Search

In this paper, we examined the characteristics of the sum of independent and non-identical set of binomial ranked set samples, where each set has different order depending success probability. The characterization is done by establishing the general recurrence relations for two different situations based on the number of cycle, which is initially pre-assumed as a constant integer and when it is a random variable. To extend the knowledge about the characteristics of sum in terms of their behaviour and pattern, first four moments i.e., mean, variance, skewness and kurtosis are derive and compared with the sum of binomial simple random samples with same success probability. The proposed procedure has been illustrated through a real-life data on survivorship of children below one year in Empowered Action Groups (EAG) states of India.

The frailty model consists of two components; the first is baseline hazard. If baseline hazard is known in advance, then, the parametric estimation approach can be used advantageously. The second component of frailty model is frailty distribution. In this paper, we compared the risk of mortality by different parametric frailty models, namely gamma, inverse Gaussian, positive stable and lognormal, with respect to Akaike Information Criteria (AIC) and Bayesian Information Criteria (BIC) values on liver transplantation patients. We conclude that lognormal frailty model gives slightly lower frailty variance compared to the other frailty models when Weibull distribution is considered as baseline hazard. Therapy and MELD (model for end-stage liver disease) scores may have significant role in liver transplant patients when distribution of frailty is considered as lognormal with Weibull baseline hazard for fitting the model. Therefore, there is 4.6 times more risk in getting hazard of mortality for patients receiving conventional therapy with consent for participation as compared to patients receiving new therapy with consent for participation with 95%CI [1.059, 20.199], p-value 0.042.

Discrete epidemic models are applied to describe the physical phenomena of spreading infectious diseases in a household. In this paper, an attempt has been made to develop a modified epidemic chain model by assuming a beta distribution of third kind for the probability of being infected by contact with a given infective from the same household with closed population. This paper emphasizes mainly on developing the probabilities of all possible epidemic chains with one introductory case for three, four and five member household. The key phenomenon towards developing this paper is to provide an alternative model of chain binomial model.

Background: The World Health Organization (WHO) initiated the Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) in 1974. It has been widely used in different studies. Along with this, other survey methodologies have been compared to study immunization coverage at different regions. To consider different survey methodologies, one of the most important factors is the cost incurred that survey methodology. A survey method is considered as more efficient or better than the other survey method if the cost incurred in a particular method is less than the other one. Methods: In this study, cost incurred in two stage (30 × 30) cluster sampling and systematic sampling methods have been compared using a cost function for measles vaccine coverage. Measles vaccine coverage data has been taken from the survey “Comparison of Two Survey Methodologies to Estimates Total Vaccination Coverage” sponsored by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), New Delhi. Results: The results show that there are no significant differences between the point estimates of measles vaccine coverage under the considered survey methodologies. But the cost incurred in systematic sampling is more than that of two stage cluster sampling. Conclusion: It can be concluded that systematic sampling survey is costlier than that of two stage cluster sampling for this study population.

In this paper, we have used an algorithm to fit the Burr XII distribution to a set of insurance data. As it is well known, the probability of ultimate ruin is obtained as a solution to an integro-differential equation and in case, the claim severity is distributed as Burr XII distribution, this equation has to be solved numerically to obtain an approximation to the probability of ultimate ruin. Two numerical algorithms, namely the stable recursive algorithm and the method of product integration have been used to obtain numerically an approximation to this probability of ultimate ruin. The use of these two numerical algorithms provides a scope for comparing the consistency in values obtained by them. The first two moments of the time to ruin in case of Burr XII distributed claim severity have also been computed using the probability of ultimate ruin obtained through the stable recursive algorithm as an input. All these computations have been done under the assumption of the classical risk model.

