PERFORMANCES OF INDIAN POSTAL SERVICES

The Indian Postal Service, with 155,333 post office, is the most widely distributed post office system in the world. The global economic and financial crisis has further deteriorated the conditions in mail markets, with postal operators losing up to 20percent of their mail traffic during this two-year economic downturn, and forecasting losses of 30 percent over the next decade that could leave the industry with large excess capacities. India Post provides accessible and affordable service to   the people of India through its unparalleled network of post offices. Mails, POSB PLI, and Parcel are the mainstay of post offices with several new services like money transfer, EMO and distribution of mutual funds taken successfully in the last decade. Due to its   competitive advantage of geographical accessibility and its time tested accounting procedures, India post has also positioned itself as a reliable agency for the Government of India (in implementing its inclusive growth policies. To improve its service quality and operational efficiency, India post has introduce a centralized core banking solution with alternate delivery channels facilitating any time any where banking environment. This core banking environment will enable faster transfer of funds and easier withdrawals. The alternate delivery channels planned for service delivery are ATMs, Internet, Phone, SMS and Mobile Banking. This paper explore the growth and performance of Postal services and future opportunities in India

Microscopic models of quantum jump super-operators

We discuss the quantum jump operation in an open system, and show that jump super-operators related to a system under measurement can be derived from the interaction of that system with a quantum measurement apparatus. We give two examples for the interaction of a monochromatic electromagnetic field in a cavity (the system) with 2-level atoms and with a harmonic oscillator (representing two different kinds of detectors). We show that derived quantum jump super-operators have `nonlinear' form which depends on assumptions made about the interaction between the system and the detector. A continuous transition to the standard Srinivas--Davies form of the quantum jump super-operatoris shown

Multi-scale Reliability-Based Design Optimisation Framework for Fibre-Reinforced Composite Laminates

Acknowledgements This work was supported by the University of Aberdeen Elphinstone scholarship scheme.Peer reviewedPostprin

Influence of micro-scale uncertainties on the reliability of fibre-matrix composites

Acknowledgements This work was supported by the University of Aberdeen Elphinstone scholarship scheme.Peer reviewedPostprin

Multiscale surrogate-based framework for reliability analysis of unidirectional FRP composites

This work was supported by the University of Aberdeen Elphinstone scholarship scheme.Peer reviewedPostprin

Oil-Isolated Hydrogel Microstructures for Sensitive Bioassays On-Chip

Multiplexed, sensitive, and on-chip molecular diagnostic assays are essential in both clinical and research settings. In past work, running reactions in nanoliter- to femtoliter-sized volumes such as microwells or droplets has led to significant increases in detection sensitivities. At the same time, hydrogels have emerged as attractive scaffolds for bioassays due to their nonfouling, flexible, and aqueous properties. In this paper, we combine these concepts and develop a novel platform in which hydrogel compartments are used as individually confined reaction volumes within a fluorinated oil phase. We fabricate functional and versatile hydrogel microstructures in microfluidic channels that are physically isolated from each other using a surfactant-free fluorinated oil phase, generating picoliter- to nanoliter-sized immobilized aqueous reaction compartments that are readily functionalized with biomolecules. In doing so, we achieve monodisperse reaction volumes with an aqueous interior while exploiting the unique chemistry of a hydrogel, which provides a solid and porous binding scaffold for biomolecules and is impenetrable to oil. Furthermore, our lithographically defined reaction volumes are readily customized with respect to geometry and chemistry within the same channel, allowing rational tuning of the confined reaction volume on a post-to-post basis without needing to use surfactants to maintain stability. We design and implement a multiplexed signal amplification assay in which gel-bound enzymes turn over small molecule substrate into fluorescent product in the oil-confined gel compartment, providing significant signal enhancement. Using short (20 min) amplification times, the encapsulation scheme provides up to 2 orders of magnitude boost of signal in nucleic acid detection assays relative to direct labeling and does not suffer from any cross-talk between the posts. We ultimately demonstrate up to 57-fold increase in nucleic acid detection sensitivity compared to a direct labeling scheme.National Institutes of Health (U.S.). Center for Future Technologies in Cancer Care (U54-EB-015403-01)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Interdepartmental Biotechnology Training Grant T32 GM08334)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant CMMI-1120724

Continuous photodetection model: quantum jump engineering and hints for experimental verification

We examine some aspects of the continuous photodetection model for photocounting processes in cavities. First, we work out a microscopic model that describes the field-detector interaction and deduce a general expression for the Quantum Jump Superoperator (QJS), that shapes the detector's post-action on the field upon a detection. We show that in particular cases our model recovers the QJSs previously proposed ad hoc in the literature and point out that by adjusting the detector parameters one can engineer QJSs. Then we set up schemes for experimental verification of the model. By taking into account the ubiquitous non-idealities, we show that by measuring the lower photocounts moments and the mean waiting time one can check which QJS better describes the photocounting phenomenon.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures. Contribution to the conference Quantum Optics III, Pucon - Chile, November 27-30, 200

Evaluation of efficacy of Carica papaya leaf extracts to increase platelet count in hydroxyurea induced thrombocytopenia in Albino rats

Background: Dengue is an infectious disease associated with high mortality and morbidity. Being a viral disease, there is no specific drug available for treatment. There are some reports that Carica papaya leaf extract may improve the clinical condition of dengue patients. However, to support this, at present, there is no systematically searched and synthesized evidence available. Hence this study was undertaken to compare the efficacy of commercial preparation of Carica papaya leaves with freshly prepared Carica papaya leaf extracted.Methods: 48 albino rats were randomly divided into eight groups of six each. Thrombocytopenia was induced by giving hydroxyurea (15mg/kg) orally. Group I and II served as saline and toxic control group respectively. Other six groups were given two different doses of either commercial extract or fresh extract orally for five days. 1ml of blood was withdrawn at baseline,3rd and 6th day of the study. Platelet, WBC, RBC count, clotting and bleeding time were determined.Results: Mean platelet count increased significantly on day 6 in both low dose (2.06 to 4.93lakh/mm3) and human equivalent dose (2.73 to 7.66lakh/mm3) of commercial extract groups compared to the toxic control group (p<0.05). Similarly, the mean platelet count increased significantly for human equivalent dose in fresh leaf extract group (3.17 to 4.69lakh/mm3) but the increase in low dose fresh extract (3.28 to 3.76lakh/mm3) was not significant. There was no significant rise in mean platelets count, mean RBC count, WBC count, decrease in mean bleeding and clotting time between commercial extract and fresh leaf extract group for both low dose and human equivalent dose.Conclusions: Efficacy of fresh leaf extract of Carica papaya was not inferior to commercial available preparation. Fresh Carica papaya leaf extract no doubt offers a potential therapeutic efficacy which is cost effective, more affordable and accessible treatment in patients with thrombocytopenia

Intuitive procedure for constructing geometrically complex objects using cyclides

In the past, cyclide surfaces have been used effectively for the variable radius blending of natural quadric intersections. However, attempts to use cyclides for constructing realistic, freeform composite surfaces met with rather limited success. The paper presents a simple procedure for creating and manipulating geometrically complex objects using tubular cyclide pieces. The method described is intuitive from the designer's point of view, and it is based on the fundamental definitions and properties of the cyclide. Various practical issues involved in this design procedure are discussed, several extensions of the basic technique are described, and implemented examples are provided.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/31678/1/0000614.pd

Reconstruction of curved solids from two polygonal orthographic views

It has long been known that the 2-view orthographic representation of a mechanical part is ambiguous. Existing literature addresses the recognition/reconstruction of solids (mostly polyhedral solids) from either 1-view (perspective) drawings or from three orthographic views. The paper presents algorithmsfor reconstructing curved solids from only two polygonal orthographic views. First, all the polyhedral solids that correspond to the pair of prespecified orthogonal views are reconstructed, and then the associated third views are developed. Then, for each solid, the three views are analyzed simultaneously, and the authors reason about the possibilities of including circular arcs in the newly generated third view. This corresponds to the inclusion of solids that are bounded by quadrics. Possible application areas include computer-aided design, machine vision and automated inspection systems.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/30171/1/0000556.pd