System-on-Package Low-Power Telemetry and Signal Conditioning unit for Biomedical Applications

Recent advancements in healthcare monitoring equipments and wireless communication technologies have led to the integration of specialized medical technology with the pervasive wireless networks. Intensive research has been focused on the development of medical wireless networks (MWN) for telemedicine and smart home care services. Wireless technology also shows potential promises in surgical applications. Unlike conventional surgery, an expert surgeon can perform the surgery from a remote location using robot manipulators and monitor the status of the real surgery through wireless communication link. To provide this service each surgical tool must be facilitated with smart electronics to accrue data and transmit the data successfully to the monitoring unit through wireless network. To avoid unwieldy wires between the smart surgical tool and monitoring units and to reap the benefit of excellent features of wireless technology, each smart surgical tool must incorporate a low-power wireless transmitter. Low-power transmitter with high efficiency is essential for short range wireless communication. Unlike conventional transmitters used for cellular communication, injection-locked transmitter shows greater promises in short range wireless communication. The core block of an injection-locked transmitter is an injection-locked oscillator. Therefore, this research work is directed towards the development of a low-voltage low-power injection-locked oscillator which will facilitate the development of a low-power injection-locked transmitter for MWN applications. Structure of oscillator and types of injection are two crucial design criteria for low-power injection-locked oscillator design. Compared to other injection structures, body-level injection offers low-voltage and low-power operation. Again, conventional NMOS/PMOS-only cross-coupled LC oscillator can work with low supply voltage but the power consumption is relatively high. To overcome this problem, a self-cascode LC oscillator structure has been used which provides both low-voltage and low-power operation. Body terminal coupling is used with this structure to achieve injection-locking. Simulation results show that the self-cascode structure consumes much less power compared to that of the conventional structure for the same output swing while exhibiting better phase noise performance. Usage of PMOS devices and body bias control not only reduces the flicker noise and power consumption but also eliminates the requirements of expensive fabrication process for body terminal access

Characterizing the Role of Thymine DNA Glycosylase in Transcriptional Regulation and Cancer In Vivo

Cytosine methylation (5mC) is essential for transcriptional control and genomic stability and is often used as a prognostic marker in cancer. Although 5mC has long been considered a relatively stable epigenetic mark, recent studies have demonstrated that it can be reversed enzymatically by TET proteins which oxidize 5mC into 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5-hmC), and then to 5-formylcytosine (5-fC) and 5-carboxylcytosine (5caC). This mechanism is known as active DNA demethylation and the base excision repair enzyme Thymine DNA Glycosylase (TDG) plays an essential role in this process by removing 5-fC and 5-caC which are subsequently replaced by the unmethylated cytosine. Importantly, homozygous loss of TDG in mice causes embryonic lethality and the observed defects are consistent with a central role for TDG in active demethylation and protein scaffolding events. I hypothesize that the dual catalytic and protein scaffolding activities of TDG are essential for gene transcription and that TDG functions as a tumor suppressor in vivo by maintaining epigenetic stability in cells. In this study, I investigated the regulation of Hypermethylated in Cancer 1 (Hic1) tumor suppressor to demonstrate that the dual catalytic and scaffolding activities of TDG are essential for gene transcription of HIC1. In addition, I developed a conditional TDG knockout mouse model to determine the role of TDG in development. Hic1 transcription involves a transient accumulation of 5fC/5caC metabolites and the recruitment of an RAR/RXR complex, both of which were found to be TDG dependent. Tdg deletion in vivo causes Hic1 silencing via promoter DNA hypermethylation. In addition, a loss of TDG in adult mice predisposes them to a high prevalence of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), independent of cirrhosis or fibrosis. Surprisingly, HCC occurred predominantly in male mice, which also showed increased obesity compared to age matched controls. RNAseq analysis of livers from TDG deleted mice showed downregulation of several metabolism relevant genes. These findings are consistent with an onset of HCC via the non-alcoholic fatty liver pathway. Collectively, this study shows that the dual catalytic and scaffolding activities of TDG are required in gene transcription events, and provides the first evidence of TDG as a tumor suppressor of liver cancers

Impact of Communication on Poverty Reduction

It seems difficult to conceptualize under what conditions and to what extent the element of information and communication would be able to empower the poor and marginalized section in various societies. This paper tries to look at this question, concentrating on the role and impact of communication on poverty mitigation. The paper focuses on key factors under which communication and information through radio, telephony, newspapers, journals and the Internet and can be instrumental and substantive for the reduction of poverty. Access to information by the poor and giving chance for them to have a voice in the public media can enhance their capabilities to strategic life choices and obtain the lifestyle they value.An attempt has been made to conclude that there does not exist a direct and casual relationship between Information and Communication Technologies and empowerment of the poor, but that in fact this relationship is being shaped by a dynamic, multi-dimensional interrelationship between technology and poverty reduction as a social context. However, government authorities should support and firmly focus on opening up private and public provisions of broadcasting and expanding access to communication tools, so that they can effectively play this intermediary role

