Tunable and Growing Network Generation Model with Community Structures

Recent years have seen a growing interest in the modeling and simulation of social networks to understand several social phenomena. Two important classes of networks, small world and scale free networks have gained a lot of research interest. Another important characteristic of social networks is the presence of community structures. Many social processes such as information diffusion and disease epidemics depend on the presence of community structures making it an important property for network generation models to be incorporated. In this paper, we present a tunable and growing network generation model with small world and scale free properties as well as the presence of community structures. The major contribution of this model is that the communities thus created satisfy three important structural properties: connectivity within each community follows power-law, communities have high clustering coefficient and hierarchical community structures are present in the networks generated using the proposed model. Furthermore, the model is highly robust and capable of producing networks with a number of different topological characteristics varying clustering coefficient and inter-cluster edges. Our simulation results show that the model produces small world and scale free networks along with the presence of communities depicting real world societies and social networks.Comment: Social Computing and Its Applications, SCA 13, Karlsruhe : Germany (2013

Assessment of bias in morphological identification of carnivore scats confirmed with molecular scatology in north-eastern Himalayan region of Pakistan

Scats are often used to study ecological parameters of carnivore species. However, field identification of carnivore scats, based on their morphological characteristics, becomes difficult if many carnivore species are distributed in the same area. We assessed error rates in morphological identification of five sympatric carnivores’ scats in north-eastern Himalayan region of Pakistan during 2013–2017. A sample of 149 scats were subjected to molecular identification using fecal DNA. We used a confusion matrix to assess different types of errors associated with carnivore scat identification. We were able to amplify DNA from 96.6% (n = 144) of scats. Based on field identification of carnivore scats, we had predicted that out of 144 scats: 11 (7.6%) scats were from common leopard, 38 (26.4%) from red fox, 29 (20.1%) from Asiatic jackal, 37 (25.7%) from yellow throated martin, 14 (9.7%) from Asian palm civet and 15 (10.4%) from small Indian civet. However, molecular identification revealed and confirmed nine were scats (6.24%) from common leopard, 40 (27.8 %) from red fox, 21 (14.6%) from Asiatic jackal, 45 (31.25%) from Asian palm civet, 12 (8.3%) scats from small Indian civet, while 11 scats (7.6%) were found from Canis lupus Spp., three (2%) from dog, one (0.7 %) scat sample from porcupine, and two (1.4%) from rhesus monkey. Misidentification rate was highest for Asian palm civet (25.7%), followed by red fox (11.1%) and Asiatic jackal (9.7%) but least for common leopard scats (4.2%). The results specific to our study area concur with previous studies that have recommended that carnivore monitoring programs utilize molecular identification of predator scats. Using only morphological identification of scats can be misleading and may result in wrong management decisions

Histatin peptides: Pharmacological functions and their applications in dentistry

YesThere are many human oral antimicrobial peptides responsible for playing important roles including maintenance, repairing of oral tissues (hard or soft) and defense against oral microbes. In this review we have highlighted the biochemistry, physiology and proteomics of human oral histatin peptides, secreted from parotid and submandibular salivary glands in human. The significance of these peptides includes capability for ionic binding that can kill fungal Candida albicans. They have histidine rich amino acid sequences (7–12 family members; corresponding to residues 12–24, 13–24, 12–25, 13–25, 5–11, and 5–12, respectively) for Histatin-3. However, Histatin-3 can be synthesized proteolytically from histatin 5 or 6. Due to their fungicidal response and high biocompatibility (little or no toxicity), these peptides can be considered as therapeutic agents with most probable applications for example, artificial saliva for denture wearers and salivary gland dysfunction conditions. The objectives of current article are to explore the human histatin peptides for its types, chemical and biological aspects. In addition, the potential for therapeutic bio-dental applications has been elaborated.King Saud Universit

Global, regional, and national burden of disorders affecting the nervous system, 1990–2021: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021

