Search results for: Smita Chaudhary

Authors: Sadaf Nawaz, Adnan Ahmed Khan, Asad Mahmood, Chaudhary Farrukh Javed

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Classically, an energy detector is implemented in time domain (TD). However, frequency domain (FD) based energy detector has demonstrated an improved performance. This paper presents a comparison between the two approaches as to analyze their pros and cons. A detailed performance analysis of the classical TD energy-detector and the periodogram based detector is performed. Exact and approximate mathematical expressions for probability of false alarm (Pf) and probability of detection (Pd) are derived for both approaches. The derived expressions naturally lead to an analytical as well as intuitive reasoning for the improved performance of (Pf) and (Pd) in different scenarios. Our analysis suggests the dependence improvement on buffer sizes. Pf is improved in FD, whereas Pd is enhanced in TD based energy detectors. Finally, Monte Carlo simulations results demonstrate the analysis reached by the derived expressions.

Keywords: cognitive radio, energy detector, periodogram, spectrum sensing

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Authors: Smita Singh

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Through the constructivist perspective, this paper explores the transformation of India’s nuclear identity from an irresponsible nuclear weapon power to a ‘de-facto nuclear power’ in the emerging international nuclear order From a nuclear abstainer to a bystander and finally as a ‘de facto nuclear weapon state’, India has put forth its case as a unique and exceptional nuclear power as opposed to Iran, Iraq and North Korea with similar nuclear ambitions, who have been snubbed as ‘rogue states’ by the international community. This paper investigates the reasons behind international community’s gradual acceptance of India’s nuclear weapons capabilities and nuclear identity after the Indo-U.S. Nuclear Deal. In this paper, the central concept of analysis is the inter-subjective nature of identity in the nuclear arena. India’s nuclear behaviour has been discursively constituted by India through evolving images of the ‘self’ and the ‘other.’ India’s sudden heightened global status is not solely the consequence of its 1998 nuclear tests but a calibrated projection as a responsible stakeholder in other spheres such as economic potential, market prospects, democratic credentials and so on. By examining India’s nuclear discourse this paper contends that India has used its material and discursive power in presenting a n striking image as a responsible nuclear weapon power (though not yet a legal nuclear weapon state as per the NPT). By historicising India’s nuclear trajectory through an inter-subjective analysis of identities, this paper moves a step ahead in providing a theoretical interpretation of state actions and nuclear identity construction.

Keywords: nuclear identity, India, constructivism, international stakeholder

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Authors: Tripta Dixit, Smita Sahu, William Selvamurthy, Sadhana Srivastava

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India is battling with the issues of accessibility, affordability and availability of quality health to the masses. Indian medical heritage which dated back to 3000 BC unveils the rich knowledge pool which has undergone a perceptible change over years, such as eradication of many communicable diseases, increasing individual awareness of quality health and import driven medical device market etc. Despite a slew of initiatives the holistic slogan of ‘health for all’ remains elusive and a concern for the nation. The 21st-century projects a myriad of challenges like cultural diversity, large population, demographic dividend and geographical segmentation leading to varied needs of people as per their regional conditions of climate, disease prevalence, nutrition and sanitation. But these challenges are also opportunities for the development of indigenous, low cost and accessible technologies to tackle them. This requires reinforcing the potential of indigenous technologies in coordination with prevailing health issues in various regions of country. This paper emphasis on the strategy for exploring the indigenous technologies with entrusted up-scaling to meet the diverse needs of the people. This review proposes to adopt technology transfer as a strategy to establish a vibrant ecosystem for identifying and up-scaling the indigenous medical technologies with diligent hand-holding for public health.

Keywords: health, indigenous, medical technology, technology transfer

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Authors: Smita Singh

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The paper develops a critical framework to the hegemonic discourses resorted to by the dominant powers in the global security architecture. Within this framework, security is viewed as a discourse through which identities and threats are represented and produced to legitimize the security concerns of few at the cost of others. International security have long been driven and dominated by power relations. Since the end of the Cold War, the global transformations have triggered contestations to the idea of security at both theoretical and practical level. These widening and deepening of the concept of security have challenged the existing power hierarchies at the theoretical level but not altered the substance and actors defining it. When discourses are introduced into security studies, several critical questions erupt: how has power shaped security policies of the globe through language? How does one understand the meanings and impact of those discourses? Who decides the agenda, rules, players and outliers of the security? Language as a symbolic system and form of power is fluid and not fixed. Over the years the dominant Western powers, led by the United States of America have employed various discursive practices such as humanitarian intervention, responsibility to protect, non proliferation, human rights, war on terror and so on to reorient the constitution of identities and interests and hence the policies that need to be adopted for its actualization. These power relations are illustrated in this paper through the narratives used in the nonproliferation regime. The hierarchical security dynamics is a manifestation of the global power relations driven by many factors including discourses.

