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In December 2019, a novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak occurred due to a human respiratory virus that originated in the city of Wuhan, China. During the COVID-19 lockdown, there was a significant improvement in the air quality across the world. We analyzed the data for BTEX over the three years (January to December 2019 to 2021) with pairwise comparison and trend analysis for pre-, during, and post-pandemic periods. This study demonstrates the substantial changes in the concentration of VOCs in the urban area (Punjab) due to the lockdown effects. The results indicate a substantial reduction in the mean TVOCs concentration for all the monitoring stations was found to be 8.89 ± 1.80, 5.59 ± 1.71, and 5.57 ± 1.43 μg/m3 for before, during, and post-pandemic, respectively. The level of TVOCs declined by −43% for all monitoring stations during the lockdown period compared to the previous years. A higher T/B ratio was found in Patiala (2.97 μg/m3) before the pandemic, which may indicate vehicle emission sources. The LCR values for benzene were found to be higher in children than in males and females, which indicated the possible risk. The LCR values for benzene exceeded the prescribed value by CPCB for children.

The current research is focused on investigating the influence of bearing irregularities like eccentricities (e), non-circularities (G), L/D ratio (ß), surface roughness coefficient (Y) on hydrodynamic performance of journal bearing such as load bearing capacity, friction force, lubricating oil flow. The performance is evaluated through finite difference method technique implementing a Newton-Raphson method of error convergence. The simulation outputs were than designed using an optimization tool entitled as Design of Experiment (DoE) on basis of response surface methodology (RSM). The outputs of RSM models were meant to forecast the response parameters like, load bearing capacity, friction force, flow of lubricant and further required to identify the noticeable interdependencies within the input parameters while evaluating the lubrication performance. The optimization of the bearing irregularities is done considering desirability approach of the response surface methodology in identifying proper combination of parameters.

Enhancing the problem-solving skills of learners belonging to socio-economically disadvantaged groups is a great concern in general and particularly in the Indian context. Problem-solving skills are the most important skills of the 21st century for all learners to acquire necessary competencies. The main purpose of this work is to investigate the effect of metacognitive brainstorming strategy, gender, and residential areas, and their various interactions on problem-solving skills in physics for ninth-grade learners who belong to socio-economically marginalised groups. The pre-test--post-test, quasi-experimental design was applied to 107 learners from two government-sponsored schools of the same nature located in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. The 55 learners in the experimental group were given intervention through a metacognitive brainstorming strategy, whereas the 52 learners in the control group were taught the same lessons by simply using the conventional method. Self-developed and standard problem-solving skills test with a reliability of 0.89 and validity of 0.94 were employed on them as pre-test and post-test instances. The correlated t-test, independent samples t-test, and 2 x 2 factorial design analysis of covariance were applied for data analysis through Statistical Package for Social Science. The results revealed that the brainstorming instructional strategy had a huge effect on problem-solving skills due to its large effect size value (2.23 > 1.2). Moreover, the problem-solving skills of learners in physics were found to be independent of gender and residential areas, and also of their interaction with the treatment strategy, when the pre-problem-solving skill was taken as a covariate.

The indigenous people of Nepal have accumulated knowledge of plants and their uses spanning millennia of oral history, but the current sociodemographic trend threatens the transition of this knowledge. Recording the uses and knowledge of these plants is therefore imperative for revitalizing the traditions and culture and the sustainable use and availability of plant species. We interviewed a total of 80 Sinja Valley residents. We calculated the relative frequency of citations (RFC) of recorded edible oil plants. Using the Kruskal-Wallis test and the Wilcoxon test for gender, the difference in the use of edible oil plants mentioned by age group, education level, and occupation of the respondents was determined. These interviews yielded knowledge on 13 different edible oil-producing plant species (EOPPs) including nine indigenous species and six collected from the wild. EOPPs helped effectively treat 19 disorders with Prunus mira being considered a very good treatment for gastritis. Prinsepia utilis was the most common and frequently used (RFC = 0.99) edible oil-producing plant. Most respondents reported that oil-producing and oil-consuming cultures vary and are decreasing among Sinja Valley residents. The locals were subsistence farmers, and the edible oils for their household purposes were prepared using traditional knowledge. However, the tradition is scourged by commercially-available tawdry oil. In rural areas, the knowledge of edible oil-producing plants has been decimated due to outmigration and sociocultural transformation. Edible oil production from indigenous plants should continue for the culture and conservation of rural livelihood.

