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In this paper, an antenna synthesis process is investigated for Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) application. The wireless communication between Road Side Units (RSUs) and On Board Units (OBUs) located in the vehicles enables smart mobility. However, to support high speed vehicles and high data rates, a wider coverage area by the RSU antennas projected on the highway is required. This is defined by the radiation patterns of the RSU antennas. On a multi-lane highway, interference from the adjacent lanes is a critical issue which determines the communication reliability in terms of Single-to-Interference plus Noise Ratio (SINR). Hence, in this paper, an interference-aware antenna synthesis process is proposed and a planar array is optimized based on the objective function of obtaining a wide coverage area in terms of SINR distribution for a given modulation scheme. The proposed antenna array enhances the reliable communication area and provides improved SINR distribution across the lane for misaligned vehicles from the center of the lane. The results indicate that the proposed antenna array performs better than the existing designs in terms of communication reliability.

All the countries are facing serious problems affecting their economic growth. In 2020, many countries faced negative GDP per capita growth due to the coronavirus pandemic. Therefore, this chapter investigates how coronavirus (COVID-19) affected international trade (IT) and how this changed over time. Secondly, the authors analyzed how international trade collapsed. Thirdly, the chapter highlights the negative effects of COVID-19 on international trade including economic sectors. Furthermore, it discussed the opportunities and forthcoming policies and what kinds of actions have been taken by the government bodies.

Formaldehyde is extensively and commonly used in Department of Anatomy for preservation of biological specimens as well as cadavers. Formaldehyde being a noxious chemical, may cause respiratory health problems among 1st year medical students attending dissection periodically as a part of MBBS curriculum. The following study was planned to observe the effect of formaldehyde vapours on heart rate, blood pressure, percentage oxygen saturation (SpO2) and respiratory rate of 1st year medical students who are routinely exposed to formalin vapours periodically. Randomly selected fifty medical students [Mean (SD) age of 18.94 (0.65) years] were assessed within 1week of admission to college and re-examined at intervals of 1 month and 6 months. Data was entered in Microsoft Excel and was analysed using Epi Info software version 7. There was a decrease in heart rate, systolic blood pressure, SpO2 values and respiratory rate (on comparing values after 6 months with that of baseline values) but it was not statistically significant. But it may be statistically significate after 1 year of periodical exposure and it could also be due to lower quantity of formalin exposure owing to the proper ventilation of the dissection hall as per the MCI regulations. KEY WORDS: Formaldehyde, heat rate, blood pressure, SpO2, respiratory rate.

This paper presents an analysis of microstrip patch antennas with different dielec-tric/magnetic substrate profiles in an attempt to obtain operating frequency reduction. Initially, different ridge shapes in the substrate were examined. An in-depth investigation of the ridge shape and its dimensions on the antenna performance has been carried out. Subsequently an antenna with a magnetic-slab loaded in the prime magnetic-field region beneath the patch is proposed. The new magnetic loaded antenna design is aimed to reduce the resonant frequency of a conventional patch and reduce the profile of an earlier design with a substrate ridge. Various magnetic materials have been embedded within the original dielectric substrate of the patch antenna. Measured results validated the hypothesis that this frequency can be reduced by placing magnetic materials at the centre of the patch. The achieved gain is expected to be further enhanced by using forthcoming magnetic materials with improved performance.

The aim of this article is two-fold. Firstly, it identifies and maps out a new presence in race discourse in the UK arts and higher education, under the heading of 'US Black Critical Thought'. Secondly, it seeks to situate 'US Black Critical Thought' and its growing impact upon intellectual and aesthetic discourses on race in the UK through the lens of the longer-term project of 'Black British Cultural Studies'. The article traces the formation and eventual dissolving of 'Black British Cultural Studies' from the early 1980s to the late 1990s, and suggests that 'US Black Critical Thought' has energised a cohort of younger thinkers and artists in Britain, following a period where the intellectual left side-lined race as a serious category of theoretical or critical analysis.

