Survival Probability for Open Spherical Billiards

We study the survival probability for long times in an open spherical billiard, extending previous work on the circular billiard. We provide details of calculations regarding two billiard configurations, specifically a sphere with a circular hole and a sphere with a square hole. The constant terms of the long-term survival probability expansions have been derived analytically. Terms that vanish in the long time limit are investigated analytically and numerically, leading to connections with the Riemann hypothesis

The psychological impact of COVID-19 and the subsequent social isolation on the general population of Karnataka, India

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has various unfavorable effects on individuals and the community. This study aims to assess the psychological impact of the COVID-19 epidemic and the subsequent social isolation on the general population of Karnataka, India.  Methods: A web-based cross-sectional survey was conducted in Karnataka from 8 to 14 April 2020 using the snowball technique. The psychological impact was assessed with the help of the nine-item Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) and seven-item General Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) questionnaires. IBM SPSS Statistics Subscription version 16.0 was recruited to analyze the data. Descriptive (Mean + Standard Deviation) and bivariate (Pearson chi-square and ANOVA tests) analysis used to present data with the significance level set at less than 0.05. Results:  This study included 1537 participants from 26 cities in Karnataka. About two-thirds of the respondents were undergraduate students (951, 61.9%), females (768, 50.0%), and 40.1% stayed about 15-20 days in social isolation. The prevalence of depression was 47.0%, and anxiety was 41.5%, respectively, among the surveyed sample. After the analysis, the age group 21-30 year old (P < 0.001), females P < 0.001), urban residents (P = 0.021), and the students (P p < 0.001) were significant for depression. However, only the age group 31-40 years was found to be more susceptible to anxiety. Conclusion: As important as addressing the psychological effects, knowing people at risk of developing mental illnesses will contribute effectively to providing appropriate psychological rehabilitation programs at the right time.   References World Health Organization, Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) Situation Report –1, 21 January 2020. Available from: https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/situation-reports/20200121-sitrep-1-2019-ncov.pdf, [Accessed on 30 August 2020]. Wang C, Pan R, Wan X, Tan Y, Xu L, Ho CS, Ho RC. Immediate Psychological Responses and Associated Factors during the Initial Stage of the 2019 Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Epidemic among the General Population in China. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020 Mar 6;17(5):1729. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17051729. World Health Organization, WHO Director-General's opening remarks at the media briefing on COVID-19 - 11 March 2020. Available from: https://www.who.int/dg/speeches/detail/who-director-general-s-opening-remarks-at-the-media-briefing-on-covid-19---11-march-2020 [Accessed on 13 April 2020] Coronavirus in India: Latest Map and Case Count. Available from: https://www.covid19india.org/ [Accessed 13 April 2020]. Arakal RA. First COVID-19 case in Karnataka: Techie who returned to Bengaluru from US tests positive, (9 March2020). Available from: https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/bangalore/coronavirus-karnataka-first-case-covid-19-bengaluru-6307223/ [Accessed on 13 April 2020] India Today on 24 March 2020. Modi announces lockdown Updates: No panic buying please. Stay indoors, tweets PM. Available from: https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/pm-modi-address-the-nation-at-8-pm-today-speech-covid-19-coronavirus-live-updates-1659215-2020-03-24 [Accessed on 13 April 2020] Ali Jadoo SA. Was the world ready to face a crisis like COVID-19? Journal of Ideas in Health2020;3(1):123-4. https://doi.org/10.47108/jidhealth.Vol3.Iss1.45 Steptoe A, Shankar A, Demakakos P, Wardle J. Social isolation, loneliness, and all-cause mortality in older men and women. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2013;110(15):5797-5801. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1219686110 Cao W, Fang Z, Hou G, Han M, Xu X, Dong J, et al. The psychological impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on college students in China. Psychiatry Res. 2020; 287:112934. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2020.112934 Taylor HO, Taylor RJ, Nguyen AW, Chatters L. Social Isolation, Depression, and Psychological Distress Among Older Adults. Journal of Aging and Health2018; 30(2): 229–246. https://doi.org/10.1177/0898264316673511 Sim K, Huak Chan Y, Chong PN, Chua HC, Wen Soon S. Psychosocial and coping responses within the community health care setting towards a national outbreak of an infectious disease. J Psychosom Res. 2010;68(2):195-202. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychores.2009.04.004 Roy D, Tripathy S, Kar SK, Sharma N, Verma SK, Kaushal V. Study of knowledge, attitude, anxiety & perceived mental healthcare need in Indian population during COVID-19 pandemic. Asian J Psychiatr. 2020; 51:102083. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajp.2020.102083. Karnataka Population. Available from: http://www.populationu.com/in/karnataka-population [Accessed on 8 April 2020] Sample Size Calculator: Understanding Sample Sizes. Available from: https://www.surveymonkey.com/mp/sample-size-calculator/ [Accessed on 5 March 2020] Toussaint A, Hüsing P, Gumz A, Wingenfeld K, Härter M, Schramm E, Löwe B. Sensitivity to change and minimal clinically important difference of the 7-item generalized anxiety disorder questionnaire (GAD-7). J Affect Disord. 2020; 265:395–401. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2020.01.032 Williams N. The GAD-7 Questionnaire [Review of the test Generalized anxiety disorder (gad-7) Questionnaire, by R. L. Spitzer]. Occupational Medicine2014; 64(3): 224. https://doi.org/10.1093/occmed/kqt161 Kroenke K, Spitzer RL, Williams JB. The PHQ-9: validity of a brief depression severity measure. J Gen Intern Med. 2001;16(9):606–613. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1525-1497.2001.016009606. Albert PR. Why is depression more prevalent in women? J Psychiatry Neurosci. 2015;40(4):219-221. https://doi.org/10.1503/jpn.150205 Patten SB, Wang JL, Williams JV, Wang JL, McDonald K, Bulloch ACM. Descriptive epidemiology of major depression in Canada. Can J Psychiatry. 2006; 51:84–90. https://doi.org/10.1177/070674371506000106 Jones C. Student anxiety, depression increasing during school closures, survey finds. EdSorce, 13 May 2020. Available from: https://edsource.org/2020/student-anxiety-depression-increasing-during-school-closures-survey-finds/631224 [Accessed on 29 August 2020]. Frasquilho D, Matos MG, Salonna F, Guerreiro D, Storti CC, Gaspar T, Caldas-de-Almeida JM. Mental health outcomes in times of economic recession: a systematic literature review. BMC Public Health2015; 16:115. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-016-2720-y. Ali Jadoo SA. COVID -19 pandemic is a worldwide typical Biopsychosocial crisis. Journal of Ideas in Health2020;3(2):152-4. https://doi.org/10.47108/jidhealth.Vol3.Iss2.58 Prabhu N. Bengaluru urban tops state in per capita income, Kalaburagi last, (20 March 2016). 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Effect of Triple Treatment on the Surface Structure and Hardness of 304 Austenitic Stainless Steel

