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Concern over growing fossil fuel depletion has led to the search for renewable fuels with efficiencies comparable to those seen today for conventional fuels. The present article discusses the potential and opportunities to be used in various applications for alternative fuels. The properties of these fuels and their fuel efficiency are discussed in detail. Vegetable oils provide a very positive scenario for fossil fuels to be used as alternatives. The use of biodiesel leads to a major reduction of unburned hydrocarbons, carbon Monoxide, particulate matter and nitrogen oxides in traditional diesel engines. Different alternative fuels have been compared to traditional fuels and it is clear that the use of these fuels can be greatly reduced by the use of blended fuels. Many alternative fuels have properties close to those of conventional fuels, so it is already well known the technologies needed to deal with them. Hydrogen is an exception, and its ignition characteristics differ considerably from those of conventional fuels. Therefore, difficulties in the storage, transport and use of hydrogen as a fuel are important. Therefore, difficulties are essential in storing, transporting and using hydrogen as fuel. There is also discussion of other technologies, such as alternate routes to conventional fuel alternatives, such as CTL. The discussion on emulsified oils, including the use of oxygenates, eventually took place.

The structural investigation of the a-Si:H material, deposited at different pressures by PECVD process, has been carried out to analyze the signatures of diffused intermediate sort of crystalline phases within the amorphous silicon matrix. Raman characterization along with the Photoluminescence (PL) and spectroscopic ellipsometry studies were carried out to understand the microstructuree of these films. From Raman analysis the material was found to have indistinguishable crystalline phase, which can also be named as “intermediate amorphous phase” (a phase defined between amorphous and ultra nano-crystalline silicon) with crystalline volume fractions as 56 % and 62 % for 0.23 Torr and 0.53 Torr respectively. Here the contribution of ultra nano-crystallites results in higher crystalline fraction, which is not visibly revealed from the Raman spectra due to its sub nano-crystallite characteristics. For the film deposited at 0.53 Torr stable photo-conductance in conjunction with high photo-response under 10 hour light soaking has been observed, which is as expected due to high crystalline volume fraction. The presence of these phases might be the possible reason for the distinct device characteristics though having nearly the similar electrical properties (photo-response ~10 4 ). These studies will help to make improvement in the individual layer properties, other than the interface effect, in the fabrication of efficient p-i-n solar cells. Copyright © 2016 VBRI Press

The objective of this study is to assess if the use of magnification can reduce the incidence of hypocalcemia and vocal cord palsy in thyroid surgery. Data of patients who underwent total thyroidectomy (N = 50) for thyroid malignancy were analyzed retrospectively for 1 year. The patients were divided into two groups based on surgery with and without loupes. Hypocalcemia and Vocal cord palsy was assessed pre as well as post-operatively and the observations were noted. Descriptive statistics were performed to assess the proportion of the respective groups. Inferential statistics to find out the difference between the groups was done using the chi-square test. Significance level was kept at 5%. The incidence of hypocalcemia was 36.9% in the group done without loupes compared to 7.6% with loupes. The event of vocal cord injury though transient was 33% when done without loupes (p

Today, sensors generate vast amounts of data in different fields such as hospitals, the transport sector, social media, and so on. In hospitals, the use of sensors that are installed in the patient’s body to monitor the pulse rate, heartbeats, head movement, eyes, and other body parts. Every day, these collected data are stored in local data servers and database servers by various sensors that require effective handling of these data. Sensors are primarily used in most of the IoT applications in everyday life from which smart city plays a crucial role. The aim of the work is to address the application of big data in healthcare and life science, including different types of data that involve special attention in processing. This work focuses on the use of large-data analytical techniques to process medical data. A large volume of unstructured cancer database is considered to identify and predict different types of cancer such as breast cancer, lung cancer, blood cancer, and so forth. This research involves the segmentation of thousands of records on cancer forms in a broad cancer database into various segmented databases. Using KNN algorithm this segmentation, classification and prediction will be achieved.

BACKGROUND: COVID 19 pandemic along with its robust containment measures to prevent the transmission of virus can have serious impact on the people with mental health disorders. Fear of getting infected and need for personal hygiene can increase the severity of symptoms in patients with OCD. METHODOLOGY: We conducted a cross sectional follow up study in Chengalpattu Medical college and Hospital, Tamilnadu. Our sample included 30 patients with OCD who were assessed for symptom severity using YBOCS before the onset of COVID 19 during January and February 2020. YBOCS was readministered during the months of June and July 2020. RESULTS: Majority of the study population (53%) had no changes in symptom severity after the onset of Covid 19 pandemic. 27% had a decrease in symptom severity while only 20% had increase in severity. Paired sample t test revealed there was no significant difference in the symptom severity. CONCLUSION: Our study results indicate that there was no significant changes in OCD symptom severity after the onset of COVID 19 pandemic. This might be due to high resilience in this population group and proper treatment and guidance regarding COVID 19.

