Tag: news

Dielectica traverses through the literature on this device – and summarizes as they appear.

Correspondence prepared by: Sayan Bayan, S. N. Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences, Kolkata, sayan.bayan@gmail.com (19^th September, 2020 08:30 IST)

Dielectica traverses through the literature on this device – and summarizes as they appear.

Correspondence prepared by: Sayan Bayan, S. N. Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences, Kolkata, sayan.bayan@gmail.com (14^th September, 2020 08:30 IST)

KOLKATA: In everyday life for most of the inhabitant purposes, handwriting based signatures are used to authenticate individuals to maintain security as well as privacy. However, the forgery signature based scams have emerged as a common ground behind many of the big losses in monetary transactions or other security matters in daily life applications. Thus, signature authentication via handwriting recognition is a key challenge and must be addressed by the scientific community seriously.

In this context, the research group of Prof. Zhong Lin Wang from the Georgia Institute of Technology, USA, has come up with a signature identification platform that has promising ability in security defense, and private information protection applications. According to the report recently published in the scientific journal ‘Nano Energy’, Prof. Wang and coworkers have demonstrated the handwriting recognition ability of a device called ‘triboelectric nanogenerator’ that runs without any external power supply.¹ Prof. Wang is regarded as the inventor of triboelectric nanogenerator which works in the coupled principle of contact electrification and electrostatic induction.² In such nanogenerator system, mechanical stimulus induces a current flow and can power up small electronic gadgets.

It is quite obvious that any kind of writing or drawing exerts mechanical pressure on the writing platform and such mechanical pressure can be used to generate electric power leading to a self-powered system. Further, the combination of signal processing and machine learning technologies with a triboelectric nanogenerator endows the ability to recognize the handwriting of different people. The research group has demonstrated that such self-powered writing pads can recognize writings of English words, Chinese characters as well as Arabic numerals with classification accuracies of 99.66%, 91.36% and 93.63%, respectively. It is expected such triboelectric nanogenerator based smart systems can play a vital role for protecting personal information in various segments of modern life in the near future.

Sources:
¹Nano Energy 77 (2020) 105174. DOI: 10.1016/j.nanoen.2020.105174
 ²Nano Energy 1 (2012) 328. DOI: 10.1016/j.nanoen.2012.01.004

Dielectica dives through India’s milestone events in space science – and summarizes as they appear

Correspondence prepared by: Ayan Dey (7th September, 2020 11:59 IST)

From a simple beginning in the early 1960s, India’s journey to the space has achieved several milestones. These include fabrications and launching of satellites, space vehicles, orbiter missions etc. This dream journey has started when Dr. Vikram Sarabhai, known to be the Father of Indian space programme formed an organization in 1962 named Indian National Committee for Space Research (INCOSPAR). In 1969 the INCOSPAR was renamed as Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). The Indian Space Research Organizations has completed 50 years of its glorious journey, since its foundation on 15th August, 1969. Its journey started from ARYABHATTA, BALLON experiment, BHASKARA-I, APPLE (India’s first geostationary experimental communication satellite, 1977-83), INSAT-IA, INSAT-IB, PSLV to highly classified missions like Chandrayaan-1, 2 and Mangalyaan (India’s first deep space mission). Today, the annual budget of Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) is more than 10 thousand crores ($1.45 billion). The people who made it happen with their extraordinary visions and sheer hard work were – Dr. Vikram Sarabhai, U.R. Rao (who had developed

18 satellites (including Bhaskara, APPLE, INSAT and many more)), Rakesh Sharma (the first Indian to venture into space), A.P.J. Abdul Kalam also known as ‘Missile Man of India’ and many others. The most interesting and biggest discovery among all expeditions conducted by ISRO was tracing water on the Moon. Chandrayaan’s Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) experiment (2008) has shown evidence of water on the Moon. An even bigger success was India’s first deep space mission to Mars: the “Mars orbiter mission (MOM)” (2014). With that, India became the first country to have ever succeeded in orbiting the Mars after the failures of the US, China and Russia. It was the first major breakthrough after the GSLV Fat Boy failure in 2010.
ISRO has announced its next 10 years plan, consisting of some new mega missions. The most notable one among these is: GAGANYAAN – India’s first ever manned mission, this project will make India the fourth nation in the world to achieve that benchmark. Approximate budget of this mission is INR 10,000 crore and it will be India’s biggest and boldest space mission till date. It is intended to send a maximum of 3 astronauts for a minimum of 7 days by the year of 2022.