Keywords: hegemonic discourse, global security, non-proliferation regime, power politics

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Authors: Chaudhary Archana, Dhingra Poshika

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The architecture of the world is at a crossroads with the advent of new technology. The issues of energy efficiency and global warming are getting important with the coming times. New technologies are making their mark. For the architecture profession, nanotechnology will greatly impact construction materials and their properties. Nanotechnology, the understanding and control of matter at a scale of one to one hundred billions of a meter, is bringing incredible changes to the materials and processes of buildings. Materials will behave in many different ways as we are able to more precisely control their properties at the nanoscale. It is precisely called the next industrial revolution. We live in an age where scientific progress continues to transform human lifestyle. This is evermore true when it comes to the progress being made in the field of nanotechnology. This science stands to change and advance the practice of design in a multitude of ways – where architectural progress is being made at the molecular level. The nanotechnology has already been adopted in various buildings across the world. What an impact it shall have on the futuristic architecture in Chandigarh, India shall be discussed in the paper. But before we hurtle off toward a nano-utopia, we need to step back and ask ourselves whether this is a direction in which we really want to go.

Keywords: building materials, energy efficiency, nanotechnology, sustainability

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Authors: Sunil Chaudhary, Rajendra Bahadur Thapa, Eleni Berki, Marko Helenius

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The increasing number of Internet and mobile phone users, and essentially those, who use these electronic media to perform online transactions makes Nepal lucrative for phishing attacks. It is one of the reasons behind escalating phishing attacks in the country. Therefore, in this paper we examine various phishing attempts and real scenarios in Nepal to determine the seriousness of the problem. We also want to find out how prepared are the Internet and mobile phone users and how well-equipped are the private sector and government authorities responsible to handle cybercrime in the country. We considered five areas of research study, i.e., legal measures, technical and procedural measures, organizational structure, capacity building and international cooperation. These constitute important factors in cyber security and are recommended by the Global Cyber security Agenda (GCA). On the basis of our findings, we provide essential suggestions to make anti-phishing measures more appropriate to Nepalese State and society.

Keywords: internet banking, mobile banking, e-commerce, phishing, anti-phishing, Nepal

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Authors: Muhammad Tariq A. Chaudhary

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The tremendous loss of life that resulted in the aftermath of recent earthquakes in developing countries is mostly due to the collapse of non-engineered and semi-engineered building structures. Such structures are used as houses, schools, primary healthcare centres and government offices. These building are classified structurally into two categories viz. non-engineered and semi-engineered. Non-engineered structures include: adobe, Unreinforced Masonry (URM) and wood buildings. Semi-engineered buildings are mostly low-rise (up to 3 story) light concrete frame structures or masonry bearing walls with reinforced concrete slab. This paper presents an overview of the typical damage observed in non-engineered structures and their most likely causes in the past earthquakes with specific emphasis on the performance of such structures in the 2005 Kashmir earthquake. It is demonstrated that seismic performance of these structures can be improved from life-safety viewpoint by adopting simple low-cost modifications to the existing construction practices. Incorporation of some of these practices in the reconstruction efforts after the 2005 Kashmir earthquake are examined in the last section for mitigating seismic risk hazard.

Keywords: Kashmir earthquake, non-engineered buildings, seismic hazard, structural details, structural strengthening

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Authors: Shipra Shukla, Gaurav Chaudhary, S. K. Tewari, Mahesh Pal, D. K. Upreti

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Cassia tora L. is widely distributed in tropical Asian countries, commonly known as sickle pod. Various parts of the plant are reported for their medicinal value due to presence of anthraquinones, phenolic compounds, emodin, β-sitosterol, and chrysophanol. Therefore a sensitive analytical procedure using UHPLC-ESI-MS/MS was developed and validated for simultaneous quantification of five phenolic compounds in leaf, stem and root extracts of Cassia tora. Rapid chromatographic separation of compounds was achieved on Acquity UHPLC BEH C18 column (50 mm×2.1 mm id, 1.7µm) column in 2.5 min. Quantification was carried out using negative electrospray ionization in multiple-reaction monitoring mode. The method was validated as per ICH guidelines and showed good linearity (r2 ≥ 0.9985) over the concentration range of 0.5-200 ng/mL. The intra- and inter-day precisions and accuracy were within RSDs ≤ 1.93% and ≤ 1.90%, respectively. The developed method was applied to investigate variation of five phenolic compounds in the three geographical collections. Results indicated significant variation among analyzed samples collected from different locations in India.

Keywords: Cassia tora, phenolic compounds, quantification, UHPLC-ESI-MS/MS

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Authors: Reshu Chaudhary, R. S. Sengar

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To increase the agricultural production Indian farmer needs to aware of the latest technology i.e. precision farming to maximize the crop yield and minimize the input (fertilizer, pesticide etc.) through monitoring the environmental factors. Biotechnology and information technology have provided lots of opportunities for the development of agriculture. But, still we have to do much more for increasing our agricultural production in order to achieve the target growth of agriculture to secure food, to eliminate poverty and improve living style, to enhance agricultural exports and national income and to improve quality of agricultural products. Nanotechnology can be a great element to satisfy these requirements and to boost the multi-dimensional development of agriculture in order to fulfill the dream of Indian farmers. Nanotechnology is the most rapidly growing area of science and technology with its application in physical science, chemical science, life science, material science and earth science. Nanotechnology is a part of any nation’s future. Research in nanotechnology has extremely high potential to benefit society through application in agricultural sciences. Nanotechnology has greater potential to bring revolution in the agricultural sector.