A bendable ultra‐high frequency (UHF) radio‐frequency identification (RFID) tag antenna using nonuniform meandered lines for retail garments in the textile industry is presented. Based on an earlier UHF RFID tag antenna using nonuniform meandered lines, the proposed tag is fully bendable and aimed to be embedded in retail garments for long‐life cycles. As a result, a relatively low cost, wideband, compactness, and good conjugate matching with good dipole‐like read range is presented. Results showed an antenna with a wide bandwidth of 900 MHz and a long read range of 10.1 m making the UHF RFID tag antenna using nonuniform meandered lines a potential candidate for retail garments in bendable applications of the textile industry. Simulations are corroborated by measurements and are in fairly agreement.

This paper addresses the angular misalignment problem in the far-field Microwave Power Transfer systems operating at 5.8GHz using the proposed 3D polarized field-forming technique. A 3D rotating E-field is generated by using a distributed antenna system to achieve this objective. The system is analyzed to understand the effect of 3D rotating E-field in comparison to the 2D E-field (circular polarization). The analytical results are verified using a commercial simulator and prove the potential of the proposed 3D polarized field-forming technique to achieve an orientation-insensitive MPT system to power a freely rotating receiver node.

Development of photo-bioreactors (PBRs) has been accelerated owing to their potential application in the production of algal biofuel. But the application of PBRs should be looked beyond fuel and towards feed items/wastewater treatment solutions it can provide. The PBRs discussed in the review are broadly divided into two major categories, that is, open and closed type. The open PBRs are simple open pond systems while closed ones include vertical, flat plate, tubular, foil and recently developed porous substrate bioreactor. The efficiency of all PBRs depends on the surface-to-volume illumination ratio apart from mixing. The recently developed porous substrate bioreactor is technologically superior to its predecessors in terms of water usage and does not require biomass separation. The authors emphasize on the development of PBRs with the hope that their success would match as that of solar energy panels for power generation which have come a long way from the laboratory to real-world applications.

Ultra-wide band (UWB) is an attractive technology for innovative in-vehicle wireless communications requiring high data rates and multiband orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (MB-OFDM) a suitable scheme for the accomplishment due to its high performance, low-power and low-cost characteristics. To contribute toward improved UWB MB-OFDM communications inside vehicles, a channel-based antenna synthesis technique to customise in-vehicle UWB antennas that reduce ‘blind spots’ in the communication channel is proposed and presented. For the realisation, a comprehensive analysis was utilised and comprised an in-car channel evaluation including bit-error-rate (BER) estimations and radiation pattern-and-source syntheses. The channel was measured using a standard antenna to set up the base of the experiments and the distribution of the impulse responses and signal-to-noise ratios in the vehicle's passenger plane shown. The currently available IEEE 802.15.3a channel models were perceived unrealistic for the in-vehicle application and the reason for measuring the channel practically. Using these specific channel measurements, the synthesised pattern is unveiled and consequently the channel-based antenna synthesis technique used to predict the antenna source. The antenna with optimised pattern-and-source showed an improved BER performance compared with the standard antenna in this application; that is, a figure of merit of 37.73% minimised ‘blind spots’.

In this era of technology, data storage and its management plays an important role. Every organization include loads of data, storing and managing bundle of data is a major issue. A convenient approach is required to handle it so that accessing and updating it become simple and easy. Apart from storage and management, freelancing is an emerging trend nowadays. It requires programming languages and their frameworks to cater to the consumer interests. Yet the availability of all frameworks on a single system is an arduous task which can be eradicated by creating our own database for the purpose of data storage, multiple system usage and software development. But it is costly and time-consuming task. For proper utilization of time, money and space, Cloud Computing comes into play these days. Therefore, in this module, we will discuss about Cloud Computing its working, deployment and service mode of Cloud Computing along with their pros and cons.

In this paper, a novel trapezoidal multi-coil antenna is proposed to mitigate lateral misalignment in wireless charging application of electric vehicles (EVs). The proposed coil antenna used at the transmitter is optimized to improve stability of induced voltage which intern is expected to provide a stable power transfer efficiency over a wide range of vehicle’s misalignment. The proposed design adopts an isosceles trapezoid shape after analytical optimization and consists of three series connected coils placed at the top faces of the structure. The magnetic field distribution originated from this complex geometry is analytically modeled and optimized to obtain wider uniformity in the induced voltage of the receiver coil as compared to a conventional planar antenna. The design is verified using commercial EM software and results are corroborated. The results show that the proposed antenna provides enhanced tolerance towards misalignment is proved to be a potential design for wireless powering application of EVs.

