Role of microorganisms in improving nutritional status of the poor

The intestinal microflora as well as bacteria involved in fermentation of foods ordinarily consumed in India may contribute substantially for the improvement of nutritional status of poor Indians.     

Characterization of fluctuation statistics of radar clutter forIndian terrain

Characterization of the fluctuation statistics of radar clutter using Weibull and lognormal distribution models, is presented. Both farmland and sea clutter data measured using a noncoherent, airborne S-band radar are used in the analysis. The clutter data represent the first measurements from an airborne platform over Indian terrain. The values of the distribution parameters estimated using two different techniques have also been presented along with the different criteria used to classify the clutter     

Queuing Models for Estimating Aircraft Fleet Availability

The availability of a small fleet of aircraft in a flying-base, repair-depot combination is modeled and studied. First, a deterministic flow model relates parameters of interest and represents the state-of-the art in the planning of such systems. Second, a cyclic queue model shows the effect of the principal uncertainties in operation and repair and shows the consequent decrease in the availability of aircraft at the flying-base. Several options such as increasing fleet size, investments in additional repair facilities, or building reliability and maintainability into the individual aircraft during its life-cycle are open for increasing the availability. A life-cycle cost criterion brings out some of these features. Numerical results confirm Rose's prediction that there exists a minimal cost combination of end products and repair-depot capability to achieve a prescribed operational availability.     

Posttraumatic distress and physical functioning: A longitudinal study of injured survivors of community violence.

This study examines the cross-lagged relationships between posttraumatic distress symptoms and physical functioning, using a sample of 413 persons who were hospitalized for injuries resulting from community violence. Posttraumatic distress was assessed at 1 week, 3 months, and 12 months postinjury, and posttraumatic physical functioning was assessed at 3 months and 12 months. Structural equation modeling was used to assess the prospective relationship between posttraumatic distress symptoms and physical functioning while controlling for demographic characteristics and objective measures of injury severity. Results indicate that posttraumatic distress and physical functioning are reciprocally related. Individuals with high levels of psychological distress at 1 week posttrauma have worse physical functioning at 3 months. Psychological distress at 3 months was not significantly associated with subsequent change in physical functioning at 12 months. Individuals with poor physical functioning at 3 months had higher than expected levels of psychological distress at 12 months. These findings demonstrate a reciprocal relationship between physical and mental health following traumatic injury. Interventions targeting physical recovery may influence subsequent mental health, and therapies aimed at improving early mental health may also have long-term benefits for physical recovery. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Systems analysis for planning of air fleets and maintenance facilities

The high cost and extraordinary demands made on sophisticated air defence systems, pose hard challenges to the managers and engineers who plan the operation and maintenance of such systems. This paper presents a study aimed at developing simulation and systems analysis techniques for the effective planning and efficient operation of small fleets of aircraft, typical of the air force of a developing country. We consider an important aspect of fleet management: the problem of resource allocation for achieving prescribed operational effectiveness of the fleet. At this stage, we consider a single flying-base, where the operationally ready aircraft are stationed, and a repair-depot, where the planes are overhauled. An important measure of operational effectiveness is ‘ availability ’, which may be defined as the expected fraction of the fleet fit for use at a given instant. The tour of aircraft in a flying-base, repair-depot system through a cycle of ‘ operationally ready ’ and ‘ scheduled overhaul ’ phases is represented first by a deterministic flow process and then by a cyclic queuing process. Initially the steady-state availability at the flying-base is computed under the assumptions of Poisson arrivals, exponential service times and an equivalent singleserver repair-depot. This analysis also brings out the effect of fleet size on availability. It defines a ‘ small ’ fleet essentially in terms of the important ‘ traffic ’ parameter of service rate/maximum arrival rate. A simulation model of the system has been developed using GPSS to study sensitivity to distributional assumptions, to validate the principal assumptions of the analytical model such as the single-server assumption and to obtain confidence intervals for the statistical parameters of interest.     

Vibration signal based condition monitoring of mechanical equipment with scattering transform

Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology - Scattering transform is proposed using machine learning to extract translational, rotational and deformation invariant information for the first time...     

