24 research outputs found

    Investigating Agile Adaptation for Project Development

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    Agile methodologies adaptation in software companies is an accepted norm.Rapid application development and efficient deliverables being the premise. The changing business needs, cost effectiveness and timely delivery are catered to by agile methods. Different software development models are in the literature and also are being used by the industry. Few companies have adopted agile, few are gearing up for and few are in transition. We investigated agile presence in a software company.Project management is an evolving art with innovative methods being added up.The aim of this paper is to tease about project management challenges, agile, agile transition in companies and a comparison of conventional software engineering practices with agile process model.This paper takes stock of the current status of quality in software projects and to add on quality process improvement strategies. The results presented here are after a qualitative interview study with one cross function team using streamline development framework in agile development

    A study of assessment of knowledge, attitude and practice of antibiotic stewardship among healthcare providers in a tertiary care hospital of Sangli

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    Background: Antimicrobials are routinely used for variety of clinical conditions but are also misused leading to drug resistance bacteria in clinical practice. Consultants can gain the knowledge about it and can also have the depth of problem faced, their prescribing behavior mainly depends on their attitude and understanding of condition. Our aim of this study is to evaluate the knowledge and beliefs about antibiotics prescribing among health care workers in a tertiary care hospital of Sangli. Methods: Our present study was conducted in the Bharati hospital, BV (DU) medical college and hospital, Sangli. Ethical clearance from the institutional ethics committee was obtained and it was, cross-sectional questionnaire-based study carried out in the form of a survey in which a pretested, semi-structured, validated questionnaire was provided to junior residents, senior residents and faculty of different specialties and responses were recorded. Questionnaire comprises of 9 in knowledge, 10 in attitude and 10 in practice section. Results: Out of all participants 84.5% believed that no need of antibiotics for running and blocked nose. Majority 89.6% were expressed that sample culture should be sent before starting antibiotics. 90.4% participants believed that education of patients will help. Only 76.8% strictly adhere to the antibiotic policy of our hospital. Conclusions: The present study on antibiotic usage gives useful information about the knowledge, attitudes and practices of prescribers and help plan suitable educational modifications that aim at improving the antimicrobial prescribing and minimizing the development of drug resistance in our developing country

    Purification, Characterization and in vitro Evaluation of Polymyxin A From Paenibacillus dendritiformis: An Underexplored Member of the Polymyxin Family

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    Nosocomial infections caused by antibiotic-resistant Gram-negative pathogens are of grave concern today. Polymyxins are considered as the last resorts of therapy to treat these multi-drug resistant (MDR) bacteria. But their associated nephrotoxicity and neurotoxicity calls for the development of safer polymyxin therapy until novel and less toxic antibiotics are discovered. No other polymyxin molecule except polymyxin B and E (colistin) is explored thoroughly in literature to demonstrate its clinical relevance. In the present study, we have isolated two antimicrobial compounds named P1 and P2 from the soil isolate Paenibacillus dendritiformis strain PV3-16, which we later identified as polymyxin A2 and A1 respectively. We tested their minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) against MDR clinical isolates, performed membrane permeabilization assays and determined their interaction with lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Finally, we studied their toxicity against human Leukemic monocyte cell line (THP-1) and embryonic kidney cell line (HEK 293). Both compounds displayed equal efficacy when compared with standard polymyxins. P1 was 2–4 fold more active in most of the clinical strains tested. Moreover, P1 showed higher affinity toward LPS. In cytotoxicity studies, P1 had IC50 value (>1000 μg/ml) similar to colistin against HEK cells but immune cells, i.e., THP-1 cell lines were more sensitive to polymyxins. P1 showed less toxicity in THP-1 cell line than all other polymyxins checked. To sum up, P1 (polymyxin A2) possessed better efficacy than polymyxin B and E and had least toxicity to immune cells. Since polymyxin A was not investigated thoroughly, we performed the comprehensive in vitro assessment of this molecule. Moreover, this is the first report of isolation and characterization of polymyxin A from P. dendritiformis. This compound should be further investigated for its in vivo efficacy and toxicity to develop it as a drug candidate

    Effects of biofertilizer containing N-fixer, P and K solubilizers and AM fungi on maize growth: A greenhouse trial.

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    An in vitro study was undertaken to evaluate the compatibility of indigenous plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) with commonly used inorganic and organic sources of fertilizers in tea plantations. The nitrogenous, phosphatic and potash fertilizers used for this study were urea, rock phosphate and muriate of potash, respectively. The organic sources of fertilizers neem cake, composted coir pith and vermicompost were also used. PGPRs such as nitrogen fixer; Azospirillum lipoferum, Phosphate Solubilizing Bacteria (PSB); Pseudomonas putida, Potassium Solubilizing Bacteria (KSB); Burkholderia cepacia and Pseudomonas putida were used for compatibility study. Results were indicated that PGPRs preferred the coir pith and they proved their higher colony establishment in the formulation except Azospirillum spp. that preferred vermicompost for their establishment. The optimum dose of neem cake powder