Keywords: agriculture, biotechnology, crop yield, nanotechnology

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Authors: Tripta Dixit, Smita Sahu, William Selvamurthy, Sadhana Srivastava

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The translation of healthcare technologies is an expensive, complex affair, current healthcare challenges in Asian countries and their efforts to meet Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), necessitates continuous technology advancement to save countless lives, improve the quality of life and for socio-economic development. India’s consistently improving global innovation index (57) demonstrates its innovation potential, but access to health care is asymmetric and lacks priority in India. Therefore, there is utmost need of a robust translation system for point-of-care (POC) solutions, inexpensive, low-maintenance, reliable, and easy-to-use diagnostic technologies. Few cases of POC technologies viz. Elisa based diagnostic kits for regional viral disease, a device for detection of cancerous lesions were studied to understand the process and challenges involved in their translation. Accordingly, the entire translation ecosystem was summarized proposing a nexus of various actors such as technology developer, technology transferor technology receiver, funding entities, government/regulatory bodies and their effect on translation of different medical technologies. This study highlights the role and concerns pertaining to these actors for POC such as unsystematic and unvalidated research roadmap, low profit preposition, unfocused approach of up-scaling, low market acceptability and multiple window regulatory framework, etc. This provides an opportunity to devise solutions to overcome problem areas in translation path.

Keywords: healthcare technologies, point-of-care solutions, public health, translation

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Authors: Madhu Patial, Dharam Pal, Jagdish Kumar, H. K. Chaudhary

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Doubled haploid breeding serves as a useful technique in wheat improvement by providing instant and complete homozygosity. Of the various techniques employed for haploid production chromosome elimination has a large scale practical application in wheat improvement. Barclay (1975) initiated the technique in wheat by crossing wheat variety Chinese spring with Hordeum bulbosum, but due to presence of the dominant crossability inhibitor genes Kr7 and Kr2 in many wheat varieties, the technique was however genotypic specific. The discovery of wheat X maize system of haploid production being genotype non-specific is quite successful but still maize needs to be grown in greenhouse to coincide flowering with wheat crop. Recently, wheat X Imperate cylindrica has been identified as a new chromosome mediated DH approach for efficient haploid induction. An experiment to use this technique in wheat was set up by crossing six F1s and two three way F1s with Imperata cylindrica. The data was recorded for the three component traits of haploid induction viz., seed formation, embryo formation and regeneration frequency. Variation among wheat F1s was observed and higher frequency for all the traits were recorded in cross HD 2997/2*FL-8/DONSK-POLL and KLE/BER/2*FL-8/DONSK-POLL.

Keywords: wheat, haploid, imperata cylindrica, chromosome elimination technique

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Authors: Chaudhary Muhammad Aqdus Ilyas, Matthias Rehm, Kamal Nasrollahi, Thomas B. Moeslund

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This paper presents the investigation of data collection procedures, associated with robots when placed with traumatic brain injured (TBI) patients for rehabilitation purposes through facial expression and mood analysis. Rehabilitation after TBI is very crucial due to nature of injury and variation in recovery time. It is advantageous to analyze these emotional signals in a contactless manner, due to the non-supportive behavior of patients, limited muscle movements and increase in negative emotional expressions. This work aims at the development of framework where robots can recognize TBI emotions through facial expressions to perform rehabilitation tasks by physical, cognitive or interactive activities. The result of these studies shows that with customized data collection strategies, proposed framework identify facial and emotional expressions more accurately that can be utilized in enhancing recovery treatment and social interaction in robotic context.

Keywords: computer vision, convolution neural network- long short term memory network (CNN-LSTM), facial expression and mood recognition, multimodal (RGB-thermal) analysis, rehabilitation, robots, traumatic brain injured patients

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Authors: Deepak Chaudhary

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The main objective of the study is to explore the genesis and achievements of the Madhesh movement. Madhesh Movement is a social movement that brought massive political changes and contributed a lot to the nation-building process in the modern history of Nepal. This movement erupted in January 2007 in the Tarai/Madhesh region following the promulgation of the Interim Constitution that left the incorporation of federalism and proportional representation in the Constitution. The most excluded community in Nepal- Madheshi community, seemed to have angered against state-sponsored discrimination and exclusion that have been occurred for centuries. Since Madheshis were treated as non-Nepali, though the history of Nepal’s Tarai/Madhesh has been ancient. In the beginning, this movement was against Maoist, but later, it went against the state's prejudices and discriminations. It extended across the Tarai/Madhesh region of Nepal for a month. The movement was spontaneous to a large extent. A researcher himself is a witness to the movement. Key Informant Interviews with participants, including politicians, journalists, and activists, have mainly carried out for the study. This movement ensured Madheshi identity first. Secondly, the number of electoral constituencies was increased as it reached 120 in Tarai/Madhesh while it was 80 only. As a result, Madheshi representation in the Constitution Assembly reached 35 %, while it was 20% only. The main thing that this movement played a major role in ensuring the federalism as a political system in Nepal.

