040599   LEBED O, KLYMENKO O, FIZYK L, POTRAVKA L, PICHURA V (Kherson State Agrarian Univ, Ukraine - 73006, Email: pichuravitalii@gmail.com) : Measurement of exhalation of radon-222 from soil of city of Rivne, Ukraine. Indian J Ecol 2020, 47(2), 337-44.

These studies show that the radon content in the air of buildings of Rivne city is mainly influenced by the factors radiological characteristics of the underlying soils under the buildings and building materials (first of all, the radon emanation coefficient in soil, soils gas permeability, etc.). characteristics of the ventilation systems of buildings and modes of ventilation, design features of buildings (number of floors, type of foundation, available aerodynamic connection between floors, location of communication systems within outlines of building, etc.), the type of glazing (the degree of tightness, available ventilation valves, etc.), the type of heating (stove, electric, gas or central) and the level of floor in spaces: basements, semi-basements, first floors regarding land surface. Considering the given factors, can conclude that essential reduction in radon content in indoor air of buildings can be achieved by) choosing a site for building, where radon release from soil is low, applying building envelopes that effectively prevent entering of radon from the soil into building, removing of radon from indoor air. In order to comply with these requirements it is necessary to monitor radiation safety parameters according to volumetric activity in indoor air and radon flux density (RDF) from soil under buildings. The results thereof should be used for sanitary and epidemiological assessment of land sites for building and environmental safety in living spaces. We consider that the main parameter of the anti-radon pre-design stage of construction is the determination of RDF from soil in building site and mapping of RDF from soil in modern cities will allow to develop plans for ecological building and ensure reduction of the ecological radon risk for the citizens. Mapping is based on the analysis of the spatial distribution of values of radon flux density, which is released from surface of city soils. Such approach allows to use the map in urban planning, in pre-design surveys for building, in hygiene studies, for estimating of the doses that are received by citizens due to radon exposure and, finally, as a resource for informing the citizens.

6 illus, 4 tables, 47 ref

044499   CANER Y, SHAKHNOZAKHAN T, ALLAH B (Agricutlural Genetic Engineering Dep, Nigde Omer Halisdemir Univ, Nigde- 51240, Turkey, Email: abthebest@gmail.com) : Apprehending the potential of baby boom transcription factors to mitigate cotton regeneration and transformation. J Cotton Res 2020, 3, 10.1186/s42397-.

Since the advent of transgenic technology, the incorporation of gene(s) encoding traits of economic importance in cotton is being practiced worldwide. However, factors like recalcitrant nature of cotton cultivars, in vitro regeneration via tissue culture (especially via somatic embryogenesis), genotype dependency, long and toilsome protocols impede the pace of development of transgenic cotton. Besides that, types and age of explants, media composition, plant growth regulators and other environmental factors affect in vitro cotton regeneration significantly. The studies of genetic control of in vitro regeneration in plants have elucidated the role of certain transcription factor genes that are induced and expressed during somatic embryogenesis. Among these transcription factors, BABY BOOM (BBM) plays a very important role in signal transduction pathway, leading to cell differentiation and somatic embryos formation. The role of BBM has been established in plant cell proliferation, growth and development even without exogenous growth regulators. This review intends to provide an informative summary of regeneration and transformation problems in cotton and the latest developments in utilization of BBM transcription factors in cotton. We believe that the use of BBM will not only ease cotton genetic improvement but will also accelerate cotton breeding programmes.

3 illus, 1 table, 142 ref

040490   GAUTAM N B, KATE G U, CHAURASIA A S (Chemical Engineering Dep, Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, Nagpur - 440 010, Maharashtra, Email: aschaurasia@che.vnit.ac.in) : Production of amorphous silica and activated carbon from rice husk char obtained from two stage gasification process. Indian J Chem Technol 2020, 27(4), 340-5.

In this study the rice husk has been subjected to two-stage gasification to obtain syngas, tar and char. The rice husk char is subjected to alkaline extraction to obtain amorphous silica and activated carbon. The products have been characterized by methods such as BET, FTIR and XRF. The silica obtained from acid leached rice husk has BET specific surface area of 311.68 m²/g and purity of 88.85 %. The BET specific surface area of activated char increase from 102.49 m²/g to 567.03 m²/g after the activation process. The silica extraction using carbon dioxide (CO₂) precipitation is found to be more profitable than acid precipitation.

3 illus, 4 tables, 18 ref

044420   DAYO-ODUKOYA O, WUPPULUR B (Chemical and Biological Engineering Dep, The Univ of Sheffield, Sheffield S1 4AA, United Kingdom, Email: omololad95@gmail.com) : Cell-free production of recombinant proteins. J Biol Engg Res & Rev 2020, 7(2), 10-8.

Cell-free production systems have gained much attention in the last decade due to a quest by researchers to develop more complex and potentially viable proteins, which are otherwise ‘toxic’ or ‘difficult-to-express’ for conventional cell-based systems. Conventional cell-based systems have presented scientist with several other limitations, thereby impeding not only the production but also, the optimization of already expressed proteins both on the bench and large scale. Novel recombinant proteins are believed to be the next generation of products that will transform many fields, especially for therapeutics and diagnostics in medicine. Gleaning from the massive impact of the growth and improvement of penicillin, it is not difficult to see the grave importance of optimizing present processes to be more time and cost efficient. Cell-free protein expression systems (CFPES) already show promising potentials in the development of a wide range of areas that they are already being applied to. The development of high-throughput screening processes, production of integral membrane proteins and difficult to express proteins, are a few key applications to watch out for. It’s numerous advantages, such as flexibility, ease of manipulation, cost and time efficiency to mention a few, make it an even more exciting prospect over the long-standing and ever praised E. Coli and Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) whole expression systems. This review succinctly presents the concept of cell-free production as a choice system for recombinant protein, highlighting, many recent applications, advantages and prospects. It also sets out to describe methods of recombinant production using cell-free extracts, while still touching on its presenting limitations.

3 illus, 1 table, 59 ref

040360   SAHOO S S, TRIPATHI P M, CHATTERJEE K (Electrical Engineering Dep, Indian Institute of Technology (ISM), Dhanbad - 826 004, Email: subhendu331@gmail.com) : Low-cost non-superconducting dc-fault current limiter for the enhancement of low-voltage ride through capability of doubly fed induction generator. IETE Tech Rev 2020, 37(4), 418–37.

The wind generation system shares a significant portion of power to the grid, hence, it is necessary for the wind systems to remain coupled to the grid under any circumstances. Earlier wind systems were permissible to detach under any disorders and protection issues. Nonetheless, the disconnection of the wind system affects the stability of the entire grid. In order to overcome those issues, some ride-through schemes should be implemented. The objective of the proposed paper is to provide an effective ride through a scheme with lower cost for doubly fed induction generator based wind energy conversion system. The proposed method includes a non-superconducting DC fault current limiter placed in between the rotor side converter and grid side converter, which effectively restricts the rotor over current, stator over current, DC link voltage, and electromagnetic torque within their safety limit. The effectiveness of the paper is revealed by comparing the result obtained using three phase resistive-super conducting fault current limiter with the conventional vector control scheme. Also, the proposed method is predicated to be cost effective than other FRT techniques.

23 illus, 3 tables, 40 ref

040357   MEHTA H, KAUR H (Electronic Science, Delhi Univ, South Campus, New Delhi 110 021, Email: harsupreetkaur@gmail.com) : Superior performance and reliability of double gate gaussian doped negative capacitance junctionless transistor for 200–500 K. IETE Tech Rev 2020, 37(4), 391–401.

In this work, performance of Double Gate Gaussian Doped Negative Capacitance Junctionless Transistor (DGGDNCJLT) has been studied for temperature range 200–500 K to explore the suitability of the device for applications which demand operation at extended temperature range. The device behavior has been studied by using temperature dependent Landau parameters of ferroelectric material doped hafnium oxide with standard TCAD models. Further, to achieve improved device performance over a wide temperature range, ferroelectric material parameters have been optimized to enhance the impact of negative capacitance effect which consequently improves device characteristics. It has been demonstrated that even for a wide temperature range 200–500 K, DGGDNCJLT exhibits substantial improvement in gate controllability, I_ON/I_OFF ratio, subthreshold swing values less than 60 mV/dec and enhanced current drivability for optimized ferroelectric parameters.

