Overview of Image Processing and Various Compression Schemes

Image processing is key research among researchers. Compression of images are required when need of transmission or storage of images. Demand of multimedia growth, contributes to insufficient bandwidth of network and memory storage device. Advance imaging requires capacity of extensive amounts of digitized information. Therefore data compression is more required for reducing data redundancy to save more hardware space and transmission bandwidth. Various techniques are given for image compression. Some of which are discussed in this paper

Materanal and neonatal outcomes of triplet gestation in a tertiary care centre: a retrospective study

Background: A significant rise in triplet pregnancy rate has occurred recently. This rise is of concern, as these infants are frequently reported as a risk factor of adverse outcome. The aim of this study was to retrospectively study the outcomes of triplet births.Methods: A retrospective study was undertaken to analyze the clinical data of all patients with triplet gestation admitted to the labour room of Dr. Baba Saheb Ambedkar Hospital, Delhi to study the maternal and fetal outcomes. Authors retrospectively observed and analyzed the database to examine triplet gestations delivered between January 2014 and December 2018.Results: Over the five-year study period, there were total 44,011 deliveries. Out of these, there were 35 (0.079%) triplet pregnancies. Of all the triplet pregnancies studied 80% resulted from ovulation induction and assisted reproductive technology. The mean gestational age at delivery was 31.6±3.0 weeks, and the mean birth weight was 1,594±460 gm. The most common maternal complications were Preterm labour in 32 pregnancies (92%), anemia in 17 (49%), pre-eclampsia in 11 (31%), post-partum hemorrhage in 8 (22%). Of the total deliveries neonatal complications included Respiratory distress syndrome in 44 (42.2%), Hyperbilirubinemia in 41 (39%), Intrauterine growth restriction in 19 (18.1%). The perinatal mortality rate was 10.5%.Conclusions: Higher order pregnancies are associated with maternal and neonatal complications. These high risk women need more care and the neonates require intensive care and monitoring after birth, most commonly due to prematurity and low birth weight

Effect of triple drug antiretroviral therapy on CD4+ count in pregnant women with HIV and prevention of parent to child transmission

Background: India has moved from single drug Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) in 2002 to triple drug ART in 2013 to prevent parent to child transmission of HIV. The aim of the study was to know the effects of triple drug ART on maternal CD4+ count and prevention of HIV transmission to baby along with its adherence, side effects and pregnancy outcome.Methods: A prospective study wsas done in Safdarjung Hospital, New Delhi on 40 HIV positive pregnant women who received single dose combination of triple drug ART. CD4+ count, LFT and KFT were done before beginning of ART and repeated after 6 months of ART. The infants received nevirapine prophylaxis and HIV status was determined by DBS PCR at 6 weeks.Results: The median CD4+ count was 317 and 397 pre and post ART for 6 months respectively (p value<0.001. Low birth weight (LBW) was seen in 43.59% which was statistically significant but confounded as 76.4% of these babies were preterm. 23.08% of babies had an APGAR of < 7 at 1 minute, out of which 77.7% were preterm. Nine out of 39 infants (one had abortion) needed NICU admission. Only one baby (2.56%) was HIV positive who died at 4 months of age due to pneumonia. There was no defaulter and no statistically significant changes in LFT and KFT after 6 months of ART.Conclusions: Triple drug ART offers greater convenience improves fetomaternal outcome and minimize the risk of HIV transmission from mother to child

Stress Detection by Measuring Heart Rate Variability

In today’s world one of the major leading factor to health problem is STRESS. The detection and the solution is mainly dependent on the experience of the clinician is in detecting the factors of stress. The disadvantage of this method is that the clinician’s detection may be wrong at some stage, due to the unawareness of new problems. The basic parameter on which stress can be identified are Galvanic Skin Response(GSR), Heart Rate(HR), Body Temperature, Blood Pressure(BP) which provides detailed information of the state of mind of a person .These parameter’s vary from person to person on the basis of certain things such as their body condition, age, gender and experience. In our project ,we have focused on one such parameter i.e. heart rate variability(HRV) as major technique for detecting stress. HRV serves as a substitute for “vertical integration”. This “Vertical integration” of the brain mechanism guides flexible control over behavior with peripheral physiology and thus it provides beneficial information to understand the problems related to stress and health. In order to avoid clincian’s mistake in detecting stress level, we have introduced a new hardware device which easily calculates the accurate pulse rate of a person and gives appropriate solution to the stress level. DOI: 10.17762/ijritcc2321-8169.16047

Utility of adzuki bean [Vigna angularis (Willd.) Ohwi & Ohashi] simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers in genetic analysis of mungbean and related Vigna spp.