Health or care seeking behavior has been defined as any action undertaken by individuals who perceive themselves to have a health problem or to be ill for the purpose of finding an appropriate remedy. A little understanding exists concerning socio-ecological barriers experience when seeking mental health care. we aimed at determining the factors that affect health seeking behavior of people with preexisting mental illness during COVID19 pandemic. METHODOLOGY: A Cross sectional study done for three months duration at Department of psychiatry, Chengalpattu Medical College and Hospital with sample size of 105. Ethical committee clearance was obtained.105 patients (age >18 years) consecutive patients having an International Classification of Disease 10 (ICD-10) psychiatric diagnosis, were included. Informed consent was obtained. Data regarding Socio demographic and clinical profile was obtained. RESULTS: In our study,39% of the patients belonged to 30-45 and 46-60 years of age, 6.7% of patients were between the age of above 60. 60% of study participants were male and the rest were female.69.5 % of patients had financial crisis ,70.5% of patients had decrease in the monthly income of the family by 30%or more.60% of patients had difficulty in travel to the hospital due to lack of transport facility during COVID pandemic. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION; Factors determining health-seeking behavior can help address problems and delay in early identification and optimal management of mental disorders during pandemic. Implementing community-based strategies to support resilience and psychologically vulnerable individuals during the COVID-19 crisis is fundamental for any community.

In machining cutting, fluids play a vital role in terms of tool life, cutting temperature, surface finish, etc., due to its functions like continuous lubrication, cooling and chips flushing. Nowadays, advanced cutting fluids like nanofluids are effectively used in machining due to its heat transfer medium at the cutting zone, and on the other hand, vegetable oil-based cutting fluids which are eco-friendly are being widely used as coolants in different machining operations. However, these conventional cutting fluids are difficult to process and are very costly. In order to eliminate disaffects associated with the cutting fluids, it is suggested to shift towards minimum quantity lubrication/near dry machining. In the present work, the performance characteristics of vegetable oil and nanofluids in machining of EN353 alloy steel under MQL conditions are compared. Using Taguchi grey relational analysis, an optimum solution is obtained for the output responses, i.e. cutting temperature, surface roughness (Ra and Rz) and material removal rate. It was concluded that, vegetable oil showed better performance compared to nanofluid (Al2O3).

Gallstones (GS) are formed as a result of impaired metabolic regulation and can be reflected in serum parameters. This study was focused on classifying GS based on spectral microanalysis and identifying the possible role of serum hepatic parameters on GS of different compositions. The study included a total of 126 GS from 80 consecutive patients who underwent cholecystectomy for GS diseases in a single center. The composition and microstructure of GS were analyzed using Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS). The serum hepatic parameters were studied in order to establish a possible etiologic relationship with GS composition. In the study group, the incidence of GS was higher in females 62 (77.5%) compared with males 18 (22.5%). The mean age was 42.81 ± 13.01 and 43.78 ± 14.4 years for female and male patients, respectively. Based on composition, the GS were assigned to four major groups: cholesterol, pigment, phosphate, and mixed stones. Mixed composition stones totally represented the majority 53 (66.3%), followed by pure cholesterol 23 (28.8%), pigment stones 2 (2.5%), and phosphate stones 2 (2.5%), respectively. Elemental composition revealed the presence of carbon (C), oxygen (O), calcium (Ca), and phosphorus (P) to be major elements along with traces of sodium (Na), magnesium (Mg), aluminum (Al), iron (Fe), copper (Cu), bromine (Br), manganese (Mn), and zinc (Zn). Among serum parameters, total bilirubin, direct bilirubin, indirect bilirubin, serum glutamic-oxaloacetic transaminase, and total protein were higher in patients with pigment GS than cholesterol GS. Characterization of GS indicates that different types of stones have different characteristics in terms of microstructure, elemental composition, and distribution. Serum hepatic function test profiles showed an association with the compositions of GS.

Terahertz metamaterial absorbers are the latest developments that have tremendous applications in terahertz spectroscopy and terahertz imaging. Especially, the research progressed in the direction of designing multiband absorbers. In this work, a polarization-insensitive metamaterial absorber capable of offering absorption in eight bands is proposed. The unit cell of the absorber consists of two orthogonal elliptical ring resonators (ERRs) that are optimally designed to offer maximum absorption in eight bands. The absorption percentage provided by the structure are 89.46% at 0.63 THz, 99.22% at 1.55 THz, 78.02% at 1.89 THz, 99.27% at 2.33 THz, 99.67% at 2.65 THz, 98.67% at 2.91 THz, 99.64% at 3.22 THz, and 88.02% at 3.42 THz. The absorption characteristics were independent of the polarization angle and thus, the structure is insensitive to variations in polarization angle. This is the first work that reports the design of an octaband terahertz absorber and can find significant use in practical devices.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder. The individuals with ASD have the symptoms of persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction and have restricted repetitive patterns of behaviour, interests or activities. These symptoms are present in the early developmental periods and it causes clinically significant impairment in social, occupational or other important areas of functioning in their lives. As there is sparse information available on the clinical and social profile of the individuals with ASD, this study was carried to identify the demographic characteristics of individuals with ASD and factors associated with severity of ASD. Perusal of the case records of patients diagnosed with ASD from the period of 2013 – 2019 from the department of psychiatry of Chengalpattu medical college hospital was carried out. Two third of individuals with ASD also have Intellectual Disability, more than half the mothers of individuals with ASD did not breastfeed beyond 12 months, about one third of individuals with ASD have not availed any kind of services. It takes arounds 6 years of age for the parents/ individuals with ASD to seek treatment help.