In this paper, we have fitted two heavy tailed distributions viz the Weibull distribution and the Burr XII distribution to a set of Motor insurance claim data. As it is known, the probability of ruin is obtained as a solution to an integro differential equation, general solution of which leads to what is known as the Pollaczek-Khinchin Formula for the probability of ultimate ruin. In case, the claim severity is distributed as the above two mentioned distributions, and Pollaczek-Khinchin formula cannot be used to evaluate the probability of ruin through inversion of their Laplace transform since the Laplace Transforms themselves don’t have closed form expression. However, an approximation to the probability of ultimate ruin in such cases can be obtained by the Pollaczek-Khinchin formula through simulation and one crucial step in this simulation is to simulate from the corresponding Equilibrium distribution of the claim severity distribution. The paper lays down methodologies to simulate from the Equilibrium distribution of Burr XII distribution and Weibull distribution and has used them to obtain an approximation to the probability of ultimate ruin through Pollaczek-Khinchin formula by Monte Carlo simulation. An attempt has also been made to obtain numerical values to the probability function for the number of claims until ruin in case of zero initial surplus under these claim severity distributions and this in turn necessitates the computation of the convolutions of these distributions. The paper makes a preliminary effort to address this issue. All the computations are done under the assumption of the Classical Risk Model.

Display Omitted We used a data-driven methodology for rule-based information extraction.This was applied to the i2b2 cardiac risk factors challenge.It exploited an agile text mining system augmented with a simple classifier.Evaluation on an unseen test set gave an F-score of 91.7%. This paper describes the use of an agile text mining platform (Linguamatics' Interactive Information Extraction Platform, I2E) to extract document-level cardiac risk factors in patient records as defined in the i2b2/UTHealth 2014 challenge. The approach uses a data-driven rule-based methodology with the addition of a simple supervised classifier. We demonstrate that agile text mining allows for rapid optimization of extraction strategies, while post-processing can leverage annotation guidelines, corpus statistics and logic inferred from the gold standard data. We also show how data imbalance in a training set affects performance. Evaluation of this approach on the test data gave an F-Score of 91.7%, one percent behind the top performing system.

In recent years, consumers' emotional responses have been found to be an important complement to sensory and hedonic evaluations for the prediction of food choice and consumption behaviour. Given this trend, it is essential that the influence of contextual variables on emotion are investigated. The present study contributes to the discussion with an investigation of the effect of social context on implicit emotional responses to food images. 87 participants (56 female, 31 male) viewed food images of varying acceptability either alone, with a stranger, or with a friend. Subjective liking ratings were measured using a labelled affective magnitude scale, and facial muscle activity from zygomaticus major (contracted during smiling), corrugator supercilii (contracted during frowning) and levator labii superioris (contracted during nose wrinkling) were measured with an EMG recording system. Controlling for individual differences in facial expressivity and food image acceptability using linear mixed models, it was found that the presence of a co-acting stranger facilitated muscle activity indicative of a disgust response, increased the strength of relationship between muscle activity and subjective liking ratings, and led to lower subjective liking overall. No differences in muscle activity or subjective liking were found between subjects who participated alone and with a co-acting friend. This suggests that the influence of social context is complex, where the relationship between the subject and the social environment can impact both hedonic and emotional evaluations of food stimuli. These findings indicate that facial EMG can be a useful dynamic and implicit measure of emotion in consumer research, but it is critical to consider the social context of the testing environment.

Background\ud The outbreak of coronavirus disease, 2019 (COVID-19), which started from Wuhan, China,in late 2019, have spread worldwide. A total of 5,91,971 cases and 2,70,90 deaths were registered till 28th March, 2020. We aimed to predict the impact of duration of exposure to COVID-19 on the mortality rates increment.\ud \ud Methods\ud In the present study, data on COVID-19 infected top seven countries viz., Germany, China, France, United Kingdom, Iran, Italy and Spain, and World as a whole, were used for modeling. The analytical procedure of generalized linear model followed by Gompertz link function was used to predict the impact lethal duration of exposure on the mortality rates.\ud \ud Findings\ud Of the selected countries and World as whole, the projection based on 21st March, 2020 cases, suggest that a total (95% Cl) of 76 (65–151) days of exposure in Germany, mortality rate will increase by 5 times to 1%. In countries like France and United Kingdom, our projection suggests that additional exposure of 48 days and 7 days, respectively, will raise the mortality rates to 10%. Regarding Iran, Italy and Spain, mortality rate will rise to 10% with an additional 3–10 days of exposure. World’s mortality rates will continue increase by 1% in every three weeks. The predicted interval of lethal duration corresponding to each country has found to be consistent with the mortality rates observed on 28th March, 2020.\ud \ud Conclusion\ud The prediction of lethal duration was found to have apparently effective in predicting mortality, and shows concordance with prevailing rates. In absence of any vaccine against COVID-19 infection, the present study adds information about the quantum of the severity and time elapsed to death will help the Government to take necessary and appropriate steps to control this pandemic.

