Marine macroalgae as an alternative, environment-friendly, and bioactive feeding resource for animals

Doctoral thesis (PhD) - Nord University, 2023publishedVersio

Assessment of foot deformities in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus

Background: Affection of lower extremity in diabetic patients leads to development of several foot deformities. The knowledge so far about the particulars of foot deformity in diabetic population is limited. The current study aimed to assess prevalence of foot deformities in known diabetics and to compare it with non-diabetic population. It also aimed to know its association with various risk factors. Methods: Foot was evaluated for presence of deformity in 80 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and was compared with the control group of 80 non-diabetic individuals. Type of deformity was noted and its prevalence was compared between the two groups. Statistical analysis was done to see the association of foot deformity with various risk factors. Results: Prevalence of foot deformity was more in diabetics as compared to normal population (p<0.004). Forefoot was involved in majority of cases (84.93%) and nail deformities were most commonly seen (38.35%). Deformities were less common in patients who were aware of diabetic foot care measures (p<0.004) and were more common in presence of diabetic neuropathy, vasculopathy and uncontrolled glycaemic index. Conclusions: All patients with diabetes should be screened for presence of neuropathy as this is the most common factor for development of a foot deformity and hence a foot ulcer. Other helpful screening measures include assessment for peripheral vascular disease and monitoring of glycaemic index (HbA1c). Patients should be educated about the diabetic foot care measures to avoid potential complications.

Classical light analogue of the nonlocal Aharonov-Bohm effect

We demonstrate the existence of a non-local geometric phase in the intensity-intensity correlations of classical incoherent light, that is not seen in the lower order correlations. This two-photon Pancharatnam phase was observed and modulated in a Mach-Zehnder interferometer. Using acousto-optic interaction, independent phase noise was introduced to light in the two arms of the interferometer to create two independent incoherent classical sources from laser light. The experiment is the classical optical analogue of the multi-particle Aharonov-Bohm effect. As the trajectory of light over the Poincare sphere introduces a phase shift observable only in the intensity-intensity correlation, it provides a means of deflecting the two-photon wavefront, while having no effect on single photons.Comment: To appear in Europhys. Let

Delay Analysis of a Discrete-Time Non-Preemptive Priority Queue with Priority Jumps

In this paper, we consider a discrete-time non-preemptive priority queueing model with priority jumps. Two classes, real-time (high priority) and non-real time (low priority), of traffic will be considered with providing jumps from lower priority traffic to the queue of high priority traffic. We derive expressions for the joint probability generating function of the system contents of the high and the low priority traffic in the steady state and also for some performance measures such as the mean value of the system contents and the packet delay. The behavior of the priority queues with priority jumps will be illustrated by using these results and is compared to the FIFO scheme

Aspects of Nanoelectronics in Materials Development

Nanotechnology is an enabling technology that potentially impacts all aspects of the chip-making practice from materials to devices, to circuits, and to system-level architecture. Nanoelectronics is an interdisciplinary division which refers to the use of nanotechnology in electronic components. The materials and devices used in nanoelectronics are so small that the interatomic interactions and quantum mechanical properties of such materials need to be studied extensively. Various electronic devices manufactured at nanoscale have been established: devices having negative differential resistance, switches which can be electrically configured, tunneling junctions, carbon nanotube (CNT) transistor, and unimolecular transistor. Some devices have also been linked together to form circuits proficient of performing functions such as logic functions and basic memory. Some of the widely used materials in nanoelectronics include zero-dimensional materials like quantum dots; one-dimensional materials like nanotubes and nanowires; nanoclusters and nanocomposites; carbon-based materials like carbon nanotubes (CNTs), fullerenes and graphene; etc. Plastic C nanoelectronics is also a prominent research area with collaboration between the materials science, chemistry, physics, nanotechnology, and engineering communities. As one of the most promising contenders, C nanostructures, either 2D graphene or quasi-1D CNTs, have unlocked entirely new standpoints concerning the C-based electronics. This chapter focuses on the approaches of nanotechnology toward nanoelectronics, materials used in nanoelectronics and the applications of nanoelectronics related to carbon-based materials in the field of thin-film transistors, printed electronics (PE), artificial skin and muscle, wearable electronics, flexible gas sensors, multifunctional and responsive elastomers, and plastic solar panels

