Embedded Sensor System with Wireless Communication for Greenhouse

Greenhouse environment is unpredictable, irregular, nonlinear, multi-parameter and volatile structure. To gain high and quality yield it is necessary to control the greenhouse environment according to crop requirement and for that design and analyze the embedded sensor system with wireless communication for greenhouse is prerequisite. The blueprint of system is such that it is compatible to technically less proficient farmer of developing countries. The system is designed with DAQ card for data acquisition and analysis that is compatible with Graphical User Interface LabVIEW which helps the user to easily monitor and analyze the state of greenhouse environment. Based on the data analysis any farmer can take decisions like, when to irrigate the crops and when to enable the cooling system. Actions based on the data analysis from the system may lead to better crop yield and less wastage of the resources. To make the system energy efficient a data averaging energy efficient algorithm is used in software. By analyzing the recorded data received from sensor node, an efficient strategy for node placement is designed to cover maximum area of greenhouse

Vitamin D status in medical students and risk factor analysis: Vitamin D status in medical students

Vitamin D is finding increasing health implications beyond calcium homeostasis. Vitamin D deficiency is prevalent globally including India. Many asymptomatic individuals have hypovitaminosis implicating the need for intervention. The present study aimed at evaluating vitamin D levels among healthy medical students from southern India and its association with well-known risk factors. Hundred apparently healthy medical students between the age group of 18-25 years were recruited based on defined inclusion and exclusion criteria. A questionnaire form with details of sun exposure, tanning, milk intake, general health and drug history were obtained. Vitamin D levels were assessed by chemiluminescent immunoassay (CLIA). Vitamin D values were considered normal for 30-60 ng/ml, deficient for <20 ng/ml and insufficient for levels between 21-29 ng/ml. Majority of the students (89%) had deficient 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels while 8% of the student had insufficient and 3% of the students had sufficient 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels. The mean 25-hydroxyvitamin D level was 14.01±6.20 ng/ml, median level was 12.95 ng/ml and ranged between 5.15 to 43.01 ng/ml. No statistically significant association was noted with sex, BMI, sun exposure, dietary intake or serum calcium levels. To conclude, vitamin D deficiency is highly prevalent in asymptomatic medical students and showed lack of relationship with the well-defined risk factors in literature prompting to look for newer risk factors in this country

Video Feature Extraction Based on Modified LLE Using Adaptive Nearest Neighbor Approach

Locally linear embedding (LLE) is an unsupervised learning algorithm which computes the low dimensional, neighborhood preserving embeddings of high dimensional data. LLE attempts to discover non-linear structure in high dimensional data by exploiting the local symmetries of linear reconstructions. In this paper, video feature extraction is done using modified LLE alongwith adaptive nearest neighbor approach to find the nearest neighbor and the connected components. The proposed feature extraction method is applied to a video. The video feature description gives a new tool for analysis of video

Fine Tuning a Well-Oiled Machine: Influence of NK1.1 and NKG2D on NKT Cell Development and Function

Natural killer T cells (NKT) represent a group of CD1d-restricted T-lineage cells that provide a functional interface between innate and adaptive immune responses in infectious disease, cancer, allergy and autoimmunity. There have been remarkable advances in understanding the molecular events that underpin NKT development in the thymus and in the complex array of functions in the periphery. Most functional studies have focused on activation of T cell antigen receptors expressed by NKT cells and their responses to CD1d presentation of glycolipid and related antigens. Receiving less attention has been several molecules that are hallmarks of Natural Killer (NK) cells, but nonetheless expressed by NKT cells. These include several activating and inhibitory receptors that may fine-tune NKT development and survival, as well as activation via antigen receptors. Herein, we review the possible roles of the NK1.1 and NKG2D receptors in regulating development and function of NKT cells in health and disease. We suggest that pharmacological alteration of NKT activity should consider the potential complexities commensurate with NK1.1 and NKG2D expressio

