On April 26, 2012 India's Radar Imaging Satellite (RISAT-1) will be launched from the spaceport at Sriharikota. The 4-stages of the PSLV-XL (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle – Extra Large) have been piled up.

• Essentially a remote-sensing satellite.
• ISRO’s first radar-imaging satellite.
• Weighs 1858 kg
• ISRO’s heaviest remote-sensing satellite.
• Heaviest satellite to be put in orbit by the PSLV.
• RISATs uses Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and the big benefit of RISATs is that it can take pictures of the earth at all times, through rain, sun, clouds, fog and cyclones.
• A powerful PSLV-XL is being used to put RISAT-1 in polar orbit at an altitude of 480 km. The satellite's propulsion system will then be used to take it to the final orbit at an altitude of 536 km.
• Life-span is 5years.

Why PSLV-XL?

RISAT-1 (1858 kg) is the heaviest satellite to be put in orbit by the PSLV. The rocket is called PSLV-XL (XL stands for “extra-large”) because it uses 6 more powerful strap-on motors than those used in the standard PSLV version. If the normal PSLV version's six strap-on motors each use nine tonnes of solid propellants, each of them in the PSLV-XL use 12 tonnes of propellants.

This is the third time the ISRO is using a PSLV-XL version with the first one used in October 2008 to put Chandrayaan-1 in orbit and second one used in July 2011 during the GSAT-12 launch.

What will be the applications of RISAT-1?

Pictures from RISAT-1 would be used to estimate the crop yield - especially to monitor paddy crop, assess its acreage and predict its health during the kharif season, when the sky is covered with clouds. The satellite's images can be used for disaster management during cyclones and floods, to assess how much area has been inundated and so on.

Why SAR is used and what are the benefits of SAR?

Contrasting the normal, optical remote-sensing satellites, the RISATs use Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR). This radar emits waves in a special way and collects part of the reflected radiation. From this reflected radiation, images of the earth can be built and these images have excellent clarity. Since it is difficult to carry a radar/antenna with a big aperture on a satellite, an SAR is used because it can synthesise (artificially create) a larger aperture electronically. Therefore it is called SAR.

Active Microwave Remote Sensing provided for cloud penetration and day-night imaging capability. These unique characteristics of C-band (5.35 GHz) SAR enables applications in agriculture, particularly paddy monitoring in kharif season and Management of natural disasters like flood and cyclone. Thus, SAR helps taking pictures of the earth at all times, through rain, sun, clouds, fog and cyclones.

Is this the first time ISRO is launching a RISAT?

NO. Although this is the first time the ISRO is launching its own RISAT, it has twice launched Israel's RISATs in orbit using the PSLVs from Sriharikota.

• In January 2008, the ISRO first put Israel's RISAT, “Tecsar”, in orbit.
• In April 2009, ISRO deployed Israel's ‘RISAT-2’ in orbit.

Both Tecsar and RISAT-2 are reconnaissance/surveillance satellites. Whilst Israel utilizes the images from ‘Tecsar’, India uses the images from ‘RISAT-2’ for surveillance.

‘Maternal Death Reviews — Implications for Quality of Care,' (MDR) a review of maternal deaths done by the Federation of Obstetric and Gynaecological Societies of India (FOGSI) in Jhunjhunu and Sikar districts of Rajasthan b/w November 2010 and March 2012 has revealed that 90% of these deaths had occurred during transit to a higher health centre. Thus, as per the study conducted on pregnancy-related deaths, a large number of women die during transit to a health facility or returning home after a delivery.

What is Maternal death?

Maternal death is defined as the death of a woman who dies from any cause related to or aggravated by pregnancy or its management (excluding accidental or incidental causes) during pregnancy or child birth or within 42 days of termination of pregnancy, irrespective of duration and site of the pregnancy.

What is Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR)?

Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) is the number of women who die from any cause related to or aggravated by pregnancy or its management (excluding accidental or incidental causes) during pregnancy and childbirth or within 42 days of termination of pregnancy, irrespective of the duration and site of the pregnancy, per 1,00,000  live births.

What is Maternal Death Review?

The Maternal Death Review (MDR) was rolled out in 2010 under the Reproductive and Child Health programme as an important strategy to improve the quality of obstetric care and to reduce maternal mortality and morbidity. It provides detailed information on various factors at the facility, district, community, regional and national levels that need to be addressed to reduce maternal deaths. Analysis of these deaths can identify the delays that contribute to maternal deaths at various levels and the information can be used to adopt measures to fill the gaps in service.

