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

Foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) causes a severe infection in ruminant animals. Here we present an in-depth transcriptional analysis of soft-palate tissue from cattle experimentally infected with FMDV. The differentially expressed genes from two Indian cattle (Bos indicus) breeds (Malnad Gidda and Hallikar) and Holstein Friesian (HF) crossbred calves, highlighted the activation of metabolic processes, mitochondrial functions and significant enrichment of innate antiviral immune response pathways in the indigenous calves. The results of RT-qPCR based validation of 12 genes was in alignment with the transcriptome data. The indigenous calves showing lesser virus load, elicited early neutralizing antibodies and IFN-γ immune responses. This study revealed that induction of potent innate antiviral response and cell mediated immunity in indigenous cattle, especially Malnad Gidda, significantly restricted FMDV replication during acute infection. These data highlighting the molecular processes associated with host-pathogen interactions, could aid in the conception of novel strategies to prevent and control FMDV infection in cattle. © 2021 The Authors

World University root node

Biological Sciences and Engineering

Genomics

Induction of antiviral and cell mediated immune responses significantly reduce viral load in an acute foot-and-mouth disease virus infection in cattle

Persistent ill health after acute COVID-19-referred to as long COVID, the post-acute COVID-19 syndrome, or the post-COVID-19 condition-has emerged as a major concern. We undertook an international consensus exercise to identify research priorities with the aim of understanding the long-term effects of acute COVID-19, with a focus on people with pre-existing airways disease and the occurrence of new-onset airways disease and associated symptoms. 202 international experts were invited to submit a minimum of three research ideas. After a two-phase internal review process, a final list of 98 research topics was scored by 48 experts. Patients with pre-existing or post-COVID-19 airways disease contributed to the exercise by weighting selected criteria. The highest-ranked research idea focused on investigation of the relationship between prognostic scores at hospital admission and morbidity at 3 months and 12 months after hospital discharge in patients with and without pre-existing airways disease. High priority was also assigned to comparisons of the prevalence and severity of post-COVID-19 fatigue, sarcopenia, anxiety, depression and risk of future cardiovascular complications in patients with and without pre-existing airways disease. Our approach has enabled development of a set of priorities that could inform future research studies and funding decisions. This prioritisation process could also be adapted to other, non-respiratory aspects of long COVID.

Fulltext

The Lancet Respiratory Medicine

The long-term sequelae of COVID-19: an international consensus on research priorities for patients with pre-existing and new-onset airways disease

Due to the lack of a comprehensive multiobjective solid-state transformer (SST) design framework, SST designs are mostly obtained through trial/experience. In this article, a machine-learning (ML)-aided optimal SST design framework is proposed, which involves the objectives of maximizing efficiency ( η ) and power density ( ρ ). The challenges of computationally expensive magnetics design, coupled with the correlation between magnetics design and performance of semiconductor devices, are tackled by developing a hybrid local optimization algorithm. This local optimization is subsequently learned through ML techniques, using a limited number of optimal design data sets, and, thus, assists in the genesis of optimal SST design limits for several combinations of semiconductor devices and switching frequencies. The proposed framework is implemented for a cascaded matrix-based dual-active-bridge (CMB-DAB) SST comprising of SiC MOSFETs to demonstrate the optimization routine. The optimization results exhibit low-error fits of the selected ML models and the η - ρ limits in different categories of optimal SST designs. The SiC-based SST designs are also observed to offer better η - ρ optimal designs compared to Si-based SSTs. A laboratory-scale CMB-DAB prototype with experimental measurements is also presented to validate the proposed design optimization framework at a scaled-down level. © 2013 IEEE.

Department of Electrical Engineering

IEEE Journal of Emerging and Selected Topics in Power Electronics

Machine-Learning-Aided Optimization Framework for Design of Medium-Voltage Grid-Connected Solid-State Transformers

Despite some recent efforts towards multi-objective design optimization of multilevel converters, design optimization of solid-state-transformers (SSTs) are not presented much in the literature mainly because of the lack of computationally feasible techniques. This paper is dedicated towards a computational feasibility study of multi-objective design optimization techniques for medium-voltage (MV) grid-connected SSTs. After defining the application and scope of SST design optimization problem, a brief description of the possible solution techniques are discussed which shows the merits of semi-numerical/hybrid design optimization techniques. Subsequently, a machine learning (ML) aided hybrid optimization technique is executed for a 15 kVA single-stage SiC-based SST design. Suitable component modelling is presented and a strong agreement is observed between theoretical optimization and experimental results. Finally, a comparative evaluation of the analytical, numerical, standalone hybrid and ML-aided hybrid optimization techniques (deployed for the same 15 kVA SiC-based SST design) reveals that the ML-aided hybrid strategy is best suited for SST design optimization as it requires feasible computational time for <5% error. © 2021 IEEE.

IECON Proceedings (Industrial Electronics Conference)

Computational Feasibility of Multi-objective Optimal Design Techniques for Grid-Connected Multi-cell Solid-State-Transformers

This paper proposes a multi-input linear control law based on the incremental passivity theory for cascaded H-bridge (CHB)-based battery energy storage systems (BESSs). The proposed control law guarantees large-signal stability and controls multiple state variables without assuming dynamic decoupling between the voltages and the currents. Assuming dynamic decoupling is generally not acceptable in low-capacitance converters. Furthermore, the broad range of operating conditions in a CHB-based BESS due to the varying state of the batteries and varying grid requirements, makes it important to consider the nonlinear nature of the system. This paper presents a passivity-based control that ensures the global stability despite changing operating conditions. Simulation results on a single-phase CHB-based BESS are shown to corroborate that the proposed control approach exhibits excellent performance. © 2021 IEEE.

