Category Archives: Science & Technology

Health is wealth–Nellore association takes the right initiative

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Business & Economy, Science & Technology
A picture of Nellore association members after completing a sport activity
A picture of Nellore association members after completing a sport activity

To promote the awareness about being healthy among the members, the computer dealers association of Nellore, has attempted a different method of uniting the members every morning and conduct activities.

Speaking to The DQ Week, Deepak Naidu, vice president of the association said, “This is a part of the CDAN Health Activity and is a first-of-its-kind activity in 2013. According to this activity every morning all our members meet at a stadium here in Nellore. For the first half an hour, we make our members walk or jog or run for 3 kms followed by one hour play of badminton or volley ball.” He also said that now it is difficult to make people appreciate the attributes of team work through long screen presentations within the four walls of a training room. “The real personalities, attitude and behaviour become much more conspicuous when people interact in a causal setting. To make it  compulsory, all meetings of our associations are planned to be conducted only in the stadium. We also advise members stay away from mobile phones during the meetings”  he further added.

“Too often our health takes a backseat between our families, careers and daily obligations. To live a viable life, to love and take care of our families, and manage our daily responsibilities, our health must occupy a center stage in our list of priorities. So, this year, 2013, we have given health a top priority and started this activity. ” He also said that to build friendly relationship among members the association wanted to start cricket, a sport with health benefits including building endurance and stamina, balance, improved hand-eye co-ordination and team skills.

source: http://www.dqweek.com / The DQ Week / Home> South / by Swaminathan B. / May 20th, 2013

12 IIIT girls for NASA space settlement contest

Education, Science & Technology, World Opinion

 

Students of Nuzvid IIT who were selected for NASA International Space Development Conference (ISDC), to be held at USA, from May 23. / Photo. Ch. Vijaya Bhaskar / The Hindu
Students of Nuzvid IIT who were selected for NASA International Space Development Conference (ISDC), to be held at USA, from May 23. / Photo. Ch. Vijaya Bhaskar / The Hindu

They will present their projects at the 32 Annual International Space Development Conference in the US

Girl students of Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowledge Technologies (RGUKT) have outshone boys by bagging 12 of the 13 slots for making it to the NASA Space Settlement Contest. They will be leaving for the U.S. via Chennai on Monday. Girls performed better than boys in designing projects on space settlement for humans.

The selected students will present their projects at the 32 Annual International Space Development Conference (ISDC), to be held at San Diego, in the US, from May 23 to 27.

Of the 38 students selected for the NASA Ames Space Settlement Design Contest-2013, 29 were girls from International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT), Nuzvid, but only 12 of them will make it to the US. Students of Pre-University and first year Engineering of the budding university have designed 13 projects on the title ‘Creating alternative living for mankind on Space’, said IIIT Director Ibrahim Khan.

“We were inspired by Indian astronauts Kalpana Chawla and Sunitha Williams. Humans are creating miracles in the history of space, missile and robotics technologies. But, the number of women astronauts in India and other countries is very small. We want to become scientists in space and robotics technologies,” say the budding engineers preparing for their foreign trip.

Some of the missions selected for ISDC are Amaranthos, Garuda, Atman, Titan, Magma, Anthena, Divouces, and Sudarshan Chakra. The students in their projects focussed on how to provide luxurious life for man with food, housing, employment, solar energy, pollution-free environment and other facilities on moon with latest technologies, for the next two decades.

“Our project ‘Atman’ indicates the successful journey of man to the soul of new space era. We explained how to produce power by using solar wind through electrical sail technology, which was developed by the US in January 2013,” said V. Divya Sri, who is one of the three designers of the mission.

“The mission ‘Titan’ is aimed at designing plans on how to tap natural resources from moon and other planets and lead a comfortable life on space. In our project, robots will play a key role by utilising the latest technologies,” said M. Hemalatha, who prepared ‘Titan’, along with two other girls H. Divya and S. Padmasri.

source: http://www. thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> National> Andhra Pradesh / by Rajulapudi Srinivas / Nuzvid (Krishna Dist.) – May 20th, 2013

Fish medicine for asthma patients to be administered on June 8 & 9

Nature, Science & Technology

fish-prasadamHF24may2013

Hyderabad :

The famous fish medicine for asthma patients will be administered on June 8 & 9 at Exhibition Ground, Nampally. The fish medicine is distributed by well-known Bathini brothers of Doodhbowli.

