Iodine and Thyroid Cancer in Goa

There is a low papillary to follicular ratio in iodine deficient areas. A study of malignant thyroid tumors done over a period of 4 years in Goa shows that the ratio of papillary to follicular carcinoma in Goa conforms to a iodine deficient status of the population

Emissions from village cookstoves in Haryana, India, and their potential impacts on air quality

Air quality in rural India is impacted by residential cooking and heating with biomass fuels. In this study, emissions of CO, CO2, and 76 volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) were quantified to better understand the relationship between cook fire emissions and ambient ozone and secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation. Cooking was carried out by a local cook, and traditional dishes were prepared on locally built chulha or angithi cookstoves using brushwood or dung fuels. Cook fire emissions were collected throughout the cooking event in a Kynar bag (VOCs) and on polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) filters (PM2.5). Gas samples were transferred from a Kynar bag to previously evacuated stainless-steel canisters and analyzed using gas chromatography coupled to flame ionization, electron capture, and mass spectrometry detectors. VOC emission factors were calculated from the measured mixing ratios using the carbon-balance method, which assumes that all carbon in the fuel is converted to CO2, CO, VOCs, and PM2.5 when the fuel is burned. Filter samples were weighed to calculate PM2.5 emission factors. Dung fuels and angithi cookstoves resulted in significantly higher emissions of most VOCs (p < 0.05). Utilizing dung-angithi cook fires resulted in twice as much of the measured VOCs compared to dung-chulha and 4 times as much as brushwood-chulha, with 84.0, 43.2, and 17.2g measured VOCkgg fuel carbon, respectively. This matches expectations, as the use of dung fuels and angithi cookstoves results in lower modified combustion efficiencies compared to brushwood fuels and chulha cookstoves. Alkynes and benzene were exceptions and had significantly higher emissions when cooking using a chulha as opposed to an angithi with dung fuel (for example, benzene emission factors were 3.18gkgg fuel carbon for dung-chulha and 2.38gkgg fuel carbon for dung-angithi). This study estimated that 3 times as much SOA and ozone in the maximum incremental reactivity (MIR) regime may be produced from dung-chulha as opposed to brushwood-chulha cook fires. Aromatic compounds dominated as SOA precursors from all types of cook fires, but benzene was responsible for the majority of SOA formation potential from all chulha cook fire VOCs, while substituted aromatics were more important for dung-angithi. Future studies should investigate benzene exposures from different stove and fuel combinations and model SOA formation from cook fire VOCs to verify public health and air quality impacts from cook fires

Molecular composition of particulate matter emissions from dung and brushwood burning household cookstoves in Haryana, India

Emissions of airborne particles from biomass burning are a significant source of black carbon (BC) and brown carbon (BrC) in rural areas of developing countries where biomass is the predominant energy source for cooking and heating. This study explores the molecular composition of organic aerosols from household cooking emissions with a focus on identifying fuel-specific compounds and BrC chromophores. Traditional meals were prepared by a local cook with dung and brushwood-fueled cookstoves in a village in Palwal district, Haryana, India. Cooking was done in a village kitchen while controlling for variables including stove type, fuel moisture, and meal. Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) emissions were collected on filters, and then analyzed via nanospray desorption electrospray ionization-high-resolution mass spectrometry (nano-DESI-HRMS) and high-performance liquid chromatography-photodiode array-high-resolution mass spectrometry (HPLC-PDA-HRMS) techniques. The nano-DESI-HRMS analysis provided an inventory of numerous compounds present in the particle phase. Although several compounds observed in this study have been previously characterized using gas chromatography methods a majority of the species in the nano-DESI spectra were newly observed biomass burning compounds. Both the stove (chulha or angithi) and the fuel (brushwood or dung) affected the composition of organic aerosols. The geometric mean of the PM2.5 emission factor and the observed molecular complexity increased in the following order: brushwood-chulha (7.3±1.8 g kg-1 dry fuel, 93 compounds), dung-chulha (21.1±4.2 g kg-1 dry fuel, 212 compounds), and dung-angithi (29.8±11.5 g kg-1 dry fuel, 262 compounds). The mass-normalized absorption coefficient (MACbulk) for the organic-solvent extractable material for brushwood PM2.5 was 3.7±1.5 and 1.9±0.8m2 g-1 at 360 and 405 nm, respectively, which was approximately a factor of two higher than that for dung PM2.5. The HPLC-PDA-HRMS analysis showed that, regardless of fuel type, the main chromophores were CxHyOz lignin fragments. The main chromophores accounting for the higher MACbulk values of brushwood PM2.5 were C8H10O3 (tentatively assigned to syringol), nitrophenols C8H9NO4, and C10H10O3 (tentatively assigned to methoxycinnamic acid)

