XBioSiP: A Methodology for Approximate Bio-Signal Processing at the Edge

Bio-signals exhibit high redundancy, and the algorithms for their processing are inherently error resilient. This property can be leveraged to improve the energy-efficiency of IoT-Edge (wearables) through the emerging trend of approximate computing. This paper presents XBioSiP, a novel methodology for approximate bio-signal processing that employs two quality evaluation stages, during the pre-processing and bio-signal processing stages, to determine the approximation parameters. It thereby achieves high energy savings while satisfying the user-determined quality constraint. Our methodology achieves, up to 19x and 22x reduction in the energy consumption of a QRS peak detection algorithm for 0% and <1% loss in peak detection accuracy, respectively.Comment: Accepted for publication at the Design Automation Conference 2019 (DAC'19), Las Vegas, Nevada, US

Neural Web Based Human Recognition

Face detection is one of the challenging problems in the image processing. A novel face detection system is presented in this paper. The approach relies on skin-based color features xtracted from two dimensional Discrete Cosine Transfer (DCT) and neural networks, which can be used to detect faces by using skin color from DCT coefficient of Cb and Cr feature vectors. This system contains the skin color which is the main feature of faces for detection, and then the skin face candidate is examined by using the neural networks, which learn from the feature of faces to classify whether the original image includes a face or not. The processing is based on normalization and Discrete Cosin Transfer. Finally the classification based on neural networks approach. The experiment results on upright frontal color face images from the internet show an excellent detection rate

Factors Influencing the Outcome of ESWL in Upper Urinary Tract Stones

INTRODUCTION: Since the mid 1980’s ESWL has been established as a minimally invasive procedure for a wide indications of urinary stones. Various factors such as stone location, size, number, and fragility as well as calyceal anatomy and patency of the urinary tract influence the outcome of ESWL. METHODS: 100 patients undergoing ESWL for upper urinary tract stones were included in this study. Stones > 2 cm, patients with bleeding diathesis, distal obstruction and pregnant women were excluded from the study. Data regarding Age, Sex, body mass index, stone location, size, density of the stone (Hounsfield units), presence of obstruction and hydronephrosis were noted for all patients. RESULTS: The study included 52 male and 48 female patients. Sex as an independent factor did not correlate significantly to the success of ESWL (p value 0.255). BMI (p value 0.002), Stone size (P value 0.020), density of the stone (p value 0.000) were significant risk factors. 29 patients had lower calyceal stone with a 24.1% successful outcome. Location of the stone was the most significant factor (p value < 0.001) while using a multi variate analysis model. CONCLUSION: The success of ESWL is dependent on multiple factors. Body mass index, location of the stone and density of the stone were significant factors while using logistic regression analysis and these three factors put together as a model can successfully predict the outcome of ESWL

Once Bitten, Twice Shy: Rethinking the Federal Reserve's Independence and Monetary Policy in the U.S.

It is widely believed that the Federal Reserve played a central role in bringing about the biggest catastrophe in American history—the Great Depression. The literature is extensive in seeking to provide an explanation for the Federal Reserve's policy errors. This paper offers a new interpretation on why such an event occurred by studying a heretofore-unexamined landmark court case. In 1928, a private citizen filed suit against the Federal Reserve Bank of New York for increasing discount rates; he sough a court injunction that would force the Federal Reserve to decrease rates. The courts found in the System's favor. In 1929, he appealed the case, which was dismissed due to a failure in enjoining the Federal Reserve Board as an indispensible party. The judge during the time further wrote an opinion, in which he clarified that the Board rather than the Banks had true authority within the Federal Reserve System. This paper looks at how these two decisions affected Federal Reserve policy between 1929-1933. It argues that the de-politicization of the Federal Reserve coupled with implicit judicial sanction allowed it to act on its flawed ideology without fear of political recrimination. The paper also examines the impact of the Great Depression on the Federal Reserve's independence today

Relative weak derived functors

summary:Let $R$ be a ring, $n$ a fixed non-negative integer, ${\mathscr{W I}}$ the class of all left $R$-modules with weak injective dimension at most $n$, and ${\mathscr{W F}}$ the class of all right $R$-modules with weak flat dimension at most $n$. Using left (right) ${\mathscr{W I}}$-resolutions and the left derived functors of Hom we study the weak injective dimensions of modules and rings. Also we prove that $- \otimes -$ is right balanced on ${\mathscr{M}}_R \times {_R{\mathscr{M}}}$ by ${\mathscr{W F}} \times {\mathscr{W I}}$, and investigate the global right ${\mathscr{W I}}$-dimension of $_R{\mathscr{M}}$ by right derived functors of $\otimes$