10 illus, 38 ref

040355   BARDIYA S, VASUKI B (Instrumentation and Control Engineering Dep, National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli - 620 015, Email: siddharth.bardiya24@gmail.com) : Performance enhancement of capacitance-type level measurement system using CCII-based interface. IETE Tech Rev 2020, 37(4), 365–76.

In this paper, a simple design of a short-range non-inductive capacitance-type level sensor which is developed for closed tanks (like fuel tanks of vehicles) is proposed. The level sensor is analytically and experimentally verified for measuring the level of non-conducting liquids. Second-generation current conveyor (CCII) based interface circuit is used to measure the capacitance of the level sensor which gives output in the form of frequency. The developed capacitance-based level measurement system is simple in design, low-cost and it is found that the error in the measurement of a level is very small in the range of 0.04 % for a non-conducting liquid level from 10 to 145 mm of the sensor length.

17 illus, 5 tables, 23 ref

040354   ASHA C S, NARASIMHADHAN A V (Electronics and Communication Dep, National Institute of Technology Karnataka, Mangalore, Karnataka - 575 025, Email: asha.cs@rediffmail.com) : A comparative study of illumination invariant techniques in video tracking perspective. IETE Tech Rev 2020, 37(4), 353–64.

Object tracking is being utilized in the field of computer vision over decades for video surveillance, human–computer interaction and robotic applications. Even though the state-of-the-art tracking technology is rapidly growing, few issues are still challenging such as illumination variation, pose variation, scale changes, occlusion, etc. Among these challenges, sudden illumination variation is more complicated which is not solved completely. Most of the current trackers, indeed work under controlled illumination conditions in outdoor and indoor environments. In this work, we study the effect of adding the photometric normalization techniques prior to tracking in order to minimize the drift during abrupt light changes of the median flow tracker (MFT). The tracker under investigation is based on the optical flow method and achieved remarkable results in the tracking literature. However, it drifts off during sudden illumination variation. To resolve this problem, pre-processing technique is incorporated just before tracking. Hence, we present an experimental study of various pre-processing techniques to improve the accuracy of the MFT. A total of eight state-of-the-art normalization techniques are summarized and tested in video tracking perspective. The experiments are carried out with the video sequences obtained from the object tracking benchmark dataset posing sudden illumination change as a challenge to analyze the modified tracker. A comparative analysis indicates that the modified tracker outperforms the baseline tracker in terms of precision score and overlap score.

13 illus, 32 ref

040349   KUMAR A, DAS A, PANIGRAHI R K (Electronics and Communication Engineering Dep, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, Uttarakhand - 247 667, Email: ajeet.kumar.in@ieee.org) : Hybrid-pol decomposition methods: A comparative evaluation and a new entropy-based approach. IETE Tech Rev 2020, 37(3), 296–308.

The analysis of hybrid-polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (hybrid-pol SAR) data can be carried out using two different types of analytical approaches. The first approach is by implementing directtechnique (DT), which directly takes hybrid-pol Stokes parameters as input. The second approach is reconstruction-based-technique (RBT), where the pseudo quad-polarimetric (quad-pol) data is reconstructed from the hybrid-pol measurements. Methods under DT and RBT categories have their own strengths and weaknesses, which are thoroughly investigated in this paper. Also, a comparative analysis of these methods is carried out on the basis of their ability for scattering type discrimination and land-cover classification using synthesized as well as true hybrid-pol data. Moreover, a new entropy (H)-based RBT approach is proposed in this paper which is being compared with the state-of-the-art techniques.

4 illus, 3 tables, 59 ref

040345   PATRO K A K, ACHARYA B, NATH V (Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering Dep, National Institute of Technology Raipur, Raipur, Chhattisgarh, Email: bacharya.etc@nitrr.ac.in) : Secure, lossless, and noise-resistive image encryption using chaos, hyper-chaos, and DNA sequence operation. IETE Tech Rev 2020, 37(3), 223–45.

This paper proposes an image encryption scheme using the combination of chaos, hyper-chaos, and DNA sequence operation. The proposed scheme performs three stages of encryption operations. Those are selection-level hyper-chaotic sequence based DNA-shuffling operation, key-image based DNA-diffusion operation, and hyper-chaotic sequence based DNA-shuffling operation. The advantages of this scheme are higher key space, higher confusion or randomness of pixels, higher sensitivity to the keys and plaintext pixels, stronger resistivity to the noises, and lossless encryption and decryption. Moreover, selection-level hyper-chaotic sequence based DNA-shuffling operation generates more complexities in the confusion process which increases the strength of encryptions and decryptions. The computer simulation and security analyses confirm the good encryption results of the proposed scheme and strong resistivity to the commonly used attacks.

6 illus, 28 tables, 58 ref

040347   SARKAR D, KUMAR A, SADHU P K (Electrical Engineering Dep, Indian Institute of Technology (Indian School of Mines), Dhanbad - 826 004, Jharkhand, Email: debayansarkar92@gmail.com) : A survey on development and recent trends of renewable energy generation from BIPV systems. IETE Tech Rev 2020, 37(3), 258–80.

The electricity demand of the world is growing at a rapid pace. On the other hand, pollution levels due to conventional power generating techniques are drastically increasing and resulting in harmful environmental issues and impacts. As an alternative to this, renewable or clean energy generation from solar photovoltaic’s (PV) in large scale grid connected systems is being increasingly encouraged at the present time. One of the emerging trends in solar PV module power generation is building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) systems. It meets the local load demands of the building or residential systems and can be used as a stand-alone or on-grid connected system. This paper briefs about the development and recent trends related to renewable energy generation from BIPV systems and its maximum power generation techniques. It also describes both the current-voltage (I-V) and powervoltage (P-V) characteristics of various BIPV products at dissimilar values of solar irradiation. With BIPV, the building or residential components like the roof, an outer wall, window glass, etc., are replaced by PV array module and hence a dual purpose is served with a reduction in the overall cost.

9 illus, 7 tables, 124 ref

040351   HOODA N, KUMAR N (Biomedical Instrumentation Dep, CSIR-Central Scientific Instruments Organisation, Chandigarh - 160 030, Email: getneha.hooda@gmail.com) : Cognitive imagery classification of EEG signals using CSP-based feature selection method. IETE Tech Rev 2020, 37(3), 315–26.

This paper presents a novel approach of spectral feature selection using spatial filters for the classification of four cognitive imagery tasks. The input dataset consists of electroencephalogram (EEG) signals acquired through a commercial wireless headset. The spectral features included mel frequency (MF) components extracted from the low frequency bands of EEG signal. A spatial projection filter was used for the selection of the most relevant features before classification. The popular method of multiclass common spatial pattern (CSP) and regularized CSP (RCSP) are investigated for a subject dependent (intra) and subject independent (inter) generation of spatial projection filter, respectively. Based upon this, present study used two different algorithmic approaches namely MFCSP and MF-RCSP. The developed algorithm successfully classified four imagery actions with the reported prediction accuracy of 46.23 % and 64.01 % and standard deviation of 11.60 % and 8.67 % for MF-CSP and MF-RCSP, respectively.

6 illus, 3 tables, 72 ref

040344   SUBRAHMANYAM K V, KUMAR K K, REDDY N N (VSSC, Trivandrum - 695 022, Email: kvsm2k@gmail.com) : New insights into the convective system characteristics over the Indian summer monsoon region using space-based passive and active remote sensing techniques†. IETE Tech Rev 2020, 37(2), 211–9.