Introduction: Loss of hearing during early infancy leads to delayed development of language, communication, and cognition which affects the social, emotional, and academic achievements of a child. Early identification of hearing impairment improves age-related language and communication skills. Aim & Objectives: To find out the prevalence and profile of hearing loss among high-risk neonates in a hospital setup. Material and Methods: This was a prospective observational study being conducted over two years at VIMSAR, Bulra, Sambalpur, Odisha. 264 high-risk neonates admitted to Neonatal Intensive Care Unit were screened using evoked otoacoustic emission (EOAE) and Brainstem Evoked Response Audiometry (BERA). Neonates who tested refer on EOAE were subjected to BERA and those having a unilateral or bilateral hearing threshold for more than 40 dB in BERA were defined as hearing impaired. Results: Most of the study neonates were having multiple significant risk factors. Multivariate logistic regression analysis of significant risk factors for hearing loss revealed gestational diabetes of the mother, mechanical ventilation for more than 5 days, hyperbilirubinemia requiring exchange transfusion, hypo-glycemia during the early neonatal period, and duration of hospitalization for more than 5 days were the independent risk factors associated with hearing loss. Conclusion: This study implies a high incidence of hearing impairment in neonatal intensive care unit(NICU) graduates and a change in the distribution of risk factors for hearing loss. Gestational diabetes, mechanical ventilation for more than 5 days, hyperbilirubinemia with exchange transfusion, neonatal hypoglycemia, and NICU stay for more than 5 days were significant independent clinical risk factors for predicting hearing impairment in high-risk neonates. Recommendation: Universal newborn screening for hearing loss in high-risk neonates and early identification of risk factors and exposure reduction should be done, so that the devastating effects of hearing impairment could be prevented before it starts.

Introduction: Global TB Report 2018 reports that in India, an estimated 2.2 lakh children become ill with tuberculosis (TB) each year (22% of the global TB burden), with a slightly higher burden among males. Pulmonary TB is the most common form in children but the extra-pulmonary TB forms a larger proportion of cases than in adults. Aim & Objective: To find out the diagnostic efficacy of the Scoring system in presumptive tubercular empyema thoracis and the diagnostic accuracy of CBNAAT in the diagnosis of tubercular empyema thoracis. Material & Method: 41 patients aged 1-14 years were enrolled after written informed consent was obtained from the patients. Children with ATT or preexisting lung disease were excluded from the study. Presumptive TB Empyema was defined on the basis of the revised National Tuberculosis Program (RNTCP). The cutoff score for the scoring system was calculated and retrospectively applied to the 41 subjects and the efficacy was assessed. RESULT: pTESS had an area under the curve 0.967(95% CI 0.902-1.000, p-value

The present article addresses various novel and advanced approaches to mitigate frequency oscillation issues in an integrated power system. The suggested model of the multi-source power system is basically a two-area power system, where area2 is completely a microgrid system. The diesel generator, thermo-electric generator, wind generator, solar PV system, micro-turbine and fuel cell are the basic power generating sources in the microgrid system. The microgrid also has been associated with various energy saving equipments like battery and flywheel energy storage (FES) system to improve the power quality of the system. The unpredictable wind speed variant and fluctuation in solar power incorporates oscillations in voltage and frequency profile of the interconnected power system. In challenging to above issues, this research article has designed an innovative Fractional Order-type-2 fuzzy controller (FO-T2FC) to supress unwanted errors in the frequency and voltage of the system. Further, the proposed controller parameters are selected optimally with suggesting a novel Quassi- Oppositional Path Finder Algorithm (QO-PFA) under different operatings. An analysis on relative study is exercised to validate strength of the FO-T2FC control strategy and QO-PFA algorithm. Owing to the performance analysis, it is justified that proposed QO-PFA designed FO-T2FC controller is proved to be most potential candidate and able to improve the dynamic frequency response of area1 (Δf1) by 251.74% and 418.74% as compared to Type1 fuzzy controller and conventional PID controller respectively.