AN EVALUATION OF AN ECONOMIC STRATEGY FOR PREVENTING WATER POLLUTION USING A PHOSPHORUS CONSISTENT TRANSPORTATION MODEL: A CASE OF BROILER LITTER MANAGEMENT

We calculated the profitability of using broiler litter as a source of plant nutrient using a phosphorus consistent litter application rule. We found that each ton of litter can be transferred cost effectively up to 164 miles from the production facilities. The minimum cost phosphorus consistent transportation model developed to meet the nutrient needs of 29 counties in North Alabama revealed that not all the litter can be utilized in the region. The total cost for nutrient supply increased when transportation of litter from heavily surplus counties were prioritized. The effect of chemical fertilizer price change minimally affected the total litter use.Environmental Economics and Policy,

Energetics and Passive Dynamics of Quadruped Robot Planar Running Gaits

Quadruped robots find application in military for load carrying over uneven terrain, humanitarian de-mining, and search and rescue missions. The energy required for quadruped robot locomotion needs to be supplied from on-board energy source which can be either electrical batteries or fuels such as gasolene/diesel. The range and duration of missions very much depend on the amount of energy carried, which is highly limited. Hence, energy efficiency is of paramount importance in building quadruped robots. Study of energy efficiency in quadruped robots not only helps in efficient design of quadruped robots, but also helps understand the biomechanics of quadrupedal animals. This thesis focuses on the energy efficiency of planar running gaits and presents: (a) derivation of cost of transport expressions for trot and bounding gaits, (b) advantages of articulated torso over rigid torso for quadruped robot, (c) symmetry based control laws for passive dynamic bounding and design for inherent stability, and (d) effect of asymmetry in zero-energy bounding gaits

A NOVEL APPROACH TO STATE SPACE TIME DOMAIN AUTOREGRESSIVE SIGNAL PROCESSING USING OPTIMAL RECURSIVE ESTIMATOR

This work describes the concept of filtering of signals using discrete Kalman filter. The true state of constant, random constant having process noise and autoregressive (p) process when corrupted by measurement noise are estimated using discrete Kalman filter and results are presented using MATLAB

EVALUATION OF MAXIMUM ENTROPY METHOD OF SPECTRUM ESTIMATION

The parametric models autoregressive (AR)/AR-moving average (MA)/MA are sometimes not capable of finding out the power spectral densities of random sequences. Under such circumstances, the non-parametric methods outperform the parametric ones because of the sensitivity of the latter to model specifications. The maximum entropy method (MEM) is regarded as the non-parametric method of spectrum estimation; it suggests one possible way of extrapolating the autocorrelation sequence so that a more accurate estimate of the spectrum can be obtained with better resolution. This paper investigates the work of realizing MEM method and evaluating its performance with minimum variance method

AN APPLICATION OF THE PHOSPHORUS CONSISTENT RULE FOR ENVIRONMENTALLY ACCEPTABLE COST-EFFICIENT MANAGEMENT OF BROILER LITTER IN CROP PRODUCTION

We calculated the profitability of using broiler litter as a source of plant nutrients using the phosphorus consistent litter application rule. The cost saving by using litter is 37% over the use of chemical fertilizer alone to meet the nutrient needs of major crops grown in Alabama. In the optimal solution, only a few routes of all the possible routes developed were used for inter- and intra- county litter hauling. If litter is not adopted as the sole source of crop nutrients, the best environmental policy may be to pair the phosphorus consistent rule with taxes, marketable permits, and subsidies.Environmental Economics and Policy, Production Economics,

Dynamic Gaits and Control in Flexible Body Quadruped Robot

Legged robots are highly attractive for military purposes such as carrying heavy loads on uneven terrain for long durations because of the higher mobility they give on rough terrain compared to wheeled vehicles/robots. Existing state-of-the-art quadruped robots developed by Boston Dynamics such as LittleDog and BigDog do not have flexible bodies. It can be easily seen that the agility of quadruped animals such as dogs, cats, and deer etc. depend to a large extent on their ability to flex their bodies. However, simulation study on step climbing in 3D terrain quadruped robot locomotion with flexible body has not been reported in literature. This paper aims to study the effect of body flexibility on stability and energy efficiency in walking mode, trot mode and running (bounding) mode on step climbing

