Measurement of environmental efficiency and productivity: A cross country analysis.

This paper measures environmental efficiency (EE) and environmental productivity (EP) and analyses differences in these across countries. It explores the macroeconomic factors that could explain these differences and whether these differences can be explained by income levels and by the degree of openness in these countries. The EE index is found to be almost steady over the period 1971-92 for the annex-I countries, while its value is declining for non-annex-I countries over this period. The EP index increased over this period in both groups of countries. In the annex-I countries, EE exhibits an inverted `U' shape with respect to per capita income while it is `U' shaped for the non-annex-I countries. This study also finds that while the EP index increases with income in annex-I countries it is decreasing in the non-annex-I countries. The degree of openness has a significant negative impact on EE and EP in both groups of countries.Environmental efficiency ; Environmental productivity ; Distance function ; Per capita income ; Openness

Optimal Placement Algorithms for Virtual Machines

Cloud computing provides a computing platform for the users to meet their demands in an efficient, cost-effective way. Virtualization technologies are used in the clouds to aid the efficient usage of hardware. Virtual machines (VMs) are utilized to satisfy the user needs and are placed on physical machines (PMs) of the cloud for effective usage of hardware resources and electricity in the cloud. Optimizing the number of PMs used helps in cutting down the power consumption by a substantial amount. In this paper, we present an optimal technique to map virtual machines to physical machines (nodes) such that the number of required nodes is minimized. We provide two approaches based on linear programming and quadratic programming techniques that significantly improve over the existing theoretical bounds and efficiently solve the problem of virtual machine (VM) placement in data centers

Application of a finite element model update technique to detect damage in a beam structure

The interest in the ability to monitor a structure and detect damage at the earliest possible stage is pervasive throughout the civil, mechanical and aerospace engineering communities. The thesis focuses on the application of a finite element model updating technique to monitor and detect damage in beams. A Sensitivity Based Element-by- Element (SBEBE) methodology is chosen as the finite element model updating technique. In this method, damage is detected by updating a finite element model with test data obtained from healthy and damaged structures and observing the relative changes in the updated finite element models. The performance, efficiency and sensitivity of the SBEBE algorithm in detecting the damage location and severity are studied through numerical and experimental test cases on a cantilever beam. The location and extent of damage are successfully predicted with all numerical cases. The presence of noise in the numerical data and its effects on the damage detection process are examined. The SBEBE algorithm is capable of detecting the presence, location and extent of damage for noise levels in the numerically generated data up to 5% of the signal amplitude. Also experimental studies are carried out on a cantilever beam with modal data measured using a laser doppler vibrometer. A small section of the cantilever beam is mechanically removed, and the SBEBE algorithm is used successfully to detect the damage location and severity --Abstract, page iii

Thyroid profile in women with menstrual disorders

Background: Thyroid dysfunction influences both menstrual flow and fertility, likely through changes in sex hormone levels, gonadotrophin release and possibly ovarian function. Objectives of this work were to study thyroid related complaints and thyroid function tests in patients with menstrual irregularities like menorrhagia, oligomenorrhoea, amenorrhoea, hypomenorrhoea and ploymenorrhoea, to study menstrual patterns in women with diagnosed thyroid disease-hypothyroidism/hyperthyroidism and to study changes in menstrual patterns, if any in these patients during the course of treatment of thyroid disease, who receive correct treatmentMethods: This study was conducted in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology in Government L.D. Hospital, Government Medical College, Srinagar during the period from 2006 to 2007.  There were two groups under which the study was conducted. Group A: Seventy-five patients of DUB from Department of Gynecology in reproductive age group (15-45 years) presenting with menstrual irregularities like menorrhagia, oligomenorrhoea, amenorrhoea, hypomenorrhoea and ploymenorrhoea were studied for thyroid profile. Group B comprised of 25 patients including already diagnosed 17 hypothyroid and 8 hyperthyroid patients. The study protocol included thorough history taking, general physical examination, meticulous per speculum and pelvic examination and routine investigations like Hb, BT, CT, TLC, DLC, Platelet count and ABO-Rh in all patients, Serum T3, T4, TSH estimation.Results: Most of the patients were in 35-45 years age group. Prevalence of infertility was more in hypothyroid group. 22.66% patients with DUB were detected as hypothyroid where as 13.33% patients were detected as hyperthyroid.Conclusions: Thyroid function tests, many of which are sensitive radioimmunoassay, radiometric assays and even new chemiluminescence method, which can detect minute changes in hormone levels must be done in women presenting with menstrual disorders

Analysis of Factors Responsible For of Work Stress In Chemical Industries In Kerala, India

This study examines the influence of factors responsible for work stress among the employees in the chemical industries in Kerala, India. The sample size of the subjects selected for the study consists of 75 Engineers, 110 Supervisors and 675 Workers in the selected chemical industries in kerala ,India. Seven factors were identified with the existing literatures, and in consultation with safety experts for the evaluation of work stress. The instrument developed by using these factors had validity, unidimensionality and reliability. The response rate was 81.3%. It is observed that existence the factors responsible for work stress among all the categories of employees in these industries

The Novel Lossless Text Compression Technique Using Ambigram Logic and Huffman Coding

The new era of networking is looking forward to improved and effective methods in channel utilization. There are many texts where lossless data recovery is vitally essential because of the importance of information it holds. Therefore, a lossless decomposition algorithm which is independent of the nature and pattern of text is today's top concern. Efficiency of algorithms used today varies greatly depending on the nature of text. This paper mainly brings in the idea of using an art form called ambigram to compress text which is again compressed by Huffman coding with consistency in the efficiency of the compression. Keywords: Ambigrams, Huffman coding, Lossless compression, Steganography, Embedded algorithms, Encryption