Nitriding, annealing, and carbonitriding processes are conducted to modify the surface of AISI 304 austenitic stainless steel via radio frequency plasma. A ~20 μm thick nitride layer is obtained in ten minutes at a plasma power of 450 W. Hence, all nitrided samples are annealed under vacuum for one hour at 400 ̊C. The nitrided-annealed samples are carbonitrided via the identical technique at various C2H2/N2 gas pressure ratios. Numerous analytical techniques, including X-ray diffractometry, glow discharge optical spectroscopy (GDOS), Talysurf Intra Profilemeter, optical microscopy (OM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and Vickers microhardness tester, were employed to investigate the triple-treated specimens. Microstructure analysis of the triple-treated samples reveals the formation of N2 expanded austenite phase (γN), γʹ-Fe4N, CrN, Fe3C, and Fe7C3. The results indicate that the elemental composition, microhardness, and thickness of the triple-treated layers are all depending on the gas composition. After carbonitriding, the total thickness of the compound layer grew from ~20 to ~34.5 μm. The surface microhardness of the triple-treated samples increased as the C2H2/N2 gas composition ratio increased up to 70%, reaching 1,497±33.5 HV0.1, which is ~6.8 and ~1.42 folds higher than the untreated and prenitrided samples, respectively

Multi-Scale Colour Completed Local Binary Patterns for Scene and Event Sport Image Categorisation

The Local Binary Pattern (LBP) texture descriptor and some of its variant descriptors have been successfully used for texture classification and for a few other tasks such as face recognition, facial expression, and texture segmentation. However, these descriptors have been barely used for image categorisation because their calculations are based on the gray image and they are only invariant to monotonic light variations on the gray level. These descriptors ignore colour information despite their key role in distinguishing the objects and the natural scenes. In this paper, we enhance the Completed Local Binary Pattern (CLBP), an LBP variant with an impressive performance on texture classification. We propose five multiscale colour CLBP (CCLBP) descriptors by incorporating five different colour information into the original CLBP. By using the Oliva and Torralba (OT8) and Event sport datasets, our results attest to the superiority of the proposed CCLBP descriptors over the original CLBP in terms of image categorisation

Kinematics and nonlinear control of an electromagnetic actuated CVT system for passenger vehicle

