Mechanochromic and thermochromic sensors based on graphene infused polymer opals

High quality opal‐like photonic crystals containing graphene are fabricated using evaporation‐driven self‐assembly of soft polymer colloids. A miniscule amount of pristine graphene within a colloidal crystal lattice results in the formation of colloidal crystals with a strong angle‐dependent structural color and a stop band that can be reversibly shifted across the visible spectrum. The crystals can be mechanically deformed or can reversibly change color as a function of their temperature, hence their sensitive mechanochromic and thermochromic response make them attractive candidates for a wide range of visual sensing applications. In particular, it is shown that the crystals are excellent candidates for visual strain sensors or integrated time‐temperature indicators which act over large temperature windows. Given the versatility of these crystals, this method represents a simple, inexpensive, and scalable approach to produce multifunctional graphene infused synthetic opals and opens up exciting applications for novel solution‐processable nanomaterial based photonics

Predicting the solvation of organic compounds in aqueous environments: from alkanes and alcohols to pharmaceuticals

The development of accurate models to predict the solvation, solubility, and partitioning of nonpolar and amphiphilic compounds in aqueous environments remains an important challenge. We develop state-of-the-art group-interaction models that deliver an accurate description of the thermodynamic properties of alkanes and alcohols in aqueous solution. The group-contribution formulation of the statistical associating fluid theory based on potentials with a variable Mie form (SAFT-γ Mie) is shown to provide accurate predictions of the phase equilibria, including liquid–liquid equilibria, solubility, free energies of solvation, and other infinite-dilution properties. The transferability of the model is further exemplified with predictions of octanol–water partitioning and solubility for a range of organic and pharmaceutically relevant compounds. Our SAFT-γ Mie platform is reliable for the prediction of challenging properties such as mutual solubilities of water and organic compounds which can span over 10 orders of magnitude, while remaining generic in its applicability to a wide range of compounds and thermodynamic conditions. Our work sheds light on contradictory findings related to alkane–water solubility data and the suitability of models that do not account explicitly for polarity

31st Annual Meeting and Associated Programs of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC 2016) : part two

Background The immunological escape of tumors represents one of the main ob- stacles to the treatment of malignancies. The blockade of PD-1 or CTLA-4 receptors represented a milestone in the history of immunotherapy. However, immune checkpoint inhibitors seem to be effective in specific cohorts of patients. It has been proposed that their efficacy relies on the presence of an immunological response. Thus, we hypothesized that disruption of the PD-L1/PD-1 axis would synergize with our oncolytic vaccine platform PeptiCRAd. Methods We used murine B16OVA in vivo tumor models and flow cytometry analysis to investigate the immunological background. Results First, we found that high-burden B16OVA tumors were refractory to combination immunotherapy. However, with a more aggressive schedule, tumors with a lower burden were more susceptible to the combination of PeptiCRAd and PD-L1 blockade. The therapy signifi- cantly increased the median survival of mice (Fig. 7). Interestingly, the reduced growth of contralaterally injected B16F10 cells sug- gested the presence of a long lasting immunological memory also against non-targeted antigens. Concerning the functional state of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), we found that all the immune therapies would enhance the percentage of activated (PD-1pos TIM- 3neg) T lymphocytes and reduce the amount of exhausted (PD-1pos TIM-3pos) cells compared to placebo. As expected, we found that PeptiCRAd monotherapy could increase the number of antigen spe- cific CD8+ T cells compared to other treatments. However, only the combination with PD-L1 blockade could significantly increase the ra- tio between activated and exhausted pentamer positive cells (p= 0.0058), suggesting that by disrupting the PD-1/PD-L1 axis we could decrease the amount of dysfunctional antigen specific T cells. We ob- served that the anatomical location deeply influenced the state of CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes. In fact, TIM-3 expression was in- creased by 2 fold on TILs compared to splenic and lymphoid T cells. In the CD8+ compartment, the expression of PD-1 on the surface seemed to be restricted to the tumor micro-environment, while CD4 + T cells had a high expression of PD-1 also in lymphoid organs. Interestingly, we found that the levels of PD-1 were significantly higher on CD8+ T cells than on CD4+ T cells into the tumor micro- environment (p < 0.0001). Conclusions In conclusion, we demonstrated that the efficacy of immune check- point inhibitors might be strongly enhanced by their combination with cancer vaccines. PeptiCRAd was able to increase the number of antigen-specific T cells and PD-L1 blockade prevented their exhaus- tion, resulting in long-lasting immunological memory and increased median survival

