Evaluation of brightness temperature from a forward model of ground-based microwave radiometer

Ground-based microwave radiometers are getting great attention in recent years due to their capability to profile the temperature and humidity at high temporal and vertical resolution in the lower troposphere. The process of retrieving these parameters from the measurements of radiometric brightness temperature (TB) includes the inversion algorithm, which uses the background information from a forward model. In the present study, an algorithm development and evaluation of this forward model for a ground-based microwave radiometer, being developed by Society for Applied Microwave Electronics Engineering and Research (SAMEER) of India, is presented. Initially, the analysis of absorption coefficient and weighting function at different frequencies was made to select the channels. Further the range of variation of TB for these selected channels for the year 2011, over the two stations Mumbai and Delhi is discussed. Finally the comparison between forward-model simulated TBs and radiometer measured TBs at Mahabaleshwar (73.66°E and 17.93°N) is done to evaluate the model. There is good agreement between model simulations and radiometer observations, which suggests that these forward model simulations can be used as background for inversion models for retrieving the temperature and humidity profiles

GLOBAL PRACTICES TO PROMOTE FINANCIAL INCLUSION

There have been a number of objectives linked to the necessity of financial inclusion. The deprived man's financial status does not make him a creditable customer of the bank. However, the poor man requires credit as much for his business in order to fulfill emergencies. Economic development in all the segments of the society paves way to a decline of disparities with regard to earnings and savings, the financial inclusion can act as a roar for the weak and upcoming countries. This allows the underprivileged to earn and save money, and provide them the chance to go for regular income, which would inevitably lead those to the bank as credit-valuable borrowers. Hence, financial inclusion must need for comprehensive growth. Globally, attempts are made to observe the barriers of financial inclusion and planning of policies to assure access of formal financial services to destitute and needy. The causes might differ from nation to nation and thus the policy may perhaps differ, however all attempts are being done as financial inclusion rightly uplift economic condition and values of life of destitute and needy. The financial inclusion policies made by various countries are discussed in the paper

Feeding stimulatory effects of Cyperus rotundus tuber on Cirrhinus mrigala

Traditionally tubers of cyperus (Cyperus rotundus) and its extracts have been used for alluring fish during harvesting in India. An experiment was conducted to evaluate its feeding stimulatory activity and effect on the growth of a commercially important freshwater fish, Cirrhinus mrigala. Three isonitrogenous and isocaloric formulated diets viz. plant ingredient based control and control supplemented with cyperus tuber (CS) at 1% and 5% levels were fed to the fingerlings of mrigal, C. mrigala (2.68+0.20 g) for a period of 45 days. The growth performance and the activity of metabolic enzymes, aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and alanine aminotransferase (ALT), in liver, gill and muscle tissues of mrigal were studied during every 15 days interval. Highest relative growth (72.28%) was obtained in the mrigal fed with the diet containing 5% cyperus (5% CS), while the relative growths were 66.18% and 43.40% for the fish fed with the 1% CS diet and control respectively. The activities of AST and ALT were significantly higher (p<0.01) in both 1% and 5% CS diets as compared to the control in all the tissues studied. Higher aminotransferase activities were observed in the tissues of 5% CS group than in those of 1% CS group throughout the experimental period. The observed higher enzymatic activity was concomitant with the higher growth rate in fish. The results suggested that cyperus tuber supplementation increased feed palatability and growth

4-[(4-Methyl­benz­yl)amino]-3-[(4-methyl­benz­yl)imino­meth­yl]-2H-chromen-2-one

The title compound, C26H24N2O2, was prepared from the reaction of 4-chloro-3-formyl­coumarin with p-methyl­benzyl­amine. Even though there are no strong and specific inter­actions in the crystal structure, the translationally related mol­ecules form chains along the b axis. The coumarin moieties are stacked through π–π inter­actions [centroid–centroid distance = 3.5275 (7) Å], forming layers perpendicular to the stacking direction

A Reverse Phase HPLC Method Development and Validation for the Determination of Paliperidone in Pure and Dosage Forms

Abstract: A simple reverse phase HPLC method was developed and validated for the assay of paliperidone in pure and tablets. The analysis was carried out on Shimadzu HPLC model equipped with inertsil ODS C-18 column, LC-10AT pump, variable wavelength programmable UV-Detector SPD-10AVP and rheodyne injector with 20µL fixed loop. Acetonitrile and methanol in the ratio 10:90 v/v at a flow rate of 1.0 mL/min was employed for elution and the components were detected at 235 nm at ambient temperature. The method was validated as per the ICH guidelines. The retention time for paliperidone was found to be 5.67 min. Linearity was observed in the concentration range of 20-120 ppm with correlation coefficient 0.9990. The percent of relative standard deviation of six replicate measurements was found to be 1.25 indicate that the proposed method was precise. Recovery studies were conducted at three different concentration levels within the linearity limits and the average percent of recovery was 99.56. The amount of paliperidone drug content present in tablet dosage form was determined and found to be 99.80%. Therefore, the developed method was simple, precise and accurate and can be successfully applied for the estimation of paliperidone in pharmaceutical dosage form

Theories of Ultrasonic Velocities and their Application in Binary Liquid Mixtures of N-Ethylaniline with Some Toluenes (Toluene, o-Nitrotoluene and m-Nitrotoluene)

