A Survey on Feature Selection Algorithms

One major component of machine learning is feature analysis which comprises of mainly two processes: feature selection and feature extraction. Due to its applications in several areas including data mining, soft computing and big data analysis, feature selection has got a reasonable importance. This paper presents an introductory concept of feature selection with various inherent approaches. The paper surveys historic developments reported in feature selection with supervised and unsupervised methods. The recent developments with the state of the art in the on-going feature selection algorithms have also been summarized in the paper including their hybridizations. DOI: 10.17762/ijritcc2321-8169.16043

A Review of Particle Swarm Optimization: Feature Selection, Classification and Hybridizations

Particle swarm optimization (PSO) is a recently grown, popular, evolutionary and conceptually simple but efficient algorithm which belongs to swarm intelligence category. This paper outlines basic concepts and reviews PSO based techniques with their applications to classification and feature selection along with some of the hybridized applications of PSO with similar other techniques. DOI: 10.17762/ijritcc2321-8169.16041

Bulk Disposal of Unserviceable Toxic Cresylic Acid Waste Using Polymerisation Technique

A bulk amount of unserviceable toxic cresylic acid waste has been disposed off in a safe and environmentally benign manner. A process to immobilize this waste into non-toxic solid cresol formaldehyde polymer has been developed. Initial study was performed for 1.0 Kg batch size for optimizing the process parameters and conditions, and on the basis of this data, process was scaled-up for bulk disposal (100 Kg / batch). The effect of ratio of reactants, type of catalyst [H2SO4, NaOH and Ca(OH)2], catalyst concentration, reaction temperature and reaction time have been studied in a batch process. Maximum immobilization in the 1.0 Kg batch studies was obtained when cresylic acid and formaldehyde were taken in a molar ratio 1 : 1.5 using NaOH as a catalyst. For bulk polymerization, a ratio of 1.0 : 1.2 (cresylic acid : formaldehyde) with NaOH {0.7 % (wt. / wt. of total charge)} was found optimum. The final polymerized product has been buried as per standard procedure in two brick lined pits and finally, the site has been declared as free from the toxic waste.Defence Science Journal, 2011, 61(5), pp.505-511, DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.14429/dsj.61.51

Application of digital image analysis for monitoring the behavior of factors that control the rock fragmentation in opencast bench blasting: A case study conducted over four opencast coal mines of the Talcher Coalfields, India

Drilling and blasting play a very important role in driving the economy of opencast mines, as various mining activities related to strata handling are dependent on the size of the rock mass created due to blasting. Thus the analysis of fragments created from rock explosion is essential in order to monitor its compatibility with the deployed mining machineries/HEMMs (such as shovel, dumper, dragline, etc.). As over fragmentation as well as under fragmentation both tend to increase the cost of mining, the generation of fragment size in the desired range is necessary. Several factors control the rock fragmentation in blasting, such as the burden, bench height/drilling depth, stemming column, powder factor and hole diameter. The assessment of rock fragmentation with respect to the aforementioned parameters helps to enhance the blast performance and, hence, this study intends to carry out digital image analysis for monitoring the mean fragment size and boulder percentage. A highly consistent result has been obtained using forty blasting datasets carried out in the four different opencast mines of the Talcher Coalfield (India), namely Balram OCP, Ananta OCP, Lakhanpur OCP, and Lajkura OCP. Keywords: Digital image analysis, Rock fragmentation, Bench blasting, Mean fragment size, Boulder percentag

Microwave-assisted synthesis, characterization and tribological properties of a g-C3N4/MoS2 nanocomposite for low friction coatings

This study explores the tribological performance of microwave-assisted synthesized g-C3N4/MoS2 coatings. The two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) nanosheet is getting prominence in the study of tribology due to its layered structure. The graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) nanosheet was made using the calcination method and its nanocomposite with molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) was produced using a microwave-assisted method. The structure and morphology of the samples were characterized by some well-known methods, and tribological properties were studied by a pin-on-disc (POD) apparatus. Morphological analysis revealed that graphitic carbon nitride and molybdenum disulfide coexisted, and the layer structured MoS2 was well dispersed on graphitic carbon nitride nanosheets. BET analysis was used to determine the pore volume and specific surface area of the synthesized materials. The inclusion of MoS2 nanoparticles caused the composite's pore volume and specific surface area to decrease. The reduction in g-C3N4 pore volume and specific surface area confirmed that the pores of calcinated graphitic carbon nitride were filled with MoS2 nanoparticles. The tribological property of g-C3N4/MoS2 nanocomposite was systematically investigated under different factors such as applied loads (5N to 15N), sliding speed (500 to 1000 mm/s) and material composition (uncoated, MoS2-coated, 9 wt.% of g-C3N4 and 20 wt.% of g-C3N4 in the composite). The optimal composite material ratio was taken 9%, by weight of g-C3N4 in the g-C3N4/MoS2 composite for a variety of levels of loads and sliding speeds. The results indicates that the incorporation of g-C3N4 in nanocomposites could reduce friction and improve wear life, which were better than the results with single MoS2. This study demonstrates a solution to broaden the possible uses of g-C3N4 and MoS2-based materials in the field of tribology.Web of Science1212art. no. 184

Early transcriptome profile of goat peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) infected with peste des petits ruminant's vaccine virus (Sungri/96) revealed induction of antiviral response in an interferon independent manner

