India is fast emerging economy in Asia and world. India's manufacturing sector is growing faster and domestic demand is also increasing. India has a severe electricity shortage. It needs massive ...additions in capacity to meet the demand of its rapidly growing economy. To maintain the pace of economic growth with reduction in emission of greenhouse gases, India must reduce its dependency on fossil fuels for electrification. Hence the requirement of solar power installations in India has increased. In this context, this study aims to develop a structural model of the barriers to implement solar power installations in India. Thirteen relevant barriers to implement solar power installations have been identified from the literature and subsequent discussions with experts from academia and industry. Contextual relationships among these barriers have been identified and interpretive structural modeling (ISM) technique based, a structural model of barriers to implement solar power installations in India has been developed. MICMAC analysis has also been used to carry out the classification of barriers based on dependence and driving power. One barrier has been identified as top level barrier and six bottom level barriers. This paper also suggests the different ways of removal of these barriers. Better understanding of these barriers would help organizations and government bodies to prioritize and manage their resources in an effective and efficient way so that maximum number of solar power projects can be installed in India.
Engineers and real state owners are demanding that concrete aggregates should be tested for their alkali–silica reactivity, before their use, by some accelerated test method. An analysis of the ...consumer’s requirements shows that actually two, contradictory, demands are made on the test methods. These are: (a) to ascertain alkali–silica reactivity of an aggregate in a reasonably short time and (b) to evaluate and set an acceptance limit of long-term expansion of a reactive aggregate–cement combination. This contradiction is often ignored in national standards and only one test method is specified. However, it is known that concrete expansion, due to alkali–silica reaction, could be suppressed by using sufficient quantity of a pozzolan even when the concrete is exposed to a strong alkaline solution.
Most of the available test methods for the evaluation of alkali–silica reactivity of aggregates are empirical. In this paper, I propose to examine different test methods in the light of recent fundamental understanding of the mechanism of alkali–silica reaction and expansion. The emphasis is on the alkali–silica reactivity of aggregates themselves and not on the acceptance limit. The mechanism of alkali–silica reaction and expansive pressure generation suggest that the most appropriate condition of testing is to expose the test specimens to a solution of moderate hydroxyl ion concentration, preferably Ca(OH)
2 solution, and high ionic strength. The high ionic strength should be achieved by adding sufficient quantities of an “indifferent” electrolyte like a neutral alkali salt to the alkaline solution.
The fundamental understanding of the mechanism of alkali–silica reaction suggests a simple chemical test method for the evaluation of aggregates themselves. This method has been tested with Danish aggregates and an acceptance criterion has been suggested. Preliminary experiments show that the reactivity of samples of Japanese andesite, British Greywacke, Swedish porphyritic rhyolite, Norwegian mixed aggregate of rhyolite and quartzite and a silicified limestone aggregate from Belgium could be detected within 24
h. This is one of the quickest methods for the evaluation of alkali–silica reactivity of aggregates.
The freeze–thaw resistance of all cement-based materials is improved by incorporating a fine air bubble system in them. For acceptable life expectancy, incorporated air bubble volume should be about ...25% of the cement paste. The specific surface of the air bubble system need to be above 25 mm
2/mm
3 and a spacing factor below about 0.16 mm. Powers explained these on the basis of his saturated flow hydraulic pressure mechanism. According to Powers’ mechanism, the chemical nature of the air-entraining agent has no part in this improvement in performance.
Helmuth, one of the principal co-workers of Powers, has questioned a number of assumptions of Powers’ mechanism. Most importantly, Helmuth showed that ice penetrates concrete as dendritic crystals. Furthermore, a number of workers have shown that the chemical nature of the air-entraining agent affects the freeze–thaw resistance of cement-based materials. Some air-entraining agents do not improve the freeze–thaw resistance even though they entrain air of the required characteristics.
In this paper, a modified and expanded version of Helmuth’s model of ice penetration in concrete is utilised to explain the action of air bubbles. All air bubbles contain a layer of water on their inner surfaces. Surface tension spreads out water in the air bubbles as annular layers. Air-entraining agents may form or precipitate hydrophobic layers on air bubble surfaces. When an ice dendrite reaches an air bubble, the annular water layer freezes to an annular layer of ice. The hydrophobic layer on the air bubble surface reduces the ice–paste bond. Under this circumstance, the ice layer within the air bubble grows. During this growth, water is withdrawn from the surrounding by suction. A water movement under suction does not produce any expansive pressure. Withdrawal of water to the air bubbles explains the beneficial action of air entrainment. The specific efficiency of air-entraining agents is explained by the different degree of hydrophobicity produced by air-entraining agents.
