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Oil content in the seeds is between 35 - 40 % and the unsaturated fatty acid content in oil is 78-86% predominantly linoleic acid (45-73 %). Watermelon seed oil is effective for skin care as it is light, easily absorbable and has humectants properties. Watermelon seed oil also known as Otenga oil or Kalahari oil suitable for cosmeceutical applications. High acid value in oil will produce soap during transesterification process. High acid value of Watermelon oil necessitated acid pretreatment of the oil before transesterification. Free fatty acids (FFA) are produced by the hydrolysis of oils and fats. The free fatty acid value measures extent to which glycerides in the oil have been decomposed by lipase action. Free fatty acids for Watermelon seed oil was 2.5-3 %. The unsaturated fatty acid content of 77.4% and the high content of 63.2% of PUFA. The time of extraction increased yield of oil also increase and up to maximum level. The extraction of date seed oil carried out 2-6 hrs. Ihe optimum time for extraction is 4 hrs. Crushed seed in powdered form gives large surface area for solid-liquid contact. Due to small size particles increase rate as well as yield of extraction of oil from watermelon seed. Extraction carried out at boiling temperature of solvent should be better for rate and yield of extraction. Temperature for extraction with petroleum ether, methanol and hexane up to 40-50 OC.

Background CD3-based bispecific T cell engagers (bsTCEs) are one of the most promising bispecific antibodies for effective cancer treatments. To elicit target-specific T cell-mediated cytotoxicity, these bsTCEs contain at least one binding unit directed against a tumor antigen and another binding unit targeting CD3 in T cell receptor complex. Development of CD3-based bsTCEs, however, has been severely hampered by dose-limiting toxicities due to cytokine release syndrome. To address this limitation, we developed a novel functionally trivalent T cell engager (t-TCE) antibody containing affinity-reduced CD3 binding unit positioned to ensure monovalent CD3 engagement, in combination with bivalent tumor antigen binding of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA). Methods We modeled the variable region of anti-CD3 in the complementarity-determining regions of the heavy chain and obtained CD3 binders with reduced binding affinity. Two optimized versions CEA/CD3-v1 and CEA/CD3-v2 were identified and generated in tetravalent format, characterized and compared in vitro and in vivo for functional activity. Results Our lead candidate, CEA/CD3-v2, demonstrated subnanomolar binding and picomolar potency against a panel of CEA-expressing cancer cell lines. In addition, we detected reduced T cell cytokine release with potent cytotoxic activity. Our t-TCE CEA/CD3-v2 molecule demonstrated strong antitumor effect in a dose-dependent manner in human peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) xenograft model. Furthermore, combination of CEA/CD3-v2 with atezolizumab provided synergistic antitumor effect. Conclusions Because of its effective tumor cell killing in vitro and in vivo with reduced cytokine release, CEA/CD3 bsTCE may greatly benefit in CEA-positive cancer immunotherapy.

Synthetic approaches to bicyclo[4.2.0]octadiene natural products frequently employ the synthesis of linear tetraenes to initiate a biosynthetic 8π/6π-electrocyclization cascade. This work forges a functionalized bicyclo[4.2.0]octadiene in two steps from cyclooctatetraene. The versatility of this method is demonstrated through natural product synthesis, including the first total synthesis of kingianic acid A and formal syntheses of kingianins A, D, and F and cryptobeilic acid D ethyl ester. The unexpected formation of an

