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Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) is a serious swine disease causing great economic impact worldwide. The emergence of highly pathogenic strains in Asian countries is associated with large scale mortality in all age groups of pigs besides the classical presentation of severe respiratory distress, pneumonia, and a series of reproductive disorders in sows, like late-term abortion, premature farrowing, and an increased number of stillborn piglets. The present study was designed with the aim of isolation and characterization of the Betaarterivirus suid 2 from outbreaks in Mizoram in primary porcine alveolar macrophage and subsequently characterized the GP5 gene sequence of the isolate in terms of phylogenetic analysis and deduce amino acid sequence comparison. Virus propagation was performed in the porcine alveolar macrophage (PAM) primary cell culture and confirmed by immunoperoxidase test, FAT, and nested RT-PCR. The full-length GP5 gene (603nt) was amplified from the isolate and subsequently cloned and sequenced (MN928985). Phylogenetic analysis and sequence comparison of the present isolate was found to have similarity 98.7–98.8% with Myanmar HP-PRRS strains, 98–98.5% with Vietnam strains, 98.2–98.3% with China strains, indicating a close lineage with highly pathogenic PRRS strains. In deduced amino acid sequence analysis, one mutation was found in the primary neutralizing epitope (PNE) at position 39L → I39 and one more mutation was also found in the decoy epitope (DCE) at position 30 N → D30. The amino acid at this position is an N-linked glycosylation site, and mutation of the N-linked glycosylation is an immune escaped strategy adopted by this virus causing a persistent infection in the natural host.

Mīmāṁsā, an Indian hermeneutics provides an exhaustive methodology to interpret Vedic statements. A formalism namely, Mīmāṁsā Inspired Representation of Actions has already been proposed in a preliminary manner. This paper expands the formalism logically and includes Syntax and Semantics covering Soundness and Completeness. Here, several interpretation techniques from Mīmāṁsā have been considered for formalising the statements. Based on these, instructions that denote actions are categorized into (i) positive and prohibitive unconditional imperatives and (ii) conditional imperatives that enjoin reason, temporal action and goal. These instructions are evaluated to three values S, V and N. If the instruction is executed with the intention of goal, then it acquires the value of S; if the intention of goal is present and the instruction is not executed, then it assumes the value of V; and if there is no intention of goal, then the instruction is evaluated to N. This formalism has also been applied in different computational settings such as AI planning, Robotics, task analysis and classification of natural language instructions. An outline of these applications and the comparison of this formalism with other relevant theories are also presented in this paper.

A bimetallic preform was manufactured by depositing nickel-based superalloy layers on a 304L stainless steel plate using a laser-based direct energy deposition technique. To study the bond integrity and co-deformability of the additively manufactured bimetallic, the preform was subjected to plastic deformation by cold rolling in a two-high rolling mill. Rolling was carried out in multiple directions by aligning the bimetallic interface plane parallel and perpendicular to the rolling plane. The effects of plastic deformation on microstructure and interfacial bonding were analyzed through detailed microstructural investigation coupled with mechanical property characterization. The study highlights various challenges associated with this bimetallic preform's co-deformation, which arise due to the differences in ductility, strength and microstructural features between nickel-based superalloy and 304L stainless steel.

In this study, silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) were in situ generated on the surface of cellulose matrix using leaf extract of cissampelos pareira (LCP) by environmentally benign green synthesis. The morphological and structural properties of synthesized cellulose silver nanocomposites (Cel/LCP/Ag-NCs) were characterized by different spectral studies such as UV–visible spectroscopy, SEM, TEM, FT-IR, AFM, DRS, PL, Lifetime, XPS and XRD. Silver nanoparticles were obtained in the cellulose matrix with an average size of 34.26 nm and with antioxidant activity which has been evaluated by ABTS (70.34% at 100 µg/mL) and DPPH (81.65% at 100 µg/mL) methods. The antimicrobial properties of cellulose, Cel/LCP, Cel/LCP (10 mM, 30 mM and 50 mM AgNO3), tested on 13 microorganisms were determined using disk diffusion method. The most effective nanocomposites (Cel/LCP/10, 30 and 50 mM AgNO3), Cel/LCP/50 mM AgNO3 afforded the best antimicrobial properties because increasing the concentration of AgNO3 solution, the zone of inhibition also increased. The prepared cellulose silver nanocomposites synthesized by leaf extract of cissampelos pareira shows the potential to be applied in the future development of therapeutics and biomedical applications.