Economic Burden of Tuberculosis among Bangladeshi Population and Economic Evaluation of the Current Approaches of Tuberculosis Control in Bangladesh

Introduction: Tuberculosis (TB) is major scourge for human history and causes profound economic burden. Bangladesh is a high burden TB country with 12% of its annual death is caused and 362 thousand people are infected by TB. DS-TB is the most prominent type of TB found in Bangladesh and a 6 month drug regimen (2 month intensive and 4 month continuation phase) is followed. But the directly observed treatment short-course (DOTS) differ in delivery through community health workers (CHW) and community members (CM). Bangladesh has also experienced surge in the number of MDR-TB cases with a 29% of MDR-TB cases were found among the re-treatment of pulmonary TB cases in 2015. In Bangladesh, two MDR-TB treatment regimens (9 month and 20-24 month) are practiced. This dissertation aims to estimates the economic burden of TB on the afflicted Bangladeshi population and conducts economic evaluation among different programs for DS-TB and MDR-TB in Bangladesh. Methods: This study collects direct and indirect cost for TB care data from 1,000 drug sensitive TB (DS-TB) and 145 multi-drug resistant (MDR-TB) patients from all over Bangladesh. Provider cost for TB care was also collected from the health facilities. Costs for DS-TB and MDR-TB patients were estimated using Generalized Linear Model and summed up with per patient provider level costs to get the total costs per TB patients. The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) of treating DS-TB and MDR-TB patients, CM versus CHW model for DS-TB and 9-month vs. 20-24 month regimen for MDR-TB were compared using a Markov model with life-time horizon. The measure of effectiveness, Quality adjusted life year (QALY) and cost of treatment was collected from 1,000 DS-TB and 145 MDR-TB patients (598 for CM model and 402 from CHW model; 58 undergone 9 month treatment and 87 from 20-24 month regimen) in Bangladesh. Transition probabilities between Markov states were estimated from quarterly outcomes report collected from health facilities and cost and QALY both were discounted at a rate of 3%. Both deterministic and probabilistic sensitivity analyses were conducted in a Monte Carlo Simulation using R. Results: Mean age of DS-TB patients under the study was 45.2 years while mean age of MDR-TB patients were 35.5 years. In aggregate, DS-TB patients incurred total average costs of BDT 21,235 (USD 265) for TB illness; while MDR-TB patients’ average costs were BDT 34,975 (USD 437). Including provider costs for each patient (USD 9 for DSTB and USD 2,006 for MDR-TB patients) total average costs for each DS-TB patient was BDT 22,003 (USD 275) and for each MDR-TB patient was BDT 1,95,449 (USD 2443). Assuming 57% case notification rate, the actual costs for treating TB patients in 2015 was USD 55.6 million. If all DS-TB patients were treated the cost would have been 1 billion USD. For MDR-TB treatment, total cost was USD 12.5 million; treating all MDR-TB patients would have costed USD 23 million. Results show that each DS-TB patient under CM treatment model gains 3.61 QALYs with a cost of BDT 131,555. For the DS-TB patients under the CHW model the cost is 81,650 and the QALY gain is 3.12. The Incremental Cost-Effectiveness Ratio (ICER) is 103,454, i.e., the CM model is cost-effective if per QALY gain if willingness-to-pay is set to the per capita GDP of Bangladesh (BDT 107,360 in 2015). Based on the study data, each patient under 9 month regimen gained 6.21 QALY with a total cost of BDT 987,418. Whereas, each patient under CHW model gained 5.74 QALY by incurring costs of BDT 1,501,221. Therefore, 9 month regimen is clearly dominating over the 20-24 month regimen because it costs less while it gains more QALY. Conclusions: Results show that DS-TB patients incurred about 50% of their household annual income for treatment while that goes up to 66% for the MDR-TB patients. Pre-diagnosis cost constitutes about 63% of total costs for DS-TB patients and 42% of MDR-TB patient costs. This figures show the significant economic burden posed by TB and early diagnosis of the disease can reduce the burden in great extent. Our study results demonstrate that community based model of DS-TB treatment is cost-effective even with changed costs and utility values in probabilistic sensitivity analysis. Community members as DOTS provider are more capable of reducing stigma related to TB, enhancing patient adherence and thereby reduce costs and increase utility from the treatment. Community members should also be involved in contact tracing and prevention activities to increase the effect of the involvement in TB control. Our study results also suggest that shorter regimen remains cost-effective in Bangladesh setting with changing costs and utility parameters changed in the probabilistic sensitivity analysis. MDR-TB treatment is itself cost-effective in developed countries and with cost-effective shorter regimen both treatment adherence and efficacy of the treatment will be improved

