Porous Alumina Based Capacitive MEMS RH Sensor

The aim of a joint research and development project at the BME and HWU is to produce a cheap, reliable, low-power and CMOS-MEMS process compatible capacitive type relative humidity (RH) sensor that can be incorporated into a state-of-the-art, wireless sensor network. In this paper we discuss the preparation of our new capacitive structure based on post-CMOS MEMS processes and the methods which were used to characterize the thin film porous alumina sensing layer. The average sensitivity is approx. 15 pF/RH% which is more than a magnitude higher than the values found in the literature. The sensor is equipped with integrated resistive heating, which can be used for maintenance to reduce drift, or for keeping the sensing layer at elevated temperature, as an alternative method for temperature-dependence cancellation.Comment: Submitted on behalf of EDA Publishing Association (http://irevues.inist.fr/handle/2042/16838

Dengue Scourge in Delhi – What the Stakeholders Think, a Search for Perspective

Background and Objective: Amongst all the states and union territories in India, New Delhi shares the highest burden of the disease. Dengue infection is influenced by several socioeconomic factors, which involve roles, and responsibilities of various stakeholders of the society. In this study, we attempt to explore the awareness, knowledge and perception about dengue amongst relevant stakeholders.Methodology: A sample of 30 stakeholders having different roles in management of dengue was taken all over from Delhi. In-depth, face-to-face, qualitative interviews were taken using an interview tool customized as per roles and responsibilities of the stakeholders.Result: The study identified four key themes in management of dengue in Delhi. These themes were studied in depth and various challenges in dengue management were explored

Molecular Study of Glycoprotein (G) Gene Region of Rabies Virus from Spotted Deer, Delhi, India

Rabies is a viral zoonotic disease of public health importance in India. The disease is usually transmitted by a rabid animal bite, scratches and licks on broken skin and mucous membrane. Rabies is reported from all continents except Antarctica although prevalence is more in Asia and Africa. India is endemic for rabies virus (RABV) throughout the country except for islands of Lakshadweep, Andaman & Nicobar. In the present study, brain samples of clinically suspected animals obtained during the RABV outbreak at National Zoological Park, New Delhi, India, in 2016 were initially tested for rabies antigen by DFAT. All the 32 DFAT positive brain samples were then processed for RNA isolation. The extracted RNA was amplified for glycoprotein (G) gene of 590 bp by RT-PCR followed by nucleotide sequencing. Nucleotide alignment revealed only substitutions without any insertion or deletion. Amino acid alignment revealed replacement at four positions namely L244I, T264A, M310I and N375K. The amino acid change at position where Leucine is replaced by Isoleucine has not been observed in available RABV references of the G gene region either from India or other countries. This mutation was observed in all the samples included in the present study. A phylogenetic tree showed that all the study sequences belonged to Arctic like 1a lineage, in RABV genotype 1. In conclusion, RABV in the study region is acquiring genetic variation; which may have effect on the pathogenicity. This indicates that continued molecular surveillance of the circulating rabies virus strains should be carried out

