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This article presents a new nine-level common ground (CG) type transformerless inverter (TL) structure with an integrated boost (IB) cell. The proposed structure eliminates the leakage current due to the CG structure between the input source and the grid neutral. The proposed topology is derived by combining a DC-DC boost converter and switched capacitor (SC) cell, capable of generating the nine-level output voltage over a wide range of input voltage variations. By maintaining the duty cycle of the IB converter switch at 50%, the proposed topology generates the output voltage with a boosting factor of 4. Besides, soft charging of the involved SCs and reduced inrush current is also achieved through the inductor, which ensures the permissible current stresses of the power switches. Furthermore, the voltage across the SCs is self-balanced, eliminating the need for complex independent control techniques. A 725-W laboratory prototype is built to test the performance of the proposed topology under various operating conditions, such as input and load variations. The measured efficiency of 96.9% at 725 W is obtained and is comparable with the simulation efficiency. Finally, the merits of the proposed topology are highlighted using a detailed comparison with the other recent nine-level inverter topologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The involuntary flow of urine from the bladder is known as Urinary Incontinence (UI). Men and women of any age can experience incontinence, but it is more prevalent in older women. Several chronic illnesses and environmental variables increases incidence of UI in elderly adults. Most people in this modern era avoid seeking medical intervention early, due to financial worries as the current diagnostic and intervention methods are expensive. Aim: To use low-cost urinary diaper method for assessing the severity of UI and to study the effect of Kegel and therapeutic exercises in reducing the severity of UI in elderly women. Materials and Methods: This interventional study was conducted in an Inshape Physiotherapy Centre in Chennai, India. The duration of the study was five months, from August 2021 to December 2021. A total of 36 women with UI aged 55-75 years were included. The severity of UI among the participants was assessed using onehour Diaper Test (DPT), Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HAM-A) and their level of fitness was evaluated using Senior Fitness Test (SFT). Kegel exercise, pelvic floor exercises were implemented following American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) standards. Statistical analysis was carried out using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20.0, and data collected was subjected to descriptive statistics and paired t-test. Results: The mean age of the study participants was 69.43±3.4 years. As a result of the intervention, 13 out of 36 participants, who initially had severe UI showed improvement (10 participants improved to moderate UI and three participants improved to mild UI). Out of seven participants, who initially had moderate UI, three participants improved to mild UI. Eight out of the 36 participants showed no UI after intervention, indicating complete recovery. There is an association between the Body Mass Index (BMI), HAM-A and UI, the intervention results in the changes of BMI, and HAM-A thus, reducing the severity of UI. Conclusion: The present study showed that, cost-effective diagnostic and non invasive intervention methods reduced the severity of the UI. The study also recommends regular physical activities to reduce stress and anxiety levels, which in turn helps to improve UI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present investigation was aimed to study the anti-diabetic and hypolipidemic potential of Cinnamon cassia (Lauraceae family) bark in streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rats. The preliminary phytochemical analysis (hexane, petroleum ether, chloroform, ethanol, methanol, and aqueous extracts), GC-MS analysis (ethanol), in vitro (aqueous, ethanol and methanol), in vivo (ethanol) and in silico anti-diabetic activity with hypolipidemic effect of C. cassia bark was analysed. The ethanolic extract of the C. cassia bark has a fine inhibitory activity than the aqueous and methanolic extract. Out of 20 different compounds identified, seven compounds were biologically active, and 9-octadecenoic acid has highly interacted with PPARα/γ in docking studies. The levels of diabetic markers, enzymes, and lipid profiles were altered in STZ-induced rats, but after the treatment of C. cassia, the levels were returned to the normal. The study may prove the ethanolic extract of C. cassia has a powerful anti-diabetic and anti-hyperlipidemic activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The misconceptions about the dental treatment prevailing among the population was considered as one of the important barriers for non- utilization of oral health services. The purpose of the present study was to find out the prevalence of common myths related to oral health and in the treatment aspects among the rural population of Tamilnadu, India. Methods: A cross sectional questionnaire survey was conducted among the outpatients attending a dental college in Tamilnadu. The questionnaire included demographic details and 18 questions related to the traditional beliefs. Result: Out of 371 patients, 70 (18.9%) thought that the extraction of upper teeth will affect their eyesight. 