The characteristics of convective systems over the Indian summer monsoon (ISM) region derived by using a unique combination of four satellites METEOSAT, TRMM, COSMIC and CloudSat comprising of both active and passive remote sensing sensors are discussed for the first time. Six years of observations during ISM brought out the preferential geographical regions and time for formation of shallow, deep, and very deep convective systems. It has been observed that shallow, deep, and very deep convective clouds are abundant over ISM region and their distributions show a relatively high frequency of occurrence over the Head Bay of Bengal as compared to other regions. The mean vertical structure of clouds are also been studied using CloudSat observations over several latitudinal belts. The time of maximum occurrence of convective type cloud systems are also quantified using the present observations. The analysis suggests that the deep and very deep convective cloud systems peak during late afternoon hours over many parts of the Indian landmass with few exceptions such as over foothills of the Himalayas, where it peaks during the early morning hours. The three-dimensional structures of convective systems are also discussed. The significance of the present results lie in providing new insights into the characteristics of convective systems by investigating CAPE, clouds, and precipitation, which in turn play a vital role in understanding the internal dynamics of ISM.

6 illus, 30 ref

040341   SINGH A K, PATHAK M K (Electrical and Instrumentation Engineering Dep, Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology, Patiala - 147 004, Email: ankitee04@gmail.com) : An efficient single-stage based power electronic interface for plug-in electric vehicles. IETE Tech Rev 2020, 37(2), 169–79.

In this research, a new power converter has been presented for plug-in electric vehicle applications, which is derived from the conventional secondary ended primary inductance converter (SEPIC). The proposed converter operates for all modes of vehicles [plug-in charging mode (PCM), propulsion mode (PM) and regenerative braking mode (RBM)] with high voltage conversion ratio. The proposed structure operates as a SEPIC in PCM and as a conventional single switch buck/boost converter in PM and RBM. Therefore, universal voltage range, i.e., 85–265 V can be used to charge the battery as well as dc-link voltage can be varied in wide range. A comparative study of the proposed converter has been investigated with existing integrated converters. Furthermore, an analytical loss analysis of the semiconductor devices has been investigated to select the power stage switches as well as efficiency calculation of the converter in each mode. The proposed concept is validated through strong simulation and hardware results.

14 illus, 4 tables, 18 ref

040338   KUMAR A, SAHU P R (Electronics and Communication Engineering Dep, PDPM–IIITDM Jabalpur, Jabalpur - 482 005, Email: atul.kumar@iiitdmj.ac.in) : Performance analysis of DCSK-BDR systems over nakagami-m fading channels. IETE Tech Rev 2020, 37(2), 137–46.

In this paper, a differential chaos shift keying bidirectional relaying (DCSK-BDR) scheme is proposed in which two source nodes exchange their information through a relay node. By using network coding at the relay, the proposed scheme offers spectrum and energy efficiency over the conventional DCSK transmission scheme for end-to-end communication. Analytical expressions for the probability density function (PDF) of the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of each hop are derived for Nakagami-m fading channel. The end-to-end average bit error rate (BER) of the system is evaluated. Throughput of the proposed schemes is also presented and compared. Numerical results are verified with the simulation results and plotted for different parameters.

10 illus, 44 ref

040335   GUPTA A, GANGWAR R K (Electronics & Telecommunication Dep, National Institute of Technology, Raipur, Chhattisgarh - 492 010, Email: agupta.etc@nitrr.ac.in) : Hybrid rectangular dielectric resonator antenna for multiband applications. IETE Tech Rev 2020, 37(1), 83–90.

This article examines the triple-band rectangular dielectric resonator antenna (RDRA) excited with novel composite feeding structure (combination of inverted H-shaped monopole and vertical strip). Three attractive features of proposed design are as follows: (i) composite feeding structure creates dual higher order modes in RDRA (i.e., TE^x_δ,2,1 and TE^x_δ,4,1); (ii) triple-band characteristic is achieved with the help of hybrid antenna concept; and (iii) adjacent bands with higher order modes have been merged to enhance the bandwidth. Simulated outcomes have been practically confirmed with the help of developed prototype of proposed antenna. The proposed RDRA is operated over three frequency bands, i.e., 1.45–1.63 GHz, 3.62–4.1 GHz, and 4.55–5.86 GHz. The proposed design is quite suitable for WLAN (5.2/5.8 GHz), WiMAX (5.5 GHz), AMSAT (5.6 GHz), GPS (1.57–1.58 GHz), point-topoint microwave, and telemetry in the USA (4.44–4.99 GHz).

9 illus, 3 tables, 18 ref

040333   SINGH A, NAIK K K, KUMAR C R S (Electronics Engineering Dep, Defence Institute of Advanced Technology, Pune - 411 025, Email: ajit_pee13@diat.ac.in) : NOMURA: A spectrally efficient non-orthogonal 5g multiple access downlink scheme for cognitive radio. IETE Tech Rev 2020, 37(1), 56–65.

Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) is now becoming an impeding rather than a sustainable technology for realizing the vision of 5G due to its tight synchronization, orthogonality constraints, and significant bandwidth wastage due to Cyclic Prefix. To overcome this limitation, several non-orthogonal schemes have been introduced as candidates for upcoming 5G technology for providing flexible, reliable, fair and high-speed multiple access to users and/or devices. A combination of Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access (NOMA) and Universal Filtered Multi-Carrier (UFMC) is found suitable for downlink scenario. We propose NOMA-UFMC-based Radio Access (NOMURA) scheme, which is asynchronous, bandwidth efficient and provides higher throughput. The proposed scheme is non-orthogonal in two aspects: (1) NOMA provides resources to different users via power scaling while utilizing same frequency resources, and (2) UFMC allows for a slight delay in synchronization, hence not strictly compliant with orthogonality requirements. The components of the proposed scheme, namely NOMA and UFMC, are backward compatible with OFDMA ensuring trivial application of Multiple Input Multiple Output and other performance enhancement measures already developed for OFDMA. We provide simulation results benchmarked against OFDMA and Filter Bank Multi-Carrier-Filtered Multi-Tone and show that NOMURA is more apt for flexible bandwidth allocations, active cancellation, higher throughput and provides equivalent Bit Error Rate performance under AWGN and Rayleigh fading conditions.

9 illus, 1 table, 27 ref

040332   SHARMA D, PRAJAPATI Y K, TRIPATHI R (Electronics and Communication Engineering Dep, Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology, Allahabad - 211 004, Email: yogendrapra@gmail.com) : Success journey of coherent PM-QPSK technique with its variants: A survey. IETE Tech Rev 2020, 37(1), 36–55.

Nowadays, public demands high capacity global internet traffic in terms of cloud computing, video gaming, fiber to the home and mobile networks, etc. To fulfill such huge traffic requirement, high-speed digital coherent transmission system came into the picture. Polarization multiplexedquadrature phase shift keying (PM-QPSK) technique is an emerged praiseworthy digital coherent optical multiplexing technology. PM-QPSK provides efficient bandwidth to fulfill the high traffic demands by availing enormous potential bandwidth of optical fiber. PM-QPSK is a good hybrid multiplexed candidate in terms of delivering high optimized receiver sensitivity and spectral efficiency with appreciable reach. In this survey, we present a state of art over different strategies employing PM-QPSK techniques to achieve an enhancement in various optical performance parameters. During the survey, various research challenges are encountered, which are also presented with various future prospects.

7 illus, 10 tables, 101 ref

040326   BHARATHI A, MERUGU L, RAO P V D S (ECE Dep, Osmania Univ, Hyderabad, Telangana, Email: bharathig8@gmail.com) : Reconfigurable corner truncated square microstrip patch antennas for wireless communication applications. IETE J Res 2020, 66(2), 242–55.

Reconfigurability of the radiation characteristic is one of the recent significant developments associated with the characterization of microstrip patch antennas for wireless communication systems. This paper presents, in an exhaustive and comprehensive form, the recent results for various novel reconfigurable microstrip antenna topologies involving corner truncations and ring slot loading, coupled with PIN diode switching mechanism. These designs exhibit the functions of polarization reconfiguration, polarization, and frequency reconfiguration with an attractive single layer patch and easily realizable practical structure. Emphasis is placed on design, simulation, and experimental results of each of the proposed geometries illustrating the antenna versatility in several applications.

