Water Contaminants Detection Using Sensor Placement Approach in Smart Water Networks

Incidents of water pollution or contamination have occurred repeatedly in recent years, causing significant disasters and negative health impacts. Water quality sensors need to be installed in the water distribution system (WDS) to allow real-time water contamination detection to reduce the risk of water contamination. Deploying sensors in WDS is essential to monitor and detect any pollution incident at the appropriate time. However, it is impossible to place sensors on all nodes of the network due to the relatively large structure of WDS and the high cost of water quality sensors. For that, it is necessary to reduce the cost of deployment and guarantee the reliability of the sensing, such as detection time and coverage of the whole water network. In this paper, a dynamic approach of sensor placement that uses an Evolutionary Algorithm (EA) is proposed and implemented. The proposed method generates a multiple set of water contamination scenarios in several locations selected randomly in the WDS. Each contamination scenario spreads in the water networks for several hours, and then the proposed approach simulates the various effect of each contamination scenario on the water networks. On the other hand, the multiple objectives of the sensor placement optimization problem, which aim to find the optimal locations of the deployed sensors, have been formulated. The sensor placement optimization solver, which uses the EA, is operated to find the optimal sensor placements. The effectiveness of the proposed method has been evaluated using two different case studies on the example of water networks: Battle of the Water Sensor Network (BWSN) and another real case study from Madrid (Spain). The results have shown the capability of the proposed method to adapt the location of the sensors based on the numbers and the locations of contaminant sources. Moreover, the results also have demonstrated the ability of the proposed approach for maximising the coverage of deployed sensors and reducing the time to detect all the water contaminants using a few numbers of water quality sensor

Orbital Prosthetic Rehabilitation in “ADAM Complex” Multiple Orofacial-Cleft Disruption Syndrome

To be human is great; to look human is wonderful! It is nature's greatest gift! Mother nature's womb is the safest place on earth for any life, but the calamity strikes and no one knows how Hence, Treasure your exceptions!, since nature seems nowhere accustomed more openly to display, its secret mysteries than in cases where it shows traces of its workings apart from the beaten path. A dismorphological pattern of congenital oro-craniofacial and limb defects which is a rare form of amniotic rupture sequence required persistent coordinated efforts of multiple disciplines and had manifested as bizarre orofacial clefting, cat eye syndrome with an ectopic eye, and aberrant tissue band lesions on limb. The challenge was to meet the child’s clamour for functional demands on premature exposure to open world and was overcome through a phased treatment implementation. Anophthalmos resulting from multiple ophthalmic surgeries for aberrant ectopic left eye and cat eye syndrome of right eye required a staged sequential preemptive planning for a successful outcome. Every phase of fabrication of orbital prosthesis comes with an impending challenge. Thus, a well-defined technique eliminating the common errors and creating a natural looking prosthesis, in the face of limitations, is imperative

Indigenous digital intraoral Gothic arch tracer

This paper describes indigenously developed digital Gothic arch tracer for the acquisition of centric jaw relation in patient. The developed tracer eliminates disadvantages of intra-oral tracing and makes it more suitable for recording centric relation in patients. The system also makes real-time monitoring of tracing possible in intraoral tracing. This also opens various avenues for research in removable prosthodontics

Rain Water Management Techniques for Cotton-Based Cropping Systems

Not AvailableOut of 329 M ha geographical area of the country, potential human induced land degradation is reported to be as high as 187.7M ha (Paroda, 1998). At least 57.1 % of geographical area of the country suffers from different forms of land degradation and out of it, water erosion accounts for 65% land degradation. A large variety of soils spreading all over Indian sub continent are derived from a wide range of geographical rocks and parent material, interacting with soil forming features like climate, vegetation and topography for varying time period. The capacity of soil to produce is limited by intrinsic characteristics, agro-ecological setting and land and water management practices (Bhaskar et al., 2002). Proper identification, characterization and efficient land use management could increase the productivity of degraded lands (Bhaskar et al., 2004). Cotton is one of the most important cash (commercial and fibre) crop of the country, occupying an area of 8.5 M ha with an average yield of about 440 kg lint ha- 1, which is very low as compared to world average (650 kg lint ha-1).NAT

PEGylated rosin derivatives: Novel microencapsulating materials for sustained drug delivery

The aim of this study was to investigate PEGylated rosin derivatives (PRDs) as microencapsulating materials for sustained drug delivery. PRDs (D1, D2, and D3) composed of a constant weight of rosin and varied amounts of polyethylene glycol (PEG) 400 and maleic anhydride were synthesized in the laboratory. Microparticles were prepared by the O/O solvent evaporation technique using the acetone/paraffin system. Diclofenac sodium (DFS) and diltiazem hydrochloride (DLTZ) were used as model drugs. The effect of the type of PRD, drug, PRD:drug ratio, viscosity of external phase, stirring speed, concentration of magnesium stearate (droplet stabilizer), and method of preparation on particle size, drug loading, and drug release profiles of microparticles was investigated. PRDs could produce discrete and spherical microspheres (with DFS) and microcapsules (with DLTZ). The drug loading value for microparticles was found to be in the range of 37.21% to 87.90%. The microparticle size range was 14 to 36 μm. The particle size and drug loadings of microparticles were substantially affected by the concentration of magnesium stearate and the type of drug, respectively. Most of the formulations could sustain the DFS and DLTZ release for 20 hours. DFS and DLTZ release from PRD microparticles followed Hixson-Crowell and first-order kinetics, respectively. The results suggest that PRDs can be used successfully to prepare discrete and spherical microparticles with DFS and DLTZ for sustained drug delivery

Investigation of PEGylated Derivatives of Rosin as Sustained Release Film Formers

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the potential use of two PEGylated derivatives of rosin (PD) as sustained release film forming materials. The derivatives differed chemically by their acid numbers—PD-1 with 120.93 and PD-2 with 88.19. The derivative films were characterized for surface morphology, water uptake-weight loss, angle of contact, water vapor transmission rate, mechanical properties and permeability study. Dissolution of diclofenac sodium (DS) and propranolol hydrochloride (PHL) as model drugs was studied from coated pellets. The films of derivatives with and without plasticizers were smooth and continuous. PD-2 films developed greater numbers of pores when in contact with phosphate buffer pH 6.8. The low weight loss, low angles of contact and high water vapor transmission rate of PD-2 films were related to presence of higher concentration of PEG esters. Higher tensile strength and percent elongation of PD-2 films was due to greater degree of internal plasticization of the derivative. The permeability of films to model drugs propranolol hydrochloride and diclofenac sodium was inversely proportional to the film thickness and dibutyl phthalate concentration in them; the permeability being greatest in PD-2 films containing 10% PEG 200. Dissolution rate of propranolol hydrochloride was higher from the coated pellets. The dissolution data followed zero order, Baker–Lonsdale equation and Hixon–Crowell equation of release kinetics with high correlation coefficients. The mechanism of drug release from these coated systems however followed class II transport (n > 1.0). The derivatives investigated could successfully retard release of the model drugs and offers an alternative to the conventionally used polymers