Retinoblastoma (RB) is the most common paediatric intraocular tumour. Currently, chemotherapy is widely used to reduce the chance of metastasis as well as for vision salvage. The limitations of chemotherapy for RB include chemoresistance and cytotoxicity. Recently, immunotherapy is considered for treating chemoresistant cancers. Although, several molecular targets are available for immunotherapy in different cancers, we were interested in B7H3, as it was differentially expressed between retinoblastoma and retina in our earlier proteomics study. Hence, in this study we validated the previous finding by Western blotting and immunohistochemistry on primary RB tumor samples. The results suggest significantly increased expression of B7H3 in RB tumor samples compared to retina by western blotting. Immunohistochemistry revealed spatial, inter and intratumoral heterogeneity in the primary RB tumor sections. Correlation of the B7H3 expression with clinical and histopathological data revealed significantly increased expression of B7H3 in poorly differentiated, non-neural invasive tumors and lower expression in neural invasion and severe anaplastic areas of the tumors. B7H3 expression did not significantly vary between low-risk and high-risk tumors. The study also revealed considerably reduced infiltration of T lymphocytes in RB. We conclude that B7H3 is prominently expressed in primary RB tumors and could be used for targeted therapy.

A miniaturized wideband Vivaldi antenna is presented in this paper. The proposed antenna is compact in size, has wide bandwidth and high radiation efficiency. The proposed antenna is simulated and fabricated on FR-4 substrate with overall dimensions of 20 × 17 mm2. The resonating frequency of the reported design is observed as 5.8GHz and impedance bandwidth is 2.67GHz (4.94GHz - 7.61GHz). The simulated radiation efficiency and gain are approximately 98.9% and 3.66dBi, respectively. The proposed design finds its applications in IoT, 5G, Wireless LAN (WLAN), Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) and Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID).

Bio composites offer a significant market in automotive and decking market but application in other sectors has been limited. An attempt has been made for the preparation of bio-degradable, eco-friendly green composites using the Coconut fiber and wheat husk weight with corn cob in the varying ratio. The various blends were molded and subjected to heating at 40°C for 48 hrs, Composite of coconut husk and wheat husk in the ratio of 15:85 gave the best tensile strength, this can be attributed to fibrous nature of coconut husk which has influence on tensile strength. The intertwining of the coconut husk initiates the crack propagation so the material shows the UTS of 7N/mm2 with a strain of 26% but with a stair-stepping stress-strain curve. Addition of corn makes this composite material into a hybrid composite. The proposed green composites are promising because they are renewable, biodegradable, and are better alternatives for non renewable composites.

Magnetic-field (H-Field) forming using planar multicoil transmitter antenna is presented. To address angular misalignment in inductive coupling systems, three orthogonal H-field components are formed in near-field zone of the transmitter antenna. This proposed magnetic field forming is performed by analyzing near-field distributions of various combinations of spatially distributed coils. The analytical study evolves into the planar multicoil design achieving three orthogonal components of H-field formed in target receiver area. The proposed antenna is realized in printed circuit board technology, simulated, and measured to validate the claim. The results corroborated with the analytical results and proved potential of the proposed design suitable for inductive coupling based applications like radio frequency identification, wireless charging, near-field communication, and medical implantation.

A multipurpose near- and far-field switched multiband reader antenna for radio frequency identification (RFID) applications is presented. The proposed antenna is simple, planar, and has three modes of operating frequencies: 915 MHz, 2.45 GHz, and 5.8 GHz. The prototype is realized using nonuniformly distributed turns coil for robust reactive and radiated field performance, leading to a multipurpose near- and far-field antenna in a single unit. Results show performance of the proposed multipurpose antenna in both near-field and far-field region and demonstrate its suitability for various RFID applications.

By reflecting on running the open-access online “race” journal darkmatter, the author examines the crisis of academic journal publishing. This crisis is manifested by the transformations in the economics of journal production, especially with the rise of open-access publishing and the neoliberalization of the academy; the developments in digital communications; and the global consolidation of Western corporate publishing power in “info-capitalism.” The evolution of darkmatter is poised in terms of negotiating this crisis as opportunity and risk. The digital journal is able to produce a range of multimedia outputs addressing the interdisciplinary fields of race and postcolonial study. The challenge of emerging Web projects and the proliferation of online information potentially repositions darkmatter as the privileged site for the publication of scholarly research. The essay speculates on this critical journal in a time of “information overload” as a site of “autonomous resistance” in the increasing commodification of knowledge.