Last year Bathini brothers had administered the medicine at Kattedan but several people were injured due to stampede. This year government has permitted to distribute the medicine at Exhibition ground.

The Bathini family claims to be giving the fish medicine free of cost for last 163 years. This medicine is administered on Mirag day which heralds the onset of monsoon.

source: http:s//www.siasat.com / The Siasat Daily News / Home> Hyderabad / Friday – May 24th, 2013

Students wow railway authorities with their designs on safety

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Education, Science & Technology
Teams interact with drivers and station masters before preparing the projects / The Hindu
Teams interact with drivers and station masters before preparing the projects / The Hindu

About 100 students designed projects on safety in railways including automatic coach guidance, signal control system and submitted a thesis to the South Central Railway (SCR) authorities.

The engineering students who designed the circuits and software programmes displayed them before the Vijayawada Division Railway officials at Railway Auditorium on Friday. The projects would be useful both for the railways and passengers, said the students.

Vijayawada Additional Divisional Railway Manager S. Subba Rao, SCR Women’s Welfare Organisation president Priti Awasthi and heads of various departments visited the software products exhibition. Ms. Awasthi praised the budding engineers for designing the projects with innovative ideas.

Alerts for driver

Four students of Electronics and Communication Engineering of Vignan University – Vamshi Krishna, Aravind, Siddhartha and Vara Prasad – prepared a circuit on Signal Control System, which would prevent accidents and provide safety for the passengers.

“In Signal Control System, we placed a monitoring device on the signal pole and receiver in the engine. The train drivers can know the signal position (from each pole) through the receiver at some distance. Signal Control System will be useful particularly during winter seasons when there is heavy fog,” said Mr. Vamshi Krishna.

If the train crosses the red signal, the system would automatically slow down the train and prevent any possible mishap. The device was prepared after discussing the problem with loco drivers, said Mr. Siddhartha.

The GPS on Fire Detecting System would alert the railway authorities, if there was any fire in the coaches. Likewise, the Rail Tracking System, designed by four students – T. Bhavya, D. Kavya, Ch. Kranthi and K. Srujana — of K.L. University, can alert the station master or superintendent of the next station through satellite system on the position of the tracks, location of train and at what time it was expected to arrive at the station. “We travelled in the train from Vijayawada to Visakhapatnam and studied on implementation of Rail Tracking System, which can help reduce manpower and give accurate position of the train on tracks”, Ms. Srujana told The Hindu. Students also designed projects on digital caution order, power line failure, wireless energy meter, vigilance control device, and a digital eye for coach guidance automation.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Vijayawada / by Rajulauadi Srinivas / May 18th, 2013

Aditi Technologies acquires Hyderabad-based Get Cloud Ready

Business & Economy, Science & Technology

This is company’s second acquisition in cloud consulting space after acquisition of Cumulux in 2011

Bangalore-based Aditi Technologies  on Thursday said it has acquired Hyderabad-based cloud operations consulting firm ‘ Get Cloud Ready ‘  for an undisclosed amount.

This is the company’s second acquisition in the cloud consulting space after the acquisition of  Cumulux  in 2011.

The acquisition, would enable Aditi to expand its Amazon Web Services (AWS ) and Cloud Managed Services (CMS), the company said. Get Cloud Ready Consulting was founded by Janakiram MSV, a former Microsoft and Amazon employee in 2011.

The company also said, with the acquisition Get Cloud Ready employees will join Aditi Technologies.

Pradeep Rathinam, CEO Aditi Technologies said: “We are excited to welcome ‘Get Cloud Ready’ team into Aditi. Janakiram and his team bring exceptional cloud infrastructure migration and management expertise. With Get Cloud Ready, we seek to provide our customers with granular visibility into rapidly migrating and managing applications across multiple cloud platforms with minimal effort.”

source: http://www.business-standard.com / Business Standard / Home> Companies> News / by Pradeesh Chandra / Bangalore – May 16th, 2013

Guntur wins silver for e-governance

Business & Economy, Records, All, Science & Technology

The State Government has announced Silver award for Guntur district in e-Governance category for 2012-13 for successfully implementing ‘Sampoorna Vidya Darsini’ programme.

