732 research outputs found
Data Driven Stochastic Game Network-Based Smart Home Monitoring System Using IoT-Enabled Edge Computing Environments
Edge computing plays a crucial role in the processing of Consumer Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled latency-sensitive applications. In smart homes, dynamic action strategies based on multiple IoT objects with edge processing can be the best solution for handling adverse events. To overcome these challenges, the use of Stochastic Game Net (SGN) forming IoT devices as players with predefined action sets is one of the feasible solutions. Relative to this context, the edge-assisted IoT-enabled data-driven SGN model is proposed to handle various events in the smart home environment. Stochastic Petri Nets (SPNs) and game theory are integrated into our proposed model to build data-driven dynamic SGNs for the smart home environment. Dynamic SGNs for a comprehensive smart home system are generated in real-time through transitions based on sensor data, enhancing interoperability and scalability in smart home environments. We use the Net logo tool and state-of-the-art smart home sensor datasets to generate dynamic SGNs for various events. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed model within a data-driven smart home environment. It shows that the present work significantly outperforms other state-of-the-art techniques in terms of decision-making at the edge layer. Moreover, using the proposed system the energy efficacy increased to around 39mJ/K nodes, and the average temporal delay for different events was reduced significantly
Fuzzy-Centric Fog-Cloud Inspired Deep Interval Bi-LSTM Healthcare Framework for Predicting Yellow Fever Outbreak
Antagonism of Tumoral Prolactin Receptor Promotes Autophagy-Related Cell Death
Therapeutic upregulation of macroautophagy in cancer cells provides an alternative mechanism forcell death. Prolactin (PRL) and its receptor (PRLR) are considered attractive therapeutic targets because of their roles as growth factors in tumor growth and progression. We utilized G129R, an antagonist peptide of PRL, to block activity of the tumoral PRL/PRLR axis, which resulted in inhibition of tumor growth in orthotopic models of human ovarian cancer. Prolonged treatment with G129R induced the accumulation of redundant autolysosomes in 3D cancer spheroids, leading to a type II programmed cell death. This inducible autophagy was a noncanonical beclin-1-independent pathway and was sustained by an astrocytic phosphoprotein (PEA-15) and protein kinase C zeta interactome. Lower levels of tumoral PRL/PRLR inclinical samples were associated with longer patient survival. Our findings provide an understanding of the mechanisms of tumor growth inhibition through targeting PRL/PRLR and may have clinical implications. © 2014 The Authors
Woman-centered research on access to safe abortion services and implications for behavioral change communication interventions: a cross-sectional study of women in Bihar and Jharkhand, India
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Unsafe abortion in India leads to significant morbidity and mortality. Abortion has been legal in India since 1971, and the availability of safe abortion services has increased. However, service availability has not led to a significant reduction in unsafe abortion. This study aimed to understand the gap between safe abortion availability and use of services in Bihar and Jharkhand, India by examining accessibility from the perspective of rural, Indian women.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Two-stage stratified random sampling was used to identify and enroll 1411 married women of reproductive age in four rural districts in Bihar and Jharkhand, India. Data were collected on women's socio-demographic characteristics; exposure to mass media and other information sources; and abortion-related knowledge, perceptions and practices. Multiple linear regression models were used to explore the association between knowledge and perceptions about abortion.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Most women were poor, had never attended school, and had limited exposure to mass media. Instead, they relied on community health workers, family and friends for health information. Women who had knowledge about abortion, such as knowing an abortion method, were more likely to perceive that services are available (β = 0.079; p < 0.05) and have positive attitudes toward abortion (β = 0.070; p < 0.05). In addition, women who reported exposure to abortion messages were more likely to have favorable attitudes toward abortion (β = 0.182; p < 0.05).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Behavior change communication (BCC) interventions, which address negative perceptions by improving community knowledge about abortion and support local availability of safe abortion services, are needed to increase enabling resources for women and improve potential access to services. Implementing BCC interventions is challenging in settings such as Bihar and Jharkhand where women may be difficult to reach directly, but interventions can target individuals in the community to transfer information to the women who need this information most. Interpersonal approaches that engage community leaders and influencers may also counteract negative social norms regarding abortion and associated stigma. Collaborative actions of government, NGOs and private partners should capitalize on this potential power of communities to reduce the impact of unsafe abortion on rural women.</p
An Investigation of Genome-Wide Studies Reported Susceptibility Loci for Ulcerative Colitis Shows Limited Replication in North Indians