This paper describes design and fabrication of dessert cooler with certain modifications so that it can be used as low cost air conditioner. The cooling in conventional cooler is done along Wet Bulb Temperature line that reduces Dry Bulb Temperature but simultaneously it increases specific humidly. This paper aims to reduce this humidity with the use of peltier module. This system provides better results than that of conventional cooler. The only disadvantage observed; is long time required to get the desired cooling effect.

Population science provides a helpful hand to determine the impact of deadly infectious communicable diseases such as tuberculosis, among other viral and bacterial infections, on the population [1–3]. Timely information on these diseases aids in reducing risk, incidence and deaths associated with these diseases. It also helps to improve the quality of life for survivors. These research projects provided a common platform for clinical, basic and population scientists to work collectively to further improve individual and population health. Recent trends in genetic, epidemiology, [4–6] applied and surveillance researches provided useful clues to reduce the impact of spread of infectious diseases worldwide. Many studies, associated with population science in disease control, help in many ways to control the infectious diseases, such as: 1. It improves understanding of the influence of pathogenic deadly diseases on the population, including hereditary (genetic) and environmental factors that may influence a person’s risk of getting infected [7–10]. 2. It may help in elucidating and understanding health problems among the population due to the influence of diseases and their pharmacological treatment or other preventive measures. 3. These studies facilitate the discovery of new treatments and the most effective ways to prevent diseases. 4. The study of population science enables rapid detection of infection among the population and also prospective cost-effectiveness analysis for treatment.

Introduction: Spinal myoclonus under regional anaesthesia necessitates awareness about its manifestation with a framework for immediate plan of action. Case: A 52 year old male patient posted for open reduction and internal fixation with Interlocking nail for both bone leg fracture lower limbs. Combined spinal and epidural anesthesia (CSE) was administered. He developed abnormal movements in lower limb after 2hrs of subarachnoid block. These uncoordinated movements initially thought to be due to weaning of the effect of spinal anesthesia were later found to be spinal myoclonus which resolved over a period of three hours after giving GABA agonists. Conclusion: Spinal myoclonus, a rare disorder requires high clinical suspicion of the entity for diagnosis and can be managed successfully with GABA agonist drugs. Keywords: Combined spinal and epidural anaesthesia, Myoclonus, GABA agonist.

Aim: In the present study, a therapeutic trial was conducted to assess comparative efficacy of crystalloid plus colloid and crystalloid intravenous infusions alone as fluid therapy in dogs suffering from hemorrhagic gastroenteritis (HGE). Materials and Methods: 20 dogs manifesting HGE, presented at Teaching Veterinary Clinical Services Complex, Ludhiana, Punjab, were selected randomly for the trial. All of them were observed to suffer from moderate dehydration on clinical examination. Crystalloids 5% DNS and RL were used in combination with polygelin 3.5% colloidal solution in the first group (Combination I) and in the second group, the afore-said crystalloids (Combination II) were used, both groups consisting of 10 cases each. Antibiotics and symptomatic treatment were same for all the 20 cases. The outcome of both treatment groups was evaluated on hemato-biochemical parameters, before and after administration of the therapies and compared statistically within and between the two groups. Hemato-biochemical parameters of eight clinically healthy animals were considered as control for comparison. Result: On hemato-biochemical examination, significant alterations were observed in leucogram, platelet and serum globulin concentration after the treatment in the first group as compared to before treatment values. In the second group, mean hemoglobin varied significantly after the treatment. After therapies were administered, significant difference in serum globulin level and albumin: Globulin was found in between the treatment groups (Combination I and Combination II). Clinical recovery was faster in the first group than the second group of animals. Conclusion: On hemodynamic and laboratory data, efficacies of both the fluid therapies were equivocal. Colloidal solutions may hasten recovery in small animals suffering from gastrointestinal crisis.

This paper describes design and fabrication of air conditioning system that uses solar evaporation to obtain cooling. The basic idea was to design a system that is affordable, consumes less energy and gives the same effect as that of the conventional air conditioner. This system provides satisfactory results. The only disadvantage observed; is long time required to get the desired cooling effect.