20 illus, 4 tables, 22 ref

040325   SUJANA J A J, REVATHI T, RAJANAYAGAM S J (Mepco Schlenk Engineering Coll, Sivakasi, Tamilnadu, Email: ang_jenefa@mepcoeng.ac.in) : Fuzzy-based security-driven optimistic scheduling of scientific workflows in cloud computing. IETE J Res 2020, 66(2), 224–41.

Cloud computing is a new computing paradigm which is gaining wide acceptance among scientific fraternity in the recent years. The services of cloud could be effectively used for running large-scale data and computation-intensive scientific workflow applications. Finding the optimal schedule for such workflows has been a major concern among the cloud users. In the present work, a novel approach of combining both optimization of the schedule along with the allocation of the virtual machines (VMs) based on security requirements is envisaged. This paper focuses on generating an optimized schedule for the complex workflow structures. The main objective of the schedule is to minimize the makespan of the schedule. In this paper, we design the scheduling heuristic based on the cost prediction matrix (CPM) for optimized cost calculation. The CPM will estimate the execution cost by considering the child’s child task also. This leads to a prophetic estimation on the available VMs. In addition to this, we have used a fuzzy-based decision model for deciding the selection of the VMs based on security constraints in the cloud. This fuzzy model is combined with the optimized cost calculation from CPM for each and every task of the workflow. The proposed secured cost prediction-based scheduling (SCPS) algorithm then schedules the task in the best possible VM, so that the makespan is minimized. Our results show that the newly developed SCPS algorithm yields efficient schedule compared to other existing scheduling models in spite of the inclusion of security constraints besides scheduling. Nevertheless, this secured scheduling is done without much increase in the time complexity.

16 illus, 9 tables, 42 ref

040323   ABID A, MALIK T N, ABID F, SAJJAD I A (Electrical Engineering Dep, Engineering and Technology Univ, Taxila, Pakistan, Email: anumabid24@gmail.com) : Dynamic economic dispatch incorporating photovoltaic and wind generation using hybrid FPA with SQP. IETE J Res 2020, 66(2), 204–13.

This paper presents a hybrid approach to explore the effect of wind and photovoltaic energy on conventional power network using dynamic economic dispatch. This model deals with stochastic and unpredictable character of wind and solar power output while considering the gaps between the real and predicted output power. A hybrid flower pollination algorithm with sequential quadratic programming is applied to reduce the overall operating costs of generators, while allocating generation to the committed units. The proposed technique is applied on power system having 13 solar units and a wind plant connected with 3, 5, and 10 generating units, respectively. The results of algorithm simulations performed in MATLAB 2014b confirm the competence of the suggested method.

5 illus, 6 tables, 24 ref

040322   SHIVAM, DAHIYA R (Electrical Engineering Dep, National Institute of Technology Kurukshetra, Kurukshetra, Haryana - 136 119, Email: shivam55ram@gmail.com) : Distributed control for DC microgrid based on optimized droop parameters. IETE J Res 2020, 66(2), 192–203.

The droop control approach is widely used in case of parallel operation of DC sources. The conventional droop control method is realized by linearly reducing the load voltage as the load current increases. This droop control is unable to achieve effective equal load sharing as well as the bus voltage regulation. The load sharing error is enhanced when cable line parameters of parallelconnected DC sources are not equal. The droop gain and nominal voltage reference of source converters are the key parameters to achieve the bus voltage deviation within the permissible limits and effective load sharing. In this paper, the droop parameters of the proposed distributed control scheme are optimized with the help of the Particle Swarm Optimization technique for the aforementioned control objectives of the DC microgrid for unequal cable line resistances. The performance of the proposed control scheme based on optimal droop parameters is verified through MATLAB/Simulink environment and validated by a hardware-in-the-loop real-time simulator based on the dSPACE 1202 platform.

13 illus, 6 tables, 34 ref

040321   SINGH A (Electronics Dep, NSIT, New Delhi-110 075, Email: engganuradhasingh@gmail.com) : Design and analysis of memristor-based combinational circuits. IETE J Res 2020, 66(2), 182–91.

This paper presents a novel memristor-based combinational circuit, namely: 4:2 priority encoders, 2:4 decoder, and BCD to EX-3 code converter. The performance of all these logic circuits is analyzed with respect to equivalent CMOS. The proposed work extends the philosophy of designing gate level circuit and then using the basic gate design to implement the combinational circuit. Memristor gates are used to implement the desired logic function. In the proposed work, memristor-based novel XOR gate is designed. This gate is then utilized to implement the encoder, decoder, and BCD to EX-3 code converter circuits. The proposed circuits have the advantage like low transistor count, high speed, and low power. The simulation is carried out in LTSPICE.

9 illus, 6 tables, 17 ref

040320   DANAEIAN M (Electrical Engineering Dep, Vali-e-Asr Univ of Rafsanjan, Rafsanjan, Iran, Email: danaeian@vru.ac.ir) : Compact microstrip diplexer based on CRLH metamaterial concept. IETE J Res 2020, 66(2), 172–81.

In this paper, a compact microstrip diplexer based on resonant-type metamaterial transmission lines is proposed. The proposed diplexer is designed by cascading two bandpass filters with different center frequencies. The bandpass filter, which the proposed diplexer has been designed based on it, is realized by series of capacitive gaps with grounded stub on the upper metal layer and the complementary spiral resonators unit cell which etching on the ground plane. The proposed diplexer as a three-port device has been designed to operate at two arbitrary frequencies. The simulation results show that the three-port diplexer can separate two different frequencies effectively. In order to confirm the design procedure and the capability of the proposed diplexer in size reduction and selectivity, two prototype devices operative in the center frequencies at 2.4 and 3.5 GHz have been fabricated and tested. Good agreement between measurement and simulation results has been achieved. These one- and two-stage diplexers have the overall sizes of 0.19 λ_g × 0.05 λ_g and 0.34 λ_g × 0.06 λ_g, respectively. The proposed diplexers have many advantages in terms of compact size, low loss, high isolation, ease of fabrication, and high selectivity.

22 illus, 2 tables, 25 ref

040318   MOHAMADI P, DADASHZADEH G R, NASER-MOGHADASI M (Electrical and Electronic Engineering Dep, Shahed Univ, Tehran, Iran, Email: gdadashzadeh@shahed.ac.ir) : A new symmetric multimodal MIMO antenna with reduction of modal correlation coefficient using TCM. IETE J Res 2020, 66(2), 150–9.

Today, multimode antennas for MIMO (multiple-input multiple-output) systems have been used extensively to develop capacity or to improve the quality of WIFI. Due to the orthogonality of characteristic modes, the theory of characteristic modes used to achieve minimum interference between channels is common in this type of antennas. In this paper, a four-port antenna with symmetric structure is presented on a circular patch to be able to produce four orthogonal patterns with extremely low correlation coefficients (less than 0.001) and high gain in the frequency range of 4.4–5.2 GHz and SWR < 1.22, which is highly efficient in creating independent and simultaneous communication paths in MIMO systems. To create this orthogonality and decrease the correlation between channels, the characteristic modes method is used. Circular polarization can be obtained by changing feeding structure in this antenna.

7 illus, 2 tables, 22 ref

040317   PRIYA B L, JAYANTHI K, POTTAKKAT B, RAMKUMAR G (ECE Dep, Pondicherry Engineering Coll, Puducherry - 605 014, Email: lakshmipriyaece@pec.edu) : A modified framework for multislice image fusion for high contrast liver cancer detection. IETE J Res 2020, 66(2), 139–49.