A federated cloud is a group of cloud service providers operating together for service sharing. In the federation, cloud service providers obtain services from providers when their services are insufficient to meet the demand. The federated cloud uses agent-based, incentive-based or reciprocal resource fairness-based techniques for service selection. In agent-based service selection, the agent selects the best service provider for service sharing. Distributing the service requests among the service providers of the federation is a challenging task. The agent-based service selection techniques do not distribute service requests to all cloud providers in the federated cloud. Additionally, the agent-based service selection techniques rarely present service offers to the newly joined cloud provider. To fairly distribute the service requests, a new agent named “A Fair Service Matching Agent (FSMA)”, fairly distributes service requests to all cloud providers in the federated cloud and provides a fair chance to the newly joined cloud provider. The experimental results demonstrate FSMA outperforms the existing traditional Cloud Resource Bartering system.

PURPOSE: We investigated if substitutions in the ERCC1, ERCC2, and XRCC1 genes of the DNA repair pathway correlate with non-obstructive azoospermia and male infertility. METHODS: A total of 548 azoospermic infertile males and 410 fertile controls were genotyped for XRCC1 399A > G, 280G > A, and ERCC1 C > A 3′ UTR and 541 azoospermic infertile males and 416 fertile controls were genotyped for ERCC2 751A > C using iPLEX Gold Assay. Meta-analyses were performed on XRCC1 399A > G (1022 cases and 1004 controls), ERCC1 C > A 3′ UTR (879 cases and 1059 controls), and ERCC2 751A > C (914 cases and 850 controls) polymorphisms to quantitatively estimate the significance of the association between these polymorphisms and the risk of infertility. RESULTS: Statistically significant association between ERCC2 751A > C SNP and male infertility was found using the codominant model (p = 0.03). Results of meta-analysis suggested a lack of correlation with male infertility risk, which could be due to pooling of studies from different ethnic populations. Due to limited the number of studies, a stratified analysis for different ethnic groups could not be performed. CONCLUSION (S): In conclusion, AA genotype of 751A > C SNP in ERCC2 correlated with a higher risk of male infertility and may contribute to an increased risk of azoospermia and male infertility in Indian men. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1007/s10815-018-1339-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Galactosemia is a rare genetic condition caused by mutation of enzymes involved in galactose and glucose metabolism. The varying clinical spectrum reflects the genetic complexity of this entity manifesting as acute neonatal toxicity syndrome, requiring prompt diagnosis and treatment, to more insidious clinical scenarios as observed in the subacute and chronic presentations. The current literature predominantly focuses on the long-standing sequelae of this disease. The purpose of this multicenter clinical report comprising 17 patients with galactosemia is to highlight the MR imaging patterns encompassing the whole spectrum of galactosemia, emphasizing the 3 main clinical subtypes: 1) acute neonatal presentation, with predominant white matter edema; 2) subacute clinical onset with a new finding called the "double cap sign"; and 3) a chronic phase of the disease with heterogeneous imaging findings. The knowledge of these different patterns together with MR spectroscopy and the clinical presentation may help in prioritizing galactosemia over other neonatal metabolic diseases and prevent possible complications.

Geometrical models for defining and representing shapes comprise a subject undergoing intense study over recent years. This is evident in the latest rendered descriptors collated in this chapter. Accordingly, a couple of geometrical models are contributed and relatively tested for shape categorization using a supervised classifier in this chapter. The primary intention is to illustrate geometrical models’ active exploitation in building simple shape descriptors supporting retrieval.

Distributed power generation is remaining as the most demanding technology in this era, where renewable energy resources mainly Photovoltaic systems are considered as an alternative way to generate the power but unfortunately the output voltage level is low. The primary aim of this paper is to increase the output voltage level of the renewable energy resources, which are used in the power generation. In this paper, a high gain DC-DC converter incorporated passive snubber is proposed. With the help of passive snubber circuit, the DC-DC converter switches are turn on/off with soft switching and it decreases the switching losses, slew rate and it may slightly affect the efficiency of the converter by decreasing the heat released from main switch. The converter operation is explained in two sections as, energy storage and transfer modes. Detailed design, parameter selection and converter features are discussed and compared with existing DC-DC converters. The proposed circuit is tested in MATLAB environment and it exhibits better results when compared with other converter topologies mainly in the view of high gain.

Background Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) is associated with hypercoagulability and increased thrombotic risk in critically ill patients. To our knowledge, no studies have evaluated whether aspirin use is associated with reduced risk of mechanical ventilation, intensive care unit (ICU) admission, and in-hospital mortality. Methods A retrospective, observational cohort study of adult patients admitted with COVID-19 to multiple hospitals in the United States between March 2020 and July 2020 was performed. The primary outcome was the need for mechanical ventilation. Secondary outcomes were ICU admission and in-hospital mortality. Adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) for study outcomes were calculated using Cox-proportional hazards models after adjustment for the effects of demographics and comorbid conditions. Results Four hundred twelve patients were included in the study. Three hundred fourteen patients (76.3%) did not receive aspirin, while 98 patients (23.7%) received aspirin within 24 hours of admission or 7 days before admission. Aspirin use had a crude association with less mechanical ventilation (35.7% aspirin versus 48.4% nonaspirin, P = .03) and ICU admission (38.8% aspirin versus 51.0% nonaspirin, P = .04), but no crude association with in-hospital mortality (26.5% aspirin versus 23.2% nonaspirin, P = .51). After adjusting for 8 confounding variables, aspirin use was independently associated with decreased risk of mechanical ventilation (adjusted HR, 0.56, 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.37-0.85, P = .007), ICU admission (adjusted HR, 0.57, 95% CI, 0.38-0.85, P = .005), and in-hospital mortality (adjusted HR, 0.53, 95% CI, 0.31-0.90, P = .02). There were no differences in major bleeding (P = .69) or overt thrombosis (P = .82) between aspirin users and nonaspirin users. Conclusions Aspirin use may be associated with improved outcomes in hospitalized COVID-19 patients. However, a sufficiently powered randomized controlled trial is needed to assess whether a causal relationship exists between aspirin use and reduced lung injury and mortality in COVID-19 patients.

