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Nutrient uptake in the biomass of healthy and root (wilt) disease affected coconut palms are different. Root (wilt) is a predominant phytoplasmal disease affecting coconut (Cocos nucifera L.) palms and to sustain the palm health and productivity, better nutrient management practices are required. The objective of this research was to understand the uptake pattern and the partitioning of nutrients in the total biomass of healthy and root (wilt) diseased palms grown in humid tropical Entisol of Kerala. 5 coconut palms each were selected from diseased palms viz., Early (DE), Middle (DM) and Advanced (DA) category along with the control, which is Apparently Healthy palm (AH), without any diseases. The total biomass component with respect to each part viz., leaf (L), petiole (P), spadix (S), spathe (Sp), stem (St), leaf sheath fiber (LSF), husk (H) and nuts (copra:C + shell (Sh)) (N) were estimated. Nutrient uptake by the entire biomass uptake is classified as 1. Recyclable portion (L, P, S, Sp, H, LSF and Sh) 2. Removable portion (C) 3. Reserve biomass (St) and then computed the nutrient partitioning by standard analytical procedures. For all nutrients except Mg, reserve biomass had the greatest nutrient uptake followed by recyclable biomass and removable biomass components. Among the nutrients, potassium recorded the highest total uptake. In AH palm, the total uptake of potassium was 1075 g per palm, whereas it was 407.3 g per palm in the diseased palms. The total uptake of nutrients which showed a significant relation with disease index followed the order K > N > Ca > S > P > Mg in apparently healthy palms and N > K > Ca > S > P > Mg in diseased palms. The percentage reduction in total uptake of N, P, K, Ca, Mg, S and B by diseased palms in comparison with healthy palms was 36.5, 37.6, 57.5, 44.1 23.3, 43.7 and 48.9. The results of the study indicated that the pattern of nutrient uptake in the different biomass components of apparently healthy and root (wilt) disease affected palms are significantly different. This can instigate the formulation of appropriate nutrient management strategies in coconut with emphasis on its residue recycling potential.

The article reviews some significant attempts in textile scaffolds related to developments in tissue engineering. The benefits offered by micro fibrous scaffold architectures fabricated by textile manufacturing techniques have been explored. Established and novel fiber-processing techniques can be exploited in order to generate templates matching the demands of the target cell niche. The problems related to the development of biomaterial fibers (especially from nature-derived materials) ready for textile manufacturing are addressed. Attention is also paid on how biological cues may be incorporated into microfibrous scaffold architectures by hybrid manufacturing approaches (e.g. nanofiber or hydrogel functionalization). Textile technologies have recently attracted great attention as potential biofabrication tools for engineering tissue constructs. Using current textile technologies, fibrous structures can be designed and engineered to attain the required properties that are demanded by different tissue engineering applications. Tissue engineering often uses synthetic scaffolds to direct cell responses during engineered tissue development. Since cells reside within specific niches of the extracellular matrix, it is important to understand how the matrix guides cell response and then incorporate this knowledge into scaffold design. The goal of this review is to review elements of cell–matrix interactions that are critical to informing and evaluating cellular response on synthetic scaffolds. Therefore, this review examines fibrous proteins of the extracellular matrix and their effects on cell behavior, followed by a discussion of the cellular responses elicited by fiber diameter, alignment, and scaffold porosity of two dimensional (2D) and three dimensional (3D) synthetic scaffolds.

Immunization is all about using Block chain for managing and tracing the vaccine stocks, logistics and transparent distribution. Immunization gives you continuous visibility and enables actionable insights to track vaccine distribution and ensure a fair and equitable distribution. Immunization allows you to book your vaccination appointments and will also allow you to keep track of the vaccine being distributed. Block chain helps in maintaining the integrity and transparency of the whole process right from inception of the vaccine.

