An assessment of seasonal, monthly and diurnal variations of ambient air quality in the Gurugram city (Haryana)

Gurugram is emerging as one of India's most advanced cities. The combined impact of industrial and vehicular emissions makes the environment toxic. Recently, Gurugram has experienced severe air quality. In the present work, an assessment of seasonal, monthly, and diurnal variations of ambient air quality was carried out in Gurugram during the period of March 2021 to 2022 February. Seasonal and monthly concentrations of key air pollutants like particulate matter (PM2.5), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), carbon monoxide (CO) and ozone (O3) were examined at Vikas sadan, Gwal Pahari and Teri Gram in Gurugram city to study the most polluted seasons and months. Significantly higher mean concentrations of Particulate matter PM2.5 (406.94 μgm−3) and NO2 (353.96ppb) were seen during the colder months and seasons. O3 showed a consistent trend with variations during the year, with the highest concentration in winter (106.35µg/m3). PM2.5 and NO2 concentrations during the night were greater for all seasons when compared to diurnal values. O3 concentrations displayed diurnal tendencies that were the opposite of those of NO2 concentrations. The highest concentrations of ambient PM2.5, NO2, and CO were observed at the Vikas Sadan Monitoring Station. While the NISE Gwal Pahari station showed greater O3 values. The findings highlight the necessity of efficient air pollution control in Gurugram. To prevent public exposure to air pollutants, preventive measures like green spaces, using public transport, etc. must be adopted. The study contributes to a better understanding of air pollution by seasonal, monthly and diurnal assessment in the city of Gurugram

Effect of telmisartan on hypertensive dementia patients: an observational study

Background: This was a prospective observational study done to observe the effects of telmisartan on cognitive function in hypertensive dementia patients.Methods: The study included new diagnosed hypertensive and normotensive dementia patients. Patients comprised of four groups; hypertensive dementia patients taking telmisartan (group 1), hypertensive dementia patients taking donepezil and telmisartan (group 2), normotensive dementia patients taking donepezil (group 3) and normotensive dementia patients taking drugs which does not affect memory (group 4).Cognitive function of four groups were compared to each other at 4, 8 and 12 weeks.Results: In group 1, 2 and 3 mini-mental state examination (MMSE) scores has increased by 1.69, 16.81, and 13.28 percent and in group 4 there is decrease in MMSE score by 6.03 percent in 12 weeks.Conclusions: In this study we can conclude that telmisartan has dementia preventing propensity which is better than placebo but not as good as donepezil

Visualizing the similarity and pedigree of NEURON ion channel models available on ModelDB

Are you lost in a sea of ion channel models

Reconstruction and simulation of neocortical microcircuitry

We present a first-draft digital reconstruction of the microcircuitry of somatosensory cortex of juvenile rat. The reconstruction uses cellular and synaptic organizing principles to algorithmically reconstruct detailed anatomy and physiology from sparse experimental data. An objective anatomical method defines a neocortical volume of 0.29 ± 0.01 mm3 containing ∼31,000 neurons, and patch-clamp studies identify 55 layer-specific morphological and 207 morpho-electrical neuron subtypes. When digitally reconstructed neurons are positioned in the volume and synapse formation is restricted to biological bouton densities and numbers of synapses per connection, their overlapping arbors form ∼8 million connections with ∼37 million synapses. Simulations reproduce an array of in vitro and in vivo experiments without parameter tuning. Additionally, we find a spectrum of network states with a sharp transition from synchronous to asynchronous activity, modulated by physiological mechanisms. The spectrum of network states, dynamically reconfigured around this transition, supports diverse information processing strategies