Cloud Computing has revolutionized the way Information Technology (IT) operates. Resource sharing in the cloud enables multiple users or providers to share resources, which improves the utilization of their resources. In the cloud, aggregated resources create a resource pool. The resource pools handle the dynamic demand of IT. Resource sharing enables cloud providers and customers to reduce their capital expenditure, operational expenditure, and total cost of ownership. Multiple cloud service providers connect to form a federation to share their resources among themselves to meet the dynamic demand of their customers. This chapter discusses the resource sharing in Intercloud, Social cloud, Mobile cloud, Manufacturing cloud, Vehicular cloud, and Green cloud. In each cloud, the various resource sharing approaches, strengths, and challenges are discussed.

This paper presents various aspects of CCSDS based satellite telemetry system design and highlights the important development required to cater for Inter-planetary Missions. The various aspects include: Transfer Frame Layer implementation, CRC computation, channel encoding technique (1/2 rate Turbo Encoding for higher coding gain), Randomization, Bit rate programmability (lowering bit rate to augment signal Eb/No for higher orbits), formats (Normal, Dwell and PTM), Data Acquisition (FPGA based), Frame Size, Real-time/Near Real-time acquisition, Acquisition Interface Types (Digital RMU, Analog RMU, Digital bits, RF bits, Digital Word, Analog word, Thermistor), PTM formats (Launch, Early Orbit, Earth bound Maneuvers, Cruise, Interplanetary Orbit Insertion and Payload Operation phases), Command interface, Storage and Playback Interface and Sub-Carrier level modulation, Ground Checkout interface, AIT Interface, Transmitter Interface.

Karyomegalic interstitial nephritis (KIN) is a rare genetic kidney disease associated with a mutation in FAN1 gene and is often underdiagnosed. The histomorphology demonstrates chronic interstitial nephritis with tubular epithelial cells showing bizarre enlarged nuclei. We present a case report of a 47-year-old multiparous South-Indian woman presenting with bilateral pitting pedal oedema and mild hypertension. At the time of presentation, her serum creatinine was 1.52 mg/dL and urine analysis showed mild proteinuria. Kidney biopsy showed features of tubular injury with bizarre enlarged nuclei and focal mild chronic tubulointerstitial nephritis. Immunohistochemistry was negative for cytomegalovirus (CMV) Ag and SV40 Ag. Real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) done for CMV and BK virus genomes was negative. Relevant family history was that her older brother was also diagnosed with kidney failure and is on renal replacement therapy. Genetic analysis for FAN1 gene of the proband and her sibling showed two rare mutations of the FAN1 gene in the exon 4, of which, one is non-synonymous mutation and the other is a stop-gain mutation in the proband. This case illustrates a rare presentation of karyomegalic interstitial nephritis in siblings with previous unknown FAN1 gene mutations.

This paper presents: (i) A novel method for VHDL implementation of register exchange based soft-hard decision Viterbi decoder in order to augment link margins available for “rover to lander” and “lander to orbiter” telemetry links and its performance evaluation and (ii) Re-encoding based node synchronizer. Register exchange method is faster and have low latency as compared to traceback method, but the main disadvantage of register exchange is that it needs large number of registers to store the decoded bits corresponding to each state in trellis. Using memory based implementation for path metric computation, survival state management and register exchange, have reduced the large number of registers requirement. Bit error rate performance evaluation of the implemented hard and soft decision decoding have been carried out by varying trellis depth and soft quantization bits. The performance and threshold evaluation for node synchronizer to decide “In-Sync”, “Out-Of-Sync” have been carried out.

Widespread use of Multichannel Electroencephalograph (MCEEG) in diversified fields ranging from clinical studies to Brain Computer Interface (BCI) application, has put in a lot of thrust in data pr...

Student answer script contains different type of answers to be evaluated. The answers may be of objective type answers, subjective type answers, mathematical answers, diagrammatic answers, classification type answers, each of which may require unique approaches for automated evaluation. Classification type answer makes a student to map an answer/object to a particular class/type, like types of grammars, types of normal forms and types of functions. This paper proposes an approach to automate the classification type answers using discrete model which classifies the types of relations in discrete mathematics domain. The proposed approach achieves 100% classification accuracy when compared with other types of classification since the pellet reasoner is used as a classifier which uses predefined classification rules to classify the types of relations.

Microstepping drive for a stepper motor is a well-known technique to improve the stepper motor performance. Normally, microstepping is carried at fixed pulse width planned. However, this method is suitable only when motors are driven at fixed predefined speeds for non-real-time applications. The problem discussed in this paper considers an application where motors need to track a given reference position profile precisely in real time, whose speed is varying at every interval of time. In such a scenario, fixed speed microstep drive does not meet the high pointing requirements and leads to poor system performance. For such applications, an innovative frequency modulation (FM) based microstep drive algorithm is developed that meets the high degree of motor pointing even at higher output angular rates. As per this scheme, pulse width and the number of steps that motor is supposed to move are derived from the reference position itself in a given amount of time, and the motor is actuated with a corresponding number of steps in real time. FM-based microstep drive is implemented with pulse-width modulation based chopper current controller in an optimized way without compromising on the motor torque margins. Transient error plots obtained through experiments clearly show the advantages of FM-based microstepping over fixed rate. This paper presents the design, analysis, simulation, and experimental results of FM-based microstep drive.

