A Comprehensive Study on Metaheuristic Techniques Using Genetic Approach

Most real-life optimization problems involve multiple objective functions. Finding  a  solution  that  satisfies  the  decision-maker  is  very  difficult  owing  to  conflict  between  the  objectives.  Furthermore,  the  solution  depends  on  the  decision-maker’s preference.  Metaheuristic solution methods have become common tools to solve these problems.  The  task  of  obtaining  solutions  that  take  account  of  a  decision-maker’s preference  is  at  the  forefront  of  current  research.  It  is  also  possible  to  have  multiple decision-makers with different preferences and with different  decision-making  powers. It may not be easy to express a preference using crisp numbers. In this study, the preferences of multiple decision-makers were simulated  and  a solution based on  a genetic  algorithm was  developed  to  solve  multi-objective  optimization  problems.  The  preferences  were collected  as  fuzzy  conditional  trade-offs  and  they  were  updated  while  running  the algorithm interactively with the decision-makers. The proposed method was tested using well-known benchmark problems.  The solutions were found to converge around the Pareto front of the problems

Performance of a Low Heat Rejection Diesel Engine With Air Gap Insulated Piston

Introduction The second law requirement of Thermodynamics necessitates the inevitable heat loss to the coolant to realise work output. Any saving in this part of the energy distribution would either increase the energy lost through exhaust gases or increase the power output. Considerable efforts are under way to reduce heat loss to the coolant by various researchers. However, the results are a little confusing as to whether the insulation would improve or deteriorate thermal efficiency. The two approaches that are being pursued to decrease heat rejection are (1) ceramic coating and (2) air gap insulation. Both these methods are still having problems. Ceramic coatings are found to be peeling off over a period of operation. There are serious problems of leakage of gases in the case of air gap insulation. A two zone combustion model was used by A study of the existing literature on LHR engines thus reveal

Global burden of 288 causes of death and life expectancy decomposition in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations, 1990–2021: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021

