Phenotyping of these lines has identified three resistant lines (with 92.7–95.2% RPG) to race 1 of FW, and seven resistant lines (with 81.7–85.40% RPG) to AB that may be tested for yield and other agronomic traits under multilocation trials for possible release and cultivation.

The aim is to discuss a new method of muscle repair in midline cleft lip. Three patients with midline cleft lip were repaired with our technique of muscle repair and the results evaluated. Our new method of muscle repair in the form of ‘Z’ helps in forming the philtral dimple.

A systematic vibrational spectroscopic assignment and analysis of tenofovir has been carried out by using FTIR and FT-Raman spectral data. The vibrational analysis was aided by electronic structure calculations—hybrid density functional methods (B3LYP/6-311++G(d,p), B3LYP/6-31G(d,p), and B3PW91/6-31G(d,p). Molecular equilibrium geometries, electronic energies, IR intensities, and harmonic vibrational frequencies have been computed. The assignments proposed based on the experimental IR and Raman spectra have been reviewed and complete assignment of the observed spectra have been proposed. UV-visible spectrum of the compound was also recorded and the electronic properties such as HOMO and LUMO energies and were determined by time-dependent DFT (TD-DFT) method. The geometrical, thermodynamical parameters, and absorption wavelengths were compared with the experimental data. The B3LYP/6-311++G(d,p)-, B3LYP/6-31G(d,p)-, and B3PW91/6-31G(d,p)-based NMR calculation procedure was also done. It was used to assign the 13C and 1H NMR chemical shift of tenofovir.

In finite groups maximal subgroups play a very important role. Results in the literature show that if the maximal subgroup has a very small index in the whole group then it influences the structure of the group itself. In this paper we study the case when the index of the maximal subgroups of the groups have a special type of relation with the Fitting subgroup of the group.

Background. Accidental foreign body inhalation is not uncommon. The incidence is high in children, especially the very young ones. We evaluated the management of inhaled foreign bodies in an adult respiratory medical unit, highlighting circumstances leading to inhalation, associated complications and difficulties encountered at bronchoscopic retrieval. Methods. We reviewed all cases of inhaled foreign bodies presenting over a period of 12 years (1991-2003). Results. 5 of 8 cases were teenagers whereas 3 were aged over 55 years. The older patients had co-morbidities and had aspirated food particles. In 2 cases, a bronchoscopy was performed primarily to exclude lung cancer, and the discovery of a foreign body was a surprise. Pulmonary complications related to foreign body inhalation were common among this group. All 5 teenage patients presented after inhalation of small objects. 4 patients from the teenage group had general anaesthesia; in 2 of them a laryngeal mask airway was employed, whilst 2 had endotracheal intubation. Only one patient was given a rigid bronchoscopy following failure of the fiberoptic instrument. Difficulties at retrieval of foreign body were frequently encountered. Conclusions. In the adolescent and adult patients, most inhaled foreign bodies are retrievable by flexible bronchoscopy. However, facilities for rigid bronchoscopy should be available as a back-up. Pulmonary complications are common after foreign body inhalation especially in the older patients. Difficulties at bronchoscopic removal may occur due to late presentation or to the site and/or position of the foreign body within the tracheobronchial tree.

Along the line of available efficient nonlinear optical (NLO) organic single crystals in the literature, it is worthwhile to bring in a novel organic single crystal of Brucinium-3,5-dihydroxybenzoate dihydrate (B35D) which was successfully grown utilizing the technique of slow evaporation of solution at ambient conditions. As the solubility of B35D was found to be the highest in water-ethanol 1:1 mixed solvent among the conventional solvents, crystallization of B35D was accomplished by making use of the solvent. The required confirmation of the crystal structure of the crystal and its lattice parameter could be achieved by the single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis such that B35D was found to be crystallized in the monoclinic system with the non-centrosymmetric space group C2. The recording of UV-Vis-NIR transmittance spectrum of the crystal was undertaken between the range of 300 and 900 nm whereby the lower optical cutoff wavelength was identified to be 321 nm. The spectral study of photoluminescence was carried out in the range of 300-600 nm by which the band gap energy was calculated to be about 3.8 eV (at 373 nm) indicating that B35D has a violet fluorescence spectrum. The thermal stability and melting point of the title crystal have been investigated through Thermo gravimetric and differential thermal analysis (TG-DTA) such that the thermal stability of the crystal was found to be 95.6 °C. The Nd: YAG Q-switched laser was employed so as to obtain the laser-induced surface damage threshold of the specimen which was estimated to be 3.1 GW/cm2. The Vickers microhardness test was implemented in order to arrive at the mechanical strength of the crystal. The performed non-linear optical study could reveal that the second-order harmonic generation (SHG) efficiency of B35D crystal is 2.16 times higher than KDP. So that B35D crystals are among the class of NLO materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we consider finite p′-nilpotent groups which is a generalization of finite p-nilpotent groups. This generalization leads us to consider the various special subgroups such as the Frattini subgroup, Fitting subgroup, and the hypercenter in this generalized setting. The paper also considers the conditions under which product of p′-nilpotent groups will be a p′-nilpotent group.