This article describes a dataset of facial electromyography and subjective liking data from 70 New Zealand participants used in the study “An unfamiliar presence reduces facial disgust responses to food stimuli” by Nath, Cannon and Philipp [1]. Participants’ facial muscle activity from zygomaticus major, corrugator supercilii, and levator labii superioris was recorded as they viewed and rated food images, and tasted samples of chocolate. Half of the participants were seated alone, and the other half was seated in the presence of the researcher. The data allows for investigations into the effect of social context on hedonic ratings and facial responses to food, and an exploration into the individual factors contributing to differences in facial reactivity. The data includes raw EMG files generated by Acqknowledge 4.2, raw subjective liking files generated by PsychoPy, a table of participant information, the food images stimuli, the PsychoPy code used for stimuli presentation, and the R scripts used to filter, aggregate and analyse the data. Keywords: Facial electromyography, Food preference, Food liking, Social context, Implicit emotion

Consumers' emotional responses complement sensory and hedonic ratings in the prediction of food choice and consumption behaviour. The challenge with the measurement of consumption emotions is that emotions are highly context dependent. For emotion evaluations to bring greater insight to food research and development, it is essential that the influence of contextual variables on emotion are quantified. The present study contributes to the discussion with an investigation of the effect of an unfamiliar social presence on affective facial responses to visual food stimuli. Seventy participants (52 female and 18 male) viewed food images of varying acceptability either alone, or in the presence of the researcher. Subjective liking ratings were measured using a labelled affective magnitude scale, and facial muscle activity from zygomaticus major (contracted during smiling), corrugator supercilii (contracted during frowning) and levator labii superioris (contracted during nose wrinkling) were measured with an EMG recording system. Controlling for individual differences in facial expressivity and food image acceptability using linear mixed models, it was found that social context did not predict smiling or frowning muscle activity. Social context did predict the intensity of muscle activity indicative of a disgust response, with participants in the observed condition exhibiting less levator activity than participants in the alone condition. Regardless of social context, each muscle was found to have a relationship with subjective liking, with the direction of effects as expected. The results indicate that emotional stimuli and social context both influence food-evoked facial expression and provides support for the utility of facial EMG in measuring food-evoked emotion.

The endeavor to produce quality products coupled with a drive to minimize fail­ ure in major industries such as aerospace, power and transportation is the driving force behind studies of electromagnetic nondestructive evaluation (NDE) methods. Popular domain and integral methods used for the purpose of modeling electromag­ netic NDE phenomena include the finite element and boundary element methods. However no single numerical modeling technique has emerged as the optimal choice for all electromagnetic NDE processes. In a computer aided design environment, where the choice of an optimum modeling technique is critical, an evaluation of the various aspects of different numerical approaches is extremely helpful. In this dissertation, a comparison is made of the relative advantages and disad­ vantages of the finite element (FE) and boundary element (BE) methods as applied to the DC and AC Potential drop (DCPD and ACPD) methods for characterizing fatigue cracks. The comparison covers aspects of robustness, computer resource re­ quirements and ease of numerically implementing the methods. Two dimensional FE and BE models are used to model an infinitely thin fatigue crack using the ACPD method, and a two and three dimensional FE and BE model is used to study the com­ pact tension and single edge notch specimen using the DCPD method. Calibration curves and field plots in the specimen are compared to experimental and analytical data. The FE and BE methods are complementary numerical techniques and are combined to exploit their individual merits in the latter part of this dissertation. A three dimensional hybrid formulation to model eddy current NDE is then developed which discretizes the interior with finite elements and the exterior with boundary, elements. The three dimensional model is applied to an absolute eddy current coil over a finite block. A feasibility study to confirm the validity of the formulation is undertaken by comparing the numerical results for probe lift-off and coil impedance measurements with published data. This comparative study outlined above indicates that when the solution is re­ quired at discrete points, as in the potential drop methods, or the model needs to handle infinite boundaries, as in eddy current NDE, the boundary element model is more suitable. Since it is based on the Green's function, the BE method is lim­ ited to linear problems. Finite element analysis gives full field solutions, making it ideal for studying energy/defect interactions. The hybrid FE/BE formulation han­ dles non-linearity and infinite boundaries naturally, thus utilizing the best of both worlds.

