Shared-Sensing and Control Using Reversible Transducers

As an alternative to self-sensing, we propose the concept of shared-sensing for reversible transducers. In shared-sensing, reversible transducers are continuously switched between actuator and sensor modes. This results in a hybrid system, and, in this paper, we investigate stability properties of the equilibrium for linear systems and a class of nonlinear systems with a single shared-sensing transducer. Our theoretical results are validated through simulations and experiments with a dc servo motor

Home-Based Pilates Exercise Regimen Can Alter the Balance and Trunk Mobility of Non-Exercising Middle-Aged Women: A Pilot Study

Background: Technological inventions are promoting a sedentary lifestyle. With aging limited physical activities result in postural instability, falls, and mobility reduction, for which the two physical fitness components - balance and flexibility play indispensable roles. Among many exercise protocols, Pilates is one of the most beneficial regimens for developing core muscle strength, balance, flexibility, and aerobic capacity in middle-aged women. Purpose: The purpose of the current pilot study was to examine the influence of a nine-week home-based Pilates exercise (HBPE) program on the balance and trunk mobility of middle-aged women. Methodology: This pilot study adopted a quasi-experimental design with 40 non-exercising middle-aged women (age 40–60 years) who were purposively enrolled in a Pilates exercise group (PEG, n=20; mean age= 52.05±5.93 years) and a Control group (CNG, n= 20; mean age= 51.90±5.88 years). The PEG was exposed to three weekly sessions of 50–60 minutes for nine weeks of Pilates exercises, while the CNG used to perform only their daily usual activities. One-leg stand test, Timed up and go test, and Sit-and-reach test had been administered twice before and after the intervention of the HBPE program to evaluate their static balance, dynamic balance, and trunk flexibility respectively. Result: Nine weeks of the HBPE program significantly influenced the static balance (t= -4.901, p=0.001, Δ% = 9.82), dynamic balance (t= 2.582, p=0.018, Δ% = -1.02), and trunk flexibility (t= -8.000, p=0.001, Δ% = 2.51) among the participants of PEG, while CNG showed no significant changes in those dependent variables. Conclusion: The current pilot study concludes that nine weeks of the HBPE program can significantly improve the balance and trunk flexibility of non-exercising middle-aged women and thereby can increase postural stability and trunk mobility

Virulence of Bacillus cereus as natural facultative pathogen of Anopheles subpictus Grassi (Diptera: Culicidae) larvae in submerged rice-fields and shallow ponds

Out of 4407 Anopheles subpictus larvae collected from submerged rice-fields and shallow ponds, 1412 were found to be unhealthy and 2.8% of unhealthy larvae were naturally infected by Bacillus cereus. B. cereus formed circular, white and flat colonies. Bacteria were gram positive, ellipsoidal/oval spore forming aerobic rods. Although the isolate was positive for catalase, urease, gelatinase, lipase, nitrate reduction and H2S production, it was negative for indole production, Vogues-Proskauer test, oxidase test and acid/gas production from carbon sources. Through biochemical characterization and fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) analysis, the bacterial isolate was identified as Bacillus cereus. In the laboratory condition, B. cereus suspension resulted in 43.57% and 93.78% death of A. subpictus larvae within 3 and 6 h, respectively. The organisms were sensitive to recommended doses of kanamycin, gatifloxacin, gentamycin, levofloxacin, doxycyclin,  tetracyclin, streptomycin, rifampicin, vancomycin, ciprofloxacin, but found resistant to ampicillin.Key words: Bacillus cereus, fatty acid methyl ester analysis, scanning electron micrograph, biochemicalcharacterization, pathogen, Anopheles subpictus larva