Keywords: dignity, exclusion, federalism, inclusion, Madhesh movement, nation-building

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Authors: Kriti Singh, Saurabh Tripathi, Pankaj Chaudhary, Abid Ali Ansari, Seema Nigam

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Introduction: The introduction of android and iOS has changed our lives dramatically over the past few years. The new generation is more dependent on their mobile phones for carrying out their daily pursuits. Smartphones have revolutionized our lives. The cutdown in rates of mobile network services has been affecting us drastically. A new type of dependence is seen among the people for Smartphones. A cross-sectional study was conducted to determine the state of addiction among the group of medical students, along with its association with sleep hygiene and anxiety. Material and Method: Study included 50 individuals in the age group of 18-35 years. Smartphone Addiction Scale Short Version, Sleep Hygiene Index, and Perceived Stress Scales were used conducting the study. Results: Mean age of 22 years (12%). The majority of subjects were 20-year olds (15 out of 50), the majority were males with few females. Mean Smartphone addiction score 39 (very severe), Mean Sleep Hygiene Index score 26.76 (moderate maladaptive hygiene and Mean Perceived Stress score of 19.92 (moderate stress). Conclusion: In majority students were found to have a very severe Smartphone Addiction with moderate sleep hygiene and a moderate level of perceived stress. The Smartphone was being used was for surfing social media applications.

Keywords: addiction perceived stress, sleep hygiene index, smartphone

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Authors: Muhammad Tariq A. Chaudhary

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Soil-structure interaction (SSI) in bridges under seismic excitation is a complex phenomenon which involves coupling between the non-linear behavior of bridge pier columns and SSI in the soil-foundation part. It is a common practice in the study of SSI to model the bridge piers as linear elastic while treating the soil and foundation with a non-linear or an equivalent linear modeling approach. Consequently, the contribution of soil and foundation to the SSI phenomenon is disproportionately highlighted. The present study considered non-linear behavior of bridge piers in FEM model of a 4-span, pile-supported bridge that was designed for five different soil conditions in a moderate seismic zone. The FEM model of the bridge system was subjected to a suite of 21 actual ground motions representative of three levels of earthquake hazard (i.e. Design Basis Earthquake, Functional Evaluation Earthquake and Maximum Considered Earthquake). Results of the FEM analysis were used to delineate the influence of pier column non-linearity and SSI on critical design parameters of the bridge system. It was found that pier column non-linearity influenced the bridge lateral displacement and base shear more than SSI for majority of the analysis cases for the class of bridge investigated in the study.

Keywords: bridge, FEM model, reinforced concrete pier, pile foundation, seismic loading, soil-structure interaction

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Authors: Deepak Chaudhary

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This paper attempts to analyze the leadership phenomena, its challenges, and prospects in Nepal. Literature is reviewed rigorously to explain the theoretical and empirical aspects of leadership. Besides, In-depth interviews with three national leaders were interviewed to know the challenges regarding polity and leadership. Similarly, a survey among 434 households in Katahari rural municipality and Godavari municipality was carried out to assess people’s perceptions of leaders. Leadership is normally pronounced in the wake of the success of the country’s development or crisis management. Real leaders are those who can avert any crisis successfully and proceed with the country in a progressive and normal way. Leadership’s working style can create a favorable institutional environment in the public institution that can lead development programs successfully. However, the literature suggests that Nepal is still struggling towards modernization in comparison to some East-Asian countries whose socio-economic situation was more similar in the 1950s. Similarly, Nepal has been facing several social movements after the 1990s, which resulted in a new political system, though the performance of the public institution has been a question and it goes to the leadership’s role. The poor tackling of natural disasters like earthquakes flooding, and pandemics raises the questions of the leadership’s role to some extent. The government of Nepal's record of developmental expenditures is dismal. However, leadership has been the central part of people, community, and country, and hence, the study of leadership phenomena in relation to a country’s well-being is intrinsic.

Keywords: challenges, leadership, institutionalization, effectiveness

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Authors: Garima Chaudhary

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The gender of an individual in forensic DNA analysis is normally accessed by using the STR multiplexes with the incorporated gender based marker amelogenin or in other words by presence or absence of Y-Chromosome, but it may not be true in all the cases. We hereby report an interesting case of a phenotypic female carrying a male karyotype (46XY). In the alleged murder case, the deceased female with XY genotype was noticed. The expression of 18 Y-linked genes was studied to measure the extent of expression. Expression at 4 loci was observed that might have caused the misinterpretation in forensic casework. This clinical situation of the deceased in this case was diagnosed as testicular feminization syndrome, which characterize a female phenotype with a male karyotype (46, XY). Most of these cases have SRY (testis determining factor). The genetic explanation of this phenomenon is not very clear. Here, we are discussing the impact of such situations of genetic discrepancy in forensic interpretation of results. In the presented murder case of a phenotypic female, sexual assault was also suspected. For confirmation vaginal swabs and micro slides were also sent to us for DNA examination. After DNA analysis using STR markers, Y-chromosome was detected in the samples which supporting the suspicion of sexual assault before murder. When the reference blood sample of the deceased was analyzed, it was found to be case of testicular feminization syndrome. Interesting inferences were made from the results obtained.

