Glycerol Transformation to Value-Added 1,3-Propanediol Production: A Paradigm for a Sustainable Biorefinery Process

The impact of diminishing fossil fuel resources, rising environmental issues as well as the global demand for energy, fuels and chemicals has significantly directed to the use of renewable biomass for sustainable production of fuels and chemicals. Glycerol, a three carbon feedstock, is one of the most promising biomass resources which at present is obtained as a by-product in large quantities during the biodiesel production. This stimulated a lot of interest in developing new valorization technologies to produce high-value tonnage chemicals from glycerol by sustainable processes such as oxidation, dehydration, hydrogenolysis, steam reforming, carboxylation, acetalization, esterification and chlorination. In this chapter, we intend to focus on the hydrogenolysis of glycerol which produces important commodity chemicals such as propanediols, propanols and ethylene glycol. In particular, the selective hydrogenolysis of glycerol to 1,3-propanediol performed in both liquid phase and vapor phase reaction processes is described. Furthermore, the most significant progress in the development of the catalytic materials for glycerol hydrogenolysis including the reaction pathways is herein summarized

Nástroj pro penetrační testování webových aplikací

Abstract As hackers become more skilled and sophisticated and with cyber-attacks becoming the norm, it is more important than ever before to undertake regular vulnerability scans and penetration testing to identify vulnerabilities and ensure on a regular basis that the cyber controls are working. In this thesis the importance and working of penetration testing and web application based penetration testing are discussed, followed by comparison and information’s about various testing tools and techniques and their advantages and disadvantages. The next section of the thesis mainly focuses on the past, current and future state of penetration testing in the computer systems and application security, importance of General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Content Management system (CMS) followed by the main goal of the thesis which explains the existing solutions in automated tools for vulnerability detection of web application their techniques, positive and negative results of the conducted tests and their merits and demerits. In the next section, based on the comparison of various existing tools selecting appropriate algorithm for discussing the importance of scanning the ports which are usually focused in very few existing web application tools, the following section practically demonstrate the scanning of ports which gives information regarding, the state of ports to understand the service information running on the server. Finally the result of the experiment will be compared with the existing web application tools.Abstraktní Vzhledem k tomu, že se hackeři stávají zkušenějšími a sofistikovanějšími a kybernetické útoky se stávají normou, je důležitější než kdy jindy provádět pravidelné kontroly zranitelnosti a penetrační testování, aby bylo možné identifikovat zranitelná místa a pravidelně zajišťovat fungování kybernetických kontrol. V této práci je diskutován význam a fungování penetračního testování a penetračního testování založeného na webových aplikacích, následuje srovnání a informace o různých testovacích nástrojích a technikách a jejich výhodách a nevýhodách. Další část práce se zaměřuje především na minulý, současný a budoucí stav penetračního testování v počítačových systémech a zabezpečení aplikací, význam nařízení o obecné ochraně údajů (GDPR) a redakčního systému (CMS) následovaného hlavním cílem práce, která vysvětluje stávající řešení v automatizovaných nástrojích pro zjišťování zranitelnosti webové aplikace, jejich techniky, pozitivní a negativní výsledky provedených testů a jejich přednosti a nedostatky. V další části, založené na srovnání různých existujících nástrojů, které vybírají vhodný algoritmus pro diskusi o důležitosti skenování portů, které jsou obvykle zaměřeny na velmi málo stávajících webových aplikací, následující část prakticky demonstruje skenování portů, které poskytují informace týkající se, stav portů pro pochopení informací o službě běžících na serveru. Nakonec bude výsledek experimentu porovnán s existujícími nástroji webové aplikace.460 - Katedra informatikyvelmi dobř

Analysis of cutaneous adverse drug reactions in a tertiary care teaching hospital

