Distributed Device Bus

Peripheral devices are hardware components that are connected to a computer and they supplement the functionality of a computer. Over the years, a huge improvement has been observed both in variety and capabilities of peripheral devices. Starting from the input/output and storage devices of early days, today's peripheral devices support all aspects of a computer, with peripherals like Graphical Processing Units (GPUs) even supplementing the computational capabilities of a processor. At the same time, the support for peripheral devices in computers has vastly improved. While the earlier computers only supported static configuration of devices, the plug-and-play capabilities in present day computers allow devices to be added or removed at run time, thus reducing the complexity of managing peripheral devices. Today, it is not an exaggeration to state that, beyond the computational capability of a computer, it is the peripheral devices that define the user experience. With the advancements in networking and distributed computing, the definition of what constitutes a computer has been blurred: Mainframes and Supercomputing clusters support batch processing, where processors/cores are treated as resources, and number of processors/cores available for a specific computation can be requested on demand. With cloud computing, users access services hosted across the Internet. However, usage models for peripheral devices have not caught up accordingly. For the most part, Peripheral devices are still limited to the computers they are physical attached to. Device virtualization solutions exist that can extend the device protocols over the network, enabling users to access devices connected to a different computer. However, these device virtualization solutions still need direct access to both the computer that has the device plugged in (Device Server) and to the computer that intends to use the device (Device Client) and they do not support remote plug-and-play. So, there is a need for a device consolidation framework that supports new device usage models that are in line with the evolving models of computation. In this thesis, we propose a framework called "Distributed Device Bus", which extends the concept of a conventional peripheral bus to include in its scope, the ports of all the computers that are connected over a network. Like a peripheral bus, a Distributed Device Bus is also associated with a computer called Master node. A Distributed Device Bus supports dynamic addition/deletion of ports and each of these ports can physically belong to any computer in the network. Computers that contribute ports to a Distributed Device Bus are called Provider nodes. A device plugged into any port that is assigned to a Distributed Device Bus is immediately made accessible to applications on master node. This device consolidation framework treats devices as a resource and access to a device is configurable rather than being limited to the computer the device is physically attached to

Prevalence of Obesity and its Influencing Factors in Affluent School Children of Tumkur: Lessons from South India

Background:Obesity is defined by WHO “as a condition of abnormal or excessive fat accumulation in adipose tissue, to the extent that health may be impaired”. The problem of childhood obesity is quite high in rich and affluent countries. 1. To estimate the prevalence of obesity among school children aged 6-15 years in three affluent schools of Tumkur. 2. To study the influencing factors of obesity among school children. Methods: Study Design: Case Control study. Study Settings: Three affluent schools of Tumkur city, Karnataka, South India. Sample size was2000 Students of three affluent schools and duration of study was fromJune to August 2014. Each Child’s height and weight were measured by adopting standard procedure. Body mass index (BMI) was calculated using BMI charts based on NCHS (national center for health statistics) standards. A child was considered obese if the BMI was > 95th percentile cutoff point which is specific to the age and sex of the child. To determine the association of (life style) influencing factors of obesity in children, mothers were interviewed in presence of children to gather information’ about their child’s daily (24 hour) activity. Results:Out of 2000 children 66 were obese. The prevalence was 3.3% in school children in the age group of 6-15 years in three affluent schools of Tumkur. In our study, Prevalence of obesity was more in boys (3.47%) on comparison to girls (3.04%). There is increased prevalence of obesity in age group of six, eleven and twelve years. In this study 77.2% cases spent less than 2 hrs in a day and 22.7% cases spent more than 2 hrs in physical activities. Prevalence of obesity was more in children who spent less than 2 hrs in a day in physical activities. This was statistically significant. Conclusions:Prevalence of obesity in school children aged 6-15 yrs is 3.3% in three affluent schools of Tumkur. Prevalence of obesity was more in boys on comparison with girls. Physical activity was the significant influencing factor of obesity among school children