Keywords: DNA profiling, forensic case study, Y chromosome, females

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Authors: Vasishtha Avadhani Upadrasta, Mradul Kumar Daga, Smita Kaushik

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Background: Caffeine consumption has skyrocketed in the recent decades as we try to match pace with the machines. Studies have been conducted on animals and a few on humans, mainly on the acute effects of high-dose caffeine intake. Almost none have been conducted on the chronic effects of caffeine consumption. This study involved Medical professionals as case subjects, who consumed caffeine daily. Methods: This study, over a period of 3 months, involved 96 volunteers (chosen randomly w.r.t. gender and field in medical fraternity), including people who drank >500mg of caffeine a day to people who consumed none. People with any co-morbidities at all were excluded straight away. Two sets of blood samples were drawn and assessed. Three groups were created, Group 1 (>200mg caffeine/day) and Group 2 (15-200 mg caffeine/day) and Group 3 (<200mg Caffeine/day). Results: The result of the study found that exposure to caffeine at doses >200mg/day for more than 6 months leads to a significant difference in circulating free T3 [(-0.96 pmol/L ± 0.07) = (-18.5%), CI 95%, p = .000024] and Cortisol [(-123 nmol/L ± 9.8) = (-46.8%), CI 95%, p = .00029] hormones but shows an insignificant effect on circulating TSH [0.4 mIU/L, CI 95%, p=.37] and ACTH [(-3.2 pg/ml ± 0.3), CI 95%, p = .53) hormones, which stay within normal physiological ranges, irrespective of the daily dose of consumption. Results also highlight that women are more susceptible to decrement in fT3 than men (Relative Risk =1.58, ANOVA F-static = 7.15, p = 0.0105). Conclusions: Caffeine consumption in excess of 200mg/day, for more than or equal to 6 months, causes significant derangement in basal fT3 and Cortisol hormone levels, without affecting the TSH and ACTH (regulatory) hormone levels, indicating disturbance of action at the peripheral and/or cellular levels, possibly via the Paraventricular Nucleus –Leptin-CAR-Adenosine interactions. Women are more susceptible to decrement in fT3 levels than men (at same dose of caffeine).

Keywords: ACTH, adrenals, caffeine, cortisol, thyroid, thyroxin, TSH

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Authors: Roop Kiran, Muhammad Shoaib Zafar, Nazish Idrees Chaudhary

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Depression is known to be the second most frequently occurring comorbid mental illness among patients suffering from chronic physical conditions. Around the world, depression is associated with chronic liver diseases as one of the dominant symptoms. This evidence brings attention to the research about various predictors for short life expectancy and poor quality of life in patients suffering from comorbid depression and CLD. Following are the objectives of this study i) measure the occurrence rate of comorbid depression among patients with CLD and ii) find the frequency of risk factors between patients with and without depression comorbid with CLD. This is a quantitative study with a cross-sectional design. The research data was collected through a measure called Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) with a demographic Performa from 100 patients who visited the Department of Psychiatry for consultation at Mayo Hospital Lahore with a diagnosed CLD from the last four years. There were (42%) patients with CLD who had comorbid depression. Among depressed and non-depressed patients, significant differences were found (p<0.05) for unemployment in 25 (59.5%) males and 20 (34.5%) female patients, for co-morbidity in 25 (59.5%) males and 18 (31.0%) female patients, for illiteracy in 18 (42.9%) males and 13 (22.4%) female patients, for the history of CLD for more than the last 2years in 41 (97.6%) males and 47 (81.0%) female patients, for severity of CLD in 26 (61.9%) males and 20 (34.5%) female patients. This concludes that depression frequently occurs among patients with CLD. This study recommends considerable attention to plan preventative measures in the future and develop such intervention protocols that consider the management of risk factors that significantly influence comorbid depression with CLD.

Keywords: psychiatry, comorbid, health, quality of life

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Authors: Fatima Chaudhary, Rehan Ul Haq

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Spatial and anthropogenic factors influencing nest-site selection in birds need to be identified for effective conservative practices. Environmental attributes such as food availability, predator density, previous reproductive success, etc., provide information regarding the site's quality. An artificial nest box experiment was carried out to evaluate the effect of various factors on nest-site selection, as it is hard to assess the natural cavities. The experiment was conducted whereby half of the boxes were filled with old nest material. Artificial nest boxes created with different materials and different sizes and colors were installed at different heights. A total of 14 out of 60 nest boxes were occupied and four of them faced predation. The birds explored a total of 32 out of 60 nests, whereas anthropogenic factors destroyed 25 out of 60 nests. Birds chose empty nest boxes at higher rates however, there was no obvious avoidance of sites having high ectoparasites load due to old nest material. It is also possible that the preference towards the artificial nest boxes may differ from year to year because of several climatic factors and the age of old nest material affecting the parasite's survival. These variables may fluctuate from one season to another. Considering these factors, nest-site selection experiments concerning the effectiveness of artificial nest boxes should be carried out over several successive seasons. This topic may stimulate further studies, which could lead to a fully understanding the birds' evolutionary ecology. Precise information on these factors influencing nest-site selection can be essential from an economic point of view as well.

