Grassroots Campaign in Technology-Enabled Elections: Madurai and Thiruvananthapuram in 2019 Indian Elections

As a critical site of democratic action, grassroots electoral campaigning is undergoing a transition with the influence of internet affordances in the political mobilizational areas of narrative building, campaign management, data collection and analysis. Through an ethnographic study conducted in Madurai and Thiruvananthapuram during the months prior to the 2019 Indian Parliamentary Elections, the study attempts to map the technology adoption among political workers, in relation to their party/leaders, voters, and other stakeholders in the electoral landscape. Using the typology presented in the new repertoire of social movement action, the authors categorize internet-based and internet-supported campaigning tools, according to the threshold of risk and effort involved in undertaking the activities. Illustrating with perspectives from the grassroots political agents, the paper aspires to extend the literature related to digital political mobilization and contribute to the study of democratic systems

Electrical and Magnetic behaviour of PrFeAsO0.8F0.2 superconductor

The superconducting and ground state samples of PrFeAsO0.8F0.2 and PrFeAsO have been synthesised via easy and versatile single step solid state reaction route. X-ray & Reitveld refine parameters of the synthesised samples are in good agreement to the earlier reported value of the structure. The ground state of the pristine compound (PrFeAsO) exhibited a metallic like step in resistivity below 150K followed by another step at 12K. The former is associated with the spin density wave (SDW) like ordering of Fe spins and later to the anomalous magnetic ordering for Pr moments. Both the resistivity anomalies are absent in case of superconducting PrFeAsO0.8F0.2 sample. Detailed high field (up to 12Tesla) electrical and magnetization measurements are carried out for superconducting PrFeAsO0.8F0.2 sample. The PrFeAsO0.8F0.2 exhibited superconducting onset (Tconset) at around 47K with Tc({\rho} =0) at 38K. Though the Tconset remains nearly invariant, the Tc({\rho} =0) is decreased with applied field, and the same is around 23K under applied field of 12Tesla. The upper critical field (Hc2) is estimated from the Ginzburg Landau equation (GL) fitting, which is found to be ~ 182Tesla. Critical current density (Jc) being calculated from high field isothermal magnetization (MH) loops with the help of Beans critical state model, is found to be of the order of 103 A/cm2. Summarily, the superconductivity characterization of single step synthesised PrFeAsO0.8F0.2 superconductor is presented.Comment: 15 Pages Text + Fig

Retrospective analysis of donor deferral for plateletpheresis at a regional transfusion center, in North-West India

 Background: Single donor platelet (SDP) is one of the valuable component for thrombocytopenic patients for obtaining good post transfusion count increment, good yield of product is required. Proper donor selection has a crucial role in in safety and quality of product therefore proper screening of donor is mandatory. The aim was to find out reasons and frequency of plateletpheresis donor deferral and to encourage safety of donor for recruitment of new SDP donors.Methods: A retrospective analysis of data was done over a period of 1 year from June 2018 to May 2019 from the data centre of the institute.Results: Out of 1365 donors, 1200 were selected for plateletpheresis procedure and remaining 165 donors were deferred for various reasons. The predominant age of donors ranges from 25-35 years. Among the deferred donors temporary donors accounted for 93.33% and permanently deferred donors were 6.61. Most common cause for deferral were poor venous access 52 (31.51%). Low platelet counts 32 (19.39), low Hb 26 (15.75%), underweight 24 (14.54%), under medication 9 (5.45%), alcohol intake within 24 hours 6 (3.63%) and others like tattoos, infections/inflammations at phlebotomy sites 5 (3.03%) and most common reason for permanent deferral were sero-positivity for HbsAg 6 (3.63%), chronic diseases 4 (2.42%) (cardiovascular diseases bronchial asthma), others 1 (0.6%).Conclusions: For obtaining good yield of product, proper donor screening is required. Temporary deferred donors should be counselled properly and encouraged for further donation when comes under selection criteria. Donor selection criteria for apheresis may be revised

Visual Performance under Varying Illumination Conditions while using an Indigenously Developed Wrist Wearable Computer

Ambient illumination conditions have significant impact on users’ visual performance while carrying out onscreen reading tasks on visual display units, especially smaller screen sizes. Present study assessed the visual performance responses of different ambient illumination levels during onscreen reading on Wrist Wearable Computer (WWC) developed for the command-control-communication between the control room and the soldiers operating in remote locations. Ten (10) Indian Infantry soldiers performed two different types of loud reading tasks on the display of WWC under three different ambient illumination (mean ±SEM) conditions namely, Indoor controlled (450.00±10.00 lx), Outdoor daylight (11818.7±582.91 lx) and Indoor dark (0.12±0.03 lx) environments. While reading, participants wore an eye tracking glass which recorded the eye movement responses. Visualisation techniques were used to predict the association of illumination levelof surrounding with visual performance of the user. Subjective legibility rating was also applied to understand participants’ preferences towards physical attributes of the onscreen information and illumination level. Results indicated that illumination had a significant effect on eye movement parameters like fixation frequency, fixation duration and scanpath length while completing the tasks. Overall, participants performed better under indoor controlled illumination conditions in terms of fixation profile and scanpath length, apart from improved subjective legibility ratings as compared to other two illumination conditions. Future research attempts need to be directed towards the optimum performance of the display across wide range of ambient illumination conditions and to establish how the display of indigenously developed wearable computer performs in comparison to other such displays available across the globe

