Superprocesses as models for information dissemination in the Future Internet

Future Internet will be composed by a tremendous number of potentially interconnected people and devices, offering a variety of services, applications and communication opportunities. In particular, short-range wireless communications, which are available on almost all portable devices, will enable the formation of the largest cloud of interconnected, smart computing devices mankind has ever dreamed about: the Proximate Internet. In this paper, we consider superprocesses, more specifically super Brownian motion, as a suitable mathematical model to analyse a basic problem of information dissemination arising in the context of Proximate Internet. The proposed model provides a promising analytical framework to both study theoretical properties related to the information dissemination process and to devise efficient and reliable simulation schemes for very large systems

India’s contribution to mitigating the impacts of climate change through vegetation management

The changes in natural ecosystems provide opportunity to increase vegetation carbon sink capacity and thereby contribute to mitigation of climate change impacts. The Indian tropics and the large ecological variation within the country afford the advantage of diverse niches and offer opportunities to reveal the role of biotic factors at different levels of organization from populations to ecosystems. The last 4 decades of research and development in the Indian space science community has been primarily application driven in response to the government space programme for national development. The expenditure in R&D over next 5 year suggest that scientific research is higher on the country's agenda. The Indo-UK Terrestrial Carbon Group (IUTCG) comprising both Indian and UK scientists, funded jointly by the Department of Science and Technology, India and the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills organised a workshop to explore ways in which Earth observation data can be effectively utilised in mitigating the impacts of climate change through vegetation management. Effective integration of field observations, collected through various monitoring networks, and satellite sensor data has been proposed to provide country-wide monitoring

Reducing the environmental impact of surgery on a global scale: systematic review and co-prioritization with healthcare workers in 132 countries

Background Healthcare cannot achieve net-zero carbon without addressing operating theatres. The aim of this study was to prioritize feasible interventions to reduce the environmental impact of operating theatres. Methods This study adopted a four-phase Delphi consensus co-prioritization methodology. In phase 1, a systematic review of published interventions and global consultation of perioperative healthcare professionals were used to longlist interventions. In phase 2, iterative thematic analysis consolidated comparable interventions into a shortlist. In phase 3, the shortlist was co-prioritized based on patient and clinician views on acceptability, feasibility, and safety. In phase 4, ranked lists of interventions were presented by their relevance to high-income countries and low–middle-income countries. Results In phase 1, 43 interventions were identified, which had low uptake in practice according to 3042 professionals globally. In phase 2, a shortlist of 15 intervention domains was generated. In phase 3, interventions were deemed acceptable for more than 90 per cent of patients except for reducing general anaesthesia (84 per cent) and re-sterilization of ‘single-use’ consumables (86 per cent). In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for high-income countries were: introducing recycling; reducing use of anaesthetic gases; and appropriate clinical waste processing. In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for low–middle-income countries were: introducing reusable surgical devices; reducing use of consumables; and reducing the use of general anaesthesia. Conclusion This is a step toward environmentally sustainable operating environments with actionable interventions applicable to both high– and low–middle–income countries

High Sensitive Electrical Metamaterial Sensor for Fuel Adulteration Detection

Life of any automobile engine is largely dependent on the purity as well as the optimum ratios of their fuels, viz. petrol, diesel and ethanol. A device working on the electrical metamaterial concept, namely a complementary split ring resonator (CSRR), operating at 2.47 GHz (ISM band), is proposed to detect kerosene adulteration in petrol. Kerosene was varied upto 30 per cent with minimum detection limit as low as 10 per cent. Systematic shifts in the transmission resonance frequency were observed. The sensing was fast and the recovery was instantaneous. The underlying concept of interference of electromagnetic radiation through the CSRR circuit and its further manipulation with the changes in the dielectric ambience is elaborated

Encapsulation of cobalt nanoparticles in cross-linked-polymer cages

10.1016/j.jmmm.2009.01.014Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials321142135-2138JMMM

Cross-linked chitosan-dextran sulphate vehicle system for controlled release of ciprofloxaxin drug: An ophthalmic application

The major challenge associated with conventional eye-drop is the rapid drug loss due to precorneal defence barrier. In this context, controlled-release system of ciprofloxacin-conjugated chitosan (CS)-Dextran sulphate (DS) nanoparticles (NPs) have been synthesized, to increase the bioavailability. The formulated drug delivery vehicle was evaluated for its therapeutic value in the simulated tear fluidat pH 7.4. Ophthalmic microbes were tested with this formulation, to confirm the drug efficacy; which showed conducive therapeutic values of both MIC and MBC. Ocular irritancy test was performed using HET-CAM test, which showed that the CS-DS system did not yield any vascular response, offering it to be a non-irritant to the ocular surface. The release studies showed monotonous controlled-release for duration of 21 h. A fine cross-linking between CS and DS has been demonstrated to form CS-DS NPs and their interaction with drug has been evaluated using conventional characterization tools

Studies of magnetite nanoparticles synthesized by thermal decomposition of iron (III) acetylacetonate in tri(ethylene glycol)

10.1016/j.jmmm.2009.05.020Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials321193093-3098JMMM

Synthesis of hydrophilic superparamagnetic magnetite nanoparticles via thermal decomposition of Fe(acac) 3 in 80 Vol% TREG 20 Vol% TREM

10.1166/jnn.2011.2693Journal of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology1132730-273

Development and evaluation of a high density genotyping ‘Axiom_Arachis’ array with 58 K SNPs for accelerating genetics and breeding in groundnut

Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are the most abundant DNA sequence variation in the genomes which can be used to associate genotypic variation to the phenotype. Therefore, availability of a high-density SNP array with uniform genome coverage can advance genetic studies and breeding applications. Here we report the development of a high-density SNP array ‘Axiom_Arachis’ with 58 K SNPs and its utility in groundnut genetic diversity study. In this context, from a total of 163,782 SNPs derived from DNA resequencing and RNA-sequencing of 41 groundnut accessions and wild diploid ancestors, a total of 58,233 unique and informative SNPs were selected for developing the array. In addition to cultivated groundnuts (Arachis hypogaea), fair representation was kept for other diploids (A. duranensis, A. stenosperma, A. cardenasii, A. magna and A. batizocoi). Genotyping of the groundnut ‘Reference Set’ containing 300 genotypes identified 44,424 polymorphic SNPs and genetic diversity analysis provided in-depth insights into the genetic architecture of this material. The availability of the high-density SNP array ‘Axiom_Arachis’ with 58 K SNPs will accelerate the process of high resolution trait genetics and molecular breeding in cultivated groundnut

Fe 3O 4-citrate-curcumin: Promising conjugates for superoxide scavenging, tumor suppression and cancer hyperthermia

10.1063/1.3696001Journal of Applied Physics1116-JAPI