Online Lifelong Generalized Zero-Shot Learning

Methods proposed in the literature for zero-shot learning (ZSL) are typically suitable for offline learning and cannot continually learn from sequential streaming data. The sequential data comes in the form of tasks during training. Recently, a few attempts have been made to handle this issue and develop continual ZSL (CZSL) methods. However, these CZSL methods require clear task-boundary information between the tasks during training, which is not practically possible. This paper proposes a task-free (i.e., task-agnostic) CZSL method, which does not require any task information during continual learning. The proposed task-free CZSL method employs a variational autoencoder (VAE) for performing ZSL. To develop the CZSL method, we combine the concept of experience replay with knowledge distillation and regularization. Here, knowledge distillation is performed using the training sample's dark knowledge, which essentially helps overcome the catastrophic forgetting issue. Further, it is enabled for task-free learning using short-term memory. Finally, a classifier is trained on the synthetic features generated at the latent space of the VAE. Moreover, the experiments are conducted in a challenging and practical ZSL setup, i.e., generalized ZSL (GZSL). These experiments are conducted for two kinds of single-head continual learning settings: (i) mild setting-: task-boundary is known only during training but not during testing; (ii) strict setting-: task-boundary is not known at training, as well as testing. Experimental results on five benchmark datasets exhibit the validity of the approach for CZSL

Sustainable innitiatives taken by p&g to protect environment

In the era of rapid industrialization and fast-track development the environmental issues suffer a lot. Be it any industry, organization or society the development must be carried out keeping the sustainability in mind. The opportunity of these overnight development approaches has ramified the environmental issues. The present communication enumerates the measures of environmental impact by taking a case of Procter and Gamble. Authors have studied the strategies of Procter and Gamble and their sustainable behavior in Indian as well as global context. Various data of last decade has been analyzed. It is found that the company P&G is moving in a right direction by providing new paradigms of realistic development. All the data for this study has been taken from secondary sources

Reflected Entropy for Communicating Black Holes I: Karch-Randall Braneworlds

We obtain the reflected entropy for bipartite mixed state configurations of two adjacent and disjoint intervals at a finite temperature in $BCFT_2$s with two distinct boundaries through a replica technique in the large central charge limit. Subsequently these field theory results are reproduced from bulk computations involving the entanglement wedge cross section in the dual BTZ black hole geometry truncated by two Karch-Randall branes. Our result confirms the holographic duality between the reflected entropy and the bulk entanglement wedge cross section in the context of the $AdS_3/BCFT_2$ scenario. We further investigate the critical issue of the holographic Markov gap between the reflected entropy and the mutual information for these configurations from the bulk braneworld geometry and study its variation with subsystem sizes and time.Comment: 68 pages, 42 figures, 2 appendice

Islands and dynamics at the interface

We investigate a family of models described by two holographic CFT$_2$s coupled along a shared interface. The bulk dual geometry consists of two AdS$_3$ spacetimes truncated by a shared Karch-Randall end-of-the-world (EOW) brane. A lower dimensional effective model comprising of JT gravity coupled to two flat CFT$_2$ baths is subsequently realized by considering small fluctuations on the EOW brane and implementing a partial Randall-Sundrum reduction where the transverse fluctuations of the EOW brane are identified as the dilaton field. We compute the generalized entanglement entropy for bipartite states through the island prescription in the effective lower dimensional picture and obtain precise agreement in the limit of large brane tension with the corresponding doubly holographic computations in the bulk geometry. Furthermore, we obtain the corresponding Page curves for the Hawking radiation in this JT braneworld.Comment: 40 pages, 15 figure

Dynamic Properties of RHA Steel under Planar Shock Loading using Explosive Driven Plate Impact System

