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

Circulating immunoglobulins including immunoglobulin G (IgG) and IgM play a critical role in the immune homeostasis by modulating functions of immune cells. These functions are mediated in part by natural antibodies. However, despite being second most abundant antibody in the circulation, the immunoregulatory function of IgA is relatively unexplored. As Th17 cells are the key mediators of a variety of autoimmune, inflammatory, and allergic diseases, we investigated the ability of monomeric IgA (mIgA) isolated from pooled plasma of healthy donors to modulate human Th17 cells. We show that mIgA inhibits differentiation and amplification of human Th17 cells and the production of their effector cytokine IL-17A. mIgA also suppresses IFN-γ responses under these experimental conditions. Suppressive effect of mIgA on Th17 responses is associated with reciprocal expansion of FoxP3-positive regulatory T cells. The effect of mIgA on Th17 cells is dependent on F(ab')2 fragments and independent of FcαRI (CD89) and DC-SIGN. Mechanistically, the modulatory effect of mIgA on Th17 cells implicates suppression of phosphorylation of signal transducer and activator of transcription 3. Furthermore, mIgA binds to CD4+ T cells and recognizes in a dose-dependent manner the receptors for cytokines (IL-6Ra and IL-1RI) that mediate Th17 responses. Our findings thus reveal novel anti-inflammatory functions of IgA and suggest potential therapeutic utility of mIgA in autoimmune and inflammatory diseases that implicate Th17 cells. © 2017 Saha, Das, Patil, Stephen-Victor, Sharma, Wymann, Jordi, Vonarburg, Kaveri and Bayry.

World University root node

Biological Sciences and Engineering

Fulltext

Frontiers in Immunology

Monomeric immunoglobulin A from plasma inhibits human Th17 responses in vitro independent of FcαRI and DC-SIGN

A modular multilevel converter (MMC) with traditional cascaded PI control structure suffers from poor steady state and dynamic performance. This is due to the limited harmonic rejection capability of PI controller thus failing to alleviate even order harmonics in circulating current and due to the slower outer average voltage control loop resulting in significant deviation in submodule capacitor voltages during load transients. This paper presents a new control structure with a repetitive controller (RC) in conjunction with a Lyapunov function-based controller (LFC) in the inner circulating current loop and an additional load current feed forward loop in addition to the outer voltage loop to improve both steady-state and dynamic performance of MMC. RC has a good steady-state harmonic suppression capability therefore can effectively alleviate the circulating harmonic currents, where as LFC ensures a stable operation and superior dynamic performance of the converter against load disturbances. Analytical equations governing the design of both the controllers are presented. Model of a single phase, 5-level MMC is developed on a PLECS RT box real-Time simulator for hardware-in-The-loop (HIL) testing, it operates along with the external Texas Instruments DSP controller hosting the developed control scheme. Real-Time simulation results are presented to substantiate the improvement in steady state and dynamic performance of MMC with the proposed repetitive and Lyapunov function based circulating current controller. © 2017 IEEE.

Department of Electrical Engineering

Proceedings IECON 2017 - 43rd Annual Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society

A repetitive and Lyapunov function-based control approach for improved steady state and dynamic performance of modular multilevel converters

Graph models of social information systems typically contain trillions of edges. Such big graphs cannot beprocessed on a single machine. The graph object must bepartitioned and distributed among machines and processedin parallel on a computer cluster. Programming such systemsis very challenging. In this work, we present DH-Falcon, a graph DSL (domain-specific language) which can be usedto implement parallel algorithms for large-scale graphs, tar-geting Distributed Heterogeneous (CPU and GPU) clusters. DH-Falcon compiler is built on top of the Falcon compiler, which targets single node devices with CPU and multipleGPUs. An important facility provided by DH-Falcon is that itsupports mutation of graph objects, which allows programmerto write dynamic graph algorithms. Experimental evaluationshows that DH-Falcon matches or outperforms state-of-The-Art frameworks and gains a speedup of up to 13×. © 2017 IEEE.

Department of Computer Science and Engineering

Proceedings - IEEE International Conference on Cluster Computing, ICCC

DH-Falcon: A Language for Large-Scale Graph Processing on Distributed Heterogeneous Systems

We address the problem of index pruning without compromising the quality of ad-hoc similarity search among sets and ranked lists. We discuss three different ways to prune the index structure and, by linking the index structure with the concept of Locality Sensitive Hashing (LSH), we introduce two solutions to query processing over the pruned index. Through a probabilistic analysis we ensure that a user-defined recall goal is still guaranteed. We are able to formulate an optimization problem that can determine the optimal pruning factor for all three pruning methods. The experimental evaluations over real-world data validate that the optimal pruning factor indeed ensures the recall goal without any significant effect on the quality of similarity search on a much smaller index.

Department of Data Science

20th International Workshop on the Web and Databases, WebDB 2017 - Web of Opinions: Truths, Beliefs and Conficts

LSH-based probabilistic pruning of inverted indices for sets and ranked lists

In response to the demands of implementing building information modeling (BIM), new roles and job titles have emerged. However, it can be argued that these roles fundamentally fall within the scope of the traditional functions of existing core professional service providers, although being carried out through different means and methods. This study examines the circumstances that have created the necessity for these new roles in the South African context and also questions the sustainability of their legitimacy. Data were collected using key informant interviews with construction professional service providers (CPSPs) in South Africa and analyzed through thematic content analysis. A deep conceptualization and new theoretical insight is developed on the phenomenon of new role creation and legitimation. It was established that new BIM role takers are legitimated to exercise authority within project teams and organizations mainly by leveraging superior knowledge as a strategic resource. By implication, they will remain legitimate only as long as the constraint prompting their creation subsists, i.e., core professionals' BIM knowledge deficiencies, thereby affirming that the new BIM roles are transitory and unsustainable.

