iFair: Learning Individually Fair Data Representations for Algorithmic Decision Making

People are rated and ranked, towards algorithmic decision making in an increasing number of applications, typically based on machine learning. Research on how to incorporate fairness into such tasks has prevalently pursued the paradigm of group fairness: giving adequate success rates to specifically protected groups. In contrast, the alternative paradigm of individual fairness has received relatively little attention, and this paper advances this less explored direction. The paper introduces a method for probabilistically mapping user records into a low-rank representation that reconciles individual fairness and the utility of classifiers and rankings in downstream applications. Our notion of individual fairness requires that users who are similar in all task-relevant attributes such as job qualification, and disregarding all potentially discriminating attributes such as gender, should have similar outcomes. We demonstrate the versatility of our method by applying it to classification and learning-to-rank tasks on a variety of real-world datasets. Our experiments show substantial improvements over the best prior work for this setting.Comment: Accepted at ICDE 2019. Please cite the ICDE 2019 proceedings versio

Think-aloud evaluation of mobile information technology for older adults with chronic heart failure

poster abstractChronic heart failure (CHF) is a complex disease that often requires continuous medical attention.CHF is globally prevalent, especially among older adults. With more healthcare taking place in homes, controlling and managing the symptoms and progression of CHF depends critically on self-care behaviors such as medication taking and nutrition management by elderly patients. Based on Human Factors analysis of data gathered from interviews, surveys and in-home observations, our team designed Engage, a mobile, health information technology (HIT) tool customized for use by older adults with CHF. Engage is primarily envisioned to provide support for self-care and includes functionality designed and evaluated such as the: (1) logging daily values; (2) setting and monitoring daily self-management goals related to food intake and physical activities; (3) learning more information on self-care topics such as nutrition; and (4) visualizing collected information. Our team conducted an initial exploratory evaluation of Engage used think-aloud testing (in a controlled lab setting) with 5 older patients with CHF. Evaluation sessions involved patients using Engage’s functionalities based on hypothetical scenarios. Patients completed tasks guided by scripted instructions with each evaluation session being video recorded to capture user expectations and Engage’s usability. Results revealed design recommendations that will be tested in subsequent iterations of Engage. Our initial evaluation also pointed to the patients’ perceived benefits and barriers in using Engage over a 30-day period

Noise Pollution and Its Impact on Human Health and Social Behavior using Systems Approach-A Case Study in Kurnool City

The main objective of this paper is to evaluate the noise pollution problem in the Kurnool city of Andhra Pradesh, India and its effect on the public. Transportation and horn used in vehicle are the major source of noise pollution. Noise is one of the environmental problems that make daily life uncomfortable. It is an unidentified pollution that causes adverse effects on human life. Noise interferes in complex task performance, modifies social behavior and causes annoyance. Six different locations are chosen for study. Noise levels are monitored at different times in the day and night. Bronfenbrenner’s systems approach is used to illustrate the socio behavioral changes in human life due to noise. Keywords: Traffic noise – severe health issues - effect on social behavior - systems approach

ANTICANCER ACTIVITY OF SILVER NANOBIOCONJUGATES SYNTHESISED FROM PIPER BETLE LEAVES EXTRACT AND ITS ACTIVE COMPOUND EUGENOL

Objective: Our present study deals with the anticancer property of silver nano bio conjugates synthesized from the methanolic extract of Piper betle leaves and the pure compound eugenol.Methods: The anticancer activity of the nano bio conjugates synthesized from the extract and pure compound, in comparison with their respective non-conjugated raw material, were studied using cancer cell lines. The anticancer activity was analyzed by cell viability and staining techniques. The cell viability was determined by the MTT assay and the apoptosis was evaluated by the AO/EtBr staining method, which was carried out in both the cancerous (oral carcinoma (KB) cell lines) and non-cancerous cells (primary cultured human buccal cells). The phase of cell death was assessed by the flow cytometry followed by the cytotoxicity assessment.Results: The results revealed that Piper betle leaves as well as their active phenolic compound eugenol exhibited strong anticancer activity in KB oral carcinoma cells. The anticancer effect of the extract was attributable to the component phenolics, eugenol respectively in betel leaves, as the phenolics also exhibited strong cytotoxicity in cancer cells. The anticancer activity increased by a marked magnitude when the extract/compound was administered as nano-bio conjugates. The significant observation was the differential effect evoked by the AgNPs, which was non-toxic to non-cancerous buccal cells while evoking a strong cytotoxicity in the cancer cells.Conclusion: The results proved that the phytoconstituents like phenols in the betel leaves play a major role in the reduction of nano bio conjugates. The anticancer properties of silver nano bio conjugates were higher in the conjugated nanoform than the non-conjugated form

