Understanding a Presented Problem from a Phenomenological Perspective

Social work and other helping professions utilize knowledge generated by social sciences to understand human behavior and human problems. Social sciences follow positivistic and humanistic philosophies. The former claims that methodologies applicable to natural sciences should be applicable to social sciences. The latter believes that positivistic methods are reductionist and social sciences should develop their own methodology because they deal with a unique subject matter--human beings. Phenomenology, a branch of humanistic thinking, has been offered as a perspective to understand the presented problem by the client. Several cases are utilized to highlight the role of a professional in understanding the presented problem following a phenomenological perspective

EEG Cortical Source Feature based Hand Kinematics Decoding using Residual CNN-LSTM Neural Network

Motor kinematics decoding (MKD) using brain signal is essential to develop Brain-computer interface (BCI) system for rehabilitation or prosthesis devices. Surface electroencephalogram (EEG) signal has been widely utilized for MKD. However, kinematic decoding from cortical sources is sparsely explored. In this work, the feasibility of hand kinematics decoding using EEG cortical source signals has been explored for grasp and lift task. In particular, pre-movement EEG segment is utilized. A residual convolutional neural network (CNN) - long short-term memory (LSTM) based kinematics decoding model is proposed that utilizes motor neural information present in pre-movement brain activity. Various EEG windows at 50 ms prior to movement onset, are utilized for hand kinematics decoding. Correlation value (CV) between actual and predicted hand kinematics is utilized as performance metric for source and sensor domain. The performance of the proposed deep learning model is compared in sensor and source domain. The results demonstrate the viability of hand kinematics decoding using pre-movement EEG cortical source data

Returns on Sustainable Mutual Funds in India

The world has seen a huge growth in investment through the sustainable sector. But the study on the cost in construction and measuring the performance of such investments is confined to the limited countries. Thus to compare the performance of the sustainable investment with that of traditional investments it is necessary to increase the sample size of the study. Considering this in mind the paper aims to study the performance and risk of the sustainable mutual fund investments with that of traditional mutual funds in Indian market. This is been done by constructing a portfolio of ethical funds and the traditional mutual funds, taking into consideration the highest Sharpe ratio. The performance of the SRI mutual fund is been compared with that of conventional mutual fund with the help of Jensen’s alpha. This test are further checked with the help of three factor model as used by Baure, R.; Derwall, J. and Otten, R. (2006) etc. In our study we also try to see what the main problems that doesn’t allow the ethical investor to become the mainstream investor. The empirical evidence shows that the SRI funds which are created by screening the mutual funds from the large universe of the mutual fund do not generate statically excess return and thus their performance does not differ statically from that of the conventional mutual fund. The evidence from the Indian SRI market coincides with that of other studies made in different countries. It was also observed that the main problem that stood in front of the investor while investing ethically in the developing economies was the lack of knowledge, trust and the existing mindset of the investor. The lack of proper management and disclosure system also hindered the growth of the SRI in these countries. But with the growing popularity of SRI and increasing pressure of implementing the ESG factors in decision making, the SRI industry is picking up pace in these countries and it’s a matter of time that the ethical investment in these countries would be as big as those in the western countries

Plant Cell Cultures : Biofactories for the Production of Bioactive Compounds

Plants have long been exploited as a sustainable source of food, flavors, agrochemicals, colors, therapeutic proteins, bioactive compounds, and stem cell production. However, plant habitats are being briskly lost due to scores of environmental factors and human disturbances. This necessitates finding a viable alternative technology for the continuous production of compounds that are utilized in food and healthcare. The high-value natural products and bioactive compounds are often challenging to synthesize chemically since they accumulate in meager quantities. The isolation and purification of bioactive compounds from plants is time-consuming, labor-intensive, and involves cumbersome extraction procedures. This demands alternative options, and the plant cell culture system offers easy downstream procedures. Retention of the metabolic cues of natural plants, scale-up facility, use as stem cells in the cosmetics industry, and metabolic engineering (especially the rebuilding of the pathways in microbes) are some of the advantages for the synthesis and accumulation of the targeted metabolites and creation of high yielding cell factories. In this article, we discuss plant cell suspension cultures for the in vitro manipulation and production of plant bioactive compounds. Further, we discuss the new advances in the application of plant cells in the cosmetics and food industry and bioprinting.Peer reviewe