25th annual computational neuroscience meeting: CNS-2016

The same neuron may play different functional roles in the neural circuits to which it belongs. For example, neurons in the Tritonia pedal ganglia may participate in variable phases of the swim motor rhythms [1]. While such neuronal functional variability is likely to play a major role the delivery of the functionality of neural systems, it is difficult to study it in most nervous systems. We work on the pyloric rhythm network of the crustacean stomatogastric ganglion (STG) [2]. Typically network models of the STG treat neurons of the same functional type as a single model neuron (e.g. PD neurons), assuming the same conductance parameters for these neurons and implying their synchronous firing [3, 4]. However, simultaneous recording of PD neurons shows differences between the timings of spikes of these neurons. This may indicate functional variability of these neurons. Here we modelled separately the two PD neurons of the STG in a multi-neuron model of the pyloric network. Our neuron models comply with known correlations between conductance parameters of ionic currents. Our results reproduce the experimental finding of increasing spike time distance between spikes originating from the two model PD neurons during their synchronised burst phase. The PD neuron with the larger calcium conductance generates its spikes before the other PD neuron. Larger potassium conductance values in the follower neuron imply longer delays between spikes, see Fig. 17.Neuromodulators change the conductance parameters of neurons and maintain the ratios of these parameters [5]. Our results show that such changes may shift the individual contribution of two PD neurons to the PD-phase of the pyloric rhythm altering their functionality within this rhythm. Our work paves the way towards an accessible experimental and computational framework for the analysis of the mechanisms and impact of functional variability of neurons within the neural circuits to which they belong

Engineering Neuron Models:from Ion Channels to Electrical Behavior

The neocortex is one of the most evolved and complex region of the brain. For more than a century scientists have been curious about the neocortex, to identify the anatomical blueprint of its cellular organization and to understand its role in higher brain functions. The Blue Brain Project aims to study the neocortex of the rat by developing its basic anatomical unit, the cortical column, in a simulation-based, data driven research environment. This requires 10,000 biologically accurate neuron models and a combination of the full spectrum of genetically determined ion channels, to capture the complete electrical diversity in a biologically constrained manner. This dissertation, which was carried out within the scope of the Blue Brain Project, illustrates a framework to build neuron models and its integration for neuron network simulation. Building biophysically accurate neuron models requires realistic ion channel models of around 200 of the different types of ion channels expressed in the neocortex. Although a significant amount of experimental data has been gathered over the past 30 years, consolidation of these findings into an easily accessible online resource is still missing. Moreover, the differences in experimental conditions make it difficult to faithfully create models for these ion channels. Therefore, to consolidate existing ion channel literature, a knowledge base system Channelpedia (www.channelpedia.net) has been developed. Equipped with 187 annotated ion channels with 50 Hodgkin-Huxley(HH) models, Channelpedia provides an ideal discussion platform, for researchers to collaborate and synthesize information from literature. To address the unavailability of experimental data, a high-throughput ion channel screening method was developed. This approach involves ion channel gene transfection in Chinese Hamster Ovarian (CHO) cell lines, automated voltage-clamp experiments, and an automated HH model fitting routine. Finally, to validate the role of ion channels in a model neuron, I perform a series of in-vitro and in-silico dynamic clamp experiments on layer 2/3 pyramidal neurons

Use of Chatbot for Addressing Adolescent’s Queries on Sexual and Reproductive Health-related Issues – Findings from a Field Implementation in Madhya Pradesh, India

As per the Census of 2011, adolescent and young people (10–24 years of age) constitute around 30% of the India’s population. Young people face number of challenges in accessing information on sexual and reproductive health (SRH) due to associated taboos. To address these challenges, an initiative was launched to provide life skill-based education to the adolescent across 120 villages in two districts of Madhya Pradesh. After the program implementation for a year, it was observed that adolescents were not comfortable during the SRH sessions. Hence, after discussion with adolescents a chatbot was designed and launched. The chatbot had access to more than 9000 question and answers including audio and video materials. After 6 months, a brief assessment was undertaken with 2047 adolescent (boys - 1186 and girls - 861) to assess its relevance and usefulness. The concept of chatbot was appreciated by 93% of the respondents and they prefer it instead of having face-to-face conversation with counselor or health-care providers. About 90% respondents appreciated the fact that it is easily accessible, 87% respondents appreciated that it has comprehensive information and 86% respondents found chat messages appropriate. About 24% respondents were worried that as their family members may see their chats. About 38% respondents also expressed the need of making it multilingual and support some regional languages. Chatbot can be very powerful medium to address adolescent’s queries on SRH-related issues as it is easily accessible, and adolescent feel more comfortable. At the same time, it needs to be backed with quality service provision

