Cohort profile: the Kisalaya cohort of mother-infant dyads in rural south India (2008-2012)

Smitha Chandrashekarappa,Krupa Modi,Karl Krupp,Kavitha Ravi,Anisa Khan,Vijaya Srinivas,Poornima Jayakrishna,Anjali Arun,Murali Krishna,Purnima Madhivanan 한국역학회 2020 Epidemiology and Health Vol.42 No.-

The Kisalaya cohort was established in 2008, providing integrated antenatal care (ANC) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) testing in order to reduce adverse birth outcomes and pediatric HIV infections. The program used a mobile clinic model to deliver health education, ANC, and HIV/sexually transmitted infection testing and management to pregnant women in rural communities in southern India. This cohort includes pregnant women residing in 144 villages of the Mysuru taluk (a rural region) who received ANC through the mobile clinic and delivered their infants between 2008 and 2011. Of the 1,940 women registered for ANC at primary healthcare centers during this time period, 1,675 (75.6%) were enrolled in the Kisalaya cohort. Once women enrolled in the Kisalaya cohort gave birth, the cohort expanded to include the mother-infant dyads with a retention rate of 100% at follow-up visits at 15 days and at 6 months post-delivery. The baseline data collected during the Kisalaya study included both questionnaire-based data and laboratory-based investigations. Presently, a study entitled “Early life influences on adolescent mental health: a life course study of the Kisalaya birth cohort in south India” is in the process of data collection (2019-2020).

Observations of solar chromospheric heating at sub-arcsec spatial resolution

Smitha, H. N.,Chitta, L. P.,Wiegelmann, T.,Solanki, S. K. Springer-Verlag 2018 Astronomy and astrophysics Vol.617 No.-

<P>A wide variety of phenomena such as gentle but persistent brightening, dynamic slender features (∼100 km), and compact (∼1″) ultraviolet (UV) bursts are associated with the heating of the solar chromosphere. High spatio-temporal resolution is required to capture the finer details of the likely magnetic reconnection-driven, rapidly evolving bursts. Such observations are also needed to reveal their similarities to large-scale flares, which are also thought to be reconnection driven, and more generally their role in chromospheric heating. Here we report observations of chromospheric heating in the form of a UV burst obtained with the balloon-borne observatory SUNRISE. The observed burst displayed a spatial morphology similar to that of a large-scale solar flare with a circular ribbon. While the co-temporal UV observations at 1.5″ spatial resolution and 24 s cadence from the Solar Dynamics Observatory showed a compact brightening, the SUNRISE observations at diffraction-limited spatial resolution of 0.1″ at 7 s cadence revealed a dynamic substructure of the burst that it is composed of an extended ribbon-like feature and a rapidly evolving arcade of thin (∼0.1″) magnetic loop-like features, similar to post-flare loops. Such a dynamic substructure reveals the small-scale nature of chromospheric heating in these bursts. Furthermore, based on magnetic field extrapolations, this heating event is associated with a complex fan-spine magnetic topology. Our observations strongly hint at a unified picture of magnetic heating in the solar atmosphere from some large-scale flares to small-scale bursts, all associated with such a magnetic topology.</P>

Improved Decoupled Control and Islanding Detection of Inverter-Based Distribution in Multibus Microgrid Systems

Smitha Joyce Pinto,Gayadhar Panda 전력전자학회 2016 JOURNAL OF POWER ELECTRONICS Vol.16 No.4

This work mainly discusses an accurate and fast islanding detection based on fractional wavelet packet transform (FRWPT)for multibus microgrid systems. The proposed protection scheme uses combined desirable features retrieved from discrete fractional Fourier transform (FRFT) and wavelet packet transform (WPT) techniques, which provides precise time–frequency information on minute perturbation signals introduced in the system. Moreover, this study focuses on the design of decoupling control with a distributed controller based on state feedback for the efficient operation of microgrid systems that are transitioning from the grid-connected mode to the islanded mode. An IEEE 9-bus test system with inverter based distributed generation (DG) units is considered for islanding assessment and smooth operation. Finally, tracking errors are greatly reduced with stability improvement based on the proposed controller. FRWPT based islanding detection is demonstrated via a time domain simulation of the system. Simulated results show an improvement in system stability with the application of the proposed controller and accurate islanding detection based on the FRWPT technique in comparison with the results obtained by applying the wavelet transform (WT) and WPT.