BACKGROUND Although the American Heart Association and other professional societies have recommended shared decision-making as a way for patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) or atrial flutter to make informed decisions about using anticoagulation (AC), the best method for facilitating shared decision-making remains uncertain. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study is to assess the AFib 2gether mobile app for usability, perceived usefulness, and the extent and nature of shared decision-making that occurred for clinical encounters between patients with AF and their cardiology providers in which the app was used. METHODS We identified patients visiting a cardiology provider between October 2019 and May 2020. We measured usability from patients and providers using the Mobile App Rating Scale. From the 8 items of the Mobile App Rating Scale, we reported the average score (out of 5) for domains of functionality, esthetics, and overall quality. We administered a 3-item questionnaire to patients relating to their perceived usefulness of the app and a separate 3-item questionnaire to providers to measure their perceived usefulness of the app. We performed a chart review to track the occurrence of AC within 6 months of the index visit. We also audio recorded a subset of the encounters to identify evidence of shared decision-making. RESULTS We facilitated shared decision-making visits for 37 patients visiting 13 providers. In terms of usability, patients’ average ratings of functionality, esthetics, and overall quality were 4.51 (SD 0.61), 4.26 (SD 0.51), and 4.24 (SD 0.89), respectively. In terms of usefulness, 41% (15/37) of patients agreed that the app improved their knowledge regarding AC, and 62% (23/37) agreed that the app helped clarify to their provider their preferences regarding AC. Among providers, 79% (27/34) agreed that the app helped clarify their patients’ preferences, 82% (28/34) agreed that the app saved them time, and 59% (20/34) agreed that the app helped their patients make decisions about AC. In addition, 32% (12/37) of patients started AC after their shared decision-making visits. We audio recorded 25 encounters. Of these, 84% (21/25) included the mention of AC for AF, 44% (11/25) included the discussion of multiple options for AC, 72% (18/25) included a provider recommendation for AC, and 48% (12/25) included the evidence of patient involvement in the discussion. CONCLUSIONS Patients and providers rated the app with high usability and perceived usefulness. Moreover, one-third of the patients began AC, and approximately 50% (12/25) of the encounters showed evidence of patient involvement in decision-making. In the future, we plan to study the effect of the app on a larger sample and with a controlled study design. CLINICALTRIAL ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04118270; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04118270 INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT RR2-21986

India's most popular sport is cricket and is played across all over the nation in different formats like T20, ODI, and Test. The Indian Premier League (IPL) is a national cricket match where players are drawn from regional teams of India, National Team and also from international team. Many factors like live streaming, radio, TV broadcast made this league as popular among cricket fans. The prediction of the outcome of the IPL matches is very important for online traders and sponsors. We can predict the match between two teams based on various factors like team composition, batting and bowling averages of each player in the team, and the team's success in their previous matches, in addition to traditional factors such as toss, venue, and day-night, the probability of winning by batting first at a specified match venue against a specific team. In this paper, we have proposed a model for predicting outcome of the IPL matches using Machine learning Algorithms namely SVM, Random Forest Classifier (RFC), Logistic Regression and K-Nearest Neighbor. Experimental results showed that the Random Forest algorithm outperforms other algorithms with an accuracy of 88.10%., Comment: 8 pages. Atlantis Highlights in Computer Sciences, Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Integrated Intelligent Computing Communication & Security ICIIC 2021

Introduction: Parathyroid ultrasound (US) is commonly used for pre-operative imaging to facilitate focused parathyroid surgery. It provides point-of-care imaging without ionizing radiation and is less expensive compared to nuclear scintigraphy or computed tomography (CT). Parathyroid US is, however, operator skill and experience dependent. Methods: The charts of all patient who underwent parathyroid surgery between 2016 and 2018 were reviewed. Investigators reviewed the pre-operative US images and correlated these findings with pathology reports, operative notes and with results of CT and nuclear scintigraphy imaging. The US characteristics of parathyroid lesions were described. Results: In total 146 patients underwent parathyroid surgery during the three-year study period. The average age of the cohort was 55.1 +/- 15.1 years and the male to female ratio was 1:2.6. The average pre-operative serum calcium and PTH levels were 11.6 +/- 0.9 mg/dL and 310.9 +/-305 pg/ml, respectively. 134 out of 138 patients with preoperative PTH US had images available for review by investigators. Compared to the pre-operative read that identified 106 lesions, 19 additional parathyroid lesions were identified: seven (36.8%) were easily identifiable lesions with typical US features, 3 (15.8%) were easily identifiable lesions with atypical US features, 5 (26.3%) were lesions adherent to the thyroid gland and 9 (47.4%) were small lesions that were likely only identified by the investigators due to knowledge of the final pathology and intraoperative findings. Forty-seven parathyroid lesions could not be identified by investigators and one or more of the following reasons were determined as possible explanations: lesion was small in size (14.9%), presence of a large thyroid gland (27.7%), location of the lesion deep in the neck or at an ectopic location (21.3%). The quality of stored images was inadequate in 31.9% of these cases. After review, 67.1% (compared to the actual detection rate of 61.3%) of parathyroid lesions should have been identified on preoperative US. Sixty percent of parathyroid lesions were left sided and 66.9% were inferior in location. The shapes observed were oval (48.8%), conforming (50.4%) or elongated (

