Ergonomic Chair Design For Thermal Comfort Using Phase Change Materials

The metabolism process of humanoids is well designed for emitting the heat constantly. But no heat transfer phenomena occur from the spinal side of the body in sitting posture. The proper heat transfer is arrested in the sitting posture; this makes the human to feel discomfort. The bus drivers are the main victims who face this problem every day and cause of the disease called “hemorrhoid”. This project mainly focused to modify and construct a convenient chilled cushion chair with jam-backed Phase Change Material (PCM) to overcome such problems. This chair absorbs body heat when occupied and discharges while vacant. The stages when liquid change to solid and solid change to liquid occurs nearly by a constant temperature. The chair provides a cooling effect and also a cushioning effect to the occupier. The PCMs are having large latent heat and provide a cooling effect by maintaining nearly by constant temperature to the human body.  The jam-backed chilled cushion chair is invented for improved thermal comfort for the driver for some extended time by the proper temperature that acceptable level of the human. The performance tests are carried out to evaluate the working of the pad

Induction of resistance in tomato against Helicoverpa armigera (Hubner) using biofertilizers

Based on preliminary and confirmatory field screening of 321 tomato accessions for resistance against fruit borer, Helicoverpa armigera (Hubner), a promising accession Varushanadu Local was selected for studying induction of resistance using biofertilizers viz., Azospirillum, Phosphobacteria, Pseudomonas and K-solubilizer. In comparison, a susceptible check, I979 was also evaluated. The feeding preference of H. armigera larva was the least towards Varushanadu Local than I979 irrespective of the biofertilizer. Among the biofertilizers K-solubilizer treated plants were the least preferred than others. A trend was observed in both the free choice and confinement tests. ÂÂ

Verbal autopsy as a tool for identifying the contributory factors for young infant death in Chennai Corporation

INTRODUCTION: About 130 million infants are born in the world every year. About 4 million Infants die in the first 28 days of life in the world every year. 3 million of the infants die in the first week of life. More than 25% of deaths occur in the first 24 hours of life. Neonatal deaths account to 40% of deaths under the age of 5 years worldwide. 98% of all neonatal deaths in the world occur in developing countries. Deaths are due to infections (32%), birth asphyxia (29%), prematurity and congenital anomalies (34%). 2.4 million under-5 child deaths occur in India every year. India contribution is 22% of the global burden and nearly half are neonatal death. Infant mortality is not only a health problem but also a social problem. It affects us all. Identification of preventable causes in medical, social, economical, and environment is important. For reduction of infant mortality, delivery of quality services to pregnant women, newborn and families with young children is important. Infant mortality rate is a sensitive indicator of the health status of the community. Reduction of infant mortality is a national priority. AIM OF THE STUDY: To identify the contributory factors to young infant deaths in Chennai corporation zones. PRIMARY OBJECTIVE: Using verbal autopsy as a tool to identify the contributory factors for young infant death in Chennai corporation zones. SECONDARY OBJECTIVES: To identify delays in getting appropriate treatments like, Decision to seek care, Transport to health facility, Provision of adequate care at the health facility. METHODOLOGY: Study Design: Descriptive study. Study Place: The study was done in Chennai corporation zones. Study Period: September 2012 to January 2013 Data variables: The variables were grouped as maternal characteristics and infant characteristics affecting young infant death. Maternal characteristics had socio demographic variables, pregnancy details and delivery details. Socio demographic variables had religion, community, education of mother, family type, and occupation and below poverty line characters. Pregnancy details had consanguinity, age, birth order, antenatal registration details, number of antenatal visits and maternal illness during pregnancy. Delivery details had place of delivery, type of delivery, birth attendant .Infant characteristics had gender, birth weight, gestational age, age at death, place of death and cause of death variables. Subjects: Parents who lost their babies within 2 months of age and residing in the service provision area of Chennai Corporation. The young infant (age < 2months) deaths that occurred in Chennai corporation zone during the period of September 2012 to January 2013 were studied by using verbal autopsy as a tool. Inclusion Criteria: All young infant deaths (up to 2 months of age) reported from Chennai corporation zone were included. RESULTS: During the study period, 29295 live births had occurred in the ten Chennai corporation zones.243 infant deaths had occurred during the period.190 young infant deaths had occurred during the period in ten zones of Chennai Corporation. Among the 190 young infant deaths 184 parents were traceable. The parents of 6 young infant deaths were not traceable. CONCLUSION: 1. Major portion of neonatal deaths occur within the first three days of life 2. Major causes of neonatal deaths were respiratory distress syndrome, perinatal asphyxia and sepsis 3. More asphyxial deaths occurred in higher gestational age and larger birth weight babies. Level I care deliveries resulted in more asphyxia related deaths. Most of the asphyxia deaths occurred within 3 days 4. Lower gestational age, lower birth weight, multiple gestation and delivery at Level II centres were associated with higher mortality in respiratory distress syndrome. Male sex was not associated with poorer outcome in RDS 5. Level of parental education, place of delivery, type of delivery, birth weight, gestational age were not significantly influence sepsis related deaths. 6. Verbal autopsy as tool to assess the causes and contributory factors of neonatal deaths can help recognize the deficiencies in health care system and delivery and plan remedial measures

