Need of independent rural power producers in India—an overview

The current scenario of heavy power crisis in India particularly in rural areas and small towns requires urgent solution. There is a need to look for innovative and sustainable ways for promoting equitable development in India. The centralized energy planning model currently used ignores energy needs of the rural areas and poor and has also led to environmental degradation, whereas decentralized energy planning model is in the interest of efficient utilization of resources. Energy planning at the village level is the bottom limit of the application of decentralized planning principle. The individual villages are the smallest social units where the energy consumption occurs. Renewable energy is energy derived from sources that are being replaced by nature, such as water, wind, solar, or biomass. Renewable sources are essentially non-polluting, if applied correctly. This article presents a review of the important decentralized renewable energy options. Also, this article discusses about current power scenario in India particularly in rural sector. Taking into consideration the limitations of conventional power policy and benefits decentralized power potential in India, this article presents the need to setup independent rural power producers (IRPPs) as an instrument to promote sustainable and socially equitable rural power sector development.     

Volumetric, Compressibility, and Surface Tension Studies on Micellization Behavior of SDS in Aqueous Medium: Effect of Sugars

The densities , velocities of sound , and surface tension , of anionic surfactant sodium dodecyl sulfate in presence of aqueous saccharides (fructose and maltose) with concentrations 0.01 and 0.10 mol kg^?1 have been reported over a wide temperature range (293.15–313.15 K) at an interval of 5 K. The apparent molar volume , isentropic compressibility , and apparent molar adiabatic compression values have been calculated using densities and velocities of sound data. Both, and vary non‐linearly at lower concentration of surfactant and tend to achieve linearity at higher concentration of surfactant in presence of saccharides. From the surface tension data, parameters like surface excess , minimum area occupied by the surfactant molecule at the saturated air/solution interface and surface film pressure have been computed. The effect of additives on these parameters has been discussed in terms of different types of the interactions pertaining in the micellar system. An attempt has also been made to draw an inference regarding the effect of these additives on the critical micelle concentration of the surfactant.     

Natural and forced ventilation of buoyant gas released in a full-scale garage: Comparison of model predictions and experimental data

An increase in the number of hydrogen-fueled applications in the marketplace will require a better understanding of the potential for fires and explosion associated with the unintended release of hydrogen within a structure. Predicting the temporally evolving hydrogen concentration in a structure, with unknown release rates, leak sizes and leak locations is a challenging task. A simple analytical model was developed to predict the natural and forced mixing and dispersion of a buoyant gas released in a partially enclosed compartment with vents at multiple levels. The model is based on determining the instantaneous compartment over-pressure that drives the flow through the vents and assumes that the helium released under the automobile mixes fully with the surrounding air. Model predictions were compared with data from a series of experiments conducted to measure the volume fraction of a buoyant gas (at 8 different locations) released under an automobile placed in the center of a full-scale garage (6.8 m × 5.4 m × 2.4 m). Helium was used as a surrogate gas, for safety concerns. The rate of helium released under an automobile was scaled to represent 5 kg of hydrogen released over 4 h. CFD simulations were also performed to confirm the observed physical phenomena. Analytical model predictions for helium volume fraction compared favorably with measured experimental data for natural and forced ventilation. Parametric studies are presented to understand the effect of release rates, vent size and location on the predicted volume fraction in the garage. Results demonstrate the applicability of the model to effectively and rapidly reduce the flammable concentration of hydrogen in a compartment through forced ventilation.     

Efficient disparity estimation from stereo images using hybrid-guided image filter

Stereo vision process involves capturing the pictures from a camera of the same scene from at least two different locations and calculating the three-dimensional information. Conventionally, these two versions of snapshots are called left and right views which yield the depth information of an object upon relative comparison of its location in two views. Although the stereo image and its applications are becoming increasingly prevalent, there has been very limited research on disparity estimation from stereo images. Most of the existing techniques suffer from the gradient reversal artefacts issue. Therefore, to handle this issue, we have proposed a hybrid-guided image filter for improving the disparity estimation from stereo images. The hybrid filter utilizes the features of guided image filter and Bayesian non-local means with edge aware constraint. Maximum likelihood and local area homogeneity analysis are used to generate the guidance image for the proposed filter. To enhance the quality of disparity estimation from stereo images, segmentation is also done using the modified mean shift technique. Experimental results show that the proposed technique can efficiently estimate the depth maps over the available techniques. One-way ANOVA analysis on experimental results validates that the hybrid filter-based stereo matching outperforms consistently over the state-of-art approaches.     

