Indian Institute of Technology Palakkad&nbsp;(IIT Palakkad or IIT PKD) is a public autonomous&nbsp;engineering&nbsp;and&nbsp;research&nbsp;institute located in&nbsp;Palakkad,&nbsp;Kerala. It was&nbsp;one of the five new&nbsp;IITs&nbsp;proposed in the&nbsp;2014 Union budget of India. The campus was inaugurated on 3 August 2015. The institute has 94 faculty, 978 students, and 63 non-teaching staffs.

IT Palakkad currently offers four-year Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech) and two years MS programmes in 8 different engineering disciplines including&nbsp;Computer Science, Electrical, Mechanical, Civil among others.

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IIT Palakkad

The separation dimension &amp;#x01d70b;π(G) of a hypergraph G is the smallest natural number k for which the vertices of G can be embedded in Rk so that any pair of disjoint edges in G can be separated by a hyperplane normal to one of the axes. Equivalently, it is the cardinality of a smallest family F of total orders of V(G), such that for any two disjoint edges of G, there exists at least one total order in F in which all the vertices in one edge precede those in the other. Separation dimension is a monotone parameter; adding more edges cannot reduce the separation dimension of a hypergraph. In this article, we discuss the influence of separation dimension and edge-density of a graph on one another. On one hand, we show that the maximum separation dimension of a k-degenerate graph on n vertices is O(k lg lg n) and that there exists a family of 2-degenerate graphs with separation dimension Ω(lg lg n). On the other hand, we show that graphs with bounded separation dimension cannot be very dense. Quantitatively, we prove that n-vertex graphs with separation dimension s have at most 3(4 lg n)s−2 edges. We do not believe that this bound is optimal and give a question and a remark on the optimal bound. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

World University root node

Department of Computer Science and Engineering

Journal of Graph Theory

Separation dimension and sparsity

A linear ordering of the vertices of a graph Gseparates two edges of G if both the endpoints of one precede both the endpoints of the other in the order. We call two edges { a, b} and { c, d} of Gstrongly independent if the set of endpoints { a, b, c, d} induces a 2 K2 in G. The induced separation dimension of a graph G is the smallest cardinality of a family L of linear orders of V(G) such that every pair of strongly independent edges in G are separated in at least one of the linear orders in L. For each k∈ N, the family of graphs with induced separation dimension at most k is denoted by ISD (k). In this article, we initiate a study of this new dimensional parameter. The class ISD (1) or, equivalently, the family of graphs which can be embedded on a line so that every pair of strongly independent edges are disjoint line segments, is already an interesting case. On the positive side, we give characterizations for chordal graphs in ISD (1) which immediately lead to a polynomial time algorithm which determines the induced separation dimension of chordal graphs. On the negative side, we show that the recognition problem for ISD (1) is NP-complete for general graphs. Nevertheless, we show that the maximum induced matching problem can be solved efficiently in ISD (1). We then briefly study ISD (2) and show that it contains many important graph classes like outerplanar graphs, chordal graphs, circular arc graphs and polygon-circle graphs. Finally, we describe two techniques to construct graphs with large induced separation dimension. The first one is used to show that the maximum induced separation dimension of a graph on n vertices is Θ (lg n) and the second one is used to construct AT-free graphs with arbitrarily large induced separation dimension. The second construction is also used to show that, for every k≥ 2 , the recognition problem for ISD (k) is NP-complete even on AT-free graphs. © 2017, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.

Algorithmica

The Induced Separation Dimension of a Graph

Large graphs are widely used in real world graph analytics. Memory available in a single machine is usually inadequate to process these graphs. A good solution is to use a distributed environment. Typical programming styles used in existing distributed environment frameworks are different from imperative programming and difficult for programmers to adapt. Moreover, some graph algorithms having a high degree of parallelism ideally run on an accelerator cluster. Error prone and lower level programming methods (memory and thread management) available for such systems repel programmers from using such architectures. Existing frameworks do not deal with the accelerator clusters. We propose a framework which addresses the previously stated deficiencies. Our framework automatically generates implementations of graph algorithms for distributed environments from the intuitive shared memory based code written in a high-level Domain Specific Language (DSL), Falcon. The framework analyses the intermediate representation, applies a set of optimizations and then generates Giraph code for a CPU cluster and MPI+OpenCL code for a GPU cluster. Experimental evaluations show efficiency and scalability of our framework. © Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018.

Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)

Large scale graph processing in a distributed environment

The objective was to investigate the rheological and thermo-chemical behavior of asphalt-rubber (AR) binders and to evaluate the effect of various parameters on AR binder performance. The effort encompassed binder consistency, rheological, thermogravimetric, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy analyses of twelve different asphalts. It was found that CR inclusions not only improved the physical characteristics but also influenced the chemical and thermal properties of asphalt binder. Furthermore, it was inferred that employing higher CR dosages and fine CR gradations in asphalt binder will aid in producing an outstanding AR binder capable of performing well under extreme traffic and environmental conditions. © 2018 Elsevier Ltd

Department of Civil Engineering

Construction and Building Materials

Investigations on behavioral characteristics of asphalt binder with crumb rubber modification: Rheological and thermo-chemical approach

Environmental Sciences and Sustainable Engineering Centre (ESSENCE)

AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts 2018, GC53F

Impact of climate change on biomass availability from perennial bioenergy crops grown on the US marginal land