Sungri/96 vaccine strain is considered the most potent vaccine providing long-term immunity against peste des petits ruminants (PPR) in India. Previous studies in our laboratory highlighted induction of robust antiviral response in an interferon independent manner at 48 h and 120 h post infection (p.i.). However, immune response at the earliest time point 6 h p.i. (time taken to complete one PPRV life cycle), in PBMCs infected with Sungri/96 vaccine virus has not been investigated. This study was taken up to understand the global gene expression profiling of goat PBMCs after Sungri/96 PPRV vaccine strain infection at 6 h post infection (p.i.). A total of 1926 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified with 616 - upregulated and 1310 - downregulated. TLR7/TLR3, IRF7/IRF1, ISG20, IFIT1/IFIT2, IFITM3, IL27 and TREX1 were identified as key immune sensors and antiviral candidate genes. Interestingly, type I interferons (IFNα/β) were not differentially expressed at this time point as well. TREX1, an exonuclease which inhibits type I interferons at the early stage of virus infection was found to be highly upregulated. IL27, an important antiviral host immune factor was significantly upregulated. ISG20, an antiviral interferon induced gene with exonuclease activity specific to ssRNA viruses was highly expressed. Functional profiling of DEGs showed significant enrichment of immune system processes with 233 genes indicating initiation of immune defense response in host cells. Protein interaction network showed important innate immune molecules in the immune network with high connectivity. The study highlights important immune and antiviral genes at the earliest time point

Mushroom cultivation: Substantial key to food security

The worldwide sustenance and wholesome security of the expanding population is a generous test, which searches for new harvest (better yield from conventional ones) as a wellspring of nourishment sustenance and recoveries from malnutrition and food scarcity. Alluding to it, mushrooms discover some help which can be developed even via landless individuals, that too on decaying material and could be a source for proteinaceous sustenance. Metric huge amounts of natural waste and buildups are created every year which can possibly be reused as a substrate for mushroom cultivation. Mushroom cultivation being an indoor movement, requires less work and benefit adventure gives abundant chances to jobless

Patients Prefer a Virtual Reality Approach Over a Similarly Performing Screen-Based Approach for Continuous Oculomotor-Based Screening of Glaucomatous and Neuro-Ophthalmological Visual Field Defects

Standard automated perimetry (SAP) is the gold standard for evaluating the presence of visual field defects (VFDs). Nevertheless, it has requirements such as prolonged attention, stable fixation, and a need for a motor response that limit application in various patient groups. Therefore, a novel approach using eye movements (EMs) – as a complementary technique to SAP – was developed and tested in clinical settings by our group. However, the original method uses a screen-based eye-tracker which still requires participants to keep their chin and head stable. Virtual reality (VR) has shown much promise in ophthalmic diagnostics – especially in terms of freedom of head movement and precise control over experimental settings, besides being portable. In this study, we set out to see if patients can be screened for VFDs based on their EM in a VR-based framework and if they are comparable to the screen-based eyetracker. Moreover, we wanted to know if this framework can provide an effective and enjoyable user experience (UX) compared to our previous approach and the conventional SAP. Therefore, we first modified our method and implemented it on a VR head-mounted device with built-in eye tracking. Subsequently, 15 controls naïve to SAP, 15 patients with a neuro-ophthalmological disorder, and 15 glaucoma patients performed three tasks in a counterbalanced manner: (1) a visual tracking task on the VR headset while their EM was recorded, (2) the preceding tracking task but on a conventional screen-based eye tracker, and (3) SAP. We then quantified the spatio-temporal properties (STP) of the EM of each group using a cross-correlogram analysis. Finally, we evaluated the human–computer interaction (HCI) aspects of the participants in the three methods using a user-experience questionnaire. We find that: (1) the VR framework can distinguish the participants according to their oculomotor characteristics; (2) the STP of the VR framework are similar to those from the screen-based eye tracker; and (3) participants from all the groups found the VR-screening test to be the most attractive. Thus, we conclude that the EM-based approach implemented in VR can be a user-friendly and portable companion to complement existing perimetric techniques in ophthalmic clinics

A study of bronchial asthma in school going children in Southern part of Rajasthan

Background: Asthma is a chronic and common inflammatory disease involving mainly large airways of lungs. Childhood asthma is common chronic illness among school going children and is usually underdiagnosed and undertreated. The aim of the present study was to find out of the prevalence of Bronchial asthma in school going children of age group 6-12 years in southern part of Rajasthan (India), and its relation with gender, socio-economic status and heredity.Methods: A questionnaire-based study has been carried out in 1500 children of 6 to 12 years age group in four schools of Udaipur city (Rajasthan, India) with a response rate of 60.23% (904/1500).Results: The overall prevalence of asthma observed is 4.75% (43/904). The prevalence is higher among boys (5.55%) as compared to girls (3.75%). Further the prevalence is higher in upper (7.18%) and upper middle class (7.14%) children as compared to lower middle (4.84%) and upper lower class (2.01%) socioeconomic status. The children with positive family history of asthma also have higher prevalence (26.31%) of asthma.Conclusions: The prevalence of childhood asthma in Udaipur city is relatively lower and supports the already reported relation with gender, socioeconomic status and heredity.