Keywords: artificial nesting, nest box, old nest material, birds

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Authors: Ayush Shrivastava, Arpit Chaudhary, Devang Kulshreshtha, Vibhav Prakash Singh, Rajeev Srivastava

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Early diagnosis of breast cancer can improve the survival rate by detecting cancer at an early stage. Breast region segmentation is an essential step in the analysis of digital mammograms. Accurate image segmentation leads to better detection of cancer. It aims at separating out Region of Interest (ROI) from rest of the image. The procedure begins with removal of labels, annotations and tags from the mammographic image using morphological opening method. Pectoral Muscle Sliding Window Algorithm (PMSWA) is used for removal of pectoral muscle from mammograms which is necessary as the intensity values of pectoral muscles are similar to that of ROI which makes it difficult to separate out. After removing the pectoral muscle, Dispersed Region Growing Algorithm (DRGA) is used for segmentation of mammogram which disperses seeds in different regions instead of a single bright region. To demonstrate the validity of our segmentation method, 322 mammographic images from Mammographic Image Analysis Society (MIAS) database are used. The dataset contains medio-lateral oblique (MLO) view of mammograms. Experimental results on MIAS dataset show the effectiveness of our proposed method.

Keywords: CAD, dispersed region growing algorithm (DRGA), image segmentation, mammography, pectoral muscle sliding window algorithm (PMSWA)

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Authors: RAM PAL SINGH, VIKASH CHAUDHARY, MONIKA VERMA

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In this paper, we proposed the implementation of optimization based Extreme Learning Machine (ELM) for watermarking of B-channel of color image in discrete wavelet transform (DWT) domain. ELM, a regularization algorithm, works based on generalized single-hidden-layer feed-forward neural networks (SLFNs). However, hidden layer parameters, generally called feature mapping in context of ELM need not to be tuned every time. This paper shows the embedding and extraction processes of watermark with the help of ELM and results are compared with already used machine learning models for watermarking.Here, a cover image is divide into suitable numbers of non-overlapping blocks of required size and DWT is applied to each block to be transformed in low frequency sub-band domain. Basically, ELM gives a unified leaning platform with a feature mapping, that is, mapping between hidden layer and output layer of SLFNs, is tried for watermark embedding and extraction purpose in a cover image. Although ELM has widespread application right from binary classification, multiclass classification to regression and function estimation etc. Unlike SVM based algorithm which achieve suboptimal solution with high computational complexity, ELM can provide better generalization performance results with very small complexity. Efficacy of optimization method based ELM algorithm is measured by using quantitative and qualitative parameters on a watermarked image even though image is subjected to different types of geometrical and conventional attacks.

Keywords: BER, DWT, extreme leaning machine (ELM), PSNR

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Authors: Asish Subedi, Krishna Pokharel, Birendra Prasad Sah, Pashupati Chaudhary

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Objectives: To evaluate an association between preoperative Nepali pain catastrophizing scale (N-PCS) scores and postoperative pain intensity and total opioid consumption. Methods: In this prospective cohort study we enrolled 135 patients with an American Society of Anaesthesiologists physical status I or II, aged between 18 and 65 years, and scheduled for surgery for lower-extremity fracture under spinal anaesthesia. Maximum postoperative pain reported during the 24 h was classified into two groups, no-mild pain group (Numeric rating scale [NRS] scores 1 to 3) and a moderate-severe pain group (NRS 4-10). The Spearman correlation coefficient was used to compare the association between the baseline N-PCS scores and outcome variables, i.e., the maximum NRS pain score and the total tramadol consumption within the first 24 h after surgery. Logistic regression models were used to identify the predictors for the intensity of postoperative pain. Results: As four patients violated the protocol, the data of 131 patients were analysed. Mean N-PCS scores reported by the moderate-severe pain group was 27.39 ±9.50 compared to 18.64 ±10 mean N-PCS scores by the no-mild pain group (p<0.001). Preoperative PCS scores correlated positively with postoperative pain intensity (r =0.39, [95% CI 0.23-0.52], p<0.001) and total tramadol consumption (r =0.32, [95% CI 0.16-0.47], p<0.001). An increase in catastrophizing scores was associated with postoperative moderate-severe pain (odds ratio, 1.08 [95% confidence interval, 1.02-1.15], p=0.006) after adjusting for gender, ethnicity and preoperative anxiety. Conclusion: Patients who reported higher pain catastrophizing preoperatively were at increased risk of experiencing moderate-severe postoperative pain.

Keywords: nepali, pain catastrophizing, postoperative pain, trauma

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Authors: S. Zith Dey Babu, S. Kour, S. Verma, C. Verma, V. Pathania, A. Agrawal, V. Chaudhary, A. Manoj Puthur, R. Goyal, A. Pal, T. Danti Dey, A. Kumar, K. Wadhwa, O. Ved

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Background: Skin cancer is now is the buzzing button in the field of medical science. The cyst's pandemic is drastically calibrating the body and well-being of the global village. Methods: The extracted image of the skin tumor cannot be used in one way for diagnosis. The stored image contains anarchies like the center. This approach will locate the forepart of an extracted appearance of skin. Partitioning image models has been presented to sort out the disturbance in the picture. Results: After completing partitioning, feature extraction has been formed by using genetic algorithm and finally, classification can be performed between the trained and test data to evaluate a large scale of an image that helps the doctors for the right prediction. To bring the improvisation of the existing system, we have set our objectives with an analysis. The efficiency of the natural selection process and the enriching histogram is essential in that respect. To reduce the false-positive rate or output, GA is performed with its accuracy. Conclusions: The objective of this task is to bring improvisation of effectiveness. GA is accomplishing its task with perfection to bring down the invalid-positive rate or outcome. The paper's mergeable portion conflicts with the composition of deep learning and medical image processing, which provides superior accuracy. Proportional types of handling create the reusability without any errors.