Abstract: Ultrasonic velocities and densities of the binary liquid mixtures of N-ethyl aniline with different toluenes like toluene, o-nitrotoluene and m-nitrotoluene have been measured at temperatures 303.15 and 308.15 K over the entire composition range. Various theories of ultrasonic velocity were applied to experimental values in evaluating the velocities using Nomoto&apos;s relation (U NR ), Impedence relation (U IR ), Ideal mixing relation (U IMR ), Jungie&apos;s relation (U JR )and Rao&apos;s specific velocity relation (U R ). The molecular interaction parameter (χ) has been evaluated from the values of experimental and theoretical velocities. The variation of this interaction parameter with the composition mixture has been discussed in terms of molecular interactions

New Samarium and Neodymium based admixed ferromagnets with near zero net magnetization and tunable exchange bias field

Rare earth based intermetallics, SmScGe and NdScGe, are shown to exhibit near zero net magnetization with substitutions of 6 to 9 atomic percent of Nd and 25 atomic percent of Gd, respectively. The notion of magnetic compensation in them is also elucidated by the crossover of zero magnetization axis at low magnetic fields (less than 103 Oe) and field-induced reversal in the orientation of the magnetic moments of the dissimilar rare earth ions at higher magnetic fields. These magnetically ordered materials with no net magnetization and appreciable conduction electron polarization display an attribute of an exchange bias field, which can be tuned. The attractively high magnetic ordering temperatures of about 270 K, underscore the importance of these materials for potential applications in spintronics.Comment: 6 page text + 5 figure

An overview of recent developments in the analytical detection of new psychoactive substances (NPSs)

New psychoactive substances (NPSs), sometimes referred to as “legal highs” in more colloquial environments/ the media, are a class of compounds that have been recently made available for abuse (not necessarily recently discovered) which provide similar effects to the traditional well studied illegal drugs but are not always controlled under existing local, regional or international drug legislation. Following an unprecedented increase in the number of NPSs in the last 5 years (with 101 substances discovered for the first time in 2014 alone) its, occasionally fatal, consequences have been extensively reported in the media. Such NPSs are typically marketed as ‘not for human consumption’ and are instead labelled and sold as plant food, bath salts as well as a whole host of other equally nondescript aliases in order to bypass legislative controls. NPSs are a new multi-disciplinary research field with the main emphasis in terms of forensic identification due to their adverse health effects, which can range from minimal to life threatening and even fatalities. In this mini-review we overview this recent emerging research area of NPSs and the analytical approaches reported to provide detection strategies as well as detailing recent reports towards providing point-of-care/in-the-field NPS (“legal high”) sensors

Performance of non-invasive tests and histology for the prediction of clinical outcomes in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease: an individual participant data meta-analysis

BackgroundHistologically assessed liver fibrosis stage has prognostic significance in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and is accepted as a surrogate endpoint in clinical trials for non-cirrhotic NAFLD. Our aim was to compare the prognostic performance of non-invasive tests with liver histology in patients with NAFLD.MethodsThis was an individual participant data meta-analysis of the prognostic performance of histologically assessed fibrosis stage (F0–4), liver stiffness measured by vibration-controlled transient elastography (LSM-VCTE), fibrosis-4 index (FIB-4), and NAFLD fibrosis score (NFS) in patients with NAFLD. The literature was searched for a previously published systematic review on the diagnostic accuracy of imaging and simple non-invasive tests and updated to Jan 12, 2022 for this study. Studies were identified through PubMed/MEDLINE, EMBASE, and CENTRAL, and authors were contacted for individual participant data, including outcome data, with a minimum of 12 months of follow-up. The primary outcome was a composite endpoint of all-cause mortality, hepatocellular carcinoma, liver transplantation, or cirrhosis complications (ie, ascites, variceal bleeding, hepatic encephalopathy, or progression to a MELD score ≥15). We calculated aggregated survival curves for trichotomised groups and compared them using stratified log-rank tests (histology: F0–2 vs F3 vs F4; LSM: 2·67; NFS: 0·676), calculated areas under the time-dependent receiver operating characteristic curves (tAUC), and performed Cox proportional-hazards regression to adjust for confounding. This study was registered with PROSPERO, CRD42022312226.FindingsOf 65 eligible studies, we included data on 2518 patients with biopsy-proven NAFLD from 25 studies (1126 [44·7%] were female, median age was 54 years [IQR 44–63), and 1161 [46·1%] had type 2 diabetes). After a median follow-up of 57 months [IQR 33–91], the composite endpoint was observed in 145 (5·8%) patients. Stratified log-rank tests showed significant differences between the trichotomised patient groups (p<0·0001 for all comparisons). The tAUC at 5 years were 0·72 (95% CI 0·62–0·81) for histology, 0·76 (0·70–0·83) for LSM-VCTE, 0·74 (0·64–0·82) for FIB-4, and 0·70 (0·63–0·80) for NFS. All index tests were significant predictors of the primary outcome after adjustment for confounders in the Cox regression.InterpretationSimple non-invasive tests performed as well as histologically assessed fibrosis in predicting clinical outcomes in patients with NAFLD and could be considered as alternatives to liver biopsy in some cases