SUSTAINABLE ENERGY CHALLENGES OF INDIA : Essays of the study course "Future Sustainable Energy Challenges"

Of recent, energy education is acquiring importance in Indian higher education system. As a signatory to many international protocols on reducing carbon emissions, India is obligated to persue alternative sources of energy and awareness building among the masses to meet its global commitments. Once such initiative was undertaken in Solapur University, Maharashtra state, Western India, to introduce a course on “Future Sustainable Energy Challenges”, in collaboration with Finland Futures Research Centre (Turku School of Economics in University of Turku, Finland) under the financial assistance from the Finnish National Agency of Education. The present book is a collection of essays developed by Master students as project work of their course in Energy Education. There are three essays presented in this book which provide glimpses on Renewable Energy Sources and their potential to meet energy needs of India in a sustainable manner. All the three essays are set in ‘Futures studies perspective‘ and have discussed at length the challenges and limitations through specific case studies on wind, solar, biofuel energy, in the context of India’s energy sector

The Many Electron Ground State of the Adiabatic Holstein Model in Two and Three Dimensions

We present the complete ground state phase diagram of the Holstein model in two and three dimension considering the phonon variables to be classical. We first establish the overall structure of the phase diagram by using exact diagonalisation based Monte Carlo (ED-MC) on small lattices and then use a new ``travelling cluster'' approximation (TCA) for annealing the phonon degrees of freedom on large lattices. The phases that emerge include a Fermi liquid (FL), with no lattice distortions, an insulating polaron liquid (PL) at strong coupling, and a charge ordered insulating (COI) phase around half- filling. The COI phase is separated from the Fermi liquid by a regime of phase coexistence whose width grows with increasing electron-phonon coupling. We provide results on the electronic density of states, the COI order parameter, and the spatial organisation of polaronic states, for arbitrary density and electron-phonon coupling. The results highlight the crucial role of spatial correlations in this strong coupling problem.Comment: Final versio

BRING THEM BACK TO CAMPUS: OPTIONAL ENGAGING CAMPUS ACTIVITIES FOR ONLINE CLASSES WITH LIVESTREAMING

Ever since the pandemic, students have adapted to taking their classes online. However, coming to campus promotes a connection to the university through faculty and classmates. The event had a dual purpose in promoting the adoption of computational skills through robots in K-12 classrooms, which is the educational goal of the project. A carefully designed “Educational Robotics Day” event encourages students to return to campus through an engaging event while accommodating those students that are unable to come to the campus but still attend. The coordinators of the event also measured the effectiveness of the event through an exit survey to ensure the event accomplished the educational goal of the event

E-Learning Course Recommender System Using Collaborative Filtering Models

e-Learning is a sought-after option for learners during pandemic situations. In e-Learning platforms, there are many courses available, and the user needs to select the best option for them. Thus, recommender systems play an important role to provide better automation services to users in making course choices. It makes recommendations for users in selecting the desired option based on their preferences. This system can use machine intelligence (MI)-based techniques to carry out the recommendation mechanism. Based on the preferences and history, this system is able to know what the users like most. In this work, a recommender system is proposed using the collaborative filtering mechanism for e-Learning course recommendation. This work is focused on MI-based models such as K-nearest neighbor (KNN), Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) and neural network–based collaborative filtering (NCF) models. Here, one lakh of Coursera’s course review dataset is taken from Kaggle for analysis. The proposed work can help learners to select the e-Learning courses as per their preferences. This work is implemented using Python language. The performance of these models is evaluated using performance metrics such as hit rate (HR), average reciprocal hit ranking (ARHR) and mean absolute error (MAE). From the results, it is observed that KNN is able to perform better in terms of higher HR and ARHR and lower MAE values as compared to other models

Design of a precision calibration unit for Keck NIRC2 AO instrument

High-precision astrometry has the potential to address questions in planet formation, black hole science, Galactic structure, and more. However, in order to achieve a precision of sub-milli arcseconds (mas), we need a calibration method better than the current techniques such as on-sky calibration using calibrated stellar or stellar cluster systems, which have a precision of ~1 mas. Precision calibration unit with a regular grid of photo-lithographically manufactured pinholes combined with self-calibration techniques, on the other hand, is a new and innovative way to potentially achieve a precision of sub-mas over the entire field of view. This technique is beneficial to adaptive optic (AO) instruments for future telescopes like the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT). In this work, we present our design for a new astrometric calibration unit to feed the NIRC2 AO instrument at the W. M. Keck Observatory. It allows calibration over a large field of view of 47" x 47"

Design of a precision calibration unit for Keck NIRC2 AO instrument

High-precision astrometry has the potential to address questions in planet formation, black hole science, Galactic structure, and more. However, in order to achieve a precision of sub-milli arcseconds (mas), we need a calibration method better than the current techniques such as on-sky calibration using calibrated stellar or stellar cluster systems, which have a precision of ~1 mas. Precision calibration unit with a regular grid of photo-lithographically manufactured pinholes combined with self-calibration techniques, on the other hand, is a new and innovative way to potentially achieve a precision of sub-mas over the entire field of view. This technique is beneficial to adaptive optic (AO) instruments for future telescopes like the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT). In this work, we present our design for a new astrometric calibration unit to feed the NIRC2 AO instrument at the W. M. Keck Observatory. It allows calibration over a large field of view of 47" x 47"

(Z)-5-Fluoro-3-[(1H-pyrrol-2-yl)methyl­ene]indolin-2-one

The title compound, C13H9FN2O, a potential neuroprotective agent, consists of an indolinone and a pyrrolyl unit [dihedral angle between the ring planes = 4.9 (1)°]. An intra­molecular hydrogen bond between the carbonyl O atom and the NH group of pyrrole correlates with the Z arrangement of the substituents at the C=C bond. In the crystal, inversion dimers occur, linked by pairs of N—H⋯O bonds

Sacral tuberculosis: an atypical manifestation

Sacral tuberculosis (TB) is extremely rare and its unusual entity might delay the diagnosis and treatment of this treatable disease. A 38-year-old lady presented with a 1 year history of lower back pain with radiculopathy more to right lower limb. The patient was initially treated as Prolapsed Intervertebral Disc (PID), but showed no improvement despite regular physiotherapy and medication. Subsequently, the pain was confined to the right gluteal area and became more severe. Quality of life was impaired in which patient started using walking aids and stopped working. There was a weight loss of 20kg. No other symptom of TB infection or history of contact with TB patient. Bowel and urinary functions were normal. Examination showed localized tenderness at the right gluteal area. Neurological assessment of both lower limbs were MRC grade 5. Blood investigations were normal including the ESR level (17mm/hour). Mantoux test was positive with 18mm induration. MRI revealed a large rim enhancing paravertebral collection at pre-sacral space which extended into bilateral piriformis and gluteal muscles. The patient underwent CT-guided drainage of both gluteals and specimens taken to confirm the diagnosis of TB. Patient showed significant improvement clinically within 1 week after the drainage procedure and initiation of antituberculous chemotherapy. The initial presentation of this patient mimics PID due to irritation of sciatic nerve at piriformis level. However a change in the presentation and failure of conservative treatment should raise a high index of suspicion and necessitates further investigation to establish correct diagnosis hence proper treatment can be initiated

(Z)-3-[(E)-3-Phenyl­allyl­idene]indolin-2-one

The title compound, C17H13NO, synthesized to be tested for neuroprotective activities, consists of an indoline and a phenyl­allyl­idene unit with a dihedral angle of 9.0 (1)° between the two ring systems. There are two independent mol­ecules in the asymmetric unit which are connected into a dimer by inter­molecular N—H⋯O hydrogen bonds