Inflammation plays an important role in the pathogenesis of renal and cardiovascular disease in renovascular hypertension (RVH). Ccl2 is an important mediator of inflammation, and is induced within 24 hours following surgery to establish RVH in the murine 2 kidney 1 clip model, a time prior to onset of interstitial inflammation, fibrosis, or tubular atrophy. We tested the hypothesis that Ccl2 deficiency protects the stenotic kidney (STK) from development of chronic renal damage in mice with renovascular hypertension due to renal artery stenosis (RAS). RAS surgery was performed on wild type (WT) and Ccl2 knock out (KO) mice; animals were studied for four weeks. Renal blood flow was reduced to similar extent in both WT and Ccl2 KO mice with RVH. Perfusion of the stenotic kidney was significantly reduced in Ccl2 KO mice as assessed by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Stenotic kidney volume in WT, but not in Ccl2 KO mice, was significantly reduced following surgery. Cortical hypoxia was observed in the stenotic kidney of Ccl2 KO mice, as assessed by blood oxygen level-dependent MRI (BOLD-MRI). Ccl2 KO mice showed less cortical atrophy than WT RAS mice. Ccl2 deficiency reduced the number of infiltrating mononuclear cells and expression of Ccl5, Ccl7, Ccl8, Ccr2 and Cd206. We conclude that Ccl2 is a critical mediator of chronic renal injury in RVH.

Purpose of review The pathophysiology of preeclampsia is complex and not entirely understood. A key feature in preeclampsia development is an immunological imbalance that shifts the maternal immune response from one of tolerance towards one promoting chronic inflammation and endothelial dysfunction. As a key regulator of immunity, IL-10 not only has immunomodulatory activity, but also directly benefits vasculature and promotes successful cellular interactions at the maternal-fetal interface. Here we focus on the mechanisms by which the dysregulation of IL-10 may contribute to the pathophysiology of preeclampsia. Recent findings Dysregulation of IL-10 has been demonstrated in various animal models of preeclampsia. Decreased IL-10 production in both placenta and peripheral blood mononuclear cells has been reported in human studies, but with inconsistent results. The significance of IL-10 in preeclampsia has shifted from a key biomarker to one with therapeutic potential. As such, a better understanding of the role of this cytokine in the pathophysiology of preeclampsia is of paramount importance.

Background & Aim: Low birth weight (LBW) is a strong predictor of an individual baby's survival. LBW is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as weight at birth of less than 2500 g.he current study aimed to study the pattern of the reporting system of birth weight in India and examine the heaping at certain digits, assess the agreement between actual birth weight and birth weight reported based on recall, and identify key determinants of birth weight reporting in India. Methods & Materials: The National Family Health Survey (NFHS-3) data was used for the present study. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value were calculated to assess the magnitude of the misclassification bias. In addition, univariate and multivariable analyses were also analyzed. Chi-square test was used to detect the associations and Cohen's kappa statistic was used for agreement between categories of birth weights and birth sizes. Results: Mothers’ recalled assessment of baby’s size as small or normal were in agreement with the categories of birth weight as LBW or normal weight (K = 0.46, P < 0.050). The value of Kappa statistic indicated a moderate agreement between recalled birth size and recorded birth weight. Conclusion: Due to this poor reporting system prevalen in the country, the actual prevalence of LBW can get affected. Method of reporting can also affect the actual scenario of the LBW due to hypothetical or memory recall base birth size.