49.1% felt that extraction during rainy season will cause infection. Around 38% believe scaling leads to weakening of the teeth. Chi-square test showed no statistically significant difference exists among the gender and as well as education. Conclusion: The myths related to dentistry still exist which requires further studies based on using appropriate technology to eliminate myths among the community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most misunderstood and undiagnosed diseases is termed Thyroid Disease (TD), which is a subset of endocrinology. It emerges at the edge of the thyroid gland due to the abnormal development of thyroid tissue. Owing to the lack of awareness and early diagnosis, TD is a critical problem in underdeveloped countries. For TD diagnosis, various theoretical works have been introduced; still, in the early diagnosis of TD, accurate prediction of the thyroid data is a significant problem. Thus, by utilizing Altered SigHyper activation-centric Artificial Neural Network (ANN) (ASH-ANN) with various stage classifications, an effectual Jaccard Similarity and He-initialization induced Fuzzy C-Means (FCM) (JSH-FCM) clustering-centric TD detection system is proposed by means of a fuzzy rule-centric methodology. Initially, for accurate detection, the thyroid dataset is gathered and the data is pre-processed. Next, by JSH-FCM clustering, the age-centric clustering is carried out. After that, by utilizing Pearson Correlation-amalgamated Principal Component Analysis ((PC)2A), Feature Extraction (FE) and feature selection is conducted. Moreover, to detect the TD kind, an ASH-ANN classifier is wielded. Finally, for differentiating the stages of TD, the fuzzy rule is employed. The experimental outcomes depict that the proposed system achieved superior performance with an accuracy of 97.32% when weighed against the prevailing system; in addition, the stages of TD are differentiated precisely. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The medicinal properties of Cinnamon cassia (C. cassia) bark have been reported for their clinical importance for many diseases including diabetes. However, there is no clear evidence so far regarding dose selection for its hepato- and nephroprotective effect in diabetic condition. Hence, the present study aims at evaluating in vitro antioxidant activity, the acute toxicity, and dose fixation of C. cassia bark for their effective medicinal values in streptozotocin (STZ)-induced rats. All the extracts exhibited potential in vitro antioxidant activity and showed a dose-dependent (1000, 2000, 3000, 4000, and 5000 mg/kg BW) acute toxicity by in vivo model. The levels of aspartate transaminase (AST), alanine transaminase (ALT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), urea, and creatinine showed a significant elevation in animals treated with the highest dose. In further studies along with histopathological studies, animals treated with STZ (60 mg/kg BW) followed by a different dose (300, 400, and 500 mg/kg BW) of ethanolic extract of the C. cassia bark and glibenclamide (3 mg/kg BW) revealed that the altered level of mitochondrial enzymes, hepatic, and renal marker in STZ-induced animals were restored in C. cassia bark extract-treated group as of control. These results could be of scientific support for the use of the ethanolic extract of the C. cassia bark in folk medicine for the management of diabetes and its associated complications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: The incidence rates of breast cancer in women community is progressively raising and the premature diagnosis is necessary to detect and cure the disease. OBJECTIVE: To develop a novel automated disuse detection framework to examine the Breast-Ultrasound-Images (BUI). METHODS: This scheme includes the following stages; (i) Image acquisition and resizing, (ii) Gaussian filter-based pre-processing, (iii) Handcrafted features extraction, (iv) Optimal feature selection with Mayfly Algorithm (MA), (v) Binary classification and validation. The dataset includes BUI extracted from 133 normal, 445 benign and 210 malignant cases. Each BUI is resized to 256×256×1 pixels and the resized BUIs are used to develop and test the new scheme. Handcrafted feature-based cancer detection is employed and the parameters, such as Entropies, Local-Binary-Pattern (LBP) and Hu moments are considered. To avoid the over-fitting problem, a feature reduction procedure is also implemented with MA and the reduced feature sub-set is used to train and validate the classifiers developed in this research. RESULTS: The experiments were performed to classify BUIs between (i) normal and benign, (ii) normal and malignant, and (iii) benign and malignant cases. The results show that classification accuracy of > 94%, precision of > 92%, sensitivity of > 92% and specificity of > 90% are achieved applying the developed new schemes or framework. CONCLUSION: In this work, a machine-learning scheme is employed to detect/classify the disease using BUI and achieves promising results. In future, we will test the feasibility of implementing deep-learning method to this framework to further improve detection accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: In this article, a hysteresis space vector modulation (HSVM) is developed for interleaved Vienna rectifier (IVR) fed 3‐level neutral point clamped inverter (NPCI) system. The minimized current ripple and improved output voltage is obtained using HSVM control technique. The output of IVR is fed with 3‐level NPCI, which provides continuous input source, balanced capacitor voltage and minimized common mode voltage. Hysteresis circular region‐based control method is implemented to minimize the current ripple in the rectifier side. The multicarrier sinusoidal pulse width modulation technique is used to control 3‐level NPC inverter, which provides reduced total harmonic distortion (THD), balanced capacitor voltage