An electromagnetic actuated continuously variable transmission (EMA-CVT) system is developed by two sets of electromagnetic actuators (solenoid) located on primary and secondary pulley. A set of solenoids are attached to the primary and secondary pulley to develop the attraction and repulsive forces. The relationships between the speed ratio and electromagnetic actuation and clamping force and output torque of the CVT are established based on the kinematics of the EMA-CVT system. A Fuzzy Logic Controller (FLC) is developed to control the EMA precisely based on the feedback of the RPM sensor and slope sensor. The EMA-CVT performance with controller has found 28% more than the performance of the EMA-CVT without controller. The solenoids of the EMA were activated by varying the current supply with the Fuzzy-Proportional-Derivative-Integrator (FPID) to maintain the non-linearity of the CVT in response of the vehicle traction torque demand. Result shows that the solenoid is able to pull the plunger in the desired distance with supply current of 12.5 amp while push the plunger to the desired distance with 14.00 amp current supply to the windings when the vehicle is considered in 10% grade. The acceleration time of the ¼ scale car has been recorded as 5.5 s with the response of drive wheels torque

Serial changes in the serum levels of leptin, homocysteine, galectin-3, total phospholipids and hexosamines among patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting

AbstractBackgroundCoronary artery disease (CAD) is the most common cardiovascular disorder in adults. This study was performed to elucidate the role of active leptin, homocysteine, galectin-3, total phospholipids, total, bound, free hexosamines, free-to-bound hexosamines ratio in the pathogenesis of chronic myocardial ischemia and studying the effect of coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) on their serum levels.MethodsA prospective case control study was carried out on 100 ischemic heart disease male patients undergoing elective CABG and 25 healthy males. Serum levels of total phospholipids, total and free hexosamines, were estimated using spectrophotometric methods, while, serum levels of active leptin, homocysteine and galectin-3 were estimated using ELISA assay kit.ResultsSignificant higher serum active leptin, homocysteine, galectin-3, free hexosamines and free to bound hexosamines ratio levels preoperatively when compared with the control group (p < 0.01 for all) with significant lowering of their serum levels following CABG (p < 0.01 for all) except for active leptin. Significant lower serum total phospholipids, total and bound hexosamines levels preoperatively when compared with the control group (p < 0.01 for all) with significant elevations in their serum levels following CABG (p < 0.01 for all).ConclusionsHigh active leptin, homocysteine, galectin-3, free and free to bound hexosamines ratio and low total phospholipids, total and bound hexosamines play an important role in the pathogenesis of myocardial ischemia. The serum levels of homocysteine, galectin-3, hexosamines and total phospholipids, but not active leptin are significantly lowered following CABG

Time-cost effective factor of a Midimew connected Mesh network

Hierarchical Interconnection Network (HIN) is indispensable for the practical implementation of future generation massively parallel computer systems which consists of hundred thousands nodes or even millions of nodes. Because it yields good performance with low cost due to reduction of communication links and by exploring the locality in the communication & traffic patterns. A Midimew connected Mesh Network (MMN) is an HIN comprised of numerous basic modules, where the basic modules are 2D-mesh networks and they are hierarchically interconnected using midimew network to construct the higher level networks. In this paper, we present the architecture of a MMN and evaluate the time-cost effective factor of MMN, TESH, mesh, and torus networks. It is found that the proposed MMN yields slightly high time-cost effectiveness factor with small diameter and average distance as compared to other networks. Overall, performance with respect to time-cost effectiveness factor with small diameter and average distance suggests that the proposed MMN will be a indispensable choice for the next generation massively parallel computer systems

Cost effective factor of a midimew connected mesh network

Background and Objective: Hierarchical Interconnection Network (HIN) is very much essential for the practical implementation of future generation Massively Parallel Computers (MPC) systems which consists of millions of nodes. It yields better performance with low cost due to reduction of wires and by exploring the locality in the communication\and traffic patterns. The main objective of this paper is to analyze the static cost effective factor of Midimew connected Mesh Network (MMN). Materials and Methods: A Midimew connected Mesh Network (MMN) is a HIN comprised of numerous basic modules, where the basic modules are 2D-mesh networks and they are hierarchically interconnected using midimew network to assemble the higher level networks. Results: This study, present the architecture of a MMN and evaluate the cost effective factor of MMN, TESH (Tori-connected Mesh), mesh and torus networks. The results shows that the cost effective factor of MMN was trivially higher than that of mesh and torus network. Conclusion: It was revealed that the proposed MMN yields a little bit high cost effectiveness factor with small diameter and average distance. Overall, performance with respect to cost effective factor with small diameter and average distance suggests that the MMN will be a promising choice for next generation MPC system