UNICS - An Unified Instrument Control System for Small/Medium Sized Astronomical Observatories

Although the astronomy community is witnessing an era of large telescopes, smaller and medium sized telescopes still maintain their utility being larger in numbers. In order to obtain better scientific outputs it is necessary to incorporate modern and advanced technologies to the back-end instruments and to their interfaces with the telescopes through various control processes. However often tight financial constraints on the smaller and medium size observatories limit the scope and utility of these systems. Most of the time for every new development on the telescope the back-end control systems are required to be built from scratch leading to high costs and efforts. Therefore a simple, low cost control system for small and medium size observatory needs to be developed to minimize the cost and efforts while going for the expansion of the observatory. Here we report on the development of a modern, multipurpose instrument control system UNICS (Unified Instrument Control System) to integrate the controls of various instruments and devices mounted on the telescope. UNICS consists of an embedded hardware unit called Common Control Unit (CCU) and Linux based data acquisition and User Interface. The Hardware of the CCU is built around the Atmel make ATmega 128 micro-controller and is designed with a back-plane, Master Slave architecture. The Graphical User Interface (GUI) has been developed based on QT and the back end application software is based on C/C++. UNICS provides feedback mechanisms which give the operator a good visibility and a quick-look display of the status and modes of instruments. UNICS is being used for regular science observations since March 2008 on 2m, f/10 IUCAA Telescope located at Girawali, Pune India.Comment: Submitted to PASP, 10 Pages, 5 figure

Surface states in bulk single crystal of topological semimetal Co3Sn2S2 toward water oxidation

The band inversion in topological phase matters bring exotic physical properties such as the topologically protected surface states (TSS). They strongly influence the surface electronic structures of the materials and could serve as a good platform to gain insight into the surface reactions. Here we synthesized high-quality bulk single crystals of Co3Sn2S2 that naturally hosts the band structure of a topological semimetal. This guarantees the existence of robust TSS from the Co atoms. Co3Sn2S2 crystals expose their Kagome lattice that constructed by Co atoms and have high electrical conductivity. They serves as catalytic centers for oxygen evolution process (OER), making bonding and electron transfer more efficient due to the partially filled orbital. The bulk single crystal exhibits outstanding OER catalytic performance, although the surface area is much smaller than that of Co-based nanostructured catalysts. Our findings emphasize the importance of tailoring TSS for the rational design of high-activity electrocatalysts

