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Urban migration is becoming an increasing issue in the cities in Bangladesh. Since the migrants are mostly poverty affected, they have no other opportunity than to move to urban slums, where, there is no decent infrastructure. The high density of built-forms and lack of understanding about ventilation strategies and thermal insulation are some of the reasons for their sufferings during the summer and winter months. The constant need for health treatment, infrastructure repairing, increasing utility bills due to lack of daylight and ventilation are affecting their extremely marginal economic condition. This study investigates existing built-forms, socio-economic assets, and living conditions in a particular slum area, located in Dhaka, Bangladesh; and, suggests some adaptive solutions in the form of minor and affordable interventions to upgrade their infrastructure, mostly focusing on the inclusion of daylight and ventilation by retrofitting the existing condition.

In this work, a modified Smith predictor–based sliding mode control (SP-SMC) method is proposed for unstable plus time-delay processes. Sliding mode control has a discontinuous part in its control law which may cause chattering in the control signal if conventional switching strategy is used. A hyperbolic tangent function is employed as a switching element in the suggested SP-SMC technique to minimize the chattering effect. Optimal values of the controller’s unknown parameters are obtained using whale optimization algorithm which is a meta-heuristic technique. The process model used in the proposed Smith predictor control architecture is identified using measurements of limit cycle output which is obtained from online relay test. The proposed controller is found to be robust towards process parameter uncertainties and load disturbance. Suggested control technique results in fast set-point tracking response and significantly improved disturbance rejection performance compared to some other related methods.

In this work, a proportional–integral (PI) controller with a set point filter is designed using the direct synthesis method for unstable plus time delay process. The Suggested method involves design parameters whose suitable values are recommended based on robust stability and robust performance constraints. The absence of derivative term makes PI controllers less sensitive to noise and, therefore, PI controllers are more preferable than PID in industrial applications. Despite a simple control architecture, the proposed method gives improved or comparable performance to previously presented approaches, which are comparatively complex. Four case studies are considered to evaluate the suitability and superiority of the suggested control technique. Proposed controller may be applied to the integrating plus time delay plants after some elementary transformations in the process model.

In 2006, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in South Asia, in partnership with the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, initiated Project IND/S16. In the beginning, five states were selected to train police officials under the “Strengthening the Law Enforcement Response to Human Trafficking” project. The training program resulted from a study done by two researchers, Dr. P. M. Nair and Shanker Seen. Their study recommended training programs to strengthen the law enforcement response to human trafficking and establish anti-human trafficking units (AHTUs) in India. However, no evaluation of the work of functionaries of AHTUs was done until the authors of this article took the initiative with the support of the Additional Director General of Police of Gujarat to identify the major problems in AHTUs at the grassroots level. Their exploratory research covered the 40 AHTUs from all 33 districts of Gujarat, focusing on the experiences and opinions of 214 police authorities (i.e. police inspectors, police sub-inspectors, assistant sub-inspectors, constables, and Lok Rakshak (public guards)) officially assigned to the AHTUs of Gujarat. This article summarizes the research and is based on experiences documented while collecting information in the field.

It is widely recognized that the Web contributes to user polarization, and such polarization affects not just politics but also peoples’ stances about public health, such as vaccination. Understanding polarization in social networks is challenging because it depends not only on user attitudes but also their interactions and exposure to information. We adopt Social Judgment Theory to operationalize attitude shift and model user behavior based on empirical evidence from past studies. We design a social simulation to analyze how content sharing affects user satisfaction and polarization in a social network. We investigate the influence of varying tolerance in users and selectively exposing users to congenial views. We find that (1) higher user tolerance slows down polarization and leads to lower user satisfaction; (2) higher selective exposure leads to higher polarization and lower user reach; and (3) both higher tolerance and higher selective exposure lead to a more homophilic social network.

Large graphs are present in a variety of domains, including social networks, civil infrastructure, and the physical sciences to name a few. Graph generation is similarly widespread, with applications in drug discovery, network analysis and synthetic datasets among others. While GNN (Graph Neural Network) models have been applied in these domains their high in-memory costs restrict them to small graphs. Conversely less costly rule-based methods struggle to reproduce complex structures. We propose HIGGS (Hierarchical Generation of Graphs) as a model-agnostic framework of producing large graphs with realistic local structures. HIGGS uses GNN models with conditional generation capabilities to sample graphs in hierarchies of resolution. As a result HIGGS has the capacity to extend the scale of generated graphs from a given GNN model by quadratic order. As a demonstration we implement HIGGS using DiGress, a recent graph-diffusion model, including a novel edge-predictive-diffusion variant edge-DiGress. We use this implementation to generate categorically attributed graphs with tens of thousands of nodes. These HIGGS generated graphs are far larger than any previously produced using GNNs. Despite this jump in scale we demonstrate that the graphs produced by HIGGS are, on the local scale, more realistic than those from the rule-based model BTER., Comment: In submission for NeurIPS 23

