Challenges and Opportunities in 4D Printing -An Application Perspective

Over the last ten years, 3D printing technology has played a pivotal role in transforming the manufacturing industry. A recent advancement within the realm of 3D printing has introduced time as a fourth dimension, enabling the creation of 4D printing components. While a 3D-printed design remains static, a 4D-printed design has the remarkable ability to change its shape in response to environmental conditions. This paper also examines various applications of 4D printing across diverse fields such as electronics, renewable energy, aerospace, food, healthcare, and fashion. The review addresses research gaps, the current obstacles in 4D printing, and the future prospects of this technology

Current pattern of adverse drug reactions to anti-retroviral therapy in an antiretroviral therapy centre attached to a government medical college of Maharashtra, India: a retrospective study

Background: Antiretroviral drug therapy (ART) has brought a ray of hope to people living with HIV/AIDS. Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) can often cause significant morbidity among individuals on ART, occasionally leading to mortality. The present study was conducted to assess the nature, causality, severity of ADRs to ART, and to identify risk factors for ADRs in HIV-positive patients receiving ART in India.Methods: A total of 109 patients reported with ADRs to ART during July 2015-December 2015 were randomly included in a retrospective observational study conducted at an ART center attached to a government medical college of Maharashtra. Causality and severity assessment of ADRs was done by using Naranjo’s ADR Causality scale and Modified Hartwig and Siegel scale respectively. The data was computed using MS Excel and descriptive results were expressed as counts and percentages. The study was approved by Institutional Ethics Committee.Results: Among 109 patients, females (60.55%) had higher prevalence of ADRs than males (39.45%). A total of 132 ADRs were reported. Anemia (76.52%) was the commonest ADR reported followed by skin rash (11.36%) and raised renal function tests (6.06%). Zidovudine + Lamivudine + Nevirapine (ZLN) were the commonest ART regimen causing anemia as ADR.Conclusions: Reporting of ADRs is a very inefficient system in detecting drug-related conditions, leading to underestimation of the burden due to ADRs in India. A well-structured, efficient pharmacovigilance systems, which assesses and monitor safety profile and impact of antiretroviral medicines is very much needed at present in India

Design and construction of a novel simple and low-cost test bench point-absorber wave energy converter emulator system

This paper proposed a test bench device to emulate or simulate the electrical impulses of a wave energy converter (WEC). The objective of the study is to reconstruct under laboratory conditions the dynamics of a WEC in the form of an emulator to assess the performance, which, in this case, is the output power. The designed emulator device is programmable, which makes it possible to create under laboratory conditions the operating mode of the wave generator, identical to how the wave generator would work under real sea conditions. Any control algorithm can be executed in the designed emulator. In order to test the performance of the constructed WEC emulator, an experiment was conducted to test its power output against that of a real point-absorber WEC. The results indicate that, although the power output for that of the real WEC was higher than the WEC emulator, the emulator performed perfectly well. The relatively low power output of the emulator was because of the type of algorithm that was written for the emulator, therefore increasing the speed of the motor in the algorithm (code) would result in higher output for the proposed WEC emulator. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland

A study of adverse drug reactions in patients receiving treatment for multi-drug resistant tuberculosis

Background: A high frequency of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) is one of the major challenges in the treatment of Multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB). Patients may refuse to continue treatment if ADRs are not properly addressed, drugs may be stopped unnecessarily and treatment may be terminated prematurely by inexperienced health workers, resulting in a high proportion of failure.Methods: Patients diagnosed for MDR-TB and registered in Drug Resistant TB centre (DR-TB) of tertiary care hospital during period of July 2014 to June 2015 were enrolled in the study. Data of patients hospitalized for the complaints of ADR in DR-TB centre during study period was collected.Results: Out of 468 patients, 60 (12.82%) patients developed at least one adverse reaction and were hospitalised for the same. Among 109 reported ADRs, Gastrointestinal upset was the most common ADR reported (5.98%) followed by psychosis (4.91%) and ototoxicity (2.99%).Conclusions: The health providers, the patients and their relatives should be sensitised about these ADRs for early detection and treatment. It can also be suggested that the setup of DR-TB centre should be integrated with psychiatry and ENT specialities, with all the provisions of early detection of ADR and treatment

Serum lipid profile in non-polycystic ovary syndrome and polycystic ovary syndrome women: a comparative and correlational study

Background: Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), in addition to impaired ovulation, also affects metabolic pathways. Dyslipidemia, occurring in PCOS women leads to cardiovascular diseases in them. The purpose of the present study was to compare lipid profile and its correlation with biochemical and hormonal parameters in PCOS and non PCOS women, to analyse the correlation of lipid profile with hirsutism and body mass index (BMI) in PCOS women.Methods: The present study includes 68 women divided into non PCOS groups (n=30) and PCOS (n=38) as defined by Rotterdam criteria. PCOS group further divided into overweight / obese (n=23) and normal weight subgroups (n=15). Lipid profile, fasting blood glucose and hormonal profile were done in all the groups.Results: TG and TC/HDL ratio were significantly high in PCOS group. Hirsute patients had raised LDL levels as compared to non-hirsute. LDL showed positive significant correlation with insulin, HOMA, testosterone in PCOS group. TC was significantly positively correlated with insulin and HOMA in PCOS group. In both normal weight and overweight / obese PCOS subgroups, LDL had positive and significant correlation with testosterone. TC showed positive and significant correlation with HOMA in overweight/obese subgroup. HDL showed positive and highly significant correlation with FSH in normal weight PCOS.Conclusions: Hyperandrogenism in PCOS may be additionally marked by raised LDL. Overweight/obese PCOS subgroup may be prone to dyslipidemia as well as deranged glucose homeostasis, thereby making it an important therapeutic target

STUDIES ON GENETIC VARIABILITY IN DAHLIA (Dahlia variabilis L.)

