Micromechanical models for textile structural composites

The objective is to develop micromechanical models for predicting the stiffness and strength properties of textile composite materials. Two models are presented to predict the homogeneous elastic constants and coefficients of thermal expansion of a textile composite. The first model is based on rigorous finite element analysis of the textile composite unit-cell. Periodic boundary conditions are enforced between opposite faces of the unit-cell to simulate deformations accurately. The second model implements the selective averaging method (SAM), which is based on a judicious combination of stiffness and compliance averaging. For thin textile composites, both models can predict the plate stiffness coefficients and plate thermal coefficients. The finite element procedure is extended to compute the thermal residual microstresses, and to estimate the initial failure envelope for textile composites

A Smart Baby Cradle

A small baby needs parents' attention for whole day and 7 days a week, which is impossible due to other priorities like house hold activities, official works and personal works. Day care centre or nanny is the two options available which involves lot of passion. We all live in a world where technologies are sournded all around us. The new generations of parents were raised up with this amazing technology. There are lots of things or items present on these earth that parents will buy to help them care for their baby (Cradle, Crib, Baby Monitor, etc.). So, there is a need for safe and secure place to take good care of the children2019;s need with minimum human intervention and care, which can be accomplished with the help of a 201C;Smart Baby Cradle201D;. A 201C;Smart Baby Cradle201D; provides parents a smart automatic cradle system which help these parents monitor and comfort the baby. The Smart Baby Cradle allows them to monitoring their babies, the cradle, play soothing music, even speak to the baby, observing the temperature of the infant, bed wet sensor which will caution the attendants for bunk wetting of the infant. The mother where so ever she is can have a look on the baby through camera inserted in the cradle. All the fittings are done through Arduino and PIR sensor. Additionally, we provide a predefined nutrition food chart to help baby remain healthy

Design and Perception of a Social Robot to Promote Hand Washing Among Children in a Rural Indian School

We introduce “Pepe”, a social robot for encouraging proper handwashing behaviour among children. We discuss the motivation, the robot design and a pilot study conducted at a primary school located in the Western Ghats mountain ranges of Southern India with a significant presence of indigenous tribes. The study included individual & group interviews with a randomly selected sample of 45 children to gauge their perception of the Pepe robot across various dimensions including gender, animacy & technology acceptance. We also discuss some HRI implications for running user studies with rural children

Influencing Hand-washing Behaviour with a Social Robot: HRI Study with School Children in Rural India

The work presented in this paper reports the influence of a social robot on hand washing behaviour on school children in rural India with a significant presence of indigenous tribes. We describe the design choices of our social robot to cater the requirements of the intervention. The custom built wall mounted social robot encouraged 100 children to wash their hand at appropriate time (before meal and after toilet) using the correct handwashing technique via a poster on a wall. The results indicate that the intervention using the robot was found to be effective (40% rise) at increasing levels of hand washing with soap and with a better handwashing technique in ecologically valid settings

A Broadband Meta surface Based MIMO Antenna with High Gain and Isolation For 5G Millimeter Wave Applications

This paper proposes a Broadband Meta surface-based MIMO Antenna with High Gain and Isolation For 5G Millimeter applications. A single antenna is transformed into an array configuration to improve gain. As a result, each MIMO antenna is made up of a 1x2 element array supplied by a concurrent feedline. A 9x6 Split Ring Resonator (SRR) elongated cell is stacked above the antenna to improve gain and eliminate the coupling effects between the MIMO components. The substrate Rogers 5880 with a thickness of 0.787mm and 1.6mm is used for the antenna and meta surface. Furthermore, antenna performance is assessed using S-parameters, MIMO characteristics, and radiation patterns. The final designed antenna supports 5G applications by embracing the mm-wave frequency spectrum at Ka-band, there is a noticeable increase in gain. In addition, once the meta surface is introduced, there is an improvement in isolation.&nbsp

Efficacy and safety of once-daily nevirapine- or efavirenz-based antiretroviral therapy in HIV-associated tuberculosis: a randomized clinical trial

