Auto-Grading for 3D Modeling Assignments in MOOCs

Bottlenecks such as the latency in correcting assignments and providing a grade for Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) could impact the levels of interest among learners. In this proposal for an auto-grading system, we present a method to simplify grading for an online course that focuses on 3D Modeling, thus addressing a critical component of the MOOC ecosystem that affects. Our approach involves a live auto-grader that is capable of attaching descriptive labels to assignments which will be deployed for evaluating submissions. This paper presents a brief overview of this auto-grading system and the reasoning behind its inception. Preliminary internal tests show that our system presents results comparable to human graders

Privacy Versioning for Competitive Advantage

There is increasing tension between the service quality improvements consumers receive when they allow their data to be analyzed by a firm, and the costs they incur in terms of privacy sacrifices. This is motivating firms to explore new models to attract and retain a new generation of privacy-active customers (i.e., customers who act in order to protect their privacy). This paper sets the foundation to solve the mechanism design problem for a firm that offers a continuous set of menus allowing its customers to chose their optimal combination of privacy and price. The solution of the problem shows that the relationship between prices and the amount of data shared is non-monotonic. This is a surprising result that may contribute to a better understanding of the privacy paradox, as well as to help scholars and practitioners to push the known boundaries of privacy-based versioning

Can data cooperatives sustain themselves?

Data cooperatives are emerging to empower consumers amidst a fast-changing data governance landscape. But they are not alone, and IT-enabled data marketplaces can be effective competitors. Sameer Mehta, Milind Dawande, and Vijay Mookerjee write that data cooperatives are not indispensable. They suggest four steps for data cooperatives to sustain themselves and thrive in this competitive market

Prevalence of hepatitis B and C among patients admitted in respiratory medicine ward of a tertiary care hospital in Mullana, Ambala, Haryana, India

Background: Viral Hepatitis B and C have become a major public health problem. Hepatitis B affects approximately 30% of world population or about 2 billion people have serological evidence of either current or past infection. Hepatitis C virus infects approximately 3% of world population placing about 170 million people at risk of liver disease. In India, HBsAg prevalence rates among general population ranges from 0.1% to 11.7%, being 2% to 8% in most studies and seroprevalence for Hepatitis C ranges from 0.1% to 8% among general population.Methods: The study was conducted in the respiratory medicine Ward, MMIMSR in the month of August 2016. 200 patients were taken up for the study after clinical examination, necessary investigation and proper consent. Patients were tested for HBsAg antigen and HCV Tridot. Patients were put through a carefully designed questionnaire to look for possible cause of infection. Patients who came out to be positive for either Hepatitis B or C were counselled about further investigations and treatment options.Results: The prevalence rate for Hepatitis B came out to be 9% and for Hepatitis C was 5.5%. Hepatitis has become a major public health issue in India particularly in the rural areas. High prevalence rates among patients with respiratory diseases can be attributed to unsafe therapeutic injections and use of shared needles.Conclusions: There is a need to carry out larger studies to better elucidate the epidemiology of Hepatitis B and C and to identify high prevalence areas and simultaneously focus on improving public health measures to prevent disease transmission and decrease the burden of disease

A cross-sectional survey of Indian orthopaedicians to understand the place in therapy for the latest soft gel formulation of etoricoxib

Background: Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are commonly prescribed for arthritis (RA), osteoarthritis (OA), low back pain (LBP) and other musculoskeletal disorders. Novel formulations such as soft gel formulations are being introduced for NSAIDs in place of the traditional tablet formulation. The objective of this study was to quantify orthopaedicians insights for the recently available soft gel formulation of Etoricoxib.Methods: The questions for the survey instrument (Google forms) were developed by researchers upon review of scientific literature and subsequent discussions with practicing orthopaedicians. This was a cross-sectional digital survey involving 506 orthopaedicians across India via online responses collated via Google forms.Results: 81.4% doctors agreed that etoricoxib soft gel capsules are faster acting than the tablet formulation, whereas 89.6% of the doctors agree/strongly agreed that etoricoxib soft gel capsules would have better compliance because of its bitter taste masking ability. More than 96% doctors acknowledged that etoricoxib soft gel capsule’s characteristics such as higher drug dissolution and absorption would benefit their patients more than the etoricoxib tablet formulation.Conclusions: Given its advantages, the etoricoxib soft gel formulation, in the days to come, could be one of the preferred options for the management of pain and other arthritic conditions for patients in India

ACE Alzheimer’s: The Role of Vitamin A, C and E (ACE) in Oxidative Stress induced Alzheimer’s Disease

Alzheimer's disease (AD), a chronic neurodegenerative disease which is known to progress gradually and has now become a substantial health concern through-out the world. Clinically, cognitive declination and progressive dementia are the main characteristics of AD while pathologically; Aß plaques and tau-neurofibrils are the hallmarks. The present literature search has suggested that oxidative stress is one of the most vital risk factor which can potentially lead to the development of AD. Oxidative stress is known to produce the Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) which has a potential to increase in the structural and functional abnormalities in the glial cells of the brain and which could further lead to a cognitive decline and subsequently, dementia. Hence, in order to curb this oxidative stress in the glial cells, antioxidants have been proved to be of great help according to the literature search done in PubMed, Google Scholar and Scopus. We included Meta-Analysis, Systemic Reviews and Original studies. Vitamins A, C, and E are an example of antioxidants that can be used as adjuvants in the treatment of AD. This article focuses on the contemporary literature search and presents forward the evidence-based banes of using Vitamin A, C, and E as an adjuvant therapy for preventing and treating AD

Universal Statistics of the Scattering Coefficient of Chaotic Microwave Cavities

We consider the statistics of the scattering coefficient S of a chaotic microwave cavity coupled to a single port. We remove the non-universal effects of the coupling from the experimental S data using the radiation impedance obtained directly from the experiments. We thus obtain the normalized, complex scattering coefficient whose Probability Density Function (PDF) is predicted to be universal in that it depends only on the loss (quality factor) of the cavity. We compare experimental PDFs of the normalized scattering coefficients with those obtained from Random Matrix Theory (RMT), and find excellent agreement. The results apply to scattering measurements on any wave chaotic system.Comment: 10 pages, 8 Figures, Fig.7 in Color, Submitted to Phys. Rev.

Characterization of Fluctuations of Impedance and Scattering Matrices in Wave Chaotic Scattering

In wave chaotic scattering, statistical fluctuations of the scattering matrix $S$ and the impedance matrix $Z$ depend both on universal properties and on nonuniversal details of how the scatterer is coupled to external channels. This paper considers the impedance and scattering variance ratios, $VR_z$ and $VR_s$, where $VR_z=Var[Z_{ij}]/\{Var[Z_{ii}]Var[Z_{jj}] \}^{1/2}$, $VR_s=Var[S_{ij}]/\{Var[S_{ii}]Var[S_{jj}] \}^{1/2}$, and $Var[.]$ denotes variance. $VR_z$ is shown to be a universal function of distributed losses within the scatterer. That is, $VR_z$ is independent of nonuniversal coupling details. This contrasts with $VR_s$ for which universality applies only in the large loss limit. Explicit results are given for $VR_z$ for time reversal symmetric and broken time reversal symmetric systems. Experimental tests of the theory are presented using data taken from scattering measurements on a chaotic microwave cavity.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, updated with referees' comment