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Transgenders in the Mainstream: Welfare Schemes in KeralaKochi Metro Rail Project, Education Programme, Health Clinics, and Old-Age Pension
Marginalization is the process which inhibits an individual or community from enjoying the rights, privileges, resources or opportunities enjoyed by other members of the society. Of all its marginalized sections, society most often tends to ignore the conditions of transgender persons. The 2011 census reported 480,000 of Indias population as transgender. Kerala pioneered a model for a trans-friendly state1 with the launch of a 10-day-long state-wide survey, which was followed by the introduction of a state policy for transgender individuals, the establishment of a justice board and Indias first transgender school, scholarships for transgender individuals and the introduction of health clinics, old-age pensions and employment for them in the Kochi Metro, as well as various literary, sports and fashion events. This study is an attempt to critically explore the welfare schemes for transgender persons in Kerala amidst recent developments. 2021 SAGE Publications. -
Design of Reconfigurable FRM Channelizer using Resource Shared Non-maximally Decimated Masking Filters
This paper presents a reconfigurable frequency response masking (FRM) wideband channelizer architecture which is characterized by low computational and hardware complexity. The proposed hardware efficient architecture is realized by incorporating resource shared non-maximally decimated filter bank in the implementation of the FRM wideband channelizer structure. The coefficients of the proposed architecture are optimized and made multiplier-free using Pareto based meta-heuristic algorithm in the canonic signed digit (CSD) space for reducing the total power consumption of the architecture. The architecture is finally designed and synthesized using Xilinx Vivado and Cadence RTL Encounter compiler for the area and power analysis and is compared with existing channnelizer architectures. The comparison highlights the advantages of the proposed architecture in terms of hardware complexity, power and workload in realizing sharp wideband channel filters. 2020, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature. -
An internet of health things-driven deep learning framework for detection and classification of skin cancer using transfer learning
As specified by World Health Organization, the occurrence of skin cancer has been growing over the past decades. At present, 2 to 3 million nonmelanoma skin cancers and 132 000 melanoma skin cancers arise worldwide annually. The detection and classification of skin cancer in early stage of development allow patients to have proper diagnosis and treatment. The goal of this article is to present a novel deep learning internet of health and things (IoHT) driven framework for skin lesion classification in skin images using the concept of transfer learning. In proposed framework, automatic features are extracted from images using different pretrained architectures like VGG19, Inception V3, ResNet50, and SqueezeNet, which are fed into fully connected layer of convolutional neural network for classification of skin benign and malignant cells using dense and max pooling operation. In addition, the proposed system is fully integrated with an IoHT framework and can be used remotely to assist medical specialists in the diagnosis and treatment of skin cancer. It has been observed that performance metric evaluation of proposed framework outperformed other pretrained architectures in term of precision, recall, and accuracy in detection and classification of skin cancer from skin lesion images. 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. -
A Numerical Investigation on Thermal Gradients and Stresses in High Temperature PEM Fuel Cell During Start-up
The High Temperature Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cell (HT-PEMFC) stacks using polybenzimidazole (PBI) based membranes have an inability to internally heat up at low temperatures to their nominal operating temperature (160C180C) during the start-up process. Several strategies, such as direct electrical heating, coolant/gas channel heating, catalytic hydrogen-oxygen combustion, etc., are proposed in the literature to assist the heating for quick start-up situations. However, little knowledge exists on the transient thermomechanical stresses induced during the start-up heating process due to non-uniformity in heat supply and disparity in thermal properties of the cell components. The objective of the present research is to analyze the thermal gradients and thermal stresses developed in the HT-PEMFC structure during the start-up with various heating methods discussed in the literature, as well as during the cell operation by exploiting the Fluid-Structure Interaction (FSI) approach. The use of polyalkylene glycol (Fragoltherm S-15-A) based Heat Transfer Fluid (HTF) in the coolant channel has substantially improved