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Probing the resolved K-S relation in nearby galaxies: Insights from UVIT and ALMA observations
This study examines the resolved Kennicutt-Schmidt (rK-S) relation, defined as the connection between the star formation rate surface density (?SFR) and the molecular gas mass surface density (?H2) in the high-density central regions of three nearby barred spiral galaxies hosting AGN: NGC 1365, NGC 1433, and NGC 1566. Utilising high-resolution archival data from AstroSat/UVIT for UV imaging and Atacama Large Millimetere/submillimetre Array (ALMA) for CO(2-1) molecular gas mapping, we explore recent star formation and gas distribution with a spatial resolution of ?120132 pc. Our findings reveal a sublinear rK-S law, with slopes ranging from ?0.17 to ?0.71. Notably, NGC 1566 exhibits a robust rK-S relation consistent with previous studies, while NGC 1365 and NGC 1433 exhibit weaker correlations. These differences are likely due to the smaller number of identified star-forming regions in these galaxies compared to NGC 1566, as well as the central molecular gas concentrations and varying star formation activity in their bars and nuclear regions. These results also support the idea that the rK-S relation deviates from linearity in extreme environments, such as starburst galaxies and galactic centres. Additionally, we find a generally low median star formation efficiency (SFE) within the bars of these galaxies, suggesting that while bars may drive nuclear starbursts and contribute to bulge growth, they do not significantly increase SFE. Furthermore, a negative correlation between SFE and ?H2 is observed across the sample, both within and outside the bar regions, suggesting that higher ?H2 may lead to lower SFE in the central regions of these galaxies. Our findings highlight that ?H2 plays a primary role in shaping the observed trends in SFE, rather than the presence of a bar itself. The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Astronomical Society of Australia The Author(s) -
Stress and resilience in British Indian parents with an autistic child: a comparative study with white British and Indian parents
Purpose: This study aims to examine the levels of stress and resilience in a sample of British Indian parents bringing up a child with autism. Design/methodology/approach: A total of 52 British Indian parents took part in a survey that included measures of stress, resilience, support and child adaptive functioning. Results were compared to a sample of white British (n = 120) and Indian parents (n = 120). Findings: The British Indian parents recorded higher levels of stress and less perceived social support than their white British counterparts. British Indian parents took longer to register concern about their childs development and sought a diagnosis at a later age than the white British group. The delay in concern and diagnosis was similar to that found in the India group. Originality/value: The research suggests that British Indian parents are disadvantaged in social support and mental well-being compared to white British parents and may face similar community pressures to parents bringing up a child in India. 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited. -
Entwined Selves: Identity, Individuality, and Mental Health in Identical Twin Relationships
The relationship between identical twins is highly complex; the delicate dynamics between the twins put forwards lot of challenges in front of both the individuals. Previous researches done on dynamics of identical twin relationships have pointed out the differences between identical twins and siblings. The current study delves into the intricate dynamics of identical twin relationships and the impact on their mental health, with a focus on their perception of their identity. Utlizing Braun and Clark's thematic analysis method, the present study studies the lived experiences of identical twins and how they perceive their relationship. In-depth interview was conducted on six sets of identical twins. Thematic analysis was conducted on the results to understand the ways in which identical twins addresses their challenges. The research explores aspects such as emotional support, communication, and shared identity as crucial elements in understanding the dynamics of identical twin relationships. The implication of the research shows the need for mental health interventions that utilize the distinctive advantages of twin relationships as it reveals these complex dynamics. The results are discussed in light of proper theoretical background. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2026. -
Effect of Chicken Feather Hydrolysate on Growth of Spinach through Soil Amendment Method: Unraveling A Potential Liquid Biofertilizer