Keywords: computer-aided system, detection, image segmentation, morphology

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Authors: Sukhila Krishnan, Smita Mohanty, Sanjay K. Nayak

Abstract:

Polylactide (PLA) and thermoplastic starch (TPS) are the most promising bio-based materials presently available on the market. Polylactic acid is one of the versatile biodegradable polyester showing wide range of applications in various fields and starch is a biopolymer which is renewable, cheap as well as extensively available. The usual increase in the cost of petroleum-based commodities in the next decades opens bright future for these materials. Their biodegradability and compostability was an added advantage in applications that are difficult to recycle. Currently, thermoplastic starch (TPS) has been used as a substitute for synthetic plastic in several commercial products. But, TPS shows some limitations mainly due to its brittle and hydrophilic nature, which has to be resolved to widen its application.The objective of the work we report here was to initiate chemical modifications on TPS and to build up a process to control its chemical structure using a solution process which can reduce its water sensitive properties and then blended it with PLA to improve compatibility between PLA and TPS. The method involves in cleavage of starch amylose and amylopectin chain backbone to plasticize with glycerol and water in batch mixer and then the prepared TPS was reacted in solution with diisocyanates i.e, 4,4'-Methylenediphenyl Diisocyanate (MDI).This diisocyanate was used before with great success for the chemical modification of TPS surface. The method utilized here will form an urethane-linkages between reactive isocyanate groups (–NCO) and hydroxyl groups (-OH) of starch as well as of glycerol. New polymer synthesised shows a reduced crystallinity, less hydrophilic and enhanced compatibility with other polymers. The TPS was prepared by Haake Rheomix 600 batch mixer with roller rotors operating at 50 rpm. The produced material is then refluxed for 5hrs with MDI in toluene with constant stirring. Finally, the modified TPS was melt blended with PLA in different compositions. Blends obtained shows an improved mechanical properties. These materials produced are characterized by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectra (FTIR), DSC, X-Ray diffraction and mechanical tests.

Keywords: polylactic acid, thermoplastic starch, Methylenediphenyl Diisocyanate, Polylactide (PLA)

Procedia PDF Downloads 355

Authors: L. M. Al-Harbi, A. M. Shokry, J. S. M. Sabir, A. Chaudhary, J. Manikandan, K. S. Saini

Abstract:

Breast cancer is the second most common cause of cancer death worldwide and is the most common malignancy among Saudi females. During breast carcinogenesis, a wide-array of cytogenetic changes involving deletions, or amplification, or translocations, of part or whole of chromosome regions have been observed. Because of the limitations of various earlier technologies, newer tools are developed to scan for changes at the genomic level. Recently, Array Comparative Genomic Hybridization (aCGH) technique has been applied for detecting segmental genomic alterations at molecular level. In this study, aCGH was performed on twenty breast cancer tumors and their matching non-tumor (normal) counterparts using the Agilent 2x400K. Several regions were identified to be either amplified or deleted in a tumor-specific manner. Most frequent alterations were amplification of chromosome 1q, chromosome 8q, 20q, and deletions at 16q were also detected. The amplification of genetic events at 1q and 8q were further validated using FISH analysis using probes targeting 1q25 and 8q (MYC gene). The copy number changes at these loci can potentially cause a significant change in the tumor behavior, as deletions in the E-Cadherin (CDH1)-tumor suppressor gene as well as amplification of the oncogenes-Aurora Kinase A. (AURKA) and MYC could make these tumors highly metastatic. This study validates the use of aCGH in Saudi breast cancer patients and sets the foundations necessary for performing larger cohort studies searching for ethnicity-specific biomarkers and gene copy number variations.

Keywords: breast cancer, molecular biology, ecology, environment

Procedia PDF Downloads 347

Authors: Rupesh K. Chaudhary, Narinder P. Jain, Rajesh Mahajan, Rajat Manchanda

Abstract:

Introduction: Delirium is a complex, multifactorial neuropsychiatric syndrome comprising a broad range of cognitive and neurobehavioral symptoms. In critically ill patients, it may develop secondary to multiple predisposing factors. Although it can be transient and irreversible but if left untreated may lead to long term cognitive dysfunction. Early identification and assessment of risk factors usually help in appropriate management of delirium which in turn leads to decreased hospital stay, cost of therapy and mortality. Aim and Objective: Aim of the present study was to estimate the incidence of delirium using a validated scale in medical ICU patients and to determine the associated risk factors and outcomes. Material and Method: A prospective study in an 18-bed medical-intensive care unit (ICU) was undertaken. A total of 357 consecutive patients admitted to ICU for more than 24 hours were assessed. These patients were screened with the help of Confusion Assessment Method for Intensive Care Unit -CAM-ICU, Richmond Agitation and Sedation Scale, Screening Checklist for delirium and APACHE II. Appropiate statistical analysis was done to evaluate the risk factors influencing mortality in delirium. Results: Delirium occurred in 54.6% of 194 patients. Risk of delirium was independently associated with a history of hypertension, diabetes but not with severity of illness APACHE II score. Delirium was linked to longer ICU stay 13.08 ± 9.6 ver 7.07 ± 4.98 days, higher ICU mortality (35.8% % vs. 17.0%). Conclusion: Our study concluded that delirium poses a great risk factor in the outcome of the patient and carries high mortality, so a timely intervention helps in addressing these issues.