BACKGROUND Regular, detailed reporting on population health by underlying cause of death is fundamental for public health decision making. Cause-specific estimates of mortality and the subsequent effects on life expectancy worldwide are valuable metrics to gauge progress in reducing mortality rates. These estimates are particularly important following large-scale mortality spikes, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. When systematically analysed, mortality rates and life expectancy allow comparisons of the consequences of causes of death globally and over time, providing a nuanced understanding of the effect of these causes on global populations. METHODS The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2021 cause-of-death analysis estimated mortality and years of life lost (YLLs) from 288 causes of death by age-sex-location-year in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations for each year from 1990 until 2021. The analysis used 56 604 data sources, including data from vital registration and verbal autopsy as well as surveys, censuses, surveillance systems, and cancer registries, among others. As with previous GBD rounds, cause-specific death rates for most causes were estimated using the Cause of Death Ensemble model-a modelling tool developed for GBD to assess the out-of-sample predictive validity of different statistical models and covariate permutations and combine those results to produce cause-specific mortality estimates-with alternative strategies adapted to model causes with insufficient data, substantial changes in reporting over the study period, or unusual epidemiology. YLLs were computed as the product of the number of deaths for each cause-age-sex-location-year and the standard life expectancy at each age. As part of the modelling process, uncertainty intervals (UIs) were generated using the 2·5th and 97·5th percentiles from a 1000-draw distribution for each metric. We decomposed life expectancy by cause of death, location, and year to show cause-specific effects on life expectancy from 1990 to 2021. We also used the coefficient of variation and the fraction of population affected by 90% of deaths to highlight concentrations of mortality. Findings are reported in counts and age-standardised rates. Methodological improvements for cause-of-death estimates in GBD 2021 include the expansion of under-5-years age group to include four new age groups, enhanced methods to account for stochastic variation of sparse data, and the inclusion of COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality-which includes excess mortality associated with the pandemic, excluding COVID-19, lower respiratory infections, measles, malaria, and pertussis. For this analysis, 199 new country-years of vital registration cause-of-death data, 5 country-years of surveillance data, 21 country-years of verbal autopsy data, and 94 country-years of other data types were added to those used in previous GBD rounds. FINDINGS The leading causes of age-standardised deaths globally were the same in 2019 as they were in 1990; in descending order, these were, ischaemic heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and lower respiratory infections. In 2021, however, COVID-19 replaced stroke as the second-leading age-standardised cause of death, with 94·0 deaths (95% UI 89·2-100·0) per 100 000 population. The COVID-19 pandemic shifted the rankings of the leading five causes, lowering stroke to the third-leading and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease to the fourth-leading position. In 2021, the highest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 occurred in sub-Saharan Africa (271·0 deaths [250·1-290·7] per 100 000 population) and Latin America and the Caribbean (195·4 deaths [182·1-211·4] per 100 000 population). The lowest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 were in the high-income super-region (48·1 deaths [47·4-48·8] per 100 000 population) and southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania (23·2 deaths [16·3-37·2] per 100 000 population). Globally, life expectancy steadily improved between 1990 and 2019 for 18 of the 22 investigated causes. Decomposition of global and regional life expectancy showed the positive effect that reductions in deaths from enteric infections, lower respiratory infections, stroke, and neonatal deaths, among others have contributed to improved survival over the study period. However, a net reduction of 1·6 years occurred in global life expectancy between 2019 and 2021, primarily due to increased death rates from COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality. Life expectancy was highly variable between super-regions over the study period, with southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania gaining 8·3 years (6·7-9·9) overall, while having the smallest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 (0·4 years). The largest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 occurred in Latin America and the Caribbean (3·6 years). Additionally, 53 of the 288 causes of death were highly concentrated in locations with less than 50% of the global population as of 2021, and these causes of death became progressively more concentrated since 1990, when only 44 causes showed this pattern. The concentration phenomenon is discussed heuristically with respect to enteric and lower respiratory infections, malaria, HIV/AIDS, neonatal disorders, tuberculosis, and measles. INTERPRETATION Long-standing gains in life expectancy and reductions in many of the leading causes of death have been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the adverse effects of which were spread unevenly among populations. Despite the pandemic, there has been continued progress in combatting several notable causes of death, leading to improved global life expectancy over the study period. Each of the seven GBD super-regions showed an overall improvement from 1990 and 2021, obscuring the negative effect in the years of the pandemic. Additionally, our findings regarding regional variation in causes of death driving increases in life expectancy hold clear policy utility. Analyses of shifting mortality trends reveal that several causes, once widespread globally, are now increasingly concentrated geographically. These changes in mortality concentration, alongside further investigation of changing risks, interventions, and relevant policy, present an important opportunity to deepen our understanding of mortality-reduction strategies. Examining patterns in mortality concentration might reveal areas where successful public health interventions have been implemented. Translating these successes to locations where certain causes of death remain entrenched can inform policies that work to improve life expectancy for people everywhere. FUNDING Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Density, viscosity and speed of sound of binary liquid mixtures of sulpholane with aliphatic amines at <i style="">T </i>=308.15 K

576-581Experimental data on density, viscosity and speed of sound have been studied for the binary mixtures of sulpholane with diethylamine, n-propylamine, n-butylamine and tert-butylamine at 308.15 K. Excess molar volume, deviations in viscosity and isentropic compressibility have been computed from this data. The computed quantities have been fitted to the Redlich-Kister equation to derive the binary coefficients and to estimate the standard deviations. All mixtures show negative deviations for excess molar volume, deviations in viscosity and isentropic compressibility. The results have been interpreted on the basis of intermolecular interactions between unlike molecules

Chemically stable proton conducting doped BaCeO3 by citrate-EDTA complexing sol-gel process for solid oxide fuel cell