The district has bagged another silver award for striving for achieving development through the e-governance platform. Mr. Suresh Kumar stated in a press release that the district got a total cash incentive of Rs. 4 lakh. The e-governance awards were instituted by the Department of Information Technology & Communications. Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy will be presenting the awards to top officials representing the award-winning districts soon. In the e-governance category, the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply & Sewerage Board won the platinum award and ‘Marpu’ programme of Karimnagar district got gold.

The awards are instituted by the Department of Information Technology & Communications.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> National> Andhra Pradesh / by Staff Reporter / Guntur, May 15th, 2013

India to launch first navigational satellite on June 12

Records, All, Science & Technology

India proposes to launch its first navigational satellite, which will provide terrestrial, aerial and marine navigation services and help in disaster and fleet management, on June 12.

The Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System-1A is slated to be launched on board home-grown rocket, PSLV-C22 XL at 1.01 am from Sriharikota spaceport on June 12.

The launch window will be open from June 10 to June 15, sources in the Indian Space Research Organisation here told PTI.

The 1425 kg IRNSS-1, which will have a life span of about ten years, will provide satellite-based terrestrial, aerial and marine navigation services, and also help in disaster and fleet management and vehicle tracking, an ISRO official said.

Bangalore-headquartered ISRO has planned to have a constellation of seven satellites under IRNSS by 2014-15.

IRNSS is an independent regional navigation satellite system, and once all the spacecraft become operational, it would provide position accuracy, similar to Global Positioning System (GPS), of better than 10 metres over India and the region extending about 1,500 km around the country.

“It is designed to provide an accurate real time Position, Navigation and Time (PNT) services to users on a variety of platforms with 24×7 service availability under all weather conditions”, the official said.

IRNSS provides two basic services — standard positioning service for common civilian users and restricted service for special authorised users, the official said.

source: http://www.business-standard.com / Business Standard / Home> PTI stories> National> News / by Press Trust of India / Bangalore –  May 17th, 2013

Kakatiya University plant research wows scientists

Nature, Science & Technology

Hyderabad :

In a rare feat for a rural Indian university, little known Infectious Diseases and Metabolic Disorders Lab (IDMDL) of Kakatiya University, Warangal, has attracted the attention of the global scientific community by discovering anti-diabetic and anti-HIV compounds in the extracts of herbs which are used by local tribes as a cure for various disorders. The lab, headed by a young scientist Estari Mamidala, extracted anti-diabetic chemical from a plant called Physalis Minima (budamma in Telugu; ban tipariya in Bengali; parpoti in Gujarati and tulati pati in Hindi ) and found anti-HIV properties in Tinospora Cordifolia (tippa teega in Telugu and giloe in Hindi) and Cassia Occidentalis (penta chennagi in Telugu and bendra lathi in Hindi).

After conducting an ethnobotanic survey for about a year, from July 2011 to August 2012, based on the local medical knowledge practices among the tribes in Mulugu Venkatapur, Regonda, Parkal, Shayampet, Hasanparthy areas of Warangal district in Andhra Pradesh, the team led by Estari identified about 65 plants believed to have great curative value. His team studied extracts from various parts, leaves, stem, roots and flowers, for the medicinal properties and found amazing qualities. Estari says these experiments are expected to pave a new path for alternative medicines from plants extracts which are cheaper and safe to use.

The Estari team also found four more medicinal plants (Phyllanthus emblica, Eclipta alba, Tinospora cordifolia and Casia occidentalis) which have the ability to inhibit replication of HIV-1. The extracts of these four plants have the potential to be used as natural products in the chemotherapy of HIV infection, said Estari.

In the studies conducted on rats, it was found that the leaf and flower extract of Physalis Minima significantly lowered the fasting blood sugar. However, the stems have not shown such a property. Repeated experiments with flowers and leaves clearly exhibited more potent anti-diabetic activity by reducing the blood glucose level significantly compared with the root and stem extracts of P. Minima.

Similarly, Tinospora Cordifolia was found to have anti-HIV property comparable to the drugs available in the market. Another plant, Cassia Occidentalis has also exhibited HIV inhibiting properties in a significant way. Speaking to TOI from Warangal, Estari said the extracts of Cassia Occidentalis had exerted their anti-HIV property by inhibiting the HIV Reverse Transcriptase activity. The study seems to justify the traditional use of plant for the treatment of infectious disease of viral origin, he said. The plant has great potential for developing useful drugs, he added.

