A smart medicine reminder kit with mobile phone calls and some health monitoring features for senior citizens.

The demand for an effective system that combines cutting-edge technologies with medical research to improve healthcare systems has increased with the development of medical technology. The most fundamental form of disease prevention is taking the right medication when needed. With the right care, many fatal diseases can be cured or prevented. Therefore, it is crucial to follow the doctor's recommended drug plan. Healthcare experts now have serious concerns about patients not being able to take their prescribed medications on time, particularly elderly patients. Due to age-related memory loss, people who have been given multiple prescriptions at once over an extended period of time are more likely to forget to take their medication on time or to take the wrong medication. Sometimes, a patient's inability to take the right medication at the right time might have a major impact on their health. Aside from being forgetful, patients, especially the elderly and illiterate, may not be able to read the name stated on medical containers, leading to the consumption of the wrong medication. These errors contribute to non-adherence to pharmaceuticals, which is detrimental to the patient's health. As a result, there is a significant problem that hinders the success of the treatment. The medication reminder system is intended for people who frequently take medications or vitamin supplements in order to handle this. In order to help an elderly person properly take their medication and help the patient have a healthy life, we have created a ground-breaking portable multifunctional medicine reminder kit with phone calls. Other intelligent characteristics of the smart medicine reminder include the capacity to show the time, date, and day in real time, the detection of smoke, the measurement of air humidity and temperature in the room, the measurement of heartbeats per second, the patient's body temperature, and the oxygen saturation level.

Stability enhancement of battery energy storage and renewable energy-based hybrid AC/DC microgrids using terminal sliding mode backstepping control approaches.

In this paper, a terminal sliding mode backstepping controller (TSMBC) has been proposed for various components of a hybrid AC/DC microgrid (HADMG) to enhance its dynamic stability. The proposed control technique is employed to generate switching control signals for converters, which serve as the primary interface between the DC bus and the AC bus in a hybrid microgrid. Additionally, this technique facilitates the interface of PMSG-based wind generators, solar photovoltaic generators, and battery energy storage systems with the DC bus. Through the implementation of the composite control technique, the global stability of the microgrid is ensured by driving all the states of the HADMG associated with various components to converge towards their intended values. Afterward, the Lyapunov control theory has been used to analyze the converter and inverter's large-signal stability while ensuring the robustness of the proposed robust composite controller. Finally, an extensive simulation study was conducted on a hybrid microgrid to verify the efficacy of the designed controller in maintaining power balance amidst variations in the system's operational regimes. Moreover, the effectiveness of the controller's practical implementation is confirmed by real-time processor-in-the-loop analysis. Simulation results clearly show that the proposed TSMBC improves the overall dynamic performance of the hybrid microgrid with less overshoot (0%) and settling time (110 ms) in DC bus voltage when compared to the existing sliding mode controller.

Characterizing and demonstrating the role of Klebsiella SSN1 exopolysaccharide in osmotic stress tolerance using neutron radiography.

Exopolysaccharides (EPS) are organic macromolecules naturally secreted by many microorganisms. EPS is increasingly used for agriculture and industrial purposes. This study focuses on isolate Klebsiella pneumonia SSN1, Klebsiella quasipeumonniae SGM81 isolated from rhizosphere to explore its water retention efficiency under drought conditions. Neutron Radiography was used to visualise water distribution in the sand under normal and drought conditions in the presence and absence of EPS producing bacteria. The EPS production was studied by applying Box Behnken design (BBD) under drought stress which was artificially induced by using polyethene glycol 6000 under osmotic stress condition 3.65% w/v of EPS dry weight was obtained. The relative water content (RWC) is used to calculate the amount of water present in the sand and was further studied by Neutron Radiography imaging with appropriate controls. FTIR and HPLC were also carried out for the characterisation of the extracted EPS. The sand experiments revealed that after 24 h of evaporation, the highest RWC was maintained by SSN1 at 29.7% compared to SGM81 (19.06%). SSN1 was found to release L-arabinose as the main sugar of its EPS under drought stress conditions by HPLC method. The FTIR data indicated the presence of ß-glucans and polysaccharide α-pyranose between wavenumber 700 cm-1-1500 cm-1 and 1017 cm-1-1200 cm-1 respectively. The HPLC characterization of extracted EPS from osmotic stressed cells (run 3) displayed a peak designated to L-arabinose at 10.3 retention time (RT) for 132.4 mM concentration. While from run 5 with the controlled condition indicated the presence of L-rhamnose at 7.3 RT for 87 mM concentration. Neutron radiography enables the visualisation of water distribution in the sand as well as water transport in root-soil systems in situ. SSN1 has elicited EPS production in drought conditions with a low level of nitrogen and carbon.

Fast neutron interrogation of special nuclear material using differential die-away technique.

The paper reports the development of a RF ion source-based transportable compact neutron generator and its application in detecting special nuclear material using the differential die away approach. We present experimental results for the detection of nuclear material in a low-density metallic matrix using an in-house developed 14 MeV (D-T) neutron generator. We have used multi-linear regression for accurately determining the quantity of fissile material even with a small data set.

A variable-wavelength-based approach of phase retrieval for contrast transfer function based methods.

