Enhanced Antimicrobial activities of Hybrid ZnMgAlO nanocomposite by soft chemical method

In the present investigation, ZnMgAlO nanoparticles were prepared by soft chemical method.  The synthesized NPs were analyzed by XRD and SEM EDAX. ZnMgAlO crystal structure was confirmed through powder XRD technique as hexagonal wurtzite structure. The surface morphology was analyzed from SEM images. Finally, antimicrobial activity of all the synthesized samples was tested against Bacillus subtilis and Chlamydia trachomatis bacteria and Xylaria hypoxylon, Fistulina hepatica fungus. The observed results showed good anti-bacterial and anti-fungal activities. Â

Measurement of thermal and electrical conductivities of graphene nanofluids

This paper was presented at the 3rd Micro and Nano Flows Conference (MNF2011), which was held at the Makedonia Palace Hotel, Thessaloniki in Greece. The conference was organised by Brunel University and supported by the Italian Union of Thermofluiddynamics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, University of Thessaly, IPEM, the Process Intensification Network, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, the Heat Transfer Society, HEXAG - the Heat Exchange Action Group, and the Energy Institute.The current work experimentally investigates the thermal and electrical conductivities of nanofluids containing graphene sheets that have very high thermal conductivity. Here, the graphene is prepared from natural graphite by oxidation-reduction process through a single step method. The graphene nanofluid thus obtained exhibited greater stability even after six months of preparation without addition of any surfactants. The detailed characterization process involving TEM, UV absorption and DLS measurements revealed the well dispersed nature of nanofluid with sheets appropriately interconnected and entangled. The DLS measurement indicates a trimodal size distribution of graphene sheet ranging from 5nm to 1500nm. It was also found that the absorption peak of the sample was 269 nm. This reveals the complete reduction of graphene oxide to graphene and the value is in good agreement with the literature. The thermal conductivity is measured using the traditional Transient Hot Wire (THW) method and enhancements are substantial even at lower concentrations while such behaviour is not predicted by the classical Maxwell theory. The thermal conductivity of graphene nanofluids are measured for different concentrations of 0.01 - 0.2 volume % at different temperatures. It is observed that the thermal conductivity increases with increase in concentration of grapheme, which is as expected. The maximum enhancement obtained is 27% at 0.2% concentration. The enhancement also shows a strong temperature dependence which is unlike that of its carbon predecessors like CNT and graphene oxide nanofluids. Electrical conductivity is measured using a 4 cell conductivity meter with inbuilt automatic temperature compensation. Electrical conductivity enhancement is found to be linear with increase in graphene volume fraction

Validation of High Risk Clinical Scoring: As a Sensitive Method to Predict Endoscopic Severity and Adverse Outcome in patients with UGI Bleed

In our hospital, the Government General Hospital, Chennai, we started this study with the objectives of identifying high risk clinical features in upper Gastrointestinal bleeding and testing the sensitivity of high risk clinical features in predicting endoscopic severity and adverse outcome like Rebleed and Mortality. We studied 50 consecutive patients admitted with UGI bleed in Medical and Surgical wards prospectively. Clinical assessment was done by taking careful history, bedside examination and basic blood investigation. We assigned a score for each parameter with due emphasis laid over quantity of bleed, continued bleed, unstable hemodynamics, altered consciousness level and presence of co-morbidities. After clinical stabilisation, all the patients were subjected to early upper GI endoscopy. And endoscopy revealed those patients with high risk clinical score, had high grade ulcer bleed in the non - variceal category based on Forrest classification and high grade esophageal varices, in the variceal category. Endoscopy also provided an excellent correlation between high risk clinical scoring and early adverse outcome like Rebleed and Mortality. We found that clinical risk scoring was a sensitive tool in identifying patients who are at higher risk of morbidity and mortality from UGI bleed and in predicting endoscopic severity

Developmaent of a Wireless Force Sensor

Master'sMASTER OF ENGINEERIN

Enhanced EEG classification using adaptive DWT and heuristic-ICA algorithm

Electroencephalography (EEG) signals contain important information about the inner functioning of the brain. Effective extraction of this information will help in the detection of brain-related health conditions and emotions of a person or it can also be used as a communication medium between humans and machines. In our proposed system, we introduced Adaptive DWT by combining the temporal resolution capability of DWT, with the special capability of Fourier transform to remove the artefacts in the signal. This is achieved by using an adaptive thresholding function rather than hard or soft thresholding to improve the quality parameters of the signal. The proposed filtering model has improved the Signal to Noise ratio when compared to traditional filtering techniques. EEG features are extracted with the help of Heuristic-Independent Component Analysis (ICA) by applying covariance to equalize or improve the data. The main drawback with the existing CNN algorithm is gradient vanishing during training, this reduces the overall performance of the algorithm during classification. Therefore, using the memory function to store the previous value of iteration improves the classification accuracy and reduces the gradient vanishing problem. The proposed technique is found to have better accuracy of about 98% in classifying autism and epilepsy datasets

The role of conductivity and molecular mobility on the photoanisotropic response of a new azo-polymer containing sulfonic groups

This work was supported by the University Malaya under the UMRG grant RP038B-17AFR. NFKA and AMF would like to thank the Royal Academy of Engineering, U.K., and Academy of Science, Malaysia, for the grant NRCP1516/4/61, from the Newton Research Collaboration Programme, and the University of Aberdeen, for the award of the grant SF10192, corresponding to the Global Challenge Research Fund Internal Pump Priming Fund Round 2. AMF would like to acknowledge the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland for the award of one Scottish Research Incentive Grant (RIG008586).Peer reviewedPostprintPostprin

Setting priorities for a research agenda to combat drug-resistant tuberculosis in children

Setting: Numerous knowledge gaps hamper the prevention and treatment of childhood drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB). Identifying research priorities is vital to inform and develop strategies to address this neglected problem. Objective: To systematically identify and rank research priorities in childhood drug-resistant TB. Design: Adapting the Child Health and Nutrition Research Initiative (CHNRI) methodology, we compiled 53 research questions in four research areas, then classified the questions into three research types. We invited experts in childhood drug-resistant TB to score these questions through an online survey. Results: A total of 81 respondents participated in the survey. The top-ranked research question was to identify the best combination of existing diagnostic tools for early diagnosis. Highly ranked treatment-related questions centred on the reasons for and interventions to improve treatment outcomes, adverse effects of drugs and optimal treatment duration. The prevalence of drug-resistant TB was the highest-ranked question in the epidemiology area. The development type questions that ranked highest focused on interventions for optimal diagnosis, treatment and modalities for treatment delivery. Conclusion: This is the first effort to identify and rank research priorities for childhood drug-resistant TB. The result is a resource to guide research to improve prevention and treatment of drug-resistant TB in children