Key to Success of Offshore Outsourcing

With the proliferating growth in technology and Innovation and the necessity to use new technology skills, outsourcing has become a notable trend in the IT industry. Characterized by USP\u27s like cost-effectiveness and timeliness, outsourcing companies has surged tremendously in the last decade. However, amidst the entire buzz, outsourcing has contributed to some major failures at recent times (A & M, 2016). That has even made organizations to critically think before going forward with an off-shore outsourcing company. A substantial issue on organizational capability and on-time delivery has questioned the very foundation of its efficiency. This has now leaded to surface some very extreme opinions about outsourcing, with rave reviews on good/ bad. Software Development outsourcing encompasses a contract based voluntary relationship between vendors and clients, wherein a client outsources a part or all the business activities to the concerned vendor. However, an offshore outsourcing demands completely different capabilities as against a domestic outsourcing. To begin with, firms associating with off-shore outsourcing must need to compete against language constraints, cultural differences, contrasts in time zones and also the organizational structures. Next, an off-shore outsourcing has a far greater impact than a domestic outsourcing with the above constraints introduced before. With regards to the core knowledge capabilities, there calls for probable risks so as to understand the level of efficiency of the outsourcing companies (A & M, 2016). Together with the differences in legal laws, risks related to data security, privacy and intellectual property can be critical too. Such disadvantages in outsourcing can be a high limiting factor to the growth of these offshore outsourcing, hence it must, therefore, be necessary to understand the level of efficiency of an offshore outsourcing team before relying on them

Congestion Control By Using Adaptive Data Rate Technique with High Bandwidth in Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless sensor network one of the most favourite topic for researcher to explore. Wireless sensor networks is very useful so more number of sensor nodes are deploying and large number of data being sensed and collected. To meet the expectations of demands networks should be in safe and good state. Problems in wireless sensor networks are congestion and wastage of energy. So it's necessary to control the congestion and minimize the energy consumption. Congestion causes heavy data loss and unnecessary retransmission of data. Congestion causes by many reasons. There are some techniques and algorithms which can control the congestion at some degree. Here we have suggested technique which can do a Congestion Control with High bandwidth in networks. Amount of congestion in network can be decided by maximum and minimum threshold values that can assign in initial phase of algorithm

ORIF of Radius and Ulna Video Demonstration

Video is an emerging medium that has become an invaluable resource within education. It allows for a multisensory, both visual and auditory, means for students to learn quickly and effectively. We hope to contribute to a growing peer-reviewed video library using this technology

Analysis of plasma chemokines and circulating tumour cells in colorectal and breast cancer patient peripheral blood

Circulating tumour cells (CTCs) provide a prognostic value in solid tumours including colorectal and breast. Enumeration of tumour cells from blood is becoming a common practice in informing prognosis and may guide therapy decisions. Enumeration alone does not capture heterogeneity of tumours and varying functional abilities of the CTCs to interact with the secondary microenvironment. Characterizing the isolated CTCs and assessing their functional abilities can track molecular changes in the disease progress. As a step toward identifying functional features of CTCs that could aid in clinical decisions, this study was aimed at analyzing chemokine release profile in drug resistance and developing a CTC isolation technique based on extracellular matrix interactions. Cancer cells release different chemokines and express chemokine receptors which together work to direct cell infiltrates in the tumour microenvironment. This work examined changes in the profile of chemokine release using a model of drug resistance based on the colorectal cancer cell line HT29 and its counterpart HT29-R that is resistant to the late-stage chemotherapy drug irinotecan (SN-38). Following an initial screening of mRNA expression through PCR and qPCR, five of the chemokines (CCL2, CCL15, CXCL8, CXCL12, and CCL20) were analyzed further for their release patterns amongst cell lines and peripheral blood of healthy volunteers and stage IV colorectal and breast cancer patients. The release pattern of chemokines in patient samples differed from the results of the in vitro drug-resistance model. Specific tumour location, previous therapies, and genetic variability are all examples of the factors that may provide unique patterns and complicate modelling for chemokine release in late-stage cancer. A detailed analysis revealed an upward trend for midkine (NEGF2) when baseline and 12 months plasma samples were compared. Migration studies may further reveal the consequences of this expression profile. Migration assays were carried out with Transwell® chambers and HepG2 cells to partially mimic the hepatic microenvironment. Such studies can guide future functional studies for isolated CTCs. We next sought to investigate extracellular matrix protein interactions, which might depend on a changing chemokine milieu. We utilized cancer cells’ ability to adhere to extracellular matrix and created a platform to isolate CTCs from the peripheral blood samples. A total of 14 colorectal and 7 breast cancer patients donated blood samples. Adhesion assays were performed with a range of different ECM proteins. We identified an optimal ECM substratum composed of collagen and fibronectin at a mass coating ratio of 2:1. The isolated CTCs were identified through immunofluorescence with epithelial marker antibodies (EpCAM and pan-cytokeratin). Identification of CTCs was further confirmed by exclusion with a hematopoietic origin marker CD45. The captured number of cells ranged from 0 to 296, whereas the mean number was 26 and the median was 22 per patient sample (~8mL). This technique not only allows enumeration, but also isolates cells based on a functional approach. The isolated cells are successful in adhering to extracellular matrix proteins and can be further characterized through functional markers. Overall, this study addresses two unique functional features of CTCs – their expression of certain chemokines and their ability to interact with both fibronectin and collagen - that form the basis to provide future clinical utility. Such an approach will help to inform clinicians about the aggressive nature of an individual tumour and guide treatment decisions toward best prognostic outcomes