Pulsating heat pipes are a relatively newer generation of heat pipe which are wickless thus more economical and less fabrication-intensive. These devices are made of a capillary sized tube bent in a serpentine form to result in a closed system. In this study a single closed loop pulsating heat pipe made of 2 mm internal diameter copper tubing is experimentally investigated for two different bend radii. The performance comparison is made for two fluids – methanol and water, for varying heat loads from 10 W to 100 W, with various inclinations from vertical bottom heated mode to horizontal mode, for a constant fill ratio of 60%. The sharper bend, though making the device more compact, is found to reduce the performance. One of the bend geometries is further investigated for the effect of insulation on the adiabatic sections. The insulation is found to certainly widen the heat load range though a distinct performance improvement is not found. The variation of the frequency of pressure pulsations with respect to the fluid, heat load and inclination is also studied. Additionally, one of the geometry is tested with FC 72 fluid as well to arrive at a correlation for heat flux for varying fluids, heat fluxes and inclinations, covering 116 data points. The performance trends predicted by the correlation are in line with those reported in the literature.

The sensitivity of a modified realistic critical droplet radius concerning the rain autoconversion process on the simulation of low-level clouds over the southern Indian Ocean (SIO) has been investigated. Two simulations are performed with the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Climate Forecast System version 2 (CFSv2) model, one (CFSCR) with default physically based cloud scheme (WRF single-moment 6-class microphysics scheme (WSM6)) and the other with modified CFSCR (CFSCR-Mod). In CFSCR-Mod, the critical droplet radius as a function of the rain autoconversion process is revised. Keeping in mind the variability of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) over the land and ocean, the critical droplet radius is put differently over land and ocean. The fidelity of both the models in simulating SIO low-level clouds is evaluated concerning different observational and re-analysis products. Observations exhibit the prominent occurrence of low-level clouds over the SIO in the 30–10°S latitudinal and 80–100°E longitudinal belt. The analysis reveals that CFSCR-Mod has a better fidelity to capturing low-level clouds due to its more realistic autoconversion process and realistic cloud microphysics.

The vision problem of drivers during the night is mainly owing to the high-intensity headlight-beam of the oncoming vehicle from the reverse direction. It causes temporary blindness to the driver. To overcome this situation, people generally use color windshield glass, sun visor, and night-vision glass. But, these are not considered as the best solution since it decreases the light intensity of the entire view including the road. Many researchers used various image enhancement techniques to overcome this situation. But, the existing approaches are unable to dim the high-beam headlights of oncoming vehicles without affecting the road view. In this paper, a novel night-vision system is proposed to resolve the problem in real-time for manual-driving vehicles and autonomous vehicles. The proposed method includes region segmentation of frames, local enhancement techniques in different regions followed by adaptive Gaussian filtering. Pixels masking, gamma correction, and low-light pixel enhancement are applied to three distinct regions. Both autonomous vehicles and manual drivers can get a bright and a prominent view of the road with dim headlights of oncoming vehicles in real-time. Numerous heuristic real-time test reveals the performance superiority of the projected system compared to state-of-art methods in quantitative as well as qualitative point of view.

A study on 222Rn emanation coefficient and mass exhalation rate was carried out for different minerals having high specific gravity collected from a natural high background radiation area of India. The mass exhalation rate varied from 31 ± 0.5 to 2366 ± 36 mBq kg−1 h−1 and the radon emanation coefficient varied from 1.02 × 10−2 to 2.04 × 10−1. The radon escape probability was highest in garnet mineral indicating the uniform distribution of radium atoms on the mineral surface and smaller grain size than other minerals. Statistical analysis revealed that the radon mass exhalation rate was positively correlated with the 226Ra activity whereas no such strong significant correlation was observed between radon emanation coefficient and 226Ra activity.