Purpose – The current situation in India concerning the implementation of the Stockholm Convention on persistent organic pollutants (POPs), aimed at regulating their production and use has been examined. The purpose of this paper is to present data on the quantities of POPs generated and accumulated in the country. Measures for environmental sound management of POPs and effective implementation of the Stockholm Convention have been recommended. Design/methodology/approach – A national implementation plan (NIP), presenting the status and inventory of POPs in India was developed. Ground-level situation of 12 POPs were assessed through inventorization, samples collection, analysis and interpretations. Findings – As per the inventory of POPs; to date, the total amount of polychlorinated biphenyls is assessed as up to 28,000 MT in the power sector and total quantity of date-expired obsolete pesticides stock was around 47,000 kg. The total emission of dioxins was estimated to be ∼8.7 kg toxic equivalent, with the main contributions coming from waste incineration followed by ferrous and non-ferrous metal production. There are gaps in the implementation, in terms of existing legal and regulatory framework and Stockholm Convention requirements. Practical implications – The analysis, results and recommendations presented would be useful for other developing countries in a comparable position to India confronting similar challenges of POPs management. Originality/value – During the development of the NIP, primary data on POPs were collected and assessed. This perhaps is the first research paper from India on the status and environmental management framework of POPs listed under various Annexes of the Stockholm Convention.

We consider image transmission using multiple description transform coding (MDTC) over orthogonal frequency division multiplexed (OFDM) wireless broadcast channels, where the system may not have any feedback on channel gains. We investigate the redundancy allocation in MDTC-OFDM system, physical layer frequency diversity, and decoding strategies to maximize the quality of reconstruction. Via mathematical analysis, supported by MATLAB simulations, we show that, error resilience of the descriptions can be increased by suitable assignment of coding redundancy in the transform modules at the source, which can be further optimized if the channel characteristics are known at the transmitter. Additionally, the relative performance of the MDTC-OFDM system is studied with respect to a competitive approach, called forward error correction based multiple description coding (MDC) over OFDM, where we show that, for the same redundancy assignment, the MDTC based system performs better under harsh channel conditions.

Background: The World Health Organization Global TB report reported that TB ranks alongside HIV as a leading cause of death worldwide. Evidence based studies revealed that knowledge and awareness has a substantial impact on the prevention of HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis. This study was conducted to compare the awareness and knowledge of high school children regarding HIV and TB in the rural and urban areas and to assess the impact of educational intervention on the same.Methods: One school each from rural and urban field practice area was selected by purposive sampling technique. A total of 205 high school students were included in the study by total enumeration method. An interventional study was conducted regarding awareness and knowledge about TB and HIV/AIDS by means of health talk and help of audio visual aids. The data was collected in a predesigned self administered questionnaire by pretest and post test method.Results: The total of 205 students participated in the study. Majority of the respondent have correct knowledge regarding the causative agent of TB (38.5%) with 28.4% in rural and 48.5% in urban area. Moreover majority of the respondent correctly elicited the causative agent of HIV/AIDS (52.6%) with 44.1% in rural and 61.1% in urban area. Overall the intervention had a substantial effect on the awareness and knowledge level of the students regarding HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis.Conclusions: Although awareness among the masses is there but right knowledge and practice plays a pivotal role in improving the health status and awareness of the community.

In the form of a discussion the founding editors of darkmatter journal reflect on the challenges of developing an online race project in the neoliberal context of knowledge production. The independent open access journal, operating at the borders of academia and cultural production, attempts to grasp the shifting contours of contemporary race and racism in a networked postcolonial world. Against the limitations of solely working within disciplines such as Postcolonial or Cultural Studies, darkmatter brings into dialogue a diverse range of conceptual frameworks to address the proliferation of race discourses. Interrogating and reworking the developments in digital publishing, the project constructs a space for the exploration and dissemination of race thinking and creating relations between different fields, sites and groups. The threats posed by the info-colonialism of corporate academic publishing are transversed through the evolution of darkmatter with its experiments in techno-cultural design and innovations in autonomous working practices.