BACKGROUND Age-related hyperkyphosis causes deleterious effects on health, physical function, and quality of life. Recently, health care providers recognized it as a major health concern. OBJECTIVE To identify the effect of corrective exercise strategy on hyperkyphosis and compare it with that of conventional exercise. METHODS Subjects were randomly categorized into two groups. Each group comprised 30 subjects. Group A received the corrective exercise strategy, and group B received conventional exercises for 8 weeks of the study duration (15 repetitions of each exercise for three sessions/day for a total duration of 45 min and 4 days/week. Pre- and post-interventional hyperkyphosis were analyzed according to posture number using the Posture Pro 8 postural analysis software. In addition, pectoralis minor flexibility was assessed using the ruler scale method in centimeters. RESULTS Both groups showed highly significant postural alteration and changes in pectoralis minor muscle length (p< 0.001)CONCLUSIONS:The corrective exercise strategy seems to promote scapular stability and produce a more upright posture of the upper thoracic spine.

IntroductionMachine learning in computer-assisted diagnostics improves sensitivity of image analysis and reduces time and effort for interpretation. Compared to standard mammograms, a thermal scan is easily scalable and is a safer screening tool. We evaluate the performance of Thermalytix (an automated thermographic screening algorithm) compared with other standard breast cancer screening modalities.MethodsA prospective multicentre study was conducted to assess the non-inferiority of sensitivity of Thermalytix (test device) to that of standard modalities in detecting malignancy in subjects who show possible symptoms of suspected breast cancer. Standard screening modalities and Thermalytix were obtained and interpreted independently in a blinded fashion. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was constructed to identify the best cut-off point, non-inferiority margin of ≥10% to demonstrate the non-inferiority.ResultsWe recruited 258 symptomatic women who first underwent a thermal scan, followed by mammogram and/or ultrasound. At Youden’s Index of ROC curve, the test device had a sensitivity of 82.5% (95% CI 73.2 to 91.9) and specificity of 80.5% (95% CI 75.0 to 86.1) as compared with diagnostic mammogram, which had sensitivity of 92% (95% CI 80.7 to 97.8) and specificity of 45.9% (95% CI 34.3 to 57.9) when BI-RADS 3 (Breast Imaging-Reporting and Data System) was considered as test-positive. The overall area under the curve (AUC) was 0.845. For women aged ConclusionWe evaluated Thermalytix, a new AI-based modality for detecting breast cancer. The high AUC in both women under 45 years and above 45 years shows the potential of Thermalytix to be a supplemental diagnostic modality for all ages. Further evaluation on larger sample size is needed.Trial registration numberCTRI/2017/10/0 10 115

Feature characterization schemes catering shape indexing and retrieval have been a subject undergoing intense study in computer vision. Here, a feature characterization scheme is presented ...

An experimental investigation was carried out to study the aerodynamic performance of a typical UAV whose wings were modified to incorporate tubercles on the leading edge. The aerodynamic characteristics of three configurations: a baseline (without leading edge tubercles), one with tubercles of constant wavelength and amplitude along the span (Case I) and the third with tubercles of varying amplitude and wavelength along the span (Case II) were evaluated using force measurements and surface flow visualization at Reynolds numbers ( Re c ¯ ) of 0.18 million and 0.27 million. At Re c ¯ = 0.18 million, the wings with tubercles exhibited increased lift, stall angle and reduced drag as compared to the baseline over the range of incidences studied. Further, wing with tubercles significantly improved the aerodynamic efficiency ( C L / C D ) (up to 25%). At Re c ¯ = 0.27 million, both the baseline and the modified wings exhibited identical lift characteristics, but the former had a higher drag. At both Reynolds numbers, the modified wings did not exhibit the hysteresis present in the baseline case. Additionally, the modified wings exhibited stable pitching moment characteristics even in the post stall regime. The Case II wing outperformed both the baseline and Case I wings. The results show that tubercles on the leading edge have beneficial effects especially when UAVs encounter sudden vertical gusts during operation.

This report presents one of the application performed by Arduino Uno when sandwiched with Grbl shield which is a high performance open source CNC controller written in optimized C-language. Here in this paper a file with extension .jpeg or .png, or .pdf is imported in an open source Aspire software which converts it into .txt or .prt file. Vectors of the imported file is traced accordingly, followed by modelling and manufacturing procedures. Once the simulation of the manufacturing file is visualized in Aspire software then G-code file is generated using post processing operation, this G-code file is saved with .txt extension. The G-code file is then browsed in Universal G-code sender software coupled to Grbl shield v0.9j and Arduino board through a laptop serial port, G-code visualizer option is available on Universal G-code sender software to visualize the manufacturing steps along with the simulation. In this way proprietory control of a controller is eliminated, and CNC machine is made user friendly.

Adoption of environmental management practices is essential in every industry to satisfy the customers, and environmental regulation policies along with improvement of environmental performance. Environmental practices are not only based on the industry alone, supplier is also one of the partners to improve industries environmental image through supplying environmental friendly products. Selection of a suitable supplier based on environmental criteria is a challenging and difficult task for industries because there are many criteria available for selection of suitable environment friendly suppliers to improve industry environmental image. Industries should know which criterion is the most important for the selection of green supplier. This study investigates and ranks the environmental criteria for the green supplier selection based on expert’s judgment in an Indian automobile sector perspective. The analytical hierarchy process is used to rank the criteria.