The study aims to investigate the effectiveness of chicken feather hydrolysate for promoting the growth of Spinacia oleracea L., a commonly consumed leafy green vegetable. An earlier isolated and identified keratinolytic bacterial species Bacillus tropicus was utilized for the preparation of chicken feather hydrolysate through submerged fermentation. Minimal media which was supplemented with chicken feather was used for the preparation of hydrolysate. The bacterial strain degraded chicken feather within 4 days of incubation after which the feather hydrolysate was collected and tested to check plant growth promoting activity through the seed germination trials and greenhouse study. Upon characterization of feather hydrolysate, it was found that the hydrolysate was a cocktail of Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium (NPK) as well as other micro elements needed for plant growth. Four different concentrations of feather hydrolysate were employed for both the seed germination and greenhouse study which ranged from 25% (v/v), 30% (v/v), 35% (v/v) and 40% (v/v) including a control group (CN) which was not supplemented with feather hydrolysate. The hydrolysate supplementation brought about plant growth in all the four test concentrations with 35% (v/v) giving the highest result of 14 cm and 27.6 mg/g for tested parameters like plumule length and total chlorophyll content, respectively. The same concentration supported maximum seed germination and highest radicle extension for the germination studies as well. This study investigates the efficacy of chicken feather hydrolysate in promoting spinach growth, elucidating its potential as a fertilizer. The Author(s) 2024. Open Access. -
Keratin as a sustainable biopolymer for waste water treatment
Keratin is one of the most abundant natural polymers with potential application in various fields but is usually seen discarded as waste generated from poultry farms along roadsides and landfills. These are indeed the cheapest source of keratin protein which could be used for various applications. Owing to the structural properties, keratinous materials are now being exploited in wastewater treatment systems as adsorbents. The rich amino acid content having hydroxyl, carboxyl and amino groups has been found to be beneficial in removing contaminants from waste waters like heavy metals and dyes. Research based on this idea has received peak attention to a point where formulations of different adsorbent materials like nanofibre, biofilms and biocomposite from keratinous raw materials are now available for commercial use. This review summarises the application of keratin as an efficient adsorbent for waste water treatment providing an insight into its structure, forms of keratin used for treatments and mechanism of adsorption of different components in waste water. 2022 World Research Association. All rights reserved. -
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Predicting heart ailment in patients with varying number of features using data mining techniques
Data mining can be defined as a process of extracting unknown, verifiable and possibly helpful data from information. Among the various ailments, heart ailment is one of the primary reason behind death of individuals around the globe, hence in order to curb this, a detailed analysis is done using Data Mining. Many a times we limit ourselves with minimal attributes that are required to predict a patient with heart disease. By doing so we are missing on a lot of important attributes that are main causes for heart diseases. Hence, this research aims at considering almost all the important features affecting heart disease and performs the analysis step by step with minimal to maximum set of attributes using Data Mining techniques to predict heart ailments. The various classification methods used are Nae Bayes classifier, Random Forest and Random Tree which are applied on three datasets with different number of attributes but with a common class label. From the analysis performed, it shows that there is a gradual increase in prediction accuracies with the increase in the attributes irrespective of the classifiers used and Nae Bayes and Random Forest algorithms comparatively outperforms with these sets of data. 2019 Institute of Advanced Engineering and Science. -
Feature selection/dimensionality reduction
In today's world, medical image analysis is a critical component of research, and it has been extensively explored over the last few decades. Machine learning in healthcare is a fantastic advancement that will improve disease detection efficiency and accuracy. In many circumstances, it will also allow for early detection and treatment in remote or developing areas. The amount of medical data created by various applications is growing all the time, creating a bottleneck for analysis and necessitating the use of a machine learning method for feature selection and dimensionality reduction techniques. Feature selection is an important concept of machine learning since it affects the model's performance and the data parameters you utilize to train your machine learning models to have a big influence on the performance. The approach of minimizing the number of inputs in training data by reducing the dimension of your feature set is known as dimensionality reduction. Reduced dimensionality aids in the overall performance of the machine learning algorithms. 2023 River Publishers. -