In this work, a PID controller along with a noise filter is designed using direct synthesis method for second order stable and unstable processes with time delay. Proposed method involves a single design parameter λ whose value need to be adjusted such that a desired balance between performance and robustness of the system is achieved. Guidelines to select suitable values of λ based on the maximum sensitivity values are provided. Various computer simulations are performed in presence of measurement noise on stable, unstable, integrating and double integrating dynamic systems to illustrate the advantages of suggested control method over some contemporary techniques. Performance measures (integral absolute error and integral squared error) and robustness measures such as maximum sensitivity (M s), complimentary sensitivity (M t) are calculated for the quantitative performance evaluation of the proposed tuning strategy. The suggested tuning algorithm is simple and it yields improved closed loop response compared to some reported methods, satisfactory robustness and smooth control action in presence of noise.

Background: Obesity is one of the leading preventable causes of cancer that has a causal relationship with cancers of esophagus, breast and colon. Paradoxically, there are studies demonstrating that obesity is associated with improved survival in cancer patients. The aim of our study was to investigate the association of obesity and cancer mortality in adult patients. Methods: Retrospective medical record review of 784 adult patients was performed who had a diagnosis of cancer and who were seen in our outpatient Internal Medicine Clinic between January 1, 2019 and December 31, 2019. Results: Forty-three (5.2%) patients were cancer non-survivors and 741 (94.8%) were cancer survivors. The mean age of the cancer non-survivors group was significantly higher than that of the cancer survivors (78.7 vs. 68.0 years, respectively; P < 0.001). For every unit increase in age, there was 7.6% increased odds of cancer death (95% confidence interval (CI): 3-12%) (P = 0.001). Average body mass index (BMI) of the patients in the cancer non-survivors group was significantly lower than that of the cancer survivors group (25.0 vs. 28.1 kg/m 2 ; P = 0.008). Non-obese patients had 4.9 times greater odds of cancer death (95% CI: 1.51 - 15.81) (P = 0.008). The mean glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) was significantly higher in the cancer non-survivors group compared to the cancer survivors group (7.1% vs. 6.0%; P < 0.001), and for every unit increase in HbA1c there was 1.6 times greater odds of cancer death (95% CI: 1.14 - 2.23) (P = 0.006). Patients with peripheral artery disease (PAD) had 3.5 times greater odds of cancer death compared to those without PAD (95% CI: 1.18 - 10.19) (P = 0.023). Conclusions: Non-obese patients with cancer had higher odds of cancer death. Rising HbA1c, increasing age, and presence of PAD were associated with increased cancer mortality. J Clin Med Res. 2021;13(7):377-386 doi: https://doi.org/10.14740/jocmr4543

The world experienced the outbreak of a new pandemic disease in 2019, known as coronavirus (CoV) disease 2019 (COVID-19), which is caused by the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome-CoV-2 (SARS-CoV-2). The respiratory system is the organ system most commonly affected by COVID-19; however, several other organ systems have been reported to be affected. The SARS-CoV-2 RNA found in infected stub samples can cause lung contagion by binding to the angiotensin-converting enzyme-2 (ACE-2) receptor of the alveolar epithelial cells. The gut microbiota (GM) promote immunity, indicating that the alignment of the microbiota and corresponding metabolic processes in COVID-19 can help to identify novel biomarkers and new therapeutic targets for this disease. The cause of kidney damage in COVID-19 patients is possibly multifactorial, involving a complex mechanism that involves complement dysregulation and thrombotic microangiopathy, as well as the occurrence of a “cytokine storm” syndrome, which are immune responses that are abandoned and dysfunctional with unfavorable prognosis in severe COVID-19 cases. Furthermore, COVID-19 involves a continuous proliferation and activation of macrophages and lymphocytes. SARS-CoV-2 can also bind to the ACE-2 receptor expressed in the cerebral capillary endothelial cells that can invade the blood-brain wall, to penetrate the brain parenchyma. However, in the ongoing pandemic, there has been a surge in studies on a wide range of topics, including causes of respiratory failure, asymptomatic patients, intensive care patients, and survivors. This review briefly describes the damaging effects of COVID-19 on vital human organs and the inhibitory function of the ACE-2 receptor on the GM, which causes gut dysbiosis, and thus, this review discusses topics that have an opportunity for further investigation.