Objectives: To study the spectrum and have a clinicopathological correlation of papulosquamous skin lesions. Material and Methods: A series of noninfectious papulosquamous skin lesions coming to Department of Dermatology were studied over a period of one year, i.e. from June 2017 to July 2018. These were correlated and analysed with the histopathological findings. Results: The present study comprised of 70 cases of skin diseases presenting as papulosquamous lesions. Majority of cases were in the age group of 31 to 40 years (16 cases, 22.8%) followed by 11 to 20 years (15 cases, 21.4%). Females were more commonly affected with 37 cases(52.8%) compared to males with 33 cases (47.1%) and female to male ratio of incidence being 1:0.89. In the present study, out of 70 cases, 34 cases (48.5%) were diagnosed as psoriasis, Lichen planus- 15 cases(21.4%), Chronic Dermatitis- 4 cases (5.71%), Lichen striatus- 3 cases (4.28%), Pityriasis Lichenoides- 2 cases(2.85%), Pityriasis Rosea- 2 cases (2.85%), Prurigo Simplex- 2 cases(2.8%), Prurigo Nodularis and Lichen Nitidus 1 case each, 1 case each of atopic eczema, contact dermatitis and chronic actinic dermatitis and inconclusive cases being 3. The histopathological findings of psoriasis and lichen planus were studied with special emphasis. The predominant histopathological finding in psoriasis is acanthosis and the predominant histopathological finding in lichen planus was band like infiltrate in the dermoepidermal junction. These findings in addition to other specific findings and clinical correlation were used to give a conclusive diagnosis. There were 4 cases of psoriasis, 2 cases of lichen planus, 2 cases of 1 case of, 1 case of which did not correlate with histopathological findings. Conclusions: In our study females were mostly affected. The age group mainly affected was 31-40 years. Psoriasis was the commonest papulosquamous lesion. Good clinicopathological correlation is very much necessary for diagnosis. Keywords: Papu

To report eye examinations findings and cost-efficiency of mobile eye and vision care screening in underserved areas in north India. The Aloka Vision Program combines optometrical and ophthalmological screening as mobile eye camps with organized referrals to local eye hospitals. 402 people from urban (N = 191) and rural (N = 211) areas in the district of Uttarakhand, India, were screened for refractive error (RE), visual acuity (VA) and eye health. Statistical analysis was performed using ANOVA model and odd ratios. Costs were estimated based on the expenses of the camps. 44 % of the participants were male and 56 % were female and the age ranged from 7 to 72 years (urban) and 7 to 80 years (rural). Lack of accessibility of eye care was mentioned by 10% of the urban and 47% of the rural participants, why not attending regular vision test. Mild and severe visual impairment VA < 0.5 logMAR affected every fifth person, independent from the living environment. RE showed a myopic trend for the urban environment (Δ M = 0.67 D, p = 0.11). The risk for blindness was three times higher in rural compared to the urban area, mainly caused by cataract. The major costs are given by the treatments (58 %), followed by mobilization and organization (∼30 %), whereas personal costs are low (∼11%). Combined eye and vision care models reduce costs for separated screening’s organization and thus can increase the effectiveness of eye screening programs significantly.

The summary assessment metric (SAM) method is applied to an array of primary assessment metrics (PAMs) for the deterministic forecasts of three leading numerical weather prediction (NWP) centers for the years 2015–17. The PAMs include anomaly correlation, RMSE, and absolute mean error (i.e., the absolute value of bias) for different forecast times, vertical levels, geographic domains, and variables. SAMs indicate that in terms of forecast skill ECMWF is better than NCEP, which is better than but approximately the same as UKMO. The use of SAMs allows a number of interesting features of the evolution of forecast skill to be observed. All three centers improve over the 3-yr period. NCEP short-term forecast skill substantially increases during the period. Quantitatively, the effect of the 11 May 2016 NCEP upgrade to the four-dimensional ensemble variational data assimilation (4DEnVar) system is a 7.37% increase in the probability of improved skill relative to a randomly chosen forecast metric from 2015 to 2017. This is the largest SAM impact during the study period. However, the observed impacts are within the context of slowly improving forecast skill for operational global NWP as compared to earlier years. Clearly, the systems lagging ECMWF can improve, and there is evidence from SAMs in addition to the 4DEnVar example that improvements in forecast and data assimilation systems are still leading to forecast skill improvements.

Testing in a cloud environment involves a range of tests to analyze various aspects of the system in various cloud adoption scenarios such as public, private, or hybrid. Performance testing is a key aspect of the cloud testing strategy and it evaluates the application/software for various issues such as speed, stability, and scalability under varying load conditions. The key issues that must be considered in a cloud set-up as a part of the performance testing strategy are collection of statistics on the load, conducting stress test, monitoring the memory, checking for elasticity and scalability. This paper focuses on testing the resource utilization in cloud infrastructure in general and memory utilization in particular. The memory utilization is evaluated in public and private cloud environment with simulation of 10 users to 10,000 users.

