Datafication, Surveillance and Inclusion: A critical analysis of digital platforms and their role in India.

Inclusion within information systems and ICT4D research is primarily invoked as a positive benefit on the human actors involved. Set in this context, this thesis conceptualises inclusion under the growing presence of digital platforms as complex newfound participation afforded to socioeconomically marginalised individuals. The thesis employs two overlapping theoretical lenses of ‘liquid surveillance’ (Bauman & Lyon 2013) and ‘abnormal justice’ (Fraser 2008). Firstly, the metaphor of liquidity in this thesis deconstructs surveillance as a mesh of multiple visibilities within digital platforms. Secondly, a social justice framing positions the impact of the surveillant visibilities on marginalised individuals as an intersectional outcome of inclusion performed across cultural, economic and political dimensions.The empirical context involves studying India's governmentally mandated digital identity platform (Aadhaar), situated within the constellation of digital ‘gig-work’ platforms that are becoming prevalent sites of employment. The data presented forms a qualitative case study of the experience of three groups of gig-workers, namely domestic workers, cab-drivers and food-delivery workers, forming a total of 60 interviews. This is supported by ethnographic field observations and auto-ethnographic research, working as gig-worker in south India. The thesis is in an ‘alternative format’ with three constituent papers presenting interrelated perspectives of digital platforms and their wider ecosystem. The first paper studies the use of Aadhaar by domestic workers and cab-drivers (Krishna 2021) and operationalises ‘abnormal justice’ as a framework to theorise cultural, economic and political dimensions of justice as being synergistic with elements of surveillance and datafication inherent to digital identification. The second paper details the practices of datafication and surveillance within the food-delivery platform (Krishna 2020). It finds that in the performance of gig-work, (in)justice is experienced spatiotemporally by workers within their daily work practices. The third paper (Krishna n.d.) uses a lens of ‘liquid surveillance’ to conceptualise the concomitant roles of platforms in enacting surveillance and enabling inclusion. Within platform ecosystems, a ‘liquid inclusion’ is exposed to be dictated by episodic tasks of self-surveillance rather than being an absolute positive benefit of participating in the digital economy. The thesis bridges a gap in literature within information systems and ICT4D by juxtaposing surveillance and inclusion. It adds to the emerging literature on ‘data justice‘ in operationalising justice under platform ecosystems and specific practices of gig-work environments.Research PapersThere are two published papers within this thesis, with the third paper being finalised for submission. Krishna, S. (2020). Spatiotemporal (In) justice in Digital Platforms: An Analysis of Food-Delivery Platforms in South India. Proceedings of IFIP Joint Working Conference on the Future of Digital Work: The Challenge of Inequality (pp. 132-147). Springer, Cham. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-64697-4_11 Krishna, S. (2021). Digital identity, datafication and social justice: understanding Aadhaar use among informal workers in south India. Information Technology for Development, 27(1), 67-90. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02681102.2020.1818544 Krishna, S. (n.d.). Liquid Inclusion: The dynamics of inclusion under datafication and surveillance. In Preparation

I-gel for Positive Pressure Ventilation

Introduction: I-gel is a relatively new supra-glotitc airway device which is claimed to be superior to laryngeal mask airway. It can be used ingeneral anesthesia with spontaneous ventilation as well as with positive pressure ventilation.This study was designed to assess whether I-gel creates adequate laryngeal seal during positive pressure ventilation in patients undergoing laparoscopic surgery. Methods: A prospective randomized study was made among the 60 patients who underwent laparoscopic cholecystectomy under general anesthesia. Airway was managed with either I-gel insertion or endotracheal intubation and positive pressure ventilation in 30 patients each. Airway pressure, end-tidal CO2 and oxygen saturation were monitored and compared between two groups. Inhaled and exhaled tidal volume, minute volume were recorded and leak volume and leak fraction was calculated and compared between two groups. Results: Oxygenation and ventilation (oxygen saturation and end-tidal carbon dioxide pressure) was within normal limit in both groups and comparable. Leak volume in tracheal tube group was 25.33±12.41 ml and in I-gel group it was 26.43±13.19 ml. Leak fraction was 0.0487±0.023 and 0.0417±0.022 in tracheal group and I-gel group respectively. The airway pressure during C02 pneumoperitoneumwas 20.55±3.25 cm H20 in tracheal tube group and 20.21± 3.97 cm H20 in I-gel group and there was no significant leak in either group. Statistically, there was no significant difference in leak volume, leak fraction and airway pressure between the two groups. Conclusions: I- gel may be an alternate to tracheal tube during general anesthesia with positive pressure ventilation in patients with normal airway pressure with acceptable leak, adequate oxygenation and ventilation. Keywords: I gel; Laparoscopic cholecystectomy; positive pressure ventilation; tracheal intubation.