Norms help regulate a society. Norms may be explicit (represented in structured form) or implicit. We address the emergence of explicit norms by developing agents who provide and reason about explanations for norm violations in deciding sanctions and identifying alternative norms. These agents use a genetic algorithm to produce norms and reinforcement learning to learn the values of these norms. We find that applying explanations leads to norms that provide better cohesion and goal satisfaction for the agents. Our results are stable for societies with differing attitudes of generosity., 7 pages, 2 figures, 12 tables, accepted at IJCAI 2022 (and supplementary material with code availability and additional results)

The cross talk between immune and non-immune cells in the tumor microenvironment leads to immunosuppression, which promotes tumor growth and survival. Immunotherapy is an advanced treatment that boosts humoral and cellular immunity rather than using chemotherapy or radiation-based strategy associated with non-specific targets and toxic effects on normal cells. Immune checkpoint inhibitors and T cell-based immunotherapy have already exhibited significant effects against solid tumors and leukemia. Tumor cells that escape immune surveillance create a major obstacle to acquiring an effective immune response in cancer patients. Tremendous progress had been made in recent years on a wide range of innate and adaptive immune checkpoints which play a significant role to prevent tumorigenesis, and might therefore be potential targets to suppress tumor cells growth. This review aimed to summarize the underlying molecular mechanisms of existing immunotherapy approaches including T cell and NK-derived immune checkpoint therapy, as well as other intrinsic and phagocytosis checkpoints. Together, these insights will pave the way for new innate and adaptive immunomodulatory targets for the development of highly effective new therapy in the future.

Synchronous, face-to-face interactions such as brainstorming are considered essential for creative tasks (the old normal). However, face-to-face interactions are difficult to arrange because of the diverse locations and conflicting availability of people - a challenge made more prominent by work-from-home practices during the COVID-19 pandemic (the new normal). In addition, face-to-face interactions are susceptible to cognitive interference. We employ crowdsourcing as an avenue to investigate creativity in asynchronous, online interactions. We choose product ideation, a natural task for the crowd since it requires human insight and creativity into what product features would be novel and useful. We compare the performance of solo crowd workers with asynchronous teams of crowd workers formed without prior coordination. Our findings suggest that, first, crowd teamwork yields fewer but more creative ideas than solo crowdwork. The enhanced team creativity results when Second, cognitive interference, known to inhibit creativity in face-to-face teams, may not be significant in crowd teams. Third, teamwork promotes better achievement emotions for crowd workers. These findings provide a basis for trading off creativity, quantity, and worker happiness in setting up crowdsourcing workflows for product ideation.

Abroma augusta (L.), one of the herbal medicinal plants, is widely used for treatment of various maladies. The present study was initiated to determine the antioxidant, hemolytic, cytotoxicity, and anticancer activities of methanolic extract from the bark of the plant. The phytochemical screening was done by analyzing different phytochemicals present in the extract. We observed the presence of alkaloids, steroids, terpenoids, flavonoids, reducing sugars, and glycosides in the bark extract which showed the highest antioxidant capacity. Antioxidant potential of the methanolic extract was evaluated in vitro by DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) scavenging assay method. This extract showed prominent scavenging activity with IC50 value of 38.65 μg/ml. The hemolytic activity of the extract was evaluated at concentrations ranging from 250 to 1000 μg/ml. It was observed that the extract induced hemolysis percentage of 9.41% to 4.1%, which implies that the extract has no potent hemolytic activity. Cytotoxicity and anticancer activities were observed on Ehrlich ascites carcinoma (EAC) cells. In addition, the bark showed promising cytotoxicity with IC50 value of 329.41 μg/ml, and the study indicated that the extract was capable of inhibiting EAC cell growth by 75.5% when administered at 100 mg/kg/day body weight intraperitoneally for five consecutive days to Swiss albino mice. Morphological change of apoptotic cell was determined by fluorescence and optical microscopy. DNA fragmentation is another marker for apoptosis, and the bark extract-treated EAC cells showed smeared and fragmented DNA bands. Apoptosis correlated well with the upregulation of p53 and Bax and also with the downregulation of NF-κB and Bcl-2. Furthermore, activity and interaction of two A. augusta compounds were tested through molecular docking simulation study. In conclusion, our results suggest that A. augusta bark has the potential to be considered as an anticancer agent.

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a rapidly increasing cause of chronic liver disease with excess fat deposition in the liver, without an identifiable cause. NAFLD's benign form is called nonalcoholic fatty liver (NAFL), which can progress to nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) with or without fibrosis. Over time, NASH can progress to cirrhosis and eventually hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) or progress to HCC without cirrhosis. Its incidence and prevalence are increasing to epidemic proportions, making it the most common cause of chronic liver disease in the western world. This review article attempts to understand the epidemiology, pathophysiology, evaluation, and management, and, most importantly, to generate awareness of this disease process.

