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ABSTRACTThis paper provides a theoretically informed empirical analysis of how Narendra Modi’s claim of ‘more governance, less government’ is felt in practice in India. It does so through a qualitative case study of the Smart Cities Mission and its implementation in four cities, applying multilevel governance theorizing. It finds centralizing dynamics at play through the use of ‘special purpose vehicles’, which bypass local-level institutions. The paper highlights how multilevel governance dynamics can be shaped through institutional design, a point overlooked in the literature. It also raises questions about the risks of such arrangements for long-term, democratic development.

Attention-based fusion and sophisticated multimodal feature extraction are the key components of many state-of-the-art RGB-D salient object detection (SOD) methods. In this regard, different forms of attention provide a variety of emphasis during fusion in an appropriate order, and extraction of consistent features at multiple levels from a variety of contexts can be leveraged to improve SOD performance further. To this end, this article proposes an RGB-D SOD technique that learns multilevel features considering a variety of local and global contexts along with long-range dependencies. The learning also involves consistency evaluation of saliency features from pixel to region level using cascaded capsule networks to facilitate faithful preservation of intricate salient object details. The fusion of multimodal features leading to the SOD is performed using cross-modal interactions through multiple attention forms ordered in a favorable way. Quantitative and qualitative experimental results using multiple standard datasets and measures demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed SOD framework in comparison to the state-of-the-art. An ablation study establishes the utility of various components of the proposed approach.

In this paper, we investigate the matrix analogues of the Ψ-beta and Ψ-gamma functions, as well as their properties. With the help of the Ψ-beta matrix function (BMF), we introduce the Ψ-Gauss hypergeometric matrix function (GHMF) and the Ψ-Kummer hypergeometric matrix function (KHMF) and derive certain properties for these matrix functions. Finally, the Ψ-Appell and the Ψ-Lauricella matrix functions are defined by applications of the Ψ-BMF, and their integral representations are also given.

A simple technique for gain enhancement of irregular hexagonal shaped ultra-wide band (UWB) slot antenna by inclusion of closely packed tessellated rhombic loop (TRL) based FSS is presented in this paper. The slot antenna is designed to cover entire UWB (3.1–10.6 GHz) frequency range with stable bi-directional radiation pattern. Also, it exhibits non-uniform boresight gain in zenith (θ= 0°) and nadir (θ= 180°) directions. The slot antenna is further loaded with TRL FSS at both slot and feed side separately to study distinct configurations of antenna integrated with FSS and evaluate the impact of the configurations of FSS on antenna performance. Later, an antenna and antenna loaded with TRL FSS prototype are developed for experimental validations. Through measurements it is found that the slot antenna covers entire UWB frequency band and provides a maximum of 4.31 dB gain in zenith direction while 4 dB gain in nadir direction. A gain enhancement of 2.44 dB in zenith and 3.8 dB in nadir directions are achieved when the slot antenna is integrated with TRL FSS along feed side and slot side separately. The measured results confirm the simulated results well.

A novel furil-based asymmetric Schiff base was prepared and characterized by analytical and spectroscopic methods. Schiff base could be produced by the amalgamation of furil with 1,2-diaminotoluene by employing conventional methods in variety of solvents. Synthesized compound was found to be asymmetric without possessing mirror plane and inversion center with all explained physical parameters possessed. Antibacterial activity was performed by in vitro test using an agar-well diffusion technique. This compound showed potent antibacterial activity compared to standard doxycycline drug. This compound could be a better drug candidate for antimicrobial infections though this area needs further persuasion and deliberation by the scientific community.

Interestingly, the interactions between members of a social group and across people of different social groups often happen through mutual understanding and reciprocate behaviour by means of gestures or eye contact. A controlled laboratory experiment is used to test the effect of interactions between members of a social group and across social groups on the walk dynamics of people. This study tries to discover the trade-off made by people between the need to communicate/interact between group members and the need to avoid collision with opposing pedestrians in a bidirectional flow. Thirty adults participated in a series of controlled experiments. The individuals and group characteristics were compared to study the effect of social groups. Spatial patterns/group formations, average walking speeds, and deviation from the desired direction of motion were assessed. The analysis shows that time to cross the platform is the least when triads adopt the river and inverted V group formations. In contrast, V and line-abreast group formations require slightly more time and are better suited to promote interactions between the group members. Irrespective of the initial formation adopted by participants, there is a higher tendency for the groups to shift to river formation or inverted V formations. This may be a result of the higher group speeds observed in the Inverted V and river formations, which accelerates their progress in the direction of motion. The understanding of walking dynamics of social groups from this study can enable better planning of pedestrian facilities and crowded events.