ABSTRACT Twenty five dahlia accessions were evaluated to ascertain genetic parameters of variability. Phenotypic coefficients of variation (PCV) were higher than genotypic coefficients of variation (GCV) for all the characters studied. However higher PCV and GCV estimates were found for stalk length of the flower, duration of flowering, number of ray florets/flower and individual flower weight. High heritability with high genetic advance was observed for vase life, diameter of flower, stalk length of the flower and individual flower weight

Experimental Study on Performance Enhancement of a Photovoltaic Module Using a Combination of Phase Change Material and Aluminum Fins—Exergy, Energy and Economic (3e) Analysis

The electrical performance of a photovoltaic (PV) module is hugely affected by its tempera-ture. This study proposed a passive cooling mechanism for the cooling of a PV panel. The proposed cooling system is made up of a combination of aluminum fins and paraffin wax integrated at the PV panel’s rear side. The average temperature for the cooled panel for the entire period of the experiment is 36.62◦C against 48.75◦C for the referenced PV module. This represents an average reduction of 12.13◦C for the cooled panel. The average power for the cooled panel is 12.19 W against 10.95 W for the referenced module which is 11.33% improvement. The electrical efficiencies for the cooled panel and the referenced modules are 14.30% and 13.60%, respectively, representing an improvement of 5.15% in the electrical efficiency. The cooled solar PV module had an average exergy efficiency of 7.99% compared to 5.61% for the referenced module. In terms of the economics, the results from the computations show that LCOE of the cooled panel can range between 0.198 and 0.603 $/kWh, while that of the referenced module ranges from 0.221–0.671$/kWh depending on the number of days it operates. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland

Effect of Dual Surface Cooling of Solar Photovoltaic Panel on the Efficiency of the Module: Experimental Investigation

Solar photovoltaic (PV) energy is one of the most widely used renewable energy options around the world. However, its electrical efficiency drops with increasing PV module temperature, it is therefore necessary to find appropriate ways to improve the performance of the module under high temperature conditions. In this study we evaluated the impact of simultaneous dual surface cooling on the PV module's output performance experimen-tally. The PV module's rear surface was cooled using cotton wick mesh which absorbs water from a perforated pipe and use capillary action to transfer the water down the surface of the rear side of the module. The perforated pipe is strategically positioned at the upper part of the panel and as a result, water from the tank through the holes in the pipe also spread on the front surface of the panel. The experiment recorded a temperature drop of 23.55 °C. This resulted in about 30.3% improvement in the output power of the panel. The cooled PV module also recorded an average efficiency of 14.36% against 12.83% for the uncooled panel. This represent a difference of 1.53%which is 11.9% improvement in the electrical efficiency of the cooled panel. In effect, the proposed approach had a significant positive effect on the energy yield of the PV system. © 2021 Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors

A New Maximum Power Point Tracking Technique for Thermoelectric Generator Modules

Thermoelectric generators (TEGs) are devices that convert heat into electricity. This paper is about the design of a Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) technique for a TEG module. The module is built using 204 TEGs connected in series. It is connected to the load through a DC/DC boost converter. The MPPT technique used in this work is the Interval Type 2 Fuzzy Logic Controller (IT2FLC). To verify its performance, the IT2FLC is compared with a traditional Perturb and Observe (P&O) MPPT algorithm in the case of power and voltage response at steady state, load switching, and through various ranges of temperature differences (∆T). The TEG module is modeled and the whole system is simulated successfully using MATLAB SIMULINK R2017a. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland

Experimental Investigation of the Effect of a Combination of Active and Passive Cooling Mechanism on the Thermal Characteristics and Efficiency of Solar pv Module

A photovoltaic (PV) module’s electrical efficiency depends on the operating temperature of the cell. Electrical efficiency reduces with increasing PV module temperature which is one of the drawbacks of this technology. This is due to the negative temperature coefficient of a PV module which decreases its voltage significantly while the current increases slightly. This study combines both active and passive cooling mechanisms to improve the electrical output of a PV module. A heat sink made up of aluminum fins and an ultrasonic humidifier were used to cool the panel. The ultrasonic humidifier was used to generate a humid environment at the rear side of the PV module. The cooling process in the study was able to reduce the temperature of the panel averagely by 14.61 ℃. This reduction led to a 6.8% improvement in the electrical efficiency of the module. The average power of 12.23 W was recorded for the cooled panel against 10.87 W for the referenced module. In terms of water consumption, a total of 1.5 L was approximately consumed during the whole experimental process due to evaporation. In effect, the proposed cooling approach was demonstrated as effective. © 2021 by the author. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland