This is the octuber 2011 volume of BITS=PILANI HYDERABAD's technical magazine which is published by Journal club
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Journal Club I b BPHC C
Jou urnal Club, B BPHC First t published O Oct, 2011
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WORD FROM THE EDIT D M E TOR:
I rem emember once as a child (around 10 o 12yrs old) I used e d or d) to ha going to school. So one day I p myself together ate put f and a asked my mom “Why I need to go to sch every m hool day?? She saiid “To beco successfu in life.” I again ?” ome ful asked “What success are we talking about??” She said d s w S someth about rich and being famou But th didn’t thing t b us. his satisfy my urges so she said “If you go to school and come fy d a back I will give yo Mango flavoured ice ou f e-cream.” I went to sch that day but few days later hool d I again asked the same questi to which she asked me that wh in tion h m hether I hav problems with my ave teacher?? I said “N it’s jus that I c get th significanc of the sttories or liter No, st can’t he ce rature we read”. d lised ose e development of me as Today after around a decade I have realis the purpo of that education in d today. The lack of know wledge which I felt the was just to plant a se of curios in me h here t seed sity I am t leading me to find my ways on my own. T d n Today me and a team of people w same go as to a with oal attain so knowledg ome dgeable learniing in life h come tog have gether to chu out this m hurn magazine. We think W this mag gazine helps to attain the knowledge we always craved for an spread the same among others. he c nd he ng With t hope tha this will be an enjoy the hat l yable experien for every let’s sup the long lived nce yone, upport lo dream in thousands of hearts an light this torch of knowledge as the genesis of new era is marked n nd s kn upon
.
Editing & D Designing Team Head
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Genesis‐ C Chemis stry
Dr.R KRISHN D NAN(Chemist try Dept)
(as s told to Ram mit Mehta)
A long time ago, man bega perceivin an ng and di ifferentiatin the ha ng ardness an nd colours of differe materia This m ay ent als. have b been the starting point of th p he questio on as to what compounds made u up these materials and several oth her propert ties quite o obviously ob bserved, su ch as colo our, hardne and the abilities of ess e substan nces to evaporate, melt an nd sublima ate. Fire was discovere ed. By giving heat, it w was to peratures of used t raise the temp compou unds and c convert the into wh em hat we wa ant. Drawing from an examp le, a people began hea ating iron, till a certa ain time wh hen it began glowing and thought t it was go and ga old ave it a very valuab v ble standing. This was s the era of f ’alchemy’ or l y. t magical chemistry At that time, su ch ideas w were very thought provoking. el lement that t acted diff ferently in d different places. The notion of individual distinct lements came up and led to the el discovery of an atom. Man came up with th he idea of m making a biig solid out t of dust as a model, which dire s ectly corres sponded to the atom discover with th atom o m’s ry, he be eing one of f the many dust partic cles that co onstituted t the amalgam mation.
Sc cience adva anced and p people realised that th atoms of differe he ent elements are different because of d different properties f clei, as we as due to the ell of their nuc different number of e electrons an their nd rrangement around t d the nucleus. ar Sc cientists’ atomic mod dels were used to make big co m ompounds combining various el lements. d treme Chemistry developed endously during World War II. Even though the oncept of war is not very plea t asant, it co opened the way for th practical use of he hemistry in the world It alwa had n ays ch d. cr razy ideas in this cont text. Just as at one s po oint of tim the grea kings of France me at f
Following this, man entered the era of d elemen It was realised that there w nts. was not a universal element i.e. a sing i gle
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conside ered lead to be the most valuab o m ble elemen on earth and used it in nt everyth hing, people made their marks by e creating explosive After a couple of g es. World Wars, and a lot of hardshiip, be mankind did not think chemistry could b used fo its goo Howeve this w or od. er, was proved wrong. Ch hemistry gave the wor rld compou unds of m medicinal and mater a rial value. Our forme Presiden Dr. Abd er nt dul Kalam m made const tructive use e of chemist try so as to have a direct impact on th he ment of soci iety. betterm Chemistry began branching. It found its place in vari ious scie entific an nd technol logical field A biolo ds. ogical syste em like the human bo has various organ e ody ns. Chemistry was us sed to und derstand th he molecules that were as ssembled in differen nt manners to form the e organs, an nd their co ompositions and reactions to giv ve their pa articular functions. Materials we ere synthes sised to rep place or rep pair damage ed or malfunctioning organs.
de esign suitable drugs. So, chemis stry has ha an impa on med ad act dical chemis and stry pharmacy an nd health.
Chemistry further bra f anched ou after ut ng the interactio ons of understandin materials with light an various gaseous m nd molecules. The nan otechnolog m gy side he elped in in ncreasing th surface contact he an the deliverability of the nano‐size nd molecules fo m or various ap . A great pplications. ex xample of this is n ano‐material drug de elivery for t the solar en nergy conve ersions. Th here are ch hallenges a ahead beca ause the molecules we are pres m w sently deali with ing al lways leav some kind of negative ve n im mpact. Pollu utants from industries which m ar re the hearts of our w world now, a are non‐ biodegradable as well a bio‐toxic In the as c. field of medicine, side e effects of medicines re a concern. We have e not come up with ar an drug tha promises zero side effects. ny at s No drug can comp c pletely cur fatal re ai ilments such as AIDS an nd cancer. We have touched the high tech but still W ha ave to make clean and inn m n novative de evelopment for our b basic human needs fo or a better a and healthy y life, in add dition to progress tow wards mod dern luxury and a y fa paced life. We hop that we can get ast pe th he basics rig ght.
de, after understandin ng On the medical sid the str ructural features of viruses an nd bacteria molecules that co a, ould fit on nto them a and supress their activity we a ere created d for curing health prob blems cause ed by them m. Hence, w we can now w develop an nd
JOU URNAL CLUB 4 B BPHC C
SEN R DIAR NIOR RIES….
By – Suchi Nandini
There are no words that can co s onjure up th hose e ze is feelings that made me realiz that thi is s my last foot tstep in an in nstitution wh here perhaps knowled dge is brew wed and its sweet ne s ectar overflow ws those misty green hills s enveloping g the triangula promised land of Bhabha Ato ar d omic Research Center, Mu umbai.
Fig. BHABH HA ATOMIC RESEA ARCH CENTRE, KA ALPAKKAM, MUM MBAI
Forgett the starti week and a half that w ting ing d were
full of ut tter frustratio (though w BITSians h ons we have our own way of entertaining our rselves, be it any situation) brought abo out by the con ntinuous hagg gling to enter the "actua main ent r al" trance (that had remained unknown to us for a d almost a we eek).
Everyday standing waiting for no less tha 3 an hours to get our visitors pas looking ( ss, (and smiling) at the sec curity perso on's frown who seeing 3 30 of us ente ering on one e BARC eligib bility letter st tarted emitt ting his own belief of that n activity being someh how unethical, then queuing for the s security chec ck and daily reading the long list of " "forbidden i items" inside the prem mises that som mehow mad us all fee that it wo de el ould have been a time saver if they had just e mention the list of items tha could actu ned at ually cross tho ose many ba arriers!! After we got our Identity ca r ards it was all a matter of just...half an hour!! The short b f beep sound at the m metal detect tor, the x x‐ray scrutiniz zing eyes of the police emen, the long queue o people w of waiting for th heir turn to get onto the e long blue b buses of BARC witha capa acity
of 75‐80 pe eople but always carryi 110‐plus ing s jam‐packed people bum mping on spe eed‐breakers s yet gleamin chatting a through the winding ng all g path that led to ou respectiv divisions ur ve s perpetually reminding me that this largest t settlement in the world was after‐ a part of d ‐all f my India! Travelling from the north h gate to the e south gate especially on n a rainy day y with those e soft clouds hovering just above our heads, s giving an il llusion that that big ea arthen lamp p chalked out from differe ent varieties of flowering g plants on o one whole p piece of mo ountain, was s actually lit, with the se on one s ea side and the e distant sk kyline of Mumbai skyscrapers s silhouette against th setting sun were he e memories t that no cam mera could capture‐ one c e reason bein no came or cell phone was ng era s allowed inside its premises! I had go a comput project based upon ot ter n "Dependenc Injection" in C# us cy sing Ninject t framework. An Applicat tion developed in Object t Oriented p programming paradigm using C# g m # consisting o a collectio of interac of on cting objects s having depe endencies u upon other components s (Services) to success sfully complete their r intended pu urpose had t to be worke ed upon. The e application's focus on reusin ng existing g components and wiri s ing togethe disparate er e components to form a cohesive architecture s a e had led to a daunting task of reducing the g e dependencies. One way to m w mitigate the e proliferation of depen n ndencies wa by using as g Dependency Injection (DI), that allowed y n d injecting objects into a c class, rather than relying g on the class to create th he object itse elf. Dependency injection (DI) in object‐oriented y d computer p programming is a technique that t indicates to part of a program “w o a which” other r objects it ca an use and “ “where” to l locate them. It is a desig pattern t gn that separat behavior tes r from depen ndency resolution, thus allows loose e coupling. T The objects are configured by an n
JOURNAL CLUB 5 BPHC external entity. Thus, instead of components having to request dependencies, they are given, or injected, into the component. There are many dependency injection frameworks available. My project focused on Ninject dependency injection framework for .NET applications. It is a fast, ultra‐lightweight framework that expresses the mapping between a service type (generally an interface or abstract class), and an implementation type via Type Bindings in code. Most of the existing frameworks rely on XML mapping files to set up the bindings between types. Through its fluent interface, Ninject allows to take advantage of the features of the language (like type‐safety) and IDE (like IntelliSense and code completion). It helps to split application into a collection of loosely‐coupled, highly‐ cohesive pieces, and then glue them back together in a flexible manner. By using Ninject, the code becomes easy to write, reuse, test, and modify. It was an interesting experience to work under highly accomplished scientists. To see their sincerity and dedication towards their work was awe‐inspiring and extremely motivating. Such an institution really propels one to go in for research field, something really dreaded by most of us! On a whole the PS‐I experience was truly wonderful.
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The Stock Market Essentials
By -Darshit Shah
Everyone has at some time or the other in their life heard others talking about the stock markets. And, many of us have often stood there dumbstruck, not understanding half of what is being said. After reading this article, you might not be a pro on the Stock Markets, but will at least be able to listen and be a part of whatever conversation is going on. Let’s first begin with the most basic term, “Stock”. So, what exactly is a Stock? A stock is, in its most primitive meaning, a part of the company. When you own a stock of a company, you are in a way, a part owner of the same company. Stocks are issued by companies in order to raise capitals and are bought by investors in order to acquire a portion of the company. Even a small share of the company will give the investors the right to have a say in how the company is run. Although they gain a portion of the company’s profits, investors do not carry an obligation towards the company’s defaults or lawsuits. A Stock Market, is a place where people trade their share of the company (The Shares/stocks they own). The most important Stock Exchanges in our country are the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and National Stock Exchange (NSE). Other cities like Ahmadabad, Kolkata, etc also have their own Stock Markets.
To own a company’s share, that company must be a publicly listed company in any of the Stock exchanges. Originally, stocks were a piece of paper that said how much of a company’s value it represented. But, today, in the digital age, we have digitized the whole thing, and stocks have been Dematerialized (Demat). Hence, to buy or trade in stocks, you need to open a Demat account with a registered Stock Broker. An Initial Public Offering (IPO) is the first distribution of shares of a company when it just gets listed on the public markets for the first time. Companies launch IPO’s when they want to expand and are in need of capital, but do not want the burdens of a bank loan. The listing price of the company depends on the company's management, and you must subscribe to the IPO at that price. Later, the price of that stock is decided by the same factors that influence the market. If you are smart, Stock Markets are an excellent investment option. But, rash and ill-informed decisions can often spell your doom. To use the Stock Markets to your benefit, you must invest smartly. And for smart investments, you must keep track of the News and movements of the Stock markets. The price of a Share depends on various factors. The number of stocks of that
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company, the dividend paid by it, the Fundamentals of the company, the political state of the country, and most importantly, Public sentiment. Dividend is the bonus that a company pays its stockholders out of the excess profits of the company after covering all costs and re- investments. Stock trading is not just about Buying Low and Selling High, but there are other things also, predicting the future movement of the stock and estimating the real value of a company. There are two basic types of trade cycles on the Stock Market. One is the Buy-Sell cycle while the other is the Short-Cover Cycle. The buy sell is the old, Buy Low Sell High cycle, while the Short-Cover is the opposite. You sell some Stock at a High price in anticipation that it will decrease, and then buy it back from the market to Cover for your sales. To invest in the stock market, you should be able to analyse the market on your own. Basing your investment decisions solely on other’s advice is equivalent of setting all your money on fire. There are two opposite schools of thought on how to analyse the market. We will cover both in brief. But, to know more about either, it is preferred that you go online and read up. The two ways are, Fundamental Analysis and Technical Analysis. Fundamental Analysis is a technique that attempts to determine a security’s value by focusing on underlying factors that affect a company's actual business and its future prospects. It looks to answer questions such as, ●Is it actually making a profit?