Perinatal iron deficiency may have deleterious consequences on fetal neural development. The present study was conducted to determine the effect of maternal iron deficiency anemia (IDA) on fetal hippocampal morphogenesis and production of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). Seventy term, singleton neonates born to mothers with IDA (hemoglobin <110g/L and serum ferritin <12?µg/L) formed the study group. Twenty gestational age-matched neonates born to healthy mothers without IDA (hemoglobin =110?g/L and serum ferritin >12?µg/L) served as controls. Maternal and fetal inflammatory conditions, infections and neonates with perinatal asphyxia were excluded. Cord blood BDNF concentrations were estimated by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Volumetric analysis of hippocampus (right, left and combined, corrected for total intracranial volume) was done by cranial magnetic resonance imaging on days 3–5 of life. In the study group, 24 mothers had mild (hemoglobin 100.0–109.0?g/L), 24 had moderate (hemoglobin 70.0–99.0?g/L), and 22 had severe (hemoglobin <70.0?g/L) anemia. Both hippocampal volumes and serum BDNF concentrations of neonates born to iron-deficient mothers were significantly reduced compared to controls. A progressive decline in hippocampal volumes and BDNF concentrations was observed with increasing severity of maternal anemia. Pearson correlation showed significant correlations among maternal and cord blood hemoglobin, iron indices, hippocampal volumes and BDNF concentrations. Maternal IDA adversely affects hippocampal morphogenesis and fetal production of BDNF. The degree of affection is proportional to the severity of maternal anemia.

Expert radiologists visually scan Chest X-Ray (CXR) images, sequentially fixating on anatomical structures to perform disease diagnosis. An automatic multilabel classifier of diseases in CXR images can benefit by incorporating aspects of the radiologists’ approach. Recorded visual scanpaths of radiologists on CXR images can be used for the said purpose. But, such scanpaths are not available for most CXR images, which creates a gap even for modern deep learning-based classifiers. This article proposes to mitigate this gap by generating effective artificial visual scanpaths using a visual scanpath prediction model for CXR images. Further, a multiclass multilabel classifier framework is proposed that uses a generated scanpath and visual image features to classify diseases in CXR images. While the scanpath predictor is based on a recurrent neural network, the multilabel classifier involves a novel iterative sequential model (ISM) with an attention module. We show that our scanpath predictor generates human-like visual scanpaths. We also demonstrate that the use of artificial visual scanpaths improves multiclass multilabel disease classification results on CXR images. The above observations are made from experiments involving around 0.2 million CXR images from two widely used datasets considering the multilabel classification of 14 pathological findings. Code link: (https://github.com/ashishverma03/SDC).

We obtain recursion formulas for the Srivastava’s general triple q-hypergeometric series. It is derived that these recursion relations can be represented in terms of q-derivatives of respective Srivastava’s general triple q-hypergeometric series. The peculiar outcome for three Srivastava’s triple q-hypergeometric series HA,q, HB,qand HC,qare also drawn from the recursion formulas for the Srivastava’s general triple q-hypergeometric series.

We obtain certain recursion formulas for fourteen three variable q-Lauricella series. It is derived that these recursion relations can be expressed in terms of q-derivatives of the respective q-Lauricella series.

Abstract: Endogenous Cushing’s syndrome is a relatively rare disease. Most cases being ACTH-dependent. ACTH-independent Cushing’s syndrome (AICS) is an even rarer condition (15%–20%). In more than 95% cases, the cause of AICS is unilateral adrenal enlargement caused by adenoma or carcinoma. Bilateral adrenal disease is caused by primary pigmented nodular adrenal dysplasia (PPNAD) and ACTH-independent macronodular hyperplasia (AIMAH). Only a few case reports of the latter condition exist in the radiology literature, PPNAD being the commoner of two as the cause for AICS.