BackgroundDisorders affecting the nervous system are diverse and include neurodevelopmental disorders, late-life neurodegeneration, and newly emergent conditions, such as cognitive impairment following COVID-19. Previous publications from the Global Burden of Disease, Injuries, and Risk Factor Study estimated the burden of 15 neurological conditions in 2015 and 2016, but these analyses did not include neurodevelopmental disorders, as defined by the International Classification of Diseases (ICD)-11, or a subset of cases of congenital, neonatal, and infectious conditions that cause neurological damage. Here, we estimate nervous system health loss caused by 37 unique conditions and their associated risk factors globally, regionally, and nationally from 1990 to 2021.MethodsWe estimated mortality, prevalence, years lived with disability (YLDs), years of life lost (YLLs), and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs), with corresponding 95% uncertainty intervals (UIs), by age and sex in 204 countries and territories, from 1990 to 2021. We included morbidity and deaths due to neurological conditions, for which health loss is directly due to damage to the CNS or peripheral nervous system. We also isolated neurological health loss from conditions for which nervous system morbidity is a consequence, but not the primary feature, including a subset of congenital conditions (ie, chromosomal anomalies and congenital birth defects), neonatal conditions (ie, jaundice, preterm birth, and sepsis), infectious diseases (ie, COVID-19, cystic echinococcosis, malaria, syphilis, and Zika virus disease), and diabetic neuropathy. By conducting a sequela-level analysis of the health outcomes for these conditions, only cases where nervous system damage occurred were included, and YLDs were recalculated to isolate the non-fatal burden directly attributable to nervous system health loss. A comorbidity correction was used to calculate total prevalence of all conditions that affect the nervous system combined.FindingsGlobally, the 37 conditions affecting the nervous system were collectively ranked as the leading group cause of DALYs in 2021 (443 million, 95% UI 378–521), affecting 3·40 billion (3·20–3·62) individuals (43·1%, 40·5–45·9 of the global population); global DALY counts attributed to these conditions increased by 18·2% (8·7–26·7) between 1990 and 2021. Age-standardised rates of deaths per 100 000 people attributed to these conditions decreased from 1990 to 2021 by 33·6% (27·6–38·8), and age-standardised rates of DALYs attributed to these conditions decreased by 27·0% (21·5–32·4). Age-standardised prevalence was almost stable, with a change of 1·5% (0·7–2·4). The ten conditions with the highest age-standardised DALYs in 2021 were stroke, neonatal encephalopathy, migraine, Alzheimer's disease and other dementias, diabetic neuropathy, meningitis, epilepsy, neurological complications due to preterm birth, autism spectrum disorder, and nervous system cancer.InterpretationAs the leading cause of overall disease burden in the world, with increasing global DALY counts, effective prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation strategies for disorders affecting the nervous system are needed

Global burden of 288 causes of death and life expectancy decomposition in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations, 1990–2021: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021

BACKGROUND Regular, detailed reporting on population health by underlying cause of death is fundamental for public health decision making. Cause-specific estimates of mortality and the subsequent effects on life expectancy worldwide are valuable metrics to gauge progress in reducing mortality rates. These estimates are particularly important following large-scale mortality spikes, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. When systematically analysed, mortality rates and life expectancy allow comparisons of the consequences of causes of death globally and over time, providing a nuanced understanding of the effect of these causes on global populations. METHODS The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2021 cause-of-death analysis estimated mortality and years of life lost (YLLs) from 288 causes of death by age-sex-location-year in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations for each year from 1990 until 2021. The analysis used 56 604 data sources, including data from vital registration and verbal autopsy as well as surveys, censuses, surveillance systems, and cancer registries, among others. As with previous GBD rounds, cause-specific death rates for most causes were estimated using the Cause of Death Ensemble model-a modelling tool developed for GBD to assess the out-of-sample predictive validity of different statistical models and covariate permutations and combine those results to produce cause-specific mortality estimates-with alternative strategies adapted to model causes with insufficient data, substantial changes in reporting over the study period, or unusual epidemiology. YLLs were computed as the product of the number of deaths for each cause-age-sex-location-year and the standard life expectancy at each age. As part of the modelling process, uncertainty intervals (UIs) were generated using the 2·5th and 97·5th percentiles from a 1000-draw distribution for each metric. We decomposed life expectancy by cause of death, location, and year to show cause-specific effects on life expectancy from 1990 to 2021. We also used the coefficient of variation and the fraction of population affected by 90% of deaths to highlight concentrations of mortality. Findings are reported in counts and age-standardised rates. Methodological improvements for cause-of-death estimates in GBD 2021 include the expansion of under-5-years age group to include four new age groups, enhanced methods to account for stochastic variation of sparse data, and the inclusion of COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality-which includes excess mortality associated with the pandemic, excluding COVID-19, lower respiratory infections, measles, malaria, and pertussis. For this analysis, 199 new country-years of vital registration cause-of-death data, 5 country-years of surveillance data, 21 country-years of verbal autopsy data, and 94 country-years of other data types were added to those used in previous GBD rounds. FINDINGS The leading causes of age-standardised deaths globally were the same in 2019 as they were in 1990; in descending order, these were, ischaemic heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and lower respiratory infections. In 2021, however, COVID-19 replaced stroke as the second-leading age-standardised cause of death, with 94·0 deaths (95% UI 89·2-100·0) per 100 000 population. The COVID-19 pandemic shifted the rankings of the leading five causes, lowering stroke to the third-leading and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease to the fourth-leading position. In 2021, the highest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 occurred in sub-Saharan Africa (271·0 deaths [250·1-290·7] per 100 000 population) and Latin America and the Caribbean (195·4 deaths [182·1-211·4] per 100 000 population). The lowest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 were in the high-income super-region (48·1 deaths [47·4-48·8] per 100 000 population) and southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania (23·2 deaths [16·3-37·2] per 100 000 population). Globally, life expectancy steadily improved between 1990 and 2019 for 18 of the 22 investigated causes. Decomposition of global and regional life expectancy showed the positive effect that reductions in deaths from enteric infections, lower respiratory infections, stroke, and neonatal deaths, among others have contributed to improved survival over the study period. However, a net reduction of 1·6 years occurred in global life expectancy between 2019 and 2021, primarily due to increased death rates from COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality. Life expectancy was highly variable between super-regions over the study period, with southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania gaining 8·3 years (6·7-9·9) overall, while having the smallest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 (0·4 years). The largest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 occurred in Latin America and the Caribbean (3·6 years). Additionally, 53 of the 288 causes of death were highly concentrated in locations with less than 50% of the global population as of 2021, and these causes of death became progressively more concentrated since 1990, when only 44 causes showed this pattern. The concentration phenomenon is discussed heuristically with respect to enteric and lower respiratory infections, malaria, HIV/AIDS, neonatal disorders, tuberculosis, and measles. INTERPRETATION Long-standing gains in life expectancy and reductions in many of the leading causes of death have been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the adverse effects of which were spread unevenly among populations. Despite the pandemic, there has been continued progress in combatting several notable causes of death, leading to improved global life expectancy over the study period. Each of the seven GBD super-regions showed an overall improvement from 1990 and 2021, obscuring the negative effect in the years of the pandemic. Additionally, our findings regarding regional variation in causes of death driving increases in life expectancy hold clear policy utility. Analyses of shifting mortality trends reveal that several causes, once widespread globally, are now increasingly concentrated geographically. These changes in mortality concentration, alongside further investigation of changing risks, interventions, and relevant policy, present an important opportunity to deepen our understanding of mortality-reduction strategies. Examining patterns in mortality concentration might reveal areas where successful public health interventions have been implemented. Translating these successes to locations where certain causes of death remain entrenched can inform policies that work to improve life expectancy for people everywhere. FUNDING Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

