Category Archives: Science & Technology

Meerut youth bags Gandhian Young Technological Innovation Award for developing ‘black box’ of cars

Education, Records, All, Science & Technology

Meerut:

A 23-year-old Meerut youth has bagged this year’s prestigious Gandhian Young Technological Innovation Award for developing “black box” for vehicles, a low-cost device which will alert emergency services at the time of accident.

On Board Diagnostic Data Analysis System (OBDAS) will not only send the location of the vehicle to the emergency services at the time of accident, but will also help automobile and insurance companies to track “real-time data” of the vehicle which can further be used in knowing the performance evaluation of the car to settle claims.

Archit Agarwal, a fourth year engineering student of University of Petroleum and Energy Studies (UPES), Uttarakhand was given the award on March 19 at Festival of Innovations (FOIN) organised in Rashtrapati Bhavan. He was chosen for this award under the ‘Most Innovative Product’ category.

According to Archit, the device will help in preventing deaths in vehicular accidents.

A resident of Meerut’s Sadar area, Archit is pursuing B.Tech in Electronics Engineering from UPES. He has four patents published in the field of automotive electronics and consumer electronics.

“After carefully examining the data of accidents in India, I found that majority of deaths took place because emergency services could not reach the spot on time. So, I planned to make OBDAS. It has a black box, which will be fitted below the steering wheel and another device that will be fitted on the dash board,” he told TOI.

“In case of an accident, the moment the air bags open, it will send an SMS alert to the emergency services and police with the location of the accident, name of the owner and the car number, thereby reducing the response time for them,” he said.

“The device will also fetch all the performance parameters of the car from over 200 sensors already fitted in the vehicle. It will convert them into information, which can be accessed from the cloud server,” Archit added.

The device will also reduce the number of fake claims that people make, he said.

Archit completed his schooling from Dewan Public School, Meerut and went on to pursue engineering from UPES.

Talking about his experience, Archit said, “To be at the Rashtrapati Bhavan was an overwhelming experience for me.

The competition was extremely tough with close to 13,000 projects from over 500 colleges across India. OBDAS is a low-cost universal solution for vehicles and it has many benefits.”

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News> City News> Meerut News / by Ishita Bhatia / TNN / March 27th, 2018

Lucknow: KGMU develops customised, cost-effective knee braces

Education, Records, All, Science & Technology

The department of physical medicine and rehabilitation at the King George’s Medical University has developed cost-effective knee braces for patients suffering from joint problems due to osteoarthritis

Osteoarthritis can cause knee joints to become weak and bent, giving one’s leg bow-shaped appearance.(Representative image)

The department of physical medicine and rehabilitation at the King George’s Medical University (KGMU) has developed cost-effective knee braces for patients suffering from joint problems due to osteoarthritis.

“These braces correct joint deformity too. We developed these on the basis of patient feedback. One brace costs just about Rs1,000, while those being sold in the market are priced at around Rs20,000,” said Arvind K Nigam, in-charge arthrotec and prosthetics at the department.

Explaining how the braces work, he said, “The key benefit of these braces is their three-point pressure mechanism, which gives immediate relief from pain.”

Osteoarthritis can cause knee joints to become weak and bent, giving one’s leg bow-shaped appearance. Injuries can also impact the performance of the knee joint. Experts say when the gap between the femur and the tibia gets disturbed at the joint, it causes pain and discomfort while walking.

A common solution suggested by orthopedic surgeons is knee replacement that can sustain for up to 20 years. However, not all patients can afford the procedure, which costs around Rs2.5 lakh per knee.

On the other hand, knee braces can help patients recover faster from their injuries or function better in their everyday lives despite osteoarthritis.

“The load of the body gets shared at different points in the limb. So, the deformity is corrected, bringing relief to the patient,” said Nigam.

“I am not comparing knee braces with knee replacement surgery. But what I can say is that our knee braces are custom made, cost-effective and bring quick relief to patients. They can also support quality life for years,” he said, adding, “Moreover, if the patient is aged over 80 and a major surgery is considered risky, knee braces are the best solution.”

Story behind the Innovation

Nigam said he had been working on a knee brace model for some time when one of his acquaintances called on him last week. “He had come to seek consultation regarding his knee pain. I improvised the model I was working on and created a customised knee brace for him in just a day,” he said.

“With the help of this brace, the patient could walk for over 2.5 hours in our department. Before that, he was hardly able to walk for any appreciable length of time,” he added.