Efficacy of Selenium on Silkworm (Bombyx mori L.) Cocoon Characters

Smitha S.,Kumar K. Anil,Rao, A. Vijaya Bhaskara Korean Society of Sericultural Science 2006 International Journal of Industrial Entomology Vol.13 No.2

As the Selenium is known to be growth promoter in sheep and cattle, the efficacy of selenium has been tested in silkworm Bombyx mori L. The V instar larvae were fed with lethal and sub-lethal doses of selenium treated leaves. The larvae fed with lethal dose showed a significant decrease in growth and Cocoon commercial characters. The treatment with sub lethal dose exhibited a significant increase in the growth of the silkworm. Correspondingly, the cocoon commercial characters on exposure to the lethal dose showed significant decrease and sub lethal dose showed a significant increase. In the light of similar findings reported earlier in other cocoon crops and vertebrates, it can be inferred that selenium at lower doses acts as a growth stimulator, resulting in the higher yield of cocoon crop.

Estimation of the Magnetic Flux Emergence Rate in the Quiet Sun from Sunrise Data

Smitha, H. N.,Anusha, L. S.,Solanki, S. K.,Riethmü,ller, T. L. American Astronomical Society 2017 The Astrophysical journal, Supplement series Vol.229 No.1

<P>Small-scale internetwork (IN) features are thought to be the major source of fresh magnetic flux in the quiet Sun. During its first science flight in 2009, the balloon-borne observatory SUNRISE captured images of the magnetic fields in the quiet Sun at a high spatial resolution. Using these data we measure the rate at which the IN features bring magnetic flux to the solar surface. In a previous paper it was found that the lowest magnetic flux in smallscale features detected using the SUNRISE observations is 9 x 10(14) Mx. This is nearly an order of magnitude smaller than the smallest fluxes of features detected in observations from the Hinode satellite. In this paper, we compute the flux emergence rate (FER) by accounting for such small fluxes, which was not possible before SUNRISE. By tracking the features with fluxes in the range 10(15)-10(18) Mx, we measure an FER of 1100 Mx cm(-2) day(-1). The smaller features with fluxes <= 10(16) Mx are found to be the dominant contributors to the solar magnetic flux. The FER found here is an order of magnitude higher than the rate from Hinode, obtained with a similar feature tracking technique. A wider comparison with the literature shows, however, that the exact technique of determining the rate of the appearance of new flux can lead to results that differ by up to two orders of magnitude, even when applied to similar data. The causes of this discrepancy are discussed and first qualitative explanations proposed.</P>

THE MAXIMUM DEGREE ENERGY OF SOME GRAPHS WITH LARGE NUMBER OF EDGES

M. SMITHA 장전수학회 2010 Advanced Studies in Contemporary Mathematics Vol.20 No.3

The maximum degree energy EM(G) of a graph G is equal to the sum of the absolute values of all eigen values of M(G), where M(G) is the maximum degree matrix of the graph G. The maximum energy of the following n− vertex graphs with large number of edges is examined: (i) the complete graph (Kn), (ii)graphs Kan(k), obtained by deleting k edges from Kn, that all have a common end point, (iii) graphs Kbn(k), obtained by deleting k independent edges from Kn, (iv) graphs Kcn(k), obtained by deleting from Kn a complete set of k(k−1)/2mutually incident edges.

Efficacy of Selenium on Silkworm (Bombyx mori L.) Cocoon Characters

( S. Smitha ),( K. Anil Kumar ),( A. Vijaya Bhaskara Rao ) 한국잠사학회 2006 International Journal of Industrial Entomology Vol.13 No.2

As the Selenium is known to be growth promoter in sheep and cattle, the efficacy of selenium has been tested in silkworm Bombyx mori L. The V ins tar larvae were fed with lethal and sub-lethal doses of selenium treated leaves. The larvae fed with lethal dose showed a significant decrease in growth and Cocoon commercial characters. The treatment with sub lethal dose exhibited a significant increase in the growth of the silkworm. Correspondingly, the cocoon commercial characters on exposure to the lethal dose showed significant decrease and sub lethal dose showed a significant increase. In the light of similar findings reported earlier in other cocoon crops and vertebrates, it can be inferred that selenium at lower doses acts as a growth stimulator, resulting in the higher yield of cocoon crop.