The exact boundary extraction of liver using abdominal computed tomography (CT) images continues to be the greatest challenge in the computer-assisted diagnosis of liver tumour, as the organ boundary is very weak. In this paper, an efficient algorithm is proposed to enhance the edge information of the CT images prior to segmentation, by means of multislice image fusion and anisotropic diffusionfiltering in non-subsampled contourlet (NSCT) domain. The two adjacent slices of CT images are decomposed using NSCT, and the fusion of low- and high-frequency coefficients is obtained by means of phase congruency and sum-modified Laplacian operators, respectively. The major highlight of this work is that, prior to high-frequency fusion; the high-frequency coefficients of both images are processed using anisotropic diffusion to strengthen the edge information. Finally, the edge-enhanced image is obtained by NSCT reconstruction. The performance metrics show that the information pertaining to the edges is found to be precise in the fused image. The proposed logic, when applied to the real-time contrast-enhanced triple-phase CT image, has proven to be highly effective. All the image samples used in this work for test purpose were obtained from Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education Research (JIPMER), a Medical Research Institute and Hospital at Puducherry, India.

5 illus, 4 tables, 35 ref

040316   BABASAFARI M, YARGHOLI M (Electrical Engineering Dep, Zanjan Univ, Zanjan, Iran, Email: yargholi@znu.ac.ir) : A low power CMOS UWB LNA with dual-band notch filter using forward body biasing. IETE J Res 2020, 66(2), 127–38.

In this paper, two ultra-wide band (UWB) low noise amplifiers (LNAs) with out-of-band rejection between 2.4–10.2 GHz and forward body biasing technique for wideband application are designed and simulated in a standard 0.18 µm CMOS process. Simulation results of two types of LNA exhibit a maximum power gain of 13.6 and 14.9 dB with the input return loss lower than −9.8 and −11.3 dB from 3.1 to 10 GHz for a cascode and a cascade topologies, respectively. A minimum noise figure of 3.4 dB at frequency of 4.3 GHz and 3.1 dB at frequency of 4.1 GHz, IIP₃ of −3.3 and −12.3 dBm are obtained for the cascode and the cascade topologies, respectively. The power consumption of the cascode LNA with an output buffer is 17.5 mW from a 1.8 V voltage supply, while the cascade LNA with an output buffer dissipates 9.29 mW from a 0.9 V supply.

21 illus, 1 table, 25 ref

040315   SENGUPTA A S, CHAKRABORTY A K, BHATTACHARYYA B K (Electrical Engineering Dep, National Institute of Technology, Agartala, Tripura - 799 046, Email: aditya.nitagt@gmail.com) : Supercapacitor module solely powering DC–DC buck converter for hand-held applications. IETE J Res 2020, 66(1), 115–23.

In this paper, two charged supercapacitor modules of identical specification have been used as the input, as also the sole power source for a buck converter including all of its components. Extra power supply like battery has not been used in this entire circuit. The load current ranges from 300 mA to 1.2 A. These two supercapacitor modules supply decaying input voltage to the buck converter, the output voltage of which is being regulated to a constant value by the feed-forward closed loop PWM control circuit that proportionately varies the duty ratio and amplitude of the switching pulse as a function of the time-varying input voltages across the supercapacitor modules. As a result, the operation of a dc analog circuit has been shown as is being powered by supercapacitor modules. This circuit topology is suited for low- and medium-voltage applications in which variable dc input source will be used to yield a constant output voltage at a constant current and also can be used in applications like mobile phones in place of battery since supercapacitor has a high rate of charging due to low equivalent series resistance values. The operating frequency ranges from 1 to 2.5 kHz.

9 illus, 2 tables, 22 ref

040312   WU Z, LI C, ZHAO Z, YANG Y (Xidian Univ, Xi’an 710071, People’s Republic of China, Email: wuzhenyuxd@126.com) : Numerical modelling of interconnect electromigration under non-dc stressing conditions. IETE J Res 2020, 66(1), 85–90.

A numerical model of the equivalent time conversion to DC stressing for electromigration failures under various current waveforms is proposed based on the vacancy diffusion and damage healing theory. The Joule heating effect and the intrinsic stress-induced voiding are included in the calculation of interconnect reliability. The simulation results show that the cumulative lifetimes are strongly affected by current frequency and vacancy lifetime and a frequency shift to the right occurs for small vacancy lifetimes under AC stressing. For pulsed-DC stressing, the temperature rise dependent on the current frequency dominates the interconnect reliability. The average temperature rise due to Joule heating is reduced by two times when the frequency is larger than approximately the reciprocal of the thermal time of interconnect structures.

6 illus, 1 table, 39 ref

040311   KUMAR R, TRIPATHY M R, RONNOW D (Electronics and Communication Engineering Dep, Amity Univ, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, Email: rajeshsheoram@gmail.com) : Multi-resonant bowtie antenna with modified symmetric SRR for wireless applications. IETE J Res 2020, 66(1), 77–84.

A modified symmetric split ring resonator (MSSRR) loaded bowtie antenna with multi-band features over a range of 1.6–7.1 GHz is proposed in this paper. The antenna is designed on FR4 substrate with relative permittivity$\in$_r = 4.1 and thickness 1.5 mm. The fabricated antenna size is 40 mm × 58 mm. The Modified Symmetric SRR used beneath the substrate is novel and consists of two circles that are broken into four quarter circles by four rods. The effect of MSSRR location and its geometry is investigated and analysed thoroughly. The measurement results of the fabricated antenna are in good agreement with the simulation results, which confirms the proposed antenna design’s properties. ANSYS High Frequency Structural Simulator (HFSS) software is used for simulating the antenna.

16 illus, 4 tables, 13 ref

040310   RAO Y S, PATHAK M K (Electrical Engineering Dep, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee - 247 667, Email: cnuiitr@gmail.com) : Model predictive control for three-level cascaded H-bridge D-STATCOM. IETE J Res 2020, 66(1), 65–76.

In this paper, a model predictive control (MPC) is investigated for a three-level H-bridge D-STATCOM. To predict the future behavior, a discrete-time model of the D-STATCOM is used. Here in the MPC, a single objective cost function is used to avoid the weighted factors in a multivariable objective function, which in turn leads to complex optimization problem. A single objective cost function controls the error in the reference and actual current. A separate proportional integral controller and a capacitor balancing algorithm are used to self-support the DC capacitor voltage under load variation. The reference current for D-STATCOM is generated by using d-q control strategy for the compensation of reactive power and current harmonics. The switching state which minimizes the current error and the corresponding redundant switching state which meets for the DC capacitor voltage balancing are applied at the next sampling instant. The performance of the investigated MPC control scheme is developed in MATLAB-SIMULINK model and steady-state performance is experimentally verified for non-linear load.

15 illus, 3 tables, 25 ref

040308   TIWARI S K, KAUR G (Electrical & Instrumentation Engineering Dep, Thapar Univ, Patiala, Punjab - 147 004, Email: sktiwari@thapar.edu) : Improved reduced-order modeling using clustering method with dominant pole retention. IETE J Res 2020, 66(1), 42–52.

This paper provides a quantitative measure criterion for selection of poles from a higher order model. The selection of poles is important because it determines both the transient and steady-state information of the dynamical system. The new indices specify which poles are dominant even when they are not the slowest. On the basis of important poles contribution to the system poles, they are selected to form cluster center. Pade approximation method is used to estimate the coefficients of numerator polynomial. Besides, this technique gives a better approximation in both the transient and the steady-state responses of the large-scale system. The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated through numerical test examples and compared with other well-known published methods.

4 illus, 5 tables, 45 ref

040307   DIVYA B S, SUBRAMANIAM K, NANJUNDASWAMY H R (Karpagam Academy of Higher Education, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu - 641 021, Email: divyabies@gmail.com) : Human epithelial type-2 cell image classification using an artificial neural network with hybrid descriptors. IETE J Res 2020, 66(1), 30–41.

