A study of pressure-driven displacement flow of two immiscible liquids using a multiphase lattice Boltzmann approach

The pressure-driven displacement of two immiscible fluids in an inclined channel in the presence of viscosity and density gradients is investigated using a multiphase lattice Boltzmann approach. The effects of viscosity ratio, Atwood number, Froude number, capillary number, and channel inclination are investigated through flow structures, front velocities, and fluid displacement rates. Our results indicate that increasing viscosity ratio between the fluids decreases the displacement rate. We observe that increasing the viscosity ratio has a non-monotonic effect on the velocity of the leading front; however, the velocity of the trailing edge decreases with increasing the viscosity ratio. The displacement rate of the thin-layers formed at the later times of the displacement process increases with increasing the angle of inclination because of the increase in the intensity of the interfacial instabilities. Our results also predict the front velocity of the lock-exchange flow of two immiscible fluids in the exchange flow dominated regime. A linear stability analysis has also been conducted in a three-layer system, and the results are consistent with those obtained by our lattice Boltzmann simulations

Andrographolide: A Novel Antimalarial Diterpene Lactone Compound from Andrographis paniculata and Its Interaction with Curcumin and Artesunate

Andrographolide (AND), the diterpene lactone compound, was purified by HPLC from the methanolic fraction of the plant Andrographis paniculata. The compound was found to have potent antiplasmodial activity when tested in isolation and in combination with curcumin and artesunate against the erythrocytic stages of Plasmodium falciparum in vitro and Plasmodium berghei ANKA in vivo. IC50s for artesunate (AS), andrographolide (AND), and curcumin (CUR) were found to be 0.05, 9.1 and 17.4 μM, respectively. The compound (AND) was found synergistic with curcumin (CUR) and addictively interactive with artesunate (AS). In vivo, andrographolide-curcumin exhibited better antimalarial activity, not only by reducing parasitemia (29%), compared to the control (81%), but also by extending the life span by 2-3 folds. Being nontoxic to the in vivo system this agent can be used as template molecule for designing new derivatives with improved antimalarial properties

Impact of weather parameters on cotton productivity at Surat (Gujarat), India

Global warming is casting its shadow in the form of climatic changes that is affecting the local weather conditions which has its bearing on crop production and water availability, the basic necessities for survival of life on the planet. In the present study, an attempt was made to investigate the cause of poor production of cotton in 2011-12 in Surat, Gujarat as compared to 2012-13 and 2013-14. Weather data since 2000 was analyzed and compared with the data of 2011-12 and comparison was made to find the abnormality in cotton crop productivity. It was found that during 2011-12, there was delayed monsoon, as well as during squaring and flowering stage (i.e. in August 2011) there was high rainfall (595.6 mm), maximum and minimum temperatures were above normal, during development (June-August) and flowering stage of crop (October-December) which disturbed the crop physiology indirectly affecting the yield of cotton. The combined effect of rainfall and temperature was on relative humidity that created conducive atmosphere for insect and pest attacks on crops. Due to changes in temperature and relative humidity, evaporative water demands would have further aggravated the watering needs of crop. The study concludes that erratic monsoon or delayed monsoon hampers crop physiology ultimately yield due to erratic weather conditions. Further, such changes in cotton growing areas could form the basis of planning and decisions on pricing, crop insurance, export and import policies of cotton crop

A Novel CPW Fed MIMO Antenna for UWB Applications

This paper presents two planar antennas designed from a compact novel CPW fed UWB antenna. The first antenna is single UWB antenna. The single UWB antenna covers the entire UWB frequency band. Single antenna operates in 2.8 GHz to 12.6 GHz. The second antenna is MIMO antenna which is made with orthogonal placement of two UWB antennas and MIMO antennas covers the entire UWB frequency band. The MIMO antenna with orthogonal placement of antennas operates in 2.9 GHz to 12.7 GHz band. The designed single antenna has dimensions of 27 X 34 X 1.6 mm3 and MIMO antennas have volume of 61 X 34 X 1.6 mm3 for orthogonal placement. Antenna has satisfactory performance in terms gain, radiation pattern, return loss, voltage standing wave ratio, envelope correlation coefficient and diversity gain for UWB MIMO application

