Trajectory Aware Macro-cell Planning for Mobile Users

We design and evaluate algorithms for efficient user-mobility driven macro-cell planning in cellular networks. As cellular networks embrace heterogeneous technologies (including long range 3G/4G and short range WiFi, Femto-cells, etc.), most traffic generated by static users gets absorbed by the short-range technologies, thereby increasingly leaving mobile user traffic to macro-cells. To this end, we consider a novel approach that factors in the trajectories of mobile users as well as the impact of city geographies and their associated road networks for macro-cell planning. Given a budget k of base-stations that can be upgraded, our approach selects a deployment that impacts the most number of user trajectories. The generic formulation incorporates the notion of quality of service of a user trajectory as a parameter to allow different application-specific requirements, and operator choices.We show that the proposed trajectory utility maximization problem is NP-hard, and design multiple heuristics. We evaluate our algorithms with real and synthetic data sets emulating different city geographies to demonstrate their efficacy. For instance, with an upgrade budget k of 20%, our algorithms perform 3-8 times better in improving the user quality of service on trajectories in different city geographies when compared to greedy location-based base-station upgrades.Comment: Published in INFOCOM 201

Complications of radical cystectomy for bladder cancer

Background: Radical cystectomy with pelvic lymph node dissection is the standard treatment for muscle-invasive bladder cancer. With the advent of improved surgical techniques and postoperative management, the complications and mortality rates have reduced. The present study was done to analyse the perioperative, early and late compilations following radical cystectomy for bladder tumor.Methods: This is a prospective observational study of patients who underwent radical cystectomy for invasive bladder tumor from February 2016 to November 2017. Radical cystectomy was done through midline transperitoneal approach.  Urinary diversion was done by ileal conduit. All patients were followed at 6th week, 3rd month, 6th month, and at 1 year.Results: Total 21 patients underwent radical cystectomy, 17(80.95%) were males and 4 (19.04%) females. The median age was 60 years, ranging from 40 to 73 years. The   most common age group was 60 to 75 years (52.3%). Thirteen (61.9%) patients were smokers and all were males. Painless haematuria alone was most common presentation (of bladder tumor) seen in 15 (71.4%) patients. Early complications were seen in 8 (38.09%) patients, most common early complication was urinary leak 2 (9.5%) patents, other early complications were bowel leak, wound dehiscence, pelvic collection, burst abdomen, prolonged ileus, subacute intestinal obstruction, acute kidney injury and sepsis seen in one (4.25%) patient each. Late complications were seen in 4 (19.04%) patients.  Pelvic recurrence was the most common late complication seen in 2 (9.55%) patients. Ureteric stricture was seen in one patient (4.75%) for which percutaneous nephrostomy and antegrade DJ stenting was done. Among the histopathological variants of tumor 20 (95.25%) patients had high grade variants and only one (4.75%) had low grade papillary urothelial carcinoma. Among the high grade variants most common pathology was urothelial carcinoma in 17 (80.9%) patients.Conclusions: Radical cystectomy remains the main stay of treatment in muscle-invasive bladder cancer. This is relatively safe procedure with minimal morbidity and mortality

Inhibiting Bacterial Drug Efflux Pumps via Phyto-Therapeutics to Combat Threatening Antimicrobial Resistance

Antibiotics, once considered the lifeline for treating bacterial infections, are under threat due to the emergence of threatening antimicrobial resistance (AMR). These drug-resistant microbes (or superbugs) are non-responsive to most of the commonly used antibiotics leaving us with few treatment options and escalating mortality-rates and treatment costs. The problem is further aggravated by the drying-pipeline of new and potent antibiotics effective particularly against the drug-resistant strains. Multidrug efflux pumps (EPs) are established as principal determinants of AMR, extruding multiple antibiotics out of the cell, mostly in non-specific manner and have therefore emerged as potent drug-targets for combating AMR. Plants being the reservoir of bioactive compounds can serve as a source of potent EP inhibitors (EPIs). The phyto-therapeutics with noteworthy drug-resistance-reversal or re-sensitizing activities may prove significant for reviving the otherwise fading antibiotics arsenal and making this combination-therapy effective. Contemporary attempts to potentiate the antibiotics with plant extracts and pure phytomolecules have gained momentum though with relatively less success against Gram-negative bacteria. Plant-based EPIs hold promise as potent drug-leads to combat the EPI-mediated AMR. This review presents an account of major bacterial multidrug EPs, their roles in imparting AMR, effective strategies for inhibiting drug EPs with phytomolecules, and current account of research on developing novel and potent plant-based EPIs for reversing their AMR characteristics. Recent developments including emergence of in silico tools, major success stories, challenges and future prospects are also discussed