Detecting the magnitude of depression in Twitter users using sentiment analysis
Today the different social networking sites have enabled everyone to easily express and share their feelings with people around the world. A lot of people use text for communicating, which can be done through different social media messaging platforms available today such as Twitter, Facebook etc, as they find it easier to express their feelings through text instead of speaking them out. Many people who also suffer from stress find it easier to express their feelings on online platform, as over there they can express themselves very easily. So if they are alerted beforehand, there are ways to overcome the mental problems and stress they are suffering from. Depression stands out to be one of the most well known mental health disorders and a major issue for medical and mental health practitioners. Legitimate checking can help in its discovery, which could be useful to anticipate and prevent depression all-together.Hence there is a need for a system, which can cater to such issues and help the user. The purpose of this paper is to propose an efficient method that can detect the level of depression in Twitter users. Sentiment scores calculated can be combined with different emotions to provide a better method to calculate depression scores. This process will help underscore various aspects of depression that have not been understood previously. The main aim is to provide a sense of understanding regarding depression levels in different users and how the scores can be correlated to the main data. 2019 Institute of Advanced Engineering and Science. All rights reserved. -
AROSTEV: A Unified Framework to Enhance Secure Routing in IoT Environment
The Internet of Things (IoT) is a global network which collects, process, and analyzes the data. IoT sensors and devices are limited to low memory, power, and processing capabilities. The RPL is a proactive routing protocol which is mainly intended for the IoT. There is a possibility of routing vulnerabilities, which masquerade the data in IoT environment. In order to overcome this problem, a framework called AROSTEV is proposed which comprises of three techniques such as RDAID, RIAIDRPL, and E2V. The primary objective of AROSTEV framework is to detect and mitigate the routing attacks such as rank decreased attack (RDA), rank increased attack (RIA), and rank inconsistency attack (RInA), respectively. Each technique takes the responsibility to progress its activity against the internal routing attacks. This framework can be used to implement the smart city environment. 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. -
Narrativising chaos via narrative agency: COVID-19 comics as narrative meta-control
The initial COVID-19 pandemic phase was a period of chaos, instability, and disorder. In this context, this paper explores the narrative potentialities of COVID-19 comics as a means of narrative meta-control over the chaotic nature of the lived pandemic experiences. Meta-control, the act of regaining a sense of agency over a contingent circumstance that is otherwise uncontrollable, offers narrative agency as a means of navigating meaning-making and the reality of chaos. In this paper, This Quarantine Life: A COVID-19 Era Comics Anthology (2020), a global anthology brought forth by the New York Arts Students League, is analysed as a chaos narrative. Interrogating normative understandings of chaos narratives, the paper reframes these comics as spaces of and for narrative resistance, where aesthetic form functions as narrative repair by interrogating its acts of meta-control. Interweaving both conceptual reframing and multimodal discourse analysis, this paper shows how comic artists use narrative strategies of braiding, arthrology, and spatio-topia to work with chaos. In working with chaos, such strategies affirm comics as a narrative agent that helps capture and work through the reality of chaos. This study furthers contemporary concerns with graphic medicine about the practicalities of narrative agency in comics in a post-COVID-19 reality. 2025 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. -
COVID-19 COMICS AS GRAPHIC NETWORKS OF NON-EMERGENT HEALTHCARE: A MULTIMODAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF PANDEMIC COMICS