An Overview of Corporate Social and Environmental Reporting (CSER) in Developing Countries

This article is intended to complement the literature reviews on corporate social and environmentalreporting (CSER) with special focus on the developing countries. It focuses on the factorsinfluencing CSER and their theoretical interpretations. It is found that a wide variety offactors related with the socio-economic and political context in which the corporation existinfluence the corporate decision to engage in CSER. While a number of overlapping theoriescan be used, it is recommended to use the political economy theory for its international implications.This article provides a foundation for future research and development in the area of CSER. Copyright © www.iiste.or

An artificial intelligence and NLP based Islamic FinTech model combining Zakat and Qardh-Al-Hasan for countering the adverse impact of COVID 19 on SMEs and individuals

Pursose: The ongoing Corona virus (COVID 19) pandemic has already impacted almost everyone across the globe. The focus has now shifted from spread of the disease to the economic consequences it will bring to the society. The shortage of production will result into the shortage of supply and consequently will end as loss of jobs and employment for millions of people around the world. Two of the most important section of our society i.e., daily wage laborers and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) will have to bear the major burnt of this crisis. The proposed integrated Artificial Intelligence and NLP based Islamic FinTech Model combining Zakat (Islamic tax) and Qardh-Al-Hasan (benevolent loan) can help the economy to minimize the adverse impact of COVID 19 on individuals and SMEs. Design/Methodology/Approach: The present study explores the possibility of Zakat and Qardh-Al-Hasan as a financing method to fight the adverse impact of Corona virus on poor individuls and SMEs. It provides the solution by proposing an Artificial Intelligence and NLP based Islamic FinTech Model combining Zakat and Qardh-Al-Hasan. Findings: The findings of the study reveals that Islamic finance has immense potential to fight any kind of situation/pandemic. Zakat and Qardh-Al-Hasan, if combined together can prove to be a deadly combination to fight the adverse effect of COVID 19. Practical Implications: To be used as an effective way to support individuals and SMEs in the period during and after the pandemic of COVID 19. Originality/value: There is no study combining Zakat and Qardh Al-Hasan to fight the adverse effect of poor individuals and SMEs. The study will contribute massively to the existing literature and will help the government and civil societies in fighting the economic impact of COVID 19 on individuals and SMEs.peer-reviewe

Propagating, Evanescent, and Complex Wavenumber Guided Waves in High-Performance Composites

The study of propagating, evanescent and complex wavenumbers of guided waves (GWs) in high-performance composites using a stable and robust semi-analytical finite element (SAFE) method is presented. To facilitate understanding of the wavenumber trajectories, an incremental material change study is performed moving gradually from isotropic aluminum alloy to carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) composites. The SAFE results for an isotropic aluminum alloy plate are compared with the exact analytical solutions, which shows that N = 20 SAFE elements across the thickness provides \u3c0.5% error in the highest evanescent wavenumber for the given frequency-wavenumber range. The material change study reveals that reducing the transverse and shear moduli moves the wavenumber solution towards one similar to composite material. The comparison of the propagating, evanescent and complex wavenumber trajectories between composites and aluminum alloy show that antisymmetric imaginary Lamb wave modes always exist in composites although they may not exist in isotropic aluminum alloy at some frequencies. The wavenumber trajectories for a unidirectional CFRP plate show that the range of real wavenumber is much smaller than in the isotropic aluminum alloy. For laminated CFRP composite plates (e.g., unidirectional, off-axis, transverse, cross-ply and quasi-isotropic laminates), the quasi Lamb wave and shear horizontal (SH) wave trajectories are also identified and discussed. The imaginary SH wave trajectories in laminated composites are distorted due to the presence of ±45 plies. The convergence study of the SAFE method in various CFRP laminates indicates that sufficient accuracy can always be achieved by increasing the number of SAFE elements. Future work will address the stress-continuity between composite layers

Post Concussion Syndrome

Post-concussion syndrome (PCS) is a complex disorder and the complete pathophysiology is still not completely understood. PCS can be subcategorized into physiological PCS, vestibulo-ocular PCS, cervicogenic PCS, and mood-related PCS based on predominant clinical signs and symptoms. Physiological PCS is the most classic type of PCS and is due to global metabolic dysfunction in the brain which affects the autonomic nervous system (ANS) and cerebral blood flow (CBF) autoregulation. This is suspected to be the cause for symptom-limited exercise intolerance which is a characteristic finding in this subtype. In this chapter we discuss the definition of PCS and the main subtypes. We further discuss possible causes for symptoms of PCS based on research that have studied this disorder using advanced imaging, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular metrics, and intracranial pressure. Finally, we discuss the treatment of PCS and the possible long-term effects