Incorporating endoscope in middle ear surgery

We conducted a study to evaluate the use of a pediatric rigid otoendoscope for determining the extent of middle ear disease and for assessing ossicular integrity and mobility during tympanoplasty. Our study population was made up of 132 patients who were undergoing surgery for the treatment of chronic suppurative otitis media; of this group, 41 patients underwent otoendoscopy and 91 underwent scutum lowering for purposes of visualization. In the otoendoscopy group, the ossicles were successfully visualized and their mobility assessed in 34 patients; the remaining 7 patients subsequently underwent scutum lowering. A 30° endoscope allowed for complete visualization of the middle ear in almost all of the 34 cases. The mean duration of surgery for the 34 patients in the otoendoscopy group was 62.85 minutes (±15.57), which was significantly shorter than the duration of surgery (71.23 ± 15.65 min) for the 98 patients who underwent scutum lowering (p \u3c 0.005). A total of 50 patients required less than 60 minutes of surgical time-26 of 34 (76.5%) in the endoscopy group and 24 of 98 (24.5%) in the scutum-lowering group. Statistical analysis revealed that the possibility of completing a procedure in less than 60 minutes was 73.65% (±12.56%) when endoscopy was used and 58.62% (±12.60%) when scutum lowering was used-again, a statistically significant difference (p \u3c 0.005). We conclude that incorporation of an angled otoendoscope into middle ear surgery is a worthwhile alternative to scutum lowering

Experiences with AR plots: A travel time augmented reality game

Digital games have the potential for changing attitudes towards social issues such as climate change and sustainability. These games don’t have to be based on fixed computing and with the rise of smart phone, they can make use of a range of sensor and augmented reality technologies. This paper presents the experience of developing AR Plots, a prototype locative game with an augmented reality interface. It is a game designed to fit in with the fractured nature of travel time on public transport. This paper discusses technical challenges, usability issues and game design approaches used to work within these constraints

Analysis of Arm Movement in Badminton of ForehandLong and Short Service

The Badminton, in respect to shuttle velocity, is one of the fastest racket sports along with Long Tennis. The ability to respond quickly and effectively to a constant changing environment is a key factor to successful performance in addition service plays a vital role in winning a point. Thus, the study was proposed to analyse arm movements of six male university players of long and short services. The data was collected during competition situation. The biomechanical variables and segmental variables of upper extremities were- shuttle velocity, shuttle height at contact, shuttle attaining maximum height, shuttle angle, wrist angle, elbow angle and shoulder angle. The mean age, body height and body weight were reported as (20.83±1.72) years, (167.13±7.06) cm and (59.00±3.68) kg respectively. Canon Legria HF S10 Comcorders operating at 60 Hz was used to record the movement. The identified clips were analyzed with the help of Silicon Coach Pro7's motion analysis software. The result of study revealed that there were significant differences between forehand long and short serve in elbow angle, shuttle height at contact and shuttle attaining maximum height at 0.05 level of significance

A cloud resource management model for the creation and orchestration of social communities

Managing resources, context and data in mobile clouds is a challenging task. Specific aspects of spontaneity, large interaction space and dynamic interaction share a metaphorical resemblance to chemistry, chemical reactions and solutions. In this paper, it is argued that by adopting a nature-inspired chemical computing model, a mobile cloud resource management model can be evolved to serve as the basis for novel service modelling and social computing in mobile clouds. To support the argument, a chemistry inspired computation model, Chemistry for Context Awareness (C2A), is extended with Higher Order Chemical Language (HOCL) and High Level Petri-net Graph (HLPNG) formalisms. A scenario and simulation-based evaluation of the proposed model, focusing on two applications dynamic service composition and social communities identification, is also presented in this paper. The formal encoding of C2A validates its assumptions, enabling formal execution and analysis of context-based interactions that are derived using C2A principles

Distributed Analysis and Load Balancing System for Grid Enabled Analysis on Hand-held devices using Multi-Agents Systems

Handheld devices, while growing rapidly, are inherently constrained and lack the capability of executing resource hungry applications. This paper presents the design and implementation of distributed analysis and load-balancing system for hand-held devices using multi-agents system. This system enables low resource mobile handheld devices to act as potential clients for Grid enabled applications and analysis environments. We propose a system, in which mobile agents will transport, schedule, execute and return results for heavy computational jobs submitted by handheld devices. Moreover, in this way, our system provides high throughput computing environment for hand-held devices.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures. Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Grid and Cooperative Computing (GCC 2004

Grid enabled data analysis on handheld devices

The requirement for information on portable, handheld devices demands the realization of increasingly complex applications for increasingly small and ubiquitous devices. This trend promotes the migration of technologies that were originally developed for desktop computers to handheld devices. With the onset of grid computing, users of handheld devices should be able to accomplish much more complex tasks, by accessing the processing and storage resources of the grid. This paper describes the development, features, and performance aspects of a grid enabled analysis environment designed for handheld devices. We also describe some differences in the technologies required to run these applications on desktop machines and handheld devices. In addition, we propose a prototype agent-based distributed architecture for carrying out high-speed analysis of physics data on handheld devices

Grid enabled data analysis on handheld devices

The requirement for information on portable, handheld devices demands the realization of increasingly complex applications for increasingly small and ubiquitous devices. This trend promotes the migration of technologies that were originally developed for desktop computers to handheld devices. With the onset of grid computing, users of handheld devices should be able to accomplish much more complex tasks, by accessing the processing and storage resources of the grid. This paper describes the development, features, and performance aspects of a grid enabled analysis environment designed for handheld devices. We also describe some differences in the technologies required to run these applications on desktop machines and handheld devices. In addition, we propose a prototype agent-based distributed architecture for carrying out high-speed analysis of physics data on handheld devices

Development and Exploitation of KASP Assays for Genes Underpinning Drought Tolerance Among Wheat Cultivars From Pakistan

High-throughput genotyping for functional markers offers an excellent opportunity to effectively practice marker-assisted selection (MAS) while breeding cultivars. We developed kompetitive allele-specific PCR (KASP) assays for genes conferring drought tolerance in common wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). In total, 11 KASP assays developed in this study and five already reported assays were used for their application in wheat breeding. We investigated alleles at 16 loci associated with drought tolerance among 153 Pakistani hexaploid wheat cultivars released during 1953–2016; 28 diploid wheat accessions (16 for AA and 12 for BB) and 19 tetraploid wheat (AABB) were used to study the evolutionary history of the studied genes. Superior allelic variations of the studied genes were significantly associated with higher grain yield. Favored haplotypes of TaSnRK2.3-1A, TaSnRK2.3-1B, TaSnRK2.9-5A, TaSAP-7B, and TaLTPs-1A predominated in Pakistani wheat germplasm indicating unconscious pyramiding and selection pressure on favorable haplotypes during selection breeding. TaSnRK2.8-5A, TaDreb-B1, 1-feh w3, TaPPH-7A, TaMOC-7A, and TaPARG-2A had moderate to low frequencies of favorable haplotype among Pakistani wheat germplasm pointing toward introgression of favorable haplotypes by deploying functional markers in marker-assisted breeding. The KASP assays were compared with gel-based markers for reliability and phenotypically validated among 62 Pakistani wheat cultivars. Association analyses showed that the favorable allelic variations were significantly associated with grain yield-contributing traits. The developed molecular marker toolkit of the genes can be instrumental for the wheat breeding in Pakistan

A first update on mapping the human genetic architecture of COVID-19

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