COVID-19 comic discourses articulating lived experiences during lockdown, isolation, and quarantine constructed a creative space of self and collective care. This research article explores how the multimodality within COVID-19 comic discourses aids in constructing a networked public of graphic care. Resorting to Dannah Boyds (2008; 2011) methodological framework of networks of graphic care, comics on the themes of self-care, coping mechanisms, and mental well-being from the work COVID Chronicles: A Comics Anthology (Boileau & Johnson, 2021) is analysed. A Multimodal Discourse Analysis (MDA) is performed to decipher the visual and verbal comic devices employed in constructing this graphic network of care using Thierry Groensteen (2007) and Scott McCloud's (2008) comic theories. The analysis highlights the various visual and linguistic techniques that enhance the communicative effectiveness of COVID-19 comics as self-care tools. By intervening in the visuality of COVID-19 comics as a tool of mental healthcare on individual and collective levels, this study illustrates the potential of comic narratives as a sustainable mode of sustenance and care in times of adversity and uncertainty. Furthermore, drawing from the results, the article also proposes the potentiality of comic discourses as non-emergent healthcare tools and a pedagogical tool for the successive policy implementation of mental healthcare measures. Copyright 2025 Albeena Stephen, Reshma Jacob. -
Phygital Transformation in Healthcare: Bridging Technology, Trust, and Accessibility in the Modern Health Economy
The healthcare industry is at a critical juncture as it grapples with the rapid adoption of new technology while trying to integrate these advancements into traditional care models in order to respond to the increasing demands of society and economy. This chapter discusses how phygital healthcare can help improve the efficiency, access, and engagement of patients when using digital technology by addressing issues that have historically plagued the industry such as trust and access to affordable options. An analysis of how these technologies will change the way we deliver healthcare and how we will manage it financially is presented along with an exploration of the economic and marketing implications of digital health in relation to building patient- centered systems and sustainable health markets. Through case studies and literature reviews, this chapter lays out a model for integrating digital innovation into ethical leadership to ensure that health care reform occurs in a socially inclusive and technologically progressive manner. 2026 by IGI Global Scientific Publishing. All rights reserved. -
Spiritual Intelligence and Spiritual Care in Nursing Practice: A Bibliometric Review
Spiritual intelligence (SI) has recently gained traction in various fields, including nursing. Given the increasing emphasis on patient-centred care and the holistic well-being of patients and nurses, SI is particularly relevant in nursing practice. A bibliometric analysis of recent publications (20142024) in the field helps synthesise and evaluate the existing research on SI in the general field of nursing, identify literature gaps, suggest future research directions and raise awareness of the importance of SI in nursing practice. The present study reports bibliometric data (n = 461) from the Scopus database on SI, spiritual quotient and spiritual care in nursing and health care. The data are analysed using MS Excel and VOSviewer software. The publications trend analysis revealed a significant increase in SI-related publications since 2015. The study presents top-cited articles. Journal of Religion and Health was found to be a prominent journal with the maximum number of publications, and Sage was found to be the top publisher of journals with articles on SI. Network visualisation reveals central figures such as Wilfred McSherry, Trove Giske, Elizabeth Johnston Taylor, Fiona Timmins, Silvia Caldeira and Linda Ross as key researchers in the field. The United States and Iran have the most substantial connections of authors publishing on SI. This study reveals an increasing interest in SI and care within nursing research, confirming its growing significance in the field. By reporting areas where research on SI in nursing remains underdeveloped, the study paves the way for the development of new or updated curricula in nursing programs. The study can guide faculty development initiatives by highlighting the importance of SI and providing resources for educators to incorporate these concepts into their teaching. This study presents specific research questions to address these knowledge gaps. Future studies which can address these questions will enrich nursing education and practice, leading to improved patient outcomes and enhanced nurse well-being using the full potential of SI in nursing practice. 2024 Published by Scientific Scholar on behalf of Indian Journal of Palliative Care. -
Remote and Cross-Cultural Training of Research Assistants Abroad to Conduct Neuropsychological Tests: Lessons Learned
