Scaling of mangrove afforestation with carbon finance to create significant impact on the biodiversity – a new paradigm in biodiversity conservation models

Sunderbans has undergone a huge loss of forest cover in the past century. Population pressure ever increasing, the administration is more intent on developing economic activities in the area. However no economic activities will sustain if the environmental vulnerability of the region is not properly addressed. Mangroves form the basis of the ecosystem and large scale restoration of this mangrove cover on a scientific basis can create the necessary impact on the biodiversity and mitigate climate change. The carbon finance approach adopted by “Livelihoods” is a tool to create biodiversity-core social business models. This writing reviews into the theory and practices of such a model implemented in Sunderbans and identifies the prospects and challenges.Au cours du siècle dernier, les Sundarbans ont subi une diminution massive du couvert forestier. Aujourd’hui, la pression démographique croissante est telle que l’administration est plus encline à développer des activités économiques dans la région. Toutefois, aucune activité économique ne sera viable tant que la vulnérabilité environnementale de la région ne sera pas prise en charge comme il se doit. Les mangroves constituent la base de l’écosystème ; la restauration à grande échelle de cette surface de mangrove sur une base scientifique pourrait donc avoir l’impact nécessaire sur la biodiversité et atténuer le changement climatique. L’approche de la finance carbone adoptée par Livelihoods est un outil d’aide à la création de modèles d’entreprise sociale fondés sur la biodiversité. Cet article étudie les aspects théoriques et pratiques d'un tel modèle mis en œuvre dans les Sundarbans et en identifie les perspectives et les enjeux.El siglo pasado Sundarbans experimentó una gran pérdida de cubierta forestal. La creciente presión demográfica ha hecho que la administración esté más decidida a desarrollar actividades económicas en la zona. Sin embargo, ninguna actividad económica se mantendrá si no se trata adecuadamente la vulnerabilidad medioambiental de la región. Los manglares son la base del ecosistema y la restauración a gran escala de esta superficie cubierta por manglares con una base científica puede crear el impacto necesario en la biodiversidad y reducir los efectos del cambio climático. El planteamiento de financiación del carbono adoptado por “Livelihoods” es una herramienta para crear modelos empresariales y sociales centrados en la biodiversidad. El documento revisa la teoría y las prácticas de este modelo implementado en Sundarbans e identifica las posibilidades y los retos

Attacking and Defending Android Browsers

Android permission is a system of safeguards designed to restrict access to potentially sensitive data and privileged components. While third-party applications are restricted from accessing privileged resources without appropriate permissions, mobile browsers are treated by Android OS differently. Android mobile browsers are the privileged applications that have access to sensitive data based on the permissions implicitly granted to them. In this research, we present a novel attack approach that allows a zero-permission app to access sensitive data and privileged resources using mobile browsers as a proxy with the aid of toast overlay. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our proxy attack on 8 mobile browsers across 12 Android devices ranging from Android 8.1 to Android 13. Our findings show that all current versions of Android mobile browsers are susceptible to this attack. Despite Android touch prevention mechanisms for external apps, internal apps and those sharing the same userID remain susceptible. Contrary to Android’s claims, devices continue to exhibit background toasts opening an opportunity window for these overlay attacks and posing a threat to browser apps and webview activities within the same app. We propose a detection approach that leverages a blend of static detection and activity behavior analysis. Our detection approach enhances Android device security by addressing overlay vulnerabilities and their potential impact on user privacy and data security. Overall, the findings of this study highlight the need for improved security measures in Android browsers to protect against privilege escalation and privacy leakag

Scaling of mangrove afforestation with carbon finance to create significant impact on the biodiversity – a new paradigm in biodiversity conservation models

