106 research outputs found
Psychological Truths in Proverbs
Internal and external appearance of human body are the manifestations of truth. Truths are the expressions of human mind. Our forefathers have told such truths through proverbs. Body and mind belong to particular psychological genre. The proverbs used in this article are collected while conducting field survey in Nagapattinam district. The psychological truths found in such proverbs are explained through this article
Brain-Computer Interfacing for Wheelchair Control by Detecting Voluntary Eye Blinks
The human brain is considered as one of the most powerful quantum computers and combining the human brain with technology can even outperform artificial intelligence. Using a Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) system, the brain signals can be analyzed and programmed for specific tasks. This research work employs BCI technology for a medical application that gives the unfortunate paralyzed individuals the capability to interact with their surroundings solely using voluntary eye blinks. This research contributes to the existing technology to be more feasible by introducing a modular design with three physically separated components: a headwear, a computer, and a wheelchair. As the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the existing systems is too high to separate the eye blink artifacts from the regular EEG signal, a precise ThinkGear module is used which acquired the raw EEG signal through a single dry electrode. This chip offers an advanced filtering technology that has a high noise immunity along with an embedded Bluetooth module using which the acquired signal is transferred wirelessly to a computer. A MATLAB program captures voluntary eye blink artifacts from the brain waves and commands the movement of a miniature wheelchair via Bluetooth. To distinguish voluntary eye blinks from involuntary eye blinks, blink strength thresholds are determined. A Graphical User Interface (GUI) designed in MATLAB displays the EEG waves in real-time and enables the user to determine the movements of the wheelchair which is specially designed to take commands from the GUI. The findings from the testing phase unveil the advantages of a modular design and the efficacy of using eye blink artifacts as the control element for brain-controlled wheelchairs. The work presented here gives a basic understanding of the functionality of a BCI system, and provides eye blink-controlled navigation of a wheelchair for patients suffering from severe paralysis
Preclinical Validation of Anti-Anxiety, Anti-Depressant and Anti-Convulsant activity of classical Siddha drug Kandathirika Chooranam in Animal Model
The trial drug Kandathirika Chooranam was selected from the Classical Siddha literature, “Agasthiyar Vaithiya Sinthamani Venba 4000 Enum Mani 4000”- Part I for the evaluation of safety and efficacy of the drug in “Paithiyam” (Neurosis).
The ingredients of the test drug was identified and authenticated by Siddha experts. The drug was prepared as per the procedure and subjected to various studies to reveal its potency and effectiveness against the disease.
Various analy sis such as physicochemical, phytochemical, biochemical analysis, availability of bacterial and fungal load, instrumental analysis were made. The physical character of KCM shows good solubility and the pH of the trial drug is 3.83 Phytochemical screening test showed the presence of Alkaloids, Glycosides, Phenol, Triterpenes, Flavonoids, Tannins and Protein. Flavonoids, Glycosides, Tannins are responsible for the anti-anxiety and antidepressant activity. The TLC/HPTLC finger prints were made and it shows 12peaks. In which the four major peaks denotes presence of phytochemicals and Rf value of the trial drug supports the better standardisation of the trial drug (KCM).
Biochemical analysis showed the presence of Calcium, Magnesium, Copper, Chloride and Phosphate. Calcium, Magnesium and Copper supports anti-anxiety and antidepressant activity of the trial drug (KCM).
The availability of bacterial load in the KCM has been performed and the result shows presence of bacterial and fungal load within the normal limits of trial drug. The instrumental analysis FTIR showed the peak values present which are the functional groups responsible for its activity. SEM picture described its morphology and the particle size ranging from 100nm-1µm.The result of ICPOES shows presence of Ca, K, Mg, Na, P and S has physiologically important and the heavy metals like As, Cd, Hg, Pb and Ni were below detectable level. This reveals the safety of the drug.
Toxicological study of both acute and sub-acute toxicity study were carried out in animal model Wistar albino rat according to the OECD guidelines. The test drug showed no acute toxicity as there was no mortality seen. The sub-acute toxicity after the repeated dose of 28 days was done.
The mortality, functional observations, haematological and biochemical investigations were made. There was no significant change seen in the normal values. Thus the toxicological study of the test drug greatly establishes the safety and gives the justification for long time administration.
The pharmacological study was carried out in the animal model. Three activities were seen in the drug Kandathirika Chooranam. The activities were:
1. Anti-anxiety activity in Elevated plus maze
2. Anti-depressant activity in Forced swimming test and Tail suspension test.
3. Anticonvulsant activity –PTZ induced seizures in mice.
Anti-anxiety activity was carried out in Elevated plus maze. The trial drug Kandathirika Chooranam-400mg/kg b.w showed significant decrease in Anxiety condition. Thus this activity reveals the effect of the drug against Anxiety.
Antidepressant activity of Kandathirika chooranam-200mg/kg b.w showed significant activity to reduce depression. Thus this activity therapeutically effective in depressed condition.
Anticonvulsant activity of the test drug Kandathirika Chooranam was carried out in PTZ induced seizures in mice. From the present study, it was concluded that the KCM extract has a marked Anti-convulsant activity at higher concentrations.
Thus by scrutinizing all the above mentioned factors it is concluded that the trial drug Kandathirika Chooranam is a safe and a potent Anti-anxiety, Antidepressant and Anticonvulsant drug. Modern medicine has its own limit in treating Neurosis
Room-temperature bandlike transport and Hall effect in a high-mobility ambipolar polymer
The advent of new-class of high-mobility semiconducting polymers opens up a
window to address fundamental issues in electrical transport mechanism such as
hopping between localized states versus extended state conduction. Here, we
investigate the origin of ultra-low degree of disorder (~ 16 meV) and band-like
negative temperature (T) coefficient of the field effect electron mobility in a
high performance diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP)-based semiconducting polymer.