2021 IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition, ECCE 2021 - Proceedings

Passivity Control in Modular Battery Energy Storage Systems

Single-stage inverters with a common ac and de ground are emerging topologies which effectively eliminate the high-frequency common mode voltage. However, most of the existing common-ground-type inverters are based on switched-capacitor (SC) circuits which are inherently subjected to several important issues that lead to many practical limitations. Disadvantages such as high current spikes, high capacitor voltage ripples, and distorted ac output voltage with de offset are some significant challenges in these inverters. A new common-ground-type inverter that discard the use of SCs is therefore proposed in this paper. It consists of a single-inductor and an ac output capacitor that are controlled by 8 power switches. Sinusoidal ac voltage generation in both buck and boost modes can be achieved by controlling the inductor with a sinusoidal duty-cycle. Simulations are presented to verify the operation of the proposed topology. © 2021 IEEE.

Proceedings of the Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition - Asia, ECCE Asia 2021

A Common-Ground-Type Single-Stage Buck-Boost Inverter with Sinusoidal Output Voltage

The present work showcases simulation of a turbulent diffusion flame for validation of the turbulencechemistry interaction approach. The turbulence model employed was k-ε with the model constants determined from simulation of a non-reacting turbulent jet. The jet decay rate and spread rate were determined with excellent accuracy when compared with experimental measurements. The non-dimensional velocity profiles also show a significant agreement except at radial locations far away from the axial centreline. Simulations of the DLR-A flame using a single step infinite rate chemistry assumption were carried out with the model constants thus determined. The reaction rates are determined based on the mixed-is-combusted approach where the mixture fraction, a conserved scalar quantity is obtained by the solution of a governing equation. In addition the mean velocity, species mass fractions and temperature profiles in the axial and radial direction are compared with experimental data. The axial profiles show very good agreement while the radial profiles show deviations due to the assumption of equal binary mass diffusivities for all species and unity Lewis number, which is a suitable approximation for turbulent gaseous flows. In addition, the temperatures are overpredicted by close to 15% due to the single-step infinite rate chemistry approach adopted in this study. The validation serves to justify the choice of the combustion model for the simulation of turbulent reacting flows. This is especially significant due to the lesser computational effort involved in obtaining the rates of the reaction for a turbulent diffusion flame. © 2021, Begell House Inc. All rights reserved.

Department of Mechanical Engineering

International Symposium on Advances in Computational Heat Transfer

Rans based numerical simulations of turbulent diffusion flame using openfoam®

Department of Physics

Bulletin of the American Physical Society

Astromers: Astrophysical Isomers

The cosmic evolution of the chemical elements from the Big Bang to the present time is driven by nuclear fusion reactions inside stars and stellar explosions. A cycle of matter recurrently re-processes metal-enriched stellar ejecta into the next generation of stars. The study of cosmic nucleosynthesis and this matter cycle requires the understanding of the physics of nuclear reactions, of the conditions at which the nuclear reactions are activated inside the stars and stellar explosions, of the stellar ejection mechanisms through winds and explosions, and of the transport of the ejecta towards the next cycle, from hot plasma to cold, star-forming gas. Due to the long timescales of stellar evolution, and because of the infrequent occurrence of stellar explosions, observational studies are challenging, as they have biases in time and space as well as different sensitivities related to the various astronomical methods. Here, we describe in detail the astrophysical and nuclear-physical processes involved in creating two radioactive isotopes useful in such studies, and. Due to their radioactive lifetime of the order of a million years, these isotopes are suitable to characterise simultaneously the processes of nuclear fusion reactions and of interstellar transport. We describe and discuss the nuclear reactions involved in the production and destruction of and, the key characteristics of the stellar sites of their nucleosynthesis and their interstellar journey after ejection from the nucleosynthesis sites. This allows us to connect the theoretical astrophysical aspects to the variety of astronomical messengers presented here, from stardust and cosmic-ray composition measurements, through observation of rays produced by radioactivity, to material deposited in deep-sea ocean crusts and to the inferred composition of the first solids that have formed in the Solar System. We show that considering measurements of the isotopic ratio of to eliminate some of the unknowns when interpreting astronomical results, and discuss the lessons learned from these two isotopes on cosmic chemical evolution. This review paper has emerged from an ISSI-BJ Team project in 2017-2019, bringing together nuclear physicists, astronomers, and astrophysicists in this inter-disciplinary discussion. ©

Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia

The radioactive nuclei and in the Cosmos and in the solar system

This paper proposes an innovative coupled wall system, named the tuned viscous mass damper (TVMD) coupled wall system, for use in high-rise buildings. This novel wall system is expected to control both the lateral inter-story drifts and the floor accelerations of high-rise buildings when subjected to strong ground motions, thus enhancing their seismic resilience. The TVMD consists of a component that provides stiffness connected in series with a ball screw device that can provide large inertial and damping forces, even when subjected to small deformations. In this system, TVMDs are arranged to connect adjacent wall piers in a zig-zag configuration. Such a strategic TVMD arrangement makes efficient use of the vertical relative displacements of the adjacent walls induced by their flexural deformation to generate the motions and forces of the TVMDs. Two methods are presented for the optimal design of this system, namely, a single-mode tuning method and a multi-mode tuning method. Dynamic response analysis is conducted on a representative 15-story TVMD coupled wall system. The results of the analysis indicate that the TVMDs designed by the single-mode tuning method not only suppress the dynamic responses of the tuning mode, but also provide additional damping for the lower-order modes of the primary structure. The multi-mode tuning method shows similar performance to the single-mode tuning method if the latter is used to tune the higher-order mode. Finally, real-time hybrid simulations were conducted to examine the seismic performance of the proposed system. The test results demonstrate the advantages of the TVMD coupled wall system and indicate that the detuning effect is slight for this system, even when subjected to strong ground motions.