A systems approach to sustainability in space

Man has been fascinated by space since the beginning of civilization. There have been major advancements made in this field over many years. But if history has been witness to anything, it is that, for every advancement we’ve made, we’ve left something behind. Space missions over the past many decades have left behind over 7500 tonnes of debris in orbit. But it is still a problem which is out of sight, hence out of mind. There are millions of objects in space, most of which are too small to be able to track. Recent trends show that the number of launches are increasing each year. Thus, the amount of debris is only going to increase. This problem is a complex one since space is a global resource, and there is no central authority to keep a check on it. Satellites play such an important role in all aspects of our lives, that a threat to them is a threat to our current way of life. Over the years, there have been inter country disputes, increased tensions and unchecked misuse of space. The president of United States recently announced that Space is a place for war. If this problem is to be solved, there has to be cooperation at a global scale. Major policy changes and space laws need to be implemented in this field, along with co-operation on a large scale. Fifty years back, everyone was dumping plastic into the oceans, thinking that they were so large that a few bottles won’t make a difference. Now, there are huge islands of ocean plastic floating in the Pacific. Space debris is very similar to this problem, and we are at the advantage of not having gone too far yet. As designers, we may not have all the answers, but we can ask the right questions. Systems thinking allows us to associate seemingly unrelated aspects of the problem, and connect people from different fields. We have the advantage of looking at the entire picture in a holistic and unbiased way. A problem as complex as this needs intervention at multiple levels. It is a problem that is going to have major repercussions in the coming years, and needs foresight, which we attempt to add through this project. Through this project, we are expanding the boundaries of design. Design thinking is rarely used in the space industry and employing it on a system level is what is needed to solve the problem of space debris. As part of the project, we met with professionals, engineering students, policy makers, academicians and researchers. We organised co-creation workshops with school kids as well as scientists at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). Dividing the scientists into groups based on temporal scenarios, such as ‘past’, ‘present’ and ‘future’, we came up with diverse solutions. We drew connections at each stage. We translated the raw ideas that kids came up with to tackle space debris into feasible solutions, using scientists’ expertise. We collated data from multiple primary, first hand sources and used it to come up with solutions. Due to the importance of policies in solving a problem as huge as space debris, we developed a first draft of a national policy for space debris. The policy lays down the guidelines to be followed by any space agency operating within the country. It also proposes maintaining a registry of space objects in orbit. It suggests a method to carry out threat assessment of a particular space debris. We also introduced a credit system for all space operators within India. This policy not only regulates private and public parties of the space industry, but also give guidelines for possible future scenarios. A major aspect of space debris as a problem is that relatively less people know about it. Even within the science community, many people know about the problem, but aren’t working towards it. There is a need for awareness among the masses. The more people know and understand the problem, the more brains working towards it. As designers, we can act as facilitators to promote awareness and dialogue about the topic. To do this, we developed the character of ‘Satellite girl’ and made a comic series, showing the effects of Kessler’s syndrome and how it can devastate the 21st century world. We developed two directions of speculative scenarios; A utopian future showing how global cooperation can bring about a positive change for mankind through space technology, and a dystopian future, that shows the after effects of a Kessler’s syndrome. The final systems intervention in the subject was in the form of solutions. Talking to people, employing co-design methodologies and iterating on ideas helped us to come up with potential solutions to help tackle space debris. These solutions could be as basic as redesigning a satellite to as complex as changing the whole system of how we launch and collect satellites. This is an ongoing project, and we hope to use systems thinking in more innovative ways to tackle this issue on multiple levels. We plan to pitch our policy draft to law experts, our ideas to ISRO and our awareness campaigns to publishing houses. We will be following up on our previous stakeholders and constantly contacting many more. We also intend to propose a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) model for space flights. We would like to visualize all the different aspects of Space and sustainability and make people aware about the problem at hand. We want to create a common platform for people from different expertise levels to come together to solve this wicked problem. Democratization of space is something that our project also has in mind. We hope that this project will give enough clarity and push to the right people in the right direction, so that we can start working towards solving the issue. By clearly stating the future steps and sustainability opportunities, we hope to not repeat our past mistakes

Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density

Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals <1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data

Bibliometric survey on Zero-Knowledge Proof for Authentication

Background: Zero Knowledge Proof is a persuasive cryptographic protocol employed to provide data security by keeping the user\u27s identity, using the services anonymously. Zero Knowledge Proof can be the preferred option to use in multiple circumstances. Instead of using the public key cryptographic protocols, the zero-knowledge proof usage does not expose or leak confidential data or information during the transmission. Zero Knowledge Proof protocols are comparatively lightweight; this results in making it efficient in terms of memory. Zero Knowledge Proof applications can reside in authentication, identity management, cryptocurrency transactions, and many more. Traditional authentication schemes are vulnerable to attacks like password attacks, man-in-the-middle, replay attack, etc. while data transmission takes place over the network. Hence, there is a high need for developing an authentication scheme that does not leak the confidential information and provides authentication without disclosing the identity. Conclusion: In this paper the bibliometric study of Zero Knowledge Proof for Authentication is performed by using data extracted from the Scopus database. Observations are made based on this study that the maximum research publications on Zero Knowledge Proof for Authentication are from China, United States and India respectively. The conclusion of the paper is drawn that this specific research field is latest and research work in the coming years is necessary on Zero Knowledge Proof for Authentication

COCONUT FIBER COMPOSITES: A REVIEW

Over the last three decades, plastics, ceramics and composite materials have been the dominant emerging materials. The number of applications of composite materials have been increased continuously, powerfully and conquering new markets persistently. Modern composite materials constitute a substantialproportion of the engineering materials, market ranging from everyday products to sophisticated niche applications. While it have been already proven that composites are weight saving materials. In today’s scenario challenge to researcher is to makecomposites costeffective. This review paper discuss about naturalcoconut fibersits applications. Also, this paper concentrates onMechanical properties of coconut fibercomposites

Medical officer's perspectives and professional challenges in handling poisoning cases in rural India

Introduction: Poisoning is a significant public health problem in developing countries, more so in rural areas. Very little is known about the treatment available for poisoning cases in the context of rural health care provision in India. This study explores the perceptions of the primary health care medical officers regarding the management of poisoning cases. Material and Methods: A semistructured, self-designed survey form was used to interview the medical officers in Pune district. The interview focused on understanding rural hospital settings in terms of infrastructure, available facilities, and medical officers' perception of professional challenges in the management of poisoning cases. Results: Underreporting of poisoning cases in these primary health centers (PHCs) and transferring to higher hospitals without basic first aid provided was noted through interviews. Conclusion: Medical officers in rural PHCs lack the necessary training and knowledge required for the management of poisonings which is further worsened by lack of resources. There is a need to focus on poison management in continuous medical education. Training programs and education for medical officers are needs of the hour

Abstracts of National Conference on Research and Developments in Material Processing, Modelling and Characterization 2020

This book presents the abstracts of the papers presented to the Online National Conference on Research and Developments in Material Processing, Modelling and Characterization 2020 (RDMPMC-2020) held on 26th and 27th August 2020 organized by the Department of Metallurgical and Materials Science in Association with the Department of Production and Industrial Engineering, National Institute of Technology Jamshedpur, Jharkhand, India. Conference Title: National Conference on Research and Developments in Material Processing, Modelling and Characterization 2020Conference Acronym: RDMPMC-2020Conference Date: 26–27 August 2020Conference Location: Online (Virtual Mode)Conference Organizer: Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, National Institute of Technology JamshedpurCo-organizer: Department of Production and Industrial Engineering, National Institute of Technology Jamshedpur, Jharkhand, IndiaConference Sponsor: TEQIP-