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Background: Non-communicable diseases are the leading causes of death globally and recent studies had demonstrated that transport drivers are at greater risk of developing cardiovascular diseases due to an incorrect diet, sedentary behavior, unhealthy lifestyles and ob- esity. Objective: To characterize transport drivers working in shifts through the assessment of clinical and demographic variables and the presence of some cardiovascular risk factors. Materials and methods: Cross sectional study was carried out among transport drivers of APSRTC of Kuppam. Data was collected regard- ing socio-demographic profile, morbidity status, perceived occupa- tional problems and anthropometry were also measured. Results: Out of 244 transport drivers 114 were tobacco consumers and 139 subjects were alcohol consumers. Perceived reasons for smoking were it suppresses cold (28.04%) and enables to concentrate on work (20.73%). Perceived reasons for alcohol consumption were peer pressure (25.9%) and it suppresses cold (20.1%). 36.1% were pre- obese, 35.2% were obese, 22.95% were pre-hypertensive and 18.86% hypertensive. Duration of alcohol intake and tobacco use, BMI, WHR& WC were significantly associated with hypertension. Conclusions: Higher prevalence of risk factors of cardiovascular dis- ease with various perceived reasons and they were statistically signif- icantly associated with hypertension.

In recent years, the emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs) has increased significantly, contributing to global warming. Among these GHGs, CH4, CO2, and CO are particularly potent contributors. Remediation techniques primarily rely on materials capable of capturing, storing, and converting these gases. Catalytic processes, particularly heterogeneous catalysis, are essential to chemical and petrochemical industries as well as environmental remediation. Due to the growing demand for catalysts, efforts are being made to reduce energy consumption and make technologies more environmentally friendly. Green chemistry emphasizes minimizing the use of hazardous reactants and harmful solvents in chemical processes. Achieving these principles should be paired with processes that reduce time and costs in catalyst preparation while improving their efficiency. Non-thermal plasma (NTP) has been widely used for the preparation of supported metal catalysts. NTP has attracted significant attention for its ability to improve the physicochemical properties of catalysts, enhancing process efficiency through low-temperature operation and shorter processing times. NTP has been applied to various catalyst synthesis techniques, including reduction, oxidation, metal oxide doping, surface etching, coating, alloy formation, surface treatment, and surface cleaning. Plasma-prepared transition-metal catalysts offer advantages over conventionally prepared catalysts due to their unique material properties. These properties enhance catalytic activity by lowering the activation energy barrier, improving stability, and increasing conversion and selectivity compared to untreated samples. This review demonstrates how plasma activation modifies material properties and, based on extensive literature, illustrates its potential to combat climate change by converting CO2, CH4, CO, and other gases, showcasing the benefits of plasma-treated materials and catalysts. A succinct introduction to this review outlines the advantages of plasma-based synthesis and modification over traditional synthesis techniques. The introduction also highlights the various types of plasma and their physical characteristics across different factors. Additionally, this review addresses methods by which materials are synthesized and modified using plasma. The latter section of this review discusses the use of non-thermal plasma for greenhouse gas mitigation, covering applications such as the dry reforming of CH4, CO and CH4 oxidation, CO2 reduction, and other uses of plasma-modified catalysts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, person detection and tracking in a video scene of a surveillance system were grabbing higher interest because of its extensive range of applications in gender classification, abnormal event recognition, person identification, human gait characterization, individual counting in a dense crowd, and fall detection for older people, etc. Several methodologies were implied for person detection for surveillance applications. This paper presents a new DL driven automated person detection and tracking (DLD-APDT) model on surveillance videos. The major goal of the proposed DLD-APDT model is to identify people and track them in the videos. To accomplish this, the proposed DLD-APDT model initially performs frame conversion process where the input video is converted into a set of frames. In addition, the proposed DLD-APDT model employs EfficientDet model as object detector, i.e., persons and track them. EfficientDet is a recently developed object detector that makes use of different optimization and backbone tweaks, like bi-directional feature pyramid network (BiFPN) and a compound scaling approach. Moreover, root means square propagation (RMSProp) optimizer is applied to optimally choose the hyperparameters related to the EfficientNet model which helps in accomplishing enhanced performance. The experimental validation of the DLD-APDT model takes place using two training datasets namely PascalVOC and PenFudan datasets. The simulation results reported the enhanced detection and tracking performance of the DLD-APDT technique over recent approaches.

Purpose: This paper aims to synthesize and test Mn-Sb/TiO2-CNT catalysts with different Sb/Mn molar ratios to be used in NH3-SCR reaction. Design/methodology/approach: A series of Sb-loaded carbon nanotubes (CNTs)-based Mn/TiO2 catalysts were prepared by the incipient wetness co-impregnation method and tested for the selective catalytic reduction (SCR) of NOx with NH3. Findings: The Sb-loaded Mn/TiO2-CNTs catalyst outperformed other catalysts and presented the highest activity in the temperature regime of 100–400°C. The catalyst loaded with Sb also showed good SO2 and H2O resistance and exhibited better thermal stability. A stepwise study of SO2 addition evidenced that Mn-Sb/TiO2-CNTs catalyst exhibited better SO2 resistance than the base catalyst Mn/TiO2, where the Sb doping greatly inhibited the sulphating of active phase of the catalyst. Originality/value: In Sb-loaded catalysts, the formed SOx species fused with SbOx instead of MnOx. This favoured interaction of SO2 with SbOx successfully prevents the MnOx from being sulphated by SO2 which substantially improves the SO2 tolerance of Sb-loaded catalysts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Impact of weed control methods on the persistence of Parthenium hysterophorus L., and tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) yield was studied in two farmer fields i.e. a site heavily infested with P. hysterophorus (Parthenium-site) and Parthenium free site, in the Jaffna peninsula of the Northern Province of Sri Lanka. The split-plot design consisted of two main plots i.e. manual weeding and ploughing (both followed by harrowing), and three sub-plots i.e. use of a pre-emergent herbicide (Oxyfluorfen; 240 g/L EC at 2 days before planting), mulching [Gliricidia sepium (Jacq.) Kunth ex Walp. leaves at 12 kg per plot on fresh weight basis], and un-weeded plot after crop establishment (control), in three replicates. The soil seed bank of the Parthenium-site was dominated by P. hysterophorus as expected, and the Parthenium-free site was dominated by the perennial sedge Cyperus rotundus L. At tomato harvest, the un-weeded sub-plots recorded the highest weed densities (pG. sepium coupled with manual weeding during land preparation or ploughing would suppress growth and development of weeds including P. hysterophorus and enhance yield of tomato. Tropical Agricultural Research Vol. 25 (1): 56-68 (2013)