Department of Civil Engineering

Journal of Construction Engineering and Management

New BIM Roles' Legitimacy and Changing Power Dynamics on BIM-Enabled Projects

The objective of this study was to employ an artificial neural network (ANN) to predict asphalt-rubber (AR) rutting performance characteristics using binder properties, crumb rubber (CR) gradations, and mechanical test parameters. The scope included advanced asphalt binder rheological characterization using a dynamic shear rheometer (DSR), encompassing preparation of a total of 18 laboratory-blended AR binders with two base binders and nine CR gradations, totaling over 2,200 data points. Principles of ANNs were used to predict the three AR binder performance parameters: η, G*/sinδ, and tanδ. Eight input parameters constituting test temperature and frequency, five CR gradation components, and base binder viscosity were employed to develop the ANN model. A back-propagation learning algorithm with scaled conjugate gradient (SCG) as the training algorithm in a feed-forward, two-hidden-layer neural network with seven and three neurons, respectively, was chosen as the best ANN architecture. The statistical goodness of fit measures R for the total data set were, respectively, 0.994, 0.997, and 0.977 for η,G*/sinδ, and tanδ. ANN modeling conceptualized as part of the study indicated that rubber inclusions in asphalt binders would aid in the improvement of the materials' rutting resistance. The magnitudes of weights and biases provided in this study for the eight chosen AR binder material input parameters could be well utilized in predicting the three binder material performance parameters. Overall, it is envisaged that the algorithm developed in this research pertinent to asphalt binders' advanced rheological characterization would further the state of the art in designing rut-resistant rubber modified asphalts. © 2017 American Society of Civil Engineers.

Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering

Heuristic principles to predict the effect of crumb rubber gradation on asphalt binder rutting performance

This paper presents the end-effector pose error modeling and motion accuracy analysis of a planar 2PRP-PPR parallel manipulator with an unsymmetrical (U-shape) fixed base. The error model is established based on the screw theory with considerations of both configuration (geometrical) errors and joint clearances. It also proposes a robust cascaded control scheme for the end-effector pose (task-space) error correction in trajectory-tracking of the manipulator due to mechanical inaccuracies. The proposed control scheme uses redundant sensor feedback, i.e., individual active joint displacements and velocities and, end-effector positions and orientation are obtained as feedback signals using appropriate sensors. To demonstrate the efficacy and show complete performance of the proposed controller, real-time experiments are accomplished on an in-house fabricated planar 2PRP-PPR parallel manipulator. © 2017 Elsevier Ltd

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Mechatronics

Error analysis and control scheme for the error correction in trajectory-tracking of a planar 2PRP-PPR parallel manipulator

This paper presents a comprehensive analytical solution to the forward kinematic problem of a newly introduced spatial parallel manipulator, namely, the 3-RPRS. The manipulator has three legs with two actuators in each, which connect a moving triangular platformto a fixed base. Loop-closure equations are formed to find the unknown passive rotary joint angle in each leg. These equations are subsequently reduced to a single univariate polynomial equation of degree 16. The coefficients of this equation are obtained as closed-form functions of the architecture parameters of the manipulator and the input joint angles, and therefore the analysis covers all possible architectures and configurations. Furthermore, it is found that the polynomial has only the even powers, therefore leading to 8 pairs of solutions, each pair being mirrored at the base platform. The theoretical developments are illustrated via a numerical example. The results obtained are validated by checking the residues of the original loop-closure equations, thereby establishing the correctness of the formulation as well as the results. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2017.

Mechanisms and Machine Science

Forward kinematic analysis of the 3-RPRS parallel manipulator

We propose an unified formulation for thermobuoyant flows an arbitrary mesh topologies. Unlike incompressible flow, the pressure correction equation is derived from the energy equation. The resulting Poisson’s equation reduces to continuity constraint ∇ · u = 0, only in absence of thermal gradient and compressibility effects. Investigations are carried out for flows with small and large temperature differences in a differentially heated square enclosure. Studies using Cartesian and triangular grids show that the proposed approach can successfully simulate non-Boussinesq convection with extreme density variation. © Springer India 2017.

Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering

Unified solver for thermobuoyant flows on unstructured meshes

Variable density flows are basically those in which density variations cannot be neglected and hence the density is treated as a variable. This formidable change in density may be caused by either of three variables of the ideal gas equation (when dealing with gases) namely pressure, temperature and molar-mass. When pressure causes considerable change in density, the flow is no longer incompressible and they are dealt separately under compressible flows. But when density variation is caused by the other two aforementioned variables then the flow is still incompressible but the density will vary. Presence of varying density in governing equations poses a formidable challenge for numerical simulation as there is a very strong coupling between momentum and scalar transport equations. This work involves the development of three-dimensional Navier-Stokes solver to compute variable density incompressible flows on hybrid unstructured grids. The density variation due to temperature and species concentration has been considered. © Springer India 2017.