The paraneuronal gill neuroendocrine system in ocellated puffer fish Leiodon cutcutia

Pseudobranchial neurosecretory system (PSNS) is the third Neuroendocrine (NE) system found in the gill region of fishes in close association with pseudobranch/carotid labyrinth/carotid gland and can suitably be placed under the category of “Diffused NE system (DNES).” The cells belonging to this system fall under the category of “Paraneurons,” a concept proposed by Fujita and coworkers. It is found uniformly in all the catfish species and some other noncatfish group of teleosts as Atheriniformes, Channiformes, Perciformes, and Clupeiformes. The fishes, in which the PSNS is present, belong to different breathing habits. Most of these have the capacity to tolerate low O₂ conditions. Leiodon cutcutia although not an air‐breathing fish, is known to retain air in its stomach for varied periods when threatened. In an attempt to verify the veracity of this system in a fish of another peculiar breathing habit, ocellated puffer fish L. cutcutia (order Tetradontiformes) was investigated. The histological observations undertaken on L. cutcutia revealed the presence of a well‐developed extrabranchial NE system. The findings are discussed in the light of the association of PSNS with chemosensory system and its evolution in fishes, especially in the view of the transition from aquatic to terrestrial life.     

Technical Note: Mapping and forecasting of North Indian winter fog: an application of spatial technologies

In India, the Indo‐Gangetic plain (part of Northern India) is invariably affected by dense fog in the winter months every year due to typical meteorological, environmental and prevailing terrain conditions. Pollution also plays an important role in the formation of fog (smoke+fog = smog) in India. Using National Oceanic and Space Administration‐advanced very high resolution radiometer data the fog‐affected regions in Northern India were delineated and the spatial extent of fog for the winter months of the years 2002–03, 2003–04 and 2004–05 (December–February) were studied and mapped. Forecast for future fog based on the analysis of satellite and meteorological (air temperature, relative humidity and wind speed) data was also done. The fog‐affected areas were classified into maximum‐fog‐affected area, moderately fog‐affected area and least fog‐affected area. It has been found that in the winter months of the years 2002–03, 2003–04 and 2004–05, the fog‐affected area in Northern India was about 867 000 km², 625 000 km² and 706 800 km² respectively. The maximum fog‐affected area was found to be 606 400 km², the moderately fog‐affected area was found to be 230 400 km² and the least fog‐affected area was found to be 404 500 km². Further, based on meteorological parameters, such as temperature, humidity and wind speed along with elevation data was used to derive an approach for future fog prediction in this region.     

Environmentally Benign Synthesis of 4-Thiazolidinone Derivatives Using a Co/Al Hydrotalcite as Heterogeneous Catalyst

Catalysis Letters - The present effort describes facile and environmentally benign synthesis of 4-thiazolidinone via oxidative cyclocondensation of benzyl alcohols, various substituted aromatic...     

Hygrothermoelastic response in the bending analysis of elliptic plate due to hygrothermal loading

Abstract

This study investigates the theoretical outline to couple both classical Fourier’s and Fick’s laws to frame a new model of two-temperature hygrothermoelastic diffusion theory for a non-simple rigid material. Based on hygrothermoelasticity method, a system of linearly coupled partial differential equations for the thermal and moisture diffusion for the case of a non-simple medium is established. The transient response using the decoupled technique of a multilayered elliptic plate perpendicular to the axial axis, subjected to hygrothermal loading is considered, to derive closed-form expressions for temperature, moisture, deflection, bending moments, and hygrothermal stresses. The solutions to the governing coupled equations and its boundary conditions are solved by employing a new integral transform technique. The small deflection equation is found and utilized to preserve the intensities of bending moments and stresses, involving the Mathieu functions and its derivatives. Moreover, the elliptical region can be degenerated into a circular part by applying limitations. Numerical results of the transient response of hygrothermoelastic fields are established graphically for the better understanding the underlying elliptic structure, improved understanding of its relationship to circular profile, and better estimates of the effect of the associated hygrothermoelastic responses.     