To identify the cross-national prevalence of psychotic symptoms in the general population and to analyze their impact on health status.
The sample was composed of 256,445 subjects (55.9% women), from ...nationally representative samples of 52 countries worldwide participating in the World Health Organization's World Health Survey. Standardized and weighted prevalence of psychotic symptoms were calculated in addition to the impact on health status as assessed by functioning in multiple domains.
Overall prevalences for specific symptoms ranged from 4.80% (SE = 0.14) for delusions of control to 8.37% (SE = 0.20) for delusions of reference and persecution. Prevalence figures varied greatly across countries. All symptoms of psychosis produced a significant decline in health status after controlling for potential confounders. There was a clear change in health impact between subjects not reporting any symptom and those reporting at least one symptom (effect size of 0.55).
The prevalence of the presence of at least one psychotic symptom has a wide range worldwide varying as much as from 0.8% to 31.4%. Psychotic symptoms signal a problem of potential public health concern, independent of the presence of a full diagnosis of psychosis, as they are common and are related to a significant decrement in health status. The presence of at least one psychotic symptom is related to a significant poorer health status, with a regular linear decrement in health depending on the number of symptoms.
The treatment gap between the number of people with mental disorders and the number treated represents a major public health challenge. We examine this gap by socio-economic status (SES; indicated by ...family income and respondent education) and service sector in a cross-national analysis of community epidemiological survey data.
Data come from 16 753 respondents with 12-month DSM-IV disorders from community surveys in 25 countries in the WHO World Mental Health Survey Initiative. DSM-IV anxiety, mood, or substance disorders and treatment of these disorders were assessed with the WHO Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI).
Only 13.7% of 12-month DSM-IV/CIDI cases in lower-middle-income countries, 22.0% in upper-middle-income countries, and 36.8% in high-income countries received treatment. Highest-SES respondents were somewhat more likely to receive treatment, but this was true mostly for specialty mental health treatment, where the association was positive with education (highest treatment among respondents with the highest education and a weak association of education with treatment among other respondents) but non-monotonic with income (somewhat lower treatment rates among middle-income respondents and equivalent among those with high and low incomes).
The modest, but nonetheless stronger, an association of education than income with treatment raises questions about a financial barriers interpretation of the inverse association of SES with treatment, although future within-country analyses that consider contextual factors might document other important specifications. While beyond the scope of this report, such an expanded analysis could have important implications for designing interventions aimed at increasing mental disorder treatment among socio-economically disadvantaged people.
Solar energy, at the present time is considered as an important source in electricity generation. Electricity from the solar energy can be generated using solar photovoltaic (PV) modules. The ...maximization of solar power extracted from a PV module is of special concern as its efficiency is very low. The output power of a PV module is highly dependent on the geographical location and weather conditions such as solar irradiation, shading and temperature. To obtain maximum power from PV module, photovoltaic power system usually requires maximum power point tracking (MPPT) controller. In this paper, an adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) based maximum power point tracker for PV module has been presented. To extract maximum power, a DC–DC boost converter is connected between the PV module and the load. The duty cycle of DC–DC boost converter is modified with the help of the ANFIS reference model, so that maximum power is transferred to load. Due to the complexity of the tracker mechanism and non-linear nature of photovoltaic system, the artificial intelligence based technique, especially the ANFIS method, is used in this paper. In order to observe the maximum available power of PV module, the ANFIS reference model directly takes in operating temperature and irradiance level as input. The response of proposed ANFIS based control system shows accuracy and fast response. The simulation result reveals that the maximum power point is tracked satisfactorily for varying irradiance and temperature of PV module. Simulation results are provided to validate the concept.
The initial Global Burden of Disease study found that depression was the fourth leading cause of disease burden, accounting for 3.7% of total disability adjusted life years (DALYs) in the world in ...1990.
To present the new estimates of depression burden for the year 2000.
DALYs for depressive disorders in each world region were calculated, based on new estimates of mortality, prevalence, incidence, average age at onset, duration and disability severity.
