STRESS - STEREO transiting exoplanet and stellar survey

The Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory - STEREO, is a system of two identical spacecraft in Heliocentric Earth orbit. We use the two Heliospheric Imagers (HI) on board, which are wide angle imagers with multi-baffle systems to do high precision stellar photometry in order to search for exoplanetary transits and understand stellar variables. The cadence (40 min for HI-1 and 2 hrs for HI-2), high precision (< 1% scatter for R < 8 and a few per cent for fainter objects), wide magnitude range (R mag - 4 to 12) and broad sky coverage (nearly 20 percent just for HI-1A and 60 per cent of the sky in the zodiacal region for all the instruments combined) of this instrument marks this in a space left largely devoid by other current projects. This thesis describes the instrument and its capabilities, the semi-automated pipeline devised for the reduction of this data and the general characteristics of the data obtained. This thesis explains the data analysis methods used in identifying exoplanetary transits and stellar variables along with some of the early results. The thesis concludes with a description of the work in progress and also outlines some of the future prospects of this massive STRESS data set

Microwave assisted processing of Nanocrystalline Barium Titanate based capacitor devices

Interest towards fabrication of nanostructured electro ceramic devices has witnessed exponential growth in recent years, owing to the requirements of miniaturization, multifunctionality and improved reliability. The major hurdle in realising the full potential of nano ceramics is preventing the unwanted grain growth whilst achieving high densification during conventional high temperature processing. In this project, a detailed study was performed on the fabrication of nanostructured barium titanate based X7R multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs) using microwave assisted heating. The main processing stages involved in MLCC manufacture were; (i) nano BT powder synthesis, (ii) making nano BT ink formulations suitable for screen printing, (iii) sintering of components using conventional, microwave, hybrid heating methods and (iv) performance evaluation of the end products. (Continues...)

Psychology in Thirumantiram

Ulam means mind. Mind is filled with thoughts and life is based on those thoughts.&nbsp; Just as water changes depending on the color of the ground, based on thoughts mind hardens into rock or melts into ice. A caged mind is more depressing than an ordinary prison. Thirumantram says that the doors of the mind can be opened by pure thought. Thirumantram brings together various fields like psychology, biology, ministry, medicine, philosophy and monasticism to highlight the ethics of life in many ways. In this way, psychologists have conducted research based on psychoanalytic principles. Thus, this review examines Thirumular's songs through psychoanalytic principles

The lives of the underprivileged people found in Tamil literature

It is an undetermined rule that all beings that have arisen in this world must be respected equally. There is no one who has adhered to such a canon. Inequality between every living being that can live in this world is a fundamental matter of nature. The beginning of inequality is the definition that he should and should not do even the most common activities in the world. We can identify such a preliminary difference in the Tolkappiyam itself. People like errand runner and Panar, who works for the life of others more than their own needs, can be considered grassroots people. The focus of this article is on examining the atrocities faced by these underprivileged people from time to time, the obstacles they faced in their daily way of life, and the rights denied by birth through the literature that has emerged from time to time. Even in the Sangam literature, which can be portrayed as the golden age of the Tamils, there are records of the fact that the people of the lower strata were untouchables and should not be seen. Similarly, moral literature also highlights the sufferings of downtrodden people. Whoever sees inequality in the world, God does not see it. But even in devotional literature, there are caste-based devotees. From Minor Literature to Modern Literature, the life of the downtrodden is seen as a place of suffering and misery. Thus, this article proves that the lives of the lower classes are the same in the literature that reflects the society from the Sangam period to the present day

Thermal ablation behaviour of ultra-high temperature ceramic matrix composites made by RF enhanced chemical vapour infiltration

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First discovery augmented reality for learning solar systems

The development of Augmented Reality (AR) systems in educational settings should be given more attention and recognition on its contribution to the evolution of education. Although this shift of pedagogical method may disrupt the traditional curriculum model, it also offers great opportunity to complement and improve the modern age education model. This paper presents an AR-based mobile application for exploring Space and Science for primary school students called the First Discovery (FD). This application supplements a traditional book that contains 10 target images for solar system and its planets, which can be scanned by the AR camera in FD application. Evaluation was carried out among primary school children, elementary educators as well as parents, which showed a highly favorable response. It is hoped that the proposed FD application is able to improve the ability of children in retaining knowledge after the AR science learning experience, to enhance information accessibility of the science learning content for children as well as to develop creative learning and the ability of children in exploring and problem solvin

Kinetics and Mechanism of Oxidation of Methionine by Chromium(VI): Edta Catalysis

The kinetics of the oxidation of DL-methionine to sulfoxide by CrVI has been studied in aqueous acetic acid in the presence of sodium salt of ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (edta). It appears that CrVI-edta is the active electrophile. The low dielectric constant of the medium favours the reactivity. Ionic strength and MnII have no significant effect on the conversion. The ratio k(D2O) / k(H2O) &#8776; 1 does not seem to indicate any significant solvent isotope effect. Highly negative &Delta;S# values indicate a structured transition state. A ternary intermediate has been envisaged for describing the enhanced reactivity

Questionify gamification in education

In the education industry, lecturers are finding ways to improve students’ concentrations and grades by using smart devices to track students’ assignment or tutorial progress. One of the few possible and attractive solution is by using the gamification technique. This paper proposes an educational application called Questionify that implements the gamification elements and allow users to collect points, gain achievements, increase motivation and engagement towards students’ coursework in Software Engineering subject. Questionify is developed using C# and Java language has been evaluated using questionnaire among 24 respondents. The findings showed that the respondents believe that gamification can do better in education as compare to the traditional method of teaching the students. In the future, this gamification approach will be tested on more technical subjects such as programming and networking subjects to help students engage in a different learning approach

Evaluation of NMR Spectroscopy and Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectometry (LC-MS) as Analytical Platforms for Human Metabolic Phenotyping

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