Influence of contact pressure and maximum cyclic stress (σmax) on the fretting fatigue behavior of modified 9Cr-1Mo steel has been studied using contact pads made of the same steel. The contact pressure was varied from 50 to 200 MPa using σmax of 400 and 500 MPa at a stress ratio (R) of 0.1. The fatigue life was observed to decrease in the presence of fretting action. For a given σmax the fretting fatigue life of the steel decreased with an increase in contact pressure up to 100 MPa beyond which saturation was observed. The ratio of slip to stick area increased with the contact pressure. This is in agreement with the increased depth of the fretting-induced debris and roughness.

Many studies have been carried out for understanding the mechanism of failure of RC structural systems under varying temperature circumstances. Similarly, several methods have been developed for improving the fire resistance of concrete buildings, with respect to material selection and detailing aspects. However, only some of the researchers have concentrated on composite behavior of interaction between the structural elements and functional elements, like interaction between masonry infill walls and RC frame elements in the emergence of fire. Several numerical models have been developed for analysis of infilled frames. For simulating the action of fire on full-scale reinforced concrete buildings, three factors, namely, presence of loading, place of fire, its intensity, and duration, must be considered since the material behavior depends on the stress level, intensity and duration of fire and the sensitiveness of structural element to the location and application of fire. To consider the combined effect of load and high temperature, finite element analysis is used. For simulating the intensity and time factor for temperature rise, transient state studies must be done.

Thoracolaparoscopic esophagectomy (TLE) for carcinoma esophagus has better short-term outcomes compared to open esophagectomy. The precise role of robot-assisted laparoscopic esophagectomy (RALE) is still evolving. Single center retrospective analysis of TLE and RALE performed for carcinoma esophagus between January 2015 and September 2018. Propensity score matching was done between the groups for age, gender, BMI, ASA grade, tumor location, neoadjuvant therapy, the extent of surgical resection (Ivor Lewis or McKeown’s), histopathological type (squamous cell carcinoma or adenocarcinoma), clinical T and N stages. The primary outcome parameter was lymph node yield. Secondary outcome parameters were resection margin status, duration of surgery, blood loss, conversion to open procedure, length of hospital stay, length of ICU stay, complications, 90-day mortality and cost. There were 90 patients in TLE and 25 patients in RALE group. After propensity matching, there were 22 patients in each group. The lymph node yield was similar in both the groups (23.95 ± 8.23 vs 22.73 ± 11.63; p = 0.688). There were no conversions or positive resection margins in either group. RALE was associated with longer operating duration (513.18 ± 91.23 min vs 444.77 ± 64.91 min; p = 0.006) and higher cost ($5271.75 ± 456.46 vs $4243.01 ± 474.64; p

Driving at night becomes risky due to the lack of sufficient light. Drivers are unable to notice objects, potholes, pedestrians on road prominently using headlights. Low light at night causes many road accidents and road fatalities. This article presents a real-time fast, low-light vision enhancement technique for drivers. By the proposed technique a driver can have a prominent real-time bright vision of the road and surrounding view at night which appears the same during the daytime. Drivers can easily differentiate objects, potholes, and pedestrians on the road. The proposed approach is based on the modified bright channel prior, and adaptive gamma correction. The proposed approach aims to provide a real-time bright vision for drivers during the night within a minimum computation time using a low-cost 2D camera. Many real-time experiments which are conducted reveal that the proposed approach accomplishes auspiciously against state-of-the-art low-light image enhancement algorithms.

