Mass sensing using an amorphous silicon MEMS resonator

Bilayer micro-bridge resonators of amorphous silicon and titanium were fabricated on a glass substrate at 100°C by surface micromachining using an aluminum sacrificial layer. Au square patterns with sub-micrometer dimensions were patterned on top of the microresonators. These Au squares allowed specific immobilization of thiolated single strand DNA probe oligonucleotides. The frequency response of the electrostatically-actuated resonators was measured optically. The mass loading effect of the Au squares and of the immobilized ssDNA probes were determined by the shift in the resonance frequency of the micro-bridge resonators

Tracking and Recognition: A Unified Approach on Tracking and Recognition

This paper proposes a unified approach on tracking and recognition .Object tracking is done at low level and recognition is done at high level. Traditional tracking methods give importance to low level image correspondences between frames. High level image correspondences are used for reliable tracking. Online and Offline models are used for both tracking and recognition which is done simultaneously. Thus high level offline model is combined with low level online model to increase the tracking performance. Onine model used for tracking is given to the video based recognition and at same time offline model plays important role to recognize the category of the object. This method is useful to handle difficult scenarios like abrupt change, background clutter, pose variations, occlusion and morphable objects. This is based on study of different IEEE papers

Piecewise Linear and Nonlinear Window Functions for Modelling of Nanostructured Memristor Device

The present paper reports two new window functions viz. piecewise linear window function and nonlinear window function for modelling of the nanostructured memristor device. The piecewise linear window function can be used for modelling of symmetric pinched hysteresis loop in I-V plane (for digital memory applications) and the nonlinear window function can be used for modelling of nonlinear pinched hysteresis loop in I-V plane (for analog memory applications). Flexibility in the parameter selection is the main attractive feature of these window functions

Piecewise Linear and Nonlinear Window Functions for Modelling of Nanostructured Memristor Device

The present paper reports two new window functions viz. piecewise linear window function and nonlinear window function for modelling of the nanostructured memristor device. The piecewise linear window function can be used for modelling of symmetric pinched hysteresis loop in I-V plane (for digital memory applications) and the nonlinear window function can be used for modelling of nonlinear pinched hysteresis loop in I-V plane (for analog memory applications). Flexibility in the parameter selection is the main attractive feature of these window functions

Performance Measurement of Huffman Coding based Improved SPIHT Image compression AlgorithmÂ

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Recent Advances in Pigeonpea [Cajanus cajan (l.) Millspaugh) Research

Pigeonpea or red gram [Cajanus cajan (L.) Millspaugh] is an important food legume of the semi-arid tropics of Asia and Africa. It occupies a prime niche in sustainable farming systems of smallholder rainfed farmers. It occupies a prominent place in Indian rainfed agriculture. It is an integral component in various agro ecologies of the country mainly inter cropped with cereals, pulses, oilseeds and millets. It is the second most important pulse crop next to chickpea, covering an area of around 4.42 m ha (occupying about 14.5% of area under pulses) and production of 2.86 MT (contributing to 16% of total pulse production) and productivity of about 707 kg/ha. It is mainly consumed as dry split dhal throughout the country besides several other uses of various parts of pigeonpea plant. Enhancing the productivity of the crop assumes specific significance in India mainly to combat protein malnutrition as it is the main source of protein to the predominant vegetarian population. The productivity of pigeonpea has remained low and stagnant over the last few decades thus this prompted scientists to search for novel ways of crop improvement. To tackle this challenge, ICRISAT and IIPR are working on number of innovative ideas like, genome sequencing (Varshney et al. 2012), development of CGMS hybrids with 30 to 40 % yield advantage over traditional varieties, development of photo insensitive super early maturing lines, introgression of cleistogamous flower structure to maintain genetic purity of elite lines, use of obcordate leaf shape as NEP to assess genetic purity of hybrid parental lines and development of disease resistant hybrids and elite breeding lines. These aspects are described briefly below

Assessment of Sodium Cyanide Toxicity on Freshwater Teleosts

Short term definitive tests by static renewal bioassay method were conducted to determine the toxicity of sodium cyanide on freshwater teleosts, Catla catla, Labeo rohita, Cirrhinus mrigala, Cyprinus carpio and Oreochromis mossambicus. Fishes were exposed to various concentrations of sodium cyanide for 96 h and the mortalities were recorded. The acute toxicity (LC50) of sodium cyanide calculated over 96 h period for C. catla, L. rohita, C. mrigala C. carpio and O.  mossambicus was found to be 0.11 mg/L, 0.19 mg/L, 0.33 mg/L, 1 mg/L and 0.420 mg/L, respectively. Behavioural patterns were observed in lethal (1, 2, 3 and 4 d) concentration. Some of the common behavioural changes exhibited by teleosts in toxic media include hyperexcitability, erratic and darting movements with imbalanced swimming activity, which might be due to inhibition of cytochrome c oxidase activity and decreased blood pH. The combination of cytotoxic hypoxia with lactate acidosis depresses the central nervous system and myocardium, which are the most sensitive critical sites for anoxia, resulting in respiratory arrest and death

PRIL_A, PRIL_B and PRIL_C: Pigeonpea Recombinant Inbred Line Mapping Populations Segregating for Resistance to Fusarium Wilt and Sterility Mosaic Disease

Pigeonpea [Cajanus cajan (L) Millsp] bi-parental populations segregating for various traits of interest are being developed. The three most advanced populations, named PRIL_A, PRIL_B and PRIL_C (Pigeonpea Recombinant Inbred Line, population A, B and C) have reached F6 generation. PRIL_A: derived from the cross ICPB 2049 x ICPL 99050 segregates for fusarium wilt (FW), 329 lines. PRIL_B: derived from the cross ICPL 20096 x ICPL 332 segregates for FW and sterility mosaic disease (SMD), 342 lines. PRIL_C: derived from the cross ICPL 20097 × ICP 8863 segregates for SMD, 366 lines. Marker genotyping of the parental lines, however, showed low level of genetic variation. After screening over 4,616 (3,000 simple sequence repeats (SSRs) and 1,616 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNPs)) markers on parental genotypes of each mapping population, a total of 159 (104 SSRs and 55 SNPs), 80 (52 SSRs and 28 SNPs) and 157 (143 SSRs and 14 SNPs) markers were found polymorphic for ICPB 2049 vs ICPL 99050, ICPL 20096 vs ICPL 332 and ICPL 20097 vs ICP 8863, respectively. The polymorphic markers will be used for constructing genetic linkage maps. The populations will be screened for FW and SMD in 2012-13, while marker-trait association analysis will also be conducted to understand the genetic basis of resistance to these diseases. Further selection from the above indicated mapping populations during 2011-12, on an effort initiated in 2010, resulted in 28 lines with high yield (up to 2.4 t/ha) and disease resistanc

Pigeonpea - A unique jewel in rainfed cropping systems

Pigeonpea is a crop for rainfed environments endowed with several features to thrive harsh climate. It adapts well in sole crop and inter cropped conditions (with cereals, millets, oils seeds and pulses) by enhancing the system productivity and net income to the small and marginal farmers across the globe. The range of maturity duration in the crop allows it to grow in diversified cropping systems and patterns in varied ecoregions of the world. Development of cytoplasmic male sterility based hybrids provided an opportunity for enhancing the yields under marginal environments. With recent interventions in addressing the photo sensitivity and maturity have led to evolving super early varieties with less than 100 days duration, provided a scope for horizontal expansion of the crop in different agro ecological systems