Biochemical Response of Glycine max (L.) Merr. to Cobalt and Lead stress

Background: Heavy metal pollution of soil has become a global concern, largely due to the fact that the heavy metals accumulated in plants may either directly or indirectly find their way into animals and human beings. Present study was carried out on the phytotoxicity of cobalt (Co) and lead (Pb) on biochemical constituents viz. chlorophyll a, b, carotenoids, proline, protein and carbohydrate content of three different varieties of Glycine max viz. SL-688, PS-1347, DS-9712 treated with 50, 100 and 150 µM concentrations. Results: The exposure of soybean varieties to Pb and Co resulted in the reduction of chlorophyll, carotenoids, carbohydrate and protein content and addition in proline content. Test plants were more sensitive to lead in comparison to cobalt. PS-1347 variety was found to be more susceptible to both the heavy metals. Maximum deleterious effect was observed at higher concentrations (100 & 150µM). However, an additional supply of nitrogen not only minimized the inhibitory effect of these two heavy metals but also decreased the proline content of plants. Conclusions: The findings of the present study indicate that effect of heavy metals with different treatments on biochemical content was significantly different at 0.05 level of probability. Soils contaminated by heavy metals probably lead to substantial losses in seed yield of soybean plant

Three-dimensional in situ XCT characterisation and FE modelling of cracking in concrete

Three-dimensional (3D) characterisation and modelling of cracking in concrete have been always of great importance and interest in civil engineering. In this study, an in situ microscale X-ray computed tomography (XCT) test was carried out to characterise the 3D microscale structure and cracking behaviour under progressive uniaxial compressive loading. The 3D cracking and fracture behaviour including internal crack opening, closing, and bridging were observed through both 2D tomography slices and 3D CT images. Spatial distributions of voids and cracks were obtained to understand the overall cracking process within the specimen. Furthermore, the XCT images of the original configuration of the specimen were processed and used to build microscale realistic 3D finite element (FE) models. Cohesive interface elements were inserted into the FE mesh to capture complicated discrete crack initiation and propagation. An FE simulation of uniaxial compression was conducted and validated by the in situ XCT compression test results, followed by a tension simulation using the same image-based model to investigate the cracking behaviour. The quantitative agreement between the FE simulation and experiment demonstrates that it is a very promising and effective technique to investigate the internal damage and fracture behaviour in multiphasic composites by combining the in situ micro XCT experiment and image-based FE modelling

The Accuracy of Multiples Used to Estimate the Market Value of Large U.S. Pharmaceutical Companies

Many researchers and analysts have shown that expensing R&Ds can distort the profitability measures and market value estimates of R&D intensive firms and treat R&Ds as assets. This paper assesses the valuation accuracy of five goodwill, five enterprise and two price multipliers that can be used to estimate the market values of large U.S. pharmaceutical companies with significant R&D expenditures during the 2010-2022 period. Our results support that goodwill multipliers generally provide the smallest estimation errors of the market values of pharmaceutical firms with significant R&Ds and that gross profit is a superior measure of the profitability of these firms

Damping in microscale modified couple stress thermoelastic circular Kirchhoff plate resonators

The vibrations of circular plate in modified couple stress thermoelastic medium using Kirchhoff- Love plate theory has been presented. The basic equations of motion and heat conduction equation for Lord Shulman (L-S, 1967) theory are written with the help of Kirchhoff-Love plate theory. The thermoelastic damping of micro beam resonators is studied by applying normal mode analysis method. The solutions for the free vibrations of plates under clamped, simply supported and free boundary conditions are obtained. The analytical expressions for thermoelastic damping of vibration and frequency shift are obtained for generalized couple stress thermoelastic and coupled thermoelastic plates. Numerical results with the help of MATLAB programming software in case of silicon material has been presented. A computer algorithm has been constructed to obtain the numerical results. The thermoelastic damping and frequency shift with varying values of length and thickness for clamped, simply supported and free boundary conditions in the absence and presence of couple stress are presented graphically. Comparisons are made with different modes of vibrations and also with and without couple stress parameter. Some special cases are obtained in the present problem. The thermoelastic damping have many applications in (sensors) resonators in detecting Infrared (IR) and imaging in addition to chemical and biological agent sensing and their temperature dependence in design/construction of precision thermometers and communications