The empirical cumulative density function (ECDF) approach can be used to combine multiple, diverse assessment metrics into summary assessment metrics (SAMs) to analyze the results of impact experiments and preoperational implementation testing with numerical weather prediction (NWP) models. The main advantages of the ECDF approach are that it is amenable to statistical significance testing and produces results that are easy to interpret because the SAMs for various subsets tend to vary smoothly and in a consistent manner. In addition, the ECDF approach can be applied in various contexts thanks to the flexibility allowed in the definition of the reference sample. The interpretations of the examples presented here of the impact of potential future data gaps are consistent with previously reported conclusions. An interesting finding is that the impact of observations decreases with increasing forecast time. This is interpreted as being caused by the masking effect of NWP model errors increasing to become the dominant source of forecast error.

Real-time access to level II radar data became available in May 2005 at the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Central Operations (NCO). Using these real-time data in operational data assimilation requires the data be processed reliably and efficiently through rigorous data quality controls. To this end, advanced radar data quality control techniques developed at the National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL) are combined into a comprehensive radar data processing system at NCEP. Techniques designed to create a high-resolution reflectivity mosaic developed at the NSSL are also adopted and installed within the NCEP radar data processing system to generate hourly 3D reflectivity mosaics and 2D-derived products. The processed radar radial velocity and 3D reflectivity mosaics are ingested into NCEP’s data assimilation systems to improve operational numerical weather predictions. The 3D reflectivity mosaics and 2D-derived products are also used for verification of high-resolution numerical weather prediction. The NCEP radar data processing system is described.

In 2011, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) began a cooperative initiative with the academic community to help address a vexing issue that has long been known as a disconnection between the operational and research realms for weather forecasting and data assimilation. The issue is the gap, more exotically referred to as the “valley of death,” between efforts within the broader research community and NOAA’s activities, which are heavily driven by operational constraints. With the stated goals of leveraging research community efforts to benefit NOAA’s mission and offering a path to operations for the latest research activities that support the NOAA mission, satellite data assimilation in particular, this initiative aims to enhance the linkage between NOAA’s operational systems and the research efforts. A critical component is the establishment of an efficient operations-to-research (O2R) environment on the Supercomputer for Satellite Simulations and Data Assimilation Studies (S4). This O2R environment is critical for successful research-to-operations (R2O) transitions because it allows rigorous tracking, implementation, and merging of any changes necessary (to operational software codes, scripts, libraries, etc.) to achieve the scientific enhancement. So far, the S4 O2R environment, with close to 4,700 computing cores (60 TFLOPs) and 1,700-TB disk storage capacity, has been a great success and consequently was recently expanded to significantly increase its computing capacity. The objective of this article is to highlight some of the major achievements and benefits of this O2R approach and some lessons learned, with the ultimate goal of inspiring other O2R/R2O initiatives in other areas and for other applications.

The current constellation of environmental satellites is at risk of degrading due to several factors. This includes the following: 1) loss of secondary polar-orbiting satellites due to reaching their nominal lifetimes, 2) decrease in the density of extratropical radio-occultation (RO) observations due to a likely delayed launch of the Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere and Climate-2 (COSMIC-2) high inclination orbit constellation, and 3) the risk of losing afternoon polar-orbiting satellite coverage due to potential launch delays in the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) programs. In this study, the impacts from these scenarios on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Global Forecast System skill are quantified. Performances for several metrics are assessed, but to encapsulate the results the authors introduce an overall forecast score combining metrics for all parameters, atmospheric levels, and forecast lead times. The first result suggests that removing secondary satellites results in significant degradation of the forecast. This is unexpected since it is generally assumed that secondary sensors contribute to system’s robustness but not necessarily to forecast performance. Second, losing the afternoon orbit on top of losing secondary satellites further degrades forecast performances by a significant margin. Finally, losing extratropical RO observations on top of losing secondary satellites also negatively impacts the forecast performances, but to a lesser degree. These results provide a benchmark that will allow for the assessment of the added value of projects being implemented at NOAA in support of mitigation strategies designed to alleviate the negative impacts associated with these data gaps, and additionally help NOAA to define requirements of the future global observing system architecture.

