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Concerning the national biofuel policies in India, increasing plant-based fuels and lowering the use of fossil diesel in CI engines reduces the burden on foreign exchange and carbon footprints in the environment, which helps achieve “net-zero carbons emissions.” In this present study, Mahua biodiesel (BD) was used here as an ignition energy source, and CNG/ethanol (Et) was used here as the primary energy source replacing the biodiesel with a significant energy share during the combustion process. The effects of various injection and reactivity phasing strategies on a diesel engine’s combustion characteristics has been evaluated here. However, effect of this combustion characteristics on the corresponding performance and emission has also been evaluated here. This study revealed the ignition delay (ID) and combustion duration (CD) trade-off for almost every combustion phase achieved here during the testing. This analysis also incorporates the widespread effect of combustion characteristics on the performance and emission behavior of the diesel engine for both types of fuel combinations, that is, CNG + BD and Et + BD operation. For example, the lowest ID for CNG enriched combustion was 26.62% greater than ethanol enriched combustion, signifying that the ethanol delayed the start of ignition at polit-main angle of 35°-05° CA. Hence, NHC, PM, and CO2 emissions registered a lower footprint for CNG-BD operation, while ethanol-BD mode reported lower CO emission. However, ethanol-enriched combustion registered a 31.25% higher maximum CD than CNG-coupled operation, signifying a more extended period of energy release. CNG-BD operation also observed lower NHC, CO, and CO2 footprint corresponding to maximum combustion duration, and ethanol-BD mode reported lower PM emission.

The paper introduces a novel modular estimation approach for lateral vehicle and tire dynamics using a simplified vehicle model and a non-linear estimation algorithm. A dynamics-oriented representation of lateral tire forces with a single track lateral vehicle model (STVM) has been introduced. Subsequently, extended Kalman filter (EKF) based distributed observer modules for each dynamical parameter has been designed and combined into a Unified Estimation Scheme (UES). Finally, a linear quadratic regulator (LQR) based Active Front Steering (AFS) control system has been designed using the estimated parameters. The accuracy and computational efficiency of the designed scheme has been analyzed and compared to non-modular UKF, EKF, and Particle Filter (PF) algorithms, through Monte-Carlo Simulations using the CarSim dataset for both high and low [Formula: see text] surfaces, followed by further validation using real-time dataset. The results show that the proposed system significantly improve the accuracy and speed of estimation, as well as stable performance in closed loop control.

In this article, we explore the duality and performativity of bodies as they move through multiple social, sexual and fiscal economies of Kolkata. We offer the story of Sonia, a middle-aged feminin...

Tonsillectomy is an age old procedure in ENT practice. Though traditional dissection method is gold standard, we surgeons are trying different techniques like electrocautery, coblation, harmonic scalpel (HS) mainly to improve surgical convenience, to decrease operative time, post operative pain, intra and post operative bleeding and fast return to normal life. In this particular study we are comparing coblation and HS as surgical tool in tonsillectomy. It is a prospective double-blind randomized controlled trial where information was compared between two groups of coblation and HS tonsillectomy. A total number of 128 patients were compared over operation time, intra-operative blood loss, postoperative pain, time needed to regain the normal diet and activity and postoperative haemorrhage. We found statistically significant differences in operation time (p

PID controller is widely used in industries because of its simplicity and robustness. A Simple approach to improve regulatory control performance is to design an advanced controller based on specific desired criteria. In this paper, a theoretical closed loop model of the Level-flow control trainer is developed using standard TF estimation method. The tuning of Single loop PID controller is done in MATLAB by Genetic Algorithm & Harmony Search Algorithm and the latter one gives the better performance. So, HSA is chosen for the advanced controller tuning. The values obtained from HSA are used for getting the real-time response of the system for cascade control and feed forward control strategy. A faster response in case of feed forward and a better disturbance rejection in case of cascade controller are found. The frequency response (Bode Plot) of single variable process and multivariable process are compared and comment on relative stability has been made based on the Gain margin obtained from the frequency response analysis.

The design of controllers for multi-input multioutput systems are always complicated and difficult as compared to single-input single-output systems due to the interactions between inputs and outputs. These interactions are addressed in a quantitative manner using Interaction Measures. For ease of designing, the complex multi-input multi-output systems are assumed to be divided into several equivalent single loops and then the controllers are designed for these single loops differently. To simplify the tuning in case of failure tolerant systems, the decentralized controllers are used. The effective transfer function method is used for decentralized control of multi-input multi-output in this paper. This decentralized control method is compared with a centralized control which uses an interaction measure approach based on Hankel Interaction Index Array. Examples using both the methods are employed to show the effectiveness of the decentralized method over the centralized method. The effectiveness is shown by comparing the rise time, settling time and overshoot of the responses obtained from both the methods.

