Intra-night optical flux and polarization variability of BL~Lacertae during its 2020 −- 2021 high state

In this work, we report the presence of rapid intra-night optical variations in both -- flux and polarization of the blazar BL Lacertae during its unprecedented 2020--2021 high state of brightness. The object showed significant flux variability and some color changes, but no firmly detectable time delays between the optical bands. The linear polarization was also highly variable in both -- polarization degree and angle (EVPA). The object was observed from several observatories throughout the world, covering in a total of almost 300 hours during 66 nights. Based on our results, we suggest, that the changing Doppler factor of an ensemble of independent emitting regions, travelling along a curved jet that at some point happens to be closely aligned with the line of sight can successfully reproduce our observations during this outburst. This is one of the most extensive variability studies of the optical polarization of a blazar on intra-night timescales.Comment: 23 pages,7 figures, 5 Tables (2 as appendix). Accepted for publication in MNRA

Optical intra-day variability of the blazar S5 0716+714

We present an extensive recent multi-band optical photometric observations of the blazar S5 0716+714 carried out over 53 nights with two telescopes in India, two in Bulgaria, one in Serbia, and one in Egypt during 2019 November -- 2022 December. We collected 1401, 689, 14726, and 165 photometric image frames in B, V, R, and I bands, respectively. We montiored the blazar quasi-simultaneously during 3 nights in B, V, R, and I bands; 4 nights in B, V, and R; 2 nights in V, R, and I; 5 nights in B and R; and 2 nights in V and R bands. We also took 37 nights of data only in R band. Single band data are used to study intraday flux variability and two or more bands quasi-simultaneous observations allow us to search for colour variation in the source. We employ the power-enhanced F-test and the nested ANOVA test to search for genuine flux and color variations in the light curves of the blazar on intraday timescales. Out of 12, 11, 53, and 5 nights observations, intraday variations with amplitudes between ~3% and ~20% are detected in 9, 8, 31 and 3 nights in B, V, R, and I bands, respectively, corresponding to duty cycles of 75%, 73%, 58% and 60%. These duty cycles are lower than those typically measured at earlier times. On these timescales color variations with both bluer-when-brighter and redder-when-brighter are seen, though nights with no measurable colour variation are also present. We briefly discuss possible explanations for this observed intraday variability.Comment: 19 pages, 5 figures, 4 tables, Accepted for Publication in MNRA

Impacts of biomedical hashtag-based Twitter campaign: #DHPSP utilization for promotion of open innovation in digital health, patient safety, and personalized medicine

The open innovation hub Digital Health and Patient Safety Platform (DHPSP) was recently established with the purpose to invigorate collaborative scientific research and the development of new digital products and personalized solutions aiming to improve human health and patient safety. In this study, we evaluated the effectiveness of a Twitter-based campaign centered on using the hashtag #DHPSP to promote the visibility of the DHPSP initiative. Thus, tweets containing #DHPSP were monitored for five weeks for the period 20.10.2020–24.11.2020 and were analyzed with Symplur Signals (social media analytics tool). In the study period, a total of 11,005 tweets containing #DHPSP were posted by 3020 Twitter users, generating 151,984,378 impressions. Analysis of the healthcare stakeholder-identity of the Twitter users who used #DHPSP revealed that the most of participating user accounts belonged to individuals or doctors, with the top three user locations being the United States (501 users), the United Kingdom (155 users), and India (121 users). Analysis of co-occurring hashtags and the full text of the posted tweets further revealed that the major themes of attention in the #DHPSP Twitter-community were related to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), medicine and health, digital health technologies, and science communication in general. Overall, these results indicate that the #DHPSP initiative achieved high visibility and engaged a large body of Twitter users interested in the DHPSP focus area. Moreover, the conducted campaign resulted in an increase of DHPSP member enrollments and website visitors, and new scientific collaborations were formed. Thus, Twitter campaigns centered on a dedicated hashtag prove to be a highly efficient tool for visibility-promotion, which could be successfully utilized by healthcare-related open innovation platforms or initiatives

Measuring routine childhood vaccination coverage in 204 countries and territories, 1980-2019 : a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2020, Release 1