Development of ANN based Efficient Fruit Recognition Technique

Use of Image processing technique is increasing day by day in all fields and including the agriculture to classify fruits. Shape, color and texture are the image features which help in classification of fruits. This paper proposes an algorithm for fruits classification based on the shape, color and texture. For shape based classification of fruit area, perimeter, major axis length and minor axis length is calculated. Shape features are calculated by segmenting the object with the background using edge detection techniques. Mean and standard deviation is calculated for the color space like HSI, HSV which can be used for color base classification. Texture features is also calculated to enhance the classification process. Gray Level Co-occurrence Matrix (GLCM) is used to calculate texture features. Artificial neural network is used for classification of fruits. Artificial neural network classifies the fruits by comparing shape, color and texture feature provided at the time of training. MATLAB/ SIMULINK software is used to obtain result. Results obtained are better over the previous techniques and gives the accuracy upto 96%

Some Contiguous Relation on k-Generalised Hypergeometric Function

In this research work our aim is to determine some contiguous relations and some integral transform of the k-generalised hypergeometric functions, by using the concept of “k-Gamma and k-Beta function”. “Obviously if k approaches 1”, then the contiguous function relations become Gauss contiguous relations

Exploring Factors of Absenteeism Among Students Attending Community Medicine Department

Context: Frequent absence from classes may lead to improper learning and poor academic performance. Absenteeism can make teaching - learning environment unwelcoming and impacting those also who attend classes regularly. Aims & Objectives: To explore factors responsible for absenteeism among second professional students attending Community Medicine Department and to  formulate recommendations to deal with absenteeism. Material and Methods : A Cross sectional study was conducted among 132 second professional medical undergraduate students attending Community Medicine Department in a teaching hospital. A self-designed pre validated questionnaire comprising of various sections related to teaching –learning factors was used to explore factors responsible for student absenteeism. Faculty perception regarding student absenteeism and recommendations formulated to deal with it were recorded separately. Data analysis: Data was entered in MS Excel and Chi Square test was used for analysis. Results: Among 132 study participants, majority of the participants (62.1%) were females who were residing in hostels. Highest percentage of absenteeism (40.1%) was during examination time. Extracurricular activities like sports/gym, browsing net and parties were significantly (p<0.001) associated with absenteeism. Conclusions: Absenteeism can adversely affect academic performance and low attendance can demotivate teachers also to teach with keen interest

Some results on k-hypergeometric function

In this paper, we establish integral representation and differentiation formulas for k-Gauss hypergeometric function 2F1,k(a, b; c; z) and develops a relationship with k-Confluent hypergeometric function 1F1,k(a, b; c; z), which are based properties defined by Rao and Shukla. Our study is to identify the integral as well differential representation of 2F1,k(a, b; c; z) and also find the inverse Laplace transform on it

Delivery site preferences and associated factors among married women of Panauti Municipality, Kavrepalanchok district, Nepal

Introduction: Maternal mortality is a top global developmental agenda. The main cause of being underutilization of available delivery services especially in a developing country like Nepal. Various socio-demographic, socio-cultural and health service-related factors affect the utilization of these services. Thus, the study aims to identify the delivery site preferences and its associated factors among the married women of Panauti municipality of Kavrepalanchok district. Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted among the married women between the ages of 15-49 y residing in Panauti municipality. The face-to-face interviews were conducted using semi-structured questionnaires. The statistical analysis was done using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 21. Result: A total of 106 women of 15-49 y were included in the study. The proportion of institutional delivery among the participants was 68%. 90.6% of total participants would prefer health facility for their future deliveries; 7.5% were not sure about their preferences and very few (1.9%) preferred to deliver at home. The factors like knowledge regarding safe-motherhood program and age at marriage were found to be significantly associated with their delivery site preference (p<0.05). Conclusion: In a country like Nepal, home delivery is still in practice and pregnancy and childbirth are regarded as normal life events. Thus, efforts should be made to change that perception, increasing utilization of available services and improving maternal and child health. This in turn will help to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal target in reducing the Maternal Mortality Rate