A semblance of the first Spanish women pioneers in the scientific-technical area

[EN] Although the Spanish Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas focuses its research on eight major scientific-technical areas, which cover most of human knowledge, from the most basic or fundamental aspects of science to the most complex technological developments; from human and social sciences to food science and technology through Biology, Biomedicine, Physics, Chemistry, Materials, natural resources or agricultural sciences, the disciplines that have traditionally been considered to constitute this area are Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Architecture and Engineering. This communication shows a brief semblance of Spanish women who can be considered pioneers, because they are the first graduates or the first Ph.D. doctors, in each of these disciplines. The objective is that society in general, for which almost certainly these women are practically unknown, can take them as a reference and an example of what women are capable of doing in any field of life, even though they have to overcome many difficulties of all kinds, of gender, fundamentally, to achieve their purposes and also to succeed in fields that originally seem to be destined only for males.[ES] Aunque el Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas centra su investigación en torno a ocho grandes áreas científico-técnicas, que cubren la mayor parte del conocimiento humano, desde los aspectos más básicos o fundamentales de la ciencia hasta los desarrollos tecnológicos más complejos; desde las ciencias humanas y sociales a la ciencia y tecnología de alimentos pasando por la Biología, la Biomedicina, la Física, la Química, los materiales, los recursos naturales o las ciencias agrarias, tradicionalmente se ha considerado que las disciplinas que conforman este área de conocimiento son Matemáticas, Física, Química, Biología, Arquitectura e Ingeniería. En este artículo se muestra una breve semblanza de las mujeres españolas que pueden considerarse pioneras, por ser las primeras licenciadas o las primeras doctoras, en cada una de esas disciplinas. El objetivo es que la sociedad en general, para la que casi con toda seguridad estas mujeres son prácticamente desconocidas, pueda tomarlas como referente y ejemplo de lo que las mujeres son capaces de hacer en cualquier estamento de la vida, aun teniendo que superar numerosas dificultades de todo tipo, de género, fundamentalmente, para lograr sus propósitos y también conseguir triunfar en campos que originariamente parecen estar destinados solo a los varones.Núñez Valdés, J. (2019). Una semblanza de las primeras mujeres españolas pioneras en el área científico-técnica. Ciencia, Técnica y Mainstreaming Social. (3):34-44. https://doi.org/10.4995/citecma.2019.11142SWORD34443Algora Alba, Carlos (1996). El Instituto-Escuela de Sevilla (1932-36), Diputación de Sevilla, sección Ciencias Sociales, número 7.Araque, Natividad (2008): "Jenara Vicenta Arnal Yarza: una científica y catedrática pionera en España" en Faísca: Revista de altas capacidades, 14, 16, 27-49.Araque, Natividad, Villa, Núria (2011): "La labor de las primeras directoras de los Institutos de Enseñanza Media de Madrid: Beatriz Galindo y Emperatriz María de Austria" en Participación Educativa, número extraordinario, 225-239Carbonell, Carmen y Núñez, Juan (2010): "100 a-os de derechos: la primera mujer española doctora en Física". En II Congreso Universitario Nacional Investigación y Género. Universidad de Sevilla, 781 - 792.Durán, María José, Escudero, Ana María, Núñez, Juan y Regodón, Elena (2011): "La arquitectura, un lugar para las mujeres". En III Congreso Universitario Nacional Investigación y Género. Universidad de Sevilla, 1392 - 1407.Flecha García, Consuelo (1996): Las primeras universitarias en España, 1872-1910. Narcea Ediciones, 1996. 264 páginas.Gómez, L., Núñez, Juan, Ramos, A. (2016): "Un paseo por la vida de las primeras mujeres biólogas en España". En III International Conference Gender and Communication y I Congreso de Micromachismo en la Comunicación, Facultad de Comunicación. Universidad de Sevilla. 7 y 8 de abril, 2016.González-Martín, Francisco Javier (2013): "Pilar Careaga y Basabe (1908-1993): Feminismo católico y militancia política en el franquismo" en Aportes, 81, a-o XXVIII, 159-189.Magallón-Portolés, Carmen (1997): "Mujeres en las ciencias físico-químicas en España: el Instituto Nacional de Ciencias y el Instituto Nacional de Física y Química (1910-1936)" en Llull, 20, 39, 529. AAAMagallón Portolés, Carmen (1998): Pioneras españolas en la ciencia. Las mujeres del Instituto Nacional de Física y Química. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas.Magallón-Portolés, Carmen (1991): "La incorporación de las mujeres a las carreras científicas en la España Contemporánea: la Facultad de Ciencias de Zaragoza (1882-1936)" en Llull, 14, 27, 531-549.Magallón-Portolés, Carmen (2001): "La residencia de estudiantes para señoritas y el laboratorio Foster (Mujeres de ciencia en España a principios del siglo XX)", en Endoxa: Series Filosóficas, n." 14, 157-181.Maraver, Rocío, Núñez, Juan. (2009): "Carmen Martínez Sancho y el Instituto Murillo de Sevilla: una relación de entrega y generosidad". En I Congreso Universitario Andaluz Investigación y Género. Universidad de Sevilla, 17 y 18 de junio de 2009, 883-893.Núñez, Juan., Rodríguez-Antón, B., Rodríguez-Remesal, E. (2014a): "Primeras mujeres doctoras en Química en España". En V Congreso Universitario Nacional Investigación y Género. Universidad de Sevilla, 21 y 22 de junio de 2012, 1287-1298.Núñez, Juan., Alonso, Alejandro y Arroyo, María (2014b). "Primeras mujeres licenciadas en Farmacia en España" V Congreso Universitario Nacional Investigación y Género. Universidad de Sevilla, 03 y 04 de Julio de 2014, página 5.Sánchez-Ron, José Manuel (2014): Conversación de Margarita Salas y José Manuel Sánchez Ron. Mercurio. Fundación José Manuel Lara. La ciencia en la Academia.Torreira, M., Núñez, Juan. (2018): "Pilar Careaga, mujer adelantada a su época". En IV International Conference on Gender and Communication, Sevilla, 7 y 9 de marzo de 2018, página 8

Global burden of 288 causes of death and life expectancy decomposition in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations, 1990–2021: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021