Performance Comparison Of Bnp Scheduling Algorithms In Homogeneous Environment

Static Scheduling is the mapping of a program to the resources of a parallel system in order to minimize the execution time. This paper presents static scheduling algorithms that schedule an edge-weighted directed acyclic graph (DAG) to a set of homogeneous processors. The aim is to evaluate and compare the performance of different algorithms and select the best algorithm amongst them. Various BNP algorithms are analyzed and classified into four groups - Highest Level First Estimated Time (HLFET), Dynamic Level Scheduling (DLS), Modified Critical Path (MCP) and Earliest Time First (ETF). Based upon their performance considering various factors, best algorithm is determined

Survey on During Pandemic scenario: Domestic Retail Sales Forecasting of Passenger Vehicles in India using Time Delay Neural Network

Accurate sales forecast is crucial to plan the production process, especially in automotiveindustry, where a large number of factors –macro-economic, micro-economic and othersdynamically influence the demand.Forecasting in such a dynamic industry, especially with theonset of COVID, has become extremely important with the preference for personaltransportation on the increase. In this paper, a neural network model to forecast the domesticretail sales of passenger vehicles in India is formulated. A Time Delay Feed Forward NeuralNetwork with Back Propagation (TDNN)is used and the forecasting accuracies determined bycomparing the values of Mean Squared Error (MSE), Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE), MeanAbsolute Deviation (MAD) and Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE). The macroeconomicindicators identified were Unemployment rate, GDP growth rate, Private FinalConsumption Expenditure (PFCE), Index of Industrial Production (IIP), Bank Lending Rate(BLR), Inflation Rate and Crude oil prices. The indicators were taken as the input variables andPassenger Vehicle Retail Sales was selected as the target variable to formulate the TDNNmodel. It was observed that the TDNN model was able to forecast the output with greataccuracy

The benefits and challenges of mobile banking at the Bottom of the pyramid

Financial inclusion envisages bringing the people into the formal banking sector and mobile banking can help in this task. It is estimated that almost 85% of the BoP population in the world uses mobile phones but, whether the mobile banking will actually help the BoP and fulfill the purpose of financial inclusion remains a question. Limited research has been conducted on mobile banking among the BoP and has mainly focused on the mobile banking adoption and its determinants. The benefits and challenges of mobile banking to the poor have not been discussed in the past. Before working on the potential solutions of mobile banking, a serious thought over if the mobile banking will actually help the poor or in what ways can help in preparing a strategy that can integrate the positioning of the benefits of mobile banking solutions. Thus, through this research we aim to discuss the benefits and challenges of mobile banking to the BoP. The benefits of mobile banking to the BoP are reduced cost, reduced time and personalization. The challenges of mobile banking are related to system, security, regulatory environment, economic viability. The service providers should work closely with the government agencies to develop appropriate systems that can overcome the challenges and increase the benefits in order to encourage the use of mobile banking at the BoP

Aju Mukhopadhyay’s Short Stories: A Multicoloured World

Aju Mukhopadhyay is one of the brightest stars in the firmament of contemporary Indian English Literature. He is a magnificent literary artist, in fact a versatile genius. As a visionary poet he has enraptured the hearts and minds of millions of poetry lovers, both in India and abroad. He is a profound critic, and his insightful critical studies are highly valued in the literary world. His essays on various subjects have made a mark in every field. He is a great storyteller too, both in English and Bangla, and the range of his short stories has baffled the fiction lovers. Like his previous volumes of short stories, the present collection too offers a large variety of subjects and feeds the craving of every set of readers. Aju’s world is so vast that you cross the national boundaries many times to peep into a new world. You open the window to a new story and step into a different world altogether. “In the Company of William, Samuel and Dorothy”, Aju takes us to the Lake District of England to enjoy the company of the great Romantic poets, William Wordsworth, S. T. Coleridge and Dorothy Wordsworth. His description is so vivid that you really feel you are watching everything happening before your ‘fleshy eyes’. In the next story “They Came Down from the Roof of the World”, the writer takes you indeed to the roof of the world, Tibet and the Tibetan Cause. Tibet and New York come alive before you and you partake in the stormy scenes, the rebellion, the persecution, the great Dalai Lama escape and the aftermath