Comparative study of titanium elastic nailing versus hip spica in treatment of femoral shaft fractures in children

Background: There is no consensus on treatment of closed femoral-shaft fractures in children. We compared hip spica cast with titanium elastic nailing (TEN) in the treatment of femoral-shaft fractures in children.Methods: Study was conducted at SMS Medical College, Jaipur (Rajasthan). Out of 90 Patients of diaphyseal fracture femur, 45were treated conservatively by spica cast and 45 were treated with TEN. Follow up done regularly up to twelve months of injury with taking into account, various parameters.Results: All diaphyseal fractures of femur healed, whether treated conservatively by spica cast or treated operatively with TEN. The time of union and weight bearing was less in operative group as comparative to spica cast group. Ten patients (22.22%) in spica group compared to three patients (6.66%) in operative group had malunion and two patients (4.4%) in spica group compared none in operative group had delayed union.Conclusions: Results of TEN turned out to be far superior to traction and spica cast treatment in paediatric femoral fractures. Rate of complications was far low with operative than conservative Treatment

Quantification of Mental and Physiological Workload Associated with two Specialised Military Running Events on Different Terrains

Intense training regimes are practiced across military facilities to develop soldiers’ mental and physical abilities to meet the demands of modern-day warfare. Two short-duration military runs through the jungle and flat natural tracks were selected to quantify their mental and physiological workloads and explore track-specific differences. Two groups of healthy Indian soldiers (n=43 and 30; similar age, height, and weight) participated in time-bound 2.4 km runs on the jungle and flat natural tracks. Physiological variables, speed, and elevation with environmental parameters like temperature and humidity were recorded throughout the exercises. Subjective responses through NASA-TLX questionnaires were collected after the exercises. Mann-Whitney ‘U’ test was applied to find out the level of significance between groups.Physiological demands of runs on the jungle and flat natural track were similar (heart rate- 178.9 and 178.4 b/min; breathing rate- 42.0 and 46.6 breaths/min respectively; body temperature- 37.6℃ for both groups). The run on the jungle track needed a lower peak acceleration of 2.5 g (2.9 g on the flat track) and a higher variation in speed (4-16 knots). Participants expressed significantly high responses after the run on the jungle track. Run on the jungle track was physically intense, required adjustments in speed and acceleration to negotiate with the natural obstacles like uneven terrain and slippery surfaces. Besides this, environmental heat and higher humidity probably led to an increase in mental workload. The run on the flat natural track needed steady physical effort, fewer mechanical adjustments, and showed lower subjective responses

Kinetics of the Oxidation of Hydrogen Sulfide by Atmospheric Oxygen in an Aqueous Medium

Hydrogen sulfide is an important acid rain precursor and this led us to investigate the kinetics of its oxidation in aqueous phase by atmospheric oxygen. The kinetics was followed by measuring the depletion of oxygen in a reactor. The reaction was studied under pseudo order conditions with [H2S] in excess. The kinetics followed the rate law: -d[O2]/dt = k[S][O2]t (A) Where [S] represents the total concentration of hydrogen sulfide, [O2]t is the concentration of oxygen at time t and k is the second order rate constant. The equilibria (B - C) govern the dissolution of H2S; the sulfide ion in water forms different species: H2S K1 HS- + H+ (B) HS- K2 S2- + H+ (C) Where K1 and K2 are first and second dissociation constants of H2S. Although, H2S is present as undissociated H2S, HS- and S2- ions, nature of [H+ ] dependence of reaction rate required only HS- to be reactive and dominant. The rate law (A) on including [H+ ] dependence became Equation (D). -d[O2]/dt = k1K1[H+ ][S][O2]t / ([H+ ] 2 + K1[H+ ] + K1K2) (D) Our results indicate anthropogenic VOCs such as acetanilide, benzene, ethanol, aniline, toluene, benzamide, o-xylene, m-xylene, p-xylene and anisole to have no significant effect on the reaction rate and any observed small effect is within the uncertainty of the rate measurements

Increase in wheat production through management of abiotic stresses : A review

About 9% of area on earth is under crops out of which 91% is under various stresses. On an average, about 50% yield losses are due to abiotic stresses mostly due to high temperature (20%), low temperature (7%), salinity (10%), drought (9%) and other abiotic stresses (4%). As there is no scope for increasing area under agriculture, the increased productivity from these stressed land is a must to meet the ever increasing demand. Further, the severity of abiotic stresses is likely to increase due to changing climate leading to adverse effect on crops. Therefore, abiotic stresses like drought, salinity, sodicity, acidity, water logging, heat, nutrient toxicities/ deficiencies etc need to be effectively addressed through adoption of management practices like tillage and planting options, residue management, sowing time, stress tolerant cultivars, irrigation scheduling and integrated nutrient management to conserve natural resources, mitigating their adverse effect and sustainable wheat production