BACKGROUND Regular, detailed reporting on population health by underlying cause of death is fundamental for public health decision making. Cause-specific estimates of mortality and the subsequent effects on life expectancy worldwide are valuable metrics to gauge progress in reducing mortality rates. These estimates are particularly important following large-scale mortality spikes, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. When systematically analysed, mortality rates and life expectancy allow comparisons of the consequences of causes of death globally and over time, providing a nuanced understanding of the effect of these causes on global populations. METHODS The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2021 cause-of-death analysis estimated mortality and years of life lost (YLLs) from 288 causes of death by age-sex-location-year in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations for each year from 1990 until 2021. The analysis used 56 604 data sources, including data from vital registration and verbal autopsy as well as surveys, censuses, surveillance systems, and cancer registries, among others. As with previous GBD rounds, cause-specific death rates for most causes were estimated using the Cause of Death Ensemble model-a modelling tool developed for GBD to assess the out-of-sample predictive validity of different statistical models and covariate permutations and combine those results to produce cause-specific mortality estimates-with alternative strategies adapted to model causes with insufficient data, substantial changes in reporting over the study period, or unusual epidemiology. YLLs were computed as the product of the number of deaths for each cause-age-sex-location-year and the standard life expectancy at each age. As part of the modelling process, uncertainty intervals (UIs) were generated using the 2·5th and 97·5th percentiles from a 1000-draw distribution for each metric. We decomposed life expectancy by cause of death, location, and year to show cause-specific effects on life expectancy from 1990 to 2021. We also used the coefficient of variation and the fraction of population affected by 90% of deaths to highlight concentrations of mortality. Findings are reported in counts and age-standardised rates. Methodological improvements for cause-of-death estimates in GBD 2021 include the expansion of under-5-years age group to include four new age groups, enhanced methods to account for stochastic variation of sparse data, and the inclusion of COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality-which includes excess mortality associated with the pandemic, excluding COVID-19, lower respiratory infections, measles, malaria, and pertussis. For this analysis, 199 new country-years of vital registration cause-of-death data, 5 country-years of surveillance data, 21 country-years of verbal autopsy data, and 94 country-years of other data types were added to those used in previous GBD rounds. FINDINGS The leading causes of age-standardised deaths globally were the same in 2019 as they were in 1990; in descending order, these were, ischaemic heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and lower respiratory infections. In 2021, however, COVID-19 replaced stroke as the second-leading age-standardised cause of death, with 94·0 deaths (95% UI 89·2-100·0) per 100 000 population. The COVID-19 pandemic shifted the rankings of the leading five causes, lowering stroke to the third-leading and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease to the fourth-leading position. In 2021, the highest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 occurred in sub-Saharan Africa (271·0 deaths [250·1-290·7] per 100 000 population) and Latin America and the Caribbean (195·4 deaths [182·1-211·4] per 100 000 population). The lowest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 were in the high-income super-region (48·1 deaths [47·4-48·8] per 100 000 population) and southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania (23·2 deaths [16·3-37·2] per 100 000 population). Globally, life expectancy steadily improved between 1990 and 2019 for 18 of the 22 investigated causes. Decomposition of global and regional life expectancy showed the positive effect that reductions in deaths from enteric infections, lower respiratory infections, stroke, and neonatal deaths, among others have contributed to improved survival over the study period. However, a net reduction of 1·6 years occurred in global life expectancy between 2019 and 2021, primarily due to increased death rates from COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality. Life expectancy was highly variable between super-regions over the study period, with southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania gaining 8·3 years (6·7-9·9) overall, while having the smallest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 (0·4 years). The largest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 occurred in Latin America and the Caribbean (3·6 years). Additionally, 53 of the 288 causes of death were highly concentrated in locations with less than 50% of the global population as of 2021, and these causes of death became progressively more concentrated since 1990, when only 44 causes showed this pattern. The concentration phenomenon is discussed heuristically with respect to enteric and lower respiratory infections, malaria, HIV/AIDS, neonatal disorders, tuberculosis, and measles. INTERPRETATION Long-standing gains in life expectancy and reductions in many of the leading causes of death have been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the adverse effects of which were spread unevenly among populations. Despite the pandemic, there has been continued progress in combatting several notable causes of death, leading to improved global life expectancy over the study period. Each of the seven GBD super-regions showed an overall improvement from 1990 and 2021, obscuring the negative effect in the years of the pandemic. Additionally, our findings regarding regional variation in causes of death driving increases in life expectancy hold clear policy utility. Analyses of shifting mortality trends reveal that several causes, once widespread globally, are now increasingly concentrated geographically. These changes in mortality concentration, alongside further investigation of changing risks, interventions, and relevant policy, present an important opportunity to deepen our understanding of mortality-reduction strategies. Examining patterns in mortality concentration might reveal areas where successful public health interventions have been implemented. Translating these successes to locations where certain causes of death remain entrenched can inform policies that work to improve life expectancy for people everywhere. FUNDING Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Genetic diversity among three <i style="">Morinda </i>species using RAPD and ISSR markers