The demand for acute and compact feature descriptors remains a key issue of concern for prevailing image retrieval schemes. This paper offers dual feature descriptors characterised by phase congrue...

Invasive fungal infection (IFI) is a known complication in children with malignancy. Mucormycosis is a rare cause of IFI in children receiving chemotherapy. Isolated renal involvement of mucormycosis is extremely rare and carries a grave prognosis. A high index of suspicion and early management with antifungals and surgery is essential in the treatment of mucormycosis. Here, we describe a child with mucor pyelonephritis treated successfully with antifungals and surgery with the review of literature.

CCSDS (Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems) Telemetry(TM)/ Tele-command(TC) standards have been widely used in the On-Board Computers (OBC) in order to standardize the interfaces and thus enabling the cross support for space missions. It is very important to know the health of the spacecraft after launch. The spacecraft is not visible continuously in IRS missions. Hence storage logic is implemented to store the telemetry data and stored data will be played back at a higher data rate on a different subcarrier during visible periods. Dwell data (high sampling) & Satellite position data also downloaded through this second subcarrier. As there are no subcarriers for telemetry in small satellites, downloading the stored data is not possible with single downlink. This single link is used for transmitting real time telemetry. Hence a novel scheme is adopted for downloading the real time telemetry along with playback data and dwell data by time division multiplexing at a higher data rate. The design also implements CCSDS format which is industry standard. A configurable design is provided to meet the different projects downlink data rate requirements. The challenges in this design were Synchronization between software and hardware for writing the telemetry data by processor and reading by hardware, FPGA design, and handshake between read and write operations of memory for simultaneous storage and playback, configurable download data rates. This paper addresses the need, design and implementation of multiplexed telemetry in small satellites where only one downlink channel is available.

Recent research in the area of evolvable design clearly indicates its advantage in the electronics system domain. This biologically inspired approach for design automation and reconfiguration is required for the hardware that needs online adaptation. The Cartesian Genetic Programming (CGP) represents a circuit genotype in the form of grid of nodes. In satellite for safe mode detection, a threshold comparator circuit is used. The comparator circuit can be evolved using CGP architecture by evolutionary algorithm. An evolutionary algorithm (EA) is designed and applied on the CGP pattern of comparator. The evolved comparator in the cascaded form can be further implemented on embryonic fabric. The embryonic fabric has cellular structure that makes it suitable for self-healing and self-replication. The CGP approach to generate configuration data for embryonic array is better than the LUT based data generation approach. In this paper a 2-bit comparator is evolved using customized evolutionary algorithm. The implementation of cascaded 8-bit threshold comparator on the embryonic array is also demonstrated. This comparator design needs configuration data for 2-bit and the data can be cloned to next cells for scalable design on embryonic fabric.

The best way to avoid Global warming is to minimize or nullify the usage of Fossil Fuels. Renewable Energy sources are best alternative to Fossil fuels. The solar Energy is best among other Green Energy sources since, it is available everywhere and all the day. The Maximum Power Point Tracking technique is a boom to extract Maximum possible Power from the sun's radiation. Irradiance is the situational task to be handled effectively to achieve the maximum power generation from Photo Voltaic Array modules. This paper proposes a centralized embedded controller to handle the said situation in effective way, and it proposes a Modified Centralized Decision Algorithm for Photo Voltaic System (MCDA-PVS). The two level proposed system starts with a comparative analysis ADBFOA, M-WOA based XSG model and M-EHO technique, following with the implementation of Modified Markovian Sequential Decision Making (MMSM) Algorithm. The MMSM is opting better protocol under irradiance scenario of the Sun. The complete system is coded using Math Lab Simulink and a proto type is developed using 50 Watts 12 Volts Photo Voltaic Array systems. The proto type results are matched with simulation values as well it has been compared with existing methodologies. The results produced displays better performance with superiority.

Background: Sino-nasal disease often gives an experience of impacting quality of life significantly, more so among chronic cases. Hence a self-perceived disease specific impact viz rhinosinusitis disability index (RSDI) which is a validated reliable measure of quality of life is being studied.Methods: A prospective study conducted on patients, attending department of ENT on out and or in-patient basis who are diagnosed to have rhinosinusitis with external nasal deformity and deviated nasal septum (DNS) were selected on simple random basis for this study between July 2018 to November 2019. This study group subjected for answering standard questionnaire of RSDI proforma before treatment. Data statistically analyzed using IBM SPSS version 22.Results: Among the statistically calculated ‘n' (40) patients of this study, 23 were male (57.5%) and 17 were female (42.5%) patients of the age between 15-45 years. In our study, majority of patients (n=23) had simple type DNS (57.5%), followed by obstructive type 37.5% (n=15) and impacted type 5% (n=2) and majority of patients showed type I (50%) external nasal deformity followed by type V (25%). In our study, 11 patients were diagnosed with acute rhinosinusitis, 15 patients with chronic rhinosinusitis without nasal polyps (CRSsNP) and 14 patients with chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps (CRSwNP). The physical, functional and emotional domains showed no statistical significance with respect to external nasal deformity and DNS. However, disease factor had statistically significant impact (pConclusions: In rhinosinusitis patients, the disease affects the quality of life in terms of physical, functional and emotional domains, but not by the external nasal deformity and or DNS associated.