the start-up time due to the high Nusselt number. However, a significant gradient in temperature distribution is observed during the preheating process, which resulted in great inhomogeneous stresses in the membrane, particularly in the in-plane direction. Interestingly, the degree of uniformity in membrane current density distribution during cell operation is increased. A detailed heat analysis in the cell showed that the heat generated in the cell due to electrochemical reactions is sufficient to raise the cell temperature from 120C to operating temperature in a short time. Being subjected to a compressive stress of above 40 MPa, which is higher than the ultimate strength of a typical acid doped PBI membrane, the electrolyte is the most vulnerable component during the start-up. Hence, to inhibit the concomitant effect on cell performance and degradation, a novel start-up strategy should be implemented. 2021 Elsevier Ltd -
Heat transfer optimization of hybrid nanomaterial using modified Buongiorno model: A sensitivity analysis
Sensitivity analysis of the heat transfer rate in the flow of the hybrid nanoliquid C2H6O2?H2O (base liquid) +MoS2?Ag (nanoparticles) over a wedge using the Response Surface Methodology (RSM) is carried out. The nanomaterial is modeled using the modified Buongiorno nanofluid model (MBNM) that considers the major slip mechanisms and the effective properties of the hybrid nanoliquid. Two distinct heat sources- linear thermal heat source and an exponential space-dependent heat source are taken into account. The governing nonlinear two-point boundary-layer flow problem is treated numerically. The effects of pertinent parameters on the flow fields in the boundary layer region are represented graphically with suitable physical interpretations. The exponential heat source and slip mechanisms are used to study the sensitivities of the heat transfer rate. Both heat source mechanisms lead to an improvement in the temperature profile, in which the effect of the exponential space-related heat source is predominant. The Brownian motion parameter was found to be the most sensitive to the heat transfer rate. 2021 -
The dark side of technology-enabled teaching: Impact of technostress on student performance
This study validates an instrument used to measure technostress creators, technostress support mechanisms, and their negative impact on students' satisfaction and performance. A research model is developed based on the stimulus, organism, and response model to analyse the mediating effect of technostress creators and understand how technostress inhibitors influence students' satisfaction and their performance. A group of 206 students from India pursuing higher education were selected as a sample to validate this model. Technostress creators act as a mediator between technostress inhibitors and students' satisfaction and their performance, while technostress inhibitors positively influence student satisfaction and performance indirectly. Insights from this study will enable higher education institutions to identify the students who are finding technology-based education problematic and help preserve their wellbeing by following supportive strategies to reduce stress and enhance the students' active participation in technology-based education. Copyright 2021, IGI Global. -
Total induced vertex stress in barbell-like graphs
This paper introduces new parameters called induced vertex stress and total induced vertex stress in G, respectively. For graphs G and H, aspects of the maximum and minimum total induced vertex stress that can be obtained by 1-edge addition and 2-vertex merging are discussed. 2021 Journal of the Indonesian Mathematical Society. All rights reserved. -
Rainbow degree-jump coloring of graphs
In this paper, we introduce a new notion called the rainbow degree-jump coloring of a graph. For a vertex v ? V(G), let the degree-jump closed neighbourhood of this vertex be defined as Ndeg [v] = {u: d(v, u) ? d(v)}. A proper coloring of a graph G is said to be a rainbow degree-jump coloring of G if for all v in V(G), c(Ndeg [v]) contains at least one of each color class. We determine a necessary and sufficient condition for a graph G to permit a rainbow degree-jump coloring. We also determine the rainbow degree-jump chromatic number, denoted by ?rdj (G), for certain classes of cycle related graphs. Mphako-Banda E.G., Kok J., Naduvath S., 2021. -
Plant disease diagnosis and solution system based on neural networks
Plant diseases are one of the major factors affecting crop yield. Early identification of these diseases can improve productivity and save money and time for the farmer. This paper presents a novel technique to diagnose plant diseases using a mobile application. A Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) model was built and trained using MobileNetV2 architecture with the help of image processing techniques and transfer learning. A dataset comprising 87,000 images that contain 38 classes of diseases belonging to 14 different crops was used to train the model. The model achieved an accuracy of 98.69% and a loss of 0.5373. A mobile application was built in Android Studio with the help of a trained model. The mobile application built works without a need for a remote server. The application can identify the disease, gives information regarding the identified disease and also suggests necessary remedies to tackle the disease. 2021, Engg Journals Publications. All rights reserved. -