Background Measuring routine childhood vaccination is crucial to inform global vaccine policies and programme implementation, and to track progress towards targets set by the Global Vaccine Action Plan (GVAP) and Immunization Agenda 2030. Robust estimates of routine vaccine coverage are needed to identify past successes and persistent vulnerabilities. Drawing from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2020, Release 1, we did a systematic analysis of global, regional, and national vaccine coverage trends using a statistical framework, by vaccine and over time. Methods For this analysis we collated 55 326 country-specific, cohort-specific, year-specific, vaccine-specific, and dosespecific observations of routine childhood vaccination coverage between 1980 and 2019. Using spatiotemporal Gaussian process regression, we produced location-specific and year-specific estimates of 11 routine childhood vaccine coverage indicators for 204 countries and territories from 1980 to 2019, adjusting for biases in countryreported data and reflecting reported stockouts and supply disruptions. We analysed global and regional trends in coverage and numbers of zero-dose children (defined as those who never received a diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis [DTP] vaccine dose), progress towards GVAP targets, and the relationship between vaccine coverage and sociodemographic development. Findings By 2019, global coverage of third-dose DTP (DTP3; 81.6% [95% uncertainty interval 80.4-82 .7]) more than doubled from levels estimated in 1980 (39.9% [37.5-42.1]), as did global coverage of the first-dose measles-containing vaccine (MCV1; from 38.5% [35.4-41.3] in 1980 to 83.6% [82.3-84.8] in 2019). Third- dose polio vaccine (Pol3) coverage also increased, from 42.6% (41.4-44.1) in 1980 to 79.8% (78.4-81.1) in 2019, and global coverage of newer vaccines increased rapidly between 2000 and 2019. The global number of zero-dose children fell by nearly 75% between 1980 and 2019, from 56.8 million (52.6-60. 9) to 14.5 million (13.4-15.9). However, over the past decade, global vaccine coverage broadly plateaued; 94 countries and territories recorded decreasing DTP3 coverage since 2010. Only 11 countries and territories were estimated to have reached the national GVAP target of at least 90% coverage for all assessed vaccines in 2019. Interpretation After achieving large gains in childhood vaccine coverage worldwide, in much of the world this progress was stalled or reversed from 2010 to 2019. These findings underscore the importance of revisiting routine immunisation strategies and programmatic approaches, recentring service delivery around equity and underserved populations. Strengthening vaccine data and monitoring systems is crucial to these pursuits, now and through to 2030, to ensure that all children have access to, and can benefit from, lifesaving vaccines. Copyright (C) 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.Peer reviewe

Computing Approximate Blocking Probabilities in Wavelength Routed All-Optical Networks with Limited-Range Wavelength Conversion

In this paper, we propose a method to calculate the average blocking probability in all-optical networks using limited-range wavelength conversion. Previous works have shown that there is a remarkable improvement in blocking probability while using limited-range wavelength conversion, but these analytical models were either for a path or for a mesh-torus network. Using a graph-theoretical approach, we extend Birman's model for no wavelength conversion and derive an analytical expression to compute the blocking probabilities in networks for fixed routing. The proposed model is applicable to any network topology. We consider the case where an incoming wavelength can be converted to adjacent outgoing wavelengths on either side of the input wavelength, in addition to the input wavelength itself, where is the degree of conversion. When =0and =(( 1) 2), where is the capacity of a link, the proposed model reduces to the model previously given for no wavelength conversion and the model previously given for full wavelength conversion respectively. Using this model we demonstrate that the performance improvement obtained by full wavelength conversion over no wavelength conversion can almost be achieved by using limited-range wavelength conversion with the degree of conversion, , being only 1 or 2. In a few example networks we considered, for blocking probabilities up to a few percent, the carried traffic with limited conversion degree =2was almost equal to the carried traffic for full wavelength conversion

Modal and Static Analysis of Vortex Bladeless Wind Turbines with Different Geometries

The renewable energy industry has undergone remarkable growth in recent times, with wind energy assuming a preeminent role as a source of clean energy. Five distinctive geometries were analyzed, including a traditional circular form, a decagonal form, and three sinusoidal forms to evaluate the modal and structural characteristics of vortex bladeless wind turbines. The ANSYS software was employed to carry out both the modal and structural analysis. The vortex bladeless rod was firmly fixed and the mast was exposed to a wind pressure of 15 Pa during modal analysis. The structural analysis was executed to compute the deflection of the vortex bladeless wind turbine under the same wind pressure. The results demonstrated that the sinusoidal forms exhibited the greatest deflection at a wind speed of 5m/s. These findings possess the potential to optimize and augment the design of vortex bladeless wind turbines, provide guidance for future design decisions, and boost the efficiency and dependability of these wind turbines. It is therefore posited that the consideration of diverse geometries in the design of vortex bladeless wind turbines is of paramount importance, and the findings of this study are expected to be of great use to engineers and designers in the wind energy field, thereby catalyzing the progression of this thriving renewable energy source