Effect of crosslink density on transport of industrial solvents through polyether based polyurethanes

Polyurethanes based on PPG 2000 with variable concentrations of TDI and TMP were prepared and used for sorption studies, employing homologous series of hydrocarbons such as benzene, toluene and xylene. The sorption was observed to be non-Fickian in nature. The solubility parameter of the polyurethane series was observed to be 9·7(calcm^-3)^1/2. The polymer solvent interaction parameter χ was found to be lowest in benzene, suggesting higher interaction with it. The sorption and diffusion coefficients were observed to increase with a decrease in the degree of crosslinking. Molecular weights between crosslinks were calculated using the Flory–Rehner equation and compared with those obtained theoretically. © 1998 Society of Chemical Industry     

Multidimensional trellis coded phase modulation using a multilevelconcatenation approach .II. Codes for the AWGN and fading channels

For pt.I see ibid., vol.45, no.1, p.64-72, 1997. We use the construction technique proposed in part I to construct multidimensional trellis coded modulation (TCM) codes for both the additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) and the fading channels. Analytical performance bounds and simulation results show that these codes perform very well and achieve significant coding gains over uncoded reference modulation systems. In addition, the proposed technique can be used to construct codes which have a performance/decoding complexity advantage over the codes listed in literature     

Synthesis and characterization of cuprous oxide dendrites: New simplified green hydrothermal route

Cuprous oxide (Cu₂O) dendrites were prepared by simple hydrothermal route at two different temperatures using starch as reducing and stabilizing agent. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) revealed the alterations in morphology with reaction temperature and time. The spherical nanoparticles obtained at lower reaction temperature self-assembled into distinct dendritic nanostructures at high temperature. The mechanism of formation of dendrite over the polysaccharide template has been discussed. Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) revealed that the crystalline size of these dendrites in one dimension is about 50 nm. The nanoparticles were characterized by UV-vis and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), FT-IR and Thermal Gravimetry Analyzer (TGA). Impedance analysis of the nanostructures showed conductivity to be a function of temperature.     

Medical Data Clustering and Classification Using TLBO and Machine Learning Algorithms

This study aims to empirically analyze teaching-learning-based optimization (TLBO) and machine learning algorithms using k-means and fuzzy c-means (FCM) algorithms for their individual performance evaluation in terms of clustering and classification. In the first phase, the clustering (k-means and FCM) algorithms were employed independently and the clustering accuracy was evaluated using different computational measures. During the second phase, the non-clustered data obtained from the first phase were preprocessed with TLBO. TLBO was performed using k-means (TLBO-KM) and FCM (TLBO-FCM) (TLBO-KM/FCM) algorithms. The objective function was determined by considering both minimization and maximization criteria. Non-clustered data obtained from the first phase were further utilized and fed as input for threshold optimization. Five benchmark datasets were considered from the University of California, Irvine (UCI) Machine Learning Repository for comparative study and experimentation. These are breast cancer Wisconsin (BCW), Pima Indians Diabetes, Heart-Statlog, Hepatitis, and Cleveland Heart Disease datasets. The combined average accuracy obtained collectively is approximately 99.4% in case of TLBO-KM and 98.6% in case of TLBO-FCM. This approach is also capable of finding the dominating attributes. The findings indicate that TLBO-KM/FCM, considering different computational measures, perform well on the non-clustered data where k-means and FCM, if employed independently, fail to provide significant results. Evaluating different feature sets, the TLBO-KM/FCM and SVM(GS) clearly outperformed all other classifiers in terms of sensitivity, specificity and accuracy. TLBO-KM/FCM attained the highest average sensitivity (98.7%), highest average specificity (98.4%) and highest average accuracy (99.4%) for 10-fold cross validation with different test data.     

Photocatalytic activities of N-doped nano-titanias and titanium nitride

TiO₂ doped with various loadings of nitrogen was prepared by nitridation of a nano-TiO₂ powder in an ammonia/argon atmosphere at a range of temperatures from 400 to 1100 °C. The nano-TiO₂ starting powder was produced in a continuous hydrothermal flow synthesis (CHFS) process involving reaction between a flow of supercritical water and an aqueous solution of a titanium salt. The structures of the resulting nanocatalysts were investigated using powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Raman spectroscopy. Products ranging from N-doped anatase TiO₂ to phase-pure titanium nitride (TiN) were obtained depending on post-synthesis heat-treatment temperature. The results suggest that TiN started forming when the TiO₂ was heat-treated at 800 °C, and that pure phase TiN was obtained at 1000 °C after 5 h nitridation. The amounts and nature of the Ti, O and N at the surface were determined by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). A shift of the band-gap to lower energy and increasing absorption in the visible light region, were observed by increasing the heat-treatment temperature from 400 to 700 °C.     

OPTIMIZATION STUDIES OF PORTABLE METALLIC STOVES FOR ENERGY CONSERVATION

Priagni portable stoves have been recently introduced in rural areas to improve fuel efficiency. These stoves are available in two sizes (medium and large) for domestic application. The stoves are particularly suitable for those areas where wood is used as fuel. The stoves have been accepted for use in southern coastal areas and also in the hilly areas. Optimization studies on determining the pot raiser height of top plate were conducted on large size Priagni stove. The studies indicate that 50 mm is the optimum pot raiser height keeping in view the thermal efficiency and combustion quality.