Antinuclear antibody (ANA) testing is best performed using the indirect immunofluorescence (IIF) method with human epithelial type-2 (HEp-2) cells as the substrate. IIF is a subjective procedure in which HEp-2 patterns are analyzed manually from the microscope. Therefore, ANA test results greatly rely on the experience and expertise of pathologists. Hence, complete automation of the ANA test is required to avoid incorrect diagnoses. This paper represents an algorithm for the complex HEp-2 cell classification problem. The proposed algorithm used a small hybrid feature set that characterizes the texture and morphology of the HEp-2 cells along with artificial neural network (ANN). The hybrid features were extracted by breaking up the image into eight binary images. The proposed hybrid descriptors were more efficient than the popular co-occurrence matrix descriptor and local binary pattern descriptors for texture analysis. The proposed algorithm was evaluated on the ICPR 2016 IIF HEp-2 cell image dataset. The results indicated that the hybrid descriptor with an ANN approach achieved improved performance, with “96.8 %” mean class accuracy.

11 illus, 5 tables, 22 ref

040306   AHMAD A, ARSHAD F, NAQVI S I, AMIN Y, TENHUNEN H, LOO J (Engineering and Technology (UET) Univ, Taxila 47050, Pakistan, Email: ashfaquetb11@gmail.com) : Flexible and compact spiral-shaped frequency reconfigurable antenna for wireless applications. IETE J Res 2020, 66(1), 22–9.

A flexible, spiral-shaped frequency reconfigurable antenna with a compact size (20 × 24 mm²) is presented. The proposed antenna has a low-profile planar structure and is able to operate at five different frequency bands, i.e., 4.19–4.48, 5.98–6.4, 3.42–4.0, 5.4–5.68, and 6.8–7.0 GHz. The multiband operation enables the antenna to cover aeronautical radio navigation, fixed satellite communication, WLAN, and WiMAX standards. A radiating element is backed by Rogers^® 5880 substrate with a thickness of 0.508 mm and dielectric constant of 2.2. The spiral shape is achieved by introducing different strips. Frequency reconfiguration is achieved by the incorporation of a lumped element in a strip, so that the antenna can switch between different resonances. To validate the performance of the antenna, the prototype of the design was fabricated and tested. Good acquiescent is seen between simulated and measured results. The proposed antenna operates efficiently with appreciable return loss, directivity, bandwidth, and peak gain.

8 illus, 4 tables, 25 ref

040305   MORADI R, FARSHIDI E, SOROOSH M (Electrical Engineering Dep, Shahid Chamran Univ of Ahvaz, Ahvaz, Iran, Email: rmoradi@phdstd.scu.ac.ir) : Digital calibration of memory errors in passive sigma-delta modulator. IETE J Res 2020, 66(1), 14–21.

Based on output-referred error model of passive integrator (PI), the current study proposes a digital adaptive calibration to compensate passive delta-sigma modulator error. Due to signal attenuation in the modulator loop, the PI transfer function, which leads to gain and phase errors, causes degeneration of the modulator performance. A 1-bit pseudorandom noise test signal is applied to the input of the passive delta-sigma modulator in order to identify factors of the adaptive filter. Correlating output and test signals brings about the identification of error factors. The simulations show the effectiveness of the intrinsic error compensation of the modulator.

8 illus, 18 ref

040304   AYDEMIR O (Electrical and Electronics Engineering Dep, Karadeniz Technical Univ, Trabzon 61080, Turkey, Email: onderaydemir@ktu.edu.tr) : Detection of highly motivated time segments in brain computer interface signals. IETE J Res 2020, 66(1), 3-13.

Motivation of a subject, who is associated with the data acquisition of brain computer interface (BCI) experiment, is a very crucial parameter for executing a successful BCI application. This paper proposes a novel method to present the distribution of motivation of a subject during a BCI experiment. The proposed method was successfully applied to the BCI Competition 2003 Data Set III and the BCI Competition 2005 Data Set I using fast Fourier transform-based band power features with a linear discriminant analysis classifier. The results show that not only the motivation of the subject dramatically changes during the trial but also using highly motivated time segments provides 7.86 % and 2.00 % improvement in the classification accuracy of the BCI Competition 2003 Data Set III and the BCI Competition 2005 Data Set I, respectively

5 illus, 6 tables, 47 ref

044315   GOEL L, SHANKAR V, SHARMA R K (Civil Engineering Dep, National Institute of Technology, Hamirpur (H.P), Email: l_goyal74@nith.ac.in) : Influence of different organic mulches on soil hydrothermal and plant growth parameters in potato crop (Solanum tuberosum L.). J Agrometeorol 2020, 22(1), 56-9.

Present study was conducted to investigate the effect of different mulching materials on soil hydrothermal environment and plant growth parameters for potato crop at field experimental station of National Institute of Technology, Hamirpur in the humid sub-tropical agro climate of Western Himalayas. The field experiments were conducted in a randomized complete block design with four mulching treatments; wheat straw mulch, pine needle mulch, rice straw mulch and no mulch in three replications. An increase in soil moisture retention ranging from 5.14 % to 42 % was observed depending upon the mulch material and depth of the soil layer in root zone. Mulching also reduced the daily maximum soil temperature up to 3.5 ºC with an average temperature reduction of 1-2 ºC during the period of tuber formation. Mulching produced beneficial effects on root depth, plant height, leaf area index and tuber yield. Mulching helped to bring about a yield surplus of 1.7-4.4 tonnes ha-¹ over unmulched conditions and an increase in water use efficiency which varied from 13.5 % in rice straw mulch to 34.9 % inwheat straw mulch.

2 illus, 3 tables, 15 ref

044312   PALAKURU M , SIRISHAADAMALA, BACHINA H B (Applied Engineering Dep, Technology and Research (VFSTR) Univ, Vadlamudi, Email: bachina.harish@gmail.com) : Modeling yield and backscatter using satellite derived biophysical variables of rice crop based on Artificial Neural Networks. J Agrometeorol 2020, 22(1), 41-7.

In this study, ‘observed rice yield (ton acre^-1)’ and ‘remotely sensed backscatter’are modelled using artificial neural network (ANN) and multiple linear regression (MLR) methods for East and W est Godavari districts of Andhra Pradesh in India. The biophysical variables viz. backscatter (bs), normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), Chlorophyll (chfl), fraction of absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (FAPAR), leaf area index (LAI), canopy water content (CW C), and fraction of vegetation cover (F_cover ) were derived from Scatterometer Satellite-1 (SCATSAT-1), Moderate Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) and Sentinel-2 satellite data.Inputs selected are bs, NDVI, chfl, FAPAR, LAI, CW C, and Fcover  for rice yield model, whereas NDVI, chfl, FAPAR, LAI, CWC, and F_cover  are inputs for backscatter models. The performance of ANN and MLR models was evaluated using three indices such as root mean squared error (RMSE), mean absolute error (MAE), and coefficient of determination (R² ). The results concluded that the ANN models achieved R²  of 0.908 and 0.884 which are 42.73 % and 28.85 % higher than that of the MLR method for rice yield and backscatter, respectively

5 illus, 2 tables, 15 ref

040219   SUCHARITHA S, Y, KRUPAVATHI, K, SATYANARAYANA, T V, EDUKONDALU, L (Soil and Water Engineering Dep, Dr. NTR Coll of Agricultural Engineering, Andhra Pradesh, Email: ysaisucharitha028@gmail.com) : Development of circular flumes for low discharges using critical flow concept. Int J Agric Envir Biotechnol 2020, 13(3), 285-92.

In the water scarce situation, measurement of flow in open channel reduce the pressure on water resources and promotes the better utilization of water. The present study aimed at developing critical flow circular flume with rectangular centre contraction. The circular flume was designed by placing rectangular block in a U- shaped channel. Six flumes were fabricated with different contractions and throat lengths (30%, 40% and 50% contractions and 15 cm and 30 cm throat lengths). Water surface profiles were collected for four discharges (6, 9, 12 and 15 Lps). Critical depths were computed and located on the water surface profiles. The study revealed that the critical flow conditions occurred at 15, 12 Lps in all six flumes. At low discharges and low contractions critical flow conditions not occurred in the throat. The head discharge equations were derived the computed discharges are compared with the actual discharges. The highest deviation observed in case of Flume -1 (-8.344 %). 90 % of the errors are within the range of ± 5 %.