Papillary thyroid carcinomas are the most common endocrine cancer and are usually associated with good survival. However, some variants of papillary thyroid carcinomas may behave more aggressively than classic papillary thyroid carcinomas. The tall cell variant of papillary thyroid carcinoma is the most common aggressive variant of papillary thyroid carcinoma. The aggressive behavior has been ascribed to the histologic subtype and/or to the clinicopathologic features, an issue that remains controversial. The columnar variant of papillary thyroid carcinoma can be aggressive, particularly in older patients, with larger tumors showing a diffusely infiltrative growth pattern and extrathyroidal extension. A papillary thyroid carcinoma is designated as solid/trabecular variant when all or nearly all of a tumor not belonging to any of the other variants has a solid, trabecular, or nested (insular) appearance. This tumor must be distinguished from poorly differentiated thyroid carcinoma which has the same growth pattern but lacks nuclear features of papillary thyroid carcinoma and may show tumor necrosis and high mitotic activity. New to the fourth edition of the WHO Classification of Tumours of Endocrine Organs, the hobnail variant of papillary thyroid carcinoma is a moderately differentiated papillary thyroid carcinoma variant with aggressive clinical behavior and significant mortality. All of these variants are histologically unique and important to recognize due to their aggressive behavior.

The present paper emphasizes the role of two auxiliary variables on both the occasions to improve the precision of estimates at the current (second) occasion in two-occasion successive sampling. Information on two auxiliary variables, which are positively correlated with the study variable, has been used with the aid of exponential type structures and an efficient estimation procedure of population mean on the current (second) occasion has been suggested. The behaviour of the proposed estimator has been studied and compared with the sample mean estimator, when there is no matching from the previous occasion and natural successive sampling estimator, which is a linear combination of the means of the matched and unmatched portions of the sample at the current (second) occasion. Optimal replacement strategy is also discussed. The concluding remarks are discussed justifying utility of the proposed sampling scheme. The results have been well supported analytically as well as empirically by using real life data.

The present work is an attempt to study the effect of non-response at both occasions in search of good successive (rotation) sampling over two occasions. A chain-type ratio and regression estimator has been proposed for estimating the population mean at current occasion in presence of non-response at both the occasion in two-occasion successive (rotation) sampling. Detail behaviors of proposed estimators have been studied. Proposed estimators are compared with the estimators for the same situations but in the absence of non-response. Performances of the proposed estimators have been demonstrated via empirical studies.

Destabilized heme proteins release heme, and free heme is toxic. Heme is now recognized as an agonist for the Toll-like receptor-4 (TLR4) receptor. This study examined whether the TLR4 receptor mediates the nephrotoxicity of heme, specifically, the effects of heme on renal blood flow and inflammatory responses. We blocked TLR4 signaling by the specific antagonist TAK-242. Intravenous administration of heme to mice promptly reduced renal blood flow, an effect attenuated by TAK-242. In vitro, TAK-242 reduced heme-elicited activation of NF-κB and its downstream gene monocyte chemoattractant protein-1(MCP-1); in contrast, TAK-242 failed to reduce heme-induced activation of the anti-inflammatory transcription factor Nrf2 and its downstream gene heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1). TAK-242 did not reduce heme-induced renal MCP-1 upregulation in vivo. TAK-242 did not reduce dysfunction and histological injury in the glycerol model of heme protein-induced acute kidney injury (AKI), findings corroborated by studies in TLR4+/+ and TLR4−/− mice. We conclude that 1) acute heme-mediated renal vasoconstriction occurs through TLR4 signaling; 2) proinflammatory effects of heme in renal epithelial cells involve TLR4 signaling, whereas the anti-inflammatory effects of heme do not; 3) TLR4 signaling does not mediate the proinflammatory effects of heme in the kidney; and 4) major mechanisms underlying glycerol-induced, heme protein-mediated AKI do not involve TLR4 signaling. These findings in the glycerol model are in stark contrast with findings in virtually all other AKI models studied to date and emphasize the importance of TLR4-independent pathways of heme protein-mediated injury in this model. Finally, these studies urge caution when using observations derived in vitro to predict what occurs in vivo.

Budd-Chiari syndrome (BCS) is a rare disease in population characterized by hepatic venous outflow obstruction at a site that may vary from the level of the small hepatic veins up to the junction of the inferior vena cava with the right atrium . Here we presented a case of 35 year old male who presented with abdominal pain, abdominal distension and leg oedema . Subsequent physical examination, laboratory data, abdominal ultrasonography and duplex study all confirmed the diagnosis of BCS with Protein C , protein S , and antithrombin III deficiency . But we were unable to detect whether these factor deficiency were primary or secondary. Genetic study may be used to elucidate the cause. Whether primary or secondary, standard protocol should be used to treat Budd Chiari syndrome with these factor deficiency. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/jbcps.v31i4.21009 J Bangladesh Coll Phys Surg 2013; 31: 223-226