Production and Immobilization of Alpha Amylase by Using Bacillus subtilis

The α-amylase producing organisms were isolated from soil sample, such as Bacillus sp (2 isolates), Bacillus cereus (1 isolates), Bacillus subtilis (2 isolates) by basal medium and identified by standard biochemical test. The high yielding strain was identified as Bacillus subtilis and used for amylase production. Different  parameters  like temperature (10°C, room temperature (25°-30°C), 37°C & 55°C different pH (6.0, 6.5, 7.0, 7.5, 8.0) and incubation periods (1-5 days) were used for the α-amylase production. The isolate was inoculated to the production medium and incubated, then it was centrifuged  and the supernatant containing crude enzyme extract is used for protein estimation and activity. It was found that α-amylase production and activity was high at 37°Cat pH 7.0 in 48 hours. The organism was grown in the optimum conditions mentioned above and the enzyme α-amylase was immobilized by alginate gel entrapment method. From the organism the plasmid and the chromosomal DNA was isolated and detected

Antibacterial Activity and Phytochemical Standardization of Rhinacanthus nasutus (White Crane)

            Plants are the most exclusive source of drugs for the majority of the words population and plant products constitute about 25% at prescribed medicines phytochemical tests have been performed in about 5,000 and nearly 1,100 species are exclusively exploted in 80% Ayurvedic, 46% Unani and 33% Allopathi medicine. The values of the present data indicated that ethanolic extract (5.8%) and aqueous extract (6.8%) showed higher extractive values when compared to other solvents. Ethyl acetate showed the least extraction value (0.9%). At the maximum concentration tested, (250µg) the organisms showed maximum sensitivity and the leaf extract proved to be better than the antibiotic disc Chloramphenicol (30mcg) which recorded 24mm as a zone of inhibition.  The promising alkaloid, Rhinacanthin has potent medicinal applications. It exhibits anti proliferate activity, antimicrobial activity against dermatophytes and inhibits platdent aggregation. In spite of it’s potential. It remains unexplored and under utilized and hence chosen for the present study

In silico identification of novel open reading frames in Plasmodium falciparum oocyte and salivary gland sporozoites using proteogenomics framework.

BACKGROUND: Plasmodium falciparum causes the deadliest form of malaria, which remains one of the most prevalent infectious diseases. Unfortunately, the only licensed vaccine showed limited protection and resistance to anti-malarial drug is increasing, which can be largely attributed to the biological complexity of the parasite's life cycle. The progression from one developmental stage to another in P. falciparum involves drastic changes in gene expressions, where its infectivity to human hosts varies greatly depending on the stage. Approaches to identify candidate genes that are responsible for the development of infectivity to human hosts typically involve differential gene expression analysis between stages. However, the detection may be limited to annotated proteins and open reading frames (ORFs) predicted using restrictive criteria. METHODS: The above problem is particularly relevant for P. falciparum; whose genome annotation is relatively incomplete given its clinical significance. In this work, systems proteogenomics approach was used to address this challenge, as it allows computational detection of unannotated, novel Open Reading Frames (nORFs), which are neglected by conventional analyses. Two pairs of transcriptome/proteome were obtained from a previous study where one was collected in the mosquito-infectious oocyst sporozoite stage, and the other in the salivary gland sporozoite stage with human infectivity. They were then re-analysed using the proteogenomics framework to identify nORFs in each stage. RESULTS: Translational products of nORFs that map to antisense, intergenic, intronic, 3' UTR and 5' UTR regions, as well as alternative reading frames of canonical proteins were detected. Some of these nORFs also showed differential expression between the two life cycle stages studied. Their regulatory roles were explored through further bioinformatics analyses including the expression regulation on the parent reference genes, in silico structure prediction, and gene ontology term enrichment analysis. CONCLUSION: The identification of nORFs in P. falciparum sporozoites highlights the biological complexity of the parasite. Although the analyses are solely computational, these results provide a starting point for further experimental validation of the existence and functional roles of these nORFs