Smartphone usage has increased in the recent past and has become an extension of the personal computer, so has the complexity of forensic investigation. Vital information on these devices makes them more critical especially when it is part of investigative evidences. The challenge here is the extraction of data, especially when the phone is logically or physically damaged. Chip-off is a niche technique, involving removal of Flash Memory chip with due sophistication, this then is subjected to direct extraction and analysis. Apple iPhones are robust and well locked; the study performed chip-off on model A1203 that revealed vital forensic evidences.

INTRODUCTION: Thyroid cancer is the most common endocrine malignancy. While thyroid nodules (TN) can been seen in up to 50% of the adult population, only about 5 percent of the nodules are malignant. Currently, management of TN involves risk stratification prior to biopsy using B-mode grey-scale ultrasound (US) characteristics including echogenicity, micro- and macrocalcifications, and margins. A less-subjective method of TN evaluation, shear wave elastography, has been evaluated but both the grey-scale classification and elastography are subject to operator and machine variability. This study assesses the use of quantitative ultrasound (QUS) to differentiate between malignant and benign thyroid nodules. B-mode appearance based on the radiofrequency (RF) signal envelope and discards much of the information in the RF signal. QUS uses the normalized power spectrum and extracts discarded RF signal information to obtain parameters that reflect scatterer size, concentration and relative acoustic impedance. The advantage of using QUS is that the parameter values reflect the microarchitecture (

Smartphone usage has increased in the recent past and has become an extension of the personal computer, so has the complexity of forensic investigation. Vital information on these devices makes them more critical especially when it is part of investigative evidences. The challenge here is the extraction of data, especially when the phone is logically or physically damaged. Chip-off is a niche technique, involving removal of Flash Memory chip with due sophistication, this then is subjected to direct extraction and analysis. Apple iPhones are robust and well locked; the study performed chip-off on model A1203 that revealed vital forensic evidences.

Thyroid cancer is the most-common endocrine malignancy in the world. The objective of this study was to investigate the suitability of quantitative ultrasound (QUS)for detecting thyroid cancer. Radio-frequency (RF)data were acquired from 53 patients using a GE Logiq E9 research ultrasound system equipped with a lO-MHz, ML6-l5 linear probe. QVS-estimate values, such as effective acoustic concentration (EAC), effective scatter diameter (ESD), and spectral parameters (i.e., midband fit (Mf), slope (SS), and intercept (I0))were derived using a reference-phantom method. Additional QUS estimates (i.e., μ and Ω)were derived from the envelope statistics of a Nakagami distribution. Estimate values were used to train a linear classifier, and performance was assessed using area-under-the-curve (AUC)values obtained from receiver operating characteristic (ROC)analyses based on lO-fold cross validation. Eight patients had pathology-confirmed thyroid cancer. A combination of EAC, I0, and μ produced an AUC value of 0.96. TI-RADS used alone by clinical thyroid sonographic experts produced an AUC of 0.94. A combination of TI-RADS, EAC, andμ produced an AUC value of 0.97. By achieving AUC values of 0.97, our initial results are very encouraging for developing a new objective and non-invasive tool for thyroid-cancer detection. These results suggest that QUS has promising potential to improve non-surgical evaluation of thyroid nodules.

