Computer Aided Design of MIC layouts with Postprocessor for Photoplotter

A PC-based computer-aided design (CAD) package for designing microwave integrated circuit (MIC) printed circuit board (PCB) layout, called microwave artwork postprocessor for photoplotter (MAPP), is developed. The small size of MIC PCBs makes them suitable for defence applications. MAPP has a postprocessor which converts the MIC layout data to a format acceptable as input to a Gerber photoplotter. Photomask of the PCB is obtained from the photoplotter. This paper presents the methodology for the CAD of MIC layouts and also discusses the algorithm for filling of a general polygon with curved edges, and which lies in the real domain. This algorithm is used in the postprocessor for a photoplotter

Zero Crossing Edge Detection and Contour Tracing for Segmentation of Cervical Cell Nucleus .

To automate the process of screening of normal and abnormal cervical cells, there is a need for automatic segmentation of the nucleus of these cells. This paper presents an algorithm using the Laplacian of Gaussian operator and contour tracer to segment the nucleus from the background. The algorithm has been tested on different kinds of images of cervical cells

Cloud enabled 3D tablet design for medical applications

The prime objective of any technological innovation is to improve the life of people. Technological innovation in the field of medical devices directly touches the lives of millions of people; not just patients but doctors and other technicians as well. Serving these care givers is serving humanity. Growth of Mobil Devices and Cloud Computing has changed the way we live and work. We try to bring the benefits of these technological innovations to the medical field via equipment which can improve the working efficiencies and capabilities of the medical professionals and technicians. The improvements in the camera and image processing capabilities of the Mobile Devices coupled with their improved processing power and an infinite processing and storage offered by Cloud Computing infrastructure opens up a window of opportunity to use them in the specialized field like microsurgery. To enable microsurgery, surgeons use optical microscope to zoom into the working area to get better visibility and control. However, these devices suffer from various drawbacks and are not comfortable to use. We build a Tablet with large stereoscopic screen allowing glasses free 3D display enabled by cameras capable of capturing 3D video and enhanced by an image processing pipeline, greatly improves the visibility and viewing comfort of the surgeon. Moreover using the capabilities of Cloud computing, these surgeries can be recorded and streamed live for education, training and consultation. An expert sitting in a geographically remote location can guide the surgeon performing the surgery. All vital parameters of the patient undergoing surgery can be shown as an overlay on the Tablet screen so that the surgeon is alerted of any parameter going beyond limit. Developing this kind of complex device involves engineering skills in hardware and software and huge amount of investments in terms of time, resources and money. To accelerate the development, we make use of open source hardware and software and demonstrate how we can accelerate the development using these open source resources

The G-O Rule and Waldmeier Effect in the Variations of the Numbers of Large and Small Sunspot Groups

We have analysed the combined Greenwich and Solar Optical Observing Network (SOON) sunspot group data during the period of 1874-2011 and determined variations in the annual numbers (counts) of the small, large and big sunspot groups (these classifications are made on the basis of the maximum areas of the sunspot groups). We found that the amplitude of an even-numbered cycle of the number of large groups is smaller than that of its immediately following odd-numbered cycle. This is consistent with the well known Gnevyshev and Ohl rule or G-O rule of solar cycles, generally described by using the Zurich sunspot number (Rz). During cycles 12-21 the G-O rule holds good for the variation in the number of small groups also, but it is violated by cycle pair (22, 23) as in the case of Rz. This behaviour of the variations in the small groups is largely responsible for the anomalous behaviour of Rz in cycle pair (22, 23). It is also found that the amplitude of an odd-numbered cycle of the number of small groups is larger than that of its immediately following even-numbered cycle. This can be called as `reverse G-O rule'. In the case of the number of the big groups, both cycle pairs (12, 13) and (22, 23) violated the G-O rule. In many cycles the positions of the peaks of the small, large, and big groups are different and considerably differ with respect to the corresponding positions of the Rz peaks. In the case of cycle 23, the corresponding cycles of the small and large groups are largely symmetric/less asymmetric (Waldmeier effect is weak/absent) with their maxima taking place two years later than that of Rz. The corresponding cycle of the big groups is more asymmetric (strong Waldmeier effect) with its maximum epoch taking place at the same time as that of Rz.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures, 1 table, accepted by Solar Physic

Significance of 18S rDNA specific primers in the identification of genus Dunaliella