Oral Ornaments: An Overview

Nowadays, people desire to look attractive and have become very alert about their appearance and smile. Since the face is most exposed part of our body, and mouth a prominent feature, teeth are getting enormous share of attention. Intraoral jewellery has currently gained popularity and is slowly becoming a craze, but this fashion trend is also associated with some significant health issues. These ornaments though are said to enhance beauty cause problems such as increase pain, infection, scar formation, tooth fractures, metal hyper-sensitivity reactions, localized periodontal disease, speech impediment, and nerve damage. This review draws special attention to the prevalence, complications, and side effects of dental jewellery in humans. Here we suggest people must be aware of all the risks associated with wearing dental jewellery, and they should undergo dental check-ups regularly

Intraventricular arachnoid cyst of lateral ventricle in an elderly patient

Arachnoid cysts are usually located in relation to the arachnoid cisterns. Intra-ventricular location is rare and its embryological emergence in this site is controversial. We report a large intra-ventricular cyst in a 61-year-old female who presented with decreased vision, headache and right hemiparesis. MRI was suggestive of cystic lesion in the lateral ventricle and was excised completely through a craniotomy

Solitary plasmacytoma of occipital bone

We report a case of a 35-year-old male who presented with a pulsatile swelling in the posterior parieto-occipital area. CT and MRI revealed an extra-axial mass. Gross total resection was performed. Histologically it was found to be a plasmacytoma. No recurrence has been noted in the last 48 months of follow up

Evaluation of yield monitoring system installed on indigenous grain combine harvester for rice crop

Precision agriculture is a methodology to identify and exploit variability within an agricultural field.  In India, a yield is measured during marketing of harvested crop and as a gross yield of the land owned by the farmer.  The yield monitor mounted over grain combine harvester measures and records information such as grain flow, grain moisture, area covered and location.  An automated yield monitoring system consisting of a yield sensor, global positioning system (GPS), field computer with custom software was mounted on a self propelled indigenous grain combine harvester for real-time crop yield mapping along with moisture data.  By means of optical sensors (light emitter and detector), the height of the grain on the elevator paddles was measured and converted in the grain mass flow.  Three rice fields were harvested to evaluate the performance of the yield monitor for grain yield and moisture mapping of harvested grains.  The actual yield maps were generated by using Arc GIS software from the data collected for three different rice fields.  The total area harvested by using indigenous combine harvester fitted with yield monitor and moisture sensor was 0.84 ha comprising three fields (1, 2 and 3) having areas 0.3, 0.22 and 0.32 ha respectively.  On an average, yields for all the three fields (1, 2 and 3) were 4,325.91, 5,093.14 and 4,287.66    kg ha-1 with moisture content of 21.42%, 22.78% and 20.42% (wet basis) recorded respectively.  On an average, yield variations recorded for all the three fields (1, 2 and 3) were having 30.59%, 40.80% and 40.39% coefficient of variation respectively.  The minimum and maximum yields recorded within all the fields harvested were 577.08 and 7,661.48 kg ha-1 with an average yield of 4,287.66 kg ha-1 having 37.26% coefficient of variation (CV) in all the three fields.   Keywords: Combine harvester, precision agriculture, sensor; yield maps, yield monito

An Immersed Boundary Method Based Fluid-Structure Interaction Solver with Applications in Energy Harvesting

We present the development of an in-house fluid-structure interaction (FSI) solver and employ the solver for state-of-the-art applications in energy harvesting. An implicit partitioned approach is utilized to couple a sharp-interface immersed boundary method based flow solver and a finite-element method based structural solver. The code validations are presented for large-scale flow-induced deformation and vortex-induced vibration of an elastically mounted circular cylinder. We employ the FSI solver for analysis of vortex-induced vibration (VIV) of a cylinders, with different cross-sections. The suppression and agitation of VIV for different cylinders are discussed along with lock-in characteristics. An energy harvesting model is utilized to estimate the power generated per unit mass and it was found that the galloping of the D-cylinder is useful for broadband energy harvesting for a wide range of reduced velocities

Mathematical modelling of Stoneley wave in a transversely isotropic thermoelastic media

This paper is concerned with the study of propagation of Stoneley waves at the interface of two dissimilar transversely isotropic thermoelastic solids without energy dissipation and with two temperatures. The secular equation of Stoneley waves is derived in the form of the determinant by using appropriate boundary conditions i.e. the stresses components, the displacement components, and temperature at the boundary surface between the two media are considered to be continuous at all times and positions . The dispersion curves giving the Stoneley wave velocity and Attenuation coefficients with wave number are computed numerically. Numerical simulated results are depicted graphically to show the effect of two temperature and anisotropy on resulting quantities. Copper material has been chosen for the medium and magnesium for the medium Some special cases are also deduced from the present investigation