Antheraea frithi Moore, the source of wild tasar silk, is an indigenous wild silk moth of north-east India. The detailed life history, bionomics and rearing performance of A. frithi in relation to a newly reported food plant, Terminalia arjuna (Roxb.) has been described in the present study. Life cycle of A. frithi has five larval instars. The first instar larva measures 1.98 ± 0.13 cm × 0.198 ± 0.010 cm in length and breadth and 0.0142 ± 0.002 g in weight while the fifth instar larva measures 6.98 ± 0.18 cm × 1.12 ± 0.13 cm in length and breadth and 4.76 ± 0.45 g in weight. Wing span of male and female is recorded as 11.4–13.5 and 13.0–14.7 cm respectively. The incubation period (6–7 days), larval duration (35–39 days), fecundity (162–176 eggs), hatching (78–81 %), effective rate of rearing (57–59 %) and cocoon yield (67–79 nos) has been recorded. The reelable cocoons with a filament length (mts) and filament denier (d) is 493–575 m and 4.6–5.3 respectively. The shell weight (g) of male and female cocoons measures as 0.19–0.39 and 0.2–0.6, respectively. The shell ratio (%) for male and female cocoons stands as 8.1–8.4 and 9.4–9.8 % respectively.

Double balloon enteroscopy (DBE) is a newly developed endoscopic modality for diagnosis and treatment of small bowel disorders. The aim of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic and therapeutic impact of DBE in patient with suspected small bowel disease. This was a prospective study. Sixty one double balloon enteroscopy procedures (30 antegrade 31 retrograde) were done in thirty six patients(20M/16F, mean age 40±12.5 range 16-65 years ) at gastroenterology department, Sir Salimullah Medical College, Dhaka between October 2011 and September 2012. Indications for DBE included chronic abdominal pain 14(38.9%), obscure GI bleeding 11(30.56%), Small bowel obstruction 05(13.89%), and chronic diarrhea 06(16.67%). The morphologic findings were ulcerations 13(36.11%), growth 03(8.33%), vascular ectasia 03(8.33%) and polyp 01(2.78%). Therapeutic interventions were performed in one patient only. No serious complications were observed. Diagnostic yields in case of chronic abdominal pain, chronic diarrhea, obscure GI bleeding and small bowel obstruction were 50%, 66%, 63% and 40% respectively. The findings were adenocarcinoma 04(11%), lymphoma 03(8.4%), tuberculosis 03(8.4%), non specific findings 05(13.9%), IPSID 01(2.8%), crohn’s disease 01(2.8%), vascular ectasia 03(8.33%) and normal 16(44.44%). DBE is well tolerated, feasible and useful technique for the diagnosis as well as treatment of small intestinal disorders. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bmrcb.v39i3.20311 Bangladesh Med Res Counc Bull 2013; 39: 116-119

Immunization currently averts an estimated 2-3 million deaths every year in all age groups. Hepatitis B is a major public health problem worldwide. In this study, the estimates of hepatitis B vaccine coverage are compared among three sampling plans namely, 30×30 sampling and 30×7 sampling method under cluster sampling and systematic random sampling schemes. The data has been taken from the survey “Comparison of Two Survey Methodologies to Estimate Total Vaccination Coverage” sponsored by Indian Council of Medical Research, New Delhi. It is observed that the estimations of proportions of this vaccination coverage are significantly not different at 5% level of probability. Both 30×30 sampling and 30×7 sampling will be preferred to systematic sampling in estimation of hepatitis B vaccine coverage for this study population because of quick estimation and lesser cost. The 30×7 cluster sampling is the most recommended method for such immunization coverage especially in a developing country.

Low birth weight (LBW) is defined as birth weight less than 2.5 kg. LBW infants remain at a relatively higher risk of mortality than those with normal birth weight. This is still a major public health problem in developing countries like India. Data from the third round of the National Family Health Survey were used for this study. The multivariable logistic regression model demonstrated a significant association between the reporting of birth weight, and education level and financial status. Furthermore, as the rate of parity increased, the odds for reporting of birth weights decreased in the northern, central and eastern regions of India.

