The Role of Underutilized Fruits in Nutritional and Economic Security of Tribals: A Review

The tribal people of Rajasthan are severely malnourished along with multiple nutrient-deficiency disorders due to ignorance about importance of fruits and vegetables in their diets. The tribal areas are full of biodiversity having natural vegetation which is not harnessed fully. Due to which a wide gap is formed between health and optimal use of natural sources of nutrients, i.e., underutilized crops. The crops, which are neither grown commercially on large scale nor traded widely, may be termed as underutilized horticultural crops. These crops are cultivated, traded, and consumed locally. These crops have many advantages like easier to grow and hardy in nature, producing a crop even under adverse soil and climatic conditions. So, exploitation of underutilized horticultural crops can become a solution to the social problem of health and nutrition insecurity, poverty, and unemployment. The consumption of underutilized fruit crops can provide nutrition to the poor and needy tribals by meeting the nutrient requirements of vulnerable groups. As underutilized fruits, nuts, and vegetables are a rich of source of carbohydrates, fats, proteins, energy, vitamins—A, B₁, B₂, B₃, B₆, B₉, B₁₂, C, folic acid, and minerals—Ca, P_, Fe, and dietary fiber. Thus, they have the nutritional capacity to prevent and cure various diseases like kwashiorkor, marasmus, night blindness, anemia, diabetes, cancer, hypertension, and hidden hunger. It is also established fact that seasonal, locally available, and cheap fruits and vegetables can also keep the population healthy and nutritionally secure rather than costly off-season ones. Also, the underutilized crops have the potential to give economic security to tribals by giving employment and by fetching good returns from their sale in raw form as well as value-added products.     

Wideband transimpedance amplifier using negative capacitance and capacitive feedback

This paper presents a microwave system for heartbeat rate measurement. This system is based on using a vector network analyzer and horn antennas. The system generates a continuous wave signal toward a person’s chest then the reflected signal is analyzed. The phase difference between the emitted and the reflected signals contains information about the chest movement; hence, the heartbeat rate can be extracted. In this work, several scenarios for detecting the heart activity are considered. The first scenario aims to provide a comparative study for using single-antenna and two-antennas microwave systems. Several radiated powers are considered in this scenario. Simultaneously with the microwave system, a wireless electrocardiograph is used as reference in order to determine the accuracy of the system. Measurements are performed in both cases when breathing normally and when holding the breath. The second scenario aims to test the ability of detecting the heartbeat activity of a person while moving. Measurements are performed while the subject walks towards the radar. Modeling is used for this purpose. The operating frequency used is 20 GHz in both scenarios. Signals are processed using wavelet transform and results show the ability to extract the heartbeat rate even with the presence of body movement.     

THERMOSOLUTAL INSTABILITY OF A COMPRESSIBLE ROTATING WALTERS' (MODEL B′) ELASTICO-VISCOUS FLUID IN THE PRESENCE OF HALL CURRENTS

Effect of Hall currents is considered on Walters' (Model B′) elastico-viscous fluid heated and soluted from below in the presence of a vertical magnetic field. A dispersion relation governing the effects of viscoelasticity, salinity gradient, rotation, magnetic field, and Hall current is derived. For the case of stationary convection, the Walters' (Model B′) fluid behaves like an ordinary Newtonian fluid. The compressibility, stable solute gradient, rotation, and magnetic field postpone the onset of thermosolutal instability, whereas Hall currents are found to hasten the onset of thermosolutal instability in the absence of rotation. In the presence of rotation, Hall currents postpone/hasten the onset of instability depending upon the value of wave numbers as small/large. Again, the dispersion relation is analyzed numerically and the results depicted graphically. The viscoelasticity, solute gradient, and magnetic field (and corresponding Hall currents) introduce oscillatory modes in the system that were nonexistent in their absence. The case of over-stability is discussed and sufficient conditions for nonexistence of over-stability are derived.     

Etching of (0 0 0 1) habit faces and matched cleavages of flux grown strontium hexaferrite crystals

Results of etching (0 0 0 1) planes of flux grown strontium hexaferrite crystals in 85% H₃P0₄ at 120 °C and 37% HCl at 100 °C are presented. Fractography reveals one-to-one correspondence of cleavage patterns on the two matched (0 0 0 1) cleaved planes. Etch patterns including hexagonal, point-bottomed pits with smooth sloping planes, hexagonal but flat-bottomed pits, geometrically centred hexagonal pits with regularly spaced terracing, eccentric hexagonal pits with irregularly spaced terracing, a large flat-bottomed hexagonal pit with a smaller point-bottomed hexagonal pit within it but having different geometrical centres and flat-bottomed pits with a beak at their centres are illustrated. It is explained that they are indicative of normal, inclined, stepped and bending dislocations in strontium hexaferrite crystals. Pits due to impurity inclusions are also explained. The explanations are supported by the results of mismatchings of etch patterns on matched cleavages.     

Photogalvanic effect of Brilliant Cresyl Blue–Fructose– surfactant–small Pt electrode-artificial light: Simultaneous solar energy conversion and storage

The photogalvanic effect of Brilliant Cresyl Blue–Fructose system is reported in the presence of efficiency enhancer chemical such as surfactant (Sodium Lauryl Sulfate) and small Pt electrode for solar energy conversion and storage in artificial light. The study has shown enhanced performance in terms of electrical parameters such as maximum power (291.2 μW), short-circuit current (1,120 μA), open-circuit potential (1,045 mV), efficiency (8.4%), and storage capacity as half change time (140 min).