INTEGRATED NUTRIENT MANAGEMENT IN POTATO WITH COMPOST MADE THROUGH DIFFERENT BIO-DEGRADATION PROCESSES

To achieve the goal of safe and sustainable food, the only realistic option now-a-days lies with the introduction of a low input farming system concept i.e. organic and integrated agriculture. Keeping in view the present scenario, a study was undertaken in Satyapole village, Haringhata block of Nadia district, West Bengal on integrated nutrient management in potatoes during rabi 2018 and 2019. The efficacy of different composts, in terms of their quality, easiness of preparation along with yield and economic attributes were accessed for the high nutrient loving crop, potato. The experiment was planned out in randomized block design (RBD) with 5 treatments and 4 replications. High yield with a marginal difference was found among all the treatments with integrated management. But, the treatment with 50% of recommended inorganic fertilizer dose (recommended dose N:P: K @ 200:150:150 kg/ha, 1/3 N, full P and 1/3 K as basal; 1st and 2nd top dressing with 1/3 N and 1/3 K) and vermicompost @ 5 ton/ha showed the best result. According to the B: C ratio composting with NOVCOM showed the best result whereas, in terms of the bio-degradation process with respect to its end-product quality, easiness of procedure, and cost, compost made through waste decomposer and NOVCOM has better results in comparison with vermicompost

EV Scheduling Framework for Peak Demand Management in LV Residential Networks

Increased electrification in the residential and transport sectors is changing the energy demand profiles significantly, which results in reshaped peak demand. These changes in demand profiles can cause grid overloading and jeopardize network reliability especially when the excessive use of electricity within a network is uncoordinated. In this article, an aggregated coordination mechanism is proposed for electric vehicle (EV) charge–discharge scheduling to manage the peak demand in the low-voltage (LV) residential networks. The proposed model uses mixed-integer-programming-based optimization approach to minimize the cost of energy while managing the peak demand and complying with grid constraints. A stochastic model is presented to account for the uncertainties associated with forecast inaccuracies of the day-ahead scheduling. The proposed strategy is assessed by means of simulation studies considering an LV residential neighborhood in Sydney, Australia. The results indicate the effectiveness of the proposed strategy to minimize the cost of electricity for the EV owners while managing the peak demand for the grid operators. Comparison with the state-of-the-art EV scheduling strategies indicates that the proposed strategy can improve the load factor of the local network up to 36%, the peak-to-average ratio up to 27%, and cost reductions up to 56%

CAPAS: A context-aware system architecture for physical activities monitoring

Attribute grammars are widely used by compiler-generators since it allows complete specifications of static semantics. They can also be applied to other fields of research, for instance, to human activities recognition. This paper aims to present CAPAS, a Context-aware system Architecture to monitor Physical ActivitieS. One of the components that is present in the architecture is the attribute grammar which is filled after the prediction is made according to the data gathered from the user through the sensors. According to some predefined rules, the physical activity is validated after an analysis on the attribute grammar, if it meets those requirements. Besides that it proposes an attribute grammar itself which should be able to be incorporated in a system in order to validate the performed physical activity.This work has been supported by FCT – Fundação˜ para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the Project Scope: ˆ UID/CEC/00319/2019

Advanced AODV approach for efficient detection and mitigation of wormhole attack in MANET

Wireless Communication is an inevitable part of Smart Home domain. A Mobile Ad-Hoc Network (MANET) is defined as an arrangement of wireless mobile nodes which creates a temporary network for the communication. MANET suffers from both kinds of attacks, active and passive attacks at all the layers of the network model. The lacks of security measures of routing protocols allow attackers to intrude the network. Wormhole, the attack is generated by tunnels creation and it results in complete disruption of routing paths on MANET. The proposed security approach is to detect and mitigate wormhole attack. It is secured Ad hoc on demand distance vector (AODV) approach which efficiently finds wormhole attack present in a MANET and Digital signature is used to prevent it. This approach is based on a calculation of tunneling time taken by tunnel to analyze the behavior of wormhole. Afterward, it decides some static threshold value. Based upon this tunneling time and threshold value, it decides whether given node is wormhole node or trustworthy node. A digital signature and hash chain algorithm is applied to mitigate the wormhole node

Structural dynamics of a metal-organic framework induced by CO2 migration in its non-uniform porous structure.

Stimuli-responsive behaviors of flexible metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) make these materials promising in a wide variety of applications such as gas separation, drug delivery, and molecular sensing. Considerable efforts have been made over the last decade to understand the structural changes of flexible MOFs in response to external stimuli. Uniform pore deformation has been used as the general description. However, recent advances in synthesizing MOFs with non-uniform porous structures, i.e. with multiple types of pores which vary in size, shape, and environment, challenge the adequacy of this description. Here, we demonstrate that the CO2-adsorption-stimulated structural change of a flexible MOF, ZIF-7, is induced by CO2 migration in its non-uniform porous structure rather than by the proactive opening of one type of its guest-hosting pores. Structural dynamics induced by guest migration in non-uniform porous structures is rare among the enormous number of MOFs discovered and detailed characterization is very limited in the literature. The concept presented in this work provides new insights into MOF flexibility

A Novel Biclustering Approach to Association Rule Mining for Predicting HIV-1–Human Protein Interactions

