Detection of Rayleigh Faded Signal using Two Distributed Sensors

Distributed detection(DD) is an area of interest in the Cognitive Radio(CR) Network domain. With the help of geographically dispersed sensors and a Fusion Center(FC) (i.e. the network element which generates the global network decision), a DD system can determine the presence or absence of a primary user signal. This prevents any harmful interference by a secondary user who is trying to gain access to the unoccupied spectrum opportunistically. DD system gained its popularity in spectrum analysis due to the limited bandwidth of the reporting channels between the sensors and their fusion center

Examination of Hepatic Cancer Rates in Varying Trichloroethylene Concentrations in the Contamination Zone of the IBM-Endicott Chemical Spill

In 1979, International Business Machines spilled 3700 gallons of a volatile organic compound, trichloroethylene (TCE), beneath its facility in Endicott, NY. TCE is a known carcinogen and has been associated with elevated levels of hepatic cancer in previous toxicological studies. For these reasons, the researchers conducted a case-control study to determine if there was an elevated risk of hepatic cancer in Endicott preceding the spill. In addition to common practices employed in case-control studies, such as survey data collection, the researchers also employed multidisciplinary methods of data visualization to illustrate the relationship between the spill location and elevated hepatic cancer rates. The geographic relationship between the number of hepatic cancer cases and their locations relative to groundwater TCE concentrations indicates that there is a strong correlation between the presence of TCE and an increased incidence of hepatic cancer. This conclusion is further supported by cancer registry data, which depicts Endicott as having a higher incidence of hepatic cancer than Broome County and New York State.https://orb.binghamton.edu/research_days_posters_2023/1089/thumbnail.jp

Controlled Electrokinetic Particle Manipulation using Paper-and-Pencil Microfluidics

Dielectrophoresis is a very promising technique for particle manipulation on a chip. In this study, we demonstrate a controlled mannuvering of polystryrene particles on a simple paper-and-pencil based device by exploiting the underlying electrokinetics with primary contribution from dielectrophoretic (DEP) forces. On contrary to other reported DEP devices, the present configuration does not demand a shophitcated laboratory module for creating a non-uniform electric field, which is essential requirement in DEP settings. We demonstrate positive dielectrophoresis (pDEP) to trap 1 um size polystyrene particle for low-conductivity suspending medium, at an applied field strength of 100 V/cm. In addition, the switching of the trapping direction (positive to negative dielectrophoresis) can be simply achieved by manipulating the conductivity of the media. We further bring out an optimum range of pH for effective particle trapping. These results have significant implications towards designing cell-on-a-chip based point of care diagnostic devices for resource limited settings.Comment: 21 page

Strukturierter Einblick in die Biosynthese des Molybdän-Kofaktors und Häm d1

Almost all life processes ranging from respiration to metabolism are coordinated by enzymatic reactions. A large repertoire of these enzymes requires additional components known as cofactors to achieve optimal activity. Organic cofactors like heme, siroheme, etc. directly participate in enzymatic reactions, thereby bringing about catalytic transformations. While the reaction mechanisms involving cofactors are being studied for decades, their biosynthesis, transport into target enzymes remain largely unknown. This study focuses on the synthesis of two such cofactors, the molybdenum cofactor (Moco) and heme d1. Moco and heme d1 are synthesized via evolutionarily conserved pathway involving various enzymatic reactions. This work deals with the structural investigation of two enzymes, Cnx1E and NirE, which are implicated in the synthesis of Moco and heme d1, respectively. Cnx1E is the N-terminal domain of the protein Cnx1 and catalyzes the final step of Moco biosynthesis, whereas NirE is involved in the initial transformation of uroporphyrinogen III (urogen III) to precorrin-2, which after several further modification leads to the formation of heme d1. As a part of this investigation, both the proteins were recombinantly expressed produced and crystallized to obtain diffracting crystals. The crystals were subjected to X-ray crystallographic analysis to solve the molecular structure of the proteins.Fast alle Prozesse des Lebens wie Metabolismus und Zellatmung werden durch enzymatische Reaktionen koordiniert. Viele Enzyme benoetigen zusaetzliche Molekuele, Kofaktoren genannt, fuer die optimale Aktivitaet. Organische Kofaktoren oder wie Haem, Sirohaem partizipieren direkt in enzymatischen Reaktionen, um komplizierte katalytische Umwandlungen zu ermoeglichen. Waehrend die Reaktionsmechanismen, in die Kofaktoren involviert sind, oft seit Jahrzehnten erforscht werden, ist ueber deren Biosynthese und Transport in ihr Enzym meist sehr wenig bekannt. Diese Arbeit befasst sich mit der Synthese zweier solcher Kofaktoren, dem Molybdaenkofaktor (Moco) und Haem d1. Moco und Haem d1 werden in mehreren Schritten hergestellt ueber einen evolutionaer konservierten Syntheseweg, der verschiedene enzymatische Reaktionen beinhaltet. In dieser Arbeit wurden die Strukturen von zwei Enzymen, Cnx1E and NirE, aufgeklaert, die in der Synthese von Moco and heme d1 involviert sind. Cnx1E ist die N-terminale Domaene des Proteins Cnx1 und katalysiert den finalen Schritt in der Moco Biosynthese, waehrend NirE an der initialen Umwandlung von Uroporphyrinogen III (Urogen III) zu Precorrin-2 beteiligt ist, welches durch weitere Reaktionsschritte zu Haem d1 umgwandelt wird. In dieser Arbeit wurden beide Proteine rekombinant in E. coli exprimiert, ueber Affinitaetschromatographie gereinigt und kristallisiert. Waehrend Cnx1E nur in der apo-Form kristallisiert werden konnte, wurde NirE sowohl ohne als auch mit gebundenem Kofaktor kristallisiert werden. Die molekulare Struktur der beiden Proteine wurde mittels Roentgenkristallographie aufgeklaert