Study of Gain Switching in Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser under Different Electrical Pulse Inputs

Vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) is a strong candidate for short pulse generation among the other semiconductor lasers in the era of laser technology. A 1550 nm, low power VCSEL is excited under different current shapes and the chief laser parameters are found out. The concept of gain switching under various current profiles are utilized effectively to bring out maximum laser power with minimum pulse width, which are the essential factors for long haul high speed optical data transmission. For a haversine electrical current input with 3.7 Ith amplitude, a laser peak power of 2.2 mW at 57 ps pulse width is obtained. In the case of trapezoidal pulse, 67 ps pulse width is obtained for 2.6 Ith current amplitude. It is also observed that square pulse of amplitude 2 Ith produces short optical pulse of 0.887 mW peak power and 89 ps width which shows the best performance when compared to other forms of pulses discussed in this work at the same input condition

Study of onychomycosis

Background: Onychomycosis is one of the most common fungal nail infections caused by Dermatophytes, Non-Dermatophytic Molds (NDM) and Yeast. Though it is not life-threatening, can cause pain, discomfort, and disfigurement. It decreases the nail growth rate. Objectives: This study was carried out to document the clinico-mycological pattern and antifungal susceptibility pattern of onychomycosis.Methods: The study group included 130 consecutive patients with suspected fungal nail infections, attending Dermatology outpatient department of King George Hospital, Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh during November 2012 to August 2014. The nail clippings of the patients were collected and subjected to KOH mounts for direct microscopy and fungal culture and antifungal susceptibility tests.Results: Onychomycosis was common among males (66.92%) than females (33.08%) with highest incidence was in age group 31-40 years (41.37%). Finger or toenails were exclusively involved in 32.18% and 55.18% patients respectively while these were involved concurrently in the rest of the 12.65% patients. Distal and lateral subungual onychomycosis seen in 64.36% of the patients was the most common clinical type. KOH and culture positivity were recorded in 56.92% and 48.46% cases respectively. Dermatophytes (50.58%) were predominant isolate followed by NDM (27.58%) and yeast (21.84%). Clotrimazole and ketoconazole were most effective antifungals against dermatophytes. For NDM, itraconazole, nystatin and amphotericin B and for yeast fluconazole and itraconazole were effective.Conclusions: The present study gives an insight about the aetiological agents causing onychomycosis and their anti-fungal susceptibility pattern in this region. Thus, it can help in taking adequate control measures to prevent it

Isolation, speciation and antifungal susceptibility patterns of candida isolated from cases of chronic balanoposthitis

Background:Balanoposthitis is a common condition affecting 11% of male genitourinary clinic attendees and it can be a recurrent or persistent condition. Various predisposing factors like diabetes mellitus, sexual intercourse and usage of oral antibiotics can cause chronic balanoposthitis. The Objective of the study was to isolation and speciation of candida and their antifungal susceptibility patterns from the cases of chronic balanoposthitis.Methods: The study group comprised of swabs collected from 62 male patients with chronic balanoposthitis attending sexually transmitted diseases (STD) outpatient department (OPD), King George Hospital (KGH), Visakhapatnam. Standard mycological tests for the candida isolation, speciation and antifungal susceptibility were done.Results: Out of 62 samples, (85%) were culture positive for candida. The most common species isolated was C. parapsilosis (37.7%), followed by C. glabrata (28.3%), C. albicans (15.09%), C. dubliniensis (9.4%), C. krusei (7.5%) and C. tropicalis (1.88%). Most of the candida species showed sensitivity to amphotericin B, Nystatin, clotrimazole and ketoconazole. A relative resistance to fluconazole and itraconazole was observed.Conclusions: Chronic balanoposthitis is the most common infection in men attending STD, OPD. In the present study, diabetes is main predisposing factor than sexual intercourse and candida non albicans predominated over C. albicans. Resistance of candida species to azoles is on rise. This establishes the importance of determination of antifungal susceptibility patterns to prevent the emergence of drug resistance, prior to initiation of therapy.