Identification of potential viral-host protein interactions is a vital and useful approach towards development of new drugs targeting those interactions. In recent days, computational tools are being utilized for predicting viral-host interactions. Recently a database containing records of experimentally validated interactions between a set of HIV-1 proteins and a set of human proteins has been published. The problem of predicting new interactions based on this database is usually posed as a classification problem. However, posing the problem as a classification one suffers from the lack of biologically validated negative interactions. Therefore it will be beneficial to use the existing database for predicting new viral-host interactions without the need of negative samples. Motivated by this, in this article, the HIV-1–human protein interaction database has been analyzed using association rule mining. The main objective is to identify a set of association rules both among the HIV-1 proteins and among the human proteins, and use these rules for predicting new interactions. In this regard, a novel association rule mining technique based on biclustering has been proposed for discovering frequent closed itemsets followed by the association rules from the adjacency matrix of the HIV-1–human interaction network. Novel HIV-1–human interactions have been predicted based on the discovered association rules and tested for biological significance. For validation of the predicted new interactions, gene ontology-based and pathway-based studies have been performed. These studies show that the human proteins which are predicted to interact with a particular viral protein share many common biological activities. Moreover, literature survey has been used for validation purpose to identify some predicted interactions that are already validated experimentally but not present in the database. Comparison with other prediction methods is also discussed

QoS-Aware Energy Management and Node Scheduling Schemes for Sensor Network-Based Surveillance Applications

Recent advances in wireless technologies have led to an increased deployment of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) for a plethora of diverse surveillance applications such as health, military, and environmental. However, sensor nodes in WSNs usually suffer from short device lifetime due to severe energy constraints and therefore, cannot guarantee to meet the Quality of Service (QoS) needs of various applications. This is proving to be a major hindrance to the widespread adoption of WSNs for such applications. Therefore, to extend the lifetime of WSNs, it is critical to optimize the energy usage in sensor nodes that are often deployed in remote and hostile terrains. To this effect, several energy management schemes have been proposed recently. Node scheduling is one such strategy that can prolong the lifetime of WSNs and also helps to balance the workload among the sensor nodes. In this article, we discuss on the energy management techniques of WSN with a particular emphasis on node scheduling and propose an energy management life-cycle model and an energy conservation pyramid to extend the network lifetime of WSNs. We have provided a detailed classification and evaluation of various node scheduling schemes in terms of their ability to fulfill essential QoS requirements, namely coverage, connectivity, fault tolerance, and security. We considered essential design issues such as network type, deployment pattern, sensing model in the classification process. Furthermore, we have discussed the operational characteristics of schemes with their related merits and demerits. We have compared the efficacy of a few well known graph-based scheduling schemes with suitable performance analysis graph. Finally, we study challenges in designing and implementing node scheduling schemes from a QoS perspective and outline open research problems

Primary cilia elongation in response to interleukin-1 mediates the inflammatory response

Primary cilia are singular, cytoskeletal organelles present in the majority of mammalian cell types where they function as coordinating centres for mechanotransduction, Wnt and hedgehog signalling. The length of the primary cilium is proposed to modulate cilia function, governed in part by the activity of intraflagellar transport (IFT). In articular cartilage, primary cilia length is increased and hedgehog signaling activated in osteoarthritis (OA). Here, we examine primary cilia length with exposure to the quintessential inflammatory cytokine interleukin-1 (IL-1), which is up-regulated in OA. We then test the hypothesis that the cilium is involved in mediating the downstream inflammatory response. Primary chondrocytes treated with IL-1 exhibited a 50 % increase in cilia length after 3 h exposure. IL-1-induced cilia elongation was also observed in human fibroblasts. In chondrocytes, this elongation occurred via a protein kinase A (PKA)-dependent mechanism. G-protein coupled adenylate cyclase also regulated the length of chondrocyte primary cilia but not downstream of IL-1. Chondrocytes treated with IL-1 exhibit a characteristic increase in the release of the inflammatory chemokines, nitric oxide and prostaglandin E2. However, in cells with a mutation in IFT88 whereby the cilia structure is lost, this response to IL-1 was significantly attenuated and, in the case of nitric oxide, completely abolished. Inhibition of IL-1-induced cilia elongation by PKA inhibition also attenuated the chemokine response. These results suggest that cilia assembly regulates the response to inflammatory cytokines. Therefore, the cilia proteome may provide a novel therapeutic target for the treatment of inflammatory pathologies, including OA

Is gynaecological surgical training a cause for concern? A questionnaire survey of trainees and trainers

<p>Astract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Concerns have been raised as to whether the current postgraduate training programme for gynaecological surgery is being detrimentally affected by changes in working practices, in particular the European Working Time Directive (EWTD). The purpose of this study was to investigate the surgical activity of obstetrics and gynaecology trainees and to explore trainees' and trainers' opinions on the current barriers and potential solutions to surgical training.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Two questionnaire surveys were conducted, one to obstetrics and gynaecology trainees working within the West Midlands Deanery and a second to consultant gynaecologists in the West Midlands region.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>One hundred and four trainees (64.3%) and 66 consultant gynaecologists (55.0%) responded. Sixty-six trainees (66.7%) reported attending up to one operating list per week. However, 28.1% reported attending up to one list every two weeks or less and 5 trainees stated that they had not attended a list at all over the preceding 8 weeks. Trainees working in a unit with less than 3999 deliveries attended significantly more theatre sessions compared to trainees in units with over 4000 deliveries (p = 0.007), as did senior trainees (p = 0.032) and trainees attached to consultants performing major gynaecological surgery (p = 0.022). In the previous 8 weeks, only 6 trainees reported performing a total abdominal hysterectomy independently, all were senior trainees (ST6 and above). In the trainers' survey, only two respondents (3.0%) agreed that the current program produces doctors competent in general gynaecological surgery by the end of training, compared to 48 (73.8%) respondents who disagreed.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Trainees' concerns over a lack of surgical training appear to be justified. The main barriers to training are perceived to be a lack of team structure and a lack of theatre time.</p