Thyroid nodules suspicious for malignancy during clinical-ultrasound (US) evaluation undergo fine-needle-aspiration biopsy (FNAB) followed by cytological evaluation and, in indeterminate cases, an additional surgical intervention or molecular testing is recommended. Quantitative ultrasound (QUS) was investigated as a non-invasive approach to detect thyroid cancer and potentially reduce the currently large number of unnecessary FNABs. RF data were acquired from 225 nodules of 208 patients using a GE Logiq E9 US equipped with a 10-MHz linear-array probe. Five QUS estimates were computed throughout each nodule. Specifically, effective scatter diameter, effective scatter concentration, midband fit, and intercept were obtained using a reference-phantom method. The Nakagami shape parameter was computed using a maximum-likelihood estimator. Mean and standard deviations (SD) of QUS estimates within nodules were used for classification. QUS-based classification performance was quantified using area-under-the-curve (AUC) values obtained from receiver-operating- characteristic analyses. An AUC value of 0.77 was obtained using the SD of intercept alone; the value increased to 0.86 when five QUS estimates were linearly combined. Our in vivo results demonstrate the potential of QUS methods to detect cancerous nodules. Ultimately, the clinical protocol could be altered to prevent FNABs of nodules highly unlikely to be malignant based on QUS analysis.

Adaptive coded aperture sensing is an emerging technology enabling real time, wide-area IR/visible sensing and imaging. Exploiting unique imaging architectures, adaptive coded aperture sensors achieve wide field of view, near-instantaneous optical path repositioning, and high resolution while reducing weight, power consumption and cost of air- and space born sensors. Such sensors may be used for military, civilian, or commercial applications in all optical bands but there is special interest in diffraction imaging sensors for IR applications. Extension of coded apertures from Visible to the MWIR introduces the effects of diffraction and other distortions not observed in shorter wavelength systems. A new approach is being developed under the DARPA/SPO funded LACOSTE (Large Area Coverage Optical search-while Track and Engage) program, that addresses the effects of diffraction while gaining the benefits of coded apertures, thus providing flexibility to vary resolution, possess sufficient light gathering power, and achieve a wide field of view (WFOV). The photonic MEMS-Eyelid "sub-aperture" array technology is currently being instantiated in this DARPA program to be the heart of conducting the flow (heartbeat) of the incoming signal. However, packaging and scalability are critical factors for the MEMS "sub-aperture" technology which will determine system efficacy as well as military and commercial usefulness. As larger arrays with 1,000,000+ sub-apertures are produced for this LACOSTE effort, the available Degrees of Freedom (DOF) will enable better spatial resolution, control and refinement on the coding for the system. Studies (SNR simulations) will be performed (based on the Adaptive Coded Aperture algorithm implementation) to determine the efficacy of this diffractive MEMS approach and to determine the available system budget based on simulated bi-static shutter-element DOF degradation (1%, 5%, 10%, 20%, etc..) trials until the degradation level where it is perceived to necessitate component replacement. System performance impacts, from DOF degradation, will manifest in a spatially random method.

Background and Aims: Minimal consumption of local anesthetic and opioid for epidural labor analgesia has been advocated for safe obstetric outcome and superior maternal satisfaction. The primary objective of this study was to evaluate and compare the analgesic efficacy of mode of administration of epidural 0.1% ropivacaine with 0.0002% fentanyl via continuous infusion or intermittent boluses during labor. Material and Methods: Sixty term primi or second gravida healthy parturients in labor requesting epidural analgesia were recruited in this study. Lumbar epidural catheter was inserted, and analgesia initiated with 0.2% ropivacaine. Patients were randomized to receive ropivacaine 0.1% with fentanyl 0.0002% via either continuous infusion (Group A) or intermittent boluses (Group B) on an hourly basis. If the parturient complained of pain and visual analog scale (VAS) score was >3, an additional bolus of the study drug was given. VAS score, motor blockade, maternal hemodynamics and fetal heart sounds were frequently monitored . Side effects, mode of delivery and neonatal outcome were noted. Results: To achieve similar VAS, the mean total dose of ropivacaine was 18.78 ± 3.88 mg in Group A and 16.86 ± 4.3 mg in Group B, the difference being statistically significant (P = 0.04). Seventeen out of 30 patients in Group A that is, 56.6% and nine patients in Group B that is, 30% required additional top-ups, and this was significantly higher (P = 0.037). Side effects, mode of delivery and neonatal outcome were comparable in both groups. Conclusion: Intermittent bolus administration provides a more efficacious route of drug delivery when compared to continuous infusion by significantly decreasing the total amount of local anesthetic plus opioid without adversely affecting patient safety or maternal satisfaction.