BackgroundThe cardiovascular disease (CVD) burden among South Asians is high. Lifestyle interventions have been effective in the primary prevention of CVD, but this has not been replicated, through a synthesis of randomised trials, in South Asians.MethodsFour electronic databases (MEDLINE, Embase, CENTRAL and CINAHL), two clinical trial registries and references of included articles were searched through June 2022 (featuring ≥90% South Asian participants). Random-effects pairwise meta-analyses were performed, and heterogeneity was quantified with the I2statistic. The Grades of Recommendation, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) framework was used to report on the quality of evidence (International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews registration (PROSPERO).ResultsThirty-five studies were included. Twelve tested diet and physical activity interventions; 18 tested diet alone; and 5 tested physical activity alone. All reported effects of the intervention(s) on at least one established risk factor for CVD, including blood pressure (systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP) and blood lipids (high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDLc), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDLc) or triglycerides). No trials reported clinical CVD. There is moderate-quality evidence that diet and physical activity interventions improve SBP (mean difference (MD) −2.72 mm Hg, 95% CI −4.11 to –1.33) and DBP (MD −1.53 mm Hg, 95% CI −2.57 to –0.48); high-quality to moderate-quality evidence that diet-only interventions improve DBP (MD −2.05 mm Hg, 95% CI −2.93 to −1.16) and blood lipids (triglycerides (MD −0.10 mmol/L, 95% CI −0.14 to −0.06) and LDLc (MD −0.19 mmol/L, 95% CI −0.32 to −0.06)); and moderate-quality evidence that physical activity-only interventions improve SBP (MD −9.7 mm Hg, 95% CI −11.05 to −8.35), DBP (MD −7.29 mm Hg, 95% CI −8.42 to −6.16) and HDLc (MD 0.08 mmol/L, 95% CI 0.04 to 0.11) compared with usual care.ConclusionsLifestyle interventions improve blood pressure and blood lipid profiles in adult South Asians at risk of CVD. Tailored interventions should be used to modify cardiovascular risk factors in this at-risk group.PROSPERO registration numberCRD42018090419.

We address the problem of engineering a sociotechnical system (STS) with respect to its stakeholders’ requirements. We motivate a two-tier STS conception composed of a technical tier that provides control mechanisms and describes what actions are allowed by the software components, and a social tier that characterizes the stakeholders’ expectations of each other in terms of norms. We adopt agents as computational entities, each representing a different stakeholder. Unlike previous approaches, our framework, D ESEN , incorporates the social dimension into the formal verification process. Thus, D ESEN supports agents potentially violating applicable norms—a consequence of their autonomy. In addition to requirements verification, D ESEN supports refinement of STS specifications via design patterns to meet stated requirements. We evaluate D ESEN at three levels. We illustrate how D ESEN carries out refinement via the application of patterns on a hospital emergency scenario. We show via a human-subject study that a design process based on our patterns is helpful for participants who are inexperienced in conceptual modeling and norms. We provide an agent-based environment to simulate the hospital emergency scenario to compare STS specifications (including participant solutions from the human-subject study) with metrics indicating social welfare and norm compliance, and other domain dependent metrics.

Drug reaction with eosinophilia and systemic symptoms (DRESS) is a potentially fatal severe adverse reaction to medications. Numerous drugs have been implicated, with carbamazepine and allopurinol being the most common. Tenofovir-induced DRESS is extremely rare. We report a case of a 65-year-old male patient with a diffuse exfoliative maculopapular rash across his entire body of five weeks of duration. The patient also had icteric sclera, abnormal liver enzymes and Raynaud's of the tongue, nose and the left fifth finger. After discontinuation of tenofovir, the case resolved over a span of ten days. A high index of suspicion is crucial along with the prompt withdrawal of the offending medication for a good outcome.

Colon cancer is one of the most common causes of cancer-related mortality. Adenocarcinoma with mucinous features accounts for 10-15% of colon carcinoma. Distal nodal metastatic colorectal cancer is uncommon, and metastasis of colorectal cancer to the left supraclavicular lymph node is extremely rare without signs of metastatic organ involvement. We present a case of a 54-year-old Caucasian male with colonic adenocarcinoma that presented initially as a left-sided neck mass that had progressively increased in size over 9 months. On physical exam, a left supraclavicular soft tissue mass 6 cm in diameter was appreciated, it was non-tender with no submandibular lymphadenopathy. Soft tissue mass was palpable on the anterior abdominal wall in the epigastric region. Open excisional tissue biopsy of the left supraclavicular mass revealed metastatic adenocarcinoma with mucinous features and colonoscopy revealed a 6 cm obstructing mass in the transverse colon with biopsy revealing primary adenocarcinoma of the mucinous type. Palliative care with comfort measures was agreed upon. Typically, the most common sites of colon cancer metastasis are regional lymph nodes, liver, lung, bone and brain, and ours demonstrated an extremely rare pattern of colon cancer metastasis. The presentation to metastasize to the left supraclavicular node without solid end organ involvement makes this case even more novel.