A design study of coil antennas aimed to be used as Interrogators in high-frequency (HF) radio frequency identification (RFID) is presented. The magnetic field (H-field) of the coil is enhanced by defining optimally the number of turns of the antenna, and optimizing and exploiting the internal area of an initial coil. The distributed turns coil antennas are designed for highest possible H-field without compromising the Q-factor of the antenna with respect to an initial design. To achieve best solution, a non-uniformly distributed turns design is proposed and whose radiating elements are formulated accordingly. The analytical and simulated results show reasonable agreement to validate the designs. The enhanced H-field of the antenna shows an unconstrained Q-factor, indicates a potential rise to the interrogating coverage and as a result a higher efficient antenna.

This article presents a design study of a coil antenna with enhanced magnetic field (H-field), aimed to be used as an interrogator in high frequency radio frequency identification. To achieve this, the number of loops of the antenna are refined by optimizing and exploiting the inner area of an initial coil, using distributed loops, unconstrained inductance and comparable Q-factor (for a fair comparison) with respect to an initial design. The analytical and simulated results show reasonable agreement to validate the design. The enhanced H- field of the antenna shows an unconstrained Q-factor, indicates a potential rise to the interrogating coverage and hence, resulting in more efficient antenna. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 55:944–948, 2013; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com. DOI: 10.1002/mop.27406

Among the different assets tracking solutions Radio Frequency IDentification RFID is a promising technology for in-car communications due to its relatively low cost deployment and real time monitoring and processes. In this paper, a hidden, miniature, narrow band antenna of dimensions 0.18λ×0.20λ×0.005λ is presented which is easy to manufacture using conductive paint sprayed over a car body. The design relies on a resonator, a negative image of the radiator for improved efficiency when in close proximity to ground planes and is suited for use in radio frequency identification networks using the unlicensed RFID band (865.6- 867.6 MHz) is described. The term miniature comes from the fact that the antenna is physically small given the low proximity and insensitivity to the ground plane which facilitates a possible coating layer over the antenna for hidden applications.

The most important concern regarding a power system is the quality of its power. The main cause of most of the issues is nonlinear loads only. Shunt Active Power Filter (SAPF) has turned out to be a good solution to solve this problem because of its ability to fulfill the harmonic and reactive power components demand of the nonlinear loads. This paper presents comprehensive analysis of comparison of performance of five control techniques for reference currents extraction for SAPF under balanced, un-balanced and distorted voltage condition. The techniques to be compared are symmetrical components based technique, IRP theory, generalized IRP theory, SRF method, and synchronous detection method respectively those are widely used in SAPF implementation. These all techniques have been simulated in MATLAB/SIMULINK environment. The theoretical study and simulation testing shows the performance and accuracy of considered techniques in case of balanced unbalanced and distorted source voltage conditions.

A microbial consortium was developed by continuous enrichment of bacterial population isolated from sediment core of pulp and paper mill effluent in mineral salts medium (MSM) supplemented with pentachlorophenol (PCP) as sole source of carbon and energy in the chemostat. The enriched consortium contained three bacterial strains identified as Escherichia coli (PCP1), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PCP2) and Acinetobacter sp. (PCP3) by morphological and biochemical tests, further confirmation was done using 16S rDNA sequence analysis. The potency of bacterial isolates in degradation of PCP was monitored in terms of growth and utilization of PCP as substrate with spectrophotometer and gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer (GC-MS) analysis. The strains were tested for their utilization of various organic compounds. The strain PCP3, showed higher potency to utilize PCP as sole source of carbon and energy than PCP1 and PCP2. The bacterial strain were able to utilize PCP through an oxidative and reductive route as indicated with the formation of tetrachloro-p-hydroquinone (TeCH), 2-chloro-1,4-benzenediol and 2,3,4,6-tetrachlorophenol, respectively.

