Online Gaming and Teamwork

This thesis aims to find out the relationship, if any, between playing multi-player online games and developing teamwork qualities. Online multi-player games involve thousands of players who play in teams (or solo, as the preference may be) in sophisticated gaming environments. As gamers team together to complete missions within the game, teamwork concepts such as communication skills, leadership, coordination, negotiation and other similar qualities come to the fore. The research component of this thesis consists of a survey where respondents answered questions about their online gaming behavior. They also answered questions about their experience working in teams in the offline environment. A total of 202 responses were collected and analyzed. There was a significant negative association found between autocratic leadership ability and hours spent per week playing online games in teams/groups. Team communication skills and leadership communication skills were significantly related to the degree of involvement in the gaming community, but only for individuals with low leadership-work experience. A significant relationship was also seen between democratic leadership skills and the degree of involvement in the gaming community. In addition, a significant negative relationship was found between autocratic leadership ability and degree of involvement in the gaming community

A Study on Income and Expenditure Pattern of Fishermen During Fishing Holiday Period in Kakinada Harbour, Andhra Pradesh

India is the second leading fish producing country in the world accounting for 7.56 per cent of global production. Fisheries sector plays an important role in the Indian economy through contributing national income, employment creation; promote exports, provides food and nutritional security. Andhra Pradesh has favorable agro-climatic conditions for the growth of fisheries and aquaculture sector. The State is contributing about 29.7% of national fish production and is a major exporter of shrimp in India with share of 40.4% in total value of sea food exports of the country during 2019-20. The sector is providing employment to nearly 26.5 lakhs. Andhra Pradesh has 26 coastal districts. The present study analyzing the socio-economic status of fishermen and various problems encountered by the fishermen during fishing holiday period in the study area. To analyze the income and expenditure pattern and asset structure of fisher households. This study is confined to Kakinada Harbour Area. A major proportion of the sample respondents were joined in fishing due to poverty i.e. 45 per cent, a higher proportion of the respondents (67%) are living in nuclear family, Major proportion of respondents had 11-20 years of fishing experience (42%), followed by 21-30 years (24%), 1-10 years (17%) and more than 30 years (16%), 97 per cent of respondents are living in the pucca and semi-pucca house

A PERVERSION-RESISTANT ROUTING FOR VIDEO DELAY IN WIRELESS NETWORKS

From the user perspective, reducing the amount of video distortion is crucial. Popular link-quality-based routing metrics don't take into account dependence over the links of the path consequently, they are able to cause video flows to converge onto a couple of pathways and, thus, cause high video distortion. Traditional routing metrics created for wireless systems are application-agnostic. Within this paper, we think about a wireless network in which the application flows contain video traffic. Particularly, the various amounts of encoding make reference to, either information encoded individually, within the situation of I-frames, or encoding in accordance with the data encoded within other frames, out of the box the situation for P- and B-frames. We discover via simulations and test bed experiments our protocol is efficient in lessening video distortion and minimizing the consumer experience degradation. To take into account the evolution from the video frame loss process, we construct an analytical framework to, first, understand and, second, measure the impact from the wireless network on video distortion. Because of the complexity from the optimization problem, an inherited-formula-based heuristic approach can be used to compute the routes. Our approach differs not just in route we model video distortion, but additionally on the truth that we concentrate on LC that is popular in programs today.  The framework enables us to formulate a routing insurance policy for minimizing distortion, according to which we design a protocol for routing video traffic

BUOYANCY AND CHEMICAL REACTION EFFECTS ON MHD FREE CONVECTIVE SLIP FLOW OF NEWTONIAN AND POLAR FLUID THROUGH POROUSMEDIUM IN THE PRESENCE OF THERMAL RADIATION AND OHMIC HEATING WITH DUFOUR EFFECT

The present paper investigates the effects of thermal radiation, joule heating on an unsteady hydro magnetic free convective flow of a viscous electrically conductive Newtonian and polar fluid past a semi-infinite vertical plate embedded in a porous media in the presence of heat absorption, chemical reaction, slip flow and Dufour effect. Analytical perturbation solutions are obtained for the velocity, temperature and concentration fields as well as for the skin friction coefficient, Nusselt number and Sharewood number. The results are presented in graphical forms to study the effects of various parameters

The metastasis associated protein S100A4: role in tumour progression and metastasis

The metastasis associated protein S100A4 is a small calcium binding protein that is associated with metastatic tumors and appears to be a molecular marker for clinical prognosis. Below we discuss its biochemical properties and possible cellular functions in metastasis including cell motility, invasion, apoptosis, angiogenesis and differentiation

In vivo biomolecular imaging of zebrafish embryos using confocal Raman spectroscopy

