Mapping General System Characteristics to Non- Functional Requirements

The Function point analysis (FPA) method is the preferred scheme of estimation for project managers to determine the size, effort, schedule, resource loading and other such parameters. The FPA method by International Function Point Users Group (IFPUG) has captured the critical implementation features of an application through fourteen general system characteristics. However, Non- functional requirements (NFRs) such as functionality, reliability, efficiency, usability, maintainability, portability, etc. have not been included in the FPA estimation method. This paper discusses some of the NFRs and tries to determine a degree of influence for each of them. An attempt to factor the NFRs into estimation has been made. This approach needs to be validated with data collection and analysis.Comment: 5 page

Quantifying the non-Gaussianity in the EoR 21-cm signal through bispectrum

The epoch of reionization (EoR) 21-cm signal is expected to be highly non-Gaussian in nature and this non-Gaussianity is also expected to evolve with the progressing state of reionization. Therefore the signal will be correlated between different Fourier modes ($k$). The power spectrum will not be able capture this correlation in the signal. We use a higher-order estimator -- the bispectrum -- to quantify this evolving non-Gaussianity. We study the bispectrum using an ensemble of simulated 21-cm signal and with a large variety of $k$ triangles. We observe two competing sources driving the non-Gaussianity in the signal: fluctuations in the neutral fraction ($x_{\rm HI}$) field and fluctuations in the matter density field. We find that the non-Gaussian contribution from these two sources vary, depending on the stage of reionization and on which $k$ modes are being studied. We show that the sign of the bispectrum works as a unique marker to identify which among these two components is driving the non-Gaussianity. We propose that the sign change in the bispectrum, when plotted as a function of triangle configuration $\cos{\theta}$ and at a certain stage of the EoR can be used as a confirmative test for the detection of the 21-cm signal. We also propose a new consolidated way to visualize the signal evolution (with evolving $\overline{x}_{\rm HI}$ or redshift), through the trajectories of the signal in a power spectrum and equilateral bispectrum i.e. $P(k)-B(k, k, k)$ space.Comment: 18 pages, 11 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS. Replaced to match the accepted versio

Awareness of nursing students towards cancer and their comparison with medical students

Background: Cancer is the 2nd leading cause of mortality worldwide. The three leading cancers in India are cervical cancer, breast cancer and upper aerodigestive tract carcinoma. Cervical carcinoma is the 2nd most common cancer in women next to breast carcinoma. This study has been done to assess the knowledge, causation and preventive methods about the common cancers in India amongst Medical and Nursing students in a tertiary care center in rural Kerala. Preventive measures and early diagnosis of cancer can lead to decrease in mortality and morbidity. This can be achieved by creating awareness. A special emphasis has been made regarding cervical cancer and HPV vaccination in this study.Methods: A total of 337 medical and 148 nursing students from 1st year to final year were included in this study and the results were analysed by descriptive statistics.Results: Out of 337 medical and 148 nursing students, there was significant difference in knowledge between pretest/posttest and amongst the medical/nursing students. Medical students were found be more aware about the cancer, their causation and preventive methods as compared to the nursing students. 76.4% of nursing students were aware about the role of HPV (Human Papilloma Virus) in the causation of cervical cancer pretest. 98.6% of nursing students were aware about the role of HPV in causation of cervical cancer posttest following a short lecture. Following a short lecture both medical and nursing students were found to have more awareness.Conclusions: Creating awareness to the medical and nursing students who are intouch with the community and the patients is essential. Targeted health education in very important in creating a great impact about the knowledge of cancer in the community, thereby leading to decrease in mortality and morbidity

Involvement of B cells in non-infectious uveitis

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Non-infectious uveitis—or intraocular inflammatory disease—causes substantial visual morbidity and reduced quality of life amongst affected individuals. To date, research of pathogenic mechanisms has largely been focused on processes involving T lymphocyte and/or myeloid leukocyte populations. Involvement of B lymphocytes has received relatively little attention. In contrast, B-cell pathobiology is a major field within general immunological research, and large clinical trials have showed that treatments targeting B cells are highly effective for multiple systemic inflammatory diseases. B cells, including the terminally differentiated plasma cell that produces antibody, are found in the human eye in different forms of non-infectious uveitis; in some cases, these cells outnumber other leukocyte subsets. Recent case reports and small case series suggest that B-cell blockade may be therapeutic for patients with non-infectious uveitis. As well as secretion of antibody, B cells may promote intraocular inflammation by presentation of antigen to T cells, production of multiple inflammatory cytokines and support of T-cell survival. B cells may also perform various immunomodulatory activities within the eye. This translational review summarizes the evidence for B-cell involvement in non-infectious uveitis, and considers the potential contributions of B cells to the development and control of the disease. Manipulations of B cells and/or their products are promising new approaches to the treatment of non-infectious uveitis