Nigam said that looking at his acquaintance’s improved condition, he thought of making customised knee braces for others too. “At present, 45 patients are registered with our department for these braces,” he said, adding that he would now start compiling patient data for research and development purposes.

source: http://www.hindustantimes.com / Hindustan Times / Home> Cities> Lucknow / by Gaurav Saigal,Hindustan Times, Lucknow / March 26th, 2018

Allahabad: First Researcher’s Day observed at IIIT-A

Education, Records, All, Science & Technology

Allahabad :

The Indian Institute of Information Technology, Allahabad (IIIT-A) celebrated its first ever Researcher’s Day at its Jhalwa campus here on Saturday.

Eminent academicians and former director of the institute Prof Somenath Biswas from IIT-Kanpur along with Prof BN Chatterjee from IIT-Khargpur and Prof P Nagabushanam, director, IIIT-A jointly inaugurated the event by lighting the ceremonial lamp in a ceremony held in the main auditorium.

On this occasion, director of the institute Prof P Nagabhushan announced that from next year onward, ‘Researcher’s Day’ would be celebrated at IIIT-A on the first Saturday of the month of March which would follow the celebrations of the National Science Day, which is on February 28.

Addressing the students of the institute, the director asked the students to develop their scientific attitude to promote science in India. He asked the students to learn ‘how to answer?’ rather than ‘what to answer?’. He further said that researches should be for scientific purposes, but not for positions or to make money. Everyone should feel free to ask questions and have passion on researches. One should respect their own feelings and work according to them.

In his address, Prof Somenath Biswas presented his research work namely Computational Lens and Natural Algorithm. He stated that computational lens is used to model a phenomenon. He explained about natural algorithm that the myriad of algorithmic processes evolved by nature. He gave a short note on virus evolution.

Prof B N Chatterjee gave a power point presentation on planning and implementation of researches. He gave a short note on types of researches and stressed on academic researches. He said that one should select their research area according to their interest, passion and experience. He also explained importance of planning in research field.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News> City News> Allahabad News / by Rajiv Mani / TNN / March 24th, 2018

Teen inventer of garbage collection machine dines with minister

Amazing Feats, Education, Green Initiatives / Environment, Inspiration / Positive News and Features, Records, All, Science & Technology

Agra :

Shikanto Mandal, 15, from Mathura, who had developed a unique machine to collect garbage, was invited by the President for dinner on Tuesday. However, it was cancelled at the last moment and the dinner was hosted by science and technology minister Dr Harsh Vardhan at the CSIR centre at Lodhi Gardens in New Delhi.

Mandal, who hails from West Bengal, had showcased his innovative machine at the Festival of Innovation being held in Delhi from March 19 to 23. Earlier speaking with TOI while on his way to New Delhi, Mandal said he had dined with then President Pranab Mukherjee during the Festival of Innovation.

The young inventor said hopes to become a successful engineer one day and fulfil all wishes of his parents and give them every comfort of life. Mandal’s parents are daily wagers. Talking with TOI, Mandal’s teacher Manoj Kumar, who helped him in his project and under whose guidance he built the machine, said he had developed the manual waste lifting and dumping machine when he was in Class IX at Jai Gurudev Balya Balak Vidyadan Higher Secondary School in 2016. He is presently studying in Class XI at KR Inter College, Mathura.

Mandal’s invention, inspired by Swacch Bharat Mission, was chosen for display at the district-level exhibition organized by the department of science and technology in 2016. His machine’s model was then showcased at a state-level exhibition held in Lucknow and later, at the national level.

His model has been patented by a Gujarat-based company, where he holds a 50% stake of the market share.

In January, Mandal was invited by film star Akshay Kumar his movie, “Padman”, screened at the Innovation conclave in which 16 innovators from across the country participated and received Rs 5 lakh each for their innovation.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> News> City News> Agra News / TNN / March 21st, 2018

IIT-A organises Aparoksha

Business & Economy, Education, Science & Technology

Allahabad :

‘Aparoksha’—the four day technical fiesta of Indian Institute of Information Technology, Allahabad kicked off at Jhalwa campus here on late Thursday night. The fest will witness over dozens of different technical events.

