Review of anthropometric considerations for tractor seat design

Tractor driving imposes a lot of physical and mental stress upon the operator. If the operator's seat is not comfortable, his work performance may be poor and there is also a possibility of accidents. The optimal design of tractor seat may be achieved by integrating anthropometric data with other technical features of the design. This paper reviews the existing information on the tractor seat design that considers anthropometry and biomechanical factors and gives an approach for seat design based on anthropometric data. The anthropometric dimensions, i.e. popliteal height sitting (5th percentile), hip breadth sitting (95th percentile), buttock popliteal length (5th percentile), interscye breadth (5th and 95th percentile) and sitting acromion height (5th percentile) of agricultural workers need to be taken into consideration for design of seat height, seat pan width, seat pan length, seat backrest width and seat backrest height, respectively, of a tractor. The seat dimensions recommended for tractor operator's comfort based on anthropometric data of 5434 Indian male agricultural workers were as follows: seat height of 380 mm, seat pan width of 420–450 mm, seat backrest width of 380–400 mm (bottom) and 270–290 mm (top), seat pan length of 370±10 mm, seat pan tilt of 5–7° backward and seat backrest height of 350 mm.

Relevance to industry

The approach presented in this paper for tractor seat design based on anthropometric considerations will help the tractor seat designers to develop and introduce seats suiting to the requirements of the user population. This will not only enhance the comfort of the tractor operators but may also help to reduce the occupational health problems of tractor operators.     

Optimal and Effective Resource Management in Edge Computing

Edge computing is a cloud computing extension where physical computers are installed closer to the device to minimize latency. The task of edge data centers is to include a growing abundance of applications with a small capability in comparison to conventional data centers. Under this framework, Federated Learning was suggested to offer distributed data training strategies by the coordination of many mobile devices for the training of a popular Artificial Intelligence (AI) model without actually revealing the underlying data, which is significantly enhanced in terms of privacy. Federated learning (FL) is a recently developed decentralized profound learning methodology, where customers train their localized neural network models independently using private data, and then combine a global model on the core server together. The models on the edge server use very little time since the edge server is highly calculated. But the amount of time it takes to download data from smartphone users on the edge server has a significant impact on the time it takes to complete a single cycle of FL operations. A machine learning strategic planning system that uses FL in conjunction to minimise model training time and total time utilisation, while recognising mobile appliance energy restrictions, is the focus of this study. To further speed up integration and reduce the amount of data, it implements an optimization agent for the establishment of optimal aggregation policy and asylum architecture with several employees’ shared learners. The main solutions and lessons learnt along with the prospects are discussed. Experiments show that our method is superior in terms of the effective and elastic use of resources.     

Antineoplastic and antioxidant potential of phycofabricated silver nanoparticles using microalgae Chlorella minutissima

This study for the first time reports on fresh water microalgae Chlorella minutissima aqueous extract (CmAe) which was utilized for the biogenic synthesis of silver nanoparticles and tested their antineoplastic potential against Liver Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HepG2) cell line. The characteristic colour change of the reaction mixture from greenish yellow to yellowish brown confirmed the synthesis of Chlorella minutissima silver nanoparticles (CmAgNPs). Microscopic analysis revealed CmAgNPs to be spherical‐shaped with particle size ranging from 10 to 30 nm. The carbohydrates and proteins distinctive peaks were observed in Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) spectra which suggested these biomolecules acted as reducing and capping agents. Further, the crystalline nature of CmAgNPs was confirmed by X‐ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. CmAgNPs showed maximum free radical scavenging proving it to be more potent antioxidant agent as compared to CmAe. The mortality rate of HepG2 cells treated with CmAgNPs was found to be 91.8 % at 120 μg/ml with IC₅₀ value 12.42 ± 1.096 μg/ml after 48 h whereas no effect was observed on normal Human Embryonic Kidney (HEK 293) cells. Fluorescent images of the treated HepG2 cells revealed the formation of apoptotic bodies, condensed nuclei and cell shrinkage indicating their effectiveness against the cancer cells.Inspec keywords: silver, nanoparticles, nanomedicine, microorganisms, cellular biophysics, nanofabrication, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, proteins, Fourier transform infrared spectra, molecular biophysics, X‐ray chemical analysis, X‐ray diffraction, kidney, cancer, biomedical materialsOther keywords: antineoplastic potential, antioxidant potential, phycofabricated silver nanoparticle, Chlorella minutissima, freshwater microalgae, aqueous extract, liver hepatocellular carcinoma cell line, CmAgNP synthesis, field emission scanning electron microscopy, high‐resolution transmission electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, dynamic light scattering, carbohydrate, protein, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, biomolecule, energy‐dispersive X‐ray spectroscopy, elemental silver signal, CmAgNP crystalline, X‐ray diffraction analysis, antioxidant agent, HepG2 cell mortality rate, human embryonic kidney, HEK 293 cell, fluorescent image, apoptotic body formation, condensed nuclei, cell shrinkage, cancer cell, antineoplastic agent, Ag     

Green biosynthesis,characterisation and antimicrobial activities of silver nanoparticles using fruit extract of Solanum viarum