Proton conducting oxides Ba1-xSrxCe0.65Zr0.25Y0.1O3-δ are prepared using the citrate-EDTA complexing sol-gel method. The effect of strontium and yttrium doping on the material properties are systematically investigated using TG/DTA, XRD, SEM, EDAX, FTIR, RAMAN and LCR measurments. The results indicated a single phase orthorhombic system. Strontium incorporation helped in increasing the grain size while reducing the lattice parameters and unit cell volume. The ionic conductivities of the sintered oxides increased with increase in the concentration of Sr2+ along with the co doping strategy of trivalent Y3+ in B site. In the present work at 500 °C, exhibited high conductivity value of 2.25 × 10−3 S/cm with activation energy of 0.38 eV in wet atmosphere. These results indicate that this composition can be used as a potential electrolyte if synthesis conditions and temperature are well maintained. Keywords: Solid oxide fuel cell, Proton conducting electrolyte, Chemical stability sol-gel synthesis, Ba1-xSrxCe0.65Zr0.25Y0.1O3-δ, Perovskit

Neonatal sepsis and associated maternal risk factors: A clinical case- control study

Background: Neonatal sepsis is usually diagnosed with pathogen/bacterial isolation from the bloodstream or symptoms of infection seen in infection of 28 days or younger.&nbsp; Neonatal sepsis includes various diseases with varying mortality rates of 11-40% contributing to nearly 3.1 deaths globally in new-borns every year. Aim: The present study was conducted to assess the risk factors associated with low-birth-weight babies in an Indian setup. Methods: The present study screened 502 subjects and 202 were found to have confirmed diagnosis of neonatal sepsis as assessed by the Pediatrician depending on the signs and symptoms of the sepsis. Results: Premature membrane rupture was seen in 7.89% (n=3) subjects of late-onset sepsis and 20.12% (n=33) subjects with early-onset sepsis. Multipara was seen in 13.15% (n=5) and 11.58% (n=19) subjects with late and early-onset sepsis, meconium-stained amniotic fluid was the risk factor in 5.26% (n=2) and 13.41% (n=22) subjects with late and early-onset sepsis, maternal UTI was seen in 2.63% (n=1) and 15.24% (n=25) study subjects with late and early onset sepsis, and foul-smelling liquor was the risk factor in 2.63% (n=1) and 64.63% (n=106) study subjects with late and early onset sepsis respectively.&nbsp

Insect Pheromones (Bioactive Molecules) as Tools in Integrated Pest Management (IPM): Research and Development at IICT

11-19World over the versatility of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) for cleaner and better agro products is very well known established agro practice. IPM is an eco-friendly and environmentally safe alternative to the highly harmful and environmentally hazardous Pesticide Application Technology. Insect Sex Pheromones (Bioactive molecules) offer selective methods of pest control, as they interfere with natural behaviour of insects specially in locating the mate for reproduction. Insect Sex Pheromones play a major role in IPM practice/approach. Considering the importance and practical utility of Pheromones for quality agicultural outputs, Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, (IICT, CSIR) with its strength in Organic Chemistry is actively-pursuing research on Insect Pheromones, as one of the thrust areas. The research is actively pursued in the following four major disciplines: isolation and identification of pheromone systems of hitherto unidentified economically important pests relevant to Indian agriculture; process development on pheromones; dispenser technology development on pheromones; and field trials with indigenously synthesized components

Electroantennogram responses of Apanteles obliquae (Hym., Braconidae) to various infochemicals

The electroantennogram recording technique (EAG) was used to study the olfactory sensitivity of Apanteles obliquae (Hym., Braconidae), a gregarious larval endoparasitoid of Spilosoma obliqua (Walker) (Lep., Arctiidae), to 25 general plant volatiles belonging to alcohol, aldehyde and terpenoid groups and also to volatiles from the host and plant-host complex. The EAG data indicated different olfactory sensitivity between the sexes, not only to individual plant volatiles but also to the volatiles from host and plant-host complex. Females were found to be more responsive than males. However the synthetic sex pheromone blend of the host insect elicited similar EAG responses in both sexes. The EAG data of the present study is correlated with the reported behaviour observed in other parasitoids