Planar shock loading of rolled homogeneous armour (RHA) steel has been studied at high pressures in the range of 20-100 GPa using an explosive-driven plate impact system. Shock velocities and flyer velocities are measured using time of arrival pins embedded in the target at known depths. The shock equation of state of RHA steel has been determined. α → ε phase transition stress and hugoniot elastic limit (HEL) of RHA steel have been determined through manganin gauge and found to be 12.2 ±0.6 GPa and 4.1 ± 0.2 GPa, respectively. The experimental stress of phase transition has been compared with the stress calculated using ThermoCalc software. The shock properties have been incorporated in the Autodyn simulation package and simulations were performed to determine flyer velocity, pressures and the results are compared with that of experiments.Defence Science Journal, Vol. 65, No. 3, May 2015, pp.196-202, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.14429/dsj.65.795

Development and In vitro Evaluation of Betahistine Adhesive-Type Transdermal Delivery System

Purpose: To develop a transdermal betahistine (BTH) delivery system using different pressure sensitive adhesives (PSAs) including acrylics, polyisobutylene and styrenic rubber solution.Methods: Formulations were prepared by solvent casting and adhesive transfer method. PSAs - acrylate vinylacetate (AVA), hydrophilic acrylate (HA), acrylic non-curing (ANC), polyisobutylene (PIB), and tackified styrenic rubber solution (TSR) - were evaluated for their suitability in terms of miscibility, maximum drug loading, effect on tack property and in vitro permeation through excised guinea pig skin. Furthermore, one of the PSAs was tested in relation to effect of penetration enhancers on tack property, in vitro permeation, in vivo patch adhesion performance and stability.Results: Only formulations prepared with AVA and HA were stable. Increased drug loading in these PSAs significantly reduced tack. In vitro permeation data across guinea pig skin demonstrated that BTH flux from from the formulation containing HA (F1) was significantly (p < 0.001) higher than that containing AVA (F2). Formulations containing 2 % enhancer showed good tack. Specifically, the formulation containing 2 % oleic acid as enhancer not only showed the highest permeation but also good tack property, non-irritancy for up to 36 h and stability under accelerated conditions.Conclusion: The formulation containing HA as the PSA and 2 % oleic acid as enhancer demonstrated a good potential for further development to an adhesive-type transdermal delivery system for BTH.Keywords: Meniere’s syndrome, Transdermal delivery, Betahistine, Pressure-sensitive adhesives, Penetration enhancersTropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research December 2010; 9 (6): 516-52

Production of amorphous silica and activated carbon from rice husk char obtained from two stage gasification process

340-345In this study the rice husk has been subjected to two-stage gasification to obtain syngas, tar and char. The rice husk char is subjected to alkaline extraction to obtain amorphous silica and activated carbon. The products have been characterized by methods such as BET, FTIR and XRF. The silica obtained from acid leached rice husk has BET specific surface area of 311.68 m2/g and purity of 88.85%. The BET specific surface area of activated char increase from 102.49 m2/g to 567.03 m2/g after the activation process. The silica extraction using carbon dioxide (CO2) precipitation is found to be more profitable than acid precipitation

Circadian rhythm disruption and Alzheimer’s disease: The dynamics of a vicious cycle

All mammalian cells exhibit circadian rhythm in cellular metabolism and energetics. Autonomous cellular clocks are modulated by various pathways that are essential for robust time keeping. In addition to the canonical transcriptional translational feedback loop, several new pathways of circadian timekeeping - non-transcriptional oscillations, post-translational modifications, epigenetics and cellular signaling in the circadian clock - have been identified. The physiology of circadian rhythm is expansive, and its link to the neurodegeneration is multifactorial. Circadian rhythm disruption is prevelant in contamporary society where light-noise, shift-work, and transmeridian travel are commonplace, and is also reported from the early stages of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Circadian alignment by bright light therapy in conjunction with chronobiotics is beneficial for treating sundowning syndrome and other cognitive symptoms in advanced AD patients. We performed a comprehensive analysis of the clinical and translational reports to review the physiology of the circadian clock, delineate its dysfunction in AD, and unravel the dynamics of the vicious cycle between two pathologies. The review delineates the role of putative targets like clock proteins PER, CLOCK, BMAL1, ROR, and clock-controlled proteins like AVP, SIRT1, FOXO, and PK2 towards future approaches for management of AD. Furthermore, the role of circadian rhythm disruption in aging is delineated