This manned-mission spacecraft basically consists of service and crew module, which is collectively known as the orbital module. GSLV MK-III, the three-stage heavy lift launch vehicle will be used for the launch of GAGANYAAN, as it is capable of carrying a high payload capacity for different application fields. This spacecraft is designed to carry 4-ton class of satellites into the Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) and about 10 tons to Low Earth Orbit (LEO). Its powerful cryogenic stages help it in placing heavy payloads into the Low Earth Orbit’s 600 km altitude. Due to the huge amount of payloads, it uses two very strong rocket boosters (S200), to produce huge amount of thrust to lift the Spacecraft. Some key points about the GAGAANYAAN are –

• It consists of two models i.e. crew and service. The crew model, where the three astronauts will be staying, will have a mean diameter of 3.7 m and height 7 m.
• It will take maximum of 15-16 mins for earth’s parking orbit insertion.
• It will be placed 300-400 km off the low earth orbit (LEO).
• The spacesuits for this mission are being developed at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Bengaluru, India which will be orange in colour.
• The astronaut can breathe by these space suits for an hour, with the capacity of holding one oxygen cylinder.
• The astronaut will be able to see the sunrise and sunset and also able to do some experiment about the microgravity with the help of the crew capsule module. This capsule will rotate around the earth for every 90 minutes.
• After the accomplishment of whole mission, the capsule will land at the coast of Gujarat (maximum 36 hours to land).
• French Space Agency CNES will assist ISRO in providing expert advice in various fields viz. space medicine, health monitoring of the astronauts etc.

Apart from this, ISRO has planned other classified missions for the near future –
ADITYA-L1: This is basically will going to be ISRO’s first planned mission to study the Sun’s corona and its atmosphere.
MANGALYAAN-2: India’s second mission again to the MARS as an Orbiter-2 (2022 – 23)
CHANDRAYAAN-3: This will be going to the India’s third lunar mission (late 2020s).

VENUS MISSION: It is basically a Venusian mission to study its surface and atmosphere which is Earth’s closest siblings due to their similarities in their sizes (2023 – 25). The proposed satellites for this mission will weight about 175 kg of payloads and 500 watts of power.
Another one, probably the most interesting yet challenging one as we may call it: a dream to have India’s own international space station. This will wind up by 2028. The proposed station will be about 15-20 tonnes hosting people for more than 15 days. As India is moving with the ‘Make in India’ dream, these missions are not very far off from reality. Right from the first launch from an old church at Kerala, India’s journey to space has been quite remarkable throughout the last 50 years and an a member of the Elite Space Club it will also set a milestone for all other developed countries across the globe who are yet to succeed in space.

Reference : INDIA IN SPACE : Harper Collins Publishers India 2020 JJ Imprints Pvt Ltd, Noida, P-ISBN- 978-935-357-641-7

By Suman Nandy
Caparica, Portugal.

2020, we are experiencing an unwanted situation that has changed our entire lifestyle. The whole world (more than 213 countries and territories) is affected, impacting all social areas and sectors, reaching from, health to economy.We are habituated with three phrases: “keep safe distance”, “wear your mask” and “sanitize yourself”. Because of the highly contagious parameters, we are concerned about the single use products such as personal protective kit, gloves, face mask and packaging. Right now, health and safety have taken priority over the environment. But this should not be a well practise for sustainable future. A civilization can only exist with their future thoughts.We can live better now, but we must think best for tomorrow.Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) situation is alarming us, to be careful and prepare for future. We are still not smart that we assume! There is no denying that already the world is in crisis due to overuse of un-recycled product that will end up in landfills and sustain over 100-1000 years. These kinds of unrecycled and unreacted products are affecting the soil, sea and river water that makes a negative effect in environment and living plants and animals. It was reported by European Union that in the Europe, 31kg of plastic packaging waste is produced per person per year in average that adds up to 15.8 million tonnes of plastic packaging waste generated in one year¹.Waste plastics are a serious and growing environmental problem. In 2015, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDS) that are set by United Nation to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all by 2030, sustainability, waste management, recycling of product and environment are the concerning factors².