Nearly a fourth of all enzymatic activities is attributable to oxidoreductases, and the redox reactions supported by this vast catalytic repertoire sustain cellular metabolism. In many biological processes, reduction depends on hydride transfer from either reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH) or its phosphorylated derivative (NADPH). Despite longstanding efforts to regenerate NADPH by various methods and harness it to support chemoenzymatic synthesis strategies, the lack of product purity has been a major deterrent. Here, we demonstrate that a nanostructured heterolayer Ni–Cu2O–Cu cathode formed by a photoelectrochemical process has unexpected efficiency in direct electrochemical regeneration of NADPH from NADP+. Remarkably, two-thirds of NADP+ was converted to NADPH with no measurable production of the inactive (NADP)2 dimer and at the lowest reported overpotential [− 0.75 V versus Ag/AgCl (3 M NaCl) reference]. Sputtering of nickel on the copper-oxide electrode nucleated an unexpected surface morphology that was critical for high product selectivity. Our results should motivate design of integrated electrolyzer platforms that deploy this heterogeneous catalyst for direct electrochemical regeneration of NADH/NADPH, which is central to design of next-generation biofuel fermentation strategies, biological solar converters, energy-storage devices, and artificial photosynthesis.

This paper addresses the application of fractional order integrator in multiresolution controller to design new fractional order intelligent controller (FOIC) using packet wavelet transform in discrete demesne for laboratory scale single tank liquid level system (LLS). The essence of this approach is to reduce the complexity of integer order packet controller as well as to achieve the better tracking performance compared to fractional order proportional-integral (FOPI) controller, fractional order discrete wavelet based controller as well as integer order packet controller. In this paper, the effects of this new FOI controller are studied and NI LABVIEW based simulation results are shown. The results on LLS problem show that this fractional order simple tree structured packet controller (FOIC) achieves better tracking performance i.e. lower steady state error with zero overshoot compared to its integer order version as well as FOPI controller. Also, the results depict its performance efficacy i.e. faster dynamic response over fractional order discrete wavelet controller and it provides better noise rejection potency by improving signal to noise ratio than FOPI controller.

Industrial process control systems suffer from the overshoot problem. Designing the controller plant models by conventional Proportional Integral Derivative (PID) may increase the rise time, settling time and overshoot. Cascade control is a remedial measure undertaken to overcome these problems. In this paper, we present a new cascade model using fractional-order PIDs. The fractional-order cascade controller can be expressed by fractional-order differential equations. Different laws proposed in the field of fractional calculus form the theoretical part in evaluating the equations and designing the controllers. The new structure gives improved responses for the first-order and second-order systems with time delay. Better simulation results are obtained by introducing Smith predictor in primary and secondary loops. Detailed analyses have been done on the stability, performance criteria and disturbance rejection. The usefulness of this proposed cascade structure and its superiority over normal cascade are illustrated with examples.

This paper presents the design of a radial flux Brushless dc (BLDC) motor with a special type of permanent magnet arrangement known as Halbach-array magnet arrangement. Halbach-array magnets are placed in between the rotor poles and its magnetization is set in such a way so that it increases the overall air gap flux density. The performance of the Halbach-BLDC motor is analyzed. The aim of this paper is to compare the design and performances of a Halbach-BLDC motor with a conventional BLDC motor. The designs are tested using FEA solutions. The experiment shows that the Halbach-BLDC motor enhances the performance by increasing its speed, overall torque and the magnetic flux density. A 48V 0.5kW 8 pole Halbach-BLDC motor is designed and analysed using Ansys Maxwell software.