285-293A total of 22 accessions of 3 Morinda spp. (Family: Rubiaceae), namely, M. citrifolia, M. tinctoria and M. pubescens were collected from three geographical locations of India, viz., Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. RAPD (52) and ISSR (60) primers were employed as genetic marker to study the genotypic variation within and between Morinda spp. In RAPD, only 26 primers amplified and gave reproducible fragments, of which 11 primers were polymorphic. Among 1767 amplified DNA fragments obtained, 953 (54.33%) were polymorphic. The accessions AHD and SHE-1 were the most closely related cultivars with the highest similarity index (0.943) and BBD and MAA-1 were the most distantly related cultivar with lowest similarity index (0.387). In ISSR, of 60 primers tested, 22 gave clear and reproducible fragments. In total, 1892 fragments of different lengths were amplified, of which 1052 bands (56.02%) were polymorphic. According to ISSR results, the two most closely related cultivars were MTC and JGH with the highest similarity index (0.944) and the most distantly related cultivars were BMN with MEM and BGL-2 with lowest similarity index (0.248). Polymorphism and similarity index values for both RAPD and ISSR systems showed that both marker systems are equally effective for diversity analysis in Morinda specie

Liquid membrane phenomena: Characterization of liquid membranes generated by lecithin

569-576The transport behaviour of liquid membranes generated by lecithin at the sintered glass membrane-water interface has been studied. Data on hydraulic permeability, electroosmotic velocity, streaming potential and streaming current have been used to calculate the transport coefficients (Rik) accounting for liquid membranes, using the theory developed by Kedem and Katchalsky for composite series membranes. The trends observed in degree of coupling corresponding to liquid membranes are indicative of the applicability of liquid membranes as model systems for biological membranes. The efficiencies of electro-kinetic energy conversion for both electroosmosis and streaming potential have been evaluated and the results thus obtained have been shown to be consistent with the steady state thermodynamic theory

Heat transfer coefficients and productivity of a single slope single basin solar still in Indian climatic condition: Experimental and theoretical comparison

A theoretical and experimental study was conducted at the central Indian location of Rewa, M.P., India (Latitude: 24°33â² 20.81â²â² N, Longitude: 81°18â² 49.1â²â² E). This paper presents a detailed comparison of the theoretical and the experimental results obtained for a single sloped basin type solar still. Results for different parameters such as basin water temperature, glass cover temperature, distillate output, evaporative, convective and radiative heat transfer coefficients and attenuation factor were obtained for basin water depths ranging from 2cm to 10cm. For solar still, daily distillate output decreased with increase in basin water depth. The theoretical value of daily efficiency for 2cm and 10cm basin water depth was around 52.83% and 41.75%, respectively, and for the same basin water depth, experimental daily efficiency was around 41.49% and 32.42% respectively. A sound agreement between the theoretical and the experimental results was observed. Keywords: Single sloped solar still, Basin liner, Nocturnal output, Attenuation factor, Distillate outpu

Liquid membrane phenomena: Steady state energy conversion for composite membranes generated by cholesterol

7-12The efficiencies of electro-kinetic energy conversion across composite liquid membranes generated by cholesterol on one side and both sides of the supporting membrane have been evaluated for both electroosmosis and streaming potential. The efficiencies of energy conversion have also been calculated across cholesterol liquid membranes alone in the absence of supporting membrane. The results thus obtained have been found to be consistent with the linear theories of steady state thermodynamics. An attempt has been made to relate the maximum conversion efficiency characterizing the series composite membrane as a whole with the maximum conversion efficiency for its constituent membrane elements. Substitution of the values of various experimentally evaluated parameters into the relationship developed for series membrane yields results in fair agreement for the situation when cholesterol liquid membrane is generated on one side of the supporting membrane interface

An Experimental Study on the Inner and Outer Glass Cover Temperatures of Solar Still

The glass cover of a solar still plays a major role in its performance and efficiency since the output depends directly on the water and glass cover temperature difference. In most of the experimental studies, the outer glass cover temperatures were recorded and considered as the glass cover temperature for calculations, however the condensation on the glass cover surface depends more on the inner surface temperature than the outer. An experimental study was conducted in order to study the difference between the inner and the outer glass cover temperature difference in a conventional basin type solar still and a low thermal inertia solar still obtained by modifying the conventional still. It was observed that for the conventional still, the temperature difference was maximum upto7.14% at noon and insignificant in the morning and evening hours. For the low thermal inertia still, the difference was more upto 10.2% at around 11:00 hrs and zero during the early morning and the evening hours. A significant difference in the glass cover temperature curves for the two different types of solar stills can be seen