Background: Cutaneous Adverse Drug Reaction (CADR) is considered as one of the reasons for discontinuation of drug as well as medication non-adherence. This study analyses the common drugs causing CADR, clinical spectrum of different types of CADR, causality and drugs causing severe CADR.Methods: This was a retrospective cross-sectional observational study conducted by the Department of Pharmacology, Coimbatore Medical College, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India. The study was conducted using data collected in CDSCO’s ADR reporting forms with CADR from June 2015 to July 2017. Patient’s information, details related to adverse drug reaction, suspected medication details, concomitant medication history, causality and seriousness were recorded.Results: A total of 102 CADR were evaluated in this study. The mean age of sample was 37.21±20.33 years. Maximum number of cases was in the age group of 40-49 years. Male to female ratio was 0.96:1. The commonly incriminated drugs causing CADR were antimicrobial agents. Ciprofloxacin (21.57%), phenytoin (9.8%), diclofenac sodium (6.86%), anti-snake venom (6.86%) and vancomycin (3.92%) were the common drugs implicated in CADR. Maculopapular rash and itching were the most common CADR. Anticonvulsants especially phenytoin was commonly associated with severe CADR.Conclusions: The present study has made an impact on all departments of this institution and awareness has been created about spontaneous reporting of all adverse drug reactions in CDSCO ADR reporting forms to the pharmacovigilance centres. Thus, sound knowledge about the adverse drug reactions may decrease the occurrence of drug induced morbidity and mortality.

Essays on the Effects of Taxation.

This dissertation focuses on under-explored impacts of taxation, including how it influences the behavior of individuals, the interaction between firms and workers, and the economy as a whole. In the three essays, I test theoretical predictions through empirical analyses, from both micro and a macro perspectives and using disparate methodologies as required by the disparate problems I address. The first essay examines the Savers Credit, which is a tax credit given to low and middle income households for contributing to a retirement savings plan. I assess the response resulting from the policys incentive structure gauged through misreported income, and I test whether the policy was effective in achieving its goal of increasing retirement contributions. I find that individuals indeed responded to the policy's unintended incentive to misreport income. On the other hand, individuals failed to increase retirement contributions on the margin. The second essay, co-written with Matthew Rutledge, analyzes whether changes made to marginal tax rates affect pre-tax wage rates. We formally test this assumption by focusing on the Tax Reform Act of 1986, which, most notably, made large changes to the personal income tax. We find that changes in net-of-tax rates are negatively associated with pre-tax wage rates. Our empirical analysis explores how taxes can affect the wage rates offered to workers, and fails to support the claim that pre-tax wage rates are invariant to changes in marginal tax rates. The third essay, co-written with Brendan Epstein, studies the role that taxes play in determining aggregate labor hours. Past studies have explained differences in labor hours per population across countries by looking at differences in effective tax rates. Our study provides additional insight on this topic by showing that the standard neoclassical model with taxes is a better predictor of hours per worker rather than hours per population due to its inability to capture changes in employment. We then develop a model that incorporates this insight and find that our model accounts for a larger fraction of aggregate data on hours per worker than the standard neoclassical model with taxes.Ph.D.EconomicsUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/78915/1/ramnath_1.pd

A secured and optimized deep recurrent neural network (DRNN) scheme for remote health monitoring system with edge computing

Patients now want a contemporary, advanced healthcare system that is faster and more individualized and that can keep up with their changing needs. An edge computing environment, in conjunction with 5G speeds and contemporary computing techniques, is the solution for the latency and energy efficiency criteria to be satisfied for a real-time collection and analysis of health data. The feature of optimum computing approaches, including encryption, authentication, and classification that are employed on the devices deployed in an edge-computing architecture, has been ignored by previous healthcare systems, which have concentrated on novel fog architecture and sensor kinds. To avoid this problem in this paper, an Optimized Deep Recurrent Neural Network (O-DRNN) model is used with a multitier secured architecture. Initially, the data obtained from the patient are sent to the healthcare server in edge computing and the processed data are stored in the cloud using the Elliptic Curve Key Agreement Scheme (ECKAS) security model. The data is pre-processed and optimal features are selected using the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm. O-DRNN algorithm hyper-parameters are optimized using Bayesian optimization for better diagnosis. The proposed work offers superior outcomes in terms of accuracy and encryption latency while using computational cloud services

Effect of the summer pearl millet-groundnut intercropping system on the growth, productivity and competitive ability of crops under south Odisha conditions

