Metal Ceramic Segmented Ring Transducer under Deep Submergence Conditions

Segmented ring transducers are widely used for low frequency, broadband, deep submergence applications. These transducers can be made out of piezoceramic wedges or slabs and metallic wedges. Higher diameter, low frequency transducers are generally made out of piezoceramic slabs and metal wedges due to ease of manufacture and low cost. In this paper, metal ceramic segmented ring transducers are modelled using ATILA, a finite element software for the design of underwater transducers. Transducer variants were modelled with different wedge and piezoceramic materials. Transducers modelled were manufactured, assembled and tested. Various stages of manufacture like piezoceramic stacking, transducer assembly, pre-stressing with fibre winding, and encapsulation are explained. Acoustic performances of the transducers manufactured were measured in an open tank and inside a pressurised vessel from 10 bar to 70 bar. Performance parameters like resonance frequency, transmitting voltage response and directivity were measured. Results indicate that the transducer has usable bandwidth of about two octaves and stable response. One of the transducers was also tested in a high pressure test facility at 600 bar to check its pressure withstanding capability

Factors Affecting the Productivity of Coffee in Gulmi and Arghakhanchi Districts of Nepal

Coffee is one of the major potential cash crops with lucrative export value grown in mid-hills of Nepal. Nepalese coffee production has suffered long by low productivity. Research was conducted from February to May, 2019 to analyze the factors affecting the productivity of coffee in Arghakhanchi and Gulmi districts of Nepal. These two districts were, purposively selected for this study taking account of comparative advantage and past studies recommendations for coffee sector. Altogether, 100 coffee growing households 50 from each, Arghakhanchi and Gulmi, were sampled by using multistage sampling technique. A pre-tested semi-structured interview schedule was used to collect the primary information while secondary information was collected reviewing the relevant publications. Ordinary Least Square (OLS) regression model was used to determine the factors affecting the productivity of coffee. The study revealed that the number of active family members involved in coffee production (0.000), adoption of income diversification through intercropping (0.005), training (0.072) and technical assistance (0.021) had positive and significant effect on coffee productivity. Encouraging the household to have coffee production as their primary occupation, providing technical assistance on rational land utilization and intercropping and strengthening the skill and knowledge of farmers through trainings could significantly support in increasing the productivity of coffee

Cerebral amyloid angiopathy in the aetiology and immunotherapy of Alzheimer disease

Amyloid is deposited in the walls of arteries and capillaries as cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) in the brains of older individuals and of those with Alzheimer disease (AD). CAA in AD reflects an age-related failure of elimination of amyloid-beta (Aβ) from the brain along perivascular lymphatic drainage pathways. In the absence of conventional lymphatic vessel in the brain, interstitial fluid and solutes drain from the brain to cervical lymph nodes along narrow basement membranes in the walls of capillaries and arteries, a pathway that is largely separate from the cerebrospinal fluid. In this review we focus on the pathology and pathogenesis of CAA, its role in the aetiology of AD and its impact on immunotherapy for AD. The motive force for lymphatic drainage of the brain appears to be generated by arterial pulsations. Failure of elimination of Aβ along perivascular pathways coincides with a reduction in enzymic degradation of Aβ, reduced absorption of Aβ into the blood and age-related stiffening of artery walls that appears to reduce the motive force for lymphatic drainage. Reduced clearances of Aβ and CAA are associated with the accumulation of insoluble and soluble Aβs in the brain in AD and the probable loss of homeostasis of the neuronal environment due to retention of soluble metabolites within the brain. Tau metabolism may also be affected. Immunotherapy has been successful in removing insoluble plaques of Aβ from the brain in AD but with little effect on cognitive decline. One major problem is the increase in CAA in immunised patients that probably prevents the complete removal of Aβ from the brain. Increased knowledge of the physiology and structural and genetic aspects of the lymphatic drainage of Aβ from the brain will stimulate the development of therapeutic strategies for the prevention and treatment of AD

Management of Anthracnose in Soybean Using Fungicide

Experiments on soybean (Glycine max L. Meril) were carried out aiming to control anthracnose (pod blight) caused by fungus, Colletotrichum truncatum with five treatments represented by different fungicidal sprays against control receiving no spray with three replicates of each under field conditions during two consecutive years from 2012 to 2013. In 2012, the higher Percent Disease Control (PDC) and Percent Yield Increase (PYI) were estimated in plot treated with SAAF (Carbendazim 12% + Mancozeb 63%) followed by Mancozeb fungicides. The mean Pod Infection (PI) was low in plots treated with SAAF followed by Mancozeb. Almost similar trends of disease control were observed in 2013. The lower Percent Disease Index (PDI) was 46.25% and mean PI was 29.67% with higher yield value of 2431.25 kg/ha obtained from the plots sprayed with SAAF then by Mancozeb. The results showed that, the combined treatment with fungicides, SAAF followed by Mancozeb were effective to control anthracnose or pod blight disease of soybean to increase the yield.Journal of Nepal Agricultural Research Council Vol.1 2015 pp.29-3

