Calling the good men of Mali #WomensRights

As the rights of Malian women look set to be further eroded, LSE’s Dr Purna Sen reminds the good men of Mali of the essential role women can play in the social and economic development of the country

Effect of yoga on bronchial asthma

Introduction-Asthma is a disease affecting the lungs causing airway obstruction, dyspnoea and cough with restlessness. Patients use multiple medications to control their symptoms but still, they are not relieved. Yoga has been used as a complementary therapy but many people fail to use it because of difficulty in performing it. This study was done with the aim to use four simple yoga exercises to find if any reduction in symptoms and benefits to the patients.  Material & Method- 80 asthmatic patients were selected and placed randomly into two groups, the Case Group and Control group, with 40 subjects in each. The baseline Pulmonary Function Tests(PFT) parameters like Forced Expiratory Volume in 1 second(FEV1), Forced Vital Capacity(FVC), FEV1/FVC and Peak Expiratory Flow Rate(PEFR) are measured in both the groups. Also, the Absolute Eosinophil Count(AEC) was measured in all participants. The number of patients suffering from acute exacerbation was counted and noted in each group. Then the Case Group participants were asked to perform Yoga for 4 months under the supervision of a Yoga Instructor. The Control Group was asked to take medicine as before and report after 4 months.&nbsp

Pool Boiling Amelioration by Aqueous Dispersion of Silica Nanoparticles

Non-metallic oxide nanofluids have recently attracted interest in pool boiling heat transfer (PBHT) studies. Research work on carbon and silica-based nanofluids is now being reported frequently by scholars. The majority of these research studies showed improvement in PBHT performance. The present study reports an investigation on the PBHT characteristics and performance of water-based silica nanofluids in the nucleate boiling region. Sonication-aided stable silica nanofluids with 0.0001, 0.001, 0.01, and 0.1 particle concentrations were prepared. The stability of nanofluids was detected and confirmed via visible light absorbance and zeta potential analyses. The PBHT performance of nanofluids was examined in a customized boiling pool with a flat heating surface. The boiling characteristics, pool boiling heat transfer coefficient (PBHTC), and critical heat flux (CHF) were analyzed. The effects of surface wettability, contact angle, and surface roughness on heat transfer performance were investigated. Bubble diameter and bubble departure frequency were estimated using experimental results. PBHTC and CHF of water have shown an increase due to the nanoparticle inclusion, where they have reached a maximum improvement of ≈1.33 times over that of the base fluid. The surface wettability of nanofluids was also enhanced due to a decrease in boiling surface contact angle from 74.1° to 48.5°. The roughness of the boiling surface was reduced up to 1.5 times compared to the base fluid, which was due to the nanoparticle deposition on the boiling surface. Such deposition reduces the active nucleation sites and increases the thermal resistance between the boiling surface and bulk fluid layer. The presence of the dispersed nanoparticles caused a lower bubble departure frequency by 2.17% and an increase in bubble diameter by 4.48%, which vigorously affects the pool boiling performance

sj-docx-1-pie-10.1177_09544089221128472 - Supplemental material for Thermophysical and transient heat transfer characteristics of aqueous SiO₂ nanofluid in energy management applications

Supplemental material, sj-docx-1-pie-10.1177_09544089221128472 for Thermophysical and transient heat transfer characteristics of aqueous SiO2 nanofluid in energy management applications by Sayantan Mukherjee, Smita Rani Panda, Purna Chandra Mishra, Swarnendu Sen and Paritosh Chaudhuri in Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part E: Journal of Process Mechanical Engineering</p