●Is it in a strong-enough position to beat out its competitors in the future? ●Is it able to repay its debts? ●Is management trying to "cook the books"? There are literally hundreds of others you might have about a company. It all really boils down to one question: Is the company’s stock a good investment? Think of fundamental analysis as a toolbox to help you answer this question. Most Wall Street and Dalal Street Stock market “experts” favour this technique, including Warren Buffet. But, mind you, this is a very very tough way of analysing and not everyone gets their Fundamental Analysis right. Technical Analysis on the other hand, does on focus on the internals of the company. Technical Analysts believe that everything that is to be known about a company can be known from its past prices. Also, they like to believe that the past price patterns, will always keep repeating itself in the future, and hence they can use these charts to predict the future prices. Hence, Technical Analysts study price history charts and make predictions about the direction in which a particular stock is heading. Neither of these techniques can be “taught”, especially not in one paragraph. It is advisable that you go online and look these up, for a good understanding of the same. With this knowledge, now you can atleast stand there, and understand a part of the discussion on Stock markets. Go ahead, have fun, and invest. Don’t let your money stagnate, it only loses value.
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esis of f civil e engine eering g
By‐ Garv Malik k
m civil originated to dif fferentiate f from . Through c centuries, th discipline its he e, g, and its rol le have evolv ved hugely. This rted when humans began to se ettle mads. The e evidences of civil of being nom ring date back to the Harap ppan like the “G Great on where structures l xisted. A 12 2 x 7 x 2.4 m meter pool m made s and gypsu with a la um, ayer of bitumen for strength in an e era of extre eme eness shows s that civil en ngineering is one fans, air co onditioners d not exist which are did t, e basic necess sities of toda ay’s human b beings. The romans s used aqued ducts to tran nsport water r from source es 1000 ft. ab bove sea leve el with ducts s as long as 60 miles. They some etimes used d siphons in valleys w which were e inverted s unsuitable for aqueducts. The Gr reat Wall of f th th ‐16 century y is 6350 km m China, built in the 15 ‐ visible from t the moon! long and is v "Civil engineering is the profession in which a e n a thematical a and physical knowledge of the mat ained by s study, experience, and d sciences ga practice is applied with judgment to develop p mically, the m materials and d ways to utilize, econom ature for the progressiv well‐being e ve g forces of na of humani ity in crea ating, impr roving, and d protecting the environment, in providing n g or ndustry and d facilities fo community living, in transportati ion, and in providing st tructures for r the use of humanity."(Source: American Society of Civiil " n
Engineers)
civil enginee ering has gra adually evolved from m simple pra actices and methods s, to construction in extreme en nvironments using complex x analyses and technique es with the a aid of computers, robotics and d other sophistica ated technol logy. arliest types of engineering. yan temples in Mexico, c contemporar ry to rappan civilization, still stand tall. The ental s of planning which seems to be a concept had been ther for millen d re nnia. en public p places, the focus of ur rban existed in a ancient c all civilizations. The gineers of the ancien world mixed nt with open s spaces such as courtya h ards, d light and ventilation in the rooms n keeping priv vacy intact. They skillfully omes livable at a time w e when electri icity,
Fig. Various f factors consid dered in a civ vil engineering g design.
From huts to houses, l logs to bridg ges, mud to o ood to steel we have c l come a long g cement, wo way. Thous sands of pe eople have engaged in n research an experime nd entation to give us the e
JOU URNAL CLUB 10 B BPHC C f materials a and have helped us incre ease ciency.Over time, civil engineering has from simple practices and e y evolved f s, to co onstruction in extreme ments using complex analyses and ues with the aid of com e mputers, robo otics her sophistic cated techn nology. We h have o this stage only due to the effort of o ts been in the past, few of which have b ned below. or a va alley. The first man made bridges s were made of spans of logs, wh hich evolved d es boo poles.Th he first book k to stone and bamb on brid dge engineering was written by y Hubert Gautier in 1716 6. Modern n cture now defines six types of x f architec bridges :
known pioneer rs in civil eering
IMHOTEP (2 2650 BC) is p perhaps the first civil enginee er and architect to be known by name. a d dignitary in t the courtyar rd of king Djoser of ancient Egypt. He is r credited wit the build th ding of the first pyramid. h Phidias lived in the 5th century BC in d C, Greece. He was a grea architect and at Zeus at Olym mpia sculptor. The statue of Z on and was o one of the se even is his creatio wonders of t the ancient w world. Lancelot bro own (1716‐1783) was on ne of the first few landscape architects. He w e . designed ab bout 170 par in his career rks and was known as “England’s grea atest Gardener”. Thomas Telford was a Scottish civil He a engineer. H brought a new era in designing c canals and aqueducts. He constructed/remodeled 1200 miles of t 21 years. H He later became roads in just one of the founder m members of the ngineers(ICE) in ) institution of Civil En 1828
Fig. Displa ay of different k kinds of bridge architectures.
Arch b bridge: a bridge with a b abutments at t each en shaped as a curved ar nd s rch.
Beam bridges: the mo ost simple e of struct tural forms being sup pported by y an abutment at each h end of the deck.
Cable-s stayed bridg a bridge t ge that consists s of one or more column (normally referred to ns o as towers or pylons), wi cables supporting the r ith e bridge deck.
A cantilever bri idge is a bridge built a t using cantile evers, stru uctures th hat project t horizontally into space, supported on only one y e end.