Sunderbans has undergone a huge loss of forest cover in the past century. Population pressure ever increasing, the administration is more intent on developing economic activities in the area. However no economic activities will sustain if the environmental vulnerability of the region is not properly addressed. Mangroves form the basis of the ecosystem and large scale restoration of this mangrove cover on a scientific basis can create the necessary impact on the biodiversity and mitigate climate change. The carbon finance approach adopted by “Livelihoods” is a tool to create biodiversity-core social business models. This writing reviews into the theory and practices of such a model implemented in Sunderbans and identifies the prospects and challenges.Au cours du siècle dernier, les Sundarbans ont subi une diminution massive du couvert forestier. Aujourd’hui, la pression démographique croissante est telle que l’administration est plus encline à développer des activités économiques dans la région. Toutefois, aucune activité économique ne sera viable tant que la vulnérabilité environnementale de la région ne sera pas prise en charge comme il se doit. Les mangroves constituent la base de l’écosystème ; la restauration à grande échelle de cette surface de mangrove sur une base scientifique pourrait donc avoir l’impact nécessaire sur la biodiversité et atténuer le changement climatique. L’approche de la finance carbone adoptée par Livelihoods est un outil d’aide à la création de modèles d’entreprise sociale fondés sur la biodiversité. Cet article étudie les aspects théoriques et pratiques d'un tel modèle mis en œuvre dans les Sundarbans et en identifie les perspectives et les enjeux.El siglo pasado Sundarbans experimentó una gran pérdida de cubierta forestal. La creciente presión demográfica ha hecho que la administración esté más decidida a desarrollar actividades económicas en la zona. Sin embargo, ninguna actividad económica se mantendrá si no se trata adecuadamente la vulnerabilidad medioambiental de la región. Los manglares son la base del ecosistema y la restauración a gran escala de esta superficie cubierta por manglares con una base científica puede crear el impacto necesario en la biodiversidad y reducir los efectos del cambio climático. El planteamiento de financiación del carbono adoptado por “Livelihoods” es una herramienta para crear modelos empresariales y sociales centrados en la biodiversidad. El documento revisa la teoría y las prácticas de este modelo implementado en Sundarbans e identifica las posibilidades y los retos

An Approach for Estimating the Reliability of IGBT Power Modules in Electrified Vehicle Traction Inverters

The reliability analysis of traction inverters is of great interest due to the use of new semi-conductor devices and inverter topologies in electric vehicles (EVs). Switching devices in the inverter are the most vulnerable component due to the electrical, thermal and mechanical stresses based on various driving conditions. Accurate stress analysis of power module is imperative for development of compact high-performance inverter designs with enhanced reliability. Therefore, this paper presents an inverter reliability estimation approach using an enhanced power loss model developed considering dynamic and transient influence of power semi-conductors. The temperature variation tracking has been improved by incorporating power module component parameters in an LPTN model of the inverter. A 100 kW EV grade traction inverter is used to validate the developed mathematical models towards estimating the inverter performance and subsequently, predicting the remaining useful lifetime of the inverter against two commonly used drive cycles

Game theory based multi criteria decision making problem under uncertainty: a case study on Indian Tea Industry

The long-term evolution of multi agent multi criteria decision making (MCDM) and to obtain sustainable decision a novel methodology is proposed based on evolutionary game theory. In this paper multi agent MCDM is represented as an evolutionary game and the evolutionary strategies are defined as sustainable decisions. Here we consider the problem of decision making in Indian Tea Industry. The agents in this game are essentially Indian Tea Estate owner and Indian Tea board. The replicator dynamics of the evolutionary game are studied to obtain evolutionary strategies which could be defined as sustainable strategies. The multi agent MCDM in Indian Tea Industry is considered under different socio-political and Corporate Social Responsibility scenario and groups of Indian Tea Industry. Again, the impacts of imprecision and market volatility on the outcome of some strategies (decisions) are studied. In this paper the imprecision on the impact of the strategies are modelled as fuzzy numbers whereas the market volatility is taken into account as white noise. Hence the MCDM problem for Indian Tea Industry is modelled as a hybrid evolutionary game. The probabilities of strategies are obtained by solving hybrid evolutionary game and could be represented as a Dempster-Shafer belief structure. The simulation results facilitate the Decision Makers to choose the strategies (decisions) under different type of uncertainty

Sensing properties of germanate and tellurite glass optical fibres

Strain and thermal sensitivities of germanate and tellurite glass fibres were measured using a fibre Fabry-Perot (FFP) interferometer and fibre Bragg gratings (FBG). The strain phase sensitivity for germanate and tellurite fibre were 5900×103 rad/m and 5600×103 rad/m respectively at a central wavelength of 1540nm using FFP interferometer, which is consistent with the value of 1.22pm/µepsilon obtained for a germanate fibre FBG. The Young's modulus for germanate and tellurite fibre were also measured to be 58GPa and 37GPa. The thermal responses of germanate fibre were examined as 24.71 and 16.80 pm/°C at 1540nm and 1033nm wavelength using the FBG