A parallel implementation of the A*-Viterbi Algorithm for speech recognition /

The problem of speech recognition is one that lends itself to parallelization. A common method used for speech recognition is the Viterbi algorithm. Unfortunately, this method is computationally expensive for large vocabularies. A new two pass method has been proposed, using the Viterbi algorithm as the first pass and the A$sp *$ algorithm as the second, making use of the results of the Viterbi algorithm. Both these algorithms can be made faster by parallelizing them.This thesis report describes the design and implementation of a parallel version of these algorithms on a BBN Butterfly multi-processor machine, and it also presents the outcome of the parallelization. It was observed that the parallel version of the Viterbi algorithm ran 8 times faster than the sequential version. This was observed for the recognition of both short words and long words. The A$sp *$ algorithm, however, displayed different behaviour for short words as compared to long words. With a short word, the parallel version of the A$sp *$ algorithm ran slightly slower than the sequential version; for a long word, it ran considerably faster than the sequential version--it was observed to run as much as 150 times faster.This thesis comments on the results thus obtained, and attempts to explain the behaviour of the different parallel implementations

Study on plasticized Poly (vinylidene chloride- co- acrylonitrile) polymer electrolytes for battery applications

Plasticized Poly (vinylidene chloride- co- acrylonitrile) [P(VdC-co-AN)] polymer electrolytes comprising of Lithium Perchloride (LiClO _4 ) as complexing salt and plasticizers such as Propylene carbonate (PC) and β -butyrolactone ( β bl) is prepared by solution casting technique. Polymer electrolytes were prepared in the ratio [(x)PVdC-co-PAN+(100-x-z) Plasticizer+(z) LiClO _4 ] and were subjected to various characterizations. X-ray Diffraction (XRD), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) were carried out to study the structural and functional groups present in the material. Impedance spectroscopy to find the ionic conductivity of the material. The maximum ionic conductivity at room temperature was exhibited by the samples containing 68% PC (9.237 × 10 ^−4 S cm ^−1 ) and 66% of β bl (2.284 × 10 ^−4 S cm ^−1 ). Samples exhibiting higher ionic conductivity (68% PC and 66% of β bl) are subjected to Linear sweep voltammetry and transference number measurements. The electrochemical stability is 4.5 v for the both films, whereas transference number is 0.955 and 0.94, respectively. Thermogravimetry/Differential Thermal analysis (TG/DTA) shows the prepared films doesn’t not undergo any weight loss till 220 °C (thermally stable). The surface morphology of the polymer membrane was explored through Atomic force microscopy (AFM)

Bauer Method of MVDR Spectral Factorization for Pitch Modification in the Source Domain

In our earlier work [1], we employed MVDR (minimum variance distortionless response) based spectral estimation instead of modified-linear prediction method [2] in pitch modification. Here, we use the Bauer method of MVDR spectral factorization, leading to a causal inverse filter rather than a noncausal filter setup with MVDR spectral estimation [1]. Further, this is employed to obtain source (or residual) signal from pitch synchronous speech frames. The residual signal is resampled using DCT/IDCT depending on the target pitch scale factor. Finally, forward filters realized from the above factorization are used to get pitch modified speech. The modified speech is evaluated subjectively by 10 listeners and mean opinion scores (MOS) are tabulated. Further, modified bark spectral distortion measure is also computed for objective evaluation of performance. We find that the proposed algorithm performs better compared to time domain pitch synchronous overlap [3] and modified-LP method [2]. A good MOS score is achieved with the proposed algorithm compared to [1] with a causal inverse and forward filter setup

Research and Reviews: Journal of Agriculture and Allied Sciences Studies on Effect of Modified Atmospheric Storage Condition on Storability of Groundnut (Arachishypogaea L.) Seed Kernels