X-ray phase-contrast imaging has emerged as an important method for improving contrast and sensitivity in the field of X-ray imaging. This increase in the sensitivity is attributed to the fact that, in the hard X-ray regime, the phase shift is more prominent as compared with the attenuation for materials having a low X-ray absorption coefficient. Among all the methods using the X-ray phase-contrast technique, in-line phase-contrast imaging scores over the other methods in terms of ease of implementation and efficient use of available X-ray flux. In order to retrieve the projected phase map of the object from the recorded intensity pattern, a large number of algorithms have been proposed. These algorithms generally use either the transport of intensity or contrast transfer function based approach for phase retrieval. In this paper it is proposed to use multiple wavelengths for phase retrieval using the contrast transfer function based formalism.

Laboratory-based X-ray phase-contrast imaging technique for material and medical science applications.

In-line X-ray phase-contrast imaging technique is an emerging method for the study of materials such as carbon fibers, carbon composite materials, polymers, etc. Similarly this technique is also well suited for the imaging of soft materials such as tissues, distinguishing between tumor and normal tissue. These represent the class of materials for which X-ray attenuation cross-section is very small. Thus this method promises a far better contrast for low X-ray absorbing substances than the conventional radiography method. We have set up an experimental facility using a combination of X-ray CCD detector and a microfocus X-ray source. This facility is dedicated to micro-imaging experiments such as microtomography and high-resolution phase-contrast experiments. In this paper, the results of X-ray phase-contrast imaging experiments are described.

Changing patterns in the prevalence and management of cardiovascular risk factors in India and their comparison with the rest of the world along with clinical outcomes at 5-year: An analysis of stable coronary artery disease patients from The Prospective Observational Longitudinal Registry of patients with stable coronary artery disease (CLARIFY) registry.

OBJECTIVE: Present paper describes trends in prevalence and control of cardiovascular risk factors and clinical outcomes at 5-years for CLARIFY Indian cohort compared with rest of the world (ROW). METHOD: CLARIFY is an international, prospective-observational, longitudinal cohort study in stable coronary artery disease outpatients. The 5-year data of both cohorts were compared, and evaluated. RESULTS: In Indian cohort, the angina prevalence declined significantly. There are few favorable changes in the pattern of receiving guideline-recommended therapy over 5 years, and the Indian cohort exhibited significantly lower adverse clinical outcomes than ROW. CONCLUSION: The 5-year trend of CLARIFY India registry indicate varying trends in prevalence and control of cardiovascular risk factors, the need for approaches to improve control of all modifiable risk factors, and increase in long-term use of essential primary and secondary prevention medications in clinical practice as emphasized in the latest Indian guidelines for management of stable CAD.

Characterization of pyrocarbon coated materials using laboratory based x-ray phase contrast imaging technique.

In-line x-ray phase contrast is an emerging x-ray imaging technique that promises to improve the contrast in x-ray imaging process. This technique is most suited for x-ray imaging of soft materials, low atomic number elements such as carbon composite fibers, very thin coatings, etc. We have used this new emerging technique for visualization and characterization of the pyrocarbon coated materials using a combination of microfocus x-ray source and x-ray charge coupled device detector. These studies are important for characterization of coating and optimization of various process parameters during deposition. These experiments will help us to exploit the potential of this technique for studies in other areas of material science such as characterization of carbon fibered structures and detection of cracks and flaws in materials. The characterization of the imaging system and optimization of some process parameters for carbon deposition are also described in detail.

Ayurpharmacoepidemiology Perspective: Health Literacy (Knowledge and Practice) Among Older Diabetes Patients Visiting Ayurveda Teaching Hospitals in India.

Older Indian diabetics lack proper health literacy making them vulnerable to complications. Assessment of health literacy was done by hospital-based cross-sectional study. Face-to-face interview was conducted by pretested structured questionnaires. Diabetes patients aged ≥60 years consisted of 56.22% males and 43.78% females; in addition, 34.2% respondents were without formal schooling. Diabetes was known to 63.56% respondents. Total knowledge and practice score of the respondents was good (18.9% and 35.1%), average (30.7% and 46.9%), and poor (50.4% and 18%), respectively. Knowledge and practice score was strongly associated ( P < .01) with religion, educational status, and diabetes duration with positive relationship ( R2 = 0.247, P < .01) between knowledge and practice score. The study highlights lack of health literacy among older diabetics undergoing ayurveda management. Baseline statistics will pave the way toward ayurpharmacoepidemiology.

Quantitative studies of pyrocarbon-coated materials using synchrotron radiation.

Phase-contrast imaging provides enhanced image contrast and is important for non-destructive evaluation of structural materials. In this paper, experimental results on in-line phase-contrast imaging using a synchrotron source (ELETTRA, Italy) for objects required in material science applications are discussed. Experiments have been carried out on two types of samples, pyrocarbon-coated zirconia and pyrocarbon-coated alumina microspheres. These have applications in both reactor and industrial fields. The phase-contrast imaging technique is found to be very useful in visualizing and determining the coating thickness of pyrocarbon on zirconia and alumina microspheres. The experiments were carried out at X-ray energies of 16, 18 and 20 keV and different object-to-detector distances. The results describe the contrast values and signal-to-noise ratio for both samples. A comprehensive study was carried out to determine the thickness of the pyrocarbon coating on zirconia and alumina microspheres of diameter 500 microm. The advantages of phase-contrast images are discussed in terms of contrast and resolution, and a comparison is made with absorption images. The results show considerable improvement in contrast with phase-contrast imaging as compared with absorption radiography.