Right Hemisphere Language Battery in Hindi

Communicative deficits are identified by the Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs) which are otherwise attributed to a loss of memory, attention, or visual-perceptual skills. Tools to measure right hemisphere functions have been developed in only two Indian languages (Kannada and Malayalam), but no test has been developed in Hindi. Hundred participants were considered for the study. They were divided into three groups- eighty normal participants (Group-I) and ten Hindi speaking diagnosed right hemisphere vascular damaged participants (Group- II) and ten Hindi speaking diagnosed left hemisphere vascular damaged participants (Group-III). There is no significant difference existed between the performance of the participants between Right Hemisphere Language Battery (RHLB) and Right Hemisphere Language Battery in Hindi (RHLB-H) across all the subtests at α = 0.05 level of significance. A significant difference exists between the obtained mean scores among the normal control participants and Right Hemisphere Disorder (RHD) participants at α = 0.05 level significance. ANOVA test results showed that RHD participants had a significantly higher discourse error rating than either Left Hemisphere Disorder (LHD) or controls. Furthermore, the Tukey’s Honest Significant Difference (HSD) Post-Hoc test reveals that there is a decrease in the obtained mean scores from Normal Control participants to the LHD and RHD groups in order. It can thus be concluded that there is a significant difference in the mean scores across all the three groups

Optimal design of a smart post-buckled beam actuator using bat algorithm: simulations and experiments

The optimized design of a smart post-buckled beam actuator (PBA) is performed in this study. A smart material based piezoceramic stack actuator is used as a prime-mover to drive the buckled beam actuator. Piezoceramic actuators are high force, small displacement devices; they possess high energy density and have high bandwidth. In this study, bench top experiments are conducted to investigate the angular tip deflections due to the PBA. A new design of a linear-tolinear motion amplification device (LX-4) is developed to circumvent the small displacement handicap of piezoceramic stack actuators. LX-4 enhances the piezoceramic actuator mechanical leverage by a factor of four. The PBA model is based on dynamic elastic stability and is analyzed using the Mathieu-Hill equation. A formal optimization is carried out using a newly developed meta-heuristic nature inspired algorithm, named as the bat algorithm (BA). The BA utilizes the echolocation capability of bats. An optimized PBA in conjunction with LX-4 generates end rotations of the order of 15 degrees at the output end. The optimized PBA design incurs less weight and induces large end rotations, which will be useful in development of various mechanical and aerospace devices, such as helicopter trailing edge flaps, micro and nano aerial vehicles and other robotic systems

An experimental and numerical study of piezoceramic actuator hysteresis in helicopter active vibration control

An aeroelastic analysis is used to investigate the rate dependent hysteresis in piezoceramic actuators and its effect on helicopter vibration control with trailing edge flaps. Hysteresis in piezoceramic materials can cause considerable complications in the use of smart actuators as prime movers in applications such as helicopter active vibration control. Dynamic hysteresis of the piezoelectric stack actuator is investigated for a range of frequencies (5 Hz (1/rev) to 30 Hz (6/rev)) which are of practical importance for helicopter vibration analysis. Bench top tests are conducted on a commercially available piezoelectric stack actuator. Frequency dependent hysteretic behavior is studied experimentally for helicopter operational frequencies. Material hysteresis in the smart actuator is mathematically modeled using the theory of conic sections. Numerical simulations are also performed at an advance ratio of 0.3 for vibration control analysis using a trailing edge flap with an idealized linear and a hysteretic actuator. The results indicate that dynamic hysteresis has a notable effect on the hub vibration levels. It is found that the theory of conic sections offers a straight forward approach for including hysteresis into aeroelastic analysis