But the present situation due to COVID-19 pandemic has led to a serious impedimentin waste management progress. Proper management of safety procedure will protect us in this crucial situation of pandemic. But mismanagement and misuse can also lead to another big crisis in environmental pollution. On 1^st July 2020, the World Economic Forum reported an article entitled “The plastic pandemic is only getting worse during COVID-19”³. It raises the question of single-use plastics during the pandemic. Mostly, all the countries are facing mismanagement in waste product control. According to the report^4,5 in China, medical waste from personal protective equipment like gloves, face masks and eye protection due to a surge in pandemic has raised tremendously from 40 tons per day in normal days to a peak of 247 tonswhich is about six fold.According to the Waste Agency of Catalonia report, the medical waste including masks, gloves, overalls, or davantals, has detected a 350% increment since mid-March which ismostly 925 tonnes more than usual⁶. According to the Thailand Environment Institute (TEI), plastic waste has increased from 1,500 tons to 6,300 tons per day, due to the frequent owing of home deliveries of food in pandemic situation which is 15%. TEI president Dr.Wijarn said, in Thailand each day, approximately 1.5 million face masks are being used and disposed. In Bangkok, the amount is about 150 tons per day⁷. With a same trend, in United Kingdom, there has been reported a huge spike in fly-tipping (illegal dumping) in some parts during the coronavirus lockdown.The Countryside Alliance reports approximately of 300% rise in fly-tipping after local authorities closed recycling centres amid the Covid-19 crisis⁸. Moreover, along with the increment of medical and protective kit wastage, COVID-19 pandemic situation also makes an obstruction on normal waste disposal and recycling system. According to the survey (on 18^th May 2020from 95 surveyed communities) by AMORCE (French network for information, sharing of experiences and support for local authorities in the field of energy transition, territorial waste management and water cycle management), 42% of communities have noted a tendency to deposit non-conforming waste in the bins (mixed-waste or separate collections) and 48% noted an upsurge of illegal deposits. Also, an interruption has been noticed for selective waste (such as glass, paper, food waste, bulky waste) collections (door-to-door or bring-banks). Bulky waste and textile collections are the most interrupted which is about 41% ⁹. This situation is more or less similar in all over the world.

Therefore, specific plans and awareness programs should be carried out by all the countries and associations so that our fight against waste management and environment pollution will come in required track. People should be alerted to maintain selective waste management system. Also, we have to think about the use of biodegradable natural materials which will not make a negative impact on environment.

Author is currently a research investigator in CENIMAT, Department of Materials Science, FCT-Universidad Nova da Lisboa, Caparica, Portugal

References:

1. How much plastic packaging waste do you produce? 22 April 2018; https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-eurostat-news/-/EDN-20180422-1?inheritRedirect=true

2. Sustainable Development Goals; https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/

3. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/07/plastic-waste-management-covid19-ppe/

4. Y. Ma, X. Lin, A. Wu, Q. Huang, X. Li, J. Yan, “Suggested guidelines for emergency treatment of medical waste during COVID-19: Chinese experience”, Waste Disposal & Sustainable Energy2020, 1.

5. Z. H. Si, Y. Li, “Medical waste treatment in Wuhan from emergency to stability,” Xin Hua Net (2020); www.xinhuanet.com/local/2020-04/01/c_1125796126.htm [in Chinese]

6. The Catalan Waste Agency has established different options to treat sanitary waste in the COVID-19 period; 15 April 2020;http://residus.gencat.cat/es/actualitat/noticies/detall/residus-sanitaris-COVID19-00001 [in Spanish]

7. COVID-19 has positive impact on ecosystem, 18 April 2020; National News Bureau & Public Relations
http://thainews.prd.go.th/en/news/detail/TCATG200418155259223

8. Coronavirus lockdown sees huge rise in fly-tipping across UK, 14 April 2020; https://www.itv.com/news/2020-04-14/coronavirus-lockdown-sees-huge-rise-in-fly-tipping-across-uk

9. Association of Cities and Regions for sustainable Resource management;https://www.acrplus.org/en/municipal-waste-management-covid-19#france

Dielectica traverses through the literature on this novel piece of protein coated RNA – and summarizes as they appear.

Correspondence prepared by: Sayan Dey (21^st July, 2020 08:30 IST)