and improved output voltage. This proposed system outputs are verified using MATLAB simulink and FPGA processor for simulation and experimental results, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the fuzzy-based Space Vector Pulse Width Modulation (SVPWM) for 5-level Neutral Point Clamped inverter with hybrid energy source fed grid connected system. The proposed scheme is energized using Photovoltaic and Wind energy system combination. The Neural Network-(NN) based Maximum Power Point Tracking algorithm (MPPT) has been implemented to track maximum power under different operating conditions. First, we proposed fuzzy-based SVPWM, which is developed for 5-level NPC inverter to provide voltage and current control, reduced THD, predetermined switching pattern, capacitor voltage unbalance minimization and maintain good control under nonlinearities and suspicions of PV-Wind energy connected hybrid system. Second, we proposed the inverter output voltage, which has been synchronized with grid connected system using split inductor (SI). The reference voltages for SVPWM implementation were obtained using feedback current control method. Third, we proposed different solar radiations, the proposed system has attained better performance by trailing maximum power from hybrid energy system. The simulation and experimental responses have been validated using Matlab/simulink and FPGA processor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oxide thermoelectric materials have attracted researchers in recent decade due to their attractive features such as low toxicity, low cost and high chemical robustness. Perovskite based oxide thermoelectric are considered as the promising materials, especially for high temperature thermoelectric applications. In the present work, pure SrTiO 3 , Sr 1-x Gd x TiO 3 (0 < x < 0.09) and Sr 1-x Gd x Ti 1-y Nb y O 3 were prepared by varying Gd concentration (0 < x < 0.09) using hydrothermal method. The XRD analysis confirmed the high crystalline cubic structured nanocomposite with Gd and Nb substitution. The FESEM images revealed cubic morphology of the particles and the size of the cubes varied with the concentration of the dopant. The chemical compositions of the samples were confirmed by EDX analysis. The binding states and elemental composition of the samples were analyzed by XPS. Both the pure SrTiO 3 , Sr 1-x Gd x TiO 3 samples show low electrical resistivity and the co-substituted sample exhibited relatively high resistivity. Seebeck coefficient of the samples increased with Gd concentration. The Gd and Nb co-substituted sample shows relatively higher Seebeck coefficient value compared to Gd substituted samples. The power factor of the nanocomposite were calculated from the obtained Seebeck coefficient and resistivity; Gd and Nb co-substituted sample shows relatively high power factor of 311.7 × 10−6 Wm−1K−2 at 550 K compared to other samples. Image 1 • Sr 1-x Gd x TiO 3 (0

• Degradation is one of the primary causes of performance reduction in fielded solar panels. • Lifetime testing of PV panels needs improvement to investigate failure modes. • End-of-life management includes recovering silver and copper from old solar panels. The most dependable part of photovoltaic (PV) power systems are PV modules. Under normal operating conditions, the PV module will continue to function properly for 25 years. However, in this period, the output of the solar panel decreases significantly, which is termed "degradation," and sometimes the panel may fail. To reduce module failure and degradation, an understanding of degradation phenomena and failure modes is crucial. With the advent of new PV technologies and increased installation capacity, the reliability and life of the modules need to be studied. This paper provides a state-of-the-art review of the most recent research on the different degradation modes of PV modules. Globally, PV waste is projected to make up 4 %–14 % of total generation capacity by 2030 and more than 80 % by 2050 due to a 25-year average panel lifespan. Therefore, PV panel disposal will be a significant environmental concern. Therefore, this review contains information on the current state of recycling PV panel waste, the various technologies involved in recycling, and the financial implications of recycling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Base drag is arising from flow separation at blunt base of a body. It can be a sizeable fraction of total drag in context of projectiles, missiles and after bodies of fighter aircrafts. The base drag is the major contribution of total drag for low speed regimes. Flight tests have shown that the base drag may account for up to 50% of total drag. In this paper an experimental work on a simple semi-circular flight vehicle body of length 500mm and diameter 50mm was conducted for the purpose of investigating base drag. The base drags for three configurations are calculated and the results are compared with CFD data. The three configurations used for testing are flat base configuration, closed nozzle configuration and boat tail configuration. The evaluations of base drag for the flow velocities of 20m/s, 35m/s and 50m/s at angles of attack such as -2, 0 and 2 are experimented and compared. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Base drag is arising from flow separation at blunt base of a body. It can be a sizeable fraction of total drag in context of projectiles, missiles and after bodies of fighter aircrafts. The base drag is the major contribution of total drag for low speed regimes. Flight tests have shown that the base drag may account for up to 50% of total drag. In this paper an experimental work on a simple semi-circular flight vehicle body of length 500mm and diameter 50mm was conducted for the purpose of investigating base drag. The base drags for three configurations are calculated and the results are compared with CFD data. The three configurations used for testing are flat base configuration, closed nozzle configuration and boat tail configuration. The evaluations of base drag for the flow velocities of 20m/s, 35m/s and 50m/s at angles of attack such as -2 °, 0 ° and 2 ° are experimented and compared. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lumpy skin disease (LSD) is an acute highly infectious viral disease caused by LSD virus belonging to genus, Capripox virus and family, Poxviridae. It is an important transboundary bovine endemic disease in African and Middle East countries and Mediterranean region. It has started spreading to Asian and other countries. The disease is characterised by fever and appearance of nodular lesions on skin all over the body. Sometimes involvement of mucous membranes of respiratory system, urogenital system and other internal organs is also recorded. LSD is transmitted by arthropod vectors and causes high morbidity and low mortality. Economic losses due to LSD include decreased milk production, abortion, temporary or permanent sterility in bulls, damage to hide and occasional death. In August 2019, the first occurrence of LSD outbreak in India has been reported to OIE. Vaccination along with strict quarantine measures and vector control could be effective in preventing the disease spread. This review aims to summarise latest developments in epidemiology, aetiology, methods of transmission, clinical presentations, diagnosis, control and prevention of LSD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) can be used as a potential tool to develop rural India, but the awareness and positive attitude towards the facilities offered by it is a necessity to use it to the full potential. The study tries to analyze the awareness of farmers about the various ICT tools in agriculture. Survey using questionnaire was resorted to collect data from user group. The user group under consideration consists of farmers registered to four KrishiBhavans in Nedumangad block, Thiruvananthapuram District of Kerala. Farmers with more than 1 acre of land registered in KrishiBhavans in the four selected blocks were 1040. From them, a sample size of fifteen percentages (156) of farmers is selected. Data obtained through questionnaire was tabulated, analyzed and interpreted using Microsoft Office Excel 2010 and SPSS 20. Chi-square test was applied for finding significant association between the categorical variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cloud computing is a very rapidly growing technology with more facilities but also with more issues in terms of vulnerabilities before and after deploying the applications into the cloud. The vulnerabilities are assessed before the applications are deployed into the cloud. However, after deploying the applications, periodical checking of systems for vulnerabilities is not carried out. This paper assesses the applications online for vulnerabilities at regular intervals and if any changes are made in the code, Webhook will trigger the vulnerability checking tool based on Hashing algorithm to check for vulnerabilities in the updated application. The main aim of this system is to constantly scan the applications that are deployed in the cloud and check for vulnerabilities as part of the continuous integration and continuous deployment process. This process of checking for vulnerabilities after every update in the application should be included in the software development lifecycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emerging switched-mode power supplies incorporated applications demand reliable, less volume and high efficient dc–dc converters. The persistent usage of the dc–dc converters in various applications makes their reliability a significant concern. Hence, this paper deals with a family of non-isolated high gain integrated dc–dc converter topologies derived from a quadratic converter. The reliability analysis is carried out using electronic equipment reliability handbook, MIL-HDBK-217F. For the first time, reliability prediction is done based on the working environment of the power electronic equipments. We developed the reliability prediction for the converters used in the lighting application such as automotive headlamp and aircraft landing lights. The mean time to failure for both the environment is calculated. The reliability comparison is carried out for the proposed topologies and the most reliable converter is chosen. Also, all the converter topologies are simulated using nL5 simulator to confirm their theoretical results. Finally, a laboratory prototype for 40 W with input voltage of 12 V is implemented for the most reliable topology to validate the steady-state analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Distributed Generation (DG) systems are highly useful in recent days for increasing the penetration of renewable energy, in which the design of grid connected inverters is one of the demanding and challenging task. For this reason, different controller strategies are developed in the traditional works for controlling the inverters with increased efficiency. But, it has the major limitations of increased computational complexity, steady state error and reduced compensation capability. To solve these issues, this research work aims to design a new controller by implementing a novel Monkey King Evolution Algorithm (MKEA) for grid connected converters. The motive of this work is to increase the overall effectiveness of the power system by controlling the inverter without affecting its output. Also, it aims to provide