Background Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) are effective in treating gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). Unfortunately, they are often inappropriately prescribed and long-term use has potential adverse effects. A single best method for discontinuation of PPIs does not currently exist. The objective of this study was to determine if there is a significant difference in successfully discontinuing PPI use at 12 months between patients discontinuing abruptly or tapering first. Methodology We conducted a randomized trial with 38 patients diagnosed with GERD. We collected six weekly and then monthly surveys of symptoms based on the Dyspepsia Symptom Severity Index. Chart review at 12 months determined whether the patient was able to discontinue PPI. Results A Kaplan-Meier survival analysis at 12 months did not show a statistically significant difference between the abrupt and taper groups for discontinuation of PPI medication (p = 0.75). Cox regression analysis showed no association of alcohol use, smoking, or caffeine use with failure to discontinue PPI, but H2 blocker use was associated with a 79% reduction in risk of failure to discontinue PPI (p = 0.004). The taper group had significantly less symptoms 14, 18, 22, and 30 weeks after discontinuation. Conclusions Our study suggests that there is no difference in successful discontinuation of PPIs between abrupt and taper methods at 12 months; however, there are less symptoms in the taper method, and H2 blocker use is associated with success. Further study is needed with larger numbers of participants and randomization of H2 blocker use.

Rationale: It is recommended that internal medicine residency programs incorporate point of care ultrasound (POCUS) training into the curriculum. However, the optimal approach to this training lacks recommendations or structural guidelines. We sought to compare an asynchronous video curriculum to a bedside hands-on/didactic curriculum. We used diagnostic accuracy as a surrogate for quality of ultrasound education. We hypothesize there is no difference in the accuracy of cardiac and lung POCUS comparing these two strategies. Methods: This pilot study was conducted in the Medical Intensive Care Unit at the University of Maryland Medical Center. Via block randomization, internal medicine trainees were assigned to a combined hands-on/didactic (further called “didactic”) ultrasound curriculum or a video-based curriculum. The didactic curriculum consisted of a 45-minute demonstration of cardiac and lung POCUS taught by a pulmonary/critical care fellow. Trainees assigned to the video curriculum were provided access to six short, topic-focused ultrasound videos. For both curricula, topics included introduction to the machine, parasternal long axis, parasternal short axis, apical four chamber, and subxiphoid views. Lung ultrasound focused on lung sliding, B lines, A lines, and pleural effusions. Participants were asked to perform ultrasounds while rotating in the MICU on patients who were scheduled to receive a gold-standard diagnostic test (CT chest, chest X-ray, formal transthoracic echocardiogram). Trainees were asked to comment on left and right ventricular function and pericardial effusion. Lung ultrasound evaluated for pneumothorax, pleural effusion, pulmonary edema, and ascites. Participants recorded the interpretations of their images in an online based form, prior to reviewing the formal gold-standard study. The results of the formal exams were retrospectively compared to the POCUS interpretations. The primary outcome of this study was diagnostic accuracy. Results: A total of 36 cardiac exams and 20 lung exams were performed. We utilized a Fisher's Exact Test to compare the diagnostic accuracy of those who receive the didactic curriculum to the video curriculum. There was no difference in interpretation accuracy between didactic and video curriculums in cardiac or lung ultrasound. Conclusion: Based on diagnostic accuracy, a video-based POCUS curriculum is non-inferior to a didactic curriculum. As the COVID pandemic continues, the medical education paradigm will need to shift from traditional strategies to ones that implore asynchronous learning to promote social distancing. However, this cannot come at the cost of inferior medical education. Our results suggest that instruction can continue safely using a video-based curriculum with no impact on ultrasound education. (Table Presented).

Background Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States. Patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) who have chronic kidney disease (CKD) have a twofold increase in mortality compared to patients with normal kidney function. Patients with CKD tend to have elevated baseline high-sensitivity cardiac troponin-T (hs-cTnT) levels. We studied patients with or without CKD to find out if a higher baseline hs-cTnT influenced the change in hs-cTnT (delta) when ruling in or ruling out ACS. Methods Eighty-nine patients were included in this study (29 with CKD; 60 without CKD). Delta hs-cTnT was dichotomized based on those who had delta of ≥ 5, or < 5. We calculated the positive predictive values, negative predictive values, sensitivities and specificities. Shapiro-Wilk test and independent t-test were used for the continuous variables. Mann-Whitney U test was used to examine the variables between the two groups. Chi-square test was used to compare the categorical variables between the two groups. Results The mean ages of patients with CKD and without CKD were 61.2 and 58.9 years, respectively (P = 0.508). We found that although there were differences in the sensitivities, specificities, positive predictive values and negative predictive values of delta hs-cTnT > 5 for ACS between the patients with CKD and without CKD, the differences were not statistically significant. Subgroup analysis showed that in patients with CKD, the positive predictive values and sensitivities of delta hs-cTnT > 5 for CAD requiring percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) and stent were significantly higher compared to the patients without CKD (82.4% vs. 27.3%, and 82.4% vs. 40.0%, respectively) (P < 0.05). Conclusions In calculating delta hs-cTnT to rule in or rule out ACS, the presence of CKD does not influence the delta. Patients with CKD and a delta hs-cTnT > 5 have significantly higher risk of undergoing PCI.

