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Class 10 student develops app to gauge malnutrition
The plight of malnourished and underprivileged children has moved this 15-year-old student who has developed an app to tackle the scourge.
The student, Ayush Gharat, has won worldwide appreciation for his app, mNutrition, and has been invited by the state Minister of Health and Family Welfare Shivananda Patil for a discussion to see how the idea could be implemented in the state.
Gharat is a certified Android developer was inspired to build the app when he saw the struggles of the underprivileged children during a school trip.
“I would be more than happy to hear your thoughts about eradicating malnutrition. I congratulate you on the development of this app and would be interested to see if we can collaborate,” Patil said.
mNutrition helps diagnose malnutrition in children below five years.
“The World Health Organisation (WHO) has laid down certain guideline for diagnosing malnutrition by comparing the height, weight and age of an individual,” Gharat told DH.
“It can be calculated minor, moderate and severe malnutrition.”
Since the WHO tables could be very complex for an Anganwadi workers and mNutrition can help cut down manual errors in calculation. “Sometimes there’re errors in entering numbers and sometimes the handwriting of those giving the data can’t be understood. mNutrition can eliminate all these,” he said
While malnutrition is affecting two in five children in urban areas, there is very little awareness about the issue, he said.
The class 10 student designed the app, while his parents did the proof-reading. Gharat is also among the participants from across the globe who took part in a competition organised by Google.
How mNutrition works
Anganwadi or Asha workers, who will find the app easy to use, can enter the data such as the child’s height, weight and age to get the level of malnutrition. Gharat hopes to improve the app further to offer solutions for a particular range of malnourishment.
source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> City / by Reshma Ravishanker / DH News Service, Bengaluru / May 27th, 2019
Riders on the storm
Shiny coats, frisky tails and thundering hooves are part of South India’s first woman horse trainer, Parvati Byramji’s daily routine
Every morning, between 5am and 9am, Bangalore Turf Club (BTC) gets ready for the day ahead. We notice a jockey thundering up as we await permission to enter the Club. Parvati Byramji, one of South India’s women horse trainers and daughter-in-law of the legendary trainer Rashid Byramji, shows us around. During the 10 minute walk to the lunging area, horses with shiny coats are being taken for training through the Turf Club.
Parvati instructs her team while they exercise their two-year old horses. “Easy, easy,” she says loudly, yet calmly, as she pays close attention to each horse. Dark brown, grey and black horses are being led to lunge around the field. As we observe them we understand each horse has a distinct personality. While some are calm, others are stubborn. However, all of them are handled with utmost care by Parvati and her team.
Parvati’s eyes light up when she sees a grey horse waiting for her turn to train the horses.“I always take advice when picking a horse. My father-in-law says the first rule of thumb is you have to like what you see, and I liked her a lot.”
After five minutes, each horse is patted gently all over the body as a form of shabaashi (congratulations). Parvati says every trainer has a string, which means the number of horses they train. “I train 19 to 25 horses everyday.” She ensures the horses are fit and obedient. “My day typically starts at 5.15 am, and goes on till about 9 am. In between I go to the yard to write down the next day’s work, including the treatments and the feed. That is on a normal day. There is more work on race days. “If you are lucky, you win, if you are unlucky, you come second, because there is nothing worse than coming second,” she adds with a laugh.
As we speak, a stunning, light brown colt is led into the the lunge pit. He gracefully trots around the pit while Parvati keeps her composure and commands respect. After a few minutes in the pit, she steps out saying, “I used the Monty Roberts technique to establish communication and trust without equipment.”
As we make our way to the stables, which are spotlessly clean, Parvati says, “I always loved horses. When I was 11, I lived with my family in Mumbai. My father found an ad for amateur riding classes. Once I took that class, I discovered I loved riding. I became a member there. Then at 16, I got the love of my life — a horse named Sir Dickson. There was a senior trainer called Pesi Shroff, a famous jockey, who was kind enough to give me this horse. My story began with Sir Dickson, because he taught me more about horses than any book or person.”
Parvati earlier made her foray into polo. “At one point, I was the only woman polo rider in India. I played the sport for the Amateur Riders Club versus the National Defence Academy and we won it. Then I got a polo scholarship to go abroad.” However, a twist of fate would change everything. “I had to bring Sir Dickson from Mumbai to Coorg. We didn’t want him to be alone, so I approached Darius Byramji (Rashid Byramji’s son and a leading trainer) for help. He asked me to ride with them. I never left. I married Darius.”
She recalls a memorable incident that played a part in her getting into horse training. “A senior trainer, Puttanna was sitting on the stands, while I was busy on the field. When he said he admires me, I said but I know nothing. He said in Kerala, they pay a person who belongs to the family to go around the estate, doing nothing but overseeing. So you think you are doing nothing, but you are doing a lot. It was then I thought I could do this. Darius said let us make it official to become a horse trainer.”
