Rainfall-Runoff Modeling of Upper Mountainous Riverine Watershed Area in Uttarakhand

Floods are one of the most prevalent natural catastrophes that occur every year all around the planet. Due to severe precipitation, cloud bursts landside, or glacial lake outbursts, flash floods are a typical occurrence in alpine rivers and places. Hydrological modeling is the outcome of a precise calculation for various mountainous aggregations. Flash flood prediction owing to heavy perception is being replicated in this research study utilizing rainfall data from a different occurrence for hydrological modeling. The parametric hydrologic modeling for the Mandakini River system upstream to Rudraprayag is covered in this research. Hydrographs are generated using the HEC-HMS semi-distributed hydrological model. In HEC-HMS, both stations, Agastmuni and Thaytur, are employed as point locations for precipitation time - series. Precipitation parameterized numerous climatic factors such as land use/land cover, topography information, rains, and soil texture, and ASTER DEM data were utilized as input to the model. The data was processed and analyzed using ArcGIS and the HEC-HMS model. These settings were used to simulate three historical flash floods: July 31, 2010, September 13, 2012, and June 13, 2013. Utilizing IMD rainfall distribution and TRMM 3B42 v7 3-hourly products, these parameters are confirmed for accuracy and likelihood of detecting flash flood ratio. For the study, the obtained results might be valuable to the hydrology and water reserves departments and research institutes

Automatic Bright Circular Type Oil Tank Detection Using Remote Sensing Images

Automatic target detection like oil tank from satellite based remote sensing imagery is one of the important domains in many civilian and military applications. This could be used for disaster monitoring, oil leakage, etc. We present an automatic approach for detection of circular shaped bright oil tanks with high accuracy. The image is first enhanced to emphasize the bright objects using a morphological approach. Then, the enhanced image is segmented using split-and-merge segmentation technique.  Here, we introduce a knowledge base strategy based on the region removal technique and spatial relationship operation for detection of possible oil tanks from the segmented image using minimal spanning tree. Lastly, we introduce a supervised classifier, for identification of oil tanks, based on the knowledge database of large amount data of oil tanks. The uniqueness of the proposed technique is that it is useful for detection bright oil tanks from high as well as low resolution images, but the technique is always better for high-resolution imagery. We have systematically evaluated the algorithm on different satellite images like IRS – 1C, IKONOS, QuickBird and CARTOSAT – 2A. The proposed technique is detected bright structures but unable to detect the dark structure. If the oil tank structures are bright relative to the background illumination in the image then the detection accuracy by the proposed technique for the high resolution image is more than 95 per cent.Defence Science Journal, 2013, 63(3), pp.298-304, DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.14429/dsj.63.273

Distributed Computation with Continual Population Growth

Computing with synthetically engineered bacteria is a vibrant and active field with numerous applications in bio-production, bio-sensing, and medicine. Motivated by the lack of robustness and by resource limitation inside single cells, distributed approaches with communication among bacteria have recently gained in interest. In this paper, we focus on the problem of population growth happening concurrently, and possibly interfering, with the desired bio-computation. Specifically, we present a fast protocol in systems with continuous population growth for the majority consensus problem and prove that it correctly identifies the initial majority among two inputs with high probability if the initial difference is ?(?{nlog n}) where n is the total initial population. We also present a fast protocol that correctly computes the NAND of two inputs with high probability. We demonstrate that combining the NAND gate protocol with the continuous-growth majority consensus protocol, using the latter as an amplifier, it is possible to implement circuits computing arbitrary Boolean functions

Evaluation of nephroprotective and nephrocurative activity of Solanum nigrum on gentamicin induced nephrotoxicity in experimental rats

Background: Aminoglycoside antibiotics are most commonly used drugs for the prevention and treatment of gram negative infections. Nephrotoxicity is the main side effect that restricts its long duration use. Modern medicines to treat nephrotoxicity are costly and also not vary effective. Solanum nigrum fruits, having potent antioxidant property can be used for nephroprotection as well as nephrocure.Methods: The study was carried out in two phases. Nephroprotective phase, 54 rats were randomized in 3 groups named G10, G20 & G30 according to 10, 20 & 30 days of treatment. Each group was randomized in three subgroups i.e. control C group [received normal saline (2 ml/100 gm/day) daily for test duration], GT group [received normal saline (2 ml/100 gm/day) daily for test duration & intra-peritoneal gentamicin (40mg/kg) for last five days] & SNT group [received orally S.nigrum (200 mg/kg/day) daily for the test duration and intra-peritoneal gentamicin (40 mg/kg) for last five days]. Rats were sacrificed 24 hours after the last dose of gentamicin (on 11th, 21st and 31st day). In nephrocurative phase, 72 rats were randomised in two groups of 36 rats each. Group-1 received intra-peritoneal gentamicin (40 mg/dl) for five days. Group-2 received intra-peritoneal gentamicin (40 mg/dl) for five days and then S.nigrum (200 mg/kg/day) orally till the rats are sacrificed. Six rats from each group were sacrificed on 3rd, 5th, 7th, 10th, 12th and 14th day after administration of last dose of gentamicin. Blood sample were taken for evaluation of BUN and serum creatinine.Results: There was significant decrease in BUN and serum creatinine values as compared to GT group in all test duration in phase-1. In phase two there was no significant difference of these markers in two groups.Conclusions: S.nigrum fruits extract provide nephroprotection against gentamicin induced nephrotoxicity