Ratan Lal, the general manager of the Central Organization for Railway Electrification (CORE), graced the opening ceremony of Aparoksha-2018 as the chief Guest. He praised the fact that Aparoksha has established very high benchmarks in a very small duration. He highlighted the significance of learning in our lives, stating that the process of learning is imperative and must go on perpetually in our lives. Focusing on technical fests like Aparoksha, he mentioned that these fests cater a plethora of learning and broadening the boundaries of our knowledge.

Professor P. Nagabhushan, Director, IIIT-A laid emphasis on the importance of technical fests, stating that tech fests are the perfect arena for an engineering students to learn, grow and polish his technical skills. He essayed the fact that engineering is not just about the classroom learning, it is about exploring the practical field and expanding your horizons, competing and enriching your knowledge in the real life simulation of actual International level events. The director appreciated the organisation of Aparoksha-2018 and congratulated the team for succeeding in conducting the event at such a high level.

The theme for this edition of Aparoksha is the digital renaissance, in compliance with the digital Indian initiative of Government of India.

The entrepreneurship talks planned by IIIT-A incubation centre, confab, the flagship event consisting of eminent panelists including Awdhesh Singh, Babar Ali, Adhitya lyer and Vinay Menon will give their thoughtful insights on the Indian educational system.

The keynote lineup is star studded with the likes of Dr. Pawan Agarwal, Varun Agarwal and Sahil Vaidya who will inspire students on March 17 night. This time, apart from interesting speakers and panelists, an exhibition, showcasing the modern marvels of technology will showcase drones, Al controlled robots, 3D printers, robotic arm, spy robot, loT enabled smart city and rope climbing robot, NAO, firebird-V, VI, amigo bot and round bot.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News> City News> Allahabad News / by Rajiv Mani / TNN / March 16th, 2018

IIT Kanpur researchers find why babies need to move in the womb

Education, Records, All, Science & Technology, World Opinion
“We are now investigating if osteoarthritis is also associated with appearance of BMP signalling in the wrong place,” says Amitabha Bandyopadhyay (left) | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Permanent cartilage is formed in an embryo due to the mechanical movement.

Formation of joints in the developing embryo and their maintenance after birth is sensitive to mechanical movement. Now, researchers at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur have deciphered the molecular mechanism underlying this phenomenon. They have demonstrated how permanent cartilage is formed in an embryo due to mechanical movement. They also found out how permanent cartilage is lost and temporary or transient cartilage is formed in its place in the absence of movement.

While permanent cartilage lines the joint, the transient cartilage is a bone-forming one. Earlier this group demonstrated that during embryonic development, a bipotential cartilage population gives rise to both permanent and transient cartilage. BMP and Wnt are two major signals regulating this process. While BMP promotes transient cartilage formation, Wnt promotes permanent cartilage formation.

In patients with osteoarthritis, the permanent cartilage acquires all the characteristics of a temporary cartilage, which affects joint function. Currently, in people with osteoarthritis, it is not possible to reverse the fate of permanent cartilage that has become a temporary-like cartilage. The work done by a team led by Prof. Amitabha Bandyopadhyay from the Department of Biological Sciences and Bioengineering at IIT Kanpur suggests that it might be possible to prevent osteoarthritis from worsening if intervened at an early stage. The results were published in the journal Development. The work was carried out in collaboration with the laboratory of Prof. Paula Murphy of Trinity College Dublin.

On-off switches

BMP signaling — which helps in the formation of transient cartilage — is normally not present in permanent cartilage cells in a joint. That transient cartilage forms in the place of permanent cartilage due to joint immobilisation was already known. And independently, the team had shown that BMP signalling promotes transient cartilage formation. “So we wanted to find out if immobilising the joints in a chick embryo allows the BMP signaling to come up in the joint cartilage cells. We did find that happening,” Prof. Bandyopadhyay says.

The investigation into what causes the BMP signaling to be present in future permanent cartilage cells when the joint is immobilised led them to a surprise finding. The lead author, Pratik Singh, found out that an inhibitor of BMP signaling (Smurf1) is absent in the joint that is immobilised resulting in increased BMP signaling. “The role of the Smurf1 inhibitor is to maintain a BMP-free area thereby enabling the progenitor cells to become permanent cartilage. But due to increased BMP signaling the permanent cartilage gets converted into transient-like cartilage,” says Prof. Bandyopadhyay.