A REVIEW ON ALZHIMER'S DISEASE: PATHOLOGY, MOLECULAR CONDITIONS, MANAGEMNT AND CAUSES

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder that starts slowly, progressively leads to death and contributes to about 60-70% cases of dementia. AD is characterized with Senile Plaques (SPs) and neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) and the major symptoms include problems with language, dis-orientation of words, unable to manage self-care, memory loss and behavioural issues which gradually lead to completely lose bodily functions later. The actual cause for the disease is not known till date. Recent research show distinct paths that closely try to reveal various cytoplasmic, genetic, behavioural, environmental and epigenetic causes that may lead to the development of AD. Most likely all studies target the Senile Plaques, protein fragments called beta-amyloid and Neurofibrillary Tangles, twisted fibres of a protein called tau. Since, the exact causative mechanism is not yet clearly understood, ultimately finding a suitable treatment or management for the disease has also become an ominous challenge for researchers.Â

Survey Analysis on Secured user Authentication through Biometric Recognition

Secured user authentication is the process of verifying the user authenticity. Biometric authentication is the human identification system employed to match the biometric characteristics of user for verifying the authenticity. Biometric identifiers are exclusive, making it harder to hack accounts using them. Common types of biometrics comprise the fingerprint scanning verifies authentication based on a user's fingerprints Face recognition and voice recognition are employed in real-time application for improving the security level in different application scenarios. Face recognition is a method of identifying or verifying the individual identity using their face expression. Voice recognition is the ability of machine to receive and interpret the dictation to understand. Many researchers carried out their research on different face and voice recognition methods. But, recognition accuracy was not improved with minimum time consumption by existing biometric recognition method. In this research, different recognition methods are reviewed using biometric recognition method for user authentication. The recognition methods are efficiently on human faces dataset with respect to performance metrics like recognition accuracy, error rate, and recognition time

Microbial production of polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) utilizing fruit waste as a substrate

Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are polyesters of hydroxyalkanoates synthesized by various bacteria as intracellular carbon and energy storage compounds and accumulated as granules in the cytoplasm of cells. PHA producing bacteria from soil were isolated, characterized and screened by Nile blue staining method. Screened organisms were subjected to  fermentation with glucose as carbon source and low-cost raw material like jambul seed (Syzygium cumini). The strain SPY-1 showed higher amount of PHA accumulation when compared to the other strains and was comparable with that of the reference strain Ralstonia eutropha. The extracted PHA granules were analyzed with Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and the peak was in the regions of 1650.9, 1728-1288 and 1725-1277, correspond to the stretching of the C=O bond which was similar to the standard Polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB)

Investigation on the Flexural Behaviour of Steel Cold Formed Built up Sections

For the past few decades, substantial progress has been made in material properties and construction methodology, which demands in need of development of stronger and lighter members in structural steel applications. The demands of increase in strength and reduction in weight of sections leads to development of structures which are slender and also stability plays a major role in design. The main goal of this study is to develop and investigate the performance of build-up steel I beam sections with corrugated webs. This study focuses on analysis of flexural behaviour and failure modes of plain web, rectangular, trapezoidal web and triangular web in beams by experimental investigations using three point load test and analytical investigations using ANSYS software. From experimental and analytical analysis, triangular corrugated web beam perform better compared to all section. The experimental results obtained are more similar to analytical results obtained by ANSYS software with only slight deviations. The failure modes in both experimental investigation and analytical analysis are similar