Piperacillin-Induced Immune Hemolysis Presenting with Tachycardia and Cardiac Arrest

A 20-year-old nonverbal patient with profound developmental disabilities was treated with intravenous piperacillin-tazobactam for respiratory infection. After 8 days, he became afebrile with normal pulmonary status, but his pulse remained inexplicably rapid (114/minute). Investigations revealed severe normochromic normocytic hemolytic anemia (hemoglobin: 40 g/L, reticulocytes: 9.4%, nucleated erythrocytes: 5%). While being hospitalized, patient experienced sudden cardiac arrest from which he was successfully resuscitated. He had no blood loss or intrinsic heart disease to explain the acute anemia or cardiac arrest. He had uneventfully received piperacillin-tazobactam on 7 occasions during the preceding 5 years for >50 days. Patient was treated with intravenous crystalloids, methylprednisolone and transfusion of 3 units of packed erythrocytes. Piperacillin-tazobactam was discontinued. A direct antiglobulin test was positive for immunoglobulin G and complement. Antibody to piperacillin was detected in patient's serum by the “immune-complex” method confirming “piperacillin-induced immune hemolytic anemia (PIHA)”. On discharge (day 15), patient's hemoglobin improved to 115 g/L (baseline: 131 g/L). Vigilant clinical and hematological monitoring for anemia is indicated in piperacillin-treated patients, particularly in those unable to verbalize their discomfort. Repeated piperacillin exposure may sensitize and predispose patients to PIHA

Effect of Dietary Supplementation of Rumen Undegradable Protein on Productive Performance of Early Lactating Buffaloes

An experiment was conducted to study the effect of dietary supplementation of rumen un-degradable protein on productive performance of early lactating buffaloes for the duration of 90 days from February 5, 2014, to May 5, 2014. A total of twenty one lactating Murrah buffaloes in their early to mid-lactation were randomly selected and divided into three groups. Experimental diets were formulated into three- low (30.56% of dietary Crude Protein), medium (43.54% of dietary crude protein) and high (50.04% of dietary CP), iso-nitrogenous (16% CP) and iso-caloric (72% total digestible nutrients) rumen un-digestible protein (RUP) levels. A significant difference (p<0.05) in body weight gain of buffaloes was recorded in animals of high RUP group in comparison to medium and low RUP groups. Milk yield in the medium RUP group (43.54%) was significantly higher than the high and the low RUP group (p<0.05). The mean serum total protein, blood urea nitrogen concentrations were significantly lower in both the high and the medium RUP groups than in the low RUP group (p<0.05). However, blood glucose level was significantly higher in high RUP group than in low and medium RUP group (p<0.05) whereas milk fat, solid not fat, lactose, protein and electrical conductivity showed no significant differences among the three treatment groups (p>0.05). Hence, it can be concluded that the diet containing a medium level of dietary CP as RUP improved the productive performance of early lactating buffaloes. Thus, diet containing the medium level of dietary CP as RUP should be given to improve the productive performance of early lactating buffaloes under the climatic settings of Nepal

BORDER GATEWAY PROTOCOL NETWORK LAYER REACHABILITY INFORMATION NON-KEY DATA EXCHANGE

Techniques are described herein for encoding non-key data along with each Network Layer Reachability Information (NLRI) packed in a Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) Update message. This may be useful to increase the NLRI packing efficiency of the Update message when the NLRIs have unique path information associated therewith, or when only a subset of NLRIs have some path information associated therewith. A number of use cases may be employed to take advantage of this mechanism