MANET Congestion Control Mechanism - Challenges and Survey

The transport layer plays a crucial role in the Mobile Adhoc Network (MANET) protocol stack by controlling traffic flow, managing congestion, and enabling end-to-end delivery. With the help of congestion control mechanisms, numerous protocols are formed to enhance MANET performance. This paper focuses on a thorough analysis of the challenges the MANET protocol stack is facing as a result of congestion control issues such high overload, long delays, and increased packet loss. Finally, note that in order to increase MANET performance, research needs to concentrate on specific congestion control mechanisms

Trading Electricity with Blockchain Systems

On the wave of the development of new ICT technologies and renewable energy, the power system will certainly experience great changes to its outdated architecture over the next several decades. One of the key drivers of change in the power system is distributed energy resources. They are completely changing the paradigm of the power system as a system with a centralized hierarchy and one-way power flows from generation to customer and from high voltage to low voltage. Because the goals of net zero greenhouse gas emissions are gathering pace and are being accepted by countries around the world, slowdown in the integration of distributed energy resources cannot be expected. Another reason why we can expect faster integration is the development of technology for energy production which is becoming more available to power consumers. Because of the problems that are currently occurring in the distribution system, it is clear that the system must be modernized in line with the development of these technologies. The technology that will likely have the greatest impact on the modernization of the power system is blockchain technology combined with the smart grid paradigm. Blockchain has the ability to completely change the way the power system is managed and optimized for performance

Evidence-based national vaccine policy

India has over a century old tradition of development and production of vaccines. The Government rightly adopted self-sufficiency in vaccine production and self-reliance in vaccine technology as its policy objectives in 1986. However, in the absence of a full-fledged vaccine policy, there have been concerns related to demand and supply, manufacture vs. import, role of public and private sectors, choice of vaccines, new and combination vaccines, universal vs. selective vaccination, routine immunization vs. special drives, cost-benefit aspects, regulatory issues, logistics etc. The need for a comprehensive and evidence based vaccine policy that enables informed decisions on all these aspects from the public health point of view brought together doctors, scientists, policy analysts, lawyers and civil society representatives to formulate this policy paper for the consideration of the Government. This paper evolved out of the first ever ICMR-NISTADS national brainstorming workshop on vaccine policy held during 4-5 June, 2009 in New Delhi, and subsequent discussions over email for several weeks, before being adopted unanimously in the present form

Characterization of acaricide resistance in tick isolates collected from Rajasthan, India

      Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus and Hyalomma anatolicum are the most common tick species infesting milk and meat producing animals throughout the country. The present study was conducted to evaluate the acaricide resistance status of the tick species to deltamethrin, cypermethrin, diazinon collected from 10 districts of Rajasthan. Characterization of resistance was carried out by adult immersion test (AIT) and larval packet test (LPT). In case of (B.) microplus resistance to deltamethrin at level I (RF = 2.5 – 4.9) in 02 isolates, at level II in 03 isolates (RF = 5.4 – 11.5) and level IV in 02 isolates (RF = 48.1 – 95.7) was detected. The resistance to cypermethrin was detected in 08 isolates of which resistance at level I in 03 isolates (RF = 2.7 - 4.58) and at level II in 05 isolates (RF = 8.05 – 16.2). Diazinon resistance was detected at level II in 06 isolates (RF = 5.8 –22.8), at level III in 01 isolates (RF = 39.0) and level IV in 02 isolates (RF = 65.9 – 66.0). While in case of H. anatolicum, the resistance to deltamethrin at level I (RF = 1.79 –2.52) in 03 isolates, to cypermethrin in 03 isolates (RF= 2.0 - 3.95) and to diazinon at level I in 03 isolates (RF = 1.32 –2.18) out of eleven isolates was detected.         A significant correlation between esterase enzyme ratio and resistant factor of tick isolates was observed with correlation coefficient (r) in α- and ß-esterase activity. The coefficient of determination (R2) for α- and ß-esterase activity indicated that 55.9 and 50.5% data points of R.(B.) microplus isolates and 66.7 and 47.2% data points of H. anatolicum isolates were very close to the correlation lines.       Analysis of sequence data of 3 targeted positions of the sodium channel gene detected a cytosine (C) to adenine (A) nucleotide substitution (CTC to ATC) at position 190 in domain II S4–5 linker region of para-sodium channel gene in 3 isolates and in reference deltamethrin resistant IVRI-IV line.      The western dry region and central plateau hills region revealed higher density of resistant ticks where intensive crossbred cattle population are reared and synthetic pyrethroids and organophosphate compounds are commonly used. The data shows an urgent need of revisiting the tick control strategy implemented through concerned government/non-government agencies

