A Random Walk Perspective on Hide-and-Seek Games

We investigate hide-and-seek games on complex networks using a random walk framework. Specifically, we investigate the efficiency of various degree-biased random walk search strategies to locate items that are randomly hidden on a subset of vertices of a random graph. Vertices at which items are hidden in the network are chosen at random as well, though with probabilities that may depend on degree. We pitch various hide and seek strategies against each other, and determine the efficiency of search strategies by computing the average number of hidden items that a searcher will uncover in a random walk of $n$ steps. Our analysis is based on the cavity method for finite single instances of the problem, and generalises previous work of De Bacco et al. [1] so as to cover degree-biased random walks. We also extend the analysis to deal with the thermodynamic limit of infinite system size. We study a broad spectrum of functional forms for the degree bias of both the hiding and the search strategy and investigate the efficiency of families of search strategies for cases where their functional form is either matched or unmatched to that of the hiding strategy. Our results are in excellent agreement with those of numerical simulations. We propose two simple approximations for predicting efficient search strategies. One is based on an equilibrium analysis of the random walk search strategy. While not exact, it produces correct orders of magnitude for parameters characterising optimal search strategies. The second exploits the existence of an effective drift in random walks on networks, and is expected to be efficient in systems with low concentration of small degree nodes.Comment: 31 pages, 10 (multi-part) figure

Representation of Women in Game of Thrones: Sensational or Realist

This paper intends to work on the portrayal of women in the television adaptation of George R. Martin’s epic fantasy novel, A Song of Ice and Fire. It is a medieval drama loosely based on the War of the Roses. The show has a huge fan base that includes people from all age groups, cultures, and nations. But at the same time, it has been strongly criticized for its explicit sexual violence, misogyny, and objectification of women. Elaina Docterman of TIME magazine wrote that the show has a “woman problem” and there are some hard-to-watch scenes of rape and sexual torture of women. Naked women have been objectified and used as props and critics have lashed out against the gratuitous nudity on the show, dismissing it as a lure to keep viewers hooked by providing exposition against the backdrop of sex and nudity

Experimental demonstration of 25 GHz wideband chaos in symmetric dual port EDFRL

We study dynamics of chaos in dual port erbium-doped fiber ring laser (EDFRL). The laser consists of two erbium-doped fibers, intracavity filters at 1549.30 nm, isolators, and couplers. At both ports, the laser transitions into the chaotic regime for pump currents greater than 100 mA via period doubling route. We calculate the Lyapunov exponents using Rosenstein’s algorithm. We obtain positive values for the largest Lyapunov exponent (≈0.2) for embedding dimensions 5, 7, 9 and 11 indicating chaos. We compute the power spectrum of the photocurrents at the output ports of the laser. We observe a bandwidth of ≈ 25 GHz at both ports. This ultra wideband nature of chaos obtained has potential applications in high speed random number generation and communication

Polynomial approach modeling among diabetic patients associated with age in rural hilly population of Dehradun district, Uttarakhand

Background: Diabetes mellitus is a form of infections that includes issues with the hormone insulin. It is described by constant rise of blood glucose level surprising ordinary esteem. In this paper, an exertion has been made to fit scientific model to diabetic patients and additionally its total dispersion for both genders related with time of rural population from Dehradun district, Uttarakhand.Methods: For this reason, the information have been taken from field overview in rural hilly population of Dehradun district. In this investigation, an endeavor has been given to demonstrate that the polynomial model is attempted to fit to the conveyance of diabetic patients related with age and also its cumulative distribution.Results: The fitted model provides statistically significant values with R2=0.9997 and ρcv2= 0.994857. This is the polynomial of degree four, i.e. bi-quadratic polynomial model. The polynomial model is assumed for the cumulative distribution of diabetic patients associated with age and the fitted model provides statistically significant values providing R2= 0.99998 and ρcv2= 0.999983 and shrink-age coefficient=0.00001414. This is the polynomial of degree three, i.e. cubic polynomial model. From this statistic we see that the fitted models are highly cross-validated, and their shrinkages are 0.004842857 and 0.00001414 for the models (1) and (2) respectively.Conclusions: It is discovered that the distribution of diabetic patients for both genders related with age takes after bi-quadratic polynomial model. In addition, it is found that cumulative distribution of diabetic patients takes as cubic polynomial model. Cross validity prediction power is utilized to the fitted model to verify the stability of the model in this study

Spontaneous bacterial peritonitis due to streptococcus pneumoniae: a case report

Despite not being a normal gastrointestinal flora, Streptococcus pneumoniae can be the causative agent of Spontaneous Bacterial Peritonitis (SBP) in clinical setting. Patient present with fever, progressive abdominal pain, swelling of limbs, abdomen or both. It is mainly diagnosed by ascitic fluid tapping and its cell count along with culture and sensitivity. This condition has very good response with antibiotics as per culture reports. Here, we present a common case of SBP caused by an uncommon pathogen Streptococcus pneumoniae

Evaluation of anti-psychotic effect of nimodipine using methylphenidate as a model to induce psychosis in albino mice