a secure and convenient controller for the power converters. Here, the information that is obtained from the system which includes real power, distorted power due to load, reactive power of load, and apparent power of inverter are taken as the input. Later, the four numbers of monkeys are initialized, which evaluates the best solution based on these parameters. Sequentially, the monkey king obtains the best solutions from the monkeys, using which the most suitable and best solution for taking the decision is selected. Based on this, the reference current is generated by performing the voltage regulation, and abc to dq0 transformation processes. During simulation, the efficiency of the controller is analyzed by using the measures of phase voltage, phase current, active power, reactive power, apparent power, grid voltage, and output voltage. The Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) is effectively reduced by using the MKEA based controller design. Extensive simulation and experimental results are presented to validate the effectiveness of the proposed controller and control strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wireless sensor network (WSN) is employed in variety of applications ranging from agriculture to military. WSN is vulnerable to various security attacks, in which jamming attacks obstruct and disturb the exchange of information between sensor nodes in WSN by transmitting signals to jam legitimate transmission to cause a denial of service. Hence, it is essential to secure the sensor networks from jamming attacks. In this paper, two approaches: fuzzy inference system (FIS) and adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS)-based jamming detection system are proposed for detecting the presence of jamming by computing two jamming detection metrics, namely, packet delivery ratio and received signal strength indicator. FIS approach is based on Takagi–Sugeno fuzzy logic which optimizes the jamming detection metrics. ANFIS approach combines fuzzy logic and learning ability of the neural network to optimize the metrics for detecting various types of jamming. The proposed approaches are compared with existing system and themselves. The simulation result shows that the proposed ANFIS approach detects the jamming attacks as high as true detection ratio. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Occupational stress is more common in Information Technology (I.T.) employees who cause alterations in biochemical parameters and diseases. Aim: To compare the liver biochemical parameters like serum total bilirubin, Direct bilirubin, Indirect bilirubin, Total protein, Albumin, Globulin, Aspartate aminotransferase (AST), Alanine aminotransferase (ALT), Alkaline Phosphatase (ALP), in I.T employees with non I.T employees. Materials and methods: This was a comparative study in which employees who were working in I.T. Company compared with employees not working in I.T Company. The study included totally 300 subjects of whom 150 were I.T employees and 150 were Non I.T employees. Fasting blood samples were analyzed for Total bilirubin, Direct bilirubin, Indirect bilirubin, Total protein, Albumin, Globulin, AST, ALT, ALP. The data were analyzed using SPSS software version 11.5. Results were expressed as mean ± SD. Results: Total bilirubin, Direct bilirubin, Indirect bilirubin, Albumin and A: G ratio were significantly decreased in I.T employees than in Non I.T employees. There was no significant difference in Total protein, AST and ALT. Conclusion: The significant reduction in Total bilirubin, Direct bilirubin, Indirect bilirubin, Albumin and A:G ratio in I.T employees may be due to their relaxation exercises in between the working hours, regular physical exercise, periodical health check-up, and life style modification which were not seen in non I.T employees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In Information Technology (I.T) employees, occupational stress is more common which cause alterations in biochemical parameters and diseases. Aim: To compare the Waist Hip Ratio (WHR), Body Mass Index (BMI) and serum lipid profile like Total cholesterol, Triglycerides, High Density Lipoprotein (HDL), Low Density Lipoprotein (LDL) and Very Low Density Lipoprotein (VLDL), in I.T employees with non I.T employees. Materials and methods: This was a comparative study in which employees who were working in I.T Company compared with employees not working in I.T Company. The study included totally 300 subjects of whom 150 were I.T employees and 150 were Non I.T employees. Weight, height, waist and hip measurement were taken. Fasting blood samples were analyzed for Total cholesterol, Triglycerides, HDL, LDL and VLDL. The data were analyzed using SPSS software version 11.5. Results were expressed as mean ± SD. Results: BMI and WHR were significantly decreased in I.T employees than in Non I.T employees. There was no significant difference in Total cholesterol, Triglycerides, HDL, LDL and VLDL. Conclusion: The significant reduction in BMI and WHR in I.T employees may be due to their relaxation exercises in between the working hours, regular physical exercise, periodical health check – up, and life style modification which were not seen in non I.T employees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Now a days the academic libraries are universally accepted as a central organ around which all academic activity revolve. It is probably for this reason that library is said to be the heart of an academic institution. Academic Libraries provide additional facilities for higher learning, research and dissemination of knowledge publications. There are great varieties of users, demanding different kinds of library services. All library services