A suspe ension bridge is a type of bridge in e n which the deck (the load-bearing portion) is g s hung belo ow suspen nsion cables on vertical suspenders. A truss bridge is a bridge co omposed of f connected elements (t typically stra aight) which h may be stre essed from t tension, com mpression, or r sometimes both in response to dynamic c
sis of bridg ges
first know bridges were made by wn e ure, like a sin ngle log falle en over a stream
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loadsCable, Cantilever, Suspension and Truss
Environmental engineering
It is a new sub division of civil engineering which is emerging nowadays. It has become the need of the hour as environmental change is affecting humanity significantly. It focuses on using alternative materials and practices in civil engineering to achieve sustainable development and reduce the burden on resources. It also includes practices like recycling construction material to reduce waste generation. The field needs enormous advancement and has a lot of scope in the near future. Rainwater harvesting, landscaping or climate dependent architecture, they are branching out from civil engineering. Be it The statue of liberty designed by Frederick Bartholdi, gifted by france to USA, or the statue of Thiruvalluvar at Kanyakumari or even the statue of Buddha in Husain sagar lake in our own Hyderabad are structures built out in the water, overcoming great challenges and show great innovation. Civil engineering has evolved from a basic science to a highly modernized one over the same fundamentals. Today it has come to structures like BurjKhalifa, the 828meter skyscraper in Dubai. The future of civil engineering is really bright, with so many more engineers coming up
bridges.
Genesis of roads
From the earliest times, one of the strongest indicators of a society's level of development has been its road system. A road built in Egypt by the Pharaoh Cheops around 2500 BC is believed to be the earliest paved road on record-a construction road 1,000 yards long and 60 feet wide that led to the site of the Great Pyramid. The Silk Route stretched 8,000 miles from China, across Asia, and then through Spain to the Atlantic Ocean. The modern world classifies roads into Metalled: The route of the roadway is dug down several feet,large stones were placed and compacted, followed by successive layers of smaller stones, until the road surface was composed of small stones compacted into a hard, durable surface. Asphalt: Asphalt also known as bitumen is a sticky, black and highly viscous liquid or semisolid that is present in most crude petroleums and in some natural deposits. Concrete:Concrete surfaces (specifically, Portland cement concrete) are created using a concrete mix of Portland cement, gravel, sand and water. Composite surfaces: composite surfaces
.
combine Portland cement concrete and asphalt. They are usually used to rehabilitate existing roadways rather than in new construction. Bituminous Surface Treatment (BST) is used mainly on low-traffic roads, but also as a sealing coat to rejuvenate an asphalt concrete
pavement. It generally consists of aggregate spread over a sprayed-on asphalt emulsion or cut-back asphalt cement.
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Op ptical chara r acter recognitio on
Abbrevia ated as OCR, optic cal charact ter recognit tion is trans slation of sc canned imag ges of hand dwritten, typ pewritten or printed te ext into com mputer‐text. You all mig be famil iar ght with this iPhone a app in whic the iPho ne ch s wn converts a menu card in an unknow language e into English language. Seems mirac cle to you, but it isn’t. It’s one of th he applicatio ons of OCR. In simplest language, an n OCR extrac cts t mage and rec cognizes it. A An the text from an im image o alphabet ‘A’ is just a random pix of xel distribut tion for a computer. So, our work is to make a computer u understand the pattern of t stribution of various alph habets, so th hat pixel dis on with th help of these pixel distributio he ls s it will recog gnize various s alphabets. patterns So let’s move on to the technical side of it. o There ar re three mai in modules o of OCR‐ ‐> pr re‐ processi ing, training and testing‐predictio g on. Pre‐proc cessing includes processes liike threshol lding, dilut ting, erodin ng, croppin ng, resizing and segmen ntation of lines, words, a nd oceed, let me tell you t he m letters. Before I pro required soft wares Microsoft Visual Stud d s. dio 08 or 10 0 and open C CV 2.1 or 2.2. Open CV allso known a open sou as urce computer vision is a s library o of programm ming function ns for real tim me compute vision. Include the op CV libra er pen ary in visual studio. As I said an alphab is just a random pix d, bet xel distribut tion for an alphabet. To make a n compute understand this pixe distributio er el on, we need to train th computer with as ma ny d he pictures of an alphabet as possible a nd s rm he transfor it into th database which can be stored in n the compu uter’s memory. More is t he training of the comp puter more precise will be dictions of th he alphabets. the pred
B asic Algor rithm:
Th first ste in the generation of the he ep da atabase is im mage digitizat tion. Im mage digitization – Imag ge can be tr reated as a 2‐D matrix o of pixel, with h each pixel having a alue of 0 or 1 (for a blac ck and white e image). va Le et’s make our own m atrix of the image. o e As ssign a value zero to th matrix element it he
it’ ’s a white pixel; else ass ign it a value e of one. Th his would cre eate the bina ary image m matrix I as sh hown in the figure. Yo can resize your ou or riginal image into 45x45 using a function in e 5, op CV, and then digitiize it. This will help pen d yo to get all the binary image matrix I in a ou y similar size. Tr raining proc cess include s the gener ration of th he database that is to sto ore in the computer’s br rain, the pix distributiion pattern of every xel alphabet. First step is t collect as many a to pi ictures of an alphabet say ‘A’ as possible (a around 100).Make digit binary matrix of tal m ea ach image of f alphabet ‘A A’. Next step is to replace alll the zeros in each I t with (‐1). The resulting matrix is ca w e alled the in nput matrix M M.
