Demographic and Socio-economic Determinants of Birth Interval Dynamics in Manipur: A Survival Analysis

The birth interval is a major determinant of levels of fertility in high fertility populations. A house-to-house survey of 1225 women in Manipur, a tiny state in North Eastern India was carried out to investigate birth interval patterns and its determinants. Using survival analysis, among the nine explanatory variables of interest, only three factors – infant mortality, Lactation and use of contraceptive devices have highly significant effect (P<0.01) on the duration of birth interval and only three factors – age at marriage of wife, parity and sex of child are found to be significant (P<0.05) on the duration variable

Word shape analysis for a hybrid recognition system

This paper describes two wholistic recognizers developed for use in a hybrid recognition system. The recognizers use information about the word shape. This information is strongly related to word zoning. One of the recognizers is explicitly limited by the accuracy of the zoning information extraction. The other recognizer is designed so as to avoid this limitation. The recognizers use very simple sets of features and fuzzy set based pattern matching techniques. This not only aims to increase their robustness, but also causes problems with disambiguation of the results. A verification mechanism, using letter alternatives as compound features, is introduced. Letter alternatives are obtained from a segmentation based recognizer coexisting in the hybrid system. Despite some remaining disambiguation problems, wholistic recognizers are found capable of outperforming the segmentation based recognizer. When working together in a hybrid system, the results are significantly higher than that of the individual recognizers. Recognition results are reported and compared

Development of a Consensus Statement for the Definition, Diagnosis, and Treatment of Acute Exacerbations of Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis Using the Delphi Technique.

© 2015, The Author(s).Introduction: There is a lack of agreed and established guidelines for the treatment of acute exacerbations of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (AE-IPF). This reflects, in part, the limited evidence-base underpinning the management of AE-IPF. In the absence of high-quality evidence, the aim of this research was to develop a clinician-led consensus statement for the definition, diagnosis and treatment of AE-IPF. Methods: A literature review was conducted to obtain published material on the definition and treatment of AE-IPF. The results of this review were circulated to an online panel of clinicians for review. Statements were then shared with ten expert respiratory clinicians who regularly treat patients with IPF. A Delphi technique was then used to develop a consensus statement for the definition, diagnosis and treatment of AE-IPF. During the first round of review, clinicians rated the clarity of each statement, the extent to which the statement should be included and provided comments. In two subsequent rounds of review, clinicians were provided with the group median inclusion rating for each statement, and any revised wording of statements to aid clarity. Clinicians were asked to repeat the clarity and inclusion ratings for the revised statements. Results: The literature review, online panel discussion, and face-to-face meeting generated 65 statements covering the definition, diagnosis, and management of AE-IPF. Following three rounds of blind review, 90% of clinicians agreed 39 final statements. These final statements included a definition of AE-IPF, approach to diagnosis, and treatment options, specifically: supportive measures, use of anti-microbials, immunosuppressants, anti-coagulants, anti-fibrotic therapy, escalation, transplant management, and long-term management including discharge planning. Conclusion: This clinician-led consensus statement establishes the ‘best practice’ for the management and treatment of AE-IPF based on current knowledge, evidence, and available treatments. Funding: Boehringer Ingelheim Ltd., Bracknell, West Berkshire, UK

An Innovative Approach for Improvement of Communications through Visual Schedule Model in Road Construction

Innovative Visualisation Technologies applied to construction simulation and optimisation have the potential to improve communications and coordination amongst the construction team. In this context and in the drive for innovation in the construction management, a framework for automatic generation and visualisation of construction processes in road construction has been conceived, designed and developed. The framework is composed of road design data, quantities of cut and fill, productivity models, algorithms for modelling ground profiles and road profile visualiser. The paper details a Visual Schedule Model (VSM) that has been developed in the course of this research to realise the framework outlined above. The model is currently being evaluated using real life case study. Conclusions and future development have also been presented

Improving Communication of Scheduling Information of Earthworks using 4D Visualisation Model in Road Projects