In the present study, 78 mapped simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers representing 11 linkage groups of adzuki bean were evaluated for transferability to  mungbean and related Vigna spp. 41 markers amplified characteristic bands in at least one Vigna species. The transferability percentage across the genotypes ranged from 60.97 to 92.6% with 87.8% in Vigna radiata and Vigna mungo, 62.2% in Vigna unguiculata, 91.8% in Vigna umbellata, 78% in Vigna mungo var. sylvestris and 80% in Vigna trilobata, respectively. Five major clusters were observed using unweighted pair group method with an arithmetic mean (UPGMA) with each cluster representing a particular Vigna species. We have successfully utilized adzuki bean SSRs in amplifying microsatellite sequences in Vigna species and inferring phylogenetic relationships by correlating the rate of transfer among them. The polymorphic SSR markers identified in this study would be useful in the analysis of genetic diversity, gene mapping and other aspects of genetic studies in mungbean and related species.Key words: Adzuki bean, simple sequence repeat (SSR), inter-genomic marker transferability, genetic diversity, mungbean, Vigna spp

Determination of Temperature-Dependent Coefficients of Viscosity and Surface Tension of Tamarind Seeds (Tamarindus indica L.) Polymer

The rheological properties of tamarind seed polymer are characterized for its possible commercialization in the food and pharmaceutical industry. Seed polymer was extracted using water as a solvent and ethyl alcohol as a precipitating agent. The temperature’s effect on the rheological behavior of the polymeric solution was studied. In addition to this, the temperature coefficient, viscosity, surface tension, activation energy, Gibbs free energy, Reynolds number, and entropy of fusion were calculated by using the Arrhenius, Gibbs–Helmholtz, Frenkel–Eyring, and Eotvos equations, respectively. The activation energy of the gum was found to be 20.46 ± 1.06 kJ/mol. Changes in entropy and enthalpy were found to be 23.66 ± 0.97 and −0.10 ± 0.01 kJ/mol, respectively. The calculated amount of entropy of fusion was found to be 0.88 kJ/mol. A considerable decrease in apparent viscosity and surface tension was produced when the temperature was raised. The present study concludes that the tamarind seed polymer solution is less sensitive to temperature change in comparison to Albzia lebbac gum, Ficus glumosa gum and A. marcocarpa gum. This study also concludes that the attainment of the transition state of viscous flow for tamarind seed gum is accompanied by bond breaking. The excellent physicochemical properties of tamarind seed polymers make them promising excipients for future drug formulation and make their application in the food and cosmetics industry possibl

Effect of Lanthanum and Phosphate Ester Addition on Densification and Dielectric Properties of (Ca, Zr) Modified Barium Titanate