Inverted pendulum stabilization in the upward direction is an essential problem in the control system. Various control design methods have been designed for controlling the pendulum. In this work, a variable structure control (VSC) design is proposed to achieve improved response for controlling and stabilizing the x–y inverted pendulum. Optimal values of the tuning parameters are obtained by the whale optimization technique (WOA). The simulation results show that the proposed VSC system is effective and gives improved response compared to recently reported controller design. The proposed VSC system has robustness towards outer disturbances as well.

The expansion of artificial intelligence (AI) and autonomous systems has shown the potential to generate enormous social good while also raising serious ethical and safety concerns. AI technology is increasingly adopted in transportation. A survey of various in-vehicle technologies found that approximately 64% of the respondents used a smartphone application to assist with their travel. The top-used applications were navigation and real-time traffic information systems. Among those who used smartphones during their commutes, the top-used applications were navigation and entertainment. There is a pressing need to address relevant social concerns to allow for the development of systems of intelligent agents that are informed and cognizant of ethical standards. Doing so will facilitate the responsible integration of these systems in society. To this end, we have applied Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) to develop a formal Multi-Attribute Impact Assessment (MAIA) questionnaire for examining the social and ethical issues associated with the uptake of AI. We have focused on the domain of autonomous vehicles (AVs) because of their imminent expansion. However, AVs could serve as a stand-in for any domain where intelligent, autonomous agents interact with humans, either on an individual level (e.g., pedestrians, passengers) or a societal level.

Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) raise important social and ethical concerns, especially about accountability, dignity, and justice. We focus on the specific concerns arising from how AV technology will affect the lives and livelihoods of professional and semi-professional drivers. Whereas previous studies of such concerns have focused on the opinions of experts, we seek to understand these ethical and societal challenges from the perspectives of the drivers themselves. To this end, we adopted a qualitative research methodology based on semi-structured interviews. This is an established social science methodology that helps understand the core concerns of stakeholders in depth by avoiding the biases of superficial methods such as surveys. We find that whereas drivers agree with the experts that AVs will significantly impact transportation systems, they are apprehensive about the prospects for their livelihoods and dismiss the suggestions that driving jobs are unsatisfying and their profession does not merit protection. By showing how drivers differ from the experts, our study has ramifications beyond AVs to AI and other advanced technologies. Our findings suggest that qualitative research applied to the relevant, especially disempowered, stakeholders is essential to ensuring that new technologies are introduced ethically.

Social norms characterize collective and acceptable group conducts in human society. Furthermore, some social norms emerge from interactions of agents or humans. To achieve agent autonomy and make norm satisfaction explainable, we include emotions into the normative reasoning process, which evaluates whether to comply or violate a norm. Specifically, before selecting an action to execute, an agent observes the environment and infers the state and consequences with its internal states after norm satisfaction or violation of a social norm. Both norm satisfaction and violation provoke further emotions, and the subsequent emotions affect norm enforcement. This paper investigates how modeling emotions affect the emergence and robustness of social norms via social simulation experiments. We find that an ability in agents to consider emotional responses to the outcomes of norm satisfaction and violation (1) promotes norm compliance; and (2) improves societal welfare., Comment: 17 pages with 7 figures. Accepted at COINE 2021

Regression analysis has been brought into practical functionality in this paper to intensify the magnitude of adequacy for outliers' detection in medical data. Previously, linear regression model for the outlier detection in medical data has been used. The use of linear model to detect outliers leaves a certain amount of gap in increasing the efficiency of the expected values. Linear regression basically represents linear relationship between data and sometimes loosely fits the data. The proposed FCR technique on contrary contributes towards increasing the efficiency of expected data and improved effectiveness towards detecting outliers. The proposed method is adept to best fit curve to the data. It further verifies to be a constructive asset that increases the model adequacy on medical data. The proposed approach in this paper has demonstrated to deliver enhanced adequacy paralleled to linear regression.

