Towards Formalizing Adaptive Software Services

More and more complex, distributed and software-Intensive systems are built using independently developed services. Due to various reasons, such as changes in the execution environment, these systems may need to adapt their behavior. Although, adaptation at the system level has been extensively studied, developing adaptive services to start-with has not received any significant attention. This paper describes a framework for formalizing the concept of adaptation at the service level, leading to the "service adaptation by construction" approach. Hence, the proposed work will help software developers in identifying the important adaptation categories at the service level

A comparative study of efficacy of gabapentin in inflammation induced neuropathic animal pain models with conventional analgesic diclofenac

Background: Some antiepileptic drugs have been shown to be clinically efficacious in treatment of neuropathic pain and are being used by clinicians. This study is proposed to evaluate the efficacy of these drugs as compared to conventional analgesics.Methods: Formalin  test  has  been  used  as  the  model  of  acute and chronic  inflammatory  pain.  Formalin  has  been  characterized  by  the  occurrence  of  two  characteristic  phases  of  increased  pain  sensitivity  in  rats. The  test  drugs  have  been  administered  orally  and  scored  according  to  a  pain  scale.  Pain  has  been  quantified  by  counting  the  incidence  of  spontaneous  flinches,  shakes  and  jerks  of  the  formalin  injected  paw.  Analgesic  response  or  protection  has been  indicated  if  both  paws  are  resting  on  floor  with  no  obvious  favouring  of  injected  paw. Treatment  group  was  compared  with  appropriate  control  groups  using “student  t  test”.Results: Per oral administration of  gabapentin  produced  no  any  marked  effect  on  early phase  response  of  formalin  test  but  significantly  suppressed  the  late  phase  response  while  diclofenac  produced  significant  antinociceptive  effect  in  both  phases  of  formalin  test.Conclusions: Thus  we  have  observed  that  gabapentin   produced  antinociception  in  second  phase  of  formalin  test  which  reflects  chronic  inflammatory  pain

Prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in Indian women

Background: Vitamin D is the widespread nutritional deficiency in India yet it has been widely undiagnosed and untreated. Nowadays its deficiency has become the widely investigational topic as the role of vitamin D deficiency has been identified in various disorders.Methods: In order to study the prevalence of vitamin d in our study (level <20 ng/ml) the 1052 women attending the clinic are taken into the consideration and the levels of vitamin d are done in them irrespective of the symptom.Results: In our study the 1052 women attending the clinic were taken and it was found that the prevalence of vitamin D level <20 ng/ml was 64.06% and the level of vitamin D <30 ng/ml was 98.75% and it was higher in younger (65.51%), illiterate (89.92%), housewife women (70%) and its prevalence was higher in women residing in rural areas (69.94%) and also having an income <10,000 (61.96%).Conclusions: Thus it was concluded the cut off level for the vitamin D deficiency level should be revised in according to the need of the people of India as the high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in our study could be the result of our being over concerned and the internationally set up criteria for its deficiency and also ICMR should also revise the recommend daily allowance to include daily recommendation of vitamin D level

Techniques for text classification: Literature review and current trends

Automated classification of text into predefined categories has always been considered as a vital method to manage and process a vast amount of documents in digital forms that are widespread and continuously increasing. This kind of web information, popularly known as the digital/electronic information is in the form of documents, conference material, publications, journals, editorials, web pages, e-mail etc. People largely access information from these online sources rather than being limited to archaic paper sources like books, magazines, newspapers etc. But the main problem is that this enormous information lacks organization which makes it difficult to manage. Text classification is recognized as one of the key techniques used for organizing such kind of digital data. In this paper we have studied the existing work in the area of text classification which will allow us to have a fair evaluation of the progress made in this field till date. We have investigated the papers to the best of our knowledge and have tried to summarize all existing information in a comprehensive and succinct manner. The studies have been summarized in a tabular form according to the publication year considering numerous key perspectives. The main emphasis is laid on various steps involved in text classification process viz. document representation methods, feature selection methods, data mining methods and the evaluation technique used by each study to carry out the results on a particular dataset

DSG3 As a Biomarker for the Ultrasensitive Detection of Cccult Lymph Node Metastasis in Oral Cancer Using Nanostructured Immunoarrays

OBJECTIVES: The diagnosis of cervical lymph node metastasis in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) patients constitutes an essential requirement for clinical staging and treatment selection. However, clinical assessment by physical examination and different imaging modalities, as well as by histological examination of routine lymph node cryosections can miss micrometastases, while false positives may lead to unnecessary elective lymph node neck resections. Here, we explored the feasibility of developing a sensitive assay system for desmoglein 3 (DSG3) as a predictive biomarker for lymph node metastasis in HNSCC. MATERIALS AND METHODS: DSG3 expression was determined in multiple general cancer- and HNSCC-tissue microarrays (TMAs), in negative and positive HNSCC metastatic cervical lymph nodes, and in a variety of HNSCC and control cell lines. A nanostructured immunoarray system was developed for the ultrasensitive detection of DSG3 in lymph node tissue lysates. RESULTS: We demonstrate that DSG3 is highly expressed in all HNSCC lesions and their metastatic cervical lymph nodes, but absent in non-invaded lymph nodes. We show that DSG3 can be rapidly detected with high sensitivity using a simple microfluidic immunoarray platform, even in human tissue sections including very few HNSCC invading cells, hence distinguishing between positive and negative lymph nodes. CONCLUSION: We provide a proof of principle supporting that ultrasensitive nanostructured assay systems for DSG3 can be exploited to detect micrometastatic HNSCC lesions in lymph nodes, which can improve the diagnosis and guide in the selection of appropriate therapeutic intervention modalities for HNSCC patients