Clinical profile of congenital diaphragmatic hernia and their short-term outcome in a tertiary care neonatal unit: A retrospective study

Background: Recent developments in the antenatal diagnosis, surgical techniques, and neonatal intensive care had widely increased survival rates in neonates with congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH) in the western world. In developing countries, however, high mortality in neonates with CDH still continues to be a challenge. Objective: The aim of this study is to study the clinical profile of neonates with CDH and to analyze the various factors affecting mortality. Materials and Methods: In this retrospective study, 148 babies with a diagnosis of diaphragmatic hernia admitted to a tertiary care neonatal unit in South India, from the year 2010 to 2015, were reviewed. Results: The total survival rate was 58.1%, and the operative survival rate was 85.1%. Prenatal diagnosis was made in only 7 cases, and of these, 5 (71.42%) survived. Higher mortality was associated with age at admission &lt;24 h, low Apgar score, early onset of respiratory distress, right-sided CDH, presence of persistent pulmonary hypertension of newborn, and high FiO2 requirement at the time of admission, during stabilization and surgery (p&lt;0.01). Significantly higher mortality was also observed among babies who required positive-pressure ventilation during transport, required inotropes during hospital course (p&lt;0.01), and had low PaO2, high PCO2, and high oxygenation index (p&lt;0.01). Conclusion: Babies admitted to hospital within 24 h of age and who manifested early had a poor outcome indicating severe disease. Antenatal diagnosis of this condition should improve to prevent delay in stabilization and poor outcome

A Novel Hybrid Security Framework (HSF) with Vshield Based Firewall to Secure Cloud Computing Environment

Cloud Computing is an emerging technology&nbsp;that&nbsp;provides&nbsp;an enormous amount of computing resources which includes networks, servers and storages which are accessed through the internet. In addition it allows useful provisioning of the resources based on the user’s demands.&nbsp;A crucial aspect of cloud computing infrastructure is to provide secure and reliable services.&nbsp; The main challenge lies in the security issues is to reduce the impact of third party attacks in the cloud computing environment. Hence a novel Hybrid Security Framework(HSF) based on Reinforcement Learning (RL) Methodology with Vshield Firewall is proposed for securing the cloud environment.&nbsp; The RL method is used for deep packet inspection and VShiled based firewall is established to deny the attacks which are malicious when authenticating the signature of incoming packets. The bipartite pattern matching approach is integrated with the RL method to verify the signatures for obtaining the decisions quickly.&nbsp; The simulation results shows that the hybrid security framework is effective when compared with the existing methods by considering response time, resource utilization and denial of malicious attacks.&nbsp; This indicates that our proposed framework achieves not only better security but also attains better efficiency in cloud computing environment

Sustain-Release of Various Drugs from Leucaena Leucocephala Polysaccharide

This study examines the sustained release behavior of both water-soluble (acetaminophen, caffeine, theophylline and salicylic acid) and water-insoluble (indomethacin) drugs from Leucaena leucocephala seed Gum isolated from Leucaena leucocephala kernel powder. It further investigates the effect of incorporation of diluents like microcrystalline cellulose and lactose on release of caffeine and partial cross-linking of the gum (polysaccharide) on release of acetaminophen. Applying exponential equation, the mechanism of release of soluble drugs was found to be anomalous. The insoluble drug showed near case II or zero-order release mechanism. The rate of release was in the decreasing order of caffeine, acetaminophen, theophylline, salicylic acid and indomethacin. An increase in release kinetics of drug was observed on blending with diluents. However, the rate of release varied with type and amount of blend in the matrix. The mechanism of release due to effect of diluents was found to be anomalous. The rate of release of drug decreased on partial cross-linking and the mechanism of release was found to be super case II

Orphan crops of archaeology-based crop history research

So-called ‘forgotten’ or ‘orphan’ crops are an important component of strategies aimed at preserving and promoting biodiversity. Knowledge of historical cultivation, usage, and geographic and evolutionary trajectories of plants, that is, crop history research, is important for the long-term success of such efforts. However, research biases in the crops chosen for study may present hurdles. This review attempts to systematically identify patterns in crop species representativeness within archaeology-based crop history research. A meta-analysis and synthesis of archaeo- botanical evidence (and lack thereof) is presented for 268 species known to have been cultivated for food prior to 1492 CE from the Mediterranean region to South Asia. We identified 39 genera with known crop plants in this geographical and histor- ical context that are currently absent from its archaeobotanical record, constituting ‘orphan’ crops of archaeobotany. In addition, a worldwide synthesis of crop species studied using geometric morphometric, archaeogenetic and stable isotope analyses of archaeological plant remains is presented, and biases in the species represented in these disciplines are discussed. Both disciplinary methodological biases and economic agenda-based biases affecting species representativeness in crop history research are apparent. This study also highlights the limited geographic diffusion of most crops and the potential for deeper historical perspectives on how crops become marginal- ized and ‘forgotten’

