Influence of defect pairs in Ga-based ordered defect compounds: a hybrid density functional study

In the present paper, density functional theory (DFT) based calculations have been performed to predict the stability, electronic, and optical properties of Ga-rich ordered defect compounds (ODCs). The calculated lattice constants, bulk modulus, their pressure derivatives, and optical constants show good agreement with available experimental data. The hybrid exchange correlations functional have been considered to calculate ground state total energy and energy band gap of the material. The calculated formation energy of ODCs comes smaller than pure CuGaSe2 (CGS). Our calculated optical absorption coefficients indicate that the energy band gap of ODCs can be tuned by changing the number of donor-acceptor defect pairs (2V(cu)(-), + Ga-cu(2+)). The band offset has been calculated to understand the reason of band gap alteration while the number of defect pair changes. Our results may be helpful for other experiments to further improve the performance of ODCs

Probiotics in acute diarrhea: A randomized control trial

Background: Probiotics have been used for long in the treatment of acute diarrhea although their efficacy has always remains the subject of discussion. Objective: To determine the effect of probiotics in acute diarrhea among the children in rural population. Method: Double-blinded randomized control trial. We included children of age group 6 months - 5 years suffering from acute diarrhea of <48 h and fulfilling the inclusion criteria. All children were given oral rehydration salts (ORS) ad-lib till the resolution of diarrhea and zinc 20 mg/day for 14 days while intervention arm (n=101) were given probiotic sachet twice a day for 7 days containing Streptococcus faecalis 30 million, Clostridium butyricum 2 million, Bacillus mesentericus 1 million, Lactobacillus sporogenes 50 million, control group were given identical placebo apart from ORS and zinc. Duration of diarrhea in both the groups was measured as primary outcome while secondary outcome was to know the days of maximum recovery from diarrhea in both groups. Results: Totally, 207 patients were randomized to control and study group, out of which, 195 completed the study. Out of total 195 patients, 94 (48.2%) patients were treatedwith standard treatment of diarrhea without probiotics while 101 (51.8%) patients were given probiotics apart from standard treatment of diarrhea. The mean duration of diarrhea was found to be reduced in the study group (4.6 days [2.84-4.776 days]) as compared to control group (5.31 days [5.108-5.512 days]), p<0.001. Conclusion: Probiotics significantly reduced the duration of acute diarrhea in children

Feeding practices in infants: ritual factors dominating mother’s education - a cross sectional study

Background: The objective was to know the impact of mother education on feeding practices of infants.Methods: Observational analytic cross sectional study. We used Semi-structured, pre-tested questionnaire to interview 355 mothers of infants, aged one and half to 12 months, who came in OPD of Department of Paediatrics UPRIMS and R, Saifai for immunization or some problem.Results: Total 267 (75.2 %) out of 355 women had initiated breast feeding within 24 hours of birth. 172 (48.5%) mothers exclusively breast fed their infants. Total 166 (46.8%) practiced Prelacteal feed. Out of 166 subjects, 121 (34.1%) practiced for 7 days and 41 (12.7%) beyond the 7 days. There were highly significant relationship found between education level of mothers with type of breast feeding, in the form of exclusive or non- exclusive breast feeding and Prelacteal feeding practices ( p 0.05), but an important pattern of initiation of breast feeding was seen at the different level of mothers education.Conclusion: Ritual and customary factors have much impact then mother’s education on breast feeding practices of infants. Apart from education, breast feeding awareness programme should be increased including both literate and illiterate mothers.

Construction of Data Driven Decomposition Based Soft Sensors with Auto Encoder Deep Neural Network for IoT Healthcare Applications

The architecture of IoT healthcare is motivated towards the data-driven realization and patient-centric health models, whereas the personalized assistance is provided by deploying the advanced sensors. According to the procedures in surgery, in the emergency unit, the patients are monitored till they are stable physically and then shifted to ward for further recovery and evaluation. Normally evaluation done in ward doesn’t suggest continuous parameters monitoring for physiological condition and thus relapse of patients are common. In real-time healthcare applications, the vital parameters will be estimated through dedicated sensors, that are still luxurious at the present situation and highly sensitive to harsh conditions of environment. Furthermore, for real-time monitoring, delay is usually present in the sensors. Because of these issues, data-driven soft sensors are highly attractive alternatives. This research is motivated towards this fact and Auto Encoder Deep Neural Network (AutoEncDeepNN) is proposed depending on Health Framework in the internet assisting the patients with trigger-based sensor activation model to manage master and slave sensors. The advantage of the proposed method is that the hidden information are mined automatically from the sensors and high representative features are generated by multiple layer’s iteration. This goal is consistently achieved and thus the proposed model outperforms few standard approaches which are considered like Hierarchical Extreme Learning Machine (HELM), Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) and Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM). It is found that the proposed AutoEncDeepNN method achieves 94.72% of accuracy, 41.96% of RMSE, 34.16% of RAE and 48.68% of MAE in 74.64 ms

Theoretical insights into kesterite and stannite phases of Cu-2(Sn1-xGex)ZnSe4 based alloys: A prospective photovoltaic material