There are no published guidelines regarding remotely training research assistants (RAs) to conduct neuropsychological tests. With technological advances allowing for increased international collaboration within the medical and research communities, challenges often arise from such partnerships, including linguistic, cultural, and physical barriers. A notable challenge for supervising neuropsychologists in international projects is the physical distance from RAs, sites, and materials, making training/supervision of RAs and monitoring test data quite challenging. In the context of a research collaboration between neuropsychologists based in New York and RAs based in Kerala, India, as part of the Kerala-Einstein Study, we explore the obstacles of remotely training RAs and maintaining neuropsychological data integrity. We share lessons learned and systems developed to optimize remote, multilingual, cross-cultural training of RAs in administration/scoring of neuropsychological tests. One-on-one video training sessions mitigated logistical problems (i.e., time differences, internet connection, language comfort). Individualized training in scoring and a centralized individual to double-score protocols addressed quality assurance of test data. Close collaboration between our teams was necessary for cultural competency, particularly when building an appropriate test battery, creating and translating manuals, and adapting protocols. Finally, frequent and ongoing communication channels ensured excellence in study design, information gathering, and data quality. Future studies should continue highlighting strategies for remotely training psychometrics/RAs in neuropsychological administration. 2025 The Author(s). Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. -
Effect of alkyl chain length on the corrosion inhibition of mild steel in a simulated hydrochloric acid medium by a phosphonium based inhibitor
The corrosion inhibiting effect of three synthesised phosphonium containing ionic liquids of varying alkyl chain length, namely, butyltriphenyl phosphonium bromide (BTPPB), hexyltriphenyl phosphonium bromide (HTPPB) and hexadecyltriphenyl phosphonium bromide (HDTPPB) on mild steel, was evaluated in 1 M HCl medium. The corrosion inhibition performance was studied by gravimetric method, potentiodynamic polarization studies, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and quantum chemical studies (DFT). However, the results of the SEM, AFM and contact angle tests confirmed that the protective layer formed on the mild steel. Furthermore, assessed the theoretical calculations for exploring the inhibition mechanism. A maximum of 95.77% inhibition efficiency was achieved using 250 ppm of HDTPPB. The obtained results showed that HDTPPB has greater inhibition ability than BTPPB and HTPPB. Adsorption studies obeyed the Langmuir adsorption isotherm. Moreover, the increased alkyl chain length of ionic liquids did increase their inhibition efficiency. 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. -
Representation of women in media: A case study on Japanese anime naruto and one piece /
It seems that as the first decade of the twenty-first century comes to close that the media is growing exponentially. Information is readily available at the touch of a button. This presents more opportunities than a company could possibly hope for to advertise. Most commonly the Japanese anime shows a woman whose body is being objectified in order to make it popular. -
Study of the diffuse ultraviolet background radiation at high galactic latitudes
The diffuse background radiation is observed throughout the whole sky and across every wavelength of the electromagnetic spectrum. The study of this background is of great importance as it contains photons coming from a va- riety of astrophysical environments, traveling over the time scales of a few hundred light years to the age of the universe itself. After the discovery of the cosmic microwave background, the diffuse sky in all the other wave- lengths was studied with great interest as they could provide useful insights into the formation history of the universe. In the work outlined in this the- sis, I will be describing this diffuse background radiation observed in the ultraviolet (UV) region. Over more than three decades of observations of the diffuse sky in the UV has revealed our lack of understanding of all the components that con- tribute to the observed background sky in this wavelength region. Initial studies arrived at controversial conclusions with one group suggesting that most of the observed diffuse surface brightness is due to the dust scat- tered starlight while another group suggested contribution from an exotic component along with the dust scattered component. We will explore this background sky in detail by trying to identify individual components and quantify its contribution at various regions in the sky. We have started our analysis at the Galactic pole regions with |b| > 80 using the data from Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) in the ultravio- let band. A major Galactic component of the diffuse sky in the UV is the starlight scattered by interstellar dust (also called Diffuse Galactic Light: DGL). We chose to study the Galactic poles due to the low dust environ- ment in these regions and easier modeling of the DGL component. We found consistent offsets in the UV data at a level of 230 290 photons s?1 cm?2 sr?1 1 (hereafter photon units) in the far-UV (FUV: 1539 and 480 580 photon units in the near-UV (NUV: 2316 when the UV surface brightness was compared with Galactic tracers like