Distributed Framework for Adaptive Explanatory Visualization

AbstractEducational tools designed to help students understand programming paradigms and learn programming languages are an important component of many academic curricula. This paper presents the architecture of a distributed event-based visualization system. We describe specialized content provision and visualization services and present two communication protocols in an attempt to explore the possibility of a standardized language

Comparison of effects of dexmedetomidine and clonidine as adjuvant to bupivacaine 0.25% in ultrasound guided supraclavicular brachial plexus block

Background: Ultrasound guided brachial plexus block is the preferred technique for surgeries on upper limb. Adjuvants are usually added to peripheral nerve blocks to increase their analgesic efficiency and duration. We compared analgesic effects of dexmedetomidine 1mcg/kg and clonidine 1mcg/kg as adjuvant to a low volume of bupivacaine in USG guided supraclavicular brachial plexus block.Methods: A prospective, randomized controlled, double blind study planned after permission from institutional ethics committee. Sixty ASA grade I, II patients, 18-60 years undergoing upper limb orthopedic surgery included. Group 1 (Control group) received 20 ml of 0.25% bupivacaine. Group 2 (Dexmedetomidine group) received 20ml of bupivacaine + dexmedetomidine (10 ml of 0.5% bupivacaine + 1µg/kg of dexmedetomidine, diluted with 0.9% NS to 20 ml) Group 3 (Clonidine group) received 20 ml of 0.25 bupivacaine + clonidine (10ml of 0.5% bupivacaine+1µ g/kg of clonidine, diluted with 0.9% NS to 20 ml) in USG guided supraclavicular brachial plexus block. Continuous variables analyzed with analysis of variance or Kruskal-Wallis test and categorical variables with Fisher’s exact test.Results: Pain free period was 864.90±357.16 minutes: dexmedetomidine group; 584.59±172.38 minutes: clonidine group, 431.78±138.40 minutes: control group with p< 0.001. VRS (verbal rating score) was significantly higher in control group as compared to dexmedetomidine at 4 hours but the pain scores were comparable between all the groups after 8 hours of block.Conclusions: Dexmedetomidine as an adjuvant to bupivacaine provides prolonged anaesthesia, better pain relief in early postoperative period with haemodynamically stable, calm patients compared to clonidine and control group

Study of Prevalence of Preoperative Corneal Astigmatism in Patients with Senile Cataract at a Tertiary Care Institute in South India

Background. The prevalence of corneal astigmatism in patients with cataract has not been well documented in both rural and urban areas of Indian population. Purpose. The aim of this study was to assess prevalence of corneal astigmatism before cataract surgery in adult age group population of rural Andhra Pradesh. Materials and methods. A Prospective, cross-sectional, and observational study was carried out from March 2019 to December 2019 in patients presenting for cataract surgery. Axial length, and intraocular lens power were measured, Keratometric values were measured with an auto refractokeratometer, and astigmatism was calculated. Data was analysed using SPSS software. Results. This study included 1000 eyes of 1000 patients with a mean age of 61.81 ± 8.94 years. The mean astigmatism was 0.80 ± 0.72 D and the mean keratometry was 44.12D ± 1.71 D. A total of less than 1D astigmatism is seen in 67.5% eyes, 23.3% eyes had astigmatism between 1.00 and 1.99 D, 4.6% eyes had 2-2.99D, and ≥3D in 0.8% eyes and no astigmatism in 3.8% eyes. Against the rule astigmatism was seen in 49.8% cases, with the rule astigmatism is found in 31.8% of eyes and oblique astigmatism in 14.9% of eyes. With the increasing age, the WTR percentage decreased while the ATR percentage increased. Conclusion. Our study showed that significant numbers of patients have preoperative corneal astigmatism, affecting the quality of vision after cataract surgery. Majority of patients have corneal astigmatism < 1.00D, which can be corrected by low-cost procedures like steep axis phaco, limbal relaxing incisions, and opposite clear corneal incisions, especially in developing countries like India, and less percentage of candidates require expensive toric IOLs