Legal conundrums of space tourism
Private commercial space tourism carrying passengers to outer space is no longer a distant or far-fetched fantasy, rather it is at verge of becoming an affordable reality with exponential development in space technology including development of Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV), increasing involvement of private companies like Virgin Galactic, SpaceX, Blue Origin etc. into research and funding of space tourism explorations and applications. It is also receiving huge attention from the public. These developments reflect the infinite possibilities and inevitability of space tourism in near future. However, space tourism may also pose many critical legal issues which must be addressed to ensure the consistent and sustainable development of space tourism, and to secure the rights of all stakeholders involved including operators, passengers, launching State etc. The research paper would highlight the crucial legal issues associated with the space tourism. The paper would critically analyze the efficiency of the present international space treaties in dealing with these issues. At the end, the paper would also attempt to provide few suggestions and solutions to these legal conundrums relating to space tourism. 2021 IAA -
Amorphous Ru-Pi nanoclusters decorated on PEDOT modified carbon fibre paper as a highly efficient electrocatalyst for oxygen evolution reaction
Amorphous Ru-Pi nanoclusters deposited on PEDOT modified carbon fibre paper electrode have been investigated as a potential oxygen evolution electrocatalyst. CFP/PEDOT/Ru-Pi electrode was prepared by electrodeposition of Ru-Pi nanoclusters on PEDOT decorated CFP using cyclic voltammetry (CV). Field emission scanning electron microscopy with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (FESEM-EDS), attenuated total reflection with Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) were used for physicochemical characterization. Linear sweep voltammetric (LSV) studies corroborated that CFP/PEDOT/Ru-Pi has exhibited higher oxidation peak current when compared to other modified electrodes. CFP/PEDOT/Ru-Pi electrode has displayed better catalytic activity towards oxygen evolution reaction at low onset and over potential. The modified electrode has also offered better stability towards the oxidation reaction in phosphate buffer solution (PBS) and the working stability of these electrodes were determined using LSV and CV. 2021 Elsevier B.V. -
Magnetic coupling across the antiferromagnetic-antiferromagnetic interface
We investigate the magnetic coupling across the antiferromagnetic-antiferromagnetic (AFM-AFM) interface for the prototypical CoO-NiO bilayer system where the bulk Nl temperature (T N ) of NiO is higher than that of CoO. Using the temperature-dependent exchange-scattered electron intensities from the surface AFM lattice, the surface T N of CoO was estimated as a function of the CoO/NiO film thicknesses. Our results show that the surface T N of CoO layers is enhanced significantly from its bulk T N value and approaching the T N of the NiO layers, as the thickness of the CoO layers is reduced to the monolayer limit. Thus, thinner CoO layers are found to have higher T N than thicker layers on NiO, contrasting with the expected finite-size behavior. In addition to the short-range magnetic exchange coupling at the CoO-NiO interface, we observe the existence of a longer-range magnetic coupling across the interface, mediated by the magnetic correlations. Thus, the magnetic proximity effect is attributed to a combination of a short-range and a weaker long-range magnetic coupling, explaining the long AFM order propagation length in AFM-AFM superlattices and bilayers. Further, our results indicate a new approach to tune the AFM Nl temperature by varying the individual layer thickness of the bilayer system through the magnetic proximity effect. 2021 IOP Publishing Ltd. -
Valorization of agro-industrial fruit peel waste to fluorescent nanocarbon sensor: Ultrasensitive detection of potentially hazardous tropane alkaloid
