An Arduino microcontroller based RLC meter

An RLC meter is a single electronic instrument or device which is capable to measure the Resistance (R), Inductance (L) and Capacitance (C). This instrument has wide applications in electrical and electronics laboratory, industry and engineering research works. Nowadays, a large variety of RLC meter is available. The high precision RLC meter is slow responding, bulky size, higher operational power and expensive. However, many applications do not need very high accuracy measurement, for this reason, this paper has proposed a simple and moderate precision RLC meter based on Arduino microcontroller which would overcome the existing issues. The proposed design has been verified by simulation and experimentally. The results show good compliance with theory and experiment; in addition, it shows moderate accuracy

Initiation of zinc treatment for acute childhood diarrhoea and risk for vomiting or regurgitation: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial

The childhood diarrhoea-management guidelines of the World Health Organization/United Nations Children's Fund (WHO/UNICEF) now include zinc treatment, 20 mg per day for 10 days. To determine if a dispersible zinc sulphate tablet formulation is associated with increased risk of vomiting or regurgitation following the initial, first treatment dose, a double-blind, placebo-controlled randomized clinical trial was carried out in the Dhaka hospital of ICDDR,B: Centre for Health and Population Research (n=800) and in an adjacent NGO outpatient clinic (n=800). Children were randomized to one of three groups: no treatment, placebo, or zinc sulphate tablet (20 mg). They were then observed for 60 minutes, and all vomiting or regurgitation episodes were recorded. When compared with placebo, zinc treatment resulted in an attributable risk increase of 14% for vomiting and 5.2% for regurgitation. The median time to vomiting among those receiving zinc was 9.6 minutes and was limited to one episode in 91.2% of the cases. Overall, the proportion of 60-minute post-treatment vomiting attributable to zinc, placebo, and the illness episode was estimated to be 40%, 26%, and 34% respectively. The dispersible zinc sulphate tablet formulation at a dose of 20 mg is associated with increased risks of vomiting and regurgitation. Both are transient side-effects

Influence of Organic Amendments on Soil Carbon Sequestration Potential of Paddy Soils under Two Irrigation Regimes

Soil organic carbon (OC) is one of the most important soil components regulating soil quality, fertility and agronomic productivity as well as the global carbon (C) cycle. Soil acts as a sink for global C, which can be influenced by the water regime and organic matter (OM) management in field. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of the application of different organic amendments on C sequestration in paddy soils under contrasting irrigation regimes. A 4-month pot experiment was conducted under net house conditions and the treatments were composed of two organic amendments: rice straw (RS) and poultry manure (PM); four application rates of amendment: 0 g (control), 2.5 g, 5.0 g and 15.0 g kg−1 soil; and two irrigation regimes: (i) continuous waterlogging condition (CWL) and (ii) alternate wetting and drying (AWD). After the incubation period, soil samples were collected from the pot and isolated into labile (>53 µm) and mineral-associated ( AWD: 35%). This was explained by the induced aerobic condition in between the anerobic condition in AWD and the continuous anaerobic condition in CWL which resulted in a difference in OM decomposition. The mineral-associated OM fraction (−1 soil application under CWL-irrigated paddy soil. The findings indicated the need to pay more attention to the selection of the proper type and rate of organic amendments for higher C sequestration in soil under a specific irrigation system for sustainable agriculture

MATLAB-based vibration signal processing for fault diagnosis

Traditionally, vibration signal processing has been performed using analog and digital signal analyzers or writing code in intermediate and high-level computer languages. However, the advent of higher-level interpretive-based signal processing software products such as MATLAB has added a new dimension to vibration signal processing. This paper presents a method for analyzing motor vibration data using MATLAB. The method first pre-processes the vibration data to remove noise and baseline wander. Then, the frequency spectrum of the vibration signal is calculated using the Fourier transform. The frequency spectrum is then used to identify the dominant frequencies in the vibration signal. These dominant frequencies can be used to identify potential problems with the motor, such as bearing defects or misalignment. The method was studied on a set of vibration data collected from open source online data of a real motor. The results showed that the method was able to identify the dominant frequencies in the vibration signal accurately. The method was also able to identify the potential problems with the motor. This paper demonstrates the effectiveness of using MATLAB for analyzing motor vibration data. The method presented in this paper can be used to improve the reliability and efficiency of motor maintenance

Association between arsenic exposure and soluble thrombomodulin: A cross sectional study in Bangladesh

<div><p>Chronic exposure to arsenic is associated with increased morbidity and mortality from cardiovascular disease (CVD); however, plausible biomarker for early prediction and the underlying mechanism of arsenic-related CVD have not yet been clearly understood. Endothelial dysfunction plays a central role in the development of CVD. We hypothesized that endothelial damage or dysfunction is an important aspect and may be an early event of arsenic-related CVD. Soluble thrombomodulin (sTM) in serum is thought to be a specific and stable marker for endothelial damage or dysfunction. This study was designed to evaluate the association between chronic exposure to arsenic and sTM among human subjects in arsenic-endemic and non-endemic rural areas in Bangladesh. A total of 321 study subjects (217 from arsenic-endemic areas and 104 from a non-endemic area) were recruited. Subjects’ arsenic exposure levels (i.e., drinking water, hair and nail arsenic concentrations) were measured by Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectroscopy. The subjects’ serum sTM levels were quantified by immunoassay kit. The average sTM levels of the subjects in arsenic-endemic and non-endemic areas were 4.58 ± 2.20 and 2.84 ± 1.29 (ng mL^-1) respectively, and the difference was significant (<i>p</i><0.001). Arsenic exposure levels showed a significant (water arsenic: <i>r</i>_<i>s</i> = 0.339, <i>p</i><0.001, hair arsenic: <i>r</i>_<i>s</i> = 0.352, <i>p</i><0.001 and nail arsenic: <i>r</i>_<i>s</i> = 0.308, <i>p</i><0.001) positive associations with sTM levels. Soluble TM levels were higher in the higher exposure gradients if we stratified the subjects into tertile groups (low, medium and high) based on the arsenic concentrations of the subjects’ drinking water, hair and nails. Finally, increased levels of sTM were negatively correlated with high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), and positively correlated with intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) and vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1). Results of this study show that chronic exposure to arsenic has mild to moderate association with sTM levels.</p></div