A TWO-COMPONENT NORMAL MIXTURE ALTERNATIVE TO THE FAY-HERRIOT MODEL

This article considers a robust hierarchical Bayesian approach to deal with random effects of small area means when some of these effects assume extreme values, resulting in outliers. In the presence of outliers, the standard Fay-Herriot model, used for modeling area-level data, under normality assumptions of random effects may overestimate the random effects variance, thus providing less than ideal shrinkage towards the synthetic regression predictions and inhibiting the borrowing of information. Even a small number of substantive outliers of random effects results in a large estimate of the random effects variance in the Fay-Herriot model, thereby achieving little shrinkage to the synthetic part of the model or little reduction in the posterior variance associated with the regular Bayes estimator for any of the small areas. While the scale mixture of normal distributions with a known mixing distribution for the random effects has been found to be effective in the presence of outliers, the solution depends on the mixing distribution. As a possible alternative solution to the problem, a two-component normal mixture model has been proposed, based on non-informative priors on the model variance parameters, regression oefficients and the mixing probability. Data analysis and simulation studies based on real, simulated and synthetic data show an advantage of the proposed method over the standard Bayesian Fay-Herriot solution derived under normality of random effects

Azurin synthesis from pseudomonas aeruginosa MTCC 2453, properties, induction of reactive oxygen species and p53 stimulated apoptosis in breast carcinoma cells

Breast cancers are usually treated with surgery and radiation excretes adverse effects. Azurin, a potent anticancer redox protein secreted by Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa) species has been reported to have activity against breast cancer cell lines; this had prompted researchers to search for novel methods to enhance this protein's production. Researchers previously have reported on the synthesis of blue copper protein azurin from different microbial sources specifically from P. aeruginosa. Our investigation used customized methods to focus on synthesizing azurin from different strains of P. aeruginosa with apparent homogeneity. We screened the growth of different P. aeruginosa strains (1934, 741, 2453 and 1942) for the synthesis of azurin and for enhanced azurin production. We exposed azurin properties using matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization, sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Additional studies of possible molecular mechanisms and Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) generation of P. aeruginosa 2453 secreted azurin are needed. We examined which strain among P. aeruginosa strains 1934, 741, 2453 and 1942 best enhanced azurin production. Our current study also revealed which strain of the four had the strongest antiproliferative effect of azurin. P. aeruginosa MTCC (Microbial Type Culture Collection) 2453 was the strain that secreted the most azurin and showed remarkable apoptosis in breast carcinoma cells like T- 47D and ZR-75-1. This study demonstrates customized methods to synthesize azurin from different strains of P. aeruginosa with apparent homogeneity and their apoptotic effects on breast carcinoma cells with possible molecular mechanisms and ROS

Respondent or non-respondent comparison post cardiac resynchronisation therapy implantation in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy

Background: Dilated cardiomyopathy can be treated using cardiac resynchronisation therapy (CRT) effectively. In our study, we compared the clinical and biochemical profile of responders and non-responders to CRT device (CRTD) implantation suffering from DCM. Methods: A cross-sectional observational study was performed in 47 patients with dilated cardiomyopathy for CRTD implantation for a period of 18 months. The tools used for the study include electrocardiography 12 lead, echocardiography: 2D, M mode, Doppler, strain echo, Holter monitoring, coronary angiography and CRTD implantation. Statistical analysis was performed using Epi Info (TM) 7.2.2.2. Results: The proportion of responders (68.1%) was significantly higher than non-responder (31.9%). Almost 60% of patients in non-responder group had smoking as a risk factor. Around 60% were suffering from hypertension and 33% from T2DM in non-respondent group. Parameters of dyssynchrony has significantly improved in responder group than in non-responder group. LVEDV, LVESV has shown an increase and EF has decreased considerably in DCM patients. Many patients in non-responder category have shown mitral and tricuspid regurgitation. Strain echocardiography parameters-GLS, GRS and GCS were significantly decreased. Post CRTD echocardiographic parameter has improved considerably and LVESV was reduced in more than 15% of responders. Conclusions: The CRTD implantation improves patients’ clinical and Echocardiographic data which can help in better patient management, improving quality of life and decreased healthcare cost. By this study we can improve patients’ selection and predict accordingly for CRT responders and non-responders and can take necessary measures for better patient’s management