JOURN NAL CLUB 1 13 BPHC dd t Now ad matrices ‘M’ of all the images of alphabet A, and sto this final matrix wk is a ore s th (K= K character). txt file. ( esting and pr rediction‐> Te Sa the digita binary m atrix is Ik . You will ay al ha ave to calculate 3 values shown below, Here’s a an example‐ There are three diff ferent image of alphab es bet e ut ‘S’. The binary inpu matrices ‘I’ for each of them are shown, added result is also shown. . Observe the region where the pixels shou e, ns e uld not exis have neg st gative value and tho es, ose where p pixels should exist have p positive value es. Carry o out the sim milar proced dure of ea ach alphabet and store in a commo txt file. Th on his base, which the comput ter txt file is your datab will utilize to recogn nize an alpha abet. The ma ain t t advantage of a database in txt file is that it ce, doesn’t occupy a large spac and it is e, i.e. databa ase needs to o be generat ed reusable only once. Now, as our datab s base has be en we dy ter made, w are read to use it for charact recognit tion. Take an input image with a characte er. Always re emember to use a cropp ed image, in which th alphabet touches t he he t edges of the image: the first st is same as tep database tion proc cess‐ Ima ge format digitization. ally u will Fina your get cognition ‘rec quo otient Q’ You u will ha 26 weight matrice in your database ave es d co orresponding g to each alp phabet. Calculate the va alues of Q, for the input binary mat f t trix, with ea ach weight m matrix. Great ter is the value of Q, more confidence does the m e system, be estow on th input pa he attern (inpu image) as being ut a similar to a pattern al ready know to it wn weight matri The alph ix). habet corres sponding (w to the weight matrix with maximum value of o t h Q, is the predicted charact Q ter. ed We have no compute the pro W ow ocess of da atabase gen neration an d prediction of an im mage. As told earlier gre eater the tra aining of th he databas se, more accurate are the a pr redictions of the algo o orithm. That means t gr reater are the number of images used to t cr reate the database of an alphabet, better is n th performa he ance of the software. So, if we S ta ake 500 images of ea ach alphabe while et, After cropping
JOURN NAL CLUB 1 14 BPHC ion of the d database we will have to e generati deal wit 500x26 images. This process w th s will consume lots of m memory, wh hich we can n’t e afford to o use in a mobile where storage spa ace is limited d. So, to so olve this prob blem we hav ve a process‐ ‐ Runtime template generation‐ Open C e e CV stores images in the form of pointers. S So, instead of using ima ‘A’ ages of an alphabet say ‘ to crea ate a datab base, we created the c ese templates at runtim me, using a p program. Op en CV has a pre‐def s fined function which is capable of writing a text on a given bla nk in image, i a given font. So, we used a bla nk image and using the abov mention ed ve n ont function put a single alphabet in a given fo on the blank image, thus ge enerating o our y, ifferent fon nts template. Similarly using di e in the func ction, we gen nerated all t he available templates of an alphabet, and used them f for tabase gene eration of that alphabe t et. the dat We car rried out a similar pr a rocess for all alphabets. So, the m memory usa at runtim age me nly gets reduced to the amount used to store on 1 blank image. But there is a limitation to it. f ble There are limited numbers of fonts availab function we are using. So, we can e n’t in the f generate more than 30‐36 tem e mplates of an alphabet using above meth hod. Conto our on detectio is another technique which can be used to solve this pr roblem. As I told you earlier there are three modulles d r t of OCR software. Training and testin R . ng‐ predictio on module have been alrea dy es b discusse in the Basic algorith ed hm. Now le et’s discuss the pre‐pro ocessing phase. The fir rst step is t thresholding an image. First convert a g F t coloured image into a grey sca image, a nd d o ale then car out proc rry cess of thresholding. Eve ery pixel in a coloured i image has a value from 0‐ hresholding converts all the pixe a els 255. Th above a certain valu ue called thre eshold (usua ally
12 to 1, res to zero. T 28) st Thus we get a black t an nd white ima age. N Next step is s segmentatio n, extraction n of lines an letters. Use the simple lo nd ogic for ex xtraction, count the num mber of black k pixels in ea row and store the value in a vector ach e (d dynamic arra in C++). This is your vertical ay r pr rojection. Th row whe a line be he ere egins will ha some black pixels, b the row above it ave but would be bla w ank with no black pix xels. This o means that if two success ive values in m n a vector ar zero or some value> re s >zero, indicates the be eginning of line. Similar if two su rly, uccessive va alues in a ve ector, are so ome value>z zero and ze ero, marks th he end of line e. Fo letter se or egmentation , you can make a ounting number of ho orizontal pr rojection (co bl lack pixels in n each colum mn) on each line, and us se the same logic to mar g and the rk beginning en of the letter, as for t line. Cro nd the opping is ve ery essential feature of OCR after e R, th hresholding the image should be cropped, be efore segm menting it t. Similarly after y ex xtraction of letter, crop the image before p e fo orming weigh ht matrix. Th he process w we have see n for the OC CR is one of the most basic metho f ods. Deeper you dig in the rabb nto bits’ holes m more interes sting you will find image w e processing g. So, try it yo ourself.
JOURNAL CLUB 15 BPHC
HISTAMINE
By‐Shruti Singh Kakan
The human body is made up of numerous organic present in the nasal cavity, increased vascular substances, proteins, lipids, nucleic acids to name a permeability causes fluids to escape from capillaries few. Millions of chemical reactions involving these into the tissues. This causes running nose, watery organic substances is what makes a body living. One eyes, sneezing and nasal congestion. Another of the many classes of substances found in our body allergic symptom caused by histamine is is proteins. These are polymeric macromolecules of constriction of smooth muscles. In response to an amino acids, each one unique from the other. They allergen, histamine with other chemicals brings about this contraction. Often the smooth muscles perform multiple functions that are indispensible to run this natural machine. One of the 1000000 or so around the air passage (tracheae) constrict causing suffocation and in extreme cases, there can be a proteins found in our body is Histamine, and like complete closure of the trachea which is obviously a every other protein,has a unique role to play. It is life threatening situation. This is what called so because it is made up happens in asthma attacks. Hence, this of histidine(an amino acid) allergic response of histamine is one of residues.Histamine acts as a Histamine acts as a the major causes of asthma. neurotransmitter (chemicals neurotransmitter (chemicals that transmit signals from one that transmit signals from The symptoms of some allergic brain cell to another) and is one brain cell to another) reactions are quite similar to those of involved in many allergic and is involved in many bacterial or viral infections. Hence, the reactions and immune allergic reactions and true cause of the problem can be responses. immune responses difficult to diagnose sometimes. The right diagnosis is very important As a neurotransmitter it is because only the right medication can released from neuron cells relieve the person from the allergy. This means that called histaminergics. The actions of these cells modulate sleep. They fire histamines most when in cases of nasal congestion due to allergens, anti‐ body needs wakefulness, fired more slowly when bacterial or anti‐viral drugs will not be effective. body is relaxing or feeling tired. And during sleep, Only anti‐allergic drugs will be able to cure the the firing is completely stopped. In short histamine symptoms.Histamine related allergies are treated is what keeps the body awake. It also protects the by a class of drugs called antihistamines. They have been in use since 1930. These drugs vary in their body against susceptibility to convulsions (involuntary contraction of muscles), lesions (part of mechanism of action. Some antihistamines effect a tissue that is damaged) and stress. result by neutralising histamine so that it does not cause inflammation. Other antihistamines inhibit An allergy is a disorder or defect of the immune the inflammation causing chemicals released by system that is caused by substances (allergens) that leukocytes with the help of histamine. Some are otherwise harmless. Histamine plays a major common antihistamines are Claritin and Allegra. role in bringing about these defective responses. It Allergic reaction is a response of the immune is released when allergens come in contact with the system that should not happen in the regular antigen bounded white blood cells (mast cells to be course of action because substances that cause precise) which causes several allergic symptoms. allergies should not be dangerous. Living with One of them is an inflammatory response. On allergic symptoms is annoying and potentially release, Histamine increases the permeability of the dangerous. Antihistamines are the drugs that nearby blood vessels and gaps are created between provide us relief and comfort from these faults of the cells of vascular tissue causing blood fluids to our immune system. Our immune system is seep out into the regions outside cells. Thus, a swelling or an inflammation is produced. The intended to protect us whereas in this case its release of histamine also triggers nearby leukocytes actions are contrary. But after all, nothing can be to secrete chemicals that aid in inflammation.When perfect and so there are loopholes in our dazzlingly allergens come in contact with the mast cells complex and seemingly foolproof immune system.