An Optimization Study on Syngas Production and Economic Evaluation

Syngas production in Gas-to-liquid (GTL) process is focused in past by several researchers to increase the production with minimal capital and operating costs. In this study, syngas production process is simulated and optimized to increase its production and the economic analysis is studied for the proposed optimized process. Aspen HYSYS v8.4 is used for all process simulation work in this article. A new configuration is rigorously simulated while using auto-thermal reforming. Results exhibit a tremendous rise in production of syngas

Development of Advanced Advisory System for Anomalies (AAA) to Predict and Detect the Abnormal Operation in Fired Heaters for Real Time Process Safety and Optimization

As the technology is emerging, the process industries are actively migrating to Industry 4.0 to optimize energy, production, profit, and the quality of products. It should be noted that real-time process monitoring is the area where most of the energies are being placed for the sake of optimization and safety. Big data and knowledge-based platforms are receiving much attention to provide a comprehensive decision support system. In this study, the Advanced Advisory system for Anomalies (AAA) is developed to predict and detect the abnormal operation in fired heaters for real-time process safety and optimization in a petrochemical plant. This system predicts and raises an alarm for future problems and detects and diagnoses abnormal conditions using root cause analysis (RCA), using the combination of FMEA (failure mode and effects analysis) and FTA (fault tree analysis) techniques. The developed AAA system has been integrated with databases in a petrochemical plant, and the results have been validated well by testing the application over an extensive period. This AAA online system provides a flexible architecture, and it can also be integrated into other systems or databases available at different levels in a plant. This automated AAA platform continuously monitors the operation, checks the dynamic conditions configured in it, and raises an alarm if the statistics exceed their control thresholds. Moreover, the effect of heaters’ abnormal conditions on efficiency and other KPIs (key performance indicators) is studied to explore the scope of improvement in heaters’ operation

Habitat preference and roosting behaviour of the Red Junglefowl Gallus gallus (Aves: Galliformes: Phasianidae) in Deva Vatala National Park, Azad Jammu & Kashmir, Pakistan

In Pakistan the Red Junglefowl is reported only from Deva Vatala National Park.  The present study investigated the habitat preference and roosting behavior of the Red Junglefowl in three different habitat types which included a wild area, cultivated lands and a human settlement area.  Habitat preference during the summer season comprised 87.50% wild area, 2.5% cultivated area and 10% human settlement area; during the winter season, the preference was 90% wild area and 10% human settlement area.  More numbers of female birds (22) were seen during both the seasons as compared to males (17).  The birds preferred old trees for roosting.  A total of 16 roost sites were explored on five different tree species; including Acacia nilotica (25%), Acacia modesta (12.5%), Olea ferruginea (18.75%), Magnifera indica (25%) and Dalbergia sissoo (18.75%).  The species roosted in groups of 4-8 birds and the duration of the average roosting time was about eight and half hours.  We propose that similar studies on the ecology of Red Junglefowl should be conducted to get a better understanding of the species in the study area which is perquisite for its conservation. </div