Parvati appeared for the ‘Assistant to Trainers Exam’ around 2013 to 2014. “I aced it! I then appeared for the ‘Assistant Trainer Exam’ in October 2016, and this time the exam was more difficult. I aced it again! I then appeared for the Trainer’s Exam in 2017, and received my license the same year,” says the 39-year-old Parvati. She, however, states that being a woman makes no difference. “It is not about whether you are a woman or a man, it comes down to the job that you do.” However, at every instance she gives credit to her team of workers.
There are several hurdles to being a horse trainer, believes Parvati. “The upkeep of horses is expensive, and the sport is heavily taxed. There is the challenge of infrastructure too.”Parvati debunks the misconceptions around poor treatment of horses: “We treat our horses extremely well. There are random checks of our stables, and we are closely monitored by the BTC, in house, and the Animal Welfare Board from the Government.”
(A column where we experience the lives and people of the city)
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Bengaluru / by Sravasti Datta / May 23rd, 2019
Bengaluru doctor Hema Divakar gets Global Asian award
Hema Divakar is spearheading a healthcare initiative for the overall well-being of women, with affordable and quality treatment.
Bengaluru :
Bengaluru-based medical doctor Hema Divakar was honoured with the ‘Global Asian of the Year 2018-19’ award in Dubai recently for her yeomen services and contributions to the women’s healthcare ecosystem, in India, said its organiser ‘Asia One’ magazine’s publisher on Tuesday.
Hema received the award at the Asian Business & Social Forum 2019 under the ‘In Service of the Society and the Nation’ category from UAE’s Trade Promotion Director Mohammed Naser Hamdan Al Zaabi.
“The award is conferred on those who stand out for vision, action and ingenuity and represent contemporary ideas to make global impact,” said the pan-Asian business and news publication in a statement here.
Hema is also spearheading a healthcare initiative for the overall well-being of women, with affordable and quality treatment.
“To be recognised with other achievers of Asia thrusts on me a greater responsibility and ownership to reform the women’s healthcare ecosystem in an innovative and impactful manner,” said Hema on the occasion.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Bengaluru / by IANS / May 22nd, 2019
Old Boys immortalise their martyrs on war memorial
The Old Boys, as they are known, relish a history of sending their own to the armed forces to defend the country.
Bengaluru :
Wreaths were laid, The Last Post played, followed by traditional memorial band tunes, as they called to rest upon four of their own martyrs. The Old Boys Association of St Joseph’s Boys’ High School, which is one of the oldest alumni associations in the city, marked their 100 years of existence by honouring the post-independence martyrs who were part of their association.
The Old Boys, as they are known, relish a history of sending their own to the armed forces to defend the country. It started with the First World War, until recent battles in independent India. The numbers tally to 360 old boys, who served in various battlefields across the world, some being just teenagers. They recalled the association with pride about their alumna.
On Saturday, on one of their last events for their centenary year, the association inaugurated two plaques in the St Joseph’s Boys’ High School. One at the war memorial, and another in the school, with names of four Indian Alumni – Capt John A Dalby, from 5 field regiment, who was martyred on November 18, 1962 at Jaswanth Garh, during the Sino-Indian War; Major Uday Shankar Ghosh, 13 Sikh Light Infantry, martyred on June 26, 1989 in The Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka; Major Palecanda Atul Deviah, 6 Field Regiment, in operation Meghdoot at Siachen Glacier; and Major Sylvester Rajesh Rathnam, 21 JAT, martyred on August 2, 2002, in operation Parakrama in Kupwara, Jammu and Kashmir.
Families of the martyrs gathered with the Old Boys and friends at the Memorial Service that was celebrated by the archbishop of Bengaluru, Peter Machado, before paying their respects to the martyrs at the school campus. While the pipe band from the Madras Engineering Group and Centre played Slow March. Families and friends mourned their beloved as the Sappers played the Last Post and the Rouse at the memorial.
Families of martyrs find closure in Old Boys’ ceremony
“It has been a long and heartbreaking journey for me. As John’s oldest daughter I will be eternally grateful to all of you for assisting me to find closure after 58 years,” said Cheryl Dalby, daughter of late Captain John Albert Dalby, SM, 5 Field Regiment.
He was martyred on November 18, 1962, at The Jaswant Garh – Sela Sector in NEFA during the Sino-Indian war. She was addressing the Old Boys Association, St Joseph’s Boys’ High School, honouring four Old Boy martyrs on Saturday, at the school campus. To Cheryl, like the families of other martyrs of the institute, the traditional memorial service was a means of getting closure.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Bengaluru / by Pearl Marial D’Souza / Express News Service / May 26th, 2019
Finally, IISc team confirms breakthrough in superconductivity at room temperature
Superconductivity at ambient temperature has been a holy grail in physics for about a century.
Putting to rest all doubts and criticism, a team led by Prof. Anshu Pandey from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru confirms that their material exhibits major properties of superconductivity at ambient temperature and pressure. A material is said to be a superconductor if it conducts electricity with nil resistance to the flow of electrons. Superconductors will help build very high efficient devices leading to huge energy savings. Till now, scientists have been able to make materials superconduct only at temperatures much below zero degree C and hence making practical utility very difficult.
Superconductivity at ambient temperature has been a holy grail in physics for about a century. This is where IISc’s work becomes particularly important. A revised article has been posted on May 21 in arXiv, a pre-print repository.