Evaluating the effectiveness of the pedestrian safety intervention program: Behavioral and observational approach

Pedestrians are considered as the most vulnerable road users. On a nationwide scale, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, there were 6,075 pedestrian fatalities and more than 85,000 pedestrian injuries as a result of traffic crashes in 2017. This study provides national and state pedestrian fatality statistics, a systematic literature review of pedestrian injury severity, observational (video-based) & behavioral (survey-based) evaluation of the Street-Smart NJ pedestrian safety intervention campaign. Street-Smart NJ is a public education, awareness, and behavioral change campaign program that aims to improve pedestrian safety by increasing awareness of pedestrian safety risks and improving compliance with pedestrian and motorist laws. To do so, before and after campaign data was collected, and several statistical analyses were performed accordingly. In terms of the behavioral study, significant improvements in terms of pedestrian behaviors (i.e., crossing against the signal or outside the crosswalk) and driver behaviors (e.g., drivers not stopping for pedestrians in crosswalk) after the Street-Smart NJ campaign was reported. The observational study also showed significant improvements in pedestrian behaviors (i.e., crossing against the signal or outside the crosswalk) and driver behaviors (e.g., drivers not stopping for pedestrians in crosswalk) in most of the study communities following the Street-Smart NJ campaign

Say What? Barriers to Medical Interpretation at Hershey Medical Center

Previous literature demonstrates that the use of medical interpreters improves the quality of health care for patients with limited English proficiency (LEP); however, this resource is critically underutilized. We surveyed third- and fourth-year medical students, as well as internal medicine residents, to assess barriers to using medical interpreters and solutions to overcoming these barriers. These trainees indicated time (51.32%), access (32.90%) and improper training (7.46%) as the most significant barriers, and suggested formalized training on medical interpretation as a possible solution. The proportion of students reporting each of these perceived barriers did not significantly differ based on level of training (p = 0.31). The effects of formalized training on trainees’ comfort using these services and on the care provided to patients with LEP warrants future study

Robots at Work: How will Artificial Intelligence in the Workplace affect Higher Education?

