Flexible Macroblock Ordering for Context-Aware Ultrasound Video Transmission over Mobile WiMAX

The most recent network technologies are enabling a variety of new applications, thanks to the provision of increased bandwidth and better management of Quality of Service. Nevertheless, telemedical services involving multimedia data are still lagging behind, due to the concern of the end users, that is, clinicians and also patients, about the low quality provided. Indeed, emerging network technologies should be appropriately exploited by designing the transmission strategy focusing on quality provision for end users. Stemming from this principle, we propose here a context-aware transmission strategy for medical video transmission over WiMAX systems. Context, in terms of regions of interest (ROI) in a specific session, is taken into account for the identification of multiple regions of interest, and compression/transmission strategies are tailored to such context information. We present a methodology based on H.264 medical video compression and Flexible Macroblock Ordering (FMO) for ROI identification. Two different unequal error protection methodologies, providing higher protection to the most diagnostically relevant data, are presented

Current Trends in Forest and Environmental Policies in Sri Lanka

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CAN ENVIRONMENT OR DEVELOPMENT STAND-ALONE AN ANALYSIS OF THE PATH TO INTEGRATE ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT

The struggle 10 overcome the accelerating socio-economic and political problems in SriLanka seems to be even more difficult in the face of increasingly apparent environmentalconstraints. There is a growing belief that most development activities are hindered orterminated due to environmental reasons. Often. the environmental authorities are blamedfor such obstructions. The 1992 'Earth Summit' succeeded in altering the conscience of theworld towards environmentally sustainable development with the message that withoutbetter environmental stewardship, development will be undermined. and without accelerateddevelopment in poor countries. environmental policies will fail. However. many conceptualand technical questions in achieving sustainable development still remain unanswered. Acritical question for policy makers thus is whether the environmental aspects of socioeconomicdevelopment can be alleviated by modifying existing approaches, or a completenew strategy is required.This paper discusses the ideologies distributed along the spectrum of 'neo-Malthusian'pessimists (those who believed that it is very likely that human industrial civilization willcollapse under the weight of growing consumption of resources. growing human populationand increased environmental pollution) at one end. and the 'cornucopians' or thetechnological optimists on the other end. The paper attempts to merge these ideologies andseck for a more holistic approach to accelerate economic growth while addressingenvironmental challenges, and also to propose institutional mechanisms to integrateenvironmental concerns in the development policies and long term planning.To address the aforementioned issues the Ministry of Forestry and Environment hasintroduced several measures including Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA).Committees on Environmental policy and Management (CEPOM) and Committee onIntegrating Environment and Development Policy (CIEDP). However, the EIA process hasits own weaknesses and is being heavily criticized by investors as well as environmentalists.CEPOM and CIEDP Structures were proposed to reduce the conflict between developmentand environment. However. this mechanism is still in its infancy. The paper provides avigorous review on the existing mechanisms available for integrating environment anddevelopment towards sustainable development objectives. It also aucmpts to introducepossible policy initiatives to improve the existing situation.

In vitro callus induction of Spilanthes calva DC [Spilanthes acmella auct. non L,.] (Maha Akmella)

