Special Issue on International Conference on Recent Innovations in Electrical, Electronics and Communication Systems (RIEECS 2017), Dehradun, India, 2017

Recent years have witnessed a prolific growth in the fields of Electrical, Electronics and Communication Systems (RIEECS) that inspire us to organize an International Conference. In order to aware the researchers working worldwide about the latest development in these research fields; RIEECS 2017 was held on 28–29th October, 2017 at Graphic Era (Deemed to be University), Dehradun, India. Delegates for this conference wereProf. (Dr.) Nitish Patel, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Auckland, New Zealand.Prof. (Dr.) S. N Singh, Vice Chancellor, Madan Mohan Malviya University of Technology Gorakhpur (UP) and IEEE R10 conference and technical seminar coordinator 2015 – 18Dr. Asheesh Kumar Singh, Associate Professor, EED, MNNIT Allahabad (UP) and Vice Chairman – IEEE UP Section.Mr. V. K Srivastava, General Manager (Technical Services), IOCL – Haldia (WB).Dr. Y. V. Hote, Associate Professor, EED, IIT Roorkee (Uttarakhand)Dr. Nagendra Prasad Pathak, Associate Professor, Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, IIT Roorkee (Uttarakhand)Prof. (Dr.) Mak Sharma, Professor, Computer Science, Birmingham City University, United Kingdom.Prof. (Dr.) R. C Bansal, Professor, Electrical Electronics and Computer Engineering University of Pretoria, South Africa.In this conference, total 98 research papers were received, among which 48 papers were finally selected for the presentation.  The research contributions of various premier institutes, such as, IITs, NITs, BITs Meshra, Graphic Era Hill University, Rajiv Gandhi College of Engineering & Research, Nagpur, NIC New Delhi, Rajasthan Technical University, were presented in this conference.  The speakers and authors identified key problems related to the fields of Electrical, Electronics, and Communication Systems. Based on the quality, research work and scope of the journal, out of 48 research papers, 12 research papers were selected by the conference committee. These selected papers were submitted as an extended version to the special issue on RIEECS2017 of Trends in Renewable Energy Journal.On behalf of the organizing and program committee of the conference, I would like to thank the authority of Trends in Renewable Energy, to provide me an opportunity to work as an editor of this special issue. Also, thanks to all reviewers of the articles for their esteem effort and time to uphold the spirit of the special issue of the Trends in Renewable Energy. Finally, it is also observed that the published papers cover the research fields of electrical, electronics and communication systems and meeting the goals of this conference. I hope that the articles will be useful to the research community to put forward the progress in the respective and the allied research fields

Effect of Oral intake of Stevia Leaf Powder on Body Weight – An Experimental study

Introduction: The steviol glycosides are found  in the stevia leaf. These glycosides possess sweetening properties as well as they have antioxidant, anti-microbial, anti-inflammatory, antihyperglycemic, and anti-hypertensive effects. This study was conducted to  find out the effect of Stevia leaf on body weight in obese Sprague Dawley male rats. Materials and Methods: This experimental study was carried out on 90 Sprague Dawley male rats. Group1(normal control) was given a standard diet for the entire study period, while the remaining sixty rats were given a high-fat diet (HFD) for 8 weeks to induce obesity. The obese rats were randomly assigned to group 2 (Obese Control) and Group 3 (obese + Stevia) and given HFD for another 6 weeks. The stevia leaf powder was added to the diet of group 3. Diet intake was noted for all the groups. Rats were weighed on the first day of every week, for six weeks, and then at the end of the study period.      Results: Body weights of rats in each group, at the start and end of the 6-week intervention period, when compared, showed a significant increase in group 1 (p=0.001), and group 2 (p = 0.001), while group 3 showed a non-significant increase (p = 0.248). The percentage increase in body weight for groups 1, 2, and 3 was 4.8, 9.3, and 1.1, respectively. Graphically, the weekly increase in average body weights of the three experimental groups showed maximum values for group 2. Conclusions: Stevia leaf possesses weight-reducing effects which may be due to inhibition of appetite, reduction in food intake, and consequent weight loss. Keywords: Obesity, weight loss, Natural non-nutritive sweeteners, Stevi

Biosynthesis and characterization of silver nanoparticles from Cedrela toona leaf extracts: An exploration into their antibacterial, anticancer, and antioxidant potential