The Smurf1 inhibitor is not directly involved in joint cartilage formation but creates an environment that permits the formation of permanent cartilage by keeping the BMP signalling under check. Mechanical movement seems to act like a toggle switch. In the presence of it, Wnt – the signal that promotes joint cartilage – is on and BMP signalling is off in the joint cartilage cells. The opposite is true when the joint is immobilized. This is the reason why immobilisation of joints causes greater disturbance to permanent cartilage than even inhibition of Wnt signalling.

“We are now investigating if osteoarthritis is also associated with appearance of BMP signalling in the wrong place. If so, we can block the BMP signaling in these cells during the early-stage of osteoarthritis to possibly prevent the condition from worsening,” he says.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Science / by R. Prasad / Chennai – March 13th, 2018

IIT-K develops gadgets for specially abled

Business & Economy, Education, Inspiration / Positive News and Features, Science & Technology

Kanpur :

IIT-K’s persons with disabilities (PwD) cell organised an event on Tuesday for people with disabilities and the challenges they have overcome.

PwD cell convenor KS Venkatesh said that the cell is developing tools and services to help students with disability on campus. These include developing special gadgets and making all areas of the campus accessible to them.

A special website dedicated to the PwD cell was also launched. The website will act as an important resources for people with disabilities on campus.Visit www.iitk.ac.in/pwd for more information.

Several organisations working with people with disabilities were invited to deliver talks. These include handicap welfare department, Uttar Pradesh, Deaf and Dumb College, Bithoor, Ambedkar Institute of Technology for Handicapped, Kanpur and others.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City News> Kanpur News / TNN / January 10th, 2018

Allahabad University scientists find ‘fisetin’ slows down brain aging

Education, Records, All, Science & Technology
The results of the AU study conclude that fisetin can protect the brain from damage induced by aging. (HT)

A team of scientists at the Allahabad University has established that a natural compound called fisetin, found in strawberry, apple, onion and cucumber, can restore brain functions which deteriorate during aging.

A team of scientists at the Allahabad University has established that a natural compound called fisetin, found in strawberry, apple, onion and cucumber, can restore brain functions which deteriorate during aging.

The findings of the team, led by Prof SI Rizvi from the department of biochemistry at AU, have been published in the latest issue of American research journal Life Sciences.

Scientists acknowledge that oxidative stress is a major factor responsible for age-related changes in living organisms. Oxidative stress is the condition when the damage, due to the toxic form of oxygen molecules, exceeds the capacity of the body to repair such damage.

“It is a paradox that oxygen, which is essential for life, becomes the cause of aging,” said Prof Rizvi.

“In human body, most of the oxygen is consumed by the brain. Therefore, it is the brain that becomes more vulnerable to oxidative stress. With increase in age, brain cells degenerate leading to diseases and loss of brain function,” he said.

Through experiments, the research team analysed a host of biomarkers of aging, including pro-oxidants, antioxidants, mitochondrial function, expression of genes, and apoptosis cell death.

The results of the AU study conclude that fisetin can protect the brain from damage induced by aging.

“The study was carried out on rats of different ages and also on those which were chemically induced to age faster,” said Prof Rizvi.

Fisetin was given to rats of old age and the effect was compared with the younger ones. Fisetin-treated old rats were protected from brain damage.

Among all anti-aging strategies being explored, caloric restriction is the most promising which, in common terms, can be defined as less food intake.

Caloric restriction has been effectively tested in small organisms like fruit fly and earthworms. The strategy becomes difficult to implement in humans where several ethical issues are involved.

Scientists have stumbled upon a class of compounds which mimic the effect of caloric restriction. With the use of these compounds, known as caloric restriction mimetics, the body feels like it is food restricted without the need of eating less.

According to Prof Rizvi, fisetin works as a caloric restriction mimetic in showing its anti-aging effect on rats. “Scientists are hopeful that compounds exhibiting caloric restriction mimetic effects will prove to be good anti-aging drugs,” he said.

Several experimental drugs are being tested in Prof Rizvi’s lab for possible anti-aging effects. “Although an increase in human lifespan may not be possible, it may increase the health span,” Prof Rizvi added.

source: http://www.hindustantimes.com / Hindustan Times / Home> Cities> Lucknow / by K. Sandeep Kumar , Hindustan Times, Allahabad / January 08th, 2018

Allahabad University team finds cure to skin ailment, gets patent

Education, Science & Technology, World Opinion

Allahabad :

In a major breakthrough that would help experts find a treatment for ‘Pityriasis versicolor’, popularly known as ‘sehua’, a team of researchers from Allahabad University have developed a liquid medium for harvesting Malassezia fungus, which causes the disease.