Background: Nevirapine (NVP) can be safely and effectively administered once-daily but has not been assessed in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)–infected patients with tuberculosis (TB). We studied the safety and efficacy of once-daily NVP, compared with efavirenz (EFV; standard therapy); both drugs were administered in combination with 2 nucleoside reverse-transcriptase inhibitors. Methods: An open-label, noninferiority, randomized controlled clinical trial was conducted at 3 sites in southern India. HIV-infected patients with TB were treated with a standard short-course anti-TB regimen (2EHRZ3/4RH3; [2 months of Ethambutol, Isoniazid, Rifampicin, Pyrazinamide/4 months of Isoniazid and Rifampicin] thrice weekly) and randomized to receive once-daily EFV at a dose of 600 mg or NVP at a dose of 400 mg (after 14 days of 200 mg administered once daily) with didanosine 250/400 mg and lamivudine 300 mg after 2 months. Sputum smears and mycobacterial cultures were performed every month. CD4+ cell count, viral load, and liver function test results were monitored periodically. Primary outcome was a composite of death, virological failure, default, or serious adverse event (SAE) at 24 weeks. Both intent-to-treat and per protocol analyses were done, and planned interim analyses were performed. Results: A total of 116 patients (75% [87 patients] of whom had pulmonary TB), with a mean age of 36 years, a median CD4+ cell count of 84 cells/mm3, and a median viral load of 310?000 copies/mL, were randomized. At 24 weeks, 50 of 59 patients in the EFV group and 37 of 57 patients in the NVP group had virological suppression (P = .024). There were no deaths, 1 SAE, and 5 treatment failures in the EFV arm, compared with 5 deaths, 2 SAEs, and 10 treatment failures in the NVP arm. The trial was halted by the data and safety monitoring board at the second interim analysis. Favorable TB treatment outcomes were observed in 93% of the patients in the EFV arm and 84% of the patients in the NVP arm (P = .058). Conclusions: Compared with a regimen of didanosine, lamivudine, and EFV, a regimen of once-daily didanosine, lamivudine, and NVP was inferior and was associated with more frequent virologic failure and death

Acquired rifampicin resistance in thrice-weekly antituberculosis therapy: impact of HIV and antiretroviral therapy

Risk factors for acquired rifampicin resistance (ARR) among tuberculosis patients on thrice-weekly antituberculosis therapy were baseline isoniazid resistance and HIV. Among HIV-infected patients, higher mycobacterial burden and lower CD4 count, but not highly active antiretroviral therapy, were significantly associated with ARR. Background: Risk factors for acquired rifampicin resistance (ARR) in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/tuberculosis coinfection, in the highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) era, needs evaluation. We studied the impact of HIV and HAART on ARR among patients taking thrice-weekly antituberculosis therapy. Methods: This cross-protocol analysis included patients with newly diagnosed, rifampicin-susceptible pulmonary tuberculosis, with and without HIV, enrolled in clinical trials (who took >80% of medication) at the National Institute for Research in Tuberculosis between 1999 and 2013. All patients received rifampicin and isoniazid for 6 months reinforced with pyrazinamide and ethambutol in the first 2 months, given thrice-weekly throughout the study along with HAART in one of the groups. Outcomes were categorized and multivariate logistic regression analysis performed to identify risk factors for ARR. Results: The per-protocol results included patients with tuberculosis: 246 HIV-uninfected patients (HIV–TB+), 212 HIV patients not on HAART (non-HAART), and 116 HIV-infected patients on HAART. Median CD4 counts of the latter 2 groups were 150 and 93 cells/μL, respectively, and the median viral loads were 147 000 and 266 000 copies/mL, respectively. Compared with HIV–TB+, the relative risks (RRs) for an unfavorable response in the coinfected, non-HAART and HAART groups were 2.1 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.7–14.8; P<.0001) and 2.1 (95% CI, .9–5.2; P=.3), whereas for ARR, the RRs were 21.1 (95% CI, 2.6–184; P<.001) and 8.2 (95% CI, .6–104; P=.07), respectively. Conclusions: HIV-infected patients with tuberculosis treated with a thrice-weekly antituberculosis regimen are at a higher risk of ARR, compared with HIV-uninfected patients, in the presence of baseline isoniazid resistance. HAART reduces but does not eliminate the risk of ARR