The impact of surgical delay on resectability of colorectal cancer: An international prospective cohort study

AIM: The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has provided a unique opportunity to explore the impact of surgical delays on cancer resectability. This study aimed to compare resectability for colorectal cancer patients undergoing delayed versus non-delayed surgery. METHODS: This was an international prospective cohort study of consecutive colorectal cancer patients with a decision for curative surgery (January-April 2020). Surgical delay was defined as an operation taking place more than 4 weeks after treatment decision, in a patient who did not receive neoadjuvant therapy. A subgroup analysis explored the effects of delay in elective patients only. The impact of longer delays was explored in a sensitivity analysis. The primary outcome was complete resection, defined as curative resection with an R0 margin. RESULTS: Overall, 5453 patients from 304 hospitals in 47 countries were included, of whom 6.6% (358/5453) did not receive their planned operation. Of the 4304 operated patients without neoadjuvant therapy, 40.5% (1744/4304) were delayed beyond 4 weeks. Delayed patients were more likely to be older, men, more comorbid, have higher body mass index and have rectal cancer and early stage disease. Delayed patients had higher unadjusted rates of complete resection (93.7% vs. 91.9%, P = 0.032) and lower rates of emergency surgery (4.5% vs. 22.5%, P < 0.001). After adjustment, delay was not associated with a lower rate of complete resection (OR 1.18, 95% CI 0.90-1.55, P = 0.224), which was consistent in elective patients only (OR 0.94, 95% CI 0.69-1.27, P = 0.672). Longer delays were not associated with poorer outcomes. CONCLUSION: One in 15 colorectal cancer patients did not receive their planned operation during the first wave of COVID-19. Surgical delay did not appear to compromise resectability, raising the hypothesis that any reduction in long-term survival attributable to delays is likely to be due to micro-metastatic disease

Returns on Sustainable Mutual Funds in India

The world has seen a huge growth in investment through the sustainable sector. But the study on the cost in construction and measuring the performance of such investments is confined to the limited countries. Thus to compare the performance of the sustainable investment with that of traditional investments it is necessary to increase the sample size of the study. Considering this in mind the paper aims to study the performance and risk of the sustainable mutual fund investments with that of traditional mutual funds in Indian market. This is been done by constructing a portfolio of ethical funds and the traditional mutual funds, taking into consideration the highest Sharpe ratio. The performance of the SRI mutual fund is been compared with that of conventional mutual fund with the help of Jensen’s alpha. This test are further checked with the help of three factor model as used by Baure, R.; Derwall, J. and Otten, R. (2006) etc. In our study we also try to see what the main problems that doesn’t allow the ethical investor to become the mainstream investor. The empirical evidence shows that the SRI funds which are created by screening the mutual funds from the large universe of the mutual fund do not generate statically excess return and thus their performance does not differ statically from that of the conventional mutual fund. The evidence from the Indian SRI market coincides with that of other studies made in different countries. It was also observed that the main problem that stood in front of the investor while investing ethically in the developing economies was the lack of knowledge, trust and the existing mindset of the investor. The lack of proper management and disclosure system also hindered the growth of the SRI in these countries. But with the growing popularity of SRI and increasing pressure of implementing the ESG factors in decision making, the SRI industry is picking up pace in these countries and it’s a matter of time that the ethical investment in these countries would be as big as those in the western countries