We examine the impact of automation technology on the labor market and assess how this affects higher education. To do so, we begin by analyzing automation in the past and how it affected the labor market. In the second section, we analyze the state of the upcoming automation technology and the “human skills” it has acquired. We then analyze the education and skills relating to various occupations and link it to the data on occupational probabilities of automation. To gauge the automation probability of these skills, we assess their category based on 18 key human competencies which have been studied and have associated rates of automation potentials from a study by McKinsey Global Institute, 2017. Findings show that nearly 42% of Canadian labor is at high risk of being affected by automation and about 18% of the labor has at least 70% of their work activities that can be automated

Evaluation of Screening Tool of Older Persons’ Prescriptions/Screening Tool to Alert to Right Treatment and Beers Criteria Practice in Geriatric Patients

1.INTRODUCTION: Given that seniors make up most drug users, rational drug use is especially important in this population. The growing incidence of pathological medical disorders makes this topic especially important for the healthcare industry. The pharmacokinetic changes and possible susceptibility to specific medications, especially those that influence the central nervous system and can cause adverse drug reactions, cause elderly persons\u27 medication responses to differ. Owing to several comorbidities, older people are more likely to engage in polypharmacy, or the use of five or more medications. This increases the risk of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) and drug interactions, which can lead to inadequate therapy and extended hospital stays. Mark H. Beers created the crucial Beers Criteria in 1991 as a set of recommendations for safe medication prescription in the elderly. Their goals are to identify drugs that should be avoided, limit inappropriate prescribing, and prevent adverse drug reactions (ADRs). To optimise medicine selection, these evidence-based recommendations are applied in all care settings, except for hospice and palliative care.2. AIM: “Evaluation of Screening Tool of Older Persons’ Prescriptions/Screening Tool to Alert to Right Treatment and Beers criteria practice in geriatric patients.”3. OBJECTIVE• Assessing Adherence to Beers Criteria Standards in geriatric patients.• To evaluate specific adverse drug responses (ADRs) linked to different prescription regimens used.• To determine the association between number of PIMs prescribed with total number of drugs prescribed.4. METHOD: Data were gathered from 153 individuals, all of whom were older than 65. and used Google Forms to examine and understand. This study will ascertain the prevalence of PIMs as well as the relationship between the total number of prescription drugs prescribed.5.RESULT: The study found that 58.16% of patients were male, with 41.83% female. The majority were aged 65-70. The majority were admitted to general medicine, followed by cardiology and pulmonology. Hypertension was the most prevalent condition, followed by ischemic heart disease and type 2 diabetes. A study found that 13.07% of prescriptions were filled with 12 medications, indicating polypharmacy in older patients. Polypharmacy was prevalent (67.02%). Most prescriptions contained 4 or more PIMs; pantoprazole was prescribed to 89.1% of patients being the most prescribed PIMs. Diuretics were prescribed to 46.50% of patients, with furosemide being the most prescribed diuretic. R=0.498 indicates a medium positive association between the quantity of prescription medications and PIMs.6. CONCLUSION: The fact that every prescription under consideration contained at least one PIM suggested that the hospital\u27s prescribing practices were illogical. This study emphasizes how important it is to make doctors and chemists knowledgeable about standards or criteria, such as the Beers criterion and STOPP/START criteria to practice safer prescribing practices for senior patients

Differentiable JPEG: The Devil is in the Details

JPEG remains one of the most widespread lossy image coding methods. However, the non-differentiable nature of JPEG restricts the application in deep learning pipelines. Several differentiable approximations of JPEG have recently been proposed to address this issue. This paper conducts a comprehensive review of existing diff. JPEG approaches and identifies critical details that have been missed by previous methods. To this end, we propose a novel diff. JPEG approach, overcoming previous limitations. Our approach is differentiable w.r.t. the input image, the JPEG quality, the quantization tables, and the color conversion parameters. We evaluate the forward and backward performance of our diff. JPEG approach against existing methods. Additionally, extensive ablations are performed to evaluate crucial design choices. Our proposed diff. JPEG resembles the (non-diff.) reference implementation best, significantly surpassing the recent-best diff. approach by $3.47$dB (PSNR) on average. For strong compression rates, we can even improve PSNR by $9.51$dB. Strong adversarial attack results are yielded by our diff. JPEG, demonstrating the effective gradient approximation. Our code is available at https://github.com/necla-ml/Diff-JPEG.Comment: Accepted at WACV 2024. Project page: https://christophreich1996.github.io/differentiable_jpeg/ WACV paper: https://openaccess.thecvf.com/content/WACV2024/html/Reich_Differentiable_JPEG_The_Devil_Is_in_the_Details_WACV_2024_paper.htm