Spinodal Phase Separation in Liquid Films with Quenched Disorder

We study spinodal phase separation in unstable thin liquid films on chemically disordered substrates via simulations of the thin-film equation. The disorder is characterized by immobile patches of varying size and Hamaker constant. The effect of disorder is pronounced in the early stages (amplification of fluctuations), remains during the intermediate stages and vanishes in the late stages (domain growth). These findings are in contrast to the well-known effects of quenched disorder in usual phase-separation processes, viz., the early stages remain undisturbed and domain growth is slowed down in the asymptotic regime. We also address the inverse problem of estimating disorder by thin-film experiments.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figure

SMOTified-GAN for class imbalanced pattern classification problems

Class imbalance in a dataset is a major problem for classifiers that results in poor prediction with a high true positive rate (TPR) but a low true negative rate (TNR) for a majority positive training dataset. Generally, the pre-processing technique of oversampling of minority class(es) are used to overcome this deficiency. Our focus is on using the hybridization of Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) and Synthetic Minority Over-Sampling Technique (SMOTE) to address class imbalanced problems. We propose a novel two-phase oversampling approach involving knowledge transfer that has the synergy of SMOTE and GAN. The unrealistic or overgeneralized samples of SMOTE are transformed into realistic distribution of data by GAN where there is not enough minority class data available for GAN to process them by itself effectively. We named it SMOTified-GAN as GAN works on pre-sampled minority data produced by SMOTE rather than randomly generating the samples itself. The experimental results prove the sample quality of minority class(es) has been improved in a variety of tested benchmark datasets. Its performance is improved by up to 9\% from the next best algorithm tested on F1-score measurements. Its time complexity is also reasonable which is around O(N2d2T) for a sequential algorithm

Kinetics of Spinodal Phase Separation in Unstable Thin Liquid Films

We study universality in the kinetics of spinodal phase separation in unstable thin liquid films, via simulations of the thin film equation. It is shown that in addition to morphology and free energy,the number density of local maxima in the film profile can also be used to identify the early, intermediate and late stages of spinodal phase separation. A universal curve between the number density of local maxima and rescaled time describes the kinetics of early stage in d = 2, 3. The Lifshitz-Slyozov exponent of -1/3 describes the kinetics of the late stage in d = 2 even in the absence of coexisting equilibrium phases.Comment: 5 figure

Laser Range Sensors

This paper presents the design aspects of laser range finders and proximity sensors beingdeveloped at IRDE for different applications. The principle used in most of the laser rangefinders is pulse echo or time-of-flight measurement. Optical triangulation is used in proximitysensors while techniques like phase detection and interferometry are employed in instrumentsfor surveying and motion controllers where high accuracy is desired. Most of the laser rangefinders are designed for ranging non-cooperative targets

Adding interventions to mass measles vaccinations in India.

OBJECTIVE: To quantify the impact on mortality of offering a hypothetical set of technically feasible, high-impact interventions for maternal and child survival during India's 2010-2013 measles supplementary immunization activity. METHODS: We developed Lives Saved Tool models for 12 Indian states participating in the supplementary immunization, based on state- and sex-specific data on mortality from India's Million Deaths Study and on health services coverage from Indian household surveys. Potential add-on interventions were identified through a literature review and expert consultations. We quantified the number of lives saved for a campaign offering measles vaccine alone versus a campaign offering measles vaccine with six add-on interventions (nutritional screening and complementary feeding for children, vitamin A and zinc supplementation for children, multiple micronutrient and calcium supplementation in pregnancy, and free distribution of insecticide-treated bednets). FINDINGS: The measles vaccination campaign saved an estimated 19 016 lives of children younger than 5 years. A hypothetical campaign including measles vaccine with add-on interventions was projected to save around 73 900 lives (range: 70 200-79 300), preventing 73 700 child deaths (range: 70 000-79 000) and 300 maternal deaths (range: 200-400). The most effective interventions in the whole package were insecticide-treated bednets, measles vaccine and preventive zinc supplementation. Girls accounted for 66% of expected lives saved (12 712/19 346) for the measles vaccine campaign, and 62% of lives saved (45 721/74 367) for the hypothetical campaign including add-on interventions. CONCLUSION: In India, a measles vaccination campaign including feasible, high-impact interventions could substantially increase the number of lives saved and mitigate gender-related inequities in child mortality

Sequence Characterisation and Genotyping of Allelic Variants of Beta Casein Gene Establishes Native Cattle of Ladakh to be a Natural Resource for A2 Milk

Bovine milk is regarded as nature's perfect food due to presence of vital nutrients. However some peptides are generated after proteolytic digestion of β-casein that have opioid properties and may increase the risk of chronic diseases. There are 13 genetic variants of bovine beta-casein; out of these A1 and A2 are the most common in dairy cattle breeds. The A1 and A2 variants differ only at position 67, which is histidine in A1 or proline in A2 milk. Earlier published reports have indicated that A1 β casein could be responsible for several health disorders like diabetes, coronary heart disease etc. while A2 β-casein is generally considered safe for human consumption. In the present study, an effort was made to sequence characterize β casein gene and identify allelic distribution of A1A2 alleles in native cattle of Ladakh region adapted to high altitude and low oxygen condition. The data showed 2 non-synonymous variations in coding region, while 5’UTR was completely conserved. The 3’UTR showed 2 more variations in Ladakhi samples. Further, the genotyping in 85 Ladakhi cattle for A1A2 alleles revealed that in Ladakhi cattle, A2 allele is predominantly present as reported for some of the other Indian breeds. The frequency of A2 allele was 0.90 and frequency of A2A2 genotype was found to be 0.79 in Ladakhi cattle. The present data strongly indicate that local cattle of Ladakh with higher frequency of A2 allele and A2A2 genotype is natural resource for A2 milk.  Systematic efforts should be made for long term conservation and genetic improvement of this invaluable genetic resource of Ladakh