The flow induced at the surface of a water body by a submerged heated horizontal turbulent jet was investigated experimentally with the aim of developing parameterizations for surface mean temperature/velocity fields. The jet nozzle diameter was fixed, the depth of the jet beneath the free surface was varied, and two jet Reynolds numbers (5020, 11300) were considered. The surface temperature was measured using a highly sensitive infrared camera, and the near-surface horizontal velocity field was measured using particle image velocimetry. The experimental results were explained using a model based on similarity solutions with variable turbulent viscosity. While classical Schlichting’s solution with constant turbulent viscosity predicts complete similarity for transverse velocity/temperature distributions only in a plane that coincides with the flow axis, the present solution predicts similarity in an arbitrary plane parallel to the flow axis, which was confirmed using data collected at the surface. Comparisons of present data with available previous results also showed general agreement.

The metal content in root, stem and leaves of the tea plants indicate higher association of Cu, Cr, Cd, Zn, Pb, Ni, Mn and Fe in roots, whereas, Na, K, Ca, Mg and Co were found in higher proportion in leaves of plants. Almost equal proportion of Cu, Zn and Co was observed in stem and leaves of plant. The higher association in root can be explained as the effect of restrictive translocation of metals retained by the cell walls. A portion of the higher association of metal content in leaves can be considered as the effect of aerosols because of non- stop flaring activities at the sites of oil installation.

The gluon momentum density xg ( x , Q 2 ) of the proton was extracted at Q 2 = 20 GeV 2 for small values of x between 4 × 10 −4 and 10 −2 from the scaling violations of the proton structure function F 2 measured recently by ZEUS in deep inelastic neutral current ep scattering at HERA. The extraction was performed in two ways. Firstly, using a global NLO fit to the ZEUS data on F 2 at low x constrained by measurementsfrom NMC at larger x ; and secondly using published approximate methods for the solution of the GLAP QCD evolution equations. Consistent results are obtained. A substantial increase of the gluon density is found at small x in comparison with the NMC result obtained at larger values of x .

Large volumes of data are continuously generated from clinical notes and diagnostic studies catalogued in electronic health records (EHRs). Echocardiography is one of the most commonly ordered diagnostic tests in cardiology. This study sought to explore the feasibility and reliability of using natural language processing (NLP) for large-scale and targeted extraction of multiple data elements from echocardiography reports. An NLP tool, EchoInfer, was developed to automatically extract data pertaining to cardiovascular structure and function from heterogeneously formatted echocardiographic data sources. EchoInfer was applied to echocardiography reports (2004 to 2013) available from 3 different on-going clinical research projects. EchoInfer analyzed 15,116 echocardiography reports from 1684 patients, and extracted 59 quantitative and 21 qualitative data elements per report. EchoInfer achieved a precision of 94.06%, a recall of 92.21%, and an F1-score of 93.12% across all 80 data elements in 50 reports. Physician review of 400 reports demonstrated that EchoInfer achieved a recall of 92-99.9% and a precision of >97% in four data elements, including three quantitative and one qualitative data element. Failure of EchoInfer to correctly identify or reject reported parameters was primarily related to non-standardized reporting of echocardiography data. EchoInfer provides a powerful and reliable NLP-based approach for the large-scale, targeted extraction of information from heterogeneous data sources. The use of EchoInfer may have implications for the clinical management and research analysis of patients undergoing echocardiographic evaluation.

A turbulent buoyant jet injected vertically into a slender cylinder containing a stratified fluid is investigated experimentally. The working fluid is water, and salt is used to change its density to obtain either a positively or negatively buoyant jet. The interest is the vertical density distribution in container and its dependence on time and other parameters. For each case (lighter or heavier jet) the experimental data could be collapsed into a ‘universal’ time dependent behavior, when properly non-dimensionalized. A theoretical model is advanced to explain the results. Possible applications include refilling of crude oil into U.S. strategic petroleum reserves caverns.

We investigate evidence of state-dependent correlation between Mexican Brady bond and Mexican Equity Fund returns between November 1990 and March 2000. During this timeframe, the Mexican capital market can be characterized by three distinct periods: pre-Peso crisis (November 1990–April 1993), the crisis years (May 1993–December 1996), and a period of recovery following the crisis. We find a statistical increase in correlation of returns from these instruments during the period surrounding the Peso crisis, and show that the correlation preceded the collapse of the Peso by 20 months. We also find that common fundamentals fail to explain the source of this correlation. However, using a regime switching model, state-dependent investor perceptions embedded in the Brady returns can explain the correlation pattern. Our evidence implies that time-varying correlation between debt and equity securities may be driven primarily by state-dependent investor perceptions about bond risk.