Background: Tracheostomy is a common surgical procedure performed in upper airway obstruction to establish alternate airway, to ease the access for secretion removal and protect lower airways and to wean in critically ill, ventilator-dependent patients. This retrospective clinical study emphasises on the indications and clinical outcome of tracheostomy procedure among intubated patients of varied clinical diagnosis in respiratory intensive care unit (RICU).Methods: This is a retrospective clinical study of intubated patients of RICU who underwent tracheostomy between Jan 2014 to Dec 2019.The case sheets of patients who fulfilled the inclusion criteria of this study and whose records were available in medical records department (MRD) of our institute for the study period were analysed for the indications for tracheostomy, timing of tracheostomy and its clinical outcome among them.Results: A total of 33 patients were included in this study and their case sheets were analysed. Most common indication for the tracheostomy was found to be prolonged intubation secondary to the chemical poisoning. The mean days of intubation before the tracheostomy was 7 days. The mean days of stay in RICU after tracheostomy among survived and dead patients was 21 and 7 days respectively which was highly significant (p=0.00).Conclusion: This retrospective study concludes that conditional survival after the tracheostomy among the previously intubated patients is found to be more after three weeks whereas the mortality is likely to be in the first week of post tracheostomy period. Hence the number of days of stay after the tracheostomy among these patients, there need not be a linear decrease in survival and should not be the reason for being despondent.

Background: Neck swellings are common presenting complaint in paediatric age group patients attending ENT department and are cause of concern for both doctors and parents because they are considered as red flag.Methods: This prospective study was conducted among 102 paediatric patients of both genders attending the OPD of department of ENT, Vijayanagar institute of medical sciences, Bellary, Karnataka, between July 2018 to March 2020.Results: Out of 102 patients in our study, majority of them were reactive lymphadenopathy 47 (46%). Out of 41 deep neck space infections, submandibular space is the most commonly involved space 27 (65.8%). Twenty-nine (70.7%) DNSI’s needed institutional management hence got admitted and among them 20 (48.7%) were submandibular space infection and 7 (17%) were Ludwig’s angina which was statistically significant (p=0.001). Among 27 submandibular space infection, 24 (88.8%) had fever, 19 (70.3%) had local pain, 4 (14.8%) had dysphagia which was statistically significant (pConclusions: In the infective neck swellings of paediatric age group the submandibular space infection needs the zenith of active institutional management among both the genders, and the Ludwig’s angina warrants its treatment on institutional admission which is frequent in this age group.

The paper investigates a novel visual concept-based biomedical image querying mechanism to manage with a wide range of medical images acquired under the similar class/modality. Initially, the approach converts RGB images to L*a*b* dimensions. L*a*b* triplets are then partitioned into sub-regions and subsequently modelled by an unskewed Gaussian function for image characterisation based on standardised moments, that represents visual features. The features are then blended to formulate visual concepts and later vector quantised by geodesic self-organising-map to build a codebook of concepts. A global relationship among the clustered concepts is further established through dual correlation matrices and used in a distance metric for matching the given query with target images. Additionally, an enhanced inverted indexing mechanism is introduced to reduce the search time of this query expansion framework. Systematic evaluation of retrieval results in a heterogeneous medical image collection of 30 000 images of...

In this study, we revisited the significance of the p/i interface for hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) solar cells. Initially, intrinsic and extrinsic (p and n type) a-Si:H layers were grown in a low pressure regime (0.5–0.1 Torr) using the conventional RF plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition process and their opto-electronic properties were optimized for the fabrication of p–i–n a-Si:H solar cells. Subsequently, we obtained new insights in terms of the activation energy and band gap at the p/i interface in these solar cells. The absorber layers deposited at pressures of 0.23 Torr and 0.53 Torr had the highest photosensitivity with a band absorption edge at ~700 nm. Furthermore, the photosensitivity was shown to be correlated with the estimated diffusion length, which effectively defined the carrier transport within the solar cell layers. Moreover, the cell efficiency increased from 1.53% to 5.56% due to the improved p/i interface as well as the higher photosensitivity of the intrinsic/absorber layer.

The acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), a severe form of acute lung injury (ALI), is a very common condition associated with critically ill patients, which causes substantial morbidity and mortality worldwide. Despite decades of research, effective therapeutic strategies for clinical ALI/ARDS are not available. In recent years, microRNAs (miRNAs), small non-coding molecules have emerged as a major area of biomedical research as they post-transcriptionally regulate gene expression in diverse biological and pathological processes, including ALI/ARDS. In this context, this present review summarizes a large body of evidence implicating miRNAs and their target molecules in ALI/ARDS originating largely from studies using animal and cell culture model systems of ALI/ARDS. We have also focused on the involvement of miRNAs in macrophage polarization, which play a critical role in regulating the pathogenesis of ALI/ARDS. Finally, the possible future directions that might lead to novel therapeutic strategies for the treatment of ALI/ARDS are also reviewed. J. Cell. Physiol. 231: 2097-2106, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

In this work, through modeling we propose how the choice of the TCO material, its texturing and optimization of band gap of a-Si:H layers help to increase the efficiency of a-Si:H solar cells. While selecting plane and textured indium tin oxide (ITO) and zinc oxide (ZnO) as TCOs, the solar cell parameters and performance are examined as a function of band gap of different a-Si:H layers. The optimum band gap values of 2.1 eV, 1.9 eV and 1.85 eV are obtained for p, i and n-layers of a-Si:H with maximum efficiencies of ~ 15.5 % and 17.7 % using plane ITO and ZnO contacts respectively. Interestingly, the conversion efficiency is further increased to ~ 16.3 % and 18.6 % when textured ITO and textured ZnO are used as TCOs. Moreover the higher efficiencies with ZnO-based contact than ITO-based contact can be explained due to slightly higher drift velocity of holes nearer to the junction and little improved optical properties which may also attributes to the enhanced trapping of the light. These results are very encouraging and may help in developing a-Si:H based solar cell technology for thin films.