Millions of tonnes of agro-industrial waste are generated each year globally, with the vast majority of it going untreated, underutilized, and disposed of by burning or landfilling, causing severe environmental distress and economic downturn. A practical solution to this global issue is to use green chemistry to convert this waste into value-added products. Accordingly, in the present study, agro-industrial orange peel waste was valorized into fluorescent nanodiamond-like carbon sensor via a green route involving hydrothermal treatment of microwave carbonized orange peel waste. The developed sensor, used for the fluorescence detection of potentially hazardous drug atropine sulfate, exhibits unique dual linearity over concentration ranges of 300 nM to 1 M and from 1 M to 10 M, as well as ultra-low sensitivity of 34.42 nM and 356.46 nM, respectively. Additionally, the sensor demonstrates excellent reproducibility, high stability, and satisfactory recovery when used to identify and quantify atropine sulfate in biological samples and commercially available pharmaceuticals, indicating promising multidisciplinary applications. [Figure not available: see fulltext.] 2021, Higher Education Press. -
Response surface optimization of heat transfer rate in Falkner-Skan flow of ZnO ? EG nanoliquid over a moving wedge: Sensitivity analysis
In this work, the optimization of the heat transfer rate in the Falkner-Skan flow of ethylene glycol-based ZnO nanoliquid passing through a moving wedge is performed using the Response Surface Methodology (RSM). The experimentally estimated nanoliquid properties are included in the calculations for realistic modeling. The heat transfer rate is optimized through the use of the numerical experiment based on the face-centered central composite design (CCF). The sensitivity of the heat transfer rate is evaluated using the obtained quadratic model. The impact of the relevant parameters is displayed graphically using the finite difference method-based solution procedure and analyzed in detail. The interactive impacts of the key parameters are also evaluated using three-dimensional surface plots. The maximum sensitivity of the heat transfer rate is towards the moving wedge parameter. The optimized rate of heat transfer occurs at the high levels of the radiation aspect, moving wedge parameter, and nanoparticle volume fraction. The interactive impacts of the nanoparticles volume fraction and the Falkner-Skan index were found to be non-linear. The movement of the wedge was found to have a significant impact on both the flow field and the rate of heat transfer. 2021 Elsevier Ltd -
BoxBehnken design and experimental study of ciprofloxacin degradation over Ag2O/CeO2/g-C3N4 nanocomposites
Abstract: The presence of pharmaceutical residues notably antibiotics in the environment is an increasing concern due to their persistence and toxicity. Developing efficient and eco-friendly methods to eliminate antibiotic residues from water bodies has become a major environmental challenge. CeO2 doped with a heteroatom forms a hybrid structure with g-C3N4 and could serve as an efficient photocatalytic agent. In this study, CeO2/g-C3N4 and Ag2O/CeO2/g-C3N4 hybrid catalysts were prepared for UV light degradation of ciprofloxacin (CIP) antibiotic. The various factors that influence the degradation were experimentally optimized. The kinetics of the degradation was investigated using the LangmuirHinshelwood kinetic model. The effect of three operational parameters influencing the photocatalytic degradation has been evaluated using BoxBehnken design of response surface methodology. The highest degradation of CIP was observed at CIP concentration of 10?g/L with a catalyst amount of 30mg after 2.5h. Efficient charge separation was achieved from the dopant and the existing integrated electric field of the heterojunction showed impressive higher activity. Graphic abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.]. 2020, Islamic Azad University (IAU). -
ZnO:Al thin films from (Al2O3)x(ZnO)(1-x) powder targets by magnetron sputtering
In the present work we prepared Aluminum doped Zinc Oxide (AZO) thin films from powder targets. Various concentrations (W/W percentages) of Al2O3 such as1%, 2%, 3%, 4%, 5%, 6%, 7% and 8% were mixed in ZnO powder and made in the form of a 3 inch disc target. These ceramic targets are sputtered in RF magnetron sputtering unit for the deposition of AZO thin films. Optical and electrical properties are analyzed to get an optimized percentage of mixing for achieving high transparency and low resistivity. At Al2O3 percentage of 3% there is a considerable decrement in the resistivity, and at 7% there is a considerable decrease in the optical transmittance. Mobility and carrier concentration are increasing with Al2O3 percentage. Bandgap of the films is observed to be decreasing with increasing the Al2O3 percentage. 2021 Elsevier Ltd and Techna Group S.r.l. -
Fractional approach for analysis of the model describing wind-influenced projectile motion
In this paper, we find the solution for coupled equations describing the projectile motion with wind-influence using q-homotopy analysis transform method (q-HATM). The projectedmethod is elegant amalgamations of q-homotopy analysis scheme and Laplace transform, and fractional derivativedefined withCaputo-Fabrizio (CF) operator. Moreover, the physical natures of the obtained results have been captured in terms of plots for diverse mass, external force and fractional order. The achievedconsequences elucidate that, the hiredsolution procedure is easy to implement, highly methodical as well as accurate to analyse the behaviour of system of nonlinear differential equations of both integer and fractional order describing connected areas of science and engineering. 2021 IOP Publishing Ltd. -
