An Empirical Investigation of Retail Investors’ Sentiments: Role of Demographics

Purpose: This paper is an explicit effort to explore the various tenets of Investors’ sentiments in Indian context. The purpose of this paper is to examine the Investors’ Sentiments and to know how investors sentiments affects the choices made by retail investors and to know how demographic characteristics drive investment decisions of individuals.   Methodology: In carrying out this research study a descriptive design is used. A sample of 683 respondents (retail investors) were selected as part of a sample utilizing the snowball (chain referral) method of sampling. The instrument used for collecting primary data is a well-structured questionnaire and it consists of demographic profiles of respondents.   Findings: The attitude of investors’ towards investment decision is influenced by perceived returns, price sensitive information, perceived economic indicators, investors’ confidence and herd behavior. These results emphasize the significance of individual propensities in determining a person’s level of sentiments.   Implications: This study will help financial advisors to better understand the attitudes and behaviors of their clients and also be significant for financial institutions, given to positive economic effects of development of financial sector

Predictive modeling of brain tumor: A Deep learning approach

Image processing concepts can visualize the different anatomy structure of the human body. Recent advancements in the field of deep learning have made it possible to detect the growth of cancerous tissue just by a patient's brain Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scans. These methods require very high accuracy and meager false negative rates to be of any practical use. This paper presents a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) based transfer learning approach to classify the brain MRI scans into two classes using three pre-trained models. The performances of these models are compared with each other. Experimental results show that the Resnet-50 model achieves the highest accuracy and least false negative rates as 95% and zero respectively. It is followed by VGG-16 and Inception-V3 model with an accuracy of 90% and 55% respectively.Comment: 5 pages, 9 figures, Published in Innovations in Computational Intelligence and Computer Vision (ICICV-2020), Springer and will be appear in Scopus Indexed Springer Book Series Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing ISSN: 2194-535

Oral Cavity and Transmission of HIV: A Debatable Dilemma

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is most commonly transmitted by sexual activity. HIV is found in blood and other body fluids, including semen, vaginal fluid and saliva. Spreadof the HIV from oral secretions of the millions of HIV viremic individuals, during kissing, dental treatment, biting is a very uncommon finding. The shedding of infected blood or exudates from the saliva of an infected individual usually contains only the noninfectious component of HIV and may also contain fragments or the entire noninfectious genome. The risk of HIV transmission via oral secretions is an issue of growing interest to the dental health professionals. The oral transmission of HIV remains a controversial issue and a cause of concern

ESBL, MBL AND AMP C-β LACTAMASES PRODUCED BY SUPERBUGS: AN EMERGING THREAT TO CLINICAL THERAPEUTICS

Objectives: The present study was undertaken to determine the prevalence of multi drug resistant (MDR) and multiple β-lactamase producing Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates in lower respiratory tract infection (LRTI) patients at a tertiary care hospital in India.Methods: A total of 80 consecutive, non-duplicate isolates of P. aeruginosa were studied for the presence of class A or B β-lactamase. Antibiotic susceptibility tests and PCR amplification of genes encoding class A (PER-1 and CTX-M 1, 2, 9) and class B β-lactamases (blaVIM-2, blaIMP-1 and blaSIM-1) were performed.Results: Out of 80 P. aeruginosa isolates, 65% (52/80) of the isolates were MDR with 34 being Metallo-β-lactamase (MBL) producers, 23 were extended spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL) producers and 21 were positive for AmpC production. The cross-class resistance rates to other antibiotics was significantly higher in class A and B β-lactamase producers than in non-producers (P<0.05 for fluoroquinolone, aztreonam, ceftazidime and meropenem). Combined disk test (CDT) for MBL highest sensitivity and specificity compared to PCR. Combined disk method (CDM) for ESBL co-related well with PCR (sensitivity and specificity).Conclusion: This study reports the validation of a simple and accurate MBL and ESBL detection method which can be easily integrated into the daily routine of a clinical laboratory.Â

ACCURACY OF ORAL MUCOSAL MEASUREMENTS USING CBCT AND BARIUM EMBEDDED DENTURE BASE

Objective The dimensions and relationships of the periodontal structures are vital in various dental specialties. Paper describes a simple, novel, noninvasive and a promising technique which illustrates and validates the possibility of radiographically visualizing and metrically assessing oral hard and soft tissues of the periodontium. Materials and Methods A total of 14 periodontally healthy, dentate subjects with no severe crowding, rotation, or spacing in the maxilla, and no history of palatal disease or surgery participated in this study. Maxillary impression of the patient made using additional polyvinyl impression material. Maxillary CBCT images of the patients with the barium incorporated denture base in place were obtained using Carestream CS 3D 9300 C machine with the FOV of 5X10 cm at 90 Kvp, 6.3 mA, scanning time 8 secs and angle of rotation 270 degrees. Analysis was done using CS 3D Dental Imaging Software. Results A strong correlation in the measurements of thickness of the palatal masticatory mucosa by both methods (r=0.90; p<0.01). Mean palatal masticatory mucosa thickness was 2.74 mm (range: 2.0 to 6.03 mm) on CBCT and on physical measurements it was found to be 2.6 mm (range: 2.0 to 5.03 mm). Conclusion Barium sulphate dry, white, chalky powder, appears white (radio-opaque) on the X-ray film. Its applications in medicine include barium meal a diagnostic test used to detect abnormalities of the esophagus, stomach and small bowel using X-ray imaging. This coherent property of radio opacity of barium helped us visualize and analyse the oral hard and soft tissues on maxillary CBCT images as well

Impact of COVID-19 on cardiovascular testing in the United States versus the rest of the world

Objectives: This study sought to quantify and compare the decline in volumes of cardiovascular procedures between the United States and non-US institutions during the early phase of the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the care of many non-COVID-19 illnesses. Reductions in diagnostic cardiovascular testing around the world have led to concerns over the implications of reduced testing for cardiovascular disease (CVD) morbidity and mortality. Methods: Data were submitted to the INCAPS-COVID (International Atomic Energy Agency Non-Invasive Cardiology Protocols Study of COVID-19), a multinational registry comprising 909 institutions in 108 countries (including 155 facilities in 40 U.S. states), assessing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on volumes of diagnostic cardiovascular procedures. Data were obtained for April 2020 and compared with volumes of baseline procedures from March 2019. We compared laboratory characteristics, practices, and procedure volumes between U.S. and non-U.S. facilities and between U.S. geographic regions and identified factors associated with volume reduction in the United States. Results: Reductions in the volumes of procedures in the United States were similar to those in non-U.S. facilities (68% vs. 63%, respectively; p = 0.237), although U.S. facilities reported greater reductions in invasive coronary angiography (69% vs. 53%, respectively; p < 0.001). Significantly more U.S. facilities reported increased use of telehealth and patient screening measures than non-U.S. facilities, such as temperature checks, symptom screenings, and COVID-19 testing. Reductions in volumes of procedures differed between U.S. regions, with larger declines observed in the Northeast (76%) and Midwest (74%) than in the South (62%) and West (44%). Prevalence of COVID-19, staff redeployments, outpatient centers, and urban centers were associated with greater reductions in volume in U.S. facilities in a multivariable analysis. Conclusions: We observed marked reductions in U.S. cardiovascular testing in the early phase of the pandemic and significant variability between U.S. regions. The association between reductions of volumes and COVID-19 prevalence in the United States highlighted the need for proactive efforts to maintain access to cardiovascular testing in areas most affected by outbreaks of COVID-19 infection