Models based on the framework of mobility edge (ME) with exponential density of
states are invoked to explain the trends in transport. The temperature window
over which the system demonstrates de-localized transport was tuned by a
systematic introduction of disorder at the transport interface. Additionally,
the Hall mobility extracted from Hall-voltage measurements in these devices was
found to be comparable to field effect mobility in the high T band-like regime.
Comprehensive studies with different combinations of dielectrics and
semiconductors demonstrate the effectiveness of rationale molecular design
which emphasizes uniform-energetic landscape and low re-organization energy
INVESTIGATION ON ENERGY UTILIZATION IN CLOUD DATA CENTERS
Abstract-Cloud computing has revolutioned the ICT industry by enabling on-demand provisioning of computing resources. An organization can either outsource its computational needs to the cloud avoiding high up-front investments in a private computing infrastructure and consequent maintenance costs, or implement a private cloud data center to improve the resource management and provisioning processes. The global energy consumption of IT equipment is steadily rising and produces an increasing portion of global energy production. Currently, data centers consume about 1.5% of global electricity production, whereby their total energy usage has almost tripled between 2000 and 2010.The increasing demand of computational power, especially in current cloud computing environments, is an important reason for the rising number of running computers as well as increasing energy consumption
Selenium in Diketopyrrolopyrrole-based Polymers: Influence on Electronic Properties and Charge Carrier Mobilities
Cataloged from PDF version of article.Diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP)-based pi-conjugated copolymers with thiophene have exceptionally high electron mobilities. This paper investigates electronic properties and charge carrier mobilities of selenophene containing analogues. Two new copolymers, with alternating thiophene DPP (TDPP) and selenophene DPP (SeDPP) units, were synthesized. Two side-chains, hexyl (Hex) and triethylene glycol (TEG) were employed, yielding polymers designated as PTDPPSeDPP-Hex and PTDPPSeDPP-TEG. Selenophene systems have smaller band gaps, with concomitant enhancement of the stability of the reduced state. For both polymers, ambipolar mobilities were observed in organic field-effect transistors (OFET). Grazing incidence X-ray diffraction (GIXD) data indicates preferential edge-on orientation of PTDPPSeDPP-TEG, which leads to superior charge transport properties of the TEG substituted polymer, as compared to its Hex analogue. Time-dependent-density functional theory (TDDFT) calculations corroborate the decrease in the optical band gap with the inclusion of selenophene. Ambipolar charge transport is rationalized by exceptionally wide conduction bands. Delta SCF calculations confirm the larger electron affinity, and therefore the greater stability, of the reduced form of the selenophene-containing DPP polymer in presence of chloroform
Use of side-chain for rational design of n-type diketopyrrolopyrrole-based conjugated polymers: what did we fing out?
Cataloged from PDF version of article.The primary role of substituted side chains in organic semiconductors is to increase their solubility in common organic solvents. In the recent past, many literature reports have suggested that the side chains play a critical role in molecular packing and strongly impact the charge transport properties of conjugated polymers. In this work, we have investigated the influence of side-chains on the charge transport behavior of a novel class of diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP) based alternating copolymers. To investigate the role of side-chains, we prepared four diketopyrrolopyrrole-diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP-DPP) conjugated polymers with varied side-chains and carried out a systematic study of thin film microstructure and charge transport properties in polymer thin-film transistors (PTFTs). Combining results obtained from grazing incidence X-ray diffraction (GIXD) and charge transport properties in PTFTs, we conclude side-chains have a strong influence on molecular packing, thin film microstructure, and the charge carrier mobility of DPP-DPP copolymers. However, the influence of side-chains on optical properties was moderate. The preferential "edge-on" packing and dominant n-channel behavior with exceptionally high field-effect electron mobility values of >1 cm(2) V-1 s(-1) were observed by incorporating hydrophilic (triethylene glycol) and hydrophobic side-chains of alternate DPP units. In contrast moderate electron and hole mobilities were observed by incorporation of branched hydrophobic side-chains. This work clearly demonstrates that the subtle balance between hydrophobicity and hydrophilicity induced by side-chains is a powerful strategy to alter the molecular packing and improve the ambipolar charge transport properties in DPP-DPP based conjugated polymers. Theoretical analysis supports the conclusion that the side-chains influence polymer properties through morphology changes, as there is no effect on the electronic properties in the gas phase. The exceptional electron mobility is at least partially a result of the strong intramolecular conjugation of the donor and acceptor as evidenced by the unusually wide conduction band of the polymer
Tributyltin-mediated hepatic, renal and testicular tissue damage in male Syrian hamster (Mesocricetus auratus): a study on impact of oxidative stress
Conceptual Framework on Workplace Deviance Behavior: A Review
This article aims to highlight the importance of organizational climate with both destructive and constructive deviance behaviour in different cultural setting with workplace as a common ground. First, we discuss the need for research in workplace deviance especially destructive and constructive deviance behaviour with the review of previous studies from deviance literature. Next, we present the importance of climate and culture with both destructive and constructive deviance by proposing relationship among them with the help of a framework. The presented theoretical framework can be useful for conducting future empirical research. Finally, we present the conclusion and future research in conducting cross-national research with respect to deviance
- …