E(B-V) and the infrared surface brightness. These offsets represent the UV brightness at zero column densities. Part of this offset comes from the extragalactic background light (EBL) originating in background galaxies, Quasi-Stellar Objects (QSOs), etc. After careful estimation of this EBL component, we found a residual UV surface brightness of about 120 180 photon units in the FUV and 300 400 photon units in the NUV. The DGL component came to be about 120 photon units in these regions. We also found evidence for contribution from molecular hydrogen fluorescence at a column density of log NH > 20.2 (NH is in cm?2). We conclude that this contribution from H2 is from the cirrus features present at high Galactic latitudes. We further confirmed our findings at the north and south Galactic poles by studying the region between latitudes 70< b < 80 where we found similar offsets and the fluorescence contribution from H2 at the same levels as in the NGP. We proposed a possible contribution to the observed residual surface brightness coming from Hawking evaporation of Primordial Black Holes. But the level of this radiation was not sufficient to account for the entirety of the observed excess. The failure of this explanation only further deepens the mystery of the source of the excess surface brightness of the UV sky. -
Martian Habitats: A Review
Establishing colonies in Lunar and Martian environments is the major task of our primary means to become a multi-planetary civilization. The Space Exploration Initiative (SEI), administered by President George H.W. Bush in 1989, was the first spark that ignited humanity's vision to establish space settlements beyond low Earth orbit (LEO) (Marc M. Cohen, 2015). At present, private space companies (like SpaceX and Blue Origin) are competing to be the first ones to colonise space. From the late 1980s to the present space race, many space habitat designs to suit human factors, ensure protection from space radiation, and be capable of regulating our day-to-day activities have been proposed for both lunar and martian settlements, respectively. In this paper, only Martian settlements are focused, and the reason for that follows next. While the moon is closer to Earth than Mars, Mars has several other advantages that make it an equal, if not a better candidate for colonisation. Some of the reasons why martian colonisation is preferred over lunar colonization include the presence of an atmosphere on Mars, its resource-rich nature, and its rotation period being closer to Earth's rotation period (Mars has 24.5 hours per day, while the moon has 28-day days) (Kamrun Narher Tithi, 2017). Another added advantage is its proximity to the main belt asteroids, which will further increase the potential for space mining in the future. So this paper will be a review of the various Martian habitat designs proposed over the last one and a half decades in terms of their designs, construction and challenges. To do so, it is assumed that every step associated with delivering the habitats to the Martian environment is achievable. These steps include the following: propulsion systems for long-term spaceflights; launch vehicles capable of lifting the habitats and fitting the habitat modules within them (Marc M. Cohen, 2015). Copyright 2023 by the International Astronautical Federation (IAF). All rights reserved. -
A Quantum-Enhanced Artificial Neural Network Model for Efficient Medical Image Compression
The ability to effectively store and transmit high-resolution images such as MRI and CT scans without losing quality is critical to modernizing medical imaging. Traditional compression methods risk losing essential medical image data, which requires perfect detail for diagnosis. Quantum algorithms use superposition and entanglement to compress faster while preserving important information. This research presents a Quantum-enhanced Artificial Neural Network (QANN) model that combines quantum feature extraction with classical neural network topologies to improve image compression. Our approach consists of converting standardized classical data into quantum states, controlling these states using parameterized quantum circuits, and measuring the resulting states to produce enhanced feature vectors. The quantum-enhanced features are fed into a traditional neural network for image compression. The experimental results clearly show that our QANN framework outperforms standard models in terms of accurate reconstructed images, reduced size, and increased space-saving percentage, especially when dealing with large and complicated datasets. The QANN model demonstrates how quantum computing can significantly enhance the effectiveness of medical image processing solutions. Kaggle brain CT and MRI datasets and COVID-CXNet chest x-ray images are used. The proposed QANN model improves peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) and structural similarity index (SSIM). Using quantum technology, the image size is reduced for MRI (73.3 %), X-ray (74.1%), and CT-SCAN (71.8%) to save space. 2025 IEEE.