Tools and Methods to Analyze Multimodal Data in Collaborative Design Ideation

Collaborative design ideation is typically characterized by informal acts of sketching, annotation, and discussion. Designers have always used the pencil-and-paper medium for this activity, partly because of the flexibility of the medium, and partly because the ambiguous and ill-defined nature of conceptual design cannot easily be supported by computers. However, recent computational tools for conceptual design have leveraged the availability of hand-held computing devices for creating and sharing ideas. In order to provide computer support for collaborative ideation in a way that augments traditional media rather than imitates it, it is necessary to study the affordances made available by digital media for this process, and to study designers\u27 cognitive and collaborative processes when using such media. In this thesis, we present tools and methods to help make sense of unstructured verbal and sketch data generated during collaborative design, with a view to better understand these collaborative and cognitive processes. This thesis has three main contributions

Onion detopping machine - an emerging horticultural enterprising

Onion is the one of the important vegetable crops cultivated in India. Multiplier type onion is one among the three major types of onions. Tamil Nadu accounts for five per cent of country’s area under onion and more than 70 per cent of the area is cultivated by small onion (Allium cepa var. aggregatum). Around 90 per cent of country’s multiplier onion is produced from Tamil Nadu. Detopping is one of the steps in the on-farm processing carried out after harvest. Presently this is done manually by farm women. Individual onions are picked and detopping is done by using sickle. This operation is time consuming and highly drudgery in nature. An Onion detopping machine to remove the foliage after harvest was designed and developed in the present study. This machine has a capacity of 370 kg/h against 30 kg/h manual practice and works with an efficiency of 98%. The unique design of the detopper is that it is suitable for all sizes of onions. Also, the cluster is intact after detopping, which is very important requirement. This multiplier type onion is grown in Nagamangala (Tk), Mandya (Dt.) of Karnataka State. Two farmers of this area have installed this machine and running a successful enterprising. Cost involved in using this machine is Rs. 200 per quintal against Rs. 500 per quintal by manual detopping. Owing to the higher capacity by mechanization, the farmers will be able to process the higher volume of produce within a short span of time. Hence, this will facilitate the farmers to sell the produce, get good market price and earn higher returns

Early congestion detection and adaptive routing in MANET

AbstractAd hoc mobile networks are composed of mobile nodes communicating through wireless medium, without any fixed backbone infrastructure. In these networks, congestion occurs in any intermediate node when data packets travel from source to destination and they incur high packet loss and long delay, which cause the performance degradations of a network. This paper proposes an early congestion detection and adaptive routing in MANET called as EDAPR. Initially EDAPR constructs a NHN (non-congested neighbors) neighbors list and finds a route to a destination through an NHN node. All the primary path nodes periodically calculate its queue_status at node level. While using early congestion detection technique, node detects congestion that is likely to happen and sends warning message to NHN nodes. The ancestor NHN node is aware of this situation and finds an alternate path to a destination immediately by applying adaptive path mechanism. Thus, EDAPR improves performance in terms of reducing delay, routing overhead and increases packet delivery ratio without incurring any significant additional cost. The performance of EDAPR was compared with EDAODV and EDCSCAODV using the Ns-2 simulator. The result reveals significant improvement over EDAODV and EDCSCAODV routing schemes

A general, norbornyl based approach to anti-bredt alkenes via sequential RCM-fragmentation strategy

A general protocol for the synthesis of bicyclo[n.3.1]frameworks with bridgehead double bond (anti-Bredt alkenes), from a common, readily available norbornyl precursor, involving sequential ring closure metathesis (RCM) and Wharton fragmentation is outlined

A general, ring closure metathesis based enantiospecific approach to polyfunctional eudesmane, eremophilane and agarofuran sesquiterpenoids

An enantiospecific and stereo- and functional group diversity oriented approach to eudesmane, eremophilane and agarofuran sesquiterpenoids from (-)-carvone has been devised. RCM has been employed as the key reaction to generate the highly functionalized eudesmane framework. Further elaboration of the eudesmane framework to agarofurans and biogenetic-type rearrangement to eremophilanes is outlined

Light trap, an effective component of integrated management of Tuta absoluta(Lepidoptera : Gelechiidae) on Tomato

The effectiveness of mass trapping the moths of Tuta absoluta was evaluated using light traps in tomato polyhouse at ICAR-Indian Institute of Horticultural Research, Bengaluru during March - June, 2018. Various colours of light sources were evaluated for their efficacy in attracting the moths. Of different coloured light sources evaluated, yellow and white (bluish) were found relatively effective for attraction of the moths. The efficacy of mass trapping was further evaluated and incandescent yellow bulb of 60 W was found most efficient in attracting both sexes of Tuta moths. Thus light traps can be an effective tool for IPM of this pest on tomato, under polyhouse conditions

ALCOHOL-BASED HAND SANITIZER: ABUSE DURING LOCKDOWN AMIDST COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Alcohol-based hand sanitizers are popular alternative to the traditional handwashing with soap and water in both healthcare and community settings. Although some people use to carry small sanitizer bottles with them during travel; its utilization by common people come into picture during the COVID-19 pandemic. Because of sudden requirement of those products within a short time, there was even shortage during the initial days. Once nationwide lockdown was declared in India, to prevent community spread; all the shops were closed including wine shops. During this tough time, many alcohol withdrawal cases were reported from different regions. Some people started taking hand sanitizers as a replacement for potable alcohol. Because of high alcoholic content and adulteration with methanol or any other substances, most of the people became ill and they were hospitalized. Deaths were also reported from different states following its consumption. Addiction to hand sanitizers is now considered as one of the overlooked problems globally. It is very difficult to erase the problem, especially among teenagers. Multi-task approach involving different populations at different levels are required to handle this problem