Purpose: To evaluate the segmental variations in portal venous pulsed wave colour Doppler flow velocity in patients with moderate to severe non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in comparison with healthy controlsMaterials and Methods: In this prospective, observational, case–control study, the maximum velocity of all the segmental branches of portal vein were evaluated on colour Doppler in patients with moderate to severe non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, and the values were compared between three groups (1) Healthy controls (n= 30), (2) non-alcoholic fatty liver disease group, that is moderate to severe fatty liver without features of portal hypertension (n= 32) and (3) non-alcoholic steatohepatitis-portal hypertension group, that is those non-alcoholic fatty liver disease patients with features of portal hypertension (n= 13).Results: Compared to controls, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease group showed a lower velocity in all the eight segments of liver. The ratio of segment 2 to segment 7 peak portal vein maximum velocity was significantly higher in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (1.03 ± 0.21) compared to controls (0.90 ± 0.17) and even higher in non-alcoholic steatohepatitis-Portal hypertension group (1.83 ± 0.40) with pvalue of 0.003.Conclusion: Our study demonstrates the occurrence of flow redistribution occurring in cases of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease patients with the left lobe receiving higher portal venous flow. This flow redistribution was even more pronounced in a subset of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease patients who developed features of portal hypertension.

Objectives To describe the extent and imaging findings of COVID-associated rhino-orbital-cerebral mucormycosis on magnetic resonance imaging and to evaluate the value of MRI severity score in grading the extent of involvement.Methods Proven cases of ROCM with a history of concurrent or recently (<6 weeks) treated COVID-19 underwent MRI at the initial presentation. Findings were charted for each anatomical structure and the extent of involvement was scored for sinonasal, extra-sinus soft tissues, orbits, and brain. MR severity score was defined by summing up the individual scores of each compartment (sinonasal 20, orbital 20, soft tissue 10, and brain 10) and a total score out of 60 was assigned.Results A total of 47 patients were included in our study with variable involvement of sinonasal compartment (n= 43), extra-sinus soft tissue (n= 25), orbits (n= 23), and brain (n= 17). In the sinonasal compartment, T2, DWI, and post-contrast T1 were the most useful sequences. A significantly higher mean sinonasal score was associated with mortality (p= 0.007). In the orbits, a combination of STIR (orbital fat and extraconal muscles), DWI (optic nerves), and post-contrast images (superior ophthalmic vein) were the most accurate sequences. A higher mean orbital score was associated with vision loss (p= 0.001). Patients with uncontrolled diabetes had greater extent of cranial involvement.Conclusion A combination of magnetic resonance sequences is required to correctly evaluate the involvement of individual structures and thus to assign the correct MR scoring. The proposed MR severity score can effectively and objectively evaluate the severity of COVID-associated ROCM.

IMPORTANCE: Histologic lesions in the kidney may reflect or contribute to systemic processes that may lead to adverse cardiovascular events. OBJECTIVE: To assess the association between kidney histopathologic lesion severity and the risk of incident major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE). DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: This prospective observational cohort study included participants without a history of myocardial infarction, stroke, or heart failure from the Boston Kidney Biopsy Cohort recruited from 2 academic medical centers in Boston, Massachusetts. Data were collected from September 2006 and November 2018, and data were analyzed from March to November 2021. EXPOSURES: Semiquantitative severity scores for kidney histopathologic lesions adjudicated by 2 kidney pathologists, a modified kidney pathology chronicity score, and primary clinicopathologic diagnostic categories. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: The main outcome was the composite of death or incident MACE, which included myocardial infarction, stroke, and heart failure hospitalization. All cardiovascular events were independently adjudicated by 2 investigators. Cox proportional hazards models estimated associations of histopathologic lesions and scores with cardiovascular events adjusted for demographic characteristics, clinical risk factors, estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), and proteinuria. RESULTS: Of 597 included participants, 308 (51.6%) were women, and the mean (SD) age was 51 (17) years. The mean (SD) eGFR was 59 (37) mL/min per 1.73 m2, and the median (IQR) urine protein to creatinine ratio was 1.54 (0.39-3.95). The most common primary clinicopathologic diagnoses were lupus nephritis, IgA nephropathy, and diabetic nephropathy. Over a median (IQR) of 5.5 (3.3-8.7) years of follow-up, the composite of death or incident MACE occurred in 126 participants (37 per 1000 person-years). Compared with the reference group of individuals with proliferative glomerulonephritis, the risk of death or incident MACE was highest in individuals with nonproliferative glomerulopathy (hazard ratio [HR], 2.61; 95% CI, 1.30-5.22; P = .002), diabetic nephropathy (HR, 3.56; 95% CI, 1.62-7.83; P = .002), and kidney vascular diseases (HR, 2.86; 95% CI, 1.51-5.41; P = .001) in fully adjusted models. The presence of mesangial expansion (HR, 2.98; 95% CI, 1.08-8.30; P = .04) and arteriolar sclerosis (HR, 1.68; 95% CI, 1.03-2.72; P = .04) were associated with an increased risk of death or MACE. Compared with minimal chronicity, greater chronicity was significantly associated with an increased risk of death or MACE (severe: HR, 2.50; 95% CI, 1.06-5.87; P = .04; moderate: HR, 1.66; 95% CI, 0.74-3.75; P = .22; mild: HR, 2.22; 95% CI, 1.01-4.89; P = .047) in fully adjusted models. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: In this study, specific kidney histopathological findings were associated with increased risks of CVD events. These results provide potential insight into mechanisms of the heart-kidney relationship beyond those provided by eGFR and proteinuria.