The material that exhibited superconductivity is in the form of nanosized films and pellets made of silver nanoparticles embedded in a gold matrix. Interestingly, silver and gold independently do not exhibit superconductivity.
The team examined 125 samples, of which 10 showed a drop in resistance signaling the onset of superconductivity. They attribute the unsuccessful results in the remaining 115 samples to oxygen exposure at the time of sample preparation and when the samples were taken for study.
“If this [result] is correct, it would be the greatest work done in India since the discovery of Raman effect,” says Prof. T.V Ramakrishnan, leading condensed matter physicist who is a distinguished Associate with the Department of Physics at IISc. “The material they have made is unbelievable — a tiny sphere of gold, placed 10-20 tinier spheres of silver inside it…This [material] they found shows a sharp drop in resistivity [reflecting superconducting state]. This is potentially amazing,” he adds.
Identical noise
The initial version posted in the repository on July 23, 2018 by a two-member team of Prof. Anshu Pandey and Dev Kumar Thapa attracted criticism, raising doubts about the data and hence the study. The reason: the presence of identical pattern of noise for two presumably independent measurements of the magnetic susceptibility. Noise, by its very virtue, will be random and so finding nearly identical noise in measurements made under different conditions is highly improbable. Dr. Brian Skinner, a physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston was the first to notice this.
In one of his tweets in August 2018 Dr. Skinner said: “…They [IISc team] are really not backing down from their claims. They emphasize that they are focused on providing validation of their data…” And that is precisely what the IISc team has now done — provide validation of their data. On May 22, 2019, Dr. Skinner tweeted “…I am gratified, to say that least, that it is a scientific story now, and not a story about social scandal.”
Interestingly, the plots of magnetic susceptibility versus temperature in the new data still show the repeated “noise” in some instances. However, the researchers have clarified that the magnitude of the noise is well above instrumental resolution. “This suggests a possible physical origin related to the sample as opposed to instrument artefacts,” they write.
Referring to the “noise”, Prof. Arindam Ghosh from the Department of Physics at IISc and a co-author of the revised article says: “This is the data that we got. Further studies have to be done to understand this.”
The proof
“Two of the most important properties of superconductivity are dimagnetism and zero resistance. These two were seen in the material we studied. They seem to suggest that the material becomes superconducting below a certain temperature (286 K or 13°C). And it can go up to 70°C,” says Prof. Ghosh.
“At 286 K we have seen clear transition from a normal state to a superconducting state. This is more than anyone has reported,” Prof. Ghosh adds.
The revised version has provided the recipe for preparing the material, which was not included in the version post in July last year. The revised version also has plenty of data on the calibration of the setup. Besides retesting superconductivity, the authors tested it on another superconducting metal — lead. “[Unlike in the case of the original material] we did not see repeated noise,” Prof. Ghosh clarifies.
Researchers critically evaluating the revised version have raised some concerns. Prof. Pratap Raychaudhuri from the Superconductivity Lab at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) Mumbai has raised concerns that while the drop in mutual inductance is fairly sharp, it is at a lower temperature compared with resistance. “In superconductivity when the resistance goes to zero the diamagnetic drop should coincide with resistance drop. Here the resistance drops to zero at 175 K but the diamagnetic drop is at 165 K. This kind of difference [between resistance and diamagnetic drop] is unusual,” say Prof. Raychaudhuri.
Responding to Prof. Raychaudhuri’s observation on the sharpness of fall in mutual inductance Ghosh says: “We think there is long penetration depth (the depth to which the magnetic field penetrates inside the material) and so the change in mutual inductance can be very small.”
And about different temperature at which diamagnetic drops and resistance goes to zero, Prof. Ghosh explains: “We don’t have full clarity on this but there have organic superconductors where such discrepancies have been seen before.”
Soon after Dr. Skinner raised a red flag, there was criticism that authors were not sharing the samples with their peers for evaluation. “Our samples are extremely sensitive to environment. Samples degrade very rapidly and so measurements have to be made immediately after sample preparation,” Prof. Ghosh says, explaining why samples could not be shared with others. “We have now found a way of protecting the samples for a long time, which allowed us to do measurements over the last few months. Once we develop a protocol for better protection then we will be engaging and collaborating with other groups in India and abroad.”
Prof. G. Baskaran, a SERB Distinguished Fellow at The Institute of Mathematical Sciences, who works on the theory of superconductivity, was quick to provide a theory soon after the preprint was posted in 2018. In his theory, monovalent character of silver and gold and repulsion among electrons could produce room temperature superconductivity under certain restrictive conditions. Prof. Baskaran is excited that the Thapa-Pandey system precisely provides such conditions. “This looks like a case where granular superconductors play a role. I am excited that the key first step in this challenging field has been brought about by a systematic and detailed effort.”
The manuscript has been sent to a journal for publication and the first level of reviewing by editors has been completed. It is currently undergoing technical review by peer-reviewers. “We hope it will be published soon,” Prof. Ghosh says.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Sci-Tech> Science / by R. Prasad & Shubashree Desikan / May 25th, 2019