Background and aim Outbreak of COVID-19 seems to have exacerbated across the globe, including Bangladesh. Scientific literature on the clinical data record of COVID-19 patients in Bangladesh is inadequate. Our study analyzes the clinical data of COVID-19 positive patients based on molecular identification and risk factor correlated with three variables (age, sex, residence) and COVID-19 prevalence in the four districts of Chattogram Division (Noakhali, Feni, Lakshmipur and Chandpur) with an aim to understand the trajectory of this pandemic in Chattogram, Southern Bangladesh. Methods A cross-sectional study is conducted in the context of RT-PCR-based COVID-19 positive 5,589 individuals diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2 infection from the COVID-19 testing laboratory, Abdul Malek Ukil Medical College, Noakhali-3800, Bangladesh. For molecular confirmation of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), standard diagnostic protocols through real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) were conducted. Different patient demographics were analyzed using SPSS version 22 for exploring the relationship of three factors – age, sex, and residence with a cumulative number of COVID-19 positive cases and prevalence of COVID-19 in four districts in Chattogram division. The data was recorded between May to July, 2020. Results Among the three parameters, the present study revealed that 20–40 cohort had the highest incidence of infection rate (51.80%, n = 2895) among the different age groups. Among the infected individuals, 56.8% (n = 3177) were male and 43.2% (n = 2412) were female, denoting males being the most susceptible to this disease. Urban residents (52.7%, n = 2948) were more vulnerable to SARS-CoV-2 infection than those residing in rural areas (47.3%, n = 2641). The prevalence of COVID-19 positive cases among the four districts was recorded highest in the Noakhali district with 36.8% (n = 2057), followed by the Feni, Lakshmipur and Chandpur districts with 25.9% (n = 1448), 20.8% (n = 1163) and 16.5% (n = 921), respectively. Conclusions This study presents a statistical correlation of certain factors linked to Bangladesh with confirmed COVID-19 patients, which will enable health practitioners and policy makers to take proactive steps to control and mitigate disease transmission., COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; Bangladesh; Prevalence; Epidemiology

Highlights • The screening of biological activities of medicinal plants are emphasized due to the adverse effects of synthetic drugs. • The present study demonstrates antioxidant, cytotoxic, and haemagglutination activity as well as EAC cell growth inhibitory effect of methanolic extract of Phyllantus acidus (L.) (MEPA) fruit pulp and seed. • P. acidus is traditionally used as herbal medicine in China, Brazil, and South Asian countries like Bangladesh for the treatment of digestive, respiratory, genitourinary, and skin disorder. • The result of this study suggested that MEPA fruit pulp has a more antioxidant potentiality and EAC cell growth inhibitory property than seed which indicates the presence of effective phytochemicals in MEPA fruit pulp. • Therefore, the MEPA fruit pulp can be considered as a promising biological source to search novel compounds for therapeutic purposes., Medicinal plant-derived bioactive compounds have recently gained more interest in biological research as an important source of novel drug candidates. Phyllanthus acidus (L.) is a widely distributed herbal medicinal plant naturally used in Ayurvedic medicine in Bangladesh. The present study focused on exploring the biological potential as well as the inhibitory effect of EAC cell growth with a comparative analysis between Phyllanthus acidus fruit pulp and seed. Crude methanol extract of P. acidus (MEPA) fruit pulp and seed was assessed as DPPH and NO free radical scavengers. While Brine Shrimp lethality bioassay, the standard protocol of phytochemical screening and hemagglutination assay were performed successively to determine the toxic effect on normal cells, the identification of some crucial phytochemicals, and the existence of lectin protein. EAC (Ehrlich’s Ascites Carcinoma) cell growth inhibition was determined by hemocytometer and morphological changes of EAC cells were observed by a fluorescence microscope using Swiss albino mice. The IC50 value of MEPA fruit pulp and seed was obtained as 57.159 µg/ml and 288.743 µg/ml respectively where minimal toxic effects on Brine Shrimp nauplii demonstrates that it is a good source of natural antioxidant compounds. Again, MEPA fruit pulp and seed-mediated effective agglutination of mouse blood erythrocyte strongly support the presence of lectin protein. Furthermore, MEPA fruit pulp and seed extract-treated EAC cells showed 65.71% and 28.57% growth inhibition respectively. The fluorescent microscopic examination of EAC cells treated with MEPA fruit pulp has shown more remarkable structural changes in the nucleus than that of seed. Based on the above findings, the present study reveals that MEPA fruit pulp can be considered as a novel biological candidate for the treatment of fatal diseases shortly.

In the control system community, inverted pendulum is an important problem and it has been studied frequently in the control literature. In this chapter, a new variable structure control design is proposed for stabilization of cart-inverted pendulum. The VSC controller design is explained in brief. The optimal values of the tuning parameters are obtained by using a recently published optimization technique called “whale optimization technique (WOA).” From the simulation results, we see that the proposed VSC controller is simple, effective, and gives satisfactory responses. The proposed controller design can be applied for the stabilization and tracking control of the cart-inverted pendulum. It has robustness to the outer disturbances also. All the responses of the proposed controller are compared with the response of PID controller proposed by J. J. Wang.

Cognitive decline is a common issue seen in older adults in the primary care setting. Assessment of cognitive decline in primary care includes a detailed history, physical examination, labs, imaging, and a formal cognitive assessment. Various tools are available for cognitive assessments. However, a short screening tool is more practical for cognitive evaluation. A decline in cognition should be correlated with the broader clinical picture, and a detailed cognitive assessment should be performed. This article focuses on some of the cognitive assessment tools used in clinical settings to assess cognition.