The cells survive in extreme marine environments has received significant interest due to their high valuable compounds. In the present attempt, a total of six different isolates of Dunaliella isolated from the salt pans of Andhra Pradesh, India were identified based on their morphology and cultural characteristics. Besides, the isolates were subjected to molecular identification using 18S rDNA specific primers. Out of the six isolate one was never amplified with the any of species specific primers used hence it was partially sequenced and submitted in GenBank. This study obviously describes the incidence of non carotenogenic strains (never turn from green to red) of Dunaliella bardawil and Dunaliella parva in natural environment

Low-Power and Area-Efficient Carry Select Adder

Carry Select Adder (CSLA) is one of the fastest adders used in many data-processing processors to perform fast arithmetic functions. From the structure of the CSLA, it is clear that there is scope for reducing the area and power consumption in the CSLA. This work uses a simple and efficient gate-level modification to significantly reduce the area and power of the CSLA. Based on this modification 8-, 16-, 32-, and 64-b square-root CSLA (SQRT CSLA) architecture have been developed and compared with the regular SQRT CSLA architecture. The proposed design has reduced area and power as compared with the regular SQRT CSLA with only a slight increase in the delay. This work evaluates the performance of the proposed designs in terms of delay, area, power, and their products by hand with logical effort and through custom design and layout in CMOS process technology. The results analysis shows that the proposed CSLA structure takes only 30.385 ns which is better than the regular SQRT CSLA

Short-term non-convex economic hydrothermal scheduling using dynamically controlled particle swarm optimization

Paper presented to the 3rd Southern African Solar Energy Conference, South Africa, 11-13 May, 2015.The aim of this paper is to present short-term hydrothermal scheduling (STHS) of power system. This problem is solved in such a way that utilizes available hydro reserves optimally and thus minimizes the fuel cost of thermal plants. A PSO based method is developed which can efficiently deals with hydro constraints like reservoir storage volume limits, water discharge rate limits, water dynamic balance, initial and final reservoir storage volume limits, etc. for a given time horizon. The operators of the PSO are dynamically controlled. Moreover, the cognitive and social behaviors of the swarm are modified for better exploration and exploitation of the search space. The effectiveness of the proposed method has been investigated on a standard test generating system considering several operational constraints pertaining to hydrothermal systems.dc201

Nitrogen - grasping the challenge. A manifesto for science-in-action through the International Nitrogen Management System. Summary report

Report published by Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Edinburgh, UK on behalf of the International Nitrogen Management System (INMS). Freely available to download from the Official link

Risk profiles and one-year outcomes of patients with newly diagnosed atrial fibrillation in India: Insights from the GARFIELD-AF Registry.

BACKGROUND: The Global Anticoagulant Registry in the FIELD-Atrial Fibrillation (GARFIELD-AF) is an ongoing prospective noninterventional registry, which is providing important information on the baseline characteristics, treatment patterns, and 1-year outcomes in patients with newly diagnosed non-valvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF). This report describes data from Indian patients recruited in this registry. METHODS AND RESULTS: A total of 52,014 patients with newly diagnosed AF were enrolled globally; of these, 1388 patients were recruited from 26 sites within India (2012-2016). In India, the mean age was 65.8 years at diagnosis of NVAF. Hypertension was the most prevalent risk factor for AF, present in 68.5% of patients from India and in 76.3% of patients globally (P < 0.001). Diabetes and coronary artery disease (CAD) were prevalent in 36.2% and 28.1% of patients as compared with global prevalence of 22.2% and 21.6%, respectively (P < 0.001 for both). Antiplatelet therapy was the most common antithrombotic treatment in India. With increasing stroke risk, however, patients were more likely to receive oral anticoagulant therapy [mainly vitamin K antagonist (VKA)], but average international normalized ratio (INR) was lower among Indian patients [median INR value 1.6 (interquartile range {IQR}: 1.3-2.3) versus 2.3 (IQR 1.8-2.8) (P < 0.001)]. Compared with other countries, patients from India had markedly higher rates of all-cause mortality [7.68 per 100 person-years (95% confidence interval 6.32-9.35) vs 4.34 (4.16-4.53), P < 0.0001], while rates of stroke/systemic embolism and major bleeding were lower after 1 year of follow-up. CONCLUSION: Compared to previously published registries from India, the GARFIELD-AF registry describes clinical profiles and outcomes in Indian patients with AF of a different etiology. The registry data show that compared to the rest of the world, Indian AF patients are younger in age and have more diabetes and CAD. Patients with a higher stroke risk are more likely to receive anticoagulation therapy with VKA but are underdosed compared with the global average in the GARFIELD-AF. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION-URL: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT01090362