Objective Since it was first described, normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH) and its treatment by means of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) shunting have been the focus of much investigation. Whatever be the cause of NPH, it has been hypothesized that in this disease there occurs decreased arterial expansion and an increased brain expansion leading to increased transmantle pressure. We cannot measure the latter, but fortunately the effect of these changes (increased peak flow velocity through the aqueduct) can be quantified with cine phase-contrast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). This investigation was thus undertaken to characterize and measure CSF peak flow velocity at the level of the aqueduct, before and after lumbar CSF drainage, by means of a phase-contrast cine MRI and determine its role in selecting cases for shunt surgery. Patients and methods 37 patients with clinically suspected NPH were included in the study. Changes in the hyperdynamic peak CSF flow velocity with 50 ml lumbar CSF drainage (mimicking shunt) were evaluated in them for considering shunt surgery. Results 14 out of 15 patients who were recommended for shunt surgery, based on changes peak flow velocity after lumbar CSF drainage, improved after shunt surgery. None of the cases which were not recommended for shunt surgery, based on changes in CSF peak flow velocity after lumbar CSF drainage, improved after shunt surgery (2 out of 22 cases). Conclusion The study concluded that the phase-contrast MR imaging, done before and after CSF drainage, is a sensitive method to support the clinical diagnosis of normal pressure hydrocephalus, selecting patients of NPH who are likely to benefit from shunt surgery, and to select patients of NPH who are not likely to benefit from shunt surgery.

Non-uniformly Distributed-Turns Coil (NDTC) antennas are specifically arranged to widespread the overall reactive field in multipurpose near-field applications e.g., the reading/interrogating and wireless power transfer (charging mats), while permitting their inherent robust H-field using earlier reported NDTC antennas to form the array. The proposed array consists of five NDTC antennas cautiously arranged and will be shown to optimally widespread the effective area of the antenna by 4.3 times. Simulated results are provided and corroborate the widespreading of the reactive field with robust H-field at HF 13.56MHz. A further widening of the reactive field in principle can be obtained using more NDTC antenna elements.

Ultra-wideband (UWB) is a very attractive technology for innovative in-car wireless communications requiring high data rates. A designated antenna, which presents a reflection coefficient (S11) matched band comparable to the band-pass filter (BPF) normally required at the transducers, plays a positive contribution in this in-car application and was validated for the scenario. The inherited BPF-like response of the antenna relaxes the specification of the front-end BPF components of the transceivers. The in-car propagation channel was modelled and used to validate the BPF-like antenna. For the modelling, a comprehensive set of well-defined measurements (using a standard antenna) were used to set-up the in-car channel simulator and simulated results were used to validate the BPF-like antenna. In addition, the performance of the UWB radio system is studied and the probability of errors over the communication channel compared using the standard and the BPF-like antenna by predictions. This work has been part-funded by the European Union.

A directly printed antenna onto a can body using copper conductive paint and suited for Radio Frequency Identification Wireless LAN (RFID-WLAN) tag applications is presented. The antenna unit is low-cost and compact, provide reasonable gain, and serve prospect RFID transponders with a range of IC impedances. The antenna is fabricated with dimensions of 0.18λ × 0.20λ × 3.61e-4λ and is relaxed from manufacturing. A design study has been carried out to assess the tuning of the characteristic impedance of the antenna. Return loss, load impedance, and radiation patterns are shown. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 55:773–775, 2013; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com. DOI: 10.1002/mop.27458

A unique methodology of two-directional creation of fertility gradient with chemical fertilizers in one direction and organic manures in the opposite direction of the experimental field (60 x 40 m) was devised by Dr. B. Ramamoorthy for soil test - crop response (STCR) correlation research. This unique methodology has been adopted in the All India Coordinated Soil Test - Crop Response Correlation project of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) for over 4 decades at 25 Cooperating centres in the country at present on a range of soils and crops and validated through hundreds of demonstration trials in farmers’ fields. The “Law of optimum” propounded by Ramamoorthy and Velayutham (2011) as the unifying concept in plant nutrition, is an experimentally proven concept for soil test based major plant nutrients (N, P and K) applications to crops for desired targeted yields, based on the derivation of three parameters from standard soil test - crop response factorial field experiments, namely 1) per cent contribution (efficiency) from the soil available nutrients (Cs) as estimated by chemical soil tests in soil testing laboratory, 2) per cent contribution of nutrients from added fertilisers (Cf) and manures (Cm) and 3) nutrient requirement of the crop (kg/ton) as estimated from yield and plant nutrient uptake data from STCR field experiments. The principles underlying the “Law of minimum”, “Law of diminishing returns” and “Law of the maximum” governing plant nutrition are not only embedded in the “Law of optimum” but also provides a basis for “Balanced fertilisation”. The scope for extensive use of the “Targeted yield” approach on the basis of derivation of the efficiencies of soil and fertilizer nutrients is discussed..