Fiber Bragg gratings inscribed using 800nm femtosecond laser and a phase mask in singleand multi-core mid-IR glass fibers

For the first time, Fiber Bragg grating (FBG) structures have been inscribed in single-core passive germanate and three-core passive and active tellurite glass fibers using 800 nm femtosecond (fs) laser and phase mask technique. With fs peak power intensity in the order of 10(11)W/cm(2), the FBG spectra with 2nd and 3rd order resonances at 1540 and 1033 nm in the germanate glass fiber and 2nd order resonances at approximately 1694 and approximately 1677 nm with strengths up to 14 dB in all three cores in the tellurite fiber were observed. Thermal responsivities of the FBGs made in these mid-IR glass fibers were characterized, showing average temperature responsivity approximately 20 pm/ degrees C. Strain responsivities of the FBGs in germanate glass fiber were measured to be 1.219 pm/microepsilon

Physics Potential of the ICAL detector at the India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO)

The upcoming 50 kt magnetized iron calorimeter (ICAL) detector at the India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO) is designed to study the atmospheric neutrinos and antineutrinos separately over a wide range of energies and path lengths. The primary focus of this experiment is to explore the Earth matter effects by observing the energy and zenith angle dependence of the atmospheric neutrinos in the multi-GeV range. This study will be crucial to address some of the outstanding issues in neutrino oscillation physics, including the fundamental issue of neutrino mass hierarchy. In this document, we present the physics potential of the detector as obtained from realistic detector simulations. We describe the simulation framework, the neutrino interactions in the detector, and the expected response of the detector to particles traversing it. The ICAL detector can determine the energy and direction of the muons to a high precision, and in addition, its sensitivity to multi-GeV hadrons increases its physics reach substantially. Its charge identification capability, and hence its ability to distinguish neutrinos from antineutrinos, makes it an efficient detector for determining the neutrino mass hierarchy. In this report, we outline the analyses carried out for the determination of neutrino mass hierarchy and precision measurements of atmospheric neutrino mixing parameters at ICAL, and give the expected physics reach of the detector with 10 years of runtime. We also explore the potential of ICAL for probing new physics scenarios like CPT violation and the presence of magnetic monopoles.Comment: 139 pages, Physics White Paper of the ICAL (INO) Collaboration, Contents identical with the version published in Pramana - J. Physic

CEACAM6 is upregulated by <i>Helicobacter pylori</i> CagA and is a biomarker for early gastric cancer

Early detection of gastric cancers saves lives, but remains a diagnostic challenge. In this study, we aimed to identify cell-surface biomarkers of early gastric cancer. We hypothesized that a subset of plasma membrane proteins induced by the Helicobacter pylori oncoprotein CagA will be retained in early gastric cancers through non-oncogene addiction. An inducible system for expression of CagA was used to identify differentially upregulated membrane protein transcripts in vitro. The top hits were then analyzed in gene expression datasets comparing transcriptome of gastric cancer with normal tissue, to focus on markers retained in cancer. Among the transcripts enriched upon CagA induction in vitro, a significant elevation of CEACAM6 was noted in gene expression datasets of gastric cancer. We used quantitative digital immunohistochemistry to measure CEACAM6 protein levels in tissue microarrays of gastric cancer. We demonstrate an increase in CEACAM6 in early gastric cancers, when compared to matched normal tissue, with an AUC of 0.83 for diagnostic validity. Finally, we show that a fluorescently conjugated CEACAM6 antibody binds avidly to freshly resected gastric cancer xenograft samples and can be detected by endoscopy in real time. Together, these results suggest that CEACAM6 upregulation is a cell surface response to H. pylori CagA, and is retained in early gastric cancers. They highlight a novel link between CEACAM6 expression and CagA in gastric cancer, and suggest CEACAM6 to be a promising biomarker to aid with the fluorescent endoscopic diagnosis of early neoplastic lesions in the stomach