Strategies to sustainably transform road transformation often focus on electrification and environmental benefits. However, transportation is also intricately linked to socio-economic aspects of sustainable development and electrification poses its own challenges. This Voices asks: what actions are required to steer a clean, safe, efficient, and inclusive transformation of road transportation?

Due to its light weight, tuneable electrical conductivity, superior environmental stability and electrochemical performance Poly (3,4 ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrene sulfonate) have attracted huge attention in the area of energy storage. To enhance their mechanical strength and stability, its composite with rGO and Sulphur, Nitrogen co-doped rGO were prepared via 2-steps hydrothermal method. The structural and morphological study XRD, SEM and Raman spectroscopy confirms the formation of SNrGO/PEDOT:PSS and rGO/PEDOT:PSS composites. The electrochemical profile study using Cyclic voltmetery shows that SNrGO/PEDOT:PSS have better specific capacitance Csp(324 F/g at 10 mV/s scan rate) and cyclic stability 96% over 500 cycle as compared to rGO/PEDOT:PSS. The SNrGO/PEDOT:PSS electrode shows 206.6 F/g specific capacitance at 0.2 A/g current density which was calculated from charge/discharge profile. Due to its good electrochemical performance and low cost synthesis method SNrGO/PEDOT:PSS may become a promising electrode material for electrochemical supercapacitors.

Road crashes continue to be the leading cause of death across all age groups despite several efforts being taken by the government and non-government organizations. The brunt of traffic fatalities affects males and females differently. Studies on assessing gender-wise exposure to road safety are limited in the Indian context. Therefore, an attempt is made to understand the role of gender in fatality risk assessment. The aim is to evaluate the change in exposure to different motorization growth scenarios for males and females. The fatality-risk model is developed based on the interaction between the victim (pedestrian, bicyclist, two-wheeler, car, and bus) and threat (pedestrian, bicyclist, two-wheeler, car, bus, and environment) road users combined with the at-risk distance traveled by modes for Bangalore Metropolitan Region, India. Male and female traffic fatalities are estimated based on the interaction severity between victim and threat modes. The results show that pedestrians, bicyclists, and two-wheeler users are more vulnerable. Both males and females demonstrate an increased risk of traffic fatalities with the rise in the motorization mode share due to the severity of interaction of vulnerable modes with another motorized mode such as two-wheelers and cars. The most significant reduction in road crashes for both genders is observed for the High Bus scenario, which assumes that 80 % of the total motorized distance is traveled by bus. Maximum traffic deaths are estimated for the High Car scenario; the fatalities remained high even with 100 % motorization indicating higher risk with high motorization rates. The study outcomes would help practitioners and decision-makers to make informed policy decisions. Further, the fatality risk is assessed considering the interaction of at most two road users, and the study can be extended to the simultaneous evaluation of multiple road users.

ABSTRACTThis paper explores the emotions of self-drive rental car users in India on social-media platform using sentiment analysis and estimates the relationship between socio-demographic factors and factors influencing the decision of renting a car. An ordered logit model is used to determine the factors which are affecting individuals’ demographic characteristics to rent from a self-drive rental car service. A total of six models are computed for each of the influencing factors. The results suggest that there is a positive image of self-drive rental car service as perceived from social media platform and in the 18-25 years age group. Private employees are significantly affected by quality of car and ease to hire facility offered by this service. It is also estimated that time flexibility is the most influencing factor considered while renting a car. The outcomes of this study may aid these service providers in strategic planning and policy framework.