Liver microsomal lipid peroxidation has been observed in fatal human CCl4 poisoning, in rats with fatty livers induced by CCl4 or by yellow phosphorus, and in mice poisoned with 1,1,2,2-tetrachloroethane. These observations suggest the possibility that other instances of toxic liver injury may involve lipid peroxidation. Cases of acute, fatal, toxic liver injury (e.g., from halothane anesthesia) are not likely to occur at or near laboratories equipped to determine whether any lipid peroxidation might have taken place. The data presented indicate that rat livers may be stored frozen for at least 7 days with no demonstrable diminution in CCl4-induced conjugated diene absorption of liver microsomal lipids.

Objective: Transient tachypnea of newborn (TTN) and respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) are the most common causes of respiratory distress among preterm neonates. The aim of this study was to evaluate the accuracy of lung ultrasonography (LUS) for diagnosing and differentiating TTN and RDS in preterm neonates. Methods: This was a prospective single center study. From January 2020 to June 2021 a total of 114 preterm neonates who were admitted to neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) with symptoms of respiratory distress within 6 hours of birth were subjected to clinical examination, laboratory testing, chest x-ray (AP and lateral view's) and LUS. Their clinical course was closely monitored. On the basis of final diagnosis made on day three of admission they were divided into two groups, 37 diagnosed with TTN and 61 with RDS. Patients diagnosed with other conditions including neonatal pneumonia, meconium aspiration syndrome etc. were excluded from analysis. LUS findings in RDS and TTN were analyzed and compared to each other. Results: Pulmonary edema manifesting as alveolo-interstitial syndrome, double lung point and less commonly as white out lungs in absence of consolidation had a 100% sensitivity and specificity in diagnosing TTN. A combination of three signs of consolidation with air or fluid bronchograms, white out lungs and absent spared areas has a 100% sensitivity and specificity for diagnosing RDS. Double lung point was seen only in infants suffering from TTN while consolidation with air or fluid bronchograms was only seen in cases of RDS. Conclusion: Lung ultrasound can accurately diagnose and reliably differentiate TTN and RDS in preterm neonates. Hence LUS can become an initial screening tool in NICU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objective of the present research work was to develop and evaluate the anti-viral drug (Acyclovir) loaded micro sponges using polymers. Micro sponges of acyclovir were prepared by quassi-emulsion solvent diffusion method by using EC and HPMC as polymers. The prepared acyclovir micro sponges were subjected to IR, SEM, Particle size and Size distribution, Entrapment efficiency, in vitro dissolution studies and release kinetics. The IR Spectras revealed that, there was no interaction between the polymer and acyclovir. Acyclovir micro sponges was spherical in nature, which was confirmed by SEM. Acyclovir micro sponges with normal frequency distribution were obtained. A maximum of 95.67% drug entrapment efficiency was obtained in the acyclovir micro sponges. F5 formulations ACV micro sponges show the maximum drug release. The coefficient of determination indicated that the release data was best fitted with higuchi model kinetics. The release kinetics data implies that the release mechanism of all formulation was Non Fickian diffusion mechanism. On the basis of particle size, entrapment efficiency and morphology, in vitro release studies and its kinetics data, F5 (formulation) was selected as optimized formulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To evaluate the accuracy of lung ultrasound in diagnosing and differentiating transient tachypnea of the newborn and respiratory distress syndrome in preterm neonates. Material and methods: This was a single-center study. From January 2020 to June 2021. A total of 100 preterm neonates, admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit with symptoms of respiratory distress within six hours of birth, including 50 diagnosed with transient tachypnea of the newborn and 50 with respiratory distress syndrome on the basis of clinical examination, laboratory testing, chest X-rays, were recruited in the study. Lung ultrasound was performed in each neonate by a senior radiologist who was blinded to the clinical diagnosis. Lung ultrasound findings in both conditions were analyzed and compared. Results: Pulmonary edema manifesting as alveolar-interstitial syndrome, double lung point sign and less commonly as white out lungs in the absence of consolidation has 100% sensitivity and specificity in diagnosing transient tachypnea of the newborn. A combination of three signs of consolidation with air or fluid bronchograms, white out lungs and absent spared areas has 100% sensitivity and specificity for diagnosing respiratory distress syndrome. Double lung point sign was seen only in infants suffering from transient tachypnea of the newborn and consolidation with air or fluid bronchograms only in cases of respiratory distress syndrome. Conclusion: Lung ultrasound can accurately diagnose and reliably differentiate transient tachypnea of the newborn and respiratory distress syndrome in preterm neonates. It has advantages that cannot be replicated by chest radiography. Lung ultrasound may be used as an initial screening tool. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Catchments have highly variable yields of runoff and soil erosion. The size, land use and the surface cover play a significant role and influence the catchment response and parameter values of simulation models. Two experimental basins—the Cariri basins—were equipped in a semi‐arid region of Brazil, for obtaining runoff and sediment yield at different catchment scales, as well as, to evaluate the influence of the land use and surface cover. In the first basin, located in the municipality of Sumé, the field studies were carried out at two different scales: four micro‐catchments with an area of around 0.5 ha and nine standard Wischmeier‐type erosion plots of 100 m2. The experimental units had varied vegetation and management. They were subjected only to natural rainfall events, and were monitored from 1982 to 1991. The total runoff and total sediment yield were determined for each of the events. The installations in the second basin, in the municipality of São João do Cariri, from 1999, include two erosion plots, three micro‐catchments, and two sub‐catchments of a small basin. These basins are still being monitored for runoff and sediment production. Among the micro‐catchments two are nested to detect any scale effect at the micro‐catchment level. Nearly 600 events of precipitation, that produced runoff in at least one of the experimental units, have been registered. These data have been used to evaluate the influence of various factors, including cultivation practices and to calibrate hydrological models for plots and micro‐catchments. Parameters have been tested by means of cross validations among micro‐catchments and sub‐catchments. The data sets are made available to all the catchment hydrology researchers and others at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4690886. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lithium-ion battery is generally used as energy storage device in spacecraft and other applications. Spacecraftbattery modeling and energy balance estimation is critical. The proposed genetic algorithm driven generic estimation - energy balance (GAGE-EB) model uses cell open circuit voltage characteristics, internal resistance (rint) characteristics, and coulomb counting. The cell characteristics are obtained by offline tests. For series-parallel or parallel-series configured battery, the model estimates deliverable capacity and internal resistance by accurately matching the terminal voltage. Estimated parameters are used to check the energy balance for new load and generation profiles. The GAGE-EB model is validated for electrical performance with various cell types and battery configurations with respect to experimental data and is within 1% and 2% accuracy for voltage and capacity estimation, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Students are termed “multitaskers,” and it is likely that they easily fall prey to other subjects or topics that most interest them. They occasionally took heed or gave close and thoughtful attention to the lectures they were on. In the current educational system, our young generations receive materials from their leftovers, and their constant behavioral classification has decided the material to learn. The rate at which many students gave up on their studies was predominantly higher in online classroom than in offline classroom due to the lack of direct interaction between the students and teachers. To eradicate this and to make online classroom an effective one, the proposed model can be put forth in each class to predict the student's behavior based on their keen interests. The model predicts and recommends their live session-wise apt course materials to learn. This model uses machine learning generic algorithms and the chi-square test to analyze their manners. The intelligent Online Poll Bot (OPB) acts as a teacher in this virtual learning environment by engaging in live interactions during class time. It is developed using GAN and the IBM Watson Framework. This paper analyzes the time complexity and accuracy of the developed poll bot, and 96.82% accuracy was achieved with the proposed GAN-based poll bot. Students can be categorized according to their learning behavior by using the Optimal Behavior Prediction Cluster (OBPC). These OBPCs will let know the number of clusters at the beginning of the process itself. According to the model, the study materials are preferred based on the students’ performance in each class. In online learning environments, the Live Behavior Analysis (LBA) method using the proposed OBPC and OPB can create interactive learning environments and deliver behavior-based study materials to learners, thus reducing dropout rates. The proposed experiments show that the accuracy of the OBPC-based system is 97.43%, and LBA produces 96.52% accuracy, 95.13% F-Score, 97.13% recall, and 96.14% precision compared to existing approaches. This technology will reduce the number of dropouts and can effectively predict the behavior of all students in the virtual environment where they are placed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Botanica Serbica is the property of University of Belgrade, Institute of Botany & Botanical Garden Jevremovac and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper reports on experiments intended for investigating the feasibility of preparing hybrid thermoreversible gels from covalent polymers and noncovalent self-assembling π-conjugated molecules. The formation and the degree of dispersion of these hybrid gels have been studied with polystyrenes of various tacticities and oligo(p-phenylenevinylene) molecules (OPV) in different nonpolar organic solvents. Detailed investigations of the systems have been carried out by DSC, SAXS, and AFM. It is shown that no liquid−liquid phase separation is involved, indicating that the systems are highly compatible, and that the growth of one type of gel does not interfere with the other. These studies reveal that the resultant hybrid gels are composed of the intermingled fibrillar architectures of both gels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]