ABSTRACT In modified atmospheric storage assays on seed quality of Groundnut seed kernels revealed that the seed kernels exposed to gaseous combination of 60 % N2 + 40 % CO2+ 0 % O2 and stored in 700 gauge polyethylene bag maintained better quality in terms of germination and vigour up to ten months of storage followed by vacuum storage, whereas in control, prescribed germination of 70% was noticed up to four months only. Among the packaging materials, groundnut seed kernels stored in 700 gauge polyethylene bag showed better seed quality parameters viz., germination (60 %), root length (5.23 cm), shoot length (4.29cm), seedling vigour index (522), dehydrogenase enzyme activity (0.103 OD value) and lower electrical conductivity of seed leachate (1.127 dSm-1) after tenth months of storageas compared to 400gauge polyethylene bag. The aim of the study was to determine the level of gaseous combination and storage containers on effective storage of groundnut seeds. INTRODUCION Groundnut (Arachishypogaea L.) -King of oilseed crops‖, is believed to be native of Brazil (South America). It was introduced in India during first half of the sixteenth century. It belongs to the family leguminoceae (Fabaceae) and sub family papilonoceae. The cultivated form of groundnut has been classified into two major groups viz., valentia or Spanish type (ArachishypogaeaL. sub spp. festigata ) and (Arachishypogaea L. sub spp. hypogaea). It is a unique crop combining the attributes of both oil seed crop and legume crop in the farming system of Indian Agriculture. It is a valuable crop planted in dry areas of Asia, Africa, Central and South America, Australia and Caribbean in view of its economic, food and nutritional value. Maintaining the quality of groundnut seed in postharvest environment is demanding and often very difficult task. Most of the problems ofmaintainance of seed quality results from the methods used to harvest, store and process the peanuts. Damage from combining or from the equipment used in handling and processing operations, improper drying treatment, poor storage condition, inadequate protection from dirt mold, insects and rodents and similar causes of quality deterioration are very difficult to control or prevent. After the peanuts are shelled, controlling the quality deterioration becomes more difficult because the seeds are much more sensitive to condition and environments that causes loss of quality. Better methods and techniques are needed to improve conditions and environments that cause quality deterioration. A low-oxygen atmosphere system for handling peanut seed appears to be more potential for improving conventional practices. Study of disinfestations of stored seeds using modified atmosphere storage (MA) involves the alteration of the natural storage gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2), oxygen (O2) and nitrogen (N2) to render the atmosphere in the storage is lethal to pests. The MA includes neither the alteration of the storage atmosphere by addition of toxic gases such as phosphine or methyl bromide nor atmospheric water content. The MA may be achieved in several ways by adding gaseous or solid CO2, by adding a gas of low O2 content (e.g., pure N2 or output from a hydrocarbon burner) or by allowing metabolic processes within an airtight storage to remove O2, usually with associated release of CO2. Such anatmosphere isreferred to as ‗high-CO2&apos;, ‗low-O2&apos; and -hermetic storage&apos; atmospheres, respectively, they are collectively known as ‗modified atmospheres&apos

Not Available

Not AvailableRainfed agriculture occupies 60 per cent of cultivable area contributing to 40 per cent to food basket. The training curriculum in for dryland region, deals with various efficient tools, techniques and methods of soil and water conservation with major emphasis on rain water management techniques such as in-situ conservation practices, micro irrigation systems and efficient Integrated farming systems for livelihood development. A Study conducted to assess the effectiveness and impact of training on the tribal farmers on knowledge gain based on pre and post evaluation scores and factors contributing to knowledge gain using factor analysis. It was found that many subject areas such as NRM management, soil health management practices, agro techniques, pests and diseases management, dryland horticulture have enhanced knowledge. Factors affecting knowledge gain were also determined using factor analysis and found that only practices related to soil and water conservation, animal health and livelihood have contributed to the major change in knowledge. It is clear from above study that training of tribal farmers, owning land and cattle, the uptake of knowledge remain higher with integration of both crop and animal technologies in the training curriculum and increasing economy of tribal farmers under changing climate conditions.Not Availabl

Not Available

Not AvailableMaize (Zea mays L.) cultivated worldwide, is often exposed to various biotic and abiotic stresses affecting productivity. We evaluated three maize genotypes, SNJ201126, Z10115 and HKI161 for morpho-physiological, biochemical and anti-oxidative enzyme related traits under well watered control and drought stress conditions. Plants were subjected to different intensity of drought stress inside rainout shelter. The genotypes SNJ201126 and Z10115 maintained higher relative water content, chlorophyll, proline and canopy temperature depression and higher activities of antioxidative enzymes such as superoxide dismutase, catalase, guiacol peroxidase, and glutathione reductase as compared to HKI161 under stress conditions. All genotypes showed a decreasing trend for these traits with the increasing severity of stresses. Stress recovery was better in SNJ201126 and Z10115 when compared to HKI161. The variation in physiological and enzymatic activities between genotypes was also reflected in their differences in yield and its attributes. The higher drought tolerance and recovery capability of SNJ201126 and Z10115 were associated with more effective maintenance of leaf water status and efficient antioxidative systems to protect themselves from oxidative damage which is critical to withstand and survive the rapidly changing climate.Not Availabl

Trace elemental analysis of extracted dust from lungs and lymph nodes of domestic animals using X-ray fluorescence technique

Samples of dust extracted from the lungs and lymph nodes of certain domestic animals from West Bengal, Orissa, Bihar provinces of India were quantitatively analysed using photon excited energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence technique. Thin specimens were prepared for analysis to minimize matrix enhancement and absorption effects. Amongst the various elements analysed, Hg, Fe, Cu, Zn and Pb were found to be present in appreciable amounts. An important finding was the presence of a very high concentration of Hg in extracted dust samples from West Bengal. The significance of the various results obtained in this investigation is discussed