SYNTHESIS, CHARACTERIZATION AND ANTIMICROBIAL EVALUATION OF SOME 1, 2, 4-TRIAZOLE DERIVATIVES

Objectives: To synthesize, characterize and evaluate antimicrobial properties of some 1, 2, 4-triazole derivatives. Methods: A novel series of 1, 2, 4-Triazole derivatives (D-1-D-8) had been synthesized. Ethyl esters of benzoic and 4-substituted benzoic acids were synthesized using ethanol and conc. sulphuric acid. In the second step, hydrazides of these esters were prepared. This hydrazide was converted into potassium salt of dithiocarbazinate using carbon disulfide and potassium hydroxide which on cyclization formed compounds (D-1-D-2). Compound D-3 was formed by reacting D-1 with 4-methylbenzenesulfonyl chloride in dry pyridine. Compounds (D-4-D-8) were synthesized by mixing aqueous solution of 10% NaOH in different primary amines and then heating it with potassium salt of dithiocarbazinate. The structures of newly synthesized compounds were established on the basis of 1H NMR and Mass spectroscopic techniques. The newly synthesized compounds were screened for their in vitro antibacterial and antifungal activity. In vitro antibacterial and antifungal activity was evaluated by Disc Diffusion method. Ofloxacin and Clotrimazole were used as standard drug respectively. Results: The results revealed that compounds D-3 and D-4 exhibited good antibacterial activity and D-1 and D-2 had moderate antibacterial activity as compared with standard drug Ofloxacin, while compounds (D-5-D-8) exhibited moderate antifungal activity as compared to standard drug Clotrimazole. Conclusion: A novel series of 1, 2, 4-Triazole derivatives were synthesized and were obtained in good yields. Newly synthesized compounds were isolated and purified by thin layer chromatography and column chromatography respectively

Correction to: Studies on H2-Assisted Liquefied Petroleum Gas Reduction of NO over Ag/Al2O3 Catalyst

Correction to: Bulletin of Chemical Reaction Engineering & Catalysis (2018), 13 (2): 227-235 (doi:10.9767/bcrec.13.2.1307.227-235)An error appeared in Corresponding Author in a paper entitled “Studies on H2-Assisted Liquefied Petroleum Gas Reduction of NO over Ag/Al2O3 Catalyst” published in Bulletin of Chemical Reaction Engineering & Catalysis. The Corresponding Author is corrected to be:* Corresponding Authors. Tel: +919415268192. Email: [email protected] (R. Prasad) Tel: +917505072607. Email: [email protected] (D. Yadav)——————The original article can be found online at: https://doi.org/10.9767/bcrec.13.2.1307.227-235——————Copyright © 2020 by Authors, Published by BCREC Group. This is an open access article under the CC BY-SA License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0).How to Cite: Singh, P., Yadav, D., Thakur, P., Pandey, J., Prasad, R. (2020). Correction to: Studies on H2-Assisted Liquefied Petroleum Gas Reduction of NO over Ag/Al2O3 Catalyst. Bulletin of Chemical Reaction Engineering & Catalysis, 15 (2): 603-603 (doi:10.9767/bcrec.15.2.7659.603-603)Permalink/DOI: https://doi.org/10.9767/bcrec.15.2.7659.603-60

GroupMixNorm Layer for Learning Fair Models

Recent research has identified discriminatory behavior of automated prediction algorithms towards groups identified on specific protected attributes (e.g., gender, ethnicity, age group, etc.). When deployed in real-world scenarios, such techniques may demonstrate biased predictions resulting in unfair outcomes. Recent literature has witnessed algorithms for mitigating such biased behavior mostly by adding convex surrogates of fairness metrics such as demographic parity or equalized odds in the loss function, which are often not easy to estimate. This research proposes a novel in-processing based GroupMixNorm layer for mitigating bias from deep learning models. The GroupMixNorm layer probabilistically mixes group-level feature statistics of samples across different groups based on the protected attribute. The proposed method improves upon several fairness metrics with minimal impact on overall accuracy. Analysis on benchmark tabular and image datasets demonstrates the efficacy of the proposed method in achieving state-of-the-art performance. Further, the experimental analysis also suggests the robustness of the GroupMixNorm layer against new protected attributes during inference and its utility in eliminating bias from a pre-trained network.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures, Pacific-Asia Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (PAKDD) 202