Ultrasensitive Arrays for Multiplexed Detection of Oral Cancer Serum Biomarker Proteins in the Clinic

The occurrence of cancer involves altered protein expression, known as biomarkers of disease. The serum levels of biomarker proteins are used as indicators to differentiate between diseased and healthy states, and to monitor disease progression. Sensitive measurement of proteins over-expressed in individuals with cancer holds excellent promise for early disease detection and personalized therapies. However, the required point-of-care measurement has yet to be broadly realized. Thus, there is an urgent need for simpler, faster and inexpensive detection of serum biomarkers with high sensitivity and accuracy. In this dissertation, new methodologies for ultrasensitive multiplexed detection of serum biomarker proteins for oral cancer, as well as other malignancies, utilizing different aspects of nanotechnology in conjunction with electrochemical detection have been developed and characterized. The first part of the approach addresses the study of interleukin-6 (IL-6) using single-walled carbon nanotube forests based electrochemical immunosensor on pyrolytic graphite (PG) electrodes. With two levels of multi-enzyme labeling in a sandwich immunoassay format, 25 fM human IL-6 in serum, and experimental samples, was reproducibly measured. ^ The second part features 8-sensor microfluidic array equipped with four specific capture antibodies to detect ultralow levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6), interleukin-8 (IL-8), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and vascular endothelial growth factor C (VEGF-C) proteins, and these proteins when captured off-line using magnetic beads derivatized with 120,000 antibodies and 400,000 enzyme labels, greatly decreased non-specific binding and enhanced sensitivity. This approach provided unprecedented detection limits in low fg mL−1 range for all four biomarkers in calf serum, essentially used as a human serum surrogate. This oral cancer biomarker panel was validated by detecting proteins in sera of oral cancer patients and cancer-free controls. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis showed that a normalized combination of the levels of all 4 biomarkers enhanced the clinical discrimination of oral cancer from non-cancer conditions compared to single biomarkers, with 89% sensitivity and 98% specificity. ^ The use of microfluidic immunoarrays for multiplexed detection of biomarker proteins offers distinct advantages. The capability and versatility of these methodologies for simultaneous, sensitive, accurate, low cost real-time monitoring of protein biomarkers with high clinical selectivity and sensitivity holds excellent promise for diagnosis and prognosis of cancer with potential for rationalizing treatment options. ^ Also described in this dissertation is the development of electrochemical sensors for peanut allergen Ara h2 in serum, along with various analytical techniques to characterize the sensors to establish the primary reasons for high sensitivity and selectivity.

Ultrasensitive Arrays for Multiplexed Detection of Oral Cancer Serum Biomarker Proteins in the Clinic

The occurrence of cancer involves altered protein expression, known as biomarkers of disease. The serum levels of biomarker proteins are used as indicators to differentiate between diseased and healthy states, and to monitor disease progression. Sensitive measurement of proteins over-expressed in individuals with cancer holds excellent promise for early disease detection and personalized therapies. However, the required point-of-care measurement has yet to be broadly realized. Thus, there is an urgent need for simpler, faster and inexpensive detection of serum biomarkers with high sensitivity and accuracy. In this dissertation, new methodologies for ultrasensitive multiplexed detection of serum biomarker proteins for oral cancer, as well as other malignancies, utilizing different aspects of nanotechnology in conjunction with electrochemical detection have been developed and characterized. The first part of the approach addresses the study of interleukin-6 (IL-6) using single-walled carbon nanotube forests based electrochemical immunosensor on pyrolytic graphite (PG) electrodes. With two levels of multi-enzyme labeling in a sandwich immunoassay format, 25 fM human IL-6 in serum, and experimental samples, was reproducibly measured. ^ The second part features 8-sensor microfluidic array equipped with four specific capture antibodies to detect ultralow levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6), interleukin-8 (IL-8), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and vascular endothelial growth factor C (VEGF-C) proteins, and these proteins when captured off-line using magnetic beads derivatized with 120,000 antibodies and 400,000 enzyme labels, greatly decreased non-specific binding and enhanced sensitivity. This approach provided unprecedented detection limits in low fg mL−1 range for all four biomarkers in calf serum, essentially used as a human serum surrogate. This oral cancer biomarker panel was validated by detecting proteins in sera of oral cancer patients and cancer-free controls. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis showed that a normalized combination of the levels of all 4 biomarkers enhanced the clinical discrimination of oral cancer from non-cancer conditions compared to single biomarkers, with 89% sensitivity and 98% specificity. ^ The use of microfluidic immunoarrays for multiplexed detection of biomarker proteins offers distinct advantages. The capability and versatility of these methodologies for simultaneous, sensitive, accurate, low cost real-time monitoring of protein biomarkers with high clinical selectivity and sensitivity holds excellent promise for diagnosis and prognosis of cancer with potential for rationalizing treatment options. ^ Also described in this dissertation is the development of electrochemical sensors for peanut allergen Ara h2 in serum, along with various analytical techniques to characterize the sensors to establish the primary reasons for high sensitivity and selectivity.