    GaSbBi alloys and heterostructures: fabrication and properties

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    International audienceDilute bismuth (Bi) III-V alloys have recently attracted great attention, due to their properties of band-gap reduction and spin-orbit splitting. The incorporation of Bi into antimonide based III-V semiconductors is very attractive for the development of new optoelectronic devices working in the mid-infrared range (2-5 µm). However, due to its large size, Bi does not readily incorporate into III-V alloys and the epitaxy of III-V dilute bismides is thus very challenging. This book chapter presents the most recent developments in the epitaxy and characterization of GaSbBi alloys and heterostructures

    Albiglutide and cardiovascular outcomes in patients with type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease (Harmony Outcomes): a double-blind, randomised placebo-controlled trial

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    Background: Glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonists differ in chemical structure, duration of action, and in their effects on clinical outcomes. The cardiovascular effects of once-weekly albiglutide in type 2 diabetes are unknown. We aimed to determine the safety and efficacy of albiglutide in preventing cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, or stroke. Methods: We did a double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled trial in 610 sites across 28 countries. We randomly assigned patients aged 40 years and older with type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease (at a 1:1 ratio) to groups that either received a subcutaneous injection of albiglutide (30–50 mg, based on glycaemic response and tolerability) or of a matched volume of placebo once a week, in addition to their standard care. Investigators used an interactive voice or web response system to obtain treatment assignment, and patients and all study investigators were masked to their treatment allocation. We hypothesised that albiglutide would be non-inferior to placebo for the primary outcome of the first occurrence of cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, or stroke, which was assessed in the intention-to-treat population. If non-inferiority was confirmed by an upper limit of the 95% CI for a hazard ratio of less than 1·30, closed testing for superiority was prespecified. This study is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT02465515. Findings: Patients were screened between July 1, 2015, and Nov 24, 2016. 10 793 patients were screened and 9463 participants were enrolled and randomly assigned to groups: 4731 patients were assigned to receive albiglutide and 4732 patients to receive placebo. On Nov 8, 2017, it was determined that 611 primary endpoints and a median follow-up of at least 1·5 years had accrued, and participants returned for a final visit and discontinuation from study treatment; the last patient visit was on March 12, 2018. These 9463 patients, the intention-to-treat population, were evaluated for a median duration of 1·6 years and were assessed for the primary outcome. The primary composite outcome occurred in 338 (7%) of 4731 patients at an incidence rate of 4·6 events per 100 person-years in the albiglutide group and in 428 (9%) of 4732 patients at an incidence rate of 5·9 events per 100 person-years in the placebo group (hazard ratio 0·78, 95% CI 0·68–0·90), which indicated that albiglutide was superior to placebo (p<0·0001 for non-inferiority; p=0·0006 for superiority). The incidence of acute pancreatitis (ten patients in the albiglutide group and seven patients in the placebo group), pancreatic cancer (six patients in the albiglutide group and five patients in the placebo group), medullary thyroid carcinoma (zero patients in both groups), and other serious adverse events did not differ between the two groups. There were three (<1%) deaths in the placebo group that were assessed by investigators, who were masked to study drug assignment, to be treatment-related and two (<1%) deaths in the albiglutide group. Interpretation: In patients with type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, albiglutide was superior to placebo with respect to major adverse cardiovascular events. Evidence-based glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonists should therefore be considered as part of a comprehensive strategy to reduce the risk of cardiovascular events in patients with type 2 diabetes. Funding: GlaxoSmithKline

    ngVLA Key Science Goal 5 Understanding the Formation and Evolution of Black Holes in the Era of Multi-Messenger Astronomy

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    The next-generation Very Large Array (ngVLA) will be a powerful telescope for finding and studying black holes across the entire mass range. High-resolution imaging abilities will allow the separation of low-luminosity black holes in the local Universe from background sources, thereby providing critical constraints on the mass function, formation, and growth of black holes. Its combination of sensitivity and angular resolution will provide new constraints on the physics of black hole accretion and jet formation. Combined with facilities across the spectrum and gravitational wave observatories, the ngVLA will provide crucial constraints on the interaction of black holes with their environments, with specific implications for the relationship between evolution of galaxies and the emission of gravitational waves from in-spiraling supermassive black holes and potential implications for stellar mass and intermediate mass black holes. The ngVLA will identify the radio counterparts to transient sources discovered by electromagnetic, gravitational wave, and neutrino observatories, and its high-resolution, fast-mapping capabilities will make it the preferred instrument to pinpoint electromagnetic counterparts to events such as supermassive black hole mergers. The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc. Part of this research was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration

    Face and Thumb Recognition by Image Fusion and Stego Imageusing Dwt and Lsb Technique

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    Image Fusion is a method of combining the relevant information from a set of images, into a single image, where in the resultant fused image will be more informative and complete than any of the input images. For multi-focus image fusion as it is related to frequency distortion the wavelet with symmetric property is more useful to retrieve the image. Hence, to select the wavelet family, which providesbetter frequency resolution is important

    Drainage Monitoring And Controlling System

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    Automatic Drainage Monitoring and Control system using PLC is proposed to overcome real-time problems. The concept is to replace the manual work in drainage cleaning by automated system. With the continued expansion of industries, the increasing problem of drainage must be urgently resolved due to increasing sewage problems from industries of the surrounding environment. Thisproblem can be resolved by using automation.PLC is the major controlling unit and the drainage level is monitored by sensors used. Inthis system we are using level sensor, dc motor (24V), submersible water pump, pressure valve, filtering plates,etc
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