JOURNAL CLUB 16 BPHC
TRUTH behind EUREKA moments
By – Sagarika
Ronak sat in his room flipping through the newspaper. His horoscope read: you’ll come across new opportunities and this will help combat your boredom of daily life. “Ya sure” thought Ronak. His last few days had comprised of nothing but studying till late nights and sitting through endless there petrified with their jaws dropped. Then the figure began to talk “Well, I hope this goes well. I am Susan and I don’t belong to your time as a matter of fact nowhere close to it, I m from 2111.” There was a long pause and the atmosphere in the room grew tense. Shubham jumped out of the bed and sprinted towards the door but Ronak held him back. Shubham turned towards him and saw a mischievous glint in his eyes which said “this could be fun”. By now Shubham was entirely confused to defy or even comprehend anything so he obediently sat down. Susan began to talk again, “This went better than usual. At times people try to throw me out”. “What do you mean? Do you time travel very often?” asked Ronak. “Yes as a matter of fact I do. I belong to a secret society named Illuminous. It has comprised of humongous scientists from all times. It dates back to the time of Archimedes. Our job is to safe guard our future by modifying our past, or better making sure the past is exactly as we know it. It all started when DrSamule had made the time machine in 2040. Ever since we have been going back in time whenever it is appropriate and let the concerned person know as to what theory in physics, chemistry and a lot more things he has to work on or propose‐” “You are bluffing, how that is even possible? “Intervened Ronak. Susan smiled and began to talk again, “Don’t you notice several theories
Do you time travel very often?” asked Ronak.
examinations. He saw no reason as to why today should be any different. His best friend Shubham barged into his room with a heavy book in his hand. “I am tired of mugging up these endless formulas. Can’t there be just one formula to make our lives simple?”. With a thud he sat on Ronak’s bed. All of a sudden there was a flash of light. Ronak and Shubham were taken aback. The two of them hardly got any time to register what is happening, when a human figure began to substantiate /emerge out of thin air. It was a girl, somewhere in her twenties who seemed a lot like any other girl they had ever met till date. However there was something peculiarly different about her .Her head seemed abnormally large with a receded hairline. Her fingers were long and she was dressed in an entirely white suit. Shubham and Ronak sat
JOURNAL CLUB 17 BPHC have come up and formulas proposed without a plausible explanation and we accept it to be the work of genius or we come to the conclusion that these great men are very intuitive. Later however their work is proved by others. Take David Rutherford for instance he discovered nitrogen by removing all other components of air known at that time. How could he be so sure that the 78% air left with him was purely nitrogen. Even Laplace seemed to have come up with his length contraction formula intuitively with no proof”. “So who is the real scientist?” asked Shubham “Even I am in no position to answer that question .But you could give these scientists some credit because they are the ones who were open minded enough to believe in time travel. Ever since Archimedes’ time Illuminous has been running and recruiting people. They have been maintaining record of exactly what time and place they met people from future for our reference. You are soon to be approached” “If I am guessing right we are soon to come up with some new theory”, was Ronak’s swift reply. “You guessed it right noble prize winner Dr. Ronak Kaushik .”.Susan continued,” You are to work with light and prisms and make invisibility a reality. These are your papers”. She dug into her coat pocket and removed an envelope which she handed over to Ronak.”As for you Shubham you are to come up with one formula which can explain almost all laws of electromagnetism‐“. “Hold on”, Shubham seemed to be tensed “what if you had never approached me would our future be any different”, ”Very different in fact” , Susan tried to explain, “By the theory of parallel universe every time I modify the past a parallel universe is created. One universe is deprived of knowledge but the other is not. It is in our interest to enlighten our past for a better future.” “Well in that case I want to stick to this universe. “was Shubhams firm reply. “I will work on this formula myself”. “I knew it you would do that. You are very famous in our society as you are the first scientist to reject such an offer. I guess it’s time for me to leave.” “Just one last question” said Ronak “Why is it you are a bit‐ Different”. Well it’s because of evolution. Long hours of working on the computer have increased the length of our fingers. Our brain has been working a lot so it grew in size and our heating mechanisms are only improving so hair is of no use now to us. Now I should get going. All the best and good day”. There was a pop sound and the room went silent. Hundred years down the line Susan appeared out of thin air inside a cubical box attached to heavy machinery. As she walked out of the box she spoke to her colleague, “Mission 57
accomplished. Exactly at the date and time Dr.Ronak had written in his journal”.