Acrylamide is a carcinogenic chemical compound found in carbohydrate rich foods when fried and baked at high temperatures, like potato chips. Identification of such toxic substances in food items is of tremendous significance. Conventional identification approaches like liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC–MS) are time-consuming, destructive and require trained manpower. Traditional machine learning methods involve the extraction of handcrafted features that needs to be judiciously selected. To overcome such shortcomings of the existing researches, an alternate method incorporating deep convolutional neural network (DCNN) for acrylamide identification has been proposed. The novelty of the proposed research work provides an opportunity to explore and distinguish between traditional machine learning and deep learning techniques. Also, the novel contribution in the proposed research work remarkably improves computation complexity which thereby, increases its system accuracy. Deep learning models, pre-trained on ImageNet dataset, showed a remarkable performance in comparison to existing methods. Simulation results demonstrate that MobileNetv2 out-performed AlexNet, ResNet-34, ResNet-101, VGG-16 and VGG-19 models. Therefore, the vitality of algorithm used, validates the advantages of the proposed research work, which could be used as an efficient and effective tool for food-quality evaluation in real-time applications.

Dense fog is a vital cause of risk in driving perception, especially on a hilly road. In hilly areas, drivers are unable to view the roads prominently and sometimes unable to notice a nearby object properly due to dense fog. The dense fog causes many road accidents and also reduces the speed of the vehicle. In this article, a vision-based real-time fast fog removal approach is proposed to obtain a prominent view of the hilly road during heavy fog by video processing techniques. The proposed approach is established on an atmospheric based scattering model and least filtering technique with a dynamic patch followed by independent histogram equalization built on color channels. First, the atmospheric light is estimated at an interval of 6000 frames using the least filtering technique with a dynamic patch. Then, frames are inverted to estimate the transmission map, and fog-free scenes are recovered. Finally, the independent histogram equalization based on color channel is used to eliminate the haze noise with proper contrast adjustment. The proposed approach can provide a fog-free vision of roads as well as any distant object for any driver in minimum processing time. Several real-time exploratory tests are conducted during heavy fog on hilly roads. Qualitative and quantitative test analysis exposes that the proposed approach provides enhanced performance compared to the latest approaches. After defogging, the distance of visibility rises by more than 92% during dense fog with great accuracy of 97.41%.

An extensive analysis of radiative flux biases in the Climate Forecast System Model Version 2 (CFSv2) is done. Annual mean and seasonal variations of biases at the surface and top of the atmosphere (TOA) are reported in the global domain. Large regional biases in shortwave (SW) and longwave (LW) radiation are observed over convectively active zones in the tropics. The relative contribution of various processes responsible for the reported biases is quantified. The poor simulation of clouds and inadequate representation of surface properties seem to be major contributors. Over certain regions, errors due to different processes add up, whereas, over other regions, errors tend to nullify each other. Surface and atmospheric variables taken as input parameters in the radiative transfer modules are compared with satellite-based observations. The maximum biases in SW and LW radiation are observed over the regions of persistent low clouds. The magnitude of the SW and LW biases at the TOA is in phase with the biases in cloud fraction by and large. However, the error in the radiative fluxes due to errors in surface radiative properties is of equal importance. The cold bias in near-surface air temperature reported in other studies may partly be attributed to an underestimation in the net SW radiation at the surface. In the present study, a plausible prescription is also provided to correct the source of the biases.

With their promising enhanced magnetoelectric (ME) effects and multifunctional properties, 2D ME materials are garnering considerable research interest. However, experimental studies regarding ME effects are sparse. In order to enhance ME properties, it may be important to develop a strategy to prepare ordered ME thin film materials on suitable substrates. Materials ought to possess high surface area and less area of contact with the substrate. We investigate ME thin films consisting of CoFe2O4 (CFO)/Pb(Zr0.52Ti0.48)O3 (PZT)/LaNiO3·(LNO) on a Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si substrate that were prepared using a radio-frequency magnetron sputtering technique. The method helps to relax the in-plane constraint force and enhances the coexistence of the ferromagnetic and ferroelectric phases at the interface of the materials. Interestingly, the freestanding hemispherical ME thin films exhibited huge changes in magnetic field-induced polarization. Compared with planar CFO/PZT thin films of similar dimensions, the measured polarization was more than twice as large in the freestanding hemispherical ME thin films. This facile physicochemical technique for preparing highly efficient, hierarchically ordered micro/nano-magnetoelectric thin films may be used for the fabrication of miniaturized devices.