COLOR CONVERSION AND WATER SHED SEGMENTATION FOR RGB IMAGES

In this paper we describes the conversion preserves feature discriminability and reasonable color ordering, while respecting the original lightness of colors, by simple optimization of a nonlinear global mapping. Experimental results show that our method produces convincing results for a variety of color images. The required luminance adjustments are small and always lie within 1% of the mean luminance. Since all adapting lights are of the same luminance, zero luminance adjustments (dashed lines) are predicted for the asymmetric color matches under the hypothesis that adaptation is confined to the L–2M, the S – (L + M) and the L + 2M.The recovery of shape from texture under perspective projection. This is made possible by imposing a notion of homogeneity for the original texture, according it which the deformation gradient is equal to the velocity of the texture gradient equation this work studies a method called Normalized Cut and proposes an image segmentation strategy utilizing two ways to convert images into graphs: Pixel affinity and watershed transform

Prescribing patterns in the management of arthritis in a rural tertiary care teaching hospital

Background: Based on 2003 National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) data, a projected 67 million (25%) adults aged 18 years or older will have arthritis and 25 million (37%) of those will have arthritis-attributable activity limitations by the year 2030. Objective of this study is to know the prevalence of different types of arthritis, current trends of drug prescribing patterns in its management and to create awareness about rational use of drugs in a rural tertiary care hospital.Methods: This was an observational study of drug prescriptions among 100 arthritis patients in a tertiary care teaching hospital, India. Patients diagnosed with arthritis with or without co-morbidities were enrolled in the study considering the inclusion and exclusion criteria with a verbal informed consent.Results: Out of 100 arthritis cases, prevalence of Osteoarthritis (OA) was seen more than Rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Osteoarthritis was more commonly seen in males and RA in females. Arthritis was more prevalent in the age group of 36-65 years. Oral route was the most preferred route of administration of drugs and Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) were the first choice. Vitamin D3+ calcium was the most commonly prescribed drug in arthritis. Diclofenac was the most commonly used drug for monotherapy in OA and methotrexate in RA.Conclusions: In this study, some patients diagnosed with RA were treated with NSAIDs as first line and no Disease Modifying Anti-Rheumatic Drugs (DMARD) were given. This irrational prescribing trend should be changed. Non-pharmacological treatment has a qualitative role in treating arthritis and should be advised instead of multiple drug therapy

Mechanically induced interaction between diamond and transition metals

Purely mechanically induced mass transport between diamond and transition metals are investigated using transition thin metal film-deposited AFM tip scratching and in situ TEM scratching test. Due to the weak strength of the transition metal-diamond joints and transition metal thin films, AFM scratching rarely activated the mass transport interaction at the diamond-transition metal thin film interfaces. In situ TEM scratching tests were performed by using a Nanofactory STM holder. The interaction at diamond and tungsten interface was successfully activated by nanoscale in-situ scratching under room temperature. The lattice structure of diamond and tungsten were characterized by HRTEM. The stress to activate the interaction was estimated by measuring the interplanar spacing change of tungsten nanotips before scratching and at the frame that the interaction was activated.Comment: 28 Pages, 10 Figure

A Dimensionally-Reduced Nonlinear Elasticity Model for Liquid Crystal Elastomer Strips with Transverse Curvature

Liquid Crystalline Elastomers (LCEs) are active materials that are of interest due to their programmable response to various external stimuli such as light and heat. When exposed to these stimuli, the anisotropy in the response of the material is governed by the nematic director, which is a continuum parameter that is defined as the average local orientation of the mesogens in the liquid crystal phase. This nematic director can be programmed to be heterogeneous in space, creating a vast design space that is useful for applications ranging from artificial ligaments to deployable structures to self-assembling mechanisms. Even when specialized to long and thin strips of LCEs -- the focus of this work -- the vast design space has required the use of numerical simulations to aid in experimental discovery. To mitigate the computational expense of full 3-d numerical simulations, several dimensionally-reduced rod and ribbon models have been developed for LCE strips, but these have not accounted for the possibility of initial transverse curvature, like carpenter's tape spring. Motivated by recent experiments showing that transversely-curved LCE strips display a rich variety of configurations, this work derives a dimensionally-reduced 1-d model for pre-curved LCE strips. The 1-d model is validated against full 3-d finite element calculations, and it is also shown to capture experimental observations, including tape-spring-like localizations, in activated LCE strips

Productivity improvement of a computer hardware supply chain.