The largest organ and the outer covering of the human body is the skin. With seven layers of it covering the other organs inside, skin is one of the important part to take care of. A skin condition is one which affects the integumentary system and that includes a wide variety of diseases including dermatoses. Classifications of these skin conditions are always a challenge for any medical practitioner and they look at the machine learning systems to assist them in predicting and classifying the skin conditions. This in turn will help to cure or at least reduce the effect. If the skin symptoms such as acne, cellulitis, candidiasis, varicella, scleroderma, fungal skin, psoriasis, inflamed skin condition, etc. are left without treatment in its initial stage, then they can effect in different health impediments leading to even death. Image partitioning is a method which supports with the skin disease detection. Any abnormal skin growth is referred to as skin lesion which could either be primary or secondary. Graph cut algorithms are debated and used in the literature for variety of purposes including image smoothing, image segmentation and other problems involving energy minimization as objective. In this work, we intend to use a novel dynamic graph cut algorithm for skin lesion segmentation followed by a probabilistic classifier called as Naive Bayes classifier for skin disease classification purposes. We have used ISIC 2017 dataset for testing our proposed method and found that the results outperform many state of the art methods including FCN and SegNet by 6.5% and 8.7% respectively. This dataset is available at the International Skin Imaging Collaboration (ISIC) website for public study and experimentation. In terms of accuracy, we could achieve 94.3% for benign cases, 91.2% for melanoma and 92.9% for keratosis on this data set.

The vibrational spectra of 5-nitroindan (NI) was computed using B3LYP methodology with 6-31G(*) and 6-31G(**) basis sets. The FTIR and FT-Raman spectra were recorded in the region 4000-400 cm(-1) and 4000-50 cm(-1) respectively. A similarity was achieved between the observed and calculated frequencies by refinement of the scale factors. The (1)H and (13)CNMR chemical shifts results were also compared with the experimental values. The Mulliken charges, the values of electric dipole moment (μ) of the molecule were computed using DFT calculations. The first order hyperpolarizability (β0) and related properties (β, α0, and Δα) of both are calculated using B3LYP method on the finite-field approach. The electronic properties HOMO and LUMO energies are calculated. Thermodynamic properties (heat capacity, entropy and enthalpy) of the title compound were calculated.

Education is the most powerful weapon by which the world could be changed said Nelson Mandela. The history of spreading knowledge has its root from teaching Vedas in temples until eLearning and eTeaching. Both the traditional teaching methodology and online teaching provide students with knowledge. National Center for Education Statistics says that an online class is stated as “a formal education process in which the students and instructor are separated”. Alike traditional courses, online classes are educated by respective course instructors which includes several classmates. However, the communication medium between the both would be email, telephone or live chat. By considering the advantage of online courses we propose an online performance evaluation tool in which the student can be evaluated once when the course is completed and tests are done. From the test results the performance of the students is evaluated using fuzzy based technique and reports of the individuals are generated.

Software testing is the process of software engineering to free the software from bugs. Load testing is one of the techniques in software testing and is used to find the maximum load that software can handle without affecting its performance. Load testing is used to test the cloud services that are running in a cloud. All the resources in a cloud are used by the cloud users based on their demand. Using cloud, it is easy to gather the required load for a particular application by forming clusters. If the required load is coming from different clusters and it is not known quantitatively then the problem of load balancing is raised. The proposed load testing tool avoids the problem of getting unequal loads coming from different clusters by distributing the same amount of load to all the clusters. Also the proposed load testing tool for cloud is used to find the maximum number of simultaneous users for a particular cloud system is to handle.

A second-harmonic generation (SHG) crystal 2-amino-5-nitropyridinium-toluenesulfonate (2A5NPT) has been synthesized. Good quality single crystal of 2A5NPT was successfully grown by the slow evaporation method with dimensions 16 × 15 × 8 mm3. The unit cell dimensions were determined from single crystal X-ray diffraction studies. GAUSSIAN 98W has been used to calculate the first-order hyperpolarizability of 2A5NPT. The calculated first-order hyperpolarizability of 2A5NPT is 142 × 10−30 esu. The structural perfection of the grown crystals has been analyzed by high-resolution X-ray diffraction (HRXRD) rocking curve measurements. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectral studies have been performed to identify the functional groups. The optical transmittance window and the lower cutoff wavelength of the 2A5NPT have been identified by UV−vis−NIR studies. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential thermal analysis (DTA) were used to study its thermal properties. Powder test with Nd:YAG laser radiation sh...