Background: Head and neck malignancies are the malignancies occurring at various sites like scalp, ear, nose and paranasal sinuses, nasopharynx, oral cavity, oropharynx, hypopharynx, larynx, and salivary glands. There are various biomarkers which aid in early diagnosis and management of head and neck malignancies. In order to study various parameters aiding in early diagnosis, this study has been taken up to estimate serum adenosine deaminase levels among these patients.Methods: Eighty-eight clinically diagnosed head and neck malignancy patients of both genders were included in this study on simple random basis. After obtaining the written informed consent from the patient, a peripheral venous sample of blood was taken and serum ADA levels were estimated. Data was analyzed using IBM SPSS Version 22.Results: Serum ADA levels are found to be statistically significant with respect to various stages of head and neck malignancies including malignancy of unknown origin. Mean ADA level in this study was 30.33 IU/l. Mean ADA levels in MUO, primary tumor with neck secondaries were 37 IU/l, 38.7 IU/l respectively. Mean ADA levels in patients with primary tumor without neck secondaries was 27.9 IU/l.Conclusions: The Serum ADA levels among head and neck malignancy patients including MUO is a simple, inexpensive diagnostic biomarker enzyme which is easy and rapid to estimate. This study emphasizes on using Serum ADA levels as a prognostic indicator among head and neck malignancies who are on various modalities of treatment.

In recent times, Internet connected technologies and applications have seen tremendous growth as everyone is inclined to enjoy the benefits offered by them. An upcoming technology called Internet of Things (IoT) has increased the capacity of internet to take in numerous computing devices. With respect to the prevailing IP-based Security Protocol (SecP) suites, which rely on the conventions of Network Topology (NT) and device and network (n/w) abilities to decide on the designs of the employed Security Mechanisms (SecM). In this work, we address by putting forth a unified IoT framework model dependent on the Mobile Security IP IoT Architecture (MSIP-IoT-A) which exclusively concentrates on supporting Sec for the IoT. The model suggested by us, brings together local IoT systems with the global Internet with no loss in its usage, ability of cross operation and protecting the Sec. An Internet of Things (IOT) – Name Determination Check (NDC) is proposed as the main part of the middleware layer by us in this article and we also generate a We propose an IoT-NDC as a core component of the, and develop a not so heavy but light keying protocol capable of establishing a trust amid an IoT device and the IoT-NDC. Moreover, we attempt of identify and fix this issue by suggesting a peer-to-peer SecP for fulfilling a range of environment. We have applied safe communication (comm.) upon an open sourced platform for the IoT. Ultimately, with assessment and studies with the help of models and data from the SecPlogic, we conclude that the suggested methodology is effective to fulfill the mentioned objective and can be used for the platform.

Background: Alterations in human voice occur frequently and patients usually complain of hoarseness of voice. Laryngeal paralysis is an important differential diagnosis in patients complaining change of voice. Because of simplicity and ease, maximum phonation time (MPT) and S/Z ratio have become the most frequently used clinical tools to assess phonatory mechanics. Published research studying analysis of MPT and S/Z ratio in patients with vocal cord paralysis (VCP) is scanty. Hence this study was taken up to study MPT and S/Z ratios in patients with laryngeal paralysis.Methods: 62 patients with VCP were included in our study. Complete history was taken and examination was done in all patients. VCP was confirmed by indirect laryngoscopic examination. The MPT and S/Z ratios were evaluated in a quiet room. Data was analyzed using IBM SPSS Version 22.Results: Mean MPT in males with VCP was 6.71±0.54 and in females it was 6.80±2. Mean S/Z ratio in males was 1.69±0.54, in females 1.59±0.35. The difference between laterality of VCP and MPT was statistically highly significant and the difference between laterality of VCP and S/Z ratio was also statistically highly significant. Our study shows no statistically significant difference in MPT and S/Z ratio with respect to age and gender. There was a significant negative correlation between MPT and S/Z ratio. Conclusions: Irrespective of age and gender MPT and S/Z ratio are simple and effective objective clinical tests to diagnose paralytic laryngeal pathologies. As laryngeal pathology heals on treatment MPT and S/Z ratio are expected to normalize indicating therapeutic progress.

After the advance of NC technology to CNC technology there are attempts to bring openness in the control to bring modularity, flexibility and accuracy in the system to replace proprietary controllers. To experiment the same a portable open architecture-based CNC machine is developed for engraving application. Open source software’s are used to identify the contour, generate CNC g-code and microcontrollers to execute the motion control. The mechanical structure is developed to meet the requirement of low cost without sacrificing the accuracy. Besides the accuracy of the profile to be machined, feed rate is another criterion which should be achieved as it is intended in the program. The 3 axis CNC structure is developed and tested satisfactorily for the targeted performance.