Green synthesis of nanoparticles is considered an efficient method when compared with chemical and physical methods because of its bulk production, eco‐friendliness and low cost norms. The present study reports, for the first time, green synthesis of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) at room temperature using Solanum viarum fruit extract. The visual appearance of brownish colour with an absorption band at 450 nm, as detected by ultraviolet‐visible spectrophotometer analysis, confirmed the formation of AgNPs. X‐ray diffraction confirmed the AgNPs to be crystalline with a face‐centred lattice. The transmission electron microscopy‐energy dispersive X‐ray spectroscopy image showed the AgNPs are poly‐dispersed and are mostly spherical and oval in shape with particle size ranging from 2 to 40 nm. Furthermore, Fourier transform‐infrared spectra of the synthesised AgNPs confirmed the presence of phytoconstituents as a capping agent. The antimicrobial activity study showed that the AgNPs exhibited high microbial activity against Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus susp. aureus, Aspergillus niger, and Candida albicans. The highest antimicrobial activity of AgNPs synthesised by S. viarum fruit extract was observed in P. aeruginosa, S. aureus susp. aureus and C. albicans with zone of inhibition, 26.67 mm.Inspec keywords: nanomedicine, antibacterial activity, X‐ray chemical analysis, nanoparticles, transmission electron microscopy, particle size, infrared spectra, microorganisms, X‐ray diffraction, Fourier transform spectra, ultraviolet spectra, scanning electron microscopy, visible spectra, nanofabricationOther keywords: green biosynthesis, antimicrobial activities, silver nanoparticles, green synthesis, physical methods, study reports, solanum viarum fruit, ultraviolet‐visible spectrophotometer analysis, high microbial activity, highest antimicrobial activity, s. viarum fruit, transmission electron microscopy, energy dispersive X‐ray spectroscopy image     

Multi-item inventory model of breakable items with stock-dependent demand under stock and time dependent breakability rate

Items made of glass, ceramic, etc. are normally stored in stacks and get damaged during the storage due to the accumulated stress of heaped stock. These items are known as breakable items. Here a multi-item inventory model of breakable items is developed, where demands of the items are stock dependent, breakability rates increase linearly with stock and nonlinearly with time. Due to non-linearity and complexity of the problem, the model is solved numerically and final decisions are made using Genetic Algorithm (GA). In a particular case, model is solved analytically as well as numerically and results are compared. Models are developed with both crisp and uncertain inventory costs. For uncertain inventory costs both fuzzy and stochastic parameters are considered. A chance constrained approach is followed to deal with simultaneous presence of stochastic and fuzzy parameters. Different numerical examples are used to illustrate the problem for different cases.     

Interval-based optimization of aircraft wings under landing loads

An interval-based automated optimization of aircraft wing structures subjected to landing loads is discussed in this paper. The interaction between landing gear and flexible airplane structure is considered as a coupled system. The uncertain system parameters are described as interval numbers. The computational aspects of the optimization procedure are illustrated with two examples – symmetric double-wedge airfoil, and supersonic airplane wing. Since, in most cases only the ranges of uncertain parameters are known with their probability distribution functions unknown, the present methodology is expected to be more realistic for the optimum design of aircraft structures under landing loads.     

Automatic Registration of Multi‐Projector Domes Using a Single Uncalibrated Camera

In this paper we present a novel technique for easily calibrating multiple casually aligned projectors on spherical domes using a single uncalibrated camera. Using the prior knowledge of the display surface being a dome, we can estimate the camera intrinsic and extrinsic parameters and the projector to display surface correspondences automatically using a set of images. These images include the image of the dome itself and a projected pattern from each projector. Using these correspondences we can register images from the multiple projectors on the dome. Further, we can register displays which are not entirely visible in a single camera view using multiple pan and tilted views of an uncalibrated camera making our method suitable for displays of different size and resolution. We can register images from any arbitrary viewpoint making it appropriate for a single head‐tracked user in a 3D visualization system. Also, we can use several cartographic mapping techniques to register images in a manner that is appropriate for multi‐user visualization. Domes are known to produce a tremendous sense of immersion and presence in visualization systems. Yet, till date, there exists no easy way to register multiple projectors on a dome to create a high‐resolution realistic visualizations. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first method that can achieve accurate geometric registration of multiple projectors on a dome simply and automatically using a single uncalibrated camera.     

Registration techniques for using imperfect and partially calibrated devices in planar multi-projector displays

Multi-projector displays today are automatically registered, both geometrically and photometrically, using cameras. Existing registration techniques assume pre-calibrated projectors and cameras that are devoid of imperfections such as lens distortion. In practice, however, these devices are usually imperfect and uncalibrated. Registration of each of these devices is often more challenging than the multi-projector display registration itself. To make tiled projection-based displays accessible to a layman user we should allow the use of uncalibrated inexpensive devices that are prone to imperfections. In this paper, we make two important advances in this direction. First, we present a new geometric registration technique that can achieve geometric alignment {\em in the presence of severe projector lens distortion} using a relatively inexpensive low-resolution camera. This is achieved via a closed-form model that relates the projectors to cameras, in planar multi-projector displays, using rational Bezier patches. This enables us to geometrically calibrate a 3000 x 2500 resolution planar multi-projector display made of 3 x 3 array of nine severely distorted projectors using a low resolution (640 x 480) VGA camera. Second, we present a photometric self-calibration technique for a projector-camera pair. This allows us to photometrically calibrate the same display made of nine projectors using a photometrically uncalibrated camera. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work that allows geometrically imperfect projectors and photometrically uncalibrated cameras in calibrating multi-projector displays.