Financial feasibility of end-user designed rainwater harvesting and greywater reuse systems for high water use households

© 2017, The Author(s). Water availability pressures, competing end-uses and sewers at capacity are all drivers for change in urban water management. Rainwater harvesting (RWH) and greywater reuse (GWR) systems constitute alternatives to reduce drinking water usage and in the case of RWH, reduce roof runoff entering sewers. Despite the increasing popularity of installations in commercial buildings, RWH and GWR technologies at a household scale have proved less popular, across a range of global contexts. For systems designed from the top-down, this is often due to the lack of a favourable cost-benefit (where subsidies are unavailable), though few studies have focused on performing full capital and operational financial assessments, particularly in high water consumption households. Using a bottom-up design approach, based on a questionnaire survey with 35 households in a residential complex in Bucaramanga, Colombia, this article considers the initial financial feasibility of three RWH and GWR system configurations proposed for high water using households (equivalent to >203L per capita per day). A full capital and operational financial assessment was performed at a more detailed level for the most viable design using historic rainfall data. For the selected configuration (‘Alt 2’), the estimated potable water saving was 44% (equivalent to 131m3/year) with a rate of return on investment of 6.5% and an estimated payback period of 23years. As an initial end-user-driven design exercise, these results are promising and constitute a starting point for facilitating such approaches to urban water management at the household scale

Orphan crops of archaeology-based crop history research

Agrobiodiversity is central to sustainable farming worldwide. Cultivation, conservation and reintroduction of diverse plant species, including ‘forgotten’ and ‘underutilized’ crops, contribute to global agrobiodiversity, living ecosystems and sustainable food production. Such efforts benefit from traditional and historical knowledge of crop plants' evolutionary and cultural trajectories. This review is a first attempt at systematically gauging species representativeness in studies of archaeological plant remains. Results indicate that, in addition to discipline-specific methodological sources of bias, modern agricultural biases may replicate themselves in crop history research and influence understandings of ‘forgotten crops’. Recognizing these biases is an initial stride towards rectifying them and promoting agrobiodiversity in both research and practical applications. Summary: So-called ‘forgotten’ or ‘orphan’ crops are an important component of strategies aimed at preserving and promoting biodiversity. Knowledge of historical cultivation, usage, and geographic and evolutionary trajectories of plants, that is, crop history research, is important for the long-term success of such efforts. However, research biases in the crops chosen for study may present hurdles. This review attempts to systematically identify patterns in crop species representativeness within archaeology-based crop history research. A meta-analysis and synthesis of archaeobotanical evidence (and lack thereof) is presented for 268 species known to have been cultivated for food prior to 1492 CE from the Mediterranean region to South Asia. We identified 39 genera with known crop plants in this geographical and historical context that are currently absent from its archaeobotanical record, constituting ‘orphan’ crops of archaeobotany. In addition, a worldwide synthesis of crop species studied using geometric morphometric, archaeogenetic and stable isotope analyses of archaeological plant remains is presented, and biases in the species represented in these disciplines are discussed. Both disciplinary methodological biases and economic agenda-based biases affecting species representativeness in crop history research are apparent. This study also highlights the limited geographic diffusion of most crops and the potential for deeper historical perspectives on how crops become marginalized and ‘forgotten’

Recent advances in organic synthesis using light-mediated n-heterocyclic carbene catalysis

The combination of photocatalysis with other ground state catalytic systems have attracted much attention recently due to the enormous synthetic potential offered by a dual activation mode. The use of N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) as organocatalysts emerged as an important synthetic tool. Its ability to harness umpolung reactivity by the formation of the Breslow intermediate has been employed in the synthesis of thousands of biologically important compounds. However, the available coupling partners are relatively restricted, and its combination with other catalytic systems might improve its synthetic versatility. Thus, merging photoredox and N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) catalysis has emerged recently as a powerful strategy to develop new transformations and give access to a whole new branch of synthetic possibilities. This review compiles the NHC catalyzed methods mediated by light, either in the presence or absence of an external photocatalyst, that have been described so far, and aims to give an accurate overview of the potential of this activation modeL.M. acknowledges the Autonomous Community of Madrid (CAM) for the financial support (PEJD-2019-PRE/AMB-16640 and SI1/PJI/ 2019-00237) and for an “Atracción de Talento Investigador” contract (2017-T2/AMB-5037