such as collection building, processing, stacking and display of the materials, organizing, managing by other related activities are entirely geared to use and the library users. This study analyses the Information Access by Faculty Members in Electronic Environment: A Study at Selected Veterinary Colleges in Tamil Nadu. This study analyses the accessibility of library collections, information and communication technology infrastructure facilities, the user satisfaction on electronic resources and database management, and the services provided to the user through the Internet. This study is to find out the information access by Faculty Members about library resources and services in the electronic environment. Totally 117 questionnaires were distributed and 102 were received. This study provides the information access by Faculty Members of Veterinary College and Research Institute in Chennai and Orathanad. The present study is focused on the Faculty Members from two Veterinary Colleges in Tamil Nadu. The population for this study consists of full time Faculty Members with different departments using the Simple Random Sampling technique was used to choose the sample. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present work concerns with a detailed study of the validation of the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and model products, and investigates the spatial and temporal variations in the correlation coefficient of the validation results obtained from the analysis of Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) sun-sky radiometer data archived at Pune during 2005-2015. Combining the confidence intervals and prediction levels, the ground-based AERONET aerosol optical depth (AOD) at 550 nm and precipitable water vapour (PWV) have been used to validate the MODIS, model AOD (550 nm), and PWV (cm) observations. The correlation coefficients (r) of AOD for the linear regression fits are 0.73, 0.75, and 0.79, and of PWV are 0.88, 0.89, and 0.97 for Terra, Aqua, and model simulations, respectively. Month-to-month/seasonal variation of AOD (550 nm) and PWV observations of satellite and model observations are also compared with AERONET observations. Additionally, various statistical metrics, including the root mean square error, mean absolute error, and root mean bias values were calculated using AERONET, satellite, and model simulations data. Furthermore, a frequency distribution of AOD (550 nm) and PWV observations are studied from AERONET, satellite, and model data. The study emphasizes that the globally distributed AERONET observations help to improve the satellite retrievals and model predictions to enrich our knowledge of aerosols and their impact on climate, the hydrological cycle, and air quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pepper has been used for its flavour and as a medicine. For the Indian cooking, pepper plays an important role. Pepper cures constipation, diarrhoea, earache, gangrene, heart disease, hernia, hoarseness, indigestion, insect bites, insomnia, joint pain, liver problems, lung disease, oral abscesses, sunburn, tooth decay, and toothaches. Black pepper is the world's most traded spice. Black pepper is originally used as a medicine in south India. It is farming mainly in the tropical region. Pub Med is a primary bibliographic database that covers 18 million references to journal articles in life sciences, which gives great importance to biomedicine. The period of coverage is from 1947 to the present. For this database, citations from about 5,400 worldwide journals in 39 languages and 60 languages for older journals were covered. The period is from the year 2008 to 2017 "Pepper" data were downloaded. Various analyses were done to find out the Individual Authors Contribution, Geographical distribution, and year wise research, Ranking of Journals, RGR and Doubling Time of Research. Bib excel tool is used for data analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents information on a study which used ellipsometry to study the variation in the irregularities at the interface of copper sulfphide/cadmium sulphide thin films. Methodology of the study; Results and discussion; Conclusion.

In this paper, a fuzzy logic--based jamming detection algorithm (FLJDA) is proposed to detect the presence of jamming in downstream data communication for cluster-based wireless sensor networks. The proposed FLJDA keeps an eye on the existing nodes and new node to determine their behavior by applying fuzzy logic on measured jamming detection metrics. To monitor the behavior of the nodes, the FLJDA computes the jamming detection metrics, namely, packet delivery ratio and received signal strength indicator. The major features of this paper are the following: (1) The jamming detection algorithm is specifically implemented for downstream data communication, (2) cluster head estimates jamming detection metrics for detecting the jamming unlike the existing algorithms where individual nodes explicitly collect the jamming detection metrics, and (3) the proposed algorithm optimizes the jamming detection metrics on the basis of fuzzy logic unlike the existing approaches, which uses merely jamming detection threshold alone for jamming detection. The simulation results of the proposed system provide the true detection ratio as high as 99.89%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Plant-based natural extracts cure several diseases in human. However, the extract of Psidium guajava leaf is not yet evaluated on changes of lipid profile in hepatic disease affected rats. Objective: The present study was aimed to evaluate the mitigation effect of the ethanolic extract of P. guajava leaf and its isolated quercetin fraction on hepatotoxic