Genome-Wide Association studies (GWAS) of both Crohn's Disease (CD) and Ulcerative Colitis (UC) have unearthed over 40 risk conferring variants. Recently, a meta-analysis on UC revealed several loci, most of which were either previously associated with UC or CD susceptibility in populations of European origin. In this study, we attempted to replicate these findings in an ethnically distinct north Indian UC cohort. 648 UC cases and 850 controls were genotyped using Infinium Human 660W-quad. Out of 59 meta-analysis index SNPs, six were not in the SNP array used in the study. Of the remaining 53 SNPs, four were found monomorphic. Association (p<0.05) at 25 SNPs was observed, of which 15 were CD specific. Only five SNPs namely rs2395185 (HLA-DRA), rs3024505 (IL10), rs6426833 (RNF186), rs3763313 (BTNL2) and rs2066843 (NOD2) retained significance after Bonferroni correction. These results (i) reveal limited replication of Caucasian based meta-analysis results; (ii) reiterate overlapping molecular mechanism(s) in UC and CD; (iii) indicate differences in genetic architecture between populations; and (iv) suggest that resources such as HapMap need to be extended to cover diverse ethnic populations. They also suggest a systematic GWAS in this terrain may be insightful for identifying population specific IBD risk conferring loci and thus enable cross-ethnicity fine mapping of disease loci
Low metabolic activity of biofilm formed by Enterococcus faecalis isolated from healthy humans and wild mallards (Anas platyrhynchos)
It is widely known that Enterococcus faecalis virulence is related to its biofilm formation. Although Enterococci are common commensal organisms of the gastrointestinal tract, the difference between commensal and pathogen strains remain unclear. In this study, we compare the biochemical profile of the biofilms formed by two groups of medical and two groups of commensal strains. The medical strains were isolated as pathogens from infections of urinary tract and other infections (wounds, pus and bedsores), and the commensal strains were taken from faeces of healthy volunteers and faeces of wild mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) living in an urban environment. The properties of biofilms formed by medical and commensal strains differed significantly. Commensal strains showed lower metabolic activity and glucose uptake and higher biofilm biomass than the medical ones. Consistent with glucose uptake experiments, we found that the glucose dehydrogenase gene was more expressed in medical strains. These results indicate that higher metabolic activity and lower protein concentration of E. faecalis cells within biofilms are formed during infections.This work was supported by the Medical University of Gdansk research grant (GUMed W-65) and was financed partly by University of Gdansk research grant (BW 1440-5-0099-7). We are grateful to Katarzyna Zolkos for her help in catching mallards and Magdalena Remisiewicz for correcting the English. Catarina Seabra helped in preparing assays
Azimuthal Anisotropy of Photon and Charged Particle Emission in Pb+Pb Collisions at 158 A GeV/c
The azimuthal distributions of photons and charged particles with respect to
the event plane are investigated as a function of centrality in Pb + Pb
collisions at 158 A GeV/c in the WA98 experiment at the CERN SPS. The
anisotropy of the azimuthal distributions is characterized using a Fourier
analysis. For both the photon and charged particle distributions the first two
Fourier coefficients are observed to decrease with increasing centrality. The
observed anisotropies of the photon distributions compare well with the
expectations from the charged particle measurements for all centralities.Comment: 8 pages and 6 figures. The manuscript has undergone a major revision.
The unwanted correlations were enhanced in the random subdivision method used
in the earlier version. The present version uses the more established method
of division into subevents separated in rapidity to minimise short range
correlations. The observed results for charged particles are in agreement
with results from the other experiments. The observed anisotropy in photons
is explained using flow results of pions and the correlations arising due to
the decay of the neutral pion
Multiplicity Distributions and Charged-neutral Fluctuations
Results from the multiplicity distributions of inclusive photons and charged
particles, scaling of particle multiplicities, event-by-event multiplicity
fluctuations, and charged-neutral fluctuations in 158 GeV Pb+Pb
collisions are presented and discussed. A scaling of charged particle
multiplicity as and photons as have been observed, indicating violation of naive wounded nucleon model.
The analysis of localized charged-neutral fluctuation indicates a
model-independent demonstration of non-statistical fluctuations in both charged
particles and photons in limited azimuthal regions. However, no correlated
charged-neutral fluctuations are observed.Comment: Talk given at the International Symposium on Nuclear Physics
(ISNP-2000), Mumbai, India, 18-22 Dec 2000, Proceedings to be published in
Pramana, Journal of Physic
Azimuthal anisotropy and correlations at large transverse momenta in and Au+Au collisions at = 200 GeV
Results on high transverse momentum charged particle emission with respect to
the reaction plane are presented for Au+Au collisions at =
200 GeV. Two- and four-particle correlations results are presented as well as a
comparison of azimuthal correlations in Au+Au collisions to those in at
the same energy. Elliptic anisotropy, , is found to reach its maximum at
GeV/c, then decrease slowly and remain significant up to
-- 10 GeV/c. Stronger suppression is found in the back-to-back
high- particle correlations for particles emitted out-of-plane compared to
those emitted in-plane. The centrality dependence of at intermediate
is compared to simple models based on jet quenching.Comment: 4 figures. Published version as PRL 93, 252301 (2004
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