Oral cancer has been a major problem all across the globe, majorly in the developing countries. With a growing emphasis in the field of cancer research, the contribution of the tumour microenvironment has been gaining a lot of importance in identifying the role of components other than the tumour cells that cause the development of cancer, thus changing the outlook. The review will shed light on the studies that describe the role of microenvironment, its components as well as summarize the studies related to their mechanism in the progression of oral cancer. The literature for the review was derived mainly from Google Scholar and PubMed, in particular concentrating on the most recent papers published in 2019 and 2020, by using the keywords "Cancer, Oral Cancer, Metastasis, OSCC, Tumour microenvironment, CAFs, ECM, Cytokines, Hypoxia, Therapeutics targeting the microenvironment". The study provides insight into the world of micro-environmental regulation of oral cancer, the mechanism by which they interact and how to exploit it as a potential therapeutic haven for treating the disease. The components Cancer-Associated Fibroblasts (CAFs), Tumour-associated Macrophages (TAMs), Tumour-associated neutrophils (TANs), Hypoxic environment, myeloid-derived stem cells (MDSCs) and T regulatory (Tregs) cells and underlying mechanisms that control them will be the targets of study to understand the microenvironment.

Conventional repetitive controller has a prominent capability for tracking any periodic reference signal or attenuating periodically distributed signal due to its infinite dimensional property and the condition for that is the period of the periodic signal should be equal to the amount of delay in RC loop. But due to this infinite dimensional property, the practical system remains unstable in higher frequency range. Small changes in the frequency and phase of input signals results in instability. This paper presents a multiloop approach to compute High-Order Repetitive Controllers (HORC) that results in delivering a robust performance in terms of stability and model uncertainty along with internal uncertainty and unstructured model uncertainty. Here, the LTI system deals with multiplicative parametric uncertainty. A novel multiple loop structure is proposed to make the system robust enough to reject disturbance signal and stable in the presence of internal uncertainty and model uncertainty. The ability of disturbance rejection of the proposed HORC is performed through MATLAB simulation. A comparative study has been carried out among RC, FDRC and HORC.

A new controller based on discrete wavelet packet transform (DWPT) for liquid level system (LLS) has been presented here. This controller generates control signal using node coefficients of the error signal which interprets many implicit phenomena such as process dynamics, measurement noise and effect of external disturbances. Through simulation results on LLS problem, this controller is shown to perform faster than both the discrete wavelet transform based controller and conventional proportional integral controller. Also, it is more efficient in terms of its ability to provide better noise rejection. To overcome the wind up phenomenon by considering the saturation due to presence of actuator, anti-wind up technique is applied to the conventional PI controller and compared to the wavelet packet transform based controller. In this case also, packet controller is found better than the other ones. This similar work has been extended for analogous first order RC plant as well as second order plant also.

Ionic liquids (ILs) are used in lignocellulosic biomass (LCB) pretreatment because of their ability to disrupt the extensive hydrogen-bonding network in cellulose and hemicellulose, and thereby decrease LCB recalcitrance to subsequent enzymatic degradation. However, this approach necessitates the development of cellulases and hemicellulases that can tolerate ∼20% (w/v) IL, an amount that either co-precipitates with the sugar polymers after the initial pretreatment or is typically used in single-pot biomass deconstructions. By investigating the secretomes from 4 marine-derived fungal endophytes, we identified a β-xylosidase derived from Trichoderma harzianum as the most promising in terms of tolerating 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium-dimethyl phosphate (EMIM-DMP), an IL. When tested with p-nitrophenyl-β-d-xyloside, this extracellular xylosidase retained ∼50% activity even in 1.2 mol·L–1 (20% w/v) EMIM-DMP after incubation for 48 h. When tested on the natural substrate xylobiose, there was ∼85% of the initial activity in 1.2 mol·L–1 EMIM-DMP after incubation for 9 h and ∼80% after incubation for 48 h. Despite previous findings associating thermostability and IL tolerance, our findings related to the mesophilic T. harzianum β-xylosidase(s) emphasize the need to include the marine habitat in the bioprospecting dragnet for identification of new IL-tolerant LCB-degrading enzymes.

This work deals with the development of a low cost high resolution yarn characterization unit with optical sensor. The developed system can measure yarn average diameter, diameter variation over length, variation of yarn mass, yarn faults, number of hairs at specific distances from yarn core, mean absolute deviation and coefficient of variation in a single run. The most lucrative feature of the newly developed instrument is one hundredth times lower cost and 8 times higher resolution than the existing one. The sensor signal is fed to a high speed data acquisition system and custom made software to get yarn parameters when the yarn is passed in front of the sensor by mechanical setup. The output of the system is compared with the output of the widely used Tester for the said purpose. Moreover, unlike the standard tester, the newly developed instrument is able to furnish absolute mass and diameter of the yarn in real unit. These important parameters certainly give two important estimates for judging the final look of the fabric. The repeatability of results is insignificant in 0.5% level. Calibration is done by taking a standard wire. Jute and cotton yarns of different tex values are tested with the instrument and results are reported. FFT is also performed to provide equivalent frequency response of diameter/mass profile. It seems to be more significant representation of the parameters under consideration.