An Interactive Theorem Prover for First-Order Dynamic Logic

Dynamic logic is an extension of modal logic originally intended for reasoning about computer programs. The method of proving correctness of properties of a computer program using the well-known Hoare Logic can be implemented by utilizing the robustness of dynamic logic. For a very broad range of languages and applications in program veri cation, a theorem prover named KIV (Karlsruhe Interactive Veri er) Theorem Prover has already been developed. But a high degree of automation and its complexity make it di cult to use it for educational purposes. My research work is motivated towards the design and implementation of a similar interactive theorem prover with educational use as its main design criteria. As the key purpose of this system is to serve as an educational tool, it is a self-explanatory system that explains every step of creating a derivation, i.e., proving a theorem. This deductive system is implemented in the platform-independent programming language Java. In addition, a very popular combination of a lexical analyzer generator, JFlex, and the parser generator BYacc/J for parsing formulas and programs has been used

Impact of the non-biodegradable plastics and role of microbes in biotic degradation

Plastic is a group of elastic organic compounds whose definition has radically changed from being a large family of useful polymers to an indispensable part of life.  We might say we are residing in the “era of plasticene”. If we simply pause and look around, we would realize that a majority of things in our daily life comprise plastic polymers.  Currently, the international production of these polymers has spiked to around 300 million metric tons annually. Surprisingly about 50 percent of the products are discarded within a year of fabrication.  Once discarded ‘outside’ they end up ‘somewhere’ and start exerting their disruptive consequences.  Despite its enormous utility, it is now being increasingly known that these polymers are surely not without their downsides.  Several steps are taken and even more, are being investigated so the mayhem of plastic doesn't prove for a "no pilot in cockpit" situation. Here we have conducted a review work of the available literature on various biological entities that can utilize plastic while at the same time focusing our attempts to assemble information regarding the probable enzymes that do it.  We have also provided a report on the effect of different plastics on the ecosystem and the various management alternatives out there

A study to evaluate efficacy of Tinospora cordifolia (Guduchi) as analgesic agent using albino wistar rats as an experimental animal model

Background: Pain is a very well-known symptom of many diseases and analgesics are used to relieve pain. The main problem with these drugs remains that of side effects. Herbal medicines are better in view of their cultural acceptability, better compatibility with human body systems and lesser incidence of side effects. Extract of Tinospora cordifolia (Guduchi) plant have been traditionally used to treat pain in traditional medicine.Methods: Commercially available preparation of T. cordifolia plant has been used as test drug (aqueous extract). Healthy albino rats of either sex, weighing between 140-200 g were selected for the study, divided into 4 groups of 6 each (control, standard, 100 mg/kg, 300 mg/kg). Central analgesic activity was assessed by tail flick model (morphine as standard drug I.P). Acetic acid 1% 10 ml/kg aqueous solution I.P. was used for abdominal writhing model. Diclofenac 150 mg/kg oral as standard drug for assessment of peripheral analgesic activity. Results were analysed using SPSS version 16 and Microsoft office excel 2007.Results: T. cordifolia extract significantly increased the tail flick latency time (sec) (mean tail flick latency control, T100, T300 6.833±0.25 sec, 8.65±017 sec, 10.01±0.14 respectively) (p value control vs T100, T300 at 90 min, 120 min, 0.0573, 0.0198, 0.0198 in between group) and decreased number of abdominal writhing in comparison with the control group (p value <0.0001).Conclusions: Extract of T. cordifolia was found to possess analgesic activity and also exhibited dose and time dependant increase involving central and peripheral mechanisms. The analgesic activity of T. cordifolia found to be comparable to standard drug used

On pretraining data diversity for self-supervised learning

We explore the impact of training with more diverse datasets, characterized by the number of unique samples, on the performance of self-supervised learning (SSL) under a fixed computational budget. Our findings consistently demonstrate that increasing pretraining data diversity enhances SSL performance, albeit only when the distribution distance to the downstream data is minimal. Notably, even with an exceptionally large pretraining data diversity achieved through methods like web crawling or diffusion-generated data, among other ways, the distribution shift remains a challenge. Our experiments are comprehensive with seven SSL methods using large-scale datasets such as ImageNet and YFCC100M amounting to over 200 GPU days. The code and trained models will be available at https: //github.com/hammoudhasan/DiversitySSL