Improved Decoupled Control and Islanding Detection of Inverter-Based Distribution in Multibus Microgrid Systems

Pinto, Smitha Joyce,Panda, Gayadhar The Korean Institute of Power Electronics 2016 JOURNAL OF POWER ELECTRONICS Vol.16 No.4

This work mainly discusses an accurate and fast islanding detection based on fractional wavelet packet transform (FRWPT)for multibus microgrid systems. The proposed protection scheme uses combined desirable features retrieved from discrete fractional Fourier transform (FRFT) and wavelet packet transform (WPT) techniques, which provides precise time-frequency information on minute perturbation signals introduced in the system. Moreover, this study focuses on the design of decoupling control with a distributed controller based on state feedback for the efficient operation of microgrid systems that are transitioning from the grid-connected mode to the islanded mode. An IEEE 9-bus test system with inverter based distributed generation (DG) units is considered for islanding assessment and smooth operation. Finally, tracking errors are greatly reduced with stability improvement based on the proposed controller. FRWPT based islanding detection is demonstrated via a time domain simulation of the system. Simulated results show an improvement in system stability with the application of the proposed controller and accurate islanding detection based on the FRWPT technique in comparison with the results obtained by applying the wavelet transform (WT) and WPT.

Induction of in vitro root tubers in Holostemma annulare (Roxb.) K. Schum. for the production of bioactive metabolites

Padmavathi Amma Somasekharan Nair Smitha Devi,Achuthan Sudarsanan Hemanthakumar,Thankappan Suvarna Preetha 한국식물생명공학회 2022 JOURNAL OF PLANT BIOTECHNOLOGY Vol.49 No.3

Holostemma annulare (Family Asclepiadaceae) is an invaluable vulnerable medicinal plant; the root tubers are used in Ayurveda medicine and by folk healers to treat various ailments. In this study, Schenk and Hildebrandt medium fortified with the cytokinins 6-benzyl adenine, kinetin, and auxins, including indole 3-butyric acid, indole 3-acetic acid, α-naphthaleneacetic acid, and 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid, were checked for their efficiency on root tuber induction from different explants. Adventitious root tubers were more successfully induced from in vitro leaf segments and shoots when cultured in Schenk and Hildebrandt medium supplemented with 0.5 mg/l of α -naphthaleneacetic acid. In addition, preliminary phytochemical analysis of in vitro root tubers and identification of different secondary metabolites were conducted. Thin layer chromatography and high performance thin layer chromatography analysis of the crude methanolic extracts of the in vitro root tuber identified the presence of lupeol, a bioactive triterpene. Adventitious root tuber induction offers a novel method for the in vitro production of bioactive metabolites that can be scaled up by bioreactors, thus ensuring the conservation and sustainable utilization of H. annulare. The study warrants further scale-up production and pharmacological investigation that can be extended for pharmaceutical needs.

Antioxidant Properties, Anti-inflammatory Effects, and Bioactive Constituents of the Indian Medicinal Rice Njavara Yellow Compared with Staple Varieties

Rathnam Parvathy,Smitha Mohanlal,Chithra Pushpan,Antony Helen,Ananthasankaran Jayalekshmy 한국식품과학회 2014 Food Science and Biotechnology Vol.23 No.5

Polar and non-polar extracts of Njavara yellowrice (NYr) and bran (NYb) were investigated for antioxidantactivity, chemical indices, anti-inflammatory effects, andbioactive compounds, of which the results were comparedbetween the 2 staple varieties Uma and Jaya. Methanolextracts of NYb showed significantly (p<0.05) higherantioxidant activity than other varieties with the IC50 valuesof 97 μg/mL (DPPH•) and 48 μg/mL (ABTS•+). NYbshowed a higher anti-inflammatory effect and higherchemical indices (6.36 mg, phenolic content; 1.44 mg,flavonoid content; 3.06 mg, proanthocyanidin content; and15.5 mg, phytate content per gram of dry weight of bran)than NYr and staple varieties. The content of bioactivecompounds, oryzanols (659 μg/mL) and tricin (24.58 mg/100 g bran), were higher in NYb than in other varieties. Evaluation of biological activities and quantification ofbioactive compounds of Njavara yellow are first pursuedherein to corroborate Njavara Ayurveda medicinal use.