The migrations of tribal people and their changing attitude towards the forests are often held responsible for persistent deforestation in different parts of the world. Even though this discernment is based on facts, analyzing the circumstances that drag tribal people to such situations is also equally important. As per Kokrajhar district of Assam in India is concerned, although the overall growth of tribal population is lower than the growth of other population over the period 1961-2001, there was significantly higher growth rate of tribal population in forest area of the district. Meanwhile the share of tribal population in the non-forest area of the district was decreasing gradually. While, during the middle of the period, growth rate of non-tribal population in the forest area notably declined, during the recent decade there was a slide increase in it. Conversely, tribal population increased erratically during the middle of the period, but during the recent decade it did not only declined all of a sudden, nevertheless the growth rate collapsed to reach a negative value. Despite diminishing of tribal population, deforestation is going on at large scale in the district in recent years too. On the other hand, owing to the too much profit-making attitude of the forest department and devious tactics of some clever outsiders, the attitude of the tribal people towards the forest, who were forest friendly in olden times, is found to deviate substantially and seen to involve in detrimental activities of damaging forests.

Context: Cytological changes in terms of shape and size of nuclei are some of the common morphometric features to study breast cancer, which can be observed by careful screening of fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) images. Aims: This study attempts to categorize a collection of FNAC microscopic images into benign and malignant classes based on family of probability distribution using some morphometric features of cell nuclei. Materials and Methods: For this study, features namely area, perimeter, eccentricity, compactness, and circularity of cell nuclei were extracted from FNAC images of both benign and malignant samples using an image processing technique. All experiments were performed on a generated FNAC image database containing 564 malignant (cancerous) and 693 benign (noncancerous) cell level images. The five-set extracted features were reduced to three-set (area, perimeter, and circularity) based on the mean statistic. Finally, the data were fitted to the generalized Pearsonian system of frequency curve, so that the resulting distribution can be used as a statistical model. Pearsonian system is a family of distributions where kappa (Ò) is the selection criteria computed as functions of the first four central moments. Results and Conclusions: For the benign group, kappa (Ò) corresponding to area, perimeter, and circularity was −0.00004, 0.0000, and 0.04155 and for malignant group it was 1016942, 0.01464, and −0.3213, respectively. Thus, the family of distribution related to these features for the benign and malignant group were different, and therefore, characterization of their probability curve will also be different.

Carabeef samples were sliced, pressed, cured and divided into 6 groups. Starter cultures (Micrococcus varians M483 (MV), Staphylococcus carnosus (SC), Lactobacillus sakei (LS), M. varians M483+ Lb. sakei and Staph. carnosus + Lb. sakei) were inoculated at the dose of 10(6)-0(7)cfu/g and stored at 10 ± 1°C for 7 days. Uninoculated samples were maintained as control. Samples were then divided into 2 treatment groups. Samples of treatment 1 (T1) were smeared with a paste of turmeric followed by application of a thick layer of the paste of garlic, cumin, black pepper and red pepper whereas, samples of treatment 2 (T2) were applied with a thick layer of spices as above without turmeric. With the gradual fall in pH there was a reduction in water-holding capacity (WHC) of samples. The WHC of samples treated with SC+LS of T1 reduced to 6.3 ± 0.03 cm(2) and those inoculated with MV+LS of T2 to 6.2 ± 0.03 cm(2). The extract release volume (ERV) increased in all samples during storage. The least ERV of 11.7 and 11.6 ml were recorded in samples inoculated with MV of T1 and T2, respectively. The tyrosine (TV) and thiobarbituric acid (TBA) number of turmeric treated samples were significantly lower than non turmeric treated samples. The samples inoculated with LS had the least TV of 30.9 mg tyrosine/100 g of meat and TBA number of 0.06 mg manoladehyde/kg of meat. Samples inoculated with MV and LS of both T1 and T2 were better in physico-chemical qualities.