A comparative study of kesterite (KS) and stannite (ST) phases of Cu-2(Sn1-xGex)ZnSe4 (CTGZSe) alloys has been carried out using a hybrid functional within the framework of density functional theory (DFT). Our calculations suggest that KS phase is energetically more stable. We find that the total energy of the KS phase decreases with increasing concentration (x) of Ge. The calculated positive binding energies suggest that the alloy systems are stable. The formation enthalpy clearly indicates that CTGZSe alloys are thermodynamically stable and its growth can be achieved by following the route of an exothermic reaction. The calculated energy band gaps of the alloys agree well with the experimental data for the KS phase. The band offsets of KS and ST phases as a function of Ge concentration (x) can be explained on the basis of the calculated energy band gaps. We find a slight upshift in the conduction band edges while the valence band edges remain almost the same on varying the concentration (x) of Ge. Our results could be useful for the development of CTGZSe alloys based solar cells

Electronic structure, defect properties, and hydrogen storage capacity of 2H-WS2: A first-principles study

First-principles calculations based on density functional theory (DFT) have been performed for layered 2H tungsten disulphide (WS2) with the aim to find its possible applications in opto-electronic and hydrogen storage devices. To study opto-electronic features of WS2, we solve the Bethe-Salpeter-Equation (BSE) on top of the standard self consistent GW quasi particle (QP) calculations. These calculations capture the excitonic effects which originate near the edge of conduction band, shows good agreement with the available measured data. The suitability of WS2 as a prospective material for hydrogen storage were predicted by using the Heyd-Scuseria-Ernzerhof (HSE06) hybrid functional. We have explored the effect of interstitial hydrogen and H-2 molecules insertion on the structural stability of WS2 in detail. The hydrogen atom charge states dependent stability was studied in the context of formation energy. Our calculations suggest that interstitial hydrogen can act as a deep donor whereas H-2 molecule exhibits more stability. The diffusion energy of H-2 molecule from one hollow site to the nearest in-plane hollow site has been calculated using transition state theory. Finally, ab initio molecular-dynamics (AIMD) calculations are carried out for WS2 consisting of 16H(2) molecules that ensures its structural stability at temperatures 300, 500, and 1000 K. Present predictions show that this material may be utilize for hydrogen storage due to expected high hydrogen densit

Band Gap Tuning Of ZnO1-3xN2xFx Alloys: A First Principles Study

We have performed the state-of-the-art calculations within the framework of density functional theory (DFT) for N and F co-doped ZnO with the aim to tune the energy band gap that may be useful for opto-electronic devices. The hybrid functional have been adapted to explore the properties of pristine and N, F co-doped ZnO. By configurational ensembles and statistical mechanics, we are presenting site disorder solid. The estimated probability for N and F co-doped ZnO decreases with increase of temperature indicates disorderness in considered system. We obtain impurity band above the valence band maxima (VBM) at Gamma-point that mainly derived by N-2p orbitals. The absorption coefficient (alpha) has been calculated, shows red shift with increasing concentration (x)

Magnetism by embedding 3d transition metal atoms into germanene

We have performed a series of first-principles calculations within the framework of density functional theory for germanene including mono vacancy (MV) and double vacancy (DV). Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof generalized gradient approximation (GGA) in the form of exchange-correlation potential was used. Ten transition metals (TMs) i.e. Sc, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu and Zn, have been embedded at MV and DV site for the purpose to introduce magnetism into germanene. We find TM embedded germanene is stable and the value of magnetic moment can be tune with the TM impurities. Further, carbon (C) or nitrogen (N) in the vicinity of MV has been considered to find its influence on stability and total magnetic moment. Present predictions indicate Mn impurity shows largest magnetic moment among considered ten TMs. The Heyd-Scuseria-Ernzerhof (HSE06) hybrid functional based calculations have been also carried out for Mn system only for shake of comparison standpoint. The GGA/HSE06 calculations show better stability of TM embedded germanene after doping of C or N in vicinity of TM. Our calculations may provide a promising approach to design germanene based spintronic devices

Second law analysis of the 160 Wp standalone solar photovoltaic system

The demand for solar photovoltaic (SPV) systems is growing all over the world due to the continuous increase in the cost of conventional means of power. India has the advantage of around 300 clear sunny days in a year. However, the biggest problem is conversion efficiency. In this paper, an attempt has been made for evaluating the second law efficiency of 160 Wp stand-alone SPV systems installed in RKGIT Ghaziabad premises. The performance of a SPV system depends on climate conditions like temperature, air velocity and a number of sunny days. The solar energy striking the solar panels gets converted into electric and thermal energy. In this work, we have considered the effect of ambient temperature and air velocity on the efficiency of solar panels. The average second law efficiency of SPV systems was found to be 10.7%, whereas maximum second law efficiency was 13.8% at 9am on the same day. The efficiency of the SPV system can be improved by maintaining the temperature of the module

Not Available

Not AvailablePulse crops constitute a significant source of protein for the resource-poor population of Asia, Africa and mediterranean regions of the world. However, these crops are usually grown in marginal lands with low inputs and therefore their production and productivity remains very low. Per capita availability of pulses in India is lower than the recommended quantity. Therefore, it is imperative to increase production, productivity and availability of pulses to meet the nutritional requirement of a large section of human population. The minor pulses namely mothbean and horsegram, which are grown in limited area in dry and hot conditions of semi-arid regions of tropics in South Asia, Africa and Mediterranean regions also plays a great role in supplementing the diet of the resource poor farmers and consumers. Ricebean is another important minor pulse crop which is cultivated in humid sub-tropical to warm to cool climate under range of soil types also contribute hugely towards pulse production. The present paper provides information with respect to area of cultivation, productivity of the minor pulses and their importance as a source of nutritional ingredients to human and livestock populationsNot Availabl