10 illus, 5 tables, 10 ref

040217   DUBEY S, RAO J H, PATLE D (Farm Engineering Dep, Banaras Hindu Univ, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, Email: snehildubey002@gmail.com) : Morphometric analysis and prioritization of sub watersheds of umar nala watershed, Madhya pradesh using geospatial technique. Int J Agric Envir Biotechnol 2020, 13(3), 269-74.

Morphometric analysis and thereby prioritization of watersheds have gained significant importance in land and water resources management. In this study an attempt has been made to prioritize subwatersheds based on morphometric analysis using geospatial techniques in Umar Nala watershed of Narsinghpur district, of Madhya Pradesh. Morphometric parameters, considered for the present study are stream frequency (S_f ), drainage density (D_d ), texture ratio (T), elongation ratio (R_e ), circulatory ratio (R_c ), form factor (R_f ), bifurcation ratio (R_b ) and relief ratio (R_h ). These parameters were estimated for each subwatershed then ranks were assigned for prioritization of sub-watersheds on the basis of value/relationship to arrive at a computed value for final ranking of the sub-watersheds. On the basis of morphometric parameters determined in GIS environment and then applying standard formulae prioritization among seventeen sub watersheds of Umar Nala, sub watershed no 10 is on top priority among seventeen sub watersheds for further soil and water conservations measures to be taken in the watershed.

3 illus, 4 tables, 26 ref

040193   SINGH M, MISHRA G C, MALL R K (Farm Engineering Dep, Banaras Hindu Univ, Varanasi, Email: manvendrastat66@gmail.com) : Calibration and validation of ceres-wheat model in north eastern plain zone (nepz) of India. Int J Agric Envir Biotechnol 2020, 13(1), 99-103.

The crop growth model DSSAT (Decision Support Systems for Agrotechnology Transfer) used to simulate the weather parameters impacts on crop growth and yield. The experiment was conducted on Wheat crop in North Eastern Plain Zone of India. The main objective of the study was to evaluate wheat phenological stages and yield in major wheat growing zone of India. Among the parameters of the crop Yield and Days of flowering has been used for calibration and validation purpose. For the study CERES - Wheat model was used for the calibration and validation. Different data sets were used for the calibration and validation of the model. Methods of deviation statistics like Index of Agreement (d), RMSE and NRMSE are used to measure the efficiency of the model. For Yield it shows (d), RMSE and NRMSE values 0.961,199.25 and 5.17 respectively and for Days of flowering it shows (d), (RMSE) and NRMSE values are 0.970, 4.37 and 4.35 respectively. Study results shows that model is adequate to simulate the effects of climate change on wheat yield in North Eastern Plain Zone of India that are free from all pests. The model may also be used to improve and evaluate the current practices of wheat growth management to enhance wheat production.

2 illus, 1 table, 13 ref

040084   KADIRI I, TAHIR Y, FERTAHI S E-D, IKEN O, DLIMI M, AGOUNOUN R, SBAI K (Moulay Ismail Univ, Meknes- 500 50, Morocco, Email: imad_kadiri@hotmail.com) : Measurement and 2d axisymmetric modeling of mining blast-induced ground vibrations. Indian Geotech J 2020, 50(1), 96-116.

Blast-induced ground vibrations are considered as an undesirable phenomenon resulting from productivity explosions in the extractive industries. Moreover, they are considered as a high potential cause for the damage of the surrounding structures. In this paper, the ground vibration data were recorded using a seismograph device at different distances from the detonation point in the quarry site of ‘‘Sococim Cement Factory,’’ which is located on Senegal. Thereafter, 2D axisymmetric numerical model has been established to simulate the propagation of the mechanical shock wave in the considered medium. The numerical modeling was developed under AUTODYN software, which is an explicit FEM code. First of all, the numerical model has been validated against the experimental measurements, by comparing the numerical and experimental longitudinal (Vl) and vertical (Vv) velocity signal at different gauges, for different equivalent explosive charges per delay (meqðTNTÞ). A calibration was carried out only on the elastic properties of the rock to achieve this purpose. The adjusted values of K and G allowed to reproduce the numerical PPVs, in order to be in a good agreement with the measured PPVs. The energy dissipation due to the RHT model and the phenomenon of vibration’s damping as a function of time at the gauges locations is well reproduced by the numerical model. It is noted that the plasticity and damage near the borehole have no effect on the propagation celerity of the shock wave, which remains the same in the elastic medium. Furthermore, the damaged zone nearby the detonation point has been assessed and described by identifying the transition of limestone properties from the elastic–plastic to plastic-damage state. The characterization of the damaged zone, near the borehole for different explosive charges per delay, helps to calculate the face burden side and to enhance the blasting design.

18 illus, 10 tables, 40 ref

040082   RAO K S (Civil Engineering Dep, Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi- 110 016, Email: raoks@civil.iitd.ac.in) : Characterization, modelling and engineering of rocks and rockmasses. Indian Geotech J 2020, 50(1), 1-95.

Rocks are heterogeneous materials usually associated with geological discontinuities making them weak for sustaining the loads due to civil and mining engineering structures. Characterization details of different isotropic, anisotropic and weathered rocks are presented along with the newly formulated classification system for weathered rockmass. Physical modelling of jointed rockmass under uniaxial, biaxial and polyaxial stress state through newly designed polyaxial system yielded significant results. Critical role of intermediate principal stress on strength and deformation for jointed rockmass is highlighted. New polyaxial failure criteria are proposed and compared. New observations on brittle fracture propagation and interlocking phenomena in crystalline rocks are modelled under polyaxial stress state. Extensive large-scale test results on rock joints under constant normal load and constant normal stiffness in static and cyclic modes were presented along with new predictive models. A new closedform analytical solution is provided for circular openings in isotropic, homogeneous and elastoplastic rockmass for assessing the wellbore stability and openings. Results of physical modelling tests conducted on shallow tunnels subjected to impact loads and new predictive models developed for squeezing behaviour are also included in this paper. Understanding gained from the extensive characterization and physical modelling of materials in appropriate stress regime used effectively to solve real-time cases. The case studies included are: stability analysis of jointed rock slopes of Chenab bridge abutments, Subansiri power house slope stability, Tindharia landslide in Darjeeling, evaluation of bored tunnelling practices in rocks for Delhi metro and coupled hydromechanical modelling for the slopes in Beas catchment.

134 illus, 14 tables, 196 ref

039532   SINGH N (Electrical & Electronics Engineering Dep, Rabindranath Tagore Univ, Bhopal, Email: nishi.20.singh@gmail.com) : Hybrid generation system optimization for rural electrification by homer: A review. Curr Trends Tech Sci 2020, 11(3), 947-52.

The Hybrid Generating systems have become a very common avenue of generating sustainable energy in the modern world. The success of this particular method of power generation is widely attributed to the technological advancements in the field of renewable energy. The production of electricity via diesel generators is subject to operational challenges related to the fluctuating prices of diesel. On the other hand, wind energy is intermittent in nature, hence a limited reliability. In this regard, it will be a remedial move to adopt the use of various hybrids to internalize these shortcomings. The advantages of one particular element in a given hybrid will compensate for the shortcomings of a given element within the same hybrid. There exist a variety of hybrids that are used in the generation of electricity in the modern world. A typical hybrid will harness or store energy from two or more sources. This work present a deep review of Homer optimization tool used for the analysis of cost and optimum size of hybrid system.

2 illus, 18 ref

039531   MALVIYA A (Electrical and Electronics Dep, Rabindranath Tagore Univ, MP, Email: malviyaachie@gmail.com) : Various MPPT techniques for solar PV module- A review. Curr Trends Tech Sci 2020, 11(3), 942-6.