This research work aims to synthesize environmentally benign and cost-effective metal nanoparticles. In this current research scenario, the leaf extract of Cedrela toona was used as a reducing agent to biosynthesize silver nanoparticles (AgNPs). The synthesis of AgNPs was confirmed by the color shift of the reaction mixture, i.e., silver nitrate and plant extract, from yellow to dark brown colloidal suspension and was established by UV-visible analysis showing a surface plasmon resonance band at 434 nm. Different experimental factors were optimized for the formation and stability of AgNPs, and the optimum conditions were found to be 1 mM AgNO3 concentration, a 1:9 ratio of extract/precursor, and an incubation temperature of 70°C for 4 h. The Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy spectra indicated the presence of phytochemicals in the leaf extract that played the role of bioreducing agents in forming AgNPs. X-ray diffraction patterns confirmed the presence of AgNPs with a mean size of 25.9 nm. The size distribution and morphology of AgNPs were investigated by scanning electron microscopy, which clearly highlighted spherical nanoparticles with a size distribution of 22–30 nm with a mean average size of 25.5 nm. Moreover, prominent antibacterial activity was found against Enterococcus faecalis (21 ± 0.5 mm), Bacillus subtilis (20 ± 0.9 mm), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (18 ± 0.3 mm), Staphylococcus aureus (16 ± 0.7 mm), Klebsiella pneumoniae (16 ± 0.3 mm), and Escherichia coli (14 ± 0.7 mm). In addition, antioxidant activity was determined by DPPH and ABTS assays. Higher antioxidant activity was reported in AgNPs compared to the plant extract in both DPPH (IC50 = 69.62 µg·ml−1) and ABTS assays (IC50 = 47.90 µg·ml−1). Furthermore, cytotoxic activity was also investigated by the MTT assay against MCF-7 cells, and IC50 was found to be 32.55 ± 0.05 µg·ml−1. The crux of this research is that AgNPs synthesized from the Cedrela toona leaf extract could be employed as antibacterial, antioxidant, and anticancer agents for the treatment of bacterial, free radical-oriented, and cancerous diseases

Essay: Protection of Civilians (POC) During War

It was widely anticipated that the end of Cold War will herald the general state of positive peace and that the world will yield the benefits of ‘peace dividends’. However, such manifestations were not witnessed. In evidence, between 1989 and 2000, more than 4 million people died in violent conflicts around the world. To this end, Gupta and colleagues (2002) noted that international terrorist attacks increased from a yearly count of 342 (during 1995-1999), to 387 per year (during 2000-2001). Underdeveloped and developing countries bore the major brunt of the violence. Conflicts that were ideological and had their roots in power management were largely resolved through the diplomatic statecraft or through use of military force. However, the conflicts that were unconventional in nature grew and gave rise to more complex and multidimensional intrastate conflicts. The new dimension in these conflicts can be identified through common features that generally include the use and spread of violence on the civilians, causing great loss of life and serious breaches in the International Humanitarian Law (IHL). The history of IHL can be traced to the work of Henry Dunant and Guillaume-Henri Dufour in 1860s (ICRC, 2017). This law has a deep rooted connection with the discourse of the Protection of Civilians (PoC). The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is playing a key role in its implementation along with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The term ‘protection’ encompasses the fragments of International Refugee Convention (IRC) and International Human Rights Law (IHRL). The institutional implementation of this ‘protection’ by the UNHCR and ICRC is clear in their mandate regarding operational strategies. They have developed themselves as the ‘lawfully oriented and diplomatic channels of influential engagement with state and non-state actors. This essay will focus on the importance of PoC by the armed forces in connection with the aforementioned international institutions. It also highlights the role of civil society and different sections of the civilians and how they are affected during the war. This will be followed with the recommendations and conclusion

A new hybrid approach based on fuzzy logic and optimization for load frequency control

This paper presents a fuzzy logic and optimization-based controller design for load frequency control of a single area system with a non-reheated turbine. The controller’s unknown parameters are determined using Big Bang-Big Crunch (BB-BC) optimization algorithm by minimizing the integral square error. In addition, extensive simulation experiments on an existing single-area power system were conducted to test the efficacy of the proposed design technique. The findings show that the proposed controller outperforms the recently developed controllers regarding transient response and error parameters. The suggested controller’s capability is also demonstrated by improved external disturbance rejections despite plant parameter variations. The reduced model of a single area load frequency control system is also obtained in this paper. It found that the dynamic response of the obtained reduced system is close to the original single area LFC system.</p

Twenty-seven year old man presenting with a strangulated diaphragmatic hernia eight years after the initial injury

A 27-year-old man presented with a 5 day history of abdominal pain and distension, with associated constipation and vomiting. He had presented 8 years earlier following a traumatic injury to the left side of the chest, and no diaphragmatic injury was reported at that time. On this admission, a computed tomography scan showed herniation of the splenic flexure of the colon into the left hemithorax. Subsequently, he had an emergency laparotomy for resection, with formation of a loop ileostomy. The various imaging techniques all have advantages and disadvantages when diagnosing a traumatic diaphragmatic hernia. It is the clinician’s role to maintain a high index of suspicion when a patient initially presents with trauma where a traumatic diaphragmatic hernia may be a possibility