What is FBMDR (Facility Based Maternal Death Review) and CBMDR (Community Based Maternal Death Review)?

Maternal Death Review is contemplated to be implemented in two forms – Facility Based Maternal Death Review (FBMDR) and Community Based Maternal Death Review (CBMDR), which are defined as below:

• FBMDR is a process to investigate and identify causes, mainly clinical and systemic, which lead to maternal deaths in the health facilities; and to take appropriate corrective measures to prevent such deaths. Page 3 of 56
• CBMDR is a process in which deceased’s family members, relatives, neighbours or other informants and care providers are interviewed, through a technique called Verbal Autopsy, to elicit information for the purpose of identification of various factors – whether medical, socio-economic or systemic, which lead to maternal deaths; and thereby enabling the health system to take appropriate corrective measures at various levels to prevent such deaths.

What are the major causes of deaths in maternal deaths in India?

Major medical causes:

• Abortion
• Obstructed labour
• Haemorrhage
• Hypertensive disorders
• Sepsis

Other factors:

• Delay in initiating treatment
• Substandard care in hospital
• Lack of blood, equipment and drugs in hospitals coupled with lack of staff at health facility
• At the community level, absence of ante-natal check ups, delay in seeking care, referral, getting transport, mobilising funds and not reaching the appropriate facility in time are some other factors of maternal deaths, besides prevailing beliefs and customs that prevent women from going to a health facility at the appropriate time.

Experts believe such deaths could possibly have increased because of an emphasis on institutional deliveries and a lack of corresponding clinical infrastructure — the Janani Suraksha Yojana gives women financial incentives for delivering at a health facility, but are often taken to the health facility as a mere formality and often asked to go home immediately after delivery because of lack of infrastructure to deal with the heavy patient load, which puts the life of the child and mother at huge risk.

Scientists at Massachusetts General Hospital Centre for Human Genetic Research claim to have identified 33 genes linked to autism and related disorders. The discovery may pave the way for better treatments for the medical condition. They have distinguished the precise points where the DNA strands are disrupted and segments exchanged within or b/w chromosomes in such cases. Children with neuro developmental abnormalities, including autism are known to have abnormal chromosomes.

What is Autism?

Read on...

State-run telecom operator BSNL has increased the minimum broadband download speed to 512 kbps from 256 kbps for most of its existing wire-line customers at current tariffs. BSNL in its a statement held that wire-line broadband has over 64% market share with more than 8.5 million customers.

What is kbps?

Short for kilobits per second, a measure of data transfer speed. Modems, for example, are measured in Kbps.

Here Kilo = 1,000 or Kilo =1,024 ?

• Note that one kbps is 1,000 bits per second, whereas a KB (kilobyte) is 1,024 bytes.
• Where, “b” denotes a “bit” and “B” denotes a “Byte”.
• 1 Byte = 8 bits
• Data transfer rates are measured using the decimal meaning of ‘k’ (i.e. Kilo=1,000) whereas data storage is measured using the powers-of-2 (binary) meaning of ‘K or Ki’ (i.e. Kilo=1,024). So, k- stands for kilo, meaning 1,000, while Ki- stands for kilobinary ("kibi-"), meaning 1,024. The standardized binary prefixes such as Ki- were relatively recently introduced and still face low adoption. K- is often used to mean 1,024, especially in KB, the kilobyte.
• Technically, ‘kbps’ should be spelled with a lowercase ‘k’ to indicate that it is decimal but almost everyone spells it with a capital ‘K’.
• So, it should be technically, “kpbs” for data transfer and “KB or KiB” for storage.

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) rolled out the India's first Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) system in Haryana, substituting the existing cash payment method. The Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology-based toll collection plaza at Chandimandir near Punchkula in Haryana on Delhi-Chandigarh highway inaugurated on pilot basis, which will be replicated pan-India.
How these RFID Technology based ETCs will be useful?

The RFID technology based ETCs will help users to make payment without stopping at toll plazas and will thus reduce traffic congestion and commuting time.

How this technology works?

Using the passive RFID technology, the ETC consists of 2 components:

1) The Tag

2) The Reader

Working and checks for its misuse by vehicles…

Read on...