An AHP integrated QFD approach for three dimensional blended value requirements in sustainable e-business modelling: The case of a commercial bank

Fulfillment of customer's requirements alone is not enough to be competitive in today's challenging market. Instead, blended value requirements need to be fulfilled for customer satisfaction, for efficient value process, and to achieve strategic goals including profit. On the other hand, 'e-business modelling' and 'sustainability of the business' are already established terms as e-business converts technology into economic value. Although e-business modelling and sustainability are the two major global trends still there is no common understanding about the elements that need to be used for a sustainable e-business model. This research approach, therefore, uses an Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) integrated Quality Function Deployment (QFD) approach to show how blended value requirements can be identified and efficiently fulfilled to achieve sustainability of e-business with a comprehensive case study. This approach is unique in the sense that in developing the model blended value requirements are considered from three dimensions and blended value concept is integrated with customer's value requirements, business's value requirements, and process's value requirements

An AHP-QFD integrated approach to meet three dimensional environmental value requirements in sustainable e-business modelling

It is surprising that although 'e-business' and 'sustainability' are the two current major global trends but none of the e-business modelling ideas covers the sustainability aspects of the business. Environmental value requirement is one of the three pillars of sustainability concept that must be fulfilled to achieve a fully sustainable e-business model. A little literature is available on 'sustainability of ICT' but none of them clearly explains how environmental value requirements can be identified and efficiently fulfilled to achieve sustainability in e-business. Recently, companies are successfully using Quality Function Deployment (QFD) as a powerful tool in various fields that addresses strategic and operational decisions in businesses. This research approach, therefore, uses an Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) integrated QFD approach to show how environmental value requirements can be identified and efficiently fulfilled to achieve sustainability of e-business with a comprehensive case study. This approach is unique in the sense that in developing the model environmental value requirements are considered from three dimensions and environmental value concept is integrated with customer's value requirements, business's value requirements, and process's value requirements. The approach uses the case of a commercial bank in Bangladesh for the demonstration of the approach

A U.S. Partnership with India and Poland to Track Acute Chemical Releases to Serve Public Health

We describe a collaborative effort between the U.S., India, and Poland to track acute chemical releases during 2005–2007. In all three countries, fixed facility events were more common than transportation-related events; manufacturing and transportation/warehousing were the most frequently involved industries; and equipment failure and human error were the primary contributing factors. The most commonly released nonpetroleum substances were ammonia (India), carbon monoxide (U.S.) and mercury (Poland). More events in India (54%) resulted in victims compared with Poland (15%) and the U.S. (9%). The pilot program showed it is possible to successfully conduct international surveillance of acute hazardous substances releases with careful interpretation of the findings

Assessing inconsistency in global land cover products and a synthesis of studies on land use and land cover dynamics during 2001-2017 in the southeastern region of Bangladesh

The high-quality Land Use and Land Cover data is important for monitoring and analyzing environmental changes in the background of global warming. This study accessed the spatial and areal inconsistencies in the four most recent multi-resources land cover products in a complex manner using the common classification systems of IGBP-17, IGBP-9, IPCC-5 and TC (vegetation, wetlands and others only). Based on inconsistencies and multi temporal land cover datasets, a synthesis of study was triggered out on land use and land cover dynamics during 2001-2017 in the southeastern region of Bangladesh. The overall areal and spatial inconsistencies decreased from high to low levels of aggregation (IGBP-17 to TC), indicating that the inconsistencies are not only influenced by the level of thematic detail and landscape complexity but also related to the conversion uncertainties. Overall areal inconsistency in the comparison of the FROM-GLC and GlobeLand30 datasets was the smallest among the six pairs, while, the pair of MODISLC and LULC was observed the highest inconsistencies. Based on overall lower inconsistencies classification system (IGBP-9), the synthetic land use cover changes at the study area were assessed. During the period of study, the areal distribution of forest cover, built-up areas and water were found increased in annually by 0.4%, 1.32%, and 0.3% respectively, while the croplands and wetlands were respectively decreased by 0.5% and 0.3%. The dynamic changes of croplands, forest, and artificial surface were identified the prime cyclic land cover change. This research is helpful in providing training areas for the producer of land cover products

The timing of death in patients with tuberculosis who die during anti-tuberculosis treatment in Andhra Pradesh, South India