Depression is the fourth leading cause of disease burden, accounting for 4.4% of total DALYs in the year 2000, and it causes the largest amount of non-fatal burden, accounting for almost 12% of all total years lived with disability worldwide.
These data on the burden of depression worldwide represent a major public health problem that affects patients and society.
The population of people aged ≥60 years continues to increase globally, and has been projected by the United Nations Population Division to increase to 21% of the total population by 2050. In ...addition, the number of older people living with HIV has continued to increase owing to the introduction of antiretroviral therapy as a treatment for HIV-infected people. Most of the older people living with HIV are in sub-Saharan Africa, an area that faces the biggest burden of HIV globally. Despite the high burden, there are limited reliable data on how HIV directly and indirectly affects the health and wellbeing of older people within this region.
To showcase the availability of data on how HIV directly and indirectly affects the health and wellbeing of older people in Uganda and South Africa (SA).
The World Health Organization Study on global AGEing and adult health (SAGE), in collaboration with Medical Research Council/Uganda Virus Research Institute and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (MRC/UVRI and LSHTM) Uganda Research Unit and the Africa Health Research Institute (AHRI) in SA, started the SAGE Wellbeing of Older People Study (WOPS) in Uganda and SA in 2009. Since initiation, respondents have been surveyed every 2 years, with four waves of surveys conducted in Uganda and three waves in South Africa.
The available datasets consist of two cohorts of people, aged >50 years, who were surveyed every 2 years between 2009 and 2018. The prevalence of HIV positivity over this period increased from 39% to 54% in Uganda and 48% to 62% in SA. The datasets provide comparisons of variables at a household level and at an individual level. At the individual level, the following measures can be compared longitudinally for a 10-year period for the following variables: sociodemographic characteristics; work history and benefits; health states and descriptions; anthropometrics performance tests and biomarkers; risk factors and preventive health behaviours; chronic conditions and health services coverage; healthcare utilisation; social cohesion; subjective wellbeing and quality of life; and impact of caregiving.
This article describes the WOPS in Uganda and SA, the population coverage of this study, and the survey frequency of WOPS, survey measures, data resources available, the data resource access and the strengths and weaknesses of the study. The article invites interested researchers to further analyse the data and answer research questions of interest to enhance the impact of these data.
Selection of suitable features plays a pivotal role in Electromyography pattern recognition (EMG-PR) based system designing. Time-domain features are widely used in EMG-PR based application and show ...improved proficiency in the development of rehabilitation robotics. Even though, the performance of existing features is not satisfactory. In this study, we proposed four novel time-domain features obtained by using first-order differentiation of original surface electromyogram (sEMG) signals feature. Here, sEMG signals were acquired from ten healthy volunteers with the help of myotrace400 device for six different arm movements. The data acquisition and pre-processing stage were carried out followed by the feature extraction process for better classification results. Four different classifiers namely, k-nearest neighbors (KNN), Linear discriminant analysis (LDA), Quadratic discriminant analysis (QDA) and Medium tree (MT) classifiers were utilized for the performance evaluation of proposed and conventional features. Experimental results demonstrate that proposed features extracted by using first-order differentiation of sEMG signals feature attained better classification accuracy with MT classifier as compared to the feature extracted from original sEMG signals with the conventional features. The accuracy of proposed feature based on first-order differentiation improved up to 6%. The results indicate that proposed features may be considered for developing the EMG-PR based system designing.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Social withdrawal is one phenotypic feature of the monogenic neurodevelopmental disorder fragile-X. Using a 'knockout' rat model of fragile-X, we examined whether deletion of the
gene that causes ...this condition would affect the ability to form and express a social hierarchy as measured in a tube test. Male fragile-X 'knockout' rats living together could successfully form a social dominance hierarchy, but were significantly subordinate to wild-type animals in mixed group cages. Over 10 days of repeated testing, the fragile-X mutant rats gradually showed greater variance and instability of rank during their tube-test encounters. This affected the outcome of future encounters with stranger animals from other cages, with the initial phenotype of wild-type dominance lost to a more complex picture that reflected, regardless of genotype, the prior experience of winning or losing. Our findings offer a novel insight into the complex dynamics of social interactions between laboratory living groups of fragile-X and wild-type rats. Even though this is a monogenic condition, experience has an impact upon future interactions with other animals. Gene/environment interactions should therefore be considered in the development of therapeutics.
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