Sending and Receiving Internet Messages from Disconnected Areas

Over 62% of the world is connected to the internet with more than 6.9 billion smartphone users. The omnipresence of technology in the form of the internet and smartphones have led to constant research in improving communication throughout the world. But even today, 37% (2.9 billion people) are not connected to the internet even though most of the people in such areas have smartphones. To solve this problem of access to internet services in disconnected areas, a software-only mobile-first approach has been proposed for disconnected data distribution infrastructure which can support different internet applications in limited connectivity. A prototype application based on Signal Messenger has been created to allow users to send and receive internet messages without the need for internet connectivity. This solution can help bridge the digital divide, improving access to critical communication services in disconnected areas

Challenges in establishing waste-to-energy projects in developing countries with a case study from India

Municipal solid waste (MSW) management and its scientific disposal is a major concern for the local municipal authorities of all major Indian cities. Under the "Clean India Mission", the Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) of India is investing US $9 Billion to clean up 75 largest cities in India. Waste to Energy (WTE) plants will be a key to its implementation. Currently, open air burning and landfilling are the most common practices of wase disposal in India. Landfilling is considered the least favourable option for cities as these sites occupy significant land areas in already crowded urban areas. WTE plants or incinerators are considered the most viable solution for safe disposal of MSW all over the world. In India, however, WTE projects have had mixed results and outright failures. Currently, only eight such plants are operational in the country. This is due to several technical, economic, environmental, social and policy factors involved. This study investigates the feasibility of a proposed state-of-the art WTE plant in Delhi which will set an example for other cities to follow. It reviews the various challenges involved in the implementation of such a project and suggests mitigating solutions to overcome these challenges

X-ray Diffraction Analysis of Cu2+ Doped Zn1-xCuxFe2O4 Spinel Nanoparticles using Williamson-Hall Plot Method

The nanoparticles (NPs) of Zn1-xCuxFe2O4 (ZCFO) spinels with x = 0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6 and 0.8 were synthesized by a sol-gel combustion method using acetate precursor. The NPs of ZCFO were prepared by following calcination process at 600C for 8hrs. The synthesized NPs of ZCFO were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis using Rietveld refinement. The Rietveld refinement of the XRD patterns revealed that the ZCFO spinels crystallize into single diamond cubic structure with Fd-3m space group. The lattice constant and unit cell volume for ZCFO NPs shrink with enhancing doping concentration of Cu2+ ion. The crystalline growth in the NPs of ZCFO was examined by peak broadening present in the XRD pattern. The Williamson-Hall (W-H) plot method were used to study the individual involvements of crystallite sizes and lattice strain on the peak broadening of the NPs of ZCFO spinels. Whereas, particle size of the ZCFO sample with x = 0.40 was estimated by high-resolution scanning electron microscopy micrograph

Overview of the DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys

The DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys (http://legacysurvey.org/) are a combination of three public projects (the Dark Energy Camera Legacy Survey, the Beijing–Arizona Sky Survey, and the Mayall z-band Legacy Survey) that will jointly image ≈14,000 deg^2 of the extragalactic sky visible from the northern hemisphere in three optical bands (g, r, and z) using telescopes at the Kitt Peak National Observatory and the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory. The combined survey footprint is split into two contiguous areas by the Galactic plane. The optical imaging is conducted using a unique strategy of dynamically adjusting the exposure times and pointing selection during observing that results in a survey of nearly uniform depth. In addition to calibrated images, the project is delivering a catalog, constructed by using a probabilistic inference-based approach to estimate source shapes and brightnesses. The catalog includes photometry from the grz optical bands and from four mid-infrared bands (at 3.4, 4.6, 12, and 22 μm) observed by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorersatellite during its full operational lifetime. The project plans two public data releases each year. All the software used to generate the catalogs is also released with the data. This paper provides an overview of the Legacy Surveys project

Bacteriological profile of urinary tract infections at a tertiary care hospital in Western Uttar Pradesh, India

Background: This prospective study was intended to identify the bacterial pathogens causing urinary tract infections and their antimicrobial resistance patterns in a tertiary care teaching hospital of Western Uttar Pradesh, India.Methods: Clean-catch mid-stream urine samples were collected from patients symptomatic for UTI. Samples were cultured aerobically on CLED agar and strains having significant growth (>105cfu/ml) were further processed for identification using standard microbiological techniques and their antimicrobial susceptibility pattern evaluated by Kirby Bauer disk diffusion as per CLSI guidelines.Results: Out of the 2250 urine samples processed, 750 showed significant growth on aerobic culture. Thus, the prevalence of UTI in the population was 33.3%. E. coli was the commonest isolate (33.3%) followed by S. aureus (20 %), Klebsiella spp. (13.3%), Coagulase Negative Staphylococci (13.3%), Enterococcus spp. (6.7%), Pseudomonas spp. (6.7%) and Candida spp. (6.7%). Amongst these isolates, Gram negative bacilli have shown a high susceptibility to imipenem, levofloxacin, nitrofurantoin, linezolid and amoxyclav and Gram positive organisms towards levofloxacin, nitrofurantoin, linezolid, vancomycin and amikacin.Conclusions: This study has shown nitrofurantoin and fluoroquinolones to be the most effective drugs for the empirical therapy of UTI in our region. The study of antimicrobial susceptibility pattern of UTI in a particular area can guide the clinicians in the rational choice of antibiotic treatment so that misuse of antibiotics can be prevented

Inflation and Dark Energy from spectroscopy at z > 2

The expansion of the Universe is understood to have accelerated during two epochs: in its very first moments during a period of Inflation and much more recently, at z < 1, when Dark Energy is hypothesized to drive cosmic acceleration. The undiscovered mechanisms behind these two epochs represent some of the most important open problems in fundamental physics. The large cosmological volume at 2 < z < 5, together with the ability to efficiently target high-z galaxies with known techniques, enables large gains in the study of Inflation and Dark Energy. A future spectroscopic survey can test the Gaussianity of the initial conditions up to a factor of ~50 better than our current bounds, crossing the crucial theoretical threshold of σ(f^(local)_(NL)) of order unity that separates single field and multi-field models. Simultaneously, it can measure the fraction of Dark Energy at the percent level up to z = 5, thus serving as an unprecedented test of the standard model and opening up a tremendous discovery space