Identity-based message authentication scheme using proxy vehicles for vehicular ad hoc networks
Message authentication verifies the identity of the sender vehicle, ensuring it in between vehicles and Road Side Units (RSU) is an essential part of Vehicular Adhoc Networks. Signature verification in RSUs will be troublesome if a large number of vehicles enters in its region at the same time. In such cases the efficiency of the RSUs will be affected due to high computational overhead. To address this issue, proxy vehicle based message authentication scheme (ID-MAP) is proposed by Asaar et al. (ITVT 67: 5409, 2018). It uses proxy vehicles to reduce the overheads of the RSU by verifying multiple messages at the same time. Even though it deals with the efficiency issues of RSU, the computational cost of signature generation is high. Since the ability of a vehicle to act as a proxy vehicle is based on the number of signed messages, it has a major impact. It also cannot guarantee privacy preservation and hence it is insecure against attacks based on privacy preservation. It also has other drawbacks like storage issues and high overheads. Hence, a new identity based message authentication using proxy vehicles is proposed in this paper. Elliptic Curve Cryptography based scheme is used without pairings for message authentication. Proxy vehicles will verify multiple messages from vehicles through batch verification and send the result to the RSU. The identity of multiple proxy vehicles will be verified by RSU, it can also cross check the correctness of the received result. Thereby RSUs can verify a large number of messages at the same time with the help of proxy vehicles. Security analysis shows that if each proxy vehicle verifies 300 messages of its neighbor vehicles, then with the help of proxy vehicles an RSU can verify 226,244 messages per second which is 40% less than that of ID-MAP scheme. It also shows that the computational cost to generate a signature in the proposed scheme is 50% less than that of ID-MAP scheme. 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature. -
Biodegradation of polypropylene films by Bacillus paralicheniformis and Lysinibacillus fusiformis isolated from municipality solid waste contaminated soil
The fossil fuel or petroleum derived plastics are applied in our routine life because of their easy availability. Distribution and contamination of the plastics in the landfills are the major reasons for these biodegradation study. This current study reveals the biodegradation of polypropylene films and the growth of Bacillus paralicheniformis and Lysinibacillus fusiformis isolated from plastic contaminated soil collected from municipality solid waste management site. The degradation rate of PP films was confirmed by the results of biodegradation analysis. The growth of Bacillus paralicheniformis and Lysinibacillus fusiformis had shown OD values at 600nm after the degradation period of 4 weeks increasing from 0.131 to 0.334 and 0.148 to 0.213 respectively. The viable cell count increased from 804cells/ml to 1204cells/ml and 10.104cells/ml to 15.204cells/ml respectively. The physical and chemical changes of PP films were confirmed by FT-IR and XRD analysis. These analysis confirmed that the bacterial strains have the ability to change the chemical and physical nature of PP films and can utilize the PP films as sole carbon source. 2021 World Research Association. All rights reserved. -
An analytical model for a TFET with an n-doped channel operating in accumulation and inversion modes
The tunnel field-effect transistor (TFET) is an ambipolar device that conducts current with the channel in both accumulation and inversion modes. Analytical expressions for the channel potential and current in a TFET with an n-doped channel when operating in the accumulation and inversion modes are proposed herein. The potential model is derived by solving the two-dimensional (2D) Poisson equation using the superposition principle while considering the charges present in the channel due to electron or hole accumulation along with the depletion charges. An expression for the tunneling current corresponding to the maximum tunneling probability is also derived. The tunneling current is obtained by analytically calculating the minimum tunneling length in a TFET when operating in the accumulation or inversion mode. The results of the proposed potential model is compared with technology computer-aided design (TCAD) simulations for TFET with various dimensions, revealing good agreement. The potential and current in an n-type TFET (nTFET) obtained using the proposed models are also analyzed. 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.