Incorporating deep visual features into multiobjective based multi-view search results clustering

Current paper explores the use of multi-view learning for search result clustering. A web-snippet can be represented using multiple views. Apart from textual view cued by both the semantic and syntactic information, a complementary view extracted from images contained in the websnippets is also utilized in the current framework. A single consensus partitioning is finally obtained after consulting these two individual views by the deployment of a multi-objective based clustering technique. Several objective functions including the values of a cluster quality measure evaluating the goodness of partitionings obtained using different views and an agreementdisagreement index, quantifying the amount of oneness among multiple views in generating partitionings are optimized simultaneously using AMOSA. In order to detect the number of clusters automatically, concepts of variable length solutions and a vast range of permutation operators are introduced in the clustering process. Finally a set of alternative partitionings are obtained on the final Pareto front by the proposed multi-view based multi-objective technique. Experimental results by the proposed approach on several bench-mark test datasets with respect to different performance metrics evidently establish the power of visual and text based views in achieving better search result clustering

Generating (Factual?) Narrative Summaries of RCTs: Experiments with Neural Multi-Document Summarization

We consider the problem of automatically generating a narrative biomedical evidence summary from multiple trial reports. We evaluate modern neural models for abstractive summarization of relevant article abstracts from systematic reviews previously conducted by members of the Cochrane collaboration, using the authors conclusions section of the review abstract as our target. We enlist medical professionals to evaluate generated summaries, and we find that modern summarization systems yield consistently fluent and relevant synopses, but that they are not always factual. We propose new approaches that capitalize on domain-specific models to inform summarization, e.g., by explicitly demarcating snippets of inputs that convey key findings, and emphasizing the reports of large and high-quality trials. We find that these strategies modestly improve the factual accuracy of generated summaries. Finally, we propose a new method for automatically evaluating the factuality of generated narrative evidence syntheses using models that infer the directionality of reported findings.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures. Accepted for presentation at the 2021 AMIA Informatics Summi

A comparative study of intrathecal levobupivacaine-clonidine and bupivacaine in the quality of anesthesia for patients undergoing hernioplasty

Background: Bupivacaine is most commonly used amino-amide drug for subarachnoid block in hernioplasty. Levobupivacaine has similar pharmacological activity to that of bupivacaine with minimal cardiotoxicity. Clonidine, an α2 adrenergic agonist, potentiates the action of local anesthetics when used intrathecally and enhances post-operative analgesia. Aims and Objectives: This prospective, comparative, observational study was aimed to compare the effects of 0.5% levobupivacaine with clonidine and 0.5% hyperbaric bupivacaine in patients undergoing hernioplasty for the quality of surgical anesthesia and hemodynamic changes with any significant intraoperative complications. Materials and Methods: After receiving approval from the institutional ethics committee and written informed consent, 80 male patients aged between 18 and 60 years, BMI 150 cm, and American society of anesthesiologists physical status1 and 2 posted for elective hernioplasty were enrolled into two equal groups of 40 patients, group LC and group B. Patients in group LC received 15 mg 0.5% isobaric levobupivacaine with 30 μg clonidine and patients in group B received 15 mg hyperbaric bupivacaine intrathecally. SPSS version 20 was used for analysis, and P<0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: In group LC, onsets of both sensory and motor blocks were delayed, whereas durations of motor and sensory block with analgesia were longer. Tachycardia, hypotension, nausea, vomiting, and shivering were observed greater in numbers in group B, whereas incidence of bradycardia was more in group LC. Conclusion: Prolonged duration of sensory and motor block, prolonged analgesic effect, and hemodynamic stability without any significant adverse effects may make this combination a better alternative to hyperbaric bupivacaine for hernioplasty