The rapid growth of two-wheeler usage in India is a pertinent issue that has not so far received the attention it requires. Two-wheelers serve as a cost-effective transport solution in the Indian scenario; however, this mode is afflicted with several externalities, including congestion, air pollution, and road fatalities. This study extends the existing sustainable policy and planning literature by investigating the possibility of a new policy vision to regulate, monitor, and promote sustainable two-wheeler usage in India. The procedural framework includes assessing the role and attitude of current two-wheeler users (stratified into men and women) through an online questionnaire survey, reviewing the existing policy framework of India and two international cities, examining the critical barriers to sustainable, green, and inclusive urban mobility, and recommending a set of policy interventions and reforms. The proposed reforms and strategies can improve the policymaking processes of governing agencies and the sustainability of Indian urban transport.

Globally, high death rates due to heart failure are an essential topic in medical research. Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of cardiac dysfunction and collapse, with high mortality and morbidity rates. Early diagnosis and prognosis of CVD will reduce the risk of cardiovascular conditions. It is essential to develop various tools that provide accurate, real-time insight into the heart's physiology, functionality, and cardiac events. Due to the dispersed nature of the information and the reported results, a comprehensive literature review is required because there is a shortage of data about the hemodynamics analysis of blood flow in the ventricular region. Therefore, reviewing the status of hemodynamics analysis of ventricle blood flow is the prime importance of this review article. This article reviews the numerous investigations conducted over the past 15 years to simulate ventricular blood flow using experimental and computational techniques on patient-specific models or idealized models with or without specific medical conditions. This article discusses the fundamentals of hemodynamic analysis, such as the geometry types of a particular cardiac phase, medical conditions, and medical imaging methods. Recent developments in hemodynamic analysis, such as AI, HPC, and digital twins, were also mentioned in this comprehensive review study. This review article concluded that improvements in medical image processing and data acquisition techniques are needed to obtain accurate information regarding the functioning of the heart. Our review of previous studies shows that blood flow simulation is developing into a proper medical tool for instant heart function diagnosis.

Medical image registration is a key enabling technology and a highly challenging task. By iteratively minimising a cost function and optimising transformation parameters, the registration is achieved. In this paper, the semi-automatic non-rigid registration method is utilised to register computed tomography (CT) and ultrasound (US) images of the liver. The global motion is modelled by an affine transformation, while the local motion is described by free form deformation (FFD) based on B-splines. Two different techniques are included for registration refinement of the local deformation: transformation using multi-level B-splines and using gradient orientation information. This work also includes three different types of optimisation strategies: steepest gradient descent, quasi-Newton and Levenberg-Marquardt method. Visual examinations and experimental results on six clinical datasets verify a lower level of registration error and a higher degree of accuracy when the method is employed using Levenberg-Marquardt optimisation while utilising the gradient orientation information for registration refinement.

The willingness to travel and increased mobility have altered the knowledge base of people and their expectations from religious expeditions. This calls for a renewed understanding of factors associated with them manifesting their peaceful movement. In this context, this paper sought to identify the latent constructs through structural equation modelling (SEM) using a questionnaire survey to investigate the reported level of patience and aggression amongst the religious tourists who attended Kumbh Mela 2016 (a periodical religious gathering) in Ujjain, India. After administering the survey to 683 participants, six factors under patience and aggression were identified. It was observed that the patience factors ('cue dependence', 'tolerance', and 'goal-oriented') and aggression factors ('norm violation', 'obstruction to movement', and 'social display of power') directly and significantly impact the patience and aggression levels, respectively. These findings will be critical in devising suitable preventive measures and policies for a safer event. These measures will enhance the experience of the pilgrims, thereby promoting religious tourism.

Gossypiboma is defined as mass of cotton matrix which is left in the body after surgical procedure. It is a rare complication detected after surgical procedure. This condition is under reported because of medicolegal implications. We hereby report three cases of gossypiboma encountered in clinical practice. The preoperative diagnosis of a foreign body was made in two cases. However, in one case it was misdiagnosed as a hydatid cyst.

•Impact of vehicle attributes on Indian consumers’ EV adoption intention.•Evaluates effect of privilege-driven policies on EV adoption behaviour.•Assesses the impact of travel behaviour on EV adoption behaviour.•Provides insights into policies and incentives for widespread adoption of EVs.

•Studies the impact of latent factors on EV adoption behaviour among young educated Indian buyers.•Market segmentation to develop predictable and consistent subclasses of customers.•Segments and profiles the potential young electric vehicle buyers.•Studies the differences in the personality traits between the different segments.