Age-related change in flicker thresholds with rod- and cone-enhanced stimuli

Purpose Rod and cone photoreceptor-specific tests can be time-consuming. A new non-invasive test is described. The test is based on the measurement of flicker modulation thresholds with rod- and cone-enhanced visual stimuli, which requires only minimum adaptation time. Here, we investigated how the rod-and cone-mediated flicker thresholds vary with age. Methods Monocular thresholds with rod and cone–enhanced stimuli were measured in 140 healthy adults, (age range: 18–75 years), foveally (0°) and at four parafoveal locations, at an eccentricity of 5° in each of the four quadrants using five, adaptive, interleaved staircases. Temporal frequencies, stimulus sizes, background luminance and spectral composition, were adjusted appropriately to achieve approximately 1 log unit separation in sensitivity between the rod- and cone-enhanced stimuli. Spectrally calibrated, ‘neutral density’ filters were used to enable adequate control of display luminance for rod enhanced stimuli. Results The magnitude of central and parafoveal rod thresholds was significantly higher than the central and parafoveal cone thresholds, respectively (p 45 years (Spearman correlation, ρ = 0.74, p < 0.001) compared to age ≤ 45 years (ρ = 0.41, p < 0.001). Conclusions Thresholds with rod- and cone-enhanced stimuli are largely invariant below 45 years of age and increase rapidly above this age. This age-wise normative database can be used as an effective functional-marker to assess photoreceptor sensitivities in retinal diseases

The CMBR ISW and HI 21-cm Cross-correlation Angular Power Spectrum

The late-time growth of large scale structures (LSS) is imprinted in the CMBR anisotropy through the Integrated Sachs Wolfe (ISW) effect. This is perceived to be a very important observational probe of dark energy. Future observations of redshifted 21-cm radiation from the cosmological neutral hydrogen (HI) distribution hold the potential of probing the LSS over a large redshift range. We have investigated the possibility of detecting the ISW through cross-correlations between the CMBR anisotropies and redshifted 21-cm observations. Assuming that the HI traces the dark matter, we find that the ISW-HI cross-correlation angular power spectrum at an angular multipole l is proportional to the dark matter power spectrum evaluated at the comoving wave number l/r, where r is the comoving distance to the redshift from which the HI signal originated. The amplitude of the cross-correlation signal depends on parameters related to the HI distribution and the growth of cosmological perturbations. However the cross-correlation is extremely weak as compared to the CMBR anisotropies and the predicted HI signal. As a consequence the cross-correlation signal is smaller than the cosmic variance, and a statistically significant detection is not very likely.Comment: 13 pages, 4 eps figures, submitte

Awareness of medical students towards cancer

Background: Cancer is the second leading cause of mortality worldwide. Amongst the cancers, the three leading cancers in India which causes high mortality and morbidity includes cervical cancer, breast cancer and upper aerodigestive tract carcinoma. High mortality and morbidity due to cancers can be reduced by preventive measures and early diagnosis of cancer, which can be achieved by creating awareness.Methods: A total of 337 medical students from 1st year to 4th year (1st year students-preclinical, 2nd year students-paraclinical and 3rd and 4th year students- clinical students) were included in this study and the results were analysed by descriptive statistics, Pearson’s Chi square test and paired ‘t’ test.Results: Out of 337 students, 120 were males, 204 were females and 13 students have not mentioned their gender. There was significant difference in knowledge of the students between pretest and posttest (following a short lecture) and amongst the preclinical, paraclinical and clinical students. Clinical students were found be more aware about the cancer compared to the preclinical and paraclinical students.Conclusions: Creating awareness to the medical students who are future doctors is the need of the hour. A short talk on cancer awareness can create a great impact on the awareness

Polarized micro-Raman studies of femtosecond laser written stress-induced optical waveguides in diamond

Understanding the physical mechanisms of the refractive index modulation induced by femtosecond laser writing is crucial for tailoring the properties of the resulting optical waveguides. In this work we apply polarized Raman spectroscopy to study the origin of stress-induced waveguides in diamond, produced by femtosecond laser writing. The change in the refractive index induced by the femtosecond laser in the crystal is derived from the measured stress in the waveguides. The results help to explain the waveguide polarization sensitive guiding mechanism, as well as providing a technique for their optimization.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Toward Epoch of Reionization Measurements with Wide-Field Radio Observations

This paper explores the potential for statistical epoch of reionization (EOR) measurements using wide field radio observations. New developments in low frequency radio instrumentation and signal processing allow very sensitive EOR measurements, and the analysis techniques enabled by these advances offer natural ways of separating the EOR signal from the residual foreground emission. This paper introduces the enabling technologies and proposes an analysis technique designed to make optimal use of the capabilities of next generation low frequency radio arrays. The observations we propose can directly observe the power spectrum of the EOR using relatively short observations, and are significantly more sensitive than other techniques which have been discussed in the literature. For example, in the absence of foreground contamination the measurements we propose would produce five 3-sigma power spectrum points in 100 hours of observation with only 4 MHz bandwidth with LOFAR for simple models of the high redshift 21cm emission. The challenge of residual foreground removal may be addressed by the symmetries in the three-dimensional (two spatial frequencies and radiofrequency) radio interferometric data. These symmetries naturally separate the EOR signal from most classes of residual un-subtracted foreground contamination, including all foreground continuum sources and radio line emission from the Milky Way.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ. Symmetry discussion has been expanded and clarified, and emphasis on the ability of the analysis to remove galactic radio recombination lines and other contaminants has been added. Introduction generalized to include other radio telescopes, and one minor equation typo has been corrected. 12 pages 7 figures, emulateapj syl