POLLINATOR DIVERSITY AND FORAGING DYNAMICS ON MONSOON CROP OF CUCURBITS IN A TRADITIONAL LANDSCAPE OF SOUTH INDIAN WEST COAST

Studies on insect pollinator ecology and dynamics are very rarely carried out in traditional Indian agriculture landscapes. Indiscriminate landscape changes in the rural areas and tendencies towards crop monocultures can have significant effects on pollinator habitats and effectiveness. This study was aimed at observing insect pollinators, their visitation frequencies and timings on monsoon cucurbit crops such as Cucumis sativus L., C. pubescens Willd., Momordica charantia L., Trichonsanthes anguina L. and Luffa acutangula L. (Roxb.), in a coastal Karnataka Village.  This study was also aimed at covering the significance of the surrounding landscape elements in sustaining pollinator elements.  Bees, such as Apis dorsata, A. cerana and Trigona sp., were major visitors on all cucurbits, except snake gourd which was pollinated mainly by lepidopterans. Insect species were found to partition floral resources of any given crops between them by minimal overlapping in their visitation timings. Natural elements of the landscape around, mainly a village forest and rocky savanna furnished habitats for bees and lepidopterans. Prolifically blooming monsoon herbs on lateritic plateaus, by providing nectar resources for pollinators, presumably play key role in making the case study village well known for monsoon vegetables

Allele-specific enhancer interaction at the Peg3 imprinted domain

Copyright: © 2019 Kim et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. The parental allele specificity of mammalian imprinted genes has been evolutionarily well conserved, although its functional constraints and associated mechanisms are not fully understood. In the current study, we generated a mouse mutant with switched active alleles driving the switch from paternal-to-maternal expression for Peg3 and the maternal-to-paternal expression for Zim1. The expression levels of Peg3 and Zim1, but not the spatial expression patterns, within the brain showed clear differences between wild type and mutant animals. We identified putative enhancers localized upstream of Peg3 that displayed allele-biased DNA methylation, and that also participate in allele-biased chromosomal conformations with regional promoters. Most importantly, these data suggest for the first time that long-distance enhancers may contribute to allelic expression within imprinted domains through allele-biased interactions with regional promoters

Sacred groves

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Comparison of localized versus systemic levels of Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), its tissue inhibitors (TIMPs) and cytokines in tuberculous and non-tuberculous pleuritis patients

The interaction of Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), its tissue inhibitors (TIMPs) and pro-inflammatory cytokines in response to Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) infection is important to understand the immune response at the site of infection. We compared the levels of MMPs, TIMPs and cytokines in plasma (BL) and pleural fluid (PF) of tuberculosis (TB) and non tuberculosis (NTB) patients. Comparison between BL and PF showed significantly higher levels of MMP-1, TIMP-1 and -3 in TB PF; of MMP-7, -8, -9 in BL of both groups. Also, levels of MMP-1,-8,-9 and TIMP-3 were significantly higher in TB PF compared to NTB. Cytokines INF-γ, TNF-α, and IL-6 significantly increased in PF of both groups. A positive correlation of MMPs with TIMPs in TB, MMP-1 and -9 with IL-6 in TB PF and MMP-9 with IFN-γ in NTB PF was observed. This study implicates the possible usage of MMPs as bio-markers aiding diagnosis in TB pleuritis

A Noval Converter For Integrated Wind – Pv Energy System

Environmentally friendly solutions are becoming more prominent than ever as a result of concern regarding the state of our deteriorating planet. This paper presents a new system configuration of the front end rectifier stage for a hybrid wind/photovoltaic energy system. This configuration allows the two sources to supply the load separately or simultaneously depending on the availability of the energy sources. There is no need for additional input filters to eliminate the high frequency harmonics, because the PV cell is operated by the new converter. The fused multi input rectifier stage also allows Maximum Power Point Tracking(MPPT) to be used to extract maximum power from the wind and sun when it is available. An adaptive MPPT algorithm will be used for the wind system and a standard perturb and observe method will be used for the PV system. Operational analysis of the proposed system will be discussed in this paper. Simulation results are given to highlight the merits of the proposed circuit