A millet-based intercropping system is common in dryland and rainfed conditions. Pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum L.) exhibits wide adaptability to different agroclimatic conditions and seasons, making it suitable for an intercropping system. Groundnut (Arachis hypogea L.) is a leguminous oil-seed crop that can be cultivated as an intercrop in various cereals and millets to enhance productivity and resource efficiency. Based on these facts, the present study was conducted at the Research Farm of Centurion University of Technology and Management during the summer season of 2022 to assess the effect of the summer pearl millet + groundnut intercropping system on the growth, productivity, and competitive ability of crops under the conditions of south Odisha. The experiment consisted of nine treatments. In case of pearl millet, the highest plant height at harvest was achieved in pearl millet (30 cm × 10 cm) + groundnut (1:1) (186 cm), while the maximum plant height of groundnut at harvest was observed in pearl millet (45 cm × 10 cm) + groundnut (1:2) (70cm). Dry matter production at harvest and leaf area index (LAI) at 60 days after sowing (DAS) of pearl millet were highest in pearl millet sole (857 g m-2 and 2.19, respectively). The maximum dry matter production at harvest was found in groundnut sole. The highest yield of individual crops was observed in their pure stands, with 2677 kg ha-1 and 2633 kg ha-1 of pearl millet grain and groundnut pod, respectively. Among mixed stands, pearl millet (30 cm × 10 cm) + groundnut (1:1) and pearl millet (45 cm × 10cm) + groundnut (1:1) showed superior values of different competition functions, such as aggressivity, relative crowding coefficient, monetary advantage, land equivalent ratio, and area time equivalent ratio. The results concluded that pearl millet and groundnut could be intercropped with a 1:1 row proportion with pearl millet spacing of either 30 cm × 10 cm or 45 cm × 10 cm in south Odisha conditions

A cross-sectional study on asymptomatic bacteriuria among antenatal women attending an urban tertiary health care center in Southern India

Background: Asymptomatic bacteriuria (ASB) in pregnancy is a treatable risk factor for preterm delivery. India accounts for the highest preterm birth incidence in the world according to the WHO census released in November 2016. This study was aimed at finding the prevalence of asymptomatic bacteriuria, the spectrum of bacteria involved and the susceptibility pattern for the antimicrobials in the antenatal women attending a tertiary care hospital in urban Southern India.Methods: One hundred and eighty ante-natal patients without symptoms of ongoing urinary tract infection were enrolled to this study. Clean midstream urine sample was collected in a wide mouthed container and sample was analyzed by standardized microbiological testing techniques.Results: Out of the 180 ante-natal women included in the study, 11(6.1%) patients were found to have insignificant bacteriuria and 38(21.1%) had a significant bacteriuria. E. coli was the most frequently isolated organism and about 95% of the organisms were sensitive to Nitrofurantoin.Conclusions: More than a fifth of all pregnant women have ASB and E. coli is the most frequent pathogen encountered

obstructive sleep apnea

The aim of this article is to provide a detailed description for obstructive sleep apnea regarding its signs and symptoms, the way it is diagnosed, the risk factors, management, the role of dentists and oral appliances in treatment. Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a potentially life-threatening disorder characterized by repeated collapse of the upper airway during sleep, with periodic cessation of breathing for more than ten seconds. Dental professionals have a unique doctor patient relationship that can help them in recognizing the sleep disorder and co-managing the patients along with a physician or a sleep specialist. Oral appliance therapy is an important treatment modality for sleep apnea patient

A study of transition spaces in traditional houses of Tamil Nadu

Architecture is inevitably a mechanism for social purposes that could impact the personal and public levels. While architecture is used in many different ways, the arrangement and structure of places are fundamental and essential to people's lives. Thus, the people started to create spaces allowing them to eat, sleep, worship, learn, argue, recreate, and so on in a specific timeframe that has been subjected to the tradition and culture of people. This study is about one such traditional transition space - the thinnai that creates connectivity between the public and private zones in a housing typology. As evolution occurs, these structures, intended for various activities, have vanished, and compound wall structures have enclosed the dwellings. This shortens the connectivity to the external environment. In southern India, the thinnai spaces serve various socio-cultural activities. The typology of the thinnai spaces differs according to the regions of settlement, occupation and religious practices. Such spaces have been recreated due to the refurbishment of the buildings, which will not require them to serve their purpose. The main objective of the paper is to document and analyze the transitional spaces (known as thinnai or raised platform) prevailing near the entrance in the varied typology of traditional houses in a village in Tamil Nadu and to classify them based on the thresholds. The qualitative study was carried out through intense documentation analysis of transition spaces near thresholds in the varied typology of traditional houses in Mangalrevu village Tamil Nadu. The result of the study showed that the transitional spaces that exist near thresholds in traditional buildings have demonstrated extensive functionality and lie in harmony with the people's lifestyle. Further, the authors also classified the types of transition spaces with respect to the thresholds. It is considered the need of the hour to replicate these structures with the same meaning in modern dwellings without any compromises