Spilanthes calva DC. (Maha Akrnella) is a valuable medicinal plant belongs to Family Asteraceae. Itis widely used in indigenous medicine to treat toothache in most of the Asian countries. Not only it hasanesthetic properties, but also contain secondary metabolites, with the insecticidal properties, whichcould be used as potential bio insecticide. This is an annual plant, which grows to a height about 30ern. After flowering mother plant is dried off. Four to six weeks later seeds are germinated and newseedl ings are produced. Viabil ity of seeds loses with in short period of time. Even though seeds aregerminated percentage of germination is low (about 30%). Rooting of cuttings is also not possible.This is a limitation in using this valuable medicinal plant for commercial production. Therefore it isvery important to develop a protocol for mass propagation through tissue culture and establishing cellcultures will be useful for large-scale chemical extraction in industrial purposes.Leaf discs were used as explant for callus initiation. In order to identify the suitable maturity stage forcallus initiation, leaves were harvested at different maturity stages i.e first, second and third fullyopened leaf.Leaves were washed with Dettol" soap and soaked in a solution of Teepol" for 5 minutes. After thatleaves were washed with running tap water for 45 minutes, In order to surface sterilize. Leaves werewashed with 10% Clorox ™ (5.25% Sodium hypochlorite v/v) for 5 minutes and then with 70% alcoholfor 30 seconds each followed by three successive washings in sterile distilled water. These operationswere carried out inside the laminar airflow cabinet before inoculation. Basal media tested for the study were full strength MS (Murashige and Skoog, 1962) medium and Y2 MS (both macro andmicronutrients) medium. Media were supplemented with different concentrations (1.0 mgl' - 3.0mgl") of BAP and 2,4-0. Cultures were incubated under complete dark at 25± I °C in the growthroom.Study conducted by Haw and Keng (2003) on the same species produced multiple shoots from axillarybud explants without inducing callus in MS medium supplemented with 2.0 mgl.:' BAP. In the presentstudy, callusing was observed within 5 days of incubation in full strength MS medium supplementedwith BAP and 2AO. It took longer period to initiate callus when both macro and micro nutrients in thebasa l rned ium was lowered to ha If and the amount of callus produced was also very low even after 6thweek of incubation. In order to observe the time taken to produce maximum amount callus freshwe iuht was measured after 2".1,4th and 6tltweek of incubation. It was observed that maximum amountofc~llus was produced within 4 weeks in all explant types tested with a maximum of 0.88 g:': 0.23 inleaf discs obtained from first fully opened leaf.In order to determine the best growth regulator combination for callus initiation, calli fresh weightswere measured after fourth week of incubation in different growth regulator combinations tested.Highest amount of calli were in MS medium in the presence of2.25 mgl' BAP and 1.0 mgl' 2.4-0.Fragile calli, which were transulant and mucilaginous in nature were observed within 15 days ofincubation, which could lead to cell suspension cultures. 

HABITATS OF Anoectochilus setaceus, Zeuxine flava, Zeuxine regia IN KANNELIYA MAN AND BIOSPHERE RESERVE AND PEAK WILDERNESS SANCTUARY IN SRI LANKA

Anoectochilus setaceus, Zeuxine jlava, and Zeuxine regia are threeendangered medicinal plants belong to family Orchidaceae and sub familyNeottioideae. They are widely used in traditional medicine. Due to itsbeautiful variegated leaves they are also used as ornamental plants andcommonly known as Jewel Orchids.The Methodology used to identify the natural distribution of these specieswas field observation in the sites. In order to identify the places where thesespecies are growing knowledge of the traditional practitioners and villagepeople were used. According to literature, these species are confined totropical wet evergreen, sub montane and mid country wet ever green forests.In this study these three species were observed in particular locations inKanneliya MAB reserve and Peak Wilderness sanctuary.Anoectochilus setaceus is a rather common species found under the shade oftrees among fallen leaves. It was found along the riverbanks in Kanneliyawhile in Peak Wilderness it was found in a valley close to a stream. Theywere confined to small patches with high humidity where it gets very lowintensity of sunlight. Number of plants, which were observed in PeakWilderness sanctuary, was high (150 plants/rrr') while it was lesser (50plants/rrr') in Kanneliya. Distance between two forest patches where A.setaceus was found was about 50m in Peak Wilderness sanctuary while itwas too far (> 100m) in Kanneliya MAB reserve. Some patches had adistance of about 2km.Zeuxine regia was found in disturbed sites in Kanneliya MAB along the trailcloser to village, which situated at the boundary of the forest. In PeakWilderness also this species was found closer to the main trail starts fromSiripagama. These plants were found in places where there is no stream evenwithin 500m. Z. regia was found among rocks where environmentalconditions were very harsh but the soil was rather wet.Zeuxine flava was observed along a trail situated within the village inKanneliya far away from sites where other two species were distributed.Natural abundance is comparatively low for this species. In Peak Wildernessit was found along the same trail with Z. regia and A. setaceus but indifferent pockets. Environmental conditions of Z. flava are totally differentwhen compared with the sites where other two species were found.Anoectochilus setaceus was observed under same environmental conditionsrecorded by previous researchers, while other two species were found fromentirely different environmental conditions from recorded data. Althoughliterature reports that, Z. regia found together with A. setaceus under naturalconditions, such combinations were not observed in both forests. They werefound in entirely different locations

Systematic review on barriers and enablers for access to diabetic retinopathy screening services in different income settings.