Automated aircraft data are very important as input to numerical weather prediction (NWP) models because of their accuracy, large quantity, and extensive and different data coverage compared to radiosonde data. On average, aircraft mean temperature observation increments [MTOI; defined here as the observations minus the corresponding 6-h forecast (background)] are more positive (warmer) than radiosondes, especially around jet level. Temperatures from different model types of aircraft exhibit a large variance in MTOI that vary with both pressure and the phase of flight (POF), confirmed by collocation studies. This paper compares temperatures of aircraft and radiosondes by collocation and MTOI differences, along with discussing the pros and cons of each method, with neither providing an absolute truth. Arguments are presented for estimating bias corrections of aircraft temperatures before input into NWP models based on the difference of their MTOI and that of radiosondes, which tends to cancel systematic er...

8-Hydroxyquinolinium picrate (8-HQP) was synthesized by the addition of equimolar quantities of 8-hydroxyquinoline (8-HQ) and picric acid (PA). Single crystals were grown from N,N dimethyl formamide (DMF) by restricted evaporation method at room temperature. The solubility of 8-HQP was determined in different solvents at various temperatures. The structural characterization of the grown crystals was carried out by X-ray diffraction. Vibrational modes were classified on the basis of group theoretical analysis and the spectral bands were compared with those of parent compounds in order to propose a tentative assignment by recording FT-IR, FT-Raman and polarized Raman spectra in different crystal orientations. The crystal possess lower cut-off at 230 nm and good transparency as confirmed by optical transmittance studies.

The spatial and temporal densities of Weather Surveillance Radar-1988 Doppler (WSR-88D) raw radar radial wind represent a rich source of high-resolution observations for initializing numerical weather prediction models. A characteristic of these observations is the presence of a significant degree of redundant information imposing a burden on an operational assimilation system. Potential improvement in data assimilation efficiency can be achieved by constructing averages, called super-obs. In the past, transmission of the radar radial wind from each radar site to a central site was confined to data feeds that filter the resolution and degrade the precision. At the central site, super-obs were constructed from this data feed and called level-3 super-obs. However, the precision and information content of the radial wind can be improved if data at each radar site are directly utilized at the highest resolution and precision found at the WSR-88D radar and then transmitted to a central site for processing in assimilation systems. In addition, with data compression from using super-obs, the volume of data is reduced, allowing quality control information to be included in the data transmission. The super-ob product from each WSR-88D radar site is called level-2.5 super-obs. Parallel, operational runs and case studies of the impact of the level-2.5 radar radial wind super-ob on the NCEP operational 12-km Eta Data Assimilation System (EDAS) and forecast system are compared with Next-Generation Weather Radar level-3 radial wind super-obs, which are spatially filtered and delivered at reduced precision. From the cases studied, it is shown that the level-3 super-obs make little or no impact on the Eta data analysis and subsequent forecasts. The assimilation of the level-2.5 super-ob product in the EDAS and forecast system shows improved precipitation threat scores as well as reduction in RMS and bias height errors, particularly in the upper troposphere. In the few cases studied, the predicted mesoscale precipitation patterns benefit from the level-2.5 super-obs, and more so when greater weight is given to these high-resolution/precision observations. Direct transmission of raw (designated as level 2) radar data to a central site and its use are now imminent, but this study shows that the level-2.5 super-ob product can be used as an operational benchmark to compare with new quality control and assimilation schemes.

Mixed thin films of (CdO)1−x(PbO)x and (CdS)1−x(PbS)x (x=0.25) were prepared on glass substrates by spray pyrolysis technique for various substrate temperatures 300, 320 and 340 °C. Structural and optical properties were studied. XRD studies reveal the formation of mixed films. The substrate temperature of 340 °C seems to be critical for the formation of CdO–PbO mixed films. It is observed that (CdS)1−x(PbS)x mixed films were formed at all the three substrate temperatures. The direct band gap value of (CdO)1−x(PbO)x and (CdS)1−x(PbS)x mixed films is about 2.6 and 2.37 eV, respectively.