Procalcitonin as a marker for the diagnosis of sepsis

Background: Quick diagnosis of sepsis in intensive care unit patients is challenging for physicians.Methods: The prospective study was conducted at our hospital. We studied the efficacy of procalcitonin as a marker of sepsis in 87 adults admitted to our intensive care unit with symptoms of systemic infection. The study samples included all patients aged above 18 years with acute sepsis. Statistical analyses were done using SPSS. PCT and various other relevant factors were measured in all study subjects. PCT levels of less than 0.1 ng/ml were considered negative; all other levels were considered positive.Results: PCT proved to be an excellent indicator of sepsis. Serum PCT levels predicts mortality in the present study.Conclusions: PCT is among the most promising sepsis markers capable of completing clinical signs and routine lab parameters suggestive of severe infection

SPECTRAL-SPATIAL CLASSIFICATION OF HYPERSPECTRAL REMOTE SENSING IMAGES USING VARIATIONAL AUTOENCODER AND CONVOLUTION NEURAL NETWORK

In this paper, we propose a spectral-spatial feature extraction framework based on deep learning (DL) for hyperspectral image (HSI) classification. In this framework, the variational autoencoder (VAE) is used for extraction of spectral features from two widely used hyperspectral datasets- Kennedy Space Centre, Florida and University of Pavia, Italy. Additionally, a convolutional neural network (CNN) is utilized to obtain spatial features. The spatial and spectral feature vectors are then stacked together to form a joint feature vector. Finally, the joint feature vector is trained using multinomial logistic regression (softmax regression) for prediction of class labels. The classification performance analysis is done through generation of the confusion matrix. The confusion matrix is then used to calculate Cohen’s Kappa (Κ) to get a quantitative measure of classification performance. The results show that the K value is higher than 0.99 for both HSI datasets

VIBRATIONAL ANALYSIS OF QUARTER CAR VEHICLE DYNAMIC SYSTEM SUBJECTED TO HARMONIC EXCITATION BY ROAD SURFACE

A front suspension of Hyundai Elantra 1992 model is assigned as quarter car model and is considered for the performance study. Modeling the dynamic performance of an automobile car system represents a complex task and forms an important step in its design procedure. In this paper the stationary response of quarter car vehicle model moving with a constant velocity over a rough road is considered for the performance study. For this a simplified model and experimental set up is developed. The deterministic impulses due to road profile are given by an eccentric cam which gives input motion to front suspension acting as a follower of the cam. The displacements obtained by FFT analyzer at upper mount of shock absorber were compared with the analytical and MATLAB results

100 Years of Scientific Evolution of Work and Organizational Psychology: A Bibliometric Network Analysis From 1919 to 2019

In this study, we explore a 100 years of Work and Organizational Psychology (WOP). To do this, we carry out a bibliometric performance and network analysis (BPNA) to understand the evolution structure and the most important themes in the field of study. To perform the BNPA, 8,966 documents published since 1919 were exported from the Web of Science and Scopus databases. The SciMAT software was used to process data and to create the evolution structure, the strategic diagram, and the thematic network structure of the strategic themes of the field of WOP. We identified 29 strategic clusters and discuss the most important themes (motor themes) and their relationship with other clusters. This research presents the complete evolution of the field of study, identifying emerging themes and others with a high degree of development. We hope that this work will support researchers and future research in the field of WOP

Reinventing proactive personality: A new construct and measurement

The construct of proactive personality (Bateman & Crant, 1993) has been studied for several decades because of its relevance to various organizational and individual outcomes (Fuller & Marler, 2009; Thomas, Whitman, & Viswesvaran, 2010; Tornau & Frese, 2012; and others). However, as research findings accumulated, some questions have arisen about the definition and structure of proactive personality and about its relationship with outcome variables, other dispositional constructs, and with similar proactivity related constructs (Bindl & Parker, 2010; Grant & Ashford, 2008; Parker & Collins, 2010). Proactive personality was originally conceptualized by Bateman and Crant (1993) as a unidimensional construct and was defined as a stable behavioral tendency to bring about change. This dissertation research proposed and tested a new model of proactive personality that may integrate and explain disparate findings from past research. After a preliminary investigation built a case for multidimensionality, a tripartite model of proactive personality was conceptualized and tested in Study 1. As a result, a new reliable 14-item tripartite Proactive Personality Scale was developed based on factor analytic findings. In Study 2, the new scale was validated; the tripartite Proactive Personality Scale and its subscales were found to have acceptable criterion and construct (i.e., convergent and discriminant) validity. Based on the findings, the author of this dissertation proposes that the tripartite Proactive Personality Scale be considered as an alternative to the original Proactive Personality Scale (Bateman & Crant, 1993) when assessing dispositional proactivity because it offers prediction with high granularity. The tripartite Proactive Personality Scale promises to provide both a more analytic and a more comprehensive conceptual and measurement model for dispositional proactivity

Solvent extraction separation of thorium(IV) from nitric acid with Cyanex 272

406-408Thorium(IV) has been quantitatively extracted from 1×10-3 M nitric acid with 1×10-3 M Cyan ex 272 in xylene. It has been stripped from the organic phase with 4 M hydrochloric acid and determined spectrophotometrically as its complex with Arsenazo(III) at 655 nm. The method developed has been applied for the separation of thorium(IV) from chromium(VI), vanadium(V), hafnium(IV), zirconium(IV), titanium(IV), iron(III), cobalt (II), calcium(II) and some rare earth elements. The applicability of the method has been checked for separation of thorium(IV) from associated elements in the synthetic mixtures and monazite sand.The method is simple, rapid and selective for thorium(IV) with a relative standard deviation of 0.27%