A Practitioners' Guide to Transfer Learning for Text Classification using Convolutional Neural Networks

Transfer Learning (TL) plays a crucial role when a given dataset has insufficient labeled examples to train an accurate model. In such scenarios, the knowledge accumulated within a model pre-trained on a source dataset can be transferred to a target dataset, resulting in the improvement of the target model. Though TL is found to be successful in the realm of image-based applications, its impact and practical use in Natural Language Processing (NLP) applications is still a subject of research. Due to their hierarchical architecture, Deep Neural Networks (DNN) provide flexibility and customization in adjusting their parameters and depth of layers, thereby forming an apt area for exploiting the use of TL. In this paper, we report the results and conclusions obtained from extensive empirical experiments using a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) and try to uncover thumb rules to ensure a successful positive transfer. In addition, we also highlight the flawed means that could lead to a negative transfer. We explore the transferability of various layers and describe the effect of varying hyper-parameters on the transfer performance. Also, we present a comparison of accuracy value and model size against state-of-the-art methods. Finally, we derive inferences from the empirical results and provide best practices to achieve a successful positive transfer.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figures, accepted in SDM 201

Cloud Computing and Dependency: An ERA of Computing

Cloud Computing offers an entirely new way of looking at IT infrastructure. Cloud Computing system fundamentally provide access to large pools of data and computational resources through a variety of interfaces similar in spirit to existing grid and programming system. Cloud Computing eliminates an up-front commitment by users, thereby allowing agencies to start small and increases hardware resources only when there is an increase in their needs. Moreover,cloud computing provides the ability to pay for use of computing resources in a short term basis as needed and release them as needed. In this paper we focus on architecture, types of cloud services, characteristics, advantages & disadvantages and security of cloud computing

Desmoid tumour: a rare etiology of intestinal obstruction

Intestinal obstruction is a frequently encountered entity in surgical practice. The signs & symptoms, many a times, are suggestive of the level of obstruction, making the diagnosis of obstruction evident. There are  various causes of intestinal obstruction which diversify to an enormous extent, stamping on the famous  paradigm for the mysterious nature of the abdomen being referred to as the Pandora's Box. In accordance with the above saying, we report a rare case of a desmoid tumour, presenting as intestinal obstruction, which entices us to strongly believe the same.Key words: Intestinal obstruction, pandora´s box, desmoid tumou

Long term prognostic significance of thrombolysis in myocardial infarction risk score after revascularization in non-ST elevation acute coronary syndrome

Background: Non-ST elevation acute coronary syndrome (NSTE-ACS) patients are complex and varied population. Primarily thrombolysis in myocardial infarction (TIMI) risk score was developed to guide therapy and assess the short term (14 days) prognosis of these patients. However, few studies have evaluated the long term prognostic significance of TIMI risk score after revascularization. This study aims at assessing the long term prognostic significance of TIMI risk score, 36 months after revascularization in NSTE-ACS.Methods: This was a retrospective observational cohort study of consecutive NSTE-ACS patients (n=150) treated by percutaneous coronary intervention between January 2017 to June 2017 in a tertiary care center. TIMI risk score was calculated for each patient at admission. The primary endpoint was a composite of MACE (death, repeat target-vessel revascularization, and non-fatal recurrent MI) at the end of 36 months of follow up. Clinical secondary endpoints included the individual components of the primary endpoint, death, nonfatal recurrent MI, and repeat target vessel revascularization.Results: Baseline characteristics for 150 participants were as follows, age 56±9.5 years, 78.7% male, 25% diabetics, 82% hypertensives, and 36% had hypercholesterolemia. The event rates of the primary endpoint and its components after 36 months were 26.6%. Event rates increased significantly as the TIMI risk score increased as determined by regression analysis (p=0.004). The relative risk increased by 66% as the TIMI risk score increased from low risk category (TIMI score 0-2) to high risk (TIMI score 5-6).Conclusions: TIMI risk score can be used for long term prognostication of NSTE-ACS patients after revascularization, and thus can be used by clinicians for therapeutic decision making

Evaluating the End-User Experience of Private Browsing Mode

Nowadays, all major web browsers have a private browsing mode. However, the mode's benefits and limitations are not particularly understood. Through the use of survey studies, prior work has found that most users are either unaware of private browsing or do not use it. Further, those who do use private browsing generally have misconceptions about what protection it provides. However, prior work has not investigated \emph{why} users misunderstand the benefits and limitations of private browsing. In this work, we do so by designing and conducting a three-part study: (1) an analytical approach combining cognitive walkthrough and heuristic evaluation to inspect the user interface of private mode in different browsers; (2) a qualitative, interview-based study to explore users' mental models of private browsing and its security goals; (3) a participatory design study to investigate why existing browser disclosures, the in-browser explanations of private browsing mode, do not communicate the security goals of private browsing to users. Participants critiqued the browser disclosures of three web browsers: Brave, Firefox, and Google Chrome, and then designed new ones. We find that the user interface of private mode in different web browsers violates several well-established design guidelines and heuristics. Further, most participants had incorrect mental models of private browsing, influencing their understanding and usage of private mode. Additionally, we find that existing browser disclosures are not only vague, but also misleading. None of the three studied browser disclosures communicates or explains the primary security goal of private browsing. Drawing from the results of our user study, we extract a set of design recommendations that we encourage browser designers to validate, in order to design more effective and informative browser disclosures related to private mode

A quasi-experimental intervention to assess the effectiveness of a physician-delivered tobacco cessation intervention in India: A detailed study protocol