Efficient search, mapping, and optimization of multi-protein genetic systems in diverse bacteria

Developing predictive models of multi-protein genetic systems to understand and optimize their behavior remains a combinatorial challenge, particularly when measurement throughput is limited. We developed a computational approach to build predictive models and identify optimal sequences and expression levels, while circumventing combinatorial explosion. Maximally informative genetic system variants were first designed by the RBS Library Calculator, an algorithm to design sequences for efficiently searching a multi-protein expression space across a > 10,000-fold range with tailored search parameters and well-predicted translation rates. We validated the algorithm's predictions by characterizing 646 genetic system variants, encoded in plasmids and genomes, expressed in six gram-positive and gram-negative bacterial hosts. We then combined the search algorithm with system-level kinetic modeling, requiring the construction and characterization of 73 variants to build a sequence-expression-activity map (SEAMAP) for a biosynthesis pathway. Using model predictions, we designed and characterized 47 additional pathway variants to navigate its activity space, find optimal expression regions with desired activity response curves, and relieve rate-limiting steps in metabolism. Creating sequence-expression-activity maps accelerates the optimization of many protein systems and allows previous measurements to quantitatively inform future designs

Nickel ferrite nanoparticles induced improved fungal cellulase production using residual algal biomass and subsequent hydrogen production following dark fermentation

The present study reports nickel ferrite nanoparticles (NiFe2O4 NPs) induced enhanced production of crude cellulase enzyme using residual algal biomass of cyanobacteria Lyngbya limnetica as substrate. It is noticed that the residual algal substrate and NiFe2O4 NPs mediated crude cellulase exhibits nearly 2.5 fold enhanced filter paper activity after 72 h along with better efficiency in terms of pH and thermal stability as compared to the control system. Further, NiFe2O4 NPs mediated crude cellulase enzyme was employed for the enzymatic hydrolysis of rice straw to produce sugar hydrolyzate. Subsequently, using bacterial strains Bacillus subtilisPF_1 the cumulative hydrogen ~ 1820 mL/L has been produced under the dark fermentation.</p

Engineered RNA-Interacting CRISPR Guide RNAs for Genetic Sensing and Diagnostics

CRISPR guide RNAs (gRNAs) can be programmed with relative ease to allow the genetic editing of nearly any DNA or RNA sequence. Here, we propose novel molecular architectures to achieve RNA-dependent modulation of CRISPR activity in response to specific RNA molecules. We designed and tested, in both living Escherichia coli cells and cell-free assays for rapid prototyping, cis-repressed RNA-interacting guide RNA (igRNA) that switch to their active state only upon interaction with small RNA fragments or long RNA transcripts, including pathogen-derived mRNAs of medical relevance such as the human immunodeficiency virus infectivity factor. The proposed CRISPR-igRNAs are fully customizable and easily adaptable to the majority if not all the available CRISPR-Cas variants to modulate a variety of genetic functions in response to specific cellular conditions, providing orthogonal activation and increased specificity. We thereby foresee a large scope of application for therapeutic, diagnostic, and biotech applications in both prokaryotic and eukaryotic systems

Multi-Modal Target Tracking Using Heterogeneous Sensor Networks

Abstract—The paper describes a target tracking system run-ning on a Heterogeneous Sensor Network (HSN) and presents results gathered from a realistic deployment. The system fuses audio direction of arrival data from mote class devices and object detection measurements from embedded PCs equipped with cameras. The acoustic sensor nodes perform beamforming and measure the energy as a function of the angle. The camera nodes detect moving objects and estimate their angle. The sensor detections are sent to a centralized sensor fusion node via a combination of two wireless networks. The novelty of our system is the unique combination of target tracking methods customized for the application at hand and their implementation on an actual HSN platform. I