Ferroelectric materials are used in many applications, such as capacitor, sensors, actuators and transducers. Generally, lead based materials (PZT, PMN) have dominated in piezoelectric market because of their excellent dielectric, piezoelectric properties and flexibility in terms of compositional modifications. However, due to toxicity and environmental concerns, PZT is facing global restrictions in its usage in electronic equipment. Till date the properties of developed lead free piezoelectric are not comparable to that of PZT based compositions. The breakthrough made by Liu and Ren et al. in BaTiO3-based ceramics with co-dopants of Zr, and Ca (BCZT) has offered a significant impact on the development of lead-free piezo ceramics. It featured piezoelectric constants on the order of 560–620 pm/V, clearly exceeding values for competing lead-free compositions and even those for most PZT materials. Multilayered structure (alternate layers of piezoelectric wafers and electrodes) is preferred in most of the capacitor/actuator applications so that excitation can be done at a low voltage. The applications in structural health monitoring (SHM) often involve piezoelectric ceramics in form of wafers/substrates that are mainly produced from tape casting. Success in tape casting with the required reproducibility and consistency depends upon the degree of dispersion. Phosphate ester is a common dispersant used in non–aqueous tape casting of ceramics. However, residual phosphorous may influence densification and final electrical properties. It is worth to study the effect of phosphate ester addition on densification and electrical properties of BCZT ceramics. Doping is a common strategy to alter the sensitivity of a material to external stimuli and optimize it for specific applications. Only limited research exists on the effect of aliovalent doping on BCZT. Typical aliovalent dopants in PZT are La3+ and Nb5+ acting as donor which significantly alter the electrical property of the final ceramics. However, the influence of La3+ additives on BCZT is not yet investigated. The present thesis also studied the effect of La3+ substitution in A-site of BCZT on densification and electrical properties of the same. It is observed that the phosphate ester addition reduces sinterability and degrades the dielectric property of the BCZT ceramics. In case of La3+ substitution, enhances sinterability and significantly modifies the dielectric property. Impedance spectroscopy is used to explain the electrical inhomogeneity of the BCZT samples

Synthesis of Bismuth Ferrite and La –doped Bismuth ferrite by auto combustion technique

BiFeO3 is a multiferroic compound which has varied application in sensors and actuator. It shows both ferroelectric and antiferromagnetic property. In the present work BiFeO3 and La-doped BiFeO3 were synthesized by auto combustion technique using glycine as fuel. Glycine to nitrate ratio was kept at 0.1. Phase pure powder can be prepared at 500oC. Synthesized powder was characterized by X-ray diffraction. DSC-TG was used to find out the thermal behavior of synthesized gel and agglomeration tendency and morphology of powder were studied by SEM. La substitution greatly modified the structure of BiFeO3

CUSTOMER SUPPORT CHATBOT USING NATURAL LANGUAGE PROCESSING

Customer support has become one of the most important communication tools used by companies to provide before and after-sale services to customers. The immediate response to all customer query is very necessary for company success. In this paper we focus on, providing a Chatbot that will see to all the queries user have and will provide a solution or answer to that.Usually companies have many people involved for dealing customer queries but this is time-consuming and tedious job to be done. For solving these problems, Chatbot was created for use. Generally, the frequently asked customer questions and corresponding answers and description about the company details are stored in a text file. So in this model, it will take the customer’s question as input, preprocessing them using some Natural Language Processing techniques that include Tokenization, Lemmatization, and stemming, find the cosine similarity between the user query and provides a score for each answer,the more suitable and perfect answer with more cosine similarity score will be considered as the answer for the given question. The Chatbot helps to provide high accuracy by proving the correct and satisfying answer to the customer's question for a company

Prevalence of soil-transmitted helminth infections in HIV patients: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract Soil-transmitted Helminth (STH) infections have been found associated with people living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) but little is known about the overall burden of STH coinfection in HIV patients. We aimed to assess the burden of STH infections among HIV patients. Relevant databases were systematically searched for studies reporting the prevalence of soil-transmitted helminthic pathogens in HIV patients. Pooled estimates of each helminthic infection were calculated. The odds ratio was also determined as a measure of the association between STH infection and the HIV status of the patients. Sixty-one studies were finally included in the meta-analysis, consisting of 16,203 human subjects from all over the world. The prevalence of Ascaris lumbricoides infection in HIV patients was found to be 8% (95% CI 0.06, 0.09), the prevalence of Trichuris trichiura infection in HIV patients was found to be 5% (95% CI 0.04, 0.06), the prevalence of hookworm infection in HIV patients was found to be 5% (95% CI 0.04, 0.06), and prevalence of Strongyloides stercoralis infection in HIV patients was found to be 5% (95% CI 0.04, 0.05). Countries from Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America & Caribbean and Asia were identified with the highest burden of STH-HIV coinfection. Our analysis indicated that people living with HIV have a higher chance of developing Strongyloides stercoralis infections and decreased odds of developing hookworm infections. Our findings suggest a moderate level of prevalence of STH infections among people living with HIV. The endemicity of STH infections and HIV status both are partially responsible for the burden of STH-HIV coinfections