Decision Support Systems for Efficient Irrigation in the Middle Rio Grande Valley

Water is the lifeblood of the American West and the foundation of its economy, but it remains its scarcest resource. The explosive population growth in western United States, the emerging additional need for water for environmental uses, and the national importance of the domestic food production are driving major conflicts between these competing water uses. The case of the Middle Rio Grande illustrates the problem very well. The river is the ecological backbone of the Chihuahuan Desert region in the western United States, and supports its dynamic and diverse ecology, including the fish and wildlife habitat. The Rio Grande Silvery Minnow is federally listed as an endangered species, and the irrigated agriculture in the Middle Rio Grande has come under increasing pressure to reduce its water consumption and maintain the desired level of service to its water users. This paper will present the writers ongoing research on options to make irrigation system operations more efficient in the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District (MRGCD). Specifically, it will describe formulation and implementation of a decision support system (DSS) that can assist the MRGCD managers to more efficiently plan and implement their water delivery operations, thereby reducing river diversions. The MRGCD DSS uses linear programming to find an optimum water delivery schedule for canal service areas in the MRGCD irrigation system. The computer model is presently formulated along with the related data sets for two of the four divisions in the MRGCD. For the past 3?years, the model has been validated in the field and the evaluation indicates that the model recommendations are realistic and represent current management practices. The future plans are to complete the data files for the irrigation networks in the remaining two divisions and concurrently help the MRGCD implement the DSS to guide water delivery operation.     

Comparison of Zero-Inertia and Volume Balance Advance-Infiltration Models

Results of the advance-infiltration phase from a zero-inertia model and a volume balance model in level basins are analyzed and compared. Level basin irrigation systems are traditionally more efficient than other surface irrigation systems (e.g., furrows, borders). An important factor in the design and operation of level basins is the time of advance, which is primarily a function of the inflow rate, soil infiltration parameters, and roughness coefficient. The advance-infiltration phase is determined by two well-known and also very distinct mathematical approaches. The first approach is known as the zero-inertia model, which is categorized as “simplified hydrodynamics.” The simplification consists of ignoring some of the terms in the momentum equation. The second approach is based on the volume balance model and is considered to be “kinematics” because the momentum equation is ignored. The volume balance model, despite being less complex and less mathematically demanding than the zero-inertia model, provides satisfactory predictions of the advance-infiltration phase. The Lewis-Milne equation defines, in this case, the advance-infiltration phase with the modified Kostiakov infiltration function describing the infiltration process. The obtained solution is relatively simple to program. In spite of great advances in computers that facilitate the solution of complex mathematical schemes, hydrodynamic models, even simplified versions, are infrequently used in the daily practice of engineering because of their complexity. Time steps to be used in these simulations are extremely small to guarantee good accuracy and to avoid instability in the numerical scheme. Errors in the estimation of the time of advance between the zero-inertia and volume balance models range from 3.87 to 8.44% from unit inflows ranging from 2.0 to 7.0 L∕s∕m. The time of advance tL from the zero-inertia model is larger than that from the volume balance model, meaning that the zero-inertia model yields smaller average flow velocity for the entire basin than for the volume balance model.     

Resource management activities in healthcare information systems: A process perspective

Healthcare industries have not only been criticized for being slow in adopting IT (Barnes 2001) but also face tremendous challenges in developing and deploying HIS successfully (Teoh and Cai 2009). In view of these challenges, this study aims to articulate the theory and practice from Enterprise Systems (ES) as it is perceived to produce an extensive suite of strategic, managerial, and operational benefits in the healthcare setting. Healthcare institutions have begun to explore the possibilities of exploiting ES as a means to facilitate the delivery of high-quality and integrated patient care. In particular, one of the benefits of ES is that it leads to better resource management in terms of assets and manpower allocation. In our study, empirical data was collected and analyzed based on an in-depth case study of two ES implementations at Alexandra Hospital in Singapore. Our findings contribute to the ES research on how an organization manages its resource portfolio and activity during the implementation of a healthcare information system in a hospital. Theoretically, we adapted and extended Sirmon et al.’s (2007) Dynamic Resource Management Model of Value Creation and integrated it with the Technochange Life Cycle framework proposed by Markus (2004). Finally, this paper adds value by inductively deriving eight key resource management activities and seven key resources that correspond to the phases of the technochange life cycle.     

Managing Irrigation for Better River Ecosystems—A Case Study of the Middle Rio Grande

The technology of irrigated agriculture has often been controversial. The development agencies would praise its productivity, as only 18% of the world’s cultivated land is irrigated but produces roughly 33% of the world’s human food supply. Environmental and ecological concerns cite the degradation of natural landscapes, elimination of floodplains and wetlands, and profound impacts on wildlife habitats. Dr. Mark Fiege (University of Washington Press, Seattle, 1999) in his book entitled Irrigated Eden: The Making of an Agricultural Landscape in the American West proposes a possible reconciling view—that irrigation should be viewed as a manmade ecological system, in which land and water are modified to increase agricultural production. The reported research has used this ecological approach to study the Middle Rio Grande irrigated landscape, for the purpose of identifying options for water and ecosystem conservation. This article presents research findings related to opportunities in the agricultural sector to reduce water diversions from the river, primarily by changing the practice of continuous canal water delivery to rotational water delivery. Following the research recommendations since 2002, irrigation water users in the Middle Rio Grande Valley have reduced their diversions by more than 30%, which means more water is now available in the river for better ecology in general and for better fish and wildlife habitat in particular.