INTRODUCTION: Tobacco cessation is the most important, cost-effective preventive maintenance that clinicians can offer study participants who use tobacco. There is lack of preparedness among primary care physicians in delivering cessation interventions. There are also limited studies which record the effectiveness of cessation interventions in the Indian context. This study is designed to evaluate the effectiveness of brief and intensive tobacco cessation interventions delivered by trained primary care providers in two states of India. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: A quasi-experimental study design has been adopted for the study with around 20 primary care practices, selected from four districts of two states in India (Odisha and Rajasthan). Brief (3A) and Intensive tobacco (5A) cessation intervention services will be provided to two groups of tobacco users, respectively. Both groups will be followed up for 6 months to determine the effectiveness of the cessation interventions. The cost-effectiveness of the services will also be documented at the end of the study. The entire study will be completed in 24 months, of which the final 6 months will be reserved for study participant follow-up and quit rate evaluation. When comparing the two groups, differences between proportions will be assessed by chi-square test and differences between means with t-test. The conventional significance level of 0.05 will be used in all analyses in order to reject the null hypothesis of no difference between groups. We will use difference-in-differences methods to assess the impact of the interventions on physicians' behavior to deliver tobacco cessation in their clinical practice. CONCLUSION: The study is in participant recruitment phase

A Low Cost and Computationally Efficient Approach for Occlusion Handling in Video Surveillance Systems

In the development of intelligent video surveillance systems for tracking a vehicle, occlusions are one of the major challenges. It becomes difficult to retain features during occlusion especially in case of complete occlusion. In this paper, a target vehicle tracking algorithm for Smart Video Surveillance (SVS) is proposed to track an unidentified target vehicle even in case of occlusions. This paper proposes a computationally efficient approach for handling occlusions named as Kalman Filter Assisted Occlusion Handling (KFAOH) technique. The algorithm works through two periods namely tracking period when no occlusion is seen and detection period when occlusion occurs, thus depicting its hybrid nature. Kanade-Lucas-Tomasi (KLT) feature tracker governs the operation of algorithm during the tracking period, whereas, a Cascaded Object Detector (COD) of weak classifiers, specially trained on a large database of cars governs the operation during detection period or occlusion with the assistance of Kalman Filter (KF). The algorithm’s tracking efficiency has been tested on six different tracking scenarios with increasing complexity in real-time. Performance evaluation under different noise variances and illumination levels shows that the tracking algorithm has good robustness against high noise and low illumination. All tests have been conducted on the MATLAB platform. The validity and practicality of the algorithm are also verified by success plots and precision plots for the test cases

Predictors of Mucormycosis in COVID-19

Background and Aims: Mucormycosis, a serious angioinvasive infection caused by common filamentous fungi, that is, mucormycetes, constitutes the third most common invasive fungal infection, following aspergillosis and candidiasis. Although a rare infection, in recent times we witnessed a sudden surge of mucormycosis cases post-COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019). The present study was carried out to understand its relation to COVID-19, inflammatory markers, steroid use during COVID-19 treatment, clinical course and outcome of the disease. Material and methods: The present study was conducted at RNT Medical College, Udaipur over a period of 1 month. Written and informed consent from patients were taken. In this study, 15 patients admitted in COVID wards, medical wards, muormycosis ward and ICU were included if fungal hyphae were found on potassium hydroxide (KOH) mount and there was a history of COVID-19 illness; negative KOH mount patients were excluded. Results: In the present study, on admission, out of 15 patients, 7 (46.7%) were admitted with mean neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) >5.5, mean C-reactive protein (CRP) 126, mean interleukin (IL)-6 82.4, mean lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) 528, mean ferritin 662, mean D-dimer 1760; 5 (33.3%) patients were admitted with mean NLR 3.5-5.5, mean CRP 68, mean IL-6 39.6, mean LDH 336, mean ferritin 448, mean D-dimer 780; and 3 (20%) patients were admitted with mean NLR <3.5, mean CRP 16, mean IL-6 12.8, mean LDH 172, mean ferritin 226, mean D-dimer 430. Out of the 7 patients who were admitted with NLR >5.5, 3 (42.8%) were admitted with orbital cellulitis and 4 (57.2%) with invasive sinusitis. Out of 5 patients admitted with NLR 3.5-5.5, 3 (60%) were admitted with orbital cellulitis and 2 (40%) with invasive sinusitis. Out of 3 patients admitted with NLR <3.5, 1 (33.3%) patient had orbital cellulitis and 2 (66.7%) had invasive sinusitis. Out of total 7 patients who were admitted with orbital cellulitis, in 71.4% patients, steroid was used during COVID-19 treatment and out of 8 patients who were admitted with invasive sinusitis, in 62.5% patients, steroid was used during COVID-19 treatment. In the present study, 68% patients were male and 32% were female. Around 78% patients were from rural area and 22% patients were from urban area. Overall, 74% cases were treated with amphotericin B. Among these, 36% cases were diagnosed with orbital cellulitis and 38% cases were diagnosed with invasive sinusitis. Around 26% cases were treated with posaconazole, and among these 9% were orbital cellulitis cases and 17% were invasive sinusitis cases. About 85.72% cases of orbital cellulitis and 75% cases of invasive sinusitis improved. Nearly 42.86% cases who were admitted with NLR >5.5 did not improve with treatment. Conclusion: As per present study, inflammatory markers of COVID-19, NLR and history of steroid use during treatment can be considered as predictors of mucormycosis occurrence and their outcom