rats. Materials and Methods: Carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) was injected to rats for hepatic disease induction and silymarin drug was used as positive control to compare plant ethanolic extract. The lipid profiles were assessed in both plasma and liver tissue of diseased and control rats. Results: Levels of total cholesterol, triglycerides, free fatty acids, phospholipids, and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol were increased and the level of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) was decreased in CCl4-induced hepatotoxic rats. The treatment of P. guajava (100, 200, and 300 mg/kg, bw) and isolated quercetin fraction (20 mg/kg, bw) doses decreased the elevated levels of all these parameters in diseased rats and restored the normal concentration of HDL-C. Conclusion: The results of the present study concluded that the P. guajava leaf and its isolated quercetin fraction can significantly regulate lipid metabolism in CCl4-induced hepatotoxic rats and decrease the disease rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Airborne particulate matter (PM) plays a vital role on climate change as well as human health. In the present study, temporal variability associated with mass concentrations of PM 10 , PM 2.5 , and PM 1.0 were analysed using ground observations from Mahabaleswar (1348 m AMSL, 17.56 0 N, 73.4 0 E), a high-altitude station in the Western Ghats, India from June 2012 to May 2013. Concentrations of PM 10 , PM 2.5 , and PM 1.0 showed strong diurnal, monthly, seasonal and weekday-weekend trends. The seasonal variation of PM 1.0 and PM 2.5 has showed highest concentrations during winter season compared to monsoon and pre-monsoon, but in the case of PM 10 it showed highest concentrations in pre-monsoon season. Similarly, slightly higher PM concentrations were observed during weekends compared to weekdays. In addition, possible contributing factors to this temporal variability has been analysed based on the variation of secondary pollutants such as NO 2 , SO 2 , CO and O 3 and long range transport of dust. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the recent years there has been an immense growth in load consumption due to which, Load Management (LM) has become more significant. Energy providers around the world apply different load management concepts and techniques to improve the load profile. In order to reduce the stress over the load management, Demand Response Unit Commitment (DRUC), a new concept, has been implemented in this paper. The main feature of this concept is that both the energy providers and consumers must participate in order to get mutual benefits hence maximizing each of their profits. In this paper we discuss the time-based Demand Response Program since there is no penalty observed in this program. When the Demand Response was combined with Unit Commitment and compiled it was observed that a satisfactory solution resulted, which is proved to be mutually beneficial for both Generating Companies (GENCOs) and their customers. Here, we have used a Cat Swarm Optimization (CSO) technique to find the solution for the DRUC problem. The results are obtained using CSO technique for UC problem with and without DR program. This is compared with the results obtained using other conventional methods. The test system considered for the study is IEEE39 bus system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Cr3+ doped La 2 (WO 4) 3 nanoparticles are synthesized by soft chemical method. • The optical limiting properties of La 2 (WO 4) 3 nanostructures using CW laser at 785 nm was reported for the first time. • All sample possess RSA which is caused by two-photon absorption. • The presence of polarizable Cr3+ ions, results enhanced OL behaviour for 0.7 % Cr3+ doped La 2 (WO 4) 3 nanoparticles. In this article, we discuss the nonlinear optical limiting characteristics of pure and Cr3+ doped La 2 (WO 4) 3 nanoparticles using soft chemical method. We studied the third-order nonlinear optical properties of nanoparticle using a continuous-wave (CW) laser system pumped by a diode laser at 785 nm. The results reveal that the materials possess reverse saturable absorption (RSA) and self-defocusing in nature. Due to the presence of near-resonant excitation state, the material exhibits sequential two-photon absorption (excited state induced thermally) process. We observe a higher non-linear absorption coefficient (β) and nonlinear refractive index (n 2) for 0.7 % Cr3+ doped La 2 (WO 4) 3 systems which is higher than that of pure La 2 (WO 4) 3 nanoparticles. The transmittance decreases with increased input fluence for both pure and Cr3+ doped La 2 (WO 4) 3 samples exposing the optical limiting behavior of the prepared sample. The presence of larger concentrations of more polarizable Cr3+ ions, increased density of states, and higher oxygen defects resulted in enhanced OL behaviour for 0.7 % Cr3+ doped La 2 (WO 4) 3 sample. It is found that two photon absorption (β) is increased from 0.41 to 1.16 × 10-3 and third order nonlinear susceptibility (χ(3)) enhances from 3.909 x10-6 to 6.696 × 10-6 esu on Cr doping. The optical limiting threshold of pure and Cr x La 1-x WO 4 nanoparticles was also studied and found to be in the range of 91.2 to 86.2 W/cm2. As a consequence of the obtained results Cr3+ doped La 2 (WO 4) 3 is likely to be an appropriate candidate for CW low-power optical limiting (OL) applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research article provides the results obtained from comparative studies on the technical performance of some selected rice milling machines. There is a continuous and increasing demand for high quality rice production. This can be achieved by