A Simple, Language-Independent Approach to Identifying Potentially At-Risk Introductory Programming Students

The Twenty-Third Australasian Computing Education Conference (ACE '21), Virtual Event, 2-4 February 2021For decades computing educators have been trying to identify and predict at-risk students, particularly early in the first programming course. These efforts range from the analyzing demographic data that pre-exists undergraduate entrance to using instruments such as concept inventories, to the analysis of data arising during education. Such efforts have had varying degrees of success, have not seen widespread adoption, and have left room for improvement. We analyse results from a two-year study with several hundred students in the first year of programming, comprising majors and non-majors. We find evidence supporting a hypothesis that engagement with extra credit assessment provides an effective method of differentiating students who are not at risk from those who may be. Further, this method can be used to predict risk early in the semester, as any engagement-not necessarily completion-is enough to make this differentiation. Additionally, we show that this approach is not dependent on any one programming language. In fact, the extra credit opportunities need not even involve programming. Our results may be of interest to educators, as well as researchers who may want to replicate these results in other settings.National Science Foundatio

Beach Morphological Characteristics and Coastal Processes Along Dakshina Kannada Coast, West Coast of India

Source: ICHE Conference Archive - https://mdi-de.baw.de/icheArchiv

Flashlights: An Off-Caustic Lensed Star at Redshift zz = 1.26 in Abell 370

We report the discovery of a transient seen in a strongly lensed arc at redshift $z_{\rm s}=1.2567$ in \emph{Hubble Space Telescope} imaging of the Abell 370 galaxy cluster. The transient is detected at $29.51\pm0.14$ AB mag in a WFC3/UVIS F200LP difference image made using observations from two different epochs, obtained in the framework of the \emph{Flashlights} program, and is also visible in the F350LP band ($m_{\rm F350LP}\sim30.53$ AB). The transient is observed on the negative-parity side of the critical curve at a distance of $\sim 0.6''$ from it, greater than previous examples of lensed stars. The large distance from the critical curve yields a significantly smaller macro-magnification, but our simulations show that bright, O/B-type supergiants can reach sufficiently high magnifications to be seen at the observed position and magnitude. In addition, the observed transient image is a trailing image with an observer-frame time delay of $\sim+0.8$ days from its expected counterpart, so that any transient lasting for longer than that should have also been seen on the minima side and is thus excluded. This, together with the blue color we measure for the transient ($m_{\rm F200LP} - m_{\rm F350LP} \sim [-0.7,-1]$ AB mag), rules out most other transient candidates such as (kilo)novae, for example, and makes a lensed star the prime candidate. Assuming the transient is indeed a lensed star as suggested, many more such events should be detected in the near future in cluster surveys with the \emph{Hubble Space Telescope} and \emph{James Webb Space Telescope}.Comment: 11 pages. 5 figures. Comments are welcom

Professional Competencies in Computing Education

Competency-based learning has been a successful pedagogical approach for centuries, but only recently has it gained traction within computing. Competencies, as defined in Computing Curricula 2020, comprise knowledge, skills, and professional dispositions. Building on recent developments in competency and computing education, this working group examined relevant pedagogical theories, investigates various skill frameworks, reviewed competencies and standard practices in other professional disciplines such as medicine and law. It also investigated the integrative nature of content knowledge, skills, and professional dispositions in defining professional competencies in computing education. In addition, the group explored appropriate pedagogies and competency assessment approaches. It also developed guidelines for evaluating student achievement against relevant professional competency frameworks and explores partnering with employers to offer students genuine professional experience. Finally, possible challenges and opportunities in moving from traditional knowledge-based to competency-based education were also examined. This report makes recommendations to inspire educators of future computing professionals and smooth students' transition from academia to employment