Innovative visualization technology applied to construction simulation and optimization has the potential to improve communications and coordination amongst the project stakeholders. In this context and in the drive for innovation in construction management, this paper introduces a framework of a 4D prototype for the automatic generation of visual terrain surfaces during earthwork construction processes. The framework has been designed and developed by integrating road design data, quantities of cut and fill, productivity models, algorithms for modelling terrain profiles and a road profile visualiser. The paper details the prototype of 4D visualization model (4DVM) that has been designed and developed in this research using innovative methodology where 4D models of terrain surfaces are generated based on coordinate data and the productivity of earthwork. The model has been demonstrated with a case study that was used to validate the model. The 4DVM is intended to assist project planners/construction managers in logical decision making processes for construction scheduling and resource planning. It will also improve the communication gap amongst the construction team and consequently improve site coordination and operation

Automatic generation and visualisation of location-based scheduling

Accurate and visual information of working locations is vital for efficient resource planning and location-based scheduling of earthworks, which is missing in existing linear schedules. Thus, construction managers have to depend on subjective decisions for resources allocation and progress monitoring from location aspects. This has caused uncertainties in planning and scheduling, and consequently delays and cost overruns of projects. A framework of prototype model was developed using the theory of location-based planning to overcome the above issues. This paper focuses on a case study experiments to demonstrate the functions of the model, which includes automatic generation of location-based earthwork schedules and visualization of cut-fill locations on a weekly basis. An arithmetic algorithm was developed by incorporating road design data, sectional quantities, variable productivity rates, unit cost and haulage distance. The model provides weekly information of locations, directions and cut-fill quantities of earthwork under different selections: construction sequences of cut/fill sections, site access points and equipment sets. The paper concludes that the model assists in identifying the correct locations and visualizing the space congestion during earthwork operations. Hence, project resources including heavy equipment and construction materials should be allocated more effectively and correctly from the location viewpoints and ultimately to improve site productivity and reduce production cost in linear projects

The effect of display brightness and viewing distance: A dataset for visually lossless image compression

Visibility of image artifacts depends on the viewing conditions, such as display brightness and distance to the display. However, most image and video quality metrics operate under the assumption of a single standard viewing condition, without considering luminance or distance to the display. To address this limitation, we isolate brightness and distance as the components impacting the visibility of artifacts and collect a new dataset for visually lossless image compression. The dataset includes images encoded with JPEG andWebP at the quality level that makes compression artifacts imperceptible to an average observer. The visibility thresholds are collected under two luminance conditions: 10 cd/m2, simulating a dimmed mobile phone, and 220 cd/m2, which is a typical peak luminance of modern computer displays; and two distance conditions: 30 and 60 pixels per visual degree. The dataset was used to evaluate existing image quality and visibility metrics in their ability to consider display brightness and its distance to viewer. We include two deep neural network architectures, proposed to control image compression for visually lossless coding in our experiments. </jats:p

Analysis of Underground Mining Accidents at AngloGold Ashanti Limited, Obuasi Mine

Analysis of incidents at AngloGold Ashanti’s (AGA’s) largest mine in Ghana was carried out to study accidents and injuries from underground mining activities, and to assess the effects of accidents on AGA’s production. Ground fall, machinery, electrocution and slip fall were the main causes of mine accidents. Results agree fairly well with those of other mines and production declined with increased lost-time injury frequency rate (LTIFR)

Studies on the Survivorship of Aedes albopictus (Diptera: Culicidae) in vitro in differentiated breeding water from some parts of district Dehradun, Uttarakhand

Survival of arthropod vectors is one of the most important components of transmission of a vector-borne pathogen. In general, any influence on the vector that increases female longevity will increase the likelihood of survival through the extrinsic incubation period of the virus and the risk of disease transmission. Survivability rate of Aedes albopictus was determined during the month of April 2015 based on the breeding success on 03 experimental parameters viz., aged tap water, natural water and distilled water, by constructing a cohort (horizontal) life table. Survivability rate of Aedes albopictus was higher where eggs were emerged in natural water resources, followed by aged tap water. Basic reproductive rate (Ro) of natural water resources accounted highest followed by aged tap water and distilled water. On performing the single way ANOVA, p value found higher than 0.001 concluding the fact that survivability was not independent of water resources. However, while performing Kaplan-Meier survivability test over age dependent parameters no such determining variation was registered. The value of Log rank test (Mantel Cox) abolish the null hypothesis suggesting the fact that there was significant difference in overall survival distribution among the three experimental parameters. Aedes mosquitoes are known to use their olfaction and visual cues to judge the chemical and physical factors present in the breeding water prior to egg laying. Thus, there must be some steps taken in order to analyse the chemicals released by these household deterrents so as to actively utilizing them in the Aedes management strategy