AN EVALUATION OF THE WOUND HEALING AND ANTI-MICROBIAL PROPERTY OF THE TINCTURE OF LANTANA CAMARA

Objective: Lantana camaraL (L. c) has been known for its anti-bacterial activity since quite some time in its various extracts and pharmacological preparations. In view of this, we plan to study and compare the wound healing property of tincture of L. cin surgically induced wound in animal models with tincture of iodine (I2).Methods: An herbal tincture was developed from stems of L. cin concentrations of 20%, 40%, alcohol in tincture was followed as mentioned in IP, tested against tincture I2 in same aged different groups of rats under incision and excision models, also with commonly wound infecting bacteria like S. aureus, E. coli, E. fecalis, P. aeruginosa[a1] . Wounds were induced surgically under anaesthesia. Excised rats were observed for wound contraction and epithelialisation. On 7th day, incised rats were subjected to wound dehiscence test. Tissue biopsy took on day 5, 14 and21 for histopathological studies.Results: Both test groups were found statistically significant against standard with P<0.05 and with mean epithelialisation day value 11±1.02 in the excision model and P<0.05 between the groups in incision model depicting 20% tincture as better with a mean value of 366.67±47.2. Histologically 40% tincture was found non-inferior against standard. Tincture was active against mentioned microbes in various dilutions.Conclusion: Tincture L. c was non-inferior to iodine. Further studies with concentrated extracts of L. cmay reveal its accelerated healing and better anti-microbial competency so that it can be developed for clinical practice.Â

CT Angiography in The Detection of Carotid Body Enlargement in Patients with Hypertension and Heart Failure

Introduction: The carotid body (CB) has previously been found to be enlarged and hyperactive in various disease states such as heart failure (HF), hypertension (HTN), and respiratory disease. Evaluation of CB size in these disease states using imaging has not been performed. The purpose of this case–control study was to compare CB sizes in patients with HF and HTN with those of controls using CT angiography. Methods: A retrospective review was performed on 323 consecutive patients who had neck computed tomography angiography (CTA) exams in 2011. Following extensive review, 17 HF and HTN patients and 14 controls were identified. Two radiologists blinded to the patient disease status made consensus bilateral carotid body (CB) measurements on the CTA exams using a previously described standardized protocol. CB axial cross-sectional areas were compared between HF and HTN cases and controls using a paired t test. Results: The right CB demonstrated a mean cross-sectional area of 2.79 mm2 in HF and HTN patients vs. 1.40 mm2 in controls (p = 0.02). The left CB demonstrated a mean cross-sectional area of 3.13 mm2 in HF and HTN patients vs. 1.53 mm in controls (p = 0.03). Conclusion: Our results provide imaging evidence that the carotid bodies are enlarged in patients with HF and HTN. Our case–control series suggests that this enlargement can be detected on neck CTA

DELIVERY OF MACERATED AND REABSORBED FETUS THROUGH FLANK APPROACH - A CASE REPORT

The current case report gives the brief information about fetal maceration in a non-descript six years aged cow and its successful management through lateral oblique (flank) approach of laparo-hysterotomy. The animal had a history of eleven-month gestation without any sign of parturition. Initially, the animal was suspected for mummification since there was no genital discharge and completely closed cervix. Upon transrectal ultrasonography the case was confirmed with fetal maceration. Lateral oblique laparo-hysterotomy was decided to perform for delivery of macerated and reabsorbed fetus. Animal recovered uneventfully after proper post-operative care and management

Role of Experiential Trust in E-Shopping Behaviour: An Emerging Market Perspective

Addressing the limited research on online shopping trust in the emerging e-market context, this study examined how online experience affects experiential trust, attitude, perceived risk, perceived usefulness, and purchase intention. Further, experiential trust was tested as a mediator between online experience and attitude, perceived risk, and perceived usefulness. A structured questionnaire was administered to collect data from 583 respondents. The proposed hypotheses were tested through structural equation modeling using AMOS 23 and hierarchical regression analysis. The result indicates that online experience is significant in forming experiential trust. The findings also show that experiential trust plays an important role in influencing e-shoppers’ purchasing behavior. Furthermore, it has been found that online experience and experiential trust function as distinct predictors of perceived risk in online shopping behavior. This study provides new insights into online shopping behavior in emerging e-market scenarios. Practically, the findings suggest the strategic importance of generating experiential trust in the e-retailing context and indicate the utility of past online experiences

Synthesis and characterization of Cu(OH)2-NWs-PVA-AC Nano-composite and its use as an efficient adsorbent for removal of methylene blue

The present study focused on the synthesis of copper hydroxide nanowires decorated on activated carbon (Cu(OH)2-NWs-PVA-AC). The obtained Cu(OH)2-NWs-PVA-AC Nano-composite was distinguished by XRD, SEM, EDX, BET, FTIR and XPS respectively. Besides, different variables such as solution pH, and initial dye concentration, contact time, and temperature were performed on the adsorption efficiency of MB in a small batch reactor. Further, the experimental results are analyzed by various kinetic models via PFO, PSO, intra-particle diffusion and Elovich models, and the results revealed that among the kinetic models, PSO shows more suitability. In addition, different adsorption isotherms were applied to the obtained experimental data and found that Langmuir–Freundlich and Langmuir isotherm were best fits with the maximum adsorption capacity of 139.9 and 107.6 mg/g, respectively. The Nano-composite has outstanding MB removal efficiency of 94–98.5% with a span of 10 min. and decent adsorption of about 98.5% at a pH of 10. Thermodynamic constants like Gibbs free energy, entropy, and enthalpy were analyzed from the temperature reliance. The results reveal the adsorption processes are spontaneous and exothermic in nature. The high negative value of ?G° (- 44.11 to - 48.86 kJ/mol) and a low negative value of ?H° (- 28.96 kJ/mol) show the feasibility and exothermic nature of the adsorption process. The synthesized dye was found to be an efficient adsorbent for the potential removal of cationic dye (methylene blue) from wastewater within a short time