JOURN NAL CLUB 1 19 BPHC
EVO OLUTIO ON OF MATH HEMAT TICS
Maths is the langu uage or we can say th e he coding of the fabri ic with whic ch nature h has created our world. Simple observatio ns d show u like plan us netary motion, distan ce betwee stars to genetics and genet en o tic principl les. Mathe ematics covers eve ery sphere of life from m shopping f for grocery to sharing chocola ates. Talk king abo out evolutio on, the scie ence of mat thematics h has evolved with hum d mans. Early man neede ed to coun nt the numb ber of animals he owne ed and cou unt the hou urs for his routine. As h he evolved d, his needs s grew and mathematiics grew a and that's how abacu was bor us rn. Abacus was the first comp puting devi ce born in China for simple calcu ulations.
By‐ Hima anshu Rai
number of lines as the number of animals th have. Then they would leav them hey T ve fo grazing and will cro out each of the or a oss lin nes as the a animals cam me back. So o abacus was a major developme w ent for calcu ulations. Th was the early pha his e ase, then ca ame the ne ext phase w with the dis scovery of z zero and Arabic nume erals. It ma mathem ade matics a co ommon lan nguage for trade all over the o world. It is in w n this phase e that math hematics be egan to evolve as a s science rath than her ju ust being a m medium for r trade.
Py ythagoras w was one of t the pioneer rs of this ag ge. He made a detailed d study of t triangles an nd came up p with the f famous Pyt thagoras th heorem wh hich laid th foundat he tion for fu urther study y of trigono ometry.
man used lin ne and cross method f for Early m calculat tions like th hey would draw as
JOURN NAL CLUB 2 20 BPHC
Descart tes develo oped the coordina ate geomet and op try pened a di imension f for time an motion studies. Time went o nd on and w had Euclidean geometry to we g Newton nian Calculu The nex phase ca us. xt an be calle the mod ed dern phase of which w we all are a a part. It is in this phase that peop ple started discov vering mathematiics nstance, pro obability w was everywhere, for in develop by a guy who wa a gamble ped as er. We go to se ot ee the principles of p mathem matics be eing imple emented in cloning, , genetics e etc. Nash's equilibrium found application in m marketing and his famous game theo g ory s arket beha aviour quiite predicts the ma efficiently .So it went on and we ha ad ting device like Nap es pier's bone es, comput Pascalin ne and finally the com mputer. So w we saw how mathematics evolve and the ed ere are s still man ny avenu ues whe ere mathem matics can find applic cation. It ju ust needs our work on it.Mathematics is defined d as the phi ilosophy of thinking. S So, how we e think abou ut the problem at hand d
is the mo ost import tant aspect. For in nstance,1+1 is the f 1 first proble one em st tudies as a student, to o a kinderga arten kid th solution is simple; 2,but if we talk he ; ab bout grow wnups like us ,how many w an nswers can we give? D Depending o on what we think, we can sa based on the w w ay orientation o of the two v vectors the e answer ca lie betw an ween ‐2 an +2, we can say nd numerically it is 2 or we can say 1+1 r s eq quals 10,no we hav opened Boolean ow ve al lgebra.
So mathema o atics is vast and will continue t c to o evolve exponentially y both in th he world an in the mind of an individual. It is an nd m ex xponential growth lik the gro ke owth of ch harge in a capacit tor. So let the l mathematician in you e m evolve and we will discover yet many und disclosed mysteries m of f the world.
JOURN NAL CLUB 2 21 BPHC
hemistry y of Lov ve
!! It is the fee eling that has no ends. Ma any hers and artis sts have tried their level be est ure and gaug its depth. So why shou ge uld ers and scientists stay beh hind? They ha ave ed experiments and tried t to find what iit’s ng in love. So folks….. settle down as I a am u our describe you what happens inside yo en you are looking at your r soul mate (a and that your wor rld is now com mplete!!) ing of love is divided into 3 stages ea s o ach by a cocktail of different hormones a and s. The stages are: es‐ : This stage is driven by sex hormone osterone and oestrogen (b both in men a and men). action: This is the stage of being lov ve‐ ck when yo our world appears to be a ming around o one centre point. This stage e is racterized by t the following 3 chemicals: Adrenaline: T This chemical activates yo l our stress respo onse, increas your blo se ood levels of adrenalin and co ortisol. This h has ming affect that when y t you such a charm unexpectedly bump into your new lov y ve, you start to sweat, your heart races a h and goes dry. your mouth g
ARSHDEE EP SINGH
this novel relatio n onship. In short this chemical stimulate ‘desire and reward’ es d ggering an int tense rush of pleasure. by trig It has the same e effect on the brain as o s taking cocaine. So yes, hippies are the est s tural high happie people as they get nat of love e and artificiall high of drugs s. c) Seroto onin: It is one of lov ve's most import tant chemica that may explain als y Why your lover ke y eeps popping in your g though hts, when you u have fallen in love.
) nt ment is the bond that b 3) Attachmen : Attachm keeps coup ples together long enough for them to have an raise childr and there are two nd e ren hormones responsible fo or this: a) Oxytoc cin :Also known as cuddling hormo one this ho ormone deep pens the feeling gs of attachme ent and make es couples feel much closer to one another.. r cin reason for th strong he Oxytoc is also r bond b between moth her and baby.
b) Vasopressin: This h hormone also helps to o ain long term relationship. mainta Vasopressin works with kidney t to control thirst. Its role was unknow until wn ists looked at prairie vole Prairie t es. scienti voles a are descendan nts of rat fam mily whose relatio onship and m mating pattern match with humans. Whe male prairie voles h en were given a drug that suppre g esses the with their effect of vasopressiin, the bond w er deteriorate ed immediately. partne So these are e the chemica als that mingle e inside our body when you fall in lo ove, but love is really a yo co omplex phe enomenon .Apart from these m ch hemicals, there are vario ous other fac ctors that co ontribute for love to blosso So try th om. he drug of lo ove‐Safe, free and awesome e!!