Background: Schizophrenia is a functional psychotic disorder currently treated by typical and atypical antipsychotic drugs. A large group of patients remain resistant to therapy. Nimodipine has been found effective for treating resistant bipolar mood disorder which is linked genetically with schizophrenia and has a high overlap of neurotransmitters in the etiopathology. Previous studies to evaluate nimodipine’s antipsychotic activity have shown inconsistent results. Methylphenidate, a CNS stimulant like amphetamine, has been shown to induce stereotypy in animals and can be proposed as an alternative model for psychosis.Methods: Methylphenidate 5 mg/kg was given intraperitoneally to induce psychosis in swiss albino mice (n=6). Nimodipine was given alone in doses of 2.5 and 5 mg/kg by i.p route and in combination with haloperidol 0.1 mg/kg and effects were compared with haloperidol 0.2mg/kg. Activity of nimodipine was also assessed on the haloperidol induced catalepsy test. Statistical analysis was done with ANOVA followed by Bonferroni’s test using SPSS v. 20.0.Results: Methylphenidate successfully induced characteristic stereotypy behaviour in mice similar to amphetamine. Both nimodipine 5 mg/kg and haloperidol 0.2 mg/kg showed significant reduction in stereotypy behaviour with no statistical difference between the two; result with nimodipine were only slightly inferior to haloperidol. Nimodipine 5 mg/kg with haloperidol 0.1 mg/kg showed significantly better activity than haloperidol in standard dose of 0.2 mg/kg. Nimodipine did not show significant activity on the haloperidol induced catalepsy test.Conclusions: Methylphenidate has potential to be used as an alternative model for inducing psychosis in animals and nimodipine shows promising results for use as adjuvant antipsychotic drug

Dissecting BFT Consensus: In Trusted Components we Trust!

The growing interest in reliable multi-party applications has fostered widespread adoption of Byzantine Fault-Tolerant (BFT) consensus protocols. Existing BFT protocols need f more replicas than Paxos-style protocols to prevent equivocation attacks. Trust-BFT protocols instead seek to minimize this cost by making use of trusted components at replicas. This paper makes two contributions. First, we analyze the design of existing Trust-BFT protocols and uncover three fundamental limitations that preclude most practical deployments. Some of these limitations are fundamental, while others are linked to the state of trusted components today. Second, we introduce a novel suite of consensus protocols, FlexiTrust, that attempts to sidestep these issues. We show that our FlexiTrust protocols achieve up to 185% more throughput than their Trust-BFT counterparts

Anti-nociceptive effect of seed extract of Acacia tortilis in rodents

Background: Management of pain is a primary clinical concern for any pathology in medical field. Addiction liability of opioids and troublesome gastrointestinal side effects of NSAIDs   leads to intensive research for compound with lesser side effects.The aim of the study to evaluate the anti-nociceptive activity of Acacia Tortilis Seed Extract (ATE) in experimental animals.Methods: First of all, animals were randomly allocated into four groups of six animals each. In acetic acid induced writhing test model, Group I (NC) served as vehicle control received saline/Tween 80 0.1%, 10ml/kg BW orally, group II (ATE-100) and III (ATE-200) received ATE in dose of 100 and 200mg/kg BW orally respectively and group IV received the standard drug diclofenac sodium in dose of 50 mg/kg BW orally. Group I to IV were same in rest of three experimental models. One additional group of standard drugs (group V) morphine sulfate in dose of 5 mg/kg BW subcutaneously (SC) was allocated for screening method hot plate and tail flick tests.  In Formalin induced paw licking test, three additional groups (group V) morphine sulfate in dose of 5mg/kg BW SC, group VI- morphine+naloxone (5mg/kg SC +2mg/kg intra-peritoneally (IP) and group VII - ATE+ naloxone (200mg/kg BW orally +2mg/kg BW IP) were also made.Results: The ATE when administered orally in dose of 100 and 200mg/ kg body weight (BW), produced significant analgesic activity (P <0.01) in acetic acid induced writhing syndrome and late phase of formalin test. In the hot plate test in mice and tail flick test in rats, ATE in same doses also showed significant analgesic activity (P <0.05) which is almost equally efficacious to standard drug diclofenac sodium (50mg/kg BW orally) but far less efficacious than morphine sulfate (5mg/kg BW subcutaneous).ATE (200mg/Kg BW orally) activity did not blocked by naloxone (2mg/kg intra-peritoneal).Conclusions: ATE possesss significant anti-nociceptive activity as evidenced in all the animal models of nociception. It might exert its effect through the peripheral mechanism of analgesic action possibly by interference in biosynthesis, release and/or action of prostaglandins and leukotrienes

Physiological impact of heat stress and their alleviation measures in agriculture: A review

Abiotic stresses are becoming more prevalent in modern agriculture as a result of shifting climate scenarios. Elevated temperature stress is one of the most important abiotic stresses to address since it has detrimental consequences for plant physiology, molecular structure, and phenology. The morphological impact occurs in the form of reduced germination, poor emergence, poor seedling vigor, abnormal seedling. Heat stress also results in the closure of stomata, reduced leaf size and consequent increase in stomatal density. One of the major physiological impacts of heat stress is on the fluidity of the membrane structure of the plant cell. Heat stress leads to increased fluidity of the thylakoid membrane and disruption of metabolic functions, which either deliver or accept electrons from PSII and, thus, cause dislodging of PSII from thylakoid membrane. The respiration generally increases in the temperature range of 0-35/ 40⁰C, reaches plateau at 40-50⁰C and decreases beyond 50⁰C due to damage to the respiratory mechanism. Elevated temperature directly impacts the cellular water content and indirectly through the increased water depletion rate from the soil. In order to design the appropriate corrective actions, it is crucial to research all the factors leading to heat stress thoroughly. The traditional agronomic and breeding interventions are crucial, but the rising food demand and the intensifying heat stress call for some cutting-edge biotechnological interventions, such as transgenics, genome editing, and CRISPR/cas9, to induce genome-level heat tolerance. The present review deals in detail with each of the previously listed aspects.