The surprising capabilities demonstrated by AI technologies overlaid on detailed data and fine-grained control give cause for concern that agents can wield enormous power over human welfare, drawing increasing attention to ethics in AI.

In this paper, fractional order PID (FOPID) controller is implemented to stabilize x-z inverted pendulum (vertical inverted pendulum). Three FOPID controllers are used to control the angle and position (horizontal and vertical) of inverted pendulum. Mathematical model of the pendulum is used for designing the Simulink model and various parameters of the FOPID are obtained using the Whale optimization algorithm (WOA) technique. Simulation results obtained from FOPID is compared with PID controller. From the simulation results it is noticed that overall performance of the proposed controller is satisfactory with and without disturbances.

In an acute care setting, chemical asphyxiants (CA) are a vice which cause debilitating injury. Carbon monoxide (CO) is one well known CA which causes hypoxic injury to cardiovascular and neurological tissue. CO poisoning is one of the leading causes of death in USA. As many as 6% of patients who get admitted with CO poisoning in the USA have acute myocardial infarction. A strong positive correlation of CO Hb concentration has been established with increased incidence of MIs. We present a case of a 75-year-old male with complaints of chest discomfort, dyspnea, diaphoresis that was attributed to CO poisoning. Over the course of his stay he had two sets of positive serial troponins and was diagnosed with a non-ST elevation MI. Most of the recent literature focuses on ST elevation and T wave inversions in patients with CO poisoning. Contrary to this, our patient did not exhibit any EKG changes at any point during his hospital course. CO poisoning can cause fatal complications including an MI.

Despite the Paris Agreement, greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations in the atmosphere continue to increase because of the anthropogenic activities, and this is inducing catastrophic effects. Past studies revealed that urban areas are responsible of a large part of these emissions and many cities already started to implement climate actions to reduce their GHG emissions and address climate change. The effectiveness of these actions depends on accurate knowledge of the many sources of GHG in each city, so that efforts are focused on the sources whose emission reduction would be the most effective. Atmospheric measurements are useful to locate and characterize these sources and to monitor the evolution of their emissions. Different approaches have been developed during the past decades including stationary and mobile surface-based in situ measurements, remote sensing of solar absorption spectra from space and from the ground, or aircraft-based observations. All these techniques are complementary and provide information about urban GHG emissions at different scales.In situ mobile measurements of methane mixing ratios have been performed in the two largest cities of Canada using 1) a high-precision gas analyzer providing continuous measurements, 2) a weather station measuring wind speed and direction, and 3) a GPS recording coordinates during the campaigns. These mobile surveys allow rapid screening of large areas, the revisit of specific sites to monitor the evolution of their emissions over time, and can therefore improve our understanding of the emissions at local scale. Methane emissions of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) have been intensively investigated since 2018 with a total of 84 days of measurements corresponding to a distance of about 8,000 km. A one-week campaign has also been realized in November 2019 in Montreal corresponding to a distance of about 1,100 km. Methane enhancements observed during these surveys have been identified, classified into three categories depending on their magnitudes and areas, and attributed to potential sources, several of which are not catalogued in FLAME-GTA, the point source level inventory developed for the Toronto metropolitan area. Important methane sources in the GTA have been surveyed regularly since 2018 and their emissions have been estimated using an inverse modeling framework with a Gaussian model and compared to the inventory-based estimates of FLAME-GTA.

Crowdsourcing is the process of accomplishing a task by using a typically open call to invite members of the public (the “crowd”) to work on one's task. The authors describe a project assignment in which students received the opportunity of practicing crowdsourcing to accomplish a hummed song recognition task, yielding improved comprehension of the concept and high student satisfaction.

Security tools, including static and dynamic analysis tools, can guide software developers to identify and fix potential vulnerabilities in their code. However, the use of security tools is not common among developers. The goal of this research is to develop a framework for modeling the adoption of security practices in software development and to explore sanctioning mechanisms that may promote greater adoption of these practices among developers. We propose a multiagent simulation framework that incorporates developers and manager roles, where developers maximize task completion and compliance with security policies, and the manager enforces sanctions based on functionality and security of the project. The adoption of security practices emerges through the interaction of manager and developer agents in time-critical projects. Using the framework, we evaluate the adoption of security practices for developers with different preferences and strategies under individual and group sanctions. We use a real case study for demonstrating the model and initialize the occurrence of bugs using a 13 year database of bug reports for the Eclipse Java Development Tools. Results indicate that adoption of security practices are significantly dictated by the preferences of the developers. We also observed that repetitive sanctions may cause lower retention of developers and an overall decrease in security practices. The model provides comparison of security adoption in developers with different preferences and provides guidance for managers to identify appropriate sanctioning mechanism for increasing the adoption of security tools in software development.

The authors consider the problem of engineering ethical personal agents. Such an agent would understand the applicable social norms and its users preferences among values. It would act or recommend actions that promote preferred values, especially, in scenarios where the norms conflict.