In Software-Defined Networking (SDN), the importance of multi-controller operation is widely accepted mainly for 1) avoiding a single point of failure at the centralized SDN controller, and 2) scaling and load-balancing the control plane in large networks. Information exchange among SDN controllers is crucial for an end-to-end functioning of the routing and other applications like measurement and QoS. However, such information exchange introduces a scalability problem in the distributed architecture involving high communication overhead and long convergence time across the networks. The key concept of our solution against the problem is partitioning of the multi-controller SDN into the proper number of network chunks with the proper number of SDN controllers to operate in each chunk. This paper proposes VIBHAJAN, a control plane management mechanism 1) to find optimum groups of SDN controllers, 2) to isolate the information exchange within a logical boundary called Area, and 3) to enable information exchange between areas throughout the entire network. The implementation of VIBHAJAN currently facilitates a routing mechanism. The evaluation results show an approximate 50% reduction in communication overhead and 50% faster convergence compared to the broadcast-based multi-controller operation. Performance of the partitioning algorithm under different topologies is also shown. VIBHAJAN promises to facilitate a variety of network functions and applications over multi-controller SDN in a lightweight and scalable manner. © 2018 IEEE.

2018 IEEE Conference on Network Function Virtualization and Software Defined Networks, NFV-SDN 2018

VIBHAJAN: A Lightweight and Scalable Control Plane Management for Multi-Controller SDN

Sickle cell trait, a common hereditary blood disorder, protects carriers from severe disease in infections with the human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum. Protection is associated with a reduced capacity of parasitized erythrocytes to cytoadhere to the microvascular endothelium and cause vaso-occlusive events. However, the underpinning cellular and biomechanical processes are only partly understood and the impact on endothelial cell activation is unclear. Here, we show, by combining quantitative flow chamber experiments with multiscale computer simulations of deformable cells in hydrodynamic flow, that parasitized erythrocytes containing the sickle cell haemoglobin displayed altered adhesion dynamics, resulting in restricted contact footprints on the endothelium. Main determinants were cell shape, knob density and membrane bending. As a consequence, the extent of endothelial cell activation was decreased. Our findings provide a quantitative understanding of how the sickle cell trait affects the dynamic cytoadhesion behavior of parasitized erythrocytes and, in turn, endothelial cell activation. © 2018, The Author(s).

Department of Physics

Fulltext

Communications Biology

The sickle cell trait affects contact dynamics and endothelial cell activation in Plasmodium falciparum-infected erythrocytes

We present an extensive numerical study of the time irreversibility of the dynamics of heavy inertial particles in three-dimensional, statistically homogeneous, and isotropic turbulent flows. We show that the probability density function (PDF) of the increment, W(τ), of a particle's energy over a time scale τ is non-Gaussian, and skewed toward negative values. This implies that, on average, particles gain energy over a period of time that is longer than the duration over which they lose energy. We call this slow gain and fast loss. We find that the third moment of W(τ) scales as τ3 for small values of τ. We show that the PDF of power-input p is negatively skewed too; we use this skewness Ir as a measure of the time irreversibility and we demonstrate that it increases sharply with the Stokes number St for small St; this increase slows down at St≃1. Furthermore, we obtain the PDFs of t+ and t-, the times over which p has, respectively, positive or negative signs, i.e., the particle gains or loses energy. We obtain from these PDFs a direct and natural quantification of the slow gain and fast loss of the energy of the particles, because these PDFs possess exponential tails from which we infer the characteristic loss and gain times tloss and tgain, respectively, and we obtain tloss<tgain for all the cases we have considered. Finally, we show that the fast loss of energy occurs with greater probability in the strain-dominated region than in the vortical one; in contrast, the slow gain in the energy of the particles is equally likely in vortical or strain-dominated regions of the flow. © 2018 American Physical Society.

Physical Review E

Heavy inertial particles in turbulent flows gain energy slowly but lose it rapidly

We perform direct numerical simulations of a bidisperse suspension of heavy spherical particles in forced, homogeneous, and isotropic three-dimensional turbulence. We compute the joint distribution of relative particle distances and longitudinal relative velocities between particles of different inertia. For a pair of particles with small difference in their inertias we compare our results with recent theoretical predictions [Meibohm et al., Phys. Rev. E 96, 061102 (2017)2470-004510.1103/PhysRevE.96.061102] for the shape of this distribution. We also compute the moments of relative velocities as a function of particle separation and compare with the theoretical predictions. We observe good agreement. For a pair of particles that are very different from each other - one is heavy and the other one has negligible inertia - we give a theory to calculate their root-mean-square relative velocity. This theory also agrees well with the results of our simulations. © 2018 American Physical Society.

Relative velocities in bidisperse turbulent aerosols: Simulations and theory

The first Ru(II)-catalyzed arylation of substrates without a directing group was recently developed. Remarkably, this process only worked in the presence of a benzoate additive, found to be crucial for the oxidative addition step at Ru(II). However, the exact mode of action of the benzoate was unknown. Herein, we disclose a mechanistic study that elucidates the key role of the benzoate salt in the C-H arylation of fluoroarenes with aryl halides. Through a combination of rationally designed stoichiometric experiments and DFT studies, we demonstrate that the aryl-Ru(II) species arising from initial C-H activation of the fluoroarene undergoes cyclometalation with the benzoate to generate an anionic Ru(II) intermediate. The enhanced lability of this intermediate, coupled with the electron-rich anionic Ru(II) metal center renders the oxidative addition of the aryl halide accessible. The role of an additional (NMe4)OC(CF3)3 additive in facilitating the overall arylation process is also shown to be linked to a shift in the C-H pre-equilibrium associated with benzoate cyclometalation. © 2018 American Chemical Society.