Postharvest Diseases of Vegetable Crops and Their Management

Vegetable crops have an important role in food and nutrition and maintain the health of soil. India is the second-largest producer of vegetables in the world with a 16% (191.77 MT) share of global vegetable production. Every year, diseases cause postharvest losses (40–60%) in vegetable crops due to their perishable nature under field (15–20%), packaging and storage (15–20%), and transport (30–40%). Profiling, detection, and diagnosis of postharvest vegetable pathogens (diseases) are essential for better understanding of pathogen and formulation of safe management of postharvest spoilage of vegetables. The vegetable produce is spoiled by postharvest pathogens and makes them unfit for human consumption and market due to the production of mycotoxins and other potential human health risks. Genera of fungal pathogens viz. Alternaria, Aschochyta, Colletotrichum, Didymella, Phoma, Phytophthora, Pythium, Rhizoctonia, Sclerotinia, Sclerotium, and bacterial pathogens viz. Erwinia spp., Pseudomonas spp., Ralstonia solanacearum, Xanthomonas euvesictoria were recorded as postharvest pathogens on vegetable crops. Fruit rot incidence of several post-harvest pathogens viz. Alternaria solani (30%), Phytophthora infestans (15%), Rhophitulus solani (30%), Sclerotium rolfsii (30%) fruit rot and X. euvesictoria (5%) canker on tomato; Colletotrichum dematium fruit rot (20%) on chili; Phomopsis vexans (60%) fruit rot on brinjal was recorded. Didymella black rot and Colletotrichum anthracnose were recorded on fruits of bottle gourd, pumpkin, ash gourd, and watermelon. Important leguminous vegetable crops are infected by postharvest pathogens viz. Ascochyta pisi, Colletotrichum lindemuthianum (Anthracnose), Sclerotinia sclerotiorum (white rot) and Pseudomonas syringae pv. phaseolicola (blight), Sclerotinia white rot, Alternaria blight. However, Xanthomonas black rot (10%) on cabbage and Pectinovora (Erwinia) soft rot (19%) were recorded as emerging post-harvest pathogens on cauliflower

Customised abutment for achieving the predictable emergence profile for immediate implant in molar site: A case report

The alveolar bone undergoes a remodelling process after tooth extraction, which leads to horizontal and vertical bone loss. These resorption processes complicate dental rehabilitation, particularly in connection with implants. Clinical studies have suggested that retaining roots of hopeless teeth may avoid tissue alterations after tooth extraction. The aim is to seal the surgical site following the outline of extraction socket and to develop an ideal prosthetic emergence profile, modelled on the anatomy of the existing tooth. In present case report a non restorable mandibular molar was treated with socket sealing protocol followed by immediate implant placement. Using sequential osteotomy drills implant site was prepared and roots were dissected in buccolingual direction along the long axis. Roots were extracted using elevators and implant of desired size was placed. A Customized sealing socket abutment (SSA) was prepared to support the coronal emergence profile of the tooth. This technique is a minimally invasive that can preserve the hard and the soft tissue contour of the ridge

Protecting the health data of Consumers: Need for an Iron-Clad Law in India

One of the major concerns for all countries presently dealing with COVID-19 pandemic is to strike a balance between the privacy rights of the patients and public health surveillance, which is being done through various apps like Aarogya Setu in India, which is needed in the larger interest of the society. Public health Surveillance system although with good intention has to respect the privacy of the people. Supreme Court of India has recognized right to privacy as a part of right to life under the art 21 of the Constitution of India in the Puttaswamy judgment. In this essay, it is argued that the present legal framework regarding the health protection data in India is not sufficient for protecting the sensitive data of the patients although certain steps have been taken but all are in the forms of the bill, namely, Digital Information Security in Healthcare and Personal Data Protection Bill 2019. The essay will also be looking at some of the best practices in the world regarding the protection of health data mainly that of USA and Australia. The essay explains why India will be well ahead in terms of health protection data if we implement all the laws, which are still at the draft stage