A Smart Browsing System with Colour Image Enhancement for Surveillance Videos

Surveillance cameras have been widely installed in large cities to monitor and record human activities for different applications. Since surveillance cameras often record all events 24 hours/day, it necessarily takes huge workforce watching surveillance videos to search for specific targets, thus a system that helps the user quickly look for targets of interest is highly demanded. This paper proposes a smart surveillance video browsing system with colour image enhancement. The basic idea is to collect all of moving objects which carry the most significant information in surveillance videos to construct a corresponding compact video by tuning positions of these moving objects. The compact video rearranges the spatiotemporal coordinates of moving objects to enhance the compression, but the temporal relationships among moving objects are still kept. The compact video can preserve the essential activities involved in the original surveillance video. This paper presents the details of browsing system and the approach to producing the compact video from a source surveillance video. At the end we will get the compact video with high resolution. DOI: 10.17762/ijritcc2321-8169.15038

Simultaneous Spectrophotometric Estimation of 11β,17α-dihydroxy -4-pregnene-3,20-dione- 21-succinate and its 1(2)-Dehydrogenated Product During Bioconversion by Comamonas acidovorans MTCC 3364

A spectrophotometric method for simultaneously estimating 11β,17α-dihydroxy-4-pregnene-3,20-dione 21-succinate and its 1(2)-dehydrogenated product has been developed using sulphuric acid chromogens. The method was used to follow the progress of bioconversion during C-1(2)-dehydrogenation by Comamonas acidovorans MTCC 3364. Keywords: Steroid 1(2)-dehydrogenation; Simultaneous estimation; Steroid bioconversion; Hydrocortisone; Prednisolone estimatio

Computational fluid dynamics using Graphics Processing Units: Challenges and opportunities

A new paradigm for computing fluid flows is the use of Graphics Processing Units (GPU), which have recently become very powerful and convenient to use. In the past three years, we have implemented five different fluid flow algorithms on GPUs and have obtained significant speed-ups over a single CPU. Typically, it is possible to achieve a factor of 50-100 over a single CPU. In this review paper, we describe our experiences on the various algorithms developed and the speeds achieved

Object Detection Methodologies for Blind People

Vision is the most important sense. Image plays vital role in the human perception of the surrounding environment. However there are visually impaired people, industry has created a variety of computer vision products and services by developing new electronic technologies for the blind in order to overcome the difficulties. Digital image processing is the field which processes the digital image by using digital computer. An increasing interest in developing technologies attempts to help visually impaired people in their daily lives. It is shown that the object identification is the difficult task for visually impaired people . Although there are many applications that can be used for this task, there are still limitations that require more improving. For this reason, this paper provides the survey and an analysis of various evaluations for the technologies that used in the object identification task. For the visually impaired the idea of sensory substitution can be used

Treatment of dermatophyte toenail onychomycosis with itraconazole

Background: Onychomycosis is fungal infection of nail. The prevalence of onychomycosis varies across the world. It is lower in tropical countries (3.8%) than in sub-tropical countries and countries in the temperate zone (23%). The risk of onychomycosis is higher in persons with diabetes mellitus and human immunodeficiency virus infection. Systemic antifungals are recommended for treatment. Topical antifungals are less effective. Different cure rates have been reported by different authors for terbinafine, itraconazole and fluconazole therapy. A variety of regimens (continuous or pulse) have also been suggested.Methods: Here in this study we report a prospective, observational, cohort study of pulse itraconazole therapy in toenail onychomycosis caused by dermatophytes over a period of one year in patients with SCIO scores between 6 to 9.Results: It was observed that mean age of patients was 38.96 years. 57.27 % study subjects had complete clinical improvement to oral itraconazole three pulses regimen. One pulse consisted of 200 mg twice per day given for one week, followed by a three weeks interval. Thus, this regimen was repeated thrice.Conclusions: This study shows the substantial benefit with itraconazole pulse regimen in toenail onychomycosis. The outcome this study is comparable with previously published data and may encourage the usage of itraconazole pulse regimen for the treatment of dermatophyte toenail onychomycosis in adults