Multifunctional mussel-inspired Gelatin and Tannic acid-based hydrogel with pH-controllable release of vitamin B12

Hydrogels have emerged to be an impeccable material for a large variety of applications over the past few decades. In the field of biomedical applications, remarkable progress has been observed in the effort of fabricating numerous hydrogel systems. In this work, gelatin and tannic acid-based stretchable and adhesive hydrogel has been synthesized to study the release behavior of vitamin B₁₂. Successful formation of the synthesized hydrogels was confirmed by Fourier transform infrared and X-ray diffraction analysis. The morphology of the surfaces and the cross section of such hydrogels were studied with Scanning electron microscopy analysis. Swelling behavior of our hydrogel was studied with Design Expert software. The maximum swelling of the hydrogel was found to be around 137 g/g. Adhesive property was demonstrated on various surfaces to observe the adhesiveness of the fabricated hydrogel. Blood compatibility study was also performed. The release behavior of vitamin B₁₂ was performed in two different pH media and it was found to have enhanced value in the fluid mimicking the intestine. This work provides a new prospect for designing hydrogels with stretchable and adhesive properties with pH-controllable drug delivery applications along with other promising applications in various fields of research.     

Raman spectra,photoluminescence and ferromagnetism of pure,Co and Fe doped SnO2 nanoparticles

The pure and transition metal (Co and Fe = 3 and 5 mol%) doped SnO₂ nanoparticles have been synthesized by a chemical route using polyvinyl alcohol as surfactant. These nanoparticles were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Raman, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, photoluminescence (PL) and magnetic measurements. The XRD patterns show that all the samples have tetragonal rutile structure without any extra phase and the value of average particle size using FWHM lies within 12–29 nm is also confirmed by TEM. FTIR spectrum has been used to confirm the formation of SnO bond. Raman spectroscopy shows the intensity loss of classical cassiterite SnO₂ vibration lines which is an indication of significant structural modifications. From PL, an intense blue luminescence centered at a wavelength ～530 nm is observed in the prepared SnO₂ nanoparticles, which is different from the yellow-red light emission observed in SnO₂ nanostructures prepared by other methods. The strong blue luminescence from the as-grown SnO₂ nanoparticles is attributed to oxygen-related defects that have been introduced during the growth process. These Co and Fe-doped SnO₂ nanoparticles exhibit room temperature ferromagnetism and the value of their magnetic moment and phase transition temperature are sensitive to their size and stoichiometric ratio.     

Defense Against Spectrum Sensing Data Falsification Attacker in Cognitive Radio Networks

Wireless Personal Communications - Cognitive radio is an empowering innovation that guarantees to achieve spectrum utilization. To manage the muddled wireless condition, cooperative spectrum...     

A study of finite size effects on cracked 2-D piezoelectric media using extended finite element method

The extended finite element method is applied on the two-dimensional (2-D) finite piezoelectric media weakened by a crack. The fourfold standard enrichment functions are taken in conjugation with the interaction integral to evaluate the intensity factors. Four sequence of analysis, namely crack–mesh alignment, aspect ratio, mesh with local refinement and domain independency is done on the center and edge crack problems. These four analyses when combined together give an optimum result to study the finite specimen. It is observed that for smaller values of strip width to crack length ratio the finiteness of the specimen size affects the intensity factors.     

Theoretical model on the electronic properties of multi-element AB5-type metal hydride

Nowadays, multi-element alloys are preferred over binary alloys for application point of view. The hydrogenation properties strongly depend on the thermodynamic, structural and electronic properties of the alloys. At present, no model is available which can predict the hydrogen storage properties of the multi-element alloy, before actual synthesis of the alloy. In the present investigation, efforts are made to develop a theoretical mathematical model to predict the hydrogenation properties of multi-element AB₅-type metal hydride. The present investigation deals with the various electronic parameters which may affect the hydrogenation characteristics of the metal hydride. Based on all such parameters, an electronic factor has been proposed for AB₅-type alloys. Electronic factor has been combined with the structural and thermodynamical factor to propose a new combined factor, which was further correlated with the hydrogen storage capacity of the alloy. Atomic radius and electronic configuration of substituted elements in the multi-element AB₅-type hydrogen storage alloy have been found as key players to predict the hydrogenation properties of the alloys before synthesis. It has been shown that in the case of alloy series with multiple substitutions, the combined factor is more relevant in deciding the hydrogen storage capacity in comparison to electronic factor alone. Combined factor is directly proportional to the hydrogen storage capacity. All the three factors thermodynamic, structural and electronic together may lead to the prediction of pressure-composition isotherm of the multi-element AB₅-type hydrogen storage alloy.