BackgroundDiabetic retinopathy (DR) can lead to visual impairment and blindness if not detected and treated in time. Knowing the barriers/enablers in advance in contrasting different country income settings may accelerate development of a successful DR screening (DRS) program. This would be especially applicable in the low-income settings with the rising prevalence of DR.ObjectivesThe aim of this systematic review is to identify and contrast the barriers/enablers to DRS for different contexts using both consumers i.e., people with diabetes (PwDM) and provider perspectives and system level factors in different country income settings.MethodsWe searched MEDLINE, Embase, CENTRAL in the Cochrane Library from the databases start date to December 2018. We included the studies reported on barriers and enablers to access DRS services based at health care facilities. We categorised and synthesized themes related to the consumers (individuals), providers and the health systems (environment) as main dimensions according to the constructs of social cognitive theory, supported by the quantitative measures i.e., odds ratios as reported by each of the study authors.Main resultsWe included 77 studies primarily describing the barriers and enablers. Most of the studies were from high income settings (72.7, 56/77) and cross sectional in design (76.6, 59/77). From the perspectives of consumers, lack of knowledge, attitude, awareness and motivation were identified as major barriers. The enablers were fear of blindness, proximity of screening facility, experiences of vision loss and being concerned of eye complications. In providers’ perspectives, lack of skilled human resources, training programs, infrastructure of retinal imaging and cost of services were the main barriers. Higher odds of uptake of DRS services was observed when PwDM were provided health education (odds ratio (OR) 4.3) and having knowledge on DR (OR range 1.3–19.7).ConclusionKnowing the barriers to access DRS is a pre-requisite in development of a successful screening program. The awareness, knowledge and attitude of the consumers, availability of skilled human resources and infrastructure emerged as the major barriers to access to DRS in any income setting

AVID: An integrative framework for discovering functional relationships among proteins

BACKGROUND: Determining the functions of uncharacterized proteins is one of the most pressing problems in the post-genomic era. Large scale protein-protein interaction assays, global mRNA expression analyses and systematic protein localization studies provide experimental information that can be used for this purpose. The data from such experiments contain many false positives and false negatives, but can be processed using computational methods to provide reliable information about protein-protein relationships and protein function. An outstanding and important goal is to predict detailed functional annotation for all uncharacterized proteins that is reliable enough to effectively guide experiments. RESULTS: We present AVID, a computational method that uses a multi-stage learning framework to integrate experimental results with sequence information, generating networks reflecting functional similarities among proteins. We illustrate use of the networks by making predictions of detailed Gene Ontology (GO) annotations in three categories: molecular function, biological process, and cellular component. Applied to the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, AVID provides 37,451 pair-wise functional linkages between 4,191 proteins. These relationships are ~65–78% accurate, as assessed by cross-validation testing. Assignments of highly detailed functional descriptors to proteins, based on the networks, are estimated to be ~67% accurate for GO categories describing molecular function and cellular component and ~52% accurate for terms describing biological process. The predictions cover 1,490 proteins with no previous annotation in GO and also assign more detailed functions to many proteins annotated only with less descriptive terms. Predictions made by AVID are largely distinct from those made by other methods. Out of 37,451 predicted pair-wise relationships, the greatest number shared in common with another method is 3,413. CONCLUSION: AVID provides three networks reflecting functional associations among proteins. We use these networks to generate new, highly detailed functional predictions for roughly half of the yeast proteome that are reliable enough to drive targeted experimental investigations. The predictions suggest many specific, testable hypotheses. All of the data are available as downloadable files as well as through an interactive website at . Thus, AVID will be a valuable resource for experimental biologists

Stimuli of Sensory-Motor Nerves Terminate Arterial Contractile Effects of Endothelin-1 by CGRP and Dissociation of ET-1/ETA-Receptor Complexes