optimization of the rice milling process. Hence, we have studied the wear patterns in major machine components of three different brands of rice polishers. Here we have carried out a wear analysis and studied the processing mechanisms of rice milling machines. We have attempted to set a benchmark for wear resistance to design alternative materials, which can improve the wear life of cam, which acts as the major component in rice mills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the level of morphometric variability among the stingless bee populations in Coimbatore district, Tamilnadu, India. A total of 16 morphometric characters was measured and analyzed to detect the morphometric variations among T. iridipennis. Data were subjected to multivariate analysis to evaluate population variation within T. iridipennis. The variables in the present study displayed statistically significant differences among groups (P > 0.05). The present study find out the three distinct morphocluster within T. iridipennis based on principal component analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agriculture crop residue burning in the tropics is a major source of the global atmospheric aerosols and monitoring their long-range transport is an important element in climate change studies. In this paper, we study the effects of agriculture crop residue burning on aerosol properties and long-range transport over northern India during a smoke event that occurred between 09 and 17 November 2013, with the help of satellite measurements and model simulation data. Satellite data observations on aerosol properties suggested transport of particles from agriculture crop residue burning in Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP) over large regions. Additionally, ECMWF winds at 850 hPa have been used to trace the source, path and spatial extent of smoke events. Most of the smoke aerosols, during the study period, travel from a west-to-east pathway from the source-to-sink region. Furthermore, aerosol vertical profiles from CALIPSO show a layer of thick smoke extending from surface to an altitude of about 3 km. Smoke aerosols emitted from biomass burning activity from Punjab have been found to be a major contributor to the deterioration of local air quality over the NE Indian region due to their long range transport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study deals with Utilization of ICT among the faculty members of Siddha Colleges and various level of operating system with the information accessed by the faculty through the internet. The survey was conducted with the help of the questionnaire and personal interview. The responses received from the available faculty are presented in tables and data is analyzed by using simple statistical method. The findings reveals that the access of electronic information is an important component of research activities for faculty members like E-Journals, E-books, E-databases are most preferred electronic information resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The information is crucial to any or all kinds of humans to updates their data knowledge that might vary from person to person associated with their materials. The library may be a huge repository to produce every kind of data of both past and present to Academicians, Research Scholars, Students and policy manufacturers and also for the public. It will play important role from the school education to a higher education.This study is mainly based on the primary data collected from the Users of Department of Education, Annamalai University, through well designed Questionnaires. Totally 150 Questionnaires were distributed personally to the students of Department of Education, Annamalai University. 125 questionnaires were received from the B. Ed students of Department of Education, Annamalai University. The authors discussed the age wise respondents, Gender wise respondents, Frequency of library visit, Type of documents used by the respondents, Types of search engines used and Types of access system followed in the library user. Among the 125 respondents majority (34.4%) of respondents are using once in a month. It could be seen clearly from above discussion majority (56%) of the users are interested in reading materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a study which proposed an optical method involving ellipsometry to measure stress in silver films of different thickness. Experiment; Results and discussion; Conclusion.

Jamming attack is a serious security threat in wireless sensor networks. Therefore, it is important to frame a mechanism to protect wireless sensor networks from various jamming attacks. Jammer intrusion detection and jamming detection are two separate issues. In this paper, a novel jammer detection framework to detect the intrusion of jammer and the presence of jamming in a cluster-based wireless sensor network is proposed. The proposed framework is novel in three aspects: whenever the cluster head receives a packet, it first verifies whether the source node is a legitimate, new node, or a jammer node. Second, when the source node is declared as a new one in the first step, then the framework validates whether the new node is legitimate node in the previous cluster or a jammer node by using cluster head code. Third, the framework observes the behavior of the newly joined node and the existing nodes to identify whether the nodes in the cluster is jammed or not. Additionally, it also classifies the types of jamming, if the presence of jamming is detected. Simulation result shows that the proposed framework performs extremely well and achieves jamming detection rate as high as 99.88 %. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]