The team is led by faculty member of AU’s botany department Anupam Dikshit. The team has also got the method patented (Indian Patent No. 290771) by the Technology, Information, Forecasting and Assessment Council (TIFAC) of the department of science and technology (DST).

Dikshit said, “Sehua is a skin disease which causes hypopigmentation of the skin resulting in the loss of its natural texture. The condition is accompanied by the occurrence of small white spots on face and other parts of the body.

“The disease is caused by fungus. The foremost challenge in developing an antidote was to first grow the fungus in a lab.”

Dikshit said that his team’s objective was to develop a medium suitable for the Indian environment and skin. He added that the medium available in the market was too costly and had other limitations as well. “The medium developed by us will be very useful for diagnosis of diseases and in finding a cure for the disease. Besides, the modified medium would also be of great help for various researches,” he added.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News> City News> Allahabad News / by Rajeev Mani / TNN / December 29th, 2017

Diagnosing early-stage cervical cancer using artificial intelligence

Records, All, Science & Technology, World Opinion
New approach: “The change in tissue morphology as the disease progresses can be picked up by light scattering,” say Prof. Prasanta K. Panigrahi (right) and Sabyasachi Mukhopadhyay

The AI identifies precancerous tissue, and also the stage of progression in minutes

The morphology of healthy and precancerous cervical tissue sites are quite different, and light that gets scattered from these tissues varies accordingly. Yet, it is difficult to discern with naked eyes the subtle differences in the scattered light characteristics of normal and precancerous tissue. Now, an artificial intelligence-based algorithm developed by a team of researchers from Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Kolkata and Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur makes this possible.

The algorithm developed by the team not only differentiates normal and precancerous tissue but also makes it possible to tell different stages of progression of the disease within a few minutes and with accuracy exceeding 95%. This becomes possible as the refractive index of the tissue is different in the case of healthy and precancerous cells, and this keeps varying as the disease progresses.

“The microstructure of normal tissue is uniform but as disease progresses the tissue microstructure becomes complex and different. Based on this correlation, we created a novel light scattering-based method to identify these unique microstructures for detecting cancer progression,” says Sabyasachi Mukhopadhyay from IISER Kolkata and first author of a paper published in the Journal of Biomedical Optics.

Elaborating on this further, Prof. Prasanta K. Panigrahi from IISER Kolkata and corresponding author of the paper says: “The collagen network is more ordered in normal tissues but breaks down progressively as cancer progresses. This kind of change in tissue morphology can be picked up by light scattering.” White light spectroscopy (340-800nm) was used for the study.

Statistical biomarker

The change in scattered light as disease progresses is marked by a change in tissue refractive index. The team has quantified the changes in tissue refractive index using a statistical biomarker — multifractal detrended fluctuation analysis (MFDFA). The statistical biomarker has two parameters (Hurst exponent and width of singularity spectrum) that help in quantifying the spectroscopy dataset.

While MFDFA provides quantification of light scattered from the tissues, artificial intelligence-based algorithms such as hidden Markov model (HMM) and support vector machine (SVM) help in discriminating the data and classifying healthy and different grades of cancer tissues.

“The classification of healthy and precancerous cells becomes robust by converting the information obtained from the scattered light into characteristic tissue-specific signature. The signature captures the variations in tissue morphology,” says Prof. Panigrahi.

“The MFDFA-HMM integrated algorithm performed better than the MFDFA-SVM algorithm for detection of early-stage cancer,” says Mukhopadhyay. “The algorithms were tested on in vitro cancer samples.”

In vivo samples

The team is expanding the investigations to study in vivo samples for precancer detection. While the accuracy achieved using in vitro samples was over 95%, based on a study of a few in vivo samples the accuracy is over 90%.

“In the case of in vitro samples we were able to discriminate between grade 1 and grade 2 cancer,” says Prof. Nirmalya Ghosh from IISER Kolkata and one of the authors of the paper. “More testing is needed using in vivo samples.”

“Superficial cancers such as oral and cervical cancers can be studied using this technique. And by integrating it with an endoscopic probe that uses optical fibre to deliver white light and surrounding fibres to collect the scattered light we can study cancers inside the body,” says Prof. Ghosh.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Sci-Tech> Science / by R. Prasad / December 23rd, 2017