Research

A new research has shown the presence of Kalinga cricket frogs (KCF or Fejervarya kalinga) in the Western Ghats, indicating Morphological Phenotypic Plasticity (MPP).

Here comes an indigenous alternative to Chinese document-scanning apps, following Government of India’s decision to ban 59 mobile apps which were prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India. AIR Scanner, a free-of-cost mobile application, has been developed Rohit Kumar Chaudhary and Kavin Agrawal, two final-year B.Tech students in the Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Bombay. Their inspiration comes from Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s clarion call for an Aatma Nirbhar Bharat.

The researchers have used a grey level indicator-based nonlinear telegraph diffusion model which views the image as an elastic sheet, which when compressed, removes the speckles. The proposed technique uses the benefit of the combined effects of diffusion equation as well as the wave equation. The wave nature of the system preserves the high oscillatory and texture patterns in an image. One of the main advantages of this partial differential equation (PDE)-based approach is that it has a strong theoretical base, which is not always certain for a non-PDE based approach.

The proposed framework is based on a novel concept called time capacity, which calculates the time required to transport a unit quantity of water between two points. The total time needed to supply water is determined by multiplying this amount by the total volumeof water that has to be transported. “Balancing this calculated total time and total available time in the planning period for fulfilling the tanker delivery order, we have made the frame work computationally efficient to generate optimal tanker routing connections between the watersource and the customer,” explains Prof Gudi. The framework also indicates the tanker size to be used for a specific delivery.

Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) researchers have discovered a new material to effectively split water into Hydrogen and Oxygen using solar power. This research is expected to create a renewed interest in Solar fuels’ domain, for its scope of conversion and storage in a single system. The method can significantly reduce the cost per kilowatthour (kWh) of solar energy.

Realizing the rapid depletion of petroleum-based fuels, Dr. T. Mathimani from the National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, started exploring alternative fuels from renewable and sustainable sources. While different types of biofuels that have been explored recently, the use of microalgae has been strongly considered for the production of biofuels since they present a series of advantages over other biofuel feedstock, and this route to sustainable fuels inspired him.

Scientists observing dozens of such galaxies using two Indian telescopes have found that the clue to this strange behaviour of these galaxies lies in the disturbed hydrogen distribution in these galaxies and also in recent collisions between two galaxies.

Patients affected by Kala- Azar, scientifically called Visceral leishmaniasis (VL), one of the most neglected tropical diseases may soon find relief in an oral nanomedicine from India. The oral therapeutics could help in the control and elimination of VL, around 95 % of which is reported from Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Ethiopia, India, Kenya, Nepal, Somalia, South Sudan, and Sudan.

Tamarind seeds and cotton waste may soon be used to make low-cost supercapacitors for energy storage – thanks to the efforts of a group of Indian scientists who have used such waste biomass to develop materials for making cost-effective supercapacitor devices. This can pave the way towards affordable electric vehicles and hybrid vehicles which bank on supercapacitors significantly for their application in braking systems and start-stop cycles.

Scientists from Agharkar Research Institute (ARI), Pune, an autonomous institute of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Govt. of India, have come up with the first synthetic route for producing flavonoids molecules related to the treatment of tuberculosis and chikungunya. Preliminary indications have been witnessed regarding probable treatment response to COVID 19.