Keywords: delirium, risk factors, outcome, intervention

Procedia PDF Downloads 134

Authors: K. Pankaj, R. K. Chaudhary, B. P. Mishra, S. Kochar

Abstract:

Introduction: Consultation-Liaison psychiatry is a branch of psychiatry that includes clinical service, teaching and research. A consultation-liaison psychiatrist plays a role in having an expert opinion and linking the patients to other medical professionals and the patient’s bio-psycho-social aspects that may be leading to his/her symptoms. Consultation-Liaison psychiatry has been recognised as 'The guardian of the holistic approach to the patient', underlining its pre-eminent role in the management of patients who are admitted in a tertiary care hospital. Aims/ Objectives: The aim of the study was to analyse the utilization of psychiatric services and reasons for referrals in a tertiary care hospital. Materials and Methods: The study was done in a tertiary care hospital. The study included all the cases referred from different Inpatient wards to the psychiatry department for consultation. The study was conducted on 300 patients over a 3 month period. International classification of diseases 10 was used to diagnose the referred cases. Results: The majority of the referral was from the Medical Intensive care unit (22%) followed by general medical wards (18.66%). Majority of the referral was taken for altered sensorium (24.66%), followed by low mood or unexplained medical symptoms (21%). Majority of the referrals had a diagnosis of alcohol withdrawal syndrome (21%) as per International classification of diseases criteria, followed by unipolar Depression and Anxiety disorder (~ 14%), followed by Schizophrenia (5%) and Polysubstance abuse (2.6%). Conclusions: Our study concludes the importance of utilization of consultation-liaison psychiatric services. Also, the study signifies the need for sensitization of our colleagues regarding psychiatric sign and symptoms from time to time and seek psychiatric consult timely to decrease morbidity.

Keywords: consultation-liaison, psychiatry, referral, tertiary care hospital

Procedia PDF Downloads 118

Authors: Ganesh K. Maurya, Reema Chaudhary, Neha Pandey, Hari S. Misra

Abstract:

PprA, a pleiotropic protein participating in radioresistance, has been reported for its roles in DNA replication initiation, genome segregation, cell division and DNA repair in polyextremophile Deinococcus radiodurans. Interestingly, expression of deinococcal PprA in E. coli suppresses its growth by reducing the number of colony forming units and provides better resistance against γ-radiation than control. We employed different biochemical and cell biology studies using PprA and its DNA binding/polymerization mutants (K133E & W183R) in E. coli. Cells expressing wild type PprA or its K133E mutant showed reduction in the amount of genomic DNA as well as chromosome copy number in comparison to W183R mutant of PprA and control cells, which suggests the role of PprA protein in regulation of DNA replication initiation in E. coli. Further, E. coli cells expressing PprA or its mutants exhibited different impact on cell morphology than control. Expression of PprA or K133E mutant displayed a significant increase in cell length upto 5 folds while W183R mutant showed cell length similar to uninduced control cells. We checked the interaction of deinococcal PprA and its mutants with E. coli DnaA using Bacterial two-hybrid system and co-immunoprecipitation. We observed a functional interaction of EcDnaA with PprA and K133E mutant but not with W183R mutant of PprA. Further, PprA or K133E mutant has suppressed the ATPase activity of EcDnaA but W183R mutant of PprA failed to do so. These observations suggested that PprA protein regulates DNA replication initiation and cell morphology of surrogate E. coli.

Keywords: DNA replication, radioresistance, protein-protein interaction, cell morphology, ATPase activity

Procedia PDF Downloads 33

Authors: Ganesh K. Maurya, Reema Chaudhary, Neha Pandey, Hari S. Misra

Abstract:

PprA, a pleiotropic protein participating in radioresistance, has been reported for its roles in DNA replication initiation, genome segregation, cell division and DNA repair in polyextremophile Deinococcus radiodurans. Interestingly, expression of deinococcal PprA in E. coli suppresses its growth by reducing the number of colony forming units and provide better resistance against γ-radiation than control. We employed different biochemical and cell biology studies using PprA and its DNA binding/polymerization mutants (K133E & W183R) in E. coli. Cells expressing wild type PprA or its K133E mutant showed reduction in the amount of genomic DNA as well as chromosome copy number in comparison to W183R mutant of PprA and control cells, which suggests the role of PprA protein in regulation of DNA replication initiation in E. coli. Further, E. coli cells expressing PprA or its mutants exhibited different impact on cell morphology than control. Expression of PprA or K133E mutant displayed a significant increase in cell length upto 5 folds while W183R mutant showed cell length similar to uninduced control cells. We checked the interaction of deinococcal PprA and its mutants with E. coli DnaA using Bacterial two-hybrid system and co-immunoprecipitation. We observed a functional interaction of EcDnaA with PprA and K133E mutant but not with W183R mutant of PprA. Further, PprA or K133E mutant has suppressed the ATPase activity of EcDnaA but W183R mutant of PprA failed to do so. These observations suggested that PprA protein regulates DNA replication initiation and cell morphology of surrogate E. coli.

Keywords: DNA replication, radioresistance, protein-protein interaction, cell morphology, ATPase activity

Procedia PDF Downloads 33