A new controller based on discrete wavelet packet transform (DWPT) for liquid level system (LLS) has been presented here. In this proposed controller, packet transform is used to decompose the error signal into different frequency nodes at various scales which represents many underlying phenomena such as process dynamics, noise and disturbances. These coefficients are scaled by their respective gains and then added together to generate the control signal. NI DAQ device is used to interface between the PC based controllers simulated in NI LABVIEW software to the real time RC plant analogous to LLS and a second order RLC plant. The performance of this controller has been studied and compared to the PI controller. From hardware results, this controller is shown to perform better than both the discrete wavelet transform (DWT) based proportional integral controller and PI controller. Also, it can handle noise more efficiently.

Financial liberalization is assumed to be the integration of a country's local financial system with international financial markets and institutions. This integration usually requires that governments liberalize the domestic financial sector and the capital account. Financial sectors were liberalized in most of the developing countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America within the early 1990s. Among these countries, emerging economies are those who promise huge potential for growth but also pose significant political, monetary, and social risks. Brazil and India are often compared among the major emerging economies. Despite these general similarities between them, there are notable differences in various aspects of opening the balance of payments capital account in both countries. In this chapter, we have tried to analyze the long-run as well as short-run relationship between quarterly growth rate of GDP with the stock market, real market, and money market macroeconomic variables in India and Brazil during the period from the first quarter of 1996–1997 to the second quarter of 2018–2019. To estimate the cointegration relationship between growth rate of GDP and its determinants, we employ the bounds testing procedure (modified-ARDL) developed by Pesaran, Shin, and Smith (2001, Journal of Applied Econometrics, 16(3), 289–326). According to our results, stock market plays a positive role in long-term growth in India. Although during the beginning period of the neoliberal reforms, India faced strong domestic political opposition, our study shows that liberalizing the financial market has been fruitful for long-term growth. Our results in case of Brazil show that inflation has a negative and significant impact on long-run growth rate of GDP. The results further show that the share of gross fixed capital formation in GDP in Brazil has a positive and significant long-run relation with the growth rate of GDP. The empirical results further indicate that just like India, liberalization of the financial market and allowing foreign capital inflows have been beneficial for the economy of Brazil in the long run.

To evaluate hearing results following canal wall down mastoidectomy with ossicular reconstruction for Chronic Suppurative Otitis Media of Active Squamosal variety & evaluate various factors related to surgery impacting hearing results. This prospective study involves 40 patients of active squamosal variety of chronic otitis media who attended ENT OPD and underwent canal wall down mastoidectomy with ossiculoplasty during the period from November 2014 to October 2015. All the patients were subjected to pre and 3 months post-op hearing assessment. Based on the hearing outcome, we expressed our study results into two groups, those with statistically significant improvement after surgery (T1) and those whose hearing got worsened or remained the same (T2). The mean post operative hearing gain of patients was 5.25 ± 7.30 dB, The median post-op hearing gain was 5.20 dB. Mean pre-operative hearing loss (AB gap) was 41.28 dB. Mean post-operative hearing loss (AB gap) was 36.24 with the average 3 months post-operative hearing gain was 5.2 dB, which reflects a definite improvement. There is a statistically significant hearing improvement (with an average of 5.2 dB AB gap closure) following Canal Wall Down Mastoidectomy with ossiculoplasty as established in the study.