Urban Malaria Scheme - Past, Present & Future

Urban Malaria, as a specific problem in India, was first recognized in 1969, after an in- depth review of the situation of malaria in India was done by Madhok Committee. However, main malaria vector in urban areas of India is An. stephensi, which was first recognized in early part of the 20th century. Many of the local bodies carrying out anti- larval operations earlier failed to continue the same due to paucity of funds. During that time, malaria in urban areas was not considered as a major problem because the epidemics recorded earlier in Bombay, Delhi, Lucknow etc. could immediately be contained. Based on recommendations of Madhok Committee to control malaria in urban areas, the Urban Malaria Scheme (UMS) was launched in the country in 1971–7 2. A large scale migration of population, creation of slum clusters, construction activities and water storage practices have contributed in the establishment of malaria foci. Urban malaria control is therefore based on source reduction, larviciding, minor engineering interventions, legislative measures, building bye laws and limited spraying of indoor residual spray in peri- urban and jhuggies. Initially 131 towns with a population of > 40,000 and reporting > 2 API were included in the UMS. Later in 1978, due to merger of National Filaria control programme, 206 towns were also brought under vector control support and the preventive measures against malaria vector breeding in clean water as well as filaria vector breeding in polluted water were integrated. Though there has been a well structured separate programme for prevention and control of malaria in urban areas since 1971, the priority attached to it and its implementation has been an issue primarily because it is the responsibility of the local body. Moreover, in recent past, upsurge in cases of Dengue and Chikungunya in urban areas has diverted attention on both disease surveillance and vector control. Coincidently, the vectors of malaria and dengue/ Chikungunya in urban areas breed in clean water and control strategies are same but surveillance with limited resources has affected in assessing the actual magnitude of problem. This has resulted in upsurge in cases and deaths due to malaria in Mumbai during 2010. Historical background and future vision of Urban Malaria Scheme has been discussed in present article

Can Computer-Assisted Training of Prerequisite Motor Skills Help Enable Communication in People with Autism?

Our and others' research indicates that in fully a third of people with autism who lack communicative speech, the communication deficit may actually be a deficit in motor skills necessary to move the mouth and the vocal tract. These individuals have difficulties in fine, gross and especially oral motor skills, and a disparity between impaired expressive language and relatively intact receptive language: that is to say, they can listen but not speak. Because involvement in research and receipt of the fullest educational, occupational and other services demands ability to interact verbally and to control one's movements and actions, these people get the short end of the stick when it comes to scientific enquiry and pedagogic and therapeutic practice. Point OutWords, tablet-based software designed in collaboration with autistic clients and their communication therapists, exploits the autistic fascination with parts and details to motivate attention to learning manual motor and oral motor skills essential for communication. Along the way, autistic clients practise pointing and dragging at objects, then pointing at sequences of letters on a keyboard, and even speaking the syllables represented by these letters. Whereas many teaching and learning strategies adapted from methods for non-autistic people end up working against autistic cognition by asking people with autism to do what they cannot easily do, Point OutWords works with autistic cognition, by beginning from the autistic skill at manipulating parts and details. Users and their parents or guardians can opt into collection of data on motor interactions with Point OutWords; these internal measures of motor skills development are complemented by external, standardised tests of motor, oral motor and communicative development. These quantitative measures are collected alongside reports on Point OutWords's acceptability to users, and users' fidelity to a recommended treatment regime, so as to evaluate feasibility of a larger randomised controlled trial

Bacterium-inspired Robots for Environmental Monitoring

Locating gradient sources and tracking them over time has important applications to environmental monitoring and studies of the ecosystem. We present an approach, inspired by bacterial chemotaxis, for robots to navigate to sources using gradient measurements and a simple actuation strategy (biasing a random walk). Extensive simulations show the efficacy of the approach in varied conditions including multiple sources, dissipative sources, and noisy sensors and actuators. We also show how such an approach could be used for boundary finding. We validate our approach by testing it on a small robot (the robomote) in a phototaxis experiment. A comparison of our approach with gradient descent shows that while gradient descent is faster, our approach is better suited for boundary coverage, and performs better in the presence of multiple and dissipative sources

Evaluation of Direct Rapid Immunohistochemistry Test (DRIT) for Postmortem Diagnosis of Rabies

Direct fluorescent antibody test (DFAT) is considered as the gold standard for diagnosis of rabies in infected mammals as it has high sensitivity and specificity. However, high cost and technical demand limits its utilization, particularly in developing countries including India. Therefore, in this study we evaluated recently developed direct rapid immunohistochemistry test (DRIT) for diagnosis of rabies in comparison with the DFAT. A total of 109 brain samples received during the period of 6 years from different regions of India were tested following standard protocol. The results showed 100% correlation between the two tests.