Endothelin-1 (ET-1), a long-acting paracrine mediator, is implicated in cardiovascular diseases but clinical trials with ET-receptor antagonists were not successful in some areas. We tested whether the quasi-irreversible receptor-binding of ET-1 (i) limits reversing effects of the antagonists and (ii) can be selectively dissociated by an endogenous counterbalancing mechanism.-receptor complexes.-receptors by ET-1 (i) occur at an antagonist-insensitive site of the receptor and (ii) are selectively terminated by endogenously released CGRP. Hence, natural stimuli of sensory-motor nerves that stimulate release of endogenous CGRP can be considered for therapy of diseases involving ET-1

Syntheses and Electronic Properties of Rhodium(III) Complexes Bearing a Redox-Active Ligand

A series of rhodium(III) complexes of the redox-active ligand, H(L = bis(4-methyl-2-(1H-pyrazol-1-yl)phenyl)amido), was prepared, and the electronic properties were studied. Thus, heating an ethanol solution of commercial RhCl3·3H2O with H(L) results in the precipitation of insoluble [H(L)]RhCl3, 1. The reaction of a methanol suspension of [H(L)]RhCl3 with NEt4OH causes ligand deprotonation and affords nearly quantitative yields of the soluble, deep-green, title compound (NEt4)[(L)RhCl3]·H2O, 2·H2O. Complex 2·H2O reacts readily with excess pyridine, triethylphosphine, or pyrazine (pyz) to eliminate NEt4Cl and give charge-neutral complexes trans-(L)RhCl2(py), trans-3, trans-(L)RhCl2(PEt3), trans- 4, or trans-(L)RhCl2(pyz), trans-5, where the incoming Lewis base is trans- to the amido nitrogen of the meridionally coordinating ligand. Heating solutions of complexes trans-3 or trans-4 above about 100 °C causes isomerization to the appropriate cis-3 or cis-4. Isomerization of trans-5 occurs at a much lower temperature due to pyrazine dissociation. Cis-3 and cis- 5 could be reconverted to their respective trans- isomers in solution at 35 °C by visible light irradiation. Complexes [(L)Rh(py)2Cl](PF6), 6, [(L)Rh(PPh3)(py)Cl](PF6), 7, [(L)Rh(PEt3)2Cl](PF6), 8, and [(L)RhCl(bipy)](OTf = triflate), 9, were prepared from 2·H2O by using thallium(I) salts as halide abstraction agents and excess Lewis base. It was not possible to prepare dicationic complexes with three unidentate pyridyl or triethylphosphine ligands; however, the reaction between 2, thallium(I) triflate, and the tridentate 4′-(4-methylphenyl)-2,2′:6′,2″-terpyridine (ttpy) afforded a high yield of [(L)Rh(ttpy)]- (OTf)2, 10. The solid state structures of nine new complexes were obtained. The electrochemistry of the various derivatives in CH2Cl2 showed a ligand-based oxidation wave whose potential depended mainly on the charge of the complex, and to a lesser extent on the nature and the geometry of the other supporting ligands. Thus, the oxidation wave for 2 with an anionic complex was found at +0.27 V versus Ag/AgCl in CH2Cl2, while those waves for the charge-neutral complexes 3−5 were found between +0.38 to +0.59 V, where the cis- isomers were about 100 mV more stable toward oxidation than the trans- isomers. The oxidation waves for 6−9 with monocationic complexes occurred in the range +0.74 to 0.81 V while that for 10 with a dicationic complex occurred at +0.91 V. Chemical oxidation of trans-3, cis-3, and 8 afforded crystals of the singly oxidized complexes, [trans- (L)RhCl2(py)](SbCl6), cis-[(L)RhCl2(py)](SbCl4)·2CH2Cl2, and [(L)Rh(PEt3)2Cl](SbCl6)2, respectively. Comparisons of structural and spectroscopic features combined with the results of density functional theory (DFT) calculations between nonoxidized and oxidized forms of the complexes are indicative of the ligand-centered radicals in the oxidized derivatives