Electricity demand is growing with highest rate for the energy consumed worldwide. Thus the mankind is facing a massive challenge of never ending increase in energy demand. Photovoltaic energy is one of the most important energy sources since it is clean and inexhaustible. It is important to operate PV energy conversion systems in the maximum power point to maximize the output energy of PV arrays. An MPPT control is necessary to extract maximum power from the PV arrays. The aim of MPPT to control the voltage of solar panels in the influence of variation in atmospheric conditions. In recent years, a large number of techniques have been proposed for tracking the maximum power point. This paper presents a deep review and comparison of different MPPT methods and proposes one which used a power estimator and also analyses their suitability for systems which experience a wide range of operating conditions.

2 illus, 13 ref

039529   TAMRAKAR I, NIGAM M K (Electronics and Electrical Engineering Dep, MATS School of Engineering & IT, Singapore- 117 576, Email: ishantamrakar@gmail.com) : Impact of distributed generation on power distribution systems. Curr Trends Tech Sci 2020, 11(1), 933-6.

In order to reduce the green house gas emissions all over the world the investment on renewable energy infrastructure is increasing particularly in the distribution network. The penetration of generating sources in the distribution network changes the characteristics of distribution system and will have impact on various technical parameters based on its size and location in the network. This paper modeled the IEEE 34 Node distribution test feeder using the commercial software package DIgSILENT power factory version 14. Solar photovoltaic generators are introduced as Distributed Generators (DGs) at various nodes and the impacts that DG produces on real and reactive power losses, voltage profile, phase imbalance and fault level of distribution system is studied. Simulated results obtained using load flow and short circuit studies are presented and discussed.

6 illus, 2 tables, 10 ref

039527   BHATTI D T, PARIKH S P (Chemical Engineering Dep, VVP Engineering Coll, Gujarat, Email: darshana333@yahoo.com) : Solar light induced photocatalysis for treatment of high cod pharmaceutical effluent with recyclable ag-fe codoped tio2: Kinetics of cod removal. Curr Wld Envir 2020, 15(1), 137-50.

A wide range of active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) is found in various water streams. These synthetic non-biodegradable organics create trouble in conventional wastewater treatment due to toxicity. There is a strong need to develop substitute technology such as visible light driven photocatalysis with a reusable photocatalyst to completely oxidize these substances into carbon dioxide and water. Sol-gel method was used for synthesis of Fe doped TiO₂ and Ag-Fe codoped TiO₂ nanoparticles with 0.5 wt % Fe and Ti/Ag molar ratio 30 (Ag-Fe CT 30). The morphology and structure of nanoparticles were studied using various analytical techniques. Ag-Fe CT 30 photocatalyst has exhibited excellent photocatalytic activity compared to commercial TiO₂, undoped TiO₂ and Fe doped TiO₂ nanophotocatalysts under solar and UV irradiation for removal of an antifungal drug intermediate, Difloro triazole acetophenone (DFTA) from water. COD reduction efficiency was highest with Ag-Fe CT 30 under solar and UV irradiation proves the potential of Ag-Fe CT 30 photocatalyst to absorb both UV as well as visible radiations. Ag-Fe CT 30 has shown good stability for 4 runs without much decline in the efficacy. This study provides insights on the solar application of a reusable Ag-Fe CT 30 photocatalyst for the treatment of high strength COD wastewater. Kinetics of COD reduction by photocatalysis has been determined.

12 illus, 4 tables, 51 ref

039517   RAHMAN M S, KARMAKER C L, ROY R, AHMED S M T (Industrial and Production Engineering Dep, Jashore Science Univ, Bangladesh, Email: sumon.just16@gmail.com) : Prevalence of accidental injuries among building construction workers in Bangladesh. Curr Wld Envir 2020, 15(1), 42-51.

The construction sector is the biggest and most unsafe venture compared to other sectors of the world. The workers in this sector are more prone to accidental injuries. There are different types of agents and lacking for this type of injuries. The objectives of this study were to investigate the prevalence of accidental injuries among building construction workers in Bangladesh. The agents and lacking behind these injuries also investigated. A survey on 390 building construction workers was conducted through a structured questionnaire. The survey data was built to find out the prevalence of accidental injuries among the construction workers. The Statistical Packages for the Social Science (SPSS) version 25 was used to analysis the data. The result indicates that overall 63.80 % of the participants’ sufferred from at least one-body part injuries during their work time. Most of them (24.70 %) injured due to falling from the height. The workplace safety facilities (41.70 %) were identified as the main lacking of the construction management that led to major accidents. The proper implementation of workplace safety facilities and design or redesign the work process may reduce or eliminate this type of injuries.

7 illus, 1 table, 30 ref

039421   KHUSWAHA K, SAXENA J, AGARWAL M K (Biochemical Engineering Dep, B.T. Kumaon Institute of Technology, Dwarahat- 263 653, Email: saxenajyoti30@gmail.com) : Identification and characterization of psychrotrophic strain of Planococcus maritimus for glucosylated C₃₀ carotenoid production. Indian J Expl Biol 2020, 58(3), 190-7.

Cold-adapted bacteria produce various pigments as their adaptive strategy. Here, we studied an aerobic, gram-positive motile coccoid bacterial strain KK21, isolated from the Siachen, Himalayas and characterized the major pigments present in it. The KK21 strain is capable of growth in a broad range of temperature (-4 to 37 °C), pH (6.0-13.0) and salinity (0.5-8 %). Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequence showed that it belongs to the genus Planococcus and closely related to P. maritimus. Total pigment extraction was best found in polar methanol. Alanine among amino acids, NaCl among inorganic salts and evening primrose amongst oils best supported the pigment production at 10°C after 6 days in BHI at neutral pH of 7.0. Maximum pigment production was recorded at 3 % of NaCl concentration. In photoprotection activity, radiation exposed plates showed increased colony forming units and more than 3.5 times of total carotenoid production after 15 min exposure compared to the control group. Detailed characterization of orange pigment was done systematically by TLC, HPLC and MALDI-TOF. Chromatographic and MALDI-TOF data have revealed the exclusive presence of glycosylated C₃₀-carotenoid in P. maritimus KK21 with m/z of 655.871.

4 illus, 1 table, 46 ref

039332   CUI J, GAO Z, LI B, LI J, LI X, WANG C, CHENG D, DAI C (Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Dep, Harbin Institute of Technology, China, Email: cuijie@hit.edu.cn.) : Identification of anthocyanin biosynthesis related microRNAs and total microRNAs in Lonicera edulis by high-throughput sequencing. J Genet 2020, 99, 31.

miRNAs are important regulators of plant gene expression. There are few studies on the regulation of miRNAs in Lonicera edulis. We used high-throughput sequencing technology to analyse miRNAs in L. edulis, aiming to identify miRNAs and elucidate their function in L. edulis. In the present study, we employed the high-throughput sequencing technology to profile miRNAs in L. edulis. A total of 51,819,072 small RNA tags with sizes ranging from 18 to 30 nt were obtained, indicating that L. edulis have a large and diverse small RNA population. Bioinformatic analysis identified 507 mature miRNAs, and 16 predicted novel miRNAs that are likely to be unique to L. edulis. Three miRNAs related to anthocyanin biosynthesis were locked by gene ontology (GO) analysis and target gene analysis. The selected three miRNAs are relatively high in the expression of L. edulis. Some of the previous studies have studied these types of miRNAs involved in the anthocyanin metabolism pathway in fruits. Among them, expression profiles of three conserved miRNAs were validated by stem loop qRT-PCR. Further, the potential target genes of conserved and novel miRNAs were predicted and subjected to GO annotation. Enrichment analysis of the GO-represented biological processes and molecular functions revealed that these target genes were potentially involved in a wide range of metabolic pathways and developmental processes. In particular, different families of miRNAs can directly or indirectly regulate anthocyanin biosynthesis. In recent years, the research on miRNAs has become more and more clear, but the research on miRNAs involved in the regulation of anthocyanin synthesis of L. edulis is still lagging. This study provides a useful resource for further elucidation of the functional roles of miRNAs during fruit development and ripening.

12 illus, 2 tables, 36 ref