Analysis of color histogram based similarity search and retrieval strategy of videos in Video on Demand systems

The advent of the internet and smart hand held devices have driven the explosion of multimedia data especially video data. It has become difficult for the end user to get his desired content in a stipulated time as services like video-on-demand systems and video share Web, the major contributors of video data, has led to the ever growing quantity of video databases. This has led to extensive research in the field of video similarity search for content-based video retrieval. Traditional methods of content based retrieval strategies are computationally expensive and do not consider the temporal features of a video. Hence a fast content based scalable similarity search strategy has been an active area of research. There are two primary challenges regarding visual similarity search problem: video similarity measure and fast search method in large database. A compact signature of video is computed according to image histogram by extracting frames of a video. The video similarity is measured by the computation of the distance of signature of video. A search method based on clustering index table by index clustering and scoring using different parameters was analyzed

Evaluation of cardiovascular events and bleeding complications in patients of Acute Coronary Syndrome on various antiplatelet drugs: an observational study in a tertiary care center in Eastern India

Background: This study is to determine the clinical profile of Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS) patients, to observe cardiovascular events in patients with ACS undergoing Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI) and to evaluate the bleeding complications with various antiplatelet agents.Methods: This hospital based observational study included patients of ACS presenting between February 2015 to August 2016 who received PCI and were on dual antiplatelet agents.Results: Among 200 patients presenting with ACS mean age was 58.67, there was male predominance and 52.5% presented with STEMI. Cardiovascular death was seen in 2.5% patients and all cause mortality was seen in 3.5% patients. The incidence of Non-fatal myocardial infarction was more in Clopidogrel group (5%) as compared to Prasugrel (4%) and Ticagrelor (2%) group. Non-fatal stroke was seen in 2% patients and incidence was similar in each of the three groups. Incidences of target vessel revascularization (TVR) and stent thrombosis were more in the Clopidogrel group as compared to Prasugrel and Ticagrelor. TIMI Major and Minor bleeding with Prasugrel was higher than clopidogrel and Ticagrelor and TIMI minimal bleeding was seen in 2% patients and was similar in all three groups.Conclusions: Patients receiving clopidogrel has more numbers of CV death, all cause death, non-fatal MI, TVR and stent thrombosis in comparison to the groups receiving Prasugrel or Ticagrelor and on comparing Prasugrel and Ticagrelor, the two drugs are similar in efficacy but, Ticagrelor has better safety outcomes

Socio-economics: a propensity of self-medication among OPD patients of a teaching hospital

Background: Use of over the counter (OTC) drug is very much common in India. Not only medical professionals or educated urban population but also it is common in rural area and low educated person. This study was done to assess the extent of knowledge and practices of OTC drugs among OPD patients of a tertiary care hospital.Methods: A questionnaire based study was conducted among 1680 Medicine OPD (outpatient department) patients.Results: Among the participants, 62% patients taking OTC drugs at least once in their life. Most common symptoms for self-medication were fever (89%), cough and cold (78%), headache (67%), pain (53%), diarrhea (10%), vomiting (10%), indigestion (20%). Antipyretics (65%), analgesics (35%) among NSAIDs which were common used as OTC drugs. Others drugs were antacids (50%), cough and cold preparations (50%), Vitamins (30%), antiemetics (5%).Conclusions: Awareness is necessary to use drugs rationally with proper prescription and know about harmful effects of OTC drugs

Web Usage Mining: A Survey on Pattern Extraction from Web Logs

As the size of web increases along with number of users, it is very much essential for the website owners to better understand their customers so that they can provide better service, and also enhance the quality of the website. To achieve this they depend on the web access log files. The web access log files can be mined to extract interesting pattern so that the user behaviour can be understood. This paper presents an overview of web usage mining and also provides a survey of the pattern extraction algorithms used for web usage mining