Background: India has 2.0 million estimated tuberculosis (TB) cases per annum with an estimated 280,000 TBrelated deaths per year. Understanding when in the course of TB treatment patients die is important for determining the type of intervention to be offered and crucially when this intervention should be given. The objectives of the current study were to determine in a large cohort of TB patients in India:- i) treatment outcomes including the number who died while on treatment, ii) the month of death and iii) characteristics associated with “early” death, occurring in the initial 8 weeks of treatment. Methods: This was a retrospective study in 16 selected Designated Microscopy Centres (DMCs) in Hyderabad, Krishna and Adilabad districts of Andhra Pradesh, South India. A review was performed of treatment cards and medical records of all TB patients (adults and children) registered and placed on standardized anti-tuberculosis treatment from January 2005 to September 2009. Results: There were 8,240 TB patients (5183 males) of whom 492 (6%) were known to have died during treatment. Case-fatality was higher in those previously treated (12%) and lower in those with extra-pulmonary TB (2%). There was an even distribution of deaths during anti-tuberculosis treatment, with 28% of all patients dying in the first 8 weeks of treatment. Increasing age and new as compared to recurrent TB disease were significantly associated with “early death”. Conclusion: In this large cohort of TB patients, deaths occurred with an even frequency throughout anti-TB treatment. Reasons may relate to i) the treatment of the disease itself, raising concerns about drug adherence, quality of anti-tuberculosis drugs or the presence of undetected drug resistance and ii) co-morbidities, such as HIV/ AIDS and diabetes mellitus, which are known to influence mortality. More research in this area from prospective and retrospective studies is needed

Information-theoretic active contour model for microscopy image segmentation using texture

High throughput technologies have increased the need for automated image analysis in a wide variety of microscopy techniques. Geometric active contour models provide a solution to automated image segmentation by incorporating statistical information in the detection of object boundaries. A statistical active contour may be defined by taking into account the optimisation of an information-theoretic measure between object and background. We focus on a product-type measure of divergence known as Cauchy-Schwartz distance which has numerical advantages over ratio-type measures. By using accurate shape derivation techniques, we define a new geometric active contour model for image segmentation combining Cauchy-Schwartz distance and Gabor energy texture filters. We demonstrate the versatility of this approach on images from the Brodatz dataset and phase-contrast microscopy images of cells

Genetic analysis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis identifies contributing pathways and cell types

Despite the considerable progress in unraveling the genetic causes of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), we do not fully understand the molecular mechanisms underlying the disease. We analyzed genome-wide data involving 78,500 individuals using a polygenic risk score approach to identify the biological pathways and cell types involved in ALS. This data-driven approach identified multiple aspects of the biology underlying the disease that resolved into broader themes, namely, neuron projection morphogenesis, membrane trafficking, and signal transduction mediated by ribonucleotides. We also found that genomic risk in ALS maps consistently to GABAergic interneurons and oligodendrocytes, as confirmed in human single-nucleus RNA-seq data. Using two-sample Mendelian randomization, we nominated six differentially expressed genes (ATG16L2, ACSL5, MAP1LC3A, MAPKAPK3, PLXNB2, and SCFD1) within the significant pathways as relevant to ALS. We conclude that the disparate genetic etiologies of this fatal neurological disease converge on a smaller number of final common pathways and cell types

How Do Patients Who Fail First-Line TB Treatment but Who Are Not Placed on an MDR-TB Regimen Fare in South India?

SETTING: Seven districts in Andhra Pradesh, South India. OBJECTIVES: To a) determine treatment outcomes of patients who fail first line anti-TB treatment and are not placed on an multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB) regimen, and b) relate the treatment outcomes to culture and drug susceptibility patterns (C&DST). DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study using routine programme data and Mycobacterium TB Culture C&DST between July 2008 and December 2009. RESULTS: There were 202 individuals given a re-treatment regimen and included in the study. Overall treatment outcomes were: 68 (34%) with treatment success, 84 (42%) failed, 36 (18%) died, 13 (6.5%) defaulted and 1 transferred out. Treatment success for category I and II failures was low at 37%. In those with positive cultures, 81 had pan-sensitive strains with 31 (38%) showing treatment success, while 61 had drug-resistance strains with 9 (15%) showing treatment success. In 58 patients with negative cultures, 28 (48%) showed treatment success. CONCLUSION: Treatment outcomes of patients who fail a first-line anti-TB treatment and who are not placed on an MDR-TB regimen are unacceptably poor. The worst outcomes are seen among category II failures and those with negative cultures or drug-resistance. There are important programmatic implications which need to be addressed