The results of IDMDL studies have been published in the International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research (Volume 3, Issue dated 7 June, 2012), Biology and Medicine (2013) and BMC Infectious Diseases (December, 2012).

source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India  / Home> City> Hyderabad / by Jinka Nagaraju, TNN / May 15th, 2013

Pain free saliva-based diabetic test in the offing

Science & Technology

Hyderabad :

In what could come as a relief to thousands of  diabetic patients who have to regularly prick their fingers to test sugar levels in their blood, doctors at the Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (Nims) are set to roll out a prick free saliva-based test to detect and monitor diabetes.

The hospital’s endocrinology department has been researching on use of  saliva  as a substitute for blood to identify and monitor diabetes  since 2001. They said that saliva is directly filtered from blood into the mouth, so it will have a direct reflection of a person’s health and disease.

“Technology has improved so much that it is now possible to take small quantities of body fluids like saliva and perform lab test as with blood,” said Dr P V Rao, head of endocrinology, Nims.

This new test called ‘Glycosylated proteome’ is non-invasive, multi-analytic diagnostic test for accurate assessment of diabetes and is superior to the existing glucose-assessment blood test, he added.

Annually, a diabetic has to bear approximately 150 pricks and those who are insulin dependent need to take two shots daily. Many diabetics may not be monitoring their condition because of the discomfort involved in finger-pricking putting their lives at risk. This technique will be a boon for patients and reduce the burden of blood test pricks.

This new test for assessing blood glucose control over a period of seven days involves collection of saliva from the patient’s upper jaw with the help of a swab which is then squeezed out and the fluid is used for the test instead of blood.

“A saliva based test would eliminate the discomfort associated with monitoring blood sugar levels, and lead to greater regularity in testing,” he added.

Over the years, 300 children and 300 adults with type 1 diabetes were studied at Nims for saliva-based diagnostic test instead of blood test. Doctors found that they were able to see the same parameters in saliva as those in blood.

source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Hyderabad / TNN / May 12th, 2013

Medicinal rice can cure gastro, knee, heart diseases, says farmer

Business & Economy, Green Initiatives / Environment, Nature, Science & Technology
Susheela, wife of a farmer, Vishnuvardhan Rao, displaying the medicinal varieties of paddy cultivated in their fields, at Arisepalli village in Krishna district./ Photo: V. Raju / The Hindu
Susheela, wife of a farmer, Vishnuvardhan Rao, displaying the medicinal varieties of paddy cultivated in their fields, at Arisepalli village in Krishna district./ Photo: V. Raju / The Hindu

Here is some good news for patients suffering from joint pains, heart-related ailments and other chronic diseases. There is no need to run around hospitals if medicinal rice is consumed, says Panchakarla Vishnuvardhan Rao.

A farmer and Gopala Mithra member, Mr. Rao, is raising ‘medicinal varieties of paddy’ in the village in Krishna district. People are prone to diseases due to consumption of foodgrains that lack these values, said the farmer, who completed BZC in National College, at Machilipatnam.

Many people in their youth suffer from chronic diseases and take injections and gulp pills. The farmer’s idea is to give medicines along with food grains and keep the people away from diseases, Mr. Vishnuvardhan Rao told The Hindu.

In the ‘Navarai’ variety he has raised he claims it is good for gastro and knee patients, Dodda Beer Nallu is good for anaemic patients and adolescent girls, Rami Gali has high protein-content, Rohas Panjar and Kadam are other medicinal varieties of paddy.

“Farmers are cultivating medicinal paddy in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, which is good for pregnant women and patients suffering with other diseases. Medicinal crop varieties are not suitable for growing in saline soil and research should be done to cultivate the varieties in coastal areas”, said Mr. Vishnuvardhan.

Adopted from USA

He took the sample grains from a researcher, Sabarmatee, in Pasadena University, California in the US. She was raising 370 varieties of foodgrains in two acres in Orissa, as part of investigations.

The duration of the crop was 135 days and medicinal paddy contains high B Complex value and disease-resistance capability, he added.

It is better, if the crop is raised by using ‘go mutram’ (cow urine) and dung, said the farmer.

“My wife, Susheela, is encouraging me in raising different varieties of paddy. I allotted some land for cultivating medicinal varieties in my five and half acre paddy fields.

Farmers can give relief to the patients, if medicinal paddy is cultivated” Mr. Vishnuvardhan Rao opined.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Vijayawada / by Rajulapudi Srinivas / Arisepalli (Krishna Dist), May 12th, 2013