Salmonellais a foodborne pathogen that causes annually millions of cases of salmonellosis globally, yet Salmonella-specific antibacterials are not available. During inflammation, Salmonella utilizes the Amadori compound fructose-asparagine (F-Asn) as a nutrient through the successive action of three enzymes, including the terminal FraB deglycase. Salmonella mutants lacking FraB are highly attenuated in mouse models of inflammation due to the toxic build-up of the substrate 6-phosphofructose-aspartate (6-P-F-Asp). This toxicity makes Salmonella FraB an appealing drug target, but there is currently little experimental information about its catalytic mechanism. Therefore, we sought to test our postulated mechanism for the FraB-catalyzed deglycation of 6-P-F-Asp (via an enaminol intermediate) to glucose-6-phosphate and aspartate. A FraB homodimer model generated by RosettaCM was used to build substrate-docked structures that, coupled with sequence alignment of FraB homologs, helped map a putative active site. Five candidate active-site residues-including three expected to participate in substrate binding-were mutated individually and characterized. Native mass spectrometry and ion mobility were used to assess collision cross sections and confirm that the quaternary structure of the mutants mirrored the wild type, and that there are two active sites/homodimer. Our biochemical studies revealed that FraB Glu214Ala, Glu214Asp, and His230Ala were inactive in vitro, consistent with deprotonated-Glu214 and protonated-His230 serving as a general base and a general acid, respectively. Glu214Ala or His230Ala introduced into the Salmonella chromosome by CRISPR/Cas9-mediated genome editing abolished growth on F-Asn. Results from our computational and experimental approaches shed light on the catalytic mechanism of Salmonella FraB and of phosphosugar deglycases in general.

This paper presents the design and implementation of an modified repetitive controller for periodic disturbance rejection of peristaltic pump. An observer based rejection of periodic disturbance is shown here for speed control of peristaltic pump. The input output data samples are taken over finite interval of time with an data acquisition system. Plant model is obtained by using the System Identification Toolbox in MATLAB. Fitness of the model is investigated by applying different dataset in order to achieve the best fit model. Simulation is performed using MATLAB. A comparative study on time domain performance of the system is carried out here to establish the effectiveness of the proposed controller in terms of time domain performances.

This article analyses food insecurity, poverty risk and inequality in different castes and religious groups in India by utilizing National Sample Survey Organisation’s (NSSO) household-level information between 1999–2000 and 2011–2012. The article provides an assessment of the socio-economic characteristics of food-insecure households of the country, and it finds that the poverty risk estimated on the basis of relative poverty line increased both in rural and urban India between 1999–2000 and 2011–2012. The study finds that the likelihood of incidence of food security for the population increased, irrespective of social and religious groups. Food security was lower in Muslims than in Hindus. The relative degree of food security was significantly less among the tribal people compared to other social groups.

In the context of protein crystallization, surface decorated with heterogeneous topographical features decreases the energy barrier for nucleation, thereby facilitating crystallization; a precipitant is, nevertheless, required to be used. Here we eliminate the need of such precipitant by using a combined effect of nanoscopic surface undulations and charges on a substrate. Using surface instabilities as a tool for generating such features on polymeric materials, we show that intrinsic curvature of nanofeatures (

Bending is a quiet common phenomenon and affects the performance of textiles. Technical textiles are subjected to different magnitude of bending force depending on applications. Hence, complete bending behaviour study is essential. Hence, an attempt has been made to develop a low cost mechanized and computerised system to study complete behaviour of bending specially for technical textiles. The modified hanging ring loop principle has been adopted to develop this instrument. The developed instrument expresses the bending behaviour in terms of change in bending load/stress/modulus after a certain bending deflection. Various technical textiles like nonwoven, tarpaulin, coated fabrics, canvas, hessian, etc., have been tested with the developed instrument. This instrument can measure dynamic bending behaviour by graphical bending load–deflection, cyclic bending, bending stress relaxation, etc. Statistical analysis like standard deviation and coefficient of variation can be reported. Hence, complete information of bending is available with this instrument. Data and graphs can be stored and printed. It shows reliable results when compared with standard instrument like Shirley Stiffness Tester. The same sample has been tested for 30 times and the deviation between minimum and maximum values was insignificant at 1% level. This instrument is user friendly, low cost and informative for technical textiles. Flexural rigidity and bending modulus can be calculated using standard formula from the available data.

The insecticidal crystal protein derived from gram positive soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis plays an important role in controlling lepidopteran infestation. The present study seeks to protect chickpea plants from Helicoverpa armigera infestation by over expressing cry1Ac. Homologous Ubiquitin and RuBisCO small subunit (rbcS) promoters were used to transcribe cry1Ac in transgenic chickpea both constitutively and in a tissue specific manner through Agrobacterium mediated transformation of chickpea var. ICCV89314. Expressed Cry1Ac was specifically targeted to the chloroplast rich tissues using transit peptide sequence. After monitoring transgene integration by Southern hybridization, transgenic chickpea lines were further analyzed by western blot, ELISA and insect bioassay. Expression of cry1Ac in chickpea under the control of above two promoters conferred a high level of protection against pod borer infestation, where chloroplast targeting system was found to be more efficient in controlling this particular devastating lepidopteran pest.