Zebrafish embryos provide a unique opportunity to visualize complex biological processes, yet conventional imaging modalities are unable to access intricate biomolecular information without compromising the integrity of the embryos. Here, we report the use of confocal Raman spectroscopic imaging for the visualization and multivariate analysis of biomolecular information extracted from unlabeled zebrafish embryos. We outline broad applications of this method in: (i) visualizing the biomolecular distribution of whole embryos in three dimensions, (ii) resolving anatomical features at subcellular spatial resolution, (iii) biomolecular profiling and discrimination of wild type and ΔRD1 mutant Mycobacterium marinum strains in a zebrafish embryo model of tuberculosis and (iv) in vivo temporal monitoring of the wound response in living zebrafish embryos. Overall, this study demonstrates the application of confocal Raman spectroscopic imaging for the comparative bimolecular analysis of fully intact and living zebrafish embryos

The metastasis-associated protein S100A4 exists in several charged variants suggesting the presence of posttranslational modifications

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>S100A4 is a metastasis-associated protein which has been linked to multiple cellular events, and has been identified extracellularly, in the cytoplasm and in the nucleus of tumor cells; however, the biological implications of subcellular location are unknown. Associations between a variety of posttranslational protein modifications and altered biological functions of proteins are becoming increasingly evident. Identification and characterization of posttranslationally modified S100A4 variants could thus contribute to elucidating the mechanisms for the many cellular functions that have been reported for this protein, and might eventually lead to the identification of novel drugable targets.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>S100A4 was immuoprecipitated from a panel of <it>in vitro </it>and <it>in vivo </it>sources using a monoclonal antibody and the samples were separated by 2D-PAGE. Gels were analyzed by western blot and silver staining, and subsequently, several of the observed spots were identified as S100A4 by the use of MALDI-TOF and MALDI-TOF/TOF.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A characteristic pattern of spots was observed when S100A4 was separated by 2D-PAGE suggesting the presence of at least three charge variants. These charge variants were verified as S100A4 both by western immunoblotting and mass spectrometry, and almost identical patterns were observed in samples from different tissues and subcellular compartments. Interestingly, recombinant S100A4 displayed a similar pattern on 2D-PAGE, but with different quantitative distribution between the observed spots.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Endogenously expressed S100A4 were shown to exist in several charge variants, which indicates the presence of posttranslational modifications altering the net charge of the protein. The different variants were present in all subcellular compartments and tissues/cell lines examined, suggesting that the described charge variants is a universal phenomenon, and cannot explain the localization of S100A4 in different subcellular compartments. However, the identity of the specific posttranslational modification and its potential contribution to the many reported biological events induced by S100A4, are subject to further studies.</p

High-resolution haplotype block structure in the cattle genome

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The Bovine HapMap Consortium has generated assay panels to genotype ~30,000 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from 501 animals sampled from 19 worldwide taurine and indicine breeds, plus two outgroup species (Anoa and Water Buffalo). Within the larger set of SNPs we targeted 101 high density regions spanning up to 7.6 Mb with an average density of approximately one SNP per 4 kb, and characterized the linkage disequilibrium (LD) and haplotype block structure within individual breeds and groups of breeds in relation to their geographic origin and use.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>From the 101 targeted high-density regions on bovine chromosomes 6, 14, and 25, between 57 and 95% of the SNPs were informative in the individual breeds. The regions of high LD extend up to ~100 kb and the size of haplotype blocks ranges between 30 bases and 75 kb (10.3 kb average). On the scale from 1–100 kb the extent of LD and haplotype block structure in cattle has high similarity to humans. The estimation of effective population sizes over the previous 10,000 generations conforms to two main events in cattle history: the initiation of cattle domestication (~12,000 years ago), and the intensification of population isolation and current population bottleneck that breeds have experienced worldwide within the last ~700 years. Haplotype block density correlation, block boundary discordances, and haplotype sharing analyses were consistent in revealing unexpected similarities between some beef and dairy breeds, making them non-differentiable. Clustering techniques permitted grouping of breeds into different clades given their similarities and dissimilarities in genetic structure.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This work presents the first high-resolution analysis of haplotype block structure in worldwide cattle samples. Several novel results were obtained. First, cattle and human share a high similarity in LD and haplotype block structure on the scale of 1–100 kb. Second, unexpected similarities in haplotype block structure between dairy and beef breeds make them non-differentiable. Finally, our findings suggest that ~30,000 uniformly distributed SNPs would be necessary to construct a complete genome LD map in <it>Bos taurus </it>breeds, and ~580,000 SNPs would be necessary to characterize the haplotype block structure across the complete cattle genome.</p

Burden of childhood-onset arthritis

Juvenile arthritis comprises a variety of chronic inflammatory diseases causing erosive arthritis in children, often progressing to disability. These children experience functional impairment due to joint and back pain, heel pain, swelling of joints and morning stiffness, contractures, pain, and anterior uveitis leading to blindness. As children who have juvenile arthritis reach adulthood, they face possible continuing disease activity, medication-associated morbidity, and life-long disability and risk for emotional and social dysfunction. In this article we will review the burden of juvenile arthritis for the patient and society and focus on the following areas: patient disability; visual outcome; other medical complications; physical activity; impact on HRQOL; emotional impact; pain and coping; ambulatory visits, hospitalizations and mortality; economic impact; burden on caregivers; transition issues; educational occupational outcomes, and sexuality