Dopamine : Effect of th chemical is his d ed ess characterized by increase energy, le need for slee ep or food, focused attentiion and exquisite e delight in sm mallest details s of
JOURNAL CLUB 22 BPHC
Cloud Computing
Cloud computing – where data and applications exist as clouds on web server‐ is a developing phase in IT. Few say, updated version of utility computing: basically virtual servers, which reduce the need for physical machines, are available over the internet. Others say, anything you consume outside the firewall is in the cloud including conventional outsourcing. IT needs to increase or add capabilities on the fly without investing in new infrastructure, training new personnel or licensing new softwares. Cloud computing encompasses any substitution‐ based or pay‐per‐use service that in real time over internet, extends IT’s existing capabilities. In a cloud computing system, there is a significant workload shift. Local computers no longer need to do all heavy lifting when it comes to running applications. The networks of computers that form the cloud handle it instead. Hardware and software needs decrease on user’s side. The only thing user’s computer needs to be able to run is the cloud computing system’s interface which is as simple as a web‐browser. Therefore, an improvement in storage, processing power or technology enables innovations that were not possible before high speed internet. For example,it made productions like You tube possible. And it makes these opportunities unusually accessible. It is different from traditional outsourcing; unless one negotiated a long‐term
HIMSHI
contact. One can often switch far easier than charging IT outsourcers. When cloud computing is adopted by an organization, it is thrown into the pool with rest of the online world in many ways, whether this is the employment of social tools, SaaS, non‐ relational databases or a host of other technologies in new cloud. In the end, this serves many companies acquire the skills to complete effectively in 21st century by the awareness of greater internet and Web‐2.0. Globalization and recessionary economy has raised IT standards. Cloud computing has a vast potential in terms of retail methodologies that can minimize the operational cost by using the 3rd party based IT capabilities as a service. It will not only increase the ROI but also will help in lowering the total cost of ownership. We’ll see some very well‐ funded new cloud start‐ups that lack the baggage of existing leaders and bring a new sensibility (radical openness and transparency, new technology). Business users will be able to adopt many future cloud computing solutions entirely using self‐service with less and less involvement of IT department. With fewer technical and economic barriers to create new ways to improve the business, cloud computing will promote new budding entrepreneurs to use tools to create solutions anyway. It will play a crucial role in revolutionizing IT sector.
JOURN NAL CLUB 2 23 BPHC
By-Sag garika T.
Every day we hav a zillion thoughts, b ve but
did you ever wond what wo u der ould happen if n this thin nking ability of ours is hindered an y nd you a are lost i in a stat te of su ubne conscio ousness. Alz zheimer's is exactly on s such neuro ological disorde er. Alzheim mer’s is a f form of dem mentia. Wh hat makes i such a w it worrisome disease is th d hat anyone could be afflicted with it becau w use knows what would happen 2 20 who k years down the line .Th cause of he Alzheim mer’s is un nknown so is its cur o re. Althoug the cou gh urse of Al lzheimer’s is unique for every individual ,there a are many common s symptoms .The earlie . est symptom are of ms ften mista aken to b be age-rela ated manife estations of stress .Th f he symptom include confusion , irritability , ms e n y aggress sion and l long term memory-los m ss. A num mber of non–invasi ive lifesty yle habits have bee suggest en ted for th the prevent tion of Alzheimer r’s .Ment tal stimulat tion , exer rcise and a balanc ed diet a are ways of managing it . It w was diagnos sed over 100 years ago, yet it remains an area of high unmet medic s a cal need w with a he eavy burde of car en re. Alzheimer’s is now a socially relevant A is ssue .It is now a burning to s opic of di iscussion, also seen in recent mov like a n vies The Rise of the Plan o anet of Ap pes and te elevision sho like Gr ows rey’s Anatomy. There is another suc disease called a ch e Parkinson’s disease whi is a disorder of ich th central nervous syst he n tem .It also can be o at ttributed to known genetic factors. t Google’s co G o-founder, S Sergey Brin has a n ge called LRRK2 in every cel of his ene n ll bo ody .It is a mutatio that ha been on as as ssociated with higher r w rate of Park kinson’s. Fr rom when he has know this harsh truth, h wn he has turned over a new leaf in his life by e d w gi iving more importance to his exer e rcise and di He has also cont iet. s tributed $50 0million do ollars tow wards Park kinson’s research. r I would like to conclu e ude by say ying that le control a few thin and let’ let go et’s ngs ’s of some. We should control thin like ff W ngs ou diet and exercise a ur d and let go off our fe ears. Clinica research and drug di al iscovery will find resu over a p w ults period of tim me.
Until then, U ,
LET’S BE POSIT L TIVE….!!
OUR TEAM R
Photo Credit t :Ankush Ch houdhary
From L Left to Rig ght: Top Ro ow: Sanjan na Shah,A Apeksha Singhaneri,Garv Mali ik,Himans hu Rai Middle Row : Sumeda Acharya, A e A Aishwarya KVN,Sah a haja Thalla , K. So am oumya, Jatin C Chuglani, A Arshdeep Singh, Jatin Adlakha a Bottom Row: Vaidehi Murarka, Kriti Po m oddar, Aishwarya Reddy, Jasleen J Sachde eva, N. S SaiChaitan nya, Ramit Mehta, Vaishna Palak Jha, Sripriya , avi, k Anusha B. , Prat thima
Club Members
Existing members
Reporters: 1. Kedar Apsingekar(Reporting Team Head) 2. Jatin Adlakha 3. Prakhyat 4. Jatin Chuglani 5. Adharsh Raghavan 6. Soumya Ganguly 7. Srishti Rani 8. Veda Samhita 9. Kanak Choudhry 10. T.Sagarika 11. Palak Jha 12. Sumedha Acharya 13. Himshi Bachchas 14. Sheetal Modi 15. K.Sowmya 16. Spandana 17. Apeksha 18. Jasleen Sachdeva 19. Shubhankar Editors & Designers: 1. Arshdeep Singh Takkar (Joint Secretary) 2. Ankush Choudhary (Editing & Designing Team Head) 3. G. Karthik 4. Kriti Poddar 5. Vaidehi Murarka 6. B.Anusha 7. Sripriya P. 8. Ramit Mehta 9. Sanjana Shah 10. Prathima 11. Aishwarya Reddy 12. Himanshu Rai 13. Aishwarya KVN 14. Garv Malik 15. Sravan Kumar 16. Sri Vaishnavi V. 17. Chaitanya 18. Sahaja