Thermostable phytase in feed and fuel industries

Phytase with wide ranging biochemical properties has long been utilized in a multitude of industries, even so, thermostability plays a crucial factor in choosing the right phytase in a few of the sectors. Mesophilic phytases are not considered to be a viable option in the feed industry owing to its limited stability in the required feed processing temperature. In the recent past, inclusion of thermostable phytase in fuel ethanol production from starch based raw material has been demonstrated with economic benefits. Therefore, considerable emphasis has been placed on using complementary approaches such as mining of extremophilic microbial wealth, encapsulation and using enzyme engineering for obtaining stable phytase variants. This article means to give an insight on role of thermostable phytases in feed and fuel industries and methods for its development, highlighting molecular determinants of thermostability

Exploring responsible applications of Synthetic Data to advance Online Safety Research and Development

The use of synthetic data provides an opportunity to accelerate online safety research and development efforts while showing potential for bias mitigation, facilitating data storage and sharing, preserving privacy and reducing exposure to harmful content. However, the responsible use of synthetic data requires caution regarding anticipated risks and challenges. This short report explores the potential applications of synthetic data to the domain of online safety, and addresses the ethical challenges that effective use of the technology may present

Exploratory Boosted Feature Selection and Neural Network Framework for Depression Classification

Depression is a burdensome psychiatric disease common in low and middle income countries causing disability, morbidity and mortality in late life. In this study, we demonstrate a novel approach for detection of depression using clinical data obtained from the on-going Mysore Studies of Natal effects on Ageing and Health (MYNAH), in South India where the members have undergone a comprehensive assessment for cognitive function, mental health and cardiometabolic disorders. The proposed model is developed using machine learning approach for classification of depression using Meta-Cognitive Neural Network (McNN) classifier with Projection-based learning (PBL) to address the self-regulating principles like how, what and when to learn. XGBoost is used for feature selection on the available data of assessments with improved confidence. To improve the efficiency of McNN-PBL classifier the best parameters are found using Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm. The results indicate that the McNNPBL classifier selects appropriate records to learn and remove repetitive records which improve the generalization performance. The study helps the clinician to identify the best parameters to analyze the patient

UPPLIED: UAV Path Planning for Inspection through Demonstration

In this paper, a new demonstration-based path-planning framework for the visual inspection of large structures using UAVs is proposed. We introduce UPPLIED: UAV Path PLanning for InspEction through Demonstration, which utilizes a demonstrated trajectory to generate a new trajectory to inspect other structures of the same kind. The demonstrated trajectory can inspect specific regions of the structure and the new trajectory generated by UPPLIED inspects similar regions in the other structure. The proposed method generates inspection points from the demonstrated trajectory and uses standardization to translate those inspection points to inspect the new structure. Finally, the position of these inspection points is optimized to refine their view. Numerous experiments were conducted with various structures and the proposed framework was able to generate inspection trajectories of various kinds for different structures based on the demonstration. The trajectories generated match with the demonstrated trajectory in geometry and at the same time inspect the regions inspected by the demonstration trajectory with minimum deviation. The experimental video of the work can be found at https://youtu.be/YqPx-cLkv04.Comment: Accepted for publication in IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2023), Detroit, Michigan, US

Splenic accumulation of IL-10 mRNA in T cells distinct from CD4+CD25+ (Foxp3) regulatory T cells in human visceral leishmaniasis

Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is a life-threatening disease characterized by uncontrolled parasitization of the spleen, liver, and bone marrow. Interleukin (IL)-10 has been implicated in the suppression of host immunity in human VL based on the elevated levels of IL-10 observed in plasma and lesional tissue, and its role in preventing clearance of Leishmania donovani in murine models of VL. The aim of this study was to identify the cellular source of IL-10 in human VL and determine if CD4+CD25+ (Foxp3high) regulatory T (T reg) cells are associated with active disease. We analyzed surface marker and gene expression in peripheral blood mononuclear cells and splenic aspirates from Indian VL patients before and 3–4 wk after treatment with Amphotericin B. The results did not point to an important role for natural CD4+CD25+ (Foxp3high) T reg cells in human VL. They did not accumulate in and were not a major source of IL-10 in the spleen, and their removal did not rescue antigen-specific interferon γ responses. In contrast, splenic T cells depleted of CD25+ cells expressed the highest levels of IL-10 mRNA and were the predominant lymphocyte population in the VL spleen. The elevated levels of IL-10 in VL plasma significantly enhanced the growth of L. donovani amastigotes in human macrophages. The data implicate IL-10–producing CD25−Foxp3− T cells in the pathogenesis of human VL