Design and development of a detopping mechanism for onion detopping machine

Onion detopping is one of the unit operations involved in the cultivation of onion crop. Manual onion detopping is time consuming and highly drudgery. Therefore, an onion detopping machine was designed and developed for higher efficiency. An efficient detopping mechanism designed to achieve the maximum performance parameters in terms of detopping efficiency, per cent damage of onion bulbs and capacity of the onion detopping machine. By considering the crop parameters and functional requirement, four types of shearing designs of detopping tool namely, lead screw, square shaft with two cutting edges, square shaft with four cutting edges and helical roller were designed, developed and evaluated. Among four different shearing mechanisms, the helical roller type detopping tool was found to be effective in detopping the onion leaves. The helical roller type detopping tool had a detopping efficiency (98.44±1.07%), per cent damage (2.05±0.45%), conveying efficiency (97.60±1.02 %) and capacity (372.60±13.95 kg/h), respectivel

Role of vacuum assisted closure in complex wounds

INTRODUCTION: Vacuum-assisted closure (VAC) is new in the armamentarium of managing wounds acute and chronic. Vacuum assisted closure also called negative pressure wound therapy is a procedure in which vacuum is used to enhance wound healing vacuum-assisted wound closure refers to wound dressing that uses pressure below normal continuously or intermittently to the surface of a wound. The negative pressure is maintained by an apparatus, this promotes healing in various kinds of wounds. It also helps in wound debridement .Wounds heal best when the negative pressure is 125 mmHg. Negative pressure removes fluid, decreases edema and increases blood flow. Thus decreasing bacterial counts. The technique is less expensive than conventional management of complex wounds. The technique is relatively simple. sterile, porous foam dressing is directly placed on the wound. The wound is then closed with a sterile adhesive sheet in order to create a closed area. A tube is connected to a vacuum pump,fluid is sucked through the foam into a canister which is discarded. Negative pressure of 50-125 mm/Hg, results in the lowering of interstitial pressure, and fluid and debris from the wound is sucked into a collection chamber. In the begining, the vacuum is continuous . As the drainage decreases, the vacuum is applied intermittently. The vacuum dressing is usually changed at approximately two day interval. Wound progress is recorded using parameters in the wound scoring system. The objectivity of assessments used to mark the wound score make this scoring system deal for evaluating treatment and outcome of wounds. And effectiveness of this treatment is established and proven by this objective scoring system. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY: 1. To study the outcome of vacuum assisted closure of wounds. 2. To evaluate the positive impact of vacuum assisted closure on wound healing in enhancing granulation tissue formation. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Source of Data: • Inpatients of Rajiv Gandhi Govt General Hospital. • Method of collection of data. • A total of 50 cases clinically presenting as ulcer between January 2011 and July 2012 were included in the study. Inclusion Criteria: Patients presenting with Wound. Exclusion Criteria: • Patient with Bleeding disorders. • Untreated osteomyelitis. • Bleeding wounds. • Patients diagnosed as malignancies. • Clinical examination of each case was done systematically as per the proforma drafted for the study. Procedure: Dressings from the wound is removed . A swab for culture is taken. Wound irrigated with normal saline. Surgical debridement is done and adequate haemostasis achieved. RESULTS: This study was done on fifty patients in the Department of Plastic Surgery, Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital, Madras Medical College, Chennai. Most of the patients presenting with wounds were in the 5th decade of life 18 (36%), followed by the 6th decade 17 (34%). Wounds were more common in males 38 cases (76%) than in females 12 cases (24%) Male to female ratio 3.167: 1. Wounds were more common in males 38 cases (76%) than in females 12 cases (24%) Male to female ratio 3.167: 1. Based on the duration of wounds, cases were grouped into 3 categories: 30 days. Most cases fall in the group 10-30 days 30(60%), 19 cases(38%) in the group 30 days. Wounds were most commonly located in the foot 20(40%) followed by the leg 16(32%), forearm 5(10%) and ankle and sole 4(8%) each. One patient had wound in the abdomen. Significant difference in wound healing depending on the location of the wound. P value-0.024. 27 (54%) of cases were smokers, 23 (46%) were non- smokers. Based on etiology of wounds, which were determined by history and clinical examination, wounds were divided into Traumatic, Diabetic and Vascular. A major portion 25(50%) of cases fell into traumatic group and 18(36%) into diabetic and 7 (14%) into vascular group. Diabetic and non-diabetic wounds constituted 18(36%) and 32(64%) cases respectively. Wounds of area < 20 sq cm constitute maximum number of cases - 44(88%). Wound area show an impact on wound healing. Smaller the wound area, wound healing was better compared to larger wound area. P value- 0.001. Most common organism cultured from the wounds was Staphylococcus aureus 21 (42%). Following VAC therapy for 3 to 7 days most of the wounds showed progress in wound healing. CONCLUSION: VAC therapy is a recent modality of treatment of wounds. Its introduction has changed the course of management of wounds. Based on the data from the present study and other studies available, VAC results in better wound healing, with very few complications, and promises to be a good modality in the management of various wounds. The usage of VAC is simple, but needs minimal training for competent use. Awareness about VAC and training on application of VAC dressings will make it more popular