Abstract Purpose -To determine the key reverse logistics variables, which the top management should focus so as to improve the productivity and performance of computer hardware supply chains. Design/methodology/approach -In this paper, an interpretive structural modeling (ISM) based approach has been employed to model the reverse logistics variables typically found in computer hardware supply chains. These variables have been categorized under "enablers" and "results". The enablers are the variables that help boost the reverse logistics variables, while results variables are the outcome of good reverse logistics practices. Findings -A key finding of this modeling is that environmental concern is the primary cause of the initiation of reverse logistics practices in computer hardware supply chains. For better results, top management should focus on improving the high driving power enabler variables such as regulations, environmental concerns, top management commitment, recapturing value from used products, resource reduction, etc. Originality/value -In this research, an interpretation of reverse logistics variables in terms of their driving and dependence powers has been carried out. Those variables possessing higher driving power in the ISM need to be taken care on a priority basis because there are a few other dependent variables being affected by them. Variables emerging with high dependence contribute to productivity and performance of green supply chain

EVALUATION OF GENOTOXICITY PROFILE OF JASADA BHASMA (A ZINC-BASED MINERAL FORMULATION) IN SWISS ALBINO MICE

  Objective: Genotoxicity is regarded as one of the potential risk factors for causing pathological diseases. It was confirmed that many chemicals have the mutagenic activity which leads to cancer. A compound which interacts with genetic material DNA and shows adverse effects by altering its structure or function is referred to as genotoxic.Methods: The present study involved 40 Swiss albino mice weighing between 25 and 30 g body weights categorized into four different groups. Group-I (normal control) received 0.5% carboxymethyl cellulose as vehicle. Group-II (toxicant control) received 40 mg/kg/body weight cyclophosphamide on the 28th day. Group-III and IV received test drug JB 15.6 mg/kg and 78 mg/kg, respectively, for 28 consecutive days. Blood samples were collected and processed for evaluating by comet assay. The animals were sacrificed and collected the bone marrow from both the femur for chromosomal aberration and micronuclei assay.Results: JB administered at two different dose levels did not show any significant changes in the comet assay parameters, no micronucleus was found and did not produce any chromosomal aberrations both numerically and structurally when compared to positive test control group.Conclusion: The genotoxicity evaluation of JB did not show any chromosomal aberrations and presence of micronucleus. Thus, the safety data will refine therapeutic utility of JB encouraging their rationale use and translate into greater and broader utilization of JB

Knowledge, attitude and practices of antibiotic usage among the medical undergraduates of a tertiary care teaching hospital: an observational cross-sectional study

Background: Social aspect of antibiotic management forms a significant way to overcome the rapidly intensifying problem of antibiotic resistance. Medical students should not only be made aware of the current emerging health issues but also be directed towards rational antibiotics prescribing behavior as future medical practitioners. Aims and objective of the study was to assess the knowledge, attitude and practices (KAP) related to antibiotic usage in second year medical undergraduate students.Methods: The study design was cross sectional, questionnaire based survey. The questionnaire was distributed to a 3rd term and 4th term medical students in their second year of MBBS, to know the KAP regarding antibiotic usage and was assessed by a five point Likert scale and few questions were of true and false type. The data was analyzed by using SPSS.Results: Out of 162 students, 138 (85.19%) participated in the study; 63 (45.65%) were males and 75 (54.35%) were females. 84.06% of the participants known that irrational and indiscriminate antimicrobial use leads to the emergence of resistance. 96.38% agreed that Antibacterial resistance(ABR) was an important and a serious global public health issue and national problem. 71.01% of the respondents were aware that bacteria were not responsible for causing colds and flu. 86.23% said it can lead to more adverse drug reaction.Conclusions: The present survey on antibiotic usage gives useful information about the knowledge, attitudes and practices of second year medical undergraduates, which may be utilized to plan suitable educational interventions that aim at improving the antimicrobial prescribing and use to maximize their effective and efficient use and minimize the development of resistance

A prospective, open label, randomized-controlled study to evaluate the efficacy and safety of MyVir tablets in mildly symptomatic COVID-19 patients

Background: Coronavirus can cause pneumonia, respiratory failure and death. The emergence of novel coronavirus has posed a challenging situation that warrants urgent global attention. Currently there was no effective therapy available for COVID-19 and hence antiviral and immune modulators are most sought after medicines to manage complications of COVID-19.Methods: In this study involving mild COVID-19 we randomized 42 patients to receive a MyVir tablets twice daily along with standard of care (SOC) or SOC alone in 1:1 ratio for 14 days. We evaluated the benefits of MyVir tablets by assessing clinical outcomes and improvement in immune markers (LDH, CRP, D-dimer, TLC).Results: At the end of the study the immune markers in MyVir group improved significantly compared to control group. In patients who received MyVir, CRP decreased from 3.3 mg/l to 1.7 mg/l (p=0.0171). D-dimer decreased from 0.589 on day 0 to 0.368 on day 14 (p=0.03) and LDH decreased from 224 U/l on day 0 to 158 U/l on day 14 in test group (p=0.05). TLC showed favorable improvement in study group compared to control group. Early recovery from COVID-19 symptoms was observed in patients on MyVir treated group. Patients treated with MyVir tablets reduced the duration of hospitalization when given along with standard of care.Conclusions: MyVir accelerated recovery of COVID-19 patients by early improvement in clinical symptoms and immune markers in this study and results clearly indicates that MyVir tablets has antiviral, immune booster activity. Hence this study provides evidence that MyVir has definitive role in the management of mild COVID-19 patients along with standard of care (funded by Mi Lab Life Sciences(P) Ltd. CTRI no. CTRI/2020/05/024967)